What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[Sumez]

Yeah 90s PC games were generally up my alley. A lot of my focus were on point n click adventure games though, but in the latter half of the decade I did dabble a lot in FPS games too, and even some strategy because stuff like Warcraft 2 was just so ridiculously prolific. Jedi Knight and System Shock 2 were some of the last 3D PC games realistically playable on my 3d accelaration-less system, and I loved them.
I dropped off FPS games around the time of Half-Life, which I didn't like much, and it pretty much affected the direction of the genre going forward.

I agree, but funnily, from what I remember, the first game and the whole series has always been considered difficult, by magazines and elsewhere. Even DKC Returns, iirc. I never understood, because I could beat that game as a child already (DKC1 SNES). Tropical Freeze is not hard either, despite of what I read what people seem to say. I found it challenging for an hour or two when I played the level "2-K", and I thought maybe the whole rest of the game would be like that, but it was not at all.

I sucked at video games as a kid and would always play on Easy setting if it were available because I didn't even have the confidence I could learn something higher. And I never bought DKC1 back then because I rented it and beat it 100% halfway through the 2-day rental period. So yeah, I'm not sure why it's considered "hard" But it might have to do with all those annoying cheap deaths that I mentioned

Tropical Freeze isn't a hard game either, but I think its difficulty is better balanced, making it feel like you actually have to put some effort into it. The actual challenging stages were saved for the temple stages that you unlock with the KONG letters.

[Sweatlord_STG]

I dropped off FPS games around the time of Half-Life, which I didn't like much, and it pretty much affected the direction of the genre going forward.

Yes, unfortunately. I thought it was ok back then but it's extremely overrated and now I almost hate it for the reason you named. I never really liked CS either. It's really dumb to me how it's just about aiming and nothing else with no real variety in arms (everybody will just always use the AK or M4, sometimes the AWP at best), unlike arena FPS games like Quake pvp where not only aiming matters but also movement, map control, item timing, and choosing the right weapon for every situation.

[MovingTarget]

No way was Halflife overrated, it was in a league of its own.

[Sumez]

I didn't find it particularly interesting, and I still don't.
It's not a bad game, but definitely overrated. And I especially definitely didn't need the entire genre to follow its mold.

But it's cool you enjoy it. You are definitely not alone.

[AGermanArtist]

I always thought it was overrated. It's good and I do enjoy stuff like Prey, Dishonored and the last Deus Ex, and appreciate there's a lot of its DNA is in those games.

[Sweatlord_STG]

Call of the Machine

An all new episode for Quake 2 that came with the remaster about two years ago. It's awesome. Badass soundtrack and everything.

There is also Call of the Void, which was only released very recently. It is another new episode for Quake 2. From what I understand, it was supposed to be part of the remaster, but couldn't be finished on time. Now it was released for free as a mod. It's kind of a Quake 1 x 2 Crossover, where you even get to fight mutants who are fusions of enemies from Quake 1 and 2. There is also a story that makes sense of it.

Spoiler

""Call of the Void" picks up where "Call of the Machine" leaves off. With our protagonist trapped in the void, they suddenly hear a voice in their mind. The entity speaking identifies itself as one of the ancient gods, Vadrigar, who proposes to the protagonist that they escape the void by sending them on a new mission for revenge against the Stroggs. This is in response to the Stroggs transforming the fallen Vadrigars (Chton and Shub-Niggurath) and their followers into partially mechanical creatures in the service of the Strogg leader Makron. Our protagonist will travel to a new, unknown dimension where levels from both Quake 1 and Quake 2 converge, and they will confront enemies from both franchises."

Trailer

[Steven]

Got all of Silent Hill f's endings the other day. Ultimately, I think the game is okay. I don't have much else to say about it and I doubt that I will ever play it again. I did try story action difficulty and found it way too easy and super boring, so I did hard for the last ending. Not sure if I'd say that hard is the best difficulty setting for action, but I'm tempted to say that.

Now I guess I will wait for Jurassic World Evolution 3 (10 days left) and Tales of Xillia PC version (20 days left). Jurassic World Evolution 2 is one of the games that I have spent the most time with in my life (over 650 hours, I believe), so I really hope that its sequel is even better. Unless Tatsujin Extreme releases this year, I think that's it for me for this year's games.

[ryu]

Got all of Silent Hill f's endings the other day. Ultimately, I think the game is okay. I don't have much else to say about it and I doubt that I will ever play it again. I did try story action difficulty and found it way too easy and super boring, so I did hard for the last ending. Not sure if I'd say that hard is the best difficulty setting for action, but I'm tempted to say that.

I finished two endings now and will take my sweet time with the remaining ones before I burn myself out on the game. If you ask me the game needs a "normal" difficulty setting. Hard is just right early and mid game, but is really tedious on NG when you're at the gauntlet at the end and the final boss is also a pain on NG hard. So far I agree the game is just fine. The way the story is told across multiple playthroughs and so many text files feels really bloated, I don't think it needed to be this way. Otherwise the narrative seems to be perfectly fine (even if I find some cut scenes corny and the game overall too on the nose with its symbology).

[Steven]

The game gets very tedious when you are going for all of the endings, and it does indeed feel bloated. Fortunately, it's hard to miss anything due to how confined the game's design is (there are a few things that you can miss, mostly omamori, primarily because some of those appear in the very few instances in which you have to go out of your way to find them) and the game is actually extremely short on subsequent playthroughs; my final playthrough, for ending 4, took about 3.5 hours in total on hard action difficulty. I ignored most enemies, which helped.

Don't be afraid of skipping cutscenes on replays. The game will warn you if you are attempting to skip something that you have not seen yet, so it's safe to attempt to skip all of them unless the game gives you the warning. This will save a lot of time.

So yeah, game is fine, but not excellent. I liked it, especially on first playthrough before it became tedious, but I don't think I will go back to it soon, and if I do ever play it again, it will be a long time from now.

Might as well mention that I highly recommend using SHfFix to get rid of the stupid 30 FPS cutscene restriction, although it does seem to cause a few minor graphical oddities in some cutscenes.

[Raytrace]

currently playing BF:1942 and Wolfenstein: Old Blood, and some Freelancer and a tiny amount of Yakuza 0

[Steven]

Suddenly, there's a demo for the new Star Trek Voyager game!

...and it runs super terribly. The game is cool, though, so I hope the devs either fix it or that the demo is a super early build and it's already fixed. Not much to say since it's just a demo, but I like it so far, even with its many problems.

Also suddenly decided to play the last 2D Tales game (unless you count Keroro RPG), Tales of Hearts (Anime Movie Edition, obviously). I've had this game for like 15 years and barely played it, but I'm about 15 hours in now and I'm only missing Kunzite. Soma Build is a stupid system. "Choose what potentially important stuff you get to permanently miss every time you upgrade your thing" is dumb. I see what they were trying to do, but it's not good. The... world map, if you can call it that, is a series of literally identical-looking hallways with almost nothing in them. Yay~ Audio is super ultra compressed and it sounds quite bad, and the music itself is just kind of there.

Fortunately, the gameplay is quite good, aside from almost everything having an impractically short reach. It's not as good as Destiny remake's battle system, which it's a modified version of, but it's good enough. Unfortunately, friendly AI is impossibly stupid. Beryl loves to specifically choose to stand sandwiched between enemies when attempting to use magic... kicked her out immediately when Innes joined. Hisui isn't much more intelligent and loves to use Wind Cutter on stuff on the other side of the thing from him even though it won't hit, but you kind of need him because nobody else has healing magic until Kohak finally decides to join. Very tempted to kick Hisui out for Kohak and just summon Hisui whenever I need big healing from Nurse or whatever. Playing on Hard from the start and this game will mercilessly beat the shit out of you until Beryl joins, at which point the difficulty disappears entirely. Framerate seems somewhat unstable, but it's not too bad. The sprites are also cute and quite good, as you'd expect from Tales devs. It's really too bad they switched to 3D entirely after this.

I'm playing this on my essentially unused/brand-new DSi LL and after getting used to the 3DS, Vita, Nomad, original Switch, and Steam Deck all having 1.5~5 hours of battery life, it's so strange to NOT have to charge the DSi LL until I've played for about 12 hours. Too bad the d-pad on this thing kinda sucks, but no choice.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

"Choose what potentially important stuff you get to permanently miss every time you upgrade your thing" is dumb. I see what they were trying to do, but it's not good.

I don't like it either, but it's interesting. Basically, every weapon choice is pick 2 out of 3: stat boosts, new passive skills, new artes to use in battle. Passives and stat boosts are more useful 99% of the time though. There's only one arte that's a make-or-break in terms of functionality for a character, and that's Innes' self-heal move that's missable (Angel Rosée I think?). The rest of the missable artes I don't think are the end of the world. You could also go passive skills + artes and then treat the lower stats like a harder mode, or farm stat boosting items (I think they're in this?).

Unfortunately, friendly AI is impossibly stupid.

Caster AI is a bit iffy, especially in such a fast paced game. Beryl's also rather squishy. I actually agree with kicking Hisui aside, it's rather useful to have him as a summon instead which means uninterruptible Nurse and Raise Dead spells when you need them. You can later get a guest character summon with Raise Dead.

[Steven]

"Choose what potentially important stuff you get to permanently miss every time you upgrade your thing" is dumb. I see what they were trying to do, but it's not good.

I don't like it either, but it's interesting. Basically, every weapon choice is pick 2 out of 3: stat boosts, new passive skills, new artes to use in battle. Passives and stat boosts are more useful 99% of the time though. There's only one arte that's a make-or-break in terms of functionality for a character, and that's Innes' self-heal move that's missable (Angel Rosée I think?). The rest of the missable artes I don't think are the end of the world. You could also go passive skills + artes and then treat the lower stats like a harder mode, or farm stat boosting items (I think they're in this?).

Yeah, I have Angel Rosée. I've taken blue for everything for everyone, save one time for Hisui where I took green and one or two times for Shing when I took red. I think I'm going to start getting red more often now for at least Shing and maybe Innes. I'll probably still try to get lots of elements for Beryl in case I need them, and whatever healing stuff I can get for Hisui, but I haven't decided what to do with Kohak. Kunzite hasn't joined yet, but he should be joining soon enough. Edit: he's here now. Yay~

Caster AI is a bit iffy, especially in such a fast paced game. Beryl's also rather squishy. I actually agree with kicking Hisui aside, it's rather useful to have him as a summon instead which means uninterruptible Nurse and Raise Dead spells when you need them. You can later get a guest character summon with Raise Dead.

Kohak likes to stand in bad places to cast magic too. It's really bad. Considering doing Shing + Innes + Kunzite when he finally permanently joins and restricting all magic people to summoning only. Playing as Kohak is kind of fun, though, aside from her horribly short physical attack reach. At least Hisui tries to stand back when healing, but I kicked him out for Kohak last night. That's fine, I guess. Hisui's physical and magic attack stats are both terrible anyway, so it's not like he's especially useful for anything but healing, which he can do safely as a summon. Healing isn't affected by stats, so I'm tempted to ignore his upgrades for the rest of the game so everyone else can get more materials. I already have like no materials anyway since the game doesn't give that much, so I can't really get anything for anyone right now.

It's kind of frustrating because of things like Kohak finally joining but I don't have what I need to give her Backstep and what I need isn't sold in the stores where I am, so I would have to walk all the way back to where I was like 10 hours ago to get it and then walk all the way back... how annoying. Actually, I'm in the military base now and I don't think it's even possible to get out of here without finishing the dungeon anyway, so I think I'm going to be stuck with Backstepless Kohak for a while.

[Gamer707b]

After buying Nights Into Dreams over 15 years ago, I can now say, it finally clicked. Just beat Claire's story, although I didn't get all A's on the levels. Eventually I will. I was playing shmups exclusively for a couple years that I forgot there are other fun games to play. Then the same day last weekend, I also beat Sonic Frontiers. It was good but could be better. My next game is most likely going to be Spyro 3 on the Spyro Re-Ignited Trilogy. The only one I haven't played and 100% completed.

[MommysBestGames]

I started playing Shadow Labyrinth last night and I really dig it.
It's weird, it's janky, the monsters are pretty cool, there's some messy Pac-Man-like gameplay, there's lots of big maze-like areas. The story is OTT and confusing and inappropriate for the original but that makes me laugh. Only thing I'd say is it's over priced for the quality level. It's $30 and so is Shinobi Art of Vengeance which is much more polished. I'd say $15-20 would be a better price, but still I really like how randomly themed the game is.

[AGermanArtist]

I pre-ordered Arc Raiders after watching Jack Frags and Dr Disrespect play an early access version.
The Server Slam beta/demo went live today on PS5, so I got a chance to play it, and was not disappointed. Looking fwd to the full release.
If you like rifling through drawers and crafting with some shooting, then this is for you. It's very slick.

[AGermanArtist]

I've had 2hrs on Arc Raiders so far and I'm absolutely loving this, just scavenging for loot is so much fun and so tense. I've managed to down a few Arc craft and 2 Raiders so far and completed a couple of requests. I think I'm going to leave it now until its release, but I'm really looking fwd to it.

[Immryr]

I've been playing Absolum quite a bit since it came out. I've never been a big beat em up guy, but I've been having a lot of fun with this. It's one of those games that is good in spite of it's roguelike mechanics, rather than because of them though. It has a big focus on meta progression, so your character gets significantly stronger as you die and unlock more stuff. It gets a bit too easy after you have fully unlocked everything, so the balancing is a bit off, but it does a lot to keep throwing new stuff at you as well.

I might have a go at trying to get a clear from a fresh save and treat it more like an arcade game. It would have been nice if they included an unlockable mode that was a bit more arcade-centric as the beat em up mechanics are pretty solid. Maybe that will come as DLC or something

[AGermanArtist]

Looks like a good time. Been following its development, but I didn't get because I have a lot on the go at the min.

[it290]

I've been playing Absolum quite a bit since it came out. I've never been a big beat em up guy, but I've been having a lot of fun with this. It's one of those games that is good in spite of it's roguelike mechanics, rather than because of them though. It has a big focus on meta progression, so your character gets significantly stronger as you die and unlock more stuff. It gets a bit too easy after you have fully unlocked everything, so the balancing is a bit off, but it does a lot to keep throwing new stuff at you as well.

I might have a go at trying to get a clear from a fresh save and treat it more like an arcade game. It would have been nice if they included an unlockable mode that was a bit more arcade-centric as the beat em up mechanics are pretty solid. Maybe that will come as DLC or something

I'm loving it so far at about 60% progression. I think the difficulty is quite character-dependent, but as Cinder I can't say I'm having an easy time with it at all. Really like all the routes which add a fair bit of strategy to each playthrough. Agreed that an arcade-style mode would be good, it's a little bit irritating that there's no way to keep moves unlocked from run to run, although it does add to build variety. I've seen Iconoclast post a few clears, but I can't imagine trying to clear from New Game myself, this game is just too random and busy and the Clash mechanics require really tight timing (except with the 4th character, who has an easier time with it I think).

[Immryr]

I've done a couple of runs from a fresh save now, furthest I've made it is the stage two boss. It doesn't seem completely unfeasible to get a clear this way, even though I'm not especially good at this kind of game. I think I'm just going to keep playing on this save, but not level at the tree and not level the rituals. That way I get access to different types of rituals and my ulti, but the base stats all stay the same.

It's definitely worth getting a few clears in playing the normal way before doing this, but this feels like a nice next step once you've had enough of being super OP.


*edit* Cider feels by far the harderst character to play, to me btw.

[XoPachi]

Played the demo for that MotorSlice game coming out. Shadow of the Colossus if it didn't put me to sleep. It's like that mixed with third person Mirror's Edge.
What moderate bits of combat it had between the platforming with the single enemy type available is interesting. I think that's the first 3D melee combat game I've played where you're dead in one hit which must be the Prince of Persia influence they claimed. But the enemies do too and they can parry and dodge your actions. They also have an insane aggro range with a very fast approach. 1 is fine but 2 together makes you play carefully.
It's not deep or insane, but it's kind of cool getting the upper hand and finally winning the light footsies game with them. The world also has this BLAME! premise/styling to it. Machines taking over in a cold monolithic unending superstructure they're building for themselves (I think). It makes for a fun, bleak place to traverse.
The main character is also an anime girl that doesn't bore or annoy the shit out of me. I actually quite like her a lot and her ennui demeanor. She fits right into the world and like she really doesn't want to be there with a glimmers that tell she has been through a lot. Like she's very professional and skilled at her job but is not happy about that fact. There's also a GREAT macrophobia to certain things. It's got some great scale to certain set pieces. I love when games make me feel small but it requires tricks I can't full explain. There's games with "big" stuff, but there's a feel that's necessary and a lot of games don't do it for me.
I hope levels are not as thoroughly linear as the demo. I do hope there's branching routes to the bosses with incentives to replay them beyond sight seeing. It does need work on the feel, but the game is perfect for time trials and clean runs.

I can't wait to play the final thing. I think it'll be a great adventure. I never thought a dump truck could be unnerving.

[ryu]

Super Bomberman R
Literally played it for the first time since buying it at release lol

Game's alright. Played it with friends for an hour or so. Some of the actual Bomberman characters are actually kind of annoying in this one because of their personalities, so we mostly played the guest characters. Didn't take us long to find out that Pyramid Head was insanely OP with his instant kill on touch skill (who knows what the devs were thinking with that). The gameplay is basic Bomberman, which is fine, but unfortunately the stages aren't all that good. I guess there's a reason nobody ever talks about this game and why the sequel bombed.

[AGermanArtist]

I ended up playing another 5hrs of Arc Raiders, it's that good.

[Sweatlord_STG]

I ended up playing another 5hrs of Arc Raiders, it's that good.

looks incredibly boring. its unlike the other games i saw u playing. i even see women playing this game on twitch, cant be good i played like 10 hours of quake 2 deathmatch last night, THAT was fun

[AGermanArtist]

I'd love a new UT, but I don't think UT3 got the support it deserved - I played it daily for a long time, I returned to COD recently after a 12 yr break, so that scratches that particular itch. I even play a bit of Fortnite Zero Build. I like all sorts. I play Hunt Showdown, Night Reign and Helldivers 2 a fair bit too. I definitely get my money's worth from my PSN sub.
As far as Arc Raiders is concerned, if someone told me I'd enjoy a game where a large percentage of my time playing it is wandering about online looking for scrap with tasks to complete, with the occasional gun-fight, I'd have laughed, but this game has a very particular vibe and game-feel that's difficult to rationalise, but it just seems to have grabbed me. When I wasn't playing it, I wanted to be playing it. It's a try it for yourself game and it's very polished. It seems to have hit with people from what I can see online. I have a huge edibles order on the way and it'll be perfect to accompany that
It's looking like COD Black Ops 7 and Arc Raiders will be a major feature of my time online this yr.

[davyK]

The Jeff Minter I,Robot remake on Steam and Switch

Mr Driller Drill Land

Balatro.

[Sweatlord_STG]

I'd love a new UT, but I don't think UT3 got the support it deserved - I played it daily for a long time, I returned to COD recently after a 12 yr break, so that scratches that particular itch. I even play a bit of Fortnite Zero Build. I like all sorts. I play Hunt Showdown, Night Reign and Helldivers 2 a fair bit too. I definitely get my money's worth from my PSN sub.
As far as Arc Raiders is concerned, if someone told me I'd enjoy a game where a large percentage of my time playing it is wandering about online looking for scrap with tasks to complete, with the occasional gun-fight, I'd have laughed, but this game has a very particular vibe and game-feel that's difficult to rationalise, but it just seems to have grabbed me. When I wasn't playing it, I wanted to be playing it. It's a try it for yourself game and it's very polished. It seems to have hit with people from what I can see online. I have a huge edibles order on the way and it'll be perfect to accompany that
It's looking like COD Black Ops 7 and Arc Raiders will be a major feature of my time online this yr.

ok cool that's interesting, glad you enjoy it, that's all that matters

[it290]

I've done a couple of runs from a fresh save now, furthest I've made it is the stage two boss. It doesn't seem completely unfeasible to get a clear this way, even though I'm not especially good at this kind of game. I think I'm just going to keep playing on this save, but not level at the tree and not level the rituals. That way I get access to different types of rituals and my ulti, but the base stats all stay the same.

It's definitely worth getting a few clears in playing the normal way before doing this, but this feels like a nice next step once you've had enough of being super OP.


*edit* Cider feels by far the harderst character to play, to me btw.

After clearing the game a few times now, it's definitely fairly straightforward to break it a number of different ways. Not every build is broken but there are at least 5 or 6 that are. I think the characters are fairly well balanced, but their utility depends on what you're using to proc. Cider is great w/both hit and skill based procs and projectiles, but not good at clashing. Karl and Brome are both good at mana builds and good Skill clashes. Galandra is the best overall at clashing.

By 'not level the rituals' do you mean just not select the lvl2, lvl3 etc rituals? I think you still have to unlock them all with the gem crafter lady if you want access to everything. Anyway, seems like a decent way to play. I think all of the second level bosses are more difficult than Azra, so definitely viable if you can overcome that hurdle. Also note though, that there are damage given/received scaling options in the Assists menu if you want to tweak the challenge that way.

[AGermanArtist]

Ninja Gaiden 4's pretty great, so far Platinum's best. It's like a refined MG Rising. The story's a bit daft, but it's Ninja Gaiden.