Multi Watcha playing?

[Smithy]

Right now have a play about on A SPORTS FC™ 25.
I am playing it on the Xbox Series X

.

 

[The Eye in the Sky!]

Well I made a stupid move and used my remaining google play credits to buy Balatro.

I didn't go to sleep until midnight because I was running good. This is going to be a problem going forward.

 

[Quagmire]

Metaphor Refantazia

Im 25hrs in, just got to the port city. I really like the gameplay and knowing that I should be able to max pretty much all confidents without a guide. I check a few things here and there, but mostly just going for it

The music is a huge disappointment, it's fine, but its not memorable short of maybe Akademia.

The characters are also a disappointment, none are bad, but I dont feel like any of them Im dying to spend more time with

Im still enjoying this a lot, I dont dislike it even if I have some disappointments so far, unlikely to out do Infinite Wealth as my game of the year

 

[Spiner202]

Turok

I'm about an hour into this and it is so fun. I never played any of the Doom games, but I imagine this is exactly how they play. You move at a pretty good speed, have a range of weapons and just blast dinosaurs and people. I'm not sure I ever got very far when I played it back in the day, but every part of it has been familiar so far.

Astro Bot

I've played more of this and, much like Turok, the only word to describe it is fun. It's basically Astro's Playroom except more in-depth. There's so much charm and tons of references to other Playstation games/characters. The God of War level was my favourite so far. Even though it's a kid's game, there's still enough difficulty - not so much from the platforming, but just because I didn't find all of the collectibles in each level my first time through.

 

[MC74]

Right now have a play about on A SPORTS FC™ 25.
I am playing it on the Xbox Series X

I had a Franchise Mode run on FIFA 23 with Leyton Orient. I had fun with it, though I have to admit Football Manager is more my jam.

 

[rktaker]

been playing Palworld again since the update came out they added a new island, pals, technologies and other things. i don't care if it's just ark with Pokemin still fun to me

 

[Smithy]

GTA V on the xbox series x.

 

[The Eye in the Sky!]

Started Astrobot yesterday!

I played the first 5 worlds and it is just as fun as I knew it would be!

 

[Quagmire]

Metaphor Refantazio

All I can say is fuck the Dragon Temple, so many fucking enemies that I cant kill and have to go into squad battles

 

[Nae'blis]

Got Star Wars: Jedi Survivor at the sale on PS Store, so started playing that! Enjoying it so far!

 

[Andy]

I had a Franchise Mode run on FIFA 23 with Leyton Orient. I had fun with it, though I have to admit Football Manager is more my jam.

FM is incredible. Don’t get it every year anymore but once every few years I’ll buy it and just become obsessed

 

[Andy]

Not too far off finishing FF5 now. Good fun although it’s pretty similar to all of the games that preceded it. Getting through it quicker now that I’ve found out there’s an option to switch on 4x XP.

 

[VashTheStampede]

I'm hip deep into NG+ in Marvel's Midnight Suns, mainly to mess with the DLC characters that came out after I finished it the first time.

God I love this game.

 

[The Eye in the Sky!]

Got Star Wars: Jedi Survivor at the sale on PS Store, so started playing that! Enjoying it so far!

Loved that game! I think Fallen Order was a better story being compact and linear, but Survivor was so fun. I would love to play another open world Star wars, but I'm not sure about Outlaws. Not a fan of Ubisoft.

 

[VashTheStampede]

Loved that game! I think Fallen Order was a better story being compact and linear, but Survivor was so fun.

Oh I'm the complete opposite. I thought Survivor was the much better story, it felt like one of the old expanded universe novels and also the "middle" chapter of a trilogy.

 

[Nae'blis]

Haven't got that far yet, I'm only at the planet after Coruscant, but so far I'm loving it!

 

[Smacktard]

I just finished Snatcher. I loved it, but unfortunately the third (final) act was mostly expository cinematics. Apparently it was planned to be a 6-act game, but the other acts were cut due to budget issues. It's a shame, because I can imagine how incredible it would've been if it were able to fully play out. Still an excellent game. Fun, charming, and enjoyable writing. The music is fantastic, the art direction is excellent, and the characters are entertaining. Apparently you can download it and play it on your phone, so if it's an option, I definitely recommend it. It's only between 8-10 hours long.

Now I'm looking forward to playing the fan translation of Policenauts eventually.

 

[Fool's Requiem]

Snatcher is one of the rarest Sega CD games. It got released in other systems, but not outside of Japan. Even the PAL version of the Mega CD is stupid expensive.

A CIB copy of Panzer Dragoon Saga is cheaper than a CIB copy of Snatcher...

I feel like if Konami and Kojima didn't pretty much hate each other, we would have seen a re-release at some point.

 

[Smacktard]

A CIB copy of Panzer Dragoon Saga is cheaper than a CIB copy of Snatcher

That's not true, unless the prices of these two inverted in the past 6 months. I know PDS dropped a lot, but Snatcher would also have to rise a lot over that time.

But yeah, it's pretty crazy that Snatcher was never released elsewhere.

Idk about the Kojima/Konami feud, but it rather seems like Kojima has mostly just ignored Snatcher over the years, apart from the occasional reference in some of his games. Too bad since I'd love to see what he could do with that universe now.

 

[Fool's Requiem]

Price Charting has a CIB copy of Snatcher (NA) running for just under 1400, and Panzer Dragoon Saga at just under a grand.

CIB sales defintely reflect it.

Snatcher

Panzer Dragoon Saga

Most recent sales of Snatcher over the last couple months are reguarly over 1000, whereas, the majority of PDS sales are under 1000.

PDS seems to be a much more common game as there are many more sales of it over the past few months compared to Snatcher.

 

[MC74]

Found out I can successfully play Steam games with mods on NVIDIA's GeForce Now service, so I'm going back to one of my favorite mods on Hearts of Iron 4. Kaiserreich, the alternate history mod.

 

[Smacktard]

Price Charting has a CIB copy of Snatcher (NA) running for just under 1400, and Panzer Dragoon Saga at just under a grand.

CIB sales defintely reflect it.

Snatcher

Panzer Dragoon Saga

Most recent sales of Snatcher over the last couple months are reguarly over 1000, whereas, the majority of PDS sales are under 1000.

PDS seems to be a much more common game as there are many more sales of it over the past few months compared to Snatcher.

Jesus. I got my Snatcher a few months back for around $600. Looks like prices exploded over the past few months! I blame YouTube essayists, probably.

 

[Smacktard]

Me too often tbqh

 

[Fool's Requiem]

hard to get into new games when digital stores are filled to the brim with absolute trash and no one makes their filter systems as robust as Steam's. And then the physical releases of Switch games are hard to find in decent prices and sooooo many games require spending countless hours playing them to feel like you got something out of them.

At least if I want to, I can pop in the Genesis 6-Pak and play any of those games for an hour (or even less) and actually get enjoyment out of them.

 

[shortkut]

Genesis 6-Pak

I have that!

 

[Fool's Requiem]

I have that!

it had to have been the best value you could find on the Genesis back in the day, even despite the lack of a Phantasy Star game on the cart. It's the sole reason I don't have a physical copy of Sonic 1.

 

[Smacktard]

hard to get into new games when digital stores are filled to the brim with absolute trash and no one makes their filter systems as robust as Steam's. And then the physical releases of Switch games are hard to find in decent prices and sooooo many games require spending countless hours playing them to feel like you got something out of them.

At least if I want to, I can pop in the Genesis 6-Pak and play any of those games for an hour (or even less) and actually get enjoyment out of them.

New games suffer from a lot of bloat. That's my biggest issue with them. Devs have tried pushing the amount of hours you can squeeze out of a game as a selling point, when some games really do not need MORE time, but would actually benefit from tighter focus and more streamlined gameplay.

JRPGs are the worst for this, and that's why they tend to be my least favorite genre.

 

[VashTheStampede]

JRPGs are the worst for this, and that's why they tend to be my least favorite genre.

Square Enix games are getting even worse about this, too.

 

[Spiner202]

Turok

I'm about an hour into this and it is so fun. I never played any of the Doom games, but I imagine this is exactly how they play. You move at a pretty good speed, have a range of weapons and just blast dinosaurs and people. I'm not sure I ever got very far when I played it back in the day, but every part of it has been familiar so far.

I finished the game this morning - it took 6 hours and 20 minutes with a guide. Some of the secret areas are absolutely impossible to find without one, but even the keys needed to progress get increasingly difficult.

A few scattered thoughts about this game:

• Even though this game is about hunting dinosaurs, I feel like it doesn't have enough dinosaurs? Probably more of the enemies than not are humans - they only use a handful of dinosaurs. At a certain point, it seems like they ran out of ideas on different types of dinosaurs, so they started attaching rockets and machine guns to them.
• This game actually reminded me of Bloodborne. It starts as one thing - a simple hunter killing dinosaurs, but then it has a twist in the back half of the game that turns it into something else (which I still don't understand, since there's no clear story in this game)
• The game actually gets easier as it goes on because you start to get some insanely powerful weapons. It's crazy fun at the end using the quad-rocket launcher.

For $5, I definitely recommend it (and using a guide!).

 

[MC74]

Rule Britannia, that is all that needs to be said.

 

[Crazy Jamie]

Two days ago I spent about for hours playing video games. The first time it certainly at least five years that I'd spent more than two hours in one day playing video games, but probably longer. In that time I got the last two achievements for Hades (making it my first 100% achievement game on Steam, after 67 hours and over three years), and got the Wude (real ending) on Sifu. Played a bit more of Sifu yesterday, and I now I might be largely done with it after about 13 hours. Probably 25 hours or so to get 100% I reckon, and it is a fantastic game, but I'm ready to move on.

So I've switched genre back to RTS and have started Realms of Ruin. Despite still have Mixed reviews on Steam the recent reviews suggest it is a bit of a hidden gem, the one drawback being that it's a campaign and not much else. Which actually suits me fine, so I'll see how I get on with that. Always enjoy a good Warhammer game.

 

[Quagmire]

Nearing end of Metaphor Refantazio
100% why Vash put it down for a bit, hitting really close to US politics which is disgusting and scary

Love the gameplay loop though and how easy it is to switch archatypes, do feel it has gotten a lot harder once you hit the island, I at times have had to drop the difficulty down to Easy. Yes I dont have to do dungeons and such in a day, but Im such a completionist I dont want to risk not maxing every bond and doing every side quest. I know there is more wiggle room, but I dont want to risk it. This is what happens when you develop a game that also has a time limit and make buying MP restoring items impossible

Im sure I could cook some stuff though, but too late now

Spoiler: Spoilers for late September of Metaphor

My guess was MC/Will was the prince's brother, I thought they looked alike, neither had horns etc. When they told us the prince was dead, I figured it wouldnt be permanent, but I had some hope they would do something different, maybe propping up MC once figured out he was the prince's brother. But then finding out that MC is basically the Prince is a let down. If MC was a vessel who would stay living without combining with the Prince, a man with no past who was created for one goal would have far been more interesting. Could have done something like Final Fantasy IX. I still have a month or so to go, and it wont sour my opinion on the game, but it does keep it back from elevating it to all time great/memorable story

 

[Spiner202]

I'm over halfway through the story of Assassin's Creed III Remastered. This was the only AC game prior to Black Flag that I hadn't played before, and I'd always heard it was the worst. I would definitely agree with that assessment. The story jumps all over the place before finally settling in a more consistent pace, but I'm not particularly interested in the story. I wouldn't say I enjoy history by any stretch of imagination, but American history isn't something I have ever been interested in. It seems like the developers just made random famous historical figures to be regular characters in the game, and I feel like I'm missing the significance of them here.

The gameplay is ok. It's definitely still a bit janky, but being able to climb through trees is awesome, and I don't remember this being a thing in Black Flag. I was surprised to find that this game really introduced the ship fighting mechanics - they're better in Black Flag, but still fun enough here.

I don't really like the world design. There are 3 separate maps (so far) but only one of them feels useful. The game throws a lot of mechanics at you, but I still can't figure out how to make a significant amount of money or upgrade my ship. Anyways, I'll keep plugging away, but I'd definitely avoid this unless you're a completionist.

 

[Quagmire]

Down to the end of Metaphor Refantazio

Wrapping up some side quests/hunts and finishing my last bond

I can see how Heismay can be OP with the item that if he dodges the bad guy loses all their moves

Not planning on doing any of the dragons, tried one that was in a spire with another hunt, even on easy got my self wiped. I can make some headway but Im not gonna win without using pretty much all good items and some luck. If the damn dragon dodges one of my moves, especially my main attack its a wasted turn and puts me in a hole I cant dig out of

 

[VashTheStampede]

I'm over halfway through the story of Assassin's Creed III Remastered. This was the only AC game prior to Black Flag that I hadn't played before, and I'd always heard it was the worst. I would definitely agree with that assessment. The story jumps all over the place before finally settling in a more consistent pace, but I'm not particularly interested in the story. I wouldn't say I enjoy history by any stretch of imagination, but American history isn't something I have ever been interested in. It seems like the developers just made random famous historical figures to be regular characters in the game, and I feel like I'm missing the significance of them here.

The gameplay is ok. It's definitely still a bit janky, but being able to climb through trees is awesome, and I don't remember this being a thing in Black Flag. I was surprised to find that this game really introduced the ship fighting mechanics - they're better in Black Flag, but still fun enough here.

I don't really like the world design. There are 3 separate maps (so far) but only one of them feels useful. The game throws a lot of mechanics at you, but I still can't figure out how to make a significant amount of money or upgrade my ship. Anyways, I'll keep plugging away, but I'd definitely avoid this unless you're a completionist.

I finally gave that one a chance a couple years ago after always hearing similar things about it being the worst, and maybe it was my lowered expectations at play, but I actually ended up REALLY liking it (for the most part).

Like, shockingly so. I put it above Revelations and Brotherhood at the time which seems INSANE right now. I don't know why it resonated with me so much at the time.

 

[Spiner202]

I finally gave that one a chance a couple years ago after always hearing similar things about it being the worst, and maybe it was my lowered expectations at play, but I actually ended up REALLY liking it (for the most part).

Like, shockingly so. I put it above Revelations and Brotherhood at the time which seems INSANE right now. I don't know why it resonated with me so much at the time.

It's been years since I played Revelations and Brotherhood, so it's possible that those ones don't hold up well either.

I think I would definitely appreciate this game more if I were American. One thing I have noticed is that there aren't as many missions predicated on eavesdropping, following people, or using your Eagle vision. From what I recall, the early games used those in a ton of missions, whereas they're much more sporadic in this game.

 

[Smacktard]

I just started playing Steel Assault, and almost just as quickly stopped playing it. As a huge fan of 2D action/platformers, this game was such an easy win for me, but after only 30 mins or so I stopped playing it. It's absolute dogshit. It's all style over substance. Beautiful art and sound, but the gameplay itself fucking blows. It's hard to distinguish between background, foreground, and interactable elements. Enemy placement, attack, patterns, and design seem completely fucking random.

I feel like my *shit game threshold* is pretty fucking high. I 100%'d de Blob 2. I can't think of other examples ATM but I've really enjoyed some games that would make @VashTheStampede go "ick". But this game is just ass.

In general I am ~fairly~ trusting of game reviewers (excepting that time they did my boy Custom Robo wrong), but the fact that this game is only 2 pts lower than a genuinely GOOD, WELL-DESIGNED game in the exact same category and release timeframe -- Vengeful Moon Guardian -- just demonstrates that game reviewers' shit is sometimes the wiggidiest of whacks.

it angers me that it could've been so good, and yet it's a hot soupy glittery mess of a game. I feel like it's a game designed by pixel artists -- never a good idea. Yeah it's fun to look at, but I'd rather watch someone play it than endure this shit-stew myself. Fuck this game.

 

[The Eye in the Sky!]

Started playing Dave the Diver last night! It's super fun and very random.

 

[Crazy Jamie]

Started playing Dave the Diver last night! It's super fun and very random.

Interested to see what you think of this as you get further into it. I've seen some mixed reports of the game getting a bit grindy the further you go on, but it's definitely on my radar.

 

[VashTheStampede]

I recently started playing the first Uncharted.

I am kinda surprised this became a big franchise? I know the PS3 didn't have a LOT of games but I am very unimpressed so far.

I'm a big fan of the recent Tomb Raider games and I guess I was expecting more along those vibes but so far this is pretty much "move into new area. Shoot 1000 dudes. Light platforming to new area. Shoot 2000 dudes."

The only saving grace so far has been Elena, because she is fantastic. She should be the main character honestly...

 

[Smacktard]

I recently started playing the first Uncharted.

I am kinda surprised this became a big franchise? I know the PS3 didn't have a LOT of games but I am very unimpressed so far.

I'm a big fan of the recent Tomb Raider games and I guess I was expecting more along those vibes but so far this is pretty much "move into new area. Shoot 1000 dudes. Light platforming to new area. Shoot 2000 dudes."

The only saving grace so far has been Elena, because she is fantastic. She should be the main character honestly...

The first UC is very unpolished. It establishes the core gameplay mechanics, but it's extremely repetitive. UC2 and sequels expand on it in every way. It's the weakest UC game by far. If you can't plow through til the end, don't give up on the series, but give UC2 a try instead.

 

[dimmerwit]

I came to the Uncharted series late and I found the first game to be very mediocre. I did plough on through and finish it but I wouldn't blame you if you skipped straight to the second game which is far better.

 

[Spiner202]

Even though I like all of the Uncharted games (and I think 1 is as good as 2), I agree with Vash. It's a good series, but I was sorta left thinking "that's it?" after I played each of them. When you compare it to the gut-wrenching TLOU or the scale and grandeur of the two most recent GOW games, it does feel a bit strange that this series blew up so much.

 

[dimmerwit]

It's funny because if I had to pick out the two PlayStation series that I find to be the most overrated it would be GoW and TLOU.

 

[Smacktard]

It's funny because if I had to pick out the two PlayStation series that I find to be the most overrated it would be GoW and TLOU.

The OG GoW games are overrated as fuck, but I haven't played the new ones yet.

 

[The Eye in the Sky!]

UC1 is probably rose colored glasses at this point. Knowing how the series has progressed, I might be forgetting the actual gameplay that was clunky (jet ski anyone?) and the characterizations hadn't quite gotten there.

If you don't like the 2nd one, then we got a problem bub.

 

[Crazy Jamie]

I agree with what's been said so far about the first Uncharted. It is very dated. I only played it in about 2011, which was within the PS3s life cycle, and I thought it was dated then. But the second is a significant improvement. I think it surpasses the first one literally within the first fifteen minutes. It's just on another level.

In 2011 I started a job near my parents and was staying with them during the week, so played a lot of PS3. That's when I played Uncharted, Uncharted 2 and God of War III back to back. First Uncharted was underwhelming even then. I thought the other two were fantastic.

 

[dimmerwit]

Yes, 2 is a massive upgrade. I found the first to be mechanically dated and incredibly repetitive for such a short game.

2 meanwhile holds up remarkably well in every aspect. The story is better, the mix of locations more interesting and the game actually has decent pacing and knows that throwing you into overly-long sections of pure gunplay isn't very interesting. I always wanted to play more.

3 is also good, although not as good as 2. I felt like the game was perhaps a little "try-hard" if that makes sense and the story didn't connect as well as 2. Felt like locales drove the plot rather than the other way round.

4 is my favourite. I always trend towards more story-heavy games and this has the best story of them all with some beautiful sequences, but the gameplay and combat is still pretty fun and even on a base PS4 it looked astonishingly good. Since I won't spoil anything plot-wise I think they well with making the whole you-know-who-if-you-played-it thing work quite well. Lost Legacy is also a lot of fun.

 

[Crazy Jamie]

I agree that the third wasn't as good as the second. It suffered from "shit, we basically used all of our good ideas on that absolute masterpiece, what do we do now?" Still very good. But not as good.

I haven't actually played the fourth, but I do own it. As and when we put the television back on the wall, it's one of the PS4 games that I could feasibly take for a spin. It's got some stiff competition though, because I own a lot of PS4 games and have played no more than a handful of them.

 

[The Eye in the Sky!]

I would definitely move UC4 up that list. It bookends the series in the best way.