Talking about Games

[floppybootstomp]

Has anybody tried Nier-Automata yet, now available on Steam for PC. It's a PS4 port but the reviews have been good apart from a reported full screen glitch. This can be overcome with a small piece of software though apparently and I expect the bug will be fixed soon. It costs forty quid.

If anybody has played this I'd like to hear from you cos I'm sorely tempted to buy it. I played the original Nier on Xbox 360 and enjoyed that.

The game I've been playing most is Dragon Age Inquisition, 53 hours logged so far, love this game and the best £7.49 I've spent for some time on a game.

I paid the same amount for Homefront Revolution and it's the biggest pile of tosh ever, the gameplay is complicated and horrific and there are more cheesy cutscenes than gameplay. Plus you get to ride a motor cycle and the handling is awful. Avoid this one.

I went back to to Mafia III after almost a year, played half an hour and now I'm stuck on a stealth sequence so have given up. Never did like that game, unlike Mafia II which I enjoyed and finished.

For 2 quid I bought this mad game on Steam named Sword with Sauce where basically your lo-graphic figure has to kill about 30-odd enemies with a sword, semi-automatic and shotgun. It's quite addictive and well worth the price imo.

Last night I downloaded The Room 2 and Spec Ops The Line from Steam for £4 each, haven't tried them yet though.

Still playing Hell Girls, Borderlands 2 occasionally and CoD4 as ever.

And that's about it really, Nier-Automata - to buy, not to buy or wait til it gets cheaper?

 

[Ian]

I'd not heard of Nier-Automata until you mentioned it... but now that you have I can see why you're interested. I might go for the PS4 version though, but perhaps in a few months time once I've played through some of my existing games.

Not very helpful eh .

May be worth waiting a few weeks and see if they can sort the bugs out though. Plus, it may come down in price - £40 seems a bit steep!

 

[Ian]

Looks like it's £32 at GMG: https://www.greenmangaming.com/games/nier-automata-day-one-edition/

 

[floppybootstomp]

At that price I couldn't resist buying NIER-Automata and bought the code from Greenman and installed it within Steam. Thanks for the link Ian.

So, I love the game and the gameplay though it bears very little similarity to the 1st NIER game. It is VERY much a console game, reminds me a little of Bayonetta and is better suited to a controller than keyboard/mouse so after a short while I switched to my Xbox 360 wireless controller.

One gripe though, I initially played 76 minutes and progressed a fair way beyond Level Three but at no point was the game saved. I did not have an option to save manually.

This meant when I started the game again I was right back at the beginning. This, imo, is a major flaw and something I hope they'll do something about. On the positive side the full screen issue has been sorted, it plays in full screen and is ok at a high resolution.

I would imagine playing it on a PS4 is probably a better option.

Also played Spec Ops The Line a little - ho hum. And also played The Room 2 for first couple of levels - really good, imo. I think it's the first time I've ever played a puzzle game.

 

[Abarbarian]

@floppybootstomp If you like Wallace and Gromit their puzzle games are a real hoot. An cheap too usually on Steam.

I'm stuck halfway through the first in the series.

 

[Becky]

@Abarbarian is that the Home Sheep Home games you're talking about?

 

[Abarbarian]

@Abarbarian is that the Home Sheep Home games you're talking about?

Hmm can not seem to find them on Steam, wonder where I got mine from I have the whole series.

These are what I mean,

http://www.gamespot.com/wallace-and-gromits-grand-adventures-2009/

 

[floppybootstomp]

It would appear these 8 year old W & G games are no more

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/te...no-longer-available-to-download/1100-6417219/

 

[Abarbarian]

It would appear these 8 year old W & G games are no more

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/te...no-longer-available-to-download/1100-6417219/

Indeedy no wonder I could not find them on Steam.

I did find a legal demo version

https://wallace-and-gromitts-grand-adventures.en.softonic.com/

an I found a full version which I tried out in Play on Linux on me MX-16. It works but my graphics card or something does not play well with it. According to WINE the Wallace and Gromitt stuff works very well so I recon it is my aged Dell not the software that is at fault.



Anyways I have all four games on W7 and they are great fun

 

[floppybootstomp]

WINE? For WINE I whine

For such a purist I'm surprised you use this buffer device, I suspect Mr Torvalds would not approve

No Wallace & Grommet for me then eh? C'est La Vie, I won't lose sleep...

As for Nier-Automata and the savegame prob, I searched out there in the ether and found out why I couldn't save. It would appear there's no autosave in the game at all, just savepoints, kinda like the typewriters in the Resident Evil series.

I found out that the first save point doesn't come until 'at least an hour into the game'. As I'd played 76 minutes it seems I was a gnats whisker from reaching that save point.

Well damn, to coin a phrase. Oh well, start again time, at least it'll be an enjoyable ride.

 

[Becky]

Ah, that's annoying. I kinda like games without a regular autosave - the risk of having to replay sections makes it more rewarding when you accomplish things I think. I've certainly been finding that with survival mode on Fallout 4

 

[Abarbarian]

"savepoints" are a real pain, every game should have the ability to save whenever you like. Not everyone has the same skill set. You might find a certain sequence easy and I might find the same really hard. For instance I am stuck in L4D2 where you have to get petrol cans and fill up a car to escape. I have tried and tried again and again but can not move forward. If I could save I could inch forward and move on as it is I have binned the game.
Games are meant to be enjoyable entertainment not some masochists dream.

 

[floppybootstomp]

I never did finish Left For Dead 2 myself but I don't recall getting stuck on it. A shame you're stuck, I think it's a good game.

I have a whole list of games I've given up on through just simply being unable to get past a certain point. Time was you could usually find a cheat to help you past a certain point or two but that's not so common now. I don't think I could ever have completed the first Far Cry without a cheat. I did manage about 9/10 of the game without cheats but those last sequences - phew.

Here's some games I've abandoned, usually not very far from the end:

Titanfall 2
Bioshock Infinity (Just the very last scene)
Mafia 2 DLC (not the main game, I finished that)
Mafia III
Ori and The Blind Forest Definitive Edition
Darksiders
Darksiders II
Demonicon
Devil May Care 4
Middle Earth Shadow Of Mordor
Outlast
Rise Of The Tomb Raider
Woolfe: The Red Hood Diaries

And there are probably more.

Now, it could be that as I age my reflexes are slowing or even that I am not gifted in the brainbox dept but I'd like to think not, I still do ok in online shooters so I can't be too bad.

Damn frustrating, the whole thing.

 

[Becky]

Games are meant to be enjoyable entertainment not some masochists dream.

Lol, guess I'm a masochist then! I really enjoy playing Faster Than Light and I spend most of my time dying on that (and when you die you go back to the start).

 

[floppybootstomp]

I have to say I've really been enjoying Nier Automata, seven hours into it so far.

I did eventually find a save point after one hour+ of frenzied game play activity at the start, now there are save points all over the show.

The Japanese fella who dreamed this up must make his tea from herbal infusions gathered in Grannys unusual organic garden, it's really quite odd. I was right by saying it reminded me of Bayonetta, it's by the same writer.

Good to buy a game I really like, disappointments work out a bit too deep in the purse.

Another good game, a puzzle game, is Ubisofts Valiant Heart: The Great War, an animated WW1 puzzle game, I picked it up for three quid in a sale. Well made, good puzzles and engrossing, imo.

 

[floppybootstomp]

After a fairly long period where I was largely disappointed with my game purchases, just lately I seem to have a hit a good patch, at the moment have several games on the go I'm enjoying a great deal.

Now 23 hours into Nier Automata and enjoying it a lot. Dragon Age Inquisition is the best £7.49 I've ever spent on a game, I'm playing that regularly, so much so that it's been some time since I've fired up The Witcher III, excellent though that game is. Now 70 hours into Dragon Age Inquisition.

I recently bought Dirt Rally for £13.29 from Greenman Gaming, it's currently £40 on Steam, despite being about 18 months old. I was wary of buying this one as I'd read it was difficult, more sim than arcade but it did have almost unanimous good reviews so I plunged in.

It is difficult but unlike most difficult games where I give up in a fit of pique and sulk, I'd go so far as to say this is possibly the best racing game I've ever played. From a field of ten my first finishing position was 9th. Then 10th, then 9th again until by around the 16th race I managed 5th position.

It's very realistic and a lot of fun, the realism forces you to concentrate but your concentration is rewarded. There's just something about Dirt Rally that keeps bringing me back to it and that is likely the best recommendation for any game. Early days though so we'll see how I fare in later stages.

And finally I bought the 18 year old point and click game Full Throttle from GOG, it's been re-mastered. This was for pure nostalgia reasons and I'm pleased to say it's still an enjoyable outing and looks and plays a lot better in its remastered form.

I was considering whether to buy the 'enhanced edition' of Planescape Torment on GOG for £15 but I still have the original game on CD and it plays ok on Win 7 and Win XP, both of which I have installed on separate disks (the original does not play ok on Win 10). I also remember getting stuck on this game about 3 or 4 hours into it back in the day so I'm holding fire on that one for now, maybe worth considering if it turns up in a sale. It's also on Steam for the same price.

 

[floppybootstomp]

PS: Full Throttle remastered is discounted by 20% at GOG atm which makes it currently £8.79.

Also, Saints Row 2 is currently a freebie on GOG, all you have to do is register to get it as far as I know, I've downloaded it myself but haven't tried it yet. I already own Saints Row 3 & 4 on Steam but haven't played them for a while.

 

[Becky]

Glad to hear you're enjoying Nier Automata. I've finally finished with Fallout 4 (after I thought I'd finished with it last time I had a quick dabble at Survival mode which then turned into a full playthrough), so next on my list is finishing off the Batman Arkham games. After that I think I might have a go at Witcher III, it seems like the kind of game I'd like.

I'm laid up with my back again at the moment, so I'm mostly gaming in the afternoons because there's not much else I can do after the painkillers have kicked in!

 

[Becky]

@floppybootstomp: Nier: Automata – how a ‘weird game for weird people’ became a sleeper hit

 

[floppybootstomp]

@floppybootstomp: Nier: Automata – how a ‘weird game for weird people’ became a sleeper hit

I can live with that

I wrote this in an earlier post here:

The Japanese fella who dreamed this up must make his tea from herbal infusions gathered in Grannys unusual organic garden, it's really quite odd.