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Post by stuz359 on Aug 15, 2022 7:50:17 GMT
I've never really enjoyed it when my path to process is blocked off and the answer is essentially to run in tight circles in an area, whittling down the fauna (and sometimes the flauna) until I get enough levels to break through. I don't find it happens too much though, as I guess I'm getting through enough fights on the way to keep at the tide mark. The most egregious example I can recall was in Final Fantasy XII (which, as it happens, I'm replaying via the remastered version on Steam atm, so we'll see how I fare this time) - I distinctly remember having an issue with some Judge in an airship, and having to run around repeatedly in a couple of corridors trying to gain levels and health potions for ages before I could finally beat this one guy. I think I gave up on the game pretty soon after that. That being said, I wouldn't necessarily be against some grinding if the devs build something interesting into the time spent having to do it. Like, it would be nice if battles triggers maybe some minor conversations between party members which were main plot adjacent, but added some character development. That is exactly the point I gave up on FFXII as well. Still meaning to go back to it. But I have run against the grind in a lot of FF games, 10 was one of the worst because there was no meaningful way of backtracking to grind to the required level. |
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Post by deekyfun on Aug 15, 2022 8:04:04 GMT
10 was one of the worst because there was no meaningful way of backtracking to grind to the required level. I'd forgotten about FFX, and was possibly giving it a mental pass because I'm fond of it, but yeah, giving it some thought, the first time I played that I do recall having to grind a while on Mt Gagazet because I couldn't get through whatever version of Seymour is there. That whole game was a bit of an exercise in patience/tolerance for time wasting. I may be a sucker for it though, as I've dodged those 200 lightning bolts on four separate playthroughs. |
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Post by stuz359 on Aug 15, 2022 12:46:09 GMT
I'd forgotten about FFX, and was possibly giving it a mental pass because I'm fond of it, but yeah, giving it some thought, the first time I played that I do recall having to grind a while on Mt Gagazet because I couldn't get through whatever version of Seymour is there. Exactly the point I gave up in FFX. The boss kicked my arse, so I consulted I guide, first advice was cast haste on everyone. I did not have haste. Before this point I think I had managed to just spam my way through the game, so it was a real shock at the difficulty spike. |
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Post by ToomuchFluffy on Aug 17, 2022 13:15:06 GMT
So that's it for Sacred 2 after all. I ran into an odd repeatable crash where the game thinks that I have lost the connection even though I'm playing Singleplayer. Didn't find any clear advice on it, so I'll just shelf it for now and come back to it at some other time. Perhaps I'll give the Enhanced Edition mod a try then.
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Post by Chopsen on Aug 17, 2022 19:58:10 GMT
So there I was playing "Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous" shaping up to be a nice little traditional western RPG and then suddenly.....it introduces a totally new gaming mode involving marshalling troops in top down combat in the most tedious game mechanic I've even seen in a "full price" game. Literally just a matter of keep clicking the same spot in the screen, 30-40 times, taking turns to punch each other until one of you dies.
The fuck? How did someone look at this and go "yep, that looks fun! Let's release it!"
Baffling when the rest of the game up to that point is quite good fun.
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Post by ToomuchFluffy on Aug 18, 2022 7:08:08 GMT
These secondary gameplay systems, especially in games that are already huge and complex, are usually a turn-of for me as well. Especially when their mechanics have little to do with the rest of the gameplay loop.
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Post by RadicalRex on Aug 18, 2022 11:51:51 GMT
Reminds me of Brütal Legend, which was a fun 3rd person action-adventure until it suddenly decided to become a 3rd person strategy game. Ruined the game for me, tried to play on but couldn't.
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Post by Phattso on Aug 18, 2022 12:29:08 GMT
Reminds me of Brütal Legend, which was a fun 3rd person action-adventure until it suddenly decided to become a 3rd person strategy game. Ruined the game for me, tried to play on but couldn't. Hah. Possible ironic that it was initially actually designed as a 3rd person strategy game, and they only bolted the adventure parts onto it to make it more appealing to a broader audience.  |
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Post by RadicalRex on Aug 18, 2022 12:55:41 GMT
Yeah, I think I read that somewhere. It's fair, but the result for me was that I felt misled because early on it presented itself as a different genre than what it becomes later (and that I didn't like at all).
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 20, 2022 12:25:01 GMT
Sniper Elite 5
It plays exactly like the first, the game has hardly moved in this far into the series. Really can't be bothered with it and the graphics aren't anything special.
Just really meh.
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Post by RadicalRex on Aug 20, 2022 16:56:31 GMT
Forza Motorsport 7 (Windows)
I've been having a Gran Turismo itch, and since I'm a pure PC player these days, this would be the obvious replacement. The last one I played before was GT6, so it's been a while.
I was looking forward to playing a CarPG where you start broke with lousy compact cars and slowly work your way up through tuning and/or checking the used car dealer after each race to see if they've got a treasure. Sadly that's not how this works, the game put several race cars and supercars in my garage before doing a single race--it's interesting how they got rid of a meaningful progression system all while introducing several different levelling mechanics. But if the internet is to be believed, GT6 actually got rid of that already, I didn't even remember that, as I said it's been a while. Oh well.
But my real issue is car handling (using controller). I just don't get it. I constantly lose grip and slide all over the place and it seems completely unprovoked and erratic. I've read that this game series leans on the slidey/oversteery side but I still can't figure out if I'm doing something wrong or if this is supposed to happen. True enough, for some reason it was easier to slide a Formula E car around the track than to drive it cleanly, but still I don't know if this is how it's supposed to be played.
I tried turning on different assists but in some cases that made it even worse. Changing steering from "simulation" to "normal" turned it to "don't touch any button" mode. I can't remember any other racing game being like this, and just to make sure if I'm not just shit I downloaded RaceRoom and gave it a few laps in some RWD monster without assists. Turns out that was much easier to control than Forza 7--I spun out a lot but there was always a clear feeling of "X happened because I made mistake Y", something that I find completely absent in Forza. The controls in Raceroom also felt very responsive and analogue, switching directly back to Forza it felt so digital, especially the throttle felt like an on/off switch. Messing around with deadzone/sensitivity settings didn't help.
I hoped a better feel for the handling would develop after a while, but after completing some 20 cups I still fundamentally don't understand what's going on. I still wonder if I'm just useless but my success rate says otherwise. It's so weird. Not having a good time, it actually gets less fun the more I play, and I think I'll just quit now. Destruction Derby AI and technical issues (frequent loading hiccups during races) don't help.
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Post by RadicalRex on Aug 22, 2022 19:12:24 GMT
Neodash (Steam) Basically Trackmania but in a neon synthwave setting and some F-Zero reminiscence. Sounds great on paper, and indeed the game looks and sounds great, but I find it too hard in a not good way. One issue I have is the super finicky airborne controls, I'd really need some practice area to learn them, but the game just throws you in the cold water and expects you to learn them midway through stages--in bursts of like 1-3 seconds which was too short for me to actually learn anything instead of randomly making it across through sheer chance. Related to that, thanks to the breakneck speed, death traps and abysses come so fast and often without warning that I spent very most of the time trying to memorise the stages through nothing but constant trial and error. And I'm not having fun doing that. Both these issues feel like the game was designed with players in mind who already know it well, and with little regard for new players who need to learn it in the first place. A shame. Retrowave (Steam) Another neon synthwave game, again I like how it looks and sounds, but in this case there's just too little gameplay here for me to stick around. I don't hate it or anything, there's just too little to keep me entertained. And it cost like 2 euros or something, so whatever. I'll say this though: joypad menu navigation is among the worst I've ever seen, and I've seen a lot of shit menus. It's obviously designed for mouse, but even so it has to take some actual effort to make it this bad.
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Post by Aunt Alison on Aug 22, 2022 19:20:39 GMT
Sort of related, I don't know why any console game uses a mouse cursor style menu instead of a normal one that jumps between elements. It provides no benefit and is really annoying. I've noticed it in Ubisoft games and is one of the things that put me off even trying Assassin's Creed
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 22, 2022 19:25:43 GMT
I think we have Destiny to blame for that.
But yeah, it's shit.
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Post by RadicalRex on Aug 22, 2022 19:32:50 GMT
Brings me back to Jurassic Park on SNES, whose main menu has 4 options vertically arranged like in any other old console game, but you use it by moving a fake mouse cursor around with the d-pad. WHY
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Post by pierrepressure on Aug 22, 2022 19:40:14 GMT
Sort of related, I don't know why any console game uses a mouse cursor style menu instead of a normal one that jumps between elements. It provides no benefit and is really annoying. I've noticed it in Ubisoft games and is one of the things that put me off even trying Assassin's Creed Great shout. Did cyberpunk do this too? It felt like it did. |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 22, 2022 19:41:20 GMT
It did, yeah. I actually reinstalled it over the weekend and had forgotten about it. I was mad.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 22, 2022 21:56:51 GMT
Sort of related, I don't know why any console game uses a mouse cursor style menu instead of a normal one that jumps between elements. It provides no benefit and is really annoying. I've noticed it in Ubisoft games and is one of the things that put me off even trying Assassin's Creed That's not even the worst of it. It's when you have to then hold a button down for a few seconds before you even select the option you want. No Man's Sky does it for fucking well everything and I'm sure Destiny does it as well. |
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Post by RadicalRex on Aug 23, 2022 1:42:24 GMT
Yeah I recently had that in Far Cry 5. It makes sense for some critical actions as a "do you really mean it" safety. It makes no fucking sense if you apply it to every single action no matter what it is. That's what happens if you just do what others do without understanding why they're doing it.
So many games have utterly mindless UI design, it's infuriating. Like when you have to deal with a mess at work because your braindead colleague was just doing something--anything--without a iota of thought. My blood pressure is rising again...
To think about how many games could have a better UI if whoever designed it spent ten fucking seconds thinking about what they're doing.
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Post by Rubicon on Aug 25, 2022 19:33:53 GMT
Omerta: City of Gangsters (Steam)
This is a resource management game mixed with X-Com style combat set during the prohibition era.
I was going to chuck this a few days ago but managed to cheese my way to what I assume is the last level and my patience has ran out. The short version is it's punishingly unfair. There are a few reasons for this ranging from poor map design, excessive enemy numbers/types and an infuriating cover system. I get the feeling though this is one of those situations where the devs had a specific way of completing it in mind and any deviation from that means your fucked. All that does is show how for all the careful levelling up, team selection and weapon upgrades means jack shit basically.
A shame as the management part of it is addictive but suffers from problems of it's own.
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Post by ToomuchFluffy on Aug 27, 2022 18:06:45 GMT
I'm not completely sure yet, but I think I will abandon my current attempt at Pathologic 2 (on Imago, i.e. the intended difficulty).
I'm in yet another situation where I have no answer to hunger, infection is always gnawing at my health and lowering it with antibiotics is further damaging it.
Worse comes to worst I couldn't do the Hospital quest on Day 8 as it is wastes too many of my ressources and increases my infection too much. And there doesn't seem to be a resolution to it (?) Perhaps I'm just missing something, but I eventually stopped trying to do it and instead met the children at the railyard. As it turns out the Polyhedron was open for me now, so I visited it, but that wasted a whole lot of time and of course kept gnawing on my meters so to speak.
Well, in any case I probably could get out of this situation by reloading some earlier save and just ignoring the Polyhedron, but without the food, money and other ressources of the town fund (for the hospital task, healing people etc.), I'm not sure if I can do too much without going back even farther. They gave me one "Inquisitorital Coupon" when I asked at the town hall and that's not enough to buy anything. Not an apple, nor an egg. I'm distraught!
Seriously though, no hard feelings I'll give it another try in some months or perhaps next year. Considering how hard it is, it's still quite interesting, has nice atmosphere and is still surprisingly well balanced, just like the first game. But I'm pretty sure that the fight for survival is even harsher.
Edit: I rarely reloaded before dying an expected death and I usually tried to bash headfirst through a death loop instead of reloading an earlier save, so maybe I shouldn't play like that, but it's obviously not just that. Still, "just" 27 deaths isn't quite as bad as I thought it'd be at this point 
Edit2: 27 deaths on page 27 of this thread and I lasted 9 days before stopping. Surely a sign! I just don't know for what.
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lukasz
New Member
Meat popsicle
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Post by lukasz on Sept 1, 2022 11:43:22 GMT
Dying light 2
Just.... So pointless. Run towards goal. Died to some chase by zombies. Not exciting or engaging.
And before that all quests were just running from point to point.
I'm done. It's not fun.
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Post by Rubicon on Sept 8, 2022 8:17:11 GMT
Empire of Sin (PC Game Pass)
Another resource management game with X-Com style combat from Brenda Romero.
I've put quite a few hours in but the game has decided to stop working and I'm taking that as bit of a sign. Apparently there's some sort of confliction between the GP app and Paradox's own launcher so there's a chance it won't always start or with a black screen in my case.
I'll keep an eye out for it on sale and might pick it up again then.
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Post by Aunt Alison on Sept 8, 2022 9:48:59 GMT
Empire of Sin is Brenda's game (John's wife)
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hicksy
Junior Member
I'm good for some but I'm not for everyone
Posts: 1,553
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Post by hicksy on Sept 21, 2022 20:51:59 GMT
Greedfall (PS5)
Gave this a good shake of the dice (no pun intended) reaching the mainland about 10hrs into the game but there was too much personal disinterest in the content of the game despite the fact that it is a western rpg style matching some of my very favourite games. The historical (mixed fantasy) stylings of the game I found to be quite dull especially within the towns/cities and the content and quests/tasks quite repetitive. Good to look at generally and for those who love historical styles I can see them enjoying this more. Given the smaller dev team size to AAA dev teams they have done a good job but not for me to keep going unfortunately. Traded in.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 21, 2022 20:56:01 GMT
I dropped it for a bit as well, but it really does get better the more you play it though. It's not perfect. The party members could use with more interactions and development, and some of the factions are just comically evil which makes it hard to sympathize with them, discovering more about the island and your lineage is intriguing IMO.
But those first couple of hours after reaching New Serene are kind of rough.
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Frog
Full Member
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Post by Frog on Sept 22, 2022 10:55:14 GMT
Ni No Kuni, there is too much combat and the combat is shit. It's a shame as the game is appealing other than that but you can't walk 5 feet without a fight outside of the towns.
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Post by ToomuchFluffy on Sept 25, 2022 7:06:06 GMT
Tried Halo 2 - Anniversary Edition for little more than an hour and ended up losing interest fairly quickly again.
The presentation seemed quite good at first, but whenever Master Chief opens his mouth, he just annoys me and Cortana isn't much better. Them both basically being Mary Sues - especially in cutscenes - doesn't endear me to them either. The Covenant side of the story was better, but in the end I just watched the Halo 2 movie on youtube instead.
The FPS-gameplay is solid enough, but early gameplay seemed a bit uninspired. Just mowing down a million Grunts, basically. The game also has the odd problem of often taking place in relatively big environments without giving any kind of direction. Then, when the story decides to move on, the player is left behind. It feels like they left the player just enough freedom to hurt the pacing, but without gaining any advantage from it. It was never a big problem, just an odd hiccup.
Dual Wielding is also implemented rather strangely. What's the point of constantly making me throw away my second gun whenever I use melee, switch to a two-handed weapon or throw a grenade? The only thing it does is to not want to make me engage with dual wielding anymore...
Edit: Also, heroic cutscene stupididty. Don't worry, nobody except the named characters actually matters.
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Post by brainbird on Sept 25, 2022 10:11:18 GMT
Session.
I was hoping for something akin to Skate and you can see they aimed for it but it's just too rough around the edges and has a steep difficulty curve. Left it after an hour or so as it way painfully obvious I wouldn't enjoy it any further.
If someone persevered and thinks it gets better later on I would be glad to hear their opinion.
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Duffman5
Junior Member
big cook, little cook welcome to our cafe
Posts: 1,332
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Post by Duffman5 on Sept 25, 2022 15:03:35 GMT
Ni No Kuni, there is too much combat and the combat is shit. It's a shame as the game is appealing other than that but you can't walk 5 feet without a fight outside of the towns. I binned the first, charming but I agree with you, the second is better although I have not completed it...as of yet. |
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