Sins of a Solar Empire 2 Loved the original, and when they announced a sequel i wondered how they were going to ruin it with microtransactions and lootboxes, but thankfully there isnt any of that yet, which for a game in 2020 onwards, should instantly make it a game worth looking at
Still this, now about 55hrs in... out of apparently about 80-100 hours. And I can already see myself wanting to do an NG+ run as well... Although I have just come up against the first absolute bar-steward of a boss. Apparently combat was never overly challenging in the original version and was made even easier with the 'Royal' version. It shows - I think I had maybe one game over so far, and that was really early on while I was still getting my head around the mechanics. Until this utter arse biscuit... And it seems I'm not alone in that assessment, as plenty of others around teh interwebs have also made similar comments. He is a floating turd that just will not flush; he has about 7 different stages with some incredibly mean mechanics thrown in and there's a time limit of 30 minutes counted in real-time. There are some devastating attacks in the mix that can one-shot your main character and end the game there and then. One of the suggested tactics I see quite frequently is to change the game difficulty... to the highest setting. Ironically it makes this fight easier: you to do more damage with critical hits and elemental weaknesses, meaning you get through early waves faster and have more time to deal with the later harder waves...
… Still P5R… And that is exactly what I did: finished the game and then 2-3 days later started NG+. About 95hrs for the original playthrough and I’m now about 45hrs in to NG+ - ironically I’m almost back at the point I was at when I last posted… Absolutely cheesing it this time around, since weapons, “personas” (a bit like Final Fantasy summons), and money all carry over to NG+. I’m intentionally handicapping myself by avoiding personas that are super OP, but rarely does a fight prove to be challenging. That bar-steward of a boss will be a cakewalk. Almost hit all the achievements too, which is pretty rare for me. I’ve two more to do and they’ll both be completed at the same time. Not gonna be everyone’s cup of tea since it’s a story-rich JRPG/almost-visual-novel where the principal characters are Japanese high-school teenagers, but it clearly floats my boat. The visual style is great, the soundtrack is fantastic, and it runs on a potato - flawless 60FPS on Steam Deck and the GPU fans don’t spin even at 4K 120Hz. Got a bit of a backlog building up in the wings though… I do want to finish Hellblade II, I’ve not touched Forbidden West, got both God of War: Dad of Boy games to get through… and I suppose I’ll probably at least try whatever mess Bethesda dribbled out for Starfield…
I've just started Warhammer 40k Space Marine 2. I've never played any of the Warhammer games, be that video games or the table top, and had long dismissed them as "not my thing". I was wrong, so very wrong. It's fantastic. The graphics are good, but I love the lore and storyline. I'm not far into it, but you can really feel the heft of everything. I feel I'm on a slippery slope which ends with buying mini-figures
Yeah I think I'm done with that now. Nowhere near all the in-game achievements/awards though, there was tons of stuff I didn't do. But I have zero inclination to start a third game... Next up I think will be Hellblade 2 - I might go back and start it again, it's been a while since I played it. EDIT: I got curious... In the last ~18 months or so, I've bought 16 games on Steam - not counting the Vampire Survivors stuff because that's DLC for a title I already own: Out of the 10 I've actually installed, I have a total of 388 hours played. 98% of those 388 hours are from just three games: Baldur's Gate 3 with 191hrs, Persona 5 Royal with 184hrs, and Crisis Core FFVIISILLYNAME with... 6.5hrs... I know we all joke about The Great Unfinished Steam Library, but this is how it happens.
Good news though, one of those sixteen, Forbidden West should only take around 100 hours or so. One of only a small handful I've platinum'd.
I somehow found myself on the mailing list for the developers of this - and they offered a pretty nice pre-order discount, which I didnt take, as I just dont think I could do it justice with the time it needs, I absolutely loved the original, but i barely get 2-3 hours a week these days to play any games at all...
Just picked up the HZD remaster, looking forward to playing that again on the PS5. HFW was the first game I booted up on the PS5, must have played that four or five times across the PS4 and PS5. Think that's enough for me E: Contemplating a run of AC Valhalla, I actually really enjoyed that and that was even with the lesser graphics and day long loading times on the PS4, I've yet to play it on PS5.
Started playing Forbidden West a couple of weeks ago, probably about a dozen hours in so far. Damn, I've missed these games... This whole 'remastered' thing just feels like a blatant cash grab to me. I've seen some screenshots showing the differences and, yes, it does look better, but it was already a pretty good-looking game IMO. It was damn pretty the first time I played it in 2021, and it's probably still damn pretty now. The PC version was very well optimised and ran a treat even on modest hardware; my previous 3070Ti was more than enough for well over 70-80fps at 4K with the settings cranked. But... it's only a tenner, so curiosity will probably get the better of me eventually... I'm in no hurry to re-play it though, it can wait.
I can't say I disagree but it was one of those rare things. They initially gave me the complete edition for free for some reason (COVID? Sony being hacked? Can't remember). I fancied dumping a tenner because of that and will at least mean a replay, now on my PS5, will look prettier. Good excuse for another run I wouldn't do this for all games though, it's been one of my favourites over recent years. I also picked up the Witcher 3 on sale for a similar reason (originally played on PC) because it stood out for me in my library. I won't object to running through that on the PS5 at some point. But the general point, I agree. The PS5 seems to have had an underwhelming selection of titles and alot of remasters (That's my impression anyway, whether it's true or not I don't know) Case in point, currently replaying AC Valhalla that I originally got for the PS4 that had a free upgrade.
This far in before I encountered any real "game breaking" bugs. Just some NPCs I couldn't interact with. Think I'll have to put it back on the shelf now until the patch is released.
Showing Gran Turismo 7 some love after quite a while and trying to attain more licenses to open the game up more. I also need to try it on PSVR2 now too. Looking at my New Game+ playthrough of HZD, it took me almost 90 hours the first time round. Granted, I've not done anywhere near as much exploring, but on this second playthrough, the last battle is looming after only 20 hours. It helps having collected the health restoring armour first time round for sure. Still so much amazing fun. The story certainly hits different second time round, particularly the hologram explaining the different AI (and knowing how the plan has panned out so far) and Aloy's epiphany about her 'parents'. I say it's definitely worth the £10 for slightly shinier graphics and more detailed models.
