Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of February 4th

solitaire , 4 months ago

I thought after playing Star Trek: Resurgence, which I adored, that I’d follow up with The Expanse: A Telltale Series. I’m a fan of both series and The Expanse seems just as well suited to the format, I’ve enjoyed the other Telltale games I’ve played and I really like Camina Drummer. Recipe for a slam dunk.

Off the bat, The Expanse has a lot of advantages over Resurgence. It’s far better on a technical level - it never crashed, I didn’t have any visual bugs, I didn’t have any performance problems and there were no input issues. All things Resurgence was rife with.

But here’s where the problems start. The Expanse, in a technical sense, is better graphically. It doesn’t look better though. It’s just creatively kind of dull. This is going to be a running theme with the game - it suffers any time an artistic choice had to be made.

There’s only a brief moment in the first episode - of five - where we escape the uninspired industrial corridors. You might point out those industrial corridors are part of the show’s aesthetic, but they don’t convey the same details about how these machines work and how the people live in them. They miss details like how the decks are laid out in relation to the direction of thrust, and are weirdly wide rather than that utilitarian claustrophobia. The show also had no problem finding spectacular space vistas that are largely absent here.

But visuals are not why we are here. It’s the story, right? But for the first time in any Expanse media - from the books, novellas, show, etc - I was incredibly bored. None of these characters are remotely interesting. The Camina I know is intense, driven and decisive. This Camina is unsure, anxious and just all around unimpressive. The politics are gone - not that the faction don’t get a lot of lip service, but everything said is incredibly surface level and dull.

The game is blatantly obvious in how it forces outcomes regardless of choice. I was particularly frustrated when I shot a mutinous crew member multiple times, saw him floating limp in space, only for him to teleport mere moments later and have a gun pointed at another crew member again. I had these whiplash moments pretty often, where it felt like there needed to be an intermediary set up scene but instead we just awkwardly jump to something.

More important than decisions in story outcomes is stuff you find while exploring. People live or die based on these. Except you have no idea whether clicking something or walking somewhere is going to trigger a cutscene that’ll push you past a threshold where you can’t return to find something. Locations of items rely on moon logic - you don’t find meds in any of the med bays you go through, you them on a random crate floating in space. The result is an anxiety over whether you’ll miss something, and butchered pacing as you aimlessly walk around trying to find these things that could be anywhere.

The voice acting is sadly sub par. I really liked Camina’s actress in the show, but she sounds like she is phoning it in here. The others aren’t any better. The belter accents were particularly awkward.

It feels weird to talk about game play in this genre, but with dialogue choices this weak I couldn’t help but notice how much worse The Expanse’s were. There is a lot of tedious filler walking, jarring video game-y avoiding patrolling “drones” with comical red laser beam search lights and holding a button until a thing is collected. Resurgence had plenty of issues in this regard but, to it’s credit, it mostly just cut to the next scene (at least in the first half).

The one puzzle I remember was moon logic. You need to work out a password, which is connecting a series of shapes, and are encouraged to look around the environment for shapes that might have been important to the previous inhabitants. Is it any of the pseudo-religious iconography? Anything of sentimental importance? No, it’s the path of the silly connect the power lines chore you did earlier.

Ugh, I could go on. This is already way longer than anyone should read. The TL;DR is The Expanse gets a 3/10 for me, compared to Resurgence at a 9/10. It should have been an easy passing grade given my investment in the series and it’s suitability for this format but it’s just so creatively bankrupt.

TimTheEnchanter , 4 months ago

I just finished up Divinity Original Sin 2 this week! I enjoyed Baldur’s Gate 3 immensely, so I thought I would check out something else from Larian Studios, and it had been on my wishlist forever. Loved the combat system in this one, and how you could mix and match different skills and abilities to make interesting combinations. The battles were so much fun to play! I had a hard time keeping track of the story and all the different factions and their motivations, though, and went into the final act of the game not exactly sure what my character should choose. (Especially compared to BG3 I had a harder time keeping track of what was going on for some reason.) Still had a ton of fun playing this one and will probably replay it with a new character and all new party at some point!

I’m also working on my second playthrough of Disco Elysium and playing Cult of the Lamb. And then sometime soon I’m going to start Cyberpunk 2077.

Computerchairgeneral , 4 months ago

Finally got around to Yakuza: Like a Dragon, so I've been making my way through that. Enjoying the turn-based RPG game-play a lot more than I was expecting. Focused on the main story right now, but the side-content I've dabbled in has been pretty fun. Feels like one of those games I'm going to be chipping away at for a while.

I've also been playing Dread Delusion and absolutely loving it. I don't tend to pick up Early Access games, but hearing it described as a "Morrowind-like" RPG caught my interest and it is the perfect way to describe the game. It really captures that feeling of playing Morrowind for the first time, of being a nobody in a strange land. The game doesn't even give you a map when you start out. You have to get by on directions and landmarks until you complete the side quest that gives you a map. And even then you have to fill it out as you explore the world. More than that, it's that sense that you never really know what you're going to encounter around the next corner. You can wander into a town looking for your contact to continue the main quest only to end up accepting a quest from the atheistic Inquisition to help them hunt down a rogue god and their followers.

Like I said it's still Early Access so it is a little rough around the edges. There's more than a handful of bugs and the combat is...fine, but not much else. Then again there's such a focus on sneaking, talking, and magicing your way around problems that that might be intentional. Still, what I've played so far has got me excited for when the finished product releases.

ampersandrew , 4 months ago

Dread Delusion was one of the best games I've played at PAX. I was bummed to see it launch into early access, but I guess they needed funding in a hurry. I'm definitely going to pick it up once it's done.

freijon , 4 months ago

After playing through Mass Effect 1-3 (LE) I needed to go back home… To Skyrim.

My Breton Farmgirl visited her Boyfriend Lund only to find out he was killed by Forsworn robbers. They will pay for this.

theJWPHTER88 , 4 months ago

Recently tried out vivid/statis on PC (via my older sister's (now my younger bro's) laptop) since last week, even though I'm not that much of a rhythm game enthusiasts, speaking as a young adult keen on exploration and slow-paced music in video games.

For what it's worth, it just feels and plays quite good, with only four keys to smash and hold note bars to (much like Stepmania and other related RGs, but with the addition of bumper bars), as well as a couple of modes and storyline beats to try and dive deep into, including the tough-as-nails, one-miss-and-you-fail Ultimate mode. And its palette of featured songs are a worthwhile mention, ranging from the slow-paced to the absolute hardcore banger type. And this week, I just scored my first FC on Luminaria (Opening 1), and witnessed the game's first edition of their tournament DUALIZED ASCENSIA unfold, from start to finish. Reeked of adrenaline-fueled fun and competition.

That being said, playing through my way on this game deffo improved on my physical reflexes and typing speed quite a bit, even though I get grades lower than A on certain harder charts. I guess we will see if I can achieve my first V grade and complete Class 1 in Course Mode after a couple more rounds of practice and studying Youtube plays of some of those aforementioned charts.

BudgieMania , 4 months ago

I am currently one of the scrubs you beat in Tekken 8 on your way to the red ranks

comicallycluttered , 4 months ago (edited 4 months ago)

I think I might play the Tomb Raider Legend/Anniversary/Underworld trilogy. Just to get ready for the I - III remasters.

As much as I enjoy the newer trilogy, I really miss old campy Lara. The fun adventures that don’t take themselves too seriously.

Edit: Man, I forgot how finicky the controls of these games can be.

Edit 2: No, seriously, fuck these controls. Anniversary feels like a nightmare to play. Legend had its control problems, but at least there wasn’t platforming in literally every room. I can appreciate that it’s got waaaaay more puzzles (I mean, it’s a remake of the original), but that doesn’t matter if the controls make the puzzles unnecessarily frustrating.