What are you Playing Now? - Video games are bad for you? That's what they said about rock-n-roll

[MrBrown]

2 minutes ago, Serrano said:

I haven't played Andromeda but it's such a shame that the series fizzled out like that. The premise sounded so good. Is there anything you like about the game so far? Even though you're just getting started how is the story?

Well, ok, some analysis.

I like the basic setup of the story, and how it's different from the main series. But I have lots of problems with the story, mainly that the PC is given a hugely important title with almost religious reverence, out of pure nepotism from no actual results. And there's no reason the title or role should even exist, or given to just one person. And next to no one even comments on the ridiculousness of it.

The other maim bugbear I have is that they took a 600 year trip to another galaxy, and no one apparently considered anything might go wrong, and apparently everyone expected it to be paradise on arrival. This kind of plot might suit a wackier setting with inefficient government like Outer Worlds, but doesn't really fit ME.

There's a lack of suspense because the enemies apparently have a big space fleet, but prefer to have small squad shootouts on planets.

None of the characters seem that interesting. Dunno how the plot develops, maybe it'll get better.

As for gameplay, it's a weird mixup of ME1 and ME2/3, with wide open areas but still cover-based shooting. It kinda works ok, and is not that bad really. But most of the gameplay time is taken by planetary or area exploration, which just mounts to go to place X, press button, listen to narrative. Which would be kinda ok if all the places weren't so huge or if the narrative was interesting, so it ends up just being boring.

Also, the game feels a bit unpolished. Lots of weird stuff, like stuff floating in the air, monsters spawning at your feet, the save corruptions I mentioned, which all just smells like unpolished content.

I didn't follow ME:A when it was released, but I assume it was the lack of polish and uninteresting characters that killed the interest in it.

[Bartimaeus]

From what I recall, the protagonist in particular was lambasted for coming across as both whiny and ineffectual but also borderline sociopathic in presentation, and a lot of people hating their main character is something that shouldn't - cannot - happen. Also, the usual contingent of "she's uggo" gamers for people wanting to play the default female Ryder, but I personally thought many of the human faces in the Mass Effect games, especially in 2 and 3, looked like science experiments that had gone wrong already (probably because of BioWare going way farther to model and map real life people's faces onto characters' to, uh, varying degrees of success), so you know, it is what it is. I'd be pretty far down on the list of people trying to argue for all conventionally attractive characters in movies, shows, or video games, but I do prefer it when my brain doesn't keep screaming at me that a supposedly human character that looks like an alien wearing someone else's skin must be destroyed.

Edited December 22, 2024 by Bartimaeus

[Zoraptor]

2 hours ago, MrBrown said:

The other maim bugbear I have is that they took a 600 year trip to another galaxy, and no one apparently considered anything might go wrong, and apparently everyone expected it to be paradise on arrival. This kind of plot might suit a wackier setting with inefficient government like Outer Worlds, but doesn't really fit ME.

That is kind of what happened historically here on earth though. Lots of voyages planned in completely misplaced confidence on the assumption nothing (substantive) would go wrong and in the expectation that everything will just work itself out once you were going. Let's not forget the greatest voyage of discovery here was Kupe Leif Erikson Chris Columbus confidently looking for a new route to India.

Anything other than wide eyed optimism tends to mean you don't go at all.

Edited December 22, 2024 by Zoraptor

[Lexx]

Playing Blood West right now. Is said to be like Thief, etc. but I don't think that's correct. It's not a Deus Ex-like immersive sim either, for that it's just too simple. I'm in chapter 2 of 3 and so far it's fun, but I kinda wish it would have a little more complexity. Difficulty comes mostly from bullet sponge enemies and them blobbing at times. Once you figure out the ai, it's not too terrible to handle, though. In the end it's like a shooter with extra steps, where the player is made of glass.

Edited December 23, 2024 by Lexx

[rjshae]

Just started playing BG 3; I'm up to 5th level and heading into the Underdark. Playstyle-wise it's awfully similar to D:OS 1 & 2, with a D&D ruleset pasted on top. At least the characters have realistic-looking stats, unlike in D:OS. The amount of cut scene cinematics is impressive, and the facial/gesture animation work is top notch. But levelling up is definitely a slog, and too many battles are time-wasting do-overs. I had more fun with the Solasta tactical combat system; at least they felt winnable, up until they weren't. I definitely miss the Dodge action in BG 3.

[Hawke64]

Finished Twin Mirror. It is a 3D point-and-click-style adventure. The story follows a freelance journalist whose friend died under mysterious circumstances.

The puzzles are on the easier side and the number of retries is mostly unlimited, but the developers managed to implement pixel hunting in 3D - not only do you need to find the interaction point, you also need to position the main character at the right angle for the interaction prompt to appear. Some objects must be interacted with in a specific order, which occasionally leads to rather funny situations - at one point, the MC can run circles around the hostile locals before going to the objective (to look at a locked door from a distance), but once it is done, the locals try to physically assault the MC (not because of the door, because they actually did not see him 1 meter away before that).

The main gameplay systems are the dialogues, with the helpful social imaginary friend commenting on the available options, general puzzles (e.g. finding a password to a computer), and the “Mind Palace”, the protagonist’s ability to recreate past events based on the uncovered evidence. They are mandatory to complete, the number of retries is unlimited, and there is only one correct solution. The only drawback is rewatching the cut-scene. Speaking of, the cut-scenes are unskippable, which makes replaying the game significantly less appealing. Other, less used, mechanics include a running and dodging sequence and some sort of quick-time events. There are also optional collectibles hidden around, but I did not look for them - walking around was very slow and quite boring, despite the locations being small.

The graphics and sound are serviceable - nothing amazingly beautiful, nothing too horrible, good variety of character models, and a few original areas. The game would have been better in 2D pixel art style, but the developer seems to like 3D and unskippable cut-scenes.

I played on Steam Deck, so cannot tell whether the controls are rebindable. The number of save slots is limited to 4 (it is possible to copy the saves between slots in-game) and the game auto-saves the progress, so Windows Explorer is still a better option. I have not encountered any bugs during my 7-hour-long playthrough.

The aspects that elevate my opinion of the game are the endings and the not-terrible representation of the mental health issues (the MC mostly copes with it well and effectively shuts down during panic attacks; it is never explicitly stated what these issues are). The story branches close to the end and the choice affects the gameplay system used for the final confrontation and the epilogue. The differences are stark and playing through both endings was incredibly amusing. I also liked that the story was largely self-contained and the main conflicts were resolved satisfactorily.

Overall, it was a positive experience and I would recommend to try it at least once, but when the game is heavily discounted (~75%-80%).

I thank ShadySands for the key.

---

2 hours ago, rjshae said:

Just started playing BG 3; I'm up to 5th level and heading into the Underdark. Playstyle-wise it's awfully similar to D:OS 1 & 2, with a D&D ruleset pasted on top. At least the characters have realistic-looking stats, unlike in D:OS. The amount of cut scene cinematics is impressive, and the facial/gesture animation work is top notch. But levelling up is definitely a slog, and too many battles are time-wasting do-overs. I had more fun with the Solasta tactical combat system; at least they felt winnable, up until they weren't. I definitely miss the Dodge action in BG 3.

As with D:OS, the player is expected to interact with the systems, i.e. cheese the fights* (stealth, barrels, talking, etc.). I found the animations to range from ridiculous to atrocious (especially the facial animations for the PC), but the immersive sim elements allowed to decrease the exposure to them* (the cut-scenes locking the characters in place were somewhat funny, but usually worked for the foes as well), which I greatly appreciate. Granted, the combat and the cut-scenes became harder to avoid from the end of Act 2 and onwards, excluding the spoiler below, but at least the latter were skippable.

*a vague spoiler for Act 3:

Spoiler

The highlights of my playthroughs were that I was able to throw (the Thunder-something spell) one of the main antagonists into the chasm and surround the other with explosive barrels instead of talking to them. In most other RPGs, I would have had to listen to them monologuing because the devs wasted a lot of funds on the mocap and VA, so the players must see them. It is remarkable and admirable that Larian allowed to avoid it by using the gameplay systems, as well as there being a lot of unique optional content, such as the battle against the harpies (which I have never played) and Act 1 in general (it is possible to run straight to the exit and reach Act 2 in minutes).

Very specific spoilers for the optional content in Act 3:

Spoiler

Though it was harder to do with the undead dragon, who monologues and unavoidably initiates combat if you interact with the body, which you have to do for the quest.

Same for Raphael - he and his party appear only after the PC interacted with the portal in the middle of the arena, so without the meta-knowledge, the player's party is likely to start the battle surrounded. And Raphael also unavoidably talks after the above-mentioned interaction. It is possible to leave the party in the corridor and poke the portal with one character under the Greater Invisibility and very quickly skip through the dialogue (because the buff wears off in real time, because game design is hard).

The cut-scenes, story, and the other systems in this Larian's game do not mix well, but it is usually closer to funny, than irritating.

 

[Lexx]

Finished Blood West. For the most of it I really like it and how it plays, but as said before, I really wish there would be a little more complexity when it comes to ai and the level design. At the end of the day, it's "just" a shooter with some minor tactical elements in which you need to decide when to attack an enemy and when to lure them a little. There's weapons like the bow and knives, but as long as you have ammo for the rifles, there really is no need to use them at all.. especially the bow felt more like a liability to me, so why bother in late-game.

Shame there is no NG+ .. now I have all the best weapons, lots of ammo, found cool artifacts.. and the game ends. Being able to go back to chapter 1 with all that stuff would be nice. Add stronger enemies, maybe some new artifacts or bonus weapons, that would be super cool.

Bought the DLC now, will see how that goes, but I pretty much expect the same.

[Malcador]

Played The Forgotten City, neat little game. rather short - 5-6 hours or so.  Creative game, playing with the time looping was fun.  As a review I read said, it's not a great detective game as everything's pretty linear.  Got all the endings, the involved one where you debate an alien and convince him his experiment is pointless is the obvious one they want you to take as that one gives you a nice happy epilogue.

 

[LadyCrimson]

Manor Lords - they put out a new beta/experimental branch that added a mt. map, river map, other stuff, so I finally updated/looked at it. Didn't really play much, just looking at stuff.

---First, the food spoilage mechanic now has options. Off, 50%, Normal, Double rate. So, that takes care of that annoyance for me. Don't know when it was added.
---The river (one, snaking through whole map) - well it looks nice. They can split a region into pieces, making it more difficult re: layout plans. There are some default already-existing bridges for workers to use, and can build your own. Not sure it adds much.
---The "mountain" map is more of a "mountain valley" map. You have 4 regions in a narrow strip, one after another so you have to conquer them in a line order. Build areas have steeper hills/edges to annoy you, but you do not get to build/use major mountain terrain in any way, seems like, just used as a visual border. If you are "casual city builder" focused, this feels much more limited since less total regions and you always have to start from the same spot and can only move in one direction vs. more radially placed/multi-border touching regions. It is probably more of a combat/conquering challenge. If you look on YT, no one seems to be playing this map. River pretty beats all?

Edited December 27, 2024 by LadyCrimson

[Mamoulian War]

I think hit my skill wall in DS2. King’s Pets at Frigid Highlands, or whatever is the name of the frozen gauntlet, are currently eluding me. I had a lot of issues with Aava and now, there are two of them. Out of 20 or so atrempts, I have managed to make finishing blow on one of them only three times  And then I always made some stupid mistake…

Trying to find a weapon which hits harder and has fire infusion from the get go. I have three choices, but not sure which pick yet. Charred Loice Great Sword, Black Knight Great Sword or Black Knight Halberd. I have 40 STR and 30 DEX. 

[Malcador]

Dawn of War 3 finally.  It's 40k so there's that but, eh, just feels weird to play,  like they weren't sure what kind of game to make it.  Getting resources is pretty tedious, ended up going afk for 10 mins to get resources during an Eldar mission.  Storyline is ok, jumping around from each faction is a bit weird but that's new I suppose. 

[majestic]

19 hours ago, Mamoulian War said:

I think hit my skill wall in DS2. King’s Pets at Frigid Highlands, or whatever is the name of the frozen gauntlet, are currently eluding me. I had a lot of issues with Aava and now, there are two of them. Out of 20 or so atrempts, I have managed to make finishing blow on one of them only three times  And then I always made some stupid mistake…

Trying to find a weapon which hits harder and has fire infusion from the get go. I have three choices, but not sure which pick yet. Charred Loice Great Sword, Black Knight Great Sword or Black Knight Halberd. I have 40 STR and 30 DEX. 

It's probably not the playstyle you want (still melee though), but respec into a rapier build, the rapier's super fast attacks make playing turn based Dark Souls much easier. It's your turn more often, and they do really good damage due to their insane counter attack scaling.

Core outline is pretty simple:

105 AGL, (up to) 40 DEX, Stamina soft-cap at 20 END
Old Leo Ring, Ring of Blades
Rapier, Espada Ropera or Ice Rapier (2-handing rapiers is generally the better option)

The regular Rapier has the lowest stamina cost while the Espada Ropera has better DEX scaling and the highest durability. The Ice Rapier is special insofar as infusing it does not tank the weapon's physical damage too much. I would also recommend running the Ring of Stone outside of boss fights because that gives the rapier enough poise damage to stun lock most enemies, including phantoms, which leaves you with one free ring slot to play with in levels (like the Ring of Binding) and up to two for boss fights - you can use the best defensive options and stat boosts as you want.

The reason why this works so well is the scaling from counter attacks, which is, during boss fights, pretty much all the time. Rapiers have a 140 counter damage rating, the Old Leo Ring boosts that to 157.5, meaning as long as you attack during an enemy's attack or recovery animation, you deal ~60% more damage per hit. The Ring of Blades adds flat extra damage per attack, which is ideal for a weapon with quick attacks and a large percentage boost on many of these attacks.

Ricard's Rapier is an option too, but its lower base damage is only offset by the better DEX scaling once you reach 40 DEX and beyond, and it's heavy attack is a flurry that shreds weapon durability - and the damage difference is not that consequential even after it catches up with its scaling. For how much people seem to love this weapon, it's a bit of a paper tiger. The effects of seeing big numbers on your screen, I suppose, a well placed flurry attack can deal tremendous damage to a boss. Looks fantastic, but a regular rapier isn't far behind in the same time span and doesn't break from usage as quickly.

From there on out there are a couple of options:

1. You invest in your stats normally for a purely physical damage build. Nothing wrong with equipping decent armor, its not nearly as useless as people make it out to be, plus all that weight saved in heavy weaponry goes a long way in having heavier armor options poise and damage reduction. Rolling i-frames are the same, as long as you keep yourself from fat-rolling, you're good. It still affects the run speed and stamina recovery, so, uhm, just experiment. 
2. You go with ~14 VIT and Flynn's Ring - that locks you out of wearing anything but paper for armor but that extra damage is pretty good, because as long as you keep your maximum equipment load at somewhere around 60 it adds 50 damage per hit. On the bright side, you'll have a lot of points left over for VIG.
3. Dark infuse your rapier and invest into FTH and INT enough to make use of Dark Weapon or Resonant Weapon. The Ice Rapier is probably the best base for this. Resonant Weapon is 2 spell slots so you would need the two slots. Dark Souls 2 very graciously does not scale buff bonus damage from your caster stats, and the Dark infusion scaling on a non-dark base weapon isn't great, so just invest enough stats to cast your buff of choice. Again, this works because weapon buffs add flat damage to your fast attack weapon with a massive counter bonus.
4. Eh, technically there's nothing wrong with combining 2 and 3.

You'll be dealing greatsword damage per hit on bosses, with a very fast thrusting attack weapon. Besides, as is often the case, thrusting attacks are pretty good in these games in general. Weapon damage in this game would work much better if FromSoftware just added normalization based on weapon attack speed, but hey, it is what it is. With that build you deal a truckload of damage rather quickly and can still respond to enemies without being locked into massive weapon swings.

Edited December 30, 2024 by majestic

[Mamoulian War]

28 minutes ago, majestic said:

It's probably not the playstyle you want (still melee though), but respec into a rapier build, the rapier's super fast attacks make playing turn based Dark Souls much easier. It's your turn more often, and they do really good damage due to its insane counter attack scaling.

Core outline is pretty simple:

105 AGL, (up to) 40 DEX, Stamina soft-cap at 20 END
Old Leo Ring, Ring of Blades
Rapier, Espada Ropera or Ice Rapier (2-handing rapiers is generally the better option)

The regular Rapier has the lowest stamina cost while the Espada Ropera has better DEX scaling and the highest durability. The Ice Rapier is special insofar as infusing it does not tank the weapon's physical damage too much. I would also recommend running the Ring of Stone outside of boss fights because that gives the rapier enough poise damage to stun lock most enemies, including phantoms, which leaves you with one free ring slot to play with in levels (like the Ring of Binding) and up to two for boss fights - you can use the best defensive options and stat boosts as you want.

The reason why this works so well is the scaling from counter attacks, which is, during boss fights, pretty much all the time. Rapiers have a 140 counter damage rating, the Old Leo Ring boosts that to 157.5, meaning as long as you attack during an enemy's attack or recovery animation, you deal ~60% more damage per hit. The Ring of Blades adds flat extra damage per attack, which is ideal for a weapon with quick attacks and a large percentage boost on many of these attacks.

Ricard's Rapier is an option too, but its lower base damage is only offset by the better DEX scaling once you reach 40 DEX and beyond, and it's heavy attack is a flurry that shreds weapon durability - and the damage difference is not that consequential even after it catches up with its scaling. For how much people seem to love this weapon, it's a bit of a paper tiger. The effects of seeing big numbers on your screen, I suppose, a well placed flurry attack can deal tremendous damage to a boss. Looks fantastic, but a regular rapier isn't far behind in the same time span and doesn't break from usage as quickly.

From there on out there are a couple of options:

1. You invest in your stats normally for a purely physical damage build. Nothing wrong with equipping decent armor, its not nearly as useless as people make it out to be, plus all that weight saved in heavy weaponry goes a long way in having heavier armor options poise and damage reduction. Rolling i-frames are the same, as long as you keep yourself from fat-rolling, you're good. It still affects the run speed and stamina recovery, so, uhm, just experiment. 
2. You go with ~14 VIT and Flynn's Ring - that locks you out of wearing anything but paper for armor but that extra damage is pretty good, because as long as you keep your maximum equipment load at somewhere around 60 it adds 50 damage per hit. On the bright side, you'll have a lot of points left over for VIG.
3. Dark infuse your rapier and invest into FTH and INT enough to make use of Dark Weapon or Resonant Weapon. The Ice Rapier is probably the best base for this. Resonant Weapon is 2 spell slots so you would need the two slots. Dark Souls 2 very graciously does not scale buff bonus damage from your caster stats, and the Dark infusion scaling on a non-dark base weapon isn't great, so just invest enough stats to cast your buff of choice. Again, this works because weapon buffs add flat damage to your fast attack weapon with a massive counter bonus.
4. Eh, technically there's nothing wrong with combining 2 and 3.

You'll be dealing greatsword damage per hit on bosses, with a very fast thrusting attack weapon. Besides, as is often the case, thrusting attacks are pretty good in these games in general. Weapon damage in this game would work much better if FromSoftware just added normalization based on weapon attack speed, but hey, it is what it is. With that build you deal a truckload of damage rather quickly and can still respond to enemies without being locked into massive weapon swings.

Thanks a lot for a very detailed advice. Much appreciated. I have heard similar “rumors” about rapiers, and it looked to OP for me to enjoy the game in my playstyle, so I have chosen at the beginning the Lance/Spear combo (currently using Lightning Heide Lance with Sunlight Spear), with few exceptions where I am using Lightning Defenders Sword. If I will hit this wall for to long, I will definitelly do it, as you recommend, just to overcome this hell of a boss. And probably, I will still need this on Gank Squad as well. 
 

Yesterday, I have finaly got into last phase of the fight, when the second “cat” buffed itself with Berserk. Unfortunately, the RNG in this phase was completely against me. Not a single spell cast during it’s duration, to take a breath, so it ended up with me smashing Estus in a panic mode and subsequent one-hit defeat by the cat  

The best attempt so far was with the Fire Infused Black Knight Halberd. Had to use three Repair powders, but it worked. Especially, when I was able to land both hits of the two handed strong attack.

Speaking of Leo Ring. Does it work only on thrust weapons or on all weapons during the counter attack? Extra damage on the strong attack would be good. Currently I am experimenting with two options. Back to Lighning Heide Lance or keeping the BK Halberd. Rings should be Ring of Blades+2, Chloranty Ring+2, Ring of the Soldier+2, and Ring of Steel Protection+2. I was using for the fights the Lighning/Fire Cluth Rings from DLCs, but I have found out just yesterday, that they lower your defence by 80 points. So if Leo Ring would work on the BK Halberd as well, I might change the Protection Ring to it. For Heide Lance ot would definitely work, but the handling of lances seems to me a little bit more delicate, than the BKH. (BKH Strong Attack is slashing attack, which eats a lot of durability, but if I land both hits of a single button press, I deal 1400 damage with Fire Buff and Fire Cluth Ring).

[majestic]

17 minutes ago, Mamoulian War said:

Speaking of Leo Ring. Does it work only on thrust weapons or on all weapons during the counter attack?

It doesn't work based off of weapon classifications but on a per attack basis, i.e. it works for all thrust attacks whenever counter damage is applied. The boost is limited to whatever FromSoftware designated as thrust attack on your Black Knight Halberd. The Heide Lance on the other hand would gain a pretty substantial boost on counters, what with its base scaling being 1.6 already.

The Fire Clutch ring gives you something like +30 fire AR with your Black Knight Halberd, in exchange for lowering your defenses. Not sure the tradeoff is worth it with a halberd, especially when you're already having trouble surviving.

28 minutes ago, Mamoulian War said:

I will still need this on Gank Squad as well.

Speaking of the gank squad, well, I actually used heavy weapons in hit-and-run attacks against the archer. Probably best to cheese them though, there are some stalagmites you can hide behind where they cannot attack you, but you can attack them. They were never designed to be fought solo anyway, so who gives a damn.

 

[Mamoulian War]

4 hours ago, majestic said:

It doesn't work based off of weapon classifications but on a per attack basis, i.e. it works for all thrust attacks whenever counter damage is applied. The boost is limited to whatever FromSoftware designated as thrust attack on your Black Knight Halberd. The Heide Lance on the other hand would gain a pretty substantial boost on counters, what with its base scaling being 1.6 already.

The Fire Clutch ring gives you something like +30 fire AR with your Black Knight Halberd, in exchange for lowering your defenses. Not sure the tradeoff is worth it with a halberd, especially when you're already having trouble surviving.

Speaking of the gank squad, well, I actually used heavy weapons in hit-and-run attacks against the archer. Probably best to cheese them though, there are some stalagmites you can hide behind where they cannot attack you, but you can attack them. They were never designed to be fought solo anyway, so who gives a damn.

 

I am close to giving up. Spent two more hours at the cats. The Heide Lance with Sunlight Blade and Oath something buff and Leo Ring is doing 800+ damage on a single hit. Despite that, it is not enough for me to finish off the first cat, before the second obliterates me. And If I am able to finish it off, I get the worst of RNG again, and the second cat finishes me off with first few hits…

sighs

I will probably try your Rapier Advice tomorrow as I do not see myself being able to win this fight in non-cheesy way

For today, I just have enough of bad luck.

[majestic]

There's always the option of just not doing any of the DLCs. There's nothing in there that forces you to do them im NG+ or higher (the platinum sure doesn't, unless it's different from the PC version's achievements).

[mkreku]

So.. I bought a game from my wishlist this Christmas break, Drova - Forsaken Kin, and installed it yesterday when I got back from my mother's place. Thought I'd "try it out". 19,7 hours later (IN ONE SITTING) I have to say: it is Gothic 2D! Absolutely love it so far. Long time since I felt this much joy from a game. Dark, difficult and dangerous, with absolutely no hand-holding, just as I like it.

[Mamoulian War]

20 hours ago, majestic said:

There's always the option of just not doing any of the DLCs. There's nothing in there that forces you to do them im NG+ or higher (the platinum sure doesn't, unless it's different from the PC version's achievements).

Lud and Zallen have been defeated. The 2H Dark Infused Rapier with Leo Ring, Ring of Blades+2, Ring of Steel Protection+2, Soldier's Ring+2, Havel's Chest+5 and Feet+5, Sanctum Knight Helm+5, Black Witch Staff, Rose Shield and Dark Weapon Buff with Sacred Oath Buff (which probably did not work due to the Shield Buff ) (This made exactly 49.9% encumbrance) did the magic trick. Had to use 1 Repair Powder in the final fight, but the damage was insane. Only R2 two handed attack with BKH has matched out the damage output of this combo, but it was less likely to hit and eat much more stamina. Which in the end was my end. With this combo, I was able to defeat the first Cat almost on every try, so I had much more attempts with second Cat today, which helped me to defeat him.

Thanks again for your advice, without it, I would probably still be bitching about this encounter

(more than 5 hours of attempts and another 5 more of farming stuff in 4 days, to be able to get the winning gear for this encounter). For my old hands and reflexes, it was definitely the hardest solo boss fight in Dark Souls 2. We'll see about the Gank Squad

[Mamoulian War]

List of my gaming goals achieved in 2024

11 games – 2 GOG games and 9 PS4 games
(I was hoping the Dark Souls 2 Platinum will be there as well, but Lud and Zallen decided otherwise )

 

1 - January 29, 23:00 – My first finished game of 2024 has become Dark Souls: Remastered on PS4. I have reached the Dark Lord ending after almost 80 hours and 292 deaths, which I have accumulated, while trying to get every item in game, and fulfill all prerequisites for Platinum Trophy. And due to the personal challenge, I have also cleared the all DLC areas and bosses, which are not needed for it. At the end I had to finish Gwyn, Lord of Cinder in 1 on 1 fight, as I have failed Solaire's quest due to visit of Lost Izalith sooner, than required. This is the first time, that I have finished Soulsborne game with melee character build. The side-effect was, that I have died much less to trash mobs, but most of the boss fights were much more challenging.

2 - February 25, 21:30 – New Game + of Dark Souls: Remastered on PS4 has been completed :). The second ending was of course To Link the Fire, which gave me another trophy in my Platinum run. During this run, the goal was all miracles trophy, and all missing weapon ascension trophies, with the exception of Knight's one, for which I need to defeat Sif one more time, and then run all the way to Anor Londo blacksmith. During NG+, I have found out, that this game started to feel much easier with melee character than with the sorcerer one. The only exception was Kalameet, which was destroying me for almost 3 hours and almost always around 10-20% HP mark. I am just happy, that I have learned how to control my rage, as few years ago, I would be most likely in need of a new controller .

3 - February 28, 21:15 – I have completed very fast run for the last Trophy in New Game +2 of Dark Souls: Remastered on my PS4. Approximately three hours to clear my way to both Bells of Awakening, defeat Sif and another run to Anor Londo blacksmith. There I have ascended last two boss weapons from Sif’s and Gwyn’s souls, and with that, I have unlocked the Knight’s Honor and The Dark Soul Platinum Trophy.

4 - March 23, 16:00 – I met the criteria for the first ending in my first GOG playthrough of Encased: A Sci-Fi Post-Apocalyptic RPG. I had a “genius” idea of trying out a comfy coffin on display at Concord Station Terminal. I have to say, it was really comfortable and I have enjoyed the quietness inside. Unfortunately, it was completely soundproof, so soon, I was transported to local crematorium, but at least, I got an achievement for it .

5 - March 23, 23:45 – It did not took long, and I had a chance to see the second “ending” in Encased: A Sci-Fi Post-Apocalyptic RPG from GOG. It was much easier to spot than the first one, so the only reason, why I have went for it, was my curiosity, if there will be achievement for this demise as well. And there was . I have exploded in the elevator, while trying to get out of the Dome .

6 - August 29, 19:00 – I have finished my first Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin playthrough on my PS4. This time, including all DLCs. In contrast to vanilla version of the game, you need also to clear the DLCs, to fulfill all criteria for Platinum Trophy. Unfortunately I have messed up the ending, as I have forgotten, that I need to defeat Vendrick before defeating Nashandra, and I have forgotten to backup my save . It took me almost 100 hours and 294 deaths. Almost the same as Dark Souls Remastered . The DLCs have been as much challenging, as I have anticipated, with few terrible areas like Iron Passage, which won my personal Worst Area Design Contest in all of the games, I have ever finished .

7 - September 28, 22:30 – I took a small break from DS2:SotFS NG+ and played through the original story of Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate on PS4. This unlocked Frost and two arenas. It took me about 4 and half hours and if I remember it correctly, I enjoyed the Story Mode more than in Mortal Kombat X and 2011. I will need to replay three chapters where you had to pick the fighter, and the last fight to see all the content and finish it on 100%.

8 - October 1, 19:15 – After I spent way to much time fighting in Towers of Time to unlock Klassic MKII Skarlet skin, I have took today a more chilling approach to my PS4 version of Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate and replayed last three chapters needed for completing the Story Mode on 100%.

9 - October 5, 15:30 – I have decided to relax a little bit with Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate on my PS4 again, and started the Aftermath story added to the game as a DLC. It started immediately after the events of the original story and brought back to life few old characters. It was 2 hours shorter than the original story and this time, you are also playing as members of the evil entourage. At the grand finale I have picked Liu Kang’s ending.

10 - October 26, 11:45 – More of Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate on my PS4. I have decided to finally finish the last missing branch to get 100% in the Aftermath story mode and finished the story as evil Shang Tsung.

11 - December 3, 11:45 – And again more of Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate on PS4. Today, I have finished all of the Klassic Towers for canon and non-canon endings of every playable character.

[ShadySands]

On 12/29/2024 at 9:20 PM, Malcador said:

Dawn of War 3 finally.  It's 40k so there's that but, eh, just feels weird to play,  like they weren't sure what kind of game to make it.  Getting resources is pretty tedious, ended up going afk for 10 mins to get resources during an Eldar mission.  Storyline is ok, jumping around from each faction is a bit weird but that's new I suppose. 

I hated all those changes. Especially the faction jumping.

Edited Friday at 08:04 PM by ShadySands

[Wormerine]

Back from holidays. Cleaned my PC, did fresh install of Windows, just to clean things up a bit, and bought some more RAM on discount bringing it up to total of 32GB. Time to get back to work:

Street Fighter6 - still, playing, still getting better. Still not in Masters.

Monster Hunter: World - I have been drifting away from this game. I enjoyed low rank a lot, but now as I am slogging through high rank the grind has been settling in. There are new monsters, yes, but to face some of them I need better gear which means fighting same monsters as before to re-craft same armours, but with higher stats, and also it feels it take far more kills/captures than before to craft said armours. I don’t feel like difficulty added much, beyond a more chaotic battlefield - it just feels like repeat of low rank, and I am just not into it. Still, doing a hunt or two every couple days, but the progress been slow.

4th Deadfire playthrough (this time principi) in preparation for Avowed. Some mods, including xp gain rebalance. Still, liking it a lot, perhaps even more so after taking a lengthy break. Relative lack of interactivity was noticeable after years of playing BG3, but I love the look of the game, and how smooth it plays.

[Hurlshort]

Stoneshard - The new update is delightful. My shieldmaiden is level 5 and has only died tragically a few times. I love the ambience of this game. The world has really grown over the last 5 years that I've been following it. I'd say the game is pretty much content ready.

[melkathi]

I am bored, so I tried out different Alternate Start mods for Skyrim.

They make the game so much better by cutting out that long intro.

Mind, after a moment you are back in the game, so it gets boring again. But with the game's level scaling it can be interesting to see different regions as starting locations.

One character's story started when they put on a ring and suddenly woke up from a haze and realized they were a necromancer's thrall - you start in a small cave, with a necromancer doing stuff over their alchemy station. You are wearing a ring of nullification that raises your magic resistance. Suddenly the first big town I went to was Riften, not Whiterun.

Another character started in the underground Falmer city as a slave. Once the overseer relaxed, I could simply make a run for it. (apparently the mod is made as a death alternative, so you are high level and lead a slave revolt, but who has the patience to level up).

 

[MrBrown]

4 hours ago, melkathi said:

I am bored, so I tried out different Alternate Start mods for Skyrim.

They make the game so much better by cutting out that long intro.

I'd say Skyrim's intro is pretty short overall, you can just let the starting cinematic run while you go to the toilet or something, and you can just run through the town during the dragon attack.

But, I do think alternate starts would really fit open world games. But studios seem to insist on having really linear main quests. I guess it's about pleasing all crowds.

[melkathi]

The Skyrim Alternate Start - Live Another Life mod ( @BruceVC do you use it?) is nice because it adds a rumour about Helgen into the list of rumours you hear from innkeepers. So when you get to Helgen, you arrive just after the dragon attack and see it flying away. You can find the two faction npcs dying in the cave and have enough time to heal one with a potion (if you want). That way you again are the person who informs the jarl of what happened and can trigger the main quest if you want.

 

And the starts really are simple (unless you play something hooked into this mod from another mod like Death Alternative - Captured) so wouldn't really be all that hard for the devs to do. It actually could be less work than the one start they have.

Edited 14 hours ago by melkathi