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Author Topic: What are you playing?  (Read 75665 times)

Solid Blake

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Re: What are you playing? NOW STREAMING 2019!
« Reply #40 on: January 14, 2019, 08:00:49 PM »
Dan Trachtenberg wanted to make an Uncharted movie back in the Totally Rad days, and now he’s being tapped to direct the forthcoming Sony picture. That’s totally.... radical.

Solid Blake

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Re: What are you playing? NOW STREAMING 2019!
« Reply #41 on: January 16, 2019, 04:34:22 PM »
Whoops! I missed a day.  :-[

17: Valkyria Chronicles 4, developed by SEGA, played on the PlayStation 4 Pro for approximately 10 hours. I still haven’t finished this game. Considering that the original 2008 Valkyria Chronicles was one of my all-time favorites, that’s a problem. I should have binged this game until I rolled credits. It still has the same amazing tactical strategy that I love. It still has the great artistic aesthetic that I love (though it does feel too close to a homage than an evolution of the style). I think it’s because the characters and their sophomoric behavior feels way too anime/in contrast to the attempt at a darker/heavier story-telling. I just don’t like this squad as much as I loved Welkin and company. I might get back to this, as the tactical turn-based gameplay is still the heart and soul to the game and I might just tune out the mediocre storytelling/lackluster score and throw on some podcasts.

16: State of Decay 2, developed by Undead Labs, played on the Xbox One X for 28 hours. I love management sims, and this is one of those—with some satisfying 3rd person zombie combat thrown in. The best time I had with this game was going out on scavenging runs and having my group of survivors just making it—day by day. As I played more, the game became less challenging and less fun; however, I still enjoyed min/max’ing my base and getting my crew’s morale meter through the roof. It would have been nice to see a “hardcore” mode, though. Regardless, there was some great emergent storytelling moments and a lovely single player experience. The co-op was a bit busted at launch, and wasn’t really what I wanted from this game. I’m excited to see what Undead Labs does next, especially now that they’re officially owned/backed by Microsoft.

FLYmeatwad

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Re: What are you playing? NOW STREAMING 2019!
« Reply #42 on: January 16, 2019, 07:45:11 PM »
Made it to Chapter 5 for RDR 2, guess things are starting to wind down.

Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: What are you playing? NOW STREAMING 2019!
« Reply #43 on: January 17, 2019, 08:32:17 AM »
VC4 was one I fully planned on getting when it came out but seeing as I still haven't finished the first game I decided to pass on it for now.

State of Decay 2 sounds like it's halfway to being a game I'd love but I watched the gameplay of it and I just felt like something was missing for me.

Solid Blake

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Re: What are you playing? NOW STREAMING 2019!
« Reply #44 on: January 20, 2019, 08:09:15 AM »
15: Firewall: Zero Hour, developed by First Contact Entertainment Inc., played on the PlayStation VR for approximately 15 hours. "Dude, it's Rainbow Six Siege BUT IN VR!" Sold! Though it does lack the skills/abilities of the RB6 operators, the "contractors" have to either hack or defend a computer from an opposing team. The real selling point is the PSVR Aim Controller and how amazing it feels to hold a gun in your hand and having it appear in the game world in a 1-to-1 fashion. Being able to physically lean around corners, or hold out your weapon and blind fire is such a visceral feeling--if this is the future of competitive FPS games, count me in. It still has some proof-of-concept problems, such as the camera not tracking perfectly all the time and the game suffers from sever hosting problems (there's no host migration and I've probably spent more time searching/queuing for games than actually playing it); regardless, playing with a good team and flanking successfully as you aim down sights is a "high" that I don't get much anymore when playing competitive first person shooter games. Oh, and everyone is a PSVR is super friendly... it's weird.

14: Far Cry 5, developed by Ubisoft Montreal and Ubisoft Toronto, played on the PlayStation 4 Pro for approximately 30 hours. Yes, it's another Far Cry game that feels just like 4, which feels just like 3. Yes, the story isn't great and pulls any significant punches that could have made a compelling narrative. That said, I made this game fun (for me) by turning off all the HUD elements, cranking up the difficulty, and making the game an extremely challenging stealth combat experience. I was forced to stealth, otherwise I would get destroyed by reinforcements or aerial attacks. Boomer was my buddy character, but I only had him around so I could pet him. I really had a blast exploring John's region, and felt super immersed in this cult-ridden county. The creepy inspirational evangelical songs really helped with that immersion, and the sound design was definitely a high point for me. Unfortunately, the game starts to feel repetitive after awhile, as Faith and Jacob's region had the same cadence/story delivery and the cracks of the game design became all too apparent. Messing around with my friends in cooperative mode helped overcome those lulls, though I wish the game could have lived up to the enjoyment I got out of John's region. I never finished Far Cry 4, so at least this game carried me all the way through--though I would love to see this franchise go back to the direction Far Cry 2 was taking them to.

13. Hitman 2, developed by IO Interactive, played on the Xbox One X for 13 hours. "It's more Hitman." It is. And, initially, I thought that's all I wanted. Turns out I PLAYED A LOT OF HITMAN, because I burned out on this one pretty fast. I still haven't completed the last map, and I'm not super pressed to do so. That said, these maps are some of the best Hitman maps I've ever played, and I had a blast playing through these situations on the hardest difficulty and the UI/HUD elements all turned off. It's nice just stumbling on inventive Hitman kill scenarios, juxtaposed to checking off a series of checklists and having autopilot turned on. It might be an unfair criticism to this game, but it's basically just the same game as the 2016 game, and this just feels like a "season 2" DLC pack. I put in so many hours into that game, that I felt like the fatigue set in pretty fast. There's really nothing incredibly new to separate this from its predecessor (the mirror visibility thing is cool) and purchasing this game on the Xbox storefront was the weirdest thing (you have to download each map piecemeal, even though they only sell one packaged game and you can't buy them individually). It makes NO SENSE! I feel like I'm being super negative--I'm not. I loved Hitman (2016) and that extends to this title, but it is unfortunately more of the same, even if that same is pretty friggen' great.

Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: What are you playing? NOW STREAMING 2019!
« Reply #45 on: January 20, 2019, 09:39:13 AM »
It did take me a bit to get into Hitman 2 after I bought it, but once I did, boy those maps are great. Yes, it's more of the same, but Hitman 2016 is one of my all-time favorites so getting more of that is a delight to me.

Solid Blake

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Re: What are you playing? NOW STREAMING 2019!
« Reply #46 on: January 21, 2019, 04:26:48 PM »
12. Detroit: Become Human, developed by Quantic Dream, played on the PlayStation 4 Pro for approximately 15 hours. People bashed this game for being "not woke" (i.e. a poorly delivered metaphor for racism/slavery) and it can be guilty of that. However, if you check your pride ("woke" level) at the door, it's still a relatively positive message and one that is delivered through Quantic Dream's fascinating multi-tier storytelling framework. The tech behind this game is staggering, with characters breaking beyond the uncanny valley and delivering some very believable performances (Connor being my favorite of the bunch). The story has some highs (Connor/Kara) and lows (Markus), but I loved the detective scenarios and some of the action sequences felt viscerally suspenseful. It was also nice seeing my three protagonists come together. Look, this might not age well, much akin to Heavy Rain, but I was enthralled and immersed at almost every moment and I also love that “my story” was just that, my story. #StayWoke

Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: What are you playing? NOW STREAMING 2019!
« Reply #47 on: January 22, 2019, 08:29:28 AM »
Put me in the "not woke" camp because so much of this game's messaging is completely muddled and sometimes downright offensive. I'm all for games tackling big topics like racism but the way this game does it is filled with plenty of deaf-tone moments. To me it has nothing to do with pride level but just with how many times the messaging of the game took me out of the experience because it was done so awkwardly and it's clear David Cage doesn't really understand the history or context of American slavery. I'm a fan of Heavy Rain and even Indigo Prophecy to a certain extent, but Cage completely lost me here.

Solid Blake

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Re: What are you playing? NOW STREAMING 2019!
« Reply #48 on: January 22, 2019, 08:38:11 AM »
11. Forza Horizon 4, developed by Playground Games, played on the Xbox One X for 53 hours. First and foremost, big shout out to Game Pass. But seriously, I probably would have passed on this game if it weren't for this blessed online subscription service (not an ad). I played Horizon 3 and wasn't blown away by it (not sure I even finished the first festival series). Thankfully, this game came out when I needed to chill out in life. I was dealing with work/life stress, so to come home and be able to drive a big dumb Ghostbusters themed Ford Country Squire through stone walls at 100+MPH--twas truly a treat. The driving strikes that arcadey-yet-vaguely-sim-like feeling that I enjoy from some racers, and I always have Gran Turismo if I want ridiculously studied/emulated sim driving. The changing seasons, initially, seemed like a gimmick, but I found that they were good excuses to pop back in and take care of a Seasonal Championship Series, or find another hidden barn find. This is also a fun online game, with the "adventure" series (randomized events from all across the map) being the standout. Oh, and did I mention that it's FLIPPIN' GORGEOUS? I'm really excited to see what Playground Games does next (Fable).
« Last Edit: January 22, 2019, 09:34:18 PM by Solid Blake »

Solid Blake

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Re: What are you playing? NOW STREAMING 2019!
« Reply #49 on: January 23, 2019, 08:16:48 AM »
Top 10 BABY!

10. Tetris Effect, developed by Monstars Inc. and Resonair, played on the PlayStation VR for approximately 20 hours. One could argue that Tetris the best game of all time (it's not), but it is perfect in design and easy to learn/difficult to master. There have been dozens of Tetris games, but when I heard that Tetsuya Mizuguchi (Lumines, Rez) was designing a Tetris game and that it would be in VR--I was already sold. Lumines is one of my favorite drop-block puzzle games, so I was excited to see how he would change up the Tetris formula. Weirdly, it's not all that different. It's very Tetris in terms of the puzzle mechanics. However, the style and presentation of this game is really the pivotal turning point in making this a truly unique Tetris experience. VR or not, the visual effects are all gorgeous and stunning, and the sound design of each block playing in syncopation with the score feels very Lumines-esque. This is a great game to come home to, smoke some indica and zone out. It's also a great game to have friends over and watch their stunned faces as interstellar whales dive around them in virtual reality. The "Journey" mode is really cool, but the difficulty spikes at the end can probably rub most casual Tetris players the wrong way. It's my only nitpick in a game that is a love-letter to it's source material and a positive message/vibe in a year where we really need said messages/vibes. Also, this song rules.

https://youtu.be/uGgiC-ELNN4