What Are You Playing Now: The New Beginning Thread

[Hurlshort]

ESO is a bit weird about endgame, since everything is scaled. When you finish the storyline for one of the 3 factions, you just start playing through the next faction storyline. Then you play through the expansion areas. Or you can go in whatever order you want. It's weird. There is a lot of content, but the sense of progression is a bit off for me.

Not like LotRO, where you slowly progress your way towards Mordor. Which is like a 10 year quest.

[bugarup]

Played "Life is strange", a Telltale-esque walking sim with even more "You choices matter...NOT, sucker!" attitude and the stupidest protagonist (save for Fallout 2's/Arcanum's low INT ones, even the idiot of New Vegas was smarter) I ever played, also the most irritating. Still, the game have some charm as the atmosphere reminded me of Philip K. ****'s works at places, albeit it was mostly unintentional -- I suspect characters were not supposed to be this unnatural and juuuust enough off to give vibes of creepy button-eyed doppelgangers from the Other World. 

Note to any gamemakers: do not try emulate teen slang. Thing's more mutable than flu virus and even if you somehow get it right without steering into cringe territory, you still date your game. 

[melkathi]

2 hours ago, bugarup said:

 

Note to any gamemakers: do not try emulate teen slang. Thing's more mutable than flu virus and even if you somehow get it right without steering into cringe territory, you still date your game. 

 

Like Cory Doctorow novels...

[Lexx]

Well, I liked the game very much and wouldn't mind replaying it again.

[Skazz]

14 hours ago, Hurlshot said:

ESO is a bit weird about endgame, since everything is scaled. When you finish the storyline for one of the 3 factions, you just start playing through the next faction storyline. Then you play through the expansion areas. Or you can go in whatever order you want. It's weird.

Isn't that good though? Doesn't it mean that the world is completely open and the old ES shtick of "you can go anywhere and do anything you want" is true?

[Malcador]

D3 with the new DH set. Is nice to just hold down Strafe and watch my Hungering Arrows just off everything on the screen.  ARPGs get funny with higher difficulty, bosses with 1 trillion health, I am hitting for crits of 350 billion damage.

[the_dog_days]

3 hours ago, Skazz said:

Doesn't it mean that the world is completely open and the old ES shtick of "you can go anywhere and do anything you want" is true?

All world bosses and some dungeons are meant to be done in a group. It doesn't matter what your level is because there is level scaling, but you do usually need at least two other players to help. The only part that is (was? I'm not sure but it was when I first started playing) is Cyrodill because it's a PvP zone you needed to be level 10 to access it. Not all of Tamriel is in ESO yet because those will either be sold as dlc or 'chapters' (read: expansions) or the servers might get shutdown first. Long story short, when you make a new character the game will drop you into whatever expansion beginning you have and from there you can just run off in a direction--that's part of the reason why I have so many hours in one character and I'm not even done with one faction quest line, because when I get bored with a zone I'll leave and go do guild quests or just go to a new zone for a change of scenery.

[Hurlshort]

2 hours ago, Skazz said:

Isn't that good though? Doesn't it mean that the world is completely open and the old ES shtick of "you can go anywhere and do anything you want" is true?

Yes? No?

I'm not sure. I've played a lot of ESO, and I do like that my one character can experience pretty much everything. But I do feel it lacks the build up and anticipation of some other games. Honestly I have the same issue with Skyrim. I get really into one storyline, but once I finish it, I have trouble starting a new one from scratch. It's just a different feel. 

[Mamoulian War]

Yesterday evening after 960 deaths, I was finally able to defeat Aldia, Scholar of the First Sin in Dark Souls II on my PS3, and I've finished the game for the first time ever. Most of the bosses, with the exception of Ancient Dragon were for my Sorcerer pretty easy to learn, but on some of them, my old bones were to slow to react, so I had to spent longer time wiping the floor there . Then there were areas like Shrine of Amana and Dragon shrine, where the enemy placement was so ridiculous, that it raised my death counter to sky high levels . Shrine of Amana has become for me officially the worst Souls level ever, beating by a long margin even the Blighttown and 5-1 area of Valley of Defilement. I still need to get into NG++ to be able to get all of the trophies for the game, but I need small pause to relax on a less demanding game .

Despite it's flaws I have enjoyed the game, mostly before Shrine of Amana, which made the game for a few hours like a slogging chore... But we'll see how NG+ will be going. Next game will be probably Journey on my PS4, just for relax

I'll post my last three bossfights as soon as I'll finish sorting my recorded videos

 

[Mamoulian War]

First of the final bossfight sequence uploaded on YT . The Throne Watcher and Throne Defender

To my surprise, despite the encounter being double bossfight, the fight was easy and straightforward, with one big surprise in middle of the fight One was weak to Sorcery, the other was weak to Hexes. All in all, with little bit running around and blocking and dodging to my shock, I was victorious on my first try

 

[HoonDing]

 

[Malcador]

In my youth, I played 14 hours straight of Tribes with that song on repeat.  Still get flashbacks when I hear that song.

[Mamoulian War]

Did someone chained you to chair, to endure so much pain?  

[Malcador]

Just now, Mamoulian War said:

Did someone chained you to chair, to endure so much pain?  

Honestly stopped hearing the song after a while, too lazy to alt-tab and shut off Winamp.  2:1 K:D ratio though for all that time, though.

[Bartimaeus]

4 hours ago, Mamoulian War said:

But we'll see how NG+ will be going.

[Mamoulian War]

The second of the final sequence of the bossfights for Dark Souls 2. Queen Nashandra. For a caster very easy fight. Only two attempts, despite absolutely not knowing how to destroy the curse beacons   Not much to be said, only that I was surprised how easy the fight was

 

 

[Mamoulian War]

And the final Final Bossfight of the game. Aldia, Scholar of the First Sin.

This took me 16 tries, in which I've lost 90k souls from the previous one Took me some time to learn to avoid all his moves, especially the 4 homing fireballs... In one attempt, he made this move 3 times in a row Anyway, the fight was nice closure of the whole adventure, which I've enjoyed a lot, with the exception of Shrine of Amana, Dragon Shrine and learning of Ancient Dragon fight

I am curious, how I will fare in NG+

 

[MedicineDan]

I finally finished Black Mesa.  There were certainly some differences between the original and the remake, as it seems to me, but I enjoyed it a lot anyway.  I just used the default difficulty, which was way too easy, but I don't care about bragging rights.  I think the last game I played on the highest difficulty all the way through was the Wolfenstein game where you had to fight some huge assed Goth giant at the end by ducking under his swipes or some such.  That was stupid.  Typically, I play them all at whatever difficulty to which it defaults.  There were still some irritating moments and a couple times I got lazy and toobed the answer, but mostly I solved everything pretty quickly.  The puzzles weren't very hard, but there were a couple times I overlooked something several times before I found it.  Great game.  I have a little extra time right now, so I'm considering what to play that I have or what I might want to buy.  I will say that Sunless Sea was such a great game and a while back I played a lot of Sunless Skies and it was a real letdown.  The idea was more or less the same, but the writing couldn't match up with the first.  I really felt sad when the Presbyterian chick bit it.  There was nothing even close in Sunless Skies.

[Bartimaeus]

6 hours ago, Mamoulian War said:

And the final Final Bossfight of the game. Aldia, Scholar of the First Sin.

This took me 16 tries, in which I've lost 90k souls from the previous one Took me some time to learn to avoid all his moves, especially the 4 homing fireballs... In one attempt, he made this move 3 times in a row Anyway, the fight was nice closure of the whole adventure, which I've enjoyed a lot, with the exception of Shrine of Amana, Dragon Shrine and learning of Ancient Dragon fight

I am curious, how I will fare in NG+

 

What were your hardest, easiest, favorite, and least favorite bosses?

[MedicineDan]

How does Halo stand up?  I was thinking of getting the latest DOOM, but I'm not sure.  I like FPSes, but any other suggestions.  I guess I could start Disco Elysium I suppose.  I only did enough of the original to realize the main character was an alcoholic and that kind of took the charm off for me, but I still like the idea.

[Mamoulian War]

1 hour ago, Bartimaeus said:

What were your hardest, easiest, favorite, and least favorite bosses?

Hardest was definatelly Ancient Dragon, in the non-cheasy way. The easiest was by long margin the Covetous Demon. Most annoying was Royal Rat Authority and Vendrick,  but the least favourite would be probably tied The Pursuer with Ruin Sentinels. Favourite, is little bit harder to pick, but I really enjoyed the mechanic of Executioner’s Chariot, despite being pretty easy as well, but the skeletons were little bit annoying. After finding out how to remove the poison from the arena, Mytha was nice fight as well. Smelter Demon was also nice to look ar fight with it’s three phases, but the arena made the fight annoying, becuase there were two places, where was to easy to get stuck and obliterated, and I also liked the Darklurker mechanic, but it was real pain in the ass for me to get to that boss. So in the end I think I would pick The Executioner’s Chariot as my favourite.

[Bartimaeus]

Hmm, can't say I agree with any of your choices...except for maybe Covetous Demon being the easiest (or among them - I'd put Last Giant, Flexile Sentry, Old Iron King, and The Rotten all around the same difficulty). The beauty of different playstyles and players having their own strengths and weaknesses! From what I recall, Vendrick, the Pursuer, and maybe Darklurker were among my favorites, and I'd probably put The Pursuer on top for best emblifying a simple, but well-designed and classic Dark Souls boss experience. Least favorite would go to Ancient Dragon, who's just so dumb.

Did you finish the three DLCs? Don't recall you ever showing boss battles from them.

[Mamoulian War]

Unfortunately, I do not have any DLCs on my PS3. But I have my PS4 SotFS version as well. So sooner or later, I will play them too. The reason, why I have so much issues with Pursuer, Vendrick and Royal Rat Authority was simple. They are just to fast for my old bones The design of Pursuer is IMO very good, it's just that he is so damn fast for me

Last Giant and Flexile Sentry are of course runners-up of the easiest boss trophy, but the Rotten for me was kind of pain as well, due to the lava pools in the arena. Which is again more like issue with my skills, than the boss design And Vendrick, well, I think he does not completely deserve my bashing, but his small arena really really made the fight big pain for me. TBH I had the same issue with Capra Demon in DS 1. His fast speed and small arena was for me recipe for disaster and has made me to quit the game for few years, because I was to slow to be able to have a fair fight with him at such a small place For Vendrick I stick to it, until I found his "weak spot"... Still 59 tries to defeat him

[Bartimaeus]

One of my favorite Dark Souls experiences was NG+ at SL1 fighting Capra Demon, in a tiny arena where when you walk in, the camera is already getting stuck behind trees and branches and crap that were put way too low for no reason, where you basically can't turn the camera because the arena is too small and just drags against the walls, you're immediately attacked as you're walking in, and for some godforsaken reason they stuck a couple of random dogs in this miniature arena whose reactions and movesets are super random, and you die in one hit to anything. That was super fun. ...Wait, hold on a second: when I said "favorite" and "super fun", I actually meant "least favorite" and "super unfun". Whoops.

I asked about the DLC because I absolutely despise the DS2 DLC, I found it to be the absolute worst, most pointlessly torturous and annoying stuff in the entire series, but some people claim it's the best. I think it must depend on how much you hate yourself, and it's just a bridge too far for me.

Edited July 24, 2020 by Bartimaeus

[Mamoulian War]

Well, now that you set the bar for the DLCs so low, I can be only surprised