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Post by Aunt Alison on Nov 25, 2022 14:38:21 GMT
The DLC for the other BL games have all been great though. WL was made during lockdown so that might have had something to do with it
They've added a new character class to the game (that you have to buy to unlock) but I don't know if that alone is worth it
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Post by dfunked on Nov 25, 2022 14:51:12 GMT
Yeah, it kind of sounds like some of the non-story areas in the game were intended to be future DLC but they realised the base game would be too bare without them.
It's definitely a fun game, but yeah, they really dropped the ball with DLC for whatever reasons.
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Post by simple on Nov 25, 2022 15:55:32 GMT
Death’s Door
aka Neil Gaiman’s Legend of Zelda in which you play as a crow trying to collect the souls of three timeless monsters in order to restore balance to a dying world. Its influences are all super obvious - Zelda, Dark Souls, some Ghibli visuals - but its mostly a lot of fun. Good balance of combat, light puzzling and exploration. Lets itself down a bit by getting a bit grindy, having no map and having some mechanics that aren’t explained in-game.
7.5/10
RE Village: Shadows of Rose
Nice piece of story DLC revisiting some of the locations of the base game with new abilities and enemy types. Most of the monsters felt like a threat and one sequence might go straight into the chart of creepiest RE moments. Shame the only way to get it is in a bundle with the updated mercenaries mode that I’m never going to play.
8/10
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Post by Aunt Alison on Nov 25, 2022 16:49:24 GMT
Yeah, it kind of sounds like some of the non-story areas in the game were intended to be future DLC but they realised the base game would be too bare without them. It's definitely a fun game, but yeah, they really dropped the ball with DLC for whatever reasons. I was having a little look for other looty style games you can play offline on Series X but nothing really appeals (D3 looks a bit crap now), which is a shame
Still got Pre-Sequel to do but it's not as good
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Duffman5
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big cook, little cook welcome to our cafe
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Post by Duffman5 on Nov 25, 2022 16:55:42 GMT
I was having a little look for other looty style games you can play offline on Series X but nothing really appeals (D3 looks a bit crap now), which is a shame
Still got Pre-Sequel to do but it's not as good
AA, what about Outriders, it is a lot of fun, I played the whole campaign in single player.
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Post by dfunked on Nov 25, 2022 16:56:49 GMT
That's not a bad shout. Didn't touch multiplayer either until the end and had a blast with it.
D3 is still good fun though imo. Love jumping on with a new seasonal character and blasting through the levels. The sudden jump in power when you get a decent new bit of gear is addictive.
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Post by Aunt Alison on Nov 25, 2022 17:01:39 GMT
Can you play Outriders completely offline? I did come across it but thought it required an internet connection even to play single player (my internet "speed" is about 1.5mb)
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Duffman5
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big cook, little cook welcome to our cafe
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Post by Duffman5 on Nov 25, 2022 17:20:35 GMT
Can you play Outriders completely offline? I did come across it but thought it required an internet connection even to play single player (my internet "speed" is about 1.5mb) I think it does need a constant connection (I didn't realise you meant that), but I do not think your speed will be an issue, as you will set your game to private.
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Post by Trowel 🏴 on Nov 25, 2022 18:25:01 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Nov 25, 2022 18:36:12 GMT
I tried that free trial/demo for Outriders, but I hated it, even being a fan of Gears. I don't really have any better suggestions though, as I don't really play games for the loot, more for the RPG quests and things of that nature.
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Post by dfunked on Nov 25, 2022 20:55:08 GMT
Trowel 🏴 🏴 I tried the demo of that a few months ago and it really didn't click with me. Might give it another go to see if they've sped up progress a bit as it still felt like you had a peashooter 10 minutes in. I had way more fun with 20 minutes til dawn, boneraiser Minions and seraph's last stand if you're looking for something to scratch the VS itch.
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Ulythium
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Post by Ulythium on Nov 25, 2022 22:09:13 GMT
simpleHow long did it take you to beat Death's Door, my dear fellow?
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Post by simple on Nov 25, 2022 22:24:27 GMT
simpleHow long did it take you to beat Death's Door, my dear fellow? Just over 17 hours to 100% it and do all the post-game stuff.
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malek86
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Pomegranate Deseeder
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Post by malek86 on Nov 25, 2022 22:41:23 GMT
Death's Door was fun, but it ultimately didn't do much to stand out for me. Whereas, Tunic is probably going to be my GOTY 2022.
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Post by pierrepressure on Nov 26, 2022 14:12:36 GMT
GOW: Ragnarok - 9/10
I loved the 2018 one (and the originals to be fair), this is more of the same but this ticks all the right boxes for me. A faux-open world with some decent side quests without feeling like Ubisoft icon clutter.
The characters and setting are what kept me coming back though. Some stellar voice acting to cap it all off.
If you didn't like the first one this more than likely won't change your mind.
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Post by damagedinc on Nov 26, 2022 22:26:50 GMT
Death's Door was fun, but it ultimately didn't do much to stand out for me. Whereas, Tunic is probably going to be my GOTY 2022. OK now I'm very interested in tunic because I loved deaths door
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Post by damagedinc on Nov 26, 2022 22:30:09 GMT
Ori and blind forest
Been on the backlog for a while and sadly it neither hit the platforming heights of celeste, nor the metroidvania heights of hollow knight. it really is stunning though(especially on the oled)
However due to playing a number of metroidvanias prior to this I am a little tapped out. If I had played it on release I would have probably loved it.
Combat is crap, platforming fun and it looks very pretty.
7/10
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malek86
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Pomegranate Deseeder
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Post by malek86 on Nov 27, 2022 10:47:28 GMT
FEAR 3 (PC)
Is this really a FEAR game? Looks more like generic sci-fi. The story is utter bollocks too, and the characters... what characters? There is a couple horrror-ish parts, but not enough to match the first game really.
But hey, I can't complain too much. The shooting is pretty good. Actually feels much more refined than in FEAR 2. The difficulty does have a few annoying spikes (thinking about an especially rage-worthy boss fight near the end), but luckily you can coast along for the most part. Level design is a bit too linear though, it really feels a bit like a corridor shooter, although one with good combat, which is not as common as it should be. There is a cover system but I never used it. Overall it feels nothing like COD, even though the publisher very obviously wanted it to.
Playing as Fettel is interesting, as he's got a few unique tricks up his sleeve. If you ever played Shiny's infamous Messiah, it feels a bit like that, but more polished. Unfortunately the game will only let you play as Point Man (funny name there) before you can run through again as Fettel, and the levels are long enough that you really don't want to play them again immediately. Maybe in a few months.
7/10
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Post by Trowel 🏴 on Nov 27, 2022 16:38:29 GMT
Ghost Song - 7/10
A teriffic homage to Super Metroid with fabulous atmosphere throughout, but let down by the unstructured map design and random approach to the skill tree. Although it by and large avoids the backtracking which plagues Hollow Knight, it's far too easy to explore deep in the wrong direction and find yourself locked out due to a missing ability. Special mention for the combat, with plenty of spicy weaponry, decent meleé, and headshot damage feeling like an original touch, all complemented by a nice storyline and strong voice acting.
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Duffman5
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big cook, little cook welcome to our cafe
Posts: 1,332
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Post by Duffman5 on Nov 27, 2022 16:58:00 GMT
God of War Ragnarök PS5 Excellent 9/10
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Post by Chopper on Nov 30, 2022 8:09:13 GMT
Finished Salt and Sacrifice and for all my moaning about it, I had a pretty great time by the end. It definitely hides its light under a bushel, and I had to work hard to grasp what it was all about. This was both because of the mashup of genres (souls, monster hunter, metroidvania) and because of a poor UI (hard to compare armours, weapons; you have to craft a weapon before finding out its special properties etc) and very little is explained.
One of my niggles was with weapon scaling. I started as a dex-based class, with my main weapon being a spear. However I never got a spear with decent scaling to dex, and the one I had for most of the game scaled to dex with an E. so I ended up taking points out of dex as the game progressed and putting them into the stats controlling the weapon arts, and ended up with a weird lopsided build.
Speaking of which, the weapon arts, which you stumble upon after a while, are awesome. Basically each boss has a signature attack, and when you beat them you get the materials to craft weapons with that attack as a weapon art. So that air-themed boss who was launching tornadoes that tossed you up in the air? Now you can do that, if you can wield the two hander it’s associated with. Some of them result in a big bump in power and can turn the game into easy mode, but they provide a lot of flexibility within your build, all of which is very welcome and helps the game blossom.
The bosses are all very well done, with lots of variety and inventiveness. The small 2d arenas (eventually, after all the chasing them through levels) result in reasonably easy to learn patterns so you’re not stuck at any one boss forever, while they do provide a decent challenge with the emphasis being primarily on avoiding their attacks first and then taking your small windows of opportunity. There are also some amusing and chaotic episodes where two bosses collide on the hunt and start attacking each other.
I’ve gone on too long with this but just trying to make the point that there’s a cracking game in there if you can get past the offputting exterior. I saw about two thirds of the game in this run and I’m looking forward to another run through (eventually) with a better grasp of the mechanics from the start.
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Post by Vandelay on Nov 30, 2022 10:10:56 GMT
Finished the critics favourite, Pentiment, last night. They aren't wrong either. Absolutely beautiful game and probably my game of the year (out of the few new games I've played). If you think that a game about 16th century religion, art, writing and society isn't interesting than stay away. On the other hand, if any of those are intriguing than this is very much the game for you. Very narrative heavy and little to actually do besides talking to people, but it is a superb story with a range of interesting characters. I'm not sure how much your choices effect the story and some of the outcomes, but I really felt like this was my Andreas and Magadalene . A lot has already been said about the use of text (which is exquisitely done) but the sound also really stood out to me throughout. The atmospheric sounds in scenes really brought them to life, making this 2D simple art really come alive. Also, I just couldn't get enough of the scratching noise as the dialogue is written out in speech bubbles. It was so evocative. The music too, is beautiful and used to great effect. The story itself is an engaging mystery, one that reveals more secrets buried overtime. That is both the personal, the town and how it serves as a microcosm, not just for the era. It isn't presented in a big bombastic way at all, but with subtlety often lacking from games. For much of the game you are spending time just going about the daily life of your lead character, with undercurrent of mystery running underneath, as you choose who to have lunch with or when you continue working. The final moments are perhaps a little rushed, but it follows through with a satisfying conclusion and felt sorry to be leaving these characters, keen to know what happens next to them and their town. For me, this is what I want Game Pass to be encouraging and it is so good to see Microsoft taking a chance on something like this, which has a fairly niche appeal. I hope that the service can lead to more smaller labours of love from developers.
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Ulythium
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Post by Ulythium on Nov 30, 2022 23:59:44 GMT
God of War Ragnarok.
While I can see why some people would be disappointed in this - it does, after all, follow the template of the 2018 soft reboot very closely indeed! - for my money, it's comfortably the better game of the two.
Although it seems content with building upon the foundations laid by the previous game, it'd be harsh to criticise it too much for that, given how big a departure God of War 2018 was from the franchise's original incarnation; moreover, the iterative approach of Ragnarok means that almost every single facet thereof constitutes a marked improvement when compared to its predecessor.
The combat, exploration, and puzzles were all excellent. The voice acting was superb, especially that of Christopher Judge as Kratos and Richard Schiff as Odin. The writing was good - not on a par with peak Naughty Dog, but better than many bombastic AAA blockbusters.
EDIT: I feel as though this spiel was very short indeed, compared to the hundreds of words I spewed forth in this thread upon finishing Horizon Forbidden West earlier in the year! I guess it's easier to ramp up the word-count when you feel let down than when you're satisfied.
I could've easily gone as high as a 9, but I felt the ending was just a little too anticlimactic to merit one. It wasn't bad by any means, and certainly avoided the WTF-ness of Horizon's denouement, but... meh. I dunno!
I guess I expected more actual *drama*, given that we were literally dealing with the end of the world and all, but the body count wasn't in Hamlet/Reservoir Dogs territory as I'd anticipated. That wouldn't have been an issue, but the alternative needed to be more satisfying than it was.
8.5/10.
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Post by Samildanach on Dec 1, 2022 12:24:19 GMT
Doom 64 (PS4) First time playing this game (though I am a veteran of the original two Dooms) and I enjoyed it all. The levels are well designed and atmospheric, the double barrelled shotgun is still the best in all of gaming, and the six new levels are the icing on the cake. Never a dull moment with it, so I recommend giving it a whirl if you like a bit of old skool Doom and missed this one back then.
Assassin's Creed Syndicate This perfectly encapsulates average-ness. The combat is serviceable but brainless, the story is ...alright but unremarkable, the sidequests are mostly acceptable but filler really, the music and voice acting is fine but nothing special, the world is well realised but rather samey, being set only in London (compared to the diverse environments of ACII and III for example). The main villain was more memorable than Unity's complete waste of space, but still felt very underused. The only time I felt things were pretty cool was the last mission of the Dreadful Crimes quest line. Its nothing worth all the other shash if you are not a fan of the franchise, but it did put a smile on my weary face. Onto the Jack the Ripper DLC as I foolishly bought the whole package and I can't leave a bit unfinished. After that will be Dark Souls 3 for the first time...very excited about that!
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Post by RadicalRex on Dec 3, 2022 7:03:38 GMT
Vampire Survivors - 9/10
I guess I can call this "completed" now as I've unlocked everything. It's like a bag of crisps, not overly nutritional but you just can't stop. Well, I'm not really addicted anymore now, but it's still great for a casual half hour of enjoyable time killing.
One thing that bugs me a little is the pairing system that allows you to evolve a weapon if you also have the passive counterpart. While fun in principle, I think it limits experimentation because you're so strongly encouraged to get items in pre-defined pairs--which isn't helped by the limited number of items you can acquire in a run. I wish there were a few different combos for any given item, or some other way to make mixing different items more feasible.
But this is certainly not the final state of the game, DLC/expansions/whatever are inevitable. I'm very curious already how that'll turn out.
Greatly recommended, especially considering its obscenely low price of €5.
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Post by stixxuk on Dec 3, 2022 7:25:33 GMT
Return to Monkey Island
I enjoyed it, got the nostalgia and all that... But I didn't think the puzzles were that great. Probably the 4th best MI game.
I thought they'd do more with the ending (or at least, more before the ending happened).
I'll give it an 8/10, just about.
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Post by dfunked on Dec 3, 2022 8:56:22 GMT
RadicalRex yeah, I don't think I did a run without evolved Bible after I unlocked it, which meant I pretty much always had to grab that passive unless it's one of the extras on a map. Probably my main issue with the game. Sure I could break away from those weapons and experiment a bit, but it's hard to break yourself away from a guaranteed 30+ minute run. I like playing the bonus stage for that reason. Gives you all of the passives, so you're free to do whatever you want (even if it'll inevitably still include Bible) Also why I hate the other bonus stage that doesn't give you any bonus passives.
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Post by Aunt Alison on Dec 3, 2022 18:58:34 GMT
Finished up Deathloop, thought it was pretty fantastic
I really enjoyed the opening moments, just going along with these words floating around in front of me, trusting it would lead somewhere eventually. One of those games that does a good job of putting you in the same position as the character you're playing so you can really connect with them (confused by everything, no idea what's going on). Also loved what they did with the visionaries. At the start, it seems impossible to work out who anyone is (especially in chat logs where they all use aliases) but gradually through collecting fragmented notes and information, without ever actually meeting them, each of the personalities becomes really distinct. The sound design, writing and voice acting are all excellent. Colt's grumpiness and Julianna's shit talking are brilliant
The AI is pretty bad, so combat was never much of a challenge but the game has got a lot more interesting things going on, so it didn't bother me. You're going back over the same fairly small areas time and time again (that get reset each day) so it's got a sandbox feel to it. The enemies are there for you to play around with using different weapons and powers. The game has some really cool guns in as well and, as enemies are so easy to deal with, anything is viable. There's no need to just stick to one particilar loadout. Aether trivialises combat as the AI will instantly lose track of you when you vanish. It's all good fun though. I played with a bit of stealth and a bit of noise, just whatever seemed appropriate/fun at the time. All the weapons have cool unique idle animations that are worth seeing. It's so indulgent. Love it
It's a pretty compact game and completing the overall objective is quite simple once you've got it all striaghtened out. The game does a great job of collecting and sorting all the clues and leads for you (I played with objective markers disabled but still found everything well enough) so while it seems a bit daunting at first, it's quite straight forward in the end
I wouldn't say it ended too soon but I definitely still want more. That's quite rare for a game these days. Also rare to play something that feels a bit different and unique (at least to me). It's kind of a cross between Majora's Mask, Dishonoured and Lost
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Post by baihu1983 on Dec 3, 2022 19:04:17 GMT
Realised I never finished As Dusk Falls so went back to that. It's a fun story if you can get past the art style and annoying child acting everyone but one of the brothers survived (think he dies no matter what?) I would go back and mop up the achievements to see the other outcomes but no dialogue skip is a massive turn off. 3/5
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MolarAm🔵
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Dec 4, 2022 10:15:56 GMT
I finished Persona 5 Royal, and (with maybe some exceptions) I don't think I'm going to play any more JRPGs. At least not ones bloated up to 100+ hours.
Which isn't to say that I didn't enjoy it! But I was thoroughly done with it by hour 80, and there were still 50 hours to go after that. It's just exhausting.
Anyway, recommended if you have the time. It looks disgustingly good on the OLED, and the battle system is chunky and fun. Just not 130 hours worth of fun (for me).
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