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Post by drhcnip on May 23, 2022 7:48:01 GMT
ooh, not heard of that one, must have released when i was out of the loop for a while
definitely looks like my sort of thing
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Post by dfunked on May 23, 2022 7:51:19 GMT
Yeah, on game pass too IIRC. It's been on my list for a while so will have to give it a try next. I love a shorter game these days!
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Post by drhcnip on May 23, 2022 8:01:43 GMT
just looked, it left in november- that's an arse
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Post by dfunked on May 23, 2022 8:05:22 GMT
Ah bugger, sorry. Guess I'll buy it like a chump.
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Post by Rubicon on May 23, 2022 8:36:36 GMT
Halo: CE (Game Pass)
Missed out first time round and was enjoying myself until The Flood arrived which is where things started to go down hill. You have backtracking/repetitive environments, the realistic AI is gone with blobs just thrown at you but my biggest gripe is the respawning enemies which is just lazy design. So good first half, poor second.
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Post by Chopper on May 23, 2022 11:03:32 GMT
Finished Vampire The Masquerade Swansong (Epic Store); it comes in at a svelte 16 hours or so and unfortunately isn't that great. The ideas are there, and all the individual bits to make a good game are there, but it doesn't cohere at all. It was either rushed, or the project managers didn't have a firm grip on things.
It's billed as an RPG but it leans far more towards a detective/deduction game. It shares a lot of DNA with Detroit: Become Human.
The main mechanic is that you have conversational confrontations with other vampires, and of course the villains, and you use your attributes to try and bend that person to your will. So for example, if you have a bunch of points in Dominate, you can intimidate the other person into submitting. They may have attributes that counter yours. The problem is, you can't anticipate what attributes will be useful, and there's not always a good alernative. In my playthrough one of my characters was the vampire enforcer, so I built him with heavy Dominate. It turns out that he constantly goes up against people who are immune to Dominate, including the main villain, who he's expected to despatch! But the moment to moment stuff is decent, with levels of various lengths and plenty of stuff to discover. The politics and intrigue of the vampire court was interesting, but if it was fleshed out more with more insight into the actors' motivations, the game would have been much better. The vampire prince, in particular was kind of wasted. It becomes obvious that she is using the main characters, but it's not followed up and there's no impact on the ending. The ending is a canned speech where the consequences of your actions are rendered very unmeaningful.
There's a fair bit to enjoy in the game, but I'm not comfortable recommending it. One for your own personal tastes, and people will get very different things from the game for sure. I don't think it made any impact with reviewers, so will be on sale soon. It's a pity, as I was a big fan of the studio based on The Council, but unfortunately this one is a bit undercooked.
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malek86
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Pomegranate Deseeder
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Post by malek86 on May 23, 2022 20:13:37 GMT
Beltane (PC)
An UK indie mystery adventure by Shadow Tor Studios, so of course I had to buy it. But this one is short, very very short. I was hoping for something a little more substantial. On the plus side, it did have a very cozy Cornwall countryside feel to it. I really oughta visit one day. I'm buying all these games and yet I've never actually been in the damn place.
For the price, I guess it was a good diversion for an evening... but I'm still hoping against any conceivable hope that Bracken Tor will be released one day.
6/10
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EMarkM
Junior Member
Well, quite...
Posts: 2,149
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Post by EMarkM on May 24, 2022 7:13:09 GMT
After all these years, I finished the Main Quest of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion last night.
It was great. I'll put it to one side now, as there are many other games to play. I had thought that I would enjoy mopping up side quests without the annoying Gates popping up everywhere, but I made the mistake of thinking one of the containers in the Arch Mage's Chamber was permanent storage and put a load of my good stuff in there, only to find it had regenerated after the two week wait for the Dragon Armour.
By coincidence, Mr. Matty Plays just put up a YT vid on "why you should play Oblivion in 2022". Good stuff!
Huzzah!
Edited to Add: I'm already thinking it would be nice to stay for just a LITTLE while longer - it's such a nice, varied world to wander about in, compared to the gorgeous-but-samey Skyrim.
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EMarkM
Junior Member
Well, quite...
Posts: 2,149
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Post by EMarkM on May 24, 2022 9:25:17 GMT
And, just to reply to myself again, I've reloaded from the point before I placed my stuff in the Arch Mage's foot-of-the-bed container, researched that the nightstand is actually safe to use, and set myself a new task of acquiring better alchemy gear while I wait "two weeks" for the Dragon Armour afresh. It really IS a good game. I remember playing it when it first came out and discussing it with the members of my then "Xbox Clan" (Up the Northenders, suicida !), commenting that we were effectively turning it into a multiplayer game by sharing all our adventures. It was a real eye-opener for me, Oblivion, as the closest I had played to it before was probably Baldur's Gate II.
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Post by ToomuchFluffy on May 24, 2022 17:44:38 GMT
Halo: CE (Game Pass) Missed out first time round and was enjoying myself until The Flood arrived which is where things started to go down hill. You have backtracking/repetitive environments, the realistic AI is gone with blobs just thrown at you but my biggest gripe is the respawning enemies which is just lazy design. So good first half, poor second. I remember being kind of disappointed when I played through it in the nebulous times of yesteryear, but I don't really remember why. I don't think that I liked the first half that much more, but who knows... I did recently buy the remastered version, so I should get to it soon enough.
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Post by kilters on May 24, 2022 23:07:11 GMT
Cyberpunk 2077
Frequently excellent due to night city world and location but the systems let it down. Clunky combat which gets incrementally better as you upgrade. Driving feels terrible. Perks and skill tree probably needs multiple play throughs to experience other builds but why bother when the enemy AI is thick as fuck.
What a location though. Favourite open world by far.
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Post by Chopper on May 25, 2022 15:05:58 GMT
XCOM2: War of the Chosen down.
Very enjoyable game, though it was hard to pick up again after I'd had a couple of weeks away from it. Nothing new to say here, really. My team generally consisted of 2 Rangers, 1/2 Sharpshooters, 1 Reaper and 1/2 Specialists. I didn't touch the Skirmisher or Templar classes, and didn't bother with Grenadiers. Rangers with Bladestorm were the absolute best.
There's a lot of game still there, if I ever go back to it.
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Post by deekyfun on May 26, 2022 6:46:50 GMT
I "finished" Yonder: The Cloudcatcher Chronicles'. I use the annoying quote marks because I left it with what seemed like a fair bit to do.
The main mission was pretty quick and easy, and I think the meat of the thing is in crafting and getting 100% completion in each region using a surprisingly wide system. Graphically, it was pretty to look at, and very chill to play; no combat, no rush. If I were to be mean, I would say that there isn't enough of a driver to push you along; for me, I need some sort of motivator to get through picking up all these rocks, otherwise I'm just picking up rocks and I could do that at home. The world, while nice to look at, isnt so interesting to warrant exploration for explorations sake, and the crafting, while broad, feels very samey.
So I didn't feel compelled to carry on beyond the story. But it was a nice bit of punctuation to better pace the infinite sentence that is my gaming biography.
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Ulythium
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Post by Ulythium on May 27, 2022 14:38:42 GMT
Elden Ring (PS5)
Quite simply, one of the best games I've ever played - I can't say much more than that.
For my money, such as it is, Elden Ring is the ultimate realisation of the approach Miyazaki began with Demon's Souls and continued through the Dark Souls trilogy; Bloodborne and Sekiro are different beasts, in my view.
The open-world design was wonderful. Just imagine, a massive area that you want to (and can) explore, in the true sense of the word! The sharpest of contrasts to a cookie-cutter Ubisoft map, utterly littered with icons, as though someone ate a load of novelty pasta shapes and a bunch of day-glo food colouring, then projectile-vomited the resulting mess all over the damn place.
The soundtrack, boss designs, voice acting, world-building... all superb. Oh, and From still make the best melee combat systems in gaming, insofar as I'm concerned.
I could go on, but there's no point.
9/10.
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Post by Aunt Alison on May 27, 2022 15:10:23 GMT
It's alright
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Ulythium
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Post by Ulythium on May 27, 2022 15:20:27 GMT
You lil' scamp!
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Post by LockeTribal on May 28, 2022 8:00:40 GMT
Finally finished FF7 Remake last night 2 years after having started it (started on PS4 and finished on PS5). Took me around 50 good to get through. I really enjoyed it although all my breaks in play meant it took me a while to reacquaint myself with the battle system each time I picked it up again. In saying that the battle system is great when you get into the groove, especially with Tifa.
I'm aware that not everyone liked how they approached the story for this but I thought it was perfect. It acknowledges the original while still adding a fresh take and I'm excited to see where they go with it.
Slightly tempted to try hard mode but think I'll take a break and try something new for a while instead.
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Post by pierrepressure on May 28, 2022 8:04:08 GMT
Hoping for some FF7 remake part 2 news soon.
Surprised we haven't seen anything yet and it sounds more likely we'll see more FFXVI next.
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Post by captbirdseye on May 28, 2022 8:49:55 GMT
I hope everyone is still horny for Cloud.
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Post by dominalien on May 28, 2022 9:27:53 GMT
Alan Wake on Steam Deck
I was very taken (geddit?) with it at the start, but it gets really repetitive really quick. Furious combat with death at every corner, the same enemies all the time, night, forest, night, town, night, more forest.
Writing is pretty good, story is fun, atmosphere is great. I especially liked the random good advice enemies would snarl at you.
Still, I'm now an Alan Wake fan.
The game is verified on the Steam Deck, but it doesn't run well. There's a graphical glitch that appears as you focus your flashlight on enemies, it makes it a little harder than it needs to be. This can be fixed by using proton-ge apparently, though I didn't bother. Apart from that, it's a flawless 40 fps experience on the highest settings, barring some apparent background loading where it stutters a bit. It looks very nice on the Deck's screen, too.
8/10
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Post by theguy on May 29, 2022 10:50:27 GMT
Loco Roco Remastered
I did not like it.
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Bongo Heracles
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Post by Bongo Heracles on May 29, 2022 10:55:48 GMT
Trek to Yomi: pretty good. Looks amazing, plays ok and it’s short enough to finish over a weekend.
7/10
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Frog
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Post by Frog on May 29, 2022 17:11:03 GMT
I liked Trek until you drew a sword and then it went from a solid 8/10 to a 5/10 (and every boss is shit). It's a shame as it could have been great with a bit more work on the gameplay.
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Frog
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Post by Frog on May 29, 2022 17:15:11 GMT
Sniper elite 5.
There is a good game in here but it needs some patches to bring it up a bit. The big red diamond that comes up when holding breath is just annoying and blocks your view. The controls are really clunky on a controller and the lack of deadzone settings really hurts. There are numerous bugs that stop you completing missions.
The good, the graphics look decent for an AA game at times (apart from the player models). The invasions are a really good addition but a bit too heavily balanced for the invader. Landing a nice shot never gets old.
6/10 but would move up to a 7.5 if they polished it up a bit (7 out of 10 using kbm).
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Post by Samildanach on May 29, 2022 17:55:58 GMT
The Witcher 3 Heart of Stone expansion
So this expansion I gather added a good bit of land to the north east of the main map as well as gave us a cracking new story. This is a superb example of an expansion done well on a budget, as the new area is essentially built from the assets already made for the original game; but as a result seamlessly links with the original map making it impossible to tell where the old one ended and the new began. There are only two new normal enemy types (the boar and the spiders) but 5 or 6 new bosses. Had it been just a load of sidequests then it would have been a poor show, but the main storyline knocks it out the park. Interesting and varied quests, a great creepy villain, a decent length that doesn't outstay its welcome. Yeah, it is well worth playing. My only gripe is the same I have for the main game and that is the floaty, woolly combat. It is no deal breaker, just rather average. Anyway, if you have yet to play Heart of Stone still despite completing the main game, then what the Devil are you waiting for?!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 29, 2022 21:47:07 GMT
Judgement PS5
Damn, after yakuza 1-7 all being 9 or 10/10 games I was severely disappointed with this, it is serviceable game, but is just not much fun. It lacks the zaniness of the mainline games and just feels rather flat. It also has some fucking awful awful bits.
Trailing... Holy fuck this was tedious and unfun. Mortal wounds are just fucking annoying. Massive plotholes. Not really a spoiler but you get a whole fucking lecture about how in court uou can't introduce new evidence once the trial starts, then you introduce new evidence after the trial starts... Kaito was fun, but every other character was dull. No fun side minigames really and cash too hard to come by.
Despite all this though, it is by the Yakuza guys and I thought it was okay, not as bad as the complaints I have above may make it sound.
6/10
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 29, 2022 22:37:14 GMT
I like it, but definitely agree on the mortal wounds bit. That and Kim constantly texting you about the Keihin Gang really ruined the second half of the game.
Tak's kung fu is funner to play as well than Kiryu's brawling or the turn based Persona combat in LaD, at least in my opinion.
But it definitely could've used some wacky side content.
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Post by uiruki on May 30, 2022 8:17:08 GMT
As usual with RGG Studio, the gameplay related stuff is fixed in the sequel. Tailing is much easier and less common (and you get a separate distraction gauge for emergency use), mortal wounds aren’t a thing anymore and there are a bunch of new mini games and a whole secondary story about being a “cool dude” helping people out in a high school and joining various clubs to get to the bottom of a bigger mystery. No Keihin gang and their constant bosses/danger gauge either. You even get a skateboard to avoid many encounters entirely.
Speaking of which, I need to get the Kaito expansion…
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スコットランド
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Delicious gruel
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Post by スコットランド on May 30, 2022 8:20:06 GMT
Judgement PS5 Damn, after yakuza 1-7 all being 9 or 10/10 games I was severely disappointed with this, it is serviceable game, but is just not much fun. It lacks the zaniness of the mainline games and just feels rather flat. It also has some fucking awful awful bits. Trailing... Holy fuck this was tedious and unfun. Mortal wounds are just fucking annoying. Massive plotholes. Not really a spoiler but you get a whole fucking lecture about how in court uou can't introduce new evidence once the trial starts, then you introduce new evidence after the trial starts... Kaito was fun, but every other character was dull. No fun side minigames really and cash too hard to come by. Despite all this though, it is by the Yakuza guys and I thought it was okay, not as bad as the complaints I have above may make it sound. 6/10 Agree with all of those complaints but despite that, I still would rate it a bit higher. Yakuza 0 and LaD still the top dogs from RGG.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 30, 2022 9:38:48 GMT
Judgement PS5 Damn, after yakuza 1-7 all being 9 or 10/10 games I was severely disappointed with this, it is serviceable game, but is just not much fun. It lacks the zaniness of the mainline games and just feels rather flat. It also has some fucking awful awful bits. Trailing... Holy fuck this was tedious and unfun. Mortal wounds are just fucking annoying. Massive plotholes. Not really a spoiler but you get a whole fucking lecture about how in court uou can't introduce new evidence once the trial starts, then you introduce new evidence after the trial starts... Kaito was fun, but every other character was dull. No fun side minigames really and cash too hard to come by. Despite all this though, it is by the Yakuza guys and I thought it was okay, not as bad as the complaints I have above may make it sound. 6/10 Agree with all of those complaints but despite that, I still would rate it a bit higher. Yakuza 0 and LaD still the top dogs from RGG. I probably am also rating it low as I have done all the RGG games in 15 months, a bit of burnout is probably in there as well.
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