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I've heard that Starcraft was originally pitched as a 40k game but games workshop said nah.
What are you currently playing?
- Thread starter Nick Calandra
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Elden Ring: I managed to kill Glintstone Dragon Smarag, which was a pain to fight because of how often it kept flying 50 meters away and forcing me to chase it down, but took fewer attempts than I was expecting despite dealing 70-85% of my health per hit. With that settled, I was able to grab the Glintstone Key without any regrets, but took a detour north of the Academy up to Ruin-Strewn Precipice. I haven't gone in there yet, but getting an extra Estus shot plus increasing its effect to +5 from the Bellum Church was worth it.
Now that that's all settled, though, it's time to storm into Hogwarts to deliver a sternly-worded letter to J.K. Rennala. At axepoint.
Now that that's all settled, though, it's time to storm into Hogwarts to deliver a sternly-worded letter to J.K. Rennala. At axepoint.
I decided to fully commit to a Dark Urge playthrough of Baldur's Gate 3, but I really didn't get very far. I didn't even feel too bad about cutting off Gale's hand and leaving him to die in the warp point or killing and cutting off Karlach's head (though the latter did sting a little). But once I had to raid the Grove it got way too uncomfortable. I mean, you have your combatants surprised at your betrayal, but then you get to one of the caves where the regular citizens are hiding and are in a perpetual state of Frightend as you're tasked to kill them. And THEN you get to the little hidey cave the tiefling children were squating, that the goblins got to aaaand.... Yeah, this just got way too awful. I was already running into the issue of not wanting to invest in most of the characters due to me being evil, so why bother, but that Grove sequence left an icky taste in my mouth no game ever has. But that's the point obviously to a role-playing game allowing you the freedom to take any path you want. It ain't for me though. Maybe I'm just too soft of a boy.
I can't even commit to being a Renegade in Mass Effect, let alone even considering an evil playthrough in BG3.
I remember back when I was younger, and playing as a sith in KOTOR, or just running around murdering civilians in Fable, but now I can't really stomach it. I just want to be nice to these characters.
Maybe if the Dark Urge was my very first playthrough I wouldn't be as bothered by it, but having already played through this game a couple times being generally helpful and kind, getting to know everyone in the Grove... Also, you can't help but feel like the game is punishing you for going evil by having party members leave if you get too wicked. And then even the ones that stay like Shadowheart end up kinda vommiting in their own mouth afterward.
Good thing I quit before I had to force myself to kill Dame Aylin. Don't think I could've gotten over that one.
Playing Pankapu. It's a platformer that's been sitting in my indie folder for years with the tenuous claim of being a Metroidvania because you can replay levels to access new portions or collect shit you missed once you get, say, a double jump. But really 90% of the time it simply boils down to choosing between mutually exclusive routes, because it's hard to gauge which way is the one forward and which one loops around past a collectible.
This is basically Rayman by another skin. The studio's French and would've sworn former devs or artists were involved, since everything from the main character to the gameplay and the warped oil painting fairytale backgrounds scream Rayman. What's missing is the humor and clever design and wild imagination of something like Rayman Legends - the levels are short but get repetitive fast despite almost all of them introducing a new gimmick or conceit.
This is basically Rayman by another skin. The studio's French and would've sworn former devs or artists were involved, since everything from the main character to the gameplay and the warped oil painting fairytale backgrounds scream Rayman. What's missing is the humor and clever design and wild imagination of something like Rayman Legends - the levels are short but get repetitive fast despite almost all of them introducing a new gimmick or conceit.
Huh, I didn't know that. I wasn't really referring to the appearance though-- just the 'endless horde of fodder' approach to enemies. Similarly the gameplay of the Dynasty Warriors doesn't appeal to me for the same reason.
Yes, other than a couple of previous starting attempts that didn't make it past Margit. Took the Hero origin (Vagabond was closer to what I used in the Dark Souls trilogy but I wanted a bit of a change), been building pure unga bunga Str/Vig.
Right, okay.
Made it up to Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon.
This is, unquestionably, the least fun I have ever had playing a Souls game. Dead air runbacks after you kill all the enemies 12 times in Dark Souls 2? Getting invaded non-stop in Irithyll? Grand Archives gank squad? Dragon breath runs? I prefer all of those to Rennala's first phase. Enemies have the poise damage of a fucking train despite literally just biting you in the armored ankles or throwing books at your head, Rennala's shield takes way too many fucking hits to break and is almost never in range to be hit on top of that, and the entire thing is designed to just wear you down and drain your resources on top of your focus... and then the second phase comes in and kills you instantly with her absurd damage scaling and makes you redo the entire thing from the beginning AGAIN.
I know what I said about hyperbolic insults, there's no need to remind me... but I would rather stick my head in a blender than attempt this fight again.
Edit: I mean, yes, there's almost certainly a way to make this fight not suck, but I've got no idea what it is and two other leads on demigods that probably aren't an absolute pain to follow. I'm not going back there any time soon.
This is, unquestionably, the least fun I have ever had playing a Souls game. Dead air runbacks after you kill all the enemies 12 times in Dark Souls 2? Getting invaded non-stop in Irithyll? Grand Archives gank squad? Dragon breath runs? I prefer all of those to Rennala's first phase. Enemies have the poise damage of a fucking train despite literally just biting you in the armored ankles or throwing books at your head, Rennala's shield takes way too many fucking hits to break and is almost never in range to be hit on top of that, and the entire thing is designed to just wear you down and drain your resources on top of your focus... and then the second phase comes in and kills you instantly with her absurd damage scaling and makes you redo the entire thing from the beginning AGAIN.
I know what I said about hyperbolic insults, there's no need to remind me... but I would rather stick my head in a blender than attempt this fight again.
Edit: I mean, yes, there's almost certainly a way to make this fight not suck, but I've got no idea what it is and two other leads on demigods that probably aren't an absolute pain to follow. I'm not going back there any time soon.
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Good news is she’s optional, unless you plan on respec’ing. STR builds should do well against her though. The whole point of this fights is to keep moving (1st phase to find the scholar doing the spells, 2nd avoiding Rennala’s spells and closing the gap), but stamina is pretty generous in this game.
Different struggles for different muggles when it comes to Souls games, but, and this is coming from an admitted absolute garbage Elden Ring player, Rennala isn't that hard. I struggled more with the Red Wolf before her than I did with her. Like @hanselthecaretaker2 said, in her first phase, just seek out the 3 crawling students with the yellow aura around them; you don't have to bother with any of the others. Hit three of the glowing ones once, and it brings Rennala down; after that it's all about DPS determining whether or not you can get her into phase two in one cycle or not, but even if not, finding the 3 crawling students to bring her down again is probably the easiest thing about the whole fight, both phases. And now that you know she opens phase two with the mega laser thingy, just know you've got to prepare to dodge it; after that, it's a reasonably fair fight.
Good luck, and don't give up!
Well I agree here. On my first play-through I was actually enjoying the game until I got here.
The worst part is it also introduced me to the insane tracking of the ranged attacks. The worst part about Elden Ring is how dodging every ranged homing attack requires precision timing, and there are time with RNG means you are getting spammed with them. This gets really bad in later stages of the game.
Well the actual worst part is the whole two-phase boss thing, I hate it hate it.
It's also an example of why I think playing without summons is just masochism. The only way for a non-freak to stand chance is to summon something because she herself summons! Sometimes a freaking dragon!
Fortunately the first summon you get, the wolves, can actually be quite effective as they can stun lock her. But even that is luck based.
You know what's really crazy? I've been hankering to play Dark Souls again. Good old regular frustrating bullshit Dark Souls before everything was two-phase (just some), before delayed attacks parry, before open worlds that were sometimes cool but also sometimes pointless and frustrating, and before everything flew around off screen really fast.
Never mind, Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation (IV) runs as smoothly as I to III. My computer was probably doing something in the background. This tutorial was forced as well, although slightly better than in The Angel of Darkness. Have to keep waiting for your mentor before you can perform the actions you already learned in previous games. Only new move was the rope swing, which I'm now having trouble jumping far enough from in Tomb of Seth.
Lara's prior design was better. She looks more like a floozy in this. Like a Hooters employee. What appears to be a one-piece, high-cut swimsuit (indeed, shiny when toggling to the new graphics) under her shorts, bigger breasts (on a smaller body) with cleavage more exposed. Eh.
Stuck, I tried The Angel of Darkness (originally for the PS2) again, and was perplexed by the incorporation of stamina into climbing and hanging. It diminishes in no time. How could they look at all the climbing and hanging they had players do in previous games and think this was a good idea?
There's a vertical pipe on the side of a building in the tutorial area. She can climb it. But instead of simply leaping at it, you have to first push an object that you can climb onto, underneath. She can't jump at pipes, apparently.
Lara's prior design was better. She looks more like a floozy in this. Like a Hooters employee. What appears to be a one-piece, high-cut swimsuit (indeed, shiny when toggling to the new graphics) under her shorts, bigger breasts (on a smaller body) with cleavage more exposed. Eh.
Stuck, I tried The Angel of Darkness (originally for the PS2) again, and was perplexed by the incorporation of stamina into climbing and hanging. It diminishes in no time. How could they look at all the climbing and hanging they had players do in previous games and think this was a good idea?
There's a vertical pipe on the side of a building in the tutorial area. She can climb it. But instead of simply leaping at it, you have to first push an object that you can climb onto, underneath. She can't jump at pipes, apparently.
- Apr 1, 2009
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Thats why they are there, if you are sick of a boss then you have the tools to let you delete them, either spirits or other players.
I've been going through Lies of P on New Game+. It honestly should be considered the gold standard Soulslike when it comes to quality of life features: souls drop outside boss arenas and show how much you've dropped before you pick them up, consumables are actually really, really useful and balanced by limited inventory, the fast travel system shows you where important NPC questline things are happening so you don't have to consult a wiki and much more. The QoL improvements extend even into NG+: there's new dialogue that reveals new story insights, and leveling actually stays relevant. This is because the devs made a really smart choice: past levels requiring 16,000 XP to level up, every level thereafter requires only a single point of XP more than the previous one. So if you're getting three levels, those would cost 16,001, 16,002 and 16,003 XP respectively. When you get to that point leveling ceases to have the same impact it does in the early game, so it stays balanced, but you still get to be excited about new levels, because it allows you to allocate points into secondary stats and reap their benefits as well.
It's so good that it's made me realize that no game has actually made a version of NG+ I'd really want to see: start a New Game without scaling and reset the player level and upgrades, but allow the player to retain the inventory they accumulated in their playthrough. That way you'd get the variety of New Game+ while also getting to experience the excitement and growth of a fully new playthrough. Like, imagine if you could start Dark Souls at level 1 in New Game, but have your inventory stacked with legendary weapons and spells. Wouldn't that be cool? You'd get the excitement of building up to a powerful ability without the hassle of having to go through a specific part of the game to get that ability.
It's so good that it's made me realize that no game has actually made a version of NG+ I'd really want to see: start a New Game without scaling and reset the player level and upgrades, but allow the player to retain the inventory they accumulated in their playthrough. That way you'd get the variety of New Game+ while also getting to experience the excitement and growth of a fully new playthrough. Like, imagine if you could start Dark Souls at level 1 in New Game, but have your inventory stacked with legendary weapons and spells. Wouldn't that be cool? You'd get the excitement of building up to a powerful ability without the hassle of having to go through a specific part of the game to get that ability.
I think part of what makes it so profoundly unnerving is how little overt focus the game puts on the effect you have on the tieflings, and lets the gameplay speak for itself. There's no cinematic of them making a heroic last stand or wailing in grief, you just kill them and that's it. In a way it puts you in the perspective of a truly psychopathic character: These people (who you will likely know very well through previous playthroughs) mean nothing to you, they're just in the way. Also compounded by the fact that it's so completely one-sided and unfair.
...Right. So it's like Deacons.
I still don't really like that the first phase has nothing whatsoever to do with the second, especially since it's technically against the same person and not a totally different one, but considering that I thought you were meant to hit the shield directly until it broke and only got through last time by a total coincidence, as I said I'll accept that it's not as bad as my experience was. For now, anyway, I'll see if I still want to go to Caelid instead after a few shots at the actual fight.
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I'm at the jungle in FF7 rebirth and its such a pain in the ass to navigate. Pretty much everything is behind a plant/rock maze and it can also be above you so the map is rather useless and there are enough trees to make riding the chocobo annoying. Its going to be a huge pain in the butt to clear everything there.
Metaphore continues to be awesome, the second dungeon type place was way better and shorter then the first and the story... it goes some places.
Metaphore continues to be awesome, the second dungeon type place was way better and shorter then the first and the story... it goes some places.
Ninja Gaiden II Black - I did a Karma Score Run and managed to get over 1 million points on Chapter Challenge. Chapter 9 on Warrior Difficulty.
I gotta get back into Astro Bot later.
I gotta get back into Astro Bot later.
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