[Maark Abbott]

worry, on 01 January 2018 - 10:42 PM, said:

There's one reaaaaaaalllllyyyy big gun.

I hate the Halo railgun.

[Cause]

Dawn of War 3 is......Boring

The campaigns is slow and lacks any tension so far. The AI puts no pressure on your bases at all, you can leave them completely defenseless practically with no risk. Attack the enemy at your leisure. Resource generation is absurdly slow. I get that its supposed to encourage you to conserve units and micro manage but against the campaign AI that's not a problem. Still I end up having to wait several minutes just to build an extra unit or two which are necessary to assault the enemy base successfully.

Its also perhaps the most derivative game I have ever played. It steels the UI from StarCraft (but not only does not improve on it, its worse. A lot of units share the same hotkeys), elements of hero units from Warcraft 2, stealth mechanics from MOBA games etc etc

I am disappointed. I don't feel like the mailed fist of the emperor at all!

[Serenity]

Finished Uncharted 2 last night. I'd forgotten what an amazing game it is. I'll probably start Drake's Deception over the weekend. Excited about that, as it's the only one I haven't played before.

Either that, or I'm also thinking about digging out my 360 and replaying Red Dead Redemption.

[Cause]

Finished Halo 5. Just as I was getting into the game and enjoying it, it ended. The difficulty seems lower, it helps that you have 3 AI companions to revive you when you die. Their is also no limit. So you can die, be revived, die, be revived endlessly in a fight. There are one or two weapons that seem to disintegrate your body killing you outright but happened maybe twice.

The story was a jumbled mess sparse on detail and requires knowledge from beyond the games and instead from the megafranchize of books, streamed episodes, comics etc.

I also am seriously wondering if the graphics have not imporved at all since halo 4 on the xbox 360.

Not a bad game but I'm left unsatisfied. Like eating a meal and being left hungry.

[Mentalist]

onto what's *supposed* to be the last mission in Dishonored now. Very low chaos (only significant character I killed so far was a certain madwoman, because I couldn't figure out how to resolve that conflict non-violently, and I needed the key), and yeah. Blink feels so very OP. in the Flooded district I ended up putting pretty much everyone to sleep just to show then that I can. Had to turn on the objective marker there, though, b/c I could not for the life of me spot the refinery entrance myself.


Still, looking forward to replaying this as a whirlwind of destruction next. The plot seems designed to piss me off to the point where I start killing people left right and centre. Human Revolution did that as well with the

Spoiler

Massacre in the Pods

Which is usually the only part of the game where I stop playing nice and bust out the arm-blades, just because I end up very pissed off with what the plot does.

[Aptorian]

The Blink's broken possibilities are accounted for. I remember during the promotion up the release of the first Dishonored, they mentioned seeing testers just completely bypassing and breaking quests with the blink and jump abilities. They decided to just leave it in, since they wanted players to have that feeling of potential and freedom that the systems offer.

And yes, I also just murdered my way through the games. I don't think the characters in the games are bad or the story is terrible. I just find everybody loathsome. The Nations of Dishonored could do with a visit from the T'lan Imass.

----

Personally I've been playing some Darkest Dungeon. I only made it through two of the starter dungeons and I think I am done. I love everything about this game, except the actual gameplay and difficulty. I know the game is supposed to be punishing but when I am forced to abandon my quest twice within the tutorial stages, this signals to me that this game will become very not fun quickly. I also found the dmg and buff/debuff systems dissatisfying. The combat lacked the oomph I'd prefer from that kind of turn based combat.

Played a bunch of Cuphead. This game is fun. Hard but fun. I'm not really as enamoured by the old timey cartoon aesthetics as some but I think the game is very well tuned. I die again and again to my own frustration but the ease with which you loop right back in makes it satisfying to try, try and try again.

The way the boss stages are designed makes it really fun to play that game. It punishes you but for the most part you always know what you did wrong and it's all up to you to get better.

I've also been playing some Doki Doki Litterature Club. I heard this was a secret, sneaky, alternative kind of game, a la Frog Fractions or Pony Island, where they game goes from cute and anime to something more dark and sinister. I've played around an hour now and I don't think I can be bothered to play more. It's actually very well written and I find the character's charming and likeable - for an anime dating sim. Thing is that kind of game has no interest for me, so I really cannot be arsed play through to what ever twist is coming.

But hey, it's free on every system. You should check it out if you're into dating sims (you weirdo).

[Maark Abbott]

DDLC was my GOTY 2017. It certainly does go sinister:

Spoiler

Monika is aware that she's a character in a video game and desperately wants to have a route because she's in love with the player (as in you, not the character you play as). She starts messing with the code at the end of Act 1, deletes Sayori, and then begins to majorly mess with the code during Act 2. To progress beyond the route she railroads you into, you have to actually delete her character file in the game directory. It's magnificent design and genuinely unsettling.

[Serenity]

Alternative Goose, on 07 January 2018 - 10:53 AM, said:

Personally I've been playing some Darkest Dungeon. I only made it through two of the starter dungeons and I think I am done. I love everything about this game, except the actual gameplay and difficulty. I know the game is supposed to be punishing but when I am forced to abandon my quest twice within the tutorial stages, this signals to me that this game will become very not fun quickly. I also found the dmg and buff/debuff systems dissatisfying. The combat lacked the oomph I'd prefer from that kind of turn based combat.

Shame you didn't get on with it. Once I upgraded the facilities and trained the heroes in more skills, which you can't do to much extent at that early stage, I found experimenting with the combination of classes, skill sets and tactics hugely satisfying. Love the narrator, too. Great game.

Started Uncharted 3 yesterday. 35% of the way through it, apparently.

[Mentalist]

Doing Knife of Dunwall, I think I should go for max carnage as Daud. But he feels so much squishier than Corvo. WTF, Arkane?

[Khellendros]

Serenity, on 08 January 2018 - 08:18 AM, said:

Alternative Goose, on 07 January 2018 - 10:53 AM, said:

Personally I've been playing some Darkest Dungeon. I only made it through two of the starter dungeons and I think I am done. I love everything about this game, except the actual gameplay and difficulty. I know the game is supposed to be punishing but when I am forced to abandon my quest twice within the tutorial stages, this signals to me that this game will become very not fun quickly. I also found the dmg and buff/debuff systems dissatisfying. The combat lacked the oomph I'd prefer from that kind of turn based combat.

Shame you didn't get on with it. Once I upgraded the facilities and trained the heroes in more skills, which you can't do to much extent at that early stage, I found experimenting with the combination of classes, skill sets and tactics hugely satisfying. Love the narrator, too. Great game.

Started Uncharted 3 yesterday. 35% of the way through it, apparently.

Agree, Darkest Dungeon was great, a really wonderful aesthetic with the cutout animation and the grim voiceover narrator. Very difficult, but also very rewarding, with some creative (if rage-inducing) bosses. I do admit that I had to give up on DD when all my dozen or so characters gained hugely debilitating flaws

Currently playing quite a bit of PUBG (on Xbox, so it's mostly the game crashing and having to reconnect - though my best finish of 2nd happened in a game in which I was disconnected for half the time). Also playing Stardew Valley. I love how the game unfolds into something much more than a relaxed farming sim.

I got a lot of games over Christmas which I'm still to even open. Prey, Assassins Creed Origins, Cities Skylines, Halo Wars 2, Uncharted Lost Legacy, Horizon Zero Dawn.

Also, given up on Destiny 2.

[Tiste Simeon]

Got a game cheap from Cex called Vikings: Wolves of Midgard. It's not amazing, not terrible. Keeping me entertained till my birthday where I have a suspicion my wife is getting me Assassin's Creed: Origins.

[worry]

I'm playing Uncharted 4. I bought it used ("Like New") and it wouldn't work at first so I looked the disc over and it was covered in the previous owner's greasy fingerprints, like all over the face of it. What a slob!

Anyway, good game.

[Mentalist]

Scrapped everything I played from "Knife of Dunwall" so far and started fresh, trying to explore everything and doing Low Chaos just because.

Daud needs some major upgrading, b/c I suck at combat in this game, so I'm trying to explore the entire level now, and the easiest way to do that is stealth to find all the runes and crap.

Also, blowing up the slaughterhouse sounds cool on paper, but it's noisy, the idiot butchers don't flee the exploding machinery in panic, and you don't actually get to see the pretty explosion.

And the reward is pretty crap, too.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 11 January 2018 - 12:08 AM

[Aptorian]

Been playing Shadow of War on and off for the past months at a friends house. Last night we finally made it to Act 2 of the story. Only took like 20 hours over 4 months!

While the game is overly convoluted, poorly written and bogged down by systems and game mechanics, I do love what is happening now. The Witch King and the Nazgul are presented as being complete badasses. We're now allowed to start building our army. We just met a really cool tree god or something like that in a forest and we've agreed to help her... KILL A BALROG! Oh man, I'm looking forward to fighting this thing.

We were so stoaked we agreed to schedule another session on Friday.

[Cause]

Alternative Goose, on 11 January 2018 - 06:36 AM, said:

Been playing Shadow of War on and off for the past months at a friends house. Last night we finally made it to Act 2 of the story. Only took like 20 hours over 4 months!

While the game is overly convoluted, poorly written and bogged down by systems and game mechanics, I do love what is happening now. The Witch King and the Nazgul are presented as being complete badasses. We're now allowed to start building our army. We just met a really cool tree god or something like that in a forest and we've agreed to help her... KILL A BALROG! Oh man, I'm looking forward to fighting this thing.

We were so stoaked we agreed to schedule another session on Friday.

I miss this kind of gaming. Watching a friend play. Trading life life or level level.

[Mentalist]

Okay, "Knife of Dunwall" finally got good.

I was on the fence about the first area, but the second (Legal District) was a lot of fun.

Onto the 3rd mission, and it's time to become the super-murder machine, because

Spoiler

The Overseers are in MY house! Capturing MY people!

I intend to spare no-one.

[Cause]

Total Warhammer begins tonight. I'm torn but I think Ill play the empire first because I think your supposed to. After that I am torn between wood elves, high elves or Lizards. Or maybe Skaven.

[Serenity]

Finished Uncharted 3 last night. First time I'd played that one. Loved it, but not quite as much as 2, 4 and Lost Legacy.

Intending to replay Red Dead Redemption next. Just hope my 360 still works!

[Mentalist]

Finished "Knife of Dunwall".With High Chaos, because I murdered every single overseer.

I think I'll try to replay that last mission. Towards the end of it I finally discovered "slow time" power, and now I want to use it more.

Besides, the opening of "Brigmore Witches" is failing to impress right now.

[Tiste Simeon]

Currently playing Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds. Cos I used to love it and it is a great nostalgia blast.