What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[null1024]

So, I'm playing Tales of Berseria, and I'm wondering when the combat starts to feel better. Just did the bit where you had to find that guy from the sailor's guild that was a demon, so I'm really early into the game.
and sure, Tales combat is basically just button mashing this early [and sometimes even late on too], but the arte flowchart system is awful and I hate the camera [there are almost no times I want it pointed anywhere but with a side view of me and my current enemy] and I'm really hoping it gets better maybe
and I really wish I had actual normal attacks

Like, the literal fucking phone game seems to have more active, engaging battles so far. Here, I can mash one attack button and just keep hitting the one for Velvet's demon arm thing every once in a while and everything fucking dies after the tiniest bit of having to not be an idiot for half a second at the start of a fight [if I fuck that up, then the fight drags on for ages and enemies auto-guard through my attacks].
I kept hearing people say good things about Berseria, so I hope things get better.

[edit]
Played for a few more hours, got Laphicet and that pirate guy in my party now.
Maybe I'm getting used to it, maybe enemies aren't quite as no-effort anymore, but it's feeling better now. Still not brilliant, but it's okay. I'm taking back the "literal phone game [Rays] is better" comment.
I still hate the arte button flowchart system, but oh well.
The game is a lot more fun when I just treat it like some kind of Dynasty Warriors and just accept the fact that I can run around and UNGA shit.

as an aside, my whole party looks suitably rough and edgy and I put eye-patches and hats on everyone, and then this cute boy in a dress comes along and ruins it

[edit 2]
The dangerous encounter system is a joy. Loads of enemies, just keep hitting things and occasionally stop my teammates from dying. Basically, it's designed entirely around Velvet's playstyle.
Unfortunately, the difficulty feels all over the place -- either it's a breeze... or I accidentally lapse and suddenly a teammate is dead.
...or I don't cancel Velvet's break arte thing in time and then now I'm at 1HP and something glances off of me and that's that

normal battles haven't even ranked and I've been creeping the difficulty settings up and haven't noticed much of a difference

[soprano1]

Finished Plague of Shadows DLC and halfway through Specter of Torment on 3DS. The former had a nice little thing going between Mona and Plague Knight, but the potion throwing was kind of making me dizzy. The latter is great, more straightforward like a Megaman game. Story is interesting, it's a prequel that explains the rise of the Order of No Quarter and it's Enchantress.
I went back to my Final Fantasy IX on PC, outside Cleyra. I installed the Memoria mod, now I no longer have to go through the fucking splash screens every time I load the game.

[BrianC]

So, I'm playing Tales of Berseria, and I'm wondering when the combat starts to feel better. Just did the bit where you had to find that guy from the sailor's guild that was a demon, so I'm really early into the game.
and sure, Tales combat is basically just button mashing this early [and sometimes even late on too], but the arte flowchart system is awful and I hate the camera [there are almost no times I want it pointed anywhere but with a side view of me and my current enemy] and I'm really hoping it gets better maybe
and I really wish I had actual normal attacks

Like, the literal fucking phone game seems to have more active, engaging battles so far. Here, I can mash one attack button and just keep hitting the one for Velvet's demon arm thing every once in a while and everything fucking dies after the tiniest bit of having to not be an idiot for half a second at the start of a fight [if I fuck that up, then the fight drags on for ages and enemies auto-guard through my attacks].
I kept hearing people say good things about Berseria, so I hope things get better.

[edit]
Played for a few more hours, got Laphicet and that pirate guy in my party now.
Maybe I'm getting used to it, maybe enemies aren't quite as no-effort anymore, but it's feeling better now. Still not brilliant, but it's okay. I'm taking back the "literal phone game [Rays] is better" comment.
I still hate the arte button flowchart system, but oh well.
The game is a lot more fun when I just treat it like some kind of Dynasty Warriors and just accept the fact that I can run around and UNGA shit.

as an aside, my whole party looks suitably rough and edgy and I put eye-patches and hats on everyone, and then this cute boy in a dress comes along and ruins it

[edit 2]
The dangerous encounter system is a joy. Loads of enemies, just keep hitting things and occasionally stop my teammates from dying. Basically, it's designed entirely around Velvet's playstyle.
Unfortunately, the difficulty feels all over the place -- either it's a breeze... or I accidentally lapse and suddenly a teammate is dead.
...or I don't cancel Velvet's break arte thing in time and then now I'm at 1HP and something glances off of me and that's that

normal battles haven't even ranked and I've been creeping the difficulty settings up and haven't noticed much of a difference

I suggest playing as a few of the other characters. Velvet is OP.

[No_not_like_Quake]

Just finished Ys VIII on ps4. Still need to do a few side things but will wait a bit. 49 hrs of action rpg is enough for the time being. 49 hrs of Eternian tits. Enjoyed it all.


Currently on Metro 2033 redux, again on ps4, which I bought digitally on sale for 6.99$ cdn with its sequel at the same price. Chose Survivor and normal difficulty. Only an hour in but seems cool, a nice change of pace.

[Mero]

Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter

Game is definitely hard work, hopefully I can reach the end before the MC dies

[dan76]

About to abandon Resi 7 due to the terrible, terrible boss fights. I'm on Margeurite in the old house now and it's just pure bullet sponge shite. They're like Resi 4 boss fights, but with even less mobility and visibility than that.

Eh? Shoot her when she's crawling around the walls to make her fall then offload your shotgun / burner into her. She doesn't have too much health. The game gives you a load of burner fuel... So you're using that right?

Not like... The Laura boss from The Evil Within. I replaying it to get hyped for the sequel next month. Mopping up some achievements in NG+. Good giddy god her fight in chapter 10 is painful. 8 magnum bullets, about 20 different types of bolt, I emptied over 10 round of the shotty into her and used up 140 rounds of the sub machine gun. Painful because of the checkpoint system - actually getting to fight her is difficult, then when you've done that there's another boss fight! Great game.

[ryu]

Now near the end of Metroid Samus returns.

I've been enjoying it a lot, however I like it a lot less than any of the 2D Metroid since including Super. This one's so long it eventually feels repetitive, and a lack of enemy variety certainly doesn't help. The new mechanics don't add much value to the experience for me. The melee attack is fine, but it feels gimmicky that most enemies tend to charge into Samus to facilitate the mechanic. Free aim is nice but not a game changer either.

At least the game doesn't subvert the base formula. Lots of exploration, you can get some stuff early using inifnite bomb jumps and it thank god there's no forced handholding.

[LichbannMejolaro]

I'm about to finish Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze on WiiU. Had finished it before, but now I'm going to 100%.

The only thing I dislike about the game is that they decreased the difficulty a lot compared with Donkey Kong Returns. But Tropical Freeze is still a great game, and in my opinion is best than any Mario released in the past 20 years.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter

Game is definitely hard work, hopefully I can reach the end before the MC dies

Not really a problem, at least during the first two playthroughs. The game so soon is not particularly challenging, just very unusual.

[Mischief Maker]

Heat Signature

It's the next game from the creator of Gunpoint that plays like a turn-based Hotline Miami mixed with Gunpoint's various gadgets that add up to much procedural madness with a prodigious amount of defenestration.

It has one of the best trailers of all time, as in most-descriptive. Seriously it's more informative than 90% of the professional reviews you might read about the game.

[Mischief Maker]

Well the final beta of Overgrowth just released with the complete campaign included. After 10 years of waiting for my preorder to pay off and beating the campaign in an afternoon, I'm massively underwhelmed.

Lugaru was a fine game and this is a fine game but it is not worth $30 and I do not see 10 years worth of gameplay innovation here. They had all sorts of promises over the years that never paid off like custom building your weapons and armor or an arena mode with a full career system. The promises they did implement have zero gameplay effect, like soft tissue mass ragdolling or realistic shrubbery sway.

Oh well!

[Blinge]

I watched some gameplay, what's the selling point?

Had time enough to myself this weekend to play the whole Team Ico trilogy. Unff
Great sessions for the first two, however Last Guardian isn't a great speedgame.
Removing my usual patience by trying to finish it quickly made for a frustrating experience.

Ah well, platinum trophy in all 3 now

[Mischief Maker]

I watched some gameplay, what's the selling point?

To be honest, at the time Lugaru's only competition in the indie scene was Zombie Smashers X2. Now we're living in a post-Aztez world and Overgrowth just isn't enough.

[Marc]

The Ninja Warriors. It's shit, first of the ACA titles I wish I could get a refund on.

Tembo, which has been far better than I expected.

And picked up the Wipeout collection, which is stunning.

[Ji-L87]

I bought Forza Horizon 3 last weekend. And it's kinda....myeeh. The driving is good, for the most part, the environment ranges from decent to stunning, music is better than I thought and the dude bro festival theme is so flimsy that it's not too big of a problem.

The trouble is...the open world is great and all, but the actual races doesn't take advantage of that aspect as much as I'd like with many of the small circuits feeling rather pointless when the sometimes long drive of getting to the race location was a more thrilling experience.

I'm also unhappy with how much the game loves to shove it's DLC I didn't buy right into my face. Every other loading screen is from something I don't have and many cool cars I see being driven around are apparently part of "car packs" I need to buy. It took me a long time for realize the reason I couldn't buy a Porsche like I'd buy any other car in the game (instead, it launched a window asking me to log in a provide payment details) was that there is a little black arrow next to the car's thumbnail indicating it's a downloadable car.

And lastly, during the game, I was shown cutscenes for both DLCs (with asking me to buy it afterwards) as well as a prompt to give it a MS Store Rating...only the finest app store business practices on display here. Disgusting for what is a 60$ purchase. I know Jimquisition had a great video about this kind of thing just the other day, as he usually does.

Finally, the handling model. It's pretty good, but it depends a lot on the car and I find myself switching between "normal" and "simulation" a lot. Some cars are nigh undriveable using the 360 controller (every attempt at counter steering is futile), something I felt in the Forza 7 demo also with the Porsche and the Dubai track, on the other hand the "normal" handling mode prevents the wheels from turning too much, making some cars prone to constant heavy understeer. So, I have to switch back and forth depending on what I drive.

But, it's still fun and the sense of speed (especially with hood cam) is fantastic.

[Obiwanshinobi]

The trouble is...the open world is great and all, but the actual races doesn't take advantage of that aspect as much as I'd like with many of the small circuits feeling rather pointless when the sometimes long drive of getting to the race location was a more thrilling experience.

I wouldn't know how Test Drive Unlimited fares in that respect, but for me, Midnight Club II did such a thing excellently. Better than - how much higher tech? - Burnout Paradise, at least.

[Obscura]

I was foolish enough to buy The Surge when it was on sale. Three hours of playing it, and it's uninstalled. One of the most poorly tuned games I've ever had the misfortune of playing. Every single mechanic just clashes with every single other mechanic to make an unplayable mess of bullshit. It's "hard" in the sense that it's mostly random and arbitrary, so it gets called a "Souls-like".

[Ruldra]

Yesterday I finished a campaign of Baseball Stars 2.

Protip, actually pay attention to the player stats. Batting average, ERA and HR help you identify who actually are the best players in your team. Knowing if your pitchers are right or left-handed and if they throw overhead or sideways also help. Sideway pitchers are much better at throwing curveballs. If you're going up against a same-handed batter, throwing a curveball away from him will strike him out.

Also, base steals. You can't stop the AI from base stealing, but they can't stop you either if you're using a fast runner. Identify who are the best runners and steal as soon as the pitcher start the pitching animation.

Manual control of your fielders is supposed to be more challenging but only proved to be more frustrating than anything. You can't control them effectively if you don't know where exactly they are on the field, and the game doesn't show that. Hard mode only makes your fielders unreliable.

As for the teams, I like the Japan Samurais the most. Fast runners and 3 sideway pitchers with good ERA. But I must concede that the USA Bisons are really good too and they proved to be the most dangerous opponent. They hit homeruns like crazy. Lost one game to them.

A pity you need to use savestates to complete a campaign, but overall the game is a blast. If there's a better baseball game out there I'm not familiar with it.

[Stevens]

Baseball Stars 2.

overall the game is a blast. If there's a better baseball game out there I'm not familiar with it.

I don't think there is one better.

I have two friends who don't know each other, but I play them both in BS 2 pretty often. It is as much fun to throw down in as a fighting game.

[BrianC]

While 2 is better, I do miss the female players from previous Baseball Stars games. I'm not sure about Baseball games that are better, but Sega did make some fine baseball games for AC, Genesis, and Saturn.

[Stevens]

While 2 is better, I do miss the female players from previous Baseball Stars games. I'm not sure about Baseball games that are better, but Sega did make some fine baseball games for AC, Genesis, and Saturn.

I guess it would depend on what you want from a baseball game. Baseball Stars 2 is an awesome-easy to pick up and play arcade type game, but if you're looking for more of a simulation then yeah I'm sure there are better.

You know of any other arcade type baseball games offhand? Only one I can think of is World Series (AC). There has to be more.

[BrianC]

While 2 is better, I do miss the female players from previous Baseball Stars games. I'm not sure about Baseball games that are better, but Sega did make some fine baseball games for AC, Genesis, and Saturn.

I guess it would depend on what you want from a baseball game. Baseball Stars 2 is an awesome-easy to pick up and play arcade type game, but if you're looking for more of a simulation then yeah I'm sure there are better.

Actually, the Sega games I'm referring to are the arcade style ones, not the WSB games designed by BlueSky Software (not saying these are bad, but I prefer arcade style). Oddly enough, despite the title, Sports Talk Baseball is one of those arcade style ones and is a localization of a JP baseball game. I'm also not claiming any of these are better than Baseball Stars 2. While definitely not better, I find it interesting that the first Ken Griffey Jr. on SNES borrowed quite a bit from Baseball Stars 2.

[Ruldra]

You know of any other arcade type baseball games offhand? Only one I can think of is World Series (AC). There has to be more.

There's 2020 Super Baseball which is basically a futuristic reskin of Baseball Stars 2. Another one is Relief Pitcher, it looks more realistic and has a mode where you're dumped in the middle of a game like an actual relief pitcher. It isn't that good though.

Overall, seems that BS2 is the game to play if you want an arcade-ish experience. If you want a simulation, nothing comes close to MLB The Show.

[Imhotep]

there's also Namco's long running World Stadium series and Data East's Stadium Hero / '96. I can' t comment on the gameplay, though.

[Ruldra]

Another rather recent arcade baseball game for PC and modern consoles is Super Mega Baseball. People swear by the gameplay but the cartoonish style makes it look really weird.

And there's Out of the Park Baseball if you want to try playing as a manager. Super heavy on statistics though.

[Mischief Maker]

Overgrowth, the Duke Nukem Forever of the PC indie scene, FINALLY came out.

It's not very impressive.

[WelshMegalodon]

I thought I remembered someone else mentioning Overgrowth, but it looks like you were just repeating yourself.

[Mischief Maker]

Whoops! So I was.

[Stevens]

Totally forgot about Super Bases Loaded on the SNES. That was a quality game we got years out of in high school.

Funny thing is I don't actually like baseball at all.

[soprano1]

Overgrowth, the Duke Nukem Forever of the PC indie scene, FINALLY came out.

It's not very impressive.

I thought that was Owlboy?