What are you currently playing?

[NerfedFalcon]

OOHOHHOHOHOHOHOH! I finally got past level 34 on Mr. X's Nightmare! I died on level 38! Anything past level 30 and the game becomes cheap (spamming overpowered boss characters), and the only way to win is with luck, spamming the best moves with elemental attacks, having at least 3x's the powered up rocket summons, and sometimes having a partner that is good. I did this solo with Max Fucking Thunder!


I think I am done with Survival Mode for now. Until that final patch comes and fixes the broken difficulty in this mode.

You didn't call me out, but I have it as well, though I only played a couple runs back when it first came out and I never played the main game on anything rougher than Hard. I got to about stage... 10, I think. With Axel, since he's the only character I know much of anything about.

 

[BrawlMan]

I got to about stage... 10,

In Survival mode, or are you talking about story/arcade mode?

With Axel, since he's the only character I know much of anything about.

I highly suggest you try the other characters. Everyone is fun and got their own unique mechanics. Though the retro character vary in quality. The incarnations from SOR1 you'll only use and never use them again. There is a training mode that came with the update. So feel free to experiment. Whenever you are ready, I suggest trying the difficulties above Hard Mode. Mania+ is insane, but you get so many points by racking up combos from the high enemy count. I've already beaten Arcade Mania+ Mode as Blaze and Cherry.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

In Survival mode, or are you talking about story/arcade mode?

Survival. I've finished Arcade on Normal, Story on Hard.

I highly suggest you try the other characters. Everyone is fun and got their own unique mechanics. Though the retro character vary in quality. The incarnations from SOR1 you'll only use and never use them again. There is a training mode that came with the update. So feel free to experiment. Whenever you are ready, I suggest trying the difficulties above Hard Mode. Mania+ is insane, but you get so many points by racking up combos from the high enemy count. I've already beaten Arcade Mania+ Mode as Blaze and Cherry.

Played a little bit with the rest of four original characters (especially Blaze, since I came from SoR2). Haven't really tried Adam or any of the DLC crew yet. I've been playing other stuff lately, but maybe I'll give SoR4 some more time soon. Got plenty of time for other stuff now that I'm taking a little break from Genshin.

 

[BrawlMan]

Survival. I've finished Arcade on Normal, Story on Hard.

Played a little bit with the rest of four original characters (especially Blaze, since I came from SoR2). Haven't really tried Adam or any of the DLC crew yet. I've been playing other stuff lately, but maybe I'll give SoR4 some more time soon. Got plenty of time for other stuff now that I'm taking a little break from Genshin.

Excellent! Have fun! By the way everyone, to get that far in Survival mode, it took me 125 attempts total.

 

[gorfias]

Just posted a thread regarding my frustration with all the updates to Xbox One when trying to play. I do confess, I did get in some Gears of War 1 enhanced for the Gen 8. Then I played some 3 and, while for the 360, it does look pretty good on a 1080p 55" Vizio. Then I went to compare with 5 and... I'm still waiting for updates to allow me to play. So far, seriously? 3, made for the 360, looks terrific. Plays great. I still have a lot of PS3 stuff and I don't think they compare.... though now that you mention it... I should go play some Uncharted 2 on that same Vizio 55" while I wait for a 70 Gb update to my master chief collection to finish.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Just posted a thread regarding my frustration with all the updates to Xbox One when trying to play. I do confess, I did get in some Gears of War 1 enhanced for the Gen 8. Then I played some 3 and, while for the 360, it does look pretty good on a 1080p 55" Vizio. Then I went to compare with 5 and... I'm still waiting for updates to allow me to play. So far, seriously? 3, made for the 360, looks terrific. Plays great. I still have a lot of PS3 stuff and I don't think they compare.... though now that you mention it... I should go play some Uncharted 2 on that same Vizio 55" while I wait for a 70 Gb update to my master chief collection to finish.

Who mentioned what? I’ve only played the first three Gears games on the original 360 hardware. Does the XB1 upscale old games well?

Unreal games look good imo but still didn’t have much on most of Sony’s first party games. God of War 3/Ascension and Killzone 2/3 pushed the bar, but since you mentioned Uncharted which version do you have? I downloaded but haven’t yet tried the Nathan Drake Collection.



Maybe I’ll have more time once I finish my Sekiro platinum run. Speaking of, just got the Shura ending as well as Man Without Equal for defeating all bosses. Hooboy was Isshin Ashina a handful. Nearly broke my resolve as he’d just destroy me on the off chance I was able to even get to his 2nd phase.

First there’s going through Emma, which demands respect. It took me dozens and dozens of tries on Isshin in NG+ and by then I could duel with Emma all day if needed, or eliminate her within a couple minutes. But there is no room for carelessness or haste because she will wreck you in seconds. That’s what made it tough is having to face her and keep patience every.single.time before facing Isshin once more.

Isshin himself seemed to present more of a wall than Sword Saint, even though he was only two phases. I looked up “easy” on YouTube for each, but the latter ultimately took more “gitting gud” for me personally, as the cheesing strategy never worked well. With Isshin there were two things that helped: the hold R1 stab which baits an attack, followed by whirlwind strike, but it took a lot of experimentation to find the sweet spot which involved running in close enough to end the dash right next to him, but hold straight up on the stick to dodge above his retaliatory slash or perilous grab. The Tyrannicon video I watched said to do it slightly to the side at like 11 o’clock and didn’t specify how critical distance was, or to retreat if he was already preparing his attack since he’ll interrupt your stab.

The second point was alternating firecrackers and whirlwind to mildly stun lock him in the second phase, however that only helped with maybe half his vitality, and then I wound up reverting to the previous strategy. It also took me too long to realize his AOE fire attack wasn’t nearly as bad as it seemed, as it’ll only affect the areas with persistent embers throughout the fight. My nerves were tempered by the time I finally beat him since it took learning everything well enough to remove all doubt. Still though I wound up going through all my gourds, pellets and a Jizo, which is a lot more than I needed for Sword Saint.

Now it boils down to farming some materials in Fountainhead for the rest of the prosthetic upgrades, and skill points in the last stage of Ashina for Height of Technique.

 

[gorfias]

Who mentioned what? I’ve only played the first three Gears games on the original 360 hardware. Does the XB1 upscale old games well?

Unreal games look good imo but still didn’t have much on most of Sony’s first party games. God of War 3/Ascension and Killzone 2/3 pushed the bar, but since you mentioned Uncharted which version do you have? I downloaded but haven’t yet tried the Nathan Drake Collection.

I've only the PS3 version of Uncharted for that 55" Vizio. I have PS4s with the upgraded versions on 65" and 75" 4K Samsung TVs.
Games made specifically for the PS3 such as Rachet and Clank and The Last Of Us still look pretty dang good.

As for Gears, I put the 360 disc version into an OG Xbox and it looked pretty darn special. I have a polished version of Gears 1 made for the Xbox. They're pretty close. Gears 5 does appear to be an in-generation upgrade in visual quality to Gears 4. But they all look and play very well even now as we enter Gen 9. As long as they're finished with their flippin updates.

 

[Ezekiel]

"Number One Artist" in Jet Set Radio is one of the worst achievements ever. It requires using all graffiti. It's really finicky and confusing to figure out. There is a bunch of incorrect information out there about how to make using a graffiti count. You don't have to finish the level and you don't exit the level right after using the graffiti. All you have to do is use the graffiti and then wait for your score bonus to disappear from the corner of the screen. That's it. This achievement is a good example of why so many people hate achievements. Really tedious. Getting the Graffiti Souls is the true achievement. I've done it four times, including once on Dreamcast, and never bothered using them all, until today.

 

[Dalisclock]

Reached Chapter 6 in Eastward. Enjoying it a lot so far. While mostly upbeat and lighthearted, it knows when and how to shift to a much darker tone that hits hard when it happens. It's still not terribly plot heavy at least as far as big plot stuff is concerned but there's a lot of moments between characters. In fact, the game does feel like it has a lot of cutscenes to rival to metal gear game, but fortunately they're fun to watch so that's not nearly as bad as it could be.

Definitely a game where you're meant to sit back and enjoy the ride, as the pace tends to be a bit slow at times. Sure you move from town to town on the train but you will spend some time in each town getting to know the townsfolk and getting invovled in their problems and only when you're done with each town will you move on.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Playing Olija. It's a Commodore 64-ish indie platformer published by Devolver Digital earlier this year. Has that coarsely-pixelated-but-fluidly-animated look from Another World/Prince of Persia. Great presentation, palette and sound design go a long way into creating an atmosphere. Central mechanic is the biggest draw though: a magic harpoon that you can throw and anywhere it sticks (enemies, certain platforms) you can zip across instantly, making combat and traversal into two sides of the same coin in a way that reminds me of the Cloustep ability in The Messenger or the wrestling moves in Guacamelee. You know it's a hit when the act of moving alone in a game is so much fun.

The downside is that the game just isn't as demanding as its potential suggests. Enemies just aren't that varied or that smart and there're few scenarios where button mashing won't cut it. The finesse of the combat is kinda wasted on, well, the combat. Similarly you're given way more subweapons than you'll ever use, and a crafting component that is wasted on a paltry 6 or 7 hats that give you boosts where 1 or 2 are actually useful but not really needed. Platforming isn't all that complex and never asks you to chain more than one type of move or attack in any of the gauntlets I've "puzzled" across. Most ingenuity I've seen so far has been "carrying" an electrical charge across a gauntlet without losing it by falling into water or attacking an enemy.

I'd call it a "fun little game" not for being condescending but in reference to the short length, lack of challenge and the shortcomings of the execution. Everything that's *in* the game I *like* but could've used a little more development to make the most of it.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

It is time to dark souls. But all the way to the end instead of getting distracted by other life troubles coincidentally always around starting blight town area. Got into a rhythm now and the sights do grow more interesting. Like Ash Lake, whether there's a word for the mood that place upholds or not, the music is there to provide a suitable sense of awe.
Am sure I've bungled most the NPC quests though. Except onion man. I refuse to lose him too. Not after all the others. Their failures will not be in vain! So...to the wiki I shuffle.

Siegmeyer of Catarina | Dark Souls Wiki

Siegmeyer of Catarina is an NPC in Dark Souls. Siegmeyer of Catarina location, quests, events, drops, lore and tips for DKS and Dark Souls Remastered.

darksouls.wiki.fextralife.com

And holy hell, how is anyone supposed to do these sidequests on their own without any outside knowledge? Nothing in the game hints to all these weird convoluted hoops that exist in the slightest if you want your besties to see their story through properly. There's like a hundred ways to mess up the final encounter without even realising it beforehand, which the game snap autosaves so don't try reloading, sucka, you need to start a new game if you want another shot, asshole! Still, bitter determination is not to be underestimated, even if it's all that's left. Well that and the increasingly familiar phone browser tab on the wiki.

*Sigh* Tried leaving one chaos eater alive for onion man to kill so he would not be depressed about it, and the fucking thing fell down a hole by itself before I could run back up to talk to him. With enemies like that, who needs friends.

 

[Piscian]

I started playing Days Gone on PC. Since the port came out I've heard a lot of fanfare about it being an overlooked great game. I will say the port job itself is amazing. The game is gorgeous and supports super ultrawide resolution on the g9 flawlessly. Playing with a PS4 controller works fine. Sadly I'm a few missions in and the gameplay is already feeling tedious. I only seem to be able to play an hour at a time before my ADD kicks in and I feel the need to get up and doing something else.

It's almost identical gameplay to Last of Us, except you're in an open world wilderness and there's no seeming direction, purpose or immediacy to the game and instead of a linear story it's more like a big fetch quest far cry type game. You know - go kill dudes at base x rinse repeat. I'm desperately hoping that the story and gameplay vary a bit more soon. I feel like I'm just being lead the nose to generic story check points like those awful Tom Clancy games.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I started playing Days Gone on PC. Since the port came out I've heard a lot of fanfare about it being an overlooked great game. I will say the port job itself is amazing. The game is gorgeous and supports super ultrawide resolution on the g9 flawlessly. Playing with a PS4 controller works fine. Sadly I'm a few missions in and the gameplay is already feeling tedious. I only seem to be able to play an hour at a time before my ADD kicks in and I feel the need to get up and doing something else.

It's almost identical gameplay to Last of Us, except you're in an open world wilderness and there's no seeming direction, purpose or immediacy to the game and instead of a linear story it's more like a big fetch quest far cry type game. You know - go kill dudes at base x rinse repeat. I'm desperately hoping that the story and gameplay vary a bit more soon. I feel like I'm just being lead the nose to generic story check points like those awful Tom Clancy games.

Not to spoil anything but the story picks the hell up in the second half. It's gonna be a while till you're given a sense of purpose or direction though. And Deacon's a dense fuck the whole way. The constant muttering and bitching got on my nerves.

 

[meiam]

I'm desperately hoping that the story and gameplay vary a bit more soon. I feel like I'm just being lead the nose to generic story check points like those awful Tom Clancy games.

Story yes, gameplay no. Sadly the game doesn't really take advantages of the open world aspect, there's very little to explore and its rather annoying to do since you're constantly hounded. Story is interesting, I wouldn't call it realistic per say, but Deacon comes across more like a real human than most protagonist.

 

[Worgen]

I started playing Days Gone on PC. Since the port came out I've heard a lot of fanfare about it being an overlooked great game. I will say the port job itself is amazing. The game is gorgeous and supports super ultrawide resolution on the g9 flawlessly. Playing with a PS4 controller works fine. Sadly I'm a few missions in and the gameplay is already feeling tedious. I only seem to be able to play an hour at a time before my ADD kicks in and I feel the need to get up and doing something else.

It's almost identical gameplay to Last of Us, except you're in an open world wilderness and there's no seeming direction, purpose or immediacy to the game and instead of a linear story it's more like a big fetch quest far cry type game. You know - go kill dudes at base x rinse repeat. I'm desperately hoping that the story and gameplay vary a bit more soon. I feel like I'm just being lead the nose to generic story check points like those awful Tom Clancy games.

I just finished that recently. I was really impressed with it. Generally open world games don't really do it for me long term, I'm looking at you Horizon Zero Dawn, but I didn't have a hard time keeping with it in Days Gone. I think its partially since they really limit the amount of side activities, like you are mainly going around between primary missions with occasional side ones, no map cluttered with random shit I feel the need to do all of. Plus, I think having your own personal customizable bike really helps things more then having to run around or just grab whatever to go where ever and do a thing then discard. Doesn't hurt it either that the writing is really good and naturalistic even though the story is pretty standard zombie apoc.

Anyway. Lately I've been playing a lot of Halo Infinite Multi, it plays so damn well and is still fun.

A game called Century: Age of Ashes came out. You are a dragon/rider and you do pvp stuff, its pretty fun, looks good and is animated really well. So, Ill keep at that for awhile longer also.

I'm also working on The Ascent, I think I'm getting closer to the end. Its got a really interesting cyberpunk story and world, but I can't help but feel like there was a lot that they needed to cut to make the game work with the time they had. Like I feel like it wants to have RPG mechanics and some of the story jumps feel kinda sudden and just things like that, but its still really damn impressive.

Finally, I also just grabbed Teardown since it feels like I'm getting near the end of The Ascent. Its pretty cool, voxel graphics and destruction so far, I know they added a robot enemies too, haven't encountered them yet. So far just relaxing building destruction and tense race to the exits.

 

[Dalisclock]

*Sigh* Tried leaving one chaos eater alive for onion man to kill so he would not be depressed about it, and the fucking thing fell down a hole by itself before I could run back up to talk to him. With enemies like that, who needs friends.

Onion Bro has probably the most depressing questline. No Matter what you do he comes to a bad end and even trying to help him just makes it worse, even if you do figure out his convoluted and tricky questline. And it sucks because he's one of the more likable characters.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

Onion Bro has probably the most depressing questline. No Matter what you do he comes to a bad end and even trying to help him just makes it worse, even if you do figure out his convoluted and tricky questline. And it sucks because he's one of the more likable characters.

Yeah, he is a dude, I even went on tangential side travels to grind out purple moss for him too when he asked for it. There is still his daughter mulling about somewhere at least, though I've yet to come across her, so hopefully she isn't locked out too due to this unexpected annoyance too.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

I just finished that recently. I was really impressed with it. Generally open world games don't really do it for me long term, I'm looking at you Horizon Zero Dawn, but I didn't have a hard time keeping with it in Days Gone. I think its partially since they really limit the amount of side activities, like you are mainly going around between primary missions with occasional side ones, no map cluttered with random shit I feel the need to do all of. Plus, I think having your own personal customizable bike really helps things more then having to run around or just grab whatever to go where ever and do a thing then discard. Doesn't hurt it either that the writing is really good and naturalistic even though the story is pretty standard zombie apoc.

Anyway. Lately I've been playing a lot of Halo Infinite Multi, it plays so damn well and is still fun.

A game called Century: Age of Ashes came out. You are a dragon/rider and you do pvp stuff, its pretty fun, looks good and is animated really well. So, Ill keep at that for awhile longer also.

I'm also working on The Ascent, I think I'm getting closer to the end. Its got a really interesting cyberpunk story and world, but I can't help but feel like there was a lot that they needed to cut to make the game work with the time they had. Like I feel like it wants to have RPG mechanics and some of the story jumps feel kinda sudden and just things like that, but its still really damn impressive.

Finally, I also just grabbed Teardown since it feels like I'm getting near the end of The Ascent. Its pretty cool, voxel graphics and destruction so far, I know they added a robot enemies too, haven't encountered them yet. So far just relaxing building destruction and tense race to the exits.

You got bored with H:ZD? Guessing it was the story that did it because the gameplay is pretty stellar game especially with better gear later on.


Finishing up Fountainhead in Sekiro NG+, but before I take on the dragon again I need to feed the carp for his shinies to complete my lazuli upgrades, and dammit if I don’t recall how the hell to get to that platform. Plus I really hate those dudes tossing water balls and lightning. One or the other is ok, but when several of them are mixing this shit up together it makes for arguably the most frustrating group of dbags in the game.

At least I only have some easy farming to do after this. Might try the Demon of Hatred again though; mainly because I used the falls-off-cliff-and-goes-buh-bye tactic originally. Also, I really think Corrupted Monk is one the most interesting and fun bosses in the game, by all counts. Her lore is cool, the fight has a nice flow, she takes posture damage making you feel like you’re actually getting somewhere, her phases are unique and at least one of them can be ended early if you make good use of the environment’s verticality.

 

[Worgen]

You got bored with H:ZD? Guessing it was the story that did it because the gameplay is pretty stellar game especially with better gear later on.

I mean the gameplay was fine, the open world was really busy with random things to do that I felt I had to do, the difficulty curve seemed kinda all over, finding a mount was annoying, you couldn't travel anywhere without being attacked by things, just a lotta little things that just made it more annoying to play then it should be. Story seemed interesting, but I already had it spoiled for me since at the time there was a 100% chance it would never come to pc.

 

[Chimpzy]

Still on that Persona 5 train. Binged pretty hard, just reached december, which I'm guessing should be nearing the end. Got my social stats all ranked up, maxed all social links except the ones you get automatically, and have just started my second visit to the 7th palace. Even tho I felt it had a slow start, I ended up really liking it once it opens things up and actually lets you do stuff. Characters are engaging, with a couple exceptions. Same goes for the palaces, tho 1 and 6 are imo the standouts.

One thing I felt was kind of weird is that the main protag is a 16-17 yo high schooler, but like half your romance options are working adults, most of whom would be violating the professional ethics of their respective jobs by dating the protag.