What are you playing? v.11 (Knee-Deep Edition)

[llperez22]

Just started Life Is Strange: Double Exposure

It is the 5th installment in the franchise I believe and came out last october. I only played the first life is strange game previously.

The dialogue is great, you really get drawn into the characters. The decisions seem like you are dictating how the game will go which is the point and I think they do it well. I like the fact that you can really dive into the experience and review text messages and social media posts from all these different characters you encounter along the way. It adds some depth and immersion. Im only on episode 2 of 5 right now

The story follows the same protagonist from the original game as she is now in her 20's and living in Vermont while going to college. She has so far committed to not using her ability to rewind time like she did in the original game because of the catastrophic events it caused. This time, her power that she uses is the ability to bounce back and forth between 2 alternate timelines.

The story revolves around your best friend being murdered early in the game. In the days that follow, you start trying to put together the pieces as to who it might have been that killed her and why. Along the way, you travel back and forth between the original timeline where your friend is dead and an alternate timeline where she is still alive. You have to bounce back and forth to gather clues and advance the story.

 

[mb23100]

Demon's Souls remake:

Ummm, wtf is this shit? I've beaten every other Fromsoft game at least once and several other souls-likes but this game is absolutely kicking my ass. I beat the first boss but I can't get anywhere now. I have a +1 Scimitar that does fuck all for damage and everything destroys me. I can't find any upgrade materials and i've made zero progress in the last few days. Tried all the Archstones. Fuck this shit, I may start over with a magic build. Also, I was backstabbing fools left and right in the beginning and now I cant pull one off to save my life.

Edit: Ok. It seems like the Scimitar is a bit of a beginner's trap. It sucks balls. Started upgrading the broadsword and now i'm getting somewhere. Killed the tower knight and started farming the skeletons in the islands. Made it to the spider but haven't really figured out how to kill him yet.

 

[HereticBD]

Gears 5

*sigh*...

The open world shit just does not work with this franchise. I go from balls to the wall action in Act 1, to walking around around in some village, to riding around in some stupid parasailing...thing, getting into brief skirmishes here and there, as I struggle to even know where the game wants me to go. It went from super tight linear set piece action, to...this. It's basically one big loading screen in between zones. This isn't a very deep game, with RPG mechanics that requires a lot of exploration. It just takes longer to get to the action. Your only reward for going off the beaten path, are some items to upgrade your useless robot. It's not like you gain levels, and become more powerful by completing side missions. It's just a bunch of wasted time that breaks up any sense of flow.

It's not all bad, as when you get to the action, it's still fun. Has some new enemy types that are fun to fight. However, knowing that when it's over, you're just gonna have to aimlessly wander around in your stupid vehicle until the next zone, is such a boner killer. I take back my comment that this franchise needed more exploration. It did not. This is a weird hodgepodge of a game, that really misses the mark on what makes these games fun. If you want to turn it into some true third person RPG action thing, you gotta do more than just add an "open world", which is basically just a big map that isn't fun to explore, or has anything meaningful to do in it. "Dead Space 3" actually did this hybrid well. The side missions were contained within the tight confines of the game, and you had upgradable skills to build upon which made doing all the extra shit actually worthwhile. This is just a shooter. You really gain nothing by checking all the boxes, and the time taken in between zones, really isn't worth it and adds fuck all to the experience. It's a detriment to the experience.

Don't know if I'll finish this one.

 

[KidBaize]

Finished Painkiller Black. Very cool game with great atmosphere and art style. Even the story and cutscenes were well done.

Playing through the levels was my favorite part especially the last chapter which was the best imo. It had some fantastic level design that was fun to navigate along with a good variety of enemies to battle with. Boss fights were the weakpoint but that's pretty much the norm with old games.

At first I thought the movement was kinda janky but I just wasn't playing right. Once I started to bhop my way around things got easier and more fun. You can get some serious speed going. Just watch out for ladders. I flew off a couple like a human catapult.

 

[The Clark]

Dang, what happened from here

In this game, you get a cool robot that fights by your side that can be upgraded, and you scour for parts to do it.

to here?

Your only reward for going off the beaten path, are some items to upgrade your useless robot.

 

[HereticBD]

Dang, what happened from here

to here?

The open world kicked in, and I got annoyed with the game's structure. That first act was perfect and had the right amount of wide open spaces to bomb around in and look for stuff. I was expecting the open world, but I didn't expect it to be so damn boring and pointless. I'd honestly prefer a mission menu and loading screens in between these zones. I swear, the open world is only there for the characters to do exposition dumps while you're driving around.

I can be a scatterbrain while playing though. I might warm up to it later, if the loop starts to click.

 

[mixmastermo]

Been playing through Elden Ring

Super late to the party, I know, but I had this perception that the Souls games weren't for me after some bad experiences in the genre.

I am liking this game a lot. I did look up some guides that helped me get started and I've been off mostly on my own. WHat turned me off from this genre is the general lack of guidance, but I began to realize the developer actually wants people to cooperate and engage with each other. If they laid everything out with quest markers, hints, etc. then there'd be no need for people in the real world to get together and interact with this game.

I don't actually find it that hard. I have gotten to the point that I have only had issues with a few bosses/greater enemies.

Malenia
Black Knife Ringleader
Knight before Malekith
Radahn

Those are the ones I genuinely had to try multiple times, but I eventually did defeat them. Ironically, I had to fight the knight before Malekith like 10x before I finally took him out. Then I got to Malekith and beat him on my first try..

I do like just dicking around and trying spells and powers. The gameplay is tight enough that fighting people to earn runes (grinding) is actually pretty fun.

Close to finishing the main story. I may get the DLC- do you guys think it is worth it?

 

[Law Talkin’ Guy]

Been playing through Elden Ring

Super late to the party, I know, but I had this perception that the Souls games weren't for me after some bad experiences in the genre.

I am liking this game a lot. I did look up some guides that helped me get started and I've been off mostly on my own. WHat turned me off from this genre is the general lack of guidance, but I began to realize the developer actually wants people to cooperate and engage with each other. If they laid everything out with quest markers, hints, etc. then there'd be no need for people in the real world to get together and interact with this game.

I don't actually find it that hard. I have gotten to the point that I have only had issues with a few bosses/greater enemies.

Malenia
Black Knife Ringleader
Knight before Malekith
Radahn

Those are the ones I genuinely had to try multiple times, but I eventually did defeat them. Ironically, I had to fight before Malekith like 10x before I finally took him out. Then I got to Malekith and beat him on my first try..

I do like just dicking around and trying spells and powers. The gameplay tight enough that fighting people to earn runes (grinding) is actually pretty fun.

Close to finishing the main story. I may get the DLC- do you guys think it is worth it?

Absolutely, best DLC I’ve ever played. It’s huge. If you’re really enjoying the base game then you practically owe it to yourself to play the DLC

 

[mixmastermo]

Absolutely, best DLC I’ve ever played. It’s huge. If you’re really enjoying the base game then you practically owe it to yourself to play the DLC

Ok thanks. Now that I understand the appeal of From games, I might give Bloodborne another shot at some point.

Just please don't tell Valhoven, as I have been in a mission to get him to question his love for the game. I need to keep that scheme going for as long as possible.

 

[KidBaize]

Finished Serious Sam TFE. What a crazy experience. If you want to shoot things, lots of things, this is your game. Like a bullet hell of enemies. Complete chaos.

I've still got a few more in the series to play but I need a break to recover first. Started off playing on normal difficulty but had to knock it down to easy because I was getting demolished in some levels. The devs must have had a seriously fucked up childhood to call that normal.

There were two levels, Metropolis and the arena before the final boss, that were insanely difficult even on easy. Imagine 50 bulls charging at the same time. Just nuts. Although you do get some cool weapons to use. Great game.

 

[method115]

Got the plat for me3 and all the trophies for the legendary edition in general. This was my first time going synthesis ending and imo it’s the best one.

Really forgot how good this game was and how much I enjoyed it over 2. 2 had some sections that just felt like the enemies wouldn’t stop coming. One time i legitimately thought the game was bugged. Still my favorite game of all time but after so many play throughs I don’t think i will be touching this series for a very long time.

Picking up lies of p since it went on sale and going to play that until expedition 33.

 

[Law Talkin’ Guy]

Well I’m a bit annoyed and disappointed. I picked up one of those mClassic dongles that’s supposed to provide post-processing upscaling and anti-aliasing for consoles to bring 720p and lower resolutions up to 1080p, but the fucking thing doesn’t seem to do anything for me. Specifically, I was trying it out on my Xbox Series X with some backwards compatible 360 games like Duke Nukem Forever and Max Payne 3. I had read somewhere that you have to reduce the Series X’s output signal to 720p first, then the mClassic will upscale it to 1080p, but I literally cannot see any difference at all in either game and even though they both are rendered natively at 720p, so this ought to have worked. Alas, nothing, they still look like shit with lots of jaggies and aliasing.

The only reason I picked it up is because it was on sale more than I had ever seen before. Normally these go for $125 Canadian but I saw one on sale for $75 so I pulled the trigger. But seems like it doesn’t do jack shit. Damn it.

So long $75, I hardly knew ye.

 

[Ashen One]

Unofficially 29th now in Sifu speedrunning (RTA). Holy shit what a rush

 

[mb23100]

Been playing through Elden Ring

Super late to the party, I know, but I had this perception that the Souls games weren't for me after some bad experiences in the genre.

I am liking this game a lot. I did look up some guides that helped me get started and I've been off mostly on my own. WHat turned me off from this genre is the general lack of guidance, but I began to realize the developer actually wants people to cooperate and engage with each other. If they laid everything out with quest markers, hints, etc. then there'd be no need for people in the real world to get together and interact with this game.

I don't actually find it that hard. I have gotten to the point that I have only had issues with a few bosses/greater enemies.

Malenia
Black Knife Ringleader
Knight before Malekith
Radahn

Those are the ones I genuinely had to try multiple times, but I eventually did defeat them. Ironically, I had to fight the knight before Malekith like 10x before I finally took him out. Then I got to Malekith and beat him on my first try..

I do like just dicking around and trying spells and powers. The gameplay is tight enough that fighting people to earn runes (grinding) is actually pretty fun.

Close to finishing the main story. I may get the DLC- do you guys think it is worth it?

Yes. DLC was awesome

 

[Ashen One]

Yes. DLC was awesome

I was bad at it

 

[mb23100]

Been playing through Elden Ring

Super late to the party, I know, but I had this perception that the Souls games weren't for me after some bad experiences in the genre.

I am liking this game a lot. I did look up some guides that helped me get started and I've been off mostly on my own. WHat turned me off from this genre is the general lack of guidance, but I began to realize the developer actually wants people to cooperate and engage with each other. If they laid everything out with quest markers, hints, etc. then there'd be no need for people in the real world to get together and interact with this game.

I don't actually find it that hard. I have gotten to the point that I have only had issues with a few bosses/greater enemies.

Malenia
Black Knife Ringleader
Knight before Malekith
Radahn

Those are the ones I genuinely had to try multiple times, but I eventually did defeat them. Ironically, I had to fight the knight before Malekith like 10x before I finally took him out. Then I got to Malekith and beat him on my first try..

I do like just dicking around and trying spells and powers. The gameplay is tight enough that fighting people to earn runes (grinding) is actually pretty fun.

Close to finishing the main story. I may get the DLC- do you guys think it is worth it?

Damn, got some PTSD when you brought up that asshole outside of Maliketh's fog gate. He drops some sick armor though iirc.Him and the other one outside of Leyendell were tougher than any boss aside from Melania for me.

 

[mixmastermo]

Yes. DLC was awesome

I picked up Elden RIng DLC , playing through it. Not THAT hard.. yet.

Anyway, I just wanted to share what turned me off from these games- every time I have seen a playthrough video of these Souls games the person playing is usually carrying an oversized weapon and some clunky armor in a drab looking environment.

I will use a big weapon if the situation calls for it but generally speaking I don't like playing action games like that. I like to jump in, jump out with smaller weapons, then land a big critical hit or spell when the enemy is staggered/weakened.

Thankfully this game lets you do just that if you wish.. but like I said there have been times where I had to mix it up for certain fights.

Malenia is a good example. As fast as she is, I wanted to be faster, predict her movements, pick her off from a distance, etc. The way I normally play, but I needed to be BETTER than her.

After going through a bunch of my consumables and rune arcs from getting killed so many times, I mixed up the strategy with a big weapon and getting in her face. I basically negated her need to move around so much and just hitting her hard by outmaneuvering her up close.

I didn't even have to use a rune arc when I beat her.

 

[mixmastermo]

Damn, got some PTSD when you brought up that asshole outside of Maliketh's fog gate. He drops some sick armor though iirc.Him and the other one outside of Leyendell were tougher than any boss aside from Melania for me.

Yea the thing about that guy is he has these really long combos with that big weapon with very small gaps in between. And when you think you've gotten out of range of that stuff, he zaps you with a ranged attack that covers massive distance and is nearly impossible to avoid.

 

[Wrath of Foamy]

Gave Dishonoured a bit of a go this morning.

I'm not sure what to make of it. I like stealth, but I don't tolerate having my cover blown and will save scum and restart.

I also found it quite difficult to really get into the world, but that may just be the fact that I have a nasty cold.

As much as I'd like to be those epic skill YouTubers, I'm not sure how much more time I'm going to give to it...

 

[Valhoven]

Gave Dishonoured a bit of a go this morning.

I'm not sure what to make of it. I like stealth, but I don't tolerate having my cover blown and will save scum and restart.

I also found it quite difficult to really get into the world, but that may just be the fact that I have a nasty cold.

As much as I'd like to be those epic skill YouTubers, I'm not sure how much more time I'm going to give to it...

Reckon we’re in the minority but it never clicked with me either, FWIW. Ended up moving on never to return.