I thought it was plenty diverse, but weighted toward endgame/NG+ with a lot of the jobs' pricing and requirements. And I don't play an 80-hour game twice in a row.
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“I Just Think They're Neat.” Like What You are Playing
- Thread starter Becksworth
- Start date
I'm greatly enjoying "Minishoot Adventures." It's not just a hybrid of a dual-stick shooter and a Zeld-'em-up; it also addresses some pet peeves I have with both of those genres. On the action-adventure side, moving around the world is very fast and smooth and free of rigamarole. On the shmup side, it always keeps the action clear and legible, with no distracting overwhelming particle effects.
Oh right, thanks for reminding me this is on Switch now! I wanted to pick this up.
A recurring thought I'm having as I play Cyberpunk 2077 is that whatever that pirate game Ubisoft tried to make wasn't the first AAAA game anyway, because Cyberpunk already was. This is a silly and meaningless qualification but the sheer amount of detail put into the world, from unique animations on TV screens to a big open world shockingly free of recycled assets has been impressing me all along.
Also I like pew-pewing guys. Stealthy headshots all day every day. I also like the cast of characters and disparate storylines they've got going. I dunno, it's a good game, I like it
Also I like pew-pewing guys. Stealthy headshots all day every day. I also like the cast of characters and disparate storylines they've got going. I dunno, it's a good game, I like it
4-So
Spicy
I recently started dabbling with Cyberpunk 2077 as well because it's free through PS+ and, yeah, I've been impressed with the worldbuilding. The only thing I've been a little weary of is that I'm about 3 hours in and still feel like I'm in the tutorial phase. Game seems to introduce new mechanics every 15 minutes or so, so I'm waiting for it to just gel and let me get on with playing. But the game so far has been impressively large with very little of the copy-and-paste you see in most large world / open world games.
I also started playing Alan Wake 2. I've had it for a while but just now felt like I was in the mood. Also, waiting to the get to the game part of the game after about an hour or so in. I was also not prepared for it to be so gruesome. I knew roughly it was going to be "video game horror" but I didn't know it was going to go so dark, so fast. That's not a problem for me, just an observation.
I also started playing Alan Wake 2. I've had it for a while but just now felt like I was in the mood. Also, waiting to the get to the game part of the game after about an hour or so in. I was also not prepared for it to be so gruesome. I knew roughly it was going to be "video game horror" but I didn't know it was going to go so dark, so fast. That's not a problem for me, just an observation.
Yeah it’s had a No Man’s Sky level of retroactive appreciation
Yeah, they've done a lot of fixing up with it since launch, and while I'll still run into minor bugs here and there, it's overall been a very smooth experience. I'm on PS5 though which I understand was never really at the heart of The Problem, it was the older consoles where it was a true disaster. Also it's very easy to stay up late running around neighborhoods doing gigs and side quests, OR getting caught up in the story quests.
I've also been on a personal boycott of CD Projekt Red since then.
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
In the last stretch of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 with my partner and I'm enjoying it a lot. We’re going through all of the side content and I’m still shocked at how great this game is, definitely going to end up as one of my all time favorite RPGs. I will admit though that it would be nice if there was an option to increase the parry window without making the entire difficulty easier.
Going through E33 and seeing how much he’s enjoying it has made me also excited to play more FF games. He’s only gone through the first game, and I think he’d enjoy FFX a lot, we’re planning to go through the whole series in order at some point!
Going through E33 and seeing how much he’s enjoying it has made me also excited to play more FF games. He’s only gone through the first game, and I think he’d enjoy FFX a lot, we’re planning to go through the whole series in order at some point!
My girlfriend and I picked up a Switch 2 and Pokemon Pokotopia this weekend.
Girlfriend started in around 7:30 pm and I went to bed at 9:30. She stayed up until 1:30 am. The game is extremely cute. She really likes making her pokemon happy and improving their environment.
I played for about 4 hours now too. I really like how it feels like there's a ton of stuff to do.
Girlfriend started in around 7:30 pm and I went to bed at 9:30. She stayed up until 1:30 am. The game is extremely cute. She really likes making her pokemon happy and improving their environment.
I played for about 4 hours now too. I really like how it feels like there's a ton of stuff to do.
R.R. Bigman
Coolest Guy
I was a bit hesitant to get Pokopia since I’m not a big Pokemon fan. I’ve now spent over 70 hours building habitats to make my little guys happy while my copy of Pragmata sits on my TV stand. I am about finished with it, but it’s been my go to fun activity for the past two months.
After finishing Cyberpunk 2077 (110 hours) I still wanted to play with such an itch that I started a second character the same day I rolled the second ending. I expected to peter out partway through that playthrough, but I not only completed the run, I did it even more thoroughly than my first run (120 hours). So it's time to put it down and move on to—oops no I have now started a third character and am still Very Into It. I highly doubt anything will come close to unseating it as my game of the year. IF I can tear myself away to play anything else in the first place...
My first was a "stealth archer" build - sniper rifles and silenced pistols for sneaking and headshots, and a time-slowing sandevistan mod with a fire-bullet pistol for tougher enemies and groups. Played on Normal difficulty, and after a brief period of adjustment at the beginning, once my build came online, the game became surprisingly—even disappointingly—easy. Like I'd be getting headshots for around 2000 damage on baddies, but if I missed the headshot and only hit them for 400... they'd still die in that one hit. Welp! I got two endings and decided to save the others for my next playthrough.
My second was a "Tanky Mage," accidentally replicating my favorite fantasy game archetype in the cyberpunk genre (I didn't realize I had done so until about halfway through). Focused on Intelligence and hacking (ie basically spellcasting), using her brain to set gonks on fire or short circuit robots from a distance, but also in Body and blunt melee combat, using either an iconic golden baseball bat or her gorilla arms to charge around, knocking fools down, ground slamming, and generally just beating people to death with her bare hands (while still also hacking). It was fun, but even on Hard difficulty the game got pretty easy by the end, where a single Overheat would KO most basic enemies and a doublestack of poison would take out entire groups; only a few of huge encounters and bosses in the endgame really put up a fight. I ended up getting the other three main endings and went the other direction in the DLC from the first time, so I've seen most or all of the story options by now (notwithstanding the minor differences like doing the same ending with a different love interest).
Third build is "pointy things" - dual specialization in throwing blades (knives for now but I wanna try out throwing axes too) for stealth headshots and swords for wading into combat (katana for now but I wanna try out a chainsword too), zipping around with air dash and double-jump, deflecting bullets back at their heads, and slicing fools up. I tried Mantis Blades (the ones that pop out of your cyber arms) but they seemed a lot slower and more unwieldy than a regular old katana so I'm sticking to those for now, but might try the mantis again later on when I unlock a late-game extra perk system for them. I started on Very Hard but before my build came online it was a little too tough, so I dropped it to hard until I started owning bones and now I'm back on Very Hard, which is actually a satisfying level of difficulty - if things get out of hand and I get swarmed I'll probably get gunned down relatively easily, but if I'm good about stealthily picking people off and choosing my battles and using my environment, I can get past most encounters without too much trouble.
As for the transphobia discussion... I know the marketing phase saw CDPR trip over their own dicks and offend the trans community a couple times, and I'm not excusing that (though looking into the tweets themselves, they strike me as Stupid But Not Malicious, but I won't spend effort trying to justify it - the remarks hurt people and that's what matters most). But the game itself comes off as actually pretty inclusive. You can make your player character trans easily, mixing and matching any combination of voice, build/upper body and genitals that you want. There are at least two trans characters with relatively major roles, both represented as trans but not made a big deal of or fetishized or anything, played by actual trans voice actors, and I believe some minor/side characters as well. There's a risque in-game ad poster or two that some critique as being oversexualized—which is true, but almost every ad in the game is oversexualized, there's T&A everywhere you look, it's a sleazy oversexualized world they've built. Ironically, including a fetishized/sexualized trans-person ads as part of the background feels to me more inclusive than othering, in context of how they designed the overall culture of the city. SO I dunno. I'm a cis guy, so take my opinion for what it's worth. I'm not telling anyone to stop their boycott, and I understand where the arguments against CDPR are coming from as well—I went and read some articles from the time to challenge my viewpoint and make sure I understood the opposition. I just think at the end of the day that the game itself says something different than the opposition to it portrays it as.
My first was a "stealth archer" build - sniper rifles and silenced pistols for sneaking and headshots, and a time-slowing sandevistan mod with a fire-bullet pistol for tougher enemies and groups. Played on Normal difficulty, and after a brief period of adjustment at the beginning, once my build came online, the game became surprisingly—even disappointingly—easy. Like I'd be getting headshots for around 2000 damage on baddies, but if I missed the headshot and only hit them for 400... they'd still die in that one hit. Welp! I got two endings and decided to save the others for my next playthrough.
My second was a "Tanky Mage," accidentally replicating my favorite fantasy game archetype in the cyberpunk genre (I didn't realize I had done so until about halfway through). Focused on Intelligence and hacking (ie basically spellcasting), using her brain to set gonks on fire or short circuit robots from a distance, but also in Body and blunt melee combat, using either an iconic golden baseball bat or her gorilla arms to charge around, knocking fools down, ground slamming, and generally just beating people to death with her bare hands (while still also hacking). It was fun, but even on Hard difficulty the game got pretty easy by the end, where a single Overheat would KO most basic enemies and a doublestack of poison would take out entire groups; only a few of huge encounters and bosses in the endgame really put up a fight. I ended up getting the other three main endings and went the other direction in the DLC from the first time, so I've seen most or all of the story options by now (notwithstanding the minor differences like doing the same ending with a different love interest).
Third build is "pointy things" - dual specialization in throwing blades (knives for now but I wanna try out throwing axes too) for stealth headshots and swords for wading into combat (katana for now but I wanna try out a chainsword too), zipping around with air dash and double-jump, deflecting bullets back at their heads, and slicing fools up. I tried Mantis Blades (the ones that pop out of your cyber arms) but they seemed a lot slower and more unwieldy than a regular old katana so I'm sticking to those for now, but might try the mantis again later on when I unlock a late-game extra perk system for them. I started on Very Hard but before my build came online it was a little too tough, so I dropped it to hard until I started owning bones and now I'm back on Very Hard, which is actually a satisfying level of difficulty - if things get out of hand and I get swarmed I'll probably get gunned down relatively easily, but if I'm good about stealthily picking people off and choosing my battles and using my environment, I can get past most encounters without too much trouble.
As for the transphobia discussion... I know the marketing phase saw CDPR trip over their own dicks and offend the trans community a couple times, and I'm not excusing that (though looking into the tweets themselves, they strike me as Stupid But Not Malicious, but I won't spend effort trying to justify it - the remarks hurt people and that's what matters most). But the game itself comes off as actually pretty inclusive. You can make your player character trans easily, mixing and matching any combination of voice, build/upper body and genitals that you want. There are at least two trans characters with relatively major roles, both represented as trans but not made a big deal of or fetishized or anything, played by actual trans voice actors, and I believe some minor/side characters as well. There's a risque in-game ad poster or two that some critique as being oversexualized—which is true, but almost every ad in the game is oversexualized, there's T&A everywhere you look, it's a sleazy oversexualized world they've built. Ironically, including a fetishized/sexualized trans-person ads as part of the background feels to me more inclusive than othering, in context of how they designed the overall culture of the city. SO I dunno. I'm a cis guy, so take my opinion for what it's worth. I'm not telling anyone to stop their boycott, and I understand where the arguments against CDPR are coming from as well—I went and read some articles from the time to challenge my viewpoint and make sure I understood the opposition. I just think at the end of the day that the game itself says something different than the opposition to it portrays it as.
I’ve been playing a lot of Forza Horizon 6 and I’m genuinely enjoying it a lot. My brother picked up a month of game pass to play it and we gameshare on Xbox so I was able to play it and I genuinely have just had so much fun exploring, collecting cars and racing. Might be one of my favorite games of this gen and I did not expect it as I kind of bounced off of FH4&5 for being more of 3, which I really enjoyed but wanted something different.
Is this super different? I don’t think so but I think enough time has passed for me to enjoy the formula again. I also like how it’s focused on climbing up racing ranks rather than immediately giving you super cars that trivializes progression, but that does cause issues sometimes with feeling like you have little options for races depending on the restrictions.
Is this super different? I don’t think so but I think enough time has passed for me to enjoy the formula again. I also like how it’s focused on climbing up racing ranks rather than immediately giving you super cars that trivializes progression, but that does cause issues sometimes with feeling like you have little options for races depending on the restrictions.
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
I also got Gamepass and tried out the game and am having a blast! However I am awful at racing games so as soon as I didn't need to do plot stuff off I went. Also really appreciated that they have an option to guarantee progress in story missions even if you come in last place.
But honestly the important thing is to play the mission stories long enough to unlock the ability to change the radio station. Now I flip between the Japanese station and the classical station depending on my mood.
I do plan to revisit the story missions, because I want to play that race against totally-not-a-Gundam since it looks so goofy and fun
But honestly the important thing is to play the mission stories long enough to unlock the ability to change the radio station. Now I flip between the Japanese station and the classical station depending on my mood.
I do plan to revisit the story missions, because I want to play that race against totally-not-a-Gundam since it looks so goofy and fun
Sarge
hardcore retro gamin'
I hope folks are picking up Mina the Hollower. Seventeen hours in, and I'm absolutely flabbergasted at how good it turned out. So far it's my game of the year, and if you ever wanted "Link's Awakening meets Shovel Knight, with some teeth", this is as good as you're likely to find.
Mina was going to be my GotY regardless, but it’s real, real good yeah
Had a great time with An Automaton's Journey, a hololive Zelda clone. A fun set of tools that have a layered use for combat, puzzles and navigation, as well as none being sidelined throughout the game's runtime. The puzzles aren't really braintwisters, but ask for an uncommon degree of dexterity and execution in places (for the loose genre, anyway) and so provide a pleasant sensation of pushback, which extends to how combat is handled, as Cecilia's basic lance has a hitbox as or even more piddly as Link's sword in the original Zelda, and so there's a lot of focus on utilizing your full range of tools in most situations, not just in a lock-and-key way. There's just a lot of considered nuance for the modest scale of the piece (personally, 7 hours for 100% completion) that made it all click.
