What's everybody playing?

[Ikawaru]

A lot of die hard Rockstar fans insist they know how to write good stories, but all they really specialize in is loser characters and boring in fighting.

Didn't Rockstar lose their best writer, Dan Houser? I mean to me, it was always the writing and the satire that made a Rockstar game, not particularly the gameplay. As soon as I heard he was leaving I was like, "What the Hell are they gonna do w/o their most crucial asset?"

The bigger they are...

 

[Frag Maniac]

Didn't Rockstar lose their best writer, Dan Houser? I mean to me, it was always the writing and the satire that made a Rockstar game, not particularly the gameplay. As soon as I heard he was leaving I was like, "What the Hell are they gonna do w/o their most crucial asset?"

The bigger they are...

Yeah Houser left, I just don't see that as such a big deal, because quite frankly, like I said, his writing has always been so shallow and predictable, with immature, neurotic and/or perverse characters and lots of in fighting. I honestly think the reason they have so many fans is that there's so many messed up families in the world that they actually relate to the crazy, crap stories they crank out.

That said, GTA IV's characters and writing were a LOT easier to deal with and more interesting, well, most of them anyway. I also liked Max Payne 3. Not a big fan of the direction they're taking GTA though.

 

[Frag Maniac]

So I finally got back to Chernobylite tonight, and finished the game. I thought I could get away with not changing any decisions, as all my crew were on Neutral status. Things were going fine until the part where Olivier approaches you just before the final boss fight, and to my surprise, he shot and killed me. So that took me to the death walk and I found I had to get him at Good status to correct the problem. I did change a couple other decisions though, and wound up with Shasko at Good as well, and the rest Neutral.

So I got the good ending on the second try of Heist, but a strange thing happened after the credits. It said I had unlocked Gate of Madness difficulty mode, but I don't see that mode listed on the difficulty sliders. It's still the same as it was before, with Insane being the hardest. I'm wondering if they originally wanted to call the hardest mode Gate of Madness, and changed it to Insane. So I'm thinking it might be an oversight that they left the end game message with it still referring to the hardest mode as Gate of Madness.

Did that happen to you, or did you even notice that end game message?

 

[Ikawaru]

Did that happen to you, or did you even notice that end game message?

Yeah I noticed that to, I'm assuming it's a development error and 'Insane' is that difficulty but I could be wrong, perhaps a search could clarify that, as I doubt I'll ever play on that difficulty anyway.

......

Days Gone is so great I seriously just wanna buy a Harley Low Rider now. I don't live in the south or southwest so I'm wondering if you can buy some specialty winter tires for northlings.

I think there's a plot twist coming up that I saw a mile away, I won't spoil too hard but I think I know who that female Nero researcher-of-freaks is.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Yeah I noticed that to, I'm assuming it's a development error and 'Insane' is that difficulty but I could be wrong, perhaps a search could clarify that, as I doubt I'll ever play on that difficulty anyway.

......

Days Gone is so great I seriously just wanna buy a Harley Low Rider now. I don't live in the south or southwest so I'm wondering if you can buy some specialty winter tires for northlings.

I think there's a plot twist coming up that I saw a mile away, I won't spoil too hard but I think I know who that female Nero researcher-of-freaks is.

Well, like I said, it could just be an oversight that they didn't change the end game message to Insane after possibly deciding to name it Insane instead.

Have you found the puppy in Days Gone yet? It reminded me of that moment in MGSV when you first encounter D-Dog.

 

[Rain611]

The New Evil Dead game. I really like it.

 

[Dr. Cheesesteak]

I have a lot of games sort of in my rotation... I'll try to consider anything I've really sat and played for longer than 30 mins in the past week or so...:

- Dark Souls 3
- Resident Evil 2 (2019)
- Great Ace Attorney Chronicles
- Ghostwire: Tokyo
- Forgive Me Father
- Norco
- SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamesh
- Heroes of the Storm

So I rolled credits on RE2make tonight for the first time and was really tempted to sit it out of the rotation for a few months so my 2nd Run would feel more fresh and new once I came back to it. But I was eager for more action and didn't like Ghost Survivors, so I started my 2nd Run and it just feels...i dunno, weird going through the police station differently. Anyway, RE2make is still in the rotation. Which has tightened up a bit just this past week.

- Resident Evil 2 (2019)
- Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain
- Ghostwire: Tokyo
- Norco


MGS5 replaces DS3 as a big series backlog game. I'm really trying to trim the fat on what I play, so a few games are being sat. However, I started Trek to Yomi a day or two ago, and while I have gripes about it (no custom controls, meh combat), the presentation and narrative is so good, I definitely see myself playing this enough to finish it this week or so.

edit:
nvm, F Trek to Yomi. Also, decided to narrow my rotation to just 4 games at a time (not counting filler games of course). So also took Forgive Me Father off the list until I finish another game.

 

[Frag Maniac]

I just finished my first playthrough of Chernobylite a few days ago. It's definitely an interesting and unique take on the Survival Horror genre, but the need to micromanage your rep with the NPCs you recruit can get tedious the first playthrough. Ironically though, if you put in the effort and manage to have all your crew with you at the end, especially with Good or better status on one of them, the ending is a bit too easy for my taste. I may eventually go back to this game and try a run on the hardest mode. If that goes well, I may even try to purposely make the ending harder by not caring much about the crew. It almost seems like you need at least Good status with that one crew member I spoke of just to survive the ending at all though.

After Chernobylite I went back to Halo The Master Chief Collection to embark on a goal I set some time ago of eventually beating it all on Legendary, having left off with beating them all on Heroic last play throughs. I have now beaten 4 of the 6 games on Legendary, and have only 3 of the 8 missions left in Halo 4. There's definitely been some tough moments where I had to replay certain segments numerous times, especially the first game, Combat Evolved. The rest of the games have been much easier by comparison. The main thing that makes Combat Evolved tough is it's really hard to keep your squad from getting killed in a lot of places, and some of those places are fairly tough to survive on your own on Legendary. It was partly my fault in some instances though, due to not using the Plasma pistol to break shields.

 

[Ikawaru]

I just finished my first playthrough of Chernobylite a few days ago. It's definitely an interesting and unique take on the Survival Horror genre, but the need to micromanage your rep with the NPCs you recruit can get tedious the first playthrough. Ironically though, if you put in the effort and manage to have all your crew with you at the end, especially with Good or better status on one of them, the ending is a bit too easy for my taste. I may eventually go back to this game and try a run on the hardest mode. If that goes well, I may even try to purposely make the ending harder by not caring much about the crew. It almost seems like you need at least Good status with that one crew member I spoke of just to survive the ending at all though.

I got that same impression after I got the best ending possible. I really expected some God-like awesome ending but I was just like 'Meh' when it was over and am actually thinking I may have liked my original ending better had I actually played naturally and not tinkered with it just to get it. You don't even get any extra Achievements for any kind of special ending so I reckon the developers just thought players would accept whatever happened, good or ill.

As a Western player though, I think I'm kinda nurtured into the philosophy of "doing the right thing" which kinda compels me to do it "properly" so maybe am a bit unaccustomed to the hard realism of Eastern ways of doing things.

....

Since work life is taking a toll on me I haven't been playing much lately. I think I'm approaching the end of Days Gone but I have to say the game is kinda losing its touch towards the end especially how anti-climactic a key plot element turned out to be. My bike is nearly fully upgraded though and it's a blast to ride around but the story kinda died when you meet up with THAT IMPORTANT PERSON. It's also blitherly West Coast, which I am not accustomed to, being from the more grounded East Coast.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Assuming I'm correct about whom that "important person" is, if you haven't traveled back north to the lab yet, the story gets a bit better then as that person feels the full weight of what happened and how. So you should at least get something out of that, IF you east coasters are as grounded as you say.

As far as Survival Horror stories go though, most feel it's far above average, and that was my take as well. I could see how a lot of work stress might lessen the impact though. I'm going through a fair bit of stress myself lately, from other causes, and I can't wait to move out of this place I'm living in.

 

[Ikawaru]

Yeah 60 hours a week is a bit of a nut buster, and could affect my attitude a bit. As soon as I get a couple days off I'll go at it again.

And yes, George Carlin famously said that the West Coast is soft and peripheral whilst the East Coast is hard and concentrated so that kinda stuck to my subconscious growing up.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Yeah 60 hours a week is a bit of a nut buster, and could affect my attitude a bit. As soon as I get a couple days off I'll go at it again.

And yes, George Carlin famously said that the West Coast is soft and peripheral whilst the East Coast is hard and concentrated so that kinda stuck to my subconscious growing up.

LOL, too many people assume west coasters are soft, passive, laid back, whatever. I get tired of the labels frankly. All I know is when things get competitive, west coasters look anything but weak. The LA RAMs proved it, and the Golden State Warriors have and are still proving it. About the only thing the east coast has on the west coast competitively is baseball, and that's mostly because it's not regulated monetarily, so teams can spend as much as they want on it. This is why the Yankees have won so many world series.

 

[Ikawaru]

Personally I think ALL of society is going to the ground at this point so it matters little, both New York and LA have boat loads of problems. Bill Maher (A Californian) just gave a scathing analysis on how California is going down tubes lately with its over regulations and water shortages and politicians who seem to not be interested in fixing any of its problems. Also the homeless problem is rampant everywhere and people can't afford basic living conditions lately, and nobody seems to care. What's funny is the American South seems to have much more job opportunities and cheaper housing for poor people than any of these big city enclaves, but it is a Bible Belt and can be quite irrational on social issues at times so screw all.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Personally I think ALL of society is going to the ground at this point so it matters little, both New York and LA have boat loads of problems. Bill Maher (A Californian) just gave a scathing analysis on how California is going down tubes lately with its over regulations and water shortages and politicians who seem to not be interested in fixing any of its problems. Also the homeless problem is rampant everywhere and people can't afford basic living conditions lately, and nobody seems to care. What's funny is the American South seems to have much more job opportunities and cheaper housing for poor people than any of these big city enclaves, but it is a Bible Belt and can be quite irrational on social issues at times so screw all.

Well I know things are bad and getting worse, but how does blatant pessimism fit into your "hard and concentrated" analogy? Some might say that's giving up too easy on mankind, something we're all part of like it or not. California is a mess, yes, but they are NOT the entire west coast, nor should the mindset of the people be blamed for things like water shortages, something that's largely out of their control, just as it is with drier states like Utah and Arizona. Those are ALL states that need help not just with water, but electricity too.

You would think the huge humanitarian effort to help Ukranians would make people more sensitive to problems we are facing ourselves, but with many, it's just creating a divide, an every man for themselves attitude. That's NEVER going to be the solution going forward.

 

[Turo602]

How the f*ck does a thread like this turn into a random Biggie/Tupac feud?

 

[Jonipoon]

To bring it back to track... I'm not really playing anything at the moment, but I'm looking forward as hell to the release of The Quarry next month, June 10th to be precise. I loved Until Dawn but wasn't very impressed with The Dark Pictures games that came after. This looks more like a full-fledged worthy successor to Until Dawn and I can't wait to play it.

 

[Frag Maniac]

How the f*ck does a thread like this turn into a random Biggie/Tupac feud?

LOL, well hey, he brought up the whole east coast vs west coast thing, and I really didn't even comment on it at first when he did. Suffice it to say he's probably a bit more irritated lately due to working 60 hours a week. I imagine that would get old really fast. I've never had to endure that kind of work schedule, but I did spend a fair bit of time as a freight manager in a small grocery chain, where we were often understaffed on big freight nights. I was peaking at up to 60 cases an hr , and that's cut and mark, before the barcode days. At the time the biggest grocery chain in the area was only asking their freight workers to stock 35 cases an hr. So believe me, I know what it's like to be overworked and underappreciated.

 

[Turo602]

LOL, well hey, you brought up the whole east coast vs west coast thing, and I really didn't even comment on it at first when you did.

 

[Ikawaru]

How the f*ck does a thread like this turn into a random Biggie/Tupac feud?

Well **** it's not like this place is very active or anything, something is better than nothing, even spam post like this.

LOL, well hey, you brought up the whole east coast vs west coast thing, and I really didn't even comment on it at first when you did. Suffice it to say you're probably a bit more irritated lately due to working 60 hours a week. I imagine that would get old really fast. I've never had to endure that kind of work schedule, but I did spend a fair bit of time as a freight manager in a small grocery chain, where we were often understaffed on big freight nights. I was peaking at up to 60 cases an hr , and that's cut and mark, before the barcode days. At the time the biggest grocery chain in the area was only asking their freight workers to stock 35 cases an hr. So believe me, I know what it's like to be overworked and underappreciated.

Dude.

 

[Turo602]

Well **** it's not like this place is very active or anything, something is better than nothing, even spam post like this.

It's not when it's one of the most consistently active topics despite how inactive the forum is in general. I know I'm not one to talk, but this convo could literally be happening anywhere else. You can PM eachother or if you're really worried about activity, you can start a new thread, which could potentially invite more people into the the conversation rather than drive them off this one because they know whatever they post is just going to get buried by an off-topic back and forth.

I don't mean to be all backseat moderator, that's not really my style and I'm the last person who should be saying this, but it should still be said. The rules around here are already pretty loose, so let's not go looking for reasons to poison threads. Not trying to ruin anyone's fun, but let's at least try be mindful of the topic at hand.