[The video game thread]

Chat about stuff other than Transformers.
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HeavyArms
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Re: [The video game thread]

Post by HeavyArms »

Ghost Of Tsushima: Special Edition.
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Tantrum
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Re: [The video game thread]

Post by Tantrum »

I just finished replaying Ocarina of Time this afternoon. I'd thought about playing more after beating Ganon, to find the last few Skulltulas and Heart Pieces. But, I've been looking for them for a while with no luck. I could use a guide, but that means I'd have to remember which ones I've already found which is doable for the Heart Pieces, but not the Skulltulas. I made it to 90 Skulltulas, which is more than I thought I'd get.

The only dungeon I didn't get all of them was the Water Temple, and I don't want to reexplore it. I've like the Water Temple ever since I realized that if you explore it thoroughly after each change of the water level, you only need to change the water level once at each station. But, going back in when I don't even know where I need to go isn't fun.

I replayed Windwaker this spring before it got warm enough to spend time outside, and OOT in fall after it got too cold to go outside. This winter'll probably be Twilight Princess. I thought about Majora's Mask, but then realized I don't actually like that game.

I've only played MM on the Gamecube port which, since it doesn't emulate the special cartridge hardware properly, freezes occasionally. In any other Zelda game, I'd get around this by saving often. but proper saving in MM resets much of your progress. The owl statues don't, but loading the save file causes it to revert to the proper save, so it doesn't help deal with this issue. To finish the game, every time I did something significant, I'd save at an owl statue, reboot the system, copy the save file to the other slot, then continue.

I also don't like having to restock all my items and bottle contents every time I start/save. This probably wouldn't be enough to stop me from playing a game I wanted to play. But, I can't think of anything I'd be looking forward to doing. I remember hating Great Bay, disliking the transformation masks, and finding the time limits annoying. I like the idea of Stone Mountain Temple more than the execution.

I know it's weird to write more about a game I didn't play than the one I just did. But, it wasn't until trying to decide what to play this month that I realized I actually dislike Majora's Mask. Before, I thought that I thought it was a good game ruined by a freezing glitch conflicting with an awkward save system. but no, I actually think it's a bad game.
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Re: [The video game thread]

Post by ganon578 »

Tantrum wrote: Mon Dec 07, 2020 12:42 amI thought about Majora's Mask, but then realized I don't actually like that game.
In the last couple years I played the MM 'remake' on 3DS. They modified the save system to be much more forgiving (instant saves that pick right up where you left off, IIRC) which I liked. Some would argue that it 'breaks' the game, but I found it less stressful and more enjoyable to be able to save like that.
StoneCold Skywarp wrote: Wed Dec 02, 2020 9:47 pm My experience with it so far have been overwhelmingly positive
Thanks for the feedback. I've read a few things on various websites which seemed positive, but it's useful to get first hand information. I think I'll safe my cash slowly over the next year and grab one later.

Also, I just got Star Wars: Squadrons for PS4 last week on the cheap and played a mission. Super fun and the controls aren't too challenging. It'll take some work to get better, as my skills aren't all that hot and my gaming time is limited. I don't think I will be doing any multiplayer anytime soon, LOL.
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Re: [The video game thread]

Post by Warcry »

I absolutely adore Majora's Mask, and all the things that Tantrum calls out as negatives are the things I like the most about it! I really enjoy that the game forces to you actually make progress, and think about what you're going to do to make the most of your 72 hours in-game. I wouldn't want every Zelda game to play like that, but it was a super creative mechanic and they did an amazing job building a game around it in a way that didn't make the game itself feel repetitive even though you absolutely do have to repeat a lot of sequences more than once for 100% completion (which, to be fair, I've only gone to the effort of doing once). I might go so far as to say that it's my favourite Zelda game, but it's got some stiff competition in that regard.

(I also love Skyward Sword, which is another Zelda game that, I gather, isn't too popular because they built it around a different mechanic that not everyone likes.)

I haven't posted much lately but I've been running through some older games lately.

Arkham Asylum is great. It's funny that they changed the formula so much for Arkham City. I played and enjoyed them both, and it really underscored the difference between them. Asylum is tightly-plotted and well-acted, tense throughout and never lets off the gas. City is...well, kinda plodding. I think Rocksteady made the cardinal mistake of actually listening to the fans' complaints about Asylum, which led to them cramming in 285 different antagonists into a plot that made absolutely zero sense. City is still a lot of fun, because the gameplay is a lot of fun, but Arkham Asylum is an absolute gem and City never manages to reach the same heights.

I usually run through Arkham Origins every year around Christmas, but after plowing through those two games in the fall I might give that seasonal tradition a skip this year.

I've also been running through Deus Ex games. I played Human Revolution in November. In spite of the janky animations it's a really good game, and it did a really good job of bringing the spirit of the original into a more modern age of gaming. Ironically, it's almost too good in some ways...the original Deus Ex was kind of awful if you tried to play it as a straight-ahead shooter, but that forced you to look for alternate ways of doing things and gave you a good reason to fully explore all the branching paths the devs created for you. In Human Revolution, you can just shoot your way through every problem you run into, and exploration and lateral thinking are more of a role-playing choice than a necessity.

After that I started playing Invisible War, which I'd actually never experienced before. I'd always assumed that the massive fandom backlash it got at the time was simply a case of "it's not what we wanted, so it sucks!" But the criticism from its day was pretty much on the mark. The original game had a really complex character building system (mundane skills that you could upgrade using XP, combined with superpowers you could get from rare upgrade canisters found during the game). It was probably too complex, honestly. You could easily break the game for yourself by making stupid choices in how you upgraded your character. But the sequel made it too simple...I was already basically fully augmented by the time I was half-way through, but really didn't feel all that much more powerful than I was as the start. Gunplay is no fun, I can shoot a guy with a rocket launcher and they'll just stand there and tank it. The levels, being designed for the original Xbox, are mostly tiny and lack the complexity of either the original or the newer sequels...rarely does it feel like there's much point to exploring around for alternate paths. It feels more like a second-rate clone of the original than a sequel from the same creative leads, honestly. In isolation, really it's an okay game considering it came out in 2003...but how do you take it in isolation when they mention JC Denton every five minutes and every major character from the first game reappears as an NPC?

But it only cost me like $1 during a Steam sale, so whatever.

Once that's done, I'll have to give the original another run-through. It was my favourite game of the early 2000s but I haven't played in probably 10 years.
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Re: [The video game thread]

Post by Heinrad »

Well, a couple of games this time. We’ll start with the one I’m sure everybody got as soon as it came out.

Gundam Breaker 3 - Break Edition for the PS Vita: I mean, everybody ran out and got this for the most popular handheld ever produced, right? Right?

-crickets chirp-

Huh. Anyway, PlayAsia got a restock of this game, and while I always wanted to try it, getting a new copy is always a nice thing, and all of the DLC is included.

Okay, so maybe this is the game everybody got?

Cyberpunk 2077 for the PS4: I kinda got lucky here. I’ve seen people talking about how the console version of the game is completely broken and unplayable, but I couldn’t play it right away. It installed and immediately started downloading updates. So a day and a half later, and I had a perfectly working game after all the updates installed. And I’m really enjoying it. It’s a lot of fun. I do wish I could figure out how to switch weapons without having to go into the inventory screen, though.
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Re: [The video game thread]

Post by Auntie Slag »

I bought an X-Box 360E (never owned one before) and have been having fun with several prominent X-Box games like Halo 3, Gears 1, Blur, Fable II, Fallout 3, ODST, Skyrim, Pac Man DX+, L.A. Noire etc. Its a good time financially to get into the 360 as all the games are only £1 in thrift stores and second hand shops. My best pick ups were Blur (brand new & sealed) for 75p and Fallout 3 GOTY for free because I gave the lady in the charity shop a bit of advice about a bunch of games that had just been donated. I really like LA Noire; great atmosphere and reminds me of Cinemaware games on the old 16-bit computers.
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Re: [The video game thread]

Post by Unicron »

Heinrad wrote: Sat Dec 12, 2020 10:46 pmGundam Breaker 3 - Break Edition for the PS Vita: I mean, everybody ran out and got this for the most popular handheld ever produced, right? Right?

-crickets chirp-

Huh. Anyway, PlayAsia got a restock of this game, and while I always wanted to try it, getting a new copy is always a nice thing, and all of the DLC is included.
I picked it up a good while back for PS4. Fun game, liked it better than the Dynasty Warriors Gundam game I previously played. Need to get back to it sometime, eventually.

Meanwhile, I've been playing the living hell out of Hades lately. Stupid good game.
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Re: [The video game thread]

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Finished my first play-through of Resident Evil 0, wasn't a fan of the inventory system but will give it a few more play-throughs.
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Re: [The video game thread]

Post by Heinrad »

Well, the bugs showed up in my Cyberpunk game. But they wound up being kind of helpful.

The first(and most helpful) was a gang member from one part of the act 1 arc tagging along like a ghost through most of the rest of the act. He came in handy when the big firefight broke out. The second happened during said firefight, when the guard that was supposed to come out of the elevator you need to take glitches out and stayed in the elevator, blinking in and out a few times. You still had to fight him, but point blank while the enemy A.I. is trying to get it's bearings made it a lot easier.

The one that wasn't helpful was the one time it crashed completely. Fortunately it had just auto saved.
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Re: [The video game thread]

Post by HeavyArms »

Gone back to WWE 2K15 to finish that game up.
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Re: [The video game thread]

Post by Civ »

I've been playing a lot of Assassin's Creed: Valhalla and I've been enjoying the crap out of that game.
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Re: [The video game thread]

Post by HeavyArms »

Star Wars: Squadrons.
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Re: [The video game thread]

Post by ganon578 »

Been playing random things over the last few weeks, as my attention span has been all over the map with Christmas stuff.

Finished up the campaign and DLC campaign on Battlefront II (PS4). Nothing special, but a fun mix of FPS and starship battles. I think this game has been sitting around on my system for about a year and I don't really care to play online multiplayer all that often. Nice to check it off for now.

Also dabbled with getting some trophies in MK11 (PS4) by doing both fatalities for the fighters. It's a nice little diversion every now and then, and I forget how much I enjoy the relative simplicity of the MK series.

I've been attempting to complete a personal goal in TheHunter: COTW (PS4) by harvesting a Gold level animal of each species in the game. I had gone through all of the main story missions on each of the 8 maps in the game plus some side missions, so this seemed like a fun thing to do. There's no in-game tracker for this, so I made up my own list. Right now I am missing 7 out of the 56 animals (counting doubles on maps). I think while I do this I may also try to purchase each of the available weapons in the game, just to have the wide selection to choose from.

On a last note, I busted out some of my mini game systems: NES, SNES and Genesis, and having a blast revisiting some simple and fun games. At times, I miss games like this with their simplicity and 'quick' completion time. I recently ran through Super Mario World, and the game timer clocked in at ~4.5 hours. I didn't finish all of it (Star World, Special World) but I completed a bunch of the levels with multiple exits. Excellent fun, and one of my all-time favorites. Also started playing some Wonder Boy in Monster World and Light Crusader on the Genesis. Pretty fun and enjoyable, and I've never really played them before. This retro gaming stint encouraged me to order a Turbografx 16 Mini, which I never owned but thought it looked neat in magazines and at Toys R Us as a kid. I understand this thing wasn't terribly popular in the US back then, but it seems like there are some really cool games to try. I'm excited for it, and it should arrive in a couple days(ish).
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Re: [The video game thread]

Post by Heinrad »

Sam & Max Save the World for the Nintendo Switch. It's just as much fun on the Switch as it was on the PC.
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Re: [The video game thread]

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Thirteen-odd years late to the party, I've finally played Portal. I honestly can't remember the last time I had this much fun playing a game. It's a simple game with exactly one game mechanic, but it's a mechanic that works really well and really makes you think laterally. Towards the end of the game some of the puzzle rooms are these insane Rube Goldberg machines and it was so satisfying when I finally figured out how to tackle each of them.

I've got the sequel as well -- they were bundled for $3.50ish Canadian on Steam -- but I don't know when I'll get around to playing it. A big part of the game's charm for me was how it quickly escalated to a climax and ended before the single gameplay element wore out it's welcome. I feel like jumping into "Portal again, but longer" right away might sour me on it a bit.

I also picked up a ton of old Star Wars games from the 90s (they had a bundle of 9 of them for around $20). It included all four of the X-Wing games (I had one as a kid, and after killing some time in the first one, it's just as much fun as I remember), Galactic Battlegrounds (I actually have the original discs for this kicking around somewhere, but my laptop doesn't even have an optical drive...), Rogue Squadron (a great game which I didn't even realize got released for the PC), Rebellion (one of my favourite games of all time though this is the first time I've ever actually bought it...I think I still have an ancient burned CD-R somewhere but I had to manually copy over my game install and registry from WinXP to Win7 to get it to work at all on my last machine. It's actually less cranky about running in Win10, but there are still a few graphical glitches...) and Rebel Assault 1 and 2 (DOS games that I'd never even heard of before yesterday, but sound like they'll be fun if I can get them to run).

I'd have happily paid $20 just to get my hands on the complete set of X-Wing games so I'm pretty happy getting all that! Not entirely sure when I'll play it all, but I look forward to exploring it all over the next year or so.
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Re: [The video game thread]

Post by Cyberstrike nTo »

Assassin's Creed: Valhalla on XB1 and PS4. I'm having a lot of fun playing it.
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HeavyArms
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Re: [The video game thread]

Post by HeavyArms »

Star Wars: Shadows Of The Empire - Bought this Nintendo 64 game complete from a guy on eBay locally for a good price.

Marvel's Avengers Steelbook Edition & Transformers: Battlegrounds - I bought on different days from EB Games during their Boxing Day sale at half or more off.
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Re: [The video game thread]

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My TG16 Mini came in. I love it.

There's just so much here I never played! I just finished New Adventure Island last night. Working on Neutopia as well (halfway through?). There are shmups galore on this thing, some good, some not so good. I think my faves are in the Star Soldier line. But there's also weird and fun things like Ninja Spirit and Bonk. Even stuff like Victory Run is good to kill some minutes. And the Castlevania game (Rondo of Blood) is really really good. Thoroughly enjoying this thing. It's sad that it only shipped with 1 controller, but I also picked up a wireless 8bitdo one that works exceptionally well without any lag. All in all, this thing is great for tinkering around on an afternoon or whatever.
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Re: [The video game thread]

Post by HeavyArms »

Darksiders: Genesis - Really cheap at EB Games.
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Re: [The video game thread]

Post by Tantrum »

I'm almost done replaying Twilight Princess. I'm at the beginning of the Palace of Twilight, where you have to steal the Sols from the Wallmasters/Zant's Hands. It's the only non-optional thing in the game I truly hate. I even keep a save file from just after placing the second Sol so I can skip it if I want.

When I first played this game, I noticed how uneven the pacing was. There's a ton of overworld stuff to do before each of the first few dungeons. But, once you've made it to the entrance of the 4th dungeon (out of 9), all that's left to see of the overworld is a small snow maze, snowboarding minigame, and nearly abandoned town.

It wouldn't be so bad if reexploring the overworld with the later dungeons' equipment gave you access to new stuff, like if there were a 3rd lantern cave that could only be reached with the double clawshot. Technically, maybe there is, and I just haven't found it. But, I have found all the Heart Pieces, so I don't think so.

This time through, I noticed the related issue that all the plot happens in the first part of the game, too. Kids get kidnapped, you rescue them, they rescue each other, the fish prince is sick, etc. The second part of the game, those characters don't do much, and the new Resistance characters are just there to prevent sequence breaking. The cannon guy won't fire you into the desert without the one guy's letter.
You can't catch a special fish to track its smell until the one lady gives you her drawing of said fish to show around.

That's really my only issue with this game. Other than those damn hands. Besides that, it's basically a refinement of everything from previous games. It's like a band releasing a Greatest Hits album where the songs have been remastered and sound better.

You learn sword techniques like in AoL, but now sword combat is fun. TP's transformation is more fun than MM's. The helper is a well developed character, unlike OOT's Navi. Even the fortuneteller from ALttP is back, and now her advice is actually useful.

My first playthrough, I got a kick out of the Master Sword's location, where OOT's Temple of Time is decaying into part of ALttP's Lost Woods. Then, I read that the official timeline has TP and ALttP in different branches. But, I don't know if that was decided when TP came out, so I still think it's clever.
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