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Post by stacks on Nov 4, 2021 9:06:30 GMT
Just finished Disco Elysium. Absolutely loved it. Gf thought I was a weirdo laughing away at it on an evening. The writing is fantastic, the story is good enough. I think it will have a great replay-ability value as the different builds will throw something new up. I think maybe I need to brush up of how to play RPGs as I definitely think I could have done loads different with hindsight. Highly Recommend.
8.5/10
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Post by theguy on Nov 4, 2021 23:28:21 GMT
Lost in RandomHad a fun time with this. It's an adventure game where you play as a kid on a quest to save the world. Sounds generic, but where this game absolutely shines is its worldbuilding, the characters and the general writing. It's absolutely superb in that regard. If you're a fan of Burton's Nightmare before Christmas or Laika films, you'll find a lot to like here. I guess you could compare it to a toned down version of McGee's Alice games, but it plays pretty differently. The world is split up into six districts, and each one has its own unique spin, tied to a dice. In two town, for instance, citizens have split personalities. Discovering them is half the fun, so I won't say too much. You'll spend your time either meeting NPC's for quests or in combat. There's an interesting idea here. Combat is real time, you hit weak points on enemies with your slingshot to power up your dice, which you then roll and are able to play cards from your deck depending on the value you rolled. One card could give you a sword, while another might summon a cannon. Unfortunately, it never really realises its potential, and leaves something to be desired. It's functional, even engaging, but it's also fairly basic and never expands as you'd hope. Many encounters can end up feeling similar. It is a budget title (£25), and it does show. Some characters aren't voiced, or speak gibberish, there's no hard difficulty, animations are ropey or just not there, and there are bugs and a sort of jank to it. It'd have been nice if there were stronger visual shifts between districts too, they can end up looking similar, even if they're actually quite distinct. There's also no chapter select to mop up collectibles. If you can get past that though, there's an incredible world here to explore, and a fun cast of characters to push you forward. I've probably been a bit negative here. Its shortcomings didn't stop me having a good time at all, I've basically listed them all and most are fairly easy to get by, with some annoyances. If you've absolutely no interest in the setting, chances are you'll have little care for the game. On the flip side if it sounds at all appealing, you'll have a great time as the world really is fantastically realised. EA publish this, but they seemingly had no interest in marketing it past the first trailer. No clue why. I only know of it because I saw said trailer and kept my eye on it since. Many major sites didn't even bother reviewing it. I saw it on sale already, so I can only guess it didn't sell too well either.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Nov 5, 2021 0:24:28 GMT
Deathloop
Arkanes best game for me, just pips Prey. Runs smoothly and none of the usual lag they have in their games. The time loop is a great mechanic and once you piece everything together it's a satisfying run through murdering everything to the end.
Anyone in the fence should give it a go, it's great fun.
8.5/10
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Post by stacks on Nov 5, 2021 9:40:29 GMT
Deathloop Arkanes best game for me, just pips Prey. Runs smoothly and none of the usual lag they have in their games. The time loop is a great mechanic and once you piece everything together it's a satisfying run through murdering everything to the end. Anyone in the fence should give it a go, it's great fun. 8.5/10 Think I may get this for my bro for Xmas and demand Returnal in return. I absolutely loved Prey too. Arkane feel like they have a real sense of fun about them and infuse it in their games. Reminds me of the heyday of PC FPS shooters.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Nov 5, 2021 11:19:55 GMT
Deathloop was such a genuinely fun game to play. Thought the difficulty was pitched just right to keep it moving along and enjoyable.
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Post by Sarfrin on Nov 5, 2021 18:25:44 GMT
I think I ignored this because the review mentioned cards but it sounds like I might enjoy it after all. Thanks.
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Post by theguy on Nov 6, 2021 15:02:24 GMT
I think I ignored this because the review mentioned cards but it sounds like I might enjoy it after all. Thanks. Ha, I'm not one for card games either actually. If you do give it a go be sure to share your thoughts here, be interesting to read them
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malek86
Junior Member
Pomegranate Deseeder
Posts: 3,169
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Post by malek86 on Nov 7, 2021 12:20:23 GMT
The Forgotten City (Series S)
An adventure game where you gotta find out how to unmake a time loop. While that probably makes people think of Outer Wilds these days, it has much more in common with Majora's Mask: there's lots of dialogue, sidequests to solve, people to help, some combat... but unlike Majora's Mask, you can also find all the usual modern conveniences like saving everywhere, a journal for quests, etc. that make it much better to play. You hear me, Nintendo?
It's quite clever, but also pretty easy, so it lacks the sudden realization moments of Outer Wilds. It's also not quite as well cohesive. The dialogue is sometimes fun, and sometimes simply drags on for too long (and the best ending has tons of infodump).
Overall, not as good as Outer Wilds, but then what is? This was still good enough for itself. Depending on how things go with Horizon 5 and Halo, it may be in my top five games of the year.
8/10
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Post by dominalien on Nov 7, 2021 14:44:18 GMT
Kathy Rain: The Director’s Cut on Linux PC
A point and click, it starts off as such a straight rip-off of Gabriel Knight it’s not even funny. It does go its own way after a bit, but the opening hours are basically a carbon copy with some details changed.
The main issue here is the difficulty, it’s almost 100% obvious what needs to be done 90% of the time and if the designers thought you might be stumped for 2 seconds the main character immediately tells you what to do. I get they want people to complete their game, but it’s seriously overdone here. There definitely should be a “I’m a thinking human” mode alongside the “I’m a moron” one that is in there right now.
There are some very nice graphics and music is nice, too. Characters have very basic animation and their sprites don’t match their portraits, being visibly shorter and often not similar to their closeup. Not a big deal, but it looks like they were made separately as they don't fit together well.
Still, it's not terrible by any means. The story starts of interesting and obviously peters out towards the end, but gameplay improves so that’s a fair trade.
6/10
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LTK
New Member
Posts: 276
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Post by LTK on Nov 7, 2021 14:55:25 GMT
Also completed The Forgotten City, it is indeed very talky but it exceeded my expectations. The true ending loredump was inelegant but the game more than earned that indulgence by giving you so many sensible options as a time looper. The anti-frustration features are myriad and they all make a good amount of sense too. It's very impressively designed, both mechanically and narratively.
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Post by harrypalmer on Nov 8, 2021 10:25:29 GMT
Spider-Man: Miles Morales - 8/10
I may have enjoyed this even more than the main game. The length is a real plus for me - you could spin it out doing all the side stuff but it was so nice to be able to breeze through the story. The side missions are actually enjoyable though.
It looks stunning, a lot of that is to do with the colours and lighting. The story is nicely done, I actually cared! Combat is fun but gets quite repetitive, encounters tend to drag out and the boss fights are very easy.
An exceptionally well-crafted game that felt fun throughout.
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スコットランド
Junior Member
Delicious gruel
Posts: 3,934
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Post by スコットランド on Nov 8, 2021 16:52:27 GMT
Yakuza : Like a Dragon (PS5)
I really loved this, I'm a huge fan of the Yakuza games but just how great a JRPG they produced in that world was pretty surprising. I loved the Jobs, the humour, the bonkers storyline, great battle system.
10/10
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Post by ToomuchFluffy on Nov 10, 2021 16:41:21 GMT
I'm done with Van Helsing - Final Cut. A fairly standard ARPG with some tower defense elements and some Crafting systems. Took me about 26 hours, which isn't that much considering how Titan Quest with the expansion was something like 50 hours the first time through.
I played through it rather quickly since after a while I just wanted it to be over. There was something incredibly tedious about it. The world is treated as a monster killing ground with little else of interest going on. There's just two small home bases with the usual traders, blacksmiths and whatnot and outside of that it's all comic relief and somewhat random quest givers. The game doesn't take itself seriously, so that everything that isn't supposed to be funny just falls flat completely. Otherwise the soundtrack was at best serviceable. At the very least the visuals are fairly atmospheric and some of the environments from the last bits of the game are a bit more interesting. The basic gameplay is ok and the character building system was motivation enough as far as I'm concerned. Trying out other character classes could be interesting, but on the other hand I would actually have to play through the game again...
For anyone in need of a rating this would translate to a weak 6/10 I'd say. It just seems uninspired to me.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Nov 11, 2021 10:23:54 GMT
The Mass Effect Trilogy on PS5
Wow! Remember when BioWare made good games? They really were the best devs in the orld. Baldurs Gate, Baldurs Gate 2, Dragon Age 1 and 2, Jade Empire, Knights of the Old Republic. They almost made the perfect series with Mass Effect. 150+ hours, 3 platinums and some of the best characters in video game history. Just such a shame they fucked the end so bad.
ME1 - 10/10.
I think I replayed it 3 times straight away when it first came out, as male, as female, as renegade etc.clunky but so so good. I saw everything in that game, with one exception, space racist Ashley always died.
ME2 - 10/10
Streamlined the first game, improved gameplay and the most fun characters ever. Punching reporters is always great and it was a blast. I think I replayed this 3 times as well in the day.
ME3- well…
90% fucking amazing. I had a tear in my eye listening to Morden sing,. I had a perfect run through the trilogy, saving every person apart from one. (I didn’t realise Miranda had timings. I missed one meeting so although we saved her sister, she sadly died.). The citadel DLC where you had a party had me in stitches. The whole game built up to be so epic. Then you meet a child and choose a colour. I have never been so disappointed in a series. I am fucking Shepherd. The ending should have been Paragon telling the reapers they are wrong and everyone making peace, after all you have already proved them wrong by uniting the Geth and Quarians, or Renegade shepherd should punch a reaper in the face and end the cycle. But no, you chose a colour and get a couple of cutscenes. Only game in the trilogy I never replayed a the ending was so bad.
But the ride to that point is so so good.
90% of the game is 10/10 Kai Leng is the one character misstep in the trilogy, lamest character ever so -1 for him. Ending means -8 points. But fuck it 8/10 overall for the game.
The trilogy guy as a whole?
10/10
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Post by richyroo on Nov 11, 2021 10:44:15 GMT
The ending of ME3 is nowhere near as bad as some people make it out to be. Over time, I have actually come to appreciate it. It was never going to be a 100% happy ending.
With the Leviathan DLC and the extended cut, Bioware fixed most of the issues I originally had with the ending and I would probably say that ME3 is now my favourite game in the series. Gameplay, dialogue, emotion, its at its best in this game IMO.
Overally, fantastic trilogy. My favourite game series of all time by a long shot.
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robthehermit
Junior Member
Subjectively amusing
Posts: 2,405
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Post by robthehermit on Nov 11, 2021 11:01:02 GMT
New Super Luckys Tale.
Finished the actual game part awhile ago, with one achievement left to unlock that I couldn't be bothered to get (take no damage in a certain fight). I discovered the other day that it was still installed on my old One X so thought I'd see if I could grab that last one. It took me 19 goes and a bit of luck but I finally unlocked it the other day. It's not without its issues but on the whole it was a fun little platformer with a couple of annoying bits but if you like that sort of thing it does have quite a bit of charm about it. Well worth a quick look if you have Game Pass.
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Post by Aunt Alison on Nov 11, 2021 11:09:34 GMT
I was prepared for the ending of ME3 (hadn't played them originally and it was pretty well covered in the media at the time) but it did feel really unsatisfying. So much so that I went back to look at the other endings. Normally I stick to my original decisions in RPGs like that but it just didn't feel right (original was the green one)
Glad it's not just me who hated Kai Leng. The fact they kept building him up as some equal/nemesis of Shepard was really irritating. I was really hoping he'd just die soon and not be some end game baddie so I could forget about him
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Nov 11, 2021 11:13:18 GMT
I was prepared for the ending of ME3 (hadn't played them originally and it was pretty well covered in the media at the time) but it did feel really unsatisfying. So much so that I went back to look at the other endings. Normally I stick to my original decisions in RPGs like that but it just didn't feel right (original was the green one) Glad it's not just me who hated Kai Leng. The fact they kept building him up as some equal/nemesis of Shepard was really irritating. I was really hoping he'd just die soon and not be some end game baddie so I could forget about him That sums it up for me. No one says they went synthesis ending or organic ending. They say red or blue. It says how memorable they really are.
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Post by Aunt Alison on Nov 11, 2021 11:21:01 GMT
I was prepared for the ending of ME3 (hadn't played them originally and it was pretty well covered in the media at the time) but it did feel really unsatisfying. So much so that I went back to look at the other endings. Normally I stick to my original decisions in RPGs like that but it just didn't feel right (original was the green one) Glad it's not just me who hated Kai Leng. The fact they kept building him up as some equal/nemesis of Shepard was really irritating. I was really hoping he'd just die soon and not be some end game baddie so I could forget about him That sums it up for me. No one says they went synthesis ending or organic ending. They say red or blue. It says how memorable they really are. I was thinking that as I posted it
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Post by bichii on Nov 11, 2021 11:57:37 GMT
I'm guessing it will come to ea play soon ish so I'll get to enjoy them all again. Loved the trilogy just a shame it went out like that. Loved all three at the time but the original was my favourite. From memory it was the most Rpg of them all and each one after went slightly more action. I could be remembering that very wrongly though.
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Post by Phattso on Nov 11, 2021 12:02:48 GMT
Yeah, the first had an atmosphere throughout that the others lacked. The second was soooo sooo slick, though. That combat. Those characters. That final mission.
But yeah, the first one got the most replays from me. Like others, the third was one and done. Part of that was sadness that the trilogy was over, part of that was that the ending wasn't particularly satisfying. I wasn't as enraged as most, but it almost felt like the entire team quit on the last month of development, there's a record scratch, and some completely different team stapled on the last 15 minutes. So odd.
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MolarAm🔵
Full Member
Bad at games
Posts: 6,662
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Nov 11, 2021 12:07:59 GMT
There were elements I liked about the first Mass Effect, but the combat and planet exploration was so terrible (and a significant enough chunk of the game) that I couldn't ever call it the best one overall. ME2 was and is the best one.
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Post by Phattso on Nov 11, 2021 12:18:55 GMT
Yeah - I think there's a distinction to be drawn between "game" and "experience". The second, clearly, leagues ahead in gameplay and execution. But the first? I can still remember every second of the ascent to beat the Deanna Troi boss, for example. And the music. Oh the music. Somehow that got poorer as the games went on. More generic.
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MolarAm🔵
Full Member
Bad at games
Posts: 6,662
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Nov 11, 2021 12:28:36 GMT
Yeah, the music is one of the things that was better in the first game. That and the ending sequence.
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Post by Aunt Alison on Nov 11, 2021 12:52:56 GMT
The first game felt like a huge info dump with some gameplay getting in the way. The main missions were decent but most of the side missions were terrible in terms of actual gameplay I don't think I'd play any of them again- partly because I was happy with all my choices and I wouldn't want to dilute it by making different ones but also finding out after I'd finished it that the choices you made/people you saved or didn't in the previous games affected the score you were able to get in the last game so you could get the best ending. Glad I didn't know about that before or it would have affected my choices and stressed me out all the way through
Fortunately I was able to get all the endings in my playthrough
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Post by richyroo on Nov 11, 2021 13:40:37 GMT
Yeah - I think there's a distinction to be drawn between "game" and "experience". The second, clearly, leagues ahead in gameplay and execution. But the first? I can still remember every second of the ascent to beat the Deanna Troi boss, for example. And the music. Oh the music. Somehow that got poorer as the games went on. More generic.
I completely disagree about the music. When was the last time you played ME3? For me, this has the best soundtrack of the trilogy and really pulls at the heart strings in places. Just relisten to the music that plays when Shepard leaves Earth and the Reapers destroy those two shuttles. It sends shivers down my spine every time I watch that scene. The music is one area you really cannot fault with ME3 and its top stuff throughout!
ME1 was best for the lore, world building and atmosphere.
ME2 was best for character development, but overall plot was weakest.
ME3 was best for gameplay and tying up a lot of plot threads very neatly.
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Post by RadicalRex on Nov 11, 2021 13:46:15 GMT
I'm guessing it will come to ea play soon ish so I'll get to enjoy them all again. Loved the trilogy just a shame it went out like that. Loved all three at the time but the original was my favourite. From memory it was the most Rpg of them all and each one after went slightly more action. I could be remembering that very wrongly though. No, that's exactly how it was. ME1 tried to be a huge crossover of genres, a sci-fi epic that combines RPG, third person shooter, exploration etc. The much-maligned elevator rides and Mako journeys were part of an attempt to make everything feel organically interconnected and give everything a sense of space and place. ME2 had a "cut the crap" approach and focussed entirely on characters and action. RPG elements were reduced, and exploration and that whole "interconnected" thing were just dropped entirely. You get a loading screen and then you're in the action, done. As a result, playing ME2 feels like playing separate levels without any tangible connection between them. ME3 went more main plot-heavy again compared to the character-driven ME2, and the action is basically a more refined, faster-paced, more varied take on ME2 action. But I'd say ME2>ME3 is more evolution compared to ME1>ME2 which feels more like revolution.
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Post by Phattso on Nov 11, 2021 13:53:38 GMT
I completely disagree about the music. When was the last time you played ME3? For me, this has the best soundtrack of the trilogy and really pulls at the heart strings in places. Just relisten to the music that plays when Shepard leaves Earth and the Reapers destroy those two shuttles. It sends shivers down my spine every time I watch that scene. The music is one area you really cannot fault with ME3 and its top stuff throughout! Yeah, the third had very good generic heart-string-pulling music. The first was the only soundtrack of the three that was properly electronic at its core I think. The other two went epic, but lost that harder synth edge. I found them poor by comparison, but that's not to say they were bad. Servicable at worstt. But the first, including *that* sound on the title screen, was just far more memorable for me. But hey, it's music, so opinions are going to be all over the place. It's a shame that you hold a wrong opinion, but I do forgive you.
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Post by RadicalRex on Nov 11, 2021 15:09:16 GMT
I agree, ME2+3 music is fine, but ME1 music just destroys them. They're fine but just a little... generic. ME1 soundtrack is anything but generic, it pulls all its synth strings, it leaves a mark.
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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 Nov 13, 2021 22:14:10 GMT
Far Cry 6 Hours: 74 and counting, post campaign Cheveo's: 715/1000 39/53 (I will pop a few more yet, unlikely the full 1000 though)
Overall really enjoyed, did have around 5-10 hours where I was somewhat bored, but that happens with almost any game I play. Good ending and good characters, Juan was a fav and my female Dani was great. I will spend some more time in the world, espically as I bought the Gold edition (Thank you Gamepass points!)
I did miss the skill tree and towers though, also I "wore" the same outfit for 90% of the game and used the same bullets, I did mix up the multiple weapons however. The driving and flying planes is still total shit, we were allowed to go 3rd person in camps, so I would like the option to do the same when driving or piloting a plane in the next game.
A very high 8/10
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