mcbisquick

Yeah they didn't address the backtracking and stuff in any real way. The faults in that game are still the same faults, and nothing they add with SE really hides the fact that they really didn't have enough game in there originally.

Still, DMC4's major strength is how fun it is to just play. The backtracking doesn't bother me as much because I really play that game to fight different demons and do cool stuff in combat. I'd have liked more variation in enemies and environments, but the combat in the regular version of 4 was really good imo so I replay it a lot. With SE, Trish and Lady are interesting but didn't really click with me beyond one playthrough. Vergil, on the other hand, is probably the character I have the most fun with in that game. Managing distance, taunting, and unleashing a demonic barrage of slashes to wipe out an entire screen of demons is just great times (although he has no Dante/Nero switch so his playthrough might feel even worse from a backtracking perspective).

I say the special edition is worth it (especially considering the sales it goes on these days), but if 4 in its original version wasn't a game you were really interested in going back to ever, this version probably won't change your mind on it.

Not really. I don't usually buy much from them directly, but I'm often price shopping. So places like Green Man and stuff typically have better deals but only offer the games as Steam codes. If I really want something and it's the same price everywhere, I don't mind grabbing it on GOG or some other service, but Steam has the control they have for a reason (for better and worse). Most of my game library is on there so it's convenient, and it's just kinda your main vehicle if you play games on PC at all.

I have been playing more stuff on console in 2018 than the last couple of years, but that's mostly out of convenience and not really trying to vote with my dollar or anything.

There is certainly a jump in complexity to some extent with Shadow Tactics, but I guess it didn't feel that bad to me because I was always very liberal with quicksaves on my first playthrough of any mission. Try things out, get an idea of how to get around, and take things one step at a time. Then I'd replay the missions for some of the challenges with a better knowledge of the map and the timings. It helped that I went into it with the thinking of, "Okay, I've never really played anything like this. And typically I suck at anything 'tactical'. So let's not worry about difficulty too much or spamming quickloads too often."

Don't know too much about Desperados as a series, but I just said in another thread how Shadow Tactics is probably my favorite take on stealth as far as gameplay goes. So I'm absolutely down for that dev doing another game in that style.

I say Shadow Tactics. It probably won't be a popular pick because of the stiff competition on that list, but I absolutely adore that game. There's a fair bit of ability-synchronizing to manage which can seem a little daunting at first, but the quicksave/quickload stuff will let you get the hang of its mechanics without too much pressure. It also gives you the freedom to try any "crazy enough to work" idea that pops into your head which was half the fun for me. With plenty of variety to mission goals and approaches, Shadow Tactics might be my favorite stealth game to date.

I have caved on pretty much every game this year that had me saying, "Don't do it". Street Fighter V (Fun, but definitely destroys me), Fighting Ex Layer (Really like it), Onrush (Really like it), Monster Hunter World (Not really my kinda thing, but not bad either), and No Man's Sky (Need to put more time into it) were all games I was fighting off the impulse to buy for some stretch of time. Then usually a sale would come along to justify my bad spending habits.

This year I kinda embraced those sorts of impulse purchases, though. As long as you're mostly smart about it and plan more around sales instead of getting things as soon as they launch, you'll get to try a lot of interesting stuff and that can be rewarding in its own way. Even if it means not every game you try is going to be up your alley or stick with you.

Rainbow 6 was actually one on my radar, too. But I played during the last free weekend they did and knew it has just got a little too much going on for me who would mostly be playing solo. So yeah, take advantage of free weekends, too.

I just picked it up last weekend and I'm really liking it. Haven't spent too much time with the online stuff though, as I've mostly focused on the single-player challenges for now. So I couldn't say how the player base is holding up, but I'm hoping the free weekends and stuff like that got at least a few more people to give it a shot. The ranked mode thing seems weird, though. Like they lock out quick play while it's going on? Yeah, that seems weird.

I certainly see how the $60 price tag is bit steep for what they are selling and how they were selling it, though. It was on sale for about $40 when I got it, and that feels like a better price point for the game (just from an ignorant consumer point of view). It's a shame that you don't often get a second chance at a first impression if you're a multiplayer game these days because Onrush is a fun, inventive take on a "racing". Definitely a great surprise for me this year that I hope other people will get the opportunity to try.

Yeah, Giant Bomb is pretty cool, I guess. If you like amusing people having fun and playing stuff. Damn it.

In all seriousness, I might be more into Giant Bomb content now than I ever was. Ranking of Fighters has actually been a big part of my relatively new interest in fighting games, All Systems Goku is outstanding, and I went from almost never watching Unprofessional Fridays to watching it every week. Everybody has different feelings on what they would like to see, but overall I've really enjoyed the site the last couple of years.

Oh, but you wanted a great moment. How about when Helmut Kruger could've killed that woman, but instead did something so much weirder.

Sonic is a very particular type of platforming, I think. For better and worse, there's not too many platformers that play with momentum like Sonic does. I think the classic games and Mania do a good job with the level design to compliment that, but it's far from universally enjoyable gameplay for people. How a platformer feels is really important, but what feels right to a player is super subjective. Like what @boozak was saying about Mega Man is a good example. For me, those are my favorite platformers and I think they feel fantastic. For him, though, they're too stiff. It really depends what feels right to you.

The only "hope" I can offer you if you want to press on with Mania is this: My first playthrough of all the genesis Sonic games as well as Mania were always the least fun parts of playing a Sonic game for me. It's when I replay them, collect the emeralds, explore new routes, and try new characters that I really enjoy myself. Mania was actually damn annoying for me until I got familiar enough with the levels to never really get hung up on any particular part.

Why is that enjoyable? I'm not too sure. Blasting through levels and trying different routes just becomes a kinda mindless, twitchy fun, I guess.

I hate them, but it's less to do with what they are or how they look and more from having to be on the retail side of those things. Stocking Funkos, especially at the crappy store I worked at a couple years ago, was a god damn nightmare. We always had way too many for the space they were given, and we often had to make these horrifying Jenga towers out of them on display tables. Of course, people wanted specific ones and would dive in to try to find them, inevitably knocking a shit ton of them over (it's the store's own fault for not giving them proper room, but it was tedious to constantly clean them up all the same). What was even worse was when a customer wanted you to find it, and your inventory system tells you there is just one left. Just one, somewhere, in all that bullshit.

TL/DR: I worked retail and they annoyed me a lot when I did. Personal experience aside, I'm pretty apathetic about them. You want to collect them, go for it.

While those kind of "Where the hell do I go now" moments are certainly nothing new to this type of game, I found getting around in Hollow Knight to be more of a chore compared to a lot of other games like it that I did enjoy. Being lost is one thing, but the feel and pacing of the platforming felt tedious to me. Once I realized I was getting more frustrated by the exploration rather than enjoying it, I would turn to a guide just until I got to the next big area. I also seem to remember a guide helping with some significant stuff near the end of the game that I probably would have missed out on had I not used one.

Obviously, this genre is in many ways satisfying because of those "a-ha" moments you mentioned. It really comes down to how much you're enjoying yourself during those lost lulls. For me, I wasn't enjoying it too much, but I didn't want to stop playing entirely either. So a guide helped move things along a bit for me.