Currently Playing

[Wrathbone]

I've finished it once and gone back to it several times. I find it one of the most beautiful and engaging game worlds I've ever explored, which makes all the jank bearable. The combat isn't too bad once you get a feel for it, but I'd definitely recommend getting a mod to give you unlimited saves because the odds of surviving most fights early on are poor. I get that the ethos behind limited saving was to make you feel the threat that you would in reality and adjust your plans accordingly, but a huge part of the game involves dire mortal peril to the extent that constant backtracking after death is just a chore.

Great game, though. I've spent many a weekend simply roaming about the woods, killing bandits, robbing merchants and hunting treasure (and playing KCD too ¬_¬).

[Rusty]

I'm not too proud to say I instantly give myself infinite saves and infinite backpack weight limit. Hey, it's what I enjoy

[Wrathbone]

Finished Dark Souls 2 last night (kind of - I ended up abandoning most of the DLC out of frustration with it, so I may go back to it in the future). I played the Scholar of the First Sin edition, which is supposedly a big improvement over the original version, but the controls and lack of responsiveness... woof. It's such a step back from DS1 in most regards, particularly in the level of BS it throw at you with things like laughable hitboxes, endless mobs that appear from nowhere and enemy health bars that suspiciously go to 1HP despite obvious overkill hits on them. There are a couple of areas which seem to have been designed out of pure spite, notably the Shrine of Amana in which you wade through waist-high water while being pelted with homing-magic from miles away and assaulted by enemies lurking under the water. It drove me to the point where I was about to discover if I could cleft a PS5 controller in twain with my bare hands.

Despite all that, I didn't hate the game as a whole. There are things to enjoy about it, it's just that they're marred by all the terrible design choices. I think I finally understand why Miyazaki is held in such singular high regard, given that this is the only Soulsborne game that he wasn't involved in.

I made a brief start on DS3 and I can already tell it's going to be a belter.

[Raid]

enemy health bars that suspiciously go to 1HP despite obvious overkill hits on them

It's buried fairly deep in the lore, but all of the denizens of Drangleic are descended from half-orcs.

[Wrathbone]

I've still not had an opportunity to deploy that trick. Not that I'm asking for it...

[Mantis]

Noted.

[Wrathbone]

Oh dear.

[Raid]

For insurance purposes, it will be the DM that killed you, not me for bringing it up.

[DjchunKfunK]

Guardians of the Galaxy

A few missions into this and I have mixed feeling so far. It feels like a good recreation of the subject matter and the environments are impressive and very reminiscent of the films and in general it looks very nice. The story is decent so far and the character interactions are rather good, although I wish they would shut-up during fights and there is a fair bit of repeated dialogue there as well. The bickering and stuff during missions is good fun and makes the game feel a bit like you are playing through a movie.

The one big blemish though is the combat which is very basic, you are spamming the one attack and then using your teams abilities when they are not on cooldown. There is very little strategy to it other than in boss fights when you will need to use a specific character to disable or attack a certain point. The characters also have abilities you can use to help solve puzzles but these are always pretty basic.

With the action being so repetitive and the dialogue and various choices taking up the rest of the time in-game, it feels a bit like a Telltale game with higher production values.

[Sly Boots]

I was in the mood for a bit of a golden oldie this week, so I replayed Planescape Torment, the revamped Beamdog version.

It's still a great game, and this edition of it is perfect, in that apart from a few QoL improvements (eg being able to highlight names and interactable objects) and tarting up the resolution/graphics, Beamdog basically left everything else as it was.

While it's become a bit of a thing to make RPGs wordy and focusing on elements other than combat, PT did it first, and it's still great to solve quests and the mystery of your past chiefly through dialogue, and I wonder whether had it been made today whether they'd have made it possible to avoid combat altogether, as it's comfortably the least-good part of the game. Being able to beat the final boss through dialogue alone is neat.

It remains one of the best in the genre, a fascinating and ultimately sad adventure through the planes.

[Alan]

Horizon Forbidden West
It’s good but Aloy is annoying me with her “only I can save the world” stuff. No doubt she will realise that it takes more than her later on but it feels out of character for her to be so pig headed.


Guilty Gear Strive
Oh shit. That theme song….

Spoiler

That is bullshit!! BLLLAAZZING

[DjchunKfunK]

Horizon Forbidden West
It’s good but Aloy is annoying me with her “only I can save the world” stuff. No doubt she will realise that it takes more than her later on but it feels out of character for her to be so pig headed.

From what I've heard people say about her character I have some bad news for you.

[Raid]

Oh *that's* where that song is from. It's one that occasionally pops up in my Spotify auto-generated playlists, along with a million other probably Japanese songs, because I once liked a single anime theme song. It's nice to have some context every now and then.

[Snowy]

Special mention to Hardspace: Shipbreaker. If you want to completely zone out and get zen with dismantling spaceships in zero G, it is a surprisingly absorbing pastime. Available on Gamepass, really good little game.

[Sly Boots]

Special mention to Hardspace: Shipbreaker. If you want to completely zone out and get zen with dismantling spaceships in zero G, it is a surprisingly absorbing pastime. Available on Gamepass, really good little game.

I gave it a go, I'll be honest the control scheme turned me off of it during the tutorial...