What are you playing now?

I don't think I've told anyone, but I played through DUSK the other day. It's one of the best shooter ever and I can't recommend it enough.

That got me in the mood for more shooters and I ended up getting Bulletstorm, Quake and Titanfall 2.

I had played Bulletstorm back when it was released, but never finished it. My only memories of it were that you could get satisfying kills using environmental hazards and that weapons were fun to use. I have to say, I was disappointed with it. I understand that it was a commercial failure at the time(I can see why), but gained appreciation and a cult following. Sure, the weapons have a neat kick and you can get creative with killing your enemies, but that's just about it. By the time I was halfway through I just wanted to get it over with. One of the things that really bothered me was just how on-a-rail the entire experience is. I don't mean to say that it's linearity bothered me. I have no issue with linear experiences, but Bulletstorm limits the player's movement so much that it's ridiculous. There is no jump feature in the game. If you reach a certain point where you have to get over an obstacle, and there are plenty of such occasions, you press a button and your character pauses a bit to vault over. It wouldn't be that much of a hassle, but the sheer number of times this happens just makes it annoying. Then there are the numerous weird collision issues. I would more often that not get stuck near edges, where props usually overlapped. And to top this off, there are so many god damn invisible walls, you can't even fall to your death. There are plenty of instances where you have to traverse steep edges, but the sense of danger is completely removed because it's impossible for you to fall and die. It's a shame because the game's art direction is spectacular and the combat is satisfying, but the way the movement is hindered just ruins it for me. I could live with the collision issues and invisible walls, but the lack of the jump ability takes out too much combat strategy. And that is also reflected in the level design. I think Bulletstorm features some of the most unimaginative level design I've ever seen. Ok, think I've bashed it enough.

Quake is.. a hassle to get working properly, but it's solid. It definitely shows it's age, but it's cool to see the origins of shooters.

Edit* I finished Titanfall 2 last night. It took me around 4 hours. While short, it's a damn well crafted. The movement is super slick. Maaan, such a contrast to Bulletstorm

Wow @Radu such a compatible list to mine!

I can’t remember (?) if I completed Bulletstorm or not, I left it the first time at the snipe session, can remember picking it up again but not sure if pushed through the whole way. Had it on Xbox and don’t remember getting stuck… but I get what you mean for “on rails” and wonder if they should remaster it for VR, if that could work somehow.

Have you not ever played Quake?! Also are you playing the enhanced versions made by modders? The engine has been improved over time and I installed it several months ago as well with the idea of going back to basics for my mapping, to try and get my hand at mapping again. Think I downloaded some packages but never installed.

Titanfall 2 I was thinking about right as Xmas holiday started, feeling I’d like to play it next maybe. Haven’t purchased tho since have so many games to play…

I started to play Far Cry 5 every now and then, but so far it feels pretty much like a chore. The problem with it is that I just don't care about the characters. The writing is simply boring and predictable. It's not a bad game, but there's too many side quests and activities littered all over the world and most of them are somewhat connected to the story to which I am not invested in. There's also something going on with the perk progression and weapon/ammo costs. I can't remember if this was the case in previous entries, but I'm out of ammo and money most of the time. I'd like to try more weapons, but they're pretty expensive in the store. I've tried doing more side quests to stay on the plus side of money, but it's a bit weird. If nothing else, it's more of a personal study of how the world is built and structured.

Edit* Finally finished this also, after 24 hours. I've yet to play through the DLCS. The ending was pretty neat, but the overall experience wasn't to my liking.

I've also been playing through Max Payne 3 and... I get the sense that rockstar wanted to make a film, but were forced to make a game. The quality and writing is pretty much on par with the originals, but the level design has taken a massive step back. If you want to see how a proper on-a-rails game looks, play Max Payne 3. You walk trough a corridor, bam - cutscene, shoot some bad guys, bam - cutscenes, walk through another corridor, bam - cutscene.

Edit* Finished it. I can't say I would recommend it, but it had some moments that saved it.

Yesterday I watched a walkthrough of this game, 11-11 Memories Retold, about WW1. It revolves around three main characters, similar to The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. The art direction is a bit unusual, aiming to look more like a painting, but everything else is top notch. I would actually buy this to play through it myself. It really is well written and put together.

@Radu I've played the shit out of FC3 and FC4 and no, there was no problem in acquiring weapons. I dunno, have they changed the looting system? I would mainly make money by looting bodies and crates littered around, you fill the inventory, get to the shop, sell the stuff and restock. It seems they wanted to make it a bit more challenging and rely more on stealth? Because I never had a problem with money, rather had too much loot.

Max Payne 3 I was recently itching again to replay it… it's a memorable experience in terms of narrative, I feel like playing it the way I feel like rewatching John Wick. What always stops me is the incredible amount of unskippable cutscenes (which disguise the loadings). It's just so slow in that sense, they unfortunately made it a very un-replayable game, despite including those game modes that make you want to replay.

~

I'm still grinding through Just Cause 3. I only have the last story mission to complete, I'm going through all the competitions. Mission-wise though, I like there's more "meat" than JC2, but feels too many missions are just an indoor shooting grind, for a game that doesn't excel in weapon handling. The best bits of JC2 where the mad chases, assaulting a motorcade and then sending enemies flipping by blowing tires or anchoring them with the grappling hook. in JC3 happens only a couple times. It's also crazy they reduced the player movement on cars: you can only "surf" them, whilst before you could hang from the back for example, that way having rocket-mines would have had more sense.

Coming in way after release, I like how they weaved the DLCs in the main story (although it's so weird they went for a comic-book style cutscenes for these, plus the first DLC has really ugly illustrations compared to the rest), I just think they push you to get the jetpack-wingsuit way too soon, I basically didn't learn the skill of grappling-wingsuit flight. On one side I appreciate you can finish the game without doing side activities, I only did stunt-jumps and driving races frequently, leaving most of the rest to the end. They did a terrible job with the grappling hook challenges, I dunno if there's a bug on PC but I was never prompted or noticed what button to press to activate the "magnet" so couldn't work it out. On the other end I can only compare to, say, Far Cry, and say that game had side-activities that I enjoyed doing and not felt to do just to fill the progress bar. The thing I understand the least is the completely utter shit driving physics/mechanics. Clearly Avalanche can make driveable vehicles, I played Mad Max and loved it, but in Just Cause 2-3 the vehicles are purposely bad except a couple. Motorbikes are plainly undriveable, instead of drifting over corners, the bike flips. I dunno if the problem of bad cars is accentuated in the PC version or specifically on my machine, as I can see the framerate is unstable. Everything else moves fine though. I do really like the location, Mediterranean islands portrayed very well and I talk from direct experience, but feels absurd that in Just Cause 2 there was a wide variety of environments (desert to jungle to snow) and here is one sunny location.

After reading the very bad reviews Just Cause 4 is getting, I have the feeling Just Cause 2 is still the best in the series.

Playing Dead Cells currently. I like the gameplay (sometimes) and the visuals are mostly OK and not bad.

Not a big fan of the gameplay gimmick or the repetition. However, I just keep coming back to it during downtime. It’s very addicting...

Think I’m ready to move onto RE2

Funnily enough I'm also playing Dead Cells and RE2. You have good taste ?

I just beat Dead Cells. The New game + is pretty hard. I'm kind of winding down on the game though. I played it at least 40 hours though so it's worth it.

RE2 is stressful! All this high quality graphics and binaural audio really does a number on the ole ticker.

I've finished dead cells 2 times on pc after a lot of rage and tears. But then I moved in Canada and I still dont have a computer yet.

I missed this game so much I bought it again on switch lmao. Also beat the game 2 times with less effort this time but the 2 boss cells difficulty is atrocious now xD. I only managed to get to the time gardian boss once.

Hadn't heard about Dead Cells before will need to check it out! Seems right up my alley!

Never played Crash bandicoot so I thought I would try it on the switch. Trash.

Quote from FMPONE

51 minutes ago, FMPONE said: Never played Crash bandicoot so I thought I would try it on the switch. Trash.

How dare you. -_-

Quote from FMPONE

19 hours ago, FMPONE said: Never played Crash bandicoot so I thought I would try it on the switch. Trash.

Right? Loved that game as a kid. Kinda sucks now IMO. Didn't find it enjoyable at all.

Quote from PogoP

2 hours ago, PogoP said: Right? Loved that game as a kid. Kinda sucks now IMO. Didn't find it enjoyable at all.

preach brother, i'm glad you're down for this. it's gotta be said

just to explain WHY I think it sucks:

when the game alternates between 2d/3d, you're stuck with the ability to approach the foreground. imagine playing mario and having the option of missing perfectly good jumps on the horizontal axis, because you pulled mario toward the screen. that's idiotic design. what's worse, you're stuck with an outdated 3 life system so you're not only fucking up good jumps you're having to do the exact same thing all over again when you inevitably "game over" due to the game's stupid design. then there's the ridiculously unenjoyable pixel-collisions where you feel like you're barely touching things and having catastrophic failure. there are a million non-communicated intricacies related to basic things like controls, which should be a non-starter for a platforming game with relatively simple concepts. I could go on and on about how and why this game sucks, but it really does need to be said that it sucks.

Played the remaster on the switch as well. A nice little nostalgia trip, but the games didn't age that well. Especially the first game

Felt the same sentiment when I was playing New N Tasty recently.

Although I think I am finding that is less because the game has not aged well, and more because the remaster feels like it's several gameplay preservation passes short of release ready. - Number of times I am dying to landmines that the environment art and lighting keeps concealing with foliage, darkness and bloom.

Half Life 1. And on hard. Its hard. Also sorry for offending die hard hl fans, at least I'm playing it on a old laptop, the way it was meant to be played!

Played path of exile till lvl 70 and then quit. The thing is, poe offers a very large skill tree with hundreds of different paths to go and a lot of crafting. But the game lacks accessibility. They really think that all players are going to spend hours learning all the mechanics and the specific details of each league. Even after years of improving their engine they still suffer from performance issues and crashes. And the game is just too much RNG, everything is random.

Also playing MK11, waiting for ranked to start!

Also I started playing Clash Royale again. I hate that I'm playing this. I would pay 20-30$ for this game without all the bullshit.

Playing Cadence of Hyrule. Not sure how I feel about the rhythm gimmick thus far... but the music is great. It seems like a cool Zelda game with an awkward mechanic piled on top, but I think I’m gonna enjoy it a fair bit none the less.

This seems like another game where a great soundtrack really does a lot of the heavy lifting for keeping players engaged.

Contrary to what I said in the indie topic, I have been playing

South Park The Stick of Truth with my partner… We are loving it. I wasn’t expecting such a rich, deep game. Of course reference to the show were expected, but when you get the occasional line, which is actually a deep cut from the show… I can’t stop laughing.

also playing Ryse Son of Rome (PC) and Gears of War (1) (X360)

Stopped playing clash royale a long time ago but now I'm playing some Capcom mobile card game called Teppen

FWIW this game right now gives about 90% of the cards up front and by the time you learn them you've unlocked enough to build any card for free. I guess they are trying to build a player base now before they start charging through the nose.

Sigh... I really like mobile card games. I just wish there was one I could pay 50$ for every card every year or so.