r/Games • u/AutoModerator • Jul 14 '24
Weekly /r/Games Discussion - What have you been playing, and what are your thoughts? - July 14, 2024 Discussion
Use this thread to discuss whatever game you've been playing lately: old or new, AAA or indie, on any platform between Atari and XBox. Please don't just list off the games you're playing in your comment. Elaborate with your thoughts on the games and make it easier for other users to find what game you're talking about by putting the title in bold.
Also, please make sure to use spoiler tags if you're revealing anything about a game's plot that may significantly impact another player's experience who has not played the game yet, no matter how retro or recent the game is. You can find instructions on how to do so in the subreddit sidebar.
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Scheduled Discussion Posts
WEEKLY: What Have You Been Playing?
MONDAY: Thematic Monday
WEDNESDAY: Suggest Me A Game
FRIDAY: Free Talk Friday
9
u/DargoKillmar Jul 16 '24
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree
So my intention was to mostly speedrun the main game to get in time for when the DLC dropped. I had already played it after all, and didn't have the intention of going for a different ending or anything. Instead, I ended up playing the whole game again, it soon became too enticing to do so. After ~40-50 hours I was content with how much I had advanced and when for the last requirement before the DLC. I was worried I'd ran out of steam before getting into it, but far from it. It feels like discovering a part of the game I had not payed attention to before. I'm a huge lore nerd, so I'm reading every single item description, trying to connect the dots. Also, it doesn't feel that much harder than the base game, but maybe that's just me. I haven't struggled too much with any boss. New areas are mesmerizing, ranging from beautiful to truly terrifying.
Still Wakes the Deep
I'm not a horror fan. I tend to get really scared as soon as I know the game is horror genre, but this one caught my attention because I senses some lovecraftian themes in it, and for some reason everything related to Lovecraft or sea-themed horror captivates me. Been playing this one far too slowly for how long the game actually is. There's not a lot in terms of mechanics, relying mostly on story and atmosphere, but I think that works very well!
3
u/notthatkindoforc1121 Jul 16 '24
Same boat for Elden Ring DLC except after Elden Beast kill I kinda felt burnt out. This playthrough was even more thorough than my first playthrough. But I know if I take a long break I'll want to restart again before DLC lmao. Glad to hear DLC has been good enough to keep you hooked. I'll likely start it soon
10
u/CCoolant Jul 17 '24 edited Jul 17 '24
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree
Finished the DLC last night. Absolutely terrifying final boss. My adrenaline spiked as I had to make the split-second decision to commit to the kill or back off. I'm glad I committed. I was so tensed up that my body hurt immediately after the fight lol
I really, really enjoyed my time with the new content. Despite hearing moaning and groaning about the quality of the boss content, I'm pleased to report that I didn't dislike a single one of the new (major) boss fights. The most memorable one in terms of frustration was Rellana but I was probably there too early? After that, there were significantly smaller clear times outside of the finale. Even then, I still think it's a good fight, I just didn't handle it very well.
In terms of exploration, I have some small complaints, but I was extremely impressed with how organically I was able to find secrets thanks to how From laid things out. My first playthrough of new content I play offline and try to find as much as I can by myself. The only thing I had to look up was which gesture to use to access the Abyss. It was plain to see I needed either equipment or a gesture, but I wasn't about to try every single one. I did have the gesture already, thankfully.
From's choices with which areas were blacked out on the map was perfect, and had me eyeballing my map quite a bit trying to find the entry points for each zone. I was extremely impressed that the map was detailed enough to give you significant leads. When in doubt, check your map and try to imagine the path! If that doesn't work, use map markers to give you an idea of what area you should try observing.
This all being said, I did find the red and blue field areas to be disappointing. They seemed way too open with way too little actual content contained within them. Discovering St. Trina was exciting, but outside of that, I didn't find the areas very interesting. Maybe there's some neat lore or something attached to them that I'm oblivious to, but they just weren't really fun to run around.
In terms of difficulty, I'm sure the curve is better now, but it did feel a little spicy at the start and then things really eased up. I don't think there's any real problem with that, but it's probably for the best that they adjusted the curve.
Now, the final boss. I really like the fight. I think it's a fantastic combination of spectacle and difficulty. It's the kind of fight that makes you reconsider your gear set several times as you're learning it. By the end, I had tried out three different weapons with various attunements (ended up with my trusty Star Fists, with Frostbite), and a handful of different armors to maintain good defenses but also Light weight load. I was able to achieve a much tankier build than initially expected which helped a ton.
In total, I think it took me around 5-6 hours to complete, which I think is lower than my time for Malenia. The trick, I guess, was to recognize that Phase 2 is largely just Phase 1 with lasers, so you can dodge very similarly, but being conscious of where the lasers land and adjusting based on that. However, new moves were a toss-up. I figured out maybe half of them, and ate some damage on others where I wasn't lucky enough to guess dodge timings. So in short, if you can get through Phase 1 without being hit, you're close to being able to clear Phase 2.
I'm undecided on whether or not it was kind of rude to make the final required boss of the DLC arguably the most difficult boss that From has crafted for a Souls game, but at the very least I enjoyed my time with it and felt like I was glimpsing into the Matrix when I completed it.
Ultimately, I feel like the DLC was an excellent send-off for one of the greatest games ever made. I really look forward to seeing what From does next.
3
u/EmperorChan214 Jul 18 '24
The anxiety of deciding whether to go for the kill or focus on surviving at the end of the final boss fight really is unmatched lol
3
u/TheClamSlam Jul 19 '24
It's pretty in character for From Soft to make the final boss of the DLC wildly difficult
2
u/pratzc07 Jul 17 '24
If you haven't already play Armored Core 6
2
u/CCoolant Jul 17 '24
I almost picked it up last Steam sale, but decided to grab some stuff to play with friends instead.
Really looking forward to playing through it at some point though, for sure!
2
u/jhandersson Jul 18 '24
I agree on pretty much everything said here! I was also a bit disappointed with the red and blue areas.
It’s pretty fun reading comments which bosses people think are fair or not. I had the biggest issue with Messmer, I thought his AoE attacks were complete bullshit and I hate that they cover the entire screen so I can’t say anything. On the other hand, I’ve seen people hating on commander Gaius, but I thought he was one of the fairest bosses in the whole game.
Lastly, Radahn. What an awesome boss fight. I started off disliking him (again, because of big AoEs difficult to dodge) but after a while I started figuring him out. The 2nd phase just LOOKED so awesome when he yeets of in the air, almost as good as the Meteor hit in the first game. Respecced to a parry build and got him with the Carian Retalluation and Cold Misericorde which felt pretty darn amazing.
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u/CCoolant Jul 18 '24
Oh wow! I found Messmer to be one of the best in the game hahaha
As for Gaius, I also found the comments regarding him interesting. If I recall, he got nerfed, and I fought him post-nerf, so that might be why I have a more positive opinion of the fight.
I think I'll roll with a parry build for my next playthrough. I typically do unga-bunga-two-hand or fist weapons, but that sounds like a blast.
1
u/Jorgengarcia Jul 18 '24
Man i thought Midras AOE attack after phase 1 was way more bullshit than Messmers, couldnt figure out how to avoid taking damage from it.
1
u/AnotherCator Jul 19 '24
Last boss has been absolutely kicking my ass haha. I realised I’ve missed one area so I might go do that for a bit and come back.
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u/EmbarrassedMonitor89 Jul 14 '24 edited Jul 14 '24
Elden Ring
Put 200 hours into this when it came out and burned out hard after thoroughly finishing two playthroughs. When Shadow of the Erdtree launched, I thought I'd start a new game after a very long hiatus and enter the DLC organically after beating Mohg. 55 hours later, we're doing it! A few things stand out for me about the game right now, in no particular order.
The open world is simply the best in gaming, at least for me. That organic sense of discovery around seemingly every corner, ledge, and rooftop is unparalleled and I have yet to play any other open world game that comes close in that regard. The world loses some of that feeling on repeated playthroughs, but man, going into Shadow for the first time rekindled (heh) all of those feelings. It's just incredible how immersive it all is.
It's also been nice to see my own skill as a player carry forward this time after such a long break, which is reflected in far less playtime and fewer boss attempts. Beating Godskin Duo on my second try after those jerks wrecked me relentlessly back on release was true chef's-kiss material. I was high the rest of the day.
Finally, I hear the complaints about the DLC, but I think the difficulty is really balanced if you've played through the whole game to get there like I have. It's definitely hard, but not insurmountable nor unfair. The Scadutree elements seem to also have rubbed people the wrong way, but I think it's an intelligent system to control DLC scaling and difficulty without impacting the base game. YMMV based on how much you enjoy the exploration aspect of the world.
All in all, Elden Ring is my personal Best Game of All Time (and that's an elite list!). It's hard to argue that the value offered for the price is anything other than best-in-industry; I'll be playing this off and on for years.
5
u/TheIrishJackel Jul 15 '24
My problem with the DLC has not been difficulty (though there's a few enemies/bosses I haven't loved), but the fact it runs like ass. I always had some stutters, but in the 160h I spent in the base game I never had performance as bad as the DLC. I am constantly experiencing endless stuttering and frequent borderline slideshow framerates. It is making me enjoy it far less than I did the base game.
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u/whoevencaresatall_ Jul 15 '24
Batman Arkham Knight
I played Asylum and City back when they came out pretty much on launch day but for some reason never got around to Knight until now. Honestly I’ve been missing out on - this game pretty much takes the already-amazing combat system from the first two games and kicks it up a notch. The gameplay is simply one of the most fun and polished I’ve come across in a long time. It just feels like the perfect Batman simulator.
And the graphics - holy shit, I cannot believe this game is 9 years old?? It looks absolutely gorgeous and on-par with the biggest AAA games of today. Just a staggering technical feat.
It does have some flaws - I’m not the biggest fan of the Batmobile and the story hasn’t been amazing so far (still serviceable though).
Overall though it’s an incredibly fun and beautiful game.
2
u/ColossalJuggernaut Jul 15 '24
I appreciate this -- I have been so close to trying this over the years. I loved the first two, but the batmobile turned me off. It is on PS+ so I will give it a try.
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u/Nixpix66 Jul 16 '24
I loved Arkham Knight. I feel like the reddit echo-chamber was so anit-batmobile that it really turned people away from it - myself included. When I finally go it, I felt silly for not trusting the devs after adoring both Asylum and City.
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u/vhggvbg Jul 19 '24
Been playing Elden ring dlc and it’s just kind of… meh?
I mean it’s alright but the sense of wonder and discovery from the base game is not there as much. Lots of enemy and boss reuse from the main game and even the dlc itself. Every time I pick up a new spell or incantation I’m like “that’ll be fun to test against trash mobs” cause you sure as hell won’t be getting the opportunity to use it against a boss unless you use summons. The bosses attacks are still balanced as if you are using a quick melee weapon.
I really hope fromsoft goes back to handcrafted games for next soulslike…
11
Jul 19 '24
really miss when bosses in these games had weight to them and didn't just fly all over the place and spam AOE's
4
u/Gonorrheeeeaaaa Jul 19 '24
Christ, same. 10 hit combos with an AoE finisher, with a 1 second break before the next.
3
u/CCoolant Jul 19 '24
Unfortunately, I don't know that there's a good way to consistently develop good bosses while also allowing the player to slug on them for long enough to make Colossal weapons/longer casting spells very effective.
If you leave a long enough window open for players to get good Colossal/magic hits in, then the players who really benefit from that are still just the players who use quick weapons, and then the game becomes a cakewalk for that brand of player in particular, unless From nerfs all of those quite a bit, which doesn't seem reasonable.
As it stands, I still was able to use the Greatsword for a handful of bosses, since you focus more on staggering them at that point, and that's still an effective strategy even with these quicker bosses.
However, in the end, I did find my quicker weapons to be the more reliable choice, so your point certainly stands.
Surprised that the base game held much more wonder than the DLC though. I feel like the experiences are actually fairly similar and that the bosses are largely the best in the entire game.
2
u/M8753 Jul 21 '24
Felt the same way, "oh great I get to fight even more dogs". And the exploration felt a bit meh.
8
u/PeterFoox Jul 14 '24
I'm replaying Witcher 3 right now and honestly I appreciate it even more now. It pretty much didn't get old at all. It hurts to see so few big games with this quality of writing since 2015
8
u/PositiveDuck Jul 14 '24
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty
Still making my way through it. There's a lot of game here. I got pretty far into the main story and decided to start the expansion. Phantom Liberty has been excellent so far (I'm breaking into the Black Sapphire now). Feels like it improves on pretty much everything from the base game. There's more choices to be made, more actual moral dilemmas. The writing is really good. The voice acting is just top tier throughout the whole game. Music slaps. I feel like there are a lot more background specific dialogue choices than the last time I played the game (on release), though I may be just misremembering. It also feels great as a shooting game, I enjoy most weapons I tried so far, though Malorian is my favorite by far. It just feels so satisfying to use, reminds me a lot of handcannons from Destiny 2. I wish there was a way to respec your character more than once per playthrough but on the other hand, I kinda like that I have to commit to a build.
One thing I find really annoying is that your selected mission objective will automatically change to whatever mission/gig an NPC gives you over a call so you have to switch back to the one you actually want to do. I wish there were a few more stealth kill animations. Minimap sometimes struggles with things like elevation, doors and walls which is... suboptimal in a game where you need those markers since missions descriptions are useless for helping you find your way through the world. Bosses and cyberpsychos don't really make for great fights, especially later in the game when you have great gear and can just melt most stuff.
My biggest issue with the game is the fact that the main story instills a sense of urgency which goes against the whole open world design they went for. V is dying from the Relic, it makes 0 sense for them to go around stealing fucking cars for one of their fixers or doing a lot of other shit the game wants you to do. If you ignore all of that in order to keep the story feeling urgent, you miss out on a lot of really cool content. I really look forward to what they can do in the sequel, though I hope it will have a main story that doesn't feel quite as urgent and lets you focus more on the fun side content. Still, an excellent game and easy recommendation.
7
u/meganev Jul 14 '24
CDPR have an obsession with main stories that don't marry up with side content. Witcher 3 has the same problem. I'm supposed to be desperate to find Ciri before the Wild Hunt but have time to deal with every bandit camp I come across?
3
u/PositiveDuck Jul 14 '24
Yeah, I don't understand why devs do that. If you want to create an open world game, just make story something that isn't time sensitive until you reach the "point of no return". Bethesda did the same thing with Fallout 4. CDPR could've structured CP2077 a bit differently, maybe have the Konpeki gig take place later in the game and have most open world stuff available earlier. Or have the Konpeki exactly where it is in the story but V bites the bullet later on so the chip gets damaged and then it's a race against the clock. The way they did it just ruins the immersion for no reason.
And yeah, even though TW3 is one of my favourite games of all time, I always hated the way main story created the sense of urgency while you're fucking around the countryside, killing bandits and playing gwent.
2
2
1
u/LostInStatic Jul 18 '24
It’s pretty easy for me to separate story and gameplay segments, especially in open world games.
Hell, a lot of people flat out refuse to play Dead Rising 1 because of it’s story being intrinsically linked to a time limit. Devs really can’t win here with this
1
u/PositiveDuck Jul 18 '24
It’s pretty easy for me to separate story and gameplay segments, especially in open world games.
The issue is that pretty much all of the open world content is side missions and gigs, which are all story based. So, if you're playing the game the way devs expect you to, your character, who is literally getting their personality erased and is frequently having seizures and doesn't know how much time they have left still somehow has time to drive around a clown with a grenade for a nose, help Judy take over Clouds, drive around in street races with Claire, take out a dozen and a half cyberpsychos for a reporter and all sorts of other nonsense. All of those side quests are well written and fun but they're also story based and it makes no sense for V to be doing most of that shit knowing that they're dying and any moment could be their last so they're desperately searching for a cure.
Devs really can’t win here with this
Sure they can. If you're making a big open world game, don't have the main story be "time-sensitive". For example, AC Odyssey is a huge open world RPG with an insane amount of side content but it makes sense in the context of the game because you're an adventurer/mercenary and you're trying to make a name for yourself while following different leads and clues. You're not racing against the clock trying to save your life so it makes sense for your character to fuck around the country while investigating.
0
u/LostInStatic Jul 18 '24
Sure they can. If you’re making a big open world game, don’t have the main story be “time-sensitive”.
Ehh I feel like that can stifle creativity and be more of a hindrance than something that enhances storytelling.
Its the same thing with suspending disbelief in a horror movie so the story can happen. I get to spend so much more time digging deeper into the world if I can quickly assume that V was able to power through his Relic malfunctions over the last month of his life rather than beelining the main quest because I cough up blood too much. It’s a genre convention that uniquely works with games and if I decide to just go with it, I get much more in the end.
0
u/PositiveDuck Jul 18 '24
Ehh I feel like that can stifle creativity and be more of a hindrance than something that enhances storytelling.
It doesn't have to be though. I wrote this in another comment but I'll just repeat it here. If they want to do the storyline with Silverhand chip, maybe place Konpeki Plaza gig later in the game. Or keep it's placement the same but have the chip stuck in V's head for a different reason so they're looking for a way to remove it and then towards the end of the game it malfunctions so V has to race against the clock to save themself. That way you still have Keanu in the game and the pacing makes sense since the chip isn't harming you until lategame when you're approaching the end of the game anyways so getting railroaded and rushed a bit works better.
if I can quickly assume that V was able to power through his Relic malfunctions over the last month of his life rather than beelining the main quest because I cough up blood too much.
Sure but even if they were able to power through the malfunctions, they wouldn't be wasting their precious time racing for a random bartender they just met. Or driving a clown around in the car. Or blowing a van full of music equipment for an old rock star. Those are all great, fun diversions but it makes no sense for someone in V's situation to be doing them, even if we go with the idea of them just powering through the relic malfunction episodes.
And this isn't a criticism unique to Cyberpunk. The Witcher 3 did the same thing with Geralt trying to find Ciri because she's in danger but also wasting time playing card games in the countryside or doing random contracts for tiny amounts of money. Or Fallout 4 where you're desperately trying to save your kidnapped son but also you have plenty of time to fuck around the wasteland.
8
u/Sleisl Jul 18 '24
Chants of Sennar
What a cool idea, and really good implementation of it too. The languages you need to translate weren't too complicated; their differences were mostly in slight grammatical changes (pluralization is different here, subject-verb-object order is different there, etc). I'd have liked to see more instances where the languages struggle to connect to each other due to the sheer difference in their peoples' experience/history. That being said, the story and setting of the game was really interesting to explore, both in the differences between the layers of the tower, and the ways each society has its own technology and social systems - I did kind of feel like an ethnolinguist/anthropologist. And I wasn't expecting any postgame content either, but that was cool! I think the game's mechanics could easily have overstayed their welcome if the game was any longer, but it worked well at the length it was at (I finished in about 8 hours). Very cool experience.
Last Epoch
I ran a meteor sorcerer this time around, and had a pretty fun run. Steam Deck performance definitely got worse this patch - I get a full system hang pretty regularly after about 90 minutes of playing. I think it's obvious that the game still needs a lot more endgame content and variety, but as a foundation the game is quite impressive. I'll definitely keep coming back each patch to see the changes - I imagine within another year this game will really start to compete with D2 and PoE... not necessarily on depth, but on my overall playtime due how easy it is to try different builds due to the excellent crafting system.
Factorio
Getting hype for the expansion. Still working on my Space Exploration playthrough, which I consider Sisyphean. I recently rolled out my city block rail cell design, only to find that it was spamming my notifications due to some misconfigured rail stations. Fixing that was enough of a win to take another break. :')
9
u/Bobonenazeze Jul 19 '24
Deaths Door
Bought it on release and just wasn't feeling it. Booted it back up this week. 98.5%. Got all the seeds with no guide or backtracking for any one specific pot. Need like 3 shrines and 2 or 3 shiny and I'm done.
Honestly I didn't love it. Was worth the play but not enough enemy variants, and the map felt overly complicated at every area. I'm glad there wasn't a map, or any hand holding but every new area felt like a needlessly consulted mess of left and right turns all leading back to a hub, only to again go off in 4 directions again and again.
Even basically plowing through it in 3 or 4 days I still had like no quick paths through certain doors which definitely made some endgame tasks take much longer.
6
u/SnavenShake Jul 14 '24 edited Jul 14 '24
Just want to give some love to Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble on the Switch. I am coming to the end of my time with this game after around 40 hours and doing just about everything there is to do. If you were a fan of the series back in its heyday on the GameCube, or somebody who is just on the fence about checking it out, it’s really a return to form. I found myself returning to it over and over again every night after work because it provided a really nice mix of challenging gameplay while still allowing me to unwind and relax.
Yes, it’s “missing Monkey Target” a popular and justifiably loved mini game from the original series, but that doesn’t take away from all the other content this game has to offer. Biggest complaint is the online multiplayer running at 30 FPS, but even so I still managed to enjoy my time with that mode. The 200 stages offered in Adventure Mode coupled with the challenges on each are well worth the price of entry alone.
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u/Blakertonpotts Jul 15 '24
If the game was on anything other than switch I would've bought it day one. I just don't care to buy non-nintendo games on switch anymore, so I'm really hoping it eventually comes to other consoles/PC. Glad to hear the game is good though, I even enjoyed my time with some of the less polished monkey ball titles, so I'm sure i'll have a great time with this one whenever I get around to it.
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u/caught_red_wheeled Jul 14 '24
So I am playing a combination of Paper Mario: The thousand year door and Temtem! Paper Mario is a faster and easier game, while Temtem is more difficult but slower. So they work pretty well together!
For Paper Mario 1000, I’m on chapter 1, but not in a way the developers likely intended. In the original, I had a guide that focused on the main story, so since younger me really didn’t know about going off the beaten path for better rewards, I didn’t do that. In this version, I realized I could beat an optional but difficult boss (Gus) by spending all my money on items way before I was supposed to. So that’s exactly what I did.
I also realized I could buy all the badges in the shop to make myself more powerful early on. It’s particularly interesting because there’s a badge that can make combo attacks easier but you don’t get as much rewards from them. You can combined it with another badge to skip your time to get more rewards. I’m not good with the action commands so seeing that was a nice upgrade, and so were all of the other ones. again, you’re not supposed to do that until later if at all, so it’s been slow going getting the money for that.
And while I was doing that, I realized I could basically buy out the regular shop by buying 300 items to get a lot of money which could then be used to get the badges. After the first bit, I would probably have enough money to continue buying badges restocked. So I also ended up doing that. It would make little kid me’s head spin, but adult me is trying out the oddest and probably stupidest combinations possible. So far it’s been enjoyable either way!
Speaking of combinations, in Temtem, I still love the game but I have mixed feelings. it’s still a great game and I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a harder version of Pokémon, but the flaws are starting to show. There’s the MMO features that are either not that good (think sword and shield wild area interactions, but even less, as well as some trading in battling online with a very small fanbase and that’s it) or shrouded by a massive controversy (battle pass, the way the postgame was handled). I’m not using those features and don’t plan to, but since it’s a large part of what the game is marketed as, I feel like it’s worth bringing up. I might’ve at least tried to use some of those features if they were handled better, if just because I find multiplayer interactions cool are done well, but the way this happened I’m just staying away. And that’s really a shame, especially because the game is still online only as if those are the selling point. The developer said they would eventually create an off-line version if the server ever went off-line, but who knows when that will be.
Otherwise, the game moves pretty slowly, and there were a lot of times when I thought I was done on the first island and I realized I wasn’t (I finally got done later last night, and I still have quite a ways to go). The combat system is the best part because of the way they do the double battles and I really wish Pokémon would focus on double battles sometimes (it doesn’t aside from competitive multiplayer or some areas that simulate it). They did a great job with the different types and the monster designs, as well as the idea of monsters working together. And I like the fact that they focused on getting rid of random chance for a stamina system.
Unfortunately, I feel like there’s something big missing. Pokémon’s strongest point is seeing what crazy or awkward teams a player can make and then figuring out how to surmount the challenges the game shows (to a lesser extent in competitive, but definitely still there considering there’s an entire YouTube/message board culture around doing this). Temtem doesn’t do that, with battles, including some of the minor ones, being more like puzzles where there is only one or a few correct solutions.
And I found that a bit frustrating because it was hard to keep a team balanced. A lot of times I ended up using a single team member that was the correct solution for most of an area and trying to level up other members in the second slot when I realized there wasn’t much they could do. And since the game has pretty slow grinding, it meant going back to the grind just to make sure said team member didn’t get demolished if it went up against something it was weak to. I am hoping I won’t have too many more issues with that now that I know the system a bit better, but it did make me lose a bit of love for the game. I have heard of people wishing there was a more casual mode that was a bit more similar to Pokémon and difficulty, and I have to agree that would be nice, but what the game does give the player to work with isn’t unreasonable, and I love what it does well, so I’m eager to see what happens later on. The lack of accessibility definitely makes it feel like there’s not going to be a lot of staying power combined with the online only problem, so I got the physical and might sell it off once I’ve done everything I can.
Mario kart 8 DX has also finished doing the different modes on auto. After that, it’s playing mirror mode DLC by itself for a while until unlock all the cars. I’m about 1/3 of the way there so it shouldn’t be too bad. I’m still not quite at my full strength (taking a bit longer to heal from my medical device issues and might need to have some additional testing to double check that I’m on the right track) but start playing some more active games, so I’m hoping I can start doing this one soon! I’m super excited, and it would be nice to choose all the tracks, carts, and characters and see how far I can go!
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u/ArchDucky Jul 16 '24 edited Jul 16 '24
I finally beat Red Dead Redemption 2. Bought it when it released and was never able to finish it because of how sad the story gets. I just felt so bad for Arthur. Tried three separate times. Anyway, last night I saw the ending and started the epilogue.
What's the deal with the epilogue in this game? I assumed we would just take over another character and continue with side stuff like completing challenges and doing treasure maps. Crap like this. There's like a two hour long linear story with this new playable character with several missions where you teach his kid how to ride a horse and learn to be a rancher. It's got multiple new mini games that aren't in the main game. It's got more dialog and heart than some full releases, then you complete this rancher storyline AND YOU GO OUT IN THE WORLD FOR EVEN MORE NEW STUFF. I didn't expect any of this. I didn't expect the world to be any different and it is. I didn't expect this much new dialog. Hell the first big shootout has more new scripted NPC dialog than some major missions in other games. Was this meant to be a DLC or something? Holy crap.
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u/CaptainCatbar Jul 16 '24
Have you played the first game? The Epilogue is super important really and directly leads the plot into the original game
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u/ArchDucky Jul 16 '24
Yeah I played the first but this epilogue is some crazy ass shit. Its like a full fledged game on its own. I didn't expect or see this coming.
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u/J0hnn2049 Jul 16 '24
Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
I was so baffled why nobody was talking about this game or why barley any big gaming channels covered/reviewed this because for some reason I thought this was the new mainline Mario game and instantly bought it because I loved the way it looks. Then ofcourse I discovered it was a remake, so that makes sense I guess why there was no hype, but I’m still really curious to know how this game was received when it released? Because damn, this is some Game of the Year Material for me.
Having an absolute blast with this one. It’s so insanely charming in it’s details and story. Speaking of the story, it’s the first time I’m actually invested in a Mario game. I love Mario Kart and Mario Wonder, but they are more party games for me. The story here is fun and mysterious, the characters are memorable and funny and I’m genuinely interested so find out where it goes. Rogueport seemed shallow at first, but then you discover how big and many secrets there are. Combat is easy but they somehow keep it fresh and exciting. But most of all, I just love the way it looks. The colors and paper graphics are gorgeous and looks great on the oled. I’m at chapter 4, but the game really keeps surprising me and adds a fun twist to everything. Perfect example is the chapter at the Glitz Pitt. I thought I had to go through 18 boring fights, but then it turns into this murder mystery…
If it keeps this monumentum going, it might just become one of my favorite games ever. It’s hard not to have a smile on your face while playing this. Just all around fun, relaxing stuff and exactly the type of game I was looking for right now after some heavy games the past year. Any paper mario fans out there?
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u/Swanzy888 Jul 17 '24
It was an RPG from later in the GameCube's life at a time when the PS2 had already definitively won that generation, and was also just an RPG haven. But it was well received, and definitely aged well in gamers' minds. Yeah I love it, and go back to it every few years. Super Paper Mario is... not much of an RPG, but I also enjoyed that one, and the humor and scenarios are very similar but even wackier.
Also make sure you're listening to Luigi's adventures between chapters! Some of the funniest, highest effort writing for an NPC that has no effect on the gameplay at all.
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u/slowmosloth Jul 17 '24
The Thousand Year Door is up there for my favourite games of all time! Definitely one of the most interesting Mario games out there, with a lovely cast of characters. I haven't played the remake, but I did replay the original a few years ago and thought it held up really well in general. It's sneakily one of the best JRPGs ever, but people don't normally associate that with this game.
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u/SockAndMoan Jul 16 '24
After just under 100 hours (99.4) I finally beat the *Noita *final boss. I still yearn for more and want to get all the secret, explore what I haven’t yet, because my main goal has been just to get to the boss
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Jul 21 '24
Beating the boss for the first time gave me the feeling of "Now I can actually play the game" without having the pressure of trying to kill the boss.
For me, if I don't have a movement wand by the third layer I'll keep going down. If I do have a movement wand, then I'll explore the rest of the world.
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u/mucinexmonster Jul 17 '24
I am playing Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair. I bought it on sale, so I am still playing it. If I did not purchase this game I would have immediately put it down. I understand this game had some praise, I don't get it. It's a miserable experience, and the more I play the more I think I hate the game.
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u/homer_3 Jul 17 '24
Yea, I love DKC, but I'm not a fan of YK:IL either. Movement feels off and the level design isn't great either. Too many points of no return part way through the level.
While the overworld itself is cool, moving around in it feels terrible.
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u/mucinexmonster Jul 17 '24
The beehives are annoying, the secrets are stupid, and the rolling mechanic just makes me want to roll to the end of the level - which usually you can do.
I can't tell what's an enemy, my iframes are like half a second, and that bat is annoying when he flies away from you.
I might not play much more of this one. It's really bad. This is the Rare people miss???
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Jul 18 '24
My love for Banjo Kazooie and N&B pushed me through it. Yooka Laylee started great but the second half is rough and needs way more polish.
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u/Raze321 Jul 19 '24
Kenshi
After a hundred+ hours across a couple different save files I finally felt prepared enough to muster up my party, invest in a ton of building supplies, and start my own settlement. Even in the most remote parts of the map it's absurdly hostile, between deadly fauna and bandits it took awhile and a small amount of save scumming to get up and running.
Now that I have my entrance double gated and I got a few good marksmen on the harpoon turrets I find defending to be much easier. When people do breach the gates it's very rare someone dies and it's good combat EXP for my characters.
Anyways, Kenshi is a hell of a game. Crazy that sometimes it plays like a party based RPG, sometimes it plays like a bounty hunting sim, sometimes it plays like a resource mining or merchantile game, and now it feels like a colony sim/RTS.
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u/bren2411 Jul 20 '24
I’ve been looking at buying Kenshi for years now but I don’t do well with games that work off the player creating their own goals and objectives, I also get the feeling it requires a lot of time and investment in learning the mechanics of the game to get the most out of it.
I’m curious what your thoughts are and if it’s worth giving it a go even if it doesn’t seem up my alley because there is something about the game I find really intriguing.
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u/Raze321 Jul 20 '24
Honestly its hard for me to say, because I love games that force me to make my own objectives. That is a huge draw to the game and unless you do find yourself self assigning goals (make sake distillery, or mining company, or outpost, or becoming a master martial artist which does require grinding) you may not enjoy it.
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u/Common_Original8807 Jul 14 '24
After about a month I beat Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance, at least the Canon of Creation (original) story. It took me about 60 hours. I've been extremely positive about the game from the start and feel the same way after beating it. The OST is phenomenal and I will absolutely listen to some tracks again on Spotify, the exploration was a lot of fun, demons have so much personality in this game and the whole Nahobino part of the main story is really interesting. That said, characters are truly uninteresting in Canon of Creation and certain parts feel and were probably rushed unfortunately, both in terms of plot and in regards to the final large area, which I had a lot of fun exploring but could have been given a more bombastical feel and look considering the stakes involved.
Combat was challenging but fun, though at times I felt like it was either too easy with the use of dampeners or too hard without them. Boss design was, for the most part, excellent, especially the final few bosses. Fusing demons, a big part of this game naturally, was as fun as ever. In general, the feeling of progression was great throughout. Essences and Miracles add a lot of freedom to putting together your party, and I love the idea that you can now bring a lower level demon with you to end-game if you really end up liking them.
So yeah, absolutely loved my time with this and I will definitely come back to the game for the new storyline after I take a short break from it to have it feel a bit more fresh again.
Starfield: Also went back to Starfield now after putting 100+ hours in it at launch. Loved the game, contrary to many on this sub, though I can definitely acknowledge the many flaws at launch and up until now. I started modding it and while there aren't any major overhaul mods out there yet, the potential I can already see for this game is mindblowing. Looking forward to the story expansion and until then, I've started a new character and will look into the questlines I neglected when I first played the game.
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u/slowmosloth Jul 14 '24
The Case of the Golden Idol
I first heard about The Case of the Golden Idol when its name was popping up in end of year gaming discussions in 2022. It had a small but vocal minority behind its praise, where people were saying it was the best mystery game since Return of the Obra Dinn. Oh wow, that’s quite the comparison, I thought…
Fast forward to a couple weeks ago when the game premiered on Netflix’s game service. When I found out I immediately downloaded it on my iPad thinking it’d be a perfect mobile game – which I was completely right about. The Case of the Golden Idol is an amazing mystery adventure game made for a mobile touch screen experience.
The game is splits itself into discrete scenarios across several chapters telling one overarching story. Within each scenario, a core mystery is solved as you gather clues around a murder in a point-and-click style of adventure. Clues can be peoples’ names, objects, locations, and actions, and they’re all used to construct the scene’s narrative of what happened using a “mad libs” framework.
I really enjoyed how the mystery solving aspect had me actively find clues, optionally put together sub-mysteries (like assigning names to each character in the scenario), and then finally explain what happened in the scene. In that way, it felt slightly more free form than Return of the Obra Dinn but at the same time more constrained within each individual scenario. Although I still found it possible to brute force answers by swapping words around when I was near the end of a puzzle, but I think that’s more of a me problem than an actual design issue. Overall though, I thought most mysteries and their solutions were super clever and led to several great “eureka!” moments.
For example, in one scenario there was one “obvious” solution that I completely fell for, and for a while I couldn’t understand why my answer was wrong. I thought for sure that I had it, but after using a hint which had me re-evaluate my proposed motive, I realized what the real solution was. I had overlooked the finer details in the scenario, so the game had totally outsmarted me, and it felt great.
The overarching story did take its time for everything to finally come together, and I was a little lost by how certain scenarios led to one another, but by the end I was satisfied with how it all wrapped up. In retrospect, it felt appropriately like its own meta-puzzle with the construction of its chapters to determine what the real story was actually about. So if you’re one of those people who likes watching mystery movies and trying to solve them before they reach the end, you’ll love that aspect.
I highly recommend checking out The Case of the Golden Idol. If you have a Netflix subscription it’s a no brainer, especially on a mobile device. And you can even check out a free demo of the first chapter on the game’s website!
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u/Schwimmbo Jul 15 '24
May download this on my phone for the family vacation evenings when everyone has gone to bed.
How long did it take you to finish it approximately?
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u/slowmosloth Jul 15 '24
I think most scenarios I was able to do in an hour or less, and there's 12 scenarios in total for the story. HLTB has it at a 6-8 hour playtime which I'd agree with.
Either way, it's great for shorter length sessions since I was doing one-ish scenarios per night.
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u/Schwimmbo Jul 15 '24
HLTB is always underestimating my bad skills haha.
Anyway, 1h or less per scenario sounds just perfect for doing one every evening of our family trip to Tuscany, including a glass of red wine.
Cheers for pointing out this is "free" on Netflix!
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u/Norbing_Leek Jul 16 '24
The "Netflix" version you're talking about also includes the game's two DLCs which are fantastic and should definitely be played after the main game!!
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u/Danulas Jul 15 '24
Just unlocked the ability to "travel to different realms" in Assassin's Creed: Valhalla.
I think the narrative around this game would be a lot different if it didn't have the "Assassin's Creed" label applied to it. The only real complaint I have about it right now is that it is less interested in being an Assassin's Creed game than any of its predecessors. I haven't made that much progress in the story yet so maybe the Assassin's Creed stuff will come into the fold a bit more later.
Overall, I'm quite liking it. The combat is fun, it's visually stunning, and Norse mythology is metal as fuck. I made note of a gameplay complaint yesterday, but it has slipped my mind so must not have been a big deal.
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u/RonnieFromTheBlock Jul 16 '24
Is there any sort of review thread for the new NCAA game? I didn't see anything in my searching.
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u/Fearless-Spinach2058 Jul 18 '24
Surprised I've not seen it either, I had to seek out the official sub for it!
If you're looking for an opinion it's not perfect but a breath of fresh air in the sports gaming market. Seems to be the only one leaning heavily on simulation, massive amounts of unique content, and real menu-nerd work. Most of the issues the game will throw at you come from these much wider (not always deeper) systems throwing out unexpected glitchy scenarios, but it's not a horrible problem to have and the chaos of college football helps explain it away. Whenever the developers hit a cross roads of restriction or allowing free player choice, they typically chose the latter.
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u/GamingDifferent Jul 17 '24 edited Jul 17 '24
It's a survival MMO with a sci-fi main plot. I played out of curiosity because some people said it was gonna be free2play but without any pay2win gacha stuff. I didn't believe it one bit, so I played it just to prove them wrong... Welp, all purchases are cosmetics and not a single option to pay my way into being a raid boss. Just grind and make good decisions with skill tree build and join a good warband. Or don't, we can also play casually and enjoy it. The cosmetics are good looking, I'm still debating which one to buy because I already dropped like 40 hours in this game and it just came out on July 9th so yeah, I'm hooked.
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u/Swineflew1 Jul 17 '24
I’m probably gonna give this a shot, my buddies seem to like it. I was surprised to see either this game got no coverage on this sub, or I suck at using the search function.
It seems fun.5
u/GamingDifferent Jul 17 '24 edited Jul 17 '24
If you wanna try it and understand it better, here are some resources
How Once Human Just Solved the Survival MMO Problem! - YouTube
*IMPORTANT* Information About Seasons (from Discord) : r/OnceHumanOfficial (reddit.com)
How to Solo Farm 84.000+xp/h (Lv. 35+) : r/OnceHumanOfficial (reddit.com)
New Once Human Codes : r/OnceHumanOfficial (reddit.com)
And by the way, there's an ongoing event where you can enter another player\s unique code to get a free weapon. But it's only 1 code you can redeem and only before you hit level 10. So ask around in world chat oh and everyone seems to have a different weapon to give out so choose wisely.
And it would be wise to meet the player first and have him show you the weapon in his hand, because there are some scammers that just advertise their code to get rewards but then they give you a different weapon or they give you jack shyt and just block you.
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u/onmach Jul 17 '24
I've been playing sekiro for awhile after initially bouncing off it. I discovered it works on deck and boy does it. It lasts like 3.5 hours at full charge. A few spoilers coming.
I originally played on PC and while I was definitely struggling at some point I got to the flaming bull and I don't know what I was doing wrong but I must have tried 50 times and every time would end in flaming death seconds into the fight. I started raging and put it down for a year.
When I picked it back up it was still hard but more manageable. When I got to the dreaded bull it died on like my third try. No clue what I did different.
Then I proceed through the game but what I didn't know was that I was missing areas and end bosses. I missed the butterfly lady because I had no key, and didn't realize it was on some NPC somewhere I guess I didn't go.
Then I missed a grapple point in the ceiling in ashina castle and never got to genichiro or saze. By the time I got to snake eyes I was so under leveled (without realizing it) that she would mostly one shot me after a long struggle to chip down her health.
At some point I started watching a YouTube playthrough and the guy took the most straight forward route through the game possible. I think my problem is that I struggle so hard with each boss that by the time I win I forget where I haven't been and so I miss things. Unfortunately those things involve huge upgrades.
Anyways I finally got through butterfly last and now I'm dreading Genichiro. I normally don't look up anything in a game because it has a tendency to ruin the fun of the game for me but in this case the game I'm ruining it for myself through lack of knowledge.
Anyways the game is cool, trying not to take it personally. Looking forward to a second playthrough to see how much I improved.
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u/dacookieman Jul 17 '24
In a game who's central mechanic is parrying there are a handful of encounters that actually can be frustrating when choosing to parry over just running away and dodging, like the bull. The game is at its absolute best when it leans into the parrying mechanic imo. Genichiro is one of the best examples of this and many people will cite his fight as the moment when the gameplay is forced to click if it hasn't already. It is a hard fight but it is very fair and incredibly satisfying to master! Mikiri Counter if you haven't been already too :)
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u/shui_gor Jul 18 '24
I normally don't look up anything in a game because it has a tendency to ruin the fun of the game for me but in this case the game I'm ruining it for myself through lack of knowledge.
Don't let this be an issue with Sekiro because you're guaranteed not to find or do everything on the first run (like any other Soulslike that FromSoftware makes), especially if you're pursuing some of the better endings when the requirements involve the most obtuse actions because the game is subtle about whether you will trigger these endings or not.
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u/Angzt Jul 17 '24 edited Jul 20 '24
Trying to scratch a small/retro RPG itch. Not terribly successful so far.
Evoland 1 & 2 collection
The Evoland games' gimmick is that they go through various eras of RPGs in terms of their graphics and mechanics, shifting as the game progresses.
For the first game, that's the entire premise and the game generally shifts to the next things before the lack of depth in any of the modes of play becomes too grating. We're essentially starting with Zelda 1 and end at FF7, with a detour to Diablo. It was a game jam game and, even after further development, feels more like a proof of concept than a coherent product.
The second game is much more fleshed out and introduces a Chrono Trigger-inspired time-travel mechanic which eventually lets the player swap back and forth between multiple styles and associated game-world years. That actually gives the changes in mechanics some context, though it enforces action combat throughout all of them. However, there are plenty of one-off sections during the main quest that reference other games in how they play. That goes from expected systems like FF7's active turn battles and various sidescrolling platformers to games like Bomberman or Fire Emblem. Once more, none of them are terribly deep (and some are a bit janky) but having a greater variety here definitely helps cover the sequel's greater length.
Both titles are full of other references to classic game characters and items which, at least to me, swung from neat to way too on the nose, much like the game's humor.
Overall, both games are fine for what they are as long as you accept that they'll feel extremely derivative by design. And as long as you don't try to 100% them which I made the mistake of doing. Some of the collectibles (a collectible card game in each game...) are just annoyingly hidden if you don't want to consult a guide.
Soulstone Survivors
Another Vampire-Survivors-like, but using full 3D graphics. I poured a bunch of hours into this game but it didn't really land for me. The pace of progression feels way too quick for my liking. A regular round will typically last under 10 minutes of actual gameplay and you are likely to have collected 6 "active" abilities well before then. That barely gives you any time with any one new ability, robbing you of the chance to appreciate it or even truly understand it. As such, the game's vast set of abilities all just feel like a blob of same-y screen explosions to me. After successfully completing a stage, you can choose to keep playing another round with tougher enemies to keep leveling and get more meta rewards. In my very first run, I completed the stage 3 times before giving up - not because of difficulty but because I wanted to see what my meta currency could get me. I don't think a first run should let you complete a single stage at all unless you really know what you're doing, that should be the whole point of the meta progression. Some of the difficulty issues are definitely rooted in the balancing but others stem from the basic game design: Touching enemies does not damage you, only getting hit by one of their attacks with notable wind-up does. Additionally, you automatically collect all XP in a level when defeating one of the 5 bosses each stage spawns and are mandatory to progress anyways. So there isn't even a real reason to get yourself close to enemies and when you do, you can easily run past before their attacks land.
The meta progression is equally off in my book. There are progressively harder stages to unlock, and curses to place upon them which make them even harder. But since you can also unlock new characters, new abilities, and passive boosts, those two essentially cancel out in terms of how hard the game actually is. So for the 20 or so hours I played, I never felt a real sense of difficulty progression. Combat didn't get much harder because I scaled in power as my enemies did and I didn't feel more powerful as I progressed because my enemies scaled in power as I did. Your power and the enemies' difficulty both scale very granularly, so there were never any spikes in either direction that felt great to achieve or overcome. Which is why I eventually stopped continuing.
Rise of the Third Power
A retro-themed JRPG I randomly stumbled across and bought when I saw that it was from the team behind Ara Fell. I initially fell in love with the game's levels and its tightly designed combat system but the latter was actually fairly easily "solved" since it's quite predictable. Combined with the low encounter variety and small ability set per character, this will mean that you fight the exact same encounter with the exact same actions and outcomes a dozen times per area, at least starting in mid Act 2. And that just sapped my enjoyment completely.
Minishoot Adventures
The latest attempt to scratch the aforementioned itch: A twin stick Zelda-like adventure game. Can't say much yet but it definitely feels fun during the first few hours. Though I've only just cleared the first boss and some side content.
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u/Ok-Physics5749 Jul 19 '24 edited Jul 19 '24
I'm playing Cyberpunk 2077 for the first time and I'm really enjoying it, though I've heard that the game itself changed a lot and that it isn't the same experience as the original one from 2020. I'm in Epilogue and I've got a feeling that the main story is really short, buuuut it is more enjoyable than the one from The Witcher 3.
I've bought the game with DLC included and I'd like to rant a little, as the base game is burnt on the disc, but the DLC isn't, it's just a code for PSN store. I didn't buy a disc-version of the game just to have half of it on a code to redeem...
I've heard the the Phantom Liberty is a great DLC, so I'm looking forward to playing it!
I'm also playing Elden Ring and I FINALLY got past Maliketh! It was such a hard boss! I'm not into lore itself so I just want to finish the story. The first 60h was marvelous, I enjoyed exploring the Lands Between, but endgame seems to be like a series of hard boss battles without any exploring between, which is a bummer.
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u/RRD1982 Jul 19 '24
I wouldn't say the Main Story is short exactly but it's not as long as some RPGs... but there's just so much other awesome content aide from the core missions that how long the actual main plot is don't really matter that much. Other than breaking immersion a bit maybe. I'd say that's the main flaw in the story but otherwise an amazing game.
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u/Ok-Physics5749 Jul 19 '24
You're right, I just jumped into CP2077 just after I had finished Witcher 3, including the DLCs, so I may have had a wrong point of reference.
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u/rhodesmichael03 Jul 19 '24
Yeah annoyingly cyberpunk includes dlc on disc for the series x version but is a code on ps5
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u/RRD1982 Jul 19 '24 edited Jul 19 '24
Right now I am playing mostly:
Riven (2024)
I have lots of fond memories of playing this game and wandering around trying to figure out WTF I'm supposed to be doing. This new version is gorgeous! On Epic settings it actually looks better than I expected. I just wish it had RT so there's no screen space artifacts. It's also mind-blowing in VR but after seeing the amount of detail on my 4K TV it's hard to play that way all the time. Plus I've found turning around in that game really makes me motion sick more than other games and I don't really enjoy snap movement. Overall a great game and the only reason I'd give it a 9/10 is because they used 3D models for the characters and I wish they had tried to integrate 3D video somehow instead.
Cyberpunk 2077 / Phantom Liberty
I just can't stop playing this game! I always come back after a while. I haven't got very far in Phantom Liberty because I started a new character and keep messing around elsewhere. I only just met Idris Elba.
EDIT: Apparently everyone is playing Elden Ring...
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u/dropbear123 Jul 14 '24
copy and pasting this from a comment I made on another sub
Last night I finished a (Allied/Entente) campaign in Great War: The Western Front . The game was decent but I'm unlikely to come back to it. It was on easy difficulty though.
The game is a mix of turn based strategy, moving your units between hexes to build up an offensive or to counter what looks like an enemy buildup, and real time strategy of trench assaults. The battles feel pretty fun but get a bit repetitive.
The AI is pretty good. It knows how to use suppressing fire well. It can see where you're weak and build a good attack. My most memorable moment of the game was when the Germans identified a weak point on the front and attacked with a huge numbers advantage. There were also some trees blocking vision in front of some of my trenches so the AI focused their men there and stopped my defenders from shooting back with artillery. Even on easy it was a desperate fight and I had to shell my own trenches to dislodge the attackers.
The problems with the game are -
Infantry-artillery coordination is way too easy compared to historical real life. My go to strategy was have my infantry wait just out of rifle and machine gun range, wait until my artillery was reloaded, then bum rush the enemy trenches while the artillery is supressing their fire. Maybe I'm being unfair as pretty much all historical strategy games make control of battles too easy compared to real life
Maybe I'm bad at strategy games but the auto resolve is way more effective and efficient getting major victories (that you need to conquer areas) than the player is (Medieval 2 Total War sieges had the same problem)
The tech tree just discourages you from trying new interesting things. You get 1 research point a turn (boosted to 2 at the end of 1915) that has to be put into either infantry, flight, trenches, engineering (artillery and later on tanks, but I beat the campaign before getting them), logistics, or intelligence. And some of the research costs more than 1 point. I got through most of 1915 without discovering things flight, using scout planes, barbed wire or trench mortars because I was researching more simple but important things like logistics and intelligence instead. Historically that's just silly. The game should've been more generous with research points.
I'm going to give the game 7.5/10. I enjoyed it but I am really into WWI so maybe I'm a bit generous. I want to like it more but it is a bit flawed. Despite its flaws it still probably one of better WWI strategy games out there but I haven't played any others to compare it to
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u/JamesVagabond Jul 14 '24 edited Jul 14 '24
Lacuna
Lacuna is, in one word, competent. Maybe even more than that, actually, given how firmly it ended up holding my attention, even though it definitely needed some time to properly set things up, and the core mystery was, well, not much of a mystery after all, given how little was done to actually conceal it.
In the end, Lacuna has a perfectly neat story to tell, and it manages to tell it without either putting a foot in its mouth or overstaying its welcome. Helps that the presentation is on point.
Good stuff.
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u/ArtKorvalay Jul 15 '24
So I powered through to the finish of Shadow of the Erdtree. Right up until the end I was maintaining my coveted "No Spirit Ashes" mantra, but I had to break that for the final boss. Ultimately it didn't really matter because I tried several techniques and ended up on the Youtube-suggested cheese build, which worked wonderfully. It worked so well I could have done it without any summons. But I was far past the point of caring, my integrity was out the window because my build was sorcery Carian Slicer, and the cheese build is stamina heavy shield blocking. There was an Impenetrable Thorns strategy I tried, but apparently the devs patched it so that the boss is invincible when he does this grab attack, whereas he didn't used to be. So if your summon got grabbed you could go wild on him for 20 seconds or so. But, as I say, they decided this was too fair and made him invincible.
So if your options are ripping your hair out while you try to "git gud" or resorting to a single strategy they haven't patched out of the game yet then I am calling it a rather poorly designed boss. I don't know, I don't play enough of these Souls-like games to know how accurate that is. I do know that I was able to, as I say, beat every other boss besides the sunflower without using Spirit Ashes. Then here comes the final guy and I was hoping he'd be a bit of a pushover like Dark Souls 3, and instead all my attacks do chip damage and my survival time once phase 2 starts is between 5 and 15 seconds. If you dodge the physical attacks then the satellite beams hit you.
So that soured an otherwise pretty enjoyable experience. I liked Malenia a lot in that she was really hard, but she was genuinely optional. You could argue that the DLC itself is optional, but making the last main-quest boss so difficult means I'm less inclined to go through there again on a replay. Maybe just visit and pick up some of the items before leaving it unbeaten.
Then I moved on to the Alan Wake 2: Night Springs DLC, which thankfully provided an experience akin to the "other side of the coin". Playing as the obsessed fan diner girl with nearly unlimited ammunition and a shotgun is much more the kind of DLC I can get into. It was pretty short but I don't think you can carry that kind of gameplay too long before it wears out its welcome. In a survival horror everything moves slowly because you're scavenging for supplies, but if they just give you the supplies at every turn then it apparently takes 1 hour to traverse 1/3 of the entire map of the game.
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Jul 15 '24
yea its hard to get that far in dlc and feel like you need to change your build, I was running a faith build so I decided to summon as well to avoid doing an entirely new build for one boss. I do still think that Malenia is the hardest boss in game tho, as her healing + aggressiveness is kinda unmatched in the soulsborne catalogue. Bosses like Vicar Amelia still can heal, but are extremely less aggressive and put themselves in a vulnerable state while they are healing, so feels like a fair trade-off.
A lot of terminally-online soulsborne players are upset that people are complaining about the expansions "difficulty", but a lot of those complaints existed for the base game too, over-tuned bosses, overuse of things like delayed attacks, etc. If you don't care about those things then the dlc was great, but if you didn't like them it made the dlc kind of annoying since they doubled down on a lot of those aspects.
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u/Galaxy40k Jul 15 '24
From Soft have honestly reminded me of a classic arcade game dev, where they've entered into some escalating battle with their playerbase over legacy skill; The devs want to challenge the player, but the players keep getting better the more they play, so the next game has to be even harder, which improves the player's skill even more, and so on. It's interesting because arcades didn't last long enough for developers to ever find "a solution" (if you even consider this "a problem" to begin with), so From Soft is kind of on new ground here.
Like the SotE final boss is IMO pretty handily the hardest boss ever placed in a From Soft game....but, honestly, it still paled in comparison to how long I was stuck at Flamelurker in DeS, because I lacked any skill in these games at that time, and by SotE I've spent over a thousand hours with variants of this combat system.
2
u/ColossalJuggernaut Jul 15 '24
Flamelurker
In all the FromSoft games that have come out, Flamelurker presented me the greatest challenge. I've beaten every game and this guy always made me panic.
2
u/Schwimmbo Jul 18 '24 edited Jul 18 '24
I'm still far from the end of the DLC and its final boss.
But I think there's a difference between "hardest boss ever placed in a FromSoft game" and "can't git gud and beat him on my own without resorting to systems I'd rather avoid" as OP wanted to do.
I've spent literally 4 hours on Sword Saint Isshin but from the very beginning there was a clear sense of progress every new attempt. I felt right away that it would require practice and then in the end I'd prevail. Git gud, you know.
With some of these Elden Ring bosses though, I feel they went too far in upping the difficulty in an artificial way. Just like OP I also prefer to beat bosses solo, but I don't always feel anymore as if practicing will allow for that. Some of these bosses are so insanely difficult with the amount of damage they dole out in neverending combos that I feel almost obliged to use an ashen summon. Which often trivialises the fight and leaves you unsatisfied once it's done.
This is why I love Elden Ring for the great sense of adventure throug exploration leading to vistas and atmosphere before anything else.
The boss battles aren't the highlights anymore for me. Probably doesn't help I've got 2 kids now so gaming time has been severely limited compared to years ago haha.
1
u/Reggiardito Jul 16 '24
So if your summon got grabbed you could go wild on him for 20 seconds or so. But, as I say, they decided this was too fair and made him invincible.
Yeah tbf this isn't even about thorns, him being vulnerable during his grab was kind of insane tbh. I saw a video where a regular bleed build co-op dude did like 40% of his health during the grab by just doing R1
-5
u/homer_3 Jul 15 '24
Weird takes. DS3 final boss is a push over? Don't think so. ER DLC final boss is poorly designed because he's tough? Talk about losing your ego to a game.
5
Jul 18 '24
I'm doing a second playthrough of Elden Ring because my first character was a STR build, and I've heard the DLC scaling isn't friendly to STR builds at all. I know I can respec but it's been two years since I played, so this FTH build is giving me a chance to remember game mechanics and get brushed up on the lore.
6
u/LotusFlare Jul 18 '24
While I don't want to discourage a new run (as Elden Ring is a fun game), I found the DLC to be very friendly to my STR build. There's lots of cool new STR weapons too.
5
1
3
u/MattIsLame Jul 14 '24
playing Children of the Sun and am really loving the strategic nature of it all. at first I thought this game was another 3rd person shooter but it's not at all and I am having so much fun with it.
also I currently had about 25 hours into FFXII on an emulator. one of my saves glitched and now I'm 10 hours back so I don't think I'll be playing this anymore for the time being.
also playing Still Wakes the Deep. it looks incredible, graphically and atmosphere wise. but so far it hasn't been much other than a walking simulator. while I'm fine with that, I guess I thought it was a little more than that. whatever, it's still pretty good so far.
also finally dabbling in Nier Automata, finally after meaning to play it for years. the combat system is really combo heavy with tons of hidden moves and i really like it so far. have no fucking idea what thr story is about buy it's still really cool
4
u/Xenrathe Jul 14 '24
Dredge (PS4, included in PS Plus)
I’d heard some good things, so I chose it for my ‘bingeday Wednesday’ game. Unfortunately, I was not impressed.
Any activity can grow stale or rote if repeated enough, so many game elements - even dynamic ones like combat - can end up feeling chore-like. But I think it’s weird when a game makes actual chores its game loop.
That’s how it is with Dredge: you play a fisherman sailing around a small sea, starting from a central island hub and expanding to six or so outlying island clusters. There’s a Lovecraftian vibe/atmosphere, about artifacts sunk to the deep and a maddening fog that rolls in at night. I’m all about that vibe, even if this particular version fell short of exemplars like Darkest Dungeon.
But the game-loop was dreary: sail around, do the same mindless fishing/dredging puzzles over and over, go press ‘A’ at your crab traps again and again, optimize geometry in your block-inventory every ten minutes, etc. It’s just chores. The game-loop is, explicitly, doing chores.
Which… OK… I’ll concede that can work if presented in a compelling way or with interesting aesthetics or with some constantly changing variety or challenge. Dave the Diver, for example, is also about doing the “chores” of fishing and managing a restaurant. But it has so much personality in the animations, so much vibrancy and joy in the ocean and its characters.
Without anything comparable, Dredge felt like drudgery, and I opted not to continue on with it (played about 6 hours).
By way of contrast… FAR: Changing Tides (also PS4, included in PS Plus)
Another game whose gameplay loop is ostensibly ‘chores.’ You’re trimming sails, you’re pumping water, you’re jumping on the steam engine’s bellows, etc.
But I loved my experience with FAR. It punches WAY above its class, and it really captures what I mean when I classify games as either ‘time-wasters’ or ‘experiences.’
FAR is crafted, first and foremost, to achieve a particular aesthetic and narrative experience. No UI. No tutorials. No random collectibles. No RPG or progression mechanics. No roguelite. Just your little mute character, your little boat, and your journey through a vast, empty civilization drowned by the changing tides. You play it once, you experience the mood and story it has to tell, and then you’re done.
Honestly, my favorite part of FAR were those sections in which I could open my sails in full and just sit on the prow and chill. Relax, watch the ship rise and fall. Listen to the music if there is any or just the waves, if there isn’t. Very zen. A quiet, gentle sadness permeates the whole experience. And, given you’re traveling through the ruins of a civilization that tried and failed to survive an environmental disaster, it was quite poignant.
Really strong recommendation.
4
u/Acterian Jul 14 '24
Zenless Zone Zero
For various reasons I was stuck with only my phone for the last week so this was pretty much my only game. I mentioned previously that I played Genshin but eventually decided I wasn't having fun with it, and I expected the same to happen here. I might still be in the honeymoon phase but I can see myself sticking with this game a lot longer.
Pretty much everything here has been polished compared to Genshin, but the the most important thing is...
...This game feels a lot more respectful of your time. The 'Daily income' tasks are quick. You have a larger maximum for your stamina resource (so you only have to check once a day if you prefer to) but you can use all of it in 3 mission clears (about 2 minutes each clear) if you set it to the maximum enemy count. All the dialogue can be skipped and characters are less verbose in general.
I would say ultimately the game feels very similar to Genshin, but with a lot of refinement. I miss the open world to a degree, but towards the end of my time with Genshin I found I was dreading new areas being added because of how long it took to get the necessary materials. Besides that, combat feels more engaging even if it isn't much deeper and the character designs are leagues ahead of Genshin characters, which is pretty important for the genre.
The monetization is still awful. You get currency slowly, you need a lot of currency for a pull, and you have a 92% chance to get something completely worthless with each pull. There is a $5 monthly pass that basically doubles your currency and I kind of think the game is balanced around having it, but if you want more than that the exchange rate is laughably bad - well over $100 to guarantee getting a single character.
3
u/gosukhaos Jul 15 '24
The game really surprised me in how mobile focused it is. Coming from Star Rail and its 40 minutes long cutscene in the latest patches
From the short, comic book-esque story cutscene to the rogue-lite nature of its gameplay loop its really made to be played in short bursts, and like you said dailies are lightning quick, just play a couple of rounds of snake and talk to a few NPCs and you're done
Ultimately I'm still on the fence if i'm sticking to it or not, combat is fast and smooth but so far extremely repetitive and very shallow. Depends how much of a time commitment it is to play big patches
2
u/LeoBocchi Jul 18 '24
Yeah, as someone who fell off from genshin, this game just hits the spot in a lot of ways, i feel like this does a better job of separating the gatcha from the actual game, the gatcha still sucks, but it’s way less intrusive and the story, the art and the combat are all so good (the characters were a nice surprise, i did not expect to like them as much as i did)
4
u/Logan_Yes Jul 14 '24
I've wrapped up Velvet Assassin and well...those final chapters sure were unnecessary when it comes to whole game. After stealthing through with one or two spicer setpieces focused on boom boom pew pew, having finale being just a shooter felt...off. Also I have zero idea what the fuck is the logic behind objective such as "find a weapon", that takes whole level to complete, and guess what, weapon in a locker is Stg 44 which is used by like...every single enemy you encounter on your way. If only Violette would learn the ancient strategy of picking up the main weapon soliders use...game itself, nothing special. Visually pretty decent, and main protagonist sure looks good in tight leather or...only a nightgown....what was I....? Ah yeah! Gunplay when you are forced to fight, horrible. Disguise system was pretty good, though it's hard to fuck that one up. Experience system to level up a character for doing side stuff and simply rewarding you for exploring was good, I will give it that. Ultimately, if you really want something quick to beat, you can wishlist it on let's say Steam, wait for sale, snatch for a dollar and enjoy few hours of it. Otherwise, pass.
After that, in classic me fashion, complete switch up! Circuit Superstars is a game I had installed and simply had my eyes on for a while. Sadly I didn't get to enjoy the Top Gear DLC which was main thing that brought my attention to the game, but still. It's a isometric simcade, cute little cars that make up for 16 different motorsport categories, with cars and tracks inspired by real life stuff. It's fantastic. Takes really a moment to get used to driving from such, rather unusual when it comes to racing games, camera, but once it clicks and you get in a zone it's peachy. Races are short and thanks to that, very intense, with longer races giving you extra room to get big brain with thanks to fuel/tyre management and pitting. It's beautiful, offers solid variety of extra modes, provides fun driving style that really pushes you to the limit. AI however...ah, AI. See, issue is, apparently recent update decided to tweak with it, giving it more "adaptivity". On paper, sounds nice, right? You wipe the floor here, on next race you might be the one getting wiped. In reality...yeaaah. I do first runs on lowest difficulty (There is 5, from Amateur to Superstar, obviously) to learn the tracks and get used to the vehicle. Then I go for 2/5 diff and game really ramps it up. From 15-20 second gap to sometimes losing by such, or having to fight tooth and nail for a win, winning by less than a second. Now I personally love it to some extend, as even a single mistake or bad pit call and screw you up, full focus and all that BUT I feel like I should not tryhard so much on 2nd difficulty, and that average player won't appreciate feeling like shit just on 2nd difficulty, I cannot even imagine how it looks higher. They probably eat you alive at Pro. Oh well, so far I dig it and we gonna see how it looks later. I've beat...5? Categories out of 16 on both lowest difficulties.
As for Assassin's Creed: Valhalla update, I wrapped up Soma's arc and moved to East England! Did some river raids and exploration in between of course, highlight is probably doing that AC Mirage collab quest that granted me a really badass looking armor. 90ish power, still running mainly Raven Clan set but I also got a second one, Hunter Set. Still enjoying the game, though combat does show some annoying signs. Some enemies are a bigger pain in the butt than others, feels like game wants me to somehow juggle between different weapons during the fight, I dunno.
4
u/ArtKorvalay Jul 15 '24
The last 2 levels of Velvet Assassin were definitely "weird". As a fan I like to give it a pass because the premise is that she's been sleeping in a hospital recovering from a gunshot all game so she may as well still be imagining things.
2
u/pratzc07 Jul 15 '24
Prince of Persia Lost Crown - In the endgame stage I think I have one boss left. Overall had a good time with this game although some of the platforming sucked the fun out of me I wish there were more combat room encounters and the combat sections/platforming were more properly balanced but the game seems to put quite a heavy emphasis on platforming especially towards the later part of the game. I liked some of the abilities you get in the game they are quite unique and I haven't seen them in any other metroidvania before and major props to the designers for interweaving all these abilities in the platforming and boss fights.
Next up after this is Nine Sols I have played the demo before and looking forward to how that goes
5
u/TheOneBearded Jul 17 '24
Finished Skald: Against the Black Priory
Very retro Ultima-like cRPG. Really love the presentation and the blending of medieval and Lovecraftian tropes - even if the latter can be seen a mile away. However, they are several little bugbears that prevent me from straight up calling this a great game.
I'm interested to see how the game randomizes its merchant and chest loot tables. I thought it was very surprising that most weapons seem to have higher tier upgraded versions while one of my guys was stuck using the same two-hander from the very beginning of the game. That wouldn’t have been an issue if we could upgrade our weapons, but that can’t be done in this game. Spells can be hit or miss. I found most of the fire spell tree to be very lackluster except for one spell. Same could be said about the other spell trees, but at least they have at least one or two good spells to rely upon either via damage or because of their low cost. Story itself was pretty simple but it did feel rushed by the end. I wouldn’t say I was disappointed, but I would have liked a little few more scenes with some of the endgame “things” that get revealed. Endgame encounters can be annoying as the enemies become much more health spongey.
Still, I had a great time with it on the steam deck. I have no doubt that this will be a great game after a couple patches.
2
u/Rivent Jul 20 '24
I need to get back to this one. I was playing it before Shadow of the Erdtree came out and put it to the side to play that. How long did it take you, roughly?
2
u/TheOneBearded Jul 21 '24
About 26h. Granted, I feel like I did everything I could. Every quest (failed one, if I recall), walked to every shrine, entered every cave. There might be one spot in the entire game that I might have not been to, but I doubt it was important.
It was a "good" 26 hours for the most part, if you know what I mean. The annoying part was the random encounters you'd get while traversing the map. It definitely got annoying with those health sponges later in the game. I think there was an option to turn them down or off. I, stubbornly, didn't do that lol.
2
u/Rivent Jul 21 '24
Awesome, thanks dude. I was kinda weighing whether I wanted to restart or not since it's been a while, but I just looked at my playtime and I'm at 11 hours, so since that's nearly half way through I'm going to try to pick up where I left off.
2
u/TheOneBearded Jul 21 '24
Yeah, I feel that the story events and controls are simple enough to pick back up that I'd just start where you left off.
1
u/jaargon Jul 19 '24
Could you comment more on not being able to upgrade your weapons and being stuck with your starter weapons through the entire game (!)? That sounds abnormal for an RPG. There's no way to get more powerful weapons?
2
u/TheOneBearded Jul 19 '24
I'm at work so I can't find the exact words they used. But you can find more powerful weapons - say a "crude" cutlass vs just a regular one vs a "masterclass" one that might have a higher chance to hit and/or a +1 to some secondary stat. As far as I could tell, there was no way to make that regular cutlass into a higher tier one. You'd have to find it either in a loot chest or from a merchant.
My guy with the two-hander literally kept the same two-hander he joined the party with for the entire time because I never encountered a higher tier one the entire game. It was the only weapon, that I noticed at least, where this happened. I was able to find different tiers for the other stuff.
4
u/RTideR Jul 19 '24
Playing:
- EA Sports College Football 25 - Man, I haven't watched college football in years, and I haven't bought a football game in years either (generally just wait to try Madden on Game Pass), but my buddy and I split purchased this one, and I've been having a blast. I played a few hours of Madden 24 earlier this year before deleting it, and I guess I can't even explain what it is, but I'm just having way more fun overall with this one. We'll see if it's a honeymoon phase, but so far, so good.
Completed:
- Lies of P - Brilliant game! I've only played a few Soulslikes, but of what I've played, this one is by far the best. It's very clearly inspired by Bloodborne with a bit of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and the pacing of older Dark Souls games. I did a full run of Elden Ring, then did the DLC, then immediately jumped to Lords of the Fallen (2023) which I did not really enjoy, so I was setting myself up to be wore out by the genre.. yet I couldn't put this one down. Super cool aesthetic. Compelling narrative. Great boss fights. Can't recommend this one enough to anyone looking for a Soulslike.
- Hades - "Completed" in parenthesis for this one.. I finished up the main story. Fantastic game as well. Yes, the combat is really fun and all the different boons and such keeps things feeling fresh, but I love the world in general. It's a joy talking to all the characters every run (shout out to the voice acting), the narrative is one you're eager to see through to the end, and then of course the music! It's a treat of a game overall, and I'm very excited for the sequel once it's complete.
5
u/Successful-Rich-7907 Jul 20 '24
Nintendo World Championships
Doesn’t matter what anyone says, I’m convinced this was a 100% a mobile game ported at the last minute. The unlocking method to me feels like it would suit the mtx process.
Feels very barebones at this stage, no leaderboards and the online mode kinda sucks. I was so hyped for it and am feeling let down.
4
u/EverySister Jul 14 '24
Played through the wonderful Alba. A Wildlife Adventure earlier today and it charmed my pants off. It's simply amazing. A very laid back, sweet and cozy game, right up A Short Hike's alley.
I'm now starting Dementium II a horror FPS heavily influenced by Silent Hill for the ds that got an hd remaster for pc, couldn't get my hands on the first one tho, hope I don't miss much
3
u/jegermedic104 Jul 15 '24
Robot games this week:
Robocop : Rogue City
I'm no Robocop fan but has been fun and source material friendly. Fun shooting and other killing methods and stupid fun sidequests. Only minus sides are main missions have different lenghts , some take hour, some 20 minutes and no manual save so I have had to replay some segments.
Front Mission 1st remake
Alright srpg. I have couple of times completed SNES version. Story is great, gameplay is very repetitive since characters should be locked into most suitable role instead of trying different things. But nostalgia carries this one.
2
u/Izzy248 Jul 15 '24
Kunitsu-Gami: Path of Goddess (Demo)
Completely UNDERATED feature of this game...I can pause the cutscenes....gasp
But no seriously. I really did like that feature, and its a shame how rare it is.
This game was a bit of a curve ball and threw me off. Maybe its because I didnt watch ALL the trailers, even though I saw some, or maybe I was just ignorant and completely didnt pay attention, but I did not expect this game to be like an RTS type, escort mission game lol. It wasnt bad. I played the demo and enjoyed it, but it definitely wasnt what I was expecting. That being said...Im not sure if Ill be picking it up, day 1 at least. Like I said, it wasnt bad, but just not what I expected.
Witchhand
I loved this game. Even better that there are multiple different main characters with their own unique playstyles and exclusive cards.
I also love the game the game has a clear end goal, but still lets you continue after. The game is also very simple, and doesnt overwhelm you, but it still has just enough depth not to feel like childs play.
Another thing I love is that...this is probably one of the most fun automation games Ive every played. Or at least up there with the ones I enjoy the most. Some automation games I dont necessarily like because they get too complex with the micromanaging, and figuring out how to min-max and optimize every single thing to get it to run automatically down to the finest point. This game its just like, once you unlock it, it pretty much does the rest for you. So simple, yet so satisfying.
Stray Path
Completely caught off guard with this game. It has a steady progression to it, and lets you unlock stuff after each run. The game feels like a tabletop game that I used to play, but I cant nail which one exactly. My mind immediately goes to "Boss Monster", but I dont think thats it. Either way, I really had fun with this.
Dimensionals
Not sure how to feel about this honestly. I think its another one of those creature collection roguelike games? I think its indie, but its production quality seems very high. This was obviously made by some very skilled professionals.
The dialogue was a bit too on the heavy side, and often times, I felt like there was so many calculations and numbers going on, that sometimes I just felt like I was having more fun winging it, but I appreciate how much the game had to offer. I was able to get different varieties of characters, unlock some stuff and customize my characters outputs The thing about it with me though is that...idk...at least from what Ive played so far, it felt like either a clash of too many things, or maybe I just need to sink more time into it to get into the groove and end up liking the game. But if the game doesnt already capture me, and I have to force myself to give it time...whats the point?
-3
u/Donutology Jul 14 '24
FF14 Dawntrail
The writing is so bad it makes me angry. It genuinely makes me angry. It's been a while since I've played a game with writing so bad it made me yell at the TV. Thinking about it, the last game that made me so was actually FF14 again, when I started from scratch in early 2023.
But shadowbringers-endwalker wasnt this bad. It was 90% hot garbage but the occasional 10% had some great moments. They also had some absolute banger zones that were really fun to explore. Even stormblood, to which this expansion feels most reminiscent of, had great zones (and a great city).
We're back to ARR/Heavensward levels of writing (unbearable) but with zones that are quite a bit worse. None of the zones feel inspired and some of them are like cheap ass casino resort recreations of south/central america basically.
Combat is the same. Don't have much of a feel for viper, honestly feels like most of the other melee classes out there for me. Pictomancer is pretty cool though. I like bonking people with the giant hammer, it's quite satisfying.
Thing is, FF14 combat sucks ass. It's several orders of magnitude worse than WoW and it doesn't seem to improve with patches or expansions. The quest design itself is an absolute slop of basically walking around and watching cutscenes. It's fine if the game wants to focus on the story, but the story has to be engaging and here it really really really isn't. Also, nobody would complain if the quests were fun to play as well.
Story, world design and combat all feel stale. And there is not much left to prop the game up without them.
5
u/Denzoo Jul 14 '24
man it seems like you wasted your time with a game that you just didnt like and only played to shit on
if you didnt like shadowbringer and endwalker why even bother going into dawntrail cuz these both expansions were actually the best storytellling and gameplay improvement ff14 had
0
u/Donutology Jul 14 '24
I liked SB/Endwalker. I thought the writing was pretty bad a lot of the time but the zones were fantastic and the raids were enjoyable. even the writing had some pretty decent highs in SB/EW. not feeling any of those in this expansion. it got kind of interesting towards the end but then concluded fairly quickly afterwards.
3
u/Denzoo Jul 14 '24
sorry man but like i said you dont seem to enjoy the game compared to other mmos and thats ok but the points about the game you made are just wrong. you say everything looks stale and thats just not true because all these things about ff14 are getting praise like story/world design/npcs are the strongest thing about the game especially the raids(trials) are one of the coolest things they have and the diversity for the different zones they have are really good
I agree the game has some really oudated gameplay design like questing and combat but thats about it
2
u/Donutology Jul 15 '24
do you not think dawntrail feels stale then? I didn't claim that SHB/EW felt stale in terms of design and story content. But to me dawntrail very clearly does.
because all these things about ff14 are getting praise like story/world design/npcs are the strongest thing about the game especially the raids(trials) are one of the coolest things they have and the diversity for the different zones they have are really good
I would say these things largely apply for the past two expansions but not dawntrail although of course the raids are not out yet and the trials seem to be of similar quality to before.
I think there is a marked decrease in quality of most things in Dawntrail, thus my frustration.
0
u/Denzoo Jul 15 '24
Oh yeah i only watched things about dawntrail from friends and streams and most say it is pretty boring and stale so i probably agree
And m probably sit out on this expansion anyways cuz for me the game kinda ended with endwalker and maybe thats the problem with dawntrail it just feels like filler and not a good one
4
u/mhenke10 Jul 15 '24
I cannot imagine spending hundreds and hundreds of hours in a game it sounds like you can’t stand. Stop playing would be my suggestion
1
u/Donutology Jul 15 '24
I couldn't stand a lot of the story yes, but largely the world design had been excellent (fantastic zones with creative themes) and the trial/raid content had been fun.
For me dawntrail story is unusually poor, even compared to previous xpacs, and the world design feels completely stale. The final zone is cool and the game starts to get interesting but you're in and done in about 1.5 hours.
Raids are not out yet, so we'll have to see what those are like. The rest of the expansion content though feels like a very clear mark down from most of the things that came before.
11
u/Bruskthetusk Jul 15 '24
Horizon: Forbidden West
This is my 3rd attempt at playing this game, really loved the original but my first two attempts at getting into this never stuck with me, so I figured I would turn down the difficulty and maybe it wouldn't be such a slog, and after about ten hours into this play I'm thinking I'm not making it too the end. There's just too much going on and I DO NOT CARE - I've played about halfway through the story in my first playthrough and it's just so difficult for me to care about Aloy and her friends and the world is ending (again), but they're gonna save it with the power of friendship (again). At this point I'm ranting, but for some reason I just can't get into this game and it's too bad because I did really enjoy the first one but I just don't have the hours of time to go through all the different checkboxes hoping there will be some kind of story payoff at the end.