What are you currently playing?

[Old_Hunter_77]

So I made another ebay-fu hardware switch and I have a new friend coming in the mail tomorrow: Roger Ally (or the ROG Ally as its Christian name goes by). This is so I can use GamePass as well as Steam on the go (which also includes at home and for smaller games).

The first game I'm eyeing is Citizen Sleeper as it's one of those games that has such a dedicated fan base that I'm intrigued. It's also outside my comfort zone of game styles because it's like mostly just reading? I feel like- books are for reading, games are for playing, you know? But also since much of my gaming is couch + TV it's just really uncomfortable to do that with a reading game (and no it's not like subtitles in a foreign film at all).

But this game is short and on GamePass and I'll be able to have Roger bring the words up to my nose to read them more comfortably so that makes it crazy not to try this acclaimed game.

 

[BrawlMan]

I sometimes look back and wonder why I even played these f'n games.

For the challenge, atmosphere, and deep lore.

​

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

Well, I did it in six but dumb luck was on my side.

Spoiler: First Try

I waste an inordinate amount of time fighting the guards and the devils because I don't know which way is forward yet.

Spoiler: Second Try

I try a ranged battle but give up as soon as I see what a pittance my bow damage is. I make it to the ledge in try zwei but take the wrong turn and realize the ledge will be most of the battle.

Spoiler: Sixth Try

I keep making it to the ledge in tries 3, 4 and 5 but fall down every time when fighting and blocking the rightmost archer's attacks. By this point I don't even bother with the "flying" devils anymore. In try 6 I decide to try and bait the archer towards the buttress so I can run past him there, but he falls to his death when I'm not even looking.

A dangerous game you were playing on those buttresses. Kept thinking you’d strafe dodge off the edge. It’s kinda funny how simply running can trivialize a big chunk of the problem sections in these games. Shield Bashing with a great shield can also take care of the last pesky knight if luck isn’t on your side.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

When I did this, my solution was just to bring the heaviest and most stable shield I could find and put that between me and the archers instead of trying to roll through arrows. As for getting past them on the ledge, I don't even remember how I did it, just that it took me a dozen more attempts between figuring out I had a greatshield and actually getting to the next bonfire with it, and that wasn't a fast process in the first place. For all that I'm able to give out sage advice now, I had a hell of a struggle beating the game myself back in the day.

And speaking of struggles, you're about to hit one of the ones that gets everybody, regardless of their playstyle or prior skill level. Yes, it's nearly time for some 2v1 action against Tom and Jerry, Mario and Luigi, Barkley and Jordan, Abbott and Costello, and whatever other hilarious duo names you can think of. I would spoiler that, but I feel like knowing it at most an hour ahead of time isn't going to spoil all that much, if you didn't already know it was coming through cultural osmosis anyway. And this way, you can be at least slightly more prepared for it.

It won't help.

Strangely enough I had more trouble with them on NG+, but it was mostly because I had to beat the *tougher* one first for the trophy stuff.

The pillars are your best friends in this fight, even when they’re broken.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I sometimes look back and wonder why I even played these f'n games.

 

[Worgen]

Beat Wizordum, its a fps, kinda in the style of Wolfenstein, no jumping and you can't fall off cliffs and the terrain is blocky. Its got a fantastic looking colorful aesthetic to it and the shooting feels pretty good. You do have a larger hit box then you think, but its not a hard game. No hit scan enemies and their shots tend to move rather slow. Your arsenal isn't the best, but it is creative since everything is magic, no shotgun analog though.

Anyway, check out what it looks like here, cause I cannot give its looks justice.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

FF7 Remake: Entered Wall Market in this session, though I didn't quite get as far as seeing Cloud in a dress yet. Have spent quite a lot of time walking around the place, though, and it's got a pretty different vibe to how it felt in the original game. Despite everything, Wall Market in the original felt like just another part of Midgar to me, but the low-to-the-ground view and HD graphics allow the red-light-district feel of the area to really come across in a way it didn't before. Then there's the battle against Hell House, which ended up going a lot better than I expected based on its reputation. Considering how badly Airbuster and a few of the Chapter 8 sidequests mauled me, either it's overblown or I've actually finally started learning to play the game.

And since I can definitely tell where some trouble spots might have been if I wasn't staying cautious because I'd been told the fight was extremely hard, it might be vain but I'm gonna go with the latter.

Anyway, next time we probably finally get to see Cloud in a dress, after a few more minigames. Because it wouldn't be Final Fantasy 7 without minigames.

 

[BrawlMan]

I finished a high score run of Ninja Warriors Again (SNES/SFC). I was able to do a a 1cc run as Kunoichi.

 

[meiam]

Then there's the battle against Hell House, which ended up going a lot better than I expected based on its reputation. Considering how badly Airbuster and a few of the Chapter 8 sidequests mauled me, either it's overblown or I've actually finally started learning to play the game.

They might have nerfed it?

To me the problem with hell house is that it keeps cutting to cutscene mid fight (there's like 4 iirc), every cutscene reset the stagger meter and just really sap the fight momentum, making it super tedious.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

They might have nerfed it?

To me the problem with hell house is that it keeps cutting to cutscene mid fight (there's like 4 iirc), every cutscene reset the stagger meter and just really sap the fight momentum, making it super tedious.

I'll spare you my detailed thoughts on fighting Remake's bosses, but put simply: I get where you're coming from, but I don't feel like that's the effect it has on me.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Beat Ceaseless Discharge and Stray Demon. The "fight" with CD is almost too gimmicky to even bring up. Stray Demon was easy this go around but I'll give it the deference of being the one boss so far to make me give up and Come Back Later.

Now I have to choose between Painted World and the Darkroot Garden. I'm pretty sure I'm all done with DG, it's just I haven't found the boss yet. Would it be harder than whatever's at the end of Painted World?

And do I come around to the Catacombs eventually or am I supposed to just brave it from the Firelink graveyard? Looked like a chasm/dead end to me.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Now I have to choose between Painted World and the Darkroot Garden. I'm pretty sure I'm all done with DG, it's just I haven't found the boss yet. Would it be harder than whatever's at the end of Painted World?

And do I come around to the Catacombs eventually or am I supposed to just brave it from the Firelink graveyard? Looked like a chasm/dead end to me.

The boss in Darkroot Garden is behind that door that Andre sells you the key to. There are ways to get around the door, but they're all kinda convoluted and I never actually learned one. They're definitely easier than the boss of Painted World, technically; even if you do go to the Painted World, it's possible to leave without fighting the boss, because they're not aggressive unless attacked, but if you do fight them, they're fairly difficult. Darkroot Garden's boss is mandatory for completion, but not that hard; the runback's worse than the boss themselves.

As far as I know, there isn't another way into the Catacombs besides the graveyard in Firelink Shrine. The best approach to the Catacombs is to get a blunt weapon and have Andre upgrade it on the Divine path. Divine weapons will put skeletons down 'permanently' (until your next bonfire rest or death) where regular weapons won't, and blunt weapons deal more damage to skeletons.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Dungeons of Hinterland

This came out last year and totally missed my radar (just came across it scrolling GamePass alphabetically).

It's my current favorite genre of games- the Little Bit of Everything genre, joining the company of Cult of the Lamb, Boyfriend Dungeon, and to a lesser extent Dave the Diver.

As the name implies it's dungeon crawling in Austria. The graphics/visuals are like higher on the indy or maybe AA scale- bright simple colors and flat discernable shapes.

Setting is a girl sick of the city life looking for adventure and purpose. So you're in this town dedicated to dungeon crawling. Town part = relationship stuff with various characters. Dungeons are of course combat but to my surprise they're actually mostly environmental puzzle solving.

I just completed the last of the beginner level dungeons. Combat is stupid simple, 6h generation face-buttons controls. What adds the variety and interest is that there are different areas and each one gives you a different pair of magic abilities, which are used both for navigating the environment and as additional attacks in combat.

The pacing is broken up by days which is par for the course of this genre. During the day you can roam around and the time passes if you do a dungeon or pass time at a scenic spot (which boosts stats). The evenings can be to spend time with a character which boosts some stats or perks, and there is that relationship building thing of giving gifts and and all that (which I haven't really gotten into yet).

Most important is that the environments are clear and so far nothing feels fair. Because the controls are simple and the mechanical scope is straight-forward, I'm not wrestling against the game or being blinded by excessive visual information.

I know it's common to get mad at AAA games but my current feeling about that isn't the usual but understandable reasons of them being too long or boring or "made by committee" or whatever- they're just too busy looking and confusing for me so often. I guess right now I like my video games to look like video games not "real life" or cocaine-fueled anime.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Beat Dome Keeper on the huge map on the hardest difficulty "You asked for it". I think they may be overselling the difficulty a bit because I beat it on my first attempt and didn't have any more trouble than on my previous run on a large map on Brutal (recommended) difficulty, except it took twice as long. Maybe the robot + artillery combination is just OP. Anyway, the game is fun enough. It's like the old flash game Motherload, except with base defense mechanics, and I really did like that game back in the day. You dig down and mine resources and use those resources to make yourself better at mining more resources (and also killing the indigenous lifeforms of the planet).

As a game to play a couple times it's fun, as a roguelike you are intended to win dozens of times to unlock everything it's not really great. Run to run variety is low and I was pretty much doing the same things every time, dig a channel straight down from the base and dig a side tunnel every third tile to find all the resource pockets. There are a ton of different challenge modes that let you unlock some other stuff, but I don't really want to do any of them, I feel pretty much done with the game after 5 wins.

 

[BrawlMan]

know it's common to get mad at AAA games but my current feeling about that isn't the usual but understandable reasons of them being too long or boring or "made by committee" or whatever- they're just too busy looking and confusing for me so often. I guess right now I like my video games to look like video games not "real life" or cocaine-fueled anime

Nothing wrong with that. It's always nice to change up and play something else. Though I'll always take asthetics over hyper realism any day, barring a few exceptions. Mainly game from the RE Engine.

The offer for Ninja Saviors and Double Dragon Gaiden is still on a table, if you are interested in either.

Abore I find a much better new character part of DD Gaiden update than Jeff. He's basically Arnold Schwarzenegger. I paired him with Jimmy as my tag partner.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Played a run of Cogmind, a modern traditional roguelike, because I've seen a number of people praising it through the roof. I'm not really sure what I think of it. To be fair, I didn't really have much of an idea what I was doing because I didn't read the manual, but I kind of wish my objective was laid out at the start. All I know for sure is that I'm a robot and, obviously, I keep moving down (there are no up stairs), but I'm not really sure why, at least Nethack tells you that you are looking for the Amulet of Yendor to sacrifice to your god.

The game has quite an involved inventory management system that I don't love. All your equipment can and will be damaged in combat, there are ways to repair stuff, but only if it isn't destroyed. You have 5 inventory slots for unequipped items by default and can equip storage slots to hold more, but only if you have the right type of legs. Treads are really good for support and I can equip a big storage module, but if you want to be fast with flight modules you can't carry anything. There are a ton of stats on every piece of equipment and that means a huge portion of the game is spent pouring over your inventory and trying to decide what equipment is best for your build, but don't get too attached to it because it will probably be destroyed anyway. Avoiding combat is definitely a large part of the game because you don't gain XP or really get a lot of benefit from killing enemies except you get the parts they drop, but you can't carry much because your inventory is so small. The whole thing is pretty overwhelming, and honestly not that fun. What I love about Nethack is that on the surface the game is simple and understandable and you can start playing with nothing but a list of keyboard commands. Move with numpad, bump into monsters to attack. Got it. Not manage an extremely tight inventory before you even know what stats do what and what items are even worth carrying.

My run eventually ended after around an hour and a half when my legs and laser guns got blown off, I hobbled over to a pile of rocket arrays and equiped them and started raining firey destruction on my enemy robots, the building itself, and occasionally myself when I was too close. Then I ran out of 'matter' to make rockets from and couldn't really do much and died.

It's kind of making me think of Dungeon Crawl: Stone Soup. That I never cleared a 15 rune run still rankles, I should probably take another stab at that game instead.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Beat Sif on my first try.

Spoiler

I get hit A LOT while healing during the fight. The first time it's a fluke, but beginning with sippy 2 I'm consciously tanking Sif's attacks by drinking, since I figure I don't have enough time or stamina to block or roll away. As usual I'm more than happy with my damage output, and the bigger the boss the more it pays to stick to its behind/legs, because they can't target for shit. The fight quickly becomes a game of calculated (ish) risk and dumb luck.

 

[meiam]

Played a run of Cogmind, a modern traditional roguelike, because I've seen a number of people praising it through the roof. I'm not really sure what I think of it. To be fair, I didn't really have much of an idea what I was doing because I didn't read the manual, but I kind of wish my objective was laid out at the start. All I know for sure is that I'm a robot and, obviously, I keep moving down (there are no up stairs), but I'm not really sure why, at least Nethack tells you that you are looking for the Amulet of Yendor to sacrifice to your god.

The game has quite an involved inventory management system that I don't love. All your equipment can and will be damaged in combat, there are ways to repair stuff, but only if it isn't destroyed. You have 5 inventory slots for unequipped items by default and can equip storage slots to hold more, but only if you have the right type of legs. Treads are really good for support and I can equip a big storage module, but if you want to be fast with flight modules you can't carry anything. There are a ton of stats on every piece of equipment and that means a huge portion of the game is spent pouring over your inventory and trying to decide what equipment is best for your build, but don't get too attached to it because it will probably be destroyed anyway. Avoiding combat is definitely a large part of the game because you don't gain XP or really get a lot of benefit from killing enemies except you get the parts they drop, but you can't carry much because your inventory is so small. The whole thing is pretty overwhelming, and honestly not that fun. What I love about Nethack is that on the surface the game is simple and understandable and you can start playing with nothing but a list of keyboard commands. Move with numpad, bump into monsters to attack. Got it. Not manage an extremely tight inventory before you even know what stats do what and what items are even worth carrying.

My run eventually ended after around an hour and a half when my legs and laser guns got blown off, I hobbled over to a pile of rocket arrays and equiped them and started raining firey destruction on my enemy robots, the building itself, and occasionally myself when I was too close. Then I ran out of 'matter' to make rockets from and couldn't really do much and died.

It's kind of making me think of Dungeon Crawl: Stone Soup. That I never cleared a 15 rune run still rankles, I should probably take another stab at that game instead.

Maybe you'd like mainframe defender, in sorta similar style but as a squad based tactic.

 

[laggyteabag]

Finished Hi-Fi Rush.

It is clearly a very special game. I just wish I liked spectacle fighters more, so I could have properly appreciated it for what it is.

Dropping it down to easy was definitely the best option for me. I probably would have dropped it otherwise.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Maybe you'd like mainframe defender, in sorta similar style but as a squad based tactic.

Maybe I'll try it sometime, but I think I'll give Cogmind a few more goes, it's making more sense on my second run, and also I want that 15 rune victory on DSCC.