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

[VLordGTZ]

So guess who got Splatoon 2 early?

My local Target for some reason started selling download codes for the game today.  At first, I thought it was just a pre-load, but it's letting me actually play the game.  I guess I got really lucky. 

So after playing Splatoon 2 for a good 6 or so hours, I am LOVING this game!  I never played much of the original Splatoon, but this is a ton of fun!

On a side note, I was lucky enough to play with GameXplain's Andre Segers and Derrick Bitner online, which was really cool! 

[Mustang]

Tekken 7

Good God am I out of my element here. Movement in general is gonna be a pain considering that I plan on maining Kazuya and Jin, so apparently I need to learn wave dashing and back dash cancelling. I thought wave dashing in Street Fighter x Tekken was hard. That's child's play compared to actually doing it here in Tekken. I hear people actually succeed on a DS4 controller, but for me I'm certainly gonna need to invest in an arcade stick. My thumb got one helluva workout trying to attempt both.

Lot's of fun to be had learning how to actually play.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I'm enjoying Splatoon 2 quite a bit. It helps that the start up time isn't so long, but man, Salmon Run. I join a friend's game who is lower rank than and I don't get any experience if I win. But if I lose then I lose experience. Hate that.

[VLordGTZ]

I haven't been playing that much of Splatoon 2 the past few days, but I have managed to get up to level 16.  Weapon wise, I've mainly been sticking to the Aerospray and Carbon Roller, both of which I'm liking a lot.  I haven't tried out Salmon Run yet, but it looks fun.  I'll probs give it a shot when I'm less busy next week.

[gunswordfist]

I didn't even know it was out.

[Foggle]

I've been playing through the entire Wolfenstein series (well, the FPS ones) to prepare for The New Colossus. Shamefully, until now, the only one I'd actually beaten was The New Order.

The original Wolfenstein 3D holds up surprisingly well, especially if played using the ECWolf source port. Good arcade fun, rather charming in its simplicity, with quite a few great level designs. Hitler boss fight is super fun to this day. Wasn't as big on the Nocturnal Missions, unfortunately. Episode 5 was pretty good, better than Episode 2 I'd say, but Episodes 4 and especially 6 were just frustrating and tedious. Ridiculously long hallways with enemies hidden behind corners every couple yards is not good level design.

Spear of Destiny was pretty good for the most part. Did some neat things with the formula, though nothing too revolutionary. That said, the last few levels were total bullshit and ensure that I'll probably never replay it. I still have PTSD from that one stage with 50 mutants and no significant health or ammo drops anywhere. Good lord. Also, the FormGen mission packs - Return To Danger and Ultimate Challenge - are fucking terrible. Ugly new textures, awful new sounds, and offensively bad level design. The amount of stages that require you to navigate mazes of esoteric push walls nearly drove me mad. Don't know how or why I forced myself to beat them.

Return To Castle Wolfenstein has some issues with balancing and several oddly-designed levels but overall I'd say it's still a damn fine game. Though certainly not revolutionary like Wolf3D, it functions as a nice time capsule for the state of the FPS genre in the early 00's. That's the era of gaming I grew up with so I'm probably predisposed to enjoy that kind of design - not sure how much someone younger than me would enjoy it. For that reason, I'd say it's just shy of being a classic. At first, I tried playing the PS2 port since it features some exclusive levels at the beginning of the game, but oh man does that version have bad controls and frame rate. The new levels are also really poorly designed and not worth experiencing.

Currently playing the Raven Software Wolfenstein game. It's alright, probably the weakest thing I've played from them (certainly not a patch on Jedi Outcast, Singularity, or Heretic). This one also feels like a time capsule, but I've never been a huge fan of late 00's/early 10's FPS design so it falls kind of flat for me. The level themes are interesting but there are way too many corridors for my taste. The superpowers you get are neat but they've been done better in countless other games. Regenerating health sucks just as much as it ever has. I played all the previous games on the Bring 'Em On difficulty setting, but this one just isn't fun that way because you die in like 5 hits and have to spend the whole game looking at blood splatters while hiding behind chest high walls. Don't Hurt Me is way too easy but I'd rather just get this one out of the way and have a bit of fun slaughtering Nazis than put up with that shit.

I also tried the demo for a fan-made game/mod running on the Doom 2 engine called Wolfendoom: Blade of Agony and it was seriously awesome. Some parts run at like 10 FPS but it's truly amazing, probably my second favorite Wolfenstein title after TNO. Check it out: http://boa.realm667.com/

[Spark Of Spirit]

Return is still the only game in the series I've never properly played. But I do agree that the Raven game was not up to snuff. I really can't play regenerating health FPSes anymore since they all require the same way to play that makes them tedious. The old games were fun except for some badly designed episodes. The old DOOM games were much better in that respect, though they did have some level packs that had some cheesy levels, too.

[gunswordfist]

Hmm, I think I've played maybe one full version of Wolfenstein and haven't beaten anything outside of 3D's initial demo stage.

[Foggle]

Return is cool! Worth playing on PC or Xbox for sure if you're into FPS from that era. I'd avoid the PS2 port, though, since it feels way too stiff and poorly-optimized. I like it and Wolf3D about the same, Doom 1 a little more, Spear of Destiny and Doom 2 a little less. All great games. I also played a bit of the original Quake recently and it might actually be my favorite Id Software title. The gunplay is ridiculously satisfying, level design is fantastic, and there's lots of creativity in its presentation. Doom 64 is also an underrated gem.

The Raven game isn't bad by any means but it just doesn't measure up to the rest of the franchise or the studio's other work. It was in development hell for a long time and I have a sinking feeling that Activision hounded them to CoD it up (like what almost happened to Doom 4). It has enough interesting elements and good ideas to be worth a playthrough, but I can see why it didn't set the world on fire like the previous games did. Bless Machine Games for breathing life back into this classic series.

Hmm, I think I've played maybe one full version of Wolfenstein and haven't beaten anything outside of 3D's initial demo stage.

You can get Wolfenstein 3D and Return for around $5 total on Steam during sales so they're almost certainly worth checking out if you're interested. Definitely play The New Order as well; it's the best single-player FPS of the current generation along with Doom 4 IMO.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I just wanted to pop in to say that the Tonfas in Nioh, which are a new weapon type included in the Defiant Honor DLC, are so fucking Ninja Gaiden it's insane. Hell, the second half of the first new main mission is a huge fucking homage to the Hayabusa Village levels from the first two Ninja Gaiden games, complete with Ninja Dogs that toss Kunai at you with their mouths (but at least they aren't ass-holes who spam the Flying Swallow on you).

The problem is that I'm way too underpowered to take on this DLC with my current build. While I stand by the notion that you don't need to put too much emphasis on leveling up, clearly Team Ninja expects that people have played a lot of the post-game content and gathered better gear (which does matter, and a lot more than your character's base level). The only problem is that it's really hard to get any gear at a higher level than 150 since it's very expensive to upgrade past that point and requires you to play through a lot of the game on higher difficulty settings to get the necessary gold and materials to Soul Match your weapons to a higher level. My best weapon so far is a Katana with an 872 damage rating and a +17 Fire buff, which is terrific....for the main game on the base difficulty setting, but is woefully inept at dealing decent damage to any of the DLC enemies, for which I need to be doing at least 1,200 damage or more to have a normal challenge. That's what made the previous DLC, Dragon of the North, so brutally hard for me. In fact, in that DLC alone I was one or two-shot by most enemies and almost all bosses could one-shot me with most of their basic attacks since my Defense stat was pretty low as well for this stage of the game.

The Maria boss fight from the first DLC was easily the hardest in the game up to that point, and people with level 200 builds had problems with her, so naturally she was a fucking nightmare for me at my garbage level 127 build. It ended up taking me well over 50 attempts to beat her, and in general it's one of the hardest boss encounters that I've experienced in years. In this case, in order to win the fight, I had to use buffs on myself, debuffs on her, and equip the Daiba-Washi Guardian Spirit so that I could use the unique spell it casts with the use of a Guardian Spirit Talisman: a whirlwind that causes an instant knockdown on all human enemies, which is super useful on bosses such as this. In most cases I can just use the parry strategy to score instant knockdowns, but this boss was unique in that she wore light armor and thus never stayed down long enough for me to have sufficient time to charge up a Sign of the Cross Attack, which deals out massive damage to knocked down enemies, even with my normal damage being such crap. Even then, I had little room for error and limited talismans to use, and she kept dodging many of my spells which is why I still died so many times with that strategy. I really don't want to go through that same struggle again, as it goes past the point of being fun and just becomes tedious. So I think that it's finally time for me to get back into the game and level up a bit more and get some more powerful gear before taking on this new DLC properly.

[Dreamer2]

Speaking of Nioh, I recently started playing it and I can say without a doubt that I hate it. All I seem to do is die over and over again. I like to have fun when I play video games and there is no fun to be had. Even if a game is difficult and I die a lot, an interesting story can keep me going, but since I really can't get to the story that's not happening here.

I was really excited to play it, but the more I try and then die, the less I care. I'm very close to just quitting, which is too bad.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I can certainly understand that viewpoint, but Nioh is definitely not a game that's for everyone. What this game specializes in is its mechanical depth and nuance combined with giving the player a wide array of options from its varied move-sets, stat bonuses for weapons and armor (which can be tweaked to a pretty insane degree with the Blacksmith system), leveling system, items, Ninjutsu, and magic. The game is specifically meant to punish button-mashing and mindless play, whereas it rewards ingenuity, skillful use of the stance system and Ki-pulsing against enemies, and in general has a great flow and rhythm to combat which feels amazing when all of the individual pieces click together. The catch is that it actually requires the player to learn the system via experimentation of its mechanics. It doesn't just get by with a few gimmicks that are handed to the player in a contrived tutorial and then send them on their merry way for a straightforward adventure with little real resistance. Learning to get better at the game is the whole point of what makes it (and other games like it) so good.

I also don't find Nioh to be that hard outside of the DLC. And mind you, I'm not saying this to make myself sound like some incredibly skilled gamer (trust me, I'm not), or to make you or others who find it difficult lacking in skill. I just simply have more experience with games having deep and intricate combat systems, and they are honestly some of my favorite games ever (when referring to games like Ninja Gaiden, Devil May Cry, Bayonetta, and so on). In all honesty, compared to some of those games Nioh is actually one of the easier that I've experienced. Most of my deaths came from early on when I was learning the game, but as I progressed I got further along my deaths became far more spaced out and relatively infrequent, with me even clearing various boss fights with ease on my first attempt, which to me is a testament to the strengths of the game design that once I understood the fighting system, it rarely ever failed me and I was able to properly take on most foes without too much hassle. The DLC did a lot to change this, mind you, and I have mixed feelings about that, but I'm specifically only referring to the main game here.

That said, if these aren't the kinds of things that appeal to you, then yes, Nioh will have very little value as its not much of a story-driven game (Team Ninja games in general are not known for intricate stories), and it certainly isn't interested in being a hand-holding experience to guide the player along like is the mentality of most modern games (though, once again, that's something that I personally love about Nioh as I hate a lot of modern AAA games and what they have devolved into).

For a point of comparison, though, two combat-heavy games that I have been playing recently are Kingdom Hearts and God of War III Remastered. To be quite frank, I absolutely detest both of them. And don't get me wrong, I can see the appeal they have to their respective fanbases, but these are the complete antithesis of good game design in my eyes. With Kingdom Hearts, it probably would have been better with Square Enix's traditional turn-based combat system. However clearly the developers over there had no idea how to properly make a competent hack n' slash style game, which is why the combat basically revolves around button-mashing. Certain abilities like the dodge-roll, block, and counter maneuvers managed to fool me into thinking that the game would have some semblance of competent fighting, but I soon learned to my dismay that there is no concept of basic fundamentals such as i-frames, buffering, or even combos other than basic combo extensions. To be fair, this isn't a pure action-game, but even something like Dark Souls which doesn't have combos either still gets the fundamentals of how combat is supposed to work in a game with real-time action in its combat system. Trying to play Kingdom Hearts is a real slog, and to be fair, this is game intended for kids and I probably would have enjoyed it a lot more when I was at its intended age. After having played so many better designed games, though, it's borderline unplayable for me.

But God of War III....now that game has less excuses. While it does seem to grasp certain fundamentals better than something like Kingdom Hearts, the combat is so stiff, slow, and clunky, on top of being incredibly shallow and boring that I was already getting tired of it within the first few minutes. Disappointingly, three of the four main weapons are just clones of one another with slight variations in their move-sets, and the gauntlets are much slower weapons which makes them a lot less interesting for me to use. Once again, had I played this when I was younger or not been spoiled by games with better combat systems, I may have enjoyed this as some mindless fun, but knowing that there is better stuff out there just makes me want to play those games more rather than focus on the overly dumbed-down combat of this one.

That's why stuff like Nioh appeals to me so much more. what it lacks in spectacle and easy accessibility, it more than makes up for in terms of its insane gameplay depth and technical brilliance in how its core mechanics work. As I've said before, I can totally get and respect that it's definitely not for you or other gamers who don't like this sort of stuff, but for me it's one of the few modern big-budget games that can even hold my interest these days, especially in a genre that has been sadly been dying out over the years due to more watered-down games that are about the experience over having good game design, first and foremost.

[Foggle]

Oh god, you're playing the original Kingdom Hearts? That game is so fucking bad. Genuinely painful to play. Horrendous level design, platforming, and combat. I don't even see how it could be considered good for its time or enjoyed by children. Easily one of the 10 worst games I've finished. The sequel is quite good, though, provided you can handle the long cutscenes and are willing to learn the complexities of the combat system (unlike the first one, it's actually well-designed as an action game).

[Dreamer2]

Its funny that you mentioned Kingdom Hearts, because for a big portion of this year, I was consistently playing KH and some of the other games in the franchise.

First off, I did play the game as a kid, so there is some nostalgia there.

But, playing it this year was fantastic. It was a lot of fun and I loved almost everything about it. It was everything I wanted out of a video game. Although I do agree with the post above that KHII is better, but I don't find the first KH to be bad at all.

Another game I played a little bit of not too along ago was Assassin's Creed: Syndicate which is also a game I thoroughly enjoyed.

So, I guess I gravitate more towards KH and things like it than something like Nioh. That being said, I want to play Nioh and continue on, but I feel like I'm stuck and it just seems way too early for that to happen, which has me concerned that its just gonna keep happening even if I am able to continue on.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Oh god, you're playing the original Kingdom Hearts? That game is so fucking bad. Genuinely painful to play. Horrendous level design, platforming, and combat. I don't even see how it could be considered good for its time or enjoyed by children. Easily one of the 10 worst games I've finished. The sequel is quite good, though, provided you can handle the long cutscenes and are willing to learn the complexities of the combat system (unlike the first one, it's actually well-designed as an action game).

That's actually the whole reason that I bought the collection. I'm slogging through the first game for story purposes only, but I've heard legitimately good things about the second game, including from people like TS17 who knows good technical combat and while KH2 is no masterpiece, it is definitely well-designed from a technical standpoint according to him (and he knows what he's talking about when it comes to that kind of stuff). It's just really hard for me to make my way through this game, and not because it's challenging. I wouldn't go so far as to call it one of the worst games I've ever played (I've played far worse stuff), and I do think that I would have enjoyed it as a kid in the same way that I enjoyed the Sonic Adventure games growing up, but as I've said, I've been spoiled by much better designed games.