What are you playing?

Anyone who thought Shenmue 3 was a victim of poor game design really needs to play Pokemon Legends: Arceus for perspective. To complete the game, you need to catch every single Pokemon, but a handful of them only show up in special “space-time distortions” that have a random chance of spawning in every ten minutes or so. Here’s the kicker though, actually playing the game (catching and battling Pokemon) pauses the timer and so it’s better for players to sit around AFK and wait for one of these random events to trigger.

Over the course of the past few days I’ve probably spent the best part of five hours just waiting (to be fair I’ve been watching YouTube and dossing around on the internet as well) for these events to trigger and have only had two of them. To make matters even more frustrating, I’ve only managed to find one of the two Pokemon that I need on these rare occasions and so am still sitting around waiting for a chance to find the other as I type.

In case it’s not already clear, this is just me venting, though it does blow my mind that Shenmue 3 caught so much flack when PL:A has been heralded as one of the most innovative Pokemon games in years. To be clear, it’s not a terrible game by any stretch of the imagination, but some of the design choices really are baffling.
Isn't Pokémon Areceus originally a Japan released only Nintendo 64 game that they ported to their Nintendo Online library they're trying to build? The N64 graphics look a little smoothed out on the screenshots I've seen, which I'd imagine they do for all of their 1990s era titles. I know Xbox and PS smooth out the texture on older titles from 20+ years ago.
 
Playing Horizon Forbidden West for work. Really enjoying it so far, though have had one or two pretty severe performance issues here and there. I’m sure they’ll be patched out sooner rather than later, but that’s not much use to me right now.
 
I've still got my Game Pass trial and I'm playing The Wild At Heart:
wild-1.JPG

It's a pretty fun game with a nice drawn qaulity to it, the animations are very smooth and it's fun to play - despite lacking voice acting, which would really enhance it IMO. As for the Gameplay, well this is how I described it:
pikim.JPG
 
Playing Horizon Forbidden West for work. Really enjoying it so far, though have had one or two pretty severe performance issues here and there. I’m sure they’ll be patched out sooner rather than later, but that’s not much use to me right now.
Is it any good? Didnt find Zero Dawn to be as great as the hype. Story was really poorly delivered and combat was stiff. Forbidden West looks beautiful visually admittedly.
 
Is it any good? Didnt find Zero Dawn to be as great as the hype. Story was really poorly delivered and combat was stiff. Forbidden West looks beautiful visually admittedly.
If you didn’t like the first one then you probably won’t like the second. Map traversal is a little better this time around (they added gliding and more mountable machines) and the combat and character development systems are a bit deeper (there are now multiple skill trees allowing players to build Aloy around their play style), but it’s effectively just a bigger and better looking Zero Dawn. As somebody who did enjoy the first game I’m pretty happy with that, although it does look like the story is about to shoot off into some batshit crazy direction.
 
CyberPunk 2077

Graphics are amazing and really help you get into the world. I'm only an hour or so in but hoping it will be the type of game that I can get lost in. With that said, I've noticed a couple weird things about the games.

Staged set pieces - I hope this is not the norm but at the beginning of the game, you are doing a shoot out whilst being driven in the car. Thing is, you don't actually have to do anything (even when the driver shouts "aimer for the driver") and the whole sequence just plays out even when you don't press the button. Apparently it's the same thing with another driving scene later in the game.

Driving - Driving is terrible so far and apparently it has been much improved with the update.

No reflection - Just find it weird that that mirrors don't reflect anything....
 
welp despite a large part of the internet telling me to build my own, especially with prices that have skyrocketed, as well as having trouble buying a desktop last year around this time, I got myself a "gaming laptop". From what I understand it's not quite the best of the best and the vram in particular seems to be what they call might be a bottleneck, but with the first game I tested out I'm glad it seems to run pretty well. At least, far better than the last time I tried it on this much older laptop I'm using. Of course, it would seem the pc port of gta4 is kinda shoddy no matter who you are, unfortunately, but I would really like to play it on something other than my ps3 or 360 and I no longer trust rockstar to do a decent job at anything anymore.


 
I'm just put over 100 hours into Shin Megami Tensei V. I haven't used a guide to get through the game. I appreciate a game more by playing it blind.

What are your views on this game - if anyone in this community has experience with Megami Tensei games?
 
I'm just put over 100 hours into Shin Megami Tensei V. I haven't used a guide to get through the game. I appreciate a game more by playing it blind.

What are your views on this game - if anyone in this community has experience with Megami Tensei games?
I absolutely loved it. If not for Metroid it would have been my 2021 GOTY. It managed to be less obtuse than previous games whilst losing none of the challenge or depth.
 
So I’ve been playing Elden Ring since I got it and pretty much nothing else. At first it was buggy as all hell and unable to keep a sold framerate at even the lowest resolution. But then I stumble across this tidbit of info telling me at least on some computers, the game uses the integrated graphics by default for whatever reason. Ever since I switched on over to my actual graphics card in the nvidia settings, there have been no graphical bugs(that I know of) and thankfully it has been significantly smoother.

I tried on both 1440p and 4K just out of curiosity, but it’s still a bit sluggish there - however kinda understandable with the specs I have, from what I understand. It seems to be mostly ok at max at 1080p, still momentary dips especially when recording unfortunately, but at high with a few settings I don’t care for set to low or off it seems to run mostly good. But having watched this digital foundry video on it, it seems no matter what I do, or anyone else for that matter, stuttering will be an issue until Fromsoft can fix it on their side.

As far as the game itself goes…kinda meh. Leaning on the good side but there are many things I question, and I think at base level I still just prefer both the gameplay and aesthetics of both Bloodborne and Sekiro over this. From the trailers it seems there may be more eldritch stuff to come later on, but for now I just am not so excited for your typical fantasy, even if it is better than Elder Scrolls at least.

I definitely feel it’s been made more accessible for new players, and that isn’t all necessarily a bad thing, but having summoned lots of help yesterday, it feels like a lot of stuff was stripped away just to make it too easy. Don’t have to worry about whether you’re human or not, have not been invaded except for 1 npc, it seems helpers have their own healing items, etc. but maybe they found that those concepts just aren’t as conducive to the open world format.

Speaking of…I feel BotW has really ruined other open worlds for me. Just the simple fact of being able to climb everything is one unrealistic expectation but I can’t help but think it when I come to a huge wall or steep cliff, where reviewers praise it for being more “vertical” but I see it as just arbitrary barriers. Tough enemies and forts in the way are one thing, but this is almost as bad as invisible walls to me. But then I suppose it just makes you more on the lookout for those horse geysers or the graves sticking out of the cliffs.

I’m maybe 10 hours in? Had started with a wretch just to see how that would go, and that was fun and all, but decided to restart as a confessor and ultimately decided to pump points into strength to go around with a shield and great sword, and just have a couple magic heals as a backup…though I think I picked up the equivalent of soul arrows somewhere, which might be nice if I need to be ranged.

Have yet to fight Margit, been exploring a ton to the east and north, only recently realized there’s a big part to the south and apparently beat a “major” boss there but I seemed to mess up some quest line with a girl and her father…or maybe not, knowing how these games go. Hard to say when things are sometimes meant to be bleak.

Might take a break for today, not sure. I really do want to try Margit now I have my great sword upgraded a bit, a better shield and chest plate. We’ll see.
 
Playing Gran Turismo 7 for work. It looks great and the driving experience itself is great, but, for whatever reason, I’m not sure that I’m really having fun with it. In fact, it actually feels like work at times.
 
i'm playing ghost runner on ps5 ( free ps+)

not as fun as i thought it would be. ive played it for about 1 hour.. if you get shot once, it's "game over".. the reset to last spawn point is painless as the game loads very fast, but the frustration starts to melt your brain after a while. i like the jumping/wall running and trying to get from one location to another..thats pretty cool but the combat is frustrating

the game is more like the old ps3 game mirrored edge rather than doom eternal.
 
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I’ve gotten a little farther in Elden Ring. It’s a bit harder to really gauge progress what with most stuff being “optional”. I guess the important thing is I finally got my grave scythe to drop. I’m kinda torn between using it for my Calli inspired Guhts character, and using the actual Berserk sword. Kinda wish I hadn’t spent all those smithing stones on my current sword, but what can you do. I beat Margit on my first try, albeit with some help, but have not yet explored the rest of the castle.

Also, against my better judgement, I decided to give Halo Infinite a go. I’ve heard not so great things about the story and how repetitive the overall levels are, but man I’m just craving a new experience with the more classic Halo feel. It was either this, or replay Reach. To my surprise, running this game seems a lot more straining on my pc than Elden Ring. It was set to low by default, I set a few things to high and some medium and while it was mostly fine, it chugged when the action got heavy.

Maybe I’ll just try the medium preset next time and see what it does in the more open areas. If not I may just have to settle for low. Even so, it may still look fine. But it has me reconsidering some other games…I’m not typically into racing games, but Forza Horizon 5 looks like it could be decent? I really enjoyed Midnight Club LA but sadly have not seen anything like it since then, so I’m kinda looking around in general for something to replace it. At the very least, gta4 seems to have some cockpit mods.
 
I’ve been giving Days Gone (PS4) yet ANOTHER chance. I really don’t know what it is about this game that makes it so hard for me to stay interested/engaged. I’ve had it since launch and I’ve never beaten it. Tried to multiple times, but never got really far and always just seemed to forget about it. The gameplay is fine and the story is fine. The character performances are really good, but there’s something about the dramatic moments that feel forced. Especially with the lead character, who just seems to talk to himself a lot and sound like a dick most of the time. I know the story and setup are all dramatic, but these moments just don’t feel like they’re earned, you know? I got the same feeling from the opening of Captain America: Civil War where we’re introduced to the characters during their mission in Africa. There’s this dialogue exchange between all the characters on the team where they try to sound normal as possible but super cool as hell at the same time. This “matter-of-fact” style of setup just comes off as corny to me.

Anyways.

The PS5 patch makes it damn-near beautiful though, and I’m playing it on easy (like before). Here’s hoping I finish it this time.
 
WWE 2K22 - I usually don't buy these at launch anymore but I was curious to see what changes they had made made given the 2 year development cycle. Thoughts? It feels like they took a bit of the AKI games, a bit of HCTP, a bit of the 2K games and a bit of WWE All Stars with the combo system and mashed it into one game that is almost fun to play. I say "almost" because it's still plagued by some of the familar issues. It's still a bit too sluggish and heavy for my liking at times. Also hit detection is still pretty bad in it. But the basic gameplay changes they've made are at least fun this time around and does kind of echo Aki and HTCP to some level.

Graphics are for the most part a lot better. Wrestlers now fall into two categories: scanned and unscanned. The scanned models look great in the game. I think Alexa Bliss, for example, is one of the more stand out models in the game. But some of the unscanned models are still hit and miss. Trish Stratus really doesn't look like Trish Stratus up close. I don't know, I'm having some fun with it but it is still flawed in some ways. But it's at least a better step forward over WWE 2K20.

Horizon: Forbidden West - I like it more than the first game so far. It fixes a lot of the issues I had with the first game. But again, it is mostly more of the same and if you didn't like the first one then I don't know if you'll like the sequel. But for me, the issues I had with the first game have been addressed so I'm into it.
 
I’m also playing WWE 2K22 for work and have been impressed by it for the most part. After the absolute train wreck that was 2K20, the bar was set pretty low, but I do think that most fans of the series will be pleasantly surprised by just how much of an improvement 2K22 is. To be clear, it’s far from the best WWE game ever (though it is definitely the best-looking), but it’s still one of the best we’ve seen in five or six years.
 
For the WWE 2K22 players - how is the GM mode?

I haven’t bought the game yet but I’m tempted to. I will admit that I was pretty disappointed by their roster. They have so much talent (including names from the past) that they could include but it appears they haven’t. Also, it looks a bit outdated in parts, granted that Vince McMahon’s P45 spree didn’t help.
 
I finished Triangle Strategy twice. First playthrough was blind, and I completed Frederica's route; the second playthrough was the "golden" ending, where I did depend upon a guide to pick the right itinerary without spoiling the route's storyline.

For a jrpg, I appreciate the fact that it hasn't relied upon the "eye candy" of lolis and big boobed cat girls to pique my interest. The strategic aspects of the game was heavily reminiscent of the Shining Force and Vandal Hearts series. I have not played FF Tactics nor the Ogre series, so I can't make that comparison to Triangle Strategy.

I disagree that it's similar to Fire Emblem because the Fire Emblem series doesn't have a turn order system. The proper Shining Force games did during the 1990s era.

Overall, I highly recommend it. You do not need a aesthetically pleasing game to make it fun and engaging.

At present, I'm playing the current remake of Langrisser I & II.
 
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