General Gaming thread

stickyfiddle

I like Mario games - you just play the game. Sometimes you die a bunch but at least it's usually fun rather than punishing. The modern ones usually give you a choice of what to do apart from the very beginning and if/when you're hoovering up all the stars at the end. 

That said I'm also fine with linear stuff like Portal 2 or Last of Us - just as long as it's enjoyable 

FarleyUK

Halo Infinite campaign finished - loved it. Best HALO since the first one IMO.

Just missed one skull as well...

TeleMaster

FarleyUK said:

Halo Infinite campaign finished - loved it. Best HALO since the first one IMO.

Just missed one skull as well...

I'm nearly finished and I've found ZERO skulls.  

ThePrettyDamned

Nothing wrong with not liking them.

It's funny though, I don't think difficulty is the core mechanic - I see them as Castlevania in 3D. You have to navigate a challenging path, which then links back to a previous area, providing you with a shortcut. In Castlevania it's typically abilities that give you this, but the principle is the same

I'll never forget the moment in Dark Souls where I was dying endlessly to the two gargoyles on the church roof. I decided to explore a bit more, and found a lift from the church down back to the start point - thus making a huge walk from bonfire to the boss removed, and reducing the difficulty by 90 percent. It was a proper light bulb "oh, this is Castlevania!" type moment. Further exploration took me to the darkroot garden, and below, and eventually found a couple more bosses and an area full of high level human enemies - but I still just kept running, and eventually fought (and died to) cif! 

But they're not for everyone, and they are challenging in places. The biggest investment for me is reading - the story is slowly inched out through item descriptions, environmental details, enemy types and vague dialogue. But the combat is brilliant enough to keep me hooked anyway, especially in bloodborne where you are rewarded for aggression. 

ThePrettyDamned

Big tip for the first boss in bloodborne - follow the music. Each change in his strategy is accompanied by a change in music that seems to perfectly indicate attack speed and timing.

Gah, it's such a perfect game. The only bad thing about it is that it's exclusive. Hate that. 

TeleMaster

Now I want to play it again. 

punchesjudy

ThePrettyDamned said:

Nothing wrong with not liking them.

It's funny though, I don't think difficulty is the core mechanic - I see them as Castlevania in 3D. You have to navigate a challenging path, which then links back to a previous area, providing you with a shortcut. In Castlevania it's typically abilities that give you this, but the principle is the same

I'll never forget the moment in Dark Souls where I was dying endlessly to the two gargoyles on the church roof. I decided to explore a bit more, and found a lift from the church down back to the start point - thus making a huge walk from bonfire to the boss removed, and reducing the difficulty by 90 percent. It was a proper light bulb "oh, this is Castlevania!" type moment. Further exploration took me to the darkroot garden, and below, and eventually found a couple more bosses and an area full of high level human enemies - but I still just kept running, and eventually fought (and died to) cif! 

But they're not for everyone, and they are challenging in places. The biggest investment for me is reading - the story is slowly inched out through item descriptions, environmental details, enemy types and vague dialogue. But the combat is brilliant enough to keep me hooked anyway, especially in bloodborne where you are rewarded for aggression. 

This. Dark Souls/Bloodborne are my absolute favourite games nowadays and honestly if they didn't exist all I'd be playing is Zelda and some indie games. Bloodborne is up there with my favourite games of all time. Perfection that game is. 
My PS4 sounds like a jumbo jet though and I sold my PS5 so not played in a while. Still play Dks1 and 3 to this day on the Xbox. Can't wait for Elden Ring! 

Ell

Uh oh. This is a dangerous off topic thread, Cyberpunk 2077, Fallout 4, Snowrunner, Tww2 (3 is out soon, fuck yeah) Resident evil 2 hd remake since original 2 haunted my childhood sleep thanks to my aunt, and every tomb raider since ever. Other than angel of darkness.

All on PC, because, well, 1 PC beats a new console every few years. 

beed84

Has anyone escaped Hades yet? 

RaymondLin

beed84 said:

Has anyone escaped Hades yet? 

Yes, you need to keep doing it, gift and talk to lots of NPC.

strumjoughlamps

Took a break from the PS5 and started Yoshi Woolly World on Wii U today. Visually amazing and really enjoying so far.

ThePrettyDamned

TeleMaster said:

Now I want to play it again. 

Do it! 

Early game tips I wish I knew the first time I played dark souls! 

- aggression is rewarded (bloodborne only, dark souls is much more defensive). If you keep your distance, your enemies will close in, fast. Get them first and dodge around them. 

- there are no cheap deaths. If you die, it's because you messed up. 

- pebbles are good. Chuck them to lure enemies away from groups to pick them off. 

- dogs can be knocked down by your gun. 

- big and slow means go for stagger with your gun. 
- there is no punishment for death - there is a big fatty early on that you can practise your timings on for staggers. He'll kill you a bunch, then you'll get it. 

- you don't have to kill everything. Some enemies are a bit stronger and it's better to run away.

- spend your blood echoes. Level up, buy healing items and pebbles. Running around with 50k echoes isn't useful. 

- bosses all have weaknesses. Don't be afraid to ring for help if you are struggling, there are loads of people still playing and co-op makes most bosses trivial. 

- explore! Tons of stuff to find. I find something new everytime I play it. 

- play online and ring that bell for co-op. It's fun, and you'll make progress really fast. You'll often get out of a rut this way. 

Once you have the "knack" it isn't that hard mostly, it just takes learning enemy strategies. 

racefaceec90

just downloaded a game called loop heroes to my switch (after hearing good things about it).

i also plan on buying the shadowman remaster when it releases on the 17th jan.

xenoblade chronicles x is bloody awesome i have to say but i still don't have a clue what i'm doing (currently 95 hours played lol)

TeleMaster

ThePrettyDamned said:

TeleMaster said:

Now I want to play it again. 

Do it! 

Early game tips I wish I knew the first time I played dark souls! 

- aggression is rewarded (bloodborne only, dark souls is much more defensive). If you keep your distance, your enemies will close in, fast. Get them first and dodge around them. 

- there are no cheap deaths. If you die, it's because you messed up. 

- pebbles are good. Chuck them to lure enemies away from groups to pick them off. 

- dogs can be knocked down by your gun. 

- big and slow means go for stagger with your gun. 
- there is no punishment for death - there is a big fatty early on that you can practise your timings on for staggers. He'll kill you a bunch, then you'll get it. 

- you don't have to kill everything. Some enemies are a bit stronger and it's better to run away.

- spend your blood echoes. Level up, buy healing items and pebbles. Running around with 50k echoes isn't useful. 

- bosses all have weaknesses. Don't be afraid to ring for help if you are struggling, there are loads of people still playing and co-op makes most bosses trivial. 

- explore! Tons of stuff to find. I find something new everytime I play it. 

- play online and ring that bell for co-op. It's fun, and you'll make progress really fast. You'll often get out of a rut this way. 

Once you have the "knack" it isn't that hard mostly, it just takes learning enemy strategies. 

Hmm okay. Let's give it another go. I was watching Elden Ring game play and they were talking about the enemies, don't do this one yet, come back later etc. I guess as someone who never played any Souls games I thought that as a linear game, you should take on a boss as you come to them. And also, that I needed to clear the area again each time I died, so I got frustrated with it and found it very difficult. 

But I'm gathering that this isn't really the way to play this game. If you can't do a boss and you can move on, move on? And if you die don't bother with clearing everything each time right?

stickyfiddle

Maybe I should give it a go again. Will see what I have in the PS Plus Library so I don't have to pay money

monquixote

racefaceec90 said:

just downloaded a game called loop heroes to my switch (after hearing good things about it).

i also plan on buying the shadowman remaster when it releases on the 17th jan.

xenoblade chronicles x is bloody awesome i have to say but i still don't have a clue what i'm doing (currently 95 hours played lol)

I heard about Loop Heros when it came out on the PC and got it on Steam, but I just couldn't get into it.

Strangefan

Ell said:

Uh oh. This is a dangerous off topic thread, Cyberpunk 2077, Fallout 4, Snowrunner, Tww2 (3 is out soon, fuck yeah) Resident evil 2 hd remake since original 2 haunted my childhood sleep thanks to my aunt, and every tomb raider since ever. Other than angel of darkness.

All on PC, because, well, 1 PC beats a new console every few years. 

PC ftw, fallout 4 is still an amazing game especially with mods, I have about 7 hours  in  cyberpunk but I didn't find it that engaging, howevr for me dayz is where its at for survival, I currently have 1030 hours in  

wolsnah

Coming up to 1000 hours on 7 days to die. Still alpha, still good fun although the updates are less frequent than they used to be, but changes seem to be getting more significant. If you like first person zombie survival crafting and occasional mad panic it's worth a look. Often drops to 66% off in sales, currently £6 on cdkeys.

It was released on console a while back, but I think there were legal issues with a separate team, development for consoles went stale, definitely stick with PC if giving it a look.

TeleMaster

wolsnah said:

Coming up to 1000 hours on 7 days to die. Still alpha, still good fun although the updates are less frequent than they used to be, but changes seem to be getting more significant. If you like first person zombie survival crafting and occasional mad panic it's worth a look. Often drops to 66% off in sales, currently £6 on cdkeys.

It was released on console a while back, but I think there were legal issues with a separate team, development for consoles went stale, definitely stick with PC if giving it a look.

Is it like The Forest?

wolsnah

I wouldn't say so, I found the forest more atmospheric and open. 7 days is a lot more building raiding, apart from surviving hordes on each 7th day where it becomes frantic survival or running around. It's got minecraft style base building which is all block based using simple resources. 7 days does have some missions built in via traders, which give you objectives to get on with, but they're predominantly for levelling up, gaining equipment and being able to survive horde nights.

There's a fixed preset world in 7 days, called Navezgane, but also random world gen capabilities. Multiplayer is in there, four of us occasionally get together for group mayhem, but can equally be played solo, but less to laugh at when you're not seeing your friends get trapped or panic.

There's also a mod community where people create their own buildings and POIs, some that get rolled into the game officially and others that you can just add. We added a massive mall for one session which turned interesting when we stopped sneaking and just ran around alerting all the zombies.