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Oscar Wild
Apr 11, 2006

It's good to be a G

il serpente cosmico posted:

I finished Death Stranding last night. I'm not sure if I actually enjoyed playing it or not. The loop certainly hooked me, but I can't tell if my OCD took over or I actually enjoyed 5 starring all of the delivery locations.

I enjoyed the story, but the writing wasn't that great. Kojima could definitely use an editor or Co-writer. He clearly doesn't trust his audience to pick up on everything so a lot of it is repetitive, but then a lot of really import points are locked behind interviews that only unlock when you complete certain standard orders. I just found out about some pretty important backstory by reading the wiki because I didn't unlock the interviews in my 75 hour playthrough. More automated boys and the ability to deploy them from anywhere would have helped a lot of this was the system they were going to use.

I appreciate that it tried some new things, but the general structure was really reminiscent of Peace Walker and Phantom Pain. The combat was boring despite some of the encounters being visually impressive.

I'm in the chapter where you temporarily lose your best friend and I will be sorely disappointed if it doesn't come back with mech armor.

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Midjack
Dec 24, 2007



il serpente cosmico posted:

I finished Death Stranding last night. I'm not sure if I actually enjoyed playing it or not. The loop certainly hooked me, but I can't tell if my OCD took over or I actually enjoyed 5 starring all of the delivery locations.

I enjoyed the story, but the writing wasn't that great. Kojima could definitely use an editor or Co-writer. He clearly doesn't trust his audience to pick up on everything so a lot of it is repetitive, but then a lot of really import points are locked behind interviews that only unlock when you complete certain standard orders. I just found out about some pretty important backstory by reading the wiki because I didn't unlock the interviews in my 75 hour playthrough. More automated boys and the ability to deploy them from anywhere would have helped a lot of this was the system they were going to use.

I appreciate that it tried some new things, but the general structure was really reminiscent of Peace Walker and Phantom Pain. The combat was boring despite some of the encounters being visually impressive.

There was some important character backstory stuck behind interviews you’d get from random deliveries, if you weren’t trying to 100% the game you’d miss them entirely. I platted it with 160 hours and didn’t get them.

Dr. Fishopolis
Aug 31, 2004

ROBOT
It's odd. Death Stranding is my 2019 GOTY. The vast, vast majority of it is doing menial tasks while traversing beautiful, often punishing landscapes, interspersed with occasional janky combat.

I just finished RDR2. The vast, vast majority of it is doing menial tasks while traversing beautiful, often punishing landscapes, interspersed with occasional janky combat. It's a 6/10.

What RDR2 failed to do was marry the game world to the storyline. I can sneak through town at night, tie up an innocent old lady, throw her on the back of my horse and feed her to an alligator. I can then go do a story mission where Dutch kills an old lady and Arthur gets real torn up about it and I'm like wot the gently caress you on about m8?

Death Stranding is tonally consistent by contrast. That tone is extreme Kojima melodrama but if you're not into that sort of thing i dunno why you bought the ticket.

Oscar Wild
Apr 11, 2006

It's good to be a G
I think I am in the middle of death stranding and I love it because I have no urge to power through. I can quit, move on to something else in my life, yet I know I can come back at any time and deliver something and feel great doing it.

OxMan
May 13, 2006

COME SEE
GRAVE DIGGER
LIVE AT MONSTER TRUCK JAM 2KXX



Lot of hard and fast takes flying around. Lollin at third playthrough as well.

I'm a giant Kojima fanboy. Fuckin love all the MGS games. Hell, I love Kojima, we have so much in common with regards to our media tastes I could marry the dude. I still bounce off of Death Stranding hard. I love the Kojima brand melodrama, I like and am interested in the story, and the gameplay itself is great, but it's SO loving tedious. I made it to chapter 3 where you get the bike and already the whole sequence leading up to that was insanely annoying and tedious. I spent weeks after loading up a bike and trying to do the next part but nope, I'd always fall through some crag or have to go ALL THE WAY AROUND SOMETHING and it just burns through my patience far quicker than even MGS 3 camo switching ever did.

Im also in the lol no multi no thanks mass effect camp. I was like 20 when the first one came out and all of my friends also got into it. Such LORE. I even read all of karypshins insanely garbage rear end grade school level supplemental books as I was going through the series. I played the poo poo out of those games. But the multi was a whole new ballgame, super challenging and fun and the teamwork was great. I'm STILL searching for something to fill that gap, nothing has come close since, 4 man Plat goon parties on 360 were the shiiiit, and I've tried it all, even had the season pass for that badass space future dudes one that came out on ps4 that I can't remember the name of. THAT'S what I want. Who the gently caress (that's already been through em) wants to revisit karypshins garbage rear end half assed (from 2 on) notevenairportpaperback level story in tyool 2020?

Oscar Wild
Apr 11, 2006

It's good to be a G

OxMan posted:

Lot of hard and fast takes flying around. Lollin at third playthrough as well.

I'm a giant Kojima fanboy. Fuckin love all the MGS games. Hell, I love Kojima, we have so much in common with regards to our media tastes I could marry the dude. I still bounce off of Death Stranding hard. I love the Kojima brand melodrama, I like and am interested in the story, and the gameplay itself is great, but it's SO loving tedious. I made it to chapter 3 where you get the bike and already the whole sequence leading up to that was insanely annoying and tedious. I spent weeks after loading up a bike and trying to do the next part but nope, I'd always fall through some crag or have to go ALL THE WAY AROUND SOMETHING and it just burns through my patience far quicker than even MGS 3 camo switching ever did.



Have you ever been back country hiking? Like real multi-day out in the woods? Because that is pretty darn close to the path finding you have to do in death stranding. Get up to a ridgeline to see where you're going, the pick a path that gets you to the next ridge as easily as possible. The map even shows you which ways are best if you look for identifying terrain like talus rock. I guess I really like death stranding.

Motto
Aug 3, 2013

FilthyImp posted:

Ff16 really looks like they want a do-over with some leftover 15/Versus ideas.

More the opposite really. Going back to straight fantasy and hiring an actual combat designer rather than focus-testing their way to some weird automated sludge.

il serpente cosmico
May 15, 2003

Best five bucks I've ever spend.

Oscar Wild posted:

Have you ever been back country hiking? Like real multi-day out in the woods? Because that is pretty darn close to the path finding you have to do in death stranding. Get up to a ridgeline to see where you're going, the pick a path that gets you to the next ridge as easily as possible. The map even shows you which ways are best if you look for identifying terrain like talus rock. I guess I really like death stranding.

This is a good comparison that I hadn't thought of. There are elements for Death Stranding that remind me a lot of back country snowboarding. You use your GPS / topo map, combined with what you can see from vantages points, to slowly pick your way to the top of the mountain as safely as possible.

Morpheus
Apr 18, 2008

My favourite little monsters
I just platinumed Days Gone today, and it really received a lot of unwarranted flak after its release, I'm finding. Like, certain elements of the story are pretty much garbage, yeah: for example, pretty much the entire north-eastern region and everything in it could've been scrapped, camp and all. Once you finish the handful of story missions there, it literally never shows up again and is completely irrelevant to everything going on. What a waste.

But I liked a lot of other stuff, especially once the Lost Lake camp is introduced. When you actually get some characters worth caring about (aside from Boozer, who is great). The game has some excellent voice acting and facial capture that really sell its scenes, making the moment-to-moment character interactions stand out even when the overall plot is pretty dumb (and suffers from some real pacing issues). Definitely made me care about the people in the story. Oh also the game felt like a quarter longer than it needed to be.

Driving around on a motorbike was neat, having to refuel every km was not, taking out hordes was fun to do even if there really wasn't a purpose to it aside from an adrenaline rush as you turn to see hundreds of freakers out for your blood rushing behind you.

And it commits the sin of experience points being worthless once you've reached maximum level. That always bugs me.

All in all, I found it an enjoyable, if lengthy, time. Certainly not a goty experience, but a better-than-average one for sure.

Detective No. 27
Jun 7, 2006

Death Stranding's difficulty is really front loaded. It isn't until maybe partway chapter 3 or at chapter 4 where you kinda overcome the proverbial mountain and see the whole picture. You will get tools and options. You'll start to plan runs and even drive circles around the MULES, raiding them for shits and giggles. It's a really rewarding game. Nothing else out there is remotely like it.

cubicle gangster
Jun 26, 2005

magda, make the tea
Can someone please spoiler the important backstory in death stranding? I beat it at 40h and can't imagine something plot significant that was only revealed at 70h+

CharlieFoxtrot
Mar 27, 2007

organize digital employees



cubicle gangster posted:

Can someone please spoiler the important backstory in death stranding? I beat it at 40h and can't imagine something plot significant that was only revealed at 70h+

There are additional logs in the postgame
https://deathstranding.fandom.com/wiki/Lucy_Strand

il serpente cosmico
May 15, 2003

Best five bucks I've ever spend.

cubicle gangster posted:

Can someone please spoiler the important backstory in death stranding? I beat it at 40h and can't imagine something plot significant that was only revealed at 70h+

Lucy, Sam's wife, committed suicide because the baby she was carrying had DOOMS passed on to her by Sam. This, in turn, caused Lucy to experience DOOMS as well, which made her suicidal. She killed herself while Sam was on a delivery, and went necro. This caused a massive voidout in the city, with Sam as the only survivor due to him being a repatriate. This sets the stage for the Sam we see in game - he is numb and overcome with guilt, and ready to die.

il serpente cosmico fucked around with this message at 08:12 on Oct 18, 2020

Escobarbarian
Jun 18, 2004


Grimey Drawer

Whaaaaat I completely missed this

CharlieFoxtrot
Mar 27, 2007

organize digital employees



Escobarbarian posted:

Whaaaaat I completely missed this

It's in the title of the thread!

BeanpolePeckerwood
May 4, 2004

I MAY LOOK LIKE SHIT BUT IM ALSO DUMB AS FUCK



CharlieFoxtrot posted:

It's in the title of the thread!

lmao

kirbysuperstar
Nov 11, 2012

Let the fools who stand before us be destroyed by the power you and I possess.

CharlieFoxtrot posted:

It's in the title of the thread!

lmao

Escobarbarian
Jun 18, 2004


Grimey Drawer

CharlieFoxtrot posted:

It's in the title of the thread!

hahahahaha holy poo poo

exquisite tea
Apr 21, 2007

Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."


il serpente cosmico posted:

Lucy, Sam's wife, committed suicide because the baby she was carrying had DOOMS passed on to her by Sam. This, in turn, caused Lucy to experience DOOMS as well, which made her suicidal. She killed herself while Sam was on a delivery, and went necro. This caused a massive voidout in the city, with Sam as the only survivor due to him being a repatriate. This sets the stage for the Sam we see in game - he is numb and overcome with guilt, and ready to die.

Oh look, another sad dad story. :rolleyes:

Akuma
Sep 11, 2001


il serpente cosmico posted:

I enjoyed the story, but the writing wasn't that great. Kojima could definitely use an editor or Co-writer.
Well...



His ego definitely makes him imply that he's responsible for all the writing in his games but I don't think any of them have actually ever been solo efforts.

Midjack
Dec 24, 2007



CharlieFoxtrot posted:

It's in the title of the thread!

holy poo poo

Samurai Sanders
Nov 4, 2003

Pillbug

exquisite tea posted:

Oh look, another sad dad story. :rolleyes:
The 2010s will be known as the decade of sad dad games.

BeanpolePeckerwood
May 4, 2004

I MAY LOOK LIKE SHIT BUT IM ALSO DUMB AS FUCK



Samurai Sanders posted:

The 2010s will be known as the decade of sad dad games.

timestamped

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGSTEKapIAg&t=7156s

il serpente cosmico
May 15, 2003

Best five bucks I've ever spend.

Akuma posted:

Well...



His ego definitely makes him imply that he's responsible for all the writing in his games but I don't think any of them have actually ever been solo efforts.

Oh, I was being figurative - I meant he could use more competent co-writers and editors that he actually listens to. MGS's writing went downhill after he split with Tomokazu Fukushima. MGS4 was a fan-service wank-fest and MGSV was a low point in the series's narrative design.

Death Stranding is better than MGS5 but it struggles with pacing and redundancy. At least it's revelations actually feel foreshadowed and earned to some extent.

il serpente cosmico
May 15, 2003

Best five bucks I've ever spend.

exquisite tea posted:

Oh look, another sad dad story. :rolleyes:

Yeah, it isn't original but at least it provides context that's important to the character. I will say that DS's main plot points and themes are not about being a sad dad, but it is indeed a game filled with sad dads and sad moms.

Quantum of Phallus
Dec 27, 2010

CharlieFoxtrot posted:

It's in the title of the thread!

:aaaaa:

Samurai Sanders
Nov 4, 2003

Pillbug
This guy spent like a million more hours thinking and talking about this than I did and I’m OK with that.

BeanpolePeckerwood
May 4, 2004

I MAY LOOK LIKE SHIT BUT IM ALSO DUMB AS FUCK



Samurai Sanders posted:

This guy spent like a million more hours thinking and talking about this than I did and I’m OK with that.

lol same

fridge corn
Apr 2, 2003

NO MERCY, ONLY PAIN :black101:

Morpheus posted:

I just platinumed Days Gone today, and it really received a lot of unwarranted flak after its release, I'm finding. Like, certain elements of the story are pretty much garbage, yeah: for example, pretty much the entire north-eastern region and everything in it could've been scrapped, camp and all. Once you finish the handful of story missions there, it literally never shows up again and is completely irrelevant to everything going on. What a waste.

But I liked a lot of other stuff, especially once the Lost Lake camp is introduced. When you actually get some characters worth caring about (aside from Boozer, who is great). The game has some excellent voice acting and facial capture that really sell its scenes, making the moment-to-moment character interactions stand out even when the overall plot is pretty dumb (and suffers from some real pacing issues). Definitely made me care about the people in the story. Oh also the game felt like a quarter longer than it needed to be.

Driving around on a motorbike was neat, having to refuel every km was not, taking out hordes was fun to do even if there really wasn't a purpose to it aside from an adrenaline rush as you turn to see hundreds of freakers out for your blood rushing behind you.

And it commits the sin of experience points being worthless once you've reached maximum level. That always bugs me.

All in all, I found it an enjoyable, if lengthy, time. Certainly not a goty experience, but a better-than-average one for sure.

Good write-up. Days Gone is a really good game and well crafted.

veni veni veni
Jun 5, 2005


I'm playing Alien Isolation again for horror month (which is most months for me tbh) and god drat I love this game so much. I love how old school it is. I love that there are no "checkpoints" Just real rear end save points, there's no magic see through the walls button and the stealth is unforgiving and full of surprises. The only thing you get is a motion sensor that totally adds to the terror, as you see the Alien moving 50mph in your general direction. I love how true to the original movie it feels without getting too corny. The visual design is fantastic and the characters feel like they were ripped right out of the movie. I also love how long it is. everyone says it's too long but I disagree. I love how it gives every segment room to breathe.

I'm also playing in VR this time around (unfortunately a non PS4 related part of the post) and good god. The first time the alien yanked me out from under a desk my rear end clenched so hard and I just totally recoiled in terror lol. And I play a lot of VR horror stuff.

veni veni veni fucked around with this message at 09:16 on Oct 18, 2020

fridge corn
Apr 2, 2003

NO MERCY, ONLY PAIN :black101:

CharlieFoxtrot posted:

It's in the title of the thread!

Holy poo poo lol

Quantum of Phallus
Dec 27, 2010

veni veni veni posted:

I'm playing Alien Isolation again for horror month (which is most months for me tbh) and god drat I love this game so much. I love how old school it is. I love that there are no "checkpoints" Just real rear end save points

One of my biggest issues in gaming appears with these save points, where when you go to use them the selection defaults to DON'T SAVE.
why do you think I'm using the save station game?!!:argh:

Also the main menu defaulting to new game instead of continue :wrong:

BeanpolePeckerwood
May 4, 2004

I MAY LOOK LIKE SHIT BUT IM ALSO DUMB AS FUCK



veni veni veni posted:

I'm playing Alien Isolation again for horror month (which is most months for me tbh) and god drat I love this game so much. I love how old school it is. I love that there are no "checkpoints" Just real rear end save points, there's no magic see through the walls button and the stealth is unforgiving and full of surprises. The only thing you get is a motion sensor that totally adds to the terror, as you see the Alien moving 50mph in your general direction. I love how true to the original movie it feels without getting too corny. The visual design is fantastic and the characters feel like they were ripped right out of the movie. I also love how long it is. everyone says it's too long but I disagree. I love how it gives every segment room to breathe.

I'm also playing in VR this time around (unfortunately a non PS4 related part of the post) and good god. The first time the alien yanked me out from under a desk my rear end clenched so hard and I just totally recoiled in terror. And I play a lot of VR horror stuff.

One of the best movie games ever imo. Such a labor of love. It's too bad the difficulty modes were tweaked so badly. I'm glad I played on Normal because Hard mode sounded like it completely killed all tension for some folks.


Medical in VR :barf:

veni veni veni
Jun 5, 2005


Quantum of Phallus posted:

One of my biggest issues in gaming appears with these save points, where when you go to use them the selection defaults to DON'T SAVE.
why do you think I'm using the save station game?!!:argh:

Also the main menu defaulting to new game instead of continue :wrong:

Lol yeah defaulting to new game annoys the hell out me every time I boot it up. The save points make me laugh because the gameplay doesn't stop until the animation is done. it's like the game is trying to gently caress with you just a little bit more while you are frantically trying to not lose 20 minutes of progress.


BeanpolePeckerwood posted:

One of the best movie games ever imo. Such a labor of love. It's too bad the difficulty modes were tweaked so badly. I'm glad I played on Normal because Hard mode sounded like it completely killed all tension for some folks.


Medical in VR :barf:

I'm just finishing up medical now. It's actually an all around super comfortable game in VR. Very smooth. Atmospheric as all hell.

I've only ever played on normal because of all the warnings. It's not like it's a particularly easy game anyways. Normal always felt balanced perfectly to me and the Xeno already has better vision than 95% of video game enemies.

BeanpolePeckerwood
May 4, 2004

I MAY LOOK LIKE SHIT BUT IM ALSO DUMB AS FUCK



One of my favorite things in that game was all the varied machine interface design, like not just the weird rear end operating systems on terminals, but all the engineering interface stuff, too. It really drove home how she's not some kind of militant hotshot but rather a whipsmart futuristic plumber.

Vikar Jerome
Nov 26, 2013

I believe Emmanuelle is shit, though Emmanuelle 2, Emmanuelle '77 and Goodbye, Emmanuelle may be very good movies.

Quantum of Phallus posted:

oh grant us wifi

This thread' finished

veni veni veni
Jun 5, 2005


BeanpolePeckerwood posted:

One of my favorite things in that game was all the varied machine interface design, like not just the weird rear end operating systems on terminals, but all the engineering interface stuff, too. It really drove home how she's not some kind of militant hotshot but rather a whipsmart futuristic plumber.

The techno fidgeting reminds me a lot of Soma, where it's simple, but varied and convincing enough that it doesn't bring me out of the game like most "hacking" minigames. The actions you perform aren't particularly special, but they are much better visually represented than most games and iirc neither game ever asks me to "connect the nodes"

veni veni veni fucked around with this message at 09:52 on Oct 18, 2020

BeanpolePeckerwood
May 4, 2004

I MAY LOOK LIKE SHIT BUT IM ALSO DUMB AS FUCK



veni veni veni posted:

The techno fidgeting reminds me a lot of Soma, where it's simple, but varied and convincing enough that it doesn't bring me out of the game like most "hacking" minigames.

Same. SOMA has a little bit more headscratching because it doesn't always explicitly tell you what can be interacted with, which I like, but is probably more fitting on a shorter game. A:I doesn't go so far as to just glow-highlight poo poo in the Bioshock way but it's a bit more streamlined than SOMA overall about what is a game system object vs background art.

Amazing games. Some of the best from gen 8 I think.

Escobarbarian
Jun 18, 2004


Grimey Drawer
I think I’ve had enough isolation this year tbqh

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BeanpolePeckerwood
May 4, 2004

I MAY LOOK LIKE SHIT BUT IM ALSO DUMB AS FUCK



same. hang in there, yo, we'll be back to normal soon enough :doit:

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