Brannigan

Phaedrus' Street Crew
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Posts posted by Brannigan


  1. 4 hours ago, Henke said:

    Yeeeees I'm also playing this! In a week when TLOU2 and Desperados 3 is releasing, this thing just came out of nowhere and stole my attention away from those. :D

     

    I like games where you're just a everyday workerperson doing a job, and I like zero-G space-sim-stuff, so this is right up my alley. It's cool that Focus is throwing so much money at jazzing up weird niche sims like this and Snowrunner and giving them the AAA-treatment.

    I usually not into the job games, but this is just really hitting the spot for some reason!


  2. Hardspace Shipbreaker! Had no idea this was a thing and suddenly I put hours into the early access!  You play as an indentured spaceman tasked with salvaging spacecraft for parts to work off debt.  Currently that whole debt thing feels more like window dressing, but boy is the ship snipping fun as hell.  Effectively it's like a puzzle of dismantling, caring not to rupture fuel lines, causing explosive decompression, not damaging the goods, etc.  You get  a sort of gravity gun/tether to move bits and a cutting tool for slicing and dicing.  Also have to mind your O2 levels, health if you do something stupid, and thruster fuel.  You also work in 15 minute shifts, which may seem stressful, but you can work multiple shifts on the same ship, it's mainly there to encourage you to work consistently and again, remind you that you're on the job.  There's also a freeplay mode which can be fun to muck around in, but it removes not only the time limit but gives you infinite health/O2 as well, great for trying to explode ships but takes out the dramatic bits of the career mode.  Regardless of the mode, it's got a real zen like quality, very relaxing to play, for the most part.  Ships get more complicated as you rank up, the progression from tier 3 to 4 was a huge leap and that was truly the first time I was just dumbfounded on how to approach a job, in a very good way(After surveying the ship for a solid 5 minutes, I immediately caused a violent decompression, then ignited the ships nuclear reactor maybe a minute later by accident.)

     

    Did I mention you're flying around in space in first person?


  3. 2 hours ago, Ben X said:

    Just finished S4. So, from episode 9 onwards, it gets AMAZING. They perhaps weren't playing with the most original ideas -

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    evil doppelgangers, evil robots, a dark timeline where the Nazis won

    - but they made them their own and made them sing. Consistently clever, exciting, funny and touching. Wow. If S5+ can at least stay in a place between S3 and this, I'll be happy.

    I'd say it does? I feel like it goes too big and loses sight a little of what made s4 good. Certainly better than the first 3 seasons though.


  4. I just powered through the main game and part of the epilogue....and uh. jesus this game is way too long.  I enjoyed my time, but I wish they approached some of the design differently.  Combat in particular feels like it could be much more exciting with just a few tweaks? I mean it was like 30 hours in before I realized that enemies could run up to you and knock your gun out of your hand and vice versa, that was thrilling! But the game rarely ever allows that event to occur.  I feel like even just tweaking the ammo count to like, semi-realistic numbers would be a huge deal and vary up the combat a lot, encourage more close combat and movement rather than mostly hunkering down in one spot and hope you don't run of your 2000 rounds of ammo. You'd also likely have to reduce enemy count which, also would be nice? I'm pretty sure I've murdered the population of several towns just doing story missions and paying 50 bucks makes everyone cool with that I guess.  The economy is also extremely fucked and does not gel with the story at all.  There's constant talk about lack of money by characters and two of story based robberies had me set up for life basically. Arthur talking about not being able to afford something monetarily  that is not expensive while holding 3000 dollars is wild(I did not do any side hustles either, money mainly came from story.)

     

    It's a very pretty game that is just filled with moments of design and story butting heads hard. I'm saying lot of negative stuff, but I enjoyed it! it's just frustrating at times especially since there's a lot of well crafted bits along with weird and sometimes bad choices in design.


  5. 10 hours ago, Erkki said:

    Ok as I read the start of this page by Cbirdsong, I think the exact saame can be said by this season, but now it’s worse because the production value is also somehow used in the wrong places, at least in the finale.

     

     

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    Just nothing makes sense - where are the crowds of people who ran off but survived - even as Tyrion and Jon talk seriously about “liberation” in quotes I don’t think they meant that ALL died and the ruins were liberated?

     


     

    I think all the changes to Daenerys make sense - she lost her cool when she found out she was not the rightful heir actually. She had this image of herself as the white savior and this extended to believing that the people need to be on her side so much that when they are not, they can be killed. What about the people who didn’t make it to the keep, though? Unless I missed something we are just left wandering - did she really also kill everyone who didn’t run to the keep to defend Cersei or are they just not show.

     

    And there was almost nothing at all recently to develop the story towards this point, so it just feels like “here’s the ending, you connect the dots later”. And so many writing mistakes IMHO in total that I can’t be even arsed to start on them all besides the main one that Daenerys’ breaking was a sudden twist that should have actually had some better justification throughout the previous seasons.

     

     

     

    Re: Dany

     

    Spoiler

    They successfully wrote an arc for her to destroy the red keep no matter what collateral damage, maybe.  But then of course she destroyed the city with some collateral to the red keep which made no god damn sense.  In addition to, well, a lot of stuff, they did not build up most story beats properly, it really need more time and in some cases...better thought out arcs.

     


  6. 6 hours ago, Roderick said:

    On a different note, I wouldn't necessarily recommend the new Aladdin movie. Though I will say the Prince Ali song made me laugh out loud, because at the start Will Smith wears a headdress so voluminous all I could think about was that underneath he had the same hair as Rudi van der Saniel.

     

    latest?cb=20090101181059

    Judging from the clip of Aladdin I saw, Will Smith could really have used that new sound.


  7. 4 hours ago, Roderick said:

    As long as it doesn't have Gotham's MadLibs approach to writing ("In THIS episode, RIDDLER teams up with POISON IVY, who falls in love with JIM GORDON"), it's probably fine television. But I have to say that I'm also thinking of seriously pruning the amount of shows I follow. Not that GoT is very nearly done, I don't know if I need more stuff to fill that hole.

     

    The shows I currently follow:

    - GoT

    - Gotham

    - She-ra

    - Dix Pour Cent

    - Planet Earth

    - Brooklyn Nine-Nine

    - The Good Place

    - Star Trek Disco

    - TNG

     

    Plus some anime like Sarazanmai, Ace Attorney and Legend of the Galactic Heroes.

     

    I could do with a few less.

    With season 4 they change up how the seasons are written, with it being a couple interconnected arcs instead of stretching out one story and it actually becomes alot more focused and tighter because of it.  The problem for me is with how season 5 starts and largely plays out it drops some threads that were important to the world of the show. It also goes for alot more bombast and Epicness which didn't work for me as it lost some of the character focus of season 4.  There's no mad libs shit in either season though!

     

    I should add, I was into the show but not a super fan or anything, season 4 hooked me haaard though.


  8. 6 hours ago, Roderick said:

    I kinda stopped watching Agents of Shield after the 3rd (?) season, which was the big Hydra/Ward blowout. The ending there felt satisfying and had tons of closure, and I never picked it up afterwards. I'm hesitant about it too. I'm not as much IN the MCU anymore, not like, say, four years ago.

    Season 4 is really really good! Though I also back up what secretasianman said


  9. 11 hours ago, SecretAsianMan said:

    It's not a movie but I watched the new Agents of SHIELD last night and we don't have a separate topic for it (that I could find).  I don't think its worth making one so I'll talk about it here.

     

    They do their normal thing of throwing you right into the thick of it without really explaining anything so that they can string you along over the season with bits and pieces of information.  And even though that sounds negative I kind of like it because it keeps me engaged more than a straightforward story does.

     

    (Contains Endgame spoilers in case you haven't seen that)

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    I already knew Coulson would be back in some form so his reveal wasn't at all a surprise but it's still nice to see him.  Coulson may be my favorite character of the MCU.  I think it would have been really cool if they could have worked him into Stark's funeral scene but that would have been very problematic.

     

    I think the season is set during the five year interval after the Snap (man I hate calling it that).  The last season ends shortly before the Snap if my info is correct and this one is set one year after that.  That Snap was very selective in who it decided to keep, namely the entire cast of SHIELD (as well as getting rid of all of Peter's classmates so they could be the same age in Spider-Man).  While I think it would have been a very cool angle to explore events during these 5 years, it's clearly not going to focus on that.

     

    Daisy clearly has much better control over her powers but I can already see her attitude and tactics causing major problems down the line.  Jemma becoming hard and dark in her search for Fitz is kind of a nice turn.

     

    There's not really enough info to begin speculating on where the season is going so I'm not going to bother just yet.  I do hope they at least wrap up some loose plots though.

     

    Yea the 5th season finale took place as the fight in new york happened, they actually show a clip of the ship coming in on a tv at some point.  This puts season 6 a year post ginger snap.  

     

    Anyway.  I'll watch it, but a little skeptical? Season 5 was fine, there were parts I enjoyed, but season 4 was the highhhhhhhhhhh point of the show for me, there was such a focus on character in that season that I felt got a little lost when they tried to go bigger in season 5.  Also Doom Patrol is kinda shitting all over any other comic book show I've seen, it's just so ridiculously good.  I never root for properties, but I wish it wasn't on dc's streaming service so that more people could see it.  I guess I should say I did watch the new ep of AoS, and it was fine. I wasn't super pulled into it, but we'll see how the show plays out.  


  10. Horizon Zero Dawn: Mechanically...fine? I hated the story and characters so much.  I tend to bounce off of games or media that do the whole "far-future" or "alternate" timeline thing where everything has some sort of adorable alternate noun and this game felt like that 100%.  It's like a non-numbered final fantasy game title that came to life somehow. Oddly final fantasy games are very much what I described but usually don't rub me the wrong way like this did. It also came off very flat in the acting and plotting from what I played of it.

     

    Red Dead Redemption 2: While I never finished the first one, I enjoyed what time I spent with it despite it's adherence to rockstar mission structure.  The second one....I played for maybe an hour and never touched it again, I just felt absolute no need to play it more, partially due to the million dudes approach to rockstar game missions.  I found the main character's voice to be very irritating which did not help.

     

    Fallout 3 and on: On paper I should be interested in these? Literally never clicked with me, not a single one.  Felt too aimless...and I feel like what the systems are going for in theory and what they actually do don't actually match up, at least in terms of survival.  Stalker: Call of Pripyat is the best fallout game!

     

    Fortnite: I....don't know why this game is so huge?  The building aspect is cool I guess, but I just found myself so...bored, even when doing well.  I was kind of angry at how boring it was, and I didn't even pay for the damn thing. I've always enjoyed multiplayer shooters and I just could not deal with this game and uninstalled it within 2 hours of installing it.

     

    4 hours ago, Cordeos said:

    I have this a lot, I can sometimes be picky or just have a bad first impression of a game and never go back to it. Most recently I bounced off Breath of the Wild, I found the weapon switching to be annoying, then got confused by cooking and never looked up a guide on how to do it. It was a pretty game I was interested in exploring but I just never got back to it.

     

    I also find that some games interest me but their mechanics super don't. I Tried to get into Ashen (my first soulslike) and hated the combat a ton. However because I was on PC I just cheated my way through to explore the world and see where the story went. Planning on doing the same when Sekero goes on sale

     

    Somewhat with you on Breath of the Wild. The mechanics didn't bother me but the game just didn't really grab me either, I played a while and just kind of stopped caring and haven't touched it again.


  11. 5 hours ago, Roderick said:

    It's APRIL FOOLS DAY and the HALF-LIFE 3 topic is resurrected! This can only mean ONE thing: IT IS HAPPENING IT IS REAL AND IT'S COMING

    Artifact is a very long ARG for HL3, confirmed


  12. Anyone else watching this? Recently gave it a shot and I am really, really digging it.  Really leans hard into comic book absurdity, and apparently draws from the Grant Morrison weirdo run of the comic a lot.  There's a lot of really great character building in this, along with pretty great performances by the entire cast.  Somehow really threads the needle of complete absurdity and real character drama well.  I kind of wish it wasn't a DC Universe subscription show, so more people would be able to see it, but at the same time they treat it more like prestige television and it seems like they're getting to do what they want with it.  Somehow a robotman brendan fraser being able to yell "What the fuck" at every absurd thing thrown at him feels a little more real and lived in, because really, if someone who led a relatively normal life got thrown into a robot body and encountered weird shit there would be a lot that.


  13. 12 hours ago, Erkki said:

    I'm watching it. Through 1st season and into the second. It's... good... and kind of meh sometimes. I think overall I like it, but I wish it had a stronger concept running through it. A good thing is that it's not something that invites you to binge it.

    It is very episodic, though there's a throughline that eventually starts to develop


  14. 11 hours ago, osmosisch said:

    I'm awful at this game but it's definitely the most positive online gaming I've dones with strangers since TF2. They did a ton of work to help with that, it's really cool.

    I'm getting better at it, I've now won two matches...in a row somehow, though I was mostly carried other than getting the winning kill on the second one.  Also somehow got the kraber sniper rifle and mastiff shotgun within minutes of each other on one of them.  I unlocked Mirage which is by far my favorite character.  All the misdirects possible to execute flanks or escapes with him just makes it that much more fun.  Even when I'm not getting kills with him I can at least use my decoy to reveal enemy positions/distract them from the real threats.  I've pulled off some pretty frantic magic moves to grab my squads banners when everyone else is down and reviving the team from wipe just from misdirecting the hell out of the enemy and bolting out.


  15. 18 hours ago, Kyir said:

    I've been enjoying it too, though I'm not good at it by any means. The stark verticality of some areas is a nice change to much flatter royale maps, and I much prefer the ziplines and faster movement to things like cars. I have found it to be significantly less enjoyable playing with random people, but that's part of every game. Being able to play solo at all would be nice.

    I've strangely had mostly positive experiences playing with randoms.  To the point where I get grouped with Godlords of the game and despite my doing shitty they still would compliment me or thank me for trying?  I only had one bad experience where a man who got angry because I chose the apex he wanted, despite him not saying he wanted it, and then proceeding to get himself murdered and disconnected immediately.  Teamwork is actually one of the big draws for me on this.

     

    43 minutes ago, Henke said:

    Amazing thread title.

     

    Also I'm not gonna play this.

    :eyebrow:

     

    I had no interest in battle royale games and this pleasing me in surprising ways! 


  16. Apex Legends! Very good!  I bounced right the fuck off Fortnite but this is grabbing me nicely.  The movement is great even without full parkour, as you can climb up many walls and slide like a boss(It is built off the house that Titanfall made).  The teamwork possible just from the ROBUST ping tool alone is great.  One button to point out an area interest, or an enemy, or a weapon/ammo/item of use.  It also can point out where people have been if there's doors and loots open!  The teamwork stuff feels very refreshing after playing a ton of Overwatch and getting increasingly annoyed with the lack of teamwork/comp that happens in that game alot, and annoyed with blizzard's general resistance to enforcing or encouraging teamwork in a more robust way.  Apex is also nice in that even if you suck you can contribute just by healing/shielding/reviving/pinging.  Also enjoy that you can actually revive your squad, coming back from near full wipes at times.  Like Overwatch, the lords here all have unique abilities that can contribute to the squad or damage.

     

    Plus right out of an action movie, I once slid past a grenade and then jump kicked over my downed teammate and took out the last enemy with a hit to the throat, as I was down to no bullets and no options.

     

    Edit: Many people have pointed this out but it delights me.  The roster of characters is quite diverse.  The only white man is a guy named Caustic and all his abilities spread toxic gas.


  17. I enjoyed Annihilation well enough the first time I saw it, but it also stuck with me for some reason.  Watching it again it grew on me a lot more, and now it's my favorite movie of last year(I have now seen it many times).  The depth of the visual storytelling is pretty wonderful and adds a lot to the enjoyment of it as there were things I missed the first time around.  I'm of the rare opinion that I liked it more than the books overall!  I enjoyed the books as well, and they worked best when they got very strange and abstract.  I however found myself very uninterested in the x-files-y/spy plots for the most part.  I saw the movie first, so when reading the books, that stuff felt like fat that should have largely been trimmed off or at least reduced.

     

    It's also strange discussing the movie in the context of Netflix, since they did not have any hand in making it, they just scooped up the international streaming rights because the studio basically had no faith in the movie.  Ironically in the US Annihilation streams on Hulu and Amazon Prime, not Netflix at all.


  18. Completed Claire's story and Leon's second playthrough.  Enjoyed the whole ride, though the events don't exactly line up right between first and second play.  Mr. X only haunts you for a portion of the game, though is more present in leon's story, and shows up earlier in the second run as well.  Overall enjoyed Claire's story more, partially for the heavy Aliens vibe, but also her story ends up focusing more on how shitty Umbrella is, especially with the orphanage bit.  Second run is definitely a bit harder in that ammo is more scarce and stronger enemies show up a lot sooner, however since you've played through it goes by quicker, especially since only the plot-related puzzles change, combinations for lockers stay the same so if you have a good memory or wrote stuff down, you get upgrades faster.  Some items show up in different places, but you know the areas well enough to cover ground pretty quickly.

     

    Overall great stuff, hope they keep going with the heavier focus on horror in other RE games.


  19. Well, tried the Anthem open demo!  The movement feels pretty great, except for the apparently-going-to-be-fixed mouse controls for flight and swimmies.  It really is probably the best Iron Man simulator there will be?  It's also so much trying to be Destiny. So so much.  Loot chests and random drops of greens blues and purples, standard loot loots.  The town you're in when you're not Iron Man is weird and lifeless, you really just go there to talk to people that feel like they were pulled out of Rage, weirdly stiff animation and dialogue.  This game feels like it's gonna be a lore dump in the worst way.  It kinda feels like there's a team that really wanted Iron Men and did pretty well at it, there's quite a bit of customization and loadout options for your Iron Man, and multiple types of Iron Men.  It feels like there's this other team that tacked on lorespacerpg onto it, and at least from the very small sample in the demo, is pretty lame in my opinion.  Unless there's some real meaty stuff that sets it apart from Destiny, I can't really see myself playing it.  The actual gameplay is a fun shooty bang bang, but it seems like it could easily fall into looty loot loots where you just repeat the same mission over and over.


  20. 7 hours ago, Henke said:

    Thumbs up for the thread title. :tup:

     

    Only RE game I've played all the way through is RE4, only ever played the demo of RE2 back in the day. This new version does look neat tho.

    :eyebrow:

     

    10 hours ago, Roderick said:

    When I heard about Mr. X (I didn't play RE2 back in the day, only came into the series with 4), this remake went from 'prolly won't play' to 'would love to play if I weren't a huge scaredycat'. I love me some modern style Resident Evil, but it also sounds TENSE AS F.

    He's easy to dodge, but puts constant pressure on you, so you end up planning your routes A LOT more.  Plus you can hear his thundering footsteps from like 2 rooms away and if you make shooty bang bang he's all up on you.  I did die once to him so far because he was in the way of where I needed to go, so I decided to take a longer route downstairs while he was chasing me, ran into a room that was previously clear and had a licker jump off the ceiling and rip me up, then a zombie grabbed me and took vital neck bits away from me.   He didn't actually hit me at all, but just him chasing me in there got me killed. As long as you're aware of your environment though you can go safe room to safe room so you can save often and take breaks as needed.  RE4 is the last one I played, and this plays much slower I think, even when not being pressured you have to be pretty careful as you don't aim perfectly, takes a second to get a proper bead unless you're just going all grenade launcher on something.


  21. 32 minutes ago, jennegatron said:

     

    Well you're in luck! Good news: Valve just released a game! It's called Artifact and... Bad news: it's already dying!

    Haha...well meant a different type of game! Artifact isn't really up my alley!