Fights in Tight Spaces -- its simple and fun kinda like super hot but turnbased with an isometric viewpoint and nice sound track Bright Memory Infinite -- Steam reviews are moaning about how short this is but considering its made by a one man indie dev apart from the music, its not at all bad and not a perfect game by any means
Mech 5: Shooty Shooty Blasty Blasty I was wondering if I was enjoying this, then realised I basically played it flat out over the weekend, even having a very late night on Saturday, which left me feeling a little crap Sunday morning, but hey ho. The game feels a bit like a triple A game done on a tight budget (which it probably was): I say this as the game's interface feels a little '2000s' and I noticed a spelling error. However, some real thought has been put into balancing the gameplay, and the thing that stands out is the bigger is not better. In Mechwarrior 2 and 4, it felt as though it was all about taking the largest 'mech, creating a monoboat loadout and then trying to kill something as quickly as possible. Glad to say this isn't the case in Mechwarrior 5! A small, quick mech can keep running around a larger 'mech, focussing on a leg to slow it down further and/or ripping apart the rear armour. Needless to say, if the smaller 'mech makes a mistake, they'll eat an AC 20 - but if that AC 20 is on an arm mount, rip it off first (I'm looking at you, Urbanmech)! One of my more favourite experiences was getting the Firestarter (a 35t 'mech), stripping the jump jets and equipping it all the machine guns and S lasers I could: finding a big mech and just unleashing a constant stream of firepower at pretty much melee range. The 'mech loadouts are clever too, much more in line with the lore. At first I was irked by the fact I couldn't just monoboat, but after a while, I came to appreciate having different weapon groups. Enemy at long range? Use your LRMs and/or AC/2s to wear them down a little before they get closer. Medium range? Your 4 medium lasers are ideal for chipping away whatever limb you don't want them to have any more, as well as having the AC/2s to fall back on if your heat starts building up. Suddenly right in front of you? Those small lasers allow you to keep inflicting damage without too much heat build up, or just lamp the damn thing with your arms. Or ram them! Balanced loadouts are crucial for your lance mates too; I typically ended up giving them the more durable 'mechs, while I took a faster, less armoured 'mech to get in close and disable the biggest threats. So yes, having fun with this. Just wish that more money had gone into polishing the game to make it truly excellent.
Started playing Horizon Zero Dawn (on PC) on Sunday. ~25hrs in and I am absolutely digging it. In terms of technical implementation it's very polished. At 1440p I get 114fps average (~90 average at 4K) with all the setting absolutely cranked (and G-Sync/Freesync enabled). I do have a pretty decent gaming machine, but it seems to be well-optimised. It properly supports Playstation controllers on PC, which is nice. None of the fancy DualSense features, but they're not supported on PS5 either. But it does have the correct button prompts and not the XInput prompts. The game itself is absolutely brilliant so far. A lot of fun to play, and the combat is just the right balance between challenging and rewarding. I'm about 25hrs in but I'm doing a lot of side stuff along the way so I haven't actually made that much progress in the main story! In case it isn't obvious I'm really really enjoying it! More previous platform exclusives on PC, please! Just as long as they're done like this and not like FFVII Remastered was....
Good to know. I've had it downloaded on my PS4 since they gave the complete edition away for free. The premise of robotic dinosaurs doesn't grab me but everyone seems to rave about it so I'll give it a bash after I've done with Valhalla. And maybe Odyssey again Damn then I've still got the remastered Mass Effect and Cyberpunk to pick up for PC. Not to mention the wedge of free Epic games. I need more time!!!
I did always plan to get this on PS4, but I think I'll be selling that before too long! I was playing Jedi Fallen Order, but that's going to have to wait until I've finished HZD! .....and maybe wait until I've done a NewGame+ and 100% completion run of HZD!
Oh god yeah, Jedi Fallen Order - I picked that up free not long back too. Forgot about that. I need to go back twenty years to free up enough time.
God of War, on PC. So far, it's not grabbing me, I'm a few hours in. The combat feels off, I keep pressing the thumb buttons rather than shoulder buttons. Not sure why all Kratos attacks are done by combinations of shoulder buttons. Camera is also very strange, feels very narrow, game needs FoV adjustment. Though story is interesting and I'd like to learn more. Horizon Zero Down is fantastic. The robo dino thing is cool, something to get punters interested, but the main story slow reveal and hunting style gameplay is where the game shines. If it were 15 years ago, I'd have enough time to start another playthrough of HZD. But these days I restrict myself to games I've not played, so I can experience more varieties.
Funny, it's the robo dino thing that has put me off playing it. That said, I will be giving it a go - all I've heard is the gameplay and story is well worth it so for that, at least, I should give it a try.
I think I might be the latest to the party that anyone has ever been to any party, with this one, but: Deus Ex. The first one. I never played it properly when it was contemporary, discovered it this winter. It's ****ing brilliant. (But everyone and their dog already knows that)
Did you ever give Hawken a go? It's offline now, but there's an unofficial fix to re-enable it, so I was thinking of trying it. Nope, I'm still getting my shoes on to leave for that party.
You are not allowed back on the forum until you've at LEAST bought and downloaded it. It's like 99p or something on Steam now.
Ahh, Hawken. I remember when the first trailer hit for that, and goddammit it was beautiful, music and all. Then I learnt it was multiplayer only, so sadly lost interest. I did actually install it a few years after its release and it looked nice enough, but multiplayer was dead. A shame - if it had been single player, it would've been a no brainer. I was fortunate enough to play it when it was new. Now, the cycle all these years on goes like this: I should play Deus Ex again as it's amazing. Install. ARRRRGGGGH! THE GRAPHICS ARE MAKING MY EYES BLEED! Uninstall A few years later, go back to the start.
Will you give me a pass if I have the GOTY edition on GOG (nearly broke me at 69p)? I do have yet to download it, because I was buying tinted safety goggles based on Pete's review...
More of CP as I have actually been getting into a little. Now just have the joy of waiting for the 47.4GB patch to download.... won't be playing tonight as its only at 30%... I must say that the 3080 in the Legion is putting in some work. Runs at a locked 1755Mhz on the core and seemingly has no care to go above 75C after a prolonged gaming session (past midnight finish when I have to be up at 5:30 for work is not fun).
Can't argue with the complaints about vanilla Deus Ex's graphics. It does look like a bunch of biscuits having sex in a cup of tea. This improves things substantially, though: https://deusex.fandom.com/wiki/Project_HDTP
(Still) Mech 5: Mercs Bugger me, this game is long, mainly due to the extra padding between campaign/DLC missions. Completed the main story of The Legend of the Kestrel Lancers, which was easy enough. I've still got a fair way to go to complete the main campaign, but I've pretty much got all the 'mechs and pilots I need now. In particular, I have a few favourite 'mechs, which I've given nicknames (just wish I could actually change their name in-game): Ash's Boomstick A Hero Victor (80 tonne assault) whose main armament is a double barrelled LBX AC/10 (backed up by three SRM4s, two S Laser SBs and an Assault Fist), it's all I can do each time I shoot to say, "See this? This, is my BOOMSTICK!". Admittedly the boomstick is on the right arm instead of the left, but you can't have everything. I've landed several headshots at point blank range with this. The Deleter A Marauder II (100 tonne assault) armed to the electro-gills with Large and Medium Pulse Lasers. If I don't want something to exist anymore, I simply click on it and it goes away. Adding to the fun is the fact that the 'mech has jumpjets, meaning those pesky artillery missions become a lot easier. Minigun Crab A Hero King Crab (100 tonne assault)armed with FOUR UAC/5s (backed up by two SRM6s). At range, the UAC/5s maintain a nice stream of dependable firepower. Up close? Mash the fire button to rapid fire the main guns, which backed up by the SRMs, can annihilate anything in short order, though the UAC/5s inevitably jam and need a moment to recover. The downside is that the damn 'mech steers like a tugboat, though a 15% speed boost makes life a little more bearable. Ankle Biter A Hero Locust (20 tonne light), modded to have additional speed, acceleration and turning, and armed with four flamers and two machine guns. The result is a 'mech that can run at ~175KPH, meaning that in artillery missions, I can take out those annoying long range guns before they've had a chance to fire more than 1-2 times. Then, I run back to my lance mates and make even the biggest 'mech pop by running circles around them and overheating them with the aforementioned flamers. In one mission, I got the last kill by ramming a heavy mech to death. Cost me an arm, but nothing was mounted in it, and thanks to the small nature of the 'mech, only took 4 days to repair. Old Skull Face A run of the mill Atlas (100 tonne assault), armed with LRMs, PPCs, an AC/10 BF and two assault fists. Invincible and well-rounded, Old Skull Face can wade in anywhere and dominate. My favourite moment in this 'mech was being circled by a Locust, who got a bit too close and as a result was ended with a single punch from an assault fist. A bit like an older brother slapping an unruly younger brother.
I've been jumping between the PC, PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch quite a bit lately so playing a few different games in short sessions... Nintendo Switch - Xenoblade Chronicles 2 PS5 - Shadow of War and Red Dead Redemption 2 PC - X4 Foundations At the moment I usually only get a chance to play a couple of times a week, so progress on each of those is beyond slow... especially RDR2 which generally ends up being a session of riding around and doing nothing towards the main plot.
Not played x4 for a bit, may have to give that a go soon. Shadow of War - I never expected much from the middle earth games but I bloody loved them. As for RDR2 - that's still loaded up on the PS4. I started it then just left it. Not sure why, it's not that I didn't like it or anything. I think I may have spent too much time playing poker and forgot there was a game going on. Yeah, one I have to restart when I get chance.
I'd probably wait until 14th March to jump back into X4 if you've not played it for a bit, there's a new expansion coming out that'll likely result in other content getting patched and altered at that time. Shadow of War is certainly an easy game to pick up and just enjoy a bit of random fun, really love the whole nemesis system behind the war chiefs... really wish more games would implement something like it. I'm more or less the same with RDR2, last time I spent 70% of my time just messing about in a town... I can't even remember how far I am into the story anymore.
Thanks for the heads up on x4, I'll put that on hold-hold for now It's what I'm doing for the Witcher 3, waiting for the graphics update before grabbing that final achievement (not usually too fussed about achievements but there's just one left - play it on such and such setting) I agree about the nemesis system, I found that really addictive and as for hanging around towns in RDR2, I hear you, I used to play dominoes as a kid and that was too distracting too.
