Currently Playing chat thread

Ironhide wrote:If you're looking for another 'decrypting an ancient language' game then you might like Chants of Sennaar, its mostly point & click but there's a couple of slightly annoying stealth sections (which I hated).

Chants of Sennaar somehow started off primarily as a stealth game, if you can believe that!

Cuttooth wrote:
kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:
Zilnad wrote:
kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:Started Heavens Vault on Switch last night. I enjoy all of Inkle's work, and this is not looking like any exception. The depth of choice hinted at in the first couple of hours is a bit mind blowing.

Performance on Switch is a bit iffy. I picked it up on this format for the physical edition, but perhaps it would fair better on one of the other platforms. Nothing game breaking though.

I find your taste in games really aligns with my own and this is another game that I have in my library and need to start!

Looking forward to hearing more about it.

So a little update after about 5 hours...

The game is massively ambitious with the branching (or at least "non linear") story it is trying to tell. And it just seems to work. I have rarely (if ever) encountered the non sequiturs you would sometimes see in 80 Days (specifically when asking people about routes to certain places and they would reply "I don't know but there is an X in Y that does Z"). Here there just seems to be endless amounts of potential relevant dialogue, and that doesn't stop being impressive.

The budget limitations really do show. Despite the art being really nice and unique, there is a lot of glitchy environments and the most frustrating bug is that voice bubble things can move aorund mid conversation, which can make it hard to actually stay focused on the narrative. This is alleviated to some extent by all conversation being quite punchy (no more than a few lines between the next choice you have to make), so it never feels like you are reading a wall of text.

Though only partly narrated, the VA for your character is brilliant and has a really lovely voice (subjective I know).

The "sailing" scenes are pretty awful, adding nothing and going on for far too long. I assume they are to give a sense of expansiveness and pacing, but they can go on for way too long as the game progresses, and are barely interactive.

The language solving puzzles remain mind blowing to me. You make educated guess as to what the symbol might mean, and it gives you "linked" glyphs based on what choices you have made for other words previously. Every now and then it will categorically tell you if some are right (or wrong), but it feels like you can make a lot of selections around on a theory you have based on a symbol you saw some time ago.

It's all very impressive and there is not a lot out there like it. The game moves at a very slow pace, but I don't think that is to it's detriment.

Inkle recently posted a Twitter thread on the making of Heaven’s Vault for its fifth anniversary, I think based on a broader GDC talk about its development. The rivers were apparently inspired by the horse riding sections in between the fights in Shadow of the Colossus, mixed with some Ancient Egyptian mythology. They definitely do show off the clunkier side of the game, as does a bunch of the gameplay really, but I think they still serve a neat purpose to break up the feeling of each location.

I love Heaven’s Vault. I think I said a few years ago that there was a game of the generation sat within there if you’re willing to put up with some annoyances. I’d really like to eventually get to a point where it, Pentiment, Disco Elysium, and Norco are narrative games I get to play annually.

This is a great list of games. Disco Elysium and Pentiment are 2 of my all timers. I would like to give Norco another playthrough soon as it's on the shorter side.

PostRe: Currently Playing chat thread by **Zilnad** » Tue May 07, 2024 8:19 am

3 hours into Blasphemous II and it's excellent. Feels like a step up on the original, certainly in terms of the combat which now has multiple weapons to upgrade for different fighting styles. The pixel art and music, again, are incredible. This series is the pinnacle of the combination of the Soulslike and Metroidvania genres in my opinion. It's everything you'd want from either style of game.

Finished off Firewatch this morning, think I might try and get the last achievement on Hellblade Senua’s Sacrifice before the sequel comes out later this month.

Started playing Binary Domain tonight, had to tinker with settings and such to get button prompts and the FOV sorted on Steam Deck but runs and looks great. Never played this before, I like it so far, hidden gem from what I’ve heard so will see how it continues.

Very briefly restarted Pokemon Scarlet this morning (was planning on doing the very opening portion at some point before returning to it later in the year) and got my team of starters moved across, so will be able to hopefully blitz through it at some point. Was hoping to play a little more Hellblade, but no chance of that happening.

ITSMILNER wrote:Started playing Binary Domain tonight, had to tinker with settings and such to get button prompts and the FOV sorted on Steam Deck but runs and looks great. Never played this before, I like it so far, hidden gem from what I’ve heard so will see how it continues.

What a game.

kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:
ITSMILNER wrote:Started playing Binary Domain tonight, had to tinker with settings and such to get button prompts and the FOV sorted on Steam Deck but runs and looks great. Never played this before, I like it so far, hidden gem from what I’ve heard so will see how it continues.

What a game.

Had to Google as I thought the game had the vibes of Yakuza and see it’s actually from Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio which makes a lot of sense :lol:

PostRe: Currently Playing chat thread by **Dblock** » Tue May 14, 2024 12:43 am

Manor lords has been great

Dblock wrote:Manor lords has been great

mayne

YouTube · PostRe: Currently Playing chat thread by **Jazzem** » Thu May 16, 2024 12:24 pm

Dragon Quest XI S

Finally hit Act 2!

I thought the new intermission quests they added for the S version might drag, but they ended up being quite novel and charming.

For the most part anyway, poor Jade :dread:

Bluesky · PostRe: Currently Playing chat thread by **Kriken** » Thu May 16, 2024 5:19 pm

Baten Kaitos HD. Got the collection in a Game closing down sale.

I'm not too far into it and I've never really played a game with a card-based battle system, but thankfully it didn't take me long to understand it and click with it. It's pretty fun and I like throwing in bananas as part of a combo.

Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak PS5 and Switch - such a good game and a staggering amount of content. Just unlocked Sunbreak/Master rank so slowly working through the new areas and monsters.

Advance Wars Collection - Switch - very relaxing game, love the art style too.

Been playing a bit more F1 Manager 23, just something to pass the time with till Hellblade and Paper Mario really. Still think it’s a little upgrade over the 22 game, but really glad I didn’t buy it, even when on sale.

Edit, put a couple of hours into and stand by my comments, still a very solid game but lacking even a reasonable upgrade over the 22 game, the reliability of parts was added just to stress the budget cap more in my opinion.

PostRe: Currently Playing chat thread by **Holpil** » Thu May 16, 2024 10:54 pm

Playing FFX and have just made it to Zanarkand Ruins so I can't be far off now.

I've tried to play this game 3 times over the years and always dropped it for one reason or another (I even owned it on PS2...), but this time around it's really clicked - the story, music and being the last proper turn based FF.

It leaves PS Plus in a few days so I really have to finish it this weekend or set my PS3 up and have to mess around transferring saves to that version.

Just wrapping up Sherlock Holmes Chapter one (which I have quite enjoyed) and am also playing Harold Halibut (which I am also enjoying, but there really is next to no gameplay).

PostRe: Currently Playing chat thread by **Zilnad** » Fri May 17, 2024 11:29 am

kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:Just wrapping up Sherlock Holmes Chapter one (which I have quite enjoyed) and am also playing Harold Halibut (which I am also enjoying, but there really is next to no gameplay).

Did you play The Sinking City? I hated it but loved Frogware's earlier Holmes games. Thought Chapter One looked more like TSC though so I gave it a miss.

Zilnad wrote:
kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:Just wrapping up Sherlock Holmes Chapter one (which I have quite enjoyed) and am also playing Harold Halibut (which I am also enjoying, but there really is next to no gameplay).

Did you play The Sinking City? I hated it but loved Frogware's earlier Holmes games. Thought Chapter One looked more like TSC though so I gave it a miss.

I did not, no. I was very tempted but the reviews put me off, though I can't remember which aspect it was that was criticised the most.

Of the previous games, I have only played "The Devil's Daughter" and I think I enjoyed that more the Chapter One. The open world feels completely superfluous and a lot of the mechanics are not well rounded enough (there are "concentration modes" etc, but the game always prompts you as to when you use them, so why bother having the mechanic at all?) The combat is crap but there is not much of it.

I have put it on to the "very hard" investigation mode (where it does not tell you if there is stuff still to find and where to look), but it does all feel a bit like just going through the motions at time.

That being said, I am enjoying it, and it is kind of fun just stumbling in to a new "case" whilst running around. I think I paid about £6 for it in a PSN sale and it has absolutely been worth it.

I really do enjoy a good sleuthing game, but they are few and far between, and everything feels like a bit of an also-ran after Obra Dinn (though special mention to Paradise Killer for trying something really different). Maybe time to play LA Noire again - it never fails to be hilarious.

Edit - hmm, The Sinking City is currently £5.99.....

PostRe: Currently Playing chat thread by **Zilnad** » Fri May 17, 2024 11:48 am

I have Paradise Killer waiting to be played :lol:

Sinking City had similar issues with an open world that didn't really add anything and it had lots of terrible, awful combat.

Zilnad wrote:I have Paradise Killer waiting to be played

Sinking City had similar issues with an open world that didn't really add anything and it had lots of terrible, awful combat.

Do you own every game

Yeah, I have just been rereading some reviews of The Sinking City now and it sound like Chapter One is basically a refined version of TSC. Think I will give it a miss.

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