Video Games: 'Does Not Open From This Side' Edition

[Muttering Bill]

Finished off my first trip through Dark Souls 3 yesterday.  While comparing trophies to my friends I found that I missed a boss.  Actually, the entire area of Smouldering Lake.  So I went through every area twice to make sure I got everything before flipping to NG+.  There was quite a bit that I missed the first time, but most of it wasn't really a big deal.  Except the area of Undead Settlement with the fire demon.  Whoops.  I'm pretty sure I got it all now.  Just failed all of the NPC questlines.

Nameless King was by far the hardest boss.  Took me 2 days to beat him.  And the final boss being a close second.  I really enjoyed the last boss though.  Feels like what Gwyn was supposed to be; a good challenge for any build (although I was melee only, so I could be wrong about that).

[The Kingmaker]

Anyone checking the new Hearthstone expansion?

[Slurktan]

7 minutes ago, The Kingmaker said:

Anyone checking the new Hearthstone expansion?

isnt it out tomorrow?

[The Kingmaker]

2 minutes ago, Slurktan said:

isnt it out tomorrow?

It's out on America server, EU will have to wait for tomorrow :/

[briantw]

Finished off Final Fantasy IX.  The story doesn't hold up quite as well as I remembered, probably because I was like fourteen when the game came out and thus it seemed much more epic then.  The main villain is kind of ridiculous, and the story really goes off the rails in the last act and kind of just doesn't make a lot of sense or bother to explain itself.  The main strength of the story was the interesting characters, and they held up pretty well.  Some of the dialogue is pretty childish, which no doubt appealed more to me when I was a kid, but overall it's rarely terrible and mostly all right. 

I still really liked the gameplay.  It's a very deep JRPG, with a million skills to learn and a battle system that forces you to keep moving, as it's not strictly turn-based.  There's a pretty constant sense of progression too, as you're almost always finding items with new skills as you push forward.  The only real downside is that, like most FF games, it's really grindy.  You basically have to grind quite a bit if you hope to make it through some of the final fights.  And if you want to fight Ozma, the game's hardest (and optional) boss, you basically have to be in the sixty to seventy range to even have a shot at him, and if you just go straight through the game you won't even be close to that by the end, nor will you have the offensive skills necessary to really deal consistent, heavy damage to Ozma, or the defensive skills to survive some of his attacks.  I was in the eighties when I beat him and it was still an absolute bitch.

[KiDisaster]

Fuck the Nameless King. That's about all I have to day. Done banging my head against that particular brick wall for the evening. I've gotten past the first phase once in the dozens of attempts I've done today.

[AndrewJ]

Just curious - are you (mostly KiD, but also Bill) using co-op help on the harder bosses? Or do you prefer to complete it all solo?

[Caligula_K3]

Well, I killed the Four Kings. Kind of an annoying boss fight, but eventually I learned the key was to kill each one quickly and so spammed the stamina regen item. I went back to the grave of the giants after (now with a handy light) and moved through it pretty quickly- Gravedigger Nito didn't give me much trouble. Three down, one to go!

[KiDisaster]

I have been using coop (as a phantom) to practice some of the harder fights and then soloing them in my game. 

[Jasta11]

And now a new Hearthstone expansion is out. Gosh, so many games, so little free time.

I'm thrilled by the inclusion of Standard format. Naxx and GvG introduced too many overpowered cards that were auto-includes in serious decks. Hopefully Whispers ends up offering less power creep so we see more deck variety.

[Muttering Bill]

3 hours ago, AndrewJ said:

Just curious - are you (mostly KiD, but also Bill) using co-op help on the harder bosses? Or do you prefer to complete it all solo?

Always solo the first time.

On NG+ I'll probably start picking up Sunbros to work toward the Covenant Rewards and the platinum trophy.

 

[Werthead]

BioWare have a live camera monitoring the status of a pair of geese incubating eggs on the roof of their Edmonton HQ.

It's been hailed the best BioWare game with some of their strongest character development for years.

[Gears of the Beast]

Dramatic video game music doesn't really fit it lol, if they're gonna go to that effort they could at least mic up the geese so we can get authentic geese noises instead. Bioware drops the ball again. 

[KiDisaster]

No romance options. Literally unplayable. 

[aceluby]

I also finished DS3 last weekend, but missed a few areas/bosses.  Hard to find time to play with the change of the seasons, so will slowly prod my way through the parts I missed and work towards the inevitable platinum.  Besides magic being extremely nerfed into pointlessness, I think this may be the best one yet.

[Jace, Extat]

1 hour ago, Werthead said:

BioWare have a live camera monitoring the status of a pair of geese incubating eggs on the roof of their Edmonton HQ.

It's been hailed the best BioWare game with some of their strongest character development for years.

The hope that Andromeda might be baseline acceptable is the only thing keeping me going these days. I need a last swan song from my favorite developer, so keep your defeatist mindset to yourself, lest I go Stalin on dat ass.

[Centrist Simon Steele]

On 4/18/2016 at 10:48 PM, Simon Steele said:

So what do you guys think on this: I loved Dark Souls 1, pretty much loved Dark Souls 2, but I am having trouble getting into Bloodborne. Do you think I'm souls'd out? I really want to get DS3, but I'm worried I'll quit about a third of the way through like with Bloodborne--which was a great game, but it lost me. I figured I'd like it more too--the horror setting and all. 

Well Simon, I think if you loved Dark Souls 1, then you should try Dark Souls 3. It is more in line with the first one. Dark Souls 2 is a great game and all, but it is lacking that special something. Dark Souls 3 found it again. One thing though--if you buy it on PC, there are some issues with online matchmaking. Nothing huge, but sometimes servers lag quite a bit (known optimization issue from From) and sometimes if you are summoned you can't access Fog Walls and engage the boss of the area leaving the host to die on his own. Which sucks. But otherwise expect to get invaded again. I remember playing Dark Souls 2 and never getting invaded ONCE on my entire first playthrough. Did that happen to you? I bet it did. I get invaded all the time now. It's great. I love it.

This game is awesome. It is challenging, though you will find some things have been made a bit easier (crystal bugs? I have easily killed them every time without them disappearing), but where DS2 was harder in level design and the bosses were super easy, I find the bosses to be more difficult this time around. Have at it I say. Even if Bloodborne didn't capture you, this is a different game.

Good luck, and if you see me out there, give me a summon...Simon.

[Sullen]

8 hours ago, Muttering Bill said:

Always solo the first time.

On NG+ I'll probably start picking up Sunbros to work toward the Covenant Rewards and the platinum trophy.

 

Hope you dropped a Symbol of Avarice and have several hours at your disposition to farm rewards, because the Darkmoon/Sentinel covenants don't work properly due to no one using Way of the Blue, and the same applies to Farron's Watchdogs.

[KiDisaster]

6 minutes ago, Sullen said:

Hope you dropped a Symbol of Avarice and have several hours at your disposition to farm rewards, because the Darkmoon/Sentinel covenants don't work properly due to no one using Way of the Blue, and the same applies to Farron's Watchdogs.

I was switching to Way of the Blue anytime I was embered but stopped bothering cause it was worthless. The handful of times I actually got a BlueBro to come into my game was either right after I died or right after I already killed the invader. Mostly the former because I'm trash at PvP. 

Most of the time now if I get invaded I just sprint back to the bonfire to die as close to it as possible. Get it over with and get my souls back so I can start the area over. 

[Sullen]

10 minutes ago, KiDisaster said:

I was switching to Way of the Blue anytime I was embered but stopped bothering cause it was worthless. The handful of times I actually got a BlueBro to come into my game was either right after I died or right after I already killed the invader. Mostly the former because I'm trash at PvP. 

Most of the time now if I get invaded I just sprint back to the bonfire to die as close to it as possible. Get it over with and get my souls back so I can start the area over. 

I really don't understand From's decision to bring back TWO covenants that work that way...

It worked in DS1 because of the Blue Eye Orb and the sin system, but completely failed in DS2, and this time around they didn't fix anything either. They should have prioritized players having equipped Way of the Blue for invasions, and give them some sort of reward for having it equipped on top of having the Sentinels/Darkmoon potentially coming to the rescue. This way, all three covenants become relevant instead of basically doing nothing.

Farron's Watchdogs could have been fixed if they did it similarly to the Bell Keepers in DS2: Make the invasions more frequent, and have two different zones involved in the covenant (one low level, one high level). It baffles me how much they fucked up here, considering they did it so well in DS2...

Are you going to try to get all of the covenant rewards?