Currently Playing

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DjchunKfunK
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Re: Currently Playing

Post by DjchunKfunK » Mon Apr 26, 2021 6:13 pm

Final Fantasy XIV

I had a hankering to play an MMO and it was a toss up between this and ESO. I decided on Final Fantasy because I'd already got to the first expansion by sitting through the truly awful Realm Reborn stuff and despite the terrible story content I quite like the actual MMO side. Currently around a third of the way through Heavensward and enjoying the story a lot more. The game still has a propensity to send you to talk to an NPC for no real good reason but other than that it's been fun.

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Re: Currently Playing

Post by Snowy » Thu Apr 29, 2021 4:01 pm

Playing the hell out of Ghost Recon Breakpoint at the moment, co-op with Raid, Solitaire and on occasion Mantis, absolutely loving it.

Today marks the release of the remaster of Rome Total War, a game I always loved so have pitched in, but knowing how long it takes to play not sure when I am going to get round to it.
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Re: Currently Playing

Post by Rossell » Wed May 05, 2021 8:07 pm

Avengers

So far this doesn't justify all the flak it's got. The story is a bit wooden in the same way the Tomb raider reboots were but the fighting isn't bad and it seems polished in places. The endgame stuff doesn't look like it's got legs though which is a shame, the potential was there. I'll report back further on.

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Re: Currently Playing

Post by Raid » Sun May 09, 2021 5:49 pm

DCS: Liberation

DCS World is something I've been playing most weekends for the last couple of years. A friend and I have been taking our assortment of aircraft, in various states of development (DCS is basically never at a release quality state, it's perpetually early access) for training flights for ages, with me putting together missions by hand each time. The F/A-18C Hornet, an American carrier-based strike aircraft, has seen a lot of the developer's attention over the last 18 months, with new weapons and capabilities being added on a vaguely monthly basis, and is what we've spent most of our time flying. The base game too has seen a significant engine update recently which has added an astoundingly pretty new volumetric cloud and lighting system that I initially expected to be just a visual upgrade, but it adds so much to the experience).

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(forgive the terrible screenshots; I fly in VR and not only is that only half of what you can see in the headset as it only screenshots one eye's viewport, but the game applies a mask around the corners so that it doesn't need to render bits that you can't see)

What the game has for years sorely lacked is a dynamic campaign system. Falcon 4.0 had this back in 1999 (and the designer said that no amount of money would ever get him to do it again, such is the complexity of coding such a system), and while Eagle Dynamics are working on it for DCS, there's nothing been revealed yet. Mission planning can be a bit tedious and time consuming, and the person who plans the mission will know everything that happens in it. The game does ship with a random mission generator, but all that does is stick some targets on the ground and it's basically the same every time. Enter DCS Liberation, a free user-created campaign engine that gives RTS-style planning stages and resource management, but more importantly does all of the hard work for you. It's not exactly a story-driven Hollywood thrillride, but it gives you a fairly realistic feeling military conflict to take part in, with objectives to take and threats to counter. It's what the game has needed for the decade that DCS World has been around.

Our first mission was a basic BARCAP flight; basically a fighter sweep. Taking off from near Dubai and flying out into the Persian Gulf, we did several orbits of the objective area and shot down a couple of MIG-21s from the invading Iranian forces, while below our AI A-10C Warthogs mopped up the limited ground forces. We had to steer clear of SAM sites throughout, which stopped us from advancing too far into enemy airspace to attack our targets.

On the second mission we decided that those SAM sites had to go, so we loaded up with HARM anti-radiation missiles and set off in the black of night to take them out. The campaign generator automatically sets you up with waypoints to follow, the times you have to be at those waypoints, and the times your missiles should be striking their targets. We're not quite experienced enough to do all of this perfectly yet, but we were there pretty much at the right time, and I launched first on the SAM tracking radar, and then a second pair of HARMs on the search radar (an anti-radiation missile homes in on radar emissions, so you don't kill the missile launchers, you kill their ability to track targets). The SAM did fire at me and I turned cold to make the missile bleed its energy off (once a missile expends its rocket fuel, you have to force it to turn repeatedly, dropping its speed and eventually giving it insufficient energy to actually hit you), dropping chaff to hopefully confuse its tracking. Suddenly my radar warning receiver, the tool by which you monitor radar threats, stopped barking at me and I knew I'd hit my targets. My wingman chose to go after an additional site, but sadly got shot down as he'd forgotten to properly activate his countermeasures system. Still, a partial success, and we're now in a position to take an enemy airbase and advance.

DCS is not a title I really recommend to people, as not only do you need specialist equipment to properly enjoy it (I have the best part of a grands worth of stick, gimbal, throttle and rudder pedals, not to mention my VR headset and powerful PC needed to run all of this), but it needs a huge amount of time invested to really be any good at it. It's insanely complicated compared to most games, and even someone with a hundred flight hours probably still struggles to work out why the million-dollar missile I launched just killed a nasty looking tree instead of the enemy fighter that's intent on shooting me down. I don't have the physical endurance to be able to pilot a real fighter, but the avionics modelling in this is accurate enough for me to think I could operate a real one to some degree. I'm a total and utter pacifist, and I don't have any desire to actually do this in real life, but there's an immense amount of satisfaction to be had from doing all of this.

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Animalmother
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Re: Currently Playing

Post by Animalmother » Sat May 22, 2021 3:00 pm

Enlisted
Squad based WW2 shooter that's a cross between Battlefield and Red Orchestra. It's from the guys behind War Thunder so it's free to play and a little bit clunky (still in early access).

Played one round and enjoyed it. The vast majority of the troops are AI controlled so you can just mow down swathes of enemies. Got into a light tank did a flank and just chopped the poor Ruskie conscripts into mincemeat :lol:

Controls are a bit flakey and the squad upgrade screen is daunting with all the options it throws at you. As I said it's early access so no doubt it'll get worked on.

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Alan
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Re: Currently Playing

Post by Alan » Sun May 23, 2021 5:14 am

Ori And The Blind Forest

What a magical little game. Its not the best metroidvania by a long shot but the look, the sound and the general exploration is quite beautiful. I like the save system too, its smart. I'm really enjoying it. Thats what I was thinking at least until it started with the trial and error bullshit where it gives long sections you cant save in and really have to memorise to get through thanks to instakill garbage. I went from love to maybe not hate but being really annoyed with it. Guacamelee 1/2 have sections which are similar but do not at all fall back on trial and error rubbish, they lean on tight mechanics and skill. I never once died in Guacamelee and thought it was the games fault, conversely most of the times I have died in Ori is because of bad design.

Is the sequel like this too? I will still play it because there's enough good in it to force on through but man its disappointing.



Also, Guacamelee's fecking awesome! :mrgreen:
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Re: Currently Playing

Post by elgaucho » Mon May 24, 2021 8:12 am

Alan wrote:
Sun May 23, 2021 5:14 am
Ori And The Blind Forest

What a magical little game. Its not the best metroidvania by a long shot but the look, the sound and the general exploration is quite beautiful. I like the save system too, its smart. I'm really enjoying it. Thats what I was thinking at least until it started with the trial and error bullshit where it gives long sections you cant save in and really have to memorise to get through thanks to instakill garbage. I went from love to maybe not hate but being really annoyed with it. Guacamelee 1/2 have sections which are similar but do not at all fall back on trial and error rubbish, they lean on tight mechanics and skill. I never once died in Guacamelee and thought it was the games fault, conversely most of the times I have died in Ori is because of bad design.

Is the sequel like this too? I will still play it because there's enough good in it to force on through but man its disappointing.

Also, Guacamelee's fecking awesome! :mrgreen:
This is a perfect summation, both of Ori and the Blind Forest, and of Guacamelee, one of the best Metroidvania's of all time! (and sequel!)

The sequel is more of the same, with, I'd say, some of the same frustrations you experienced in one. Nevertheless, it's a beautiful return to the world of Ori, and definitely worth playing, especially as it already / often goes on sale.

I've been playing Hollow Knight for the second time. I didn't finish it first time around, and I'm worried the same might happen again. It's a beautiful game, and it has some great mechanics, but the level design is abysmal. The biome sequence is very non linear and unintuitive, and the portal points are always inconveniently far away, so I spend half the game just criss crossing back on myself trying to work out where to go next. It's not meant to be like this. I hope I'll retain the motivation to persevere, as I'd really like to finish this otherwise gorgeous little game.
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DjchunKfunK
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Re: Currently Playing

Post by DjchunKfunK » Mon May 24, 2021 8:41 am

The Wild at Heart

I have been playing The Wild at Heart which is basically a 2D Pikmin game. I haven't played a Pikmin game since the first one so my memories of some of the concepts the series has or hasn't or that have been added since the first game are hazy. The Wild at Heart takes the basic principle of having different coloured creatures for you to control, in this case Spritelings, with each having their own use. The brown ones are all purpose and can survive poison, red Spritelings are resistance to fire, blue ones ice and purple ones have a spikes which allow them to attach to things and break crystals. These unique properties are used throughout the game to unlock areas and solve puzzles. Additionally you control two people with one being able to crawl through small spaces which allows the game to design puzzles around that as well.

It's been a lot of fun working through the game solving puzzles and exploring the world, because of the way you pick up the Spritelings one-by-one the game feels a bit like a Metroidvania with previous locked areas becoming accessible once you have access to a new Spriteling.

It's a very pretty game with great art and a really good soundtrack. The story is fairly standard with you arriving in a strange wood and being tasked with saving said wood from the bad guy. You are then tasked with finding certain people are then artefacts to aid you in your task, you can mostly tackle these objectives in any order which contributes to the feeling of openness that the game has.

If you have enjoyed any of the Pikmin games or if you have ever thought about trying one of the Pikmin games, I recommend you give it a look. It's currently on Game Pass on the Xbox and PC. The one thing I will say is that I would avoid playing it on the Xbox One at the moment as it has a bit of slowdown and freezing when loading and doing some actions. The developers are working on a patch and I think these issues only effect the Xbox version.

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Animalmother
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Re: Currently Playing

Post by Animalmother » Fri May 28, 2021 6:07 pm

Mechwarrior 5
Uffff, rough as balls this. It's just been added to Game Pass on Xbox. Very mid budget looking game with stiff controls and clanky UI. Finger already hovering over the uninstall button after the first mission. On the plus side the building you can blow up look pretty good....can't really think of anything else.

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Alan
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Re: Currently Playing

Post by Alan » Sun Jun 06, 2021 12:40 pm

Batman Telltale
This engine!! Chugging framerates and horrible glitches in smoke and shadows. Thats on a PS4 Pro too! The games fine other than that, the QTEs are so tedious but it seems fairly well written so far.
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DjchunKfunK
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Re: Currently Playing

Post by DjchunKfunK » Mon Jun 07, 2021 1:34 pm

Necromunder: Hired Gun

The definition of a b-tier game but I had a tone of fun with it. The combination of smart vertical level design, chunky weapons and good mobility made for a really fun shooter. Yeah the AI of enemies is basic, the story not that interesting and there are a fair few rough edges but I still managed to have a load of fun, easily the most fun I have had in a shooter since Titanfall 2. It also does a really good job of creating a sense of place with some really well realised levels.

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Abs_McBain
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Re: Currently Playing

Post by Abs_McBain » Mon Jun 07, 2021 8:27 pm

I’ve been sinking hours into Wasteland 3, and I’ve realised that I should have been playing this from the beginning.
Love it so far. And the music, what the hell it’s totally took me by surprise! Anyway I regret not backing a physical PC copy now.

(You’d never expect a cover of this song to sound like that.)
Last edited by Abs_McBain on Mon Jun 07, 2021 8:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Currently Playing

Post by Sly Boots » Mon Jun 07, 2021 8:37 pm

Yeah, it's a good game. Better than the second imho.

Can't think of one
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Re: Currently Playing

Post by Can't think of one » Tue Jun 08, 2021 3:52 pm

DjchunKfunK wrote:
Mon Jun 07, 2021 1:34 pm
Necromunder: Hired Gun

The definition of a b-tier game but I had a tone of fun with it. The combination of smart vertical level design, chunky weapons and good mobility made for a really fun shooter. Yeah the AI of enemies is basic, the story not that interesting and there are a fair few rough edges but I still managed to have a load of fun, easily the most fun I have had in a shooter since Titanfall 2. It also does a really good job of creating a sense of place with some really well realised levels.

Tempted to get this but the reviews have been mixed (more negative than positive), I might wait for a few more patches first though it is only £20 on cd keys!

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Re: Currently Playing

Post by Animalmother » Wed Jun 16, 2021 11:33 pm

Finally finished Dishonored 2 after starting it a couple of years ago!! Safely say it's one of the best games I've played in a very long time, the fact that it took me so long is shameful! The graphical style, game mechanics and the ridiculous amount of ways you can interact with the levels is amazing. I also managed to complete the game without killing anyone which is probably why it took me so long to finish.

Was a bit disappointed when I say that Arkane's next game is that co-op vampire hunting thing, didn't appeal to me at all after this masterpiece of single player experience.

Amazing stuff that's on Game Pass if your tempted.

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