[Tiste Simeon]

Man I suck at Shadow of Mordor but I do love it!

[Mentalist]

Been messing around w/ Witcher 2. Since i've been kept busy with other things, only getting a few hours tops a night into it.

Still in Flotsam. Dark mode isn't all THAT hard. I mean, I die a fair bit, but every time it's cuz I do something stupid like roll into a clump of nekkers and get flanked by a few at once.

My single biggest challenge right now is finding silver ore to complete the Kayran trap. Also, i'm constantly strapped for cash. The smith has schematics for a sweet set of "Blasphemer's" items, but they are ridiculously expensive. But if I buy and craft one, I get a quest to complete the set.

Level-wise i'm halfway to lvl 9, striving to unlock that flanked damage reduction lvl 2, so that I stop taking insane damage from being flanked. Once I get that, it's time to go endrega hunting, and then probably to do the haunted hospital.

Tiste, since you've been playing it recently: in my raandom exploring I found the cabin in the swamp on the other side of the troll's ruined bridge. I killed the bandits, but I need the key to get in. Any idea where I'd get the key?

[Tiste Simeon]

No clue sorry! I've been playing Shadow of Mordor recently, I am useless at the Witcher. I spent ages roaming that wood and getting lost regularly... The wiki might tell you if you want to cheat slightly...

[Mentalist]

Put in a few more hours.

Silver ore was where I half-suspected it'd be-the one cave system I still haven't explored at that point.

Also finished the troll quest. The cemetary fight has managed to convince me that in the Dark mode every encounter with 3 or more opponents is not to be taken lightly, requires preparation and planning.
Taking down 4 enemies took me probably about 50 tries untill I finally realised that I need oil AND to down a Swallow, AND use at least 3 signs during the fight. Also, the golden rule of fighting armored/shielded/mini-boss enemy- 2 hits and roll away. Basically main reason Geralt dies in this game is when the player gets greedy and tries to "go in for the kill" too soon, and ends up surrounded.

It was a humbling lesson. But now I'm lvl 9, and I FINALLY got rid of the "take extra damage when flanked" handicap. Next goal: unlock Riposte!

Oh, and it seems this round of playing the Witcher games is when I finally figure out how the fistfight mechanics work. In TW1 I finally figured out that the changing cursor is a prompt to block and evade. In TW2 I stumbled onto the fact that HOLDING the first prompted key (instead of double-tapping), slows down time, so there's enough of it to hit the second promted key and counter your opponent's counter, so to speak.

Just about set to do the Kayran fight. Think I may take one one of the Endrega queens first though, just to get a better feel for non-humanoid combat.

[Mentalist]

Tips for fighting the Kayran on Dark (spent a number of hours doing this, because fuck QTEs)

Tip 1: turn off Hard QTEs in the game settings, unless you're a hardcore twitch gamer.
Tip 2: it goes w/o saying that a Witcher must be prepared. Craft the Kayran trap and brew + drink the Mongoose potion before the fight. I recommend also downing a Swallow (health regen) and a Crook (?) for extra sword damage.

-direct hit from a tentacle one-shots you. Dodging is key.
As soon as th fight starts, pick a direction and roll away, once you see ground shake, cast Quen and KEEP MOVING!
-pick a side and plant the Kayran trap on it. Then, Keep rolling in right-left in fron of the trap until the nearest tentacle gets caught and cut. (apply Quen as needed)

-once Kayran loses a a tentacle, it starts thrashing. this is your opportunity to move further to the side and cast an Yrden trap for the next closed "red" tentacle. once it's trapped, use Strong attck of the "tumour" 4-5 hits is enough to chop it off.

-wait for the beastie to finishe thrashing (knocking over another part of the bridge is your cue) and move to the other side. keep rolliging and dodging (don't go to the very end of the side, becuase then the furthest tentacle starts tossing rocks at you). Wait for the Kayran to do a spit attack (don't be rolling in its mucous when it does that, or you'll get caught!). WHile its roaring and spitting, you have a chance to plant Yrden trap for the third "red" tentacle.

-when it gets chopped off, you get your first chance @ the tentacle QTE. if you fail, rinse and repeat for tentacle 4.

-if you succeed, run up the new ramp. Congratulations. enjoy the 1750 XP and (most likely) 2 skill points. Also, sweet, sweet money.

[Maark Abbott]

Playing Fallout 3 again. I always seem to play Lawful Good on these games.

[Mentalist]

Had an incredibly busy week, so not much gaming. Expecting some solid Witchering (of the second variety) this weekend.
I'm on the verge of doing the last sequence of Act I. Before I do, I still have to figure out if I want to craft the "Dark" armour.

Anyone that's played on Dark, are those 3 sets really worth it? I already crafted Blasphemer's set, but then had to go back (I forgot to do the Hung over quest, and I can't have Geralt without a Blue Stripes tatoo!).
From what I've seen the life-leeching effect isn't THAT strong. I'm not a fan of the screen going dark, and the cost is pretty exorbitant.

I didn't mind it so much in Flotsam (the armour Does have pretty nice stats, though my Alchemist's gloves are still teh best), but the cost is supposed to grow much higher in Acts II and III and I can't be bothered grinding enemy body parts that much.

Any advice? Are the other 2 sets worth the hassle?

[Gothos]

I'd say sets 1 and 2 are pretty essential to get, but I wouldn't know how it goes without them. I'll say, though, that it's more important how you specced - swordsmanship wins in this game. And especially on Dark.

[Mentalist]

So far, I'm rarely frustrated by multiple attempts at a fight, since I can generally identify why I died (usually when I push attacks, instead of doing the prudent thing and dodging to regroup).
Of course, I feel that untill you fight the Act II boss it's impossible to truly gauge the difficulty. I worked out the pattern to the initial encounter with Letho in about 5 tries. Unfortunately I accidentally skipped the following cutscene, and then it took me another 20-odd tries to beat him again, as I was being impatient.

As for the sets, right now I'm leaning towards getting set 1, but not using the swords, because the "screen goes dark" curse really is annoying the hell out of me.

[Loki]

Maark, on 15 June 2015 - 02:13 PM, said:

Playing Fallout 3 again. I always seem to play Lawful Good on these games.

I always seem to shoot everyone in Megaton before dancing around with their corpses.

[Maark Abbott]

Loki, on 22 June 2015 - 12:17 AM, said:

Maark, on 15 June 2015 - 02:13 PM, said:

Playing Fallout 3 again. I always seem to play Lawful Good on these games.

I always seem to shoot everyone in Megaton before dancing around with their corpses.

You monster.

[Tiste Simeon]

OK I am now pretty amazing at Shadow of Mordor. I am in the second area (Nurm or whatever) and owning it. I have all my ability points unlocked and I have only 3 more other things to unlock - the sword, arrow and dagger special moves. I have done a bunch of the achievements including the one where you get killed by an orc, get him to work his way up to warchief and then kill him.

I have also got 2 warchiefs under my dominion and am getting a bunch of captains too. I love branding it is great fun, especially in a middle of a battle where they suddenly start attacking their team mates. My current favourite move is to shadow strike mount a herd of caragors and then lead them to an orc camp then leave them to it!

[Mentalist]

Finished Flotsam (killed Loredo this time), did the ghost-field and lots of talking, just about to start really exploring Vergen.
Got 4 shiny skill points to spend, so finally boosted my Energy to 4 pips,and got the Health boost in the Swordsman branch. Unlike my usualleveling guide of "max out Sword, then start puttin points into Magic", I'm being more even-handed now.
Ended up doing a lot of boxing/arm-wrestling grind in Flotsam, but as a result I grabbed the Blasphemer's set and also crafted Kayran armour, Kayran armor enhancement, Excellent Silver Sword and a Toothed blade (rolling with those 2 right now). AND I walked away with about 1600 in cash.

Not sure if I'll have thwe patience to repeat the same for the other 2 sets, though.

[Aptorian]

Still playing Witcher 3 but I've played some games I bought during the Steam sale.

I played I am bread and Turbo Dismount. Those games are mostly crap, seem more like youtube fodder than actual fun gameplay.

Then I've played Strider. For those who don't know it's a new version of an old... NES game I think? It's a 2D action sidescrolling metroidvania'ish game. It's actually surprisingly good and very purty. Unfortunately it is also hard enough that it feels more punishing than challenging. That combined with a bullshit check point system that saves too infrequently means that I'm currently playing it on easy. That's okay though, just makes me feel like more of a ninja badass.

Also playing The Wolf Among Us. It's episodic like Telltales other games, like for example The Walking Dead.

I like this one much more than The Walking Dead. You can tell they've learned some stuff and improved the formula. The point and click control scheme gets a bit annoying during the action sequences but the game is quite engrossing. I am two episodes in and the story is unsurprisingly dark as fuck and bad, bad things happen to people. I do like the Big Bad Wolf character though. You're basically the comic book equivelant of Karsa Orlong trying his best to be diplomatic. I am playing the nice guy but once in a while I will threaten people and it is great to see the terror in their faces.

[champ]

Hooked on Hell Divers at the minute, game turned out better than I thought it was going to be!

[Tiste Simeon]

Just finished playing "Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor". What a fantastic, innovative and exciting game! An ingenious "Nemesis System" makes it quite unique (even if the gameplay will be familiar to fans of both the Assassins Creed & Batman: Arkham series...) and the fighting is violent, brutal and just plain fun!

While I'm fairly sure there are some Canon issues with the LOTR world, it doesn't matter. It is brilliant!

[Morgoth]

Tiste Simeon, on 25 June 2015 - 05:00 PM, said:

Just finished playing "Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor". What a fantastic, innovative and exciting game! An ingenious "Nemesis System" makes it quite unique (even if the gameplay will be familiar to fans of both the Assassins Creed & Batman: Arkham series...) and the fighting is violent, brutal and just plain fun!

While I'm fairly sure there are some Canon issues with the LOTR world, it doesn't matter. It is brilliant!

um... not a big Tolkien man, huh?

[Aptorian]

Been playing Alien Breed: Impact, Brutal Legend and Roundabout.

Alien Breed and Brutal Legend have been in my installed list for ages now, I just never really had the motivation to finish them.

Alien Breed is a top down shooter where you're running around shooting aliens between story-related check-points. It's an okay shooter with a oool environment design but overall a very lackluster gaming experience. The first 5 minutes are exactly the same as the last 5 minutes. The game is a part of a trilogy pack but I honestly have no inclination to play any more. Might be more fun if you have a co-op partner.

Brutal Legend was a chore. I desperately wanted to love this game but it's just a mess. Everything about this game, except the gameplay, is a joy. The Heavy Metal theme that permeates every part of this games design is something completely unique. I love the way it inspired the over all world building, the creature design, the characters, the awesome fucking music that seems handpicked for each chapter. Even the collectibles are cool.

But the actual game? God what a fucking shitty experience. What could have been a decent third person open world action adventure is instead turned into some kind of hero-based third person tactical real-time combat game that makes very little sense and is neigh impossible to manage, especially with a controller. In turn, because of the focus on the tactical aspect, the characters own combat moves and the driving for that matter, is sloppy, lacks options and finesse, and generally feels like a half-assed attempt by people who hadn't made an open world action game before.

Weirdly the story, with is usually Double Fines strength, turns into complete garbage during the last half. I have a sneaking suspicion that some important story parts were cut from the final game, because there's a lot of sudden personality changes and character motivations that aren't sold properly to the player.

I'd really love a sequel to this game where the tactical stuff was removed. Something that had the budget and skill of modern open world franchises like Farcry or Skyrim, but honestly I don't see how anyone would ever be willing to touch this unless they bought the license from Double Fine.

Finally I've been playing a surprising amount of Roundabout. What I expected to be a cheesy FMV centric mini-game indie thing actually turns out to be a charming, funny and thoroughly enjoyable gameplay experience.

The story takes place in intentionally badly acted FMV cutscenes starring various famous and less famous video game industry figures. The gameplay is centered on you navigating an open world city stage with a limousine that is constantly rotating on a central axis. This means that as you move the car you have to take into account the rotation of the vehicle combined with the environmental obstacles.

This game feels like "a video game", By that I mean that this is an objective based game where a central game mechanic is given focus and everything in the game centers around it. It works really well and as I've played it, the cars movement has become second nature. It feels really great when you cross half the city and hardly take any damage.

Anyway, if nothing else you should play this game for the delightfully cheesy 70s inspired FMV segments.

This post has been edited by Apt: 26 June 2015 - 07:27 PM

[Maark Abbott]

I found that with Brutal Legend as well. I gave up at the 'escort the bus' mission. I desperately wanted to love it, but it pushed me away.

[Mentalist]

So the really cool thing about playing Dark Mode is how much you level. I'm still finishing up miscellaneous stuff in Vergen (haven't gone over yet), and I'm already level 24. I do think I may have hit "cap" though, where I won't be getting anymore good XP from killing dozens of Harpies.

Speaking of Harpies, holy shit, those freaking quarry nests. I came out of with about 180 feathers. Sold like 160 and made over a grand. Although I still stop to earn about a bill every time I visit my stash ( 1 easy armwrestle + 2 fistfights), doesn't seem like I'm grinding THAT much (even though, obv, it's still grinding, which is ugh).

I got the boots, pants and armor for the Oathbreaker set, good to go on the gloves. Swords may be a problem, since (as always), I'm chronically short on silver. Also, I don't want to spend that much money (though i've got about 6k on me atm). Since it looks like I have to pay for Draug armor blueprints, and that's another grand, i'm hesitant to put the money down just yet. Also, in case I do feel like crafting the lastt Dark set, I suspect i'll have to stock up on that fortified leather material.

Build-wise, I maxed out Aard, and unlocked the adrenalin skill on the sword path. I constantly want more points, and I wonder what an alchemy build woould be like, but that won't be happening this game.