Multi Watcha playing?

[Smacktard]

I think I just got a copy of Forspoken for $10. We'll see if GameStop cancels my order (they usually do when games go super cheap, but I don't think this is a pricing error). Supposedly nobody likes this game, but how bad could it be for $10?

Eager to find out!

 

[Smacktard]

So right now I'm playing GTA4. I've never played it before, and coming from GTA5, wow, what a change. I have to say, it's a lot less enjoyable to play. GTA5 is an improvement in almost every way. Framerate is choppy, driving feels sloppy, there's huge input delay -- especially when driving, which makes driving a frustrating experience -- as opposed to GTA5 where it's fun as hell. The lock-on system isn't great either, and the gunplay not as fun and fluid.

I can't remember such a gigantic leap in quality from one game to the next. Certainly the change from Red Dead 1 to Red Dead 2 wasn't near as drastic. In fact, GTA5 even uses the same lock-on system as RDR1.

 

[Raine]

So right now I'm playing GTA4. I've never played it before, and coming from GTA5, wow, what a change. I have to say, it's a lot less enjoyable to play.

I've been ranting and raving about how bad GTA4 is/was since 2008, welcome to the resistance!

Lock-on is the only real way to play that one. Manual aiming just, y'know, super fucking sucked and was godawful slow?

Although, I do have slightly good news: The driving, as it turns out, is intentionally bad. Certain cars - like just about everything nearby when you start the game - have hidden stats that just make them utterly miserable experiences. You'll routinely spin/burn out and crash into things if you're not exceedingly slow and methodical. There are like 2~3 early-ish cars you can find that control much better, IIRC, and I basically just made a mental note of those cars and would go out of my way to find them. Better that minor frustration than struggling to maintain control and potentially fail missions, y'know?

The final mission has you on a dirt bike that controls bad and has weird collision detection with the rocks on the ground though. No avoiding that one at all. And it's still amongst the most obnoxious, rage-quitty experiences I've had with a video game.

 

[Smacktard]

The final mission has you on a dirt bike that controls bad and has weird collision detection with the rocks on the ground though. No avoiding that one at all

aaaaaaAAAAAAAAA the bikes in this game are TERRIBLE!!! I've ridden one ONCE as part of a mission and it controlled like a skateboard in a slushbowl. Just awful, awful, awful. And forced on you for the final mission too? Jfc.

I've gotten the hang of driving. Even beat that road race mission that's a pain in the ass. But the game is just way too clunky for its own good. For me, the #1 thing a game has to do is control well, and GTA4 fails that miserably. At least the interactions are enjoyable. Shame, since if there were just a bit of polish, the game could be SO good!

 

[Raine]

aaaaaaAAAAAAAAA the bikes in this game are TERRIBLE!!! I've ridden one ONCE as part of a mission and it controlled like a skateboard in a slushbowl. Just awful, awful, awful. And forced on you for the final mission too? Jfc.

With a time limit and no checkpoint, for good measure. Please be excited.

 

[MC74]

I've been ranting and raving about how bad GTA4 is/was since 2008, welcome to the resistance!

Lock-on is the only real way to play that one. Manual aiming just, y'know, super fucking sucked and was godawful slow?

Although, I do have slightly good news: The driving, as it turns out, is intentionally bad. Certain cars - like just about everything nearby when you start the game - have hidden stats that just make them utterly miserable experiences. You'll routinely spin/burn out and crash into things if you're not exceedingly slow and methodical. There are like 2~3 early-ish cars you can find that control much better, IIRC, and I basically just made a mental note of those cars and would go out of my way to find them. Better that minor frustration than struggling to maintain control and potentially fail missions, y'know?

The final mission has you on a dirt bike that controls bad and has weird collision detection with the rocks on the ground though. No avoiding that one at all. And it's still amongst the most obnoxious, rage-quitty experiences I've had with a video game.

Well shit, I can't criticize a game I enjoyed the hell out of. Even if GTA V's gameplay is a vast improvement, I still loved the story itself and reveled in how far the series has come since the first 2 games.

 

[The Flame]

Oh yeah besides Star Wars I also reluctantly got Fortnite because a friend of mine plays it and now I am addicted. I love this stupid game and all its stupid skins and everything. I'm not great at shooters, especially on PC (what I'm playing it on), so it's not super enjoyable alone, but it has been a blast with friends. I haven't had a shooter I could play regularly since Overwatch 1 and I missed it so much. And nowhere else can I smash someone's face in with a giant boulder using earthbending then watch Thanos dance to Gangnam Style on their grave.

 

[Spiner202]

So right now I'm playing GTA4. I've never played it before, and coming from GTA5, wow, what a change. I have to say, it's a lot less enjoyable to play. GTA5 is an improvement in almost every way. Framerate is choppy, driving feels sloppy, there's huge input delay -- especially when driving, which makes driving a frustrating experience -- as opposed to GTA5 where it's fun as hell. The lock-on system isn't great either, and the gunplay not as fun and fluid.

I can't remember such a gigantic leap in quality from one game to the next. Certainly the change from Red Dead 1 to Red Dead 2 wasn't near as drastic. In fact, GTA5 even uses the same lock-on system as RDR1.

Not sure if you've played the older GTAs, but going from GTA Vice City driving to GTA IV driving is even more difficult. While I did enjoy IV on the whole, the driving is a huge downgrade from the previous games.

 

[Smacktard]

Not sure if you've played the older GTAs, but going from GTA Vice City driving to GTA IV driving is even more difficult. While I did enjoy IV on the whole, the driving is a huge downgrade from the previous games.

Yep! That's what I remembered too. I played VC first, and had fondest memories of it. I gave GTA4 a test drive back in the day and remember thinking "wtf is up with this driving".

I remembered flying down the road in VC. Kind of looking forward to playing that game again already tbh. I just bought it for the OG Xbox recently.

 

[dimmerwit]

GTA IV is a phenomenal game, the driving is fine (albeit very different to previous games and V) and the bike section everyone complains about really isn't that hard.

I would say the console versions are really rough though. The framerate sucks unless you are playing back-compat and the input latency is terrifying. The PC version was atrocious but with a mixture of mods and 15 years of hardware progress it's the best choice.

 

[Smacktard]

Hot take: games shouldn't be evaluated based on how playable they're made with mods, or the technological advances of a decade and a half

 

[dimmerwit]

By mods I really mean additional features as a general feature of the PC platform. I don't think mods are required to make the game "playable".

As for the second bit, I think it's perfectly fair given nobody is playing this with 8800GT class hardware any more. But for what it's worth I'd still make that statement in reference to the original console versions.

 

[Smacktard]

I dunno, I mean if you think 300ms input delay and frames regularly dropping to 10FPS is fine for a game that regularly revolves around car chases and fast-switch gunplay, we might have pretty substantial differences between what we think constitutes a good game.

 

[dimmerwit]

Those are both exaggerated figures, but yeah, we probably do.

 

[Smacktard]

Those are both exaggerated figures, but yeah, we probably do.

Yeah, I looked up framerate videos on YouTube and it seems like the lowest it goes is 15 FPS, but it regularly pingpongs between 20 and 30 FPS. Can't find any info about the input delay but it's substantial and frustrating when driving and when aiming.

 

[Raine]

the bike section everyone complains about really isn't that hard.

It being hard would probably have been fine, honestly.

Like the issue isn't really that it's hard or difficult, simply that it's dumb and frustrating.

The objective is very, very clear and obvious and easy: You drive a dirt bike along the shore of a river and hit a ramp at the end. That's it. That's the entirety of (that section of) the mission.

The issue is that the dirt bike controls like shit and there are stupid pebbles everywhere that have wonky collision detection and are hard/impossible to see while racing along. So you're going, you bump into these pebbles/hidden collision fields, lose control. That's... annoying, but whatever, it just slows you down a little - the game is still super easy, it's not like the time limit is that strict.

But then in your final approach to the ramp, which you only get a single attempt at and must hit at a certain speed, there's at least one rock/pebble/invisible object that I hit no fewer than a dozen times while actively trying to avoid it. Hitting that rock in any way (functionally) immediately fails the mission and you have to redo the entire long, drawn out, annoying but strictly "easy" scenario again from scratch. Which is like... 10 minutes long? Maybe? Somewhere in that range. Over and over, just so you can get to the one part that matters and maybe fail in the exact same way with almost no direct input from the player.

It's just the final "fuck you" from an otherwise already pretty basic, boring and buggy experience. It was, and probably still is, a stark contrast to how San Andreas went down - the added "realism" efforts/effects was all net negative. Was neither realistic nor fun.

 

[dimmerwit]

Yeah, I looked up framerate videos on YouTube and it seems like the lowest it goes is 15 FPS, but it regularly pingpongs between 20 and 30 FPS. Can't find any info about the input delay but it's substantial and frustrating when driving and when aiming.

I've been thinking about this.

The input delay thing is something I really remember only because it was one of those ridiculous comparisons between PS3 and 360 at the time when the console wars were at perhaps their maximum, and Digital Foundry did some analysis on it (which was one of their first actual bits of analysis). I believe it was always thought that the 360 version had slightly better performance and lag. DF only tested the 360 version but it was 133-200ms. So not great, and if the PS3 version is worse then who knows how high it could go.

I think on performance the reason why I was probably more tolerant at the time was simply because the 360/PS3 gen was so poor for performance. Look back at major games, even first party titles, and performance for a shockingly high amount of them was just awful. I've always been a PC guy at heart but I did play a lot on console at the time and I really think it was a big deal in pushing me back to the PC platform as a whole. I remember when GTA V came out I was actually nauseous for the first 30 minutes or so whilst I got used to the constantly high-20s performance. At least with the PS4/One gen whilst it was still largely a 30FPS setup at least devs took the target seriously and kept to the target much better. But yeah, going back and playing it, it's probably horrible.

But then in your final approach to the ramp, which you only get a single attempt at and must hit at a certain speed, there's at least one rock/pebble/invisible object that I hit no fewer than a dozen times while actively trying to avoid it. Hitting that rock in any way (functionally) immediately fails the mission and you have to redo the entire long, drawn out, annoying but strictly "easy" scenario again from scratch. Which is like... 10 minutes long? Maybe? Somewhere in that range. Over and over, just so you can get to the one part that matters and maybe fail in the exact same way with almost no direct input from the player.

It's just the final "fuck you" from an otherwise already pretty basic, boring and buggy experience. It was, and probably still is, a stark contrast to how San Andreas went down - the added "realism" efforts/effects was all net negative. Was neither realistic nor fun.

Ok, the checkpointing sucks. You have that right. And the last paragraph makes sense. I just loved the experience myself!

 

[Crazy Jamie]

I have just finished playing Forgotten City, which I really enjoyed. Not the sort of game I really go for, but it was nice and short, engaging and I enjoyed the plot.

Honestly playing games at the moment outside of mobile games isn't easy. I don't have a lot of time to do it (most weeks I play no games at all), so starting anything that'll take me more than 10-15 hours to finish seems too daunting, and aside from that I want to play games I'll enjoy, but there are so many that I will enjoy that I can't choose and end up doing something else that evening. Need to sort myself out with this really.

I have my eye on giving Realms of Ruin a go next, just because I fancy an RTS in the Warhammer Fantasy world (it's been a long time since Shadow of the Horned Rat and Dark Omen). I'm aware it's not supposed to be very good, but if I don't enjoy it I'll just stop.

 

[Andy]

Downloaded Starfield. Let’s see what it’s all about. Have FF14 going as well but want a single player too.

 

[Dead2009]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants (Switch)
Disney Speedstorm (Switch)

 

[Spiner202]

I think I just got a copy of Forspoken for $10. We'll see if GameStop cancels my order (they usually do when games go super cheap, but I don't think this is a pricing error). Supposedly nobody likes this game, but how bad could it be for $10?

I'm about 3 hours into this game so far, which is maybe too early to judge, but this is one of those classic instances where there seems to be a massive gap between how the internet explains a game, and what it actually is. My biggest (and really, only) complaint so far is that a lot of the text is too small, but I'm also playing on a smaller TV than my usual one right now.

This game reminds me a lot of Infamous: Second Son. Even though it's been years since I played that, the gameplay loop seems fairly similar in that you have a ton of powers and parkour skills and just go around killing and collecting stuff. I like the protagonist a lot (her companion, less so, but a lot of games have an annoying tag-along partner). The story seems fine. It's not exactly TLOU-quality, but I don't think it was meant to be.

Maybe I'm misremembering the advertising for the game and people thought this would be one of the best games of the generation, and that is why it was a letdown, but to me, it just seems like a solid AAA game that isn't one of the top-tier ones. I really have a hard time telling between when a game is just totally broken, and when it is below expectations, because the online reaction to both usually seems similar.

 

[The Eye in the Sky!]

Still playing P3 Reload - 77 hours now, middle of January. I don't have much to go and boy will I miss this game. The characters are awesome, better than P4 and rivaling P5. P4 and P5 I thought did a better job storywise and building tension, but not by much.

P3 has been really great. Tartarus isn't as bad as I thought it would be. I only do 1 run per month so it's a welcome romp when I go there. I just also unlocked a social link for a character that I was expecting to have one, but not this late and I'm super excited to try and max it out in 20 days. Everyone else is maxed out except for a story one that automatically does, and the student council guy because he's a loser.

Someone told me about the next Atlus RPG - Metaphor: ReFantazio and now it's all I want. October is too far away.

 

[Raine]

Maybe I'm misremembering the advertising for the game and people thought this would be one of the best games of the generation, and that is why it was a letdown, but to me, it just seems like a solid AAA game that isn't one of the top-tier ones. I really have a hard time telling between when a game is just totally broken, and when it is below expectations, because the online reaction to both usually seems similar.

Forspoken was made by the team that did/"saved" Final Fantasy XV, so expectations were very high because of that. It was also the first game Square would have put out that would really take advantage of their in-house Luminous Engine kit. It, uh... did not go well, apparently. Luminous Productions, the developer, ended up getting shuttered/disbanded after the game's release.

As far as general reception goes, people just felt it was too basic, controls were floaty and the world/environments too large and empty IIRC - which is something FF15 also faced criticism for. There was also two-fold societal issue: On the one end, chodes review bombed and criticized the game because its protagonist is a Black woman. But on the flip side, the game opens up in a really tone-deaf and kind of racist way (with Fray being in court) and many just aren't willing to give Square free passes anymore.

I bought a copy during Black Friday and will eventually give it a go myself - Square's B/C-tier stuff is more my jam usually, that's where you wind up with outsourced things like NieR or Star Ocean - but I'm not expecting anything amazing. A fun romp, maybe some pet peeves bringing the experience down a bit. Something like that.

 

[Smacktard]

The disparity in this pic is unreal

 

[Spiner202]

Forspoken was made by the team that did/"saved" Final Fantasy XV, so expectations were very high because of that. It was also the first game Square would have put out that would really take advantage of their in-house Luminous Engine kit. It, uh... did not go well, apparently. Luminous Productions, the developer, ended up getting shuttered/disbanded after the game's release.

As far as general reception goes, people just felt it was too basic, controls were floaty and the world/environments too large and empty IIRC - which is something FF15 also faced criticism for. There was also two-fold societal issue: On the one end, chodes review bombed and criticized the game because its protagonist is a Black woman. But on the flip side, the game opens up in a really tone-deaf and kind of racist way (with Fray being in court) and many just aren't willing to give Square free passes anymore.

I bought a copy during Black Friday and will eventually give it a go myself - Square's B/C-tier stuff is more my jam usually, that's where you wind up with outsourced things like NieR or Star Ocean - but I'm not expecting anything amazing. A fun romp, maybe some pet peeves bringing the experience down a bit. Something like that.

I finished the story (took about 16 hours) and am now on the hunt for the platinum. I think your assessment is fairly accurate - it's very fun and has a couple of annoying things.

That said, as I progressed further, the story grew on me a ton. I really liked it, and I thought the protagonist was very realistic (I know people don't like the dialogue, but her dialogue was probably the best of anyone's). I'll try to be vague here so as not to give anything away, but I thought the gameplay loop actually had a bit of a zig zag in it. I thought the game would make you do one thing, but then it quickly changed and the end of the story approached faster than expected. I really liked this because I think a lot of games are way too padded out. Truthfully, there is a lot of padding here too, but you have the option to leave all of it for the post-game.

I still think Infamous might be the best comparison, but there are so many powers in this game, and there's basically no way you'll experience them all without 100%'ing the game. In fact, one complaint I have is that the game incentivizes you to keep using different powers. You can only upgrade 3 powers at a time, so as soon as you upgrade one, you have to choose another to start upgrading, but then you have no incentive to use the newly upgraded one. In any case, this game was well worth it. I'll chime in once I get the plat in that thread with any new thoughts, but I would say the dislike of this game is vastly overblown.

 

[Dead2009]

FInished South Park: Snow Day on Switch

 

[VashTheStampede]

Finally finished Persona 3: Reload, have started the long awaited Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes.

 

[The Eye in the Sky!]

Lol, just beat reload a few minutes ago as well! What a game... I'll miss those characters.

Playing Madden 24 now on an EA play single month sub.

 

[VashTheStampede]

Lol, just beat reload a few minutes ago as well! What a game... I'll miss those characters.

You gonna play the DLC when it drops and get the rest of the story?

 

[The Eye in the Sky!]

You gonna play the DLC when it drops and get the rest of the story?

Yes, seeing how the game ended, I have to. I wasn't sure at first, but now 1000% yes.

 

[Fire Queen]

still working my way through Shining Force. just an amazing game for its time full of heart and character. my wife has been describing it as "fisher-price fire emblem" lol. i'm in the last chapter with only a few battles left until the end, really looking forward to trying out the sequel too!

just got Princess Peach: Showtime! from gamefly but haven't started it yet--some of my friends who have played it enjoyed it but have warned me that it is basically a glorified tech demo with really good artistic direction. shorter games honestly work better for me these days so that's fine by me

replayed Metroid Fusion on the switch online GBA service. man what a good game that was. cant wait to finally get around to playing Metroid Dread

one day i'll get back to Baldur's Gate 3 and Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers but unfortunately a 30-year-old genesis game is more interesting to me right now

 

[VashTheStampede]

Shining Force is so good.

Shining Force II is so much better.

 

[Fire Queen]

speaking of genesis rpgs i started playing phantasy star iv a while back and i need to get back to it!! it was cinematic in a way other rpgs of the time just...weren't. i also love how sooooo many 90s rpgs are like yes this is high fantasy yes it is swords and sorcery also here is a centaur with a fucking bazooka

 

[Spiner202]

I decided to buy Assassin's Creed Origins since it was on sale. The most recent AC game I've played is Black Flag, but I'm interested in Origins/Odyssey/Mirage (maybe not Valhalla unless I really get hooked, since it's so long). Might not start it for a week or two, but looking forward to it.

 

[Dead2009]

Toy Story Mania for PS3 through PS Plus.

 

[Quagmire]

i'm in between big game commitments (apart from playing through Super Mario Bros. Wonder which is easily the best 2D mario in decades (low bar but still))

I think it's the best Mario game since SMW personally


I have been hacking away at Divinity Original Sin II. If you enjoyed Baldur's Gate 3, you'll like this. Im in Act 2 now, just got to driftwood

 

[Quagmire]

Shining Force is so good.

Shining Force II is so much better.

It is.

I also loved Shining Force 3, and the 2 scenarios not released outside japan are easy to patch. Really huge and fun epic game

Emulated perfectly for me, Saturn emulation has come a long way

 

[dimmerwit]

I just finished a replay of the 3 Bioshock games. It was my first replay of Bioshock 2 and Infinite since launch, and my first of the original game in more than a decade.

Games are still great! I love the story and atmosphere they create, and I continue to be confused as to why people say they are not good gameplay wise. I still think it's more people not understanding how to play them more than anything.

 

[Spiner202]

I decided to buy Assassin's Creed Origins since it was on sale. The most recent AC game I've played is Black Flag, but I'm interested in Origins/Odyssey/Mirage (maybe not Valhalla unless I really get hooked, since it's so long). Might not start it for a week or two, but looking forward to it.

Some brief thoughts after 2 hours of this game:

I like the combat so far. It feels a lot smoother than the AC of old. On a similar note, at first, I was really confused because in the old AC games, it was very clear where you could and could not climb. In this game, they seemingly got rid of the very obvious footholds, but it seems like that's because they perfected climbing, so you can seem to climb just about anything.

I'm not one to get hung-up on small things usually, but there are a couple of things bugging me about this game. Firstly, the AI is really bad. When you're on your horse/camel, people do not move out of the way. Even worse, when you use the game's auto-follow mechanic (where the mount will automatically follow the main path), it still runs people over. Also, the stealth part of this game seems semi-broken. I don't normally use much stealth, but I like it in AC. It seems like you can only stealthily eliminate enemies in very specific positions, meaning that I usually only eliminate 1 or 2 before I'm spotted. For some reason, hiding in the grass but drawing your bow will have them immediately spot you too. I suspect as I unlock more abilities, this will get easier, but it seems counter to my entire experience with the franchise.

The graphics are a mixed bag. They look incredible from afar - whenever you zoom out and see more of the landscape, it looks great. Some of the detail up close definitely makes this game look its age. I've never been a big graphics guy, so it doesn't bug me, but it's definitely jarring coming from Forspoken.

 

[Dead2009]

Disney Speedstorm
Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles

Both on PS5

 

[The Eye in the Sky!]

Haaaaades 2 early access!

Also playing Star Ocean second story R. 3 hour demo was fun, not sure if I'll buy it yet now that I have Hades 2.

 

[Avenger]

ATTENTION THE GREAT AVENGER HAS SOMETHING TO SAY

lego force awakens

THE GREAT AVENGER HAS SPOKEN

 

[MC74]

MLB because I haven't touched it in a bit and needed to catch up on Diamond Dynasty. Saw that Gunnar Henderson went diamond today, made me one happy bitch because I more than doubled the profits on my investment. Had a feeling from the beginning of the game he was eventually gonna be a diamond.

 

[Dead2009]

Started up Gotham Knights again on PS5, and currently enjoying it. I don't know how that game got so much crap.

 

[Tommy Boy]

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is the remake I expected. Very well done, great QoL improvements. Anyone else playing? I'm on Keelhaul Key already lol.

 

[Scott]

Got myself Ghost of Tsushima, now it's released on PC, so making a start on that. Other than, recently been playing some Tropico 5, FFXII, Stardew Valley (as ever). Kinda feeling a Halo 3 run through at some point soon.

 

[Fire Queen]

the wife has been replaying through the kingdom hearts series and since aqua is my fav kh character i always take the reins when we get to Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep and man. this really is my fav kh game too (second is Re:Chain of Memories and third is 358/2 Days. im normal). i love the command deck

i also picked up Balatro last night. i am an easy mark for a deckbuilding roguelike. Slay the Spire and Inscryption both sunk their talons deep into me. Balatro is no different. number go up is one of my favorite game genres

i did finally start Princess Peach: Showtime! and man. the way nintendo makes their games these days is so fucking frustrating lmao. the art direction is great and the gameplay is pretty fun but is shigeru miyamoto holding a gun to these devs heads and preventing them from adding anything...substantial??? i had the same problem with mario wonder. it was a fun game but the mario game formula of "go to a new place full of a new mascot character and beat these levels with bare minimum story characterization and voice acting" is getting tired. maybe it is because these games are for children after all. but i guess i'm glad that thousand-year door remake got made because they sure as shit would not make anything like it now

 

[Dead2009]

Madden 24

 

[Spiner202]

I started playing Cyberpunk 2077's Phantom Liberty DLC. It's been a while since I played the original game but it didn't take long for me to remember why I loved it so much. It makes better use of the weighted triggers on PS5 better than any game I've played so far - the combat has a really unique feel because of it. I love the whole atmosphere and world, and the dialogue is hilarious and awesome too. Keanu Reeves and Idris Elba are both so insanely good. I know Keanu's a bit one-dimensional, but it works for this game.

This seems like a pretty full expansion too. I've been playing more DLCs than usual in recent years and this is probably the one that most closely feels like it could have been in the original game, as opposed to a weird offshoot mode or a 2-hour campaign that was cut.

 

[Smacktard]

I started playing Cyberpunk 2077's Phantom Liberty DLC. It's been a while since I played the original game but it didn't take long for me to remember why I loved it so much. It makes better use of the weighted triggers on PS5 better than any game I've played so far - the combat has a really unique feel because of it. I love the whole atmosphere and world, and the dialogue is hilarious and awesome too. Keanu Reeves and Idris Elba are both so insanely good. I know Keanu's a bit one-dimensional, but it works for this game.

This seems like a pretty full expansion too. I've been playing more DLCs than usual in recent years and this is probably the one that most closely feels like it could have been in the original game, as opposed to a weird offshoot mode or a 2-hour campaign that was cut.

Alright, I'll definitely have to pick this game up at some point. Sounds like they fixed a lot of the issues that plagued the OG release. Are you playing it on the PS?