What are you playing this weekend/these days?


HALO: The Master Chief Collection

They finally released for PC more games of the franchise after the second one (that also finished with a cliffhanger o_O).

The good stuff:
- It plays good (I'm doing HALO:REACH now), and there is a lot of configurations for all the included games for mouse/keyboard.
- It's included an "Anti-Cheat disabled" version, so you can use mods too, and seems like they will release those modding tools at some points (it will not update achievements with that version anyway).
- You can install/uninstall different components for every game, like "just HALO 2, without the multiplayer part"

The bad stuff:
- XBOX account REQUIRED
- The super one main menu that will control them all removes the souls for all the games to me... those are just simple neutral selectable voices.
- Also visibly the main point for this collection was to make a massive multiplayer HUB for all the games... and all those options and functionalities could be really distracting for someone that just wants to play the campaigns.
- It is really not clear if at some point HALO >= 5 will be added to the collection or if them will stay an XBOX exclusive...
 
I've been playing No Man's Sky again, as it's been updated again for PS5, and this time I'm loving it. It helps that I found a planet without a deadly atmosphere.
 
On a whim I bought Skyrim SE. By now I'm rather deep into the rabbit hole considering mods and also thoroughly impressed by how much stuff there is. And by what kind of stuff there is
┬┴┤( ͡⚆ل͜├┬┴┬

I am amazed - playing this so long after release - on an x86 handheld machine at 12 watts and the game looking just luscious.
 
Oh, man... I finished HALO:REACH and HALO CE of the Master Chief Collection, and I'm pretty disappointed... they removed ending credits from all the games... you just reach the end and the main menu appears...
that seemed to me both an insult for the original developers, and a missing "achievement" for myself... I find relaxing and rewarding looking at the ending credits and listening to the music after beating a game...

Seems to me that all the games in the collection are using the same engine, and so all of them are MODS...

On HALO CE there are terminals that makes you see some recordings, and while in the original this was integrated with the game, with this version those videos seems external to the game, and after them finishes you find yourself in the main menu and have to press the button to continue the campaign...

I also read that even split screen play is missing.

I waited/hoped so much for all the HALO to PC... what a disappointment...

EDIT:
Another bad stuff are that subtitles are not always on screen (even if set always on), and this is even more bad because the cinematic from the terminals seems dubbed only in english, despite the language set...

I must admit anyway that the graphic of the first and especially the second game was really improved a lot... the cinematic are superb...
After playing HALO 2 Anniversary Edition, the graphic of the third game seems like crap...
 
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Oh, man. That sounds awful. I was really looking forward to playing the Halo games on PC, as I only ever played Halo CE. I'll probably play anyway when I can find the time (and when I've finally finished TWO MONTHS!), but what a weird couple of choices...
 
Still in my Castlevania retrospective, and recently finished Bloodlines.
It's really good. I played it with the spear character who can strike faster than the Belmonts in the other games, which makes the game a bit more frantic.
The levels are varied, the music is top-notch, the controls are quite good, the difficulty is mostly well-adjusted (except for the final boss rush followed by three bosses, two of which have two forms, hopefully they aren't that difficult).
So far, it's one of my favorites.
 
Yesterday, i fired up my Picachu GBA SP, and played a bit Alleyway and Tetris DX,
I noticed that i played not enough in the last days since i bought the Games.. allthough they are quite good..

i got Allyway until Level 5, i lost to many Lives when my Paddel gets smaller on the 5th Level, ^^ i could play it via Emulation on the GBA EverDrive, whit Savestates, but whit the Actuall Cardridge, its much more authentic.. , so the only advantage i got is the IPS Panel of my SP, so i dont have to fiddle around whit a Light Lense on my GBC....
Then a bit Tetris DX, where i lost a few times against the CPU , and played a bit Marathon and the other Mode, but not enough to save my score saddly..
They who owned the Cardridge bevore me where much better..
 
matzesu said:
Then a bit Tetris DX, where i lost a few times against the CPU , and played a bit Marathon and the other Mode, but not enough to save my score saddly..
They who owned the Cardridge bevore me where much better..
Click to expand...
Tetris is one of those games that even your mild mannered Granny would get hooked on and play to death. Buy the time they finished they'd be beating all comers. I guess it's probably a good thing that Tetris has never* been an online game.

* I assume never. I don't know about the latest iterations. It wouldn't surprise me to be honest.
 
levi said:
Tetris is one of those games that even your mild mannered Granny would get hooked on and play to death. Buy the time they finished they'd be beating all comers. I guess it's probably a good thing that Tetris has never* been an online game.

* I assume never. I don't know about the latest iterations. It wouldn't surprise me to be honest.
Click to expand...
That's more or less what happened when they released an online competitive Tetris a few years ago. Some older people who've never been into competitive gaming but had played a lot of Tetris turned out to be among the best players.
 
And finished Castlevania: Rondo of Blood and it's still my favorite.
It's got the tight levels of the first, the multiple paths and characters of the third, some of the best music in the series, tight controls a difficulty that's just challenging and tense enough without being frustrating (or unfair). It's not perfect, but it's a great game.
Now to 100% it, and I'll skip SotN (that I already replayed quite recently) and probably move to the GBA games.
 
ElPoco said:
Still in my Castlevania retrospective, and recently finished Bloodlines.
It's really good. I played it with the spear character who can strike faster than the Belmonts in the other games, which makes the game a bit more frantic.
The levels are varied, the music is top-notch, the controls are quite good, the difficulty is mostly well-adjusted (except for the final boss rush followed by three bosses, two of which have two forms, hopefully they aren't that difficult).
So far, it's one of my favorites.
Click to expand...
Having completely missed that Genesis/Megadrive got a Castlevania entry and seeing your and some additional rather positive reviews I decided to seek it out. That meant opening up the display case the Panda had been retired to, due to lcd cable issues, to retrieve an SD card. After failing to utilize a ps3 dualshock and a Wiimote with Blastem on my laptop (LMDE4) I thought, "why not try the panda as a controller? I don't need its screen working perfectly for that." So I charged her up and booted to some strange green artifacting, the same kind that I had retired her for believing its just the typical cable failure everyone is talking about. But it went away.
Now I am playing Castlevania Bloodlines and in the best way possible, on my Pandi!
However, cold boots are still artifacting and coming back from suspend is too, plus some key input anomalies. Time to reflash firmware I suspect.
Thanks @ElPoco for inadvertently helping a Pandora find life again.
I'm really looking forward to this Castlevania its a lot of fun so far.
 
Some days ago I got Mirror's Edge Catalyst from Steam... I didn't read the requirements...

Now I'm "playing" all the steps to damn finally playing the damn actual game... after different hours of downloading, it started telling that it was "downloading updates"... then those "updates" became the "Install Origin client in order to play the game"... then it became "updating the Origin client"... now, I'm still damn waiting for I don't even know what, the informative window closed but for Steam it is still "doing something", and by now I already know that at the end of this I'll need to create an Origin account (that I still don't have) to play that damn game... WTF... if I only was more prone to ask for refunds...:-||
 
PowerGod said:
Now I'm "playing" all the steps to damn finally playing the damn actual game... after different hours of downloading, it started telling that it was "downloading updates"... then those "updates" became the "Install Origin client in order to play the game"... then it became "updating the Origin client"... now, I'm still damn waiting for I don't even know what, the informative window closed but for Steam it is still "doing something", and by now I already know that at the end of this I'll need to create an Origin account (that I still don't have) to play that damn game
Click to expand...

And people wonder why piracy is so popular. :)
 
Mirror's Edge Catalyst

I'm only at the beginning, but I'm pretty sure I have already seen everything needed to judge the game.

In a game like this the story is just an excuse to make you run, it wasn't exceptional in the first game and I don't have expectations in this one.

The Good:
The movements and the dynamics are pretty much the ones already seen in the first game, them worked well there and works well even here.
There are some improvements in the combat system, some new moves, that are integrated well.
There is still an highlight system to show what elements you can interact with to proceed, but it's improved with a dynamic path-finding system that can show you the direction to follow, still you are not restricted to that particular path to reach the destination.
The city is open, so you can go around at will, and there are different collectibles around that can gives you experience.
Different mini timed missions were added around too to get experience.
RPG elements were added, so you can "buy" new moves with experience.

The Bad:
Too much "life" and details were added to the game in the wrong way...
If I look down at the streets I can see most of the time overlapped or duplicated cars, and walking people that suddenly disappear/appear just to make the impression that the streets are full...
Some random NPCs were scattered around the map... maybe them are related to quests I still have to do, but right now are just standing people fixed in a spot, that says nothing, does nothing, and even punching/kicking them have no effect at all...
The sky is full of drones and flying things that are almost all the same, and that go around in a random way.
The city has a somehow forced futuristic aspect, and while it maintain the simple colors of the first game, it lost somehow the solitude that was there in the first game.
The sum of all these things can be pretty much an immersion breaker.
DRM (Need an Origin account and online activation)


If you liked the first game, it's a no brainer to get this one too, but if you are not in a hurry, maybe it is way better to wait if it will be ever released without DRM/online activation/accounts needed to play.
 
I enjoyed the running in the first game, up to to point where it became too difficult for me. The art style for the story were so shonky that it didn't interest me or give me a reason to see the end of the story, so I just stopped there.
 
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