Tali'Thread vas Clan Zorah nar BSN 6.0

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHS5PgV-OE4

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdOvQyIw-ZU

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v646QyA9v_0

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndZv4mix9qg

[Raga]

I've been playing Spider-Man for the past few days and it's really good. The controls actually took me a while to get used to because they have this pseudo fighting game thing going on, but once I did it became quite fun.

[Rune]

-

[TheodoricFriede]

Mgs5 musings....

So... Let me get this straight...

► Show Spoiler

Paz, the girl who exploded in Ground Zeroes because they put a bomb in her vagina... Didn't actually explode and is in an unmarked room of Mother Base just hanging out with amnesia.

What does this game think its doing right now?

[Vol]

Felt an urge to play Dawn of War 1 again. Got Dark Crusader and Soulstorm installed, going to do an IG run of each. So far, Dark Crusade is a cakewalk if you establish a quick base, tech up to vehicles ASAP, and get tanks out with a mob of guardsmen behind. But it's fun, they're my favorite faction for a reason. Only hard mission was Hyperion Peaks, where you get no base, no means of building one, and have to blitz a map full of Orkz with your starting army. Compared to their stronghold, which I just took down, it was brutal.

A shame they abandoned this classic, high-level RTS style. I missed it.

[Rune]

-

[TheodoricFriede]

It begins.

I have some ridiculous theories that, I'm sure, will be nowhere near as ridiculous as the actual explanation.

[Mazder]

I've been playing Spider-Man for the past few days and it's really good. The controls actually took me a while to get used to because they have this pseudo fighting game thing going on, but once I did it became quite fun.

I really want to play this game.
Man it sucks not being able to afford getting a console for the few exclusives you might get for it...

[TTTX]

Mgs5 musings....

So... Let me get this straight...

► Show Spoiler

Paz, the girl who exploded in Ground Zeroes because they put a bomb in her vagina... Didn't actually explode and is in an unmarked room of Mother Base just hanging out with amnesia.

What does this game think its doing right now?

Just capture the old mother bases soliders when they pop up in the side mission bar and you'll find out.

[TTTX]

I really want to play this game.
Man it sucks not being able to afford getting a console for the few exclusives you might get for it...

Well right now Nintendo and Sony is kinda kicking Microsoft ass in the console war, because of those exclusives....

[TheodoricFriede]

Just capture the old mother bases soliders when they pop up in the side mission bar and you'll find out.

Oh good, the most annoying missions.

Just going to throw in a prediction now.

► Show Spoiler

There is no Paz in that room. It is a delusion resulting in exposure to ghost Girl in Gas Mask who is ACTUALLY Paz.

[TTTX]

[quote="TheodoricFriede"][/quote]
Just wear a cardboard box and they'll come to you and you can take them without any problem.

[TheodoricFriede]

Just wear a cardboard box and they'll come to you and you can take them without any problem.

Like, if I'm in the general zone, or do I actually have to be near then?

[TTTX]

Just going to throw in a prediction now.

► Show Spoiler

There is no Paz in that room. It is a delusion resulting in exposure to ghost Girl in Gas Mask who is ACTUALLY Paz.

► Show Spoiler

the ghost "girl" is Psycho Mantis so he is a boy.

Like, if I'm in the general zone, or do I actually have to be near then?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dr-k-9MHPo

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ssn2rxFtOI

[Alienmorph]

Why the more stuff they show the less I have a fucking clue of what's going on?! xD

[TTTX]

Why the more stuff they show the less I have a fucking clue of what's going on?! xD

Because that's what Kojima does.

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ldot37C_vuw

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pnktlNIXeo

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqGs09OiyEQ

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks_oG-1WaLg

[Mazder]

So it's now time for more "TALES OF BRITBONG 'DENTISTRY' !"

Basically an entire front of a tooth just fell off for me.
Thankfully it was one that had a root canal done on it so I have no pain.
The downside is now I have to book an emergency appointment, get tutted at and told I was doing a shit job (duh I know this that's why the bit of tooth fell off....) and get a crown, hopefully, if not it might be an extraction and a gaping gap in my face/smile. Ha, I don't have a smile!

[TheodoricFriede]

Why the more stuff they show the less I have a fucking clue of what's going on?! xD

It seriously wouldn't surprise me if what we got was 30 minutes of walking in the mountains, smash-cut to stomach baby, and then 40 hours of a black screen with nothing but the sound of water dripping.

Credits.

[Rune]

-

[Azint]

@Azint

It begins.

I'm not sure that I follow.

[TheodoricFriede]

@Azint

It begins.

I'm not sure that I follow.

I had assumed it was Metal Gear related, given what i had previously mentioned, but now I'm not so sure either.

[TheodoricFriede]

The more I play it, the more I realize that Metal Gear Solid 5 is a lot like the PS2/Xbox game Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction (and its inferior sequel). Not sure if anyone else has payed that game, but it was great at the time, and MGS5 seems like a full realization of all those ideas.

All its missing is a larger variety of airstrikes.

[Mazder]

The more I play it, the more I realize that Metal Gear Solid 5 is a lot like the PS2/Xbox game Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction (and its inferior sequel). Not sure if anyone else has payed that game, but it was great at the time, and MGS5 seems like a full realization of all those ideas.

All its missing is a larger variety of airstrikes.

I played both games, they were fun as hell.

I'd like something similar again.
Just cause is the closest ATM.

[TheodoricFriede]

I played both games, they were fun as hell.

Second game was kind of rough. I knew a guy who worked on it, and even he said that it never matched the quality of the first game.

[Someone With Mass]

Back when cheat codes were a thing and you could just drop a nuke/closest thing to a nuke on every bunker that annoyed you.

[TheodoricFriede]

Back when cheat codes were a thing and you could just drop a nuke/closest thing to a nuke on every bunker that annoyed you.

Hell yeah you could!

[Mazder]

Second game was kind of rough. I knew a guy who worked on it, and even he said that it never matched the quality of the first game.

With actual gameplay, pretty much. Speed through it and you have the same sandbox experience as the first one.

Back when cheat codes were a thing and you could just drop a nuke/closest thing to a nuke on every bunker that annoyed you.

Hell yeah you could!

YES!

I am so sad devs don't put a "look you beat the game, here, have some fun and shit".
Like seriously I'd love to have a New Game + mode of just cheats being an option or a "cheats active" sandbox mode that is separate form the main game/achievements/main progression.

[Raga]

I am liking the Spider-man game, but it's super grindy. It's giving me some Infamous vibes, which isn't the best thing ever. The amount of random crimes which literally all involve "hand X number of random goons their ass" is just draining. I would just ignore them, but the game actually has leveling so I feel like if I don't do them I"m losing XP I will need.

Basically: the game is excellent in most respects but they need to radically diversify the random encounters and diminish their frequency by a solid 40%.

[Alienmorph]

Well considering there's a season pass meant to add chunks of subplots, new bossfights, and game mechanics, that's probably why the base game is good but a bit grindy and same-y.

[Raga]

Probably. I think part of it is also that Insomniac's never made a game like this before and you can kind of tell that they had their guys examine a bunch of sameish other games to see what had been done. They copy "sandbox" game really well in terms of polish, but there's this kind of game circa 2009 sort of feel to it that a little too reminiscent of some level designer resolving "Assassin's Creed but without the clunk" and not really adding anything new to that.

I on the one hand give them credit for explicitly picking what I would call a "sandbox" type game instead of "open-world" meaning a big, busy, vibrant area, usually urban that you run around in to find loot, fight mooks, do mini-games, etc. but that doesn't take 100+ hours like a Bethesda game or what Bioware's been trying and failing to do.

This is nice because it means the game is only really big instead of ludicrously ginormous and most of the random side stuff you find has explicitly no story consequence so you can ostensibly ignore it if you want.

But in practice it's really hard to do that because the game pushes you to engage constantly and because your effectiveness is tied to how much crap and XP you get from doing such things.

So there's this weird duality of relief that there's way less going on than a needlessly huge open-world game, and yet somehow I feel even more chained down because I feel more obligated to pick up every stupid collectible and stop every armored car robbery.

So takeaway? Core game is like 9.5. Stuff outside the main story? 7.0 or so. Graphics & navigation controls are like 9.0. Combat controls are notably clunkier, more like 8.0.

[Someone With Mass]

It's why I've grown to hate open world games. Instead of focusing to make an area interesting and intriguing, they just toss you into a vast landscape and hope your gameplay experiences will be enough to compensate for their weak characters, story and setting. Which rarely happens. It's just a time waster that pretends to have a deep story to go with it.

[Raga]

To be fair every story mission I've done so far has actually given me way less trouble than random encounters. I don't know if that's because I'm chronically overpowered because I've been doing too much side stuff too soon or if the main story missions are just meant to be easier. Either way, it probably means I could afford to do way less random side crap and still get through the game just fine.

Also, the story and characters are actually quite good. It's an interesting (though not amazing) plot and they nailed most of the characters, at least the ones I know anything about.

[Vol]

I missed the start of this whole Bowsette fad, and I've never been a Mario fan, but I have to admit it's fun as fuck.

► Show Spoiler

[Mazder]

To be fair every story mission I've done so far has actually given me way less trouble than random encounters. I don't know if that's because I'm chronically overpowered because I've been doing too much side stuff too soon or if the main story missions are just meant to be easier. Either way, it probably means I could afford to do way less random side crap and still get through the game just fine.

Also, the story and characters are actually quite good. It's an interesting (though not amazing) plot and they nailed most of the characters, at least the ones I know anything about.

Potential spoiler depending on where you're up to.

► Show Spoiler

I love how they've done the story in this game. I was genuinely happy how they managed to pull off the Sinister Six AND Doc Ock's growth and how you technically helped make this happen due to the upgrades/working for Octavius!

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ja0Md26nb6g

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bo5JMUs3_kM

[Raga]

Potential spoiler depending on where you're up to.

► Show Spoiler

I love how they've done the story in this game. I was genuinely happy how they managed to pull off the Sinister Six AND Doc Ock's growth and how you technically helped make this happen due to the upgrades/working for Octavius!

► Show Spoiler

I'm only at the part where the Demons try to assassinate the mayor and Miles Morales shows up. I have no idea how far in that is. I"m guessing like 33% so I'm avoiding spoilers for now.

[TheodoricFriede]

I missed the start of this whole Bowsette fad, and I've never been a Mario fan, but I have to admit it's fun as fuck.

Kind of amazed no one has drawn anything inspired by the Japanese version of Super Mario Kart where if they win Bowser (or weirdly Peach) will pour an entire bottle of champagne down their gullet.

[Mazder]

► Show Spoiler

I'm only at the part where the Demons try to assassinate the mayor and Miles Morales shows up. I have no idea how far in that is. I"m guessing like 33% so I'm avoiding spoilers for now.

Okay so if you did read my last spoilered post then you know a thing that's coming then. Still, it's done very well.

[Azint]

I just find the new Spider-Man okay. On par with what I expect, but it doesn't really shine to me, nor does it really let me down.

The web-swinging is great, and I am glad that they put a lot of attention to the thing that you will be doing for a significant portion of the game. Web-swinging is a solid 80% of the game, and that is the one thing I am not tired of at this point. The game gets a little cheeky with web that hits solid air about a dozen meters away from an actual building, but it's really only noticeable when you look for that in photo mode and in motion you would never realize it. Gaining speed, building momentum and chaining into a dive. Things like that make this game feel fun.

I have an issue with the combat, though. I think it's pretty stale, and that it pales in comparison to the Arkham games that it rather shamelessly borrows from. People like to riff on the Arkham series' combat, but it's mechanically very impressive, and responsive. There are a lot of fluid little details, and with practice you can get some flashy fights. Arkham takes careful attention to where enemies are placed in a zone, and the context-sensitive animations show that they can integrate the environment. Spider-Man is nowhere near as neat. Spidey-himself feels somewhat stuck to the ground, unlike Batman who can make great leaps with a feeling of momentum. You strike someone from halfway across the room as Spider-Man, and when you hit the next person suddenly you get magnetized to him rather awkwardly. The more elaborate strikes will also suddenly place an enemy exactly where he needs to be to make the animation work, some odd ten feet away from where he originally was.

The Arkham games really expanded over time, and they do mix things up fairly well between brawls, stealth, and city traversal. I don't think Spider-Man found the right balance, and outside of boss fights, combat doesn't excite me. They have an impressively-rendered open world, but without much to do, which to me is the ultimate sin of an open world game. It feels like a waste of space when maybe about a third of the total city actually gets used in the story. The rest of it is just there. The only justification for the map being so large, and laterally large, is to justify the thankfully fun web-swinging. Again, something the Arkham games, barring Origins, managed to handle well. Also, forced stealth segments with a character who is not built around it should never happen.

The story is fine, though. I like it, and I do like the surprising shake-ups they drop here and there. A certain death did surprise me, and it hardly felt like a forced attempt at drama. I actually wished for more of a certain chief editor of the local paper, but we can't always get what we want. Also, to anyone with an inkling of Spider-Man knowledge all saw a certain villain reveal coming from miles away. It didn't detract from the journey, though, and again, I like how we get to the end.

After finishing the game, it made me boot up Sunset Overdrive again. It's one of Insomniac's most underappreciated games, and I'm actually having more fun with it as a game than I have so far with Spider-Man.

But seriously, that photo mode.