[Mentalist]

So, finished the main line of Shadowrun: Hong Kong. Started the epilogue, but only if through the set-up part.

My thoughts on the final sequence: Prosperity Tower was actually harder than the last boss fight(s).
The waves of security almost overwhelmed my 3-man team (Izzy was busy in the Matrix). I used the shit out of my adapt's pommel strike to knock enemies unconscious-only way I survived.

Towards the endgame I started putting Karma into actual Adapt stuff (Qi castings), so I got to buy some cool magic swords, as well as pick up the Qi spells, which made my character even more unstoppable than usual.

In the last run I took izzy and Gobbet into the Walled City, with Racter providing the fire support. I actually started using Gobbet' support skills, and it does wonders (most damage to the Yama was done by Izzy after she had her Aim boosted and then got a 4th AP from Channeled Haste)

I'm slightly dissapointed that not all of my decisions had real consequences. It would have been nicer to have the option to call in some backup from "allies" I made during my runs. The "choices" box from when I was importing the save into the epilogue only really dealt with my team, which was a bit annoying.

Overall, though, good fun in this campaign. I hope there more Shadowrun stuff coming down the pipeline!

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 17 October 2016 - 02:00 PM

[Tattersail_]

Someone just bought me Gears of War 4 as a present. Looks like I'm going to be playing Horde for the foreseeable future.

[Khellendros]

Tattersail_, on 17 October 2016 - 01:43 PM, said:

Someone just bought me Gears of War 4 as a present. Looks like I'm going to be playing Horde for the foreseeable future.

I'm going to get it at some point too. We should play!

[Tattersail_]

Khellendros, on 17 October 2016 - 01:47 PM, said:

Tattersail_, on 17 October 2016 - 01:43 PM, said:

Someone just bought me Gears of War 4 as a present. Looks like I'm going to be playing Horde for the foreseeable future.

I'm going to get it at some point too. We should play!

My Xbox one gamertag is Mr Tiger Chest I think :0

[Aptorian]

Both Gears and Forza Horizon are looking pretty good this year. I'm waiting for them to drop in prize a bit though.

I think I'm going to buy Battlefield on Friday. The reviews are looking great.

[Tattersail_]

Apt, on 17 October 2016 - 02:21 PM, said:

Both Gears and Forza Horizon are looking pretty good this year. I'm waiting for them to drop in prize a bit though.

I think I'm going to buy Battlefield on Friday. The reviews are looking great.

I've always bought Gears through the years. I remember living at home with my parents, sharing a room with my little brother, playing Gears through the night.

[Aptorian]

Finished Shadow Warrior 2.

The more I played of SW2 the less I liked the game. The actual gameplay is great. The agility, speed and variety of weapons makes for great moment to moment gameplay, but looking at the game as a whole it feels like they forgot what made Shadow Warrior a good game.

SW2's story is complete nonsense. I don't know if they are mixing story lines from the original Shadow Warrior from the 90s but very little of the game actually feels connected to the reboot and that's a shame because the relationship between Wang and Hoji + the Large bigger than life deities was something special. Now everything is reduced to poorly animated, poorly written quest givers.

Nothing about the plot made sense and nothing about the quests made me give a shit.

Similarly, even though the new multiplayer and borderlands-like loot and shoot system makes for more replay value, there's just not much reason to continue playing the game. It's cool that there are a hundred different weapons but many of them feel bad to play with and the upgrade/gem system is underwhelming.

As cool as the game was to play, I wish they'd gone for something more linear.

Also played some more Bioshock Remastered. This game becomes better and better the more you play. Playing this opposite of Shadow Warrior you really notice how important game design and attention to detail really is.

Started playing Battlefield 1 today. Played the story campaigns intro and then switched to the multiplayer. I really like it so far but there's a lot to get used to, playing 64 man maps is pure chaos at times.

[Tiste Simeon]

Tattersail_, on 17 October 2016 - 02:23 PM, said:

Apt, on 17 October 2016 - 02:21 PM, said:

Both Gears and Forza Horizon are looking pretty good this year. I'm waiting for them to drop in prize a bit though.

I think I'm going to buy Battlefield on Friday. The reviews are looking great.

I've always bought Gears through the years. I remember living at home with my parents, sharing a room with my little brother, playing Gears through the night.

Were you traumatised like I was when Dom died in Gears 3? My friend and I who co-oped all the way from 1 - 3 were practically crying when that bit happened...

[Aptorian]

I may have cried a single manly tear when he called out for his wife before the truck went boom. But it's also unfair that they make the call back to the first game when they play that sad version of Mad World.

[Kruppe of Darujhistan]

Anyone playing that new Tomb Raider game atm? The last game was okay, but I really can't get onboard the "fighting countless minions constantly" train - particularly when the payoff is just having to kill more countless minions. IMO, a handful of one-room-tombs does not a Tomb Raider game make. Exploring and solving ingenious puzzles is what I expect, and my expectations have been laughably overlooked for a couple of decades now. Is this new game just more of the same?

[Aptorian]

You mean Rise of the Tomb Raider? I played through it in January or February when it came out on PC.

You might like it more because it has a bigger emphasis on exploring and spelunking. There are far more tombs, both story related and "side quest" like areas. But it's also very much a sequel to the 2013 reboot so there is a focus on the story and the scripted events of the first game.

Personally I absolutely love Rise of the Tomb Raider and as of now, I think it might be my game of the year so far.

[Kruppe of Darujhistan]

Yeah, that's the one, Apt. It just got released on PS4, so to me, it's "new." Your reply is encouraging. Suggests the game isn't ALL annoying enemy battles.

[Mentalist]

okay, wrapped up the Shadowrun HK Epilogue. Some tough fights in there, but fun.

Now I think I'll try going back to "the longest Journey"...

[Mentalist]

Used a walkthrough for TLJ to get un-stuck.. As I expected, I missed a whole screen (looking out of April's window). After that, stuff became okayishly simple (ish). Now i'm in Arcadia, and I got the background story info-dump.

Edit: also, I discovered 2 useful things about the game:

1) when you left-click and hit ESC, April jogs to the location, instead of her usual lazy saunter.

2) When you pick the "correct" inventory item and hover it over the thing it's supposed to be used on, it starts to flash.

Beyond that, stuff mostly makes sense (by point 'n click adventure logic- a Legend of Kyrandia this is NOT, thank God-the hardest bit was the pump machine puzzle, but that's still solvable by figuring out the machine pattern), and the writing is quite entertaining.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 24 October 2016 - 03:23 PM

[Aptorian]

Been playing a ton of Battlefield 1 and Titanfall 2 over the last week.

I love the WW1 aspects of Battlefield 1. Doing a bayonet charge into the enemies ranks is great every single time. I usually end up dying but as long as I manage to run somebody through it's glorious.

Doing charges on horse back is great as well. You're a pretty big target on horseback but lobbing off heads with a saber is a phenomenal game mechanic.

Titanfall is going to end up ruining Battlefield for me though. After playing TF2 Battlefield just feels slow and lacklustre.

The combination of the mech combat and the speed with which you can move around the map is fantastic. I am not sure why exactly, but I do much better in Titanfall 2 multiplayer than in other shooters. I am constantly at the top of best plays. Definitely a game that is friendly to more casual FPS players.

The single player campaign was great as well. From the buzz that is beginning on social media I bet TF2s story will actually be the surprise of the year next to DOOM. TF2s story is very video game-y but it uses the games mechanics phenomenally, to the point that you can definitely make comparisons to Half-life 2 and Portal.

This post has been edited by Apt: 31 October 2016 - 07:42 AM

[Maark Abbott]

I played the trial for TF2 as a lot of mates are playing it and I don't know why, but it felt really slow to me. I'll stick to Overwives for now.

New BlazBlue on Friday. Mai body is ready.

[Aptorian]

Slow? Were you wall running and jumping to gain speed? You can get around the maps ridiculously fast once you realise the game lets you use pretty much any surface as a wall.

[Maark Abbott]

The wall jumps seemed pretty sedate as well. I only played it for about fifteen minutes anyway. Slow pace + ADS = not a game for me. Hell, ADS on its own is a big enough put-off (can't stand that system).

[Mentalist]

Making good progress through "The Longest Journey" with only occasional references to a guide. And most most those are due to the typical adventure game "thing X must must before thing Y becomes useful or inter-actable, even though Y is front and center on the screen all along" logic.

Beyond that, the story's actually pretty cool. Well-written dialogue's entertaining. Graphics do look dated, but I can live with that.

[Mentalist]

Wasn't feeling TLJ last night, was too tired after my swim to puzzle out a challenge, but at the same time I felt that when not-tired I could solve solve sans-guide.

So I decided to check out this free TBS game, "Battle for Wesnoth". RPS has been plugging it as "one of the best strategy games ever", so I got curious.

....




3 hours later it was 2 AM and I caught myself thinking "well, just one more turn..."

Avoid. Avoid like the plague, this game will end your free time. It looks simple, but it's engaging, dynamic, AI is aggressive even on Novice difficulty, and the compulsion is relentless. The campaign story is quite cliche, but the gameplay is soooo good.

And did I mention it's 100% free?

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 02 November 2016 - 02:26 PM