What are y'all playing? ver 2.0

#1247

Finished Ori, solid game but very poor world building. Thought about that a lot tbh. Like i mean most metroidvanias are about the place where the game happens… it’s a very important place. Maybe it doesn’t have a lot of lore but it’s a still a place of significance. This just doesn’t have that… and without that you really can’t think much about the places you’re exploring or the enemies you’re fighting or the powers you’re getting or anything like that. Was a bit disappointed to realize this.I really like metroidvanias, they are def one of my favorite things ever and i even super liked Shadow Complex which has the corniest story ever but still the base was a cool place to explore and most things made sense even if that sense was a bit fantastical. In Ori things are just messy, the feeling i get is that they were afterthoughts.

Anyway it was super pretty and had a couple of really good ideas and i like all games anyway so whatever

#1248

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#1249

I got a Switch this week and overall I’m very pleased with it, with an exception for the price.

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1-2-Switch is a collection of 28 tech demo mini games that do a great job showing off the system’s hardware features. It’s really fun to play with younger kids, but I can see why reviewers in their 20’s or 30’s would score it low. There is not much replayability, and adding or removing the wrist straps every few minutes gets old fast. Nintendo should include it in a bundle for the holiday season.

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The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is the first 3D Zelda that I enjoy. I’ve escaped the tutorial area and I am now free to explore all the corners of the world.

I also picked Arms, but I haven’t tried it yet.

#1250

As far as me and gaming goes…my backlog has been messed up for a while. I start a new game and then jump to the next, playing what I felt like at the time and creating a big backlog in the process. I’ve been mostly active on the 3DS with the Wii U for Zelda once in a while.

Last games I’ve completed:
Gunman Clive (3DS Eshop)
Picross e7 main mode (3DS Eshop)
Xeodrifter (3DS Eshop)

Games I’m mostly playing:
Picross e7 Micross mode
Pokemon Picross (3DS Eshop)
Toki Tori 3D (3DS Eshop)
Mutant Mudds Super Challenge (3DS Eshop)
Kirby Deluxe (3DS Eshop)
Zelda Ocarina of Time 3D (3DS)
Zelda Breath of the Wild (Wii U)

Other games from my backlog, haven’t touched in a while:
Fire Emblem Awakening (3DS)
Hyrule Warrios Legens (3DS)
Cooking Mama Bon Apetit (3DS)
Etrian Mystery Dungeon (3DS)
Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate (Wii U)
World of Final Fantasy (Vita)
Final Fantasy V (GBA)
etc.

#1252

Dead Space is a lot of fun

#1253

Very re-playable, as is DS2.

#1254

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#1255

Picked up a PS4 on the cheap over the weekend, and borrowed my friend’s copy of Zero Dawn.

Damn this game is so good!!! I remember seeing some concept art for this years and years ago and thought to myself “No way in hell someone would have the ball to actually make a game that badass. No way a studio would have the balls to greenlight that project.” And holy hell am I glad I was wrong. The concept is amazing from the ground up. The gameplay is a fairly standard Shadow of Mordor / Ass Creed style game. Fun times. But the characters, acting, design, visuals, story, everything built around that solid gameplay makes it that much more fun and compelling. I can tell I’ll be finishing this game all the way through, which is kind of rare for me.

#1256

Congrats! What games are you planning to pick up?

#1257

Zero Dawn and Persona 5 are the two games I’m most excited for. I also picked up Bloodborne, but I’ll probably wait until I finish ZD to start that. The Crash Bandicoot trilogy is going to be a must, and I’m gonna replay Last of Us later this year probably. Oooh, also that Ratchet and Clank remake.

#1258

Bloodborne is the shit

#1259

Dude I bet. I’m super pumped. I want to crack into it now, but if I try and juggle too many games, I’m going to give up one one before long, and they both deserve my full attention. Plus the missus and I are playing through ZD together on our own accounts, so that’s cool in its own way.

Also borrowed Dishonored 2 from my buddy, who knows when I’ll get around to that lol.

#1260

Playing Dead Space at 300fps is such a weird thing. Strange to think how far we are from that age. And from vsync that locks to 30fps yo. There’s a lot to like and a ton of charm to this extremely solid vision of what a horror game in the late 00’s could be. I’m really entranced by the sheer personality of this game, the industrialist feel of everything in the game, the tricks and illusions they use to create a horror place, the physics that glitch and wobble excitedly and reinforce the aggressive and always present horror sound design, the obviously “alien zombies in the space station” story where i’m sure the black dude will die before the hot girl gives her life to save you. But most of all i’m loving that we’re already at this place in time where we can love and think about these aspects of the game that would be considered broken at the time but can now be looked back at essential aspects of its attempts to go beyond its ability to perform perfectly. I’ve been thinking about this quote from Brian Eno,

“Whatever you now find weird, ugly or uncomfortable and nasty about a new medium will surely become its signature. CD distortion, the jitteriness of digital video, the crap sound of 8-bit—all of these will be cherished and emulated as soon as they can be avoided. It’s the sound of failure: so much modern art is the sound of things going out of control, of a medium pushing to its limits and breaking apart. The distorted guitar sound is the sound of something too loud for the medium supposed to carry it. The blues singer with the cracked voice is the sound of an emotional cry too powerful for the throat that releases it. The excitement of grainy film, of bleached-out black and white, is the excitement of witnessing events too momentous for the medium assigned to record them.”

and i’m starting to adopt this not just to think about old stuff but contemporary and still coming things. Essentially it’s a lot more interesting and rewarding to think about the tiny ways a game can break as something other than errors but as essential representations of something built by humans, and themselves something that, like the things of a game that aren’t “broken”, add to the experience of the game instead of removing from it.

In that way i stop thinking about aspects of a game in positive and negative ways, but instead in a way that allows everything in a game to “add” to the experience of having played it.

#1262

I picked up PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds again after refunding it a few months ago because of poor performance. Runs really nice now and been having a lot of fun.

#1263

one of my favorite quotes, i go back to it alot

#1264

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#1265

Some games have been completed and others need a bit of explaining.

Completed Games
Picross e7 (all modes 100%)
Mutant Muds Super Challenge

Picross e7 was my first experience with Picross games. It’s an amazing puzzle game with lots of content, numbers and being patient. It’s highly recommended and better than Pokemon Picross.

Mutant Muds Super Challenge is ‘kinda’ a sequel to Mutant Muds, a 2D platformer where precision is expected with every move. It feels very similar to the first game. This is the reason why I wasn’t planning on getting it initially, but it was on sale…it ended up being worth it despite the similarities. This time you get all the upgrades from Mutant Muds right away. The levels have been made more challenging with that in mind. Boss battles are also new and well made. If you want more Mutant Muds and are okay with a bit of challenge, then it’s worth getting on sale.

Currently Playing
Zelda Breath of The Wild
Zelda Ocarina of Time
Toki Tori 3D

It might be weird seeing 2 Zelda games at the same time…I don’t know why but I had a strong urge to play OOT while playing BotW. I’m having a blast with BotW. So it wasn’t me not being content with it…but because it feels like a big departure compared to other Zelda games, I felt it would be neat to play OOT to compare new with the old style and decide what my preferences are. The conclusion? I enjoy both styles for different reasons. I hope that Nintendo keeps on delivering different styles and not stick with one.

In regards to OOT…I’ve completed it on the gamecube with the WW limited edition. While I was enjoying myself enough to complete it, I didn’t think it was all that great. Certainly with all the hype behind it. I preferred the WW. Playing the 3DS remake/remaster, it has made me appreciate OOT and finally respect it. This version makes the graphics much better, the colours are vibrant, 3D is amazing, second screen for menu/map is a godsend, gyro controls are helpful for aiming and other QoL improvements. Currently I am ready to go to the water temple as adult Link.

Now that I completed 2 eshop games, I can continue with Toki Tori. A puzzle platformer made by a Dutch developer. This is a highly underrated game that I will try to write more about it another time.

Free 2 play Games
Kirby Clash Deluxe
Pokemon Picross

This will be the last time me mentioning those games. I’ve completed Kirby for the most part except for doing all the missions which is optional and tied to the in-game currency. Pokemon Picross is the worst way I have seen in-game currency being handled. There are 30 areas to unlock, you soon won’t be able to unlock new areas after the 6th and need to play the daily training missions for at least a week to have enough to unlock a new area.

#1266

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I’ve noticed that sometimes the character entries in the Glossary can spoil quests you haven’t finished. They don’t seem to follow the steps too well - often giving too much information before you learn it.

#1267

Completed HoS. I defeated O’Dimm. Iris and Olgierd’s story is incredibly sad. It made such a mark on me that I prefer it over the entirety of the main game. The final decision was probably the hardest timed dialogue option ever and forces you into a dilemma where it challenges your beliefs. So there is no good and bad endings, just how you interpret it.

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#1268

I liked that it added a layer of true unknown to a game where the main character is vastly knowledgeable about everything he encounters.