What are you playing right now?
More Dragon Quest 8. I've discovered a leveling trick that I'm going to use to get to Lv. 40 before beating the fourth boss.
For a comparison, the final boss of most Dragon Quest games can be beaten at Lv.40.
I love getting overpowered in video games.
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Ichinin
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Joined: 3 Apr 2009
Gender: Male
Posts: 3,653
Location: A cold place with lots of blondes.
Have given StarTrek Bridge Crew a try for an hour and took 2 missions. Ok, so it's StarTrek, but it's rather bland. Even the research mission i tried was pretty much blow up romulans, drive around, scan things, avoid hazardous anomalies. Answer hails, rescue crew....
The missions was worse in the original release, i got the TNG expansion, and that is supposed to expand the whole mission set, but i didn't see much of interest, gonna try the Borg thing tomorrow. I took a TNG mission which was "for experienced players". But i finished it ok, with just the knowledge of how starships work, and the quickmenu + LCars pad, where i focused on tactical (local) view and ship status to see how much duct tape i needed to apply to the hull.
Yes, you get the distinct 3D feeling of sitting there (It's a VR game), but they don't DO much with it. You just sit there, you cannot go to your readyroom or anything, which would have been a good RP thing for online multiplayer mode. And you cannot touch the female crew either...*ahem*
Maybe it isn't me who play the game properly if i used the quickmenu and go deep into the command menus, i did take the tutorial to try out the tactical, engineering, science etc consoles, but if you play an ongoing mission you get to play Captain - Period. I didn't see any way to customize your avatar, maybe that is just for online play.
The fights are rather easy too. I took out 2 Romulan D'deridex ships way too quickly vs how they are in the TNG series and i also toasted a pirate ship that just wandered into the battlezone. My main worry was the anomalies, but i learned to make a full stop when i was in range of scanning them.
Gonna give this a bit more time before a final verdict, but for now it seems like a "play it through once" and then forget it. Unless online play makes it more interesting.
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"It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring" (Carl Sagan)
Ichinin
Veteran
Joined: 3 Apr 2009
Gender: Male
Posts: 3,653
Location: A cold place with lots of blondes.
Elite Dangerous. I've given it a new chance and i've gotten somewhere this time. There were so many keys last time, and i wasn't able to even fire the FSD, and now it's worse with more keys. I just unbound everything i didn't care about and set up my own config.
The game isn't for someone who wants a story to follow, there is a story there with the Thargoids (alien species) that has been part of the Elite universe since day 1 in the 1980s, but they are more part of the landscape. I don't know if the station i was at were hit last night because i saw a large wreckage laying inside the station almost at the exit point from the dock i was in.
Most people don't care about the aliens, the attacks are rare and the missions don't pay that well. Most people focus on pew-pew, running cargo, doing missions or explore the galaxy. It is supposed to be quite pretty out there (haven't gone out so far yet, only 50 Lightyears), but i do remember how pretty Eve Online was when going from system to system.
So far i've had an Eagle and now i'm working to set up a Cobra Mk III. Done so much fuel scooping around stars so my head is still spinning
Missions are somewhat limited and i don't like how they are unavailable because of your ranking, they should let the newbs fail and let people who knows hot to handle a HOTAS and fire a laser give it a go, like Freelancer did. There was also a bit of tinkering with setting up Horizons, had to redeem the code via an external site (why isn't this managed through Steam?).
All in all, a good space shooter, and VR really helps when turning around, following a target, but some ships (like the Cobra) don't have a rooftop window and visibility is also limited to the sides, which is a definite drawback. While the panels are visible on a monitor, in VR i sometimes have to lean in to read the text.
And a small design choice like when i focus on a display screen (the chat) it defaults to the chat window and drops me into it, making me unable to steer - so the first thing i did was to disable that. Controlling a ship takes priority over social pleasantries. I've uttered many curse words while setting up ED, but now i'm finally content with the configuration. They should really hire a UX/usability expert and go over the game.
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"It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring" (Carl Sagan)
Speaking of VR:
Oh... my... God. Incredible. Bloody incredible.
Polybius finally hit Steam a couple of days ago. Being a huge fan of Jeff Minter's games, I picked it up immediately. That guy, making a freaking VR game? You bet I was in. Tried it. Was utterly blown away. I love games like this even outside of VR, so this is one I'll be playing ALOT.
Also, this:
Sublevel Zero: Redux. Like Descent but with roguelike elements. Also in VR.
I have finally reached a point of being immune to the negative effects of VR in general, no matter what the game. Which is good, because this one is constant spinning and flipping and such.
I was already familiar with this game from it's non-VR version, but the VR experience with it is amazing. Just amazing.
Soon, I'll finally dive into this:
That one has been a goal of mine, but I needed to be able to repel VR's negative effects before going anywhere near it.
Of course, even with that not being a problem... gonna take a bit of extra courage to dive into this one. Horror games are a VERY different experience in VR, as I discovered the hard way. But I really wanna do this one.
Ichinin
Veteran
Joined: 3 Apr 2009
Gender: Male
Posts: 3,653
Location: A cold place with lots of blondes.
I've tried playing horror games in VR, and yes, i get the effect of playing with a HMD and getting the feeling of being there, but i don't get scared, all i see is meshes and textures moving around - i know it's not real.
_________________
"It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring" (Carl Sagan)
Oh... my... God. Incredible. Bloody incredible.
Polybius finally hit Steam a couple of days ago. Being a huge fan of Jeff Minter's games, I picked it up immediately. That guy, making a freaking VR game? You bet I was in. Tried it. Was utterly blown away. I love games like this even outside of VR, so this is one I'll be playing ALOT.
Also, this:
Sublevel Zero: Redux. Like Descent but with roguelike elements. Also in VR.
I have finally reached a point of being immune to the negative effects of VR in general, no matter what the game. Which is good, because this one is constant spinning and flipping and such.
I was already familiar with this game from it's non-VR version, but the VR experience with it is amazing. Just amazing.
Soon, I'll finally dive into this:
That one has been a goal of mine, but I needed to be able to repel VR's negative effects before going anywhere near it.
Of course, even with that not being a problem... gonna take a bit of extra courage to dive into this one. Horror games are a VERY different experience in VR, as I discovered the hard way. But I really wanna do this one.
Neat, I wanted to play Polybius but when it came out it was only available for Playstation. Will probably pick it up, I love games that use music to enhance the gameplay - a lot of my favourite VR games have been music rhythm games.
I enjoyed Sublevel Zero, but I liked Overload more. Have you tried that one? It's more of a crafted experience with level design reminiscent of the original Descent games. Actually, it's made by the developers of Descent and is almost exactly like it, with pre mission briefings, a new enemy introduced per level, people to rescue, difficulty levels affecting projectile speed, and reactors to blow up before escaping at the end of levels.
As for horror games, the best I've played in VR was Alien: Isolation. It's a little janky as it was made well in the infancy of VR, but it's a quality game and has decent gameplay, unlike a lot of VR horror games currently available which have a lot of atmosphere but rarely ask much of the player. It does require a mod to work on the currently available consumer systems, though.
Allright, I've got another crazy one here:
This is B99, another VR game. Found on the Oculus store. As you can see, it is loopy and intense.
I freaking love it so far. My favorite genre of games is roguelikes/lites/whatever (regardless of which subtype it is), and this is one of those. Which means alot of content and replayability, something that can be tough to come by in VR games. I had actually found out about the game shortly after I got the Rift, but decided not to go anywhere near it until I was absolutely certain I could handle all that movement and spinning.
Bought a couple of other VR games in that genre during the Steam sale... will be trying those out tomorrow, I think.
Neat, I wanted to play Polybius but when it came out it was only available for Playstation. Will probably pick it up, I love games that use music to enhance the gameplay - a lot of my favourite VR games have been music rhythm games.
I enjoyed Sublevel Zero, but I liked Overload more. Have you tried that one? It's more of a crafted experience with level design reminiscent of the original Descent games. Actually, it's made by the developers of Descent and is almost exactly like it, with pre mission briefings, a new enemy introduced per level, people to rescue, difficulty levels affecting projectile speed, and reactors to blow up before escaping at the end of levels.
As for horror games, the best I've played in VR was Alien: Isolation. It's a little janky as it was made well in the infancy of VR, but it's a quality game and has decent gameplay, unlike a lot of VR horror games currently available which have a lot of atmosphere but rarely ask much of the player. It does require a mod to work on the currently available consumer systems, though.
Nah, I havent played Overload. Though I am aware of it.
The other main 6DoF game I'm familiar with is Everspace, but.... that one in VR is... not as good. Even the developer of that one says "it's best enjoyed in 2D". Good game, but the controls in VR mode are pretty bad.
Overall I actually tend to gravitate more to games that use alot of proc-gen, rather than games with handcrafted levels.
I'm going back into Hollow Knight. Not sure why I haven't really been able to get really stuck into the game as I love Metroidvania style games, they're my favourite type of game. But something about the movement and combat doesn't really feel right to me and I can't really put my finger on it. Also it seems like everyone and their dog loves the game so I'm determined to finish it.
Been playing Dusk. Very old school FPS-Type that I really love.
Okami on Switch, mostly because I had a gift card to use and didn’t want to set up my PS4 instead before Travis Strikes Again comes out. Also got Senran Kagura Reflexions. Fitness boxing will be available in a few days as well. So I guess I’ll be pretty busy for a bit.
Already played Okami on Wii, PS2, PS3, etc. whatever consoles it’s been on basically, but I feel like this is the best version. Not that that’s a huge change, just nice to have HD, strong filter, and better motion controls all together. Still hoping for another one day, outsourced to Platinum, but perhaps I’ll be forced to try Okamiden and see if it’s at least half as good.
Nothing much new about Senran Kagura since I did play the Japanese version months back. Just wanted it in English. Unfortunately none of my favorite characters made it in like I thought they would, and really it just makes me want a full SK game on the Switch.
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Once there were trees full of birds,
meadowlands vibrant with flowers.
Carefree the songs our children once sang,
gilding our minutes and hours;
Clouds came and covered the sun,
the breath of a baleful unease,
turning to ashes flowers in their fields,
silenced the birds in the trees.