The Gaming Thread

Im starting to have concerns about Mechanicus, it's difficulty to be precise.

Now I played 2 missions marked "hard". They were really easy, even though they were "boss fights". First dude was just tanky, but was in big open area so tricking him was easy and the second one did nothing, because I buffed my units and took him down in 1 turn, making it the easiest mission so far.

Might need to adjust difficulty settings manually
 
So I've started playing Hollow Knight... It's a really good game for sure, but there are some areas and moments that are so frustratingly difficult (mostly platforming stuff) that I've had to take breaks from the game to be able to give them a try again. Not as great as Ori and the Blind Forest, but still good.
 
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So I've started playing Hollow Knight... It's a really good game for sure, but there are some areas and moments that are so frustratingly difficult (mostly platforming stuff) that I've had to take breaks from the game to be able to give them a try again. Not as great as Ori and the Blind Forest, but still good.

:lol: I told you man, that game will fuck you up but it's really rewarding and you do get significantly stronger by the end. The platforming gets more complex the longer you play so you'll be chaining abilities together, but even so it never really takes it easy on you. Same with the boss fights, there are some you will nail the first try, but there are others that will definitely put you to the test.

I had a hell of a time trying to beat it, but to me it was a very rewarding game with waaay more content than I was expecting. I'm not sure how many hours I put in but I think it was somewhere between 30-40 hours which is huge for a platformer. It's one of those games you'll want to check every corner so you can maximize your skills and survivability. Finding all the Charms and notches makes a significant impact on your overall power.

Also, it's not obvious at first but there are actually several paths you can take to beat it and some paths are harder than others, especially near the beginning. I had a bit of a rough start too. I got lost a lot early on before all of the areas started connecting and everything started to fall into place. Plus I thought it was a game where the developers had a specific path in mind to beat it (like most games in this genre), but it turns out there are multiple solutions and I somehow entered a really tough area earlier than I should have. It made the following sections feel a lot easier at least :lol:

The somber and weird atmosphere is also very cool, I like the whole cartoony gothic insect aesthetic.

Overall it's my second favourite metroidvania style game, right behind SOTN (naturally). Not a game I want to revisit often because it takes a lot out of you, but definitely worth beating at least once.
 
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Yeah, I really like the atmosphere and art style! I just really think the pogo jumping could've been left out. I died probably 20 times in one area just trying to pogo on those armoured dudes walking around in the acid pools, and lost all my geo. Not to mention the part where the closest resting bench being about 500 miles away, haha.
Also, why do the game tell you how to do basically everything except the pogo jump? Got some really bad flashbacks from Metroid Prime with the "secret" wall jumping technique. :yuk:
 
IM A FUCKING PROPHET

I SAID THAT IF THERE EVER IS GONNA BE ANOTHER HALF LIFE ITS GONNA BE IN VR

AND I WAS FUCKING RIGHT

HAPPENING STATUS:
IS

AFTER 15 YEARS HOLY SHIT
 
Im just happy series is alive. It might suck, sure. But im also happy I could predict it.

My reasoning Half Life was always innovative. First game was a first shooter with a proper plot.
Second game showed us physics that are beating modern games to this day sometimes. Also, if im not mistaken, was the first game were characters' faces were animated "properly" - showing emotions. + Obviously gravity gun.

Now here's hoping they've got some revolutionary shit for VR gaming. For me that's an obvious future of gaming, but its still very limited. I wont be able to properly immerse myself if im moving using a pad. Mass produce this thing on which you can actually walk and run and I would even go a step further, character abilities are limited by your own body. Thats means if youre too fat to run - sucks to be you, get in shape.

I would be so fucking fit im not even joking. I lost tons of weight when I was playing shit like PokemonGO or other location based games. When they bored me (or like PokemonGo became PokemonSIT or pokemonDRIVEandZERG) I went back to having close to non activity and got fat again.
 
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Also, why do the game tell you how to do basically everything except the pogo jump? Got some really bad flashbacks from Metroid Prime with the "secret" wall jumping technique. :yuk:

This was a big problem for me as well, since I did not realize I had to do that downslash jump to bounce on the glowing mushrooms to progress at one point. I wandered the map for hours trying to figure it out. That definitely could have been handled better.
 
This was a big problem for me as well, since I did not realize I had to do that downslash jump to bounce on the glowing mushrooms to progress at one point. I wandered the map for hours trying to figure it out. That definitely could have been handled better.

Yeah, not to mention it's pretty hard to do consistently. Doing it on the mushrooms was a bit tricky at first, but you kinda get the hang of it after a while. But doing it on moving enemies over insta-death acid pits just felt like a big joke honestly. Just doing it 1 millisecond too late and you took damage from the enemy and fell straight into the acid. Ugh.
 
:lol: I didn't have much trouble with that. I think I fell like 2 or 3 times and then got the rhythm and cleared the area, and IIRC you get a shortcut back. I'm pretty sure there is only one part that makes you do that as well. It's not a skill you need much for platforming, but it's a very good skill to master for combat.
 
I'm probably dead inside but I'm not hyped at all, maybe because I know I won't be spending mad money on a VR set + hardware upgrade just to play this single game. Plus, I don't even like what they did with the story in HL2 and the episodes anyway. Couldn't care less about the stupid humanity being enslaved, Alyx Shmalyx, etc., I want more cryptic Lovecraftian otherworldly stuff.
 
I have some titles that I want to play on VR so i might get it.

VR is way too limited to blow away anyone, but I own PSVR and know what to expect, for VR standards it looks really good.
 
it looks great. i am hopeful that valve continues its trend of excellence :D

unpopular opinion of the century time

i didnt care for half life 2. i loved the first game and played it through a couple times. half life 2, well i agree with every good thing thats ever been said about it. it just never hooked me. and yeah i played it through, and i played it within a couple years of it's release. and i know a million games use the engine and the physics and the story everyone loves the story .....and it was just such a boring game.

roast me
 
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i didnt care for half life 2. i loved the first game and played it through a couple times. half life 2, well i agree with every good thing thats ever been said about it. it just never hooked me. and yeah i played it through, and i played it within a couple years of it's release. and i know a million games use the engine and the physics and the story everyone loves the story .....and it was just such a boring game.

roast me

You're not alone, I felt the exact same way. I recognize that it's an awesome game but I only beat it once when it came out, and every time I try to go back I get bored for some reason... HL1 on the other hand I can revisit any time and still love it. I think the problem for me is that the Combine were kind of boring and bland as an enemy, in fact the enemy roster in general did not intrigue me. Your allies were okay but I didn't think the whole City 17 and the rebellion angle was all that interesting.

Fighting my way out of Black Mesa in HL1 and watching the situation slowly and discretely escalate was a lot more engaging. Even the HL1 remake, Black Mesa, is infinitely better to me than HL2, so I think it just comes down to how the story is presented (show don't tell) and how it progresses, as well as the mystery, the enemy roster etc. I simply think it's a more satisfying journey overall.

It is indeed an unpopular opinion but I'll stand by it. They are both top-tier games regardless of how I feel about them.

That said, Black Mesa is a fantastic project and if you like HL1 you should definitely check it out. It's pretty amazing how well they fleshed out the world without deviating too far from the original vision.
 
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Eh, as long as it's recognised that both of the games were groundbreaking I think there's no reason to hate anybody for not liking the game. I only like 2-3 tracks from Michael Jackson's music but I can still understand he did some new shit in music industry.
 
I don't know. I love both games, and I'm tempted to say I like HL1 better than 2, but on the other hand it's hard comparing the first installment in a series to a follow up. Nostalgia and all that.
HL2 was all in all everything I wanted from a sequel; it's fantastic all around, although I must say Episode 1 was a bit lacking in comparison to the first part and Episode 2 (which was excellent).
It's such a shame we never got to see Episode 3 as the story was really ramping up to something, and now we get a prequel instead.

I do hope that Alyx is going to be amazing, but I'm not sure I'll be playing it when it's VR only sadly.