What are you playing? (Coronavirus edition)

[MR2 Fan]

I've started Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and the story changes are INSANE just in the first hour or so...can't wait to get more information but it is a LONG game...some people are easily putting 100+ hours into it with all of the side content.

[Yw-slayer]

I find it easier to watch the highlights on YouTube lol

[Cam]

Lori and I have been playing It Takes Two. It’s alright. Lori struggles a bit with the jumping and camera control. She is not really a gamer.

[MR2 Fan]

I honestly don't blame you and that's what I tend to do for a lot of games, especially when I'm multi-tasking, but this was my exception (Replying to YW)

[Yw-slayer]

Totally understand.

[Cam]

Played Art of Rally. Stylish and arcadey fun. I just used the controller, not the wheel.

[Rare White Ape]

I've played Art of Rally. I like it.

Although I don't think it's intended for use with a wheel at all. Maybe if there was an onboard camera mod...

[Yw-slayer]

Yes, it's a good game. Playable on almost any platform with almost any control scheme!

[MR2 Fan]

I never gave a proper review of FF7 Rebirth, so heregoes (NO SPOILERS)

The game is GREAT around 90% of the time with a few minor caveats.

The story is awesome and expands upon what was in Remake, BUT there are some definite confusing moments that I can't even really describe to you, including the ending.

I do LOVE how they expanded a lot of elements and added more things that make sense, from what we know of the characters. There's a very well done, emotional sequence of events that involves one of the main characters that didn't happen in the first game. It hits emotional beats VERY well and the ending does as well............MOSTLY.

The open world exploration aspect is also very good with one exception. The open world sometimes feels like it could be called "Interruption: The Game". You'll be going along on, let's say a side quest, but this thing interrupts you, while another thing interrupts you and don't forget someone also contacting you to give you info on a fiend while also your chocobo smells some treasure while two other things are also trying to get your attention. Yes, most of it is optional or that you can skip, but it still pushes you to drop everything and do what _______ is trying to get you to do.

The other thing is that some of the side missions DO elaborate a lot on the story. NOTE: I found this out by watching others playthroughs as I was pushing to get through the main story and skipped many things. ALSO: Like in the previous game, depending on your choices or answers to questions you are prompted to give, you may not get some story details.

Having said all of that, one GREAT aspect is fast travel. It's available pretty much right away and there's several options to get around the world very quickly. The developers made a lot of "quality of life" implementations that really make the game more fun.

I was curious if anyone had tried to speedrun the game and found one twitch stream where a speedrun took under 7 hours, in case you're wondering how long it takes to do all of the "main" stuff. It is sometimes tricky to know on your own how to progress the main story with so much side stuff involved.

Also, once you beat the game the first time, you get a LOT of good options upon replay, including chapter select which you can play with your existing weapons, etc.

To do everything easily could 150+ hours, including a few very involved mini-games, one being a card game and Fort Condor again like there was in the Intermission DLC from before. There are a few other simpler mini-games that are a lot of fun.

The only other sort of major complaint is the graphics settings....something to do with Unreal Engine 4 where the brightness in light areas is super washed out and while you can lower the brightness settings, that means the dark caves areas are super dark.

I'm hoping the PC version (which could come out after May of this year sometime) fixes this or people can mod it to fix it. Definitely if you're not in a hurry and assuming the PC release isn't too late this year, I'd probably wait for that one.


EDITED TO ADD: It's kinda expected at this point from Final Fantasy games but the music is EXTREMELY good throughout the game