Videogames: New Year, New Thread

[Fez]

Elden Ring is getting astonishingly good reviews. I expected it to review well; all the From games have. But there are critics, not just hype folks but people from real outlets, already calling it one fo the greatest games of all time. 

https://opencritic.com/game/12090/elden-ring

ETA: The Washington Post's critic at least also says that GRRM's writing is immediately apparent and makes it have the most coherent story of any From game.

[aceluby]

11 hours ago, Argonath Diver said:

Good show! Hope you've found yourself a basic 6 link by now, at least a Tabula Rasa. The game is basically balanced around the assumption that your main damage is six linked for endgame content. (though a Tab isn't exactly optimal with all the dangerous stuff shooting around in juiced t16 maps). The atlas tree makes it so damn fun to pick and choose content you like, though I wish it were somewhat cheaper to respec for Solo Self Found types. I'm on trade league so my character is by now absurdly OP. I haven't been able to defeat the two hardest encounters despite a meta character class that most consider nearly cheat mode. Mostly due to the ridiculous screen clutter that is my obnoxious skeleton mage build. Can't wait to go back to a simpler caster build where I can actually see what's happening sometimes.

Been taking a bit of a break this week, back to working on my long-term Valheim citadel. Big plans but first so, so much farming on one screen while I binge watch Netflix. What a perfect game for that.

My chest piece is a unique, but haven't even seen a six link yet for anything and have burned through a couple hundred fusings and haven't even got a 5-link yet  I did just get a decent shaper shield for 16c, so now I'm rocking 6 totems total and just cruising through maps and doing all the archnemesis encounters.  I'm having a heck of a time in harvest though with how juiced it is w/ atlas passives, and on top of it I'm not getting the socket rolls I need.  I've had to ditch a few because I would get in and insta-die.  Thinking of just grinding out some whites for a few days and see if I can't get some currency for more fusings or finally get lucky with a useful harvest.

[Centrist Simon Steele]

I bought Vampire Survivors for 3 bucks. After playing it for five minutes, I realized two days had passed. Don't buy this game.

[Werthead]

2 hours ago, Fez said:

Elden Ring is getting astonishingly good reviews. I expected it to review well; all the From games have. But there are critics, not just hype folks but people from real outlets, already calling it one fo the greatest games of all time. 

https://opencritic.com/game/12090/elden-ring

ETA: The Washington Post's critic at least also says that GRRM's writing is immediately apparent and makes it have the most coherent story of any From game.

A lot of people also noting the game's accessibility without compromising the challenge, citing Breath of the Wild as a strong point of comparison.

Having noped out of Dark Souls after a few hours, this is the first FromSoft game I'm even half-tempted to try out.

[Rhom]

25 minutes ago, Werthead said:

A lot of people also noting the game's accessibility without compromising the challenge, citing Breath of the Wild as a strong point of comparison.

Having noped out of Dark Souls after a few hours, this is the first FromSoft game I'm even half-tempted to try out.

Yeah, my brother has been a big Souls guy and is super pumped about EldenRing... but I've never found constant death to be entertaining, so I have not played them but he keeps trying to get me to get this game.   

[Fez]

27 minutes ago, Werthead said:

A lot of people also noting the game's accessibility without compromising the challenge, citing Breath of the Wild as a strong point of comparison.

Having noped out of Dark Souls after a few hours, this is the first FromSoft game I'm even half-tempted to try out.

I somehow got to the final boss in Dark Souls, a level of success I have never come close to achieving in any other FromSoft game. I've bounced off the others I've touched at around the 10 hour mark. So I was thinking I might skip Elden Ring, or at least wait until whichever steam sale it finally starts going 50% off.

But based off these reviews I think I'm going to check it out this weekend actually. I'm real curious to see all this for myself. And the biggest thing that gives me hope is that the open world means I'll be able to see/find a ton of stuff even if most of the bosses remain impossible for me.

[RumHam]

4 hours ago, Fez said:

ETA: The Washington Post's critic at least also says that GRRM's writing is immediately apparent and makes it have the most coherent story of any From game.

Shame it'll be a decade or so before the first DLC is finished. 

[Werthead]

4 hours ago, Rhom said:

Yeah, my brother has been a big Souls guy and is super pumped about EldenRing... but I've never found constant death to be entertaining, so I have not played them but he keeps trying to get me to get this game.   

I did get on with Jedi: Fallen Order, which at least nods at the Soulslike genre (though it also mashes together about 4 other game genres at the same time), but that did have adjustable difficulty. And some of the fight spikes in that game were still brutal.

Wait, Elden Ring doesn't let you pause the game, even in menus? Fuck that noise. That brings back too many bad memories of having to quit Fallout 76 every time I wanted to pee, and that game has the excuse of being ostensibly multiplayer-only.

[Centrist Simon Steele]

1 hour ago, Werthead said:

 

Wait, Elden Ring doesn't let you pause the game, even in menus? Fuck that noise. That brings back too many bad memories of having to quit Fallout 76 every time I wanted to pee, and that game has the excuse of being ostensibly multiplayer-only.

I think this has been true of all From games (except Sekiro maybe--which I'm currently having trouble getting into despite loving From).

I usually just go to a bonfire or whatever when I have to take a quick break. There's always the risk of invasion though.

[briantw]

1 hour ago, Werthead said:

Wait, Elden Ring doesn't let you pause the game, even in menus? Fuck that noise. That brings back too many bad memories of having to quit Fallout 76 every time I wanted to pee, and that game has the excuse of being ostensibly multiplayer-only.

If you're on a console, wouldn't hitting the home button effectively pause the game?

[Werthead]

12 minutes ago, briantw said:

If you're on a console, wouldn't hitting the home button effectively pause the game?

I don't believe so. It acts as an online game even when you've disabled the online component, like Fallout 76, so I believe the game either remains active in the background or it force-quits the game.

[briantw]

1 hour ago, Werthead said:

I don't believe so. It acts as an online game even when you've disabled the online component, like Fallout 76, so I believe the game either remains active in the background or it force-quits the game.

Ah, yeah that's lame then.  I routinely have to set a controller down to deal with one of my dogs, so I hate games without pauses, particularly console games.  They'll mostly leave me alone when I'm on my PC, but when I'm on the couch playing a console game they'll constantly annoy me.  And since Elden Ring isn't on GeForce Now, I won't be playing it on PC.

[The Anti-Targ]

It's the From MO. Just like releasing 2 versions of ostensibly the same game is the Pokemon MO.

To drag to tone down a bit. I went to the Uncharted movie. I was suitably entertained, but I am one of the few gamers who was totally fine with the direction of starting with young Nate and I had no issue with Tom Holland playing the role. I had an issue with Marky Mark playing Sully. The good thing is he didn't try to play Sully, he played Mark Wahlberg playing a character named Sully, and that was OK. Less of a father figure as an older cousin.

The only real disappointment to me was 

Spoiler

The lack of the fantasy element that are the games. Maybe the bring the fantasy element in in the next movie.

Also it seems like the mid-credits scene is

Spoiler

Setting up the next movie to be the Uncharted 1 game story.

 

[Fez]

Yeah, its supposedly because of the online elements. Which I sorta get. But in that case there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to pause in offline mode.

And I don't buy the excuses about not them wanting you to be able to make instant changes while in combat; they could easily just disable doing anything in the menu if it was just there to be a pause.

Now supposedly Elden Ring has tons and tons of checkpoints (both the bonfire equivalent as well as a lesser version which from what I gather you can respawn from but can't do at least some of the other functions of a bonfire) so an unfortunate death matters less than a lot of previous From games. But that still doesn't help if you're in a boss fight, doing well, and you have to get up for some reason.

[IlyaP]

11 hours ago, Werthead said:

I did get on with Jedi: Fallen Order, which at least nods at the Soulslike genre (though it also mashes together about 4 other game genres at the same time), but that did have adjustable difficulty. And some of the fight spikes in that game were still brutal.

There were brutal fights? It was a 16 hour explore-fest with a plot that was telegraphed from a thousand miles away and with a resolution that made the entire point of the game kind of redunant. Or so I felt at game's end.

[Derfel Cadarn]

Got my PSVR repaired and returned, and played Blood & Truth, a shooter set in London. Very good, especially with the hand-wands so I can draw my guns, grab clips off my vest to slam fresh clips home.

[RumHam]

I just realized I could have stayed home today and played Elden Ring by telling my xbox it's in New Zeland. I always forget about that.

[aceluby]

My delivery for Elden Ring won't be here until March 4th according to my app.  Think I might bail from work when the shops open up tomorrow and see if I can't snag one and return my pre-order once it gets in.  I am having a great time with path of exile, but I'm also having serious FOMO with all y'all talking about it.

[RumHam]

9 minutes ago, aceluby said:

but I'm also having serious FOMO with all y'all talking about it.

Same here. I just started Fallout 4 again, really there's no reason I shouldn't follow through on that and then get to this game. But all the rave reviews and articles about it are doing something to my brain. 

[Ran]

Watching some Elden Ring streams on Twitch just to see what bits of overarching lore comes out of it that we didn't know before, as that appears to be GRRM's primary contribution. Per a review in our local paper, they felt you could pick out George's contributions to the game because those parts of the lore felt more grounded than what can normally be found in a FromSoftware game.