Weekly Recommendations Thread: What are you playing this week? : patientgamers

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago

Mad Max 2015. I've been burned by movie-tie-in games in the past, so I was skeptical going into this.

Man, I'm glad to be proven wrong. This game was literally a blast. The wasteland, the car combat, and the melee combat were fun to explore and play.

It can get repetitive, but I didn't mind it. Upgrading the magnum opus, improving allied strongholds, and making Max into a road warrior was just so much fun.

If you like the mad max franchise, you might want to give this one a whirl. Also Dinki-Di is the best doggo.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I finished Sleeping Dogs and am pondering whether I want to play the DLCs or move on. I started the first one but I'm not really feeling it.

The game itself was fine, I'm a little less high on it now than I was initially. The story climax committed the same crime RDR2 does - the kill count and utter destruction you cause pull you out of any sort of immersion you might have had. Especially since this is supposed to be an undercover cop story. It's still a fine GTA clone if you like that sort of thing, and at 80% off (like it was recently) it's not a bad deal. Solid 7.5/10 probably.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I played the game a few months ago and agree with everything you said, including the final rating of the game.

I'm wondering if you have the same takeaway as me or if you have a different view: perhaps it would have been better to play this game when it came out? At the time, the only recent GTA-likes were GTA IV (overall serious, almost a simulator), and Saints Row 4 (over the top, very arcadey). Sleeping dogs was somewhere in the middle of those two.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Yeah most likely. That's a good point you're making. But even then, it wasn't that successful or talked-about at the time. When I first started playing it I was wondering why it wasn't a bigger hit, but after finishing it I think I get it. So maybe even playing it around release wouldn't have changed much? I will say the pacing and length was pretty spot on. The story had a brisk pace and for once for an open world game it didn't feel too long (bearing in mind I only completed maybe half of the optional open world stuff).

It also needs to be said that it is a remarkably good looking game for being 13 years old and made for the PS3. Sure, I played the Definitive Edition and with DLDSR 1.78x on a 1440p HDR monitor with RTX HDR enabled, but still. It looks really good for its age. It's especially impressive how crowded the streets are on the max setting.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Back in 2012, I only heard about Sleeping Dogs through word of mouth. Perhaps the marketing was really poor?

Gameplay-wise, I agree. It starts off pretty solid but once you get further, much of the open world feels samey and the missions start to include too much shooting, imo. That, and I didn't really gel much with the melee combat after a couple of hours, but it seems like I'm in the minority on that. Finally, I feel like a lot of open world games at the time had a similar "formula"; they had many icon activities on the map, which were more-or-less duplicates of themselves.

I'll focus on the positives, because there definitely were some: Absolutely agree on the graphics. There's parts of the map that are pretty scenic (beach areas, city areas with more trees and vegetation), and night time looks amazing. Graphics wise it's hard to believe it came out 13 years ago. I liked the music selection and I also thought the driving physics were pretty neat. Also, I liked that there were many things to buy, so cash isn't just some point system.

Somewhat unrelated, but in your original post you mentioned losing immersion by the amount of killing you do in Sleeping Dogs. Have you played Metro Exodus? I feel like that game was smart about rewarding players who chose a non-lethal playstyle.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (7 children)

It's funny you say the open world felt samey, because one of my main takeaways after playing this game was "man, CDPR really hit it out of the park with architecture and level design for Cyberpunk 2077". Hong Kong looked great and crowded- particularly at night like you said - but it didn't have nearly the same distinctly different districts with identifiable character as you'd find in Night City.

The melee combat only got somewhat interesting towards the end of the game when there were some enemies that could resist your counters, otherwise it was mostly a case of waiting for someone to flash red and pressing Y. There are some interesting ideas with the techniques you can unlock and the combos, but most of it felt like window dressing more than necessary tools. The only thing you need besides counters is the upgrade that lets you disarm enemies carrying melee weapons.

Finally, I feel like a lot of open world games at the time had a similar "formula"; they had many icon activities on the map, which were more-or-less duplicates of themselves.

This is a great example of the game design sickness Ubisoft inflicted upon the world with the success of the Assassin's Creed franchise. It's released right in the window where that was all the rage, and this is absolutely peak Ubisoft Open World^TM. But that trend held for far too long - I've leveled that criticism against even titles as recent as Ghost of Tsushima.

The music selection was good, but I kind of wish the radio selection was deeper and not as wide. I would have preferred somewhat fewer channels but with a bigger selection of songs on each. I also missed more humour and talk show style radio. The driving did feel pretty good and the races were fun, although the AI was so atrocious at driving there was hardly a challenge. But throwing the cars into corners with handbrake turns and counter steering was enjoyable and I liked how the different cars had wildly different characteristics.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

If you enjoy the combat, Sifu takes that/the Arkham Batman style to a new level. Definitely has a crazy high kill count, but the story is all about revenge so there's not too much ludonarrative dissonance.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Sifu looks good but I'm kind of scared of it. I'm not sure I'm good enough to enjoy it, I might be too old and slow. I've stayed away from the Elden Ring DLC for the same reason, and likewise Sekiro.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

There's a story/cinematic difficulty, but I haven't tested it out. The standard difficulty is a challenge, but in my experience it felt fair. I've never played a Soulslike so I don't have a point of comparison on that front lol.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Sifu is more like a fighting game it looks like, but fundamentally the crux of the difficulty will be reacting to input - just like a Souls-like. And well, I feel like the challenge is the fulcrum of a game like Sifu. All I've heard about it is that it's great, but hard, and the virtue of the game is overcoming that difficulty. I don't know that the story and presentation is good enough that I'd enjoy it on Story difficulty.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

Fair enough. There's always the two-hour grace period for refunds. The first "real" level after the tutorial eases you in pretty well, so if the gameplay doesn't click there I'd take it as a sign. It's a unique game that punishes hard for mistakes, so it won't click with everybody.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago

No Man's Sky -I never played it because of the horrible launch, but the devs have been grinding out new content and fixes. There are still some flaws with base building, glitches, etc. But overall its fun to zone out and explore space.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago

Skyrim again

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Prey (2017), killer immersive sim. Reminiscent of System Shock 2 mainly.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

Prey is one fantastic game.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I've been playing a bunch of PS2 games thanks to PCSX2. It's fucking awesome. I've finished the first Sly Cooper and I'm halfway through the second now. I'm super excited to play the third one again (the last time I played it I was probably 10-11 years old).

I've also been making my way through the Jak & Daxter games cause of course. After that I'm probably gonna play through the Ratchet& Clank games cause I never did.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Due Process, a recently revived tactical shooter that is currently super cheap (<1€) and runs on linux.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Looks cool! Never heard of it before, I’ll have to check it out. That’s a great sale price

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

It has been fun so far, the planning tool for coordinating is a great idea. I like the somewhat retro aesthetic too. There are definitely still some bugs since the dev work was only recently taken over by new people, but it works fine for me.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

Path of Exile, they keep adding new content, and a new season started with alternative character builds (ascendancy).

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

Neverwinter Nights: there's a new DLC released based on Icewwind Dale which caught my eye so I'm phasing through the beginning campaign first.

I love CRPGs and Dungeons and Dragons but never played this before.

It's OK, plays fine in my PC, Beamdog did the Enhanced Edition treatment on it.

The story is interesting enough but I'm finding that the game is filled with fighting for the sake of it.

I'm not sure I have the patience but I would be interested to try some of the community expansions, someone even remade Eye of the Beholder I & II

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I discovered Brutal Wolfenstein (a Doom II mod that replicates and enhances Wolfenstein 3D) so I've been slaughtering nazi scum for a while.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Marvels Midnight Suns. Really wish it got a sequel but that's not happening. I really enjoy the hangouts and exploring the grounds. And the cat.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Any game with a cat gets a +2 added to their score automatically. It’s the rules

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Very good girl cat! She leveled all my characters!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

I love some black cat love. My black cat gives me my motivation most days

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Terra Firma Greg and Faster Than Light

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Have you beaten FTL on Hard yet?

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Started Last of Us Part 1 a few days ago. Surprisingly fun gameplay for something that looks like generic Sony third person game #23 at first glance. Story is of course excellent so far, as expected.

Game also runs much better than when it released so that's good. Still wouldn't call it a good port but it is passable.

However, Monster Hunter Wilds just came out so I'm going to be not-so-patient-gamer for a while.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

I finished Part 1 a few weeks ago, absolutely loved it. Enjoy it

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Mirror's Edge, Hades, recently finished Celeste on my new steam deck.

Also a lot of web fishing on my PC

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I'm currently addicted to Necesse, is a really good settlement builder + dungeon explorer (it's like Terraria and Core keeper had a child) it's still in early access but have a lot of content, is planned to launch this year.

The big thing about this game is that your villagers can work for you on your farm and organizing your items, crafting items and so on...

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

After not touching it almost since launch, I've decided to check out The Last Starship again. It's kind of a mix of FTL, Factorio and its own ideas, made by Introversion Software ( folks behind Prison Architect, Darwinia and other titles).
It's developed in early access, with regular and pretty enjoyable updates (just like PA) and is shaping up pretty nicely so far.

I still need to spend some more time diving deeper into all the new stuff added since my last playthrough but it feels just as fun as on launch so far.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Impatient week for me as I'm trying out as many demos as I can during Steam Next Fest. Will return to Arkane's Prey once it's over, this time for sure I'll finish it!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Control and Spyro reignited trilogy

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

Shape of Dreams, a top down action roguelite. It's incredibly well executed and highly enjoyable.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

MiSide. Not very patient, it came out recently. But it’s I expensive and my partner and I LOVED DDLC.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

Avowed and I really like it, that said I liked Dragon Age Veilguard as well. ¯\(ツ)/¯

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

I finished The Roottrees are Dead the other day, really enjoyed it. Chill puzzle game with some nice ui elements

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

Been continuing my playthrough of bully on ps2 (emulated) since last week. About 35-40% in now. Really enjoying it. Controls are abit clunky and the story can seem a little incoherent at times (eg suddenly a character has disappeared from the school right after doing a mission where he was very much present), but overall it is just alot of fun. Not big on collecting things so wonder what % is needed to complete main story. But got my eyes open to ps2 catalogue now as i never owned this myself and there are lots of gems i have barely or never played before. Was recommended the other ps2-era rockstar games red dead revolver, the warrioes and manhunt last week and i will check those out later.

Intended to play some more neverwinter nights, but didnt find the time. Had a real dnd session tho

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I just made it to the Iron Keep in Dark Souls 2. Every year or two ill play through the entire Dark Souls series trying out new builds. I'm doing a dex based power stance build this time. I've never done power standing in DS2 before and so far it's going well. I'm using the falchion and scimitar right now, but am likely going to try out rapiers. I did a powerstance rapiers build in Elden Ring and it was incredibly OP but very fun still. Once I get to DS3 I'll go with an INT build, for some reason I've never done that in DS3.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I’m currently replaying DS3. Just got to Irithyll a couple nights ago. Currently running GUGS until I’ve got the stats for FUGS (my personal favourite weapon in the game)

I’ve tried getting into DS2 many times and just haven’t been enjoying it ever. Not sure what to do, I want to like the game and I want to 100% it like I have with other FS games. Hopefully one day it’ll click for me

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

DS2 is definitely the odd one of the bunch. I completely understand anyone not getting into it. There's not really anything major that makes it stand out as being different, but like dozens of small differences that add up. There are very interesting builds that keep me coming back to play it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

It sucks too because I’m a huge fan of the other FS games I’ve played. Elden Ring, Dark Souls 1 & 3, and Sekiro are some of my all-time favourites and those four games probably have more playtime than almost any other game, but I just can’t seem to get into the second one. I’ve picked it up so many times and after one play session don’t want to touch it again

Patient Gamers