What are you playing?

I'm going to give GTA 4 another try after 13 years. It's the only mainstream GTA title that was underwhelming and not very good in general, but it was $2 and I'm looking for a modern era open world title to play but CyberJunk and Watch Dogs just don't cut it.
 
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GTA4 for me was initially disappointing, and I won’t lie it is a bit lackluster in ways that the last dlc only kind of tried to fix. But upon replaying it a few times, I was able to get a better appreciation for it, essentially in comparison to how 5 felt to me - not exactly deep itself, but not quite as shallow of an experience.

The story, characters, and tone were all better to me having got many years older since its release, and the choices felt more meaningful than you really get out of a lot of bland good/evil stuff these days. I really enjoy the cluttered streets and the physics to everything and all the crazy NPCs and ragdolling, etc., especially when it comes to the driving and how weighty the cars feel - whether it’s barreling through crowds or on high speed chases or pulling off cool stunts. I might be in the minority but 4’s driving physics are my favorite of any sandbox game.

I’ll admit I still have not delved into everything the game has to offer, but stuff like hanging out with friends or dating, etc. just didn’t interest me, and I still enjoyed the game. Same with San Andreas and stuff that kind of felt superfluous. Things in games like Shenmue that may feel they are worth doing, you can just tell there’s not as much to doing them in gta unfortunately.

Anyway, I’ve gone over it briefly in the GOTY 2020 thread, but lately I’ve tried Immortals: Fenyx Rising to itch my BotW scratch.

So far, it’s been enjoyable in some ways, and I feel it does some things differently enough, but overall it just feels too streamlined for me, almost like it’s on a production line with boxes checked and changes only really made for more casual players.

The best parts? Doesn’t take itself too seriously (though that can get kind of grating), each area is distinct and has its own aesthetic (but kind of jarring with how small the world is), and character creation (though sadly there’s not much to it). Sadly there’s not really any towns or seemingly much for sidequests, most weapons or armor you’ll get are from chests and mostly in the shrine things, shrine puzzles or most in general only have one solution and physics only ever serve as an annoyance, there’s only less than a handful of collectibles, not much for a weather system, so many other things I just don’t care for.

Combat is a bit of a mixed bag. It’s fine but just not as interesting. You got light and heavy attacks, perfect dodges and parries, all that flashy stuff, mid air combat which would seem cool but flying enemies are just a pain. Mostly I’m missing the more unorthodox stuff I could do in botw what with stasis or the physics and weather system, etc. and having weapons that don’t ever break just makes the few you do get feel monotonous. I think each could have lasted way longer in Zelda but I enjoyed having to master other weapons when I didn’t have my favorites to rely on.

Main thing I was hoping for was climbing...and the stamina system is just flat out worse due to how fast it drains and seems to necessitate level design that is simply all too short and very obvious. There’s seemingly nothing at all like the fun time I had first going through BotW and instead of going east to Kakoriko, I immediately went southwest up and over the steep Gerudo cliffs with my measly stamina bar, and felt all the more accomplished when I got to the desert(before getting swallowed by a Mogdula). The only comparison here are the statues you climb to get a lay of the land, which is almost akin to Shadow of the Colossus (only not as exciting) which was how I was kind of hoping climbing (and potentially fighting) the Divine Beasts would have been.

Still a fun casual romp and worth finishing probably, but really I guess I’ll have to wait and see what they do with BotW2 to really get what I want out of this kind of ex
 
For me, none of the GTA games have a lot of depth, substance or spiritual value but they are probably the best games I've played over the last 25 years that aren't anything beyond solid entertainment. GTA 5 is easily the best as it has a socially conscious story line on the modern times, the best location by far(California/Western US is always more appealing than the east coast)and the most interesting characters. GTA San Andreas, Vice City, 3, 2 and 1 were all amazing basic entertainment for their time, all of them were worthy of completion, I didn't feel the same way about GTA 4 initially. I found Niko to be unlikable, the car physics were a bit janky(especially compared to Saints Row 2 at the time) and this version of NYC didn't feel as engaging as GTA 3 did in 2001. From what I remember, GTA 4 is definitely better than any of the spin off games like GTA London, LC Stories and VC Stories those games were luke warm at best. Chinatown Wars is a handheld which automatically takes the fun out of it and the GTA 4 DLC Lost and Damned and Gay Tony games are by far the worst in the entire franchise. I'm looking forward to seeing if I can manage to stay interested enough in GTA 4 to complete the story this time.
 
Played GTA 4 again for almost 2 hours, it's just as bad as it was 13 years ago and it hasn't aged well. Characters aren't engaging(annoying even), the city lacks any substance and worst of all the vehicle physics are AWFUL! I remembered them being bad, but not deal breaker bad. I'm going to pass on going on further mainly due to the vehicles all driving identical and all handling poorly.
 
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Played GTA 4 again for almost 2 hours, it's just as bad as it was 13 years ago and it hasn't aged well. Characters aren't engaging(annoying even), the city lacks any substance and worst of all the vehicle physics are AWFUL! I remembered them being bad, but not deal breaker bad. I'm going to pass on going on further mainly due to the vehicles all driving identical and all handling poorly.

that sucks.
maybe it was nostalgia but I also wanted to go back and play grand theft auto 4, mainly to finally complete it.

i'm under no illusions that is an old game but i thought it would still be fun(?).

otbr87, have you played sleeping dogs? i'm playing it now and it has not aged that badly
 
that sucks.
maybe it was nostalgia but I also wanted to go back and play grand theft auto 4, mainly to finally complete it.

i'm under no illusions that is an old game but i thought it would still be fun(?).

otbr87, have you played sleeping dogs? i'm playing it now and it has not aged that badly
My issue with GTA 4 isn't so much that it aged badly(it certainly did), but more of the fact that it feels just as lousy as it did at launch. The driving physics are ridiculous on their own, I'm shocked that it did well in sales looking back. GTA SA, VC and 3 are all really dated but still have better driving mechanics, characters and story than 4 sadly. Yeah! I picked up Sleeping Dogs Definitive Edition on Xbox One for $4.49 on sale back in September or October and had really low expectations(thought it would be on par with GTA 4 or Jet Li's Rise To Honor), but much to my pleasant surprise it's actually a really good game! It's aged well, the story is fun, it captures Hong Kong and martial arts flicks well and it washed out the really bad taste that the Yakuza franchise left in my mouth. Sleeping Dogs is a sleeper hit for sure, almost as good as GTA 5 overall, and in some story aspects, it surpasses GTA5.
 
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So I got through the ending of Immortals. Got about maybe half the stuff on the map? before deciding to just do the rest of the main story. Some neat ideas but ultimately very repetitive and some vaults were just far too frustrating in their execution to bother with, with their comparatively strict rules compared to BotW shrines or some of their absurd length or janky physics, etc.

Final area was not as bad as I expected but still kind of annoying, and again like a lot of stuff in this game really longer than it needed to be, and that’s without doing the vast majority of the side stuff there. But at least it gave a bit more of the satisfaction I was looking for to start with...even so, I remember feeling more accomplished having climbed places like Hyrule Castle right at the start of BotW, whereas in this game I’m fairly certain some areas are flat out locked off until this point of the game.

I will say, despite the cringey writing and humor in some parts, overall I think I enjoyed the story and characters a bit more here, which is kind of sad. Here all the characters have room to breathe, they each develop and it’s not just self contained, even the generic looking villain has some interesting motive, and there’s an overall theme. BotW unfortunately had most of its limited cutscenes focused on Zelda herself...the king gets some stuff I guess. But all the champions and their successors really fall flat and I just do not care about them. The one thing was I didn’t mind Ganon kind of just being a demonic force of nature, because I’d rather that than making him a shallow typical bad guy if they aren’t going to make him as interesting as he was in Wind Waker. Maybe the champions are fleshed out more in Hyrule Warriors AoC but I guess I’ll see.
 
Resident Evil: Code Veronica


im a big RE fan, code veronica is the only game i havent replayed in recent years. i think the last time i played it was on the dreamcast around 2002(?)

Resident Evil: Code Veronica

im a big RE fan, code veronica is the only game i havent replayed in recent years. i think the last time i played it was on the dreamcast around 2002(?). i would like to replay it some time in the near future.
 
Resident Evil: Code Veronica

Love C:V. It is excellent.


PSO2 is also awesome. Earlier I took part in a live event where Tekenobu Mitsuyoshi was belting out some tunes while my character was dancing on stage. Magic.

Almost have Phantom up to lv 85, so I can do UH on my nearly capped Summoner.

I'm also trying to get through all the story up to the second chapter of Episode 6 by the 19th, so I can get another Tokyo Rainbow Key for massive gains. I'm thinking I might have to just jump to Episode 5, but I'm up to 28 quests into Chapter 1 of Episode 3, and I really enjoy Sukunahime. I wasn't really expecting much from the story in PSO2, but it's actually pretty decent. It leans into the anime tropes way more than the original PSO, but it's a pretty interesting story. More than anything, in stark contrast to FFXIV, there's a real sense that all of this story was planned out ahead of time, rather than just round-tabled on the fly with a bunch of writers who all want different things. It's good that they did, too, because there's heavy time traveling involved, and so far I haven't noticed any glaring holes.
 
Borderlands: The pre-sequel. Started it a few months ago and stopped playing for some reason. Picked it up again with my brother as we were desperate for something to play. Not a bad game so far but keeping getting stuck in a few areas. Also have no idea what the story is about.
 
Resident Evil: Code Veronica


im a big RE fan, code veronica is the only game i havent replayed in recent years. i think the last time i played it was on the dreamcast around 2002(?)


im a big RE fan, code veronica is the only game i havent replayed in recent years. i think the last time i played it was on the dreamcast around 2002(?). i would like to replay it some time in the near future.

I like to recount when I beat it the first (and only, as a matter of fact) time; I was at the save point where you take an elevator to the main courtyard of the island and have to get from one warehouse-like building to another (which then gets you to the plane to get off the island, so literally, the penultimate or one of the few last parts of the island) with Chris and I had no health; 1 hit and I was gone. As we all know too, when you're low on health, you move like you're crawling and can't run.

So in said courtyard, there are two Poison Hunters and they are so placed that unless you get lucky, you will get lunged at immediately and you're blocked off from the door to exit. So I attempt... and attempt... and attempt... all in all, it was 76 or 67 or 86 or something like that, for the amount of times that I failed (I can't recall the number; I remembered it a few years ago and it may actually be in an earlier thread lol) and then FINALLY, I succeeded on the 77th/68th/87th attempt and got through (the first Hunter jumped, swiped and missed me, the second one walked, what looked like as far as possible before jumping after me, but by the time he could swipe at me, I had already pressed, "A," on my controller). There are herbs in the next room, so I was quickly back to normal and beat the game later that evening. I spent just under 3 hours on said stuck part (and I don't give up), but the game was so engrossing and up my alley, I couldn't stop :)

As for me, I've watched a ton of Graslu's Goldeneye streams/custom levels/Dwayne Mod/etc. in the past 2 weeks on YT, so I cracked out the N64 (I know, blasphemy, for me) last night and got to work on the final 2 cheats to unlock, that I hadn't yet; Invincibility (Facility in 2:05 or less, on 00 Agent) and Enemy Rockets (Streets in 1:45 or less, on Agent).

God that Invincibility is so damn frustrating; it took me almost 2 hours and probably around 55 or so attempts (and about 10 attempts earlier, I DID complete it... at 2:08... only because Trevelyan was in between the gas chamber-thingys and pressing A+B didn't detonate the mines like it's supposed to; that wasted a good 15 seconds, as it was cycling through the weapons and I had to cycle back, etc.). On attempt... 13 or something, one of the first ones, I could take 2 hits and Dr. Doak was in the area of the bottling rooms, where there isn't a room... and I didn't see him, went running around and once I finally noticed and got the door decoder, I got killed :mad:. Time was at 1:26 too, so I would've done it in no time. Anyways, on the attempt I was successful, I got 1:48; not a blazing time at all, but I'm satisfied and I'm NEVER attempting that again lol

Enemy Rockets took me 3 attempts, but that's only because I didn't use the tank on the first one and dismounted the tank before the first set of tank mines on the second run (got 1:48, again, lol). Run 3, stuck with the tank the whole time and got 1:39.

And that's it! Thought I didn't get 2x Grenade Launchers (Surface 1, Secret Agent, 3:30), so I did that again, got 2:29 or something (can't remember), smashing my previous personal best of 3:13 or around that (can't remember either lol!), but when the cheat didn't pop, I went back to the list and... it was there <_<. Oh well, Surface is one of my 5 favourite levels :D

I'll probably fiddle around with some cheats tonight, just to have a bit more fun with the game and then play a bit of WCW/nWo Revenge after, then pack up the N64 again until I have friends over or something.

And since the NFL Regular season is done now, I'll probably attempt that 1CC of Final Fight again, soon.
 
I play my newly purchased Sega Rally on my Saturn quite a lot in the last couple of days.

On my ps5 i started to play Hitman 2 (purchased it for 19,99 on sale recently) and it is quite quite so far.
 
Unexpectedly, the Saints Row 3 remaster has taken up much of my time recently. Still kinda wishing the first two games got the remaster treatment instead, but I looked at this as an opportunity to see if I was ready fair to the game the first time around, or if I was justified in thinking it was the worst in the series. I haven’t touched Agents of Mayhem to even know enough about if it’s really part of the series but I’ve heard it’s pretty terrible.

So far I’ve spent almost 30 hours in it, mostly doing the side content. Pretty sure this is the first time I’ve done 100% of the city takeover stuff, as there was some Heli Assault or Guardian Angel mission I always found impossible my first time through. Either I got better or they did some rebalancing. Have got all but two assassination missions done (no idea when they unlock), dreading all the vehicle bs, and figure I’ll see how many challenges are left after doing everything else. Never touched any of the DLC before so there’s that to look forward to at least.

Updates to the graphics are alright. Much more detailed lighting and atmosphere but it just makes it even weirder when the weather can range from clear to foggy to rain, and yet for some reason time of day is completely static. I never understood this in the first place and it’s just one of many small nitpicks that kind of add up as to why I dislike the game. New character models are kind of weird. Certainly better looking but almost kind of uncanny when a lot of the game still portrays itself is cartoony. And some characters like Loren or the Stag guy look like completely different people for some reason. One gripe I have is with the player character; not sure if it also happens to males(mostly play as females in every player created roles) but I keep changing my characters’ mouth depth only to have it revert back to giving her old lady wrinkles around it. Same with some tattoos I get and removing only to have them turn back up - a bug in the original game, still not fixed.

Steelport...just as boring as I remembered. They went to great lengths to make it fun in 4 with the collectibles and new powers and stuff, but even Gat out of Hell was largely an improvement over it. Here, it is big...and that’s about it. Aside from a select few buildings that are all for show, every section is very bland and mostly looks the same, has all the same NPCs and vehicles and aesthetic, not much for secrets or unique areas and all. I felt Stilwater was better for having been a bit smaller, in that every area felt distinct and served some kind of purpose, plenty of interiors with secrets to find like special vehicles, also even some tucked away clothing shops, etc. Plus the activities, despite there being fewer, each felt far more fleshed out and gave better rewards and were unique to their areas what with cutscenes added to give context as to why they’re there.

Story and story progression...well, 3 is not quite as linear as I recall, but it still may as well be compared to the previous structure of doing any 3 factions in any order. It may have been a little more simplistic that way, but I felt the focus was stronger when the writers only had to worry about one arc at a time. Maero, for example, was extremely satisfying to take out, same for Shogo or Vogel. For characters like Loren, there was very little time to build them up at all so I didn’t really feel much of anything when he got it, especially seeing as how it was treated as a punchline to a visual gag. 4 is also pretty linear but at least subverts it a little bit with the optional loyalty missions.

I suppose lastly there’s the combat, of which at least the gangs do feel a little more distinct to fight with their different types of specialists. I’m not really sure how much they really add to the game, though, with the brutes being more annoying than fun to fight.

I’ll likely finish it sometime next week, not a lot going on right now as I wait for a call back from a job that they implied is a sure thing. Everything down here seems to take forever compared to how it was back east.
 
I've been on a Saturn/Dreamcast binge lately, and I got the sudden urge to get Skies of Arcadia and play it for the first time.

Its such a colourful, awesome little JRPG. I'm loving it!
 
The Episode 4 story in PSO2 is a tire-fire. I finished the post-credits chapter of Episode 3 last night (those last two boss quests were pretty brutal), and did the first handful of story quests in Episode 4 (enough to finally figure out how Earth fit into this game). The premise is horrendous, though. I might've been fine with it if it were a total side story, that was more removed from the base game, but as it is, it's massive cringe.

All told, I enjoyed the Oracle arc (Episodes 1-3) quite a bit. It's too bad they threw a bit of a wrench into that with Episode 4. I guess I'm just going to skip on to Episode 5 at this point, since I'm still trying to get through Chapter 2 of Episode 6 before the 19th (for that sweet Tokyo: Rainbow key). I think Episode 5 ties into the original Phantasy Star (Master System) a bit, which intrigues me. I just hope it's not another 'isekai' thing, like Episode 4.
 
Just completed Borderlands - The Pre-Seqeul. What a slog of a game. Spent more time finding out where to go than I did actually playing the game. Completely out me off trying to complete the Borderlands 2, especially as people are saying it's at least 30 hours long.
 
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Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1+2 -- FINALLY GOT THE PLATINUM TROPHY AFTER 102 HOURS OF PLAYING! Most of that spent grinding to Level 100. Love Tony Hawk, but fuck that Platinum, man! One of the most tedious platinums I've ever gone for.
 
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