VideoGame_Discussion

Agreed @nonamesleft

Do we know what we're playing next month yet?

Next month will be Mirror's Edge month. @PizzaTheHutt suggested the first one years ago, but I figured Catalyst as an option opens it up for anyone who's already beaten the first.

Nice!

I like that pick... It's one of those, I have the games, been meaning to play them, but this should give me the final light shove to actually finally play at least the first one, maybe both. Nice choice Frank/Pizza

Awww crap
Since 2013 I've been playing through Mirror's Edge every year some time between February and April...except this year I didn't do it. Now I feel like I must. The last couple of times I played through it I did it in one sitting. I think it's barely a 6-7 hour game on the first playthrough, so it's still a fairly short game for those still busy with Zelda.

I played through Mirror's Edge: Catalyst once, I did enjoy it but not as much as the first game. Maybe next year I'll switch it up and play through that one again.

I actually would be up for trying a Mirror’s Edge game and have them in my backlog, but it’ll be tough to get much else done with Diablo IV and FF XVI. I’m so excited about this month.

I enjoyed the first one! I need to play the sequel... hmm..

Yeah I grabbed Catalyst on Steam for $20. Here's the time to beat for anyone on the fence. I'm gonna try to not be a completionist on it (unless I get distracted and just enjoy it too much.)

How long to beat?
about 8½ Hours
When focusing on the main objectives, Mirror's Edge: Catalyst is about 8½ Hours in length. If you're a gamer that strives to see all aspects of the game, you are likely to spend around 33 Hours to obtain 100% completion.

I wish EA would retroactively add in achievements to their old games on Steam, like Mirror's Edge and Dead Space.

Has anyone other than @citizen_zane @Renaissance2K @Frank beaten May's game?

I wanted to pick the gift card winner. Just want to make sure all the names are in. (Will randomizer it or something like that)

Finished up Mirror's Edge. I wanted to do this yesterday just to already have it done on the first day of the month, but the 2nd day is good enough. Once you've beaten it enough times you can get it down to like 4.5 hours (probably much less than that if you're one of those crazy speedrunners).
This is at the tail end of the ending cutscene just before the credits start to roll. I've been playing more PC games than usual lately and it has made me realize I desperately need a new monitor.

image

I'm glad this game got selected. I've had this game for so long. I just looked at it and it's still shrink wrapped! It looks like I picked it up on clearnace from Target for $10 lord knows how many years ago now. This club gives me a reason to play it now!

Started Catalyst this morning. I hate wall running and the load time sucks if you die. These games would be awesome in VR.

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F = Frank
R = Renaissance2K
C = citizen_zane

You won, @citizen_zane. I'll message you with that 10 to Amazon egift card.

Started on the first game tonight - not loving it so far - first person view is not a favorite of mine for platforming so I've missed a few too many jumps already. Also LB for jump and LT for slide feels goofy, might change that to A and X or something. Not loving the lack of direction either. I'm playing on PC with an X1 controller for now. I'll surely give it some more time and the change to controls could help, having a slight headache doesn't help.

nonamesleft wrote:

Awesome! Much appreciated.

Another play session down and my opinion has barely moved. This game is hard to get to grips with for me. I couldn't change the input settings, so LB/LT are jump/crouch and thus I'm forced to get more used to that. They finally showed me, or I finally noticed that holding down B will aim Faith in the correct progression direction, so that helps a little. I'm still not great with timing of hitting the jump button, especially close to walls and I get you need to build a little momentum at times, but it's also been a touch difficult for me to sense that properly.
I did go back and redo the tutorial stage to better lock in some buttons like Y for disarm and RT for melee attack. I got to a section with 5 dudes with shotguns and they wrecked me until I redid the tutorial and knew what buttons to hit. Since I've had this game for SO long, I'm really glad I've waited to play it until this thread's selection, b/c I suspect that I would've already given up now as it's just not my cup o' tea.
But I did just pull up a walkthrough and see that I'm 36 mins into this guy's 106 min run, so I'm right around 33% and I surely won't keep up that video's pace, nor do I want to use it unless I get stuck but I am encouraged and a touch surprised that I'm already 1/3 in. I mean I knew it was short, but it's shorter than I expected - my game timer shows I've played 84 mins as I'm surely not as swift or focused as this video is. I've only collected like 3 of the clearly optional bags of at least 9 that I believe were present in the levels I've played, but I'm not interested in those currently.
I do feel a bit crummy again after playing, as the camera bob and FPS perspective doesn't jive with me. I don't think I could ever own an VR set, I'd get sick too easy. I guess I'll seek to limit my play sessions to short bursts to avoid this feeling and the checkpoint system is good as I've fallen or been shot to death likely 2 dozen or more times already.

I started Catalyst tonight. I can already tell that the game is going to drive me crazy by de-mystifying the abstract setting of the original and EA-ifying all the game mechanics, but it's nice to be running, sliding, and zip-lining again.

But not wall running. I never did get very good at it.

Renaissance2K wrote:


Easily my most hated feature. I also am not a fan of the timed crap, or stuff you have to execute perfectly to proceed in the game.

As much as I want to play this game, I'm having a real hard time pulling myself away from Zelda. Maybe my obsession will die down a bit as the month progresses.

I think I hate this game... controls, or my grasp of them suck, I had to turn off the physics Engine for the game to not crawl to a halt in the one office chase and broken glass, so little lack of direction, so many times replaying sections, first person and precision platforming IMO, never work together, just vomit all around... but I'm committed now and nearing 45% complete, so I'll stick it out.

haha same... I'm trying to power through. The controls and physics are awful. I really enjoyed the first one but I'm struggling with Catalyst.

@sinnie I'm playing the first one :(

Slickriven wrote:

I don't remember having issues with the first one, but I don't think they changed much. I guess I just am worse now.

I haven't had issue with the physics in the gameplay, but the game became unplayable in the 1 office scene and really rough another time with 5 foes. I turned off the physX engine and that helped. I also had dropped the performance to the floor and the quality didn't go down which was odd.

As for controls I'm sure lots of that comes from my timing and me sucking at hitting jump when I can't see Faith's feet. I also couldn't get to grips with jumping up one section that was like a hallway and needing to wall jump up that hallway-like area to the ceiling/roof. I did it on my first try the other day but failed to progress much after that and took a break. Then last night I started back up and failed in that area so many times I nearly just gave up.

With that iffy physX engine now turned off, maybe that'll help me not get held up with performance related headaches. I'm sure I'll hit more frustrations from my control struggles and the game's lack of good direction, but I'll keep pushing through.

Thank. Goodness. That's. OVER.

I've disliked games that I've pushed through in the past, but ME was one of the worst I've ever played. I don't think the port helped as it looked identical if I ran it or highest or lowest graphics settings, but beyond that the FPS view for a precision platformer is a terrible decision as it got me feeling sick at times and surely led to TONS of failed jumps/falls to death b/c I wasn't sure where my feet were to time jumps. Plus it was very challenging to know if a fall was or wasn't going to kill you. Add in a handful+ places that I actually knew what to do, but kept failing at for a myriad of reasons, plus the lack of overall direction and yeah this one is at the near top of my most hated games list. I could go on, but eh.

That said, thanks for picking it Frank b/c if you hadn't I would likely have not tried it and surely wouldn't have spent the 5.6+ hours to complete it.
Proof, sorry my username on paper was hard to read, the game was SO bright and oversaturated: https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZN5pLFNSKPEpHaVn9

I went to see The Flash tonight. High on whatever drugs that movie was pumping, I decided to come home late and finish Mirror's Edge: Catalyst.

As somebody who loved the original for its simplicity, I hated how Catalyst crammed a whole bunch of filler into the game: more plot, more characters, more collectables, side missions, a tiny skill tree (more of a skill shrubbery), debris and neon lights everywhere, unnecessary online integration that will abruptly go dark one day...

But once you get the movement upgrades and you bring yourself back to OG Mirror's Edge movement levels, it's still a pretty damn sweet parkour experience. I loathed any time the game forced you to fight somebody, but other than that, when you're just a runner doing her thing, I found it pretty damn sweet.

I started up Death Stranding. It's a game I had little interest in, but is available via PS+ Extra/Premium and I started it specifically to earn the badge for it for this thread because it doesn't look like anyone else earned it.

I've played games specifically for this thread before and ended up liking them a lot (Horizon: Zero Dawn for example) but that's not the case this time. I believe this is the first time I've started a game for this thread but will not finish it. I'm maybe 5 or 6 hours into it and I don't know what is going and I'm not having much fun playing it. I have beaten plenty of games that I thought weren't fun, but they weren't 40 freakin' hours long.

Let's do a 20 Questions for July!

The questioning may begin.

1) Is it 3-D?

Frank wrote:

Bleed_DukeBlue wrote:

Clarify what you mean by 3D

Does the game feature 3D support through glasses or a special screen (or both)?

Was the game first released on or after January 1, 2015?

Lol. Umm…are the characters not flat?

Frank wrote:

benstylus wrote:
Renaissance2K wrote:
|Bleed_DukeBlue wrote:

No all around, except bleeds question still muddies things.

Is it 2.5D?

Graphically or gameplay? That's what I was trying to hint at pin pointing.

It's a 2D game

Gotcha. Thanks!

Frank wrote:

benstylus wrote:
3. One of them does