What are you currently playing?

[Bartholen]

I got back to playing Binding of Isaac recently, and I managed to pull off one of the hardest achievements so far: beating Mother with The Lost. Though I lucked early into a ludicrously high damage, high fire rate build, the run was tense all the way through because I found zero revival items until the very last level. Which was Guppy's Collar, which was still only a 50% chance of revival on death. I can't remember the last time I was to tense during a boss fight, because Mother definitely leans heavily into the bullet hell aspect of the game, and some of her attacks can fill the screen with projectiles.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Finally played through The Beginner's Guide. Checking when the shortcut on my desktop was created, I installed it 2 1/2 years ago and hadn't yet played it. It was only a couple hours long, so I really had no excuse. On the other hand I didn't find it to be all that great so whatever. It's no Stanley Parable, that's for sure. The game is about Davey Wreden's obsession with a random indie developer that makes crappy, unfinished games. It wasn't terribly interesting, and was a little pretentious, but I think that was the point.

Zone of the enders 2 is really short (imo its biggest shortcoming) if you want a quick "win".

Zone of Enders it is then!

 

[Drathnoxis]

Zone of the enders 2 is really short (imo its biggest shortcoming) if you want a quick "win".

Well I was going to play it, but upon attempting to insert the disk I've discovered that my 360 disk drive will no longer open. It just makes a clunk. Darn it, Microsoft you make such garbage! So Xbox games are out until I can get that sorted.

I think I'll give Resident Evil: Code Veronica a go then, since no one else had any suggestions. I played a ways into the game when I was a kid, but got stuck. So let's see if I can do any better 18 years later.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

God of War: Ragnarok

Lots of extra options and settings this time around. Happy to confirm it also still has quick turn, now with an L1+Down on dpad or the original alt of Left Stick down + Evade IIRC. We’ll really benefit from a settings deep dive I think once the game has been out a bit. Haven’t seen photo mode yet but maybe it’s hidden somewhere.

I made the masochistic choice of starting on Give Me GoW difficulty and it probably took twice as long to get where I’m at now, but it feels good and makes every fight engaging. The first boss ends with an interesting twist, and soon after the game starts throwing some big story beats down and shit gets real, real quick like. Let’s just say I’m stopped for the night at another boss fight, and Kratos is at least a little peeved he hasn’t gotten a good night’s sleep in a while.

Anyways, the game looks as good to slightly better than 2018 even on base PS4, and there is an excellently done sequence early on involving the one shot technique. Literally some of the best cinematic direction I’ve seen, and the game also does a good job of building intrigue with some of the story beats. Can’t wait to see more of these new characters’ performances.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Crap! I'm just not having any luck with games right now! After playing Resident Evil: Code Veronica for a couple hours I've reached the submarine base. In it there is a door that I cannot get past. Just an endless black screen. Also I notice that in one of the other rooms the control panel and button are clearly displaying incorrectly, showing mis-sized numbers rather than the proper texture. Looking at my disk I see there is a scratch near the edge that is likely the cause. Darn it! I wonder if EB Games still resurfaces disks?

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

God of War: Ragnarok

Lots of extra options and settings this time around. Happy to confirm it also still has quick turn, now with an L1+Down on dpad or the original alt of Left Stick down + Evade IIRC. We’ll really benefit from a settings deep dive I think once the game has been out a bit. Haven’t seen photo mode yet but maybe it’s hidden somewhere.

I made the masochistic choice of starting on Give Me GoW difficulty and it probably took twice as long to get where I’m at now, but it feels good and makes every fight engaging. The first boss ends with an interesting twist, and soon after the game starts throwing some big story beats down and shit gets real, real quick like. Let’s just say I’m stopped for the night at another boss fight, and Kratos is at least a little peeved he hasn’t gotten a good night’s sleep in a while.

Anyways, the game looks as good to slightly better than 2018 even on base PS4, and there is an excellently done sequence early on involving the one shot technique. Literally some of the best cinematic direction I’ve seen, and the game also does a good job of building intrigue with some of the story beats. Can’t wait to see more of these new characters’ performances.

As someone who was thinking of getting this on base PS4... How bad are the loading times (especially respawning; I don't mind the loading for the game itself) and more importantly how hard is it on the PS4's cooling system? I read reports it sounds like you're killing the console.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Playing GoW: Ragnarok and so far it's good, but not as focused at "clean" as '18. I am taking a bit to get used to the tweaked combat, especially since not 24 hours ago I was fighting Sigrun on Give Me God of War in the previous game, and a lot of my reflexes are now kinda getting in the way. It's still good shit though.

Story wise there's not much to speak on yet, I'm only now truly set loose into the real meat of the game. I do like how Thor has a giant boner for Classic Kratos, and Brok not liking how Atreus looks now - his first words when he saw him being "What the Hell is THAT?!"

 

[Xprimentyl]

Still getting my teeth kicked in playing Elden Ring. Finally got to my first boss, Margit, and between a summon and my spirit wolves, I managed to get him down to a nipple of health on my first try! But Elden Ring's got to Elden Ring, so of course, the second all of my summons were killed off, Margit went full ham on me; one combo depleting my stamina bar beyond repair while my health took the rest of the damage... "YOU DIED." Yes. Yes, I did.

One thing I do hate so far is the two-button press to switch between one-handing and two-handing my weapon. I've been conditioned over the years that one button gets it done; now, I'm finding myself hitting "Y" to no avail in the thick of some really tense fights, and it's really frustrating.

 

[Worgen]

Still getting my teeth kicked in playing Elden Ring. Finally got to my first boss, Margit, and between a summon and my spirit wolves, I managed to get him down to a nipple of health on my first try! But Elden Ring's got to Elden Ring, so of course, the second all of my summons were killed off, Margit went full ham on me; one combo depleting my stamina bar beyond repair while my health took the rest of the damage... "YOU DIED." Yes. Yes, I did.

One thing I do hate so far is the two-button press to switch between one-handing and two-handing my weapon. I've been conditioned over the years that one button gets it done; now, I'm finding myself hitting "Y" to no avail in the thick of some really tense fights, and it's really frustrating.

Margit kicked my ass so hard, but I am biased against summons or spirits. I ended up having to explore more of the early areas then going back and fighting him later.

 

[Dalisclock]

Margit kicked my ass so hard, but I am biased against summons or spirits. I ended up having to explore more of the early areas then going back and fighting him later.

Margit tends to be everyone's first big wall and if nothing else, you can bypass him and come back later when you're better(Over)Leveled or equipped. Without spoiling, you can get to the Lakes region without beating him.

Or you can go to Caelid, if you're feeling masochisitc

 

[Worgen]

Margit tends to be everyone's first big wall and if nothing else, you can bypass him and come back later when you're better(Over)Leveled or equipped. Without spoiling, you can get to the Lakes region without beating him.

Or you can go to Caelid, if you're feeling masochisitc

Yeah, he was brutal to starting out and the game kinda funnels you into that direction so you will probably encounter him before you are ready, skill or stat wise.

 

[Dalisclock]

Yeah, he was brutal to starting out and the game kinda funnels you into that direction so you will probably encounter him before you are ready, skill or stat wise.

It is kinda brillant the first thing you see when you step out of the door is Stormviel castle, with an obvious "Go here" implication. You can go around it but it's clear the game wants you to see that as your first big goal.

And then you go past the castle and see a whole different area you really couldn't see before, just as enticing.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

Playing GoW: Ragnarok and so far it's good, but not as focused at "clean" as '18. I am taking a bit to get used to the tweaked combat, especially since not 24 hours ago I was fighting Sigrun on Give Me God of War in the previous game, and a lot of my reflexes are now kinda getting in the way. It's still good shit though.

Story wise there's not much to speak on yet, I'm only now truly set loose into the real meat of the game. I do like how Thor has a giant boner for Classic Kratos, and Brok not liking how Atreus looks now - his first words when he saw him being "What the Hell is THAT?!"

I had some time last night to check it out, with a bit more reserved for tonight, and it's has definitely been good fun. Tho was a bit confused by Brok's comment about Atreus then, like, he never elaborated, just pointed at him going "I don't like this...THIS!" What, Brok?? Spill the damn tea, blu boi! We ain't got time for your riddles! I'm not seeing anything, is it his hair cut? His tatts?? Communication is key here, Brok.

 

[Dalisclock]

I had some time last night to check it out, with a bit more reserved for tonight, and it's has definitely been good fun. Tho was a bit confused by Brok's comment about Atreus then, like, he never elaborated, just pointed at him going "I don't like this...THIS!" What, Brok?? Spill the damn tea, blu boi! We ain't got time for your riddles! I'm not seeing anything, is it his hair cut? His tatts?? Communication is key here, Brok.

I hate it when characters play the pronoun game. Just say what the thing is, damnit. Stop making us guess unless you have a really compelling reason you can't articulate it.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

As someone who was thinking of getting this on base PS4... How bad are the loading times (especially respawning; I don't mind the loading for the game itself) and more importantly how hard is it on the PS4's cooling system? I read reports it sounds like you're killing the console.

They seem very similar to 2018. Checkpoint Restarts after deaths seem to be under ten seconds, but I can confirm more precisely on that tonight.

I typically play with headphones so don’t really hear much unless the game itself is silent. Not any different than most recent games like Elden Ring or Horizon: Forbidden West. I put rubber bumpers (~.375” or so) underneath my systems to give the belly some more breathing room, but that’s more for peace of mind.

The game has so far run as well as 2018, but I did have an error crop up during a cinematic. Don’t recall the code but the recommended solutions were updating the game or system software. I personally had to do the latter in order to complete the preload, so perhaps it’s tied to that. No other occurrences since though after a couple hours or so. I’ve had something similar happen for a couple other games before, but don’t recall if 2018 was one of them.

 

[Bartholen]

Question for y'all playing Ragnarok: how different is it from GoW 2018 and in what ways? The story and visuals in that game were fantastic, but I found the gameplay rather clunky and the Diablo-style gear collection not really my cup of tea. Have there been changes in those areas?

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

They seem very similar to 2018. Checkpoint Restarts after deaths seem to be under ten seconds, but I can confirm more precisely on that tonight.

I typically play with headphones so don’t really hear much unless the game itself is silent. Not any different than most recent games like Elden Ring or Horizon: Forbidden West. I put rubber bumpers (~.375” or so) underneath my systems to give the belly some more breathing room, but that’s more for peace of mind.

The game has so far run as well as 2018, but I did have an error crop up during a cinematic. Don’t recall the code but the recommended solutions were updating the game or system software. I personally had to do the latter in order to complete the preload, so perhaps it’s tied to that. No other occurrences since though after a couple hours or so. I’ve had something similar happen for a couple other games before, but don’t recall if 2018 was one of them.

Thanks, apparently most people on Reddit seem to agree the game plays fine on PS4. If Ragnarok looks and performs as well as GoW 2018 that's good enough for me.

Don't know if you're into trophies but do you know if there are any missables/do you get to clean up after beating the game? Wanna go in blind without worrying about trophies like GoW 18.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Question for y'all playing Ragnarok: how different is it from GoW 2018 and in what ways? The story and visuals in that game were fantastic, but I found the gameplay rather clunky and the Diablo-style gear collection not really my cup of tea. Have there been changes in those areas?

They're pretty much like one and the same in terms of gameplay feel and gear usage. It’s a direct sequel so they were never going to change much in terms of gameplay or combat design. There are subtle improvements but the core is pretty intact. I think some of the runic slot stuff has been streamlined a bit to be less confusing in terms of what effects what.

Other than that, little things like quick turn is now done with an L1+Down combo since Down by itself on dpad is for bare handed melee. I played a bit of 2018 while I was waiting for midnight and actually took pics of my game options so I could set up some of that to my preferences.

The game also allows full button remapping as well as touchpad shortcuts for a few commands. One could really spend an hour or so in the options tweaking things if they so choose, but I wanted to start playing.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Thanks, apparently most people on Reddit seem to agree the game plays fine on PS4. If Ragnarok looks and performs as well as GoW 2018 that's good enough for me.

Don't know if you're into trophies but do you know if there are any missables/do you get to clean up after beating the game? Wanna go in blind without worrying about trophies like GoW 18.

I haven’t looked at the trophy list for this, but am pretty sure 2018 didn’t have any missables. There were a couple grindy ones but overall I had a pleasant time with post-game cleanup for that Platinum.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I gotta say, I'm not feeling GoW: Ragnarok as much as I should be. Primarily combat-wise things feel off kilter for me. The level design and puzzles don't read too well either, and the story feels pretty scattered. There's some very fun character moments here and there, but so far it's not really clicked all that well for me.