Author Topic: What are you playing?  (Read 504931 times)

Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #4590 on: October 18, 2022, 10:39:02 pm »
Finally found a survival crafting game to settle into.  I started out playing the Green Hell Amazonia DLC as I didn't realize the DLC was an update, not paid, but I got a good few hours into it and was just bored.  Wasn't seeing a lot of progression that felt right compared to the main run of the game as you mostly have to help the village get people back, but that's hours of boring wandering and fighting.  I do recommend the main game, but not so much the DLC.

I then picked up Raft on a sale, been meaning to play it for awhile and while I liked the concept, it felt more like a game that would be better with co-op, not so much solo.  Got death looped on the first story island I think, lost too much stuff, didn't feel like restarting, so I refunded the game as I couldn't get into.

I remember that Grounded has been finished for abit, and so I grabbed it on PC Game Pass and been really liking it.  Super awesome setting, the survival and crafting elements are very decent and also very convenient.  Need to move some furniture or a storage full of items? No problem, you can move it anywhere easily.  The tiny setting fighting bugs and stuff can be real creepy and a good challenge without being so frustrating it makes me want to quit and I really want to explore and get more of the story.  I dumped a number of hours into the game like it was nothing.  definitely the most absorbed I've been into one of these games in awhile.

telekill

Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #4591 on: November 10, 2022, 08:11:22 am »
I'm finally making some progress in A Plague Tale Requiem (PS5).

Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #4592 on: November 19, 2022, 04:06:02 am »
Playing through the new Pokemon Violet (I didn't pay for it) and it's one of the most back and forth games in terms of opinion I've had of a game.  I think in a lot of ways, it's doing stuff way better than Sword/Shield and Arceus.  The general story/open world stuff feels better here and could be decent.  It's not an amazing open world setup, but its fundamentally fine.

On the other hand it has way more consistently bad performance than either of them.  This is embarrassing even for a series known for cutting corners.  Visually it's a mess, filled with lots of pop in, or bad framerate, and things like NPC's getting choppy animation if they are more than 30 feet away from you which looks jarring in certain scenes that happen.  They also cut character customization in half practically with less hair and makeup stuff and then outright removed jackets, shirts, and pants from the game, because you are forced to wear 1 of 4 school uniforms, all ugly.  You can change socks, shoes, gloves, hats, etc, but it's all going to clash with the uniforms for the most part.  So if you thought it would be similar to SW/SH, that's not happening unless they are planning to bring that back with DLC or the expansion, which is very likely.  They did something like that for the Sword/Shield expansion if I remember right, adding some customization options to the game that should've been in the main release.

And from what I'm reading, they screwed up the "choose your own path" setup, where they wanted you to more generally explore things sorta how you want, it's a big open world setup handled in essentially a "donut" shaped map, and you are given a choice of direction from the start to handle it how you want.  The problem is, if you take one path, focus on stuff for awhile, get really leveled and then go back to the other path you could've gone on, everything is still low leveled, even the gyms and other missions you are supposed to do, making the fights super easy, no scaling.  So I think I'm going to forced to essentially go back and forth across the map to keep myself overleveling an area, which funny enough runs counter to the games entire main plotline.

It's all a problem of them cutting corners and rushing these games out.  Both Arceus and SW/SH had their own issues that stemmed from this.  This game needed at minimum another full year of development to properly flesh the game, get it running right, add more depth and options and to properly realize this game.  I'm just glad I didn't pay for it as I'm borrowing it from a family member when they aren't playing, because I knew this would happen.  I'd get a Pokemon game that I would be able to functionally enjoy as a Pokemon game, but get annoyed at everything that is either jank or missing.

So frustrating because I keep wanting to love Pokemon again, but Let's Go had the motion control and capture annoyances , Sword/Shield suffered from a lot of problems, Arceus was more fun for me, but had its own issues, and now all the issues with this one.  It's super annoying for a series that could have all the budget and development time it wants, but will just never get that, so instead we get rushed developments and cut corners.
« Last Edit: November 19, 2022, 04:20:01 am by kamikazekeeg »

burningdoom

PRO Supporter

Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #4593 on: November 29, 2022, 11:49:32 am »
I'm started playing Chrono Trigger again. I can always make it to the final battle but can't beat Lavos' final form. This time I'm focusing on serious grinding on this playthrough to get the job done.

telekill

Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #4594 on: November 30, 2022, 09:41:21 am »
With A Plague Tale Requiem completed, I might return to Horizon FW while I wait for The Witcher 3's PS5 upgrade in a couple weeks.

telly

Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #4595 on: December 05, 2022, 10:02:18 am »
I started up a playthrough of the Last of Us again in preparation for the TV series coming out next year! Anybody else doing the same thing?
Currently Playing:
DOOM (PS4)

My music collection | My Backloggery

conduit

Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #4596 on: December 05, 2022, 07:04:55 pm »
Parasite Eve II and Metal Gear Solid 2. Haven't decided on a PC game to play but I'm leaning toward one of the hack and slash games I have installed. It's a toss up between Bayonetta, Bloodrayne Terminal Cut or Nier Automata.

Beat the first Parasite Eve a few weeks ago, got the non-canon ending. Eventually I'll sit back down and ascend the Chrysler Building. I enjoyed its unique battle system and similarities to Resident Evil. The second game is even more RE-like and I'm digging its manual targeting system.

undertakerprime

PRO Supporter

Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #4597 on: December 05, 2022, 07:16:25 pm »
Got Horizon Forbidden West for half price over Black Friday. I thought the first game was great and I really wanted to play the sequel.

It started off a little slow, not as strong as the prologue of Zero Dawn, but then again not many games can match ZD’s excellent prologue.

But I’m a few hours in now, and it’s REALLY getting good. Now that I’m actually in the Forbidden West, the varied gameplay has opened up. There’s puzzle missions, offensive missions, hunting missions, etc. The machine hunting continues to be a highlight, because it really takes some thought. Barreling into a group of machines is begging to get torn to pieces; it takes much more forethought and analysis…what’s the best way to approach this group, what weapons are they weak to, what outfit perks would give me the most benefit given the situation, etc.
The Horizon series is also a great example of how to write a strong female character without making her a Mary Sue or tearing down the male characters. Aloy is great at what she does, but it took her years of training to get to that point, she’s not perfect, and she’s been through a lot of shit.
« Last Edit: December 05, 2022, 07:21:42 pm by undertakerprime »

koemo1

PRO Supporter

Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #4598 on: December 06, 2022, 09:45:18 am »
Still working on Day's Gone, the game is much better than people give it credit for! :)
Currently playing:
Rogue Trooper [xbox]
Days Gone [ps4]


Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #4599 on: December 06, 2022, 02:34:30 pm »
Still working on Day's Gone, the game is much better than people give it credit for! :)

I think it's a genuinely good game.  Sure, it's not God of War or Last of Us top tier levels as I think people were expecting for a first party release, but I enjoyed myself quite abit for it. I've been meaning to replay it on PS5 someday.

Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #4600 on: December 06, 2022, 03:03:03 pm »
I've been dabbling in the latest WoW expansion, and having a lot of fun, but other than that I am up to the last boss in Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow.  Terrific game!


Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #4601 on: December 13, 2022, 05:13:18 pm »
Picked up Sonic Frontiers since there was a real good sale on it as I didn't want to pay full price for a game I was mixed on.  So far it's decent, plays well, though it never really gets over the fact that it looks like a Sonic model put into an Unreal tech demo and I hate all the random rails everywhere.  I don't mind the gameplay aspect of it, it just looks really random.  The worlds you enter for that normal Sonic experience do that job, but they really should've gone with a decent art style that works better with a cartoon character like Sonic.  It's already trying to be Breath of the Wild real hard, it should've just taken its art style in the process also lol

Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #4602 on: December 21, 2022, 03:14:02 am »
I picked up Powerwash Simulator because I wanted a chill, do nothing, sort of game to fool around in and I have like 10 hours in it already lol It's really funny how I can get into such...basic, grindy, sort of games, but if it's Sonic Frontiers, and I feel like it's getting grindy and kinda boring, I just tune out even if it has overall more exciting gameplay lol

I think it's more because I'm purposefully wanting a kinda mindless bit of nothing with Powerwash Simulator, playing it alongside a twitch stream going on, and with Sonic, I want more action and to have the story progress more quickly, but I'm held up with needing to collect more random items to actually progress and the overall package just isn't as fun as it could be.

Normally I don't do the "sim" games, but I don't know, something about this works well enough for me, I think it's just sorta satisfying to watch grime get cleaned off in a very direct way, even though it's funny to see how bad some of the places are, like the building or vehicle went through a fire and its just coated in a layer of dense ash lol

telekill

Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #4603 on: December 21, 2022, 08:48:11 am »
Finally had the time to restart a playthrough of Witcher 3 for the PS5 upgrade. Glad I did some reading up as there was a silver sword I was able to easily obtain that's considered one of the best weapons in the game as it self levels and is able to be carried over in New Game+.

burningdoom

PRO Supporter

Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #4604 on: December 21, 2022, 10:50:48 am »
I picked up Powerwash Simulator because I wanted a chill, do nothing, sort of game to fool around in and I have like 10 hours in it already lol It's really funny how I can get into such...basic, grindy, sort of games, but if it's Sonic Frontiers, and I feel like it's getting grindy and kinda boring, I just tune out even if it has overall more exciting gameplay lol

I think it's more because I'm purposefully wanting a kinda mindless bit of nothing with Powerwash Simulator, playing it alongside a twitch stream going on, and with Sonic, I want more action and to have the story progress more quickly, but I'm held up with needing to collect more random items to actually progress and the overall package just isn't as fun as it could be.

Normally I don't do the "sim" games, but I don't know, something about this works well enough for me, I think it's just sorta satisfying to watch grime get cleaned off in a very direct way, even though it's funny to see how bad some of the places are, like the building or vehicle went through a fire and its just coated in a layer of dense ash lol

I got into that one when I got Game Pass on sale. It is oddly addicting...at least until I got to the subway station level, that's just too overwhelming of a job.
« Last Edit: December 21, 2022, 01:36:27 pm by burningdoom »