Ulythium
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Post by Ulythium on Dec 25, 2022 19:12:15 GMT
Mass Effect.
A Bluepoint-style, from-the-ground-up remake of this game would've been amazing; however, that's not what we got (and in fairness, it's neither what we were promised nor led to expect).
Instead, we got what seemed to me - a first-time Mass Effect player - to be a solid remaster, making a 15-year-old title perfectly playable by modern standards.
I watched a recent SkillUp review (Midnight Suns, perhaps?) in which he made an offhand comment about the Mass Effect franchise, along the lines that the gameplay was just something to do between story beats. As someone who's very much of the 'gameplay first' persuasion, that made me nervous going in...
... But I really didn't need to be.
Exploration is fun, even though Shepard handles like a bit of a tank; gunplay isn't up there with Returnal or anything, but it was still enjoyable, and no worse than the original Uncharted trilogy in this regard; some of the vistas were truly spectacular; the voice acting was never less than good, and oftentimes excellent; and the RPG elements went way beyond anything I'd experienced before.
It wasn't by any means perfect, though, and no discussion of the game would be complete without one word: jank. My friends, it was commonplace! Enemies would sometimes just stand there patiently while I shot them to death; other times, they'd teleport behind cover from several feet away. Corpses would get stuck in walls, ragdolling away as they obeyed some hitherto-unknown law of physics. The Mako was a squirrelly beast that I managed to get stuck upside down on several occasions. Some characters looked amazing, while others would've been kicked out of a Tim Burton movie for looking too weird.
That said, I still had a great time with it, and I'm looking forward to jumping into the sequel ASAP.
8/10.
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Post by Aunt Alison on Dec 25, 2022 19:18:34 GMT
Did you shag anyone
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Ulythium
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Post by Ulythium on Dec 25, 2022 19:36:07 GMT
Wait - was that a possibility? Sadly not, as my character was an ugly asshole with whom no-one wanted to have sex. (Insert your own "Just like real life, eh, Uly?" jokes here!) I did try to chat up Liara, but I think I'd left it a bit late in the game to see that progress. Will try to remedy my error in ME2. EDIT: Although I did sleep with the Asari Consort right at the start of the game - it's not a full-fledged romance, but better than nothing.
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Post by RadicalRex on Dec 25, 2022 19:49:11 GMT
Just be a Nice Guy and they'll queue up for some action
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Post by ToomuchFluffy on Dec 25, 2022 21:15:33 GMT
Wait - was that a possibility? Sadly not, as my character was an ugly asshole with whom no-one wanted to have sex. (Insert your own "Just like real life, eh, Uly?" jokes here!) I did try to chat up Liara, but I think I'd left it a bit late in the game to see that progress. Will try to remedy my error in ME2. EDIT: Although I did sleep with the Asari Consort right at the start of the game - it's not a full-fledged romance, but better than nothing. Of course, ever since they started doing that back with Baldur's Gate 2.
In Dragon Age: Origins you could just gift them into your arms. Made Morrigan look a bit silly.
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Duffman5
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Post by Duffman5 on Dec 26, 2022 11:49:44 GMT
Wait - was that a possibility? Sadly not, as my character was an ugly asshole with whom no-one wanted to have sex. (Insert your own "Just like real life, eh, Uly?" jokes here!) I did try to chat up Liara, but I think I'd left it a bit late in the game to see that progress. Will try to remedy my error in ME2. EDIT: Although I did sleep with the Asari Consort right at the start of the game - it's not a full-fledged romance, but better than nothing. I was whoring my way through the Galaxy and trilogy, my female shep was like Shatner's Kirk. "you see I am a colossal pervert, no form of sexual depravity is too low for me. Animal, vegetable or mineral, I'll do anything to anything" surprisingly with such a bohemian/liberal attitude it took until the 3rd game for me to get my end away, and not with Kelly (I think that is her name, the one who is by the console and tells you about messages? then one I was after) the little tease! I have just downloaded to the ps5 so may yet again (yet again) play the excellent trilogy.
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Post by ToomuchFluffy on Dec 26, 2022 13:37:17 GMT
Never played the Mass Effects. Do the other potential love interests actually care? I mean if they were aware of the "pervert" "whoring" around that might explain why it took so long
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Post by harrypalmer on Dec 26, 2022 13:57:02 GMT
I’ve only ever played 2, which I loved, so definitely getting stuck in to all of them once I get back from Xmas purgatory.
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Post by RadicalRex on Dec 26, 2022 14:02:41 GMT
definitely getting stuck in to all of them Not possible, most romance options exclude others
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Post by Deleted on Dec 26, 2022 14:04:13 GMT
Never played the Mass Effects. Do the other potential love interests actually care? I mean if they were aware of the "pervert" "whoring" around that might explain why it took so long They get upset and force you to choose, yes.
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malek86
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Post by malek86 on Dec 27, 2022 14:49:11 GMT
Marathon (PC)
A more puzzley version of Doom, for those posh Macintosh users. It's certainly a bit more cerebral than the average shooter of 1994, with puzzles, platforming, and a more ambitious story. But then we can't forget that System Shock came out that same year, and I don't think Marathon compares all that well.
Also, platforming sucks when you don't have a jump button an your viewport is probably 30 degrees wide, and many of the puzzles were a litte too obscure with zero guidance, especially in the late game. I also hated how some parts effectively had you take unavoidable damage (like having to walk on lava at points), and together with the difficult combat and distinct lack of save points in certain levels, it didn't always make for a great experience. The second half of the game was much more frustrating than the first half.
I guess it's passable because of the music, the visual style, and because it's still quite good for a sizeable portion it. But I hope Marathon 2 is as improved as they say.
The Aleph One port is a great way to play btw, with options to remove head bobbing, play at 60fps and higher resolution, and lots more modern niceties.
6/10
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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 Dec 28, 2022 6:26:33 GMT
Never played the Mass Effects. Do the other potential love interests actually care? I mean if they were aware of the "pervert" "whoring" around that might explain why it took so long They love it
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Post by brainbird on Dec 28, 2022 8:58:16 GMT
Not sure if it belongs to the recently completed or recently abandoned games thread but I've gone through the single player campaigns (or War Stories as it wants you to call it) of Battlefield V and was quite disappointed. I know the series really shines in multiplayer but I still expected more than what is being presented. It's like it was put together with excellent assets but by interns.
1943 and Bad Company 2 were the only entries where I was bothered to invest more than just a quick look into the multiplayer mode if I remember correctly. Judging from the little bit I read about BFV there's no reason to start anew with this game.
Battlefield V (single player) 6/10
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Post by Chopper on Dec 30, 2022 17:27:37 GMT
Maid of Sker (PC). Last one of the year, I'm sure.
This is a spooky hotel-em-up from Wales Interactive, the main mechanic being to avoid enemies by holding your breath. They are blind, you see, but have acute hearing. There are a few funny ways this can go wrong, including bumping into furniture. There are even save rooms with gramophones which advance the plot a little by playing phonographs about what happened before you got there.
It's more of a walking sim than a horror game, though there are a few decent scary moments. Explore the hotel, unravel the quite-good plot, and deal with the big bad. Quite an enjoyable five hours.
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malek86
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Post by malek86 on Dec 30, 2022 17:32:57 GMT
Chopper weirdest thing about this game is how the devs supported it after launch. After some months they added a survival shooter mode, where you run from point A to point B trying not to die to an enemy onslaught. And now they are making an outright co-op based FPS spinoff.
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Post by Chopper on Dec 30, 2022 17:37:22 GMT
Hah, really?! I saw the extra challenge modes but didn't bother with them as I saw a few comments complaining about the weapons, I may have to check them out then. Pretty weird alright, the main game is all about creeping around.
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Tuffty
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Post by Tuffty on Dec 30, 2022 18:41:27 GMT
The Callisto Protocol - 7/10
Finished this earlier. Pretty one note and very linear. If you're gonna make it entirely all action and cut out the puzzle sequences, then I think it needs to be a bit more elaborate than hold left or right to dodge and counter for every single enemy in the game. Enjoyable enough overall til the final third of the game that just seemed to be all combat and the ending came about very quickly, even the last min scare seemed like it was rushed.
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Post by pierrepressure on Dec 31, 2022 12:38:11 GMT
Prodeus - 8/10
Good old-fashioned 90's Doom clone.
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Post by barchetta on Dec 31, 2022 12:51:35 GMT
Oh man. I've worked in the Graphic Arts/Repro industry since 1990, pretty much the dawn of Mac usage in the UK tradeshops. I remember going to a Mac show at Olympia and coming back with a CD-rom of legit TypeFonts and a copy of Marathon. By that time, we had a network of Quadras etc and the single disc could be installed on all the Macs for some lunchtime multiplayer fun. Many an afternoon was spent listening to one colleague or another grumbling about cheating/camping in that lunchtimes session. When it almost came to blows it was time to remove it from the Macs, but was fun for a good while.
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addyb
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Post by addyb on Jan 1, 2023 9:45:58 GMT
Hollow Knight
First played this on the switch and kind of drifted away from it around the 2nd Hornet fight. Decided to start again via the Deck and pushed through it in 35 hours. Fantastic 'metroidvania' game with some challenging segments throughout. I think my main battle was with the map in general as I quite often got lost even with the compass charm.
9/10
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Duffman5
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Post by Duffman5 on Jan 1, 2023 16:37:00 GMT
Spider-Man: Miles Morales. Excellent
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Post by uiruki on Jan 1, 2023 17:31:30 GMT
Closing out 2022 with a bit of a catch-up. Much lower count of games completed this year but I've got plenty on the go for 2023!
28. Powerwash Simulator - PC - 3/5
A really fun idea which outstays its welcome a bit. I would have loved a few more spray upgrades (or maybe more effective existing ones - I'm looking at you, soap attachment) as the last few levels are massive. I liked the way it used the environment to tell a weird little story in the middle of what is apparently just a relaxing game about cleaning dirt off things. My play time in the end was in the mid-40s hours and I think halving that would have been ideal. Looking forward to seeing what Futurlab come out with next as this was a nice little bit of inspiration.
Steam Deck report: Runs just great. Most of the time I played at 60fps in medium, 11W. Binding some of the controls (like toggling the spray) to the back buttons was a real winner in terms of ergonomics and it felt more comfortable to play than it did on either a standard controller or keyboard and mouse. The way it saves exactly what you've done when you quit also makes it an ideal game to just pick up and play - a good fit for the Deck.
29. Bayonetta 3 - Switch - 3/5
More of a miss than a hit for me, unfortunately. Bayonetta remains a lot of fun to control but as a game it does feel like a step back; you spend a lot of time hitting massive enemies in their knees while the camera tries to keep up or retreating to do your Demon Slave attacks, and there's too much space inbetween the verses with the weak platforming from previous games becoming genuinely irritating at times. This comes to a head while you're controlling Viola, who is frustrating to play as because she's worse than Bayonetta in every way while also having her main defensive technique on a different button to Bayonetta's.
It does hit top gear for long enough to make you remember what you appreciate about the series, with some cool setpieces and often fun combat but there's too much friction inbetween, like the superfluous weapon skill trees or the weirdly empty hub level, which make the game feel like a hollowed out version of something bigger. A bit of a shame.
30. God of War Ragnarok - PS5 - 3/5
This was kind of a reverse of the first game for me: I enjoyed the first half of Ragnarok a lot more than the second. The game starts off with lots of setpieces and variety as the story hums along, then about halfway through it just kind of starts meandering along with a bunch of stuff that I barely remember. And that's about it: a month or so later as I write this, I barely remember anything from the second half of the game except the neat new weapon you get and the constant wittering from whoever's hanging around with you.
31. Borderlands 3 - PC - 4/5
I wasn't expecting to enjoy this as much as I did. The script and humour mostly missed the mark for me but at least the main antagonists were genuinely satisfying to ultimately defeat, and Claptrap is just the absolute worst. That aside though, the actual game feels great to play. Some really sharp aiming, a good selection of weapons and quite a few callbacks to classic guns in other shooters (the ASMD Shock Rifle ripoff I found was particularly fun to blow myself up with) among the sea of loot meant that I was always progressing from one fun gun to the next, and the feedback when shooting enemies is excellent. I played this over Christmas, mostly on the Steam Deck while watching films with the family and it was just really fun scratching that loot itch.
Steam Deck report: As I said, I played about half my time on this game on the Deck. I had some difficulty getting it working initially but once you realise the initial load takes ages on even a fast PC things made more sense. Proton GE and DX12 gave me the most stable experience and I played mostly between 40 and 60fps in a mix of medium and low detail at 75% rendering resolution. That sounds bad but it actually looked pretty decent on the small screen due to the large amount of stuff happening and the relatively high contrast of the graphics. Once I bound gyro control activation to the left trigger the game also handled extremely well; very responsive aiming and generally a pleasure to play.
32. Ghostwire Tokyo - PC - 1/5
What a waste. A waste of a fantastic location in Shibuya, nonsensically rearranged and barely used at all except for the Scramble crossing and climbing Hikarie early on. A waste of a good setting with some initially interesting yokai related side quests ruined when you realise there's only maybe three of them and they just become another point on the map. Some of the worst control I've experienced in Unreal Engine, with mouse input being run through some input lag generator that had me drunkenly swinging the view around when the frame rate dropped below 100, which it often did with RT reflections on (the highlight of the game, since it's played mostly in rainy city streets illuminated by countless neon signs).
Such a shame.
33. Valkyrie Elysium - PC - 3/5
Initially this is a really plain looking action RPG without too much going for it. Once you start playing the game properly though it is really good fun: you get the Ultimate Technique from Ninja Gaiden and it's got an extremely satisfying parry, but the whole thing feels like a first draft of a full game. The levels are spartan and repetitive, the story is extremely bare-bones, the character upgrades and progression feel more gated behind story progress than anything, the whole thing's badly organised (you have six spell 'elements' but only four shortcut buttons, for example), and you can't cancel moves very well which can be frustrating when surrounded, especially since the camera is appalling.
But again, that combat, while it starts out as pretty limited, really picks up towards the end. The final bosses end up being really fun because unlike other games of its ilk, if you anticipate even the biggest moves you can just ignore them and do a cool counterattack while gems and health pickups fly out of the boss. I'd love to see another iteration of this because with more time and better scoping it could be really fun.
Steam Deck report: Not a very well optimised game. There were area where even an RTX 3080 couldn't hold 60fps in spite of some unimpressive visuals (albeit improved by HDR with some super saturated spell effects) so the APU in the Deck really struggles. I locked it to 30fps with Medium visuals and Balanced FSR, as the Low settings removed fundamental parts of the rendering which made it look really unacceptably bad (no shadows at all, removed realtime lighting, that kind of thing). Even then, it wasn't able to hold 30 in some areas even at max TDP: there was an ice corridor in the third chapter in particular which would end up sending the frame rate to the low 20s in spite of nothing happening. Ultimately playable but far from optimal.
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Post by Chopsen on Jan 1, 2023 18:37:34 GMT
"Powerwash Simulator - PC - 3/5
A really fun idea "
I don't believe you.
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Post by uiruki on Jan 1, 2023 18:43:13 GMT
It works, honest! It’s designed to home in on the “tidying up” part of your brain and at the end of every stage there’s a timelapse which shows you doing the job which scratches that itch nicely. I think it’s still on Game Pass so it’s well worth a go.
The main issue is that you end up with some genuinely huge stages and the story and upgrades get really spread out so it becomes an almost Sisyphean task by the end. The hook for me was the variety in the beginning so it was a shame it kind of petered out as a game. I stopped playing Lawnmower Simulator for similar reasons, though in that you do end up repeating stages quite a lot so I burned out relatively quickly.
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addyb
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Post by addyb on Jan 1, 2023 18:47:16 GMT
Powerwash simulator was great. Besides a few annoying levels I really enjoyed it.
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Ulythium
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Post by Ulythium on Jan 1, 2023 20:37:04 GMT
Mass Effect 2.
Now THIS is more like it!
Mass Effect was a very good game, but you had to look past and/or wade through a lot of jank in order to enjoy it; Mass Effect 2 does what all sequels should aim to do, i.e. build upon what worked in the first game and fix what didn't. The end result is a game that's superior to its predecessor in just about every way.
Combat? Better - tighter, more fluid, and comparable to much newer third-person shooters. Exploration? Better, especially when it comes to using the Hammerhead vs. using the Mako. Story? Your mileage may vary, of course, but I thought it was better. Mission structure? Better, for my money - the recruitment and loyalty missions were all interesting and varied, while the side content broke things up nicely.
The writing and voice acting were already stellar in ME1, and nothing changed in that regard for the sequel. Likewise, the RPG elements from the first game carried over well to the second - I know some people thought that the Paragon/Renegade aspects of ME2 were too binary, but I managed to pick up a fair few Paragon points despite my commitment to playing the role of a complete dickbag.
It wasn't perfect - some of the later missions tended to devolve into horde mode shooting galleries, and the final boss battle was a trifle anticlimactic - but it was a bloody brilliant game nonetheless, and I relished the time I spent with it.
9/10.
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Post by uiruki on Jan 2, 2023 20:24:10 GMT
1. Lost Judgment - PC - 5/5Second run through, still enjoyed it as much if not more than first time around. The PC version started out OK but improved with patches; 60fps video cutscenes and DLSS being added were highlights. After being unsatisfied by the rendition of Shibuya in Ghostwire Tokyo, I'm even more impressed at the way that RGG Studio manage to compress the cities they use as settings: keeping the general topography, landmarks and nature of the streets while making it more compact. Steam Deck report: A great game for the system. Medium detail or so plus FSR gave me a good 40fps, with a bit of a drop when moving through Yokohama in particular. If you're willing to lose some more detail 60 isn't out of the question, especially in Kamurocho, and I found myself swapping to it in longer cutscenes to benefit from those smoother prerendered scenes. I played about 15 hours of it across two intercontinental plane trips and it made the time pass extremely quickly.
2. Chop Goblins - PC - 4/5
A cheep and cheerful miniature FPS campaign from the man behind Dusk. Very short - you'll play through the first time in an hour or so - but full of personality and the level designs have a surprising amount of variety, the guns are fun to shoot, and I appreciated the relative lack of Serious Sam-style enemy ambushes when you pick up items which seem so common nowadays. I think I'll come back to this for a full run through now and then to go for a better score.
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Tuffty
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Post by Tuffty on Jan 3, 2023 1:57:56 GMT
Signalis - 9/10
An old school survival horror game that takes a lot of inspiration from other games, film and literature. One shot is literally taken from Ghost in the Shell. But rather than just straight rip off, it wears the inspirations proudly while still managing to weave an engaging setting and dreamlike narrative. The gameplay forces you to make some hard choices concerning ammo conservation and item resource management for navigating environments and puzzle solving that's very classic survival horror. All while having a low poly, high resolution look that I really liked. It does a lot of world building but is purposefully obtuse in a lot of ways. If you need it, the main narrative thread can be easily understood and enjoyed while you get taken along for the ride. Overall a bit of a triumph considering it was made primarily by 2 people.
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malek86
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Post by malek86 on Jan 3, 2023 14:49:37 GMT
Marathon 2: Durandal (PC)
Well, it's been improved. The shooting feels better, dual wielding shotguns is amazing (if only they gave you a bit more ammo), and level design is not as frustrating, or at least, not as often. Less platforming and more variety in enviroments is also nice, and the game is a bit on the shorter side, making it easier to get through.
Unfortunately it still retains the biggest of the original's issues: save points are pretty far apart, and you won't even get an auto-save at the start of a new level. It then adds a couple of its own. There is one too many levels where you gotta swim around, which is not that good when the physics are... the way they are. And the story is just mumbo-jumbo for sci-fi nerds, it's not exactly difficult to follow, but you can already see Bungie's penchant for throwing random alien words wherever they please, as if people should easily remember all that. Also, why no music? That just sucks.
Still, decent fun. The next game, Infinity, has a reputation for being very hard and very mind-screwy... we'll see about that soon.
As usual, the Aleph One engine is mandatory for comfort. This one is also on XBLA, but people keep complaining of motion sickness. Had no such problems on PC myself.
7/10
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askew
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Post by askew on Jan 3, 2023 16:13:48 GMT
Pentiment: 8/10
Finished the last couple of acts this morning and was left mostly satisified. Lovely art, music, and typography. I enjoyed playing this on my phone some evenings thanks to Xbox Cloud Gaming, though had to use the accessibility settings to bump the text up a few notches.
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