What Was The Last Game You Played?

[spud131]

Started Sniper Elite 4 earlier having never played any of these games before. Seems decent although needs alot of planning to avoid getting spotted and killed with a couple of shots from the enemy.

[19QOS19]

Started Sniper Elite 4 earlier having never played any of these games before. Seems decent although needs alot of planning to avoid getting spotted and killed with a couple of shots from the enemy.

Great game. Takes a fair bit of patience though as you say. Nothing better than finding an old engine to kick and having the sound cover your shot while you take out lots of them.

[spud131]

Great game. Takes a fair bit of patience though as you say. Nothing better than finding an old engine to kick and having the sound cover your shot while you take out lots of them.

Initially I was hiding in bushes and buildings everytime I heard the planes going past overhead thinking they would spot you and give away your position, took me a while to realise they are there to cover the sound of your gun fire.

[BFTD]

Having been exploring a subterranean Lovecraftian ocean recently with Sunless Sea, I figured I'd give The Sinking City a try when I can get the wean off my gaming PC. It's a third-person open world detective game set in a proper Lovecraft universe, with you playing a PI who arrives in a 19th century town to find the source of visions you've been experiencing, and discover why people keep heading there and disappearing.

Only a couple of hours in, but it's interesting. Weird in all sorts of ways, both intended and not. Yahtzee's review below does a pretty good job of summing it up - definitely not a game you'd be happy to have paid £50 for, but you can grab it for £18 on the Epic Games Store at the moment (with the £10 voucher they give you for accepting Civilisation 6 for free), and I'd say it seems pretty good value at that.

 

[NotThePars]

8 hours ago, BigFatTabbyDave said:

Having been exploring a subterranean Lovecraftian ocean recently with Sunless Sea, I figured I'd give The Sinking City a try when I can get the wean off my gaming PC. It's a third-person open world detective game set in a proper Lovecraft universe, with you playing a PI who arrives in a 19th century town to find the source of visions you've been experiencing, and discover why people keep heading there and disappearing.

Only a couple of hours in, but it's interesting. Weird in all sorts of ways, both intended and not. Yahtzee's review below does a pretty good job of summing it up - definitely not a game you'd be happy to have paid £50 for, but you can grab it for £18 on the Epic Games Store at the moment (with the £10 voucher they give you for accepting Civilisation 6 for free), and I'd say it seems pretty good value at that.

 

I nearly bought this the other day at 12.99 but didn't bother. The only outlet I saw that seemed positive on it was Vice Gaming who I usually trust, you recommend?

[Doctor]

Finally getting round to putting time into Prey, I loved the Dishonored games and Arkane just tickle all my funny-bones 

Also talking myself out of playing Bioshock Infinite again 

[BFTD]

8 hours ago, NotThePars said:

I nearly bought this the other day at 12.99 but didn't bother. The only outlet I saw that seemed positive on it was Vice Gaming who I usually trust, you recommend?

For £12.99, aye. Not far in, but it's got an unusual off-kilter atmosphere. Really liking the music and sound. All about avoiding combat and finding clues 'n' shit. It could turn to shit later on, but I'm liking it for now.

5 minutes ago, Doctor said:

Finally getting round to putting time into Prey, I loved the Dishonored games and Arkane just tickle all my funny-bones 

Also talking myself out of playing Bioshock Infinite again 

Prey's a very enjoyable game. Take your time with it and get immersed into the world. Almost gave it another run-through instead of playing The Sinking City, but I think I'd better wait until I've forgotten what happens.

Bioshock Infinite is weird. I absolutely loved that game, while also finding it a massive chore to play through. Bioshock 1 was fun, and the second one had a shit story but they really polished the gameplay. I don't know why, but I couldn't wait to get Infinite's combat out of the way so I could get back to the story.

[BFTD]

Another thing for anyone thinking about giving The Sinking City a go; it's janky as all f**k. I just watched a random NPC shoot another NPC in the head, then stroll happily down the street ragdolling the guy's corpse under his feet. The game's full of shit like that. Had a corpse go flying past me down the street from behind like it had been shot out of a cannon; no idea where it came from or what happened. It's all very Bethesda. If that kind of thing ruins a game for you, probably best to steer clear. Personally, I quite like that shit.

Also, it's not a game that holds your hand at all. Be prepared to do a bit of fucking about to work out how you're supposed to operate certain game mechanics, or even look up help online. I get the impression that they were maybe rushed to release before they'd implemented a proper tutorial, as all you get is text, and it's not as much help as it could be.

As I say, still fun, if you stick with it.

[NotThePars]

6 hours ago, Doctor said:

Finally getting round to putting time into Prey, I loved the Dishonored games and Arkane just tickle all my funny-bones 

Also talking myself out of playing Bioshock Infinite again 

Bioshock Infinite hasn't aged well and it was a bit of a chore to play at the time compared to the original. Worth a shot if you can get it cheap though I don't think it's that long and the world is pretty cool.

[BFTD]

More guff about The Sinking City...

I'm pretty far in; far enough that I thought the main storyline was about to wrap up, but it seems there's a bit more to go. It's good, but I can see why it picked up mixed reviews. It's open world - apparently the first attempt by the developers Frogwares - but it's not a Skyrim/Witcher style open world, more of the Mafia/LA Noire kind where there's technically a whole city to roam at will, but you aren't supposed to stop and examine it too much; it's just there to add colour as you move between story locations.

They've clearly had to rein in their ambitions due to limited resources, but at an early stage - the game doesn't feel unfinished, or crippled, just limited. You'll see a lot of repetition in locations, for example, not just in textures and objects, but layout too; quite reminiscent of the original Mass Effect, in that respect. The system used for generating random NPCs is quite good, with enough variety to leave them looking fairly unique as people, but the pool of incidental dialogue is tiny.

The gameplay brings back memories of LA Noire, but similarly the investigations and cases are a bit lightweight. Somebody's going to work out a satisfying way of doing this kind of crime procedural one day, but they aren't quite there yet. It's still a case of going through the motions, and there won't be many times you'll find yourself stumped. Occasionally your investigation will leave you with alternative views on the events to choose from, which apparently change the story, but I don't think they'll make too much of a difference. Nice to have the option, though.

A few more eldritch beasties to fight might have been nice, as I think there are only four basic types, and the game has a weird rhythm that recalls Doom, of all things, with monsters spawning in when you make discoveries. There are plenty of times where you'll uncover an item in the last room of a house you're exploring and think, "as soon as I pick this up, Cthulhu's mates are dogpiling me," and you'll usually be right. Combat's functional and simple once you get used to it; just running about popping off shots at your pursuers when you can. The game has an odd thing for constraining combat to buildings or areas, and if you so much as pull up your weapon to aim outside of those areas, NPCs will freak out and try to take you down.

This is fine, although a bit pointless, other than when a stygian nightmare chases you outside and the entire world tries to kick your arse while you're fending off some freakish horror, completely ignoring the beast itself. This led to a hilarious incident where a giant monstrosity was waiting for me in an alleyway leading to a crime scene and chased me out into the street, to the utter indifference of the bystanders. It forgot about me and slowly followed a strolling NPC down the sidewalk, pausing occasionally to try pounding him with it's mammoth fists, but missing every time as the pedestrian had moved on by the time it had wound up its killer blow. I watched them disappear into the distance for a few minutes before entering the building; presumably our hero was eventually successful in its murder, as it returned to the outside of the building and stomped around for a while. The only reason I know is because the screen shook every time it thumped the ground.

It's not a full-price £50 (or whatever it launched at) game. I'd have been a bit pissed if I'd paid that. But a mid-range price of £30 would seem reasonable to me, and it's kicking around in places for less than that now, so I'd recommend it to anyone interested in Lovecraft and/or detective/mystery games. If they give this genre another go, hopefully they have a bit more in the way of time and resources to expand and refine a wee bit, and they might be able to make something special.

I managed to pick up Frogwares' Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments for free recently, so I fancy giving that a go next, as apparently the crime cases and investigations are more interesting and involved.

[The OP]

Just downloading Battlefront 2 as it’s far more appealing to me as a free PSN multiplayer game than a Call of Duty game. Quite looking forward to getting stuck in when it eventually finishes as I’m pleasantly surprised to see it now gets great reviews and seems to have a lot of game modes and content. The wee free arcade demo thing seemed good fun.

[GNU_Linux]

Postal 2

This game is dumb therefore this game is amazing. Please sign my petition.

[BFTD]

I played a pirate copy of Postal 2 that I was given back when it first came out. Had no idea what it was about. Spent ten minutes queuing in grocery stores and other shite and thought, "nope"  

Edit: Sherlock Holmes: Crime & Punishments was quality, by the way. Good enough that I've bought Frogwares' other Holmes games. Just a lot of fun dodding about as the great detective trying to connect clues and paying attention to minor incidental details that help to tip you off about what's actually been going on. Shame they didn't put as much investigative detail into The Sinking City, but I guess they were worried about scaring off the action crowd.

Edited July 12, 2020 by BigFatTabbyDave

[Saigon Raider]

Completed Uncharted 4 last night and thought it was very good. I quite enjoy the linear walkthrough and some of the set pieces were thrilling. Got a bit bored with some of the stealth, shooting areas by the end but overall a fun game.

Got Tomb Raider free from PS Plus this month so will try that next - not played a Tomb Raider since the very first one on a PS2.

[naegoodinthedark]

Playing Oxenfree on PC. Lovely wee point & click style horror game, that's really well made.

[GFARAB82]

EWR on pc its a wrestling game that's freeware almost 20 years old and you book your own promotion

[BFTD]

1 hour ago, GFARAB82 said:

EWR on pc its a wrestling game that's freeware almost 20 years old and you book your own promotion

Looked this up as I love old, obscure games that I've never heard of. Also have a slight weakness for text-based management games, kindled by hours in front of shite football management games on the Speccy.

Apparently they're still making new versions of this. Despite having no interest in wrestling, it may need to be tried.

[GFARAB82]

15 minutes ago, BigFatTabbyDave said:

Looked this up as I love old, obscure games that I've never heard of. Also have a slight weakness for text-based management games, kindled by hours in front of shite football management games on the Speccy.

Apparently they're still making new versions of this. Despite having no interest in wrestling, it may need to be tried.

Yes they have a forum similar to P&B that updates it often  with different mods someone at one point tried adding footballers and celebrities 

You don't see them wrestle the matches (just read the matches) it's basically hiring and firing a roster and booking shows, hiring cable TV shows for your Promotion its good fun once you get the hang of it. Anyways you dont have to watch wrestling to enjoy a game ive known folk who've played the old smackdown games but never watched it .

I tend to retro play EWR and CM 01/02 on pc rest of my gaming is on the ps4

Edited July 13, 2020 by GFARAB82

[BFTD]

Having enjoyed The Sinking City, I've just started the Call of Cthulhu game from a couple of years back.

Not far in but, wow, what a jankfest. Full of low-quality cutscenes and terrible dialogue that's clearly been poorly translated to English. Awful dialogue trees that regularly have your character suddenly refer to unknown third-parties as "him/her" without context, but your conversation partner will know exactly who you're referring to. Audio levels that jump around between barely audible to VERY LOUD constantly. Character models that wouldn't look out of place in a ten-year-old game, only with higher-res textures. The graphics in general are pretty Bioshock-era. Really poor animation by modern standards. Nothing even remotely creepy about it at all so far either; it's curiously uninvolving, and I can't think of a game that's made me care less about any peril that my character's in. Also has an RPG stats system that seems to be implying that your choice of skill upgrades will affect the plot progression in some way, but I've got the horrible feeling that it's making no difference whatsoever.

All in all, doesn't feel good so far. Think I definitely played the better Lovecraftian adventure first.

[Ocular Patdown Required]

Just completed the main story of Dragon Quest 11 on pc last night. Not sure whether to do all the post game stuff now or start Halo 3 which just came out for PC a couple of days ago