What are you currently playing?

[Drathnoxis]

What saddens me is that we'll probably never go back to the traditional format, unless it's a smaller release like Echoes of Wisdom.

I haven't played it, but Yahtzee's review makes me think Echoes of Wisdom is pretty much the same.

 

[FakeSympathy]

But when they're "asking you to break the rules", doesn't that mean that the rule isn't so much broken as just a different rule? For most of the game, you have access to a lot of different approaches to each problem, and 'just go in there and kill them all with your sword' is still an option for most of them, even if it's not the "best" one compared to sneaking around, stealing their weapons, taking some of the monsters out while they sleep, and then when you get spotted, going in there and killing the rest with your sword. You don't need to go as far as actual glitches to get things done at any point.

I admit I didn't play much of TOTK, but within BOTW's framework, it's less about exploiting glitches or "breaking the rules", and more that you just need to think about it differently. And I get that that's disappointing to you as a fan of the older games, but I don't agree with your framing of it.

Okay, that was a terrible assessment on my end. What I meant is, thanks mostly to weapon durability, the way you would combat enemies can absolutely be a torture sometimes. Yes, I can certainly go in with a weapon and a shield, but they don't last very long. There are very few weapons w/ high or infinite durability, and because of the frequent weapon breaks, playing it the traditional way can quickly run through your inventory.

The only way I found to get around is to keep switching weapons or get creative. with those tools

 

[NerfedFalcon]

The only way I found to get around is to keep switching weapons or get creative. with those tools

I have a lot of thoughts about weapon durability in BOTW specifically, but I haven't had the time to write up a post for the other thread yet. tl;dr: Even if you disagree with the concept either in general or in execution, I don't think removing it would automatically make BOTW a better game.

Well, anyway. Back to Dead Space.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

That's chapter 3 of DSR down. I remember the turret section in chapter 4 being absolute ass, so hopefully Motive cleaned that up a little bit. Or a lot. Or took it out, though I doubt they'd have done that.

 

[Drathnoxis]

I think weapon durability is mostly fine in BotW, the game gives you more than enough good weapons that you will never really run out with somewhat thoughtful play. I'm not sure whether it makes the game more fun, but at least it gives you a reason to use different weapons and is more creative with the system than most games where it just means you pay a trifling of gold every time you wind up at the blacksmith.

 

[BrawlMan]

I remember the turret section in chapter 4 being absolute ass, so hopefully Motive cleaned that up a little bit.

You'll like it. They completely overhauled how it works in the remake.

 

[BrawlMan]

Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered is finished. Completed the game Demon Hunter difficulty. This game holds up well after 13 years, and the added 60fps, skippable cut-scenes, new extra bonuses, and NG+ makes it even better. It's hard to go back to the 7th gen versions of this game now. The gameplay roulette stages such as the Big Boner (mini Tower defense) and SHMUP sections are nice diversions. Though the Big Boner section should've been only done twice, instead the rule of three. I do prefer the SHMUP sections in specific chapters.

NG+ you can't bring to a harder or easier difficulty. So if I want to do a NG+ on Hard mode, I have to pick a fresh new game, beat it on Hard, and then I can do NG+ on Hard. I'll save that for another time. This game is only $24.99. For a 6-8 hour campaign with NG+ and extra costumes, it's worth the asking price. @hanselthecaretaker2, @Old_Hunter_77, @FakeSympathy, @CriticalGaming, and @NerfedFalcon, if any of you are interested in just a fun action shooter or needs some great and entertaining filler, please play this game.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Playing Relationship Killer Moving Out.

It's an unabashed clone of Overcooked, and published by the same studio too, though the devs say they never played Overcooked.

It's shared screen co-op, no online. You and someone else you'll have to learn to love again play as movers tasked with loading up a truck with boxes and furniture while on a timer. You too can now relive the stress of moving out as you try maneuver a bed that's too big down a corridor that's too narrow and bends at unhelpful angles. It's both a physics game designed to annoy you as well as one of those co-op games designed to annoy each other. Like Overcooked, you start off with what looks like a passably mundane version of the job but soon you're flinging pinball machines off a taxying airplane and onto a speeding van.

I could go on and on about Overcooked, but the differences are actually pretty stark. Where Overcooked is all about delegating and falling into routine like a well-oiled machine, here you're constantly strategizing and using your powers combined to get through every level. You never quite get to the point where you're in the clear and can just coast for the remainder of the timer. It's a bit more stressful too since you need all hands on deck for carrying the heavier stuff or throwing furniture across gaps.

The single player version is however markedly easier than both the co-op version or whatever version of Overcooked you're playing, since you don't even have to bother with bots. The game simply makes you capable of performing whatever task on your own, while also giving you less to do and more time to do it.

There's also a bit more comedy to the game, from the 80s phony instructional video framework to the sheer spectacle of breaking a second-story window in order to unceremoniously dump a bunch of boxes labeled 'fragile' on the front yard.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Chapter 4 of Dead Space Remake down. They definitely cleaned up the turret section.

Chapter 5 is the last one I completed in the original, and a little bit of 6. The back nine is uncharted territory, though it was all long enough ago by now that I barely remember most of the original. I'm sure that Chapter 5 had a big invincible rampaging dude or something like that, so that's gonna be fun to see what Motive did with him.

 

[Jarrito3002]

Been a lot of Palworld since it dropped on the PS5 even got my friend to get that version been playing together and sending each other pictures and vids of wacky shit.

When I saw the preview years a go I expected funny meme that people would move on from and I was so damn wrong.

Don't get it twisted this a creatively bankrupt kaleidoscope of legally distinct. The Bob Dillon philosophy of borrowing ideas if you will. We go Pokemon, we got Ark, we got Souls, we got BOTW hell run it back to Pokemon the UI for the Pal collection is the Arceus UI. This game when not early access broken is solid and stupid fun and giving experience I wanted from Pokemon for years.

The most major thing for me though and the elephant in the room is this works because of Nintendo the Pokemon Companies complancy. I have heard so many complaints from people and try to put them on other creature collectors or monster catching games with the response of huff and puffs. Now those same huff and puffs are defending Nintendo instead of going hey you let some chuckle fucks who learned Unreal on the fly and between part time jobs style on you like this.

I aware of the ongoing lawsuit, I was expecting plaigarism because holy hell some of those designs bring the game down especially the more inspired one. I am noting go to pretend I know all the details but its patent lawsuit and I had flashback to WB hoarding the nemesis system so I am siding creatively bankrupt chuckle fucks who made a fun ass and addictive frankenstein of a game.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I think weapon durability is mostly fine in BotW, the game gives you more than enough good weapons that you will never really run out with somewhat thoughtful play. I'm not sure whether it makes the game more fun, but at least it gives you a reason to use different weapons and is more creative with the system than most games where it just means you pay a trifling of gold every time you wind up at the blacksmith.

The problem isn't the degradation itself, it's that there's no way to fix it or avoid it. There's no way of using a weapon to keep it in good shape. Shields for example will remain untouched if you parry, but there's no such system for weapons. They'll just break. This turns weapons basically into consumables, which isn't a problem for actually fighting enemies, but it completely drains them of a sense of strength or identity.

The other issue comes in once you get more weapon slots and run into a greater variety of weapons. Starting out you only have 5 or 6 slots, and you'll only be picking up sticks, clubs, axes, and default swords. Maybe a lance, too. But once you get to 10+ weapon slots, and the game introduces more types, the whole thing becomes this annoying musical chairs everytime you encounter a new weapon. You find a great sword, but you don't have enough room, but some of your weapons have already seen use, but those weapons are slightly stronger than this great sword, but you don't know if the next attack will send one of your current stronger weapons into the danger zone, so should you drop one to pick up the still pristine great sword, or should you just ignore it? Oh and there's also bonus damage features that don't show up in the quick-select bar. It just becomes a pain to deal with the farther you get.

It's a neat concept to have Link need to fight with whatever he has on hand, whether it's a sword, a pick axe, or plow, but Nintendo really didn't put much thought into it. Same with making the walls slippery during rain - cool concept, but no means of circumventing it through gameplay so you just end up ignoring it.

 

[Drathnoxis]

The problem isn't the degradation itself, it's that there's no way to fix it or avoid it. There's no way of using a weapon to keep it in good shape. Shields for example will remain untouched if you parry, but there's no such system for weapons. They'll just break. This turns weapons basically into consumables, which isn't a problem for actually fighting enemies, but it completely drains them of a sense of strength or identity.

The other issue comes in once you get more weapon slots and run into a greater variety of weapons. Starting out you only have 5 or 6 slots, and you'll only be picking up sticks, clubs, axes, and default swords. Maybe a lance, too. But once you get to 10+ weapon slots, and the game introduces more types, the whole thing becomes this annoying musical chairs everytime you encounter a new weapon. You find a great sword, but you don't have enough room, but some of your weapons have already seen use, but those weapons are slightly stronger than this great sword, but you don't know if the next attack will send one of your current stronger weapons into the danger zone, so should you drop one to pick up the still pristine great sword, or should you just ignore it? Oh and there's also bonus damage features that don't show up in the quick-select bar. It just becomes a pain to deal with the farther you get.

It's a neat concept to have Link need to fight with whatever he has on hand, whether it's a sword, a pick axe, or plow, but Nintendo really didn't put much thought into it. Same with making the walls slippery during rain - cool concept, but no means of circumventing it through gameplay so you just end up ignoring it.

Why do you need to fix or avoid the degradation when you have another 10 swords in your inventory and more lying on the ground? Just use the next one. As for cycling weapons you just drop the weaker ones for the stronger ones, maybe keep a couple specialty ones on hand like the magic rods for special situations. There's so many weapons lying around you don't really need to min max to get the most uses out of everything.

Slippery walls during rain does suck, though.

 

[BrawlMan]

Why do you need to fix or avoid the degradation when you have another 10 swords in your inventory and more lying on the ground?

Because it sucks and brings down the pacing, wasting the player's time. I can't blame people nor hardcore fans for hating. You love a bad mechanic? More power to you.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Why do you need to fix or avoid the degradation when you have another 10 swords in your inventory and more lying on the ground? Just use the next one. As for cycling weapons you just drop the weaker ones for the stronger ones, maybe keep a couple specialty ones on hand like the magic rods for special situations. There's so many weapons lying around you don't really need to min max to get the most uses out of everything.

Because you might actually like a weapon. You might actually want to hold on to that boomarang weapon or that spear, because of the unique combat application. But you can't. And beyond that, again, it turns all weapons into attack consumables. No thought, no identity, just something to hit the enemy with till it breaks and you move on to the next one. If you don't necessarily mind this, fine I guess, but to me it makes the weapons and the fighting overall feel like a pointless drain on your resources.

You don't need to min max yet the game clearly puts a numerical value on your weapons. Then why have stronger weapons, why have weapons that do 50 damage and weapons that do 55 damage? It doesn't matter, just pick up the next one till it breaks - Can you see the problem when a game operates under this mindset? And this in a franchise where getting a new weapon actually meant something; A new way to fight enemies and interact with the environment. Now though, even the Master Sword means nothing.

 

[Ezekiel]

Playing Dead Rising for the first time. Not the remake. I don't care for it. The gigantic mall is too samey and everything has been done better in other games.

 

[Ezekiel]

"I think the early general consensus was that tank controls gave players an advantage, as movement was missing key maneuvers. I think that opinions have changed in the last few months since the collection’s release. Most of the recent speed runs I’m finding on YouTube are using modern controls. It allows easy turns to activate switches and change directions. That seems to outweigh anything tank control specific moves provide. Even the strafe jump sections can be ignored with proper diagonal jumps. This can be done in the obstacle course in TR2 to shave seconds off.

"I remember people similarly claiming that Resident Evil Remake HD’s modern controls were too confusing in the first days after that release. Now it seems to be the only way people seriously play the game."

I never played RE1 with the new controls before I read this post in a thread somewhere about the Tomb Raider remasters. If it lets "serious" players finish RE1 more quickly and efficiently, good for them. But I find it unintuitive. Have to switch to the D-pad to move backwards, and because up is no longer forward you have to rotate the stick relative to where it was after coming into a new camera shot. The game also only has two foot speeds and doesn't let you do anything when you run, so nothing is gained by removing the run button and utilizing the full tilt. In a game where caution is important and the danger with the cam is in what you can't see, having to be delicate with how far you tilt the stick only places additional muscle stress on the thumb. I never found up always being forward weird at all. Why would it be?

 

[Drathnoxis]

Because it sucks and brings down the pacing, wasting the player's time. I can't blame people nor hardcore fans for hating. You love a bad mechanic? More power to you.

I don't love it, but it doesn't slow down the pacing. The game is designed so that you are constantly acquiring and losing weapons. They're everywhere, you don't run out. At least I didn't.

Because you might actually like a weapon. You might actually want to hold on to that boomarang weapon or that spear, because of the unique combat application. But you can't. And beyond that, again, it turns all weapons into attack consumables. No thought, no identity, just something to hit the enemy with till it breaks and you move on to the next one. If you don't necessarily mind this, fine I guess, but to me it makes the weapons and the fighting overall feel like a pointless drain on your resources.

You don't need to min max yet the game clearly puts a numerical value on your weapons. Then why have stronger weapons, why have weapons that do 50 damage and weapons that do 55 damage? It doesn't matter, just pick up the next one till it breaks - Can you see the problem when a game operates under this mindset? And this in a franchise where getting a new weapon actually meant something; A new way to fight enemies and interact with the environment. Now though, even the Master Sword means nothing.

If weapons didn't break you would just pick your favorite couple and leave the other 30 to collect dust on the shelf, at least this system gives you a reason to use the all at least a little. Adding a drain to resources isn't a bad thing, considering the in the typical Zelda game you end up with a thousand rupees in your wallet and nothing to spend them on by the halfway mark. Except weapons really aren't since the game gives you so many, and they restock in the world, every bloodmoon I think.

The damage numbers are kind of a problem in how they operate. I'd go into a long explanation, but Joseph Anderson already did a great explanation in his fantastic Breath of the Wild Review:


Timestamp 52:30 for when he starts talking about damage numbers, though the entire video is worth watching. The gist is that the way damage numbers work easily breaks the game when the difference between attack and defense is too great.

I'm not really going to argue with your comparison to the traditional Zelda formula. If you judge how well BotW does strictly compared to how it adheres to the formula it's going to do very, very poorly. BotW is a huge departure from the rest of the series in pretty much every way, but it's still a good game in it's own right.

 

[BrawlMan]

I don't love it, but it doesn't slow down the pacing. The game is designed so that you are constantly acquiring and losing weapons. They're everywhere, you don't run out. At least I didn't.

Doesn't matter; it's still unnecessary busy work no one asked for.

I've been testing out Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered on NG+ Demon Hunter Difficulity. Makes the game even more fun, though a lot easier because I maxed out the damage for all of my guns. After the NG+ Run, I will probably do a fresh save file on Legion Hunter. Difficulty achievements don't stack exactly like the vanilla version, and I wish Suda had thought of that. I am not going to play Easy mode just to get another achievement.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Playing Dead Rising for the first time. Not the remake. I don't care for it. The gigantic mall is too samey and everything has been done better in other games.

No way. Dead Rising 1 is a blast.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

Tried the upgrade for Horizon Dawn Zero with basically no expectations, already assuming disappointment waits around every corner no matter what or where, settled with the likelihood of hating myself for deciding either way. And tbh kinda surprised to see maybe a hint of more effort than the average, like I don't know if I'm mad or there's a whole different texture to the world now - more tangible and...earthly? - these words could all be wrong cause I don't know what I'm trying to describe, is it a filter? A literal swap of textures? Wait, did characters physically emote with their whole bodies in the original too or is they newly plugged? There's bits in the air! What are these bits?? Can I grab them? Frolic romantically with them???

Ok, alright fine, it merely looks so damn good. Yes I'm shamelessly indulging the shallownss of enjoying a fave game in its peak form for a tenner, if that's wrong well I don't wanna be right! Omaybe some shame