Playing/enjoying Skyrim, thought Dawnguard has me pretty pissed. Discover the castle before you do the quests and you're not only locked out, you have that one being following you around like a lost puppy. can't get rid of her, she won't carry anything... and occasionally attacks your sidekick.

Wish I could just remove Dawnguard from the PS4 super edition entirely.

About to finish now (level 55, already beat Dragonborn... only reason I haven't finished the game is was stupid and bumped archery to Legendary, so have to grind it up another 18 levels or so to regain max) so at least on my 2nd playthrough will skip exploring the castle, save before the quest encountering tagalong and if it fucks up again then, just reverting and leaving them were they originally were.

So fucking stupid Bethesda hasn't fixed this. The game has been around for ever, recently upgraded for ps4 or other platforms, now VR... so still raking in the cash. It's not some sidequest, it's a key step to an entire expansion.

Just gotta advertise, there's a ridiculously good Humble Bundle out now: 15 bucks for the Dreamfall: Chapters, Torment: Numenara, Wasteland 2, Shadowrun trilogy, Age of Wonders III, Xenonauts (like old-school X:COM revived) etc. I had just grabbed Dreamfall last week on Steam sale, because I'd finished DF:TLJ, but I asked for a refund immediately.

https://www.humblebundle.com/games/classics-return-bundle

I've been playing some story/adventure games with my wife lately. They are surprisingly fun together, like watching TV, although I probably wouldn't enjoy them so much solo. Life is Strange, DF:TLJ and The Wolf Among Us, most recently.

On my own, apart from D:OS, I'm almost done with The Mark of the Ninja. May be the smoothest stealth game I've ever played, although it doesn't quite have the immersion of Thief or such 3D sneaker. May try Invisible Inc. next, to see how a turn-based stealth game works out.

Games I played lately:

Half Life 2: The best PC game has aged awesomely well. 10/10
The Witcher 1: Shit, I skipped it after a while and went directly to the sequel 4/10
Prototype 1: I played the game a long time ago when it was released in a shitty laptop, I decided to play again. It's fun at the beginning but it gets repetitive. 7/10
Tekken 7: The story mode was short but it has good graphics and the combat system hasn't changed that much. I'm still a fucking pro in that game. 7.5/10
Assassin's Creed Origins: Ubisoft always with their shitty PC ports. I can't play this game the way it should be. Damn shame because it looked quite fun. Uninstalled.
SOMA: Great game, not really scary but the story was awesome. 8.5/10
Left 4 Dead 2: Fuuun as always 8/10

GTA 4: After that big clusterfuck that GTA 5 was it's amazing to remember again how brilliant the previous one was. 9.8/10

Written by [user id=142921] on 09.05.2018 at 14:40

boo get off the stage!!!

Ugh u like GTA 5!!!!!

GTA V is actually really fun. I don't even play much of the story, I just go around and do whatever I want. I love the freedom. The graphics are great, the attention to detail is pretty good, overall it's very enjoyable.

I enjoyed San Andreas a bit and tried to get into V. It's pretty decent to waste a few hours on, but the whole series is just so... meh, the more you spend time on it.

I got a new graphics card so I could finally get back to Witcher 3 to play the expansions. I gave the main game a lot of flak, and it's well deserved, but taking a long break made some of the illusion come back and some of the issues (boring combat, mediocre plot, lack of puzzles) have been fixed in the expansions. At least I really enjoyed Hearts of Stone, it was compact and had three worthwhile fights. The characters were great, the pacing excellent and there were was no unnecessary bloat. Now somewhere through Blood and Wine and while it suffers some of the problems of the original (yet again the lack of focus, shit exploration, chasing red dots etc.), it is a really refreshing change of scenery. For three games we've trudged in swamps, slums and muddy battlefields - it lost its edge - so getting to frolick with unicorns in a fairytale garden is surprisingly sweet. Beautiful world.

Still, though, at least 70% of this game is cutscenes, ugh.

I am in the middle of Divinity: Original Sin and Wasteland 2, too. Surprisingly, I think W2 is actually the better game once the initial charm of D:OS gameplay wore off. The story just isn't there, there's no motivation to push forward. Gonna grab D:OS2 when it's cheap though, since it apparently improves massively on the one aspect that makes D:OS disappointing. W2 is hardly reinventing the wheel, but it's very solid, bread-and-butter isometric fun that just always works for me. Still, I'd recommend Underrail and Age of Decadence over either of these big names.

Played a bit of Bioshock Infinite. Kind of pretty but not impressed with gameplay so far. Didn't really like the first game either.

Also bought Nier: Automata, but I'm still at the beginning since I'm playing with my wife when there's time. Looks awesome though. Thinking about Dishonored 2 or the other title, since they're supposedly better than the first. I played it as a stealth game which sucked, but maybe I should try a newer title as a superhero action game instead. Seems designed for that.

Dark Souls: Remastered - It's Dark Souls. Looks slightly better, plays just as jankily as ever. Already have a +3 Black Knight Sword and have only killed the Taurus Demon so am already hideously overpowered. Somehow managed to nab a Baller Swag Sword though against all luck so maybe I'll play with that instead. Don't buy this if you already own the Prepare To Die Edition, unless you can't or won't mod it with the DSfix and texture packs or are having serious performance problems. The refreshed multiplayer will be dead again in a couple of weeks.

Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire - Have played maybe 12 hours, which doesn't really feel much to be honest so can't comment on the story or much in the way of characters. Seems pretty good though. Visually it's much improved from the first and the full voice acting gives it a much more expensive feel than the first which belied it's comparatively cheap production. Combat feels pretty much the same though maybe a bit easier. Hate the ship combat and don't like having to constantly have resources and money to keep the ship and crew going, it puts me on edge. I just wanna play it at my own pace and not have to worry about that. The exploration aspect feels quite nice though.

Ni No Kuni II - I put a few hours into it back when it came out on PC and it seemed nice. I like the combat; it's such a massive improvement over the first. For some reason I haven't carried on with it but I'm sure I will at some point. The lack of voice acting is a let down though. Some parts are voice acted but most of it isn't and I think a Ghibli-esque game really needs full voice acting.

FFXIII: The Zodiac Age - Another fairly barebones remaster of the Japanese variant, but honestly it's just as good as when it was released back in the day. I thought restricting the classes would make it more difficult than the original version, but they seemed to have rejigged the balance to compensate and makes character stat and skill progression much more fun, although I did find I kind of more or less maxed my characters fairly early on in the game, other than the level they were on. But yeah, I'm glad it seems to have been better received reception wise with the player base than when it was originally released. Vaan is still as superfluous. He literally doesn't need to be in the game after the opening few hours. I still find the combat immensely satisfying and it can get really tense in some of the boss battles. The speed-up option is a God-send too.

FF XV: What a load of arse. I couldn't play more than half an hour each time before getting utterly bored with it. Lame-ass characters, boring story and side quests, empty and artless world, sluggish unsatisfying combat and so on. Needless to say I didn't get very far.

Ghost of a Tale: I've plunked a few hours into this but not gotten too far. It's really pretty for an indie game, very charming and the rudimentary stealth mechanics work well, and the level design is brilliant and very Souls-ian, but the bugs have put me off playing it further. I can usually deal with bugs fine but the game is riddled with all sorts of technical issues that just make it a chore to persist with. I'll go back when it's all smoothed out. I also got kinda lost in what I was supposed to do so that's partly why I didn't carry on.

Titanfall 2: One of the best single-player campaigns in an FPS I've played in years. It's a tad shorter than I would have liked but it's hella fun, had clever level design and pretty to look at, and the story was adequate enough.

Hyper Light Drifter: I bounced off this a while ago but sat down and played some while my house mate was hanging out and I think I finally broke into a bit. Again, haven't got very far but it definitely started to appeal to me. Great visuals, combat actualls works really well and the open ended feel of the exploration has a nice structure to it. Will definitely carry on at some point.


Contemplating getting a PS4 again now, to replay Bloodborne and because it seems to have enough quality exclusives to justify it: Persona 5, Horizon Zero Dawn, Uncharted 4, The Last Guardian, Gravity Rush 2, as well as the Shadow of the Colossus remake and Last Of Us remaster (which I haven't played at all yet). God of War too I guess but I suspect I won't like it. It does have Teal'c voicing Kratos though so might get it purely for that reason, lel. Also for Death Stranding when it comes out. That game looks like it'll be gnarly. Where the hell are the Xbox One exclusives though? The console's 4 and half years old now and only Halo 5 seems worth it. Even Sunset Overdrive is coming to PC.

Titanfall 2: Very good campaign and the multiplayer was entertaining for a while but that's it. (8/10)

Doom (2016): Best FPS I played from that year. The single campaign was excellent, brutal with no sign of rest, like the old ways. Multiplayer was kinda unnecesary but I still play it from time to time. (8.5/10)

Red Dead Redemption: Played it for the first time and ended the single mode last monday (10/10)

Yakuza 3: I loved the first two games from the PS2 era, however since I couldn't afford a PS3 for many years I forgot to check the sequels. I found the game in a cheap store along with the fourth game. (8.5/10)

Resistance 1: Outdated and boring (6/10)

Gameplay from FromSoft's new game Shadows Die Twice (Dark Souls, Bloodborne devs). Looks kinda great: action-y ninja /samurai goodness, possibly with stealth stuff. Nioh was a bit rubbish and left me really disappointed so can't wait for this.

Cyberpunk 2077 trailer was completely underwhelming, as a natural pessimist, I am setting my expectations really low at this point.

I didn't find it very Blade Runner-esque. Blade Runner is fairly dark and dingy. The trailer looked bright and colourful. I saw someone somewhere outline this, that it's a different vision of cyberpunk relating to something, though I can't remember what they were referencing.

Ghosts of Tsushima looked kinda great too. Seriously pretty. Death Stranding gameplay looked a bit boring but still interesting theme wise. Resident Evil 2 remake will probably be nice too. Metro Exodus is obviously gonna be great as well, and definitely intrigued by Platinum games new one too, looks a bit Dark Souls-ish potentially.

I've been playing a low level Wild Arms (the first for PSX) challenge.
The rules are: I can earn exp only on bosses. Optional bosses are ok (except for the arena ones, since they respawn)
Also, absolutely no usage of apples (because it kinda counts as leveling up) and the worst one: No goat dolls o.O
Can one finish the game with that? I don't know... To my knowledge the only low level wild arms challenge was done with goat doll usage, which makes the later game very easy.

Also on another game I have tried getting forgetfullness on bosses as well in order for it to be the lowest level possible, but it turns out the game is impossible ( I reached Pleasing Garden at level 5 and the boss rekts the party with a single attack, plus he attacks first because of speed, so... no way)

So this is kind of an experimental thing. So far the game is running smoothly. (The hardest I've faced is actually managing to avoid random encounters) The bosses give surprisingly a very good amount of exp early on the game. Now I have beat mother and the party is LV 17. Can't wait to reach the Boomerang/Luceid fight and get beat up =)

Cyberpunk looked like a loud action game. Of course, that's what Wild Hunt was, too, but it pulled off the atmosphere. Looking forward to it, sure, but I'll probably have more fun with Elex when I get around to that.

Finished Dreamfall Chapters. What a disappointment. Every game in the series was a step down from the previous, and this one was outright upsetting. Awful pacing, mostly just watching people talk badly written lines (not that the dialogue wasn't always cringy, but there was less of it), no puzzles, inconsequential choices. The story was at the same time predictable and pulling things out of its ass at last minute, with plenty of inconsistencies or unexplained things, and worst of all, it changed the thematic scope and lore of the series completely. It covered just enough gaps to tie the series together if you're charitable, but it didn't come together as a satisfying story.

Now playing Dragon's Dogma and Nier: Automata. DD is mostly fun. I enjoy the tougher boss/big monster fights, and getting to cutomize your team. I do not enjoy the filler mobs, and spamming flashy abilities in boring action sequences, nor the MMOesque tasks. Reminds me of Kingdoms of Amalur in both respects. I enjoy the world so far.

N:A is really good so far, enjoyably old school/Japanese. Story feels driven by gameplay and not vice versa, like modern western games. I play it on normal difficulty, though, because I'm not very good at these restless action games. Since the idea seems to be to keep shooting while you fight and since there's so much else going on, it's really hard for me to see and play the fights smart, specifically timing dodges and counterattacks. I don't really play it for the action, though, so that's fine.

Cyberpunk is going to be an FPS incidentally, so we can probably expect a Deus Ex-alike to a large degree.

Written by Mercurial on 13.06.2018 at 12:08

Cyberpunk is going to be an FPS incidentally, so we can probably expect a Deus Ex-alike to a large degree.

Superficially, maybe, but not to the degree that's relevant: pacing, level design, efficient scope, flexibility of approach to designated goal. The CDPR approach to open worlds and cinematic storytelling is antithetical to Deus Ex's gameplay-first philosophy and doing one thing right. It's not like this is a surprise, of course; we know what the current trend is and where CDPR's strength lies.

Written by IronAngel on 13.06.2018 at 12:19

Superficially, maybe, but not to the degree that's relevant: pacing, level design, efficient scope, flexibility of approach to designated goal. The CDPR approach to open worlds and cinematic storytelling is antithetical to Deus Ex's gameplay-first philosophy and doing one thing right. It's not like this is a surprise, of course; we know what the current trend is and where CDPR's strength lies.

Well I very much had Human Revolution and Mankind Divided in mind rather than the original, and I don't think those games were especially strong in any approach. I don't especially like CRPR's open world philosophy much; far too much filler, but if they like reign it in, perhaps with mini-sandboxes then I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt with this one. I suspect an FPS format will force them to focus on the details, rather than the scope.

Written by Mercurial on 13.06.2018 at 12:24

I don't especially like CRPR's open world philosophy much; far too much filler, but if they like reign it in, perhaps with mini-sandboxes then I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt with this one. I suspect an FPS format will force them to focus on the details, rather than the scope.

Hopefully, but I suspect you'll be able to wander around the city after Points of Interest, shooting up gangs and intervening in robberies and racing cars and whatever, and they've hyped that it's gonna be even bigger than W3 (as if that was a good thing, jesus). Probably like GTA meets Witcher world design with Deus-Exesque character flavor.

Haven't played the new one, but Human Revolution was fairly concise. I liked that about it, at least. They also didn't show any real vertical dimension in the trailer, so probably there's not going to be a lot of climbing and jumping and shit.

Written by IronAngel on 13.06.2018 at 12:37

Hopefully, but I suspect you'll be able to wander around the city after Points of Interest, shooting up gangs and intervening in robberies and racing cars and whatever, and they've hyped that it's gonna be even bigger than W3 (as if that was a good thing, jesus). Probably like GTA meets Witcher world design with Deus-Exesque character flavor.

Haven't played the new one, but Human Revolution was fairly concise. I liked that about it, at least. They also didn't show any real vertical dimension in the trailer, so probably there's not going to be a lot of climbing and jumping and shit.

Human Revolution was good for a playthough, but I've never been able to break back into it again. I wish I'd waited on it for the version with the rejigged bosses. Mankind Divided felt like an ADHD nightmare with too much menu and sensory overload and I had trouble enjoying it in all honesty.

Well GTA was the first thing I thought of when watching the Cyberpunk trailer, the presentation felt very similar. Like any open world game I'll probably play for about 30 hours before the sense of repetition sets in and I put it aside.

Bloodborne.

Beast Cutter is OP. Made the Bloody Crow of Cainhurst go from the hardest encounter in the Soulsborne series to completely trivial and dead in a minute with barely a scratch.

Nearly finished The Old Hunters DLC in Bloodborne. Just about half the Fishing Hamlet to go I'm guessing. Don't know if I'm overpowered but so far only Laurence took a couple of goes to beat, the rest went down on the first go. Ludwig was probably the the messiest shit-fest of a fight I've ever had though. I'm pretty sure he hit me with every attack he made and I'm not sure how I beat him. Maria was so staggerable for the first 2/3 of the fight. Kinda wish she started the fight in her third phase. Living Failures was at least a bit harder than the Celestial Emissary. The Whirligig Saw with about 660 AR is serving me well though so hoping Orphan of Kos goes down easy enough.

K got Kos on the first try. Hard but was expecting harder. Has nothing on Nameless King (10+ fights), Fume Knight (40+ fights), or Midir (gave up+). Good fight though.

Well Gerhman and MLP were a cakewalk after that.

Probably the best in the series, aside from some camera issues with larger bosses / enemies. The lore is mindblowingly good. Strongly considering a Micolash tattoo, because his lore is awesome, he's unique and he's the only fucker that took 3 goes to topple (A Call Beyond can jump off a cliff).

Now on to Persona 5.

Written by Mercurial on 22.06.2018 at 03:02

Ludwig was probably the the messiest shit-fest of a fight I've ever had though. I'm pretty sure he hit me with every attack he made and I'm not sure how I beat him.

Ugh, that fight gave me the most trouble out of any From Software boss fight. Really the only Souls(-related) boss that I ever got stuck on.

I think I actually never finished the DLC though, can't remember why but I stopped somewhere in the fishy town and just never continued. Should probably correct that mistake some time.

Written by Zap on 23.06.2018 at 20:05

Ugh, that fight gave me the most trouble out of any From Software boss fight. Really the only Souls(-related) boss that I ever got stuck on.

I think I actually never finished the DLC though, can't remember why but I stopped somewhere in the fishy town and just never continued. Should probably correct that mistake some time.

He's just a hyper-aggressive mass of flailing limbs. and the camera was an absolute nightmare. Unlocking when he jumps and getting stuck behind him so you couldn't see yourself. Kudos to anyone that learns to beat him skillfully. Cool design and amazing music though.

Shame, you were probably really close to the last boss, the fishing hamlet was a surprisingly small area.

Last of Us. I tried about 3 hours and it just plain sucks. I'm sure the story gets good but the gameplay loop is really rudimentary and beyond dull. Felt the same about Uncharted 2 so not sure why I expected any different. Might just Youtube the rest and call it a day.

Written by Mercurial on 23.06.2018 at 23:10

Written by Zap on 23.06.2018 at 20:05

Ugh, that fight gave me the most trouble out of any From Software boss fight. Really the only Souls(-related) boss that I ever got stuck on.

I think I actually never finished the DLC though, can't remember why but I stopped somewhere in the fishy town and just never continued. Should probably correct that mistake some time.

He's just a hyper-aggressive mass of flailing limbs. and the camera was an absolute nightmare. Unlocking when he jumps and getting stuck behind him so you couldn't see yourself. Kudos to anyone that learns to beat him skillfully. Cool design and amazing music though.

Shame, you were probably really close to the last boss, the fishing hamlet was a surprisingly small area.

Well, after I finish Horizon: Zero Dawn, I'll probably go back to finish that DLC. As I said, I really have no idea why I suddenly stopped playing. Maybe I'd just had enough :p

Written by Zap on 24.06.2018 at 09:24

Well, after I finish Horizon: Zero Dawn, I'll probably go back to finish that DLC. As I said, I really have no idea why I suddenly stopped playing. Maybe I'd just had enough :p

I was thinking of starting Horizon Zero Dawn actually. Will see how much Gravity Rush 2 absorbs me when it gets going.

Written by Mercurial on 24.06.2018 at 14:48

I was thinking of starting Horizon Zero Dawn actually. Will see how much Gravity Rush 2 absorbs me when it gets going.

Well, I'm about 8 hours in and quite liking it so far. Only thing bothering me is how there is no challenge to it whatsoever. Started the game on Ultra Hard and honestly haven't had a single difficult encounter (yet?), the only reason I've ever died is because I wanted to kill something or someone in a cool manner. Maybe I just haven't advanced far enough into the game for the difficulty to really kick in, since I've spent a lot of time just exploring the wilds and hunting some big fekking machines. Story seems alright though, I'm interested to see where that goes.

Written by Zap on 26.06.2018 at 10:00

Well, I'm about 8 hours in and quite liking it so far. Only thing bothering me is how there is no challenge to it whatsoever. Started the game on Ultra Hard and honestly haven't had a single difficult encounter (yet?), the only reason I've ever died is because I wanted to kill something or someone in a cool manner. Maybe I just haven't advanced far enough into the game for the difficulty to really kick in, since I've spent a lot of time just exploring the wilds and hunting some big fekking machines. Story seems alright though, I'm interested to see where that goes.

I think I read somewhere that you can be overleveled, so maybe that's part of it.

I played about half an hour when I first got it, just to check it out. Didn't even see any dinosaurs in that time. but it's definitely one insanely pretty game.

Gravity Rush 2 is huge fun so far, and I haven't even gotten the alternate gravity states yet. Loving the visuals, especially of the huge main city area, and the soundtrack is phenomenal. Best I've heard since Nier: Automata. Surprised to say it was done by the composer of Alundra too.

I flew around one area for ages just to listen to this.

Persona 5 is such a long game. I'm 45 hours in and not sure I'm even at the halfway mark yet. Good game though, vastly improved on the previous ones with the combat additions and quality of life improvements, as well as non-randomly generated dungeons. Not so sure about the story though. It's good, but the structure to it can be somewhat repetitive and is still lacking a major antagonist.