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2018 VIDEO GAME CATCH-ALL THREAD


SirSmUgly

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Mr Freeze in City, and the Flying Firebug from origins. Two exceptional boss fights.

 

Echoing the love for Nioh. I fear I may not be very good at souls-like games, as it took my up to two weeks and a complete rebuild of my character (from dual katanas and Kusarigami to katana and spear builds) to beat the Onryoki - those words will make sense to people who've played the game, honest.

 

This year, I shall mostly be playing steep, KH 1.5 and 2.5 remix, as well as Hunter, call of the wild on pc. Maybe some of the psplus free games as well.

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7 hours ago, Cliff Hanger said:

Mr. Freeze in City is one of the greatest boss fights in modern gaming. I can understand why some dislike the game as a whole, even though I may disagree, but that sequence makes it all worthwhile.

The thing that is great about that boss fight is you use every single gadget at some point during the fight. It's almost a Zelda-like boss battle in its approach. For whatever reason, Rocksteady really spent a lot of time with that battle. 

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beat my first game of 2018. Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker for the Wii-U. Got it for X-Mas from the wife's family. Simple concept and pretty great in execution. Has enough level design quirks to keep it interesting. 100% the story mode.  it opened up a second quest, which i haven't played yet, so i guess the journey continues.

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Been laid up since Friday and took advantage of the PS sale and bought Firewatch and The Witness. I was warned Firewatch was pretty short, but since I have no since of direction and got lost way too much even with a map, I feel l got my money's worth.  It was weird how honest and real the female dialogue was and how phony and fake the male's sounded.  I really felt like I was hearing from an actual person through some of it.  Would not have been worth full price, but definitely worth the $8.

I bought The Witness Sunday and I have had a love-hate with it.  It's fun at times and fucking frustrating as shit at times to the point where I've said "fuck this" at least once a day.  I've been about ready to give up on it because I was stuck for hours looking for a missing piece of the puzzle....and the answer was there in my face the whole damn time.  And that was my breakthrough.  And I totally get it.  Now I LOVE this game.  It's $10 I think for another week.  Absolute no brainer.

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I have finally gotten a toon through the new Titan Quest DLC. It's huge, feels almost the same size as Act I (Greece) but without the space completely devoid of content. There's a neat twist to the story, too, that turns your heroics back onto you. Definitely recommend if you love old school hack and slash and sweet, sweet loot. 

So that toon is starting on Epic difficulty, and I'm slowly working on my first magic entered character on normal. What, this is completely normal, I have no idea what you're talking about.

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It took me awhile to remember what the Mr. Freeze boss battle actually was in Arkham City, but yeah, that was creative. Not a fan of the game overall, but that was definitely the best boss fight in the 2+ Arkham games that I played. Asylum's weakest part is the boss battles.

I bought Oxenfree a few weeks ago and tried to get through it, but it's not good. It's got Life Is Strange-level awful dialogue except with worse voice acting than that game. When the gameplay basically is about talking to people (when you're not looking for rips in the time-space continuum), this means that I'm just going to have to abandon this thing. Yeesh. I had hopes for it since one of the writers worked on TWAU. 

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2 hours ago, Smelly McUgly said:

I bought Oxenfree a few weeks ago and tried to get through it, but it's not good. It's got Life Is Strange-level awful dialogue except with worse voice acting than that game. When the gameplay basically is about talking to people (when you're not looking for rips in the time-space continuum), this means that I'm just going to have to abandon this thing. Yeesh. I had hopes for it since one of the writers worked on TWAU. 

Huh, funnily enough it made me realise that not enough games do “normal” stuff well, as not one conversation in the game felt forced or daft which is a first for video games.

Amazed no one has optioned it for a movie after success of Stranger Things!

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Well after 120 hours of game-play I've finally beaten The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel.  I think as a whole it's a really good RPG, it does have some flaws; foremost is the FFX/FFXIII corridor layout  of maps/dungeons.  This is not a game where you're going to be able to wander about, every map is simply Point A to Point B and if there is any side areas, it's only to hide away a treasure chest or boss.  Now given how most of the game is mission based and you can fast travel to most places, you never really get the feeling of running back and forth over the same map continuously.

This leads to the other major issue: Not being able to go back to locations from previous chapters.  You're introduced to various towns and  locales, all populated with interesting characters and countless amounts of dialogue.   But once you've beaten a chapter in the game you never go back, which kind of hurts the chance for more interactions.  Maybe because this is the first in a trilogy they want to keep from over-exposing people and places and we'll get more of them later, but it does seem like a waste from a stand-alone game perspective.

And that's the final gripe right there:  This game really feels like part one of a series.  The big plot hook comes at the last part of the game, you basically get two big fights and then it's see you next time Space Cowboy.  Now that's not to say there haven't been plenty of other games that were part of planned series where that wasn't an issue; it's just you get cliffhanged so badly it kind of ends the game on a bit of a downer.

So with all those gripes out of the way THIS GAME IS REALLY ENJOYABLE.  This game's strengths is the depth given to all of it's characters.  The main characters start out very basic, but as the game progresses so do the characters and by the end of the game you find yourself attached to all the members of Class VII.  What's even more impressive is that effort was also put into the NPCs.  That's right the usual cardboard cut-outs that say things like "I like swords" get their own growth throughout the game.  Off the top of my head the feud between to business-minded students is a blast as you watch them try to one up each other throughout the game.  It's not like they play a major part in anything, yet they still get their own character arc.  For the first time I found myself talking to everyone to see what new little tidbits or quirky characters I might find.

The combat was also enjoyable.  It was turn-based with an order turn, allowing more strategy in interrupting/stun locking opponents to get through combat unscathed.  Also you get XP bonuses for identifying mobs/multi kills/ending battles fast, so if you do more then just press attack you can find yourself racking up the XP.  And achieving that is simple with Orbment skill system the game has.  Think of it as FFX's sphere grid, but where you get to choose what skills/stat buffs you want for each slot; though some slots require a certain element.  The added benefit is that there is no real class system, so you can simply take the characters you like and make them whatever class of character you want.  It helps to reduce the feelinggy of being stuck with an annoying character because they're they only one of a certain class you have.

So yeah in the end this game was really fun, it's one I want to eventually go back and try to get some of the stuff I missed and to get better bonuses for when Part 2 comes out; which is a rare case for me (the Mass Effect trilogy were the last ones where I went back and played multiple times for stuff).  If you're looking for a RPG with some real meat on it in terms of characters and world building, this is the game.

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Snow day today, so I've been trying to get Aquaman's movie armor quest done in Injustice and trying (and failing) to learn Enchantress.  She's pretty frustrating, not least because her vertical bounce (forward and X on PS4 or A on Xbone) doesn't work the way that every other character's does.  She drops a Monty Python foot out of the sky to stomp them which causes the bounce, but it's not something that can really be combo'd because it's too far in front of her.  Also, i just fucking hate the movie version of Enchantress compared to the Suicide Squad/Shadowpact comics version.

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SF5's arcade mode is weird and interesting.  There are six paths, one for each major branch of SF (1-5 and Alpha), and for the most part characters are only playable in branches they'd already canonically appeared in.  However, since 1 only has Ken, Ryu and Birdie (with Sagat coming) and 3 doesn't fare much better, they shoehorned in a few extras.  The SF1 path has Zeku (Guy's ninja master and the first Strider) and Balrog (who now appears to have been fully merged with the SF1 boxer Mike); 3 has Kolin (Urien's sidekick) and Laura (Sean's older brother).  So far, the game finally feels like something I can chill out to the way I do Injustice or MKX rather than having to fully invest in getting my ass kicked in online, and for that I'm grateful.

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There seems to be enough forum interest in the Dark Souls Remaster that around when it comes out I will post a semi-guide thing split into both non-spoilery and spoilery stuff that should help people out that never actually beat the original. Now watch them fuck up and change everything and ruin my work.

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On 1/16/2018 at 8:02 PM, Michael Sweetser said:

I decided to tackle the South Park games when I saw Fractured But Whole would get me Stick of Truth as well.  Started Stick of Truth last night, and WOW, this is a ton of fun.  Everything saying it was basically a 14-hour episode were accurate.  

I haven't spent time on FBW yet but  Stick of Truth is pretty fun. I haven't gotten too far along into it but I have a ton of items that i can sell for $$$ and should be able to upgrade to any of the weapons/outfits etc.  With the amount of extra time FBW took I am really looking forward to diving into it when I get the time. 

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beat my 2nd game of 2018. This time it's another Wii-U game i got for X-Mas, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. Total playtime was 12 hours, 9 minutes and i finished with 69% completion. That is definitely good enough for me. There's some hidden levels i didn't unlock, so i'll probably eventually try to go thru those, but i'm not really a 100%er, so i don't stress over it.

I feel like this game was very uneven. My favorite levels were the straightforward platformers. My least favorite were the levels that relied on the Rocket Barrel (FUCK YOU ROCKET BARREL!)  A few of the boss fights gave me a good challenge (read: high frustration level!) but they're pretty straightforward in what you need to do to succeed.

If anybody is debating picking this up for its upcoming Switch re-release, i say go for it! You can't go wrong with DKC.

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25 years of playing fighting games almost entirely alone has given me such bad habits, it's no wonder I do so poorly online. (SF5's questionable netcode isn't helping, but I suck at all of them). I've learned the strategies that work against an input-reading CPU player instead of the ones that work in a real match. I'm reading a little and trying to correct that on SF5 and IJ2, but I may be too old to ever get out of the beginners' brackets.

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Bought Hyper Light Drifter, but it feels very much like the kind of thing I won't want to discuss or have discussed in my direction until I finish it because it appears so totally designed to be a game that is explored, not explained to you first. I'm relatively blind beyond one trailer, like 5 minutes at the start of the game to see what it's about, and hearing other people say "this is good".

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DRAGON QUEST 6 [3]
This has been a weird one. They have an excellent premise but they cannot seem to commit to the full existential horror of it. In modern times, I bet this game would have hit like a fucking cannon. As it is, it's a game with a good premise and good characters and a really, really bad plot. Like, one of the fixtures of the game is a fortune teller, because the game does a VERY bad job of establishing what you're supposed to do next, so every time you finish some major quest and you talk to people outside of town, without fail one of your party members says "Hey let's go visit Madame Now What" and it's just irritating. At the same time, this is the first game by the team that would go on to create 7, which is at this point my favorite Dragon Quest, and you can see some of those elements in here already- the jobs, the central hub, the willingness to fuck with the nature of reality. So far, it's just kind of making me want to finish it so I can get to 8. Or maybe just restart 7. I don't know. It's fine. It's slightly better than average.

STREET FIGHTER 5 SEASON 3 [i dont know how to rate this]
I tend to play this game with one person, and that one person's character has been nerfed to oblivion, so this is finally my chance to make up ground and become a Street Fighter Player that can exist in a place other than Getting My Ass Kicked 10-0 Against Akuma. I'm drilling charge timing again for when they put Blanka out, because Blanka is my guy.

MONSTER HUNTER WORLD BETA[n/a]
I cleared 3 out of 4 monsters, and yo, this game is gonna be Fucking Great. I'm so, so excited. Playing Monster Hunter with a full controller on a screen larger than a debit card is just a gift, and I am going to treasure it. I'm currently between weapon types because while I am loyal to the Hunting Horn, the Horn that's in the beta is not exactly amazing. This is in direct contrast with the other weapons I tried, like the Sword And Shield which is now IMMENSELY fucked up for some reason. It's possible that I just suck shit with the horn now, but, it needs more experimenting to know for sure.

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5 hours ago, Lamp, broken circa 1988 said:

DRAGON QUEST 6 [3]
This has been a weird one. They have an excellent premise but they cannot seem to commit to the full existential horror of it. In modern times, I bet this game would have hit like a fucking cannon. As it is, it's a game with a good premise and good characters and a really, really bad plot. Like, one of the fixtures of the game is a fortune teller, because the game does a VERY bad job of establishing what you're supposed to do next, so every time you finish some major quest and you talk to people outside of town, without fail one of your party members says "Hey let's go visit Madame Now What" and it's just irritating. At the same time, this is the first game by the team that would go on to create 7, which is at this point my favorite Dragon Quest, and you can see some of those elements in here already- the jobs, the central hub, the willingness to fuck with the nature of reality. So far, it's just kind of making me want to finish it so I can get to 8. Or maybe just restart 7. I don't know. It's fine. It's slightly better than average.

Yeah I enjoyed VI, but I didn't recall it managing a memorable story at all.

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As I feared, LOST SPHEAR is getting ripped pretty hard in reviews.  Apparently instead of building on what they did in I AM SETSUNA, they just churned out a knockoff of their own game, complete with reskinned assets.

Sigh.  

I'll probably still play it at some point, becaus I gotta get my retro-JRPG fix from time to time, but I ain't paying full price for it.

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