Games you are currently playing - Part 7

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

I stopped playing all 3 of God of War, Horizon and Spider-Man almost immediately after their respective tutorials ended lol. The Sony narrative-driven third person action games just don't do it for me. Playing on base PS4 for GOW and Spider-Man wasn't exactly doing either game any favors though.

Now that I think about it I pretty much did the same exact thing. Interesting. I’m also way overly picky with games nowadays. It’s a time thing now I guess.

 

[Beau Knows]

I prefer the old God of War games. They're shorter, to the point and I find the combat to be far more satisfying. They're simple hack and slash games, but they know that so they get it over with quickly. Not every game should be 20-40 hours long.

 

[Frankie Spankie]

I ran into The Entropy Centre which is a Portal style game where you gun can rewind time. It's pretty interesting. I finished the first level so far which is all very basic puzzles but I can see how the mechanics can be really fun in solving some more complex puzzles down the line.

 

[Soedy]

I prefer the old God of War games. They're shorter, to the point and I find the combat to be far more satisfying. They're simple hack and slash games, but they know that so they get it over with quickly. Not every game should be 20-40 hours long.

Plus, they still offer great replay value. I still come back to God of War 1-3 from time to time. GoW 2018 since I got the platinum? Not really.

 

[Commander Clueless]

Damn, wish I asked for thoughts on it before I played it, then.

Those are the two nitpicks I've heard critically, and was lead to believe they weren't as big of a deal as they were, but honestly, even if the camera and enemy variety were fixed, I don't think that would be enough to save it, for me.

See, I totally agree, but with Spiderman and Horizon, I could spot what I felt was soulless shallowness from a mile away. With God of War, my perception was successfully fooled into thinking that it was the exception and an actual labor of love (and at least somewhere in between Soulsborne games and Last of Us in terms of game design).

The experience felt very similar to how I felt about Last of Us (another completely lame and mediocre "classic", IMO-- but the flaws of that one gets acknowledged a lot more by people, it seems), personally. In my view, the same production value > anything to do with an actual good game mindset, that gets elevated by a narrative that feels like a movie, but would be more readily considered mediocre/bad as a movie.

God of War (2018) is definitely not a game I'd have recommend for you.

It's a fairly generic game wrapped in a masterpiece-level spectacle....a spectacle that I know doesn't move the needle for you.



It's essentially a great game in a genre you could not care less about.


Personally I very much enjoyed the 2018 version very much for what it was, but really was not into the originals.

 

[Ceremony]

Damn, wish I asked for thoughts on it before I played it, then.

if you were a frequent reader of the review thread you would have seen me deservedly tear it apart for all the things you usually hate about games a few months ago

The last few games you beat and rate them IV

Destroy All Humans! (2020 Remake) 7.5/10 Started strong, was a lot of fun. Got a little bit repitive in the end and the final boss fight was a little bit anti-climax. Took me around 5 hours to beat. If you have game pass, I highly recommend it.

forums.hfboards.com

Ed - hold on you said you started playing it in August: The last few games you beat and rate them IV

 

[Shareefruck]

if you were a frequent reader of the review thread you would have seen me deservedly tear it apart for all the things you usually hate about games a few months ago

The last few games you beat and rate them IV

Destroy All Humans! (2020 Remake) 7.5/10 Started strong, was a lot of fun. Got a little bit repitive in the end and the final boss fight was a little bit anti-climax. Took me around 5 hours to beat. If you have game pass, I highly recommend it.

forums.hfboards.com

Ed - hold on you said you started playing it in August: The last few games you beat and rate them IV

In my defense, reading everything that you write in the last game you beat thread would probably take about as long as playing it did.

Edit: Oh heh, that's interesting, I started it a while ago, seen a chunk of it that I wasn't impressed by, maybe even as far back as when it was first released, but I never got far and kept figuring that I might have been dismissing it prematurely on numerous occasions (did the give up after an hour thing you guys mentioned a few times, I think).

Hell, a few months from now, it's not unlikely that I'll fall back into the same pattern and decide to get a few hours deeper only to complain about it some more with greater certainty.

 

[The Mars Volchenkov]

This Vampire Survivors game is extremely addictive.

 

[Jovavic]

I heard Resident Evil Village got a 3rd person mode, is it out yet? Has anyone tried it if it is?

 

[Osprey]

I started playing Cultic, a new retro shooter from 3D Realms. It plays like a spiritual successor to Blood from 1997. I'm really enjoying it so far. It has a similar cultist horror theme and color palette as Dusk, another recent retro shooter, but is slower paced. Instead of charging into enemies and circle strafing them, you probably want to keep some distance and use cover, especially on higher difficulties. In that way and because much of it takes place in mines and canyons, it also reminds me of Outlaws, another 1997 2.5D game like Blood. You can even light and throw dynamite, like in both games. Other weapons are a bit more standard and pack punch, especially the shotgun. You can also upgrade your weapons by using spare parts, which are especially found in secret areas, encouraging you to explore and find those. I'm not quite halfway through, but I highly recommend it if you like retro shooters.

 

[Shareefruck]

Thoughts on Tactics Ogre Reborn so far (on the last chapter for a single route, just couldn't help myself):

• English VA's solid. Similar to FFT's. Casting choices don't always feel right, but performances are good.
• QOL and UI changes are fantastic. Everything's streamlined to be accessible at a glance, and mechanics were simplified to core essentials w/o losing depth.
• They removed what what I always complain about in videogames-- grindy leveling systems and random battles. Story battles can feel just as gruelingly difficult/impossible as they did before, but retrying w/ different strategies was always enough, w/o need for random leveling. What's available only helps you play catchup from setbacks/missteps, nothing more, which is perfect.
• Knights are a lot more fun/strategic than they were in FFT. All about positioning, holding an invisible line that gets pushed back, then opportunistically folding them into pincer attacks. You can't mix and match combos like in FFT, but the classes themselves feel a little more fleshed out to me.
• Music/upscaled visuals get top marks for me, personally. Especially in handheld. I STRONGLY disagree with the people complaining about pixel smoothing.
• Only remaining glaring flaw to me, still in Reborn, is the hard to grasp behavior of one of the supporting characters, who feel more like they have a strange case of mental illness than fully understandable motivations (which still works, but doesn't feel as satisfying as characters in FFT).
• Think I have a better understanding of its core themes now. Everything revolves around the premise that order + good is a conflicting combo-- Most cases, you have a choice between order (which comes with evil), and good (which comes with chaos)-- chaotic good vs. lawful evil. Similar but different to the ends vs. means theme of FFT, and similarly informs every aspect of the game.
• Story's brilliant but overwhelming/easy to get lost with. Random battle lore can be hard to place the relevance of, and hard to keep track of people, locations, and what faction everything is associated with. Demands maximum nerdiness.

Shaping up to be elevated to one of my all time favorite games, and if FFT's issues get fixed in a similar manner when it gets its remaster, that's going to be right there too.

Tentative ballpark of favorites:
1. Kentucky Route Zero
2. Disco Elysium
3. Celeste
4. Tactics Ogre Reborn
5. Into the Breach
6. Inside
7. Sekiro? (based on very early experience)
8. Downwell
9. Super Metroid
10. Hollow Knight
11. Portal
12. Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions
13. Tunic
14. Garou: Mark of the Wolves
15. Street Fighter III: Third Strike

 

[Andrei79]

Tried frostpunk until the Londoners event.

Hard game, but man it's engrossing and hard to put down.

First try I think a third of my people were wiped out the first night. Didn't really know what I was doing. Still don't to be honest. My city's a mess, but I'm starting to grasp some of the basics.

But man, this is a stressful game and I like it quite a bit.

 

[Frankie Spankie]

I heard about Stranglehold for the first time probably a year ago. I grabbed it on GOG when I first saw it go on sale but didn't start it until now. The first chapter was so much fun, how have I never heard of this game before? I enjoyed the first chapter more than any level of any of the Max Payne games. It plays smooth, the bullet time is really satisfying, the abilities on top of bullet time are fun, and the environment is just designed so well. I found myself accidentally dive onto a service cart and just roll around the room on the serving cart while shooting up bad guys.

This is the kind of game that reminds me of how boring a lot of games today are. So far, this looks like it's clearly designed around being as fun as possible, allowing as much creativity as you can imagine. I feel like I'm going to cruise through this game and beat it quickly because I won't want to shut it off.

 

[542365]

Playing God of War 2018 to determine if I want to buy Ragnarok. Loving every bit of it with the exception of steering this damn boat. It’s so annoying. Otherwise it’s been incredible.

 

[Jovavic]

Playing God of War 2018 to determine if I want to buy Ragnarok. Loving every bit of it with the exception of steering this damn boat. It’s so annoying. Otherwise it’s been incredible.

And Ragnarok does everything better, even boat controls lol

 

[Tw1ster]

And Ragnarok does everything better, even boat controls lol

Agreed, though I’m despising the camera in tough combat situations

 

[542365]

Playing God of War 2018 to determine if I want to buy Ragnarok. Loving every bit of it with the exception of steering this damn boat. It’s so annoying. Otherwise it’s been incredible.

Just finished it. Can't decide if I want to push for the platinum or just accepted seeing the credits role, but that was an amazing game. Everything from the combat to the puzzles was just the right amount of difficult where it took some thought and concentration, but not so much that it became frustrating. Disappointed I waited this long to play it. I want to hold out for a sale on Ragnarok, but I probably won't

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

Currently replaying via a SNES emulator on my PC:

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

Also screwed around with these games the other day via NES emulation for the sake of nostalgia

The classics like these never get old.

 

[Osprey]

Currently replaying via a SNES emulator on my PC:

FYI, there's a way to hack it to make it widescreen. Search for "Super Mario World widescreen" and you should find it.

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

FYI, there's a way to hack it to make it widescreen. Search for "Super Mario World widescreen" and you should find it.

Got it.

 

[Andrei79]

Was in a bit of gaming funk lately, but I started Doom and Eternal and wow, this game is really good.

 

[Osprey]

After I finished Cultic, I wanted more, so I started Blood: Fresh Supply. It's the 1997 game Blood updated for modern systems. It's just what I wanted and fun. I know that I played at least some of it in 1997, since the starting level was familiar, but I don't have overall strong memories of it. I probably didn't play all of the way through it and dismissed it because its 2.5D engine was already outdated by Quake's true 3D engine. 25 years later, that outdatedness is its appeal rather than a big negative, so I'm appreciating it a lot more than I did back then. I'm also realizing just how much of a spiritual successor Cultic is. Blowing up heavily armed cultists with dynamite is just as much fun in both games, and dynamite is everywhere, so you can use it as one of your main weapons, instead of the way that you treat grenades in most games. I'm not sure how my dude is carrying around 50 bundles of dynamite at a time, but that's part of the charm of 90s shooters. Anyways, it's fun and it feels like I've been playing it for almost as long as it took to finish Cultic and I'm through only 1 of 6 episodes (4 from the base game, then 2 from the expansion packs).

It's on sale on Steam for only $4.99 until the 29th. If you pick it up, I recommend playing on Lightly Broiled difficulty, even if you're a hardcore FPS veteran. The higher difficulties are brutally unfair, with enemies shooting you the instant that they see you. I was getting my rear end kicked and having to save scum even 30 seconds to make any progress until I googled what was up and learned that most people don't recommend the last two difficulties.

 

[93LEAFS]

Just finished it. Can't decide if I want to push for the platinum or just accepted seeing the credits role, but that was an amazing game. Everything from the combat to the puzzles was just the right amount of difficult where it took some thought and concentration, but not so much that it became frustrating. Disappointed I waited this long to play it. I want to hold out for a sale on Ragnarok, but I probably won't

Ragnarok assumes Kratos essentially went for the Platinum, or at least fought all the optional bosses from a story perspective. I just finished the story of Ragnarok, and absolutely loved it. Gonna put in a few more hours to at least wrap up the optional bosses, and side-missions. If you loved the God of War Ragnarok, you'll absolutely love this one.

 

[SimGrindcore]

Wrong section...