obligatory "What vidcons are you playing????" thread

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Three Dirty Dwarves is a Saturn beat em up by the people behind Ecco the dolphin. You play as three, um, dwarves who after a game of D&D gone horribly wrong, are warped to modern day Bronx along with other monsters from the game and set on a quest to rescue four reality-warping children who are detained by the military-industrial complex to make weapons of mass destruction. The gameplay is highly atypical for a beat em up (no lifebar or lives, plenty of gimmick stages like a DKC-style minecart ride and a baseball game) but it's great fun! TDD has an insane amount of personality, between its soviet animation-style background art, insane characters (you fight things like naked ninjas with a black censor bar or a gym that throws can of stereoids at you), and excellent soundtrack. Even the instruction manual rocks!

Basically, Three Dirty Dwarves owns.
 
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I've beaten

latest


and was seriously dissapointed.

I was really excited about Wolfenstein The New Order. It looked gorgeous, it was made by the developers of the fantastic The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay and it was hailed by journos and fans alike as an unapolegtic tribute to ~old school shooter~ tropes. While TNO does make some skin-deep concessions to its heritage (being able to hold more than 2 weapons, finite [albeit partially-regenerating] health and no accuracy penalty if you don't use ironsights), it's otherwise very much a modern shooter, what's with its abundance of scripted events, linear levels, emphasis on shooting from cover, upgrade trees, and lenghty walk and talk segments. While I don't think those elements are *inherently* bad (beside the forced story stuff that is), I feel TNO doesn't do this stuff all that well.

The shooting is pretty underwhelming. BJ moves fairly slow and the feedback from getting it is weak, so it's very easy for an enemy to sneak up on you and empty your health reserves before you realize it. The result is that the most efficient strategy is to camp and take leaning potshots from cover, as trying to run and gun on anything above the easiest difficulty will get you killed, especially as most of the enemy types are damage sponges. The weapon roster is stock as it can be: the weapons at your disposals are a knife, a semi-automatic pistol, an assault riffle that can be upgraded with the obligatory rocket shot later in the game, an automatic shotgun, a sniper rifle that can double as another assault ri fle later in the game, and a laser cutter thing, the one vaguely creative gun in the game and one that it conspires to make you use as much as possible. You can dual wield all of them and find various upgrades (such as a silencer for the pistol or bouncing shells for the shotgun) but none of them feel particularly fun to use, and the game often has you lose your entire arsenal between chapters, which makes your work in scavenging ressources feel wasted.

Speaking of ressources, TNO has this dumb mechanic where you need to mash the E key to pick up items. While this makes sense to an extent for mission-critical items and health pickups (as you can pick up extra health and temporily "supercharge" it beyond your baseline level), there was no need to extend this mechanic to ammo collection. It doesn't make the game more immersive, challenging, or interesting, it's just unnecessary tedium

TNO features an upgrade system where you can get various attributes by accomplishing various challenges, such as killing X number of enemy commanders without being detected or killing X number of enemies with an assault riffle, divided among various trees. I guess the idea was to have the upgrade system naturally reward your preferred play style, but it runs into the two majors problems this sort of upgrade system causes which is that 1) a lot of the upgrades you get (particularly the ammo-related ones) feel like they should be there from the start and that 2) you feel forced to do the challenges even if they're not what you'd naturally do.

The narrative is the most praised aspect of the game, and it's not bad at all. The writing tries really hard (and succeeds) at making William "B.J" Blazkowicz a nuanced and three-dimensional character, as well as showing just how repugnant the Nazi ideology is. On the other hand, I couldn't fully get into it because I found a lot of the side characters irritating and underdeveloped.

A big problem that doesn't have to do with game design is that TNO simply doesn't play nice with modern AMD cards. There are various folder tweaks documented online that alleviate the framerate hiccup and frequent crashes (which I never experieced during my playthrough) but the game still chugs on busy-ish sequences on a GPU (RX 580) that really should be able to run the game at the highest settings without breaking a sweat. So yeah, keep that in mind.

I didn't dislike The New Order at first, but the deeper I got into the game, the more it frustrated me. If you want modern-ish Nazi killing fun times, I'd sonner recommend the underrated Medal of Honor Airborne or Raven Software's underloved 2009 Wolfenstein game (but that one is no longer buyable digitallly). I guess Machine Games' take on Wolfenstein just isn't for me.
 
Im on the last level of banjo kazooie atm, I also already have enough notes to pass through the last door. I figured Id go ahead and try to 100% the level first, though : p

The game is super fun, but it can be stressful when youre trying to find every note in a level and you die halfway through : p I have a couple of levels where I died with 80-90 music notes and said "fine, thats enough, Im done" >.>
 
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Ive been playimg n64 lately, and I took some pictures of my favorite n64 game cuz reasons. I guess I can share them here

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I love the landscape in this game, it really feels like youre exploring a new world.

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I really enjoy it when games have things like explorable ruins. Ita fun to like explore them and imagine the lives of the people who once lived there that never actually existed cuz this is a game and not real life : p
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I like the mirari people in this game, are probly my favorite fictional race. Also like those fire effects, haha.

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Marshmallows are an important part of a medieval diet, yeah.


I love the overworld of this game, though. While most jrpgs have great stories and characters, the world usually doesnt feel all that big. This game does a good job at building a big immersive world with tons to explore. Is way cool for a n64 game.
 
Ive been playimg n64 lately, and I took some pictures of my favorite n64 game cuz reasons. I guess I can share them here

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I love the landscape in this game, it really feels like youre exploring a new world.

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I really enjoy it when games have things like explorable ruins. Ita fun to like explore them and imagine the lives of the people who once lived there that never actually existed cuz this is a game and not real life : p
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I like the mirari people in this game, are probly my favorite fictional race. Also like those fire effects, haha.

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Marshmallows are an important part of a medieval diet, yeah.


I love the overworld of this game, though. While most jrpgs have great stories and characters, the world usually doesnt feel all that big. This game does a good job at building a big immersive world with tons to explore. Is way cool for a n64 game.
This actually has got me thinking about something that I've started to feel lately. I feel like I'm no longer impressed by graphics anymore. The advances in graphics you see lately feel much more incremental than the changes you used to see from generation to generation and is more reliant on PC hardware than ever. Especially since I've been playing a lot of older games, I've been interested in seeing how older games tried to make the most of what they could in creating their game worlds.
 
@Triple M yeah! You for real just expressed my feelings on video games, haha.

I have another friend who feels the same way actually. We talk about it often. But yeah, graphics dont matter anymore, Im no longer excited to see where they can go with graphics and Im no longer concerned about graphics in general outside style.

But with older games, its really really fun to see what they could come up with with the limitations they had. It kinda makes it more creative imo, these people had to find ways to make their visions work with the limitations they were dealt with.

I for real enjoy appreciating the little details in older graphics, even down to like the furniture they designed in buildings. Ita fun thinking about how someone had to actually design it, haha.
 
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Well I finished playing the second Miles Edgeworth Investigations game as I mentioned earlier in the thread. With that I've pretty much played every Ace Attorney game before the time-skip where things get weird afterwards. What a ride it's been and I'm kind of sad to have it end even though it was a satisfying conclusion to a great journey. Though, I'm not really looking forward to the stuff that comes afterwards...
 
I'm playing Mario Golf (GBC) again lately.
Well I finished playing the second Miles Edgeworth Investigations game as I mentioned earlier in the thread. With that I've pretty much played every Ace Attorney game before the time-skip where things get weird afterwards. What a ride it's been and I'm kind of sad to have it end even though it was a satisfying conclusion to a great journey. Though, I'm not really looking forward to the stuff that comes afterwards...
I still haven't been able to play any, as I haven't got a DS yet.
 
So earlier I played this translated Famicom game called Princesstual Orgy.

There where four cute princesses but no orgy. 0/10 worst game of all time.

In all seriousness it was just an okay sidescroller. Could do without slippery physics but it's not bad.
 
I'm playing Bloodborne again. I looooove this game, it's so perfect. If they made a lighthearted Zelda-esque game with the gameplay and level design of Bloodborne/Dark Souls it would be my favorite game ever.
 
Thinking of replaying FFlV on the DS after finding it again. I forgot most of what ended up happening minus the fight with Rubicante the best gentleman.
 
I started playing streets of rage 2 today. So far Ive made it to the under the baseball field fight club where you fight with the ultimate warrior clone. Couldnt get past him though : ( Will have to try again after work maybe.
 
I managed to get the max rank for the current Splatfest earlier today in Splatoon 2. I think Team Squid and Team Octopus are about equally popular because I've only have 1 Team Squid vs. Team Squid match while my friend who's on the other side had a Team Octopus vs. Team Octopus match as well. I couldn't decide which side to pick since I liked both so I sided with whatever one my waifu Pearl supported.
 
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Enemy Front is a WWII FPS released in 2012 by the infamous City Interactive. You play as an American war journalist turned super-spy, in a story alternating the tale of the Warsaw uprising with flashbacks in more generic WWII FPS settings.

Enemy Front is as generic as a 2010-something FPS can be. You can carry two weapons, two type of grenades (regular fartnades or molotv cocktail, which is ridiculously good at blowing up vehicles), you have hidden collectables which have no purpose except getting cheevos and you progress by accomplishing objectives in linear story-driven levels. The game tries to offer stealth gameplay as a viable alternative: about half the levels are fairly big, and you can do things like drag bodies or throw rocks to distract guards. But beside the penultimate level, you’re not incentivized to sneak around and since you have a lot of ammo and a big health bar, going in guns blazing is just easier. There are other attempts to spice up the progression, but they mostly fall flat: in the first level, you can choose which of two objectives to do first but you have to do both of them anyway and which one you pick first doesn’t change how the other one is accomplished at all. This is forgotten until the very last level where you can choose to either provide sniper support for an ally trying to get a warehouse or run down there yourself, in a sequence so short you have to wonder wehy they even bothered to program the choice at all. You also have secondary objectives you can accomplish but beside one funny anachronism in the second level (rescuing a specific guy will reward you with a StG44: the mission is set in 1940 but the gun only started production in 1944), doing them or not doesn’t change anything at all.



Despite how generic and undercooked it is, I kinda enjoyed Enemy Front. It did its job, which was being a story-driven WWII FPS when the setting was practically extinct from the genre, and CryEngine3 pull admirable double-duty in making it not completely ugly. Plus Fanatical regularly has it on sale for $2 in a bundle with the similarly competent-but-unamazing Alien Rage, so why the hell not?
 
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Enemy Front is a WWII FPS released in 2012 by the infamous City Interactive. You play as an American war journalist turned super-spy, in a story alternating the tale of the Warsaw uprising with flashbacks in more generic WWII FPS settings.

Enemy Front is as generic as a 2010-something FPS can be. You can carry two weapons, two type of grenades (regular fartnades or molotv cocktail, which is ridiculously good at blowing up vehicles), you have hidden collectables which have no purpose except getting cheevos and you progress by accomplishing objectives in linear story-driven levels. The game tries to offer stealth gameplay as a viable alternative: about half the levels are fairly big, and you can do things like drag bodies or throw rocks to distract guards. But beside the penultimate level, you’re not incentivized to sneak around and since you have a lot of ammo and a big health bar, going in guns blazing is just easier. There are other attempts to spice up the progression, but they mostly fall flat: in the first level, you can choose which of two objectives to do first but you have to do both of them anyway and which one you pick first doesn’t change how the other one is accomplished at all. This is forgotten until the very last level where you can choose to either provide sniper support for an ally trying to get a warehouse or run down there yourself, in a sequence so short you have to wonder wehy they even bothered to program the choice at all. You also have secondary objectives you can accomplish but beside one funny anachronism in the second level (rescuing a specific guy will reward you with a StG44: the mission is set in 1940 but the gun only started production in 1944), doing them or not doesn’t change anything at all.



Despite how generic and undercooked it is, I kinda enjoyed Enemy Front. It did its job, which was being a story-driven WWII FPS when the setting was practically extinct from the genre, and CryEngine3 pull admirable double-duty in making it not completely ugly. Plus Fanatical regularly has it on sale for $2 in a bundle with the similarly competent-but-unamazing Alien Rage, so why the hell not?
You should start a video game review channel. "Glowsquid reviews"
 
Just beat an old favourite!

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Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 is a modern millitary third-person shooter with tactical elements. You play as Scott Mitchell, the captain of an US spec ops unit called the "Ghosts" sent to Juarez for operations against Mexican rebels looking to sabotage a joint-millitary treaty between the US, Canada and Mexico. Things go bad to worse when it is soon found Panaman mercenaries backing the insurection have given stolen russian nukes to the rebellion they intend to launch at major US cities. GRAW 2's story is neocon nonsense, but highly entertaining one, and the French localization and voice acting is excellent.

GRAW 2 is quite far removed from the series thinking man's shooter roots with a far more forgiving health system, plenty of opportunities to reanimate downed allies, and a generous heaping of visual aids to lotate and ascertain the condition of enemy forces, but it does retain some of the tactical gameplay. You play exclusively as Scott Mitchell but you can order up to three support elements: either a squad of soldiers, a drone, a MULE (basically a wheeled armory) or various combat vehicles, although the orders you can give them are limited ("regroup on me" or "go there" for soldiers, "forward", "go back" and "stop" for vehicles". GRAW 2's big gimmick is the "Cross Com", which not only allow you to switch between your assets, but also see from their POV and order them from there. This is highly useful: in the final mission, I was pinned down by heavy machine gun fire, but I was able to use the crosscom to get my M1 Abrams support to where I was and kill the enemies. As Mitchell is slow and can't take much punishment, your typical encounter involve sneaking around enemy positions collecting intel, position your allies and surprise your enemies.

The overall controls and feel of GRAW 2 is excellent. All the controls you need are intelligently laid out and responsive. You can switch shoulder, which is a rare feature in third-person shooters but very appreciated here. Mitchel feels good to move and when you crouch and go prone while running, he does a very satisfying dive.

The sound design is also excellent: the explosion sound never fails to make me grin and all your fellow ghosts have distinct voices and personalities. They'll also be able to shout precise information (ex: "behind the red car") and will be more than happy to tell you if you didn't position them intelligently. The soundtrack by the underrated Tom Salta perfectly underscore the moment wheter it's a moody stealth section or a holding a position against overwhelming enemy odds, while retaining an identity often lacking from modern millitary shooter scores





GRAW 2 really comes together in the climatic Act 2 mission "Who the hell are these guys?". After sneaking around destroying anti-aircraft positions, you're summoned to the enemy HQ to hold the line while a fellow spec-ops team look for the nukes. As you defend the position, the other team finds and destroy one of the nuke (and with it, the second floor of the building) but find the other is missing. Intense street to street fighting ensues (where you're given command of not just a Little Bird chopper, but also a M1 Abrams), culminating in (an admitelly braindead and heavily scripted) helicopter duel with the leader of the rebellion, all that while the leader of the other team and your general are yelling about the whereabouts of the stolen nukes. It's nail-bitting and intense stuff, a truly great level.



So yeah, lots of gushing but not all is perfect with GRAW 2. The customisation is pretty lousy with many of the guns being arbitrarily unavailable for large chunks of the game. Telling your allies to go somewhere can be pretty wonky as they'll often go the sides or in front of the cover you want them to take. The framerate on the PS3 version is not great.. But pound-for-pound, this is easily the best millitary shooter I ever played (though I have yet to play its predecessor).
 
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