What are you currently playing?

(Gaming discussion not related to Shenmue)

Re: What are you currently playing?

Postby OL » Thu Dec 29, 2016 5:09 pm

Henry Spencer wrote: Yeah, Wolfenstein is probably the best shooter I've played this gen yet. My mate keeps telling me to play Doom, though. Should really get that at some point.

Currently I have given FFXIV a well earned break, after around 10 or so days playing it non-stop. The main reason is because my bro got me this fine gem:

Image

I've pretty much just been playing so much of that since Christmas, every day whenever I can. Just as weird, crazy and madly addictive as ever. I love this series. Already has a much better pace than SMTIV did and the list of improvements is massive:

+Bosses stay tough throughout the game, not difficulty spike early on and then game gets too easy. Also, there's better build up to bosses in this game. You will feel dread going against some of these bosses who you meet early on, just like in Nocturne, these demons all have their own personality traits that you just don't meet for one battle and that's that. In that sense, it's way better than SMTIV where you just meet the boss, kill it and move on forgetting about them straight away.
+Difficulty selection is available from the offset and you can swap the difficulty whilst in the game itself.
+World Map is no longer a clusterfuck and everything is labelled clearly. There's now even a Mapper system that makes navigation sooo much easier. And oh my god, so much of the enemies racing after you whilst you try to get your bearings. Game changer, honestly.
+Much easier to obtain AP than before now (dead bodies now instead of giving you resources give you AP).
+Alignment system actually has more than just Chaos, Law and neutral again like in Nocturne. There's a lot of factions in this game and even within these factions there's Civil Wars going on. Feels like there's a lot going on in the setting, not just you being the centre of the universe.
+The cast of characters are waaaay better than SMTIV's cardboard cut out factory of "I'm the Law guy who believes in Justice and I am pretentiousness incarnate" to "I am the Chaos guy who believes in survival of the fittest and think people should fight to earn their right to live" to Neutral "I have no personality/am boring but like manga and think both sides suck". Yeah, was not a fan of the writing in SMTIV at all, it was plain as fuck, not at all memorable like past games and not in the Nocturne way of minimalism but rather in a way "simple as simple gets" kinda way. Here, it's way more interesting and complex. So many dynamics going on.
+Masayuki Doi, the new SMT series artist (replacing Kaneko) is now a fantastic artist to me. I really like his character designs in this game, a big step up from his boring designs in SMTIV. Also, the Demon Designs are faaaar better this time. No more ugly Demon Art that is jarring (bad Art Direction in SMTIV, imo), Masayuki Doi steps up as the new Demon Artist of the series and redrew all of the bad art from SMTIV into making it similar to Kaneko's designs. He did a very, very good job. I love the look of Lucifer and the new demons in this game like Dagda. Doi did Kaneko proud. *sniff*
+The Voice Acting is surprisingly great. Felt like it was decent in SMTIV but everyone seems perfectly cast here this time.
+/-Atmosphere is just as strong as ever. However, now that you have all of these party members following you it makes the loneliness factor a lot less. This game is closer to Soul Hackers and Digital Devil Saga in that sense, than it is Nocturne. Your mileage may vary on how you like mainline SMT.
-Music is certainly very good so far, but is definitely a step down from SMTIV's soundtrack which was fantastic (not Meguro, but still fantastic).
+Combat is so much better balanced now. They've made some big changes as well adding in some new twists to the formula - Smirks from SMTIV do not guarantee you a dodge from enemies and it is only through smirking that Mudo and Hama (previously instant kill spells) actually insta-kill enemies weak to them. Mudo and Hama now actually do damage to enemies in normal phase (which mean I actually use them a lot more now). Heavy attacks only use MP now, none use HP at all, so MP is even more important now. Spells now have a + and a - effect, if it's in the minus it means that Demon is crap at using it, whereas the higher the + the better the damage output and crit chances. Speaking of critical attacks, you can now perform them with Magic spells as well as with Physical. Press Turns can now be chained even higher more easily because of this. Also, you have party members that each grant special abilities and have a Persona like "All Out Attack" mechanic that also grants you another set of extra turns against enemies. This is balanced against the fact that enemies hit you hard in this game.
+No more "you have to go here to accept quests" bullshit, now it's simply assigned to you automically as you are playing the game.
-You visit a LOT of the same areas as SMTIV. Would be advised to leave it a long time after playing SMTIV before touching Apocalypse. Especially since it follows one of the routes in SMTIV.

Also got Batman: Arkham Knight which is all kinds of ace as well. Glad i took such a big break from the series after Origins since I didn't want to go in feeling burned out on the formula. And hey, it works for me, the beat'em up combat came back to me as soon as I landed in my first group of baddies that needed the snot kicked out of them, plus just being Batman is always so satisfying in these games, alas they have gotten too carried away with the Batmobile missions but the actual act of being Batman has never been captured as well as it has in this series. There's something to be said for being able to come up against such a wide array of batman's Rogues gallery. I have played countless batman games over the years, the SNES Batman Returns, the Mega Drive Batman Returns, the Sunsoft Batman game based upon the 1989 Tim Burton film, the Adventures of Batman & Robin for Mega Drive, the awful Batman Forever game, the rather bad Batman Vengeance game, the arcade game etc they all tried to various degrees but none captured the actual spirit of being the Bat like these games have. Being able to just explore Gotham and complete all of these RPG like quests makes it even better for me. Also like seeing the Joker being a psychological scar tissue for Batman opening those old, hard wounds of his. Having a blast with it, a shame so many didn't like it much.



I always got the impression that it wasn't so much that people didn't like Arkham Knight (the game is ridiculously well-designed, I don't know how one could dislike it so much), but that the PC version (and maybe the console versions, I dunno) suffered from some major bugs early on, so it got bad feedback because of that and never really recovered, despite the problems being patched later on. The shitty thing about the pool of Steam reviews, for example, is that they stay around regardless of patching, and "thumbs down" reviews stay thumbs down reviews, no matter how much the problems become remedied later. Arkham Knight is a fantastically well-designed game, but it's status remains "mixed" on Steam because of problems early on. Not really fair, and that's a damn shame.

I actually just bought SMTIV: Apocalypse yesterday myself, funny coincidence. Haven't even gone far at all into SMTIV yet, but figured I'd grab this anyway. Played just a few minutes, but man, it's crazy how well they manage to mix the basic presentation styles of the old Super Famicom games with that of Nocturne. Aesthetically, the game is really goddamn attractive. No clue when I'll delve in fully, but I know I'll enjoy it when I do.
User avatar
OL
Yo jes hummilated yoursef
Shenmue III
 
Joined: May 2003

Re: What are you currently playing?

Postby Axm » Thu Jan 05, 2017 12:57 am

Just got the PS4 Uncharted Collection finally and playing through Uncharted 1.
I've actually played through U1 the most of any of them.
1st time with the Six axis controller. No rumble.
2nd time with the Dual Shock 3 cause that was a new thing to actually have rumble again and a game that supported it.
3rd time when they introduced trophies
4th time when I went for the platinum
5th time a few years ago just for nostalgia
6th time now with this remaster.

And boy does it look beautiful. Always did look great but now with all the enhancements its squeaky clean and has that brilliant Naughty Dog lighting.

Also I love how linear and basic the story is. No jumping around in time and dealing with a thousand emotions from side characters. It's like the "A New Hope" of the Uncharted series. Whats the plot? Treasure of El Dorado. What do you gotta do? Get it. Who's with you? Sully and Elaine.
Simple fun adventure.

I think this is one of the first games out there with such casual cursing and sexual innuendo's too. A new era in mature gaming where you can be both light hearted but still call someone an asshole at the same time.

Axm has received 2 thanks from: Raithos, Thief
User avatar
Axm
#SaveShenmueHD
News Poster
 
Joined: May 2003
Location: Fukuoka, Japan

Re: What are you currently playing?

Postby Thief » Thu Jan 05, 2017 7:52 am

I recently replayed them all myself in preparation for Uncharted 4. For pretty much the same reasons you listed, I ended up liking the first game the best of the first three (but of them all, preferred Uncharted 4). Uncharted 1 was also the more difficult and rewarding of them, I personally found.
User avatar
Thief
LAMEWAD
Machine Gun Fist
 
Joined: December 2010

Re: What are you currently playing?

Postby Monkei » Thu Jan 05, 2017 8:21 am

Uncharted 1 had by far the best semi-supernatural ending phase. I loved how much those zombie-like creeper creatures stressed me out in those corridors. Everything that came in the games after that felt kinda disappointing to me.
User avatar
Monkei
Alpha Trading Boss
Alpha Trading Boss
 
Joined: June 2015

Re: What are you currently playing?

Postby Raithos » Thu Jan 05, 2017 12:51 pm

What a coincidence. I just played through UC1 on PS4 New Year's day lol. They did a great job porting them to PS4 and the 60fps makes the action very smooth. I agree, its most likely my favorite in the series. Its just a such a good game from start to finish. I couldn't be bothered to play it on crushing this time around though lol.
Image

Raithos has received a thanks from: Axm
User avatar
Raithos
The Octopath Traveler
"After Burner...Great!"
 
Joined: July 2013
Location: Jehuty
Favorite title: What's Shenmue

Re: What are you currently playing?

Postby OL » Thu Jan 19, 2017 6:03 pm

Monkei wrote: Uncharted 1 had by far the best semi-supernatural ending phase. I loved how much those zombie-like creeper creatures stressed me out in those corridors. Everything that came in the games after that felt kinda disappointing to me.


I still liked the stuff that came later (amber-mutated natives in U2, fire-headed hallucinations in U3), but I agree, the things at the end of U1 were the best. Gave a great twist in the gameplay when you were already late in the game, and made the whole thing feel fresh once again as you were heading toward the finish line.
I'm still just disappointed that U4 didn't have... well, any kind of semi-supernatural element to it. Was expecting something the whole time, wondering what it would be for the whole game, only for there to be nothing but regular old human enemies the entire time. Kudos to Naughty Dog for at least trying to buck the formula a bit, but it honestly wasn't a part of the formula that needed to be bucked at all; it was always something to look forward to before.

Anyway, I just played the demo for Rise of the Tomb Raider on PS4, hoping that I might like it more than what little I bothered to play of the first game... but no, I'm still not digging the new Tomb Raiders.
With the first game, I couldn't get past how freely and frequently they completely broke the intended atmosphere by going over the top; it was supposed to be a "gritty," more "realistic" revamp, and yet a completely inexperienced Lara is still able to shoot wolves in midair with a bow and arrow, and recover from stepping in a fucking bear trap with a hour's worth of rest. Not to mention how entire piles of wood burn to nothing in a few seconds despite the rainy, moist environments. The game had a certain atmospheric goal, and it failed in that goal at every step. Gameplay might have been good, but I couldn't really get past all that conceptual failure. If you're gonna try to be realistic, be realistic. Don't pick and choose.
With this second game, I was hoping I'd be more accepting of it since Lara is, by this point, supposed to be a bit more experienced and all. So if she shoots wolves out of midair or something, no biggie. But instead, there was just a bunch of new stuff for me to groan at.
The story is all about her digging into archaeological stuff that her deceased father had been working on, and that in itself just feels like a giant friggin' bore to me. I've seen stories exactly like this in a thousand places before, so it all feels about as cliche as cliche can be. And while the game tries so hard to have as much spectacle as possible (it barely even feels interactive at some points), it all just comes off as a poor Uncharted clone. Thing is, Uncharted has the benefit of excellent, snappy dialogue, lovable characters, and fantastic acting; if it does something cliche, it doesn't matter, because it makes up for it in so many other ways. Rise of the Tomb Raider doesn't have that though; the writing is completely blah and Lara is a boring character. I went in with a pretty open mind, I think, but the demo failed to feel particularly compelling at any point.
And good lord, Lara just can't shut the fuck up, can she? Not a second goes by without her making some inane comment ("My god, it's beautiful"; yeah, I can see that, shut up) or grunting in the most audible, noticeable ways she can muster up. Sure, Nathan Drake makes a lot of noise too, but his dialogue is funny and endearing, and his reactions and grunts tend to mimic the player's own feelings (I can't count the number of times I've hit an action scene in the Uncharted series, uttered the word "shit" out loud, only to hear Nate say "oh shit!" immediately after; he's a protagonist that echos his audience's reactions). Lara just makes noise to make noise, like that annoying person at work that loves the sound of their own voice.
Again, like the first game, the gameplay seems fine enough... but gah, everything else is just weirdly off-putting to me.
Bad controls or not, I'll take the original Tomb Raider games over this any day. Back when Lara Croft was a posh, thrill-seeking, near-sociopathic trust-fund supermodel. That's all a helluva lot more interesting than the loud, panicky child she is now.

OL has received a thanks from: Axm
User avatar
OL
Yo jes hummilated yoursef
Shenmue III
 
Joined: May 2003

Re: What are you currently playing?

Postby Monkei » Fri Jan 20, 2017 5:25 am

^ Yeah, I was a little annoyed by the cliche story and characters and spectacle, too. Still, the gameplay in itself was great and more fun than Uncharted 4 to me, due to TR's focus on exploration (of stunningly beautiful environments) over shooting people.

Regarding Uncharted I feel that being cliche is part of the concept. Take adventure movie cliches and turn them into the most highly polished and fun videogame (with too much shooting and chest-high covers to get behind though. I always had to pause the Uncharted games for a while after only a couple of hours.. coming out of the last intense shootout with dozens of enemies, entering the next area only to hear "I see him!", which indicated the start of the next battle really had me going "Awww man, Jesus. Here we go again. Sigh." many many times.). The cliche thing works, because Uncharted is about fun. Tomb Raider wants to be gritty, so the cliches are a minus and make you roll your eyes.

Oh well. In the end I enjoy both series a lot, but can't really put either of them among my all-time favourites. They're both just too "AAA".

Monkei has received a thanks from: OL
User avatar
Monkei
Alpha Trading Boss
Alpha Trading Boss
 
Joined: June 2015

Re: What are you currently playing?

Postby OL » Mon Jan 23, 2017 5:04 am

Got my ass handed to me by that last Nioh demo.
Fucking hell, I know I'm going to spend a lot of time with the game and try my damnedest to explore everything it has to offer when it finally comes out, but good lord, I see now how much of a trudge that's gonna be. We always thought Dark Souls was hard, but the bosses in this are just insanity. Trekking through the levels themselves feels a little more forgiving now, but these bosses... shit. Between all three demos they put out for this game, I've only beaten a single one of the bosses on my own. All others, I died and died before finally summoning another player to help. Maybe I'm just out of practice with Souls-style games or something, but all the same.
Gonna be tough as hell.
User avatar
OL
Yo jes hummilated yoursef
Shenmue III
 
Joined: May 2003

Re: What are you currently playing?

Postby GYO6161 » Mon Jan 23, 2017 5:27 am

Yeah i tried the Nioh beta aswell and yeah... these games are just not for me, not fun at all. :mad:
User avatar
GYO6161
Man Mo Acolyte
Man Mo Acolyte
 
Joined: September 2015
Favorite title: Shenmue IIx
Currently playing: God of War

Re: What are you currently playing?

Postby Henry Spencer » Mon Jan 23, 2017 7:46 pm

Gravity Rush 2. It's an improvement in every way but it is definitely catered for the fans of the first game. The combat is way better, they actually made Stasis Field really fun to use now. Plus there's three different fighting styles to choose from which I haven't even unlocked yet and I must be around 10 hours into this game now and only on Mission 9 (been collecting gems like a freak). The start is slow, like really surprisingly slow but I appreciated them making it a calm before the storm and when you get to the first city it is such a "wow" moment heightened because of that. The game is a visual treat, the cel shaded graphics on PS4 mixed with the fantastic art design and the wonderful music that transports you into that world. The side quests are all well worth doing as well. The enemy variety is also way better this time around and the surprises as you go through the story are really nice.

My best mate got Yakuza 0 early from Amazon on Sunday, lucky bastard, he's been telling me how great it is, looking forward to that arriving and diving into that right away as well.

Also, still on the final stage of SMT: Apocalypse, this final dungeon is torture, literally and it was definitely the intention.
You are literally in Purgatory and fight hordes upon hordes of Metatrons Level 99, as random battles.
This is the biggest slog in the SMT series yet, oh my gosh. I hope the final boss is worth it.
User avatar
Henry Spencer
Let's go Catherine!
Shenmue III
 
Joined: July 2003
Location: The Office
PSN: harryangel666
XBL: Magiking
Favorite title: Shenmue
Currently playing: Yakuza Kiwami/Zelda: BOTW

Re: What are you currently playing?

Postby Mr. Frozen » Mon Jan 23, 2017 11:19 pm

Currently playing through watch dogs 2. The gameplay is solid, but the game's story can be cringey at times. The fact that they use so much pixel art (why not ASCII?), and the rage face memes in the hackerspaces are maximum cringe. Also they missed obvious opportunities on mission and achievement names. One mission is called "hack teh world", when the obvious choice should've been "hack the planet" from the shitty hackers movie that was released in the 90s. Also when you do that space mission they award you with the mile high club achievement when they should've obviously named it the 62 mile club.

But like I said, other than the cringe, the game is pretty fun. I thought I wouldn't like the open multiplayer where players would randomly join your game, but I found their implementation to work pretty well. Earlier tonight I was in the dealership, shopping for motorcycles when some random player joined my game and started causing havoc. He blew up the street and the dealer ran out to see what was going on, which pissed me off because I was in the process of buying a bike. I decided to steal the showroom car, bust through the window and chase the other dude down. Apparently I joined another player's session where they was hunting down another player for whatever reason and we spent like 15 minutes in an intense high speed chase, which was pretty fun. It ended with me managing to disable the guy's vehicle and he just decided to get out and let me shoot him dead. The seamless multiplayer experience was great, but I really wish there was some form of text chat. They should've implemented a text chat in the form of SMS messages since you are on your phone for practically the entire game.
User avatar
Mr. Frozen
Machine Gun Fist
Machine Gun Fist
 
Joined: September 2003
Location: Earth

Re: What are you currently playing?

Postby OL » Fri Jan 27, 2017 3:29 pm

Gravity Rush 2 is a blast. Everything I'd hoped for. Already poured hours upon hours into it, and I feel like I've barely progressed; there's just so much to do. I started it because I thought it would be shorter than Yakuza 0, but man, I'm not so sure anymore.
Still brilliant though. This is a testament to just how solid and complete a game can be made to feel given a good, focused development time of 4-5 years. Kudos to Keiichiro Toyama and his team. Also, it's really fucking nice to see his name front and center at the very beginning of the game. He really deserves to be recognized among the Kojima's, Mikami's, and Miyamoto's of the world. Brilliant director. The guy has yet to show me a game that I don't absolutely love. I haven't even finished GR2 yet, but man, I can't wait to see what he does next.
And on that note, since they're apparently willing to put import games on there, Sony should really put Siren 2 (sorry, Forbidden Siren 2) on the Playstation Store under the "PS2 on PS4" line. We never got it in the US, but the UK version should be easy enough to emulate and upload on there. Always heard it was even better than the first, and I feel like there's a hole in my soul that won't be filled until I get to play it.

Also started Ghost Trick on DS (well, playing on the 3DS, but all the same). Only played the introductory training segment, but I already know I'm gonna love this game. Ridiculously inspired and original, with fun, likable writing and dialogue. And good god, those animations are silky as hell.
Even if I didn't know it beforehand, it's incredibly evident that this is from the same creator as Phoenix Wright. Such an identifiable style. Whenever I get around to finishing this, I now have a hankering to go back and play more of that series as well. Only ever finished the first game and about half of the second (even though I own them all, barring the newer 3DS ones). Seems like it's about time.

OL has received a thanks from: Axm
User avatar
OL
Yo jes hummilated yoursef
Shenmue III
 
Joined: May 2003

Re: What are you currently playing?

Postby Axm » Fri Jan 27, 2017 7:53 pm

Since I got my PS4 Pro and RE7 Ive been on that.
I'm also revisiting to complete FF15 and Battlefield 1.

Axm has received a thanks from: Raithos
User avatar
Axm
#SaveShenmueHD
News Poster
 
Joined: May 2003
Location: Fukuoka, Japan

Re: What are you currently playing?

Postby ys » Fri Jan 27, 2017 10:18 pm

Yakuza 0. After that I'll start The Witcher 3 DLC. I haven't played the expansions yet.
User avatar
ys
"Keep Friends"
"Keep Friends"
 
Joined: June 2003
Location: VL/SE
Favorite title: What's Shenmue

Re: What are you currently playing?

Postby Raithos » Sat Jan 28, 2017 11:33 pm

I've been playing the For Honor beta. Had zero expectations and no desire to really play it before, but friends got beta codes and shared one with me so I gave it a shot. Been playing it for two days now on PC. Holy hell is this game good.

So there's three game modes available right now 1 vs 1, 2 vs 2 and Dominion. The combat system is fairly simple with combos of light/heavy attacks paired with blocks/parries. Sounds simple, but there is a ton of depth too it. You lock onto your target with L2, which brings up a HUD element and allows you to block in different directions with R stick. You can see the same icon on your opponent. It shows you which way they are currently blocking (they can see yours too) and helps plan your opening attack. When not actively blocking, L2 + a direction with R stick changes your grip on the weapon, which opens up new attacks and also changes its direction.

Attacks in the game are deadly, if you aren't blocking and parrying you will die very quickly. This leads to some absolutely epic battles if you face someone with equal skill. You can one shot people if you hit a vital area with a heavy attack and they don't block. Also some sweet executions if their life is low and you score a clean hit. The closest thing I can use to describe these 1 v 1 and 2 v 2 battles is a 2017 version of Bushido Blade with knights, vikings and samurai making up the roster of playable fighters. That is exactly what it feels like. Epic shows downs in some gorgeous battlefields.

Dominion is where the game really shines though. 4 vs 4 (plus AI controlled armies) in a conquest/king of the hill type battle. Picture something akin to dynasty warriors but much more in depth. Basically run around capturing/defending strong holds/flags to drain tickets. You fight other "heroes" or enemy generals when you run into them. Once you fill up the ticket counter, the enemy generals (or yours if they fill it up first) lose the ability to respawn. Then you have to hunt down the other plays and kill them to win.

Another cool thing about dominion is the class abilities. 9 characters are available to play in the beta. In 1v1 or 2v2 the only difference is the fighting styles. In dominion each character has abilities that are unlocked. Either support stuff like healing/defense, smoke bombs, traps or dps stuff like bows, poison bombs, etc. Really adds a different element to the game. These items might not seem like much, but some times they can turn an easy fight into a real battle.

There's a single player campaign but none of its available in the beta. All in all its just a very fun game to play, especially with friends. I'm surprised how well its runs too. Its a Ubisoft game, that is running smooth as butter. My friend has a 6 year old PC, is running it at 1080p 60fps. And the game is absolutely stunning to look at. The animations are top notch.

I know this was a wall of text, but the game surprised me so figured I would share my thoughts.

Raithos has received 2 thanks from: Axm, Monkei
User avatar
Raithos
The Octopath Traveler
"After Burner...Great!"
 
Joined: July 2013
Location: Jehuty
Favorite title: What's Shenmue

PreviousNext

Return to General Gaming

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest

Powered by phpBB © 2000-
ShenmueDojo.net