Finished Any Games Lately?

Oh, one thing I forgot to mention - on one occasion I knocked out a guard who was standing in front of a laser-beam alarm system, and he fell into the beam. Reflexively I started to reload from my last save, but then realized that he hadn't set off the alarms; I guess guards carry some sort of RFID chip that identifies them as non-alarm-worthy. Realizing that this was an actual system in the game, from then on whenever I needed to get through an area protected by laser "trip wires" I simply dragged an unconscious guard with me, parting the red beams like Moses and the Red Sea.

For all I know that's been the way laser systems have worked since the first Deus Ex, but I only happened on it a few nights ago, and it's those kinds of discoveries that fill me with delight.

gewy, if you avoided the DLC for Mankind Divided (I'm not sure how I wound up with them; must have picked them up at some point on a Black Friday sale), I strongly recommend A Criminal Past, the one set in prison. Part of its length is due to the fact that they pretty much take away all your aug powers for a good stretch of time, but there's an astonishing wealth of gameplay there, and arguably better writing than in the full game. I was really surprised by how good it was.

Bravely Default II on the Switch is down. Might be the first time in close to two decades since I finish an RPG within three weeks of having purchased it. Quite the fun romp with some decent challenge here and there.

That laser guard thing worked in Mark of the Ninja too. Was awesome.

Yeah, I did the DLC. It was quite good.

Never knew about the laser thing. Very cool.

brokenclavicle wrote:

Bravely Default II on the Switch is down. Might be the first time in close to two decades since I finish an RPG within three weeks of having purchased it. Quite the fun romp with some decent challenge here and there.

Is it as, uhm, grindy as the first one? I remember literally going through the same dungeons more than once in the first game... which really killed my desire to keep going. "Oh look, they didn't want to write and draw new content so I'm literally just playing the same fights over again!"

Vrikk wrote:
brokenclavicle wrote:

Bravely Default II on the Switch is down. Might be the first time in close to two decades since I finish an RPG within three weeks of having purchased it. Quite the fun romp with some decent challenge here and there.

Is it as, uhm, grindy as the first one? I remember literally going through the same dungeons more than once in the first game... which really killed my desire to keep going. "Oh look, they didn't want to write and draw new content so I'm literally just playing the same fights over again!"

Not in the way they did the first one, as far as I know. There is a grind if you want to max out every job, and even more if you want to do the optional end-game bosses, but it's a bit more optional in essence. None of that "you have to go through exact copies of the first world four times" shenanigans.

I polished of Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire earlier this week. Solid CRPG that I enjoyed my time with and noticeably less depressing than the first game in the series (which is admittedly a low bar to clear; the first couple hours of Pillars of Eternity have to be some of the bleakest in all of gaming).

It's obvious that Obsidian had given themselves hooks for a sequel, which has me a little bummed knowing that there won't be more games in the series. I would have loved to have another after this very strong showing.

Why no Pillars III?

Because Pillars II didn't sell very well. They're doing a spin-off with Awoved - the same setting, but doing a Bethesda style first person RPG.

Wow. Damn shame.

I hear that Deadfire is better than the first one, and more expansive, so it's a bummer to hear it didn't do great.

Vrikk wrote:

Wow. Damn shame.

I hear that Deadfire is better than the first one, and more expansive, so it's a bummer to hear it didn't do great.

I didn’t like Deadfire as much as the first game to be honest. It’s a little too arbitrary in places and while the ship exploration layer was OK, it felt ever so slightly under baked in a lot of places. Plus all the factions were basically dicks.

Vrikk wrote:

Wow. Damn shame.

I hear that Deadfire is better than the first one, and more expansive, so it's a bummer to hear it didn't do great.

I certainly liked it better than the first one. Like I mentioned above, Pillars 1 was BLEAK. Pillars 2 is less so, and has a fair bit of additional mechanical depth that I really enjoyed. Liked the companions better, too. Durance from Pillars 1 had me wanting to put my fist through the screen.

One thing I'm a little sad that they didn't expand in Pillars 2 was the racial options. I'd have loved some more types of godlike. I get the desire to keep Pellagina, Tekehu, and Vatnir unique, but it'd have been cool to see godlike tied to Eothas, Woedica, Abydon, etc.

Vrikk wrote:

Wow. Damn shame.

I hear that Deadfire is better than the first one, and more expansive, so it's a bummer to hear it didn't do great.

I can kind of understand why. When the first one came out, that type of game was still a novelty because almost nobody made it anymore. By the time the second one came around there were tons. Almost a victim of it's own success you could say.

I think a lot of that was that PoE1 was extremely dry, and the companions weren't very good. I ended up making all my own characters and playing it as a tactical game instead. Enjoyed it a lot in that mode, but there was practically no story.

Then, at the very end of the game, the plot suddenly became awesome. The last two hours were extremely well done. If they'd made that plot the backbone of the game, pulling it back to the beginning and weaving it through the rest of the narrative, I think I would have been quite hooked.

I think so many people were put off by PoE1 that PoE2 just didn't move. Series game sales are very often about the prior entry in the series.

wood83 wrote:

Recently I finished game is animal crossing new leaf and this game is amazing! Godlike graphics, cool characters, and neat features. It helps me to relax and open up my creative spirit. This is legit just New Leaf with elements of Pocket Camp mixed into it. At first, I thought it would be too boring and limited, but the devs at Nintendo proved me wrong. I love this series and this game, in my opinion, is the best so far.

Respectable post. Disrespectful signature.

Whelp, another week another Halo game completed. This time it's Halo 3: ODST. Definitely the most different of all the Halo games I've played so far in terms of storytelling and character building, but as I've said before Halo games are basically the TGIFriday's of shooters at this point. You pretty much know what you're getting yourself into, overall pretty good but nothing groundbreaking.

And that's ok. Not every game needs to revolutionize a genre.

Up next, plugging along in Pillars of Eternity, a game that has sat on my hard drive for quite a while now until I just suddenly decided to dive in. I like it. It's no Baldur's Gate killer, more like a well designed BG substitute.

Double post. This should be fixed in the next Cyberpunk patch.

Finished the story for Batman Arkham City. Fun time with it and now doing the side quests and exploring the additional characters. Really enjoyed the flow of combat and gadgets. I think Batman Origins is next and then on to Arkham Knight.

Finished Immortals Fenyx Rising last night.

Yeah it's the Ubi open world formula, but it felt so much less bloated than the most recent Assassin's Creed games. Combat was pretty fun, and the puzzles in Tartaros are a nice mix. Well worth the $30 it's been on sale for lately.

Malor wrote:

I think a lot of that was that PoE1 was extremely dry, and the companions weren't very good. I ended up making all my own characters and playing it as a tactical game instead. Enjoyed it a lot in that mode, but there was practically no story.

Then, at the very end of the game, the plot suddenly became awesome. The last two hours were extremely well done. If they'd made that plot the backbone of the game, pulling it back to the beginning and weaving it through the rest of the narrative, I think I would have been quite hooked.

I think so many people were put off by PoE1 that PoE2 just didn't move. Series game sales are very often about the prior entry in the series.

Well crap, this wasn't on my radar to jump back into. I jumped off my initial play through with the same reasons you originally posted.

I mentioned this in the Bloodborne thread, but neglected to post here. Apologies. Remediating that gross deficiency now, the lazy way:

merphle wrote:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/Ev529Mi.png)

My first Soulsborne platinum. I abused PS+ cloud saving to get the three endings in NG, but I don't feel bad about it.

Yes! I watched the credits roll yesterday for Remnant: From The Ashes. It is the second Souls-inspired game that I've completed, after Nioh a few years ago. I have yet to finish an actual Souls game!

Remnant has a lot of replayability: look forward to digging into the Subject 2923 DLC and resetting the campaign for a Hard playthrough!

In a strange turns of events... my 5 year old and myself finished Toad Treasure Tracker on the WiiU

I knocked out Dishonered: Death to the Outsider yesterday. A fun, more bite-sized trip back into the Dishonored world. And for us Playstation owners, probably the last we will see.

Garth wrote:

...And for us Playstation owners, probably the last we will see.

I'm hoping there's some sort of Xbox streaming stick with acceptable performance by the time Elder Scrolls 6 or any further Dishonored game comes out; a lot of the rest of the Bethesda stable I'm not particularly interested in, but the amount of enjoyment I've gotten out of Oblivion, Skyrim, and the Dishonored series is pretty much incalculable.

I figure by the time ES6 comes out there'll be a whole new set of consoles to choose from, so no sense worrying about it now.

Stele wrote:

Finished Immortals Fenyx Rising last night.

Yeah it's the Ubi open world formula, but it felt so much less bloated than the most recent Assassin's Creed games. Combat was pretty fun, and the puzzles in Tartaros are a nice mix. Well worth the $30 it's been on sale for lately.

This is ONE game I do want to play.... but newborn baby has made my schedule more complex

Darkhaund wrote:
Stele wrote:

Finished Immortals Fenyx Rising last night.

Yeah it's the Ubi open world formula, but it felt so much less bloated than the most recent Assassin's Creed games. Combat was pretty fun, and the puzzles in Tartaros are a nice mix. Well worth the $30 it's been on sale for lately.

This is ONE game I do want to play.... but newborn baby has made my schedule more complex

Yeah 6 month old here. That's why it took me nearly 3 months to finish, chipping away an hour or so a few nights a week after bedtime.

I hear you.. my baby is 8 weeks old heheh

Maclintok wrote:

Yes! I watched the credits roll yesterday for Remnant: From The Ashes.

Just got this as a March freebie from PS+. It seems like it is advertised as a co-op experience. Did you play solo or with friends? If solo, do you think it's a game designed for solo play primarily, or for co-op?