what you (re)playing?

[Mister Six]

Trimmed it down a bit.

[seepage]

talking of grind, I'm on Level 78 of the big dungeon side quest in Tactics Ogre: Reborn so only 22 more levels to go (I hope). It's a bit like a Glebe post from H.S. Art: "in a tiny crypt, you find yourself opposite seven red dragons, five dracleas, and a cthulhu"
 

[falafel]

Gosh that's 13 Yakuza games and they keep churning them out. At this point maybe nest to treat it like a soap opera, not expect it to ever end. They will definitely release them faster than I will finish them.

Will keep any further comment to the Yakuza thread.

I would point out that I rented Yakuza 4 for PS3 back in 2010 and I am pretty sure I liked it but know I didn't get more than a couple of hours in. It was nicely daft which seems to be the general vibe.

[Mister Six]

Yeah, it's definitely a soap opera, but a fun one. It's lovely when a favourite character makes a reappearance. The tone is a strange mix of ultra seriousness, action-movie camp and out and out silliness, but it all works somehow.

Just go through them one at a time, and play other stuff too. The writing in particular shoots up in quality after 5 (0 was the first game after 5) and keeps going up and up across each game.

But for god's sake, don't try to 100% them.

[seepage]

talking of grind, I'm on Level 78 of the big dungeon side quest in Tactics Ogre: Reborn so only 22 more levels to go (I hope). It's a bit like a Glebe post from H.S. Art: "in a tiny crypt, you find yourself opposite seven red dragons, five dracleas, and a cthulhu"
 

From my multiple choice answers I was certain I was taking the lawful path but just noticed there's a big 'C' next to my name...

[Ferris]

I had a laugh with Yakuza 0 but (ironically) have zero interest in playing any more.

I get it, they're fun but you have to buy into the story mode then I bothered to do. Fine for Yakuzas, thank you.

[Pink Gregory]

But for god's sake, don't try to 100% them.

I reckon it would be doable if it wasn't for Shogi

[oggyraiding]

I find hanafuda and mahjong more impenetrable than shogi. Shogi is also hard work but it's got that chess DNA in it so it's (marginally) more intuitive.

[The Crumb]

Cyberpunk feeling like a better version of Bethesda's rpg themed shooting games. It's fascinating to see the incredible level of ambition and detail bump up against the banal realities of game making. One moment you're in Blade Runner 2049,the next you're back in Deus Ex:Human Revolution.

[bgmnts]

Yeah I genuinely really enjoyed playing Cyberpunk myself. I came to it a year or so after the disastrous launch so that's probably why.

[Mister Six]

I reckon it would be doable if it wasn't for Shogi

Shogi wouldn't be that bad (just download a Shogi app, put it on the highest difficulty setting, then put the Yakuza game's plays into that) except that it's really badly designed, so that whether you win or lose a game, you get bounced out to the world map each time, which adds ages of pointless loading. It's infuriating. Was it always like this? Is it just that the games used to be smaller so they loaded quicker?

[C_Larence]

Hogwarts Legacy

As a 90s kid [derogatory] I have been effectively conditioned since birth to like Harry Potter. I read all the books, queued up for midnight releases once I was old enough, saw all the movies at the cinema and played many of the previous tie in games. Since then there's been a backlash against the series for being badly written and its creator for being a bigot, which is fair. This game doesn't do anything to beat the badly written charges, but boy do they overcorrect on the bigotry. Practically every character you meet is a POC caricature. Here is an interaction between a Zimbabwean student and a Korean teacher (played by a white man seemingly doing an impression of Paul Whitehouse). I genuinely think this approach somehow manages to be more offensive than the original stories, but it's hard to argue against representation without coming across as a massive racist so I will just leave it there.

The game itself ends up as a bloated mess. There are three main locations, Hogwarts, Hogsmeade, and every Potterhead's favourite location THE COUNTRYSIDE^TM. All three are overstuffed with boring side quests and even more tedious collectibles. Here's a list:

Spoiler alert

83 Floo Flames
95 Merlin Trials
32 Balloon Sets
33 Demiguise Statues
5 Cairn Dungeons
12 Breed Beasts
236 Field Guide Pages
15 Astronomy Tables
20 Landing Platforms
20 Ancient Magic Hotspots
3 Hogwarts Secrets
18 Infamous Foes
24 Challenges
16 House Tokens
15 Butterflies

[close]

On the one hand, this is just what games are now, on the other hand I haven't read Ulysses or seen Goodfellas and my time on earth is finite. About halfway through the story I ended up mashing the skip button through every interaction and cutscene and as soon as I completed it I deleted the game and once I post this I'll never think of it again. Apparently the next one will be a live service game, so there's that to look forward to.

The Light In The Darkness

As a Jew [non-derogratory] I have been effectively conditioned since birth to hate the Holocaust
This is a free educational game about the life of French Jews during World War 2. I only discovered it via a 1 star review showing up on my backloggd.com feed. The reviewer gave it 1 star because the name of the game "doesn't make sense" and because there are full stops after every name in the credits. Gamers shouldn't be allowed to vote.

The game is as sincere as it is poorly made which I always find to be an electric combination. It reminded me of the PS1 rugrats games by way of a bootleg Dreamworks movie. This video has some footage (although much of it doesn't actually appear in the finished game) with commentary from the developer

I think my favourite moment was when the trophy "Nazis In Paris" popped.

Interaction Isn't Explicit

Another approx. hour long free experience, this is an interactive essay on video game design. It's clear that the developer is very talented, but I disagreed with a lot of the points he made, like God of War is a bad game because you can't climb wherever you want. It all leads up to him just declaring that Shadow Of The Colossus is the greatest game ever, which is fine whatever. Definitely worth checking out as a double bill with The Light In The Darkness.

[Barry Admin]

Damn it it's a compilation. Will re-merge.

[elliszeroed]

Dune: Spice Wars has just released a new faction, House Ix, looking forward to that. The games basically similar to a 4X Command and Conquer, fight, expand, take resources, climbing the olde tech tree, fight more. Fairly pleasant, with enough variation between factions and no stressful bugs.

[bgmnts]

Got Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong last year;  I played it for ten minutes and found it so ugly and off-putting I binned it.

Gave it another go for a couple of hours and besides a decent premise and half intriguing lore (which I assume is just the tabletop lore?) it is gash.

Why they'd give what I believe is a much loved cult franchise to the cunts who made The Council is anyone's guess.

[Ferris]

Ha! Exactly my experience also. A character in The Council turned up for the first mission in a ludicrously low cut top and I immediately binned the game off. I'm too old to play teenage gamer wanker fantasy shite.

I played Vampire (got it free) and binned it after about 15 minutes because it had no redeeming features at all. Complete gubbins.

[madhair60]

hello women reading this

A character in The Council turned up for the first mission in a ludicrously low cut top and I immediately binned the game off. I'm too old to play teenage gamer wanker fantasy shite.

[Ferris]

Not entirely sure what that means, but it's true. I remember pulling up at a dock and more or less the first character you meet is a ludicrous caricature and I thought "ah, it's one of those games" and into the bin it went.

I went to see if it's as egregious as I remember, 10m25s see for yourself:

If that's the first bit of gameplay then yeah nah not for me.

[Mister Six]

Good grief, it's just a (possibly historically accurate, I've no idea when the game is set) pretty evening dress with a bit of a corset built in. And it looks like they're going to some sort of fancy ball or party, so it even makes sense in context.

[bgmnts]

It sort of is over sexualising a female character to cater to the male gaze of predominantly male gamers.

However, it probably is somewhat historically accurate (it's 1793) and sexualising women is probably a good thing now I dunno I can't keep up. The front seems indicative of late eighteenth century aristocrat fashion, but I doubt the back would have gone all the way down to her arse.

To sum up: it's fine (?).

One of the lead characters from Swansong wears an open chest outfit, so they like the aesthetic, although it's more modern.

[Mister Six]

Ah, maybe it's a bit much for 1793, and I didn't notice the swooping back, but honestly it seems pretty tame. I was expecting something pervy rather than merely risque.

Although giving her a realistically beautiful face while the protagonist is a sort of caricature rat-faced bloke is a bit weird.

[bgmnts]

Yeah the game is rather ugly and lacks polish, much like Swansong.

[Kelvin]

I know I've posted in it myself, but I hate this thread. So many games we could have threads about. Instead scribbled on this toilet wall.

[Mister Six]

So make the threads, then.

[Barry Admin]

I know I've posted in it myself, but I hate this thread. So many games we could have threads about. Instead scribbled on this toilet wall.

I just farm topics off this thread.  Probably a bit irritating for the people who think their posts aren't "worth a thread", but at least that way they get visibility and other people have a chance to contribute.

[madhair60]

sometimes a motherfucker just doesn't want to make a thread

[Barry Admin]

It doesn't (have to ) take much effort or time https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?msg=5543808

Anyway, way it goes, so I'll leave it there.

[madhair60]

oh, i agree. i'll start threads drop of a dime. boom. thread after thread, i don't give a fuck. some people call me The Threadmaster.

[Mister Six]

I just farm topics off this thread.  Probably a bit irritating for the people who think their posts aren't "worth a thread", but at least that way they get visibility and other people have a chance to contribute.

Yeah, and it's easy enough to quote someone from here, paste that into the first post of a new thread and see if it's got legs enough for a spin-off.

[oggyraiding]

Penny's Big Breakaway feels like an N64 game in a good way. I was pretty much certain it was meant to be a spiritual successor to a specific N64 game but that isn't the case. Also the soundtrack sounds a bit Dreamcasty, not sure why, just has that Dreamcast nostalgia vibe.

One of the directors is Christian Whitehead who created Sonic Mania. There's a big focus on maintaining momentum, with a combo meter for successful chaining of moves. You can swing your yo-yo in any direction to attack, swing, ride on like a segway, air dash, and interact with the world.

I'm not very far, but it's lovely stuff. I was moderately interested in it when it came out (having never heard of it before), but it got fairly lukewarm reviews. Then I saw the Dunkey video and the Eurogamer review and they sung its praises.