What are you currently playing?

[meiam]

I started that same thing a couple of weeks ago. I'm still not even far enough along to have seen a lot of the new content, but some of the improvements that are available early are pretty good. I especially liked secret notes, and the new community job board that has larger and longer term tasks that are much harder to complete... but many of them pay off in more ways than just gold. Secret notes not only have a few new quests, but also have the benefit of filling in some of the "likes" in the list of gifts for others.

I played for the first time a few months, was the community center really not in the initial release?! I feel like I would have ran out of stuff to do after 1 season if it wasn't in the game.

 

[Dalisclock]

I played for the first time a few months, was the community center really not in the initial release?! I feel like I would have ran out of stuff to do after 1 season if it wasn't in the game.

The Community Center was there in 1.0 and I suspect Kyrian means(I'm not that far along either) that the role has been expanded somewhat. He sounds like hes talking about the Job board outside the store rather than the one in the community center itself, but I'm sure he'll clear it up when he responds.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

What's really fun is if You fight him and his buddy at the same time in a cave. It's phase 1 and phase 2 in a smaller arena at the same time. That sound you hear is Miyazaki's laughter at your suffering.

That's actually not that bad.

Spoiler

Once you kill the headless ape again the mate dies of grief on her own. She's also the less aggressive of the two, so it's not too difficult to ignore her.

The fact that the cave is smaller also worked to my advantage since the ape can't get as far away from you as quickly. Obligatory "I'm not in here with you, YOU'RE IN HERE WITH ME!"

 

[Dalisclock]

That's actually not that bad.

Spoiler

Once you kill the headless ape again the mate dies of grief on her own. She's also the less aggressive of the two, so it's not too difficult to ignore her.

The fact that the cave is smaller also worked to my advantage since the ape can't get as far away from you as quickly. Obligatory "I'm not in here with you, YOU'RE IN HERE WITH ME!"

For me it was mostly an issue of trying to deal with the 2 different movesets at the same time, since tracking and dealing with one of those is tricky enough. Though I'm on record for not being fond of fighting 2 or more bosses at the same time(Gank fights)

 

[Kyrian007]

I played for the first time a few months, was the community center really not in the initial release?! I feel like I would have ran out of stuff to do after 1 season if it wasn't in the game.

The Community Center was there in 1.0 and I suspect Kyrian means(I'm not that far along either) that the role has been expanded somewhat. He sounds like hes talking about the Job board outside the store rather than the one in the community center itself, but I'm sure he'll clear it up when he responds.

Right, the community center has always been there. The new thing is a second job board. There was always one job board next to the calendar on Pierre's shop. And always had a job like "you have 1 day to give so and so x item or small number of items." The new community job board is just outside the Mayor's house (after a few seasons they build it.) It has jobs with more challenging goals and week long or 2 week or whole season time limits. I think the first one I did gave me a season to grow 100 turnips or something like that. The one I'm doing now is giving me 2 weeks to collect 2 dozen eggs (Gus is making a massive omelet.) Another gave me a week to collect 100 bones, but the reward was a new craftable machine that processes bones into different fertilizers. Be careful about accepting jobs from that board, I try to wiki as little as possible but from some things I have seen it may be that some of these jobs aren't repeatable, so don't take them unless you are pretty sure you can deliver.

 

[Dalisclock]

Right, the community center has always been there. The new thing is a second job board. There was always one job board next to the calendar on Pierre's shop. And always had a job like "you have 1 day to give so and so x item or small number of items." The new community job board is just outside the Mayor's house (after a few seasons they build it.) It has jobs with more challenging goals and week long or 2 week or whole season time limits. I think the first one I did gave me a season to grow 100 turnips or something like that. The one I'm doing now is giving me 2 weeks to collect 2 dozen eggs (Gus is making a massive omelet.) Another gave me a week to collect 100 bones, but the reward was a new craftable machine that processes bones into different fertilizers. Be careful about accepting jobs from that board, I try to wiki as little as possible but from some things I have seen it may be that some of these jobs aren't repeatable, so don't take them unless you are pretty sure you can deliver.

I know My Time at Portia had commissions like that, I just hadn't seen them in Stardew(due to only playing at release). I do like the idea, where you weigh the high reward vs the risk you just aren't set up to handle the order. Portia taught me to be careful about accepting those unless I knew I could get going on that ASAP and wasn't waiting for a vital piece of equipment to make the pieces I need...or worse, relics from the ruins you have to find, not make(because valves are beyond their current tech level or something )

 

[Dreiko]

So I finally got around to starting the full souls replay. First time I'm playing the remake of DS1 as well, totally digging all the improvements, especially it now being 60fps.

Got to about 5 bosses in on my first sitting, am about to go to the depths now. Also I was raided by a kind stranger who saw me being in early gear and just pointed me to the gargoyles as well as by someone whose intentions I didn't know because the moment he appeared I had coincidentally just procced the bridge dragon's breath and he got roasted while I hid below the deck. Souls be like that man XD.


Started out as a bandit, feeling the strength and endurance build for this run. Atm I'm rocking the Astoria sword you find near the zombified dragon and the stamina regen shield from the woods. Game definitely feels easier than I remember but still relentless if you get greedy.



edit instead of second post:

Day 2, got down to the demon's lair and beat the lava oozing tentacle boss, fun times. Though I'm prolly underleveled, I can't even wield my super lucky dropped black knight greatsword properly yet lol. Blighttown is a breeze if it's not 10fps. Lava spider boss took me a couple tries, most times I died to anything yet by far, I was too used to using my shield I think. Once I switched to full on monster hunter mode it went much smoother lol.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

So I finally got around to starting the full souls replay. First time I'm playing the remake of DS1 as well, totally digging all the improvements, especially it now being 60fps.

Got to about 5 bosses in on my first sitting, am about to go to the depths now. Also I was raided by a kind stranger who saw me being in early gear and just pointed me to the gargoyles as well as by someone whose intentions I didn't know because the moment he appeared I had coincidentally just procced the bridge dragon's breath and he got roasted while I hid below the deck. Souls be like that man XD.


Started out as a bandit, feeling the strength and endurance build for this run. Atm I'm rocking the Astoria sword you find near the zombified dragon and the stamina regen shield from the woods. Game definitely feels easier than I remember but still relentless if you get greedy.



edit instead of second post:

Day 2, got down to the demon's lair and beat the lava oozing tentacle boss, fun times. Though I'm prolly underleveled, I can't even wield my super lucky dropped black knight greatsword properly yet lol. Blighttown is a breeze if it's not 10fps. Lava spider boss took me a couple tries, most times I died to anything yet by far, I was too used to using my shield I think. Once I switched to full on monster hunter mode it went much smoother lol.

Curious to what encompasses a “full” Souls replay. Is it 100%’ing the first game, playing through the whole SoulsBorne series again, other?

I ask because there’s also the fancentric Return to Yharnam event going on today through April 7th to “celebrate” Bloodborne’s sixth anniversary. Happy Hunting wishes to all involved.

 

[gorfias]

Playing Fallout 4 with cheats. I can't just teleport to the next mission. Rats. So far, pretty decent game.


Gotta see if I can mod it next.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Still playing Celeste. Level design is pretty good, every new level throws you a new gameplay mechanic without really altering your moveset. #2 introduces dashing through certain blocks, #3 introduces one use climbable surfaces, #4 has the intermitent gusts of wind and rideable blocks, #5 has the transport bubbles and actual enemies, etc. You never really do anything different from jumping, climbing and dashing, but the game dramatically keeps changing the way you approach obstacle courses.

I can't really praise the art style since everything is pixelated to the point of deformity; in actual gameplay characters look marginally more evolved than Custer's Revenge. Their portraits are more elaborate, in a Cal Arts meets Tumblr comic strip kind of way. Music is simple but catchy. The coloring is gorgeous though, especially around Golden Ridge.

I don't care for the story. Feels self important and frankly kinda tacky. If this were a movie it would be one of those Best of the Worst vanity projects RLM reviews for laughs, with the writer/director playing the lead in a hilariously misguided passion project about their own personal demons. The writing is IG post "deep". I dunno. People take this seriously?

 

[Silvanus]

Finished FFIV at last! Pretty damn good; better than V, not as good as VI. Only I, II & III to go, and I'll have completed all the single-player main-line instalments. That be the plan.

I really want them to release these early ones on the Switch's SNES online... the save-state function would be absolutely invaluable in FFIII (or so I hear).

 

[Dreiko]

Curious to what encompasses a “full” Souls replay. Is it 100%’ing the first game, playing through the whole SoulsBorne series again, other?

I ask because there’s also the fancentric Return to Yharnam event going on today through April 7th to “celebrate” Bloodborne’s sixth anniversary. Happy Hunting wishes to all involved.

I mean playing through all 3 souls games, so full in the sense of all of the games in the series, but the way I play I already try to almost 100% everything anyways so it's like 95%ing it? I like being very meticulous but I go by memory and never read any guides or wikis so I am not positive I won't miss some minor things here or there. Like for example I just ran past the bridge dragon and he went off so I'm not sure if I just missed the fight or what (last time I had shot his tail from a safe distance) but I'm sure I'll find out eventually lol.

BB I played relatively recently compared to DS1 which was like over 7 years ago but I may get to it too after I'm done with DS.


But yeah I haven't played DS1 in so long that it feels fresh, it's kinda nuts how this game was made in 2011, looking back at it now I think it was kind of inevitable for it to become the huge hit that it did.




Oh and some chick wielding the butcher axe raided me in blighttown but I managed to kite her and two mosquitoes while poisoned successfully enough to get a couple hard swings and a backstab. She dropped her weapon as well as her souls and humanity, fun times. Though I hope she didn't lose it from her own account lol.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Oh and some chick wielding the butcher axe raided me in blighttown but I managed to kite her and two mosquitoes while poisoned successfully enough to get a couple hard swings and a backstab. She dropped her weapon as well as her souls and humanity, fun times. Though I hope she didn't lose it from her own account lol.

If it was Maneater Mildred, that was an NPC invader. There are a few of those in each game, though they're the least annoying in DS1 in my experience because they only appear if you're in human form, and not just whenever you walk past them.

OT: Actually I've been playing a lot of Loop Hero on the side of 3DW, and that's been interesting enough to try and optimize that I haven't been putting a lot of time into other stuff except 3DW since I can play that in bed.

 

[09philj]

Deus Ex, the original from 2000.

I avoided a difficult, tedious stealth section by putting on body armour and throwing myself off a building. It's a tad janky but you have to respect its depth.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Finished Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, for the fifth or sixth time. I continued my low level runs and finished at level 10 with no party member upgrades. I did KO a few unnecessary enemies because there's some that have a really low chance to flee after using a fright mask, so I would use 2 and then just KO the rest. However, I think that level 9 might actually be the lower limit though.

Hmmmmmm. This sounds REALLY familiar...

Finished Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, for the fifth or sixth time. I continued my low level runs and finished at level 10 with no party member upgrades. I did KO a few unnecessary enemies because there's some that have a really low chance to flee after using a fright mask, so I would use 2 and then just KO the rest. However, I think that level 9 might actually be the lower limit though.

After finishing Paper Mario I said that TTYD was definitely the better game, but on replaying I don't know that I can really say that. It's a fantastic game, for sure, but it does have some flaws and I really can't say that I definitely like one of the first 3 Mario RPGs more than the others.

First thing I noticed when starting the game is that it really is a massive graphical improvement over the previous game. The characters are much more animated than before and have more expressions. Also the moments where they pour, like, a thousand sprites on the screen at once were pretty cool too. The battle system also had a number of improvements, such as the introduction of the superguard that blocks all damage with perfect timing and stylish moves, which are just fun to pull off regardless of the fact that they fill your special meter faster. Partners being able to stand in front and soak up damage as well as use items added options too. All these improvements don't make the fights easier because some of the new bosses are stronger than any from the previous game.

The reason I'm walking back my praise a bit from before is that there is actually a fair bit of padding in the game. It's quite surprising how many times you will be required to walk back and forth across the entire location to make progress. Sure some of the chapters are better and more inventive than anything from Paper Mario, like Twilight Town, Glitzville (my favorite section from any Mario RPG ever), and the Excess Express mystery, but then there's stuff like Keelhaul Key where it consists of running back and forth across an island 5 times and the Fahr Outpost chapter where you need to literally go to every area in the game again trying to find General White. It's boring. Another problem is that the dialogue doesn't update between chapters as much as it did in the previous game. Nearly everybody in Toad Town had new dialogue every chapter, and most of the characters in the other towns would change a couple times too. However in Rogueport it felt like the characters that updated their dialogue between chapters were the exception and often the new dialogue is the same as the old, with a very slight variation. Like the guy who blows all his money at the casino and every chapter the amount is 100 coins higher, or the guy who's hiding in a dump and always accuses you of horning in on his hiding spot and comments on a different aspect of it's decrepitude. In the first game the random NPC dialogue wasn't 'quite' enough to establish everybody as their own interesting character, but it was close, but here they feel more static than ever, which is a disappointment.

On the other hand, your party members get a few more chances to talk throughout the game than previously and Goombella is a far more interesting character than Goombario. Her tattle descriptions of enemies are more flavourful than the very textbook descriptions Goombario gave. We're still stepping down from Mario RPG levels of characterizations on everybody but Goombella, but it's an improvement from Paper Mario.

The sections where you play as Peach are back and once again form a fun way to break things up, but this time they are upstaged by the sections where you play as Bowser, and do stuff like rampage through sidescrolling levels from Super Mario Bros. and terrorize the NPCs in the various towns. Completely fantastic.

I didn't engage with much side content as a result of much side content this time as a result of my level challenge, but I remember that there is just a lot more than in any previous Mario RPG. Maybe that's why other parts of the game are lacking.

I guess the only other thing I want to talk about is how much I love Glitzville! It was such a fantastic idea to put Mario in a professional fighting arena with all sorts glamour and back stage mysteries. It would have been nice if the extra requirements were a little more challenging to pull off. Maybe the optional second time you climb through the ranks could have been a lot more difficult, but it was fun nonetheless. I would really, REALLY, love to see an entire game made out of this concept, actually. It's always one of my favorite parts of any game that features it like Fable: The Lost Chapters and Oblivion, but Glitzville is the absolute best implementation I've seen in a game.

Edit: Actually, wait. I just remembered something else. Just what is up with the staffing choices on the Excess Express? This is supposed to be a luxury trip, but they have only one cook, and one waitress. Despite that they pay TWO toads to stand at an abandoned station in the middle of nowhere ALL day. Why? Also why is there EXACTLY one blanket per passenger? What if someone was cold and wanted another blanket? What if one was soiled? Is this a luxury trip or what?

Anyway, a great game overall, definitely will replay again someday.

Hahaha, wat?

 

[BrawlMan]

I got my physical copy of Ninja Saviors on PS4. I almost had 1CC run, but got screwed over at the final boss. I beat it anyway. I unlocked Yaksha, so now I got to do a playthrough as her to unlock Raiden.

 

[Worgen]

I've been playing Legend of Grimrock again since a ton of game updates and dlc things are coming out this and next week, so its something to do till they do. Also trying to finish up a Doom Eternal lives run then I'll do the DLC on nightmare.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Nehrim: At Fate's Edge. It's a total conversion mod for Oblivion. It's been on my list for years because I've heard people say that it's amazing and better than the base game and a bunch of stuff like that. I'm like an hour and a half in and I feel like quitting. You start off in this mine and need to outrun a troll that will kill you in one hit and trigger traps and stuff to escape. Then you finally kill the troll by lighting four torches around it while it... stands there doing nothing until it burns to death. Then you finally get out of the mine and find yourself in a little encampment that you can't leave without doing dumb little jobs for people first. The excitement soars through the roof as you stop up rat holes, and then need to shoot an arrow at some mages so they will attack some guards so the soap stored in crates next to the guards will be knocked down and you can use it to remove a helmet that is stuck on one miner's head... yeah. It's not a strong opening.

I'm also playing Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons again because despite owning both oracle games, I've never played a linked game and defeated Ganon. I don't know why, I guess I just didn't know it was possible when I was younger. The oracle games are good, but I don't think they are quite as good as Link's Awakening though. And collecting all the rings kind of sucks.

 

[laggyteabag]

Im in a bit of a rut at the moment, as I can't really bring myself to play anything.

I started Half-Life Alyx a few weeks ago, but I feel like I should get a new GPU first.

I haven't touched Star Wars: Squadrons in a few weeks, so I guess I could finish that one off.

There are about 200 games in my list of unfinished/unplayed games, yet I am firmly in the mindset of "I have nothing that I want to play"

Bleugh

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

Crash Bandicooties 4: A Rift in Time.
What kooky degenerate socialism is this? An honest-to-Moloch full, content-rich challenging game from Activision with no microtransactions or other tiresome business practices, not even a st...wait, *quick double check* ...not even a storefront selling DLC??? I don't understand why it's here, but we can't let it escape now! Tho the skins look like they maybe were once primed for a store shelf.

Extra characters are a blast, however am not a fan of having to return the last half of their levels to the normies.
Refreshing that worlds get more colourful and interesting as they go on instead of the expected devolution into a cacophanic static of industrial or fire-lava lands,
The 3 life limit can go fuck itself for 100% completion, as the movement reliability just isn't on par with peers like Mario, such as the double jump clumsily resetting momentum and the wall run mechanics functioning with a begrudging resentment to being there at all. So frustration can grow from the game instead of own failures on a few occasions.
Ultimately a pretty solid bag of old school challenge funsies with little of the modern day AAA compromise. Great for comforting my arrested development that tiny bit longer!