What are you currently playing?

[Raithos]

It would still be good to put those in spoiler tags for people who haven't played the game yet.

[OL]

So Mirror's Edge Catalyst is... good so far.
Just good. I say all this from a position of being an utter nutball for the original game, so I'm obviously biased. But even besides the usual subjective preferences and all, there's some disappointment already.
While the gameplay is absolutely excellent, the world is severely lacking in personality so far. It's an "open world," sorta, but any people you come across are lifeless cardboard cutouts doing nothing but standing in a corner on a rooftop, saying and doing nothing. Meanwhile the streets far below (which you can see, but are inaccessible) are littered with moving cars and people walking around, but they all look like they're on some kind of poorly-programmed loop, and as such feel like background elements from some game circa 2001. The design of everything is also so far out there with the "futuristic" elements that the city doesn't even feel like a real place; it feels like a big, surreal videogame level. Which it is, obviously, but that's not the impression a game like this is supposed to give you; it's supposed to be absorbing and immersive (which the original game absolutely was; despite its uniquely-colored style, the city in the first Mirror's Edge felt plausible, while this feels totally fake). Outside of the main missions, nothing about the world feels alive so far, and that's a bit of a bummer.
The side-missions and collectibles so far also feel a bit pointless, since the big payoff from them is... pieces to design a logo for yourself, which only matters when it comes to online competition. Was pretty put off when I realized that all these nail-biting delivery missions I was doing (and yeah, they are hard) only matter toward whatever weak-ass leaderboard stuff EA has set up for the online portion.
And on the shallow end of the spectrum, I have to say that as friggin long as this game was in development, it's kind of surprising how many graphical problems I've run into. I'm playing on PS4, and so far there's tons of instances of pop-in and delayed texture loading. Further helps in breaking that sense of immersion which is barely there anyway. And it doesn't help that all the cutscenes are pre-rendered, despite using the in-game graphics, and it's really noticeable when you pop from gameplay to cutscene. I really don't know why, in this crazy age of games like Uncharted 4, they couldn't have just had that stuff render in real-time. The framerate would have been much better, and there wouldn't have been such a disconnect between story and gameplay. The PS4 is way stronger than what this game is taking advantage of.

Don't get me wrong, it's definitely a good game so far (only about 3 or 4 hours in, so it may get much better for all I know), but for all the hooplah that's been growing behind it, and for all the damn time it spent in development, it has some really basic issues that shouldn't have been there at all.
Ah well, I'll play to the end and see how it shapes up.

[Henry Spencer]

Not really a fan of all of the open world games we're getting nowadays, to be honest. Especially ones that feel shoehorned in like the reviews are saying it is with Mirror's Edge 2. It really does impact the main story. Way prefer linear games.

How is the main story campaign for ME2 so far versus the first game's? And how is the level design? Is there plenty of side missions? I see you mention that they are just kinda there, are none of them worthwhile?


Currently I'm digging my way through Onimusha 3 for the first time and briefly played The Wonderful 101 (Hideki Kamiya's game) and it's really just like a Saturday morning cartoon or a Japanese TV show like Ultraman or something of that ilk. In some ways it really does remind me of Viewtiful Joe (another Hideki Kamiya game that he made whilst at Capcom), not only with its aesthetic style (despite VJ's cel shaded look, which is superior, imo) but the craziness of its presentation. It features a system rather similar to Okami's with its "draw these symbols/shapes to create weapons/do attacks" with the Wii U gamepad, controls I think are a bit frustrating with the camera (which is kind of isometric and too zoomed out for my liking) and getting hit by enemies off screen a lot, hope it improves with this shit later on since Kamiya's game tend to expect you to rise up to the challenge but if it's going to pull unfair shit like this then I might give up with it and just sell the damn game off. Camera is so important in action games and for a vet like Kamiya to neglect this just seems really silly of him.

With regards to Onimusha 3, it's really solid and hitting all of the cylinders of what I expect out of a PS2 era Capcom game. Just no complaints with this game really. the Nioh demo a month or two ago really got me in the mood for playing another samurai action/feudal Japan videogame and this is hitting that spot. This is mainly my weekend game so I have time to devote to it properly.

I'm also playing Chrono Cross in my spare time on lunch breaks on my Vita and whilst in bed, since it seems perfect for that. These long JRPGs I never end up finishing normally but this game is just excellent so far and has me hooked. The overworld theme may just be the best I've heard in an RPG game and especially now that I hear it in context of what the main character must be feeling, it all makes sense. Like one of those "oh damn, so that's why the overworld theme is so sad" after listening to the Chrono Cross soundtrack so much over the years. Done well to not spoil myself on this game so it's a lot of fun so far. Still retains that "charm" factor that made Trigger so appealing as well, battle system is completely different though has its own perks too.

Also finished my second playthrough of Flower, Sun & Rain last night. Game still stands up as my top 5 of all time. That ending though...really looking forward to the answers The Silver Case supplies cause what a mindfuck that last third of the game is.

[Axm]

Fallout 4
MLB The Show (as always, this will never stop)

[Kenny]

I just got to playing Mirror's Edge Catalyst myself, barely made it into the open world and already I can feel most of OL's complaints. Even with the opening crawl, I was disappointed where they were heading. I felt they already got it WRONG right then and there in terms of reintroducing Faith to the audience (which since this a reboot, it's a really important thing to get right).

I'll go into more detail later, but the story campaign feels unimpressive so far. The original, as ho-hum as the narrative got, it was somewhat engaging. I loved the little "e-surance" type cutscenes they had going for it. Here, it's basically cookie-cutter dead. Nothing about the characters so far is engaging nor is their purpose of doing what they're doing. Hope it improves somewhat near the end, but goddamn.

[Shenhua-Nani?]

Just finished Uncharted 4 a few days ago, i'm sad to say i really don't understand how it got 90+ on metacritic and it's by far the biggest disappointment of this gen for me.

And it's not just me either, a lot of people disliked it, many questionable design choices.

[Henry Spencer]

Just finished Uncharted 4 a few days ago, i'm sad to say i really don't understand how it got 90+ on metacritic

Easy answer:
Hype.

[Shenhua-Nani?]

Just finished Uncharted 4 a few days ago, i'm sad to say i really don't understand how it got 90+ on metacritic

Easy answer:
Hype.

Yeah, and it's shameful for gaming journalists to be so misleading, i wasted 60€ on this game.

Oh well, i'll just resell it next week and move on.

[OL]

I have no clue what you were hoping for out of it, but Uncharted 4 delivered on everything it promised. Whether you dug it or not, it seems to me that it was never misrepresented in its marketing or reviews. It's an Uncharted game. It did what earlier games in the series did, and told a story to close the whole thing out.
Honestly, what else were you expecting?

[Shenhua-Nani?]

I have no clue what you were hoping for out of it, but Uncharted 4 delivered on everything it promised. Whether you dug it or not, it seems to me that it was never misrepresented in its marketing or reviews. It's an Uncharted game. It did what earlier games in the series did, and told a story to close the whole thing out.
Honestly, what else were you expecting?

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but the game delivered on everything? lol not even close.

When i saw the marketing and the 93 metacritic score i was expecting THE ultimate Uncharted game (an exciting adventure with beautiful graphics, top soundtrack and amazing set pieces) with a more mature and serious story.

What i got instead was a borefest composed of 75% climbing 5% forced walking 10% puzzle solving and 10% shooting. I'm honestly baffled that the game director thought so much climbing filler would be a good idea. The only gameplay additions are the rope, the sliding surfaces, and a basic stealth system...... nor good and neither bad.

You say it did what earlier games did, and that's a straight lie, the other UC games were way way waaaaaaay more action oriented.

If someone that hasn't played the game is reading this post at this point they might be thinking "Ok the gameplay isn't that special, surely the story must be great".... right? wrong.

THERE BE SPOILERS FOR ALL THE GAME

It's really just your average treasure hunting story with 1 twist (predictable and with 0 consequences), and it's not even executed in a believable way. Nothing has consequences: Sam lying to Nathan about Alcazar threating his life? they just shrug it off when Nathan finds out (It's also questionable that Sam would lie about a famous guy they could have checked in 5 minutes that he was dead already). Nathan lying for weeks to Elena because he had promised her he quit the adventuring life? 0 consequences again, hell, she even joins him later. Oh and there's no supernatural element for the first time in the series.

And the marketing WAS misleading:

"A Thief's End" subtitle with a sad Nathan on the cover, the game director saying that the ending will be controversial (http://www.ign.com/articles/2016/04/04/uncharted-4s-ending-will-be-divisive?abthid=570275f475c6d3f15d00001d), while in reality the story couldn't have gone more straight and couldn't have been safer lol.

All of the above aren't even opinions, they are facts. What is an opinion is whether you liked the completely different direction they chose for this game.

Imo, the game is an 80-85 and only for the crazy good graphics and the voice acting. Like an user said in another forum, "It's a very bad to mediocre game in a beautiful coat".

[Riku Rose]

When i saw the marketing and the 93 metacritic score i was expecting THE ultimate Uncharted game (an exciting adventure with beautiful graphics, top soundtrack and amazing set pieces) with a more mature and serious story.

Uncharted 2 has a 96 on Metacritic so surely if you're just going off numbers then you shouldn't be expecting one with a lower number to be the ultimate experience...

[Shenhua-Nani?]

When i saw the marketing and the 93 metacritic score i was expecting THE ultimate Uncharted game (an exciting adventure with beautiful graphics, top soundtrack and amazing set pieces) with a more mature and serious story.

Uncharted 2 has a 96 on Metacritic so surely if you're just going off numbers then you shouldn't be expecting one with a lower number to be the ultimate experience...

First off, way to be picky about 1 word i used, while disregarding the rest of my post.

And secondly, that reasoning makes no sense when you compare games from different generations. MGS1 for ps1 has a higher metacritic score than MGS3 but that doesn't mean it is a better game, both represent excellence for their respective generations but MGS3 is obviously more advanced.

[OL]

Finally getting around to playing Kagero: Deception II for the PS1.
It took me a while, because initially I wanted to play the entire series in order, starting with the original Tecmo's Deception. But even though I love the concept, and I really want to experience the story for it, it was hard to get excited about the first game because it just feels so many miles behind the later games in the series as far as gameplay is concerned. It's those later games that really get me excited about the series, and the goal was to get to those, but the first game just doesn't do a lot for me.
Finally just decided to skip it and head straight into Kagero. I'll go back to the original game later if I get a craving for more once I finish the rest of the series.
Anyway, Kagero is pretty friggin cool so far. Story is dark as feck, starting with the main character murdering the hell out of a villager, totally unprovoked. And the way it's progressing, I'm actually a bit impressed at the political machinations and whatnot that the characters are going into. I wasn't really expecting much depth from the story, but it's surprising me on that front. The "Deception" title is actually really apt, not just for the trap gameplay, but for the actions of some of the villains and whatnot.
And even though the gameplay is a little slower than it will be in later games, the trap mechanics are still ridiculously satisfying in a totally evil kind of way. My favorite thing so far is using a push wall to knock over pillars onto my victims. Got a really cool double kill with that trick pretty early on.
Up to about stage 9 (out of 26) now. Having a blast.

[Henry Spencer]

^Great game. The plot is surprisingly good too, agreed. I believe it was Makoto Shibata's directorial debut, previously working as planner on the original and later on being the creator/director of Fatal Frame. They really do relish on making you do awful things in these games (and connecting those combos feels so damn good, it's never felt so good killing [innocent] people in such evil ways, muhahaha). Still have to play Deception 3 yet since it was NA release only but what little gameplay I saw on YouTube makes it look to have almost Vagrant Story level graphical fidelity, it looks really good, one of the best looking 3D games I've seen on the original PlayStation. Then again, I always tend to go for these dark and depressive atmospheric gothic environments/character designs.

Trapt was a lot of fun as well, got two endings in that game since the gameplay was so fun.

Was hoping they would dump the ISO for Deception III on the PSN store but it looks like it's not happening so I may just play it via my PSP instead.

[OL]

Oh yeah, Deception III is gorgeous. It's actually pretty amazing how great the textures are in that one. Some of the best faces on the PS1, absolutely, and the design work otherwise is surprisingly colorful while still retaining that dark, gothic vibe. Out of the entire series, that's the game I'm most excited to get into. Something about its aesthetic qualities just hits the right nerve in me, how it feels more stylish than Kagero, has a more cinematic groove, but also has all that glorious PS1 pixelation.