Mister Jack

Well, that's what they say they're going to do at least but you know how roadmaps are.

I know they did an update a while back that changed a lot of systems around so it's possible that you're playing a different game than I did. I'm curious about it but I'm waiting for the NG+ update before I go back to it. I only need a couple more cars for the platinum but there literally isn't enough money in the game to buy them all unless you focus on it specifically.

I decided to go for that Dark Souls III platinum and holy shit, I forgot how ridiculously hard it is right out the gate. Even the tutorial boss took me five tries. I've beaten the game before but it's been a long time and I no longer have my save file so I had to start from scratch. I just hope it lets up a little later on because if not this is going to be a really painful platinum.

Dark Souls Remastered, you have officially been platinumed. Now to put you away and probably never play you again because your younger brother has utterly surpassed you. Grinding for all the rare weapons, not to mention the sunlight covenant that requires 25 faith (who the hell levels faith?!) was a total slog.

I've done pretty much everything in Elden Ring at this point but I was still wanting more so I decided to reinstall Dark Souls Remastered to get the rest of the trophies I never got the first time I played it, and while I still think it's a good game it's hard to go back to the old formula. I miss being able to fast travel without restrictions. I miss having customizable weapon skills. I miss having environments with decent lighting. I miss having unlimited summons. I REALLY miss having a dedicated jump button. I'm still enjoying the game and I intend to see my trophy hunt through, but I have to wonder if I'll be going back to this one again in the future when Elden Ring is sitting right there and is better in pretty much every way. If I'm not burnt out when I finish with DS1 I might replay DS3 to get all the trophies there so I can say I platinumed every From game except for DS2, which I don't want to put myself through playing ever again.

Obra Dinn keeps pretty good notes for you. It also locks in every three crew members you correctly identify so you can focus on them in separate chunks.

Nah I just mean during that playthrough. However if you do miss it you won't be able to get it again until you reach around the halfway point in NG+.

Yeah, like you say. Technically there's six endings but three of them are just variations on the standard ending. One of the endings locks you out of the other ones at about the 2/3 point and I didn't bother to make a backup save that early so I just ran through it all again. Also, when it comes to getting the legendary weapons, one of them is permanently missable if you progress too far so watch out for that.

Elden Ring platinum, baby! I accidentally locked myself out of a couple trophies during my first playthrough so I did a blazing fast NG+ run in about 10 hours to clean up the last few and get the final ending I was missing. I'm sure I'm not done with the game yet but it feels good to clear this one.

Aha! I knew the shields were underpowered! Just now they released a patch to buff them.

Elden Ring This is easily the most impressive open world ever crafted in any game. Frankly, it makes Breath of the Wild's Hyrule look like amateur fare. I cannot stress enough just how enormous the map is, how beautiful and varied the environments are, and how rewarding it is to explore. There were multiple occasions where I entered a door or a cave expecting to find another little dungeon with a boss or an item only for it to open up into a gigantic brand new environment. There are plenty of mini-dungeons to go through too, of course, and while some of the bosses do repeat sometimes there are still enough unique ones that you probably won't be saying "oh not not this guy again" very often. Putting the incredible map aside, the Souls formula has gotten a few tweaks. There's a dedicated jump button now, and yes this is actually a big deal because it changes not only how you can explore but also how you can fight. Weapon arts are also swappable on your equipment and are much more useful than they were in Dark Souls 3. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that finding a weapon skill that complements your playstyle is borderline essential. In addition to summoning other players, if you prefer to go it alone you can still find items that let you summon NPCs to help you out with bosses. Don't be ashamed to use them because the game is balanced like it expects you to. Oh, and we can't forget Torrent, possibly the best video game horse ever because not only is he super easy to control but he can also fucking double jump. As much as I clearly love this game (it's definitely gonna be my GOTY), I do have a few bits of criticism. Firstly, some builds just don't feel as viable as others. I usually go with a strength build, but enemies and bosses in this game attack fast, hard, and often with combos. Not only that but poise really doesn't seem to help you much anymore. I did manage to brute force my way through the game with a greatsword, even beating the optional superboss, but I have no doubt in my mind whatsoever that I would have had a much easier time with a dexterity or magic build. Playing a strength build in Elden Ring is pure suffering. I'm also annoyed that the consumable rune items STILL don't tell you how many runes you'll get when you use them. It sounds like a minor thing but I use those a lot to top myself off and I don't like having to guess which one will give me just enough, let alone look it up. Sometimes it's hard to tell how far you can drop without dying from fall damage, but if you're online people will usually leave helpful messages on reachable platforms to help alleviate this. Finally, while I don't usually like to make this gripe, a few of the bosses just feel downright unfair, even for a From game. I can think of a handful that were more aggravating than fun to fight, and bosses like that really encourage you to use cheap tactics to just get them over with. That's about all I have to complain about, though. Still a 10/10 game, easily my game of the year, and it's practically guaranteed to go down as one of the greatest games ever made. It took me about 72 hours to finish, but a lot of that was because I wanted to explore every inch I could. I think you only need to collect two out of seven runes to access the final boss, but that's like going to a five star restaurant and then filling up on bread if you ask me.

I thought it looked like EDF but with dinosaurs.

I guess maybe a 5? The story mode does go over all the major events up to part 8 but it's mostly just a bunch of text you can skip over, although it will naturally spoil things like villain stands and climactic power-ups. Also, this game looks like an updated version of the original so I can't say if they intend to add new content that would spoil it more.

Is the melee better than in the first game? That was easily the weakest part.

Crysis 3 was five hours long. I beat it in one evening and I couldn't tell you what was in it if you put a gun to my head.

Seems stupid to throw your conscripts at a conflict before the vets, but who knows what they're thinking over at the Kremlin. As much as I'm rooting for Ukraine, I don't doubt that Russia can eventually take it if they're willing to throw enough soldiers at it. Thing is, after they take it they have to keep it. Good luck, assholes.

Here it is! The full design!

Dying Light 2 It's better than the first game but it still has some of the same problems that are just inherent in the series. The biggest one is that you start off weak as hell and the first few hours can be kind of brutal because you have so few defensive options at your disposal. This really is one of those games that gets better after the first act because once you unlock some essential parkour abilities and tools along with a few invaluable combat moves then the game picks up considerably and becomes a lot of fun. Of course, whether or not you're willing to put in the work for that is going to vary from person to person. The open-world gameplay is the real draw here, not the story. The story is better than the first game, but that isn't really saying much. It has multiple endings but you should never expect a whole lot of production value in the endings when there's several different permutations. The characters vary from inoffensive to god-awful. Funny enough, the game clearly tries to push you into siding with the civilian Survivors over the authoritarian Peacekeepers, but many of the Survivors are such rude, ungrateful, dishonest assholes that I sided with the Peacekeepers purely out of spite. What's even funnier is that the Peacekeepers, with one or two exceptions, are all around much nicer and friendlier to you and show you proper gratitude for all the dangerous jobs you do for them. I'm sure it wasn't Techland's intention but I found it deeply gratifying to find some of those former NPCs who always lied to me, cheated me, or threatened me and literally stomp their heads into chunky paste. The story is really just an excuse to run around the city and kick zombie ass, which is fun once you're sufficiently equipped. In fact this is probably the best parkour system I've used when all is said and done, but it takes a while to get everything out of it. Combat is entirely melee focused. The game takes place 15 years after the fall of civilization so all the ammo has been used up and with the exception a disposable pistol you can make out of scrap there are no firearms whatsoever. There are bows and arrows but I found those better for starting fires or poisoning people than sniping them from afar. Fortunately there's more going on with the melee than in something like, say, Skyrim. Still, you do have to work to unlock the combat's full potential but once you do drop-kicking people off of rooftops never gets old. I guess the main takeaway here is that it's a good game that falls shy of being a great game and you need to have some patience to get the most out of it, but your effort will eventually be rewarded.

Maybe not here so much but I've seen plenty of purists who are livid that the game has cut things from the formula that have been there for decades. Held items, for example, which I can live without, and Individual Values, which thank fuck those are gone because they turn training into an absolute chore. They're also mad that the game has "only" 240 Pokemon, but I'll take 240 Pokemon with good animations and neat personality quirks over 900 cut-and-paste hack jobs.

You sure that wasn't just stuff that happened in the VR game?

I wish I could jump right into this one but I promised my friend I'd wait until we could do co-op so I only played the first couple hours to get past the tutorial. So far it seems promising.

I think I remember using some kind of exploit or cheap strategy to get through that no-hit challenge but damned if I can remember anymore what it was.

So I guess Sony is buying Bungie. Games will stay multiplatform. I don't give a shit unless they're making the next Killzone or Resistance.

Ubisoft has doubled down on selling NFTs even though everyone hates it but don't worry. They have officially said the only reason you don't like it is because you don't understand it.