[Svperstar]

I'm playing the System Shock Remake. I preordered System Shock 2 back in 1999 and absolutely loved it. System Shock 2 was the precursor to BioShock written by the same guy Ken Levine. It got amazing 10/10 reviews and was called an instant classic and "the best game ever" by multiple reviewers, however not very many people bought it for some reason. I couldn't even convince my circle of gaming friends to go buy it at the time., I'm glad BioShock got the sales figures and respect that System Shock 2 never did. System Shock 2 was for sure an immersive sim.

Anyway, the System Shock Remake is not anything like System Shock 2s gameplay, its not an immersive sim. Its an old school OG dungeon crawler from the early 1990s but set in space. Ever play a game where the map fits on graph paper like Eye of the Beholder? Same thing. Whole thing is a series of cubes.

I'm enjoying it but I imagine many people accustomed to modern day hand holding will give up after an hour. System Shock Remake just throws you into the world with a map and then you are on your own. No quest markers or anything.

 

[Svperstar]

Just finished the Story of Diablo 4.
Gameplay is alright, good build customization options but no loadouts or anything of that sort.

The Story had so many flaws that it hurt. By far the weakest Diablo Story so far.

Looking forward to the endgame content, which is the Real Diablo content.

So far I'd give it a 7/10 (with D2 being 10/10 and D3 RoS 9/10)

I actually preordered Diablo 4 but it came out at the worst possible time, summer just starting and biking season is in full swing. I have a group ride after work. I at least want to play through the story of D4 since I played the first 3 games as soon as they came out.

Call me a heretic but I think Diablo RoS had the best end game content. I just couldn't get into the end game of Diablo 2 back in the day. I tried to force myself to like it. Just didn't click for me. I realize that counters the conventional wisdom that Diablo 2s endgame is the peak from which all other ARGPs are judged.

 

[ThanatosVI]

I actually preordered Diablo 4 but it came out at the worst possible time, summer just starting and biking season is in full swing. I have a group ride after work. I at least want to play through the story of D4 since I played the first 3 games as soon as they came out.

Call me a heretic but I think Diablo RoS had the best end game content. I just couldn't get into the end game of Diablo 2 back in the day. I tried to force myself to like it. Just didn't click for me. I realize that counters the conventional wisdom that Diablo 2s endgame is the peak from which all other ARGPs are judged.

I agree D3 RoS had and still has the best endgame of all Diablos.

Unfortunately D4 made a few mistakes again which they did with D3 on release (level Design, backtracking, Progression in general)
In RoS and later patches they were fixed but D4 suffers from similar issues again

 

[LXMc]

I've been playing Diablo 4 with my wife and while it's really impressive on a technical level, it's just really not getting its hooks in me like previous Diablos. I'm partway through Act 2 and around level 40 but everything just feels a bit same-y. No real highs or lows, just kinda fine. I'd probably give it a 7/10 where I'm at with it right now.

On the other hand I picked up Grounded on a whim despite not actually being a big survival genre fan (the 'Honey I Shrunk the Kids' theme got me curious). I've gotta say I'm really enjoying it more than I expected. The world and atmosphere are really excellent and do a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of keeping me immersed and there are some nice quality of life features that make the survival/crafting parts less tedious. It's also pretty tough playing solo ... I had to take a break to calm my nerves the first time I was scavenging at night and a wolf spider came up behind me. I'm only about 16 hours in but would give it a 9/10 currently.

 

[SilverEars]

Started on Deathloop. I really like Colt as a protagonist. He's hilarious. The dialog between Colt and Julianna is just great.

It's made by Aracane, the folks that made Dishonored series (first two is my past time favorite). It's an intrguiging concept, but I don't think it works totally. I don't like rogue lites, and really dislike doing redundant things like playing an area several times. Enemy AI can be easily manipulated, and I feel like I'm cheating. Basically a typical first person shooter experience with gimiicks. It's an ok game, but not something I can get deeply into since it doesn't seem all that deep in the first place. I initially thought it was a story you reveal as time goes on creates a depth to the game, but it doesn't seem to be.


I was actually was hoping it will be like TENET, and as I keep playing reveals more an more of the plot and it becomes mind blowing at the end. I don't believe that's how it works.

 

[SilverEars]

I stopped playing Deathloop since I don't like the world all that much. It's not as engaging as Dishonored, which had a much better world.

I'm giving Zero Horizon Dawn another try since I got a new rig that Does 4k, ultra settings close to 100fps. I didn't expect this, but 4k at ultra setting, even with ray tracing makes are huge difference when it comes to game experience. I'm enjoying this game and other titles much more now due to the greater visual fidelity.

Lately, I've gotten tired of Soulsborne genre since I've played too much of it. I'm expanding out to other types of games, and this is a fun one. It looks quite amazing in ultra setting in 4k. I like the design of the world and premise of an ancient world that got entangled with future technology. I think the costume design looks good. Premise reminds me of Macross Zero.


I always enjoy dogfight scenes from the Macross series. When this came out, it was very advanced vistually. I find VF series mechs to be the best design mech. It just feels so practical compared to other mech designs and looks good, particularly the way it fights in a dog fight, it feels like it would exist in the real world. Studio Nue, Inc. was doing amazingly, innovative animation at it's peak. Macross movie was so amazingly detailed for it's time.


From 1984! It's kinda like Star Wars of animation for it's time. When I saw this when I was a kind, it blew my mind that they can animate to such level of details by hand. Star Wars Empire strikes back blew my mind as well. I'd pay to watch this in the theatre if they re-release it.

Never understood why this scene is the way it is, but very memorable, very cool when VF fighter goes in for the strike. Only way I could make sense of this is, Psychological warfare.


The creator of Macross has some impressive works he's done. He's responsible for mech design for Transformers, Ghost in the Shell, Patlabor. He's basically responsible for bringing transforming mech designs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shōji_Kawamori

 

[Spork67]

Recently started Uncharted: Legacy of thieves (on PC).
Driving a jeep up a volcano now, killing bad guys and finding treasures along the way.

It's more linear gameplay than the open world games I mostly play - but not too bad.
Am enjoying it, would recommend.

 

[Draxu]

Not as much playing as I am waiting for the new Phantom Liberty expansion for cybperunk 2077. Hoping that the decision to ditch last gen consoles actually gets taken advantage of (hopefully even including direct storage post dlc content, wishful thinking ik). Much rather have a game that is as hard to drive as the original Crysis. The art direction is exceptional and seeing it in 'path-traced' beauty puts it graphically above most other games (on par with star citizen, starting to see a trend between these two unfinished games).

All that is to say, cdpr fix your damn low resolution LODs.

 

[SilverEars]

I'm giving Zero Horizon Dawn another try since I got a new rig that Does 4k, ultra settings close to 100fps. I didn't expect this, but 4k at ultra setting, even with ray tracing makes are huge difference when it comes to game experience. I'm enjoying this game and other titles much more now due to the greater visual fidelity.

Lately, I've gotten tired of Soulsborne genre since I've played too much of it. I'm expanding out to other types of games, and this is a fun one. It looks quite amazing in ultra setting in 4k. I like the design of the world and premise of an ancient world that got entangled with future technology.

I enjoy this game a lot. It's a nice change from the Soulsborne games I usually play. I actually like this game better than Monster Hunter games. It's a game about hunting, but hunting electro-mechanical creatures/monsters. Hunting actually feels like I'm in the wild and hunting. Using bow and arrows works surprisingly well. I like the ideas they applied to this game when it comes to elemental effects, and use of tools like ropecaster. I luv fighting huge creatures by tying them down with rope, and freezing them to bring them down. It's exhilarating when there are 5 buffalos trying to ram you, and you try to take them down. It's a great game design, and I didn't notice this when I first tried out the game. It's about the hunt in this game for me. I'm halfway through, but if it just keeps being like this, I may get bored of it however.

I can see what makes this game more engaging than Monster Hunter games. You can feel the progress as you fight the creatures, as the armor comes off, and there are different body targets with different types of elemental/physical weaknesses. This provides more depth than, just hitting them like 1000s of times chipping them aways. Also, Elroy is much more agile, and I like that she moves quick. I like the way she looks as she moves around. Looks much cooler than the Monster Hunter animations which looks/feels very clunky.

Compared to Monster Hunter, the fight duration is just about right. It's not too long or too short. Yes, the minions are easy to take out, but the big creatures do not feel like it's too long to take out like in Monster Hunter.

I really like her animations (even in general, all animations are amazing!). They did a great job of her movement animations.
Her dodge animation is spot on. Melee mechanics is lacking, but the game is mainly about subduing the creatures and brining them down from distance combat. I think they got it right in terms of how hunting should be approached when hunting big creatures. You'd use tactics to subdue them first. More reason why it actually feels like hunting.


Creature designs looks so cool as well! I never expect that I would be into hunting games. It's a smart choice to go with electro-mechanical creatures. They have mechanical part/layers you can take out, and you can actually see the progress, and they are more flexible in what kind of attacks they'd do.


Costume design choice is quite interesting and fitting. The costumes look like something a hunter would wear.

 

[SilverEars]

I'm almost done with Horizon Zero Dawn, and I really like the story. I think the story would make a great movie. One of the best video game stories I've ever experienced.

A lot of JRPGs have this trope of a story about end of the world etc.. and a hero to save the world, but this one is crafted in a way that works quite well. It's masterful how the plot is crafted. I feel like the story really brings everything together in the game. That's the imporatance of a game's lore, it needs to bring all the game design together to a common motive. With the story reveal, everything just makes sense, why the game is the way it is.

I get a feeling that Elden Ring borrowed ideas from this game. Particularly how the rock formations are done in the environment and also how map is done. How the map reveals itself as you progress, and the way the zones are progressed. Or was it BOTW done this first? But, the way map is done on HZD much closer to how it's done on Elden Ring. Like the fast travel, and initiating fast travel points, etc.. Similarly, item crafting in Elden Ring is like how is done in HZD.

For it's time, the open world environment is amazingly crafted. It's just beautiful. Definitely looks much better than Elden Ring. I definitely like this game better than BOTW. This game deserves more praise than BOTW. BOTW is technically inferior, and the story sucks. It's just a copy and paste job. I never finished TOTK either, it gets dull after awhile like the first. It's a children's game with a children's story.

Technologically, it's an amazing accomplishment for it's time.

 

[SilverEars]

Can't wait for this one, it should be fun

 

[silent-circuit]

Can't wait for this one, it should be fun

I pretty much never preorder or buy day / week / month one when it comes to games these days, but I preordered the ultimate edition of Remnant 2. I've got like 400 hours in the first game and happily bought all the DLC. So did a friend. We're looking forward to early access tomorrow - hopefully there's no delay getting keys - we both got it through the Humble store since we got a discount.

 

[SilverEars]

I'm kinda interested in this one. I like the way they built the world. And I like the main character design. And the actress picked for the role seems to fit.

 

[SilverEars]

Been playing Titan Fall 2. I like the mech design, and overall looks of the game, but the gameplay gets old after awhile. It's a first person shooter. It's not a bad game, just feels like Call of Duty with more interesting environments. It's better, but nothing drastically new.

Run an gun feels much quicker and snappier than most first person shooters I've played. That's the positive.

 

[ThanatosVI]

After the horrible patchnotes for Diablo 4, I actually went back to Diablo 3.

Season 28 in Diablo 3 has ultra smooth Progression. So much quality of Life changes, it's amazing.