[Mentalist]

Aptorian, on 10 January 2020 - 05:23 AM, said:

If you're confused about what's going on I'd almost recommend you suspend playing reach and wait for the rest of the Master Chief Collection to come out. Assuming you've never played any of the other Halo games.

Think of it like less Starship Troopers and more like the 300 Spartans holding back the Persian army.

The story is definitely my favorite of the Halo games. At least the ones I've played.

Nope, never played any Halo- probably because I never owned an Xbox.

I'll stick with it for now. There's only 12 missions, so can't take that long.

Getting weird framerate hiccups though. Gonna need to mess with the settings over the weekend.

Must say, those vehicle controls are mind-blowingly bad, though. Who on Earth thought steering sideways with a MOUSE instead of the left and right keys was a good idea?

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 10 January 2020 - 07:47 PM

[Aptorian]

Borrowed Rage 2.

R2 has the worst opening for a AAA game I've seen in ages. The introduction, dialogue, scripting, character models just standing around - It all feels like an FPS game from the early 2000s. Like I was actually cursing at the screen when I heard some of the dialogue. It's a master class in bad design and bad taste.

But then I got out into the open world and the combat is actually pretty fun. Time will tell but this sure us an id kinda story, think Quake 4.

[Traveller]

Luigi's Mansion 3 is great fun. Playing through it co-op with my daughter is great but can get frustrating as the controls are a bit fiddly sometimes.

And when I mean fiddly - just spent half an hour on a boss because the stupid inflatable duck controls only work about 10% of the time, the pool has spikes round it which pop your duck on contact, and... did I mention the controls!! Goddamn it. At least my daughter was able to help by doing the poolside bit.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 11 January 2020 - 04:30 PM

[Mentalist]

Whoa, Halo has space bits?

Piloting a Blade was really cool.

Fighting 4 Elites in low gravity where 2 of them have rocket launchers that can one-shot me? Not so much.

[Silencer]

Mentalist, on 11 January 2020 - 06:05 PM, said:

Whoa, Halo has space bits?

Piloting a Blade was really cool.

Fighting 4 Elites in low gravity where 2 of them have rocket launchers that can one-shot me? Not so much.

Ahhh, that whole sequence was amazing. What you want for the low gravity fight is the shotgun. You can grab one at the previous place right before you use the Sabre. Provided you then don't die you keep it into the next section. Makes the low gravity bit laughably easy.

[Mentalist]

Yeah, I got past that. The problem with shotgun is the small clip and generally low ammo count.

I also started playing Ori and the Blind Forest this week. The music and the art style combined make the description "hauntingly beautiful" very apt here.

It started out as a decently difficult platformer with all the typical stuff- wall-climbing, double-jump, etc.

Then they introduce the power to bounce off projectiles, and things go kinda crazy. Trying to get out from the flooding tree was intense. The "boss" and the puzzle that preceded it (guiding an energy pellet across multiple teleporters to get it to explode a barrier) were tricky, but the actual escape sequence gives no time for errors, and it was just... nerve- and finger-wrecking.

And now I got a huge chunk of the map explored, and the Metroidvania completionist itch is kicking in- I'm feeling compelled to visit every nook and cranny on the map to collect EVERYTHING. Solving progressively more difficult jumping puzzles as I go. Oh, and I can swim now! I poured all my ability points into more traversal options, but I've been totally neglecting combat that might have been a mistake, in retrospect.

In Halo, I stopped in the middle of the evacuation level. I'll jump back into it soon, but Ori is too damn good right now.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 18 January 2020 - 08:21 AM

[Aptorian]

I remember the boss/escape sequences in Ori being so aggressive that it actually soured my otherwise strong appreciation of the game.

[Mentalist]

That game manages to do a lot with a fairly basic moveset (except for the whole bouncing off projectiles thing, it's all pretty standard stuff)

after about 15 hours and almost 1100 deaths, I'm 70% through the game. Just unlocked charged jump. I feel like I really need to focus and grind my way to the last map upgrade, so that I can see hidden areas.
Combat upgrades continue to feel unnecessary.

[Traveller]

Put on KC Deliverance for some Medieval escapism.

Haven't played for ages, so just spent an hour or two trotting round the countryside, stopping at inns, and getting used to the controls. Also avoiding ambushes at night as I've forgotten how to fight.

What I like.. the landscape feels real, not gamey. The day/night cycle impacts play in a significant way. If you go out exploring it night, Henry gets tired and hungry, and travel is impeded by the dark.

You have to adjust to the day like a real day - plan a trip with food and rest, clean up and stable your horse; going on a side quest means more than just fast travelling. I don't know, I just kind of like the change of pace. Like taking several minutes with a fire, pot and stages of stirring and grinding ingredients to make a potion might drive some people to boredom but it's kind of satisfying.

Admittedly it looks a bit clunky, but I want to play again later as I've got to go and kill a guy who's hiding from the gang he pissed off by enrolling in the monastery. I've either got to enrol as a monk in order to get to him, or find another way in - and it's a secure building.

It's a bit of a shame you can't make you're own character. Only because Henry is a good hearted, innocent type - it seems very much at odds with the looting and quiet night time murders I make him do. Makes me feel like Cotillion with Sorry.

Before I do anything else I need to head back to Rattay and do some proper fighting training. Planning on learning all the moves I can with sword, shield, knives and spear so I can deal with anything. Being ambushed by 3 or 4 armed men in this game gets you killed quick if you don't know what you're doing.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 15 January 2020 - 10:31 AM

[Tapper]

Aptorian, on 10 January 2020 - 06:52 AM, said:

Played an hour of Slay the Spire last night. I'm not sure I understand the hype.

It's a pretty polished turn based card brawler but I don't see anything special about it.

Mega-combo's, and the ever-more punishing ladder. All in all, it's one of very few rogue-likes that I feel is a) not unfair makes me want to try again, instead of throw something out of the window.

[Traveller]

Bachelor King, on 15 January 2020 - 09:41 PM, said:

Are you gonna get Death Stranding Trav?!?!!!!

I think so, yes. I've just got enough on the go at the moment. Birthday at the end of the month, I'll have to drop some heavy hints.

So, watched the trailer. There's a lot of crying in it. Also hiking. I liked the hiking part, games for me are all about the landscape. Also giant creatures, all for them too. Quite a lot of crying though.

Will I want to finish it? Should I get it instead of Jedi Fallen Order, or both?

This post has been edited by Traveller: 16 January 2020 - 07:41 AM

[Traveller]

Bachelor King, on 16 January 2020 - 08:41 AM, said:

Both do Jedi 1st but GET Death Stranding!

Ok, one more thing tho. I really didnt like all the meandering, over-complicated nonsense stories in the metal gear games; is this full of that or do you feel like its integrated well, or superfluous to the gameplay which is what keeps you playing?

[Aptorian]

I'm still playing Rage 2. It's mindless fun but also incredibly mediocre and antiquated. The environments seem like something out of the PS2 era. Still, the combat is fun and there's a farcry'ish enjoyment to be had from attacking bandit camps and mutant nests.

[Mentalist]

Finished Ori. A 99% run (I think I missed one of those blue "chest" thingies in the water tree- because my map is totally clean from major collectibles) took me just over 20 hours (but I am slow and pretty bad at games. Though my stubbornness somewhat makes up for that).

Next gonna get back into Halo: Reach; after that? I think I'm gonna give Shadow of War a shot- I wanna see how good the improved Nemesis system gonna be.

[Mentalist]

Ok, so the helicopter + the tank have a much better controls.

On to mission 10 now. Spartans are dropping. For some dumb reason Steam's not registering my achievements though. That's a bit annoying. (EDIT: they got registered when I launched the game again, nice)

Still feels like I'm missing some context. What made Reach so special?

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 20 January 2020 - 02:09 AM

[Mentalist]

Okay, 15 hours to see the Epilogue on Heroic.

It's a decent enough shooter, but I'm not really seeing what all the fuss is about, tbh.


Hopefully the story will make more sense once I play CE. The testing for that's supposed to start next month.

Meantime, gonna give Shadow of War a spin.

[Maark Abbott]

Mentalist, on 20 January 2020 - 02:10 AM, said:

Okay, 15 hours to see the Epilogue on Heroic.

It's a decent enough shooter, but I'm not really seeing what all the fuss is about, tbh.


Hopefully the story will make more sense once I play CE. The testing for that's supposed to start next month.

Meantime, gonna give Shadow of War a spin.

A lot of what makes Reach so great is how it ties into CE. Stuff I can't really talk about until you play CE, either.

[Traveller]

Bachelor King, on 21 January 2020 - 01:30 AM, said:

Trav I’m sure your not reading my DS thread but I know you liked the strategic battle of HZD. DS is really starting to unfold in that kind of gameplay now. Not to the same degree of HZD but it’s enough to def catch your interest I feel.

Coolest mailman game ever so far.

Oh I'm def readingit. I've got my birthday coming up next week - I'll either get DS or Fallen order, either one will keep me happy. I'll probably buy whichever I dont get anyway!

This post has been edited by Traveller: 21 January 2020 - 07:57 AM

[Traveller]

Just having what I feel is a unique gaming moment.

I picked up KCD again - and have just had the most immersive 3 days. Short version is... I had to kill a guy for a gang, but he's safe inside the Monastery. The best way to get at him is to enrol as a novice.

I could have just lock picked my way in, killed him, taken some proof and legged it. But once I was in there, been shown around, had all my stuff taken away, and been given a timed daily routing to stick to, its obvious there is a better way.

So I've just spent 3 in game days (3 real) as a Monk; sticking to the routine, while questioning novices, talking to monks, and sneaking around the place at night doing the side quests and trying to identify the target, without being discovered. It's so unlike any other game quest. More in the ded thread.

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

Further adventures of my new laptop, I fired up Pillars of Eternity: Deadfire this weekend.

I loved the first one and from the first couple of hours of playing this, it looks like more of the same, now with pirates. Win.

This post has been edited by TheRetiredBridgeburner: 22 January 2020 - 09:38 AM