What are you playing right now?

I loved spec ops, but the helicopter killed my joy. I can't remember if I got past it, but It was clear to me it was completely random.

Not right now but I am going to play 8-bit Armies.

Yeah that Spec Ops helicopter is absolutely nuts, and totally random. There are tactics and routes that increase your chance at survival...but not by much. Reminds me of Marauder Shields from Mass Effect 3. Intended to be a regular cinematic encounter that turned into an impossible shit-fest on the hardest setting.

Still MHW, farming Elder Dragon's for streamstones, and Castlevania: Curse of Darkness on the side.

Resident Evil 3 for me currently. Fantastic title!

I have the JP version in a box somewhere. You're making me want to play it now.

What do you think of the dodge mechanic?

The dodge takes getting used to, but I like it. It's interesting that it shares the button input with "shoot", meaning that a mistimed dodge sees you fire a shot and be vulnerable. One thing I'm a bit iffy on, and not sure if I'm doing it wrong, is the animation itself. Sometimes Jill will dodge into a piece of enviroment and thus still get hit. I might be wrong, but I don't think you can redirect it.

Otherwise its a fantastic title so far. Hard to believe I hated it so much originally.

Currently Castlevania: SOTN. I think I will be playing Capcom Classics Collection 2 later.

Never managed to 'get into' SOTN thanks to the loading upon death, I tend to really derp around in games like that, and getting that long loading screen, followed by having to load the whole game again really held me back. Did the later releases share this?

I remember even the AVGN making a joke about the loading in the game.

I have the PSN version and the death screen was a little long to me. Although the Now Loading screen is short. I wish that screen and the death screen time switched places. With the d-pad you can move the words Now Loading.

Now I am playing DMC2. Playing its Bloody Palace for the first time.

Bloody Palace was pretty nice.

I remember the dodge going in random directions. Might have something to do with the enemy type or direction the attack is coming from.

> Bloody Palace DMC2
It's fun, especially as Trish. You can actually cheat a little if you know how. I remember a guy actually beat all the stages legit, all 10.000 of them (poor guy).

> dodge
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdJoPZcsZ4s
Found this pretty well made tutorial, but most do note that random directions are a thing. I've tried to play around it but most areas are just too enclosed making it too difficult.

Metal Gear Rising with Sam I Am. Joking aside, one of the things I don't like about Sam is that he doesn't have a one hit sneak attack. I know he is supposed to be a full on fighter but he is the only one who doesn't have one.

I loathe VR missions.

I've just started playing Demon's Souls today. I've played maybe about 10-15 hours (combined) of Dark Souls 1, Bloodborne and Nioh but didn't really click with them. The Soulslike "genre" gets so much praise, and I really want to like these games, but I just find them to be tedious after a short while. I hope that I can start to enjoy them soon.

Demon's Souls is the most 'pure' of the games, you can really see that the developer said "fuck it" and just did what he wanted since the game was considered dead on arrival anyway. Dark Souls has a few good ideas, but mostly is a step back in terms of actual gameplay mechanics I feel - a trend that keeps escalating in subsequent games. Bloodborne is more action, less rpg.

What makes them tedious for you?

I think I’m the only one left who still thinks Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls are two of the best games ever made. Haven’t played anything since that’s replicated the feeling I got from them. Bloodborne is up there for me as well. While I’m obviouslg big on combat mechanics, the worlds and surprises of these games go an extremely long way for me.

Anywho, I’m going through every DMC before 5. I can beat 1 in one sitting so I’m going to do that tonight.

Demon's Souls is absolutely fantastic and easily one of the best titles we've seen, can agree on that. Dark Souls is grand, but I feel a lot of its praise comes from people playing that title first thanks to its killer marketing and multiplatform-nature, while the lore also kept a lot more people invested.

It still has one of the best open-world structures I've ever seen though, barring the orange-gates which I feel shouldn't have been in.

I think it might just be down to my personal preference on action games - I prefer them fast paced with more agile combat. I do enjoy the games from an atmosphere/world building perspective, I think From Software undeniably excell in those areas. I'm trying to train myself to enjoy the games mechanically.

I have no issue with games being hard, but having checkpoints spaced out so far can be a real bitch while you're still learning the game. It's hard to stay motivated when the game becomes more and more repetitive each time you fail.

Nothing wrong with that. I quite liked the tension of losing progress and the way they handled shortcuts in Demon's Souls. But I also felt that it got more annoying as the series went on, especially with boss fights. Originally you would clear all the areas constantly, but down the road losing to a boss just meant "well, time to run back all that way again and avoid all those enemies".

They tried to fix that in Dark Souls II to little success.

>Demon’s Souls
Yeah the team definitely just did whatever they felt like with this game. Some bosses are nuts, all of the online systems were crazy at the time, and the punishing nature of the game went against the grain of the industry as a whole. The Mega Man-esque level select is still one of my favorite things about it. While it’s not as logical as how the world connects in Dark Souls 1, it still offers a lot of freedom. Clearing the tower of latria on my first playthrough was a highlight of my gaming life.

>games become repetitive
I agree it can feel that way, but most levels have at least one shortcut of some kind, which essentially act as checkpoints to help with this.

>Dark Souls
It certainly attracted a large number of people who only see the game for its difficulty. Everyone I know who plays games casually just knows DS as “that hard game”, and all the other wonderful things about it get missed, it’s a shame. The world design and atmosphere are superb and I love the bonfire and healing systems. I’m not sure why they removed the health penalty after dying from Demon’s Souls, though.

> Shortcuts
Let's say that you die and choose to use a shortcut to reach the boss quicker, you'll acquire less souls as there are fewer enemies to fight, right? Which means your punishment for choosing the easier route is having fewer points to spend on upgrades, putting you at a disadvantage as you get further in to the game (unless you choose to go back and play through the areas again farming souls). Not really a massive fan of RPG upgrade/leveling systems in action games, I think it's easy to dampen the gameplay if developers aren't careful.

Giving the player weaker rewards for taking an easier route does sound obviously appropriate when you say it out loud though. It's frustrating, but I do find myself wanting just one more go when I die...maybe it's slowly winning me over.

Greg
Souls levels aren't that important thankfully, it is a good system that instead of letting you power through fights instead offers differing playstyles. The only difference being of course extreme leveling. If you for instance enter the first fight at level 100 you'll of course destroy him easily.

Eventually it is all about making progress, so if you skip to a boss, that's progress. You can always go back and 'farm' for levels if you want.

Infinity
> level structure
I always prefered Demon's Souls since it involved a lot less pointless walking around. That's fine on your first run, but Dark Souls really becomes a lot of pointless walking later-on and on subsequent runs. I really feel that the Mega Man layout allowed them to really get creative and try wild ideas. It also made for really fun run ideas, every run was different since you could try different orders in which you completed the levels.

> health penalty
The online system in general was a thing they tried to fix, that didn't need fixing. Demon's Souls balance was fantastic. If you were Human, you could be invaded but got a 40% HP buff. If you were Soul, you could invade to get Human form, had less HP but buffed stealth. Honestly it was just such a fantastic system, you could always validate PVP as a result since you might just want the 40% HP buff for a boss for instance.

Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando. Currently doing those arena missions.

Now doing Slice, Dice & Rice. Practicing right now.

Don't know that one, what's it about?

It's a fighting game that is similar to Bushido Blade. I also made a topic about it.

Played Genji for about an hour this morning due to a pal wanting me to check something. Made me remember a project I was working on a while ago.

Two actually. One was a combat mechanics guide and the other was listing the difference between versions. One of the differences is how the equipment is named. Need to get the Japanese version to confirm something too.

MHW and DMC5 now. DMC5 progress will most likely be pretty slow.

I was thinking of picking up MHW for my gf. How accessible is it for new players? She is like a level above a casual gamer.

Sent from Topic'it App

I am going back to Assassin's Creed Odyssey. I guess I am not going to play F-Zero GX right not since I don't feel like it.

Apparently a dead bear will make a leader not attack me.

Still DMCV and Diablo1.

Diablo 1??? Haven't heard that mentioned in a while.

I used to watch my friend play that so many years ago. More D2 though so I barely remember D1.

I wish I got the PS1 version of Diablo 1.

D1 is probably one of my most played games, I always go back to it. Best game in the series imo. It recently got a GOG release with better resolution and Windows10 support which is fantastic. Playing as a Sorceror now (was usually a warrior). Absolutely fantastic title!

Never played 1, but 2 and 3 are some of my favorites. I think 3 on ps4 is loot perfection. What makes 1 your favorite? I have been eyeing that gog release. If you want someone to play with, I would totally pick it up this week.

I've never actually played that title online! We could try it for sure, though where do you live? Gotta mind that time-difference haha!

Diablo 1 for me is the best since it offers a lot of build freedom, is really difficult and has that sick gothic depressing atmosphere. It could actually be considered scary. It is kind of like comparing DMC4 to DMC1 in that sense. Later levels of Diablo 1 are absolutely nuts. I wouldn't look up gameplay if I was you though, it looks horrible, but is really fun to play.

I'm in Colorado, US. I work til 3am though so I am up at all hours of the day throughout the week. I will let you know if I pick it up. I also love ancient graphics, that is one of the main appeals of the old King's Field games for me.

Now I am playing the first Max Payne.

I wish that tightrope blood maze never existed. Seriously, it was bad enough once but you have to do it twice.

We can always give it a shot Hedfone! This weekend I'll be buried in Sekiro, but next week we can give it a go if you want!

Oh yeah. It looks like it will unlock early on steam in japan. So with a VPN I should be able to play 8am on the 21st, my time. Very excited about this, will probably just stay up after work. I am going to get lost in this game. Ds2, BB, and DS3 have been more disappointing with each release for me. The only thing I liked about BB was the cosmic horror, and rudimentary parrying. I am sure in a week I won't mind some chill loot grinding to take the edge off. Everything I am hearing about this game is that it is tough. I really hope there are no ways to cheese fights like Dark Souls. I prefer action games like God of War or Ninja Gaiden where you just have to get good or quit on harder difficulties. DMC games always let you spam items to get through and say, "I beat DMC games on all difficulties".

The series has been hit or miss for me. I loved Demon's Souls, but disliked Dark Souls immensely until I enjoyed it more a few years later. Didn't like Dark Souls II or III, but I did really enjoy the DLC for Dark Souls II - fantastic level design I felt. Bloodborn was gold, but I just wish stats weren't in it. Felt out of place.

hedfone wrote:DMC games always let you spam items to get through and say, "I beat DMC games on all difficulties".

Can't spam items if there are no items to begin with!

Only to exchange item spam for Orb / MTX spam. Not going to lie the first time I beat DMC1 I popped Invincibles like mad.

When I think of DS2, I think of the game of the year version. That dlc adds so much good content to the game that should have been there at launch

Right now is Smash T.V. As of this post I am on the second level now. I'm that there weren't that many dual-stick shooters back then but I wish you can freely move your aim in the game. It does add in the challenge though.