What are you currently playing?

[hanselthecaretaker2]

The Quarry is done, or at least with whatever ending I had. The game has some extra features like podcasts and being able to rewind deaths, watch cutscene versions of choices, cooperative play, etc. but I had enough. The general gameplay is 90% walking (faster holding L1 but not by much), finding items, QTE, and choices. Only about 20% of the total time spent (7 or so hours) was actually engaging, and it was mostly due to interesting situations with a handful of characters. Most of them were just plain unlikeable.

I will say the last couple chapters ramped things up a bit in terms of excitement and stakes, with particularly good VA’ing from Lin Shaye (the Insidious regular). It was fun watching certain choices play out rather brutally and definitively. Some day if I’m curious enough I might look into different outcomes, because there is definitely some heart put into the content (branching choices, tarot cards and clues in particular). The game’s audio-visuals are also rather impressive. But having to suffer through the bland gameplay and almost equally bland/annoying/disturbing (whoever left the giant dookie resembling a coil of sausage in the bucket by the bed…ewww) characters kinda impedes any encouragement to do so.

 

[XsjadoBlaydette]

Just discovered they got a Zelda game about wearing a cap or some shit on the Switch online store, then discovered a trove of other 2D Zelda's I hadn't even heard of, let alone mournfully glimpse on the other side of a frosted game store window with hungry malnutritioned eyes. So a lil plan started brewing as a self-confessed and perhaps still recovering fanbi of Zelda since 3D 64 days - (memories of OG Gameboy link's awakening and an unknown snes title at some uncle's house were experienced too young to be able to appreciate so can't retroactively stamp them with official fanbi origin status, for the long lost cause of honesty) - a plan to catch up on the missed dimension of the series to appreciate or bitterly endure it's heritage spectrum like a real fan is bloody supposed to. Am not self-conscious about this, you're self-conscious, stop looking at me with those thoughts!

Anyway, that brief moment of excitement at maybe being able to commit to a single goddamn thing for once in my rotten life was instantly vaporised when the store requested payment for a whole years subscription to the Nintendo online service that wasn't the online Nintendo service I just bought a month's worth of like a minutes earlier. Fuuuuuuuck that! Still got bills to pay yet, you cheeky cunts! Fanbi status approval now put on hold indefinitely.

So what is one to do when morally n financially defeated, with tail betwix legs and balls bluer than arctic subterranean skinny dipping champions, other than go on a free demo download spree? Not go on a free demo download spree? Gtfo outta here with that nonsense!

Eastward: supposedly an earthbound spiritual successor but never played those games so have to take the extremely blatant references within the demo at face value. Not sure why is using Zelda jingles for discoveries and rewards though, did earthbound do it too or is it bundling as much nostalgia bait from the era as it can? Nonetheless, looks alright so far. Apart from the demo only being accessible for preset date n time, tightarse bastards.

Shambam Kni, Bansham...Binsham? Hang on, gotta check the sodding title again...

Bahnsen Knights! That's the bastard! Has a sound and style quite attractive for a lo-fi type production, so a trailer is probably far more informative than this meandering bollocks a generous person could tastelessly call a forum post;

Bahnsen Knights is available now on PC and Mac via Steam & GOG, and it is coming to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, and Xbox One on January 18, 2024. Watch the launch trailer for Bahnsen Knights for another look at this third visual novel in a series inspired by early 20th century pulp fiction and ‘80s home computer graphics.

The religious cult known as the Bahnsen Knights reigns terror on the highways as biblical storms rain havoc on the population. Their leader, a former car salesman named Toni, preaches hell is not below us, but above, as he leads the Ford Sierra-driving cultists across the country, performing “route exorcisms” along the way.

Infiltrate this cult as Boulder, an undercover agent attempting to dismantle them from within while hunting the whereabouts of his missing partner, Cupra.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Finished The Knight Witch (yay) and started yet another weird mix of Metroidvania and twin stick shooter with a post-apocalyptic setting and hand-drawn art from a small Spanish indie studio, Laika: Aged Through Blood.

Laika is off to a VERY cumbersome start. I don't remember the last time I played a game this hard and unwelcoming from the get go. You control a character on a motorbike on a 2D plane and die in one hit from just about anything from a single bullet to fucking up a landing (you have to balance the bike with the analog stick). You're also supposed to use the bike as a bullet shield by pulling wheelies into the air and aiming its not-that-big underside at incoming gunfire. You can parry a single bullet before having to "reload" the parry by doing a 360° degree spin forward. You also have a gun, which has 2 shots and you reload by launching the bike in the air and flipping it 360° degrees backwards.

Mercifully there are tons of checkpoints and the respawn cycle is quick like Hotline Miami. There's definitely a Hotline Miami-esque loop of scouting ahead and getting killed a bunch of times in order to learn the number and location of enemies. It's try, try again until you figure you're supposed to shoot that guy to the left, parry that other guy to the right, reload during that jump, turn the bike around after a ramp and shoot the other guy over there. It's frustrating to learn but then you feel like a badass when you pull it off.

I also like the atmosphere a lot. "Anthropomorphic animals in a Mad Max setting" doesn't quite capture it. Feels like a Ralph Bakshi movie. Or in general one of those "adult" psychedelic animated movies from the 70s that was filled with violence and profanity. Jesus, the first thing you do in the game is come upon a child's corpse gutted open and crucified with his own viscera.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Started Dark Souls 3. It's more Dark Souls. It's a good thing I like Dark Souls but the environment design does get to feeling a bit samey, what with the piles of corpses, coffins, and gravestones in every game. I suppose it feels more similar to Bloodborne than the first Dark Souls. It also feels a lot more linear than the first Dark Souls. I'm up to the swamp with the BS giant enemy crabs that randomly burrow and regain all their HP and I don't think there's been a single alternative area to explore yet.

I'm enjoying it though, because the Dark Souls formula is just a good formula. I'm playing a sorcerer and really hoping I find an int scaling weapon soon. I tried infusing my mail breaker with fire, but that made my magic weapon spell not work so I undid it. Also what does FP stand for? Flower Points like in the Mario RPGs?

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

Started Dark Souls 3. It's more Dark Souls. It's a good thing I like Dark Souls but the environment design does get to feeling a bit samey, what with the piles of corpses, coffins, and gravestones in every game. I suppose it feels more similar to Bloodborne than the first Dark Souls. It also feels a lot more linear than the first Dark Souls. I'm up to the swamp with the BS giant enemy crabs that randomly burrow and regain all their HP and I don't think there's been a single alternative area to explore yet.

I'm enjoying it though, because the Dark Souls formula is just a good formula. I'm playing a sorcerer and really hoping I find an int scaling weapon soon. I tried infusing my mail breaker with fire, but that made my magic weapon spell not work so I undid it. Also what does FP stand for? Flower Points like in the Mario RPGs?

Focus Points, ie mana for skills and spells. It might be worth keeping fire on the mail breaker in a second slot for versatility and putting magic weapon on a dagger, or maybe even a rapier to avoid the slight per hit damage reduction using the spell

 

[bluegate]

Played through Legend of Mana.

A nice trip down memory lane from when I used to play it back in 2000.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Completed two runs of No Return in TLoU2 on Grounded - one with Ellie and one with Dina. And yeah, No Return is pretty fun and addictive. There's a couple things that needed a bit of work though; For some reason you can still open drawers and cabinets, but there's nothing in them (pick-ups are just lying around now). This becomes a big problem though when you're running trying not to get killed, simultaneously hammering the triangle button to pick up what you can, only for your character to get locked into a drawer-opening animation (also the triangle button) and giving the clicker that was hot on your heels the oppertunity to rip your throat out. For example, the Subway map has a brick right by a drawer, and everytime I try to grab it I'll open the drawer first, and on one occasion it meant that instead of quickly grabbing the brick and chucking it at an enemy the enemy blew my head off while I was busy opening that fucking drawer. And like I said, there isn't even anything in them on No Return, so why wouldn't Naughty Dog just disable them in that mode?

The other issue is the Holdout mode, in which you and an A.I. companion need to survive against a couple dozen infected. Problem is your companion has a health bar. An even bigger problem is that your companion can walk themselves into a dead end and get locked in with 4 or 5 zombies. And when that happens your run is fucked due to bad A.I. So yeah, I avoid that mode like the plague if I can help it.

 

[Xprimentyl]

*sigh* More Elden Ring.

Despite my resolution to beat it after playing it nigh exclusively for over a year, I think I might have hit my hard stop: the Fire Giant. Look, I know FROM loves their bigger-than-life bosses, but this is just absurd. I'm a melee character; on my 65" TV, when I'm within striking distance, all I see is his foot, and estimate his head to be a solid 4-5 FEET above where the screen ends. When one of his ankles takes up my ENTIRE screen while his attacks are 95% telegraphed by his hands and upper body in general, how the fuck am I supposed to deal with that?!? I literally can't see his attacks coming unless I'm far away... where I can't attack!! And he easily two-shots me. Despite him being probably the slowest, most plodding boss in the game, he's thus far been the hardest to dodge, y'know, since his attacks cover an entire fucking area code and usually knock me down leaving me vulnerable to a second attack. It feels like I'm trying to give Godzilla a pedicure while he's actively trying to kill me, i.e.: soul-crushingly not fun.

I just got the Rivers of Blood, so that's cool. Thank God I've not put a single point into Arcane to use it . I might respec for it (still haven't ever done that) to try it out somewhere else., anywhere else the game is challenging but not impossible.

 

[meiam]

Played through Legend of Mana.

A nice trip down memory lane from when I used to play it back in 2000.

I both love and hate legend of mana. OST and art are both A+ and the story, as a sort of anthology work, can go in really weird and unexpected direction. But mannnnn the gameplay is so boring, the optimal strategy is just to basic attack and... thats it. Such a disappointment.

 

[Drathnoxis]

I think the binoculars may be the biggest trap in Dark Souls. I'm pretty sure they've killed me at least 70% of the times I've used them. The 5% zoom isn't even useful for anything either. So I beat the Deacons of the Deep after a handful of attempts by spamming the poison mist sorcery, was waaay easier than the Abyss Watchers. Anyway after the fight I'm sitting there with 30k in souls and like a smart person I decide to go and try to see if I could get to where Patches was because I kind of thought I might be able to get there from the boss room. It turns out that you can't, but I keep looking around and clear the priests from before the boss room and start looking around outside on the roofs for another entrance. I kill some of those guys with the flaming swords and then I notice an item glowing halfway down a wall so I pull out my binoculars to take a closer look. It turns out one of the guys I killed got his head stuck in a wall and he had an item. Oh well, whatever, I'm just going to go back to the shrine to spend these souls so I press O to put away my binoculars... and backstep off of the roof. Then I die immediately to a guy with a big greatsword and no shield that hasn't even been able to touch me previously before being ruined by my soul arrows. I wish these games kept track of the total number of souls you've lost, I've gotta be up to 70k by now.

There's so many spells in this game and most of them just suck. So many times I'll get a brand new sorcery use it once and realize that it isn't as good as soul arrow and never use it again. Edit: the one exception thus far is Pestilent Mist, which has melted both Deacons of the Deep and Lord Wolfred or whatever.

 

[BrawlMan]

Tekken 8 Story Mode - This is the best story mode in a fighting game ever, and huge improvement of T7's story. Not that 7's was horrible, and has plenty of hype moments, but it's bogged down by that horribly monotone narrator that didn't factor into anything. T8's story is balls to wall crazy! A cross between DBZ, Man of Steel, Drive (1997), Toku/Sentai, and the later Fast and Furious movies. Chapter 10 by far is the best highlight, because the game turns into Tekken Force Warriors! The chapter is lengthy too. I am almost done and stopping for now. Got work later in the morning.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

*sigh* More Elden Ring.

Despite my resolution to beat it after playing it nigh exclusively for over a year, I think I might have hit my hard stop: the Fire Giant. Look, I know FROM loves their bigger-than-life bosses, but this is just absurd. I'm a melee character; on my 65" TV, when I'm within striking distance, all I see is his foot, and estimate his head to be a solid 4-5 FEET above where the screen ends. When one of his ankles takes up my ENTIRE screen while his attacks are 95% telegraphed by his hands and upper body in general, how the fuck am I supposed to deal with that?!? I literally can't see his attacks coming unless I'm far away... where I can't attack!! And he easily two-shots me. Despite him being probably the slowest, most plodding boss in the game, he's thus far been the hardest to dodge, y'know, since his attacks cover an entire fucking area code and usually knock me down leaving me vulnerable to a second attack. It feels like I'm trying to give Godzilla a pedicure while he's actively trying to kill me, i.e.: soul-crushingly not fun.

I just got the Rivers of Blood, so that's cool. Thank God I've not put a single point into Arcane to use it . I might respec for it (still haven't ever done that) to try it out somewhere else., anywhere else the game is challenging but not impossible.

I respec’d to beat Malenia with RoB the first time, like most probably. Fire Giant, is somewhat weak to slash so if you don’t want to respec a katana with spinning slash, double slash, etc. ashes works well. His leg is a weak spot in phase 1, and his wrists/eye are in phase 2. Kinda like Radahn rot is effective, so either slap grease on a sword or use the incant. I’ve also done it with rotbone arrows. Pest Threads or Swarm of Flies are effective. Try dismounting off Torrent to dodge the opening avalanche attack. Iron Jar Alexander is available to help if you’ve been doing his quest. There’s always an easier way so don’t lose heart. For example if all else fails,


13.24 for Fire Giant, Bloodflame blade with wild strikes makes quick work even with his 50% fire resistance.

 

[Xprimentyl]

I respec’d to beat Malenia with RoB the first time, like most probably. Fire Giant, is somewhat weak to slash so if you don’t want to respec a katana with spinning slash, double slash, etc. ashes works well. His leg is a weak spot in phase 1, and his wrists/eye are in phase 2. Kinda like Radahn rot is effective, so either slap grease on a sword or use the incant. I’ve also done it with rotbone arrows. Pest Threads or Swarm of Flies are effective. Try dismounting off Torrent to dodge the opening avalanche attack. Iron Jar Alexander is available to help if you’ve been doing his quest. There’s always an easier way so don’t lose heart. For example if all else fails,


13.24 for Fire Giant, Bloodflame blade with wild strikes makes quick work even with his 50% fire resistance.

I'll give it a shot. Like I said, I've never respec'd, but I might for RoB, and maybe try something ranged for the Fire Giant. It was just really disheartening having so little success with my current build. I wasted about 8 rune arcs before deciding he wasn't worth it anymore.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

I'll give it a shot. Like I said, I've never respec'd, but I might for RoB, and maybe try something ranged for the Fire Giant. It was just really disheartening having so little success with my current build. I wasted about 8 rune arcs before deciding he wasn't worth it anymore.

Out of Souls nerd curiosity, what’s your equip setup/levels?

 

[BrawlMan]

Tekken 8 Story Mode - This is the best story mode in a fighting game ever, and huge improvement of T7's story. Not that 7's was horrible, and has plenty of hype moments, but it's bogged down by that horribly monotone narrator that didn't factor into anything. T8's story is balls to wall crazy! A cross between DBZ, Man of Steel, Drive (1997), Toku/Sentai, and the later Fast and Furious movies. Chapter 10 by far is the best highlight, because the game turns into Tekken Force Warriors! The chapter is lengthy too. I am almost done and stopping for now. Got work later in the morning.

Tekken 8 Story Mode completed. The next to last boss fight has some bullshit regen health and input reading. I had to bump it down to easy to finish that section. Then back to Normal during the final fight. Excellent story mode all around and really innovative in how gameplay blends into cut-scenes. Now for the arcade modes.

 

[thebobmaster]

Playing way too much of more Vampire Survivors. I have officially had a run where I beat the Red Death. I AM A GOD.

For the record, if you do that, the game just sends an even more powerful enemy after you that is an instant-kill when it touches you, and you have no way to avoid it.

 

[BrawlMan]

The Tekken 8 Character Arcade Scenarios are so much better than whatever the fuck the was in T7. They even bring back actual character endings! 5 fights for the Character Scenarios. Then there's a separate arcade mode with no story, 8 fights, and Angel Jin is always the final boss. This game is content rich! It's making SF6 look like a joke, and makes MK1 a bigger joke with single player content.

I customized Steve Fox to be dressed like Axel Stone.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Finished the first act of The Talos Principle 2. Definitely enjoying it a lot, the new gimmicks are fun and the puzzles are all very well designed. Pro tip: If you ever get stuck, look for something that doesn't seem to serve a purpose, because ten times out of ten, it does.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Out of Souls nerd curiosity, what’s your equip setup/levels?

Overall level: 108
Vigor: 45
Mind: 11
Endurance: 29
Strength: 40
Dexterity: 57
Intelligence: 9
Faith: 8
Arcane: 8

Using a +9 Bloodhound's Fang, a +7 Pulley Bow, rocking all of Hoslow's armor, and rolling with my +7 Mimic Tear homie. The Mimic somehow manages to survive longer than I do as I see him whacking away at the Fire Giant still long after I've been told "YOU DIED" for the millionth time.

 

[Piscian]

For whatever reasonable I just started playing Steamworld Quest this past weekend. Idk where it came from but it was installed on my switch and I was too miserable and sick this weekend to play anything that took effort or induced stress.

For such a simple RPG I'm a little shocked at how deep the combat "mechanic" is. So much so that maybe 5 bosses into the game I've found myself stuck, getting my ass kicked and having to go back and grind a little and rearrange my decks to try and power through.

For those that have somehow ignore this indie darling, it's ultra basic flash animation style fantasy RPG with people replaced with Robots. The big hook is that instead of combat abilities you have a deck of cards similar to Slay the Spire. However this deck is a combination of three characters decks mixed into one and its all customizable. The more interesting aspect is that base action cards add action points and higher level cards take action points so each turn you want to play basic actions and build towards big actions. Additionally if you play 3 actions one turn from one character you get a combo finisher action. For theres several levels to the combat, keeping things interesting.

Idk, I'm enjoying it, but it feels like the RNG can be a bit soul crushing at times.