The Gaming Postwhoring Thread

[LaJon]

[Tuffty]

Played a bit of the Doom Multiplayer Beta when it was out. I liked it, bit of a slower Unreal Tournament but it wasn't without a few grievances. I feel like the COD esque XP and select your loadout capabilities are just unneeded in an arena shooter. I would have thought the point would be to give everyone a fairly standard weapon to start with and scatter more powerful weapons around the map, making it a race to see who can get them first. If everyone has access to a rocket launcher from the start of a match, why switch to any other kind of weapon? Also I don't really understand why damage numbers appear over an enemies head when you shoot them. It just makes some weapons seem to be useless. Again, when you see a hit from a rocket launcher does 50 damage when a bullet from an assault rifle does 9, why would you pick the latter? Anyway, still relatively enjoyable. Here's some gameplay I recorded which I'm fairly proud of.



Looking forward to the demo for Nioh which comes out tomorrow. Dark Souls meets Feudal Japan with monsters? Hell yes. Also the Sapienza level comes out for Hitman, which looks gorgeous.

[Tuffty]

Couple of things I've been playing this week. The new level of Hitman came out and it is a fantastic continuation. It's even bigger than the Paris map (8 floors! 8!) with it's own little sunny Italian coastal town it looks absolutely gorgeous and I've yet to explore the map fully but there's just tons of potential to see as it's packed with detail. It really feels like a next gen effort that I have imagined in my head since a kid, a detailed little sandbox environment where you can go into most buildings and have the creative freedom to complete your objective. Some still don't like the episodic release format this game has taken, but like I mentioned earlier it seems like a good fit for Hitman, as it doesn't really break any story telling they have and in between releases you can really explore a level in detail and work out all the different ways you can kill your target. And the developers so far have done a good job in listening to feedback and fixing some issues (loading times on consoles are now reduced by 50% since launch) and giving new content like different missions each week to keep you coming back and playing. Can't wait to see the remaining maps.

Played the Nioh alpha demo and it's harder than Dark Souls. No joke, when standard enemies can kill you in 2-3 hits, then there's a problem. I only really got used to it after levelling up some and getting better gear, but it's still hard as nails. I particularly struggled on the boss, I can't tell if I was under levelled or if I had weak equipment or if the boss was just designed to have that much health because it felt like it went on longer than it should and that's an issue if the boss can kill you easily with a few swings. Managed to do it though, as a nice reward, completing the demo enables you to download free DLC for the main game. But the demo is only available until May 5th so get on that. I'd recommend playing the demo, it's practically Dark Souls x Onimusha. The combat is different from DS, much faster, but as I said, very punishing. The demo is also really impressive, I've played maybe 3 hours at this point, exploring just this one area, but another higher difficulty area unlocks once you beat the boss too so there is tons of game in there to play which is impressive in this day and age. If they could bump up the weapon durability and lower the drop rate in the main game, it could be pretty special.

Finally played a lot of Rocket Hoops, the new basketball themed mode for Rocket League. It's like the main game only the net is now in the shape of a basketball hoop so you have to get the ball up and in. The physics of the ball are different, it's lighter so there's a lot of focus on aerial play. Or if you suck at that like me, then you can pass to teammates or take a shot from the ground. It's a lot of fun, makes a great game even better. Here's me playing it and being quite good at it if I do say so.

[Tuffty]

Played a bit of the open Overwatch beta that started today and loved it! I was wondering how well it would translate to the consoles but it runs like a dream. So much fun, the characters are all varied, distinctive and fun to play. Personal favourites at the minute are D.Va, Hanzo, Widowmaker and Soldier 74, but I haven't played all of the 22 characters yet. I like how you can change your hero character when you die, it encourages you to play as someone different as well as adapt to what's happening in the game. I managed to do quite well in some matches, even getting on the highlight reel in 3 matches. I'll upload some footage later.

Some great news today as well for Uncharted 4 and Persona 5. The former is getting ridiculously high scores with some claiming it to be the best in the series which has to be seen to be believed, personally. And we've finally got a release date for Persona 5, well for Japan at least. There will be an appearance at E3 so I imagine a Western release date will be announced then. It will be released in September in Japan so I hope it's not too long after that for the rest of us. Take a look at the trailer shown today. Just look at that stylllllllllllllllleeeeeeee. The UI on the menus, the end battle results screen, the music to go with it. So, so good.

[vlinorman]

So the truth about Final Fantasy XII:

- gameplay is pretty good overall (albeit black magic largely useless unless you really enjoy dicking around with gambits)
- enemy variety is pathetic
- most of the dungeons are too long
- most of the game areas are too big

Biggest flaw, though, is the story: on paper the plot is pretty intelligent but it's just presented terribly. It's basically a wild goose chase until some divine creatures appear out of nowhere (who look like they stepped out of FFXIII) and tell you to finish the game. I rate it below both FFIX and FFV.

[Tuffty]

FFXII's story has it's flaws, Vaan and Penelo are completely secondary characters past the midway point and part of why the story feels somewhat disjointed was due to several reasons, one being that the game director Matsuno, had to step away from the project due to stress related illness and it went through a long development cycle and needed to come out. But in saying that, the setting and characters are much more engaging and interesting when compared to something like XIII.

I had no interest in Overwatch until this week when I started playing the open beta. I love it, it's so much fun to play, switching between different characters to play as. Because there are so many there's lot of variety in there, with different styles of play and no one character feels so overpowered. A lot of people complain about Bastion being OP, but all you need to do is pick someone like Pharah or Widowmaker who can take him out from long range. If Pharah is hovering in the air being annoying, then you get Roadhog to use the chain to pull her down. Plus it runs like a dream on the PS4. Definitely a day one purchase for me when it comes out, I've got a good number of matches to upload. My favourite characters at the minute are Hanzo, Widowmaker, Soldier 74, Symmetra, Mercy and D.Va.

The original cinematic trailer is also gorgeous and heart warming. I know there won't be any single player campaign to speak of, so I hope they continue making animated shorts like this.

[shirenuファクトリー]

'Sup.

I keep being tempted by this idea of doing a Let's Play of Fallout 3, but the reasons why I've hesitated are 1) recording that game takes a lot of space that I don't necessarily have right now, 2) I have lots of ideas for the commentary and I'd like to do it well, but it being my first LP, I would need lots of practice before actually being able to do it up to the standard that I want, and 3) since I've never done LP before I don't have the best of mics or other equipment and it's not necessarily worth to get those before I'm sure I actually enjoy doing it.

So I'm now thinking I could do a test-run or test videos with some other, preferably less heavy game, to practice narrating, editing the audio, checking the quality and discovering if there is any hope for me and if I like doing it at all. But I can't really decide on a game. I'd prefer it to be a game I already know because it would be too challenging to be learning the game while trying to talk over it. Any thoughts, suggestions??

[Tuffty]

Sounds like a good idea! I dabbled myself in doing a video to highlight one quest in The Witcher 3 as this side quest had an ending to it, but if you were attentive you could discover a key piece of evidence on your own, changing your perspective on the quest giver and affecting the resolution of the ending which I thought was really cool. But honestly I was rubbish at doing my own commentary, I was fumbling for things to say and I didn't like how my voice sounded so I just gave up on it, although the quality of the microphone on the PS4 controller might have something to do with that too. Might do something like it again at some point, I heard it's good practice to maybe have a list of topics or subjects you want to talk about which would have helped me out because I feel quite lost on what to say otherwise.

In terms of games, maybe an adventure game? It'll give you dialogue to read out loud, a story to follow, you can describe your thought process during puzzle solving. Honestly, I'd just pick a game that you love, your enthusiasm for it will show in your commentary. Maybe something like The Sims, as it'll show off your creative side.

[shirenuファクトリー]

^ Sims is otherwise tempting but talking about my Sims is kinda like when some people can only talk about their pets or their kids. Aka, super boring after a while! But yeah... Gotta think some more!

[Tuffty]

I don't really get any pleasure at watching someone struggling at playing a game, but when you're say a gaming journalist, where it is your job to play games, and you can't seem to grasp the fact that you can move and shoot in a first person shooter well, then it becomes funny.

[shirenuファクトリー]

^ Oh man, I'm glad I don't have that job

[hackata48]

Who plays the more....
Complex and realistic military strategy games?


I'm Struggling in Wargame in the 2nd Korean War Campaign


And Norks really don't want me to get Kim Jong un so bad.

[Tuffty]

Something's been eating away at me about the Battlefield 1 reveal and I can't quite place it. For those who don't know, Battlefield 1 is the next Battlefield game which is set during World War 1 and I don't know if you can have a first person shooter game in that period. I'm not even talking about if the weapons would translate well into a first person shooter either. It's just that I've played the single player campaigns for Battlefield 3 and 4 and there's little to suggest from what I've seen in the trailer that it will be any different in this game i.e. a glorified shooter with big action set piece moments full of explosions and shit. But that's not an accurate portrayal of the conflict. That's not how the Battle of Somme was fought. And I very much doubt you'll see what soldiers actually did at that time, building trenches, waiting in the most horrid conditions and then being led out over the top to fight by those in command far removed from the front lines. Then you have the developers trying to hype up the game like "We've made the bayonets and it feels visceral when you stab soldiers, like it feels real and satisfying." Everything about the promotion of the game seems wrong to me.

Here's the thing, I might play it, Battlefield 3 and 4 remain some of my favourite first person shooters. But I just hope that they can actually portray how awful it was. Hopefully it will also get people to look up more info about WW1 as a result of playing it too. I realise I'm being slightly hypocritical as I've played and enjoyed WW2 shooters like old Call of Duty and Medal of Honor games in the past. Of course all wars are awful, not suggesting one war is less valid than others. I dunno, I think maybe I've just grown bored of first person shooters like that. I'm not even suggesting you can't set any games that use WW1 as a setting. I played Valiant Hearts last year, a 2D adventure game set in WW1 but didn't revel in the warfare, it told real human stories based on real people serving in the military at the time and had little violence. It was brilliant (honestly, had me in tears at the ending) and a much more interesting game than thinking 'I wonder if I can have mustard gas as a killstreak'.

[turtledude001]

I got an Xbox One controller yesterday, along with the wireless receiver to use on my PC. My receiver for the 360 had long died out. Anyway, it is a pretty cool controller. I haven't made use of it too much with have I've played thus far, but the d-pad seems way better than the 360's and the rumble seems better too.

I've started playing the Forza Motorsport 6: Apex beta with it and wow that game is pretty good. I played a track that accumulated puddles while it was raining and I had to avoid them to not hydroplane. Never had to do that in a racing game before. I'm a casual racing player so I'm guessing that probably isn't novel, but I was impress.

Also tried out Killer Instinct. The current free character is Cinder and he's pretty awesome. Both these games are free in the Win10 store. I know the Win10 platform for gaming has been getting a lot of crap, but I don't know, so far my experience has been awesome. Bring on more Xbox One games to Win10! I haven't bought anything yet, but I'm tempted to unlock KI fully and maybe pick up Quantum Break later down the line.

[scorn]

[Tuffty]

So who else has been playing Overwatch to the extent that it's the first thing they do when they wake up in the morning before going to work! *raises hand* Don't know what else needs to be said, what a fantastic multiplayer shooter. Who is everybody's mains at the minute? I'm really starting to learn how to play as Zarya and Tracer now so I'm happy. Really like playing as Symmetra, Reinhardt, Mercy and McCree. As much as I would love to play as Widowmaker I just can't, I've never been good at sniping in multiplayer matches. I get so envious watching good Widowmaker players.

What a fantastic period of gaming it has been lately. The new Witcher 3 expansion is out, a new Hitman level came out this week too, Overwatch, Uncharted 4, Dark Souls 3, Invisible Inc...Just incredible. One thing worth mentioning, Overwatch is a brilliant multiplayer game and so too is Uncharted 4. It too is straightforward like Overwatch but it's fun for different reasons. This match was a lot of fun, I'm quite proud for how much I kicked ass in it

[turtledude001]

I've been randomly playing a few random games to fill time, but the main course currently for me is Trails in the Sky Second Chapter. Fantastic game if you like world building and reading a lot of text. I might play The Witcher 3 expansion Blood and Wine after this, but ideally I'll wait for a patch or two. TW3 was a rough experience at launch with the no exp bug among others. I don't play FPS, so sorry, no Overwatch for me.

Big month for JRPGs: new Atelier next week and Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE (that weird Fire Emblem and Shin Megami Tensei mashup) and new Star Ocean toward the end of the month. Maybe some smaller name stuff in between. I'll eventually pick up all three. My copy of Atelier Shallie is still unplayed though, so I probably should get through that before Sophie So many games, so little time.

You can probably tell my favored genre. Bad thing about it is that it takes forever to get through a single game.

[mini*wheat]

^
I'm SO PUMPED for Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE. I mean I love Fire Emblem and I love idols, so basically this is a perfect game 

[turtledude001]

I don't know too much about the game other than the combat is nothing like FE. More like SMT with the press-turn system maybe? Do I think the FE weapon triangle does factor in. I'm kinda going into this game blind and having been reading into the game's controversies (the now routine Nintendo localization changes). The game having an idol theme totally came out of nowhere to me, as none of the inspiration series has that (well, P4 has one idol character). May be the last Wii U game I get. Unless the NX blows and I chose to get Zelda on Wii U instead.

And course you love idols. This is JPH!P after all haha

[pikapikapika]

I haven't played an FE or SMT/Persona game so Tokyo Mirage Sessions will be my first of both kinds