[JohnnyCage]

I've been playing through Hitman 3. I probably should have waited for 1/2 to get added before starting 3 to play the story in order but oh well. This is probably the most fun I've had playing a stealth game. I did play the OG Hitman 2 on Xbox back when I was a kid but I didn't really know what I was doing and played it like a run and gun shooter.

 

And I decided to pass on Breakpoint after reading those responses. Sounds like a bad game.

[MysterD]

I absolutely love Dishonored 2. I agree that the original had the fresher story, but it's hard to follow up once that precedent has been set. I actually played through as Corvo the first time I played 2 and Emily for my second playthrough. I've done low chaos Corvo, then high chaos Emily, then low chaos Emily and next I'll be doing a high chaos NG+ Corvo run with both of their abilities. Love Arkane. 

Ditto. Sure, Dishonored 1 and its DLC's were fresh and great & all - but dammit, Dis 2 also rules. Big problem back in the day was since it was on the Id Tech engine that ran RAGE - ugh, it ran like a hot mess.

 

Should be much better now w/ much newer hardware around.

 

Oh, and I love the time-piece and clockwork levels; those levels are amazing in Dis 2.

[HakurenKyo06]

Thanks again for the accessory help, don't mind me over here flooding my backlog already.

[MysterD]

I've been playing through Hitman 3. I probably should have waited for 1/2 to get added before starting 3 to play the story in order but oh well. This is probably the most fun I've had playing a stealth game. I did play the OG Hitman 2 on Xbox back when I was a kid but I didn't really know what I was doing and played it like a run and gun shooter.

Hitman: World of Assassination games (the new Hitmans since 2016 - so that's Hitman 1 GOTY, Hitman 2 GOTY, and Hitman 3) all are awesome. Those games rock.

 

Hitman 2 SA: (2002) and Hitman: Blood Money will always have a special place in my heart; those games rule too. SA was the one that got me into the franchise - but BM's my favorite & probably the best of the club.

 

Hitman: Contracts was really good (underrated, IMHO) and Hitman: Absolution was good too (even though Hitman Ab might be the worst one in the franchise - yet it's still actually good) - but man, Blood Money in particular is just awesome.

[Wa1terSobchak]

 

Breakpoint's even worse 'cause it's boring...the cardinal sin of a open world shooter..

 

ftfy

 

Wildlands is what got me into the Ghost Recon Series....not to take anything away from older ones...which I think were probably more 'realistic'....Wildlands (I always want to call it Wilderlands.....too much Judges Guild D&D....) just clicked for me....also the Special Events/Operations were awesome:

Spoiler

Hunt the Predator and Marvel Team Up: My Wildlands team with Sam Fischer (voiced by Michael Ironside) booyah!

[Wa1terSobchak]

I absolutely love Dishonored 2. I agree that the original had the fresher story, but it's hard to follow up once that precedent has been set. I actually played through as Corvo the first time I played 2 and Emily for my second playthrough. I've done low chaos Corvo, then high chaos Emily, then low chaos Emily and next I'll be doing a high chaos NG+ Corvo run with both of their abilities. Love Arkane. 

Yeah, I can understand where you're coming from.  I'm not sure if I'm up for 2 playthroughs, but I will probably go back and do a Corvo playthrough. There is just something annoying (IMO) about Arkane gameplay....I can't really put my finger on it....(see Deathloop......ugh).  

[Wa1terSobchak]

Hey, really nice read! You and I have lots of the same games in queue.

 

I loved AC Origins. I noticed you said you didn't play DLC, but both of those were good. The Hidden Ones was fun because it laid out the beginning of the Assassins organization. The Curse of the Pharaohs delved right in to Egyptian mythology, which it turns out I love. Hell, I've even been doing to walking tour with commentary on the game and Egyptian life that they added to the game.

 

I'm now looking a little less forward to the next two games based on what you've said. Dishonored 2 is on my list too, so I'm thinking about skipping it for now in favor of some of the Hitman games. But damn if they didn't make it confusing as hell to figure out what games to play with the way you import them all in different ways now. Whoever thought of that shit needs to lose their job.

Thanks for the tips on AC Origins DLCs...might pick them up if they are cheapy/cheapy (I never buy season passes for PoopySoft games as I've usually had my fill of just the base game.....)

 

Hitman Installation nightmare....yep...I replayed Hitman 1(2016) when I had bought 2 and 3 and discovered 2 and 3 could be loaded into the Hitman 3 engine (cool!)....Getting 1 and 2 working in 3 (back when 3 initially came out)....not cool....

[Miker525]

I absolutely love Dishonored 2. I agree that the original had the fresher story, but it's hard to follow up once that precedent has been set. I actually played through as Corvo the first time I played 2 and Emily for my second playthrough. I've done low chaos Corvo, then high chaos Emily, then low chaos Emily and next I'll be doing a high chaos NG+ Corvo run with both of their abilities. Love Arkane.

I don't know if it was just me, and I think I owe Dis 2 another try but when I first played it when it launched I couldn't get into it. I absolutely love Dis1 and i think it's one of the best Imsims of all time and I've played it through probably 4 or 5 times now, but for some reason with Dis 2 it just never clicked. I feel like it was insanely hard if I remember correctly. There was some riddle puzzle that drove me insane and while the clockwork mansion level was incredibly cool and a true marvel of level design I found it really difficult.

I partially blame myself cus I feel like at that point I just wasn't in the headspace for an Imsim and should have waited it out. I think it's probably a lot better than I remember and needs a real revisit. I loved Death of the Outsider when I played it and really loved Deathloop when that came out so pretty sure it was just a me issue

[Wa1terSobchak]

I've been playing through Hitman 3. I probably should have waited for 1/2 to get added before starting 3 to play the story in order but oh well. This is probably the most fun I've had playing a stealth game. I did play the OG Hitman 2 on Xbox back when I was a kid but I didn't really know what I was doing and played it like a run and gun shooter.

 

And I decided to pass on Breakpoint after reading those responses. Sounds like a bad game.

Hitman has fed my AssCreed hunger (now that AC has become Witcherified), fun games.....

 

Breakpoint isn't a bad game....it's worse than that...it's completely vanilla, bland boringness.....

 

I've enjoyed bad games: 

• Rogue Warrior (starring Mickey Rourke as Dick Marcinko) is one of the best bad games....man it is just a trip...I would recommend it wholeheartedly
• Dark Messiah of Might and Magic...another fun bad game...

[MysterD]

Reply to Miker:

 

If you loved Death of the Outsider, you'll love Dis2. A lot of assets, levels, and whatnot from Death were re-used, re-cycled, and re-mixed in Outsider.

 

I just wish in Outsider - there were more levels and more time to spend w/ Billie's special powers and weapons (like that awesome magical knife), since you can get some of this stuff made late in the game; especially if you're like me and often do NOT do NG+ Modes too often.

 

EDIT - Yeah, don't play too many of the same games in a franchise or in the same genre close to each other or in a row, unless they're short. You can really burn yourself out on a franchise or genre by doing this. Learned the hard way, from trying to binge AC games in a row - and well, I'll probably NEVER do that ever again. Probably was a mistake w/ AC2 and then ABH in a row - and then I ain't touched AC games since AC Unity and AC Syndicate since then; never ever finished Unity, as I preferred Syndicate.

 

I'd guess I'd probably like Unity more so now than before, as AC has so strayed from AC since Origins, becoming more Witcher-like (W3 in particular) and whatnot.

 

Yeah, and I also AC Syndicate DLC's to tackle, got AC: Origins Complete to tackle, and AC Odyssey Complete all backlogged. Ugh.

[psunami]

 

• Dark Messiah of Might and Magic...another fun bad game...

 

Oh, man... I loved that one back in the day.  Might try to get it running on the steam deck.  

[Miker525]

Reply to Miker:

If you loved Death of the Outsider, you'll love Dis2. A lot of assets, levels, and whatnot from Death were re-used, re-cycled, and re-mixed in Outsider.

I just wish in Outsider - there were more levels and more time to spend w/ Billie's special powers and weapons (like that awesome magical knife), since you can get some of this stuff made late in the game; especially if you're like me and often do NOT do NG+ Modes too often.

EDIT - Yeah, don't play too many of the same games in a franchise or in the same genre close to each other or in a row, unless they're short. You can really burn yourself out on a franchise or genre by doing this. Learned the hard way, from trying to binge AC games in a row - and well, I'll probably NEVER do that ever again. Probably was a mistake w/ AC2 and then ABH in a row - and then I ain't touched AC games since AC Unity and AC Syndicate since then; never ever finished Unity, as I preferred Syndicate.

I'd guess I'd probably like Unity more so now than before, as AC has so strayed from AC since Origins, becoming more Witcher-like (W3 in particular) and whatnot.

Yeah, and I also AC Syndicate DLC's to tackle, got AC: Origins Complete to tackle, and AC Odyssey Complete all backlogged. Ugh.

Yeah that's kinda what I thought with Dis 2 & Outsider. Outsider definitely could have been longer. I know it doesn't have the greatest reviews but I thought it was a great little game. Will definitely try to add Dis2 to my list of games to get through this year. I have this new Imsim Ctrl, Alt, Ego at the top of my to play list - my time to game right now is incredibly slim so hopefully I'll get to it at somepoint I've heard it's great.

As far as AC games I fell off that train once they became... Huge action RPGs? I loved the settings and time periods they moved into, especially most recently with Valhalla but the appeal of those games always to me was the awesome stealth sequences and not absurd game length. Don't think I've played one since Syndicate, which I actually really loved but I also think it didn't get the love it deserved.

That said you're totally right about the burnout. I think the AC franchise always worked for me because I skipped 3, Brotherhood, Revelations, and Unity and Rouge - only getting one every other game pretty much kept it from getting too much burnout for me

[JohnnyCage]

Hitman: World of Assassination games (the new Hitmans since 2016 - so that's Hitman 1 GOTY, Hitman 2 GOTY, and Hitman 3) all are awesome. Those games rock.

 

Hitman 2 SA: (2002) and Hitman: Blood Money will always have a special place in my heart; those games rule too. SA was the one that got me into the franchise - but BM's my favorite & probably the best of the club.

 

Hitman: Contracts was really good (underrated, IMHO) and Hitman: Absolution was good too (even though Hitman Ab might be the worst one in the franchise - yet it's still actually good) - but man, Blood Money in particular is just awesome.

I may pickup the old ones for cheap after I've made my way through the new trilogy. Hitman 3 is super addictive and I'll have access to 1/2 tomorrow. I've started doing some of the side content like elusive targets and what feels like 30 minutes can quickly turn into 2 or 3 hours of playtime.

[JohnnyCage]

 

Hitman has fed my AssCreed hunger (now that AC has become Witcherified), fun games.....

 

Breakpoint isn't a bad game....it's worse than that...it's completely vanilla, bland boringness.....

 

I've enjoyed bad games: 

• Rogue Warrior (starring Mickey Rourke as Dick Marcinko) is one of the best bad games....man it is just a trip...I would recommend it wholeheartedly
• Dark Messiah of Might and Magic...another fun bad game...

 

I still think AC peaked with the Ezio trilogy and went downhill from there. I love The Witcher 3 but I don't need clones of it. I remember trying AC Origins on game pass and one of the early missions asked me to run out and hunt down some animals for skins. I ain't got time for that. Insta uninstall.

[Insomniac_34]

I may pickup the old ones for cheap after I've made my way through the new trilogy. Hitman 3 is super addictive and I'll have access to 1/2 tomorrow. I've started doing some of the side content like elusive targets and what feels like 30 minutes can quickly turn into 2 or 3 hours of playtime.

Man, you're in for a treat playing Sapienza for the first time. I'd argue the H1+H2 maps are better overall than those in H3, and I really loved H3. H2 maps in particular are just so consistently good across the board, especially the DLC.

[valiki7375]

Here's the thing about assassin's creed... it isn't assassin's creed anymore. I was probably the biggest AC fan over the last 15 years. Odyssey killed it for me. It's not that it's a bad game... it just isn't assassin's creed. Rather it is an action RPG with the AC name slapped on it. Call it anything you want to... just don't label an entirely different genre style gameplay as what the series came from.

100% agree....they really have lost their way.  Don't get me wrong Black Flag was amazing from a gameply standpoint...i just think after AC3 they were like, well now what do we do?

 

Odyssey was really just another open world game and I thnk Origins they just wanted a way to do Egypt and said lets make it an origin story.

 

We will see if they focus more on the story with Basim now...I just think that I want it to go back to the story it was and convince myself that is whats happening.

 

Also I think I am one of the only people that actually appreciate the present day story segments....

[RandCLR]

Man, you're in for a treat playing Sapienza for the first time. I'd argue the H1+H2 maps are better overall than those in H3, and I really loved H3. H2 maps in particular are just so consistently good across the board, especially the DLC.

I second this for Sapienza. I think it's possibly the best map of all time. It's definitely in the conversation.

[Insomniac_34]

I second this for Sapienza. I think it's possibly the best map of all time. It's definitely in the conversation.

"Sapienza is the best map of all-time.... wait, wait. I worry what you just heard was 'Sapienza is the best Hitman map of all-time.' What I said was, 'Sapienza is the best map of all-time.' Do you understand?"

[BMXJouster]

Looks like Tango Gameworks (team behind The Evil Within 1 and 2) just shadowdropped a new game during that Xbox presentation earlier today:

 

 

It's already on Steam now at a nice $29.99 budget price, and it's also going to be on Game Pass on PC:

 

https://store.steamp...7230/HiFi_RUSH/

 

The art style looks good and I like the rhythm based gameplay idea.  Since I have Game Pass on PC I'll probably download it later today and check it out.

[nitrosmob]

Looks like a perfect Game Pass game. Could really likely be poopy and forgettable, but has some style. I don't like the attitude as much in that video, but it looks OK. Also looks like Forspoken doesn't look like a game I will want to play until it has a very deep discount. I already have plenty of generic open world games and am playing Far Cry 5 already, done with 2 areas but contemplating if I should finish it. Story just isn't too good and I'm getting bored of the gameplay. My last area was finished a lot quicker than the first though.

[Wa1terSobchak]

Looks like a perfect Game Pass game. Could really likely be poopy and forgettable, but has some style. I don't like the attitude as much in that video, but it looks OK. Also looks like Forspoken doesn't look like a game I will want to play until it has a very deep discount. I already have plenty of generic open world games and am playing Far Cry 5 already, done with 2 areas but contemplating if I should finish it. Story just isn't too good and I'm getting bored of the gameplay. My last area was finished a lot quicker than the first though.

Have you been kidnapped yet? You can't stop until you get kidnapped otherwise you will not get the full FC5 experience..

[hal]

 

Dark Messiah of Might and Magic...another fun bad game...

 

 

Yes! I had a great time with that. It was janky as hell, and kicking guys was OP, but it was fun. I had a blast kicking everything into spikes and off ledges.
 

[Wa1terSobchak]

I may pickup the old ones for cheap after I've made my way through the new trilogy. Hitman 3 is super addictive and I'll have access to 1/2 tomorrow. I've started doing some of the side content like elusive targets and what feels like 30 minutes can quickly turn into 2 or 3 hours of playtime.

I tried going back and playing Blood Money bu man.... It looks like ass and the controls are really wonky... I wish they'd redo the old games in the new Hitman engine....

Also, AC: Black Flag is probably the best pirate game I have ever played. Its a fairly crappy AC game (although not as bad of a plot as Odyssey or Valhalla). If PoopySoft's Skull & Bones is half (I probably should say 75%) as good as Black Flag, I'm in... But knowing PoopySoft I will end up buying it for $10 or less because it will be a dumpster fire of always online, MTX hell....

[samnite]

100% agree....they really have lost their way.  Don't get me wrong Black Flag was amazing from a gameply standpoint...i just think after AC3 they were like, well now what do we do?

 

Odyssey was really just another open world game and I thnk Origins they just wanted a way to do Egypt and said lets make it an origin story.

 

We will see if they focus more on the story with Basim now...I just think that I want it to go back to the story it was and convince myself that is whats happening.

 

Also I think I am one of the only people that actually appreciate the present day story segments....

I am one of those sickos who has played through all the AC games (except Valhalla) including the 2.5D smaller games for India/China/Russia with the intent of trying to follow the continuity of the modern day thread. Kind of like when you watch a show to completion even though it clearly is not as good as it used to be but you need to see it through to the end. I do plan to play Valhalla but haven't had time yet. I think the Ezio trilogy was the most fun for me although the Illuminati puzzles probably would not have lasting appeal if repeated.

 

It is kind of interesting that Ubisoft has spent so much time on the European/American historical periods when there is a mountain of history in China/India/Japan that is just dying to be told. Maybe Western audiences don't go for Asian history as much as Western history but I think I would learn more that I didn't already know with a shift to the East.

[samnite]

https://store.steamp...27520/Factorio/

 

Factorio is still $30 but there is a plan to increase the price to $35 tomorrow to keep up with inflation.

 

The developers have stated that they will never put the game on sale so if anyone has it on their wishlist then now is probably the cheapest you will ever be able to get it. 

[DD83]

Factorio is still $30 but there is a plan to increase the price to $35 tomorrow to keep up with inflation.

 

The developers have stated that they will never put the game on sale so if anyone has it on their wishlist then now is probably the cheapest you will ever be able to get it. 

Thanks for the heads up... removing from my wishlist.

 

EDIT:

LOL

https://steamcommuni...mmended/427520/

[Romeo]

Looks like the metro game series is about 80% off again.  Seems like it's consistently this price pretty often. $14 gets you the whole series. 

[nitrosmob]

Decided to play and finish Telling Lies before it leaves Gamepass. Frankly this can barely be called a game. It plays like an alternate reality game. You pretty much start as someone who comes in FMV style and opens this laptop. You have this database thing with videos you can search using terms used in the videos to get the full story. Pretty much every video stars David, who is the main character. You watch FMVs of different times over a period of his life to try to figure out things about him and who he interacts with. I highly recommend a paper and pen writing down important terms. The game controls really badly mainly with the mouse and keyboard. To speed up and down videos is not easy and you can click on subs to search against that term. This is pretty much a movie broken up into a messy searching game. The acting is alright albeit solid especially for the David character. A few of the others were pretty good, but some weren't amazing. It's a lot of videos with many being very uninteresting.

 

Overall it told a story and I beat it in about 3.5 hours. I didn't like this one much and am pretty sure Her Story and Immortality are officially off my backlog list now. I think they're all like this except about different subjects. Some people find these fun, but I could do without it. Still glad I got to try it, so I don't have to be tempted by it when it is cheap. 6/10 for originality, but not super fun or interesting.

[Tibor]

Factorio is a pretty good game. I prefer others in the genre like Satisfactory though. Be interesting if the price goes up on Gog and Humble. I was surprised that it actually gets the member discount there given the devs attitudes on price. But even Rimworld goes on sale more often now.

[entexman]

Decided to play and finish Telling Lies before it leaves Gamepass. Frankly this can barely be called a game. It plays like an alternate reality game. You pretty much start as someone who comes in FMV style and opens this laptop. You have this database thing with videos you can search using terms used in the videos to get the full story. Pretty much every video stars David, who is the main character. You watch FMVs of different times over a period of his life to try to figure out things about him and who he interacts with. I highly recommend a paper and pen writing down important terms. The game controls really badly mainly with the mouse and keyboard. To speed up and down videos is not easy and you can click on subs to search against that term. This is pretty much a movie broken up into a messy searching game. The acting is alright albeit solid especially for the David character. A few of the others were pretty good, but some weren't amazing. It's a lot of videos with many being very uninteresting.

 

Overall it told a story and I beat it in about 3.5 hours. I didn't like this one much and am pretty sure Her Story and Immortality are officially off my backlog list now. I think they're all like this except about different subjects. Some people find these fun, but I could do without it. Still glad I got to try it, so I don't have to be tempted by it when it is cheap. 6/10 for originality, but not super fun or interesting.

I "played" it on XBox mainly for the easy achievements once a day to get the 50 MS rewards points for earning a cheevo. Agreed there is no gameplay. You search for keywords and watch all the videos. The videos appear to be well made. Maybe the people that make this should just make a movie instead?