toxicitizen

Oh, the same issue Ethan has then. I wouldn't really call it backtracking and I personally don't see what the big deal is but okay. I mean, I kinda get it. It's just something you really need to get over if you're ever going to enjoy the game. Having played both, I gotta disagree here. I don't think Dark Souls is particularly harder than Rogue Legacy. Obviously the skill set required going from a 3D action RPG to a 2D side-scroller is completely different. But they're actually both very similar in terms of difficulty curve. Like I said before, Dark Souls really isn't that hard. Especially not after this long with all the wikis out there. Pro tip: early on, upgrading your gear is more important than leveling up your stats. And if you want to turn on "easy mode", go for a dex build and upgrade a weapon that scales well with dex. Oh right, you haven't played Dark. Yeah, I'll grant you that one. Dark Souls actually fixes that with the Estus Flask. It's an healing item you get early on that starts with five charges and gets refilled every time you rest at a bonfire. You can upgrade both how much health it restores and how many charges it holds (up to 20).

I haven't played Bloodborne so make of that what you will. But literally every single thing I've seen or heard about it makes it look pretty much identical to the Souls games.So, it made little to no sense to me when people that disliked Dark Souls were excited for and now claim to enjoy Bloodborne. Kinda makes it sound like they went into Dark Souls looking for reasons to hate it or just weren't willing to give it a proper shot. Or maybe that's just the power a console exclusive has over fanboys. I dunno, I seriously don't get it.

Well, Rogue Legacy is a much simpler game. So there's that. I'd also argue that there isn't much backtracking in Souls nor do you need to actually farm to get through the game. But YMMV, I suppose. Dark Souls is a lot more complex than Rogue Legacy but the basic structure is very similar. Dark is more open than Demons, so after the tutorial you get dropped into the "open" world and you can go whichever way you like. In Rogue Legacy this is limited to up, down and right (iirc the Maya, the Darkness and the Forest, respectively?) and each area has its own boss and difficulty level. In Dark Souls, it's less straightforward but the overall idea is the same. It's obviously much bigger but there's a recommended logical order to tackle the areas in that creates a reasonable difficulty curve. As long as you don't make the mistake of picking the master key as your starting gift, the game vaguely guides you through the early areas. A good way to put it would be that Rogue Legacy feels a bit like a demake of Dark Souls. It strips the concept down to its core ideas. Also, unlike Demons, there are a lot of shortcuts to unlock and the level design is kinda brilliant in how everything is interconnected, so you never really need to backtrack all that much once you get familiar with the layout. And like in Rogue Legacy, the more you level up the easier everything gets. By the end of my first run, I'm usually powerful enough to blast through half the game on NG+ in just a few hours. The one major difference is that you lose your souls upon death whereas in Rogue Legacy your get to keep your gold. But you do lose anything you don't (or can't) spend when you reenter the castle, so it's not like that's drastically different either. I've had a lot of "wasted" runs in RL because I died and didn't have enough gold to buy any upgrades. I don't really see how that's different to losing your souls. It actually seems a bit less forgiving, even. Overall, I find Dark to be significantly better than Demons but that's not something everyone agrees on. So, I hesitate to say you should give Dark a try considering how much you hated Demons but it's definitely possible you'd enjoy it more.

It's pretty blatant, to be honest. You probably don't have a full grasp on what the Souls games are really like, then. Which, to be fair, they are kind of obtuse about a lot of things. And maybe the similarities are stronger with Dark than with Demons. It's been quite a while since I last played Demons so I'm comparing it to Dark Souls more than anything. They share a lot of the same design philosophies but Dark Souls is a bit different in a few ways. But yeah, I mentioned Rogue Legacy specifically because I thought I remembered you liking it. It's pretty much 2D Souls, no joke.

Why would that even bother you? Anyone that actually says that to you is a fucking idiot. Likewise bragging about how "hardcore" they are for beating the game. It's not actually that hard. Yeah, I didn't stick around too long in the Dark Souls subreddit. "Oh you put soul levels in dex? Fuck you, your opinion is invalid!". I blame the marketing more than the game itself, though. For From, it was never about the crushing difficulty. The difficulty is only really there to emphasize the oppressive atmosphere of the game's world. Demons wasn't marketed like that at all. Namco are the ones who kept pushing that "Ur goan die!" nonsense. Personally, I don't give a fuck. I level up dex, use a katana and summon help for boss fights because I'm playing the game to have fun. That makes me literally Hitler to some of those people, though. I kinda feel like the Souls games are a little like that, though. You're not explicitly unlocking stuff but it's kinda like Rogue Legacy where the more you level up the easier it gets. I remember reading an interview with one of the devs where he actually admitted they set out to make a 2D Dark Souls kinda game. And I think their pulled it off pretty well.

Two Jimquisitions in a single week? For a second there, I got worried I had already lost track of time two days into my summer vacation... Anyway, this should be good. edit: You know, the more I find out about this whole thing the more I'm actually happy for Kojima that he's finally getting the hell out of that shitty company. It's a major bummer about Silent Hills and the uncertain future of the MGS series makes me really sad but I'm looking forward to whatever Kojima will do next. Hopefully he'll start a new studio and create a new IP that will blow MGS out of the water.

XCOM: Enemy Within. Man, this one was long overdue. I bought the expansion when it first came out because I fucking loved Enemy Unknown. But I was pretty busy with school at the time so I gave it a quick try, got my ass handed to me at the base defense and figured I'd give it another shot when I had more free time. Then I kinda forgot about it... After a couple of botched starts I decided I just wanted to get through the new content at least once, so I swallowed my pride and turned off Ironman mode. I tried not to save scum too much but it's pretty hard not to hit that reload button when your best sniper gets killed because you're an idiot. I hadn't played in quite a while so it was still fun but it's nowhere near as satisfying as Ironman mode. And the game still suffers from that weird difficulty curve where it gets piss easy near the end, so at that point the missions were kinda boring. I could just throw all strategy out the window and still wipe the floor with the aliens. Next time I play, I'll definitely have to go back to Ironman Classic. Anyway, overall it's still the same old XCOM, only now with super soldiers and MECs. The EXALT stuff adds a nice little extra distraction but after a while the missions get kinda repetitive and the final assault on the EXALT base was kind of anticlimactic. You can kinda tell it wasn't given the same kind of attention as the main story missions. It was pretty fun to give the game a replay but we really need a sequel announcement soon. Since Civ: Beyond Earth is out, hopefully that means it's Firaxis' next project.

I guess I probably don't get the same vibe because I mostly agree with him. I wouldn't say I'm indifferent towards consoles, I still very much want a PS4. But as a primarily PC gamer, any multiplat game is a game I'll prefer playing on my PC. So, Bloodborne is pretty much the first worthwhile exclusive to come out on the system for me. The only one that would actually make me want to go out and buy a PS4 tomorrow if I suddenly found myself with an extra 500 bucks to spend. It's kinda hard to get too hyped in that situation. Yeah, it wasn't a full review. I'm not sure he'll bother making one at this point. But he's been talking about the game a lot outside his videos. But one thing from his console gaming video that would probably carry over to a review is that he doesn't really do hype. Literally the only times I remember him gushing over a game completely were his Critical Close-Up of MGS3 and his Shovel Knight review. Normally, he'll mention any significant flaws he finds in a game. Which might come across as harsh, and would probably be an unpopular thing to do when it comes to a game like Bloodborne. But he does it with every game he reviews and I've yet to see him fail to make a compelling argument to support his opinion. That alone pretty much makes him my go-to game reviewer these days. Check out his Critical Close-Up of MGS2. The Dark Souls one is also good. If you don't like those then it's probably safe to say his channel simply isn't for you.

I.. uh, what? I'm not sure where any of this could possibly be coming from. You seem annoyed by his lack of enthusiasm for the current console generation but I can't think of anything in his videos on the topic that would warrant this kind of response. It kinda sounds like you're projecting your own issues into it, to be completely honest... Lol. What are these assumptions even based on? He was loving Bloodborne before it went full Lovecraft. He bought a PS4 specifically for the game and he made a 30 mins video essay analyzing Dark Souls a little while back. He's clearly a fan of the series. The video was specifically about analyzing the Lovecraft inspirations, that's why it's the only thing he emphasized and explored in depth. I mean, I'm not saying you have to love the channel or anything. I guess his content probably isn't for everyone, because it's clearly not for you. And that's fine. But a lot of your criticism seems based on mistaken assumptions and your own issues being projected into it. For example, I never got any of that smug PC superiority you've been describing from any of his videos or anything else. I can't possibly imagine how someone could have that kind of response to his opinion unless they were particularly sensitive to the topic of PC being a superior platform to consoles. I mean, it's not like he was being abrasive about it or anything. edit: Something else to consider. Admittedly, you wouldn't know it from his videos alone but he also bought a Wii U last fall and he still won't shut up about how much he loves it on the podcast. He's really not the PC elitist you seem to have him pegged as.

Mind elaborating on this? Which other videos have you watched? I've been watching his content for a while and I now regularly listen to a podcast he hosts and I'm really not getting that vibe, certainly not condescension. Maybe being familiar with his overall tone and personality helps but I love his writing style and delivery. The guy actually went to journalism school and I think it really shows when you compare his content's quality to that of other youtubers. I guess I can kinda see how it might come across as indifference, though. But I really don't think that's the case. I mean, in this particular case, the dude is a massive Metal Gear fan. I don't think he'd have bothered making this video otherwise, especially considering he usually releases his new videos on thursdays. His Critical Close-Up series is probably the best stuff he'd made so far. You should check it out if you haven't.

Hey look, actual investigative game journalism! God, I fucking love Super Bunnyhop. That channel has criminally low views/subscribers numbers considering the generally high quality of the content. Anyway, most of it is stuff that was already rumoured but there's a few nuggets in there that I hadn't heard before.

Side-quest. Basically,

I manually keep a selected list in the spreadsheet I use to keep track of the games I beat. I have two lists: a longer, more general one for long-term stuff and a shorter priority list for stuff I'd like to get done in the near future. I used to have a category called "Backlog" in my Steam library but I recently got rid of it. I barely ever looked in it so all it accomplished was making me forget about some games entirely.

Yeah, that sounds a lot better than co-op. And I assume they'll bother hiring a voice actor for Nightwing this time around. It was so weird how silent he was in Arkham City, even if it was only challenge rooms. Like, have at least some battle grunts or something. Speaking of which, I should probably get back to finishing those challenge rooms. I still have a fuckton of them left to do and they're the only thing standing between me and 100% achievement completion. Would be nice to get that done before Arkham Knight comes out.

Didn't they say a while back that there wouldn't be any kind of multiplayer? Those might just be team-up attacks with an AI partner. At least, I hope so... Also, I still think Arkham Knight is Jason Todd. The way they tried to make it sound like him having his own story DLC somehow debunked that theory seemed so half-assed that at this point I'd be more surprised if it wasn't him. Another interesting theory I've heard, and I guess I'll spoiler this because it's from a side-quest in Arkham City, is that

Really tempted to also get it while it's on sale. But I'm rather broke at the moment, so it's hard to justify the purchase when I already have so much other stuff to play. Then again, it does look pretty damn good...

I kinda like it but they seriously overdid it with the tattoos. I'm more interested in the kind of portrayal they're going for than the character's visual design anyway.

It somehow gets better every time I listen to it.

Seriously. It's gotten to the point where I have to assume that whatever good implementations they've done in the past were flukes.

Oh, I got that. I was saying that your preference is wrong.

Oh, I'm sure E3 will disappoint in ways both old and new. I mean, Square Enix just announced they're also having a conference. That should be something... All I'm saying is there's no way Bethesda would bother having a presser if all they had was Doom. But yeah, my line-up is pretty much a best case scenario.

I don't think you could be more wrong even if you tried! Besides, it's too early for TES6, I think. I'm pretty sure I remember Pete Hines or whatever saying they intended to alternate between TES and Fallout. Also, the last time I tried to get back to Skyrim to finally play it all the way through, it was boring as all hell and I just kinda stopped after a few hours. That kinda killed my excitement for a potential TES6. Maybe I should give it another shot. ... and just like that it's currently downloading on Steam. Damn it. I seriously doubt they'd actually be holding a presser if all they had was Doom 4. They kinda have to have some kind of line-up to reveal. Personally, my money's on Doom, Fallout 4 and Dishonored II. Probably a new IP or two.

Dishonored? I thought it was fucking great. It's basically Thief meets Deus Ex, so pretty much a combination of two of my all-time favorites. Everyone is looking forward to Bethesda's E3 conference because they expect Fallout 4, which is cool and all. But Dishonored II is what I'm most excited to see a reveal of.

That seems like the most likely explanation, yeah. Apparently the character is modeled after some actor whose name I can't remember but he could've easily been inspired to pick someone who looked similar to Head Doctor.

So, have you guys been following the latest insanity surrounding MGSV? If you haven't, here's the gist of it. Someone on NeoGAF pointed out the strong resemblance between the doctor from the initial MGSV reveal trailer and that crazy head transplant doctor that made the news recently. Of course, this being Metal Gear, the borderline psychotic fanbase assumed it was all a ruse by Kojima. Because that's pretty much the only logical conclusion to draw from any given piece of information for them. The weird thing is that the coincidence doesn't stop at mere physical resemblance. Apparently, the guy actually specializes in some kind of treatment therapy for pain related to phantom limbs. Which... is admittedly a pretty goddamn strange coincidence. Also, that head transplant procedure? He calls it HEAVEN. And don't get me wrong, this kinda stuff can be really fun to theorize about but man, this fucking fanbase sometimes. The initial thread got locked after some guy found the doctor's contact information and some assholes actually called him up. Which seems completely fucking insane to me. I mean, we're talking about a guy who has published medical papers going back years. How delusional do you have to be to believe he's actually involved in marketing a fucking video game? To say that it's incredibly unlikely would be a massive understatement. Then again, I suppose it shouldn't be that surprising since this is the same fanbase who still thinks that Kojima getting fired is all a marketing stunt because "Oh, KojiPro getting killed is just like what happened to Big Boss with Mother Base and stuff!!". Yeah, no. That shit actually had negative financial impacts for Konami, to the point where they actually had to backtrack on that whole removing Kojima's name from everything deal. Now Kotaku UK has an interview with the doctor where he mentions he's considering suing Konami and shit. At one point the doctor even asks the interviewer if he knows how much MGSV will be worth and starts laughing when told the estimate of 4 million copies at 60 euros a pop. You just can't make that shit up.