Topic: Pure Xbox Game Club Double Bill - Banjo-Kazooie / Solar Ash (Apr)

@themightyant Yeah, it was definitely frustrating at the time. I think once I embraced the constant dying I got on a lot better! Looking back at it though I think my lasting memory will be of a great game more than a frustrating one. Same can't be said for the second one at the moment though...

@dmcc0 ah best of luck with it. Probably quite a hard game to pick back up as it requires fluid skill/muscle memory that comes with consistent play. But I believe in you!

@themightyant I thought you said I was wrong? Perhaps you confused me!

I'm playing Doon Eternal and when I beat it I'll play Dante's Inferno. For those interested, Doom Eternal is like a very hardcore version of Metroid Prime. It has very similar gameplay elements but maximised: 3D platforming, closed frenetic battles, different enemies with different weak points, upgradeable weapons, exploration... The general gameplay is more Metroid Prime than Doom 2016 and it adds the classic Doom elements on top of that. It's a great game and very intense. Actually, the battle areas are fun because there is a lot of strategy involved, more than in the Metroid Prime series or any other Doom. You need to know very well your weapons. Doom Eternal is an evolution of Doom.

@BlueOcean I 100% agreed with you on World, it's the perfect game. I just said Galaxy pushes it close for me. Which may or may not be good/bad taste

Enjoy Doom Eternal, it's a belter. Happy gaming.

@themightyant Super Mario World is perfect, indeed 😁. My favourite Mario 3D game still is Sunshine. I recently confirmed this on Switch. Doom Eternal is a great game and although it's very arcade and replayable, I don't think I'd replay it, too intense. To go back on topic, these are the games I've played:

Battletoads (2020): co-op, I liked it.

Night in the Woods: I played it for a while, I didn't like it.

Resident Evil VII: I like it but I'm a huge RE fan and I didn't like it at the same time because of the many changes, more gore and mandatory first-person view. I'd love IX to be more like the classic ones, I don't mean the controls but the lore, characters, puzzles, battles... So something like they did with 2 Remake.

Ryse: Son of Rome: I liked it.

Dishonored: I played the sequel? trial on Xbox One but it was a frame rate mess that gave me a headache and I gave up.

A Plague Tale: Innocence: I liked parts of it like the graphics but the gameplay was often annoying and frustrating. I have some scenes on my mind right now when I was doing what I was supposed to do and died. Overall, I didn't like it because of it.

The Evil Within: This is a (rough) horror masterpiece.

Quantum Break: I liked it.

I may talk a bit more about them since "discussions on related games and past game club games" is allowed.

Played Dante's Inferno for half an hour now and wow, it's really good! It's as close to a God of War clone that you're going to get and that's a good thing because I've missed those games. I seem to recall how to play them rather well, but do note that the game can be fairly challenging if you're not used to these games.

I also think it's cool that you can choose to level up either a holy or an unholy skill tree and get a damage increase on your melee/ranged weapons depending on which skill tree you level up. However, I'm not finding the unlockable moves to be rather useful so I think I'm just going to stick to leveling up my stats for now (which is important either way this early on in the game when you're still not that strong and you need e.g. more health).

I'm sorry I've been late to respond folks!! Still going to try my best to catch up with quantum break. Its a cracking list of games, a real advert for gamepass. Since I'm new to the club/thread I'm wary of tipping the balance of which games everyone plays as there are quite a few games I would play. The forgotten City really interests me though, as its meant to be quite an interesting take on the timeloop formula. For a game not on the list, I've heard unpacking is pretty nice little short experience on gamepass, telling a nice story about someones life from the things they own when they move. Pretty light on game mechanics though 😂 @BlueOcean hades is a cracking game, really polished and fantastic mechanics with story distributed nicely between when you both succeed and fail. I played on switch but I bet it looks fantastic on series x.

I am now about 2h into Dante's (fighting Lust's Knight and so far lost twice to him but got close on the latest attempt). The game looks fine for a 360 and it runs with no hickups. Like I said before I am not much into this type of games and cannot play them for periods longer than 20/30 min as the constant masshing of a lot of buttons really hurts my hands (also dodge on the right analogue sucks) but the story and setting are quite interesting. Let's see if I can get through it without lowering the difficulty

@R1spam Yep, Hades is in my must-play list 😁.

Played about 2 hours of Dante’s Inferno today. It doesn’t hide its “inspirations”, in many areas it’s almost a 1:1 carbon copy of the original God of War games. From the main combat system, down to hold “X/triangle” to launch enemies into the air, and even the circular crank rotating lifts. It’s not as good in most respects, regardless i’ve enjoyed it so far. It also brings a few of its own ideas to the table especially the choice of holy/unholy skill trees and whether you punish or absolve enemies. It will be interesting to see if this choice means anything.

Plot wise It very loosely follows the epic poem of the same name by writer Dante Alighieri, which I read many moons ago, and I look forward to exploring the nine circles of hell. Currently I’ve just finished the first “Limbo”.

So far my only complaints are related to some antiquated design decisions that you expect in games this old. Especially instant fail states and stingy checkpoints. More than once I have completed a lengthy combat section and then missed a jump, or fallen down a hole, only to be sent back BEFORE the combat and made to do it all again. This used to be the norm, or it was worse, thankfully checkpoints are typically more generous and less frustrating nowadays.

@themightyant The part where you have to swing on the wall was so annoying and I feel like that's one of those things that would have never passed QA today. It's just so arbitrary when it works and when it doesn't. It's even more annoying when you tie secrets to some of the harder-to-reach areas. It definitely reminded me of the old days when games that were really good just randomly included very annoying sections.

@R1spam feel free to tip the balance. The more votes, the better!!

@LtSarge interesting. I had no issues with that part of the game (unless there are more ahead in the game that I did not reach yet) and only fell once because I jump the opposite direction to check for secrets (and because I had a save point just prior to that)

@LtSarge 100%. There was one collectible area I got to that it wasn't clear at all how to get back to the main path, I literally had to drop off one of several ropes to an unseen area below in the end. This led to frustration, several needless deaths and general time wasted. Games just aren't really designed like that anymore, thankfully.

Still enjoying though and played the next 2 circles last night too (Lust and Gluttony) they seem pretty short.

@Balta666 There are two main problems with that swinging section. The first is to figure out how momentum works when you swing. Do you release the button and jump at the apex of the swing, or while you're swinging? It made more sense to me to jump while I was swinging in order to retain the momentum, but apparently you have to jump at the top of your swing, which I had to die numerous times to figure out due to the second issue. Which is, where on the rope do you start your swing; in the middle or at the bottom? If you're at the bottom, your swing is wider but then you won't be able to reach the secret areas above, so you need to be in the middle. But then you won't get a lot of momentum by being in the middle, so even though I figured out when you were supposed to jump, the issue of where to start swinging still persisted. All of this could've been solved by simply making the mechanics more lenient, i.e. you just jump very high after swinging. This section just doesn't make sense compared to the rest of the game.

@LtSarge ok, my first attempt I went directly to jump from the point where I was closer to the target reason I did not have an issue with it and I was swinging as I would go down to check for secrets. But I now understand your frustration with it

I will join in on this one. I freed up a monitor (I got new ones for work) and need a break from Visual Novels.

I'm going to join my first Game Club this month, been meaning to play Dante's Inferno since the 360 days but only got a Series S a few months ago (I missed out on the Xbox One).

@lookupmore welcome to the family!

This is definitely not a game I will finish in two or three sittings. Have been slowly making progress by playing 20/30 min each time (and it takes me a while to progress through bosses anyways)