What game are you playing?

[Speed Racer]

I got a review code for SpongeBob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom Remastered, so I'll be playing that through next week.

[TheRedPriest]

Being a game journalist must be nice.  Just remember the moment you give a game a bad review you stop getting them.

[Mikero]

Replaying GTAV on PC (originally played it on PS3 so that's an upgrade) since it was was free from the Epic Games store. I've been having a lot of trouble with all the stuff going on lately so it's a good game to chill out with.

I absolutely love the singleplayer story, and playing on PC is such a treat. It's still so gorgeous, especially the headlight rays at night when they go through other car's windows and cast shadows against buildings. The first time I saw that at max settings was breathtaking. It still is, but now it's breathtaking at 1440p, 144fps, on a mid-high end IPS panel.

My second time through the story I played in first person the whole time. Caught a lot of small details and side conversations I would have otherwise missed, and it vastly increased the difficulty (which is needed on most missions).

I have a GTX970 so I don't know if I can do max settings but I found a guide that optomized it well for that.

I'm not huge into first-person but I might try it. It's fun to drive around like that in the game, you have to actually look around to avoid some dumbass traipsing into the road like real life. Interesting that you're hearing more side conversations that way.

[Johncarllos]

I think a lot of that had to do with wearing headphones too. The spatial sound in first person is really good, compared to 3rd person where a lot gets drowned out in traffic and phone call voiceovers.

The 970 still holds up really well for most games! I might cave and go for a new NVidia card when Cyberpunk 2077 drops (though its now delayed until November). I want to raytrace that bad boy, and DLSS 2.0 is absolutely incredible at upsampling your resolution. Check out the DLSS 2.0 videos for CONTROL, it sold me on the tech instantly.

[Xero]

Being a game journalist must be nice.  Just remember the moment you give a game a bad review you stop getting them.

*COUGH**HACK*TLOU*COUGH**HACK*

[TheRedPriest]

*COUGH**HACK*TLOU*COUGH**HACK*

No worries, all the shill media gave it 10/10s, it will do fine.

[Zan]

I picked up Sonic Generations, Doom 2016, Eternal, and Lightning Returns on Steam's summer sale and I'm currently working through Doom
I still have Resident Evil 2 Remake, Bloodstained Curse of the Moon, and Ducktales Remastered on the backburner
I play a little bit of Heroes of the Storm, Overwatch, and GTA5 every day, mostly just to get my daily rewards

Never had this many games backlogged before 

[TheRedPriest]

You're much better off starting with RE2 Remake, Curse of the Moon, and DuckTales Remastered on that list.

[Mikero]

I think a lot of that had to do with wearing headphones too. The spatial sound in first person is really good, compared to 3rd person where a lot gets drowned out in traffic and phone call voiceovers.

The 970 still holds up really well for most games! I might cave and go for a new NVidia card when Cyberpunk 2077 drops (though its now delayed until November). I want to raytrace that bad boy, and DLSS 2.0 is absolutely incredible at upsampling your resolution. Check out the DLSS 2.0 videos for CONTROL, it sold me on the tech instantly.

Oh yeah that makes sense. 970 was a great descision when I built this machine. Though I keep up and learn a lot about it, I'm not really that convinced on PC gaming over anything else (I think the PC Master Race thing is super overblown) and the 970 ended up being perfect because it didn't need to be upgraded in 6 months like a lot of other people's PCs. I'll still check that stuff out though, I'm a fan of having the different gaming options of PC and console(s).

[Johncarllos]

Here's the link for the video that really sold me on the tech.

And Cyberpunk 2077 will have it, so even a lower range card should be able to crank framerates.

[TheRedPriest]

You mean genital simulator 2020?

[Xero]

I have no interest in Cyberpunk since I don't have the time to play a long game like that.  Playing Donkey Kong Country on the switch online right now.

[Johncarllos]

I'm working through Halo 1 co-op with a buddy. It plays soooo nicely. Also still playing Dragonball Fighter Z, and messing with Valorant.

I tried to return Doom Eternal, but I was a little over 2 hours so Steam didn't take it :-/. Huge disappointment.

[Teelio]

Playing Donkey Kong Country on the switch online right now.

Currently on that game as well. Must have been 7 or 8 last time I played DKC.... Supreme nostalgia here.

I played a few other games with all this time off, mostly puzzles:

1. The Turing Test - Fun puzzle game with 50+ rooms to solve. Simple mechanics... Only a few puzzles left me completely stumped. Enjoyable if you like Portal.
2. Unmechanical Extended - Now this game is #####ing beautiful. Very entertaining, albeit short. Excellent soundtrack and environment design. Metroidvania-esque. The "Extended Episode" was more linear, but just as great. Some puzzles were very unclear and had to look up how to solve 'em...
3. Superliminal - Recently released, purchased this puzzle game on Switch (may have been a bad idea.... graphics got jumbled and awkward in the latter half of the game). Another puzzle game with a unique perception gimmick.
4. BioShock 2 Remastered - Combat mechanics aged really damn well. Just miss the broken multiplayer mode....


Not sure what to get into after DKC. Been hungry for puzzle/platforming games as of late.

[Speed Racer]

Being a game journalist must be nice.  Just remember the moment you give a game a bad review you stop getting them.

I give bad reviews when it's a bad game. There's a couple of publishers that we haven't received our usual standard review copies from, and we're not quite sure if it's because of previous bad reviews, PR people we were friendly with going off to new jobs, or the economy.

We didn't receive RBI Baseball 20, which we've given ##### reviews to both previous years, but at the same time our usual PR contact left for a different job and the baseball season started way later. So we're not sure what's happening there. We've also not been receiving review copies from one publisher after I gave a middling review of their title based on a very popular anime series, but we've heard that there's some titles they're only giving out to major publications/streamers at this point, so...yeah. They've sent us one game since February, so we're possibly on their ##### list.

[TheRedPriest]

It's an extremely corrupt system, sadly.

[Speed Racer]

I beat all of the puzzles in Glass Masquerade 2. I'm not going to bother with the hard difficulty for the puzzles; the game's menu interface is too buggy for me to even want to deal with the game anymore.

I'm playing through Hue right now. It was released on Xbox One years ago, but I reviewed the iOS version a few months back and wanted to try it out on console. It's like a relaxing version of Limbo with a nice storyline.

[Mikero]

Recently played through Tacoma, a nice short interactive story game. I enjoyed it, but I got it for free from Epic.

Back to Phoenix Wright again, as well as occasional Wargroove (it's good, but still it's no Advance Wars).

Epic's store is giving away so many free games every couple weeks it's crazy, so I'll finally be trying 20XX which always looked like garbage to me. Barony and Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP are also free right now so I grabbed them.

I picked up Hue on there when it was free too, maybe I'll try it sooner so I can have the same timing as Speed

[Johncarllos]

20XX was okay. Didn't really scratch the itch, though.

I only ended up putting 5 hours into it.

[Speed Racer]

Juggling Skater XL and Yakuza Kiwami 2 for reviews. I feel conflicted about Skater XL, because it plays pretty well and I love that it's just you dicking around on your skateboard. There's no traffic, no timer. Just you, your board, and your arch-enemies, gravity and physics. It's a really chill game. On the other hand, the customization feels very superficial and there's only five areas for you to skate in - I'm assuming that DLC will come later. But of the five areas, only two of them are really fun (the others are okay, but can get boring real quick). So in the end, and this feels mean because I really enjoy it, it feels like it's a $40 tech demo.

Yakuza Kiwami 2 is a remake of Yakuza 2 for modern systems, and holy ##### this a ton of fun. I had reviewed Yakuza 0, and that was vaguely annoying because you weren't able to do certain things until later in the story as you had to be "trained". Not here! You start kicking ass right off the bad while helping little old ladies find their amulets and getting street musicians a pack of tissues! So much damn fun, and I hope they bring the rest of the series to Xbox. If you like the other Yakuza games, you'll like this one.

[TheRedPriest]

I've heard Yakuza is quite good in general, and I own all of them.  I'll get to them eventually.

[Speed Racer]

Currently reviewing Battletoads, New Super Lucky's Tale, and Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time. Helluva week!

[Xero]

Battletoads looked like hot garbage. 

[Johncarllos]

Been playing Horizon Zero Dawn on PC. Haven't had such serious issues as others have faced with the port, and it's NOT super well optimized, but it's a better-than-console experience by a wide margin. I can deal with 1 crash per hour, the game autosaves after every little thing so my worst re-do was 4 minutes of a mission.

Stability seems to be getting better too, with further patches. Also, I finally got the Windows 10 May 2020 update and enabling GPU scheduling gave me an easy 10-15% boost in performance with much fewer stutters.

Waiting on the desktop Ryzen 4000 series and Nvidia 3000 series for some serious upgrading. My 2600X and 1070Ti have been getting slaughtered at 1440p 144hz.

[TheRedPriest]

Battletoads looked like hot garbage. 

That's a kind description.

[Speed Racer]

I can't talk about the game because it's currently embargoed, but according to TrueAchievements, I'm the first person to have nabbed an achievement in an upcoming game. Nothing big, but I thought that was pretty fun.

Posted on: September 06, 2020, 04:44:25 AM

As of 9/9/20, I'm still the only one with the achievement.

[TheRedPriest]

Enjoy it while you can.

[Speed Racer]

Enjoy it while you can.

As of now, three other people now have the achievement. BUT I STILL DID IT FIRST! 

[Xero]

I'm looking forward to Crash 4.  It's about time. 

[Speed Racer]

Latest review game is Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-reckoning. I played it (but didn't finish) the first time around, and I forgot how the game just dumps you into the world, much like Morrowind. I ended up doing a bunch of side quests before I even got the first bit of the main storyline. Still, I'll be playing this every night until I record on Thursday, as I can't play this around my kids.

[Mikero]

Been playing a lot lately 'cause there's nothing else to really do.

Hades -- I am loving this. I'm not a fan of rogue-likes usually but this one weaves the actual story into it, and the gameplay is tight. This is highly addictive in a good way. I liked Bastion a lot but Supergiant has really outdone themselves with this one.

Ring Fit -- As someone who would go to the gym 4-5 times a week in the "old world", I can say this thing is really well made. As far as exercise programming, progressive overlaod, and training balance go it's actually super impressive how good this is. Where Wii Fit was largely fluff, this is an actual legitimate workout that's adjustable for all ages and body types. And it's actually fun. I highly recommend it as someone very into fitness (for reference when there's no covid I do heavy powerlifting 4-5 times a week and play basketball 2-3 times a week).

GMod -- So old but honestly in these times it's really great to load into a game of prop hunt with some friends and just goof off. There's also a mode that's trying to be like Dead By Daylight (a game which I'll start playing with people tonight).

Momodora III -- Dope platformer, I loved every minute of it (which is like 45 minutes really)

Momodora: Reverie Under The Moonlight -- Just a more evolved version of previous Momodora games. A lot longer and a lot more involved, a really great platformer with awesome art.

Lifeless Planet -- I hate it.

Got a lot of other stuff to try out soon too, so I'll leave it there for now.

[TheRedPriest]

I quite liked Momodora: Reverie Under The Moonlight myself.  But I felt it was too short.  Good, but short.  I actually own it on both PS4 and Switch.

I just finished Coma 2: Viscous Sister.  I really liked it.  The game improved so much over the first.  I hope the series continues.  Import the game from Play Asia, and you get it and the first game on one cartridge!

[Speed Racer]

Currently playing the remake of Panzer Dragoon for a review. I never played it or the Xbox sequel when they came out, so this is all new for me. I think it's okay, but only having one button to change my direction as I'm firing shots at the enemies is really annoying. Kind of wish there was a tutorial level, but it wouldn't really fit with the apparent story.

[Speed Racer]

I started playing Steven Universe: Unleash the Light last night. Requested a review copy because my wife likes the show (which I never really got into, but I don't mind). It very much has a "my first RPG" feel to it and there's no grinding, at least this far. I appreciate that the worlds are broken up into 10-20 minute chunks to keep kids' attention, but it's handy as hell for me as I'm juggling work and family. I'd recommend checking it out if you're a fan of the show and like simple RPGs.

[Xero]

The new Ghosts n Goblins is kicking my ass hard and I love it.  Playing on Knight difficulty.  It's really good and does the series justice. 

[TheRedPriest]

GnG is a game I love in theory but hate in practice.  It's just not fun for me.  I don't like games where you have to memorize every pixel of every move of every enemy of every stage to get though.  Then do it again.  That said, if it gets a physical release I'll pick it up.  I just don't expect to get very far in it.

[Xero]

It's like the Zero series but without the ranking system so you don't need to rush through it, but I understand how you feel.  Still a great game and I'm glad a new one was made.

[Edgecrusher]

Oh snap, Xero is still here too!

Wrong thread (OMG DON"T BAN ME M0DS!1) but on the off chance anyone cares...

PSN ID: Context_Matters
Friend Code: SW-3331-0456-3335

I miss you all.

[Johncarllos]

Cyberpunk was kind of dumb. Good for sightseeing, but won't return until I have an RTX card. Ask me anything about it, I got most endings for it.

Hades is PHENOMENAL. Best rougelite/roguelike I've played since Rogue Legacy 1.

Hades -- I am loving this. I'm not a fan of rogue-likes usually but this one weaves the actual story into it, and the gameplay is tight. This is highly addictive in a good way. I liked Bastion a lot but Supergiant has really outdone themselves with this one.

Mikero, you trying to 100% that friggin thing? I just cleared my 4th run, first at 2 heat and I'm jealous seeing all your achievements popping on Steam. You've also got 4x my playtime so I expect to catch up! My first escape was on run 25, I think. The fact that you don't have the epilogue achievement yet is terrifying. Every run is so adrenaline pumping it's hard to imagine another 100 hours in it, but I also can't see myself loving it any less. SUPER addicting.

Also, Charon is SCARY. I think I need to devote a whole run to just him.

Sorry Edge, I play only on PC, Johncarllos on Steam. Glad to see ya!

[Speed Racer]

Playing SELF: Where's my father, which is this visual novel that has Undertale-esque minigames. It's okay, I thought it sounded neat, but the main reason why I'm playing it is because it gave our original reviewer seizures. The game does this flickering TV static effect pretty regularly including when you're booting up the game, and there's literally no warning before the game starts. I think you can turn it off in the options, but by then you've seen the effect a few times. Otherwise it's fine? Sigh.

We've emailed the developer with a "please fix this ##### now before you're subjected to lawsuits". Curious if we hear back.

[TheRedPriest]

Maybe lawsuits is the game they really want to play?

[Mikero]

Mikero, you trying to 100% that friggin thing? I just cleared my 4th run, first at 2 heat and I'm jealous seeing all your achievements popping on Steam. You've also got 4x my playtime so I expect to catch up! My first escape was on run 25, I think. The fact that you don't have the epilogue achievement yet is terrifying. Every run is so adrenaline pumping it's hard to imagine another 100 hours in it, but I also can't see myself loving it any less. SUPER addicting.

Also, Charon is SCARY. I think I need to devote a whole run to just him.


Sorry Edge, I play only on PC, Johncarllos on Steam. Glad to see ya![/size][/b]

Late reply but yes! The play time is a bit inflated since I didn't know you could save and quit mid run, so there's some times where I had left it running but that's still less than 5% of those hours. I spent a ton of time experimenting with different builds. I just got the epilogue but it's not hard to get it faster, I was just focused elsewhere. I have one achievement left but it's just about grinding so I'll get it soon enough. I really dig the game so much that I could play for ages even after 100%-ing it.

[Speed Racer]

I beat Steven Universe: Unleash the Light (but not 100% it). I've also played Rain On Your Parade, which is a fun little indie in the vein of Untitled Goose Game, where you play as a little raincloud out to ruin peoples' day. There's a bit of variety to the missions, even a cute parody of Metal Gear Solid. These two are currently my favorite games of the year.

There's also a cute game called Little Mouse's Encyclopedia, where you move a mouse around woods, gardens, lake, etc. and learn about the different plants and animals. Good for kids 3-5, although there's a lot of reading you'll need to help them with.

[Mikero]

The Forest is a lot of fun with the right group of people. I don't think I'd bother with single player even though there's some different features to it, but with pals it's a good time.

[Speed Racer]

Mass Effect Legendary Edition is out, so I'm busy saving the galaxy and wooing Liara.

[Majikn]

I didn't know that existed and if it's different enough from the original I might be interested.

I really liked the first Mass Effect, some problems aside. I'm glad I stuck with that game to the end because it blew me away.

The Forest is a lot of fun with the right group of people. I don't think I'd bother with single player even though there's some different features to it, but with pals it's a good time.

If it's local multiplayer I'm interested. Fiancée and I struggle with finding games we both like and can play together without some bizarre solution like online in different rooms or something.

[Speed Racer]

Prettied up graphics and they fixed string of issues/glitches, but it pretty much plays like the original ME. I'm finding it humorous that back when it first came out, I was playing so much Halo that I had no issues with the Mako. Now here I am 10+ years later and not having played a Halo title since ODST, that I'm like "wtf the Mako handles like #####"

[Panda]

I've been waiting years for a decent Mass Effect collection, but now it's finally out and I'm too busy playing Hades and Destiny 2, and Ratchet and Clank comes out in a couple of weeks.

[TheRedPriest]

That's only a problem if you like to sleep.

[Teelio]

#####in' love all 3 Mass Effect games.

If BioWare could add ME3's multiplayer mode in a future update, that would be icing on the cake. That's some of the most fun I ever had in online play. Usually mained Turian Sentinel or Salarian Tech.

Carrying a team as a biotic Volus is... a feeling only the most righteous can achieve.