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So, I finished GTA 5. Actually, I got 100% on GTA 5.

I got PS5 this summer but only managed to turn it on couple of months later. I had PS3 for brief period of time, but "last" proper console was PS2. Passed GTA: Vice City on it and I binged GTA: San Andreas for, what it seemed, years. I never managed to get 100% on it (I think there were a couple of bike stunts I couldn't pass). I played GTA 4 on PC via Steam but I never really got hooked on it. Liberty City didn't seemed that interesting and the reality of the game threw me of (it drained all the fun out of it).

GTA 5 had the atmosphere and play-ability I remembered from the Vice City and Sand Andreas. I think I clocked around 110 hours (seemed much less), got 100% and I plan to get some achievements from PS+ (likem 70 gold medals, it seems like nice idea to revisit some of the missions). After that, it may be that I'm not bored as I was 20 years ago, or it may be it doesn't excite me as much as it did - but I can't see playing this one much longer. GTA Online seems like something I could enjoy, but it's been years since I played anything multiplayer. I guess it depends on how hooked I'll get on the games I've bought on last sale: Doom (2016), Assassin's Creed Origins, Batman: Arkham Knight, God of War (2018), Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order, BioShock Collection (first three games but I've only played first one) and Talos Principle.
 
Spambot said:
I guess it depends on how hooked I'll get on the games I've bought on last sale: Doom (2016), Assassin's Creed Origins, Batman: Arkham Knight, God of War (2018), Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order, BioShock Collection (first three games but I've only played first one) and Talos Principle.
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Those are all some great games, the bolded ones getting a special shout out. Fallen Order can seem like a Souls-like, but it's a proper 3D metroidvania game and super fun.
GOW18 on the other hand is the perfect amount of linear and story driven game with a heavy puzzle and exploration focus. Also, the soundtrack is bloody amazing.
 
Vaenyr said:
GOW18 on the other hand is the perfect amount of linear and story driven game with a heavy puzzle and exploration focus. Also, the soundtrack is bloody amazing.
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Despite what I wrote in the previous post (and it's true, the game was a really good experience) I was a bit disappointed - the combat system isn't as fair and calculated as with from games (see Joseph Anderson's video, he deconstructed it to a ridiculous degree, as he is prone to do) and the storytelling is quite good, but as a whole, it didn't captivate me as much as it should have. Like I said to a friend of mine, "I'm really sorry I didn't discover this game/the game didn't come out when I was 15. It would have been my favourite game of all time." I know it sounds condescending, but it really shouldn't be taken so - it's a very cool game, it's just the coolness didn't rub off me as much and I expected more.

Still looking forward to the Ragnarok PC port, though.
 
JudasMyGuide said:
Despite what I wrote in the previous post (and it's true, the game was a really good experience) I was a bit disappointed - the combat system isn't as fair and calculated as with from games (see Joseph Anderson's video, he deconstructed it to a ridiculous degree, as he is prone to do) and the storytelling is quite good, but as a whole, it didn't captivate me as much as it should have. Like I said to a friend of mine, "I'm really sorry I didn't discover this game/the game didn't come out when I was 15. It would have been my favourite game of all time." I know it sounds condescending, but it really shouldn't be taken so - it's a very cool game, it's just the coolness didn't rub off me as much and I expected more.

Still looking forward to the Ragnarok PC port, though.
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Well, it's an entirely different genre, so expecting a From battle system is quite unrealistic. The new GOW games aren't as flashy as the earlier hack 'n' slash entries, but they are still character action games. No stamina system, which fundamentally changes how these games are designed. These games have very different goals and different approaches to, essentially, everything. That said the boss fight against Sigrun was a ton of fun, and Ragnarok has great boss fights as well.

But I can see how, if the narrative didn't connect fully to you, you might still like the game, but not as much as someone who clicked with it, since its story is the main focus.
 
Vaenyr said:
Well, it's an entirely different genre, so expecting a From battle system is quite unrealistic. The new GOW games aren't as flashy as the earlier hack 'n' slash entries, but they are still character action games. No stamina system, which fundamentally changes how these games are designed
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It's not about particular combat mechanics, but the "fairness" of the fight - Anderson explains (and proves from his hundreds of recorded hours) that often same action under same circumstances produces different results, so it kinda falls under the Random Number Generator, which for a game that tries to be hard (especially on the higher difficulties and especially on Give Me God of War) isn't as good or satisfying as the more or less transparent mechanics of fromsoft. I personally called bullshit several times, because at least some fights (especially with some of the Valkyries) felt like randomly bruteforcing through several attempts. It's not a huge complaint, just explaining why the combat didn't captivate me as much, although the everpresent cool factor is there, especially once you can swith the weapons around.
(though the repetitive fights with the trolls ended each time with the same execution animation started to grate on me after a while)

Vaenyr said:
But I can see how, if the narrative didn't connect fully to you, you might still like the game, but not as much as someone who clicked with it, since its story is the main focus.
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To me, the story kinda presupposes that you have at least some knowledge of the previous games, otherwise the characters are oblique and border on despicable (like Kratos' semi-abuse of his son during the first half of the game) AND some of the huge story beats - like the "oh shite" after killing Modi and the implications regarding Fimbulwinter and Ragnarok as the world seems to be entering a storm - require outside knowledge to fully resonate.
To me, it was too sociopathic to work as a character-driven story about parenthood, too "cool" to allow some more significant emotional investment and too concentrated on the protagonist and his son to work otherwise.
Freyja is incredibly hot, though. :ninja:
 
The funny thing is that Kratos was absolutely monstrous in the Greek saga and is basically beyond any redemption. The Norse games feel a bit like therapy sessions for him at times lol
 
I'm continuing my first BloodBorne journey, went through Cathedral Ward and Old Yharnam yesterday, although I had to go to bed early, since I was getting up earlier today, so I did only one boss - Blood-Starved Beast.

It took me 4 attempts - one more than Father Gascoigne - and the fourth was this Hail Mary last ditch attempt for fun, just before I'd go to sleep - I had no remaining quicksilver bullets, running low on antidotes... but somehow it clicked and the fight was elegant, methodical, beautiful. I think I'm starting to understand the people who are flawlessing bosses (no rolls, no hit etc.) - not that I was ever as good, but yesterday I got into the zone and it felt like a fraction of that in a way.

I also started doing some sidequests, which reminded me of this absolutely priceless video parodying Elden Ring's (and fromsoft's) approach to sidequests.

Yes, it is really like that and it's the best thing ever.

1st encounter: "Hello, may i have some water?"

3rd encounter: "You have lead me to a fate worse than death"

--

"Don't forget the classic "you COULD have gotten the good ending for them by speaking to them at least five times after exhausting their dialogue each time they change locations, have at least three Envoy Horns in your inventory, and have completed this other entirely unrelated side quest before handing over the key item. Also, the "good ending" is that they still die, but have an extra line of dialogue where they reference a connection with another obscure character.""

--

"Hey, I'm a really interesting character with a fun side quest." Doesn't see the NPC for a long time "You didn't visit me at an obscure location before doing a boss fight, now i'm dead."


--


The hardest part for me was not treating everything they say as a metaphor. "You're guided by the two fingers", "they stopped the stars from turning", "they're literally a doll", "I'm here to be grafted" I thought these were all metaphors due to the old English speech patterns and had no idea what was going on until I actually met the physical fingers.


Anyway, this evening I'm finishing Cathedral Ward and I must say that I'm falling in love with the game. I totally get why people love it so much.
Honestly, it was a gift (a huge gift from a very dear friend who bought it for me), so I got off easy, but even buying old and used PS4 just for this game would make sense to me.

In fact, that's my experience with from - the games look similar, but when you get a bit deeper, they are quite a bit different - and I absolutely believe that each of the games has its fans who feel it's the best one - yes, even the unfairly maligned and underrated DS 2.

This one has currently shifted my ever-present Medievalist mind to all things Victorian - it reawakened the 14 year old Goth girl within me that loves Tim Burton and From Hell (the movie! not the comics, the buggeration of a movie!) and Van Helsing (the 2004 shitty action flick) and ... dunno, Underworld. The top hats and everything, you know.

And the latter-era Khanelot.

"'Cause we were always alone,
We were born in the hunter's season"

:D
 
Vaenyr said:
The funny thing is that Kratos was absolutely monstrous in the Greek saga and is basically beyond any redemption. The Norse games feel a bit like therapy sessions for him at times lol
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Tiny tangent, this reminds me of when one of my philosophy professors was telling us about Hercules. He asked if we knew why in the Disney version he had to "save" Meg from Hades, when we shook our heads he said, "Cuz he put them there! In the (one of) myth Hercules kills his family in a fit of rage, to get them back he must perform the 10 labors which become 12 when he gets help on a couple of them." I start laughing and he looks at me a tad confused, "Sorry, did I say something funny?" "Well, what you're saying is Hercules got placed in a 12 step anger management court ordered course." All he said was, "Goes to show you some things never change."

As for gaming, I bought the Messenger (again), for Xbox as it was on sale for like 3 bucks or whatever. On steam it took me 32 hours between main story and DLC. I'm working my way through the DLC now (just started) and I'm only slightly over 14 hours. It's a pleasure replaying it after playing Sea of Stars, there are a lot of references I didn't catch at first, because Sea of Stars wasn't out yet, but it's clear the developers knew where they were taking this. So much so, there is an area in Glacial Peak where you get a cluster of time shards where you can see a man and woman frozen in the mountain. At first I just thought it was a nice detail, but now it's clear they are the protagonists of Sea of Stars. There are other hints to them and the game in general in the dialogue. The game ends with a "to be continued" so I'm hoping for an actual sequel since Sea of Stars was a prequel that takes place WAAAAAAY before this game. I usually don't replay games now, because of the time it usually takes to complete a game nowadays. I remember being able to finish Mega Man 2 in under 30 minutes, Genesis games like Golden Axe 2 in like an hour forty minutes, but now a "short" game is at least 10 hours. But this one is just such a joy and the music is great. Like I said playing it again after Sea of Stars got me feeling rather emotional in some points of the story.

For "new" games, I started playing Cuphead and I have to say, besides the artwork I don't get the hype. It was built up as "Contra as a 30's cartoon," and "super hard," and well... no, not really. First off, I thought it'd be more like traditional Contra in that you run through a level with a big bad at the end of it. Instead you have "run 'n' gun" levels with a mini boss at the end and then you have an isolated faceoff with the big boss. While unexpected I actually like this. Also, the difficulty thing? I only see two settings, "easy and regular, " and regular is well.... regular. It's nothing out of this world. I don't know if it's because I grew up with NES platformers like Contra, Mega Man, Mario, Ninja Gaiden, etc, that I don't see what's so "hard" about learning patterns, getting better and defeating the boss/level. So yeah, very enjoyable game, great artwork, but I think the "ERRRMAGAAAAD IS SO HAAAAAARD," was definitely over sold.
 
Onhell said:
For "new" games, I started playing Cuphead and I have to say, besides the artwork I don't get the hype. It was built up as "Contra as a 30's cartoon," and "super hard," and well... no, not really. First off, I thought it'd be more like traditional Contra in that you run through a level with a big bad at the end of it. Instead you have "run 'n' gun" levels with a mini boss at the end and then you have an isolated faceoff with the big boss. While unexpected I actually like this. Also, the difficulty thing? I only see two settings, "easy and regular, " and regular is well.... regular. It's nothing out of this world. I don't know if it's because I grew up with NES platformers like Contra, Mega Man, Mario, Ninja Gaiden, etc, that I don't see what's so "hard" about learning patterns, getting better and defeating the boss/level. So yeah, very enjoyable game, great artwork, but I think the "ERRRMAGAAAAD IS SO HAAAAAARD," was definitely over sold.
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Yeah, I loved Cuphead visually and it reinvigorated my interest in animation, in particular the early one, like the Fleischer Studios stuff and so on, but gameplay wise, it felt really meh and I didn't finished it yet.

If we're talking about visually interesting games - and this one has a tad more qualities - I have managed to talk several of my friends to play Pentiment - and I restarted the game as well. It's a mix of adventure/RPG/visual novel, it's by Obsidian (and an obvious Josh's passion project), it's set in Medieval Bavaria and it's the closest you'd ever get to a game adaptation of The Name of the Rose (the book, not the movie) - in several regards.
A big thing is the passing of the time, the changes you made to the society, delving into the past and so on. However, the time is passing during other activities - doing one thing will prevent you from doing another, which means you'll have only limited knowledge of people, their relationships and so on. That's important.

I can't say more without spoilers - the less you know about the game, the better, but it's definitely worth a walk-through. Like I said, an obvious passion project - something that feels like somebody wanted to make it.

Oh, and it's short and definitely not hard - technically speaking, you can't lose, everything you do is kinda valid.


Pen1.jpg

Pen2.jpg
 
JudasMyGuide said:
Yeah, I loved Cuphead visually and it reinvigorated my interest in animation, in particular the early one, like the Fleischer Studios stuff and so on, but gameplay wise, it felt really meh and I didn't finished it yet.

If we're talking about visually interesting games - and this one has a tad more qualities - I have managed to talk several of my friends to play Pentiment...
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I've been playing Pentiment on and off. I stopped playing it after Act I, because I was frustrated I couldn't get the obvious innocent person off. I want to start over. Pay better attention to the clues. This game hits all the right notes.

I still have Bendy on my wishlist. It NEVER goes on sale lol, so one of these days I'll break and buy it full price, because I like the artwork and I'm interested by the premise.
 
Onhell said:
I've been playing Pentiment on and off. I stopped playing it after Act I, because I was frustrated I couldn't get the obvious innocent person off. I want to start over. Pay better attention to the clues. This game hits all the right notes.
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I'm now really torn between mildly spoiling the game for you to strengthen the interest and between keeping you in the dark to have that perfect first playthrough :D

Anyway, I'll do neither - every choice is valid. Trust me. Finish the game first, you can replay it if you'd like. The journey is more important than the destination. (however if you've stopped playing and it's been a while and you don't remember what you did and who's who, I'd suggest replaying act I as well, but only for that reason)
 
JudasMyGuide said:
I'm now really torn between mildly spoiling the game for you to strengthen the interest and between keeping you in the dark to have that perfect first playthrough :D

Anyway, I'll do neither - every choice is valid. Trust me. Finish the game first, you can replay it if you'd like. The journey is more important than the destination. (however if you've stopped playing and it's been a while and you don't remember what you did and who's who, I'd suggest replaying act I as well, but only for that reason)
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I still remember, and the characters will remind you anyway as they remain loyal/bitter to your previous choices. Thanks for the encouragement, I do see myself playing this game more than once. I also want to wait until I have proper time. This isn't a "popcorn flick." Like with the Witcher and Alien: Isolation, I want to make sure I give it the time and attention it deserves.
 
I liked Pentiment at first, but I found it overlong for what it meant to be. I'm also not really a fan of the way it tells the story through the first third. I really like to have real answers rather than what Pentiment provides. The art was stunning though and I don't regret my time in the game. I originally expected it to be a forever favourite, it just became an enjoyable single play.
 
LooseCannon said:
... I really like to have real answers rather than what Pentiment provides.
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Same, that's what made the end of Act I so frustrating and KNOWING I missed some stuff I couldn't go back to when I noticed. So yeah. That's why I feel I want to start a second file just to have the original run and the more thorough run as well. But we'll see come summer.
 
Bloodborne, day four (of the serious attempts, in fact, it's more like day three proper, but whatever).

Spent a lot of time going through Hypogean Gaol, which - as I've learnt later - is a bonus section that's a preview of a late-game area, however I did understand after a while that Darkbeast Paarl is obviously beyond my current level and decided to try elsewhere (I'm not proficient enough to do under-leveled / level 1 and so on fights, especially not in this game).

After some more wandering in the Healing Church Workshop - and after my patience ran out from the fucking jumping down on the beams in the darkness (these acrobatic moments are the worst parts of any from game, bar none), I've decided to encounter Vicar Amelia.

It was a cool fight, however after getting her twice to a sliver of health and dying (with once having a sliver of health myself and whittling her down from a third of her healthbar to an absolute miniscule, microscopic amount before she killed me, which was frustrating as fuck), I decided to check the inventory and found out that I have several fire papers (that make you deal fire damage with your weapon) and thought - "huh, beast-type, right?" - and then I found a consumable that prevents healing and thought - "huh, so you want to heal, right?", grinded for some more health vials and killed her in about two attempts.

Not sure if I broke my rule "no shield, no cheese, no summons", though, I usually don't use consumables neither, however, as I've discovered it myself and didn't read any meta tips, I don't feel cheated. :D
As of now, I'm approaching Hemwick Charnel Lane and then it's probably nighttime, baby.
 
Recompleted The Messenger. Ran through it really quick, including the DLC. Was able to do a few things I didn't do on Steam, like getting all the mask pieces in the DLC, accepting the deal of being stronger and more life in exchange of a permadeath run. I was really nervous and made it quite far. I was worried about the platforming in the Sky Temple Ruins, but I died in the Tower of Time lol. It was a fun attempt in NG+. I'm glad to say I did everything I wanted to with this game and I can set it aside for now. Once again I'm at a bit of a crossroads. I want to play something new, but most of the things I want to play require time and attention (why must I like nerdy, indie games? lol) and I just want time killers. For now Cuphead is scratching that itch a bit, but since it requires learning fight patterns until finally beating a boss progress is slow. So kinda like The Messenger I want a time killer with some reasonable progression. Might check out some of my recent purchases to see if any fit that description. Most likely in alphabetical order.

As for The Messenger I'm conflicted. As stated before, it ends with a "To be Continued..." But the follow up game was a PREQUEL and in the most recent interview I could find with the studio head he said that IF, if they made a Messenger 2, it would be different, that they're afraid by labeling "messenger" people will want/expect an action platformer when they've been there, done that and want to try something different. Sea of Stars, for example, was a classic RPG. I understand their hesitation, but don't end your game with "to be continued" and then just say, "we might never make a sequel." Like... WTF. So, all I can do is wait.
 
Playing Alan Wake 2 on my PS5. What a beautiful game. I was a huge fan of the original and this one seems to be right up there in terms of story.
 
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