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[CyberCubed]

Originally Posted by Prowler

I've gotten about 26 or so so far. The next goal is 40 it seems. Meh, I might take a break now and get back to it sometime later. It's not like it's an RPG or a story heavy adventure game where you'll feel lost after going back to your save for the first time in a long time.

When I play games I finish them before moving onto the next game. Obviously in today's massive open world type games I don't do every sidequests since it's impossible these days, but in stuff like Nintendo games it's plenty doable.

[Leo656]

So I'm really digging Oblivion thus far. I knew I would, but even moreso than I expected. My biggest problem is, as I feared, managing to actually stop playing so I can sleep and do other things. It's a bit choppy and everything but I mean, it is what it is. There's just SO MUCH game here. I can't even imagine how I'll feel in 2043 when I finally get around to playing Skyrim.

I do have ONE big gripe, though, and it's carried over from Morrowind and I assume it's just how these Elder Scrolls games are, and that's being constantly over-encumbered. I'm so used to playing RPGs and it being a total "Smash-N-Grab" where you pick up whatever isn't nailed down and then huck it in town for Big Money. And you really can't do that, here, because your Strength attribute limits how much you can carry, and while you can level it up you still always feel very limited, because the Big Money items like weapons and armor are all so goddamn heavy. I totally get that it's for "realism", but I do think it makes the game a little bit less fun, because as a result it takes a VERY long time to actually save up any appreciable amount of money.

I generally carry two different sets of armor (including a Cuirass that increases my Strength so I can carry more loot), a bow, a shield, a longsword, and a silver claymore so I can kill ghosts. So far, with that I'm able to handle just about anything the game's thrown at me, but if I find some Cool Sh*t in a cave or a dungeon, I spend way too much time making delicate Menu decisions about what I'm gonna drop so I can grab this big, heavy-ass battle axe that's gonna give me 300 gold. Between the enemies I kill and the chests I open, I figure I find at least about 5 or 6 things in each cave or dungeon or mine I run through, but I can almost always only pick up and carry two, MAYBE three if one of the Big Money items is something light like a fancy helmet. Thankfully the stuff doesn't go anywhere, but going back to the nearest town, selling stuff to lighten my load, going BACK into the cave or whatever, picking up another one or two weapons/armor pieces, and repeating the process multiple times can be a drag. Thank goodness for Instant Travel, but it kind of creates a paradox: They purposely make it so you can't carry a heavy load, "Because Realism"... and yet the game lets you warp around to any places you've already been to. I don't know, I kinda get what they were going for but I feel like the game would be a bit more fun if they just said "F*ck it, we don't need to make it THAT real" and just let you carry as much as you want, like Literally Every Other RPG Ever Made.

That gripe aside, though, I'm totally loving it so far. Sure, it's got issues - only a handful of voice actors considering how many NPCs have speaking roles (Linda Carter sure shows up a LOT, and it's pretty funny especially when she plays like an ogre or something), lots and lots of dialog repeated between numerous characters, and some of the line delivery just seems "off", like you can tell the actors were just reading from a script with no context at all to the situation their character was in. And it's weird how NPCs won't actually open a door and walk through it if it leads to an area the game has to Load, they just sort of "teleport away" like Star Trek. And sometimes it gets clippy and the game stops to "Load Area" at weird times. And once in a while, the background music completely overtakes the spoken dialog to the point where you can barely hear the person you're speaking to. But it's so immersive I can't help but overlook all the little things. Like, it truly has that "epic" feel to it, and I love that.

It can be hard to "un-learn" all the standard RPG behaviors like grabbing everything that's in sight but I love how the game trades off of that with making things more realistic, like people following you around if you're in their house being a snoop or whatever, or getting annoyed with you if you're still in their house when it's time to go to sleep, or pitching a fit if they catch you stealing stuff. I love that you can pick locks but have to make sure nobody's watching you so you don't get in trouble. And I love how well the game responds to the way you play it. Fable kind of had it similar but this kind of game takes the whole thing to another level, what with how much control you have over your Skills and how they level up based on how much you use them. Like I hadn't planned on doing much Sneaking stuff or anything, but it comes in handy in the dungeons and so I "accidentally" got my Sneaking Skill pretty high, which is helpful. The actual combat could be a bit smoother, but I do really like how your style of attacks visibly change when you wield different weapons. But on the whole the controls and everything are very intuitive once you get used to it; aside from Bioshock: Infinite I never really played any first-person type of games for very long but this one is already pretty much second nature to me, now. I do like how they have the option to switch to Third-Person View on the fly, and I find myself seamlessly switching between them without even thinking about it now. Very intuitive.

One thing I wish they'd ripped from Fable, was the ability to have more control over your in-game appearance aside from switching outfits. Like you get a LOT of control in the very beginning over your facial features and hair color and everything, but unless it comes up later on and I'm just not aware of it, it's all pretty well locked-in once you start the game. I loved in Fable how you could change your hairstyle, get tattoos, grow (or shave) a beard, get more muscular or get fat or get skinny, all of that kinda thing, and once that game came out I just sort of figured that's how RPGs would be going forward but it seems like most of that stuff stayed in that series. If this game had that then it would truly be a "complete" role-playing experience. But I guess you can't have everything all the time.

On the whole, I'm really into it so far. I've only explored two towns and their immediate surroundings, and closed the first Oblivion Gate. I've got a ton of active side quests, but the initial feelings of being overwhelmed are already replaced by just being driven to see as much of the game as possible. I'm a sucker for a good "ye olde"-type D&D RPG and so far this is easily one of the best I've played.

[PizzaPower1985]

Originally Posted by Leo656

On the whole, I'm really into it so far. I've only explored two towns and their immediate surroundings, and closed the first Oblivion Gate. I've got a ton of active side quests, but the initial feelings of being overwhelmed are already replaced by just being driven to see as much of the game as possible. I'm a sucker for a good "ye olde"-type D&D RPG and so far this is easily one of the best I've played.

It's always nice to sit down to a sprawling, epic of a game. Glad you are enjoying it!

[Storm Eagle]

I played The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for the first time in forever. I had it since it came out in March 2017, but I know I never touched it last year. I still haven't finished it, and I'll try to, but I have a mind to watch a playthrough on YouTube in the meantime.

[shredder orokusaki]

I finished Extinciton yesterday https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LK8eBCPdw7M on my pc and now i continue playing Death Strnding. I killed all Orcs !! It was a good action game. Death strnading however after 5 hours of gmaeplay is boring as all you do is walking.

[Prowler]

Started Super Mario Galaxy 2 the other day.

Recently beat the 2nd World and what I assume was the first Bowser battle of the game.

So far it's a good game. I really like the Galaxy formula. These games are truly the spiritual successors of Super Mario 64. Something Odyssey wasn't really able to capture, imo.

I expected Galaxy 2 to basically be cut content from the original, but it seems to have just as many creative levels and power ups.

It does seem more linear though. However, it does seem like the 3rd World has more split paths. I don't mind the fact the hub was streamlined either. Makes it faster for me to get to levels. I also don't miss the Rosalina story in the library.

Yoshi is also a nice touch. This is by far the best use of Yoshi in a 3D Mario game I've played. Better than Sunshine and certainly better than in Odyssey where you can only use him in one kingdom. Nintendo should think of making Yoshi more important in future 3D Mario games. Just because Yoshi had had his own series for a long time now doesn't mean he stopped being a full fledged character of the Mario series.

So yeah, fun game. Nintendo really had something with the Super Mario Galaxy games. No wonder some people to this day ask for a 3rd game to make it a trilogy. But that ship had long sailed imo.

[frank_one]

The first Mario Galaxy is a masterpiece. I finished it and then finished it again to unlock everything and I was still having fun. It's probably my favorite Mario game after Yoshi’s island and the only one to actually have a moving story (maybe I should feel ashamed but... Rosalina' story reached my heart ).
Galaxy 2? I don't know. I felt it was just a bunch of new levels, very good ones maybe but the original game left me so satisfied that I didn't feel the sequel necessary.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by frank_one

The first Mario Galaxy is a masterpiece. I finished it and then finished it again to unlock everything and I was still having fun. It's probably my favorite Mario game after Yoshi’s island and the only one to actually have a moving story (maybe I should feel ashamed but... Rosalina' story reached my heart ).
Galaxy 2? I don't know. I felt it was just a bunch of new levels, very good ones maybe but the original game left me so satisfied that I didn't feel the sequel necessary.

Having to play the whole game again with Luigi was a bit too much though. I know Luigi plays slightly different from Mario, but it wasn't really necessary.

Yoshi's Island is a good game, but not one of my personal favourites.

My least favourite Mario game is the Japanese SMB2. WAY too hard and not fun. Honourable mention to NSMB2. The first ever NSMB game is pretty good, but the sequel was very unmemorable to me.

I don't count the Western SMB2 because it's not originally a Mario game, so I feel it would be unfair for me to do it.

Mario Sunshine is my least favourite 3d Mario.

[CyberCubed]

Galaxy 1 and 2 are the best 3D Mario games and they haven't been topped. I love 3D World/3D Land and Mario Odyssey, but they're not as consistently good overall.

[frank_one]

Originally Posted by Prowler

Having to play the whole game again with Luigi was a bit too much though. I know Luigi plays slightly different from Mario, but it wasn't really necessary.

Playing with Luigi makes everything harder. It's like a Quest B for the ones who have already mastered the game but haven't had enough yet. Perfect for my way of experiencing a game.

Originally Posted by Prowler

Yoshi's Island is a good game, but not one of my personal favourites.

I had it as a child, my first Mario game, so I'm a bit partial about it. It has unique mechanics and gorgeous graphics, I love it.

Originally Posted by Prowler

My least favourite Mario game is the Japanese SMB2. WAY too hard and not fun.

I agree. Maybe masochistic Japanese kids liked it, I don't know. I've tried it for a while but I gave up pretty soon.

Originally Posted by Prowler

I don't count the Western SMB2 because it's not originally a Mario game, so I feel it would be unfair for me to do it.

True. It is very good though. The game which it was based on, Doki doki Panic, is even better as you can save your progress (it was released on the Famicom Disk System).

[shredder orokusaki]

Today i started playing Crash Bandiccot 4 that finaly released on pc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3n0Fk-TSd4

and also Balan Wonderworld that released today too! Crash Bandicoot 4 is the better from the two but Balan wonderworld is good game too!

[Leo656]

Still chipping away at "Oblivion", with over 200 hours into it so far. I took a break for a few days this past week but I'm pretty much near the end of the main game, and if all goes well I might finish that sometime this coming week. After that I still have the "Shivering Isles" Quest to go through. I really love this game.

While taking a short break from it the other day, I decided to play Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime (Xbox 360). I just needed to play something different for a few hours while my wife was asleep, and I'd remembered that I'd barely ever played it after I bought it like ten years ago.

Altogether, it's a pretty good twin-stick shooter. I generally don't play those games often at all, but seeing how it's Ghostbusters I decided it was worth a shot. I had a lot of fun with it, but some parts of it are TOUGH, and I remembered exactly why I "took a break from it" all those years ago in the first place when I got stuck on one part. This time I was able to finish it all the way through and beat it, though. I imagine that it's probably easier playing co-op with someone else, because the companion A.I. is pretty stupid sometimes and that's where much of the difficulty comes in. They get themselves knocked out doing stupid stuff a lot of the time; I lost count of how many times I had to restart a section because the CPU did something dumb instead of waking me up when I was KO'ed, and if they'd woken me up instead I would've been able to power through. The final graveyard level in particular had one spot that took me about an hour to finally get through, and when I did beat it I'd say it had more to do with the level randomly generating an easier mini-Boss ghost than the one that had been wiping out the whole team in one hit, over and over. But it's definitely playable, and not TOO frustrating. The difficulty just seems to kind of go up and down at random, is all.

It plays well, the graphics are good, and there's some good enemy variety. The camera is really zoomed-out but I've noticed that seems to be kind of a thing in these games, and I guess it helps to be able to see all of the enemies onscreen; at times there's huge numbers of ghosts to blast so I guess it's better to be zoomed-out than too close to the action. All the enemies are color-coded and react to one of three different weapon beams that you have, so there's a ton of rapid beam-switching, especially on the later levels where the game throws tons of different-colored ghosts at you in ever-smaller levels. This adds a light strategic element to the game so it's not entirely mindless run-n'-gun. If you just run around blasting indiscriminately, sooner or later you're going to get KO'ed by something you might not even have seen until it's too late. It feels a little like Gauntlet, kinda. Most levels have a Boss ghost that you actually have to trap; you activate the trap by doing a QuickTime button gimmick. Didn't bother me but people who hate those kinda things might not like it.

The game's story is told through comic book cutscenes that appear to be done in the IDW art style, with you being one of four "new" Ghostbusters. I missed the IDW comics, so I have no idea if these characters ever appeared in those books or not. The story's fine, and even tries to tie it in with the second movie by making Janosz important to the plot, although it doesn't feel necessary (and making one of the new Ghostbusters his nephew just feels really forced and pointless). I will say that I didn't much care for how the original Ghostbusters were drawn, especially Venkman, but that's subjective.

The only thing I guess I'd say I didn't like about it was that there's a lot of recycling of environments. It's not a very long game at all, and really good players could probably beat it in an hour or two, but it feels a little padded with how you revisit certain areas multiple times, even if it is a different Map. But it stays engaging by throwing different enemies at you and manipulating the play area, so it doesn't feel like you're literally playing the same stages over again.

On the whole, though, I do recommend it for both Ghostbusters fans and fans of twin-stick shooters. Again, I know very little about that genre whatsoever - I think I've played this one, and a Voltron one that also came out on Xbox Live a long time ago, and that's about it - but I had fun with it. Nothing mind-blowing but it's a fun way to pass an afternoon. I think it might still be available to download if anyone missed it.
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I got a couple of games in the mail this week; I got bored and just decided to pick up a few cheap ones on eBay. I got Guilty Gear XX Accent Core (Wii) and Bayonetta 1 & 2 (Wii U). It's been forever since I played a Guilty Gear game, and I really liked Bayonetta when I played it on 360 so I've been wanting to pick up the double-pack for Wii U for quite a while.

I also picked up some accessories I needed - some NES cartridge sleeves, and GBA cartridge cases. I kinda messed up, though; one of the sellers I bought from was selling both GBA and regular Game Boy/GBC cases, and when I made the order it seems that I accidentally selected GBA cases even though I'd already ordered a bunch of those. So now I have like 80 GBA cases. Whoops! I didn't pay a lot so I'm not worried about it, and at least I'll never run out.

I also got a complete set of N64 label stickers for about $20. Why they didn't include top-stickers on those carts in the first place is beyond me - storing them on the shelf without 'em is a real pain - but at least now I have a sticker for every single N64 cart they ever released (even though I only own like 30 of them). So whatever N64 carts I ever buy in the future, I'm covered.

[Andrew NDB]

I was playing a lot of Super Mario Odyssey but I got pissed off at the "fight the giant dragon" part and haven't played it in a while.

[Storm Eagle]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

I was playing a lot of Super Mario Odyssey but I got pissed off at the "fight the giant dragon" part and haven't played it in a while.

That's exactly how I've been feeling about most of Star Fox Zero in general. Particularly Andross the last boss. That, and the final Zoda in Zoda's Revenge: StarTropics II, and I've defeated him once before many moons ago.

[Leo656]

I paid way too much for a copy of Mortal Kombat: Deception (Gamecube) on eBay and it finally came today.

[shredder orokusaki]

I started playing Nier Replicant that released on Friday. It is a good action game that takes place in Japan and we fight aliens and robots. I have played 5 hours so far and i like it. take a look here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KN60qQbr3g I also finished Death Stranding 4 days ago. I didnt like it because it didnt have so much action as most of the time you are only walking and has very liitle action.

[Leo656]

My copy of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3: Mutant Nightmare (Gamecube) showed up today. I played it on Xbox a very long time ago, shortly before my Xbox died. One of several games I owned for Xbox but have since re-purchased for Gamecube so as to be able to play them on a more stable hardware platform.

[Icebot]

I’m doing a play through of Zelda Ocarina of Time.

[IMJ]

Originally Posted by Icebot

I’m doing a play through of Zelda Ocarina of Time.

How is that holding up? Are you upscaling it at all? Emulation?

[Icebot]

Originally Posted by IMJ

How is that holding up? Are you upscaling it at all? Emulation?

I’m just playing it on a regular Nintendo 64. I’m not really too familiar with emulations, I’d like to try them and play ZOOTR someday.

I’m on the Water Temple.