[The_Mike]

New console and games for me and my GF.

My 5 year old wants to play as well but doubt she can play any of these games sadly.

There's a monkey game that's game of the month so trying to download that one.

 

[HE1NZ]

Dark Souls II seems like a long ass game. I'm nearing 25 hours and only killed 11 out of 41 bosses (according to wikia).

I got more comfortable at the game though. Pace have improved and I know what I'm doing now (more of less). Seems to be a decent game.

Killed Smelter Demon. Heard it was the toughest boss in the game. This means it should an easy chill ride from now on. Right?

 

[The_Mike]

Loving this machine and this game so much man.

I realise the reason I only play online games nowadays is because most single player games doesn't interest me the slightest, yet I can't wait to order more cartridges for my Evercade.

Already slammed five hours into Tomb Raider and haven't cleared it yet. There's also tomb raider 2 and 3 on the cartridge, an absolute steal for the price of these games.

 

[andreverts]

Today I wanted to go back on FF16 to complete the Kairos Gate with perfect score.

Got it and placed 480th on the global leaderboard; proud of this achievement, it was a fun challenge.

Can't wait for tomorrow with the launch of The Finals season 4!

 

[regawdless]

Playing Enotria, it really is Bright Souls.

 

[Dreamlord]

Playing Enotria, it really is Bright Souls.

It's good? You recommend?

 

[regawdless]

It's good? You recommend?

It's definitely a bit janky, performance also isn't as smooth as I'd expect. Other than that, I enjoy it. Very different art design, huge build variety, interesting level design. It's way easier than Souls, and only like 20h, which is great for such a game IMO. Has some new neat ideas around abilities and weapons.

 

[andreverts]

I'm immersed in The Finals again, season 4 is a way back on the greatness of season 1 and the game is really fun, very well balanced between casual and competitive modes.
Definitely will climb ranked in the next months, aiming to place better than in season 2.
I play mostly solo and with off-meta loadouts, so it won't be easy, but definitely the funniest way to enjoy the game.

 

[Thing on a Spring]

I'm immersed in The Finals again, season 4 is a way back on the greatness of season 1 and the game is really fun, very well balanced between casual and competitive modes.
Definitely will climb ranked in the next months, aiming to place better than in season 2.
I play mostly solo and with off-meta loadouts, so it won't be easy, but definitely the funniest way to enjoy the game.

I enjoyed the first season of The Finals but after the novelty wore off, I just got fed up of invisible sword rushers and tanks with shields on shields that take an age to kill. I don't want to be forced to play a certain character or way in order to be successful so I went back to Apex. I dipped back in during season 3 but not much seemed to have changed so uninstalled again. It's a shame because I enjoyed the gun-play and the most of the weapons/gadgets but just a little too much cheapness for my liking.

 

[andreverts]

If you mean dome shield and mesh shield on heavy archetype, those have been hugely nerfed.

I used to run sword back in season 1 because it's so funny, but it isn't consistent on the competitive side (at least in my hands!). I am more a support/defensive player, so I mastered the riot shield with a medic role. Of course, you have to rely a lot on random team mates, but when you find the right composition the games turn amazing.

Season 3 was a big downfall with the focus on Terminal Attack, I disliked It too.

 

[andreverts]

@Thing on a Spring this is what I was talking about:



Definitely hooked again after a weekend of funny moments like that, I love playing the riot shield (recently buffed): my main weapon for the season!

 

[zero]

Animal Well is one of the most horribly designed metroidvania games I've ever had the misfortune of playing.

 

[Mista]

World of Warcraft & Black Myth: Wukong

 

[regawdless]

World of Warcraft & Black Myth: Wukong

How do you like Wukong?

 

[Mista]

How do you like Wukong?

As a non-Souls player, the game is okay. For me it's just missing that "I want to play more" factor. The gameplay is solid and the game is very polished.

Also there's nothing special in-game. You walk, fight a boss, walk again, fight boss. That's about it

 

[HE1NZ]

Killed Fume Knight and Blue Smelter Demon and had enough of Dark Souls 2. These DLC's are stupidly hard and tiresome. I don't have stamina for a third DLC but I finished everything else in the game.

 

[Amorous Biscuit]

35 hours + into FF XVI and I think the game is a triumph. Wonderfully paced and fantastic story. Excellent combat with a wide range of abilities, though I do wish there were more combos rather than standard combo string of hitting X four times into a magic blast, or alternating between magic and sword attacks. The additional powers are where it really kicks up a gear and getting perfect dodges, getting major aerial combos, combo-ing with Torgal and then getting big damage on downed enemies is effortlessly fun.

Not sure how far I am story wise, but it's getting more and more anime the further I get in, which I can understand will be a turnoff for some. It's mostly in terms of boss scale as the story is played pretty straight. There's some great characters and many different factions all vying for control each with independent histories all fully fleshed out by in game historians. It's really the only thing I care to play at the moment and I think the move to real time Devil May Cry style combat was really smart and suits this particular game very well.

Ben Starr is doing a great job as Clive and Ralph Ineson also excels as Cid. All the voice cast do a good job here and the music is absolutely stellar.

Overall, it looks great, has nice varied environments which are pretty big, filled with plenty of side quests and monster hunts and is fun to play. It's a really strong contender for the best game I have played all year and I think my limited exposure to Final Fantasy as a franchise has probably only heightened my enjoyment. I will add, it is absolutely front-loaded with cutscenes which may kill pacing for some, but it's narrative hooks were intriguing for me and I've enjoyed all that has been presented thus far. I think someone made a supercut on YouTube and the cutscenes total about 20 hours for the game Kojima eat your heart out.

There's a few gripes here and there in terms of most side quests being glorified fetch quests and the combat being somewhat limited against its contemporaries but this is a great package. Looking forward to playing more.

 

[Dreamlord]

35 hours + into FF XVI

the cutscenes total about 20 hours for the game

Looking forward to playing more.

 

[Amorous Biscuit]

That is for the entirety of the game, I am sure I will be treated to plenty more heartfelt and emotional drama about conflict, family and one's place in the world.

 

[zero]

So I actually just finished the pretentious horse shit that is Animal Well. My opinion of it hasn't changed. It fucking sucks. Another one of those stupid, arty games that tries waaaaay too hard to be clever. There's so much shit in this game that makes zero sense even after beating the game. Like why the fuck are their random arrows on the walls? What the fuck is that giant rabbit mural all about? Why are there all of these cats in cages? What the fuck was the point of that stupid giant bat boss fight that gives you literally nothing for beating it.

This game is so fucking stupid. It never explains ANYTHING. I spent several hours not knowing I could fast travel using an item in my inventory because the game never fucking tells you what any items you get actually fucking do. After you beat the game, you get a stop watch item. I still have no fucking clue what it does and I don't see it anywhere in my inventory.

Also, unlike well designed Metroid games (like Guacamelee, Dust An Elysian Tale, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, etc.) Animal Well gives you zero help in figuring out where the secrets on the map are. There's a side quest involving finding a bunch of secret eggs. I'm guessing it gives you a special reward, but I don't have the patience to randomly wander around THE ENTIRE FUCKING MAP in the hopes of randomly discovering whatever eggs I haven't already found. Guacamelee always gave you a rough idea where any secrets you were missing were, and then you just had to figure out what you actually needed to do in that area to get the secret. It didn't spell things out for you, but it at least pointed you in the right direction.

I hate these gay, artsy, indie games. I thought this would just be a fun, well designed, metroidvania game. Instead it was a frustrating, obnoxious, boring game with no semblance of a story or world building whatsoever. Everything in the game is so fucking random. At one point in the game there's a giant ghost, wolf thing that chases you around after you grab something called an M disc and I'm like, "Why the fuck is this happening?". Why are there ghost wolves and why do they want this stupid disc? You have to run around the map until you find a "M Disc shrine" while this stupid thing is chasing you and I had no idea why this was even happening. Animal Well is this weird, ambiguous, fucking game where nothing makes sense and nothing is ever explained to you. Why the fuck was I chasing a stupid squirrel throughout the entire game? What was the fucking point of that?

Prententious bullshit. This reminds me of another overrated, stupid game called Fez. I should know by now, when critics lavishly heap praise and 10 out of 10 scores on something...it probably sucks. They always prop up the lamest games.

 

[Dreamlord]

So I actually just finished the pretentious horse shit that is Animal Well. My opinion of it hasn't changed. It fucking sucks. Another one of those stupid, arty games that tries waaaaay too hard to be clever. There's so much shit in this game that makes zero sense even after beating the game. Like why the fuck are their random arrows on the walls? What the fuck is that giant rabbit mural all about? Why are there all of these cats in cages? What the fuck was the point of that stupid giant bat boss fight that gives you literally nothing for beating it.

This game is so fucking stupid. It never explains ANYTHING. I spent several hours not knowing I could fast travel using an item in my inventory because the game never fucking tells you what any items you get actually fucking do. After you beat the game, you get a stop watch item. I still have no fucking clue what it does and I don't see it anywhere in my inventory.

Also, unlike well designed Metroid games (like Guacamelee, Dust An Elysian Tale, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, etc.) Animal Well gives you zero help in figuring out where the secrets on the map are. There's a side quest involving finding a bunch of secret eggs. I'm guessing it gives you a special reward, but I don't have the patience to randomly wander around THE ENTIRE FUCKING MAP in the hopes of randomly discovering whatever eggs I haven't already found. Guacamelee always gave you a rough idea where any secrets you were missing were, and then you just had to figure out what you actually needed to do in that area to get the secret. It didn't spell things out for you, but it at least pointed you in the right direction.

I hate these gay, artsy, indie games. I thought this would just be a fun, well designed, metroidvania game. Instead it was a frustrating, obnoxious, boring game with no semblance of a story or world building whatsoever. Everything in the game is so fucking random. At one point in the game there's a giant ghost, wolf thing that chases you around after you grab something called an M disc and I'm like, "Why the fuck is this happening?". Why are there ghost wolves and why do they want this stupid disc? You have to run around the map until you find a "M Disc shrine" while this stupid thing is chasing you and I had no idea why this was even happening. Animal Well is this weird, ambiguous, fucking game where nothing makes sense and nothing is ever explained to you. Why the fuck was I chasing a stupid squirrel throughout the entire game? What was the fucking point of that?

Prententious bullshit. This reminds me of another overrated, stupid game called Fez. I should know by now, when critics lavishly heap praise and 10 out of 10 scores on something...it probably sucks. They always prop up the lamest games.

I don't know anything about Animal Well, but Fez was fantastic. Especially for its time.

 

[The Bloody Nine]

I quit Stellar Blade and I think I'll try Astrobot next. Picked it up this morning.

 

[The_Mike]

So I am stuck in the cistern map in Tomb Raider, the 8th level.

I have spend over three hours wondering why I can't get the second silver key which is locked behind a door under the water.

I might have soft locked myself by rising the water in the wrong order.

So this is probably how my tomb raider adventure ends, cus I sure as hell ain't starting over again.

I've spend over three hours completing that shitty ass level

 

[Arkam]

Still playing a Forza (2023) on PC and having a blast. It has got me rewatching old Top Gear episodes too. Makes me sad that they stopped doing the collaboration. Clarkson's intro in Forza 3 (or was it 4?) was legendary.

 

[BlackOlivesMatter]

Currently addicted to Throne and Liberty. It reminds me a lot of FF14 and FF11 in different ways. Playing on the PS5 only server is much more relaxing than the cross play servers with the PC sweats (have a char on both types). I was farming in an open world dungeon last night and accepted a rando invite to party up to clear faster, had a blast with the people I met randomly. I also made over 3k lucent selling shit on the AH so far (that's about $60 + in real world money)

 

[andreverts]

35 hours + into FF XVI and I think the game is a triumph. Wonderfully paced and fantastic story. Excellent combat with a wide range of abilities, though I do wish there were more combos rather than standard combo string of hitting X four times into a magic blast, or alternating between magic and sword attacks. The additional powers are where it really kicks up a gear and getting perfect dodges, getting major aerial combos, combo-ing with Torgal and then getting big damage on downed enemies is effortlessly fun.

Not sure how far I am story wise, but it's getting more and more anime the further I get in, which I can understand will be a turnoff for some. It's mostly in terms of boss scale as the story is played pretty straight. There's some great characters and many different factions all vying for control each with independent histories all fully fleshed out by in game historians. It's really the only thing I care to play at the moment and I think the move to real time Devil May Cry style combat was really smart and suits this particular game very well.

Ben Starr is doing a great job as Clive and Ralph Ineson also excels as Cid. All the voice cast do a good job here and the music is absolutely stellar.

Overall, it looks great, has nice varied environments which are pretty big, filled with plenty of side quests and monster hunts and is fun to play. It's a really strong contender for the best game I have played all year and I think my limited exposure to Final Fantasy as a franchise has probably only heightened my enjoyment. I will add, it is absolutely front-loaded with cutscenes which may kill pacing for some, but it's narrative hooks were intriguing for me and I've enjoyed all that has been presented thus far. I think someone made a supercut on YouTube and the cutscenes total about 20 hours for the game Kojima eat your heart out.

There's a few gripes here and there in terms of most side quests being glorified fetch quests and the combat being somewhat limited against its contemporaries but this is a great package. Looking forward to playing more.

Have you tried the arcade mode?
I think that's where the combat system shines, especially if you go for S rank.
I don't know how many Eikons you got, and how many abilities you maxed, but you will totally customize your style when you have enough and that's when it goes deep.
The main problem with this game is the low difficulty that doesn't train you to be skilled, only when you play for an S rank you truly understand the potential of this system.

I quit Stellar Blade and I think I'll try Astrobot next. Picked it up this morning.

Enjoy every minute of this little masterpiece!

So I am stuck in the cistern map in Tomb Raider, the 8th level.

I have spend over three hours wondering why I can't get the second silver key which is locked behind a door under the water.

I might have soft locked myself by rising the water in the wrong order.

So this is probably how my tomb raider adventure ends, cus I sure as hell ain't starting over again.

I've spend over three hours completing that shitty ass level

Don't give up man, if you grew up with these kind of game you know how rewarding will be when you'll figure out the solution (without the help of our friend Google, of course!).

 

[Amorous Biscuit]

Have you tried the arcade mode?
I think that's where the combat system shines, especially if you go for S rank.
I don't know how many Eikons you got, and how many abilities you maxed, but you will totally customize your style when you have enough and that's when it goes deep.
The main problem with this game is the low difficulty that doesn't train you to be skilled, only when you play for an S rank you truly understand the potential of this system.

Currently at 4 Eikons. Seems there are about 7 to get if the menu is anything to go by?

I've not bothered with the arcade stuff yet, but I will probably check it out later down the line.

 

[andreverts]

Currently at 4 Eikons. Seems there are about 7 to get if the menu is anything to go by?

I've not bothered with the arcade stuff yet, but I will probably check it out later down the line.

Actually it doesn't reward you anything, it's just pure glory. If you like it, consider buying The Rising Tide that adds a great feature to it - a sort of ultimate challenge.
Last week I established my personal record on it!

 

[Optimus]

I just beat Spyro for the first time. I've got the Reignited Trilogy that I've been playing alongside Hogwarts and Medieval. Immediately began Spyro 2 and holy wow is this a fun progression on an already fun game.

For context, I never played Spyro before buying the trilogy, and I had played a bit on PS4 but quit for some reason. Having a great time.

 

[Hinedorf]

Just been the 3rd chapter boss in Black Myth Wukong which shows only 56% of people have beaten. Definitely requires several tries at least for me and certain feels in the Soulsy range for difficulty

Curious if anybody has been playing this

 

[Grinchy]

I wonder if we have any members who are too shitty at videogames to get the Astrobot platinum.

There are some harder levels towards the end that give casual kiddies a tough time. I had to retry some of them more than 8 times, so a regular non-Chad could be at like 25 tries.

 

[The_Mike]

Don't give up man, if you grew up with these kind of game you know how rewarding will be when you'll figure out the solution (without the help of our friend Google, of course!).

I ended giving up.

And I would never have solved it anyway because I had to lower the water again to get in there and tbh I would never have figured it out.

 

[HE1NZ]

I ended giving up.

And I would never have solved it anyway because I had to lower the water again to get in there and tbh I would never have figured it out.

Nothing wrong with looking at some online guides a bit. Old Tomb Raider games can be quite obtuse.

Don't give up.

 

[Optimus]

I wonder if we have any members who are too shitty at videogames to get the Astrobot platinum.

There are some harder levels towards the end that give casual kiddies a tough time. I had to retry some of them more than 8 times, so a regular non-Chad could be at like 25 tries.

I'm too shitty. I moved on out of boredom and ready to play something else.

I can platinum it later.

 

[Grinchy]

I can platinum it later.

We'll see about that, bitch!

 

[Rock And Roll]

I wonder if we have any members who are too shitty at videogames to get the Astrobot platinum.

There are some harder levels towards the end that give casual kiddies a tough time. I had to retry some of them more than 8 times, so a regular non-Chad could be at like 25 tries.

I wanted to platinum VR but it was locked behind time trial trophies which I'm not a fan of. Got the rest of them however. Dunno if the new game has time trials but if so, I wouldn't go for the plat

 

[Grinchy]

I wanted to platinum VR but it was locked behind time trial trophies which I'm not a fan of. Got the rest of them however. Dunno if the new game has time trials but if so, I wouldn't go for the plat

Man, I never got the plat for the original VR Astrobot either. I liked it a lot, but the trophy grind wasn't fun.

Astrobot (PS5) was fun to me all the fucking way through. In fact, the plat hit, and I wished there was more. I wished there was even another difficulty tier upwards. This current game is getting DLC with timed levels, but it's not really much of a thing in the base game.

 

[andreverts]

I wonder if we have any members who are too shitty at videogames to get the Astrobot platinum.

There are some harder levels towards the end that give casual kiddies a tough time. I had to retry some of them more than 8 times, so a regular non-Chad could be at like 25 tries.

Got it.
Loved the difficulty pike at the end.
The new levels coming soon hopefully are more like it!

I digged in The Finals since the release of season 4 (both casual and ranked), really addicting to me. This weekend I'm going to switch on something else, single player.

 

[Pyrate]

I haven't started a new game in my Steam library in a while for multiple reasons (no free time, busy with other already-started games, just not feeling like it) and so to break the curse because I really want to go through the backlog (80 games down, 27 to go) I decided to start something that's highly regarded.

So I went with Portal. fucking phenomenal right away, already put 3 hours in today (unheard of for me). The portal gun is already iconic.

Other than that, one of the games I went back to while not feeling like starting something new; I finished all of Raiden's VR Missions in MGS2: Substance, only took 15 hours (1st place), and I'm not doing Snake's missions, they're even longer and apparently more difficult, so I think I'm taking a break from it for now. These little bonus missions were surprisngly fun and addictive, I usually never go for these extra challenges at all, but for some reason I thought about going back to the game and giving them a try, and I'm glad I did. Even the soundtrack for these supposedly extra content is fire.

Spoiler: Screenshot

I also went back to Ready or Not, since my friends can't play anything that's not shitty toxic pvp games, I just decided to play the rest of the game solo, it's a pretty damn solid game, even with the bots, which I actually propably prefer playing solo, reminds me of Rainbow Six Vegas 2. I took a break for now after doing some missions as there isn't much story in the game, so I'm kind of doing the "get into the game for a while then take a break" cycle.

I already mentioned it elsewhere, but I started Chrono Trigger a while ago, purely to see and decide if I'm an RPG guy or not, once and for all, and even though I ended up loving the game, I still can't tell if I'd like any other RPG if it wasn't as tight and well made as this gem, now I haven't finished it (basically at the final boss or just a mission before it) so will hold on to full thoughts until then.

Now coming to the trash games:
for some reason I redownloaded CS Source 2 to play with the boys. Counter-Strike used to be so cool I don't know why it sucks now, that or I'm just getting older (I'm 20).

I also tried The Finals again with some other friends, they added this Sledgehammer to the fat class and it's so funny and sick to stomp the skinny bitches with it, so that was cool for a bit but I already got tired of the game after 3 days of playing, I just can't stand these rubbish eSports wannabe games anymore, tired of the obligatory competetitive nature of pretty much every new multiplayer game out there, guess it's the only thing that sells nowadays.

I'll share screenshots for all these games when I get on my pc tomorrow.

 

[Dreamlord]

or I'm just getting older (I'm 20)