General Gaming Thread 2021

[Benji]

You know what I feel like I miss? Great bosses. I can't remember the last time I faced a boss that really filled me with a sense of awe and dread, and was a tough fight without being cheap. I hear God of War has decent boss fights so maybe I should look into that?

[Bobfoc]

I enjoy the boss fights in Hades.

[Draevyn]

54 minutes ago, Subject Delta said:

You know what I feel like I miss? Great bosses. I can't remember the last time I faced a boss that really filled me with a sense of awe and dread, and was a tough fight without being cheap. I hear God of War has decent boss fights so maybe I should look into that?

Allow me to introduce you to this bitch! While I have not yet fought her because I'm not that good yet, this bitch will fuck you up!

 

[gunnar hendershow]

Hades boss fights are really great and fill me with dread. I still haven't completed a full run of that game yet, I'm not very good at it I think.

[RPS]

Just now, damshow said:

Hades boss fights are really great and fill me with dread. I still haven't completed a full run of that game yet, I'm not very good at it I think.

There is an easier mode on Hades. I believe it is called God mode. If I recall, it scales the difficulty down each time you die. 

[gunnar hendershow]

3 minutes ago, RPS said:

There is an easier mode on Hades. I believe it is called God mode. If I recall, it scales the difficulty down each time you die. 

I thought I saw a mode like that exists, thing is I do improve my runs periodically as I strengthen Zag but at a slower pace than most people do. If I eventually just want to see all the dialogue play out I'll go with that mode.

[RPS]

2 minutes ago, damshow said:

I thought I saw a mode like that exists, thing is I do improve my runs periodically as I strengthen Zag but at a slower pace than most people do. If I eventually just want to see all the dialogue play out I'll go with that mode.

I never enacted it. I think around run 20-25 you start to feel good about the game. It is about incremental improvement and obtaining knowledge of the boons. By run 20-25, you have a good sense of what boons you are good with and the combos you want to make. I stopped playing when run 40-45 I was just beating every run even with making it more difficult. 

[Bobfoc]

I used God Mode because I tend to struggle with games. It was a nice boost to have and it incentivised me to keep trying.

[apsham]

7 hours ago, RPS said:

There is an easier mode on Hades. I believe it is called God mode. If I recall, it scales the difficulty down each time you die. 

It doesn't quite do that. It starts with reducing a certain amount of damage and each time you die, it ups that by 2% - the enemies will still attack for the same amount, you'll still hit as hard as you normally do, everything else is just the same as is - but you'll be able to take more damage each time. I turned it on after beating the game for the first time to try some new weapons and strategies - and I really like that way that the game handles it. By changing ONLY that and not punishing you in any way (eventually you can unlock the ability to see all your previous runs, and if you did it on God Mode there'll be a mark on it - that's it) for using it is pretty neat.

[Ruki]

Just finished Yakuza 4. Short game, but the story is just as over the top and enjoyable. Needed more Majima. And fuck those final boss fights. Apparently Yakuza 5 is somehow even bigger than 0, which is scary.

[Draevyn]

Man, if Ashes of Creation ever makes it to release, it looks to be such an amazing game. I feel like sometimes companies like this one attempt to do way too much and it always fails to succeed but it sure looks beautiful.

[Benji]

Doing a quasi-speedrun for a couple of Horizon Zero Dawn trophies and I find the game much more enjoyable just following the main path. One of those rare open world games where I think a linear path would have made the game more fun.

[tristy]

I wholeheartedly disagree, Horizon is nearly perfect in my opinion. 

[Ruki]

I loved HZD (oh man, the story! Everything you learn about the past is amazing and heart breaking), but still suffered from Open World Burnout with it. 

[tristy]

I didn’t get the usual burnout. Maybe it’s because there isn’t a plethora of side quests and shit like there usually is in these games. I’ve almost gotten the platinum for it - if I could just will myself to do those time trial trophies and shit I’d be there. I’m very bias though, it was the first PS4 game I played and I definitely credit it with getting me back into gaming (previously I had an Xbox One, but it was only used for WWE Network/Netflix for the most part - the occasional game here and there).

I’m going to be gutted when Forbidden West inevitably gets delayed, since that seems to be the trend. I need that game now. The comics are great, but I need a continuation of the main storyline right now damnit!

[Skummy]

Horizon Zero Dawn is one of my favourite games of its generation, I absolutely adore it. It was the first game I played on the PS4 that felt like something I was really getting my teeth into and justified the purchase, and made me feel like exploring a really interesting and dynamic world. 

I wouldn't say I got open world burn-out, but it did have the problem of the open world aspects sometimes meaning that I was losing track of the story, and that it didn't seem to progress as naturally as it might have done had I just focused on the main game. That said, it probably managed that divide better than most, if not all, open world games I've played. Because so much of it was based around a bit of a personal discovery quest, it never had the Red Dead Redemption 2 thing of "we need to go and rescue a kidnapped child, but first let's take in a vaudeville show and go fishing". 

[tristy]

I think my only complaint about Horizon was that the Frozen Wilds DLC takes place during the main story. So if you already beat the game, then played the DLC, you're kind of rewinding time since you've presumably done the final battle and everything. And the fact that some of the characters you meet in the Frozen Wilds will aide you in that final story mission, too. If you beat the DLC and never went back to replay that last main mission, you'd never even know it (unless you looked it up online or watched YouTube videos, obviously). I like my DLC to be set before or after the main game, not during it. Takes me out of the emersion when I go to play it and I'm plopped back into a certain point in the game's story.

I really liked the endgame part of the DLC where you interact with CYAN. Might have been one of my favorite parts of the entire game for whatever reason, maybe because it expanded on some things. Just the entire world that game created, it's fascinating and I can't wait to live in it some more when Forbidden West is released.

And, y'know, Ashly Burch gave a hell of a performance too.

[BuddyAwesome]

Speaking of open world burnout, I adore the Assassins Creed games. I'm about 15 hours into Valhalla and my initial reaction when seeing the map is that I'm happy it doesn't look as gigantic as Odyssey. Has anyone played it yet and can kinda let me know some things to make sure I do early?

[Ruki]

2 hours ago, BuddyAwesome said:

Speaking of open world burnout, I adore the Assassins Creed games. I'm about 15 hours into Valhalla and my initial reaction when seeing the map is that I'm happy it doesn't look as gigantic as Odyssey. Has anyone played it yet and can kinda let me know some things to make sure I do early?

Hahahahaahhahahahahahaha..... oh man. The map is huge, just a lot less ocean bits. The story is so drawn out... broken up over the I think 16 provinces. Skip collectables or any side missions that don't seem interesting to you. I think it took me 70-80 hours, and I stopped grabbing things after 10. 

[Chris2K]

I got Watch Dogs Legion now it's (naturally) half price, and I'm really enjoying it. Granted, I've barely even acknowledged the story and am just recruiting as many different people as possible and getting collectables, but I find that fun.

I have permadeath switched on and have lost two recruits so far, one got overwhelmed by drones and the other had a random immediate death trait which kicked in two minutes in to their first mission. Since then I've seen "friend of former DedSec operative [first person that died]" around the world and feel bad because they died in my control.