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What are you currently playing?
- Thread starter Nick Calandra
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Oof I'm currently rank 21... I guess I've only got a week left in this game. I'll probably stop after I explore Liyue.
Made some progress in DS3. After feeling like I was spinning my wheels for a bit I've gotten past the bad dog on the High Wall and reached the undead settlement where it feels like I'm making much better progress. I've also been doing some jolly cooperation with the bad dog, both to get embers, sunlight medals and souls, but also just to get used to fighting bosses again and help out others along the way. And I swear it does feel like it's a hell of a lot easier to take some of these fuckers down with people helping.
Anyway while the high wall was giving me feels like that of Anor Londo combined with the Undead Burg, I'm getting serious Bloodborne vibes from the Undead Settlement, like Hemwick Charnel Lane but in the daylight and boy does this place foster a sense of paranoia, like a fucker can and will jump out of the woodwork at any moment.
Also, I'm gonna say, I do appreciate the world layout. From the door where you drop the banner and catch a ride, you can get a good look at what looks to be the entire game world(or at least a lot of it) and while yeah, it's clear it's miniaturized not unlike looking at the horizon from Majula in DS2, it doesn't look anywhere near so artificial, off-scale and flat as the landmarks did from Majula.
I would normally complain about how there's no apparent path from the high wall door(where you fight vordt dog) to the bridge the connects to the undead settlement, but I think it's heavily implied that space is convoluted with the world coming to an end, so everything feeling wierd and off kilter actually makes sense.
Also, fun fact, the very first time I was summoned for jolly co-operation, I expected to fight Vordt the bad dog, since I placed my sign near the door at the bottom of the area. Instead, the host took us back up to the top of the area where Emma hangs out and I ended up fighting the Dancer of the Boreal Valley. Needless to say, I DIED. So apparently the level matchmaking is wierd or the guy doing the summoning was sequence breaking, because yes, I get that there's an early game boss and a late game boss nearly right next to each other, but still it's weird that I I could be summoned for a late game boss fight like that.
Anyway while the high wall was giving me feels like that of Anor Londo combined with the Undead Burg, I'm getting serious Bloodborne vibes from the Undead Settlement, like Hemwick Charnel Lane but in the daylight and boy does this place foster a sense of paranoia, like a fucker can and will jump out of the woodwork at any moment.
Also, I'm gonna say, I do appreciate the world layout. From the door where you drop the banner and catch a ride, you can get a good look at what looks to be the entire game world(or at least a lot of it) and while yeah, it's clear it's miniaturized not unlike looking at the horizon from Majula in DS2, it doesn't look anywhere near so artificial, off-scale and flat as the landmarks did from Majula.
I would normally complain about how there's no apparent path from the high wall door(where you fight vordt dog) to the bridge the connects to the undead settlement, but I think it's heavily implied that space is convoluted with the world coming to an end, so everything feeling wierd and off kilter actually makes sense.
Also, fun fact, the very first time I was summoned for jolly co-operation, I expected to fight Vordt the bad dog, since I placed my sign near the door at the bottom of the area. Instead, the host took us back up to the top of the area where Emma hangs out and I ended up fighting the Dancer of the Boreal Valley. Needless to say, I DIED. So apparently the level matchmaking is wierd or the guy doing the summoning was sequence breaking, because yes, I get that there's an early game boss and a late game boss nearly right next to each other, but still it's weird that I I could be summoned for a late game boss fight like that.
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Unfortunately now that the game has been hanging around for a long time its getting pretty common for people to do that specific sequence break at low level, as well as going for some hidden areas really early so there will be a few spots like this where you think you're gonna be going for one guy and you end up with another guy or you see summon signs in places that don't make a pile of sense. I got introduced to a hidden area by summoning a dude to facetank some stuff for me and then watching as he ran face first into a thing expecting me to go that way. On that note, please do dig for those secret areas - one of my favorite bosses in the series is hidden in one of those.
As for me, I've enjoyed Subnautica Below Zero but I'll probably be putting it away shortly. Its solid fun but the early access is starting to kill me a bit with empty log entries and hacky bits here and there. It still has that same sense of horrifying stress for me, as I attempt to sneak around hyperagressive monsters that move very silently, and I'm very impressed with a lot of the new models and animations, but they really held on to some stuff that I don't understand at all. I don't know why any person would intentionally build a scanner room knowing how limited its usefulness is, I can't believe there's no cyclops (yet? I hope?), why would I carry pills to purify snow when pills take up the same amount of inventory space as just carrying water, and oh my god will you guys quit with the "find three chunks of this piece of crap before you can make it" stuff. I get that last one is trying to encourage exploration, but the world is huge and the pieces are clustered in a comparatively tight zone so it makes more sense to use a spiral or grid search pattern in a small area rather than just organically coming across stuff as you progress.
Right now I'm trying to decide between getting Ghostrunner or going for like farming simulator or something. Or I could start a new run of Satisfactory and just make ceaseless fields of production again.
Finished Dead Rising 2. It was fun, just like the first game. It followed the formula of the first game a little too closely in my opinion, but killing zombies with all kinds of crazy weapons is still fun enough to carry the game. It's always nice to play a zombie game that doesn't take itself seriously, and Dead Rising is the exact opposite of serious. Sure, our protagonist Chuck Green is all po-faced stoicism in every cutscene, but that just makes the fact that I had him wearing Groucho Marx glasses, a fedora, and cutoff shorts and shirt from the ladies clothing store all the funnier. That's probably my favourite thing about the game. It's just silly and over the top and it revels in it.
The survivor AI is vastly improved from the previous game, almost a little too much. Escorting survivors is a complete non-issue in this game and basically consists of running from point A to B because they'll follow you no matter what and the regular zombies are not a threat at all. Although a survivor related niggle returns from the first game: I hate how you get a notification flash on the screen when a character that is scripted to die dies. It makes it seem like you did something wrong and could have saved the person even though it's impossible. I also am not a fan of the unannounced survivor missions. I rescued 51/65 possible survivors because the remaining ones are at random locations throughout the mall for limited lengths of time. I saw 3 women in a shop when I was screwing around, after reloading the save I had to take care of a story mission thinking I'd pick them up on the way back, but by the time I got back their invisible timer had run out and they were nowhere to be found. I didn't have an earlier save so I just ended up missing them completely. It's kind of annoying.
All in all I enjoyed the game.
The survivor AI is vastly improved from the previous game, almost a little too much. Escorting survivors is a complete non-issue in this game and basically consists of running from point A to B because they'll follow you no matter what and the regular zombies are not a threat at all. Although a survivor related niggle returns from the first game: I hate how you get a notification flash on the screen when a character that is scripted to die dies. It makes it seem like you did something wrong and could have saved the person even though it's impossible. I also am not a fan of the unannounced survivor missions. I rescued 51/65 possible survivors because the remaining ones are at random locations throughout the mall for limited lengths of time. I saw 3 women in a shop when I was screwing around, after reloading the save I had to take care of a story mission thinking I'd pick them up on the way back, but by the time I got back their invisible timer had run out and they were nowhere to be found. I didn't have an earlier save so I just ended up missing them completely. It's kind of annoying.
All in all I enjoyed the game.
Played some Dishonored. For some reason I stopped around act 3 since... 2017. I'm about done with 4. I think there are like 10 levels. So, getting there. I got a deal on Dishonored 2 so I own that without having finished 1. So, I'm getting to it!
I enjoyed those games a lot. My favorite bit is from the first game, when I tried for the "Mostly Flesh and Steel" achievement (where you don't buy any power upgrades beyond the mandatory Blink 1). I thought it would make the game harder, but honestly, no, it was super easy, barely an inconvenience. Since I wasn't buying upgrades, I didn't need to bother looking for whale bone to pay for upgrades, which basically meant all the side passages that had those rewards at the end (hidden behind massive dangerous threats) I could just ignore. Blink 1 is still more than enough to easily navigate and bypass most threats. So you can just Nightcrawler your way around the map quickly, head to the objective, boom, done.
Dishonored 2 was also fun, and I enjoyed beating it with...shit I forget her name, the queen that you can play as, without using powers. It felt good to just simply refuse the Outsider entirely, and still beat the game with ghost/pacifist.
I stopped playing the Death of the Outsider expansion/dlc , I think I just got burned out too quick on it, having jumped from D2 to that right away. I'll probably go back to it later.
OT: Still playing Ghost of Tsushima: Legends, it's pretty damn fun once you get the hang of the multiplayer. I had a delightful time last night with what sounded like a couple of pre-teen/teenage kids who were on my team. They were quite good, and had a very upbeat demeanor to them. It was so refreshing to play with people who can act like decent human beings, and not be douchebags. It was even more refreshing to hear it from a bunch of pubescent boys.
I am annoyed with the Raid content for the Legend mode, as it's mandatory you have 4 players to do it, and the only option you have for that, is your friends list. Well, I have no friends on playstation, and don't want to add any just for a game mode I might only play for 1 month thank you very much game. I don't know why it won't let me just use the matchmaker for that mode as well, but...whatever.
Still, it's a fun mode, that's been taking up most of my gaming time lately.
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So the way things work in Dark Souls 3 is that the realms of the different lords are all converging on Lothric (almost like techtonic plates smashing into each other). The bridge to the undead settlement actually connects perfectly to Vordt's door, however the entire castle has been lifted up like the surrounding lands are squeezing in on it causing it to be pushed into the air. That's why the bridge doesn't connect.
Yup, that's an intended sequence break. You can choose to fight the dancer super early if you want. People consider the Dancer to be one of the hardest fights in the base game though, so not a lot of people are going to be beating her at level 1.
The level matchmaking isn't weird. Actually, the matchmaking is great. You can matchmake with anyone of any level, and if they're higher level than the host their level gets dropped to the host's level, their weapon level gets dropped to the level of the host's highest level weapon, and their estus charges are reduced to half the amount of estus the host can carry.
It allows you to play through early game areas with late game equipment and get summoned by new players but for it to still be fair. It's a much better system, especially when you want to coop with a specific friend, because it means you don't have to worry about getting too far ahead and ending up with a level difference that prevents you from playing together.
I wouldn't play both back to back, they're very similar, in both gameplay and, sadly, story.
Dishonored 2 does have some interesting variations from the first game, one level in particular. "A Crack in the Slab" for those who want to look it up.
One notable difference I found between the two is that in the first game, the non-violent "assasinations" were often far more cruel then outright killing the targets(condemning the two dudes to work as slaves in their own silver mines comes to mind). Dishonored 2 was the inverse, where it was less cruel in general to go the non-violent route.
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I thought I'd heard you can have level 3 Blink after which the game is basically over: you will just "nightcrawler" your butt where ever you need to go. But at level 2, I don't see that offered. But, I am progressing, using Blink a lot.
Popped in some DmC for a quick blast. It was fun. I tried Travis Strikes Again last night, and I am not liking the combat. What does not help is the sword battery is one of the worst mechanics in gaming and there is no way to upgrade it like in the mainlines games.Why did you do this Suda? It's not fun, it's annoying and makes unnecessary busy work. I might not go back to this, because Miles is right around the corner in a few days.
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I thought it look offset but it's hard to tell. Granted, if the castle has been pushed high in the air on top of a mountain, rotating it as well wouldn't be crazy.
It does give the world a sense of surreal sense of just being off. Lands that shouldn't be next to each other are, Firelink Shrine is rebuilt but now it's different(and the graves are pushing up into the shrine itself) Lands are possibly displaced in time as well as space(Did Anor Londo really survive that long or has it been pulled forward in time from where it was?.
You know how Dark Souls 2 had some really wierd level/world design?
It feels like they were listening to that criticism and decided to make it part of the lore this time around.
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How many times does he have to say he's not attacking the players, Jesus. I thought the thirty seconds in the opening would have been enough. It's obvious. Nobody would have thought he was. Honestly, if you're that weary of the YouTube community, don't make YouTube commentary videos.
Gotta do something to pay those bills. I hope he has other skills or joins up some other website if he hates that much. The dude does not even have to do that. Just play another and more better game. You are not short on options, UPEG.
I now remember why I never subscribed to him.
I don't want to spoil anything for you, but I will say that the map is more logical than you might initially think as DH mentioned, and there are reasons for certain oddities present in the game but it can be something of a journey to actually learn them. That's not to say that there aren't time shenanigans present, but there are people you can find and talk to (or unlock the conversation path with, not my favorite part of any game) that kind of clears up some of the stuff that doesn't quite flow in the playable world. I had to use a guide myself - some of it I swear requires dumb luck to find.
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Yeah, one of my criticisms of Dark Souls 3 is just how many character side quests there are, and just how convoluted most of them are.
In Dark Souls 1 and 2 you could actually just stumble into at least half of them and do them by accident while playing through the games. Dark Souls 3 basically requires a guide for almost every character quest line because you have to travel around the world in a completely nonsensical way sometimes in order to get to the next trigger point for a character, often times going to places you've already fully cleared and would have no reason to go back to.
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My only criticism of that game is that the elite knight armor is behind such a convoluted questline.
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Actually, I think that might be the only quest line in the game that's almost impossible to miss.