5 hours ago, Mamoulian War said:

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...

I used a bow (Hunter's Blackbow aka the Black Bow of Pharis) for this area and summoned the NPC phantom for the NPC invader, banishing her before going for the boss (the boss was easy to take on solo). The usual strategy of going slowly and killing things one by one was mostly effective here as well. Considering that you are playing a sorcerer, it should be less difficult, than it would be for a melee fighter.

Also there are worse areas in the series. The Shrine at least does not have FPS drops, poison or blizzards with respawning deer.

44 minutes ago, Hawke64 said:

I used a bow (Hunter's Blackbow aka the Black Bow of Pharis) for this area and summoned the NPC phantom for the NPC invader, banishing her before going for the boss (the boss was easy to take on solo). The usual strategy of going slowly and killing things one by one was mostly effective here as well. Considering that you are playing a sorcerer, it should be less difficult, than it would be for a melee fighter.

Also there are worse areas in the series. The Shrine at least does not have FPS drops, poison or blizzards with respawning deer.

I might be sorcerer, the issue is, that I am not very good at these kind of games, despite having fun playing them, so even when I’ve tried tombe picking them one by one, I’ve failed misserable. The most idiotic placing of enemies was right in front of second fog gate in area... Where you got always agroed by two casters at once, and there was also one underwater jumper... I did not died so many time in Demon’s Souls in the poison area before Dirty Colossus, which I thought was the worst area in Souls games so far, but they overdone it multiple times with the Shrine design... I’m still in the middle of the area and I really lost all mood to continue...

Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition. I've completed the original campaign and defeated Morag. Discovering that my build was not exactly the best to face an opponent who was immune to sneak attacks and critical hits at the end of the last chapter was unpleasant. Fortunately, my companion was able to kill the final boss almost by himself.

Before the wipefest in Shrine of Amana, I had a pretty fast encounter with the duo of Dragonriders. As before, the way to the boss was kind of ridiculous, because I've opened soul doors in wrong order, so when I wanted to get for all the items, I had to defeat 5 of Ruin Guardians, which of course respawned... sigh I've spent almost hour there to finish them all out... Yes, I am that stubborn when I see one shiny, and there were three of them... *sighs*

Way up to the Dragonriders was much more pleasant and my first attempt was pretty decent, but unfortunately, the Red one destroyed patform under the Black One, and my ass was firmly impaled by two polearms... The corpserun was long, so after 2 more attempts I started to search, if there might be a hidden Bonfire somewhere, and it was, behind one wall with missing ornaments. After finding that one out, the fight went pretty decent. Only 7 tries in total.

 

 

Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order

It's....Ok, the gameplay and plot aren't half bad and the environments are a beauty but it kinda feels sloppily put together, like it was made by an artist and not an engineer.  

I guess I'll stick with From Software/Bandai Namco when I want games like that, they are very difficult to topple.

Edited June 20, 20205 yr by ComradeMaster
I must be getting old, typos aren't as obvious as they used to be

After the Dragonriders, next bossfight was Looking Glass Knight. Really easy one, just as few other areas before, little bit harder to get to it. The biggest issue was one room full of stone pikemen... I died there few times, but had not as many issues as on Ruin Sentries before Dragonriders.

Only 4 tries were needed to down him. In the final try, I had some big luck staying and almost dies few times, but yeah, having the boss soul in the end is all what counts

 

Played some Hardspace, rather relaxing dismantling ships, nothing like dystopic indentured labour.

23 hours ago, Hawke64 said:

Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition. I've completed the original campaign and defeated Morag. Discovering that my build was not exactly the best to face an opponent who was immune to sneak attacks and critical hits at the end of the last chapter was unpleasant. Fortunately, my companion was able to kill the final boss almost by himself.

You wont believe this, I have just bought this game on Steam....very good price and since its the EE I am excited about my journey 

So football is back (in real life) so to get into the spirit of things I thought I might give Football Manager 2020 a try since it's on PC Game Pass. Disappointingly, I found out that Game Pass only includes the full-fat version which I find too complex and does not allow you to play the simpler "Touch" version. Normally you get this version included if you buy the full version, so that's a little disappointing.

Now I'm still weighing up buying the latest Humble Bundle which includes it, since it's a fair chunk of change for what are mostly duplicates. Until I decide, I figure maybe I'll just play my old FM17 a bit and that might be enough to scratch that itch. Not like I have a huge amount of time for games at the moment, I'm mostly just playing a game or two of AoE2 DE whenever I do sit down in front of the PC these days.

After getting my bearings back, I remember that I left off just after being hired by CSKA Moscow, who are absolutely bleeding cash and aren't qualified for any sort of European competition (which probably lead to the crisis in the first place). I end up playing a full season (finishing second and winning the domestic cup), then a new consortium takes over and sacks me. Actually, that's a lie, they take over and say they had intended to replace me, but after some consideration said they decided they would "allow me to keep my job". I found that statement insultingly condescending so I have to admit I savescummed to back when the takeover happened and ensured that I would be indeed sacked.

The off-season was pretty much over at that point so the only available jobs were for small-fry, so fast forward five months to the annual glut of Christmas sackings and I have quite a few offers on the table. So question is, which do I take of these? Newcastle, Watford, Celta Vigo, Malaga, Bologna, Lille, Besiktas and, uh, Go Ahead Eagles. Decisions, decisions. Newcastle obviously the financial powerhouse there but probably the least pleasant place to live. 😛

Started playing The Last of Us 2. I'm 3 or so hours in the game now.

First:
Graphics are amazing. RDR2 was good, but this is even better. On the other hand, RDR2 had a big, mostly open world while that's not the case in TLoU2 (is that a working acronym?), so I guess that evens it out.

Second:
As I had expected, the big QQ from players after the story-leak happened is because these people hate change ...

Third:
So annoying how everyone talked about the look of that one female. Yeah, I get it, it's not a supermodel ... but will survivors in such a post-apocalyptic world really look like supermodels? I'd say it looks realistic and it's something different for once (hurr durr).

 

Other than that, so far so good. Feels pretty much like the first game.

I would not say they hate the change, they more like hate the **** story. A honest review from a korean streamer says it all.

 

 

Spoiler

He does this after seeing the PGA Golf Tour scene, deleting the game and speaking 10 minutes to his audience about death of his father. Last words before that: “My dissapointmet is immesurable... and my day is ruined.” Whoever decided to release this game around Father’s Day deserves to be hit by a truck for being insensitive **** douchebag...

Also IGN Japan scored the game 7/10, the reasons for that you can read in the first comment translated to english by SuperAvocado. And they pretty much correctly summed up the main issues which people are having with the game... 

excerpt from this review translated by Metacritic:

The Last of Us Part II tries too hard to differentiate itself from its predecessor. While astonishing cityscapes and more varied combat options are great evolutions, Part II lacks the poetic serenity that made the original road-movie-like epic such a masterpiece. On top of that, uninteresting new characters burden the story, making Ellie's journey feel conventional and not nearly as captivating as the original.

 

Edited June 22, 20205 yr by Mamoulian War
Added IGN Japan review to the post...

Darkest Dungeon pisses me off so much!  Rat bastards!  Geez, the RNG is Satan in software form!

1 hour ago, MedicineDan said:

Darkest Dungeon pisses me off so much!  Rat bastards!  Geez, the RNG is Satan in software form!

You have to embrace Darkest Dungeon before it will embrace you. Just think if it as a retail middle management sim. Your job is to squeeze every drop of use you can out of these unskilled workers. Leaving the dry, insane, and with a drinking problem. And then you move on to the next one. Once you start thinking of it like that, DD is great.

1 minute ago, the_dog_days said:

You have to embrace Darkest Dungeon before it will embrace you. Just think if it as a retail middle management sim. Your job is to squeeze every drop of use you can out of these unskilled workers. Leaving the dry, insane, and with a drinking problem. And then you move on to the next one. Once you start thinking of it like that, DD is great.

Addictive as hell, at any rate!

6 hours ago, Mamoulian War said:

I would not say they hate the change, they more like hate the **** story. A honest review from a korean streamer says it all.

 

How can people complain about a shait story if they haven't played more than ~1 hour? This is such dumb crap, I don't even know how to reply to that. Also not sure what the father of that korean guy has to do with this, did someone kill him with a golfclub? Man, this garbage really pisses me off, especially the pathetic disk-breaking.

Edited June 22, 20205 yr by Lexx

1 hour ago, Lexx said:

How can people complain about a shait story if they haven't played more than ~1 hour? This is such dumb crap, I don't even know how to reply to that. Also not sure what the father of that korean guy has to do with this, did someone kill him with a golfclub? Man, this garbage really pisses me off, especially the pathetic disk-breaking.

Well, I know more people who played the game and complain about it than vice versa *shrugs* If you can't emphasize with a guy, whose father died, and who was connected to Joel in a game as a fatherly figure, it's not his issue. A lot of person play the game to runaway from reality, and seeing a character to die, who he has found a connection to his father somehow in a previous story, made him completely upset and his face expresions after seeing that scene made very clear how he felt inside, which is pretty understandable IMO... And it's pretty much described the feeling in the Japanese IGN review...

Also about story are to my surprise complaining also "inclusive" medias like Kotaku, Polygon, Vice and also Ars Technica... so that says in my eyes a lot about it's quality to make up my own opinion on the quality of the game without need to play it *shrugs*

If you like it, good for you, but do not judge people who played it and do not like it, unless you think that all these Asian people who have issues with the game are toxic white supremacists as well

Edited June 22, 20205 yr by Mamoulian War

Oh come on. What do you want?

1. You can't kill father figures in video games anymore, or

2. A big trigger warning at the start "ATTENTION: A FATHER-FIGURE MIGHT GET KILLED IN THIS GAME"?

.... This is some sensitivity bs. Might as well remove all hints of rape, torture, war, etc. from any game, because someone somewhere likely will be triggered by it. If you use this to judge a game, it's no better than all this political correctness crap.

 

I can't give a conclusion on quality of the story yet, because I'm only a couple hours in. But that's my point ... rating the story now is stupid. I'll tell you more in the future.

/Edit:

20 minutes ago, Mamoulian War said:

If you like it, good for you, but do not judge people who played it and do not like it, unless you think that all these Asian people who have issues with the game are toxic white supremacists as well

I am not sure if this is trolling or genuine. Where did I write anything about white supremacists?

Edited June 22, 20205 yr by Lexx

That last one was sarcastic remark onhow the Twitter mob reacts on reviews of the people, who already finished it, and do not like it. Like SkillUp review. I am glad, you are not one of these people 😉 

Also if you’ve did not arrive to the golf club scene yet, it is understandable, that you do not agree that it might be very upsetting for some people.

Spoiler

Not because what happend to Joel, but the way how story execution brought him to that outcome, which pretty much in many peoples mind completely retconned his whole character from first game.

 

The golf club scene happens at ~1 or 2 hours, I'm way past that and it didn't bother me at all. I was just surprised at how graphic it was.

I don't see a problem in how it came to be - actually it seems quite reasonable. Besides, it's 4 years after the first game and people change. Not sure why the situation should be out of character for him.

47 minutes ago, Lexx said:

Oh come on. What do you want?

1. You can't kill father figures in video games anymore, or

2. A big trigger warning at the start "ATTENTION: A FATHER-FIGURE MIGHT GET KILLED IN THIS GAME"?

.... This is some sensitivity bs. Might as well remove all hints of rape, torture, war, etc. from any game, because someone somewhere likely will be triggered by it. If you use this to judge a game, it's no better than all this political correctness crap.

When you've finished the game I'll have a follow up question about this.

(I'm thoroughly spoiled because internet drama and not owning a PS4, so won't ask now)

 

1 hour ago, Lexx said:

The golf club scene happens at ~1 or 2 hours, I'm way past that and it didn't bother me at all. I was just surprised at how graphic it was.

I don't see a problem in how it came to be - actually it seems quite reasonable. Besides, it's 4 years after the first game and people change. Not sure why the situation should be out of character for him.

From what I understand, the graphic depiction of the scene is also one of the reasons, why some people might find it disturbing and not enjoying the game. In total, there is a lot of graphic depiction of violence in this game, which I know for sure, that my girlfriend would not like at all, and that is IMO very bad outcome, when you consider, Strong Female Lead is one of the main selling points of the game... Indeed some people change, but people are not very happy, that he made 180 from previous game. I can't judge that, because I played only 2 hours of TLoU1 at my cousin place, and after a first hour, which I've enjoyed a lot, I started to notice a lot of flaws in gameplay and AI behaviour, which completely spoiled my previous enjoyment of the game. But I fully understand some people hating on the game, just because of the attachment to Joel. Also, as I said before, it is completely understandable, that you personally enjoy the game, and lot of stuff does not bother you. And it's good, because, your money was well spent (and I really wish I could say that about my special edition of FFXV). But there is a pretty proportional number of people, who did not think that way and feel cheated out of their money by Naughty Dog, as much as I was cheated out of my money by Square Enix...

Edited June 22, 20205 yr by Mamoulian War

(Disclaimer) Did not play the games, but did watch a playthrough of both.

I think the gameplay/AI is even worse in the second. As for the golf club scene, in and of itself it's not that big of deal. The bigger fault is how the rest of the story handles it, how the rest of the characters don't really matter and how nonsensical the story gets by the end of it. Had the follow through story been better people would not have minded it so much. The whole games feels like a cheep effort to play on people feelings.

People are also pissed that the trailers baited them in to thinking that Joel would be a much larger part of the story.

As for Abby being buff I don't mind it, though her build looks very odd. I don't think they modeled her correctly, but oh well. The thing I find less credible is how clean shaven everyone is at all points of the game (face, armpits, etc.), I don't think people would pay that much attention in an apocalypse.

What I continue to find funny is how ok people in the west are with graphic violence, but any intimacy and sex scenes immediately draw outrage.

Edited June 22, 20205 yr by Sarex

Why the pearl clutching over what other people think of TLoU2? I'm sure Naughty Dog are in no danger of getting **** canned.

Hardspace is enjoyable, bit of a grind at the moment as I'm dismantling Mackerels repeatedly, but it is satisfying to pick the ships clean.  Was funny to detonate a coolant tank with an overheated cutter nearby, didn't think that would happen.  I need to figure out how to use a decompression to get goods to the salvage barge, next.

37 minutes ago, Malcador said:

Hardspace is enjoyable, bit of a grind at the moment as I'm dismantling Mackerels repeatedly, but it is satisfying to pick the ships clean.  Was funny to detonate a coolant tank with an overheated cutter nearby, didn't think that would happen.  I need to figure out how to use a decompression to get goods to the salvage barge, next.

Is there a story to Hardspace? Are there quests or is it just a sandbox where you space hard?