What games are you playing atm? V2

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iwansquall
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Im all gooey & sticky.
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Last time I played this game, I quit after 2 hours. It have this weird mechanic of evil slimes where can easily ruined your progression. Made one mistake, and your own whole ranch can go poof. This time around, I playing casual mode so this evil slimes doesnt spawn.

The game is pretty cute & straightforward. Immediately around, there are limited spots where you can put your important building like place to keep your slimes, garden to growth your own fruit / vegetables or coop where you can breed some chickens. The game have huge area map where you need to do several objective before you can unlock new area. You can expand your ranch with new bigger area, and late in the game will give you access to laboratory where you have access to several new tools & upgrades.

Now for my biggest problem with this games, the game is TOO FREAKING TEDIOUS. Your backpack only 4 slots, with limited quantity, your sprint & jumpjet tied to power system with long cooldown recovery and map are just too big with little amount of portal to teleport around. Resource gathering and slime micro manage is just.. horror in late game. All new stuff you get middle of the game are too time consuming to be worth it.. The game are way too shalow in term it will get repetitive (move around, collect stuff, deposit stuff etc) once you fully maxed. The only barebone exploration carried me forward in this game.

Im not fan for casual mode of this game and I cant imagine the horror playing normal mode. I was excited at first to discover new area, new slimes & new upgrades, but once you reach 1/2 way point, the terrible part of the games are finally fully obvious. As for lore, or other NPC story stuff, i just dont care.
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iwansquall
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Decent, but Im a bit hesitated.
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In my search for good open world, i have been searching through list for any affordable title. Somehow this game have a demo on Ubisoft Connect (new name of uplay), so I thought I might just give it a try. Link to EGS above is because you can get 10 USD off for that games with coupon.

Im aware that this game is supposed to be very similar with Breath of the Wild. And you all shouldve known that I have played Genshin Impact recently to burn out (explored 100% map), so I will some more stuff to be more surprised. Turn out the combat is pretty cool, so instead of more grounded dark souls combat, this game used combat similar to devil may cry style, albeit abit limited. The world itself look interesting and ability to glide and double jump is highly welcome.

Now for my concern. The first impression on story side is pretty terrible. Basically it try to do some sort of retelling of our protagonist story in 3rd person way. Problem, it is tried to tell in jokes way instead of epic way (unreliable narrator i think it called?). So combat is all that I think interesting, but even that is not enough, mostly because the skill tree shown in demo is too bad basic and gears i got in the demo are merely stats bonus. Not to mention that I feel like mashing button like crazy rather than be strategic with timing (and i played on hard).

There no reason not to give this demo a try. It is around 4GB standalone experience (meaning demo is unique to its own) that have fairly large area, but i didnt bother to explore much since I have seen similar game before (AC origins & Genshin Impact).

*If anyone curious what the games I was planning to buy for open world title (as it allow me to watch anime while playing) :
1. Far cry 5 (basic) - 6 usd on uplay
2. AC Odyssey (basic) - 10 usd on uplay
3. Immortals : Fenyx Rising - 13 usd on egs
4. Death Stranding - 13 usd on egs

Felt like Death Stranding or Far Cry 5 is closest candidate atm (Im playing another diablo-like shooter atm)
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Prime_Evil
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Returnal.

So far this is my Game of the Year when it comes to Sony exclusives. Hell, its my GOTY so far, full stop.
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ThomasGabriel
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WoW Shadowlands. Like this expansion very much. Read lots of reviews on the internet and about 90% of reviewers say that in recent years it is one of the best expansions for WoW. And I fully share this opinion. Shadowlands can bring completely new impressions especially if you use extra items to improve your gaming experience :)
Edited by ThomasGabriel 2 years.
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Prime_Evil
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Biomutant.

Sad to say despite the hype i had for this game, it's really undercooked. Very clunky gameplay. I'll try to not beat it too hard with a stick because it's essentially an indie game but at full price... no. The game is pretty, environments are pretty, the style of comics-like "kapow!" "blam!" effects when you hit enemies is charming... aaaaaaand that's about it. Everything else about it is just a mess.

Damn.
ParticuLarry
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Prime_Evil wrote:Biomutant.

Sad to say despite the hype i had for this game, it's really undercooked. Very clunky gameplay. I'll try to not beat it too hard with a stick because it's essentially an indie game but at full price... no. The game is pretty, environments are pretty, the style of comics-like "kapow!" "blam!" effects when you hit enemies is charming... aaaaaaand that's about it. Everything else about it is just a mess.

Damn.


It's good to read some honest feedback. I've been wanting to try it out, but at some point in my life I swore to myself that I won't buy games for the full price anymore.

It sounded pretty good, with the player being able to change the character in any way they like. Maybe it will be better in a couple of months?
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Prime_Evil
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ParticuLarry wrote:
Prime_Evil wrote:Biomutant.

Sad to say despite the hype i had for this game, it's really undercooked. Very clunky gameplay. I'll try to not beat it too hard with a stick because it's essentially an indie game but at full price... no. The game is pretty, environments are pretty, the style of comics-like "kapow!" "blam!" effects when you hit enemies is charming... aaaaaaand that's about it. Everything else about it is just a mess.

Damn.


It's good to read some honest feedback. I've been wanting to try it out, but at some point in my life I swore to myself that I won't buy games for the full price anymore.

It sounded pretty good, with the player being able to change the character in any way they like. Maybe it will be better in a couple of months?


I hope so. The devs are supposed to patch at least most of their mistakes with the clunkiness of the game. I don't want to be very hard with this game because it's a small dev studio anyway, and iirc Fable was a mess at release and ended up being what it was. Same for Witcher 3. Very weird clunkiness at launch and now it's one of my favorite games of all times.

Hopefully they will fix melee weapons in this game too, they dont feel like they have much impact when you hit stuff with them.

This game has potential to surpass it's own failures and if it does it's def worth full price if you're into this kind of wacky wholesome mayhem filled open world style of games.
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iwansquall
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Does more complexity mean better?
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Another free games I got from GoG from long time ago. I finished 1st game quite awhile ago (also got for free) but I remember it being visceral 1st person shooter with melee + ability tied to it.

This game is trying to emulate the success of borderlands pretty much. It added coop multiplayer, tons of customization and large array of weapons for you to choose. The level system also change from linear story progression, to hub world + missions where it pretty much act like town in game like diablo with ability teleport back & forth to replenish ammo. Instead getting random weapons from enemy, this game required you unlock weapons by various mean and you can combine weapon with multiple different type of gems, which all tons of bonus depending on your build.

Now for the problems. It seem like the game emphasize alot on RPG element this time around. If ammo management werent hard enough, this time around you are required to have multiple element on weapon as enemy have their own strength / weakness (or even immune) to certain element. Enemy also came in variety of small / large / elite or boss. The item management in this quite tedious, although my biggest issue is with most of the stats are just boring numbers value. Every 2 good stats, there is bound to have 1 negative penalty. Still, getting good gem is not exciting like getting rare gear in ARPG.

The game is not bad, but I feel like it was tedious & grindy to play. Perhaps the game can be fun with friends in coop. But the difficulty wise (I was playing on hard) was too hard in the beginning, but became too easy once i unlocked most of the stuff & upgrade after mid game. I personally wouldnt recommend as the experience doesnt feel like Im playing a good game.
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iwansquall
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Just a short update because it is my birthday today.

I have been searching for open world games where I can simply watch anime while playing it. Some are ok, but mostly are balanced depending which one is more interesting. So I narrow down to 4 games which you can see in my previous immortal fenyx rising demo before. So I just chose Death Stranding and figure that why not? It is end of the month & salary come in anyway.

Lets just say, this game resonate with me way more than I thought it will be. You know Im type of player who like to plan my route whenever I collect some collectibles in open world map. I couldnt let anime running while playing this because I just immersed with it 100% percent, even though I just walking around delivering stuff. Already 20 hours in over 2 days and I just couldnt stop thinking about it (the only game I felt like this before what subnautica & prey).

Best part is definitely the birthday easter egg, seeing Madd Nickelsen just saying Happy Birthday to me is just Muah~~
Expect some super long review once I finished it. Since somehow this game have achievement on epic store, Im sure gonna pushed for 100%.
Especially since there is no missables & it not a exactly difficult games.
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iwansquall
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A masterpiece experience that is not for everyone.
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As I said before, I bought Death Stranding & playing over weekend to finally finish it after 4 days with total 50 hours. The usual review I made usually have 4 paragraph : short introduction, the good part, the bad part and conclusion. However, this time I really want to go much longer especially with non spoiler and non spoiler reviews. I will use spoiler tag so you dont accidentally see it.

Overall experience
The game is truly something innovative that make you think differently you play. While essentially this is just a simple fetch quest story, there are other elements in the game that made it unique. In order for me to explain, i will have to deep details especially some of the general gameplay loop in order to understand why i so fascinated by the game despite it is boring for most other people.

1. Terrain & navigation.
The terrain system in this game is really unlike any other game out there. In many games, terrain is usually is just place you can watch into, either it is a forest or big city. But in this game, the terrain itself is a gameplay. If lets say you know you have to cross a river, you need to bring some ladder to cross it or build a bridge. Even if you get powerful vehicle, you will have issue traversing rough terrain until you rebuild the road. And best part of this games? The deeper you are into the game, the more advance way for you travel around. Remember river you cant cross safely before? Just build a bridge and drive a truck and you can carry more stuff through it. The variety of terrain & encounter made it feel like you playing ever increasing challenging level (especially snowy mountain near the end)

2. Missions & experience system
This game doesnt have meaningful experience system. Sure you can get more likes from building road or completing delivery, but most of the times it just make able to deliver more goods. You dont have to worry about building correct stats, just you need to learn to your tools at disposable. Unlike many other games where money is important, this game have many hubs where essentially your private bank. If you run out of them, just simply get an order to deliver resource to place that you need. Additionally, the story mission are generally required to move goods from one to another place, which sometimes give you some story or cutscenes after big successful delivery.

3. Inventory management
When you play game with some sort of inventory management, generally there are just list of items in your menu. Sure you can wear some gears to change your appearance, not many game do this kind of gameplay impact for the way you arrange your stuff in your backpack (generally physic based simulator). And this physically became gameplay limit allow simple taking all orders and delivering them in one go (you still can use vehicle). But my best part (and worse part as well) is the inventory matter the most when you fight the enemy. The BT encounter for example, specifically designed so you cant simply bring 100 guns to the fight (you required to fall down & drop some of your stuff). Of course this added some tedious to part where you have manage your inventory in middle of battle (boss fights usually).

4. Multiplayer & online system
I cant emphasize how I love this system. The game have some interconnected system where other players' building can be use in your world. Since you are limited to carry stuff, this building usually your safe haven that other people already build for you. If you run out of resource, as i said before you can request it and hopefully other player will fulfill the request. I was afraid at first, because like playing MMORPG you fill you just started the world already so advanced with tools. This game will limit you based on your technology level, that you wont see bridge until you unlock them. When traveling to certain hub for first place, you have this only access, making it much personal challenge to traverse the area. Best part definitely when you have band of people who finally build the road system that made your traveling so much easier.

Story & spoiler part
The story can be synopsis with simple words. Intriguing & confusing. It made me wonder why or how the world became like that. You will met several characters throughout your journey, and play important roles for most of your travel. Each of the network hubs you need to reconnect all have their own quirky story & unique stuff.

The game also play around symbolism alot. Most specific anything that have to with connection or rope. A strand is a like piece of rope while stranding it about getting lost. Connection is more about to rebuild the nations & bring people close to each others. A network connect will allow information to spread faster, thus improve many things in daily life. There are still couple of things like life & death that I would say Im also no 100% understood it. Perhaps I should spend some time reading the whole Death Stranding game meaning.

I will reserved some spoiler-ish story side below.
► Show Spoiler


Conclusion
Death stranding is a masterpeice experience. A game that I cant put my controller or shift focus to anything else. A game that despite I already finished the story, I still want to try 100% it, because I enjoy the gameplay loop so much. It kinda remind me crafting survival or farming sim, where every upgrade improve your efficiency much more. Sure the game have some issue that sometimes made me rage, but nothing come close to the feeling of playing this game. If you think what I wrote interested you, then you should give the game a try.