What are you currently playing?

[laggyteabag]

So I've been gorging on Fortnite for about a month now, but I figure it is time to get back to some other games.

I started replaying The Witcher 3 at the beginning of the year, but having been away from the game for a month, I'm not really in the mood to jump back in.

And this is honestly quite personally frustrating, because I had pretty much promised myself that I would finally play the Blood and Wine expansion, and here I am on the precipice of abandoning the game again.

This will probably make it the 4th or 5th time dropping TW3.

If this wasn't a 100+ hour RPG, I would probably just see it through, but if I'm not in the mood, I'm not going to do that to myself.

It just means that when I eventually decide to give it a try again in the future, I'll have to slog through the White Orchard/Bloody Baron/Kiera Metz stuff again, which I'm pretty worn out on already.

- - -

So, what is next?

Maybe a trip down memory lane with something like Mass Effect. Maybe even Portal 2.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

F.I.S.T.: Forged in Shadow Torch

It's a very combat-heavy Metroidvania, focusing on combos, enemy juggling and three different melee weapons and their branching skill sets. The first problem is that Nine Sols kinda ruined combat-heavy Metroidvanias for me; the second is that F.I.S.T. isn't that good anyway. The combos are overlong and convoluted and basically designed to be interrupted. There's no dodge, no roll, no block. You're only allowed to parry, but get this - parrying is limited to the number of heals you have, for some baffling reason. I don't believe I've ever played a game that asks you to split your heals with your parrying attempts. Franky it's kinda nightmarish.

This is a Chinese game and while the jank isn't as prevalent as in Afterimage, the design does have that trademark People's Republic sense of soullessness. The story bits and the voice acting don't help either. I've seen it best described as "having the vibes of Saturday morning cartoon", which is what people say about mediocrity in entertainment.

 

[Casual Shinji]

F.I.S.T.: Forged in Shadow Torch

It's a very combat-heavy Metroidvania, focusing on combos, enemy juggling and three different melee weapons and their branching skill sets. The first problem is that Nine Sols kinda ruined combat-heavy Metroidvanias for me; the second is that F.I.S.T. isn't that good anyway. The combos are overlong and convoluted and basically designed to be interrupted. There's no dodge, no roll, no block. You're only allowed to parry, but get this - parrying is limited to the number of heals you have, for some baffling reason. I don't believe I've ever played a game that asks you to split your heals with your parrying attempts. Franky it's kinda nightmarish.

This is a Chinese game and while the jank isn't as prevalent as in Afterimage, the design does have that trademark People's Republic sense of soullessness. The story bits and the voice acting don't help either. I've seen it best described as "having the vibes of Saturday morning cartoon", which is what people say about mediocrity in entertainment.

I haven't played this in a few years, but I actually quite liked it eventhough, yeah, the jank can be visible. Honestly it was the visual presentation that really hooked me. The industrial realism had major Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee vibes, and together with the heft of the animation it made this feel far more like an Oddworld remake than New 'n Tasty.

This felt more like a beat 'm up than a metroidvania in the vein of Hollow Knight and Nine Sols though. Combat certainly wasn't designed around speed in the same way. Once I got the drill arm I mainly used its windmill attack to destroy enemies anyway.

Can't say this game is great, but it hit on something pretty awesome.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

So I've been gorging on Fortnite for about a month now, but I figure it is time to get back to some other games.

I started replaying The Witcher 3 at the beginning of the year, but having been away from the game for a month, I'm not really in the mood to jump back in.

And this is honestly quite personally frustrating, because I had pretty much promised myself that I would finally play the Blood and Wine expansion, and here I am on the precipice of abandoning the game again.

This will probably make it the 4th or 5th time dropping TW3.

If this wasn't a 100+ hour RPG, I would probably just see it through, but if I'm not in the mood, I'm not going to do that to myself.

It just means that when I eventually decide to give it a try again in the future, I'll have to slog through the White Orchard/Bloody Baron/Kiera Metz stuff again, which I'm pretty worn out on already.

- - -

So, what is next?

Maybe a trip down memory lane with something like Mass Effect. Maybe even Portal 2.

Well if Bloody Baron / Keira Metz is a "slog" than you're probably done with the game, as that's the best part. At least IMO.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I haven't played this in a few years, but I actually quite liked it eventhough, yeah, the jank can be visible. Honestly it was the visual presentation that really hooked me. The industrial realism had major Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee vibes, and together with the heft of the animation it made this feel far more like an Oddworld remake than New 'n Tasty.

This felt more like a beat 'm up than a metroidvania in the vein of Hollow Knight and Nine Sols though. Combat certainly wasn't designed around speed in the same way. Once I got the drill arm I mainly used its windmill attack to destroy enemies anyway.

Can't say this game is great, but it hit on something pretty awesome.

I like the character design fine, reminds me of the grotesque animals in Rango, although of course the one female "animal" is basically an hourglass cosplayer with cat ears. The rain-swept industrial city and grungy environments are neat, the lighting works the atmosphere, there's some impressive 2.5D artwork like the gigantic spinning screw you climb early on. The only thing about the presentation that annoys me is that during cutscenes the game cuts back and forth between prerendered video and in-game pantomime, sometimes several times within a full "story bit", and only for a few seconds each, which takes me out and feels a bit cheap.

I'm mixed about the combat, the vacuum drill is neat but enemy placement makes it I'm always surrounded on both sides and sorely miss some kind of evasion or dash-behind-enemy function. Most combos knock enemies down for a bit but there's no way go continue attacking them while they're down? Even the basic light attack has a wind-up and feels too slow. Maybe it hasn't clicked with me yet but so far feels like I'm working around the combat system rather than with it.

 

[Worgen]

I like the character design fine, reminds me of the grotesque animals in Rango, although of course the one female "animal" is basically an hourglass cosplayer with cat ears. The rain-swept industrial city and grungy environments are neat, the lighting works the atmosphere, there's some impressive 2.5D artwork like the gigantic spinning screw you climb early on. The only thing about the presentation that annoys me is that during cutscenes the game cuts back and forth between prerendered video and in-game pantomime, sometimes several times within a full "story bit", and only for a few seconds each, which takes me out and feels a bit cheap.

Hmm, they tried to make her an anime cat girl so aside from the fur texture, she looks like shes from a different game.

 

[BrawlMan]

Hmm, they tried to make her an anime cat girl so aside from the fur texture, she looks like shes from a different game.

Not gonna lie, this is falling into the uncanny valley for me a little bit.

Zombie Army 4 is on sale (all of DLC too) and I bought that a couple days ago on PSN. I already have a save file so I can continue where i left off. I didn't get that far.

 

[Worgen]

Not gonna lie, this is falling into the uncanny valley for me a little bit.

Its a bad design, doesn't fit the rest of the game since its not animal enough, but its also not anime or human enough to look traditionally attractive. Her design fails in all aspects.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Hmm, they tried to make her an anime cat girl so aside from the fur texture, she looks like shes from a different game.

Right, and then you look at the other characters and they look like actual animals.

 

[laggyteabag]

I briefly tried replaying Mass Effect, but I don't think my heart is in it at the moment.

So I'm going to try replaying the Machine Games Wolfenstein series. Starting with The Old Blood, because that is chronologically what came first.

Just a couple of things to note:
1) the camera head-bob is attrocious. You can turn it off using console commands, but this also breaks ADS.
2) Why, oh why, is the first level basically exclusively stealth? I want to duel-wield shotguns, not sneak in the shadows.

There was briefly some shooting in the prologue, which was fun. I'll be excited to get back to shooting nazis, instead of sneaking around them.

 

[Ezekiel]

Played Crash Bandicoot until the level Native Fortress, the original version of the game, not the remake, of course. Only ever played one level in Uncharted 4 previously. It's lame. It's mediocre. Don't like the character at all, don't understand what his appeal is supposed to be. Way he raises his eyebrows before getting on the hog makes me dislike him more. Music is lame, particularly lame in a time of awesome video game soundtracks. Traversal is too rudimentary and lame. Too linear/railroaded for a 3D game. Tomb Raider and Spyro kick its platform ass. The first Spyro. Only briefly played Spyro 2 because I didn't care for the addition of locked abilities and locked areas and the excessive talking.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Made some more progress in Elden Ring:
-Finally went and got Armorer's Cookbook (1) from Limgrave after forgetting it was there for nearly 20 hours. Charcoal Pine Resin (and equivalent) is one of the most useful consumables in these games, so being able to make my own at any time is a come-up.
-Defeated Commander O'Neil; he's pretty tough, but his slow attacks are easy to read after a couple deaths. Just clear out the first wave of adds, ignore the second, and if he starts kicking up a wind, forget posture breaking him and back off before you catch a cold.
-Also took out several minor bosses to get a couple more levels; reached 40 Vigor at last, so I can start working on other stats too (want enough Endurance to use the Turtle Shield's stamina bonus with the GBG.)
-Defeated Starscourge Radahn. That fight is incredible. No notes.
-Traversed the Dectus Lift to Altus Plateau's east side; I could go straight to Leyndell, but since I have access to the west side of Altus from defeating Makar before, I may as well look around for Volcano Manor and Rykard before heading into the back nine.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

Made some more progress in Elden Ring:
-Finally went and got Armorer's Cookbook (1) from Limgrave after forgetting it was there for nearly 20 hours. Charcoal Pine Resin (and equivalent) is one of the most useful consumables in these games, so being able to make my own at any time is a come-up.
-Defeated Commander O'Neil; he's pretty tough, but his slow attacks are easy to read after a couple deaths. Just clear out the first wave of adds, ignore the second, and if he starts kicking up a wind, forget posture breaking him and back off before you catch a cold.
-Also took out several minor bosses to get a couple more levels; reached 40 Vigor at last, so I can start working on other stats too (want enough Endurance to use the Turtle Shield's stamina bonus with the GBG.)
-Defeated Starscourge Radahn. That fight is incredible. No notes.
-Traversed the Dectus Lift to Altus Plateau's east side; I could go straight to Leyndell, but since I have access to the west side of Altus from defeating Makar before, I may as well look around for Volcano Manor and Rykard before heading into the back nine.

Sounds like you’re getting into a groove. How did you beat Radahn? Usually that fight really pisses people off for several reasons but there’s also ways to trivialize most of them.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Sounds like you’re getting into a groove. How did you beat Radahn? Usually that fight really pisses people off for several reasons but there’s also ways to trivialize most of them.

Summoned a lot of white phantoms and shoved my Grafted Blade Greatsword +5 into his ass while he was distracted by them. Lost a couple of runs to failing to dodge the meteor, though, either killed by it directly or while trying to heal from it.

 

[BrawlMan]

I completed a fresh playthrough of Ninja Gaiden II: Black on Warrior (Hard). I cancelled my Master Ninja Run. At least I completed the game on Mentor (Very Hard).

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

I'm playing the demo for a game called FUMES, which is basically if you mashed together Twisted Metal and Mad Max, complete with PS1 retraux graphics (minus the texture warping, thankfully).The player "character" is some sort of phantom called "The Passenger" who, once you're killed in the prologue, then goes and commandeers another driver. The game feels kind of aimless and confusing at the moment- I'm told that I need to drop cargo off at research stations for... some reason, but although I seem to have cargo in my car, I can't deliver it to the stations. All other activities are either waves of enemies by themselves, waves of enemies with a boss, and waves of enemies with a cargo truck (you're tasked with either defending or capturing it, but you need to keep it from being damaged either way; the only difference is not having friendly cars escorting the truck with capture missions).

Still, it's dumb fun, and the cars handle remarkably well. Plus there's the procedure of pulling into the back of a big truck for repairs and upgrades that scratches a Knight Rider itch.

 

[BrawlMan]

Finally got back into Zombie Army 4. I am trying some of the horde mode levels. This is a fun 3rd person, arcade, zombie shooter. It does get difficult fast too with the horde modes. Some of the DLC is already free since 2022. I am going to get the rest of the DLC, since it's so cheap and on sale right now.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

After running around the west part of Altus Plateau for a while and not finding a way to Volcano Manor because it was all the lower part of Mt Gelnir, I decided to leave that area for a while and go explore the Capital Outskirts instead. So I ended up defeating quite a few bosses today:
-A lightning-elemental Erdtree Burial Watchdog
-A Tibia Mariner (what exactly is the aggro range on these things? Because I feel like it's 'too damn large')
-A Godskin Apostle
-A rematch with Margit the Fell Omen
-Draconic Tree Sentinel, first try, no cheese tactics. If you don't believe me, don't worry, I don't believe me either

That last one gets me inside Leyndell, so the next several days will probably be dedicated to exploring that place. I'm given to understand that it's the size of an entire 2025 quadruple-A game.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

After running around the west part of Altus Plateau for a while and not finding a way to Volcano Manor because it was all the lower part of Mt Gelnir, I decided to leave that area for a while and go explore the Capital Outskirts instead. So I ended up defeating quite a few bosses today:
-A lightning-elemental Erdtree Burial Watchdog
-A Tibia Mariner (what exactly is the aggro range on these things? Because I feel like it's 'too damn large')
-A Godskin Apostle
-A rematch with Margit the Fell Omen
-Draconic Tree Sentinel, first try, no cheese tactics. If you don't believe me, don't worry, I don't believe me either

That last one gets me inside Leyndell, so the next several days will probably be dedicated to exploring that place. I'm given to understand that it's the size of an entire 2025 quadruple-A game.

One of the things that pulled me into these games for years was that odd rhythm where one day you're stuck one annoying area or enemy and then a couple days you go on this massive slaughter run of victory, due to some combination of locking into your build and play-style, running into a series of enemy types that you're comfortable, or just generally being "in the zone" like a musician or athlete on their best day.

Edit to add: and I think a big reason I get turned off by the post-Sekiro souls-likes is that the whole waiting for parry feel throws that rhythm off. You can't go on unga-bash-athons or wizardy zap-athons to lay waste any more. And even Sekiro allowed raw aggression and I was able to take those victory lap slaughter tours on NG+(+(+)).

 

[NerfedFalcon]

One of the things that pulled me into these games for years was that odd rhythm where one day you're stuck one annoying area or enemy and then a couple days you go on this massive slaughter run of victory, due to some combination of locking into your build and play-style, running into a series of enemy types that you're comfortable, or just generally being "in the zone" like a musician or athlete on their best day.

Edit to add: and I think a big reason I get turned off by the post-Sekiro souls-likes is that the whole waiting for parry feel throws that rhythm off. You can't go on unga-bash-athons or wizardy zap-athons to lay waste any more. And even Sekiro allowed raw aggression and I was able to take those victory lap slaughter tours on NG+(+(+)).

It hasn't been entirely on purpose every time, but there are instances where I've been able to smack a boss during the wind-up for one of their 'charged' attacks and still get control back soon enough to dodge the attack. There's also learning to jump over 'shockwave' attacks and throw out a JR1, or using boosted poise from a Weapon Art to trade and secure a stance break... Elden Ring might be kind of wacky compared to Dark Souls 1, but I've found there's still plenty you can do to dominate a boss.