Video Games

Topic

Games. A love and loathe activity, especially when you can’t nail a section or take out that one bastard boss.

So, what are you buyin’? What are you playing?

Replies

You’ve finished it, I’ve just done the opening section and have literally just got into space. Would agree there’s a point to the argument that it benefits from a gap in the market that’s been there for a good few years, which may well encourage people to overlook the flaws – like the fetch quests of the intro section.
In a way it has a fair bit in common with HZD – it’s well-executed, excellent characters and design, but not that innovative. Will find out exactly how much this is true as I continue with TOW.

I haven’t finished it.

I probably will this weekend though.

Anyway,Death Stranding hasn’t arrived yet. Probably because Amazon are a bunch of cunts.

KandorLives wrote:

MGS5 is his best game. The combat is amazing.

While this is true when it comes to the gameplay and technical aspects, it’s not the most satisfying (actually being unfinished is part of it, but just the approach taken to the story in general). I’d put three Metal Gear Solid games over it without a second thought, and yes Peace Walker is one of them. Those Ashley Wood cutscenes, my god!

The Phantom Pain is full of awesome Birdman-style single-take cutscenes so it’s no wonder that it’s your favourite, Tim.

Its probably toe to toe with Peace Walker but Phantom Pain consumed my life so. I spent a fucking afternoon designing logos to spray on containers!

I would have loved to see the final mission though.

Anonymous wrote:

I spent a fucking afternoon designing logos to spray on containers

I played so much MGSV I couldn’t walk past a shopping container in real life without thinking “I need to Fulton extract that”.

Haha I see that. I think I eventually got the wormhole.

Also it’s the only MGS game with DD ergo it is the best.

I did finish the Outer Worlds today. My comments:

Its basically Fallout Condensed, and a lot of it’s systems beg to be properly realised.
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By that I mean I went through the entire game without really understanding the strategic benefit of TTD beyond just catching a breathe in combat, likewise the consumables, the weapon types and most of the perks aren’t really that beneficial because the combat just isn’t that difficult. Maybe they matter on hard and supanova difficulty, but in normal difficulty all that normal rpg stuff is just window dressing. It’s nice to be able to have a gun that shoots shock for use against robots, and one that shoots plasma for using against humans, but the benefit really is negligible and you’ll end up swapping through them so often that you probably won’t bother actually strategizing to gain the effect.
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Dialogue perks are incredibly useful. I can’t count the amount of time i persuaded/intimidated/lies my way through a quest without really fighting at all. So much so that I felt like i wasn’t really playing the game properly (when all i did was raise my dialogue skills to 50, which is HALF the maximum).
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The story does become interesting towards the end, and it invokes the typical theres a “grey area” to every decision, but ultimately there probably is a clear path. With that said, it really does beg for a new game plus because there’s one side you can ultimately go down, and another, and it would be nice to be able to revisit the game with some of the perks and gear you had previously earned.
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With that said I didn’t find myself paying too much attention to the dialogue and mostly skipped through it. Maybe because of that i ended up down a few minor paths chasing solutions i probably wouldn’t have otherwise. I’m not sure if that’s a fault of the game, or me, but i’ve definitely played plenty of RPGs to feel like the choices really were “my own”. In this case, it was more just a case of pressing skip to go through 20 paragraphs of dialogue to send me on an objective which i didnt really fully appreciate, only until later.
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In the end, I can’t say I loved it. I think people will and there’s plenty to be joyful about – the dialogue is well written and ripe with genuine fun moments, and the promise really is there. It hits a lot of the notes of the previous obsidian games, right down to the slide show ending retracing your decisions. My view hasn’t really changed much from my initial consensus, which is it’s a fine way to spend some hours on a video-game but it’s absolutely nothing unique and, ultimately, its probably quite missable.

200 quid price tag is quite steep but looks good nevertheless. I’m sure it’ll sell a shitload of units.

That’s really an obscene bit of branding.

That side of Capcom (the arcade titles/street fighter side) feels so moneygrubbing, but then they’re the same company that shells out free content for Monster Hunter World and does licence deals with Square Enix.

That does look pretty cool. I’d maybe consider it at half that price.

Anonymous wrote:

In the end, I can’t say I loved it. I think people will and there’s plenty to be joyful about – the dialogue is well written and ripe with genuine fun moments, and the promise really is there. It hits a lot of the notes of the previous obsidian games, right down to the slide show ending retracing your decisions. My view hasn’t really changed much from my initial consensus, which is it’s a fine way to spend some hours on a video-game but it’s absolutely nothing unique and, ultimately, its probably quite missable.

Yeah, on the play earlier some of the shine of the game came off quite badly:
– Your companions will locate enemies and attack far faster than you are able.
– Stealth? Fuck stealth, at least where combat is concerned. The shroud idea isn’t bad, not great, but neither is it bad.
– I was in a base and I am damn sure enemies basically saw through walls as I was in an entirely separate rooms then bang! Combat time.
– The ammo types are a nice idea but you need to be able to hold more weapons and switch more easily for it to work.
– TTD is not VATS and it misses a large part of the fun of VATS, which is it auto-targeted – then you got to watch how it played out and yes, if you had powered up your weaponry, gory, OHKO could result, which never got old. I’ve used TTD a few times, it just doesn’t do much in comparison.
For this game, its strongest cards are world-building, character, dialogue – those it succeeds at really well but in doing so it also shows up just how much gaming has developed in the last few years. Fallout 4, when it came out, had an anachronistic aspect to it and so too does The Outer Worlds, to a greater degree.
It is a fair point that people are inclined to be more supportive of this as a game because its a game doing its best to mostly avoid corporate bullshitting, but that protection only lasts so long. That combat isn’t harder is really the only thing that saves the combat because it’d be bloody frustrating if it was. It’s good, it’s enjoyable, but I’m not convinced it is quite as open in how you play it as it sells itself to be.

VATS is super useful when going for a melee character… it avoids a lot of grief… but that’s probably because of how badly coded those old Fallout games are more than anything else… xD

Ben wrote:

Tim wrote:

In the end, I can’t say I loved it. I think people will and there’s plenty to be joyful about – the dialogue is well written and ripe with genuine fun moments, and the promise really is there. It hits a lot of the notes of the previous obsidian games, right down to the slide show ending retracing your decisions. My view hasn’t really changed much from my initial consensus, which is it’s a fine way to spend some hours on a video-game but it’s absolutely nothing unique and, ultimately, its probably quite missable.

Yeah, on the play earlier some of the shine of the game came off quite badly:
– Your companions will locate enemies and attack far faster than you are able.
– Stealth? Fuck stealth, at least where combat is concerned. The shroud idea isn’t bad, not great, but neither is it bad.
– I was in a base and I am damn sure enemies basically saw through walls as I was in an entirely separate rooms then bang! Combat time.
– The ammo types are a nice idea but you need to be able to hold more weapons and switch more easily for it to work.
– TTD is not VATS and it misses a large part of the fun of VATS, which is it auto-targeted – then you got to watch how it played out and yes, if you had powered up your weaponry, gory, OHKO could result, which never got old. I’ve used TTD a few times, it just doesn’t do much in comparison.
For this game, its strongest cards are world-building, character, dialogue – those it succeeds at really well but in doing so it also shows up just how much gaming has developed in the last few years. Fallout 4, when it came out, had an anachronistic aspect to it and so too does The Outer Worlds, to a greater degree.
It is a fair point that people are inclined to be more supportive of this as a game because its a game doing its best to mostly avoid corporate bullshitting, but that protection only lasts so long. That combat isn’t harder is really the only thing that saves the combat because it’d be bloody frustrating if it was. It’s good, it’s enjoyable, but I’m not convinced it is quite as open in how you play it as it sells itself to be.

I agree with all of this.

On the combat, there were a couple of times where I died but it was mostly due to rushing into an open space and taking on too many enemies at once (or forgetting to use the inhaler).

As a general rule, I used the terrain to funnel them to me, and use my companion abilities on big enemies (like mantiqueens).

It also helps if you actually tinker your weapons and armour so they match your level, and upgrade your companions gear. I didnt do that until the last area, having gone through most of the game with the same level 15 gear id picked up on Monarch.

I think more care could have been paid to gear levels and the levelling system generally. Enemies scale with you but Level 30 (max) doesn’t feel much different to Level 20

Hmm. I was thinking about getting outer world’s, but in think it may not be for me. Sounds like it is pretty far on the open world end of things if it is like fallout, and I never really took to those games. The story was never engaging enough.

RossS wrote:

The story was never engaging enough.

It’s utterly bonkers in every game, highly melodramatic at times too, but you can’t fault the sheer level of conviction that the Yakuza series displays in its storytelling.

If it’s story you want, give Yakuza Zero a try.

I don’t know if you can really call it an open world.

There are a series of maps which represent areas on planets/ space stations that you can fast travel to. There’s probably 3 really small ones, 6 medium sized ones and one big one.

It’s the same gameplay as fallout but it funnels you through these areas to do Quests.

It plays to open world gameplay but doesn’t have the size to sustain it. For example, each companion has a quest associated with them and one quest was literally: fast travel to A to get instructions,fast travel to B to hear a different view, go back to A and been into a fight. End Quest.

The story isn’t super engaging, but it’s there and it’s a short enough game for you to experience without getting bigger down in open world mechanics. You kind of have to play the side Quests to experience the full game though, but even then there’s not really that many of them.

Ben, have you played Judgment?

My issue is that I’m a completist who only plays one game at a time. I have to finish the one I’m on completely before I start the next. like every riddle in Arkham, every chest and monster nest in Witcher 3, every side quest in Mass effect or dragon age.
With so little gaming time these days, really big open world games become hard to manage. Witcher 3 was just cripplingly huge. Took me more than a year.
So I have to be a bit choosy about what I take on.

Anonymous wrote:

Ben, have you played Judgment?

Not yet, to be honest the reportage around the tailing missions kind of deterred me from doing so.

RossS wrote:

So I have to be a bit choosy about what I take on.

The Yakuza games might work for you then as there’s a good story and characters, compact but dense game world and, even if you do everything, it’s still not going to be a monster game like HZD, the new Assassin Creeds or W3. Now, if you get hooked on one or two of the minigames then yes, you might end up with a problem.

RossS wrote:

My issue is that I’m a completist who only plays one game at a time. I have to finish the one I’m on completely before I start the next. like every riddle in Arkham, every chest and monster nest in Witcher 3, every side quest in Mass effect or dragon age.
With so little gaming time these days, really big open world games become hard to manage. Witcher 3 was just cripplingly huge. Took me more than a year.
So I have to be a bit choosy about what I take on.

Frankly I don’t think you’d find a problem with Outer Worlds then. It’s maybe a 10th of the content of Witcher 3.

Your have to play it through twice though because there’s ultimately two sides to choose from.

Ben wrote:

Tim wrote:

Ben, have you played Judgment?

Not yet, to be honest the reportage around the tailing missions kind of deterred me from doing so.

RossS wrote:

So I have to be a bit choosy about what I take on.

The Yakuza games might work for you then as there’s a good story and characters, compact but dense game world and, even if you do everything, it’s still not going to be a monster game like HZD, the new Assassin Creeds or W3. Now, if you get hooked on one or two of the minigames then yes, you might end up with a problem.

Judgment is really good. I recommend it.

The tailing and the ‘investigate a picture aspects aren’t great but otherwise it’s fantastic. Tailing is really easy, fwiw.

I played through the first hour of Death stranding.

Which is honestly 75-80% cut scenes (but it’s fine, they’re compelling and amazingly done).

By all reports there’s at least another hour of this set up.

I’m on board. The minimal gameplay I’ve played so far really is just hiking (and some first person segments whete you can zoom in, which will be familiar to MGS4 players) but its interesting somehow. Probably because it forces you to experience the world in it’s minutae.

It’s a toss up which is the better looking game, this or RDR2, but I’m leaning towards this. That makes it the best looking game on the system, if not full stop.

Considering Lea Seydoux is in Death Stranding, it should easily win the “best looking” category.

Hang on, I thought we weren’t supposed to talk to Tim in this thread?

It really is a very good looking game.

You meet Lea Seydouxs character early on and it’s great. You meet Del Toros a little later and hes … less attractive.

I can see why Kojima is interested in movie making- the cut scenes really are amazingly staged.

Martin Smith wrote:

Hang on, I thought we weren’t supposed to talk to Tim in this thread?

You are all Tim at some level.

Anonymous wrote:

Martin Smith wrote:

Hang on, I thought we weren’t supposed to talk to Tim in this thread?

You are all Tim at some level.

I’m Tim with added “arn”.

And your last name with an added “Sh”.

You’re twice the Tim that Tim is!

You don’t know that.

Maybe my six middle names are Tim.

Are they?

… Yes?

Anonymous wrote:

Maybe my six middle names are Tim.

You too?!

Doom creator John Romero on what’s wrong with modern shooter games

A nice interview that articulates quite nicely some of my feelings about modern action/shooter games. The section about the guns particularly.

I wonder how he feels about the new Doom… I don’t even know if he worked on it… something tells me he didn’t. =/

Google Stadia is launching next week. It’s weird to type that, it feels like it should still be ages away, given it’s clearly technology that’s not going to work properly.

Anyway, if you pay your £120 and your subscription fee, you can then pay extra to stream (but not own) any of the following games from launch:

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
Destiny 2
GYLT
Just Dance 2020
Kine
Mortal Kombat 11
Red Dead Redemption 2
Rise of the Tomb Raider
Samurai Showdown
Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition
Thumper
Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition

I can’t wait to see how much RDR2 doesn’t work on Stadia.

I REALLY fuckin’ hate that Samsho is coming out on Stadia before Steam… I’ve been waiting for a Steam release since June… u_u

Has anyone given the Apple Arcade service a go? It launched just before I went on holiday so I took up the 1-month free trial and played a few games. I am only playing on my Phone, not through Apple TV with a controller so some of the games don’t seem ideal for a small touchscreen approach.

The offering still seems pretty slight, but I have spent a lot of time on Grindstone, a really well made puzzle/matching game.

Aside from that I’m still playing FIFA – last night something happened that I’ve not seen before; my opponent’s Goalkeeper was red-carded!

The goalie getting a red card is actually quite realistic. They’ve amended the rules a little recently but for years if a goalie tripped up a guy who was through on goal otherwise it was an automatic red card, so they got sent off more than any other players.

The FIFA games really lost something when they took away your ability to do a crunching two foot tackle on the goalie and. Retro run away from the red when he comes to give you a red card.

Also, neat wee article about John Romero on modern shooters vs old-school shooters.

https://www.theguardian.com/games/2019/nov/12/doom-creator-john-romero-shooter-games-id-software

Yeah, I linked to that interview a few posts up. He makes a lot of good points.

Bruce wrote:

The FIFA games really lost something when they took away your ability to do a crunching two foot tackle on the goalie and. Retro run away from the red when he comes to give you a red card.

It’s like when they took the fighting out of EA Hockey.

I did wonder where I’d read it before! Oops. Scratch that one up to being too early in the morning!

I can understand why they’d take fighting, dirty tackle and the ability to dive (one I just remembered) out of the games. While FIFA / NHL may not want to have their sport associated with that it does sort if go against the “chose your own game style” ethos of video games.

Sigh. Now I’m pining for the days of making your own horribly over-powered characters in Pro Evo Soccer. I remember having two custom characters for the Netherlands. One tall fast winger / striker with flowing gold locks that I called Christ and a short squat tank that had a horns style haircut called Antichrist. He was the greatest goalie / defender / midfielder in the world despite being set to the minimum height allowed. Good times!

Bruce wrote:

200 quid price tag is quite steep but looks good nevertheless. I’m sure it’ll sell a shitload of units.

I got this advertised to me today (in the link below). looks the same concept without the Capcom branding, $50 more but instead of 16 games preloaded has 2100!
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Retro Gaming Joysticks

Honestly Death Stranding feel like Kojima got really smashed one night and woke up to see a scrawled note that said “build bridges!”

And then spent 4 years developing a game about every possible permutation of those words he could think of.

garjones wrote:

I got this advertised to me today (in the link below). looks the same concept without the Capcom branding, $50 more but instead of 16 games preloaded has 2100!

That doesn’t look very legal… xD

Maybe not, it appeared in my Facebook feed so maybe Zuckerberg should be in trouble again.

It looks like a MAME collection of CPS1 and CPS2 ROMs, so I doubt it’s legit at all… No way would Capcom license the bootleg versions of SF2, first of all, and licensing all those games would make it prohibitively expensive, probably impossible too.

Reviews are starting to filter out for Pokemon Sword/Shield and they seem pretty tepid. I’ve got it pre-ordered (a rarity for me) so I’m hoping I enjoy it more than reviewers that have played every game in the series (I skipped over Sun/Moon and Ultra Sun/Moon). This’ll be the first Pokemon since Red and Blue where some people I know IRL are also getting it, so hopefully that’ll help.

Bruce wrote:

Sigh. Now I’m pining for the days of making your own horribly over-powered characters in Pro Evo Soccer.

ISS64 was my first football/soccer game and I loved it. Great celebration animations and commentary, and way more freedom than in games now – you could slide tackle the goalie during a goal kick (and get carded). You could point the goalie at his own goal during the goal kick (he’d crumble to his knees in tears after scoring the own-goal (I’m laughing just thinking about it now). It was so much easier to have your team forfeit due to insufficient players (red cards galore). The other team could forfeit too for having too many injured players.

(Oddly, you could get 3 yellow cards before getting a red.)

I had a superstar custom built German team with ridiculous random names (Viagro, Vovo, etc.) – they were unstoppable; double digit scores, long distance goals (not far off from the middle of the field), amazing.

Hey EA, you’ve got the biggest SW game in ages coming out on Friday, even you can’t mess it up.

EA: Embargo all reviews until launch day.

Jon wrote:

It looks like a MAME collection of CPS1 and CPS2 ROMs, so I doubt it’s legit at all… No way would Capcom license the bootleg versions of SF2, first of all, and licensing all those games would make it prohibitively expensive, probably impossible too.

I think you’re right, it’s just surprising to see something like that promoted via Facebook as a US company.

In this part of the world I’m used to it. I bought my son a Nintendo DS and the local version of Amazon was selling cartridges with 288 games on them. They don’t really police that stuff but normally in the US and Europe they do.

garjones wrote:

Jon wrote:

It looks like a MAME collection of CPS1 and CPS2 ROMs, so I doubt it’s legit at all… No way would Capcom license the bootleg versions of SF2, first of all, and licensing all those games would make it prohibitively expensive, probably impossible too.

I think you’re right, it’s just surprising to see something like that promoted via Facebook as a US company.

In this part of the world I’m used to it. I bought my son a Nintendo DS and the local version of Amazon was selling cartridges with 288 games on them. They don’t really police that stuff but normally in the US and Europe they do.

The multi-game cards definitely, but Amazon marketplace is rife for game piracy, largely helped by sellers not having to provide pictures to list anything.

Facebook (and Instagram) have always been dead keen on promoted posts for piracy machines. My instagram feed is constantly filled with them.

Andrew wrote:

It was so much easier to have your team forfeit due to insufficient players (red cards galore). The other team could forfeit too for having too many injured players.

Sounds like your German team was playing a bunch of South American teams. In German “you want to dive, I will give a reason to dive. just don’t plan on getting up anytime soon”

Having had a quick glance at a couple of reviews for the new Star Wars game, it sounds like it’s had a pretty positive reaction. One to put in the ‘to do’ pile once it comes down in price.

I’ve ordered it.

I’ll play it and Death Stranding over Christmas.

I’ll probably need a third so Plague Tale, Surge 2 and Iceborne are all on back up.

Bugger, why is the Reply next to Report button?

Anyway….

Everything I’ve seen says this is a game for me to buy later.

The one thing I’m not sure about is the lightsaber rendering. This is where SW lore runs smack into gameplay need – have a lightsaber be a lightsaber and the challenge of whatever difficulty you’re on goes out the window. Yet slice a stormtrooper and the effect is they’re still standing but with a reduced HP bar is going to feel off.

I’ve read similar complaints that you can’t just slice through doors and scenery, but frankly it’s a videogame and if that’s what ruins your suspension of disbelief then you may not be the target audience.

Doors and scenery I consider a less serious case, you can’t have a go anywhere game while selling it as a more linear single player experience. Similarly I reckon people know there tech limits to how much freedom you can have without losing too much of what it is supposed to be about.

Not that lightsabers not being lethal is a new thing, Force Unleashed had the same sort of issue with troopers blocking sabers. It’s known why that is, as without it there’s not much of a game but equally, the lightsaber just didn’t feel right.

Am a bit wary of Souls-style combat, but Respawn do difficulty levels in quite a smart way – so it may well be more accessible than the infamous Souls series. Either way, probably going to wait a few months for the price to drop and continue working through my vast games backlog.

I think there is similar in game logic to the lightsaber combat – I.e all enemies have a ‘block bar’which you have to break before they can be killed. Kind of like their stamina/endurance to avoiding attack. This is how Sekiro worked too (That’s my GOTY, btw – it’s one of the best games I’ve ever played but fiendishly hard).

I did think of you when reading reviews. It sounds like there’s enough in there mechanically which would frustrate you at times.

Well, it’s hard to say as I enjoyed quite a lot of Titanfall 2’s campaign – the final level of that is one of the best ones I’ve ever played, it’s fucking fantastic from start to finish. But I also bought the game dead, dead cheap so that made it harder to be that pissed off with it, as it was only a few quid. Dropping +£40 on this? Probably not a good idea. Though, it is notable most of the reviews consider the Story setting too easy, which is pretty much a recommendation.
Overall the reviews are pretty mixed but I can’t say I was expecting the game to be innovative, just saw no reason to expect that. There is probably a neat take on SW here and, by all accounts, it’s a bullshit-free game from EA which is kind of amazing.
But, at the last count, I have about 4-5 digital purchases and 4-5 disc purchases to get to and there’s a couple of monster JRPGs in there too. I think I’ve enough to occupy myself.

Is it Dragon Quest 11?

I’m considering picking it up on the Switch.

I’ve never played a Dragon Quest and I haven’t been loving JRPGs lately. Persona 5 was great but I was a bit disappointed in No No Kuni 2 (far too easy and the story wand characters were 2 dimensional).

That plus Nino Kuni 2 and Tales of Berseria – also need to be bothered to finish Zesperia. Barely started DQ11, but it’s very pretty on PS4.
It is, however, a traditional JRPG with a couple of bells bolted, don’t go in expecting an innovative game – if you want that grab the upcoming Xenoblade Chronicles remake on Switch, that did a whole lot of smart stuff for JRPGs a few years back.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 was really good.

I’m still tempted by DQ11 but it’s more curiosity then genuine interest.

I’m sort of also curious about Fire Emblem 3 Houses and Valkyrie Chronicles 4.

They’re all ‘maybes’ pending I read something that really encourages me to get them.

XC2 looked fantastic, heard a lot of good things about it – the world design they do is superb. Combine that with the dynamic battles and the need to be very aware of your environment and it’s a great result.

It’s a good game.

It takes a while to understand all the systems and work out how to do chain attacks, and exactly what is required in battle. It probably took me around a 3rd of my playtime (50/60 hours ish).

It’s also because of this that some encounters are terribly boring (literally just let your blade auto attack) and some are so difficult you have no choice but to Level up. It was rare that I felt like I really genuinely used skill and strategy to beat an enemy, although when you do place 6 elements and chain them all and hit an overkill it’s a great feeling. Particularly if you had spent 10 minutes getting the enemy to half health.

Watched a couple of reviews of Star Wars: Jedi: Fallen Order and what has stood out most for me is the world aesthetic, some really neat design on the environments.
I’m still not convinced it’s a good idea for me to buy this full price but, if say, a sweet Black Friday deal turned up in a week or so’s time, could well be tempted.

I think I’m going to drop a few hints to Father Christmas ahead of Black Friday just in case.

Reviews for Jedi Fallen Order are in. Mostly positive, with some complaints about repetitiveness toward the end.
Definitely think I’ll be giving it a look.

Meanwhile, back in Outer Worlds, I’m having quite a bit of fun on Monarch.
It may be the one big area of the game but it is a damn cool one big area. Also got some better weaponry and added some mods which has helped the combat quite a bit, but the main focus for this game remains the character interaction and dialogue.
It is fair to say that the game is far from the big, wide open game that was suggested by the marketing, it’s a good deal smaller and more focused.

All the Star Wars talk has reminded me that I never got around to checking out Battlefront II. Leaving aside all the loot box controversy which is pretty irrelevant to me, how was the single-player campaign?

Everything I heard says it was prettily executed but not exactly the greatest story-telling going, with a tendency to go the safe route.

If the game ever ends up being really cheap, might give it a look.

She’s still single.

She’s had a string of boyfriends, mostly middle management imperial officers, but she seems to not hold on to them very long.

I don’t think a campaign is going to help things very much.

Ben wrote:

If the game ever ends up being really cheap, might give it a look.

Seems to go for just over a tenner these days, so I might grab it if I see it cheap.

Installing the GOTY edition of Witcher 3. Am I best to leave the DLC til post game or am I ok to do it as I come across it in the game world?

Do both post main game, saving Blood and Wine for last.

Are they on the main map or is it the sort of DLC you have to access from the game main menu?

Hearts of Stone is set as part of the main map but you’ll know if you’ve stumbled into it – lots of high, high-level enemies that you’ve no chance against.

Blood and Wine is set in the region of Toussaint.

It’ll probably give you the quests for them but they’ll have an insane level recommendation that all but screams that they are DLC content.

Hi Tim

Death Stranding is a truly bizarre game but its somehow very satisfying.

What the hell? I know you have thoughts, but I suppose you’ll save them for later.

Anyway, good catching up. I wish i was a sexy and as good looking as you.

Oh wait, I am.

Yours forevermore.

Tim

I’ve been playing Pokemon Shield over the weekend, racking up about 12 hours on it. I’ve not even reached the first gym yet (partly because I’ve been deliberately dawdling) but here are some initial thoughts.
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There’s definitely an influence from Let’s Go present. Wild Pokemon appear in the field, running through the long grass, so can be avoided if you wish (although some will make a beeline for you, forcing you to run). Not all Pokemon are visible though, some are still hidden in the grass, so there’s still reason to mooch around and see what appears in random encounters.
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Combat thankfully isn’t dumbed down like in Let’s Go (the only motion controls are in the curry making and camping sections) but it does feel like there’s a greater transparency on everything. You can easily bring up explanations for each move and see Pokemon’s stats (including changes from moves like growl). If you’re fighting a Pokemon you’ve encountered before, the game will put little notes on which moves are effective, super effective etc, which is a bit of a godsend if you’re like me and can’t remember half the type weaknesses and which Pokemon ghost moves don’t work on etc.
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In fact convenience seems a big thing here. Storage boxes, previously tied to PCs in the Pokemon Centres, are now wireless. You can swap Pokemon between your party and the PC on the fly in the field, which is really handy if you’re in a new area and find it’s full of, say, rock Pokemon, which you didn’t prepare for. Also, when you catch a wild Pokemon while with a full party, you get the option of sending it to a box or displacing one of your current party for it. The flipside is that putting a Pokemon in the PC doesn’t automatically heal it anymore (so you can’t just shuffle a Pokemon in and out to recover it), so it is still possible to run out of usable Pokemon while out and about.
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Your party selection is still relevant though. You obviously can’t change it while in a battle, but also the EXP Share of the old games is pretty much built into the XP system now. Pokemon that fight in a battle get a lot of XP, while everyone else in your party will get roughly half that amount, relative to their level. This is great for levelling up crap Pokemon, like the Magikarp I got early on, as I don’t have to put it first in my party and immediately switch it out. I can just leave it in slot 6 and it’ll slowly level up without use until it eventually becomes a useful Gyardos. On the other hand, it does mean that some Pokemon feel like they level up really quickly. I picked Scorbunny as my starter, because he’s awesome, but very quickly he was a much higher level than anything else I have. As he was still levelling up while in the party, I resorted to leaving him in the PC while levelling up other ‘mon. Even so, he evolved into his second form last night (Raboot – Scorbunny’s awkward teenage years) despite it feeling like I’d barely used him. The game’s also quite generous with levelling aides. As well as Rare Candy, which raises any ‘mon by a full level, there’s XP Candy of various sizes, which gives them a set amount of XP. This is earned by the fistful in Dynamax raids.
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I’ve done a few Dynamax battles and they’re ok, I guess. I’m a little nonplussed by them. They’re intended for multiplayer co-op, but I’ve not had chance to do that locally yet and I don’t have an online subscription, so it’s just been auto-filled with NPCs. Even so, it’s a bit odd. The game redoes everyone’s levels, I think and then when you Dynamax your Pokemon, its HP is replaced based on its Dynamax level (which only goes up by giving it Dynamax Candy) and all its moves are replaced with more generic type based move-sets, a lot of which seem useless. Like combiner battles in Transformers, the scale quickly feels moot and the main visually interesting bit is that some Pokemon (I’ve no idea which and how many) look different while Dynamaxed. Players who get the game before January get a free Meowth from Mystery Gift which has a special Longcat Dynamax form, which is fun, but everything else I’ve see so far is just scaled up.
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The Dynamax raids happen in the Wild Area, which is an odd thing. It’s basically an attempt at an open world system – the camera becomes more free-roaming compared to the towns and normal routes – and the large Wild Area(s) are broken down into segments that have a day/night cycle and weather systems. The Pokemon you find in them and their levels will vary by section and weather. You’ll also get high level versions (and evolutions thereof) wandering around outside of the long grass. That looks cool – spotting a random Gyardos in a lake you’re passing – but gameplay wise it’s a little pointless. Sure, you can try your luck against them for XP, but it’s not like the game isn’t already generous with that, and there’s stricter controls on the level of Pokemon you can control. Previously, gym badges allowed you to command traded Pokemon of progressively higher levels. That now applies to all Pokemon (if it didn’t before – I can’t remember) but also you’re prevented from catching wild Pokemon above that command limit. So you can’t catch anything over level 20 until you get the first gym badge. I suppose that makes sense, especially given the varying levels of what you can encounter in the wild areas, but it feels a little odd.
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Last thing is that it’s a little disappointing that so many online features are behind a paywall. I suppose it’s to be expected, but even the current version of the old Wonder Trade from X/Y requires a Switch Online subscription. Without that you’re limited to just local connectivity.

Finished the Outer Worlds, wow – did it really fuck up its endgame.

Having played through it, it is very, very clear this is not a game built around combat, it is instead built around dialogue and conversation and, sometimes, creativity. Due to this you are likely better off putting points into speech, hacking, lockpick abilities rather than just the usual attack, defence etc. Except when you get to the final levels of the game, it clearly decides that difficulty now matters and ramps up the enemy to much higher levels – before you didn’t need to worry about reviving companions? Now you do. It felt cheap and blatant, it didn’t add anything to the game. And the dialogue options? Locked behind sky-high points requirements – it’s as if they just lost all confidence in their product and decided they had to do a traditional action endgame. It doesn’t work.

Similarly, until the endgame, you will have mostly been engaged in combat with your companions who you can’t shoot. On the final mission, depending on your play through, you will have help. But what isn’t mentioned is that a stray shot can turn them hostile! The problem with this is, first, until now you weren’t told about it so can’t correct for it, but a couple of times the game presented allies as enemies, complete with awareness indicators – which is why I had to shoot both Van Noys, despite saving them earlier.

And then there is the RAM final boss battle. I’m guessing this is what people felt about the Deus Ex mandatory boss battles, because this just sticks out so badly and is irredeemably awful. Vague, counter-intuitive and able to summon 10 enemies to mob swarm you – it’s utter dreck.

Finally, the game has a bug for Parvati’s second companion quest – a bug that stays even if you reload an earlier save. This bug kills her. Thus, when you get the ending of what happened to everyone, you get told Parvati is dead but have no way to evade it, as the game instant kills her after the quest dialogue. Apparently there’s going to be a patch but I’m not inclined to be that forgiving on this one – it’s a really shitty bug.

The rest of the ending? It is quite well done, but the flaws of the endgame seriously marred it. Didn’t enjoy the final levels at all, felt like a different game.

The holographic shroud? Becomes a useless gimmick and you end up legging it from point to point. Other weird crap is that it directed me to a location that helped the person I was trying to persuade in a different direction. Very weird signposting.

I will say that when you’re doing things outside of the Phineas-Board conflict, the game has far, far more nuance and complexity than has been reported. I had a very satisfying outcome on Monarch that was far more than the usual one side killing the other. When the game commits to its idea of enabling player choice, it’s excellent but its commitment to this varies. There are times where you will feel very much railroaded by the game, which is a shame. The other minor but often flaw is you’ll kill a load of enemies and then have to play a game of find-the-corpse to loot them.

The degradation and inventory systems? Can’t say these add much, it’d be better scrapping the whole repair system but I suppose you wouldn’t have anything to then do with all the loot you grab. The science weapons? Felt irrelevant. Tinkering? Becomes too costly to be useful. Mods? A minority are useful, the rest not so much. Ammo types? Doesn’t really work in the way they likely hoped – everything dies if you shoot it enough.

It’s also a much smaller game than its marketing suggested. The locations you have are very well designed but they are also limited in size, save for Monarch. Monarch’s fucking massive. Each of the towns has a very distinct design aesthetic, with characters to match. But this is not a supermassive triple A 100+ hours game, which may well appeal to you.

Despite the endgame flaws, I definitely feel I got my money’s worth here. I’d love there to be a sequel that had far more confidence in the game strengths, of its smart characterisation, sharp writing and inspired dialogue engagements.

One question, which I think gaming is going to have to deal with sooner rather than later, is if difficulty really matters that much? I really think the endgame saw Obsidian give into the view that it does, thus they ramped it up. To me, that ramping contributed nothing positive to the game – it marred it. You found it too easy? Whack the difficulty up then hard arse and then see how you get on. Difficulty should not be the defining feature of a game, unless its by From Software, it should be an optional aspect of it. All that whacking up the difficulty at the end did for me was emphasise all the flaws on the combat system, plus that small display text.

Overall? I think flawed masterpiece fits.

Ben wrote:

I’m guessing this is what people felt about the Deus Ex mandatory boss battles, because this just sticks out so badly and is irredeemably awful.

Oh boooy… those were an odd decision for sure… I think they actually fixed them in the re-release but I haven’t played that one through.

It was the best go-to example I could think of: Why the hell am I having to play this level in this game when this is not what it does best? There’s no good answer to that.

Has anyone played the older GTA games on a new system? They’re selling a bundle of GTA3/Vice City/San Andreas on the PS4 store for quite cheap.

I know they’ll be a massive step down graphically from the newer games but I have such fond memories of VC and SA on PC. Will they be ruined?

Nah, they’ll be fine.

I think you can even play Vice City on mobile.

Ben wrote:

Finished the Outer Worlds, wow – did it really fuck up its endgame.

…

Overall? I think flawed masterpiece fits.

I basically agree with your whole post, and I think it echoes some of my early comments. I wouldn’t go so far to use the word masterpiece, but it’s a competent game that wants to be as big as Fallout but can’t because of the budget and resources. Its more or less the size of Far Harbour, I think.

In hindsight, it was a bit of a dissapoinment for me and I would have preferred to buy it at a discount (I rarely do that with new release games I want, though).

On the difficulty, Tartarus in general was quite tough and I agree it was a step up. I hit it at level 30, which must be the expected level. Tartarus is only one of a handful of areas that were a genuine challenge, and it is a bit of a transition, if you were like me,to go from steamrolling through Scylla to all of a sudden getting your ass handed to you on Tartarus.

I didn’t find the last boss tough though. There’s plenty of cover, just treat it like an FPS boss and use the cover. It’s contrary to all previous strategy but that’s clearly what the designers want you to do.

I didn’t know about the Parvati bug. That sucks. Parvatis quest is super easy, but its the most heartfelt.

Andrew wrote:

Has anyone played the older GTA games on a new system? They’re selling a bundle of GTA3/Vice City/San Andreas on the PS4 store for quite cheap.

I know they’ll be a massive step down graphically from the newer games but I have such fond memories of VC and SA on PC. Will they be ruined?

I replayed GTA 3 on the PC a few years back and it was still pretty fun. The controls were the biggest issue. That said, I was a running an HD fan mod, so that helped smoothed over the ageing problems.

Dave wrote:

I think I’m going to drop a few hints to Father Christmas ahead of Black Friday just in case.

Even allowing for the fact it’s an old game, Assassin’s Creed III is a steaming pile of dingo shite.  I have to do a bullshit mission to be able to unlock the fun part of any AC game, namely the viewpoints? Fuck that. Never mind that Haytham doesn’t even know how to perch, he just stands there awkwardly as if his bowels are about to explode.  To be honest if said explosion of crap showered down onto Charles Lee it’d be worth it, as I hate that bastard too.

What’s so bad about it? The eavesdropping is shite.  The combat system has that you-pressed-parry-but-game-says-you-didn’t bullshit, there’s no real strategy to the fights – hell, I considered Black Flag‘s combat awful but even that isn’t as bad as this.  Both games have the idea that if you slash someone with a sword they won’t react much to it. Oh and how could I forget? It has that old classic where you know that sword you equipped? Well, post cutscene it no longer is and here’s a fight and then, after that, the sword is magically back!

Since it was bundled with the Assassin’s Creed Odyssey season pass, which I got at 50% off, it’s a few quid at most, but I still feel ripped off by it.  Haytham doesn’t even roll when landing from a jump – he’s a moron.

Oh yeah, to my surprise, it has the walking charisma void that is Desmond, yay.

Holy fuckin’ shit:
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClPgQMi_h8c
 
That’s pretty massive… Anyone’s got a Steam account we can try this on later??? Apparently you can just invite people to play games you own and the don’t… I definetly wanna try that.
 
Videos are not embedding… it’s a video about the New Steam Remote Play feature…

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare Legacy Edition (includes ModernWarfare: Remastered)
Killzone did it better.  This shite? Nope.  And it is shite.  That everyone is bending over to declare the sun doth shine through its arse over a decade later is mystifying.  It did have one success, one, which I’ll get to but the rest of it is drowning in crap.  It might as well be called Modern Crap: Re-pooped Edition.

I had actually played the demo of this a long time ago, had forgotten and then I remembered why I had forgotten.  That dumb fuck obstacle course at the start, the useless-as-fuck 2D direction that does not work in a 3D environment, and how could I forget its attempts at “immersion”? Yeah, right.  Price and co see everything, have perfect aim and most of the time? Let them kill everyone, it’ll be easier then trying to get a shot off, even with aim assist, which is woefully inconsistent.  You can shoot someone point blank in this and still miss and grenades? They’re a super-range OHKO device, but such is the crappiness of the where the grenade actually is indicator, you’ll have no time to find and throw it back.  The whole bullets shooting through wood and other materials? Barely seems to make a difference in combat, which is shooting stick figures at distance – yeah, fun.

That ship level? I might have killed one to two enemies but that’s about it.  It also shows up some of the genius that went into the Helgast – you can always tell who isn’t on your side.  This lot? This lot of pro, pro soldiers? Will run across your line of fire and do lots of other dumb shit.  But worse? I’m doing the escape section and twice have invisible walls out of nowhere, get insta-killed and then the game says I went the wrong way.  Really? Pretty certain you stopped me moving!

Onto its attempts to immerse the player – it doesn’t work.  I might as well let the super-squad kill everyone because I can’t see shit, the enemy indicator is shit and the aim is shit and the vaunted ‘execution’ sequence? Why would I give a shit about this? Yeah, there’s some nice graphics in it, but that’s about it.  And that set the tone for the rest of it, I didn’t feel involved, I didn’t feel as if I was there, instead it’s a game built around enemy ambushes, dodgy aim, respawning enemies in the same locations and just generally screwing around.  That and I’m pretty damn certain it played the infinite swarm of enemies trick.  Killzone has also used that – it was shit there too.

Then there’s the much talked of Death From Above mission.  Boring, boring, bored – it’d go ‘hit those guys’ – OK, where are they? Oh yeah, you’re not saying. Fun? Nope.

Finally, it all came to a head in the also praised All Ghillied Up mission – what no one mentions about that is its stealth is a bad joke.  You have to get some way into the level before it even tells you how to go prone, when you could have really used the ability earlier.  Then midway through you get to change weapons but if you do, you get later screwed over as you’re supposed to snipe – even if having a big bastard machine gun is the better option.  The game then finally topped itself with that whole final sequence, as I finally got that damn helicopter in, then I get told I have to go pick the waste of space I’ve been following the whole time.  I do that, I get back to the chopper… and I’m not allowed to walk into while carying him, so I put him on the ground thinking that’s enough – no it’s not that and time’s up,. fuck you.  Fuck that.

It had one success, one.  The opening and ending of Shock and Awe was pretty damn effective, those bits still worked.  Everything? Total shite.  You might as title this Macho Banter: 2016 Edition.  And Price? That guy can go fuck himself.

Now onto Infinite Warfare – a game where they hid the subtitles option so effectively I couldn’t find it, so fuck that one too.

If I wanted an absolute form of proof that, in the main, FPS’ aren’t for me, today would be it and I really ought to heed it.

So instead, I’ve booted up Tales of Beseria, having had it as a cheap digital copy for ages, might also go back to Tales of Zestiria too.  Anyway, back to the new one and, even by JRPG standards of your-hometown-will-wrecked, the opening sequence is pretty hard core.   And then there’s all the other stuff it does too which adds up to a quite devastating opening sequence.

After that? It’s a Tales game and it knows not to try to reinvent too much – active battle system, not turn-based, visible enemies, intricate skills system, not open world.  That does work well in both Symphonia and Vestiria but not Zestiria, which is yer usual “open world = big wide spaces” understanding of the term.  The combat system is pretty sweet so far, smacking the crap out of enemies is always fun and there’s just enough reward to encourage more fighting.

Okay so I’m ready to talk about Death Stranding.

Some of this is just me spelling out the plot for myself, because, in typical Kojima fashion, it’s richly detailed and alot of it is delivered in long expository cutscenes.  These are further fleshed out by side bits of data that you pick up which takes the forms of emails you receive from characters, and oddly, interview transcripts from characters that have been conducted prior to the events of the game (in most cases).

I also should point out that I really liked this game but I do see that theres another side to this and that there are plenty of people that simply won’t like the mechanics of the gameplay.  With that said, I did read a couple of reviews which gave it a mediocre score which commented on things, such as the absence of certain mechanics or world details, that turn out to be flat out wrong if you play the game for any significant amount of time.

(An obvious example is the reviews which said theres no variation on the gunplay – by the end of the game you have around 30 guns to choose from including non-lethal and lethal variations on pistols, assault rifles, grenade launchers, rocket launchers, shotguns, as well as things like “sticky guns” which sort of fire a lasoo which can pull things towards you and “bola guns” which fires a constricting rope which is used to detain people.  There are also 4 different ammunition types.  With this said, these things do end up becoming window-dressing in a sense because the primary gameplay is not about gunplay, but traversal)

This is probably the major hurdle for most people.  The game is incredibly slow to reveal it’s mechanics. This is not unlike a lot of RPGS (xenoblade chronicles) but it’s a bit unheard of for “Action games” (which this is, but also very much is not). There are two “maps” and the first one will take 10 hours to clear and doesn’t do a very good job of telegraphing what is to come on the next map (which is probably about 40 – 50 hours and where most of the game takes place). The first map slowly introduces you to the concept of taking cargo from point a to point b, building structures like bridges, gives you a bike at one point only to take it away, introduces you to two sets of enemies (mules – who are like cultish cargo thieves) and BTs (who are creepy as fuck dead things) without really giving you clear equipment to defeat them, and it does all this without really teasing how interesting/useful/disturbing these elements will become if you just push past it.

If it sounds like the first map is dull, it’s because, well, it sort of is.  It was interesting enough to hold my attention, and that’s at least partly due to the 2 hour or so introductory set of cutscenes, but I mostly just wanted to get through to Port Knot city, where I’d read I’d encounter my first boss fight, and travel to the “Central Regions” where the guts of the game begins.

And then, when I did, I was not immediately rewarded.  The next, say few hours appeared to be more of the same as you traversed up hills to try to get preppers on the network.  But new mechanics are slowly introduced which you don’t really appreciate at the time.  By around hour 20 you’re zipping around on motorbikes along roads you’ve built yourself, unlocked the fast travel mechanic, you’re blowing up creepy black tar monsters with grenades made from your own blood, and tying up whole camps of bad guy cargo thieves and making off with their loot. By hour 30 you’ve mastered trucks, bikes, have a whole set of different exoskeletons to use, have traversed (and fought in) various …, err, we’ll call them “dimensions” for now,. By hour 40 you’re zipping across mountainous regions with sets of ziplines you’ve built yourself, tackling terrorists, accidently taking out portions of the map in large craters, wielding grenade launchers and rocket launchers, and taking out a whole slew of crazy bosses including weird lion things, giants, and … the aforementioned experiences in other dimensions.  By hour 50 you’ve unlocked the whole map, it’s covered in structures you’ve built including roads, ziplines, safehouses, watchtowers, shelters and so on, there are vehicles strewn all over the place (abandoned by other players) and what once seemed like an arduous journey from a to b becomes a breeze thanks to your own ingenuity across the course of the game.

With that said, that may have sexed it up a little to much.  For some people the core mechanic might be exhausting.  Its very much this:  Trudge to point A, receive cargo at point A to take to point B, trudge to Point B, deliver cargo, unlock a portion of the map which structures can be built on, receive cargo to take to point C, trudge to Point C, deliver cargo, unlock a portion of the map … all the way to point Z.  But intersped within this is the developing world which includes structures built by you and your online “Strand contracts” (other players) and various interesting (some less interesting) combat encounters, some of which are clearly evolutions of the type of boss fights found in MGS4 (not V).

Propelling all this forward is the story. So this is clearly spoiler territory.

Basically the game consists of a lot of long cutscenes (like 2 hours worth) then 10 hours of game play, then a long cutscene, then more gameplay and it all leads up to the final 10 hours  which is just bonkers game-play intersped with bonkers cutscenes (id probably put it at 5 hours of game play and 5 hours of cutscenes). Spoilers now (these are major spoilers from the start through to the endgame spoilers, so don’t read unless you’re not going to buy the game as reading this will undoubtedly spoil the experience):

 

EDIT:  I deleted a large chunk of this post (a large) chunk because it wouldn’t let me spoiler tag and i dont want to ruin it for anyone.  Is it not [ spoiler ] [/ spoiler] ? That wouldn’t work

There is a very heavy emphasis on connecting people rather than fighting and this is spelled out throughout the whole game, massive on the nose, no subtle references to ropes rather than sticks, hands, not being able to touch people and so on.  But its still pretty good.  This is basically Kojima’s anti-nuclear proliferation thing in MGSV taken to the next level.

 

Anyway it’s bonkers, don’t buy it you’ll hate it.  I loved it.

Thanks for that Tim – I was thinking of buying this at some point but I’ll stay away based on your description. It sounds like it has a lot of what I dislike about modern gaming, and I’m certainly not going to plough 10+ hours into a game just to wait for it to get good.

The pacing is deliberate.

There’s ALOT of self-reflexive commentary on the videogame industry as whole.

There’s even a point near the end where you’re basically forced to rethink the whole thing as Mario coming to rescue Peach (which, it … i mean, it sort of is. Mario really is a traversal game).

There’s PLENTY to like, but, because the game is so free form, it doesn’t really do a good job of teaching you how to do that. For example, there are camps where where you could sneak through and take out all the enemies MGSV style, with a staggering array of different weapons and equipment, but you never *really* have to because you could just hike up a mountain past the encampment.

This is basically the game in a nutshell – there is SO MUCH here but one persons experience might vary wildly from the next, and will completely depend on how willing you are to try out the latest piece of equipment, or how much you enjoy the delivery mechanic and the side delivereies (it is enjoyable, once it gets going), whether you want to fight the BTs and the terrorists and the mules or just run away, how you build your structures on the world and whether you get lucky complentary structures from other players, or how much you just want to power through to the next episode because the story is just getting good (or alternatively because you’re bored with that episodes aspect of the story),

I will say that the parts with Clifford Unger (Mads Mikkelsens character) are some of the best and demonstrate that, if Kojima really wanted to, he could have turned this into an evolution on the Metal Gear franchise.  But, he wanted to do something different.

Sadly, the truth for many people is that they wont get past Port Knot city which represents the start of the first boss fight, the end of the introductory map and the first 10-ish hours of play (including cut scenes).  Perhaps its a product of modern gaming anxiety, and having to unlearn what we expect, but i expect most people will be frustrated in this 10 hours as they do the first set of deliveries from Capital Knot to the Distro centre, to the Windfarm and so on. I also expect most people will be frustrated by the “balancing mechanic” and having to escape from being trapped in the tar by the BTs.  In fact, I know this is true because almost all reviews have mentioned it.

All these things become easier as the game progresses, and, dare I say it, genuinely enjoyable, but the first 10 hours is really about acclimitizing you to the mechanics rather than enticing you into the gameplay.  That’s a deliberate decision by Kojima, and, it’s probably the right one for this game, but it means that a lot of people won’t ever play it.

It’s not like a game I’ve ever played and it’s impossible to recommend.  The music is beautiful, the graphics are peerless, the gameplay and story … may not be to everyones taste.

 

EDIT: I want to say that the game is RICH. It’s really really rich with content, but the core aspect, the traversal, can make that easy to be overlooked.  We had a thread about deconstruction and I think there’s probably a good essay to be written about how this is Kojima’s deconstructive response to videogames from the birth of nintendo to now.  The thing is, its not an easy game to grasp, mechanically, because the mechanics are really quite disparate and not neatly bundled or intuitive.  The story is actually really cool and theres a whole series of twists at the end.  Its not as weird as the language parasites thing from MGSV and far grander concepts about life and death, but it’s cool, and i got a handle on it pretty well.  There’s still some weird choices (the fucking masks) and some other minor elements that weren’t properly explained, or they were explained but not satisfactorily, but they’re forgivable.

If I were to score it, i’ll comfortably give it an 8.  It’s not as good as MGSV but it’s reaching for higher fruit and I think all in all it’s a very good game.  Sekiro is still my game of the year, though.

It sounds like a game that will reward investment – I just don’t have that time to invest in gaming any more.

No, it’s not a game you can pick up and play.

Im on annual leave and its been sucking my time left right and centre.  Enjoyably so, but, its definitely, definitely not a game for the time poor, or someone that’s looking for a short play session.  There’s a good chance you’ll find yourself roped into a 40 minute cutscene before too long.

I used to hate long cutscenes as a rule. It’s what put me off Uncharted for years. But as I’ve come to better appreciate games that offer a stronger narrative journey, I’ve realised that they have their place – and if done well, a long cutscene can be an important and necessary part of the experience.

It was probably The Last Of Us that turned me around on that point.

But still, 40 minutes sounds like pushing it! I generally prefer to have a bit more direct engagement than that. Too long out of control can break that spell of making you feel directly involved in a game world.

Hour 50 huh? That’s quite the block of leave Tim.

On reviews, you might want to take a look at Skill Up’s one. I haven’t got around to it but they tend to be very good vids.

Yeah, I’m not exaggerating.

The longest ones from memory:

The opening prologue (Episode 0) is probably 2 hours of scenes intersped with three instances of short 15 minute gameplay.

The start of Episode 8 which is at least 40 minutes because it has a couple of timers (for story reasons) and the maths adds up to probably around 40-50 minutes (I wasn’t bored though).

The ending episodes (13-14) which are LONG interspes by very minor gameplay segments. I started playing Chapter 13 at 10pm last night and finished Chapter 14 at 1pm – largely because you actually don’t have the option to skip or save at that point (for… reasons).

The two chapters immediately before it are pretty cut scene heavy, but there’s also some of the best gameplay in the game.

I was okay with it but I can see it pissing people off.   You basically just have to go along for the ride.

Ben wrote:

Hour 50 huh? That’s quite the block of leave Tim.

On reviews, you might want to take a look at Skill Up’s one. I haven’t got around to it but they tend to be very good vids.

I actually have clocked out at hour 63.

I finished the game around hour 56 and found the post game interesting enough to tidy up a few things. I’m still compelled to go back though because the world changes quite a bit in 24 hours due to the other players contributions.

I’ve basically been playing it a couple of hours a day since launch, give or take a day, and a few pretty bingey Sessions this week gone.

On average it takes me 2 weeks to finish a 20-30 hour game like outer worlds. I just put in more time due to the leave.

I did other things! I swear!

 

…

I went to a cafe once.

Yeah, as you walked into the cafe your head was going – ‘ L2 or R2 to stabilise’, right?

Oh I also wanted to say it’s a technical marvel.

 

What the engine can do is phenomenal.

This is the future of gaming.

Kind of funny that’s a side not