I mean I’d personally prefer an remastered version of Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines or even an Enhanced edition of Redemption...but it could be fun.

 

Life is Strange was pretty cool. It played more like a visual novel than anything else, but it had an interesting story line and the mechanics of time travel were good enough to hold my attention.

 

Life is Strange has some really patchy writing though. One of the worst cases of "how do you do, fellow kids?" dialogue I've ever seen, especially in the first couple of episodes, though it does get a bit better with that as it goes on. It also had an unlikeable asshole for a secondary protagonist that they then try to force a bunch of characterisation on in the last hour, so you give a shit about the big reveal at the end.

If you're banking on the writing saving this new game, I wouldn't hold my breath.

 

Vampyre looked like something that might be an OK game to pick up once it had gone down in price, pending good reviews/word of mouth, but I'm definitely amongst those more interested in it given the Life is Strange link; I loved it, despite the minimal gameplay, although I can understand why some people hate it - if you don't like the characters, it's just one long exercise in misery, which I'm sure won't be a criticism that could leveled at this game about a newborn vampire trying to cure a deadly disease in the aftermath of WW1.

 

Yeah I’m gonna wait on a steam sale unless the reviews are insanely good.

I love the concept.

Still sad the World of Darkness MMO was cancelled

 

Life is strange doesn't have stellar writing, but it's not bad by any means and frankly lesbian romances in video games are rare enough that it's worth playing on that basis alone.

 

Battletech's release is getting so close I can almost taste it. Anyone else picked a copy of it up?

 

I backed it, so I've got my copy. Just waiting on them to pull the trigger so I can get into it properly.

 

Anyone playing the new God of War? How is it?

 

I'm really enjoying it. Papa Kratos is surprisingly endearing, and the kid is basically the perfect sidekick, so I'm having a blast with it.

Only complaint I have is the camera needs to be about 10 feet further back so I'm able to actually see behind me. The indicators are alright, good enough to get the job done at least, and it's not nearly a big enough deal to make me put the game down, but it's still sloppy as shit by comparison.

 

Here's the thing: if the camera was further out, you wouldn't need quick turn. The only reason that exists is so you can quickly see the shit going on behind you... Which you'd be able to see anyway with a proper camera position.

Not to mention the quick turn is inherently useless, as the half second it takes to regain your bearings after the spin is actually longer than simply turning manually.

Like i said, fantastic game with a really dumb decision on the camera placement. It's the way it is for aesthetic reasons, and while it's far from the first time a God of War game has sacrificed gameplay for aesthetics, it's far more egregious in this case than most previous examples.

 

If you think this game sacrificed gameplay at any point, you're out of your god damn mind.

That's not to say your opinion is invalid. You can dislike the camera all you want, but it absolutely adds to the combat, the visceral feeling of smashing shit is so much more enhanced by being close up.

And Atreus is broken as fuck. Upgrade him first.

 

That's exactly what I said?

It quite clearly adds aesthetic value to the experience, and it's one of the reasons why I'm still obsessively playing the thing. But that doesn't change the fact that it's suboptimal from a gameplay perspective; necessary information is being obscured from the player. Hell, the devs even acknowledge in-game that you're not seeing everything you need to see, that's explicitly why the quick turn and attack indicators exist.

They made the deliberate choice to sacrifice that part of the gameplay for aesthetic reasons. That doesn't make the game bad or anything (the fact I've barely done anything other than play it for the last 24 hours says plenty in that regard). It's just the one thing that's keeping it from being goddamn perfect.

 

Fuck you people that buy games when they come out and actually get to play them.

I've only spent about an hour with God of War but I should be spending several with it today. Decided it was better to gamble until midnight ($167 profit, what up) and crawl into bed to prepare for 1/2 a day's work.

 

Welp, good enough for me.

Purchased and downloading now.

 

Had the dubious pleasure of 'enjoying' some time with Far Cry 5 lately.

It's kinda impressive just how uninspired this game is. The ridiculous setting, the abysmal AI, your usual Ubisoft greed like single player microtransactions, plenty of features removed (thus game actually being more shallow than 3 and 4), the 'storyline', no sense of any meaningful progression, even weapons not feeling fun to use in an FPS game (!)... it's pretty bad.

Regret even getting it, TBH. It's an absolute slog after ~10 hrs and I doubt I'll invest any more of my time in this trainwreck. 4/10.

 

Working through God of War. I can definitely recommend it. Game of the Year contender easily.

Everything is seamless. Loving the story.

Really excited for future games to see more of Atreus’s growth.

 

Huh. I wouldn't disagree with a lot of what you say - the AI can be dreadful, the first few hours were very frustrating at times, although I've found that largely disappeared once I invested in a few perks and better allies and weapons - but on the whole I'm having a lot of fun with it. Mind you, it's my first proper go at a Far Cry game since the very first, which I played a couple of hours of when it came out, so I don't have that basis of comparison.

I did find the Storyline picked up a bit once I switched regions - Faith is far more interesting than John, who's just a generic sadist spiced up with some religious extremism - but I was definitely expecting more given what I've heard about Far Cry 3+4.

The bulk of the actual gameplay though I'm having a blast with.