Games you are currently playing: ROUND SIX

[GlassesJacketShirt]

About four hours into RAGE, and I have one massive problem with it that's giving me pause: gunplay. Driving is fun (if linear), the world is cool (if a bit undercooked), and the visuals are neat (though littered with low resolution textures), but goddamn is the shooting aspect ever annoying. I would understand if this were an RPG, but as an FPS I expect my guns to feel responsive and damaging and RAGE provides neither. Surprising when one considers the ID pedigree.

 

[Papa Francouz]

The Messenger was my game of the year for last year for sure. It's such a great game, everything about it is incredible.

Just finished it. It’s phenomenal in every facet. So much creativity and love was put into this game, and it shows. Wow. I want more.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

Zelda II on the Switch for reasons I can't fully explain.

 

[Commander Clueless]

Just finished it. It’s phenomenal in every facet. So much creativity and love was put into this game, and it shows. Wow. I want more.

I have to admit, I wasn't prepared for the emotion in it either. The last story the shopkeeper tells you before the final boss really got me.

The shopkeeper gets my vote for best supporting character of 2018.

It's been awhile since I laughed that hard and came that close to crying manly man-tears (but if anyone asks I didn't, because I'm a man dammit ) because of the same video game in a long time.

 

[Papa Francouz]

I have to admit, I wasn't prepared for the emotion in it either. The last story the shopkeeper tells you before the final boss really got me.

The shopkeeper gets my vote for best supporting character of 2018.

It's been awhile since I laughed that hard and came that close to crying manly man-tears (but if anyone asks I didn't, because I'm a man dammit ) because of the same video game in a long time.

100% in agreement for the shopkeeper to get an award for best supporting character. I think it wasn’t until the second or third story he told me that I was really sucked into the world.

The writing in this game is some of the best I have ever witnessed. I really hope the game doesn’t get overlooked moving forward. I want this guy to write for many more games to come.

 

[Frankie Spankie]

I started playing BattleTech, I got it during the steam holiday sale. I wasn't really liking it at first but I'm starting to figure it out a lot better. It's definitely a lot more enjoyable than it was at first but there's still some faults I'm having with it. The biggest thing that bothers me is that positioning doesn't seem to really matter much since there's no cover like there is in tactics games like XCOM. Seems like you just want to move as much as possible and try to stay in forests when possible. Also, the load times are absolutely ridiculous. I have it installed on an SSD. I do not want to see what the load times are on an HDD. I bet the load times would be close to 2 minutes...

I'm about 1/3 of the way through the campaign after about 16 hours and still learning a lot as I go. Pretty cool idea for a game though, I love the fact that you can scavenge mechs you destroy to make your mechs stronger.

 

[Commander Clueless]

The Messenger was my game of the year for last year for sure. It's such a great game, everything about it is incredible.

I totally see why.

I started playing New Game + the day after finishing it. That never happens to me. What a game.

I'm actually glad I didn't play it in 2018 or I'd have a heck of a time trying to figure out where to put it on my top 10 list.

(It'd be near the top)

 

[Bocephus86]

I started playing BattleTech, I got it during the steam holiday sale. I wasn't really liking it at first but I'm starting to figure it out a lot better. It's definitely a lot more enjoyable than it was at first but there's still some faults I'm having with it. The biggest thing that bothers me is that positioning doesn't seem to really matter much since there's no cover like there is in tactics games like XCOM. Seems like you just want to move as much as possible and try to stay in forests when possible. Also, the load times are absolutely ridiculous. I have it installed on an SSD. I do not want to see what the load times are on an HDD. I bet the load times would be close to 2 minutes...

I'm about 1/3 of the way through the campaign after about 16 hours and still learning a lot as I go. Pretty cool idea for a game though, I love the fact that you can scavenge mechs you destroy to make your mechs stronger.

I was getting ruined in this game for the first few hours as I basically went full armor & weapons, negating Jump Jets & enough heat sinks.

I restarted the campaign and decided that I would strip all mechs & put as many Jump Jets on as possible first, then balance heat sinks/armor/weapons. After that, I jumped to move every turn and rolled since it gives you full evasion & you can control your facing.

Best tip I can give.

 

[SniperHF]

I was getting ruined in this game for the first few hours as I basically went full armor & weapons, negating Jump Jets & enough heat sinks.

Once you get heavies the game is a faceroll. Or at least it was in the launch version.

The biggest thing that bothers me is that positioning doesn't seem to really matter much since there's no cover like there is in tactics games like XCOM. Seems like you just want to move as much as possible and try to stay in forests when possible.

Positioning mainly doesn't matter cause the game is too easy
But it does in theory have some positioning considerations. Brace vs not braced is a massive factor when fighting a couple lances of heavy/assault mechs later in the game. Even the forest type cover doesn't really cut unless you have a heavily armored mech. Indirect vs Direct fire is another.

Personally I get bored with "cover" systems but games that try other stuff need to do them better generally.

 

[Bocephus86]

Once you get heavies the game is a faceroll. Or at least it was in the launch version.



Positioning mainly doesn't matter cause the game is too easy
But it does in theory have some positioning considerations. Brace vs not braced is a massive factor when fighting a couple lances of heavy/assault mechs later in the game. Even the forest type cover doesn't really cut unless you have a heavily armored mech. Indirect vs Direct fire is another.

Personally I get bored with "cover" systems but games that try other stuff need to do them better generally.

I gave it another shot about a month ago, it seems it has gotten tougher (or I have gotten worse).

I do like to do facing to spread out damage over the whole mech, but other than that I agree with you. I normally run the following 4 types of mechs (during the mid-game when you have mostly medium & heavy mechs): Full Medium Laser Guy, Indirect LRM boat, Up close SRM brawler, Jack-of-all-trades (usually a mix of medium lasers/SRMs/1 sniper-type weapon).

It's usually the SRM Brawler & Jack-of-all-trades that I have running screen for the other two, so I sometimes need to protect one of their sides that took the majority of damage from the first lance.

 

[God King Fudge]

Picked up the RE2 remake and it is really, really good so far. Granted, I haven't progressed any further than you could in the one shot demo, but I loved that too.

It looks absolutely fantastic (playing on PC) and controls really well.

Super pumped to dig in more.

 

[syz]

f*** Mr. X and his x-ray vision tho.

 

[Frankie Spankie]

I was getting ruined in this game for the first few hours as I basically went full armor & weapons, negating Jump Jets & enough heat sinks.

I restarted the campaign and decided that I would strip all mechs & put as many Jump Jets on as possible first, then balance heat sinks/armor/weapons. After that, I jumped to move every turn and rolled since it gives you full evasion & you can control your facing.

Best tip I can give.

I haven't used too many jump jets because I noticed it can affect my stability or damage my legs. Is there something you do to prevent stability loss or leg damage?

 

[Bocephus86]

I haven't used too many jump jets because I noticed it can affect my stability or damage my legs. Is there something you do to prevent stability loss or leg damage?

Is this a setting you may have turned on at the start of the game? I'm going to fire it up later tonight to make sure it isn't an update, but when I use Jump Jets to move I take no leg damage nor does it add stability damage (as long as I don't land on terrain that has stability problems). I do not use the Jump Jet attack as that does had a ton of leg damage.

Do you get damage just using them to move? Last I played was maybe a month ago, might be a little longer. Like I said, I will fire it up after dinner & let you know if it was patched in or something recently, or if this still doesn't happen in my game.

 

[Frankie Spankie]

I don't always take damage from jump jets. It was mostly happening early in my gametime, I stopped using it regularly because of that. Come to think of it though, it may have been happening because I was landing on rough terrain and just didn't know what was going on early in the game.

 

[Frankie Spankie]

Alright, I take it back, I just jumped towards a mech into water and destroyed both my legs.

 

[Shareefruck]

Sampled these some more.

The Messenger - 2.0 (Positive)

I'm having a lot of trouble pinning this one down, because I simultaneously like and dislike certain elements of it. Mostly positive, though.

* Obviously a passionate labor of love,
* Strong, conceptually/mechanically well-designed ideas/techniques/levels that are inherently fun to play with and speed run through, which is basically its main feature. (though I didn't like the feedback),
* I actually find the soundtrack/sound design a bit grating and annoying, personally. That music for the first few levels actually actively annoys me a bit.
* Sprite work/Animation is.... okay, but nothing to write home about,
* What I found really obnoxious and annoying was that the writing was trying way too hard to be cute/meta/funny (almost felt like Deadpool-ish humor, which I despise). Tone felt out of place to me.

It's solid, and I don't want to hate on it because you can tell a lot went into it, but I can't consider it a great game at the moment.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - 1.0 (Negative)

I'm really not on board with the massive appeal of this franchise. Feels like indulgent, bloated as ****, maximalist fan-service with completely uninteresting/generic visuals, a host of modes that feel like pointless busy-work compared to the main game, and gameplay that while technically mechanically strong/deep, feels like a complete tasteless mess to watch and experience.

 

[syz]

I hope this becomes a PC mod.

 

[Gardner McKay]

I've been playing a lot of Diablo III on the switch over the past few days. It has been an absolute blast.

 

[ArGarBarGar]

Playing Claire B for the RE2 Remake.

Positives:
- The current engine that was used for RE7 and RE2R is amazing at creating great horror environments
-Gameplay is generally solid
-Original is adapted very well and the remake feels like a fresh remix of the original
-Mr. X generally is incorporated amazingly and provides a ton of tension at the station

Negatives:
-The ada "hacking" sequence took me out of the game for a bit
-Zombies in the station are incredibly hard to simply avoid most of the time and whittles down your health very quickly because of the lack of ammo in the early stages
-Mr. X showing up in Claire B scenario was a pain in the ass because it was essentially at the start of the scenario instead of a little bit later

Claire B has felt a lot better since leaving the station. Almost to the lab portion, now.

 

[SolidSnakeUS]

Playing Claire B for the RE2 Remake.

Positives:
- The current engine that was used for RE7 and RE2R is amazing at creating great horror environments
-Gameplay is generally solid
-Original is adapted very well and the remake feels like a fresh remix of the original
-Mr. X generally is incorporated amazingly and provides a ton of tension at the station

Negatives:
-The ada "hacking" sequence took me out of the game for a bit
-Zombies in the station are incredibly hard to simply avoid most of the time and whittles down your health very quickly because of the lack of ammo in the early stages
-Mr. X showing up in Claire B scenario was a pain in the ass because it was essentially at the start of the scenario instead of a little bit later

Claire B has felt a lot better since leaving the station. Almost to the lab portion, now.

My first playthrough has been Leon on Hardcore. Just beating Birkin the first time is f***ing hard. Lots of trial and error considering the lack of supplies. It took me to almost the 3 hour mark to beat Birkin once.

 

[Bocephus86]

Alright, I take it back, I just jumped towards a mech into water and destroyed both my legs.

Sorry, I got distracted after dinner and didn't play last night but I fired it up just now & tried a few missions: No damage from moving with Jump Jets.

Did you target the enemy mech? That will damage your legs. It has a name that is escaping me right now, but it is an attack move.

I also noticed two things:
1. No idea what "career" is, but it appears they've put in some major upgrades since I last played. Are you playing campaign or career? I also cannot rule out a new setting that wasn't there when I started my campaign back in the fall...
2. The game is harder than it was. I know I'm not as good as I was, but I'm taking damage on 1.5 star missions when my lance is 2.5 star that is beyond what I was used to. I had times where I'd go through a mission with a full star lance difference without taking any internal damage; I cannot pull that off any more. The enemy is smart enough to focus fire on a single mech, they tend to not fully miss (even with good positioning), and they seem to take less damage then before. I have distinct memories of killing a medium mech in a single turn with a lance I run now; I cannot get that right now even with a perfect initial positioning.

All in all, it really makes me want to restart & see what they new updates are about in a fresh start.

Side note: Why am I unable to actually finish a game? I loved RDR2 and I left it midway through chapter 6. I haven't finished a game in years. I have no idea why haha.

 

[ArGarBarGar]

My first playthrough has been Leon on Hardcore. Just beating Birkin the first time is ****ing hard. Lots of trial and error considering the lack of supplies. It took me to almost the 3 hour mark to beat Birkin once.

What are the biggest difficulties with hardcore so far?

I started with standard my first playthrough and through A and B I have had major trouble in the early-game. I do also try to stockpile ammo and items in games so I encounter zombies much more often.

Also it is insane how the major speedrunners are already finishing this game in around an hour on hardcore mode.

 

[Frankie Spankie]

I just briefly started RE2 last night, only got like 20 minutes in but was too tired to continue playing. My only main complaint playing on PC is for some reason, even when I have the settings on variable frame rate and refresh rate at 144, the game is still capped at 60 for me. I know you can get it higher but I had the same issue on Resident Evil 7. The odd thing is my PC died right as I finished RE7 and I'm playing this on a new PC, but I'm getting the same problem. I didn't upgrade the GPU yet, I wonder if there's a problem with my GPU or something with the RE engine. The other weird issue is the reflections look really bad, I looked it up, apparently it's an issue once you go over 1080p. The reflections look like you're looking through mesh to look at the screen and everything just looks rough and broken. I ended up just turning them off but the lack of them makes everything feel kind of dull.

Sorry, I got distracted after dinner and didn't play last night but I fired it up just now & tried a few missions: No damage from moving with Jump Jets.

Did you target the enemy mech? That will damage your legs. It has a name that is escaping me right now, but it is an attack move.

I also noticed two things:
1. No idea what "career" is, but it appears they've put in some major upgrades since I last played. Are you playing campaign or career? I also cannot rule out a new setting that wasn't there when I started my campaign back in the fall...
2. The game is harder than it was. I know I'm not as good as I was, but I'm taking damage on 1.5 star missions when my lance is 2.5 star that is beyond what I was used to. I had times where I'd go through a mission with a full star lance difference without taking any internal damage; I cannot pull that off any more. The enemy is smart enough to focus fire on a single mech, they tend to not fully miss (even with good positioning), and they seem to take less damage then before. I have distinct memories of killing a medium mech in a single turn with a lance I run now; I cannot get that right now even with a perfect initial positioning.

All in all, it really makes me want to restart & see what they new updates are about in a fresh start.

Side note: Why am I unable to actually finish a game? I loved RDR2 and I left it midway through chapter 6. I haven't finished a game in years. I have no idea why haha.

I am playing on campaign, I don't remember in that instance if I was landing to attack somebody but it's possible. I'll have to pay more attention to when it happens. I was wondering if I just suck at the game since people are saying it's easy. I'm not even sure if I'll end up beating it, the story missions are already tough. I'm on one where there's 8 mechs on me and they pretty much just focus the same mech of mine, destroying me before I can really do much damage to any of their's. It's a pretty fun game and I might just play it more casually doing contract missions here and there and take the long approach to the game.

 

[Bocephus86]

*snip*

I am playing on campaign, I don't remember in that instance if I was landing to attack somebody but it's possible. I'll have to pay more attention to when it happens. I was wondering if I just suck at the game since people are saying it's easy. I'm not even sure if I'll end up beating it, the story missions are already tough. I'm on one where there's 8 mechs on me and they pretty much just focus the same mech of mine, destroying me before I can really do much damage to any of their's. It's a pretty fun game and I might just play it more casually doing contract missions here and there and take the long approach to the game.

I bet this is what you did; that smashes your legs.

This game is hard for me too, and I played it a ton back when it first came out. My first campaign (before many updates over the last half year), I went like 2 in game years after I got my first Heavy mech to my next campaign mission - and I still got smoked, IIRC.

I am taking this approach again. I got the Kintaro (as it is the best LRM boat, in my opinion) and I'm going to bank cash & equipment for a while. Every so often I'll look for a high level assassin mission to try to scavenge more heavy (or even assault) mechs, but only when I have the cash to handle a long series of repairs.

Ain't no shame in the slow play game haha.