What games are you currently playing?

[Ray502]

When summer rolls around, that's when I usually begin replaying the Rayman and Crash Bandicoot series. For me, school ends on the 26th, so that all in gaming fun is just around the corner.

[Bzzit]

Finished Bayonetta the other day and have to say, it's one of the best games I've played in a while. Looking forward to playing Vanquish on the 25th now; Platinum are a fantastic developer for sure.
In the meantime though, I'm not sure what single-player game I wanna play

[Greeness]

Replayed the original mega man x, and it was good as always.

[Serza5]

I just finished Tales of Berseria which had quite the wild and intense ending, not quite sure how i'd rank it among other tales but I do indeed recomend playing!

[Master]

Dunkey did a video where he discussed some upcoming indie games:

The Hollow Knight game looked and sounded rather interesting, I'm intending to read it up further, could always do with another Metroidvania title.

[Hoodcom]

I just finished Tales of Berseria which had quite the wild and intense ending, not quite sure how i'd rank it among other tales but I do indeed recomend playing!

I'd be asking you more about it, but I have a feeling you'd be trying to tell me I need to play the older ones I have first.

[Serza5]

That'd be incorrect Hoody; i'd be telling you do both. Although now that you mention it i'm not entirely sure how much i'd recomend Berseria as a first time tales game. Not that it'd be bad if you can't but i've mentioned before the battle system feels a lot more different than previous titles and the story as well tries to be different (Read : Edgier). Curiously enough too I was talking to a friend about it and a lot of Berseria including main story plot points & character costumes seem to reference a lot of the older games, nothing to the point where newcomers would be put off but still heavily present.

I can't mind all that you have off the bat but i'm sure you have Symphonia and Vesperia which despite personal bias I would recomend as firsts.

[Droolie]

Berseria's story pretty much requires that you play Zestiria first. I think the story's explained well enough for those who haven't, but the game is only half as interesting if you're not getting the constant references to Zestiria. There are references to other Tales games as well but only as bonus content. That makes Zestiria a better starting point than Berseria, but many people don't like Zesty (I loved it though).

I think Vesperia's generally recommended as the one Tales game that people should play.

[Serza5]

As much as Berseria is the sequel to Zestiria I would hardly say that it's required to play the later first. Actually I think it could work both ways where once you play one it's interesting to go back and catch all the things from the previous one. Which reminds me I wouldn't mind a 2nd Zesty runthrough for that reason, although I am fairly stuck on the cameo sidequest in Zestiria that I absolutely must complete.

[Adsolution]

The thing that's keeping me from playing Zestiria and Berseria are the disgusting graphics. What happened to the painterly style of the previous games? They looked absolutely stunning. Aside from the character models (which look great but don't fit into the game world at all), Berseria somehow looks about on-par with Fable or FFX (sometimes even worse, I swear), with textures that look like they were taken straight from cgtextures.com or something.

Like Jesus, seriously?






Let's compare that to Vesperia, on previous-generation hardware, which at times is indistinguishable from an actual painting:




Or even Graces, a game two hardware generations behind:





Where did all the artists go?

[Rayfist]

Finished Bayonetta the other day and have to say, it's one of the best games I've played in a while. Looking forward to playing Vanquish on the 25th now; Platinum are a fantastic developer for sure.
In the meantime though, I'm not sure what single-player game I wanna play

I'm extremely hyped for the PC port of Vanquish, that game was real fucking good on PS3, with my only problem with it being that it feels more suited for a keyboard/mouse, being a third person shooter and all. I need to buy a new GPU first before I am able to play it.

[Droolie]

The thing that's keeping me from playing Zestiria and Berseria are the disgusting graphics. What happened to the painterly style of the previous games? They looked absolutely stunning. Aside from the character models (which look great but don't fit into the game world at all), Berseria somehow looks about on-par with Fable or FFX (sometimes even worse, I swear), with textures that look like they were taken straight from cgtextures.com or something.

Like Jesus, seriously?

Yeah, I agree, it's pretty bad (and the compression in those screenshots makes it look even worse). It's partly due to transition to open environments with no fixed camera angles. They can't use as many 2D assets anymore. I guess the rest is down to budget or time constraints.
It doesn't bother me much though, since you get used to it quickly and the animations and cutscenes are MUCH better than in Vesperia. That makes up for it. I still hope they will improve the art style for the next game, but will play it either way.

[Serza5]

I guess the rest is down to budget or time constraints.

I believe both those games where worked on at the exact same time and they rushed out Zestiria for the 19th anniversary. But yeah I agree that the graphics are the worst (if not one of) out of the series since there were a lot of times where Berseria textures where distractingly bad. Nothing that was game breaking for me personally but I can't blame anyone for being severely put off by it.

Or even Graces, a game two hardware generations behind:

Graces was released after Vesperia though? It was for the ps3.

I think graphics wise the only time other than zesty/bears where I was like "what" was with abyss' models being blatantly from the ps2 era and being topped off with 3ds compression.

[Adsolution]

I do still plan on playing them, to clarify, the graphics are just what's kept me away from them so far. I'm glad to hear the cutscenes are high quality. I do have a lot of nostalgia for the kind of choppy (but still artistically gorgeous) Symphonia-like cutscenes.

Graces was released after Vesperia though? It was for the ps3.

It was made for the Wii (which I stuff roughly into the same hardware generation as the original Xbox), then ported to the PS3 later.

[Serza5]

I guess that's true, I was namely confused that you considered it a generation behind Vesperia when it reality it is the newer game.

I do think the cutscenes from all games where gorgeous in their own right and I don't have any complaints of them from any of the games. I can't mind too many of the exact berseria cutscenes but if you know anything of ufotables animation style then they are what you expect of them which is simply gorgeous visuals.

[Bzzit]

Finished Bayonetta the other day and have to say, it's one of the best games I've played in a while. Looking forward to playing Vanquish on the 25th now; Platinum are a fantastic developer for sure.
In the meantime though, I'm not sure what single-player game I wanna play

I'm extremely hyped for the PC port of Vanquish, that game was real fucking good on PS3, with my only problem with it being that it feels more suited for a keyboard/mouse, being a third person shooter and all. I need to buy a new GPU first before I am able to play it.

Yeah, it's been a few years since I played it on PS3, but I remember having a blast. Hopefully this port does well and we get a sequel! Bayonetta did very well on Steam, so I hope we get a new installment in that franchise too.

You got any particular GPU in mind?

[Rayfist]

You got any particular GPU in mind?

EVGA GTX 1070

[Hunchman801]

Been playing Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles recently. Haven't finished it yet (notably because it's insanely hard), but I'll post something when I have!

I got so frustrated against the final boss a few weeks back that I haven't played it since. I should stand a chance if I collect enough ammo in other levels and make sure to keep my first aid spray for the second phase, but hell, I'm playing in easy mode.

[Pirez]

Puyo Puyo Tetris 4 Shizzles. This game be fun, yo.

[Rayfist]

I played multiplayer for that game with my girlfriend. It was the demo version, since I think $40 is overpriced for a glorified puzzle game.