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[Dacvak]

Damn this game gets hard near the end.

 

[simpatico]

Care to elaborate on your thoughts on this one? I thought parts of the game were utter trash. Not dissing your opinion at all, just love understanding thoughts from a different perspective?

Some thoughts I had after the my first playthrough last month,

1. I cannot get over how poorly written the dialogue was and its a real shame because the voice actors all had great performances despite the terrible writing.
2. The story dragged on for far too long. Felt like 40% of the game was just filler missions to get everyone's hours played to an a predetermined amount. I had multiple story missions where the entire mission consisted of just driving to a character and speaking to them. That's it.
3. Weapon variety was kind of lame. I found three weapons and just stuck with them for the majority of the game because they were clearly OP.
4. What on earth is with the shooting mechanics in this game? The reticle makes shooting from mid range and onward annoying as hell unless you have a sniper. I get it....cant use a shotty at long range but the distance feels off on all the guns.
5. Other than the fuel tank, most of the later game bike upgrades didn't create a noticeable difference in my bike's performance. Kind of a lame outcome after anticipating the whole game that I would have this crazy performing bike by the end of it.

1. I liked the characters a lot. They aren't perfect, but they're all far less used archetypes. I found Deacon very refreshing as a lead. So tired of every lead having to be a wise cracking rogue. Stoic with a screw loose is a great change of pace. Iron Mike, Copeland and Tucker were are really strong characters that set the tone for their act. I just loved that it wasn't the same collection of tropes that make up the majority of AAA. The Skizzo relationship is another good example. Tenuous, but it works.
2. It's about as long as I want a game. All of the camps were fleshed out and just barely missed overstaying their welcome.
3. I felt like I was getting upgraded options are a good pace. I didn't find the game very hard so I'd mix it up mission to mission.
4. I thought they did a great job giving a sense of realism. I got to where I was really comfortable operating within the mechanics. Auto rifles aren't going to be the best for mid range accuracy. Try the M14 and actually line up the shot.
5. I'm not to my second run of the late game, but just now getting to level 2 trust with Iron Mike and I feel like bike upgrades have been well spaced. By the time the newness wears off I'm not far from the next.

 

[bumpkin]

I’ve been trying to make a dent in my backlog, specifically playing games my wife has given me for Christmas the last couple years.

On the Xbox, so far I’ve finished Quantum Break and Control. If Alan Wake II was on sale for Series X right now I’d probably continue the Remedy binge, but since it’s not, I’m probably going to start Psychonauts 2.

On the Switch I’m bouncing between Greak Memories of Azur, and Eiyuden Chronicle Rising. I’ve got Hundred Heroes in my GameFly queue so I wanted to get acquainted with the world and characters.

 

[reektann]

Played through Botany Manor on PC Game Pass. Easily a 9.5/10 from me here too. Only slight issue was the performance needs a bit of tightening on PC. The puzzles are super smart and it does a great job of conveying the information both in written form and smart imagery and art around the manor.

Did it all myself with no guides - the clues and answers were really logical when you put your mind to it. What a great game and a total surprise. I hadn't even heard of it until reading this thread.

Started Minishoot Adventures on Steam Deck and it is a delight so far. Zelda but with twin stick shooting mechanics. Lets go.

 

[Shake Your Rump]

Care to elaborate on your thoughts on this one? I thought parts of the game were utter trash. Not dissing your opinion at all, just love understanding thoughts from a different perspective?

I am not the person to whom you directed your question, but I have an opinion nonetheless!

This was the game that made me think I could enjoy open world games. I did not enjoy them at all until this game. Everything in the game just felt fun. There wasn't a boring moment. I almost got the platinum, but I didn't clear out one or two final hordes.

IMHO, your list of complaints comes from a critical eye. Story was just about the right length as long as you are playing the game to play the game, and not just to finish the game.

 

[Punished Miku]

Finished up Lil Gator Game. Super casual open world collectathon game but its adorable. Really enjoyed it. Got everything on the island and finished the game in about 6 hrs. Really captures the fun of being a kid. Some minor story moments are great too. Stay away from it if you dont like finding "all the things" as thats pretty much the game. Basically no true challenge in the game but there is no map so it made exploration enjoyable and managed to end before overstaying its welcome.

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Just beat Artful Escape on PS5. It's a short but sweet indie game published by Annapurna Interactive with gorgeous visuals (especially on an OLED TV) and a dope soundtrack. The only con was the quite boring platforming where most of the time you just move your character right and maybe sometimes left lol (there's no challenge so it can become quite dull tbh). The voice acting and the story was okay too.

Overall, I'd say it was an enjoyable 5h experience with a very easy 1000G/Platinum if you're one to care about that.

 

[Punished Miku]

Started up The Rewinder. Its pretty interesting. Point and click mystery game set in China with Taoist supernatural elements. My recommendation is to just play most of the first case with a guide. Just works better that way unless you are experienced with this type of game. Puzzles and core game mechanics are pretty cryptic until you try them a few times and see how it works. The graphics and art style look a bit better when you're playing in person, but its a very minimalist pixel art style.

 

[bender]

Started up The Rewinder. Its pretty interesting. Point and click mystery game set in China with Taoist supernatural elements. My recommendation is to just play most of the first case with a guide. Just works better that way unless you are experienced with this type of game. Puzzles and core game mechanics are pretty cryptic until you try them a few times and see how it works. The graphics and art style look a bit better when you're playing in person, but its a very minimalist pixel art style.

I dropped it pretty quick because of this but my gaming patience is at an all-time low.

 

[Punished Miku]

I dropped it pretty quick because of this but my gaming patience is at an all-time low.

I could easily see that happening. I almost did. Figured I wanted to see more since its just weird and unlike anything I've played. But yeah, I'm following a guide for big chunks of it. Figuring out what I can. Its not amazing but its holding my interest for now. Kinda into it.

Basically a darker Ghost Trick: China with really poorly balanced puzzles.

 

[JimmyRustler]

Finished Alone in the Dark with Emily now as well.

Actually liked that “campaign “ a bit more as unlike Edward Emily has some knowledge of people and location. Shame it wasn’t that much different except this one specific section.

Had a good time with the game. I wish there were more like it. We need more of those shorter games. Why so few make em I don’t get. I mean, they do not sell as well as these huge games but they can’t be aa expensive to make either, no?

 

[Feel Like I'm On 42]

Finished Alone in the Dark with Emily now as well.

Actually liked that “campaign “ a bit more as unlike Edward Emily has some knowledge of people and location. Shame it wasn’t that much different except this one specific section.

Had a good time with the game. I wish there were more like it. We need more of those shorter games. Why so few make em I don’t get. I mean, they do not sell as well as these huge games but they can’t be aa expensive to make either, no?

Open world games are actually deceptive in terms of how little content is actually in them. Due to the way they pad out the middle section of these games, they create the illusion of there being "more work" put into them.

 

[Justin9mm]

Days Gone. First replay since PC launch. Truly the greatest open world game not made by Rockstar or Bethesda. There is no hope for a sequel. I firmly believe if Sony even makes a sequel, they will "fix" everything that was great about the story and characters.

Something about that big chopper, the zombies and the open world. On their own they're all nothing special, but when combined it's an amazing stew. No open world game makes the mundane tasks this enthralling.

A true 9/10 and the best Sony exclusive that isn't made by From.

Days Gone was a fucking masterpiece even playing at Launch @30fps on PS4 Pro.

 

[LavitzSlambert]

Played Minit - one of the shortest games I've played, and thankfully so. It was alright - half baked for sure, could have done a lot more with its premise. Despite that, it was a nice palate cleanser between Rebirth and whatever I'm going to play next.

Hell yeah! This is on my list too, perhaps soon.

 

[Codes 208]

Got back into playing halo wars 1 and 2 on my rog ally.

Thoroughly enjoying myself

 

[Dazraell]

Still making progress on FFVII Rebirth, I just reached Chapter 12

 

[FoxMcChief]

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor | XSX

 

[engstra]

Been playing Dave the Diver, about 10 hours in. It's got me hooked, very chill experience and loving the artstyle. Didn't realise how big the game was however. I would have imagined I was fairly close to being done but it looks like it's about a 30 hour game so not really the small palette cleanser game I was going for.
Oh well having fun with it for now and want to see where it goes.

 

[Mr Hyde]

Finished Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Not quite as good as I remember it, but still very entertaining and enjoyable. The new 4K 60 patch makes wonders and the graphics looks very nice. Some areas are truly breathtaking. The Mayan setting is cool and the tombs you explore are some of the best in the trilogy. There is a lot more focus on platforming and raiding rather than action, so I'd say Shadow is closer to the original games than the previous two. However it does have pacing issues and the story itself is not that good. It also goes overboard with artifacts and documents to find, devolving into the typical checkbox game where you simply lose interest hunting everything down.

 

[tommib]

Stellar Blade and just taking my time in the Desert.

Tekken 8, still going though the chapters, near the end.

Helldivers 2 and GT7 since they’re always a palette cleanser.

Need to finish Pentiment and Hi-fi Rush. I put them on hold when Ronin came out. Near the end of Pentiment which I love but Hi-Fi Rush became extremely repetitive. It gives such a good initial impression but it burns you out quite quickly.

 

[tommib]

Started up The Rewinder. Its pretty interesting. Point and click mystery game set in China with Taoist supernatural elements. My recommendation is to just play most of the first case with a guide. Just works better that way unless you are experienced with this type of game. Puzzles and core game mechanics are pretty cryptic until you try them a few times and see how it works. The graphics and art style look a bit better when you're playing in person, but its a very minimalist pixel art style.

This looks great. Man the amount of good games out there is absurd. I don’t think we ever had so many good games at the same time. My wishlist is endless.

 

[FoxMcChief]

Diddy Kong Racing | N64

I forgot how amazing this game was. Still shits on every single kart racer before and after.

 

[Muffdraul]

Every once in a while I'll go back to my Tears of the Kingdom file to look for Addison the sign simp, one of the few collectible 'quests' I never finished in my 250+ hours of play. It seemed like he was always relatively near a road, so I was using Hero's Path or whatever it's called to look for bits of road I'd never been on. I found a couple Addison's that way, but then at some point I was farming dragon parts, I went to a sky island for that and ended up in a completely random open field of grass, with no landmarks anywhere nearby. And there was a fucking Addison in the middle of the field. I never would have found him in a hojillion years if I was looking for him, because I'd never bother to look in the middle of a huge empty field. So, that ended my endeavor.

That was months ago. The other day, I don't remember what it was, but something triggered me to think, "Fuck it. I'm finishing the Addisons. Even if I have to cheat with a map." So, I'm doing that. I found so many Addisons on my own, I was under the impression I was only missing like maybe three. But using the map, I'm already up to 14 I missed. Still having fun though. Even with a map, some of them are a pain in the ass to find. Always near a road, my ass.

 

[SmokedMeat]

Returning to Last Epoch a couple years later now, and damn it’s quite good. Went with Rogue class, and dual wielding blades has been oh so fun.

 

[Flyingpanther]

Lost in random and final fantasy crisis core on pc

 

[NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt]

I've been playing Eiyuden Chronicles (Steamdeck OLED)

8 to 9 hours in

I'm looking to get all 120 characters

The game runs and looks great. I'm not a fan of certain visual styles they decided to go with. Certainly not a fan of the way the 2D character portraits look. Just has that generic mobile look to them

So far I'm loving the game despite me not liking the localization. I've been playing with Japanese Voices with English Subtitles

I find it funny how reviewers have been giving this game bad reviews due to no QOL features and it doesn't hold your hand

I'm a huge fan of Suikoden and one of my favorite parts of Suikoden games is that if you recruit all the characters, you can recruit characters that can make things easier to do

Like one character offers fast travel in every Suikoden game if you manage to recruit her if I remember correctly

In Eiyuden Chronicles, I was exploring these mines and I came across these boots that made my character move faster on the field

I like QOL features but I prefer something like I mentioned above since it feels like I invested time and money into it

I'm guessing this game will take me around 50 to 100 hours since I want to do everything

 

[Punished Miku]

Finished The Rewinder. Really enjoyed it. Its a low budget, much darker Ghost Trick: China but I enjoyed it the whole time. Story was pretty cool honestly. Unfortunately I had to use a guide on probably 35% of the puzzles to keep the pace moving along because they can be difficult. 6.5 / 10, but I'm pretty into it and would play anything else from this team.

 

[Vyse]

Is Sand Land accessible and easy to get into for folks who aren't familiar with the source material. From what I understand, it's based on a manga series?

Super easy. Fun game.

 

[Vyse]

Stella Blade. Really like it so far. Still pretty early on.

 

[reektann]

A few hours into Minishoot Adventures playing on Steam Deck. Which is sort of a Zelda meets geometry wars meets binding of Isaac top down style adventure shooter.

It is fantastic. A really moreish feel to zipping around the levels blasting enemies. Lots of secrets to be found and it’s simlply a lot of fun.

 

[Mr Hyde]

Finished Journey to the Savage Planet and it's DLC "Hot Garbage". Very fun and creative game. A colorful and humorous take on the Metroidvania genre, you're an astronaut stranded on a mysterious planet and you have to figure out how to get the hell out of there. You explore different biomes, scanning the creatures and the fauna, getting upgrades for your suit and weapons and so on. Classic stuff but it's presented in a fun comedic way that you aren't seeing very often in video games. It doesn't take itself very seriously and it's a very light hearted adventure that never gets boring.

The funniest thing in the game is the company you work for, Kindred Aerospace and it's CEO Martin Tweed. He deploys a female robot companion who keeps track of your progress in studying the planet. Your companion constantly drops sarcastic comments about you and your progress in the world, about the animals you fight and environments you scan and these little quips can be really funny. The company is also very dubious and use you for their own agenda. You get to occasionally watch videos with the CEO himself talking about the company and your assignment and it's very funny. The actor who plays Tweed does a great job. He steals the show completely.

I very much recommend this game if you like colorful humourous adventures with lighthearted action and platforming. It got a wonderful sense of exploring and the world building is pretty damn great. Feels a bit like a hidden gem since I rarely see people talking about it.

 

[JimmyRustler]

As Elden Ring is getting quite rough at the moment at Haligtree and Malenia and there is no real sense of progression but just bossfight after bossfight (and hours of trial and error accompanying this) I started another playthrough of Dark Souls.

Man, coming for Elden Ring endgame this game feels like a cakewalk. Still remember how I struggled in the early section of the game and now it just a breeze. LoL, but just what I need to spice up the bosses of Elden Ring.

 

[Punished Miku]

Starting up Gears of War Judgment. Pretty cool so far. Feels a lot faster and more responsive. Excited to finish this one so I can finally move on to 4 and see what these modern ones are like.

 

[Punished Miku]

Started up Another Crab's Treasure. First 30 min is thoroughly 7/10 territory. There is some novelty having a cartoon / friendly souls. Its clearly a bit lower budget but you have a few moments with slightly nice visual effects. Biggest annoyance so far is that without a map the distant horizon is murky and not that visible since you're underwater. And I feel like this game is eating inputs on the charge attack constantly. You have to stop all attacking and wait, then do it. Little clunky. Will continue on, still super early. Tracking on enemy attacks is ridiculous so the only option is "evades" not spacing. Fun idea but it feels like its failing on the fundamentals. So far, wouldnt recommend it. We'll see.

 

[Punished Miku]

Started up Little Kitty Big City. Pretty interesting game design. Not what I expected. A lot more object interaction than I thought, almost like a casual WRPG. You hold jump and can plot an arc for the jump like a grenade toss. Slower but more accurate. Really promising so far. Lots of attention to detail. Almost a 3rd person cat immersive sim.

 

[LavitzSlambert]

As Elden Ring is getting quite rough at the moment at Haligtree and Malenia and there is no real sense of progression but just bossfight after bossfight (and hours of trial and error accompanying this) I started another playthrough of Dark Souls.

Man, coming for Elden Ring endgame this game feels like a cakewalk. Still remember how I struggled in the early section of the game and now it just a breeze. LoL, but just what I need to spice up the bosses of Elden Ring.

The Malenia fight is just mean. HP regen not tied to damage dealt, her ultimate attack, rot. It's a bad boss fight.

 

[Danjin44]

The Malenia fight is just mean. HP regen not tied to damage dealt, her ultimate attack, rot. It's a bad boss fight.

That place is end game area, at that point your build should complete with several fully upgrade weapons, you can easily out pace her regen with amount of damage you do.

I honestly had MUCH harder time with Maliketh (2nd phase) compare to Malenia....Even with Mogh with melee build I consider much tougher fight.

 

[JimmyRustler]

The Malenia fight is just mean. HP regen not tied to damage dealt, her ultimate attack, rot. It's a bad boss fight.

I’m sure I’ll get her eventually. From what I noticed after my first few fights now is that she can be stunned quite quickly, so now it’s just about me learning to evade her attacks.

But what I meant is more the general rough progression at this point. Usually you have some cool-down in between the longer boss fights where you can explore. At this point Elden Ring is pretty much devoid of that. There is just one super hard passage or boss fight after another… It’s rough, especially if the gaming is intended to relax you.

 

[Fredrik]

Went back to No Rest for the Wicked last night, haven’t played it since the launch. Went into a cave and met an alchemist that lured me into a dungeon that eventually earned me a two hand sword with a lot higher specs than the mace I had plus a rune attack bonus ring. Allowed me to quite easily slay Warrick the Torn, took like 5 times of parry+rune attack+attack. Very satisfying. Wish I recorded it.
So now I reached Sacrament and the game just go a whole lot bigger.

 

[AJBungah]

I'm on my second playthrough of BG3. I'm playing a Bard this time and some of the dialogue options are hilarious and very useful. I'm just about to move into Act 2 and I'm kinda already planning a third playthrough haha. This game has ruined other games for me in the same way that Witcher 3 did, it's so much more engaging than almost anything else available, in my opinion of course!

 

[Danjin44]

I’m sure I’ll get her eventually. From what I noticed after my first few fights now is that she can be stunned quite quickly, so now it’s just about me learning to evade her attacks.

But what I meant is more the general rough progression at this point. Usually you have some cool-down in between the longer boss fights where you can explore. At this point Elden Ring is pretty much devoid of that. There is just one super hard passage or boss fight after another… It’s rough, especially if the gaming is intended to relax you.

I'm not you want to play FROM games to "relax".....Also in most games when reach near the end game you usually facing tougher and tougher enemies...In my eyes thats a good thing.

 

[JimmyRustler]

I'm not you want to play FROM games to "relax".....Also in most games when reach near the end game you usually facing tougher and tougher enemies...In my eyes thats a good thing.

Usually it’s not in a succession like this. Already started at Mailketh where you have basically 3 bossfights one after another - Pacidusax, the Knight in front of Maliketh and then Maliketh himself. And there is literally nothing in between.

I’m sure there are some people who like this kind of stuff but for me it’s just natural to give the player some time to breathe after a bossfight before your throw him into the next. From was pretty good at that in all their other games.

 

[Madjaba]

Really disappointed in the state of gaming right now. FF7 Rebirth was disappointing, Eiyuden too.

I'm taking a trip back in time to find games with "soul" and to see if I'm just over with playing JRPG.

I'm about 6h in Legend of the Dragoon and yup the magic is still there, no boring fetch quest while still having things to discover.

The story is shonen as F* but there is so much heart poured into it that it instantly clicked for me.

 

[Fredrik]

Just want to say that No Rest for the Wicked is fantastic. It deserves some hype, plays great.

But holy crap it’s really pushing the system occasionally when maxed out even at 1440p. I went up in some higher up area in Sacrament and saw the fps crawl around at 22-27fps… With a 4090!

 

[Punished Miku]

Day 2 on Another Crab's Treasure. It gets much better. The 1st hour is awful. After that you unlock shells which are in different types all over, each with limited durability and a unique spell attached to it. You unlock a fishing line which opens up some light platforming. I turned all the assist stuff on to reduce damage and this feels like normal difficulty. Combat still isnt amazing but its better when you have spells and youre juggling shells.

 

[Duchess]

Finished The Pathless.

Hmm. It's a good game, and I've enjoyed it, but it does display a number of weaknesses.

About half way through, you've basically seen everything the game has to offer, with all the elements repeating themselves. I wasn't a fan of the boss fights, as it often felt like every time I took a hit or was ejected from that arena that it was the game's fault, rather than my own.

Having said that, I am continuing to play it, to get all the trophies.

 

[LavitzSlambert]

Really disappointed in the state of gaming right now. FF7 Rebirth was disappointing, Eiyuden too.

I'm taking a trip back in time to find games with "soul" and to see if I'm just over with playing JRPG.

I'm about 6h in Legend of the Dragoon and yup the magic is still there, no boring fetch quest while still having things to discover.

The story is shonen as F* but there is so much heart poured into it that it instantly clicked for me.

Mixed on this post, Rebirth was really excellent. But I can always appreciate another LoD enjoyer. The story and lore is way better than people give it credit for.

 

[Shake Your Rump]

Is Sand Land accessible and easy to get into for folks who aren't familiar with the source material. From what I understand, it's based on a manga series?

I knew nothing about the game and it is a lot of fun. I actually had Stellar Blade on hold for a week while I played Sand Land non-stop.

I bought the manga and the game follows the manga almost exactly. It does continue the story after the manga ends, so maybe that is how the anime proceeds (I have never watched it).

 

[rsouzadk]

Finshed The Callisto Protocol + Final Transmission DLC, and i am blown away how good the game is!

Graphics, sounds, gameplay, scenarios.. damn, it was so intense.

The only downside is the gameplay focusing too much on melee combat, and sometime after ~50% of the game it gets a little boring (but the combat with bosses/mobs was top notch!).

 

[simpatico]

Just completed my Days Gone replay. I played at launch and was surprised how good it was. Sony bros were barely lukewarm on it and I didn’t read a single “raving” review or impression. Sometimes I wonder if most Sony bros are OK. For me, this game deserves the accolades that TLOU gets. Not that TLOU is bad, but if we’re talking post apocalyptic adventures, with romance, brotherhood, action, fear, suspense and wonder, well Days Gone blows it away. Bursting at the seams with content, and one of the cleanest, most developed 3 act stories in all of gaming. In a fair world it would be seen as it is: one of last gen’s very best games.

Just going by numbers of characters I thought were well acted and most importantly, unique. Days Gone has among the most in all of gaming: Deek, Boozer, Sarah, Tucker, Iron Mike, Rikki, Skizzo, Copeland, Manny. I’m probably missing some, but holy shit. I played Cyberpunk right before and even it barely keeps up on that front. You can keep the Mass Effect crew, I’m going to war with those mentioned above.

Weapons were great to use and I was always close enough to tangible, game changing new ones. As an avid shooter myself, I thought they did great with the ballistics feel. Nothing was laser dependable outside of high end snipers. You get a dynamic, loose fitting reticule depending on the gun type. You level up as a player through experience. Learning where to put the reticule, how the gun recoil feels etc. Things are rough at first, but by end game you can be a deadly assassin even with those starting guns. Their stats didn’t level up, your brain did. You’ll never get to 100% accuracy, but you can get pretty damn close with skill. Really feels rewarding. The most important thing in any shooter: headshots always kill instantly. Even heavies at the end, once you pop that helmet off, a headshot with even the weakest gun insta kills. Loadout diversity was brilliant. Do I take a human loadout, zombie or hybrid? Choices mattered For the whole 50 hours you either just got a gun that changes everything, or you’re getting into the swing of using that game. There was rarely a dull moment in that department and I was motivated to grind the next one.

The bike. My steed. My dragon. My wizard. The cocktail of weapon handling, zombies and the bike make for an amazing stew. By the end of the game you’re really attached to this thing. It gets you out of every jam and you’re quick to gas it up or repair it when needed. Not to mention the large amount of upgrades you can buy for it. It’s S Tier in terms of vehicle/horse bond in a game. The game has a great survival-light thing going on. Bike requires gas, you can only change load outs at a camp, Shit gets harder at night. Struck a great balance there and the bike was the glue.

Sequels….. I don’t know. I like to say all games don’t need sequels. Sometimes it cheapens a great experience or piece of art (Matrix, Star Wars, Deus Ex). I’m afraid Sony would listen to the industry reviewers and trade the characters for wisecracking, irony bro DEI cardboard cutouts (Days Gone has a strong black, female, lesbian doctor that actually doesn’t feel forced BTW. This alone deserves a diversity award.) At a minimum I don’t think we’d see Deek and Boozer types in the lead roles. Really Sony Bend got a streak of Rockstar quality writing and storyboarding on this one. I can’t overstate how good they did. In a perfect world where I have dictatorial control over the project, sure, I’d love a sequel. But it’s 2024, the year of our lord, and we live in Clown World.

Everyone should play Days Gone. It’s an S Tier open world game and maybe the best zombie game. I didn’t even mention the hordes…. buy this. It’s worth full price.