Lurker > TVontheRadio

beat the sexy brutale

that is a cool little game. i think in a less crowded year, it would have been a bigger deal as one of 2017's small indie gems. looks unique, music is great, puzzles are elegantly simple, and the mechanics are neat. how everything plays out in real time is impressive too. the presentation is just top-notch stuff.

i do think the game believes in its narrative a bit too much. nothing about it is really all that surprising or truly intriguing for a supernatural murder mystery. it expects you to care so much about the characters who die soon after you meet them that it locks their background through collectibles. while a lot of them aren't so difficult to find, the scale of the setting, the slowness of your character, and the sense of urgency the game impresses with its literal time limits don't encourage me to hunt down the remaining cards and invitations to get more lore.

there's this mysterious room that i'm sure adds another layer to the story, but i think i'll just youtube that. again, too many games i still need to get to before the end of the year!
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beat death of the outsider

the contracts are a great addition and really made the reused levels feel more lived-in. third mission is also one of the best missions in the series! powers are cool too.

i do think i'm good with first-person stealth games for a while. coming into this after wolf 2 where i just let loose the moment i get spotted, it was never not frustrating getting spotted in this game because of finicky sight lines.
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played one game as moira in qp

she is awesome

actually got gold in eliminations too!
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oh my god i just wasted over half an hour trying to find the one enemy i didn't kill for this dumb contract in death of the outsider why did i just do that
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brad's super chill from january to november, but he's always the loudest come goty deliberations and it's the one thing that consistently sparks energy and discussion. without him, jeff would always have his way!

vinny has gotten considerably softer throughout the years (with the fallout 4 discussion as the one exception). i do wonder if he'll be more active in pushing for things this year considering how animated he's gotten when the beast crew has been telling abby to get ready for goty talks. i have a feeling he's going to be the biggest supporter for pubg, and if jeff brings up the early access technicality, vinny will go off.
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alex going hard on palmer luckey is one of the best goty moments

also drew being the one to actually start turning the tide against doom by being super positive about hitman instead of tearing down doom was great

also vinny sounding legit upset about mass effect 2 not winning... best backwards compatible game on xbox one????? something about them using that deliberation as a proxy "game of the 7th generation"

also jeff being absolutely flabbergasted at the love for inside

also brad arguing for doom for fucking best story???
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also goddamn does he have a great radio voice

LapisLazuli posted...

Really sounds like Jeff is gonna be a surprise Nier proponent.

if we get jeff AND brad on team nier, we're looking at a possible top 3 spot. if route c to e blows their minds, we might actually see nier over zelda.

dan would lose his mind
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yeah, ryuji is good

but also mishima is fun to see because he's basically your average super eager geek fanboy and he gets dunked on numerous times. also i kinda warmed up to him in the end after you show how much of a selfish dick he is.

i wish sae's dialogue were better.
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oh wow is this what it feels like to get representation on a thing you truly care about? a weird sense of pride and just pure joy?

jan jerome is a filipino ass filipino name and i fucking love it
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i actually just started listening again to the what's good games podcast after i stopped when their playlist on spotify wasn't updating. yeah, there's nothing that's really new or insightful about their discussions. it's all very... basic.

it's not overly interesting stuff, but i guess it's still worth a listen every now and then for me personally since it's just refreshing to hear an all-female cast talk about games. haven't watched a single video of theirs though and i'm not really interested in doing so.

the polygon show is certainly more fun to listen to, but it goes by so quick!
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yeah, it just clicked for me! i trudged through tno and had a blast with tnc. i do concede that tno had more inspired level design for sure. i took the time to explore the areas in tno. i sped through most of tnc.
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iiicon posted...

I had a lot of trouble with this. Many of the levels are dense, vertical kill-boxes with no obvious pathing, which is normally something I love, but this game gives you zero room for error if you're attempting to stealthily take out any guards on your way to the one or two commandos. It's very easy to lose track of enemies, and once you do you're FUBAR. This game isn't DOOM, BJ is a very vulnerable hero and there's danger all around you with few opportunities to get health back. I feel like the difficulty is very uneven. The beginning of the game is very punishing because you don't have any upgrades or skills, but as you progress the scale starts to tip in your favour. I don't think it ever reaches equilibrium, which is a shame because TNO hit the sweet spot, final boss not included.

i've read a lot more opinions that share this sentiment, and watched the giant bomb quick look and super bunnyhop's review that showed him playing it.

i totally get where a lot of people are coming from, but i can only speak from my experience, which was just vastly different from the seeming majority. i fucking plowed through almost every encounter. i quickly learned to just overcharge health when i was near a bunch of pickups then barged into enemies while duel-wielding shotguns. the infamous courthouse scene and the final battle? think i died 4 or 5 times at the start of the former and just twice at the latter. i would just get into this loop of loading up on health, armor, and ammo, charge into enemies, one-shot them with two guns before they can shoot me, and run back to pick up ammo and armor the enemies usually leave. for those two big encounters, i was basically running laps all over the place.

every time i tried hunkering down one spot, i'd eventually get overwhelmed. apart from very few moments in stealth to headshot enemies with my suppressed pistol, i never bothered aiming down sights and staying in cover. all the other guns were fired akimbo. pretty sure i was close to mastering the kills from dual-wielding perk a little over halfway through the game!
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iiicon posted...

TVontheRadio posted...

this is great news for me since i never got to play any of the ones past apollo justice due to not having an iphone or a 3ds

Android? 5 and 6 are on there too.

oh they are? well, i don't think my shitty smartphone would have been able to run them when they came out!
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this is great news for me since i never got to play any of the ones past apollo justice due to not having an iphone or a 3ds. will definitely be getting a switch this december so that's another thing to look forward to!
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i remember doing bbi once, and i'm pretty sure i skipped every non-mandatory boss just to get to the final encounter. i beat the big bad once, but i think the true ending for it requires beating it twice. apparently that last boss' true form is even harder! didn't even bother trying to get to it the second time.

so from what i've heard about wolf 2's difficulty and general gunplay, i think i'm the only one i know so far who had a way better time actually playing tnc over tno.

it's definitely true you can die quickly and there's not much damage feedback that it can be real surprising when you get killed. but unlike in tno where i mostly played it like a cover shooter when i wasn't meticulously taking out enemies in stealth, i fully embraced the run-and-gun duel-wielding philosophy for tnc to great success. it really helps that bj runs like a machine here too. i beat the whole game on bring em on (medium for "experienced gamers") and never had any truly frustrating moments. couple of spots had me dying 5 or 6 times, but i was expecting it to get real rough with how a lot of people were saying they had to turn down the difficulty to the easiest setting just to finish levels.

i can definitely see how the early parts discouraged a lot of players from taking the balls out approach. whenever i got spotted, i just never stopped running and gunning. plenty of ammo, health, and armor pickups in every level. it is annoying that you don't automatically get the ones that aren't on the ground!

but yeah, i was just mowing down nazis with almost reckless abandon for 90% of the game and had fun doing it! the upgraded shotgun and assault rifle alongside the perks that increase ammo capacity, slow down overcharge health decrease, increase health regen rate, and allow armor regen made it easy to plow through most enemies.
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iiicon posted...

people weren't kidding about the terrible Wolfenstein 2 credits song

haha my god they were not jesus christ and it's still goinggggggg

also yeah this game has MOMENTS
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here's a great article that highlights ac: origins' biggest strength

https://waypoint.vice.com/en_us/article/d3d5ez/assassins-creed-origins-no-killing-no-assassin

probably not the attention-grabbing selling point GAMERS see as a good reason to play it, but it's stuff like kunzelman points out that really drew me in to the world.
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that miiverse stream was indeed great
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it's just a dawning realization that i might have missed out on a landmark series that influenced a lot of modern games, for better and worse!

i do have freedom's cry from ps+, so maybe i'll check that out first before i truly decide to swan dive into the series.
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finally finished assassin's creed origins. took 42 hours and change. what a pleasant surprise that game was. nothing extraordinary about it, except maybe that it's real pretty at spots, but i had a good time with it.

it took a while for me to warm up to it! the more tools i unlocked and the better i got at the mechanics and the systems, i started having a lot more fun with it.

the world is just gorgeous and gigantic that i liked being in it and looking at everything. bayek is also a likable character that even though the writing and the stuff you actually had to do with the sidequests weren't anything special, seeing him interact with all sorts of people and have this nice balance of affability and righteous anger was endearing. he's very expressive! and his relationship with his wife aya was refreshing in the midst of the seriousness of the main story and the violence around it. him being a dad and husband also reflected in how good he is with kids and his understanding of parents. it's all just nice, understated character work.

and like i said in a previous post, the sidequests do a good enough job of fleshing out every major area and the world at large.

wasn't even going to get this, but i got a code and i'm glad i did!

i wonder how i'll look back on it when i get to horizon and zelda, the two other big open world games this year.

also, i kinda wanna play the rest of the main ac games starting from the first! but that'll have to wait until next year, if ever.

wolfenstein is up next!
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TheRock1525 posted...

I bought both Shadow of War and Assassin's Creed Origins as part of the buy two get one free deal. But I'm thinking I might resell one of them. Any suggestions which one to keep?

as someone who has put in 30+ hours into both games, i think origins is better. shadow of war maybe plays better and has some higher highs because of the nemesis system, but it just becomes a grind at the end. origins has been mostly a good time!

also the dlc planned for shadow of war are for characters that i found to be pretty boring.
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yeah looking forward to reading that after i beat the game.

30 hours in now. i have a feeling i only have a third of the main quest left, but i'm doing a lot of sidequests and exploring.

playing it is fine, as i've gotten more tools for fighting and sneaking that it doesn't feel as limited and awkward as it did in beginning.

it's really how huge and pretty and surprisingly interesting the world is that i'm digging about it. i've taken a lot of pictures! i've raided a lot of tombs and hideouts! i've solved so many crimes! i've helped so many people! and it just works on a narrative level too since i am kinda egypt's sheriff and not the savior of the world!

the quests, while not exactly mechanically complex, are engaging enough with how they're all strung together in a small and large-scale way to make every area feel real. i do wish they had more impactful conclusions. the lead-ups are good, but i've come away from some cool little plot threads thinking "wait that's it?"

i do wonder how i'll feel in retrospect when i get around to playing horizon zero dawn and, way later down the line, witcher 3. apparently this game feels like it's cribbing from both those two!

the main story has also just been mostly fine, except the last big thing that happened felt incredibly cheap. it's the first black mark against this campaign, and i really hope it doesn't devolve into even more empty exploitative shit to try and get an emotional reaction out of me.

i would actually like to stay and explore this world more, but i really should move on and try to beat it before the weekend is over. really need to get on wolfenstein soon.
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i don't see hellblade, splatoon 2, botw, or sonic staying long in the conversation for best style

i really like hellblade, i think it's gorgeous, but i don't think its aesthetic fits what they typically consider as ssssssssssssssssssstylish

splatoon 2 gets knocked off simply because it's "more of the same"

botw i don't think got much talk for how it presents itself

sonic will also get cut for basically being "more sonic"

i definitely see nier getting more of a chance in the category than any of those games

i do see night in the woods and mario up there with persona 5 and cuphead. nidhogg 2 is also a very good candidate.
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i remember the stuff about the transitions and menus! but i think it's going to be weighed down by them also thinking the actual world and the rest of the game looking really drab.

but maybe that's also me projecting lol
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pretty sure i saw them beat sunshine and say they hated it and that they would rather play odyssey and that they're totally done with it and have zero reason to go back to it because they saw the credits and dan got what he deserved at the end

pyre has such great music, and it works too in that you can hear single tracks out of context and still enjoy them. personally doubt it's going to get much support because only alex and vinny have beaten it and they're not die-hard fans about it, but i hope it gets the furi treatment anyway that despite the lack of passion for the game itself, the soundtrack gets praised to high hell

i don't think nier automata cracks the top 3 in best style. 2b and 9s look cool af but nothing else in the game matches that level of aesthetic. i believe the gb staff shares this opinion. maybe the music transitions get mentioned here, but i think that'll factor more into the best music deliberation.
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persona only really hangs in best music and style, but i can even see it getting knocked off the top 3 for both categories

personally, it's still the top contender for me in both aspects. those are the two things about that game i unconditionally adore.

also hey gbeast is totally done with sunshine now
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pretty sure i lost my save files for twd s1 and 2

is it just going to be a waste if i play s3 without those?
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i'm actually getting into exploring the world in assassin's creed origins. took some time to just wander around after mostly bee-lining the main quests. really helps that the game looks very pretty. some cool little things out there that evoke awe and mystery. makes me wanna do more of that, which is a good thing for this game, but a bad thing for my schedule!

i need to beat it by this weekend so i can write about it, then get on with wolf 2.

also i bought the sexy brutale and observer from the psn october sale and hollow knight from the steam sale. fortunately, my shitty laptop can run hollow knight! played about an hour of it and i can see myself getting lost in its world. will have to get back to it after i get through these shorter games though.
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i bought detention through the halloween steam sale then proceeded to finish it in 3 hours. heard a lot of good things about it, but the setting was what really intrigued me. i don't really play a lot of horror games so this might just be my ignorance with the genre, but it's really cool to have one that directly deals with politics and also ties it into a very personal, twisted story in a way that makes sense.

it drags on a bit at the end, and it's really not the scariest thing out there, but it's disturbing in all the right ways that makes me reflect on the absolute fucked up state of the philippines right now with an alarmingly large number of people either willing to forget about our own experience with martial law or outright saying it was the most prosperous our country had been. fucking marcos apologists make me sick, and this game only makes me feel sicker over how many people (young people even!) gloss over all the torture and mass murder the philippines endured during that time. same goes for our current president. fuck duterte and his fucking war on drugs.

ahem

i got a code for wolfenstein 2, and hoo boy am i excited to kill fascists.

have to beat assassin's creed origins first though. a little over 15 hours into that game. some good stuff in there, but the combat really does feel like budget souls right now. while the stealth works for the most part, i also do feel it's lacking compared to mgsv and dishonored 2. hell, throw in shadow of mordor/war in that comparison too with its stealth mechanics. there's just not enough tools to fuck with the enemies! it is a looker though, especially compared to shadow of war which just looked bad.

and i also just borrowed death of the outsider from a friend. might get into that before i dive into wolf 2.

too many games!!!
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i can see destiny 2 being number 5, especially if the first expansion is good, but i don't see it going higher than that.

i can also see nier beating cuphead for 4th if brad remains high on it. he already said he was really digging what he's played of it. and if you want anybody on your side during goty talks, it's brad.

abby wasn't hired yet when night in the woods came out, but apparently she's said she considers it goty material. given the choice between splatoon 2 and nitw, i think both alex and abby will pick the more "original" game instead of "bigger and improved sequel". i'm not sure if ben has played it, but i think it aligns with his taste, and he'll probably back it over splatoon 2, too.

i love pyre, i like uncharted: lost legacy, and i still plan on playing prey. they will not be on the list.
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spelunky 2!!!

also gb goty talk

1. pubg
2. mario
3. zelda
4. cuphead
5. nier automata
6. wolfenstein 2
7. destiny 2
8. steamworld dig 2
9. night in the woods
10. horizon zero dawn
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the extent of my assassin's creed experience is an hour of mucking about with the first game.

got a free code for origins on ps4 so i can write a review for it. should be... interesting.
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it took me hours to beat gwyn so no not really
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profDEADPOOL posted...

The just like feel of playing Destiny 2 is entirely too good.

it really is

i told myself i'd stop playing it after i beat the raid back in september, but i'm still checking in every week to do milestone shit

and i assume you're also talking about the pc version which i'm sure is great

anyway goddamn this super mario odyssey hype has me decided on getting a switch with my christmas money. that and zelda should keep me company for the rest of december.
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as i've gotten older, my tolerance for typical anime fanservice has eroded. hard to take anything serious when it's shoving upskirts and cleavage shots at me.

saying the first game of a visual novel trilogy is bad doesn't inspire any confidence either!
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are these actually good games or is there too much bullshit fanservice to wade through
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SgtSphynx posted...

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DMmPNFgV4AANIfN.jpg

i beat all that

it was not worth the time

but i beat all of it

and i'm done with shadow of war
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i'm back in

also have to do that last bit of bonus dlc they released early this year for sapienza
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had a gaf account and posted every now and then in the giant bomb and overwatch community threads. only joined last year though so i never knew about the owner's awful history.

act 4 of shadow of war now

i thought the grind was overblown when i was on the 4th fort defense mission after about 1.5-2 hours of playing and the quest line was at 50%.

then the 5th stage had me defending 2 forts. same thing with the 6th stage. and these orc attackers are getting higher and higher in levels.

i'm just expecting the following stages to have me defending 3 forts because fuck me i need to actually buy a premium orc loot box if i wanna finish this soon.
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sorry about disappearing at the end. my internet has just been unreliable for the past week. i got two more chests by myself after i got it working again. i can help if you guys decide to do a chest run anytime soon.
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Thirty Flights of Loving?
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jeff's home stream was great. lot of it had to do with the awesome music.

get in the ring validated my decision to just stop following wwe completely. still good to hear alex and dan just talk wrestling!
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highly recommend what remains of edith finch. one of the best games of the year, and that's saying something given the quality of 2017 releases.
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just got around to playing overwatch again for this event

man all these new skins are cool

well, the new reaper one looks kinda weird with his hoodless head

not gonna have as much time to play though so i'm just hoping i get lucky with the arcade loot boxes. don't think i'm even gonna get enough dupes to hit 1k coins for witch mercy!

also endless junkenstein's revenge gets real fuckin wild for the bonus waves! it's good stuff.
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didn't watch the cuphead stream because i still wanna play it and get surprised
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in the running for goty

nier: automata
pyre
destiny 2

possible goty i still plan on playing

horizon zero dawn
zelda
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only a couple of hours into shadow of war so i haven't seen much of the improved nemesis system.

my only takeaway so far is that the human characters look rough and there's noticeable jank with all the clipping going on. not a big deal, but i guess there's just the expectation for AAA games to have more polish in the presentation, especially for a sequel that came out three years after the first one.

but yeah as long as the nemesis system along with the fort sieges turn out to be fun, i'll be happy!
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the only reason i'm concerned for the movie's commercial woes is that it'll probably give hollywood the wrong signal to not make more big-budget sci-fi movies like it in the future
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got a better devils last week but haven't gotten any other good hand cannons to infuse it with as well as a legendary kinetic mod so it's stuck at 299, the weirdest limbo for a weapon

also, i finally cleared the raid with all 3 of my characters

i might try for the prestige raid since i pretty much have the whole thing down. and yeah, if any of you guys here wanna give the normal raid another go, i'd be down to help.
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beautiful film in every way

i thought the original was just okay but i only saw it once and that was when i was a dumb teenager. gonna watch that again soon.
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