Now Playing (Video Games)

During the time I've had Live Gold, I've collected several of the LEGO games, but I never actually seriously played any of them...

... until now. I tried this one out and it was good and fun... but I also realized/remembered that the first LEGO game I started was the Complete Star Wars Saga... and you know, along with the Williams' score the Indy game reminded me of that (yes, the scores are different, yet somehow similar). And that in turn reminded me of how ever since 2012 or so I've always had Star Wars connected with Christmas (I think it was that year when me and my wife were spending Christmas with my in-laws for the first time, I was re-playing Jedi Academy and wifey borrowed the Chloé perfume from her mother... which again, makes it my personal favourite winter-y and Christmas-y scent)... So I downloaded the LEGO Star Wars from the cloud, downloaded all other LEGO games (Indy 2 and Pirates of the Caribbean) from the cloud, downloaded all other Star Wars games from the cloud (Force Unleashed 1 and 2 and Jedi Academy... oh, and KOTOR, have to finally try that one out), even though it's still Advent...

But it wasn't enough. Fallen Order was on sale and I bought it. And I really like it. You know, they say it's like the modern Tomb Raider series, only mixed with Star Wars universe and lightsabers... you know, you say it like it's a bad thing...

It's ridiculously addictive is what I'm saying.

Jedi Academy is one of my favourite games that I’ve ever played. The missions and combat made younger me so excited that I played it through three times in a row. I want to try out Fallen Order now, and I’ve heard that KOTOR is great. The latter is from the same year as Jedi Academy, I wonder how they compare. I haven’t found a game that I’m interested to play since The Witcher, which I absolutely loved, but lost interest after finishing the expansions. My computer is probably not good enough for Cyberpunk. Currently I’m playing some CS:GO and Diablo 2 every now and then but bored with both of them. Would like to have a nice immersive story experience again.
 
Jes' a quick update - I bought myself for Christmas the Mafia Trilogy, the DLC for Alien: Isolation, Unravel Two and both installments of Pillars of Eternity (Obsidian! Yay!).

The Mafia 1 remake is... surprisingly decent. As someone who played through the original about 20 times, I was really worried, but there's no need to. It's not "it" anymore, the gameplay is even more arcadish etc., but the dialogue is slightly less cheesy (though more bland as a result), but the graphic side is very pretty, most of the storyline and approach stayed the same and it's different enough to be interesting.

I fired up Dark Souls and was so enamoured I immediately bought the third one with the DLC (FWIR, you can safely skip the second).

All this lead to me finally uninstalling GTA V - I have all Dragon Ages to finish, and Skyrim as well.
 
I hate it when I buy a game on deep discount with the intent to play it later and then it gets added to PS Plus a few months down the road before I get started on it. This has happened to me with Nioh, Middle-Earth: Shadow Of War, and now Shadow Of The Tomb Raider. It almost happened to me with Just Cause 4, but my backlog was too deep and the reviews were more middling on that one.

The thing is, if I assume a game will hit PS Plus and I just wait for it, it never happens. But if I buy it for 70-80% off, it’s almost inevitable that I get burned. Oh well.

Unlocked all the characters in Streets Of Rage 4, which is a great game. Now I’m back on Far Cry 5, which I’m about halfway through. Fun game, made all the more hilarious by being set in the U.S.

Not sure when I’ll ever get back to RDR2 at this point, since I haven’t made the attempt during this long winter break. Maybe when I eventually get a PS5...?
 
I hate it when I buy a game on deep discount with the intent to play it later and then it gets added to PS Plus a few months down the road before I get started on it.

This JUST happened to me with Little Nightmares on xbox Gold lol. It didn't sting too much, because only the basic game is available for free and I bought the "complete" edition (which is STILL incomplete)* at a deep discount. I decided to give it a spin and played the whole thing in just under 6 hours. It is a fairly short game with the main game clocking at 1.5 hours and the dlc another 1.5. Took me longer because I explored every nook and crany, some areas were trial and error and some puzzles took me a little longer than I'd like to admit. VERY satisfying game. Amazing and it did creep me out. I played it alone... at night.. minimal lighting and I was pretty creeped out. I really like playing suspense/horror games like that. Playing them during the day really kills the mood. Can't wait to get started on Alien: Isolation in a similar manner.

*Apparently more dlc has been released since, but seems to be purely cosmetic, aditional hoods/masks for Six.

Been clocking more hours on Road Redemption. My character is stronger now, and getting the hang of the driving/combat mechanic much better. Last month I got Stacked for free on Gold. It is a puzzle adventure game with Russian dolls (Barushkas?). You control a tiny doll and you can stack inside others to take control. You have to save your family and all the children from an evil baron. It's a slow burn, first few levels are pretty meh, but by the time you get to the end it's pretty cool. The ending sequence is hilarious, the animation is a rip off of Die Hard/Rambo with the hero jumping with an explosion in the background, but done in a silent movie style. I was laughing so hard the dog's neighbor started barking.

Also started playing American Mcgee's Alice and Alice Madness Returns. Man are they dated, but still fun. I set it down for a while, because they are very old school in the save/save point feature. I progress most of the level, die.... start from the beginning... fuck that.

Finally I downloaded Life is Strange 2 since it's free (the whole game is on sale for 10 bucks) to get a feel for it. A lot of things I liked, but those same things I was uncomfortable with. I like that you are not the one with the powers this time, I like that they are not time traveling powers, not a spoiler, it's in the trailer, they seem to be "force" powers and they belong to your little brother. I liked that it is an immigrant family from Mexico, though it seems it's just the dad, kids were born in the U.S. their last name, Diaz, reminded me of Cobra Kai's Miguel Diaz lol. I, however, did not care for the heavy handed politics about the wall, racism, police brutality, etc. I don't need my games to be that political. Props on being current though. Even though it's on sale I'm going to wait to purchase the fulll game. I have WAY too many games as it is and a ridiculous back catalogue. I thought I'd spend more time playing, but enjoyed doing NOTHING for a change during my vacation. I go back to work in a week or so, therefore my playing time once again will be limited. I think I'll focus on achievement sweeps of bioshock, bioshock 2, Lego Indy and finish those I've started like 20XX, Road Redemption, Alan Wake and Deadspace. If I'm going to start any new games it'll be those in my back catalogue like FEAR.
 
Anyway, a quick update - been loving Pillars of Eternity, finished about 75 % of the Mafia remake and I still don't give up on Dark Souls, although I still am stuck in Undead Burg and I have a hard time progressing anywhere. Yeah, the intentionally frustrating gameplay, I get it. Just, sometimes it gets kinda cheap and repetitive. But I get it's the series' trademark and I admit I get why it got such a cult following.

Oh and I gave up and bought the AC: Valhalla season pass. Ireland and duids? Beowulf? Count me friggin' in!

(also, the general setting of Medieval England is just so endearing - I kinda wish for Ubisoft Montreal to do a remake or something of Kingdom Come: Deliverance, honestly, just for it to look this good)

EDIT: As someone who finished the original game about 20 times I really could write a lot about the Mafia remake, but I have nor the time nor the energy. It is good, but very similar and very different at the same time. One of the weirdest feelings I ever had playing a video game.
 
Got WoW - Shadowlands after a 12 year hiatus of the Retailversion of the Game.
I'm pretty confused. Everything is so fast.

Also playing a fair bit of UFC 4 online lately. To put it best in the words of Khabib Nurmagomedov , im getting "smeshed"
 
Finished up Far Cry 5. Fun game, bad ending(s). A missed opportunity on the story, and a lot of dissonance between the serious tone of the story cut scenes and the ludicrous, parodic tone of the rest of the game. And the periodic unavoidable abductions of your character to advance the story were pretty annoying.

Weird spikes in difficulty earlier in the game, and then it gets way too easy later on unless you self-regulate. Once you outfit a light machine gun with a scope and a silencer you don’t really need any other weapon except for the occasional missile launcher, and once you buy a combat helicopter you can decimate just about anything with ease.

Weird story stuff:
The game specifically allows you to resist John’s orders early on, but after going through the story sequences with Jacob where you’re essentially getting primed to kill the resistance members by repeatedly going through a hallucinatory gauntlet, if you’re wise to this when the hallucination becomes reality, the game doesn’t let you refuse to kill the resistance leader Eli at the end. That was disappointing, and it also made one of the story missions missable if you hadn’t already done it before being forced to kill Eli. Kind of an annoying loss of agency.

I’m picking at its negatives, but the game was consistently fun and often funny.

Not sure what to start next. Shadow Of The Tomb Raider and Middle-Earth: Shadow Of War are staring at me. RDR2 is wagging its finger in my general direction. Nioh is collecting dust. And as an old fan of Road Rash, @Onhell ’s recommendation and the current deep discount of Road Redemption in the PS Store is looking mighty tempting.
 
Finished up Far Cry 5. Fun game, bad ending(s). A missed opportunity on the story, and a lot of dissonance between the serious tone of the story cut scenes and the ludicrous, parodic tone of the rest of the game. And the periodic unavoidable abductions of your character to advance the story were pretty annoying.
I've heard that as a consistent criticism of the Far Cry series, specially 3 and 5. Great game, enigmatic villian aaaaand... shit ending. I have Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon and it's quite fun. Need to get back to it, but I am having fun.

And as an old fan of Road Rash, @Onhell ’s recommendation and the current deep discount of Road Redemption in the PS Store is looking mighty tempting.
Aside from Little Nightmares, Road Redemption is all I've been playing. I am having a blast. I'm loving the variety of weapons and I finally got the hang of driving and beating people. One of my least favorite weapons at first, the guns (all of them, pistol, auto, shotgun, etc) have become one of my favorites. Especially the automatic, you can mow down a whole pack of riders in front of you lol.

I did decide to go back to my 360 games last night. I picked up Alan Wake for the first time since 2016! I had already made my way through the first two episodes and last night I played 3 and 4. I would've kept going but the disc kept glitching out.

Man, I had forgotten how LOUD my 360 is. Thankfully it added rather than detract from the tension.
 
I did pick up Road Redemption, since it was only $7.50. Definitely feels like a budget game, but it’s fun. I like the Rogue-like progression system, and the background music is definitely Maidenesque at times. Got as far as the rooftop level before I stopped yesterday.

Also started Shadow Of The Tomb Raider, which is good so far. I’ve read mixed things about it, but I liked the previous two reboot games, and this seems like it’s being true to those while adding some new mechanics, so we’ll see.
 
I'm a huge RPG nerd and finally digging into Divinity: Original Sin 1 after bouncing off of it a few times. When it came out, Pillars of Eternity had also come out, and that was my time-sink at the time. I'm really digging combat in this game and the world is pretty gorgeous as well also, too.
 
Funny that you mention it - I've been playing Pillars 1 recently and I really like it.

And I'm not a particular fan of isometry, but it's very enticing. I also bought the second installment when I was at it.

However, now there's the enhanced edition of Baldurs Gate 1 & 2 for sale... just like Planescape + Icewind... and I wonder. I really, really loved Planescape - it was my first RPG and it tainted my view of the whole genre (meaning nothing quite compared to it) for me for quite some time. And now I wonder, should I go for BG? I'm really itching.
 
Funny that you mention it - I've been playing Pillars 1 recently and I really like it.

And I'm not a particular fan of isometry, but it's very enticing. I also bought the second installment when I was at it.

However, now there's the enhanced edition of Baldurs Gate 1 & 2 for sale... just like Planescape + Icewind... and I wonder. I really, really loved Planescape - it was my first RPG and it tainted my view of the whole genre (meaning nothing quite compared to it) for me for quite some time. And now I wonder, should I go for BG? I'm really itching.
The Baldur's Gate series is one of my all time favorite games, period. It's fantastic. Make sure to take on character all the way from Baldur's Gate 1 through Siege of Dragonspear, Baldur's Gate 2, and ending in Throne of Bhaal. It's just an absolutely awesome game from top to bottom and I've been playing it yearly for over 20 years now.

Also if you like Planescape and story driven games, you must play Disco Elysium. It's the best written computer game...probably ever. I think it definitely beats Planesape in story and writing.
 
I played Disco Elysium once, my character tried to steal a wheelchair and tripped and fell and had a heart attack and died. A+ I will play it again.

Currently I've been playing a lot of Final Fantasy IV Free Enterprise, which is a randomizer modification that lets you roam the world as you wish gathering characters and key items. Lots of fun. Gonna give Final Fantasy VI Worlds Collide a spin next.
 
The Baldur's Gate series is one of my all time favorite games, period.
What do you make of Dragon Age? I think they are by the same studio... Bioware?

I did pick up Road Redemption, since it was only $7.50. Definitely feels like a budget game, but it’s fun. I like the Rogue-like progression system, and the background music is definitely Maidenesque at times. Got as far as the rooftop level before I stopped yesterday.
I have a love/hate relationship with the rooftops lol. It's a budget game for sure, it's only 10 dollars or so full price, but the graphics are good enough, the variety in combat is satisfying. Even though there are only 3 sections the track variety is not bad either. Overall, really happy with it, I do a couple of runs a day and I am consistently getting to the phantom section. Yesterday I had my best run yet making it to the second to last level before eating it.

Finished Alan Wake yesterday. What a great game. I played ALL DAY, no joke. Like I said, I was already on Episode 5, of 6, but the game glitched. I'd have full audio, but just a black screen. I exist and go back in, nothing, restart my 360, nothing. So I had to start from the beginning. Fearing another gltch or crash I just played it straight through. I started around 11 am and I finished around 330 am LOL. I did break to eat.

Truly a hidden gem by Remedy studios. Took me a bit to get into it, but then I was hooked. It's one of those games that has me convinced that the 360 era of video games was like that of the 8 bit era in the mid 80s. In that time the "primitive" 8-bit graphics were a huge leap from what Atari had been doing, the quality of games and the amount of games being pumped out by Nintendo and third parties was unprecendented and amazing. Then it got better with the 16-bit consoles before hitting a VERY awkward era with the 32 adn 64 bit consoles. I never liked them. Neither the graphics, nor the games. I'm glad I skipped that whole era. But What was done with the 360... graphics were realistic enough without being TOO realisitc to the point of might as well watch a movie, the scope of games were massive, but the games themselves weren't that big (4GB at most), games still played from the disc, etc.

A game like Alan Wake puts all of that in full display. The storytelling is great, the graphics are impressive, the environments are truly something to behold and that's because it was meant to be an open-world game, but ended up being linear. The developers took advantage of the already designed open world and the levels are larger than your average linear adventure of the day. The friend that lent me the game didn't notice he had a free code for the first DLC. I asked him and he said he had already played both DLCs, obviously he didn't use it, so I took advantage of it. I think I'll play it on my xbox one though. I'm hooked, I'll purchase the second DLC, Alan Wake: American Nightmare as well as the other games by Remedy which are supposed to occur in the same universe: Quantum Break and Control. Quantum Break has AW easter eggs, but Control is directly tied to it.
 
Does anyone here like platforming games?
Bruh, as a Mega Man fanatic platformers are my jam. To this day they are my preferred genre. They're fun to pick up. I played little big planet at a friend's and I was able to pick it up and enjoy it immediately. Something you can't really do with say, rpgs.
 
Does anyone here like platforming games?
After 40 years of platforming games I have to say I’m pretty burned out on the whole genre except in cases where a game brings something new to the table. Snake Pass is probably the last one I played, and that was a pretty sweet reinvention of platforming mechanics wrapped up in a retro 90s-style presentation. I hope they make a sequel someday.
 
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