What are you currently playing?

[Old_Hunter_77]

Demos!

Pragmata
I added my impressions in its dedicated thread but basically, I liked it.

Replaced
The hot new indy walk-to-the-right-'em-up. This one emphasizes style over gameplay, with a Balde Runner-esque wet cyberpunk theme.
Unfortunately, the combat and platforming has the "heavy" feeling, kind of like Ender Lillies, that is really annoying. I dunno how else to describe it- it's like every action feels like it's moving through mud, and I feel like there's a delay between input and result. It's a purposeful style to make the actions feel deliberate, which I get, but I just don't like it.

 

[Xprimentyl]

I took the day off to dive into Crimson Desert a little bit, but I started with some Minecraft. Hot take: Minecraft is more punishing than most games. I knew this long ago, but it hit me particularly hard today. I've been playing survival mode for weeks (not "daily for hours on end" or anything, just several sessions over the course of weeks,) and I'd spent that time meticulously collecting basic necessities for my planned one-way trip away from my spawn home base. I trekked out to the edge of one of my maps, then to the edge of another. I was in a boat in what I thought as the middle of nowhere and safe from enemies on land, so instead of doing the usual makeshift shelter to survive the night, I decided I could safely float in my boat. Well, Slimes like to swim apparently, because while I was on my phone waiting for night to end, I was attacked and killed by one. EVERYTHING I'd collected lost, including the maps I'd somehow overlooked that I'd also lose in such an event to navigate back to my shit. Now, I'm huddled in a basic-b*tch dirt hut with wooden tools and a bunch of raw meat like I just started the game. Fuck. I don't even feel like playing Crimson Desert now, but I might have to in order to reset my "enjoy my day off" mindset.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

Defeated Radahn and it was pretty easy. Was I overleveled at 65? So far I haven't had to shake up my strat over anybody. I just wear whatever offers most protection while keeping me from fat rolling, and upgrade BHF and Brass Shield whenever I can.

And I found my first bug: tried fighting a ghost moose boss and it suddenly clipped through the floor and died. Thank goodness the trophy still popped.

Apparently you’re smack in the middle of the suggested range for him. Did you have any trouble with the projectiles while running to him? Seems that was a common complaint back when I first played. Felt it was pretty easy to time the dodge after some practice, especially on Torrent.

What’s funny is I think that also happened to me if it’s the one in the cave area.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Apparently you’re smack in the middle of the suggested range for him. Did you have any trouble with the projectiles while running to him? Seems that was a common complaint back when I first played. Felt it was pretty easy to time the dodge after some practice, especially on Torrent.

What’s funny is I think that also happened to me if it’s the one in the cave area.

Radahn took me 3 tries. Immediately died to his projectiles on my first attempt, next 2 had zero problems getting to him with Torrent.

I think in general I've had a rougher time facing dragons and gaol bosses a little too early for my build. The big story bosses all get a badass intro and cap a cool dungeon, but so far the fights themselves are really not that big of a deal. Maybe it's just that no FromSoft game will ever be as hard as your first. But for the rare gimmick fight don't think the boss math has ever changed that much.

The moose ghost boss was the second one you get to fight in Nokron. Apparently it's always been buggy and the trophy wouldn't pop for some people, even on NG+.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Vampire Crawlers, a deck-builder by the team that made Vampire Survivors, just came out. I played the demo and I thought it was pretty good, so I bought it.

Turns out the full game is also pretty good. It works in VS mechanics well in a way that makes it feel like 'Vampire Survivors as a deck-builder' rather than 'a deck-builder themed around Vampire Survivors', and as a result it plays pretty differently to other deck-builders like Slay the Spire 2, in a good way. I don't know about its long-term potential yet, but it's at least fun to play for now; I'll see how it pans out over a greater number of runs.

 

[Ezekiel]

Finished Ape Escape 3 a week ago. I've now beaten the whole trilogy. The MGS3 extra campaign unlocked for finishing the game lost its novelty when I realized how compromised the controls are. Trying kind of to be MGS, but also having to be Ape Escape. Made me better appreciate how nice and deep the controls of MGS3 are.

Oh cool, just noticed that I don't have to get all the monkeys in Ape Escape 1's time attack replays. Then I'll try to bring my completion up to 100 percent.

 

[FakeSympathy]

Vampire Crawlers, a deck-builder by the team that made Vampire Survivors, just came out. I played the demo and I thought it was pretty good, so I bought it.

Turns out the full game is also pretty good. It works in VS mechanics well in a way that makes it feel like 'Vampire Survivors as a deck-builder' rather than 'a deck-builder themed around Vampire Survivors', and as a result it plays pretty differently to other deck-builders like Slay the Spire 2, in a good way. I don't know about its long-term potential yet, but it's at least fun to play for now; I'll see how it pans out over a greater number of runs.

Having played it myself, I think I realized I why I hated rogulike games so much; This game doesn't drag on when it comes to the battles.

It's not afraid to kill you because of a terrible draw or making a mistake in the card combos; Each battle seem to end under 3 min, whether it's my victory or death.

I mean I liked Hades, but I feel the game forced me to go through a slow and painful death sometimes; Not to mention, the area maps are laid out, and I don't have to spend 20 min just to get to the boss;

Everything is really fast-paced.

I just beaten the bridge stage, and at first, I thought it was a sluggerfest with how many rows of enemies there are, and kept getting my ass kicked. But then I tried switching to another crawler.... and boom! I kicked ass right through it

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Ghost of Yotei

Couldn't resist re-acquiring a PS5 from a pawn shop and cleaning it up with new Yotei-themed Yotei plates, right before the price hike and everything.

Just started this up last night. My god, it's just so pretty. Yes, I knew it would be, I played Tsushima, but after futzing about with indies and retros and demos, I admit it's nice to just bask in some GRAPHIX and VISTAS.

The biggest criticism this game got is that the story is banal compared to the previous but I'm fine with it. Go to open world and kill baddies for revenge is like the perfect framing device for a second Ghost game. It's like- if you want more of it, here is your excuse. I would really strongly never recommend this game to anyone who hadn't played Tsushima for this reason. So far, this game does nothing to deprecate the last one. It really is for the Ghost faithful.

So, I like the story, the world, the gameplay. What's my problem? I can't parry for shit! I don't know if they made the delay longer from when the enemy signals a parry-able-only attack (the blue glint) to when they attack or it seems to be they did because I haven't played a parry-combat game in a while, but it's killing me.
I suspect the game adjusts difficulty on the fly. Every time I get in a fight with more than 3 enemies, I get slaughtered quickly. Second attempt, I last a bit longer, and third attempt I kill them easily. I don't feel like it's just that I got better.

The two things I'm looking forward to finding more about are:
- The bounties. I've done two, and they each had unique dialogues and characters. Looking up a trophy guide tells me there are 31 bounties. If they're all like this, that's pretty impressive!
- Some main quests are about learning some skill (I did one so far, the dual katana) and the dialogues tell me these are necessary to take down a main boss. So I wonder if it will let me try a boss without learning its "required" skill mission, and if so, what'll happen.

 

[BrawlMan]

I did an arcade run of Third Strike with Dudley. I managed to do a 1cc. I got an A rank overall. I'm playing as Makoto right now for another run, and my god is she fun!

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Hit the first true brick wall after playing like 60 hours of Elden Ring. It's the Valiant Gargoyle fight. Not sure if I suck or I'm supposed to come back later to it. I haven't been using summons or the cheesy stuff like Mimic Tear and don't want to cave. If it's a late game fight, I'd rather get the proper experience; if it's a now fight, I've made it fine so far, so what's another hour trying?

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

Hit the first true brick wall after playing like 60 hours of Elden Ring. It's the Valiant Gargoyle fight. Not sure if I suck or I'm supposed to come back later to it. I haven't been using summons or the cheesy stuff like Mimic Tear and don't want to cave. If it's a late game fight, I'd rather get the proper experience; if it's a now fight, I've made it fine so far, so what's another hour trying?

They’re resistant to practically everything except Strike damage, so if you’re still BHF’ing it that’s kinda rough. Their “cousins” the Black Blade Kindred are even bigger pricks. If you keep the first one near the entrance it buys some time before the other can reach you when it crashes the party.

 

[Worgen]

Hit the first true brick wall after playing like 60 hours of Elden Ring. It's the Valiant Gargoyle fight. Not sure if I suck or I'm supposed to come back later to it. I haven't been using summons or the cheesy stuff like Mimic Tear and don't want to cave. If it's a late game fight, I'd rather get the proper experience; if it's a now fight, I've made it fine so far, so what's another hour trying?

Yeah, those guys suck. Its one of those, gotta just learn it. My second time through they were nothing, but the initial time is rough.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

They’re resistant to practically everything except Strike damage, so if you’re still BHF’ing it that’s kinda rough. Their “cousins” the Black Blade Kindred are even bigger pricks. If you keep the first one near the entrance it buys some time before the other can reach you when it crashes the party.

Yeah, those guys suck. Its one of those, gotta just learn it. My second time through they were nothing, but the initial time is rough.

Thanks! I just beat them by switching to the meanest Strike weapon I had on me (Watchdog's Staff) and buffing it up to +7. Extra damage was nice but the ranged magic skill ended up making the difference. And what a weird thing that it requires 0 points in either Int, Fai or Arc to operate. Str build continues to save the day.

 

[Bartholen]

Cleared Magus in Chrono Trigger last night. Going back to this game after so long feels thoroughly weird. It is not living up to the memory of it I had in my head, but that doesn't necessarily make it bad. It's more like going back to the theme park you used to love as a kid, and realizing it's actually much smaller than you remember. I remembered Frog having this really epic and complex backstory, how Magus, Ozzie, Flea and Slash were built up a lot, how the Fiendlord's Keep was this really big, long and challenging dungeon crawl and so on. And they're just not. Maybe it's because I still remember where you're supposed to at each point in the story that makes it easier, but it's not like the world is some huge, complex web with tons of side paths: everything's pretty clearly signposted. But arriving at the Fiendlord's Keep less than 7 hours in definitely shrank the feeling of epicness I remembered.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

Thanks! I just beat them by switching to the meanest Strike weapon I had on me (Watchdog's Staff) and buffing it up to +7. Extra damage was nice but the ranged magic skill ended up making the difference. And what a weird thing that it requires 0 points in either Int, Fai or Arc to operate. Str build continues to save the day.

Probably no coincidence that the first gesture in the game is Strength either. Miyazaki even stated somewhere he’s more of a melee fan himself.

 

[meiam]

Cleared Magus in Chrono Trigger last night. Going back to this game after so long feels thoroughly weird. It is not living up to the memory of it I had in my head, but that doesn't necessarily make it bad. It's more like going back to the theme park you used to love as a kid, and realizing it's actually much smaller than you remember. I remembered Frog having this really epic and complex backstory, how Magus, Ozzie, Flea and Slash were built up a lot, how the Fiendlord's Keep was this really big, long and challenging dungeon crawl and so on. And they're just not. Maybe it's because I still remember where you're supposed to at each point in the story that makes it easier, but it's not like the world is some huge, complex web with tons of side paths: everything's pretty clearly signposted. But arriving at the Fiendlord's Keep less than 7 hours in definitely shrank the feeling of epicness I remembered.

I know as I kid I tended to get lost a lot more, and chrono trigger sorta has high random combat rate if you're just going back and forth trough main path, because of the fight trigger point being plentiful (flip side if you know where they are, you can avoid all of them pretty easily for speedy dungeon clear).

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

I'm really hitting a wall in Elden Ring. I can't get past Margit (though I did get him down past 20%; I just can't react fast enough when he whips out that dagger) and I can't figure out where to go in Caelid for the life of me. I did find Blaidd, though; wolf-bro is BEST-bro.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

I'm really hitting a wall in Elden Ring. I can't get past Margit (though I did get him down past 20%; I just can't react fast enough when he whips out that dagger) and I can't figure out where to go in Caelid for the life of me. I did find Blaidd, though; wolf-bro is BEST-bro.

What kind of build do you have so far? You could do STR/INT and basically train to be like wolf-bro. A decent shield with the barricade skill is a good alternative to dodging stuff. Ask @Old_Hunter_77 about his revenge run.

 

[Worgen]

I'm really hitting a wall in Elden Ring. I can't get past Margit (though I did get him down past 20%; I just can't react fast enough when he whips out that dagger) and I can't figure out where to go in Caelid for the life of me. I did find Blaidd, though; wolf-bro is BEST-bro.

He can be really rough initially. You can go south for runes and levels, but you can also go to Patches in Murkwater Cave who sells Margit's Shackle. I think it stuns him or something.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

Busy 4D demo
Am not coming at this with intentions of pouncing on low-hanging fruit, there's always a chance of improvement over time. Plus I don't remember much of previous games beyond a vague feeling of borem and annoyance at the attempts of humour. And hey a demo is in some way a sign of good faith i prefer to meet halfway where possible. it does appear there's been a noticeable effort put into this one, compared to before. Holding back on the weird non-self-aware-but-craving-to-be-self-aware dialogue, making the eponymous character a bit more older and pathetic helps a bit with younger characters sorta there to mock him instead. It's not mind blowing but it is a more tolerable angle. The platforming is alright, though camera needs a bit of tuning to keep it under control. And while it's not fair to compare this to juggernauts like Mario, it does seem fairer to do so with Big Hops instead: the recent indie frog platformer who endeared itself. And by this I mean what it could really do with to punch it up to a more enjoyable experience is having more interactable environment bits so the world feels less static and more playful. It may seem unimportant but makes a universe of difference to the second to second experience. Constructive criticism deployed. Sensors now aligned and targeting bed.