What are you playing this weekend? 2024-04-28

Phelpssan, 21 days ago

Playing LUNARiA -Virtualized Moonchild-!

Slow progress, currenty going through chapter 5. As I predicted last week there’s some trouble brewing with the cute AI girl, though they started earlier than I expected. Let’s see how things develop from here on.

Playing Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown!

This is definitely a Ubisoft game, ran into a bug that forced me to close+reopen the game only a few hours in - I accidentally “skipped” a boss because it glitched and threw me past a closed door into the next area 😅, but luckily it didn’t autosave so I just had to replay a that particular section. I also ran into a few more smaller gliches, nothing gamebreaking but definitely annoying when I’m coming from bug-free experiences in similar games from small developers.

As for the game, it’s pretty good! Nice exploration, plataforming is fantastic, and I’m enjoying the puzzles. Not a big fan of the combat system, but it’s more a matter of preferences than a problem with the game, it has a lot of focus on the parrying mechanic which is not something I enjoy.

Could definitely use more fast travel and save spots, though at least you don’t lose anything when you die, you go back to the last checkpoint keeping everything including the map and collectibles you may have picked up. One really neat QOL feature is the ability to take screenshots and attach them to the map, makes it easier for you to remember “why didn’t I go this path” or “which powerup did I need to go that direction”.

slimerancher, 21 days ago

One really neat QOL feature is the ability to take screenshots and attach them to the map, makes it easier for you to remember “why didn’t I go this path” or “which powerup did I need to go that direction”.

That’s a nice. I often wish for something like this in metroidvania. Also, like when death isn’t a big penalty. I am having that issue with Ori and the Blind Forest right now. Out of energy to save, so have to do a particular bit of platforming and pick stuff up again when I die, but it’s almost a decade old game, so this can be forgiven.

Phelpssan, 20 days ago (edited 20 days ago)

I like that Ori tried to experiment with the save/load system, but I feel that the whole “save anywhere as long as you have energy” thing ended up being worse than traditional checkpoints in that game.

slimerancher, 19 days ago

I am all for devs trying out new thing. And when you try out new things, sometimes they don’t do as well as the tried and tested option, but that’s the cost of innovation.

Personally I didn’t have much issue with it, except for that small patch in Forlon Ruins. Though hope they improved these things in the sequel.

Phelpssan, 19 days ago

Will of the Wisps just uses checkpoints.

The second game drops a lot of the experimental things from the first game in favor of things you usually expect in this genre. Loses some originality but it’s a more solid game IMO.

slimerancher, 18 days ago

Yeah, I recall you mentioned that before. Not going to play it right after Blind Forest though. Have a long list of other games to go through first.

picandocodigo, 21 days ago

I’m on holiday, so I’ve been playing lots of beat ‘em ups on co-op 😁: Fight N’ Rage, Streets Of Rage 4 and TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge. Nothing new…

slimerancher, 21 days ago

Fun!

Enjoy the holidays!

PenguinTD, 21 days ago

Stellar Blade: It’s actually quite nice action play wise after I played the demo. And you get some eye candy + Nier style story plot I assume.

Starship Troopers: Extermination: The new 0.7 update gives something interesting to play with multiple classes, and ways to bring weapon to different class. I am having fun with it even though the overall jank/bug/balance and issues. Grinding class unlock only take about maybe 7-10 matches depending on your class of choice and game mode. And support class are actually quite important, missions success or fail pretty much relies on the classes to do their job. I wish they have more maps and game mode + more bug types to come before I got bore with it again.

slimerancher, 19 days ago

What did you think about the “censorship” patch? I haven’t looked it in detail, but apparently people were pretty upset about it.

Didn’t know there was a Starship Trooper game in development / early access. It looks like first person Helldivers, which makes sense, as Helldivers seems heavily inspired by Stareship Troopers.

Have you played Helldivers 2?

PenguinTD, 18 days ago

I don’t mind about some minor cloth added, but it does kinda meh because perspectives. ( say for the bunny suit, if I can only pick one change to revert back I’d pick to remove extra cloth that covers more butt, not the cleavage part. Also once they release the PC version people are gonna mod it anyway unless they remain sony exclusive for extended period of time. )

Yes, I’ve played HD2 but are kinda drifting away from it as I don’t see something more exciting or new. ST:E does require more team work and I like the new class variety as well. But it’s still very rough in current state, and not as “fun” for people that prefer casual hoard shooter. (cause you have to do all those “other” things on top of shooting the bugs. ) I do thing it’s heading into a good direction though, hope the devs keep pushing some boundaries.

Harold_Penisman, 21 days ago

On my PC I’ve been playing Stalker: Call of Pripyat with the amazing Gunslinger mod. I just played through the first two Stalker games and really enjoyed them, and this third one is a huge step up in most ways. Looking forward to the next release this Fall.

On my Steamdeck I’ve been playing Deep Rock Galactic Survivor. I’m a long-time DRG fan and it’s a simple but fun game to turn my brain off with.

slimerancher, 21 days ago

I haven’t played any Stalker games, but I think there was a PS release recently so will hopefully give them a try.

How do you play DRG? Alone or with friends?

Harold_Penisman, 19 days ago

I’d definitely recommend them. Ive played the majority of DRG solo, but I have also played with friends a lot. I like both, but I find solo to be relaxing because I can go at my own pace and explore everything. I mostly play driller. Have you played it?

slimerancher, 18 days ago

Only 1 or 2 games, solo, when it was given away with PS+. Would see if friends are interested in giving it a try.

sdcSpade, 21 days ago

I’ve finally picked up Sparks of Hope again. I’m near the end of world 5 (and probably the game), but that second half of it has been quite a downer because I suddenly hit the level cap. I’m nowhere near completing the skill trees and the game says “No, you don’t get to be any stronger.” This is no Skyrim, where you use the tree to define your class, these are your base abilites! Why the cap? I didn’t even have the extra tree unlocked for everyone when I got to that point!

In Arkham Knight, I finished off all Robin challenges, so Nightwing is next. Predator maps are always so much harder when your character can’t glide and I think I’m already out of those. Why do we not have some kind of indicator to see where jumping from a high ledge lands you? This has been a problem for me since Arkham City. I just want to be behind an enemy, not on a ledge next to him, or hanging from it or, worst of all, on top of said enemy. I got a bit stumped by a challenge that involved not using your Grapnel. I failed that so many times because it’s just a button I instinctively press.

I also dug out Antichamber again. It’s been long enough since my first playthrough that the puzzles are almost new again to me. It’s strange that I don’t hear this game being brought up as much as games like The Witness when people talk about 1st person puzzle games.

slimerancher, 21 days ago

Hmm… just looked it up, apparently there’s a level 30 cap, but you can get some upgrades from Fortune Teller side quests (from a reddit post). Have you done all of those?

Never heard of Antichamber before, maybe because it’s PC only. Went to steam to wishlist it for future, but it turns out it’s already in my library, and it’s old enough that it’s possible my system can run it. Will give it try.

Rikj000, 21 days ago

Horizon Forbidden West,
currently going through the Burning Shores DLC.

Truly love the game as much as I loved Zero Dawn,
only 2 remarks are:

• Gear upgrades are a chore/grind
  (Temporarily drop to “Story” difficulty to farm the huge amount of parts needed)
• Machine Strike is not fun
  (Buy/use a “Slaughterspine Piece” to cheese it)

Other then those 2 remarks,
I love everything about the game / lore / graphics :)

slimerancher, 21 days ago

A friend of mine just finished the game yesterday, according to him side content wasn’t too fun. What’s your opinion about it?

I loved Zero Dawn, but thought it was too long, so haven’t gotten around to Forbidden West yet.

Rikj000, 21 days ago

I enjoyed the side content,
only some of the collectables e.g. the Vista Points where a bit dull
(however luckily Aloy helps out with them).

HFW is bigger then HZD,
which I don’t mind at all,
actually a bit sad that I’m about to complete it :P

slimerancher, 21 days ago

Heh, good to know.

Kongar, 21 days ago

I picked up palworld again. I like the recent improvements to controlling pals in the base. You can tell them to not do certain tasks and there are other base management qol fixes. I summoned one of those base bosses and it literally destroyed my entire base lol. It’s still a little grindy and boring but they are making positive changes.

Brotato on the steam deck has been occupying my time - I don’t know why I keep picking it back up. But I do.

I’m eyeing red dead redemption 2 - I’ve never played that. I’m also looking at Stellar Blade. I may pick one of those up and give it a go.

slimerancher, 21 days ago

That’s nice to hear about Palworld. I don’t have a gaming PC, so hope it comes to consoles one day.

Brotato is pretty fun. I haven’t touched it in a while, but I still have many characters left to unlock, so would return to it.

Both are interesting picks. I prefer to play older games first, so I would pick RDR2 before Stellar Blade (unless they add Stellar Blade to PS+), but I think Kingdom Come Deliverance will keep me busy for a few months yet.