What game are you playing?

[wankerness]

I should note that Strikers and Royal were developed at the same time, so any plot that happened in Royal is barely if not at all mentioned here. Not a real dealbreaker though.

Touching on a subject on how Japanese games trying to sell Japan to the world, Strikers are doing this at the same level as the Yakuza games. A lot of the dialogue is banging on local cuisine and tourist hotspots. These scenes will be on the nose from the view of a cultural outsider. To be fair, they're still kids on vacation, and Osaka fresh takoyaki is pretty awesome.

Oh, that's unfortunate. I was sort of hoping it took place concurrently to Royal since I really liked both counselor man and kasumi (yeah, I know they couldn't be in a sequel).

I got Osaka fresh Takoyaki when I was over there from some random guy with a foodcart. It was alright, the flavor isn't my favorite. I had to try it after all the focus on it in Yakuza 0!! My friend I was with got REALLY mad at the street vendor cause he was talking in a really exaggeratedly slow fashion (in Japanese) to us like that would make us able to understand the language and like we were total idiots (my friend was completely fluent, and I was too stupid to be helped by that, so it pissed one of us off and I didn't even notice). Great story.

 

[TheBlackBard]

Honestly and truly, I bought the Series S mainly because I don't think I NEED an X. Sure it can do 8K at 60 FPS or whatever, but... I don't even do on my PC what I do with my Series S which is 1440p. Not only that, many of the games I play are backwards compatible. I primarily bought my S so I can play Lost Odyssey again and the thing I'm buying next will be Elden Ring. I'm honestly not fussed about the difference in tech and with my interest primarily in old school style FPS games and CRPG's, that's not likely to change.

 

[p0ke]

Personally Series-X vs -S to me would be a question of future-proofing. By the time the next big thing comes out, I expect support for the S will be gone long before it is for the X, the same way you can buy games "for XBox One consoles" that run like molasses on the original and one-S models. Gahd I hate the naming of these things.

Yeah, that's what I was saying, and why I've made the decision to get the Series X once it becomes available.
On the Playstation side I think the choice would be different. AFAIK the cheaper PS5 model simply doesn't have a disc drive but the rest of the hardware is the same, so if I went there I would probably get the cheaper model. But I'm staying with Xbox thanks to the huge games library I've accumulated. I believe the old controllers also work this time around, which is great.

Like I've mentioned many times in this thread, I'm still running the OG Xbox One and that still runs all games, but in many cases you just notice that stuff could look better / run smoother / load quicker etc.
For example Jedi Fallen Order. It's perfectly playable and even looks pretty good much of the time, but quite often when moving from an area to another it just completely freezes (even the background ambience goes away) until the next area is loaded. There is a progress indicator in a corner, but it still feels like the game has crashed or something, and then it just resumes without warning when it's done.

The console is already 8 years old (I got it before it was even released in Finland thanks to being affiliated with Microsoft at the time), so I'm surprised it runs anything recent anymore tbh! My TV is also only 1080p, so maybe stuff will run worse when I upgrade to 4k.

And yeah, the naming is terrible. And it's even worse when retailers mess it up. For example I've seen "Xbox One Series S" for sale I wonder which console that actually was...

Honestly and truly, I bought the Series S mainly because I don't think I NEED an X. Sure it can do 8K at 60 FPS or whatever, but... I don't even do on my PC what I do with my Series S which is 1440p. Not only that, many of the games I play are backwards compatible. I primarily bought my S so I can play Lost Odyssey again and the thing I'm buying next will be Elden Ring. I'm honestly not fussed about the difference in tech and with my interest primarily in old school style FPS games and CRPG's, that's not likely to change.

Those were pretty much my initial thoughts too, but then I took the future proofing aspect into consideration. I don't need it either, at least not yet, but like I said, I have a feeling the Series S will drop out at some point and then you'll need to buy the Series X anyway.

 

[rokket2005]

I started playing Okami about a week ago after hearing for years how it's the best Zelda game. The first four hours or so were such a slog though I really wasnt sure if I wanted to keep at it. Then I got to the first actual dungeon and it was awesome. Still kinda so-so on it, but I'll probably keep going.

In the meantime my pro controller needed to charge last night so I fired up The Last Guardian since I've had that on my PS5 for like 9 months. I played Shadow of the Colossus on PS2 and thought it was cool but after about three hours into Last Guardian I'm totally not into it. Everything but the gameplay seems fine, but the gameplay is just a slow clunky puzzle platformer. It's Sony through and through as less of a game and trying to be some sort of cinematic experience, but there's nothing for me to really grab on to or keep me engaged or invested.

 

[Bloody_Inferno]

I started playing Okami about a week ago after hearing for years how it's the best Zelda game. The first four hours or so were such a slog though I really wasnt sure if I wanted to keep at it. Then I got to the first actual dungeon and it was awesome. Still kinda so-so on it, but I'll probably keep going.

Okami is definitely incredibly slow, where the slog is something even fans of the game hate admitting. Hell, I've seen the term 'languid' used to describe it, which is just a pretentious way of saying slow.

Despite that, other flaws and how it's much longer than the average Zelda game, Okami is still worth seeing through to the end.

 

[wankerness]

I started playing Okami about a week ago after hearing for years how it's the best Zelda game. The first four hours or so were such a slog though I really wasnt sure if I wanted to keep at it. Then I got to the first actual dungeon and it was awesome. Still kinda so-so on it, but I'll probably keep going.

In the meantime my pro controller needed to charge last night so I fired up The Last Guardian since I've had that on my PS5 for like 9 months. I played Shadow of the Colossus on PS2 and thought it was cool but after about three hours into Last Guardian I'm totally not into it. Everything but the gameplay seems fine, but the gameplay is just a slow clunky puzzle platformer. It's Sony through and through as less of a game and trying to be some sort of cinematic experience, but there's nothing for me to really grab on to or keep me engaged or invested.

The best thing about The Last Guardian is the dunkey video.



I still need to play the Shadow of the Colossus remake. I've never even played the original! I bought a hacked PS2 about 15 years ago from the singer of Novembers Doom mainly with the intent to play that game and MGS2, but I never played either!! I think I only ever ended up using that thing for FFX and part of X2.

 

[TedEH]

I started playing Okami about a week ago after hearing for years how it's the best Zelda game.

I find that to be a weird comparison. Okami is a good game, but it's not, in my mind, anything like a good Zelda game. If you think Okami is slow, I've poked around with the DS sequel Okamiden - and it's.... slower.

Last Guardian I think is also kinda slow. I do like "slow" games, but they require a certain state of mind to really get into, I think. All the Ico- descendents are like that, I think.

 

[rokket2005]

I like what most other people would consider slow games too. Trails in the Sky FC is always levied with a warning about being incredibly slow, but the slow part of it is full of world building and character development. After three hours of last guardian I know it's an Isekai, and that's about it. Okami dropped twenty minutes of Lore at the very start, and I was probably just not in the right mood for it right off the bat.

I also hate Dunkey. He's the reason why there are still asshats on Twitter that after four years still think shitting on XC2 is a funny character trait.

 

[MFB]

Haha, I read through your posts on this game today. It sure didn't seem like you liked that boss when you beat it! I liked the description you gave at the end of the whole game about it being a terrible ordeal and that you were relieved when it was over and that you wouldn't have to do it again. And a LOT of complaining about the sheer number of boss fights. From what I heard about the last boss being multiple bosses in a row that you have to fight EVERY ATTEMPT that's going to infuriate me, too. We'll see if I surrender!

Based on post order, it sounds like you did Guardian Ape at the point in the game where I'm at now (only done Butterfly, Genichiro and Screen Monkeys for progression bosses), but the walkthrough I've been following suggests doing him considerably later. I'm guessing maybe that was a big part of your problem there?

Weirdly almost everything I've read suggests the dual-Ape fight is easier than the single one. Sounded like you had the same experience!

Don't get me wrong, Sekiro as a game entirely infuriated me, but at the end of the day - I rank it as the #2 FS game I've played (2 DS, BB, Sekiro) and I respect it because it does work stupidly well mechanically, it's just paced horribly. If there was a version that stripped it off the smaller bosses like Snake Eyes, Centipede, etc... that threw it off, it'd give MUCH more weight to the full-fledged bosses you encounter and make the game better in my mind.

I'd have to look back, but I think I did as many other bosses as I could before fighting Guardian, and faced him because if I wanted to keep playing I basically HAD to. He more screwed me with Phase 2 of his fight when the timing gets tricky for obvious reasons that you'll see. Dual Ape was easier because you'll learn the mechanics from Guardian, so it's just basically how you manage both of them separately. Looking back on it now, it's a lateral move from the Ormstein and Smough fight.

 

[Bloody_Inferno]

I like what most other people would consider slow games too. Trails in the Sky FC is always levied with a warning about being incredibly slow, but the slow part of it is full of world building and character development.

Okami also feels padded at times. Once you set in a land, listen to their plight, go to the dungeon, kill the giant malevolent being and pure the land of evil, and the you forth and do the same thing next door. And the sacred brush mechanic does kill the pace especially in a quasi open world with hack and slash combat. It's a different kind of slow compared to the Trails games, where the points made in addition to dialogue and turn based JRPG combat are consistently at the speed of a dying man's crawl.

Also I do think the Zelda comparison is an unfair and insubstantial one. If anything, it reminds me more of a 3D bigger budget Shinto version of Soul Blazer.

I probably should just accept using the word languid to describe these games, since I love them.

 

[wankerness]

I also hate Dunkey. He's the reason why there are still asshats on Twitter that after four years still think shitting on XC2 is a funny character trait.

Dunkey's great. I'm sure he has spawned legions of unfunny imitators, but fortunately I haven't seen them! Twitter is cancer! I sometimes disagree with his hatred of games, but I like that he's really passionate about some games (like, many Mario games) and that can be infectious when he does his sincere ones that aren't "in character." I agree with him on some games being worth playing for being funny, ex that video he did about videogame voice acting a couple weeks ago where he was highlighting things on both ends of the scale (I like seeing Mortal Kombat 4 cutscene clips!). I also like when he'll randomly make a video totally non-ironically singing the praises of some old art film or something (ex, the Playtime vid he did last year) - that is very unusual for such a popular youtuber. And at least his hate videos are sometimes funny. I love that Last Guardian one, or especially the Assassins Creed ones. I like AC and have played through several of them, but I still can't get enough of just how much he hates them. And the BOTW and Dark Souls 1/3 and Sekiro vids are among the hardest I've ever laughed at Youtube, and they're just plain silly.

Played a bit of Sekiro last night, died a couple times to Lady O'Ren of the Water or whatever she's called before beating her. She's frustrating cause she will float off and get stuck on a ledge somewhere and engaging her when she's in a tiny cramped area is very lethal, but she'll very quickly regenerate ALL her posture if you don't stay aggressive the whole time, so it's a frustrating fight if you can't keep her out in the open. It also was repeatedly calling attention to one of my big shortcomings with the gameplay, which is that I'm almost always hitting the left stick reflexively from years of Dark Souls "circle around the boss." However, if you try to do that jump counter off someone's head and are hitting anything on the left stick at the time of the first jump, you just jump away from the boss and don't get the counter. As soon as I had an attempt where I did most of those successfully she died easily. One of these days I'll get to be decent at this...

Next up is Corrupted Monk #1!! I am not looking forward to it, but I think it's the second one that gives everyone nightmares, so whatever.

 

[MFB]

Corrupted Monk wasn't bad, just watch that reach, it's longer than you'd think

 

[beerandbeards]

Finally got my hands on a PS5. Started Guardians of the Galaxy which is pretty fun so far. Found this little fun authentic gem in the game

 

[MFB]

I saw the white V, but I didn't catch the Boogie name badge of the amp; double the authenticity!

 

[Choop]

Hah it looks like it is running into a distortion/fuzz pedal too.

 

[beerandbeards]

Hah it looks like it is running into a distortion/fuzz pedal too.

Looks like a Boss-like pedal but can’t make out the name on it

 

[Leviathus]

Played a bit of Sekiro last night, died a couple times to Lady O'Ren of the Water or whatever she's called before beating her. She's frustrating cause she will float off and get stuck on a ledge somewhere and engaging her when she's in a tiny cramped area is very lethal, but she'll very quickly regenerate ALL her posture if you don't stay aggressive the whole time, so it's a frustrating fight if you can't keep her out in the open. It also was repeatedly calling attention to one of my big shortcomings with the gameplay, which is that I'm almost always hitting the left stick reflexively from years of Dark Souls "circle around the boss." However, if you try to do that jump counter off someone's head and are hitting anything on the left stick at the time of the first jump, you just jump away from the boss and don't get the counter. As soon as I had an attempt where I did most of those successfully she died easily. One of these days I'll get to be decent at this...

Next up is Corrupted Monk #1!! I am not looking forward to it, but I think it's the second one that gives everyone nightmares, so whatever.

Lady O'Rin is one of my favorite minibosses in the game i think. She coulda been a cool main boss imo if they fleshed her out a little more. A cool encounter nonetheless.

 

[Crungy]

Without having to sift through a bunch of pages, does anyone here play Outward? I read a little about it and I'm kind of sold on it but not sure if it is actually good.

 

[TedEH]

A little farther into my journey through Cyberpunk and my slightly-updated take is that I still generally like it, but there are parts of the game that still feel kinda amateur.

It's sort of like attention was focused in some of the wrong places. Like there was so much ambition, so much attention to certain details, that some things get lost in the scope of it - like time to control for the quality of some of those details.

An example: I realized I was carrying around a whole ton of useless junk in the consumables page because I tend to play these games by picking up anything not bolted down - so I'm carrying a whole gun shop and liquor store and snack bar's worth of junk made up of all these dozens of little "clever" in-universe products with their own unique names and assets and descriptions, and I'd be willing to bet if it's not in the game, someone somewhere has a document with how all the brands have background stories and connect together in some way and blah blah - but I'm never going to use any of these consumables because there's an over-abundance of healing items everywhere on an easy-access button. I think I have something like 150x of those one-shot health items. These would all be great details in a setting where those consumables mattered, but so far they don't.

The one thing that actively bugs me in the game so far is that there's too much going on all the time, and the game constantly interrupts you with new jobs and alerts and things, sometimes failing them for reasons you're unaware of because you weren't focused on that job right now. Like you can stand still, and someone will inevitably call you within maybe 30 seconds to throw more gigs at you that you don't care about right now, and it's overwhelming. I can tune it out, sure, but that's just me, and it's still frustrating. Anyone else who really wants to focus would probably really hate that constant interruption.

It all reads to me like someone somewhere made a scope decision that features took precedence over polish and iteration in some places. On any game dev project I've seen, you get to a point where you go "ok, we know we have x time left, and y things planned - and we know that by virtue of how games get made, something like a third of this isn't going to make it in on time no matter what we do - so what do we cut?". And at that point you could say "well, we really wanted to introduce all these brands and have x number of unique consumables and art and stuff, but we also need to make sure that when you open containers, nearby physics objects don't gain sentience and try to get as far away as possible, so lets cut all the unique assets since healing items are everywhere anyway, and instead have that team go move things around in the world so that items aren't sitting on top of openable containers". Except that this conversation either didn't happen, or went entirely the wrong way.

I mean, it's not thaaaaaaaat bad. It's not "I regret spending a $20 gift card on this" bad. I actually find most of the jank amusing more than frustrating, and games are for entertainment, so it's all good to me. I wonder if this was what results when you realize you over-promised publicly and have shot yourself in the foot by knowing the more you cut the more you're going to get roasted for it.

Ya know....
I almost kinda like the game for being an interesting case to look at and speculate about. Something worthy of several paragraphs of "I'm not mad, but I'm a bit confused".

 

[wankerness]

That "you get called with new quests while you're working on something else" thing would absolutely infuriate me, especially combined with the "you will randomly fail things for no apparent reason." I'm one of those completists that has to do all the sidequests (well, within reason, I didn't do the procedurally generated ones in Skyrim). That would feel like the game was just trying to upset me.

I played an hour or two of "It Takes Two" last night with the lady. This is a strictly co-op platformer and it's pretty impressive. I haven't played Little Big Planet, but I'd imagine it's somewhat similar setting-wise - you play as two dolls that are in a weird, warped, giant version of the real world, so you do things like traverse series of vacuum cleaner tubes, swing around between nails, and fight giant, sentient toolboxes. It's pretty graphically snazzy and the gameplay is pretty tight. It's also more complex than most couch co-op sorts of games I've played, more on the Portal end of things than the Overcooked as far as tasks required of you (not saying Overcooked is easy by any stretch of the imagination). There's virtually no penalty for dying, but it still feels like you're overcoming something with some of the puzzles (which it doesn't immediately start throwing hints at you for) and the bosses (especially the toolbox so far, who just is raining nail flurries and saw blades and drilling holes out of the floor etc). The big problem so far is there's way too much dialogue between. We want gameplay, not long cutscenes about divorce with unfunny books talking at us!!