What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[Mischief Maker]

I beat Ys: The Oath in Felghana and started Ys Origin.

Frig. Yunica's endless whining is super annoying compared to Adol's silence and the music is a gigantic step down (the mid-boss theme is downright cheesy) but the enemies and bosses are much more interesting and there are a few key improvements to the combat system that I'm not sure I can go back from after experiencing (You can still swing your axe during a magic whirlwind).

Maybe I'll extract the music ogg files from Oath and transfer them into Origin.

Does anyone own the GOG version of Origin? Has GOG issued any patches to address the end-game crash I've heard people complain about? (My humble bundle copy does not)

[Immryr]

Transformers on ps4. Absolutely loving it. It's definitely more limited than bayonetta etc but the combat is a lot of fun, as you'd expect from platinum.

[Some-Mist]

Virginia (PC)

Music and Atmosphere top natch BUT..
game length only 1.5 hour!!!
story is ok but gameplay is pooor
just walk..press this..drink coffe..eat this..its sooo Liner

really disappointed but i'll give it 7/10 for Music and Twin Peaks style

the more I play it the more I'm getting upset with it. you're right that the music and atmosphere is top notch... but how your scenes just randomly "cut" without any smooth transitions makes the whole experience feel disjointed. then there are sections where you think you should read the text, but the text zooms so fast that you can only read 3 or 4 words of a paragraph before the entire paragraph disappears... it's kind of infuriating.

I haven't "beaten" it yet, but I still enjoy the concept. it's more of an interactive drama than an actual game.

[Durandal]

I beat Ys: The Oath in Felghana and started Ys Origin.

Frig. Yunica's endless whining is super annoying compared to Adol's silence and the music is a gigantic step down (the mid-boss theme is downright cheesy) but the enemies and bosses are much more interesting and there are a few key improvements to the combat system that I'm not sure I can go back from after experiencing (You can still swing your axe during a magic whirlwind).

Maybe I'll extract the music ogg files from Oath and transfer them into Origin.

Does anyone own the GOG version of Origin? Has GOG issued any patches to address the end-game crash I've heard people complain about? (My humble bundle copy does not)

If you are already an Ys veteran, you should've probably went with Hugo instead, as he offers a new playstyle by shooting projectiles instead of slashing things whereas Yunica plays very similarly to Adol. And Hugo is cooler because he's a smartass in a likeable kind of way (interspersed with some angst). The third character is unlocked by completing the game with either character, who provides his own twists to the story, powers, and gameplay style to the game. And the true final boss.

[PuToTyra]

Thinking about purchasing Saint Seiya on steam since I'm a fan and it's on -75% sale...nevermind it's probably going to be horrible, like all bandai fan-milking nostalgia titles...

I beat Ys: The Oath in Felghana and started Ys Origin.

Frig. Yunica's endless whining is super annoying compared to Adol's silence and the music is a gigantic step down (the mid-boss theme is downright cheesy) but the enemies and bosses are much more interesting and there are a few key improvements to the combat system that I'm not sure I can go back from after experiencing (You can still swing your axe during a magic whirlwind).

Maybe I'll extract the music ogg files from Oath and transfer them into Origin.

Does anyone own the GOG version of Origin? Has GOG issued any patches to address the end-game crash I've heard people complain about? (My humble bundle copy does not)

I need to come back to Ys Origin. Started the game on highest difficulty level and then, after 20+ hours of gameplay and grinding SP and upgrades for Steam achievements I was told that you have higher SP drops on lower difficulty levels...which means I just wasted a lot of time and that dishearted me to this otherwise amazing game.

[soprano1]

Thinking about purchasing Saint Seiya on steam since I'm a fan and it's on -75% sale...nevermind it's probably going to be horrible, like all bandai fan-milking nostalgia titles...

It's not a good fighting game, that's for sure. And yes, it's all about the nostalgia.

[kaicooper]

Virginia (PC)

Music and Atmosphere top natch BUT..


really disappointed but i'll give it 7/10 for Music and Twin Peaks style

the more I play it the more I'm getting upset with it. you're right that the music and atmosphere is top notch... but how your scenes just randomly "cut" without any smooth transitions makes the whole experience feel disjointed. then there are sections where you think you should read the text, but the text zooms so fast that you can only read 3 or 4 words of a paragraph before the entire paragraph disappears... it's kind of infuriating.

I haven't "beaten" it yet, but I still enjoy the concept. it's more of an interactive drama than an actual game.

exactly..its just the same thing over and over then u'll get last scene..just finish it..its too short

[atheistgod1999]

Back to Half-Life. At the rail level now. As soon as I'm done with that, I'm gonna play Crimzon Clover.

[Lord Satori]

Just played Episode 1 of Sally Face, and it is amazing!

If you liked Fran Bow, then you're sure to love this game! Be sure to back the project as well, I can imagine this game will be great if allowed to be fully completed. This is actually one of the few times I've been so impressed that I wished I were financially capable of backing a project vs me just going "Hey that's cool, I hope it gets made."

Should I post this in the Kickstarter thread as well or...

[Marc]

Just finished up Mankind Divided. Thoroughly enjoyed it, more of the same sure, but that's no bad thing.

Picked up Track mania Turbo, good fun but I find the buggies annoying as fuck to drive.
Bought Action Heck for my son and trying not to start it myself as I know it's the sort of shit that will eat up time like there's no tomorrow.
Bought Typhoon, it sucks.
Started another playthrough of Dishonoured, Ps4 this time, murdering everyone in sight. Levels that took hours on Xbox can now be breezed through in 15 minutes even on hard. Good fun, but ultimately not as satisfying as playing g it the sneaky way.
Bought Shadows of Mordor and traded it in with 12 hours. One of the worst games I've ever played.

[Wata123]

I played MGS2 for the first time and, wow, what a masterpiece. The only MGS games I had played prior to this were MGS4, MGS5 and MGR, both of which were also masterpieces, albeit for different reasons. IMO, MGS4, 5 and MGR have great gameplay (minus a few flaws), while MGS2's gameplay is not that good, but it makes up for it with an amazing story. For me, MGS2 creates a triforce with Majora's Mask and Undertale as a sort of weak game, but amazing narrative experience. Those three have transcended normal games with their narratives so I have no issue with saying they're just as good as traditional games.

I need to play the first and third now, as well as Peace Walker.

[Stevens]

Wife's been playing Dragon Quest 8 for close to 80 hours. I am trying to convince her she needs to play Phantasy Star since it will be 25 at the most.

[WelshMegalodon]

I need to play the first and third now, as well as Peace Walker.

Don't forget Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, which is in many ways a 2D version of the first PS1 title.

[Wata123]

Don't forget Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, which is in many ways a 2D version of the first PS1 title.

I'm playing the various MGS games via the MG Legacy Collection, which includes the two games that preceded MGS. I'll definitely give them both a try.

[PuToTyra]

Thinking about purchasing Saint Seiya on steam since I'm a fan and it's on -75% sale...nevermind it's probably going to be horrible, like all bandai fan-milking nostalgia titles...

It's not a good fighting game, that's for sure. And yes, it's all about the nostalgia.

awww I ended up buying it anyway and I'm greatly enjoying it right now

as a fan of Saint Seiya, I don't even like fighting games that much

[soprano1]

Thinking about purchasing Saint Seiya on steam since I'm a fan and it's on -75% sale...nevermind it's probably going to be horrible, like all bandai fan-milking nostalgia titles...

It's not a good fighting game, that's for sure. And yes, it's all about the nostalgia.

awww I ended up buying it anyway and I'm greatly enjoying it right now

as a fan of Saint Seiya, I don't even like fighting games that much

If you are enjoying it, all the better. It's bad when you purchase a game and end up not liking it.
I am a Saint Seiya fan as well, by the way.

[Necronopticous]

THUMPER, and so should all of you!

[kaicooper]

THUMPER, and so should all of you!

looking good..thanx for this

[kaicooper]

playing ICO for first time
i heard about it long time ago when i played
SHADOW OF COLOSUS

but never got a chance to play ICO..
tried it with Emulator..awesom platforming/puzzles game

just started

[wgogh]

playing ICO for first time
i heard about it long time ago when i played
SHADOW OF COLOSUS

but never got a chance to play ICO..
tried it with Emulator..awesom platforming/puzzles game

just started

ICO is great!
The lack of hud really works for the imersion and the game has good atmosphere.
Made me care about the fate of the ghost girl. One of the first ones I've tried on the PS2

[gameoverDude]

Shadow Warrior 2: Got it at launch but held off for a few days to make some progress on the first one (where I'm currently stuck at Mezu). While still an FPS it is more explorable, and features more weapons than SW1, with some Borderlands-style RPG elements. Fall damage is no more, and Lo Wang can now air-dash and double jump. Wang's wiseass sense of humor is still strong.

[Ed Oscuro]

Oh, the new game still has proper level design? I had read something or other about stuff being generated, and it sounded like levels were being segmented together.

It's just item drops that are random, right?

[Durandal]

Oh, the new game still has 'proper' level design? I had read something or other about stuff being generated, and it sounded like levels were being segmented together.

It's just item drops that are random, right?

No, but you get to run on rooftops this time around thanks to double-jumping and ledge grabbing so you can feel cool. There's LESS invisible walls this time around, they seemed completely absent from the demo footage that was shown, but there's still some roofs you can't climb for some reason, and I'm not talking about the level boundaries
Levels are randomly generated, meaning the layout gets arranged differently every time you enter a level. You will still see many sections in a level which give you a feeling of dejá vu, and many of the side missions are basically just a tileset of a previous level with a different state of weather slapped on top to fool you into thinking it's something different.
Much like the first game, the level design simply doesn't matter because of how the core gameplay works, much like ARPGs such as Diablo and Path of Exile, actually. I don't really consider randomly generated levels a con or pro, it's only there to make replays less formulaic and the blatant reuse of level assets less blatant.

Drops come in the form of upgrades which provide some kind of statistical bonus. The only thing that really matters is DPS and elemental damage, with everything else being an additional bonus. Only very rarely will an actual weapon drop, but you get most of them by completing quests anyways. But you will be mostly using weapons with a higher base DPS anyways, because that's more efficient. That said, the UI is absolutely horrid. It lacks basic functionality such as displaying comparison data of your equipped upgrades vs. the one you have selected, it only filters based on item level and item rarity, many of the screen space is wasted, you'll be forced to assign upgrades you don't need to Junk if you don't want your inventory to be a cluttered mess (which comes down to 40-50 upgrades per run on NPNG), you have to compare vendor items to those in your inventory by hand, and the Sell Junk sections lacks a Sell All button, meaning you will have to repeatedly click the sell button until everything's gone. This wouldn't be as bad if you had an inventory limit, but too bad.
You won't have to worry about all this shit on Normal, but on No Pain No Gain difficulty having lacking DPS tends to screw you over badly. I just stuck some flat damage upgrades on a melee weapon, equipped the Ninja Soul and any other body upgrades for increased melee damage, and unequip the Ninja Soul whenever I want to use guns for elemental damage.

Anything SW2 takes from Borderlands is turned into a giant stinking mess, which is a shame because the core gameplay of SW1 has been somewhat improved here, but the pointless upgrade system of the first has been upgraded into a exercise of tedium in the second.

[Mortificator]

Don't forget Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, which is in many ways a 2D version of the first PS1 title.

I'm playing the various MGS games via the MG Legacy Collection, which includes the two games that preceded MGS. I'll definitely give them both a try.

It won't hurt to give the original Metal Gear a try, but what you'd imagine from reading its summary in Metal Gear Solid is likely to be better than the actual game. Metal Gear 2, though, is high quality.

On a related note, I recently played through Snake Eater again, and the Ape Escape crossover stuff finally got me to run through that series' first game. I'd only played a demo of it before. It turned out to be really fun, with lots of creative monkey-catching action.

[Mischief Maker]

So RPG crap aside, how does Shadow Warrior 2 hold up in the actual action?

[gameoverDude]

So RPG crap aside, how does Shadow Warrior 2 hold up in the actual action?

Very good. There are some special moves with weapons, and also the healing ability- but these have a limit since they tap the Chi meter for a certain amount. Healing allows you to hold the key down and trade Chi for health until you release it.

So far I haven't used the machine gun quite as much as the pistol and the blade. If the MG had a bit more damage per hit, I'd be more eager to use it. Hopefully there's a buff for that. When you hit an enemy, there's a number showing the damage done.

On the Shadow Warrior reboot from 2013, JUST DON'T dash down steps. Doing so tends to have lethal consequences. I guess the fast speed of your dash leads to a rapid rate of descent and makes for some off-the-charts fall damage. The first time it happened to me was a big WTF moment.

[Ed Oscuro]

Thanks for the info Durandal - just as I feared. I guess that's the price of doing business, but didn't even Destiny avoid that?

On the Shadow Warrior reboot from 2013, JUST DON'T dash down steps. Doing so tends to have lethal consequences. I guess the fast speed of your dash leads to a rapid rate of descent and makes for some off-the-charts fall damage. The first time it happened to me was a big WTF moment.

Ha ha, yeah, I've done that many times without thinking. They really ought to have a fix for that.

[Durandal]

So RPG crap aside, how does Shadow Warrior 2 hold up in the actual action?

Play anything above normal and you will face the bulletsponges.
Play anything beneath the harder difficulties and it's too easy.
You might be thinking that above normal you can just ignore the RPG mechanics. Unfortunately, the bulletsponges do not agree. So you'll be stuck minmaxing the damage on your five/eight weapons, assigning elemental powers, all through a shitty UI, and so on. The RPG mechanics really strangled this game.

However, the base movement mechanics have been improved (you can double-jump over people's heads now, you can dash while in mid-air, you take no falling damage so no more dying by dashing off stairs, there's no fucking stamina bar). Although your base movement speed is fairly slow, so you'll be either sprinting, or performing the faster method of constantly dashing all over the place and doing the jump -> dash -> doublejump -> dash trick for speed, since that's faster than sprinting. Dashing loses its charm once you have to mash the dash all the time if you want to dodge anything during larger fights. I'd prefer a buffed base movement speed with dashing having a slight cooldown, but that you're invincible during the short duration of the dash. It'd help with the near-unavoidable damage you have to deal with in this game. Much like everything in the game, there's an upgrade for movement speed, but I doubt a +25% increase in speed is all that noticeable when mad-dashing works just fine.

There's also a new parry mechanic in the game, though it's borderline useless and rather unwieldy to use. Using it effectively comes down more to prediction than reaction. You can parry attacks before the enemy's attack animations are in striking position. I learned to time it once I realized certain enemies would start attacking if they came into range, but that's a bad way to teach the player how to parry anything as many attacks in this game are rather poorly telegraphed.

The usage of your powers are now limited by your Chi, meaning you can't spam healing all the time. Which I don't actually consider a good thing when damage is near-inevitable in this game, at least the infinite healing in the first game served as some kind of band-aid to that. So you probably want to get the Chi regeneration upgrade maxed. There's also new powers this time around, like a bunch of spikes which temporarily hold up enemies in the air (I think it might be a repurposed Flux Wave from the first game, actually),the Chi Blast from the first game (now comes with groundpound and jumpkick animations), and a Vanish ability which turns you invisible and lets you deal bonus damage from the shadows. This might sound cool, but realize that powers do NOT work against Superior and Elite enemies (the aforementioned bulletsponges). Normal enemies are not that much of a threat to the point where you have to use your powers for anything but fun, while it'd definitely be helpful against Superior/Elites during crowded fights. There is an upgrade card which merely upgrades the chance that your powers have an effect on Superior/Elite enemies, up to 50%. Thankfully I found an amulet by random which increases that chance by another 50%, but I doubt you'll be that lucky if you are not playing on the highest difficulty for the 'best' loot.

There's less key combinations you have to remember to pull off certain attacks. Chi powers activate with their own keys, and special melee attacks are simpler to perform by just holding the respective movement key and the special attack key to perform them. In addition, many of the special melee attacks can be charged, with the charge time depending on the melee weapon you're using. I'm not so fond of having to charge and dash around more in the mean time so I can perform maximum damage. The trifecta of Stabby Attack, Whirlywind Attack, and Sword Wave are still there. I didn't use Sword Wave much because it was a pain to charge, performing Whirlywind amidst a pack of enemies is downright SUICIDAL seeing enemies have no problems puncturing the Asian man waving swords around like a tornado, and so I just stuck to using charged Stabby Attacks and dashing in and out in order to avoid damage. There's a recovery animation which plays when you land from a great height, and it's quite annoying for the sake of moving around and interrupting your charged attacks.

There's now a fuckton of weapons with their own attributes and so on, but nowhere as interesting as Rare weapons in Diablo. The rarer weapons in SW2 only provide a boring minor buff when killing an enemy. For the most part you'll be using weapons with the highest base DPS, which is why all the shotguns in this game suck given that even halfway into the game I've yet to see a shotgun break the 100 DPS-mark. Do you know the golden rule of first-person shooters where a FPS is only good as its shotgun(s)? Go figure. Audiovisually the guns are great, but again RUINED by bulletsponges. Nothing sucks more than enemies barely flinching when being hit by your supposed weapon of destruction and terror. The first super shotty you get is so painfully weak it's not even funny. But balance-wise many of these weapons are terrible. You will not use a weapon because you think it's suitable given the situation, but rather because you want to exploit an elemental weakness of an enemy, or because you simply have no ammo left for the other gun. Ammo doesn't really grow on trees (on the higher difficulties anyways) either, especially not considering how many bullets it takes for a Superior/Elite enemy to die. So I stuck to using melee for the most part, which is probably the more suicidal option given how you'll be struck by Damage over Time effects you can't heal and HITSCAN ENEMIES. At least SW1 didn't have that many, now there's more present than a benevolent God would allow in this universe.

Some enemies just try to gnaw at you up close, some can launch powerful projectiles, some can perform an attack where they briefly hold you in place with their grappling hook and get you over there, some turn slightly invisible, some charge at you, some are HITSCAN FUCKING FUCKS who always try to kick you if you try getting up close, some can fire streams of thunderbolts which will fuck you over if you are close, some just fly around and fire streaming projectiles which are more interesting to dodge, and so on.
On paper some the enemy variety should be already larger and more interesting than the first game, but somehow the level design in SW2 is even worse than the first game. Many enemies are thrown around haphazardly with no rhyme or any thought behind their placement to the point where it makes look nuDoom like a masterpiece. The only thing how you can know what you'll be facing is by the theme of the enemies, that being Zilla's cyberguards, Yakuza, and demons. None of the various enemy types are arranged to be fought in interesting situations, they're just there to block you way and show you how much your weapons suck. Trying to escape via higher buildings is not always viable considering every single enemy and their grandmother can jump ridiculously high distances to get to you.

Compared to SW1, I can only say that the movement is an improvement, everything else is the same or just plays worse. I am not joking when I say that the RPG mechanics and bulletsponges killed the game and the decent melee combat system it has. The only way to enjoy SW2 is to be able to sidestep the RPG bullshit entirely, and even then you're left with inflated HP pools. So it's either play on lower difficulties and breeze through everything like an unstoppable madman, or face the challenge where everyone has been pumped with steroids. I'm absolutely baffled with the direction they took with SW2 considering how the upgrade system in the first game was one of the most pointless systems ever devised, and then FWH thought they could improve it even though they understand jack of what makes loot 'em ups so addictive? This game pretty much cemented my opinion of Flying Wild Hog as a team of modern demoscene-tier programmers. Able to perform miracles with technology, but they have the game design sensibilities of self-proclaimed fans of a series who do not understand what makes things good. Wasted fucking potential.

I can wholeheartedly recommend Borderlands 1 over SW2, and Borderlands is pretty much Halo mixed with Diablo. At least Borderlands knew how to make looting and organizing loot fun.

[kaicooper]

im crazy DOOM fan
played Shadow Warrior 2 on PC with my own Reshade preset

graphics amazing..soundtrack awesom (both not better then DOOM)
gameplay is a MESS honestly..couldnt play more then 2 hour and uninstalled it

gonna play Life is Strange for first time

[Mischief Maker]

So it's either play on lower difficulties and breeze through everything like an unstoppable madman, or face the challenge where everyone has been pumped with steroids.

I thought that's what the New Game+ was for.