What is the last video game you played?

[Jill Sandwich 11,208]

The button handle

[Jill Sandwich 11,208]

Taking a break from novels for a short bit so I can feel as if I'm on a holiday in South America with Shadow of the Tomb Raider. I played most of this for close to 40 hours on PS5, and now I've done about 27 hours on PC. I probably won't make it to 40 hours on this playthrough because it was easier having solved all the same tombs a year ago, although I did forget the strategy for some and struggled to find my groove yet again. I'll probably revisit this one again sometime on the hardest setting "One With the Jungle". My first playthrough was on Easy, and this current one is on Normal. I'm also trying to get to 100% game completion, which I struggled to do on the PS version. It's hard because some collectibles are so well hidden, that even with the beacon activated, there's just no obvious way to get to them without a guidebook, which I might invest in those for this particular series. I left Rise of the Tomb Raider behind on some DLC on the PC version a few months back, so I'll have to go back to that one and finish it off. Then I can try SOTTR in New Game+ mode.

 

I want to see how Alan Wake II goes on my PC. That one went well on PS5 a year ago, but I haven't had time to try out everything. I really loved the moodiness of Alan Wake II. Not quite as satisfying as the first game where all you had to do was kill shadow guys, but the story in the second one was interesting. I took a break from RE9 because I ran into some bits that were too damn hard, and I feel guilty for not finishing it.

[Xander Harris 9,737]

I put about 7 hours into Outlaws. It's alright. Nothing that has me particularly enthralled, but as something to flick on for a bit, it's fine.

 

I do have many issues with it. It's confusing, for starters. The worlds are too big to navigate. Because it's Open World, I usually have no idea where to go or what to do. The clumsy radar system, which I just cannot figure out, doesn't help much at all. This is what ruins Open World games for me. They make them way too big and I just become lost and confused. Do they want me to just live my life in the game and learn to navigate the planet? The Spider-Man games are open world but they're also pretty much limited to the island of Manhattan, so I can generally figure out navigation. I don't know what the hell is going on here.

 

I lost my bike speeder, I had no idea you can summon it with the directional button because there's no training for any of the gameplay, so I was running for seemingly miles toward a goal, and as I got there, two clumsy A.I. speeders crashed into me even though I was on the side of the road, taking me out. I also had to turn the difficulty down because I was dying over and over again in the main story. I thought I'd never escape the Imperial station.

 

I'm just not very good at video games so I prefer to have it on the Easy Mode, what they now call Story Mode or something, as if they're sparing you from feeling like a pathetic gamer by not calling it Easy. This game really pushes stealth, which gets old real fast and rather than sneaking and waiting for an opening, which may or may not even work out, you want to just get into gunfights, but the combat is clumsy (it may improve with upgrades like these games tend to have), and the A.I. just kicks the shit out of me. There are Stormtroopers with shields and huge bazookas, and I have a little pea shooter. It's just me and my dog Vs. 1500 troopers in all directions. So yeah, I got my ass handed to me.

No really interesting characters yet and I've met plenty. The various people and aliens are as memorable as the Stormtroopers. None of them are attractive either. They're fat, ugly, bald. Why are there no attractive people in the galaxy? They also tend to just stand or sit there like zombies with a blank stare. This game is supposed to be State of the Art and the environments are certainly huge, but why are all the residents of this world so technically retarded? I know it's all fake but given how much effort they seem to put into the landscaping and wildlife, details you may not ever even notice if you didn't leave the towns, they could at least animate the humanoid population a bit more.

 

Story is basically you're a crook with a space dog and you have to accept or reject jobs from various mobster types, deal with factions where if you're not on their good side, they're all trying to kill you (they're all trying to kill me), fix your ship, upgrade your bike speeder, and for some reason end up on an Imperial station. I actually quite liked the level aside from the difficulty in the gunfights and stealth, but I don't even recall why I was there to begin with, or why I left with an alien head in a tank. Oh and you also have a sonic screwdriver for the doors, and tapping the clicker for that thing also gets real old real fast. I haven't figured out a way to skip that like the stupid picture puzzles.

[Quintus 6,556]

I couldn't get past the bare-fisted knockout bonks of helmeted enemies, so I never considered buying it purely based on that.

[Edmilson 12,417]

This one never interested me... I don't really care for the mobster/criminal underbelly/mafia/bounty hunting/etc side of Star Wars. I'm more of a Jedi type. Which reminds me that I need to play the sequel to that Jedi game starring Joker from the Gotham show (what is this thing of Jedis in Star Wars also doing Jokers?). Played the first one back in those Covidian days and it was pretty good. The sequel is pretty cheap on the PS Store.

[Xander Harris 9,737]

Jedi 2 graphically looked better to me than this, and of course it's also a superior game overall. This does basically repackage its gameplay without the Jedi stuff. Instead of the droid, you have a dog. The character also has remarkable acrobatic abilities and climbs the same walls and grates that Cal did, but he was a Jedi, not a 90 pound chick. She has Buffy like powers. Same sort of navigation, but now when you take the ship, you can actually fly it, which controls horribly. 

[Rachael Foley 10,198]

3 hours ago, Xander Harris said:

I put about 7 hours into Outlaws. It's alright. Nothing that has me particularly enthralled, but as something to flick on for a bit, it's fine.

 

I do have many issues with it. It's confusing, for starters. The worlds are too big to navigate. Because it's Open World, I usually have no idea where to go or what to do. The clumsy radar system, which I just cannot figure out, doesn't help much at all. This is what ruins Open World games for me. They make them way too big and I just become lost and confused. Do they want me to just live my life in the game and learn to navigate the planet? The Spider-Man games are open world but they're also pretty much limited to the island of Manhattan, so I can generally figure out navigation. I don't know what the hell is going on here.

 

I lost my bike speeder, I had no idea you can summon it with the directional button because there's no training for any of the gameplay, so I was running for seemingly miles toward a goal, and as I got there, two clumsy A.I. speeders crashed into me even though I was on the side of the road, taking me out. I also had to turn the difficulty down because I was dying over and over again in the main story. I thought I'd never escape the Imperial station.

 

I'm just not very good at video games so I prefer to have it on the Easy Mode, what they now call Story Mode or something, as if they're sparing you from feeling like a pathetic gamer by not calling it Easy. This game really pushes stealth, which gets old real fast and rather than sneaking and waiting for an opening, which may or may not even work out, you want to just get into gunfights, but the combat is clumsy (it may improve with upgrades like these games tend to have), and the A.I. just kicks the shit out of me. There are Stormtroopers with shields and huge bazookas, and I have a little pea shooter. It's just me and my dog Vs. 1500 troopers in all directions. So yeah, I got my ass handed to me.

No really interesting characters yet and I've met plenty. The various people and aliens are as memorable as the Stormtroopers. None of them are attractive either. They're fat, ugly, bald. Why are there no attractive people in the galaxy? They also tend to just stand or sit there like zombies with a blank stare. This game is supposed to be State of the Art and the environments are certainly huge, but why are all the residents of this world so technically retarded? I know it's all fake but given how much effort they seem to put into the landscaping and wildlife, details you may not ever even notice if you didn't leave the towns, they could at least animate the humanoid population a bit more.

 

Story is basically you're a crook with a space dog and you have to accept or reject jobs from various mobster types, deal with factions where if you're not on their good side, they're all trying to kill you (they're all trying to kill me), fix your ship, upgrade your bike speeder, and for some reason end up on an Imperial station. I actually quite liked the level aside from the difficulty in the gunfights and stealth, but I don't even recall why I was there to begin with, or why I left with an alien head in a tank. Oh and you also have a sonic screwdriver for the doors, and tapping the clicker for that thing also gets real old real fast. I haven't figured out a way to skip that like the stupid picture puzzles.

You can just turn the puzzles off completely I think.

[Xander Harris 9,737]

[Edmilson 12,417]

4 hours ago, Xander Harris said:

Jedi 2 graphically looked better to me than this, and of course it's also a superior game overall. This does basically repackage its gameplay without the Jedi stuff. Instead of the droid, you have a dog. The character also has remarkable acrobatic abilities and climbs the same walls and grates that Cal did, but he was a Jedi, not a 90 pound chick. She has Buffy like powers. Same sort of navigation, but now when you take the ship, you can actually fly it, which controls horribly. 

I liked that scene in Jedi 1 where you have a vision where Cal and his young padawans are caught by the Empire and he is turned into an Inquisitor. Didn't know Star Wars games could be dark and disturbing.

[Xander Harris 9,737]

The storyline in Jedi was great, unlike Outlaws. You can forget any type of Order 66 Flashback or romantic Russian Nightsister girlfriend. It’s a total disaster. I might flick it on tomorrow and see if I can trade some goods to a merchant.

 

Update: I'm over 50% through the main game, which improves a lot once you go to Tatooine. All the earlier stuff on the previous planet was pretty stupid and pointless, particularly by comparison, and as insane as it is to take on various Imperial bases, sneak into Jabba's palace, defeat the rancor etc., it's an orgy of traditional Star Wars, and the reason you'd play a SW game. The Tatooine map is so detailed and authentic to the movies. I've played it too much to the point of a migraine. I will retire.

[Xander Harris 9,737]

I got to the end of Outlaws and it actually got pretty good, but then there’s a game-ruining ending where you have to evade the droid and hit switches, which has proven to be impossible. Reading YouTube comments, it seems like this is a point many people also couldn’t clear, so the game is over for me now. I can’t beat difficult levels.

[Rachael Foley 10,198]

4 minutes ago, Xander Harris said:

I got to the end of Outlaws and it actually got pretty good, but then there’s a game-ruining ending where you have to evade the droid and hit switches, which has proven to be impossible. Reading YouTube comments, it seems like this is a point many people also couldn’t clear, so the game is over for me now. I can’t beat difficult levels.

Yeah that caused me to swear a lot, though I figured out how to beat it. (There was either some mechanic I had forgotten about or previously used little of.)

[Xander Harris 9,737]

It says to “Whistle” and I had no idea what that even meant. It’s apparently calling the bike speeder, D Pad right button. But when I do it, Kay doesn’t whistle and the screen keeps saying the speeder isn’t available. Regardless, even if I’m hiding and always in stealth mode, at some point the droid catches me. He sticks to you like glue, as if he has some mystical sonar and knows he should be only in the area of the room where you are.

 

It’s like when you enter enemy territory and they just magically all know you’re there and the laser fire and speeders start coming at you from all directions, and you have to go that way to reach a checkpoint. That sort of thing and the insanely bad stealth where enemies suddenly pick up on you and it’s a 90 pound Latina taking on endless waves of soldiers with machine guns, bombs and personal shields make the game stupidly frustrating. Even in “Story” mode, it’s death over and over and over again.

 

One time I hit all three switches and went back to the main panel and it did nothing, and he caught me. And apparently there’s a second room after this one that’s even harder. The hell with you. It was fun while it lasted.

 

 

EDIT: I managed to beat it after taking a break, and holy shit was it hard. It really is dumb luck that you’re able to avoid Indy 5. What a pain in the ass. I also didn’t Whistle at all. When I did get it to work, it was completely counter-productive. He’s already glued to you anywhere you are in the room, all you can do is run around in circles over and over again like an insane nutjob and then dive across the middle to the other side and hide behind a thing.

[Xander Harris 9,737]

I got the Lego Batman Saga. Pretty cool so far. I found a bunch of references to the older Batman movies. At some point you can get whatever suit and car you prefer. It’s a weird mishmash of the various adaptations. I like just wandering around the city, beating people up and collecting coins. Now I need to turn it off because I’m getting a migraine.

 

[Jill Sandwich 11,208]

 

 

[Jill Sandwich 11,208]

Holy mother of Christ, the actress who plays Grace is unbelievably gorgeous. She looks different to Grace, whose look was based on another very beautiful face model, but they could've used this gal's face instead and it still would've worked.

 

 

 

[Xander Harris 9,737]

I started Hogwart Legacy. It’s decent. Something to just toss on and do random quests. I can’t look at it for too long because it gives me a migraine. It’s one of the reasons I don’t play those Arkham games. The music is good, but the voice work is terrible and there’s so damn much blabbing. Just shut up and let me wander around collecting trinkets. I got sorted into Slytherin and I’m good with it.

 

I know this is inherently an absurd franchise where a magic school in a castle with all kinds of booby traps and things that can kill you is located next to a forest filled with monsters and demons, but I also know JK Rowling went to great lengths explaining how the Wizarding World was kept contained with Muggles being totally out of the loop. But the existence of these huge fire breathing dragons in the world seems impossible to contain. 

[Jill Sandwich 11,208]

It always felt like the biggest narrative struggle in the whole franchise was grounding it in a familiar real world Earth, but regular people aren't privvy to any of it, and it'd all be beyond their comprehension, so there's no point to it existing anyway.

[Xander Harris 9,737]

Couldn’t the wizards have prevented 9/11

[Jill Sandwich 11,208]

They're lazy.

[Edmilson 12,417]

More like they don't care. They didn't intervene in WWI, WWII, and every other tragedy, war, etc., that happened with Muggles. In the third book, Harry is reading a schoolbook on History of Magic that says that Muggles were hunting witches during the Middle Ages, especially children who hadn't developed their powers yet, so they created the International Statute of Magic Secrecy (or something) that stated that their most sacred law is to never reveal themselves to the Muggle world, no matter what.

 

Edit: AI said this:

 

Quote

The International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy is a foundational law in the Harry Potter universe, drafted in 1689 and officially ratified in 1692. Enacted by the International Confederation of Wizards, it forces the global magical community to hide its existence from non-magical people ("Muggles") to protect wizards from historical persecution and witch hunts. [1, 2, 3]

The legislation reshaped the entire wizarding world and instituted several rules that govern magical society: [1, 2, 3]

• Government Responsibility: Local governing bodies (such as the British Ministry of Magic) are strictly required to conceal magical communities, villages, and activities from Muggle populations. [1, 2]
• Clause 73: Added in 1750, this specific clause dictates that each magical governing body is responsible for hiding and controlling magical beasts and beings within its borders. If a creature harms or draws the attention of Muggles, that nation's government faces disciplinary action. [1]
• Everyday Concealment: The statute enforces strict guidelines for wizards while interacting with Muggles, including strict dress codes and laws against participating in Muggle sports or revealing magical abilities. [1]

 

7 hours ago, Xander Harris said:

I know this is inherently an absurd franchise where a magic school in a castle with all kinds of booby traps and things that can kill you is located next to a forest filled with monsters and demons, but I also know JK Rowling went to great lengths explaining how the Wizarding World was kept contained with Muggles being totally out of the loop. But the existence of these huge fire breathing dragons in the world seems impossible to contain. 

Hermione explains in one of the books (don't know which one, I think it's the third or the fourth one) that there are a lot of spells that prevent Muggles from wandering into Hogwarts territory. One of them makes Muggles see the castle as somewhere decrepit and ruined, so they wouldn't want to go in there. Another makes the Muggles remember something urgent they must do ASAP whenever they're getting too close, so they leave right away.

 

So, if one day you find yourself wandering around the most (seemingly) desolate parts of the Scottish Highlands, you will remember that you forgot to turn off the oven when you left.

[Jill Sandwich 11,208]

4 hours ago, Edmilson said:

Muggles were hunting witches during the Middle Ages, especially children who hadn't developed their powers yet,

 

It's a shame that the decent normal people weren't able to finish the job in annihilating these magical freaks.

[Jill Sandwich 11,208]

I'm sure Jay will go "noooo that's meant for the ASMR thread!", but oh-ho don't be too hasty, my OCD friend. I've placed it here because this thread gets greater levels of traffic.

 

Anyhoo, it's the Ashley face model from Resident Evil 4 Remake doing ASMR!

 

 

[Xander Harris 9,737]

[Jill Sandwich 11,208]

I started playing Heavy Rain on PC because I need to knock out some games I know I'm only ever going to play once just so I can finally delete them from my SSD, and these QuanticDream ones are first off the list. At first I thought it was about to turn out to be a real stinker, a sort of morbid child disappearance at the mall simulator, and parts of it do friggin drag. And I was about to shut it off and delete it when the game was refusing to respond to commands from the right joystick on my controller, but after some Redditing, I found that you need to shut off the so-called "dead zone" in the Steam controller settings, so I did that and the game became more playable.

 

There is some entertaining shit going on here, like the private detective getting into a fist fight with some degenerate in a prostitute's apartment. There's also an FBI agent with Batman style Detective Mode (is he from the future?)

 

I'll probably finish this since it's an easy narrative driven run that doesn't demand you spend ages on puzzle solving. It's just "move the plot along". And it's a 2010 game and I like that era with it's awkward jankiness.

 

Then I can finally delete it, along with some other QD games I have, and install some new ones like First Light.

[Quintus 6,556]

 

 

 

[Jill Sandwich 11,208]

Omfg

 

Utterly depressing game, but moments where the FBI agent is using his advanced VR to investigate the case like Saga Anderson's "Mind Place" in Alan Wake II are okay. Looks more like something from Minority Report.

 

The score is good. Very much a Howard Shore thriller pastiche.

[Quintus 6,556]

 

 

Lynchian.

 

[Jill Sandwich 11,208]

I just deleted a few games from my SSD including Resident Evil 4 Remake, RE3R, RE Village, Quantum Break, Control, and Batman Arkham Asylum. Finished them and probably won't replay them for a good while. It's freed up my storage a bit, but I still want to clear some more games out so I can make way for the Jedi games and the God of War games, which are all huge storage hogs.