What are y'all playing? ver 2.0

#1085

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Dragon Quest Builders is a narrow and focused take on Minecraft, with a bunch of RPG elements. The people have lost the knowledge of creation and you have to help to restore the world by rebuilding villages. You gather material, craft items and equipment, build buildings by meeting design requirements and complete quests. When you build new buildings, townsfolk will move in and help you craft items. Now I have a mason and a cook.

I’m about 40 hours into Dragon Quest VII and I want to finish that one up before I move on to other games. Once Civilization VI hits I probably won’t have time for anything else.

#1086

playing Uncharted 4, like it but so far have conflicted opinions about it

so far very good level design, very naturalistic and good travel, although i wish the hdr were a big quicker to set in because sometimes it’s a bit too dark

#1087

I should probably get round to playing that sometime.

#1088

Apparently I missed a huge part of the middle of Dragon Quest VII. By simple forgetting to speak to a certain NPC, I missed out on several towns/dungeons, and I also played a large chunk of the game having a party member less. Now that I’m backtracking through the missed parts, it is super easy.

#1089

so i’ve gathered some thoughts on uncharted 4 and i think i’m getting a good grasp on the game now, and there’s some things that are bothering me, to be fair i think i’m at about the halfway point in the game or just beyond it so this is not final

i doesn’t really have a good sense of pacing… the story is set up such that the characters always think they’re just one door behind the big treasure but you know as a player that that’s just not true, this ends up with the characters constantly moaning about “maybe the treasure’s just behind this door” and “ah! goddamnit, we were had! the treasure’s not here!”. It’s uncomfortable and it’s really wearing on me. Another thing, there’s this scene where Elena says “the look on your face when you entered the door…” but she wasn’t looking when he came in!! She was looking at something else and kept looking at it well after Drake changed his expression! Goddamn that really got under my skin. Anyway. Gameplay is super good. I don’t know if the older games had it but i love that you can climb by just reaching for the platforms instead of always jumping. Gunplay also feels better, there’s a quickness to it that really complements the run and gun nature of the gameplay, allowing for fluidity in how you travel the space and when you choose to fire your guns. Game feels a lot snappier that way, maybe it’s because i’m playing on hard but fighting has a quick rhythm. Since the spaces are always relatively small the stealth never feels cumbersomely slow either. Game has a ton of verticality and it’s put to good use. Spaces are very complex and a lot more fun to explore because there are many, many layers to them, often dishevelled and asymmetrical in a way that feels naturalistic and appealing to a kind of ludic exploration that’s rare to see in spaces dedicated to gunplay. Level design is a real charm in this one. Gotta say that again. It’s a right fucker.

Otherwise, there’s something else that’s bothering me and that’s that with some exceptions there’s an emphasis on making sure every hour or so you have one of those moments when you see where you were the hour before and where you’ll be in one hour, but… i don’t know they don’t really work i think. Maybe i’m spoiled by open world and/or exploration based in systems rather than directed experience, but i don’t know i don’t really feel like i’ve travelled from this place to that other place, and i kinda get the impression that those moments aren’t really showing the actual distance between the two points of interest and that the travel distance is shorter than it should. The game doesn’t feed that sense of direction very well, and i sorta feel that it’s because the game is based around these very small spaces first and foremost.

Not liking Laura Bailey tbh. Rafe is AMAZING, the rest… eh. Eh! Sully is cool but even him seems to be falling into one too many typical Sully lines all the damn time. Story is actually pretty fucking good, it’s an obvious metaphor that’s happening but they’re doing a good job at it for sure.

Overall five points out of twenty.

#1090

Beating Dragon Quest VII took 30 hours too long. Now I can move on to something else.

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Letter Quest Remastered (PS4) is a simple spelling game. You can earn gems by completing quests and clearing levels. Gems can be spent on upgrades. The short levels are good for when you only have a few minutes to play, and it’s surprisingly fun to come up with long words using rare characters. I always sucked at Scrabble and this is quite challenging for me.

#1091

What is your final play time on DQVII?

I completed all three characters paths in Ys Origin. Toal’s path is the canonical path. I was caught off guard by the plot twist at the end, with Toal and Hugo’s father, Cain Fact, being the mastermind behind the demon invasion.

#1092

76 hours. I skipped most of the optional stuff, like Monster Meadows, Monster Hearts, and Monster Tablets.

The game is 40 hours too long and has severe design issues. I’m happy to have experienced it, but I will never go through that again. I hope they can turn DQ11 into something more interesting.

#1093

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BattleLore: Command (iOS) is apparently based on a board game and it reminds me a lot of Magic: The Gathering - Arena of the Planeswalkers that I tried recently. Units are deployed on a hex-based battlefield. There is a spending cap preventing you from using your entire army. Instead you have to carefully select what unit types you need to beat a particular challenge.

Each turn you gain arcane power (used for special powers), select which units to move, move units, and finally attack units within range. Combat results are entirely random and it took me a few missions to develop useful strategies. You roll imaginary dice and you can either hit, miss, force the player to retreat a hex, gain arcane energy, or use the unit’s special power. If the enemy is forced to retreat off the map or into one of your units, they also take damage. You can also use the environment to your advantage. In my last campaign mission I crushed the locust hoards by putting archers inside buildings.

I didn’t find the Magic boardgame fun at all, but this is much more satisfying and very different from the turn-based strategy that I’m used to. Give it a try if you’re into Civilization or XCOM.

#1094

I’m playing Titanfall 2 and Modern Warfare: Remastered. I’m in multiplayer heaven.

#1095

Dishonored 2’s narrative isn’t great.
Dishonored 2’s level design and mechanics are the best of the year, fucking easy.

There’s a level later in the game that really, legitimately rivals the most innovative levels and twists in the Looking Glass Thief games, think The Sword or Return to the Cathedral levels of great level type stuff. And it’s consistently on that kind of thief 1+2 level of ‘good, open ended level design’, especially once you accept that the game really wants you just adapt to what’s happening, not reload for a perfect run, necessarily. That said, seamless ghost runs of the levels seem very doable, although a bit different from your normal way of sneaking, it emphasizes traversal, angle and height more than light and shadow, although darkness still helps you navigate undetected, in more interesting ways than the normal stealth ‘standard’.

#1096

Gaming wise things have been very quiet since I started with my thesis/graduation project more than 2 months ago. There has been a bit more activity for the past 2 weeks. Gaming time is mostly relegated for the weekends. Progress has been slow. The only game that I have been playing with a bit of consistency has been Soul Sacrifice Delta. Once every week or once every 2 weeks clearing 2-3 missions with a friend. I picked up Etrian Mystery Dungeon after months of inactivity. That was 2 weeks ago? I’ve started with World of Final Fantasy which is the only notable new game. I’ve only played 3 times with it since it got released. I’m currently in the first cave.

Man, I miss playing some games properly :cry:

#1097

What are your thoughts on World of Final Fantasy? I might pick that up for my Christmas vacation.

#1098

Keep in mind that I only played the game for 3 hours, I don’t feel like I played long enough to give a reliable impression. With that in mind, the game shows a lot of promise. The game is giving me pleasant feelings that I haven’t felt in a long time. The sense of wonder, not knowing what to expect next and nostalgia based on the structure of the game and the FF lore/love that is apparent to see.

The game feels very old school with the towns (it was not possible to enter buildings in the town that I saw btw), dungeons, cutscenes then gameplay, random battles etc. This is not a bad thing. I enjoy it when it’s done right along with QOL improvements.

The battle and upgrade system surprised me in a good way. You have the freedom to change how the battle system feels. You can choose wait mode to pick commands without the monsters attacking you, active mode for the opposite effect and semi-active for in between (time stops when you pick magic/items etc). You can change the style of the fights where you have your typical command menu or a short-cut interface that looks more modern. You can change the speed of the battles in the menus and also make the battles go quicker during fights.

The stacking system is something that I didn’t understand before playing the game but now I think it’s pretty great and interesting. Whether it remains interesting depends on the difficulty later on. The upgrade system gives you a lot of freedom to evolve your monsters. You can go back to previous evolution without penalties from what I have read.

The dialogue is charming and funny, but it is typical anime style if you are turned-off by that. The smart sister, the brother who is always treated like an idiot etc. I am trying to ignore the forced stereotypical treatment of the characters, the rest is fun. Description about the monsters is also funny. The rants during dungeons adds to the personality.

To continue with the QOL that I mentioned earlier, besides the battle system, it is also apparent in other ways. You always have a summary of every chapter to go back to. You have information about the side quests in the menu. Every tutorial that is mentioned can be found in the menu and more such examples. It is easy to leave the game for weeks and then continue with it.

It really depends on your expectations and what you like. I am having a blast with it, but I also didn’t have high expectations to begin with. I don’t expect the best graphics etc.

#1099

Thanks for the write-up! I’m expecting a game with a few interesting mechanics and a terribly terrible story.

I hope this will be the better choice, since FF15 is likely to both have a bad story and bad mechanics.

#1100

You’re welcome!

Oddly enough my hype has been rising for FFXV lately. It’s mainly for the apparent improved polish recently and the promise of lots of freedom with its game world. It’s going to be hard experiencing its launch and not being able to play it.

Do you have to pick one of the two? :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

#1101

I could buy both, but since I won’t have time to play them at the same time I might as well wait for price drops.

#1102

Then you’re being clever about it considering how quickly SE games drop in price.

#1103
#1104

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The Deadly Tower of Monsters (PS4) is neat idea. Unfortunately it has poor performance, unresponsive controls and tiny fontsize. I dropped it after half an hour.

The Legend of Legacy (3DS) seems incredibly promising. Combat is lightning fast, there is very little fluff and my party got wiped within the first half hour. Coming from Dragon Quest VII, these are welcome features.