What are you playing?

[Corporal]

Man, that Shephy card game (Switch/mobile/PC/physical) is vicious. You soon realise what you must do to win, but if you get bad luck with your opening hand, the game becomes unwinnable. Plenty of hands where it'll be at least exceedingly hard to win. And even without that you can still get royally fucked over by the luck of the draw.

To me, it feels kinda pricey for five bucks, but I'm not even gonna touch the even harder "pseudo story mode" with challenges. Fuck that noise. So I guess there's enough content, but I'm just not masochistic enough for it.

I am now fervently wishing for a "race for the galaxy" game for Switch, though. That'd be cool. ...time to dig out the open sauce PC client again and get reamed by online and offline opponents.

[Freyj]

OS1 isn’t bad by any stretch. It just feels less and less interesting as you go on and the game is forever long. You’re certainly not missing any particularly memorable storytelling by skipping it.

[archie4208]

I beat Persona 3.  P5 is a way better game (even if it has plenty of flaws itself).  Before Novemberish, basically nothing happens in P3 (and then everything happens).  I did like some characters (notably Junpei, Yukari and Mitsuru) more than any of the individual Phantom Thieves though.

which soundtrack do you like better? I guess you could throw in 1,2,4 if you've played those too

5.  BABYBABYBABYBABYBABYBABYBABYBABYBABY got old pretty fast and honestly I can't remember any other tracks outside of "I never felt like" and the boss theme, which is inferior to Blooming Villain.

Edit: actually I liked the Tartarus theme a lot more than Mementos.  So P3 has an edge there.

Only other Persona game I've played is Q and I preferred its soundtrack to 3 too.

[HardcoreRetro]

Assassin's Creed Origins.

Feels more like a spiritual successor to Horizon: Zero Dawn except it's got the historical fiction instead of sci-fi. (Well, the future bits are sci-fi, but whatever. Nobody cares about that shit.) It has better melee combat than Horizon but so far no cool big animals to fight. I think it's supposed to have elite enemies or something, so it might fix that as well on later levels.

Anyways, it's pretty good.

[Bebpo]

Borys, so I'm running into a new issue with Pillars, something that you can't help me with, ...I'm overleveled ^^;

There's just so much to do in Act II, I'm lvl.9 party and pretty much facerolling everything. I googled and saw people hitting max lvl.12 in Act II because of all the optional content. Like Bounties are fun optional bosses but they give too much xp. Once I hit lvl.8/9 I definitely noticed a substantial upgrade in my party's strength, where lvl.6/7 was tough every battle, lvl.8/9 is buffs/debuffs/AoE/lol. Been googling some on a good solution and I think my temporary solution is changing the difficulty from normal to hard, I did this and fights are still a bit easy, but I can't just select all -> enemy group and let the AI take care of everything. Still gotta play and heal and move characters around.

My plan for keeping a decent fun challenge is:

-Finish up Act II & all sidequests/bounties
-Do Endless Paths floor 7-> as far as I can go (sounds like I can probably do everything but the last 2 floors)
(probably be like lvl.12 party at this point)
Then
-Do White March pt.1 (leveling scaling to my current level)
-Do Act III (leveling scaling on)
-Do White March pt.2 (level scaling on)
-Do final floors of Endless Paths (level scaling on for final floor)
-Do Mage Tower thing (level scaling on)
-Do Act IV (level scaling on)

I tried starting White March pt.1 and doing a bit, but it felt weird doing it in the middle of Act II since I'm in the middle of stuff and just going to a new map and starting over with a new town. So I want to finish Act II first & sidequests as much as is possible before Act III for a clean break and then do the White March.

[etiolate]

Finished Steamworld Dig. Liked it a good bit. Maybe I should get back to Hollow Knight, but I have been playing a bit of Skullgirls. It's been a long time since I've played a fighter, so I am mostly ass at the game.

[Bebpo]

Pillars talk

So I got what I think is the final party members (achievement popped up), and seeing how useful some of these Druid spells are compared to Wizard got me thinking that I wonder how all the classes play? So I made a Monk, Rogue and Barbarian (the only three classes I don't have since my MC is a fighter and the party members don't cover those two jobs).

Damn, both are way better than Fighter. Kinda regret my MC build now. My fighter is super boring and only helpful as an additional off-tank. Damage output is zzz even with a full focus on damage at the expense of defense. Otoh, the Monk character I made is all running around with +30% attack speed and shooting air fist missiles at people. I was kinda concerned about Monk class since you need wounds to do moves, but since you can generate your own wounds that sorta makes it no problem and they're just freaking strong and fast damage output. Then I tried the Rogue and sneak attacks doing 150% damage and then being able to go invisible multiple times in a fight and keep doing 150% damage sneak attacks...damn, more good damage output. Barbarian seems almost as boring as my Fighter MC but does a bit more damage at the expense of defense, which would still be better than my fighter since Eder handles my pure defense tanking.

But yeah, after trying all the classes I don't get the point of a Cipher. Going to need to read a guide on them. Like I get the benefit is that they have infinite spell uses instead of "x" amount per rest. But you gotta wait for their focus to build up and their spells generally seem a lot worse than Wizard/Druid/Priest.

Paladin is ok, basically a tank but can heal better and buff and revive which are all nice. The problem is that if I use the Paladin team member along with my MC and main tank Eder (who is basically unstoppable and can never die, but can't do any damage since I've just put Defense+++++++ everything on him at the expense of attack), if I use those 3 than half my team are tanks doing mild damage. It's good for a wall of defense but boring.

In mages, it seems like Priest > Druid > Wizard >> Cipher for magic attacks. Plus the Druid can shapeshift into a big monster and do good physical damage for a bit. Wizard has some good spells at rank III onwards, but the first two ranks are pretty useless imo.

Ranger seems kinda zzz, mico-managing their pet is a pain and pet dies quick and ranger dies quick and they don't have many abilities/talents.

I wonder if there will be new jobs in Pillars II. I kinda wish I knew more about how the jobs worked before making my MC character that I can't change jobs even if respec-ing. Oh well.

Also sat down and read all the in-game books I hadn't. Lots of a good history/lore to the world. Love it.

[Bebpo]

I wonder if there will be new jobs in Pillars II. I kinda wish I knew more about how the jobs worked before making my MC character that I can't change jobs even if respec-ing. Oh well.

Bebpo.

I've got some bad news for you regarding Pillars 2 classes and its multiclassing:

(Image removed from quote.)

Hmmm, so instead of creating any new classes, you just get to have 2 jobs? That's ok, but would have liked some new classes. Hopefully all the classes get some new skills then. Fighter could definitely use more attacks.

Since I just want pure damage for my MC next time around, Monk+Rogue Shadowdancer = ultimate damage?

[paprikastaude]

Gravity Rush 2 - this game's tutorial is more hamfisted than Zelda. I want to fly through the demo areal already, not dreary ass tutorial-mission town.

[tiesto]

Gravity Rush 2 - this game's tutorial is more hamfisted than Zelda. I want to fly through the demo areal already, not dreary ass tutorial-mission town.

Gravity Rush 2 is so much more ridiculously drawn out than the first game that I ended up preferring the first (even with the finicky combat and spazzy camera) much more.

[fistfulofmetal]

I know it's supposed to be broken or something but I immediately bought the Master Chief Collection because I gotta have my Halo. Having 5 Halo games in a single thing is just too good to pass up.

[Bebpo]

Pillars - Act II end was pretty good.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

But kind of frustrating that instead of being a build up of everything you've done that chapter, the allies you've made, the reputations you've built, etc.... that right when it's about to payoff the bad guy just strolls in and murders everyone :|

[close]

Party hit lvl.10 just before it ended. On to the White March pt.1 next!


Act II as a whole kinda felt like what I'd expect from an kickstarter-sized rpg if that was the whole game. Was about 22 hours long, had lots of adventuring, questing, combat, bunch of factions and an ending. Tyranny is sorta like Act II but it's the whole game. Will be interesting to see how Act III compares.

[demi]

I know it's supposed to be broken or something but I immediately bought the Master Chief Collection because I gotta have my Halo. Having 5 Halo games in a single thing is just too good to pass up.

Halo is getting an update with the power of the Xbox One X

https://www.polygon.com/2017/10/18/16497676/halo-the-master-chief-collection-xbox-one-x-enhancements

[fistfulofmetal]

Didn't opt for the X so I got the lowly S.

So far out of the bunch Halo CE is the only one that has noticeable framerate issues when using the enhanced grafix which is weird.

[Bebpo]

Pillars - Act II end was pretty good.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

But kind of frustrating that instead of being a build up of everything you've done that chapter, the allies you've made, the reputations you've built, etc.... that right when it's about to payoff the bad guy just strolls in and murders everyone :|

[close]

Party hit lvl.10 just before it ended. On to the White March pt.1 next!


Act II as a whole kinda felt like what I'd expect from an kickstarter-sized rpg if that was the whole game. Was about 22 hours long, had lots of adventuring, questing, combat, bunch of factions and an ending. Tyranny is sorta like Act II but it's the whole game. Will be interesting to see how Act III compares.

To add to this, before I went to sleep I did and won the Battle of Yenwood. Thought it was a main game sidequest and wanted to clear it up before heading into WM. Reading up on the reinforcements you can obtain in battle it seems like its actually a WM added thing. Oh well, was a good tough fight on hard with just me and my

spoiler (click to show/hide)

One Ogre recruit from the Drywood sidequest

[close]

Also I just googled "how to play a Cipher" because I got the party member that's a Cipher and they just seemed like a shitty wizard who can't do much besides charming. I thought the focus meter built up over time allowing spell casts. Now after reading a guide, I see it builds up with attacks and that with the right setup they're one the strongest attack classes in the game :O Gonna have to respec that party member into a gun mage build and get her to start doing some real damage.

My "strong" party right now only using actual characters + MC (zero no-name create a adventurer) is Fighter/Paladin/Druid/Chanter/Priest/Wizard with Fighter & Paladin running ok-damage tanks, Druid running shapeshift attacker and then back off spellcaster, Chanter ranged gunner using chanting for summons, Priest for buffs/debuffs and Wizard for debuffs & then big AoE spells. I may switch the Druid for Cipher gunner if Cipher is good ranged. Or switch out the Wizard for Cipher. My main uses for Wizard is a big physical def debuff AoE on enemies at the start and then fireballs or magic missile attacks.

[Bebpo]

I'm not getting you?

I mean, at least for me, part of the fun in combat systems with a lot of flexibility and depth is tinkering with your lineup and becoming more and more efficient and strong at wiping out enemies. Like the best example is Tri-Ace's Resonance of Fate, where you pretty much have all the combat abilities available at the start, but the game seems incredibly hard and as you master the combat system and character builds it gets easier and easier until you're steamrolling everything 30 hours in at the end of the inverse difficulty curve.

The ideal difficulty in an rpg game design would be to increasingly make the enemies/encounters/bosses harder and harder so that you're forced to keep up with becoming more and more efficient in combat through tinkering in order to win. That keeps a challenge the whole way through and forces you to continually improve your game. But it also means that if someone isn't super efficient, it becomes impossible which is why most games just kinda set a difficulty challenge bar and stick with it the whole game, so once you're more efficient and stronger than that bar you can handle everything from that point on easy.
 
Rpgs are very prone to inverse difficulty curves because there are so many options and the development team has to account for all players including the less dedicated/OCD ones.

[Corporal]

Hah, now I remember what bothered me the most about Oblivion. Getting out of the initial Dungeon at the upper limit of my encumbrance with an inventory full of neat shit, then limping towards a shop and selling everything for pennies. Then walking a couple of steps further and once more maxing out the upper inventory limit again because I just can't leave crap lying around. Fucking loot whore compulsion.

Oh well.

└༼ •́ ͜ʖ •̀ ༽┘



My first trip through Skyrim on Switch is going about as well as I expected so far. Grabbed the elite heavy armour from the woman that wanted me killed despite me not being on the fucking list. Teabagged her naked corpse for good measure. Gained three levels of sneak in the opening area alone because why walk when you can sneak. Snuck past the tutorial bear as instructed, then promptly walked back and headshotted it because fuck that bear in particular. Then crammed one of my four bows up his dead ass to be able to carry his skin with me. Which is a weird thing to do, admittedly. Forgot to teabag it, sadly. Dug out a necromancer uniform in a random ash heap out in the woods and found a precious gem in an animal skeleton nearby. The fuck. Do I even wanna know.

Probably shouldn't have chosen wood elf. I'm in heavy armour and can facetank entire rooms full of spiders, yet at the same time happily sneak up to a guard at a mine and rob him blind without getting busted. Why wear shitty light armour then? However, it's crazy how peaceful villages seem to be full of clairvoyant people that can spot you from across the map. Also, jeebus, those sneak strike skills and multipliers look absolutely ridiculous.

Complaints so far:

WHY IS EVERYTHING SO DARK.
I can't see shit. Seriously. Playing this in broad daylight on the go will probably become challenging. I won't be very active at night (in Skyrim), it seems. Ran right into a bunch of wolves because I couldn't make them out. Didn't matter,  heavy armour lol.

Close Combat is still sucky. Magic is kinda weird, but seems at least workable (if inconvenient - is magic swapping really done in the favourite or pause menu?). Least amount of trouble so far: the bow. Aiming is a breeze, stealth crits to the head are quite deadly and supply with arrows is not an issue so far. Seems best - well, small wonder, wood elves come with an archer bonus apparently.

Also, the character creator is ass. Pure, unfiltered ass. Quelle surprise. Still: Why would you offer realistic lighting with excessive shadows during character creation. Half of the face is constantly nigh invisible unless you have it look at the light, at which point you can't see half of the face anyway. Also, cripes, why are these people still so ugly. I thought Oblivion was bad, how come it barely improved?!


Things to do: rewrite the letter the nasty elf gave me for framing the bard by adding to it so that he doesn't get the woman either, then seduce the gal myself and ravage her in front of them to assert dominance. Which button do I press to fart and dance? How do I buy a house I can lead her to?

Notable achievement: killed a chicken and silenced the last witness (...namely, the chicken). Simultaneously gained and lost 45 multipurpose crime units. Much role playing. So wow.

[StealthFan]

Skyrim

[Positive Touch]

^shit poster

[chronovore]

I haven't turned on my PS4 in 4~5 days, need to get back to Zero Dawn, but I have been playing mobile: DomiNations and Titanfall Royale.

But I'm probably done with Titanfall Assault. Just don't feel compelled to open the game; they've had a rough month where the matchmaking has been very poor. It'll sit there on the JOINING screen for a couple minutes, then bump me back out. That's no fun; mobile games are supposed to be what you do when waiting for something else, but Titanfall Assault actually has me doing other stuff while waiting for its matchmaking, with 70% of matches being failed joins. It's too bad, because I was enjoying it.

Dominations is some kind of crack. It's got great matchmaking and the continual addition of features, units, and the balanced economy means it'll continue to be a daily visit or three. :-/

[Corporal]

Skyrim

Eh, I wouldn't go that far - it's a good game.
I certainly don't see how it gathered such a huge following, just like with Oblivion, but so far it's a cute little romp worthy of let's say 30 bucks to account for the horrendous faces and proverbial Euro levels of jank. (Plus the obligatory ten bucks Switch tax, in this case.)

During my three hours or so of playtime - without actively trying to find bugs or glitch the system - I've encountered: a dragon roasting an NPC with its breath for what felt like ten seconds with said NPC just standing there and taking it as if it barely tickled, after which he comically fell to the ground, completely unharmed but dead (=terribly scripted); people randomly floating around in conversations as if they were slowly sinking through the ground and getting pushed back up ever so gently every fifteen seconds; bards whose instrument just manifests out of thin air as they start a performance, then it disappears again while they continue to sing and play, then even that stops while the music and singing audio track continues on as they stand in place and stare idly (and other animation glitches and terrible or non-existing animation transitions); floating spiders, I repeat, floating spiders that just walked through the air high above my head then fell to the ground when killed; enemies that run in circles around an invisible waypoint to reach me as I cleverly perched upon a small tree stump, all but invincible to their occasional broadsword attacks whenever they got close enough; dropped items that never experienced gravity as they floated in the air. Etc pp.

And, seriously, everyone in this game looks like they were thrown at a wall, repeatedly, when they were still a toddler. It's less bad than Oblivion, I'll say that much - but cripes. Uggo town, no matter where you go. Rest of the world is okayish. It's just the people that make your eyes bleed.


I can see where the appeal lies with these Elder Scrolls 3D games, even though I personally would never rank them high enough to warrant their huge and utterly dedicated fanbase. Design issues aside (IMNSHO first person view just doesn't work for "untethered" and real time close quarters combat, although I haven't given VR CQC a spin yet) they are fun in their own way and offer a huge world filled with lore and things to do. The basic game loop is pretty rewarding, and if you can stomach the bugs and glitches and the occasional UI jank there's lots and lots of fun to be had.
At least they are not offensively bad games like those vita animu rape titles, which are just categorically indefensible.

[StealthFan]

I loaded up Oblivion a couple days back and was in awe at how fucking ugly the character creator was. I mean I've played Oblivion before, and the ugliness of the people in it are a meme, but I haven't played it in an age. Skyrim's characters look way better.

[D3RANG3D]

Skyrim sucks ass outside of some of the daedric quests.

[Corporal]

Skyrim woes.

Still flying blind and trying to figure things out because FAQs/walkthroughs usually optimise the workflow to death and suck the fun out of things. And NORMALLY games either throw around tutorials like candy or feature some sort of manual. Normally. Yeah. Harrumph.

Found out that I can sell firewood for a moderate profit in the starter village - and the NPC doesn't seem to have a money limit like the rest of the vendor NPCs. Squee. Time to spend the next five hours watching my character chop wood.

No smelting facilty in the beginner village. I think. Haven't found one yet - and no other crafting station at the smithy has a section dedicated to create ingots. Or I'm too dumb or blind to see it. The hell. What am I missing.

Similarly: I currently am the proud owner of 50 heads of cabbage and 53614383916354 apples. Why can't I just grab a random pan and start sizzling up some rabbit stir fry over a piece of firewood. I have everything I'd need in real life to cook, even salt, and can't find how to trigger the cooking menu so far. Sucks.

Alchemy sucks until I find some way to kickstart my knowledge on ingredient properties. Not to self: read all the books I can find.

Finally figured out that I need to nab an already burning torch off a wall to illuminate dark places. Why can't I use a lantern dammit. Grabbed two and kept lugging them around for that exact reason.

Also, why does the poacher buy human skulls. These people are all nuts.

[Joe Molotov]

Full Skyrim Walkthrough:

Wander around looking for interesting stuff to do until you get bored, then spend the 30 minutes it takes to finish doing the main quest. The End.

Time to Complete: 5 - 500 hours.

If you follow this walkthough, you'll also finish Fallout 3, 4, and every other Bethesda RPG.

[toku]

Skyrim sucks ass outside of the thief and brotherhood quests.

ftfy

[D3RANG3D]

Skyrim sucks ass outside of the thief and brotherhood quests.

ftfy

Those are bad nothing to fix

[Bebpo]

Pillars Started White March 1 and got the 2 companions. Now I have way too many companion characters for a 5 person + MC squad >< So hard to pick! For White March I feel like I gotta use the WM companions since their stories are based in that area, so I read up on how use each as a Monk/Barbarian build. Trying to figure out how the numbers work and systems work in Pillars kinda breaks my brain. Must have spent like 5 hours reading build guides at this point for the different jobs and I still have no idea what spells are the best for Wizard/Druid/Priest so that's more I need to read up on. I had no idea how dual-wielding even worked in this game until I got a dual-wield barbarian and had to read up on it.

Ended up doing a bunch of respecs, and running a Glass Cannon Monk/MC Fighter Tank/Glass Cannon Barbarian Dual-Wield for front line, Durance Priest in the middle for buffs/healing and Cipher Gunmage in the back + Wizard in the back for AoE spells & debuffs. Now finally ready to do White March part 1. I think once I leave WM, I'll swap either the monk or barbarian out for Eder ultra tank and maybe swap Aloh Wizard for my Druid guy when I'm ready to sit down and learn how to play a Druid.

I've never even messed around with flanking. I just run a tanks up front, damage dealers behind them kinda tactics. I think I'll google for vids of high level battle tactic play in Pillars at some point.

[eleuin]

Eh, I wouldn't go that far - it's a good game.
I certainly don't see how it gathered such a huge following, just like with Oblivion, but so far it's a cute little romp worthy of let's say 30 bucks to account for the horrendous faces and proverbial Euro levels of jank. (Plus the obligatory ten bucks Switch tax, in this case.)

What's not to get? It lets you do numerous things. As others have said, it certainly doesn't let you do a vast majority of them well, but that doesn't matter to alot of people.

[Bebpo]

Pillars - White March pt.1 talk - Maybe like halfway through this expansion? Took care of the Russetwood and the falls area to the west and east of town and all the quests. On to the Durgan Battery map now. There's stuff I like about the White March, big maps with lots of exploration events and things to uncover. Some interesting quests.

But it seems kinda hard in an annoying enemy type way. The Languith~~ fish dudes with the blow darts who couple up with greater ice blights are soooo annoying. The blow dart guys can basically kill any party member from a distance in a few seconds and the ice blights you need very specific attacks to even damage them because they're immune to so much. I'm dying A LOT and retrying and barely making my way through White March pt.1 because of these fights. I didn't have any trouble with the trolls or other enemy types, just these ones so far.

And I did the one paladin troupe bounty that was in the east map and that was super freaking hard too. Took me a few tries and barely made it out with half the party dead. These fights are super super tough. I did the Alpine Dragon quest through dialogue, but I triggered the fight once and there were like a million spirits and ice blights and stuff and I have no idea how anyone could beat that in combat.

Also I'm hitting a lot more dialogue/event skill checks I can't pass which is a bit annoying. I get it's tougher but it some ways it feels like the White March was meant to be played after you beat the game (since it came out after). Like I got the 2H cursed soulbound sword quest and I can't even equip anything else until I do the quest but it needs Act III areas which I haven't even reached. I put it on my Barbarian who seems to do ok with a 2H even though it's a bit weaker than the normal dual wielding she runs.


*edit* Actually reading up on other players experiences, it sounds like the Long~~~ falls area on the east with the Gleaming Society bounty and crazy broodmother giant mobs is a higher level map than the rest of WM Pt.1, so it's supposed to be pretty tough. Good to know.

Also one way it seems like The White March is balanced more for people who've cleared the main game is that reading people's tactics on some of these hard ass fights like Gleaming Society, people are using nothing but end game weapons/gear because they had all that stuff. Having not even started Act III, I don't have any of that stuff and my gear is solid but not too much amazing which makes it tougher.

But as long as I keep making it forward, I'm fine with a tough challenge. The challenges are fun to overcome.

[Corporal]

Major style whiplash.

Skyrim is still fun. Exploring, discovering systems and mechanics. Combat is shit, artwork is an extremely mixed bag since everyone has been hit with the ugly stick but live in quite the beautiful environment. The dungeons are mostly corridors, but that has its own charm. I'd really like to have more inventory space and money. 5000 for a house is not much per se, but if you guilt trip me by placing an orphan with a sob story in the main place of the first big city and give me an option to adopt her, then fuck me, time to grind some moneys. Also, for some reason I really want to become a Mage now, specced out as a stealthy thief in plate mail as I am. It's so nice to be self sufficient... No consumables, plenty of status/dots effects, raise zombie and other distractions. But only two spells at the same time. Ugh.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Oh boy oh boy. This is so shounen. Seriously, the tropes. The tropes! ... The tits on the main gal are severely distracting, and not because they exist, but because of how they feel fake and as if they clash with her outfit, if that makes sense. Glued on half spheres that stick out at an uncomfortable angle. Contrasted by a more naturally slim catgirl healer, so it's even more offensively distracting. Still tits though, so it's keeping me pleasantly brainlessly motivated. English dub is... eh. So many strongly chewed out accents. So weird. I actually like the main protagonist, rofltastic costume aside. He seems like a good lad. It's surprising, really, since  I usually want to bash shounen protags with a shovel and bury them in the woods. Beautiful environments, very floaty and weird jump mechanics. Immensely fun so far, although most of the aspects of the game are still locked away. Love the jovial tone of the tutorial popups.

But yeah. I have to stop going back and forth between those two titles. My brain is starting to melt. The immense clash of styles and combat systems is fucking me up.

[Bebpo]

Pillars - White March pt.1 - Got the 3rd companion which surprised me. I thought WM1 only had 2 and WM2 had the 3rd one. So WM2 doesn't have any new companions? Makes sense I guess, there's plenty at this point. WM1 is pretty damn lengthy doing everything on hard. Just got 2 new bounties as well after clearing the first 2. I gotta say though that WM1 has so many annoying enemy types. I mean you got the blowdart paralyze fish people, the greater ice blight elementals, THE EXPLODING CONSTRUCTS (fuckkkkkk), and all kinds of casters casting crazy bad shit on everyone. This expansion is brutal as fuck, but it is fun and hard to put down. It's especially hard in long dungeons since you only get 2 camping restores and everything hits hard if you're lazy like me and don't want to leave and go back to town and come back again.

I'm really surprised how crazy WM1 is, all these hardcore fights, tough enemies, 3 new companions, tons of quests. I have no idea how WM2 is gonna top this.

Will be nice doing Act III after this though, going over to Twin Elms should be pretty relaxing coming from this.

/just hit party lvl.12

~50 hours now.

[archie4208]

Donkey Kong Country 2 holds up amazingly.

[Bebpo]

Finished Pillars of Eternity - The White March I - On hard, I haven't felt anything like that since the first time I played SMT3 Nocturne. Was one of the toughest and most brutal rpg experiences of 30 years of gaming for me. Was doable as long as I took it slow and I learned so much about the combat system, build types and abilities through it since I had to in order to survive. The story choices felt kinda brutal too. Lots of tough stat checks and I'd often get to the end of a quest with 3-5 choices blocked out because even though my stats are good, they didn't meet any of those exact builds. So sometimes quest tales didn't go the way I wanted in The White March, but that's good roleplaying, sometimes things just don't work out in life. Brutal questing.

Took me about 20 hours and felt really substantial and great. It's definitely more of a dungeon crawler and it was only the final dungeon which took me like 4-5 hours where it started to feel a bit tedious with so many battles and most of them are challenging so you can't just get tired of it and auto-power through. I liked the story and the quests and characters are good deal. The art was great and the music for this game is some of the best I've heard, adds so much to the areas. Like Durgan's Battery outside map had this kinda thumping mysterious music that kept you on your toes.

I used all 3 of the White March new companions because I like role-playing like that. Unfortunately it meant running with 4 melee characters + priest + cipher gunner which might've made it even tougher than it needed to be. There were only two fights in the expansion that were so unbelievably hard I almost bailed. One I sorted did. It was the 2nd tier Bounty in Longwatch Falls the Flames of something, bunch of super mages and barbarians and the mages spam so much AoE stuff non-stop my team just could not survive the status effect/AoE damage/summons onslaught. After like 30 mins of retries with different tactics I bailed, changed out 2 of the 4 melee characters for Wizard and Druid and did my own AoE spell casting to wear down the enemies with status effects & damage while buffing and healing to barely survive.

The other fight was the final boss of The White March I. Fight was insane. After 3-4 tries I was gonna call it unbeatable with my party setup and thought I'd need to leave the dungeon, change in Aloth the Wizard for some Frost spells/DR AoE debuffs, and run back through the whole dungeon again to the boss fight, but on my 5th try somehow I kept surviving (Zahua was able to tank like 2 of the annoying caster enemies all on his own and survive with like no healing and take out melee enemies that flanked him. Dude is a BEAST) and eventually got through the fight. Was nice to beat it, but yeah one of the toughest fights. Seems kind of bullshit if you don't have a Wizard/Druid on you, but oh well.

Finished it up and went back to my castle and hit lvl.13, nice to start getting some of the expansion level cap new skills. Next up will be to do the rest of Endless Paths floor 7->15 and then I'll jump into Act III and save WM2 for after that.

Very good expansion.

[Freyj]

What difficulty are you playing on? I’ve been considering a PotD run before Deadfire

[fistfulofmetal]

Playing Halo 5

Thoughts so far:

Split narrative has been a bust so far since Spartan Locke's side of the story is boring as hell. They just can't figure out how to replicate what was endearing about Master Chief. Putting an actors face on a Spartan body ain't enough - especially when the character is so dull.

I appreciate the attempt at a mystery. The Cortana/MC dynamic remains interesting so I do want to know what is going on, but I feel it won't be as interesting as it could be.

The storytelling remains to be a bit flat. There's a real lack of punch to the events and it reminds me of 4 in terms of everything just kind of happening.

I super dislike the squad aspects. I can't name all the times my squad failed to revive me because they were too stupid to get to me, or immediately died when they got close. It feels like the combat is tuned for you having people with you so you can lose health quicker and I think that's lame.

So far it's a middling reaction to the game. 4 ended up squandering a lot of cool concepts but this doesn't have that problem as much because it's setup isn't nearly as interesting.

60fps is nice.

[StealthFan]

Halo 5's campaign is the worst in the franchise. A franchise that has the Halo 2 and Halo 4 campaigns 

This Mario X-COM game is tight. Some choice shit. Also going through Bravely Default for the first time. I dig it. Reminds me a bit of FF IX.

[BlueTsunami]

Started up DQ Builders again after flaming out at Ch.2. Such a fun game. I think the initial narrowing of the crafting snuffed me out at first.

[Positive Touch]

you build different stuff each chapter, and you don't have to start over with the basics each time, so it keeps you from feeling like your'e starting from square one each time.

[paprikastaude]

Gravity Rush 2 - this game's tutorial is more hamfisted than Zelda. I want to fly through the demo areal already, not dreary ass tutorial-mission town.

Gravity Rush 2 is so much more ridiculously drawn out than the first game that I ended up preferring the first (even with the finicky combat and spazzy camera) much more.

The mission structure afterwards has been pretty uninspired and bloated. But the gameplay and art direction make it good still. I love just going around the city, it's too bad it follows "get to the marker" instead of open exploration.

[toku]

i actually liked locke's commandos side of the story more than MC and I still say the biggest thing hurting the franchise narrative wise rn is the refusal to let MC and Cortana go. Their story is done, sorry nerds. Let it go.

[fistfulofmetal]

After playing Wolfenstein I almost feel like Halo would benefit from that style of characterization. Except I don't think the writers @ 343 are skilled enough to pull it off. Give me a deeply introspective MC that monologues about existential concepts.

[toku]

No, just let MC rest. There is nothing interesting left to say with MC. All there was, was the great covenant war but that's done. It's finished. We don't need a mostly quiet everyman to save the entire fucking universe anymore. That era is done.

[tiesto]

I was watching my friend play Cosmic Star Heroine. I'm gonna need to pick up a copy for myself... the production values are incredible for such a small team. Looks like one of the best, if not THE best, indie RPG ever.

[fistfulofmetal]

Fighting the Warden every two seconds and then having the cliche ramp of of OH NOW THERE'S TWO... NOW THREE! is so lame and a slog.

[demi]

Game can't be that difficult. World Record is 36 minutes

https://www.speedrun.com/hollowknight/full_game

[Corporal]

Sweet merciful jeebus on a pogo stick. Where has all my time gone.

Into Xenoblade Chronicles 2, no doubt.

For a game so full of flaws and packed to the gills with Animu, why am I so incredibly hooked? It's amazing.

Shitty resolution and sharpening filter in mobile mode
Tutorials are worthless, if amusing
Barely anything is explained about the core mechanics and the menus are iffy
The Shonen is so incredibly strong with this title that you can feel your balls retreating back into your body cavity in real time
There are so many small bugs and poorly-thought-out/-implemented things

And yet I'm having so much fun bashing baddies around, gathering shit, doing QTEs (for more shit) and ferreting out hidden chests and looking for ridiculously-named unique monsters. Exploring this alien world and sneaking past mobs with easily three times your level is exhilarating.

The music is stellar too.

And every now and then I will pull a new NPC party member out of the core gacha and level them up for fun and profit before sending them to an early grave.

Some people reaaaaaally dislike the gacha system, but for me it's actually fun.

Except when I pulled my only "rare" so far. Fucking Loli in a miniskirt, with an oversized hammer. I mean, at least the English dub makes her sound young and there's no erotic tension or pretense that she's actually a five hundred year old dragon or anything. Just a youngster with a comically large hammer that fights against monsters. She's actually pretty adorable in her quest to master her powers so she stops hurting those around her. And I'm a sucker for those random-ass fang sticking out of the mouth trope things. It'd be gruesome in real life, though. Ew.

But it's Japan. I know I'm just a random tentacled monster encounter away from getting arrested for child porn.

[StealthFan]

Digging Bravely Default so far. Story is cool and the job system is dope.

[kingv]

Just went back to Yakuza 0 after taking a break for Mario and Wolfenstein II... it’s surprisingly grabbing me much more now than before.

Something about the off the wall sidequests mixed with the more serious story makes it really compelling. I was kind of just “eh” about it before, but all of a sudden I love it.

[paprikastaude]

[kingv]

Note I still can’t figure out all the mechanics of the different styles. And for some reason only seem to be able to do like three heat actions in each one

[Corporal]

I only ever played Yakuza 3. What a fun game that was. Taking your little kiddo into the city was ace. And then she demanded I get a hole in one at the golf course, the little ungrateful shit. Like, fuck you, I beat people up for less. Music was ace though.



Anyway. Took a break from the XBC2 and spent a lazy afternoon playing through a little game called "OPUS" where you pretty much mouse around a huge sea of stars to look for Earth while the system gives you hints. The story isn't half bad as well, if slightly depressing.

It's cute, and melancholic, and surprisingly fun. Gameplay is rather on the light side and a sequence of increasingly cryptic hints that eventually boil down to "go into sector X and look for a star near Y". So whether that's worth a fiver for you is something you have to decide. For me, it was totally worth it.

It was the perfect counter to big boobs and alien life forms, the Anime. Which I'll be getting back to ASAP. What can I say. It's still a fun game despite all its flaws and Shounen tropes.

[chronovore]

Went back to Horizon: Zero Dawn, and am in the main vault/dungeon/storymission that takes place at Sunfall. Major infodump. It's a whole lot of data, with a lot of tell-don't-show, which is sad but I'm happy to finally have a better grasp on why things are the way they are.

[kingv]

Horizon is a game I want to get back to... but i remain convinced that the best part is the story and “grafx!!”

I really don’t like the mechanics at all. It basically reminds me of the newer tomb raider games.

[paprikastaude]

Apart from the Nomura-tier stupid character designs, the story is one of the reasons I didn't yet get Horizon - even though the battle system looks great. It's everything wrong with western games. I.e. you're making a game about goddamn robot dinosaurs, why the fuck do you feel such a need to tell some pretentious-ass story? It's a stupid concept that should not take itself seriously. It's like playing the setup for Metal Wolf Chaos straight.

[Bebpo]

Been playing some House of Fata Morgana on my laptop because only VNs and 2d indie stuff will run on my Asus Transformer.

The soundtrack is craaaazy off the hook. Makes it like the Nier of VNs. Haven't got far enough to comment on anything else but j was wondering what all the hoopla for this not-cheap indie VN (doesn't even have VA) was from and now I see it's cause the soundtrack is crazy af.

[Mr. Nobody]

Started Dragon Quest VII about 2 weeks ago and it's my first DQ game. 16 hours in and despite finally reaching the job system and having something actually happen with the main party, I feel rather empty. The story feels damn near nonexistant and going back and forth through these episodic islands is already starting to wear thin. I'm seriously not sure if I'm going to keep playing.

[Bebpo]

Started Dragon Quest VII about 2 weeks ago and it's my first DQ game. 16 hours in and despite finally reaching the job system and having something actually happen with the main party, I feel rather empty. The story feels damn near nonexistant and going back and forth through these episodic islands is already starting to wear thin. I'm seriously not sure if I'm going to keep playing.

Don't start with VII.

Do you have access to 4 or 5? If 3ds only, 8 is probably better intro, or wait for XI.

[Thirty-Ought-Six]

Just finished the last level of Starcrawlers. Great game, especially getting it for free from GOG.

It had almost everything I like. Shadowrun-style theme, first person dungeons(offices), deep turn based combat (takes a while to even understand some of the skills). Some abilities require certain positioning in the timeline, so you might want to take a weaker skill for it's different time length, dropping you at the right spot to use a supercombo. The skill trees had variety and seemed well balanced, with the possible exception of the Cyberninja being extremely strong (but in a fun way) later on.

The problem is that the game is way too big. There are all kinds of systems in place... reputation/rewards with corporations, Diablo-style loot, craftable items. But even though I didn't rush through, I barely saw any of them. Reputation goes up so painfully slowly, nothing legendary ever dropped, and despite searching the whole game I never completed a single set of materials to craft. By the time I manged 3/4 of a set, or started to build respect with a corporation, the game was over. I don't know if they expect people to be playing a hundred hours on side missions to actually use these systems or what, but there isn't near enough enemy or mission variety to justify that.

[kingv]

Apart from the Nomura-tier stupid character designs, the story is one of the reasons I didn't yet get Horizon - even though the battle system looks great. It's everything wrong with western games. I.e. you're making a game about goddamn robot dinosaurs, why the fuck do you feel such a need to tell some pretentious-ass story? It's a stupid concept that should not take itself seriously. It's like playing the setup for Metal Wolf Chaos straight.

I felt like the battle system is off with what the game is asking you to do. Once the action gets hot and heavy the main character controls like shit. It’s pretty much fine as long as the game is sticking to being a hunter, steal thing through the grass, and setting traps.

As soon as you actually have to fight a big robot in an enclosed area, and dodge his shots or whatever, it fades fast. The dodging is disorienting, and the aiming is too clunky.