What are you currently playing?

[Dalisclock]

Is da2 worth playing I was thinking about it I checked the ratings but I'm still iffy about it they were pretty decent rating ?? On a scale of 1 to 10 10 being the best do you think it is worth getting ?

I'd honestly recommend any of the other Souls games over Dark Souls 2. There's some good ideas and ambition there but a lot of them aren't implemented well(though it had an infamous troubled development cycle). The DLC is good though.

And Since Elden Ring feels like what Dark Souls 2 wanted to be, it also has that strike against it as well.

They were situational at most in DS2. The original version was so overlit you almost never needed them for light. Pretty much the only place they were useful all the way through was the Gutter, and maybe Dead Man's Wharf. And the occasional "puzzle", like lighting the braziers in the Lost Sinner's boss arena. Whereas in Elden Ring they're consistently useful in both the dungeons and the world map, because they make such a difference lighting wise.

The original plan invovled a special lighting engine where you'd need the torches and which IIRC was part of the reason the dev cycle was so troubled. And then they realized the PS3/XBOX 360 couldn't handle it, apparently, and scrapped it, so torches became mostly useless.

 

[Bartholen]

Is da2 worth playing I was thinking about it I checked the ratings but I'm still iffy about it they were pretty decent rating ?? On a scale of 1 to 10 10 being the best do you think it is worth getting ?

Absolutely. Despite the flak it gets, I still have more hours in it than any other Souls game, and actually prefer it over Dark Souls 3 personally. I don't know how invaiidated it's become in a post-Elden Ring world though, but I haven't played through the game yet. DS2 is undoubtedly among the weaker entries in the series, but it has some quite good concepts and well executed mechanics no other game in the series did: Bonfire Ascetics, powerstancing weapons, the staggering amount of boss weapons and available builds being at the top. It has a deceptive amount of freedom in the first half despite it seeming initially otherwise. The DLCs are also excellent. It's unfortunately a lot of the time quantity over quality, but I'd still say it's worth playing at least once. I'd say it's still a solid 7/10 overall. Temper your expectations though.

I'd honestly recommend any of the other Souls games over Dark Souls 2.

Even the original Demon's Souls? Compared to what the series became that game feels really rough in a lot of places.

 

[sXeth]

Salt and Sacrifice

- Well the difficulty curve really kicks up at the Necromancer. Although also apparently theres a bug with excessive stuns/juggles so I'll see how that goes when they get the patch out on Playstation.


I did derp around in the PvP, which was mostly chaos. There are in total, possibly a Host, 2 Dawn (sunbros), a bluerunner, a shroud, a chaos spirit, and two counter-invader factions all in one world and it just devolves into chaos. Most of them are barely marked if you manage to eyeball them long enough to note the colour so 99% of people are just shooting at all the other ones. Its also horrifically unbalanced (partially due to aforementioned stun/juggle bug) but I don't get the impression they really bothered much making sure any of the rune arts were PvP viable. I did get like 70000 salt though in 5 minutes just cause whenever anyone of any flavor dies in the world you get a ton.

 

[dscross]

Only just got around the RE8. On my 2nd run. I think it's great.

 

[Chupathingy]

I managed to complete the first half of a Blood Bowl 2 season without losing a match as Halflings, which I'm quite happy about. Now I just need to see if I can survive the post-split (second half) season against much more developed teams...

 

[Drathnoxis]

Only just got around the RE8. On my 2nd run. I think it's great.

Welcome back.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

They were situational at most in DS2. The original version was so overlit you almost never needed them for light. Pretty much the only place they were useful all the way through was the Gutter, and maybe Dead Man's Wharf. And the occasional "puzzle", like lighting the braziers in the Lost Sinner's boss arena. Whereas in Elden Ring they're consistently useful in both the dungeons and the world map, because they make such a difference lighting wise.

Also Brightstone Cove Tseldora; have fun getting through that without a torch.

 

[BrawlMan]

RE2 Remake (XBONE) - Decided to gives this a go on my XBOX ONE X. I appreciate the extra HD features and details. The game functions about the same as the other versions, but I know the ONE X can handle Mr. X fine. It's nice getting back to playing the game again. I decided to do normal just to have a fun time. Hardcore I can do way later.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

RE2 Remake (XBONE) - Decided to gives this a go on my XBOX ONE X. I appreciate the extra HD features and details. The game functions about the same as the other versions, but I know the ONE X can handle Mr. X fine. It's nice getting back to playing the game again. I decided to do normal just to have a fun time. Hardcore I can do way later.

Picked that up on Steam a while back after playing through the PS4 version on Standard. Should get back to that, and maybe try it on Hardcore too. I loved it, my favorite RE.

Also, finished Rogue Legacy 2, though I definitely intend to do NG+ at least for a few runs. Not sure how many times I'll go through it but maybe it could at least be fun to go back to in between other stuff.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Dark Souls 2: SotFS wants a word.

Fixed.

 

[Dalisclock]

Also Brightstone Cove Tseldora; have fun getting through that without a torch.

Admittedly, using a Torch to keep the spiders away was pretty cool.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Since I got my PS4 back, it's been running mostly quiet. I already dusted off my entire area, before plugging everything back in. DMC5 is running smooth, and the PS4 is nowhere close to loud as it was before. No overhears, and no interruptions. I'll still take it easy, but I'll make sure to start doing a quick wipe of my PS4 and TV stand every other day. Anything to help. I might try hard mode on NG3RZ, out of curiosity.

Do you put bumper pads underneath your consoles to elevate them off the shelf a bit more? Not sure how much it helps but I’d like to think it adds some breathing room for heat to escape. I used ones that are like .25” thick (or possibly more like .375”-.50” even thinking more) and stuck them on the corners. My PS3 Slim is over 12.5 years old now and still going strong, but hasn’t gotten as much use in the last five of those years. My PS4 still gets kinda hot on top by the back vents but figure there’s not much to be done about that.

 

[Zykon TheLich]

I managed to complete the first half of a Blood Bowl 2 season without losing a match as Halflings, which I'm quite happy about. Now I just need to see if I can survive the post-split (second half) season against much more developed teams...

That is quite the achievement! What percentage of your team is still alive?

 

[Chupathingy]

That is quite the achievement! What percentage of your team is still alive?

After 7 matches I've only had two deaths and one permanent injury (which I fired) so far. Team's holding strong!

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Fixed.

Fair. That's the version I played, so I usually just think of it as 'Dark Souls 2', not knowing much about the original's differences.

 

[wings012]

Been playing Monster Hunter rise for the past two weeks or so. It's fun and it's cut out a lot of the unnecessary fat that World/Iceborne had. But it also doesn't quite have the same amount of flourish that its predecessor had either, though understandably it's kinda the lower budget cousin. I kinda miss some of the unnecessary stupid shit like the overly grandiose Iceborne Gathering Hub where you could sit in the sauna and swim around in the hot springs.

The twins are so much better than the Handler though.

I did think World/Iceborne tried a bit too hard in the story and cinematic department, but Rise kinda dialed it too far back. It feels a bit half arsed when the credits start rolling after defeating Magnamalo in the village quests. But then there's more story in the Gathering Hub?

I have a friend where Rise is his first real Hunter and we were kinda waiting for him to catch up so we can hunt together but he was like wasting time on the Village Quests even after Magnamalo thinking he was 'progressing'. He was eventually taught the error of his ways.

It's also rather low on content. Like 60ish hours later and I'm already HR100 and done with Valstrax. I could keep playing and grinding out more sets and try to perfect my plays against Apex monsters but meh, I'm not thaaaaat into Hunter. I've put together rudimentary sets for Lance and Gunlance, and recently put together a Hunting Horn set that's a little bit more tryhard than the former two sets. With Sunbreak on the horizon, there's not much reason to keep grinding. I'll probably chill out from the game, and just hunt with my friends who are behind me.

There's things I like about it better than Iceborne, there's things I miss from Iceborne. I feel like Lance got really shafted with the guard skills being pushed to 2 star decos(along with a lot of other skills). Guard up now has 3 levels. Yeah the tryhard lancers will tell me I don't need maximum guard and that I should be hopping to dodge to maximize muh deeps but fuck that shit, I'm going to BLOCK EVERYTHING. It's just how I live my life, cowering behind an impenetrable shield. I may not clear the hunt the fastest but I'm probably going to cart a lot less than a guy who pilots a internet derived tryhard build without the skills to back it up. Though that said I find Rise pretty easy compared to World/Iceborne.

The Lance wire skills aren't too exciting, and I miss the old clutch claw counter which was bloody awesome. I do really love Shield Charge though. Losing the Lance Dash kinda sucks, but being able to charge through monster attacks with utter impunity while stunning them is pretty damn fun. Since normally Lances aren't that exciting, just guard, counter and poke but now you can also contribute to stuns/KOs.

Gunlance has BLAST DASH though. it's fukken amazing. Maybe not too practical but fuck you I'm jetting across the map on my fire belching weapon, you can't take this amount of awesome away from me. It's still a fairly awkward weapon at the end of the day. I've just been blast dashing into stuff and spamming wide shots into guard reload combos.

Healing Hunting Horn makes me feel dirty.

Wyvern Riding is awesome, but the way the monsters kinda force a mount and then piss off neatly afterwards just makes things a little too simple and clean. People complained about it but I kinda enjoyed the chaos that occurred when certain monsters crash your fight. Keeps you on your toes. Now when a monster crashes your fight, it's just free damage. Gone are the days when you hear the Bazelgeuse theme playing and you know that shit is about to get really messy. Some of the more memorable moments in Iceborne involved Deviljho interrupting your battle with an Elder Dragon with a fucking Dodogama in its mouth and then just slamming it into your entire crew. Then it's a panic of literal shit flinging with them dung pods.

Anyway mostly done with Rise, will still hunt if my friends show up but otherwise I'm more or less ready for Iceborne. Might do some of the sidequests.... wait collect eggs? Fuck that noise.

 

[BrawlMan]

Do you put bumper pads underneath your consoles to elevate them off the shelf a bit more?

No. I will keep that in mind though.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

Something called Outward: Definitely Edition came out, dunno why I bought it but I did and now I must lay sweaty, lethargic and ashamed upon the bed I made. First impression was that of quasi-nostalgia for like those old Xbox generation RPGs from how it plays, looks, animates, clumsy HUD etc, but with ominous survival elements thrown in like hunger, thirst, heat and horniness. I find it weird that the most unanimous praise is heaped on the fact you can drop your backpack anytime you want for easier stamina fights. Are people really this easily impressed?? Oh yeah, there's a stamina bar, cause nothing can escape the dark souls vortex anymore. Still, am willing to push through.


But wait!

Silly old me had an important phone call to answer while playing. So silly old me decided to pause the game to, you know, attend to life and all that shit. When I finished the phone call and returned, I found my player character withered and dying from hunger, heat, thirst and horniness because there is no fucking pause button..what the fuck??? This is a single player game, why the fuck can't I bloody well pause it??? This isn't immersion, it's unnecessary inconvenience, who thought this was a good idea? Come here so I can bop you in the eyeballs for your unbridled incompetence! You caught me off my wonderful calming opioids, so this agitation has to go somewhere and those unpausable eyeballs are looking an increasingly enticing target.

 

[wings012]

Something called Outward: Definitely Edition came out, dunno why I bought it but I did and now I must lay sweaty, lethargic and ashamed upon the bed I made. First impression was that of quasi-nostalgia for like those old Xbox generation RPGs from how it plays, looks, animates, clumsy HUD etc, but with ominous survival elements thrown in like hunger, thirst, heat and horniness. I find it weird that the most unanimous praise is heaped on the fact you can drop your backpack anytime you want for easier stamina fights. Are people really this easily impressed?? Oh yeah, there's a stamina bar, cause nothing can escape the dark souls vortex anymore. Still, am willing to push through.


But wait!

Silly old me had an important phone call to answer while playing. So silly old me decided to pause the game to, you know, attend to life and all that shit. When I finished the phone call and returned, I found my player character withered and dying from hunger, heat, thirst and horniness because there is no fucking pause button..what the fuck??? This is a single player game, why the fuck can't I bloody well pause it??? This isn't immersion, it's unnecessary inconvenience, who thought this was a good idea? Come here so I can bop you in the eyeballs for your unbridled incompetence! You caught me off my wonderful calming opioids, so this agitation has to go somewhere and those unpausable eyeballs are looking an increasingly enticing target.

I played Outward with a friend some time back. I pretty much only enjoyed myself because my friend was there which made all the badness all the more hilarious.

It's pretty funny if you read the developer interviews cause they are very much full of themselves. They bang on about how they want players to play the game and not follow UI markers. I mean sure, it's a good motive, but they go ahead and make the jankiest most disrespectful of the player's time full of busywork nonsense ever.

I mean fine there's no GPS map, so that you have to actually look at landmarks and explore. Okay fine that there's no quick travel.

But then here we are with the most boring empty maps ever. Quest design that basically forces you to walk between towns repeatedly. Oh go to another town to talk to this guy. That guy in that other town? Tells you to go back. Like Ffffff. All the while you have to manage hunger/thirst/temperature/whatever. I mean fine if you think certain modern games are just players following waypoints and not really 'playing a game', but how the hell is this any better? Oh yay, walking these same roads over and over again is so interestiiiiiing. The writing and story is also just laughably basic/bad.

Me and a friend cleared a hostile fort once to find that it became winter while we were in. And we were unable to take more than a few steps before starting to freeze to death because we didn't bring cold weather gear? We resorted to just legging it and starting a long ass trail of fires to keep ourselves warm. Despite the developer's adherence to 'realism' or whatever, you can instantly harvest infinite firewood from any tree in the game which allowed us to eventually leave a flaming smoking trail back to town.

I feel like there's the potential for a good game in there somewhere, and I do like that it has pretty seamless coop which makes for good fun with a friend. But the world's boring, the story's boring, everything's inconvenient and the combat is some of the jankiest shit ever.

It's pretty hard to criticize this game to most players of the game. For some reason it has a stupidly rabid loyal circlejerkiest fanbase ever, and any attempts at any criticism will be met with immediate derision. Oh the combat's not janky, it's MEANT TO BE LIKE THAT. I think I'll just play a FromSoft game instead....

 

[meiam]

I played Outward with a friend some time back. I pretty much only enjoyed myself because my friend was there which made all the badness all the more hilarious.

It's pretty funny if you read the developer interviews cause they are very much full of themselves. They bang on about how they want players to play the game and not follow UI markers. I mean sure, it's a good motive, but they go ahead and make the jankiest most disrespectful of the player's time full of busywork nonsense ever.

I mean fine there's no GPS map, so that you have to actually look at landmarks and explore. Okay fine that there's no quick travel.

But then here we are with the most boring empty maps ever. Quest design that basically forces you to walk between towns repeatedly. Oh go to another town to talk to this guy. That guy in that other town? Tells you to go back. Like Ffffff. All the while you have to manage hunger/thirst/temperature/whatever. I mean fine if you think certain modern games are just players following waypoints and not really 'playing a game', but how the hell is this any better? Oh yay, walking these same roads over and over again is so interestiiiiiing. The writing and story is also just laughably basic/bad.

Me and a friend cleared a hostile fort once to find that it became winter while we were in. And we were unable to take more than a few steps before starting to freeze to death because we didn't bring cold weather gear? We resorted to just legging it and starting a long ass trail of fires to keep ourselves warm. Despite the developer's adherence to 'realism' or whatever, you can instantly harvest infinite firewood from any tree in the game which allowed us to eventually leave a flaming smoking trail back to town.

I feel like there's the potential for a good game in there somewhere, and I do like that it has pretty seamless coop which makes for good fun with a friend. But the world's boring, the story's boring, everything's inconvenient and the combat is some of the jankiest shit ever.

It's pretty hard to criticize this game to most players of the game. For some reason it has a stupidly rabid loyal circlejerkiest fanbase ever, and any attempts at any criticism will be met with immediate derision. Oh the combat's not janky, it's MEANT TO BE LIKE THAT. I think I'll just play a FromSoft game instead....

It's a different kind of experience, it tries to pull its hat out of the ring with the janky-ness. Personally I really like having to plan trips as expedition and seriously consider what path I should take once I start knowing the map well. I stopped playing once I got to the point where I was good enough to ignore all the jank, its really part of the experience and feeling of growth and discovery.

My only real issue with the game is that you can't take certain skill until you go to certain city, so you have to run all the way to the end of the game to get a couple of skill point, which really suck if you don't look up all the skill ahead of time.