[Serenity]

So God of War was my GOTY, out of games released in 2018 at least. Was, until a couple of days ago. Now it's Dead Cells on Switch. What an awesome, awesome game!

[Traveller]

Although strangely, I'm finding a controller-light game really nice to play with one of the joy cons as it sits lightly in one hand, with a joystick under my thumb in a very relaxed position, without the need to sit with both hands on a heavier controller.

So far I'm really impressed with the switch as a whole, it's way ahead of any Nintendo system I've ever had previously.

[Mentalist]

So since I didn't feel like finishing Rage yesterday, I tried the Steam version of PoP: The Two Thrones.

there's even more bugs, as I couldn't get past the first game-stopping bug I encountered in the GOG version. After messing around for a while I tried to go back to the GOG version to discover that the Steam version over-wrote my savefile!

I was quite livid, but I managed to get past the non-functioning temple shutters (on like 7th try or so), and got to the point where I got stuck last time. After trying various fixes there, I finally did what some forum reply suggested- maxed out all the graphical settings to overload the CPU to make it work slower and synchronize the timing. (I also added "display in 256 colours in compatibility mode settings; maybe that helped), and oddly enough.. the jump worked!

So now I'm many more hours in, getting close to the end, I think, since I already found the "kill most things with 1 hit" sword, which is usually a sign of things getting close to the final boss fight.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 12 February 2019 - 05:36 PM

[Mentalist]

Around 3 30 AM last night I finished The Two Thrones, and so the last of the "Sands of Time" trilogy. While the game was pretty enjoyable, terrible control mapping and SO. MANY. BUGS. really soured my whole experience. Funnily enough I was lucky enough to glitch past yet another often-reported shutter jump bug-one nearly at the end of the game just a few saves away from the final boss. Still, it's been a while since I had to wrestle an old-ish game so much to stay playable and I certainly didn't enjoy the experience.

I'd like to tick off RAGE off my "to-play" list before the year ends as well, but that's contingent on me finishing the list of cleaning chores still to do before I go out tonight. I have 1 or 2 more side missions as well (I finally spotted tthe Subway City Job Board the last time I played), so need to wrap up those side jobs before heading out to the final punch-up.

EDIT: finished the last level and was dumped back to the open world where my only available jobs are to track down bandit cars for the bartenders. I'm gonna say I'm officially done the game with 44 hours clocked.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 31 December 2018 - 08:07 AM

[Serenity]

Briar King, on 31 December 2018 - 12:15 AM, said:

The battery life going hand held is atrocious..I was at 100% and I did 2 missions and a moment of eshop totaling maybe 17 minutes and there was a noticeable drain on icon. I ll estimate it dropped to 80% in that short time.

That's not surprising if you're only playing online games. Turn off auto brightness for a start. Then get some offline games and turn on airplane mode. I get a full evening's play out of it that way. Handy hint: you can access these settings in-game if you hold down the home button.


Finished chapter 7 of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 last night. Talk about a cliffhanger. Holy shit.

Also played some more Dead Cells (still rubbish at it but it's sooo good!), and have started The Banner Saga in my quieter moments. Both games are perfect for handheld.

[Aptorian]

Still playing AC Odyssey.

Now that I've unlocked all the abilities that I like, I've warmed up on the game. All the super powered abilities makes you very lethal. My favorite ability is a sort of teleport spear throw that makes you chain assassinate up to four guards at once. It's ridiculously overpowered.

Sticking to the main missions in every region and ignoring all the little side stuff is definitely the way to go.

Now that I'm exploring the further reaches of the map I'm running into some weird stuff. This is definitely the first game that goes all in on the supernatural mythological stuff. I've seen Sphinxes, Cyclopses, legendary animals and I'm currently trying to figure out how to murder some kind of pre-cursor Medusa.

Most interesting is this Cult of Cosmos plot where you're hunting a sort of pre-historic Templar group. There's a big network of them and you have to find clues about them and track them down to kill them. Some you find through the main story, some you'll come across at random. It's actually very thrilling though it could definitely benefit from better presentation and more depth to the individual cultist.

[acesn8s]

I finished God of War right after Christmas, lot of fun. Instead of grinding out all extras, I switched to The Last of Us. I never had a PS3 so I missed out on it, until now. Holy shit! I finished it in 4 days. I couldn't stop playing. After everyone went to bed I played for 4+ hours a night. I have the DLC expansion, I'll be playing that this weekend.

[Malankazooie]

Wow, from God of War to Last of Us. The next game you play might be underwhelming.

Last of Us is excellent. The DLC won't disappoint. Great little story it is. Looking forward to Last of Us 2.

Have you tried the multiplayer? I did a little bit when it was newly released, but really couldn't get into that much. I'm curious to know if it still has enough interest such that people are still playing it.

[acesn8s]

Witcher 3 > God of War > Last of Us

I better pick carefully.

[Serenity]

acesn8s, on 02 January 2019 - 05:53 PM, said:

Witcher 3 > God of War > Last of Us

I better pick carefully.

Well that's two of my favourite games of all time (W3 and TLoU) and one of last year's very best.

I'd go for something completely different and get Persona 5 or Nier Automata, but that depends on whether you like JRPGs or not, I suppose.

[Tiste Simeon]

acesn8s, on 02 January 2019 - 05:53 PM, said:

Witcher 3 > God of War > Last of Us

I better pick carefully.

See I think this is part of the reason I felt disappointed by Shadow of War. Prior to that I had played AC Origins, God of War and then HZD. After all that I played a game that did not match up to the first of its series and I just felt a bit deflated!

[Maark Abbott]

Playing Shining Resonance Refrain just now. Relatively typical JRPG except the combat is all real-time.

[Serenity]

I've re-started Dragon Quest XI. I was enjoying it so much on PS4 but the music is quite poor MIDI based compositions (outside of Japan, at least) and it had been grating on me from the start. I could have turned the volume right down, I suppose, but it didn't feel right that way to me. It probably won't bother most players but the rest of the game is of such quality it just felt wrong to me. Then I saw there was a full orchestral soundtrack mod available for the pc version, so I picked it up in the Steam sale, got the mod and it's completely changed the atmosphere and the experience for me. Even though the tunes are the same, they just sound so lush with the orchestra, the difference is like night and day to my ears. So excited to really get stuck into this wonderful game now. There's a comparison here, if anyone's remotely interested: https://twitter.com/...0217984?lang=en

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire.

Terrible loading times aside, it's good fun. I just have to play it with something on in the background so the loading times don't drive me bonkers.

This post has been edited by TheRetiredBridgeburner: 04 January 2019 - 12:09 PM

[Mentalist]

Played the prologue of Thi4f. I mean, aside from all the thieves being gothy emo-lookers, and the fact that they replaced the basic "press space to jump" with a crappy "contextual jump, or swoop or do whatever else we thought was good to bind to a controller button" multi-function asscreed-esque crap, it's okay. I got rid of basically all the HUD elements (except for the light gem), and naturally I'm playing on Master difficulty, and it's kind of okay.

Not sure I'm sold on the "we want to be Dishonored"-type story yet, but stealing stuff's pretty fun.

[Mentalist]

Okay, the story's "the prologue happened and a year later Garrett's back with amnesia and there's a magical (?) Plague that's making the City desperate and gets the Baron to be all tyrant-like" . Eeeeeeeh. I can honestly say, I don't care for it. I'm here to lockpick every lock and jimmy-open every available window.

I can definitely see the level-design principles at work that eventually culminated in DXMD's amazing Prague. So far the rooftops of the City are less fun, primarily because there's gadgets I can't buy yet to make breaking in and disabling traps so much more varied.

Also, the map doesn't label streets, which is annoying. The game says I should keep my ears peeled to for overhearing about cool loot and stealing opportunities, but there's nowhere for me to take notes, or mark potential points of interest, which is annoying. Oh, and I can't switch map levels based on my height- overall, it's a very primitive tool. I'd be lying if I said I'm impressed by the systems.

The open City is better-implemented than Thief3. But overall, the experience remains sub-par when compared to the original duology.

[Aptorian]

Of what I remember, the story of Thief 4 didn't do much for me, though the Asylum was cool

The stealing however was great fun. I played the game like a burglary simulator.

[Serenity]

I just finished Xenoblade Chronicles 2. I think it out-epic-ed the epicness of the end of the first game. Took me five attempts to beat the final boss, then the ending cutscene lasted over half an hour. I'm in bits

[Mentalist]

Alternative Goose, on 06 January 2019 - 05:54 PM, said:

Of what I remember, the story of Thief 4 didn't do much for me, though the Asylum was cool

The stealing however was great fun. I played the game like a burglary simulator.

I'm sure I'd feel that way if I wasn't playing it on Master (you're not allowed to knock out civvies on Master). And "civvies" apparently includes "gang members and private guards". It's not game-stopping, but fairly annoyoing

[Maark Abbott]

Alternative Goose, on 06 January 2019 - 05:54 PM, said:

Of what I remember, the story of Thief 4 didn't do much for me, though the Asylum was cool

The stealing however was great fun. I played the game like a burglary simulator.

Thief 3's asylum was cooler.