What Videogame(s) Are You Playing?

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3622

Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is the epitome of “good but incredibly disappointing” the likes of which I haven’t seen in a game since Mario Odyssey.

The cutscenes are fantastic, and look movie quality (if the actors in the films were all legos). The humor is 10/10 with tons of running gags and even some references to popular memes like Anakin not liking sand and buff Kylo Ren. There’s also some references to other roles that the actors did, such as Qui-Gon saying he has a particular set of skills or Beaumont Kin making second breakfast.

The concept of traveling from planet to planet and exploring each is very interesting, and each one is rendered very faithfully to the movies. The only real notable omission is that you can’t explore Starkiller base, which feels weird because you can explore the Death Stars. However, because the open worlds are so large, even on PS5 there were notable (over 10 sec) loading screens going from planet to planet, and this really dragged down the side missions where you had to explore multiple planets.

But the real flaw in making the open worlds so big is the puzzles, or lack thereof. Just like Mario Odyssey with its moons, so many of the collectibles have the same copy pasted objectives over and over. Find a battery/button, shoot 4 targets in the time limit, blow open a silver/gold box using the relevant character class. The majority of use for the Force in this game is stacking the same rectangular crates on top of each other. And just like Mario Odyssey, what makes the copy pasted objectives worse is that when there are unique things to do they’re really fun, my favorite was a Lemmings-type clone guidance minigame on Kamino.

And it’s not just the open world that suffers from the game’s huge scale, but the levels too. The levels are pathetically short in this game, with many of them taking place in only one room. And copy pasted objectives are also present in the levels to get some of the minikits. The Complete Saga had 6 levels for each movie, not a lot but you could play it and get a general idea of the major story beats of the whole movie. With TSS there’s only 5 levels per movie, and many things are relegated to the open world and are non-replayable. For example, The Phantom Menace doesn’t get a level until you are with Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan and Jar Jar swimming in a bongo. And in almost every instance where levels cover a similar thing as The Complete Saga, TCS did a better job despite being 15 years older. Especially the vehicle levels, which is really sad cause TCS’ vehicle levels weren’t particularly good.

And the most disappointing thing is that while the game has a good amount of charm, there’s so much stuff that gave The Complete Saga charm that’s just not present in this game. Why isn’t there a custom character creator? Why don’t characters still have their iconic death sound effects? Why doesn’t the amazing Star Wars credits music play after beating the end of a movie? Why can’t we unlock Lego Indiana Jones? Why can’t we freely replay the cutscenes in-game? Why aren’t we able to choose what character we want before entering the level in Free Play? Why isn’t there a traditional collect a million studs bonus mission?

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3623

The annoying thing about this is they said it would happen in several interviews and on twitter

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3624
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3625

Recently Silvereyes and I finished Ghost Recon Wildlands. The 2017 ubisoft-em-up tactical open-world shooter that was fun, in a base-level lizard-brain way… :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: :drooling_face:

The combat? Decent. All enemies, be they special forces policia or bottom-rung low-level Cartel lackey have laser-accurate aiming on you if you get into combat. It’s more of a matter of finishing them off first or getting to cover before they can start reloading.

The stealth? Basic AF. There IS some sort of tactical play based on loading screen tips – enemies see you less in the dark than the light, and you can contain situations by killing an enemy that’s immediately spotted you – but other than that it’s a very barebones “If an enemy sees you, everyone telepathically knows where you are” kind of issue…

The Story? Oh man. Personally, I enjoyed the grounded and dark tone, but I have to admit, it all blends together by the end and Silver and I had a lot of fun seeing how many times your handler Karen Bowman (played wonderfully by Jane Perry despite the shoddy script) would bring someone in for interrogation, and immediately threaten them with rape or murder if she chooses to lock them up in jail. Or any other sort of war-crime esque threat or manipulation. It’s… too much :sweat_smile:

BUT! In a fun turn-off-your brain way, we had a good time, despite the repetitive Ubisoft nature.
The world of Bolivia is full of life, varied terrain, and some gorgeous graphics in this engine.
For those who are fans I guess, there’s crossover missions with a previous Ghost Recon game character, Sam Fisher from Splinter Cell, and a few members of Rainbow Six Siege.
The Sam Fisher Mission was the absolute worst… Sneak into a base only at night, don’t get spotted or harm anyone or it’s mission fail, and after you meet up with Fisher, well, shoot everyone to escape anyway. LOL WTF GAME???

We’ll probably get around to Breakpoint one day anyway. Even though that game is marked as a step-down in quality from Wildlands from fans. It’s weird. One does story and world better, the other does gameplay better.

Silver probably doesn’t know it, but I personally think the main villain sounds like Ubisoft’s attempt at making a menacing, intelligent Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’nofrio) of their own… Obviously Vincent did it better, just thought I’d put the question out there for folks…

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3626

I almost posted this maybe a month ago. Taito Milestones 3 on Switch. Now, this has several games. But one in particular that I will talk about in this post is a game that wasn’t considered very popular when it was released. It was a prequel to the 1st game Rastan Saga.

Rastan Saga II (or Nastar Warrior)

And if the 1st or earliest game is supposed to be clunky/janky then they nailed-it with this game. :man_facepalming:

But once you get it down it can be done with a single credit. Which seems to be the intention of the game. Because once you lose all your lives and have to continue, everything will be reset to 0. Such as your score, and depending on how many bosses you’ve defeated and obtained the stone they leave behind, that will be set to 0 too.

And those stones are very important. They increase your attack power.

For me, the 1st level should give me an idea of how the rest of the game will go. An optimal run would (obviously) have no deaths, and getting the iron claws all the way up to the 1st boss. When you first enter their ‘arena’ you’ll have some i-frames. A crouching attack on the boss should kill him very quickly. But come in with the standard sword and shield or even large sword - you’ll have to strike a couple times then move away.

I’m not wanting this to be a walkthrough, but the 1st boss is the one I have the most trouble with unless I have the claws. All other bosses can usually be defeated without taking any or much damage. You just have to know their patterns. The final boss even has a bit of an exploit with the little wolf or dog minions he summons.

One major thing that made this game unlikeable were some of the jumps you had to make over pits. There was even a floating platform that you could only land on if you were holding down or attacking downward when you were falling. But once you know which jumps are risky and how you can do them without dying - they’re no longer a problem. It’s just that this game takes an amount of time to memorize with not only the obstacles, but the timing of some of the enemies you’ll encounter.

Another thing that helps a lot (ngl) is favorable RNG. Mostly in regards to the weapons you can pick up. The large sword seems to be the best due to its range. Augment that with either the lightning or flame crest and you’ll be on easy street.

There are a couple “power ups” that I’d avoid like the plague! If you already have the flame or lightning crest - avoid picking up the item that looks like a fang. It overrides either of the crest upgrades and gives you 4(?) skulls that orbit your character and disappear once they hit an enemy. After that - nothing.

The Pegasus shoes (or whatever). They’re meant to increase your speed. But they’re more like a time speed-up. Because you go up and down (like when you’re jumping) faster too. And this can be DEATH should you have to navigate past any floating platforms later in the level! Because you can’t get the platform to raise fast enough because you jump up and come back down too fast. They go down due to your weight. It’s like the devs didn’t even test this item.

There are a number of hidden power-ups in various places throughout the levels. I know where (I assume) most of them are, but will keep looking for others whenever I play it.

My final thought… Back to the attack power reset upon continuing. This is a trap. Now, one could continue if they want to go a little further, and that can help somebody learn more about the game. But you’ll also die faster in the later levels. So that you’re just (if you were playing this in the arcade and had to insert coins) spending way more money than you’d need to. I got to the point where I was familiar with all the levels, but decided just to start from beginning because you’d be so underpowered that it wouldn’t be worth it.

Okay. Final final thought. It’s a game that has its quirks. It can be a “bad game” to anyone that doesn’t know it inside and out. But once you get it down, it becomes a pretty easy game.

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3627

I’ve been playing Mafia 3. What a miserable experience I had. I don’t remember the last game that I hated so much while playing.

Wrote a small review on Steam.

Just don’t bother with this one. Play Mafia: City of Lost Heaven, Mafia 2 (Classic) and Mafia: Definitive Edition instead of this one. If there’s something good about it that everyone will praise it for is the Soundtrack and Story / Characters / Cutscenes that you can easily listen / watch on YouTube. Everything else is just a repetitive, boring, unimaginative content that is a slog to go through. It took me over 20 hours just to get all 3 lieutenants and to get rid of one of the bosses (Enzo). There were moments when I was zoning out while driving to a side-quest that was the exact one that I’ve been doing for hours on end or driving back and forth between the lieutenants to pick up the kickbacks.

The bugs are another thing. Visual bugs, mission trigger bugs, AI bugs (every NPC is suicidal and jumps in front of my car), and a few crashes on Windows 10. Don’t bother playing this on Linux (Mint) or Windows 11 (24H2), either the game runs badly or it just fails to start (it’s actually the first Single Player game that I played on Linux that I had issues with).

So yeah, the hate, the bad reviews etc. are well deserved. Again, watch the Cutscenes and listen to the Soundtrack on YouTube. You’ll have a better time doing so.

Sorry @Accidental_Kills98, I know you liked the game and actually recommended it for me but wow, of all the open world games I played, this one was just THE worst.

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3628

What an epic prank, @Accidental_Kills98 hats off to you

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3629

Did you play the Classic version or Definitive Edition?

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3630

Definitive, it’s the only way to play it nowadays on Steam.

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3631

Right… Shit… Yeah, I dunno why T2 decided to limit people with the DE. Would’ve been better if you got the Classic version alongside it like with M2.

From what I’ve read, the Classic version is a lot less buggy/glitchy. Luckily I had bought it on GOG quite some time before T2 came up with the whole DE nonsense, so I can play that one. Providing I can get rid of the shaky driving camera that is :roll_eyes:

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3632

Even on Classic edition, I doubt I could have the patience to go through all those side-quest to eliminate / hire / interrogate someone that leads to one of the main bosses. It’s just that repetitive. And those damn collectibles. The posters and magazines are fine but the damn fuses parts for the wiretapping are just too much.

It’s just bad ideas on top of bad ideas. Really no wonder that they released Mafia: DE the way they did. One to be faithful to the OG game but second to test the waters if players would be comfortable with an open world game that was more focused on the main missions and less on busy work like side-quests and collectibles. That’s why The Old Country will follow this formula and not Mafia 3’s.

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3633

True, the gameplay loop is probably a whole nother story. Though I think there is a mod that allows you to remove the grinding and just go straight to the main stuff. Anyways, I´ll have to put myself through the suffering as well :grin:

Yeah, I´m not sure why H13 went for the grindy open world formula instead of the story mission-focused approach of the first two games when that worked so well… If it was their decision or T2´s. Anyway, it´s good that they´re going the way they are with TOC.

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3634

People didn’t like the emptiness of Mafia 2’s Empire Bay so H13 though they could rectify that. Too bad they didn’t put too much thought into it.

:saluting_face:

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3635

I love Mafia 2 and the remake of 1. 3 was definitely a disappointment but im hyped for the new one. 2’s story is still so good and I often play it once a year.

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3636

M2 is great, but the cut content hurt a lot. Hopefully the Final Cut mod will finally manage to (at least partially) heal those wounds. But yeah, I generally feel like playing M2 around Christmas. I love the winter chapters in the game - wish there were more of them.

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3637

I mean I like the game the same way I like plain strawberry ice cream, I feel like eating it perhaps once in a year when I have literally nothing better, and it is better than what people say it is but it can’t replace a real desert or flavoured ice cream or vanilla with something added to it.

Funny, it might be because I am on console but I only encountered one major bug. I glitched a muscle car into the street.

Bear in mind Mafia II had glitches for me. Nothing made Vito’s “Welcome Back From Prison” party like falling through Chinatown into THE BEYOND REALM.

That happens on PC as well?

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3638

Yeah, it’s not platform specific. Pedestrians like to jump in front of your car, even if you weren’t even close to hitting them :laughing:
Even saw them in underground tunnels that have a special sidewalk that is way above the road level, with guardrails and they would still jump towards the road :rofl:

Is it the so called Definitive editions? That release is one big joke. I stopped playing after a certain point because the prompt at a bed to end the day and continue to the next mission wouldn’t trigger.

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3639

It certainly felt definitive as in that level also hard froze on me as well when had reset it. It felt like I was never going to get to that fucking whorehouse and I still hate the sound of Eddie Cochran.

But yes it was M2DE.

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3640

Could be. I have yet to play through it myself, though I have no intention of playing the DE.

I´ve never had a single issue with the Classic version, but the DE seems to be a buggy void-fest across all platforms (and I also have zero intention to go anywhere near it).

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3641

I immediately lost interest in Mafia 3 when I learned that it revealed that Joe survived being whacked at the end of Mafia 2. It completely undermines the ending of a great game.

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