What games did you play today?

[Ruki]

Persona 3 Portable on gamepass! It's been years since I've played the original, which was what hooked me into the Persona series! Sadly, it doesn't seem to have the anime cutscenes so far  

[jrhodes]

1 minute ago, Kazuma KiRuki said:

Persona 3 Portable on gamepass! It's been years since I've played the original, which was what hooked me into the Persona series! Sadly, it doesn't seem to have the anime cutscenes so far  

I'm really disappointed they didn't re-release the P3FES edition instead.

There are rumblings that Persona 3 is getting a remake though.

[Bobfoc]

I always found the anime cutscenes in Persona to be tonally different to the regular storytelling. It's as if they were made by a different team with very little input.

[stokeriño]

Well all of Persona 3-5 has the dichotomy of Serious Shit vs. Lol School Antics and mostly the cutscenes have to be the former (except for fan service bits, I guess). I don't think there's all that much of a disconnect.

Although I suppose since most of the P3 cutscenes push the horror/"it's the mid-2000s and we want to be metal as fuck" vibes, that rather sticks out in a series that has gone on to get more and more chill with every iteration since.

[Bobfoc]

I definitely remember a couple of weird Persona 4 Golden cutscenes that didn't really add anything to the story. One of them was when the girls go to a hot springs and notice how big a character's breasts are. Then there's another where the comedy mascot fails to do a ski jump and rolls down a hill in a big snowball.

[stokeriño]

Yeah, fan service (of either boobs or the lol antics variety). They're not intended to add anything beyond popping certain elements of the fanbase, but that's so frikkin common in Japanese media generally that I just take it as a cultural cliche at this point.

(There's some in P5 too, which makes me assume that the writers just can't help themselves - especially considering that Ann's whole arc is about overcoming how she's objectified, only for the game itself to objectify her in several cutscenes thereafter.)

I guess my main point is that there's a lot of P4G's 'comedy' writing that is unnecessary, disjointed and has aged super-badly, but that's in the gameplay just as much as in the cutscenes. That's why I wouldn't single the latter out.

[Bobfoc]

That's fair. What I'm trying to get at is that taking out anime cutscenes isn't going to bother me much. I can't remember thinking any were particularly good.

[TheGrandAvatar]

 

Having managed to defeat the final boss a while back, and having gone back to Mortal Shell at Christmas. It felt the right time to pickup The Virtuous Cycle DLC. It just adds a lot more roguelike fun to an already amazing Dark Souls style game that Mortal Shell is.

Really enjoyed picking it back up. But boy. Is it punishing me. Most of the time I'm getting my Lute out to take five minute's out and enjoy the World again and listen to the music. Going to be very fun exploring the World of Fallgrim again. 

[Ruki]

I miss the QoL stuff from Persona 5! Things like Baton Pass, the monsters in the dungeon being monsters rather than blobs and knowing what an enemy's weakness is after discovering it rather than having to memorize it. 

[stokeriño]

Am about 8 hours into P3P and you know what I'm missing most? Books. Or what I really mean by that is a wider variety of ways to do something useful in the evenings that aren't a) spending money or b) studying.

Also lol, the "Analyze" action in battle. "Yes okay, not only will I return a single question mark, but I will tack on the insult of taking multiple turns to do so." Cheers, Mitsuru.

And yes I would too miss Baton Pass if I hadn't already made peace with that pain from P4G last year.  

[Ruki]

1 minute ago, stokeriño said:

Am about 8 hours into P3P and you know what I'm missing most? Books. Or what I really mean by that is a wider variety of ways to do something useful in the evenings that aren't a) spending money or b) studying.

Also lol, the "Analyze" action in battle. "Yes okay, not only will I return a single question mark, but I will tack on the insult of taking multiple turns to do so." Cheers, Mitsuru.

And yes I would too miss Baton Pass if I hadn't already made peace with that pain from P4G last year.  

I accidentally just stumbled upon Analyze. Like... so useless. I'm usually killing the enemies before I find out their weakness!

[Roster Depth Sicko No. 2]

On 16/01/2023 at 23:32, Brandon Cutler Fan Account said:

I'm 4 chapters through some NG+ clean up on Guardians of the Galaxy. I'm fairly certain the bulk of the collectibles I'm missing are from Chapter 6 onward so hoping I won't need to do any Chapter rollbacks (although I think I already need to do chapter 4 again because the guide I was following picked the opposite decision to me and I didn't realise because the part with the collectible I needed never came up).

One Call to Action trophy left, then I need about 5 outfits and I'm done. Made some good progress the last couple of days.

[Szumi]

On 08/01/2023 at 17:15, Benji said:

Completed Man of Medan in a sitting. Got the ending with...

  Hide contents

Everyone surviving, including the random guy from the bad guys group, but Shawn Ashmore's character escaped earlier and came back to rescue us after we had already left and succumbed to the Manchurian Gold aboard whilst looking for us, so looks like his fate is to be crazy for however briefly he lives.

Good game, even if the story was a little predictable. I wish more studios would be happy making 5-10 hour games that just have replay ability. 50+ epics are great and all, but way too many games get caught up on fetch quests and collectibles these days, and whilst I know that's not the nature of a Supermassive game, it's a definite reminder that often brevity and quality are better than quantity.

My girlfriend just finished playing that this week. She definitely preferred Until Dawn over Man of Medan. I believe The Quarry is next for her. Not sure if you played any of those, but definitely recommend Until Dawn!

[Benji]

Yeah I loved Until Dawn, have been waiting for season one of Dark Pictures to finish to play them properly and am doing that now. Until Dawn definitely better than the ones I've played so far, but they've all been enjoyable in their own way. Speaking of, just finished House of Ashes...

Spoiler

Very different to the other games of the series, very much felt the constant threat of death which was probably helped by having a cast that wasn't just your own characters you were trying to protect.

Having said that, the characters you play as with the exception of Salim were absolute fucking weenies. Eric wasn't too bad but was obsessed with Rachel who was just the most unlikeable person they've ever put into one of these games. Jason was likeable but had a bit of a shit streak in the middle before being redeemed, and Nick was just a downright asshole aside from his marine loyalty.

I wound up...

Spoiler

With Eric killed because I stayed loyal to keeping Clarice alive, knew that one would... Bite me. I didn't want that one to happen.

Rachel also got killed because she was infected and whilst I always play with trying to get as many people to survive as possible, after the Clarice thing and given she was an absolute mutant level weiner throughout the game, I decided to kill her when given the choice of kill her or take her with whilst infected because I'd prefer everyone else to survive.

Salim, Nick and Jason all survived, and whilst Nick was a nob, his loyalty to his marines was worth saving him, and Jason getting past his prejudice was a good story.

Didn't care for the fact that the only playable female character in the game was so dislikeable. In fact, I honestly wish the game had the NPCs as the PCs. Having Clarice, Merwin and Gomez as the characters would have been better because they all had likeable characteristics. Throw those three in with Salim and Jason and the game would have been much better.

It perhaps sounds like I disliked the game, but I really didn't. Disliking the protagonists made me approach the story somewhat differently to the other games and did make for a interesting experience. I also liked the enemies and quite enjoyed the explanation for them despite initial apprehension over it.

So far I'm ranking Supermassive games as Until Dawn > Little Hope > Man of Medan/House of Ashes. Last two aren't bad, but the flaws in them put them below Little Hope. Very excited for Devil In Me next as that's right up my alley.

[Benji]

Started The Devil In Me...

Spoiler

Whelp, that's the first time I've had someone die in Act 1. This is going to be interesting.

 

[FLiam]

I played more Elden Ring. I think I’m obsessed now.

[Benji]

Humankind is great. Just bought the game and expansions for cheap on Steam (£30 or so this weekend for the lot) and I am losing a lot, but having more fun in the early going than I ever have with a Civ game, and I love Civ.

[TheGrandAvatar]

The Division. Missed the buzz around it when it first released a few year's back. Had tried to get into it a few time's over the year's since owning it. However I just couldn't get into the feel of it.

Anyway it has been sitting in my collection for a long while. Figured I would have another go on it a few month's back. The Pandemic of Covid that we experienced I think helped me get into it a lot more this time. 

Been messing around on it today, and trying to build up the base of operations. Just enjoyed walking in a Post Pandemic New York, and seeing what has gone down. Been upgrading and crafting for my next trip out the safe area. 

[Benji]

Devil In Me Act 2...

Spoiler

God damn, second person down. Most I've ever lost in Supermassive games on first playthrough is two and one of those was a little bit by choice of not wanting to risk better characters.

Incredible use of set pieces, given a lot of it is running around the same (moving) corridors, it never lets you feel comfortable.

Intense and by far the best one of the four Dark Pictures so far.

[Benji]

20 minutes ago, Benji said:

Devil In Me Act 2...

  Reveal hidden contents

God damn, second person down. Most I've ever lost in Supermassive games on first playthrough is two and one of those was a little bit by choice of not wanting to risk better characters.

Incredible use of set pieces, given a lot of it is running around the same (moving) corridors, it never lets you feel comfortable.

Intense and by far the best one of the four Dark Pictures so far.

Spoiler

... Jesus I'm down to two.