What are you currently playing?
- Thread starter Nick Calandra
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Didn't they patch in additional easier game difficulties at some point? Sounds like switching to them could be an option when the game's default becomes too hard.
I am playing Darksiders 1 for the first time.
My best friend has been banging on about how it is one of his favourite games of all time, for about 15 years, so I thought that I would finally give it a go.
Unfortunately it doesn't play nice on the Steam Deck. There is a big that for whatever reason prevents cutscenes from playing. You can fix it by downloading things, and running linux commands, and whatever else, but i can't be bothered for the sake of a 13 hour long game, so im just playing it on my PC.
And it is a decent enough time. Looks very Xbox 360, which isn't surprising. The combat is satisfying, even the execution kills which haven't gotten repetitive so far. I will say though that I just completed a really long on-rails flying section, which really overstayed its welcome.
As it stands, im enjoying myself. But im mostly just excited to move onto Darksiders 2, which looks way better.
My best friend has been banging on about how it is one of his favourite games of all time, for about 15 years, so I thought that I would finally give it a go.
Unfortunately it doesn't play nice on the Steam Deck. There is a big that for whatever reason prevents cutscenes from playing. You can fix it by downloading things, and running linux commands, and whatever else, but i can't be bothered for the sake of a 13 hour long game, so im just playing it on my PC.
And it is a decent enough time. Looks very Xbox 360, which isn't surprising. The combat is satisfying, even the execution kills which haven't gotten repetitive so far. I will say though that I just completed a really long on-rails flying section, which really overstayed its welcome.
As it stands, im enjoying myself. But im mostly just excited to move onto Darksiders 2, which looks way better.
I am playing on one of those lower difficulties. I just don't have patience to play games for the sake of difficulty. I play them to relax, and I find struggling through games does the opposite for me these days. "But you're missing out on the satisfaction of overcoming challenges!" Yeah...I never really got that. Relief isn't satisfaction.
Even back in the day, I would tell people to screw off for saying that. While I almost always stuck with normal mode, some people would have a problem, even with that.
Did you buy this game? "Uh well, no...bu-". Then piss off! It's my copy of the game I bought with my own damn money (or parents' money as a kid before)! I can play however the hell I want.
Currently I still mostly play on Normal. And I only do easy if the default difficulty is really imbalanced. Some games cut the middle man out together and don't even have a normal. It's easy, hard, and then an even harder mode. Or the difficulty is too inconsistent and has no difficulty mode at all. It's why I couldn't stick with Slave Zero X. Even with all the patch updates. I am never buying a game unless I know it has difficulty options. Casual focused games don't scare me much as they're doing what they're intended to do. I sometimes do that just to chill out.
I am getting Fallen City Brawl today.
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If I have the option I tend to play on hard or hardest because if I find something too easy I get bored quickly. Unless it doesn't have a difficulty option, in some ways I prefer that since I don't feel the urge to play it on hard and can ignore things being easier without the option. Really the only types of games I wont play on max are either fps games where I play on a double playthrough, to get more out of it or rts since I'm only ok at them, or turn based games since I tend not to get deep enough into the mechanics to handle super hard on them. Or I supposed shootemups since those can get ridiculous and I don't feel like practicing forever.
... I suppose I tend to just play fps games on the hardest difficulty. But I will bump up some other games higher then normal.
I have no problem doing hard modes. Especially when they are properly balanced. I usually don't go over harder difficulties above normal, when it comes to FPS or TPS. The only exceptions are Bulletstorm, RE4R, Shadows of the Damned, Gungrave, and Gungrave GORE.
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They are both kinda their own thing. While they are both 3rd person action games, Darksiders 1 is legend of Zelda with devil may cry, Darksiders 2 is more of a third person diablo with devil may cry and an open world.
Expect that in Darksiders II as well. Not so much the rail-shooting, but there is a section where you will be using long range guns that goes on about almost as long as a Serious Sam level. You'll know when you see it.
Darksiders I & II are mainly taking from Soul Reaver and Legacy of Kain. Especially the first game. These games are the closest to modern Soul Reaver games we will ever get.
Play on whatever difficulty works best for you. Especially in games with a lot of story content, being able to progress the game to enjoy more of the story matters more than overcoming the "intended" challenge. And even in games that aren't story-heavy, the lower difficulties are still "intended". I played Doom Eternal recently and I found that HMP wasn't pushing me hard enough to start having fun with, but I could see UV (the level I did play on) being way too much for a lot of people; rather than insist they go for it anyway or try going up to Nightmare myself, I'd rather recommend they just play HMP or ITYTD and enjoy the game at their own level.
"The fun zone" is in a different place for everyone. And while pushing boundaries is nice, fun is the most important thing.
These people should be forced to climb a rock wall every time they want to eat something. Overcome the challenge!
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I would totally do that, I've only done a couple rock walls but they were a lot of fun.
Anyway, I beat Heretic on the hardest difficulty, the 3 original episodes and the 2 expansion ones. Starting on Hexen on the hardest difficulty as the warrior, shits rough when you only have melee and crappy nades.
I played Final Fight 2 Readjusted, Final Fight (SNES), and Final Fight CD. I've been playing DMC4 & DMC5 back to back.
Finished Figment and it's fine for a dollar. The game has a unique blend of neat and godawful, catchy and embarrassing. It's brimming with Bosch's Garden of Delights weirdo energy but can't think of anything cleverer than block puzzles and gear puzzles. It touts the novelty of musical boss fights where the villain sings like it's a Disney movie from the 90s - but the songs suck! I can't tell how much of the kitsch is deliberate.
Now I'm playing Shu, which again is fine for the 49 cents I paid for it. It's a platformer that's clearly designed to appeal to speedrunners because the levels clock like 2 or 3 minutes each and grade you on your time, score and not dying. There's lots of riding gusts of wind and chaining bouncy jumps, wall jumps, glides, etc. There's some neat concepts like introducing new abilities whenever you escort a new buddy, and every level or so there's an eldritch cloud of teeth chasing you and nipping at your feet as it takes up like 80% of the screen. I don't know if I'm gonna have the patience to 100% it but it's fun enough for now.
Now I'm playing Shu, which again is fine for the 49 cents I paid for it. It's a platformer that's clearly designed to appeal to speedrunners because the levels clock like 2 or 3 minutes each and grade you on your time, score and not dying. There's lots of riding gusts of wind and chaining bouncy jumps, wall jumps, glides, etc. There's some neat concepts like introducing new abilities whenever you escort a new buddy, and every level or so there's an eldritch cloud of teeth chasing you and nipping at your feet as it takes up like 80% of the screen. I don't know if I'm gonna have the patience to 100% it but it's fun enough for now.
I find that if I like the gameplay a game can almost never be too hard. I died a ton in the recent God of War games, but I kept playing (and replaying) because the combat just worked for me. The Souls games however have always had rusty and wonky combat, to me atleast. Just beating a Boss shouldn't be satisfying, the fight itself should be satisfying, and I never got that from any Soulsborne game.
Sekiro probably does this best out of those games. The fights are more like duels. There are only a handful of Soulsborne bosses that felt similar to it, as most have increasingly leaned more towards spectacle.
I got around to playing Vladik Brutal. It's been billed as, and basically is, slavjank Half-Life. You play as a Russian unnamed Eastern European country prisoner who is forced to play assistant to scientists working on a very large and scientific-looking machine, which predictably has a catastrophic failure and leaves the facility invaded by weird eel-like creatures that are infesting and mutating the staff.
How strong is the slavjank? For one thing, instead of using number keys to select weapons, you have to open an inventory matrix (which thankfully at least slows the game down, though doesn't pause it). And there is a short section where you have to ride a small railcar (much like Half-Life's "On a Rail") while enemies fall from the ceiling and chase you; if they manage to make it onboard the railcar, you're basically dead, because their janky movement makes it impossible to shoot them- but you can drop a Molotov cocktail directly at your feet and watch as it roasts the enemies to a crisp while you go unharmed.
Underneath the jank and kind of weird graphics, though, is something solid, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't enjoying myself so far. It's a remarkable effort coming from a single person.
How strong is the slavjank? For one thing, instead of using number keys to select weapons, you have to open an inventory matrix (which thankfully at least slows the game down, though doesn't pause it). And there is a short section where you have to ride a small railcar (much like Half-Life's "On a Rail") while enemies fall from the ceiling and chase you; if they manage to make it onboard the railcar, you're basically dead, because their janky movement makes it impossible to shoot them- but you can drop a Molotov cocktail directly at your feet and watch as it roasts the enemies to a crisp while you go unharmed.
Underneath the jank and kind of weird graphics, though, is something solid, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't enjoying myself so far. It's a remarkable effort coming from a single person.