Mister Jack

Is there any genre where new game plus is more satisfying than survival horror? I get so much satisfaction in going back through a second time with my now overpowered character and making mincemeat out of all those monsters that gave me such a hard time on my initial playthrough.

And now I've beaten Evil Within 2. Yeah, this one is a lot better than the first one. It's not perfect, mind you. I don't think it reaches the highs of Resident Evil's best games, but it is still better than some of the less impressive mainline RE titles. I appreciate that they're trying to do something different here with the semi-open world, and it feels like they took most of the criticism of the first game to heart and made a good faith effort to fix what didn't work. That said, the open nature of the game means it doesn't build atmosphere as well as the first one did. I would also say the monsters and the villain of the first game were better, although this one definitely had a much better story overall and Sebastian is much more relatable as a character than he was before. It wasn't ball-crushingly hard either, but nor was it too easy. For a first time playthrough, the difficulty was just right. Some of the controls still feel just a little bit wonky, but I eventually got used to it. It also kind of feels like the devs aren't expecting to make an Evil Within 3, because this game ties up the major plot points in a way that makes it pretty hard to continue. I'm not saying it's impossible, but they would definitely have to go in a totally different direction if they do make a direct sequel. I still wouldn't call this game a survival horror classic like RE4 or Silent Hill 2, but it's a big step in the right direction and I would like to see this series continue to improve.

That tank boss was a real son of a bitch. I can't even remember how I eventually got past it.

Aw hell yeah. This is great news. But shit, I never played VC 2 or 3. Am I gonna be totally lost with the story?

It's already looking like Justice League is going to bomb. It has pretty disappointing opening day numbers, and it didn't even do very well in China, and those guys eat any shit Hollywood throws at them. With a ludicrous 300 million dollar budget, it's estimated they have to make 600 million just to turn a profit, and with such a tepid reception it seems unlikely that's going to happen. If it does, they probably won't make much of a profit on it.

Was it a human boss? Because if so I bet I know who it is and he's the hardest boss in the whole game by far, at least without counting the DLC which I have not gotten around to.

Well I beat the Evil Within's DLC, including that silly arena mode with the Keeper. It does fill in most of the holes with the story...not all of them, but most of them. That boss fight against that one monster wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it was going to be. I mean, I did die a few times before I figured it out, but I had a way easier time with it than just about any of the bosses from the base game.

Well the good news is that as far as mandatory bosses go, she's one of the hardest, so if you can beat her then you can probably beat the rest of the game. I can only think of one or two bosses in the story who come close to her in difficulty. If we're talking about side missions, however, that's a whole different story.

That's out? I thought that wasn't coming until 2018. Geez, Nintendo really must have learned their lesson from the Wii U launch.

I know exactly which boss you're talking about. After I got super leveled and figured out all her tricks I practically made it a hobby to go back there and help new players kick her ass.

Something about Evil Within's plot is bugging me, and since the thread for the game is archived I have to ask it here.

What are some good alternatives to CDkeys? I'm not necessarily unhappy with them, but I'm trying to start shopping around for the best deal when I buy PC games so it would be nice to know what the most reputable sites are. I can't really buy everything directly from steam for 60 bucks a pop these days. Shit gets expensive, son. I know about Greenmangaming, but what else is there?

Just finished The Evil Within. I liked it, but it was unfortunately full of bullshit ideas that really dragged it down for me. The premise is good, but the story is told rather sloppily and is hard to grasp. Combat is fine, but why do enemies get to use machine guns yet I can't pick them up after they die? Why am I being pulled into so many animations where I'm forced to take damage when I haven't even been grabbed? Why are there so many god damn one hit kills? The gameplay is way too based on trial-and-error, and that can be a real problem when the game decides to be stingy with checkpoints. I also hate that running is disabled when your health is low. Sure, it makes sense logically, but that's when you need it the most! Even Resident Evil would at least let you limp faster, so this drew me into a lot of unavoidable deaths. Finally, the bosses are WAY too fucking hard and are total bullet sponges with one hit kills galore. If it makes sense, it feels like the game is mostly balanced like RE4, but whoever made the boss fights seemed to think they were making RE6. So yeah, that's a lot of complaints, but I still didn't hate the game. When everything lined up just right it could be pretty enjoyable. All these frustrations ended up dampening my enjoyment though, so I'd say it's decent, but not great. Does the second game fix these problems?

Another thumbs up for Thor: Ragnarok. This is easily the best movie in the Thor trilogy. I don't know anyone who would disagree with that. I just love that they decided to go full ham with this one. Someone said "You know what? Thor is kinda silly as a concept so let's just have fun with it" and that's what they did. This movie was completely over the top and it felt like I was watching an extended story from Heavy Metal or a remake of Flash Gordon, and I mean that in a good way. Great performances, a kickass soundtrack, good action, and jokes that were actually funny for a change! It's kind of a shame it took 3 movies for Thor to really hit his stride, but better late than never.

I'm not sure the Republicans will react much at all. They might convince themselves they are, but their whole ideology is based on resisting change. I don't think they are capable of adapting to a shifting climate and have gotten by recently on low Democrat turnout, Anti-Obama sentiment and the fact Trump is not an establishment Republican, which let people fool themselves into thinking he was the people's candidate even though he's one of the most egregious examples of the 1% in the entire country. It'll be like when Trump tried to win Hispanics over by saying they made great burrito bowls at Trump tower.

Experimenting with the stances in Nioh made a huge difference for me in dealing with the difficulty. Fighting in the high stance does more damage, but it also affects your dodging in addition to your attack speed. Me personally, I stuck with low most of the time because you can not only dodge faster, but also farther, which is a huge deal. In theory you could also take a hit and run approach by quickly switching stances to get a few strong hits in when you have an opening, then switching back to quickly get away. Ki bursts are an essential skill to master. Human enemies also use stances, and there's a rock/paper/scissors mechanic in play with that. You don't have to use the opposing stance, obviously, but it will help your stamina attack and defense. I love this combat system. There's so much depth to it. You definitely want to think of it more like Ninja Gaiden than a Platinum game, though.

The Evil Within. How 'bout that plot?

Invisible enemies. Fuck 'em in every game they're in, especially survival horror.

If your primary concern is directly supporting the original studios, then buying merch is probably the best way. From what I've seen, Japanese studios care a lot more about how much merch a series moves than the actual television ratings.

How am I the only one who sees this? I see it probably a dozen times whenever I decide to watch youtube videos.

It's been a while since I played TNO, but from what I remember...kinda, yeah.

I really dislike how youtube now shows related videos while the video you're watching is still playing, putting the links right in the middle of the picture and obstructing your view. I don't know if this is an automatic thing or if the user has to deliberately put them there, but it's annoying as fuck and as far as I know there's no way to get rid of it.