What are you playing at the moment? - October 2017

[mouton]

Played some Steamworld Dig 2 and, like the first part, it remains a pleasant and chill experience. It is kind of weird that I enjoy it, as it is essentially a simple and linear metroidvania-like thingie, lacking many features of the genre. Still, it is pleasant and that’s probably what it is about.

If only my save did not disappear, eh. Now I am not certain if I want to dig through the starting areas again.

[MantisTobogganM.D.4]

I’ve been playing both the latest Wolfenstein games, The New Order and The Old Blood.

Boy are they good, the plots are basic but there is some real heart in the way the characters are presented and interact with each other.

Also, killing lots of nazis while dual wielding assault rifles or laser guns, weeeee!!!

A pity The Old Blood didn’t run that well at 720p compared to The New Order though, I should really upgrade my video card if I want to play The New Colossus.

How’s the stealth? I’ve heard some bad things about forced stealth in those games.

I don’t hate stealth games, but despise when it’s shoe horned into a non stealth game and it’s clunky and awful. I especially hate when there’s a level that forces you to use the awful system instead of just blowing shit up like the rest of the game because they feel some need to cram in a stealth level.

[Det.Bullock]

I’ve been playing both the latest Wolfenstein games, The New Order and The Old Blood.

Boy are they good, the plots are basic but there is some real heart in the way the characters are presented and interact with each other.

Also, killing lots of nazis while dual wielding assault rifles or laser guns, weeeee!!!

A pity The Old Blood didn’t run that well at 720p compared to The New Order though, I should really upgrade my video card if I want to play The New Colossus.

How’s the stealth? I’ve heard some bad things about forced stealth in those games.

I don’t hate stealth games, but despise when it’s shoe horned into a non stealth game and it’s clunky and awful. I especially hate when there’s a level that forces you to use the awful system instead of just blowing shit up like the rest of the game because they feel some need to cram in a stealth level.

It’s not really forced, it’s more that in some situations blowing things up is a bit too difficult as opposed to stealthing stuff, it’s never a matter of “if you get discovered it’s game over no matter what”.

[MantisTobogganM.D.4]

It’s not really forced, it’s more that in some situations blowing things up is a bit too difficult as opposed to stealthing stuff, it’s never a matter of “if you get discovered it’s game over no matter what”.

Thanks good to know, is it done well?

[Det.Bullock]

It’s not really forced, it’s more that in some situations blowing things up is a bit too difficult as opposed to stealthing stuff, it’s never a matter of “if you get discovered it’s game over no matter what”.

Thanks good to know, is it done well?

Uhm, it’s still basic FPS mechanics without stealth indicators, spare knives can be thrown and basically one-shot unarmored enemies regardless of where you hit them, and you have a very precise silenced gun like in the old RTCW.
There is a bit of help though, in some places there are commanders that if alerted will summon enemies until they are taken down (basically, taking them down first ans stealthily makes things a lot easier), there is a perk in TNO which shows their position on the map and in TOB you have a sort of radar that indicates how far they are and in which direction.
Now that I think about it there are also a couple of lenghty sections in both TOB and TNO in which you are weaponless and you need to stealth stuff until you get a weapon and in TOB there are some bigass robots that need a bit of stealth to be disabled safely.

Though TNO isn’t very stealth-friendly (rather than forced stealth sections it has forced shooty-bang sections), I managed to stealth quite a good chunk of TOB, but TOB was clearly isnpired by RTCW so make of that what you will.

[The_JG_Man]

Haven’t played any Minecraft since the last expedition due to not feeling well, apart from one session where I booted up creative mode to see if I could build a castle in a nice area. I found the area, but boy I forgot how tedious clearing out an area is. I’m sure there are mods or maybe even cheat commands to move whole areas, but I don’t know if I care so much for something I may not even return to. I think I was still delirious at the time, really.

With Sonic Forces’ impending release, something I won’t be able to play for a while although early indications suggest that might not be a bad thing, I just booted up some Sonic Mania and man, it’s just joyful. Steam says I’ve put 25 hours into it. It speaks of its replayability that it’s been out as long as it has and I’ve been able to get that much out of it. Barely scratched the surface too with the time attack mode. I also saw that on my friend list, only one person owns it. I don’t know how this could have happened. I’ve been telling everyone about how fantastic it is, whether they’ve wanted to hear it or not!

I’m playing Pokemon Uranium

Oh yeah I remember that one. Some of the designs looked pretty good and the concept of the extra type was interesting, but I never got round to playing it. I think it got overshadowed by Prism which looked pretty interesting. Didn’t try out that one either.

[MantisTobogganM.D.4]

Thanks, the new order is probably what I’ll grab 1st then. Forced shooty bang sounds good to me.

[Tritagonist]

Finished Rise of the Tomb Raider. It’s a really weird game. It’s excellent in some areas, and plain weird in others. They introduce way too many mechanics, then never use half of them beyond the initial introduction. There seem to be at least three different character models for Lara, and I don’t mean outfits. The main antagonists are completely unnecessary, and detract from a far more interesting story of the Roman civilization that’s more hinted at than highlighted. Some of the challenge tombs are fantastic, while others are so simplistic they’re almost unfit for a tutorial. They went through all this trouble to re-boot the series, and then barely give Lara any time to be a person; having 30 seconds of introspection when using a campsite isn’t cutting it - especially since a lot of players will be using said campsite to upgrade weapons, skills, etc. It also has multiple moments with an uncanny amount of similarities to the first Tomb Raider re-reboot. It’s pretty consistently great looking, though - so there’s that. It’s almost a bit like they had a great game on the design table but replaced half of it with… stuff. It’s one of the most odd things I’ve seen in games in a while.

I definitely recommend it to pretty much everyone even remotely interested, but it could have been much better. Easily so, which makes it all the more curious.

[TheDreamlord]

The first two hours of the new Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus are brilliant. The shooting is as good or better as the earlier games, the graphics are fantastic and it seems that the cutscenes and story are gona be a few notches above most games. Certainly above expectations. So far I agree with the RPS review that most fighting is done inside corridors, but it really plays very well. And the voice acting, cutscene quality and general polish are superb. There were also at least a couple of times so far that made me smirk and chuckle. And it doesn’t hold back on graphic violence either.
My only complaint is that I can’t bloody take screenshots, as neither steam’s overlay, nor EVGA’s Precision XOC work. A real pity.

[arathain]

Destiny 2 is some pretty good shootin’ indeed, but what’s really selling it to me is how beautiful it is. Not just that it runs well and has great textures and that, but that marries so well with the art design to create unique environments that have me stopping and staring for a while. I’m excited to see what’s next. Big props to Nessus in particular, for feeling very alien.

[LTK]

Playing Quake: Arcane Dimensions made me notice a tiny detail that I miss in modern games: the way that shocks jiggle your character around on the surface instead of just causing screen shake. It really gives you that feeling that you’re about to lose your footing, and adds just a little to the sense that your character is physically there, even though you’re basically a camera on wheels in every other respect. The original Unreal did this too but there’s nothing of the sort in any modern FPS I can remember, which is a real shame.

[TheDreamlord]

Can someone give me some advice on Cryptark, please? The game is a lot of fun, but god damn is it hard. Am I supposed to slowly accumulate resources/upgrades? Are there any? It seems anything above level 3 is just a fucktone of hurt.

[TheDreamlord]

The new Wolfenstein has some of the best motherfucking story cutscenes I’ve ever seen in video games! Emphasis on story, but also acting, voice acting, humour and equally importantly, music. It’s brilliant!
(and I still can’t take any motherfucking screenshots…argh)

[alms]

Does Steamworld Heist actually have any ace up its sleeves?

I played a number of missions on Experienced, and it’s a snoozefest, not unlike its predecessor. While it sure tries hard to come across as charming (just like… etc), it’s about as flavorful as a board of particle wood, it lives or dies entirely based on game-play (that’s where Dig lost me) and, despite the bouncing shots gimmick, there seems to be just no fun in sight: at its core, it looks like the usual tactical soup, of cover, position, classes, equipment, that other chefs, pardon, games, have already perfected. I’d rather start another campaign of XCOM, honestly.

Like Dig, mostly everything looks in place, from a distance, and yet, up close, it’s missing that ingredient, or maybe that touch of talent? …love?, that makes it work.

[LTK]

Steamworld Heist failed to grab me too. The frustration caused by trying to line up a perfect shot and then having it fail spectacularly because of a split-second mistiming in taking the shot quickly grew far beyond whatever entertainment the game could muster to provide.

In other news, Quake: Arcane Dimensions is a cracking good time, there’s just something to the old engines that make them much more of a challenge than anything modern id has produced. Not bad, just different.

[sonson]

I found it far better than Xcom. It’s possible to approach a scenario in a variety of effective ways, as opposed to there being one cast iron tedious optimal solution and dozens of useless ones. I honestly think if you laid out the variety of tactical options available to a squad there’s more than in Xcom too, once you get to the mid/late options. The shot aiming is a bit of a red herring. While you can pull off some amazing shots from any whichwhere and kill several enemies in one, by and large you just want to be manoeuvring yourself into place to manage a clean shot. As per most strategy games, if you’re constantly relying on the perfect aligning of one moment or a set of events conspiring in a certain way then you’re not managing your resources properly. The only members I’m ever straining for skillshots with are the ones who can’t move and fire, but even then it’s more just a case of finding a clear sniping spot for them first.

Only talking about the first Xcom reboot here. Can’t speak for the second having not played it.

[Internet]

I’m bouncing of Steamworld Heist right now too. Too little variation in missions. Lots of loot, but it’s not that interesting.

Steamworld Dig on the other hand, was something I loved. The repetitive motion of the game was quite soothing, and there’s enough variation and secrets in there to avoid monotony. This I’m just seeing the monotony.

Currently been on an RPG maker game kick. Tried a couple ones and couldn’t get into them. Star Stealing Prince has been pretty decent so far. It’s an interesting mystery using the tried and true JRPG formula of a village that never changes until the main character does something to fuck it up. I’m sad I couldn’t get into the ironic French one with the main character being an angel of justice wielding a baseball bat, but it was just too sloggy. Obviously none of them will beat the Last Sovereign.

[Shadoko]

I just finished my first successful playthrough of 80 Days, in 72 days. I took what I assume to be one of the simplest routes : Paris-Moscow through Berlin and Warsaw, then the Transsiberian all the way to Japan, a steamer to San Francisco, the transcontinental railway to reach New York and away to London. I even made a profit by selling stuff on the way.
I’ve been chased by the secret police of the Tsar, I’ve witnessed a mongol rocket taking off, I’ve started a mutiny aboard a submarine, I’ve catched Jesse James and finally had a love affair with a guy dressed as Death in New Orleans.
It was truly wonderful.
The game is incredibly stylish, and I love its optimistic yet semi-realistic and contemplative tone that’s very evocative of adventure comics like Corto Maltese. I’d happily play it again : I want to see Africa, India, China, or to cross the path of this Polar expedition I keep hearing about, or what happens if I turn my contemplative and cowardly Passepartout into a courageous adventurer.

I really like the way it relates to the source material. By many aspects, it’s an extremely loose adaptation : it’s a modernised setting, much more diverse and very different both in tone and content : it’s not the XIXth century as seen by an XIXth century writer, but a weird XIXth century re-imagined by XXIth century writers and it’s amazing.
On the other hand, it’s very faithful to Jules Vernes in spirit. Snippets like the one where the Transsiberian retracts its wheels and starts hovering above a frozen lake under the eyes of a fascinated Passepartout are very, very Verne-like.

80 days is amazing.

[Blackice]

80 days is amazing.

It certainly is, one of my favourite games ever - played mostly on tablet though.

After finishing Ryse, I’ve moved onto another “AAA game that I either need to finish or uninstall as I need the drive space” - DOOM. I got stuck on the rubbish Cacodemon boss fight months ago, but figured I better give it another try so I watched a playthrough on the Youtubes, steeled myself for an evening of frustration… and beat the stupid thing on my second go. I really don’t understand why this game needs such old fashioned “big lump in a small area with loads of hitpoints” boss fights when the rest of the game is basically what I want from a boss fight - large areas with multiple routes to attack from and a varied mix of enemies to defeat. Just throw 10 of the hardest regular enemies at me in one of these areas and call that a boss fight!

Anyway, I’ve had loads of exhilarating battles since beating him, but I think I’m approaching the next boss so I will have to see if I get stuck again…

[Jurple]

Does Steamworld Heist actually have any ace up its sleeves?
…
at its core, it looks like the usual tactical soup, of cover, position, classes, equipment, that other chefs, pardon, games, have already perfected.

I highly enjoyed it. But then, it’s the first of its ilk I played. I went on to highly enjoy Invisible Inc and XCOM. What else scratches the same itch? Would Frozen Synapse do, or Doorkickers? Not that I’m close to being done with XCOM, mind.

I did have a slightly averse reaction to Steamworld Dig, on the other hand: it was fun and engaging, and then it wasn’t.