Uncharted was kinda like that. Mileage may vary on the latter two sequels but eh. I recall the hours melting away on each while never feeling stressed about when or where I had to call it a night.
What are you currently playing?
- Thread starter Nick Calandra
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I tend to agree but Uncharted's "problem" was that whenever you started a chapter it usually took a good while of slowly walking down a forest path or a busy marketplace or sneaking around instadeath before getting back into the proper fun part of the game. RE4 nailed downtime without making it feel like a detraction.
This became especially egregious when games 3-4 became enamored with flashback chapters that didn't just feel like a pause from regular gameplay but from advancing the story as well.
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Finished up Chorus. Pretty awesome, the plot goes a bit overly metaphysical, but the gameplay and new abilities continue to be extremely fun to use. Its certainly got the most fun space combat I've seen in a game, would recommend.
Decided to grab Helldivers 2. Its pretty cool, but you can feel that it was designed around a controller with how aiming feels, but it still works really well with mouse and keyboard. I really like the tongue in cheek dialog and plot with 'super earth' and 'super democracy' etc. The combat is extremely satisfying, enemies being blown into chunks, orbital strikes making huge explosions, air strikes shredding enemy groups. I've only done a few multi matches so far, seems to work well, you do have to worry about friendly fire, but unlike most games, it ends up being more funny then frustrating.
Decided to grab Helldivers 2. Its pretty cool, but you can feel that it was designed around a controller with how aiming feels, but it still works really well with mouse and keyboard. I really like the tongue in cheek dialog and plot with 'super earth' and 'super democracy' etc. The combat is extremely satisfying, enemies being blown into chunks, orbital strikes making huge explosions, air strikes shredding enemy groups. I've only done a few multi matches so far, seems to work well, you do have to worry about friendly fire, but unlike most games, it ends up being more funny then frustrating.
Made a little bit of progress in Armored Core 6. Just did the Wall Climber mission and that was pretty cool, though took me a couple times. Getting the hang of combat and been doing the training missions along the way.
Still kinda trying to figure out how to build a good AC and for now I'm using a starter build and have settled on a lightweight build with duel shotguns and duel missle pods and just try to dodge stuff. It seems to be working pretty well. I'm torn between consulting guides for builds and trying to figure it out on my own but there are a lot of parts to buy and I don't want to grind missions to get all the parts just to find out half of them kinda suck.
I think the only mission I've had issue with is the giant mining walker mission because platforming on that thing while trying not to get zapped by the giant laser is a pain in the butt. I think I fell off the damn thing more then I died to the laser.
Still kinda trying to figure out how to build a good AC and for now I'm using a starter build and have settled on a lightweight build with duel shotguns and duel missle pods and just try to dodge stuff. It seems to be working pretty well. I'm torn between consulting guides for builds and trying to figure it out on my own but there are a lot of parts to buy and I don't want to grind missions to get all the parts just to find out half of them kinda suck.
I think the only mission I've had issue with is the giant mining walker mission because platforming on that thing while trying not to get zapped by the giant laser is a pain in the butt. I think I fell off the damn thing more then I died to the laser.
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Ok, I totally just ripped the Fire Giant a new asshole in Elden Ring. Like, just now. My character is still standing in the arena. We're both pretty shocked right now.
I cannot fucking believe it. I've been struggling with him for at least a couple of weeks, and nothing seemed to work; I never did any better despite my efforts across dozens of attempts. It wasn't even a serious attempt; I'd run out of random shit to do, so just I thought I might as well throw my body on the pile of bodies yet again, but once I hit second phase, my eyes rolled back in my head like a great white shark's, and I just wailed on him until he finally, FINALLY died.
To quote the Joker: "I'm a dog chasing cars; I wouldn't know what do with one if I caught it." Same. I don't even know what to do next; I completely thought Fire Giant was the end of the road for me. Now I'm expected to progress??
I cannot fucking believe it. I've been struggling with him for at least a couple of weeks, and nothing seemed to work; I never did any better despite my efforts across dozens of attempts. It wasn't even a serious attempt; I'd run out of random shit to do, so just I thought I might as well throw my body on the pile of bodies yet again, but once I hit second phase, my eyes rolled back in my head like a great white shark's, and I just wailed on him until he finally, FINALLY died.
To quote the Joker: "I'm a dog chasing cars; I wouldn't know what do with one if I caught it." Same. I don't even know what to do next; I completely thought Fire Giant was the end of the road for me. Now I'm expected to progress??
Green Goblin voice: Finish it! Finish it!
Nice! Be mindful that immediately afterwards at the big fire pot you will be taken to a place that’s arguably peak difficulty for the main path’s progression. Not terrible if you’re just running around finding stuff (like the bell bearings for upgrading weapons), but there’s a couple bosses you’ll want to be ready for towards the end. First of which holds the final smithing stone bell bearing to make upgrading weapons much quicker. Hopefully you can craft either sleep pots/arrows/grease. That will help.
Do you have two Uchi’s? Might be worth cold infusing the offhand one and power stancing them for this area. Also any talisman + the physik that helps with multiple hits. Not sure how much exploring you’ve done, but it really helps towards the end.
There's been a couple of balance patch since release so I'm assuming most part are worthwhile now, also if you intend on doing everything, you have to go trough the game three time, so you can try very different build on subsequent playtrough (and you essentially have infinite money then).
It just so happens I've got +9 Rivers of Blood in my right hand and a +20 Cold Uchigatana in my left, and yes, I can make sleep pots. But now that I think on it, I noticed the RoB deals fire damage; is that going to offset the Cold Uchi? I was just looking to double up my bleed damage, but if actively utilizing the Cold effect will help soon, I might need to change my setup. Also, I really lack the confidence to fight bosses without a shield, so I'm not sure how much longer I can pretend I know what I'm doing power-stancing. I went into the Fire Giant (with these two katanas) completely expecting to get my ass handed to me, but I pulled off some really uncharacteristic [for me] dodges, and I'm sure RNG had a fair amount to do with it, and I managed my first significant boss without a shield. Felt good, but also felt lucky.
I know the Godskin Duo is ahead, and I'm not looking forward to it, but then again, I'm still in shock that I even have them to look forward to; I was ready to quit just a few hours ago!
Played some more of RE4make, and I just had a strange realization I have to get out of my head because I can't sleep otherwise. And this is probably going to sound very weird, but this game's lack of sex is kind of jarring.
Now hear me out.
This is one aspect where I think the remake turning things down and playing it more straight creates some unexpected oddness. The original RE4 was like an over the top 80s action movie, or a puerile preteen boy playing with action figures: save the princess plot, zombies, guns, castles etc., but perhaps most vitally for this particular topic, a pretty unserious, tongue in cheek tone. Sure you could look up Ashley's skirt and there's Luis commenting on her "ballistics", but the game gets no naughtier than that. Leon's a cool dude who's too cool to care about icky girls, ew. And in that context that kind of slightly pervy stuff fits, or at least doesn't feel out of place. It was also a product of its era when even hinted sexual relations in games were still a rarity, and also had the slightly blocky PS2 graphics where trying to be sexy would have felt awkward at best.
The remake in turn has none of that. The tone is decidedly more serious, the graphics are cutting edge, and the sex appeal of the main characters is turned up to eleven. Every one of the main characters is ridiculously hot. But when it comes to anything relating to actual sexual acts, the game might as well be rated G. And in a post-Cyberpunk, post Baldur's Gate 3 world it just feels odd how characters who are stressed close to their breaking point don't even hint at anything relating to their loins when they have a moment of reprieve. Not that I'd need some Cyberpunk style scenes, but even a tiny acknowledgement of that element would IMO go a long way in making the more serious tone feel consistent. As it is it almost feels like an omission: unspeakable body horror and gory violence is a-okay, but anything below the belt is a strict no-go.
Am I being crazy here? Did anyone else think of this?
P.S. The performance of the actress voicing Ada is some hot garbage. What better way to sell a femme fatale character than to sound like you're reading the phone book.
Now hear me out.
This is one aspect where I think the remake turning things down and playing it more straight creates some unexpected oddness. The original RE4 was like an over the top 80s action movie, or a puerile preteen boy playing with action figures: save the princess plot, zombies, guns, castles etc., but perhaps most vitally for this particular topic, a pretty unserious, tongue in cheek tone. Sure you could look up Ashley's skirt and there's Luis commenting on her "ballistics", but the game gets no naughtier than that. Leon's a cool dude who's too cool to care about icky girls, ew. And in that context that kind of slightly pervy stuff fits, or at least doesn't feel out of place. It was also a product of its era when even hinted sexual relations in games were still a rarity, and also had the slightly blocky PS2 graphics where trying to be sexy would have felt awkward at best.
The remake in turn has none of that. The tone is decidedly more serious, the graphics are cutting edge, and the sex appeal of the main characters is turned up to eleven. Every one of the main characters is ridiculously hot. But when it comes to anything relating to actual sexual acts, the game might as well be rated G. And in a post-Cyberpunk, post Baldur's Gate 3 world it just feels odd how characters who are stressed close to their breaking point don't even hint at anything relating to their loins when they have a moment of reprieve. Not that I'd need some Cyberpunk style scenes, but even a tiny acknowledgement of that element would IMO go a long way in making the more serious tone feel consistent. As it is it almost feels like an omission: unspeakable body horror and gory violence is a-okay, but anything below the belt is a strict no-go.
Am I being crazy here? Did anyone else think of this?
P.S. The performance of the actress voicing Ada is some hot garbage. What better way to sell a femme fatale character than to sound like you're reading the phone book.
Some people noticed, but most don't care. Resident Evil has always had this since RE2 and RE3. Nearly everyone is super attractive or rugged, but none of the main character have sex. Aside from Wesker, Ethan, and Mia. FTR, Ada still gets a couple of ass shots. Especially in her Seperate Ways DLC. Don't forget, RE8 wasn't that long ago before RE4R came out, and the former is plenty of horny early on anyway. If that's not enough for you:
Outlast 2 demo.
No, wait...OutCast 2 demo, ffs almost had me again!
Feels like being stuck in time loop, but hasn't the game been released, rereleased, rebooted like 4 to 5 times already? Wtf foolery's going behind the scenes keeping this unremarkable corpse alive? Is it a 'trashcan release' jobbie where corpo is clasping desperately onto IP ownership by regularly producing any old crap? Though let's not be hasty with judgement so early, the mere existence of a demo at all implies someone must've felt confident somewhere about something for it to be here. Even if that confidence were nowt but drug-fueled mania, consumer-friendly results occured regardless. The gesture, in this sordid industry, is appreciated, outside of whatever quality the final game turns out to be.
Anywaay. It was unpleasant to look at, juddering performance. closed the demo, nevermind.
No, wait...OutCast 2 demo, ffs almost had me again!
Feels like being stuck in time loop, but hasn't the game been released, rereleased, rebooted like 4 to 5 times already? Wtf foolery's going behind the scenes keeping this unremarkable corpse alive? Is it a 'trashcan release' jobbie where corpo is clasping desperately onto IP ownership by regularly producing any old crap? Though let's not be hasty with judgement so early, the mere existence of a demo at all implies someone must've felt confident somewhere about something for it to be here. Even if that confidence were nowt but drug-fueled mania, consumer-friendly results occured regardless. The gesture, in this sordid industry, is appreciated, outside of whatever quality the final game turns out to be.
Anywaay. It was unpleasant to look at, juddering performance. closed the demo, nevermind.
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Someone mentioned the helicopter in the first mission was apparently a much bigger POA in the initial release.
Since I'm playing this like a year late there's no way for me to evaluate how different it is, unlike ER where I was pretty much playing from close to launch and saw the drama over certain gameplay changes firsthand(Radahn)....
IIRC only the weapon skill Corpse Piler adds fire, so if you’re just power stancing (LB attacks) it with the cold Uchi it will be just bleed damage on each plus the frost. I think this is what Let Me Solo Her used, and it’s still hella strong so yeah there’s that. The Winged Sword Insignia talisman from Stillwater cave boss at the bottom of the southernmost cliff in Liurnia stacks damage from successive hits. It stacks even more with the Thorny Cracked Tear physik, but that’s found on the way to Haligtree which is optional. The Leyndell catacombs in the sewers has a boss that gives the Lord of Blood’s Exultation talisman which also stacks bleed damage.
If you keep a shield in a second offhand slot (Great shield or medium?), Barricade Shield ashes are good to maximize guard boost for using guard counters. Curved Sword talisman boosts that damage.
One of my most fun setups was a strength arcane build using two Grossmessers (one Occult, one Heavy) with a greatshield in a second offhand slot, plus the Dragon Communion seal for dragon breath spells. I’d use guard counters then swap the shield out to power stance the swords (or use Sword Dance which has decent stance damage), then if they weren’t dead yet their stance was usually at least broken to finish them off with whatever dragon spell worked best.
Did you ever get to the underground bloody area via White Mask Varré’s quest? It has the defacto spot for quick and easy rune farming if needed.
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I'm liking Ultros a lot. I love a metroidvania with a personality and oddball mechanics that isn't just another riff on Metroid or Castlevania. And if nothing else Ultros oozes personality fluid from its many branching alien synapses.
It's also a lot of fun to figure out exactly how all the moving parts in the game work together and how the way you relate to them keeps changing.
It's also a lot of fun to figure out exactly how all the moving parts in the game work together and how the way you relate to them keeps changing.
But that's exactly why I bring up the original RE4 being a product of its time. RE8: Step On Me Mommy being a new mainline installment makes it more in line with modern gaming sensibilities, ie. being able to be openly and unabashedly horny. Whereas RE4make, despite being from the 2020s, retains that more innocent, schoolboy-ish "tee hee" approach to sexuality, which feels incongruous with its presentation otherwise. Though I suppose this is more to do with me not having played much of Resident Evil at all, so I guess the same thing would bother me in other installments as well if I chose to play them.
This has been a thing in Resident Evil since forever. Everyone is hot, the camera can't get enough of showing how hot especially the women are, there may even be some flirting, but actual sexual relationships... nah. This is likely something Japanese though. You look at Square Enix games and sex is nowhere to be seen despite how a lot of the characters are designed - Name me one prominent female Final Fantasy character that does not have the 'hot doll' look. I think FF16 might be the first entry to show open sexuality. You look at anime, and depite the ludicrous amount of fanservice and teasing (boob grabs, panty shots), the ones where actual sex is had can be counted on one hand.
Japan is just still a little weird about sex. Granted the West is too, but differently. I seem to remember the Japanese version of The Last of Us 2 had its explicit sex scene cut out. And I don't know if they still pixelate their own smut films, but they sure used to.
Like I said before, RE it's always been like that, so there is nothing new going on here.
They still do, but you can find uncensored or decensored (usually done by a third party and not professionally) versions of their smut.
Yeah, I get that. I guess my overall point is that it sticks out like a sore thumb more now than before, when sex scenes in games are no longer as taboo as they used to be. They're still present mostly in RPGs with extensive romances (BG3, Mass Effect, Cyberpunk and so on), but they're present in action games too. TLoU 2 had more than one, and Wolfenstein: The New Order had one 10 years ago.
I don't see it that big of a deal, and most RE fans find it part of the charm and love it and the franchise for still doing so. At least Wesker and Ethan got a kid, so there's something.