General gaming discussion

[Adramelch]

The only problem with Black Flag is all the Abstergo shit which is dreadful and the story which is at best pointless. The gameplay itself is great though. I'd definitely recommend playing it.

As for Origins, my main problem (been a while since I played it) is that the main story structure was very outdated: "You have to kill three targets, you reach the checkpoint, now you have to kill another three, another checkpoint now another three". It's how the original AC was constructed 10 years prior.

[Ian]

Have I totally misremembered how much Abstergo wank is in Black Flag? My memory is that it wasn't too intrusive on the whole (relatively speaking) but I may be remembering wrong.

I know there's one where it has about three bits where you're farting about in an office.... is that Black Flag?

[Adramelch]

Yeah, that's the one. It was the first installment after Desmond dies and they clearly had no idea what they wanted to do in the "outside world", other than keep having the pointless distractions.

[Ian]

Ugh. It says a lot that it has that Abstergo office shit in it and yet it's still my favourite in the series, then.

[wullie]

Having a look on the PS4 store and Origins is £50 which put me off immediately, but then Super Origins Hyper Fighting Deluxe (https://store.playstation.com/en-gb/product/EP0001-CUSA05625_00-EDITIONDLXACE000) is under £13 so chances are I'm going to go back through a load of the old ones now

[Shindig]

I loved the Desmond stuff, in spite of Danny Wallace being all other it. It was their opportunity to get weird with internet Egyptians and shit.

Anyway, I have a better idea. Hitman in a historical setting. Modern equipment but he's killing through the ages. Franz Ferdinand, Juluis Ceasar, JFK, Mahatma Ghandi, etc.

[Ian]

I loved the Desmond stuff

Certifiable wrong'un.

[Shindig]

Nah, the end of 2 where you get activated by a corporeal being through time and space is something else. And then Ubisoft has no idea where to take it. There was always the potential it was leading up to some future Parkour but they never pulled the trigger on it.

[Ian]

Not having it.

If you want a sci mythos story just do that, don't fart it all over my historical shankings and make me take a break from playing the fun pirate or sexy Italian to mooch about as this fucking dork:
https://gamingbolt.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Desmond-1280x720.jpg

[Adramelch]

To be fair "Sexy Italian" was said dork with a wig.

[Ian]

Ezio was a lad though.

[Adramelch]

Yeah great character. I think I only really enjoyed Revelations because he was the main character.

[Ian]

Revelations was a bit meh but I did like Constantinople.

Of the games that specifically featured Assassins I was always a bit sad they didn't use the Brotherhood mechanic more. Okay so the weird defence bits were a bit odd but I loved sending lads off on missions (it'd have been fun if they'd built small one-off levels and you could play those yourself) and being able to get rid of guards or whatever around your target by summoning an assassinbro to come in and dispose of them for you.

[Raoul Duke]

The pirate ship stuff outweighs the real-world Ubisoft nonsense in Black Flag for me. Liking it is proper deviant territory though.

I picked up the Egypt and Greece ones last night, so they're on my list for when I ever finish the apparently never-ending Far Cry 6. I'll get the Viking one at a later date as that's still like £50. Are any of the expansion packs worth it?

[Ian]

Is Far Cry 6 just "if you liked the last few you'll like this"? Not that I'm sure where that leaves me given Far Cry 5 didn't hook me at all after having really enjoyed 3 and 4.


Are any of the expansion packs worth it?

RPS really liked the Fate of Atlantis. Which I've only now realised, somehow, was also the name of that Indiana Jones game off've the past.

[Raoul Duke]

Is Far Cry 6 just "if you liked the last few you'll like this"? Not that I'm sure where that leaves me given Far Cry 5 didn't hook me at all after having really enjoyed 3 and 4.

If you're on the fence then I'd say 100% wait until it's mega cheap. It's just a lot more Far Cry - I like the series (but don't see a massive difference between 4-6 other than setting and a few mechanics).


RPS really liked the Fate of Atlantis. Which I've only now realised, somehow, was also the name of that Indiana Jones game off've the past.

Will check it out if I like the game, ta

[Ian]

I'm not really sure why I dropped out of FC5 so early. Maybe galloping about farm country just didn't hook me. I may give it a second try at some point.

[wullie]

I really wanted to like the last Far Cry set in racist America, but it was too frantic. In previous games you could wander about and avoid trouble for the most part, in that one it felt some redneck in a biplane was a homing missile always aware of where you were.

[Shindig]

Okay, I’ll rephrase it. I liked where it could’ve went. The characters were all shit that side of the Animus but at least Desmond started killing them.

[wullie]

According to the Wiki page for Odyssey I'm two paragraphs in to a five paragraph plot summary and I must have put over 40 hours in by now, I can't fathom the idea of expanding it further.

[Ian]

That's only because you don't know that the Atlantis DLC has giant ladies in it.

Even more giant than Kassandra.

[wullie]

The giant ladies DLC is exclusive to Amazon, hiyoooooooo

[Ian]

https://i1.wp.com/i.giphy.com/media/26gsw4UkEBrtRXEyc/giphy.gif

[Ian]

I've been playing Horizon Zero Dawn. It's fun, innit?

The story and characters so far are all just... fine, but the robodinos are obviously fun and the world itself is very pretty being able to run it on max settings.

[randomlegend]

Finally soloed Alatreon I am GOD

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Stadia came yesterday and after a quick browse of the catalogue I'm a little disappointed.

I expected more free games on the Stadia Pro thingy (3 months trial).

I do have £10 off my first purchase so I'll take a proper look at the store later tonight and find something to dip into and test it out.

[Ian]

Played a good chunk of Horizon Zero Dawn now (in terms of doubt, I doubt I've made much of a dent in the main story) and it really is a gorgeous thing, and both the combat and stealth are very satisfying. It's fun to unlock overrides and have a couple of enormous robodinos smash the piss out of each other. But actually doing the fights and not being a coward is also fun with all the tools it gives you. Also just got to the big city that's in the game which isn't up there with the best open world cities in terms of feeling 'alive' but is still more impressive than I was expecting (and you can see it from miles away which is always cool) and is designed to feel like a proper place even if it's a bit sparse in terms of NPCs doing much.

This is very much my cup of tea, as I thought it would be.

[Gray Fox]

I think we're something like 90 days out from the new game too. I was hoping to get into it, especially now there's the PS5 enhancement patch with it, but BF2042 has me for now.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Been playing some Avengers and it's alright but nothing special.

Only had a chance to use Kamala Khan, Hulk and Iron Man.

Hulk is alright but too slow and Iron Man is absolutely horseshit. His movement is absolutely horrendous and his combat is pretty crap. Kamala Khan though feels really fluid.

Dodging feels really shit, especially with ranged attacks which the game likes throwing at you. I came across some lasers today and I feel the targetting is far too overpowered with them unless you just hammer the dodge button constantly. The window is incredibly small.

It's also annoying that seemingly 90% of all costumes are paywalled.

[Ian]

You playing on PC or console, 'How?

[Shindig]

Now I'm really glad I knocked Doom Eternal down to easy. Archviles. Still cunts.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

You playing on PC or console, 'How?
Console.

[Raoul Duke]

Dying Light 2 coming along nicely. It has Rosario Dawson in it too :drool:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SriU07JopNA

[Ian]

I feel like I should retry the original. Seems like my sort of thing but didn't get into it.

[Shindig]

Doom Eternal's done. What a shite pair of bosses to end it on.

"Ah, you've got the boss down to their staggered state, OOPS YOU DON'T HAVE A BLOOD PUNCH! Looks like you're restarting this phase whilst everything is shooting you. Did you take time dealing with the fodder? Well, whilst you did that, the boss recovered all their health. Tee hee." Fucking tedium. :moop:

[Boydy]

Been playing the Middle Earth: Shadow of War after getting it a while ago on the free with PS Plus games thing. Loved the first one when I played it on PC and loving this one too. The combat is just so satisfying.

[Ian]

My main nemesis-system enemy in that was a proper monster. A half-troll (or whatever the big lads are) with most of his head covered in metal, a gibbering lunatic who was impervious to almost everything by the end and, as with all good nemesis system enemies, had a horrible knack for turning up at all the wrong moments.

Just save yourself the end-game grind they try and get you to do when it comes, Boyd, and just google the 'final' ending.

[Boydy]

What is the end game grind? Like what do they make you do for the grind? No spoilers if possible, please.

[Ian]

I believe it's just an endless series of increasingly difficult fort-clearances which are fairly clearly designed to make people want to buy loot boxes to get through them quicker.

No need to spoil anything story-wise, the bit's fairly clear when it comes.

[phonics]

Im back on my bullshit

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/270326079648956433/917931020085497866/unknown.png

[Shindig]

I need to finish the DLC.

[Ian]

In Horizon Zero Dawn news, I'm not sure when I last played an open world game that even this many hours in I was still regularly stopping to admire how pretty a certain scene / landscape is.

Also the big murderbots are still fun.

[Boydy]

I need to go back and play the DLC for that. Frozen Wilds or something? I loved the main game.

[Ian]

Yeah I got it included with the Gamesplanet Black Friday deal so I've still got that to come too.

[phonics]

I need to finish the DLC.

Where is it on this one?

[Shindig]

There should be a man by the Cathedral of the Deep bonfire that lets you in one of them. The second one opens with a bonfire near the final boss of the main game.

[phonics]

Nice. First boss is down. Dex build mercenary is just so devastating in this game.

Are the dlcs hard. Should they be saved till the end?

[Shindig]

I've found them hard enough not to finish them. :D Ashes of Arandiel's a bit shit, though. Not much good loot to go looking for and just a bit poor in terms of bosses. The DLC seems to go really hard on multi-phase bosses which usually means a trial by endurance.

[phonics]

Just hit the road of sacrifices. Think I took a turn wrong somewhere because I've only faced one boss.

Current set-up
https://i.imgur.com/tZIZMWv.png

[Lofty]

They are making a sequel to Space Marine :drool:

[Ian]

Firstly, a Wonder Woman open world game in itself rates a solid 5/10 on my excitement-o-meter but Monolith making it and using the Nemesis system has me intrigued.

Secondly, David Cage doing a Star Wars game. :D

[Shindig]

The trailer has a huge stink of 'French sci-fi' about it. There will be a wacky racial stereotype.

[phonics]

Deacons of the Deep done. No idea what I’m supposed to do now.

[phonics]

Nothing worse than the died to a boss with 5 Estus flasks and 2 hits left. Fucking flame trail bastard.

[Shindig]

Trying to run through the second DLC and it's a complete cunt. I hate every second of it.

[phonics]

2nd lord of cinder down. Eventually bottled it and summoned someone. Forgot how much I hate the catacombs.

[Shindig]

Aye, it's too easy to get lost in them. That's one thing that might put me off Elden Ring's dungeons. And I think I've had my fill of Harryhausen style skeletons.

EDIT: That Matrix Unreal Engine tech demo is kinda nice. I'm not entirely convinced by their Metalife or whatever they're calling it for their NPC generation. Keanu Reeves and Carrie Ann Moss are spot on but your character sticks out like a generated nobody. Still, nice to see this kind of thing available to the public.

[Kikó]

I'm playing the new Halo. It's really not changed.

Decided to flip into Yakuza 6. I swear to god, the first 25 minutes are just videos. I'm not actually sure it's a game.

[Shindig]

There is some ... surprises that game has in store.

[Disco]

Halo got the basics right in the first game and sensibly decided not to fuck with the formula too much.

[phonics]

Brutal: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/270326079648956433/920051228820537354/unknown.png

[Shindig]

Fun fact: Last time I beat that boss, I died to fire just after beating it. Corpse running into an empty boss room can't be beat.

[randomlegend]

Think I've finally managed to get tickets for the Norwich game tonight (my PT - I am actually finally losing weight woo - trains some of the Norwich players and got them for me) to take my grandad.

Be lol if it gets called off or I give the old boy Omicron.

[Ian]

What platforms is Norwich Game With My Grandad coming out on?

[phonics]

I'm up to Dragonslayer Armour. It's brutal. The run is quite far from the bonfire as well.

[Pepe]

What platforms is Norwich Game With My Grandad coming out on?

Next Disco Elysium.

[Ian]

To be fair if ZA/UM want to write an RPG where you're just speaking to all the mad fuckers you meet on a day out going to the football (the train, the pub before match, the crowd around you, the drunk guy in the toilets at half time, pub after and drunken journey home) I'm here for it.

[randomlegend]

What platforms is Norwich Game With My Grandad coming out on?

Wrongfredded it 'aven't I. Fuck's sake

[Ian]

Yeah but I'm into this idea for an RPG now so it's all good.

[Shindig]

I'm up to Dragonslayer Armour. It's brutal. The run is quite far from the bonfire as well.

Yeah, it's a straight shot but you'd hate to get tagged by the big fellas on the way through. I did something important today: I decided I no longer need to bother with the DLC. I just don't like them enough to bother.

[Shindig]

What platforms is Norwich Game With My Grandad coming out on?

Sounds like something I'd end up reviewing.

[Ian]

Yours would be the perverted Japanese equivalent.

[Shindig]

Or an overpriced broken thing made by Spanish students.

[phonics]

Yeah, it's a straight shot but you'd hate to get tagged by the big fellas on the way through. I did something important today: I decided I no longer need to bother with the DLC. I just don't like them enough to bother.

Did the Siri’s Quest for a free summon and owned it easily. Now I’m making my way through the Grand Archives and keep dying to dumb shit.

What’s the point in dumping my head in wax?

[Shindig]

It stops the grabby book hands from cursing you, I think.

[Vercetti]

Currently in the early stages of Mass Effect: Andromeda. Seems like there's an awful lot of filler crap, already, and I've only just arrived on Eos. I'll give it a little longer. By all accounts, it seems that I've jumped into the series on it's weakest entry, though.

I dabbled with Quantum Break first, but I lobbed that onto the bonfire sixteen-minutes into my first live action interlude.

Been smashing THPS 1+2, mostly, over the last few weeks. I got more into it than I expected.

[phonics]

I’m at the princes. First bit is easy enough. Second not so much.

[Ian]

Currently in the early stages of Mass Effect: Andromeda. Seems like there's an awful lot of filler crap, already, and I've only just arrived on Eos. I'll give it a little longer. By all accounts, it seems that I've jumped into the series on it's weakest entry, though.

Andromeda is a janky but decent 20 hour (maybe) game wrapped in about 60 hours of flab.

[Disco]

It's guff and handily the worst of the lot.

[Ian]

Oh, it's absolutely the worst. And the problem is those 20 decent hours aren't the main story so you can't just mainline the good stuff.

[Adramelch]

The story and pacing are incredibly weak, and the main character is not even a fraction as interesting or well-designed as Shepard. It can still be an enjoyable experience though, provided you are not a completionist. If you are, there's so much insanely boring and pointless stuff.

[Ian]

And it has no hanar or elcor.

1/10.

The book about the Quarian (and Drell, Hanar, Elcor, etc.) ark is actually a better story than anything that happens in the game.

[Adramelch]

And it has no hanar or elcor.

Exsqueeze me?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUwKURvfNUA

[Ian]

I forgot that. :D

[Boydy]

Praey for the Gods looks interesting but I've not seen any proper reviews yet.

[Ian]

Bethesda being cunts and them ("having" to) change Prey to Praey is some dumb shit, but they should have just changed the name altogether than go with that shit spelling.

[Mazuuurk]

Started a bit with AC Valhalla. It's pretty and all, and I like Eivor for a character and the general setting.

But it's just, I think I tried this a little too soon after having played AC Odyssey. You need a couple of years between these games, I reckon. So sort of not played for a week or two now instead.

[Ian]

Yeah they're all much of a muchness. I need to really be keen on the setting days or read that the character is a winner.

Kassandra. :wub:

[Kikó]

Why can't you skip scenes in Andromeda? Ffs they're incredibly boring.

I might treat myself to an Ass creed. What's the best one to come back in for?

[Ian]

What ones have you played / what was the last you played?

[Yevrah]

If you haven't played for a while Kik's you're in for a treat. I'd go with Egypt or Greece.

[Kikó]

I honestly think it was Ass creed 3 so it's been ages.

[Ian]

Christ, that was a bum note to end your previous progress through the series on.

Black Flag is still the best in the series, whether the last eight years (for fuck's sake) have treated it kindly I could not say. I haven't played Valhalla but of the recent ones since they revamped it I would comfortably choose Odyssey (Greece) over Origins (Egypt.) The pyramids and stuff and Egypt itself are lovely places to be around but I just couldn't get into the story.

Of the ones since AC3 that I've played (most of them) I'd rank them from best to worst:

Black Flag - Sunshine and sea shanties.
Odyssey - Greece is mega (both in quality and the fucking size of the map.) If you get this play as Kassandra. She's the best.
Syndicate - London capers. Two characters and they're both quite likeable. And you have a moving base on a train and you're building a London gang.
Origins - Beautiful setting, poor old Bayek is a boring old character though and I did not care about his story.
Rogue - Fun idea to play a guy who turns Templar but it had the stench of AC3 all over it.

[Kikó]

:drool:

I'm going to start on black flag once I waste some more time on ME Andromeda.

[Yevrah]

Agree with Ian on the story in Origins being bobbins. The setting though (as he also says), fuck me, what a World that is.

[Ian]

Purely as a place to look at I'd maybe edge Origins. Paddling down the Nile on a boat as the sun goes down over farms and proto-breweries with a pyramid or the lighthouse at Alexendria in the distance takes some topping and while Odyssey has those (your first sight of Athens on the hill and the approach to it, lovely Korinth) has its own moments Origins edges it.

Black Flag does a great job of being so visually memorable to me without having any landmarks to hang my memories around which is usually what Arsecreed memories get by on.

[Shindig]

You need a couple of years between these games, I reckon.

So do Ubisoft.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I think that Valhalla is probably the second best Arse Creed game but it also doesn't feel all that much like an Arse Creed game.

There aren't a huge amount of synchronization points (ones that look amazing are almost non-existent too), Eivor/the woman feel clunky when free running/climbing and it seems like it's not all that geared towards assassinations.

Greece runs it close but I got bored when I got to "Pirate Island" and seemingly have to do loads of quests to farm gold to progress the story.

[Ian]

I'm not having that a game in which you trudge around East Anglian bogs can be the second best ArseCreed game and I'm prepared to stick to this without having played it.

[Adramelch]

Rogue is so bad, that I don't remember a single second of it and I played it like 3-4 years ago.

[Ian]

I think you're genuinely the only other person that I interact with on any level (i.e. not reviews by randoms) who's even played it. I think I did two or three hours and got bored.

[Adramelch]

No joke, I read the plot description in wikipedia and the only things I vaguely remember are playing a Templar (obviously) and the Lisbon earthquake sequence. Nothing else rings a bell. For a moment there I even questioned whether I'd played it at all, but Steam reassured me that I had.

[Ian]

I've had games like that before. Steam says I've played x hours and I'm like "Hm, did I really?"

I think part of the problem is that the setting / look of the AC3 games is just so fucking dour.

Like, Freedom Cry for Black Flag isn't amazing DLC (although it's cathartic machete-ing slavers) but you're still zipping about in the sun so it's nice. I would like them to have another go at a Templar story. When they took Haytham off us to make us play as Connor in AC3 the game got immediately worse.

[Shindig]

Speaking of Steam, I'm going to end up owning all the Doom and Quake I missed. Stupid sale. To bring it back to games I know nothing about: Quake 4. Also, I feel like going with Doom 3 rather than BFG edition. That gives me the authentic flashlight situation where you can't light and shoot at the same time, right?

[Ian]

Probably. What a yawn that whole thing turns into.

I quite liked Quake 4 at the time but I only really remember the famous scene, which I won't discuss in case you don't know what it is.

[phonics]

Either I'm really bad at Halo or it's fucking hard.

[Kikó]

You need to dive into cover loads.

[Gray Fox]

Assuming you're new to the franchise it's to be expected.

It is quite a hard one to be great at anyway, but you're up against players who have played this for potentially 15+ years without the gameplay changing a whole bunch.

[Shindig]

I find it has a slower pace than most other FPS’.

[phonics]

I'm good at the Multiplayer, it's piss. I was talking the campaign.

Been playing FF7 Remake. Jessie, would.

[phonics]

Final Fantasy 7 is absolutely fantastic. What a game.

[Baz]

I’ve been meaning to play it. Never have and know nothing about it, story wise.

Own the remake on Switch and the Xbox One port, as well as being able to emulate the og PlayStation version upscaled on my Series X, so I’ve no excuse really.

[Shindig]

Quake finished. The final few levels felt bloody awful. id have probably created some of the most hated enemies I've played against. The bouncy blue things, the ogres that spam grenades, the walking scrotes, etc. Horrific. The Nine Inch Nails soundtrack is excellent.

[Kikó]

Anyone have a clue what the fuck people are talking about in the FIFA thread? Is there still a football game in there?

[Ian]

Yeah but you won't hear any talk about it in the thread which is exclusively for talk about the enrichment of EA.

[Gray Fox]

It's all Ultimate Team mode now. If you've no interest in that, then I'd leave it.

[Ian]

And Ultimate Team is, despite the inexplicable love of it, really quite poo.

[randomlegend]

I would 1000% get mega addicted to ultimate team and end up remortgaging the house to finance it.

[Kikó]

It is undecipherable nonsense that thread. It's amazing how they've monitised a card game.

[Gray Fox]

It is possible to play it without dumping money into it, but you wont be getting the top cards unless you're very lucky.

It does however mean you either have to be very good at the game, or sink a lot of hours in.

[Yevrah]

"I don't understand something, it must be rubbish". :D

[Pepe]

I got into FUT the first time around. I thought it was fun, but the problem is that the football game underneath wasn't to me, so I just stopped playing Fifa altogether.

[Ian]

All the chemistry stuff is bollocks too. "You know what this dream team mode needs? Admin."

[Raoul Duke]

It needs something like that otherwise people will play Mbappe at left back etc

[Gray Fox]

It needs something like that otherwise people will play Mbappe at left back etc

You mustn't have played during the 5-3-2 pandemic last year :p

[Shindig]

PES gets around it by having players bed into positions. They have favoured positions and ways they like to play, but you can bludgeon them into whatever mould you see fit. Although I can do without players running into each other because they've never seen a three-man midfield.

[Pepe]

What I didn't like about the chemistry system is that it basically forced you to build either league or nation based teams, and that was basically it. A better system would have been for the chemistry of your team to increase the more you play the same players together. Then you could have built all kinds of teams.

[Yevrah]

What I didn't like about the chemistry system is that it basically forced you to build either league or nation based teams, and that was basically it. A better system would have been for the chemistry of your team to increase the more you play the same players together. Then you could have built all kinds of teams.

Maybe it's changed since you played, but it isn't like that now. My first 11 has the following in it:

3 Icons
3 La Liga
1 Premier League
2 Liga Nos
2 Ligue 1

and 8 different nationalities in it.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Chemistry should still be fucked off or dynamic team chem as Pepe suggests.

[Yevrah]

Dynamic team chem is a dreadful idea as it would just lead to spamming matches to get it up.

[Kikó]

At least I kinda understand what's going on in this FIFA chat.

[Shindig]

I feel like I need to sit down with a load of career footage just to see if the AI does anything interesting. Like, do they play to their strengths/against your weaknesses? PES does that all the time. Liverpool press you to death, Watford angle everything towards Deeney or Delofeau charges on runs, etc.

[wullie]

From my career mode every team plays it about like they're prime time Barcelona with the exception of Preston who press with such abandon you can put players in on goal from their halfway line. The AI never crosses from wide, this has been the case for years

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

It's annoying now on legendary and above difficulty. They made it so the AI replicates professional FIFA player so its constant skill moves.

It's so dull.

[Shindig]

Sounds like it does the sport a disservice, really.

[Ian]

Horizon Zero Dawn and the DLC done. A very good game and does a lot of things right but next time they could do with giving the side stuff more reason to do it than just "have some more gear you probably don't need." They did a bit better in Frozen Wilds but yeah, the side stuff isn't very inspiring. Fun on the whole though and the DLC while non-essential was pretty decent.

Onto Paradise Killer which seems a good detective 'em up so far. The fact that you can, on your first playthrough, just start the trial without investigating at all gives me hope that the game gives you lots of scope for fucking up rather than shooing you toward the correct conclusion.

[Boydy]

Just bought Disco Elysium before the Steam sale finishes.

[Pepe]

Smart choice. What a game. :drool:

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Just bought Disco Elysium before the Steam sale finishes.

Rule 1, punch Cuno.

[Baz]

Just bought Disco Elysium before the Steam sale finishes.

Post about it. Hopefully can get me back into it.

[Pepe]

Rule 1, punch Cuno.

Don't.

[Ian]

Just bought Disco Elysium before the Steam sale finishes.

Starting off 2022 with a banger of a decision.

[Ian]

Got the trial to do on Paradise Killer this evening. It's a while since I've looked forward to a gaming sesh this much to be honest. Apparently it's quite freeform and possible to put the final accusation on the wrong people or have the right person but not enough evidence to prove it. Hope I don't fuck it up. Will need to decide what I'm playing next too. Might go onto Hitman 3.

[Pepe]

That Paradise Killer thing sounds interesting. Might have to give it a look.

[Ian]

Have you played Obra Dinn, Pep? If you've never played that it would be my go-to dective(sort of) 'em up.

But this is very good too. The last few years have taught me I really just want more detective games.

I'd be curious to know how close Paradise Killer is to the likes of the Ace Attorney games because I've recently been wondering whether I'd like those or not since they came to Steam.

[Pepe]

I started Obra Dinn but dropped it for some reason or another. Might just go back to that one. Cheers.

I have not played Paradise Killer, so I do not know how close it is to Ace Attorney (the little I played of Obra Dinn was not particularly similar to Ace Attorney). I like Ace Attorney but I feel like it drags a bit. There is a lot of talking where you are just passively watching and then you click on a multiple choice menu once every five minutes or so. Lots of hand holding in the early cases too. I'd say its worth a try only when on sale.

[Ian]

So Obra Dinn and Paradise Killer are quite different. The thing that I'm finding tricky to define about Paradise Killer is I don't know how reactive it is or isn't.

There's the stuff I've mentioned about the trial and how you can start whenever you like and might not have enough evidence etc. but I think there's an element of character relationship as well, based maybe on whether you voice all your suspicions to them or maybe the order you do it in or something. Some of the characters you finish up quite friendly with before you're ready to hit the trial and some you don't, and there's at least one who at the start of the game you're clearly mates with and by the end you're not so I dunno whether this is fixed and that side of it is perhaps a bit more visual novel-y or if it is RPG-lite and I've caused this character to not like me by my actions.

Either way, it has me convinced that it might be a bit RPG-lite so I suppose the distinction only really matters if I ever planned to replay it.


I like Ace Attorney but I feel like it drags a bit. There is a lot of talking where you are just passively watching and then you click on a multiple choice menu once every five minutes or so. Lots of hand holding in the early cases too. I'd say its worth a try only when on sale.

So in this there's lots of dialogue but it doesn't go on that long and you will have the chance to interject with new lines of inquiry and choose how you want to respond. Those options are usually binary and it'll be like 'Ask- So why didn't you follow procedure' or 'Provoke - So is there a reason you didn't do your job right?' That sort of thing, and that's where I'm unclear if that sort of stuff is causing characters to like me more or less but it seems so. It's only a short game it seems so I may be tempted to try it again at some point and either be totally antagonistic or just suck up to all the characters and see how they react.

[Boydy]

Disco Elysium crashes on the loading screen on my laptop. :moop:

[Ian]

Any errors or anything?

[Boydy]

Just stopped responding. Twiddled with some power settings and got it working but my laptop sounds like it's gonna take off now.

[Boydy]

It just ended when I tried to get an accurate count of footprints in the mud next to the body hanging from the tree? The dice roll failed and it said "cop gives up career" or something. What the fuck.

[Ian]

I've had some game overs for weird shit but not one that abrupt. :D

[Pepe]

:lol:

[Ian]

Paradise Killer finished. I like that while you can gauge if you got the right answers by how the accused react, etc. the game doesn't explicitly ever say "You accused x, this was right" or "they were wrongly convicted" or anything, and there's enough evidence you gather that I think you could definitely 'prove' the wrong people did it. There's one character in particular who I THINK I may not have pinned their part in events on them when I should have but they were proven and found guilty for other parts so it didn't ultimately make much difference but I like that there's just that hint of not being certain about everything, even if you've scoured the island as thoroughly as I think I have and left no loose ends in your evidence book.

Great game.

I was contemplating Hitman 3 next but I might do Hollow Knight first.

[Gray Fox]

Ian How long do you reckon a completion of Horizon: Zero Dawn might take? It's on my LIST OF SHAME and the new one is out in just over a month(that's come around fast).

[Ian]

I think including Frozen Wilds I was 70 hours. That was probably sort of mid-level in terms of completionism because some of the activities I couldn't be arsed with.

If you just mainlined the story you could do it quicker. Have a look on How Long To Beat see what the averages are.

[Raoul Duke]

Started Arse Creed: Egypt yesterday. Pretty enjoyable so far in terms of setting. Bow combat is a decent addition but the eagle thing is a bit annoying.

Main gripe: they really don't bother with setting up the story too much at the start. Feels like starting to watch a series at episode 3 or something :cab:

[Ian]

The story in Oranges is very meh.

[Adramelch]

It's very much a non-story really. It reminded me of the first game of the series which, given it's been 10 years and 8 other installments between the two, is quite damning.

[Raoul Duke]

The other thing which is a bit odd is that the background people speak in the native language so you miss out on a lot of the audio scenery. I swear in older games you'd have the Italians speaking in English? Or at least a mix of languages

[Baz]

Erm, learn foreign? Git gud scrub.

[Raoul Duke]

I've got The Bangles on

[wullie]

I got Valhalla so I'm an hour or two into that. Nice that you leave Norway and head straight for the Midlands with all the olde worlde names like Snotinghamscire, Ledecestre and Tamworth.

[Ian]

Started TWO games after finishing Paradise Killer.

Hollow Knight - Seems decent so far. I could live without the Souls-y "you've got to get back to your body to recover your shit" thing but that's my only real gripe so far. I'll be interested to see if the story comes to much because I still don't really know why my character's there yet.

Hitman 3 - I'd installed this ready for played after Hollow Knight but then found myself unexpectedly at a loose end yesterday afternoon and decided poking about a new Hitman level would be a fine way to spend that. Dubai is fine though feels a bit limited by the standards of modern Hitman. Dartmoor is ace, letting you do a locked-room murder mystery as a PI whose clobber you've nicked meaning you can get the 'costume that takes you (almost) anywhere" clothes within the first few minutes of the mission and get your Knives Out on. I suspect the other stories on this level won't be nearly as interesting but that one's so memorable it doesn't really matter but given you're not allowed to go anywhere without a disguise it could be fun to try one of the suit-only runs I see in the challenges for these levels.

[Shindig]

Yeah, Dubai seems tiny compared to all the other maps. I bounced off Hollow Knight pretty quick. I should give that a second shot.

[Ian]

I'll give it another go and properly nose about because it gives you a mission story super early so I just went along with it but I think I still saw most of the level. It is very shiny though and I appreciated that.

[Raoul Duke]

Quite enjoying playing Arse Creed Egypt as a mix of a) stealth assassin/archer and b) occasionally just stoving people's heads in with a big fucking hammer :D Also fucked up some hippos.

Lots of things seem pretty difficult if you're under-levelled so you can't really chance your arm at taking on stuff too far out of that

[Ian]

Have you clambered up any of the main landmarks yet?

[Raoul Duke]

Not yet. Only just got out of the starter city into the second area

[randomlegend]

Finally soloed the last monster in MHW. Only like 350 hours played. Worth.

[Ian]

I think I've had my fill of Hollow Knight. It has that Souls-loop of if you die you have to go recover your body and if you die before you do all that you lose all the currency you had on you and I just can't be arsed with worrying about exploring or taking on fights in case I fuck up again trying to recover my shit when I'm a bit away from a save point. I get it, I can tell it's good, it's just not for me.

[Shindig]

That was probably turned me off it. That loop has a time and place and it's usually in something explicitly Souls. I'm playing through Sekiro again and there's no reason to be penalised for death in that game. You lose a percentage of money and experience upon death. There's no corpse run. Money can be used to by stuff you don't really need and experience is just used for skills that don't really play back into your build either. It's just there because From Software can't get out of the habit.

[Ian]

I had a particularly grating one there because I died with a load of currency on me somewhere I hadn't got a map of yet so I had no idea where to find a save point or fast travel to go and spend my money. Died to a boss I'd not seen before so to recover my not-souls I'd have needed to go fight the boss and do repeatedly until I beat it. But aha, I thought, I have this thing that I can exchange with a woman in the starting area to recover my body/soul/whatever! And then died trying to navigate this annoying bit where you're trying to navigate a series of small-ish platforms AND fight off a series of swooping flying dickheads who take about six hits to kill. Annoying.

[Mazuuurk]

I think that Valhalla is probably the second best Arse Creed game but it also doesn't feel all that much like an Arse Creed game.

There aren't a huge amount of synchronization points (ones that look amazing are almost non-existent too), Eivor/the woman feel clunky when free running/climbing and it seems like it's not all that geared towards assassinations.


I think these are actually good things. What's the fun in climbing up big pillars and...looking at the view. It becomes a necessary evil to fast travel, basically.

Making it more like a normal RPG and less about stealth (who the fuck cares about stealth) is an improvement IMO.

That said, there's this weird situation where it wants you to have an option of doing stealth, but at least to me it doesn't ever seem like a proper option - it's more pick off 4-5 guards at most before eventually getting spotted (because whatever you are after is like smack in the middle of a courtyard of a fortress surrounded by 8 guards - how do you sneak up to that exactly?).

It's grown on me as I've gotten more into the story (so easy to just get lost exploring for 3 hours and you would think that's a good thing - but in this game it isn't really).




Been playing FF7 Remake. Jessie, would.

Oh yeah :nodd:

And when I played I also started looking at Tifa in a whole new way.

[wullie]

Valhalla does feel very different to Odyssey for me also. The whole series had passed me by but I assumed you play one you've played them all so I've been pleasantly surprised at how different it is despite the obvious similarities

[Ian]

Stealth is the best Maz, you philistine.


Valhalla does feel very different to Odyssey for me also. The whole series had passed me by but I assumed you play one you've played them all so I've been pleasantly surprised at how different it is despite the obvious similarities

In what way? I've not played Valhalla so I'm curious because the reviews I'd read gave the impression it would probably be a 'if you like [previous entry] you'll like this.'

[Alex]

In a newfound spirit of working on the backlog and/or actually completing some games in 2022 I finished Metro 2033 last night.

I mostly enjoyed it. By no means the best shooter in terms of actual gameplay (although it's not bad at all) but it has quite a unique and interesting style I think. The setting, tone and atmosphere were all spot on.

[Ian]

I think I've got two of those buried away in the backlog. I'm very hit and miss with horror-y stuff so it may end up doing nothing for me when I finally got to it.

[Mazuuurk]

Stealth is the best Maz, you philistine.



In what way? I've not played Valhalla so I'm curious because the reviews I'd read gave the impression it would probably be a 'if you like [previous entry] you'll like this.'

One of the bigger differences (from Odyssey, which is my only point of reference) I think is you are building up your little settlement as you get to England, and it both helps advance the story and gives you perks. It's quite similar feeling to building up the Keep in DA:Inquisition. And it gives a different "feel" to the main character - he has a village around them. Rather than Kassandra who was much more of a roaming mercenary.

I should say two things:
- There is a free Add on DLC where you go to Isle of Skye and hang out with Kassandra (who is a time traveller or immortal or something now right) for a short questline which is pretty awesome.
- Yesterday I did a side-quest called The Prodigy: you stumble upon some bards in a ruin that just want to sing, but this pesky Bishop is preventing them from doing so. Being a man of culture you decide to help them by fighting off the Bishop. As you do so they form a ring around you all shouting "Smack my Bishop! Smack my Bishop!".

And now I love the game for that.

[Ian]

I wonder how many AssCreed players are too young to get the Smack My Bishop joke.

[Adramelch]

Apparently if you start a fire near him or something similar he calls you a firestarter.

[Mazuuurk]

Oh for fucks sake. May have to restart the whole game now.

[wullie]

In what way? I've not played Valhalla so I'm curious because the reviews I'd read gave the impression it would probably be a 'if you like [previous entry] you'll like this.'

Mazuurk covers it mainly with the feel of being part of a gang whereas Odyssey you're all over the place on your own. There's a big chance it has a different feel as I'm still early in so the character itself can do less whereas by the time I'd stopped with Odyssey I'd unlocked so many of the abilities and that kind of thing.

Speaking of Odyssey I stopped with that when the main storyline with the sibling finished but looking it up I must have done 25% of the game at most. Surely nobody actually completes these things?

[Adramelch]

There's plenty of completionists out there. I remember reading posts from (several even) people in Mass Effect: Andromeda that spent hours trying to deplete a mining zone that was bugged, which doesn't even count towards the in-game completion rates.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

God of War now out on PC, anyone who hasn't played it on PS4 should treat themselves.

[Ian]

I probably will in about two years when it's at a price I deem suitable.

[Boydy]

I bought God of War on the PS4 recently but couldn't get into it. I tried just after finishing Middle Earth: Shadow of War and couldn't get to grips with change in combat. It felt kinda clunky in comparison.

[Gray Fox]

Traded BF2042 into GAME today. They give you 20% on top if you have a reward card at the minute, so it got me over £30 back. Turned it straight into Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2(crap name). Looks my kind of single player snipe and stealth at your own pace kind of deal. It also looks very pretty on the PS5.

It's just over £30 new though, so either it's short, or it died on release. More likely the former, but we'll see. I'm hoping it'll kick start me into a run of completing games. The PlayStation hasn't been used much since just before Christmas and there's still a few games I shamefully have not even touched.

[Mazuuurk]

Mazuurk covers it mainly with the feel of being part of a gang whereas Odyssey you're all over the place on your own. There's a big chance it has a different feel as I'm still early in so the character itself can do less whereas by the time I'd stopped with Odyssey I'd unlocked so many of the abilities and that kind of thing.

Speaking of Odyssey I stopped with that when the main storyline with the sibling finished but looking it up I must have done 25% of the game at most. Surely nobody actually completes these things?

I didn't complete everything in Odyssey, but I made a point of killing all Cultists, making sure I'd visited all islands, and I believe done the main questline on each island, killed all mythical monsters (like the Minotaur) and whatever it is you do around the Isu in that game (eventually I went and met Pythagoras and around that time I quit).

I didn't do The Fate of Atlantis though, as by that point I was a bit stuffed with it.

[Shindig]

Did another playthrough of Sekiro and my opinion of it hasn't really changed. I was surprised how better I'd gotten at parrying but it's a game that lives and dies by that mechanic. If you're not good at timing it, you're not going anywhere. To the point where some bosses and mini-bosses exist solely to check your timing. I've said how I feel the Dragonrot and penalty for death is bloody useless and doesn't need to be there. When it happens in Souls, you've at least got a corpse run to bail yourself out. Or rings that give you a get out of jail free card.

One of my biggest annoyances is how the game treats multi-stage bosses. I remember playing through the first time and thinking, "That meter says there's one phase to this but that's likely to be bullshit." It ceases to be a surprise when it's pulled on almost every boss. From Software seemed to have got on a huge obsession with bosses like this and I really wish they moved away from it. In Bloodborne, it works because that game treated it as a spectacle that didn't waste your time. At most, you've got two phases to work with and won't take you 10+ minutes to fail. It's a lot easier to swallow than slowly chipping away at Owl's posture bar or dealing with a four-phase final boss. And, if you wanted to speed Souls bosses up, you had options to deal more damage, survive longer, etc. In Sekiro, you have no stat sheet. Beating bosses quicker via consumables and better timing on your parries is all you realistically have.

Stealth is kind of half-arsed and, whilst you can skip encounters with it, I'm mainly using it to strip mini-bosses of their back-up. It's a process to do all that again, should I fail the fight. On top of that, your stealth is fairly basic. You can kind of hide out of sight, kind of kill enemies close together without either of them spotting you and you can leash encounters entirely just by running away. It's very gamey and your skill tree doesn't really play into it. Sekiro's still a good game but I find the people enamoured with it are absolutely taking shite. It's not quality over quantity.

[Disco]

Can I go wrong choosing between Outer Worlds and Red Dead 2 for an open world shooty game?

[Raoul Duke]

Can I go wrong choosing between Outer Worlds and Red Dead 2 for an open world shooty game?

I'd say RDR is miles better but given your love for Mass Effect, OW might be more your jam. I bounced off it, even though it's kinda Fallout-y. RDR2 was magnificent

[Ian]

As Duke says, Outer Worlds is more along the lines of a Bethesda-y type thing (though I actually got on okay with it.)

Finished Hitman 3. Some top notch levels in there but the end is Absolution-level bobbins.

Good stuff though and there's one mission that feels like such a Bond set up I look forward to seeing what they do with the license.

[Disco]

Thanks, is RDR2 much like the first one? GTA V with horses, no stats or character system to speak of beyond whatever version of the 'collect 10 bear dicks' tasks they put in?

[Raoul Duke]

Yeah, it's story-driven rather than an RPG. It's a great story though and the world-building is top notch

[Ian]

I will definitely try it at some point. I'll be curious to see if it leaves me cold as most Rockstar games do.

[Shindig]

Read Dead Redemption might be the last one I truly liked. My fear is that RDR2 could wind up feeling bloated by comparison.

[Ian]

Turns out I don't have the patience for Spelunky 2.

Bioshock Infinite next.

[Dark Soldier]

This God of War PC port is fucking outstanding, one of the best console to PC ports ever. I yarred it as fuck paying for it again but what a triumph of a game. 4k with DLSS and high/ultra settings, smooth as.

Just buy it Ian or so help me.

[Ian]

You're not the boss of me.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Got Ghost of Tshushima recently.

Haven't played too much but I'm enjoying it. Visually it's great and I like that it's trying to tell a story, feel like they've largely nailed the samurai combat too although the default dodge seems pretty weak.

[Shindig]

Here's a thing I hate about the PS5. When you're streaming with a headset and mic on, the mic is muted by default. :moop:

[Ian]

Did you inadvertently do a silent stream?

[Shindig]

At least twice. :D

[Ian]

Whole streams??

[Shindig]

Yes. On the PS4, the mic is on and raring to go. I'm still in that way of thinking.

[Ian]

Very smooth. :D

[Gray Fox]

Looks like Microsoft just bought Activision Blizzard.

[Ian]

Christ, that's a biggie.

[Waffdon]

CoD is back :drool:

[Gray Fox]

Confirmed too. Absolutely huge acquisition. I think the only other bigger one they could have possibly got would have been EA.

[Shindig]

Pffft. I’m not convinced.

[Gray Fox]

It's bigger for Activision I'd say. They were starting to snowball recently since the work conditions/abuse coming to light. Selling up and getting rid of all the higher ups was their only out really.

[Yevrah]

Those higher ups will have trousered an absolute fortune over this.

[Ian]

They're not even taking this as a chance to boot Bobby Kotick out the door, the absolute cunt.

[Adramelch]

70 billion seems like an absolutely mental price tag.

[Gray Fox]

Traded BF2042 into GAME today. They give you 20% on top if you have a reward card at the minute, so it got me over £30 back. Turned it straight into Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2(crap name). Looks my kind of single player snipe and stealth at your own pace kind of deal. It also looks very pretty on the PS5.

It's just over £30 new though, so either it's short, or it died on release. More likely the former, but we'll see. I'm hoping it'll kick start me into a run of completing games. The PlayStation hasn't been used much since just before Christmas and there's still a few games I shamefully have not even touched.


Played some of this and it's a good experience. The map is split into "regions" and you complete objectives as "contracts" inside each region, with bonus challenges to earn money and unlock points. For example, kill bad guy X with an explosion instead of just shooting him.

The unlock points go into your skill tree. The money you can spend on extra gadgets, new rifles or attachments for them.

A bit of a pet peeve is that you can't alter your loadout once you enter a region, without losing the things you've collected along the way. Annoying as my secondary is quite loud and I'm in an area deep into the 2nd region in which my sniper rifle isn't too useful.

[thommo]

They're not even taking this as a chance to boot Bobby Kotick out the door, the absolute cunt.

Think IGN jumped the gun on that, seems like he will be out once the acquisition completes.

[Vercetti]

Played through Far Cry 5 recently. Thought it was okay. I finished 3, and abandoned 4 pretty early on years ago, but saw 5 through to completion. I thought the setting was a bit boring.

'New Dawn' was included with it. Seems pretty short, which suits me.

I'm waiting on the Hitman trilogy to appear on Gamepass on the 20th, now. I've always liked the idea of them more than I've liked the actual games that I've tried in the series, but I'll give it another go.

[Ian]

Did a very little bit of Bioshock Infinite last night.

I'm not 100% certain because they're being very subtle about it but I think some of these people might be racist!

[Shindig]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQeeRBtQgzE

Well, I certainly feel inadequate. :|

[Ian]

Tried a bit of Unpacking last night while the United game was on. It's not much of a game but as a slightly zen activity to occupy the part of my brain that doesn't want to give my full attention to watching Manchester United it did the job.

Also did some more Bioshock Infinite. It's decent so far and fortunately Elizabeth seems quite likeable. Not sure how I feel about making the mad racists so cartoonishly OTT but Bioshock gonna Bioshock, I suppose.

[Pepe]

Windjammers 2 out today. Oh my. :drool:

EDIT: It is on gamepass, nice.

[Pepe]

Windjammers 2 out today. Oh my. :drool:

EDIT: It is on gamepass, nice.

It is good. I am not.

[Ian]

I don't think I even remember the original.

[Pepe]

Me neither, tbh.

[Ian]

Oh, I thought your :drool:ing at it coming out was because you were a fan of the first. :D

[Pepe]

Nah, just because I knew that it was coming out and was interested after playing the beta for a little bit.

[igor_balis]

So, I ended up watching some bloke on youtube talking about RUNESCAPE, which made me remember the time I got absolutely scammed out of some rare item (ranger boots) in a trade for stuff that was worth far less (some black trimmed armour). Even then as an idiot who hadn't even started his GCSEs, I figured out I'd been proper had about 10 minutes later.

Just looked up how much the boots are worth, and it's 50 fucking million gold. I mean, I'm sure an experienced player could probably grind that in a weekend, and I've logged in for roughly half an hour every 2-3 years since about 2009, but I still can't help but feel a smaller version of what I feel when I remember the ~£100 of bitcoin I had in 2015.

[Shindig]

Decided to start Resident Evil 5 in my effort to retire the PS3 this year. Sheva's a waste of ammo. Every box of handgun ammo I hand her feels like a mistake, so far.

[Gray Fox]

Played some of this and it's a good experience. The map is split into "regions" and you complete objectives as "contracts" inside each region, with bonus challenges to earn money and unlock points. For example, kill bad guy X with an explosion instead of just shooting him.

The unlock points go into your skill tree. The money you can spend on extra gadgets, new rifles or attachments for them.

A bit of a pet peeve is that you can't alter your loadout once you enter a region, without losing the things you've collected along the way. Annoying as my secondary is quite loud and I'm in an area deep into the 2nd region in which my sniper rifle isn't too useful.

Finished this today. It's quite a fun and well polished little game.

It doesn't mess around into kidding you that it has an important story that you need to follow. There's just enough of one in pre-mission briefings that you know why you're shooting a specific bad guy.
There's some replay-a-bility(?) there for those that like a challenge. For example there's certain long shot contracts you can just shoot the one guy you need and be done, but there's challenges, so for example killing everyone in a crowded village without detection.

The sniping is very satisfying in it. Having to adjust your scope and account for wind etc for each kill at extreme ranges, only to nail a crisp headshot is very rewarding.

Unfortunately it is very short as I feared. There are 6/7 regions to memory and each one will take you 30mins to an hour depending on how you want to approach it. Once you fully upgrade Raven and his gear though these missions become even easier.

[wullie]

I'm enjoying AC Valhalla but when you kill one of the cult guys this time and have to confirm the kill it does an oddly graphic slo-mo of your blade piercing internal organs. I'm not overly squeamish but it feels a bit much, like that sniper game where you can shatter someone's testicles if you're accurate enough. Slowly turning into my dad, disapproving of all this stuff and whatever passes for so-called music these days.

[Ian]

To be fair Asscreed has never been about gore in that way so I'd also think that seems a bit out of place for the series.

[wullie]

It really surprised me, you do chop heads off in this but it's like a satisfying lop and off it pops which is more cartoony than anything, just this one thing that seems gratuitous. Never occurred to me that this kind of thing bothered me but I never enjoyed the same kind of stuff in Mortal Kombat either.

[Shindig]

Okay, I might be done with Resident Evil 5 already. Sheva won't use grenades. She'll pick everything up but she only fires bullets.

[Ian]

I bought a second hand copy of Resi 5 when I got my PS3 and then never, ever mustered the enthusiasm to play it.


It really surprised me, you do chop heads off in this but it's like a satisfying lop and off it pops which is more cartoony than anything, just this one thing that seems gratuitous. Never occurred to me that this kind of thing bothered me but I never enjoyed the same kind of stuff in Mortal Kombat either.

The Mortal Kombat stuff I could have a laugh at because again, it's quite cartoony, but when they're trying to do 'realistic' schlock for no special reason I'm never really into that. Doesn't offend me or anything it's just not my cup of tea and never really has been.

Even playing Soldier of Fortune as a teen the initial "lol look at how violent it is!" novelty was soon replaced by a feeling of "What's the point?"

[wullie]

Particularly as graphics get more lifelike it stands out. I don't know if it's always been there but in FIFA 21 I noticed they've added an animation for a player to clear out their nostrils, I'm hoping they never get too much into the injury side and it just stays with a player holding their shoulder. No Dave Busst needed, EA

[Ian]

Sycho Sid story mode in WWE 2k22.

[Mazuuurk]

It really surprised me, you do chop heads off in this but it's like a satisfying lop and off it pops which is more cartoony than anything, just this one thing that seems gratuitous. Never occurred to me that this kind of thing bothered me but I never enjoyed the same kind of stuff in Mortal Kombat either.

Like all "kill-animations" it gets a bit old after a while (and somewhat incongruent when you are doing raids and castle battles and there's like tons of fighting going around but Eivor chooses to prioritise mashing someones head in a couple of extra times as the foes around kindly wait their turn).

But still, it's quite satisfactory.


How far along are you? I've just dealt with Halfdan up in Eurvicshire.

[wullie]

Last thing I've done is with Soma where you have to work out which of her inner circle betrayed her, which I got horrendously wrong but she didn't seem to mind. No idea how far that is but I'm getting into the setting more and more now

[Shindig]

I bought a second hand copy of Resi 5 when I got my PS3 and then never, ever mustered the enthusiasm to play it.

Yeah, I'm not sure what to do with it. I could sell it on for next to nowt but it's got a nice steelbook with a making of DVD. It'd be a better game if it wasn't made in the era of 'CO-OP EVERYWHERE!' Give Sheva infinite ammo and better aim and you'll probably have a decent game. And it would be nice if she didn't just grab everything on site. What are you going to do with two red herbs, you mare?

Apparently it's easy to dupe items in that so I'll probably scum my way through it.

[Ian]

Finished Bioshock Infinite last night. Still don't know quite how I feel about the reveals at the end but on the whole I've enjoyed it. There are some slightly slog-y stretches throughout and some stuff that I wouldn't have done but I'd say it'll end up being more memorable to me than Bioshock 2 for the most part. It does feel like Elizabeth's costume change halfway through was because somebody involved saw the progress so far and said "Is this a video game or not? Show us her tits ffs."

Bioshock 2 might still have the best combat though.

I'll do the Burial at Sea DLC then I've no idea what's next after that.... probably something I have wishlisted on Gamepass.

EDIT: Being a Big Daddy (and convincingly) in Bioshock 2 is also mechanically more fun than being A Bloke With A Past. And it has better weapons with the drill and the stake gun and all the traps and stuff, I liked the change of pass in that where you're setting up to defend an area / set up a kill zone for a Big Daddy / Sister.

I probably just about prefer Infinite's powers but honestly none of the Vigors / Plasmids are that exciting in terms of what they do (rather than in concept) in any of the games. I think the likes of Dhshonored do that sort of thing better.

[Ian]

MORE THOUGHTS (I've no idea who on here even has strong feelings about Bioshock so I might just be talking to myself but whatever) because now I've slept on it and subsequently woken up there's more stuff coming to me.

Best things about each game:
Bioshock 1 - Best setting, best opening, more mystery (early, at least), best antagonist (?), best horror, most memorable individual moments (e.g. slicer with a pram, some of the setups for scares, etc.), clearest vision of what it wants to be.
Bioshock 2 - Big Daddy stuff per my previous post, best combat and weapons (see previous post)
Binfinite - Elizabeth's character arc is great, most memorable sequences (Comstock house, the Slate stuff, etc.), best for mixing up environments to keep it fresh, best powers (maybe, but it's a low bar as we've already discussed)

Two things about Infinite that I got distracted away from because I was trying to figure out the Elizabeth / Booker stuff but had been bugging me early on: having now finished it it really doesn't justify the way it deals with the cartoonish racism you see throughout. The one black significant character gets killed off to stop her shooting a child and the rest all just turn unquestioningly evil. The point is obviously "well if you given the downtrodden the revolution they want then bad things might happen" but nothing interesting is done with that, it's not explored at all. It's just "okay all the blacks and Irish are evil now too."

The other is that vigors are just a thing nobody comments on in this which feels jarring despite a) the 'what are we doing to ourselves for power?' questions of the first game in particular and the body-horror animations the Vigors give you. Coming up to finding the electric one it seems like they're going to dive into this more but nope, Booker happily just chugs them bad boys down and becomes a super-powered magic man.

Same goes for the Handymen who are such a pale imitation of Big Daddies when they didn't need to be it's like if a small studio were doing a knockoff Bioshock game. I think Infinite just isn't as interested in exploring the world like Bioshock and to a lesser extent 2 were, it's laser focused on the main narrative thread after a bit of early window-dressing.

I think on the whole Infinite would have fared better, criticism-wise, were it not called Bioshock. If it was just this big shooter with open-ish areas and powers and zip-rails and whatnot it might not feel less like a shooter that wants to be Bioshock. It might be that with it having the more memorable moments than 2 that as my memories fade of all of it I'll say Infinite is my favourite of the three, I don't know.

[Shindig]

I forgot about the Handymen. When it comes to big enemies in that game, my mind immediately goes to the animatronic George Washingtons.

[Ian]

The Handymen are not even slightly interesting. There's a very early suggestion that they might be but nope. They're just big bullet sponges who bull-rush you constantly.

[Mazuuurk]

Last thing I've done is with Soma where you have to work out which of her inner circle betrayed her, which I got horrendously wrong but she didn't seem to mind. No idea how far that is but I'm getting into the setting more and more now

Quite early still then. The game is absolutely immense. I read the map itself is smaller than Odyssey but it doesn't feel that way.

I think the story quests are also really many and long.

[Ian]

Started Binfinite's Burial at Sea DLC. It's nice to see more pre-fall Rapture, and then you get chucked into what may as well be a level from the first two and it's a bit "Oh..." Seems okay so far but I need to keep reminding myself I'm not as overpowered as I was by the end of Infinite.

[Ian]

The Binfinite DLC has a really annoying habit of having you fight through the same areas multiple times, and spawning enemies behind you out of thin air after you pick up a new / plot item.

Like I did a bit there where I'd got a turret in the room behind me so cool, I think, I'm free to explore.

Find a new gun, pick it up, turn around and the turret's gone but there's four or five enemies now standing there waiting for me. Stop doing that, game.

[Shindig]

Another RE5 boss and Sheva's not making it easy. Again, she's picking up solitary red herbs and clogging her inventory up. On the plus side, I think I've found a way to get infinite health. Providing your partner can resuscitate you, I don't think you can bleed out. Sheva never leaves my side (because she's thick). Also, she uses green herbs immediately so any heals she picks up just get fucking wasted on very little gain.

[Ian]

The ending to Binfinite Burial at Sea episode 1 is fun, and the apparent pivot toward stealth for episode 2 is interesting.