Tomi on 1/1/2020 at 21:42
I know, I know, we've tried to break away from the big old megathread before and it hasn't worked. The old thread has become so huge that I feel it's a shame that all those posts will be lost in time, like tears in rain. But hey, a new year and a new decade has just started - the future is here, folks! What would be a better time to start a new thread like this?! We could make it a yearly thing perhaps, that would make things neat and organised, and much nicer to navigate.
Perhaps this will be just another failed attempt to escape the gravitational pull of the Megathread, but let's give it a try and see if we can hit the escape velocity, eh? :D
Tomi on 1/1/2020 at 21:49
I'll get the ball rolling! I started the new decade with
A Short Hike.
I remember henke recommending this a couple of months ago, and I installed the game back then, but didn't end up actually playing it. Happens quite often to me, actually. Then, just the other day henke compared A Short Hike to
Little Big Adventure 2, and that's what really convinced me - within a few minutes I was holding the Xbox One controller in my hand and gliding across the screen as a bird called Claire.
Now this is the ultimate feel-good game. A Short Hike is literally rather short (you could probably easily finish it in less than an hour if you don't care about exploring), but I think I had a smile on my face throughout the whole game, I even got a few good laughs. I love the silly conversations with the other animals and the little quests. There's not much challenge in the game; you can't die or anything, and there aren't many things out there to stop your progress. It's all about exploring and having a fun time really, and I like it that way. Gliding through the air looking for interesting spots to explore is a lot of fun.
No AAA graphics or super fancy game mechanics here either, this is a small indie game after all, but I like the simplicity of everything. The basic controls are very easy and smooth, and the game looks quite stylish. I do wish that the graphics were just a little bit less pixelated though - everything looks adorable enough as it is, but just a bit more detail would make it perfect in my opinion. The music fits in just fine and adds to the relaxing atmosphere.
My only complaint is the length of the game - the fun ends way too soon! You find all these different tools that have the potential for some light puzzles and treasure hunting, but just when it feels like the adventure is really about to start, the end credits start rolling in. You can of course come back after that and explore as much as you like and play the "side-quests", but pretty soon you've seen just about everything that the game has to offer.
A Short Hike is so good that it wins my award for the best 2019 game. Admittedly it's also the only 2019 game that I've played at this point, but even if it wasn't, A Short Hike would still be a very strong contender, which is quite remarkable for such a short game. I also must say that henke's comparison was very apt; there's something very much like LBA2 in this game indeed, and it can only be a good thing. Here's hoping for a sequel!
Inline Image:
https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/792003966393653132/8571DA87E27279951063A57A9435291B78B6C58E/
Shadowcat on 2/1/2020 at 00:09
> We could make it a yearly thing perhaps, that would make things neat and organised, and much nicer to navigate.
Ugh. I've always been anti the "WAYP" megathread, but intentionally splitting it into multiple megathreads seems like the worst of both worlds. The only way to read about specific games in these things is to use the "search in thread" feature. Please don't make users end up having to do that repeatedly, in lots of separate megathreads, in order to find out whether people have been talking about a given game and locate the specific posts.
Kolya on 2/1/2020 at 00:14
I'm playing Life is Strange 2 together with my wife. We both played the first one. While LiS2 has a lot of the points down that made its predecessor great (atmosphere, quiet moments, scenes with high emotional impact) and some of its weaknesses (facial animations), LiS2 also has some own problems. Sometimes there isn't much to do and it plays like a movie for several minutes. And I don't know if it's us and the decisions we make, but in LiS2 I have seen the man behind the curtain a bit too often, pushing the narrative forward, regardless of our "decisions", which turn out to be inconsequential if the game wants to go elsewhere. We're into the 3rd (of 5) episode now and I'm sure we'll finish it and love it.
I'm just starting to think that somewhere there's a game inside both LiS games that isn't quite so strange, not chock full of dramatic life changing events, but a bit more subtle and able to find the heartbreak in an ordinary life.
henke on 2/1/2020 at 03:13
Glad to hear you liked A Short Hike, Tomi! :)
Quote Posted by Shadowcat
The only way to read about specific games in these things is to use the "search in thread" feature.
PSA: a better way to search for specific games/topics on ttlg(or any website) is to google "site:ttlg.com [search term]"
Thirith on 2/1/2020 at 09:37
Currently replaying Dishonored 2 and Hitman (2016), and both of these definitely benefit from an ultrawide screen. I don't actively take in the edges, but they provide something akin to peripheral vision, which in these games is both beneficial and immersive.
I'm also replaying The Last of Us in preparation for the sequel, and I'm reminded once again that I'm actually not a huge fan of the gameplay (it's okay but I suck at it and I don't actively enjoy it), but I love the world, environments and characters.
twisty on 2/1/2020 at 10:28
I also found the combat to be the weaker point in an otherwise near perfect game. And I really can't fathom how they have an online multiplayer mode. I wonder if anyone actually plays it...
henke on 2/1/2020 at 11:54
I did enjoy the stealth/action gameplay in TLOU, and did play a few rounds of the MP. It's indeed an odd fit for such a game, but kinda fun.
I saw Driver 1-remake
(http://drivermadness.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=3587) The Driver Syndicate had an update recently, so I downloaded it and gave it a whirl. The gameplay feels authentic to the original. Cars have a nice sense of weight to them and the cops are as tenacious as ever. There's no analogue-gamepad support so I ended up playing it with keyboard, just like I did back then. There's a few levels to pick from, and even Film Director mode. No way of saving clips tho, but at least we have Shadowplay for that these days. Here I'm nailing the job interview. It was as tough as you remember, I had to look up how to do some of the maneuvers online.
[video=youtube;CFr7sBiZt2E]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFr7sBiZt2E&feature=youtu.be[/video]
Malf on 2/1/2020 at 12:11
Ooo, you've got an ultrawide now Thirith?
Nice!
I treated myself to an RTX2080 Super for Christmas, and after playing and finishing Prey (more thoughts on that in a bit), I started on Control to see wot all this ray tracing mullarkey's about.
It's a fantastic game in its own right, a love-letter to SCP writ large, but the ray-tracing raises it to spectacular.
However, even on my system, it takes a massive toll, and if I want all the bells and whistles, I have to knock the resolution down to 1920x1080 instead of 2560x1440.
That makes it very playable indeed, but I can see that nVidia's ray tracing tech is either still in its infancy, or Remedy need to iron out some bugs in their engine.
Frequently, textures won't load properly, indicating the card's RAM is being overloaded, and there's some weird artefacts, like odd lighting stripes around corners.
But technical gubbinz aside, I'm having a whale of a time with it. It's weird and inventive, and leans in to the horror aspect of SCP, which is very welcome. It's also very Soulsy and Metroidvania in its level design, which is a refreshing change for a Remedy game.
And it plays some nice tricks with level design too, just enough that you're never entirely sure about where you are in The Oldest House. I love seeing inventive level design, and since Dishonored 2 and Titanfall 2, it seems like other developers have really upped their games.
And with that, time to talk about Prey, which is probably my favourite "pure" ImSim in years, if not ever.
I loved this pretty much all the way through, even the ending, which I'd read had been a bit badly received. Personally, I had no problems with it.
What was a real revelation for me, to the extent that I had no previous idea it was in the game at all, was the amount of zero gravity stuff.
Now THIS is what I want in a game set in space! Hell, the entire game could have been zero G as far as I'm concerned.
Floating around outside the station looking for hidden bits, zooming through G.U.T.S whilst traversing from one end to the other, this is the good stuff.
I loved Lone Echo to bits, but felt it could have been longer and more involved. And well, Prey gave me that.
On top of that, there's a lot to be said for the game taking place all on one station with lots of backtracking. You gradually build familiarity with the station, to the extent that like some early FPS games, I'm sure that there are sections of Talos I I'll be able to recall years down the line. It was also great seeing areas that were sealed due to breaches, then being able to navigate your way to them while outside the station. Brilliant stuff.
I also like that Arkane have polished their systems to a fine sheen, realising that experience systems aren't needed, whilst retaining a decent feeling of progression through NeuroMods and suit / Psychoscope chips.
I did wonder why I kept getting blueprints for weapons I already had, but then realised that there's a weapon wear-and-tear option in the survival mode.
First play-through, I only went for human mods, so I'll probably try either an alien or no-mods run when I get around to playing it again. But that won't be any time soon, as I have all sorts of other stuff to get through, including the similar (but nowhere near as polished) Breathedge which Henke chucked my way for Christmas.
Breathedge also features zero-G heavily, but plays more like a Subnautica-style survival experience, which I'm not massively fond of. Survival mechanics often feel like busywork to extend longevity. However, there's enough humour and prettiness to keep me engaged. The idea of utilising an immortal chicken to resolve numerous space-based issues is ridiculous enough to tickle me.
Tomi on 2/1/2020 at 16:50
Quote Posted by Shadowcat
Ugh. I've always been anti the "WAYP" megathread, but intentionally splitting it into
multiple megathreads seems like the
worst of both worlds.
Oh, I dunno! During the year 2019 the old megathread got 31 new pages, and while that's quite a lot for a thread, it's hardly mega. :) I'd say that that's still a lot more convenient to navigate and browse through than a 500-page monster - it wouldn't even take that long to just click through the pages. I gotta admit that I've never been the biggest fan of the WAYP threads either, but I acknowledge that such a thread has its uses. I think people should be less afraid to perform some thread necromancy though!
I can't decide what to play next. I finished
Yakuza 0 just before the year changed, and it was such an exhausting (but awesome) experience that took a lot of my time, that I need something lighter now.
A Short Hike was the perfect game for this occasion, and I guess I'm looking for something similar. I wanted to give
Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun a try (not thinking that it's light, I've just been meaning to play it for so long) but I soon noticed that I need to invest some serious time in it to enjoy it, so I gave up with it for now. I then fired up
Horizon Chase Turbo, knowing that it won't take too long of my time.
Inline Image:
https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/792003966397550237/FB70171C8310E26C146F8BB46EFA599548870564/Horizon Chase Turbo is one of those retro racing games, if you've ever played OutRun or Crazy Cars for example, this is a modern version of those. It's got some delightfully colourful shiny retro-style graphics, but same sort of driving "physics" and handling that already felt outdated thirty years ago. Well, I guess it wouldn't be a retro racer otherwise. The driving couldn't be more simple and winning races is a bit too easy - no doubt it'll get more challenging later on though! All the different surfaces and weather conditions feel pretty much the same, good enough reflexes is all that you need in this game. It's not all bad though, I played Horizon Chase Turbo for an hour and had a pretty good time, but then the game started to repeat itself too much. There seems to be quite a lot of different locations, lots of unlockable cars and ways to upgrade them, but none of it seems to make the racing itself much more interesting.