What are you playing?

General discussions not necessarily related to our games
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Franka
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Re: What are you playing?

Post by Franka »

I gave it a shot. Not as positive as you, but some parts were good. Great main character, though I'd be happy if they dropped the supernatural stuff. I'd rather have romanced Riley, but that's just me. :)

There were parts that I would have gladly cut out (the way too long LARP session, zzz, and the family flashback sequence was unnecessary, I read all of that between the lines), but there were also parts of original LiS that I would have cut.

I was actively annoyed at one of the twists.
Spoiler:
The dad dying in the mines.
I know now there's a foreshadowing in game explanation if you explore enough early on, but I really felt that part was completely unnecessary. We didn't need additional reason for hating the bad guy, and we didn't need that story line to have such a "neat" Hollywood closure.

Also, hippie commune vs. the evil mining corporation? Give me a break with the stereotypes...

I did enjoy most of the character interactions though, which I guess is what matters most for this type of game.
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jack1974
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Re: What are you playing?

Post by jack1974 »

Yes the LARP was too long for me too. The "final battle" was good, but the whole thing was dragging too long.
But glad we agree to the main character. She's the best of the entire series hands down :)
Riley is supercute but a bit too "standard" for my tastes. Steph has a face shape and lips/eyes which makes her very attractive and at same time "fresh" (as much as it can be obviously) for 3d art style.
I liked the family flashback personally since help character development. About the dad thing I'm ambivalent.
I think the supernatural stuff is somewhat necessary in a AAA title, because without it... would be a visual novel :lol: I don't think you can have success with just a romance based game and no other stuff in the mainstream market (but I'd be glad to be proven wrong).
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Franka
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Re: What are you playing?

Post by Franka »

Steph just reminded me too much of Chloe, with the beanie.

I've forgotten, was there any supernatural stuff in Before the Storm?
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jack1974
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Re: What are you playing?

Post by jack1974 »

No, even if on the net there are a lot of conspiracies about Rachel having superpowers and starting the fire etc etc
But in that game the "superpower" was Chloe ability to speech her way out/into anything. I liked it because of that.
But Alex gift is cool, in practice reading other people's mind. Remembers me of a character of my games... :D
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Franka
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Re: What are you playing?

Post by Franka »

I didn't like it, it felt like an excuse to just hand out information instead of letting us discover things naturally. Also, "fixing" people by magically reading them is cheap and convenient. It did lead to some good scenes, I'm just bummed about the way we got there.

So yeah, I'm happy/not happy with the game, but at least I finished it, which is more than I can say about the last two. :)
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jack1974
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Re: What are you playing?

Post by jack1974 »

Haha! Thing is, it's very hard to find AAA games with good romance stories (and let's not even talk about lesbian/LGBT ones). Probably that's why I liked this so much. The kiss scene was really awww (I know most male player maybe are looking into something more hot, but I like girls kissing, what can I say? :lol:)
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jack1974
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Re: What are you playing?

Post by jack1974 »

It was fun, my copy of Elden Ring arrived exactly the day after I put Curse Of Mantras out :) So last week I took a break from work to play the game (working only in the morning to relax a bit).
As expected is great, huge, and has a lot of replayability. I only killed the first big boss and explored 3 main zones, so I'm not even halfway after a week of play :lol:
There are some issues though, the open-world is nice but honestly I'd prefer the old system, less dispersive. The maps are too big and you spend a lot of time just walking/riding the horse.
Anyway, I think it's already GOTY for me, I liked Horizons: New Dawn too but since I got Elden Ring I put it down and not sure when I'll resume playing it :)
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Franka
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Re: What are you playing?

Post by Franka »

I'm enjoying Elden Ring very much. Initially I wasn't going to get it, but then I found out I could play offline and not have to bother with PvP invasions.

I got 2 pieces of the ring so far, so still lots to go.

Unlike you, I love the huge open world. I'll go to all the nooks and crannies to see if there's just a tiny secret hidden there, and I can spend hours looking for hidden paths. I've explored Limgrave and Liurnia very thoroughly and slowly going through Caelid and some of the underground. I don't like the terrain in Caelid though, so it's going a bit slow right now.

Current Franka posing:
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jack1974
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Re: What are you playing?

Post by jack1974 »

Two pieces of the ring you mean you defeated two major bosses? I only got Godfrik, Rennala-whatever always kicks my ass in the second phase :lol:
And that's why you're such a good tester, you're obsessed with finding every minor thing lol while I don't have the patience :)
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Franka
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Re: What are you playing?

Post by Franka »

Yah, I beat Godfrik and Rennala so far. All that time I spent exploring meant Rennala was pretty easy.

Today I got the Moonveil Katana and the Rock Sling spell. This changes everything! I managed to clear the Divine Tower of Caelid. That was probably the most intense gaming experience of my life. Getting into the tower by running and jumping ledges barely wide enough to stand on, then having to drop all the way down inside the tower, constantly on the edge of falling to your doom. I was pushed over an edge by an enemy, but was incredibly lucky to land on a tiny ledge. Good thing I didn't have a microphone on; the things I said when I went over...
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