Tomo
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Post by Tomo on Jan 21, 2023 21:56:22 GMT
Otherwise it's available on Humble Choice atm, plus Olli Olli World and some others!
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Post by RadicalRex on Jan 21, 2023 23:13:01 GMT
Speaking of key giveaways, do we have a thread for that like on EG? I just got a spare Steam key for Supraland Six Inches Under from a current Humble Bundle
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Post by Aunt Alison on Jan 21, 2023 23:31:32 GMT
There's a bargains thread somewhere
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Post by Chopper on Jan 22, 2023 6:43:43 GMT
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Post by RadicalRex on Jan 22, 2023 12:59:17 GMT
Thanks, appreciated!
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Tuffty
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Post by Tuffty on Jan 22, 2023 23:38:03 GMT
Plague Tale Requiem - 8/10
I had high expectations after the first game from 2019 and was happy to see they were met and at this moment I think I prefer over the original. To address some complaints of how limiting the stealth felt in the first game, they've built out the stealth sections to be grander, giving you more options and paths to explore while also giving you more tools to handle situations. They also give you 1 chance to get caught without reprecussion, but I think it kind of looks silly. Getting caught means a guard just headbutts you while also giving you the time to retalitate or escape. It's a bit implausible giving the brutal unforgiving nature of the world you're in. When not in stealth mode you're solving environmental puzzles to progress or doing the ol walk and talk.
Luckily the environments you're in look absolutely stunning. The game shows you the most gorgeous looking settings while also contrasting with some horrific sights, truly the best and worst this world has to offer but it all looks fantastic. Character models look stunning too, was frequenly using photo mode every few mins. The soundtrack can be evocative and hauntingly atmospheric in equal measure just like the first too. I played the game in French to add some authenticity and I thought it was well acted on it's own, but I understand the English dub is also fantastic.
Easy recommend for anyone looking for a compelling grimdark narrative.
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LTK
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Post by LTK on Jan 22, 2023 23:52:49 GMT
Scorn. Absolutely fascinating. Took about five hours and every moment of combat was awful, and would have been even if my framerate didn't tank every time I hit an enemy with my weapon. The lengths that they go to for this nightmarish experience are impressive. At some point you have to kill three demon babies and put them under a hydraulic press that crushes them into paste. Each crushing-baby-into-paste action has a unique animation, like one time you'll see their eyes bulge out and another time they'll end up face down. They went through special effort to make it look a different kind of fucked up each time, which is admirable in its own way.
All the environmental puzzles are basic 'find key for lock' or 'get thing from point A to point B by pressing the right buttons' stuff, which is quite pleasant given how shit the combat is and how impressive the organic-industrial machinery. You're moving forward seemingly with no sense of purpose, so there's not really any story to speak of beyond the fucked up things that happen to you in the process, yet that aspect was easily the most captivating to me. They could have easily made this a game that was like "ooh look at this spooky Giger architecture and gory violence" that wasn't actually more than surface-level disturbing but they did manage to go beyond that, as much as that's possible without characters, dialogue, or anything resembling forethought actions. Worth suffering through the combat for that, especially as it's so short.
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Post by ToomuchFluffy on Jan 23, 2023 19:07:25 GMT
Another short one: Far - Lone Sails. Slightly longer than three hours. Still felt a bit too long and with a few too many obstacles in the way, but overall it did flow fairly well. Good music and art and it has a number of fairly effective moments. Weather is implemented well too and the physics make the landship feel like a proper vehicle in various ways. It doesn't really manage to feel like your home as you really just keep moving forward and improving it, but otherwise the journey is quite good. The slightly puzzly bits, the interaction with the various mechanics of the landship and the weather keep things varied at a quickly changing pace.
I think I might give Changing Tides a try as well sooner or later.
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Post by kilters on Jan 26, 2023 10:10:27 GMT
Half Life: Alyx
What an incredible experience. It really is a masterclass in game design. So many moments stand out.
I used an Oculus Quest 2 over airlink and although not the best way to play, it was a pretty flawless experience. I preferred continuous movement as opposed to teleporting and that initially made me slightly queasy but after 3 or so hours felt totally fine. The Quest 2 battery life of 2 hours kept my sessions reasonably short which helped.
10/10
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lukasz
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Post by lukasz on Jan 26, 2023 10:55:33 GMT
25ish hours by today's standards is not that long really and I'm not sure skill has ever been a requirement for a Zelda game
Last time I played OoT was the 3DS remake and loved it
Yeah. 25h seems pretty short for adventure rpgs these days. But if a lot of it is waiting and repetitive gameplay it might feel longer compared to something like kotor game (22h) or witcher 2 (35h).
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Post by ToomuchFluffy on Jan 26, 2023 16:56:12 GMT
Was Kotor so much shorter than Kotor2?
I have finished The light keeps us safe (7 hours), which is another stealth game by Big Robot, the people behind Sir, you are being hunted and The Signal from Tölva. It came out a few years ago and has absolutely no reviews on Metacritic for some reason*.
Anyway, stealth isn't really my genre, but I got to grips with it well enough and the dark atmosphere and some of the enemy designs were good enough to mostly keep me engaged. There was a bit too much McGuffin collecting in dangerous locations for my liking, but it's kind of difficult to fault the game for that, as the maps seem to be procedurally generated.
There isn't much story unfortunately. Still, new maps always mixed up things a bit, so that things stayed interesting. Overall it seems quite simple, but they are a pretty small team.
*The game is so famous that the Big Robot article on en.wikipedia somehow just leaves a hole in between Tölva and Sir Reinvented.
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richyroo
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Post by richyroo on Jan 28, 2023 12:11:45 GMT
Final Fantasy VII Remake (2nd playthrough)
I was a little disappointed on my 1st playthrough with what they had done to the story beats and the fact that it didn't follow the exact path of the original. It also didn't help when I was nearing the end of the 1st playthrough it was getting late so I tried to push through (turns out I still had a few hours to go due to how the story differed). This all left a sour taste in my mouth.
So I went into the 2nd playthrough with an open mind and knowing what to expect. I embraced the changes this time round and treated the game as a sequel. I thoroughly enjoyed it this time round and appreciate the changes that they made. Its a shame my 1st playthrough was tarnished because of my expectations of the game and not knowing what to expect. I am glad I have somewhat rectified that now.
Now got the Yuffie DLC to play for the first time. Also very much looking forward to its sequel now.
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Post by Aunt Alison on Jan 28, 2023 12:43:46 GMT
Completed the main story in Fallout 3 and they really hamfisted the ending with the Broken Steel DLC For some reason, the game chastises you for choosing not to die pointlessly and having the character who can survive in radiation go into the radiation Also, as soon as I activated the DLC, Three Dog took that as a sign to start broadcasting spoilers across the wasteland I had returned to my playthrough (actually wasn't that far from the end) to try and gauge if I wanted to try New Vegas or Fallout 4 but it hasn't really helped
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Post by ToomuchFluffy on Jan 28, 2023 13:17:07 GMT
New Vegas is a bit broken/unfinished in a number of ways, but the worldbuilding is much better and dialogue reactivity is more present. On top of that there are more weapons, there is faction reactivity and character development is a bit more interesting.
Fallout 3 and FNV both have the problem that levels are gained very fast. At least personally I always start to lose motivation once I have my first two or three skills fairly high. The jsawyer-mod helps with that in case you care about that. It does a number of things, among them slowing down character progression.
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Post by Aunt Alison on Jan 28, 2023 18:25:26 GMT
Yeah, the pacing is quite poor. I've finished the main campaign and done a few side quests but not that many and I'm level 21, basically just filling out secondary skills now. Got a Plasma Rifle, over 1000 cells, Power Armour and 15000 caps or something like that. There isn't really anything left in terms of character growth. There isn't really anything I need to buy at this point either
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Tomo
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Post by Tomo on Jan 28, 2023 23:00:35 GMT
Half Life: Alyx What an incredible experience. It really is a masterclass in game design. So many moments stand out. I used an Oculus Quest 2 over airlink and although not the best way to play, it was a pretty flawless experience. I preferred continuous movement as opposed to teleporting and that initially made me slightly queasy but after 3 or so hours felt totally fine. The Quest 2 battery life of 2 hours kept my sessions reasonably short which helped. 10/10 Yeah, it's phenomenal experience. With plenty of moments up there with the best of the series.
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lukasz
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Post by lukasz on Jan 29, 2023 7:10:08 GMT
Was Kotor so much shorter than Kotor2? Don't remember kotor 2 gameplay length, i think it is longer but kotor 1 took me 27h when doing most of the stuff. Single playthrough, mostly at easy pace and I am slow gamer. So I think for most it's 20 to 25h game. Jade empire 29h according to steam, single playthrough with most side quests done. The bioware games at that time are not very long games. Mass effect 1 is much bigger but it still is only 35h game. Now rpgs are giant and have dozens of quests and open world and you need weeks to complete them.
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Post by ToomuchFluffy on Jan 29, 2023 14:28:54 GMT
True, sometimes it's nice to play something shorter like the Shadowrun-games or Alpha Protocol, which are also more 20+ or so.
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Post by Wizzard_Ook on Jan 29, 2023 16:59:30 GMT
Xenoblade Chronicles 3.
Really good. One of the best JRPGS I have ever played. Its storytelling is up there with the very best, creating a rich and interesting world with characters that quickly win you over. It's nice to know that even though I've been gaming for over 25 years, games still have the ability to floor me. I felt at times over the last couple of years I may just be out growing gaming, but this reminded me why I still love it. Its narrative has such a interesting concept -its starts out musing over will, life and death as the world's inhabitants only live a brief 10 years which they spend battling an opposing force (for eternity) but the way the game sets its self up - by the end of chapter 5 and the start of six, it has evolved into a story of two star crossed lovers that works on so many different levels because the game has done all the hard work before hand. It reaches such a high, it actually makes the last two chapters kind of feel redundant. It's that good. Very few games have moved me like this did and its sticks out as an obvious high in my time gaming. It doesn't quite have the legs to carry on with the final 15 hours of the game, with it doing just enough to kind of square things up but I would have been very happy if it had finished there. It just feels a bit, yup this is a gaming/jrpg story after that. Otherwise, Its one of the few games I have seeked out side quests - games have got so much better in tying them into the main narrative and this is probably one of the best at doing that - you have side quests that revolve around the needs of the world as usual but also Hero quests which are used to further explore your rag tag band of characters and the world the live in. Because the storytelling is so good, and how integral the hero quests feel to the overall experience I just wanted to seek as many as I could. They're really good.
Gameplay wise, it's typical jrpg affair. Travelling from one place to the next to carry on the story. The world looks stunning - and shows there still life in the switch yet, and the battle system whilst, seemingly complicated with a lot of systems to toy around with (and loads more continually added throughout)is there for you to go as deep as you wish - you can get by, by doing the basics but if you wish you can set up your party, limit breaks, classes etc to your hearts content. There is a lot to tinker with if you want. Its kind of messy, especially in presentation , but once you got the basics down (And if you played previous XC titles its not much of a issue) you can just go out with a standard party and make sure you break, topple and daze enemies. You do get used to everything thrown at you, it does feel overwhelming at times, but you always reach a point where you are tearing up enemy forces and its really satisfying to see health bars loses significant chunks.
Yeah. Top stuff.
5/5
Now to read up on the links to the previous games (you don't need to have played the previous games, its mostly feels like Final Fantasy in that its a new story, new characters, but there are 'cinematic universe' levels of tidbits that make it much more interesting if you have played the other two. It's only nods and theres no real obvious links till the very last, so yeah its fine to play without playing the other two. Took me 60 hours, but still got a lot to see and do.
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Red_Bool
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Post by Red_Bool on Jan 29, 2023 17:56:23 GMT
Nier:Automata Playing on Switch.
I only got ending A, so ok, not really "completed". Consider this a status update. So far I have mixed feelings about this one.
Good: - Story
- Characters
- World
- Wackiness
- Gameplay, when it works, is awesome
- Gameplay variety
Bad: - Camera - Really struggling with this, often it was a battle with the camera because you simply could not see/track enemies. Incredibly frustrating at times.
- Controls - Sometimes I really wondered if this was play-tested at all. One thing that was really annoying was the sliding in the desert: You want to talk to an NPC but you keep sliding all over the place. Also, targeting enemies is hit and miss (ha!), often locking on the wrong enemy or even wildlife walking around.
- Button-mashing wins almost every boss fight
- Overly-long boss fights (see also button-mashing)
- Insta-death - Only one section, but enough to make me curse out loud because the controls were also not helping there
I'm continuing with the next play-through, because part of me is curious to see what happens since almost everyone says this game is supposed to be super-amazing-awesome. So far, I'm not convinced. Intermediate score: 7/10
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malek86
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Pomegranate Deseeder
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Post by malek86 on Jan 29, 2023 20:26:29 GMT
I would suggest going down to easy difficulty, if you haven't already done so. Later enemies are horrendously damage-spongey, so it's better if they die faster. And there's no penalty at all for dropping to easy.
Besides, if you want to see the true ending, you are... nowhere finished yet. It's still a while to go really. I didn't like the game much, but I think the final route is worth it, so it would be a shame to get tired of the game before then.
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Post by Chopper on Jan 29, 2023 20:41:48 GMT
Phew, heading away this week so was trying to get Neoverse finished and just snuck in under the wire - completed the 'campaign' with all 3 characters. The campaign is only 15 battles, which get easier as you unlock cards and abilities, all the usual stuff for a Slay the Spire-alike.
Good game, quite enjoyable. Lots more to do if I want to engage with the advanced levels. I got it in the steam sale for 2.50 or so, and then I noticed that I had it in a humble bundle, so I assume this key wasn't redeemed if anyone wants it:
Edit: seems I already gave it away to someone on this forum, sorry!
Shambles
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Red_Bool
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Post by Red_Bool on Jan 30, 2023 10:09:30 GMT
I would suggest going down to easy difficulty, if you haven't already done so. Later enemies are horrendously damage-spongey, so it's better if they die faster. And there's no penalty at all for dropping to easy. Besides, if you want to see the true ending, you are... nowhere finished yet. It's still a while to go really. I didn't like the game much, but I think the final route is worth it, so it would be a shame to get tired of the game before then. Thanks! I'll drop it to easy then (I already got the impression that enemies were more spongey this time round). So far it's different enough to keep me interested.
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Post by baihu1983 on Jan 30, 2023 15:41:56 GMT
Hi-Fi Rush
Just a really fun game that also looks amazing. It's near perfect
9/10
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Post by simple on Jan 30, 2023 23:50:30 GMT
Mass Effect Legendary Edition
Incredible package and a lot better experience than I remember the trilogy being on 360. It looks fantastic, plays great, sounds brilliant and the unity of experience they’ve established across the three games works so well.
Plus the storytelling and characters are arguably the best a western rpg has ever managed.
10/10
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 31, 2023 0:22:28 GMT
Yeah. Honestly, as high quality and ambitious as CD Projekt Red’s games are, to this day, no one has matched that era of Bioware when it comes to writing and characters, IMO. Eidos Montreal has come close when it comes to the narrative of their Deus Ex games, but the characters are nowhere near as fleshed out or memorable. Guardians of the Galaxy was a step in the right direction though.
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Post by simple on Jan 31, 2023 9:29:14 GMT
I made a note of how long it took me to complete each game along the way and even on a fairly completionist playthrough it still managed to achieve all of that in 30, 40 and 42 hours. You could probably knock 5-10 hours off each of those if it were just the original base games pre-dlc.
They’re astonishingly low fat games considering how much content and character they pack.
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Quasi
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Post by Quasi on Jan 31, 2023 14:49:48 GMT
Just checked my Steam playtime for ME2 and you're right: 30 hours and change. Kinda funny I've been hesitant to install the LE and finally play the whole trilogy since it feels like such a huge endeavor.
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Post by Samildanach on Feb 2, 2023 18:09:14 GMT
Dark Souls 3 has taken up most of my gaming time recently, but I have managed to get in a good bit of time with the following shmups released in October and November of 1991:
Xexex (Arcade Archives) Oct Great to see this now available on the always reliable Arcade Archives line. This is a great horizontal Gradius/R-Type mash-up from Konami. The Japanese region version is the one to play as there are many poor changes and hence imbalanced gameplay in the Western region version. I have played it a lot before on the PSP's Salamander Collection, but it is even better on the big screen with good visuals, a decent soundtrack and clever gameplay as you work out how best to use your 'tentacle force'. Bit of a classic.
Super Earth Defence Force (Snes) Oct This is the Snes/Super Famicom version and is different enough to the arcade release to be considered its own game. Stage 1 is once again set in the clouds, but with different and arguably harder enemies. Stage 2 is again the city, but without the deliberately blurred background and also is missing the massive ship. From now on the changes get more dramatic with stage 3 being a water cave rather than a lava based one & using the music and boss from the arcade's sea-based stage 4. Stage 4 then has you flying in space towards an impressive space colony before facing a brand new and difficult boss. In Stage 5 you gradually approach a planetoid, mostly in Shadow, descend towards the lights of a city, beat a rubbish boss and enter the final stage which is a mash-up of the arcade's fifth level set in a base and last part of the sixth which is another base. Throw in a brand new, weird-looking and incredibly brutal true final boss and you have a pretty decent shmup worth playing even if you have already rinsed the arcade original (or vice versa too)
Gradius (PC Engine) Nov A very good port of the '85 original, with an added level set in a graveyard of huge beasts. The difficulty is slightly lower than the arcade thanks to copious amounts of slowdown and less bullets coming your way. The slowdown could still shaft me unfortunately as once the screen starts to clear, normal speed quickly resumes sending me slamming into a wall if I was not careful. Despite that, the extra level and better music make it a very enjoyable port of an admittedly ancient game.
Code Zero (X68000) Nov A Raiden-clone so vertically scrolling, sniper tanks and brutal difficulty as well as levels starting in generic Earth backgrounds before apparently heading into space. I didn't get very far (stage 3) before giving up, mainly due to the X68K emulator having no save state option to practice and my patience with always starting from stage 1 wears thin more quickly these days. Add in a the fact that you return to a pea-shooter when you die making it a one life clear game in reality and this was one that comprehensively beat me. The music is absolutely banging though (a selling point of many X68000 games compared to their contemporaries I gather).
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Ulythium
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Post by Ulythium on Feb 4, 2023 21:00:50 GMT
Dragon Age: Inquisition.
After a bit of a rough start, I really enjoyed this one.
Although I've never played them myself, I know there's something of a schism in the Dragon Age fanbase as to which game was better, Origins or 2; as I understand it, Inquisition was BioWare's attempt at creating a "best of both worlds" scenario, and while I don't know how that endeavour fared, the game was a lot of fun when judged solely on its own merits.
Writing, world-building, characterisation, RPG elements... pretty much everything I loved in the Mass Effect trilogy was here, just in a fantasy setting instead of a sci-fi one. Even the combat, not regarded as the game's strong suit, turned out to be a lot better than I'd feared. (Here's hoping I'll be able to say the same thing about The Witcher 3 in due course!)
As with Mass Effect, I tended to stick with the party members I liked while ignoring those about whom I wasn't all that bothered, so I probably missed a lot of content by failing to try different combinations.
I also left one region of the map completely unexplored, as I wasn't about to grind out 20 Power in order to unlock it - although I was having a great time, I know from experience how quickly AAA open-world fatigue can set in, and I was happy to wrap things up around the 44 hour mark before I started to get bored.
The War Table mechanic was cool, although I get Molar's complaints about the plethora of fetch quests you actually undertake (while delegating more interesting content to Leliana, Josephine, or Cullen). As for the timed nature of these missions, I was less enthusiastic there (although at least you weren't offered the opportunity to fast-forward the countdown clocks in exchange for real money).
This may be heretical, but I think I enjoyed DA:I as much as Skyrim.
8.5/10.
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