Video Games: Now with a Chance to Win a Complimentary Membership to Gambler's Anonymous

[Rhom]

Picked up Octopath the other day.  As a guy who cut his teeth on the 8/16 bit Square-Enix titles (pre merger!) it is everything I want it to be.

Started with the thief character and have enjoyed the few hours I have played.

[Red Tiger]

I have concluded that I hate Dark Souls with the whitehot intensity of a thousand suns.

Bloodborne 2 would be welcome, though.

[Slurktan]

1 hour ago, Red Tiger said:

I have concluded that I hate Dark Souls with the whitehot intensity of a thousand suns.

Bloodborne 2 would be welcome, though.

lol why on the hate?

[Red Tiger]

1 hour ago, Slurktan said:

lol why on the hate?

It's slow, reeeeeeaaaally slow.

The areas I find so boring that they put me to sleep, plus the medieval aesthetic just doesn't do it for me, at all.

It doesn't reward an aggressive playstyle.

I played Dark Souls 1 and 3 before and I didn't like it, but after finishing Bloodborne I figured "you know what, maybe now I can appreciate these games". NOPE.

[The Anti-Targ]

So, have people seen the Uncharted fan film with Nathan Filion playing Nathan Drake?

For what it is it's very good, and as expected Filion does Nathan Drake very well.

I think this can fairly and unfairly put pressure on the Young Nate film. It can put pressure on in terms of making the feature film producers feel the need to make a good movie, not just churn out something generic. But it could also make for an unfair comparison where it's not really fair to compare a 15 minute short film with an incomplete story to a full feature film.

[aceluby]

14 hours ago, Red Tiger said:

It's slow, reeeeeeaaaally slow.

The areas I find so boring that they put me to sleep, plus the medieval aesthetic just doesn't do it for me, at all.

It doesn't reward an aggressive playstyle.

I played Dark Souls 1 and 3 before and I didn't like it, but after finishing Bloodborne I figured "you know what, maybe now I can appreciate these games". NOPE.

What kind of build are you going for?  A dex build is definitely going to require a faster playstyle.  I'd also argue that it does reward an aggressive playstyle (dodging + two handed is deadly), but it punishes a reckless one (you can't be a damage sponge and expect to get it back like BB).  There's a fine line there that isn't really present w/ BB.

They are different games (albeit with similar qualities), so it's understandable if you like one and don't like the other.  BB is faster and was intentionally created to be a faster version of DS, so if it's the speed of action that drew you in and not the level design + bosses + RPG elements; then yeah, I can see why DS3 wouldn't keep your attention.

[aceluby]

40 hours into Hollow Knight and have gotten to the point where I'm doing mostly side quests now.  Got the rest of the skills last night and started up the Grimm Troupe DLC.  Will take on Grimm tonight to get my Grimmchild charm leveled up, then move on to the collector and finish up collecting grubs/mister mushroom quest while I save up $$$ for the unbreakable charms.  Then I'll finish up collecting the the black eggs, finish the game for the 1st ending, take on some of the dream warriors/bosses to get my dream nail maxed, take on the colosseum, Nightmare King, then get the last two endings.  Not sure how long it'll take to do all that, but hopefully it'll last until DS is released on the switch, and if not try out Darkest Dungeon.

[Red Tiger]

5 hours ago, aceluby said:

What kind of build are you going for?  A dex build is definitely going to require a faster playstyle.  I'd also argue that it does reward an aggressive playstyle (dodging + two handed is deadly), but it punishes a reckless one (you can't be a damage sponge and expect to get it back like BB).  There's a fine line there that isn't really present w/ BB.

They are different games (albeit with similar qualities), so it's understandable if you like one and don't like the other.  BB is faster and was intentionally created to be a faster version of DS, so if it's the speed of action that drew you in and not the level design + bosses + RPG elements; then yeah, I can see why DS3 wouldn't keep your attention.

Im going with a strength build. I didn't play BB recklessly, I took more of a stick-and-move approach, but still quite aggressive. I never went for the damage sponge approach, outside of Ludwig, where it helped me out. Also, level design was one of the things I loved most about Bloodborne, but don't like about Dark Souls (both of them). Same for the bosses and RPG elements, I just prefer BB's usage of the factors more.

[RumHam]

3 hours ago, aceluby said:

40 hours into Hollow Knight and have gotten to the point where I'm doing mostly side quests now.  Got the rest of the skills last night and started up the Grimm Troupe DLC.  Will take on Grimm tonight to get my Grimmchild charm leveled up, then move on to the collector and finish up collecting grubs/mister mushroom quest while I save up $$$ for the unbreakable charms.  Then I'll finish up collecting the the black eggs, finish the game for the 1st ending, take on some of the dream warriors/bosses to get my dream nail maxed, take on the colosseum, Nightmare King, then get the last two endings.  Not sure how long it'll take to do all that, but hopefully it'll last until DS is released on the switch, and if not try out Darkest Dungeon.

New Hollow Knight free DLC comes out 8/23 if you weren't aware. 

[Slurktan]

2 hours ago, Red Tiger said:

Im going with a strength build. I didn't play BB recklessly, I took more of a stick-and-move approach, but still quite aggressive. I never went for the damage sponge approach, outside of Ludwig, where it helped me out. Also, level design was one of the things I loved most about Bloodborne, but don't like about Dark Souls (both of them). Same for the bosses and RPG elements, I just prefer BB's usage of the factors more.

You can certainly play like that in DS 2 and 3 if you use the right weapons, not so much in 1. But I get ya.  BB's combat is preferable to me.  Level design?  Outside of Central Yarhnam there isn't really much that impressed me however with there being some absolute shitters like Brygenwerth and the Lecture Building.  However the general atmosphere for me is where Bloodborne takes the cake.

[Red Tiger]

1 hour ago, Slurktan said:

You can certainly play like that in DS 2 and 3 if you use the right weapons, not so much in 1. But I get ya.  BB's combat is preferable to me.  Level design?  Outside of Central Yarhnam there isn't really much that impressed me however with there being some absolute shitters like Brygenwerth and the Lecture Building.  However the general atmosphere for me is where Bloodborne takes the cake.

Im not saying I think DS is bad, I can definitely see why people love it, but (so far) they're like clothes that don't fit me.

I wonder how Lovecraft would feel about Bloodborne.

[Werthead]

Nothing wrong at all with not liking Dark Souls. It has a particular appeal (for people who like games that punish them for making the slightest mistake and reward them for spending hours practising for single fights) and if you fall into that wheelhouse, great. If not, there's plenty of other games around. I really admire Dark Souls' hardcore attitude and by going against the grain of dumbing down gameplay difficulty for mass appeal which we've seen a lot in the last 10-15 years or so, but I haven't got the patience to really get to grips with it (plus the PC port was not great).

 

Pathfinder: Kingmaker comes out in September. This looks a lot better than I was expecting: a Baldur's Gate-style RPG but with a strong Birthright-style realm management side-game added in, so you complete quests but also conquer lands and add them to you realm which you have to manage alongside the adventuring.

[Red Tiger]

After finishing Dark Souls 3 (it's the weekend, I need my ARGP fix, the game wasn't hard and it was strangely short, sue me), I understand where The Dogfather aka @Slurktan is coming from.

I only have Bloodborne to compare it to, but while the game has great bosses and a more actionized feel, it was quite dull and what stuck out the most for me was how barren the areas were. Fighting a boss? Cool, as it had great bosses overall, but the lead-up to them? Holy shit it was bad. There are monsters roaming around as usual, but they are just there, they don't go well with the environment. I often felt like it was copy-pasting enemies from Bloodborne. This aint a Gothic horror story, you can't put those kind of enemies in a medieval game, it clashes horribly. The music wasn't worth much either, which only served to further weaken the atmosphere. I liked the gameplay well enough, after a while (not nearly as much as Bloodborne), but I can't lie, there were times when I was staring at my copy of Bloodborne and wondering if doing a chalice dungeon would be less boring.

Overall, 7.5/10. Will probably do the DLC later, because reasons.

[aceluby]

21 hours ago, Red Tiger said:

After finishing Dark Souls 3 (it's the weekend, I need my ARGP fix, the game wasn't hard and it was strangely short, sue me), I understand where The Dogfather aka @Slurktan is coming from.

I only have Bloodborne to compare it to, but while the game has great bosses and a more actionized feel, it was quite dull and what stuck out the most for me was how barren the areas were. Fighting a boss? Cool, as it had great bosses overall, but the lead-up to them? Holy shit it was bad. There are monsters roaming around as usual, but they are just there, they don't go well with the environment. I often felt like it was copy-pasting enemies from Bloodborne. This aint a Gothic horror story, you can't put those kind of enemies in a medieval game, it clashes horribly. The music wasn't worth much either, which only served to further weaken the atmosphere. I liked the gameplay well enough, after a while (not nearly as much as Bloodborne), but I can't lie, there were times when I was staring at my copy of Bloodborne and wondering if doing a chalice dungeon would be less boring.

Overall, 7.5/10. Will probably do the DLC later, because reasons.

What's kind of funny with this is that those who played a lot of DS and DS2 before BB had many of the same complaints that you of BB.  Enemies didn't seem to fit with the environment, bosses were all pretty samey, everything seemed copy/pasted from DS but with just a slightly different feel.  There's a lot of lore around why the enemies are the way they are, so if you're interested there's some good youtube vids explaining some of those decisions.  They also have them for BB which led me to appreciate it a lot more (especially how the chalice dungeons fit into the story).  I platinum'd DS1, 2, & BB, but never even tried DS3.  I also played it the least out of all those games and Demon's Souls and still have DLC that I haven't played.

Still can't wait for DS1 to come out on the switch though, been waiting years for a game like that to be mobile.

[aceluby]

On 7/20/2018 at 12:57 PM, RumHam said:

New Hollow Knight free DLC comes out 8/23 if you weren't aware. 

I wasn't, but that's awesome!  Looks like the switch will get it for free too.  Finished the first ending yesterday and am trying to finish out the Grimm Troupe DLC since I've upgraded all my fragile charms to unbreakable.  The last set of flames is a huge PITA.  Also about 1/2 way from ascending my dream nail, so will switch to the dream warrior bosses after Grimm and then get that last charm.

[Rhom]

I’m about 7 hours into Octopath and loving the nostalgic feel... but I now have four characters and don’t see why I should replay the game over and over?  Is there something different about the intros if you start them from the get go instead of playing as you encounter them?

[Toth]

Well... since a few weeks I have a new laptop and christened it by installing Attila: Total War. There is a rather annoying story behind it: When I was studying for my Bachelor, I had made it a habit to play a Total War game in accordance with the era of the courses I was selecting every semester, just to fire myself up. I intended to do a similar thing in the Master, so when I had an extremely fun course about Emperor Justinian (one that was fairly influencal to my choice for a thesis subject) and coincidentally Attila appeared in a Humble Bundle, I obviously went for it and bought the "The Last Roman" DLC about Belisarius and Justinian along with it...

... and then was very annoyed to find out that neither my laptop nor my desktop PC was able to run the damn game. At all. I only ever got to the main menu, but that was it.

Now with that new laptop, I was finally able to try it out and jumped into a loyalist Belisarius campaign, reconquering the Roman Empire. At least after a lot of messing with the game settings, installing Visual Studio and creating new shortcuts that are still a bit wonky when I forget to start Steam. Seriously, why is this game so horribly programmed? These compatibility issues seriously aren't normal!

In any case... Right at the beginning I made the mistake of splitting my army, so while one half was gobbling up little villages without any resistance whatsoever, Belisarius himself got rushed by four Vandal armies right away. Despite the odds, I somehow managed to destroy those armies in a pyrrhic and a heroic victory fighting myself back to pacified territory. But I barely survived that. Though I'm not in the least bit surprised that the gameplay is very close to Medieval's "heavy cavalry ftw, everything else sucks" way of balance. Against the Vandal heavy cav I could only put some meagre levy spearmen who get casually slaughtered every fucking time, while the unit that saved my ass every time is my own heavy cataphract wedge. Because of cause it is. Also archers are ludicrously weak, so my preferred tactic of thinning out the enemy during his charge I brought from previous games doesn't seem to be all that powerful anymore.

In any case, after some rebuilding I managed to get back and take the now almost undefended Carthage. After those two victories, alongside a sudden Sardinian invasion that came out of nowhere, the Vandals apparently just folded and gave up every resistance. It's a bit strange that after that inital bit of challenging gameplay, things suddenly become very easy again. The only thing I'm uncertain about is how to deploy a navy. The variation of ship types is rather overwhelming and I don't know much about what is the superior option in this game. As a Roman, simply boarding everything I come across seems like a reasonable thought though...

[RumHam]

1 hour ago, Rhom said:

I’m about 7 hours into Octopath and loving the nostalgic feel... but I now have four characters and don’t see why I should replay the game over and over?  Is there something different about the intros if you start them from the get go instead of playing as you encounter them?

No there's no difference. You're meant to do it all in one save file. I was going to skip some of the characters just to make the game shorter since I'm horrible at finishing games lately. But the recommended ,levels for the second chapters were so high I would have had to grind anyway.  

[Red Tiger]

4 hours ago, aceluby said:

What's kind of funny with this is that those who played a lot of DS and DS2 before BB had many of the same complaints that you of BB.  Enemies didn't seem to fit with the environment, bosses were all pretty samey, everything seemed copy/pasted from DS but with just a slightly different feel. 

I felt like werewolves, crows and evil men with pitchforks and top hats fit pretty well with Yarnam, to each his own I guess. I only really have this for DS3, DS1's enemies fit really well with it, but if we suddenly put knights in Yarnam, im gonna be like "the fuck?"

[aceluby]

3 minutes ago, Red Tiger said:

I felt like werewolves, crows and evil men with pitchforks and top hats fit pretty well with Yarnam, to each his own I guess. I only really have this for DS3, DS1's enemies fit really well with it, but if we suddenly put knights in Yarnam, im gonna be like "the fuck?"

The first few levels were very tight with the setting, it was the later game stuff (giant pigs, aliens, the brain guys) that garnered the most complaints.  But I've played enough of these games to know they are going to throw some weird shit into them.  Gameplay, level design, varied builds (biggest complaint for me on DS3), skill progression, and punishing difficulty is what gets me coming back over and over again.  It's one of the reasons I've enjoyed hollow knight so much, besides varied builds, it hits all those notes.