General Gaming Thread 2024

[Your Mom]

I will never get to enjoy those games. It used to make me sad but but I've just kind of accepted it now

[Ruki]

1 hour ago, Your Mom said:

I will never get to enjoy those games. It used to make me sad but but I've just kind of accepted it now

Same. I really wanted to play Elden Ring. I was able to fight one of the bosses and killed a dragon and that was awesome! But everything else just wrecked me and I felt lost most of the time. 

[probablyoliver]

My only 'Souls' game before Elden Ring was Bloodborne, and for the longest time I felt the same way. I hated it, because I couldn't do it and I thought it was rubbish. But for some reason I couldn't stop thinking about it, and I'd find myself obsessively coming back to try and get through the first area. I still remember the first time I beat the Cleric Beast. It took me about 20 attempts and I literally screamed when I did it, and by then it totally had its hooks in me.

Bloodborne is now a game I revisit at least once a year, I don't tend to play the whole thing, but now the muscle memory means I tend to beat the first three bosses in the space of about an hour.

I was unsure on whether I'd like Elden Ring at first, because Dark Souls itself had never really done it for me, I always found it a little slow and I was worried that the reason Bloodborne hooked me like it did was more to do with the victorian gothic aesthetic.

I think I struggled with the first few hours of Elden Ring, but I put around 200 hours into my first playthrough. I've gone back to it a couple times since but never got too far before moving onto something else. This time it's clicked again and I'm around 20 hours in. Finished off Raya Lucaria last night, and figure I'll be playing for another 100 or so before I'm done.

[TheGrandAvatar]

I've done Dark Souls, Mortal Shell and Bloodborne.

Have a lot of Soulsborne like game's to be playing at the moment. They are very fun. Most of the time. 

Out of them. I think I enjoyed the most was Mortal Shell. It was one of the best for the lore and ability to swap shells like stats in the other's. It really just seemed to drag me into it all. The story, music and setting of it really had me, the ending did surprise me. It's one I've got back to time and time again. 

Still need to make time for Nioh 1 and 2. Remnant From The Ashes. The Surge 1 and 2. Sekiro. Etc. 

[gunnar hendershow]

I understand people's desire for difficulty sliders but with Elden Ring being my first Soulsborne, after years of being bored with how easy most games felt even on the harder settings, I appreciated a game where the challenge to overcome each successive "wall" was the game. And, yes, you can grind away to ensure you have builds that can beat any and all bosses - and that's how I managed the endgame where different bosses require wildly different approaches. In many ways time invested was the default difficulty slider (and with an incredible amount to explore this took care of itself), as I was able to completely crush Malenia by the time I figured out where she was weakest.

I'm eagerly anticipating the DLC, and have plans to go back and play Bloodborne along others - even if they aren't as "polished" as Elden Ring.

[Bobfoc]

15 minutes ago, damhausen said:

I understand people's desire for difficulty sliders but with Elden Ring being my first Soulsborne, after years of being bored with how easy most games felt even on the harder settings, I appreciated a game where the challenge to overcome each successive "wall" was the game.

I appreciate what you're saying here and am glad that Elden Ring fills that void for you, but there's an extent to which you're speaking from a place of privilege, if that's even the right word. Many of us can never find hard modes easy, and I'm someone who is often challenged by easy modes. Having the option to customise your own "wall" is something that I think would change the game from something I like to something I love.

To be clear, I'm not accusing you of being an elitist. I'm just saying that offering people different entry points to find that sweet spot would let a bigger audience enjoy a game that has more than just difficulty going for it.

[probablyoliver]

Yeah, I'm of the camp that thinks the difficulty in Souls games is overstated. At their very core, they're just puzzle games. Enemy groups are always in the same place, with the same movements and movesets, and it's up to the player to figure out their patterns and the tool sets required to overcome each obstacle.

I think people equate the fact that you die a lot with difficulty, when pretty much every Souls games starts with a borderline impossible encounter to teach you that death is inevitable. Bloodborne has the wolf in Iosefka's Clinic, Elden Ring has the Tree Sentinel, Sekiro has Genichiro Ashina, etc etc.

You hit your head against these brick walls early on because you're supposed to, and then you learn that you need to maybe do something else if you want to beat them.

[gunnar hendershow]

25 minutes ago, probablyoliver said:

Yeah, I'm of the camp that thinks the difficulty in Souls games is overstated. At their very core, they're just puzzle games. Enemy groups are always in the same place, with the same movements and movesets, and it's up to the player to figure out their patterns and the tool sets required to overcome each obstacle.

This is what made the game feel like a spiritual successor to old 8-bit and 16-bit games where there's no variation - every level has the exact same thing happening every time so with trial & error you figure out what to do. 

[Bobfoc]

I agree with the puzzle analogy, but you still need the reflexes to execute your strategy effectively. I know what I'm supposed to do in Tony Hawk games, for example, but I just can't get my fingers to do what my brain tells them to quickly enough. Just like how some people have to think intensely about each note when playing a musical instrument, I struggle to get into the zone and let muscle memory take over.

It's why I gravitate more towards strategy games. Advance Wars and Fire Emblem missions usually have the same unit layout and essentially require you to solve a puzzle, but you have as much time as you like to think about what to do and carry out your plan.

[Bobfoc]

I know it's IGN, but their streams at least don't require you to log in.

[Baddar]

Is the newest Saints Row game worth £13? It's coming out on Steam tomorrow and I can get it at that price. @King Ellis

[Ruki]

4 minutes ago, Baddar said:

Is the newest Saints Row game worth £13? It's coming out on Steam tomorrow and I can get it at that price. @King Ellis

Not Ellis, but I really liked it. If google isn't lying to me, that's about $20. I paid $40 and I was more than happy with the game. The characters are enjoyable and it's mindless Saints Row fun! Plus the return of Insurance Fraud. 

[King Ellis]

Yeah, you'll definitely get your moneys worth at that price. You'd just need to temper your expectations as it's not really anything revolutionary, just a solid 7/10 sandbox game. 

If you think you'd be annoyed by zany millennial types then you might want to give it a miss. The main characters were fine to me but I know a lot of people couldn't get on with them and the dialogue.

[Baddar]

Does seem a no brainer for that cheap. He says with an ever growing backlog of games to play.

Just like I Am Future, a new "chilled" survival game that came out in early access a couple of weeks ago. Got it super cheap but haven't started yet.

[GoGo Yubari]

Yeah, I've been waiting for it to be available at $10 - $15. I played it briefly at PAX last year and it seemed fine but obviously not up to the dizzying heights of SR3.

[Maxx]

Speaking of Soulslike games, Remnant 2 is a really great one, and lots of fun with friends.

[BuddyAwesome]

Wrestlequest is ridiculously fun. 

[Captain Kirk]

10 hours ago, BuddyAwesome said:

Wrestlequest is ridiculously fun. 

Glad to hear that as about to buy it on Monday.

[apsham]

I've been having one hell of a time with Armoured Core 6. It's almost a shame that it's a series that was hidden away from me for such a period of time - but also with all of the updates/changes that have come since the initial and even the last instalment, it's probably for the best.

I've always been the kind of person who plays an RPG and only changes equipment if all of the stats improve when I get new stuff. That just doesn't fly here - and every mission can end up being something you breeze through because of your build, something that you barely squeeze by with, or something that you really need to go back to the drawing board for and that's been a great experience so far - something that shakes me out of the way that I play games with rotating equipment. Nothing is worse than something else - it just fits better in a different build for a different situation.

And it allows for a lot of the needed experimentation by allowing you to replay missions and get the payout each time - with many of them being less than 5 minutes, especially with a build you've nailed down - nothing is out of your reach to buy or experiment with for long. And the missions themselves! It's great to have such a huge variety.

Couldn't be happier, FromSoft knocked it out of the park again.

[Ruki]

 

Sea of Stars is reviewing quite well! I am excited for this one.