[Kukuk]

Been playing through the Bioshock games lately; Kind of a nice trip down memory lane. They mostly hold up very well.

The first Bioshock is probably a 9/10 in my book. Its story is a lot less complex than people give it credit for, but it's certainly solid. To me, the real draw of the game is the setting and gameplay, with some neat characters to tie it all together.

Bioshock 2 is a small step down in all regards, making it more of a 7/10. The biggest complaint I think I have about the game is it seems to not really lean into the underwater setting. A lot of levels take place is slummy apartment complexes and the like, making it easy to forget where the game actually takes place.

Next up I'm playing, you guessed it, Singularity!

A Bioshock clone I have very fond memories of. Only an hour or so in, so I can't really comment on it overall, but I really like the setting.

 

[SilverEars]

Started on Jedi Survivor. I like the visuals and world design, but the combat is janky. It's like God of War combat with slow motion nonsense. Why would you add slow motion between attacks in combat?! Why? It's so dumb. In order to have precision combat, you need to have consistent timing during frames. Slow motion is like adding lag to it on purpose.

Like I said, they need to learn from Sekiro that they got inspiration from.

So, they haven't improved the combat at all. Western developers has no clues in how to design combat. I want precision combat, not some janky crap. Please study Fromsoft games, or Nioh series. Don't study Zelda games that are out dated for combat.

If Respawn consulted Fromsoft and have Fromsoft do the combat, this game would be excellent. Everything else, I like in the game. I don't like the mediocre cosmetic upgrade system and the combat. I got bored of Tears of the Kingdom, and this game seems more enjoyable for now. I may change my mind as I go through it however.

Wow, Jedi Survivor is so trash. Stutter fest. Janky combat, enemies. Just bad. I really don't get how this game even reviewed so well.

 

[OM hawk]

started playing a videogame called Lord of the Rings: Gollum. That's a statement I've been wishing I could say since I was like 10 years old!!!

It's a mid budget or "AA" experience, but honestly I think we're lucky It's not a teensy little 10 dollar indie game (considering the fact that it is entirely about Gollum). This seems to be a very pure hearted and enormously ambitious full length stealth/platformer/adventure game. So far it seems very straightforward in its controls and game mechanics, taking the correct approach by relying on the Lord of the Rings world, and on Gollum as a character, to make it unique from other games with near identical mechanics. So far, has the potential to be 4 out of 5 stars. Audio design and music, coming out of my Rad-0 and Hugo 2, is good but not great. It's a kinda janky game, but its existence is fundamentally and undeniably spectacular.

 

[whirlwind]

Been playing through the Bioshock games lately; Kind of a nice trip down memory lane. They mostly hold up very well.

The first Bioshock is probably a 9/10 in my book. Its story is a lot less complex than people give it credit for, but it's certainly solid. To me, the real draw of the game is the setting and gameplay, with some neat characters to tie it all together.

Bioshock 2 is a small step down in all regards, making it more of a 7/10. The biggest complaint I think I have about the game is it seems to not really lean into the underwater setting. A lot of levels take place is slummy apartment complexes and the like, making it easy to forget where the game actually takes place.

Next up I'm playing, you guessed it, Singularity!


A Bioshock clone I have very fond memories of. Only an hour or so in, so I can't really comment on it overall, but I really like the setting.

The original Bioshock was a fun game.

 

[SilverEars]

started playing a videogame called Lord of the Rings: Gollum. That's a statement I've been wishing I could say since I was like 10 years old!!!

It's a mid budget or "AA" experience, but honestly I think we're lucky It's not a teensy little 10 dollar indie game (considering the fact that it is entirely about Gollum). This seems to be a very pure hearted and enormously ambitious full length stealth/platformer/adventure game. So far it seems very straightforward in its controls and game mechanics, taking the correct approach by relying on the Lord of the Rings world, and on Gollum as a character, to make it unique from other games with near identical mechanics. So far, has the potential to be 4 out of 5 stars. Audio design and music, coming out of my Rad-0 and Hugo 2, is good but not great. It's a kinda janky game, but its existence is fundamentally and undeniably spectacular.

 

[OM hawk]

Can't watch that yet, as I am "full media blackout" on this game until I finish my first playthrough. I want my initial perception of it to just be based on my direct experience (plus avoiding spoilers obviously).

I played the first 3 or 4 hours of it, and in terms of gameplay, the controls and general gameplay mechanics were good (though not particularly original/innovative), and from a technical perspective it was not great but solid. The game did crash a couple times, but wasn't crashing constantly or anything. Some minor texture glitches, bad distance rendering of far off character models, and the 30fps graphics mode is bad due to framerate stuttering, but the 60fps mode has no stuttering that I noticed, and the game is way better at 60fps anyway, the graphics don't seem compromised in that mode. The depiction of Mordor was pretty impressive with strong art direction and lots of verticality, though quite linear in how you explore it. There was a glitch that stopped me from progressing, which I think has now been fixed with the day one patch.

The story might end up being bad I guess, seems cool so far. My assumption is that some platforms other than Xbox Series X (where I played it) have way worse technical problems than anything I dealt with on Xbox, like PS5 or PC I mean. Once I switched to the 60 fps mode, no problems kept me from enjoying the game except for the glitch where I couldn't progress.

 

[SilverEars]

 

[OM hawk]

Lol, yeah I have seen the YouTube thumbnails, and they are gruesome. But the 7 or so hours I've played so far on Series X has not been Cyberpunk 2077 levels of glitches, nor has it been Rings of Power levels of disrespecting Tolkien's legacy, or Forespoken levels of bad dialogue writing, Pokémon levels of framerate and distance rendering problems, etc.

Honestly what I have played seems like an 8 out of 10, but we'll see cause I haven't finished the game yet, maybe the story ends up not going anywhere, or goes in some cringy direction later on. I do look forward to learning about all this juicy controversy, but I want to finish my first playthrough first.

 

[smallcaps]

Currently playing Crying Suns and thoroughly enjoining it. It's reminiscent of FTL but with less spaceship management. The graphics are retro but the story is good. 7/10 and worth it, especially with the recent update.

 

[SilverEars]

I played a little bit of Hogwart's and cannot really say as awhole how good it is. Begining part is interesting, and it's likely because I have not read or watched any of the Harry Potter series. I like the interesting designs that's in the game. Will have to see how it is in more depth.

There's no denying the popularity of the franchise. The game is a huge success. Elden Ring took way longer to get those numbers.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/23/arts/hogwarts-legacy-sales-rowling.html

I gave Hogwart's another try due to a new gaming rig I got. I'm running it at ultra at 4k over 100fps. This makes the experience much better, and it's actually very engaging game. I kinda like it right now. It actually has dungeon missions, which I like.

It's obvious lots of planning went into the details of the game. There's a lot of visually interesting stuff that happens in the game. The game is kinda like God of War, but with spells, and of course the world is open. I like what they done with the combat mechanics because spell casting can turn out to be very mundane.

What I don't like is that I have to make potions, but maybe it gets easier to make potions later in the game.

 

[Kukuk]

Just beat Singularity again. It's really not the Bioshock clone I remember it being. Even Steam reviews reference Bioshock a lot when talking about it, which is a little odd. It's more like Half Life 2 or Quake 4 or something; kind of an adventure shooter.

Still, I enjoyed it for the most part. Guns feel a little mediocre, and using your special abilities is mostly pointless, but the time travel and time dilation features are a nice way to mix things up. This game really makes me miss other games from this era where developers were introducing gimmicks to their shooters to differentiate them from the Call of Duty games. Another game kinda like this I need to go back and play again is Timeshift. Bought it a couple years back and never played it. I might have a good excuse to now.

Also I gotta say, this game is extremely short! I beat it in just 5 and a half hours.

I'd probably give a 5/10.

Now that this little aside is over, on to Bioshock Infinite!

 

[SilverEars]

Probably my first first person that had indepth mechanics other than run and gun like Quake/Doom/Wolfinstein. It was ahead of it's time upon the original release.

 

[Kukuk]

Beat Bioshock Infinite and Burial at Sea Part 1.

Gameplay-wise, as shooters, they feel pretty good. I think the developers did a good job making all the weapons feel powerful and the tonics feel useful. That being said, I think the move away from the System Shock/Bioshock formula really hampers my enjoyment of the game. Between that, and the constant forced narrative segments I really felt I was just being funneled through the game. I feel like I could forgive it if the story wasn't so dumb and convoluted.

Burial at Sea part 1 was a bit of an improvement, in that it wasn't so linear, but it kinda highlights another issue with the main game: Columbia is not nearly as interesting as Rapture is. It's sort of an odd thing that such a claustrophobic, dank, depressing city is more open to exploration than the tight corridors of a city in the clouds, which visually looks open and spacious.

I guess my feelings about the game haven't changed much through the years. I remember the story being really dumb, and I remember not liking the fact that they stripped away the System Shock elements. I had hoped in revisiting it I'd appreciate it more for what it is, rather than what it's not, but that's unfortunately not the case. I think I'll give this a 6/10.

Even though I just replayed it last year, I kinda wanna play Prey again.

 

[SilverEars]

Innovators at the time. Limited hardware and creative juices flowing.

 

[Qeight]

Alien Isolation in VR (Oculus Rift S) - 10/10 in the pants wetting category