Video Games Video Game • Page 354

i just dont wanna play with only M+K players lol

 

Yeah playing odyssey last night I just realized I have a real affinity for Ubisoft’s open world design like it gets shit on constantly but almost every context I’ve engaged with it in has been a good time, from AC and far cry games to ghost recon wildlands which I played a bit a few months ago and really enjoyed. There’s something really satisfying about the loop and progression systems in those games

 

Farcry is similar, aye? I don’t like first-person view and if it’s just all shooting. I’ll add it to my list though. I think they’re all on PS Plus too.

 

it’s funny because I’m just like I played hearthstone but didn’t care for it now this is around and suddenly I can’t stop playing but also I suck so it makes me wanna play more

 

no Drake is Fortnite and Kendrick is Apex

 

This is the clarity I needed

 

Currently rostering between a few games.

Everdream Valley thanks to @Penlab. It’s a cozy farm simulator set on your grandparents farm and you have to repair it. There’s so much to do as the map is much larger than expected. The achievements are easy to get so plan to 100% it.

Completed the prologue of the Demon Slayer game. My friend got me to cave after being on an anime hiatus for a few years. I can see why the anime is popular and it got me to buy the game since it was on sale. Combat is fun. It reminds me of the Naruto/MHA games.

Cassette beasts. The best monster catching game I’ve played in years. Great stories and characters with interesting beast designs. I recently beat all the captains and moved the Cody representation lmao

 

It’s similar and the gun play in the far cry games I’ve played (3, 4, 5, and a tiny bit of 6) is some of the best in the business. 4 and 5 are my two favs

 

I can’t get past armor spider so I dropped it lol

 

playin wow listening to thou

 

The Tachy in Stellar Blade was great and so was the design.

 

So far the Handsome Jackpot dlc is... okay. I wasn't too excited for this one because I'm getting kinda sick of seeing Jack's face everywhere, but the map design has been pretty cool and killing hyperion bots again is surprising fun

 

Playing Omega Ruby, and man, it's ridiculous how much better this looks and plays vs any of the Switch Pokemon games imo

 

A classic

 

"In short, I pissed in God's eye, and he blinked."

 

Players Log: The Stellar Blade recap

I was completely spellbound by Stellar Blade. The game feels like a fusion of the best parts of Nier Automata and Jedi Survivor, and for a first non-gacha game from Shift Up this is an INSANE accomplishment.

I loved the game's setting, the post-apocalyptic feeling was relayed perfectly and I loved the balance between linear soulslike sections and open areas. They kept the game from getting stale fast like so many of these games can, in similar manner to how Jedi Survivor kept my attention so well. There's a major shift in the formula where (gameplay spoilers) the game shifts to a third person shooter setting without scanning to cause the player to have horror-game-like alertness and I think it's executed wonderfully, not introducing new things but instead stripping away the toolkit which results in using some skills you've developed along the way but also having to learn new ones.
The story and the characters felt very good. I loved the different characters we met throughout, so many of them were memorable whether by personality or design and I loved being a part of their life experience. I think my 2 favorite NPC arcs ended up being Clyde and Enya/Su. The trifecta of Eve, Adam, and Lily felt strong as well, and I enjoyed their small interactions and different flashes of personality. The story had a small amount of depth to it, you won't get the Nier Automata experience of layers on layers and while there are some holes to fill in, you won't have a massive amount of questions, but the execution of the story fulfilled its purpose well and kept me gripped, wanting to find the resolution at the end. Having bits of miniature stories scattered throughout in memorysticks and other various media was wonderful as well.

Stellar Blade has very expressive combat. I wouldn't consider it on par with the From Software combat styles in terms of precision or difficulty, but I feel like it provides an appropriate balance between difficulty and a power fantasy, offering ways to obliterate whatever's in your way (in STYLE which is most important) while also not boring you to death along the way. The skill expression present in Stellar Blade is reminiscent of Final Fantasy XVI in execution, with flashiness closer to Nier Automata but never feeling as weightless as Nier Automata, instead making you feel the impact of your actions. The bosses felt creative as well, offering different types of challenges in their amount of aggression, tendency to create space in a game that encourages it with gap closing options and ranged attacks, and different forms of dodging/deflecting encouraged. The last few bosses in particular were masterpieces in my humble opinion, and in moments where there were additional enemies present, it never felt too overwhelming due to the toolkit at Eve's disposal. (In other words, do not worry about a Valiant Gargoyles equivalent making an appearance.)

The change of pace content was fun as well. I loved collecting outfits and caffeinated beverages, they always felt satisfying to add to the collection, and god they did wonderfully with fishing. Stellar Blade might have my favorite fishing to date and I loved exploring the different fishing holes and collecting fish to sell. Sidequests were mostly good as well, while there was some monotony (which will be addressed below) I still cleared the map of every sidequest I could and had no regrets. There were puzzles to solve along the way which made them feel a lot less fetchy compared to other similar games.

It's hard if not impossible to talk about this game without mentioning the soundtrack. I have strong doubts that there'll be anyone out there who doesn't find anything to love here. You'll hear hints of Keiichi Okabe throughout but the majority of the soundtrack was composed by a team I'm unfamiliar with who did a wonderful job. Stellar Blade's soundtrack is among my favorites in gaming, with Beyond Fate having one of my favorite melodies I've heard in music in general. The music is doused in so many different timbres that bring the experience to life in all kinds of different manners. If this isn't soundtrack of the year I'll be shocked (I know Rebirth exists).

Things I think could have been better about the experience:
1. The thing that's going to be mentioned the most is likely the platforming. There are some odd collision issues and at times you'll even pass straight through ladders as you jump towards them. This can cause some serious frustration at some points and is something that needs to be improved in future games. It's very fortunate Eve has so many tools to be able to navigate, and you can make up for the game's shortcomings by manipulating Eve's movements to double back and course correct.

2. In the open segments, the Wasteland and the Great Desert, there were many times I noticed something I couldn't reach. I would have LOVED to be able to place a marker on the map as a reminder to go back there later.

3. A lot of the sidequests are just "find this person for me please, oh wait they're dead damn" and while it makes the moments where the quests don't follow this formula better, it's still just too repetitive of a premise, and while I understand it in a post-apocalyptic setting it could've been executed to subvert expectations. (Maybe have NPCs killed in front of us after finding them? Maybe have something life altering have happened to them that causes them to not want to return?)

4. This isn't something I'll damn Stellar Blade for too much because other games do it too much as well, but I really hate when a hard mode is locked behind completing the game first. Luckily Stellar Blade was so good that I'll be jumping back in soon enough to want to play the hard mode. But having a bit of extra difficulty from the start would've been nice.

5. This may be no fault of the game itself, but god do I hate almost all of the discourse around this game. Weird losers being like "oh the woke left HATES this game because hot people are in it!" because they can't comprehend that people are upset about real life issues and don't hyperfocus on one piece of media in the way they do about things like "womenz in Star Wars!!!!!" It's frustrating, but probably expected, that a protagonist that looks like Eve naturally attracts such a cesspool of posters and it's very hard to discuss the game online without seeing some seriously gross shit in one way or another.

At the end of the day, the place a game holds in your heart is more "how heavily do the flaws impact my time and how much do the great moments make up for them?" and less "how perfect is this game?" and my experience has been a 10/10 experience. It's a game that hasn't left my head since the credits rolled, and immediately made me want to play again. I could've gone on a lot longer, but I might've never stopped.

(I ain't readin that I'm happy for you sorry that happened version: game good)

 

I really need to finish P3R this week so I can start Stellar Blade after reading that haha

 

I'm going to go back to P3R and also start Rebirth now that I finished but god I really just want to replay Stellar Blade now

 

The Omega Strain was ahead of its time and I’ll die on that hill for it

 

I need to play Disco Elysium

 

#3 is so true and something my friend and I were joking about yesterday as we both played. And I felt the same for #2 (I have 3 unused codes for the Wasteland and fuck if I remember where even if it provides a hint).

 

There was somewhere in the desert where I died by something suspicious by something with a one hit kill and had NO idea how I got there and if I had a map marking ability I would've 100% looked at the map and marked it prior to dying (I did end up figuring it out later)

Skill issue from me but still