Reply With QuotePut all your points into wrench and hacking and the game is brilliant.
Well I finished Prey. Honestly I am a bit let down, I appreciate its ambition and I obviously recognise its System Shock roots, but it didn't feel like a cohesive experience to me. Some parts are brilliant, like the zero-G, but I couldn't get past my first impression about level design that I mentioned in my previous post. Even in alternate history, the art-deco extravagance was too much to suspend disbelief (and I say this as someone who loves art-deco). The dissonance distracted me from fully enjoying it.
I can't say I will not replay it, there's certainly potential as I haven't explored all side quests, and in this first play did with zero Typhon mods, but I think I'll leave it aside now and give Cyberpunk 2077 my full attention for the next few weeks.
Put all your points into wrench and hacking and the game is brilliant.
Originally Posted by rachel
Saving this for you for future reference.
I really liked Prey's intro, but I quit 5-6 hours in or so once it got into the meat of the game. Actually same thing with Deathloop. The gameplay was a little too slick, if you know what I mean. I'm into when I'm into it, but it doesn't have the lightening in the bottle thing that the first Dishonored had. I'll get back to them though. I think it's a function of how much time I have to sink into them.
The recent game in this vein that I got the most into was Control.
I think its set pieces were well made for the kind of run & gun it had you doing. I don't know. I'm not good at articulating why games connect with me, but something about Control did.
Exactly this. Damn it's hard to express something so subjective.
While I would say that I loved Prey, what demagogue especially is saying sounds similar to how I feel about the recent Hitman trilogy - I think the games are fantastic, and when I'm into them I'm *really* into them... but they require an up-front commitment, and without that they fall somewhat flat. Especially these days I often prefer having a game that I can dip my toes into as well as spend extended periods on. I also find that it's much easier to get into something that has more of a focus: do this now, do that after. That's not a criticism of such games - it's what makes them great - but it also means that if I'm not in the right mood and if I don't have enough time, spending just half an hour on them somehow feels like I'm wasting both my time and the time of the game.
To a large extent I'd say that it's especially the last two years that I've started to feel like this, and that the pandemic and everything that has come with it has resulted in me looking for something more immediate much of the time. I'm hoping that my enjoyment of longer-form gaming will come back, though.
The next bit might sound like a contradiction of this, but I've started playing Horizon: Zero Dawn again. (I'd previously played it on PS4.) It's mainly all the talk about the sequel that made me want to check out the PC version and how it looks, and it's pulled me in more than I would've expected. To some extent I think it's that the game, while gorgeous to look at and nicely enough written, is shallow in the way that most open-world games are: tons of activities, all of which feel pretty much the same. But it's something to play before going to bed or after getting up, for 15-20 minutes, setting myself small goals: do this sidequest, get those resources, explore this ruin.
In addition, I've started replaying Mirror's Edge, something I do every couple of years. It always takes me a level or two to get used to how Faith handles, but then I really enjoy the rush of navigating that particular world. I liked the sequel better than most people did (the open world falls flat, but I enjoy the main levels and some of the puzzle sequences a lot), but it's the streamlined simplicity of the first, its lack of skill trees and equipment, the way you have everything you need from the first and your objective is to become better at it, that keeps pulling me back.
And finally: I finished Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye over the weekend, and I love how it all comes together. It's eminently clever in terms of how its puzzles are designed, but there's also a strong emotional core there that resonated with me much like the original game did. I will definitely try to check out the VR mod soon, because I'd love to see what this world feels like when you're inside it rather than looking at it on a flat screen.
I know that feeling very well. There are times when I want to play something, but the immediately available options just feel like they need too much time investment to get to a good point.
I meant to play PoE 2, Mooncrash, and Deathloop, but instead I picked up Arma III Rally Edition on a whim and can't put it down.
Also replaying some Operation Flashpoint. Because...y'know...
Last edited by Jason Moyer; 1st Mar 2022 at 19:01.
That looks nice! How does it compare to Dirt Rally 2.0, if you've played that one?
It drives about the same, other than tarmac which is significantly better, it has way better stages and atmosphere, and it has a pretty in-depth career mode with team management and such. Graphics/sound-wise it's not on the same level, although I find it has a "natural" look to it in the same way RBR or ArmA III do. The damage model isn't as sensitive, although in the WRC cars it doesn't take much in a realistic-length rally to get to a point where you can't repair everything in the service areas. The tire model is interesting, because you get a limited number of tires and you have to manage their wear and make sure you're choosing the right compounds because the grip penalties for getting it wrong are severe. I'm addicted to it, it's a good time. I'd say for early 2000's WRC cars Richard Burns Rally is still king, and I'd probably go with Dirt Rally 2.0 for the historic stuff, but for modern WRC cars it's pretty amazing. The Anniversary mode stages are fun, although most of them are repurposed from the modern ones with period-appropriate objects added and spectators standing closer to the track. After WRC11 they're losing the license, and I think it would be awesome if they did a hardcore historic sim because their stage designs are great.
People talking about Elden Ring reminded me that I never finished Dark Souls 3, after I accidentally started playing the Witcher 3 around the time I reached the Boreal Valley. So I started it again. Making good progress until the bloody Abyss Watchers boss fight - absolutely kicking my ass, and I can't even cheat and get help because the online servers are down.
That's exactly where my DS3 run ended, haven't gone back since. Was really digging the game up to that point too. I'm sure I'll give it another shot at some point.
Lost in Elden Ring. Send runes, pls.
I just finished replaying Mirror's Edge, and while I still love the game, there are a lot of bits that are really not very good, namely everything where combat gets in the way of the parkouring. I forget this in between playthroughs, but every time there's a really frustrating combat encounter I start off wanting to get through without using guns myself, and in at least half these cases I end up grabbing a gun and killing enemies anyway because getting close to knock them out tends to be tremendously unfair. It's probably more apt to say that I love *some* of the game and graciously forget all the bits I *hate* after a while, which is why I'll end up reposting this exact post in 1-2 years, most likely.
Is there anyone other than the guy at the top of the stairs in the server room who you can't just run away from? I haven't replayed it since right before Catalyst (meh) came out and I remember either avoiding people or taking them out with parkour (i.e. vaulting on top of them).
Perhaps I simply wasn’t good enough, but I found it really difficult to take out bad guys in that room, since most of them would quickly home in on where I was, so while I’d knock one out, the others would shoot me. I would be able to take out two, perhaps three of them, but after restarting the checkpoint 25+ times, I’d just give up, because that’s not what I enjoy the game for, namely the flow.
Getting through Mirror's Edge without shooting anyone isn't too bad. But getting through without fighting anyone is much harder. There're the three guys that come down from a helicopter in front of you. It's absolutely possible to get past them, but I've never managed it, lol. There's a "car park" room on the boat with a machine gunner in the middle and it takes a long time to open the door. There's a trick to cheese past the door, but again, I don't even know how that works, so I always take him out. The server room is challenging, but I have done that one; you can just run around until they shoot all the servers for you, and then "vault" up next to the machine gunner and run past.
I think the idea was supposed to be that you could parkour the fighting itself.
You were meant to do some really quick move or two on a guy and quickly move on.
But it didn't usually work out that way in the heat of the moment.
I keep replaying it every year or two also, so evidently it's doing something right.
One thing is that I've done the speed run races so many times that I have the motions for most levels burned into my muscle memory, and it comes back really quickly. So there are big chunks of it where I fly through it on muscle memory alone. But that's also probably what makes the fighting stick out so much in contrast. It doesn't happen that often, so I don't mind too much. The parking garage level is a slog though.
The fact that every single melee combat move makes you stop moving was a very strange decision, IMO. Maybe it was just too hard to do it any other way.
Welp, it took me 12 years and 5 or so attempts, but I finally finished Metro 2033 (I think it was one of the last games I bought an actual physical copy of). It was awesome, of course, just a great experience, and a world filled with details and dripping with atmosphere. And there's actually some decent stealth sections in the human portions of the game, wasn't expecting that at all. My one complaint is that I hated the feeling of being rushed in the surface sections because I might run out of air. I'm used to taking my time and exploring every corner of the world, but I get why they did it.
That said, I didn't even stop to take a breath and jumped right into Last Light. Also decided to ramp up the difficulty and play in Ranger mode. There've been some rough (and frustrating) spots, but I'm working my way through it.
Did you play OG 2033 or the Redux version? IIRC they improved the stealth a ton in the Redux.
Ok my game is out and relatively bug-free so I'm TRYING to take it easy this week but of course I can't DO THAT because I HAVE NO CHILL so I'm making videos of people playing my Tricky Machines custom levels.
I’m 30 hours into Elden Ring while playing Gran Turismo 7 as a palate cleanser. GT7 is great so far. I was the biggest fan from the original up to 4, and then 5 felt clunky and unpolished, and I stopped buying them after that. So far GT7 brings back the old good feelings. It’s basically an interactive car magazine, packed with tiny details, a little bit goofy and weird, and while I’m not the car fan I was when I first got 100 percent in GT2, it’s still sparked my interest. And the cars, expectedly, are about as beautiful as you can imagine. I wouldn’t be surprised if Polyphony had several people working on paint simulation alone.
Elden Ring interspersed with XCOM2 with the excellent Long War of the Chosen mod so I don't burn out.
Elden Ring, interspersed with doing other necessary life things, like working, while I think about Elden Rings.
I have never gotten into the Souls games before, but damn I am obsessed with this.
I didn't expect it to happen, but Mirror's Edge Catalyst has pulled me in much more than expected on my replay (immediately following Mirror's Edge). I would absolutely agree that it does some things worse than the first game, but I am enjoying just running around, which feels really, really good. I'm doing the main and side missions, but none of the small deliveries (yet), but there's more to like about the open world than I thought at first. Also, I've switched runner vision to classic mode, which means that the environmental hints I get aren't too different from the original game.
One thing I'm noticing is that Mirror's Edge's traversal mechanics can sometimes be quite harsh in ways where it isn't immediately clear to me why a move didn't work, whereas Mirror's Edge Catalyst seems to overcorrect in the other direction, so that I sometimes succeed when I think I should've flubbed a move. I guess my perfect Mirror's Edge game would be somewhere in between those two.
Also, I'm still enjoying Horizon Zero Dawn much more on my replay than I would've expected. Perhaps it helps that I remember liking but not loving it, so I'm not going in with dozens of extremely positive reviews in mind.
