What was the last game you played?

Genericktag · June 19, 2022, 9:20pm

Finally finished Wasteland 2. An excellent game, but quite long. I definitely need a break from the tactical RPG genre before I tackle Wasteland 3 and it’s DLC.

I played through two Wales Interactive FMV games, I Saw Black Clouds and Bloodshore. I was quite surprised at how much I enjoyed Bloodshore. Based on its premise of streamers and influencers being dropped Fortnite style onto an island for a real life battle to the death, I wasn’t expecting any likeable characters. But the writing and acting is actually pretty decent, and while there is only one ending (something I don’t actually mind in these narrative games) the choices you make offer up a few different ways of getting there.

I Saw Black Clouds manages to do everything wrong. The editing is choppy and terrible, there’s a moronic twist about 3/4 of the way through that wipes the plot and most of your choices clear away (the game changes from a well done ghost story to a completely different subgenre via a hypnosis/dream trope) and at one point the game gave me a choice to make, then literally said “but that’s not actually how it happened” and kept rewinding itself until I made the other choice. It was a poor attempt at some commentary on denial, but did not make for a good gaming experience. I have to say that I Saw Black Clouds is the worst of these types of FMV choose-your-own adventure games I’ve played yet.

Right now I’m playing The Strange Brigade, an adventure pulp inspired game about a group of heroes trying to stop the spirit of an evil Egyptian witch queen from destroying the world (while also pilfering the occasional relic). It’s very light, with simple puzzles and hundreds of zombies, mummies, and skeletons to gun down. I’m enjoying it.

KauluMaisas · June 20, 2022, 3:46pm

The Flame in the Flood.
Grabbed it when it was free. Booted it up and after 5 minutes I thought to myself “hmm, there is something not right about this! Wait a second, this is survival game!”. Yeah, not too interested in managing status bars. Eh, maybe later…

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge
From my review on Steam:

Would I recommend it? More “Yes” than “No”.

I do not play much Beat 'Em Up, so the only other game I have as a reference is Streets of Rage 4.
Anyway, TMNT:SR looks great, music is decent, combat is good, most bosses are fun encounters,
but…

Characters do not feel as unique compared to each other as in SOR4.
As of time of writing, there were no controller options in-game, so it is needed to go into Steam’s own controller configuration interface.
I could not find an option to disable level intro and outro cutscenes, level intro and outro screens. I do not want Nth time to watch these things, it is just very annoying.
Final boss is a disappointment.
Online play is barebones - no player lists, no filter, no sorting, just 5 options to choose from.
No training mode, no boss rush (really?), no survival mode.

It was good during that first Story playthrough, but the more I play after that, the more I hate it.

Has potential but is underbaked as of now.

Did not write this in the review, but I really HATE how the game just butchers the flow. I start the level, get in the groove, and then I get this stupid cutscene at the end of a level that does not serve any purpose, especially when I have already played the game for a awhile: cutscene in-game with animations, then still picture with some voice over, then introduction of next level with a another still image, then cutscene in-game for the same level’s introduction? Who thought of that as a respectful idea to a player? I get these are video games and I should not get mad, but devs DO NOT OFFER AN OPTION TO TURN OFF THIS SH*T! WHY? Streets of Rage 4 does not have this kind of unnecessary down time and its gameplay flows very well.

Don’t know what is more annoying, breaks in flow or a fact that developers are competent enough to create a great base, but just fall short in polish department.
I saw in TMNT’s credits, that they were consulted by Jordi Asensio (co-founder of Guard Crush, co-developer of Streets of Rage 4). C’mon, man…

KauluMaisas · June 21, 2022, 4:59pm

AFTERBURN - low poly air combat game made by 1 person. I had this one for a few years at least, but haven’t tried it in a proper manner until now. Simple, but engaging combat, narrow list of planes (plane variants and weapons) to choose from, enemies to fight and terrains to fight above, it has endless mode and campaign consisting of 6 missions, and leaderboards. That being said, it is enjoyable using controller. I’ve finished the story in 4 hours without rushing, and I’ll participate in leaderboard shenanigans so that might be another 4.

The price asked for the game is a bit much (10 euros for me), but I think I got it during a sale for 5, so that feels more acceptable.

G1R · June 25, 2022, 11:47pm

lets see…

PS5: Wonderlands, Sniper Elite 5, Far Cry 6, Sackboy adventures.
Mobile: Apex, this other shooter, Disney Mirrorverse and Diablo Immortal.

mostly trying different shooters as you can see. trying to pass time most days.

Curmudge0n · June 26, 2022, 4:31pm

Played through Transformers: Battlegrounds, a turn-based game I got on sale a while back cause I thought my daughter might like it. While not exactly terribad, no realistic chance of a replay in the foreseeable future.

Continued my new Gaige through some missions. It’s been a while since I played Tundra Express on NVHM. Arrived with full anarchy stacks and an on-level fire weapon to get varkids burning…

Which totally failed, because they died instantly, when hit. Getting a bunch of them near a firemelon and shooting that was the solution to my problem. Off to The Fridge now.

Got started on Neon White and have to say, from the little time I played, the rave reviews are somewhat justified. Each level is very short, which gives it an addictive “Ok, just one more time…” dynamic that makes one forget time.

VaultHunter101 · June 27, 2022, 1:00pm

LEGO: The Harry Potter Collection (remastered version of both games with updated graphics) was on sale for about $10 CDN, so I grabbed it. So far, much less crash-prone than the backwards compatible 360 version, which given the lack of intermediate save points is very much welcome.

Jefe · June 28, 2022, 3:55am

Funny story. I decided to investigate this out on Steam, decided against, noticed it was Annapurna (for whom I have a great deal of respect), noticed the publisher collection which happened to include Outer Wilds which I didn’t know was Annapurna but had still been on my wish list for an improbably long time, checked other titles, aaaaaand:

First games I’ve bought in almost 2 years.
Ashen tagged as Souls-like. Intriguing.

I’ll wrap Salvador’s TVHM and roll the dice on one of these.

Troubled · June 29, 2022, 12:42pm

Left 4 Dead 2

hylermcgrath9 · June 29, 2022, 2:43pm

OG- MW2

KauluMaisas · June 29, 2022, 5:26pm

Spec Ops: The Line.
I am not a fan of cover-based shooters. This one was not an exception. Maybe because I was playing on hardest available difficulty (one above has to be unlocked), but at that level, FOR ME, cover mechanics felt clunky and unintuitive, amount of health on my character felt unreliable, because sometimes I felt being able to withstand decent amount of damage while in other I could’ve been beamed be one enemy in an instant. In short, I really hated the game half of the time, and decently liked it the other half.
The story, however, was a pleasant surprise. It stuck with me. When I first sit down to write this comment, the first thing I’ve remembered was White P* scene, how mother was holding her child, covering their eyes, the screams, the burns. It is something. I do not remember my still quite short adult life that video game story had such an impact on me. Maybe it’s the timing. Anyway, I like the story with all its fever dream-like elements, its abstruseness, and tone. It is very hard for me to say, if I would recommend this game to anyone. I might think about this for another hour or whatnot, so I will leave it as a rhetoric question…

This, in my opinion, has some interesting ideas about the game:

KauluMaisas · June 29, 2022, 7:10pm

XCOM: Chimera Squad.
Firaxis made some shuffling all right:

district system is decent. They made that everyone trying to live together, but did not think of that there might be separation by species and wealth and whatnot? Maybe managing different groups of people by their situation might be too far off XCOM thematic, huh. Anyway, eh.
timeline system. Instead of one side trashing other side at once, both sides beat each other in an equal pace. Again, a good idea, but feels strange by its own. It feels like the game wants the combat feel like more(?) equal, it seems like the game wants you to embrace “damage trading”. Even after full playthrough and a half I am not too keen on the idea.
XCOM2’s legacy “features” are back - broken and/or animations. How I hate these. XCOM2 has “stop wasting my time” mod that I can’t play without, but I did not find something similar for X:CS.
Cutscenes and post mission chatter that you cannot be disabled. Why?
Squadmates barking while on mission that cannot be disabled. Why? I just can’t tolerate Terminal’s snarky one liners all the time. Just shut up, everyone, please.

I’ve started 2nd playthrough and while in-game I catch myself thinking about XCOM2 instead of what’s beamed into my skull right now. Eh…

Curmudge0n · June 30, 2022, 9:31am

Because XCOM 2 is easily the bigger and better game. Chimera Squad is to some degree XCOM lite. It’s a good game by itself, but it noticeably is the little brother to the main games.

I still like it and did multiple playthroughs with different characters, just to see how they work when they’re fully promoted (though Patchwork and Terminal are definitely my favourites).

One should mention that Chimera Squad was sold for much less than XCOM 2, which reflects that it’s a snack, not the full XCOM three-course-menu.

Talking of snacks, I went for another walking simulator and played through Gone Home. A game that lives pretty well off its story and atmosphere. Not high on replay value at first glance, but quite entertaining.

KauluMaisas · July 1, 2022, 9:27am

I have to say 2nd playthrough of Chimera Squad was way more entertaining than one before. Maybe it was because I’ve increased the difficulty or maybe because I got accustomed to game’s ruleset. It is a decent game, and if there would be a way to:

remove useless animations;
speed-up the rest of animations;
remove cutscenes;
remove dialog;
remove squad chatter while in battle;
add more information to “yet another F1”;
explain in-game breach item mechanics;

I would play the game again, but as it stand now, I’d better try something new from my backlog than get increasingly annoyed by X:CS. Maybe later, after all 16 games in my backlog, and another round of XCOM2:WOTC are done, I will come back to this one (if no other potentially great game gets released and I still have time to waste).

Jefe · July 3, 2022, 5:19pm

Installed Outer Wilds and gave it a go. It would have been promising if not for motion sickness. I tried the usual tricks but still couldn’t get that camera movement under control. Uninstalled, refund requested. (Edit : Steam issued my refund after 1.33333 hours, to their credit)

Something calm was needed so of the two remaining I went with Journey. And calm it is. Did not uninstall, did not request refund.

Curmudge0n · July 3, 2022, 5:30pm

Journey is lingering on my harddisk for a while now. I may have to finally get started on it. Calm would be a good counterpoint for Neon White.

Troubled · July 4, 2022, 11:31am

I played a bit of Skyrim after installing some more mods, but only for a bit. I have not had a desire to play such a peaceful and relaxing game for a long time so I didn’t stick with it. That and I think the one mod I didn’t install right (it’s become a game of how many mods I can install before it blows up) so I ventured back over to Left 4 Dead 2. While the numbers do not mean a whole lot, I am quite proud of my kill count with certain weapons.

Eel37 · July 4, 2022, 12:26pm

Fallout 4 again, this time on the Survival difficulty (no Fast Travel, dramatically reduced health, being fed and watered, etc…).

On the way to the Glowing Sea. This is why Hacking is better than Lockpicking 95% of the time.

Decided to ditch the usual Power Armor for the Glowing Sea and opt for Lead Lined armor instead. Made the trek much more tense. I also love how comically unwieldy the Laser Sniper Pistol looks.

Nope, not getting involved. I don’t care if that Legendary had a Two-Shot or Instigating Magnum, I hadn’t saved in 30 minutes.

“Kellogg’s Pistol” is such a generic name.

I tried reentering the area and… it’s slightly better?

Deliverer, my beloved.

Troubled · July 5, 2022, 6:56pm

Left 4 Dead 2 which I really need to start recording because some of the weird ■■■■ I see is worthy of being posted online.

Today’s golden moment was turning in time on the No Mercy campaign to watch a Spitter perform a jump spit-shot at me and the bots, ricochet it off the wall, and have it land in an absolutely perfect spot where I had to abandon the holdout location entirely rather than climb onto a high surface. Bots got their health chunked big time and I got burnt a bit.

The Spitter A.I is often pretty damn good at landing shots which is often mildly irritating. I wasn’t even remotely upset; I was incredibly impressed.

Didn’t stop me from thumping in her the skull with the military sniper rifle though.

VaultHunter101 · July 6, 2022, 10:23pm

Closing in on 100% for the first half of LEGO Harry Potter Collection (years 1-4). I’ll take a break after that - hopefully re-run the HALO 4 Spartan Ops with my son (or at least some of them).