General Gaming Megathread: What are you playing?

When my PC is here and built I'm thinking of giving X-COM EW a Classic Ironman run. Never done that before. If I fail I'll jump to X-COM 2 since losing in the first game is canon apparently anyway
 
Norzan said:
Started playing Dragon Quest 6 on the SNES with a fan translation and i'm around 10 hours into it. Compared to Dragon Quest 11 it's far more unforgiving. The first major story boss has you going through a big, confusing dungeon with lava that damages you (and you have to walk on it to go through certain stairs), with enemies that can deal high damage, and at the end of the dungeon you have to fight that story boss twice in a row with no healing in between of any kind.

By the way, when you are in last portion of that dungeon, you can't even leave to heal yourself at an inn and save. I got fucked by my only character that can revive party members getting killed by a insta-kill spell. I pretty much just did a death warp by letting myself get killed by monsters, so that you could heal and save.

Defeating that story boss unlocks the job system and that has helped toned down the difficulty. But some story bosses can still be ridiculous in terms of damage output.

Read recently that apparently people complained that Dragon Quest 4 and 5 were too easy, and the creator of the series decided to crank it up in the sixth game by upping the encounter rate and beefing enemies. Which makes the overall lower difficulty in the DS remake of the sixth game kind of ironic.
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Update on this. I think i'm near the end of the game and i have to say, this is my least favorite game in the series so far. That's not to say it's bad, far from it, but i have had much better experiences with the other games in the series that i have played (7, 8, 9 and 11).

The difficulty is one of the criticisms i have with the game and it's the fact that it's all over the place. Early game can be brutal at points, but after you start to get the higher ranks of the vocations, for a while the difficulty just drops. I have spent several hours just cruising through everything, hardly having any trouble with story progression. Thankfully it has picked up now that i'm near the end of the game, but i would have preferred a more even difficulty progression. As i said before, the DS remake toned down the difficulty, which doesn't fix anything.

I still enjoy it a lot, mainly because Dragon Quest's combat is satisfying, but i have played better from this series. After i finish this, i'm gonna try Dragon Quest 5, mainly because it's apparently one of the series creator's favorite game in the series (the other being 3).
 
Been playing Mad Max for a while; reminds me [of the first half] of Brütal Legend—minus the style.

So far it's simplistic, but good. Combat is too easy.

They could have hired Thomas Jane to play Max, using his voice and likeness.
 
Norzan said:
After i finish this, i'm gonna try Dragon Quest 5, mainly because it's apparently one of the series creator's favorite game in the series (the other being 3).
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Decided to check the price of Dragon Quest 5 DS on Ebay and it's ridiculous (i ain't gonna say it here, just search for it and be amazed). I also checked Amazon and while it seems to be cheaper, it's still 50 or so quid for a 10+ years old game.

Nintendo really should port the DS remakes of 4, 5 and 6 to the Switch because the prices have gotten ridiculous in the second hand market. Until then i'm gonna emulate these games.
 
Been playing the Azure Striker Gunvolt games. Finished 1 and got the True ending, but I didn't bother with the special missions, S+ ranks, or the challenges for now and moved on to the second game. It's either easier or the controls are more responsive because I feel I'm performing better.

​
 
Finished Dragon Quest 6. So far my least favorite of the ones i played but it's still a very solid game. Forgot to bitch about how really bad the menu navigation is in the SNES version. And this is not like a thing of the time, Final Fantasy 6 and Chrono Trigger had good menus and they came out around the same time.

Started Dragon Quest 5 on the DS (well, emulator anyway) and i'm enjoying it more than 6 so far. I did managed to find a copy of DQ 5 DS on Amazon but apparently it doesn't send it to my country. But something my brother came up with is to have my sister that lives in Greece buy it because the seller can send it there and then my sister can send it to me. Obviously gonna have to pay for all the postage, but the game and the postage combined is still far cheaper than any of the copies being sold on Ebay.

One thing i have noticed is how much music Dragon Quest 11 reuses from the early games. The overworld theme in Act 3 is the overworld theme of Dragon Quest 3, and i have been hearing some tracks in 5 and 6 that are also present in 11.
 
I'm playing Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin on Xbox One.
Due to my experiences with the Dark Souls Trilogy, I'd say this:
Dark Souls is a flawed masterpiece.
Dark Souls 2 should've been King's Field V, but nonetheless, slightly better and more enjoyable than DS1.
Dark Souls 3 is a rushed disappointment, yet still a great game.
What are your thoughts?
 
Hotline Miami on a CRT looks fantastic although this photo doesn't show it too good. Also Hotline Miami is still amazing.
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The Outsider said:
Dark Souls is a flawed masterpiece.
Dark Souls 2 should've been King's Field V, but nonetheless, slightly better and more enjoyable than DS1.
Dark Souls 3 is a rushed disappointment, yet still a great game.
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Really don't know enough about King's Field (just have seen videos on it) to say if DS2 should have been that or not. I appreciate the ideas that DS2 wanted to do but I don't appreciate the design of the game.

Having the kingdoms rise and fall while the ages wane and wax is a pretty cool concept. The cyclical nature of it was cool. I also enjoyed the thought of the agility stat determined by Attunement and Adaptation but I feel that the lack of knowing what this stat did really hampered the game. It's almost like Dark Souls 2 forgets its a sequel like how everyone in Drangelic has forgotten about Lordran (if that's really where Drangelic is). We can't be expected to know all these things yet we learned so much from DS1 that adding in a new skill that just says, "Yeah, you get better at stuff" will frustrate people.

Also, the amount of enemies they force you to fight at once is awful. The increased amount of bosses was only seemingly a detriment. I don't mind resusing bosses as DS1 and Sekiro do it plenty. But things like fighting Sif but now Sif is a giant rat and there's a bunch of status-afflicting rats in the arena too is just annoying. Hitboxes were either amazing or dogshit depending on how the game was feeling. Agility did not help this perception either. Getting hit in a roll and being punished for it in DS2 while that same timing for a roll in DS1 would have avoided damage.


Dark Souls 3 does more right but I'm not as crazy about it as I am the original. I enjoyed the Lord of Cinders fight and a more ultimate ending to Age of Fire/Age of Darkness stuff. I didn't really like the Firelink Shrine. I didn't enjoy it being called that because it didn't really seem like it was that and it definitely wasn't connected to the world (physically) like it was before. I just generally disliked that you warped immediately after the opening section of Dark Souls 3. It felt awkward and like it disconnected whatever you were doing from the rest of reality.
 
SquidVan said:
Really don't know enough about King's Field (just have seen videos on it) to say if DS2 should have been that or not. I appreciate the ideas that DS2 wanted to do but I don't appreciate the design of the game.

Having the kingdoms rise and fall while the ages wane and wax is a pretty cool concept. The cyclical nature of it was cool. I also enjoyed the thought of the agility stat determined by Attunement and Adaptation but I feel that the lack of knowing what this stat did really hampered the game. It's almost like Dark Souls 2 forgets its a sequel like how everyone in Drangelic has forgotten about Lordran (if that's really where Drangelic is). We can't be expected to know all these things yet we learned so much from DS1 that adding in a new skill that just says, "Yeah, you get better at stuff" will frustrate people.

Also, the amount of enemies they force you to fight at once is awful. The increased amount of bosses was only seemingly a detriment. I don't mind resusing bosses as DS1 and Sekiro do it plenty. But things like fighting Sif but now Sif is a giant rat and there's a bunch of status-afflicting rats in the arena too is just annoying. Hitboxes were either amazing or dogshit depending on how the game was feeling. Agility did not help this perception either. Getting hit in a roll and being punished for it in DS2 while that same timing for a roll in DS1 would have avoided damage.


Dark Souls 3 does more right but I'm not as crazy about it as I am the original. I enjoyed the Lord of Cinders fight and a more ultimate ending to Age of Fire/Age of Darkness stuff. I didn't really like the Firelink Shrine. I didn't enjoy it being called that because it didn't really seem like it was that and it definitely wasn't connected to the world (physically) like it was before. I just generally disliked that you warped immediately after the opening section of Dark Souls 3. It felt awkward and like it disconnected whatever you were doing from the rest of reality.
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Yeah, let's hope that Elden Ring is better than Dark Souls 3.
 
From Soft seems to do well with their initial games. Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Sekiro are all VERY good. Dark Souls 2 is okay and Dark Souls 3 is alright. You get the point.

I think Elden Ring will be good.
 
I think I've got a good one for y'all. This is a truly unique game that I find fascinating to play.

It is an indie game called 35MM:
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It was made in Russia by basically one guy. He of course got some help, assets, and talent from other people, but that is beside the point.

It is a highly atmospheric and quiet post apocalyptic game that masquerades as a walking simulator at the beginning:
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It is a game about atmosphere and story. You and your initially unnamed companion are traveling across rural Russia to a destination for an initially unknown reason. You and your companion rarely speak. You are equipped with a knife and a camera, with the option of taking pictures of whatever you fancy. Later on you get a pistol and what appears to be an ak-47 among other things. Most of the world was wiped out by a virus and only a few humans are left. Leaving quiet, abandoned, unsettling ruins in some settlements you pass through.


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The game is not very long, it takes about 5 hours to beat it if you explore fully and thoroughly.

To progress, you need to solve simple puzzles or find things. If you search scrupulously, you will find key elements to the backstory.

This is definitely not a game for everyone, some people might enjoy the unsettling feeling of being watched. There is also a theme of despair and death throughout the story.

The ultimate moral of the story according to me is that the past must be embraced to have a fulfilling life, no matter how repulsive and scary it may be. Photographs help with this process, hence the name: 35MM.

Here I have uploaded 2 videos to give you an idea of how the game is to play. They are only a few minutes each. The underground railway part gives Metro a run for it's money in terms of ambience and sound design.



 
35MM is indeed a good game! It is a shame that near the end you seem to get a lot of loot and then it kinda.. Ends. Feels like the creator wanted to make it bigger than it is but i did enjoy it.

I even added some stuff to one of the guides out there as the creator of it had missed some stuff found :)

Edit: And ofc i did 100% of the achievements cause why not!
 
Makta said:
35MM is indeed a good game! It is a shame that near the end you seem to get a lot of loot and then it kinda.. Ends. Feels like the creator wanted to make it bigger than it is but i did enjoy it.

I even added some stuff to one of the guides out there as the creator of it had missed some stuff found :)

Edit: And ofc i did 100% of the achievements cause why not!
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Greetings fellow 35MM enjoyer!

The developer is still maintaining this game years later it seems. He is going to release 35MM on consoles soon as well.

I found that the dream sequence with the walking statues was cunningly executed and directed. There is even an easter egg where if you look at the security camera readout while the statues are walking at you, they are invisible except for some sort of smoke/shadow and whatever they are holding in their hand.
 
Finished Dragon Quest 5 a couple of weeks and i'm more miffed about the fact that a DS copy is so hard to find and so expensive because i genuinely really liked this game, and i want to own a physical copy. The monster recruitment in particular is probably one of my favorite gameplay elements in any RPG and i wished more RPGs would do it. And i don't mean games like Pokemon, i mean more like the Dragon Quest type of RPGs.

Being able to recruit monsters you fight adds a ton of replay value and since they don't have a bearing on the plot (unless the game decides to have them have that and Dragon Quest 5 does have a monster that is somewhat important to the story), you don't have to waste time developing them as characters, and instead that time to develop the actual main characters. So you can have this huge array of party members with different attributes and skills, allowing for a large amount of party setups, while having the main cast developed. That is not to say the monsters don't have interesting tidbits of personality, because the party chat gives each monster a few quirks.

I was thinking of trying Dragon Quest 4 next, but i want to replay Dragon Quest 7 instead. I just got this huge urge to replay it and i honestly don't remember what i overall thought of the game after my first playthrough four years ago. I remember enjoy it a lot but not much else. Thankfully i have the 3DS remake of 7 (and 8 for that matter), so i don't have to hunt down a copy and fear that its price has increased to a ridiculously degree in recent times. But i am gonna hold on it for as long as i can.
 
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