The big backlog thread

I thought it would be a good idea to have a thread where we all post what we're currently playing and what we think of it, a lot of the time backlog games won't have their own thread so we can lump them all together here. Please remember to be courteous and use spoiler tags where appropriate.

Currently playing:



So far I'm about 2 hours into it and it's not bad, nothing special but fun enough with some unfortunate technical issues which hurt the experience, most notably frame rate drops into the 40s during bigger fights which is unacceptable for a game made in 2012, it must have been a total nightmare running it on 2012 hardware. It also suffers with autosave micro-freezing which is annoying but not a massive deal as it doesn't happen too often.

The game is very similar to something like Doom, there's not much of a story and you basically just go around shooting anything that moves with increasingly more powerful weaponry, the game handles this in a fairly unique manner where your base weapon is upgraded instead of finding new weapons, so you can buy the shotgun attachment and your rifle will transform into a shotgun, once you've bought the upgrade you can freely switch between them which is pretty cool. In total there are 4 upgrades for your primary weapon and 5 for your secondary so there's a good variety of fire power. All the enemies I've encountered so far are robots, ranging from little grunts to hulking bosses which take everything but the kitchen sink to kill.

Overall I'd give it a soft recommendation so far, purely because of how cheap it was in the sale, I paid 99p for it and at that price it's definitely worth a go if you just want a mindless shooter to run through.

 

Nice idea!

Current backlog games for me would be Alien:Isolation and The Evil Within, got them both when they were (quite) new and still haven't gotten to finishing either...
both are superior games in their own right and no issues either (after TEW was finally patched to run like a PC game...).

lots more titles on the backlog too but I'll talk about them once and if I get to playing them.

PS: I had framedrops in Hard Reset too, fixed it by disabling ingame vsync+triple buffering and forcing both via NV CPL.
Also try Adaptive Vsync if normal doesn't work / gives drops still.

 

Backlog wise...

I'm working through Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain right now.

But, I've also got SOMA, Sniper Elite 3 and a friend gifted me Sniper: Ghost Warrior 1 and 2. Plus, I still need to finish FarCry Primal.

 

I am on the Witcher 3 at the moment, started again after the Blood and Wine expansion came out, still got a way to go and got Farcry Primal, Doom and Dead by Daylight to start on. Think I might stop buying games for a while as these are going to take me ages to complete as it is! :banana:

 

Finished:



Price paid: 99p
Time to finish: 5 hours 50 minutes
Score: 6/10
Recommended?: Yes, only when on sale though

Yeah, not bad overall. The gunplay was satisfying, the weapon upgrades were a lot of fun to use, the enemies were fairly varied and the final area was really well done and enjoyable. They didn't reinvent the wheel but the game is fun to play for the most part and it's not too long either which to me is a plus, a lot of games these days tend to overstay their welcome. I also enjoyed their comic book style cut-scenes.

Hard Reset does have some major flaws though, the first is the voice acting and dialog, it's best described as cringe-worthy and amateur, there was only one major character that wasn't laughable, and sadly it wasn't the main one. I can't tell you just how bad it was, you need to experience it for yourselves. Another big problem was a surprising one, performance, I couldn't maintain 60fps on any visual preset, drops into the 40s were common on the major boss battles and even some smaller events, I can only imagine how poorly this ran on 2012 hardware. The final complaint was the constant micro-freezing whenever the game autosaved which was often enough to annoy me. So there you have it, Hard Reset is an OK shooter that does have some fun moments but suffers with performance issues and comically bad voice work, for 99p I'd say it's well worth a shot if you're bored and have run out of better games to play.

 

You should have gotten the Redux version.
Hugely improved performance, loading times are a fraction of what they used to me. Visuals are touched up in places.
Also, a new enemy type, added weapon... and a "dash" move. To jump out of the way and to the side, to dodge enemy attacks.

Odd you ran into performance issues. Even the original release works great for me. And back in 2012 at release, it was solid. Loading times took a while, but... it still ran very well.

Also, they rebalanced the fights and enemy placements. And added quicksaves.
It's a much better version of the game.

And yes, voice acting is "amateurish"... as a very low budget project, they did what they could with the very little they had.
And really, the voice acting in Hard Reset is nowhere near bad. You want to hear some bad... get Deadfall Adventures, or NecroVisioN... or so many others I could point you to.

 

I don't have the time, nor the patience to list my backlog. I am currently enjoying Overwatch though. 10/10 for me.

 

I have to respectfully disagree, it's the worst voice acting I've experienced in a long time, you seem to have a soft spot for this game which may be clouding your judgement, but that's fine, we don't have to agree on everything. ACG did a good review on the Redux version where he highlighted the pros and cons and he definitely felt the same as I do about the voice work, that bit starts at 7:54: https://youtu.be/KzPDvqwG8SQ

And the Redux edition is definitely better but at the time it was 99p vs £14.99 and I didn't feel it was worth it, however, I should have bought the Redux for £2.99 for a total of £3.98 (you get 85% off Redux if you own the original which I didn't find out about until after I had finished it) and played that instead of the original.

 

I'm not saying the voice acting is good, or top quality or anything.
Just saying if you want to hear some really bad voice acting... I can point you to some games.
The voice acting in Hard Reset is not great because they were on a limited budget, and because they wanted it that way. They've openly said the story was not something they spent a lot of time on.

 

Batman Arkham Knight
Need for Speed
Dark Souls
Witcher 3
The Evil Within
Wolf The new Order/Old Blood
MGS V TPP

Lots of others I can't think of at the moment. This is through many "Gotta buy 'em all" Steam Sales. Too many games, not enough time.

 

The Witcher EE
The Witcher 2
The Witcher 3
Dragon Age Inquisition
Max Payne 3

Currently playing MGSV:TPP and enjoying the SP campaign very much.

Just recently completed:

Mass Effect Series with all DLC
Batman Arkham Series with all DLC
Assassins Creed Series with all DLC

Probably going to jump into the Witcher Universe when I have completed MGSV:TT SP Campaign.

 

Doing Resident Evil 1, 4 and 5 atm.
Not a big fan of the controls tbh, but the games are pretty good.

 

Currently playing:



The Humble Bundle $1 tier is great right now, you get Darkness II, Spec Ops: The Line and Duke Nukem Forever so I highly recommend you guys get on it!

I've only played the first 30 minutes but it's really cool, the demon kills are absolutely brutal and satisfying, the voice work is incredible and it doesn't look too bad for a game made in 2012, plus the gunplay feels solid. I definitely think I'm going to enjoy this one, and it only cost me about 33p!

I made a quick GIF to let you know why you should buy this bundle.

 

I love The Darkness II. I enjoy it much more then the first game.
The story is absolutely brilliant, and I adore the art style. Plus, the combat is a lot of fun. Underrated game.
It deserved more love.

But as is, we'll most likely never see a sequel.

 

I completely agree, I've just put 2 hours into it and it's a quality game from top to bottom, some of the best voice acting in recent memory, the characters are so believable and feel real because of it, the facial expressions are really good as well, especially for 2012. I also like the art style, it has helped it age well. So far so good, nothing to complain about at all. I would highly recommend it while it's this cheap.

 

I still havent met Quiet in MGSV yet.......


I feel like im a let down

 

Oh great, thanks guys, now I have to go back and finish The Darkness II. I forgot how fun that game is, im pretty sure i was close to the end as well. Oh well, guess its time to replay it again and actually finish it.

I also need to finish Remember Me. I really enjoyed the first 5 hours that I played.

I just started playing Sleeping Dogs as I got the definitive edition on the steam summer sale. Please tell me it gets better....I really want to like the game, there seems like alot to love....but im just so bored. Ill give it a better shot this weekend.

 

I was around 18 hours into the game before I fought Quiet, and then unlocked D Dog as a buddy.

 

I was having a lot of fun replaying the SP missions waiting for something new to pop up thinking that someting would kick off once I had developed MB high enough, but nothing happened. Only when I discovered, or rather stumbled across, Side-Ops did I eventually meet Quiet...

Spoiler

I think it was on the way to meet Emerich in the Power Plant.

Have to say I wish there was some decent tessellation in the game, as for all the effort applied to Quiet's obvious 'charms' (front and rear), it gets ruined by low poly count.

 

Currently playing through Assassins creed syndicate, just finishing off all the collectable stuff and then i'm gonna move onto the Jack the ripper DLC, before that I was playing Witcher 3 blood & wine was good was a bit gutted when it was over, other than that I spend most of my time playing FTL.