[Mentalist]

Alternative Goose, on 30 November 2018 - 09:37 AM, said:

The talk of losing souls on death and bonfire like systems definitely put me off Darksiders.

In my experience, you don't really "lose" Souls. When you die, they just float where you died. The checkpoints are pretty generous, so you're never more than a few fights away from where you may have died.

The combat CAN suck due to the camera, to be fair. When you jump down into a cavern, and multiple enemies rush you, it can lead to some cheap deaths, because you dodge one, get backed to a wall, and then just get rushed and die. In those cases I usually come back, just turn on Havoc form which kills most normal mobs in a few hits, grab my souls and move along.

I'm loving the level design, because it's basically non-linear Soul Reaver. I'm identifying spots that are likely to move the story forward, and then avoiding them and exploring every other corner. Can't comment on any more bosses yet, except I checked out that Chosen mini-boss I found earlier, and he kicked my ass a few times. So then I zipped back in his chamber, grabbed my souls and ran off to explore elsewhere.

Can't wait until the weekend when I can really sink my teeth into it- so far I've just been messing around the world a few hours at a time.

Edit: and when you DO fight one on one, even a strong regular enemy, the combat can totally feel as bad-ass as the previous Darksiders games.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 30 November 2018 - 04:33 PM

[Mentalist]

20 hours into it now. I killed 4 3 Sins so far (turns out Wrath wasn't caught) and I know exactly where Sloth is, but I didn't feel like fighting him-that's the fight that's been shown the most, and I don't need the mobs to scale anymore right now.

The character progression is rudimentary, but those points add up. I'm at level 39 now, and the early game mobs are basically trash now, just like in previous games. Sure, it takes a lot of time to get there, but once you've got the points and the weapon upgrades, Fury is a proper bad-ass dancing her ballet of death around all but the beefiest enemies.

The bosses are... decently challenging. I spent a bunch of tries fighting one of them, because mid-fight it summons a powerful reinforcement, and that requires you to adjust your tactics a bit.

I explored most of the 4 zones now (not fully, because I still don't have the last Hollow). I'm mostly rocking the Flame Hollow, because it has an awesome arcane counter, and the flails are a high DPS close quarters weapon to complement the longer-range whip- which mirrors my favourite Darksiders II combo of scythes and claws/armblades/gauntlets as a quick secondary weapon. The Storm form looks hella cool (the jump ability is basically doing an extended float, X-men style), but the Lance is underwhelming. The Force hollow is meh, because I don't like slow heavy weapons like hammers- they require too much timing finesse. Most traversal requires the triple jump, which is another reason why Flame is the default choice for me.

Killed 2 (Edit: 3) of those Chosen mini-bosses now, and maxed out my health regen enhancement, which helps.

Gunfire is working on a patch that's supposed to fix the crashing errors (had a few of those, but nothing critical), which hopefully will improve performance. I suspect the reason the game's chugging a bit on my PC is b/c I run all my games off an external hard drive, but if it can get improved, all the better.

Apparently THQ Nordic only needs this to sell 100k copies to make a profit. I can definitely see it pull those numbers. It's small scope, but we'll put together action game with a cool setting and premise. We don't have a whole lot of those.

EDIT: got to the fifth area (the underwater one) and HOLY CRAP, SO PRETTY. Fairly confusing, but SO GORGEOUS.
-killed Sin no. 4. That was a tough fight, and it took me a while to figure out stage 2. As it turned out, the hint is in the name-poetic, really.
-having done that, looking over the Depths again, so many shortcuts! It's a bit ridiculous how many secrets there actually are, and how layered this map is. Whomever designed this is a mad genius. Fury is now level 50, and once I'm done going over every place where I can use my shiny new Hollow power, I'll be ready to go explore the last of the 6 areas.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 04 December 2018 - 08:05 AM

[Serenity]

Finished chapter 3 of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 last night. Holy crap, that was possibly the most spectacular story/action sequence I've ever played. I say 'possibly' because, if it's anything like the first game, it's just going to keep ramping up and up. But damn, once you get the hang of the combat system it is so satisfying.

Also finished Therion's chapter 3 in Octopath Traveler

[Serenity]

Eryth Sea and Alcamoth were lovely. Wasn't so keen on Satorl Marsh.

[Serenity]

I thought Eryth Sea was far prettier at night. And there were a couple of other areas but I'm not sure if you've reached them yet, so won't spoil.

[Aptorian]

I'm between jobs so I've had time to play a bunch of stuff.

After I finished Red Dead (Main Story, I put the epilogue on hold) I was sort of rudderless.

I started up Spider-Man but the intro felt waaay too hectic after Red Dead so I put it aside.

Started up Super Mario Odyssey instead and started switching back and forth between Odyssey and Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker. That's a fantastic combination.

Earlier this year I stated that God of War might be the best game I've ever played, it's definitely my favorite game this year. Odyssey may be the Ying to God of Wars Yang though.

God of War is a heavily story based, character focused, action and exploration game. It's a serious game that's very polished. Odyssey is the complete opposite but equally impressive. It's so open and carefree. It's completely devoid of story and laser focused on gameplay. Odyssey is such a simple premise but it works flawlessly. Explore the world and collect every coin and moon you can find. Compared to utter AAA games it feels surprisingly pure.

The only criticism I can level at the game is that it repeats certain challenges between world's again and again. Which makes a part of the exploration feel rote if you binge on the game.

I'm about two thirds through Odyssey but I put it aside because I wanted to savor the rest of the game.

Picked up the Ratchet & Clank 2016 movie tie in reboot. I loved the PS3 trilogy but some of the later games afterwards where not fun. Thankfully, this new one is a return to form. It's such fun running around blasting enemies with ridiculous weapons and collecting bolts and crystals for upgrades. I beat it relatively quickly and had to stop myself from jumping back into new game plus. I'll be replaying that game next year I think.

Then I picked Horizon Zero Dawn up again. I kept postponing that game despite only having two story missions left. I think it's an excellent game but the story didn't really grab me and I'd played A LOT of the game so I was in no rush to finish it. Well, yesterday I did finish it. Pretty cool ending. Gigantic plot hole in there but very emotional and heartfelt. Loved the end and setup for another game.

I sort of want Aloy to travel to Europe and find medival kingdoms and machine dragons, etc. I'd love to fight machines with laser swords and shields.

Finally picked Spider-Man back up ladt night and now I was able to get into it. I still think that intro is way too hectic for my taste but afterwards the game world is unlocked and the fun starts.

[Mentalist]

After messing about the already opened world finding uses for my new Hollow. Climbing highlited walls isn't anything special, but walking on water and freezing it under my feet to use as platform for a high jump is a moderately clever idea.

Moved on to The Scar, the last of the 6 "regions". It feels like it's filling the game's quota of puzzles all at once. Ability to " freeze time" and use it to manipulate gigantic machinery allows for some interesting tricks, but I died a lot. Partially because just like in DSII the demons are ridiculously hard-hitting (though they aren't particularly big on HP). Also, a ton of combat takes place on ledges and platforms over pits. And plunging off a cliff leads to a respawn, but it takes about a third of your health.

That being said, the sword you get with the last Hollow is game-breaking. Doing an arcane counter with the sword freezes your opponent, allowing you to get a free combo in. Then their next hit is slowed, improving changes of a successful dodge, allowing you to do ANOTHER arcane counter, re-charging the slowdown effect- and in boss battles, this allows you to essentially chain a counter combo, leaving a boss no chances to hit you. It helped that I collected a metric shit ton of adamantine, so I was able to max out the damage on the sword as well. Fighting one of the Sins I got into a ridiculous situation where he was trying to heal by taking health from spawning mobs (attacking them instead of me), and I was following him, hitting him non-stop delivering damage quicker than he could heal. And then Fury delivers a few good cold lines in a cutscene, combined with her bright ice-blue hair making for a memorable and epic moment.

36 hours in, I feel I'm getting close to endgame. The game's not without its faults, but I don't regret the purchase at all.

[Khellendros]

Dived back into Sea of Thieves with the new Shrouded Spoils update. New megalodons, reworked kraken, roaming skeleton ships, more skeleton forts, reworked mermaid statues...this is a big effort to increase the ways in which you can earn loot. But the main feature is fog. Doesn't sound like much, but it is a fantastic new feature beautifully implemented. The way it rolls in and gradually becomes denser and denser is gorgeous, and so eerie when you're in the middle of it and all you can see is your own ship and maybe a couple of metres around you. Rocks, ships, and cannonballs appear as if from nowhere, and you can easily sail right past another ship without either ever knowing the other was there.

The one thing I would say is that, for solo players like me, it's become even harder to achieve anything, there's just too many dangers everywhere.

[Mentalist]

yup, finished. about 38 hours to credits.

The story is... kinda odd in the end. I'm not 100% where Gunfire are going with this.

But the gameplay loop was a lot of fun. I think I'll try this on Apocalyptic a bit later once the DLC with the Abyssal armor comes out.
(Edit: I wrote a long review on GOG, rambling out my thoughts on it. It's a solid 8/10 for me, one of the best games I played this year.

Now I think I should go back to Prince of Persia and see if I can salvage that playthrough or if I need to start again.

EDIT: I'm also tempted to replay Blood Omen 2, since it has the best gameplay in the series (but subpar story). Played the tutorial level, and boy, did that game not age well.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 11 December 2018 - 06:58 AM

[Mentalist]

Went back to PoP: Warrior Within. Replayed large chunks to collect the health upgrades. After playing hack'n'slash Darksiders for the past few months, I'm doing much, much better with combat- I managed to beat the Empress the 1st time without relying on a glitch. Also picked up the best sword, which helps.

Hopefully this means I'll manage the second fight as well and finally finish this game.
EDIT: finished. With all the health upgrades and the shiny sword I unlocked the "good" ending and the boss fight was a bit anti-climactic once I spam slow time continuously to whale on him.

So I moved on to "The Two Thrones" and things have gone to shit quickly. The game's propensity to do stealth kills via QTEs and continuously give me controller prompts are pretty annoying so far.
EditAgain (Dec 13th). Whomever programmed those M+K controls needs to be chained to a desk and made to play the game in a dank cell and not be allowed to see sunlight or another human being until they finish the game without a controller. The camera is horrendous, and I'm expected to use a set of keys (originally the arrow keys, remapped to num arrows by me, since I use the arrows and not WASD for movement) to tweak it myself. I don't have 3 hands, Ubisoft! Why can't you just tie camera to the mouse like every normal 3rd person game?

And STOP TELLING ME TO USE ANALOG STICKS!

The use of 2 forms is an interesting enough twist on the formula, I'll admit.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 13 December 2018 - 01:33 PM

[Serenity]

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 - had a unique level 49 monster pick a fight with me. My party was lvl 43. Whittled its health down with blade combos then unleashed a chain attack on it that did 942,000 damage. I've never felt so proud

[Morgoth]

Into the Breach is really fun!

[Gintokian]

Picked up the new SSB Ultimate, may have taken yesterday off to play it... Pretty fun so far, tons of characters, more fast-paced than the last couple.
Takes a lot of getting used to since I mostly play melee so it's quite different than that but seems a lot better than Smash4.

Had to ice my hand last night, but i'm sure it had nothing to do with playing for 8 hours or anything...

[Mentalist]

Hit a glitch yesterday when the Dark Prince wouldn't jump off a second spring/shutter in a wall-running sequence.
Went online and apparently it's a really old bug and the way around it is to turn Vsync on and off. Hopefully this allows me to progress further.

It's nice to have the old Prince's tone back, and his banter with Farah works well.

[Aptorian]

Weird, I could swear I posted about finishing Spider-Man earlier this week. Did it get deleted?

Anyway, finished Spider-Man earlier this week. Great open world game. Great superhero game. I had issues with some of the writing and directing which undermined the emotional crescendo of the last chapters. However any fan of Spider-Man is bound to love this game.

Started up Detroit Become Human. I'm about two-thirds through the game. I love this game.

If you dislike the kind of games Quantic Dreams make, like Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls, you'll probably still not like Detroit, but it's the best written, best designed game they've made yet.

The concept of robots as slaves in America is of course very on the nose but I think the game is excellent. The animation and dialogue I'd occasionally clunky but also very unique.

There's both a tension and feeling of openness to the choices the game makes you go through, even though when you review the post chapter tree of possibilities, you realize the game funnels you through a narrow set of circumstances. My cop Android died in the very first chapter which freaked me out. I've had outcomes where only 4% of players went my route.

I get super tense while playing it so I have to stop every hour or so and do something else.


Also just started Assassin's Creed Odyssey. Still very early on but the opening gives a great first impression. First RPG conversation interaction I immediately got punched in the face which made me burst out laughing. The game has humor.

I'm playing as Cassandra, the female protagonist, since I heard she has the best voice actor. I love her design. You'd fear they just make her a dainty photomodel but she's built like a power lifter and covered in scars. She looks believable as a fighter.

This post has been edited by Alternative Goose: 14 December 2018 - 06:33 PM

[Malankazooie]

I saw your Spider-Man post. Then saw it was gone, and I thought maybe you deleted it because you accidentally included spoilers. I want to play Spider-Man eventually.

I listen to 1A on my drive to work sometimes. Earlier this week the topic was video games. The host, who is more of a casual video game player, stated that Detroit: Become Human brought him to tears. Also, a guy who worked on Spider-Man is interviewed. Link: https://the1a.org/sh...future-of-games. Nothing that great, but might be a fun listen if you have some time.

[Serenity]

Alternative Goose, on 14 December 2018 - 06:32 PM, said:

Weird, I could swear I posted about finishing Spider-Man earlier this week. Did it get deleted?

Anyway, finished Spider-Man earlier this week. Great open world game. Great superhero game. I had issues with some of the writing and directing which undermined the emotional crescendo of the last chapters. However any fan of Spider-Man is bound to love this game.

Started up Detroit Become Human. I'm about two-thirds through the game. I love this game.

If you dislike the kind of games Quantic Dreams make, like Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls, you'll probably still not like Detroit, but it's the best written, best designed game they've made yet.

The concept of robots as slaves in America is of course very on the nose but I think the game is excellent. The animation and dialogue I'd occasionally clunky but also very unique.

There's both a tension and feeling of openness to the choices the game makes you go through, even though when you review the post chapter tree of possibilities, you realize the game funnels you through a narrow set of circumstances. My cop Android died in the very first chapter which freaked me out. I've had outcomes where only 4% of players went my route.

I get super tense while playing it so I have to stop every hour or so and do something else.

I loved Detroit Become Human. It would be my favourite game released this year if it wasn't for God of War.

[Mentalist]

hit another bug in PoP: The Two Thrones, and can't seem to find a way around this one.

Unless I'm able to find a workaround somewhere, I'll have to shelve it.

Started to download Rage from my Steam library. Gonna check it out to see what that world's all about. Then I'll probably move on to the Metro games, since I read the books, and Exodus is coming.

[Serenity]

Very impressed with the bit of Thronebreaker I played yesterday.

[Khellendros]

I got God of War, Spider-Man, and Red Dead 2 for my birthday. Which to start first?

*pops in Destiny 2, hates himself*