What are you currently playing?

[Ezekiel]

Realized that the RetroFighters Defender is more comfortable than the DualShock 2, even with those damnable slim bumpers and deep, concave triggers that don't belong on a controller partly meant for pressure-sensitive PS2 and PS3 games, with triggers and bumpers too close together. The DualShock 2 is such a weird, clickity controller. I got this controller for Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3, but have been using it much more for classic Tomb Raider due to the superior D-pad that's better placed than the 8BitDo Ultimate's for digital movement games like this. Face buttons are also flatter than the bulbous Ultimate's.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Started Red Dead Redemption 2 today. Man, it's a beautiful game, and so incredibly detailed! I don't even really mind the notoriously "slow" start given everything there is to see, even with everything covered in snow. Looking forward to the game letting go of the reins so I can explore.

The controls, though, meh, not loving them so much. Hard to describe; everything feels, I dunno, heavy and slow? And the gun combat, ugh, I really hope they were shooting for period accuracy and/or I just don't have a better gun yet, because the one you start with has about the softest lock-on I've experienced, and the right trigger feels very unresponsive. In the mission where I had to keep some wolves at bay, I'd pull the left trigger and would lock on for all of a half second before the wolf moved away, and when I pull the right, Arthur doesn't fire for another half second. But man was it gorgeous when they attacked, get bitten and spun around, blood spattering on the snow, it all looked so fluid, natural, and cinematic, yet it was gameplay.

Even if I don't acclimate comfortably to the controls, I'm looking forward to just seeing this game and having something immersive to play that DOESN'T stress me out (looking at you, Elden Ring. I finally reached Rellana's fog door, and I shed a tear without even trying to fight her. That's when I decided to start RDR2.)

 

[Xprimentyl]

Elden Ring, and holy shit, I just took out Rellana on my third attempt! Yes, I summoned Needle Knight Leda, yes, I summoned Black Knife Tiche, but it's fucking done. I thought this was going to be a substantial roadblock given everything I've heard hence my avoiding her for months. My individual damage was pathetic, but with enough distractions, I was able to whittle her down for a relatively easy win. But damned if she's not a tank. Felt like most of her attacks took up the whole arena, and that effectively one-shot with her twin moon attack in her second phase is the definition of bullshit. It's what killed me on my first two attempts; I only managed to make it the third time because I jumped over the first wave, and survived the second two subsequent hits with a sliver of health, and she was far enough away to not aggro on me allowing me to heal.

Man RDR2 might have to wait now; I've got some new Elden Ring areas to explore!

 

[Worgen]

Elden Ring, and holy shit, I just took out Rellana on my third attempt! Yes, I summoned Needle Knight Leda, yes, I summoned Black Knife Tiche, but it's fucking done. I thought this was going to be a substantial roadblock given everything I've heard hence my avoiding her for months. My individual damage was pathetic, but with enough distractions, I was able to whittle her down for a relatively easy win. But damned if she's not a tank. Felt like most of her attacks took up the whole arena, and that effectively one-shot with her twin moon attack in her second phase is the definition of bullshit. It's what killed me on my first two attempts; I only managed to make it the third time because I jumped over the first wave, and survived the second two subsequent hits with a sliver of health, and she was far enough away to not aggro on me allowing me to heal.

Man RDR2 might have to wait now; I've got some new Elden Ring areas to explore!

She is one of the less hard bosses in the dlc, but shes also one of the coolest, really fun fight.

 

[Ezekiel]

Someone told me how to beat the boss at the end of London. Kind of BS, because the game never expected you to do that before. My first help, and disappointing.

Wow... People just buy this collection and never beat it. It filters everybody.

 

[thebobmaster]

In the times I'm managing to not fall into the "just one run" on Balatro, I am working on Sleeping Dogs. I know it's old, but I never got around to beating it. Always got partway through, and then the same thing that happens to me with most open-world games happens. I'd play something else for about a month, get back to it, and the last thing I remembered was karaoke, so I had no idea what was going in in the story.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Rescued the mouse in RE4R, for the time being at least. Had a couple slightly embarrassing deaths to random enemies, including one dynamite thrower who I thought was going to throw it past me as I ran towards him, but his throw bounced off a nearby wall instead and landed right on top of me. Was considering using the Red9 handgun, but the default reticle is massive compared to the SG09, and takes longer to focus in too - and I can't afford to waste bullets, so so much for that idea.

I also skipped picking up the TMP. We'll see how that decision shakes out (I used it last time on Standard).

 

[NerfedFalcon]

I died four times in the cabin, and I defy anyone here to do better with this many supplies. By the time I got through it my DA was so low the game was flooding me with green herbs and 20x handgun ammo boxes, and I still barely made it out alive. Never doing the wolf miniboss again after I get the achievement for all treasures (I got all sidequests on my last run).

To be honest, I was prepared to give up after the game killed me by having an enemy grab me, starting a cutscene that reset our positions, and then having the enemy grab me again the literal instant the cutscene was over without giving me a chance to dodge or open my case to heal.

 

[Xprimentyl]

She is one of the less hard bosses in the dlc, but shes also one of the coolest, really fun fight.

"Less hard bosses?" You're either being sarcastic, or you're fucking high; that b*tch hits like a Mack truck, and she hits fast, hits often, and hits everywhere. I'm using the Fingerprint shield, and she still managed to murder my stamina in melee, and was quick to use big-dick magic when in range.

 

[Worgen]

"Less hard bosses?" You're either being sarcastic, or you're fucking high; that b*tch hits like a Mack truck, and she hits fast, hits often, and hits everywhere. I'm using the Fingerprint shield, and she still managed to murder my stamina in melee, and was quick to use big-dick magic when in range.

I was doing the dodge thing for her and didn't have much problem with her, you need to jump a couple of her moves to avoid them. She has a rhythm that works pretty well with my dodging. Only boss I needed to summon on was the last and it took me awhile before I finally gave in for that.

 

[XsjadoBlaydette]

RoboBeat
Jesus effing Christ the FOV in this is outta fucking control.

Music's alright though - been unable to find interest in the previous rhythm shooter games due to their chosen genre of metal musics I once loved years back no longer providing the emotional spectrum of sound I seek in audio escapism nowadays, it's stuck on that one emotion and I need more it's not enough, am a complicated mess of feefees ya know! RobotBeat tracks still have visceral punch and sick guitars, just with the broader free rein EDM inherently allows.

The gun-fiddle combo-ing (a real word?) you can do before shooting is smart fun addition. Hope environments aren't as basic as first impression implies however.

Turbo Overkill
Continuing trend of fine soundtracks. Confused by the lack of sound effects from sliding around and into everything with my robo chainsaw leg.

Sniper Elite 5, uhh, Resistance
Nazis. Rifle. Rifle meet nazis. Its the same game with new maps, what else do you need to hear? The first map being a Goldeneye N64 first level (unintentional?) callback? Is that what you want to hear? Well now you heard it. You're welcome.

Cuisineer
Not a chibi art style fan but this being a fantasy restaurant management sim/combat/adventure mix like davey-diver/moonlighter means I've no choice but to disappear from the world until precious restaurant is bustling monument of obsessive design. Byebye, is been nice knowing y'all!

 

[Bartholen]

I've been going through another playthrough of Baldur's Gate 3 a lot, this time with a Ranger, and a team of Palalock Wyll, Sorcerer Gale and Monk Karlach, with Shadowheart occasionally dropping in. I'm playing on the Honour mode ruleset (not actual honor mode, bollocks to that), but the game is still hopelessly easy to break. It's still fun though: My new way of disposing of enemy NPCs in secret is to cast Silence on the area, use the once per Long Rest crit paralysis amulet to completely incapacitate them, and then finish them off before they even get a turn. I did this with the prison warden and Z'rell in Moonrise Towers, and then absolutely whooped Balthazar in a similar fashion the Shar temple as well. The Gloom Stalker ranger is an incredibly powerful class. Having basically guaranteed first initiative and three attacks on the first round of combat allows some combats to almost end before they can even begin, and the stacking bonuses and buffs mean that I'm putting out 20+ damage per attack even on normal hits. Luring enemies into groups with Minor Illusion and then dropping a big fat AoE on them just never gets old.

And since patch 8 is dropping sometime soon with 12 new subclasses, looks like I'll be playing with those as well.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I've been going through another playthrough of Baldur's Gate 3 a lot, this time with a Ranger, and a team of Palalock Wyll, Sorcerer Gale and Monk Karlach, with Shadowheart occasionally dropping in. I'm playing on the Honour mode ruleset (not actual honor mode, bollocks to that), but the game is still hopelessly easy to break. It's still fun though: My new way of disposing of enemy NPCs in secret is to cast Silence on the area, use the once per Long Rest crit paralysis amulet to completely incapacitate them, and then finish them off before they even get a turn. I did this with the prison warden and Z'rell in Moonrise Towers, and then absolutely whooped Balthazar in a similar fashion the Shar temple as well. The Gloom Stalker ranger is an incredibly powerful class. Having basically guaranteed first initiative and three attacks on the first round of combat allows some combats to almost end before they can even begin, and the stacking bonuses and buffs mean that I'm putting out 20+ damage per attack even on normal hits. Luring enemies into groups with Minor Illusion and then dropping a big fat AoE on them just never gets old.

And since patch 8 is dropping sometime soon with 12 new subclasses, looks like I'll be playing with those as well.

Having one or two team members with Hunger of Hadar and one with Sleet Storm also cleans up very good. Watching fools slip and fall on Sleet Storm while trying to make it through Hunger of Hadar as it chews them up is very satisfying.

 

[meiam]

I'm playing on the Honour mode ruleset (not actual honor mode, bollocks to that), but the game is still hopelessly easy to break. It's still fun though: My new way of disposing of enemy NPCs in secret is to cast Silence on the area, use the once per Long Rest crit paralysis amulet to completely incapacitate them, and then finish them off before they even get a turn. I did this with the prison warden and Z'rell in Moonrise Towers, and then absolutely whooped Balthazar in a similar fashion the Shar temple as well. The Gloom Stalker ranger is an incredibly powerful class. Having basically guaranteed first initiative and three attacks on the first round of combat allows some combats to almost end before they can even begin, and the stacking bonuses and buffs mean that I'm putting out 20+ damage per attack even on normal hits. Luring enemies into groups with Minor Illusion and then dropping a big fat AoE on them just never gets old.

Thats a problem with a lot of direct adaptation of pen and paper RPG. Most of them are built with the assumption that a DM will be overseeing things, and they'll punish any of those cheap tricks. Unfortunately, video game AI aren't there yet.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Finished Ender Magnolia. This is one of those cases where the sequel irons out all the kinks, improves on pretty much everything the original did and is just about the obviously superior of the two, but ultimately I don't necessarily prefer it. It's Guacamelee vs Guacamelee 2 again; Blasphemous vs Blasphemous 2. You basically make a "better" version of an already great game but aren't really taking it anywhere new, which is why none of these games have a third entry. And whether you like the sequel better boils down to personal taste. Did I vibe with the internet humor of Guacamelee 2? Do I prefer the anime-fication of Cvstodia in Blasphemous 2? And so on.

Ender Magnolia is the ragtag steampunk follow-up to Ender Lilies' gothic fantasy. It's sewers and landfills and factories instead of dark yet lofty medieval settings. Instead of being alone and voiceless in an oppressive world you're in a fairly urbanized one that's riddled with friendly NPCs, and the homunculi that act out your spells and attacks keep you company and have casual conversations. And instead of carrying out some sort of esoteric ritual in a forlorn maze you have a clear mission of making it across the three or four social strata of an actual lived-in place.

There's no right or wrong here. I personally liked the atmosphere some more in the first game, but then that had to pull double duty for the story, which was barely there. I liked the characters in the sequel more, in that it had any.

I forget who it was here who gave up on Ender Lilies some months (?) ago because of some bullshit bosses. I recommend you check out this. It's generally easier and significantly more accesible. I struggled with some bosses in EL but didn't really find any brick walls in EM, other than a couple of instances where I had to rethink my relic loadout.

 

[Gergar12]

FF7 Remake on PC, I finally got it to run by plugging in my NVME SSD to the lightning USB-C port.

 

[Worgen]

I forget who it was here who gave up on Ender Lilies some months (?) ago because of some bullshit bosses. I recommend you check out this. It's generally easier and significantly more accesible. I struggled with some bosses in EL but didn't really find any brick walls in EM, other than a couple of instances where I had to rethink my relic loadout.

Certainly wasn't me, I really liked Ender Lilies and am planning on getting Magnolia when I whittle down my game list a bit more.

 

[XsjadoBlaydette]

Sniper Elite 5, uhh, Resistance
Nazis. Rifle. Rifle meet nazis. Its the same game with new maps, what else do you need to hear? The first map being a Goldeneye N64 first level (unintentional?) callback? Is that what you want to hear? Well now you heard it. You're welcome.

Forgot to include most important change to the series: mister protagonist has adopted a chatty Jason Statham accent and a face somewhere between Danny Dyer and Andy Serkis. No idea if they're meant to be same character in previous games, and I'd be surprised if anyone gave a fuck either way cos the wooden block had no sodding character lol

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

Started another run of Resident Evil 4 Remake, and decided to try Hardcore difficulty this time since my last run was on Standard. Over a year ago, but I felt like challenging myself a little without going into actual masochism territory (which is what Professional is). Died twice in the opening village square (once to Salvador, and once to a random knife in the back), but I didn't die any other times. Did have some close calls though, and I think I got the time out ending to the village fight instead of the kill-lots-of-people one.

Well, for all other (real and imagined) faults of the game, they nailed that the opening village fight is the hardest thing you have to do for a pretty long time. And removing mid-cutscene QTEs, as well as the randomness in dodging enemy attacks, is always appreciated.

Oh speaking of, game is half off on Steam right now for a few days. I’m gonna pick it up. Actually I’m gonna pick up all RE games in my wishlist since they’re even cheaper. It’s Capcom’s Lunar sale madness!

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

Elden Ring, and holy shit, I just took out Rellana on my third attempt! Yes, I summoned Needle Knight Leda, yes, I summoned Black Knife Tiche, but it's fucking done. I thought this was going to be a substantial roadblock given everything I've heard hence my avoiding her for months. My individual damage was pathetic, but with enough distractions, I was able to whittle her down for a relatively easy win. But damned if she's not a tank. Felt like most of her attacks took up the whole arena, and that effectively one-shot with her twin moon attack in her second phase is the definition of bullshit. It's what killed me on my first two attempts; I only managed to make it the third time because I jumped over the first wave, and survived the second two subsequent hits with a sliver of health, and she was far enough away to not aggro on me allowing me to heal.

Man RDR2 might have to wait now; I've got some new Elden Ring areas to explore!

Congrats, and btw there’s also a way around Rellana to progress past the castle lol.


For RDR2, this post has some tips to improve the controls, along with the link at the end with more.

Also, save this video and circle back to it whenever you get through the game -


Really, don't watch it yet!...unless you've already played the first game and remember the scene anyways lol.