Currently Playing

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Alan
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Re: Currently Playing

Post by Alan » Thu Nov 29, 2018 8:31 am

Detroit.

Man this game is so bloody impressive. The production levels at to an impossibly high standard. Visuals are at the very top of the class, voice work is superb, the feeling of laying your thumb on the script of a movie is just wonderful.

Ok the QTEs are bad, they try to use all the controller including touch pad and motion which is a pain more than anything because of how cumbersome it can feel. Though it does have a nice dynamic to chase sequences where you can pick the shorter route with harder QTEs that will get you there quicker or the longer easier way making it feel more dynamic. You’re also not selecting these routes but naturally running your character towards the desired area keeping it fluid.

Ok some of the writing is pretty bad.

Ok some of the themes are colossally heavy handed.

Ok there are gameplay elements that are so archaic and mind numbing. one has you walking through the city looking for graffiti tags to find the secret robot hideout that only robots can find - it’s on a fucking MASSIVE inconspicuous derelict oil tanker. Maybe it’s fitted with an invisibility cloak and I have got to that story beat yet....

It’s very easy to rip apart Cage games if you want to focus on the bits that don’t work but when it does work, and it does work more often than not, it’s fantastic. Something as simple as do I steal some clothes and money to help the little girl I’m protecting even though itll hurt her faith in me as a good person or do I find another way that’s harder or more dangerous. I agonised over that for longer than I ever should have!

I really really like this game. It’s a very flawed masterpiece. It’s the most cinematic a game there has been, for better and for worse. It’s one of the more enjoyable and impressive games of the year.
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Sly Boots
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Re: Currently Playing

Post by Sly Boots » Thu Nov 29, 2018 9:21 am

I don't know if it's something I would play (I don't own a console anyway), but one of the Youtubers I follow did a Let's Play of it earlier in the year and I found it absolutely gripping.

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Snowy
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Re: Currently Playing

Post by Snowy » Thu Nov 29, 2018 1:54 pm

Started a replay of Wasteland 2. I tried loading up an old save but barely remembered anything so started afresh.

Initially I thought I was going to quickly bail, but then it drew me in and am once again firmly hooked.
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Mantis
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Re: Currently Playing

Post by Mantis » Sat Dec 01, 2018 6:29 pm

In light of all the talk about Diablo a couple of pages back, I reinstalled Diablo 3 and picked up the Necromancer DLC during the Black Friday sales. Currently playing through the current season with a friend and am having quite a blast with it. In many ways it never was the Diablo game I wanted, but it is pretty good brainless fun to slaughter endless waves of demons. We started the campaign at level 1 on Torment 3 difficulty and it's been a lot more fun going up against tougher enemy mobs who can pretty much one shot you if you're not careful; though the ice shard and mortar rare boss mobs are a massive pain in the arse at the moment.

I also bought it on console so that I can coop it with my girlfriend. Inventory management is a bit of a pain but the game in general feels really at home on a pad.

My little gaming cadre also decided to reinstall Overwatch as we quit playing competitively about 4 character releases ago. I firmly believe that this was a mistake.

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Raid
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Re: Currently Playing

Post by Raid » Sat Dec 01, 2018 6:43 pm

How does Diablo control on a console when you're used to the PC version? I'm dimly aware that there's a new dodge mechanic?

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Mantis
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Re: Currently Playing

Post by Mantis » Sat Dec 01, 2018 6:46 pm

It can be a bit of a pain when you're using AoE spells and the auto-target picks the wrong thing, but that hasn't happened too much so far because I'm playing Necro on console too. The dodge makes it feel a lot more dynamic, you just tap the right stick in a direction and get invincible frames for the whole animation, and you can chain them together endlessly too.

Because it's such a casual experience even on the higher levels it is very well suited to just chilling out on the sofa while you play.

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Alan
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Re: Currently Playing

Post by Alan » Sat Dec 01, 2018 6:54 pm

Yeah the crusaders jump out the Sky thing, I used that on PC to leap to the back of a pack to get out of a corner but you can’t seem to do that on console unless I’m a numpty. Invincible dodge roll though, gives with one hand takes away with the other
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DjchunKfunK
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Re: Currently Playing

Post by DjchunKfunK » Mon Dec 10, 2018 10:06 am

Ashen

Had my eye on this since it was announced a few years ago and managed to put a good few hours into it over the weekend thanks to Game Pass. It wears it's Dark Souls influence very much on it's sleeve, the opening cinematic is almost a carbon copy of that from Dark Souls. Mechanically it has the same deliberate combat, loss of currency upon death and a similar healing and spawning mechanic. However it also adds it's own unique twists on the formula and this is where Ashen starts to standout.

One of the best things about the game is the look, the minimalism has been used to create a wondrous world and the developers have done some amazing things with light and darkness, which is apt considering the game is all about rediscovering the light and it is exploring this world that has been the main draw so far. The other big thing is the way the village you keep going back to grows over time, seeing it develop from a ragtag of caves and scaffolding to a partially formed village has been lovely and the characters that inhabit this village are interesting and continually have new bits of information for you. The game is a lot more structured than Souls games with proper questlines and a story that is presented clearly to the player which I think has both it's pluses and minuses.

Outside of this there is no leveling, your stamina and health increase over time as you complete quests and you can upgrade weapons and your estus equivalent using the currency you get from killing enemies and completing quests. There is also a loadout system where you can equip different stat bonuses like "regen stamina quicker" or "have more health the further away from camp you are". It is here where you can customise your character a bit.

Another thing the game does that I like is the companion system. At all times an NPC will join you on your adventures, they will help you in combat and provide a bit of a buffer when things get tough. Having a companion gives you an extra life in battle because if you go down they can resurrect you. You can only do this the once though, go down again and you will die. The AI of the companion is pretty good and they will wade into fights, doing a good amount of damage and healing up when they need to. If you are playing online this companion can be played by another person with a system that works a bit like that in Journey, but I don't have Xbox Live so have not been able to experience this yet.

Finally the combat. It takes some time to get used to as it is slow and feels a little unresponsive when you first start out but once you are used to it it feels good and it has a heft to it. You have both a single handed and double handed option with the double handed hitting harder but also being slower. Weapons are pretty similar and if I had one complaint it would be in this area. So far it just seems to be a case of finding the highest damage weapon and just using that, there isn't really much choice here so far.

Overall I'm having a really good time with the game. The world is a joy to explore, the combat just challenging enough without being annoying (the companions play a large role in this) and the story is pretty good with some neat characters. If the rest of the game is a similar standard to what I have played so far it could end up being my favourite game of the year so far.

Lots of games have tried to ape Dark Souls, most of them have just copied the formula, failed to capture the same feeling and not added anything new. Ashen feels like the first game to take inspiration from that series, create a good game and add it's own things on top.

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Pew-Pew
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Re: Currently Playing

Post by Pew-Pew » Sun Dec 16, 2018 5:41 pm

Day of Defeat: Source

I used to play this and CS:S all the time when I was a teenager. Quite often I would end up playing stupid custom maps, stuff like surf, jailbreak, minigame, etc. I have recently been stuck with my semi-old laptop, so I can't play anything that new. As such, I've been re-living the good old days. :D There are still a reasonable number of community servers hosting silly maps. There is one German DoD:S gungame server that I think has been around for at least 10 years, as it's the same one I used to play on a lot. It is full every night! Still silly, mindless fun. Lots of quake/custom sounds, silly server mods like parachutes, etc. I also miss the days of AAA games having community servers rather than matchmaking. You can't build a community around a matchmaking system.

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Abs_McBain
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Re: Currently Playing

Post by Abs_McBain » Mon Dec 17, 2018 4:09 pm

Gris. Anyone play Gris? No? Aww, it's a pretty...pretty game that ain't loud or bombastic and doesn't outstay it's welcome.

T'was pretty nice actually. Recommended.

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The Jackal
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Re: Currently Playing

Post by The Jackal » Mon Dec 17, 2018 9:55 pm

Mate of mine helped make the original DoD (and possibly the Source one, I'm not sure). He had some sort of God Tier-like Valve package as a result, that he hardly ever used...
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Pew-Pew
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Re: Currently Playing

Post by Pew-Pew » Wed Dec 19, 2018 2:25 pm

The Jackal wrote:
Mon Dec 17, 2018 9:55 pm
Mate of mine helped make the original DoD (and possibly the Source one, I'm not sure). He had some sort of God Tier-like Valve package as a result, that he hardly ever used...
They kinda seem like 'forgotten' games now, it's sad. Overshadowed by counter strike and TF.

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The Jackal
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Re: Currently Playing

Post by The Jackal » Wed Dec 19, 2018 8:02 pm

Remember when PissyGeoff had a multi-page monthly feature just about Half-Life MP mods?
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Pew-Pew
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Re: Currently Playing

Post by Pew-Pew » Thu Dec 20, 2018 5:59 am

If they ever release a new game on the next source engine and it's still moddable, we'll have another golden age. Come on, Valve :(

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Alan
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Re: Currently Playing

Post by Alan » Sun Dec 23, 2018 6:18 am

Magic The Gathering Arena
This is the best MTG games have been since MTGO and its certainly way WAY friendlier on the wallet that MTGO was. Free to start, finishing the tutorial (or skipping it!) gets you a deck of each colour plus a number of "wildcards" which is a neat concept. Wildcards are earned by opening x numbers of packs or by getting more than 4 duplicates and can be exchanged for any card that is the same rarity as the wildcard. I think it was every 6 packs gets you a common wildcard and every 9 gets you a rare (or there abouts). Its a similar system to dusting in Hearthstone but it feels a little better as a value prospect. The starter pack is £4 which gets you 4 packs and enough gems to buy 12+ packs from the store which is kind of great value all things considered so I did drop four whole pounds on it. Theres also coins earned by playing and completing challenges of which 1000 get you a new pack which feels quite a bit more generous than Hearthstones time to earn.... at least at first.

There are also buy in tournaments, usually around 5k gold with rewards for every win. Some are gems only but I believe thts just sealed deck tourneys as youre essentially paying for the "sealed deck". In the sealed you get 6 packs for the cost of around 9-10 but the rewards at one win pretty much breaks you even. With a small amount of skill I think sealed tournaments might be the cheapest way of "buying" cards.

The game itself is a little slower than I would like it to be which is in part to the number of phases in a magic turn but more with slightly overlong animations. MTGO was much quicker! It has a lot in common with every other version since the XBLA ones in look and feel but this one feels built to last and not to be annualised.

Yeah, uhm, its pretty good. If CCGs are your thing.
A man who could tell more truth and eat fewer pies.

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