Played 100% of Minishoot’ Adventures (except one achieve that requires a hard mode playthrough). It’s an excellent shorter experience. About $12 on Steam and I played just under 9 hours. What if you mashed up an isometric Zelda exploration adventure with a bullet hell gameplay (but not too hard). Fun exploration, super cute design, tight gameplay, satisfying progression. Loved it.
TTW has quite a few niceties compared to previous sequels:
classes
dual classes
character creator
additional equipment slots
meaningful pet classes
spells
for me many of the weapon types remind me of the eridium "unique" weapons of the original game
much more interesting open world
All true and the highlight for me was my farting pet mushroom Shittake. Yes I am 44.
Not sure if there's a dedicated thread for this (the GWJ Search function is offline, at least for me) , but I'm looking for recommendations for First Person Shooters. My latest favorite, Apex Legends is great in a lot of ways but just isn't scratching the itch anymore. Curious what y'all are playing now.
Titanfall 2?
I assume you mean multiplayer?
In that case, I'm the wrong person to ask....still on Quake Champions for 6 years running now.
I assume you mean multiplayer?
In that case, I'm the wrong person to ask....still on Quake Champions for 6 years running now.
Multiplayer or solo. I'm sure I have a few that are quite good, I've just got to investigate my library.
You might find something that sounds interesting in The Retro FPS (aka "Boomer Shooters") Thread.
There was the System Shock remake that released last year that Legion loves and I want to play more of.
For me, I hope to finally get to Serious Sam 4, and maybe some Shadow Warrior soon.
Titanfall 2?
...is amazing!
Titanfall 2 also has amazing multiplayer.
Titanfall 2 also has amazing multiplayer.
I had no idea. Thanks! And I'm also loading Quake Champions. 
I've adored games like Red Orchestra and Day of Defeat, but Hell Let Loose has been such a disappointment. I've spent longer queuing than I have in game, and this in 2024!
T2 is VERY fast, so I suggest doing the amazing campaign first to get your feet under you first.
QC is also very fast. Definitely spend lots of time in "practice" mode, and look up guides on movement (strafe jumping, etc...).
Quakecon 2024 is in just under a month, and I expect some incredible 1v1 matches again.
Veloxi wrote:Titanfall 2 also has amazing multiplayer.
I had no idea. Thanks! And I'm also loading Quake Champions.
I've adored games like Red Orchestra and Day of Defeat, but Hell Let Loose has been such a disappointment. I've spent longer queuing than I have in game, and this in 2024!
I am a Red Orchestra veteran too and HLL sqeezed even 1k hours out of me (could for sure be better, but there is no better right now, sadly).
For queueing up, try this procedure:
When the server list shows up, sort by ping and scroll down from lowest to higher, looking for a server that has between 40 and 90 players - that usually means it's in the limbo between maps. Those tend to have an instant slot for you and fill up fast - and even more importantly, you'll be in the round from the very start.
My personal experience is that in over 90% of cases it takes my computer longer to load the server list than me to join the server I pick. Also, it is very rare that I end up on a server with over 100 ping. And I am high on the West Coast, which is a huge disadvantage becuse the entire gamer and server population is pretty much exclusively to the East and South of here. We are the last ones to fall off the cliff, all alone...
Baldur‘s Gate 3
After countless restarts and redoes of acts 1 and 2 I finally managed to beat this. The sheer amount of content of act 3 just overwhelmed me in a way that I just had to stop. I‘m glad I finished it now and I‘m psyched to start an evil playthrough.
I finished a game! I rolled credits on Prince of Persia The Lost Crown.
I’ll start with the criticisms first: it’s f*cking hard. Combat overall was just too much for me. Especially the bosses where I was barely able to get in a shot at later bosses. Combat is slower and Souls-like with a lot of parries and dodging required, and enemies respawn after you save at save points. And the platforming got progressively harder to the point that it turns into Super Meat Boy ridiculousness. The story was absolute nonsense too. I just started skipping dialog and cutscenes about halfway through. The emotional beats they were trying to hit just didn’t land for me, unlike the Ori games for instance.
Thankfully though, everything else about this game is brilliant. It’s a really great Metroidvania. The controls are tight and responsive. There are tons of powers and upgrades that you can customize at save points. The art style is absolutely gorgeous. And the map is huge with various beautiful different locations to unlock and explore. There is some backtracking, but not much at all. There is usually a one-way door that loops you back after you’ve explored a new section. There are also generous amounts of save points and fast travel points.
And as for the difficulty? Thankfully there are multiple sliders to adjust difficulty. It allows you to really fine tune the difficulty setting to your play style. For much of the game I would keep everything at 0.5 but then crank it all the way down during boss battles (which I hate). There's also a “portal” setting to let you skip the extremely difficult platforming sections. (I almost rage-quit before I realized there was a setting for this).
Really fun experience overall.
I finished Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga, which is a tactical RPG reminiscent of Fire Emblem, but your units are made up of squads of characters that you can mix and match, and you can change up the units a lot based on this. Each unit can be developed in different ways and there are multiple promotion paths and passive abilities to equip them with, so there are a decent about of customization to do without it getting overwhelming. Many squads do end up looking similar (a tank or two in front, a healer or two in back, and then the rest determines what the squad does), but that could also just be a me thing.
It’s pretty low budget, and it definitely feels like Fire Emblem lite in many ways – there’s not a clear weapons triangle to speak of, there are character supports but there are very few of them and it's not particularly deep, there are terrain differences but most maps are pretty straightforward with few gimmicks (except for a small number of set piece battles which are actually really good). The squad building seems to be the main differentiator, and it’s interesting here enough to make the game worth recommending for those who like the genre.
Just wrapped up Marvel's Midnight Suns.
What an odd game. The best way I can describe is if Gwent was the actual game in The Witcher 3 and everything else going on was just filler.
And yes, I know at least one of is going to say that's exactly what TW3 is, but you know what I mean.
But really, it stands true. The actual combat - the bit I would consider "the game" - is a genuinely excellent card based tactical game that really works. It works so well I think it's superb, and that's coming from someone for who the words "Card based deck builder" is generally an absolute switch off and don't touch command.
The rest of it though - I'm really struggling to understand how they thought any of it would be a good idea. It's just fluff. And it makes up probably 85% of the game. Yes, you don't have to do it, but if you don't you'll be missing out on a ton of bonuses and cards that really you’re just shooting yourself in the foot.
And it drags on and on and on and on and on. 80 hours I've spent in it according to Epic games store, I reckon only about 15 or so of those were spent actually fighting.
It's a shame it had the impact it did on Firaxis, but they really bought it on themselves. Here's hoping it doesn't mess up XCOM3 when it eventually arrives.
Finished up the single player storyline in Suicide Squad. I picked it up during the Steam sale. Now, a whole bunch more people have it in their Epic accounts.
I really like open world shooters and think Rocksteady's Arkham games are some of the best games ever made. I have zero interest in live service games.
I feel like I got my $20 out of Suicide Squad and I very much enjoyed up until the end. The end, however, just kind of stops mid-story and tries to transition the player over to the live service game. Various plot lines are just left unresolved.
There is an extraordinary level of attention to detail and polish in the art direction and the action combat gameplay is very fun. Unfortunately, it is all hanging on a framework that feels thin and unfinished.
I'm finally done with Elden Ring. I 100%'d the base game and most likely the DLC - there's no metric though. I explored every corner of the map, defeated every mini boss and have found most, if not all, of the secrets. This entire playthrough took about 280 hours (80 for Shadow) and aside from a few minor issues, I enjoyed every minute of it. ER is a rare 10/10 for me and in my 40 years of gaming, is my undisputed GOAT. Aside from the cryptic side quests, I thought everything else was perfectly executed. Just an incredible game from top to bottom!
All that's left is NG+ but my backlog screams out for attention so I'll move along... for now. I can't wait to see what From does next.
I watched credits roll on Amnesia: The Bunker. Probably my favorite of the Amnesia games, but this is much more geared towards survival horror. It is reminiscent of Alien: Isolation, but more punishing, from my perspective. If anyone is planning to play this, I ran into some significant saved file corruption and crashing. I played on my PS5 and I almost just put the game down entirely after I lost saves numerous times. So I guess just be aware of that aspect. The save issues aside, I really liked it--outside of some survival horror frustrations.
I finished all the games in the Castlevania Anniversary Collection. Even Kid Dracula. It's an interesting thing to play for the first time - well, I think I played a bit of the first gameboy game way back in the day. Just absolutely brutal, punishing, f*ck you design all over. I'd never had the patience to finish any of the games (except for Simon's Quest, which is a cakewalk in comparison to the others) if it wasn't for save states, and I think I'll rage less at the next Elden Ring boss that frustrates me.
So yeah. Castlevania II was my favourite of the collection. A perfectly standard, widely accepted opinion, right? Right?
And not just for it being less punishing, but because of the exploration, the day night cycle that can lead to tense moments where you're just hunkering down in a town waiting for dawn to break and the church to open so you can heal up, those lying villager shits - even if they're janky or underdeveloped, they're neat ideas.
I also played through My Friendly Neighborhood.
Basically Resident Evil meets Sesame Street. Solid level design and puzzles, and a surprising amount of visual polish for a game made by a couple of people. They do their own spin on the Crimson Head mechanic - puppets you down resurrect once you leave a room, but if you have duct tape in your inventory you can tape them up so they stay down, bringing some strategy to the exploration. Also a bunch of secrets to find, which I didn't find most of - I kinda wanna go back for another run.
Definite recommend if you enjoy survival horror.
I finished The Wolf Among Us on PS Vita this weekend.
I was a nice palate-cleanser for me after playing a number of straight actions games (Dragons Dogma 2, A Plague Tale Innocence). However, I could have lived entirely without the QTE action sections... particularly, the weird boss battle near the end which - take a drink - felt like it had been imported from a completely different game. Utterly baffling decision!
The story didn't particularly grab me. Perhaps it's my age, but my heart sinks when a detective story kicks of with a woman's murder. And in this case, given the way the story developed, it felt like an entirely gratuitous hook into a story that wasn't about murder at all. If anything, the story
about poor Fables turning to black market for glamours
felt very under-written.
This is a one of a kind game that is the pinnacle of its genre. It nails (hah) so many things that it’s hard to even start. Its sense of scale, immersion, world building, combat precision, charm, music, style are just incredible. This has all been said before, of course, but I had to gush a bit. I’m glad I finally gave it a real shot.
I couldn't agree more, but my style of playing a lot of different games at the same time caused me to bounce off Hollow Knight because I left too much time in between sessions to know where I was or what I was supposed to be doing. I definitely want to come back to this one in a more focused manner though. Loved it when I was playing it the first time.
I finished a game! I rolled credits on Prince of Persia The Lost Crown.
Thankfully though, everything else about this game is brilliant. It’s a really great Metroidvania.
So how does this fit into the whole Assassin's Creed "lore and timeline"? I want to play it but have a thing about going through games in a series in order and I'm WOEFULLY behind. I can probably relax on that standard if it's a side story though.
PaladinTom wrote:I finished a game! I rolled credits on Prince of Persia The Lost Crown.
Thankfully though, everything else about this game is brilliant. It’s a really great Metroidvania.
So how does this fit into the whole Assassin's Creed "lore and timeline"? I want to play it but have a thing about going through games in a series in order and I'm WOEFULLY behind.
From time to time, I like to go through a full series in release order and so I'm doing that now with Kirby. First up, Kirby's Dreamland for the Gameboy, which I finished this weekend. Obviously, a charming little game. Short, sweet, and relaxing, but with limited mechanics since the prominent "power-steal" ability doesn't come into play until the next game. So weird, going back to the monochrome-green of the original GB.
Anyway, onward to Kirby's Adventure for the NES!
[quote="beanman101283"]
PaladinTom wrote:I finished a game! I rolled credits on Prince of Persia The Lost Crown.
Thankfully though, everything else about this game is brilliant. It’s a really great Metroidvania.
So how does this fit into the whole Assassin's Creed "lore and timeline"? I want to play it but have a thing about going through games in a series in order and I'm WOEFULLY behind.
Sadly, I am. Deepest apologies if the question smacks of pure Assassin's Creed stupidity... 
[quote="kstress71"]
kstress71 wrote:PaladinTom wrote:I finished a game! I rolled credits on Prince of Persia The Lost Crown.
Thankfully though, everything else about this game is brilliant. It’s a really great Metroidvania.
So how does this fit into the whole Assassin's Creed "lore and timeline"? I want to play it but have a thing about going through games in a series in order and I'm WOEFULLY behind.
Sadly, I am. Deepest apologies if the question smacks of pure Assassin's Creed stupidity... :)
Well... it's a Prince of Persia game, not an Assassin's Creed game 
Prince of Persia games are generally standalone from one another, outside of the Sands of Time trilogy.
[quote="beanman101283"]
beanman101283 wrote:kstress71 wrote:PaladinTom wrote:I finished a game! I rolled credits on Prince of Persia The Lost Crown.
Thankfully though, everything else about this game is brilliant. It’s a really great Metroidvania.
So how does this fit into the whole Assassin's Creed "lore and timeline"? I want to play it but have a thing about going through games in a series in order and I'm WOEFULLY behind.
Sadly, I am. Deepest apologies if the question smacks of pure Assassin's Creed stupidity... :)
Well... it's a Prince of Persia game, not an Assassin's Creed game
OOPS!! Your post said Prince of Persia and my brain short-circuited and somehow merged them together. Thanks for the correction and clarification!
I finished Ghost of Tsushima this weekend. What a fantastic game! I still have some personal quests to do and a whole new island of DLC.
I’m not sure if I want to finish all of that stuff or jump into New Game +.
I finished Ghost of Tsushima this weekend. What a fantastic game! I still have some personal quests to do and a whole new island of DLC.
I’m not sure if I want to finish all of that stuff or jump into New Game +.
The DLC island is very cool.
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