What games are you playing?

[BobisOnlyBob]

Skullgirls! Couldn't get into it. Just... it's not an airdasher and the combos are too strict, even in its well-reputed tutorial, I was hurting my hands trying to input them fast enough. Just not for me.

Oxenfree! Spooky teen adventure story. Set on a tiny island, five teens find themselves in trouble during what was supposed to be a beach party when they use an old portable radio to tune into an anomaly. They're subsequently scattered, subjected to hallucinations and weird phenomena, and the whole island gets a Bit Wrong. But you, playing as Alex, can keep interacting with it via your radio. The real draw factor here though isn't the radio, but the conversation system which frequently gives you two to three dialogue options, and the choice to stay silent, which fairly naturally flows - the voice work is great and cutting people off mid-sentence generally flows surprisingly well too. There's also some angst and relationships, past traumas both benign and fatal. It's interesting, and a New Game Plus is recommended if you're not put off by the slow walking and talking the first time around. Not as good as Night in the Woods imo, but very much in the same genre. It's nice! Oh, and not actually that scary - I'm a huge chicken-wuss who couldn't play SOMA, so...

Well. It's time. I've got my backlog of Games I Actually Want To Play under 100, so...

It's time for me to wake up.

[Cyril]

Oxenfree is "pretty fine" the first time through and "boring as heck" on any subsequent playthrough unfortunately

Anyways I started nier automata but died in the tutorial so now I'm mad at the game lol

I'm probably gonna restart on easy just to get past the start because I can't be bothered

[Alice]

Anyways I started nier automata but died in the tutorial so now I'm mad at the game lol

I'm probably gonna restart on easy just to get past the start because I can't be bothered

Unless they patched it to fix the stupidity (which they haven't to my knowledge) the intro is one of the dumbest, and weakest, parts of the game. It's overly difficult due to a massive lack in checkpointing which doesn't actually exist elsewhere in the game.

[Ashan]

Played through the 5 robot masters in Mega Man 11 today.
When I started the game it offered me some bonus for playing the demo? I accepted and have no idea what it gave me. I noticed I started with like 3 E-tanks, not sure if that was the bonus or that's just how you always start.

The levels are generally pretty fun, but man. It's a pretty known thing at this point how antiquated the lives system is, and it shows more than ever in this game. The levels are incredibly long, they take, I don't know, 10 minutes to complete? So getting to the boss in 1 life then dying and getting a game-over cause you forgot that you went in with 0 lives from the last level is 100x times more frustrating than normal. Bolts are pretty common and lives are fairly cheap at the shop, so it just makes me wonder why there are lives at all. Makes no sense in this game.

It also seems like the knockback makes no sense in this game. It sometimes hits you forward and sometimes hits you backward? It was really frustrating in one stage where I kept falling into bottomless pits cause I was trying to tank a projectile and have it knock me back in the direction that I'll stay on the platform, but then I get knocked forward somehow and fall into a pit and die.

I think the time slowing mechanic is pretty neat. I tend to never use the power up mechanic or whatever it's called, but the time slowing has some very neat usages, and it's a pretty large handicap to not be using it. Especially when fighting bosses. I tend to forget cause I usually play my Mega Mans pretty vanilla, not using special weapons and whatnot very much, but it's pretty necessary for how fast enemies move in this game.

Anyway, yeah. Been having fun so far!

[Cyril]

Anyways I started nier automata but died in the tutorial so now I'm mad at the game lol

I'm probably gonna restart on easy just to get past the start because I can't be bothered

Unless they patched it to fix the stupidity (which they haven't to my knowledge) the intro is one of the dumbest, and weakest, parts of the game. It's overly difficult due to a massive lack in checkpointing which doesn't actually exist elsewhere in the game.

yeah that's what i've heard but w h e w is that not a great first impression to leave

[Bean]

Mega Man 11 is fun so far. Two stages down, and two other stages completely failed. The Gear system is a good idea, and I should totally be using it more, but I kind of play it like raocow in that I don't like using stuff much at first, special weapons aside on the stages themselves. The levels are also way longer than I was expecting. This brings back memories of Mega Man 8, except you don't get a mid-stage continue point if you lose all your lives. Yeah, that hurt in my very first stage. Oh well. It's looking like another nice comeback.

[Alice]

yeah that's what i've heard but w h e w is that not a great first impression to leave

Yeah, it definitely isn't. It took me several tries to get through it myself and it left me considering restarting on a lower difficulty. Then I got through the intro and suddenly the game was actually fairly easy for the most part.

One of these days I should get around to beating it myself. I had a broken quest at one point and because I'd been completing all quests as I went I ended up losing interest in the game. That was fixed at some point but by then it had been months since I last played so I had no idea what I was even doing anymore. Which sucks because other than the intro I was actually enjoying the game quite a bit.

[Bean]

Got through the rest of Mega Man 11 tonight in a couple of play sessions. I have to say that this is a pretty decent set of special weapons in this one. Combine that with the Double Gear system, and you've got some fun tools to play around with. Now for the spoiler stuff...

The stages themselves are really long. Getting a game over late in a stage, or worse, at the boss really hurts. That happened a few times in my run, two of those times being in the first two Wily stages. Ouch. This game will have plenty of times where you lose to both damage or the instant finish you off traps. You have to really think on your feet at times in this one for a first run. Some stages went really well like Tundra, Fuse, and Torch Man, but I had a couple of painful moments and others where I just tanked it to make a tough jump way easier in Acid Man's stage.

Boss fights are hectic as can be with their desperation attacks or forms, and even before that, they have a few attacks each. It's like learning boss fights in phases instead of seeing what attack they're going to do. Honestly, it feels like a combination of Mega Man 8 and Powered Up at times, just with a lot more difficulty all around. Yeah, I can get behind that.

Finally, Dr. Wily is a boss in this game. I was just as stunned as you are now. Whew.

[BobisOnlyBob]

Oxenfree is "pretty fine" the first time through and "boring as heck" on any subsequent playthrough unfortunately

Too true. I decided to be a mute for my second time around, which unfortunately

prevented me from getting the Escape the Loop ending, but there's no achievement for that so I just watched it on youtube

. Staying mute the whole game (besides A-button automatic dialog) does

resurrect Michael, as he assumes you want him to stay, and prevents Ren and Nona hooking up

, which is perfect as that was almost the exact opposite of my first playthrough (

Claire survived both times.

). If I wanted 100% achievements I'd have to play through a third time, pissing off everyone and optionally

erasing Claire

but eh, probably not gonna.

Anyways I started nier automata but died in the tutorial so now I'm mad at the game lol

I'm probably gonna restart on easy just to get past the start because I can't be bothered

The intro is the hardest. I have never beaten it on Hard mode, despite coming extremely close multiple times. Dying to it once or twice on Normal is fairly typical. It's a beautiful and strange game and absolutely worth your time, and the intro is good in its own way but god damn the difficulty is not

[Cyril]

i mean i just played it on easy, aka "the game plays itself" mode
i already did everything except the later phases of the boss at the end & i'm gonna play the rest on normal just
what a bad note to start on

[Ashan]

Got through the rest of Mega Man 11 tonight in a couple of play sessions. I have to say that this is a pretty decent set of special weapons in this one. Combine that with the Double Gear system, and you've got some fun tools to play around with. Now for the spoiler stuff...

The stages themselves are really long. Getting a game over late in a stage, or worse, at the boss really hurts. That happened a few times in my run, two of those times being in the first two Wily stages. Ouch. This game will have plenty of times where you lose to both damage or the instant finish you off traps. You have to really think on your feet at times in this one for a first run. Some stages went really well like Tundra, Fuse, and Torch Man, but I had a couple of painful moments and others where I just tanked it to make a tough jump way easier in Acid Man's stage.

Boss fights are hectic as can be with their desperation attacks or forms, and even before that, they have a few attacks each. It's like learning boss fights in phases instead of seeing what attack they're going to do. Honestly, it feels like a combination of Mega Man 8 and Powered Up at times, just with a lot more difficulty all around. Yeah, I can get behind that.

Finally, Dr. Wily is a boss in this game. I was just as stunned as you are now. Whew.

I finished off my first playthrough last night as well. I think basically everyone who plays this game is coming to the same conclusion that the stages are way too long for the lives system to still be the same one used in the other games.

For the boss desperation moves, I find that toggling in and out of time slowdown mode is the best way to deal with them. You kinda just wait for them to make a move or come near you, turn it on, get out of the way of whatever they're trying to do, then shift back to regular time, and repeat. It takes a bit for the time shift gear to become second nature, but it's a really neat mechanic once you get used to it, and I think a LOT of enemy moves were created with it in mind.

Also I basically never use the extra strength gear mode. Just didn't find a good use for it I guess.

[Bean]

I couldn't bring myself to use the Speed Gear for regular bosses the first time around. I always like fighting them buster only then, too. It was worth it. Man, there were some fun fights there.

[Alice]

I couldn't bring myself to use the Speed Gear for regular bosses the first time around. I always like fighting them buster only then, too. It was worth it. Man, there were some fun fights there.

Judging by Roahm Mythril's lp, not using it seems like a bad idea for at least some of the bosses. Speed Gear would've made a few of Torch Man's more annoying attacks dodgeable.

[Bean]

I definitely used it for Torch Man's stage, that's for sure. Oh, that video was painful to watch in spots because of how he doesn't use the charge shot, but that's just the way he plays. He definitely got the stage by the time he had his winning run.

[Bean]

Super Mario Party is all right. It's basically a cross between the Wii Resort titles and Mario Party: Star Rush. It's still not the same as the old ones that people liked, but there are definitely a lot more hints of it shining through than there were in 9 and 10, that's for sure. The minigames have also been fun, so I'd say it's a fine enough addition.

[SAJewers]

ok

super benbo quest is an amazing game

you all should buy it while it's on sale

well worth the money

[Ashan]

Spent some time working on getting some achievements in MM11 last night. I wanted to do the one where you don't buy/use any items but I misread it to mean you can't buy then use items, so I just avoided the store for the whole playthrough, but I was still using E-tanks I picked up in levels near the end.
Turns out it meant you can't use any items period, which makes sense I guess. But I wasted a playthrough and was pretty mad when I didn't get the achievement after beating the game.

[Joseph Staleknight]

Still have to finish up Hollow Knight, but in the meantime I'm just playing a couple of simple casual/puzzle games. I currently have the RKS games on my Steam, but they're pretty brutal. (Exhibit A: Dying to Liebea and her stage multiple times.)

Also can't wait to pick up Guacamelee STCE for the Switch this coming weekend so I can try for another 100% run.

[Ashan]

I put a decent amount of time into trying to complete Dr Light's Challenge in Mega Man 11 today. Got as far as room 27 or 28 at the most, where I just had no idea how to deal with one obstacle. I'm sure I'll get it eventually but god damn, each attempt takes like 16 minutes when I get that far

[Whimsical Calamari]

what the heck even is the original crash bandicoot's difficulty curve

[Bean]

what the heck even is the original crash bandicoot's difficulty curve

Bridges, darkness, and castle levels are nightmares. The rest are doable. There's the curve!

Super Mario Party still gets a mighty fine all right rating for me having played more modes now. I wish there was another board or two because it's so close to feeling good, but it's just not quite at that level.

[Ashan]

Gave Dr Light's Challenge another go today and ended up getting it done on my first try. I don't know what it is about taking a break that just makes things so much easier!
And then I went on and finished the rest of the achievements today.
Cut it VERY close with the speedrun achievement where you have to beat the game in under 60 minutes. I clocked in at 59:16.

[Bean]

Haven't had much time to play the Switch lately, so no second Mega Man 11 run yet. Still made time to go through Mega Man X3 again on the Legacy Collection at least. I've just gone in any and whatever order I want with them. Case in point, haven't touched the original yet.

[Alice]

I've been playing the second Flowers visual novel and Timespinner. Flowers is better then the first game since this one has my favorite character from the first one as its protagonist. Timespinner is quite good as well. Feels a shit load like Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow gameplay-wise which is definitely a good thing since Aria of Sorrow is one of my favorite Castlevanias. My only complaint in the few hours I've played so far is that it hasn't made great use of the timespinner mechanic yet. There's been two places it was necessary for getting across a gap too wide to jump over and one boss (of like three in total thus far) it was necessary to utilize to dodge an attack from.

[Ashan]

Decided to hop back into Mega Man X Legacy Collection, skip X7 in its entirety cause it's bad and go onto X8. This one is alright. Way better than X7 anyway. It was a good decision to get rid of the third axis of movement. Also voice acting is slightly better. Not to say it's good, but every line isn't making me cringe like X7.