[Mentalist]

Played some more "Dex". Hard to believe, but this game actually pulls off a proper "Deus Ex" feel, despite being 2D. I wrapped up the last few side-missions and came back to the story, which is shaping up a lot like "Shadowrun" . Which isn't surprising- at the end of the day, it IS cyberpunk, so of course you have to infiltrate a heavily guarded corporate lab. But getting to this point involved doing so much stuff that Dex is now a real one-woman army. She can super-jump, walk through toxic gas and electical hazards, her punches cause electical damage and there's also a cloak I haven't figured out how to use (yet). Oh, and I got health regen now (the most expensive Aug of them all), and a full focus (hacking HP) regen, thanks to a custom combat suit I made by finding an unlicensed matter replicator and some corporate blueprints.

Haven't put a stop single skill point into guns, still. That's really the only thing I'm missing at this point.

[QuickTidal]

They did a sizeable update to BATTLEFRONT II (including the revamped progression system...which I admit works a LOT better and is much less convoluted and money-grubby)....and the thing that impresses me most?

They added the Bespin palace level to the multiplayer rounds, including Heroes V Villains...and that map is fucking HUGE. It adds a new dynamic to the mode as it can be taught to get to their target and take them out before they get to yours simply because if you spawn on the other side of the map it takes minutes to get over to the other side...which sounds awful, but actually presents a new challenge.

I'm still waiting for new character DLC, like Obi-Wan to be added.

[Mentalist]

Finished "Dex" last night.

That main story really isn't anything to write home about. But cyberpunkin' it up in the big hub city was good fun. Especially once I discovered the stealth suit. Of course, the biggest enemies are immune to takedowns, so not like you can actually avoid violence and alarms. But it's good fun for the money nonetheless.

Now, back to using physics to escape Deep Ones in "Magrunner" !

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 26 March 2018 - 07:49 PM

[Morgoth]

The influx of new players brought me back to Bloodborne. I'm helping new players fighting the first few bosses and it's really fun

[Aptorian]

Malankazooie, on 22 March 2018 - 07:27 PM, said:

Slow Ben, on 22 March 2018 - 05:50 PM, said:

Alternative Goose, on 11 March 2018 - 06:30 PM, said:

I'm starting to tire of the main mission but I wanted to power through it so I could play all the DLC I never got around to finishing initially.

Yeah, thats why i started again as well. I've only done Torques Campaign of Carnage and Assault on Dragon Keep once.

I played through all the DLC. I found them all worth it. Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon's Keep being the best.

I even liked the smaller, holiday themed DLC.

T.K. Baha's Bloody Harvest.

The Horrible Hunger of the Ravenous Wattle Gobbler.

How Marcus Saved Mercenary Day.

Mad Moxxi and the Wedding Day Massacre.

These are known as "Headhunter Packs" and are smaller and cost less. I enjoyed them and played them during the time of their release, which coincided with a specific holiday > Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Valentine's Day. Playing them outside the period for each of these holidays might be kind of weird though, but still fun. That cock gobbling Wattle Gobbler was a bitch to kill. The final boss for the Christmas themed one (How Marcus Saved Mercenary Day) was a bitch to defeat too.

I've sort of gone into a slump. Didn't want to finish the main campaign because it's just bouncing me around the same zones again and again and again. Starting the Big Game Hunter quests but some of the quests are bugged and again you have to run around these enourmous zones for each quests.

I've come to recognize that this games biggest fault is the lack of quick travel options. There should be more teleport stations and there should be some kind of "heartstone" ability on cool down that allows you to jump back to sanctuary or a beacon when you want.

I've also run into the same issue with gun selection I had the last time I played the game. Way too many of the guns I've been carrying through out the game have felt underpowered compared to the enemies I am fighting and, even worse, far too many of the guns available don't appeal to me.

Barely any of the assault riffles are any good. They're either way underpowered or they're rocket/explosion based, making them more of a rocket launcher than a midrange multi-tool which is what they should be.

All the rocket launcher's I pick up are insanely inaccurate and the rockets fly all over the place.

All the SMG's are underpowered.

I haven't seen a Sniper riffle with a high enough DMG out put for 10 levels.

I fucking HATE ever single Jakob's weapon. Who thought it was a great idea to have single fire selection switched on for an assault riffle?!

QuickTidal, on 23 March 2018 - 06:08 PM, said:

They did a sizeable update to BATTLEFRONT II (including the revamped progression system...which I admit works a LOT better and is much less convoluted and money-grubby)....and the thing that impresses me most?

They added the Bespin palace level to the multiplayer rounds, including Heroes V Villains...and that map is fucking HUGE. It adds a new dynamic to the mode as it can be taught to get to their target and take them out before they get to yours simply because if you spawn on the other side of the map it takes minutes to get over to the other side...which sounds awful, but actually presents a new challenge.

I'm still waiting for new character DLC, like Obi-Wan to be added.

I've been reaaally tempted to pick this up.

Do you play the Battlefield games? How does Battlefront hold up to Battlefield now a days?

Mentalist, on 24 March 2018 - 04:19 PM, said:

Now, back to using physics to escape Deep Ones in "Magrunner" !

I was pretty disappointed by those last levels in Magrunner.

Magrunner convinced me that Chtulhu and lovecraftion monster actually don't work well in games or in film. There is a horror and unease that loses it's power when the flash light is shone upon the things hiding in the darkness.

Morgoth, on 25 March 2018 - 08:19 AM, said:

The influx of new players brought me back to Bloodborne. I'm helping new players fighting the first few bosses and it's really fun

I might be joining that influx of new Bloodborne players soon.

I bought a LG OLED TV this week. I've been thinking I might finally bite the bullet within the next couple of weeks and buy a PS4 Pro. With my current income it feels some what fiscally irresponsible but with me job at a library, I've realized I can basically get almost any PS4 game for free. I'm practically losing money by not buying a console!

This post has been edited by Alternative Goose: 25 March 2018 - 09:47 AM

[Morgoth]

You should! Bloodborne is easily in my top 5 list of games, and if you're having problems with a boss I can come in and help out!

[Aptorian]

We'll see. I can't guarentee that I won't just bounce off the "Die >> run back and get your souls >> Die almost instantly" formula. Everything I've seen suggests I might like Bloodborne more than Dark Souls but I feel like I have to be in just the right mind set for me to get sucked in. Initially there's a bunch of other titles I've been looking forward to playing on PS4, like Horizon, Uncharted and The Order.

[Mentalist]

Yeah, the mix of Xen and Lovecraft anesthetics I'm not crazy about. Being chased by eldritch horrors AND trying to manipulate testing equipment to create obstacles/escape frankly sucks.

But the actual puzzles in there can be fun. I really like the pendlum/circular orbit platforms puzzle design, and they went kinda crazy with those using the whole "islands floating in the middle of nothing" look.

But yeah, I'm expecting to be dissapoint by the ending.

[Aptorian]

Completely forgot to add that I've also been playing the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot this week.

What with the presumed upcoming Shadow of the Tomb Raider reveal, I thought I'd replay 1 & 2.

I absolutely love this take on Tomb Raider. Somehow I think I am maybe enjoying this even more than I did during my first playthrough???

When people talk about whether or not it's worth pumping X amounts of millions into a linear AAA experience, Tomb Raider is the example I'd use to prove just how fucking good video games can be when you go all out on mixing cinematic story telling, versatile gameplay and sleek presentation.

I wouldn't call any particular part of this game perfect but the way it transitions between exploration, scripted action and visceral combat is just superb.

[Cause]

I enjoyed them but they also felt average to me. Worth playing but not something that needs to be revisited.

[Malankazooie]

I played Tomb Raider and it was one of my favorite titles from that year (although some of the enemy AI was really bad is some spots - may have been some glitchy/bug I was experiencing though).

I haven't played Rise of the Tomb Raider. I really wanted to but, you know, too many titles, not enough time (something I believe any of us who have busy professional and personal lives suffer from).

Maybe I'll follow Apt's lead and play through them before Shadow of the Tomb Raider is released (or at least play Rise before Shadow comes out)

[Aptorian]

Cause, on 25 March 2018 - 07:56 PM, said:

I enjoyed them but they also felt average to me. Worth playing but not something that needs to be revisited.

Average? Average? Bar fights have started over lesser insults.

[Mentalist]

Finished MagRunner. I wasn't aware it was a crowdfunded project (seeing the long list of backers in the credits roll now).

I gotta say, as a physics puzzle game, I liked it. There were only maybe 4 moments in the entire game where I felt lost and had to look up a let's play- and most of those were cases of poorly explained new-ish mechanics. But overall, drawing from a single core concept, the devs did quite well to develop a variety of puzzles.

Once again, not a fan of sequences where eldritch horrors are chasing me down and I'm forced to deal with stuff quickly- those were fairly annoying. But overall, not a bad game.

Regarding handling horror... yeah, no matter how much I want to give credit to the underdog (and a Uki dev to boot, as it turns out), I gotta be honest: Frogwares aren't too good with subtlety. The good thing is that they didn't really do an infodump for the un-initiated re: what is Cthulhu/who are the Old/Deep Ones. Then again, name-dropping without really any explanation isn't any kind of smooth either.

Anyhow, not bad, but nothing stellar. Moving on to "Mars: War Logs" .

[Serenity]

Alternative Goose, on 25 March 2018 - 04:11 PM, said:

Completely forgot to add that I've also been playing the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot this week.

What with the presumed upcoming Shadow of the Tomb Raider reveal, I thought I'd replay 1 & 2.

I absolutely love this take on Tomb Raider. Somehow I think I am maybe enjoying this even more than I did during my first playthrough???

When people talk about whether or not it's worth pumping X amounts of millions into a linear AAA experience, Tomb Raider is the example I'd use to prove just how fucking good video games can be when you go all out on mixing cinematic story telling, versatile gameplay and sleek presentation.

I wouldn't call any particular part of this game perfect but the way it transitions between exploration, scripted action and visceral combat is just superb.

I enjoyed both of them a lot, too. There's a lot to be said for the linear experience when so many games go for the open world approach. I do find that they take themselves a little too seriously, though. This was amplified to me when I went back and re-played all the Uncharted games over Christmas. They are so much more fun, IMO. Funny how they always seemed borrowing a lot from TR, now TR is borrowing a lot from them.




I've mostly been playing Endless Space 2 over the past week or so. Finished one game as the United Empire, now started another as the Vaulters. Love this game - it's come on so much since I played it in early access.

Also been delving back into Shadowrun Hong Kong.

[Malankazooie]

I've had Nuka World expansion DLC for Fallout 4 for awhile now and finally got around to playing it. Was having fun until I ran into a glitch that doesn't allow me to complete the Oswald the Outrageous mission at Nuka Kiddie Kingdom. The elevator up to the top of the building has glitched and will not work for some reason, so I can't finish the final encounter with him and raise the raider flag. Seems like a work around is to use the jet pack on your armor and jump/jet pack up to the top of the building. Problem is, I haven't devoted all the skill points to the perks needed to craft a jet pack for armor. So, I need to grind XP to level up and get points for these perks. I'm at level 84, so it takes forever to level up now. I need to level up at least three times to get the perks I need. This sucks. Anyone know a way around this glitch (get the elevator operational again)? Or how you can level up fast when you are already at a high level?

[Aptorian]

If you're playing on PC, just use console commands to give yourself the perks you want.

[QuickTidal]

Alternative Goose, on 25 March 2018 - 09:43 AM, said:

QuickTidal, on 23 March 2018 - 06:08 PM, said:

They did a sizeable update to BATTLEFRONT II (including the revamped progression system...which I admit works a LOT better and is much less convoluted and money-grubby)....and the thing that impresses me most?

They added the Bespin palace level to the multiplayer rounds, including Heroes V Villains...and that map is fucking HUGE. It adds a new dynamic to the mode as it can be taught to get to their target and take them out before they get to yours simply because if you spawn on the other side of the map it takes minutes to get over to the other side...which sounds awful, but actually presents a new challenge.

I'm still waiting for new character DLC, like Obi-Wan to be added.

I've been reaaally tempted to pick this up.

Do you play the Battlefield games? How does Battlefront hold up to Battlefield now a days?

I've never played Battlefield games. I can only compare it to the old Battlefront games which everyone loves so much, and while the animation and score and such are stunning....there is still something missing from the old modes of conquering the galaxy against one friend over multi planets. That said, it's got tonnes of stuff to do, and a nice tidy story mode (and DLC from TLJ era) to play as well.

I spend most of my time playing the PVP mode HEROES VS VILLAINS which is...exactly what it sounds like.

Not sure if you'd enjoy it, as you game WAY more than I do....but I find hours of fun in this one...and that's more than I can say for EA's first BF attempt, which sits on my shelf gathering dust.

[Aptorian]

I played the first Battlefront reboot's demo and didn't like the maps and the power pick up system.

But I really do enjoy the Battlefield games which DICE also make. There's this perfect mix of simulation and arcade to those shooters.

[Mentalist]

Having played about 4 hours of "Mars: War Logs", I decided to read a bunch of reviews (I often do this once I have a decent idea of the game already). My conclusion: I should probably really play "Mass Effect", so that I'd have a point of reference to this "gold standard" people keep referring to.

So far, MWL is a game that plays like a poor man's Witcher (1, but with skill trees and combat from 2). Spiders' own Silk engine continues to be pretty good at linear-ish areas, but doesn't really offer a lot of variety.

Story and world-building aren't anything stellar, but functional. Just like every single RPG I ever played, I spent the first 20 min or so going through the "menus", which includes the codices, explanation of combat moves, skill trees and inventory/crafting. Once I did that, I had a decent understanding of the setting, and it's not a bad story of a colonization gone wrong, colonists cut off from Earth, and as consequence of the isolation, society devolving into in-fighting over limited resources- in particular water.

This is unquestionably a budget title, but there's absolutely nothing wrong with it so far.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 26 March 2018 - 02:52 PM

[Maark Abbott]

Finished Skies again. It's incredible really how much Enrique breaks that game so I didn't take him to Ramirez (ran Gilder instead). First thing Ramirez did? One-shot Fina with Silver Tundra. What a dick.