What's everybody playing?

[Turo602]

Apparently I started Devil May Cry 4 over a year ago. Haven't been feeling it to be honest, so I stopped playing it. Started it back up but it's been quite a grind. I loved the first one back when I played it because it brought me back to the days of classic Resident Evil and by the third one, it felt like the series finally came into its own. I also thought the reboot was a really fun game. But this one has honestly just bored me.

I'm on mission 10 and I still don't know why I'm playing as Nero and not Dante. The story hasn't grabbed me, the characters are boring, and the level design is a little confusing. Compared to games like the DmC reboot and Bayonetta 1 and 2, the combat just doesn't feel all that great either. I really just want to get this one over with so I can get to the 5th one which actually looks good.

 

[Ikawaru]

Hopefully we'll get another Onimusha game sometime in the near future. I don't want Capcom to take away their workload from Resident Evil, but I did enjoy Onimusha quite a lot actually, felt like a true Capcom alternative to Resident Evil.

I see they remastered 'Warlords' not too long ago, perhaps an effort to flirt it to the public and see if they got enough sales to contemplate another release. *fingers crossed*

 

[Frag Maniac]

Well I just got A Plague Tale: Innocence a couple days ago and am really liking it. It's more of an Action Adventure Stealth game, but does have some survival horror elements to it. It takes place in the 100 Year War between France and England, and the protagonists are Amecia and Hugo, the daughter and young boy of royal parents. Since this time period involved the Black Plague, you quite often have to face a lot of rats. It's said there can be 5000 rats appearing at any given time. The rats can only attack in dark places though, so light and fire are used a lot to combat them. There are many puzzles you have to solve to navigate your way through both terrain and rats. Alchemy plays a big part in weapon crafting, which Amecia learned from her alchemist mother Beatrice.

On occasion you travel and fight with characters you meet in game, but most of the time, Amecia is with Hugo, whom is little enough to get into small spaces to access things she can't. Hugo has a rare blood disorder, which is one of the the primary reasons he's being hunted. There are also rumors of Hugo having and spreading the plague, people want to either kidnap or kill him. It's mostly stealth, but also some forced combat segments, the 1st of which kept me on my toes.

It's not the normal type of survival horror elements I look for, but the game only seems to be targeting the Action Adventure Stealth audience, with not even any difficulty settings. It's not however abundantly easy to craft all upgrades, and there are times when you can run low or out of items to clear rats, depending how you use your weapons. So far I've not even gotten 2 out of the 3 upgrades on every item, and there's only 2 chapters left. Graphically and performance wise this game is quite nice, being able to easily run it on Ultra at 1080p on my GTX 1080 with 80-100+ FPS. Some have said they had microstutter problems, but turning off Vsync fixes it, and there's no screen tear anyway.

I am already planning to pick up the sequel called Requiem, which releases October 18th. There's a real quality to the voice acting, and the way the story and characters are presented. This title kind of took me by surprise, especially since the developer Asobo, and publisher Focus Interactive, aren't known for blockbuster titles in this genre. None the less, it's getting a lot of rave reviews, and I think deservedly so.

 

[SpaceOwlHoot]

I'm playing The Quarry. I enjoyed my first play through and am going back now to get the other achievements. Definitely not worth the $70 price tag (I got the Series X version).

 

[Ikawaru]

I'm playing The Quarry. I enjoyed my first play through and am going back now to get the other achievements. Definitely not worth the $70 price tag (I got the Series X version).

I was actually wondering about this game and it did seem interesting at first but after watching several BreadTube videos of it and the idiot commentators I was just like BLEH.

The thing with these branching stories games that seem to be on the semi-rise is that they're just not applied very well currently. I hope someday someone really takes this thesis and perfects it because they do have a lot of potential.

After playing Chernobylite I felt the ideas of choices you make actually matter a great deal to the outcome of the game were an interesting idea but beating it didn't really make me feel satisfied, however I did enjoy the characters and the theme of that particular game hence why I actually bought it. The Quarry does not really seem to have anything that grabs at me.

 

[Gar Bageman]

I was actually wondering about this game and it did seem interesting at first but after watching several BreadTube videos of it and the idiot commentators I was just like BLEH.

The thing with these branching stories games that seem to be on the semi-rise is that they're just not applied very well currently. I hope someday someone really takes this thesis and perfects it because they do have a lot of potential.

After playing Chernobylite I felt the ideas of choices you make actually matter a great deal to the outcome of the game were an interesting idea but beating it didn't really make me feel satisfied, however I did enjoy the characters and the theme of that particular game hence why I actually bought it. The Quarry does not really seem to have anything that grabs at me.

Just out of curiosity, what kind of stuff would you like to see and/or what better implementation would you suggest in one of these kinds of games?

 

[Frag Maniac]

Just out of curiosity, what kind of stuff would you like to see and/or what better implementation would you suggest in one of these kinds of games?

I don't know about GPB's take on it, but for me Chernobylite mainly suffered from too much crew micromanagement, but also too much ease in correcting those mistakes. It's literally a game you can easily cherry pick the best ending in, and what killed that ending for me was not just that it was lackluster in how the crew's lives panned out, but in how easy the final mission was to actually play.

You really only need most of your crew at Neutral relationship level with you, and 1 key one at Good. In fact it won't even let you continue if that 1 person is Neutral. The good ending's only fight is pretty easy and over quickly. I was hoping for a much more involved end mission gameplay wise, even if just requiring a lot of stealth, it would have been better than several scripted choices at certain doors, then a short, uninteresting fight.

The shame of it is, the story itself is actually not too bad, and fairly original, but the way it's presented is very lackluster. I actually preferred playing Terminator Resistance, and it's campaign DLC Annihilation Line.

As for The Quarry, that game looks like a wannabe Tell Tale's The Walking Dead clone, but far more contrived with cheesy characters, like David Arquette from the Scream movies, Lin Shaye, from Insidious and The Grudge, Miles Robbins, from Halloween 2018, and Lance Henriksen, from Aliens. It takes far more than graphics that are more realistic than mere cell shading, and actors from horror movies, to make a game with nothing but QTE engagement control wise, worth playing, it takes really good writing. All this game seems to have in that regard is some cheap one liners.

Curious if anyone else has tried playing A Plague Tale: Innocence? I'm really looking forward to the Requiem sequel this fall.

 

[Turo602]

Curious if anyone else has tried playing A Plague Tale: Innocence? I'm really looking forward to the Requiem sequel this fall.

Haven't played it yet, but I bought it last year after physical copies resurfaced with the next-gen version. I've heard it be compared to The Last of Us so that's definitely interesting.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Haven't played it yet, but I bought it last year after physical copies resurfaced with the next-gen version. I've heard it be compared to The Last of Us so that's definitely interesting.

I'm not sure I'd agree at all with it being like The Last of Us, maybe very vaguely story wise, but certainly not in gameplay. It's a pretty interesting game none the less though.

 

[Ikawaru]

I don't know about GPB's take on it, but for me Chernobylite mainly suffered from too much crew micromanagement, but also too much ease in correcting those mistakes. It's literally a game you can easily cherry pick the best ending in, and what killed that ending for me was not just that it was lackluster in how the crew's lives panned out, but in how easy the final mission was to actually play.

You actually summed it up pretty well here*. My contribution would be that it all major consequences for the decisions you make through dialogue felt kind of hamfisted in its execution, like doing it just for that sake of doing it and saying "screw you" to the player if you made a bad call with very little nuance for correcting yourself within the games narrative. The solution they applied felt lazy and was most likely due to budget constraints (Eastern Europe is not known for its vast wealth) as you said you can just correct yourself at the end if you acquire a ton of Chernobylite Crystals.

Interesting ideas, poorly executed.


*I did not mind the resource scrounging aspect of the game or learning skills from teammates and thought it was a pretty neat idea, just managing how much your crew "likes" you based off of decisions you make felt more like a chore than anything. It's why I like STALKER, because it's just you, a loner, and you don't have to play the "I get by with a little help from my friends" chord which is a major feature in Chernobylite.

 

[Dr. Cheesesteak]

Finished Life is Strange: True Colors a couple of days ago.

I pretty much agree w/ everything you said. Although, I have not played all the of games, still need to play 2 and the free one. But the first one was the only one I thought was particularly well-written, tho BtS and TC did have their moments. Coincidentally or not, BtS and TC were done by Deck Nine, whereas the first game was Dontnod. I've liked other games I've played by Dontnod (Vampyr and Remember Me. Have yet to play their 2 most recent ones), so I assume LiS2 and the free one I'll also like more than BtS and TC.

I'm not sure I'd agree at all with it being like The Last of Us, maybe very vaguely story wise, but certainly not in gameplay. It's a pretty interesting game none the less though.

I'd say the TLoU gameplay comparisons are fair, since both games have stealth, cover elements, similar level design/progression and perspective, etc. How can it not be considered similar? It's not like comparing Street Fighter to Edith Finch.

Anyway, as for me, I'm still playing "too many" games at a time. I really do need to just focus on a couple at a time, at least for backlog games. I feel like I don't really "play" many games but rather juts "rotate them in/out" in short bursts a couple weeks at a time. Maybe I need to seek help...

backlog games currently rotating:
- Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen
- Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
- Mega Man X5
- The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles
- Norco
- FAR: Changing Tides
- Cuphead: The DLC

non-backlog games currently rotating:
- Melty Blood: Type Lumina
- Vampire Savior
- Skater XL
- Fall Guys

 

[Rain611]

Still playing Evil Dead but trying the demon now. It's fun but I suck haha.

 

[Frag Maniac]

I'd say the TLoU gameplay comparisons are fair, since both games have stealth, cover elements, similar level design/progression and perspective, etc. How can it not be considered similar? It's not like comparing Street Fighter to Edith Finch.

Had he said compared to vaguely in style, I could see it maybe, but he just said can be compared to, so.

 

[Angel]

Yoshi's crafted world.

It's a bit of a letdown compared to woolly world -- the co-op mechanics are frustrating and there are too many levels where the screen scrolls so you can't go back for something you missed. It's a cute game but not as visually appealing as woolly world; not a fan of the cardboard costumes either. The different Yoshi skins from woolly world were better.

Also cracking out the Rare Replay and getting some nostalgia going with my beloved Viva Piñata games

 

[Frag Maniac]

I actually installed Race Driver: GRID again last night, it's been so many years since I played it, I lost track. I had forgotten though that the replay HUD cannot be hidden like in their later games, so I went on a merry goose chase trying to find out how I'd hidden it before. All is well now.

 

[Turo602]

Pushed through Devil May Cry 4 quite aggressively and couldn't believe what a lazy game it was. I honestly can't think of another game that just shamelessly recycles content to the extent of this game without really doing much to recontextualize it and make it feel new.

By the time you get to play as Dante after mindlessly playing as Nero for more than half of the of the game, you're literally just going backwards through the game after reaching Nero's end point and redoing all the same boss fights as Dante until you get to the final boss, which admittedly had a pretty cool sequence, until you play as Nero again and are forced into this excessive version of a gauntlet dice roll game that appeared earlier in the game, which was already a strange concept that felt like filler, but this time, you have to go through all the bosses yet again...

I honestly enjoyed Devil May Cry 2 more than whatever this was and I can definitely see now why they wanted to reboot the series after it. What a waste of time, but unfortunately Nero is an important character now and so playing through this is kinda necessary even though the story is total f*cking nonsense that does nothing to make you care about Nero as a character or even justify making him the protagonist over Dante.

Started Shadow of the Tomb Raider and I've been really digging it so far, but I can definitely see why it has quite a mixed reputation. I thought Rise got a little excessive with its collectibles that kinda dragged the pacing down. But Shadow definitely takes it to a whole new level, so much that it completely brings the game to a halt once you reach the massive lost city of Paititi that pretty much kills the flow of the story with just how much there is to explore and collect.

That's not to say this portion of the game isn't good, but it definitely conflicts with the overall experience, and it's stuff like this that makes the game feel so sparse on action as there's already a huge emphasis on tomb raiding this time compared to previous games, and the puzzles are easily the best in the trilogy. I understand the first Tomb Raider was criticized for its focus on gunplay over puzzle solving, but this is too far into the opposite direction after Rise already attempted to remedy that problem by offering more diverse and intricate tombs into the game's already established formula.

It doesn't help much either that combat encounters are largely designed around stealth, which is a great layer to add onto the traditional shoot outs... if there were any traditional shoot outs. It's a total shame too because guns become a large part of your arsenal and it feels like such a waste buying and upgrading and getting special attachments for your guns when they're so underutilized.

It's great if they want to integrate more elements or flesh out various aspects more like stealth and puzzles, but it shouldn't come at the cost of anything else, especially combat, which was already such a perfect contrast to the rest of the game's more leisure activities. It's not a bad game by any means and at times can even feel like the series at its best, but the overall flow of ideas and gameplay is quite unbalanced.

 

[Jonipoon]

Started Shadow of the Tomb Raider and I've been really digging it so far, but I can definitely see why it has quite a mixed reputation. I thought Rise got a little excessive with its collectibles that kinda dragged the pacing down. But Shadow definitely takes it to a whole new level, so much that it completely brings the game to a halt once you reach the massive lost city of Paititi that pretty much kills the flow of the story with just how much there is to explore and collect.

Shadow has its flaws but for me it's still lengths ahead of Rise. For one, Lara actually feels more like a seasoned tomb raider in Shadow even though the devs are still missing the mark on her character arc. She starts off the game equipped with a complete arsenal of guns and isn't whining around as much as before I actually don't mind the bigger emphasis on puzzles and exploration since that's what Tomb Raider is really about IMO. I really enjoy the fact that there are more wild animal fights this time around, something that was missing in the previous two games. My biggest complaint is that the tombs were generally lacking these wild animals, I can only remember 2 or 3 tombs having combat encounters in them which was honestly a huge missed opportunity. Adding more enemies to the tombs would've made the game feel much more alive and make for a better flow. Because just like you said, sometimes the excessive amount of tombs and exploration felt like an obstacle to the actual story. For the future of the series, they should just go back to having the tombs be integrated in the flow of the main story.

And oh man, the environments in Shadow are so friggin beautiful. There is one point in the game where you jump off a high cliff down into this massive turquoise lake in the jungle, and I just felt pure joy absorbing the nature and its landscape. Definitely a welcome change after all the grim and cold environments in the previous two games.

TR2013 still has the best story and character arc for Lara, whereas Shadow has the best gameplay, puzzles and exploration. Rise just sucks.

 

[Ikawaru]

TR2013 still has the best story and character arc for Lara, whereas Shadow has the best gameplay, puzzles and exploration. Rise just sucks.

Mostly agree with this. Playing TR reboot at 144 fps on a 144hz monitor was a great and buttery smooth excellent experience (people still overlook the benefits of high refresh rate gaming!)

Shadow did in fact do a good job at backtracking, environments, character building. The tombs were a bit linear but hey, better than nothing.

Rise was that typical #2 in any trilogy that is f*vckd up and weird. I mean #2's aren't always the worst ones (See Empire Strikes Back) but it has to be done right and Rise was done abysmally especially the story. Yuck.

 

[SaddlerFan]

Since R* have actually done something GOOD for a change and went ahead and FINALLY made it possible to do sell missions in private sessions I've been playing quite a bit of GTA again in the past few days.

 

[Rain611]

Still mostly playing Evil Dead after the kiddo goes to bed. I maxxed out Eligos and Evil Ash and have Henrietta to level 25.

I go on vacation next week for sanity and hoping to get Henrietta maxxed out and at least 1 of my survivor mains.

I'm mad at everything happening with update 35 of ESO so I may stop playing it. We'll see.