[Grinchy]

I finally finished up Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope, AKA Mario XCOM 2. Really great game and I got a lot of enjoyment out of it on the hardest difficulty. It really made you think in some parts. I clocked in at about 46 hours as I was trying to 100% each planet before moving on to the next.

I'm a little let down that there is no post-game content like the first one. I found out that the reason I was only able to hit 99% on each planet was really stupid. There are special puzzle-based levels you open up with a key. After you beat them, you're supposed to know to go back in and do it again, but this time it has a timer and it's really tedious and unfun and highlights how terrible the controls can be. Not sure if I'll bother.

 

[BlackOlivesMatter]

Just purchased P3 and P4 for the third time each to play on my PS5.

Fired up P3 immediately

 

[Grinchy]

Just purchased P3 and P4 for the third time each to play on my PS5.

Fired up P3 immediately

I held off from playing P3 for so fucking long knowing they'd finally get around to releasing it on a modern platform...but then I gave in a while back and started playing it on my PS2. I'm just too far in to start over lol

 

[HariSeldon]

I've not done any game programming for ages so I'm currently playing "try to remember how to work with the LibGDX framework". It's pretty cool - was always a nice way to build 2D stuff but it seems like it's come a long way on the 3D side too which fits a project I have in mind (think Mega Lo Mania crossed with Powermonger).

 

[Ferdinand the Cowfish]

I held off from playing P3 for so fucking long knowing they'd finally get around to releasing it on a modern platform...but then I gave in a while back and started playing it on my PS2. I'm just too far in to start over lol

If you're playing P3FES then you're playing the better, more complete version of the game anyway, compared to P3P

 

[skeem]

I just reached Shevat in Xenogears.

I got a PS5 in September and haven't touched it since mid November. I wasn't expecting to be playing so many old games. I played one and that was it, it's just been old games since November.

I really like XG. The combat has been pretty easy so far. Remains to be seen if there will be a late game difficulty spike. When the story moves I think it is excellent. The only place I haven't enjoyed was Noturne/Thames which just felt a bit like filler content and broke the pacing of the game for me.

A+ soundtrack for this game, too. Which I already knew because I've liked the piano arrangements for the XG soundtrack forever. But I always pictured Shevat as being a forest. Not a flying city

 

[teezzy]

If you're playing P3FES then you're playing the better, more complete version of the game anyway, compared to P3P

So stupid they went with the PSP port for modern consoles

 

[teezzy]

Oh wait, I guess there's rumors of a Persona 3 remake

Now gimping the port makes sense

For shame, Atlus

 

[Grinchy]

If you're playing P3FES then you're playing the better, more complete version of the game anyway, compared to P3P

Nice, that makes me feel better haha. There's so much debate over the years on which version is "best" but it seems the good old PS2 version of FES ranks well.

Though you may hate my cheating ways. I patched full party control into the ISO so I didn't have the AI selecting things and wasting all their SP.

 

[regawdless]

Finally going to jump into the Dark Anthology Series this weekend. Nice on the couch playing on my OLED, with beer and headphones.

Played Man of Medan yesterday. Despite some stiffness regarding animations and controls, enjoying it a lot so far. The intro scene was pretty cool. Atmosphere was on point.

 

[Ferdinand the Cowfish]

Nice, that makes me feel better haha. There's so much debate over the years on which version is "best" but it seems the good old PS2 version of FES ranks well.

Though you may hate my cheating ways. I patched full party control into the ISO so I didn't have the AI selecting things and wasting all their SP.

P3P adds full party control, a female protagonist, and social links from the female protagonist's point of view. In exchange, you lose 3D cutscenes and the extra content from FES. In my opinion, P3P is the worst version of the game to play.

As for full-party control in FES, I've never tried it but I believe the game is balanced around only being able to control the MC and I've heard that full party control makes combat very easy later in the game.

 

[Grinchy]

P3P adds full party control, a female protagonist, and social links from the female protagonist's point of view. In exchange, you lose 3D cutscenes and the extra content from FES. In my opinion, P3P is the worst version of the game to play.

As for full-party control in FES, I've never tried it but I believe the game is balanced around only being able to control the MC and I've heard that full party control makes combat very easy later in the game.

I don't make a habit of making things easier, but the idea that I could lose a bunch of progress because the AI was too stupid to cast heal or used the wrong spell at the wrong time was just too unattractive for my current day gaming time needs lol

Plus I just like to strategize it all. When every Persona that came after it had full party control, it shows you that even the creators felt it was the wrong move in the end IMO.

 

[DonDonDonPata]

I don't make a habit of making things easier, but the idea that I could lose a bunch of progress because the AI was too stupid to cast heal or used the wrong spell at the wrong time was just too unattractive for my current day gaming time needs lol

Plus I just like to strategize it all. When every Persona that came after it had full party control, it shows you that even the creators felt it was the wrong move in the end IMO.

just play on a higher difficulty (though Normal is still typical Hard compared to other JRPGs).

The main "problem" with full party control is that you can use the press-turn Weak hits more frequently, which reduces the total # of enemy turns against you, which makes all battles easier. It shows that the Ai-controlled party was programmed to be DUMB but it's hardly a knock against the battle system

 

[Grinchy]

just play on a higher difficulty (though Normal is still typical Hard compared to other JRPGs).

The main "problem" with full party control is that you can use the press-turn Weak hits more frequently, which reduces the total # of enemy turns against you, which makes all battles easier. It shows that the Ai-controlled party was programmed to be DUMB but it's hardly a knock against the battle system

I kinda do wish I had picked Hard since I've played a bunch of these at this point, but I'm like 45 hours into that save file and there's no way I'm starting over now haha. Exploiting the enemy weakness so they don't get a turn against you has always felt like the entire point of the game to me, though.

When they do get a a turn in, they can wreck your shit in one round so it balances nicely. Even with the "easy mode full party control" I've had moments where my main character just gets one-shot. Or like someone in the party gets charmed and gets a critical on the main character and then goes in for a 2nd hit and boom, game over lol. It's what I like about the combat system so much in these. Not being able to strategize every move was just unattractive to me. Hey, some people are out there using an emulator and putting in a new save state every battle, so you guys can mock them lol

 

[HE1NZ]

Super Castlevania IV. It's okay I guess.

 

[Grinchy]

Anyone heard of this one before?



I'm really liking it a lot so far. It's basically Zelda 2 on the NES except good. You collect XP and coins from killing shit which you can use in towns to upgrade armor and spells and stuff. You do quests, it changes from day to night which brings out new enemies and tasks, etc. It's also kinda hard, at least in these early stages.

 

[bork]

Anyone heard of this one before?



I'm really liking it a lot so far. It's basically Zelda 2 on the NES except good. You collect XP and coins from killing shit which you can use in towns to upgrade armor and spells and stuff. You do quests, it changes from day to night which brings out new enemies and tasks, etc. It's also kinda hard, at least in these early stages.

Beat it and got all achievements and special ending. It was fantastic I loved it.

 

[Grinchy]

Beat it and got all achievements and special ending. It was fantastic I loved it.

I grabbed it on PS5. The first thing I did, like any game, is check out the options and settings. I saw the book in there that told me to make my character name STRANGER. So that was my first exposure to the game lol

I didn't make it very far and started back over and just played as the regular starting character and made much more progress. But damn did it suck me in for way longer than I expected.

 

[Snes nes]

trying to remember how to not suck at Tekken 7

I'm trying not to suck at tekken 7 I'll just keep failing upwards eventually I'll get somewhere's I guess.

 

[teezzy]

I'm trying not to suck at tekken 7 I'll just keep failing upwards eventually I'll get somewhere's I guess.

who are you maining?

 

[Snes nes]

who are you maining?

at the moment its kunimitsu. dabbled in the other characters though.

 

[Stopped_Cold_29]

Helping my son through his first play through of Banjo Kazooie. He seems to really like the N64 era Nintendo games more than a lot of current stuff.

 

[Grumpy Karen]

New Year, new me.

A few years ago I wondered how much time I spent actually playing games - as opposed to reading / watching / talking about them. I had planned to just start a timer when I was gaming, then record that session's duration on a spreadsheet and do analysis later. I was recommended to use Clockify instead - a time-tracking application - and it turned out to be a perfect fit for my needs.

2022's figures looked like this:

With my question very comprehensively answered, I've decided that 2023, I'll just pick up a controller as I get the urge and leave the time-tracking out of it.

--

I'm lucky in that I have a huge gaming backlog and have a birthday in the summer. So most of the time, I just put games onto my wishlists and get gifted them by friends and family at birthdays and Xmas time.

My Switch carry-case game-card capacity has now been exceeded (Thank you Mario Maker 2 and Bayonetta 3). And, knowing that there's a Zelda game coming out this year, I felt I should tackle some stuff that I'd yet to start.

Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury
Super Mario 3D World
Despite playing through it on the Wii U, I decided to rinse through SM3DW before starting on BF.

Pretty much everything you could want from a Mario platformer. Perfect execution, near endless creativity and ingenuity. It truly amazes me how many ideas and novel challenges Nintendo can still think up and put into a game like this. And their method of introducing you to a concept in a 'safe' way, to then bring that same concept back in increasingly challenging moments as the game progresses.

I think I probably appreciated this game more this time around than I did originally.

Bowser's Fury
Moving onto Bowser's Fury and sampling Nintendo's take on an open-world platformer - this was far safer than I expected with the open world aspect not really being used other than a more immediate 'world map' mechanic, with the meat of the gameplay focused on platforming islands within that world - being unlocked as you repeatedly battle the annoying Bowser.

Bowser's tantrums had me reminded of the rain in Zelda: BotW. The game somehow knew when it would be the most inconvenient time to make this event occur - slowing down or impeding what I was trying to do - and forced me, multiple times to literally stop playing and stand still. This is terrible game design.

Worse still is to exploit that terrible-design and force the player to have challenges that can only be completed during a Bowser tantrum - again, forcing the player to often stand around waiting for the game to do the thing that'll allow them to start (and instantly beat) the challenge. Just awful.

On the positive side, having Nessie serve as your fast mode of transport between islands in the world was superb. Fun, fast, playful, functional - a perfect solution to the problem of navigating largely dead space.

Both these games together offer a huge dollop of traditional platforming excellence - and a slightly different direction from that of Mario Odyssey. Whilst you can't complain about the volume of content Odyssey offers, Bowser's Fury with 'only' 100 stars is quite slender by comparison and I would have preferred Nintendo add more to Bowser's Fury to up the content, rather than to port an older Wii U title.

But then, porting older Wii U titles is one of the Switch's reason for existing.

God of War Ragnarok
Playing an hour or two of this in the evenings with the Missus sat beside me, reminding me of set-dressing I haven't smashed yet, shinies I may have missed or proposing solutions to the game's conundrums.

Wifey did this when I re-played the GOW 2018 game and she was surprised not only at how good it looked, but also at the quality of the writing and characterisation in the game. So it was her idea to join me for Ragnarok and we're taking it at a leisurely pace.

Given the game is still at its zeitgeist in gaming culture there's little I can say about it that isn't being said by others.

And whilst Sony's reputation as seller of little more than 3rd Person Cinematic Story Simulators is only cemented further by games such as this, holy shit, this is what you expect to see when a first party studio is tasked with making a banner game for their platform.

Powerwasher Simulator
Sometimes you need something a bit weird to contrast the other stuff.
Don't judge me.

 

[Barnabot]

Test Drive Unlimited 2. Has a better progression than Forza Horizon 5. And a better map ten fucking years before FH5. And also somewhat it has a story mode. Progression is like you feel you earn the cars you own. The same applies to the houses.

 

[HE1NZ]

Super Castlevania IV. It's okay I guess.

This game sucks. Lousy launch title with imprecise controls, slowdown, terrible platforming. Not much of a looker too. Bosses are easy until the final level when there's 4 impossible ones in a sequence. Fuck this game.

 

[regawdless]

Forspoken PC demo

 

[Grinchy]

I'm still making my way through Infernax. I like it, but I find myself not playing long stretches. I've made it into the 3rd castle.

There are just times when I find some of the platforming mechanics more frustrating than fun like with the rotating platforms. I like challenge, but when it's the 3rd screen of the same mechanic that wasn't very fun to begin with, and you get knocked down to your death, doing the 3 screens again doesn't make them any more fun lol

 

[and 3 others]

Just re-downloaded Final Fantasy 7 Intergrade and Returnal 4 days ahead of Dead Space Remake. What am I doing!?

 

[ProgenitorCastle]

Astro's Playroom on my brand spanking new PS5, best pack in game since NintendoLand for the Wii U! Does excellent amazing job at demonstrating the unique DualSense features, and is HD as heck too...I can only imagine what it'd look like on a 4K TV

 

[DonDonDonPata]

Re: Mount & Blade 2 Bannerlord

So, this is one of the rare 4x strategy games that gets more difficult the more you take over. In most strategy games, whether it's the Total War series, Stellaris, Imperium Galactica, Civ, Alpha Centauri, whatever, once you take over about 50% of the map, the ongoing avalanche of upgrades and money tends to steamroll your opponents. Not always the case, but I've been playing the genre since the 90s and the halfway point is usually when it tips into "easy" territory.

Not so with M&B2. After carving out the center half of the map, the kingdom got so unmanageable with wars on every side. The Aserai took over the East half of the map (more or less) and are only slightly lower in power than me. The center of the map has been conquered by S. Empire who came back from the brink of total annihilation somehow.

So I needed to go genocidal. I spent the last few days of my campaign taking over Vlandian territory in the West and executing their nobles when I capture them after battle, just eliminating clan after clan. It's a major hit to reputation but hey, they'll just come back with armies if I let them survive. After about 30 executions or so, I've thinned the Vlandian faction down so far they can barely field an army. I executed their king and their king's successor during the same military campaign. Their current king is 22 years old (a sign the faction is running out of viable heirs) and the next time I see him I'm taking his head, too. W. Empire, N. Empire, and Battania have also been squished into tiny <2000 strength factions with almost no fiefs so at this point it's mostly me (Sturgia), Aserai, Khuzaits, and S. Empire in the running.

Main Character is getting really old. Time to die soon and xfer to the Wife NPC or to one of the kids. The portrait and player appearance will gradually age, wrinkle, and grey too, kinda like watching your character age in Fable. My focus during the next generation will be to marry and expand the immediate Clan

Also messing around in Evil Genius 2 here and there. It's a chill game, nothing special about it, one of those easy-to-unpack Sim/strategy games.

 

[TaySan]

Finished High On Life. A funny colorful game from the creators of Rick and Morty. I wished the gun combat was better and more diverse, but the humorous story made up for that.

 

[HariSeldon]

Re: Mount & Blade 2 Bannerlord

So, this is one of the rare 4x strategy games that gets more difficult the more you take over. In most strategy games, whether it's the Total War series, Stellaris, Imperium Galactica, Civ, Alpha Centauri, whatever, once you take over about 50% of the map, the ongoing avalanche of upgrades and money tends to steamroll your opponents. Not always the case, but I've been playing the genre since the 90s and the halfway point is usually when it tips into "easy" territory.

Not so with M&B2. After carving out the center half of the map, the kingdom got so unmanageable with wars on every side. The Aserai took over the East half of the map (more or less) and are only slightly lower in power than me. The center of the map has been conquered by S. Empire who came back from the brink of total annihilation somehow.

So I needed to go genocidal. I spent the last few days of my campaign taking over Vlandian territory in the West and executing their nobles when I capture them after battle, just eliminating clan after clan. It's a major hit to reputation but hey, they'll just come back with armies if I let them survive. After about 30 executions or so, I've thinned the Vlandian faction down so far they can barely field an army. I executed their king and their king's successor during the same military campaign. Their current king is 22 years old (a sign the faction is running out of viable heirs) and the next time I see him I'm taking his head, too. W. Empire, N. Empire, and Battania have also been squished into tiny <2000 strength factions with almost no fiefs so at this point it's mostly me (Sturgia), Aserai, Khuzaits, and S. Empire in the running.

Main Character is getting really old. Time to die soon and xfer to the Wife NPC or to one of the kids. The portrait and player appearance will gradually age, wrinkle, and grey too, kinda like watching your character age in Fable. My focus during the next generation will be to marry and expand the immediate Clan

Also messing around in Evil Genius 2 here and there. It's a chill game, nothing special about it, one of those easy-to-unpack Sim/strategy games.

In a way that sounds more realistic than most games since one of the typical ways for an empire to fall is to overextend itself and find itself fighting wars on too many fronts owing to having so much territory.

 

[regawdless]

Playing at night with headphones on a big OLED, Man of Medan is pretty effective. Some of the jump scares got me good. And then slowly walking through tight spaces on that ship, playing the game is more thrilling than any horror movie.

 

[HE1NZ]

James Cameron's Avatar: The Game on PC. It's kinda sucks. Weird mix of janky third person shooter and WoW elements.

 

[Dreamlord]

I am not particularly enjoying Plague Tale Requiem to be honest. I am half way in act 3 but so far it's boring.

Bloody gorgeous, for sure, and it runs at 60-100 fps, but the gameplay is really boring and lacks any kind of innovative ideas. Walk walk walk down corridors while characters chatter. Sneaking sections with very very bad AI as well as little ability to fight off opponents if you are discovered.

Not feeling it at all, tbh. I hope it gets better in the next three acts, otherwise I am putting it down.

 

[CloudNull]

Hi-Fi Rush. Best exclusive Microsoft has released in years and the devs created something special. I was going to hold off on picking it up but I couldn't stop watching streams. Game is beautifully crafted and 100% unique.

They created a DMCA free version of the game so that streamers can stream the game. The original tracks are great but the licensed music is better.... first boss fight to NIN was unexpected.

 

[skeem]

I. Am. Gutted....

I'd heard that the developers ran out of time, or budget, or something.

I honestly can't remember ever feeling so conflicted about a game.. I was enjoying it so much, the story was opening up. Amazing twist in the story that I didn't see coming. And then.

Disc effing 2

Xenogears. Why you do this to meee?!

Honestly. I suppose I am glad I knew that the game was going to drop off a cliff at some point. For anyone who didn't and was enjoying it, it is SO brutal.

Amazing story on disc one. Thoroughly thoroughly enjoyed that. It would probably have been better ending in one disc and trying for a direct sequel..

 

[Grinchy]

I beat Infernax just now. I got the "good ending" which I think just means I made the good choices versus making the evil choices.

Really fun game overall. You get to a point where you basically become overpowered and bosses aren't very hard anymore. What I really liked about the game, though, was the sense of exploration and discovery. You find things and figure things out in a way that feels like an old Zelda game except nowhere near as obtuse.

 

[Erdrick]

I beat Infernax just now. I got the "good ending" which I think just means I made the good choices versus making the evil choices.

Really fun game overall. You get to a point where you basically become overpowered and bosses aren't very hard anymore. What I really liked about the game, though, was the sense of exploration and discovery. You find things and figure things out in a way that feels like an old Zelda game except nowhere near as obtuse.

I actually just started Infernax an hour or so ago. Feels like a more modern Castlevania 2 or Zelda 2 for sure. Loving it so far. Nice change after beating Crisis Core a couple of days ago.

 

[WesternBlood]

I am feeling a moment of weakness. I am currently half-way through Far Cry 4, just about to open the second area by my estimations. I have recently been tempted to get back into Borderlands 2 The Handsome collection. I am just not feeling Far Cry 4 to complete it right now.

Full disclosure, I have played Borderlands, Borderlands 2, The Pre-Sequel and Borderlands 3. I have finished all of these games with ONE character only, no replays outside of starting a different character and messing around only to drop it and move on to something else.

I played Borderlands 2 with Axton, and while I enjoyed tossing his turrets around, it was much more satisfying in a team play situation than just soloing, as I have seen my share of fight for your life events than I care to revisit. Which brings me to today.

How I played the games:
Borderlands - Roland
Borderlands 2 - Axton
The Pre-Sequel - Nisha
Borderland 3 - Zane

I think I want to replay Borderlands 2, but take advantage of the boosted level 30 character it allows you to do. I was looking at Salvador and Maya. As I understand these two are pretty good characters, with the exception that Salvador sucks until about the mid-50s which then breaks the game because he gets over powered. I am looking to play this game exactly like that, run around, mayhem, don't care if people melt.

Anyways, if anyone has any thoughts that don't involve Gaige or Zero, I will gladly listen. If I were to go through the Pre-Sequel again, I would choose Wilhelm or maybe the Doppleganger. If I were to go through Borderlands 3 again, I would shoot myself.