Currently Playing in 2019....

OrangeRakoon wrote:

Cuttooth wrote:

Trelliz wrote:The Witcher: Enhanced Edition - PC

I've wanted to get into the Witcher series and have ended up with all 3 over the years so thought i'd start at the beginning. The movement and combat are a bit odd and the menu UI is a spectacular mess but its alright. I'm playing on easy as I have neither the time nor inclination to git gud for 3 massive rpgs if i want to get through them in a reasonable amount of time.

I spent about an hour each on both the first two Witcher games after owning them for years, before giving up and watching a couple of decent synopsis videos to get me up speed for The Witcher 3.

But the first game is the best one

As a fellow edgelord, I applaud this valiant effort.

It really isn't. It's got the least interesting story and worst mechanics of all three Witcher games. It's comfortably, comfortably the worst.

Tafdolphin wrote:It really isn't. It's got the least interesting story and worst mechanics of all three Witcher games

I ended the first Witcher engaged to Shani with Triss refusing to talk to me. Witcher 2 then open with you sleeping with Triss, and essentially just says "lol you made the non-canon choice" and retcons it away in a single journal entry. That upset me from the get go.

But away from me being bitter about my choices in a role playing game being ignored, there are gameplay reasons for me preferring the first game.

Witcher 2 was too hard - I completely bounced off the opening of the game and never got through it. Not only was it difficult, but it abandoned the three stance mechanic of the first game that I enjoyed, with the fast/heavy/group fighting styles. Also, what is a gameplay flaw in the first game, with certain combat abilities letting you one-shot bosses with randomly triggered finishing moves, I actually really liked because it greatly increased my immersion in the game world - with the added sense of realism of being able to instantly kill all enemies that it brought.

I also failed to fully engage with Witcher 3, partly because I had bounced off 2 so didn't flow into it, but mostly because of the fully open world and overwhelming side content. I found it much less immersive than the first game as I was spending so much time doing generic open world tasks such as clearing enemy camps and this completely threw off the story pacing, and the world was much less believable as a real world because of it being fully open and therefore necessarily shrunken. In the first game I could believe I was in this massive world precisely because they weren't worried about me actually exploring it all.

Essentially, I found the first game the most believable and immersive, which is very important to me in a fantasy RPG. It also has a wide-linear structure that is probably my favourite way of structuring a game.

Yup, that's a well reasoned response.

I mean, you're still objectively in the "wrong." I cannot recommend enough that you try Witcher 3 again. I too played about 5 hours of Witcher 2 so wasn't going into 3 with all the lore and backstory but it never penalises you for this. You miss a few easter eggs, but that's it. I understand your thoughts about the open world too, but it's the best open world I've ever played: this is not Skyrim. In terms of immersion, and I can't state how much this is not hyperbole, it's the most immersive game I've ever played. Places feel real, villages feel lived in, the NPCs have jobs and routines and lives. The quests, both story and side, are incredibly rich and the moment to moment gameplay is amongst the best I've ever experienced. After a week with it, it shot into my top 5 ever and it's remained there ever since.

Unless you have a dyed-in-the-wool, unshakeable aversion to open world games I'd strongly urge you to try again.

On the last chapter of Dead Space. It's been great to play through this again. The first turret section is still utter bollocks, but apart from that, it has been fun. I love upgrading equipment with the power nodes, it's weirdly satisfying for me.

Still think this is the best game in the series. I hope to see it come back at some point. I can understand the dislike of the last game, but I thought it was very enjoyable.

Edit - Witcher 3 is WANKKKKKKK

Tafdolphin wrote:...
Unless you have a dyed-in-the-wool, unshakeable aversion to open world games I'd strongly urge you to try again.

I do intend to go back to it, it's just committing myself to the time needed.

I'm definitely not anti open world, and in fact I have put hundreds of hours into the similar Oblivion and Skyrim despite having major issues with design in both games, so I think I will enjoy Witcher 3 when I go back to it. I just need to go in with the mindset of not trying to complete everything on the map in a methodical nature, but instead "concentrating" on the story and doing side quests that I stumble across only naturally.

Basically I need to fight against the completionist inside me if I want to reattempt it. And leave it long enough to get over my open world BOTW high.

Forza 4 & COD 2.

Both still solid performers.

Still just playing PES. Not too interested in playing anything else... it's really quite odd. Just have to see where this goes.

Finally began RE7.

Got as far as the save point after meeting Mia and that was enough for one evening. gooseberry fool me right up. God knows how anyone can stomach RE7 in VR.

Anyway, what little I've played has impressed and I'll most certainly continue my play through. Just got to last more than 20 minutes at a time.

The Walking Dead - New Frontier

I don't give a gooseberry fool about any of these people. And that includes Clem. On the one hand I like how the bad guys in this aren't comic book baddies; David isn't a complete monster and so it doesn't feel like the right thing to do to start a relationship with his wife, and whilst there's zero doubt that Joan is in the wrong, TT did well to not make her moustache twirling villain either. The downside to all that is that the story doesn't have any of the tense dread I associate with TT's TWD games. And what with Clem being all aloof and edgy (for her) my interest in her story is at an all time low as well.

Gemini73 wrote:Finally began RE7.

Got as far as the save point after meeting Mia and that was enough for one evening. gooseberry fool me right up. God knows how anyone can stomach RE7 in VR.

Anyway, what little I've played has impressed and I'll most certainly continue my play through. Just got to last more than 20 minutes at a time.

The first 30 minutes are by far the scariest in the game. Keep going, it's quite excellent.

Tafdolphin wrote:

Gemini73 wrote:Finally began RE7.

Got as far as the save point after meeting Mia and that was enough for one evening. gooseberry fool me right up. God knows how anyone can stomach RE7 in VR.

Anyway, what little I've played has impressed and I'll most certainly continue my play through. Just got to last more than 20 minutes at a time.

The first 30 minutes are by far the scariest in the game. Keep going, it's quite excellent.

Yeah I got the impression that those opening 30 minutes or so would be the games main draw for scares and imagine it'll get less frightening as you play and, like most horror titles, you get used to it.

That said I'm still bricking it at the thought of re-enterinng that house.

I don't want to spoil anything, but Jack is the strawberry floating man. One of the best characters in a game in ages: dude's having the time of his strawberry floating life.

TWD - The New Frontier
Oh how I wish I could literally throw Gabe under a bus. Or at a herd.

Burnout Revenge
Realised I hadn't actually completed this, so went back to try and finish it off. I've got to Elite rank (the highest you can go) but still have some events to tick off. It started out very enjoyable, but there are way too many events, and not enough variation in event types, meaning you just end up doing the same kinds of races over and over. Could've done with having about half as many events. Couple more hours though and it'll be done and dusted.

Starfox Adventures
Still plugging away at this. I only sit down to play it every other weekend or so, and so progress has been slow. I'm about 70%-80% through now though I reckon. It's decent, although getting around can be really tedious with Fox's painfully slow climbing, lots of backtracking, and revisiting the same locations over and over.

Pro Evo 2015
Think I'm done with this now. I won the European treble (as they call it) with Villa and reckon that'll do me now. Unless I get pulled back in for another season a few months down the line.

Civilization Revolution
Been wanting to get into Civilization for a while but it always seemed pretty in-depth and I wasn't sure if it would be my kind of thing or not. This seemed like a decent entry point, and I'm enjoying it so far. Won a Cultural victory with the English, pretty much crushing everyone in my path in the process on all fronts. Looking forward to another game with hopefully a different win method. I can definitely see the 'one more turn' thing now, ended up playing till about 4am.

Doom 2016 again. On PC this time, cause I kinda forgot I own it on Steam. The recent update actually reduced the install size by about 15-20 gig, which is frankly amazing. I have a fairly modest rig, it runs at a near locked 60fps on medium, so I'm happy enough.

Game is fantastic. It gets what a video game should be. Fun.

I've just got to chapter 2 of The Witcher and I'm definitely into it, although it does seem to assume the player knows more about the world/characters than perhaps they do; i had a cutscene conversation between Geralt and the King of the Wild Hunt which came out of nowhere and with little introduction. The whole amnesia trope as a way of introducing a lot of stuff is a bit naff though.

Also i caved and got the necromancer for diablo 3:

Dragon Age Origins. Last time I played it was when it first launched on 360.

Only just started it but it's as good as it ever was. Ah, a time when BioWare actually used to make quality RPGs.

Zero Time Dilemma

Its a bit strawberry floating grim.

Just had to watch two characters suffocate to death, and that was the 'good' outcome for that particular section.

Recently re-discovered the long-forgotten little gem entitled Eternal Sonata on 360. What a truly impressive, gorgeous-looking game this is. I'd rate it as one of the finest-looking anime-styled games ever to grace a console. The character design, the environments... real top-of-the-class stuff. That, plus the game's unrelentingly sad, melancholic storyline and cinematics. Just beautiful.

You can still pick this up off XBL Marketplace for just £11.99 as a download. If you're a fan of very good-looking anime-cartoon-style JRPG games and you missed this game first time around, it's an absolute must for your collection.

Eternal Sonata is wonderful. If I didn't have such a large backlog I'd love to re-play it.