Currently Playing

[Abs_McBain]

Psychonauts 2.
I loved the first game, yet I didn't back the sequel back in 2019. It should have been a no brainer!
Now my chances of owning a physical copy is next to none, and this is one game that really needs to exist on a printed disc.

[Animalmother]

Crossfire X
Just released on Game Pass. Very similar to Counter Strike and apparently massive in Asia. It's utter trash. The visuals are over a decade out of date, crashes, visual glitches, stuck in menu screen, confusing interface, campaign not available, throwing a grenade make you drop your weapon, grenades won't throw, players who payed for better guns dominate, looks massively grindy, you have to restart after each match...the list is endless. How the fuck does shit like this even get released?

Actually sounds like I'm describing Battlefield 2042...

Uninstalling

[Alan]

Didn’t Remedy make a campaign for that?

[Animalmother]

They did and apparently it's also pretty crap. The campaign wasn't available when I downloaded it yesterday evening.

[DjchunKfunK]

I'm waiting to try the campaign out but it's still not available and I hear it's only a few hours long. Seems this port is a bit of a mess all around.

[Snowy]

Tried Lost Ark and hated it. A game that tries to be a Diablo-style game with MMO leanings, but all that really means is it spawns loads of overlapping identikit enemies that you then spam to death with a dull rotation. The acting is fucking atrocious and the grind not even vaguely masked. Uninstalled.

Bagged Warhammer Total War 3 via Gamepass but not had a chance to try it out yet. Also got Valheim as a mate suggested we get some co-op going on it, which I am well up for.

[DjchunKfunK]

Tried Lost Ark and hated it. A game that tries to be a Diablo-style game with MMO leanings, but all that really means is it spawns loads of overlapping identikit enemies that you then spam to death with a dull rotation. The acting is fucking atrocious and the grind not even vaguely masked. Uninstalled.

Bagged Warhammer Total War 3 via Gamepass but not had a chance to try it out yet. Also got Valheim as a mate suggested we get some co-op going on it, which I am well up for.

It interesting that you reference Diablo with regards to Lost Ark because I think it pretty much craps all over a lot of what that series has been doing. The combat for instance is leagues ahead with much more punch and variety available and the dungeon design is really good. The story is mostly not very good but I could say the exact same thing about Diablo. It's a strange game because the leveling from 1-50 plays out just like an ARPG and it is only once you reach the end game that you start interacting with other people. You get to level 50 pretty quickly, you can do it in under 20 hours if you are just powering through and there are enough spectacles throughout the leveling process that it didn't feel boring to me.

As it is a free to play game it has all the various foibles that those games have so your progress is time gated each day so that you have to keep coming back to progress but I'm OK with that as a trade-off for not having to pay a monthly fee. If you come into a FTP MMO expecting it to play like a paid MMO then you aren't going to get on with it, you need to accept that there are certain things that are different and it's fine if you don't like that.

[Rusty]

Two opposing views, there's only one way to settle this... fight! Oh no. I mean. I'll install it and have a look myself

[Snowy]

Tried Lost Ark and hated it. A game that tries to be a Diablo-style game with MMO leanings, but all that really means is it spawns loads of overlapping identikit enemies that you then spam to death with a dull rotation. The acting is fucking atrocious and the grind not even vaguely masked. Uninstalled.

Bagged Warhammer Total War 3 via Gamepass but not had a chance to try it out yet. Also got Valheim as a mate suggested we get some co-op going on it, which I am well up for.

It interesting that you reference Diablo with regards to Lost Ark because I think it pretty much craps all over a lot of what that series has been doing. The combat for instance is leagues ahead with much more punch and variety available and the dungeon design is really good. The story is mostly not very good but I could say the exact same thing about Diablo. It's a strange game because the leveling from 1-50 plays out just like an ARPG and it is only once you reach the end game that you start interacting with other people. You get to level 50 pretty quickly, you can do it in under 20 hours if you are just powering through and there are enough spectacles throughout the leveling process that it didn't feel boring to me.

As it is a free to play game it has all the various foibles that those games have so your progress is time gated each day so that you have to keep coming back to progress but I'm OK with that as a trade-off for not having to pay a monthly fee. If you come into a FTP MMO expecting it to play like a paid MMO then you aren't going to get on with it, you need to accept that there are certain things that are different and it's fine if you don't like that.

Horses for courses mate - when I say Diablo I am just referencing ARPGs in general rather than that explicit series. I absolutely loathed it - there may be some fun to be had but I gave it an hour and experienced not even the slightest frisson of interest.

It should also be said that I never saw the appeal of ARPG endgames, running the same old bosses over and over in the hope of loot to make running the same old bosses over and over slightly easier. I have no idea what the endgame of Lost Ark is, but I don't really care as I know it ain't for me. Nothing turns me off a game faster than grind.

[Alan]

I dont remember PoE gating your progress in those ways. For a free game PoE was kind of remarkable. I mean it was kind of shit but remarkable in its restraint. I was curious about Lost Ark but I think Snowys put me right off. I'm real sensitive to the grind these days.

[DjchunKfunK]

I dont remember PoE gating your progress in those ways. For a free game PoE was kind of remarkable. I mean it was kind of shit but remarkable in its restraint. I was curious about Lost Ark but I think Snowys put me right off. I'm real sensitive to the grind these days.

Gated in what way?

I think the combat in Lost Ark beats out most ARPGs that are out there its the one thing in it that I would love to see other developers take lessons from.

[Mantis]

I am tempted to give it a go just to see how revolutionary the combat is for an ARPG. But the idea of endless grind is not for me anymore. I like a game to have a defined start and end with a journey that's worthwhile. As soon as you enter daily login quest territory where they're trying to hook you into playing forever I completely nope out. It becomes a job then.

PoE had an alright story and decent vibe about it. I still think Diablo 2 with the expansion is the greatest ARPG of all time though.

[DjchunKfunK]

It's not so much that the combat is revolutionary, it just takes lessons from other games and builds a fun and flexible combat system.

[Snowy]

Warhammer Total War 3

I do love the Warhammer series, even if some of the races make no sense to play (to me anyhow). Playing the new one thanks to my Gamepass sub, playing as the Chaos Demons - bad guys always have more fun, time to see if this is as enjoyable as my beloved Vampire Counts from the earlier games. Also, looking forward to the uber-campaign where all the maps get stitched together but apparently that is a little way off.

So far, so Warhammer, but I am not sure about some of the new twists. I don't think I am a fan of every town having numerous capture points, but will reserve judgement for now, the same about having various diplomacy options locked off unless you have sufficient points with the faction in question, but again, let's see.

For now, happy mutilating the forces of Kislev and mutating my demon prince with the favour of the chaos gods that I am getting as spoils.

[Rusty]

Whilst working from home last week I played all the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. I liked them so much (more evocative than good films per se) I reinstalled Lego Pirates of the Caribbean.

What larks.