What is the last video game you played?

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,304]

Is Dying Light any good? It's on special at the PS Store.

[Quintus 5,545]

First one is a brill zombie game, loved it back in the day. There's a really cool alt control profile in the settings which actually binds melee to the analogue sticks - meaning you hold in one of the triggers and then swing your weapon whichever direction you hold the stick, back and forth. It's very satisfying.

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,304]

Woohoo!

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,304]

Since I've just injured my left wrist by having it almost crushed in an elevator door at the train station, I still want to play games. Might this be a good excuse to play some QTE games like The Quarry, Heavy Rain, and Beyond: Two Souls while my wrist rehabilitates? I can't imagine those two games requiring much stressful gameplay action. I tried playing Night Springs today and I could barely cope due to the pain, so I had to stop.

[VenomVeVenom 179]

So I'm playing Silent Hill 2 Remake for the first time. I only got through half of the original as a kid, so my perspective might be a bit biased, but is it just me, or is this remake way too long? Can anyone who played the original confirm if it was really this lengthy? I'm 16 hours in and only just reached the hotel. For context, I love long games that take their time. I’ve put 500+ hours into Elden Ring, 400+ into Red Dead Redemption 2, and hundreds into the classic Resident Evils, especially RE2. SH2R has a similar gameplay style to RE2R, but despite that, RE2R is shorter and somehow feels more engaging. The pacing is tighter, and the atmosphere doesn’t drag. Silent Hill 2, on the other hand, has the same slow-paced horror and puzzle-solving, but it starts to feel tedious at this length. Does anyone else feel the same? I'm not saying I want to quit the game, but I just wish it had ended sooner. Every time I enter a new area after the hospital, I find myself thinking... "Please just end already."

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,304]

I regret buying those Red Dead Redemption games. I had no idea those open world games are so goddamn long. Luckily they're still sealed, so I can easily sell them.

[VenomVeVenom 179]

5 minutes ago, Lady Dimitrescu said:

I regret buying those Red Dead Redemption games. I had no idea those open world games are so goddamn long. Luckily they're still sealed, so I can easily sell them.

Yeah, they’re long. But you can’t deny how immersive they are! Lol. And their story is very good too.

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,304]

I bought Silent Hill 2 on PS5, which I haven't played yet. Those sorts of mostly-linear games are more my jam anyway.

[Edmilson 9,797]

RDR2 is one of my favorite games of all time. It's long but consistently gripping from start to finish.

[Not Mr. Big 4,779]

44 minutes ago, VenomVeVenom said:

Yeah, they’re long. But you can’t deny how immersive they are! Lol. And their story is very good too.

Disagree.  Red Dead 2 sucks on a gameplay and story level

[VenomVeVenom 179]

32 minutes ago, Lady Dimitrescu said:

I bought Silent Hill 2 on PS5, which I haven't played yet. Those sorts of mostly-linear games are more my jam anyway.

Yeah, I love these linear games. RE1, 2, 3, 4, and 7 are some of my all-time favorites. But they know when to end. Silent Hill 2 just feels too long for this kind of gameplay.

Just now, Not Mr. Big said:

Disagree.  Red Dead 2 sucks on a gameplay and story level

Can you elaborate?

[Not Mr. Big 4,779]

7 minutes ago, VenomVeVenom said:

Can you elaborate?

Bloated control scheme/UI that makes controlling Arthur Morgan feels like dragging a sack of flour through molasses.  Bland 2/3 horse riding/talking missions that always end with a boring shootout (the mechanics feel very dated and unrewarding).  The story has some decent moments at the end but it's cliched and predictable in a way that detracts from the moment to moment gameplay (Arthur Morgan ends up feeling like the world's biggest sucker by the end of it)

[VenomVeVenom 179]

13 minutes ago, Not Mr. Big said:

Bloated control scheme/UI that makes controlling Arthur Morgan feels like dragging a sack of flour through molasses.  Bland 2/3 horse riding/talking missions that always end with a boring shootout (the mechanics feel very dated and unrewarding).  The story has some decent moments at the end but it's cliched and predictable in a way that detracts from the moment to moment gameplay (Arthur Morgan ends up feeling like the world's biggest sucker by the end of it)

Hmm, I partially agree with your take on the gameplay and mission design, but I wouldn’t go as far as to say the game sucks like you did. It has its flaws, but it’s not at that level. Also, I’m not quite sure what you mean by 'Arthur ends up feeling like a sucker.' Isn’t the whole point of the story that he redeems himself and transforms into a different man by the end?

[Edmilson 9,797]

Red Dead 2 has better story than any Last of Us game and better gameplay than any Grand Theft Auto.

[Schilkeman 1,388]

Yes, the gameplay in RDR2 has a heft and friction that is scientific in its perfection, and the world is the most alive and reactive open world ever made. The UI is not really a problem, but the context inputs are a little wonky.
 

My issues with it are almost entirely narrative. It might be the only time I’ve genuinely felt the fabled ludo-narrative dissonance. A stronger three-act structure of rootn’ tooth’ outlaws, stuff goes wrong, and Aurthur on the run would have made a better game. As it is, the game does a lot of telling and not showing, and the stuff it does show, like Dutch in Cuba, feels pretty light compared to the murderous rampage we’ve been on until then. I don’t buy the “fall” because I don’t know where he started from. 
 

I get what the game is going for, and I appreciate how reactive the open world is, but don’t let me spend two hours helping people in the wilderness, and then force me to have a sit down heart-to-heart with someone in the camp about all the bad things I’ve been doing. It just doesn’t work. GTA succeeds because the missions and cut-scenes never comment on what he character is doing outside of the missions and cut-scenes. 

[Not Mr. Big 4,779]

4 hours ago, VenomVeVenom said:

Hmm, I partially agree with your take on the gameplay and mission design, but I wouldn’t go as far as to say the game sucks like you did. It has its flaws, but it’s not at that level. Also, I’m not quite sure what you mean by 'Arthur ends up feeling like a sucker.' Isn’t the whole point of the story that he redeems himself and transforms into a different man by the end?

Spoiler

He spends the entire game getting strung along by Ditch and Micah and his final redemption ends up feeling pretty meaningless given what happens immediately afterwards in Red Dead 1 

Spoiler

His sacrifice bought John Marston and his wife a good 6 months before dying violently

 

 

[VenomVeVenom 179]

Just finished Silent Hill 2 Remake. I need whatever the devs were on. What a batshit insane game

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,304]

I can't wait to play it after my wrist injury heals.

[VenomVeVenom 179]

5 hours ago, Lady Dimitrescu said:

I can't wait to play it after my wrist injury heals.

If you like the more horror focused RE games, you'll like SH2. It's definitely a good game. I just have a problem with the length.

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,304]

5 minutes ago, VenomVeVenom said:

If you like the more horror focused RE games, you'll like SH2. It's definitely a good game. I just have a problem with the length.

 

Alan Wake II was pretty long. I spent 29 hours on the main campaign on Story mode. I can deal with a long game, especially as the objectives are clear. I just get scared off by open world games that take forever to finish because you spend so much time just wandering around looking for something to do.

[VenomVeVenom 179]

23 minutes ago, Lady Dimitrescu said:

 

Alan Wake II was pretty long. I spent 29 hours on the main campaign on Story mode. I can deal with a long game, especially as the objectives are clear. I just get scared off by open world games that take forever to finish because you spend so much time just wandering around looking for something to do.

The thing with SH2 is that this style of gameplay isn't really made for long games. They actually expanded every area of the original game, and sometimes it just feels bloated. If the prison and labyrinth were shorter, the pacing would be 100 times better IMO, especially the prison which is FILLED with enemies and combat at every corner.

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,304]

 

 

[Quintus 5,545]

The online Sony tax.

[Edmilson 9,797]

Just finished the main story of Arkham Knight (months after I began lol, most of the time I only have time and energy to play videogames during weekends).

 

Now there's a handful of DLCs to take care of. First one was with Nightwing and despite short I found it surprisingly challenging.

[VenomVeVenom 179]

14 hours ago, Edmilson said:

Just finished the main story of Arkham Knight (months after I began lol, most of the time I only have time and energy to play videogames during weekends).

 

Now there's a handful of DLCs to take care of. First one was with Nightwing and despite short I found it surprisingly challenging.

I'm gonna be honest... I think Knight is the best of the four games. I just wish it had less Batmobile and more Bat... normal?

 

It has the best combat, mechanics, and graphics, plus the second-best villain (Joker from City takes the cake IMO, and Bane from Origins is awesome too.) That said, I really wish the boss fights relied less on the Batmobile.

 

Also, did you know Scarecrow's actor is Denethor, and Jim Gordon is Mike Erhmantraut?

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,304]

I have Arkham Knight, just haven't played it yet.

 

Finished all the Alan Wake II DLC stuff. Night Springs is fairly easy, but The Lake House could get tough and confusing in places.

[Pieter Boelen 849]

Anyone here know the Tadeo Jones series?

It's basically Indiana Jones for kids. 

There's two shorts, three movies and even a video game now! 

I just bought it and tried it for two half seconds.

 

If you like Indiana Jones and have any sense of humour at all, check out the original video that started the whole thing: 

That was basically just made by someone in his basement as a fun proof of concept. 

I don't think anyone could've imagined he'd get round to making a full professional trilogy with tie-in game to boot. 

It's AMAZING!!

 

(I still need to watch the third movie...)

 

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,304]

Started playing SOMA on normal mode, which is probably equivalent to all the easy modes I've played in other games. The so-called "safe" mode option in this game seems too tailored to normies who are brand new to horror games. Anyhow, it's pretty spooky and well made. It took me a little while to learn its controls, since I've been in RE and AW mode for over a month. It reminds me a lot of Alien Isolation.

 

Btw, my wrist is improving but not 100% yet.

[Quintus 5,545]

How far are you? The story's one of the best in games.

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,304]

Not that far, really. I was in a room where I had to unplug two robots and made radio contact with a woman who seems to know about as much as my character does.

[Edmilson 9,797]

11 hours ago, VenomVeVenom said:

I'm gonna be honest... I think Knight is the best of the four games. I just wish it had less Batmobile and more Bat... normal?

 

It has the best combat, mechanics, and graphics, plus the second-best villain (Joker from City takes the cake IMO, and Bane from Origins is awesome too.) That said, I really wish the boss fights relied less on the Batmobile.

 

Also, did you know Scarecrow's actor is Denethor, and Jim Gordon is Mike Erhmantraut?

The Batmobile didn't annoy me as much as I thought it would, but yeah, some of the boss fights should've been hand to hand combats. But overall the bosses of the Arkham series aren't that great - the best is the Deathstroke battle from Origins.

 

Speaking of which, it's incredibly annoying that I can't play Origins in my PS5. They didn't bring the game to PS4 and much less to 5. Sigh

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,304]

Really getting through SOMA, although the IGN walkthrough has come in handy in many areas I keep getting lost, like those underwater exterior areas. The monsters aren't the hardest to evade, but the glowy head ones can be fast and kill you in only one hit, so you probably need to die a few times in order to plan your route of escape.

[Quintus 5,545]

There's one particularly tricky part coming up but it's really the only challenging moment in the game. Took me a few attempts.

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,304]

I'm up to the Theta Lab where Catherine wants you to create an Ark simulation. The only really challenging monster I encountered was on the sunken ship where I had to pull out some plugs and make a run for it to the escape hatch. I died about five or six times until I planned my getaway properly.

[Quintus 5,545]

That's it, you have done it then. That part of the game apparently proved so frustrating for some players that the developer eventually updated the game with the easy mode.

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,304]

They have a pattern of movement similar to the giant baby in Resident Evil Village. Actually that goddamned thing turned out to be easy, although still disturbing.

 

I'm suspicious of Catherine, like she has some alterior motive and she's a mad eugenics scientist stuck inside a computer chip, and of course she's just using Simon. Rather like the Ian Holm CGI droid in Alien Romulus. But happy to be wrong and she's just a fun companion like that little floaty robot in that cat game, Stray.

[Quintus 5,545]

It gets so good.

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,304]

I may be a little drunk, but I just bought Dead Space at discount from the PS Store. Another one for later.

 

My New Year's resolution was to play more games and finish them, and that's exactly what I'm doing.

[Bespin Copilot 9,247]

Here is a great video game I played recently on the ColecoVision, the best console ever. The 8-bit music is very good, and when the Smurf bends, it looks like he's farting. That's soooo funny!

 

- Bespin

 

[Quintus 5,545]

I'm 70+ hours in Hogwarts and I've loved it, flaws and all. The original score for the game is revelationary and I've enjoyed listening to the music about ten times more than I did the JW HP stuff.

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,304]

How does a game go for that long??

[Quintus 5,545]

Some people have put 150hrs into it on Steam I noticed. I wholesale ignore all of the side quests givers though and have almost solely focused on the main story thread, but I have really taken my time with it. I'm a scenery tourist whenever a game has great art direction. HL is a really beautiful looking game, pretty much all of the time, particularly with its superb application of HDR. It's a pretty big game, much bigger than the footage suggests. I'm planning on installing a VR mod once I've finished it, as I'd love to just walk around the school and fly on the broom in first person. The creation of the school, with its vast and seemingly never ending maze of detail, is easily a major touchstone in memorable gaming locales. There's nothing else like it.

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,304]

Finished SOMA. I was feeling pretty sad for Simon 3 until I read this:

 

Spoiler

 

[Quintus 5,545]

I'm glad that made you feel less bleak.

 

How do you rate it?

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,304]

I left it a 4.5 star rating on my Backlogged account.

 

Spoiler

Actually I'm sad to observe that Reddit post was unfortunately wrong because when Catherine's chip shorted out, Simon was trapped inside that launch room because his Omnitool was no longer functional. Oops. If only he didn't freak out, then he and Catherine could've moved on to the room before and mounted a new plan just to keep themselves occupied.

 

Other than that, I'd play SOMA again sometime, but probably in Safe Mode because having to evade those motherfuckers could become a time-consuming ordeal, given the fact that I died so many times, and I no longer need to prove myself since I've already beaten it in Normal Mode. Just absorbing the story elements and bits I might have missed the last time, and making different decisions give it a lot of replay value.

[Quintus 5,545]

You gotta admit, you don't get many games with a storyline and dramatic execution as good as SOMA. 

 

It's the things you don't first appreciate, such as those trench lift sequences. They're the longest lifts ever in games, but they are gripping, every metre. In my playthrough I eventually moved to headphones and lights out in the game's second half. The descent of those lifts felt fucking eerie, and just the magnitude of what was happening.

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,304]

A lesser development team would've made it either a loud shoot 'em up, or an obnoxious QTE game because for some reason that's what people think story-based games are meant to be. SOMA gets the balance just right. It feels very Half-Life, too, with all its dark, creepy liminals and computer interface puzzles. It's not quite as dynamic as HL in its mechanics though because Simon isn't called upon to jump much.

 

Gotta add though, there were some bits I could only get through with the aid of the IGN walkthrough, especially outside the facility in the open areas where I got lost so easily. Theta Maintenance was a pain in the arse, too. SOMA doesn't spoonfeed your objectives in writing like Alan Wake II – you really have to listen carefully to Catherine's instructions.

[Quintus 5,545]

I remember being so thoroughly absorbed during those deep sea bed sequences at the very, very bottom of the Mariana Trench, I sort of went into survival intuition mode and felt my way through it on my own. It was fucking grim. It did feel like one of the most realistic and naturally lethal 'extra terrestrial' environments I've experienced in games, it really got to me.

 

The ending is so good. It's poignant asf but also extremely satisfying. You go up to bed afterward, with it in bubbling through your mind. It's sci-fi to fuck, but like the very best stuff - it feels plausible!

 

I say SOMA is one of those one-off lightning in a bottle entries.

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,304]

My brain is filth, so of course I'm wondering whether Simon 4 ever tried to hit on Ark Catherine or did she just friendzone him for thousands of years. So much time to kill, might as well have some fun with it.

[Quintus 5,545]

Sure. They're still out there now.