What are you currently playing?

[MetalCaveman]

Playing some Metro Exodus, trying to use a boat to get from one place to another is... A thing. 50% of the time you're stuck because the thing won't turn, so you can just go forward or backward, good luck navigating the river like that.  The other 50% of the time you're stuck because of the 500 shrimp/mutants/things that attack the moment you get close to the water, every time one of them hits you with acid you get shoved back, if one gets on the boat you have to stop rowing, shoot it, pick up the oar once more and start rowing again, at which point another shrimp will get on the boat and the process starts again.  

[TheMightyEthan]

I started Forza Horizon 4 a couple days ago. It's Forza Horizon, so it's great. Not really much more to be said.

 

*Edit - Also, can anyone tell me if FH4 is showing up in my gamercard in my sig? It's not for me, even though if I go to the actual exophase website it does. Never mind, I got it working. It's kind of a hacky way to do it though so I'll have to keep an eye on it to see if it keeps updating or not.

[Mr. GOH!]

I've been playing the new Civ Vi expansion (it's dope), but also mostly AC: Odyssey. I am really enjoying it, though I wouldn't call it a superb game by any measure. It's Ubi's version of The Witcher, only not as good. 

 

 

[deanb]

Borrowed Monster Hunter World off a friend. Kinda good, certainly pretty looking but not quite my cup of tea. Way too many menus and awkward controls (which I'd figured they'd have dropped from the PSP days, what with twin sticks and a touch pad). A biggy for me would be the lack of lock-on (apart from camera), if there's a way it's not clear. And can make it a total PITA when groups of enemies are about. Also 'fun' to be hunting a low level beasty and a t-rex thing crops up and kills you.

 

Onwards to... I think slim rancher for a bit (since it's free n all). Not quite sure atm, in that 'funk' of finding games to stick to.

 

 

[MetalCaveman]

If you're in the mood for hunting but want something more simple and approachable, try the God Eater series.  \m/ \m/

[Mister Jack]

I mentioned recently that I rented Devil May Cry 5 from Redbox. Great game, by the way. Anyway, Redbox emailed me a free rental for Division 2 as a bonus. I wasn't planning on playing it since I found the first one underwhelming but I was bored and I thought what the hell, it's free so why not. Obviously I can't beat the game in just a few days, but I played it long enough to get to level 10, which I think is long enough to form an impression of it. So what did I think? 

 

It's alright. It does address some of the issues with the first game. The jarring bullet sponge feeling in a realistic setting is somewhat addressed with visible armor layers now. Armored enemies have their layers peeled off as you shoot them, and there are also weak points on them that strip their armor off faster. Once you've exposed an unprotected area, the enemies go down fairly quickly with a few shots to that region. You'll still find enemies without helmets who don't die from a single sniper bullet to the brain though.

 

One area where I can't complain is content. There is an absolute ton of stuff to do in this game at launch. There's a buttload of side missions and activites. Obviously, this is a looter shooter so it's mostly going to boil down to "Go here and kill a bunch of guys," but that's just inherent to the genre. This is an Ubisoft game so there's lots of collectibles to find. You can also do missions or find materials to upgrade your various settlements to give them more features and better defenses. You can also donate food, water, and medicine at each outpost to unlock rewards. 

 

There are 8 skill categories, at least in the early game, and each category has 3 to 4 different versions. For example you can have turrets that shoot bullets, fire, or sniper rounds. There are also special perks you unlock with points you get from doing side missions or finding caches throughout the city. I only unlocked a few, but I could tell that there's enough there to keep you busy for a while. I experimented with several different builds in my time with the game.

 

The plot is whatever. I didn't get far but I could tell it was just your average looter shooter tripe. Who gives a crap about the story in any of these games? Same goes for the characters. I pretty much expected that. One thing I have to criticize, however, is the matchmaking. I had no friends to play with so I had to rely on randoms. I could be wrong, but as far as I could tell there's no way to make a public group of your own where you are the group leader. When you get matched up with people, the game seems to decide randomly who the leader is. This wouldn't bother me, but if the leader decides to kick you for any reason at any point during a mission, you get booted all the way back to the beginning and have to do everything all over again, but this time with no help. This happened to me three fucking times and these are long missions so you better believe it pissed me off, especially when I was the one who put out the call for backup in the first place. Outside of the main missions, I had a lot of trouble getting a group together. I had my requesting backup beacon going pretty much constantly and I could only find a group maybe three or four times. I don't know if that says more about the game's player count or their online system, but either way I spent more time doing missions solo than I wanted to. This game is not balanced for solo play at all and doing missions by yourself can be a real bitch. 

 

I could see myself having a decent amount of fun with this game if I had a regular group to play with, but I'm not about to shell out 60 bucks for it as a solo experience. At the very least I'll give them credit for not making the game devoid of content with the excuse that it will be fun in 90 days. I'd certainly recommend it over Anthem. 

[TheMightyEthan]

The Division's anarcho-fascist overtones give me the creeps.

[CorgiShinobi]

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

 

If you're not sure about this game, I'll try to give a good description based on my 4 hours so far. In terms of how the game plays, in relation to Dark Souls and Bloodborne, it leans more to the Bloodborne side of combat.

 

HOWEVER!

 

However, it's not about aggression as though you were a beast. You are very much a fragile shinobi that needs to assess your approach and understand the basis of this game's combat. The key point in how Sekrio is different is Posture. Not to be confused with Dark Souls' "Poise", Posture is a combat mechanic that acts like a Stamina bar in how much you can block. The thing is, while in Dark Souls you might be vulnerable and near death if you let your Stamina hit its limit, when Posture hits its limit, you're as good a dead because this game utilizes Deathblows. Should the enemy or you have your Posture meter full, a red dot appears indicating a Deathblow can be performed. For common enemies, this is basically an insta-kill as a Deathblow drains the health bar. For bosses, they require multiple deathblows.

 

Posture is a deeper mechanic than just attacking something that's guarding. Enemies still have health bars and as you lower their health, they take more "damage" to their Posture meter. Guarding will help empty the Posture meter faster and even if your meter is almost full, it doesn't affect your swing speed or sprint speed (as far as I can tell). My criticism to this game so far is that while you'll get explanations about a mechanic, there's no Help section to review them. Ergo, you'll probably be online to research something. However, there is a very handy NPC that you can practice techniques and combat on. I underestimated his value at first, but when I started getting my butt handed to me by a boss, it greatly helped me understand the logic in the combat.

 

It's very much a challenging game, but this should come expected when we're discussing FromSoftware. So to repeat, you can't just go in swinging and at the same time there's little room to turtle against enemies. Knowing when to attack, deflect, and counter is the key to victory in Sekiro.

Edited March 24, 2019 by Atomsk88

[Mister Jack]

I've put a few hours into Sekiro now and so far I like it. I'm sure I haven't gotten far enough for it to get really hard but I've killed four or five minibosses and decided to take a break when I hit the first proper boss and got my ass kicked. If I have one major complaint so far, it's the camera. I'd say that about 2/3 of my deaths up to this point have been because the camera got into a position where it was impossible to see what was going on and I got killed while struggling to get it back under control. A few mechanics are also poorly explained and I had to look them up on the internet to fully grasp them. I'm having fun so far, though. 

 

Spoiler

Hopefully Lady Butterfly won't change my mind on that.

 

[TheMightyEthan]

Octopath Traveler

 

I want to like it so much, but goddamn it has terrible pacing. I've been playing for 6 hours and I've only done 4 1/2 of the intros, and so far there's been absolutely no crossover between them, so I feel like I've played the beginnings of 4 different but similar games. It really kills my motivation to keep going. I've noticed the second chapter of a couple characters' stories appear on the map and I just want to know, do they ever start to interact or is just going to feel like I'm playing 8 games at the same time the whole way through?

 

*Edit - I just looked into it a little more and I think I'll be selling this one. I'm already struggling to stay interested 6 hours in and it's a 75 hour game, so thanks but no thanks...

[Mal]

Yeah, they really never interact in any meaningful way. I don't think even the post-game side quest (I haven't played it to that point) even do much in that regards even though some background element from each characters' stories goes into it. Which is a goddamn shame because in essence what you have in Octopath Traveler is Final Fantasy 6's World of Ruin. It just never come together in a "Holy shit, this is awesome" moment. 

 

While I liked what I played, it is fair to say that Octopath Traveler is in some way is a disappointment. Now there's a mobile game... Eh. 

[TheMightyEthan]

I think this game would have been better handled as actually 8 games with the same engine/world, or 8 separate episodes, and let you play through one entire story before starting the next.

[Mister Jack]

So I decided to give Dark Souls another chance and I've played long enough now to form an impression. It's alright. Mostly. When the game is progressing at a decent pace it's relatively fun. The combat in this is still my least favorite out of the Souls/Bloodborne/Sekiro group, but it's serviceable.  However, while I can appreciate that they wanted to give you as much freedom as possible with minimal interruption, there are some things they really needed to convey to the player that they just don't. I found a pretty good sword and made it all the way to Blighttown with it when it lost its durability. I had another sword with a decent enough attack value, and yet it was doing next to no damage. Turns out, the weapon's attack value on its own means very little. You have to take modifier values from your STR/DEX stats into account, as well as blacksmith upgrades, of which I had zero because I had never needed it until now. I couldn't repair the sword that I was using either because to do so you need to either go all the way to a blacksmith, which are spread out REALLY far, or you have to own a repair kit that you buy from a merchant in one of the early areas.

 

Obviously, the game doesn't tell you about this repair kit. I didn't notice it before and had to look it up online to find out it was even a thing. Mind you, by the time I found out about it I was stuck in the fucking Blighttown swamp with no weapons worth a damn, no fast travel, and a hell of a long way to walk to get that kit. I almost rage quit the whole game right there, but I held it together, went all the way out of Blighttown (again, with no viable weapons), and back to one of the first areas of the game to buy that kit. Then I had to go back through Blighttown again to get back to where I was when all this shit went down. It took two hours to do this when you factor in all the times I died attempting it, and none of that time was fun. I'm willing to overlook it this time but if the game pulls another nasty surprise like this on me then I'm going to be very tempted to drop it. I'm fine with the enemies and bosses being hard, but inconvenience and tedium shouldn't be part of why the game is challenging.

 

Also, Blighttown can suck my nuts. Putting that many narrow walkways and instant death pitfalls in a game that barely even has a jump button is horseshit. I always hate it when games without platforming controls insist on putting in platformer sections.

Edited April 12, 2019 by Mister Jack

[toxicitizen]

Doesn't weapon durability reset at bonfires as long as the weapon isn't broken? Or is that something the sequels added? It's been a while since I played the original. Also yeah, probably should've mentioned it but upgrading your weapon is actually more important than leveling up lol. Sorry! Stats scaling isn't quite as important, it just means your weapon won't suddenly become worthless down the line. A lot of new players get fucked over because they find the drake sword early on and rely on it without realizing how quickly it'll become useless because it doesn't scale.

 

Also, Blighttown isn't a platforming section. It's a "watch your step" section.  It's a pain in the ass to navigate the first time but once you know where everything is it's ridiculously easy to rush through.

Edited April 12, 2019 by FLD

[MetalCaveman]

I thought weapons were repaired when using bonfires, never looked too much into weapon durability though, could be something added later.  

 

It may be weird but I've gotten used to never looking at a weapon's stats, I just look in the status page to see if the total damage is better than what I have, if it's not then I ignore it.  

 

I always skip Blighttown, master key FTW! Only time I went through it all was when trying to get the plat as there are a couple of things you need for it there and it was not fun, like the worst parts of the Valley of Defilement from Demon's Souls fused into one hellish nightmare.   

[Mister Jack]

You can repair weapons at bonfires, but only if you buy that repair kit first to unlock the functionality. Since I never came across that kit, I had to backtrack a hell of a long way to get it once I needed it. So far that has been by far my worst experience playing this game. I was dreading that dual boss everyone says is the hardest in the game but I ended up beating them on my first try. At least where combat is concerned, this game is a breeze compared to Sekiro. The vast majority of my deaths have been due to falling, which is far more frustrating than getting killed by an enemy.

[toxicitizen]

You're already past Ornstein and Smough?! Lol geez, just how much free time do you have??? I'm just sitting here, nowhere near being done with Sekiro lol.

[Mister Jack]

Blighttown is the only area that's given me a lot of trouble so I'm getting through the rest of it at a pretty good pace so far. I'm also using a guide to make sure I don't go to areas that are too far above my level because fuck that noise.

[toxicitizen]

The worst that'll happen is you'll die quickly and you'll learn you're not supposed to go there just yet.   Although tbh, the only places that come to mind are the cemetery next to Firelink at the very start and the area that comes after if you make it past the skeletons. Unless you took the master key (which is a terrible starting gift for new players), I can't remember any other areas you could accidentally wander into that you shouldn't.

 

Seriously, you got through Sekiro. There's nothing in this game you need to be afraid of lol. Especially if you beat O&S on your first try. I mean, shit, I don't think I ever beat them solo. I always summon another player or Solaire because I hate having to fight more than one enemy at once in these games.

[Mister Jack]

I mean, I did summon Solaire but why wouldn't I do that if he's available. I also summon other players when I see them because I like playing co-op. I'm not looking to prove anything by restricting myself here. Like you said, I got through Sekiro so it's not like anyone can call me a filthy casual. Even then, I've only had the opportunity to summon other players a few times. I guess the first game is past its peak of popularity or something.

 

Also I did take the master key because it sounded the most useful. Guess that was a mistake.

[toxicitizen]

Yeah, it's the most useful starting gift for sure. It's great for players that know what they're doing, like speedrunners. It's just that the game uses locked doors to funnel you down the right path early on, so the master key is a good way for new players to end up in areas where they shouldn't go yet. Sounds like it wasn't a problem for you, though.

[Mister Jack]

So how is Dark Souls 3 compared to 1? I'll probably wrap up the remaster in the next couple days and my feelings are kind of mixed. I don't hate it anymore, but I don't particularly love it either. Some of the areas and bosses are great and a lot of fun to explore, but then there are other areas and bosses that are just terrible. In fact, one boss in particular that I just finished with might be one of the worst boss fights I've ever played in a game. It's hard to ignore that some parts of this game feel really clunky and not very well thought out. Which, yeah, it's the first Dark Souls so I get they were still figuring things out, but I just wonder if DS3 is a smoother, more polished game by comparison due to From's years of experience making the series. DS1 feels like a good game that had the potential to be a great game with a little more work. I'm not even going to bother with DS2 because everything I read about it makes it sound like a hot mess that I want no part of.

[toxicitizen]

Well, I know that people seemed to compare DS3's combat to Bloodborne a lot. I assume because it's a little faster, but I can't really comment since I haven't played Bloodborne. Personally, the original has a soft spot in my heart due to its borderline metroidvania level design which the sequels dropped (I'm guessing because being able to warp between bonfires right from the start made it kinda redundant). Dark Souls 3 definitely has some improvements (graphics being the obvious one) but I'm not sure if I'd necessarily consider it better. It does feel like the direct sequel to the original that Dark Souls 2 wasn't, though (and it was directed by Miyazaki, unlike Dark Souls 2). I'm not sure I'd recommend skipping Dark Souls 2, though. It's weirdly divisive and is the one I personally consider the weakest of the three (although some people consider it the best one) but it's not bad by any stretch of the imagination. And you don't seem to have any kind of attachment to the original, so YMMV and all that.

 

Also, I'm assuming that that terrible boss was Bed of Chaos? It's generally regarded as a terrible boss even among the fan base, so you're not an outlier there. It's also the general consensus that the second half of the game (post-Lord Vessel) isn't as well designed as the first half, so you're not off the mark here. I mean, everything about Demon Ruins is pretty bad, including the fact that it being loaded into memory when it shouldn't have is allegedly the reason why Blighttown ran like shit in the original release lol. I think most people just find that the good far outweighs the bad and is enough to push it into great game territory.

[Mister Jack]

Yeah I definitely feel like the first half is a lot better than the second. You're right about Bed of Chaos. That boss was an absolute train wreck. Demon Ruins, Crystal Caves, Lost Izalith, I didn't really enjoy going through any of those places. I'm hoping the DLC areas are better, although I find it kind of dumb that they hid their own additional paid content behind an NPC I probably never would have found if I didn't look up how to get to her. I know the internet means you can never really get truly stuck in this game, and maybe the developers even intended to make it this way to encourage a community, but I don't really like having to stop to Google things. 

 

I'm kinda surprised you never played Bloodborne since you clearly love these games. Unless you just don't have a PS4, anyway. If you ever get the opportunity I'd definitely recommend it.

[toxicitizen]

Oh right, forgot about the DLC area. There's one of the best bosses of the entire game in there.

 

And yeah I want to play Bloodborne, I just lack the PS4 to do it. I just found out it's available on PS Now, though. I installed the PC client, so I'll be checking it out in the near future I think. Not sure what to expect but hopefully it'll be playable enough despite being streamed.