I figured I'd make an /e/ equivalent of that great, big /beat/ thread.
Recently I have been slogging away on XCOM: Enemy Within with the Long War mod. Humanity is doomed as I'm simply incapable of holding back the torrent of battleships the aliens keep hurling at me.
>>23850 AI has always seemed a bit borked with roms, with opponents making bizarre counter-intuitive moves and not always using type advantage, nevertheless I particularly enjoyed playing through Pokemon Crystal many years ago. I also experienced some trainer ringing me up for a scrap almost every other minute, I put that down to the rom, which meant money and exp were never an issue. I never had that when I got a GBC and the original cartridge. That normal type gym with the Miltank can seriously go do one though!
I always found it hard to not default to taking a water type, as surf is superb, and also levelling a Pidgey up to Pidgeot ASAP to use fly as soon as it's available, the speed advantage over most Pokemon means you can just fly attack and almost one shot anything without any risk to yourself. Of course it means I have a grind ahead of me for dealing with any electric type gym or area, but generally the team is starting water type and Pidgeot with 4 HM users.
You've just reminded me I had a play through of Fire Red on the go a few weeks ago. My team was Charizard, Garydos, Kadabra, Rhydon, Zapdos and Articuno. Had them all at around level 55, ready to face off the elite four, and just stopped playing for some reason.
I very nearly fucked some of them up because I'd forgotten there's so many moves you only get one or two chances to learn in that game, and I was playing it on my original SP so no romhacking.
>>23884 I enjoyed the heck out of the single player. Sure, the story and characters are a bit perfunctory, but they do a good enough job of tying the game play together and that's where it really shines. It's like a really good theme park ride, on rails but designed to the nines to keep you engaged.
>>23884 I played quite a bit of the multiplayer when it came out and it was a lot of fun. Only issue was it died pretty quickly due to releasing within a few weeks of Battlefield 1 and CoD.
If I'm playing Red then my default is to start with Charmander, with the rest of my team by the end also including Snorlax, Vaporeon, either a Gengar or Alakazam and then whatever else takes my fancy.
>>23890 The first one is worth a replay if it has all the DLC, Wardens keep has a chest that transforms Almost any weapon into a Dragon Bone tier weapon. Ultimate edition I think it's called. It's shit to play on console though, for defo do a CRPG control style playthrough with tactical pause switched on on PC.
>>23891 I'm the same. I especially like using Pokémon that are under-powered but have lots of character like Farfetch'd that rely on tactics and luck based moves.
Legendaries are shit and I don't know why you would play them.
>>23893 I like Rattata because it has that move that cuts HP in half which is bloody useful when you have to fight some wall like Snorlax.
Just finished Borderlands 3. I wasn't going to get it, having played the first two when they came out and figuring it would be more of the same, including the humour which I found mildly funny when I was a teenlad, but likely wouldn't any more. Had a couple of mates who said they wanted a co-op game to play over the lockdown but we played two sessions and then they gave up.
It's been 8 years since I last played a Borderlands game, so maybe my memory of this is a bit rose-tinted, but I swear in BL3 they've managed to fuck it up on most fronts.
There are two areas where the game definitely improved. Firstly, the character agility; you can climb ledges now - but a couple of the boss fights required some platforming using those and unoptimised (i.e. not Mirror's Edge) first-person platforming is not particularly fun even when it's not during a tedious bullet-sponge boss fight. Secondly, the number of fast travel points has been massively increased and the player can fast travel from the HUD anywhere without having to traipse back as you did in the previous games.
The loot system felt far jankier than before - I often found myself sticking to the same gun for 7-10 levels at a time; it would be massively overpowered when I found it and then the game would give me useless shit for hours on end. The vaults, the whole centrepiece of the series, I'd expect to feature some of the best weapons, but often found just dull rubbish only useful for selling.
The UI, while flashier, was a lot slower and clunkier than the previous games. Great, 3D particle effects, let me use my menus.
The weakest point, however, was the story. Borderlands has never really been known for its story, but this was was just so poorly written on so many fronts, it's hard to believe it was written by a team of professionals. The humour actually somehow managed to be more puerile and childish, and leant far more heavily on pop culture references, meaning it's going to become a game very 'of its time', very quickly. The vast majority of jokes felt incredibly forced, and there were far too many Rick and Morty references for my liking. The characters were completely flattened, even the ones from the previous entries - it seems that a lot of the character development was just... forgotten? The voice acting is incredibly grating and self-satisfied, and there's one character who is supposed to be BRI'ISH, and whose voice actor I am told is from the UK, but speaks like they practiced by watching Dick Van Dyk in Mary Poppins and injecting the word "WANKAUH" in there every other word.
Instances of character development where the story could take an interesting turn are usually dropped, but the single worst bit is that the player character does not exist in the world.
In the cutscenes, with the exception of one, the player character is simply not there at all, and has no bearing on the events of the story. The PC is not the hero at the end, either. In the main game, there are no unique lines of dialogue depending on which player character you choose, something I'm sure happened in the previous games. So, interactions are really stilted and it feels like the NPCs are ignoring everything you say, as they'll usually just reply "uhh okay, cool" or something like that.
The events of the main story are also completely nonsensical but I've written enough already.
5/10 as it's a solid enough looter shooter with some nice looking environments, but let down by piss poor worldbuilding and story writing.
Currently playing outer wilds and terraria. Ive put maybe 700+ hours into terraria b7t never beat, figured id beat it since they added 1.4. Outer wilds is a fucking blast, the amount of shit that can happen, difficulty and the exploration itself is great. I spun around a black hole and whirled myself into an elevator, only to be hit by a comet half way up. Good shit.
>>23897 >one character who is supposed to be BRI'ISH ... injecting the word "WANKAUH" in there every other word.
I thought the same about the Sniper when I first played TF2. Wanker this, wanker that. It's idiotic. And the same character insists he's "not some bloody cartoon".
He's supposed to be Aussie, they're all like that.
Anyway, can any of you lads recommend a game for me? I'm looking for something single-player and Stalker-esque where it's a mixture of survival and exploration, where you flit between safe havens looking for new items and competing subquests. The Borderlands games you've been discussing sound like they'd fit this criteria but I'll take any suggestions.
Subnautica would be my top recommendation. Failing that, the Fallout franchise (I think New Vegas is the best of the bunch), Dead Space if you like horror elements, Don't Starve if you like quirky indie stuff or Dungeon Crawl: Stone Soup if you're a masochist.
Unfortunately you've just missed out on getting Ark: Survival Evolved for free on Epic.
>>23902 Looks very promising, thanks. If any others come to mind please let me know. I'm a big fan of Subnautica too, so if there's anything that also includes vehicles that serve as a base/haven then I'd love that as well.
>>23901 >He's supposed to be Aussie, they're all like that.
But... they aren't? Our cousins down under call people wankers with about as much regularity as we do.
In answer to your question, by coincidence I've been looking at We Happy Few today, and it seems to fit your description - according to reviews it stands out for story and setting but the gameplay is medicore and it's got quite a few bugs, so up to you if you want to add it to your list. It's also over seventy quid including all the DLC so definitely wait for a sale.
>>23901 Borderlands isn't survival unless you crank up the difficulty; guns and ammo are plentiful, but it does scratch your desires.
I will say that the first game is a little bare-bones, many of the Unreal Engine's stock settings are barely disguised. Also, there's a fair bit of backtracking but some people are OK with that.
The second really nails it, though, in terms of both gameplay and story - it's more fleshed out, there's more to do, etc.
I'd also recommend Fallout New Vegas and The Outer Worlds, both far more survival-based (though TOW gets the player a little overpowered towards the end).
There's also the classic BioShock, and if you don't mind some of the clunkier aspects of 90s game design, System Shock 2. BioShock 2 isn't as bad as people made it out to be, either.
>>23904 The 'hubs' in Borderlands 3 and The Outer Worlds are spaceships, but neither have any real vehicle stuff going on, they are just excuses for interplanetary travel.
If Mad Max-style vehicles are your thing, there's a vehicle-based DLC for the original Borderlands whose name I can't quite bring to mind.
Thanks for the suggestions guys. I don't know why I have this urge to play a game where inbetween exploring a dangerous, apocalyptic world you have these safe havens you can return to to hoard your new loot. I'm sure an amateur psychologist would have a field day with it. I'm going to check out Fallout New Vegas & Metro 2033 I think.
I have been slowly grinding my way through Control for the past few days. The later parts of the game are starting to remind me why I never really liked shooters on consoles. Also those flying cunts can get to fuck.
Not if you're expecting the game itself to get good, no. A lot of the plot threads get more interesting though, and if you've persisted with the clunk long enough to get to them you'll probably appreciate it all the more.
I find it strange how the Witcher has gone from what was at first considered a dodgy Slav b-game, to a franchise people hold up as the pinnacle of good AAA development. Or maybe that just shows how far the rest of the industry has fallen.
>I'm going to check out Fallout New Vegas & Metro 2033 I think.
Good news - the Steam summer sale has started and they're both on offer. Fallout 4 is probably worth a punt for six quid. The entire BioShock franchise is going for £8.
>>23917 "Hey there, I hope you don't mind, but we've put a bunch of mobs between the save point and this boss fight that you're definitely going to fail at least a dozen times. Enjoy!"
"You seem to be clearing up this area quite well, we're just going to spawn another four or five waves for you for good measure."
The story is fantastic, but had I wanted to play Dark Souls I'd have just played that instead.
Anybody know if Destiny 2 is any good since it went free to play and all that jive?
Me and the Mrs are looking for something to play co-op, we had a good time with Borderlands, and we both enjoy more or less the same things in a game like that- Loot, progression and customising your character. It seems like it ticks the boxes and isn't as much of a mess as something like Fallout 76 or similar.
If anyone has good recommendations for co-op stuff in general that'd be grand.
>>23922 I played it a lot at launch, it's a bit less interesting than Borderlands but a lot more polished. The guns are all very conventional, and the world isn't particularly exciting, but to kill a few dozen hours there are worse choices.
>>23919 Finally completed it by using the tactic of hiding like a coward and shooting everything from a long distance. Unfortunately the DLC really leans in to the Souls-esque "take two steps to get killed" mechanic.
Looking for something to fill the Left 4 Dead shaped hole in my life. Dead By Daylight and Vermintide both look like a worthy replacement. Are either of them any good?
Vermintide is good but it's pretty short, and doesn't really have the re-playability of lad. They tried to artificially create it by shoe-horning in some kind of totally unnecessary Diablo loot system in instead, but it doesn't really work unless you're the type to become obsessed by such things.
>>23927 Agree with otherlad that Vermintide (2) is decent but doesn't have much replay value unless you get fully into it with the DLCs. Then again it's cheap in the sale.
DBD is quite a different style of game that I found tricky to pick up without some experienced friends. Even then it seemed annoying for them to have explain several non-intuitive mechanics and "correct" ways to play that make no sense to a noob. Huge RNG grind to get the best gear and a significant advantage from it.
Recently tried Deep Rock Galactic which has a similar ebb and flow with waves of combat and a solid feeling of progression. Quite easy at the start though, ideally played with friends, don't know about the long-term content yet but it's been fun so far.
Risk Of Rain 2 also very much worth a look.
Been pouring some hours into Space Engineers.
A guy who I watch on twitch sometimes plays it and I ended up watching some youtube vids but with the lockdown and nothing good I started playing around on it.
Learning curve is a bit steep but after I came that I'm having some good fun with it. Vanilla is a bit dull so I did install a few mods, mostly quality of life and AI stuff.
Nowhere near touching multiplayer though, I'm having fun defending myself from the AI have watching burning wreckage fall from the sky when they send some drones at me.
I'm considering getting a Far Cry game; would I be better with 4, 5 or Primal? I played the fuck out of 2 but 3 didn't hold my interest for some reason.
I played 5, I skipped 4 but I don't think I missed much. It's all perfectly functional, the mechanics feel good, the story is kind of... There.
Nothing about it is bad, it's all quite polished, it's just completely and utterly devoid of emotion, positively or negatively. It's like a game on SSRIs.
