WHAT PLAY YOU!? Version 3.0

[CleetusVanDamme]

It's still no Until Dawn, but the third game in the Dark Pictures Anthology, House of Ashes is a big improvement on the first two. The Call of Duty meets The Mummy meets The Descent vibe was different and playing as marines willing to commit war crimes to save 'MERICA from Iraq fits my "make stupid choices that are definitely going to have consequences later" playstyle. This entry vastly improved my scope for activating dickhead mode and I got to pull off three or four despicable betrayals, feels good!

 

[Accident Prone]

I don't know how it's possible to have played enough new video games over the space of one year to curate a list. Takes me usually more than 6 months to finish one single AAA game just due to how massive they tend be, and there's so many buzzworthy indie games released per month that I just can't commit to many of them. Here's a sizable list of what I have been playing this year though;

- Slay The Spire - Man, this was good. I'd still be playing it now if it wasn't for my PS4 fan being fucked beyond belief. The perfect podcast game (being able to turn down the sound and listen to podcasts is a HUGE tick for me). Hours and hours and hours and HOURS plunged into this one, and that's always a sign of a successful rogue-like.

- Blasphemous - I really wanted to love this but the Dark Souls gameplay put me off after a while. I'm a hack'n'slash kinda guy and that does not mix well with the strategic parrying, blocking and dodging nonsense here. Other than that though the artwork, atmosphere and general mechanics were great. Maybe I'll give it another crack if I ever get a new PlayStation, but for now this is one of those rare Metroidvanias that didn't hit with me.

- Ys Origin - Cracking isometric hack'n'slash fun. Also, another great game to grind'n'podcast to. 

- Spiderman - I really tried, guys. Really I did. Spiderman is the first time where I feel like AAA videogames have passed me by; the controls and mechanics are way too complex for me to handle, and I've been beaten by the random street gangs more times than I can admit. A skill tree, upgradable gadgets AND customisable suits?! Layered on top of action and set-pieces that move so fast that I can hardly process what's going on?! It's sensory overload of a formula that the Arkham games perfected. This game was not only way too much for me to handle, it was way too much for my PS4 handle. That fucking fan.

- Dear Esther - Eh, this was alright. I'm definitely too set in my ways to really get into these walking sims/visual novels. I missed most of the spooky stuff because I'm just not built for these sort of games, I guess. Maybe I was trying to navigate my way through a complex plot and that's why I missed all the ghosts, but then again I don't play video games to dissect the material like a Year 10 English Lit essay. 

- Horizon Zero Dawn - Started this a couple years back and finished the majority of it this year. I really enjoyed it for the most part. I've already posted about it elsewhere in the thread;

 

On 6/11/2021 at 12:18 PM, Accident Prone said:

I completed Horizon Zero Dawn this week after buying the game a couple years back and losing interest a third of the way through. I picked it up again when the pandemic Winter began last year. Really beautiful game albeit with a slightly boring/ convoluted story. The writers could've easily binned a massive chunk of the warring tribes stuff and just stuck with the mystery behind the machines and Aloy's mother as the major storylines, but I guess they wanted to impress the world-building nerds and people who love reading gigantic text walls of lore.

The world feels empty but that works to it's merit considering the plot, and it feels fresh compared to other, more-overwhelming open-world games. It's the perfect podcast game too, especially when hunting for animal skins/machine parts, the hunting challenges, the various errands and all the collectibles. It's just a shame that my PS4 has all but given up the ghost, so the last 50 hours or so were spent with the extremely loud WWWHHHHHHIIIIIIRRRRRRRRR of a struggling console trying to circulate it's hot air. By that point I had lost interest in most of the story though, so it wasn't a big loss.

Oh, for anyone yet to get so far in the game, here's a warning; I 100%'ed the game and didn't get a trophy. I collected all the datapoints and books and weapons and outfits, and got fuck all for my efforts. Not getting a trophy for a large part of the collectibles is understandable. However, not getting a trophy for 100%'ing the game is deplorable. I was kicking myself for not checking the trophy list first before heading out to collect everything, because otherwise I wouldn't have bothered. I LIVE for those satisfying achievement sounds. At least I got a Platinum, so there's that.

OH AND ANOTHER THING; the level cap is 50, and I maxed that out right before I hit the last quarter of the game with tons left to do. Apparently the DLC increases the cap so be sure to grab that if you plan on playing that ( a shithouse move, in my opinion). 

 

 

- Manual Samuel - Fun art style, fun writing, but the game got tiresome incredibly fast. The plot was also...how can I put this..too zany? Even for such an out-there concept? Felt like the game relied on the weird plot developments to help get it past the frustrating gimmick. Could've been something special but just comes across as an over-priced flash game.

- Hollow Knight - Another game that I started last year but "finished" in March. What a fucking game. Perfection. The only reason I stopped playing is because the game got too difficult for me to carry on. I got to a point where I had to defeat a few bosses on various paths to progress and I just couldn't beat any of them. So I gave up, and took my own ending as saving all the cute little grubs...and then being horrified at their future. A wonderful game.

- Timespinner - Just your typical Metroidvania here. Nothing new or exciting or particularly ground-breaking, but a nice playthrough never the less. Hits all the points and ticks all the boxes that you expect. 

I'm currently playing through Ys VIII and CastleVania:SoTN, and both of those are tremendous. They'll most likely be included in next year's list as Ys is loooonnngggg and I'm finding less and less time right now to jump on the Xbox and smash Dracula's reverse castle. Here's to 2022 and playing Hades, CastleVania: Advance Collection and Halo!

 

[CAREBEAR LUVVA]

Forced myself to get through Zero's missions on the new version of San Andreas tonight. Bloody hell, the plane one was always a nightmare but I'm absolutely certain it was never quite as awful to control as it is now. It only responds to the controller when it feels like it, and will happily lurch from left to right or divebomb to the ground when your thumb is nowhere near the stick. Really dreadful stuff. I only managed to get past it by driving the plane really slowly along the road, because that was the only way I could get the slightest bit of control over where it was actually going to go.

A few missions later, I found myself with only one marker / story mission available, so I headed that way. Amphibious Assault requires you to swim underwater, but CJ refuses - he'll duck his head under the waves, but then he just floats back up to the surface. No control over him whatsoever while he's underwater. Seems to be a known issue, or at least there are people on the internet complaining about the same thing. So, for now at least, that mission seems to be fucked. There are no others available, so it can go in the bin. Load of shite.

[Dai]

I can only assume Guardians of the Galaxy is getting such good reviews because of the very low expectations going in after the Avengers game? Its a slightly better than average game, and nowehere close to as good as Spiderman and the Batman games. The lack of opportunity to switch between all of the main characters seems like a massive blunder. As with Spiderman, the fighting gets repetitive, so if you had the ability to fight the goons as Drax, for example, it would have kept things fresher through the game. This might be the glitchiest game Ive ever played too, which in 2021 is surely not acceptable. Im playing it on the Xbox One, so I assume there isnt much attention being put into this version of the game, which results in really poor graphics at some points, the dialogue stopping midway through a conversation, characters merging into each other, lots of lag, and an insanely long loading time to reload a checkpoint after you die. I guess this is just the way it is now for all big games on the Xbox One. All of the upgrades you can do are all fairly underwhelming too, and not as good as the ones in the Spiderman game.

Edited November 20, 2021 by Dai

[BigJag]

 Hi, @Accident Prone what's the issue with the PS4 fan? Is it similar to the PS3 fan issue? My PS3 had to be retired as it made an horrendous noise despite the rest of the PS3 working fine. I've read recently that hacking the PS3 has become relatively easy. I wonder if that will eliminate the fan noise?

 

[The King Of Swing]

Well SMTV finally broke me. Honeymoon period officially over lol. 

Spoiler

Maybe I'm just unlucky but Lahmu's final form was a fucking nightmare so I caved in and lowered the difficulty for the fight and raised it back up afterwards. 

I usually enjoy the challenge of the SMT series but I just wasn't enjoying myself during that battle and honestly I'm too old to be getting stressed out over video games. 

Still enjoying the game overall though.

[Mr_Danger]

On 11/16/2021 at 10:25 PM, Mr_Danger said:

I’ve not yet played it but have It Takes Two ready to play as soon as I can get my girlfriend to play it. It’s meant to be one of the best games of the year and it’s on Gamepass now.

I can confirm that this is indeed a fantastic local co op multiplayer that should absolutely not be played with your 8 year old daughter because a) When the 4 year old asked what are they saying at the start and I explained the mummy and daddy are breaking up the 8 year old looked at me and said “no your not!” and b) 8 year olds are shit at games and it’s not ok to shout at them because of that.

[Jazzy G]

Saw the digital deluxe edition of Dead Or Alive 6 is reduced from £70 to £17 odd on XBox at the moment. They're decent fighting games, the story mode is interesting because it unlocks other characters' sides of the main story as you play through it. It comes with some costumes, the rest is unlocked using one of the two in game currencies, or by buying DLC, and there's a LOT of costume DLC. Some of the cosmetic packs cost more than the base version of the game. I think the calculation was that there's about a grand's worth of DLC, and approximately £980 of it is costumes. 

The guest characters are DLC, but there's no character pass. There are costume season passes, but not a character season pass, which strongly suggests that this series stopped being for fighting game fans a while ago. 

The game plays fine. The last boss of the story mode is a bit bollocks because he does this move where the whole screen goes black while the match it still carrying on, so it turns from a fast, pretty technical fighting game into some kind of button mashing extravaganza. 

[The King Of Swing]

The amount of DLC in DOA these days is fucking absurd but people are obviously buying it I guess.

Also shitty bosses and fighting games. Can you name a more iconic duo? 

Shin Megami Tensei V Chronicles. 

The enemy crit rate in this game can fuck the fuck off. 

[Jazzy G]

As I said, they're decent enough games, it's just a shame the series has a certain reputation.

It's an odd one because I don't think the actual boss character is a cheap boss in terms of the way he fights, but the weird blackout mechanic makes it stupid, as opposed to the usual cheap input reading nonsense. If it wasn't for this screen darkening thing he'd probably be a breeze. 

[King of Hamptons]

Got Resident Evil Village yesterday for less then 30 quid. Bargain at that price, going in blind for this one. Thoughtly enjoyed the last game, so fingers crossed its as good. 

[Jazzy G]

I hear good things. Mrs Jazzy's dad was a fan. 

[The King Of Swing]

Enjoyed what I played of Village but just don't have the time for it. 

[Merzbow]

Isn't it like a sub-10 hour game? Resi games can usually be beaten in a couple of days.

[SuperBacon]

Looking similar to Untitled Goose Game, this is all the kids have asked for for Christmas, and it won't even be out then. Idiots.

You're not a goose, you're a cat. Clearly.