WHAT PLAY YOU!? Version 3.0

[RedRooster]

1 hour ago, Nexus said:

What class are you playing? I worried about it too when I played a melee class, but when I chose astrologer, my moveset was basically roll away, stay away and fire magic at the boss. It worked pretty well...

Vagabond. 

1 hour ago, Merzbow said:

Souls bosses have always been about that to be fair, it's pretty much the core mechanic of combat.

Yeah, I think it's why I've not ever really been able to get on board with them. I'd seen Elden Ring compared to Breath of the Wild, which I love, and I wanted to give it a chance. I thought the open world, and the ability to strengthen and hone my skills would make the game more enjoyable for me than, say, Bloodborne, but I'm just not feeling it at this stage. 

[Version1.0]

To buy Soul Hackers 2 or Live a Live?

[Tommy!]

I picked up Farthest Frontier, cycling it in around theme hospital & C&C.

It's good fun with a nice curve, constantly learning a little bit of what I could or should do better without it being a painful grind.

Are there any other games like that people would recommend?

[Nexus]

I played through Escape Academy over the past couple of days; it's a fun little escape room simulator on XBOX game pass; it has a little bit of plot but nothing major. It's good because if you do get stuck, the hints aren't obtuse, it basically tells you what to do so then there's no real faffing around - it doesn't tell you the answer but it tells you precisely how to get to it. 

[The King Of Swing]

59 minutes ago, Version1.0 said:

To buy Soul Hackers 2 or Live a Live?

I'm about 2 hours into Soul Hackers 2 and I'm really liking it so far.

[Cousin Jim Bob]

Really enjoying Arcade Paradise. Its starts out with you being tasked to run a Laundrette. Aping the many Simulator type game. This Laundrette has a few old arcade machines in the back room that you can play and make you abit of extra cash. Soon though you can start buying loads of different arcade games and they start making more than the laundry business...

Its aimed at anyone with a fond memory of 80s/90s arcades and classic games. The arcade games themselves range in quality but they copy alot of the all time greats and there is some belters. I got it for £17 on Xbox. I think its out on everything.

[DavidB6937]

25 minutes ago, Cousin Jim Bob said:

I think its out on everything.

Found it for £16 on PlayStation or £20 for a Digital Deluxe version but that seems to only have an additional soundtrack I think?

[Guest]

Today I finished The Spectrum Retreat, another first-person puzzle game I dove into after enjoying The Talos Principle.

This one's much shorter but the story - what there is of it - is still pretty good. The puzzles though are far less interesting than what I'd become accustomed to, and the thought of retracing them all for a platinum trophy (which requires you see both endings, starting from scratch in between) sends me to sleep.

Instead I'll move onto The Turing Test and see what kind of enigmas await to be solved there.

[RedRooster]

On 8/27/2022 at 7:38 PM, Cousin Jim Bob said:

Really enjoying Arcade Paradise. Its starts out with you being tasked to run a Laundrette. Aping the many Simulator type game. This Laundrette has a few old arcade machines in the back room that you can play and make you abit of extra cash. Soon though you can start buying loads of different arcade games and they start making more than the laundry business...

Its aimed at anyone with a fond memory of 80s/90s arcades and classic games. The arcade games themselves range in quality but they copy alot of the all time greats and there is some belters. I got it for £17 on Xbox. I think its out on everything.

I've been mulling over buying this one, but I've not been completely clear on what it is; it seemed to me that it's as much a visual novel as it is a sim game, if not more so. Is that accurate, or way off the mark?

[CAREBEAR LUVVA]

There's no visual novel aspect to it at all. You start off with a couple of arcade machines, and manage the launderette to earn money to buy new cabinets. More cabinets = more customers = more money = more cabinets. Eventually you can sack off the laundry side entirely and just focus on running the arcade. All the machines are fully playable, and all have a set of goals which increase the popularity of the machine so that it makes even more money. There are also daily goals which give you currency to buy upgrades, like a helper to empty the machines or slow down time so you can spend longer playing the machines each day. The first few hours are an absolute slog, and I found that I lost interest after buying all the machines and completing all of the goals that I was interested in (some of the games are really good fun but others just aren't fun enough to bother with), but the 5 or 6 hours inbetween were great fun. Wait til it's under a tenner, I reckon.

[Steve Justice]

I'm a couple of hours in on Death Stranding. It's not awful, but I can see it being very repetitive very quickly if all I'm doing as going from point A to point B delivering stuff. Is that all it is or should I be expecting more of a variety of tasks soon? 

[Merzbow]

It's a very slow starter, and it's meant to be. It takes genuine patience and isn't meant to be a rollercoaster ride of a game but fuck me it becomes one of my favourite gaming experiences of all time.

I'm not sure how many people play now but one of the coolest things for me was how shades of gameplay from others creeps in and you collaborate through making traversal easier.

[Mr_Danger]

It requires A LOT of patience and it’s a long game so if you get to ten hours and you’re not getting any joy out of it I’d knock it on the head. I usually tell people it’s a great game you just have to get through the first 30 hours. Quickly establish what is side stuff and what is mainline and open the game up a bit quicker if you’re struggling. I’m a sad arse post man who loved coming home from work during a pandemic and being a courier in a near apocalyptic world. It’s not for everyone!

[The Gaffer]

I'm planning to give it another go soon. The boring walking simulator gameplay is totally for me - as are the off the wall cinematics and characters - but it was the amount of time spent in menus that drove me crazy. Coming back from a routine delivery and having those endless "Hmm let's see what we have here!" bits to get through. 

Still, there's nothing quite like it and it's a wonderful thing that it exists as a big budget game. And proof positive that Kojima's past it/doesn't really make games/has nothing to offer takes are some of the worst in the medium. 

[CleetusVanDamme]

I've seen early 1900s Italy and 70s Vegas rumoured as potential settings. Hopefully they cut all the mandatory padding from 3 (which would have been fine without it) and it's back in classic 1+2 format.