What are you playing?

Shenmue III -- Second Playthrough...trying to clean up some remaining trophies...trying to get all the herbs in Bailu...this is gonna prove quite the grind...but I'm enjoying it. It will be in my end of year list. I'm definitely not as down on it as some others around here have been. I actually really kind of like the game warts and all.

Street Fighter V -- I finally picked up Street Fighter V for $10 from the Steam sale that's going on at the moment....pretty damn good! Quite enjoyed playing a few online matches earlier.

Resident Evil 2 REmake -- I also picked this up for a second time for $29 on the same Steam sale. Wanted to see how the PC version fared on my new PC and it was a good price. This game is SOOOO fucking worth the money in every way! I played through the entire game again from beginning to end and loved the hell out of it just as much as I did my first time through. Good stuff! Will definitely be in end of year list! So worth the money, so worth the time. (not a very long game to play when you know what you're doing)

Persona 5: The Royal -- I finally got around to installing it and booting it up late last night. Will go back to it soon, but yeah, it's Persona 5...with more story....awesome! In no rush to see it through (just because I know it will take a good 80 hours to see it through to the end)

Tekken 7 -- I went back online...I couldn't resist...this damn game has its hooks in me for whatever reason! I'm far from great at the game, but I really enjoy playing it online for whatever reason...even when I do want to throw the controller in frustration.

Death Stranding -- It's installed to the hard drive....I'm looking at it right now...I'm probably finally gonna get a start on this...will I like it? That remains to be seen. Prove me wrong, Hideo. Prove me wrong.

Also want to go back and finish the rest of Yakuza 3 at some point...and get a start on Jedi Fallen Order

Not to mention I still want to finish off all the side content in Judgment (which I still haven't done)

Will get there before the end of the year...depending on whether or not Death Stranding gets its hooks into me. I at least want to try and finish Stranding and Jedi Fallen Order before I start making end of year lists...so maybe I'll drop everything else and focus in on those two for the next few weeks.
 
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Having recently finished Shenmue 3, I subsequently finished the Yakuza 3 remaster a lot sooner than expected. Guess I forgot how short it was. So now I’m going through 4, which sort of originally introduced me to the series seeing it on Two Best Friends’ channel years ago, which eventually lead to learning about Shenmue as well. Surprised to find they completely changed one of the characters here but I suppose it’s not the first time it’s happened with this series.
 
BloodyHeartland said:
Having recently finished Shenmue 3, I subsequently finished the Yakuza 3 remaster a lot sooner than expected. Guess I forgot how short it was. So now I’m going through 4, which sort of originally introduced me to the series seeing it on Two Best Friends’ channel years ago, which eventually lead to learning about Shenmue as well. Surprised to find they completely changed one of the characters here but I suppose it’s not the first time it’s happened with this series.
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Actually it was the first time, and then by sheer bad luck Hamura happened as well. So you can see why they've gone back to mainly not using celebrities for voices/faces in Yakuza 7 (only two are getting that treatment). I'm kinda glad to be honest, some of the celebs were excellent choices but some weren't so great (Hamura is one of my favourites, so glad I played the original Judge Eyes, but Takashiro in Kiwami 2 was a bizarre recast that wasn't anywhere near as good as his OG self).

Anyway, now I've finished Shenmue 3 I'm working on a few other games:
Iconoclasts for the Vita, which runs great and has some excellent bosses. But damn does the story/dialogue/constant talking suck. I liked it when Metroidvania games (like Super Metroid or SOTN) just STFU and let you explore instead of stopping every three feet to give you more awful dialogue and story.

Titanfall 2 - free on PS+ this month and yeah, this is so damn good. They waste no time letting you play with your move set, awesome weapons and huge areas for fire fights. Honestly one of the most fun FPS games I've played, aside from the recent Doom reboot.
 
Shenmue III -- Mostly just been doing trophy stuff...cleaned up the 500,000 token trophy (the book exploit in Chobu turned out to be a wonderfully easy way to do it)...also been grinding out the fishing trophy on the side.

Yakuza 3 -- Went back to Kamurocho. Been bumming around doing side quests. Chapter 8 of the story...still enjoy it as much as I did the first time I played it.

Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order -- Made a dent in this. Surprisingly decent. Enjoying it more than I thought I would

Death Stranding -- Still haven't started...but it's on my HDD installed and waiting to go...everytime I go to play it, I just can't do it...I guess I'm not in the right mind set to give it a chance yet. I will try to get to it before end of year though.
 
BloodyHeartland said:
Having recently finished Shenmue 3, I subsequently finished the Yakuza 3 remaster a lot sooner than expected. Guess I forgot how short it was. So now I’m going through 4, which sort of originally introduced me to the series seeing it on Two Best Friends’ channel years ago, which eventually lead to learning about Shenmue as well. Surprised to find they completely changed one of the characters here but I suppose it’s not the first time it’s happened with this series.
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Huh?

3 isn't short in the slightest...
 
Pokémon Shield. Aka the best version.
 
Playing a bit of a few things on my new PS4. Have got the Platinum for Shenmue I, am a short ways into Shenmue II. I'm on the way to the Come Over Guest House after getting my bag back.

I am also playing a bit of DOOM (2016) and Wolfenstein: The Old Blood, at the moment. I have a whole bunch of other games for it that I haven't even started, and I still need to get PES2020. Waiting on the new PES Lite to drop, and then the full PES2020 will be on sale.

Probably. Hopefully.
 
spud1897 said:
I'm playing this and really liking it. The game tells a really good story IMO.
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The opening sequence reminded me of Uncharted 2...I knew right there and then that we had a winner :D

Yeah, genuinely surprised by how much I'm enjoying it.
 
a shitload of sonic. theres a humble bundle right now that's too good to pass up if you haven't been keeping up with sonic releases. sonic mania+dlc, both eps of sonic 4, generations, forces, and a bunch of older games for $10 total.

Great bang for your buck. Having fun with mania. Didn't realize it would be this true to the original art style.
 
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (PC) -- I started off normally...played for 3 hours...enjoyed it but got annoyed by the stupidly overpowered enemies...went and installed the Easy mod that is floating around on the Internet...after 9 hours playing with said mod, I got some thoughts.

This game is nowhere near as difficult as people make it out to be. Now before you say "but you're playing with an overpowered easy mod" let me explain. The actual combat in this game is deceptively and stupidly easy at times. Even with this mod, you still have to do the things you would normally do while playing. Only difference is now the fight kind of feels fair to some degree.

It's literally just deflect, parry and attack for most lower grunts playing on normal difficulty, I had fun doing this. My problem on normal difficulty was the bosses and how stupidly over powered they are. After playing with the easy mod, it strikes me. This games combat isn't what makes it hard...it's the fact that you are so god damn underpowered in comparison to the enemy that makes it hard. It's a fucking grind that dishes out slow XP and expects you to either grind up their level or be so good at moving and dodging and being able to land attacks without fault.

But after 9 hours playing a couple of different boss battles, it made me realise how stupidly easy this combat really is once you remove their one major vice. The combat itself is not hard. It's simply dodge, chip away at health, try not to get hit and repeat. What's hard is the fact that the enemy is so overpowered that if you make so much as one mistake then they kill you with one hit and it's back to the last checkpoint you go.

I think I'm having more fun with it with the mod on. But the mod exposes so many weaknesses in this games design. For one, for a game that rewards stealth, it doesn't really do stealth that great. To the best of my knowledge, you can't play the pacifist (right? Because from what I've seen -- there are moments where you literally have to kill a boss to move forward)

There are seemingly too many moments in the game that almost require you to battle. Like for instance, I was doing the Harata Mansion. I found a way to the end of the level skipping over many unnecessary bosses yet was faced with "you need a key to pass." Went back through the level and had to kill those enemies I skipped. For a game that has stealth, it feels so half assed. Imagine if I could make it to the end of the level without killing a single underling and only kill the bosses. Is that possible? If the Harata mission is anything to go by then I have to assume it isn't. Unless someone can point me to a video showing someone doing it.

It slightly disappoints me because I like the game quite a bit, but like all From Soft games, I feel likes it's all just artificial difficulty by having everyone you face be insanely overpowered and forcing you to grind to meet their level.

You can beat most enemies in this game without levelling but again, that's not entirely difficult either once you know their patterns I guess.

I wish this game did things better. I wish it did stealth better for one. But still, I like the mood and atmosphere of it. I like the story. I like the setting. I like the lore. But much like all FROM Soft games...it's ALL jank disguised as difficulty.

I even quite like the combat. The basic combat is fun. Even when I was playing Pre-Mod I enjoyed the combat and its emphasis on deflecting and parrys. But I just couldn't do it. I couldn't sit through the jank of OP bosses or the jank of dying to one hit because even though you thought you dodged backwards far enough they still found a way to reach forward and slam you to the ground (the big Troll boss)

Am I a filthy casual? You bet (if you want to call me that -- I've done hard games in my time though...Platinuming SOTC on the PS3 was pretty damn rough! Breaking out of the Orange Ranks in Tekken 7 online is proving to be quite the challenge!), but I'm having more fun with this game Post Mod than I was Pre Mod and that's why I game. To have fun and enjoy myself. Not frustrate myself because of stupidly OP bosses that can unfairly kill you in one hit if you make so much as one mistake.

Coming from 500 hours of playing Tekken online and seriously trying to learn Tekken...Tekken has more depth and is more difficult than Sekiro's very basic dodge, deflect and chip away at health style of combat ever will. It's not the combat that makes Sekiro hard...it's the OP enemies.
 
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Been playing loads of the last Shovel Knight DLC - King of Cards. Its fantastic, its better than full indie titles I've played and this is just DLC for SK! Its got some great level design, really well done remixed boss fights (and some great all new ones) and excellent movement which the levels use in clever ways. The card game attached to it is ok, but not being a fan of these things I'm really only doing it for the secret boss fight. Low level/speed runs on this should be awesome thanks to the level design and movement that's for sure!

Also started One Piece Pirate Warriors 3, which I've really been enjoying so far. Decent combat, cool characters and that trademark fun Musou style combat. Nowhere near as deep or fun as Devil May Cry 5, but its still very hard to put down.
 
I finished off Jedi: Fallen Order this week just gone and throroughly enjoyed it. Some of the bosses are frustrating as hell but overall it told a really good story and the ending segment was class IMO.

Hope they do a second one.

Onto my second play of Shenmue III right now: Still enjoying it warts and all.

I'm debating Death Stranding. Otherwise I might fire up the PS3 and get some Mass Effect going. I've not played them 1-3 in some time and really enjoy those games.
 
Bought the Resident Evil 2 remake on Steam yesterday. After having not played a full Resident Evil game since the Xbox 360 release of Resident Evil 4 back in 2011 - wow... Just wow. I've just witnessed the chopper crash into the police station, so I'm not too far into the game, but I'm having a fantastic time with it so far.
 
danielmann861 said:
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (PC) -- I started off normally...played for 3 hours...enjoyed it but got annoyed by the stupidly overpowered enemies...went and installed the Easy mod that is floating around on the Internet...after 9 hours playing with said mod, I got some thoughts.

This game is nowhere near as difficult as people make it out to be. Now before you say "but you're playing with an overpowered easy mod" let me explain. The actual combat in this game is deceptively and stupidly easy at times. Even with this mod, you still have to do the things you would normally do while playing. Only difference is now the fight kind of feels fair to some degree.

It's literally just deflect, parry and attack for most lower grunts playing on normal difficulty, I had fun doing this. My problem on normal difficulty was the bosses and how stupidly over powered they are. After playing with the easy mod, it strikes me. This games combat isn't what makes it hard...it's the fact that you are so god damn underpowered in comparison to the enemy that makes it hard. It's a fucking grind that dishes out slow XP and expects you to either grind up their level or be so good at moving and dodging and being able to land attacks without fault.

But after 9 hours playing a couple of different boss battles, it made me realise how stupidly easy this combat really is once you remove their one major vice. The combat itself is not hard. It's simply dodge, chip away at health, try not to get hit and repeat. What's hard is the fact that the enemy is so overpowered that if you make so much as one mistake then they kill you with one hit and it's back to the last checkpoint you go.

I think I'm having more fun with it with the mod on. But the mod exposes so many weaknesses in this games design. For one, for a game that rewards stealth, it doesn't really do stealth that great. To the best of my knowledge, you can't play the pacifist (right? Because from what I've seen -- there are moments where you literally have to kill a boss to move forward)

There are seemingly too many moments in the game that almost require you to battle. Like for instance, I was doing the Harata Mansion. I found a way to the end of the level skipping over many unnecessary bosses yet was faced with "you need a key to pass." Went back through the level and had to kill those enemies I skipped. For a game that has stealth, it feels so half assed. Imagine if I could make it to the end of the level without killing a single underling and only kill the bosses. Is that possible? If the Harata mission is anything to go by then I have to assume it isn't. Unless someone can point me to a video showing someone doing it.

It slightly disappoints me because I like the game quite a bit, but like all From Soft games, I feel likes it's all just artificial difficulty by having everyone you face be insanely overpowered and forcing you to grind to meet their level.

You can beat most enemies in this game without levelling but again, that's not entirely difficult either once you know their patterns I guess.

I wish this game did things better. I wish it did stealth better for one. But still, I like the mood and atmosphere of it. I like the story. I like the setting. I like the lore. But much like all FROM Soft games...it's ALL jank disguised as difficulty.

I even quite like the combat. The basic combat is fun. Even when I was playing Pre-Mod I enjoyed the combat and its emphasis on deflecting and parrys. But I just couldn't do it. I couldn't sit through the jank of OP bosses or the jank of dying to one hit because even though you thought you dodged backwards far enough they still found a way to reach forward and slam you to the ground (the big Troll boss)

Am I a filthy casual? You bet (if you want to call me that -- I've done hard games in my time though...Platinuming SOTC on the PS3 was pretty damn rough! Breaking out of the Orange Ranks in Tekken 7 online is proving to be quite the challenge!), but I'm having more fun with this game Post Mod than I was Pre Mod and that's why I game. To have fun and enjoy myself. Not frustrate myself because of stupidly OP bosses that can unfairly kill you in one hit if you make so much as one mistake.

Coming from 500 hours of playing Tekken online and seriously trying to learn Tekken...Tekken has more depth and is more difficult than Sekiro's very basic dodge, deflect and chip away at health style of combat ever will. It's not the combat that makes Sekiro hard...it's the OP enemies.
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You are playing and looking at Sekiro from the wrong perspective. First the grinding doesn't power-up your avatar's health bar or his attack, just provide him with more tools to tackle whatever challenge. Second, playing on easy also means players get too much leeway to make tons of mistakes without much repercussion besides probably not getting to experience all the bosses' varied attack patterns and adapt, and this is is important as Sekiro in its core is really a rhythm game, a really immersive one. Think of Guitar Hero or Dance Dance Revolution, where the point of the these games is to get as much perfect timed inputs as one can to get the most enjoyment out of them. And lastly, 2D fighting games have to be more complex in the battle mechanics because that's all that there is to it as the genre is less complex and immersive in every other aspect than say, the action adventure genre. There's no world exploration, NPC interaction and any other elements besides 1v1 fighting in Tekken.
 
Yooka-Laylee is on sale on PlayStation Store, so I got it.

I'd heard it was a spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie etc, and from the little I've played it seems to be just that. Visual style is similar to BK: Nuts & Bolts, music is straight out of BK. They're literally a hair's breadth away from copyright infringement with the music, which is nice. Sounds bang-on.

Gameplay seems nice so far. Haven't played much, but it's responsive and has the right sort of 'feel' for a 3D platformer. It's such a close recreation, that if you don't like those old games (Super Mario 64, Banjo-Kazooie, Spyro, etc), then you won't like Yooka-Laylee.

Humour is right out of BK, too. It's literally the same.
 
Guppy said:
Second, playing on easy also means players get too much leeway to make tons of mistakes without much repercussion besides probably not getting to experience all the bosses' varied attack patterns and adapt, and this is is important as Sekiro in its core is really a rhythm game, a really immersive one. Think of Guitar Hero or Dance Dance Revolution, where the point of the these games is to get as much perfect timed inputs as one can to get the most enjoyment out of them. And lastly, 2D fighting games have to be more complex in the battle mechanics because that's all that there is to it as the genre is less complex and immersive in every other aspect than say, the action adventure genre. There's no world exploration, NPC interaction and any other elements besides 1v1 fighting in Tekken.
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Not really...I'm playing with the easy patch and I'm still doing the same shit I did on normal...identifying their patterns and looking for my windows of opportunity...just because I have the easy mod doesn't mean I'm invincible and I can just attack without thought...I can still die and still have to play cautiously enough. The difference is that you have more leeway to see their patterns more and in doing so it exposes just how shallow the combat actually is. The combat so far really has boiled down to dodge and chip away at their health when you find an opening. The only difference is that the enemies one vice has been removed...that they no longer can kill me in two hits. I have a bit more leeway to see their patterns more. But it just exposes how shallow and tedious the combat really is.

Rhythm games still allow you leeway though. Yes, I get your point. I've poured over 500 hours into Rock Band drums alone and I get the thrill of progressing from Easy to Expert like I did, but even then rhtyhm games still give you leeway to learn from your mistakes. Even on the hardest difficulty most of them still don't just fail you after one or two missed beats (maybe like 5 or more repeated misses)

To me, these games are no different to any 8 bit era platformer that requires you to learn patterns in order to beat them.

But the reality is the combat is still incredibly shallow to me. Stealth flat outs sucks in this game. Creep across a roof top crouched and somehow enemies still spot you. The game always feels like its nudging you towards battle and not letting you play in any way you want to play...this game could be way more interesting if the stealth was more fleshed out.

Much like all From Soft games, I enjoy the lore and the world building, but I find the combat to be tedious, dull and repetitive. It relies on enemies being incredibly overpowered instead of actually crafting a truly deep combat system. (shrugs), Sekiro is no different to any of their other games in this regard. I like aspects of it...but I still think the game is tedious to actually play at default difficulty.

Hence why I'm playing with the easy mod. Because I don't want to spend tedious hours repeating the same basic tactic over and over again only to be fucked over by incredibly OP enemies because that's what this game considers difficult.
 
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ShenGCH said:
Bought the Resident Evil 2 remake on Steam yesterday. After having not played a full Resident Evil game since the Xbox 360 release of Resident Evil 4 back in 2011 - wow... Just wow. I've just witnessed the chopper crash into the police station, so I'm not too far into the game, but I'm having a fantastic time with it so far.
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I'm not really a gamer any more and it's the first day one purchase I've made in years.

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Certainly got my money's worth.
 
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