The "What'cha Been Playin'?" Thread

[Viper]

After a whole year, I finally got back into Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories--Sora's Story---Beginner Mode. Last time, I tried to get through Monstro first but couldn't. So, I went though Olympus Coliseum & Wonderland and cleared them. I was also able to level up Sora a few times as well. Now, I'm currently back in Monstro and I beat the Parasite Cage with Goofy's help. I just need a few more green door cards to get to the final part to clear the area. Afterwards, it'll be my first battle against Elrena (I use the Organization's original names before Xehanort brainwashed them.) but since I have four zero cards and three cure cards, it shouldn't be too hard. Then, it's off to Atlantis in which I can't wait to battle with Ariel's help again.

 

[Storm Eagle]

I recently played through Link's Awakening on the Switch, and then I decided to revisit the Game Boy Color version, and found out that all of my data that I saved on it before is gone. It's no longer saving data. My Donkey Kong cartridge has also fallen victim to that. So I had bought a digital copy of that, and did the same with Game Boy Color's Link's Awakening today. I have a mind to buy digital copies of all of the Game Boy/Color games I own with battery backup because of it. So far though, the rest of my Game Boy/Color games with battery backup are still good.

 

[Roxie]

WoW: TBC, suprisingly fun and fresh~

 

[khuddle]

AC Valhalla. This ain't your Daddy's Assassin Creed:

Visuals: A+. The visuals are gorgeous, breathtaking. It is a fantasy gamer dream come to. You're roaming across the rugged landscape of North-East England, when you come across the crumbling ruins of some ancient castle, streaks of lightning forking over head. The landscape is so beautiful and so vast you could spend hours getting lost in it.

Story: A+. is the story that good? It isn't Faulkner, but it still pretty decent, but the thing is there SO much of it. I'm 8 weekends in and I'd say I'm only 75% or so through the entire story. It just makes the game feel meaty and interesting, and again, something you could get lost in.

Cutscenes: A. This is perhaps the biggest improvement in this game from past ACs. While the cutscenes are not visual masterpieces, they are nonetheless clean and competent, with short load times. They are no longer detract from the game like in previous ACs (for example Origins where the cutscenes were really annoying).

Open World:A-. When you need a break from the intensity of the main story, you are free to amble across the glorious English landscape, checking out World Events, exploring ancient ruins, raiding bandit camps, hunting wild animals for furs, or finding a good fishing spot. The contrast between the intensity of the main story and the relaxed nature of open world exploration is what really makes AC Valhalla a lot of fun. I give it an A- though because there are a few bugs here and there (forgivable considering the giant size of the game).

Skill Tree / Abilities: B-. The game's only serious drawback. The skill tree is huge, there are numerous skills to pick from, but ultimately I would say only 25% are interesting. The bottom 25% are downright unnecessary (for example, "autoloot" -- why would you spend your hard earned skill points on something like that?). The ability tree is much smaller, but again, here we see a lot of imbalance: we see one ability that is literally "godlike" (you'll find out which one soon enough -- hint: its an archery ability), there are some other very good ones sprinkled in there, and then the rest are just kind of "meh". When designing a game, devs ideally should aim to make the player "godlike" by endgame. They should have struggle in the beginning, improve but still struggle by the middle of the game, and then dominate in god-like fashion toward the end. Unfortunately in AC Valhalla, you're pretty good by endgame, but not unstoppable the way you are in, say, Fallout 4 or Diablo 3. Not a dealbreaker, but it could have been better.

In sum, AC Valhalla is more of an experience than a game. Highly recommended.

 

[Viper]

I've made excellent progress in KH 1.5 Re: CoM: Sora's Story--Beginner Mode.

I just cleared: Atlantica, First Riku Battle, Neverland, Second Riku Battle, Hollow Bastion, & Hundred Acre Wood. Now, I just have to get past the next boss battle against Evan. His ice attacks are hard to dodge and I have to use sleights. I hope I can do it next time.

 

[the_joker]

Finally finished doing everything I wanted in Skyrim some time ago. I'm surprised that I played so long, but apparently I liked traveling around in the world of Skyrim, and this makes me wonder how I'll feel about other open-world games I play after this or maybe even how I might feel about the game if I happen to replay it at some point. However, there are some criticisms I'd like to point out.

I read that games made by Bethesda are full of glitches, and while I didn't encounter anything that stopped me from completing a quest, they were still annoying at times. If there's one thing I hope Bethesda could improve upon in future games, it's to prioritize technical performance over scope because Skyrim is already huge, and I'm not sure future games need to be bigger.

Also, the AI for NPCs can be really stupid and glitched at times, which can be annoying as I like to have NPC followers travel around with me while exploring the land. Sometimes, the followers won't even move or attack for some unknown reason. That problem rarely happens, but it doesn't stop me from feeling annoyed.

My last major criticism would be at the design of some major bosses in the game who are too weak, and their fights don't end up being as impressive as they should. However, the game does excel at atmosphere, so that's why I haven't disliked any of those boss fights.

On that note, I would like to emphasize again at the game excelling in atmosphere, particularly with the music. The composer, Jeremy Soule, did beyond excellent with the music, and the hearing the ambience while traveling is actually one of the reasons I didn't fast travel often. It probably says plenty if I actually enjoyed stretching out my playtime. I read that he was involved in some scandals, so he won't be involved with Elder Scrolls VI, which is a shame especially for him to get into trouble. At least I could still play the previous two ES games to hear his compositions.

A lot of the game is visiting locations and killing bad guys, which might be repetitive to some, but apparently not to me.

Right now, I'm playing New Pokemon Snap. It's fun enough, though it's not the most exciting game. I do like seeing the Pokemon in their environments, and there are opportunities to somewhat interact with the Pokemon.

 

[5YearsOnEastCoast]

I have been playing Sonic Adventure 1 (original Dreamcast version). I am having a blast playing it.

 

[Megumi]

Nier: Automata

I'm not a gamer, and I never played this game. My husband made friendly bet with me to beat the game on Very Hard mode. For those that don't know, this mode decreases the damage that enemies receive and causes any damage to kill you in one hit. All manual dodging and aiming too, so I need to using both thumbs while aiming and running around. To put it in perspective, here's a video of one of the early boss fights:



There's a mandatory tutorial is 30 minutes long with no save points too.

I'm past the tutorial and Simone. I'm at the Adam and Eve fight (pas the first Adam fight and the Goliath fight; I'm at the alien base). I basically do no damage, but even if I did, I keep dying to Eve's quick attacks.

I'm going to beat this game, but it's going to take time. I'm very reliant on my pod because I suck at dodging. My pod is my MVP, but I need to master dodging for my current roadblock. Right now, I'm going around increasing in level and trying to upgrade my pod.

It's tough. I don't play every day either.

 

[khuddle]

I finished Ghost of Tsushima a couple of weeks ago. Solid game, nice graphics, great atmosphere (13th century Japan), terrific combat. A little on the short side, but that was actually kind of refershing after playing Fallout 4 and AC:Valhalla back to back.

Now I'm on to...Skyrim! Its been 7 years since I've played the classic. Yeah, the graphics are kind of clunky at this point, but the game still has charm to spare: tremendous voice acting, great storylines, and so, SO much to do! Great way to while the winter away.

 

[the_joker]

One game I feel like talking is Dark Souls, which I was playing on the Switch around this time last year and had a lot of fun with. There has been comments on the Internet about the game being tough, but the ones that say the game was "tough but fair" stood out to me, and I would have to agree with that assessment. It would be more accurate to say that it's very easy to die instead of the game being difficult because regular NPC enemies don't take too long to kill after upgrading weapons and skills (but mostly the former).

Boss battles are also unsurprisingly tough, but the ones that stood out the most were Ornstein & Smough and the DLC bosses. The bosses after Ornstein & Smough (except for the very final one) weren't nearly as hard, and I actually missed dying repeatedly. The DLC bosses (sans the Sanctuary Guardian who moved quickly but didn't take too many hits to kill) did make up for those endgame bosses. I guess that's something I want to talk about. It's too easy to make a boss fight difficult by giving it too much health and allowing it to hit too hard, and Dark Souls avoided that pitfall.

There are also New Game+ modes, but I didn't feel like playing through the game again just to see how much stronger the enemies are. Maybe someday I'll check that out, but I had (and still have) other games to play through.

Anyways, I've been playing a bit more New Pokemon Snap, and the thing I like most about it is that a number of Pokemon, particularly the Illumina Pokemon, are portrayed as fantastical creatures. Wishiwashi and Steelix get to show off their impressive sizes, for example. There's also a nice touch of other Pokemon being in awe when within the presence the Illumina Pokemon, particularly with Xerneas. Another touch I liked was the Lental Region having its own mythology, particularly with the Illumina phenomenon, and so there was a compelling reason for the professor to want to take photos and study the Pokemon in the area as well as explore the region (though the paths during gameplay are admittedly linear).

The laidback nature of the game is both its greatest strength and weakness. Being laidback means that you can even just observe the Pokemon in its environment and not take photos if I want to feel like I'm on an amusement park ride and checking out the scenery. Of course, one might want to use various objects to see other kinds of actions and interactions, though I'm pretty sure that would be inadvisable in real life wildlife photography, but I'm going on a tangent. The weakness of this is that it can get repetitive rather easily since I'm just moving in a straight path slowly (even the turbo feels slow especially if you want to get to a particularly area quickly), and all you're doing is just observing the same Pokemon on the same path(s). Occasionally, I will find Pokemon I haven't seen yet since the areas are generally pretty densely packed, and it's pretty easy to miss something, and there are some alternate routes for other kinds of scenery. Ultimately, I'm just taking photos over the same areas, and that can get dull after a long period of time, even if I'm just playing in short bursts over a few days.

At least the game isn't too long whether it's in regards to playing the main story or doing the extras. I would have liked if multiple photos could be submitted so I can send different shots of the same Pokemon instead of having to go through an area again to submit the requested photo; sometimes I won't like the new takes as much as the old ones I didn't get to submit.

I think I'll play Assassin's Creed III next.

 

[Light Lucario]

I've been playing Pokemon Legends Arceus. It's a really fun and different kind of Pokemon game. It's fun to explore the Hisui region, capture Pokemon and completing the Pokedex is actually compelling for the first time in ages for me.

 

[the_joker]

I finished Assassin's Creed III sometime ago, and I liked it. I still have to play Liberations, but I'm saving that for later.

I'll admit that I was somewhat disappointed with the large environments, but there weren't a lot of locations to be explored like caves. So t took me a while to figure out how to approach this game aside from being an assassin and fighting various kinds of enemies. Being able to climb various areas was nice as it allowed various ways of maneuvering an area, but it was annoying to sometimes unintentionally climb a surface when I didn't mean to.

One of the most notable points is the game being pretty story-driven, and I actually liked how the multiple sides involved in the American Revolution were portrayed, especially with the Native Americans being caught in the middle of everything and were ultimately gonna get screwed over no matter the outcome of the revolution. Perhaps that's the most notable point of the game as topics about the American Revolution are almost always about the Colonists and the British. I don't think there's another game in which you could say that you played a Native American and participated in the Boston Tea Party. The game was also upfront about founding fathers not being perfect (the game was pretty blunt about that in regards to Washington), and the Colonists and British were unsurprisingly mostly interested in benefiting themselves with the epilogues also being upfront about that. I'll also admit that I'm not a history buff, so I also wouldn't be able to say how accurate everything was aside from the Assassins and Templars not being involved in the real world. Then again, I don't know how accurate the records of history are anyways.

Gameplay-wise, I would have to say that the naval missions were my favorite ones. Controlling a big and slow wooden ship in the water while also getting hit by opposing blasts made the fights feel huge, intense, and chaotic in scope, and the accompanying music was also fittingly thrilling and exciting. I can still hear Connor shouting commands in my head which also helped add to the intensity. There was another naval mission in which I got to explore various places and eventually an island to find some treasure, and I honestly thought the game would've been more like that from the start, but whatever.

However, there were way too many fetch quests for the sake of 100% completion. I actually tried doing some but eventually got bored of them. I'm hoping the other AC games I play won't have that, but I wouldn't be surprised to find out otherwise.

 

[Pooky]

This week I picked up a copy Street Fighter Alpha Anthology for PS2 from my local CeX (a popular second hand Games and DVD/Blu-Ray chain in the UK). Very enjoyable stuff, particularly Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix.

 

[wonderfly]

Been playing "Crash Bandicoot Trilogy" on my PS5.

I never played this game on the original Playstation (I was a N64 system owner), but I'm finding it has the same affect on me as playing "Banjo-Kazooie" and "Turok" and any other Nintendo64 game: It takes me back to 1997/1998/1999.

 

[Red Arrow]

World's Hardest Game - currently stuck in level 15

Been playing "Crash Bandicoot Trilogy" on my PS5.

I find that game extremely hard, especially the first game. Move 1 mm and you die. I prefer Donald Duck: Quack Attack (Goin' Quackers)

EDIT: So I decided to play Crash Bandicoot again on my HP laptop and suddenly it's a million times easier than back in 2020 when I played it on my Lenovo laptop (now broken).

EDIT2: I have figured out what makes the controls so difficult. If you play in a windowed screen, the game is much more doable. In full screen, the game is insanely hard and jumping on the metal jumping boxes in nearly impossible.

 

[JayZz]

I play Clash of Clans and Apex Legends. AP is my favorite one. Gaming is my passion I play every day with a team. When I don't have time for playing I ask pro players from overboost.pro/apex-legends-boosting to play instaed of me. They can hep to improve my skills and get higher ranks fastr. Useful service for gamers.With its help everyone can boost gaming skills and easily get new achievements.

 

[ATSFGuy]

I play Clash of Clans and Apex Legends

Train Station 2 on smartphone.

 

[JayZz]

Also i'm into mining games right now. I build virtual mining center

 

[AdrenalineRush1996]

I'm currently playing Sonic Dash on my phone.

 

[[classic swim]]

I’ve been playing State of Emergency on PS2.

Wild to think this outshined GTA at E3.

Then it became one of the most obscure games ever.

It’s a title even I neglected back then. As far as “controversy,” it’s hardly held within the same breath as Manhunt or even Bully.

But man, is it fun as hell.

It’s like a linear arcade riot version of GTA3 & Vice City when those two were already flawless when it came to rampaging.

For most part it’s a nice arcade system, too. You just keep going ballistic with all sorts of weapons until you’ve had enough and shut the game off.

I don’t know who they’re fooling with the civilian penalties though. The penalties do nothing. They obviously want you to hurt the normal pedestrians, otherwise they wouldn’t fill your screen with hundreds upon hundreds of them all at once.

Revolution mode is just the game’s failed campaign, but it might be good if you wanna play around some of the maps more freely without time restraints.