What are you playing now? [2018-2021]

[Silent_Buddha]

Isn't that game have tons of boring long dialogue and if you skip it... You understand nothing?

Yes, but unlike a lot of anime-ish type of game exposition, it doesn't endlessly go over the same thing over and over and over again.

It's the rare game where I started out thinking I'll get tired of the dialog by the end of the game, but the dialog keeps getting better and better. And over the course of the game all those dialogs become kind of interconnected and explain stories and backgrounds of characters.

All of that makes me so invested in the characters on my team that I do everything I can to protect them and make them live. Some so much that I wish I could protect them in real life.

Under no circumstances read the spoiler if you plan to play the game, it'll spoil things in a potentially big way if you aren't expecting it to happen.

Spoiler

And later in the game makes me so sad when I have to kill them. My poor little students that I spent so much time getting to know.

It's so fascinating that I'm starting to look forward to all the conversations more than the gameplay. Which is impressive considering this is one of the finest examples of this type of gameplay (tactical combat) in existence.

I could gush for a long time about this game. It's so well executed.

What's even more amazing is that there are 4 endings, and the story and path to get each ending is vastly different. How they managed to find the time to make all of this magic happen? I have no idea, but I love it. Each story is 80+ hours. It'll probably take me over 120 hours to finish the one I started. So, likely over 400 hours of gameplay here for me. It'll take me years to do it all.

Also, every single line of dialog is voice acted. Again, how they managed this or how they could afford it, is beyond me. How did they even manage to fit it within the storage constraints of the NSW? MAGIC...MAGIC I tell you!

Regards,
SB

 

[eloic]

I finished The Last of Us. Very good game.

Spoiler

The ending was kind of meh...

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Also, I resumed Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood after a while, with a determined purpose of getting straight to the point: no more collectables, no more trying to buy all weapons, stores, etc., give zero fucks to recruiting and upgrading assassins, etc. But, God! How can you NOT do it? It's so addictive, yet I feel the game is way too long. It messes up my mind.

 

[Karamazov]

bought Just Cause 4 for cheap, enjoying it so far !

 

[Karamazov]

bought A way out and started playing with a friend
it's great so far, i really like how it's a real coop game

 

[eloic]

I finally managed to ignore all the collectables and side quests in Assassin's Creed II: Brotherhood. I think that the rewards don't equal the amount of time you must spend to achieve them. So, I beat the game and I installed Assassin's Creed II: Revelations. Why did they change Desmond's face? It's not an age change, I mean, it's a different face...

BTW, until now it's been very annoying being bossed around all the time, like you're stupid. Desmond is practically the one doing all the job and most of the time he gets rude replies and stupid commands like "Desmond, get down here". Oh, yes, thank God you said that, because my intention was to stay here in this fucking pillar all day, instead of going towards the device I just activated/the door I just opened.

 

[Sigfried1977]

Revelation is the one with the misguided tower defence nonsense, right? Shame really. Ezio deserved a better send-off.

 

[eloic]

Revelation is the one with the misguided tower defence nonsense, right? Shame really. Ezio deserved a better send-off.

I don't know. I haven't got there, yet.

 

[eloic]

Dragon's Dogma. The game seems fun and it's quite beautiful. It was a joy to realise in the initial village (a gorgeous little fishing village) that there's dynamic time of day, so I could watch the sunset and sunrise at the shore. I haven't been many hours into it but it seems difficult (I've been dying non stop just trying to cross a path to get to the Witchwood), too.

 

[Sigfried1977]

Dragon's Dogma doesn't really hold your hands. The path to the Witchwood is chock-full of high level baddies and you should probably avoid it until you're at least level 20 or 25. Heck, you can encounter high level nasties as early as right at the start of the game if you take the side quest which sends you down the village well. You should probably stick to the main quest until you've reached the city of Gran Soren. You'll get some much needed experience on the way and it will also open up your options for character development as you can only pick the powerful hybrid classes there.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Dragon's Dogma doesn't really hold your hands. The path to the Witchwood is chock-full of high level baddies and you should probably avoid it until you're at least level 20 or 25. Heck, you can encounter high level nasties as early as right at the start of the game if you take the side quest which sends you down the village well. You should probably stick to the main quest until you've reached the city of Gran Soren. You'll get some much needed experience on the way and it will also open up your options for character development as you can only pick the powerful hybrid classes there.

I keep looking at this on Switch. I'll pick it up at some point.

 

[Sigfried1977]

It's a good version based on the PS4/XONE remasters. Not much of a looker if you play it on a modern 4K tv, but lovely in handheld mode. It's much better than the PS3/360 versions, both of which couldn't maintain anything remotely resembling solid framerates, but it's handily beaten by the rock solid PS4 version.

 

[eloic]

Dragon's Dogma doesn't really hold your hands. The path to the Witchwood is chock-full of high level baddies and you should probably avoid it until you're at least level 20 or 25. Heck, you can encounter high level nasties as early as right at the start of the game if you take the side quest which sends you down the village well. You should probably stick to the main quest until you've reached the city of Gran Soren. You'll get some much needed experience on the way and it will also open up your options for character development as you can only pick the powerful hybrid classes there.

Yeah, just at the beginning, because of the story and because I was right there in the village, I thought it was just natural that I tried to rescue the girl in that moment, but I guess I will have to do it later.

It's a good version based on the PS4/XONE remasters. Not much of a looker if you play it on a modern 4K tv, but lovely in handheld mode. It's much better than the PS3/360 versions, both of which couldn't maintain anything remotely resembling solid framerates, but it's handily beaten by the rock solid PS4 version.

Regarding framerate issues, I haven't suffered very noticeable framerate drops yet. So far, so good.

 

[Sigfried1977]

I've spent around 60 hours with it and even with a team of 3 sorcerers blasting off screen filling effects it always remained very stable. On the PS3 a single tornado or meteor shower would absolutely tank the framerate. So yeah, no need to worry about any any nasty late game surprises. Like in Red Faction Guerilla.

Word of advice: it usually takes a good chunk of story progression, but side quests can and will eventually fail and become unavailable.

 

[eloic]

Thanks for all the advice.

 

[Sigfried1977]

Don't mention it. I'll jump at any chance if it let's me talk about a game that's probably in my all time top 3.

 

[eloic]

Don't mention it. I'll jump at any chance if it let's me talk about a game that's probably in my all time top 3.

BTW, why do people like... snort when I get close to them? Like I disgust them or whatever...

 

[eloic]

So, I've been progressing in Dragon's Dogma. It seemed (past tense, I stopped playing the game) pretty cool, until I fully understood that there's this stupid limitation that makes you set only a few of the skills you already learned (three primary and three secondary). In Dragon Age, for instance, you can use all the skills you've learnt, which seems pretty obvious and basic to me. This limitation is specially frustrating for mages/sorcerers, which was my case. So, say, I'm in the middle of a dungeon and I realise that there are creatures weak to ice, but my spells are fire and thunder. Even though I knew ice spells, I couldn't use them unless I go to a fucking inn and I "set" them!

Anyhow, the last nail in the coffin was the autosave feature that messed up a really good game I'd been progressing on. Since the last checkpoint (which is not the same as a saved game), I had gained a lot of experience, items, enhanced stuff, advanced in the main quest, etc. But then in Gran Soren I fired my staff by mistake and I was arrested and bam! I see the autosave icon blinking when I was taken to the dungeon, what the heck?! It was a single mistake, an accident and I didn't even hurt anyone. I wasn't able to reload in a previous section since the autosave just messed that up. I only could reload in the last checkpoint, which was a loooong way back, meaning that I lost the good progress I made, lots of hours, so fuck it, that's it. No more Dragon's Dogma for me. I refuse to replay so many hours.

It's a pity because I actually liked the setting and some things were really cool, though...

 

[Rodéric]

I finished Zelda Breath of the Wild, that game was awesome, can't wait for the next!
Still progressing in Divinity Original Sin in coop, that's interesting and not a follow the arrow type of gameplay.

 

[Sigfried1977]

So, I've been progressing in Dragon's Dogma. It seemed (past tense, I stopped playing the game) pretty cool, until I fully understood that there's this stupid limitation that makes you set only a few of the skills you already learned (three primary and three secondary). In Dragon Age, for instance, you can use all the skills you've learnt, which seems pretty obvious and basic to me. This limitation is specially frustrating for mages/sorcerers, which was my case. So, say, I'm in the middle of a dungeon and I realise that there are creatures weak to ice, but my spells are fire and thunder. Even though I knew ice spells, I couldn't use them unless I go to a fucking inn and I "set" them!

Anyhow, the last nail in the coffin was the autosave feature that messed up a really good game I'd been progressing on. Since the last checkpoint (which is not the same as a saved game), I had gained a lot of experience, items, enhanced stuff, advanced in the main quest, etc. But then in Gran Soren I fired my staff by mistake and I was arrested and bam! I see the autosave icon blinking when I was taken to the dungeon, what the heck?! It was a single mistake, an accident and I didn't even hurt anyone. I wasn't able to reload in a previous section since the autosave just messed that up. I only could reload in the last checkpoint, which was a loooong way back, meaning that I lost the good progress I made, lots of hours, so fuck it, that's it. No more Dragon's Dogma for me. I refuse to replay so many hours.

It's a pity because I actually liked the setting and some things were really cool, though...

Why didn't you just get out of the dungeon? You can either bribe the jailer, use a skeleton key if you had one on you, or just serve your time (one full day-night cycle). Not exactly the end of the world.

As for your other problem: that's why you should hire pawns complementing your own. I'm an assassin right now and as a strength-based character I do fuck all damage against late-game magic enemies. That is until my sorceress casts her lightning bubble which turns me into a killing machine.

Or you could just switch classes. As a magic user you can make full use of the Magic Archer class (probably the most fun class in the game) or the Mystic Knight.

You should switch classes anyways because there are some great passive skills to learn.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Taking a little break from Fire Emblem: Three Houses to play Age of Empires Definitive Edition (Gamepass PC). Not something I'd buy right now, but since it's included with the service I wanted to try it for nostalgia's sake.

Man the gameplay is still REALLY good and holds up well (unlike Warcraft 1). I love the little bit of historical information that you get with each campaign mission.

The updated game is generally well done (graphics are excellent, for example), but there are some bits that need polishing or are downright bad.

Scrollable windows can't be scrolled using the mouse wheel, for example. How did that make it through testing? A little annoying, needs polishing.

Something downright bad, however, is that if you lose connection to the multiplayer servers, for whatever reasons, you can't access multiplayer lobbies and it pops up a message letting you know. Makes sense right?

Well, what if you happen to be in a single player game? Well, it pops up the message and brings you to the main menu...ending your single player game in the process. Who the heck thought that was a good idea? ARGH!!!!!!!

Anyway, things like that aside. It's still an excellent game and it's still really enjoyable.

Regards,
SB