So I've been playing this recently...

[Oz1337]

Currenty playing the new Doom Eternal. Really good game, I'm having a lot of fun with the new movement options they added.

[weeblord]

Started playing Venus Blood Frontier. Damn the game just drops you straight into gameplay with zero tutorials, thats hardcore.

[LegalLoliLover]

Started playing Venus Blood Frontier. Damn the game just drops you straight into gameplay with zero tutorials, thats hardcore.

Good to have you.

[Skull]

Continuing on my journey to finish my favourite series, I played "Uncharted 4: A Thief's End". And I haz some thoughts:

Hoo boy, it's very noticable that Amy Hennig is not the writer of this one. It reminds me a lot of Arkham Knight, though thankfully not as bad when it comes to ending a franchise - also several flaws actually stem from coming after U3 which hasn't been displaced as the weakest game in the franchise.

For the most part the gameplay is at its best with only minor complaints such as the random disappearance of the grenade throwback mechanic causing enemies to spam grenades. Anyways, the story is where most of the problems lie - the influence of The Last of Us is definitely felt as cutscenes go on forever in an attempt to tell a more dramatic narrative to what used to be swashbuckling adventure. The epilogue in particularly was excruciatingly egregious as it was far too long and saccharine for so little payoff.

Okay, spoilers abound

Rafe and Nadine were terrible villains. The former represents all the weaknesses of the Uncharted villains in that they tend to be numbskulls who just follow after Drake as he solves all the puzzles and they have a clunky as all hell boss fight at the end. But at least Rafe had something of a character which could not be said for Nadine who is literally just the muscle until she cuts and runs at the end.

Next we come to mister macguffin himself, Samuel Drake. Aside from coming out of nowhere and contradicting previously established canon, I initially didn't have much a problem with his character. He had good chemistry with Nate, and trying to gain the treasure to pay off his life debt to Hector was an interesting change to the formula of treasure hunting. But then we find out all of that was a lie to manipulate Nate into helping him get the treasure to satisfy his own ego. Worst of all is that it's completely brushed under the carpet after the reveal and Sam walks off scot free despite all the nonsense he pulled. He really should've died surrounded by the treasure during the climax so that the whole theme of hubris before a fall wouldn't have been wasted.

Lastly, the devs really can't seem to make up their minds if Nathan is a descendant of Francis Drake or not. In the first two games he was, but then U3 suddenly suggests that maybe that isn't true. U4 starts off by blatantly confirming that Nate and Sam were just nobodies obsessed with Drake only to have the second half of the game have Cassandra very unsubtly hint that they really were Drake's secret descendants all along. Talk about flip flopping~

There's other stuff I could complain about, like the handling of Elena's character, but I've rambled far too much for one day...

Despite all my grievances with the plot, it was a decent ending and finally closed the book on Nathan Drake's adventures so I wouldn't be opposed to a new Uncharted game so long as it featured a new cast with fresh ideas.

[Mattias]

The game also lacked the "oh fuck!" enemy. The one where every time it shows up you know you're gonna die a few times, and use a bunch of ammo. The thing that makes you think you're in over your head and maybe you should start cheesing out or running away. Revenants, Yeti, Djinn, and what? Exploding corpses?

[Mcjon01]

Started playing Venus Blood Frontier. Damn the game just drops you straight into gameplay with zero tutorials, thats hardcore.

Gameplay loop for Venus Blood games: start game full of optimism, I’m really gonna do it this time —> get frustrated —> download 100% save —> just skip to all the post-corruption scenes —> Yes, I earned this ending

[Benderesco]

Started playing "Pathfinder: Kingmaker".

...I'll be damned, the game is amazing, but Disco Elysium seems to have reawakened something in me, something that had lain dormant for years: my love of good, deep stories in RPGs. Now that my hopes have been rekindled and I no longer believe Planescape: Torment was an irrepetible miracle, I fear I will never be able to enjoy "normal" stories in RPGs ever again.

[LegalLoliLover]

Gameplay loop for Venus Blood games: start game full of optimism, I’m really gonna do it this time —> get frustrated —> download 100% save —> just skip to all the post-corruption scenes —> Yes, I earned this ending

Speak for yourself. I earn my waifus, through blood, sweat, and... other fluids. In terms of favorite goddesses, Odin is a foregone conclusion, but in terms of favorite demons, surprisingly, Disir. Boobs bigger than what I normally like, but she is fairly short. She's the secret unlock (AKA the wiki does not directly list how to unlock her yet, and I had to do so through trial and error) and more importantly, she's undead. Both in-story and tagged in-game, as such. That's a bigger plus than I expected.

[Reign]

Got about 6-7 hours into FF7 Remake. In the original that's about where you'd be finishing up Midgar but I'm only just about to start the Sector 5 bombing run. I'm liking all the changes a lot and might have to simp for Tifa

[LegalLoliLover]

In VBF chaos route, according to the wiki, all you need is to have all the characters, except for Odin, obviously, be at affection level 6 in chaos route: https://ninetail.fandom.com/wiki/Ven...rontier:Routes I had all goddesses corrupted but not turned into mad deities (finished the run without even seeing those cutscenes) and had affection points at:
Tyrca 7
Freya 6
Thor 8
Rigret 6
Fena 11
Hel 9
Fenrir 8
Jorm 7
And did not watch Tentacle Grotto. However, I ended up getting 3 Guard Dogs ending, instead of Conqueror's Banquet... What?

[Skull]

Beat "Resident Evil 3: Remake". It was a lot of fun and a huge nostalgia trip.

[LegalLoliLover]

I heard that if you have over 7 affection and 99 mingle before corruption you can "awaken" the goddesses and recieve another unit version of them, but how can that be? For Odin, you can just hit 7 points without corruption, but for Thor, without corruption, you would only get 5, and Rigret would only get 4.
You need law + chaos to equal 65 to unlock god medallions, and you need law + chaos to equal 90 to unlock tail medallion: https://ninetail.fandom.com/wiki/Ven...5.9E_.28God.29 Mathematically, you would unlock god medallions first... Somehow, I got tail medallions first. How did I defy the laws of mathematics?

[Deathhappens]

Started playing "Pathfinder: Kingmaker".

...I'll be damned, the game is amazing, but Disco Elysium seems to have reawakened something in me, something that had lain dormant for years: my love of good, deep stories in RPGs. Now that my hopes have been rekindled and I no longer believe Planescape: Torment was an irrepetible miracle, I fear I will never be able to enjoy "normal" stories in RPGs ever again.

Huh. I always thought that one was just a cashgrab. Might end up giving it a go after I finish PoE2... eventually.

[Mattias]

Finally finished Trails of Cold 3 after nearly 150 hours. And since nowhere has FF7 in stock and I'm not getting a digital game that's 100 gigs, I guess I'm going to play some shorter things for a bit. Doom 2016. Finish off Astral Chain. Play some more mahjong Yakuza 0. Finish off a route of 3 houses.

[Mcjon01]

I wouldn't worry about the download size, the install off the data disc that comes with the physical version is almost that big anyway lol

[Mattias]

Really? Shit.

[Deathhappens]

The days where you installed a game straight off a disc have died, and gone unmourned.

I finally started playing M&B: Warband, only to now realise everyone has hopped over to the new one (Bannerlord) instead...

[Tobias]

Trails of cold steel 4 announced to be released for the fall for PS4


oh hell yes

[pinetree]

I've been playing Atelier Ryza and Cyber Sleuth and the stiffness of the character models has really been bothering me. It usually doesn't bother me since it's in most JRPGs and they usually don't have massive budgets, but these two are specially bad because of the girls.

I expected it from Cyber Sleuth since the characters are designed by Yasuda, so to stay faithful to his art all the girls have to bend their backs and point their tits skyward.
But Ryza somehow bothers me even more. Ryza's clothes are clearly baggy so it's impossible not to notice how her breasts are unnaturally pushed up, and Lila just looks ridiculous.

[Mattias]

Trails of cold steel 4 announced to be released for the fall for PS4


oh hell yes

I've heard it's a bit lacklustre, but I've already spent 300 hours on the series, I've gotta see how it ends. And punch Osbourne in the face. And Rufus. And Cedric. They're really good at making villains you just really hate. Not because they're ending the world or especially evil, but because they're smug assholes.