I've been diving back into Ghost Recon Wildlands after discovering just how damn enjoyable the game is at the highest difficulty levels. Suddenly sniper rifles and stealth are the only viable playstyles, and I feel like I'm actually being tested by the AI rather than watching all these paper narcos obligingly fall over and die for my amusement. I also love how unwoke the game is. Very America Fuck Yeah.
I also dusted off Master of Magic. Still haven't found a 4X that rivals it in my eyes, and it's not nostalgia talking. I actually never played it growing up (though I played MoO and MoO2 like my childhood depended on it). Good shit.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance. I have never seen medieval Europe portrayed this well in any other game, nor in any movie either by the way.
I dabbled in some RDR2 and Spider-Man, but I'm really in the mood for a good single-player shooter campaign for some reason, so I'm thinking of looking to pick something up on PS4 to zone out and play.
If you haven't try the titanfall 2 campaign. Still the most satisfying campaign in the last ten years for me at least
I have! It was quite good. I'm hoping TF3 continues with such a strong single-player focus. That's sort of my problem at the moment; I've played a majority of decent shooter campaigns.
I hear PS+ has the Modern Warfare campaign this month, I'm not sure if it's the same as the original MW2 story that came out years ago. Anyone know? May give it a shot.
Following, because I'm in exactly the same boat. I'm running through Far Cry Primal again, but I'll need something else soon. Suggestions welcome.
It's tough, right?
I personally enjoy good war stories and historical shooters, but there hasn't been a really good campaign in a historical-type shooter in a long time -- what a shame.
It's been insane to watch how broken the PC version of RDR2 was and still is and yet barely catch crap for it. Far too many naturally gobble that Rockstar cock anymore.
I've been on a CK2 kick. My Irish Satanist Fylkir Grand Prince is in a holy war to take Constantinople from the jews.
The AI HRE will always get in over its head with wars at some point and their troops will get stomped down to a couple thousand. That's when you can take Tholen. You can raid the Mediterranean and sacrifice popes in the meantime.
How you think CK3 gonna be? Initial impressions?
I reserve judgement for release. I still have faith in Paradox, but I'm prepared to be disappointed.
Holy crap, Master of Magic was one of my favourites back in the day. Spent many hours on it, had an awesome hero that just kicked ass everywhere he went. Wish they'd update this, the graphics are poo now.
There is a fan-made DLC that GOG has started selling called "Caster of Magic." I don't really know much about it. People seem to love or hate it. There's also an HD Java-powered MoM version that's surfaced in the past year. Haven't tried that either.
Age of Wonders 2 is as close as it gets to a sequel and is recent enough that the graphics are solid. AOW3 starts branching off into something else, and AOW:Planetfall continues to go in that direction, in addition to the obvious sci-fi thematic shift.
I am still playing Ghost of Tsushima and still enjoying it amazingly. This is a pretty good game.
Same, and the difficulty has such an amazing curve upward. I'm nearly done with Chapter 2 and despite having 15 additional ways to kill them the enemies are still just right.
I didn't think I could cry harder at a game than I did at the Bad End of Infamous 2(Seriously, what kind of monster hurts people like this), but I feel like this game will emotionally gut punch me worse than the Chapter 1 final mission.
Metro games.
Criminally underrated, fantastic games.
Didn't like the new one much tbh...I thought I'd really like it too, the first two are pretty epic.
Yeah I find Exodus to be the Fallout 4 of the Metro series. Decent enough game but is ruined by how much better everything which came before it is.
I find your opinion heretical and demand you expound upon it. Please.
The first two metro games cultivate an incredible atmosphere of claustrophobic dread, twinged with a sliver of hope that despite our best efforts, we as humans might just survive the end of the world. It keeps the world nice and mysterious while adding some very interesting supernatural elements that nicely contrast the central decision Artyom has to make between being a soldier whose only interest is following orders, and a person who is ready to embrace the change to the new world and what it might bring.
Exodus rains all over that by showing that the happenings in Moscow are silly in comparison because the rest of the world seeks to have survived just fine. The retcon-y reason doesn't really work very well if you ask me. It also takes games about the unique and interesting environment of the metro and replaces them with yet another generic, homogenised, open-world survival-crafting game with loot to find. There's no more claustrophobic dread because you know you can just run away across open terrain and there's no real threat that can keep up.
Contrast the Dead City chapters of Exodus with the rest of the game. Only there is there real tension and subtle horror and it just shows how relatively lacking the rest of the game is.
PSO2.
Reinstalled Age of empires II HD. The intro to the william wallace campaign still brings pangs of nostalgia when ever I load it up.
I played Battletoads. It's honestly frustrating top to bottom. The combat is okay, though the enemies are a bit too spongy for my liking and some of the animations are far too long (though can be cancelled at any time). I'm fine with the art style, really. It's cohesive and mostly clean and the designs are largely decent.
Shame about the writing. It's Thundercats Roar levels of shit all over again. The franchise would be irrelevant if not for the fans of the originals keeping the flames of hope alive for over two decades, and the writers make a character that's a stand-in for the old fans and kill him. Some of the scenes could work much better with a little tweaking: mentioning Rash not being seen for a few days or a week before or during the conspiracy theory/diaper scene would have helped. Making it obvious Dark Queen is now insane from being locked away for 26 years might... no. Nothing could save that "eat my ass" scene. It's shit-tier Rick & Morty humor. I held out hope she'd look like her old self after getting her powers back. Silly me.
The gameplay's schizophrenic, with multiple competing minigames thrown around with little rhyme or reason. A turbobike level, then fighting followed by several hacking puzzles, then terrible Flash-tier minigame levels.
I haven't really bothered to touch Warframe for a few weeks at this point and have no real intention to considering DE has already nerfed a bunch of shit from the new update before it's even been released.
I've been playing Child of Light. A side scrolling RPG. The gameplay is fine, fun but nothing amazing. It's quite good visually, like a story book, but the writing is starting to get on my nerves. It's all written in rhyming verse, badly.
Yeah I know what you mean about the script, the music is very nice though and it does get quite tricky towards the end, well more than I thought it would.
I went to my local card shop for some Yu-Gi-Oh, mainly played Melee and DBFZ otherwise. Good reliable entertainment.
How's the card shop scene these days?
Mega Man 7. The last Dr. Wiley boss is the absolute worst thing I have seen in any video game ever made, I think it somehow qualifies as a war crime.
There haven't been many times I've sat down to play something in the past 25 years where I didn't want to play Master of Magic or Master of Orion 2, so I commend your choice, OP.
I'm working on Sunless Sea, which is alright but it takes some time to get used to the pace and slow-burn style of story progress and creeping dread. I'm waiting on Sunless Skies to hit consoles soon.
I did try the Avengers beta, and it's nice that every character plays differently and mostly reminiscent of other franchises with each character, but I'm not feeling the gear-dependant power levels aspect.
I got the itch for Metal Gear and so bought a PS3 for the legacy collection.
Currently on MGS4 and I've forgotten how rough the stealth can be thanks to the game spawning sentries right on top of you in some cases.
This will be an odd one but I finished Zelda Ocarina of Time for the first time ever. Honestly struggled with it as I don't do well with old 3D control schemes. In the end it was a fun experience.
I've been leaning towards dumb meaningless stories and older games lately. Just grown tired of the modern "serious adult" cinematic open world lately. Every time I pick one up after a little while I just want to put it down for a while. So I've been alternating mainly between what I'd call old kids games like Zelda and older FPS games.
You might enjoy Nuclear Throne. It's raw dumb fun but also a very tightly designed game.
Looks fun I'll have to check it out. Always up for something new
It's good if you like bullet hells that aren't super Japanese, and have a zillion Super Mario Bros 3 styled secret levels/warps/hidden characters, etc etc. Think Enter the Gungeon but fast paced with playthroughs usually ranging between 5-15 minutes.
Besides still cruising through Goat of Tsushi Man, I picked up Final Fantasy X/X-2 and have been replaying them for the dozenth time. Something about them just feels so much better than everything before AND after. Even X-2 which I will defend to my death as a strong game.
I've replayed X-2 a couple times, most recently last year. It's definitely very silly at times, but I like the job system in it a lot. And Yuna is one of my favorite FF characters.
The story is completely silly, but it works once you accept that. And it somehow makes "Mega Concert in Thunder Plains" actually impactful in a way few others could.
But that combat system is by far one of the most fun in any JRPG I've ever played.
And the "multiple smaller plotlines and minigames all running concurrently instead of a single all encompassing main plot" was unique then and still somehow unchallenged in that. If not for the absurd 100% requirements you could skip parts of the game you didn't like on every playthrough.
Very true. Totally agree about the 1,000 Words cinematic too. That song hit me pretty hard the first time I played the game.
I get strangely addicted to grinding in that game too because I always want to fully master EVERY dress sphere. By the time I get to the final boss I'm so overleveled all I have to do is sneeze and he'll fall over.
Still tossing a coin to The Witcher 3, finished the main quest and am working thru the Blood & Wine expansion to get that grandmaster Witcher armor which is a total bitch to get the materials.
Got my 1st rare Steam achievement that glows gold- I got all the grandmaster diagrams/
I absolutely loved witcher 3. I worked on a job that got jammed up by lawsuits and I got paid to stay home for six months. I read a lot, really improved my drawing skills, and played Witcher 3. I finished it, and am not ashamed to admit I got teared up at the ending (I got the best ending, in my view, which I won't spoil for you).
Periodically I pick it up again to play it for my wife (she just likes to watch). She's going to love Blood and Wine, though she doesn't know it yet.
I've been replaying the earlier Assassin's Creed titles- finished AC 2 and am about to start up Brotherhood.
I've recently went om a Monster Hunter Ultimate binge. The entire series has gone under my radar until recently, which is a shame.
Its interesting how elements that would've annoyed me in other games - clunky menu systems, endless tutorials, postage stamp sized zones, gear fetishism - are quite enjoyable in MH. It's like someone took a generic grindy jrpg mmo and packed it full of really fun quests and features.
I played work while staring longingly at the desktop shortcut for Death Stranding. Finally have some free time today and tomorrow though so hopefully I'll be able to dig myself out of the game's tutorial island.
Any good? I watched an hour of Let's Plays of it on YouTube and kind of felt like killing myself.
It's kind of a niche game. It's the sort of game you might really like if you enjoy moving freight in EVE Online or Elite Dangerous or something, because the core of the game really is delivering cargo and figuring out your route through the landscape/hazards. Plus some horror elements and the standard Kojima oddness. There are mechanics related to how Sam, the MC, moves and how the distribution of cargo affects his balance and all that sort of thing. Most of your items are relevant more by how they help you traverse the environment than anything else (ladders, climbing ropes, that sort of thing).
I quite like it, but I like exploring and traversing the map as it's own thing, with DS seems to be built around. Of you're looking for a more traditional action game I don't know how much you'd enjoy it.
I played The Persistence on the PS4...not bad, bit boring, would've been pretty bad if not in VR I bet.
Been playing a lot of Yoshi's Cookie too for some reason.
Oh and MW Ultra on the C64.
I've been too busy playing the stock market to do much gaming but I'm looking forward to the Star Wars Squadrons game. I was expecting it to be dumbed down shit but it actually looks like it'll be amazing so far.
FFVI with an in-depth walkthrough saved for offline reading.
And some silly mobile games too.
The gameplay of FFVI aged very well. The art style too, but the graphic quality, nope. Still a master piece.
Dat opera
Oh, my hero. So far away now....
My guitar.
I finally hopped on PSO2 now that it's on steam. The original was one of my favorites from the GameCube era and the sequal does not disappoint.
Wild West & Wizards, BF4, Sanitarium, TF2, SOMA
Been trying to get started in Empyrion Galactic Survival. Love space engineers but not a lot of "livingness" in it for my taste. Seems Empyrion is heading that way but still in early access and is points in it I need to look up how to do stuff.
Been doing Stellaris some too, but I still suck as that game as well.
Been thinking about another play through of Ark due to Crystal Isles but only so many dinosaur bases I can build and its always the same thing with Ark. Follow the same script in rushing to certain dinos to progress fastest.
Fall Guys, and yet I have to win a crown. And the usual TF2 dustbowl, plus hoping for those new case drops (That's free money right there).