What games are you playing now?

I finished the base Alan Wake game, but lost a bit of steam right after that, and put the 2 DLCs on hold for now.
Alan Wake has 2 DLCs? I have the one titled American Nightmare. What's the other one?

I really need to give it another try someday. I love horror, but that game just didn't grab me for some reason. I guess I could say the same for all of Remedy's stuff since Max Payne.
 
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Alan Wake has 2 DLCs? I have the one titled American Nightmare. What's the other one?

I really need to give it another try someday. I love horror, but that game just didn't grab me for some reason. I guess I could say the same for all of Remedy's stuff since Max Payne.
American Nightmare is more of a spin-off, than an actual sequel. But as weird as the story/universe is, you could also view it as a sequel of sorts. But in terms of DLCs of the main game, and that are explicit direct sequels to the main campaign, I was referring to The Signal and The Lighthouse. You probably have the remastered versions of the games, so the DLCs are fully included in the base game, but initially they were sold separately since they came out some time after release.

EDIT: Actually, scratch that, you find them only in the episodes section of the game, and they don't start automatically after the end of the main campaign. Which is weird, since episodes is the section where you replay episodes from the main campaign, so someone could easily miss the extra ones, I guess. Weird choice to put them there.

Anyway, from what I remember I absolutely loved the DLCs since they go even more wild and imaginative than the main campaign. But I guess I was tired after finishing the main one. I also played it on Nightmare difficulty, for some reason. And that's the thing about Alan Wake, the combat gets very repetitive very fast. Most encounters pretty much play out the same way, so if the story and world is not grabbing you, it might be hard to push through. And on nightmare, enemies are even spongier, so you naturally run away from some encounters that become unmanageable. Fortunately they improved the combat in American Nightmare. And for an Xbox Arcade game, which is what it was originally, it's a fantastic spin-off with a very involved story for what it was initially. Just a little download-able digital-only game.
 
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American Nightmare is more of a spin-off, than an actual sequel. But as weird as the story/universe is, you could also view it as a sequel of sorts. But in terms of DLCs of the main game, and that are explicit direct sequels to the main campaign, I was referring to The Signal and The Lighthouse. You probably have the remastered versions of the games, so the DLCs are fully included in the base game, but initially they were sold separately since they came out some time after release.
Did the remastered versions automatically replace the original versions on Steam? I don't remember.

When I go to my Steam library, I see Alan Wake and American Nightmare, but it doesn't say "remastered" anywhere. However, when I go to the store page, there's no DLC listed which leads me to believe I must have the remastered versions.

And yeah, that combat is very repetive. What really killed it for me though is that I was only seeing the same shadow-figure enemies over and over again. Are there other kinds of enemies later in the game?
 
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Did the remastered versions automatically replace the original versions on Steam? I don't remember.

When I go to my Steam library, I see Alan Wake and American Nightmare, but it doesn't say "remastered" anywhere. However, when I go to the store page, there's no DLC listed which leads me to believe I must have the remastered versions.

And yeah, that combat is very repetive. What really killed it for me though is that I was only seeing the same shadow-figure enemies over and over again. Are there other kinds of enemies later in the game?
Yeah, you have the remastered edition, but I can't remember exactly where that label is.

It's the same shadowy figures, just different types of shadowy figures. The regular axe throwers, the axe-wielding lumber-jacks, the fast knife wielding dudes, the huge chain-saw armed fellows, the flashing-around knife wielding dudes. That's I believe all of them. Then there's the inanimate objects (barrels, carriages, wagons, farm equipment, a bulldozer, etc) that sometimes get possessed and thrown around or that try to run you over. That's about it. Oh, and possessed crows. Those are hands down the most annoying.

As I said, combat is more of a thorn in the side, getting in the way of the story and exploration. It's serviceable at first, then it gets annoying.

This might also be due to the fact that Alan Wake really had a troubled development. There's plenty of remains in the game that are there from when it was designed to be something different. More of an open-world game. And I guess stuff had to be tossed out, combat probably couldn't be rebooted to make it better.

It'll be interesting to see what Alan Wake 2 will be like. They said it will be a pure horror survival game. I'm not sure how much I like that. Horror games really tense me a lot. Alan Wake 1 wasn't even that scary or anything. Just unnerving and stressful. But if they introduce jump-scares and the like ... I just hope the story is sufficiently imaginative and out there. I hope they got a really good idea as to what they want out of it.
 
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I've been playing around with Spiderman on PC, and while there's a lot to like, it looks beautiful and the swinging and movement is fun and smooth, the combat parts of it are starting to get repetitive. I feel I'm pretty much doing the same thing, dodge, grapple and pull myself to someone, web them to something, etc. Especially the ones that are spawned randomly across the city, with every car chase being exactly the same way, the same for drug-deals or robberies, etc. It really feels like this part is pretty much like all open-world actions game. Unfortunately, the xp system is ties to these activities and I want to unlock all abilities and suits, suit-upgrades, so I pretty much have to do it.

Since I'm not too much into Marvel or spiderman, the story is so far, take it or leave it. Nothing bad, but I'm not intrigued by anything. We shall see how it evolves. I have a feeling that flying around the city and the movement itself will end up being my favorite part of the game. And that part is beautifully implemented.
 
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Started Elex2, looks like ass and runs like ass, i guess PB will never learn to optimize games :ROFLMAO:. Hopefully its as good as the first game.
 
This summer my son and I agreed to try out a game recommended by the other. He is doing Mass Effect, and I'm doing Oxygen Not Included. ONI is a sim game about balancing interconnected systems to expand your colony. It gets pretty complex before long. I want to build a natural gas generator, but I'll need a way to safely harvest the gas without leaks or overpressuring the tank, and supply it to my generator which will need to be supplied with coolant and have a way to dispose of CO2. In atmosphere that wouldn't be too hard, but the game takes place deep underground so maintaining a safe atmosphere is a constant battle. To grow plants each type needs specific light, pressure, and atmosphere so they have to be farmed in different 'fields'. Then there is automation - oh lordy!
 
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Started Elex2, looks like ass and runs like ass, i guess PB will never learn to optimize games :ROFLMAO:. Hopefully its as good as the first game.
If you have a DX12 compatible card, try running the Beta branch. Some people have reported significant improvements performance-wise.
 
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Playing Spiderman.

Expected more, based on the reviews and what not.

I'd say it's a 6/10 game - maybe 7/10 if I'm being generous.

The side activities are incredibly repetitive - and the main story is servicable at best.

Combat is the same enemies and the same moves over and over and over.

City looks good, but not THAT good. Night City is far, far ahead of it in terms of visuals - and if we're talking New York - I think Division is superior in most ways.

Not sure why it's so well received - but I guess you need to be a Spiderman/Marvel fan - which I'm not.
 
I've progressed a lot more through Control, and man is it a fantastic game. The setting is great, and constantly manages to up itself in terms of what-the-fucks and still keeps me hooked.

The combat is very tight and feels great. I'm not sure I love the health system, since the only way to heal yourself is to do damage to enemies and then get close to them. But it does force you to get into the thick of it. And I love using the abilities due to the great physics engine they use. It makes collisions feel sufficiently random and impactful.

All's great so far. And I love the level design. It gives you enough room to explore even outside of the main missions. And has enough confusion as what levels are part of what purpose.

They also managed to introduce random missions/events where you are given small objectives, sometimes timed, that you need to clear for bonus rewards, which encourage you to go back to other areas. And it also has a decent itemization system where you upgrade your weapons and abilities. So far the shotgun mode of the service weapon has been my favorite.
 
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I've finished the main campaign of Control, and still have the expansions, and I've had quite a good time with it. I even spent time re-exploring everything once I got the levitate ability, done every sidequest possible, and there's a lot of them. The game is shockingly dense and full of content. There's so many hidden areas, that I would have never found on my own, so I used a guide to check off whatever I missed.

As far as impressions so far, it's been a great ride. It's so imaginative and it has so many "out-there" ideas, that you don't see explored in games. There's little gems with unique ideas or stuff taken/inspired by/from Twilight Zone and other such media.

Gameplay is absolutely top-notch. Pretty much the best Remedy game when it comes to gameplay and shooting mechanics. They also managed to put in quite a decent progression system, with items and mods with random properties that make perfect sense for the game world.

The story was pretty good, and had some stuff that I feel went over my head, or were maybe obtuse intentionally. But the story is also surprisingly tame for the wild stuff they could have come up with. I certainly feel that the main plot is more of a drag-you-along narrative device to see all these amazing locations and ideas. So, while the story was decent and told in a very subdued way, it didn't exactly blow me away or anything. The emotional parts of it, in particular, I feel didn't really ring any bells for me. But it's fine, the rest of the package is so outstanding that it more than makes up for it.

The other thing that is amazing is the level design of the Old House. You'd think it would be limiting to set almost everything in a huge building, but due to the nature of it, it's pretty much sky-is-the-limit in terms of what they came up with.

Anyway, I'll leave it at that, since I want to also get through Foundation and the AWE DLCs. And then I'll try and have a review for the whole thing.
 
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Control was my favorite game of 2019 (IIRC) - and it's definitely the best Remedy game as far as I'm concerned. I agree with everything you just said, I think - well, except that I personally felt the Old Building was too much of the same thing in terms of atmosphere, which was pretty much my only complaint.

That and also that the tone of the story isn't really my cup of tea - though it was interesting and fun. I'm less into the "quirky" than you probably need to be, to really appreciate it.

Still playing Spider-Man (as in, I'm forcing myself through it - because I'm more than halfway through and want to finish it) - but, to me, it's the very definition of a mediocre mainstream type of game.

I have absolutely no idea how it can be so overwhelmingly popular - when the much-hated Ubisoft games do almost everything in a better or more compelling way as far as I'm concerned.

That said, I have quite a list of games that the general mainstream audience dislikes - that I personally really enjoy.

So I guess it balances out.
 
Control was my favorite game of 2019 (IIRC) - and it's definitely the best Remedy game as far as I'm concerned. I agree with everything you just said, I think - well, except that I personally felt the Old Building was too much of the same thing in terms of atmosphere, which was pretty much my only complaint.

That and also that the tone of the story isn't really my cup of tea - though it was interesting and fun. I'm less into the "quirky" than you probably need to be, to really appreciate it.

Still playing Spider-Man (as in, I'm forcing myself through it - because I'm more than halfway through and want to finish it) - but, to me, it's the very definition of a mediocre mainstream type of game.

I have absolutely no idea how it can be so overwhelmingly popular - when the much-hated Ubisoft games do almost everything in a better or more compelling way as far as I'm concerned.

That said, I have quite a list of games that the general mainstream audience dislikes - that I personally really enjoy.

So I guess it balances out.
Yeah, I was also shocked to see Spiderman full of open-world activities, and quite a bit of them really repetitive, but no remark about this from people that lauded it. I have a feeling that it being a good Spiderman game caused people to not really remark on this. The general fluidity of the movement can really take your eye's attention.
 
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You guys almost have me convinced to give Control another try even though I struggle to see what's so appealing about it. :)
Really? I can understand being standoffish for Alan Wake, but Control is perfectly awesome .:D

More seriously, at first glance when Control was announced I was very worried about it. It looked kind of generic, especially when hearing about the "federal bureau of control" which sounds corny as hell. But it's very imaginative and is worth at least a playthrough. And as I said, I think it's basically got the strongest gameplay of any Remedy game. Even Max Payne 1/2. It blows it out of the water in terms of how versatile the combat system is.
 
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Really? I can understand being standoffish for Alan Wake, but Control is perfectly awesome .:D
I didn't like it for the same reason I didn't like Alan Wake. It seemed like you encounter the same few enemy types over and over again. That, and most of the rooms I saw looked very similar.

I don't remember exactly how long I played it though. I want to say 4-5 hours, but it might have been less. It's probably just one of those games where you need to invest more time before it really opens up. How long did it take you to finish the base game?
 
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I haven't played Control so I can't speak to how fun actually playing it feels, but I watched an LP of the entire thing and I agree with JDR's take. Lots of backtracking through fairly boring office environments, fighting the same few enemies over and over. The story didn't interest me much, personally.
 
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I haven't played Control so I can't speak to how fun actually playing it feels, but I watched an LP of the entire thing and I agree with JDR's take. Lots of backtracking through fairly boring office environments, fighting the same few enemies over and over. The story didn't interest me much, personally.
I'm sorry, and I don't want to argue, but I think it's objectively impossible to say you saw the whole thing and you only saw boring office environments. Or maybe I have a different definition of what boring means. It starts off pretty tame, but it gets really wild throughout with the locations. And even the initial office environments have a beautiful art style in an amazing brutalist architecture. Maybe I just like brutalist architecture too much, but a lot of the "office locations" look exquisite, especially in the amazing lighting they have.

I just searched for some location screenshots, and mind you some of them might be spoilerish for future locations you encounter, but I cannot look through this album and say "boring office environments". Maybe it's just me, since it is subjective after all. :D


And these are mostly static location shots. Most don't even convey the beauty of them when in full combat, with destructibility all around, you tearing slabs of concrete and marble off the walls, throwing them around, just making a big mess of it all. I swear, the combat is so fun, especially when you overpower your enemies.

I didn't like it for the same reason I didn't like Alan Wake. It seemed like you encounter the same few enemy types over and over again. That, and most of the rooms I saw looked very similar.

I don't remember exactly how long I played it though. I want to say 4-5 hours, but it might have been less. It's probably just one of those games where you need to invest more time before it really opens up. How long did it take you to finish the base game?
I think the base game took me around 30h, but I explored a lot, and backtracked a lot ever since I got the levitate ability, and did a lot of backtracking, finished every story mission and a lot of randomly generated contract missions. I think I'm around 5h into the Foundation expansion, and it's also been pretty nice. The locations are so beautiful and alien. The game really has a wonderful lighting and atmosphere.

Anyway, I feel I've been defending it long enough, and it needs no defending. It can stand on its own. Currently the only thing I liked more in Max Payne was the protagonist and the overall story. But aside from that, it's got it beat in everything, especially gameplay/exploration/combat. That's another thing, exploration is so good in Control. The huge brutalist house hides so many things. And there are even some very thought and great puzzles. And some really weird twists on things.

I'll stop here since I feel myself going into PR mode for the game, and I'm not getting paid. But it's so good. :D

EDIT: I guess it's fair to also name some negatives. The only ones I can remember were two boss fights that absolutely enraged me. One of them was quite grindy, especially until I realized what I was supposed to do, and not just attack with regular attacks. And the other one had the annoying habbit of killing me off in one move, since I could fall through the floor, in holes it made. That was absolutely bullshit. But, I hear from others, they didn't have the same issue with those ones. So maybe it was my build. Since there is only one difficulty level.
 
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Not every game is for everyone :)

I can understand the criticisms - and I wouldn't consider them off as such.

Variety is subjective. I would say the Old Building "feels" a certain way that doesn't really change much throughout - though there are some stand-out moments that are very different.

While I would never advocate using LP videos to get an accurate feel of a game - I'd say it's doubly unfortunate for a game like Control - which is very much locked into a certain vibe that's not going to come off as "full of variety" in a video.

As for enemy variety - that's true as well. It's true in the same way that enemies are all the same in, say, Prey.

All the Prey enemies are based on the same "Typhon" visual - with variety consisting of shape and behavior.

It's the same thing in Control - where the enemies are all these dark shapes with glowing red energy or eyes - but there's significant variety in terms of behavior and powers.

I would also argue that Control has more variety than Prey overall - especially when you take into account the boss designs - which are VERY different for the most part.

For me, Control is basically a third-person immersive sim. It has all the elements of that genre that I enjoy - only with a bit more shooty-shoot than I'd prefer.

It's full of exploration - with secrets and journals, videos, audio-tapes and what not. All of which support the lore and the backstory.

Beyond that, it has pretty amazing physics and world interactivity - especially in terms of how combat interacts with the environment - and how entire rooms change and shift based on player actions.

It also has significant progression - where you can build your character to support your playstyle - and you get to upgrade and enhance your weapons and powers of choice, which is just the kind of thing to keep me interested.

The story is actually good - but, as mentioned, it's deliberately obfuscated and "weird" - which is very much down to subjective tastes.

I would have guessed such a game would be right up JDR's alley - but there are nuances in what we all enjoy, and sometimes things just don't hit home for whatever reason.

We all know there are more than enough games to keep us busy for several lifetimes - so it's hardly a big deal :)
 
As for Spider-Man - I had to stop playing in disgust.

I just couldn't take the final endless stream of repetitive combat. We're talking hundreds of identical click-click-click fights and no-challenge bosses that took literally 10 minutes to click-click-click defeat.

I even tried lowering the difficulty to "story" - and it changed nothing about time-to-kill which was the problem.

Ugh, that's so much not what I enjoy.

I recently bought New World (for unknown reasons) - and I have to say I'm pleasantly surprised.

I don't really have the time for an MMO right now - but I succumbed to my curiousity - as it's supposed to be in a better state now.

It's certainly the most immersive and prettiest MMO I've played - and though you don't have as many active abilities as I'd like, the actual combat is very responsive and it feels great.

Also a big fan of the setting - which is this unique take on the New World setting with magic and corruption. The way nature is portrayed is very appealing to me - as it's incredibly lush and dense with detail.

The fact that you harvest resources visually (like actually cutting down trees and mining rocks until they're visually exhausted) makes for a strangely compelling crafting system.

Anyway, not bad for the price - as there's no subscription and the initial purchase is very reasonable for something that's sure to keep people interested for hundreds of hours if they're into the genre.
 
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