RMWeb Gamer's Lounge.

[beast66606]

34 minutes ago, Classsix T said:

... and a proper emulation of Asteroids is still the bomb on any system, fact. Stadia might have done better at launch if they'd realised that... 

 

C6T. 

 

Yes, I have Asteroids using MAME, Space Phoenix and Chaser are two of my favourite "pub" console games. I also occasionally play Skool Daze and Back to Skool using a spectrum emulator.

[Classsix T]

Actually wrt above, if you think about it, and I don't expect you to, why should you, you've got a life to lead, what are you doing reading this? 

 

If Stadia wanted an easy pull, amongst the launch titles they perhaps should've considered the classic Atari and Sega games those of us of a certain age take for granted. They're available on multiple platforms and it's proven we apparently have the means to buy into and thus influence our sprogs.

 

Huh, Sonic on Stadia, why wouldn't you?

 

C6T. 

[MJI]

My first favourite game was https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omega_Race

 

on VIC20

[Classsix T]

If I thought the Second Sister was a challenge in Jedi FO, she's a lightweight (literally) in comparison to the Ninth Sister!

 

A big ol' lass, every time I'm defeated the game informs me of the option to alter the difficulty level in the options. I'm surprised it hasn't added "FFS" and multiple exclamation marks by now...

 

Online advice is to basically hit her more often than she hits you...invaluable, thanks.

 

C6T. 

[scottystitch]

Then why aren’t you following those online instructions??!!??!!

 

[Classsix T]

Cos she won't comply! 

 

C6T. 

[Reorte]

More RDR2 observations - impressed with the little details - I just saw an eagle pick a fish out of the river and fly off with it. Unfortunately straight into the side of the cliff.

 

[Steadfast]

I'm replaying LA Noire in fits and starts at the moment in the company of my other half. We tend to do a case or two, until we get tired and start missing key clues! 

She's much better at the judging people's reactions than I am, leaving me to (as she put it) the blokey bit of doing the driving. Nowt like reverting to stereotypes

It's a good game, with interesting game play and story, though it is showing its age and some of the motion capture makes it tough to judge people's facial expression, to decide if they're lying or being honest. Also the cars handle like the wheels are made of jelly! I'd like to see a sequel, based on the RDR 2 engine.

Anyone else play this one back in the day?

 

Jo

Edited December 9, 2019 by Steadfast

[Classsix T]

Honk!

 

https://www.kotaku.co.uk/2019/12/10/untitled-goose-game-is-heading-to-ps4-next-week

 

...and you thought Micah was a nasty piece of work...

 

C6T.

[Classsix T]

On 09/12/2019 at 22:48, Steadfast said:

I'm replaying LA Noire in fits and starts at the moment in the company of my other half. We tend to do a case or two, until we get tired and start missing key clues! 

She's much better at the judging people's reactions than I am, leaving me to (as she put it) the blokey bit of doing the driving. Nowt like reverting to stereotypes

It's a good game, with interesting game play and story, though it is showing its age and some of the motion capture makes it tough to judge people's facial expression, to decide if they're lying or being honest. Also the cars handle like the wheels are made of jelly! I'd like to see a sequel, based on the RDR 2 engine.

Anyone else play this one back in the day?

 

Jo

Enjoying films such as Chinatown and LA Confidential, it's been on my radar Jo, but not enough to actually invest. The reviews concur with your take that it is showing its age in terms of graphics.

If Rockstar did a remake or I see it for silly money I'd certainly take a punt.

 

C6T. 

[Steadfast]

I had it on 360 and found it when we moved house. Of course because they rehashed it for Xbone it was never made backwards compatible. So I bought the Xbox one edition for about 20 quid a few months back

 

Jo

[Classsix T]

So another attempt at defeating the Ninth Sister last night, fail! 

Getting there though, I'm learning how to deal with each attack. This has made getting her down to two thirds health the "easy" bit. 

 

The duel can be broken down into three parts and she will change her attack methods in each. Tricky bit is especially in the last part (when I've already had my own health depleted) she'll use red unblockable attacks often, as a consequence it's wise to keep some distance but that means not being close enough to launch a counter attack when the opportunity arises!

 

C6T. 

[Guest]

Some hours in to Death Stranding. Still not sure if I like it but staggering round what looks like Iceland with a load of boxes in the rain is strangely compelling.

[Classsix T]

4 hours ago, 30801 said:

Some hours in to Death Stranding. Still not sure if I like it but staggering round what looks like Iceland with a load of boxes in the rain is strangely compelling.

It's Kojima quirkyness obviously pinged my radar, and were I not conkers deep with enough games to be going on with I'd undoubtedly be playing this too.

Can you gen us up on something though? I read the Kotaku review and am slightly confused about the element of the game that allows your Sam easier progress by using bridges/roads etc placed by other players. I believe it stated that unless kept in good repair, such infrastructure will deteriorate over time. Now, when and if I get the game, am I likely to find the landscape littered with the decaying remains of other's portering, is that online only and does the game play effectively offline?

 

Too many questions, natch, I should just play the thing but I enjoyed your opinions on Days Gone so would appreciate your feedback on this. But as you state, early doors as yet. Keep us posted though wontcha? 

 

I've never played a game purely because Hideo Kojima's name is on the box but am aware of the influence he's brought to the industry if only through Metal Gear Solid. He was Producer on Zone Of The Enders apparently, a game which ticks boxes for me as a Japanophile with its manga style, mecha and characters in cut-scenes going "Huh?!"*.

 

(*in-joke for anyone with knowledge of anime!) C6T. 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Classsix T said:

It's Kojima quirkyness obviously pinged my radar, and were I not conkers deep with enough games to be going on with I'd undoubtedly be playing this too.

Can you gen us up on something though? I read the Kotaku review and am slightly confused about the element of the game that allows your Sam easier progress by using bridges/roads etc placed by other players. I believe it stated that unless kept in good repair, such infrastructure will deteriorate over time. Now, when and if I get the game, am I likely to find the landscape littered with the decaying remains of other's portering, is that online only and does the game play effectively offline?

 

Shared structures work quite well so far. They use the 'chiral network' and your job is in part to reconnect the network so you always enter a new area with no network and thus no structures. So you always get a virgin experience. Once connected the area lets you access other player's structures and you will be glad of them. The game is single player but is also multiplayer in the sense that you can see things other players have dropped and they can see things you drop. So if you place a ladder across a river and leave it someone else can make use of it. There's a 'like' function so you can bask in others' gratitude. Larger structures like bridges take more building. You can start one off and others can add materials to help finish it.

Again so far these things are welcome help rather than clutter.

 

Most of the gameplay is box carrying and delivering. There's much more of a physics mechanic than other games where you pile on multiple spare suits of armour until you hit a certain limit and can no longer run. Here there's an upper limit you can carry but that really is making life difficult for Sam. At the limit he'll struggle to stand up and will wobble and need constant correction to stay upright. Crossing a river with a six foot high backpack is as awkward as you'd imagine. Hence bridges & ladders are welcome.

Even moving normally you take not of the terrain instead of straight-lining everywhere you move around rocks, but if you swerve too much you can fall over and damage the crago. You constantly have to balance the amount of cargo and equipment against your ability to move with it. It sounds tedious and in a way it is but Sam is also pleasingly weighty in his movements once you get the hang of it.

 

Combat is limited. Killing people is bad because a rotting corpse explodes and leaves a large crater. The intro scripts one in for you and I have just run away so far in the game. The other thing are the BTs which are invisible dead people which you can see because you carry a baby around with you in a jar. Avoid them. Things get very weird if they touch you. You can fight them by throwing grenades at them. Grenades are made from your bodily fluids. Sweat, wee and poop grenades will cause a BT to move. Blood grenades will destroy them. Because why not.

Even with your baby in a jar BTs are hard to see so these sections are tense. On the plus side you can play the game in short sessions just doing one delivery.

 

I don't know if I'll finish it because there's apparently sixty hours in it but I keep coming back to it so far.

[Classsix T]

Would you go as far to say, it's as far as removed from "normal" gameplay (whatever that means) as to be devisive? By that I mean a Marmite game, you'll either "get" it or not? Incomparable perhaps. 

 

More or less every contributor to the Lounge has had an opinion on the Quantic Dream trilogy, personally I've rated them all for different reasons. Is Death Stranding gonna be one of those?

 

C6T. 

[Guest]

The actual gameplay isn't that unusual apart from the balance mechanic. The premise is plain weird and the focus on walking around probably does limit its appeal though.

 

As for Quantic Dreams I hate Heavy Rain with a passion. Beyond Two Souls is flawed. A lot. But I like it. Detroit I love.

[Classsix T]

Hey, PS Store have a sale on! 

 

Naff off, what's new? 

 

They ain't mucking about son. Check it out:

 

 

...admittedly they're titles I've had interest in (and have been arsed to screencap and crop) but they are silly money. Not been through the entire list yet either.

I do wonder if Gamepass on the Xbox has made Sony rethink how it retails its library of games. 

 

C6T. 

[Classsix T]

After scores of attempts I finally managed to defeat the Ninth Sister Sunday evening! Barely any health left either so it was literally her or Cal at the end, one hit, death. 

 

Some of the reviews and comments have been critical of the camera and combat in Fallen Order and I certainly agree with the former point but perhaps don't play enough melee battle games to say if the player/sprite interface is flawed. Not enough to spoil my (gritted teeth) enjoyment anyway. I have had to tweak the targeting at times and multiple baddies on-screen can be worse than the big boss fights. 

One of these days I'll play Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice which has received plaudits for the genre. 

 

So on we go, massive bat/owl boss Gorgara is Cal's next challenge. I tell you, give me an X-wing in a swamp any day!

 

C6T. 

[Guest]

I still haven't decided if I like Death Stranding yet but I played it most of today so I didn't get all the stuff done I was supposed to...

[Classsix T]

30801 raises a pertinent point friends. When do we decide we actually "like" a game!?

 

Not so much in the sequels of loved franchises or next titles "from the makers of" but more perhaps games you've taken a punt on without knowing more than the genre and maybe some scant glances at reviews and screenshots. 

 

I think my favourite personal experience was with Horizon Zero Dawn. It came from an unknown to me developer promising stuff unfamiliar but I literally knew after the tutorial chapters I'd love the game. Uncharted 4 did the same.

Neither of those are essentially breaking new ground though in terms of being third person combat 3D platformers.

Early doors into Thief and Deus Ex Human Revolution (a total punt on a three game compo disc) I was impressed. I think by the writing more than anything, then the gameplay interaction and physics just layered the quality of the product over and over. Mass Effect and Last of Us much the same. 

With the Marmite Quantic Dream trilogy my order of preference goes BTS, DBH and then HR.

 

I never "got" Dead Space or Anthem I think because, beyond them being nice to look at, the entire premise of the game makes little or no sense to me. Poor writing imo. 

 

Maybe therefore, I'm easy to sell to. Bolt a cracking story on to a solid gameplay experience...ahh, yeah. 

 

Culturally of course Japanese tropes don't always translate effectively to the West. The themes raised in classic anime such as Akira or Evangelion will be confusing to many in Europe and the US. Similarly for games originating in studios in Japan. Thus Silent Hill 2's ending was open to much interpretation! 

 

What a waffle! C6T. 

[Classsix T]

I hummed and haahed about rewatching The Last Jedi before heading to my local flix to see Rise Of Skywalker, I didn't do that but did defeat the bat/owl boss Gorgara, rather more swiftly than I'd expected actually...

 

 

The story arc to Jedi: Fallen Order is really starting to show some heft to it now with some quality writing, voice acting and motion capture. I'm still getting Cal killed with silly mistimed jumps and unwise combat choices though which spoils the flow of the story totally. Whether through flawed level design or my own incompetent button mashing, it never let's me forget I'm playing a video game. Perhaps the exact opposite is how some feel the Quantic Dream "games" feel like a string of sometimes interactive cut-scenes.

 

C6T. 

[SouthernRegionSteam]

Well, 'tis the season of many Steam sales, and for once in a blue moon, there appears to be a few games that I actually have my eye on!
Trailmakers (a sandbox build-whatever-vehicle-or-pointless-machine you can think of game) at 50% off (so just shy of £10), Train Simulator 2020 at 40% off (so £15), and a DLC for Euro Truck Sim 2 at 70% off (A few pennies over £4).

I usually absolutely hate the idea and price of most DLC (as it happens, the only DLC I've bought was also for ETS2, and cost under £2), but driving around Scandinavia in a huge lorry sounds like a fun DLC to me.
And speaking of expensive DLC, boy oh boy was I shocked at the DLC for Train Sim 2020. Good grief... over 500 of them (553 to be precise),with a lot between the £12-£25 range each at normal prices! At current discount prices, that's already almost £3k in DLC - absolutely NUTS! All that, and I couldn't even see many that interested me. I would've quite liked the idea of driving a train in Norway, for example.

Anyway... it's been many years since I've had any sort of train simulator, and having watched a lot of cab ride videos on Youtube lately, Train Sim 2020 is really appealing to me.
In any case, I have until the 2nd Jan until the sale ends, so plenty of time to umm and arr!

Oh, and also realised Far Cry 3 was in my Steam library; quite how it got there I've no idea, but I've been playing it this week, and I must say I'm surpised how much... nicer it felt to play that Far Cry 5. I mean, there's still the unskippable walking sections, and a few crashes, but other than that, I've really enjoyed it thus far!

 

Edited December 20, 2019 by SouthernRegionSteam

[big jim]

The only train sim thing on sale in the Microsoft store is the west Somerset railway DLC for £9.99

 

at that price worth having a go at I recon (with an extra 7% cash back via TopCashback too) 

[Kelly]

11 hours ago, SouthernRegionSteam said:

I usually absolutely hate the idea and price of most DLC (as it happens, the only DLC I've bought was also for ETS2, and cost under £2), but driving around Scandinavia in a huge lorry sounds like a fun DLC to me.
And speaking of expensive DLC, boy oh boy was I shocked at the DLC for Train Sim 2020. Good grief... over 500 of them (553 to be precise),with a lot between the £12-£25 range each at normal prices! At current discount prices, that's already almost £3k in DLC - absolutely NUTS! All that, and I couldn't even see many that interested me. I would've quite liked the idea of driving a train in Norway, for example.


 

 

Yes, I've noticed TS2020 is rather expensive when you add the DLC to it. But with so many to choose from you don't need to get all of them at once, I doubt most people would be able to complete them all with so many!

 

Speaking of sales of Games, GOG.com and fanatical.com have some good sale deals on at present, often cheaper than steam itself.