What Are You Playing Now: The New Beginning Thread

[Oner]

Technically he sends you to destroy the baddies, the loot you pick up just helps further that goal. It's not like you can spend it on martinis and blackjack for yourself.

[Mamoulian War]

More DS2. After spending few hours in Bright Cove Tseldora, while trying to get all the items, I've moved to another bossfight. The Duke's Dear Freja. Not very difficult boss for being the area boss, but for some reason I was to stubborn to tryout few more tactics and I've insisted to jump under her soul beam. After I stopped repeating that, she fell on second try,,, In total, I've needed 9 attempts to get one more Great Soul for my collection. Whole fight bellow

 

 

[Hawke64]

Sea of Solitude. An adventure game. Very lovely graphics and almost no settings for it, only resolution, AA and V-Sync. The controls are customizable, though.
I get what the game was trying to express, but the only thing I could think of was "How can anyone go to such great lengths to make themselves so miserable?". The design of monsters was interesting (the black dog was too obvious), but the game lacked combat*. I guess, I should have waited for 75%+ discount.

*I had hoped for something more like Shadow of the Colossus. So, I look forward for Prey for Gods, which is in Early Access now and certainly has enough combat.

Edited June 14, 2020 by Hawke64

[Sven_]

On 6/13/2020 at 7:45 PM, Sven_ said:

Expeditions: Viking

 

In particular with the latter, I'm wondering whether that's a format that would be viable for Josh Sawyer's Dream turn-based historical RPG. Would be interesting to see what their dev budget was... but in either case, that's a pretty good soundtrack and composer for an indie.
 

I've found something about this:

- game was released April 2017
- had a (dev-)estimated bugdet of at least 5 times less than PoE1, if not more
- still hadn't broke even by September 2017 though

https://steamcommunity.com/app/445190/discussions/0/1473096694436181731/

Personally I hadn't been sure what to make of this series in general before trying Viking, but I wish I had tried. Viking is apparently more classic CRPG-like than its predecessor and more narrative- and choice-driven (and they intend to go back to the style of that predecessor). If you're unsure, like I was, it's currently part of a bundle over at Fanatical. The devs, Logic Artists, have been also co-developing Divinity: Fallen Heroes alongside Larian (which is now being put on hold, likely due to BG commitments). Personally I've now bookmarked these guys.

Interesting insight also about getting funds post Tyranny's failure, and what impact higher profile games have:
 

Quote

Pillars and Tyranny are very similar to each other and Tyranny's failure has - unsurprisingly - had clear negative effects on funding for similar projects. There seems to be a general impression among investors and publishers that a sort of genre fatigue is setting in for RPGs.

Edited June 15, 2020 by Sven_

[Malcador]

Started Shardlight, sure is a grimdark setting. Just got in to working with the NSF to discover the secrets behind the Ambrosia vaccine.

[Mamoulian War]

And another bossfight from Dark Souls 2 behind me. This time Royal Rat Authority. What to say about it. The small toxic ratdogs and the the fast boss made a lot of trouble to me. It was clear from first few attempts, that the fight is after getting down the adds very similar to Sif from DS1... But my stubborness was more powerful than my mind 25 attempts needed form me to give up on dodging and running in between his legs... The first one I went there, was the final try... *sighs*

As always, whole final fight here:

 

[Lexx]

Started playing a little bit MGS5 again and man, it's still hooking me. Shame we never got any sorts of expansion to the game.

[Malcador]

Finished off Arma 3's vanilla campaign, accurate sum up :

Spoiler

 

[majestic]

Played a bit of the Everspace 2 Alpha, noticed a distress beacon, went here. Two G&B freighters under attack by outlaws that quite clearly outgun my completely unupgraded ship fresh out of the tutorial. They're heavily armored and have a goodly bunch of hitpoints, so unless I'm missing something (the first game had support drones that could buff enemies) I most likely won't be saving the freighters.

Or looting their remains for that matter. Heh.

[Mamoulian War]

Another Bossfight in Dark Souls 2 successfully behind me. Smelter Demon. The biggest issue with this one was small area, where you could get easily stuck in between wall and the boss, so in ttal it took me 15 tries to down him. Bossfight was straightforward and not complicated to learn. I just had some issues dodging and blocking his fire attack. It was OK when I had destroyed on way to him all the water jugs and cast during transition to his third phase the Fire Resistant Pyromancy (Flame Sweat? don't remember the name ) Still during last few seconds all water on me evaporated, so I got burned really hard Still in the end victorious, and that's all what counts

 

[Wormerine]

Desperados3!!! Quite glorious fun. 

[Bartimaeus]

1 hour ago, Mamoulian War said:

Another Bossfight in Dark Souls 2 successfully behind me. Smelter Demon. The biggest issue with this one was small area, where you could get easily stuck in between wall and the boss, so in ttal it took me 15 tries to down him. Bossfight was straightforward and not complicated to learn. I just had some issues dodging and blocking his fire attack. It was OK when I had destroyed on way to him all the water jugs and cast during transition to his third phase the Fire Resistant Pyromancy (Flame Sweat? don't remember the name ) Still during last few seconds all water on me evaporated, so I got burned really hard Still in the end victorious, and that's all what counts

 

I remember getting rather annoyed by Smelter Demon, but I'm not sure why, since he looks very pedestrian in that video.

Strange Telephone (2019). Reminded me of Yume Nikki, which I never played much of because I didn't really like it...but better. At the very least, I finished it.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/e8fo9ecnw5xxgov/xDSEjcnuGo.mp4

Yes, this is an actual game that I played.

[Malcador]

Finished off Shardlight, enjoyed the option to kill the two faction leaders at the end.  Enjoyable game, short - took me 4 hours to beat.  Puzzles are logical enough, little backtracking needed and the crossbow is the answer more often than not.  Well worth the $4 I paid.

[Hawke64]

5 hours ago, Mamoulian War said:

Another Bossfight in Dark Souls 2 successfully behind me. Smelter Demon. The biggest issue with this one was small area, where you could get easily stuck in between wall and the boss, so in ttal it took me 15 tries to down him. Bossfight was straightforward and not complicated to learn. I just had some issues dodging and blocking his fire attack. It was OK when I had destroyed on way to him all the water jugs and cast during transition to his third phase the Fire Resistant Pyromancy (Flame Sweat? don't remember the name ) Still during last few seconds all water on me evaporated, so I got burned really hard Still in the end victorious, and that's all what counts

 

There is something else in the room, if you return there after resting at the nearest bonfire (though, it would be more useful for a melee build).

[Mamoulian War]

9 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

I remember getting rather annoyed by Smelter Demon, but I'm not sure why, since he looks very pedestrian in that video.

My guess would be the wall clipping. That was the most annoying thing of the bossfight. It’s not much of that in this video, but I’ve experienced it a lot in previous attempts  

5 hours ago, Hawke64 said:

There is something else in the room, if you return there after resting at the nearest bonfire (though, it would be more useful for a melee build).

Yeah, I’ve already know about that

[Mamoulian War]

The next encounter, which I was able to overcome was the Old Iron King, the last of the primal bonfire guardians. The boss is easy in theory, but the environment made it the most annoying bossfight of the game so far... Extremely small arena surrounded by lava, with few lava holes in middle of the arena as well, fire attacks knocking out your character all over the place lasting so long, that if you got caught, it was almost sure, you'll get one more hit when you stand up, and one fire beam going through the walls of the arena, which btw also knocked you out... This in the end meant, that a slight touch of the flame caused you to get knocked almost guaranteed in the lava... I had to defeat the boss three times, but first time, he managed to blow a fire on me before he was defeated, but I was still in casting animation, which of course took me down, and second time, I have tried to jump away from the same move, but the lava hole in the middle of the arena, which I successfully avoided the whole time eat me alive during the final roll... *sighs*

I just hope, the remaining bosses will have much better design like this one...

 

[Azdeus]

I've been playing alot of Destiny 2, I've been having quite alot of fun with it, but I made the mistake of going into PvP, it started out about as I expected - getting blasted from the left and right in the start since it's the first time I see the arena, but I rather quickly learn the layout, set off towards a "Heavy ammo" pack, enter the room and see the scoreboard leader pop up from nowhere, take the ammo pack, his back towards me, I open up at his head - suddenly he 180's and one-shots me from across the room with a shotgun...

As luck would have it I only needed to play 3 games for a mission I had. Not touching that again, it was okay in the second match where there was no leader, ended up in the middle of the field, but the third match he was back. I managed to get him once that time though, I was shooting at someone else when he teleported into my stream of fire, so that was nice XD

[Bartimaeus]

10 hours ago, Mamoulian War said:

The next encounter, which I was able to overcome was the Old Iron King, the last of the primal bonfire guardians. The boss is easy in theory, but the environment made it the most annoying bossfight of the game so far... Extremely small arena surrounded by lava, with few lava holes in middle of the arena as well, fire attacks knocking out your character all over the place lasting so long, that if you got caught, it was almost sure, you'll get one more hit when you stand up, and one fire beam going through the walls of the arena, which btw also knocked you out... This in the end meant, that a slight touch of the flame caused you to get knocked almost guaranteed in the lava... I had to defeat the boss three times, but first time, he managed to blow a fire on me before he was defeated, but I was still in casting animation, which of course took me down, and second time, I have tried to jump away from the same move, but the lava hole in the middle of the arena, which I successfully avoided the whole time eat me alive during the final roll... *sighs*

I just hope, the remaining bosses will have much better design like this one...

 

I was shocked that this guy was a Lord Soul, given the obvious and painful limitations of his design. Don't think I got hit even once by him, but of course, with Souls games, I usually spend a few minutes being super cautious and studying a boss's movements before I start attacking.

[Mamoulian War]

I probably should do that as well

[Bartimaeus]

6 hours ago, Mamoulian War said:

I probably should do that as well

I've played through DS1, DS3, and DeS on NG+ at SL1, I definitely have a formula down for how I approach things in these sorts of games by now, .

[Mamoulian War]

7 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

I've played through DS1, DS3, and DeS on NG+ at SL1, I definitely have a formula down for how I approach things in these sorts of games by now, .

Admirable I would never have enough patience for that kind of feat tbh

[HoonDing]

i still think DS is Dungeon Siege

[Mamoulian War]

Whoever designed Shrine of Amano deserves to be kicked in his nuts and fired from the company... he managed to completely suck all of my enjoyment out of more than 50 hours I had of awesome fun... Some of the areas even here and in previous games could be called not the most enjoyable, but this one is just atrocious in all aspects... **** him...

[melkathi]

5 hours ago, HoonDing said:

i still think DS is Dungeon Siege

Same here.

[melkathi]

DS: Dungeon Siege

DS2: Dungeon Siege 2

DS3: Dungeon Siege 3

Nintendo DS: alternate reality where Dungeon Siege became an established Nintendo franchise with spin offs such as Dungeon Siege Kart, Doctor Dungeon Siege, and of course Dungeon Siege Amibos.

Edited June 19, 2020 by melkathi