What are you Playing?

[The Franky Tank]

@lr-hr-rh:

Yeah the joy of discovering the big new areas is one of the things I miss the most about my first experience with the game. In fact whenever I get the itch to replay BOTW it almost always comes with the urge to revisit the giant canyon in Tabantha where the Forgotten temple and the random windmills are. :blink: I can never actually justify bothering though as there's nothing more of interest to discover or learn or experience there outside of the nice visuals and atmosphere. Regarding the food and armour upgrades i'd say it's a good thing (just speaking from experience) that you didn't bother with them much. As I learned from this video Foolio and Noqanky directed me to the armour stats basically work as flat constants so if you upgrade your armour too much you can essentially end up negating all damage from most any enemy, which tends to result in a fairly boring game :/. I do feel bad criticising Nintendo for BOTW a bit though, they obviously put loads into their open world Zelda, and it does feel kind of ungrateful to ask for more. At the end of the day I did get two pretty fun playthroughts out of it, maybe that's enough :P

So armor really can break the game. I wonder if that's why they become such a pain to upgrade after the first time, so it perhaps stops lots of people from doing that. Either that, or it was harder for me since I generally skipped out on large sections where I could collect lots of stuff, so I never had many ingredients or parts for upgrades.

Since you are giving constructive criticism, nothing to feel bad about with that. You have fond memories and enjoyed the initial experience, and just wish that the next time they do an open world game, they can improve on certain points. They have a solid base with this game, so if they can change some things and build on what they did, it can get even better. Once I finish this play through, I will most likely have a hard time getting into it again, since by then I will have tired out on the open world aspect, and unless this play through changed my opinion somehow, the story bits won't entice me to play it again.

[lr-hr-rh]

@The:

So armor really can break the game. I wonder if that's why they become such a pain to upgrade after the first time, so it perhaps stops lots of people from doing that. Either that, or it was harder for me since I generally skipped out on large sections where I could collect lots of stuff, so I never had many ingredients or parts for upgrades.

Since you are giving constructive criticism, nothing to feel bad about with that. You have fond memories and enjoyed the initial experience, and just wish that the next time they do an open world game, they can improve on certain points. They have a solid base with this game, so if they can change some things and build on what they did, it can get even better. Once I finish this play through, I will most likely have a hard time getting into it again, since by then I will have tired out on the open world aspect, and unless this play through changed my opinion somehow, the story bits won't entice me to play it again.

Hmm you might be right about the balancing factor of the armour upgrades being the exorbitant cost (I think you need 10,000 rupees to unlock the last great fairy) but I've gotta figure just getting rid of the flat constant deduction to damage would've been an easier way to go about it :P. If memory serves I think (and I'm really hazy on this part) some of the armour sets only unlocked particular effects when all the pieces were at a certain level? I vaguely remember the rubber armour giving you immunity to lightning damage once you'd upgraded them to 2nd or 3rd level and the Sheikah set giving you increased stealth at night once you'd upgraded it past a certain point, but I'm really not sure on that hahaha.

Anyway yeah I really do like the base of this game (although the lazy exporting of puzzles to generic shrines and the baby's day out simplicity and generic, uninspired interior design of the "dungeons" can fuck right off). My main concern is that I don't think Nintendo have re-used the same engine for a 3D game since OoT and MM? I'm reeeaally iffy on that though, as I don't know enough about engines or what have you to know if, for example, the same one was used for TP and WW just with very different assets. But if they don't make actually make a habit of re-using engines I worry we're not going to see another Zelda game for another 5+ years that will be, like BOTW, apparently groundbreaking in some ways and very deficient in others. And since the fans seem to love BOTW despite it moving so far away from so many of the Zelda staples (a plot with progression, actual stakes and that results in changes to the world as it develops, actually difficult and unique dungeons, items that expand your puzzle solving repertoire and so on) I figure the deficiencies will probably be in the parts I love about the older games. But that's just a part of growing older I guess :P

[Noqanky]

@lr-hr-rh:

Anyway yeah I really do like the base of this game (although the lazy exporting of puzzles to generic shrines and the baby's day out simplicity and generic, uninspired interior design of the "dungeons" can fuck right off). My main concern is that I don't think Nintendo have re-used the same engine for a 3D game since OoT and MM? I'm reeeaally iffy on that though, as I don't know enough about engines or what have you to know if, for example, the same one was used for TP and WW just with very different assets. But if they don't make actually make a habit of re-using engines I worry we're not going to see another Zelda game for another 5+ years that will be, like BOTW, apparently groundbreaking in some ways and very deficient in others. And since the fans seem to love BOTW despite it moving so far away from so many of the Zelda staples (a plot with progression, actual stakes and that results in changes to the world as it develops, actually difficult and unique dungeons, items that expand your puzzle solving repertoire and so on) I figure the deficiencies will probably be in the parts I love about the older games. But that's just a part of growing older I guess :P

We were talking about this with foo the other night while watching the speedrun of this game, and I actually do think it's extremely likely that Nintendo would reuse the same engine in this instance.

For one, it's clear to everyone that they took significantly more time on this Zelda that they expected to given how it was announced early in the Wii U life cycle and only came out at the end of it and got ported to a different console. With this alone I think it's worth their time to reuse the same engine in order to create another Zelda that's actually made for the Switch, as opposed to just being a Wii U port. Then you consider things like how popular the physics and chemistry engine of the game turned out to be and how much appreciation there is for this current Zelda, and it's easy to justify reusing as much as possible to economize time.

Then the other thing to think about is the fact that for this one there's DLC. The one for the champions is most likely already completed on the design and dev end of things, so it's not unlike Nintendo to already have someone somewhere already starting work on designing the next Zelda, unless of course they decide to instead continue focusing on more DLC for BotW beyond what we know.
So my guess is that if we don't hear about more BotW DLC sometime in the first half of 2018, chances are they started work on a BotW sequel or prequel or alternate. And if they do I'd be ready to bet it has a very similar map with one or more of the following mechanics as a way to expand on this Hyrule: flight, caves/underground, alternate version of the world with minor tweaks (see: dark world). If we're lucky we also get actual dungeons, actual items (grappling hook?), and an actual story.

[TLC]

….I just beat NG+ Laurence. Took me five fucking days but I did it. The first time I beat him base game was with Valtr summon and lucking out. Now I beat him by getting good and learning his patterns when he had way more health. I feel so satisfied.

[lr-hr-rh]

@Noqanky:

We were talking about this with foo the other night while watching the speedrun of this game, and I actually do think it's extremely likely that Nintendo would reuse the same engine in this instance.

For one, it's clear to everyone that they took significantly more time on this Zelda that they expected to given how it was announced early in the Wii U life cycle and only came out at the end of it and got ported to a different console. With this alone I think it's worth their time to reuse the same engine in order to create another Zelda that's actually made for the Switch, as opposed to just being a Wii U port. Then you consider things like how popular the physics and chemistry engine of the game turned out to be and how much appreciation there is for this current Zelda, and it's easy to justify reusing as much as possible to economize time.

Then the other thing to think about is the fact that for this one there's DLC. The one for the champions is most likely already completed on the design and dev end of things, so it's not unlike Nintendo to already have someone somewhere already starting work on designing the next Zelda, unless of course they decide to instead continue focusing on more DLC for BotW beyond what we know.
So my guess is that if we don't hear about more BotW DLC sometime in the first half of 2018, chances are they started work on a BotW sequel or prequel or alternate. And if they do I'd be ready to bet it has a very similar map with one or more of the following mechanics as a way to expand on this Hyrule: flight, caves/underground, alternate version of the world with minor tweaks (see: dark world). If we're lucky we also get actual dungeons, actual items (grappling hook?), and an actual story.

That's an interesting perspective. I'm far from what anyone would call well informed on the finer details of the process of game design and development, so I appreciate the info and the more informed PoV :)

I didn't actually pay much attention to the season pass for BOTW when it was announced so I don't actually remember if they had from the start indicated there would be two major DLC packs or if they just announced the first and then in the trailer for pack 1 announced that there would be a pack 2 where we get to…idk, follow Zelda on her mopey journey around the triforce shrines or something. Have they explicitly confirmed that this second pack will be more story focussed or is that just a running fan theory/expectation I've mistaken for actual fact? Because if it is supposed to be the more story focussed of the two I'm very interested to see how it plays out as a potential reflection of what the current Zelda team thinks of how explicitly story sections of a game should be played out. It could be an interesting indicator of how any future story elements are incorporated into a new Zelda game that immediately (relatively) follows BOTW. I don't mean that to say I expect the DLC to have a complete story in the traditional Zelda sense, but I'd have more hope if they structured it in a way that indicates they still have some grasp of either; the relationship between the tone of the story and the nature and design of the game world, or of the idea of invoking feelings of tension or success in players via the evolution of the game world as a consequence of story progression. Or it could be that it ends up a series of a drawn out and not particularly visually interesting, badly acted cut scenes strung together by tightly structured gameplay setpieces where you off varied batches of mooks on your way to the inevitable ending of Link getting offed by a bunch of Guardians. There's probably not much use speculating on any of that with so little information though.

[The Franky Tank]

So finished my second play through, and my opinions are pretty much the same. Exploring the over world and just messing around is fun and the main appeal of this game. Only thing I will add that I don't remember being said before is map size could probably be cut down a good bit. After a certain point, trying to get to areas you haven't been becomes a pain with how large the world is, and by cutting down the size it won't take as long, and would make the game feel a little more dense in a way. Since they had a number of Easter Eggs in locations and names, another thing they could've done is throw in items from other games that were hard to find or rewards for certain quests. Imagine getting the Baton from Wind Waker to change wind direction, or having something to allow storms to start, or better yet go away so it didn't mess you up in a critical moment, like needing to carry a flame long distance.

Wasn't a fan of the actual dungeons or bosses the first time around, and now not having the magic of experiencing them for the first time, the faults stand out even more. The aesthetic is boring and over all they are simple. I would complain how if you have Rivali's Gale, it pretty much breaks the rest of the dungeons, but it allowed me to get through those quickly. As for the bosses.

! Don't care for the blight Ganon designs, and there's no really unique things for the battles. In all the other 3D Zelda's there was the fun of using specific items in interesting ways, but this just felt tedious and monotonous. Ganon was even less interesting the second time around, and really lacked the feel I had for final bosses in other Zelda games

So in the end, had fun with the base game, but lots to improve on for an open world Zelda to be as fun and interesting as the other 3D Zelda's. Really felt like it was more quantity over quality in this case.

[MDL]

Started playing some mini golf with Skype friends.
Very addicting, playing with others certainly helps keep the interest and fun.
Hoping for more courses though, good thing the full release isn't out yet.

[lr-hr-rh]

Slowly replaying Persona 5 atm and maaaan. I've been exposed to way too much Ryuji-apologism lately and somehow completely forgot how much of a fucking ass he can be.
I mean Jesus fucking Christ Ryuji she's a depressed, borderline suicidal teenager working through the psychological trauma of being blamed for her mother's suicide. A suicide that happened right in fucking front of her. Maybe just chill the fuck out, calm the fuck down and shut the fuck up >.<

[darktravis]

Playing Mario + Rabbids now and it's quite fun. It has that certain addictive quality that makes you say, "just one more battle and I'll stop for tonight" over and over.

Dammit Switch, I've got a backlog you know. Stop giving me fun games to play.

Switch: After this we've got Mario Odyssey and then Xenoblade 2 before the year is done.

Me: Fuck yooooooou!!

[RoboBlue]

@darktravis:

Dammit Switch, I've got a backlog you know. Stop giving me fun games to play.

Steamworld Dig 2. It's kind of like Breath of the Wild in Metroidvania form.

[jmbjr]

I finally got around to trying out Dark Souls (the first one) recently, and so far I'm really enjoying it. I do think the game could communicate some of its core mechanics better; I had to look up what the hell kindling did and what humanity meant, and in the process I was shocked to see that you could both sprint and jump in the game, despite the game not mentioning that anywhere as far as I could tell. Once I got past that, though, I really started to get the appeal of the game, and I'm kind of hooked now. My main complaint is that going through some of the areas after dying over and over starts to get really tedious instead of challenging after a while; I get that it's part of the consequences for dying, but it can get kind of irritating doing the same thing so many times just to die before the next bonfire. Still, I'm otherwise having a good time.

Other than that, I'm honestly still playing Zelda BotW, with a number of hours into my second playthrough now. I don't know what it is, but I'm still not bored of the game despite pretty much exploring everything and doing all of the quests. At least to me, this world is just fun to be in and to traverse. Even when I know what I'm going to find while going somewhere, getting there is still fun somehow. I get that people reach a point where the game loses its magic (I've definitely felt that in other open world games, especially Skyrim), but I still keep finding myself wanting to go back to it, and I always enjoy myself when I do. The game's not perfect, but if anything that just has me excited for what Nintendo does with the next one since I've loved BotW so much.

I'm hoping to try Mario+Rabbids soon. I'm not normally interested in strategy games, but this one seems really fun from what I've seen. Otherwise, I'm mostly just waiting for Mario Odyssey and Xenoblade 2.

[Green_vs_Red]

@lr-hr-rh:

Slowly replaying Persona 5 atm and maaaan. I've been exposed to way too much Ryuji-apologism lately and somehow completely forgot how much of a fucking ass he can be.
I mean Jesus fucking Christ Ryuji she's a depressed, borderline suicidal teenager working through the psychological trauma of being blamed for her mother's suicide. A suicide that happened right in fucking front of her. Maybe just chill the fuck out, calm the fuck down and shut the fuck up >.<

I didn't know there were a lot of Ryuji apologists though to be fair some of the stuff that Futaba and her Shadow do in that chapter is little better.

On topic

Playing through R&C Tools Of Destruction after initially hesistating buying it due to.already having played the PS4 movie game and also having jumped into Crack In Time before that. And yeah you can tell this is an old game with some weird mechanics (fixed camera.angles, no way to.use an alt button to.fire weapons outside of fixed aim, subtitles with backgrounds during gameplay). But other than that it's pretty much old school R&C.

[lr-hr-rh]

I spend too much time on the Persona 5 subreddit lurking for obscure art. And in a vacuum sure, but I'd say the context of why her shadow behaves that way makes it a less straightforward comparison for me. Raging at a suicidal person because their trauma and mental health problems aren't making life convenient for you isn't particularly endearing to me. But to each their own.

[lr-hr-rh]

Took a day off and decided to do some sampling of some older JRPG games on a whim to find something new to potentially play.

Tried Disgaea Afternoon of Darkness and liked it well enough. I like the character designs and the style of humour, but from what little I played (only up to about halfway or so through the first chapter) it looks like the game is designed to go for long stretches of gameplay (i.e. 5+ maps or what have you) between the parts where the characters talk at you. And since I prefer the parts where the characters talk at you, at least in this type of game, I figured it's not really for me.

Gave Trails in the Sky a try next and couldn't even get to the part where it introduces the combat mechanics. The genericness and aimlessness of the opening overwhelmed me. Apparently the plot really starts to grab you about halfway through the game but I don't have the patience to sit through half a game before the writer discovers what a plot hook is. So hard pass there.

Gave FF:T Advance another try and played through till about the end of the opening. I enjoyed it well enough until I was reminded of the story bits I'd been spoiled on that led me to drop it the first time…and then promptly dropped it a second time.

Then came Radiant Historia which I actually really enjoyed. The combat system seems fun (I only played until the end of the tutorial where you're given control of the White Chronicle) and I appreciate that the writers knew to give me some good early answers to the question of why I might want to continue playing through their game =P.

Not sure whether to stick with Radiant Historia at this point or give FF6 and/or Tactics Ogre a try.

[RoboBlue]

I'm nearing 100% in Steamworld Dig 2 and fighting off the Rockets in Goldenrod (Pokemon Silver).

[The Franky Tank]

@lr-hr-rh:

Took a day off and decided to do some sampling of some older JRPG games on a whim to find something new to potentially play.

Tried Disgaea Afternoon of Darkness and liked it well enough. I like the character designs and the style of humour, but from what little I played (only up to about halfway or so through the first chapter) it looks like the game is designed to go for long stretches of gameplay (i.e. 5+ maps or what have you) between the parts where the characters talk at you. And since I prefer the parts where the characters talk at you, at least in this type of game, I figured it's not really for me.

Gave Trails in the Sky a try next and couldn't even get to the part where it introduces the combat mechanics. The genericness and aimlessness of the opening overwhelmed me. Apparently the plot really starts to grab you about halfway through the game but I don't have the patience to sit through half a game before the writer discovers what a plot hook is. So hard pass there.

Gave FF:T Advance another try and played through till about the end of the opening. I enjoyed it well enough until I was reminded of the story bits I'd been spoiled on that led me to drop it the first time…and then promptly dropped it a second time.

Then came Radiant Historia which I actually really enjoyed. The combat system seems fun (I only played until the end of the tutorial where you're given control of the White Chronicle) and I appreciate that the writers knew to give me some good early answers to the question of why I might want to continue playing through their game =P.

Not sure whether to stick with Radiant Historia at this point or give FF6 and/or Tactics Ogre a try.

Interested to know what you mean by genericness. These games are really good, but if it doesn't hook you right away, it's a hard game to go through. The game is a slow boil, and I'd argue it's more than halfway where the actual plot begins to show itself. At least for me and others I know, it was the characters that grabbed them early on, and the world building for the first game in the a large series of games. In the end, the slow pace is what really determines how people get into this game.

[lr-hr-rh]

Hmmm. Well genericness in that regard is kind of hard to explain. I used the word as the most convenient shorthand to convey the approximate feelings that the opening induced but on its own it's not the best explainer. I mean part of the reason I got so bored so quickly was the characters I was introduced to: the doting, fairly carefree father, the tomboy-ish, scatterbrained anime-aggressive daughter and the more fastidious, capable and focussed son (and more specifically the combination of the airhead and the straight man). The generic setting of a western style town/village in some fairly generic western woods, the long-winded opening that set up a fairly standard "family takes in orphan after some troubling circumstance", the fairly blunt characterisation by exposition ("I hope you pass your exams airhead-chan", "I really like that ambiguous harmonica song you play mysterious-kun"), the "joining the guild" opening plot hook, etc. didn't really help either. But of course Radiant Historia ticks at least a few of those same boxes. So I guess what I meant by being overwhelmed by genericness is that without any sort of plot hook I immediately ran aground on the question of why I (the player) was bothering to do anything. I was presented, as I was with a few of the other games I mentioned trying, with a fairly generic and straightforward western-style fantasy village generic opening with generic anime characters, but I wasn't given any reason why I would expect that to change so all of the impetus to progress with the game was internal to myself. The game's opening doesn't hint at anything novel beneath the surface, the way Radiant Historia does with its immediate plot hook of a dying world and a war. Thinking through my reaction to this opening more generally I came to the conclusion that the only other game that I could recall opening in this way, without any immediate motivator apparent, was Chrono Trigger. And incidentally I hated the opening of Chrono Trigger =P. But with Chrono Trigger, people are quick to point out that you get a fairly quick jumpstart to your motivation with the reveal of time travel during the festival. Looking for something similar from fans of Trails in the Sky I mostly got the same thing you've said there, that the plot takes a fairly long time to get going and that the focus is mostly on world building. Which is fine. All of what I've described is fine, and it would be strange to argue otherwise given you and many others like the game. It's just not really a style of delivery that fits well with me.

In fact, absent the point about the genericness of the setting and opening, I had a similar problem with Disgaea. The game didn't give me enough motivation or background to push me through the fairly generic and spatially disconnected battles of the early game. It's like: "Oh Laharl's been awakened in this fairly humorous way and Etna's here and seems cool and devious. Now he's got to become Overlord…somehow. Now there's a generic tutorial completely divorced from any sense of the developing story. Now there's some generic demon guy and we need to raid his generic demon mansion which is off somewhere distant to the fairly generic demon mansion I'm currently in."

:/

[The Franky Tank]

I get a better idea what you mean, though seems like I had the opposite reaction to it. If it doesn't click with you, I suppose it can come across as generic in a number of ways. As for me, Estelle made a great impression on me in the introduction, and over the course of her story, she became my favorite video game character. But yeah, as you said, it comes down to personal preference, and as much as I want people to love the game like I do, that won't be the case with everyone.

Been a while since I played it, but I remember enjoying Radiant Historia quite a bit. Need to get around to playing it at some point, but there was one thing that in the end, I didn't quite enjoy about the game. I won't say anything about what so you can go through the experience spoiler free. It does well getting you hooked early on, with the intro being paced pretty well from what I recall.

[lr-hr-rh]

Yeah I figure that a lot of people seem to really enjoy it means its probably doing a lot of things right. We all have our own ways we prefer our art and entertainment to grab us after all :)

Regarding Radiant Historia yeah I'm a little leery about it. Time travel seems an easy thing to stuff up in the wrong writer's hands so I'm approaching it fairly tentatively at this point.

[Foolio]

Not that I really have time for it anyway, but I have considered buying the Trails in the Sky games so many times based on recommendations from people here as well as others. But this weird thing happens where every time I actually try to look up gameplay examples or even screenshots, I get this overwhelming feeling of lack of inspiration/uniqueness. It looks like something someone made in RPG Maker. And for some reason that has stopped me from considering it further every time, coupled with the knowledge that the game are lengthy and slow-paced.

[lr-hr-rh]

Oh man, I can't believe I completely forgot to comment on the art direction. I had a similar response to you when I first watched some of the trailers for the game before deciding to play it. Seriously, the best way I can describe the game, relative to my own preferences etc., is that I've never come across another game that seemed to do such a bad job at selling itself. The best thing about the game, apparently, and the main focus of the writing team is the world building but there's nothing at all in the opening that suggests that is going to be the focus and the highlight. Instead the devs decided to frontload the uninspired dialogue, art direction, character design and their fairly functional approach to story telling. No denying it's probably a great game but man do they do a good job at trying to hide it.

[Ekila]

I have been playing Persona 4 recently. (Started on Sunday) So far, I am enjoying the game and the story! Plus, the music is really nice too! ^^

[Nobodyman]

Still chugging away through Suikoden III, but I've also been playing Samus Returns, which is a ton of fun.

[sgamer82]

While WoW remains my mainstay, I've been playing more Overwatch the last few weeks and gotten pretty decent at it. Most recently did Mystery Heroes (characters chosen for you at random) and only died once. Both characters I got were also ones I've gotten good with (Winston the gorilla and Zenyatta the robotic monk) and even scored a Play of the Game when, as Winston, I used his Ultimate (melee attacks have knockback) to punch the enemy healer off a cliff.

I've also been trying Wild Star, for a change in MMO pace, but still early in that one. I do like how it doesn't take itself too seriously though. For instance, the game responds to your gaining levels with likes akin to "Hell Yeah, you leveled up!"

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

[Noqanky]

Been doing a co-op cuphead run with foo on stream and it's been super fun. Definitely stands out for me as one of the best experiences of the year, more than anything because it provides the same sense of fun I recall having as a kid when playing things like co-op Contra.

I also just do not get tired of the art style. It's constantly outstanding and enjoyable.

[Gaiyae]

Got some more time recently to finish up some games.

Completed Castlevania - Lament of Innocence (ps2) - All items etc.
Platforming isn't that good. Crappy ps2 camera. Decent combat. Amazing soundtrack, some great tunes in there.

Completed Horizon - Zero Dawn (Platinum)
Absolutely loved the combat in this one. Looks absolutely stunning, and i don't care for graphics normally.
Storywise, heavy intrigued by the Lore. Can't wait to play the DLC and discover more about this world.
Guerilla created a great base here. Hope they expand upon this by adding more weapons, improved melee and more rideable mounts. (Glinthawk please)

Completed Zelda - BotW (All Memories, Armors, Upgrades, build a certain village etc.)
I have stranged mixed feeling about this. It sure had it's amazing moments ..but it didn't blow me away like i'd expected.
Loved climbing everything. Alot of great places to explore. So many way to interact with the world.
But my main problem lies with the way this game rewards my explorations.
Everything weapon you find seems less special because of the durability system. It seems pointless in way.
Korok seeds become useless after a while, so don't they don't serve any real purpose anymore.
The only thing left is the extra heart/stamina containers.
I just wish there were more things to find. Like a cool gadget/Magic Spell/Ocarina Song or something, Like in the past Zelda games.
Speaking of which, where did the awesome classic dungeons go?
And what happened to the amazing Soundtrack those games used to have.
Maybe my expectations were just to hight, with all the "Best Game of all Time" reactions i read on the internet
Windwaker and Ocarina are probably still my favorite Zelda games.

[Sakonosolo]

Started on A Hat in Time. I have a feeling the game won't be that long, but it is pretty fun. Controls are pretty good and fun to just mess around with. Game looks great too. Just wish I could turn the dof off since it's annoyed me ever since I first saw gameplay footage.

[Kaba Kaba Fruit]

Currently playing Cuphead on Steam. Made it into the city but man the game gets fucking hard by the boss! No complaints here though! I love some genuinely challenging action. The game's art and music is incredible too! Also, it's priced at fair value: $20.00. Definitely a pick-me-up game!

[thegab]

Just started playing Rayman 3 that I got for free from xbox's games with gold. I played the second one way back in the day and loved it, so I'm hoping this one will do it justice.

[NateRich]

I picked up Dark Souls 3 for $5 last weekend and have beaten a chunk of the game now. The Abyss Watchers fight was basically a PSA that I should be using my shield lol. It only took me two attempts at being completely defensive to win. The total amount of attempts will stay a secret :ninja:

I haven't played the other Souls games but compared to Bloodborne, the random enemies in Dark Souls 3 are way more punishing. The bosses are a tad easier so far. Before Abyss Watchers they haven't done that much damage yet.

[Crossword]

I started the Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga remake tonight. So far it's been what I've expected, that being a nice romp down memory lane. I've only completed Stardust Field, but I am enjoying the face-lift the background scenery of the game has gotten, and as with the other 3DS Mario and Luigi games the sprite work for characters and enemies is just as fun to watch in motion as ever, and all at 60 FPS too!

While none of the common enemies have posed even a whiff of danger to me so far since I know what's coming, I did do rather poorly on the Tolstar battle because my muscle memory from the GBA title keeps kicking in despite the fact that the timing on all the old attacks is different now, so I kept getting hit by stuff I should've easily dodged and kept whiffing Bros Attacks. Good thing you have he option to practice them at least.

[Zar]

Wanted to buy a game to relieve some stress and picked between Cuphead, Divnity: Original Sin 2 and Danganronpa V3.

Chose Cuphead and I'm regretting it. Not because it's hard, but because playing it on a keyboard sucks and my hand hurts worse than after a five-hour drawing session. And I don't have to money to buy a controller (or any of the other games for that matter). I'm also wondering If I'm just plain bad at games like that. For some reason keeping track of shooting, moving, jumping and lock at the same time confuses my brain. Hopefully a controller will fix it, I really want to enjoy it.

[Sakonosolo]

I feel like none of those games would relieve stress.

Still enjoying A Hat in Time. Managed to beat the mafia race without the "required" hat. Took a while though.

[Robby]

@NateRich:

I haven't played the other Souls games but compared to Bloodborne, the random enemies in Dark Souls 3 are way more punishing. The bosses are a tad easier so far. Before Abyss Watchers they haven't done that much damage yet.

Bloodbourne, while not easier perse, was a bit more forgiving than the other Souls games since it's combat was designed with fast action in mind and built in healing. The other games are a bit more insistent you pay attention and be careful, they're more designed towards careful defensive play.

(At least until you've played an area enough you can just run through it and ignore everything entirely.)

[TLC]

I always found Bloodborne the harder game because the enemies are faster and the patterns far more erratic and unpredictable. The limited healing items is what really pushes it for me though, at least Estus in Dark Souls replenishes.

(Of course nothing is harder than the bullshit dlc area in DS2 where you have to trek across a frozen wasteland through super tanky magic missile deer to fight two giant tigers).

[The Franky Tank]

Cup Head is so addicting. Only 3 achievements left, beating all bosses on hard, beating a aeroplane level shooting mini bullets only, and beating King Dice taking no damage. For now I think it's time to take a break and play something more relaxing, so started up a Hat in Time. Spent 10 minutes just messing around in the little opening, having fun getting use to the controls. Love the style so far, and if the first area is considered the most boring area, then I think I will end up loving this game. Glad to know that even when I finish this game, there will be more content released in the future.

[Foolio]

I was just watching some speed runs of Cuphead and it's amazing how much you can destroy bosses with the right weapon strats. I never thought to constantly alternate between primary/secondary fire. And one-cycling King Dice, wtf. But yeah I had a blast playing through on co-op. Unfortunately co-op definitely seems a lot harder, partly due to balance / adapting to which player a boss attacks (and keeping track of who's who <_< ) but also bugs. For example having two people parrying the same object is a nightmare at times, not to mention game-breaking stuff. I would love going for S ranks and such, but I have so much to play already and I'll settle for watching Noqanky's solo attempts.

[The Franky Tank]

Had to watch a speed run, and yeah, it's insane how the guy beat all but one of the bosses in just under 28 minutes (the one I watched was any %, so final fight didn't happen). I know I made things harder on myself by using pretty much only the standard shot, changing only for a few bosses where that shot was much harder to use. Can't say anything about bugs for co-op, but for the little bit I did for co-op, after the first few bosses it did feel harder, mainly from two players getting you distracted from your own character at times. I'm definitely going to beat all the bosses on hard mode, but getting all S ranks will be a different story.

[Noqanky]

I'm currently on the journey to get S in all bosses and P in all run and guns, and yea, it's fairly challenging. Spent almost two hours on just the frogs in the first world.

That said, it's really really fun, feels super good how you see yourself getting better, and extends my playtime with a game that is just seriously still super fun to me.

[Black Leg]

Started playing Ori and the blind forest and the game is far too pretty for my humble laptop to handle. Still I bumped down the resolution and V sync to continue on because the movement in this game just feels so good. Just picked up the double jump and it feels so fun to be navigating through the forest. My onky issue so far is that health pick ups, energy pickups, enemy attacks and my own attacks all kind of look the same as they are just energy balls that are only differentiated by colour so it can get a bit confusing at times. Still having fun switching between this and Cuphead

[RoboBlue]

I'm collecting all six Painkachu.

[Sakonosolo]

Finished Subcon Forest in A Hat In Time. Except the time rift levels. The boss fights are great.

[Green_vs_Red]

Keep playing Nioh eventhough I beat the main story and most of the DLC's and in the process keep discovering a lot of bullshit with the difficulty.

[The Franky Tank]

Slowly been getting through the Bosses in Cuphead on hard mode. The junkyard boss is the hardest one for me, and when I decide to go for S ranks on everyone, that is the one I dread the most. That said, looking back on the journey it's impressive to think how well built this game is. The game is hard, but they do build up overtime, not just throw everything at you at once. It does quite well teaching you basic mechanics that you need to master before throwing in more bullet hell type situations where you have to be really aware of your surroundings at all times.

On another note, I finished a Hat in Time and got all the time pieces. Getting all 40 pieces took me between 11 and 12 hours, and while I would've liked the game to be longer, I loved the entire play through. Having recently replayed Donkey Kong 64 and Mario 64, having a 3D platformer where the camera doesn't fight you, and the jumping is smooth and everything just works well was a god send. Throw in distinct worlds with memorable set ups and the writing, and some fun boss fights, it's definitely one of my favorites this year. Looking forward to the stretch goal worlds, whenever those come out.

[Sakonosolo]

I also just finished A Hat In Time and it was great. Still have a few time rift time pieces to get. I'm at about 14 hours right now. Saw some complaining about Alpine Skyline not really having a story when compared to the other levels but it had some of the most satisfying platforming in the entire game and has a great theme to it. Overall very satisfied as a backer and hope the team makes enough money to make another game, whether it's a sequel or something else.

[Noqanky]

@The:

Slowly been getting through the Bosses in Cuphead on hard mode. The junkyard boss is the hardest one for me, and when I decide to go for S ranks on everyone, that is the one I dread the most. That said, looking back on the journey it's impressive to think how well built this game is. The game is hard, but they do build up overtime, not just throw everything at you at once. It does quite well teaching you basic mechanics that you need to master before throwing in more bullet hell type situations where you have to be really aware of your surroundings at all times.

I've been running the bosses for S rank and the run and gun levels for pacifist, and it's fun but seriously, seriously challenging. So far only have the first world completed. Hilda Berg took me almost 5 hours, which is stupid when you think about it. Other bosses in world 1 also took me some time but nowhere near close to that.

[The Franky Tank]

5 hours?! That's insane. Did you only focus on that boss, or did you come back later and attempt other bosses?

I did the pacifist runs already, and while challenging it wasn't a long ordeal to do all of them. Finally beat all the bosses on Hard, and yeah, I'm in for S ranking all the bosses. As of this time, I've put in around 21 hours in the game, and have died 650 times. I expect both numbers to at least double before getting S rank.

[Foolio]

@The:

5 hours?! That's insane. Did you only focus on that boss, or did you come back later and attempt other bosses?

She's been focusing on one boss/stage at a time. Hilda Berg is just on another level compared to the other world 1 bosses. It doesn't actually LOOK that hard, until you try. There's an amazing, amazing amount of spacial awareness required. Bullet/laugh patterns can suck, Gemini's attack pattern can suck and coincide with terrible RNG from other enemy appearances, Sagittarius' homing stars are absolutely the worst (half the strategy is not letting them come after you to begin with), and then there's the final phase. It has a lot of HP, and dodging the stars properly (or trying to use them for missing parries) at the same time as being fully aware of the incoming UFO patterns and the right timing to trigger them is just monstrous.

Again, it doesn't LOOK that bad if you watch someone do it. The whole time Nephy was playing I kept trying to give her advice because I felt she was missing some pretty easy strategies. But then I took a crack at it. Took me about half an hour to (somewhat) consistently make it through the first couple transformations without getting hit, and only a few times did I ever get to the final phase with full HP in the hour that I played. The problem isn't only spacial awareness of enemies. It's awareness of yourself too. What weapon are you firing, how much special meter do you have, how many parries have you done so far, where do you want to be positioned for various transitions. And the one that surprised me the most was just making my hands do what I wanted. I've always been an adept gamer with really good reflexes, but trying to inflict maximum DPS with constant weapon switching, at the same time as managing special weapon use, going tiny for dodges, and parrying… let's just say there were many, MANY times where I just pressed the wrong thing or knew what I wanted to do but just completely choked the inputs.

[Noqanky]

It's worth noting that after some time all these things become second nature. I was playing on stream and there was a point where, while not succeeding, I would be able to advance properly to the final phase while just chatting around and not really thinking.

[Nobodyman]

I'm so looking forward to the AGDQ runs of Cuphead.