What are you playing?

Utnayan · Sep 26, 2022

With a complete dearth of games to play (And a lot of shit out there to weed through) I am going through some Gamepass games. Inside is actually kinda fun so I am playing through that and will most likely finish tonight. Then looking for more games like it - short bursts. Downloaded Beacon Pines and Hardspace: Shipbreaker and see if those even come close to holding my attention. There is just SO MUCH fucking garbage being launched. Shit indie games all over the stores for PS5 and Series X do not make it better. Filtering on price and seeing games released a year ago on the 1st page is ridiculous.

Rajaah · Sep 26, 2022

Chapell said:
LOTR done. Great game a bit repetitive of course, but overall, i had fun.

Now it's time for another ps2 era game:

Run at fullspeed on pcsx2 without any tweak. Didn't test but i think you can easily upscale rez @1080p without any slowdown or graphic artifact.
(it's also on pc and xbox)

Whoa. This is also one of the small group of "games I got at a flea market" from that early-00's era. Third Age, Thing, Predator: Concrete Jungle, Jade Empire, KOTOR1 and 2, Shadow Hearts 1 and 2, probably something else I'm forgetting. It's tough to go back to them graphically but at some point I'll try.

I'm very interested in this Thing game because it's the closest thing we've gotten to a sequel to the Carpenter movie. The Spoony review made it look like the whole game is just fuse boxes, but considering The Thing is my favorite movie, I think I'd enjoy this.

Szlia said:
Brain Lord, for no particular reason. Actually I was testing a new SNES emulator (as I only had a very old one installed) and that's the first game that I picked in my list of, well, everything (it starts with B you see). Weird game. Not great, not terrible.

That's funny because this one is also on my "list". I played pretty much every JRPG the SNES had to offer except Brain Lord, Robotrek, and Breath of Fire 2. And a bunch of Japan-only ones. The vibe I get from Brain Lord and Robotrek is very "not great, not terrible". Enix games from that era tend to be pretty weird and kind of spotty in quality.

Kind of weird to think about how I have single-digit games left to play on all my old systems. All I really have left unplayed on the NES are Crysalis and Kid Icarus.

Rajaah · Sep 26, 2022

Mizake said:
I got Yakuza: Like a Dragon for free via PS Plus, liked the game a lot, I really got to learn and care about the cast of characters. Amazingly anti-woke in this day and age. Since then, I've gone back and finished Yakuza 0, and that game did not disappoint even if graphics are dated. Currently working on Yakuza Kiwami, which I guess is a remake of Yakuza 1? I know there's a ton of Yakuza game but I'm only interested in playing the remade ones. If you like story-line games with interesting characters, I would definitely suggest this series. It's rare when you play games with characters of such depth that you remember them forever, like a Joel from TLOU, but I'll always remember Kiryu and Goro from now on.

Yeah, Kiwami 1 and 2 are remakes of Yakuza 1 and 2. They're both REALLY good. I think Y0 and Y1 are the best one-two punch of story in the series. Y2 is the best-looking of the lot, I mean it looks amazing in action.

Y3 and Y4 are significantly less upgraded visually and didn't get the full-on remake treatment so much as just quick remasters to get them all on modern systems. I found them more forgettable storywise. Y6 looks better and was supposed to end the story, but I also found it forgettable. Know which one I really liked? After 0/1/2, my favorite was Y5. Humongous game that takes probably as long as 3 of the others put together, big world, very interesting, no end to how much there is to do. All of the above are worth playing but I think you're in the midst of the "peak" of the series with Kiwami.

Utnayan said:
With a complete dearth of games to play (And a lot of shit out there to weed through) I am going through some Gamepass games. Inside is actually kinda fun so I am playing through that and will most likely finish tonight. Then looking for more games like it - short bursts. Downloaded Beacon Pines and Hardspace: Shipbreaker and see if those even come close to holding my attention. There is just SO MUCH fucking garbage being launched. Shit indie games all over the stores for PS5 and Series X do not make it better. Filtering on price and seeing games released a year ago on the 1st page is ridiculous.

I should have probably gotten into Gamepass a long time ago. I usually beat games within a week and sell them (or keep them if I really like them and have more to do). Gamepass would save me some trouble.

I'm sorta "between games" myself. I took out everything I was working on (RE2, LAL, Kakarot) and it's too early to do Halloween stuff, so I'm just sorta floating around. Playing TLOU2 mostly to laugh at it, and I started up GTA5 which is a fun thing to run in small doses, but I'm not actively trying to finish anything, more focused on getting work done. It'd be a good time to fire up something big.

Dizzam · Sep 26, 2022

All of these are on Gamepass:

I’ve been playing Ghost Recon Wildlands with some friends. We’ve been having a lot of fun with it. A little repetitive to play through alone, but with friends it’s worth it.

Also been playing Solasta with friends. It’s digital D&D—or so I’m told. I think of it like Gloomhaven. The way they set up the turn system, it’s slow, but it’s kept most of us interested (one friend gave up and refuses to play—too slow).

I also got into Slime Rancher recently. My 4 year old son lives and breathes slime rancher. I saw him play and thought it might be fun. I’ve played 1 and 2 now. I thought they were both worth the download.

My wife (not a gamer) and I played It Takes Two a while back. It’s a blast. Lots of puzzles you have to work together to solve. Now all my kids are playing through it and loving it.

Firewatch was…just OK. Story type game and not one of the better ones. Edith Finch or whatever it was called was better.

My friends and I will probably try out Grounded 1.0 when it comes out this week. We liked the early release version.

Falstaff · Sep 26, 2022

Just started playing Death Stranding. Looks beautiful on my OLED + PS5.

Rajaah · Sep 27, 2022

Dizzam said:
Also been playing Solasta with friends. It’s digital D&D—or so I’m told. I think of it like Gloomhaven. The way they set up the turn system, it’s slow, but it’s kept most of us interested (one friend gave up and refuses to play—too slow).

I've heard that the best D&D game for early consoles was Eye of the Beholder on Sega CD. Kind of a hidden gem that hardly anyone knows about.

Later on you have stuff like Chronicles of Mystara and the big CRPGs. As far as like, pre-1998 D&D games go, Eye of the Beholder was top of the heap.

Falstaff said:
Just started playing Death Stranding. Looks beautiful on my OLED + PS5.

OLED TVs can't be over-sold in terms of how good they are. They'll improve your visual experience beyond what any system improvement will do. In other words, playing PS4 and going from a standard LED HDTV to an LG OLED is probably a bigger visual jump for the PS4 than going from PS4 to PS5 on the old TV would be.

LG C1, the one I have now, improves everything so much it's ridiculous. Even PS3 looks good again and it hasn't looked good since like 2015.

Mizake · Sep 27, 2022

Rajaah Thx for the insight into the Yakuza series. I was planning on eventually playing through til Kiwami 2 and stopping, but I will definitely check out Y5 based on your recommendation.

Jackie Treehorn · Sep 27, 2022

This game is surprisingly fun, funny, and has decent adventure mechanics of yore, if you’re into adventure games. On top of that, strangely enough, it has graphic pornographic sex. It has a surprisingly deep system of conversations and influence you can have on the little game world it’s set in, a house party. Also, you can randomly piss on people or jerk off on them.

I saw someone talking about this and I’m like yeah this has gotta be garbage but it turned out to be a hoot. Even has replayability, as some of the paths you go down cut you off other ones.

House Party (video game) - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Rajaah · Sep 27, 2022

Mizake said:
Rajaah Thx for the insight into the Yakuza series. I was planning on eventually playing through til Kiwami 2 and stopping, but I will definitely check out Y5 based on your recommendation.

The only downside of Y5 is that it has a bunch of non-Kiryu characters and you might not know who any of them are having missed Y4, which'd probably take some wind out of the game's sails. Also I think you might have to buy the Y3/Y4/Y5 collection to get to it. I'd say plan on 0/1/2 and check out 5 if you really want another one. If you stopped at the end of Y2 you'd have seen the best trio of the series, though, IMO.

Jackie Treehorn · Sep 27, 2022

Rajaah said:
I've heard that the best D&D game for early consoles was Eye of the Beholder on Sega CD. Kind of a hidden gem that hardly anyone knows about.

Later on you have stuff like Chronicles of Mystara and the big CRPGs. As far as like, pre-1998 D&D games go, Eye of the Beholder was top of the heap.

OLED TVs can't be over-sold in terms of how good they are. They'll improve your visual experience beyond what any system improvement will do. In other words, playing PS4 and going from a standard LED HDTV to an LG OLED is probably a bigger visual jump for the PS4 than going from PS4 to PS5 on the old TV would be.

LG C1, the one I have now, improves everything so much it's ridiculous. Even PS3 looks good again and it hasn't looked good since like 2015.

Eye of the Beholder a “hidden” gem? What?

Game was pretty hugely popular, on PC at least. I didn’t love it as much as the turn based Gold Box games.

Utnayan · Sep 28, 2022

Highly recommend beacon pines. It’s on gamepass. Wow! What a great game.

Rajaah · Sep 28, 2022

Jackie Treehorn said:
Eye of the Beholder a “hidden” gem? What?

View attachment 435250

Game was pretty hugely popular, on PC at least. I didn’t love it as much as the turn based Gold Box games.

Well, it's a hidden gem in the modern (emulation) era. I never heard of it until recently myself and it seems to be having a bit of a resurgence in terms of classic game youtubers discovering it over the last couple years. Sega CD unfortunately had a pretty meager install base in-era, but I'm sure the PC version fared better.

velk · Sep 28, 2022

I got this one as a gift recently and quite liked it - played through it to completion with all achieves plus perfect full endless win. Roughly 40 hours worth.

It's uh, roguelike tower defense mixed with a deck building card game. You start with a command center which you an upgrade and buy towers from, so you are never completely screwed by RNG, but you'd normally have most of your towers coming from various cards or 'Cartridges'. It's an interesting way to mix up a general flat 'optimal' path for any given level, and there are an absolute shitload of cards, some of them fairly standard stuff like 'play two machine guns at a 25% discount', but ranging up to wacky shit like the Neutron Bomber which is a missile silo that when it is played it destroys all your towers, takes all their abilities and gives them to the bomber, leaving you with only a hilariously overpowered missile silo.

The bad :
- Janky graphics engine with poor performance on intense end-game levels.
- Uninspired enemy design
- A bit too much commitment to the aesthetic, very much style over substance. I can accept that for the gameplay, but game menus are not the place to do cutesy retro designs, especially graphics settings.
- The towers don't scale equally, so there's less viable variety on very high difficulties

The good:
- Great and detailed tower designs with satisfying sounds and animations.
- Interesting mix of genres
- Assorted insane craziness enabled through legendary cards
- It's dirt cheap
- No IAP or other mobile gaming bullshit

Worth checking out if you enjoy tower defense - you can probably tell if you'd be interested from just screenshots - what you see is what you get.

Fogel · Sep 28, 2022

Found this after the discussion popped up around Vampire Survivors and the ensuing monster hell genre. It doesn't have the permanent incremental improvements the others do, but it does have a ton of classes to unlock, weapons, items, builds etc. It's pretty hard at first but so far its one of my more favorite monster hell games.

Seananigans · Sep 28, 2022

Rajaah said:
I've heard that the best D&D game for early consoles was Eye of the Beholder on Sega CD. Kind of a hidden gem that hardly anyone knows about.

Later on you have stuff like Chronicles of Mystara and the big CRPGs. As far as like, pre-1998 D&D games go, Eye of the Beholder was top of the heap.

OLED TVs can't be over-sold in terms of how good they are. They'll improve your visual experience beyond what any system improvement will do. In other words, playing PS4 and going from a standard LED HDTV to an LG OLED is probably a bigger visual jump for the PS4 than going from PS4 to PS5 on the old TV would be.

LG C1, the one I have now, improves everything so much it's ridiculous. Even PS3 looks good again and it hasn't looked good since like 2015.

Eye of the Beholder was the shit, but PC > Sega CD wtf.

I think EotB was my first first-person dungeon romp. Big nostalgia.

BrotherWu · Sep 28, 2022

I just, for the first time in my life, picked up what I consider to be a higher end gaming PC and I need something that really shows off its capabilities. So used to playing older games on my potato. Problem is I have a hard time getting into some of the guided story games like Elden Ring. God I am getting old and crotchety.

Dizzam · Sep 28, 2022

Add one more to my list: Gloomhaven on PC. It’s free on the Epic Games Store until tomorrow. They did a good job recreating the board game for PC. Highly recommend it.

Fogel · Sep 28, 2022

BrotherWu said:
I just, for the first time in my life, picked up what I consider to be a higher end gaming PC and I need something that really shows off its capabilities. So used to playing older games on my potato. Problem is I have a hard time getting into some of the guided story games like Elden Ring. God I am getting old and crotchety.

Elden Ring is anything but guided story. First time I beat it I still had no idea what was going on. They pretty much shit you out in the middle of no where and say have fun.

Gavinmad · Sep 28, 2022

Fogel said:
It doesn't have the permanent incremental improvements the others do

The difference between "Roguelike" and "Roguelite" is generally considered to be whether the game has meta-progression or not.

And Brotato just got some much needed difficulty nerfs this morning, although I wish they had come BEFORE i wiped to the boss with multiple different characters.

Rajaah · Sep 28, 2022

Seananigans said:
Eye of the Beholder was the shit, but PC > Sega CD wtf.

I think EotB was my first first-person dungeon romp. Big nostalgia.

PC is a huge blank for me up until 1999. Never gamed on one at all before that.

Which leads me to the next thing I'm playing! Picked up Quake on the Switch. Very cheap (think it was $10) and PACKED. Has all four chapters, 3? expansions, and I think a new expansion that they made just for this remaster. I got this just to have something to chill with this week while traveling and it's already a pleasant surprise.

I've never played Quake, only Wolfenstein and Doom ('s console releases) so this is brand new to me. Didn't like it at first but it grew on me fast. Seems kind of like a less stylish version of Doom that plays way better.

Pluses: Tons of content. Just being able to look up and down and move around in 3D feels groundbreaking even now when going from Doom to Quake's Switch ports. I love the level design and how it uses traps. If I were playing this in 1996 or so I'd be blown away by it the same way Mario 64 blew me away.

Negs: There seems to be very little music, to the point that I'm wondering if my game is bugged. Considering what a huge part of Doom the music is, I was hoping for a banger soundtrack here. Then again I'm only like 6 levels in.

Also got Enter the Gungeon, but haven't checked that out yet cause Quake grabbed me.

What are you playing?

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