What are you playing right now?

[Saito Hikari]

Finished Edge of Eternity up to the end of the current build. The last fight was way harder than it had any right to be, and currently feels like it basically boils down to a lot of grinding and RNG since there's nothing on the field for your party to take advantage of. Your caster starts within striking range of the enemies in that fight too, so they absolutely HAVE to spend their first turn getting out of the way, because trying to cast something against four enemies without getting interrupted/outright KO'd are not good odds.

 

Apparently the devs are working on a formation setup that lets you set party members in different hexes before combat starts, though. Which would really alleviate a lot of problems with the game's balance. As it currently is, all the hardest fights in the game are against multiple enemies, meaning you have to burst them down one by one ASAP or else -you're- going to get bursted down.

 

---

 

I've moved on to Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark. This game is surprisingly incredible, I've been searching for a good Final Fantasy Tactics-style game, and this game is the closest game I've played to scratching that itch. That said, it was on sale for about $17 when I picked it up a few days ago, and I believe the developers increased the base price from $20 to $30 on Monday because the game was about to leave early access and would be fully released in April.

 

I would still say the increased price is well worth it. The writing and story is mildly interesting (though not exactly FFT level), the art style grows on you after a while, the music is pretty good, and the class system is rather deep. Deep enough that I ended up discovering some class synergies by complete accident. War Mage in particular looks like it should be a melee class that can use their Infused Edge ability to launch a normal attack and cast a single target spell in the same turn, but read the fine print and you'll notice that its range is actually tied to the weapon rather than being fixed. Combine it with a bow/gun-wielding class, pick up some crit passives and another passive from a different class that lets abilities inflict critical hits (and restore HP and MP for each critical hit you land), and you've got yourself an arcane archer build.

 

(Ranger/War Mage seems to be the best build for this kind of setup, due to Ranger's inherent critical hit rate boosting skills and that it has an attack that has a 3.8x damage modifier that requires a fair amount of MP to charge up. But with the right combination of passives and the War Mage ability to attack twice per turn, you could potentially end up launching said attack every two turns, instead of every 4 turns via natural MP regeneration.)

Edited March 22, 2019 by Saito Hikari

[Majek]

Division 2. It's everything i hoped it would be. And you can do everything solo and at least i feel much better doing that. Until endgame of course. When i reach that coop is the fun way to go.

 

Sekiro. Holy ****. I got my ass handed to me more times that in all Soulsborne games together if i compare the first few hours. I haven't even beaten more than mobs and 2 minibosses here. XD So much fun.

 

There's isn't enough hours in a day for me to be able to play both these games enough, and still have something resembling a life.

[LadyCrimson]

Sekiro. Holy ****. I got my ass handed to me more times that in all Soulsborne games together if i compare the first few hours. I haven't even beaten more than mobs and 2 minibosses here. XD So much fun.

I'd really love to buy/play Sekiro because it's a setting/look I like. But then I realized it was that  fighting type of game tjhat's popular these days and unlike DMC5 wouldn't give me a "u have no precise timing skillz" option. eg, I'd suck at it. Might not even get past the first tutorial boss or whatever I saw someone else refer to. Ha. Sigh. Maybe when it's super cheap on sale. Or if there's a Cheat Engine "god mode" table.

[Majek]

Yeah, you're right. This is difficult.  I think this game might make more people quit in rage than any other i can think of. But then again there already are trainers out for PC version so you might be good to go. :D

[LadyCrimson]

^ *runs to look at the CE forum she occasionally browses*

 

...yup, god mode and such already made. Dang they're so fast. I wonder what "invisibility" does. Maybe it'd help to get screenshots you can't normally get if enemies don't notice/trigger. :D Hm.

 

Edit: nah, think I'll just watch CohhCarnage play it on Twitch instead, and save myself stress. Plus it's really funny to watch his reactions.

Edited March 22, 2019 by LadyCrimson

[Majek]

Well i'll keep playing on ps4. And get better until i master it. :D

[Hawke64]

Devil May Cry V

Got through Mission 7 on DMD (one of the highest difficulties, Hell and Hell might be considered easier, Legendary Dark Knight isn't available). The NPC partner was KO'ed during the boss battle, but I still got the "Good Teamwork" bonus somehow.

Found out what "Sweet Surrender" (a Devil Breaker/DLC) does. It's basically a small green star from DMC3-4 (restores HP). Seems slightly unfair to make it a paid DLC and bind to the Deluxe Edition (not purchasable separately).

Edited March 23, 2019 by Hawke64

[LadyCrimson]

Played some more Eastshade. I'm liking the game more and more. I don't think the world will be "massive" or the game super long, but it's enough space to get lost in. As you wander, picking up sticks and plants for making painting canvasses and I know not what else, you encounter huts, people, houses. Some have quests, some have nothing to say (but you can loot their candles and canvas cloth!) ... came across one puzzle, maybe two, didn't try to solve yet.

 

I can't stay out/walk at night (too cold) but I hear somehow you can acquire a jacket that then lets you do so. I need that jacket. I also need a fishing pole and a raft (to get across to a few places), and friend references to get into the big city where one can buy and sell things. I have no idea how to achieve these things, and it doesn't really matter. Just wandering around,  and if I do enough quests, maybe they'll like me enough. I did make a father angry enough to punch me, which seemed not likely to make me friends, so I re-loaded. Hee. But it shows that occasionally there are small choices to be made in the game.

 

The graphics aren't really all that uber but the way everything looks kind of like a painting, the light, the weather, it all works to impress the eyeballs regardless. Impressive indie work.

Edited March 23, 2019 by LadyCrimson

[Katphood]

I always liked the difficulty in the Soulsborne games, what I found challenging though was figuring out what weapon to use and how to build it.

[GhostofAnakin]

Re-united with mommy dearest in AC: Odyssey.  One of the "chapters" was incredibly short after what seemed like a pretty long previous chapter.

[Gorgon]

Is anyone else getting destroyed by the first Sekiro Boss.

[Gorgon]

Games aren't suppposed to be fun, they are supposed to be hard.

 

wait. what..

 

Play Sekiro, you lightweights !!!

[Majek]

Is anyone else getting destroyed by the first Sekiro Boss.

Depends. Is it really a boss or just a miniboss? :D  And what do we even consider to be the first boss? :D

[Keyrock]

Still going ham on DQXI. Right now I'm grinding a bit, not for XP, I'm already a bit overlevelled for where I'm at in the game, but for gold so that I can buy the cat suit and the bunny suit. Don't judge me.

[the_dog_days]

Been playing Titian Quest while waiting for Grim Dawn expansion coming out next week. Got to chapter 3 real quick. I feel under leveled. Coincidentally, the last game I finished was Assassin's Creed Odyssey which is also set in classic Greece.

[Starwars]

I'm replaying the Witcher 3 at the moment.

 

It's a seriously impressive game but it does suffer a lot in certain areas I think. The whole Bloody Baron questline is a fantastic example. Here you have interesting characters, *great* atmosphere with the Crones in the swamp and all that. But the gameplay is so boring. There's just too much of "follow trail/follow NPC through the next set of drowners/wolves/whatever before you reach your goal".

 

And stuff like the loot system, and "points of interest" system kinda sucks a lot of fun out of what is an really beautiful and wellcrafted world. I mean, it's kind of a shame... it's very easy to just lose yourself in the beautiful open worldness of the game but a lot of the gameplay is just really uninteresting.

[Lexx]

That's exactly why it took me ages to finish the game. It looks great and all, but damn, oftentimes I felt super bored. Haven't even finished the Blood and Wine (?) dlc yet, because I kinda burned out from the game.

[Gorgon]

 

Is anyone else getting destroyed by the first Sekiro Boss.

Depends. Is it really a boss or just a miniboss? :D  And what do we even consider to be the first boss? :D

 

The first boss - boss. The one you are supposed to lose to. I *am* going to beat him so I can get 2 seconds of different cutscene. 

[Hawke64]

Devil May Cry V

Either DMD has a very accurate name or I'm terrible with Dante. Completed M11 and M12 mostly by using Golden Orbs and got my very first D rank.

Then breezed through M13 with Nero and got an S.

[Fenixp]

Here you have interesting characters, *great* atmosphere with the Crones in the swamp and all that. But the gameplay is so boring. There's just too much of "follow trail/follow NPC through the next set of drowners/wolves/whatever before you reach your goal".

I felt like the combat system was non-intrusive while remaining engaging just enough to remain non-irritating through the 100+h game time I've clocked in W3, and now while replaying it I still feel like fighting stuff is enjoyable, but doesn't get in the way of exploration and questing which are both the real stars of the show.

 

Following tracks became a lot less irritating to me after disabling the fish-eye effect you get with it (I think you can do it in vanilla game, but it may be the UI mod I'm using) - it is faily lazy design which is obviously there simply to facilitate as many low-effort 'detective' quests as possible. Funny thing is, most of these aren't low effort writing-wise, but when it comes to their gameplay design, well...

 

And stuff like the loot system, and "points of interest" system kinda sucks a lot of fun out of what is an really beautiful and wellcrafted world. I mean, it's kind of a shame... it's very easy to just lose yourself in the beautiful open worldness of the game but a lot of the gameplay is just really uninteresting.

Loot system and levelling sucks arse in The Witcher 3. I mean, just like yesterday, I found two epic swords of the same name and design in two random chests next to each other. ... Yeah.

 

Anyway, there's an option somewhere to remove question marks from the game, and to make exploration feel more organic, I'd suggest doing that. Because not only is there other stuff to find in the world beside the question marks which'll inevitably remain obscured by the tunnel vision, finding these locations while wandering the world just starts feeling a lot more fun and rewarding.

[GhostofAnakin]

I'm replaying the Witcher 3 at the moment.

 

It's a seriously impressive game but it does suffer a lot in certain areas I think. The whole Bloody Baron questline is a fantastic example. Here you have interesting characters, *great* atmosphere with the Crones in the swamp and all that. But the gameplay is so boring. There's just too much of "follow trail/follow NPC through the next set of drowners/wolves/whatever before you reach your goal".

 

And stuff like the loot system, and "points of interest" system kinda sucks a lot of fun out of what is an really beautiful and wellcrafted world. I mean, it's kind of a shame... it's very easy to just lose yourself in the beautiful open worldness of the game but a lot of the gameplay is just really uninteresting.

 

Pretty sure you can remove the "?" from the map so you can just explore without knowing ahead of time that there's going to be something of interest in a region you're entering.

[Starwars]

I do turn off the markers and it helps somewhat but I think you can still "feel" the way it was designed if that makes any sense. It doesn't feel like an organic world in the least when it comes to that I think. Again, crappy loot, crappy leveling and crappy fights doesn't help the exploration. I like the Witcher 3 exploration a *lot* in terms of just seeing the world, experiencing the bustle and atmosphere in Novigrad, the more calm and harsh beauty of Skellige. But there's just nothing in terms of the open world *gameplay* that I like.

About following tracks, I don't mind that in itself nor do I mind the fisheye effect. I just mind that so often they end up leading you through yet another little monster infested area because obviously we can't let the player go five seconds without anything happening.
I mean, kinda exaggerating here but in some places it's kinda annoying. It's just trash fights with nothing interesting going on.

 

I don't like the combat much but it can be fun once you actually get into those witcher contracts that are a bit special somehow. But most of the fights you encounter naturally on the map are just pure trash. And there's so much of it. I mean, I guess that's why I felt Kingdom Come was such a breath of fresh air, it was nice to have a game world where combat music doesn't start pounding every couple of minutes because a wolf happened to see you riding by.

I'm whining a bit here but yeah, I really think a lot of the Witcher 3 gameplay feels watered down and boring. And it's such a shame because so much effort and love obviously went into the writing, the atmosphere, the audio and visuals.

Edited March 24, 2019 by Starwars

[Katphood]

I did not uncheck any of the markers, I went at the whole thing one step at a time...Ubisoft style!

[GhostofAnakin]

I'm noticing that later on, AC: Odyssey's big map seems rather devoid of quests.  Unless there's a story mission in an area, there doesn't seem to be any sort of sidequests (other than the bounties) in that area.  I've got like half the continent to go and I'm not seeing any quests pop up each time I enter a new area.

 

Might have to just finish off the main story at this point.

[Fenixp]

I do turn off the markers and it helps somewhat but I think you can still "feel" the way it was designed if that makes any sense.

Oh yeah, I feel you. Some of the question mark locations are actually designed absolutely splendidly, blending in with environmental storytelling exceptionally well - I felt like the best locations for that were White Orchard and then areas added by expansions.

 

In the bulk of the base game however, well... I think the most grievous examples thus far are smuggler caches in Skellige and Hidden Treasure island in Velen, like designers had a quota they were supposed to reach.

 

I don't think I have to say much about the smuggler stashes, but in Velen, there's an island close to Oxenfurt (and the singing troll quest) which has like 4 or 5 hidden treasures on it, with completely disjointed stories, and you essentially get to trip over the 'hidden' chests while on your way there.