PlayStation have a big sale on abd I was hoping FF7 would be on it but it wasn't.

Instead I got Days Gone. An open world zombie game. It's not very original for the most part and has loads of open world tropes, but it's raison d'être is having swarms of zombies kind of World War Z style which can lead to some hair raising encounters. So what it lacks in originality it makes up for in fun.

It looks great for sure, I’ve watched a few YouTube vids on it.

The Tetris Effect. I wanted to get this ages ago but just didn't feel like paying 40 quid for Tetris. It finally was on sale so I nebbed it. Probably the definitive version of the game. Great soundtrack and visuals. Would love to play it in VR but no longer have the headset.

Animavore wrote:

Thomas Eshuis wrote:

Animavore wrote:It's no shittier than Steam's monopolising behaviour which is finally being broken.

What monopolising behaviour exactly?
I mean, I'm not saying Steam is perfect, but afaik they don't do exclusives that are not their own games.
Also Steam's monopoly was already being broken by GOG, EA, UBI and others.
*Edit and Microsofts game pass.

EA, Ubi, and Microsoft all buy exclusives so I don't see why Epic gets singled out. Epic also invest money into games, case in point Phoenix Point who they gave a substantial amount towards production helping them broaden the scope of the game.

I don't get the Epic Games bad guy-ism at all.

Indeed but as with all/most fan(atic)ism rational arguments don't work.

I, for example, dont care about launcher at all. All I want is to start a game. Achievements, friends list and I dunno what Steam has because I dont use it is redundant for me. Now, if Epic gives me free games and at the same time gives developers higher cut on sold games than Steam, what else should I care about? Disingenuous methods? lol Like what?

tuco wrote:

Animavore wrote:

Thomas Eshuis wrote:

Animavore wrote:It's no shittier than Steam's monopolising behaviour which is finally being broken.

What monopolising behaviour exactly?
I mean, I'm not saying Steam is perfect, but afaik they don't do exclusives that are not their own games.
Also Steam's monopoly was already being broken by GOG, EA, UBI and others.
*Edit and Microsofts game pass.

EA, Ubi, and Microsoft all buy exclusives so I don't see why Epic gets singled out. Epic also invest money into games, case in point Phoenix Point who they gave a substantial amount towards production helping them broaden the scope of the game.

I don't get the Epic Games bad guy-ism at all.

Indeed but as with all/most fan(atic)ism rational arguments don't work.

I, for example, dont care about launcher at all. All I want is to start a game. Achievements, friends list and I dunno what Steam has because I dont use it is redundant for me. Now, if Epic gives me free games and at the same time gives developers higher cut on sold games than Steam, what else should I care about? Disingenuous methods? lol Like what?

Sure, because we haven't esposed any rational argument in this discussion

If you liked Shadow Tactics you will love this.

Animavore wrote:If you liked Shadow Tactics you will love this.

I liked the first 2. But I'm not playing on PC at the moment.

I'm playing on PlayStation.

Oh. Didn't thought of that. It's the kind of games I only play on PC usually. But I might rethink that. How is the interface ?

Fine to me. But I'm used to console even on these type of games.

Recently went through the game:

CONTROL


Neat game. Weird story. Understand it shares a universe with those Alan Wake game that maaaybe I should try.

Unexpected bonus: they featured and have previously collaborated (in the Alan Wake games, under a different name, in the game's fictional universe) with one of my favorite bands POETS OF THE FALL, whose lyrics are always outta this world.

Also, the actress in it (Courtney Hope) has...excellent facial structure. Her features are kinda like a mix between Cobie Smulders and Jaimie Alexander, which is just...perfect.

...

Almost done with METRO: EXODUS.

I've only watched as far as I've gotten, but this guy does a mission that took me nearly an hour in under 2 minutes. No glitching or anything.

Shadow Tactics is only 6 quid on Steam at the moment so I picked it up. Now I've a stealth tactic game for home and work. I'm expecting ST to be as good as D3.

Been playing two games this week, Wasteland 2 and Blaster Master Zero.

Wasteland 2 I've started a couple times but didn't manage to make a party I was happy with until now. There's a welcome spike in difficulty when you get to LA, but lately there's been a lot of ambush encounters that come down to combat initiative. Whoever goes first will win. Leveling, with rare exception, doesn't increase your initiative, so you can't just grind a bit until you're stronger, and I've got the most powerful weapons and armor I can get. So I'm stuck with ticking down the difficulty to normal just so the game doesn't become a total slog. Which is a shame because it also makes the enemies act dumber -- I'm fine with them playing smart as long as they aren't always going to just immediately run me over because it also boots their initiative through the roof. The game is at its best when it gives you an interesting map and encourages you to exploit it to defeat your enemies. Unfortunately it seems to be abandoning that part towards the end of the game. Still, an overall enjoyable simple tactical game.

The other is Master Blaster Zero. Always loved the original, and while I don't love all the music and graphical changes they made to this it does solve a lot of the problems with the original. Not sure whether I like that they returned the plot to the original, because the original is pretty dumb and I like how simple and evocative the original was, though also stupid. The map makes the game a hundred times more playable, as does it's efforts to preserve your gun level in the overhead area so you don't always feel you're starting from scratch. This can make it too easy, or at least until you hit a difficulty spike around Area 7 where you can't just demolish everything in sight with a fully powered gun. There's cool weapons and items to collect, but once you have the area map you can see where things are and there's no point in exploring overhead areas where there isn't, because there's just normal power-ups which are everywhere anyway. Still, I want to explore anyway because the tank is so much fun to roll around in, they've captured a lot of what was great about the original.

A word of warning though: make sure you've got everything collected prior to fighting the Area 7 boss. If you don't, there's no way to go back, Sophia III is stuck there. There's no warning of this, and although it doesn't make any future areas impassable you can miss out on some powerful weapons and it does affect the ending. I'm pretty pissed about it actually, having to start over the entire game because you can't backtrack? What is this, 1988?

Indeed CI is busted in WL2 and the lack of ability to relocate points sux imo. I guess, the idea behind the lack of this, what I would call, quality of life feature is replayability but cmon, get some data on what players actually do in .. their .. games and just let them play, its single-player who cares? Don't rely on mods either.

I found combat repetitive, and boring, after some time but I am a chronic restarter so despite never finishing the game I got like 500 hours in it :) Good game. What I found fun was settings and characters and even story and I am saying this a stat whore/combat oriented player.

Back to lack of this or that feature or mechanic in games. We've touched it some time ago with Sekiro/Soul Series and difficulty setting or rather lack of. Could be interesting to be part of dev team when the question what to allow player to do and what not comes up.

In Pillars of Eternity Deadfire, for example, seemed to me that Obsidian, Josh Sawyer (RPG guru) in particular ;), were obsessed with balance and acted accordingly, essentially making all the cool and broken stuff present in Baldur's Gate, and to lesser extent in Pillars 1, lets say dull.



So there are artists with some lets say vision and there are those who use their art. Obviously, I would like artists to create for me! And sometimes they do. Its when I go like .. that's how I would do it .. lol sure.

I've seen that video, good stuff. It's definitely a fine line between making any sort of roleplay you can imagine viable and making your choices not matter. Sometimes I like being able to just pick up a game and play it without having to know everything that's going on under the hood...but then, I also really like gathering that knowledge and having it pay off.

Ghost of Tsushima is the Samurai movie simulator I've always wanted. I'm surprised it's Sucker Punch who got here first and not Ubisoft, though I doubt Ubisoft would do as good a job. One of the nicest features of GoT is you are guided to your locations by the wind rather than intrusive waypoints. Just walk in the direction of the pollen, petals, leaves, or rain.

One of the most stunning games out there and the combat feels just right. It balances well enough the usual open world issues of having too little to do or too much.

I think what I'm really enjoying most in GoT is the enemies increasing in quality as you go through the game. It would be all too easy to just give them levels represented by numbers above their heads like so many other games and if their level is too high you can forget about going into those areas, but for the most part there's not much difference between a level 10 and level 1 of the same enemy type.

In GoT you can take on any enemy at any time but in areas with better soldiers the enemies there will be more numerous, better equipped and armoured, and also will have a larger repertoire of moves. They will feign attacks, dodge, parry, add more tricks and items. You could definitely take them on and slog your way through them, but it's better to have more technique points unlocked because that increases your own moveset and arsenal and your lethality. You can then have more options to take out groups or have specific stances to counter particular enemies to open then up and cut them down quicker. With the right techniques unlocked you can cut down three people in a stand off (your initial fight challenge), plant a couple of arrows in strategic environmental hazards, and even scare another couple away in a matter of seconds.

This is the combat The Witcher 3 was missing and, for me, stopping it short of being truly great (I actually turned the difficulty down so I could just breeze past the fights and get on with the story because it wasn't engaging me). Alternatively, if Ghost of Tsushima had a better story and a bit more variety in missions it could also be the perfect game.

Nice artstyle in this XCOM-like. Out next week.

This game is more fun than it has any right to be.