what you (re)playing?

[Pink Gregory]

Thought it'd be nice to have a general thread for games that you're replaying/have played and are playing again.

So I never actually tried doing any of the xbox-to-xbox one backwards compatibility and suddenly I'm playing Ninja Gaiden Black.

Visually, I'm really quite impressed.  It was always a good looking game but with the upscaling the textures are still nice and sharp, the character models even moreso.  Feels like it was really at this point that everything in game visuals became about resolution, texture size and visual complexity; although the colour scheme is on the drab side, the game absolutely doesn't need to look better than it does.

Other than that, I find myself questioning its status as a 'difficult' game, and it makes me appreciate how far action games have come since.

First this is the camera.  No 3rd person free camera.  First person look (standing perfectly still) and recentre only.  Woof.  This definitely contributes to the difficulty; so much of this game is about situational awareness, especially when one of the main AI strategies is a group seperating and then attacking you individually from all the angles.  Typically, one meets the other fairly bluntly unless you find yourself in a big open environment, and then this robs you of Ryu's characteristic wall jump attacks and general mobility.

It's noticeble that what they never manage to crack is having any foe that's more interesting to overcome or bash your head against than human sized mobs in groups of 1-3.  The bosses are either annoying or tedious, with the imprecise platforming and the camera being a hindrance (with the exception of the first boss Murai, maybe, which is a one on one fight in a large, empty dojo) and most toughing out normal attacks with nary a flutter.  Other than with foes you can throw around a bit, it just feels like you're not doing much until they underwhelmingly drop dead.

What I do like is how confident it is in its being a fuckin ACTION GAME.  No flash, no upgrade system beyond a few extra strikes in a combo, just enough exploration to find a few scarabs but nothing too diverting.  You, ninja, sword, off you fuck mate, get stuck in.  You could conceivably use the dragon sword for the entire game and have a fantastic time, perhaps to the detriment of the rest of the arsenal because they do feel like novelties in comparison.

Definitely won't be playing again on a higher difficulty though; I don't know if NG Black changes up enemy placement (it does change item placement that I know of) on other difficulties, but from experience of attempting the original xbox version it was an exercise in frustration when the execution is this creaky and limited.

[The Crumb]

Shame, from memory it's worth playing through on hard. Not only do you get different enemy placements, you get brand new enemies and even bosses. I found it to be the best difficulty for a challenging but not horrendous playthrough back in the day.

[Pink Gregory]

Shame, from memory it's worth playing through on hard. Not only do you get different enemy placements, you get brand new enemies and even bosses. I found it to be the best difficulty for a challenging but not horrendous playthrough back in the day.

To be fair, this was on the original version, yeeeears ago.  I remember being stuck on Alma and just beating my head against it, probably had no recovery items, which didn't help.

Also at the time I probably hadn't been playing much of this kind of precise-execution game, so I was probably brute-forcing through it.  Nothing after the monastery feels familiar to me, and I'm pretty sure that I *had* completed it, because I remember who the final boss was.

[The Guppy]

I'm replaying Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit on the Switch. The police side of the game has aged really badly. I'm a COPPER with a LAMBORGHINI and I'm SMASHING lawbreakers! All this flashy car porn with PROTECT AND SERVE shit all over it.

And I don't know if it's my age, or that I'm playing on a small screen, but I can't see shortcuts until I'm already passing them, and I can't see gaps in roadblocks until I've crashed into them.

[Pink Gregory]

Shame, from memory it's worth playing through on hard. Not only do you get different enemy placements, you get brand new enemies and even bosses. I found it to be the best difficulty for a challenging but not horrendous playthrough back in the day.

Ah, you're right.  According to Reddit, NG Black (which I'm playing for the first time) does change enemy placement on higher difficulties, while the original didn't.

[seepage]

The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk - excellent tactical RPG. Great voice acting for the most part and amazing graphics (in my view) and physics effects. The humour is a bit hit and miss and there's too much gratuitous swearing, but still great overall. Also, the encounters are unique, no wandering monsters or grinding involved.
Fell Seal - Almost didn't stick with this as the portrait artwork is a bit rubbish although the figure artwork is great, and mostly the work of one person. Area effect spells usually have a cross formation so tactics seems to involve making sure your allies are in the squares outside the cross.
Trouble Shooter - this is completely bonkers and it looks like the developers had to include every feature under the sun to please the backers. This is the opposite of Fell Seal as the 3D models do not match the quality of the static artwork, but they are acceptable viewed from a distance. Early on the police seem quite capable of looking after themselves without the help of the heroes, armed as they are with SMGs vs. thugs with knives and pistols, although they won't rescue the civilians on their own. Maybe that's intentional humour. Although there is the common move once, attack once, or move twice mechanic, melee attacks include a run up move which is unusual. Finding it quite funny when the lady police run up to a crim and instead of fancy martial arts just kick them in the bollocks.
 

[Memorex MP3]

And I don't know if it's my age, or that I'm playing on a small screen, but I can't see shortcuts until I'm already passing them, and I can't see gaps in roadblocks until I've crashed into them.

Small screen is part of it but the aesthetic of it all makes everything a lot harder to make out than Burnout Paradise imo. Having similar issues playing Most Wanted on Vita atm.



Downloaded eXoDOS recently to play Ripper, wound up playing the first few levels of Dungeon Keeper instead.
Might try and play the Beavis and Butthead adventure game some time soon too.

[Clownbaby]

I often have 2 games on the go at the same time.

Alien Isolation
I had 3 false starts with this game where I just didn't click with it at all and rage quitted before I really got to sneak around the Alien. That first bit where you try to contact Verlaine and the Working Joes are on your back pissed me off and I couldn't seem to do it. Recently I picked it back up and once I got used to how it works I was smitten. It's a gorgeous looking game and really feels like you're in the first Alien movie.

The Evil Within 2
The first time I played this I really enjoyed it, even if the story is bloated to fuck. Not enjoying it so much this time around for some reason. Might be because I went straight to it from finishing The Last Of Us 2 and the quality level of the controls and stealth really dropped and I realised how clunky Evil Within 2 is to actually play.

[Mr Trumpet]

Replaying Morrowind yet again. I periodically check in on the Tamriel Rebuilt mod project that I used to be involved with, and they've added so much breadth to the game.

[Cold Meat Platter]

Replaying Morrowind yet again. I periodically check in on the Tamriel Rebuilt mod project that I used to be involved with, and they've added so much breadth to the game.

Do you use Open Morrowind or just mod the standard version?

[Mr Trumpet]

Do you use Open Morrowind or just mod the standard version?

As it happens I'm trying out OpenMW for the first time. Only differences I've noticed so far are that load times when going through doors are basically zero, there's no lag even in elaborate cities, and I don't need an additional mod to view the whole TR map.

[Kelvin]

Doing by due diligence for the upcoming sequel by playing Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition, on Switch. My first time playing this one, but I'm a huge fan of X, and to some extent XC2, so its no surprise that I'm enjoying it a lot. The combat is simpler and a bit more repetitive than the later games, but it's still got that great environmental design, and the twisty-turny plotting that I loved about the others. And how the hell did this game, with environments so large and complex, run on Wii? I cannot get my head around it.   

[Consignia]

I prefer the gameplay of XC2, grindy gacha mechanics aside, but yeah XC1 is proper lush. It is been improved for on the Switch, but such vast beautiful landscapes seem such mind bender that could be attempted on the humble Wii.

[Pink Gregory]

Not sure I'm feeling NGB enough to finish it for now.  Admittedly the arsenal of big slashy things is quite satisfying, but I've used them all enough and all that's left is a little boss rush of the rubbishest bosses in the game and a final boss that to my memory, is hardly spectacular.

Only 6 or so scarabs off unlocking the original Ninja Gaiden for the arcade, and I've read how to get 2 and 3 so I might rush through on normal again in an afternoon but I don't think it's worth the novelty to play the games within another game.

Might get back to Prey and Dishonored 2 : Death of the Outsider (which I inexplicably started together) but I have a feeling that this latest period of very intensive game-playing might be over.

[Cerys]

Guess.

[surreal]

Fallout 4 for the umpteenth time, still never finished the main quest or gone further than the bit where you have to commit to a faction.  Wish I could jump onto something else but I'm completely Skyrim-ed out and can't decide what else to play.  I was going to try Disco Elysium again after I dropped it (made a lot of progress then died without saving so I couldn't face going through all that dialogue again).  I tried Prey again a few weeks ago but again dropped it.

I'm useless at picking games.

[Pink Gregory]

Finished NGB.  Really came around on it in the end, pre-final boss is a bit annoying in that you're just mashing at a giant guy while floating on a platorm avoiding beams but I actually managed to improve my play after a few tries.

Same with the final boss, only took me a few tries but figuring a slightly inelegant way around his patterns was satisfying, was glad he didn't mutate into something new at the last minute.

Started again on Hard - and either I've improved a lot at this type of game or Black did some serious re-balancing because I'm not finding it as monstrously, unfairly hard as I did 10+ years ago, and a fairly satisfying challenge. Of course this applies up until Alma, at which point I will put it down and never touch it again.

[Joe Qunt]

Just downloaded Stardew Valley for the XBOX. Very pleasant experience, I'm enjoying it so far. You don't get much explained to you to start but I love discovering little bits and pieces of information as I go.

[Pink Gregory]

Just downloaded Stardew Valley for the XBOX. Very pleasant experience, I'm enjoying it so far. You don't get much explained to you to start but I love discovering little bits and pieces of information as I go.

I've passed up on Stardew Valley so many times, thinking that there's almost *too* much you can do?

No idea if that's true or not.

[Catalogue of ills]

Recently replayed Tomb Raider 2 for the first time in a couple of decades. I enjoyed it a lot, it looks rubbish but the level design is great. In subsequent iterations the levels got a lot smaller, so it was fun to play sprawling levels with lots of elements to them.

[oggyraiding]

I got into the Overwatch 2 beta. I've not really played the first one much for several years, so some of the character ability changes are lost on me because I never used Doomfist in the first place. The new character is cool I guess. Generally it looks and plays identically to the OW1. Progression and PvE are apparently big features in the full game, so it's odd for them to release a beta which shows off features barely distinguishable from OW1.

[ImmaculateClump]

Back on the muck.



Playing this while catching up on my backlog of Frank Skinner podcasts.
Free time well spent.

[Mobius]

Picked up No Man's Sky again, quite satisfying/therapeutic, just mindlessly mining resources and dicking about in space.

Making my way to the centre of the galaxy as an arbitrary target, stopping off at random planets as I run out of resources. Not sure what's in the middle but it's taking me ages to get there.

[beanheadmcginty]

Thinking about having another go at Syndicate (I've somehow picked it up as a freebie from somewhere). The Persuadertron is my favourite weapon in gaming history.

[Ron Maels Moustache]

Playing Daggerfall Unity, and finally feel like I'm getting into it properly having bounced off the game many times in the past.

There's some welcome visual improvements to make it look a bit shinier, plus crucially there's an option to make the randomly generated dungeons considerably smaller, which takes a good deal of the pain and frustration out of it, i.e. you no longer spend six hours on a random fetch quest dungeon which seems to stretch into infinity. Some of the quests are still hilariously broken to the point of being unfinishable (I did one yesterday where I needed to open a gate to get to the final room, which would've been fine except the lever to open the gate was on the inside) but you do at least have console commands now to skip past the glitched bits.

You can also replace the annoying music with any tracks of your own choosing, which is a real godsend.

[Pink Gregory]

Was with my one friend who likes games and we just decided to breeze through Streets of Rage 4 before it went off Game Pass.

Fuck me what a game.  Really like how they obviously imitated the original animations for the enemies as well as the designs.

[Glebe]

I was replaying Arkham Knight but it's so big and complicated that I've kinda sacked it off.

[Magnum Valentino]

I thought I'd have a go on it again recently and couldn't get over the fucking state of how Poison Ivy is dressed at the start of it.

[madhair60]

chaos engine rules

[Pink Gregory]

I like the character classes in it; in no other game would you have someone called 'the Navvy'