[Aptorian]

Finished the main campaign in Destiny and the dark below content. Starting the Taken King now. The difference in terms of presentation and voice work is night and day.

Also played some crucible. That is very not fun when playing against people with raid level gear or what ever they are equipped with.

[Khellendros]

Alternative Goose, on 27 May 2018 - 09:05 AM, said:

Finished the main campaign in Destiny and the dark below content. Starting the Taken King now. The difference in terms of presentation and voice work is night and day.

Also played some crucible. That is very not fun when playing against people with raid level gear or what ever they are equipped with.

Doesn't make much of a difference in Crucible - armour stats have only a small impact (and you can do the same with well-equipped gear from other activities), and weapons make none. Only in Iron Banner is levelling enabled, so those with higher Light levels do more damage, and you do far less damage to them if you're a much lower Light level.

Again, that's different in D2, where Iron Banner is effectively exactly the same as normal Crucible - and armour makes even less of a difference.

[Khellendros]

Did you do the House of Wolves content? I think that came before Taken King.

[Serenity]

Played the demo of Detroit Become Human and had to - HAD TO - buy the full game. A few hours in and I fecking love it. Some of the decisions it forces you to make, though. Aaagh!

Been playing a bit of Assassin's Creed IV, too, although I think I'm going to switch and play Origins first and then come back to Black Flag.

[Mentalist]

Up to the last Protoss mission in BroodWar. It's gonna be a tedious "defend and don't die" affair, but afterwards there's the pretty cinematic, followed by the UED Terran campaign which is pretty fun.

Also, since I finished "Hard Reset" (and seriously, wtf kind of story is that?), I'll be starting my "Alpha Protocol" replay tonight, and documenting the progress in a new dedicated thread.

[Serenity]

Finished my first play through of Detroit Become Human last night. I know it's getting a lot of hate from some quarters but I thought it was an utterly brilliant experience. I didn't imagine for one moment that what is effectively a 'choose your own adventure' story would be so tense in places and so thrilling in others. It had my jaw on the floor in a couple of places. Much as I loved GOW, this has been my favourite game so far this year. Totally unexpected. Can't wait to play it again and do it all differently.

[Aptorian]

I am definitely excited for Detroit. Can't afford to buy it currently but I need to play it. Like Kojima, I wouldn never miss a David Cage game. Say what you will about the writing, at least they're creative and weird.

[Morgoth]

I've always found Cage's writing to be hamfisted and kind of puerile. Like how a teenager imagines adults talking to each other.

[Aptorian]

Sure but how many other video games feature a story about an 80's sci-fi film government child soldier program where the protagonist has a ghost friend who is a shadow assassin and they go on clandestine missions like James Bond but then they become homeless and then they fight Native American ghosts in the desert and save the world from shadows from a hell dimensions? While they constantly have flash backs about birthday parties and super awkward dates? None? Damn right.

Cage's games are not great but damn are they fascinating.

Finished The Taken King expansion for Destiny 1 yesterday. A lot better than the main game but still utterly underwhelming in terms of meaning and presentation. I got to say I do love the settings. All those underground temples are cool as hell. I am sort of excited to eventually play Destiny 2 and get all disappointed once again.

Started up Dishonred: Death of the Outsider. It's basically just more Dishonored so far. It's been almost 2 year since I played Dishonored 2 so this is a nice refresher. Strangely I am finding myself playing stealthily and non-lethally. Without the heart to reveal how vile the citizens are I don't feel quite the same compulsion to kill everybody.

Not actually sure if there even is a karma system in this one.

This post has been edited by Alternative Goose: 31 May 2018 - 07:28 AM

[Morgoth]

Alternative Goose, on 31 May 2018 - 07:13 AM, said:

Sure but how many other video games feature a story about an 80's sci-fi film government child soldier program where the protagonist has a ghost friend who is a shadow assassin and they go on clandestine missions like James Bond but then they become homeless and then they fight Native American ghosts in the desert and save the world from shadows from a hell dimensions? While they constantly have flash backs about birthday parties and super awkward dates? None? Damn right.

Cage's games are not great but damn are they fascinating.

Finished The Taken King expansion for Destiny 1 yesterday. A lot better than the main game but still utterly underwhelming in terms of meaning and presentation. I got to say I do love the settings. All those underground temples are cool as hell. I am sort of excited to eventually play Destiny 2 and get all disappointed once again.

Started up Dishonred: Death of the Outsider. It's basically just more Dishonored so far. It's been almost 2 year since I played Dishonored 2 so this is a nice refresher. Strangely I am finding myself playing stealthily and non-lethally. Without the heart to reveal how vile the citizens are I don't feel quite the same compulsion to kill everybody.

Not actually sure if there even is a karma system in this one.

Oh for sure, and I appreciate that there's a guy out there that can get enough money to make story based games like this. I just wish he was better at the actual story telling part.

[Maark Abbott]

Mentalist, on 28 May 2018 - 01:45 PM, said:

Up to the last Protoss mission in BroodWar. It's gonna be a tedious "defend and don't die" affair, but afterwards there's the pretty cinematic, followed by the UED Terran campaign which is pretty fun.

Also, since I finished "Hard Reset" (and seriously, wtf kind of story is that?), I'll be starting my "Alpha Protocol" replay tonight, and documenting the progress in a new dedicated thread.

Remind me what that last Protoss mission was again? It's been a long old time since I did that campaign.

[Serenity]

Morgoth, on 31 May 2018 - 07:30 AM, said:

Alternative Goose, on 31 May 2018 - 07:13 AM, said:

Sure but how many other video games feature a story about an 80's sci-fi film government child soldier program where the protagonist has a ghost friend who is a shadow assassin and they go on clandestine missions like James Bond but then they become homeless and then they fight Native American ghosts in the desert and save the world from shadows from a hell dimensions? While they constantly have flash backs about birthday parties and super awkward dates? None? Damn right.

Cage's games are not great but damn are they fascinating.

Oh for sure, and I appreciate that there's a guy out there that can get enough money to make story based games like this. I just wish he was better at the actual story telling part.

Detroit: Become Human generally kicks everything up several levels from Beyond Two Souls. It's fair to say there's not a lot new in the story and there are a couple of clunky moments, but it's pacey and put together well, the characters are great and really pulled me into the world, and in terms of actual gameplay it's a hell of a lot more involving and varied. The free demo is definitely worth a look.

[Mentalist]

Maark Abbott, on 31 May 2018 - 07:31 AM, said:

Mentalist, on 28 May 2018 - 01:45 PM, said:

Up to the last Protoss mission in BroodWar. It's gonna be a tedious "defend and don't die" affair, but afterwards there's the pretty cinematic, followed by the UED Terran campaign which is pretty fun.

Also, since I finished "Hard Reset" (and seriously, wtf kind of story is that?), I'll be starting my "Alpha Protocol" replay tonight, and documenting the progress in a new dedicated thread.

Remind me what that last Protoss mission was again? It's been a long old time since I did that campaign.

Bring crystals to the Xel Naga temple. Defend said temple for a while as Zeratul and Artanis "activate it" .

EDIT (June 2nd)- finished it. Once again, I played smart this time: did a full scout, and wiped out the one brood sharing an island with me fully (netting me 3 expansion sites), and then set up a proper defense everywhere before bringing Zeratul in. Ended up holding them back @ the perimieter of the temple peninsula.

Started UED, and finished the 1st 3 scens. Love the variety in this campaign, probably my favourite.

Unfortunately, now I need to pack up my PC until Monday, cuz we people coming in to replace the windows in our house, and they need access to the, so my gigantic desk has to be cleared and moved out of the way.
I might try reinstalling SC2 on my laptop, since I'll have nothing else to do.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 02 June 2018 - 05:05 PM

[Aptorian]

Finally prestiged in COD WW2. Towards the end there I realized it's not the game as a whole I enjoy, so much as I just really like the shipment map. Reminds me of COD4s old maps with 30-40 players.

Finished the prologue and first chapter of Dishonored: Death of the Outsider. Took me foreeever. It's not that I try to create flawless stealth play throughs. I just try to create very specific outcomes.

In the end I found myself murdering everyone anyway. People are just so incredibly shitty in these games. I tend to leave piles of bodies no matter where I go. That entire city needs to burn.

It's a good thing I don't have God like powers in real life. It would turn biblical real fast.

[Serenity]

Been playing Assassin's Creed Origins over the weekend and enjoying it. Up to level 21 and was considering cranking up the difficulty, then got my arse kicked by the first Phylakes

[Tiste Simeon]

Serenity, on 04 June 2018 - 07:10 AM, said:

Been playing Assassin's Creed Origins over the weekend and enjoying it. Up to level 21 and was considering cranking up the difficulty, then got my arse kicked by the first Phylakes

Yeah I basically avoided them until I was well into the 30s level wise. You can see on the map if you hover over their symbol how high a level they are - I think the lowest I saw was 20.

This post has been edited by Tiste Simeon: 04 June 2018 - 07:27 AM

[Serenity]

Tiste Simeon, on 04 June 2018 - 07:27 AM, said:

Serenity, on 04 June 2018 - 07:10 AM, said:

Been playing Assassin's Creed Origins over the weekend and enjoying it. Up to level 21 and was considering cranking up the difficulty, then got my arse kicked by the first Phylakes

Yeah I basically avoided them until I was well into the 30s level wise. You can see on the map if you hover over their symbol how high a level they are - I think the lowest I saw was 20.

Yeah, lvl 20, The Other. He's the one who kicked my arse

[Tiste Simeon]

Haha yep the levels for them are a bit tougher than other enemies of the same level it seems. They're more like bosses than anything else.

[Khellendros]

I've got back into playing Sea of Thieves with the new The Hungering Deep DLC. For me it was super fun when you actually get to fight the galleon-sized shark, and the quest to get the items needed was good too (nice to have a bit more story and lore in the game).

But *when* is the operative word. The shark takes a minimum of five people to summon - meaning, as ships can have a max of four, you need to cooperate with others in order to do it. Now, that's the part I applaud - forcing people to tackle this cooperatively, rather than always trying to murder each other.

However, the problem was the large amounts of waiting around. More than once I spent over an hour just waiting at the island where the quest starts, for another ship to come along (and then not try to kill me straight away). That was not fun.

This may be less of a problem when the time-limited quest ends next week and the giant shark is, presumably, released into the wild to spawn randomly (or will it still have to be summoned? It's unclear as yet). However, I'm not a fan of quests just disappearing forever from the game.

Having said all that, fighting the shark was incredibly fun. I had some frustrating moment where I was killed moments before the shark was defeated and so didn't get the rewards, but I finally managed to do it with a very friendly group of Germans. The shark is great, when it comes at your ship with its huge gaping maw full of teeth it is weirdly terrifying, and I appreciate the amount of teamwork needed to beat it, as some shoot cannons, others patch holes and still others bail. The rewards are pretty paltry (a figurehead for your ship) but the experience is worth it.

On top of that, I managed to do something I had considered impossible: I defeated a Skeleton Fort solo. The first miracle was no other ship coming along in the four hours (yes, four) it took me to do it. My own ship having been sunk immediately, I swam to one of the cannon towers, killed the skeletons there, and pointed one of the cannons at the fort. Then it was a case of sniping and cannoning, risking running into the fort to draw out yet more skeletons, placing gunpowder barrels in strategic spots to blow up later, finding the fort's ammo crate and making panicked runs back and forth from it, and sometimes spending nights waiting and hiding as the shadow skeletons (invulnerable at night) had spawned. The feeling of accomplishment (and the rewards) were great, but I'm not sure I could do that ever again.

Apparently Rare will now put in small weekly events to keep things fresh going up to the next, larger, DLC in about three months time (which sounds like it will introduce AI ships).

Sea of Thieves continues to have numerous flaws, but it is being fleshed out as every week goes by, and I appreciate enormously that all the new content and DLC will be free.

[Aptorian]

Finished Dishonored Death of the Outsider. Cool game. I think the shorter length worked wonders for the story's pace.

I've never liked The Outsider as a character or a concept so I wasnt terribly invested in the outcome. I wonder if Death of the Outsider was made because they knew they weren't getting a green light for Dishonored 3?

Also finished Far Cry 5. I am utterly underwhelmed by this game. It's not complete garbage but it's a very disappointing game if you think about how much better it could be. The ending was very cool but doesn't work when none of the story is worth getting invested in.

I remain convinced that something went wrong in that games development and they spent the last 6 months putting out fires and stitching unfinished content together. It's the only explanation for the games horrendous NPCs, weird story cuts and artificial story progression. It plays like a janky eastern European game that had a gigantic budget.