WHAT PLAY YOU!? Version 3.0

[The Gaffer]

16 hours ago, Dr. Alan Grant said:

Hopefully he can borrow some films that teach him how to write a more concise plot. 

I can't thing of fewer things I'd like to see in gaming than Kojima's uninhibited weirdness bending to any sort of triple A homogeneity. 

Man's a treasure that we must take warts and all I think. 

Edited September 21, 2023 by Gay as FOOK

[The King Of Swing]

20 hours ago, Keith Houchen said:

I tried Yakuza 0 (I think) again earlier in the year and sacked it off once I started having to assign hostesses in my club to the best clients to suit, and some schoolgirl underwear racket just made me conclude it was too noncey for me. 

Yeah that's 0.

I've always had a love/hate thing going on with the series when it comes to side quests. For every few genuinely funny or wholesome moments there is usually one 'oh ffs Japan' moment not long after.

As for the recent games announced. I wish they would just fully commit to Ichiban as the new protagonist instead of this weird middle ground where they refuse to put Kiryu to rest.

Honestly I prefer Ichiban, anyway. And after only one game. 

The fact that he clearly wasn't suited to the Yakuza lifestyle, immediately made him more relatable as a character to me.

[Keith Houchen]

3 minutes ago, The King Of Swing said:

I've always had a love/hate thing going on with the series when it comes to side quests. For every few genuinely funny or wholesome moments there is usually one 'oh ffs Japan' moment not long after.

That’s spot on for me!  Some great stuff in the game, nice and easy combat and a good story but the kind of stuff you worry about cropping up if someone walks in the room.  
 

Made me think of this cafe in Manchester where it’s an anime cafe with “Maids”. I’m convinced it’s a sting operation to snare wronguns. Expecting Chris Hansen to walk out at any moment. 

[The King Of Swing]

10 minutes ago, Keith Houchen said:

That’s spot on for me!  Some great stuff in the game, nice and easy combat and a good story but the kind of stuff you worry about cropping up if someone walks in the room. 

Just be thankful you never experienced the live action, chat mini game in Y6, featuring actual porn stars. 

Though the sight of an aging Kiryu, typing is genuinely funny tbh. 

Unlike the 'gravure photoshoot' mini game in Kiwami, which was unfunny and just plain sleazy. 

I'd rather someone walk in on me watching Stardom, again. 

[Merzbow]

1 hour ago, Gay as FOOK said:

I can't thing of fewer things I'd like to see in gaming than Kojima's uninhibited weirdness bending to any sort of triple A homogeneity. 

Man's a treasure that we must take warts and all I think. 

Yeah, this.

If you want a coherent by the numbers big game then just go play something else, Kojima exists in his very own niche the way a Lynch does in film. Let them be who they are.

[Jazzy G]

On 9/20/2023 at 3:13 PM, westlondonmist said:

I've played Switch MK 1 a bit, it's a birthday present so after today I'll be polite and put it away and actually play fully in a couple of weeks, might get a patch by then who knows?

I've only played Invasion and local matches vs CPU and it plays well. It's smooth, the back grounds look nice, the characters look good. You see flaws (such as more basic faces) when you start seeing them up close in fatalities. The invasion mode replaces the Krypt and is a fun play around the Johnny Cage mansion. 

I did a few fatalities and they looked good, although Sindel's looked bad so maybe others did too. Her hair looked weird and her crown appeared, disappeared, appeared again and then went. I'm sure there were glitches in others but I wasn't looking for them.

Loading times are a ball ache in local fighter. Also they need to redo the character select screen, it's very very slow. 

MK 1 introduces quite a few micro transactions, nothing you need like 2K Drive, but you can pay for Easy Fatality coins and some skins. Most skins you can earn coins and buy. You can buy extra Kameo fighters but I wouldn't bother, you get about 10 built in already.

Obviously I've played very little but I would suggest to wait til it goes down in price. I got it from www.frostgaming.org  for £47. I love Mortal Kombat so I still enjoy it, but not everyone is into it like me. 

Those microtransactions were in MK11 as well, and I think some were in Injustice 2 as well to level up your gear? Still not as egregious as the thousands of pounds of DLC costumes etc in the last few Dead Or Alive games. Shame as well, because they're decent fighting games. 

@Keith Houchenthe hostess club thing in Yakuza 0 was fun, but I had to give it up when I realised I was never going to be dextrous enough to beat the final hostess in the dance-off to unlock her. The real estate thing is good as well. I totally get what you mean about some of it being a little dodgy. There's the lass selling her undies and a lad who fancies her being worried about her? There's that one where you have to sneak to that dodgy vending machine and back for those people as well. Plus there's that minigame in the video club where you ring those girls up and have conversations with them. I'm sure the Japanese didn't bat an eyelid at them, but there are more than a few raised eyebrows in the west.

Haven't Sega kind of said that Yakuza will now be turn based and have Ichiban as the main character, and Lost Judgement will continue to be the action beat 'em up thing? I guess Kiryu and Co will just turn up in random Like A Dragon spin-offs and the likes. 

[Dr. Alan Grant]

4 hours ago, Gay as FOOK said:

I can't thing of fewer things I'd like to see in gaming than Kojima's uninhibited weirdness bending to any sort of triple A homogeneity. 

Man's a treasure that we must take warts and all I think. 

It’s possible that I’m still angry about Death Stranding and losing a huge stack of parcels up a rain-soaked cliff. I love Metal Gear, but I hated DS.

[The King Of Swing]

30 minutes ago, jazzygeofferz said:

Those microtransactions were in MK11 as well, and I think some were in Injustice 2 as well to level up your gear? Still not as egregious as the thousands of pounds of DLC costumes etc in the last few Dead Or Alive games. Shame as well, because they're decent fighting games. 

@Keith Houchenthe hostess club thing in Yakuza 0 was fun, but I had to give it up when I realised I was never going to be dextrous enough to beat the final hostess in the dance-off to unlock her. The real estate thing is good as well. I totally get what you mean about some of it being a little dodgy. There's the lass selling her undies and a lad who fancies her being worried about her? There's that one where you have to sneak to that dodgy vending machine and back for those people as well. Plus there's that minigame in the video club where you ring those girls up and have conversations with them. I'm sure the Japanese didn't bat an eyelid at them, but there are more than a few raised eyebrows in the west.

Haven't Sega kind of said that Yakuza will now be turn based and have Ichiban as the main character, and Lost Judgement will continue to be the action beat 'em up thing? I guess Kiryu and Co will just turn up in random Like A Dragon spin-offs and the likes. 

Thinking back I was initially worried that Yakuza going turn based was a terrible idea, and was proven very wrong. Maybe I'm just over thinking Kiryu's role.

And after just reading up on Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth..... Fuck me I'm playing the shit out of that, regardless. 

I'm buying both new games for PS5. One of the few remaining franchises I'm still willing to pay full RRP for on day 1.

[Loki]

56 minutes ago, jazzygeofferz said:

I realised I was never going to be dextrous enough to beat the final hostess

Fnar.

[RedRooster]

On 9/12/2023 at 9:42 AM, BomberPat said:

You're slightly ahead of me, and I'm already in the same boat. It's charming, but I'm struggling to care.

There's a book called Fight, Magic, Items about the history of JRPGs, and I can't remember if the line comes from a quote from a developer or the author's own, but he says that the key to a good JRPG is that it has to create a world that the player wants to save. Again, early days, but not there yet with Sea Of Stars - love a lot of the gameplay decisions, but the world isn't winning me over.

How do you feel about Sea of Stars now? It’s definitely grown on me, even if the gameplay does feel a bit repetitive at times (and fuck knows how Wheels works, I’ve left that well alone)

It’s been massively overrated by the gaming press, but it’s still enjoyable enough. 

[BomberPat]

11 hours ago, RedRooster said:

How do you feel about Sea of Stars now? It’s definitely grown on me, even if the gameplay does feel a bit repetitive at times (and fuck knows how Wheels works, I’ve left that well alone)

It's getting there. I still don't think it's managed the "create a world you want to save" thing yet, but the pirates are a fun bunch that have added some much-needed personality, and when things start getting slightly more Zelda-like in terms of getting a couple of powers to help you interact with objects to solve puzzles in dungeons, that's an improvement on the previous bits that were just climbing and fighting with no real nuance. 

I've just hit the first bit of major story development, and while not exactly groundbreaking, it means there are at least stakes and reasons to move forward, and it wasn't the direction I was expecting. I enjoyed Wraith Island, and am just on The Vespertine now, and the combination of spooky foggy swamps, ghosts, zombies and pirates is giving me Monkey Island vibes, which has probably helped lift my enjoyment.

I've heard it really comes into its own once it's a bit more open world exploration, but I'm not there yet. 

I've got quite into Wheels, but it's needlessly complicated. 

[FLips]

I really hit a brick wall with Sea of Stars. When I played the demo I really thought it would be a classic but then when I got around to playing the full thing I had the same thing it seems you lot have had; I just did not care about much of it.
It was the same thing that happened to me with Octopath Traveler and Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga, I got suckered in by a fun battle system but when I really sank my teeth into it there wasn't a great story to keep me playing or any sort of immersive world.

[RedRooster]

On 9/22/2023 at 4:24 PM, FelatioLips said:

I really hit a brick wall with Sea of Stars. When I played the demo I really thought it would be a classic but then when I got around to playing the full thing I had the same thing it seems you lot have had; I just did not care about much of it.
It was the same thing that happened to me with Octopath Traveler and Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga, I got suckered in by a fun battle system but when I really sank my teeth into it there wasn't a great story to keep me playing or any sort of immersive world.

Firstly, I had the exact same issues with Octopath and Superstar Saga. I felt bored of both pretty quickly; and although I tried to persist with the latter, there came a point where I just couldn’t.

I’ve now completed Sea of Stars, only to find the ‘true’ ending is locked behind a bunch of collection quests. See the Rainbow Conches you find dotted around the world? Best hope you’ve found them all, among other things. I couldn’t be arsed with doing what’s required, so I just watched the true ending on YouTube - the ending I got, I think, is better from a storytelling perspective.

On the whole, I’m glad I played this on GamePass and that I didn’t pay full price for it. It’s fine, but nothing more than that.

[Loki]

So Starfield is great.

 Yes, there are loading screens.  Yes, there’s only one child model in the game.   Yes, the menu system is clunky.  Yes, the lighting makes people look like demons half the time.

 But it’s so much fun.  Unlike most RPGs where the first 20 hours are spent getting out of the first dungeon, in a very short amount of time you can just go and do… well, anything you want.  Money is pretty easy to come by, and it costs nothing to travel between star systems so the game opens up right away.

I think it will get improved as well, there’s a lot of quality of life way wins they can roll out and I think the loading screens are honestly something that can be hidden behind the mini cutscenes with some clever programming.

I loved Elite Dangerous but in a 2 hour session you might do one mission.  In Starfield you can do a few storyline missions, a couple of trading runs, explore a city and survey a planet.  It’s a big universe out there!

 

[The King Of Swing]

Yakuza Like a Dragon (PS5) 

True to form, I get to a certain point in the game and immediately turn into a filthy capitalist. 

Best part of two days spent on the business mini-game. Top company in Japan and 34 million yen in the bank.