Wormerine

Ha! DS is a cycle of "thats bull****!" and "eh, that wasn't so bad". I still can't parry though. I really really would like some visual feedback parrying timing. I never know if I am too early, or too late, or it the attack is not parryable.

I am polish, have been working in Northern Ireland for three years now. I also cook my own food, and live rather solitary livestyle, so I am afraid my knowledge of Irish food (and all other Irish things) ends on Guinness.

Aside from me disliking the "spirit" of the game, so to speak, Shadow of Mordor was pretty great. I asume you are talking about Shadow of War - I have it on steam for quite some time, got it for free. I am meaning to give it a go one of these days, but lootbox extravaganza somewhat put me off the title, through from what I understand they removed it a while back. Meanwhile: Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Small, non-violent RPG I believe. Hints and Josh-posts have been posted here before. It's supposed to have less then a dozen people working on it. Josh well deserved to do a passion project, so I hope this is it. Luckily Psychonauts2 seems to be living up to expectations. Hopefully it will move from "the best game no one bought" to "the best game no one bought, but that everyone played on Game Pass"

[Ups]

Well, you can hack a zombie to make it deader then it already is. Liches has their phylacteries to not have that happen, no? Undead are dead who still live, no? I mean it doesn't really make sense, but that's undead we are talking about.

Point&Click is one of those genres I don't see much reason to return to. In short - IMO the appeal of them was characters and story. Like RPGs they were far beyond found anything in other genres, and unlike RPGs they looked great (for their time). I like a good puzzle, but good puzzles are far and few inbetween in those titles. So while I enjoyed quite a few point&clicks, I would rather play Psychonauts then, lets say Monkey Ireland Island. Never got into Telltale's stuff.

PC, Prepare to Die edition. It wasn't too bad at this point. Playable, but suboptimal port. On my old laptop I was almost able to run everything without issues. There was one boss that tanked my framerate to sub 30FPS, but luckily he wasn't very tough. I have no clue if it was my PC or port.

Ah yeah, DS1 and it's ****ty port. I am glad you managed to get it fixed.

If only Capra Demon was willing to fight one on one.

If you feel bad for using the key you didn't earn, I shall be happy to take it off your hands

@BruceVC yeah, as a side note, I didn't mean that "sword&shield" is best way to go, or that melee is better then magic. Just personally I think melee combat design is most interesting aspect of DSs. I didn't play pure caster, but to me ranged combat can feel like cheating the game, rather then alternative. It seems that Pyromancer is best indeed. You will still be able to go for melee build, if you wish to. That is just something I wasn't aware of - as I mentioned I am not DS expert, played each game once, and especially DS1 was my discovery period.

Eh, I would recommend one of sword&shield types. Melee combat is bread and butter of DS. From there you can figure out what you want to do. With decent shield you can just absorb many attacks which is less efficient, but less dangerous then parrying or dodging. Once you get comfortable with enemies and controls, you can start experimenting with other stuff. When creating first character I wouldn’t pick “Master Key” as gifts - that’s a handy item that opens previously closed doors and allows for more freedom in exploration, but on your first run you will be better of being led by the game.

So it depends from the boss. Generally, no there is no bonfire right before a boss. Ester Flasks (healing items) are limited per-rest, so getting to the boss as uncathed as possible and then beating a boss is part of the challenge. I do remember finding that part frustrating early on in my DS1 run - I especially remember it being annoying in the very first "real" boss fights. It stopped being a problem later on. It could be that this first encounter is particulalry suffers from this problem, or might be that I got better. Generally speaking, if you already know where you are going, and what awaits you, you can bline to the boss with minimal engagement from the enemies (keep in mind that passing through the boss "fog" seperates you from pursuing enemies). I do feel the later games became less forgiving in that regards, and there are definitely areas which open "shortcuts" to bosses so you don't have to run through the entire thing. Later games did seem to reduce run time from bonfire to boss though - it is not a proven statement though, as so far I played DS1 and DS2 only once, and am in the middle of playing through DS3.

Best game of e3 gets a new trailer:

It's on gamepass. I will be giving it a go once I subscribe in the near future, reviews are overall positive. I don't think anyone knows how good it will be longtime, but at least seems to offer a decent alternative to Civ.

Eh, personally I found it to be a great disappointment. I don't get what all excitement was about, but maybe I like puzzles more then other people. Sexy Brutale is... basic, to say the least, with what I would describe as M Night Shyamalan story. I bought Death Stranding. I want to play it, but also would rather wait for Director's Cut which may/may not come to PC. I bought it now, thinking it is one of few games with support for Dualsense, but as I found out it's for PS only. Oh well, I still have come things to finish before DS becomes a serious contender for the next instal.

I gave it a go, and played through the first scenario - it's pretty good fun. It's not very systematically interesting, but each scenario has scripted story which keeps things engaging. There is some replayability but not too much.

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/xbox-details-their-gamescom-stream-times-and-plans 24th of August - another Microsoft showcase, another hope to see some Avowed footage. https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/humankind-is-coming-to-game-pass-at-launch Humankind coming to Game Pass on launch. That's great. One of these game I want to play before owning it. Perfect way of doing it.

Yeah, looks like patch 5 introduced quite a bit of problems. No problems of that magnitude however. Had to switch to Directx to avoid constant crashing.

Sooooo... I think Larian wasn't kidding when they said "Full VO". It's just one bit I have seen so far, but I am sure eventually there is more to come. EDIT. Fixed

That's a meaty preview, with lots of valuable info.

Different genres - my 3 "active" main games at the moment are: Wasteland3, Dark Souls3, Ori and the Will of the Wisps. Have some other stuff, like Early Access games (Baldur's Gate3, Hardspace) that I check out after major updates, or games I return to for a game or two every once in a while (FrostPunk, Civilization, Spelunky2, Hitman) but don't really "beat", and some "leftovers" that I didn't quite give up on, but can't be bothered to play right now, and Prey which I beat, but want to take a break before playing the DLC.

Haha! It all depends from you. I generally like to have 2 or 3 games overlapping at times - so I can pick what I feel like playing on that day. I would feel bad about ditching KoA. Personally, I let it be after finishing first zone. I remember liking it alright, but did't feel compelled to play more of it, or return to it.

IMO DS1 is the most special out of those three so you definitely should. DS1 is one of those games everyone should give a go, I think. Even if it won’t be your cup of tea, it’s one of a kind experience. Personally I didn’t find DS1 as punishing as it’s reputation would suggest. I mean you will die, but I never found it frustrating, tedious or discouraging (as DS2 felt). Once you get a hang of the game, feel free to google or ask around - there some some important mechanics, that IMO don’t get explained properly. EDIT. If stuck, summons (be it NPC of friendly players) is DS version of easy mode. To my great shame I did “skip” one tough boss fight through an assist of a more competent player. Need to go back to DS1 and do it all proper.