SomTervo

Yeah, there's no "getting hollow", there's no "losing your humanity", there's no "become a ghost". In Bloodborne, if you die, you just respawn and lose your currency. It's not something I miss at all, tbh. That mechanic was always a little bit forced. However, there was some discussion on GAF about how the Estus Flask was a better health recovery system, and I think I have to agree. If they replaced Blood Vials with the old Estus Flask, nothing would change in terms of how you play the game, except you wouldn't occasionally have to farm for Blood Vials/echoes to buy Blood Vials. If they replaced vials with the flask nothing would change except not wasting our time farming occasionally. It's a win/win.

Like I said, I'm fairly certain it was different teams within the same studio. Thief had been known to be in the works since before HR came out and I'm sure this has also been in development since before Thief came out. That's fair enough, it sort of makes sense. And indeed may mean really great things for the potential of Deus Ex MD. And yeah, seems reasonable re gunplay. It was okay in DE:HR, but not great. The stealth was okay but not great either, tbh – it was the excellent level and encounter design which elevated both mechanics far above the sum of their parts. A slightly rethought approach to both could be a gamechanger. If I may throw in my 3 cents - I think it was really bland, actually. Controls are solid, I guess, hand animations were very nice to look at and I liked the attention to detail, but holy crap were those levels linear and boring or what? I think there are only two that I can remember - the whorehouse and the asylum. Rest of them sort of blur in my memory into one giant lump of gray rocks and rotten wood. AI didn't help either. I guess it's hard for me to get immersed when enemy actions and animations remind me of early Hitman games (in other words: they are incredibly stupid). And I'm not one of those haters who bash the game because it doesn't live up to the legacy or whatever. I never actually finished any of the previous Thiefs. I just think that the new one was mediocre at best and it's only redeeming quality was its production vaules. It wasn't a great game, but it was better than The Bureau - that was mainly my point. But yes, they dropped the ball very badly on the main story missions. Really poor stuff. Thief only really reaches its potential if you forget the story levels and, from the final act, just do the side missions in the open world. Like 20 of them get added when you've almost finished the campaign (another really stupid design error). The side missions are almost all better designed than any of the story missions (similarly to AC Unity), and feel really immersive because they've got a great sense of place in the city. The city level design matches Arkham City's at a few points in these side missions.

An article TN linked to me, which I've read from elsewhere, just did that damned level geometry thing! Goddamnit! In this (rather good) article here, the incorrigible Tim Rogers says: Note that he says geometry then immediately says level design afterwards. They are not the same thing. He even says stuff like 'The geometry is more than "masterful": it's alive.' I mean, come on Yes, it is irritating when the buzzword thing happens. That netcode example is a good one, too.

Yeah I read that, probably the only thing by that writer I've really liked (granted I've only looked at a few of his articles). He does really hit the nail on the head. Once you realise it's mainly about your strategies and that your levels/weapons only give you a minor boost, it's really a game changer. I beat three bosses the other night, and overcame the toughest levels I've seen yet. The more you apply brain power to boss battles, analysing their movements and bodies, the easier it becomes. It took me two tries on a boss I've heard people about struggling with for hours. I analysed what must be his weak points, watched for his movement tells and after-attack-lags, and tried to pin down ways I can force him to do certain things. So satisfying to win. So far there have been a couple of bosses that were absolute wash-outs, though. So, so easy, and brings down the mean quality of boss fights in the game. They're still atmospheric and good, but just way too easy. I don't think it's my level because the routes up to both of them were so difficult. You got me on PSN, Thursday? Add me up. Edit: Dude, I just noticed Tim Rogers does that damn Level Geometry thing! He even says 'level design' right after! FFS!

Fantastic game. One of my all-time favourites. Great graphics and atmosphere, my favourite open world level in a game to-date, excellent gameplay, totally serviceable story, excellent side missions, great combat, stealth and free-running mechanics in an open world, dynamic events in the open world. Also, people really blew out of proportion the final level. It ends with a QTE - but it's still far better than Alien: Isolations or Shadow of Mordor's final moments, and those were critically acclaimed games. The 20 minute level leading up to the final QTE in Dying Light is one of the best levels in the game. It's fantastic. I'm really keen to go back in for joining other people's games in co-op. Glorious co-op game, this.

You know if you take away all the textures of a level in a game? So everything's just like a grey placeholder colour, and it's really obvious that everything in the game, underneath, is just like grey, flat surfaces cleverly slotted together to shape real things? That's level geometry. Geometry just means like the base skeleton of the world which your character can bump into / walk on / see. Like, y'know, the grey rock behind everything in the real world that we call geometry in real life! My issue is that a lot of the time they mean level design. They'll say something like 'that area in Bloodborne requires you to be carefully aware of the level geometry', when they really mean, 'that are in Bloodborne requires you to be carefully aware of the level design/layout'. If you were actually being aware of the level geometry itself, you would be standing still, thinking about it, bored out of your mind.

This is more of a gaming pet peeves thing, but when people say 'level geometry' instead of 'level design', fucking hell it does my head in. There are times when it's definitely worth saying 'level geometry'. But 90% of the time I see people use the phrase they're referring to aspects of how the level was designed as a space, not the geometry itself. I think I've only ever seen PC-only gamers say it, too. Sounds so bloody pretentious.

Yes, that is a good way of putting it. Bloodborne is mainly a game about progression through areas, learning to control/manage those areas, and getting good strategies for bosses/ generally getting good at fighting. The levelling stuff is basically ancillary. Not a bad way of putting it. Although "metroidvania" is predicated on getting gadgets/gimmicks/new moves to open up new areas. In BB you're basically just pulling levers/opening paths back to where you've already been, so the trudge is less harrowing and long. There are times in the game where you basically can't beat an area until you unlock the shortcut to make it managable, to skip the really nasty shit it has going on which you can barely beat. But to actually discover this, you have to just sprint past all the enemies, trying to survive, hoping you'll find a shortcut/lantern. God it's intense. I also beat a boss last night and got to a new area. The new area doesn't have a lantern where you spawn. So I'm carrying around 63,000 blood echoes, no way of getting back to Hunter's Dream to save them, and I just have to press forward into unknown, highly dangerous territory in an effort to find a lantern. If I die, I will probably lose all 63,000 blood echoes for good. Also the enemies have become genuinely terrifying. I thought I had seen all the horror the game had to offer, but it just keeps ramping up, and I'm probably only half way through now. It's a long game.

Doing a Heist now if anyone's up for it. Need two folk!

That's great! Evidently the top right of the red area is the main game area - the islands way in the South West is the other huge area which is some 12,000km away from the other area. The rest of it is bits and bobs loaded in their own instances. Also, information which totally refutes what I said earlier about the world not being dynamic (Apparently it's very dynamic. Monster NPCs will attack non-monster NPCs, etc, creatures will fight creatures, etc, but they all have very well developed tic-tactical AI, so they will avoid any fights they don't think they'll win - developer talk for 'they wont fight it was too hard to program'?)

That is the real issue. I only said the above to be like "I don't blame Lego that much for not having the domain already registered" Yeah, that's really the only unsavoury point for me. Mitigated somewhat by that fact that it pointed to stuff related to Lego Dimensions. If it had pointed to Polygon's front page, or an unrelated Mcwhertor article, I'd be less inclined to give him a pass. Very true, although in Lego's case, they hadn't even technically announced Dimensions yet and, if they wanted to keep it secret, buying the domain 'legodimensions.com' wouldn't exactly have been subtle. Still, McWhertor pls You can anonymously register a domain so that a WhoIs won't show the actual owner. Then for all the outside world knew it could have been John Legodo setting up a website for his mains electrical installation services. But then fountain-of-knowledge TN shows that even that argument wasn't well-founded. Yeah, sucks to be Lego – sucks even harder to be ethically-problematic McWhertor

Now in GIF form Recent impressions I've read say that the combat is really solid, they never mentioned those issues you said. I hope it's the case. The map: The map is split into several smaller maps, with two main ones. FIrst main one is bigger than Skyrim, we don't know how big the second main portion is. I think this picture only shows the first main map with two smaller maps embedded. There are a handful of smaller areas, like prologue type stuff. Looking pretty bloody huge. I had no idea there was even sailing in it until the other day. So goddamn excited. They say there's almost no sandboxey stuff/events, so that disappoints me quite a bit. Not even like people randomly fighting dragons in Skyrim. But I think the world will be crafted to a different level of quality and that should more than make up for it. Sure did in The Witcher 2.

Shit, I've only heard good things about Xenoblade, too. Sounds like a great console.

Very true, although in Lego's case, they hadn't even technically announced Dimensions yet and, if they wanted to keep it secret, buying the domain 'legodimensions.com' wouldn't exactly have been subtle. Still, McWhertor pls

Yeah, and I was responding to TCP who put it much more succinctly, hence why I blabbed stupid metaphors. And there it is put even more succinctly! I suppose if you look at how people will pay for PS Now, there's not too much of an overlap. People will lay down 40-50 quid for one product: UC1-3 on disk, with upped graphics. However people who are paying monthly for PS Now's service are paying for UC1-3 but also the tens of other games on there. Like a pretty small fraction of their monthly subscription will be directly for Uncharteds 1-3. Most of the subscription cost will be for other games which they are also at liberty to enjoy. Bit of a weird way of looking at it but I can see why Sony would okay the decision to release remastered UC1-3 on disc at higher price. What has the uptake on PSNow been like anyway?

Fairly true of UC1 and 3, but as I've said elsewhere, totally completely untrue of UC2, which is like a masterclass in varied and dynamic combat encounters. I've played UC2 about 5 times through for some of the gunfights alone - same with The Last of Us. Also re enemy types, UC2 has about 7 which each have a subclass or two usually. And they are thrown at the player in phenomenally clever and unique variations. UC3 then fucks this though. Shitty enemy types and enemy designs. Only a couple of encounters save the game from being a total combat wash-out. Imho the price of re-entry would be worth it for UC2 alone - but the novelty of playing UC1-3 in a oner is a huge, huge bonus. Hopefully with UC1's graphics upped a bit. It is bloody stupid that they have all three on PS Now though. That is just plain old stupid. They cracked the egg open and got two yolks out of it then put each yolk in two separate baskets, potentially letting all the value seep out the bottom of the wicker weave so they get nothing from the basket in the end.

Aw yeah, ty buddy

The NPC is hidden away a little. You have to approach the sewers from a certain end and remember rolling Great shout about finding Madman's Knowledge in the sewers to get Insight before the boss, Caveman Last night I got through half of the Village. Fuck that place. Had my first "fuck this shit" moment of Bloodborne stuck in there, especially the short sprint before the second lantern. Absolutely insane shit. I so almost gave up entirely. But as always, the developers aren't that sadistic. There's always a caveat to situations which seem genuinely impossible. And indeed, there was light at the end of a very short, harrowing tunnel in this case.

Yeah, the first couple missions had some encounters that were kinda frustrating but now that I've leveled up my squad a bit I'm really glad I'm playing on Veteran difficulty. Now it's just challenging enough to be satisfying. Curious to see what you mean about the ending, though, since I heard it wasn't very good. Hopefully I'll end up agreeing with you. I actually never read anything about the game at all, so I had no outside influence on the opinion above re story. I rented it, with no expectations, and returned it after I finished it. I loved the ending. Does a meta-narrative ending better than many, many games. Not the best written in terms of dialogue, but great in terms of concept and execution. And yes, the difficulty balance is perfect on Veteran from about mid-game. I'm so jelly. Looking forward to grabbing an N3DS later this year, solely for OOT and MM. Might pay off my credit card then get it on that. Plus Monster Hunter 4 U to play with my buddy.

Would you guys recommend going in for this? Thinking of putting it on the list once my gf and I run out of things to play together.

Definitely dodge the wolves for a while. As with anything in the game, you can kill em from any level with sheer skill, but a hit or two will probably kill you at this point. And yep, your origin affects nothing but starting stats. Choosing the one that starts super-low level means you can specialise a bit more, but on the whole, yep, you'll end up about the same point by late-game

Get cheesing Edit: oh, but also don't. I'm about level 60 and they still give me jib. Can kill me easily if I don't play my cards very carefully. I'd say ignore/avoid them mainly.

From a GAF thread. All three games, remastered into one experience... Could be one of the greatest videogaming packages of all time. And, yes, as others have mentioned, the box art is so utterly insultingly bad that it must be a fake mock-up by the French website. http://www.cede.ch/fr/games/?id=29359

Haha, yep. You played the previous Souls games, right? They throw around unusual game systems with reckless abandon. And don't tell you how they work. You have to pay close attention to work everything out yourself. Or talk to others about it, which is equally valid. Feel free to not read the following stuff if you don't want a little further info. Not really spoilers so I haven't spoilered it. Insight is essentially like Sanity in Cthulhu mythos... But kind of the opposite. When you first arrive in Yarnham, you're basically a normal, reglar-kinda, ole hunter. You see the world and take it at face value. But once in Yarnham on this unusual night, the more mind-destroying stuff you see, the more insight you get into the world behind the world. Your deeper understanding of things unseen grows. And as a hunter with unusually solid constitution and will, you don't lose your mind over it. You get more insight. (Evidently once you have a little insight you can see the Doll's true nature and the Doll is aware of this and will speak to you.) A point comes where Insight begins affecting the world in certain, highly disturbing ways. I've only touched the tip of that iceberg, so this is basically as much as I know. And yes, it's a consumable resource, unlike Humanity in Dark Souls which you lost when you died, just like souls. Insight you can get by seeing bosses, beating bosses, or consuming certain items. It can be spent purchasing items through a certain merchant. You also use it to engage in co-op with other players. (Gaining insight into their world, I assume.) So you sort of have to be a little careful with it. Though I know of people hitting very high insight on their first playthrough, like 55+. Also, as you've probably learned, stay the fuck away from the Werewolves on the Great Bridge.