Author Topic: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E  (Read 282349 times)

Reddyne

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #690 on: May 17, 2017, 02:17:27 PM »
Haha! A 100% complete Alolan pokedex, and a living one at that. This game's all-stars were all 3 of the starters plus my magnezone. Honorable mention to the mudsdale, gabite, and shellgon I ran with for some time, plus Nebby toward the end of the game. Special credit also goes to my ditto, which probably produced roughly 100 eggs or so for trades and filling out holes in my pokedex. Seriously being able to get 5 Dratinis within 15 minutes and trading them for almost anything is as broken as it sounds. I benefited from some dubious deals but also gave great things away for little things just to save a spot of time.

All in all I think nearly everything about this game was a cut above X/Y. It could've used a touch of polish or balancing (~25 high level enemy pokeys in a row with no good grinding spots was NOT fun wtf) but every last aspect was an improvement. I could go on and on about it but there's no point. After I played Y I felt I was mostly done with the series. Moon changed my mind. I don't think there's much higher praise than that. Though maybe Y would have been more fun if I were ever satisfied with my squad.

And so ends the xxx hour tale of Huihui, a boy and his massive collection of pets, endangered creatures, murdersaurus rexes, and extradimensional aliens. A boy whose name means "underwear" in Hawaiian. Well done, kid.

Just in time for Fire Emblem: Echoes.

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pineyappled

Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #691 on: May 20, 2017, 08:52:15 AM »
I'm enjoying Tsuki ni Yorisou way more than I should (why are yuri-ge so universally awful) Luna-sama CUTE

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #692 on: May 20, 2017, 03:59:40 PM »
Lately, I've been replaying Saints Row 2. It's been great fun, but... it is the PC version. I had held off playing it for a while since I heard it didn't have Steam Cloud support and I didn't want to rummage through my old machines for my save, but when I booted it on this one, it had them anyways. I started from scratch anyhow, and really enjoyed it this time around, too.

I've never liked the sense of humor in the Grand Theft Auto series, and SR2 still clings to that a bit, but is a little less afraid to be ridiculous. It's still weirdly grim and mean-spirited unlike its successors, but it doesn't linger on that outside of the main storyline and a few radio ads. Each of the games are distinct enough from each other that I find they all keep replay value; SR2 is a grim GTA-type open-world title with plenty of exploration and secret stuff to uncover, SR:TT is a ludicrously over-the-top third-person shooter, SRIV is a superhero game among the likes of Spider-Man and Prototype, and Gat Out of Hell is akin to IV but far more combat-heavy. They definitely got better at characterization over the years. SR2 just kind of expects you to recognize all the returning characters, with only the thinnest of recaps, whereas The Third was generally standalone and IV was a continuity cavalcade. The story is a pretty intriguing criss-cross of motivations and manipulation, but it does still feel a bit unusual to have a general overarching villain and only vague character archetypes where the later titles sacrificed plot coherence for character examination.

Aaaanyways. On the more interesting front, the PC port is bad. You might've picked it up while it was free recently, and it's still absolutely worth playing. The Gentlemen of the Row mod package is pretty much a must just for game stability, but it also adds a bunch of joke weapons and extra in-game storefronts that bring it more in line with the later titles in terms of ridiculousness (throwing fireworks, buying enemy vehicles straight out of the police impound, and a gun that fires chainsaws) compared to SR2's more standard gangland fare. The radio stations are a major highlight of the game, with everything from classic 80's hits to a gloriously unfitting easy listening station, but that leads to another issue with the PC port; the audio is weirdly chalky and heavily compressed. The port was outsourced to another company, and whatever the hell they did to the audio libraries, the original devs can't figure out how to fix. And they've tried! Repeatedly! Modders have at least cleaned up the radio audio, so Karma Chameleon can get stuck in your head perpetually in crisp high quality, but the rest is unsalvagable.

Finally, to tie this into racing games somehow, I will freely admit I'm both very impressed by SR2's demolition derby mode, being pretty much an entire PS1-era game of that genre, but, uh, I also suck at it. So.

PAYDAY 2's also gotten a heavy rework for single players, giving the AI perks and tripling/quadrupling the amount of enemies. I'm not having nearly as much fun with the game played this way as I used to, but I get what they were going for; multiplayer was fast and frenetic with swarms of enemies, whereas single-player had 1/4 of that going on at any given time and thus was a slower, calmer affair. Now they're boosting the speed, enemies, and team AI to make it a comparable experience. We'll see how it pans out.

Ionasal kkll Solciel

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #693 on: May 21, 2017, 09:01:56 AM »
And that's NieR:Automata platted, and a second save file thrown into the database known as Ending E. Thank god for the shop that lets you buy trophies - I'll grind to get Inorganic Blade, Supreme Support Weapons, Naughty Children, and Transcendent Being; but you're not getting me to waste an hour for Not That I Mind... and god knows how many hours for Machines vs, Machines and The Power of Hate. (EDIT: In hindsight, Machines vs. Machines is probably grindable during the cult bit of Route B, The Power of Hate somehow I didn't realize meant A2's Berserk Mode.)

Supreme Support Weapons is a huge bitch to grind through, since you can't buy Pure Waters or Simple/Complex Gadgets. Unless you've been using Scanner a shit-ton, you won't have enough Gadgets, and you have to traverse the Flooded City a ton because the Pure Water spawn rate is shit-tier.
« Last Edit: May 22, 2017, 07:13:37 AM by Ionasal kkll Solciel »
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commandercool

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #694 on: May 24, 2017, 07:03:51 AM »
I'm no Resident Evil fan, at all (I love RE4, but who doesn't?), but I let myself get talked into playing Resident Evil 7. I felt like I probably should if I want to have an up-to-date opinion on horror games, and... yeah, I didn't like it at all. It had a lot of good ideas but executed them very poorly by my reckoning, and I wasn't satisfied at all by the ending. I didn't like Resident Evil before and I don't like it now.
I made a PADHerder. It's probably out of date though.

pineyappled

Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #695 on: May 24, 2017, 08:34:38 AM »
http://puu.sh/vZPPC/5868b7dd3c.jpg
moving to canada IMMEDIATELY

Your Everyday NEET

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #696 on: May 27, 2017, 05:23:01 AM »
When I'm bored, I happen to stumble across a metroidvania game starring a bunny girl with an absurd premise called Bunny Must Die: Chelsea and the 7 Devils. Rabi-Ribi is a wonderful game, so I'm thinking I could give it a shot. Bad idea. I haven't found myself raging at a game ever since the awful GoS.

The story is... Uh.... There's a feline world war, and there's a cat-powered thermomewclear plant. Then 3 days later, the power plant exploded, causing Bunny who just happen to be near it to grow a cat ear (on top of having bunny ear). Then, there a messenger who escorted her to the labyrinth in order to free her from the curse. Suddenly a wild rhino appears and stabs the messenger 24 times. Yeeeah... Whatever.

The game play is your standard Metroidvania. You run, you jump, you shoot stuff. You explore a huge open area with multiple paths. You can gain powerup and upgrade to increase your stats and allow you to traverse further. The main gimmick of Bunny is time power. She can time stop,  outright resetting if she dies, reverse time, slow down time, and stuff like that. This requires time crystal which you get from killing enemies and destroys Castlevania-esque lamps.  Bunny has 5 weapons which she can get from the lamps. Slyph Shooter, her basic weapon deals low damage, but extremely effective when used with spin attack (rapidly fire weapon in 360 degrees) and time stop. Faust Samurai, sword with great damage, low range, effective with spin attack. Black Wing, boomerang with average damage, medium range, and pierces through wall. Spike Hammer, huge hammer that FUBAR enemies, but very slow firing rate and can?t be spin attack. Last is Roppongi Missile, homing missile with very low damage and very extremely unreliable. You can only equip one weapon at a time however. You can stomp on enemies and bullet and laser if you so desired, this is required for puzzles. You can also parry attack by moving just before the attack connect like you?re some Street Fighter 3 bloke. But well, I prefer to jump my way out of trouble.

Now, let?s talk why hate this game, the controls. Simply put, it?s garbage. It?s kinda lagging and doesn?t feel right to me. Jump physiics are garbage as well. There?s 3 types of jump: standing jump, spin jump, and dash jump. Stand jump has great vertical reach but low horizantal range. Spin jump has average horizontal and vertical reach, allows spin attack, but doesn?t allow stomping enemies (A fact that gets me in trouble many times). While dash jump... You get the idea. Each types of jump is triggered depending if you?re moving or not when jumping. I don?t know about this at first and thought I was stuck until I learn about stand jumping. It?s awkward to use and may costs you a life in platforming section. Wall jumping is also finicky. You wall jump when you press jump when facing wall. I?m more like mashing the jump button when facing the wall and hope for the best. Sometimes, when I wall jump, I suddenly dash for no reason, causing me to plummet down and start from the beginning. All in all, it feels I?m less controlling Bunny and more like I?m dragging her sorry ass. I guess the controls can be mastered? But I don?t have time for it.

When attacking, you superglue yourself in the floor. It takes a while to attack, and it takes a while to resume moving (I think there?s half a second delay). Time stopping ability is kinda useless later on. Stronger enemy and bosses are obviously immune to it. They can still shoot your ass while time stopped while you are physically incapable of harming enemis when in time stop. DIO can punch a hole through a man?s chest when time stopped. Bunny can?t slice things in half when time stopped. Riiiiiiight... When fighting enemies and bosses, I just superglue myself to the floor, tanks hit and hope for the best, Also, the game keeps track of your total time (saving also add a minute to your time, although it?s more like 100 seconds though), number of tries, and deaths count. You will die a lot. Mostly due to combination of bad control  and occasional crap moment.

Okay okay, enough about talking negatives, now let?s talk about the positives: The story is... out there. The boss designs are kinda unique sometimes. There?s a giant photo realistic cat, there?s a Dracula wannabe who can kill you instantly by flashing (I call BULLSHIT!!!) , the music are pretty decent as befitting of Japanese game (Especially in the Metroid-esque final area.

The final boss, Chelsea is an annoying bastard with 7 phases. Some forms are kinda okay? I guess? But 3 of them just make me wanna rage! Undine Stream is a huge and very fast water beam. It bypass your invincibility. Fail to dodge it and you?ll get stunlocked by it and it can deplete 75% of your health. The only way to escape it is to parry continuously. But well... I can?t parry well. 5th form (I forgot it's name, reduces the arena to a very tiny series of platform. It?s the only boss which requires doing other things besides shooting them to damage them. Her last form is especially nightmare.  Vermilion Lord weaponized lag. If she uses it, you get stopped for a while and suddenly she surrounds you with bullet in 180 degrees (I can only fire at 90 degrees when on the ground or just suddenly whip out Undine Stream. Fortunately, you can restart to whichever form you lose at.


Yeeeah... I ain't going anywhere unless I can parry it.

Get enough time powerup and you can play as Chelsea. Chelsea can?t parry, slower than Bunny, and she only has 1 main weapon. But her main weapon is an upgradeable machinegun. She can also jump really high and glide, bypassing some annoying platforming section. While she can only use 1 item at a time (unlike Bunny who permanently use hers at all time), almost all her item are fun to use, especiall the ladder. Wanna reach higher place? Place a ladder. Enemies are above you? Bash them with ladder! Bosses use bullet hell? Place ladder and camp there (Her fire rate increase dramatically when crouched or on ladder).  Ladder kicks a lot of ass. Her other item is just fun to use as well. There?s a locked door which requires puzzle or a key? Blow them with bombs! A spike which deals tremendous amount of damage? Break them which your shoes! Wanna find secret passage? Reveal them with Eye of Truth. Places too high to reach with your ladder? Space Jump! The only one that is useless is Vermilion Stop, her version of time power. Guess what she can?t do when she use it?


Keep holding the shoot button and you win. Except the boss rams me out of my ladder and camp there until I died. Freaking Bastard!

Her final boss is against 3 bosses all at once which has 5, 3, and 3 forms respectively. I like her first final boss, Septentrion Pleilades, it transform into 4 japanese mythical beasts (Suzaku, Genbu, Byakko, Seiryuu) and what the hell is a Kirin? It?s really cool fighting a transforming boss. Except I hate its Byakko form! It moves waaay too erratically, and it?s too big and too fast to be dodged reliably. So I just damage rush it. And Seiryuu I guess it?s kinda bad as well. It?s crapshoot whether it decided to moves inside you or not. After the fun Septentrion fight, she fights Bunny. She fights mostly just as you would fight as her (Hey! I can?t spin attack with Spike Hammer!). And then she cheats. Her final form is just full of bullshit. She bounces all over the arena, stop time constantly, fire in 360 degress. The thing is: If she touches you once or damages you, it will be followed up with Heartbeat Queen which will instantly kill you. Because that?s what you needed after 7 phases of boss fight, right? RIGHT?!!! Back to Septentrion again I guess. Fortunately, you only have to take only 1 phase of the final final boss. The 2nd phase is unwinnable while the last phase is kickass time.


I'm glad the game understand fairness as well as GoShit did.

So that was Bunny Must Die and Chelsea and the 7 Devils. It?s a unique metroidvania that is held down by it?s horrid controls and occasional bull. Well, if you want to play as a bunny in a metroidvania environment, play Rabi-Ribi instead.


Ionasal kkll Solciel

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #697 on: May 29, 2017, 03:29:52 AM »
So, uh, Star Ocean 3 is out on PS4. I'm thankful there's no Trophy for "get all the Battle Trophies," but the one for 80% of them is gonna suck hardcore. I think I still have my Bradygames guide somewhere around here...
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Mr. Sacchi

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #698 on: May 30, 2017, 02:48:30 AM »
I have been playing a lot of Fallen London lately, which is surprising considering how I remember giving this game a try some time ago and not really liking it. Amazing how the only reason I gave it a try at all is because its ex-main-writer wrote something for Stellaris.

I wonder if anyone else here plays it? It would be great to have someone to help me since I seem to be getting close to becoming a POSI.

Pywackett-Barchetta

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #699 on: May 30, 2017, 03:33:16 PM »
Recently, I finished up the career mode of FlatOut, a classic demolition derby game with some intense racing. It's likely best summarized as an arcade racing game with absurdly, unnecessarily detailed realistic physics, a combination that works bizarrely well, if frustratingly. It takes some very excellent car control to make it through an event even relatively unscathed. Mostly, though, I was powering through the end of it recently because a friend gave me FlatOut 2, and I wanted to get to it.

Now, FlatOut 2 is an entirely different beast, in tone, gameplay, and quite evidently in budget. You can tell this right from the opening music, as the original opens with a fantastic techno track from an alternative rock band based in Helsinki, with the rest of the game's soundtrack being similarly worldwide alternative bands, and the sequel opens with Rob Zombie. And then the menus continue to Audioslave, Megadeth, and Fall Out Boy. Whether this is an improvement is up to personal taste, but personally, it feels more cohesive compared to the original's eclectic playlist.

Instead of just the off-roading cheap battered cars on small town roads and farmland, the sequel expands to starting with those (Derby class), before working up to racecars (Race class) and supercars (Street class, which seems like that's a little backwards an order on those last two, but hey). The focus is less on wrecking up the scenery for boost and more on the instant cash bonuses you get for dealing damage to opponents. It encourages you, a little more Burnout style, to bump, slam and bash any opponents off the road, but it's still tough enough to line up the shots that it takes serious planning instead of just frantic attacking. The physics are much more forgiving and the handling more in line with an arcade-style game, filing off the edges that gave the first FlatOut its character, but either way, it's immensely satisfying to deal with a frustrating opponent by nudging them into an oncoming wall at just the right angle to see the driver launch out of their windshield. It's just a nice little icing that you get paid for it now.

In short, it's a fantastic game that I'm surprised I missed this long, and really takes me back to 2000's car combat games in spectacular fashion. The 2006 musical tastes are all that obviously date it.

Garlyle

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #700 on: June 02, 2017, 09:38:02 AM »
I FOUND FROG FRACTIONS 2

WHAT IS GOING ON

Jq1790

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #701 on: June 03, 2017, 01:50:29 AM »
Wait such a thing exists?  Oh maaaan.  Kinda have to see what that's like now.
If you're a Pazudora player and aren't on #puzzleandlibrarians, come join us!

Ionasal kkll Solciel

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #702 on: June 03, 2017, 02:06:05 AM »
asdf I must be a masochist because I picked up Farpoint VR knowing it was basically a horror game, when I don't like horror. You'd think that after Yomawari and my "nope"ing out of it, I'd know better, but I guess not.
Let's Play: BIT.TRIP FLUX | Let's Play: Malicious | Skyward Sword: Shieldless Final Boss | Skyward Sword: Boss Rush! | Ace Combat Infinity: Campaign in the X-02 Wyvern


Move eternally forward,
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Jq1790

  • Wow I'm back to playing this game.
  • Let's puzzle together again, Karin!
Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #703 on: June 08, 2017, 04:07:51 AM »
Ys Origin Yunica Nightmare mode clear.  As usual it took me an unfathomable amount of corpses to make it but my stubbornness won out in the end.  For most of its attacks dealing like 3-5 damage each the final boss proved shockingly annoying.  Didn't help that I kept getting knocked into the unavoidable ~90 damage special attack in phase 3(didn't occur in my winning run). 

Fun ride as always, but I'm gonna wait to do the other two stories and most likely will drop a difficulty or two to save myself some agony.

Not out of the Ys woods yet though. 

* Jq1790 glances at Ark of Naphistim*
 

Hoo boy.  Catastrophe mode, here I come.

("Glutton for Punishment" indeed.)
« Last Edit: June 08, 2017, 06:51:27 AM by Jq1790 »
If you're a Pazudora player and aren't on #puzzleandlibrarians, come join us!

Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #704 on: June 08, 2017, 05:54:56 PM »
I'd never gotten far into Bunny Must Die myself, but I might try it out again sometime. If you want more bunny themed game, I'd recommend Pharaoh Rebirth + as well. It's not as good as Rabi-Ribi, but it's still worth playing.


Yunica is easily the hardest of the 3 characters in Ys Origin, so you probably could handle the other 2 decently enough even on Nightmare. Even the intended Expert character ends up being the not too bad in most places.


I've been playing so much Nuclear Throne. Trying to 100% the game, but it's so hard to get good runs going as some of the characters. I have Crystal, YV, Eyes, Rebel, Rogue, Horror, and Steroids at 100% unlocks. Melting is currently 2 crowns away from 100% unlocks(Crown of Guns which is a preloop crown and Crown of Death which is a postloop), but I still need Unstoppable, so I'll still have to play him quite a bit even after 100% unlocks.
« Last Edit: June 08, 2017, 05:58:12 PM by Chaotic Phoenixma »

Jq1790

  • Wow I'm back to playing this game.
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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #705 on: June 09, 2017, 12:29:45 AM »
Hugo I imagine myself having fun with just for being different and the other guy I haven't played to see how I'd fare with him or to see what his gameplay feels like.  I've heard he's pretty broken though.  Yunica is BASICALLY the same as playing Adol in other Ys games(felt very Ys 2 later on when it was basically "spam fire magic at almost everything) which is why I originally went with her, but...after the literal nightmare of her route I might just want to take it easy for unlocks and stuff and maybe do Nightmare runs if I feel particularly like hating life.  I have enough Nightmare Ys games to keep me occupied just with Ark and later I need to pick up Lacrimosa.
If you're a Pazudora player and aren't on #puzzleandlibrarians, come join us!

Ionasal kkll Solciel

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #706 on: June 10, 2017, 03:47:35 AM »
Moe Chronicle is coming to Steam. What is this black magic

In other news, picked up Ys Origin on Vita. Wow, the lag on that centipede boss...
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CF7

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #707 on: June 12, 2017, 12:00:58 PM »
So, i finally picked up Freedom Planet. It feels like i am 10 again, playing Sonic on my Genesis 20 years ago and it's stupidly fun, amazing and exciting as it was back then. I am not sure if anything else needs to be said.
« Last Edit: June 12, 2017, 01:41:50 PM by CF7 »
Sometimes rumors are just... rumors

Reddyne

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #708 on: June 13, 2017, 02:21:11 PM »
My time with Fire Emblem Echoes on Hard was pleasant until I hit chapter 4 and deliberately started a new game because of the amount of raw screw-yous tossed in there. Since I know exactly what I'm doing now it'll probably take a lot less time to catch up to where I'm going.

I'm going to replay Pokemon Y next. The first time around didn't go so well but I feel so much more accustomed to modern pokemon now that I think it's worth a second try. I also wouldn't mind completing the pokedex. I got a copy of Alpha Sapphire to follow up on it as well.

Four Job Fiesta starts in a week!

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Ionasal kkll Solciel

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #709 on: June 14, 2017, 02:49:53 AM »
I'm surprised at how much I missed playing Wipeout 2048, now that I'm playing the Omega Collection. Zone Mode is still the craziest shit ever.

Anyway, picked up Horizon: Zero Dawn since it was on sale, and also picked up Dark Rose Valkyrie because Iffy; why not?

And I just looked up the trophy list for Ys Origin and am just now noticing there's no trophy for taking down the hopeless boss fight. Welp.
« Last Edit: June 14, 2017, 02:55:37 AM by Ionasal kkll Solciel »
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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #710 on: June 14, 2017, 04:38:42 AM »
With the release of DiRT 4, I dove headfirst back into DiRT 3 because I am cheap and 4's close enough to DiRT Rally that I can keep playing that daily for now instead. It has a very distinct, bright, vibrant arcade vibe to it, with energetic music and a mellow overall tone to it that makes it a very relaxing title when you're not actually in the heat of competition. The "extreme" vibe is toned down a good deal, even if it's still infamously, as admitted by the devs themselves, "dudebro"-ish at times. It manages to feel authentic in terms of actual driving (it's most certainly not a simulator, but the arcade-style gameplay feels real enough for, say, if you were recreating WRC highlights with Hot Wheels cars),and having a roster of excellent cars across various disciplines with storied histories (occasionally you'll even find Tanner Foust or S?bastien Ogier among your competitors), but it manages to still escalate things to a neatly silly degree.

Gymkhana is a major focus in this title, and it's applied to the game by way of essentially making it Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. What's usually a run across a course going through pre-defined obstacles and stunts - which, really, isn't much different from rally in the first place when you think about it - is now portrayed as, well, also that, but freestyle competitions see you set out in a large arena with various ramps, trailers, and such to drift around, smash up, and jump over to gain points and eventually a multiplier for more points and so on. This was divisive among fans that just wanted a rally game, but I find it fun, which is all I'm asking.

The locations are all beautiful, and none are restricted by basic reasoning. Cordoning off the entire Battersea Power Station to build a stunt park you can free-roam around anytime you want? Why not. Holding the qualifying rounds for a race at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in its own parking lot? Might as well. Having powerful rallycross beasts battling it out in the middle of Tokyo except covered in dirt so it technically counts as not pavement? Sure. It throws casually ludicrous things at you, and they work because they're all improbable, but never impossible. That suspension of disbelief stays suspended when you're bounding gleefully over corners and hurtling down hills.

The Time Trials mode is where I spend my time now, with the career long finished besides a few tricky stunt events. The online leaderboards are mostly ruined by hackers at the top level, but recording a time in each event just for the sake of doing so is still fun, especially when there's varieties I completely forgot were in the game, like drift competitions and Group B.

Admittedly, much of what got me back into this was actually finally getting Horizon Rally for Forza Horizon 1 to work. I'd gotten the season pass, but it wouldn't download the pack from the link in-game labeled Horizon Rally... though it did download when I clicked a random Ford in the car list. Anyways, it's an expansion that takes an open-world racing game and reworks it into a rally game, with five new cars to match. The stages for it are really thrilling, with ridiculous camber and huge leaps, a fantastic sense of speed really making you feel just how powerful your car is, and how harrowing a high-speed off-road run can be. However, the extremely limited repercussions for damage (especially after getting used to a lot of DiRT Rally) can suck out that sense of edge-of-control excitement as soon as you plow into a barn at 150mph and come to a full stop none the worse for wear. Plus, the co-driver only speaks in SEGA Rally-style pacenotes ("easy left", "hard right") with no option for the full 1-6 system ("left 6, right 1"). That being said, it made for an excellent return to a game I hadn't played in a long time; it didn't take long to finish that particular excursion, but as part of the season pass and with more awaiting me in the open world of Colorado when I returned to it, it was a very refreshing welcome back.

Especially because, for a few fleeting moments, it made it far easier to forget/ignore that Horizon Rally's stages are mostly just parts of the existing game map with the road removed.

I apologize for being on such a rally kick recently; just seems to be what's working for me, and the recent NASCAR games aren't anything to write home about, so I haven't been playing those in between races besides Dirt to Daytona. I'll gladly extol the virtues of that one anytime, but suffice to say that recent sequels to it haven't impressed as much. Also, DiRT 3 Complete Edition and all DLC for Forza Horizon are no longer available for sale digitally, officially, so if you did have any interest in those, uh... it'll take some doing. At least DiRT 3's still available complete on consoles, on a proper disc.

Update on FlatOut 2, by the by; that 2006 soundtrack does not age well, and that alone is making it very hard for me to play in anything longer than short bursts now, but I really appreciate that each AI opponent has their own 'personality', racing style, and car choice. One driver that drove a tiny compact for most of the game and got battered around easily for it finally got sick of that and traded it for a gigantic truck in the last championship. I love that attention to detail about as much as I hate screamo, so I'm at an impasse here.

Jq1790

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #711 on: June 14, 2017, 05:38:16 AM »
And I just looked up the trophy list for Ys Origin and am just now noticing there's no trophy for taking down the hopeless boss fight. Welp.
There's a Steam achievement for it though...Weird.

EDIT:  Ok, Napishtim, the bullcrap hitboxes on these bosses can stop anytime now.  I don't mind dying when I actually HIT something, but when I'm VERY clearly not touching ANYTHING on the boss and I spontaneously take 200 damage...?  >:(  I can see how this was the first game with this engine with stuff like that.
« Last Edit: June 15, 2017, 01:32:07 AM by Jq1790 »
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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #712 on: June 15, 2017, 07:40:17 PM »
Napishtim even has critical hits unlike the others in that system. Which is a pain for Time Attack due to it being RNG as well as yet another way to die in less hits.

Yeah, there's some differences in the Origin achievement and trophy lists.

Such as having a deathless run on the PS4 and Vita versions, even if it can be cheesed by exiting out instead of retrying then reloading your save.

Or only having to upgrade 1 character's blessings instead of all of them to max. That was a definite improvement since it's very high grind on PC if you didn't do it before they fixed the arena SP bug(which I'm not sure if it'd be in the PSN versions since they did use an older version for that).

Then they put in a trophy for reaching max level, which tends to take a while, and unlike Felghana's Steam version, there is no way to cheese it.

Nightmare arena is definitely a very tough one though. Steam only required clearing each stage regardless of difficulty.

Only having to beat Boss Rush Nightmare 1 time instead of 8 times is also a huge improvement.

Jq1790

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #713 on: June 16, 2017, 12:12:41 AM »
Speaking of Ark...

'Ark of Napishtim clear on Nightmare/Catastrophe mode.  It had some flaws such as some REALLY screwy hit boxes, and the final boss took me less than ten tries which means it was REALLY easy, but it was fun.'  The damage on the late bosses was REALLY absurd though.  You basically NEEDED the Emelas equipment in order to not instantly die if you took any damage, it was ridiculous.  Crits were pretty much a guaranteed OHKO from a lot of attacks.

Majuunun, on the other hand...that's going to be something.
« Last Edit: June 16, 2017, 01:36:26 AM by Jq1790 »
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チソウ タイゼン

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #714 on: June 20, 2017, 10:13:20 AM »
So I'm doing a bit of catch-up in Nier: Automata after failing to pick it up for the past 2 months and I'm pleased to say that the battle system is exactly as memory-sticky as one would say riding a bicycle is.
This is honestly the most fluid and fun brawler combat system I've ever touched in my life.

Persona 5, on the other hand, is getting the short stick as of late. Two months later and I'm on hiatus, having completed the fourth palace, and that's about it. While it's undeniably, more nice to look at than 3 and 4, and very fluid in its animations and jazz, there's just
something about the construction this time around. it's very hard to put my finger on but its organization is quite a lot sloppier than 3 and 4's. it feels like you're just meandering around, fighting the Villain of the Month so far, which is why the fourth palace owner, was a pretty welcomed change of pace for me.


Since my last posting in here (months ago lmao) I've completed the everloving heck of Atelier Sophie, and good lord
I think I picked a good Atelier game to start on because that was a great experience. I've never been so enthralled with a crafting system. Holding out for Firis to not be 60 dollars, though.


Sapz

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #715 on: June 25, 2017, 04:06:14 PM »
Wipeout Omega Collection and Redout. Both incredible in their own ways. I've been waiting for a long, long time to scratch this arcade racer itch. I actually feel Redout works best without opponents in a time trial kind of way where the focus is just to blaze through the tracks as fast as possible as opposed to the carnage in Wipeout which makes the races so exciting and vicious.
Let's fight.

Jq1790

  • Wow I'm back to playing this game.
  • Let's puzzle together again, Karin!
Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #716 on: June 26, 2017, 01:30:57 AM »
After my Ys kick I started up on my long-previously-abandoned run of Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 2.  It's as basic as I remember but it's proving fun nonetheless, mainly due to the amazingly amusing writing.

I look forward to seeing what I can discover in Stella's * Dungeon as I get her more equipment and can take her further, too.  Despite the minimal interaction it's proving intriguing for whatever reason.
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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #717 on: June 29, 2017, 10:00:39 PM »
The 2DS xl looks really great, in fact I think it looks a lot better than the 3ds xl honestly. And I don't think the 3ds xl looks bad, I never had a problem with it, the 2DS xl just looks so much better.
But having used the original ds, that hinge scares me.
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Pywackett-Barchetta

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #718 on: June 30, 2017, 12:22:28 AM »
It's as basic as I remember but it's proving fun nonetheless, mainly due to the amazingly amusing writing.
Would you consider the sequel's writing an improvement to the first Re;birth? I tried giving it a go at the insistence of friends head-over-heels for the series, but I found the humor to get a bit grating fast. Might just be a personal preference thing; I've only heard one other person voice some of my concerns about the cast, but they were nearly the same exact conclusions.

But having used the original ds, that hinge scares me.
The L trigger is completely shattered in on my original DS. I do hope they've been made considerably tougher since then; even for Nintendium, that thing's pretty badly chipped, dented and battered.


On the usual rambling front, I've been mulling over what to pick up in the Steam Summer Sale, and man, it's actually been a really tough choice. I've yet to find anything that seems like an absolute must-buy. I still greatly love DiRT Rally, but sim-racing sites say that DiRT 4 somehow bungled the physics and it's a lot less satisfying a sequel. rFactor 2 has a great content list and mod support, but the demo's controls feel way too touchy. Need for Speed: SHIFT and SHIFT 2: Unleashed (yes, they dropped NFS from the sequel's title for some reason) seemed interesting for $8 together, but for some reason, EA just recently pulled all the free DLC for them offline. I tried a demo of SHIFT, and it keeps resetting my wallpaper every time it closes. (And besides, those are by Slightly Mad Studios, who went on to make the somehow-massively-unsatisfying Project CARS, so I probably shouldn't send money that way anyhow. SHIFT feels a bit better, though, because it's at least not pretending it's hyperrealistic and lying to your face about it.)

With all that bizarre inane nonsense getting in the way, I've found myself tempted by Automobilista, of all titles; there's no blatant demo for that, far as I can tell, but the Copa Petrobras de Marcas spinoff is free on Steam. After fidgeting with settings a bit (having to put it in windowed mode and then back to fullscreen to get it to boot, somehow), I've found that the actual setup in-game was near-instant. Presets for controls snapped right into place and rules were easily adjustable; within about a minute, I was behind the wheel of a Mitsubishi cruising around courses I'd never heard of in a Brazilian stock car series. The AI's competitive, the courses are quick to learn, the controls are responsive, and the tires are grippy; if you're interested in trying a racing sim, but also only have a 360 controller and not a wheel and don't want to pay money, this is the way to go.

I also recently restarted Far Cry 3. Being captivated by that wonderful intro again, I was thrust into a bizarre jungle world, and then into lengthy exposition. I began to loot the environment, and then quickly hit the cap of money I could carry unless I hunted a pig to turn into a wallet, and I couldn't shoot those until I crafted holsters to put my guns in by hunting goats, and I needed to find those goats on the map, and to load the map, I needed to climb one of the radio towers to-

I also recently uninstalled Far Cry 3

Finally, I still extremely highly recommend Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed. Excellent combination of hectic item racing and actual solid racing lines. I'm still finding new little tricks and easter eggs in this same game after five years of playing it.


Jq1790

  • Wow I'm back to playing this game.
  • Let's puzzle together again, Karin!
Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #719 on: June 30, 2017, 03:28:17 AM »
re: HDN Re;Birth2
I think the thing with the Neptunia games may be a personal preference thing as you figured.  I haven't played the first Re;Birth in a long while so I'd need to do a run to refresh myself on things to try to fairly compare but I think it's more likely that it's just not your cup of tea(which is fine of course).

The humor is a bit hamfisted(some characters occasionally calling the plot out on such things, such as IF or "Iffy" as she's often called) so if that sort of thing isn't your thing then those games are likely not to be to your liking no matter WHAT you try, unfortunately.

I WILL say that Nepgear is a much more likable main protagonist than Neptune though(primary protag of RB2 and RB1 as well as the games they are remakes of, respectively), and I can EASILY see how Neptune in general could grate  on peoples' nerves.
« Last Edit: June 30, 2017, 03:30:01 AM by Jq1790 »
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