Whatcha been playing lately?

[I'm Murrin]

I tried The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, which is basically a walking sim with some interesting puzzles, but I got to a bit that I didn't really like (it stepped a bit too far into horror) so I've put it aside.

I'm now on The Witness, which is very pretty and has puzzles that are keeping me engaged, but it's kind of dull, since there's almost no music, no story, no characters, no guidance, just a big open map and a lot of puzzles. If they'd even just put a bit of voice acting as you explore it'd be a huge improvement. And I get that they want you to figure everything out yourself, but I don't think it'd spoil the game to have some written instructions when it introduces a new concept, even if it was just vague hints. Literally the only words in the entire game, written or spoken, are some lengthy philosophical quotations that play when you find an audio tape in some hidden little corners (I've only found two so far, so they're not filling the silence).

I wish there was something to occupy the rest of my mind while I figured out the puzzles.
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Inspiration Struck.

Mod of the General Fantasy/Sci-Fi Forum

[Skyweir]

Totally agree with you Murrin! I love puzzles but add a little vitality, a little encouragement with a bit of music at least. But then that whole repetitive few bars thing doesn't do it for me either.

Real first world problems eh?
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health and healing

'Smoke me a kipper .. I'll be back for breakfast!'

[I'm Murrin]

I've been playing Nier (the original PS3 game), and I really like it. It's clunky and has awful grindy quests and a lot of running through big empty zones to get to the actual content, but the story is really well done and it's interesting to see the seeds of the far superior Nier Automata sown here.

I'm currently on path B, which is a repeat of the second half of the game with additional scenes and dialogue added, and while those are good, it's nothing compared to what the changes in playable characters and complete new plot in the various parts of Automata were like. I've even heard it's not worth playing for ending C&D because it's just the exact same game as B, with extra scenes on the ending.

After I've finished this, I have Drakengard 3 lined up. It's a prequel to the Drakengard games, which I haven't played, but it's technically part of the same series as Nier, and was released in between the two Nier games. From what I understand it's the first one that really goes for the "each playthrough is drastically different" thing, with the story changing on each repeat. But I also hear it maybe tries a bit too hard to be edgy, and it looks very fanservice-y with the costumes (which all these games do to some extent). Guess I'll find out soon.
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Inspiration Struck.

Mod of the General Fantasy/Sci-Fi Forum

[Avatar]

Kingdom Come: Deliverance.

Pretty impressed actually. Nearly didn't get it because it's 1st person only, but damn, have put an easy 30-40 hours in over the weekend and enjoying it.

I hear it ends a bit abruptly, but apparently there will be 2 more "chapters."

--A
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Don't believe everything you think.

[Avatar]

Pretty much all I did on holiday was play this. Finished a main story-line playthrough, but felt like the main story-line was rushing me a bit, also wanted to update it with the new patch, but didn't want to break my playthrough.

Finished the main story, then updated and started a new game, slower and more considered.

Easy 120+ hours so far.

--A
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Don't believe everything you think.

[I'm Murrin]

I've recently played Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, which was a really good "walking sim"-style game with great music and story, but a few performance issues. And I also played Braid, a great puzzle platformer that uses time manipulation in a bunch of different ways as its main mechanic.
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Inspiration Struck.

Mod of the General Fantasy/Sci-Fi Forum