Just got done playing Risen 3, good game 8/10. Points off for combat mechanics just not being right and two terrible boss battles. But the combat does seem better than Risen 1+2, it's all about learning the enemies animation so you know when to parry/riposte. It starts off hard (especially as I went to the DLC island first and didn't take Bones the companion) but gets easier as you play because enemies don't level up with you. I prefer this style of RPG actually because when the enemies level up with you it just feels like you're getting nowhere. Why am I doing all these side quests when the enemies aren't getting any easier? But when they don't there comes a time in the game about halfway through for me when I joined a faction where the combat starts to become fun. Just a tip, don't leave anywhere with a companion, usually Bones as he heals. THe combat actually doesn't look that different to the trailer I posted above.

Anyway beautiful islands, the graphics are great. Unfortunately it's the same islands from Risen 2!!! But of course upgraded so they looked better. However I really only remembered a few areas, mostly around the towns, and even then it sort of felt like nostalgia rather than replaying an area I've already been. Probably not too different to playing a game a second time when you know all the areas.

Yeah overall a misunderstood RPG, it got a bit hammered especially on metacritic so I almost skipped it, but actually it's the best Risen game yet imo. 

That Ghost game looks cool although the colors seem a bit muted. I get that it's supposed to look macabre especially with those huge storm clouds but it would've looked awesome with the colors popping some more. Very cinematic in some scenes like overlooking the field at the start and the final fight against the backdrop of the sunset. The combat doesn't seem particularly interesting but I do like stealth a lot so it could be fun. 

Any news on your game? 

 

@negke - soon™

@otp - it's your lucky day ;) 

What game is this? Where can I learn more about it? I like checking out content from the community. 

there's nothing out there relevant to its current form. there will be more info soon enough ;) 

Got back into gaming after a 6 month break, I'm still 4 years behind working through 2014 haha.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare - 8/10 - standard fare COD game. I always enjoy them to be honest. This one wasn't one of the better ones, I didn't like all the high tech shit it just feels like they're copying Crysis. Good story though.

Subnautica - has great reviews and people go on about how beautiful it is. I tried it for an hour, I fear it's going to be 30 hours of searching around on the sea floor for items, how fucking mind-numblingly boring. It doesn't actually look all that great either. So I uninstalled it.

The Evil Within - 6.5/10
Not a bad horror survival game, I put on a weapon cheat so I had unlimited ammo - made the game so much more fun.

Risen 3 - Titan Lords - 8.5/10
Already reviewed this - underated game.

Styx: Master of Shadows - 6.5/10
I would have scored it higher if it had unique levels all the way through. But once you've completed about 1/3 of the game it feels like you're just going over the same levels again, which is very bad. Not since Halo has a game just rehashed the same shit to extend the length. Also I found the story a right mess. It probably made sense to them but just the way it was being told through those static pictures and the fact Styx and Rakash looked nearly identical, made it hard to follow. I'm not even sure which character I was playing, was I good guy or bad guy? Probably a good story though and the game was fun, the stealth was fine, as good as any other stealth game.

Bioshock Infinite - 9.5/10
I've been saving this one up but decided it's time. What a classic. Much better combat than the first two games, BI is more action. I melee'd a lot with melee powerups. Combined with charge, crows and the electricity powers, jumping around on rails - very fun. Also easily the best looking Bioshock. When I played the DLC which put you back to Rapture, it makes you realise how much nicer the sky city is, visually.

There's a thread somewhere about those spectacular moments in gaming that you always remember. BI probably has a few of those, first time on the rails, the start of the game before combat kicks in, and probably the start of the second DLC with Elizabeth when you're in Paris and then it goes all dark.

Awesome story too. It's a shame we've lost the creator to his own much smaller studio doing story based games like Telltale, so there won't be more Bioshocks, System Shocks or Thiefs from him as writer. What a waste of talent, and it's been 5 years now since any release. There's rumours of another Bioshock for 2019 but without Ken Levine it won't be the same. 

 

I'm still 4 years behind working through 2014 haha.
Yeah, haha alright! There are 10yo+ games I have yet to play... 

the KOTOR saga (yes, i know...);
the whole Mass Effect series;
Deus Ex 3 and beyond;
Skyrim, Doom 2016, Quake Champions...
Lotsa stuff I haven't begun to touch yet!
But!... I should be able to buy a new PC right about very soon... 

You spoke too soon Shambler I still had a City Interactive game to play...

firstly Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 - 7/10
Any fan of Quake's art style should play this, the levels look amazing. A real work of art. Unfortunately the combat completely sucks. Probably because I'm not very good at these fast-paced hack and slash games where you have to dodge and block etc at the perfect moment, too fast for me. Mainly the first half actually. Later on with the better skills and I also put on max sword magic cheat that made things more fun, survivable. I hate games that litter the gameplay with bosses, which this one does, but in fact the bosses are probably more enjoyable. It's the small fry weak enemies that are toughest because they take far too long to get their health down and come at you in multiples so are you're just falling over all the time. Those cunts with guns and shields are probably more annoying than half the bosses. Worth playing for the art.

Lords Of The Fallen - 5/10
Well if Castlevania combat was hard, this shit is ridiculous. It seems CI have a big erection for Dark Souls, because this is just a DS clone. God I hope DS clones don't last for long, it must be only hardcore gamers that could possibly like spending 10 hours perfecting 1 boss fight. Everything is DS, respawning all the enemies every time you fart, to collecting all your lost souls (XP in this game) which is a big glowing orb where you last died. Only problem is the character is so fucking slow and cumbersome I didn't have the patience to even beat the first boss, which is about 15mins into the game! Sluggish controls, every enemy hits faster than me, it's like a half hour wait for this dipship to swing his fucking axe, which almost every enemy interrupts which sends me on my ass. So go up against two enemies at once and you'll spend most of the time being knocked over waiting to regain the controls, or stuck in a corner where there seems to be a big making the character take a really long time to get up. There's no way I was sitting through this without godmode. But at least the levels looked very nice, with graphics that look decades better than DS. Sadly there's only about 4 or 5 areas, and they're mainly just small castle type areas so they don't have the massive creative environments that DS has. The interconnectivity is a complete mess as well. Despite godmode I still rage quit, I think it was about 80% through with only 3 boss fights left but in the same areas I've visited, and after falling into a hole again and restarting from a checkpoint with everything respawned, because the terrible POV or something about the visuals that makes it quite hard to see at times, with no direction as to wtf I was supposed to be doing and I'm just wandering around lost in the mazelike level, that was enough for me. Just not fun unless you really love DS. But pretty visuals that's why I kept playing. Probably only about 8 hours of actual content if you're not dying every 5mins. 

The problem is mugwump you'll go back and play some of those games like Mass Effect 1 and probably think wtf is shit it's ugly as fuck, there'll be no wow factor because you've since seen better. But at the time it was good.

The only one I'm still yet to play is HL2. Probably too late now I won't be impressed when I finally play it compared to modern games, but at least there's some decent looking graphics mods for it that probably add 5 years to its visuals. It'll keep me busy for months though with all the mods, and I've been waiting for Black Mesa so I can play that but those guys don't seem capable to ever finish the damn thing. They've spent like 5 years on the Xen levels, ffs just finish it and stop making the part of HL that everyone hated 10 times longer than the original levels.

Anyway of that list if you haven't played Skyrim I'd put that to the top, every gamer that doesn't hate rpgs or fantasy settings should play that. I'll probably try out Elder Scrolls Online this year. I've never done an mmorpg I'll probably be useless at it. 

I don't mind playing games that have aged if the quality's there. I still play Quake, don't I? ;)

HL2 still looks surprisingly good to this day. Sure it's aged a bit, but not nearly as much as one would expect. And it's still a blast to play! And there's now Black Mesa Source, too - we finally get to play the original Half-Life with HL2-quality visuals, most especially characters that actually look like people and not cheaply made puppets.

MMORPGs... Yeah. I played a bit of WoW back in the day, wasn't impressed. TBH the only one I'd like to try is Eve Online. The ESO reviews haven't convinced me that it was worth a try and the only reason I'd like to is to see the whole continent of Tamriel in all its uncut glory. 

That you’ve played Lords of the Fallen but not half life 2. 

 

Just saw Doom Eternal's full gameplay reveal from QuakeCon 2018 and it looks pretty cool! Seems even faster-paced than the previous iteration, probably because of the grappling hook attached to the DBS. That thing makes Doomguy fly around like crazy!

There was some mysterious concept art presenting a new "world", accompanied by a cryptic commentary about "not just making a Doom game but building a Doom universe". Huh! Makes me wonder... Could it be id's version of... a heaven?

The archvile looks awesome! A very much welcome change from the awkward Doom 2 sprite that I never liked. 

"The archvile looks awesome! A very much welcome change from the awkward Doom 2 sprite that I never liked. " 

Always found this monster quite ridiculous to look at, especially when it moves - you gotta admit its animation looks somewhat disjointed.
Now it looks badass. 

Does anyone feel it looks a bit "video-gamey" during the action gameplay? The few seconds of other world and mention of proper universe (about fucking time guys) sounds really promising, but the all of the place action gameplay they showed didn't seem that impressive to me. Graphics were a bit shiny and fake. I suppose id aren't pushing the graphics boundaries anymore... seen as how that turned out with Rage 

Rage 2 looks decent as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxhRbL24P_s 

Awfull fucking gliding around with controller demos...I hate when they show the player movement as some stabilised smooth camera on rails thingy... 

Doom Eternal seems mostly cool, what I dislike the most is the demon art design (they look like generic alien bugs, their "scary" animations are stupid as they were in 2016, archvile looks like a protoss, cacodaemons too goofy), the plasma gun sound (pew pew? Seriously?) and the fact that we are still a few steps away from the glorious past (still too few enemies on the screen, level design doesn't seem as complex as the best quake\doom stuff including custom wads\levels)

anyway the rest was really interesting and I liked the digs at politically correctness. I am sure that by the next doom or 2 we will have a game with the best parts of the old fps classics and the best of the new gameplay\tech enhanchments.

bye bye