Written by [user id=4365] on 30.07.2015 at 12:48

Written by Uldreth on 30.07.2015 at 12:40

So yer not here to stay?

Probably not =P maybe if I listen to new music this year, but I barely have.

it means you're not metal anymore?

I've become a plain rock -_- someone paint me!

Just occurred to me I also played Machinarium this year. Not really one for point and click adventures (I think the only one I ever finished was Secret of Monkey Island on the Amiga when I was about 8) but man, puzzles aside it's such a great experience. One of the best soundtracks I've ever heard, and looks amazing. Love the way the story is told too through thought bubbles. I cheated most of the way through it though, but it doesn't really matter.

After replaying Demon's Souls and Dark Souls recently, I've started Dark Souls 2 again (never finished it) and I already want to quit. I don't get it. It feels like a cheap rip off of the other two. I easily put over 200 hours in each of its predecessors, but it's hard for me to play DS2 for more than 15 minutes.

Blates made in the Bloodborne engine, which is not a bad thing in the slightest. Paint me more excited than Jimmy Savile in a children's emergency ward. Interestingly it sort of looks technically inferior to Bloodborne, not that it matters. No doubt the PC version will be crisper. They're obviously going for transparency after the DSII fiasco.

Written by [user id=142921] on 31.07.2015 at 12:48

Dead Space done!

I swear I tried really hard to like that game, but it didn't work out for me. The atmosphere didn't grab me, the monsters were kinda meh, the story was kinda lame, it wasn't even scary...

I guess I will add it to my list of overrated games that dissappointed me.

Dead Space games (first two) certainly aren't bad, but they're pretty much revolved around the novelty that you shoot the limbs off, rather than the head / torso. I enjoyed the unique weapons that resulted from it. Gets a bit lame after a while though (lol pun). Second one feels a bit bit better than the first; it just tweaks and refines it a little.

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I certainly hope DSIII employs some of the faster combat of BB, but only when appropriate, otherwise it runs the risk of repeating the fairly rubbish gameplay of Demons Souls where everything feels sped up and makes the animations look jerky and unrealistic (which affects the gameplay to a large degree). Light, cloth-like armour would give BB-level speed and evasion but I also think it would be cool if they went the extra mile with the heavy armour; perhaps make it even slower and clunkier, but give a little (very little) additional defense as a result. High armour in other Souls games was pretty pointless in terms of giving extra defense. Bring back proper poise too. Make it all balanced of course. Would be bad if people could tank their way through the game with too much ease. Looking at that trailer again though it doesn't look likely: jump rolling 6 feet around the floor with ease whilst wearing full metal armour... Hmm. Guess I'll find out soon enough, but it only reduces the available gameplay styles when everything is too fast paced and doesn't abide by logical weight restrictions. Fine for BB; swinging around a fuck-off great concrete slab with fast paced impunity somehow worked, but not so much in a Souls game I reckon. I don't want another Demons Souls: I want my attacks, rolls, parries and general skill to mean something in a context that actually makes logical sense.

A couple of months ago I tried (very hard) to get into Blade of Darkness as many people seem to regard it as a Souls-like precursor and highly regard the melee combat system. Personally I thought it was terrible. Looked great for its time and had a lot of potential but the melee and evasion system was extremely unwieldy. One thing I did really like about it though which I think Souls games could learn from is that enemies could suffer from friendly fire, and even start attacking each other as a result. Would be great to see that level of awareness in a Souls game. I also quite liked the idea of extremely destructible shields too. I think Souls games would also benefit from something similar to that.

Written by [user id=142921] on 05.08.2015 at 16:29

Though going from Thief 3's Shalebridge Castleto Dead Space wasn't ideal. It's like transitioning from SoulsBorne's combat to Witcher's. Hard to appreciate the latter ya know?

Normally I take my time between games. If I ended one, I just stick to Dota 2 until another game gets my interest.

The last time I have so much fun in a videogame was South Park, and that says a lot. Maybe my love for games is disappearing :'(

Footage of a boss battle. As I suspected the rolling motion looks completely wrong; lobbing your character 8 feet across the screen in a fast-forward, overly light and nimble fashion. Doesn't look natural at all; looks like it's almost comically bouncing around at one point during the double roll. Boss isn't too inspiring either. Looks pretty enough though, despite the film quality.



More footage here. Yeah, looks more like an action game at this point. Twinkle toes clad in full knight armour dancing along the floor, swinging around an ultra greatsword in one hand like it weighs as much as a stick. I hope this gets some serious tweaking before release but as it stands it looks like all the superior mechanical improvements of DS2 have been thrown out the window whinge moan moan.

Written by [user id=142921] on 06.08.2015 at 17:55


Looks very floaty ye. The most extreme it's been I'd say. The sprint animation looks exactly like the Demon's Souls one. The strafing is weird. It's like he takes imaginary steps between the real steps so he moves further than what he should.

Yeah the strafing is really weird and bothers me a lot =P no one moves like that... the way he / she moves as fast left and right, and backwards, as moving forward is a bit uncanny valley for me for some reason. Also wondering if they've done away with tiered rolling (fat/medium/fast etc.) as the roll looks very fast despite being clad in armour and having a shield and zweihander (I think). I'm hoping it's just for the demo.

Written by [user id=142921] on 14.08.2015 at 14:10


Rejoice!

~'The demo characters were indeed sped up. Builds using heavy armor like the ones in the demo will be slower in the final game'

Thank funk for that.

Still think weapons are too feathery though =p

Just tried playing Touhou 15 which got released yesterday.
Well, I don't know if I'm getting rusty at it, but what the hell was that? Went for normal level and lost all the damn continues without even finishing the game lel

Written by [user id=142921] on 14.08.2015 at 17:17


google translation: Question:The general tempo of Dark Souls 3 is higher than in previous titles and is strongly reminiscent of bloodborne. How do you ensure that even hard-bound characters remain sufficiently agile if it is almost regarded as a must due to the much nimbler and more numerous enemies?

Miyazaki: The two characters that were available in the demo at Gamescom, their heavy armor and WEAPONS in defiance are intentionally designed something more agile. We want to demonstrate to the players, in which direction we want to go with Dark Souls 3. In the final game of the hero is, however, be much slower with such equipment. But we make sure that a minimum level of speed is maintained so that even heavy tank builds come without drawbacks through the game.

Me: Maybes weapons were fiddled with too.

Article: http://www.pcgames.de/Dark-Souls-3-Spiel-55615/Specials/Hidetaka-Miyazaki-im-Gamescom-Interview-1167759/

Well that sounds positive. Not sure why they'd demo something which isn't going to be representative of the final game though. Perhaps they only decided after the demo to dial it back a bit.

Currently have Twitch plays Dark Souls going on in the background. It's painful to watch. They're never going to get anywhere.

Written by [user id=4365] on 14.08.2015 at 17:27

Currently have Twitch plays Dark Souls going on in the background. It's painful to watch. They're never going to get anywhere.

I love it, my grandchildren will see them finally triumph over the Asylum Demon.

Maybe your grandchildren's grandchildren at this rate: turned it on this morning to see them stuck in the menu with all the key settings completely changed.

Yep, they even started a new game now. 34 hours of progress lost.

Got in myself into "Into The Dead".

Fun setup where you have to avoid zombies and travel as much as you can. Unlock all armors and fun shooting the mother father out of zombies later in stages.

Lovin' this absolutely awesome game.

Now on my laptop, downloaded CS.

This game is fun to play when bunch of your tired suckers create an incoming portal and you join your pals and beat the shit out of other teams. Multiplayer at its highest fun.

So... The Phantom Pain is out! I can't wait to play it on my free time and see if it gives me goosebumps just like Guns Of The Patriots.

I might watch some 24 while it downloads.

The PS4 is wireless.

Written by deadone on 01.09.2015 at 12:34

I meant as in "having one of those dongles things that plugs into your laptop." That thing doesn't seem to work on the PS4 but I am pretty clueless about these things!

Eugh... those things are awful. Doesn't surprise me it doesn't work but unless technology has changed in recent years it would probably take about a century to download anything with a dongle anyway.

Written by deadone on 01.09.2015 at 12:43


Totally agree though it suits most of my needs - $130 for 15 Gb over 12 months and full protable. That's right - 15 Gb does me for the year. I still pay for physical things which then clutter shelves and even go to the "video shop."

15GB? That would probably last me a few days =P

Has anyone played any Stasis or Satellite Reign yet? I played a tiny bit of early builds of both and they definitely seemed interesting. Satellite Reign turned my GPU into a helicopter though, was terribly optimised, and it seems like it still is. Lots of interesting stuff all out in one go though. Kind of glad XCOM 2 got pushed back to next year.

Glorious Dark Souls 3 footage. So, so, so much happier with the movement / weapon speed now.

I forgot about System Shock 2 for a while, but picked it up again and finished. So much better than Bioshock, but maybe a little overrated. I don't remember what difficulty I picked, but the lack of resources (which is supposed to make the game so challenging and nerve-racking) just caused me to go melee and run back to a surgical unit a few times per deck. I don't mind, though; that careful and methodical way of playing suited the tone of the game just fine. It had such a good flow and never felt forced or repeating itself, until the very end. The Rickenbacker I felt was mostly filler, and the area after that was cool but I was just ready to end the game. (Games do that way too often, drag on the final moments too long.) One of the best horror/FPS games I've played, for sure.

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Played through Beyond Good & Evil after that. Deserves most of the praise it gets. The graphics have aged extremely well. The setting is really cool, with its walking, talking sharks and goats, spaceships, wildlife and cosmopolitan melting pot of real-world-inspired cultures.

The story is not the "greatest in a video game ever" (as some claim) but it is effective, fun, the player cares about it enough to find out what happens next, and it has some great moments. Most importantly, there is no fluff in the game (save a few optional minigames): everything revolves around the story and contributes to it in some minor way. This, I think, was the game's greatest strength: the pacing is excellent, and the storytelling isn't bogged down in meaningless side-quests or meandering cutscenes. (In fact, this also makes Chrono Trigger awesome and why so many epic RPGs get tiresome.) The characters are all memorable, and I love the take on a reporter as the hero (with photography taking center stage in the plot). The greatest compliment that can be paid to the gameplay is that it's unobtrusive and diverse enough to stay fun. There's action, puzzles, stealth, racing, nature photography etc.. None of them are anything to write home about, everything's been done better in other games, but they are paced well and intuitive enough to remain decent fun. The final boss is fucking annoying, though, and the PC port somewhat bad.

Beyond Good & Evil isn't my favorite game - it's much too casual for that, and not turn-based! But as an action-adventure game for all ages and an example of pacing and storytelling in games, it's top notch.

Written by [user id=142921] on 21.09.2015 at 16:00

Total Biscuit probably has

Waaaaaaatt the strafing looks the same to me ? (i'm too lazy to bring up a side by side comparison). I guess i'll take your word for it.

I stopped following TB about 6 months ago, his voice and attitude started to get on my nerves =P I worship at the altar of Jim Sterling now.

The strafing is the same I think, just a bit slower. It's not ideal, and the the rolls still look a but like he's wearing an anti-gravity suit of armour, but it's enough for me at this point.

Written by [user id=142921] on 21.09.2015 at 16:00

I've always read that PC those days was System Shock 2 vs Deus Ex. Some would throw in Thief too. I picked it up just to feel the moment for myself. While I can't say the twist shocked me (because of Bioshock), I kept on playing and had fun. System Shock 2's villain was made for the quote factory, and it touched on some horror. I can see why it is revered by so many insects but unless your reason is 'the existence of horror' or 'an iconic villain' I don't see how one would choose it over Deus Ex.

Yeah, I'd definitely pick Deus Ex over SS2. I played it only some years back; I wasn't much of a PC gamer growing up, and only when I started using Steam did I really expand my horizons beyond strategy and RPGs. But anyway, Deus Ex still held up and became one of my all-time faves. I would also put the Thief games before SS2, only I haven't actually finished any of them! I think I'll try tackle them in order again, sometime soon. One thing in common they all have, though, is excellent level design. SS2 is obviously the most linear of the three, given its genre, but it still beats most modern FPS (hybrid) games.

Phantom Pain. Great core gameplay, amazing production values and visuals but pretty much a letdown on every other front. Ungodly amounts of time wasting by open world repetition, mission repetition, silly amounts of fluff to justify the micro-transactions etc. All resources that should have been put into creating a more direct, focussed main plot. Then worse still cutting the final chapter from the game, which serves to set up subsequent events (at least on MGS1, not so much MG1 or MG2 I don't think).

Some bits were really something, like the bits leading up to finding the main characters / bosses; they actually felt sort of handcrafted sections and felt like the older games. But then the bosses seemed very few and far between and most weren't that exciting, aside from maybe Parasite Snipers and the final boss. In fact not including the Parasite fights there were only 3 boss battles: meh. Any highs the game had were then deflated by bland, nondescript missions, so rarely got a on a roll. It was all a bit of a mess really. And to think the thing that concerned me most was the lack of Hayter. In the end Sutherland was fine, just not all that well utilised.

I was really looking forward to having more areas to explore too, but nope. Two is all you got, aside from Mother Base.


As for the whole Quiet thing, unless I'm missing something the excuse for her nudity was a flimsy contrivance and nothing more. There were probably dozens of ways to (literally) present her better whilst still maintaining the plot device. I might be more inclined to side with the defendants if the game didn't avail itself of every opportunity to get itself a tit or ass shot, which weren't exactly necessary as far as I could see it. Potentially good character though.

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----- BIG PHAT SPOILERS AHEAD ------

Written by [user id=142921] on 24.09.2015 at 17:04

Devs should take note from these games. Be inspired to make HUB like open areas with multiple access points! The way FromSoft do it is as far as I would take an RPG if I had it my way. Pseudo open world of sorts. You can go anywhere but it's meticulously handcrafted using linear interconnected paths. These gigantic free roaming RPGs need to go the way of the dodo.

Yeah Soulses have nailed what open should be like. The funny thing is MGS4 sort of hit on it a little, as it gave you a couple of alternate routes to progress through the game at a few points. It wasn't exactly fleshed out but more of the kind of approach I would like to see I think. Just do away with the nonsense crafting, man-gathering stuff too. It was fun for a while but my biggest gripe with it is that it really shaped how one should play the game, as you were far too incentivized to collect every soldier you encountered (especially because of the ridiculous amount of levels needed to access certain weapons and items, thank you very much micro-transbollox). I want to feel like I can sneak past every soldier, leaving them as they are, without feeling like I'm being forced to miss out on something. Same with gung-ho shooty playthroughs too.

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In the perfect world MG1 and MG2 would have been remade/remastered/ported to PC before MGSV dropped. I had no idea Big Boss was a bad guy till like the end of MGSV where my bro was reading the wiki on his phone and told me. Maybe it was covered in MGS4 but I completely blacked out during that game. I was so lost I didn't even pick up on the plot twist at first lol.

The game was meant to be 'the missing link' to 'the ultimate saga'. He went from a boss battle in MGS3 to our life saver in MGS5 and all we got was that 'he fell in love with the Boss'. That's just an example of how this was not the missing link we wanted/expected

Well MGS 1 and 2 were actually released for the PC, but I'm not sure how many people even knew about it. Furthermore I imagine people would have a bit of a time even getting them to work on current PCs. It's a shame the HD remakes didn't get a look in on PC. MGS4 would really shine on PC I think, especially as the framerate on the cut scenes is God awful.

But yeah, I long ago gave away the Big Boss thing to myself because of Wikipedia (I tried playing through MG1 and 2 and couldn't appreciate it). Does Big Boss not get briefly mentioned during MGS1 though? I figured because of Gray Fox being integral to the story it might have mentioned him a little. Outer Heaven was definitely brought up too. Can't remember specifics though.

The real issue for me is that you weren't playing Big Boss afterall, so there's no real insight into why he turned "bad" for MG2 (I think, Phantom BB was MG1, right?) seeing as he technically buggers off right at the start of Phantom Pain and leaves you playing as the medic turned into magic replica Boss who's every bit as good as the real BB and has all his memories. Still feels like there's a gap that needs filling for the real Big Boss.

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The game has some of the best cinematography i've ever seen. Kojima's body really is 70% movies. Even the camera shake was really well done. It added to the scene and didn't make me nauseous and I get motion sick very quickly. The battle with The Man on Fire outside The Devil's House was cool but it was basically a withered version of Arkham City's Mr Freeze fight. The Sahelanthropus battle was much better than expected. The Quiet battle was a decent homage to The End...no sniper boss battle will ever come close to that. Kojima wanted that battle to last 'weeks'. I think he means that he wanted the game to be a constant boss battle with him. Not sure how you'd execute that but a progressive idea nonetheless.

I was really let down by the Quiet battle. I was gobsmacked how stunning looking the area was, and was really looking forward to a long, deep fight with her, but she was just so easy. It was a piece of cake to follow her dirt trail when she moved, and even then the glare from her rifle immediately gave away her position. The End is probably my fave boss battle of any game; using the directional microphone to pin point his location, then slowly snailing my way around him, hoping he didn't spot me. Quiet didn't really seem to require any real tactics. Only the ability to pop up from behind something and get off a shot before she does. Even the sniper boss from MGS4 trounced it (though that was a pretty good boss I thought) I was glad when the Parasite snipers gave more of a challenge.

The Man On Fire I enjoyed, but by the time I'd figured out about the water towers it started raining and ended the boss fight for me so was a bit of a let down there. I appreciate the multiple ways he could be beaten though.

I think Kojima is probably a better director / idea man than he is a writer tbh. What I love about him is that he mixes intensely emotional, heavily political drama with batshit insane, over the top near-fantasy sci-fi. No one else really does that. It's like two separate worlds that shouldn't exist as one. It's like 24 mixed with some kind of fantasy mecha-anime. That being said I think the longer he's stretched the Big Boss / Snakes stories on the less I enjoy them overall. I think he tends to write himself into corners and relies too much on convoluted, confusing deus ex machinas to mend story inconsistencies, like "Oh, it was a clone" or "It was nanomachines" or some such.

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All we got on Quiet's situation is that parasitical therapy turned her into the hottest plant you'll ever see. It was a stupid reason, especially after the whole 'you'll be ashamed of your words and deeds' crap Kojima fed us. Though he is Japanese so he legitimately could have thought we'd be ashamed. At the same time that doesn't make him immune to criticism. His reason was silly, contrived afterthought that only was implemented to combat all the people crying over sexy characters. I think the timeline to that was 1)Create Quiet 2)Research the occidental world and their morals 3)Realise they won't react well 4) Be stubborn and stick with your idea because you're Japanese and say she's a plant 5)Say we'll be ashamed while possibly believing it to be the case. I might be flat out wrong but it seems plausible. The gratuitous shots were facepalm funny to me. Ishmael aka Venom Snake aka Paz's brother who was inflicted with nanoviruses which makes him look 30 years older than her but is actually her twin born 2 minutes after her has a nice butt. Nothing wrong with a lil fan service. For a story driven franchise like this I don't care about sexy shots and imagery as long as the character in focus has a good character arc and development. For basically a mute, I think Quiet was fairly fleshed out. The scene where she plays in the puddles with Venom Snake was really heartwarming. I like how their bond progression was expressed through story and not just gameplay. The ending with her is great (but sad) too. Fucking kickass sequence of her beating up the Soviets while tied up. She stayed with me so I had to look this ending up. After I watched it all I listened to Quiet's Theme and payed attention to the lyrics. Teared up a little bit. That must be worth something no?

tl;dr from now to forever. FSDFROWG. Fuck story driven free roaming open world games. PREACH IT.

I want to say that I don't really care about the way Quiet is introduced, but that could explain why I only ever took her on one mission. I thought D-Dog was just more useful so I didn't bother with Quiet, and that's why I had to Youtube her ending, but I might have been more inclined to take her with me had she been better presented. Her outfit didn't really bother me. Just don't Male Gaze the living shit out of every shot of her whilst feeding me Kojima's nonsense. You can't justify that from a narrative perspective, especially as Venom Snake clearly wasn't perving on her like Naked Snake did with EVA in MGS3, or like Old Snake did to Naomi in MGS4. I did actually really like he character in the end and wished I had used her more. Her ending was one of the better moments in the game.

So yeah. Phantom Pain: a good-ish game, a pretty poor Metal Gear Solid I think, ruined, not least, by open world fluff.

[EDIT]

Actually you do know that Ishmael is Big Boss, not Venom Snake, right? =P

-- Actually I assume you were just referring to butt-showing people.

Really liking Undertale so far. Living up to the hype and it ousted my playthrough of Soma. Brilliant soundtrack too.

Papyrus cracks me up with every line.

Not much these days but the return of one of my favourite games will bring me back to the digital battlefield Cossacks 3 is coming and its going to be a modern remake of the original Cossaks game.