What are you playing?

[Xeogred]

Knocked out Ratchet & Clank remake. I'll probably chip away at the trophies and challenge mode. I got the platinum for all the other games except the first one, haha. So I may as well keep the tradition going and do everything possible.

Started up Rise of the Tomb Raider, got the PS4 edition so it comes with loads of stuff. Loved the last one and this one seems just as amazing. Also looks insanely good. Scary to think Horizon might somehow look better than this or Ratchet & Clank.

The music is amazing. The Dead Space composer on Tomb Raider games... definitely brings a severe sense of urgency and intensity. Just about everything to these new Tomb Raider games seems way better than Uncharted to me.

[PartridgeSenpai]

I could swear I'd already let Doom 4 download and install on the computer, but apparently I hadn't. In exactly the horribly uncompressed data-method that Wolfenstein had, this was like a 60 GB download, so it took a while. After all that waiting to use my PC again, I wanted to play me some Doom. DAMN this game is fun. I don't like the theme quite as much as I did Wolfensteins, but god damn does murdering the fuck out of demons never get boring.

[Ack]

I could swear I'd already let Doom 4 download and install on the computer, but apparently I hadn't. In exactly the horribly uncompressed data-method that Wolfenstein had, this was like a 60 GB download, so it took a while. After all that waiting to use my PC again, I wanted to play me some Doom. DAMN this game is fun. I don't like the theme quite as much as I did Wolfensteins, but god damn does murdering the fuck out of demons never get boring.

How far in are you? Because once you get a few runes under your belt and weapons upgraded, the game swiftly becomes totally ridiculous.

[Fragems]

I could swear I'd already let Doom 4 download and install on the computer, but apparently I hadn't. In exactly the horribly uncompressed data-method that Wolfenstein had, this was like a 60 GB download, so it took a while. After all that waiting to use my PC again, I wanted to play me some Doom. DAMN this game is fun. I don't like the theme quite as much as I did Wolfensteins, but god damn does murdering the fuck out of demons never get boring.

How far in are you? Because once you get a few runes under your belt and weapons upgraded, the game swiftly becomes totally ridiculous.

Yeah I really like how they manage to capture the crazy speed and brutality of the original Doom. The game just never slows down and definitely is a pure power trip.

[PartridgeSenpai]

I could swear I'd already let Doom 4 download and install on the computer, but apparently I hadn't. In exactly the horribly uncompressed data-method that Wolfenstein had, this was like a 60 GB download, so it took a while. After all that waiting to use my PC again, I wanted to play me some Doom. DAMN this game is fun. I don't like the theme quite as much as I did Wolfensteins, but god damn does murdering the fuck out of demons never get boring.

How far in are you? Because once you get a few runes under your belt and weapons upgraded, the game swiftly becomes totally ridiculous.

Yeah I really like how they manage to capture the crazy speed and brutality of the original Doom. The game just never slows down and definitely is a pure power trip.

Holy shit YES! There is nothing that can describe the excitement I'd be filled with upon seeing a Berzerk pack (well, I suppose it's a ball now) in the later stages.

-----

Started playing Dynasty Warriors: Gundam today. It's pretty fun! It's about smack-dab in the middle chronologically and mechanically between the other two games I've played in the series (genre?), those being Dynasty Warriors 3 and Hyrule Warriors. You have the dueling "Musou" system (which I think was introduced in DW 4), where you and your oppponent get an attack boost once you lock blades in combat (something that Hyrule Warriors actually doesn't have, come to mention it). It also has the base-capturing system that earlier games lacked (or at least 3 didn't have it and HW does ). Sadly there's still no lock-on button, as far as I can tell though, which I'm fairly sure HW has.

Something I'm unfamliar with, and am willing to guess is a mechanic only to the Gundam games (as each spin-off series tends to have at least one or two new things to offer to mix up the formula), is the "boost" system. Like in the Gundam series (which I am almost completely unfamliar with, so forgive me here Xp), you can make your Mobile Suit (a term this game has taught me ) rush forward, allowing you to gain a quick burst of speed to go into a combo or to escape from a bad situation. It actually ads a LOT to the formula! A lot of the strategy that was impossible in the earlier games due to a lack of mobility on-foot are really solved by this new way of dodging and charging into attacks.

But holy shit, does this new great feature make you want a lock-on system. Boss battles are right proper tough (although you can actually save in the middle of a mission, thankfully enough), so I often found myself boosting around everywhere trying to get an attack in while also avoiding theirs. But since I can't keep the camera centered on the boss, I'm constantly readjusting the camera to face it again, however that IS much easier than I had in 3 where the "center camera behind character" button was also the burst-attack button Xp (each has their own button now, thank christ). Anyway, I'm really enjoying it. Beat one of the first three story characters you can do, and had a good bit of fun doing it. Gonna keep at it! It's good fun

[Xeogred]

I dug Dynasty Warriors Gundam but I get pretty bored of those games quickly. Don't think I've ever finished any Musou at all.

For whatever reason, I don't think the later DW Gundam games had dual audio which is pretty lame. It was cool playing the first one in Japanese with all the classic music and scenes.

[PartridgeSenpai]

I dug Dynasty Warriors Gundam but I get pretty bored of those games quickly. Don't think I've ever finished any Musou at all.

For whatever reason, I don't think the later DW Gundam games had dual audio which is pretty lame. It was cool playing the first one in Japanese with all the classic music and scenes.

Do the later ones cover different story arcs and levels and such, or is it like Fist of the North Star where the "sequel" is just the same game with more playable characters and some new stages (which need to be unlocked by effectively beating the first game again)?

Also, them not having the Japanese voice audio is REALLY weird O.o
Usually Tecmo Koei can't even be bothered to RECORD an English version these days, so it's so odd to me that they'd ONLY do the English for the English versions O.o
If they don't, it's made my interest in owning them go down significantly :/

I totally get people not liking them though. The combat engine ain't exactly Bayonetta. I enjoy getting a taste of the series they represent in the spin-offs though. It often makes me hunt down more about them and I end up liking things even more! Or, like with Hyrule Warriors, I'm in on the references and it's absolutely hilarious to have those characters in those situations. I like the strategy of the battlefields and the bash-button-to-bash-mans mechanics, so they're very much my cup of tea

I don't know jack shit about Berserk, but I've considered picking up the Berserk Musou game just because I have a friend who's into it pretty hard. That way he can fangasm about it next to me while I have fun bashing buttons to bash mans X3

[Xeogred]

I wish I could say but I can't remember at all. A part of me thinks I played maybe a tiny bit of 2 or 3, but another part of me thinks I didn't even bother because I didn't want to play dubbed Gundam. Maybe I just looked up videos and wasn't impressed so that's why I don't know if I played them or not. These games just aren't for me.

It's funny how I liked Drakengard 3 a lot though. I think if the Dynasty Warriors games had level designs like Drakengard 3... basically completely linear one path levels, I would be more into them. Drakengard 3 felt a lot like arcade beat em' ups. But the big uninteresting open map approach in Dynasty Warriors with waves of enemies and circles of territories you have to hold down just gets so boring.

[PartridgeSenpai]

It's funny how I liked Drakengard 3 a lot though. I think if the Dynasty Warriors games had level designs like Drakengard 3... basically completely linear one path levels, I would be more into them. Drakengard 3 felt a lot like arcade beat em' ups. But the big uninteresting open map approach in Dynasty Warriors with waves of enemies and circles of territories you have to hold down just gets so boring.

You actually might quite enjoy the Fist of the North Star games that Omega Force did (although I'd advise getting only the second one for reasons previously stated). For an Omega Force game, it's incredibly linear, and very much unlike Dynasty Warriors in that way. You can even BLOCK incoming attacks! (heresy to any Dynasty Warriors veteran like myself ). Yeah, Ken's Rage 2. You might quite like that one in that case, because it's all the campy yet horribly graphic violence of FotNS with all the enemy mob-bashing fun of Dynasty Warriors. Much more like a 3D beat 'em up in that way, although not quite.

[Xeogred]

I hate to report that I didn't like that one much either haha. However that was before I watched all of Fist of the Northstar. A taxing anime for its length, but I did end up liking it a lot. So I might appreciate that game more if I check it out again.

I'm about halfway into Rise of the Tomb Raider percentage wise at least and it's been a blast. Gives me a lot of Metroid/Zelda vibes with how satisfying its slow progression is in getting new abilities to unlock new areas, leveling a few things up here and there, etc. They don't go too far into the crafting/RPG mechanics, nor is there too little. They nailed it. I think overall I like this one even more than the reboot. The snowy setting is incredible.