R(ob)’s Comments (group member since Jun 21, 2021)

R(ob)’s comments from the The Video Game Forum group.

Another Warhammer game coming to XBox soon (I think the next couple of weeks) on games pass (not sure about PS5) is Darktide. A four player CO-OP with mates/randoms/bots against overwhelming odds. And apparently it has quite a lengthy campaign - made up of a number of missions - of around 20-30 hours total. It's been out on PC for a year and from game play videos looks really good. From one review I read it said it's the best game of its type since Left4Dead which is high praise indeed.

It could be early next year maybe as the devs have only said this winter. Might even get delayed. Yea would be good for Christmas holiday.

I might ask the missus to get me AC Mirage for Christmas as well. Assuming it truly isn’t another megathon Valhalla. Make it 20 hours and more focussed and I’ll be happy. I gave up Valhalla after 30 hours of boring repetitiveness.

According to IGN it's 31st December - but that looks to be a placeholder date to me.

Apparently Space Marine 2 will be on games pass so assuming the interwebs is not lying it should be free for me.

DeckardCain's Sandals wrote: "Can't remember what game it was, but a while back I did something similar. Downloaded a demo, but they wanted you to create an account with them before it would let you play. I thought "no thanks, ..."

Yea used to be quite common 360/PS3 generation but not seen it for a while. Usually it's not mandatory.

Hi all. Finally completed the main campaign of Starfield. In the end the game for me was good but nothing special. Definitely not as good as Fallout. It lacked a feeling of adventure and exploration. There were some graphically impressive areas but you have to fast travel between them rather than discover them walking around an impressive map like you would do with Fallout. I didn’t find the story or characters that interesting but were ok enough. Shooting mechanics are vastly improved compared to fallout. And the space combat side feels disjointed from the main game and largely bland. And one of the final missions was a frustrating nightmare navigating through a research facility switching between parallel dimensions. The route is only possible navigating both alternately. Sounds good and clever on paper but in reality it was a confusing frustrating mess. At that point I honestly just wanted the game over. Overall good but falls short. 7/10 on the r-score-o-meter.

And then I thought I’d try Payday 3. And the first thing I’m presented with is register an account with the game dev/publisher before you can play. Absolute joke so binned it off immediately without even playing it.

I think my next games are Forza and Modern Warfare 3. Also really want to play Warhammer Space Marine 2.

Morning all. Not much gaming at the weekend for me but I did spend 3-4 hours on Starfield. Suprisingly I'm in the last few main missions. I mean I am mainlining it but I've arrived at the end game much quicker than I expected (probably only 5 missions to go now). Not really changed my opinion on it - good game but too much fast travel, prefer one big map rather than lots of smaller ones, and definitely needs some improvements in menus as they are confusing albeit I've got used to them now. I stole my first ship too which was fun, and made some upgrades - hasn't helped in space combat though as I got wasted in one space battle over and over and had to run rather than fight.

Morning all. Started Starfield over the weekend, around 7-8 hours into it. Pretty decent so far. I like the various and different sci-fi cities, settlements and mining caves I've visited through playing the story. The graphics are pretty good especially in the ship and on planets however NPCs are a mixed bag of low res graphics and still clunky looking - a Bethesda trademark. The story is OK so far. Combat for a bethesda game is actually pretty good with a wide variety of weapons. Not so sure about the space ship combat - it works fine in itself but it just feels disjointed from the traditional combat and can largely be ignored. I do feel like I'm on a big adventure which is what I want from this type of game. My main criticism would be although I like visiting each new planet and settlement I do miss the sense of exploration you get from one big massive map like you'd get in Fallout or Skyrim. Once you've visited the main settlement on a planet there is not much to see or do. Visiting the main handcrafted area is good and big enough but they're all disjointed unlike Fallout - you need to mess about with fast travel a lot of the time. A good game and enjoying it a lot. By no means a masterpiece so far but a good solid 7-8/10 at the mo.

Starfield will by my next game too. Next week when it’s on games pass. Although I’ll probably complete it by Christmas the rate I play games nowadays. From reviews it looks decent enough and does get some stellar reviews but also a large number of 7/10s. By no means a bad looking game unlike Redfall. I will have to take a break mid play thorough as I have my annual holiday end of September - honestly cannot wait because I’m completely f’d off with work, the main reason I play games so slowly.

I've been watching game play vids of Amored Core and it looks decent but also looks hard - it being FromSoftware also caught my attention - so glad I didn't bite in the end.

Yea so am I. They should have delayed it because there is definitely a decent game in there but just half baked. I think the decent exclusives will come and perhaps even in the next month or two what with Forza, Starfield and Stalker 2 all this year. The latter two I think will be decent if not excellent - Forza is a given - however saying that they might not be for me. I’m not really into really big massive games with a million things to do like what Starfield seems to be and Stalker 2 albeit apparently shaping up nicely apparently is a true simulation in that you have to manage everything down to the last detail and scavenge and make sure you use ammo wisely. I’ll try them though, you never know considering how I didn’t fancy Death Stranding but it turned out to be one of favourite games ever.

Anyway after binning off Redfall there is nothing enticing me to play it. Honestly I think I’m stuck for what to play next. So played a bit of Wreckfest today which is ok but I deleted it after a few races and just a bit of COD and Battlefield multiplayer.

Well I gave up on Redfall. I put around 7 hours into it and got half way through the campaign, The difficulty is all over the place. Sometimes it’s fun and balanced and then often the difficulty ramps up to 10. It was getting to point I was swearing a lot - so much so the missus could hear me - and I thought why am I playing this f’ing frustrating game so deleted it. I like the map, some of the missions are fun and the weapon loot can be fun. It’s not polished though, the gunplay mechanics are only borderline acceptable and I must have died at least 5-6 times an hour. The vampire battles can be fun then they’ll throw 6-7 vampires at you at once which make a beeline for you and never let up. And you don’t get a chance to fight back to kill them all at once. Then the last boss fight was the final straw - the hollow man - basically would never miss hitting me and I could barely touch his health bar. And healing is so slow and taken back down again so quickly it was beyond frustrating. And this is playing on easy. Basically I don’t think they play tested this game at all. 5/10. The game had potential but they didn’t give it enough development time.

Morning all. Wasn't sure what to play after Death Stranding. My back log contains lots of DLC explansion campaigns (Metro exodus and TLOU pt1 DLC) and a lot 'maybe-play' games. In the end I thought I'd see what all the negative fuss was about for Redfall. Initial impressions were not good - 30fps and graphics more last gen than this gen. However after giving the game a bit of a chance it actually opened up into a reasonably nice open map with day-night cycle, some fun combat and a wide variety of fun weapons. Redfall definitely deserves criticism but I found I was enjoying it. Yea the frame rate is sometimes choppy, the enemy AI is one-dimensional and just comes straight at you and the "cut-scenes" lack effort but I was kinda having fun. I'm playing it on easy and I'm finding it a bit sticky in parts - must have died 3-4 times in two hours. I've not really experimented much with the powers yet - think I'm playing as Layla with an umbrella shield and the ability to jump long distances. The vampires ganged-up on me once too and I didn't last long. I'll give it more time but at the mo I'm finding it fun but the game lacks a lot of polish. There is a decent game in there somewhere but probably needed another 6-12 months of development.

Welcome back Equinox.

The games I'm planning to play later this year:
Forza Motorsport
Starfield
Stalker 2 - apparently relasing Dec 1st but I'm not convinced.
COD MW3 - actually looking at yesterday's release of details this actually has some promise - contains all graphically improved MW2 multiplayer maps from 2009, longer time-to-kill much like in 2009 and map voting. Then I think it's 12 new maps over the first year. I mean COD is COD but at least it's a bit more retro and not the superfast TTK of the new MW1 and MW2. And the 2009 MW2 maps are pretty iconic in COD. Also has the first MW zombies mode which is apparently openworld.

Other games I'm interested but not 100% sure they're for me:
Alan Wake 2 - looks to be more Resident Evil than Alan Wake so puts me off a little. I want AW2 to be a next gen AW1 sequel not a Resident Evil rip-off. We'll see, you never know.
Assassin's Creed Mirage - thankfully back to the shorter games that are not stretched out to 50+ hours like Valhalla.

Morning all. I've finally finished Death Stranding. In the end I've got to say the game has blown me away in many ways. The story I think is one of the best I've ever experienced in gaming - after the final boss there is probably a good two hours of cut-scenes with some minimal gameplay intertwined and it really does tie everything up in surprising and emotional ways. The story albeit trademark Kojima confusing I largely followed and I just loved how it ended, and the characters were great throughout. Really impactful. That's not to say the story didn't have pacing issues. And at the end I realised that I'd been on an epic adventure travelling around a massive map in beautiful landscapes (largely helped by fast travel being so costly and not really being a good option), lots of challenges getting from A to B and the mountains in the end I loved using the zip lines and catapults. And those moments when you have to either stealth or fight BTs were some of the most tense and nerve racking moments I've experienced in a game. Again, the campaign game play wise had pacing issues especially in the middle of the game but the overall experience was one of the best gaming adventures I've had. If I were to be critical it would probably be a 7/10 game with the obvious pacing issues and the map at times being very frustrating to navigate but the experience of the whole game was one of the best I've had and elevates it to at least a 9/10 for how much I actually enjoyed it. The game will live long in the memory which can't be said for a lot of games. And I'm excited for DS2 albeit nervy about fighting off those BTs again. And how can I nearly forget - also one of the best if not the best soundtrack in a game.

Congrats on the double plat!

Morning all. Although seemingly not many of us left now :-(.

I put in a good chunk of time into Death Stranding over the weekend completing another 10 missions. The last couple of missions in the mountains and then made it all the way to the east coast and into a couple of boss fights - one massive boss and then Higgs. Yea a good period of the game. The Higgs boss fight was very reminiscent of Metal Gear (4) especially the punch contest. Really enjoyed it though if only because it felt nostalgic and old school. I'm on mission 66 and I'm nearing the end although I've got to travel all the way back to the start knot of the region in one trip - should be fun. Should complete it at the weekend. No plans yet what to play next at the mo.

No gaming at all at the weekend for me. I did see Oppenheimer in Imax. I wasn't blown away. It was good but for me that's all it was - no masterpiece IMO. The sound though - it literally pounds your ears relentlessly. Honestly after 2 hours (it's a 3 hour film) I had a headache. I probably need to see it again - when it's released on a streaming service - as I might appreciate it more on a second viewing.

My evil ploy worked. Woo ha ha ha 😉.

Hope you enjoy it.

High on life is a decent game but nothing amazing - 7/10 on the r-score-o-meter. The humour is marmite - as is all humour I guess - and reminds me of puerile humour (the creators are the guys that did Rick and Morty), and never lets up. It does have varied environments - like mini open maps connected by a hub world. And the combat is fun with the different 'daft comical' weapons and some not-bad boss fights. £50 though - no it's way too much IMO. I played it on games pass and enjoyed it but I think £20 max (or below) seems about right to bite. Defo worth a play though.

Morning all. Played more Death Stranding over the weekend. On mission 56 so slowly getting closer to the end game. I was very close to binning the game off around mission 44 as it was two missions that meant I had to travel well outside of the mountain range and back again. To collect Mama. I did try two times and both times felt like a real slog and I got into problems that made it very frustrating. So I decided to fast travel close to Mama's place - leaving all of my gear behind - and that made it more manageable. And then since the game has been more enjoyable as most missions are now in the boundary of the mountains and I'm enjoying using zip lines and catapults and not having to travel massive distances albeit the terrain is challenging. The mountain range is actually fun if you don't have to travel too far. And most recently I've had another war mission and met Heartman so it's been more interesting. I still expect it will take me another 2-3 weekends to finish the game. It's gone from a 10/10 probably down to a 6/10 and now it's back up at 8/10 on the r-score-o-meter :-).