Andrew POE! Posted February 4, 2022 Share Posted February 4, 2022 The thing I heard about Gears 5 is how much of it is a response to Horizon: Zero Dawn & God of War (2018). If it weren't attached to Gears of War and was a wholly different game, I could see it being a multiplatform game and being on the PS5. Strangely enough, Gears 5 & Forza Horizon 5 make me want a Xbox Series X. Just can't find one.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swift Posted February 4, 2022 Share Posted February 4, 2022 Absolutely loved when Keith Flint shows up in Essex in AC: Valhalla. Not included in the video but there's a note in the location too that says something about his pet cat Charly saying Meow. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A.M.B. Posted February 4, 2022 Share Posted February 4, 2022 (edited) Been in limbo the past few weeks just twiddling my thumbs for Elden Ring, decided to give Spider-Man 2018 a go since I’ve heard good things and found it on sale for 15 bucks. Looks like a short enough game that I’ll be able to finish in time for the big kahuna at the end of the month. In many ways it represents everything I detest about modern game, it’s essentially just a giant checklist where the gameplay isn’t very challenging, so I constantly have tons of extra skill points lying around without feeling much need to use them. And then there’s the constant quick time events which always end up in me failing the mission when I think a cutscene is a safe time to have a drink or check my phone. Then you gotta retry them a few times just to figure out what the stupid button prompts even mean. God I’m so tired of the quick time events. And yet… I’m actually really enjoying it. Web swinging across the city is probably the most addictive form of traversing I’ve experienced in an open world game, to where I’d rather just take the long route than fast travel. Combat isn’t difficult but there’s always enough going on to keep me engaged. I also don’t really care for superheros or Marvel movies but am finding myself engaged in the stories despite the corny dialogue. It’s also kinda funny to see in this game and other superhero movies how reliant the fight scenes are on pro wrestling moves like headscissor takedowns and reverse-ranas. I probably haven’t played more than 10 hours and it looks like I’m about halfway through, so I think I’ll actually be able to complete it. I know with other checklist games I’ve played like Assassins Creed Odyssey and Ghost of Tsushima, 20 hours in is where I hit the burnout point. Also just picked up Hades for really cheap. Rogue-likes don’t really appeal to me, but I know that’s what everyone says before playing this one, so I’m excited for a new potential time dump. Edited February 4, 2022 by A.M.B. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew POE! Posted February 5, 2022 Share Posted February 5, 2022 Got my 247th Platinum trophy with Eat Lead: Return of Matt Hazard. I ended up doing two separate playthroughs and got the majority of the trophies on the first playthrough and then did the Maximum Hazard difficulty on the second playthrough for the Platinum. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Wilson Posted February 7, 2022 Share Posted February 7, 2022 After playing it for about ten hours, I think the Pokémon Legends: Arceus graphics discourse was overblown. Full disclosure: in general I am not as picky about graphics as some, the "clipping" and weird graphics shit in games like Cyberpunk never bothered me and I play a lot of games that don't have high end graphics. But I really think the graphics in Pokémon are *fine* and don't detract from the gameplay. Which I am enjoying a lot. I am not sure if I could ever go back to a regular Pokémon game after playing this as I was already getting tired of that formula and this way is so much more fun. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLSigman Posted February 7, 2022 Share Posted February 7, 2022 Not exactly video games, but.... Since yesterday morning, every time I try to load any page on Twitter.com it comes up blank. Whether that's Twitter, their help pages, Tweetdeck, individual tweets, everything. I've ctl-F5'd everything multiple times, closed and reopened FireFox multiple times, and rebooted the machine this morning. No change. Is anyone else having this issue? I saw some messages about it on sites like "Is it down".com, but no articles, nothing widespread. But also no updates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casey Posted February 7, 2022 Share Posted February 7, 2022 1 minute ago, JLSigman said: Not exactly video games, but.... Since yesterday morning, every time I try to load any page on Twitter.com it comes up blank. Whether that's Twitter, their help pages, Tweetdeck, individual tweets, everything. I've ctl-F5'd everything multiple times, closed and reopened FireFox multiple times, and rebooted the machine this morning. No change. Is anyone else having this issue? I saw some messages about it on sites like "Is it down".com, but no articles, nothing widespread. But also no updates. Wario64's Twitter pulls up for me, so... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLSigman Posted February 7, 2022 Share Posted February 7, 2022 Just now, Casey said: Wario64's Twitter pulls up for me, so... Hmmm.... I wonder if it's an AT&T DSL issue. Let me see if I can get to it on my phone, hadn't thought of that, thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mario Posted February 7, 2022 Share Posted February 7, 2022 (edited) 24 minutes ago, JLSigman said: Not exactly video games, but.... Since yesterday morning, every time I try to load any page on Twitter.com it comes up blank. Whether that's Twitter, their help pages, Tweetdeck, individual tweets, everything. I've ctl-F5'd everything multiple times, closed and reopened FireFox multiple times, and rebooted the machine this morning. No change. Is anyone else having this issue? I saw some messages about it on sites like "Is it down".com, but no articles, nothing widespread. But also no updates. FWIW, I just finished scrolling my Twitter feed and didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. Edited February 7, 2022 by Mario Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odessasteps Posted February 7, 2022 Share Posted February 7, 2022 7 hours ago, JLSigman said: Not exactly video games, but.... Since yesterday morning, every time I try to load any page on Twitter.com it comes up blank. Whether that's Twitter, their help pages, Tweetdeck, individual tweets, everything. I've ctl-F5'd everything multiple times, closed and reopened FireFox multiple times, and rebooted the machine this morning. No change. Is anyone else having this issue? I saw some messages about it on sites like "Is it down".com, but no articles, nothing widespread. But also no updates. I’ve been getting a thing on my phone where I open Twitter and it asks for my google login. But if I close all the open apps and then open it, it’s fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLSigman Posted February 7, 2022 Share Posted February 7, 2022 9 hours ago, JLSigman said: Hmmm.... I wonder if it's an AT&T DSL issue. Let me see if I can get to it on my phone, hadn't thought of that, thanks. I have no idea what it was. It worked over the wi-fi on a third party app, it worked on the Microsoft Store app and *shuddering* Microsoft Edge browser. Then I had to power cycle the DSL modem because the ancient UPS it's on started screaming for whatever reason, and after that Twitter worked on FireFox again. *shrug* I got nothin'. But at least I don't have to use *shuddering* Microsoft Edge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Death From Above Posted February 8, 2022 Share Posted February 8, 2022 That sounds like a server side issue beyond anything you're doing, to me, but that's only a semi-educated guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jiji Posted February 8, 2022 Share Posted February 8, 2022 OlliOlli World is incredibly soothing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramo2653 Posted February 8, 2022 Share Posted February 8, 2022 Finished off Raji last night (good but short kinda wish it had a NG+ option with all of the weapons) and Madden has pissed me off so now I'm looking for something else to play. Backlog of things that are already installed are: Absolver FF15 Hades God of War Horizon Zero Dawn Mass Effect Legendary Edition Rise and Shadow of the Tomb Raider Shadow of the Colossus Subnautica Untitled Goose Game Destiny 2(lol) Any suggestions? Also, we're not going to talk about the uninstalled/disc based games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supremebve Posted February 8, 2022 Share Posted February 8, 2022 I just finished Horizon Zero Dawn. I don't know where it ranks on my list of best games of all time, but there aren't many above it. It's by no means perfect, but none of the imperfections really take away from the whole in a way that matters. The story, the gameplay, the world, all top notch. My biggest criticisms are that the melee combat isn't great, you have to juggle your carrying capacity too much, and the climbing mechanics feel clunky as hell. The melee combat can be excused because almost every other weapon feels fantastic. The bow is the primary weapon, but the sling shot and rope caster get a lot of use as well. If you play it, I recommend doing the DLC, because you get the best weapons in the game up in the Frozen Wilds. Not only are the best versions of all the weapons in the base game in this area, there are 3 special weapons that you can get too. With that said, the machines up there are challenging as hell. The only detriment to doing the DLC is when you get back into the base game area, the machines don't feel nearly as difficult. With that said, I did the DLC right before the end of the base game and even though the enemies felt easier, they threw them at me in bigger groups so it kind of evened out. February 18th can't come fast enough. Everything I've seen about Horizon Forbidden West makes me think that they've addressed everything I had a problem with in the original, and added a bunch of stuff I didn't realize I really wanted. The grappling hook, being able to climb almost everything, and the glider makes me think that they realized how clunky some of the movement was and want to make traversal much more fluid. They added melee combos, so it's actually work using your spear. I just hope they don't have me fill my pockets with a bunch of stuff I'll never need, and realize I don't have enough room for materials to craft ammo for my sling shot. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaos Posted February 8, 2022 Share Posted February 8, 2022 Guardians is currently $35.99 on PSN for those of you that were debating picking it up earlier. (Figured better here than the deals thread). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CSC Posted February 8, 2022 Share Posted February 8, 2022 Because the 200 hours I've already put into Stardew Valley isn't nearly enough. This looks amazing. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Contentious C Posted February 9, 2022 Share Posted February 9, 2022 I've played a few hours of Horizon Zero Dawn so far and it just hasn't grabbed me yet. I failed the very first stealth mission 3 or 4 times and kind of felt like giving up on it, but I just looked up a YT video and then moved on, realizing it wasn't actually going to be important in the long run. I should dig something that's part Tomb Raider reboots and part Bethesda fetch quests, but I'm just not there yet with it. I also just like exploring incredibly, incredibly, incredibly slowly in these games until I'm a bit overpowered, so...who knows how long that will take. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLSigman Posted February 9, 2022 Share Posted February 9, 2022 Announcement from BANDAI NAMCO about Dark Souls on PC tl;dr - they know what's broken, they're working on it, and they're checking Elden Ring to make sure it's not in that code, too. But Dark Souls won't be back until after Elden Rings releases. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supremebve Posted February 9, 2022 Share Posted February 9, 2022 13 hours ago, Contentious C said: I've played a few hours of Horizon Zero Dawn so far and it just hasn't grabbed me yet. I failed the very first stealth mission 3 or 4 times and kind of felt like giving up on it, but I just looked up a YT video and then moved on, realizing it wasn't actually going to be important in the long run. I should dig something that's part Tomb Raider reboots and part Bethesda fetch quests, but I'm just not there yet with it. I also just like exploring incredibly, incredibly, incredibly slowly in these games until I'm a bit overpowered, so...who knows how long that will take. This was me on my first attempt. I generally feel like stealth is terrible in all games and this game is no exception. Thankfully, as you continue to play it isn't that much of the game. Eventually, you'll be able to decide to fight most battles straight up instead of trying to sneak around. You'll also realize that you can just outrun or just go around most machines if you decide you'd rather not fight. For me the best part of the combat was how your tactics have to evolve as the enemies get more and more difficult. Taking out a watcher is as easy as shooting it a couple times with the bow. Scrappers are more difficult and make you have to be much more cognizant of your defense. Sawtooths can end you pretty quick if you just try to duke it out with them, and you need to start setting traps. It keeps escalating and you keep improving until you get to the point where you can fight the hardest enemies and can decide if you want to slug it out with nothing but your bow or if you really want to wreck an enemy by tying it down and bombarding it with bombs. Since I finished Horizon Zero Dawn, with almost 2 weeks before Forbidden West comes out, I decided to finally play through Uncharted 4. I truly despise the combat in Uncharted games. The cover system sucks, and even if it worked correctly 100% of the time, almost all of the cover is destructible. You are always outnumbered about 10-1, which would be fine if you could shoot accurately. The default setting is for aim assist to be on level 10, and if you duck behind cover and bring up the reticule again it doesn't keep the reticule where you were just aiming. That is pretty much all I want from an aim assist, and the game doesn't do it. So I turn the assist off, and quickly realize that the aim sensitivity is just off in a way that it's way too slow, until you move it one tick faster and realize that it is now entirely too fast. So you kind of have to use the aim assist, which doesn't actually assist you in the way you want it to. Add to those issues that unless you get a head shot, it takes 47 bullets to stop the average unarmored human being. So you have a system where head shots are really the only option, except aiming sucks, and the assist doesn't help at all. You also are beholden to a cover system that is clunky to get in and out of, cover that doesn't really cover you, and enemies that spam a seemingly unlimited supply of grenades. So you have to duck in and out of cover, try to accurately shoot with an aiming system that doesn't really work, and every time you look down the sights of your gun you hear a grenade beeping by your feet. Not only that, I don't feel like I'm any better at it now than I was when I started. It's just a terrible system. With that said, the things this game does right are fucking incredible. The combat is just wrong. (I actually googled, "does Uncharted 4's combat suck?" I found about 30 gamefaqs and reddit threads with one person typing almost everything I said above, and everyone every reply was about how that person was wrong. I for one, mysterious internet strangers, agree with you.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tabe Posted February 9, 2022 Share Posted February 9, 2022 On 2/8/2022 at 10:50 AM, CSC said: Because the 200 hours I've already put into Stardew Valley isn't nearly enough. This looks amazing. Yeah, this has been around for a little while. I keep meaning to check it out since I've got almost 300 hours in Stardew myself. That said, I'm not sure I want to play anymore. I kinda reached a point where all I was doing is making money and not really progressing toward 100% completion or advancing any of the stories and so I just stopped. Sure had a lot of fun before that though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kang Posted February 10, 2022 Share Posted February 10, 2022 The animations in PLA are greatly improved. But unlike others I don't expect Gamefreak to completely get rid of their "indy" style of developing games that they retained over the years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Contentious C Posted February 10, 2022 Share Posted February 10, 2022 This reminded me that I haven't seen any news on Little Kitty, Big City in a while. Please, for your own sake, go to Steam and check the Release Date. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odessasteps Posted February 10, 2022 Share Posted February 10, 2022 There’s now a fun geography knockoff of Wordle called Worldle. https://worldle.teuteuf.fr/ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Death From Above Posted February 12, 2022 Share Posted February 12, 2022 Just finished up Blasphemous* and overall if you enjoy your Castlevania-style games there's really no excuse not to pick this up at some point. Overall a really good game. I think it falls apart a little in the last 10% of the game but that's such a common problem that I can't even really diminish the overall game that much for it. I found it fairly challenging, and my total playtime was about 13 hours. But I also know I missed a lot of things, and I am pretty sure I got BAD END? There's definitely a lot to unpack here if you're a completionist. Overall a very strong entry in the Metroidvania catalogue. *You can check the vods on twitch.tv/stevenx ^finger guns^ 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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