Videogames: New Year, New Thread

[Poobah]

44 minutes ago, Fez said:

Played about 90 minutes of Lost Ark to see what the fuss is about, and I don't get it. It certainly looks pretty, but the combat feels bad, all the gameplay systems seem to bebog standard MMO stuff mixed with a dash of the usual South Korean pay-to-win stuff, and the writing might as well not be there.

And yet it's one of the biggest games of all-time as measured by Steam concurrent players.

Yeah I looked in to it too because a bunch of people I know were all talking about it and nothing I found out about it sounded at all interesting or appealing. Just goes to show what the hype machine can do; I wonder how much money they're paying all these twitch streamers to play it?

I'm still playing Pokemon Legends: Arceus and loving it, except trying to catch stuff while riding the fish, that's painful. I finally got off my ass and saw the credits earlier so I could get in to the postgame and unlock more stuff to do/see/catch and have now secured Shaymin, my favourite pokemon! I still have a lot of research to do and things to catch to fill out the dex, and there's apparently a not-insignificant postgame story to continue with so I'm really happy with the game right now.

[Werthead]

17 hours ago, polishgenius said:

It'll probably be Amazon, coz they're bastards. 

It'll 100% be Amazon so they can combine all of the rights under one roof.

Warner Brothers, who made the movies, may make a desultory bid, but Amazon will easily outspend them. The fact that WB let the live-action movie rights lapse last year and did not bid seriously for the Rings of Power project suggests they're kind of over Middle-earth (although they are continuing with the animated War of the Rohirrim project, which seems vaguely contradictory to that).

[Ran]

18 minutes ago, Werthead said:

although they are continuing with the animated War of the Rohirrim project, which seems vaguely contradictory to that).

I suspect they believe it satisfied the requirements of the rights they licensed and will be suing. But I also suspect that free of the Saul Zaentz Company and the fact that they've had repeated litigation in the past, that these sets of rights are much more appealing.

 

I can see why they were dubious about making a Second Age show, but these would be right in the wheelhouse of what they've already made. 

[Week]

I've been going back through BOTW Master Mode recently. I last played BOTW pre-pandemic, so it has been long enough that it feels somewhat fresh again. I wish the Shrines we're just a bit harder - most really take no time at all. Still, it's fun. Collecting items to upgrade army -- which seems pretty key consider how easily you get rolled -- is much more of a calculated move rather than just Leroy Jenkins-ing across the land.

[Mexal]

On 2/12/2022 at 10:03 AM, Fez said:

Played about 90 minutes of Lost Ark to see what the fuss is about, and I don't get it. It certainly looks pretty, but the combat feels bad, all the gameplay systems seem to bebog standard MMO stuff mixed with a dash of the usual South Korean pay-to-win stuff, and the writing might as well not be there.

And yet it's one of the biggest games of all-time as measured by Steam concurrent players.

Interesting. I was wondering what the hype was about. Wasn't gonna get a chance to play for a bit so had my buddy on the case. Literally came on here to see if anyone had played it yet.

[Corvinus85]

The final act of Expeditions: Rome is awesome. There are different ways through which you can end the game.

My ending was bittersweet. The game excellently offers an epilogue where all the major decisions you've made throughout the game are given a conclusion.

Spoiler

My character died sacrificing himself to preserve the Republic. I didn't cross the Rubicon with my legions, instead attempting to bring down the main villain, Lurco, within the confines of the law. I won the trial but Lurco had other avenues. Syneros died while tasting poisoned food intended for me.

I saved my mother from the burning villa and then had the big boss fight with my avatar namesake.  But kept him prisoner. I wish I had overkilled the hell out of my inventory with tacticals because there is no reprieve and I was out of tacticals by the final fight.

As a final act, Lurco arrested my other companions and threatened to execute them in the forum. I fought and killed him, saving my companions, but in killing a Roman citizen without trial I condemned myself. My companions lived except, of course, for poor Syneros. Each one gets a conclusion to their life based on the decisions I made ranging from happy to sad. Tyranny was adverted for the Republic, at least for the time being. I don't know what happened to Pompey; he wasn't part of the final act.

Elsewhere:

- With the Ptolemaic dynasty gone because I chose to kill Cleopatra, Aegyptus descended into a brief and bloody civil war and Rome was forced to send more legions there to suppress the unrest and impose an iron fist rule.

- OTOH, Nasamones prospered under the wise rule of Lunja as part of Africa Proconsularis.

- Gallia was absorbed by Rome. The druid that led the Aedui tribe tried to make the best of it leading his people, but with Vercingetorix dead, Gallic culture was steadily suppressed.

- Crassus apparently still got to put down a gladiator revolt, but in Thracia, because I killed the main lanista there.

 - Asia Minor prospered as a Roman province under Zenobia's leadership, while Mithridates VI attempted to raise a new army in the lands north of the Black Sea only to be faced with a rebellion he couldn't defeat and ended up killing himself.

What a great game. Just over 74 hrs and I may attempt to explore a different ending.

[Werthead]

I've been knocking through Iron Harvest and I'm a bit bemused by it. It's very clearly inspired by Company of Heroes, it has a similar UI and unit-counter system, but it's nowhere near as strict with it as CoH, to the point where machine guns are very underpowered and any unit can destroy any other unit (you don't need specific anti-armor units to take down enemy mechs or heavy guns). Mechs seem weedily underpowered and expensive compared to just having tons of troops.

The voice acting is also really bad, which is annoying because the story is solid and the worldbuilding intriguing, and of course the art design (shared with the board game Scythe, set in the same universe) is excellent.

I am doubtful about ploughing through all four campaigns though, the game's not got enough juice in it for that.

[Fez]

2 hours ago, Corvinus85 said:

The final act of Expeditions: Rome is awesome. There are different ways through which you can end the game.

My ending was bittersweet. The game excellently offers an epilogue where all the major decisions you've made throughout the game are given a conclusion.

  Reveal hidden contents

My character died sacrificing himself to preserve the Republic. I didn't cross the Rubicon with my legions, instead attempting to bring down the main villain, Lurco, within the confines of the law. I won the trial but Lurco had other avenues. Syneros died while tasting poisoned food intended for me.

I saved my mother from the burning villa and then had the big boss fight with my avatar namesake.  But kept him prisoner. I wish I had overkilled the hell out of my inventory with tacticals because there is no reprieve and I was out of tacticals by the final fight.

As a final act, Lurco arrested my other companions and threatened to execute them in the forum. I fought and killed him, saving my companions, but in killing a Roman citizen without trial I condemned myself. My companions lived except, of course, for poor Syneros. Each one gets a conclusion to their life based on the decisions I made ranging from happy to sad. Tyranny was adverted for the Republic, at least for the time being. I don't know what happened to Pompey; he wasn't part of the final act.

Elsewhere:

- With the Ptolemaic dynasty gone because I chose to kill Cleopatra, Aegyptus descended into a brief and bloody civil war and Rome was forced to send more legions there to suppress the unrest and impose an iron fist rule.

- OTOH, Nasamones prospered under the wise rule of Lunja as part of Africa Proconsularis.

- Gallia was absorbed by Rome. The druid that led the Aedui tribe tried to make the best of it leading his people, but with Vercingetorix dead, Gallic culture was steadily suppressed.

- Crassus apparently still got to put down a gladiator revolt, but in Thracia, because I killed the main lanista there.

 - Asia Minor prospered as a Roman province under Zenobia's leadership, while Mithridates VI attempted to raise a new army in the lands north of the Black Sea only to be faced with a rebellion he couldn't defeat and ended up killing himself.

What a great game. Just over 74 hrs and I may attempt to explore a different ending.

I'm still in Act 3, though only at 42 hours. I'm hoping I'm going faster than you rather than there being 30 hours left to the game though. I do like it a lot, but I am feeling at this point that I've pretty much explored everything the combat system has to offer. I'm just trying to power through so I can experience the final act myself.

 

I also played a few more hours of Lost Ark. My opinion remains unchanged. It's not a terrible game or anything, but it seems incredibly middling and I am kind of amazed that the hype machine managed to make it into such a big deal. 

[Inkdaub]

I started Dragon Age Origins and I want to like it but find myself increasingly irritated by the aiming process. I am still early on so maybe I'll get used to it. I also started Arkham Origins but didn't play more a few minutes. I bounced off Tales of Arise pretty quickly but it's still there. Still have some new Steam games I haven't cracked yet and a bunch of console games at various stages of play. I am not sure if I'll get Forbidden West now or wait until I have a new machine. I am having no problems with the new games on my 4 or my OneX but we'll see. I need to decide soon so I can grab whatever pre-order bonus there is.

In WoW obsession news, I was coming home from work a few nights ago and as I walked through the garage I saw someone had left the box for the Sylvanas statue sitting by the recycling bin. I circled it and took a few pics and now I wonder how long I will last before I am ordering it for myself.

[Rhom]

I'm working my way through the Pixel Remasters of FF1-5 currently.  I have played but never finished 2,3, and 5.  I finished 4 and then played through 3 the other day.  Did a quick run through 1 and now I'm nearing the end of 2.  Dunno if I want to take a break before hitting 5 since it does take a bit of a time commitment.    Have also been fiddling with the OG FFVII on the Switch when family is using TVs for other things.  I'm up to the Gold Saucer and it amazes me just how little memory I have of any of this.     

Have been playing the Iki Island DLC for Ghost of Tsushima.  Its always tricky trying to get the hang of all the moves in a game when its been a year since you last played.  

The Yuffie DLC is on sale for the PS5.  I have FFVII Remake for PS4.  I need to figure out how to get that transferred over to PS5 so I can then get the Intergrade upgrade instead of purchasing the entire game all over again.

And of course all of that may be on pause when Horizon Forbidden West drops Friday!!!

[aceluby]

Been having a blast with Path of Exile this week.  I didn't get quite as far as I wanted, but should get to maps by the weekend.  My character is super fun to play and has been a much faster play than my last couple builds.  I'm excited to see what it can do once it gets going.  I've only got a couple more weeks, because once Elden Ring drops I know it'll be the only game I play for the next few months.

I also got a round in Hades while watching Paw Patrol with my kids.  Did another fist build and holy cow was it just ridiculously over powered.  It's crazy how well it works with so many boons.  Hangover + Weak dash, Doom + Merciful end, chill, lightning and/or poseidon, constant reflect....  It just works with everything to the point that taking the Hermes boon for that extra dodge can make you ridiculously powerful, and basically untouchable.  2nd favorite to the bow

[IlyaP]

8 hours ago, Inkdaub said:

I started Dragon Age Origins and I want to like it but find myself increasingly irritated by the aiming process. I am still early on so maybe I'll get used to it.

"Aiming".

Learn to embrace "spray and pray" .

[Ramsay B.]

9 hours ago, Rhom said:

Have been playing the Iki Island DLC for Ghost of Tsushima.  Its always tricky trying to get the hang of all the moves in a game when its been a year since you last played.  

And of course all of that may be on pause when Horizon Forbidden West drops Friday!!!

I loved GoT but for whatever the reason the dlc just bored me. I couldn’t get into it. I played the multiplayer expansion a lot too so maybe I just hit the wall?

I watched a spoiler-free review of a youtuber(JorRaptor) that put 50 hours into Horizon Forbidden West and it got me even more hyped. Can’t wait to see all the new machine types they have in store for us.

[IlyaP]

22 minutes ago, Ramsay B. said:

I watched a spoiler-free review of a youtuber(JorRaptor) that put 50 hours into Horizon Forbidden West and it got me even more hyped. Can’t wait to see all the new machine types they have in store for us.

The first slew of reviews for the game seem to be quite positive. Which I suppose bodes well for the fans of this series (it didn't speak to me).

[Kalnak the Magnificent]

An ArsTechnica review of HFW that is pretty gaudy in its love:

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2022/02/horizon-forbidden-west-is-one-of-the-greatest-game-sequels-of-all-time/

 

[IlyaP]

Even playing something as undemanding as Saints Row: The Third got to be too much for me this week. And it occurred to me that I'd ever played Half-Life 2 using the Updated version, so I'm currently doing a quick playthrough of Half-Life 2: Update. It's not terribly different from what I recall seeing the first time I played HL2 a few years back, but it's still fun to revisit places I'd all but forgotten about since my first playthrough. 

[Werthead]

I started playing Days Gone because I realised that going from one RTS (Age of Empires II: Definitive) to another (Iron Harvest) was a mistake.

Enjoying it. It's somewhat generic as an open-world icon-em-up game, but I like the way the icons and quests are divided into several storylines which you can decide to flip between, and the game is a bit skimpier than normal with supplies, weapons, skill points and ammo. Not enough to make it a formal survival game, but enough to make the decisions you have to make have far more weight and meaning than normal. It's also hugely fun - as a BSG fan - to have a main character not only played by Sam Witwer, but modelled on him as well. Also, it's great that the game is relatively light on the cutscenes and narrative interruptions. I'm starting to judge games on how long they take between starting them up and letting you take control of the action, and Days Gone scores very well in that department (similarly to Watch Dogs 2, which cut to the chase surprisingly quickly without fucking around with terrible writing for 15 minutes first).

It does have the reverse Fallout problem though. If Fallout is set waaaaay too long after the apocalypse for the post-apocalyptic stuff to make sense, Days Gone is set far too soon after it for the level of devastation to make sense. It feels like 15-20 years after the end, not just two.

I'm excited for Horizon: Forbidden West to drop not because I'll be playing it, but because the counter can start ticking down for the PC release, which is probably no sooner than two years away.

[Durckad]

I've also been doing a play through of the FF Pixel Remasters over the past... month or so (I think I bought the bundle around New Years). I've played through 1, 2, and 3 and I started 4 over the weekend. I was thinking over Final Fantasy and I realized, while I've played a bunch of the games, I've only ever finished 6. So I had a sudden urge to rectify that issue.

1 I enjoyed more than I thought I would as I found it horribly repetitive and grindy back on the PS1 rerelease. The remaster made it super easy as it essentially stripped out the only strategic element of the game, ie if any of your attacks target a creature that is killed are essentially wasted. Without that, the game pretty much plays itself. All of the bosses are giant bags of hit points, the trash is straightforward and uncomplicated, and only the final end boss was in any way difficult. I'm honestly fine with all of these changes as I found the original FF1 and the rerelease just needlessly and archaically difficult. I do wish the Pixel Remaster included an option to play it in it's classic mode, with none of the quality of life improvements introduced in the remaster, but I likely wouldn't use that option so I'm not sure I care that much. Overall, probably a 5 or 6/10. I likely won't play it ever again but I'm glad I finally finished it. It was also fairly short so that's a win.

The first half of 2 was honestly pretty good. The "level up" is pretty cool and unique, the game actually has a story and characters (unlike 1), and it's a bit more difficult with a bit more strategy. However, after about the halfway point, the problems in the leveling system became really apparent. Any spells that you do not regularly spam to level become insanely useless, any weapon skills that aren't maxed out barely do any damage to monsters, and the skills seemingly level up randomly and without any coherent reason. I will be fighting the same enemies over and over and over again with no change in my weapon skill level and then suddenly, with one battle of the same monsters, it'll tick up. No reason why, it just does. Same with spells, making them even more annoying to skill up. Elder Scrolls this is not. 

The other problem is at about this point in the game, the difficulty really starts to spike. Bosses are stupid easy if you stack a few buffs, but random encounters have about a 50% chance to just fucking kill you without warning. Most of the endgame trash mobs just continually stack status effects with every hit so there is a real chance that your entire party will get stun locked and will take about 3 minutes to die as the monsters slowly whittle down your hp. To add insult to injury, at that point, there is almost no benefit to fighting most of the random encounters as you are not guaranteed weapon or spell skill ups. So most of the final dungeons I spent running away. The last quarter of the game I forced myself to finish (sunk cost fallacy kicking me straight in the teeth) and when I did finish it, I promptly uninstalled it.

After looking at some reviews of this game online, I absolutely cannot imagine how anyone managed to play through this game on the NES. Just the thought of playing through this without the quality of life improvements makes me both respect and question the time commitment abilities of whoever does so. 3/10, the story was the only thing carrying most of the game and even then, it's not that great. Also, I forgot to mention, 2 has the worst designed dungeons in any game. Needlessly circuitous time-wasting bullshit filled with way too many empty rooms. Blech. This game sucks.

3 was alright. The job system is cool, but I don't really like how certain sections force you to take certain jobs. And not all of the jobs are that great or worthwhile. Some are clearly better than others. The story here is more FF1 than FF2. Yeah, it's there and there are characters involved but it clearly takes a backseat. The gameplay is the focus here and it is better than both prior games (much better than FF2), but by the end of the game, I just didn't care all that much and was just forcing myself to finish. Also the final dungeon sucks and I can't imagine having to play through that monstrosity in one go. The final boss is surprisingly the worst of the first three games. It just spams the same AoE attack over and over and over again and you just have to spend all of your time trying to out heal it. Eh, this is probably the best NES FF game, but only by a bit. Maybe a 6/10?

4, so far, is just such a massive jump in quality it's almost unrecognizable. Characters! Story! Good gameplay! And all in one game! Even if it is all a bit simplistic by later game standards. I do miss the added difficulty of the DS Remake but that would make the game far more grindy than I'd really want to deal with, honestly. As an old man, I'm fine playing on easy mode for now.

[Argonath Diver]

On 2/14/2022 at 9:31 AM, aceluby said:

Been having a blast with Path of Exile this week.  I didn't get quite as far as I wanted, but should get to maps by the weekend.  My character is super fun to play and has been a much faster play than my last couple builds.  I'm excited to see what it can do once it gets going.  I've only got a couple more weeks, because once Elden Ring drops I know it'll be the only game I play for the next few months.

I also got a round in Hades while watching Paw Patrol with my kids.  Did another fist build and holy cow was it just ridiculously over powered.  It's crazy how well it works with so many boons.  Hangover + Weak dash, Doom + Merciful end, chill, lightning and/or poseidon, constant reflect....  It just works with everything to the point that taking the Hermes boon for that extra dodge can make you ridiculously powerful, and basically untouchable.  2nd favorite to the bow

I hope you make it to maps soon, friend. The new Atlas customization atlas makes the game ridiculously fun since you can really focus on mechanics you enjoy and still make great profit/gearing. My favorite league in years. I've crushed the new bosses and most of the old with a really powerful minion build (not my preferred playstyle but I am not good enough with most skills for the really challenging fights). Still think the actual league content (the archnemesis) is stupid, but I have a simple setup for some easy profits here and there. 

As much as I had a blast with Hades game play, Im most comfortable in a more looter based game. Fires the right dopamine. Not too far from a gamblers high, which suits me and my predilections.

[Maia]

I am as always years  in the past - I just discovered 3DS gaming by chance because I got a 2DS for my niece, whose parents have just relaxed their rigid anti-gaming stance and while testing it with some library games I fell in love with Etrian Odyssey Untold Millenium Girl and promptly snagged a device for myself as well. Turn-based blobber RPGs are my jam, it turns out (portability helps a lot), and this one also has a nicely chatty party in the story mode, with refreshingly non-sexualized female characters. It is not perfect - the sub-classing system is  cumbersome, there are few characters with dialogue apart from the party, and I wish that it had more light environmental puzzles, but the mapping/exploration aspect is very well done and I am about 2/3 through it by now.

I am also eyeing some Fire Emblem games which seem like something that I might enjoy - could somebody here help me chose between Fire Emblem Echoes and Fates perhaps?  Also, any opinions on Shin Megami Tensei Strange Journey and Layton versus Phoenix Wright (I played the first Layton game and a couple of Ace Attorneys on my phone)? How difficult is Zelda Ocarina of Time for somebody with bad reflexes? So many games, so little time...