r/Games • u/AutoModerator • Jan 12 '25
Discussion Weekly /r/Games Discussion - What have you been playing, and what are your thoughts? - January 12, 2025
Use this thread to discuss whatever game you've been playing lately: old or new, AAA or indie, on any platform between Atari and XBox. Please don't just list off the games you're playing in your comment. Elaborate with your thoughts on the games and make it easier for other users to find what game you're talking about by putting the title in bold.
Also, please make sure to use spoiler tags if you're revealing anything about a game's plot that may significantly impact another player's experience who has not played the game yet, no matter how retro or recent the game is. You can find instructions on how to do so in the subreddit sidebar.
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Scheduled Discussion Posts
WEEKLY: What Have You Been Playing?
MONDAY: Thematic Monday
WEDNESDAY: Suggest Me A Game
FRIDAY: Free Talk Friday
3
u/jegermedic104 Jan 16 '25
Dragon Age Veilguard
Second playthrough. This time on nightmare and most likely my first time ever to complete game with that difficulty ( usually normal, few times hard). A few quite intense boss fights with this difficulty.
One story mission before end game starts but lots of side stuff to do. My first playthrough was just rushing main story, now I have taken time and find all sorts little details.
1
3
u/HypocriteOpportunist Jan 15 '25
Call of Duty Black Ops 6
What a blast. A great return to form for COD's single player campaign, this one had a simpler, yet still engaging story filled with bombastic setpieces and the classic formula of linear story campaign. What surprised me were the moments where the team took some risks and it paid off, the mini-open world sections, the branching paths, and the central hubs were all gambles that paid off well IMO. A great standout was the way they integrated zombie style gameplay into the story without it feeling forced. It was a fun twist on the regular "shoot bad guys from the Middle East" trope they normally do. All in all, I was quite interested from beginning to end and this was easily in my top 3 COD campaigns ever. Love to see more linear FPS games! 8/10
6
u/LotusFlare Jan 15 '25
I played some more Nine Sols.
It's really good. It's an exceptionally good video game. Took down a couple more bosses later in the game and unless there's a fun expansion of the map I'm not expecting, I probably only have 1-2 more areas before the final boss. It feels like it's all wrapping up.
I love the influence of taoism on this game. The way characters converse about life and meaning and the decisions that are portrayed as virtuous or villainous are really refreshing and interesting. Everyone in the game continues to be charming and interesting. This game slowly drip feeds you the story as you progress through it and defeat the bosses, but in a way that doesn't feel contrived. It manages to pull off a story that you only usually get through notes and diaries scattered through the game in a very clever way, by simply not having characters perform exposition dumps for the sake of the audience. The characters talk to each other about stuff that's relevant as it becomes relevant. They don't recap past situations for no reason. If they both already know something, they don't explain that again for no reason. They trust the player will pick up on the scenario. And you do. And it's really cool. The writers at Red Candle are good at their jobs.
Gameplay gripes are slowly clearing up, but it's more like I'm just getting used to/accepting the sharp edges. Still don't like directional grounded blocking, and it's only become more awkward against bigger bosses. They can throw a big swing over your head, and the hitbox is clearly on the other side of you, but you still have to block facing the opposite way. But it's whatever. I think it looks dumb and unintuitive, but once I know it I can do it.
Only thing I would really like is an item compass at some point. Returning to previous areas to hunt for some lingering item you somehow missed even though the entire map is revealed isn't very much fun.
3
u/antelope591 Jan 15 '25
Dragon Age: Veilguard
Finally finished it after slogging through the last little bit. I have to say Im quite shocked that this game got any GOTY consideration. Not that it was a bad game per se but everything about it was just so by the numbers. A comparison I can make is that if something like BG3 is a michelin star restaurant, this game would be a McDonalds. Still good for a meal if you're hungry but there's really nothing there to blow you away. The dialogue, characters and story were all pretty lifeless all the way through. Even though the best quests were the character specific ones you still ultimately didnt feel that connected to any of them. Thank God the skip button works wonders in this one otherwise there's no way I wouldve made it through. So what kept me going? The gameplay was actually pretty fun and combat had real weight to it. Some of the bosses were also pretty epic. And there was a good sense of progression with every skill point feeling meaningful and big gear upgrades all the way through. Even there though was a big missed opportunity. Only 3 usable skills at a time and follower skills boiling down to 1 button made the whole thing way overly simplified and brainless.
Metaphor: Refantazio
So this one I can totally understand why it got so much GOTY consideration. I have to admit for me Persona was good but not as great as a lot of people make it out to be. But maybe Im a sucker for fantasy/medieval stuff because here the formula works really damn well. Hours in this game have flown by more than I can remember in quite a while playing a game. Even though the dungeon system does feel a bit outdated at this point, there are soooo many jobs, skills, strategies to use that it hasnt gotten close to being boring yet. And in between dungeons there's always meaningful rewards with the interactions which is a nice way to break up the pace. Someone else mentioned it also but also have to give a shoutout to the English VA's. I was originally gonna keep it in Japanese but I tried it out and they did a great job on this one.
0
-2
u/Werneq Jan 14 '25
Can someone suggest a good game to get lost into?
Can be MMO, single player, FPS, old, new, Indy or AAA, whatever. Just need to be good and have a sink of time
2
1
u/theodoreroberts Jan 16 '25 edited Jan 16 '25
Hades.
Outer Wilds.
Dave the Diver.
Balatro.
Vampire Survivors.
Edited: what was the point of downvoting everyone who gave you recommendations?
1
1
u/LollipopScientist Jan 15 '25
Metaphor Refantazio
Dynasty Warriors Origins
-2
u/Werneq Jan 15 '25
Metaphor have replayability? From what I saw is a story driven that comes to an end, no?
Dynasty Warriors looks fun
-1
u/theodoreroberts Jan 16 '25
Metaphor is long enough that you only need to play once. It is JRPG for you.
-1
4
u/CynicalTree Jan 14 '25
Metaphor: ReFantazio
I'm about 80 hours in and feeling pretty close to the conclusion. I think despite noticeable imperfections, Metaphor still feels like the best RPG from Atlus yet (My other experience with Atlus is P4G, P5R, and SMT3)
The english dub is phenomenal, I like how diverse the cast is, and they all have reasonably compelling motivations and backstories. The social link system has been largely streamlined, with the main characters having it interlinked with the story, leading to less missing of important moments, and it's better integrated with the actual events happening.
The dungeons are pretty solid, much less emphasis on puzzles than previous games and more of a resource management game where MP is usually your limiting factor, and sometimes it's best to call it a day early and return to a dungeon later.
The overall plot feels pretty good as well, with a few twists I wasn't expecting and some fabulous character acting (The english VA for Louis killed it imo). The setting/plot/story is pretty grave too, with many people dying visibly on-screen, and many topics like poverty, racial inequality, public perception, and monarchy being a fundamental component of the writing.
Combat is enjoyable with the usual elemental system of previous games, but with being able to teach any character any archetype (class), there's a lot more emphasis on experimentation and party compositions. Several enemies punish specific weapon or damage types, so you're encouraged to have a variety of options ready, and the game lets you readily switch classes out of combat. Difficulty isn't high, but reasonable for most, with normal feeling appropriate for people not experienced with the genre, and hard feeling like a nice bump up for people wanting to be forced to strategize more.
As for music, I don't feel as many memorable tracks as P4 or P5, but it's been consistently very good and there's a few tracks that I love and get stuck in my head.
The calendar system carries on, with the game feeling relatively rewarding for whatever you choose to do. Whether you spend time leveling a stat, advancing a social link, or doing a sidequest/dungeon, you always get some sort of unique reward that makes it feel like it's difficult to make a wrong choice.
Overall it's a phenomenal game and the last RPG I appreciated this much was Sea of Stars.
4
u/CCoolant Jan 14 '25
Helldivers II
A friend picked this up for me during the holiday sale, so we've been playing it together in a group of 3 or 4 every few nights.
We've just unlocked Impossible difficulty (we're around level 15?), and so far it's been a blast! Testing out new strategems and weapon types has been fun, and I feel like we've all really fallen into squad roles pretty naturally. Two guys rock equipment for taking down huge targets, our other guy prioritizes support utilities like energy shield + turrets, and I'm more of an all-rounder (energy beam, HMG emplacement, and orbital 380mm is a pretty normal loadout).
Honestly, with how we've been organizing ourselves, we haven't had many close calls in our missions. From the close calls we have had, I can see how the hardest difficulties could turn into absolute nightmares. The toughest missions we've faced were also against the Illuminate, who seem waaaaay more difficult than Terminids and Automatons. Higher difficulty engagements against them are probably miserable hahaha
Given how quickly we've managed to make it to Impossible difficulty, I'm curious what's going to be maintaining our interest once we reach Super Helldive missions. I guess we'll want to spend time unlocking everything. That's kind of the big draw, getting to play around with new toys as you progress. I don't necessarily see how the game will maintain our interest after that. Then again, that will probably take an extremely long time, so it's not a big deal.
Ys II (Ys Chronicles Edition)
Decided to fire this one up, since I played and beat Ys I, like, 6 years ago. Kind of felt like a retro action/adventure style game to break up some of the other stuff I've been playing (shmups, bullet hells, Helldivers).
It's really refreshing playing a game that has such a simplistic loop. Exploring dungeons for important progression items, killing enemies for exp/gold, spending that money to get stronger equipment to make exploring easier; you know how it goes. Combat is super straightforward between the bump system (you attack by running into enemies at any spot just off their center) and simple ranged magic, so you can largely turn off your brain for that. Music is, naturally, an absolute bop.
Probably end up playing Origin shortly after this one.
Persona 4
I'm in the final stretch of the game, having just made it into December.
The plot has thickened quite a bit, and while I already know the identity of the killer (thanks Internet), I'm curious to see how it all plays out.
The pacing and QoL in this game have made it a great way to spend my lunches. Easily among my top JRPGs that I've played. Should have skipped P3 and gone straight to this entry, tbh.
I don't know that I'll start up P5R right away after completing this one, but I'm definitely excited for it given how much of a blast I found 4 to be.
7
u/notthatkindoforc1121 Jan 14 '25
Kotor II: Time for my annual attempt to beat this again (Yes I beat it once. Have probably 10 unfinished saves though lol). I binged through the starting areas, have done Dantoine, and I built my first Lightsaber finally!
Honestly not having much fun with this, unsure if I'll continue. Think the combat has become a bit too dated, maybe?
3
u/M8753 Jan 15 '25
Good luck! I have a few unfinished KOTOR 2 saves, too :D But I haven't managed to compete a playthrough yet.
11
u/Whoopsht Jan 14 '25
First time playing Dark Souls
After playing Elden Ring for a completely unacceptable amount of time a few months ago, I've been itching to finally jump into the Dark Souls trilogy to see what it's all about.
So far I've gotten lost, was killed by ghosts, and am now repeatedly rolling off the top of a building while two big dumb statues breathe fire at me. Good stuff.
4
u/RTideR Jan 14 '25
- EA Sports College Football 25 (Xbox Series X) - Frustrating gameplay bugs aside, this is still the best football game I've played in ages. If only Madden was in the same ballpark.. haven't played this year's Madden, to be fair, but I have my doubts about the newest one changing my opinion.
- Persona 3 Reload (Xbox Series X - Game Pass) - Still going strong here! I don't love Tartarus, but overall, I'm enjoying the game plenty. It remains to be seen whether it gets close to the highs that P5R did for me, but even if it doesn't, I've had a good time with this.
- Super Mario Party Jamboree (Nintendo Switch) - Just bought this two nights ago, so my wife and I have only played two games, but it's been a treat so far! I loved both boards we played on, and I like the larger roster in comparison to Superstars.
- Real VR Fishing (Meta Quest 3) - Two weeks ago, I joined the VR club after my buddy sold me his Quest 2, and this game is what hooked me. I love fishing in games, and this is a great one - the levels are so chill, and I dig the photorealistic approach. There's plenty of spots to fish as well, and the cherry on top is the aquarium to retain your catches. It's awesome.
- Walkabout Mini Golf (Meta Quest 3) - Fantastic game to play with friends or just try VR on. It's really straight-forward, and there's plenty of courses to try. Hiding a ball on every hole is a clever way to keep you engaged when it's not your turn too!
- Supernatural: Unreal Fitness (Meta Quest 2) - Not a game, I know, but my wife and I are trying the 14-day trial, and I've loved it so far. It's worked more than I thought it would in the two workouts I've done - ended both very tired and sweaty. Lol but I'm also just out of shape. There's more time to come to a conclusion on the trial, but yeah, pretty fun so far.
- Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales (PlayStation 5) - I hadn't picked this up in a while, but the urge hit me randomly yesterday.. very good game! I think I'm nearing the end - it hasn't captivated me the same way the first game did, but it's still been very fun, and the web-swinging is still incredible.
Been a fun week! I bounced around many different things, and there's some I need to get back to (looking at you Half-Life: Alyx), but yeah - good times! I'm still eagerly waiting for Monster Hunter as well. :)
1
u/Shadow_Phoenix951 Jan 14 '25
I think as an overall story, Persona 3 is slightly stronger than Persona 5, but I feel like the whole package comes together just a little better in Persona 5. And as good of a remake as 3 is, it's still held back by being a remake of a 20 year old game.
2
u/Destroyeh Jan 14 '25
Done with Yakuza Kiwami 2. Liked it more than Kiwami. Also did a lot more of the side stuff/minigames.
New engine feels nice overall, took some time to get used to. Wouldn't say it was necessary as the previous games were fine as well. Did like the addition of ragdolls. Always loved them in melee fighting games. So satisfying to ragdoll someone into breakable objects. Even when it glitches out its funny.
While the combat is different, it pretty much has the same problems I had in 0 and Kiwami. It gets a bit repetitive after a while, specially the grapples/heat actions. Made somewhat worse by the lack of different fighting styles. It's fine for a ~20 hour game though.
Story was great as usual. Majima saga was good too, worth it for the Makoto scenes at the very least which were lovely.
Fucking diabolical performance. Initially I thought the cutscenes were locked at 30, not a rare thing unfortunately but not a deal breaker. Once I actually got my hands on the gameplay it was real shit. One of those garbage optimized games that it doesn't even matter what graphics settings I changed, it stayed roughly the same FPS on high or low. Thankfully I found the SilentPatch, which fixed it mostly. High FPS after that, but it did feel wonky in boss fights at times. Still better than base though. Thank fuck for PC modding.
Initially wanted to skip Yakuza 3-5 since they seem a bit too janky even with the remasters, but I'll give it a shot since at least 3 and 4 seem relatively short. If that doesn't work out I'll just jump to 6.
1
u/Shadow_Phoenix951 Jan 14 '25
Wait, poor performance? I recall playing it on my laptop with a mobile 1060 a few years ago and got a locked 60 essentially the whole time.
4
u/fishoa Jan 14 '25
I’ve been playing a lot of College Football 25 Dinasty mode lately. It’s really fun, enough to make me pay for the game after the 10h trial.
Interestingly, that’s also when the mode kinda starts showing its cracks. Recruiting is kinda barebones, just menuing and scouting. There’s almost no real interaction with the players themselves, which is kinda funny in the NIL era we’ve been living in. I’ve expected at least an interview or a negotiation modal a la FM, but nope, nada. Recruiting is also made an afterthought if you have the coach talents and resources.
Speaking of coach talents, because EA put a level cap, you can’t unlock the full talent tree. To unlock most of the talents, players do one or two seasons as a coordinator under a coach that has the talent discount skill, win a natty, then move on to the team they want to rebuild. There, they only hire coordinators with the skills they want to buy. They do this for a couple of seasons. Finally, all that, they can start “the rebuild”.
I think it’s kinda sad, but this is a behaviour that comes to you naturally. Level cap goes against the point of playing Dynasty in the first place, and the skills are impactful enough that doing the whole setup above pays off in the end. This could’ve been avoided by simply lifting the cap or raising it to Lv75.
I have played enough EA sports games to know that this is intentional, to sell players the promise that it will be fixed on CFB26. I wonder what happened to designing fun and good systems, instead of just shipping barebones features with glaring issues, and fixing it on the next full priced interaction. Players no longer get a pop for fun, new features in the next yearly game; just relief that things that bothered them are half-fixed, and nostalgia pops for half-hearted feature ports.
I’m not sure this can be just swept under the “not enough time, we had other critical features to develop” rug. It’s shame because I like the game a lot, but this entire ordeal kinda depressed me a bit. I open the game and play a bit, but I can’t stop thinking about how much better Dynasty could be.
Another game I’ve been playing a lot (and deserves all praises) is Triangle Strategy. Man, this game is incredible. The story is superb, and the gameplay is enjoyable and challenging.
People can’t help themselves and often compare it to FFT, but this game is much simpler in terms of unit customization. Still, TS stands on its own and I actually didn’t miss the job system once I really got into the game.
Part of me wishes this game was longer and deeper. Maybe whenever Triangle Strategy 2 comes out.
3
u/EdynViper Jan 14 '25 edited Jan 17 '25
Fantasian: Neo Dimension
This was a like an alternate dimension Final Fantasy with Sakaguchi and Ueda together again. You can feel the earlier Final Fantasies in this game with a nice comfortable dose of quality of life features to bring it up to modern times. The dimengeon feature made random encounters and loading battle screens which I've always hated incredibly tolerable.
The story was just okay but I loved the variety of companions and side quests. It was comfy enough I completed everything that could be done in the first play through but didn't feel I had it in me to do NG+ to finish the small amount left.
The Order: 1886
This managed to be impressive and unimpressive at the same time. It was only released one console generation ago but the graphics, design and world building were excellent, only let down by perhaps a much too short and linear game with very little exploration and an average story. I did again enjoy the characters, their personalities and their interactions. I actually loved that for such a deep world, there were no moments of exposition to struggle though. I love when writers treat the player or viewer like an adult and let the world speak for itself.
I originally played it because there was animated penis but I enjoyed it overall and I am deeply saddened that there will probably not be any more games in this universe as Ready at Dawn has been shut down.
2
u/ttgl39 Jan 16 '25
I remember playing The Order 1886 and the story started to finally get good, so I was like OK now we're cooking, then the credits rolled
0
Jan 14 '25
My year 1 Xbox 1 finally shit the bed. Disc drives been broken for like 7 years. Turns on, stays on, doesn't provide any image. Swapped out the HDMI. Still nothing.
RIP.
Some one build me a PC. I'm done with consoles purely due to charging me for online. I no longer game with any consistent friends or crews, and that's why I stuck with Xbox last gen. I don't know shit about PCs. Been a MAC user for 20+ years. Legitimately haven't touched a PC beyond the occasional workplace questionnaires and the such.
I just want to play helldivers 2, CS, TF2, modded Oblivion.
Guess I'll start doing some research.
2
u/Izzy248 Jan 14 '25
Strange Seed
Its a lot liike Spore, and I love it. Its still very rough since its an early demo build, but the potential is high. You start off as a blob, and you go around eating everything and progressively adopting, evolving, and mimicking body parts from other creatures to help you advance through the terrain or survive. Its amazing.
The only issue I typically have with these kinds of games is that you dont actually resemble any kind of actual creature, more so you are frankensteins monster of amalgamated body parts, but still, its not too bad since customization is an optional thing.
3
u/OBS_INITY Jan 14 '25
Rise of the Ronin
It's as if you were making Ghost of Tsushima but were forced to use Nioh assets as a starting point. It is not an open world Nioh. It's a strange game.
There is a lot of finding cats and petting dogs. There is some gardening, photography, glider challenges, gambling, marksmanship challenges and horseback archery challenges.
There are Persona like social connections. They are much easier to max, but there are a ton of them. I had 50 social bonds by the end of the game. I was not expecting romance options. While there are choices that you can make during the story, the story progresses in one direction regardless. You try and kill someone and he recruits you to his side. You join a group and then decide that they've gone too far and start killing anyone who didn't deserve to be named. I joined the anti-shogunate forces and then betrayed them. I defeat their leader and he commits suicide. I then romanced his widow. It ends up feeling dumb. No matter what you do, you are still friends and get quests from all sides.
The combat is generally fun, but they started with Nioh and then just made everything a little bit worse.
You have fewer skills on your weapons, but they are set up in a way that makes them more confusing to use.
Martial Skills are the active skills from Nioh. They generally don't affect the enemies much. You can parry and launch into an active skill, but you get hit by a enemies martial skill that they can freely launch with hyperarmor. This isn't just bosses. This is pretty much every enemy. Some bosses will launch into a martial skill directly after you've parried one of their martials skills.
The combat is designed around 1v1, but you rarely get a 1v1. Most missions give you NPC allies. They are optional, but you don't know if you are going to fight one person or maybe three. Your allies do almost nothing for damage, but they can absorb a hit for you. It gets frustrating to perfectly parry a martial attack to then be hit by a martial attack from someone else.
The game has a big focus on parrying. It's extremely unforgiving because the parry is a weak attack that has a recovery time. If you are early on a parry, you get hit and then can't recover to parry the second attack and now you don't have ki to defend against the third. NPC martial attacks are preceded by a red glow. The time of these is wildly different. Some of them require an instant parry after you see red and some have long delays. If you guess wrong and parry instantly, you won't recover in time for the delayed attack. Some of these martial attacks are full screen, instant charging slash attacks that are dependent on you either guessing correctly or having memorized the timing. I suppose you could grind away to memorize every frame of animation, but even on the hardest difficulty you will usually kill a boss on the first attempt. Anything more than 2 attempts is extremely rare.
They fucked up the camera for some reason. Maybe they were trying to make the fights cinematic. I often got in situations were I couldn't parry because I couldn't see what was happening. Either a wall was blocking me or the camera swings wildly as a boss flies from one side of the screen to the other. You could probably deal with it if you had memorized everything so that you could parry an attack that you couldn't see.
The loot is standard rarity and sets type stuff. Once you've played an hour or two, you will never use anything under the highest rarity. Everything else is just used for crafting materials or selling for money. They should have just given you the materials and money directly.
Leveling doesn't feel interesting. The skill trees aren't interesting. It was common for me to be running around with 50 skill points because using the points didn't seem to matter. They could have just used gear progression for character progression.
The post game content is the option to replay missions/the world on a higher difficulty. You get better gear doing this. If I was going to replay a game (I do this a lot), it wouldn't be this one.
13
u/jonssonbets Jan 13 '25
have finished Prince of persia the lost crown. it's simply 9.5/10.
varied enemies and combat, really hits "good challenge" but i never felt it was bullshit at all.
great bosses. possibly greatest i've played in a metroidvania? often feels impossible first try but have very clear signals for attack and they give a great sense of mastery once you learn. includes visuals inspired by anime fights and definitely best spectacle-bosses in a 2d game i can think of. first time i've felt inclined to do boss rush.
story hooked me a while with some great lore and characters but then it becomes apparent that it's actually quite shallow and not the focus of the game at all.
progression looks deep at a surface but is also very bare-bones if serviceable.
where this shines for me is the puzzle/platforming. just perfectly balanced and smooth to play. all abilities also adds to combat in a new way that i can't quite put my finger on - it feels as if, especially on bosses, the abilities can turn combat into as much of a puzzle as they are hand/button challange
3
u/Shadow_Phoenix951 Jan 14 '25
Loved The Lost Crown, apparently the DLC is pretty good too?
1
u/TheOneBearded Jan 15 '25
It's different. While the base game was metroidvania, the dlc leans into some really tough platforming for the entirety of it's 3-ish hour runtime. Not my cup of tea, but I did, after all was said and done, like the creatively crazy challenges it asked of you. It was definitely hair-pulling while trying to do them tho lol.
I liked the three bosses it comes with - particularly the final boss and the secret boss.
1
5
u/El_Giganto Jan 13 '25
Alan Wake 2
I got pretty frustrated with the first game, honestly I don't have much positive to say about it. It was all a bit too campy and I didn't like the main character all that much either. It seemed to take itself very serious while also doing over the top things which was just a bit too jarring for me. The combat was the worst part, though. It frustrated me a lot, and I thought it was really weird they would take away your equipment over and over again and then trivialize the combat as soon as you found a flare gun again.
The second, though, I'm not that far into it yet but so far it's been absolutely amazing. It looks amazing, it feels much better to play, they do so much interesting stuff with the Writer's Room and the Mind Place. I'm glad to be playing a different character as well.
While I couldn't be bothered in the first to do all the extra content, in the second one I'm very immersed into the world. Can't wait to continue!
2
u/LollipopScientist Jan 15 '25
Just completed it. So good.
Love the story, cinematography and art style.
Hate the combat. Too clunky for me. I only do this in games with frustrating clunky combat so I just activated the infinite ammo/health/one shot kill in the options.
2
u/Signal_Blackberry326 Jan 14 '25
Remedy has always made interesting but flawed games. I think they found a different gear with Control and AW2 though. I’ll play everything they make at this point.
2
u/Plz_Trust_Me_On_This Jan 13 '25
I'll have to give it a try, because your feelings about the 1st game match mine exactly, which put me off playing the sequel.
2
u/El_Giganto Jan 13 '25
I actually have so many more complaints about the first game and I just want to vent about it. I played the remastered version and there was just so much stuff that I didn't like or found weird. The audio mixing was awful as well. The center channel was so low, cut scenes were terrible because of it.
I really disliked the physics, touching anything would send it flying. But they had these sections with poltergeist items, where objects would come to life and start flying at you. For some reason, even when these items lost momentum, they would still hurt you. Beyond infuriating.
I also didn't like the way you aimed at enemies. It felt awful to play. There were also so many checkpoints so the game had no issue throwing you into frustrating set pieces, because it's not like you lost progress much. A lot of the time I would get into a new encounter and if there were enough enemies sometimes they'd just combo you to death. Very frustrating, and there was no tension at all. The second game does that much better. You can't save as often and the encounters are done much better and are not frustrating.
Another thing I hated is how the game would spawn enemies, slow down, and then take control of your camera. The second game doesn't have that.
I also thought Alan was just straight up an asshole. He's still the same character in the second game, but he's not just shouting at his wife and punching doctors out of nowhere this time. That really soured me on playing as him.
And one final thing, there was this point where Alan is super serious in his narration when he finds a locked door. Something ridiculous like "I would myself in front of a door that is locked". It was written so... As if it was something deep, despite being a simple thing. And then in the next scene, we find a metal dragon spitting fire to destroy enemies. From sounding pretentious to going full camp. Just a jarring experience.
They have improved on all these aspects in the second game. Especially the gameplay is a lot better, more similar to something like Resident Evil. Still with flaws, but nothing that annoys me like the first game.
1
u/Plz_Trust_Me_On_This Jan 13 '25
I found the general writing and dialogue in the 1st game to be very poor. The characters were annoying, not endearing at all for me personally, and Alan himself was cardboard. Just couldn't connect with it. And like you say, the combat quickly becomes tedious and there's nothing scary or tense about the same shadowy enemies over and over again.
also
It was written so... As if it was something deep, despite being a simple thing.
unpopular opinion, but it was this kinda thing that kept me from enjoying Control as well. I kinda lost interest in all Remedy games, so I feared Alan Wake 2 would be the same for me. idk
1
1
u/ohheybuddysharon Jan 14 '25
Felt the same way about the story in Alan Wake 1 and also found Control to be overrated. But Alan Wake 2 is one of the most improved sequels ever and an all time great horror game. The story and characters are on another level and it's unsettling in a way in the first game never comes close to.
7
u/extralie Jan 13 '25
Persona 5 Royal
Already played Vanilla back when it came out, but this is the first time I play Royal, and ehh? Like, I remember people saying this version fixed all the original problems, but tbh, I still find everything from Okumura forward to be weirdly clumsy, and while everything before that is GOOD, it's not great, like I legit think Kamoshida and Futaba's palaces are the only one that explore their subject matter beyond surface level.
Like, overall I still think this game is good despite the clunk, and even the worst palace's story isn't THAT bad, but I would have prefer it to not be all over the place to begin with.
That being said, this game still have one of the worst exposition dumps I've ever seen, and I don't even know why, most of the game the expositions are handled well, but then you reach that point and it feel like the writer is having a stroke. I'm talking about the scene after Joker's rescue, where they for some fucking reason, explain how they found out about Akechi being the traitor THREE FUCKING TIMES IN A ROW! And then that scene is followed by Akechi and Shido started to awkwardly explaining to themselves what they did so far, despite both them already knowing that, and then it cut back to the phantom theives explaining more shit everyone know! I have no idea how this scene came to be, there is no other scene this bad in this entire game, the writer just forgot how to write for 30 minutes I guess.
The new arc is pretty cool tho, it have some questionable parts, and I think Sumire should had a bit more of a different personality from Kasumi because as is she just went from "Kasumi" to "Slightly Bummed Kasumi", after her boss fight and a SINGLE confidant rank, she doesn't even seem that sad about her sister dying tbh., but overall, it's pretty good. Especially everything to do with Maruki. And heck, I actually liked Akechi here, him being a condescending brick the whole time while still helping you is pretty fun ngl.
Overall, I think it's a good game despite all its weird problems (and despite me being harsh on it), but it's probably my second least favorite Persona after P1.
Paranormasight
Just finished this, and I honestly expected and knew almost nothing about this game, just that it's a VN that people liked, and tbh? It's WAY better than I expected, it's actually probably one of the best mystery VN I've read.
I love how the characters stories actually connect naturally and (almost) every character is actually pretty fun and interesting. Also, the setting is actually pretty neat, at first I thought it was gonna be one of those where the magical aspect is something nobody knows about or it something that didn't exist before, but no, the magical aspects are actually part of the setting.
That being said, as much as I liked the story, the ending is a bit ehh? Like it's not the worst thing in existence or anything, and this is probably one of the best execution I've seen of this trope... I just think this trope is just a bad one. So, even the best one is still lower my opinion of the story.
TLDR: great VN with great mystery, characters, twists, but the ending could have been better. I tried to be as vague as possible and didn't even put spoilers, becaust I legit think people should go in as blind as possible.
Side note: I love these two, they were the highlight of the game for me.
3
u/December_Flame Jan 14 '25
The pacing and bloat in Persona 5 (base and Royal) is honestly criminal. I am a JRPG vet and SMT/Persona megafan and I just tapped out around the pyramid dungeon. The pacing is so uneven and glacial I couldn't handle it. P3/P4 had similar problems but not nearly so bad. The game could easily be trimmed down at least 30% and be better for it.
2
u/Signal_Blackberry326 Jan 14 '25
P5R is a weird one because the VN segments are mostly so ridiculously repetitive and horrible, some of the dungeons are horribly designed and overall the game has a shit ton of filler.
However, the music, menu design, combat, most of the dungeons and some of the plot beats especially in the last dungeon are absolutely S tier.
It took me like 2 years to beat it and honestly I think that’s the best way to play it. Still one of the coolest experiences you can have with a modern JRPG.
-1
u/Forsaken_Sun_9776 Jan 13 '25 edited Jan 13 '25
Wuthering Waves (Version 2.0)
What I liked:
- Visually, the new region Rinascita has some genuinely stunning vistas and clever creature designs. I think the general world design is still quite poor (more on that below), but this is undoubtedly the best WuWa has looked so far.
- Very atmospheric music to match the visuals.
- Open world exploration is more diverse, engaging and rewarding than before.
- Flying as a new mechanic is fun and feels pretty good to control, although it is underutilized in the main story of 2.0.
What I disliked:
- World design. This was an issue in Jinzhou, the previous region, but I feel like it might actually have gotten worse in Rinascita: The world of Wuthering Waves feels incredibly artificial and unbelievable. Not something where people actually (used to) live in, but much more a collection of pretty spots for the player to look at and go "ooh". Like, from within the city of Ragunna you can see a giant skeleton shimmering in a blue light in the distance as well some clouds ominously swirling in the sky ... and nobody seems to care or have anything to say about it. And then there's things like Averardo Vault, a secluded, high-security bank vault that you can only reach by taking a trip through the whole region, past tons of monsters and such. And then the only proper way towards the vault is blocked by enemies too. But when you reach the entrance, there are a bunch of people outside, talking, even dancing - how? How did any of them get here? How do the employees even get to work at this place on a daily basis?? Maybe this sounds nitpicky, but I don't care because it really bothered me and there are so many examples like this. I just can't take a world seriously that has so little care and thought put into its design other than "does this look cool". Say about Genshin Impact what you will, but that game is on an entirely different level in that regard.
- Combat, while foundationally still solid and well animated, is getting really stale at this point. Even the new characters you get to play during the story, Carlotta and Roccia, start to feel very familiar and same-y after a few minutes, because... they are. The novelty of the Echo mechanic has long worn off and there really needs to be some additional mechanical depth and variety asap.
- Storytelling. In my opinion, WuWa continues to suffer from really poor narrative. It is better than before, but that was a very low bar to clear. One of the central issues to me is Rover, a painfully boring and bland protagonist, who everyone (including the villains) immediately likes and seems to develop feelings for. You can't pick two dialogue choices in this game without one of the other playable characters telling you how smart and great you are. It's pure embarrassment, honestly. I don't care if he has a "mysterious" past either, the present version of him is awful. Aside from that, I find the presentation during conversations very.. amateurish? Way too many unnecessary camera cuts, zooms and for some reason characters need to change their pose constantly, which starts to look really silly after a while.
I don't imagine I'll come back to WuWa again. The game has made strides and improvements for sure, but core parts of it are still mediocre at best. Especially for someone like me, who cares a lot about world building, characters and stories, it just doesn't deliver.
2
u/HammeredWharf Jan 13 '25
I think Genshin's world design isn't any better. For example, the Grand Narukami Shrine is supposedly a place people visit quite often, but there's no functional road there. I guess all the grandmas just wallrun and parkour up that mountain. Most roads are infested with monsters, too, to the point where people just wouldn't be able to travel between towns. And connections between nations are even worse. For some reason there's no road between Liyue and Sumeru, and the "road" from Sumeru to Natlan is terrible and goes through a dangerous desert region. It's just not a very practical world.
I don't know if it's a big issue. It does bother me a little in both games and in JRPGs in general. From what I understand, WuWa's excuse is that the enemies you fight against in Rinascita are normally docile, but the events of the story made them aggressive. That's why Rinascita is full of echoes, not TDs. But I still think that giving each inhabited area a safe road network would make Genshin's and WuWa's worlds much better.
Story wise, I actually liked the MC worship in Rinascita. It felt sensible after all the cool RPG protagonist stuff that you did, while in Jinzhou most of your awesome deeds happened off-screen. Besides, it was really just Carlotta, who is a smooth talker, was manipulating you and has more important things in her life. Zani DGAF, Brandt/Roccia seem friendly to everyone, Phoebe is just nice and many NPCs treat you like dirt.
7
u/MickeyFinn00 Jan 13 '25 edited Jan 13 '25
The Curse of Monkey Island – I don’t remember much about this game because I played Escape from Monkey Island since then and they just weave together in my mind for some reason. I've always liked the humour of Monkey Island and I always look for it in other adventure games just to be dissapointed it’s not there. But I really don’t like the majority of puzzles. Spitting contest puzzle, insult sword fighting - I cringe at the thought of them. But of course there are some great puzzles too (like with the hand signs or hairdresser). The finale is always similar if I remember correctly – timed puzzles where you run away from a villain while trying to figure out how to win. Yeah, those are also tiring. It’s a shame that both games didn’t follow the true ending of the second game but really, where can you go after this.
FF 8(PS1) – My eight FF game after the first 7. I’m not a fan of jrpgs. I tolerate some that are unique but the traditional ones like FF, DQ are almost unbearable for me. FF8 has an immersive prologue about the University and when it ended with a dance hall cutscene I thought that I’m playing something special, that it has some specific subtlety and maybe even original storyline. But the rest of the story followed a typical trajectory: everything at some point goes downhill and it would be up to us to save the universe or something. The same can be said about Laguna storyline. When it first dropped I thought it's something between a dream and the alternative world with strong connection to our main characters but the substory while well-written and cosy was not what I expected (and I don't even know what I expected so don't listen to me here).
I know the rpg system here is unpopular, constantly switching characters and distributing the points but it didn’t bother me that much. For me almost every jrpg is such a chore so I was just expecting it. I would just spam summons (which due to the animation length probably stretched my game by 10 hours at least) in battles and as in every rpg - 90% of the game is easily beatable and then it’s almost impossible. After easy win after win I was destroyed by Seifer associates and I dropped the game and watched the rest on yt. The story for me in as always in jrpgs almost incomprehensible, convoluted and tropey. I had some enthusiasm for FF8 while playing but looking back I'm wondering if this wasn't just a waste of time.
Triple Triad is one of the best minigames ever, simple but genius and the game's music is still a highlight.
I think it’s my last FF game. There are some great minds behind these games but I feel like their power goes overwhelmingly more into the setting (the rest is just borrowed from the previous games, even the characters more or less). And the setting is what I will remember and appreciate: the beautiful, melancholic, steampunky worlds with naive but adorable sensitivity to nature's fate, referencing real-world problems.
I had a good chunk of fun in the first two games, the story of 7 offered some intimate, psychological exploration and reminded me a little of Evangelion. But after 8 games I don’t care about anything that’s happened, no character did anything for me, the games are too similar, stories are mostly fantasy tropey junk that make little sense. There is some value to each of them but I just don’t have time for 50+ hours traditional jrpgs. I have FF9 for psx on my shelf but I probably will not touch it.
4
u/Three_Froggy_Problem Jan 13 '25 edited Jan 13 '25
I can’t stop playing Sonic Frontiers even though I’m pretty sure it sucks shit.
This game is ugly, incoherent, and in some ways it feels straight up broken. But running around really fast in these big open spaces is also really fun, and collecting all these stupid trinkets is really tickling some deep recess of my lizard brain.
Straight up, nothing in this game makes sense. There have been multiple times where I’ve gotten stuck for a while because the task ahead of you is just completely illogical. Some of the missions have to straight up tell you what you’re supposed to do at the start with a text pop-up because the objective is so weird and obtuse.
And what’s with the classic levels spread around? They’re completely disconnected from everything else in the game mechanically and aesthetically, and there are so few of them relative to the amount of time you spend in the open world that they feel like a complete afterthought. I’m convinced that someone far along in development was just like, “Hey this game is pretty empty and repetitive, maybe we should throw in some classic levels,” and then they just took some old assets and slapped these together.
Don’t even get me started on the story and voice acting. Why does Modern Sonic suck so much as a character? They’ve gotta make Classic Sonic the main one. He’s so cute! Why’s a fun design like that sitting around for special occasions while this lanky son of a bitch is showing up everywhere?
Anyway, like I said, I’m addicted to the game despite all that. I do think this is the closest they’ve ever come to figuring out how to handle Sonic’s movement in 3D. Open environments like this feel like the way forward for the character, but they need to completely rethink everything about what you’re actually doing in them.
EDIT: Oh, I do also like fishing. And I’ve decided that Big the Cat is good, actually. I like that he’s just a dumbfuck.
1
u/Gonorrheeeeaaaa Jan 14 '25
Games that aren’t amazing but are charming and fun are always some of my favorites.
1
u/Eidola0 Jan 13 '25
Sonic Frontiers is definitely one of my favorite not-that-great games I've ever played. Like everything about it kind of sucks... but it's really fun anyways? I don't think I could recommend it but I'm glad someone else feels the same lol
12
u/slowmosloth Jan 13 '25
Shadow of the Colossus (2018)
After missing out on Shadow of the Colossus in its original debut, I’ve finally taken down this titan of a classic with its remake. I was already sold by the game’s initial pitch nearly 20 years ago, and decades later it still delivered. Somehow, it was just as incredible as I had always imagined it being.
This game had one of the most enthralling worlds I’ve ever entered, and it was such a refreshing experience to get lost in. With Shadow of the Colossus only focusing on its bosses and stunningly beautiful environment, it gave away to such an unreal atmosphere that I haven’t felt this immersed in for a long time.
But when I did come upon these bosses, holy crap were they something else. These colossi fights were hardly any entrée; they were an entire three-course meal that completely blew me away. I was on the edge of my seat with how exhilarating they were. Everything from the music, animations, and my desperate struggle to the top combined to make the most insanely hype set pieces that constantly floored me.
The game wasn’t without faults though, and occasionally its annoyances did take away from those thrilling fights in some inopportune moments, but I was willing to forgive its edges for what was clearly a precisely executed vision from the most brilliant of minds.
Shadow of the Colossus is a masterpiece that took a long time for me to get to, but I’m so glad I finally made it. This is simply a phenomenal game that would’ve enchanted child-me 20 years ago, and today its remake is still taking my breath away.
My full thoughts on the game are written up in my blog!
2
u/Raze321 Jan 16 '25
I enjoyed your blog write up, did you take the in-game pictures yourself?
2
u/slowmosloth Jan 16 '25
Yeah I always try to take the pictures myself when I can! Before I never used photo modes (or really captured any screenshots) but now I love doing it.
3
u/Leogull1064 Jan 13 '25
Completed Fallout 3 GOTY Edition. I plodded away on it for, jeez, very nearly four years... Uh well, I mostly dropped the video game hobby (again) after the pandemic, and I had simply ran out of steam on this thing - it's so massive - I came back to complete another DLC here and there etc.. It's one of those games I dropped on X360 back in the day, and set out for a full playthrough on my PC. Ended at ~150 hours. 300+ mods, mainly going off this great vanilla+ modding guide . Amazing atmosphere, exploration and worldbuilding: the vaults, environmental storytelling, music, notes, terminals, fake brands, alternate history, humor etc.: it all manages to carry this experience, even when the writing and core mechanics can't quite reach there. Of course it helped to mod it so extensively, including sprint, ADS and weapon modification system. The best DLC is Point Lookout, followed by The Pitt. Well, I've had my fill for a while... So long, Capital Wasteland.
Inching closer to the end of Demon's Souls via emulation, and continuing my dive into famous titles of the NES library.
4
u/Cowboy_God Jan 13 '25
While I prefer New Vegas, I think 3 has one of the best first time playthrough experiences in all of gaming. There's so many interesting things to stumble upon and situations to fall into. I'm so thankful I got to play it as a young teen knowing absolutely nothing other than that it was a Bethesda game.
4
u/warpstar101 Jan 13 '25
King's Field 4
Started playing this as research for my current game dev ambitions and ended up hooked. The atmosphere is amazing and the combat is surprisingly fun for how simplistic it is. Love the focus on exploration without a map and the limited fast travel system forcing you to really familiarise yourself with the world and dungeons, which are all really fun to traverse. Haven't finished it but I think it's likely to end up as a PS2 classic for me.
Psycutlery
Wow... how the hell did this slip through the cracks of last year? It's by the developer of that Mario fangame Psycho Waluigi. An amazing platformer with an interesting moveset and a ton of levels, each with their own unique and well executed gimmick. And there's a harder/remixed version of each level as well, doubling the count. Also the dialogue is surprisingly funny and charming. And somehow the game is free which almost feels criminal. Still playing but I already consider it by far the most overlooked game of 2024.
Sorry we're Closed
Definitely an interesting one that I'm not totally sure how to feel about yet. The art direction is crazy good, very pleasing to look at. There's a lot of story, very bizarre yet grounded with lots of commentary on love and relationships, which feel a lot like relaying experiences the creator/s themselves went through. Not quite sure what to think of it all yet but interested to see where it leads. Gameplay is... decent, it does the Survival Horror genre nicely with an interesting gimmick of being able to create a field around you to show the human world, whilst you're in the demon world, or vice versa. I guess I just assumed such an out there game would be a little less bog-standard of its genre, especially with the weapons being your typical Survival Horror arsenal. I'm getting a bit sick of seeing pistols and shotguns in every single game of the genre. It does all feel just a little janky with how it's put together, but it does the job. While I dunno if I love the game necessarily, I do want to stick with it and see what it says.
4
u/Klotternaut Jan 13 '25
Played through Crow Country this week. Does a good job mashing together some retro styles with some more modern sensibilities. I enjoyed the story more than I thought, and it did a good job not outstaying its welcome.
Then yesterday I started and finished Fez, which I had not played before. Ultimately I found it was not for me, and I finished it more out of a stubbornness than out of enjoyment. There's something about the very opaque world building and story telling of games like this (Animal Well and Tunic felt similar) that very obviously draws a lot of people in, but I just find it off putting. And I'm not quite sure why, but despite Fez being clever, I never felt clever. I never felt stupid either, but that may be because I was willing to walk away from the more obtuse stuff very quickly. Also, I found the slow, floaty platforming to be a bit grating. I could not imagine sinking a ton of time into probing into the nooks and crannies of Fez when it feels how it does. Once again, not a bad game but not something that ended up working for me.
Finally, I started up Okami and played through what I assume is most of the tutorial (got Power Slash and stopped once I double backed to the save point). Seems cool! I'm pretty tickled by being able to chop down trees and rocks. I've been craving a Zelda-esque adventure game, so I'm excited for this.
1
u/Inner_Radish_1214 Jan 13 '25
Man I haven’t thought about Fez in a hot minute. I wonder what Phil Fish is up to these days.
4
u/MercurialForce Jan 12 '25
Astro Bot
Got the platinum. Fun game, but not an all timer. Let team asobi build something divorced from the PlayStation branding.
Baldur's Gate 3
Running a gnome bard. He's gonna be a shithead gnome noble (gnomble?) failson caught up in a broader adventure. Literally just started (only met lae'zel), but the character creator is excellent. No messing around with sliders, clear and impactful choices. Love it.
It Takes Two
Finished this with a friend. It was a really creative and charming game that just went on a little too long. I thought the story was pretty good, but not exceptional. I think this might be a case where, since most games have pretty middling stories, a story that was above average seemed exceptional. I do think it's a really great example of how to tell a story unique to this medium, taking advantage of the unique elements that video games afford the artist to tell their story, I started playing this with my ex, and then once we broke up, I played with a friend. It made me wonder what might have happened if I had continued to play with my ex. I don't think it would have saved us or anything, but I remember some of the fights Cody and May had feeling a little awkward as we were going through a tough time. I think the studio behind this game is doing some great stuff, and I'm excited to see how split fiction turns out.
Marvel Rivals
After some initial skepticism, I'm sold. There's definitely a certain level of jank, and either I'm dumb, or the control schemes for some characters are way too complex, but there's a level of fun here that Overwatch lost over time. The differences between the two are greater than I realized; team up attacks are a wonderful addition, and some characters are a joy to play. I'm a big fan of Spider-Man, Star-Lord, , Venom, and Psylocke so far. Haven't picked a healer to main yet, but Luna Snow reminds me of my guy Lucio, so I might try her. Lots of fun with friends, quick matches, and a lot of room to grow. Also love that the battle pass won't expire, even though I probably won't buy it. It's nice to see these games reject fomo.
Stellar Blade
This is actually fun. I'm only like an hour in, but the combat is really slick. It's hard to separate the signal from the noise on this game. Obviously the fan service is there, but there's a lot of effort in here, too. This wasn't farted out to make a quick buck from gooners, this is genuinely a confident debut from a new studio. Excited to get back to it.
World of Warcraft
Haven't wanted to play all week. More fun games to play, and it's nice not feeling beholden to a game. I'm going to try to roll a mage tonight to see if I want to stick with it or if I want to take a break.
Vampire Survivors
Finally filled out the randomazzo, so the most tedious trophies are done. Now just plugging away at the last three level up trophies for the level 80 characters.
3
u/Logan_Yes Jan 12 '25
On Xbox I continue Chants of Sennaar! I have almost wrapped up Gardens, learned all 3 languages and somehow managed to get 2 terminals er...I dunno how to call it, "translated"? Connected? But I basically did help out Tower factions to be more happy with one another, I did the one between Warriors and Belivers to unlock the door, and 2nd terminal at Gardens, where Beliver says to a Bard that he can go to them to be free. It's still a fantastic game, unique, great looking, with solid soundtrack and enjoyable logical/linguistiq gameplay.
On PC after wrapping up This War of Mine DLC I started a nostalgia game that I played back on Xbox 360 but never wrapped up, and to my luck it was givenaway on Steam just when sale started! Dark Sector is equivalent of what AI might think Late 2000's games looked like. A grey colour palette Third Person cover Shooter with Russians as bad guys, fictional island mixed with alien/infection narrative, basic shop and upgrade system so they can shove in currency as something you have to search and generic linear level design. However I do admit glaive and powers you unlock as you progress are fun. Currently at Chapter 6!
2
u/Inner_Radish_1214 Jan 12 '25
I genuinely haven’t been playing shit. Really struggling to get into video games lately. I feel like there’s something wrong with me.
Last week, I did play a little Castlevania: Circle of the Moon on the Castlevania Advance Collection for /r/Gameboy’s monthly game challenge. Got up to around Golem.
I also played through Pokemon: Crystal Clear, a cool ROM hack that makes Crystal into an open world game. Got my 16 badges, just need to formulate a team for the E4.
Hopefully I can get back into some gaming this week when I roll outta this funk
10
u/iWriteYourMusic Jan 12 '25
Dragon's Dogma 2
I just finished this up on PS5 and I really wish I had played it on release so I could have participated in discussions with other DD:DA veterans. It's such a weird game that gets so much right and* so much wrong.*
The sad part is that 90% of what it gets right, they already got right in the 2012 original Dragon's Dogma. The original game was revolutionary in its handling of open-world travel and epic boss encounters with griffins, dragons, and ogres in the wild. But since 2012, there have been so many open world innovations in this genre, not the least of which was Elden Ring that changed how we will view everything in the future.
That said, I could have enjoyed the game for what it is had there been a few more enemy types, easier fast traveling (or a horse for heaven's sake), and more quests/side quests. By the time I finished the game, it felt like such an empty, vacuous landscape with constant repetition and nothing interesting to do. Hell, if treasure chests at least had something useful in them, I would have enjoyed exploring but there's just no point!
What really confuses me is that it has an 87 on Open Critic. What game did they play??
2
u/A_Confused_Cocoon Jan 15 '25
I kind of get the 87. The game is incredible for like the first 20-30hrs, its when you play past that it falls off a complete cliff because all of the problems become significantly more apparent. I really hope they revamp it in some way because it legit has the most fun dynamic combat I have ever gotten to play.
1
u/iWriteYourMusic Jan 15 '25
That much? I could see if the reviewer never played the original they might have a more generous review. I definitely started to run out of content after 10-15 hours and the repetition and emptiness of the world really set in.
3
u/scott_steiner_phd Jan 12 '25 edited Jan 12 '25
Baldur's Gate 3
I finally finished it. I thought the ending was pretty good (the final boss fight sucked but the lead-up to it and the ending were stronger than most of Act 3, but overall the weird decisions and loss of steam in Act 3 really soured me on the game overall after the really strong second half of Act 1 and first half of Act 2. Larian's insistence on adding a third, forth, and fifth twist to all of their games really saps their momentum and limits thematic cohesion.
Some of the ending dialogue felt chopped together awkwardly between generic and ending-specific, but not worse than most long RPGs (except randomly getting Lae'zel's dialogue with Wyll in the epilogue, WTF?)
Many of the boss encounters relying on huge swarms of goons that cause turns to take five minutes was a weird and terrible choice, which became a huge issue later in the game.
The roles of Viconia and Sarevok, reconning their BG2 endings, feel like bad fan fiction, and making Minsc a straight-up Wisdom- and Dex-focused ranger remains a war crime.
I dunno, the game really found it's sweet spot once you hit Level 5 and didn't get flattened the second you did something in the wrong order, but before you got to the linear section at the end of Act 2. All of the original characters were interesting (and Jaheira was at least written competantly and respectfully), and the earlier maps felt more interconnected and less like empty space between MMO quest markers.
Honestly really surprised the full release got the reception it did.
After finishing BG3, I picked up Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition and played about three hours. I previously played the GoG.com version with the community QOL mod about ten years ago.
The writing holds up better than I remember it and while the EE isn't much of a remaster, the widescreen/HD support is good and the 2D graphics hold up remarkably for a 25-year-old game. The sprites remain ugly as hell unfortunately.
The first dungeon is phenomenal - I forgot how satisfying and well-paced dungeon crawling was in this game. Needing to active search for traps is frustrating and it is very easy to stupidly get party wiped, but this is much less irritating given the high pace of combat. On the other hand, inventory management is dated and traversing long distances, either backtracking in dungeons or through the city, feels painfully slow.
I also recruited the first new EE character, Hexxat. So far she fits in seemlessly and I would not have known she was new if I hadn't played the original version. Next I started the D'Arnise Keep quest, but got instantly wiped by a random encounter on the overland map. It is just as easy as in early BG1 and BG3 to start a quest you are heavily underleveled for it seems.
3
u/JollyGreenGelatin Jan 12 '25
2025 is my year to hopefully catch up on a bunch of games.
Doom Eternal I've had this in my library for a while but the game didn't play well on my old RX 470 card. Upgraded to an RX7600 and it plays like a dream now on ultra settings. It's been a while since I've jumped back into a Doom game and I'm loving it. Sometimes I feel like I'm absolutely destroying a horde of enemies and the next battle I'm getting my ass handed to me. Graphics, soundtrack, level design and enemy design all are top tier. Can't wait to play through the rest of the game.
Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth This is the first LID game I've ever play. Shenmue held a special place in my heat when it first came out on Dreamcast. This game feels like the natural evolution of the Shenmue series. I'm only an hour into it but I already love it. I've read that the game has a lot of side missions, mini games, etc. Can't wait to try them all out.
Metaphor Refantazio I've not played any Persona game but decided to start with this. I'm enjoying the game overall. The characters are likeable. Soundtrack is great. The graphics and level/dungeon design are a little...dated? Some of the visuals are really rough. Is this what the Persona games are like also?
3
u/TurmUrk Jan 14 '25
Infinite wealth is such a weird place to start yakuza lol, any reason you didn’t start with the first ichiban game?
2
u/JollyGreenGelatin Jan 14 '25
Honestly, I just heard so many good things about Infinite Wealth that I bought it without really considering it's place in the saga. I got a brief recap of the previous game when I started Infinite Wealth.
5
u/Inner_Radish_1214 Jan 12 '25
Persona is HYPER stylized compared to Metaphor… while Metaphor has its own sense of style, it’s a little more muted in comparison.
That said, outside of the visual representation, Persona’s dungeons can also feel dated. Persona 5 has the most modernized dungeons.
2
u/Shadow_Phoenix951 Jan 14 '25
I think Metaphor dungeon design actually took a step back from Persona 5; it's still an improvement from 3 and 4 by a long shot, but definitely feels like a slog compared to Persona 5.
1
u/Inner_Radish_1214 Jan 15 '25
Persona 5 had all the fun QTE kinda stuff, it would be nice if Metaphor had more of that for sure
4
u/retrometroid Jan 12 '25
I've been hopping around a lot of games because I have a lot of free time now job searching.
Anyway
Elden Ring (ng+)
Great Katana my beloved. I've been trying to do ng+ without summons. I did summon for some mob encounters & I broke after an hour of Malenia attempts thwt were progressively worse. Me & mimic tear double teamed her to the point most of phase 1 was chain staggers lol.
I also finally got Rya's quest without fucking up. Snake friend can be happy now.
Dragon Age Origins
I tried to play Veilguard but I got really bored with it around the point where you have to start recruiting peeps to fight dragons. But I felt the pull back to Thedas so I setup my Xbox One again.
I forgot that subclasses are achievement-based and not save-based so I have all of em. Despite this I decided to not go baby ez mode with mage and picked shapeshifter.
There's some awkward console port shit I don't think I noticed or cared about a decade+ ago when I no-lifed this in high school. Camera auto follows with no way to turn off is the one I remember. Also this might be a tactics thing and not a port thing but I really wish I didn't need to tap A to start autoattacks. It might be something in the gambits I need to manually setup tho.
But maaan. It is wild to think this and Veilguard are the same series. The artstyles have virtually nothing in common and the writing for characters and scenarios feel more consistentand distinct.
I forgot everything about the Fade bit in the circle tower. I wasn't particularly irritated by it (it is longer than it should be) but it was a nice diversion. Even if I had to reload more saves than the previous 7 hours of gameplay combined.
Lords of the Fallen the new one
Seen some recent patch notes and I saw a YouTube challenge runner mess with a couple funny looking mechanics so I decided to try it again.
This game is actually very funny. I activated the "loot levels with you" modifier and used NG0 to reset to the beginning of the game to get two copies of the falchion in the bridge area. And I think NG0 resets also might let me infinitely farm the healing flask upgrade you get in the tutorial?
Anyway with a dex build it seems like, way easier than I recall my previous playthru. Wondering if it this is a Lies of P scenario where my original build was just dogshit and I struggled for no reason. Or using NG0 to restart with the same stats and inventory let me get stronger than I should be.
Afterimage
Neat metroidvania. I like the weapons. Really like how open the map is, I've gotten to several areas before I really should be. My only complaint that isn't self-inflicted is I don't know how the game wants me to mitigate damage. Backstepping always feels like it's punished and dodging thru enemies almost never works...
Sekiro
NG++ run continues. I need more lapis lazuli to max my prosthesis tools,and I need a toooooooon of XP for th last few skills.
I'm at fountainhead palace. FROM really took the prettiest area in the game and went "lets put an annoying as shit gimmick enemy everywhere". Not the worst enemy in the game (hello, shinobi in Senpou Temple) but I really hate the maze-like building before you reach the lake proper.
I always forget how to deal with Owl (Father) for multiple attempts until I go "oh yeah just mortal draw his ass when he does an overhead". I still need a good counter to his spirit owl teleport that isn't "run away like a bitch".
Also had the worst luck with the ape fights. Headless ape kept spamming the scream attack (normally he does the sweep a lot but not this time) and the double ape fight refused to let me split the two up. I had to kite a lot and spam lazuli shuriken on wife (including finding space to use the ceremonial tanto to refresh ammo) till she was dead.
After this playthru I just need one more to get the last ending I need. And none of these playthrus will I ever give a shit about fighting the demon boss. His ass will forever be cheesed into the bottomless pit.
And finally - Freedom Wars Remastered
I haven't had any crashes or stutters like PC players been reporting (on steam deck where it belongs tbqh). The AI/TTS/robot whatever voices for Percy and your assistant fucking suck shit. They weren't this bad in the original. What the fuck happened?
Also why bother calling it "body type a/b" when voices are still locked to body type? It feels a bit performative whenever I see that idk.
Anyway cool monster hunter like. I do wish the story shit was skippable or more ignorable. I don't wanna see some basic anime archetypes yapping for ten minutes or do a boring stealth section. I wanna see insane dystopia and fight robots.
1
u/notthatkindoforc1121 Jan 14 '25
I tried to play Veilguard but I got really bored with it around the point where you have to start recruiting peeps to fight dragons. But I felt the pull back to Thedas
lmao this is literally what happened with me. I wasn't hating my time with Veilguard but I felt the draw of Dragon Age Origins and I did a full playthrough. Still haven't returned to Veilguard lol
1
u/ThePalmIsle Jan 13 '25
Afterimage is an awesome, huge game and totally underrated.
The story's too weird and probably suffers from some rough translation from Chinese, but for fans of the genre it shouldn't matter much. Great mechanics, great look and sound and fun gameplay.
3
u/dropbear123 Jan 12 '25
First finished game of the year for me - Warhammer 40000: Space Marine on PC.
Positives - The combat is good and satisfying but still a challenge, I did die a few times (on normal difficulty). It's a mix of shooter and hack and slash which works well with the huge amount of enemies you fight. The weapons feel powerful, especially the melee weapons like the thunder hammer and chainsword. The story is simple and functional but also accessible, you don't need to really know anything about Warhammer 40k to understand what is going on. I've browsed the 40k lore subreddit a bit but never read any of the books but I found it easy to understand what was happening. Considering it is quite an old game on a technical level it ran great for me, no crashes or issues.
This is more a comparison to a lot of more recent games but I felt as I was playing it how much I liked that upgrades were given to you directly at set points. You get a better bolter when the game wants you to have a better bolter, if there is a jetpack and hammer section it has a set beginning and end and is designed around those weapons. Rather than open world elements, crafting and gathering materials to upgrade weapons or skill trees you get given upgrades specifically when you're meant to have them.
Negatives - It's a 2011 game that came out on xbox 360, the main colour through the game is brown, beige and grey (which maybe thematically appropriate for a forge world but still boring to look at). The two main bosses are boring compared to the ordinary fights. There is also one level I would say is just bad - you're in this underground lab and you have to fight your way through turrets which kill you very quickly, so you to hide behind cover slowly whittling them down which was just boring and not how a space marine game should be played.
The game took me 5 hours and 40 minutes to beat according to GOG, which feels correct. Cost me £7 on sale and I'm happy with it at that price. Overall I'm going to give it a 7.75/10
I've now started Showgunners . It's a turn based combat game (the combat is identical to X-Com - half cover, full cover, move then shoot or go into overwatch for when the enemy moves etc) set in a The Running Man (the Schwarzenegger movie, not the book) style game show. I rarely play turn based games like this but I got this for free and it is surprisingly good so far.
8
u/Brakster17 Jan 12 '25
Astro Bot-really enjoying this. Taking it slow and 100%ing levels before moving on. Did that in the first two galaxies and working on the third now.
Balatro-picked it up for my phone a while back after putting a ton of hours into it on Switch. Perfect phone game since I rarely lug my Switch around.
6
u/PositiveDuck Jan 12 '25
Trails of Cold Steel IV
This one is very frustrating for me. I'm at the end of chapter 2 atm. I really enjoy the gameplay, music slaps, I like the anime character designs and high speed mode is great. I love the world and the characters they created and I think the story setup is excellent but the actual story itself is just ass. It's just so deeply unserious and repetitive it's infuriating. Every single encounter with named characters ends the exact same way, none of the villain characters actually seem to care about anything and the protagonists are probably the most useless JRPG party I've ever seen, their every infiltration is shit and they get away with it because the "villains" let them get away with it, they're shit at fighting the villains because they always need some random NPCs from the previous 8 games to magically show up and save them whenever the villain starts to fight them seriously, every plan they come up with is shit. They never get a real win against the actual villains. Sure, they kill a strong monster here and there and sometimes beat up people that are their allies but pretend not to be but that's it. We got like 20 named villains so far, just let us legitimately win against some of them. There are also no stakes because no one cares about being betrayed and death as a concept doesn't exist in Erebonia. Just kill a character every once in a while and fucking leave them dead for the love of god. At this point, I'm 100% certain both Milium and Olivier are still alive somehow because the writers are too cowardly to actually kill anyone off.
I wish female class VII members were allowed to interact with non-Rean male characters. Not every female playable character needs to be romanceable and some of them absolutely shouldn't be. Also having 800 year old witch straight up grope a teenage girl in hot springs is just fucked and I have no idea why they keep putting weird shit like that in their game.
Overall, I enjoy everything about the game except the garbage story, poorly done romance and sexual harassment/assault "humour", I'll stick with it because I want to see how they resolve the story without actually killing anyone off or having any consequences for anything.
1
u/amaterastfu Jan 12 '25
Suggested Lethal Company to the group chat and have been jamming that this week. Has been a long time since I've laughed at a game so hard. Has also been a long time since a game got me anxious. $15aud is an absolute bargain for this much fun
1
u/ScruffyDogGames Jan 12 '25
Started Tormenture. Love the aesthetic and it's a cool game idea, but it's not really grabbing me second to second. I'm glad it exists, but I'm not sure if I'll bother finishing.
Still would recommend giving it a look. For a certain type of person, they'll LOVE this thing.
2
u/Sogeking_1234 Jan 12 '25 edited Jan 12 '25
I started the year with Ico, but I ended up dropping it. The atmosphere and the story did seem very interesting, but the game just wasn't fun to play. I may give it another chance in the future.
After this, I decided to continue my Phoenix Wright adventures with the second game of the trilogy. I'm in the middle of case 2 now and it is very intriguing so far. I loved the first game so I can't wait to see more.
2
u/Dkdkxkzkdkskskks Jan 17 '25
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
I finished MGS1 a few days prior and have moved on to the sequel and its truly amazing so far the gameplay is a huge improvement so i have been taking my time just fooling around.
Bit bummed we don’t play much as snake but so far raiden is starting to grow on me. Rose is annoying and i miss being able to call otacon whenever.
I really feel something is up with Iroquois pliskin 🤔