I really enjoyed FF-X (I either finished it or got stuck on the last boss) apart from…. well, the bits everyone hates.
X-2 is tremendously odd. I think I like it. I've turned off Active Battle for now, but I should be leaving it on shouldn't I?
What has also surprised me…. I know the Switch is good, but the Vita remains a technical marvel. Dat screen. Ahead of its time. Why can't we have another one with four shoulder buttons and clickable sticks :(
I think I turned off Active Battle too, can't remember but it's pretty frantic until you get the hang of it, so don't be ashamed of slowing it down a bit. You can turn off the lengthy costume change animations too which makes the whole thing much snappier.
I've been back to the Vita too this week and it's such a lovely device. It's more comfortable to hold than the Switch and the screen is much less reflective too. It seems dinky now but apart from that it really hasn't aged at all.
I know. It was a bit like "I'm really enjoying the Switch, but I think I'll try something on the Vita. Bet it has aged a bit in comparison…. oh….. oh no it hasn't."
So many good games too.
Little Miss Bloodaxe was wanting to try Minecraft and asked me to buy it for the Switch, but I remembered that I had bought it for the Vita years ago and I reinstalled it on there. So far she's loving it, and she's been playing a bunch of other things too
I liked FFX-2 a lot less the second time I played it on Vita, it was because the second time I played FFX, also on Vita and liked that one even more and don't really like the connection between the two. Honestly, the combat wasn't as deep as I remembered it being, some of the Dresspheres kinda' suck (still pretty fun I guess) and not sure what to make of the fanfiction tier-story.
All Final Fantasy game sequels/prequels, After Years, X-2, anything and everything related to FF7 is a load of fanwank, but it doesn't mean they're not fun games/movies, I just don't see them as part of the original games.
The biggest problem with ffx 2 comes when you go for 100%. Many easily missable things with the only option being to play through again to get them.
While we're on FF, can anyone explain to me why I'm enjoying 12?
I've got everyone's gambits on so it's playing itself. And I'm literally playing on fast-forward. And the plot is barely understandable bobbins. But I'm really, really enjoying myself.
Maybe I'm a bit sado-masochistic.
How far through are you? I enjoyed it well enough for the first 20 hours or so but it gets incredibly repetitive after a while, and I totally lost what grip I ever had on the plot.
11 hours so far. I'm in some sort of beige desert temple looking for a dawn shard because… one of my party wants it to… something to do with a marquis.
It's all beige.
I desperately want to finish it and have reached the final area but need to do some grinding and/or hunts but I really cannot be arsed with it all any more.
I can't honestly remember where I got to, but I was mostly enjoying it, apart from feeling that I'd picked the wrong jobs for everyone.
I like the plot, there's not too many BS jrpg stuff in there, there's no teen romances and the villains are great, I suspect you're enjoying it because it's good at the faux-mmo feel? And sure there's a meme about the game playing itself but the alternative is dumb party AI and fuck that. Also 4x speed is op QoL. :p
Spent another few hours in Crackdown 3 tonight. I've levelled up Agility again, giving me a frankly ridiculous three-storey vertical jump and a second air dash. It's tremendous fun.
Also this happened:
Additional PLAY:
Flinthook - Back into this thanks to Gar, and I'd forgotten a) how far into it I'd got and b) how to play it. Quick refresher and I'm whizzing around again, which is great. Such a fun game with so much hidden depth. Still got a fair way to go, since earning unlock coins takes time, but that's okay when it's this much fun.
More plays.
Mass Effect Andromeda I'm only five-ten hours in, but I can't see what all the belly-aching was about so far. It's beautiful and sounds great, the shooty shooty is a leap ahead of the old games, and up to press the plot is interesting. I chose the Asian woman preset, because she was the only character who looked vaguely human. (Design criticism there, not sweeping racism.) Perhaps if I'd chosen the meme-lady from the GIFs, I'd be less complimentary.
Halo 5 I started replaying this a few days ago, then realised it was actually a first playthrough. I'd merged this and Halo 4 in my head. S'good so far. And at 4K 60fps to boot – who needs a new generation.
FF12 Still really enjoyable, still on fast-forward.
Rise of the Tomb Raider
Was it MPH who commented that the visuals in Rise of the Tomb Raider are astonishing? While mulling which 4k TV to buy I dragged my projector out of the cupboard. It was an expensive one in 2008 but developed a fault, which meant I haven't touched it for years. But a few hours poking around in it and I've got it more or less working and blown up to humungeous size on a massive white wall. It's only 1080p but has always looked great with deep blacks and good detail. I thought I'd try Rise and ended up playing it for about 2 hours. Holy motherforking shirtballs. The game looks amazing (at any resolution). Plays well too. Like Gar though I've gone down the rabbit hole of toggling graphics options on a console and it feels weird.
I think I'm going to retry Mass Effect Andromeda. I really want it to be good.
Yeah, I played Rise of the Tomb Raider on the PC a couple of years ago and managed to get 60fps out of it with a few tweaks, it looked astonishing. It's a good game too, much better than the first reboot and apparently better than the follow-up as well.
Graphically though I don't think anything's going to beat God of War for a while, I know it's PS4 exclusive and you're hitched to the Xbone wagon these days but that thing is an absolute spectacle. Graphics in general these days are just nuts.
I have two Xbones…. but I still use the PS4. It's just an old model and it roars when it plays anything taxing. Might have to swap it for a PS Pro (which also roars I hear).
And hold on…. there are three Tomb Raiders? New one, which was good, this one and…. another one?
Yeah and they're all on Game Pass. I enjoyed them all.
It gets pretty samey by the end of the third, as the puzzle/platforming mechanics are identical. But they're still good fun. Shadow, the third one, swaps snow for jungle. And yes they're incredibly pretty games.
I have two Xbones…. but I still use the PS4. It's just an old model and it roars when it plays anything taxing. Might have to swap it for a PS Pro (which also roars I hear).
The PS4 Pro is a noisy beast… some of the time. Anything in 1080p is generally pretty quiet (far more so than the original model, in my experience) but 4K output can cause it to roar like a bastard. The more taxing the game, the louder it gets, obviously. It hits an unbelievable peak sometimes when playing God of War, it really is hairdryer levels at times, I can hear it upstairs when it's on in the lounge. I've resorted to playing the game through headphones.
I'm not a fan of Microsoft's games output this generation but they did a much better job with the X1X than Sony did with the Pro. I'd buy a PS4 Pro Pro with the X1X's build quality in a heartbeat.
Perhaps if I'd chosen the meme-lady from the GIFs, I'd be less complimentary.
I think the meme-lady is an NPC?
The one I'm thinking of is definitely the default Sara Ryder. There may be more.
To be fair Mass Effect games have always had pretty wonky looking humans with neon lego-man hair. The preset I went for is positively lifelike in comparison:
There are three Tomb Raider games! Who knew? (you all knew).
The preset I went for is positively lifelike in comparison:
That's a pretty good model, yeah. Mine looks great from some angles, but… very much not from others. The character creator is pretty bad. Maybe I'll use yours as Canon!Ryder if I ever get around to a replay.
Bin: PS4 parental controls. If you’ve got a child account set up on your console, you can manually override the age of the games that the account owner is allowed to play; which is good. I’ve got no issue with my boy playing Guacamelee, I’ve allowed him to play 12 rated games and it’s all good. BUT there is no way at all to override the restriction on online play, he’s completely unable to upload his times to the leaderboards (which is Guacamelee’s only online function) because that is based off the account’s date of birth and you can’t override that in any way. He’ll have to wait two more years before he can upload his completion times for a game he’s otherwise got permission to play. Ridiculous.
Apparently American accounts can override this, but EU ones cannot. I think we should leave the EU.
I get this reference. 
Play
Devil May Cry 5
Devil May Cry 5
Devil May Cry 5
Devil May Cry 5
Additional PLAY:
Gris - Oh my. What a lovely game. A lovely, lovely game.
Can't even be bothered with finding the thread, but what is it with Mass Effect: Andromeda utterly failing on so many levels with the show/don't tell approach to videogame design? Last night I had a number of times where secondary characters ANNOUNCED THINGS THAT WERE HAPPENING (often when I wasn't looking at them, and had no idea what they were referring to), many times where doors broke the "if this door is lit in this particular way, it's traversable" rule (copyright Valve circa mid 90s) and finally entire sections of levels that if you go down too soon lead nowhere, and result in a 5 minute trudge back to a node you can go the "right way" from.
Played/Keep Playing/Bin?: Wolfenstein 2 – it was… fine. Enjoyable mostly. I usually have a pretty low tolerance for ‘more of the same’ and this is a whole lot of more of the same. It is a little bit slicker than the New Order but wasn’t as fun to play as Doom 2016.
Wolfenstein 2 also sets up an impression that the player should be able to sneak around the levels but the stealth isn’t very well implemented so I ended up blunt forcing my way through the game. The main consequence of that was that I didn’t do much exploration so only found collectables and upgrades if they were on the main path.
There is a side mission that continues after the end of the game to assassinate commanders in rejigged locations from the main game which I guess I’ll keep dipping into. This game also features an alt universe arcade machine version of Wolfenstein 3D called Wolfstone 3D which can be played through more leisurely than the levels that were available in the New Order. In this version of the game you play as Elite Hans going against American/British/Russian Soldiers.
So, there’s more stuff to do after the story ends and the game is pretty undemanding so it’s not going straight in the bin pile.
Additional PLAY:
Return of the Obra Dinn - Been on my To Do list for a while. The gaming equivalent of the Shrek analogy, an onion with many, many hidden layers. It's right up my street and I'm loving putting all the pieces together. If only it was on consoles…
Play: Baba Is You - it's…errmm…well… a kind of puzzle game… and it's got a rabbit in… and you… well…
Oh just watch the trailer. It's brilliant. My brain hurts.
Considering getting a PS4. I don't know if this is the thread for it, I ideally wanted a 2nd Xbox one, for in the box room upstairs as barely getting to use downstairs, but now I am starting to think I'd really like to play Shenmue. And not on my laptop.
I can't stand Sony's pad's however. I've seen there are some high end Xbox style ones, anyone tried them or got any suggestions?
I've got an adaptor that lets me use Xbox 360 controllers on the PS4 - I use it for an old fightstick I have. I'm certain you can get one that works with Xbox One pads and it'll be cheaper/better than a third-party pad. You'll lose motion controls but barely anything uses those anyway.
Cheers Gar. Convinced I replied to this. I got the PS4 anyway today, it's the Spiderman limited edition one so that is what swayed me and was at my local indie so traded in a load of stuff I wasn't using towards it so got rid of the clutter.
You might get used to the pad. I think I prefer it overall - it's lighter and slightly smaller than the Xbox One pad, the d-pad is better, and the buttons are flatter and less clicky. The Xbox One pad has the edge on analogue sticks and triggers. Give it some time at least.
On the other hand, I used my PS3 for the first time in ages this week and that really is a bad pad. Can't believe I used it for so many years.
Play
Devil May Cry 5
Devil May Cry 5
Devil May Cry 5
Devil May Cry 5
A little earlier than I anticipated but I came into possession of a copy of Resident Evil 2: Remake and a few hours in is enough to tell me it's fucking amazing. The main takeaway for me so far is…this game made Zombies a threat again! The fact that it does this despite you being so much more mobile now is impressive, those bait techniques you may have used in the past to force an animation to whiff? Feels way harder now because there is usally a fair amount of them in a group and it's way riskier to get close in the first place. They can take a fair amount of bullets to drop (even a headshot isn't a kill) and when they do..they can get back up, and they can follow you into rooms, and on top of that there are some outside windows that they will break through if you're unable to board it up, further filling up the rooms.
I had a very tense first encounter with a Licker, they are blind so I was tilting the analog oh so carefully and practically holding my breath as if overstepping by making a noise and breathing would both be heard by this skinned monstrosity. You can't do that with a Zombie, or Zombies and honestly they should have always been this oppressive.
It looks and sounds great, the voice acting is leaps and bounds above the PS1 games, the Cop you meet in the Police Station in particular really sells his pain from his injuries through his delivery. Police Station itself looks great in a sorta' familiar/not familiar way. It all comes together to create this atmosphere that Capcom have made very meticulously, pixel by pixel as you walk with trepidation through the aftermath of the chaos that befell the place.
I wouldn't say I've been scared like I was with Resident Evil 7, but it's not for lack of atmosphere. I haven't even met everyone's favourite fedora wearing stalker yet.
11/10 World's First Quadruple A game.
I've spent another couple of hours with God of War again. It's so good. Just got to Alfheim, so I'm still suuuuper-early in it, but I'm starting(ish) to get the hang of combat - I'm even successfully blocking from time to time.
I think it was Alfheim where the combat clicked for me, and the bit after that where I realised just how good the whole game was.
I think part of the thing with combat is that I've upgraded my health and gear a couple of times, but I'm also starting to unlock more abilities, like dash-leap-attacks, and boomerang-throwing the axe when I dodge. Shield-parrying is still tricky, but half the battle is remembering that it's even an option.
I still keep holding L1 to sprint, though, because Hitman.
Actually, Resident Evil 2 Remake is fucking terrifying, ignore what I said before. :thinking:
I think part of the thing with combat is that I've upgraded my health and gear a couple of times, but I'm also starting to unlock more abilities, like dash-leap-attacks, and boomerang-throwing the axe when I dodge. Shield-parrying is still tricky, but half the battle is remembering that it's even an option.
Don't forget to upgrade Atreus too, he's incredibly useful. The game doesn't actually tell you this but you don't need to aim his shots, if you just tap Square then he shoots at whatever's in the centre of the screen. Once he's fully upgraded you can pretty much spam Square and he's very helpful in combat.
So the players on Apex on Ps4 are significantly worse than those on Xbox. Don't hate the pad like I did the ps3. However I have bad thumb fatigue already so will grab a convertor, mainly for my razer stick and fight pads.
I wouldn't say I've been scared like I was with Resident Evil 7, but it's not for lack of atmosphere. I haven't even met everyone's favourite fedora wearing stalker yet.
I have now…and the entire Police Station has become a fucking danger zone, even if you manage to escape, the sounds of his big thumping boots are not usually too far off, in short, this is the Nemesis feature dialled up to 11 imo and now if they ever remake that game the thunder has been well and truly stolen. He's always out there, he's always chasing you and every sound you make can apparently increase the chances of seeing him.
He's treading a fine line between 'too oppressive' and 'This is a genius idea' because he's more than once made me have to abandon a room search because he's found me, he dropped right me beside as I was doing a puzzle in the Library by jumping off the second floor and made me poop my pants. And if you're in a room with a Licker or Zombies and you tryto sneak past, then he bursts into the room, you are in SO much trouble.
Glad to see the memes haven't tarnished him in any way for me. Game is still fucking great btw.
What do you do if you're in the middle of a puzzle, and he bursts in? Do you have to run away, wait and then come back? Or is there always other stuff you can be doing?
I could see that getting pretty boring, having to abandon a plot point time and time again.
As far as I know the only place he can't enter is a save room. While not strictly a puzzle has stopped me from moving these huge bookshelves in the library to make a bridge, I think I had to momentarily down him.
So far he is pretty cool but maybe to good at finding me at the moment.
Played/Keep Playing/Bin?: Wolfenstein 2 – it was… fine.
I had a similar experience with Wolfenstein 2 which, while despite largely enjoying (mainly because the story is a bit batshit, and the powers made it a bit more interesting later on), I still didn't find as much of a breath of fresh air as its (immediate) predecessors, and new DOOM. It was just, as you said, 'fine'.
Additional Play(s)
Diablo 3 - have gone back to this, again, so that I have something else to play with Marit (both locally and online), so she's playing as a Wizard and I've started a new Crusader. Even after all this time, it still makes for a nice mix of absorbing and stress-free gaming, and is easy to fall back into.
It's still an enjoyable, highly polished, insidious thief of your free time (like most Blizzard games), basically.
(I did try and get Marit interested in Dragon's Crown Pro (despite the questionable aspects of the art) when it was in the sale the other week, so that we could try that as a Diablo-substitute, but the idea didn't take, so here we are again. It could be worse.)
Spider-Man - much like it's Sony-exclusive stablemate, I feel like I might have started to judge this more fairly a short time after playing it (rather than while I was still in the midst of it), and while GoW I increasingly think is one of the better games of this console generation, and look forward to going back to at some point, Spider-Man now feels like "just" a very good superhero game.
As such, while I am enjoying being back in the spandex (and indeed playing Spider-Man on the PS4), I'll be happy enough deleting it off the hard-drive for a bit once I've finished the DLC, and still think I'm more likely to go back and revisit the Arkham games (again) than I am to go back to it again any time soon.