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Chloyster [she/her] @beehaw.org

Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of Feb 23rd

What'cha all been playing? I've been playing a ton for Avowed this last week. I'm really enjoying it! It's definitely got some issues but overall it's been one of my favorite RPGs in recent memory

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  • I created a new character in The Sims 4 to try out the last couple expansion packs.

    Maybe some Split Fiction later.

  • I decided to push through and finish the Sleeping Dogs DLCs - not really out of a desire for more but rather so I could feel I've truly completed it and could uninstall it and move on in peace. This probably coloured my opinion on them a bit as the main story had already almost outstayed its welcome at around 35h.

    Nightmare in North Point is an obviously Halloween themed DLC, so maybe I'd have liked it better if I played it in season. There are one or two funny moments, but overall the new mechanics get old quickly and the gameplay is too repetitive to be interesting. It's also an obviously non-canon experience with all the supernatural events, which makes it even harder to get invested in. Highly mediocre, honestly don't waste your time on this.

    Year of the Snake is also holiday-themed, this time around the Chinese New Year. Taking place after the main story, Wei Shen has been temporarily demoted to a beat cop as punishment for the carnage he caused during the events of the main story. I do like this acknowledgement, though seeing him tried for domestic terrorism would probably have been more appropriate. The first half of the DLC is alright, but unfortunately the latter part focuses on the biggest weakness of the game: gunfights. In particular, there is an absurdly long boat chase where you have to shoot down probably 50 pursuing boats, most of which spawn in plain sight. Maybe it would feel better on mouse and keyboard, but on controller the gunplay was painfully atrocious. The plot wasn't satisfying either, so I would recommend just starting it to see the cutscene of Wei as a beat cop and leaving it there.

    The Zodiac Tournament is actually integrated into the main story, but I didn't play it until now. I'm glad I saved it for last, because this was finally a good DLC. Clearly inspired by Bruce Lee type movies, it's a very simple plot about martial arts tournament on an island. Even with its very predictable twists this was an enjoyable (but short) ride, no doubt partially because it focuses on the good part of Sleeping Dogs combat: melee. Since it is integrated into the main story you also have access to all your character upgrades - unlike the other DLCs - which also made it more enjoyable. This one gets a thumbs up.

    Up next, for a change of pace, will probably be Skald: Against the Black Priory. Picked it up on sale recently and looks really neat.

  • I finished Final Fantasy 7. Compared to Remake or Rebirth this thing just moves, and doesn't constantly waste your time. However, that also leaves little time for character interaction or development, so that's where the new games are much better.

    Next was Mushroom 11. I played it about halfway almost 10 years ago, and finally decided to go back and finish it. This is a game, where you control some mushroom blob, by erasing parts, causing it to regrow somewhere else, e.g. you erase the backside, and the blob regrows in the front, which makes you move forward. The first three levels are great, but the four levels after that, sometimes require precision, that the game just isn't build for. I still like the concept, but it really can be frustrating.

    Then I started playing through Final Doom's TNT: Evilution episode. It took me a bit to get my FPS legs back and the first half dozen or so levels were a bit rough, but nothing too bad. I'm playing on Ultra-Violence and with a Pistol Start, so a lot of times, I have to re-play the beginning a couple of times, to get oriented, and look for weapons, while the game just throws Shotgunners and Chaingunners at you to shred you.

    Lastly, I returned to Final Fantasy III (Pixel Remaster). The game is basically a bigger and improved FF1, with most of the changes in FF2 removed, for the better I think. The characters are back to being a cardboard cutout though, just like FF1. That's the one thing FF2 did really well, compared to these first games.

  • I went retro this weekend:

    City of Heroes! It was fun running a mastermind again for a bit.

    Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. The opening scene where Snake jumps onto the ship is still killer after all these years.

  • Just got into the pokemon fan game "Pokemon Eclesia" last night, so I'm probably gonna be playing through that demo throughout the week if I don't get bored of it. Pretty cool game so far, but has a fair bit of swearing.

    Otherwise, I was getting back into Gemcraft: Chasing Shadows. Being the idiot I am, I just now found out how to quickly power level. Don't know how much more if the game is left, let alone how to unlock the higher difficulties, but definitely wanna finish it on the easy difficulty at least once before I die.

  • This week I played Xenoblade Chronicles 2 which I started a while ago. Compared to the first one which I did not like at all, both story and gameplay are a huge improvement. I actually am interested in the characters now and the combat is pretty fun, altho I still haven't had a chance to experiment much with it.

    I have however a few minor complaints: the blade gacha is a terrible concept and I can't understand why it was put in the game; on handheld, performance is generally good but the graphics are ruined by a really strong sharpening filter; Pyra's outfit is dumb and doesn't fit the character.

    I'm also playing Chants of Sennarr and it's really good! I especially liked the design of the first three languages. The artstye is also really nice.

    I'm back to Trails of Cold Steel 2. It is better than the first one. It still feels a bit like padding but it doesn't feel as pointless. The game structure doesn't feel as formulaic and repetitive, there's less quests and it moves much quicker. The characters also finally look different from eachother, as they are no longer in uniform.

    The issues tho are still mostly the same: the combat is a downgrade from the Crossbell game (the orbment system in Cold Steel is basically materia from FF7, instead of the much more interesting previous implementation) and I don't care about any of these characters as they barely have a personality (I blame this on the social link-style mechanics and bloated cast).

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