What Are You Currently Playing? 6.65: Neighbor of the Beast

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Well, the funny thing about the game's story is that it subtly criticizes certain aspects of the Spider-Man canon by changing those aspects up to what the developers think is better suited to his mythos (some things work for me while others don't, but overall I'm fine with this interpretation of the character), but it also equally celebrates all things Spider-Man both good and bad. There are even nods to TASM2 of all things. Also....

Spoiler

....the Aunt May scene was a clear huge middle finger to Quesada and One More Day. I am OK with this.

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[Foggle]

Alright, so I finally started playing the game. I was only going to try it out but ended up getting sucked into it for over 4 hours so that should tell you everything you need to know about my thoughts on it.

I like it a lot! I can definitely see the combat getting old, but despite its lack of depth I do think it's quite a bit better than what I remember from the Arkham games since it isn't just a two-button affair. It's also much flashier and I find myself getting easily sucked into the spectacle of it all because I'm a basic bitch. The opening bit where you take down Fisk is fantastic, probably Insomniac's best introductory level since Crack In Time. They used to be the kings of that, but I felt like they were slipping a bit in recent years. I haven't gotten too far into the story yet because I've been too busy doing all the side content. The web-swinging is fun enough that I'm actually getting a lot of enjoyment out of grabbing all the collectibles, which is rare for me. I do think the writing is pretty good so far too. It actually reminds me a lot of SSM... which does make me wish this was a sequel to that series instead of another new canon... but I digress.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I actually did comment that I liked the combat better than Arkham. While it's not incredibly deep, there is some good variety here. I think my main issue was that the game limits it's own potential by having a lack of variety in enemy type and also by using hit-scan instead of hit-boxes (TGBS discusses the significance of this difference and it's impact on the gameplay in his video). I do like the game. I just don't love it as much as everyone else.

At any rate, though, glad to hear that you're enjoying it! As long as you have a game that you can have a blast with, that's really all that matters.

[Foggle]

I'm honestly surprised it has hit-scan enemies since a big part of Ratchet & Clank's appeal is being able to dodge projectiles like in a classic shoot 'em up and there's a decent amount of that series' DNA in here. I'm just happy I get to play a new Spider-Man game that reminds me of the time I spent with the PS1 and 2 titles as a kid. This really does feel like the true sequel to Spider-Man 2 that Activision never gave their studios enough time to get right.

[Mustang]

Spider-Man's definitely a good game. Much like Dr. Ensatsu-ken, I just think it's overly praised. A lot of the game just felt limited, but it is fun.

Dragon Ball Fighterz
Starting to really home in on Vegito a lot. Like the guy just ooze style, meter building and damage. I see a lot of people stay away from him because his only low is 2M and it's pretty slow so he don't really have a high-low game, but his left-right mixups are good. I've been keeping an eye on 2 people for a while now simply for Vegito alone. Kaimaato and Chunbeyun. Kaimaato's team is Vegito, Teen Gohan and Kid Buu. The synergy with this team is ridiculous, especially Vegito and Teen Gohan. Gohan allows Vegito a double super in 1 combo basically resulting in a TOD (touch of death) and Kid Buu allows Gohan the same. Kid Buu makes Vegitos left-right mixups even more deadly because of his lockdown assist. Chunbeyun's team is Vegito, Adult Gohan and SSJ Goku. Pressure and rushdown from what I can tell. I'm tempted to go Vegito, T.Gohan, SSJ Goku, or Vegito, A.Gohan, Kid Buu (of course KB would probably be replaced by Cell if I can't get KB's assist to work properly)

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, I don't know how I missed this but I only just realized that MJ in Spider-Man PS4 is voiced by Laura Bailey.

I now can't un-hear Keiko Yukimura's voice when listening to any of her audio from the game.

[Painted Outlaw]

Laura Bailey is awesome. Even when something like Saban's Glitter Force had her, it clearly didn't deserve her.

Just beat Arkham Asylum. For a general take on the game, I had a lot of fun with it. The voice work was great and helped elevate the dialogue from funny to downright hilarious. One point I tend to think of is when you're on your way to stop Poison Ivy and her and Joker just start trash-talking each other, I had to put down the controller cause it made me laugh so much. Also, the buildup to the Scarecrow fights was consistently cool.
Where my dislike goes (it's not enough to ruin the game for me but, it's still there) is, of course, the final Titan Joker fight. Like, why? There's nothing that would've been any different if he had stayed himself but no, he needs to turn into looking like Doomsday for some reason and make me fight the same goons I've been fighting the whole bloody game up to that point. I could rag on the actual Scarecrow fights for being the same every round but, at least those were spaced out and as I said, the buildup was cool. Titan Joker's the climax of the game, and it was... that. Ah well.

Arkham City is next on my list but, I think I'm gonna play a non-Batman game in the meantime. I have a list to get to (like Resident Evil 0, Majora's Mask on the Wii U, Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze, Persona 2, Persona 5 NG+ maybe), etc. So, I should have enough for a Batman-break.

[Dr. Insomniac]

I now can't un-hear Keiko Yukimura's voice when listening to any of her audio from the game.

God, it's gonna suck when FUNi dubs that YYH OVA and they won't be able to fly her back to Texas to reprise her role. Especially since Shizuru and Yukina's actresses have also been gone from FUNi for years, so they're gonna have to recast all the female characters barring Genkai and maybe Yusuke's mom if Meredith McCoy's willing to do it.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, uh....I found this really interesting Let's Play for Spider-Man PS4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMUCZq9-uBg

[Mustang]

Ultra Street Fighter 4
Got my nephew playing a little bit. I won't use Dudley or Ryu on him unless he cut up and get bratty. Then I would embarrass him. I did end up picking up Gouken and Oni as well. I don't know why I never picked Gouken sooner. Dude hits hard as hell. Other side characters that I play are Makoto, Ibuki, Yang, Cody and Guy.

Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Perhaps my favorite game of all time now. Just so much to do and play how I want to play. The scale is something I want in all of my games. Seriously, I wish developers would take notes from the Zelda series just to get the general sense of how to make a game feel large. Only thing I wish for these days is for the Zelda team to tackle something other than Zelda. Try tackling some anime hits or a Nioh-ish game.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I beat the Black Cat DLC for Spider-Man. It was really short and remarkably easy to 100% in just a single sitting.

Also, I was in the mood for some DMC so I booted up DMC4SE for the first time in over a year and picked up from where I left off on that file. I was up to Mission 18 on Son of Sparda difficulty and immediately remembered why I stopped....I hate that boss fight. Still, I played through the last three missions and cleared that difficulty setting. I just jumped straight in there instead of practicing on a lower difficulty setting as a warm-up. Naturally I was very rusty and had to use an item to heal myself mid-fight which I rarely ever do in these games. However, the last two missions as Nero were relatively easy, and while I was still sloppy, I managed to clear them in one try with no deaths or use of items. After that I went straight into completing the first three missions on DMD mode which went a little rough at first but became progressively more straightforward as I got back into the swing of things. By mission three in particular I think I was mostly back to normal as I was able to S-rank it on my first try. I'm not sure that I'll try and clear the whole difficulty setting, but I'll probably at least go through the rest of Nero's missions (except for the last two) since I've always found his to be far easier than Dante's, and I mainly just want a DMC fix right now without going too crazy getting into more nuanced mechanics. I feel that if I do that, I'll end up tuning my expectations for DMC5 to be too much like 4, which I don't want to do since it'll make it harder to adjust to that game's spin on the mechanics.

[Foggle]

Ah, speaking of Spider-Man, I've almost finished the main game! I probably won't play the DLC until all three are out since they're a continuing thing.

Playing it more, I can understand your complaints a bit more now. I still think the actual story missions and general writing are fantastic, certainly not flawless, but as engaging as any superhero game has ever been. But I've gotten really burned out on the side content. There's just too much of it. Four kinds of random crimes? Four sets of bases? Really? And I'm just now finding out that there are 50(!) secret photos you need to take to unlock the last suit!? And while I honestly think the combat system is fun even after 20+ hours, I absolutely hate fighting the Sable guys. That said, I still love the game. I'm just glad they patched in a New Game+ mode, because replaying it would be pure torture if I had to do all side content again to level up/upgrade my gadgets.

As for KOTOR 2, I'm on the last level now I believe. The Restored Content Mod worked wonders in terms of fixing this game/making it more interesting, but the last part of the game still feels really rushed. And that droid factory they added back in... that should have either stayed cut or been turned into a walking simulator. The dialogue is funny and it's very plot-important but oh my god the gameplay is so fucking bad. It's a really cool game overall, though. The story is super entertaining and makes excellent use of the Star Wars mythos. Now I want to play through the first one as a complete bastard.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

With Sable I'd recommend webbing them up quickly when you knock them down or into walls or large objects. That takes them out much faster than just trying to beat them up normally, since they have an obnoxious amount of health.

And yeah, the side content in this and the Arkham games feels really lazy to me. I've heard people defend this by using the excuse that it'd be too expensive to design completely new in-game content and assets for unique side-missions, which may be true, but it's still a shitty excuse. Games like Nier: Automata, Nioh, Darksiders 2, Bloodborne, and various others I can think of also had to reuse many in-game assets for budget reasons, yet those all have much more interesting and engaging side content that feels engaging rather than tedious, so there's no reason that this game shouldn't be able to do the same.

[Foggle]

With Sable I'd recommend webbing them up quickly when you knock them down or into walls or large objects. That takes them out much faster than just trying to beat them up normally, since they have an obnoxious amount of health.

Ah, silly me, I thought you couldn't web them at all since I had only tried when they were standing regularly.

And yeah, the side content in this and the Arkham games feels really lazy to me. I've heard people defend this by using the excuse that it'd be too expensive to design completely new in-game content and assets for unique side-missions, which may be true, but it's still a shitty excuse. Games like Nier: Automata, Nioh, Darksiders 2, Bloodborne, and various others I can think of also had to reuse many in-game assets for budget reasons, yet those all have much more interesting and engaging side content that feels engaging rather than tedious, so there's no reason that this game shouldn't be able to do the same.

Mmm, I love the side content in Nier Automata. A couple of the quests are awful but something like 95% of them are actually engaging and fun since they tell their own mini-stories. (Speaking of which, 2B is getting added to Soul Calibur 6! Yay!) Yeah, I wish this game was more like that. There's some similarly good stuff in there - I liked the Screwball and Tombstone side missions - but the rest coasts by on the core game mechanics being a lot of fun since they don't really offer much in terms of substance.

[Mustang]

Ultra Street Fighter 4
Another character I might have to add to my "do not use against my nephew" is Ken. Because he don't have the costumes I avoid him like the plague in USF4, but man he can be so demoralizing lol because he can style on people just as good as Dudley, not to mention he's easier to use (but very hard to master). My Evil Ryu is nowhere near as good as my Ken simply because of the 1-frame links that I drop all the time, but if I could ever get them down he'll be another to add to the list.

Nioh
Getting back into this game, although this is possibly the worst game to play when you have a frustrating day at work. Other than that, I love this game despite not being fond of the stamina gauge. Thinking about Nioh 2 I don't know what I want new in it. Thinking about Ninja Gaiden 2 the only thing I can think of is a weapon like the Talons or the Flails. I'm not entirely sure if I want a create a character implemented in there either because I like the idea of playing as the other characters. If anything I'd like to be able to customize their armor and maybe have a color palette or something of that nature. Not to mention I don't mind playing as William. And then there's of course the motivational factor (XLH Gladiator)

Warrior's Orochi 4
I think I prefer WO3 over it at the moment. I like what I'm seeing so far, but I'd rather see an actual campsite instead of something like a wallpaper or something. I'm only just now getting to chapter 2 so maybe it'll change up later.

Yu-Gi-Oh: Legacy of the Duelist
Good ole guilty pleasure. I think I once said that if it wasn't for YGO there would be no message boards/forums for me (perhaps that may have been a bad thing in the long run lol). It's too bad that Konami won't update the game because I definitely want to make a Dark Magician deck. Other than that I've been settling with a Masked Heroes deck (I also want to find a way to make a competitive but fun Utopia deck)