Currently Playing

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Paul
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Re: Currently Playing

Post by Paul » Fri Jul 30, 2021 3:05 pm

I have purchased The Ascent, which is currently downloading. The reviews seem mixed but I'm sure I'll love it.

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Animalmother
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Re: Currently Playing

Post by Animalmother » Fri Jul 30, 2021 3:37 pm

Played Ascent for a short while earlier, enjoying it so far. Looks gorgeous with tons of little details going on in the background. It's not easy as you have manually pick up health and reload your weapon which often results in you getting swamped by enemies (I don't think you can reload while being hit which resulted in my death). Looking forward to ploughing more time into it later.

elgaucho
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Re: Currently Playing

Post by elgaucho » Fri Jul 30, 2021 9:00 pm

I ended up subbing to PS Now for a year this holiday.

I've since binged my way through the absolutely MASSIVE (and newest) God of War game for the first time. Pretty impressive visually, and the gameplay isn't bad at all. Overall I enjoyed the experience. At some point I need to go back and play the older ones I guess.

Next I've charged into Nioh. I haven't decided yet if this game is going to kill me. It's pretty darn tough, but I don't feel it's unfair. I am worried I'm going to hit a wall if I haven't already. I managed the first couple of bosses (boat thing and some kind of bird woman), and now I've been trying to do a sub mission before leaving the first island to defeat a samurai, and he's butchering me again and again.... whoof.... :?
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Raid
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Re: Currently Playing

Post by Raid » Sat Jul 31, 2021 6:38 pm

Finally getting the chance to play Half Life: Alyx after a year of waiting to have space to do so in. It's bloody impressive, no doubts about that, there's so much detail, and seeing elements from Half Life 2 up close is both amazing and horrifying. Headcrabs are so much bigger 'in person' as it were than they looked on a flat screen; it looks like a horribly mutated, ready to roast turkey is clinging to everyone's heads as seen in this file photo. And they're so much more threatening when you're actually having to aim a weapon rather than shuffling a mouse around. I found myself doing that thing that people do in films; steadying my aim by bracing my shooting arm on my other arm (it's not practical to hold a gun with two hands because of the size of the controllers) so that I could actually hit anything from a distance.

And you don't want to be up close with these things, as their proximity tends to induce panic that you just don't get on a flat screen. Not only are they very dangerous in clawing distance, but their size is intimidating. You've also got to reload by manually ejecting the gun's magazine, reaching into the hammerspace behind your shoulder to retrieve a new one, inserting it into the gun (which has a generous range, it's not fiddly), and then pressing a button on your controller to chamber the first round. Doing that while also being slashed at by a zombie just isn't that easy. You can eject a magazine early, but you can't store half-empty magazines so you're just throwing ammo away.

I absolutely love the gravity gloves mechanic; you hold your hand in the rough direction to highlight an object in the distance you want to grab, make a grabbing action on the controller, yank it into the air by pulling your arm back sharply, and then you have to catch the item out of the air yourself. It's instantly intuitive, but not so foolproof that it feels like a chore.

I'm using the smooth movement option, and I have to admit it took a bit of getting used to. When I first started any movement would make me feel dizzy, but my brain acclimatised to it fairly quickly. As with most VR stuff, it's not something I can play for hours at a time because of the constraints of strapping a screen to your face, but I'm already itching to go back for more.

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Rusty
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Re: Currently Playing

Post by Rusty » Mon Aug 02, 2021 1:14 am

It really is an awesome game. But ... fuck.. Jeff.. I had to switch to teleporting for that section (no more spoilers :) )
-- To be completed at some point --

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Animalmother
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Re: Currently Playing

Post by Animalmother » Mon Aug 02, 2021 10:42 am

The Ascent
Put about 5 hours into this now on the Xbox. First off the game is stunning looking with an insane level of detail up on the screen, some of the more populated areas are just works of art. The soundtrack is the most cyber punk music ever with hints of Terminator, Blade Runner and other synth loveliness. So far it runs butter smooth without any issues but I think I'm lucky as it's apparently prone to freezing. It supposedly supports RTX but only on the Steam version which is a let down.

Story wise you just roam the city getting jobs and doing fetch quests. Once you leave certain safe areas you can and will be attacked pretty much every 20 seconds. Get a half decent weapon you can chew through enemies and unfortunate bystanders who get in the way. Combat is where there are problems. Enemies can hit you from off screen before you see them, it's very easy to get swamped and overwhelmed and the game will often direct you into areas where the enemies are several levels higher and can insta kill you. There is a cover system but you only find out when a random hint pops up on the screen about 40 minutes in. Reloading is very inconsistent sometimes it's automatic, other times it has to be done manually.

The main problem with the game is nothing is explained properly, there's still shit I'm picking up that I have no idea what it's used for. There's a fast travel taxi service that I only found out 3 hours in. The UI with the controller is a fucking pain to use and a ton of other little issues. But I'm loving it, really enjoying the experience. It needs work on ironing out some of the problems but it's still great. Graphics, music and voice acting is top notch. Can well recommend.

This chap does a really good rundown...

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Wrathbone
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Re: Currently Playing

Post by Wrathbone » Mon Aug 02, 2021 2:48 pm

It seems to be a highly polarising game, but since it's in Game Pass I'll give it a go at some point.

Meanwhile I've been burying many hours into my first Rimworld colony. It's a testament to the game that despite its steep learning curve (more of a cliff-face) and minimalist tutorial, I never felt like I wanted to abandon it. Even 50+ hours later I'm still frequently googling things I don't understand, but I've finished construction of a starship and am now beefing up my defences before powering it up.

There have been casualties along the way, sadly, as is to be expected in a survival situation with many dangers bearing down on the colonists. Poor Happy was a good-for-nothing bandit who spent months recovering from the plethora of gunshot wounds and destroyed organs my turrets inflicted on him as he charged my walls armed with nothing but a spear. He didn't once thank me for his balmy 50c prison cell designed to break his spirit so he could be rebuilt as a productive member of the colony, nor did he appreciate the fact that, while he was sleeping, I replaced his entire leg due to a missing toe. Of course the bionic leg was then required by a more useful colonist, so for a while I had to downgrade him to a wooden peg, but it was the thought that counted. No, Happy was a restless soul who didn't take well to his recruitment and full-time employment as a deep-cave miner. And when he finally snapped and began his rampage by furiously headbutting the precious starship component I'd just completed, it became clear that he wasn't a good fit for the colony, and so I gave him one final chance to be useful by arresting him and harvesting his remaining organs.

It has to be said that the colonists mourned Happy's death more than I thought they would, as the morally-questionable manner of his demise resulted in several years of mental breakdowns and intense distress. But on the other hand, Happy's assorted body parts made a good few thousand credits from a passing trader which I spent on some cloth to make a nice carpet for the recreation room, so you win some, you lose some.

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Alan
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Re: Currently Playing

Post by Alan » Thu Aug 05, 2021 2:56 am

Man Of Medan
As someone who thinks Until Dawn was one of the best games of last gen this is not. Looks great, terrible dialogue, bad endings, naff qtes, annoying characters that I was happy to let die and the psychiatrist stuff isn’ta patch on the Peter Stromare stuff in UD. I’ve played worse but I expected a lot better from supermassive.
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Mantis
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Re: Currently Playing

Post by Mantis » Thu Aug 05, 2021 10:24 am

Agreed, really not keen on their new approach of making smaller games. It all just feels like filler material. Not only is it possible to call out the main plot twist of Man of Medan within 30 seconds of the game opening, the characters were naff and the new heart beat system was really inconsistent in its responsiveness. Plus it has the worst QTEs, you can fail so many of them up to a point when it will suddenly give you a really difficult one and if you fail then your character instantly dies and there's nothing you can do to avert it.

Until Dawn had a QTE section where it measured your overall speed based on what route you took and your QTE fail rate and then a character could die based on your average result. In Man of Medan you could ace a long row of QTEs and then fluff the last crucial one and instantly die. The amount of times I saw one of them get crushed by a door in the finale was comical with how sudden and difficult the QTE was.

These smaller projects almost feel like tech demos, like they're trying out new ideas that they don't want to commit to a full game. But everything else is suffering as a result.

Peter Stormare was actually relevant to the story in Until Dawn too, this new character is just a meta gaming douchebag with zero connection to anything that's happening.

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Alan
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Re: Currently Playing

Post by Alan » Thu Aug 05, 2021 10:38 am

I'm actually fine with the smaller games if they were just written well. The graphics didnt suffer and the acting was mostly good its just the writing thats rather bad. In fact I think I prefer that these narrative games are on the shorter side. As for the QTEs, theres a setting for "infinite QTE time" which is magical when you want to play with one hand and eat pizza with the other.


Also playing Carrion which I want to like but I really cant stand the level design. One overworld or separate levels would be so much better than the back and forth through level pipes that it does. The rest is kind of funish. I guess. :-k
A man who could tell more truth and eat fewer pies.

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Mantis
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Re: Currently Playing

Post by Mantis » Thu Aug 05, 2021 11:16 am

I'm not against the shorter games either, I just think that so far the quality really hasn't been there in comparison to their longer effort.

Hidden Agenda was quite a good laugh though but only because of the multiplayer element.

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Mantis
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Re: Currently Playing

Post by Mantis » Sun Aug 08, 2021 11:42 pm

So I finally got The Ascent working on Game Pass with co-op. I saw a few complaints that the game is too hard and I feel like it was definitely designed with co-op in mind, as the two of us are managing fairly easily so far though I'm sure it'll get tougher as we level up and we have been caught out by the odd enemy swarm.

Agreed about things not being explained all that well, but then there are still plenty of tutorial tool tips that pop up when you encounter something for the first time. We're level 6 now and I haven't seen anything about the fast travel system yet.

The gunplay feels good, the cover system is actually really sleekly implemented and very necessary in many areas where there are enemies with strong ranged weapons. You have to be mindful of being flanked and also of melee enemies rushing you and flushing you out of your cover. The abilities are very satisfying to use, it does not get old disintegrating someone with the shockwave punch ability.

The stat system, gear and abilities are slightly obtuse at first but easy to get used to and add a nice variety to the gameplay. You can upgrade your skills in such a way where the core gameplay isn't enormously different but you are somewhat specialised down a stat path.

I saw a few complaints that it uses too much jargon and doesn't explain the world much, but a lot of it is there in the Codex and honestly anyone with any familiarity with the cyberpunk genre who has read a William Gibson book should know that part of the joy of this setting is just being dropped in to the world and let loose. Sure you're constantly hearing references to things you're not sure exactly what they are, but it's not really that hard to follow and it adds so much immersion to the world building. The story itself seems very basic, but it nails the tone.

Overall I'm really enjoying it. The world itself is what makes it stand out, it just utterly oozes the atmosphere, by far one of of most visually impressive isometric games I've ever played. You can just walk around the city marveling at everything and the music complements it all absolutely perfectly. That it was made by something like a ten man team is all the more impressive.

It's brilliant, but I kind of wish they'd gone the full RPG route with it. The world itself is honestly so amazing to look at, it would have been perfect as a turn based tactical RPG with a full blown story.

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DjchunKfunK
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Re: Currently Playing

Post by DjchunKfunK » Mon Aug 09, 2021 9:47 am

Yeah it's a visually stunning game. My main complaint is that there is too much backtracking which is made difficult by the verticality and overall layout of levels and the way that gun upgrading works means you kind of have to stick with one for the whole game.

I think the difficulty complaints must relate to later into the game as I haven't had any issues so far and I'm 6 missions into the main story. It could be that people are wandering into high level areas and that is causing them trouble as the game wont stop you from doing that which is unusual for a modern game and people are probably not used to it.

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Alan
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Re: Currently Playing

Post by Alan » Mon Aug 23, 2021 9:47 am

Hades
I don’t think I like this much. In fact I think I much prefer curse of the dead gods. The art and the copious voice lines are fantastic to the point of never hearing a repeated line so far. I’m finding the playing of it quite tedious though and the boss fights are just dull damage sponges. I’ll keep going for a bit longer but I’m really not feeling the crazy adoration it’s been getting



Pokémon Unite
So I may have bought a switch again because someone said Dota Pokémon and I am aware it’s coming to iOS in a month but I’m impulsive. It’s good…..ish. It’s very much a mobile game but it’s also quite unashamedly a moba and it has some more depth than I expected. 2 lanes, no shop, has jungle and a roshan of sorts. Currently liking Snorlax. Not sure I’ll play it long term but I’ll play it for a while longer.


The Outer World
So this is what it would be like if Bethesda upgraded their tech!
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Rossell
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Re: Currently Playing

Post by Rossell » Mon Aug 23, 2021 11:45 am

Quake (Remastered, PS5)

It's Quake innit?

Control

This game is both a mess and a masterpiece. The dialogue is a bit sketch, the drip feed of the story is weird and the environments can get repetitive. Oh and the map is utter dogshit. But the combat is really fun, there's a lot of mystery and enough to keep you wanting to know what's around the corner. I'll be in line for the sequel.

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