Discussion 2022 Backlog Thread

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Whirlwind

Senior member
Nov 4, 2006
540
18
81
I just finished Call Of Juarez Gunslinger and had a real fun time with it.
That Chrome engine runs well also.
 

GodisanAtheist

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2006
6,719
7,016
136
Made the conscious decision to b-line it to the end of Hollow Knight. 99% completion, which is not the 112% I wanted but I could feel myself burning out on the game fast as all the exploration elements of the game were behind me and it started feeling like a checklist of to-do's. I didn't want my last moments with such a magnificent game spoiled by a feeling of tedium.

The pervasive melancholy of the game was also starting to slowly get to me and I figured its a good time to pull away.

I'll take a breather then do a write-up. This will have to be followed up by a 180 heel turn: something loud, stupid, and fast. Serious Sam 2 here I come.
 

Fenixgoon

Lifer
Jun 30, 2003
31,493
9,824
136
finished Mechwarrior 5 (OG campaign, some mods, no Xpacs). Pretty disappointing to be honest. Missions are generally "go to this location, blow stuff up" with very little variety. Voice acting and dialogue of the player character are painfully generic. One of the main characters is voiced by the same guy who does Adam Jensen in Deus Ex. I don't think his voice was suited for the role, unfortunately. Ryana (your 2nd in command) is done the best. Your chief repair officer, while supposed to be kind of a fun/playful interruption to the "serious" campaign, is utterly pointless as he serves no real purpose in the game.
The storyline is also pretty boring. You are the child of a renown mech pilot, and your father is killed by a merc company. you vow to get revenge and discover your father's secrets along the way. the ending also has no payoff, because "the big secret" and the information you discover have absolutely no context or meaning unless you're very familiar with the battletech universe.

graphically, the game is decent, but all battle damage appears the same more or less. i'm tempted to boot up MechWariorr Living Legends and see if that doesn't look better (i remember it being pretty damn good at the time). Weapons were ok - most lacked any sense of punch. I found the artillery weapons to suit my playstyle and desire to blow things up the best.

in terms of gameplay mechanics, the difficulty curve spikes pretty hard. the first few hours feel challenging but fair. then at some point along the main campaign, you have way more enemies thrown at you than normal. this continues to be the case in the campaign, where side missions are pretty well balanced, but campaign missions can be a real grind by comparison.

even with some of the AI mods, I found the lancemates to generally be pretty poor performers in terms of their combat ability.

Overall, not an outright bad game, but definitely one where i had to push to beat, and not because i was really enjoying myself the whole way through.
 

JujuFish

Lifer
Feb 3, 2005
10,999
733
136
As expected, I got sidetracked big time by Elden Ring. And now I'm eyeing Tunic on Game Pass. Hmm.
 

CP5670

Diamond Member
Jun 24, 2004
5,508
586
126
finished Mechwarrior 5 (OG campaign, some mods, no Xpacs). Pretty disappointing to be honest. Missions are generally "go to this location, blow stuff up" with very little variety. Voice acting and dialogue of the player character are painfully generic. One of the main characters is voiced by the same guy who does Adam Jensen in Deus Ex. I don't think his voice was suited for the role, unfortunately. Ryana (your 2nd in command) is done the best. Your chief repair officer, while supposed to be kind of a fun/playful interruption to the "serious" campaign, is utterly pointless as he serves no real purpose in the game.
The storyline is also pretty boring. You are the child of a renown mech pilot, and your father is killed by a merc company. you vow to get revenge and discover your father's secrets along the way. the ending also has no payoff, because "the big secret" and the information you discover have absolutely no context or meaning unless you're very familiar with the battletech universe.

graphically, the game is decent, but all battle damage appears the same more or less. i'm tempted to boot up MechWariorr Living Legends and see if that doesn't look better (i remember it being pretty damn good at the time). Weapons were ok - most lacked any sense of punch. I found the artillery weapons to suit my playstyle and desire to blow things up the best.

in terms of gameplay mechanics, the difficulty curve spikes pretty hard. the first few hours feel challenging but fair. then at some point along the main campaign, you have way more enemies thrown at you than normal. this continues to be the case in the campaign, where side missions are pretty well balanced, but campaign missions can be a real grind by comparison.

even with some of the AI mods, I found the lancemates to generally be pretty poor performers in terms of their combat ability.

Overall, not an outright bad game, but definitely one where i had to push to beat, and not because i was really enjoying myself the whole way through.

I played this a lot in co-op with some friends a while ago. The core gameplay and feel of the mechs is great and the graphics/sound are very good, but the campaign gets repetitive quickly and mostly consists of grinding through 4 or 5 types of randomly generated missions. I got bored and gave up halfway through. The DLC campaigns are better and at least add some variety to the mission format, although there is not much of a story there either.
 

Stg-Flame

Diamond Member
Mar 10, 2007
3,494
470
126
Skyrim is taking so goddamn long and I can happily say that once I finish the main quest (which I hope I'm nearing) I'll never install this game again. I'll sooner go back to Morrowind and Oblivion than ever have to suffer through this console trash again.
 

GodisanAtheist

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2006
6,719
7,016
136
Skyrim is taking so goddamn long and I can happily say that once I finish the main quest (which I hope I'm nearing) I'll never install this game again. I'll sooner go back to Morrowind and Oblivion than ever have to suffer through this console trash again.

-Yeah I knew I was never going to go back and try that game again so I tried to 100% it in one run. 90 hours and I still had the civil war, dark brotherhood, and thieves guild storylines left. I just couldn't do it. Never again.
 

Fenixgoon

Lifer
Jun 30, 2003
31,493
9,824
136
Starting up Warhammer 40k: Battlesector. So far, it's a very nice upgrade/iteration over Sanctus Reach, however there are still some rough edges - many sound assets are re-used (or extremely close) from Sanctus Reach. Lots of attacks (shooting or melee) feel like they lack punch/weight/impact.

Voice acting during and between missions is great, and adds a good amount of flavor. The generic unit voices during gameplay are just ok. There's a bit of repetitiveness to the standard "voice over comms" sound for the various space marine units.


Also started Riftbreaker. This is like a basebuilder, tower defense, plus civilization combined. It's pretty well done, but I'm curious as to how the campaign will play out. It's very addictive, but even the first missions has dragged on for a surprisingly long time. If I have to fill out the whole tech tree to beat the first mission...I might call that good enough, hah.
 

Igo69

Senior member
Apr 26, 2015
716
101
106
Decided to replay the whole Borderlands 2 again. Now i will be stuck playing it for over 100 hours lol
 

Whirlwind

Senior member
Nov 4, 2006
540
18
81
I have recently finished Titanfall 2 and Battlefield 4.

Just started Mafia III
 

GodisanAtheist

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2006
6,719
7,016
136
Feels like an Unreal Tournament mod honestly and I'm fairly sure some of the same enemies in Unreal 2 are in Serious Sam. That being said, the second game is a marked improvement over the first game. I'm only a few levels in and while it is "more of the same", they do offer more weapons and new enemy types right off the bat.

- Just beat the Second Encounter.

A step up in just about every way, far less painful to playthrough, although that last level was starting to get back into some of The First Encounter's bad habits.
 
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Stg-Flame

Diamond Member
Mar 10, 2007
3,494
470
126
January - Chasm, Black Mesa, Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter, Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter, Serious Sam 3: BFE
February/March/April - Skyrim

Screw skyrim. This game blows.

It took me so long to beat Skyrim simply because I'd get to a point where I just didn't care anymore about the dialogue, the combat, the lore, story, graphics, incessant bugs, or anything else about the game. I'd have to go cleanse my palette with Risk of Rain 2 and Escape From Tarkov because I hate just skipping dialogue, story, cut-scenes, etc. all in the name of just finishing the game. I want to experience the game for what it is and not just mash left click until the NPC lets go of me so I can go into the next copy/pasted dungeon for the 5,000th time so I had to get through the game in small sections otherwise the game started to feel like a chore. However, much like the Serious Sam games, I can confidently say that no matter how many more remastered versions of Skyrim get released or how many mods exist, I'll never install this pile of shit ever again. Todd Howard should have left this as a console exclusive.
 
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GodisanAtheist

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2006
6,719
7,016
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Ok, fired up Batman Arkham Origins, the red headed stepchild of the Batman Arkham games.

Just completed the initial prison level and the game feels like putting on a pair of comfy pants. I suspect the game isn't going to really try a single new thing and really just be a retread of Asylum and City with a stronger focus on character building for the Bat, and that's not really a bad thing.
 
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nakedfrog

No Lifer
Apr 3, 2001
58,055
12,245
136
January - Chasm, Black Mesa, Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter, Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter, Serious Sam 3: BFE
February/March/April - Skyrim

Screw skyrim. This game blows.

It took me so long to beat Skyrim simply because I'd get to a point where I just didn't care anymore about the dialogue, the combat, the lore, story, graphics, incessant bugs, or anything else about the game. I'd have to go cleanse my palette with Risk of Rain 2 and Escape From Tarkov because I hate just skipping dialogue, story, cut-scenes, etc. all in the name of just finishing the game. I want to experience the game for what it is and not just mash left click until the NPC lets go of me so I can go into the next copy/pasted dungeon for the 5,000th time so I had to get through the game in small sections otherwise the game started to feel like a chore. However, much like the Serious Sam games, I can confidently say that no matter how many more remastered versions of Skyrim get released or how many mods exist, I'll never install this pile of shit ever again. Todd Howard should have left this as a console exclusive.
LOL
I think Skyrim is perhaps not the game for you. I've played it for over 200 hours and never beat it, but... well, beating it was never the plan. I don't think that's the "point" of the Elder Scrolls games for a lot of us. I did come close to beating Morrowind once. I don't think I ever really pursued the main quest in Oblivion at all.
 

Stg-Flame

Diamond Member
Mar 10, 2007
3,494
470
126
LOL
I think Skyrim is perhaps not the game for you. I've played it for over 200 hours and never beat it, but... well, beating it was never the plan. I don't think that's the "point" of the Elder Scrolls games for a lot of us. I did come close to beating Morrowind once. I don't think I ever really pursued the main quest in Oblivion at all.
I've sunk thousands of hours into Morrowind and even more into Oblivion. I love TES games, but Skyrim was way too dumbed down for me to enjoy. One shining example would be the lazy writing and how NPCs interact with your player. In the Thieve's Guild, after taking over, the NPCs will still give you the same old nonsense of "so you're Brynjolf's new errand boy, eh?" dialogue. Bethesda went overboard with trying to make this as console friendly as possible while also leaving the vast majority of the game to be fixed/completed by dedicated modders.

I understand there's a mountain of potential there, but if you have a beautiful sprawling world with tons of potential, you don't have a fun game, you just have something with potential to be a fun game. I actually still enjoy going back to Morrowind every now and then because despite all its numerous flaws, what the game has, is actually done incredibly well. The combat mechanics can be fixed with a simple mod but again, even the DnD-style combat is tolerable once you accept it for what it is and understand that it was meant to mimic a novice not being able to shoot a bow effectively, so your shots have a decent chance to miss until you become more proficient with archery. Your melee attacks are going to deflect, whiff, and do very little damage until you practice with those specific melee weapons.

But you're right. Skyrim isn't for me and if this game is any indication of how TES 6 will be, I might be skipping that one entirely (at least until the 10th re-release goes on sale - then I might pick that one up).
 
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JujuFish

Lifer
Feb 3, 2005
10,999
733
136
I finally got back to the backlog and finished up The Sexy Brutale, a fun little indie isometric puzzle game, where you wake up in a mansion stuck in a time loop.

Now to go to the backlog/"backlog" and play Chrono Cross. The quotes are because I'm going to play the version that just released, Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition. I was a huge fan of Chrono Trigger as a kid, but never played Chrono Cross. Looking forward to it while hoping I can still get into JRPGs.
 

GodisanAtheist

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2006
6,719
7,016
136
I finally got back to the backlog and finished up The Sexy Brutale, a fun little indie isometric puzzle game, where you wake up in a mansion stuck in a time loop.

Now to go to the backlog/"backlog" and play Chrono Cross. The quotes are because I'm going to play the version that just released, Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition. I was a huge fan of Chrono Trigger as a kid, but never played Chrono Cross. Looking forward to it while hoping I can still get into JRPGs.

Loved Chrono Trigger, never played Chrono Cross. Interested on hearing opinions about the game. The recent "remaster" has my interest piqued.
 

Stg-Flame

Diamond Member
Mar 10, 2007
3,494
470
126
January - Chasm, Black Mesa, Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter, Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter, Serious Sam 3: BFE
February/March/April - Skyrim, Skul: The Hero Slayer,

Skul is an indie game very similar to Rogue Legacy but this game's gimmick is that you're a little skeleton who has virtually no powers, but if you find a more powerful skull, you can put that on and become that skull type. Every skull can be upgraded with the help of bones which can only be obtained by destroying a skull you find rather than wearing it. It's fairly short but incredibly difficult and there's also various means of upgrading your character to help you make it further each time. Not much else to say but if you enjoyed Rogue Legacy or games like this, grab it on sale. It took me about ten hours to beat it and I only saw about half of the skulls available so it's pretty grindy. The enemies are all pretty samey but the bosses are really unique and the story isn't half bad either. I've definitely paid more for worse games in the past.
 

CloakedNinja

Junior Member
Apr 6, 2022
5
1
36
Got my hands on Game Pass couple of days ago, so now i'm trying to play all the games i missed for a couple of years: Anthem, Back 4 Blood, Crysis 3, Halo Infinite, Forza Horizon 4 and 5
 
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nakedfrog

No Lifer
Apr 3, 2001
58,055
12,245
136
Skul is an indie game very similar to Rogue Legacy but this game's gimmick is that you're a little skeleton who has virtually no powers, but if you find a more powerful skull, you can put that on and become that skull type. Every skull can be upgraded with the help of bones which can only be obtained by destroying a skull you find rather than wearing it. It's fairly short but incredibly difficult and there's also various means of upgrading your character to help you make it further each time.
Aw, I was all into it right up until here. I did enjoy Rogue Legacy and played it to completion.
 
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