What Videogame(s) Are You Playing?

When you meet Charlie for the first time, you’ll be given the choice of whether he should use the voice of Deadman, Heartman, Lockne, or Die-Hardman. Die-Hardman is the correct choice, but the other 3 options have their own line from Charlie about why he won’t use them.

If you choose Deadman, he’ll say “isn’t it a bit soon after he died?” If you choose Lockne, he’ll say “well she’s already 2 people in 1, it’s going to be more confusing also me using her voice?” If you choose Heartman, he outright says that we will be reuniting with him in Australia at some point.

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Yeah, I also tried all 3 ‘fake’ options before finally giving the ‘correct’ answer. Damn you, Charlie!

I was extremely surprised though to see Tommy Earl Jenkins return to voice DieHardman in this. I don’t think he was mentioned or shown at all in pre-release materials, so I assumed he just wasn’t interested in returning for some reason. (Also his character “mysteriously leaves the UCA” off screen)
But now he’s the new voice of Charlie, which is a cool twist, kind of.

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Being a huge fan of city-building games and Assassin’s Creed:



Valhalla is in my top 6. :slight_smile:
The original, the Ezio trilogy, Black Flag, and Valhalla.

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Quantum of Solace,

Treyarch’s last game before being exclusive with the Call of Duty Mines.

It’s a very strange movie tie-in game from the 360 Era where while it has set pieces and some plot points from the film. It’s actually a Casino Royale game in disguise.

The opening levels go beat to beat for Quantum, but then it shifts focus onto the events of Casino Royale covering the events of that movie in almost its entirety.

This by extension reflects the cast of characters aswell where Eva Green and Mads Mikkelson reprise their roles for this game which in a strange way is a treat.

The game is a first person/third person hybrid shooter, but it often shifts to stealth segments aswell. While the stealth is nothing deep the shakeup is nice to have.

I’m playing the game on the 007 difficulty, haven’t had much issue playing out these levels. I also haven’t had issues with the collectibles which add tidbits of information for that level.

Quantum of Solace is probably one of the better Bond games for that era. While it’s made by CoD Devs it really doesn’t have that slog that Golden Eye Reloaded or 007 Legends have.

I highly recommend checking it out!

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So… I’ve gotta be careful as my Internet Algorithm learns that I’m quite into Death Stranding, but there’s a neat video thumbnail about Easter Eggs I stumbled upon today.

OH MY GOD WAS I RIGHT ABOUT THIS?? :exploding_head:
(No spoilers I’ll find it myself.)

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Started playing Exo One, you maneuver a UFO-like gravity-drive craft around a variety of alien planets. It’s short but very fun, I’ve already completed it twice since last night.


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I really liked this short, zen-state, alien world speedster game.

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I recently played Tormented Souls. A little 10 hour survival horror indie title.
It wears its inspiration on its sleeve, loud and proud. This is for fans of early Silent Hill and Resident Evil. For what it sets out to achieve, it passes with flying colours.

If you have the slightest interest in this genre, do yourself a favour and get this game. In some regards it even surpasses its masters, especially with puzzle design. There’s some genuine out of the box thinking required here and I’ve never played a game with this amount of aaaaaaaaaaah’s. It demands that you pay attention and while some of them are very obtuse, there’s always a method to the madness that just clicks at some point. Only exception would be a floppy disk puzzle that takes it a smidge too far.

Soundtrack is amazing, warm and fuzzy and will also delve into Akira Yamaoka spooky. It’s low on jump scares. When they hit they got me good to the point it had me scream irl followed by laughter over how good it was.

Story was also a highpoint for me. You deduct it through pages and pages of text files. Even though I saw the twist coming I still thought it was great. It may not be the most original thing but the way it’s told was great. Lots of environmental storytelling as well.

The voice acting is stilted in the most loveable way. There’s three characters and none of them sound natural. It’s so atrocious I’m sure it’s an artistic choice to harken back to the classics of PS1 and 2.

Highly recommend this gem.

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Huh, I like the visual style. Seems simple but pleasant to look at.

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Galaxy Force II Special Extended Edition (via PS2 Emulator)

I took a screenshot when I noticed the score. It would’ve been better with -210 Pts. :sweat_smile:

There are a few other versions of this game in this compilation. The screenshot is from a remastered version (and I think there might be a visual bug with some of the background sprites having vertical lines near them, like the cloud above/in front of the ship.

There are no continues in any of these versions. Apparently, they want you to do a 1 Credit Clear. This is the furthest I’ve made it so far… Actually, I ran out of energy just a bit before reaching the Enemy Control Unit (essentially the stage “boss”). To make it to the end, you’ll need around 1 to 1.2K energy before starting each stage.

The arcade version (which one might play in MAME) does allow continues… Except for maybe on the final stage.

To play, you shoot/destroy things to rack up points on your Energy Bonus, and you’ll get another bonus after defeating the boss. Obviously, avoid running into anything and dodge enemy missiles/projectiles. There are 5 stages that can be selected at the beginning, but after all 5 are completed, you go into a wormhole… Or some stage that makes you think you’re in hyperspace or something at the beginning.

When this first came out, it was a popular attraction in the arcades that had it back in the day. It had those rope things around it so people wouldn’t get too close since it moved… As in rocked and turned like you would be doing in the ship in the game.

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I have Sniper Elite 4 wishlisted on Steam and noticed that it goes for pretty cheap during the summer sale. Then I realized I bought SE3 last sale and still haven’t played it, so I’m on that now.

Just cleared the main campaign and am considering the DLC missions next.

Trying to stealth yourself through missions can be pretty annoying sometimes, and the sounds that hide your sniper shots are often designed to be few and far between, meaning you can go long times without really getting to snipe people unless you want an all out battle.

It just sort of highlights why I love the Hitman games so much. I rarely find them tedious to play. I do with SE3.
It’s fun enough to keep going, but I feel like the design is far from flawless.

Might get SE4 once I’m done with the DLC.

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Sniper Elite 4 is a bit better since you can get suppressed ammo and suppressors for your rifles. It’s also where the maps get far bigger, with maps feeling far more on par with Hitman WOA’s open map design. 5 and Resistance is where in your rifle customisation, it will actually tell you the distance of sound the gun makes when fired. Once you start unlocking suppressors, you’ll rarely need to use noise covering to be able to shoot and stay hidden.

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Played through Thank Goodness You’re Here with a couple of mates over the weekend. Blimey Charlie, what a trip. Would be very interested how it would come across for non-Brits, because it feels like the most specifically British-targeted game made in many years.

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Tony Hawk 3+4 fun game, might do a fully review later on in the week when I have the time and have played more.

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I expect to be done with it tomorrow.

I’m at the final “save Churchill”-DLC and am nearing the end, but just rage-quitted when I saw a hidden sniper first, the game told me (by means of the red reticule) that I had a kill shot, and then it hit a rock anyways. So… tomorrow it is.

Question on Sniper Elite 4… does almost every mission end with having to take out a tank or somesuch like in Sniper Elite 3? I find these obligatory sections quite dull and predictable and I feel like they undermine the stealth feel I want out of the missions (though I appreciate that an action approach can be fun at times too).

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From what I can remember, there were either none or very little of those in Sniper Elite 4

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Not that I remember. SE4 onwards are far more open ended. They’ll usually give you your objectives, and then you achieve them in whatever order you wish. Sometimes that might involve blowing up tanks or something else, but you get land mines and delayed TNT bombs so you can hide once the fireworks go off.

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Been fully invested and committed to Death Stranding.

Discovered Legend of Legends of Legends and Ranked Rewards.

Rest assured I don’t plan on getting all LLL but just enough for the achievement tied to it.

36 hours in and still only on Episode 3. I’m a slave to getting all Connections Max level.

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Usually involving one main objective and various side objectives spread around the map.

Usually I think it involves killing a human target, though I think I remember one or two SE4 missions being about destroying enemy infrastructure.

Still, the stealth system seems a lot better than what you’re describing in SE3, and in SE4 you can customize your own difficulty of various settings if you wish.

Haven’t played SE3, was hoping to get it on sale on PS4, but then it got randomly delisted.

THPS 3+4 in fact I have been playing it for a few days now since I got the digital deluxe edition so I am pretty much going to do a write up about how I feel, this isn’t like a comprehensive review of everything since I haven’t touched CAP and CAS or the multiplayer.

I think if you call this game THPS3X then you will have no problem with this game, this is what THPS2X wanted to be. A two-in-one remake with new levels that acts as a proof of concept for something.and it 3n4’s case it is the continued existence of the franchise.

In short if you love 3 then you will love this game but if you love 4 then you will have a game that will make you grumble but will still be really damn good once you get over it and both sides will be disappointed by the casualties in the soundtrack (unless you’re me who loves 3 and loves the new soundtrack even if he wishes Spokesman by Goldfinger was kept in.)

So let’s get into the write up. I think going into the broad scope of the game is best before going level by level.

The Bigger Picture
Iron Galaxy trim the fat massively from the challenge list for both good (less samey sort of challenges and it speeds up progression) and for bad (I kinda want more Get There challenges) but what they do leave behind is good enough to tax the skilled player as you get to the top end of the challenges but if you are a casual player you get some gimmies and goals to reach for,

For some mind-boggling reason Solo Progression is locked and to unlock it you have to play through the career once which is bizarre so I recommend using a created skater for the career then plough through the solo careers as you please.

Basically the Career and Solo Careers consist of a slate of goals based on the original game (for 3) or based on missions but recontextualised for the two minute format (if you are in a level from 4) once you complete those goals you get “pro goals” like in 4 which additional occasionally harder goals, These goals are different for the three styles of skating (like 3) though I wish the pro goals are like in 4 where it is something tailored to the skater because doing this 30 will probably get boring fast.

The last quibble is a case of hurting by helping. To stop the collecting from being too much all but two of the (3 style) hidden decks, all the (4 style) cash drops and all traditional stat points are shared between your characters. The latter means each character you will skate as will have the capacity to reach max stats the instant you start a new character. Unless you intentionally limit yourself each character plays the same off the bat. But it stops you from needing to hunt even more icons on the screen. So swings and roundabouts.

Finally the (Stompy the) Elephant in the room. FOur has had its career overhauled so it is more inline with its antecedents than its later progeny. I think this is a welcome change, the 4 levels actually work surprisingly well in the traditional format even if a lot of the character from the game is left behind in the wake of the changes. Again this will destroy a 4 fan but a neophyte will probably think it is better. Hell I am a Tony Hawk vet and I think the change is good especially when you are speed running the level.

The levels are fantastic and if I had the time to go over each one individually I would but sadly I don’t have that time but the graphics are phenomenal and the levels are all at least a decent quality with my favourite being Pinball the level I was most skeptical about.

Soundtrack is the biggest change mostly because so much of it has been gutted, I have come to terms with it, I mean this is the digital age and you can just make a Spotify playlist. However the new soundtrack is fantastic especially the newer stuff which is a surprise since I turned off pretty much all the new songs they had on 1+2. A lot of it feels like it was curated from Tony himself which makes sense because he said he had a hand in the soundtrack doing things like changing the Toy Dolls song from “Dig Yer Groove” to “She Goes to Finos” (one of Tony’s favourite songs) which I thought wouldn’t fit in well but that abated when I put it on while skating London and the same goes to Gift Horse by IDLES but they both go hard everywhere.

Anyway that level-by-level breakdown may come soon but that depends on how much time in my day this game will share with my new job.

Anyway I recommend this game wholeheartedly.

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