32 hours into my first playthrough of Metro Exodus. I think I’m on the last chapter now (dead city). The game is simply a great piece of art. It adds open world like mechanics but in such an immersive way that even if you are “clearing” a marker, it takes a lot of deliberate thought and planning that it genuinely feels like a linear level inside a cohesive open world. There have been attempts like this, in games like Gears 5, TLoUP2, Uncharted 4, where you suddenly are in this huge space and going back and forth to clear out stuff in a shallow way. This feels much more deep (TLoUP2 was better one of the three, but Exodus is much more detailed) and for me it really worked well.
The game is bit clunky, but I feel it only works in its favour. If you think of a cool FPS like Far Cry, everything is smooth, quick and snappy. Guns feel great, killing is fun, traversal is pretty much brainless. Metro Exodus is completely opposite as your guns keep getting dirty, out of ammo or discharged. Killing isn’t fun as you’ve to be careful with ammo and also the moral points. Traversal is slow or so finicky that you have to pay attention. All that clunk makes you actually feel everything the game wants you to feel.
The criticisms that I do have though are largely to do with dumb AI and the good ending/bad ending system that is a series standard. I know I should not kill, so I try to be sneaky. But when I fail, then I can predict enemy movements, come in and out of dark places and just knock them out. This breaks everything and what should be either fun shoot out or a stressful stealth mission, becomes a cat and mouse game of knocking everyone out. You also don’t want to skip any of the locations as the game otherwise teaches you that important loot or lore can be hidden, which is generally true. So if you want the good ending, and want to upgrade gear, you pretty much have to do the dance of knocking everyone out. This is why I’m 30 hours in to the game. If the game wants us to find all the lore, and wants us to improve our gear and use newer weapons, I think it shouldn’t let us have agency over story, or it should have non lethal weapons to make it more fun to take out bases without killing anyone.
Overall I’m very happy with the game. I’ll probably replay it and not care about good ending and just play it as a shooter even if the game doesn’t want you to do that (OMG the terrible music it plays when you do something wrong lol).
You might consider turning comments like this into posts in this community in the future. You didn’t do anything wrong, but I think people would engage with you more and be interested in having a separate thread to discuss this in.
After getting annoyed at New Vegas, I picked up Red Dead Redemption 2 and have been really enjoying it. I kind want to get a cowboy hat, not ironically. My wife would probably hate it though.
I have just started Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order. My reaction to the opening controls training sequence: Dear lord why am I working in such a dangerous place?! This is the most dangerous environment I can imagine! Why is it so difficult to get anywhere? What am I trying to accomplish by risking my life right now?! WORST SHIPYARD EVER.
Started red dead redemption, I wanted to play something on the TV with a controller, so far it’s pretty good but I’m having a hard time with the controller haha
The controls on RDR2 are a bit clunky. You’ll keep accidentally pointing your gun at friendly strangers and riling them up. Know that it’s not your fault!
I’m still playing Animal Crossing at the moment but I did just pick up Cult of the Lamb for the Thanksgiving sale. And my husband has been killing himself trying to learn how to survive in Don’t Starve. It’s been very entertaining.
Remnant From the Ashes:
They call it a Souls-like with guns, I’m not sure I totally agree, but there are similarities with the checkpoints and NG+ mechanic. It’s a shortish game. Plays well in coop, and is made tomplay through a few times as levels are procedurally generated. The second game is out now, but there are still players on this.
Astral Ascent:
Kind of a rogue-like action platformer, the game seems straightforward at the beginning but as you try new runs and unlock more skills there is a very deep build and progression system where you can get super powerful and the screen goes wacky. Also the music and atmosphere is top notch. Oh it’s only just been released, but it has been in early access for +6 months, so sorry, not sorry.
Death Stranding Director’s Cut via PlayStation Plus membership. I had a healthy amount of skepticism about it at launch, but it got its hooks in me deep. I’ve got 80 hours so far and I’m planning to Platinum it before moving on.
It’s one of those games that will either bore you to tears or suck you in. Half of my gaming sessions are just spent building infrastructure. The game progression is on point.
I loved it so much. It became a mission of my life to rebuild all the roads lol. And then to get zip lines everywhere. However I left the last 2 trophies as it needed more grinding. Handheld gaming seems like a great fit for this game.
I picked up RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 on GOG after learning about OpenRCT2. Pretty much it’s an open source engine that allows the game to run on modern operating systems really easily. I’ve never played any RollerCoaster Tycoon before, but so far I’ve been having a great time with it!
If you’re looking for the modern version of this, Planet Coaster is a decent experience for those that enjoy RCT2. I’d recommend it if you can get it discounted. It’s better in a lot of ways when building coasters but doesn’t have the staying power that RCT2 has. Might give it a try though.
In memory of Matthew Perry, I played through Fallout New Vegas, with the Viva New Vegas mod pack. I sided with Benny (the character voiced by Perry) for the first time ever. Even played a female character with the black widow perk, so Benny could get lucky one last time.
I keep wanting to like New Vegas, but find that after a few hours it becomes more of an inventory management game than anything else. Has anyone had success with getting mods running under Linux?
Yup, I played with literally dozens of mods under linux and steam. I’m having trouble finding it again, but I used a guide to install steamtinker and mod organizer, then everything was pretty easy after that.
I keep coming back to GRID 2 on my steam deck. I’ll go weeks between playing it then get in the mood to work my way through a bit more of the campaign.
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32 hours into my first playthrough of Metro Exodus. I think I’m on the last chapter now (dead city). The game is simply a great piece of art. It adds open world like mechanics but in such an immersive way that even if you are “clearing” a marker, it takes a lot of deliberate thought and planning that it genuinely feels like a linear level inside a cohesive open world. There have been attempts like this, in games like Gears 5, TLoUP2, Uncharted 4, where you suddenly are in this huge space and going back and forth to clear out stuff in a shallow way. This feels much more deep (TLoUP2 was better one of the three, but Exodus is much more detailed) and for me it really worked well.
The game is bit clunky, but I feel it only works in its favour. If you think of a cool FPS like Far Cry, everything is smooth, quick and snappy. Guns feel great, killing is fun, traversal is pretty much brainless. Metro Exodus is completely opposite as your guns keep getting dirty, out of ammo or discharged. Killing isn’t fun as you’ve to be careful with ammo and also the moral points. Traversal is slow or so finicky that you have to pay attention. All that clunk makes you actually feel everything the game wants you to feel.
The criticisms that I do have though are largely to do with dumb AI and the good ending/bad ending system that is a series standard. I know I should not kill, so I try to be sneaky. But when I fail, then I can predict enemy movements, come in and out of dark places and just knock them out. This breaks everything and what should be either fun shoot out or a stressful stealth mission, becomes a cat and mouse game of knocking everyone out. You also don’t want to skip any of the locations as the game otherwise teaches you that important loot or lore can be hidden, which is generally true. So if you want the good ending, and want to upgrade gear, you pretty much have to do the dance of knocking everyone out. This is why I’m 30 hours in to the game. If the game wants us to find all the lore, and wants us to improve our gear and use newer weapons, I think it shouldn’t let us have agency over story, or it should have non lethal weapons to make it more fun to take out bases without killing anyone.
Overall I’m very happy with the game. I’ll probably replay it and not care about good ending and just play it as a shooter even if the game doesn’t want you to do that (OMG the terrible music it plays when you do something wrong lol).
You might consider turning comments like this into posts in this community in the future. You didn’t do anything wrong, but I think people would engage with you more and be interested in having a separate thread to discuss this in.
Sure. I’ll post one once I’ve finished the game and the DLCs
Please do, we need post-level content in here, lol.
After getting annoyed at New Vegas, I picked up Red Dead Redemption 2 and have been really enjoying it. I kind want to get a cowboy hat, not ironically. My wife would probably hate it though.
I have just started Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order. My reaction to the opening controls training sequence: Dear lord why am I working in such a dangerous place?! This is the most dangerous environment I can imagine! Why is it so difficult to get anywhere? What am I trying to accomplish by risking my life right now?! WORST SHIPYARD EVER.
The Star Wars universe certainly doesn’t have OSHA or anything similar.
Huge open void pits with no railing everywhere.
Except for the Ewok village. They may (and do) eat people, but safety first for them goshdarnit!
I’ve just been playing Valorant, might get back into Age of Empires 2.
Started red dead redemption, I wanted to play something on the TV with a controller, so far it’s pretty good but I’m having a hard time with the controller haha
The controls on RDR2 are a bit clunky. You’ll keep accidentally pointing your gun at friendly strangers and riling them up. Know that it’s not your fault!
I’m still playing Animal Crossing at the moment but I did just pick up Cult of the Lamb for the Thanksgiving sale. And my husband has been killing himself trying to learn how to survive in Don’t Starve. It’s been very entertaining.
Remnant From the Ashes: They call it a Souls-like with guns, I’m not sure I totally agree, but there are similarities with the checkpoints and NG+ mechanic. It’s a shortish game. Plays well in coop, and is made tomplay through a few times as levels are procedurally generated. The second game is out now, but there are still players on this.
Astral Ascent: Kind of a rogue-like action platformer, the game seems straightforward at the beginning but as you try new runs and unlock more skills there is a very deep build and progression system where you can get super powerful and the screen goes wacky. Also the music and atmosphere is top notch. Oh it’s only just been released, but it has been in early access for +6 months, so sorry, not sorry.
I think I am going to start Astral Ascent as soon as I am finished with Dave the Diver. Thanks for the mini review.
I’ve really been enjoying EVE Online for the past few months. Tried it a decade ago and bounced right off, but it caught me this time around.
Just started playing as well and was in time for the recent free week of omega and then topped up with the black Friday sale
Death Stranding Director’s Cut via PlayStation Plus membership. I had a healthy amount of skepticism about it at launch, but it got its hooks in me deep. I’ve got 80 hours so far and I’m planning to Platinum it before moving on.
It’s one of those games that will either bore you to tears or suck you in. Half of my gaming sessions are just spent building infrastructure. The game progression is on point.
I loved it so much. It became a mission of my life to rebuild all the roads lol. And then to get zip lines everywhere. However I left the last 2 trophies as it needed more grinding. Handheld gaming seems like a great fit for this game.
DS is an all-time top 5 game for me. It’s also one of the most difficult to explain why without sounding either bonkers or boring…
I absolutely love Death Stranding as well. It’s definitely a game where the details of the mechanics make the seemingly mundane become interesting.
And knowing that the things you make and place will help others is a great motivator.
Been having exceptionally difficult few weeks, mental health wise. Playing stardew valley to cope.
Star Wars: The Old Republic
Almost done with Dave The Diver. I am enjoying it quite a bit.
I picked up RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 on GOG after learning about OpenRCT2. Pretty much it’s an open source engine that allows the game to run on modern operating systems really easily. I’ve never played any RollerCoaster Tycoon before, but so far I’ve been having a great time with it!
I’ve been playing this, too. Supports all of RCT1 and 2 mashed into one game, which is neat. Runs great on Linux, too, which is also neat.
If you’re looking for the modern version of this, Planet Coaster is a decent experience for those that enjoy RCT2. I’d recommend it if you can get it discounted. It’s better in a lot of ways when building coasters but doesn’t have the staying power that RCT2 has. Might give it a try though.
In memory of Matthew Perry, I played through Fallout New Vegas, with the Viva New Vegas mod pack. I sided with Benny (the character voiced by Perry) for the first time ever. Even played a female character with the black widow perk, so Benny could get lucky one last time.
I keep wanting to like New Vegas, but find that after a few hours it becomes more of an inventory management game than anything else. Has anyone had success with getting mods running under Linux?
Yup, I played with literally dozens of mods under linux and steam. I’m having trouble finding it again, but I used a guide to install steamtinker and mod organizer, then everything was pretty easy after that.
I’ll check that out, thanks!
Bro-job playthrough
With a racing wheel:
I keep coming back to GRID 2 on my steam deck. I’ll go weeks between playing it then get in the mood to work my way through a bit more of the campaign.
I’m playing it mostly on 2P split screen, but I have to play the campaign too to unlock more cars, lol