Topic: What (Non-PS4) game are you playing??

@Pizzamorg My issues with Witcher 3 are well documented, but boil down to two main things: I didn’t click with Geralt as a character, and the overwhelming open world, in particular the copious icon/question marks populating the map. The gameplay itself wasn’t too much of an issue, but I don’t know if I even made it far enough into it to really get a good feel for the combat. I think I played it for about 5-ish hours, maybe a little more. Got through the initial town, did some side quests, and some flashback sequences, did a few main storyline arcs, and got to an open area and started chasing question marks and ended up at one point underwater trying to get a chest or something and was attacked by some water creature and I was a little lost as to how to fight in the water, so I got frustrated there. Then I figured if all these icons are so random and get me into scenarios that I don’t know how to handle then I just need to throw in the towel since I wasn’t enjoying it. That’s my recollection, but it’s been several years so I might have the details wrong. 😅

I picked up The Legend of Heroes: Trails From Zero on my Switch. I plan on diving deep into that this week while I’m on vacation. As of right now, I’m halfway through Beyond Good and Evil. I’ve been taking my Switch to work and playing the game on my lunch break. My goal is to beat it within the next couple of days.

@Th3solution I am very much a gaming OCD sufferer. If there is a marker on a map, I feel I need to complete it, but it usually always spoils my experience. I am a Ghost of Tsushima stan, but I risked completely ruining that game for myself as I got to the last act, and spent God knows how long ticking off every check box, rather than just riding the momentum wave and just focusing on seeing it through to a natural conclusion. I'd also probably have finished Starfield if I didn't burn myself on the mountain of garbage side "content" (it barely counts as content being honest).

Started playing DiRT 3 on Series X today. I've been in a mood to play a racing game and also something on Xbox on my new TV. It's a great game, although it doesn't have the same charm as DiRT 2. I feel like the sequel is a huge step back, at least in terms of the career mode. There's just not enough variety and there's less freedom in terms of choosing events. Still a lot of fun to play and the game looks gorgeous even if it's over a decade old.

@Bentleyma Like you need more to play...

I struggle being able to play on my PS5 and PS3, let alone yet another console. I have multiple games waiting on me on my PS3.

I've started my replay of Dragon Age 2. Just finished Act 1, roughly 15ish hours in. Feels like I have so much to say and almost nothing to say at the same time.

Much like with my first playthrough, the most striking and defining aspect to Dragon Age 2 is probably how unfinished it all feels. How most quests involve you just clicking on an icon, loading into somewhere, killing one of the same half a dozen or so enemy types in the same half a dozen or so location tile sets, before its quest complete with almost zero narrative dressing at all, as you're fast forwarded through a vague skeleton of a wider story in a completely lifeless world.

In this story you're stuck with just one human preset character where your class choice has almost zero bearing on the story (unless you pick mage) and it feels like an especial shame here, as the opportunities to tell unique stories as a dwarf, or elf or Qunari all seem so perfectly set up here, in the boiling pot of Kirkwall, arguably better set up than any other game and its the one you can't pick a race in.

And yet there are clearly things lost in Inquisition, which I think is a shame. Having a proper tactics screen again to properly shape my companions is great. Companions having unique specialisations to give them clear roles is wonderful, as it makes almost every companion viable to use, whereas in Inquisition I basically felt like I didn't need 90 percent of the companions, using them for unique narrative flavour to quests and then throwing them back in the cupboard the moment it was over. Having an approval system you can see that unlocks unique passives for your companions is great. Being able to bring companions into conversations, to either close them off completely or alter the direction is great. I guess also because the companion pool is smaller, you're more likely to see them having things to say on missions, whereas I feel like so often my companions in Inquisition just stood silently in the background while I did everything.

@Bentleyma Do you make very many good decisions? Kidding, I swear.

Started playing Astral Chain on Switch today. I haven't been using my Switch for a while now so I figured I'd start up a new game now. It's also been a hot minute since I've played a game by Platinum. And this one feels very much like it was made by Platinum. The gameplay is fun and crazy, and the story is rather unique. I'm definitely looking forward to playing more.

Gave Wuthering Waves a go. It's wild this is just a straight Hoyo clone. They literally took the three big ones and smushed them together. Even directly lifted all the UI elements and everything. Wild.

Combat feels great, but also horrible lol

ZZZ has a very simple, defined, rhythm to it. Your primary combos fuel your special attack, and your special attack generally chains back into your primary. Character swapping works as a parry, so you flow from primary, into special, parry into a different character, building up to unleash a party chain attack / an ultimate for maximum damage.

WW has light, heavy, parry and dodge moves, character swapping, abilities, ultimates and the ability to summon enemies you've defeated (so cool by the way). I can't work out what the flow and rhythm to this is at all.

What is the benefit to character swapping, and when should I be doing it? Is there a flow with primaries, light, heavies and abilities I need to be weaving in to my moment to moment?

@LtSarge I really need to play more of Astral Chain at some point. Very cool concept, but I sat the game down after a few hours and never went back.

@Ralizah I'm kinda embarrassed to say that the same thing happened to me lol. But that's because I don't really feel like playing both it and Yakuza: Like a Dragon at the same time. Might return to it later on.

@LtSarge I'm excited to play Like a Dragon at some point, but I've heard it's best to trawl through the 7 previous games first, which is delaying my playthrough a bit, lol.

@Ralizah Honestly, you could play Like a Dragon without having played the previous games. The story is standalone as it doesn't star the characters of the previous games. There will be some references to previous games (in particular Yakuza 6 as this is a direct sequel) but they don't affect the overall story.

Also, if you like turn-based JRPGs, then you will like this game more than the previous ones. Not to mention that the combat system is pretty unique and dynamic. For example, if you attack an enemy, there's a chance they will fall down and then you can follow up with an attack that will do extra damage. Your party members will even do so automatically from time to time. Another example is if you target a far away enemy and you walk towards them in order to perform the attack but there's another enemy in your way, there's a chance that that enemy will block you from getting to your target. This combat system feels more evolved and modern than your typical traditional turn-based system where everyone just stands still all the time. It's really cool!

@LtSarge Frankly, everything about LAD looks way more fun than previous games.

That said, I've heard at least Infinite Wealth features characters from past Yakuza games making fairly significant appearances. But I don't mind waiting to play that one until I've played the rest.

Playing through the remake of Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage right now and really digging it. I've played the original numerous times over the years, but this is my first experience with the original.

It really highlights why Sony stole Nintendo's thunder with the PS1. That console just had the best everything: best RPGs, best fighting games, and, yes, even the best platformers. This is a pretty huge improvement on the Mario 64 formula in almost every way.

Dayum… Legacy of Kain and Soul Reaver just got announced for Evercade!

Started playing Maneater on Series X. Really cool game where you play as a shark in an open world and it's like an RPG where you level up your shark the more you eat. I can imagine the gameplay getting repetitive down the line but the game isn't too long so hopefully it remains compelling until the end. It's just mindless fun, which is something I need right now.

@LtSarge Played and platted this on PS4 earlier in the year after finding a $5 physical copy online.

It's very nostalgic in that it feels like it was ripped from the PS2 era. Kind of janky and low-budget, and it does get repetitive, but it also remembers it's supposed to be a game first and foremost.

Masterpieces are what people buy consoles for, but sometimes you need really greasy fast food to satisfy a particular craving, and this is the gaming equivalent of that.

Got the premium Age Of Mythology Retold pack on Steam and have access to the game. Am in Heaven… one of my favourite ever games redone, and with QoL improvements. It’s so good.

@Ralizah I agree about it feeling like a PS2 era game. But I'll happily take a low-budget game that offers new ideas than a high-budget one that not only takes a long time to develop but is also more of the same. I seriously miss those times when more developers dared to be experimental.