What game are you playing?

[maidenhaver]

Part of the early fun was not knowing patrols (basically move patterns for slow people), getting caught, and running away. Ghosting becomes degenerate. If you've ever seen one of the youtubers who review new fm's, they've gotten too mechanical at the game, and quickload as a reflex instead of breaking line of sight. Sad!

[Element]

Part of the early fun was not knowing patrols (basically move patterns for slow people), getting caught, and running away. Ghosting becomes degenerate. If you've ever seen one of the youtubers who review new fm's, they've gotten too mechanical at the game, and quickload as a reflex instead of breaking line of sight. Sad!

You have to toggle quicksaves in the settings in Gloomwood. By default they're off and you only save when you find a gramophone. Levels are designed around this, akin to the bonfires in DS1 where you would loop back to where you started through a newly opened shortcut. On hardest difficulty you must also find an item to use on the gramophone in order to save.

[rusty_shackleford]

Part of the early fun was not knowing patrols (basically move patterns for slow people), getting caught, and running away. Ghosting becomes degenerate. If you've ever seen one of the youtubers who review new fm's, they've gotten too mechanical at the game, and quickload as a reflex instead of breaking line of sight. Sad!

loading a game if you didn't get a gameover is cheating, simple as

[maidenhaver]

Jew Gasser 8: Burning Down Every Synogogue in America and Filling in their Tunnels to Preschools

[maidenhaver]

Trying to play Elemental Gearbolt on a steamdeck.

****** psx rails shooter

[SpellSword]

I'm nearly done Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls... however it seems parts of one of the final quests are bugged. I'm going to mess around with it for a bit more but this may be as far as I can get.

Nature of the bug:
Areas of the dungeon that should load an event trigger the wrong event, no event, or provide an incorrect message that the event on that dungeon tile has already been activated... which it unfortunately hasn't and does not count it towards the quest's completion. There are also scatterings of strange events I've been encountering randomly on these dungeon floors that vanish if I reload the game. Often these seemingly randomly placed events don't trigger anything when stepped on so they are yet more corrupted mess.

From what I've read this is an often encountered issue with this quest, and there may be a solution:

Quest: Judgment of the Disturbers

It also can be pretty glitchy, so if something is not where it should be you will need to go and complete one of the repeatable quests to "reset" it and hopefully make the trigger spawn where it should be on this quest; on the forums I have seen it claimed that The Cursed Weapon will cause a "reset" properly every time.

All 'repeatable quests' require a nasty amount of grinding. I've got one of these 'cursed weapons' but they are pretty rare so I'm hoping the 'reset' fix will work first attempt.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I am trying Honkai Star Rail again.

► lengthy

I like the zany space fantasy setting. March 7th is very pleasant to be around. The visuals during combat are neat. Some of the miscellaneous flavor text you get from talking to trashcans, piles of luggage, mailboxes, hotel room wardrobes, etc, are neat. There are also some minigames to spruce up the experience, though they are overly simple.




I like how there is a minimalist block carvings of a whale hanging from the ceiling.




I like how the ship captain is a little antagonistic towards you.




Some of the menus are neat, though they remind me of League of Legend's UI with the gold text on dark backgrounds and the art deco lines.






However, the moment-to-moment experience of going through the main campaign and sidequesting ranges from just "okay" to lackluster and sometimes mediocre. There is no one particular thing that damns the experience, but it is a death by a thousand cuts. The aggregate issues really bring down what could have been a much better experience, not just if the game was a box purchase but even in comparison to gachas a decade older like Granblue Fantasy.

For the moment-to-moment experience... where to even begin? Before even touching the story, you have all of these things competing for your attention. You open up your menu and see dozens of buttons and more sub-menus, with alerts demanding your attention. You open the trophy screen and see a wall of things that need to be clicked. You open a character screen and see ascensions and relics and light cones and eidolons x 4+ characters and all of these other things that need to be managed. Everything needs 100+ different currencies so you then have to try hunting for a needle in a haystack to find the menu that lets you buy or do a daily to get that currency. You also have at least three or four different menus for daily and levelling up progress. And then a few hours in, you start getting adventurer rank/trailblaze level/equilibrium level roadblocked, which means you have to put the story on hold to do a lot of tedious management. You can't go 5 minutes without needing go back into the menu and manage a bunch of things. It is not fun and butchers the pacing of going through the story, which in GBF or your usual JRPG is usually a potent experience. It is hard for me to accurately estimate how much time I have invested in going through the story, when easily at least 60% to 70%+ of my playtime has been these menu and managerial issues holing me up.


This isn't even all of the buttons/menus yet. More unlocked and appeared on this screen after this.


One of the achievement screens. And yes, you have to click on every single button.


Another achievement screen.


Daily login screen.


Another daily login screen.


The notices on the overall main menu direct you to a THIRD daily login screen that directs you to the official Mihoyo forum. Logging in there once per day gives you tidbit of ingame currencies too!


It's those facebook daily missions from 2010!


I think this is one of those new things they call a battle pass. Apparently you get the stuff on the top row by playing the game for free, while for the bottom row you might need some sort of monthly subscription.


Another progress menu.


Then you have the actual story, which has issues on both the micro and macro level. On the micro level, talking to NPCs is presented in the most dull manner possible: your camera is zoomed out far away from the character and you do even get a facial portrait (be it 2D or a 3D model) so you can't even read any emotion on that character's face or memorize what they look like. Most of the game's story is presented in this depersonalized way.


Most of the story looks like this.


Sometimes you will get cutscenes but most of them have poor blocking and camera framing, and the formulaic dialogue writing makes these scenes incredibly sterile. You are getting zoomed out full shots or medium shots of characters as they just stand around yapping in full, novel-esque paragraphs. It is a failure of presentation. The writing was... tolerable, at least until the when the camera panned away to a scene of the two samey Jarlio girls were yapping in front of the underground orphanage. At that point I tried searching for a skip button, only to find out that this game does not have one.


One of the few slightly better cutscenes frontloaded earlier in the game.


If you talk to an NPC and the devs actually bothered to give it a cutscene then it usually looks like this.


Another issue is that there is far too much prose. I talk to a trashcan and then get several paragraphs of text. It was funny the first time, but then it keeps happening for all of these objects. Or I go to Herta's roguelike dungeon and then I am constantly accosted after fighting a monster and get several paragraphs of this faux D&D thing that I have to spend a lot of time clicking through, when I just want to get this done with so I can check off this box on the managerial stuff and get back to the story.


Paragraphs of D&D fluff in the mandatory roguelike dungeon. Every single time you kill an enemy.


This is all one interaction with a wardrobe 1/3


This is all one interaction with a wardrobe 2/3


This is all one interaction with a wardrobe 3/3


Then you have some broader macro level issues with the story, namely the lack of tension. I have been down in Jarlio IV's underground for several hours, and by this point there has been no threat whatsoever, nothing making me wonder "will the heroes succeed or fail? I have to turn the page to find out what happens next!".

• We arrived on a planet in the middle of a snowstorm, but after walking a few feet we meet a random guy who leads us. We hadn't even begun freezing yet.
• Then we meet a captain who is initially suspicious of us, but then after some chatter he lowers his weapon and takes us to the city. So we have had zero difficulty.
• Then after an hour there the city guards turn on us, but we easily run away and leave them behind.
• Then we go to the abandoned underground world and we are told they are barely hanging on, but the actual town you can walk around seems just fine.
• Then we have to go save some miners from bandits... and none of the miners are dying, and the bandits are immediately forgotten.
• Then we meet the leaders of the underground, and they are initially standoffish to us... until they are not. But they don't have the answers we need.
• Then we are chasing this robot guy around for a couple hours, beat him up easily, and then he tells us stuff that we already knew (that we need to destroy or deactivate a Stellaron), so it was a complete waste of time.

Obviously we are going to next go back up to the surface and go to the palace and beat up the administrator lady and then go on our merry way with no problems. There is just nothing here. So much time wasted.

Then you have other issues, such as your party members not following you around in the game world. Segregation of story characters and the playable units in your party, where you can obtain characters like Clara or the knight guy or Yanqing long before you even go to their planets and meet them (and they don't join you story wise), while you have been running around with them in your party fighting for hours before. Welt and Himeko are one of the main characters but you don't get them via the story like with the MC, March 7th, and Dan Heng. (Imagine if in GBF, you didn't get Katalina or Eugen!). I applied an outfit to March 7th, but she doesn't wear it when standing around in the game world or in cutscenes. Etc. It is a disconcerting experience.


This is the outfit I have applied to March 7th, but it only appears on her in battle or when I am controlling her in the overworld. But when she is standing as an NPC in the overworld or appears in a cutscene, she wearing her default outfit.


What March looks like outside of battle even though I still have the above outfit equipped on her.


As for battle, the animations look pretty neat. However, it is odd that characters only have two different abilities you pick during battle (a basic attack that generates a skill point, and then a skill ability that has an effect and consumes a skill point), and then a 3rd button in their ultimate. That's it. So you are just watching your four characters use the same 3 animations/cutscenes per battle over and over for hours on end. Like with Genshin, building up your characters and keeping them relevant with the level scaling of the mobs is extremely time and labor intensive. It is difficult to keep more than just your team of four up to date. It is difficult to just swap out party members on a whim because you want to be looking at different animations. Characters also having only 2/3 abilities also makes it hard to build around them.

Short video of Dan Heng's and Yanqing's ultimates. I like the tremolo sound in Yanqing's ultimate. I wonder if it is a real instrument or a swallow sound.


Also, this game has 2x speed/fast forward and an autobattle feature, which allows you to press a button and alt+tab out while the game has your party members automatically do the turn based battles against fodder and non-story bosses. Given the sheer amount of fodder you have to slog through, it is appreciated but I think that's just evading the real issue here which is that there are large amounts of fodder you have to slog through in the first place.

The last thing I will touch on is the aesthetics. The game generally looks okay. Again, the highlight of the game is the battle animations/cutscenes. Some of the establishing shots of vistas look neat. The buildings in the first city of Jarlio IV do not hold upon close inspection. However, I got to do one of those events which timeskipped me to a small plaza in the most recently added world, and it looks okay.










However, the actual environments you can run around are lackluster. Hundred million+ USD game but the devs couldn't be bothered to spend 3 minutes copypasting some cups or sacks of coffee beans onto the shelves.




Another complaint I have is the lack of flavor buildings you can enter like people's houses or museums. It seems that there are only a couple of buildings you can enter on the surface like the workshop or the hotel, and then in the underground you just have the doctor's office (just one room) and the other hotel (just your room, not even a common room). There are also not enough NPCs walking around in the towns, not even on the PC version of the game, which is at odds with the oversized scaling of the buildings. It feels like you are walking through an overall deserted world.

I have not heard any memorable music during my normal gameplay. However, when I did an event and timeskipped to the latest city, I heard some generally okay, pleasant flute music playing. Though it is not memorable enough that I would add it to my favorite's playlist.

Another issue: several of the characters do not look like they inhabit the setting. I went to Jarlio-IV, a planet that was hit by a calamity that has frozen the world and there is only one last city left, which has abandoned its underground mining city about 30 years ago. I go down there and everyone is supposedly scavenging and recycling materials, and people are dressed in very unflattering, utilitarian clothing and huddling from the cold. And then you have Seele, who is supposedly an underworlder who mocks the overworlders for their "extravagance", when she herself is wearing this ridiculously over the top outfit.

There is also the NPC Sampo (the guy in the red jacket in the following image), who is also revealed to be an underworlder trying to scrape by doing under-the-table trades, but again he doesn't look anything like the other people in the Underworld (or even on his planet), and it doesn't match his modus operandi of trying to fly under the radar.




And then later, you meet Clara, this young girl running around on jagged rocks in mines and in frozen wastelands while barefoot.





Back to some positives: after beating up the robot guy and finding out information I already knew, I got pretty fed up with the main story and put that on hold to check out the side events. The first one I did was the one the MC gets a room on the second floor of the party car to decorate. You can't actually choose where to place beds or tables and such, you are just following the script where everything is preplaced. However, some of the skits with the characters were okay, sufficiently entertaining. It is bizzare though how many routine meetings and progress reports there are every day on the Astral Express. Feels very corporate.














I then did the recently added Awoo event, which takes place in the current expansion land/world, which ofcourse I haven't reached yet and might be hundreds of hours into the game. Fortunately, the game allows you to timeskip to a little plaza there just to do that event, which was very welcome. In other long running games or franchises, it is very frustrating when something new catches someone's eye, only for you have to tell them that they are looking at a several hundred hour long slog through stuff they might not even enjoy (ie, allied races in WoW where you have to some other character, level it up, do unlocks and then weeks of daily rep grinding to then unlock the race to make the character you actually wanted to play in the first place. Seeing a cool Trails game but then the fandom tells you "nu uh you gotta first play through 1,000+ hours and $600+ of prerequsite games first!". Or FF14 where people want to play a new class or do that fun grind zone content with friends, but are then told they are looking at 500+ hour long time commitment to get there. Etc.) So it was very nice that the cute critters caught my eye and I was able to immediately go do that thing. Apparently there is a playable class revolving around them, but that is looking like a 100+ or 200+ hour long commitment to get there.





The event is neat. You get to manage some cute talking chimeras (reminds me of those intelligent treecats masquerading as pets from Honor Harrington) and there is a short storyline. The chimeras have different traits, so you mix and match them to build better and better teams and send them off to go run around the city helping people with no further input from you. The teambuilding is actually somewhat easy. I had a little bit of anxiety doublechecking the traits for the final bouts trying to make sure I was going to win, but in retrospect I am not sure if it is possible to not come in first place at the end of the story. It was a little flavorful working around the slacker chimeras. But I think it is the presentation that makes it the most engaging to look at. The whole event can be done in 1 to 2 hours.

[rusty_shackleford]

Rarely ever see shell rendering used for grass anymore, especially at such low resolution. Guessing this is also available on mobile?

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Rarely ever see shell rendering used for grass anymore, especially at such low resolution. Guessing this is also available on mobile?

Yeah, it's available on phones too.

[methoxetamine]

Getting near the end of SMT 4A, but I split my game time between PC/handheld since I got the 3DS and I'm really struggling on deciding what to play next on PC. Some things I was considering are: Star Ocean The Second Story R, Fantasy Life i, Triangle Strategy, finishing AC6, or finishing Ender Lilies then Ender Magnolia. I'd like to finish Ender Lilies and AC6 I'm just terrible at picking a game back up in the middle that I haven't played in a while

[KnightoftheWind]

I've been playing Beyond Citadel, an excellent indie FPS from a jap, with elements that I would describe as "immersive sim"-esque. Weapons are more involved, with each weapon having different reload/cocking mechanics, and the game being more tactical in nature. At least on the Hard difficulty. Firefights are intense as a result, and I've died quite a few times. You also play as a hot animu chick with boobies!.

[Oyster Sauce]

Our Red String

[pol_345polex]

Finally, my first run of Gothic 2.

[MC_Sea]

Have been playing CrossCode. It's a mix of familiar elements in particular combination I haven't encountered before.

Possibly the most respectful game ever made. Tutorials take 4 seconds to watch. You can progress the dungeons or do quests in the world in the order you want. Backtracking is quick. The most challenging fights and puzzles are optional.

I also like the setting of the game taking place when the characters are logged into a game.

Stopped playing CrossCode. Game is simply too long.

I kept an eye for this game and it's a good thing you did stop playing. Apparently, the developers are pozzed and there is a gay couple in the game. They even boasted about the fact as if it were an accomplishment in their latest news comment section.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app ... ?l=english

[methoxetamine]

Finished SMT 4A and started Radiant Historia. I'm about 5 hours in and really enjoying it so far, it has a very unique battle system that I've never seen anywhere else and the timelines/time travel mechanics are really well done so far. Man this 3DS was a God tier purchase

As for SMT 4A, that game had the most brutal final boss in any JRPG I've ever played. That ****** was literally superboss level of difficulty even on normal. Overall the game was great and I preferred 4A over 4. The next game in the series I'll play is either Devil Survivor Overclocked or Nocturne, but I definitely need a break from SMT for a while after 4 & 4A.

I've been playing Beyond Citadel, an excellent indie FPS from a jap, with elements that I would describe as "immersive sim"-esque. Weapons are more involved, with each weapon having different reload/cocking mechanics, and the game being more tactical in nature. At least on the Hard difficulty. Firefights are intense as a result, and I've died quite a few times. You also play as a hot animu chick with boobies!.

I played some of the first one and it's pretty fun, I really should finish it and check this one out since I've heard so many good things

[KnightoftheWind]

Have been playing CrossCode. It's a mix of familiar elements in particular combination I haven't encountered before.

Possibly the most respectful game ever made. Tutorials take 4 seconds to watch. You can progress the dungeons or do quests in the world in the order you want. Backtracking is quick. The most challenging fights and puzzles are optional.

I also like the setting of the game taking place when the characters are logged into a game.

Stopped playing CrossCode. Game is simply too long.

I kept an eye for this game and it's a good thing you did stop playing. Apparently, the developers are pozzed and there is a gay couple in the game. They even boasted about the fact as if it were an accomplishment in their latest news comment section.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app ... ?l=english

I attempted a playthrough of that years ago and could already tell it was "woke". Female protagonist, supporting cast is full of browns, etc.

[Acrux]

Have been playing CrossCode. It's a mix of familiar elements in particular combination I haven't encountered before.

Possibly the most respectful game ever made. Tutorials take 4 seconds to watch. You can progress the dungeons or do quests in the world in the order you want. Backtracking is quick. The most challenging fights and puzzles are optional.

I also like the setting of the game taking place when the characters are logged into a game.

Stopped playing CrossCode. Game is simply too long.

I kept an eye for this game and it's a good thing you did stop playing. Apparently, the developers are pozzed and there is a gay couple in the game. They even boasted about the fact as if it were an accomplishment in their latest news comment section.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app ... ?l=english

I attempted a playthrough of that years ago and could already tell it was "woke". Female protagonist, supporting cast is full of browns, etc.

[Roguey]

Finished ESWAT: City Under Siege for the Genesis. Crappy shooter/platformer, far too difficult for my tastes, but it was something to do during thunderstorms. I thought it was funny how the final level is an exhausting endurance run, but if you make it to the end, you get a power-up that refills your health and you can just tank the final boss, his runs out before yours if you just stand right where you are. A reward for dealing with the crap.

[GhostCow]

I've been playing it takes two with my gf. The gameplay is decent for something that's meant to be a couple's game. I hate the writing though. It's about a husband and wife who are getting divorced and stuff happens to try to make them get back together. The gender roles are completely reversed. The husband is a stay at home dad and the mom has a job as an engineer and also fixes things around the house. Neither is a likeable character either. Both are total assholes and the husband is very low T.

[UltraFan123]

Recently getting into Minecraft also made me learn that there's a "Minecraft but better" game called Vintage Story, which ironically started off as a Minecraft mod from what I've learned about it.

I'm aware Minecraft is a sandbox game with no true ending, but I at least want to enjoy and experience what the vanilla game has to offer before thinking of adding mods or trying out enhanced versions of the game.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Recently getting into Minecraft also made me learn that there's a "Minecraft but better" game called Vintage Story, which ironically started off as a Minecraft mod from what I've learned about it.

I'm aware Minecraft is a sandbox game with no true ending, but I at least want to enjoy and experience what the vanilla game has to offer before thinking of adding mods or trying out enhanced versions of the game.

Minecraft does have an ending. First you kill Endermen at night for their pearls. Then once you have the Pearls, you mine iron and craft two buckets, and use those two buckets to grab water and lava, which you then place and let them collide and create obsidian. You then use the obsidian to build a portal frame/gateway, and then use flint & steel on the frame to activate a portal to the Nether. Then in the Nether you look around for dungeon/fortress looking structures and you fight your way through them and find an End portal. You toss your reagents into it to activate the portal, then hop into that to reach The End where the final boss is. After you beat it the credits play. I don't know if this has been changed since launch.

[rusty_shackleford]

I've been playing it takes two with my gf. The gameplay is decent for something that's meant to be a couple's game. I hate the writing though. It's about a husband and wife who are getting divorced and stuff happens to try to make them get back together. The gender roles are completely reversed. The husband is a stay at home dad and the mom has a job as an engineer and also fixes things around the house. Neither is a likeable character either. Both are total assholes and the husband is very low T.

Play divinity original sin with her. It's specifically about two star crossed lovers who are fated to repeatedly reincarnate and find each other again.

[Tangerine]

The husband is a stay at home dad and the mom has a job as an engineer and also fixes things around the house. Neither is a likeable character either. Both are total assholes and the husband is very low T.

That explains the divorce.

[GhostCow]

I've been playing it takes two with my gf. The gameplay is decent for something that's meant to be a couple's game. I hate the writing though. It's about a husband and wife who are getting divorced and stuff happens to try to make them get back together. The gender roles are completely reversed. The husband is a stay at home dad and the mom has a job as an engineer and also fixes things around the house. Neither is a likeable character either. Both are total assholes and the husband is very low T.

Play divinity original sin with her. It's specifically about two star crossed lovers who are fated to repeatedly reincarnate and find each other again.

She doesn't like RPGs. She says she's too ******** for doing math to figure out what gear and abilities are better than others. She also thinks turn based games are slow and boring. She's more into stuff like Marvel Rivals and Overwatch or girly autism games like Two Point Museum

[methoxetamine]

I've been playing it takes two with my gf. The gameplay is decent for something that's meant to be a couple's game. I hate the writing though. It's about a husband and wife who are getting divorced and stuff happens to try to make them get back together. The gender roles are completely reversed. The husband is a stay at home dad and the mom has a job as an engineer and also fixes things around the house. Neither is a likeable character either. Both are total assholes and the husband is very low T.

Play divinity original sin with her. It's specifically about two star crossed lovers who are fated to repeatedly reincarnate and find each other again.

She doesn't like RPGs. She says she's too ******** for doing math to figure out what gear and abilities are better than others. She also thinks turn based games are slow and boring. She's more into stuff like Marvel Rivals and Overwatch or girly autism games like Two Point Museum

Split Fiction has better gameplay than It Takes Two even, but the story/characters are similarly awful. I still recommend it

[GhostCow]

Play divinity original sin with her. It's specifically about two star crossed lovers who are fated to repeatedly reincarnate and find each other again.

She doesn't like RPGs. She says she's too ******** for doing math to figure out what gear and abilities are better than others. She also thinks turn based games are slow and boring. She's more into stuff like Marvel Rivals and Overwatch or girly autism games like Two Point Museum

Split Fiction has better gameplay than It Takes Two even, but the story/characters are similarly awful. I still recommend it

We played that before It Takes Two and we both liked it. We both like It Takes Two more though because of the setting is better and it doesn't have a cartoonish white guy as the villain. I also enjoy that I don't have to play as a brown girl in this one.

[methoxetamine]

She doesn't like RPGs. She says she's too ******** for doing math to figure out what gear and abilities are better than others. She also thinks turn based games are slow and boring. She's more into stuff like Marvel Rivals and Overwatch or girly autism games like Two Point Museum

Split Fiction has better gameplay than It Takes Two even, but the story/characters are similarly awful. I still recommend it

We played that before It Takes Two and we both liked it. We both like It Takes Two more though because of the setting is better and it doesn't have a cartoonish white guy as the villain. I also enjoy that I don't have to play as a brown girl in this one.

Overall I liked ITT more too, but I gotta say the villain in SF reeks of Judaism

[Nemesis]

She's more into stuff like Marvel Rivals and Overwatch or girly autism games like Two Point Museum

Red flags.

[J-12]

The OG Resident Evil 3 is relatively hard to find, set up and boot these days. Never thought it would be like that 20+ years ago.
I don't care about mediocre remakes, but these old games are entirely different from them and the way they are being swept under the rug by "capcom of the new" is just wrong, they don't deserve this kind of treatment or being forgotten like some sort of inferior versions.

[Breathe]

I've been playing it takes two with my gf. The gameplay is decent for something that's meant to be a couple's game. I hate the writing though. It's about a husband and wife who are getting divorced and stuff happens to try to make them get back together. The gender roles are completely reversed. The husband is a stay at home dad and the mom has a job as an engineer and also fixes things around the house. Neither is a likeable character either. Both are total assholes and the husband is very low T.

Played this with my brother a couple Christmases ago. Gameplay was decent and went to the next thing quickly, but yeah their relationship dynamics are all messed up.