What are you playing right now?

Started playing dragon ball Z kakarot and shadow of the tomb Raider

For shadow of the tomb Raider, this game on hardest difficulty has no autosaves and can be only saved on campfires. But that's not the problem, the big problem that I have in this game is that it has less campfires compared to last 2 games in the trilogy. So it's easily the hardest reboot tomb Raider game. Puzzles are tricky too since on hardest difficulty, your survival instincts are also disabled

And as for dragon ball Z kakarot. This game is alot like yakuza. The upgrade system is similar. The random battle encounters and the levelling up rpg system is also similar too, combat/gameplay could use some slight improvements but it's still good. I'm in love with both of these games

Definitely not GoW1/GoWII. Disc seems to have had it. Throwing in the towel. Couldn't clean it sufficiently. Others all work fine. Pity. Just went to test out estimation on faster 999,999 for a guy's question. Considered starting back up with VH NBR+ NUR+ (into NGR+ NUR+ and Greed) with GoWII (to finish PS2 entries). That's not happening right now. I'll probably have to get a new one. Irritating. Likely from all the outages while the system was on with it in there.

> others all work fine
This could be an issue with your PS2, not the disc. I had the same issue. God of War 1 and 2 are some of the very few dual-layered PS2 discs. And the dual-layer reader of ps2's (especially lite varient) dies faster than most people know but they never notice since there's like 7 games or something that need it.

If all other games work, but not GoW1 (and possibly 2), it's your PS2.

The PS2 is gone.  I'm talking about the PS3 version of it.  I'd tried CoO/GoS (Remaster) first.  It's the disc itself.  If I had the PS2 still, I would have used Wulf's Code long ago for a NG+ experience.

Finished a few games recently

ICO - A decent adventure/puzzle game, I can see what it's trying to do, but as I expected, I didn't care for the emotional impact it's trying to have. Shadow of the Colossus looks much more interesting though and I'm looking forward to playing it.

Luigi's Mansion - Nice little horror game, I liked the Poltergust and the main gameplay mechanic (vacuuming ghosts). The mansion was fun to explore. Based on my rank at the end of the game I probably missed lots of collectible items, so maybe I'll replay the Hidden Mansion mode and try exploring every nook and cranny.

My main complaint was that some of the white optional ghosts (Boos) were a chore to capture due to their massive HP pools and tendency to leave rooms, making you tediously go back and forth between rooms trying to capture them.

Metroid Prime 1 replay - Fantastic game, I had a great time. The atmosphere and music are incredible, the world is fun to explore thanks to both the level design and the abilities you have (It's a Metroid game after all), combat is fun, I liked the puzzle like bosses, The last boss in particular was fantastic, it was fun having to switch visors in order to fight it.

It does have some issues that hold it back: I wish the artifact hunt was more seamlessly integrated into the core loop (I knew where some artifacts were but couldn't get them due to not having the right abilities, forcing unnecessary backtracking), and Phendrana Drifts only being connected to Magmoor Caverns via elevators which means that going to and away from Phendrana Drifts to other regions can be unnecessarily tedious, including during the artifact hunt.

Metroid Prime 2 - Amazing sequel and a true masterpiece, IMO it does everything somewhat better than Prime 1 - Even darker atmosphere, they fixed the backtracking issues of Prime 1 with all the areas being connected to each other via elevators, there's more enemy variety here, better usage of the morph ball and its abilities in both puzzles and combat. The screw attack was also really fun to use, and I gotta try this thing sometime: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRvAh48QJYw

The bosses were much better this time, with the standouts being Amorbis, Chykka, Quadraxis and Spider Guardian (Unlike the popular opinion I thought it was a neat boss and it made great usage of the morph ball mechanics).

IMO the level design in each of the individual regions was also a little better, with some nice shortcuts inside each area, and Sanctuary Fortress being the highlight of the game. I also loved the transitions to and from the dark world for both the atmosphere and how they were used for exploration.

I only have a few gripes: Another late game key hunt that feels like unnecessary padding - Like Prime 1, I don't mind the key hunt, but rather how it's saved for the end of the game instead of being naturally integrated into the adventure. Despite that, and thanks to all the areas being connected to each other, I think it went a little smoother than in Prime 1. Also I'd say Emperor Ing, while still somewhat enjoyable, really pushed the controls to their limit (I guess it plays better with Primehack or the Wii version), also 2 upgrades in the game force you to take big detours. Aside from those though I have no complaints, simply an incredible game.

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze - Sublime 2D platformer and my first DK game, I love how Kong feels to control, the roll is being put to great use, the level design is super tight and very varied, Dixie and Cranky Kong are really fun to use, they even made swimming fun which I never though could be possible in a game lol.

I only have a few minor critics: The boss fights are mostly fun and well designed, but I feel they take too long to beat, and while I truly enjoyed the swimming levels, I think it wasn't the best decision to have a few swimming levels in succession, it would probably be be better to pace them out. I only have a few more bonus levels to unlock, which I'll probably get to soon, and perhaps going back to levels and finding all the missing puzzle pieces. Maybe I'll also attempt the time trials since the levels are so fun to replay.

Shoutout to Retro Studios for nailing both 3D Metroid and 2D platformers.

> Luigi
Felt it was a very cool "Resident Evil-lite" in a sense, fun to explore, some nice level design and the "press A to "MARIO"" was cute. The game is filled to the brim with hidden rooms btw, which is super fun.

> MP1
Fantastic game. Agreed on the Artifacts, though MP2 does it better in that game I tend to just load my 100% save-file to skip getting them. MP1 is quite easy to traverse, and when you know how you can get most Artifacts when you first encounter them barring a few.

> MP2
A game that took me years to appreciate more. Originally it didn't hit it off with me, but it's so good. Fantastic bosses. Spider Guardian is overhated, the game is super good at providing unique and memorable encounters that use all of Samus' arsenal. There's a series of someone beating the game in a NUR+ setting, which is a sight to behold. That means doing Quadraxis with just the Varia suit.

Keyhunt here is worse imo since most of them are gated behind having the Dark Visor and Light Suit. You can actually find quite a lot of them early, and organically, but you can't fucking grab them since you don't have the visor. Shame.

> DKC TF
One of the few modern-classics I couldn't come to grips with. Both it and DKCR just don't scratch that DKC itch for me personally.

Yeah I figured I missed lots of hidden rooms and I did enjoy exploring so that's the main reason I want to replay it, as well as seeing the other changes of the PAL version's hidden mansion.

I was never confused or had issues traversing in MP1 - It's just that having to go through Magmoor Caverns whenever you want to Phendrana Drifts can't be a bit tedious. That could have easily been solved by adding elevators from Phendrana to other locations.

I enjoyed MP2 right from the get go. I honestly think it improved on Prime 1 in many ways so I'm not sure why it has a worse reception, it's just the better game IMO, and it makes better and more interesting usage of its mechanics in both combat and exploration. Sure those are the same tools of Prime 1, but used better and more often here.

Amorbis was fun for how it uses the dark Aether mechanics, Chykka made fun usage of the grapple beam, and Quadraxis also made fun usage of the morph ball abilities and echo visor. Also loved how there were more morph ball puzzles, it's such a fun tool to use. Killing Quad MBs with the morph ball boost never got old to me.

Trying to play the game without the dark suit sounds like a neat idea for a fun challenge run.

Not being able to get many artifacts/keys organically is the main gripe I have with both games. Actually finding the keys was fun in both games, having to backtrack for it wasn't, but I still love both games.

As I've said, Tropical Freeze was my first DK game (though I'm also playing Jungle Beat with the bongos which is really fun), so I didn't have any particular expectations from what a DKC game should be, but it's such a tight and fun game. I'm definitely gonna play DKC1-3 and DKCR.

> elevators
There is one straight from Talon Overworld to Phendrana Drifts iirc, near the sunken ship.

> MP2 reception
Hype is one thing, the game was hyped up the waazo and could never live up. It was also a bit of a bad case of 'same thing, different name' often. Light Beam and Dark Beam are just reskins for the most part. The levels weren't as jawdropping as MP1 (aside from Sanctuary, which is the late-game zone). The game was also quite a big jump up in difficulty, and Dark World was just 'the same world, but purple' that people expected more from. I still feel it cut some corners too much, but it's definitely a game I've warmed up to over the years and objectively I have no qualms calling it a superior title.

The Sunken Ship elevator is to Chozo Ruins, and there's another elevator nearby (in Chozo Ruins) that connects to another area in Tallon Overworld. I found it weird having 2 elevators to Tallon Overworld so close to each other.

I personally think the level design of each region was a little better in Prime 2, especially in Sanctuary Fortress which was the highlight of the game. I enjoyed the difficulty increase but I guess many people didn't? I thought they did the dark world well, it's supposed to be a twist on light Aether, not brand new areas, and it does it well IMO. It's true that the beams all serve the same purpose as in Prime 1, but I don't see that as a flaw, just like the morph ball and grapple beam mechanics are the same and yet Prime 2 does more with them.

Since I don't personally feel it cut corners at all (aside from having another key hunt at the end), which corners do you feel were cut?

>Ico/SotC
Yeah, Shadow of the Colossus is the best of that trilogy. Just as good on the emotional side, but more mechanically robust.

>Metroid Prime
On the action side, I'll take Prime 2 any day. The beams are just reskins, sure, but they are balanced better and fights are more fun. But on the exploration side, I give it to Prime 1 just as easily. Personally I prefer Prime 1, so I find it rather annoying that so much of what I like about it was absent from Prime 2 (or in the case of scan dash, even removed from re-releases of Prime 1). Kinda feels like Prime 1 was as good as it was by accident. And after Prime 3, well, let's just say I'm not excited for Prime 4, lol.

>DKC
Maybe a hot take, I think every DKC game is kinda crap with the sole exception of DKC2.

I personally thought Prime 2 did the exploration a little better, and I liked how there are areas that at first you have to switch back and forth between light and dark Aether in order to reach, but after you get more upgrades you can traverse through light Aether. And of course Sanctuary Fortress was the highlight in terms of both combat and exploration. Lots of fun spider ball usage as well.

What did you like better about the exploration in Prime 1? The sequence breaks and glitches or is it something else?

Currently waiting for being refund by e-bay policy for a fraud trying to buy an xbox1x in order to try again.
Meanwhile I'm playing two titles:

The Messenger: very fun 2D action platform with some references to the old ninja gaiden games, but actually pretty different. More similar to Shovel Knight in the first half, getting some metroidvania effect in the second half. The gameplay Is fun (more platform than action actually) even if not perfect nor well balanced, the level design go from very good to occasionally pretty bad, but thankfully is more good  than bad in the mean. The bossfights are good, and I like the humor in the history, but I understand that this Is debatable.

Zeroranger: that One Is a masterpiece. I actually play this game since its release but never being able to beat It so I Always come back. It's an indie tribute to the shmup history and It's the best possible way in which and indie tribute to a genre could be done: It's made by two people whom are not only pretty good both in development and estetic design, but they're both huge fans of the genre with great understanding of what works in the design core of this kind of titles. The result It's nothing less than outstandig, managing also to create something that Is targeting not only the die hard fans of shmup, but also completely newcomers. In few words two people with almost 0 budget managed to succeed where a team sponsored by Konami failed in every aspect with Cygni all guns blazing.

> Prime 2
A lot of enemies are re-skins, with Dark versions being 'the same, but more durable'. Some enemies like the Dark Commandos can be a chore until you figure out their strange weakness to Darkness (found, of all things, in the game's attract mode which shows this) especially since they lock doors. Wasn't a fan either of the scan-visor now showing 3d models instead of cool artwork.

The beams, as noted, were basic reskins. Not a lot of interesting new equipment, or it's incredibly niche like the multi-missile and screw attack. The Dark World just being 'the regular world, but purple' fucked me over at the time, though I mind it a lot less now (far easier to navigate).

Sounds like I'm being very negative, but I do love the game. Bosses are great, exploration is great, and it's got a killer atmosphere. The intro is insanely memorable, especially if you read all the logs.

Regarding exploration, I kind of like how MP1 is more wordly. MP2, generally, is very contained to its single area where you're supposed to be. To the point that I still recall getting stuck in MP2, because at the middle point you're suddenly (for the first time) required to leave the main area you're in to get another item, and I was completely conditioned to not do so.

I'd be curious to one day hear the opinion of someone who started with MP2 and then played MP1. Think a lot of what makes these games special and unique is which one you play first.

> MP3
I liked a lot of what it did, but also disliked a lot of other things. Still, at worst it's a really solid entry that's the worst of the bunch, which is still fantastic imo.

> Messenger
I recall not getting into it due to the metroidvania stuff, how was that for you?

> DKC
DKC1 is just a nice anomoaly, it's not super well designed but the potential is there. DKC2 is great. DKC3 is pretty good too imo, in that every single level has a unique gimmick. I don't think there's a single 'regular' level in that entire game. Very creative title. Will admit to bias here, since it's the first game I bought on my SNES with pocket money as a kid.

I liked how some rooms in the dark world were similar to their light world equivalents, while some other rooms had some more changes in them. I played Prime 1 first and still found 2 to be the better game, but both are superb.

Prime 1 world design is great, but it definitely makes you take more detours than you should sometimes, especially with Phendrana cause you always have to go through Magmoor Caverns. I feel each of the contained areas in Prime 2 retain the same sense of exploration, just tighter and more focused. Perhaps the ideal way to do it will be like Prime 1, but with all areas having elevators to each other to reduce unnecessary backtracking time, but Prime 2 sort of does this anyway (aside from locking you to a region until you find the 3 keys in it)

Having said that, I completely agree that it was an odd choice to suddenly make you backtrack to Temple Grounds to get the multi-missile and then go back to Torvus Bog again, but thankfully unlike Prime 1, this only happens twice in Prime 2 - The other time is when you need to go from Sanctuary Fortress to Torvus Bog to fight the power bomb guardian, but at least in that case you can immediately unlock the elevator from Torvus Bog to Sanctuary Fortress to cut on backtracking time.

Are the hard modes worth playing for future playthroughs? I wanna do a no dark suit playthrough in the future in Prime 2, other than that, how are sequence breaking runs? I have the original NTSC versions of both Prime 1 and 2.

Hard Mode is basically the same, with some changed damage-values. I wouldn't put too much stock into it, it rarely makes a big change outside of something like Boost Guardian suddenly being harder than probably intended. But that's a rare one. It's neat for future runs, or if you want 100% completion.

> sequence breaking
I have PAL, so my options were more limited, but it's still fun. Once you get the double jump early you can do some fun things, and it's fun to push further. It does lack things like infinite-bombjump from Super Metroid, so exploration is still a tad limited. In that game you could legit do whatevery ou wanted.

Only 2d game I've played is Dread which I loved, I want to play the 2D games after I'll finish Prime 3. I hear Zero Mission is pretty nonlinear by design with its sequence breaks?

Also what would be a good place to get started on learning basic sequence breaking stuff?

For The Messenger metroidvania, actually I liked how the twist Is contextuallized at the narrative level, but It drags on for too much in my opinion, even because the Major part of this second half Is linked to find optional stuff that are not collectable before due to lack of mechanics that you have to unlock yet with main story path has good challenges, but also very inconsistent level design quality. So fun how the switch Is presented, but actually not so good in the execution

Should be able to return to runwork Wednesday provided the disc ordered works well. "Renewed". We'll see.

>What did you like better about the exploration in Prime 1? The sequence breaks and glitches or is it something else?
Mainly the sequence breaks and nonlinearity, but also I feel Prime 1's world is more believable as a world. Prime 2 feels more like curated level design, which admittedly does benefit it on the action side.

>I hear Zero Mission is pretty nonlinear by design with its sequence breaks?
You have summoned the Zero Mission hater. The sequence "breaks" in Zero Mission are very artificial and lame IMO.

As an example of what I mean, the entrance to Lower Norfair. In Super Metroid, the entrance is blocked by a lake of lava. The normal progression expects you to have Gravity suit and Space Jump at this point. You need Gravity suit to move normally in the lava, and the top of the lava is far above normal jump height. However, you can use infinite bomb jumps or shinespark to get out of the lava without Space Jump. And if you can pull off a difficult sequence of wall jumps, it's even possible to climb out of the lava without Gravity suit. You'll then need to be good at wall jumping and bomb jumping to safely traverse Lower Norfair without Space Jump, especially if you go there super early and don't have Varia suit either, since the whole place is superheated.

In Zero Mission, the entrance to Lower Norfair is blocked by a wall that can only be broken by Speed Booster. So how do you bypass this? Well, in a completely different part of the map, there's a random spot on a random wall which you can shoot to reveal a hidden path, and that hidden path will take you straight to Lower Norfair. That's it. Lower Norfair doesn't have any challenges for you either, since the whole interior is designed to be easily completable without Speed Booster or Varia. This is how most of the "sequence breaks" in Zero Mission operate. There is a hidden tunnel that simply skips a section of the game, and you either know where the hidden tunnel is or you don't. There's no skill or mastery involved, except mastery of looking things up on gameFAQs.

>learning basic sequence breaking stuff
In 2D Metroid, the three starter sequence break techniques are infinite bomb jump, wall jump, and shinespark. In Super or Dread, just being proficient in these 3 things will open up the game greatly. Speed Booster in Dread is like a whole subgame for you to learn the ins and outs of. Infinite bomb jump is a simple tool to do fun stuff in every 2D Metroid except 1 and Fusion. After those 3 techniques, the next step would be mockball in Super, or slide jump/"coyote jump" in Dread, which are easy techniques used for important skips. Super Metroid has the most online resources, so it's probably the easiest to get into breaking.

Sequence breaking in the Prime games is a lot more glitch-based, so it's not as easy to get into, although as Roy mentioned, early Space Jump in Prime 1 is relatively easy and opens up plenty of fun stuff.

>arrives
>no disc
Classic.

> zero mission hater
Welcome to the club, I don't like that game either. Despite its shortcomings I vastly prefer Fusion, and feel ZM doesn't offer much in its attempts to fuse Super and vanilla1 together. OG Metroid still takes the cake imo in the lonely survival exploration take on the series, while Super really is king in the whole "do whatever you want, we built the game that way".

I said it before but Super Metroid really has that feeling of "am I supposed to even be here" with every upgrade you grab. You never feel like you're already 'supposed to be there' whereas in ZM you clearly know when you're doing things out of order.

Finally I have and Xbox1X so I think that I Will continue were I was stopped: NG2 from now on

Did you play NGB on an OG Xbox or 360 before?

Nope, I played Sigma a lot, but never played Black

Black is very much worth it to play after Sigma still, highly recommended.

GMG: >no disc
Wut?

I'm following your suggestion and doing slowly a run on NGB when not having the Energy for NG2 mentor run, I'm doing It on normal due to be the only difficulty selectable for a new game at the start for now Just to see the differences with Sigma. I'm at ch6 and I have to admit, even if in sigma the graphic detail Is higher the aesthetic design Is really Amazing and It seems more "coherent" with the texture detail level. They really nailed that part.
Another thing Is the level design and pacing much more enjoyable, expecially ch4 and 5 the save statues are much more well placed and the Red Door shortcut Is fabolous, I wonder why they removed It in Sigma

Playing Warhammer 40k : Space Marine 2

Armor system & Finish move is a bit twisted, but It doesn`t change that much from OG Space Marine -- Good old same bit. Gunning from distance, but eventually you`re surrounded by number and choose melee options. But in melee option, There is the most vivid change : Adding parry. Parrying is not forced but it makes you stay in your position rather than get distance away from mobs.

This makes quiet different combat experience from OG. In OG, You want to lure the heavy one so you can isolate it and prey. Or you just simply retreat because you can`t keep lose your HP with melee combat. Movesets from OG are designed with this point, so one move can just push one enemy with you and the other can push whole enemies around. The basic of positioning strategy was "engage, retreat and engage again".

In Space Marine 2, you wanna hold your position possible as you can. Normal parry is very useful to deal with heavy ones, and do-the-parry attack(blue) gives you one armor so you can keep what your are doing. This time, Snipers and can-not-parry attack(red) force you to reposition. In one hand, it is more engaging obviously. You don`t have to constantly go back to the wall. On the other hand, It is too much "good old same bit" because you would not give a shit untill snipers or flying ones come out. There is almost no pressure for changing your current strategy.

As a co-op game, I think that this game is well made. Main campaign is more like tutorial for co-op PVE missions, which are more well composited than campaign missions. In co-op PVE missions, you can choose your class and communicate with other members, cover up each other. The "pressure" I referred above is in there because your weapon choice is restricted by your class. You should make more strategical move with your teammates.

So... mixed in this game. I wanted more deeper & developed version of Space marine 1 so I am disappointed in depth of 2, but I enjoy the game as what it is.

Yeah mechanically it's very wack, and does a lot of things backwards compared to SM1. I think, in terms of actual combat and how it handled the transition from lore/boardgame to game, the original is better.

That said I do feel the game has a lot of wins, even if it is halfbaked. The co-op mode alone is great (if grindy). And the campaign is surprisingly well designed, with hidden weapons etc. Currently replaying it on Angel of Death (VH) is a dream, really nails it. Lot of the mechanics come together in a better way there imo. Also the art-design is far superior, as is the narrative.

Honestly I liked the encounter design in this game, thought it mixed things up well. Such as different type of defensive missions, boss encounters with some puzzle elements, introducing new enemies that are actually unique, giving you different tools etc. I wish the game had more depth though in terms of actual shooting, it’s so…… bland I’m that regard aside from the pistol armor restore shots. There’s no weakpoints I’m pretty sure on enemies as well aside from canceling one of those enemies web poisons which is nice I guess. Also, this game made me realize how much a cry of fear style reloading mechanic would improve that type of gameplay style in games(since if you reload in that game the current clips you have will go away, so you were presented with 2 options: use the current ones to not waste them but run out faster or reload but waste the remaining ammo from the past clip).

>angel of death
Doing that as well.

Enemydesign is pretty solid, but very limited too imo, and the fact that they (outside of 2 engagements) don't intermix the factions is a big flop imo. Especially since the second faction doesn't really have any good melee units outside of shielded tzangoors.

> the second faction

I just found funny that you wanna evade spoiler but you just spill the beans because you have to call "tzan" lol
It wouldn`t be lore-accurate, but it would be more cool to play "tamed" Tyranids by second faction with "idk but some relic thing do that" logics.

> faction
I severly doubt people here know what a Tzangoor is though haha

> tamed 'nids
In general the game feels very 'promotional'. The first game, (and also Dawn of War series) took a ton of creative liberties. Here everything is by the book, and nothing that isn't for sale as a miniature is present. They could've gone very wacky, but instead just went through the 'catalogue' if you get me. This is also why Chaos doesn't have specific customizations, or why there are no first-born customizations either - the studio isn't allowed to do it I fear from GamesWorkshops' pressure.

>shielded melee units
I honestly never learned how you’re meant to deal with them exactly haha. I do like the ones with the cleave since you can bait them if they do their guard for an easy perfect parry. Was fun.

Signalis is a great game. That's all I'm saying. I highly recommend it

Game has 2 difficulty options

Combat difficulty- easy, normal, hard
Inventory management- extended, revised, classic

Both of these difficulty can be rearranged in a particular order but I'm unsure if you change it via mid game Or not

I've been interested in it, what are the differences between each combat difficulty and between each inventory management difficulty?

Just played Sin & Punishment and really enjoyed it. This game is the first rail shooter I've actually played so I don't really have any experience at all with this genre but from what I've played of Treasure and what I've seen of some rail shooter games i went in expecting something similar to a shmup and while it definitely had a lot in common with Treasure's shmups, what surprised me was how much it reminded me of something like Alien Soldier as well in how Saki/Airan controlled and how some of the bosses and levels were designed which was really cool. I'm going to play the the second game next and then I'll go for a 1cc.

GN1 wrote:I've been interested in it, what are the differences between each combat difficulty and between each inventory management difficulty?

Combat- easy, enemies die within few bullets and do less damage to you (self explanatory)

Normal - enemies do moderate damage, and have more health (self explanatory)

Hard is hard duh

Inventory management

Extended- 12 inventory spaces according to description (but I never tried it)

Revised - rule of 6. Modules don't take inventory spaces

Classic - rule of 6. Modules take inventory spaces

MoonlightClaymore wrote:Just played Sin & Punishment and really enjoyed it. This game is the first rail shooter I've actually played so I don't really have any experience at all with this genre but from what I've played of Treasure and what I've seen of some rail shooter games i went in expecting something similar to a shmup and while it definitely had a lot in common with Treasure's shmups, what surprised me was how much it reminded me of something like Alien Soldier as well in how Saki/Airan controlled and how some of the bosses and levels were designed which was really cool. I'm going to play the the second game next and then I'll go for a 1cc.

On what platform did you play it and what controller did you use?

I emulated it on pc and used an n64 controller.

Continued NBR+ NUR+ redux in GoWII. Mostly sliding with knowledge of old, obvious plays and newer findings from recent meme runs (less testing needed). Some oddities detected that may be disc specific, but that'll be easier to say with certain when redoing bits from before with NGR+ NUR+ redux (up next *before 'Greed'*). My projection for 999,999 hit with CR method against x9 Cursed Remains using Turbo then walking away is ~2 and a quarter hours on VH. Much faster than the method I'd used, but I didn't have a Turbo (and couldn't tick around for even that long with college).

I recently bought the complete edition of Fell Seal new for only $20.

There are so many classes my head is spinning. It includes the expansion that lets you recruit monsters.

You can dual class. The possibilities are overloading my brain.

Downside is it looks like shit. The animations are awful and so is the character design. Looks like one of those old internet chat rooms where you had a character with basic cosmetic options. Like Club Penguin. My sister used to live on that. I'm going to remind her now and mock her viciously.

GoWII NBR+ NUR+ redux was finished. Did some NGR+ NUR+ redux (left off in Bog of the Forgotten).

Been playing 3rd Strike only lately, only unranked, and got to the point where I can beat most C Rank (Gold) players (even tho some that have more experience are still a challenge), but I think I'll stop here. To level up more I'd need to rewire my brain to go for parries more and to practice more hitconfirms. The latter is ez, the former is a lot more challenging and it would require a ton of effort. Still, happy that I've got to this point in the first place.

Continued GoWII NGR+ NUR+ redux (left off at Lowlands Caverns *a favorite stopping point*). I'd done so much early testing in the previous run, I could coast up until this point. Didn't really do retesting for NGR+ NUR+ approaches from here on, so it could slow down progress. I just need to recall to test a true PAIN+ handling of Kraken before moving on, too.

finished dead space 2 on zealot difficulty with plasma cutter only

they actually made kinesis module useful unlike in dead space 1

dead space 2 on hardest difficulty is far harder than dead space 1 on impossible mode

Didn't really play DS2, but found Kinesis pretty nice in DS1 tbh. Deals decent damage, easy way to check if enemies are really dead, good ammo saver. What was improved about it in DS2?

DS1 Kinesis was a good ammo saver, but didn't deal good damage at all. It was dogshit DMG. Class 0 does NOTHING. Class 1 tickles with no flinch and no delimb. Class 2 scratches with no flinch and eventual delimb. Class 3 has heavy stagger with no delimb and light DMG. Class 4 (explosives) have heavy DMG and delimb. They are what would give the mistaken impression they are potent. A good tool, but not a good damaging tool even relative to melee on average. Utility value in making blockades, dragging supplies around and control (as with knocking things down to stomp them if not sending them into hazards). No way to level any of it up. One thing that I didn't know during the run was to TK the Spitter (Female Slasher) vomit (not as good or obvious as with the DS2 enemy that is more distinct *huge help to have them around*). Stomping off limbs of some Brute just to TK their pods back at them is swell.

DS2 keeps these pretty much the same. However, it introduces a few new Class 4 (thrusters working as rocket in zero-g and stasis that explodes for the purpose of slowing things). Class 5 is the big change. Some previously lower class cases are now Class 5 (it can be inconsistent as some mops are this or class 2 with no way to tell visually, you need to pick them up and listen for a different hum to know before firing). Class 5 are single use (not infinite) with high DMG and delimb. Class 5 uniquely has the option to be upgraded, too. Hugely favored by the game mechanically. Because these are so common (especially since they are standard parts of the most commonly fought foes), it dominates the game (generally). Pretty sure I planned to exploit thrusters for nests. Not even upgrades would have let me TK living projectiles like their spawn at them (same for the bane of the previous game *Guardians*). Trash. Can't melee in Zero-G as I recall (not in flight). Even DaS3 didn't make him that much of an Action Hero (combat rolls and all though he had). I forget the name of landmine (Bouncing Betty) makers, but TK those and use them on the rest? Easy wins (if not on themselves). Stalkers job to boundaries (aside from their own hands).

NOTE: I forget the babies (not Crawlers), but their tentacle spine projectile never allowing TK always irked me. Even when you get a dead one it doesn't function as even as lesser Class 5 with DS2. Total garbage like killing x2 Guardian with vent fans (chip away at tentacles from cover until you want to die as much as they do *as they moan and scream about it since the game is rigged against melee with them with zero way to bait their decap tentacle to avoid punish or even to sever it removing that threat and mutual death strats isn't a thing unlike Souls with non-respawn foes*)

>PC only
Bah. No-Gun Run NUR+ was more interesting for VH in DS1. I had my plans set for DS2's version, but lost data and plans. Precious little remains. Shame, too. Got up to after the first 'Pack' encounter. All was going well. Even did the upside down bit without needing to shoot my PC (the less exceptions, the better). So many plans gone to waste.

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Continued NGR+ NUR+ redux. Still not feeling my best. East Auditorium was pissing me off to much to want to experiment. I just kept to the obvious (what Zim went with). Made my own alternative for Pantheon. Slight advancements here and there. Coasted my way to freeing the Phoenix and left off there until I get my head right. I want to be in tip-top condition for trying true PAIN+ Kraken (long slog ahead). NGR+ NUR+ doesn't really mean anything for this fight anyway. Same for Last Spartan. Mostly true of Fates, too. Pretty typical for boss cases where getting grabbed is on the table (as grabbing them in optional fashion tends not to happen).

Royta/Raeng wrote:Didn't really play DS2, but found Kinesis pretty nice in DS1 tbh. Deals decent damage, easy way to check if enemies are really dead, good ammo saver. What was improved about it in DS2?

pretty much everything. dead space 2 sacrificed horror in exchange for having better gameplay, better story, better characters and writing etc

stasis module in dead space 2 is also better since it does splash AOE. with one shot you can slow down group of enemies

in dead space 1, stasis module only stops 1 target it doesnt do splash slow effect thingy

and whatever godmodegod said is true

Recently finished Sin & Punishment 2 and currently playing more of the first one. Sin & Punishment 2 is a really good sequel. I was a bit worried at first that the game was going to add too much to the main mechanics without the rest of the game keeping up with how powerful you feel with hovering and charge shots but the game quickly picks up the difficulty. It gets way more hectic than the first game.

The boss fights in particular were really good, the boss fights in the original were already great but this one really amps it up. It seems there was more focus on the bosses in this one and it shows. All very creative and challenging, Hibaru, Commander Deko, and the boss rush in stage 7 were the highlights for me. One thing that I thought the original game did better though is the overall length of the game, not really a criticism of the sequel though more of just a preference. It's a good bit longer than the original but all the stages were good so I wouldn't say there's any stage I would remove.

I prefer the first Sin & Punishment just barely more than the sequel but that could just be because I'm playing it more right now, both games ended up being really close in quality. I'm curious for those here that have played both games, which one do you like more?