The Official "What Are You Playing?" Thread (Post Screens)

[Remij 5,121]

I've been playing it and it's fucking awesome.  Right up there with the RE remakes IMO.  Like, honestly, outside of technical issues due to UE, it's basically as good of a remake as one could reasonably expect.  

[madmaltese★ 2,850]

I've sort of fucked up with Wukong. I put it aside a bit over the last few days when I got up to the final boss and have played other stuff and now have lost like all muscle memory and flow of the game at the literal hardest point of the game lol

Have had like 10 attempts of so at the boss but nearly always get up to the same stage. About 20% health remaining in phase 2. Honestly losing some patience with the game but it's my bad for not just seeing it through when it was all that I was playing. Some mechanics of the final boss are ass though. 

 

Other stuff:

-More Vampire Survivors

 

-Friend gave me back my copy of GoW Ragnarok and I decided to finally check out Valhalla and was very very impressed. Probably one of the best free dlcs I've played in a long time. Especially awesome if you loved the original GoW trilogy. It is surprisingly story heavy and nearly all are call backs to the OG trilogy. 

 

-Bunch of co-op stuff: Finished WWZ, started Vermintude 2

[JonDnD 3,092]

2nd monkey boss ? Best approach for almost all wukong bosses i had was to just be aggressive 

 

Both of the last bosses are easy to learn patterns and dodge 

 

Erlang tho ...ugh 

[-GD-X★ 8,461]

53 minutes ago, madmaltese said:

I've sort of fucked up with Wukong. I put it aside a bit over the last few days when I got up to the final boss and have played other stuff and now have lost like all muscle memory and flow of the game at the literal hardest point of the game lol

Have had like 10 attempts of so at the boss but nearly always get up to the same stage. About 20% health remaining in phase 2. Honestly losing some patience with the game but it's my bad for not just seeing it through when it was all that I was playing. Some mechanics of the final boss are ass though. 

 

Other stuff:

-More Vampire Survivors

 

-Friend gave me back my copy of GoW Ragnarok and I decided to finally check out Valhalla and was very very impressed. Probably one of the best free dlcs I've played in a long time. Especially awesome if you loved the original GoW trilogy. It is surprisingly story heavy and nearly all are call backs to the OG trilogy. 

 

-Bunch of co-op stuff: Finished WWZ, started Vermintude 2

Only use mana/cloud step in phase 2. If you have the mana charging gourd, you will be fine. 

[madmaltese★ 2,850]

22 hours ago, JonDnD said:

2nd monkey boss ? Best approach for almost all wukong bosses i had was to just be aggressive 

 

Both of the last bosses are easy to learn patterns and dodge 

 

Erlang tho ...ugh 

Yeah so The Great Sage's Broken Shell. I'm fairly agressive on him, first phase easy but then the final stages he just gets a crazy move set I feel and am currently out of flow with the combat. 

 

I tried Erland a couple of times and was like yeah nope... not for now anyway lol

22 hours ago, -GD-X said:

Only use mana/cloud step in phase 2. If you have the mana charging gourd, you will be fine. 

Yeah an issue I'm having is running out of mana by that stage. I won't use any in phase 1 anymore. Will get that gourd also cause I don't have that equipped.

[-GD-X★ 8,461]

1 hour ago, madmaltese said:

Yeah so The Great Sage's Broken Shell. I'm fairly agressive on him, first phase easy but then the final stages he just gets a crazy move set I feel and am currently out of flow with the combat. 

 

I tried Erland a couple of times and was like yeah nope... not for now anyway lol

Yeah an issue I'm having is running out of mana by that stage. I won't use any in phase 1 anymore. Will get that gourd also cause I don't have that equipped.

Stand very far away in stage 1 (like as far as you can) and then start a charge attack, and start running as the 4th focus point fills up, then unleash your hit. In phase 1 of sage, you can access the 4th focus point via charge. You won’t need to use mana until phase 2.

[Twinblade★ 4,272]

As good as the SH2 remake is it absolutely showers you with resources which does decrease the tension and horror aspect. I legit have had up to 15 healing items at some points  

[madmaltese★ 2,850]

Wukong done! Thanks for the tips guys, beat him on my 3rd attempt. Changed my tactics a bit, used GD's tactic of staying super far and just using charge attack mostly in phase 1. Got through that with zero mana use. Then for phase 2 pretty much exclusively cloud step.

[-GD-X★ 8,461]

1 hour ago, madmaltese said:

Wukong done! Thanks for the tips guys, beat him on my 3rd attempt. Changed my tactics a bit, used GD's tactic of staying super far and just using charge attack mostly in phase 1. Got through that with zero mana use. Then for phase 2 pretty much exclusively cloud step.

the perfect strategy

[Twinblade★ 4,272]

Finished SH2 after 18 hours.

 

The game does get a bit exhausting towards the end, especially starting at the labryinth which I think is the worst area and could have been trimmed down quite a bit.

 

But even in most of the other areas, there's a bit too much combat and enemies you have to deal with. They started feeling like fodder I needed to get rid of so I could explore in peace. There's also some areas where its so dark, you have to struggle to make out whats going on. There's one boss fight in particular that was tricky just because of the amount of darkness (I actually saw someone on gaf who was frustrated enough that he was going to crank up the brightness just for that fight).

 

Most everything else is great. I was actually surprised that I was able to complete all of the puzzles without getting stumped. They're not difficult but still fun to solve, its really just a matter of making sure you explore as much as possible so you have all the key items required and the right amount of information from the notes scattered around.

 

The atmosphere and sound design are really good, as are the visuals. The cutscenes are all well directed and the actors do a good job, even if to this day I find the story to be quite vague and cryptic (im gonna have to look up a plot summary to help put all the pieces together).

 

So yeah its really good with the excessive combat and enemies dragging it down a bit. I would rate it a 8.0 or 8.5, im a bit torn about how I feel about which i'd go with right now.

[Hot Sauce 2,872]

Beat SH2R. Feel pretty similar to Twinblade.

 

I actually had a bit of an opposite feeling of the combat, though. For me the start of the game was where the game was just so exhausting. I had a couple play sessions in the otherworld apartments/regular hospital where I progressed one save point and was like, "That's good, I'm done for the day." The 1v1 fights just didn't feel worth using bullets on so it was just melee kill after melee kill after melee kill until the knife nurses started showing up in the otherworld hospital and then prison just had so many enemies at one time that you were basically forced to go guns blazing. My stockpile was so high at that point I never had to go back to melee kills and I could just embrace the REmake, so I enjoyed the later half more.

 

My biggest issue with the combat is James having a dodge with iframes. I think the prison in this game is one of the most atmospheric and well crafted horror environments I have ever played, but it's hard to have the dread of the enemies within when you can dodge out of a spider mannequin ambush just by the audio cue. Double pyramid head boss? Don't care, I have the power to cha-cha slide out of your damage. Flesh Lip/P2 of last boss hanging out in the ceiling and you're supposed to follow along with the visual cues to avoid being where they're going to come out? No thanks, I'm just gonna stand here and wait you out then get my dance moves on.

 

Bloober Team did the hard part, they nailed the atmosphere of the original and successfully added environments, set pieces, and enemy variants that fit into the game seamlessly. Their redesign of the mannequin including the spider variant are unquestionable improvements to one of the GOATs. I just think they undermine their own game's tension with the combat. Somebody is going to make a mod that gets rid of the iframes on the dodge, takes out 50% of the enemies, and balances ammo/healing around those changes and this game is going to be really special.

 

Still enjoyed it for what it is, though. It's not a perfect Silent Hill 2 remake, but it's a really good Silent Hill 2 remake in the REmake style. For a series that's been this devoid of quality entries over the last two decades, I'll take it.

[Twinblade★ 4,272]

8 hours ago, Hot Sauce said:

Beat SH2R. Feel pretty similar to Twinblade.

 

I actually had a bit of an opposite feeling of the combat, though. For me the start of the game was where the game was just so exhausting. I had a couple play sessions in the otherworld apartments/regular hospital where I progressed one save point and was like, "That's good, I'm done for the day." The 1v1 fights just didn't feel worth using bullets on so it was just melee kill after melee kill after melee kill until the knife nurses started showing up in the otherworld hospital and then prison just had so many enemies at one time that you were basically forced to go guns blazing. My stockpile was so high at that point I never had to go back to melee kills and I could just embrace the REmake, so I enjoyed the later half more.

 

My biggest issue with the combat is James having a dodge with iframes. I think the prison in this game is one of the most atmospheric and well crafted horror environments I have ever played, but it's hard to have the dread of the enemies within when you can dodge out of a spider mannequin ambush just by the audio cue. Double pyramid head boss? Don't care, I have the power to cha-cha slide out of your damage. Flesh Lip/P2 of last boss hanging out in the ceiling and you're supposed to follow along with the visual cues to avoid being where they're going to come out? No thanks, I'm just gonna stand here and wait you out then get my dance moves on.

 

Bloober Team did the hard part, they nailed the atmosphere of the original and successfully added environments, set pieces, and enemy variants that fit into the game seamlessly. Their redesign of the mannequin including the spider variant are unquestionable improvements to one of the GOATs. I just think they undermine their own game's tension with the combat. Somebody is going to make a mod that gets rid of the iframes on the dodge, takes out 50% of the enemies, and balances ammo/healing around those changes and this game is going to be really special.

 

Still enjoyed it for what it is, though. It's not a perfect Silent Hill 2 remake, but it's a really good Silent Hill 2 remake in the REmake style. For a series that's been this devoid of quality entries over the last two decades, I'll take it.

 
did you notice how at the end 

 

Spoiler

The overworld segment in the hotel, the game was slowly giving you healing items and ammo but there were no enemies around. I thought that was pretty intense because it felt like they were going to surprise you eventually. I would have liked to see more segments like that throughout the game.

 
your playstyle was a bit different than mine though. I used mostly melee for the majority of the game because it let me stockpile a ton of ammo for the next boss fight, so I could just unload on them without a care in the world. I’m actually surprised there were no ammo caps for the weapons as I feel like that does hurt the tension/balance a bit.

[David P 209]

Yakuza Ishin dates back to the Yakuza 0 era and even though this is a remaster/remake it's age is showing. Even for an old fan of the series such as myself. Also being a spin off the story is one of the least compelling I have experienced in a Yakuza game since the like of Yakuza Dead Souls...

 

I'm 26 hours in and somewhat bored of the game. The boring dungeons and army recruiting side game isn't helping either. Feels like filler.

 

Not a bad game necesseraly but I should be playing Infinite Wealth or wait for Pirate In Hawaii, not this. Just hard to enjoy this when I know there's better Yakuza games out there I haven't played.

 

It's lower critics scores than usual for the series are perfectly justified. This is one Yakuza game you can safely skip, even as a hardcore fan.

[Twinblade★ 4,272]

1 hour ago, David P said:

Yakuza Ishin dates back to the Yakuza 0 era and even though this is a remaster/remake it's age is showing. Even for an old fan of the series such as myself. Also being a spin off the story is one of the least compelling I have experienced in a Yakuza game since the like of Yakuza Dead Souls...

 

I'm 26 hours in and somewhat bored of the game. The boring dungeons and army recruiting side game isn't helping either. Feels like filler.

 

Not a bad game necesseraly but I should be playing Infinite Wealth or wait for Pirate In Hawaii, not this. Just hard to enjoy this when I know there's better Yakuza games out there I haven't played.

 

It's lower critics scores than usual for the series are perfectly justified. This is one Yakuza game you can safely skip, even as a hardcore fan.

 
I liked it but I know what you mean. The recruiting stuff and dungeon crawling it involves is such an excessive grind.

 
The farming mini game is crack though, definitely focus on that instead. Also it had some pretty good sub stories.