What games are you playing currently?

[Owain Taggart]

I find Lego games to be the best example of bloat. They're structured in such a way to make you play through missions multiple times in order to gather everything and there is so much to collect, to the point that the games tend to suffer in general with how the game is played. Lots of jank for example. Even more so now that most of them have become open-world games. Like, I was playing through the DC Supervillains game recently and I couldn't believe how many activities were scattered across the world, many of them requiring character unlocks.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

I find Lego games to be the best example of bloat. They're structured in such a way to make you play through missions multiple times in order to gather everything and there is so much to collect, to the point that the games tend to suffer in general with how the game is played. Lots of jank for example. Even more so now that most of them have become open-world games. Like, I was playing through the DC Supervillains game recently and I couldn't believe how many activities were scattered across the world, many of them requiring character unlocks.

Oh god tell me about it. It's partly why I abandoned the Lego Horizon game. It requires what seem like multiple runs to level up every main character and I just couldn't be bothered. I finished the main story and that's about it.

 

[Owain Taggart]

They're fun games, but they are bloat just for the sake of bloat to extend the playtime without much gameplay value. The earlier games were not so bad because they were much more linear, therefore easier to spot things you could come back to with other characters. But over the course of time, they've become more complicated games with open worlds of their own, and so many prerequisites to do activities that it just sucks the fun right out of doing anything but the main story.

Like in DC Supervillains, long distances between mission locations requiring driving or flying while following the GPS, but wonky driving physics making those parts not very enjoyable. And the worlds are not especially well designed enough to be memorable while there are tons of unlocks available throughout the world that you're somehow supposed to remember and get back to. And while the earlier games had dozens of characters, newer games now have bazillions upon bazillions of minor characters to unlock.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Just plopping this down here. I like this channel

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[FPAlpha]

Well I played through the first couple hours of Clair Obscur and it's not for me. The JRPG style just didn't thrill me. Very colourful game and great artwork but yeah.

Sorry to hear that the gameplay didn't catch you or rather repelled you. I'm not into JRPGs too, the whole Final Fantasy franchise blew past me without me having played a minute of any game it has.

However you are missing out mainly due to story, music and general vibe. This is a serious contender for Game of the Year and rightfully earned.

Once i figured out the gameplay ( especially blocking and parrying but also the skill/booster system) it was amazing exploring the areas and figuring out the actual story ( which broke my heart and made me emotional, not a small feat for a game with me).

Maybe way down the line you'll pick it up again

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Sorry to hear that the gameplay didn't catch you or rather repelled you. I'm not into JRPGs too, the whole Final Fantasy franchise blew past me without me having played a minute of any game it has.

However you are missing out mainly due to story, music and general vibe. This is a serious contender for Game of the Year and rightfully earned.

Once i figured out the gameplay ( especially blocking and parrying but also the skill/booster system) it was amazing exploring the areas and figuring out the actual story ( which broke my heart and made me emotional, not a small feat for a game with me).

Maybe way down the line you'll pick it up again

It didn't repel me just it didn't grab me and peak my interest. It's got phenomenal production, look, and atmosphere. It just didn't peak my interest to keep going.

 

[FPAlpha]

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Never mind that Clair Obscur is a fantastic game where all elements - characters, story and music - come together in a beautiful way but i am actually shocked when i read the comments in this video and saw that people were sending money to the studio as a thanks, people buying the game discounted and sending the difference or outright making a donation ( sometimes not a small sum).

I have never seen this done for a game company, especially when you think about the huge companies like EA that are more hated than liked it seems.

 

[$3DollarBillYall]

Yakuza 0 for Switch 2, up to Chapter 16 so the end is in sight.

I originally played this on PC, it's been such a pleasure to revisit this on the Switch 2.

To date, it's still the best ever Yakuza game from the six that I've played.