What is the last video game you played?

[Koray Savas 2,251]

I want to play Resident Evil 7 in VR but I'm a baby.

[mstrox 6,637]

Uncharted 2 is great!  The first Uncharted is a bit clunky at times, especially in the vehicle levels.  I’m surprised to hear they didn’t work on that for the remasters.

[King Mark 3,624]

5 hours ago, Bilbo said:

 

 

Playing Horizon Zero Dawn. I don’t hate it but I don’t love it either. Cliches with some very clunky dialogue but the landscapes are breathtaking.

 it's good once the story gets into gear.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

1 hour ago, mstrox said:

Uncharted 2 is great!  The first Uncharted is a bit clunky at times, especially in the vehicle levels.  I’m surprised to hear they didn’t work on that for the remasters.

Just as a general aside, there is a fundamental difference between a remaster and a ground-up remake. The Uncharted collection remasters keep everything from the original games in tact, while only boosting visual fidelity and performance. Things like lighting, textures, and frames per second. A remake like the Crash Bandicoot and Spyro collections, start from scratch and fix things like controls, camera, and gameplay.

[Bilbo 3,709]

8 hours ago, Koray Savas said:

10 hours ago, Bilbo said:

 

 

For a 13-year old game, Drake's Fortune holds up incredibly well, in my opinion. Bluepoint did a fantastic job on the remaster, bringing it up to par visually with the other installments. It's not a long game by today's standards; how far are you into it, Bilbo?

I think I got to chapter 15 or 16 or something. I think there’s 25 in total. I stopped to play HZD. If I finish that before Ghost of Tsushima comes out I’ll try and finish Uncharted 1. 

[Koray Savas 2,251]

4 hours ago, Bilbo said:

I think I got to chapter 15 or 16 or something. I think there’s 25 in total. I stopped to play HZD. If I finish that before Ghost of Tsushima comes out I’ll try and finish Uncharted 1. 

There are 22 chapters, so you are very close. 

[Edmilson 7,367]

All right, I just beat The Last of Us - Part 2 yesterday. And geez, what a ballsy game that one is!

 

Naughty Dog took a huge chance by...

 

Spoiler

making the player to control the woman that brutally murdered Joel for half the game.

 

And while I don't think the game is always successful on the many things it tries to do, I believe this is a worthy companion to the classic first game. 

 

And holy shit, the perfomance capture really evolved over the last decade! It's wonderful how here the mocap captured every smallest hint on an actor's performance, making everything feel all the more believable.

 

I recommend this video essay detailing the game's plot and structure:

 

 

[Jay 37,258]

The Last Of Us

 

My first PS4 game!

 

 

Prologue

 

I was hooked right away.  I loved the way the opening cinematic bled right into the start of gameplay inperceptively (I was like... oh! I'm in control now!) and the opening prologue was a pretty well-done way of establishing characters and the world.  I didn't really know anything about the game going in, but the box cover shows a dude with a younger girl on the cover, so when the girl you are controlling in the prologue dies, I was like, oh... I guess that's not her!  I was kinda surprise it then jumps TWENTY YEARS into the future, like they can't get a plant-based zombie apocalypse under control by that time?  Anyway

 

 

Quarantine Zone

 

I was expecting the whole game to be you vs zombies, so thought it was kinda neat that in actuality you start by having to take down a bunch of regular dudes by some docks.  It took me a while to get the hang of being stealthy instead of just charging in guns blazing but I grew to love trying to stay hidden as the game progressed.  Luckily on normal difficulty the game is pretty forgiving.  I really liked the Tess character you start the game paired up with, she was really cool.  I ended my first night of play be meeting up with Marlene who you agree to smuggle something out for, and I immediately guessed that be the Ellie girl on the cover, and that the game would end with you sacrificing your life to save her, a replacement for the dead daughter... I was half right

 

 

Boston

I had no idea that the game took place in Boston, so thought it was pretty need to see familiar road signs and all kinds of other details that were exactly spot on, they really did their research and did a great job with that.  Unfortunately, the actual geography didn't match up with the real Boston at all, but I suppose they just made it to make for the best levels without caring about reality.  Creeping through that dilapidated building was an awesome sequence, especially having the have your first real run-in with some infected and trying to have to sneakily take them out.  Ellie being immune and therefore basically the hope for a cure was a cool twist, bummer Tess had to die to let you escape though.

 

 

Bill's Town

 

This whole sequence was cool, because again they did a good job replicating the suburbs of the Boston area.  Walking through the areas with every's backyards and the fences was spot on.  Meeting up with Bill was cool, because W Earl Brown did a great job, brought some gravitas to the role.  And it was cool to have a helping against the zombie attacks, and having to avoid his traps before you meet him too.  The escape through the high school was another great sequence, especially when you get in the gym and a giant ass infected guy busts in.  I can imagine how difficult these guys must be on harder difficulties, at least on normal you can just lob a few explosives at them.  I wasn't a huge fan of the part where you have to fend off zombies while trying to roll the truck down the street, but at least it was different

 

 

Pittsburgh

 

The part where you just crash your intro into the obvious trap was kinda funny, but the Pittsburgh sequence as a whole was great.  Instead of the small group of warehouse thugs in Boston, or all the infected in the outskirts, now you're up against a huuuuge army of armed bad guys.  All the different parts were great, sneaking through the hotel, getting separated from Ellie after you fall down the elevator shaft and there's all the infected down there, etc.  I think outside the hotel was my favorite part, when you have to take out tons of guys to cross that big courtyard street area, with Ellie manning a rifle from the hotel, really cool stuff.  

 

 

More Pittsburgh

 

Meeting up with that other father/son team was neat, though at this point I was starting to suspect that most characters you meet won't stick around for long.  Having to figure out how to survive when the bandits bust out that crazy tank with the gattling gun was really tough!  The bridge jump sequence was kinda awkwardly handled though, at least when you wake up by the riverside that was a nice change of scenery.  The trek through the sewers that leads up to a builiding was pretty intense once you realize there's a ton of infected in there.  The final room you have to stand your ground while they all charge in was another really intense part!

 

 

More Suburbs

 

Making your way through that little neighborhood with the big houses was cool, different than the Boston suburbs levels.  Then the whole sequence with the sniper.. was awesome!  It was really tough to sneak your way all the way down there, sneak into the house and take him out... then having to use his rifle to protect everyone else was cool, cause it mixed things up and was different than what you had been doing before.  Really cool.  It was also pleasing to finally take out that damn tank!  Once we got to the radio tower, I wasn't surprised at all that the fireflies weren't there, and it was a bummer the way the father/son duo goes out.  But I liked that Ellie and the kid had a talk about turning and what it must be like first.

 

 

The Dam

 

I think all the parts where you set up a pallet for Ellie to use to cross water are the weakest parts of the entire game.  It would have been fine if they did it only once, but the fact that it happened like 5-6 times was way too much.  Anyway, it was cool to see Tommy again after the opening prologue, and that there's this little self-sutaining community set up due to having access to the power from the dam.  It was no surprise that a bunch of bandits showed up you had to defend against, nor was I surprised that Ellie ran off on a horse after Joel kept being a dick to her every chance he got

 

 

The Woods

 

Chasing after Ellie on horseback was cool because it at least mixed things up, though the controls were pretty clunky.  Clearing another house of bandits to save Ellie was starting to get a little repetitive.  And I didn't really get why Joel had a change of heart and suddenly decided to take Ellie to Colorado after initially asking Tommy to do it instead, but I guess in retrospect now, it makes sense based on what happens at the end of the game.

 

 

Colorado University

 

It was pretty cool exploring a dilapidated campus, even though the part where Joel in on his own as to go through a big infected area was kinda repetitive.  It was awesome seeing the wild monkeys hanging out though, in the courtyard and in the science area.  When bandits show up and you gotta escape, it was really starting to get repetitive. However, the ending was intense.  OK, it's kind of funny that during gameplay, you get get shot point blank in the face and keep going (at least on normal difficulty), but if you fall off a ledge in a cutscene and get some rebar through your torso, you're screwed.  However, it was cool the way the controls and mechanics changed as Joel was bleeding out and you had to escape.  When you get back to the horse and Joel slumps over and the screen cut to black, I legit thought he died...

 

 

The Woods

 

...Especially when the game picks up months later, and it's snowing, and you are now controlling Ellie on her own.  Having to hunt the deer with the bow and arrow was a really cool sequence.  When you bump into David and the other guy and Ellie barters to exchange the deer for medicine, I realized Joel was actually alive.  Defending the little building you are against hordes of infected was tough, and it was kinda fishy when David just lets you have the medicine.  So I wasn't surprised when you wake up the next day after helping Joel and now David's men are in the place where they were hiding.

 

 

Lakeside resort

 

It was neat taking off on horse back to lure the men away from Joel, and the sequence where you are at the resort type place and have to sneak past all the men was really tough, took me a while.  Then when David captures you and you're basically in jail and they are gonna cut you up to eat you and then it keeps switching between Joel and Ellie as Joel gets closer to her was really cool and well done.  It took me a while to figure out how to kill David after he traps you in the restaurant and sets it on fire.  Overall, he was a pretty cool bad guy!

 

 

Salt Lake City

 

The start of this area was great, because you finally just get to wander a bit, explore, talk, no bad guys for a while.  The abandoned highway with cars everywhere was cool, as was the abandoned quarantine zone.  When the giraffes show up was a magical gaming moment.  The underground tunnel you have to go through was an awesome sequence too. sooo many infected but if you were smart you could get through it all without them seeing you - very cool.  The last part where the bus falls underwater and you have to escape that was kind of poorly executed though, but it was short.

 

 

The Hospital

 

Wow, from this point to the end things get super intense, especially in the cutscenes.  I guess I should have seen it coming that the only way to use Ellie to create a vaccine would involve her dying, but Joel sure goes through brutal lengths to stop that.  The back to back to back sequences of making your way past groups of fireflies was probably the toughest part in the game.  It started to get a bit repetitive, but overall was a nice ramp up in difficulty and a pretty cool series of encounters.  Then jeez, you bust in and just start blowing away doctors to save her, then kill Marlene after she's unarmed... things get really fucking bleak here!  Then when Joel lies to Ellie and tells her there were a bunch of other immune and they didn't need Ellie any more, I started to really wonder where things were going ....

 

 

Jackson

 

I was somewhat surprised to gain control again, as the whole hospital sequence felt like the final level and I thought I'd just be watching cutscenes until the credits.  So when you wander a bit before triggering another one, I figured things were just getting going and I wasn't at the end... until I was.  And holy shit!

 

 

That final cutscene is an absolutely brutal punch in the gut!!!!  When Joel reveals that to get over the death of high daughter he needs to find new things to live for, and you understand that what he really means is that he is potentially not letting humanity get a vaccine by taking Ellie away from the Fireflies and using her as his new thing to to live for, and he lies to her face again about what really happened, is fucking brutal!  It's a really great ending though, everything makes so much sense and ties together nicely

 

 

So yea, I really enjoyed the game.  However, I wouldn't put it on masterpiece level as so many seem to.  

 

 

Pros:

 

• Nice combat, nice sneaking around moments
• Beautiful landscapes, so much attention to detail everywhere
• TERRIFIC SCORE!!!!
• Really good story, memorable characters
• Extensive motion capture really helps sell all the cutscenes
• Crafting and weapon upgrade system was good
• I liked how the game slowly rolls out the better weapons over time, really nicely done
• I like how it subverted video game tropes by having no real mini bosses or even a final boss, really
• It's worth mentioning again: Gustavo Santaolalla's score was really, REALLY good!

 

 

Cons:

 

• The palette sequences :p
• Too many encounters.  Take 3-4 of them out entirely and you'd have a way tighter playtime and not lessen the impact of the story at all.
• This is a very minor one, but: I played the entire game with headphones on, since I was playing at night after my wife went to bed.  Well, when you find audio recorders in the game and play them back , the audio messages on them don't come through headphones, they come out of the damn controller itself, and there is no option to turn it off!  So I had to scramble to stop playing them so I didn't wake my wife up, so I never learned whatever I was supposed to learn from them
• The character graphics were not up to snuff.  Maybe they were great for 2013, I wouldn't know, but coming off the FF7Remake demo they were definitely not up to snuff.  As much as the setting, music, and voice acting the all top notch and immersed me in the story, constantly wonky animation and uncanny valley closeups would take me back out.  I assume the sequel is much better, being a late PS4 game as opposed to an early PS4 game (I played the remaster)

 

Play time: 21 hours.  Highly recommended

 

[Bilbo 3,709]

30 minutes ago, Jay said:

This is a very minor one, but: I played the entire game with headphones on, since I was playing at night after my wife went to bed.  Well, when you find audio recorders in the game and play them back , the audio messages on them don't come through headphones, they come out of the damn controller itself, and there is no option to turn it off!  So I had to scramble to stop playing them so I didn't wake my wife up, so I never learned whatever I was supposed to learn from them

There was only a few of them but the ones in the hospital fill in Marlene’s story and acceptance of having to kill Ellie. You can find transcripts online. Can you not read them in the game though? Maybe you can’t I’ve never tried it. 

[Quintus 5,399]

The Last of Us looked pretty cutting edge when it originally debuted 7 years ago. Increasing the resolution of the textures was never going to make it look as impressive as today's titles. PBR was not utilised in this game, for starters.

[Jay 37,258]

17 minutes ago, Bilbo said:

There was only a few of them but the ones in the hospital fill in Marlene’s story and acceptance of having to kill Ellie. You can find transcripts online. Can you not read them in the game though? Maybe you can’t I’ve never tried it. 

 

I didn't see any options to display the audio as text, no.

 

8 minutes ago, Quintus said:

The Last of Us looked pretty cutting edge when it originally debuted 7 years ago. Increasing the resolution of the textures was never going to make it look as impressive as today's titles. PBR was not utilised in this game, for starters.

 

Well I mean, I played the entire game in 4K on my 55" living room TV, and it's not any lighting that was an issue either.  I am talking about the uncanny valley effect of them going for realism and not accomplishing it.  Even in today's games the uncanny valley is still there, they are just getting closer and closer is all.

 

I guess what I mean is, when a game goes for stylized graphics, likes Breath of the Wild or Wind Waker for example, they tend to be more timeless; They look great when they come out, they look great 20 years later.  But when these modern games go for realistic looking characters, they only really look great when they come out, and just age more and more poorly as more and more time passes and they get completely surpassed by better hardware and software.

 

It's not a huge complaint, and I don't think they made the wrong choice going for realism over something more stylized or anything, but sometime it was really quite wonky for what was supposed to be a huge AAA title.  And it was only an issue in cutscenes anyway, all the animations in gameplay were top notch

[Bilbo 3,709]

The actors were mo-capped on set but the facial animations were still key frame. ND didn’t start capturing facial data until Uncharted 4. 
 

I think considering it’s a 7 year old game it still looks fantastic.

[Jay 37,258]

Yea, I just watched the teaser and trailer for Last of Us Part 2 and the graphics were absolutely fantastic, and definitely noticed much better facial animations. 

[Arpy 4,145]

Playing TLoU p.2. getting pissed off with having to slog through patrol after patrol, stealth killing enemies and then moving onto another section only to have to go through the same nonsense again. I'm having a bit of Deja Vu with Ellie taking down an entire army, just like Nathan Drake does in the Uncharted games!

[Jay 37,258]

The bloat is real

[Edmilson 7,367]

The graphics in TLoU 2 are unbelieavable. Every minor facial expression, every small detail in the actor's performances, and it makes all the more real because of that. It's a good reason to find a great TV to play this (or to get one just to play the game, lol).

[Jay 37,258]

Sweet!  Looking forward to it.

 

I play my PS4 on my 55" 4K HDR TV

[Bilbo 3,709]

19 minutes ago, Jay said:

Sweet!  Looking forward to it.

 

I play my PS4 on my 55" 4K HDR TV

🤤 jealous. I play on 32” 1080p tv 😂

 

The game looks gorgeous even at that though. 

[Jay 37,258]

The Last Of Us: Left Behind

 

Played this the next night after finishing the main game.  If anybody out there like the first and/or second game and hasn't played this: I highly recommend you check it out: It's pretty awesome!

 

 

It simultaneously tells two stories: The framing story takes place during the first game, in between when Joel collapses after the rebar incident, and before they are living in the basement of that house while he recovers.  In this story, you control Ellie exclusively and have to go through a mall in Colorado to get a first aid kit to patch him up.  This is where most of the gameplay is, but very little story.

 

In between that, we get extensive flashbacks to a younger Ellie, before the events of the first game, where an old friend who had left for military training returns and they go out to rummage through an empty mall in the Boston quarantine zone and eventually the story she tells Joel in the final scene of the main game plays out.  This whole sequence was really great, with terrific acting, music, and pacing.  There is one magic gaming moment I'll never forget where Riley describes a video game you are playing as Ellie that's actually broken, it was superbly done!  Overall there's not a lot of gameplay in this part though.

 

 

Most of the gameplay is during the framing story, and it's pretty great.  It's the exact same engine and graphics and everything else as the main game, but they add one new mechanic that was awesome, that I can't believe wasn't actually in the main game until I thought about it later:  There are a few times where you are up again both humans and infected in the same area, and you can actually get the infected to kill off the humans for you (or vice versa), which was really cool to see.  Like you could choose to take out one group yourself, or stay hidden and let the chips fall where they may.  It was really well done every time.

 

Overall, highly recommended, a fantastic DLC (and it's great it's included for free within the PS4 remaster)

Play time: I dunno, the game didn't tell me

[Quintus 5,399]

I actually found the expansion to be quite meh and overrated, I was disappointed after its hype. But I realise I'm probably in the minority there.

[Jay 37,258]

Expansion?  It's a completely separate 4 hour side story, doesn't add anything to the main game itself

[Nick Parker 3,040]

You know what he meant!

[Quintus 5,399]

Ignore, he's just being his normal pedantic self.

[Jay 37,258]

Shantae: Half-Genie Hero

 

 

 

Played this on the Switch.  I truly don't understand the general consensus on this one, which was that it was a step backward after Pirate's Curse.  Everything I heard or read said that it was more like a straightforward platformer and less of a metroidvania, that it was missing the magic of the earlier games, etc.  Well, I liked it more than Pirate's Curse!

 

I'd say the music is the only thing that isn't better than Pirate's Curse; and the music was still very very good, just not an instant classic like Pirate's Curse.

 

I liked the new animation style, it really fit the world and characters like a glove, and allowed for nice neat character modeling and background details, like the infinite scrolling platform shown avove.

I loved the transformations, which were SUPER fun.  I understand those were a feature of the first 2 games and left out of Pirate's Curse, which is another thing that makes me wonder why everyone thinks Pirate's Curse is the best.  What I loved was that only was it fun to figure out if you needed to transform in to the monkey, the crab, the mouse, the spider, the mermaid, or whatever else, but each one was also fun to use in their own different ways - some aiding exploration, some aiding combat, some both - but ALSO I loved the little music ditty that played when the transformation toggle came up and you had to pick each one.  Super fun

The general combat was improved over Pirate's Curse too, with the hair whip being better from the start and very quickly upgraded.

 

All the characters were just as quirky and fun, the setting was fun.

The level design was really good!  It was pretty neat how you go through each level the first time, then subsequent visits have a ton of differences plus your new transformations let you find tons of new areas.

Overall, I loved the game and finishing it really made me want to go play the others in the series!

 

I'll pick up 5 when it goes on sale for the Switch, and I am glad that Wayforward just announced 1 and 2 are coming to the Switch too because I wasn't sure how to play them otherwise.  Can't wait!

 

 

Play time: 10 hours

[Nick Parker 3,040]

@Jay Huh, very interesting. My biggest complaints with the game were that the writing felt really toned down, as if they were rebooting Shantae to try to appeal to a wider, and maybe younger, audience, and the levels, having had to been designed individually based on crowdfunding goals, didn't connect to each other very well, both in narrative and gameplay. I think the music suffered from that as well.

 

I'll be curious to see what you think of the first two: the first one definitely is a challenge, but the second one is pretty short.

[Jay 37,258]

I actually had the same issue with the writing in both 3 and 4, which is that they just assume you know all the characters and their backstories, which I didn't having never played 1 or 2.  This was less of an issue in 4, since at least I knew them from 3, but I feel like some sort of recap of their basic nature and their relationship to Shantae would have really helped a lot.  Another weird thing was that Risky Boots was your ally in 3, and all of a sudden she's the villain again in 4...

 

I didn't really experience any level disconnect like you described.  Actually, I kind of consider it a stretch to call these games metroidvanias; They are really more like platformers with SOME metroidvania elements.  Both 3 and 4 are set up the same way really, you travel to each of the levels (by Risky's boat in 3 or Sky's bird in 4) and start from the beginning of the level each time and work your way to the end, using new upgrades to access areas you couldn't before.  To me to be a true metroidvania all the levels are connected as one giant map, and when you return to old areas you are so upgraded you can find short cuts or new entry/exit posts to change how you traverse through them.  In these games you always start at the same place and there are no real shortcuts, other than late game flight powerfuls to soar past some stuff.

 

At least in this game you get the Warp Dance to skip to the next section of each level without replaying them, and you could immediately use the whistle once you got the item you knew you came there for.  I dunno, it was all pretty fluid to me.  Which is to say, equally as un-fluid as Pirate's Curse, I guess.

 

I am curious to see how Seven Sirens stacks up, but since I reckon it'll be a while till it hits the $10 mark I'll likely be playing Risky's Revenge first

[Nick Parker 3,040]

20 minutes ago, Quintus said:

Ignore, he's just being his normal pedantic self.

 

 

 

3 minutes ago, Jay said:

I actually had the same issue with the writing in both 3 and 4, which is that they just assume you know all the characters and their backstories, which I didn't having never played 1 or 2.  This was less of an issue in 4, since at least I knew them from 3, but I feel like some sort of recap of their basic nature and their relationship to Shantae would have really helped a lot.  Another weird thing was that Risky Boots was your ally in 3, and all of a sudden she's the villain again in 4...

 

I was thinking about the humor mainly, but that is valid. It didn't bother me much in Pirate's Curse, it just felt like you were thrown into this group of established friends,  which if I remember is how the first one goes, too. There was one gag line in 4 that I thought was funny where a character basically admitted he didn't know if the game was a sequel or reboot.

 

 

[Jay 37,258]

47 minutes ago, Quintus said:

I actually found the expansion to be quite meh and overrated, I was disappointed after its hype. But I realise I'm probably in the minority there.

 

35 minutes ago, Jay said:

Expansion?  It's a completely separate 4 hour side story, doesn't add anything to the main game itself

 

33 minutes ago, Nick Parker said:

You know what he meant!

 

28 minutes ago, Quintus said:

Ignore, he's just being his normal pedantic self.

 

Woah woah woah, I truly wasn't being pedantic!

I always thought "expansion" was used for a DLC that changed things within the existing game, like Hollow Knights DLCs, the balloon game added to Mario Odyssey, all the stuff they added to Breath of the Wild, etc etc.

Left Behind is sold as a completely standalone game that you didn't even have to own the original game to play.  Isn't it more like Uncharted: Lost Legacy than anything else?

[Jay 37,258]

17 minutes ago, Nick Parker said:

I was thinking about the humor mainly, but that is valid. It didn't bother me much in Pirate's Curse, it just felt like you were thrown into this group of established friends,  which if I remember is how the first one goes, too. There was one gag line in 4 that I thought was funny where a character basically admitted he didn't know if the game was a sequel or reboot.

 

Hmmm, both games had funny parts that made me laugh, for sure, but thinking back maybe Pirate's Curse had more of them....  Hard to remember now!

 

Hmm, I don't remember any parts of 4 like you describe, IE pondering on if its a sequel or a reboot.  You may be thinking of when you find Squid Baron, and he talks about wanting his own game, and Shantae says the only audience would be a subset of her own, etc

 

EDIT: I found the bit on line here (play button brings you right to it):

 

 

[Nick Parker 3,040]

37 minutes ago, Jay said:

Hmm, I don't remember any parts of 4 like you describe, IE pondering on if its a sequel or a reboot. 

 

Naw, it's an NPC line from one of the townspeople, easy to miss.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

4 hours ago, Jay said:

Woah woah woah, I truly wasn't being pedantic!

I always thought "expansion" was used for a DLC that changed things within the existing game, like Hollow Knights DLCs, the balloon game added to Mario Odyssey, all the stuff they added to Breath of the Wild, etc etc.

Left Behind is sold as a completely standalone game that you didn't even have to own the original game to play.  Isn't it more like Uncharted: Lost Legacy than anything else?

Left Behind is considered more DLC than a standalone game. It wasn't initially available on its own, if I remember correctly. 

[Quintus 5,399]

If you Google it there's plenty of mentions of it as an expansion. But who cares.

[Bilbo 3,709]

5 hours ago, Koray Savas said:

Left Behind is considered more DLC than a standalone game. It wasn't initially available on its own, if I remember correctly. 

Whatever it is it’s great. 

[Kasey Kockroach 2,343]

Have never touched a Smash game, or any fighting game as far as I can remember, in my life, I have no idea what I’m doing, I’m just playing around with different combos seeing what Yoshi does, getting my booty handed to me and I’M HAVING FUN.

 

[Jay 37,258]

I can't get into Smash, or any fighting games really.

 

As a kid I LOVED Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat, but that love has no persisted into any of my adult gaming at all

[Faleel 5,326]

Smash Wii U I presume?

 

Started:

 

Bug Fables

Hollow Knight

Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy

Jedi: Fallen Order

 

 

[Kasey Kockroach 2,343]

58 minutes ago, The River (Fal) said:

Smash Wii U I presume?

 

 

 

 

Yep! (I don’t have a Switch)

[Jay 37,258]

11 hours ago, Bilbo said:

Whatever it is it’s great. 

 

I really liked it a lot.  I think it had better emotional payoffs than the main game, and the new addition to the combat was really fun.

 

Both games combined to leave me a bit weary of bleak games where you shoot everyone in the face, so I was happy to mix in some Shantae towards the end and then play Journey and then start Life Is Strange as my next PS4 games.  After those and maybe Horizon Zero Dawn, though, I'm looking forward to starting the Uncharted series, and very much looking forward to TLOU2 when it hits $20

[Edmilson 7,367]

I've been playing one of my favorite open world videogames from the previous generation: Sleeping Dogs. I love the Hong Kong atmosphere the game has, and it's a pretty funny game. Just like a Grand Theft Auto with martial arts and set on the Far East.

[Nick Parker 3,040]

42 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

I've been playing one of my favorite open world videogames from the previous generation: Sleeping Dogs. I love the Hong Kong atmosphere the game has, and it's a pretty funny game. Just like a Grand Theft Auto with martial arts and set on the Far East.

 

I think it was a spiritual successor to True Crime. I was surprised by how much I liked the game, but damn does the ending get laughably bad.

[Edmilson 7,367]

Yeah, the game isn't perfect and has some problems, and the story isn't very great either. And the game does show that it was written by people in the West, with a passing knowledge of eastern culture and way of living. But I'd be lying if I told you I'm not having a lot of fun with that.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Sleeping Dogs is fantastic.

 

A man who has never had pork bun, is never a whoooolle man. 

[Quintus 5,399]

Sleeping Dogs was better than GTA IV and V.

 

I was a little pro at Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting when I about 15 yrs old. I once had my BMX tyres slashed for being unbeatable on one 20p credit in the local barbers, where they had the arcade cabinet. All the local best players there were trying to get me off, but they didn't manage it. I had to push my bike home, but it was worth it.

[Jay 37,258]

Going to the arcade and seeing a new version of Street Fighter 2 was out was always awesome.  My local arcade even got bootleg versions from time to where, where hackers had changed or added abilities and stuff.  Kept it so it was never really stale.  I remember the first time going into an arcade and they had a Mortal Kombat machine, after I had read about it in a magazine, and being blown away

 

I really enjoyed these games, but I was never really great at them.

[Quintus 5,399]

Yeah I really got into the first Mortal Kombat at the arcade too, and was good at it. Played a lot of its [superior] first sequel as well, but that was on the SNES at my mates house.

 

But SFII was my bread n butter. I lived and breathed that game throughout my early teens. At one time my bedroom was plastered in posters of the game. Ken and Ryu were my main characters, but I had an intimate knowledge of all of them, up to the Championship Edition, where you could also play as one of the four bosses (they weren't selectable in the original World Warrior edition of the game). I remember the hacked versions too.

 

I eventually fell out of love with the franchise when they introduced new characters to the roster, Cammy and Dee Jay etc. The purity of the gameplay mechanics were gradually watered down and I just sort of grew out of it. 

 

I don't play fighting games anymore either, and have no interest in the genre.

 

With that said, do you remember the reboot in the Xbox 360 era? That game was a little bit of a resurgence for me, it was a great game (and the first time I had ever been able to take opponents on in the online arena). I'd win many bouts, but would occasionally have my arse handed to me. It was humbling. But that was the last time I played a Street Fighter title. 

[Bilbo 3,709]

22 hours ago, Jay said:

 

I really liked it a lot.  I think it had better emotional payoffs than the main game, and the new addition to the combat was really fun.

 

Both games combined to leave me a bit weary of bleak games where you shoot everyone in the face, so I was happy to mix in some Shantae towards the end and then play Journey and then start Life Is Strange as my next PS4 games.  After those and maybe Horizon Zero Dawn, though, I'm looking forward to starting the Uncharted series, and very much looking forward to TLOU2 when it hits $20

I dunno, I think the main game has one of the best pay offs ever and I’m certainly not alone in thinking that but Left Behind feels like it’s an essential part of the game too. It gives context to Ellie’s “I’ve lost people too” like in the abandoned Ranch in Jackson after she runs away and it’s cool to see her survive and look after Joel when he gets injured. I think it sets up the second game nicely! 
 

but yeah, it definitely sounds like you need to wait a bit before playing Part II. Cost reasons aside it’s even more bleak than the first!!

 

 

It took me a loooooong time to get into HZD. Too long, and the dialogue is hilariously bad. Like it’s almost as if it was written in a different language and then just translated into English but the gameplay is great and once the storyline kicks off it’s very interesting. I don’t think it deserves some of the high praise it’s gotten but it’s definitely worth the €20 I paid. 

[Jay 37,258]

1 hour ago, Quintus said:

With that said, do you remember the reboot in the Xbox 360 era? That game was a little bit of a resurgence for me, it was a great game (and the first time I had ever been able to take opponents on in the online arena). I'd win many bouts, but would occasionally have my arse handed to me. It was humbling. But that was the last time I played a Street Fighter title. 

 

I sort of have been paying attention to what they've been doing with the Street Fighter and MK franchise over the subequent years since I last played them, checked out a couple youtube videos of some game play, they get talked about on podcasts I listen to, etc.  But I don't come close to wanting to grab any of them, especially not when I already have a 100+ game backlog of stuff that interests me more...

 

31 minutes ago, Bilbo said:

I dunno, I think the main game has one of the best pay offs ever and I’m certainly not alone in thinking that

 

Well, that's very true indeed.  It's really not until the final seconds of the entire game that the real gut punch happens though, and it certainly is something I'll never forget.  Even still, the arcade game moment in Left Behind and just the relationship between Ellie and Riley in general was really well done, superbly handled.  Joel and Ellie's relationship was done well too, but it was also stretched over a 20 hour game with lots of repetitive moments of Ellie trying to connect to him and him just being gruff, while all of Ellie and Riley was handled in like 2 hours and hit different beats every time.

 

Quote

but Left Behind feels like it’s an essential part of the game too. It gives context to Ellie’s “I’ve lost people too” like in the abandoned Ranch in Jackson after she runs away and it’s cool to see her survive and look after Joel when he gets injured. I think it sets up the second game nicely! 

 

Yea I'd consider it essential for sure.  Really fills in some narrative gaps.  I think if I ever played through these games again, I'll probably play Left Behind after the rebar sequence of the main game, before resuming with her hunting the deer.

 

Quote

but yeah, it definitely sounds like you need to wait a bit before playing Part II. Cost reasons aside it’s even more bleak than the first!!

 

Yea, I've been attempting to avoid spoilers but have certainly picked up on the general response the game has gotten and bleak is constantly mentioned for sure.

 

Quote

It took me a loooooong time to get into HZD. Too long, and the dialogue is hilariously bad. Like it’s almost as if it was written in a different language and then just translated into English but the gameplay is great and once the storyline kicks off it’s very interesting. I don’t think it deserves some of the high praise it’s gotten but it’s definitely worth the €20 I paid. 

 

I actually got it for free as a Christmas present from my mother in law, not that that really makes me think of it too differently than any other game on my shelf... but I am really drawn into its aesthetic and what I've seen of the gameplay, and all the talk about the lore's reveal being incredible has me very intrigued.  Clunky dialogue is something I almost expect out of every video game that exists so that's really no bother for me. 

[Bilbo 3,709]

9 minutes ago, Jay said:

 

I sort of have been paying attention to what they've been doing with the Street Fighter and MK franchise over the subequent years since I last played them, checked out a couple youtube videos of some game play, they get talked about on podcasts I listen to, etc.  But I don't come close to wanting to grab any of them, especially not when I already have a 100+ game backlog of stuff that interests me more...

 

 

Well, that's very true indeed.  It's really not until the final seconds of the entire game that the real gut punch happens though, and it certainly is something I'll never forget.  Even still, the video game moment in Left Behind and just the relationship between Ellie and Riley in general was really well done, superbly handled.  Joel and Ellie's relationship was done well too, but it was also stretched over a 20 hour game with lots of repetitive moments of Ellie trying to connect to him and him just being gruff, while all of Ellie and Riley was handled in like 2 hours and hit different beats every time.

 

 

Yea I'd consider it essential for sure.  Really fills in some narrative gaps.  I think if I ever played through these games again, I'll probably play Left Behind after the rebar sequence of the main game, before resuming with her hunting the deer.

 

 

Yea, I've been attempting to avoid spoilers but have certainly picked up on the general response the game has gotten and bleak is constantly mentioned for sure.

 

 

I actually got it for free as a Christmas present from my mother in law, not that that really makes me think of it too differently than any other game on my shelf... but I am really drawn into its aesthetic and what I've seen of the gameplay, and all the talk about the lore's reveal being incredible has me very intrigued.  Clunky dialogue is something I almost expect out of every video game that exists so that's really no bother for me. 

I definitely enjoyed HZD enough to get the sequel next year. Aloy is a great character 

[Quintus 5,399]

Rare is a video game that doesn't have rubbish dialogue. It's a given. Even the ones that are considered well written are still leagues behind the kind of writing sophistication we find in our favourite films and TV.

 

Games will always lead with their gameplay. In that regard, Horizon: ZD is highly polished; controlling the main character feels enjoyable and engaging. It has a gameplay loop which is derivative of other games before it, but Guerrilla hone these tried and trusted mechanics and make a compelling experience which stands out in its own right. When it all comes packaged with a really terrific sci-fi storyline (and it genuinely is engrossing as it unfolds, the endgame reveals paying off satisfyingly); some of the less successful aspects, such as rote sidequests and cheesy dialogue, are rather easy to forgive. Greater than the sum of its parts, as they say.

[Jay 37,258]

17 minutes ago, Quintus said:

Rare is a video game that doesn't have rubbish dialogue. It's a given. Even the ones that are considered well written are still leagues behind the kind of writing sophistication we find in our favourite films and TV.

 

Games will always lead with their gameplay. 

 

Completely agree!

 

 

17 minutes ago, Quintus said:

In that regard, Horizon: ZD is highly polished; controlling the main character feels enjoyable and engaging. It has a gameplay loop which is derivative of other games before it, but Guerrilla hone these tried and trusted mechanics and make a compelling experience which stands out in its own right. When it all comes packaged with a really terrific sci-fi storyline (and it genuinely is engrossing as it unfolds, the endgame reveals paying off satisfyingly); some of the less successful aspects, such as rote sidequests and cheesy dialogue, are rather easy to forgive. Greater than the sum of its parts, as they say.

 

Exactly the takeaway I took from researching a bit.  I intend on skipping the majority of the sidequests and just focusing on the main story, seems to be the best way to appreciate the best of what they've done here