What are you playing right now?

[baseline bum]

Looks like Dying Light 2 might be in a good enough state for me to want to buy after finishing Elden Ring. Leetonidas, Joseph Kony, does the game still stay strong throughout to the end to maintain your early enthusiasm for it?

[ElNono]

There is an easy mode: summon other people to make any bossfight a cake walk. I don't care to do it because the fun of the game is learning how to find openings against challenging enemies and then executing. But you can make it into a boring button masher if you want by summoning allies.

I play offline. This is a single player game for me. If I'm going to let other people play the game for me, then might as well save $60 bucks and watch a walkthrough on YouTube.

And Elden Ring completely owns God of War in combat and exploration. You want them to make a Souls game that's not a Souls game.

I totally take your word for it, I haven't gotten that far. And no, I want them to make a game that if you choose it to be a Souls game, it can be that. But if you choose to enjoy the game without becoming an combat expert, I can do too. You can certainly argue that the latter is not a Souls game, but there's really no reason it can't be both.
Remember those games where you can pick "I want to enjoy the story, take it easy" or "I'm seasoned, give me "... that sort of thing.

Because it has an incredible open world with tons of interesting dungeons and boss fights, it's like taking Skyrim's world and putting a top notch battle system in it along with a lot of wildly different boss fights. It's an interesting world to explore with a killer art style and tons of enemy variety. I don't care if it's not loaded with high grass and cat-tails and all other kind of foliage that makes graphics nuts like Digital Foundry get their panties wet. The exploration and combat is top notch.

I'd love to explore all that without being a combat expert or having to kill the same guy over and over, but I'm not allowed to.

You're not supposed to keep fighting when you're bleeding, you're supposed to either get the encounter done in one or two more swings or run like because when your bleed meter builds up you're extremely vulnerable to even the weakest enemy attacks that take an outsized amount of health off when you're bleeding. It's one of the core mechanics of the game, it's not a screw up on their part. And you would rather have the world be empty once you kill each enemy once? If it's a waste of your time don't do the battle, just like every other open world game once you're strong enough that the experience / items gained don't justify bothering with the fight.

Sorry, I didn't mean bleeding as in a bleeding spell or something like that. I mean I only had maybe one health potion left. If I go to the near resting area, the enemy spawns again too. So I push forward. I'm going there because that's what the map says I need to go to advance the game.

Also, legit, I still don't know how you level up? Is it the amount of souls you collect from killing things? Does it tell you when you have enough to level up?

[redzero]

To be frank, I didn't play Demon's Souls before the remake, but at the very least they did hit a quality visual bar you sorta now expect for nextgen games.

Which is more than fair, but the gameplay is prehistoric compared to Elden Ring. I'll take a game worth playing over a game worth looking at every time, and Demon's Souls has no content worth ever going back to.

[baseline bum]

Also, legit, I still don't know how you level up? Is it the amount of souls you collect from killing things? Does it tell you when you have enough to level up?

When you rest at a point of grace (eg place where you light a fire) there is a option for leveling up.

[ElNono]

Which is more than fair, but the gameplay is prehistoric compared to Elden Ring. I'll take a game worth playing over a game worth looking at every time, and Demon's Souls has no content worth ever going back to.

They feel pretty much the same to me, but I haven't played that long yet. I will give this to Elden Ring though: unlike Sekiro, I feel I actually gotten better.

[baseline bum]

To be frank, I didn't play Demon's Souls before the remake, but at the very least they did hit a quality visual bar you sorta now expect for nextgen games.

I mean Demon's Souls looks amazing, but I think it's the weakest of From Software's modern games because it doesn't have the same quality of boss fights the rest of the series does. Dragon God, Tower Knight, and Storm King look really impressive for example, but the fights themselves are way too easy, while the later games really have bosses that test you. I do love the level design of Demon's Souls though, it's absolutely top notch from the Boletarian Palace at the beginning to the jail to that ing poisonous lake that's such a to get through.

[baseline bum]

LOL so GTA V for PS5 is ten days away and they still haven't said how much it's going to cost or what's different vs the other two versions they already made. What a show that's going to be. It'll just be unlocking 1440p60 and 4k30 with maybe some raytraced puddle reflections when it rains.

[Joseph Kony]

Looks like Dying Light 2 might be in a good enough state for me to want to buy after finishing Elden Ring. Leetonidas, Joseph Kony, does the game still stay strong throughout to the end to maintain your early enthusiasm for it?

I think so, but i havent been going balls to the wall with as i've had little free time lately. but it's been an enjoyable playthrough for me. Not as good as the first, but what sequels ever are. Still a really solid and fun game imo. the storyline gets a little wonky toward the end though (i have 3 main quest missions left). but overall i have really enjoyed the game.

one thing i will say thats kind of annoying is late in the game after one of the main quests, a large haze/fog over a portion of the city appears and its pretty thick and difficult to see throgh

[Joseph Kony]

I also have no doubt Elden Ring is a great game but i have to laugh at all the 10/10 ratings its getting when i pretty much agree with Nono's post above (in general). I'm going to play it after this and i no doubt will enjoy it but i already know it's not going to present anything new or fresh and will just be another Dark Souls game with an open world which really isnt a formula for a perfect score game imo.

[Reck]

I was pointing out my honest reaction from going from one open world to the other, and puzzled how this thing got a 10/10.

The cult of gaming.

Shouldn't a 10/10 game appeal to everyone, not just a niche group? Maybe I have the criteria and the definition wrong but it seems to me the scores are just there to incentivise people to buy it blindly.

[baseline bum]

The cult of gaming.

Shouldn't a 10/10 game appeal to everyone, not just a niche group? Maybe I have the criteria and the definition wrong but it seems to me the scores are just there to incentivise people to buy it blindly.

So then there is no such thing as a 10/10 game?

[ElNono]

So last night, before completely giving up on this game, I went to YouTube to try to figure out what the I'm doing wrong, coz I still could not get the Level Up option while resting, and outside the Dragon, I killed almost every mofo in that level.

Turns out that when the skank on the fire pit showed up, I told her to go herself, coz I thought from what she said that she was going to become a companion or something. If you do that, you don't get the Level Up option, and you also don't get the ing horse.

This game, man...

[ElNono]

I mean Demon's Souls looks amazing, but I think it's the weakest of From Software's modern games because it doesn't have the same quality of boss fights the rest of the series does. Dragon God, Tower Knight, and Storm King look really impressive for example, but the fights themselves are way too easy, while the later games really have bosses that test you. I do love the level design of Demon's Souls though, it's absolutely top notch from the Boletarian Palace at the beginning to the jail to that ing poisonous lake that's such a to get through.

They were really challenging to me, but at least doable instead of completely frustrating. And I still peeked at YouTube a couple times towards the end because I honestly didn't want to spend 5 hours figuring out a boss and I wanted to get to the end already. But outside an area or two where difficulty ratcheted up some, it was an enjoyable game, and very easy on the eyes.

[baseline bum]

They were really challenging to me, but at least doable instead of completely frustrating. And I still peeked at YouTube a couple times towards the end because I honestly didn't want to spend 5 hours figuring out a boss and I wanted to get to the end already. But outside an area or two where difficulty ratcheted up some, it was an enjoyable game, and very easy on the eyes.

Only bossfight I remember being tough was the gargoyles in the stage with all the bridges, and only then because it was so easy to get knocked off that bridge. But I think doing tank builds is probably pretty tough in the series because it makes your dodge roll so slow it's worthless. Tank build makes going through the stages a lot easier but boss fights have always seemed rough to me in heavy builds. I always prefer much lighter and more agile builds.

[baseline bum]

I also have no doubt Elden Ring is a great game but i have to laugh at all the 10/10 ratings its getting when i pretty much agree with Nono's post above (in general). I'm going to play it after this and i no doubt will enjoy it but i already know it's not going to present anything new or fresh and will just be another Dark Souls game with an open world which really isnt a formula for a perfect score game imo.

Try it out man. It reminds me so much of Skyrim with how much there is to discover and how many awesome dungeons there are. But unlike Skyrim, of course it has first rate combat being a FromSoft game. Doesn't have Skyrim's ridiculous soundtrack and the story is as bare bones as can be, but I can't ing put the controller down once I get started in this. Feels like the game will have same kind of replay value as Skyrim too given how differently you can play the game. Right now I'm playing a dexterity build using a sword with bleed and a monster special attack with no shield, but seeing all the crazy magic you can do in this game makes me want to do another intelligence based build later on like how I went through Skyrim first as the default all around nord character, second playthrough a khajit sneak thief / assassin, third playthrough a mage, etc. I won't say 10/10 since I'm still early in the game and it really takes something to make a game 10/10 in my book, but it's at least a 9.5/10 for me. To get it to 10/10 in my book I would need to see at least one boss fight as good as Orphan of Kos in Bloodborne though most likely. And they might be saving that for a DLC.

I haven't played Dark Souls 3 yet so I can't tell you how different the Elden Ring battle system is from it. Pretty different from Dark Souls 1 and Bloodborne though. Although there is a rune you can equip to bring back the Bloodborne rally system where you get health back for counterattacking after being hit.

[baseline bum]

So last night, before completely giving up on this game, I went to YouTube to try to figure out what the I'm doing wrong, coz I still could not get the Level Up option while resting, and outside the Dragon, I killed almost every mofo in that level.

Turns out that when the skank on the fire pit showed up, I told her to go herself, coz I thought from what she said that she was going to become a companion or something. If you do that, you don't get the Level Up option, and you also don't get the ing horse.

This game, man...

Have you tried going and resting at the same point of grace to see if she comes back? That's pretty ing bad if not.

[baseline bum]

I think so, but i havent been going balls to the wall with as i've had little free time lately. but it's been an enjoyable playthrough for me. Not as good as the first, but what sequels ever are. Still a really solid and fun game imo. the storyline gets a little wonky toward the end though (i have 3 main quest missions left). but overall i have really enjoyed the game.

one thing i will say thats kind of annoying is late in the game after one of the main quests, a large haze/fog over a portion of the city appears and its pretty thick and difficult to see throgh

You think it's a full price buy, or a wait for a sale buy? I was definitely in the wait for a sale camp before, but Horizon Forbidden West is so ing broken in performance mode right now that is getting backlogged until they fix their rendered, will probably take months. ing waste buying that game full price if you have a 4k panel you play in game mode with all the postprocess turned off. So definitely an opening for another large game for me. Will prob be either DL2 or SMT V.

[ElNono]

Have you tried going and resting at the same point of grace to see if she comes back? That's pretty ing bad if not.

You can actually summon her from any resting place after you said no, I just didn't know. Sorry, gonna vent again, but how you do not get a "You won't be able to level up and , ARE YOU SURE?" at that point??? That's not even handholding, it has huge implications in the gameplay.

[baseline bum]

You can actually summon her from any resting place, I just didn't know. Sorry, gonna vent again, but how you do not get a "You won't be able to level up and , ARE YOU SURE?" at that point??? That's not even handholding, it has huge implications in the gameplay.

From likes to be bas s trolling new players at the beginning I guess.

Bloodborne was even worse, you had to get your insight level to at least +1 by either finding a point of insight (there is one hidden in the rafters of a building near the beginning) or by finding and seeing a boss for the doll that lets you level up to come to life.

[Xevious]

Try it out man. It reminds me so much of Skyrim with how much there is to discover and how many awesome dungeons there are. But unlike Skyrim, of course it has first rate combat being a FromSoft game. Doesn't have Skyrim's ridiculous soundtrack and the story is as bare bones as can be, but I can't ing put the controller down once I get started in this. Feels like the game will have same kind of replay value as Skyrim too given how differently you can play the game. Right now I'm playing a dexterity build using a sword with bleed and a monster special attack with no shield, but seeing all the crazy magic you can do in this game makes me want to do another intelligence based build later on like how I went through Skyrim first as the default all around nord character, second playthrough a khajit sneak thief / assassin, third playthrough a mage, etc. I won't say 10/10 since I'm still early in the game and it really takes something to make a game 10/10 in my book, but it's at least a 9.5/10 for me. To get it to 10/10 in my book I would need to see at least one boss fight as good as Orphan of Kos in Bloodborne though most likely. And they might be saving that for a DLC.

I haven't played Dark Souls 3 yet so I can't tell you how different the Elden Ring battle system is from it. Pretty different from Dark Souls 1 and Bloodborne though. Although there is a rune you can equip to bring back the Bloodborne rally system where you get health back for counterattacking after being hit.

It's been a while since I played it, but was there really a point in starting different builds in Skyrim (unless you just wanted to play the game over again)? IIRC, my character was mainly an archer/thief, but by the end I was pretty adept at magic as well as tanking . I completed all the main guild quests with the same character. The game let you level up whatever you used.

[Reck]

Horizon Forbidden West is a cheap platinum. They more than halfed requirements from the first one. As a result, I already obtained it.

[baseline bum]

Horizon Forbidden West is a cheap platinum. They more than halfed requirements from the first one. As a result, I already obtained it.

Damn, Zero Dawn was already an easy plat if you did the sidequests, other than a couple of time trials that were pains in the ass.

[Reck]

Damn, Zero Dawn was already an easy plat if you did the sidequests, other than a couple of time trials that were pains in the ass.

Yeah in this one you don’t need to do all side quests. Not even close.

All you need to do are few single threaded side quests for your companions which are directly tied to trophies anyways.

The hunting trials are hilariously easy this time as you don’t need to get all stripes in every trial. Bronzes will do. I think they’ll patch that at some point because they give you minutes to do something it takes you 20-30 seconds to do for gold.

Same goes for collectibles. You only need 1 collectible per category.


EDIT: Looking at my overall stats, I’m sitting at 63% completed with just 20 side quests done and at least 3 of those were none trophy related.

[ElNono]

Elden Ring picked up after I was able to level up. I would still much rather have a quest/goal system, tbh, than left wandering around to figure everything out, tbh.

IMO, this is still a 8/10 tops unless you're grading on a curve.

[baseline bum]

Elden Ring picked up after I was able to level up. I would still much rather have a quest/goal system, tbh, than left wandering around to figure everything out, tbh.

IMO, this is still a 8/10 tops unless you're grading on a curve.

LOL casuals