What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[soprano1]

4 kinda ruins 3 because it gets you used to having matrix powers

Don't need to play 3 to understand that: Why would I drive around if I can run like the Flash and jump over tall buildings like Superman?

[Steamflogger Boss]

Mario World 2 and FFIV.

[Sumez]

I only played Saint's Row 2 and 3, and both are absolutely horrible games. How can you get any enjoyment out of that kind of stuff?

It's like they created the game just to be able to say "lolz you can smack people around with a huge purple dildo", which is a lot more fun to say that actually play out...

[Sumez]

Etrian Odyssey 5 is in many ways a return to the series's roots. Subclassing is gone, the sea/air exploration from 3 and 4 are gone

Oooh, that sounds really good, makes me want to look into getting th...

Edit: I forgot to mention something: Etrian Odyssey 5's English translation is an incredibly obnoxious memefest. Almost a Ready Player One-tier bombardment of references and memes with no regard to whether any of it reads like natural language or fits the setting. I don't play these games for the story, but I still found it very aggravating.

Oh dear god no -_-

My rankings of the games in the series I've played goes 3 > 4 > 2 = 5

So you haven't played the first game? I've only played the first three, and the first is such a clear winner to me, all the added bloated stuff from especially the third game really takes away from the elegant and focused simplicity that makes the first game so brilliant. I'm curious where you'd rank it, if you consider 5 a return to that style, but the worst of the series.

[soprano1]

I only played Saint's Row 2 and 3, and both are absolutely horrible games. How can you get any enjoyment out of that kind of stuff?

It's like they created the game just to be able to say "lolz you can smack people around with a huge purple dildo", which is a lot more fun to say that actually play out...

That sounds pretty fun to me.

[Mischief Maker]

I only played Saint's Row 2 and 3, and both are absolutely horrible games. How can you get any enjoyment out of that kind of stuff?

Saint's Row 3 is Crank 2: the video game. It takes the basic concept of GTA and says, "what if we actually made this shit fun?" so instead of eating and relationship simulators, you dial your phone and have your gang deliver you attack helicopter on demand. Instead of driving to front businesses to collect $50 every hour, all your money is automatically deposited to your account hourly. Instead of falling into the bay and slowly swimming around until you can find a stairway, you just hit "E" to warp to shore.

And the enemy design and vehicle physics are built around emergent mayhem. Cars go flying through the air, rival gang members grab cops to use as human shields, you shoot helicopter snipers in the head with your pistol loaded with exploding bullets, then mutant brutes start smashing through cars and people like the Hulk until you take them out by shoving a grenade in their mouth. Then you pick up your phone and have your homeys deliver your pimped out Smartcar with nitro boost.

Which is where 4 fails for me. Instead of three ridiculously themed gangs with their own midbosses, the aliens just kinda sit there and shoot at you. Their ugly hovercars don't have tires to shoot out and don't get into crazy Blues Brothers pileups. Their turrets that need to be shot from the back are just dull. And even the wardens just alternate super jumping and shooting. The game relies on the player's super powers to provide the mayhem, changing from the violent bouncy castle of 3 to a shooting range in 4. It just feels like a fan mod.

[LichbannMejolaro]

Etrian Odyssey 5 is in many ways a return to the series's roots. Subclassing is gone, the sea/air exploration from 3 and 4 are gone

Oooh, that sounds really good, makes me want to look into getting th...

Edit: I forgot to mention something: Etrian Odyssey 5's English translation is an incredibly obnoxious memefest. Almost a Ready Player One-tier bombardment of references and memes with no regard to whether any of it reads like natural language or fits the setting. I don't play these games for the story, but I still found it very aggravating.

Oh dear god no -_-

My rankings of the games in the series I've played goes 3 > 4 > 2 = 5

So you haven't played the first game? I've only played the first three, and the first is such a clear winner to me, all the added bloated stuff from especially the third game really takes away from the elegant and focused simplicity that makes the first game so brilliant. I'm curious where you'd rank it, if you consider 5 a return to that style, but the worst of the series.

Since you guys are discussing Etrian Odyssey, do you have some recommendations of dungeon crawlers for a beginner in the genre?

I already have some of them on Vita (Demon Gaze and Stranger of Sword City, even though I heard good things about Dungeon Travelers), and know about some of them on DS/3DS (Etrian Odyssey, SMT, Persona Q etc), but I don't even know where to start. Do you have some guidance to give me? I just got Persona 4 Golden on Vita as well, is this a good place to start?

[Sumez]

Well, if you haven't played Etrian Odyssey yet, that is a really good start.

[Immryr]

persona 4 is a verrrrrrry different type of game to etrian odyssey. there is a huge focus on narrative, social links, lots and lots of talking - and the actual dungeon crawling is very different to the etrian odyssey/old school first person dungeon crawling style.

if you want a traditional style first person dungeon crawler where you're just customising and levelling up your party while systematically exploring a dungeon with the sole objective of.... getting further in the dungeon, the etrian odyssey games are a good place to get started.

[Vanguard]

So you haven't played the first game? I've only played the first three, and the first is such a clear winner to me, all the added bloated stuff from especially the third game really takes away from the elegant and focused simplicity that makes the first game so brilliant. I'm curious where you'd rank it, if you consider 5 a return to that style, but the worst of the series.

I heard that 1 doesn't have sidestepping or autobattle, which sounds pretty inconvenient. I also hear that the enemy and dungeon designs are really good though, so I might still give it a shot sometime.

Anyway, a big part of why I consider 3 the best in the series is because of its superb character building system. The other games all have nice classes too, but don't come close to the tremendous variety of different things you can do with them. I agree that the sea exploration is bloat and would prefer to do without it.

I consider 5 to be about as good as 2. I still think both are still good games, and the reasons why I rank them at the bottom have nothing to do with minimalism or simplicity. My main problem with 2 is its terrible side quests that give no directions and offer garbage rewards. My main problems with 5 are the reduced difficulty and limited character building options.

Since you guys are discussing Etrian Odyssey, do you have some recommendations of dungeon crawlers for a beginner in the genre?

I already have some of them on Vita (Demon Gaze and Stranger of Sword City, even though I heard good things about Dungeon Travelers), and know about some of them on DS/3DS (Etrian Odyssey, SMT, Persona Q etc), but I don't even know where to start. Do you have some guidance to give me? I just got Persona 4 Golden on Vita as well, is this a good place to start?

My favorite dungeon crawlers are EO3, EO4, Dragon Wars, Shiren the Wanderer, Sil, Brogue, Ragnarok, and ADoM.

Etrian Odyssey games look and feel somewhat similar to JPRGs, and if you've played a few then you shouldn't have much trouble adjusting. They're light on story and instead emphasize character building, exploration, and combat. They have a reputation for being difficult, but they're really not that bad. The series's most outstanding feature is that the dungeons are full of wandering enemies called FOEs. FOEs are never fought in random encounters, they move around on the dungeon map like you do and a fight starts if they can catch you. Generally they're much stronger than other enemies on their levels and you'll want to figure out how to avoid them. Another cool thing about the series is that they always include a harder, optional dungeon after the final boss with an optional true last boss. Yuzo Koshiro does the soundtracks, so that's a big plus too. They're all good, but I think 3 is the best overall. 4 is good if you want something more gentle.

Dragon Wars is an old first person western dungeon crawler. You'll need DOSbox to run it these days. I like it for its attrition-based combat and its strong emphasis on multiple solutions to different problems. Like many of the WRPGs of its time, your characters have a billion skills to choose from, where some are worthless, some are vital, and there's no real way to say in advance which is which. One thing I like is that magic abilities tend to be much more powerful than what physical fighters can do, but you also burn through your MP very quickly, which leads to interesting decisions in both combat and character building. In combat you can win most fights if you burn through all your magic, but then you'll be more vulnerable afterwards. When you build your characters, you have to decide whether to be make consistent fighters, wizards with lots of power, but no stamina, or hybrids that are neither here nor there. My teams are always 100% hybrids. Feel free to ask for character building or any other kind of advice if you decide to give it a shot. I'd say DW is harder to get into than EO, but beating the true last bosses in EO is generally harder than DW.

Shiren the Wanderer is a console roguelite available on the Super Famicom (with a fan translation) and the DS (with an official english release). Its main feature that makes it a roguelite rather than a roguelike is that it allows you to retain items from one playthrough to the next, which will eventually make you strong enough to easily clear the game. Fortunately, the game was balanced around being beaten without using that feature, and you can and should play without it. My favorite thing about Shiren is how little dead air there is. Once you reach the halfway point of the game, you will very regularly run into enemies that can kill you 1 on 1, and a lot of the time you'll see them in groups anyway. There's no real character building, you don't choose how your stats go up when you gain a level, and you never learn any abilities. To make up for your character's limited moveset, the game features a wonderful arsenal of interesting and powerful items. Much of the game's strategy revolves around which items to bring on your journey, and when to burn your valuable consumables to save your life. I consider the SFC version preferable over the DS version for a few reasons, but the differences are ultimately minor. Without using the item warehouse, Shiren is very difficult by normal rpg standards, and probably a bit easier than a typical roguelike.

Sil is a freeware roguelike based upon Angband, though it plays out very differently. Sil is based on JRR Tolkien's The Silmarillion, and unlike similar games, it is quite faithful to the source material. Your goal is to reach the bottom of Morgoth's fortress and steal a silmaril from his crown and then escape alive. For more points you can try to take two or all three of silmarils. You can also try to kill Morgoth himself as a sort of optional true last boss, but you'll need a very optimized character to pull that off. Anyway, the game itself heavily emphasizes character building and tactical, positioning-based combat. The AI is very smart, and whether you win or lose depends just as much on who outmaneuvered whom as it does your stats. There are four races you can play as, and they're effectively difficulty options. Noldor elves (like Galadriel) are immensely superhuman, and can be seen as the game's normal difficulty. Sindar elves (like Legolas) and Dwarves are somewhat weaker, and can be seen as hard mode. Edain are normal dudes like you and me, and constitute SUPERHARD difficulty. It's a pretty challenging game, even as a Noldor, though its time limit is pretty generous by roguelike standards.

Brogue is another freeware roguelike where your goal is to descend to the 26th floor of the Dungeons of Doom, retrieve the amulet of Yendor, and escape alive. Unlike most roguelikes, it doesn't use experience points or experience levels. Instead, character building is based entirely around items. Drink a potion of life to increase your max HP (though they also fully heal you so it's sometimes better to hold off). The most important items for customizing your character are scrolls of enchantment, which can permanently upgrade one piece of equipment. Enchant a broadsword and plate armor if you want to be a fighter, enchant a lightning staff it you want to be a wizard, etc. Lots of interesting choices as to which items to enchant, and whether to spread your enchantments out evenly or to go all in on one super item. The dungeon generation system deserves special mention for how good it is at consistently creating unique and interesting areas to explore. It even dynamically generates puzzles not unlike ones you'd find in a Zelda game. Solve the puzzle and you gain access to something good, usually a treasure room where you're allowed to choose one from a handful of magical items. The ability to choose your favorite item from a treasure room also goes a long way towards mitigating the luck factor in finding the items you want. Brogue does an excellent job of balancing tactical and strategic gameplay. The food timer is very strict, and your enemies are also very dangerous, so the decision of when to rest and let your HP and magic items recharge, and when to press foward is never easy. As an optional challenge, instead of bringing the amulet of Yendor back to the surface, you can bring it all the way down to the bottom of the dungeon at floor 40, though I've never managed to pull that off.

Ragnarok is a hacklike roguelike, which is to say that its mechanics are similar to Nethack's. You'll need DOSbox to run it. It's ostensibly set in the world of Norse mythology, though it's really a bit of a "kitchen sink" fantasy setting. Your goal is to find a way to give the gods of Asgard an advantage in the final battle of Ragnarok, so that their defeat and the fated end of the world can be avoided. There are six different missions you can perform to assist the gods, which mostly revolve around recovering their lost magical items. It isn't necessary to complete all six to win the game, but the more of them you do, the better the Aesir's odds are. The final battle also serves as the game's time limit. If you're out doing quests when the Aesir face the evil gods, they lose, the world ends, and it's game over. The time limit is something you'll want to be aware of but it isn't as strict as Brogue or even Sil's time limits. Anyway, much like Nethack, Ragnarok takes a "more is more" philosophy towards gameplay. The bestiary is huge and your enemies' abilities are wild and varied. The items and abilities you can use are similarly very powerful and varied. A favorite example of mine is the scroll of extinction: you read it, and it asks you to name a race. You type in whatever species you want, and those enemies are wiped out for the remainder of your playthough. You can even type "human" for an instant game over. A few of the strongest races are too powerful to be wiped out by the scroll, but it's still a tremendously useful item. And it's not even rare! At the start of the game you choose from six classes, and after 10 experience levels in one class, you've mastered it and can change to another. Eventually your character will be a master of everything, which some people don't like but I've never seen it as a problem. Sage is one of the best choices because they're the most powerful once they reach level 10. They're very weak at level 1 though, so a beginner might be better off starting as a viking or woodsman. By the end your character will be an invisible, psionic, teleporting five-dimensional, master viking-woodsman-blacksmith-sage-alchemist-conjurer with laser vision and wielding a scythe stolen from death herself, and even still there will be plenty of enemies who can kick your ass. One cool feature commonly found in hacklikes is that you can polymorph into different kinds of monsters, and with how broken some of the monster abilities are, this is THE fastest and most effective method of acquiring power, especially if you can find a way to get one of the super overpowered bodies, like a draugr or a borgon vile. Personally I think trying to clear the game as a human makes for a fun optional challenge. Another great feature of hacklikes is that one of the rarest, and often the most desirable item in the game is a wand of wishing. You zap the wand and it asks what you wish for. You type in an item and the game gives you that item. Protip: use one of your wishes to ask for dead hel dragons and eat their meat asap. Another cool feature is that items in Ragnarok tend to have interestig alternative uses. For example, if you read a scroll while confused, your character will mispronounce the words. So if drink some mead and then read a scroll of extinction, the scroll will instead either revive one of the races you wiped out earlier, or it will create a new race with randomized attributes (this is very dangerous!). Due to its immense complexity, Ragnarok is much harder to learn than the likes of Brogue, though I'd say it's easier to master.

Ancient Domains of Mystery is another hacklike that was freeware for nearly 20 years before a commercial version was released. The free version is still perfectly solid and playable, and afaik the biggest difference is that the paid version features nice graphical tiles instead of ASCII graphics. Anyway, much of what I said about Ragnarok is true for ADoM. Both the player and the enemies have a huge array of wild abilities to draw from, the wand of wishing makes an appearance, lots of items have unintuitive alternate uses, etc. You can't polymorph into a monster or change classes, though. I think the biggest thing that makes ADoM stand out is the effort made to make the setting itself unique and interesting. There's a much bigger emphasis on interacting with friendly NPCs than other roguelikes, there's a morality system that affects various things, and, as the title suggests, there's a great deal of complexity and mystery to discover in all the places you visit and people you meet. Anyway, the plot of the game is that the door to the elemental plane of chaos has opened, and if someone doesn't close it, it's going to ruin the world. The corrupting influence of chaos serves as the game's time limit. As long as the door is open, your character will gradually mutate, gaining various abilities and penalties, until eventually they become a writhing mass of primal chaos (an instant game over). The time limit isn't very strict though, I'd say it's even more generous than Ragnarok. To complete the game you need to reach the bottom of the caverns of chaos, close the door, and make sure it stays closed (by killing all the demons on this side who would open it, or destroying the mechanism to open it). There are optional, special endings where you can perform a large number of obscure and complicated steps to allow your character to survive stepping through the door of chaos, where you'll face Andor Drakon, the ElDeR cHaOs GoD, in a final battle. Conceptually, this is cool, but I'm speaking from experience when I say that the steps to prepare for this are almost unbearably tedious and limiting, and you should really just settle for the normal ending which is perfectly fun, challenging, and satisfying. Difficulty-wise I would say that ADoM is pretty comparable to Ragnarok.

[FRO]

Decided to be done with Super Mario Odyssey for now. I've been seeing a lot of chatter about Axiom Verge online, and since I bought the Switch version, I decided to go back and play through it again (played on Wii U originally). What a great game. I think I'm past the halfway point, so I'm hoping to be done with the game this week so I can jump into Xenoblade 2.

[gbaplayer]

Monster Hunter World (PS4)
Hunting fever is back, such an awesome and time consuming game.

[Marc]

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe: Bit conflicted on this one. On one hand, the AI is an absolute RNG shitshow, and I’m tired of losing a race because the CPU decides to pellet me with an unstoppable barrage of shells just before the finish. One the other hand… 200cc. I’m finally playing a genuinely fast MK, and that goes some way to making up for its flaws. Initially I didn’t think it worked at all, it seemed that the tracks hadn’t been designed for that speed unless using a bike, and I’m not really keep on those. After a bit of experimentation, it turns out that with auto-accelerate on, almost every corner can be taken flat out simply by tap-braking, which in practice makes it feel a hell of a lot like SNES F-Zero to play. I’d planned to try and 3-star every cup at this speed, but I ended up rage quitting on the 4th cup last night and will probably settle for a star on each.
Deep Ones: I think I may have played possibly the worst video game of modern times. The preview promised me a Spectrum-styled platform adventure. What I got was a bit of walking left to right and jumping over the occasional hole when the controls worked. Sometimes the jump noise would play, but my character would carry on walking off the slippery platform edges. Usually down a bottomless hole, although they don’t look any different from the holes you do have to eventually go down to make progress. And the hilarity that ensued once I collected the ‘gun’ can barely be described. To top it all off, to call it Spectrum-influenced is an utter insult to some of the imagination and technical trickery pulled off on such a primitive machine. I’m going to get hammered and try it again tonight, just to see if it’s amusing in its terribleness while inebriated.

[Blinge]

Tried rogue legacy.
I have a very long line of descendants.
It's cool but I hate it.
as usual: mad cuz bad

[null1024]

I was reminded that Sonic Robo Blast 2 existed after like 12 years, so I went to check up on it again.
...were the controls always this bad? The thok sends you forward at absurd, uncontrollable speed immediately, and you don't have nearly enough control over forward speed in general [weirdly fast acceleration, poor deceleration]. The camera is a bit rough, but that's never really gonna change.
Maybe I was just more easily impressed a decade ago.

They've done a fair bit of work on stage design, although it's kind of weird recognizing bits of level still.

[kaicooper]

just played A WAY OUT with a random guy who owns the game
beat it in one set for 7 hours..best COOP this gen

[FRO]

I WAS working on Tiny Barbarian DX on the Switch, but HOLY CRAP is that game brutal in places. I kinda gave up in the 2nd set of stages.

[Chaos Phoenixma]

Finished Persona 5 Platinum Trophy.

Replaying Dark Cloud 2 now, though on the digital PS4 release of it. Currently intend to go for the 100% as well. I also have the PS4 digital version of Star Ocean 3 which I plan to go through eventually.

Currently in After Story on CLANNAD, so I'm nearing the end of that.

Made some attempts on All Chars Low% in Necrodancer yesterday and had another that got past Bolt Low % but died on Dove Low%. My best for my order is to get past Bolt, Dove, and Monk Low% then die on Aria Low%.

[BulletMagnet]

Finished up with Tokyo Xanadu yesterday, which, after leaving a poor impression last time around, turned out to be Thoroughly Okay. Both the "scour the same areas every time the story progresses" downtime and the occasional (though thankfully not as often as it seemed at first), infuriating camera freak-out during battle drag things down considerably, the rest of the experience was mostly solid, if somewhat generic. One thing I will warn, however: if you're allergic to Anime Cheese, stay far, FAR away from this game. There's enough "We need to try our hardest!" "Yeah, this battle is for everyone's sake!" "I'm not gonna fall behind!" in here to strike you dead at fifty paces.

For a change of pace (and to avoid getting into anything super time consuming between now and Yakuza 6) I popped in The Talos Principle; I'm usually pretty awful at puzzlers, but I'll see how far I get before giving up.

[Ji-L87]

WARNING: Long post incoming. My apologies in advance.

I have a few unexpected days home thanks to a cold, so decided to sit down Mirror's Edge Catalyst since I got a code from a friend but never got around to it.

I just finished the main story and consider the game complete for my part, since the nearly all side missions are meaningless and frustrating. (It's just timed runs disguised as deliverys with little to no room for error or you'll have to repeat. No rating system, just failure or finish. With people getting mad at you for not doing your job within the allotted time when you're literary staring the delivery target in the face, except you've yet to invade their private space because the time ran out. Too bad, try again.)

Frustration in general seems to be the general theme for me with this game. I actually really, really liked the original Mirror's Edge. The feeling of immersion coupled with the fantastic atmosphere and ambience thanks to composer Solar Fields and the aesthetics which was unlike most things else really made for truly special experience, though certainly flawed in some areas.

I was really excited when I heard a new game was coming and then not so excited when words like "open world" and "online integration" were thrown about. And for good reason, as I finally came to see.
In short, Catalyst feels like someone (EA) just had to cram in whatever buzzword was popular that day.

I mean, it's still Mirror's Edge and you still perform fantastic acrobatic feats in an unnervingly pristine future high rise environment but it feels more soulless this time around.
The game is now taking place in an "open world" environment but that doesn't mean it's open world like your typical GTA-style sandbox, as you seldom reach street level. Instead, it feels like a sprawling obstacle course disguised as a city. It feels really artificial and fake somehow.

There's new mechanics added for you get around, but those feels like gimmicks and end up being used as such. You get a sort of arm-mounted hook shot but it can only be used in pre-designated areas where there are things to hook on to. It gets the most use in the last story mission where you need to scale this game's version of the Shard building.
There's all kinds of collectables and busywork to hinder your progress from basic (and extremely out of place) yellow glowing orbs to various security lockers you can yank chips out of for a small amount of XP.
There doesn't seem to be any real point to these other than to somehow populate this now open environment which have a few differently themed zones to roam around in.

After playing through the game however, how to get to certain zones still remain a mystery to me. It can be rally hard to navigate, even with the help of your runners vision (which seem a bit unstable this time round) because of all the see-through glass and general maze like layout of everything. It's supposed to be like apartments and stuff but everything just feels like a video game level and the ultra clean and minimalist visual look sometimes makes it really hard to see where you're supposed to go, or even if you can go to certain places. Everything's just slightly bizarro rather than believable.

The main story quests will take you through all these environment but as expected there now is a great deal of backtracking to be made and the confusing layouts don't help much here.
Thankfully, after you've done the data center puzzle in each area you unlock the ability to fast travel to that location and to be honest, I thought those futuristic data centers was some of the more fun things in game. They're a first person parkour puzzle essentially focusing a lot on verticality and they have their own distinct look and sound compared to the rest of the game.

The story missions are sadly not that interesting compared to the actual story but there a few cool locations you pass through on the way. Some of the locations later in the game are actually really beautiful but you don't have time to look around too much since you're constantly being confronted by Kruger security forces. The first game also forced you to fight pretty often and that was problematic but I guess they hoped that the new combat mechanic and your new move set would make it work better this time round. And it does, sometimes. If an enemy is standing next to a railing or a ledge, or underneath you they're easy to dispose of. But it becomes a mess when you need to face more than two at a time, sometimes it becomes a mess even with only one enemy because there is this sort of weakness system in place making certain enemies immune to punches or kick-attacks since they'll block or hit you back and you need to rely on special attacks like wall jumps and so which is fine in theory but much harder to actually pull off in reality.

Kruger security forces will also harass you between missions in the open world and every now and then you're forced to run from the law and hide. Except it's much harder to stay low in this game than in your typical sandbox game since you don't have access to any vehicles and instead must outrun the Kruger VTOL choppers on foot. If unlucky you need to run for some time before they give up and a few times I managed to reach the end of the map thinking there would be something else for me to jump to only for me to fall to my death as I tried to escape.
Other times I would get the law on my ass while on my way to the next story mission and ended up running in the completely wrong direction until things had calmed down, leaving me with more backtracking.

Speaking of the story, Mirror's Edge Catalyst is both a prologue and reboot. Despite being set seemingly further in the future, Faith is a bit younger and rougher, her family story gets completely rewritten compared to the first game and in general the supporting cast is much bigger this time around. The characters range from pretty cool to try-hard and cringe worthy although I can not fault anyone's vocal performance, just the script. There is a certain edgyness that is a bit much and the story itself is also a bit silly and it doesn't do a great job of answering all the questions in the end.

It also doesn't help that in order to find out why Faith start the game in juvenile detention and why Faith is indebted to one of the less charismatic characters throughout the story, you have to read a comic called "Exordium", which of course isn't available as an unlockable in the game but rather is a real comic you need to track down and get your hands on. Don't misunderstand me, I applaud the fact that there even is a Mirror's Edge comic, I just dislike the fact that whatever happened in that comic constantly gets brought up again and again in the story of this game which is just the wrong way to go about something like this.
It seems to be decently drawn form what I can see and I would quite like to check it out, but it would've been preferable to have done so before sitting down with the game instead of afterwards.


So are there any positives?
Why, yes, there are quite a few things that are still great. For better or worse, this is still Mirror's Edge. When you manage to make a run and nail every part on the way it feels great. The immersion is still fantastic and it's so refreshing to have an actual body, although that isn't so uncommon in games anymore. There is plenty of time for virtually induced vertigo as you'll climb some really high places multiple times throughout the story and in general the draw distance is fantastic. Once you're far removed from everything, the city finally feels alive and believable. And you can be sure that the way down will be really exciting as well.

The sound is another good thing. In general there is an audible sense of space which is really pleasing and certain sound effects are delightfully tactile, again, keeping up that feeling of immersion.
Solar Fields returns once again with a fitting new soundtrack that really helps set the atmosphere, although I think there are less standout tracks, despite it featuring more tracks. The original still reigns supreme in my book, but this is good stuff.

I'm sorry for the long post guys, I just had to vent somewhere

[iconoclast]

The Silver Case
Completed this a couple weeks ago. The story gets a little too ridiculous for my tastes, but it's still an enjoyable detective mystery.

Ys VIII
Just got the Platinum. I'm not sure I'd say this is one of my favorite RPGs, but it's a great game. Probably a little better than Celceta overall. I felt like the story took a long time to really go anywhere (I wasn't that interested until the 40 hour mark (!)) and while the characters are typical anime/RPG archetypes, they're all pretty likable. The presentation is also a bit weak with low poly models and environments, stiff cutscene animation, and sparse voice acting, but at least it runs at 60 fps and usually never looks bad (just low budget). The combat is fun enough to make up for all of the shortcomings though, and the soundtrack is great as always.

[Shelcoof]

The Silver Case
Completed this a couple weeks ago. The story gets a little too ridiculous for my tastes, but it's still an enjoyable detective mystery

would you play the sequel the 25th ward?
I have both games but no time to play

[iconoclast]

Definitely. I might get it next week, I'm just not sure if I'll have time to finish it right now. I like the tone of the story and characters, it's more serious and hard-boiled than most video games. I would've preferred if it ended up being more realistic, but whatever. It's still good.

[Sumez]

The talk about Etrian Odyssey made me finally start out on EO4... jesus christ I can't believe it's been five years since I got the game after preordering it. I really hate how fast time flies as you get older. I've spent a huge portion of my limited time on this planet just having the game sit on the shelf without me paying attention to it.

Midlife crisis aside, I'm absolutely captivated, and have been almost unable to put the game down! I've already put over 40 hours into it over the past week, which is absurd.

It has a lot of the same issues I had with EO3: There's too much stuff going on, it's impossible for me to take everything into account, and I get overwhelmed by all the mechanics I'm not even making use of. And the dungeons as well as the added overworld are crowded as hell. I can't turn a corner without running into someone or finding some hidden village or whatever. Comparing to EO1 it bothers me, considering the atmospheric desolation of venturing further and further into a hostile dungeon was one of the most amazing aspects of that game, especially paired with the unexpected plottwist late into the game.

That said, looking at the game by its own merits, it's incredibly good, and probably objectively better than the first one. The combat tactics are very well thought out, and the overworld works much, MUCH better than the superfluous ocean "minigame" from EO3, due to how well integrated it is with your game progression, while at the same time feeling nonintrusive, as you can explore it entirely at your leisure.
It's definitely a lot more approachable that EO1, with a lot of different things to do or focus on right from the get go, ensuring that no aspect of the game really grows stale (EO1 could get really repetitive until it truly started opening up about halfway through). That said, they definitely didn't skimp on the difficulty! I haven't had to grind extra yet (aside from a few sidequests I had to postpone), but most bosses took me several tries, and usually had me hanging by a very thin thread as they finally went down. I don't remember the first game being this hard (but I'm told it's still the harder game). There's a ton more shortcuts this time around, however, making sure you always get to keep your "progress" even after only very short visits into the dungeon. I never feel as much at risk in EO4 as I did in EO1 (don't remember about EO3).

I feel that I'm approaching the ending and really looking forward to seeing how it'll develop.

[Mischief Maker]

Synthetik

It's a mouse-WASD isometric shooter roguelite. It's main hook is more realistic firearm handling mechanics. For instance, you have to hit E to eject an empty clip before you can hit R to reload, and reloading has the gears of war-style active reload QTE. In addition, aim is only steady when you're holding still, guns can jam, there's recoil effects, and you can even burn yourself by letting your gun overheat.

Now these extra mechanics sound like they should make the game intolerable compared to something like Nex Machina. But in fact once you get a hang of this game's rhythm, ducking behind cover to lock and load before popping out and holding still for the one split second necessary to pop out a headshot on the soldier spraying bullets wildly while screaming at you with its GORF voice, it becomes compelling. Synthetik really brings across the feeling of guns as spring-loaded gizmos that are frightfully dangerous yet incredibly satisfying when you learn how to control them. This is helped in no small amount by the game's sound design and supporting effects. I don't know if I've ever played a game of any genre where gunplay felt as kinetic as it does in this game.

The main downside is an absolute assload of unlockables before the game is fully functional. It's also a little rough around the edges, but the developer is currently patching the game at a frenzied pace.

If you don't mind a little learning curve with your robotron clone this game is easy to recommend at $14.

[EmperorIng]

^looks neat. Its artstyle reminds me of some of the old CD games I used to pop into my PC way back when.

I had a few dollars in my steam wallet, so I saw during a sale that Thief 1/2 were on sale for less than a dollar each, so I decided "I'll finally try this out!"

Man, am I glad I did. I put 30+ hours into Thief: Gold. What an amazing ride. I love how it verve's between noir-ish stealth game, to terrifying horror game, to batshit insanity, back and forth. Some of the most memorable mission are either so disorienting (The Sword) or so damn scary (Haunted Cathedral) that they left an indelible impression on me. While there were some levels that dragged on (at least one of the added missions for Thief: Gold in particular) and I had a little bit of fatigue by the end, the whole of the game was so worth the effort. Huge maze-like levels with multiple paths through, items to accommodate multiple play-styles, and difficulty modes that add more interesting objectives and goals rather than upping numbers/stats on enemies. Special shout-out to sneaking around in a soundtrack that dynamically switches between great moody ambience and totally-90s grunge electronica. Dated? Maybe, but fitting nonetheless.

It reminds me of the wonder I felt playing System Shock 1. I can't believe they crammed so much into one game.

I'm 2 missions into Thief 2 now, so I hope it keeps up the same momentum, or improve it, if possible.

[drauch]

Hell yeah. The narrative in Thief (and SS 1) are both what really gets me. Tells a great tale in quick bits instead of shoving it down your throat. And Garret's VA is superb.

Thief 2 seems to be the favorite of the series, but personally I found it a bit disappointing. It's still good, of course, but it tries to rehash a lot of the same plot and characters from the first, when I'd much rather have it be its own entity. But yeah, just a minor complaint!

[EmperorIng]

Yeah, Stephen Russell as Garret really sells the game - as well as voicing a lot of the drunk guards too!

A lot of people complained about the undead and monster animals in Thief 1 - which I get, because dealing with them is a real pain in the ass - but someone put it nicely when I talked with them and explained that despite its name, Thief is kinda like a "rogue's campaign in D&D" with all the various twists-and-turns as opposed to a straight-up burglary simulator.

[Steamflogger Boss]

Been playing tf out of Pillars of Eternity. 40 hours in already. For now I'd put it behind BGII but firmly ahead of Icewind Dale, NWN etc... Definitely pre-ordering Pillars 2.

[Marc]

Playing Iron Crypticle and thoroughly enjoying it. Single-screen top-down twin-stick shooter that avoids a lot of the things that dragged down Gungeon and BoI for me (too much RNG and over-reliance on perks respectively). The enemy mix-up actually feels very reminiscent of Smash TV, the weapon drops are frequent and mostly very useful, and the perks it does have are effective, but not essential. Highly highy recommended.