What Game Are You Playing At The Moment ?

[Lambert09]

On 16/06/2025 at 14:43, kingcarr21 said:

The parrying will come the further you go. Sometimes it just takes some repeat battles to learn each enemies timings.

 

its great that it takes bits from FF. Like FF9 with the Luminas being the same as FF9 when you select abilities for each character.

 

I've been crying out for a FF game to go back to turn based fighting. Let's hope they are listening

Couldn’t agree more! I just want a solid story to follow and turn based play. I never quite understood why they switched when the franchise was so popular. 
 

I think the issue was that the other style was also popular so they had no reason to switch back. But there’s an untapped audience who have also gone mad for this game

[RoboFox]

23 hours ago, whoareyaaa said:

Gave the new Doom ago and have to say it's quite a good game and slick, I only play for 30/1hr sessions in general so its perfect for me, and absolute chaos gameplay.

All three modern Doom games are absolute masterpieces of game design and somehow they manage to change it up enough to make each one feel distinctive.

[Guest]

I've never followed Final Fantasy very closely - what was the general reaction to the shift away from turn-based combat? I assume it was done because they thought it was limiting their audience but between Baldur's Gate, Persona and now Clair Obscur (are we meant to call it that or Expedition 33?) there seems ample evidence that games with turn-based combat can be enormously popular and successful

[TeamRocket]

just rediscovered Wario Blast (on on one of them R36s handheld thingy me bob) used to love the game as a kid might have to go see if cex has it

[Finnegan]

23 hours ago, Guest said:

I've never followed Final Fantasy very closely - what was the general reaction to the shift away from turn-based combat? I assume it was done because they thought it was limiting their audience but between Baldur's Gate, Persona and now Clair Obscur (are we meant to call it that or Expedition 33?) there seems ample evidence that games with turn-based combat can be enormously popular and successful

 

I think it's worth pointing out that Baldurs Gate 3 is just an incredibly well made game (based on a table top game that blew up over the last five/ten years) that transcends it's genre, it's success hasn't suddenly thrown Divinity Original Sin in to the mainstream nor the work of Owlcat, inXile, Harebrained, etc.

 

And Clair Obscur is very much a gamer's game, isn't it? It got traction initially for it's nostalgia power before it started to go big with younger capital G Gamers.

 

Turn based is never going to be ideal for the vast majority of casual gamers, who the industry makes the most money off. The people that buy every Ubisoft title made without recognising they're copy and pasted slop are going to have limited patience with a turn based and tactical format.

 

FF7 through FF10 are the absolute golden years of Final Fantasy but Square probably did need to change the format up, it was always going to get stale.

 

[Guest]

Trying to make this the year I start making a dent in my backlog so in that spirit, and with the sequel on its way and previewing well, I am currently (I believe) about halfway through Death Stranding. Very much an acquired taste but I'm having a lovely time with it. I reckon it's the sort of game you either immediately, irreversibly dislike or steadily grow to really love and I think I may well be in the latter camp.

[Beliall]

8 minutes ago, Guest said:

Trying to make this the year I start making a dent in my backlog so in that spirit, and with the sequel on its way and previewing well, I am currently (I believe) about halfway through Death Stranding. Very much an acquired taste but I'm having a lovely time with it. I reckon it's the sort of game you either immediately, irreversibly dislike or steadily grow to really love and I think I may well be in the latter camp.

i was tempted to do that myself, but i dont want to burn out, i played kingdom come deliverence 1 before the new one came out, and dropped the new one because i got bored. i got my pre order for DS2 in and now im waiting for release

[Thefox81]

About 10 hours into FFXVI. Reminds me very much of Devil May Cry. 

[Dunge]

9 minutes ago, Thefox81 said:

About 10 hours into FFXVI. Reminds me very much of Devil May Cry. 

An interesting addition to the FF series. I found the acting was great, the battle system was massively underdeveloped, the story was decent, but the major selling point was that I found myself caring about the world and the people in it right to the end.

[Libertine]

Enjoyed FF16 but the side quests let it down IMO, too repetitive and uninspired. 

[kingcarr21]

On 20/06/2025 at 18:09, Libertine said:

Enjoyed FF16 but the side quests let it down IMO, too repetitive and uninspired. 

Practically all fetch quests if I remember correctly. I still did them all but agree that FF16 became very repetitive. I don't have the desire to replay that game ever again. Not like other FF games that always peaked my interest saying every 4-5 years

[Libertine]

Got Clair Obscur for my birthday and started that today. Really enjoying so far.

[TheGoldenGod]

On 19/06/2025 at 12:35, RoboFox said:

All three modern Doom games are absolute masterpieces of game design and somehow they manage to change it up enough to make each one feel distinctive.

I never got around to playing them but since they all got thrown on GamePass I've been working my way through them all. Currently half way through The Dark Ages and even on nightmare difficulty, this one is a cakewalk compared to the other two. Think the shield parrying was a misstep and not sure the inclusion of the dragon/mech levels were that much of a positive change! The other two games are fantastic though...

[Legend_in_blue]

Diablo IV and not impressed.  

 

The lag, if you can call it that, the character just randomly slides backwards, stutters etc., is making this 10 times worse than the original game.

 

It had better improve or I'm binning it.

[Dahnsouff]

Finished Tainted Grail: Fall of Avalon. Loved it, adult moral storytelling with meaningful consequences and a combat system I very much appreciated.

8/10

[whoareyaaa]

Still going through this new Doom game, absolutely chaotic but the levels and gameplay are really good, only on 6/20 chapters think it will be the only game I complete in about 5 years.

[RoboFox]

Been absolutely battering Expedition 33. Now well into the endgame. 

 

The first act is a masterpiece. It falls away slightly towards the end IMO and the story becomes a little convoluted. 

 

The final act is very unbalanced however. I love that there's still so much to do once you reach the end of the story but many of the optional locations and boss encounters are absurd and it requires a lot of level grinding and pictos collecting to even touch some of them. It's pretty clear that they had a bit more planned and it was either cut or they'll release it as DLC. 

 

The Endless Tower is ridiculous. And I hate 

Simon

 

That aside it's definitely one of my favourite games of the past 5, maybe even 10 years. You know it's a great game when you think about it once you've put your controller down. 

 

Edited 3 July 2025 by RoboFox

[bmt]

Blue Prince is an amazing game

[kingcarr21]

7 hours ago, bmt said:

Blue Prince is an amazing game

GOTY for me. Enjoyed it more than Expedition 33. 'Just one more run'  Spent hours on it. Was gutted when i finished it but still plenty to do after

[Libertine]

On the final boss of Expedition 33. Beat it then obvs they

regenerated to full health so you have to start again with whatever little health your team has left.

Gonna grind a bit to level up before trying again. 

[RoboFox]

2 hours ago, Libertine said:

On the final boss of Expedition 33. Beat it then obvs they

  Reveal hidden contents

regenerated to full health so you have to start again with whatever little health your team has left.

Gonna grind a bit to level up before trying again. 

I thought the story bosses were ridiculous, then you come across some of the end-game optional baddies and found myself reaching for guides to find pictos I'd missed to even have a chance of beating them. 

[Libertine]

1 minute ago, RoboFox said:

I thought the story bosses were ridiculous, then you come across some of the end-game optional baddies and found myself reaching for guides to find pictos I'd missed to even have a chance of beating them. 

Yeh I've come across a couple of them which I promptly backed out of. 

[RoboFox]

7 minutes ago, Libertine said:

Yeh I've come across a couple of them which I promptly backed out of. 

I beat the hidden hardest boss in the game last night. Without spoiling anything, it's basically a piss take and nigh on impossible to beat unless you sit there for hours programming your muscle memory. 

 

The only option was to farm lumina and pictos to be able to put together a team and strategy to be able to one-shot him on the first turn in each phase of the fight. 

 

Edited 8 July 2025 by RoboFox

[Beliall]

surprised at no mention of death stranding 2. kojima has out kojima'd himself this time

[Guest]

Finished Death Stranding last night after about 60 hours, not without its flaws but pretty wonderful stuff on the whole. Very keen to play DS2 but I think for my own sanity I need at least a short break from deliveries so will likely either have a crack at something relatively short from the backlog (your Preys, your Pentiments, your Neon Whites) or start a new Baldur's Gate save now it's had its final update.