What are you currently playing?

[Johnny Novgorod]

I'm not convinced the Tomb Raider games bother with Research beyond two seconds of skimming wikipedia. The first game, notably, had a US Coast Guard plane get shot down above the island....except the Island is near Japan, so it would make far more sense for the Japanese Coast Guard to be the ones to pick up the call and respond.

Also the whole wierdness of how nobody can presumably get off the island once they get shipwrecked there due to the storms, but somehow people were able to construct bunkers? How the hell is that consistent?

I'm ok with handwaving goofs and dumb plotholes in dumb action games. And I'm ok with bullshit lore for bullshit civilizations, like the race of immortals in Yamatai or the race of immortals on Kitezh: made up races in made up places. I draw the line when you're dealing with actual history and actual culture, because the games ostensibly do so as well, and there's a baseline of realism in reboot TR. Putting the Maya in Peru and basing their contraptions around gigantic wheels is like giving wi-fi to Etruscans in Babylon.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Shadow of the Tomb Raider. More of the same, now with less combat setpieces apparently. Lara is still annoying.

Couple of things:

1) The Maya never made it that far down South America. Peru is Inca territory.

2) The Inca - or for that matter any other Pre Columbian civilization - never implemented the wheel as a tool for transport or machine work. To see them factor so heavily in platforming and puzzle solving, I call bullshit on the research.

Let’s cut to the chase and call bullshit on the franchise at this point.

*however, I’m still curious and since Shadow was a PS+ game and is the only game in the collection I was missing, l installed it. Played up to the Peru area with the flare. I guess so far what it has going for it is it seems to have streamlined the worst parts of the previous two games (survival and crafting) and focuses more on action and platforming. The problem is both of those are so far only serviceable at best.

I’ll probably stick with it, but it reminds me once again that it should’ve never gone full Uncharted, especially when it’s rooted in something better.

 

[happyninja42]

I'm ok with handwaving goofs and dumb plotholes in dumb action games. And I'm ok with bullshit lore for bullshit civilizations, like the race of immortals in Yamatai or the race of immortals on Kitezh: made up races in made up places. I draw the line when you're dealing with actual history and actual culture, because the games ostensibly do so as well, and there's a baseline of realism in reboot TR. Putting the Maya in Peru and basing their contraptions around gigantic wheels is like giving wi-fi to Etruscans in Babylon.

Ok fine, it's unrealistic, but, what mechanism should they use for a puzzle/platforming game? I mean I don't remember the old TR games much, but "ancient tomb with traps/puzzles" is as baked into the "archeology adventure" genre as they get. So, what should be used, to justify, even remotely, an ancient, pre...what, pre-iron age at least(?) culture, being advanced enough, to leave behind elaborate puzzles for you, the player, to jump around and solve? Unless you are literally going to use magic, or "ancient alien architects" (both of which are fairly classic as well), then the only thing that Joe Average is going to buy, if we're going for "realistic" is pullies and wheels.

So the devs are kind of in a lose/lose situation. If they go for "true realism" then you don't have any elaborate physics based, block shifting, puzzles for the player to play with. If they want to include that, they have to allow cultures, fictional or not, to have tech they didn't have access to at that time. Or like I said, just handwave and say "a shaman did it with tribal magic." But you know, that whole realism thing again.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Ok fine, it's unrealistic, but, what mechanism should they use for a puzzle/platforming game? I mean I don't remember the old TR games much, but "ancient tomb with traps/puzzles" is as baked into the "archeology adventure" genre as they get. So, what should be used, to justify, even remotely, an ancient, pre...what, pre-iron age at least(?) culture, being advanced enough, to leave behind elaborate puzzles for you, the player, to jump around and solve? Unless you are literally going to use magic, or "ancient alien architects" (both of which are fairly classic as well), then the only thing that Joe Average is going to buy, if we're going for "realistic" is pullies and wheels.

So the devs are kind of in a lose/lose situation. If they go for "true realism" then you don't have any elaborate physics based, block shifting, puzzles for the player to play with. If they want to include that, they have to allow cultures, fictional or not, to have tech they didn't have access to at that time. Or like I said, just handwave and say "a shaman did it with tribal magic." But you know, that whole realism thing again.

Literally every other ancient civilization on Earth came up with the wheel sooner or later. The pre-Columbians famously didn't, toys here and there notwithstanding. To use a more fitting analogy: basing ancient Maya tech specifically on the one thing they never implemented or mastered is like giving them horses and muskets as well. If the game pointed it out (Lara: "My God Jonah, we got it all wrong!") then I'd give it a glare and a pass. But no, not only did the Maya totally have wheels, their empire also stretched a whopping 3,000 miles down the continent over the other actual civs we're going to pretend weren't there.

 

[happyninja42]

Literally every other ancient civilization on Earth came up with the wheel sooner or later. The pre-Columbians famously didn't, toys here and there notwithstanding. To use a more fitting analogy: basing ancient Maya tech specifically on the one thing they never implemented or mastered is like giving them horses and muskets as well. If the game pointed it out (Lara: "My God Jonah, we got it all wrong!") then I'd give it a glare and a pass. But no, not only did the Maya totally have wheels, their empire also stretched a whopping 3,000 miles down the continent over the other actual civs we're going to pretend weren't there.

So the issue you have is that the culture they used never developed that tech (or at least not at the time the game would suggest), and the geographical territory they controlled not being accurate? Those are the primary issues? So basically just "Not the Mayans" and you wouldn't have an issue with the setup?

I mean nevermind that many of the mechanisms rely on wood and rope fibers, often under constant exposure to water (for that hydrodynamic power), thus making them unlikely to still work after thousands of years, due to age and rot.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

So the issue you have is that the culture they used never developed that tech (or at least not at the time the game would suggest), and the geographical territory they controlled not being accurate? Those are the primary issues? So basically just "Not the Mayans" and you wouldn't have an issue with the setup?

I mean nevermind that many of the mechanisms rely on wood and rope fibers, often under constant exposure to water (for that hydrodynamic power), thus making them unlikely to still work after thousands of years, due to age and rot.

Get rid of the Mayas, use the Incas exclusively (the people that actually were there) and don't use the thing they're famous for not having. That's about it.

I know how unlikely, borderline impossible it is for wood and stone mechanisms to work flawlessly hundreds of years after rusting and rotting in the dark. But that's when suspension of disbelief comes in. There's impossible, and borderline impossible. Suspension of disbelief works with the second one; ie John McClane launches a motorbike at a helicopter and goes boom. The impossible would be that thing happening a hundred years ago, when neither existed.

Or to keep things in-universe: Lara breaking her leg in a cave-in, surviving a tsunami, crash-landing a plane in the Amazon, getting choked by a moray eel, then mauled and shredded half to death by a full-grown jaguar, yet recovering unscathed all in the space of TWO DAYS is ridiculous (without even counting the presumably non-canonical bullet holes from enemy fire), but works into the reality of the game. Because these silly adventure games operate on that dumb luck/skin of their teeth logic.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Oh, I found him. Fell down the fucking ladder a time or two as well. Woke him up from his nap, turns out he was grumpy about being woke and yeah, that didn't end well. Also ended up getting dragged there as a sunbro when I put my summon next to the Spear of the Church battle, because some people will apparently go far and wide looking for MIDIR assists. I know they can go wherever they want but it feels....slightly rude, I guess, to drag phantom from the boss door their sign is sitting next to to a boss door halfway across the map.

Took a couple stabs at him but eventually decided to move on to grumpy old man outside the church. Fuck Midir, he's the ringed city's problem. I'm not getting paid for pest control.....or at all, for that matter. Besides, I didn't see him hanging around the ash bowl at the end, so I'm just gonna assume he died or something in the time skip.

I did notice Midir's home looks very similar to the cave from the DS1 intro where the First Flame was apparently hanging out. Which is pretty cool and kinda dovetails neatly with the Ringed city lore we're presented.

I guess I'm kinda done, despite my enjoyment. I logged 70 hours across the game and 2 DLCs over 2 months and I'm more then ready to pack it in and play another game....of a non-soulslike nature. Preferably a lot shorter as well.

You might’ve seen it, but an interesting watch now that you’re done.
.

 

[Drathnoxis]

It really did. While I wasn't watching the notifications as I was busy dodging and punching, my wife was watching, and she said the "Near Miss" notification was popping up all the time as I was dashing around. The one drawback, is the trade off you make for that 50% dodge perk, is only 1 dodge. So your timing has to be really good or you can find yourself dashing into a second attack and taking damage. You want to grab the Hermes boon that lets you get more dashes if it comes up, as that just makes things a LOT easier, and Divine Dash from Athena is of course, just...well, divine. Like I said though, I haven't really tested it with a high heat where you have a lot of offense/defense factors, making the enemies tough. And it does rely on you getting a decent number of fast room clears early on, when the enemies are easier (just assume when you get to Elysium that you won't be getting it very often, they are too tanky), but it is a FUN build to run around doing. If you are using the Aspect that gives your Special multiple hits (which is what I was doing), and you tie some good boon to it, you can do some serious damage. Like Artemis' "Supporting Fire" or some lightning stuff from Zeus. In fact Support Fire and Zeus make the "speedy punch Attack then uppercut Special" combo kind of insane, with all the shit flying around.

Hmm, it's not really as useful as I initially thought, because you only get the +50% buff after you dash to avoid taking damage, but heck, I won the first round I used it in so maybe it's pretty good regardless.

Get Zeus on basic on the first floor and just hold down attack while dashing, everything else is superfluous (don't even bother using the special or the blood stone). Every dash reset the punch sequence so you attack non stop that way and its super easy.

Other stuff worth grabbing is Athena on dodge and artemis support fire, but those are really just the cherry on top since you can't guarantee you'll get those unless you use their trinket every floor and you're better of switching to feather after the first floor.

I've used Zeus on the gloves and it didn't really blow my socks off. I like him better on the shield that you can throw and it slowly moves along zapping everyone.

 

[EvilRoy]

It really did. While I wasn't watching the notifications as I was busy dodging and punching, my wife was watching, and she said the "Near Miss" notification was popping up all the time as I was dashing around. The one drawback, is the trade off you make for that 50% dodge perk, is only 1 dodge. So your timing has to be really good or you can find yourself dashing into a second attack and taking damage. You want to grab the Hermes boon that lets you get more dashes if it comes up, as that just makes things a LOT easier, and Divine Dash from Athena is of course, just...well, divine. Like I said though, I haven't really tested it with a high heat where you have a lot of offense/defense factors, making the enemies tough. And it does rely on you getting a decent number of fast room clears early on, when the enemies are easier (just assume when you get to Elysium that you won't be getting it very often, they are too tanky), but it is a FUN build to run around doing. If you are using the Aspect that gives your Special multiple hits (which is what I was doing), and you tie some good boon to it, you can do some serious damage. Like Artemis' "Supporting Fire" or some lightning stuff from Zeus. In fact Support Fire and Zeus make the "speedy punch Attack then uppercut Special" combo kind of insane, with all the shit flying around.

After reading your approach I took a swing at a couple runs with heat 10 and its still pretty doable - you can get some serious heat going before you actually have no choice but to pick the HP increase or enemies per encounter heats. Personally I avoid those like the plague anyway because I already feel that with weapons like the bow or rail Elysium encounters can go way too long. Out of three tries I only made it through once, but I honestly expected to lose to the bull like I normally do with the gloves so its clearly a good strategy.

It started to break down for me in a kind of unexpected way when I started screwing around with the options. I expected to not get enough dodge and just eat too many hits, but the problems actually started when I tried upping the boss heat. At the hydra the arena changes plus extra trap damage make it very hard to dance around the heads without getting a major ass kicking from lava alone. If you get a firebomb head,those things on the ground count as traps too, so an already limited arena just goes to hell. Dealing with that is hard enough with a weapon that lets you attack from a reasonably stationary position, but with a primary method of combat involving getting in close and then dancing away from attacks it feels to me like there just isn't enough room to work.You would do better than me - I prefer longer reach weapons and I struggle to consistently finish runs with short range stuff so you might be able to keep going.

 

[meiam]

I've used Zeus on the gloves and it didn't really blow my socks off. I like him better on the shield that you can throw and it slowly moves along zapping everyone.

It's really good on Zeus shield too, but Zeus on glove is the best damage for glove (and possibly best damage in the game for just one boon), if you don't like it then you'll probably never like the glove. Zeus Shield sadly doesn't have the DPS to compete at higher heat level.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Resident Evil 6: Finished Chris's campaign.

Actually, Chris's campaign overall was better than Leon's, despite the running sections which were all awful, and it makes me wonder just what kind of fresh hell Jake's story is going to put me through.

 

[stroopwafel]

Replaying RE2 Remake. Game is still so good. I dropped AC Valhalla. It's a beautiful, relaxing game but the endless repetition and excessive bloat just kills it. If this was like a 20 - 30 hour adventure it would have been perfect. After that all of it's shallow systems, mediocre gameplay and repetitive busywork just become too exhausting for it's remaining qualities(ie environments) to still shine through. It just becomes a chore to play.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Alright, I caved. Managed to "blind" my way all the way to Irithyll of the Boreal Valley in Dark Souls 3, and decided my anxiety had had enough... I have to watch a walkthrough, spoilers be damned; the only surprises would only be bad ones anyway. These enemies are too powerful and intimidating, and each kill (at the cost of about 3 Estus per encounter) is netting me so many souls, I feel like a rich guy walking through the poor part of town with $100 bills falling out of my pocket, so "insecure" doesn't quite capture the essence of what I'm feeling.

I'll make a couple non-whiny observations so as to not piss off @happyninja42 with yet another "Dark Souls ***** session" :

1. Gating weapon upgrades behind genuine progress ensures you and your enemies are always in a level playing field; you can't just farm materials and get an OP weapon early on. In DS1, even though you need to find the requisite embers, it's possible to acquire them early enough to have a max weapon before halfway through the game. DS3 is stingy with it's upgrade materials; they'll give you enough to level so much, but if you want the next level of material to upgrade more, you gotta press forward. I'm turning tricks for chunks right now, me love you long time. Nice touch, though not letting the player get complacent.

2. Patrolling enemies are a game changer. I recognized it as pretty silly in DS1 and mostly in 2 that enemies just sat there in the same place every time; you could even be in their line of sight, as long as you didn't enter their aggro range or pull them with a ranged attack, each encounter was manageable and predictable. DS3? It' no longer about memorizing where enemies are, but knowing where they CAN be. I thought I'd cleared an area and was safe, so brought up my menu for some inventory management, next thing I know I'm getting ravaged by a a huge ************ wielding a burning crucifix or something; I about shit my pants (hence the first paragraph of this post.)

 

[happyninja42]

I'll make a couple non-whiny observations so as to not piss off @happyninja42 with yet another "Dark Souls ***** session" :

 

[Elijin]

Anyway so I've been playing some dark souls and I really didn't get very far into this bit before I just totally gave up and phoned it in.

But actually I have been playing some Gunfire Reborn. I like it much more than the other roguelike fps games I've played.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Anyway so I've been playing some dark souls and I really didn't get very far into this bit before I just totally gave up and phoned it in.

Might I ask what put you off? How far did you get?

 

[Elijin]

Might I ask what put you off? How far did you get?

Oh I haven't been playing dark souls. I was just saying that to fit in. That was the 'bit'.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Oh I haven't been playing dark souls. I was just saying that to fit in. That was the 'bit'.

*durp* Sorry

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Replaying RE2 Remake. Game is still so good. I dropped AC Valhalla. It's a beautiful, relaxing game but the endless repetition and excessive bloat just kills it. If this was like a 20 - 30 hour adventure it would have been perfect. After that all of it's shallow systems, mediocre gameplay and repetitive busywork just become too exhausting for it's remaining qualities(ie environments) to still shine through. It just becomes a chore to play.

Funny, that’s pretty much exactly what Skill-Up said -


Goes to show how vital it is that a game contains the good type of repetition.

 

[BrawlMan]

Funny, that’s pretty much exactly what Skill-Up said -


Goes to show how vital it is that a game contains the good type of repetition.

Exactly why I have not touched an Assassin's Creed game since Brotherhood.