What Are You Playing Right Now, Part 2: Daggerfall

[Lord Raziere]

I'm playing Pokemon Fire Ash, a pokemon fan game where your supposed to go through all seven regions that Ash has gone through as well as the orange islands, basically going through his journey but being able to make your own decisions about it. the gym leader battles are interesting because you have to select only up to the amount of pokemon the gym leader uses instead of being able to use your full team, forcing you to battle on equal terms and a couple of them make you battle with only ONE- this also leads to cool situations where you can choose to put in LESS pokemon than the gym leader and beat all their pokemon without a backup as a form of styling on them like I did with Erika and my charmeleon. I'm mostly sticking to Ash's team but making slight alterations when I want to, like not catching butterfree and instead going for a sandshrew.

I'm only in Kanto right now, but I'm liking it. thing is how the game handles you getting certain pokemon is through certain routes having story-based events it seems, while the points where he gives away saying butterfree or primeape is that there are optional trainers you can leave them with for certain rewards, like the Gran prix is an optional thing to train up one pokemon for you, any pokemon you have not just a primeape. which I like. I don't know how it will handle me going to another region, because while Kanto is a little different, its still just as or almost as large as usual kanto and the leveling system is the same, and I suspect that the next region will just have low level pokemon as usual and it will be completely up to me whether I start over with new pokemon. I don't know how my pikachu will be handled though, so it'll be curious seeing how that turns out.

[warty goblin]

Right, so Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order is a game that exists. I would cautiously say that it's basically ok-ish.

The intro is legit good in a super-linear sort of way, then you end up in some rando big open environment you have to do the explore-and-platform thing in. This is fine, but absolutely not one drop better than that. There's wallrunning, which is cool, but then I remember that it's in third person, I lack a jetpack, I'm not moving ten zillion miles miles an hour while headshotting some fool and calling in my giant robot buddy from orbit for some serious kicking of ass and... yeah, it's nowhere near as awesome as Titanfall 2. Granted, to do that in TF2 you needed teh hardc0r3 skillz, and in Fallen Order you need to press a button, so there's definitely a difference in intended audience.

Then there's the combat. Because heaven forbid any game not be like Dark Souls, this is another game about dodge-rolling around enemies like a homicidal breakdancer whose sleep habits are of inexplicably existential relevance to every hostile lifeform in a 10 mile radius. It's not even a fresh spin on it like the Surge (or the Surge 2) a game about strategically dismembering your foes as some sort of Techno-Achilles*. Which would be a really good fit for a game about a Jedi, but no such luck. You can cut giant rats into neat glowing halves, but the human body remains stubbornly impervious to lightsabers. Sadness.

Also you spend a lot of time cutting giant rats in half. Question, when was the last time you were entertained by killing giant rats in any way, shape, or form? They're like the low rent version of killing wolves, itself an activity so utterly played out as to make a WWII shooter about D-Day look startlingly original.

Then there's the bit where the standard Dark Souls death mechanics fit very badly around platforming. Usually the platforming bits (or at least the ones where you can die) are gated off from the fighty bits, so you can save before the platforming. And there's checkpoints within the longer platforming sections, so you don't have to redo the whole thing if you mistime one jump - you know, actually good checkpoint design. But if you get killed by an enemy, it's back to the last save point because screw good checkpointing, there's Dark Souls to rip off. But the actual platforming is fairly acceptable, in a sort of also-ran Tomb Raider sort of way.

Also there's a story. I find it a challenge to care in the slightest. As with everything else set between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, unless you repeatedly jam a screwdriver into your hippocampus, it's entirely obvious how this is going to end. Sure, you get to play as a Jedi, which is vaguely cool, except that the only genuinely cool Jedi was Obi-Wan**, and you are definitely not Obi-Wan.

Really, I can't come up with any convincing reason to play this instead of, say, any of the Tomb Raider reboots. The 2013 reboot had better platforming (and the series improves on this front), a story that at least flirts with being engaging, and frankly I think I prefer the combat as well. TR reboot is a quite satisfying third person shooter, and even simplistic the melee combat is, there's a certain visceral satisfaction to smashing murderous cultists in their murderous cultist skulls with an ice pick, certainly more than is present in whacking a stormtrooper with a flashlight until either you or he runs out of breath and/or dies. Which isn't to say that Fallen Order is bad, it's just sort of there in a harmless but sort of bland way. Like substandard chocolate pudding.

*A concept nearly awesome enough to make up for the dreary drudgery of beating the crap out of the same six dudes in the same order however many times it takes to actually beat the one hard fight before the next checkpoint. Almost. My view is that we invented checkpoints for a reason, and that reason is that having to beat up the same six dudes fifteen times before you beat the next fight is, and always has been, crappy game design.

**Yeah I said it. Whatcha gonna do? I've got the high ground!

[Brookshw]

Picked up the Resident Evil 2 remake. I'm pretty happy with it. Looks good, pretty faithful to the original. Zombies die in 4+ headshots and there's no winning a grapple unless you have an item which is kind of a bummer (but I see why they did that). Overall I'm happy with the purchase.

And thanks to Steam's autumn sale, just picked up Darksiders 3 and Evil Within 2. I'm looking forward to them!

[Gnoman]

Go for the legs instead of the head. It usually takes fewer bullets that way, and a one-legged zombie is pretty much neutralized.

[Brookshw]

Go for the legs instead of the head. It usually takes fewer bullets that way, and a one-legged zombie is pretty much neutralized.

Now that you say it that sounds really familiar. Would you happen to know if things left behind (i.e., never collected) in an "A" run through are available to the other character during the corresponding "B" run through?

[Rodin]

Now that you say it that sounds really familiar. Would you happen to know if things left behind (i.e., never collected) in an "A" run through are available to the other character during the corresponding "B" run through?

They are not, because the B run isn't actually playing through the A route with a different character. It's an entirely different setup, with re-done enemy placements, items, etc. It's basically hard mode.

[Brookshw]

They are not, because the B run isn't actually playing through the A route with a different character. It's an entirely different setup, with re-done enemy placements, items, etc. It's basically hard mode.

Hmmm.....I recall there was some overlap (emphasis on some) in the original. Is my memory failing?

[Rodin]

Hmmm.....I recall there was some overlap (emphasis on some) in the original. Is my memory failing?

Never played the original, so can't speak for it. In the remake, the premise of the B run is that you're controlling the Leon/Claire that you meet at the side gate of the police station. They eventually get in, but their counterpart has already left. The various cutscenes from the police station have already happened, but the station hasn't been looted like you would expect if the player had gone through it and key items like the medallions have not been used. The locations of some of the key items have been moved around, however, to make it so the player has to explore the police station all over again. Enemy spawns are different as well.

The Claire/Leon routes eventually diverge at roughly the same point they did in your A run, but loot and enemy spawns have still been moved around and the puzzles are more difficult than they were before.

[heronbpv]

Hmmm.....I recall there was some overlap (emphasis on some) in the original. Is my memory failing?

In the original, yes. The side B would be influenced by some of the things you did by your side A run. Not so much in the remake.

[oxybe]

so I went to pay bills today and saw that it was black friday sales.

Decided to go to EB games and see if there was anything interesting. Nope. No sales stood out to me, but I did manage to find a used copy of the Switch FFXII Zodiac Age port (I never finished it on the PS2 since a former roommate stole my copy before I could finish it) and...

Final Fantasy Origins.

It seems SE, for whatever mad reason, decided to reprint PS1 greatest hits of some of their games earlier this year and I wasn't aware of this. All the old PS1 FFs, 7-9, Anthology, Chronicles, Origins, Chrono Cross... with that familiarly hideous red on green "GREATEST HITS" label but a updated SquareEnix branding rather then Squaresoft. At first I thought our EB games had stumbled upon some lost warehouse stash of PS1 games, but no... SE just decided to reprint some PS1 CDs.

Yeah it was a few impulse buys but i'm happy. I've got Pokemon and DW XI to play for now, and FFXII for the christmas break.

[Gnoman]

so I went to pay bills today and saw that it was black friday sales.

Decided to go to EB games and see if there was anything interesting. Nope. No sales stood out to me, but I did manage to find a used copy of the Switch FFXII Zodiac Age port (I never finished it on the PS2 since a former roommate stole my copy before I could finish it) and...

Final Fantasy Origins.

It seems SE, for whatever mad reason, decided to reprint PS1 greatest hits of some of their games earlier this year and I wasn't aware of this. All the old PS1 FFs, 7-9, Anthology, Chronicles, Origins, Chrono Cross... with that familiarly hideous red on green "GREATEST HITS" label but a updated SquareEnix branding rather then Squaresoft. At first I thought our EB games had stumbled upon some lost warehouse stash of PS1 games, but no... SE just decided to reprint some PS1 CDs.

Yeah it was a few impulse buys but i'm happy. I've got Pokemon and DW XI to play for now, and FFXII for the christmas break.

Squeenix has been selling those on their site for years. They're either from right after the merger or from the PS3 (which was PS1 compatible) era.

[halfeye]

I started a replay of Kotor2, it's very strange on a 16:9 screen. I'd forgotten most of it, so that was sort of good, but it's very on rails, there's a lot of space to wander about in, but you get nowhere until you open the right door.

[LibraryOgre]

I started a replay of Kotor2, it's very strange on a 16:9 screen. I'd forgotten most of it, so that was sort of good, but it's very on rails, there's a lot of space to wander about in, but you get nowhere until you open the right door.

The first part, especially, is like that. TBH, once you get away from Telos, I might have preferred a bit MORE rails, because there's an ideal order to do things in, and you can miss a lot if you don't handle them right.

I'd also love a version that wasn't quite so brokenly rushed... even with the restoration packages, there's things I'd like a bit smoother.

[oxybe]

Squeenix has been selling those on their site for years. They're either from right after the merger or from the PS3 (which was PS1 compatible) era.

this is the first time i see those reprints. I rarely order things online (no credit card) so checking the SE online store would've never occured to me.

For whatever reason our local EB games had gotten a shipment of them. Still, it's a happy find for me, as I never got to play the oddity that is FFII.

[Yora]

I've come back to Darkest Dungeon for a third time. I think I am actually doing really well this time. I'm in week 30 and had only a single Level 0 character die and only had to retreat once when I forgot what thing opens a gateway to the void where you have to fight an eldritch abomination from beyond the starts. I even fought two bosses and beat them both at the first try. Last time I only ever managed to kill a single boss once after a lot of tries.

Though I also noticed why this game feels so frustrating. Even when you're doing really well, it still seems like you're constantly seconds away from disaster. It's actually really brilliant when a game manages to make you think its much harder than it actually is, but Darkest Dungeon might be too good at it. Giving the players the impression that they just barely made it over a difficulty spike is great. But instead of giving you a boost of confidence as you continue, the difficulty never goes down. It seems to be constantly up between 90 and 100%.
Another problem is that this game doesn't really have much of a sense of progress. When you upgrade the characters' equipment and skills, their numbers go up, but when you go to higher level dungeons you encounter the same enemies whose numbers also go up. I don't notice any difference between playing with a Level 0 group or a Level 3 group. Gameplay appears to be identical. And the game constantly generates you more dungeons of every level all the time, so you never clear out anything.
As I understand it, this game is about grinding to get the higher level upgrades unlocked and to level up a dozen or so characters so that you can go to the Darkest Dungeon. The 30 second gameplay loop of the game is great, but I feel it doesn't have any sense of progression. (I'm not too surprised only 2% of players on PS4 completed the game.)

[IthilanorStPete]

Though I also noticed why this game feels so frustrating. Even when you're doing really well, it still seems like you're constantly seconds away from disaster. It's actually really brilliant when a game manages to make you think its much harder than it actually is, but Darkest Dungeon might be too good at it. Giving the players the impression that they just barely made it over a difficulty spike is great. But instead of giving you a boost of confidence as you continue, the difficulty never goes down. It seems to be constantly up between 90 and 100%.
Another problem is that this game doesn't really have much of a sense of progress. When you upgrade the characters' equipment and skills, their numbers go up, but when you go to higher level dungeons you encounter the same enemies whose numbers also go up. I don't notice any difference between playing with a Level 0 group or a Level 3 group. Gameplay appears to be identical. And the game constantly generates you more dungeons of every level all the time, so you never clear out anything.
As I understand it, this game is about grinding to get the higher level upgrades unlocked and to level up a dozen or so characters so that you can go to the Darkest Dungeon. The 30 second gameplay loop of the game is great, but I feel it doesn't have any sense of progression. (I'm not too surprised only 2% of players on PS4 completed the game.)

That's a good articulation of how I felt about Darkest Dungeon. I didn't play it for long because it was so stressful to play.

[Gnoman]

Played through Katamari Damacy Reroll on the Switch. The higher resolution graphics helped out a ton compared to the original game, but the physics felt kind of strange compared to the original, and I'd forgotten some of the more obnoxious constellation missions.

[Man_Over_Game]

I'm really getting into Wizard of Legend.

While it's definitely one of my new favorite games, it's hard to feel much advancement with each run. I sometimes get new finisher spells to start with, and I can unlock new starting gear, but that's all that I seem to be able to unlock. I can add new *starting* stuff, but I haven't actually found anything that changes how future runs work.

But, to be fair, I haven't even defeated the archmage once yet, so maybe I've just been sucking so much that I haven't gotten the cool stuff yet.


Question, for those who are experienced with the game: Do you feel that different playstyles are rewarding enough? That is, do you feel that the same playstyles/combos are integral to winning, or are the spells balanced enough to reward almost any type of good player?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Also been playing obscene amounts of Borderlands 3. I'm a Zane player, and I can definitely attest to what people are saying about Amara being a lot stronger than Zane. Still, though, Zane is definitely the most fun I've ever had in a First-Peson-Shooter, even if it is the most stressful gaming experience of my life.

[Cespenar]

Though I also noticed why this game feels so frustrating. Even when you're doing really well, it still seems like you're constantly seconds away from disaster. It's actually really brilliant when a game manages to make you think its much harder than it actually is, but Darkest Dungeon might be too good at it. Giving the players the impression that they just barely made it over a difficulty spike is great. But instead of giving you a boost of confidence as you continue, the difficulty never goes down. It seems to be constantly up between 90 and 100%.
Another problem is that this game doesn't really have much of a sense of progress. When you upgrade the characters' equipment and skills, their numbers go up, but when you go to higher level dungeons you encounter the same enemies whose numbers also go up. I don't notice any difference between playing with a Level 0 group or a Level 3 group. Gameplay appears to be identical. And the game constantly generates you more dungeons of every level all the time, so you never clear out anything.
As I understand it, this game is about grinding to get the higher level upgrades unlocked and to level up a dozen or so characters so that you can go to the Darkest Dungeon. The 30 second gameplay loop of the game is great, but I feel it doesn't have any sense of progression. (I'm not too surprised only 2% of players on PS4 completed the game.)

Yep, mostly the same here. In my two playthroughs (with years in between), I got bored of the grind both times and left it before taking on the Darkest Dungeon. I've nothing but positive things to say about almost every other aspect of the game, but the pacing really hurts.

[Brookshw]

I just realized that Steam does not have "kid friendly", or some equivalent, tag to help me search games. Now, I realize that there is some variance between parents on what could be considered "kid friendly", as well as age appropriate and for which ages. I realize that, as a parent, its my responsibility to choose which, if any, and when, my kids should be exposed to what games.

But for the love of gaming gods everywhere, at least give me some kind of initial sort or filter!

Sigh......maybe just buy a nintendo.

[LibraryOgre]

I just realized that Steam does not have "kid friendly", or some equivalent, tag to help me search games. Now, I realize that there is some variance between parents on what could be considered "kid friendly", as well as age appropriate and for which ages. I realize that, as a parent, its my responsibility to choose which, if any, and when, my kids should be exposed to what games.

But for the love of gaming gods everywhere, at least give me some kind of initial sort or filter!

Sigh......maybe just buy a nintendo.

Do they have ESRB ratings posted?

[Brookshw]

Do they have ESRB ratings posted?

Not as a searchable function as far as I can tell.

[warty goblin]

Not as a searchable function as far as I can tell.

It would be sort of useless on Steam, since somewhere between a substantial portion and an outright majority of titles aren't rated in the first place. Including a lot of games that really would be appropriate for all ages

[Brookshw]

It would be sort of useless on Steam, since somewhere between a substantial portion and an outright majority of titles aren't rated in the first place. Including a lot of games that really would be appropriate for all ages

If we're talking about an official rating a'la "M for mature", sure. But there seems to be little reason they couldn't offer something by way of tags.

[Erloas]

I wonder if it is simply a matter of deniability/liability. If they have specific searches for kid friendly games but no real safeguard against also accessing non-kid friendly games, as well as the whole "kids using their parents CC without secondary verification" issues that come from "the non-primary account holder using the account." So it is probably easier to just say "only adults with their own CCs are using our service" than saying "there are multiple users of this same account and they need to have different access/restrictions."

Not to say that having those things wouldn't be a good thing, and searching by rating/intended audience (for those without ESRB ratings) would be good... but you know, lawyers and all that.


So I found after a little while that I really wasn't having fun playing Long War mod on XCOM. I know XCOM is know for well... "that's XCOM" in people dying, but being in the best positions a map can give you and still having the weakest enemies one-shot anyone on your team regularly just wasn't any fun. It's one thing to loose characters to strong enemies or for being out of position or the occasional crit, but not to regular shots at any time no matter what you've done, and not even "they're wounded for weeks" but outright dead from full health.

But then after going back to regular and I haven't lost anyone yet, it almost seems too easy. That might not continue to be the case, as I don't think I'm that far in, but we'll see. I do seem to be perpetually out of money though. I did reload one soldier loss, but that was more of a "I wonder what this would do" mechanics testing event.
Might give the Long War another shot once I've got the system down and beat the base game.

[warty goblin]

If we're talking about an official rating a'la "M for mature", sure. But there seems to be little reason they couldn't offer something by way of tags.

I mean they could, but the tags in Steam are kind of a hot mess. Particularly for popular games, which tend to get tagged with anything and everything remotely applicable.

[factotum]

I mean they could, but the tags in Steam are kind of a hot mess. Particularly for popular games, which tend to get tagged with anything and everything remotely applicable.

I may be wrong, but the tags on Steam games are added by the community, not Valve, AFAIK, so it's not surprising they often don't make sense.

[Anteros]

I'm really getting into Wizard of Legend.

While it's definitely one of my new favorite games, it's hard to feel much advancement with each run. I sometimes get new finisher spells to start with, and I can unlock new starting gear, but that's all that I seem to be able to unlock. I can add new *starting* stuff, but I haven't actually found anything that changes how future runs work.

But, to be fair, I haven't even defeated the archmage once yet, so maybe I've just been sucking so much that I haven't gotten the cool stuff yet.


Question, for those who are experienced with the game: Do you feel that different playstyles are rewarding enough? That is, do you feel that the same playstyles/combos are integral to winning, or are the spells balanced enough to reward almost any type of good player?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Also been playing obscene amounts of Borderlands 3. I'm a Zane player, and I can definitely attest to what people are saying about Amara being a lot stronger than Zane. Still, though, Zane is definitely the most fun I've ever had in a First-Peson-Shooter, even if it is the most stressful gaming experience of my life.

The unlockables are pooled so that you can't unlock everything right at the start. As you unlock more and more you'll start seeing more stuff show up in the town.

There are a lot of different playstyles that can work, but some spells are just objectively much better than others. You pretty much always need at least one spell that hits an area around you and gives you some room to breathe though.

You get a relic for winning that unlocks hard mode, so I always use that. Vampire eyeglasses and the Awe outfit were wonderful for getting started when I was new though since they give a metric ton of HP regen. Also if you can get the map it's probably the most powerful item in the game since most of the difficulty is getting to the bosses rather than the bosses themselves.

[Anonymouswizard]

So in the Steam Sale I bought every Saints Row game that's out on PC. I mean, I have them on Xbox already, but this was the cheapest way to get all the DLC.

I wasn't willing to go through the hassle of slowing down SR2, so I began with SR3, which reminded me of my three big problems with the game: no thin male characters (the character I associate the most with SR2 is an incredibly lanky Asian man with a cockney accent), the way clothing works, and going back to the default character being a white man. I mean, it's cool that we get eight prebuilts now (although still no South Asians I notice), but it starts you off with the white man. I liked how when you started SR2 it gave you a different race as a default, I can't think of any other games that do that (not counting fantasy races).

So I swapped to the forth game, and the addition of superpowers makes it fun enough for me to ignore the lack of changes. In fact I think it works better as a sequel to SR2, I feel like there's a lot more of the serious thar made SR2 great. Yes there's a lot of silly, even more than in SR3, but it all feels like more care has been taken as to how everything fits together and I feel like the main story is being treated as more important.

Plus the silly just fits better in this sort of story. Sure I'm jumping around the place shooting people with a dubstep gun (wub-it launcher?), but the whole game felt like it's taken on that 'classic SF/superhero mixup' and so it fits. Of course there's laser beams, they're aliens! Of course I have a dubstep gun, superheroes have improved mortars with transistors! Of course the POTUS is an Asian woman with a French accent, she saved the country from chaos and radioactive mutants!

Yeah, Asian woman using the French voice, because when I play a game with character creation I have a rule that I play as a woman first. Not only does the industry need more female protagonists, but it's fun to play the 'did they think anybody would actually play as a woman' game.

[Brookshw]

Huh, I was kind of the opposite in terms of preference. SR2 was such a GTA clone, and so dark at times, I didn't much care for it. The goofiness of 3 & 4 really won me over and made me like the series.