Frog
Full Member
Posts: 7,279
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Post by Frog on Sept 25, 2022 15:33:55 GMT
It's just awful, I would rather they had adopted a traditional turn based approach and cut about 75 percent of it out. It's not challenging it's just dull.
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Post by RadicalRex on Sept 29, 2022 0:48:57 GMT
Dead Space 3
I'd only played the first one and tbh I wasn't a huge fan so I never finished it, but since this is free on EA Play, I decided to try it because why not. I was thinking "what the fuck is this" throughout the 15 minutes I played. I now regret wasting those 15 minutes of my life.
Euro Truck Simulator 2
Wanted something chill to wind down/play while listening to podcasts. The latter didn't work well because I had to pay enough attention to satnav and speedo and stuff to miss what people said on the podcast. Tried to just listen to music instead but it's just kind of boring. Got it on sale for €5 though, so whatever.
Snowrunner
Was fun for an hour or two, but after that, the longer I play the more tedious and uninteresting it became. I also found menu navigation confusing, game mechanics poorly explained, and I really wish there were hints about if I am supposed to do a task with the cars I have or if I'm supposed to come back with something better. Trying for half an hour to get a trailer past 50 metres of mud without knowing if I'm even supposed to be doing this is not my understanding of fun.
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EMarkM
Junior Member
Well, quite...
Posts: 2,150 
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Post by EMarkM on Sept 29, 2022 6:44:58 GMT
I (almost religiously) follow Real Generic Demon’s plays of Eurotruck Simulator 2 on YT, and really enjoy doing so. It’s the commentary that makes it, rather than the game.
I do actually own it on Steam, but never really got very far into myself before losing the gaming PC completely.
It’s not on Xbox, more’s the pity, and the alternatives I’ve tried, like Snow Runner, don’t quite hit the mark.
I live in hope…
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Post by brainbird on Sept 29, 2022 7:01:08 GMT
I quickly gave up Snowrunner too. Mudrunner at least had some sort of mission mode which was more entertaining than the campaign mode.
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malek86
Junior Member
Pomegranate Deseeder
Posts: 3,254
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Post by malek86 on Oct 15, 2022 8:05:00 GMT
Scorn.
It does look quite appealing, but that's most all it has (and not even that, since even the art it looks very repetitive after a while). You are basically going around, solving easy puzzles and doing lots of backtracking. The main issue is that combat is pretty bad, difficult, and unfortunately the game has no chill about it either: healing is seldom found, and the game doesn't care about reloading your checkpoint when you have only a sliver of health left, enemies all around, and no means to improve your situation. Running doesn't help much either.
That exact situation is where I abandoned the game, around 4 hours in, during the fourth act. Reading online, it seems there is five acts in all (it is pretty short). Perhaps I could have tried to press on. But I just can't be bothered anymore.
I guess one would need to play the game planning ahead: if they lose too much health in a section, it's better to restart the act from the beginning. But with exploration and puzzles being as slow as they are, this repetition is most unappealing.
In the end, I'm sorry to say, it was just not a good game imo.
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Post by Jambowayoh on Oct 15, 2022 8:49:19 GMT
It appears this needs some QoL improvements quick sharp.
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MolarAm🔵
Full Member
Bad at games
Posts: 6,853
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Oct 15, 2022 8:55:28 GMT
Yeah I've read like 3 reviews of it, and they all basically say the same thing about the combat and checkpointing.
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Post by dfunked on Oct 15, 2022 9:31:00 GMT
Yeah, I think the couple of video reviews I've watched are enough for me. Shillup gushed about it in fairness, but I can tell it just won't be my cuppa.
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Post by ToomuchFluffy on Oct 15, 2022 9:51:25 GMT
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malek86
Junior Member
Pomegranate Deseeder
Posts: 3,254
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Post by malek86 on Oct 15, 2022 10:01:39 GMT
It appears this needs some QoL improvements quick sharp. QoL improvements would help a bit, but I can't help but think every single action and animation has been made purposely slow and cumbersome, because otherwise the game would be ridiculously short. Anyway, even if the combat was improved, you'd still be left with a game with long and boring puzzles (not even challenging enough to be satisfying, Myst this ain't, they just take too long to solve because each animation requires centuries to run and the action prompts are all far from each other) and samey corridors. Even the design, after the great first impact, loses its luster: all of the enemies look as generic as they come. Surely you could do much better for Giger-inspired visuals. So... the shooting is bad, the puzzles are unsatisfying, the design is good but only by half. I didn't finish it, but I got far enough to say that it's at most a 4 out of 10 for me. |
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Post by ToomuchFluffy on Oct 15, 2022 10:09:52 GMT
They had some trouble during development and I think for a time it wasn't even assured that it would ever see the light of day.
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malek86
Junior Member
Pomegranate Deseeder
Posts: 3,254
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Post by malek86 on Oct 15, 2022 10:15:16 GMT
They had some trouble during development and I think for a time it wasn't even assured that it would ever see the light of day. That would explain a lot. Even so, what we got is what we got, and pretty expensive too. Maybe they realized it as well, hence the Game Pass deal. |
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Post by ToomuchFluffy on Oct 15, 2022 10:29:30 GMT
The GameStar reviewer sounds relatively positive, but he barely talks about the puzzles. Merely calls them "cryptic".
According to him combat can sometimes be avoided. But there's also a bossfight where that apparently wasn't the case and which was very frustrating for him.
But the aesthetics and atmosphere worked really, really well for him. I'm guessing that's what it all comes down to.
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Post by pierrepressure on Oct 15, 2022 11:41:04 GMT
I played about 30 minutes of Scorn, the premise is intriguing but I just haven't got the time to dedicate to obtuse puzzling anymore.
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Post by ToomuchFluffy on Oct 18, 2022 6:02:36 GMT
Tried a bit (45 min) of Elderborn yesterday and found it so ok that I immediately uninstalled it again.
Don't get me wrong, I'm sure it's a good game and it all works properly, it looks ok and the combat works and feels ok, but there is no hook there. At least not for me. Apparently I'm not as interested in first person meele gameplay as I thought I was.
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Post by RadicalRex on Oct 18, 2022 9:05:48 GMT
Alba: A Wildlife Adventure
Seems like a lovely game in the vein of A Short Hike, sadly there's no option to invert Y-axis in first person view, which makes it near unplayable to me. They even thought of the option, but for some inexplicable reason they only applied it to the 3rd person camera. It's been requested for two years but they never added it, so I guess there's no hope for an update.
No d-pad support in in-game menus is very annoying too, but that wouldn't make me quit. It's just extra annoyance on top of the downright game-breaking. I feel almost bad for refunding this game, but in the end the dev just screwed up.
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Post by drhickman1983 on Oct 20, 2022 20:47:04 GMT
Death Stranding is likely to be binned off. It just gets quite tedious when BTs show up. They aren't particularly challenging. Just tiresome to work through methodically.
The MULES are much the same.
There's still loads of story left - I think i've barely scratched the surface. Only on episode 3. After this there appear to be fewer missions per episodes, and it looks like the story comes more to the fore... so maybe I should push through... nah, sod it. Got 18 hours or so out of it. That's pretty much as long as most games can hold my attention these days. |
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Post by Chopper on Oct 21, 2022 9:41:37 GMT
Death Stranding is likely to be binned off. It just gets quite tedious when BTs show up. They aren't particularly challenging. Just tiresome to work through methodically.
The MULES are much the same.
There's still loads of story left - I think i've barely scratched the surface. Only on episode 3. After this there appear to be fewer missions per episodes, and it looks like the story comes more to the fore... so maybe I should push through... nah, sod it. Got 18 hours or so out of it. That's pretty much as long as most games can hold my attention these days. It's not going to get significantly 'better' so if you're happy with where you've got to, then you can abandon it guilt-free I reckon.
As far as I remember only major thing you'll be missing out on is the community infrastructure building, where everybody bands together to build roads, ziplines etc. A lot of people really enjoyed that but I didn't engage with it at all.
The good news is that the story, wacky as it is, does get resolved in a reasonably coherent way (at least within the logic of the game, which is...anyway) and that surprised me. I didn't care for it though 
There are whole areas of the game - the story, the enemy sections, the building - which I didn't like, but I'm still fairly positive about the experience overall, funnily enough.
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MolarAm🔵
Full Member
Bad at games
Posts: 6,853
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Oct 21, 2022 9:44:26 GMT
It's just a great walking/hiking game. When it leaves you alone to do that, it's sublime.
(though I don't mind the Kojima-ness of the story like I know some others do)
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Post by Chopper on Oct 21, 2022 9:51:08 GMT
Yeah, the only other Kojima game I played was MGS4, so there was a certain jaw-droppingness that sustained me through the story!
Loved the traversal.
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Post by pierrepressure on Oct 21, 2022 10:27:24 GMT
I got addicted to the road building element in the game, I found it quite satisfying as it worked itself around the map.
The BT's were rubbish though and the plot again, there's an interesting story in there somewhere but it's made pretty much intelligible by typical Kojima idiosyncrasies.
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Post by drhickman1983 on Oct 21, 2022 10:30:43 GMT
I actually like the Kojima oddities and story telling.
It's just the execution of it outside of the traversal.
I'd be sticking with it if there wasn't any combat or having to navigate through BTs. If it was a more pure walking (and climbing and biking) sim I'd enjoy it more.
I like the concept of the road building but I didn't really do much to help that. They just seemed to appear as I unlocked the network, and didn't really contribute much myself.
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Post by docrob on Oct 21, 2022 21:51:51 GMT
I actually like the Kojima oddities and story telling. It's just the execution of it outside of the traversal. I'd be sticking with it if there wasn't any combat or having to navigate through BTs. If it was a more pure walking (and climbing and biking) sim I'd enjoy it more. I like the concept of the road building but I didn't really do much to help that. They just seemed to appear as I unlocked the network, and didn't really contribute much myself. Agree entirely with this. I did push on and finish it, but I’d have enjoyed it more without the BTs. When it’s about the exploration, the hiking and the path finding, it shines. The forced stealth and forced combat sections are much weaker. |
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Post by RadicalRex on Oct 30, 2022 16:34:54 GMT
Got some cleaning up to do... lots of stuff I tried because I'm bored but which didn't turn out more interesting for the most part.
Black Mesa -- abandoned again. Aside from fancier graphics I don't think it's any better than the original, in fact I'd rather play that because at least it has the OG feel. Tried that a little too again but also abandoned, I just don't think Half-Life has aged as well as the boomer shooters it once stomped into the ground.
Ori and the Will of the Wisps -- again on sale on Steam, I long skipped it because I didn't like Blind Forest but finally caved in. Reviews on the internet are raving and say it's better than BF. Turns out it's even worse! My new least favourite metroidvania.
The Room 4: Old Sins -- loved these games early on, but now that the novelty's worn off I find them really boring. Just seems like more of the same and I guess I now lost interest in the entire series.
Shapez -- looked interesting, like something I'd play if I enjoyed Spacechem. But I found it completely uninteresting to play. I don't know, it just feels like doing uninteresting work.
Duskers -- one of the games I picked up looking for something coding/typing-centric. Great atmosphere, great concept, sadly gameplay is boring as hell.
Hacknet -- another "typing" game from my backlog, must have been in a Humble Bundle or something. Must have avoided it before because I'm not interested in hacking at all. Gave it a try and it just confirmed my utter disinterest in hacking.
TIS-100 -- the third and last coding game, enjoyed it a lot earlier on, but just like Spacechem (also a Zachtronics game), somewhere 2/3 into the game it gets insanely hard to the point that it's just an unrewarding frustrating struggle. I went in overconfident because I did some NES ROM hacking and programmed Snake in 6502 Assembly via a web app before, so I thought I'm prepared. But that was child's play compared to this. I may try again in the future, but right now it just depresses me because it makes me feel dumb.
SBK 22 -- I love the feel of handling and physics, but it's so fucking hard. Probably the hardest racing game I've ever played (save perhaps for Richard Burns Rally, but I can hardly even remember that) and I just can't come up with the fitness/concentration I need for it. Sadly it's also ruined Ride 4 for me: I was never 100% happy with that game's handling but had fun anyway. Now after playing SBK 22 with its meatier/more satisfying handling I find it harder to return to Ride 4.
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Post by ToomuchFluffy on Nov 6, 2022 20:08:05 GMT
Haven't tried Black Mesa yet, but the replay of Half Life on Hard fairly recently was quite interesting. Obviously not comparable to the first-time playthrough back then, but still, it was nice revisiting it again. Especially Xen.
Have you tried Brutal Half Life? I was quite impressed, but I had a lot of crashes and even Xash3D did only help to a point.
I have broken off Daikatana (with the unofficial patch) as it became clear quickly that there just wasn't much there that I actually genuinely liked. The only thing I could see myself end up liking were just the different arsenals for the different episodes. Some of those weapons do look interesting. But that's about it.
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Post by RadicalRex on Nov 6, 2022 21:13:09 GMT
Haven't tried Brutal Half-Life, looked into it but tbh I'm not that interested in it. But cheers for the tip anyway.
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Post by drhickman1983 on Nov 7, 2022 12:20:29 GMT
Assassin's Creed Valhalla
I actually enjoy it, but it's one of those games I go back to infrequently. But because of its pseudo-live service approach everytime I go back there's inevitably another update, another 5-10 gigs to download.
I known patches are pretty standard these days but it gets tiring after a bit.
I uninstalled GTAV for the same reason. I just want to run around in single player for 30 minutes, stop making me download massive GTAO updates that I'll never play!
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malek86
Junior Member
Pomegranate Deseeder
Posts: 3,254
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Post by malek86 on Nov 7, 2022 13:11:34 GMT
Sonic the Hedgehog 2006
Yes, it's every bit as bad as you have heard, and possibly even moreso. But it cannot qualify as so bad it's good, because the very act of playing this game infuriates me. I hate every single minute of it, no exception.
I gave it another chance to see if maybe it got better after that must annoying boss fight. Spoiler: it did not. Deleted again.
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Post by ToomuchFluffy on Nov 8, 2022 13:53:02 GMT
No more Red Faction.
It's fine in an inoffensive way, but also fairly unremarkable most of the time. The destructible environment is probably the best of it, but it only comes into play infrequently. The shooting is fine, but nothing more than that in my opinion and while there are moments where the environments have some scale to them (usually elevator shafts and such), most of them have no atmosphere or interesting architecture whatsoever. The stealth sections might add variety, but also add a good amount of Trial-and-Error and the vehicle sections are mostly forgettable. Same for the story.
Overall just too bland as that I'm all that interested in continuing.
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Post by RadicalRex on Nov 15, 2022 14:36:42 GMT
Dakar Desert Rally
I was somewhat sceptical if I'd like it but gave it a try when it was 30% off on Steam. But it's indeed not for me, I'm not having any fun and there's no appeal that makes me want to go on. One of the reasons why I was interested was motorbikes, but sadly motorbike handling is horrible in this game. On top of that there's technical issues and... ah whatever. Refund.
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