What are you playing?

Finished Dishonoured 2 yesterday. Good fun.
 
Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1 + 2 (PS4) -- I wish I could say it was perfect..BUT I do have some nitpicks. The revert timing is slightly off. I was wondering why I was having so much trouble transitioning from a revert into a manual. It would always either hit the revert but forget to manual or cancel the revert and snap straight into the manual.

Figured it out, the timing is off. In THPS3, you could pretty much transition from revert to manual as soon as you hit the revert. As in you press R2 and then instantaneously press Up Down and boom, you go from revert to manual once possible without waiting for the animation to play out (if that makes sense). Even now when I play THPS 3 in PCSX2 it still works with ease.

With this, it seems like you almost have to wait for the revert animation to play out before you can input the manual combination. It really threw my rhythm off and actually kind of annoyed me a little at first. I've kind of got the timing down now, but yeah, amazing how one little tweak is so noticeable when you have a game committed to muscle memory.

Other than that I do mostly like the game. It is certainly a LOT better than THPS HD or THPS 5 was. The levels look amazing. I love that the Hangar is now basically a Neversoft/THPS shrine. And the Graffiti all over Venice is amazing to look at. Hopefully they can tweak that input timing a little in an update or something and get it closer to how it used to be. Then it would be almost perfect for me.

I cleared both single player campaigns. Although I wish they would let you reset the Career completion for other skaters so you could do the goals again in career with other skaters like the old games. You can do the level goals again in the speed run mode they added, but it would be nice if they could patch in an option to let us play Career Goals with other skaters. Much like the old games.

I think this is one game I wouldn't mind if they delivered DLC for. The setup of it could allow for THPS3, THPS4, THUG and THUG 2 levels to be added somewhere down the road if they wanted, and I'd be all for it. Take a play out of the THUG PRO (a modded compilation for PC) book and eventually give us every THPS level in this one infrastructure. But who am I kidding? This is Activision. If this makes money then expect Tony Hawk games every year again until we tire of them all over again.

I was getting some wins online with my 400,000 or 500,000 combos...then the big boys came into play with their Million Pointers and yeah, now I'm usually either in the top 3 or top 5 with maybe the occasional win. I wonder what newbies to THPS must think of online against the pros who are REALLY good at that game.

But yeah, I'm digging the hell out of it bar my few nitpicks.
 
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Finished main story, side quest and all collectibles of the Horizon Zero Dawn. I just have 2 missions of the dlc.

9/10. Waiting for HZD2

A meanie comment:
Story its better than Death stranding's imo lol
 
I gave Assassins Creed Odyssey another try. If you play as Kassandra it's playable, but not really enjoyable. The story feels flat and the gameplay is just broken enough to not warrant a full price purchase(I paid a little over $3 so whatever)and unfortunately it feels like the majority of Ubisoft's 3rd person games: Mediocre and uninspired.

I tried playing through For Honor last week, another one of Ubisoft's turds.

I picked up the remake of Tony Hawk 1&2 on Xbox for a little over $3 on Friday and it's well worth the cost! It plays nearly identical to the originals and is quite possibly the best remake I've played yet of any game. On the flip side, nostalgia ran out in about 1 hour and I'm not really interested in spending any more time with it going forward. If you like Tony Hawk but have never played the first two(still the best ones by far), the remake is worth picking up, even at full price.

I'll be keeping my eye open for something else to play until more Mortal Kombat 11 DLC or Ghost of Tsushima Legends come out as there's nothing else catching my interest at the moment.
 
Gonna start Dragon Age Inquisition. I decided it because I realized the gameplay is more "action" and not like their previous games (mmo-ish). So I def should love it.
 
Nathanial Essex said:
I'm on the last act on Ghost of Tsushima. After that, there's nothing left for me to play for the rest of the year (I'm only getting Cyberpunk when the next gen update is released).
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Ghost of Tsushima a second time is better than all up coming releases lol

Have you played the new Tomb Raider Trilogy(2013-2018)? Great stuff!
 
otbr87 said:
Ghost of Tsushima a second time is better than all up coming releases lol

Have you played the new Tomb Raider Trilogy(2013-2018)? Great stuff!
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I completed the first two but was only mildly interested. Had no interest in the latter games. Ghost of Tsushima does have the multiplayer update later this year and Outriders does look
interesting so do have that to look forward to.

I've also given up on football games as each year it's the same damn thing. The first football game I remember having was FIFA World Cup 98 and I've got one each year from then. So, this will be the first time in 20 plus years that I haven't bought a football game. I initially gave up on the most recent installment but through Share Play started a coop Master League with my brother which was the most fun I've had.

However, I'm not interested in doing Share Play to start another Master League in the upcoming game/update. If it was an actual feature (which it should be), I'll be happy to purchase the update but that's not going to be the case.
 

Man, some of these Hard Get There challenges are gonna test my paitence. It'll be the challenge that either makes or breaks my Platinum for this game.
 
I finally finished Evolution. It was actually fairly good, all told. Pretty cute ending, and quite nice graphics for a 1998 game. I think the two biggest 'issues' are that enemy variety is extremely limited, and they can almost all be dealt with the same way: Stack speed, and pick off enemies based on their turn order. As a result, a lot of the mechanics that were built into the combat, like spacing and elemental attacks, don't really come into play at all.

The final boss was actually pretty tough, though. I'm glad I decided to actually make a safety save before it, because I hadn't saved at all since before landing on the boat. I thought I was going to be okay just firing off a few fully charged Pepper Sprays, but his speed stat was just way too high, and he used Naorin 3000 too much. He slowly, but systematically worked me into submission. I made a few adjustments to my equipment to resist poison more effectively, and made sure to debuff his stats with Pepper and Gre. I also adjusted my strategy to using mostly Mach Punch with Mag, after heavily reducing his Psyframe attack delay with Gre. I only ended up Pepper Spraying twice, and really didn't even need to. I made him my bitch the second time.

Funny that I was a little annoyed by how the first attempt at that final boss fight went, but seeing how effectively I was able to adjust my strategy to the fight, I'd say it was a pretty great final boss. It's too bad there wasn't just a little bit more of that in some of the earlier boss fights, but oh well.
 
Just beat The Last of Us 2.

I really liked how it was a great revenge story and how you got to play 1/2 the game as Abby so you get empathy for her.

Would be cool if Yu Suzuki takes a page from Naughty Dog and has you play 1/2 the game as Lan Di in Shenmue 4...
 
SMDzero said:
Just beat The Last of Us 2.

I really liked how it was a great revenge story and how you got to play 1/2 the game as Abby so you get empathy for her.

Would be cool if Yu Suzuki takes a page from Naughty Dog and has you play 1/2 the game as Lan Di in Shenmue 4...
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All due respect but no thank you. The only thing I want anyone to take from that game is a "how not to"
 

Damn! That one sucked! Not seen here: The hour or so of me botching this line in attempt to complete it. In theory, it was simply clear all three stair cases in one combo. Easy right? Nope! It was a pain in the ass! And I still have 16 of these challenges to go.
 
So I got the platinum for Disaster Report 4, and subsequently finished the epilogue. Honestly I’m unsure about how I feel regarding the entire experience. It was certainly quite a change of pace from Maneater, at least. But overall I think I enjoyed it for many different reasons, especially in spite of some deeper flaws.

First and foremost I can definitely see how some glaring things about how it’s set up are deemed as archaic or not exactly modern, though to me I feel some of that adds to its charm and sometimes makes for a better game. In a lot of ways it really doesn’t feel far off from the first two games, and that can be a good or a bad thing.

Thing is, there are some differences which seem very overt, and it seems it may be due in part to being made by a new developer. This can also mean good or bad things depending on your taste.

The first few games seemed very goofy for the most part, intentionally with stuff like all the different collectibles, but also unintentionally with some of the bad voice acting and writing and nonsensical plots about government secrets causing catastrophes on purpose in some Scooby Doo esque scheme. That and just how over the top some of the scenes are just trying to figure out which part of whatever you’re standing on will suddenly give way or if a tidal wave will t-bone you out of nowhere.

DR4 seems to be far more subdued, and while I think some moments are very silly for unintentional reasons, a lot of it is self aware, especially with some scenes late in the game that hit me harder than they would have if I hadn’t thought I’d end up caring about some of the characters there are. Not every story beat is great and it’s not necessarily complex, but I am a bit surprised how some things kind of hooked me without me noticing so much, compared to something like Nier where you kind of expect things to get bleak.

That and the epilogue not really having much for survival gameplay at all. Kind of odd but in a weird way I can respect it? I guess it’s in that it shows how much an impact a single event could have on so many lives such a long time after that almost makes it feel like some indie art house project, more than a game. Also surprised me as it seems to be one game with a battle system that has less fights than Shenmue...though it’s not as good. :p Really it just feels like it has a lot of heart put into it.

my two major issues are a lot of the survival aspects not mattering much(going on extra playthroughs for trophies without ever using a toilet didn’t seem to effect anything, for one example), nor many of the choices, unfortunately. The illusion of choice is definitely there, and there are seemingly a few meaningful choices to be made, but the vast majority just don’t change much sadly. If some of the side content or trophies had not been so vague, I feel like only playing through once would have been ideal so as not to be disappointed in how little stuff matters. Maybe they’ll improve with 5 granted they made enough off this niche budget title to do more.
 
Aside from playing the three Shenmue games, I‘ve been retro gaming by revisiting both Spider-Man games for the PlayStation 1. I‘ve even drew comparisons between them and the PS4 Spider-Man game that came out almost 20 years after the PS1 games, as crazy as that may initially sound!

Both of the PS1 games are still fun games to play once in a while. The sequel, Enter Electro, is a little overlooked. It kind of surprised me how many haven’t heard of it. Sadly despite a change of developer (from Neversoft to Vicarious Visions) it possesses the weaknesses of the first game (such as the poor camera, sloppy controls) and features some poorly-designed levels - even if the idea was good, the execution isn’t quite right. Overall, it’s still a fun game to play, highly dedicated to the comics and makes you wonder how they would have done with the technology the PS4 game enjoyed.

Spider-Man PS4 was excellent and a big moment for superhero gaming, but it’s easy for me to see that some parts of the game were inspired from Enter Electro. For example, the vast amount of costumes you can pick from, choosing three different powers and the astute use of lesser-known Spider-Man villains.
 
danielmann861 said:

Damn! That one sucked! Not seen here: The hour or so of me botching this line in attempt to complete it. In theory, it was simply clear all three stair cases in one combo. Easy right? Nope! It was a pain in the ass! And I still have 16 of these challenges to go.
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Impressive! I've been loving the heck out of THPS 1+2; been making my way through it slowly. I've almost 100%'d the goals in THPS1 and can't wait to hit THPS2. The sequel's still one of my GOATs.

Don't think I'll go for the challenges, though...this is the first time I've played a THPS in ~20 years and I sucked when I first started, despite being an absolute demon back then. It's slowly but surely coming back to me. I never played much beyond 2...played a little bit of 3, so even the revert feels like a "new" thing to me.
 
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