Just beat Bloodborne, which was pretty good, if not quite a Dark Souls beater. Trounces Demon's Souls though, which is quite easily my least favourite having gone through all the games again this year.

I actually fucked up the end though and chose the wrong option, which, with to give a little spoiler away means you miss out on the last 2 bosses (or only 1 boss if you didn't do a certain thing, which I made sure I did). Bit annoyed as up to that point I'd solo one-shotted all but two of the bosses (making sure I didn't fall foul of the PS4 memory leak glitch too) and the one Chalice dungeon boss I fought; didn't bother much with the Chalice Dungeon as it was a bit rubbish. The only bosses that gave me trouble were Martyr Logarius who took 3 tries before I learned the value of parrying there, and Ebrietas, the Daughter of The Cosmos which was a bit of a bullshit boss with her nearly-unavoidable charge attacks. She took me 4 goes I think. Youtubed the last two bosses instead (as I'll be selling my PS4, which I only bought for Bloodborne) and they didn't look too difficult. Not to say this is any easier than other Souls games. Possibly harder in fact. Bosses take a lot more damage to bring down and you can often get caught in flurry attacks which nigh on kill you (most bosses I ended up with only a few blood vials left). Actually the NPC hunters were harder than the bosses, the side-quest related one inside the Cathedral in particular. Holy shit. Still though, the real enemy was the camera, which has somehow gotten awful. Rarely had issues with it in other games but in Bloodborne I could probably attribute half of my deaths to the camera when it filled the screen with the back of my character's head after being in a corner. Not to mention the jumping mechanic also got worse; putting the jump button back on the circle button: the button you also use to run and roll with. Why.

But yeah it's really good, if a little barebones I think. Great art style of course, even if the game feels a little saturated at times and sort of all looks the same a bit after a while, not to mention the fairly frequent re-use of assets and monster re-skinning. Story, and level design wise it could be the best yet; the way the levels sprawl and contort, although again at times the vertical nature and endless lift shortcuts felt a bit obvious after a while. Not quite as many "wow, I'm here?" surprises as with DS1. Definitely the best set of bosses I think in a Souls related game but maybe too many oversized grotesque amorphous creatures which fill the whole screen and become flailing messes, perhaps. They more or less all look spectacular though, and the fact the majority are multi-staged is great, and what all future games should aim for.

I say it feels barebones as there's not all that much choice for gameplay, outside of the (comparatively) few trick weapons. No matter how you cut it it's a little hack 'n' slash-y at times, and there's really only one way to play the game so definitely not as deep as a Dark Souls game. It does what it does fairly well though so can't really criticise is too much. It's much more fast paced (very much so during bosses; seriously intense) and parrying is easier and more encouraged, again during bosses as it's usually the only way to deal large amounts of damage. Dark Souls just feels more fleshed out, what with magic; proper long range combat; upgradable armour that affect your movement and poise; shields; tons of different weapon types and movesets, and so on. All missing from Bloodborne. It doesn't really beg for repeated plays, so I don't feel bad getting rid of it as I'd completed basically everything outside the Chalice Dungeon (I metagamed a bit). The timer by the end was 34 hours, and I was level 71 I think. Pretty sure I left the game idle for a few hours so maybe closer to 30 hours. It didn't feel short though. Any more and I think would have been too much given the very specific tone of the game. I guess the Chalice Dungeons are where the extra gameplay is. As I said though I tried them for a bit and didn't enjoy them at all as they wreaked of randomly generated content (which they are) which was pretty dull compared to the design of the rest of the game, mostly boxy looking rooms and so forth. It's a shame so many bosses are locked away in them. I guess most of them are reskins. Two or three look pretty nice though. Eh, what else. Multiplayer. Didn't get much experience with that. It took so long to download the patch needed for network play that I was halfway through the game, and even then there wasn't much of it.

I liked it a lot, probably more than it seems I do. It's a very memorable experience, maybe the most memorable of the Souls games, just not as fun as some of the others which is what keeps drawing me back to them. I've done DS II 3 times now, one being Scholar of the First Sin, and for all its flaws and questionable designs it's by far and away the most refined, playable and fun, not to mention content-rich. Now the wait for Dark Souls III.

--

I also put in about 50 / 60 hours into Witcher 3 before I got bored and uninstalled it. I can't get my head around the praise of it. It's certainly pretty, immensely so (technically speaking anyway) and the story is good and very well written but the gameplay is 1 part janky (broken hard-lock on system) and 2 parts dull: dodge; attack a few times; roll away, repeat. Spam Axii if need be, use Yrden if one of the Witch things. It rarely amounted to much more than that. I even bumped the difficulty right up in the hope it would affect the AI, but it didn't. Just artificially increased damage. I rarely had to prepare for fights either. Boring. There wasn't even any weapon variations to play around with. Axes I guess, but they were rarely worth it.

The worst part though was the ultra repetitive, cut-and-paste content itself. Sidequests seemed to be almost entirely (mildly) contextualised fetch quests, which followed the pattern: Someone / something's gone missing; use Witcher sense to follow some footprints; scan an area or two; fight a generic enemy; report back to quest giver. That happened a lot. And then there's the question mark spots on the map which seems to make up about 60% of the game's content (which is probably a good 100 hours or so). The thing is they consist of the same 5 or 6 events. 1: a settlement of pirates / thugs which you wipe out, who have the AI of a collection of drunken morons. Every settlement basically being the same, except sometimes they're guarding a cage with a vendor who's being held prisoner, who ends up selling useless items most of the time (if you can even track him down again to start with). 2: monster nests: the same as any generic monster group you find anywhere else, except after you beat them you get to walk up the nest(s) on the ground and press a button to blow it up. Riveting. 3: A single, stronger monster. Fun for a bit, until you realise it's re-skin central before long. 4: Treasure hunt. Always the same. You find a dead body with a note on, which you read and then sniff out off the chests, which 90% of the time contains nothing useful, usually armour and weapons which you sell because they're no good to you. 5: if you're lucky you'll find one of those pylon things which give you skill points to spend. Then there's monster hunts, and Witcher weapon / armour hunt missions which are basically more rewarding versions of other things. After rinse and repeating that for 12 - 15 hours or so it all started to feel very empty as a game, compounded by the fact all the little hamlets and villages dotted around were filled with people you couldn't interact with except the vendors, blacksmiths and the odd quest giver. I kind of wish I could go back and tell myself to set the game on easy, ignore all the side-content and just concentrate on the story. That's where the quality is. The rest drags it down so I don't see why it's a badge of honour that there's hundreds of hours of content. I actually found Dragon Age: Inquisition more engaging and fun, and it basically has the same issues. I recall really liking Witcher 2 though. The guided, more more linear world promoted more variety and kept things constantly new, and I don't recall having issues with the combat either.

Also put about 70 hours into Pillars of Eternity, though I didn't quite finish it as the story sort of stopped engaging me near the end. It felt like devs were running out of steam in that department. I enjoyed what I played of it though. The streamlined real-time / pause combat was actually pretty fun. Not as deep as Baldur's Gate but much easier to get into a flow and not bogged down by unnecessary spells etc. After the initial difficulty curve it got a bit easy though (on normal difficulty anyway). I think the only times I died were because of classic Obsidian glitches. I might go back and finish it one day.

Also played through the whole of Baldur's Gate 2 at last. Was pretty good overall. Probably the best example of world density and meaningful, interesting side-quests I've ever seen in an RPG. The main story was fairly decent, and Irenicus was a great baddie (though I'm a sucker for anything David Warner related) although by the end it sort of felt like they wrote him into a corner and resorted to revenge / power tropes. That being said he faired better than all the other main characters, which were almost entirely paper-thin stereotypes with typically lightweight banter. Hearing about Aerie's wings, or how Korgan was gonna fuck shit up, or how sneakily evil Edwin was for the umpteenth time wore a bit thin by the end. And speaking of the end; that feigned attempt at progression and resolution right before you go down to the final area, with the one line from each character. Ha! And let's not mention the romance options. Clearly Bioware hadn't learned how to write deep characters yet, though I guess if I'd play it back then I might not be so critical. Actually the best character in the game was probably that hilarious Beholder in Sahuagin City. Combat was functionally crap, but did the job I guess. Again, with prudent exploration I ended up tearing through the game, even dragons didn't seem to pose much of a threat with the same tried and tested approaches.

Also finally broke into Planescape: Torment after about the 6th attempt. Damn, that game is ugly, buggy and with God-awful combat. But I agree that the story and characters are immensely engaging. I've just reached Curst, which is when Bloodborne arrived so I put it on hold. Will get back it it now though.

That was quite a lot of text.

Written by BitterCOld on 16.07.2015 at 02:49

for PS4.

Be still my heart...

Written by whatsacow on 25.07.2015 at 02:33

It feels short, but I think that's more a case of it never growing tired. You don't want it to end. Also, unlike Dark Souls, this games story is a lot more prominent, extremely dark and creepy, and all kinds of awesome. Think lovecraft/steampunk hybrid, but with gameplay that feels like a mix of Dark Souls and Old School Devil May Cry. I bought my PS4 just for it, and I wasn't disappointed.

Yeah, everything I've seen from it makes it seem like a really great game. I'm not buying a ps4 just for one game though, even this one

I recently bought Ultra Street Fighter IV for PC and it's kinda good, the only issue I have is that my ass gets always kicked when I play online :'(

Written by [user id=142921] on 26.07.2015 at 16:50

Look at you just barging in here with a tower of text .

Lel, yeah it didn't intend to be an essay, but after writing about BB I thought I might as well mention a few other games I played this year. Forgot to mention the Resident Evil Gamecube remaster too, which I really liked. I'm surprised how good it looks considering they upscaled from 480p (I think) pre-rendered backdrops. Using the new non-helicopter controls made it a bit easy though (although a massive pain in the A to move from one screen to other). Cities Skyline was also pretty great, though a bit basic and easy I think. I'd pretty much done everything in a couple of days. Also did the first episode of Kentucky Route Zero which I loved so much I'm gonna wait until the whole lot of acts are out as I want to do it all in one go. Also finally played through Transistor, which went right on the pile with Bastion in games I just didn't like at all. Nice artstyle but boring level design, annoying, pretentious voice acting, and surprisingly dull gameplay, though maybe a bit better than Bastion. Weirdly the whole thing felt like an extended demo, but even then I couldn't wait to finish it just to get it out the way.

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Agree that chalice dungeons are junk. No incentive to go in there as you progress through the game...if you don't completely forget about them that is. If you do them at the end it's a cakewalk mostly though the final boss is great lore wise. Not to mention it throws out what the franchise shines in ala level design which I also agree was a bit predictable but I think that was more just down to experience with previous titles. If Dark Souls wasn't my first game I wouldn't be anywhere as amazed as I was in the Undead Burg/Parish (always mix them up) where you kick down the red ladder to the bonfire.

I hope it's not something they reprise tbh. I'd hate to think future Souls games were going to have randomly generated content. While I can always ignore it I would know that it was time and resources taken away from the main game which would bother me a little.

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I attribute the shittier camera mostly to the quicker movement. Though sometimes it gets stuck behind the giant enemies which is annoying albeit not game breaking.

The faster pace definitely didn't help, but for me any inside area or enclosed space became a bit of an issue on a few occasions. I nearly died fighting Micolash because of it. Usually you could just not lock on, but in BB you lose out on the sidestep / jumps if you don't lock on. Not sure if they're mechanically different from rolls though, but they feel more nimble.

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Disagree about it having the best bosses because for me they're neither the hardest nor the most loveable. They just have the most detailed and fleshed out visual design, which you can thank technology for. I still struggle most with Dark Souls. Demon's Souls bosses are piss easy but they're loveable and memorable. Most of them have a level of purity and clarity that the ones in the other games don't if that makes ANY sense. Not sure how else to describe it.

Yeah not sure exactly what you mean =P I'd say Bloodborne bosses look more pure as they're all very indicative of the world / dream they're set in. I was never too hot on quite a few Demon's bosses. I think Storm King could be a contender for best Souls boss, and I really liked the left field nature of Fool's Idol and False King Allant was a lot of fun to fight, but all of Valley Of Defilement bosses were a bit rubbish, as were the likes of Adjudicator and Armour Spider. I think what elevates the BB bosses is firstly that they almost all had more than one stage of attack which means that they felt more fleshed out and diverse with greater range of attacks, but also that they felt more like living entities that react better and more realistically to you, not least because they could mostly be stunned, usually in more than one way too (going for the legs, parrying etc.), whereas bosses in other games just tend to take your hits without reacting. The super pretty nature of them helps too. I don't find their difficulty to be a huge factor in how much I like them. It's a lot easier to be thrilled in BB too, given that they're mostly fast paced and can't be cheesed with super powerful builds. It had a few rubbish bosses though. Celestial Entity was a joke, though I suspect it was put there to bely the difficult of Ebrietas. One Reborn seemed a bit rubbish to me too, but i think I might have just been lucky there. Just ran into it's middle bit and spammed attacks without much need to heal. Was the only boss I could do that on.

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Sorry you got bored ;p Ultimately Witcher 3 led me to hate open world story driven games, but for entirely different reasons hehe which i'll expand on a bit with spoiling later. I found the combat visceral, satisfying and just.. great..except for the hardlock system. Isn't dodge, attack a few times, roll away, repeat essentially souls...or most games for that matter? Each game has their nuances in the combat sure but some just can't be utilized in other games. Take the weight of souls combat for example, I don't think that Witcher combat, when at its best, should feel remotely like that due to the facts. He's an agile, mutated witcher who swings rapidly and flowlingly. Overall good job with the combat imo.

I've generally disliked sandbox games for a while now. It seems almost no one has got it right. The bigger the world, the more you have to fill it with. Well, it's true that that's fundamentally what BB's combat is, but I think the difference is both the variety of ways in which you can hurt your enemy (which is what, 16 trick weapons each with maybe 20 individual attacks each), and also that you own every move and attack you make and are responsible if you hit, miss or get hit yourself. I didn't really get that in Witcher 3. For one, he only effectively had two attacks, fast weak and slow strong, but worse still the animations were not reactive to the enemies. So many times I'd attack something or someone, say a human who was clearly open to be hit, to see the animation jerk into a block the moment I made contact. Dodging also felt a little algorithm based too. A bit too Assassin's Creed / Arkham Asylum for me. Souls games probably spoiled me, but Witcher combat feels very scripted, and the encounters very formulaic; no real environmental risks etc. I think that's mostly down to the sandbox nature of it. With a Souls game enemy placement is very specific and situational so you take each encounter on its merits, rather than going through the motions.

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Sidequests gave a lot of context most of the time not sure what else you want there. Even the contracts had plenty of context to them. Variety lied in the lore (past) behind each sidequest/contract more so than the gameplay and story (present/future). I understand the repetiveness of asking, witcher sensing, killing is where your issues lies but I was fine with it. The backstory was fleshed out enough for me to care. A good chunk of the side quests were also nicely woven into the main story.

Context wasn't so much my issue. My biggest problem with sandbox games is that when I start to feel repetition it really takes me out of the world and breaks immersion. Doing the same things over and over again, no matter how good the context is a killer for me and makes the game seem very empty and lonely. I become very aware that I'm talking to a collection of pixels rather than a person. It's why I've never completed an Elder Scrolls game. How realistic is it to find dozens and dozens and dead men dotted around, who are all carrying notes, which all lead to treasure that happens to be about 50 feet away? It doesn't make sense to me to fill a world with so much of the same content. To me the obvious answer is to cut it down by 75% or so, and make more individualised events that are memorable. It'll cut down on the amount of gameplay time but it'll be higher quality. Fill the world with interesting structures, buildings, monuments etc. that just have lore to discover if there's a lot of empty space.

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As I alluded to earlier, these issues are trivial to someone like me who just knows and cares about the world and lore (books and games). The death of a character I love will linger in my mind much more than some useless smuggler's caches included as filler. I did everything except for the smugglers caches and the game took me 180 hours to complete. My issue lies with the dip in storytelling and characterization depth in the final act/third w/e you wanna call it which I attribute to a lack of time. Without spoiling anything, decisions were made that don't make sense both from a story and lore perspective, ideas weren't fleshed out as much as they should have been. Characters were introduced when there were clearly better alternatives and they were only included because they were low on time and needed some character development. It sucks because i'm not even nitpicking as my issues don't exist throughout the first 2/3 of the game. If the level of detail and characterization found in the Barron quest line existed throughout the final act I'd be the happiest person in the world. The lack of character development in the final act is incredibly detrimental to the wild hunt, especially. It's not like the ideas weren't there. They're there just not fleshed out to a level one would expect. Out of any franchise I connect to this one on an emotional level the most so im just filled with emotional conflict. Ii'd give it a 9/10 as its incredibly memorable though I've never been more disappointed in a game..ever. Its bittersweet to the extreme. I guess that just stems from how much I care about it. My dumbass treats the characters like real people and not just pixels. Anyway i'm rambling now, made myself sad and probably put you off the game entirely whoopsie lol

I can certainly understand that. I can totally look past the shit gameplay of Mass Effect 1 because I loved the world, exploration and story so much and I'm sure quite a few other games are like that too. I was never invested in the Witcher world so gameplay was my main interest so you haven't necessarily put me off =P

It just occurred to me how sad it is that we'll possibly never see Bloodborne in 60fps, and without the egregious motion blur. This game deserves to be on the PC. Also listening to the OST now, as you don't really get to enjoy it during the fights. Amazing stuff,

Written by tea[m]ster on 26.07.2015 at 06:02

Written by BitterCOld on 16.07.2015 at 02:49

for PS4.

Be still my heart...

had a ps2, it lasted a decade until i moved... towards the end only 3-4 games worked, but worked it did.

couldn't take Dark Helmet (my frankenbox) down to SA, so bought myself a PS4 here.

still debating on game to get. most new run $100... and just got the mega-new patch for Diablo so bounty exploration mode to go and f with for a little while longer at least.

Written by [user id=142921] on 26.07.2015 at 16:50

Written by Zap on 26.07.2015 at 12:37

Yeah, everything I've seen from it makes it seem like a really great game. I'm not buying a ps4 just for one game though, even this one

Why not? Be stupid like me and buy one.

Who knows, maybe it's the smart thing to do.

I might reconsider when some more games are released. I heard there's a new Ratchet & Clank on the way, although those are pretty hit or miss these days... There aren't many interesting PS4 exclusives are there?

Good to see you're alive, Joe! Very fair estimation of BG2. I thought Jaheira was a pretty good and interesting character, though. The "romance" isn't very deep, but I like that they wrote such a harsh and dislikable character who isn't excused because she's a cool badass or something. Definitely my favorite NPC party member.

I can't help but think people who call BG2 the greatest RPG ever either haven't played a whole lot of RPGs or are too nostalgic to really think about it.

Written by IronAngel on 28.07.2015 at 00:39

Good to see you're alive, Joe! Very fair estimation of BG2. I thought Jaheira was a pretty good and interesting character, though. The "romance" isn't very deep, but I like that they wrote such a harsh and dislikable character who isn't excused because she's a cool badass or something. Definitely my favorite NPC party member.

I can't help but think people who call BG2 the greatest RPG ever either haven't played a whole lot of RPGs or are too nostalgic to really think about it.

that one has the closest feel to a pen and paper one. the characters might not have the "depth" or archs of later coming games - but consider the time it was created, the budgets allotted games back then vs now, the device used to play them.

hell, i skipped BG1 as BG2 was my initial foray into PC gaming after switching to PS back in the mid-90s... was shocked when my mish-mash party, got into a fight in an Inn and Jaheira and her beau got into it with two evil characters i added just to fill my ranks. not words, actually started killing one another. i just took the remaining member of my party, zoned outside, waiting a couple minutes and returned to regroup the victors.

my appreciation is less for the combat - which, to be fair, was pretty good given it was driven not by "what makes a great action game?" dynamics, but rather the ruleset of D&D at the time. i like the stories, the world, the side quests, some of the stupidity (friend's first play through of the original, accidentally attacked a cow and was subsequently killed by a farmer.) the romance with Viconia was one long ass, amusing courtship.

I played some of the Warlords series, enjoyed as clunky as it could be Wizardry, Crusaders of the Dark Savant, Final Fantasy VII was good (as were II and III or whatever they were called in the west), as was Mass Effect series... but BG2 is still my favorite. i enjoyed playing again, and would love to do so from another POV/class. Mass Effect I'd do again with a proper rig. FF VII? No way in hell. Between the two super-extended dance remix cut scenes and the chocobo grind (let alone those who dared brave the Knights of the Round grind)? no thanks.

the more modern the game, the more fantastic it looks, but none have absorbed me like that one did. only Mass Effect made me invest a fraction of the hours, redoing it from different classes for different gameplay experience.

of course, I'm coming from having played pen and paper roleplaying games, where we might go a session or two without combat. i liked the group of 4-5 having completely different motivations and styles - some gamers were overly complex, others were one dimensional stereotypes/archetypes.

Written by BitterCOld on 28.07.2015 at 02:05

that one has the closest feel to a pen and paper one.

In terms of gameplay, at least, Temple of Elemental Evil and Pool of Radiance 2 are much closer to PnP D&D. (Unfortunately, of course, they're not exactly great games in other aspects.) My beef with BG2 is that there's very little real choice, you can't really fuck up by making a wrong decision; it's a fun and easy romp through Amn. I'l grant you that it's beautiful and has memorable characters and story moments (mostly in side-quests). And it's just fun to build and level-up your party. By no means is it a bad game - I'd probably rate it 8/10 - but I also feel its reputation overshadows other cRPGs. I have a hard time naming favorites, but Deus Ex, Wizardry 8, Fallout 1 & 2, Might & Magic 6, Geneforge, Knights of the Old Republic, VtM: Bloodlines etc. deserve just as much attention. (Morrowind and Dark Souls too, but they're almost as hyped.) And that's not going into the various jRPGs and old console games.

I do get why people love BG2 so much, though. For many, it was a revelation of what RPGs could be. It is a well-rounded package that has aged relatively well, with awesome fan content. (There's a mod that lets you play both the games and expansions in a single playthrough and even bring some companions from 1 to 2 - it's essential.) For me, the game that I see through rose-tinted glasses is Final Fantasy IX. It was the first RPG I got for myself, when it was released. Those areas, characters, that music, I'm still convinced it's in the top 5 most atmospheric RPGs ever.

Written by IronAngel on 28.07.2015 at 00:39

Good to see you're alive, Joe! Very fair estimation of BG2. I thought Jaheira was a pretty good and interesting character, though. The "romance" isn't very deep, but I like that they wrote such a harsh and dislikable character who isn't excused because she's a cool badass or something. Definitely my favorite NPC party member.

I can't help but think people who call BG2 the greatest RPG ever either haven't played a whole lot of RPGs or are too nostalgic to really think about it.

Cheers! I used Jaheira on one of my first attempts at playing the game, I got a few hours into it (dunno why I stopped) and she did seem like she would be less of a cliche, and with a bit more depth to her. On my proper playthrough though she died from the curse she gets as I was a bit slow to sort it out, and / or I swapped her out temporarily and couldn't find her again. Supposedly she should have turned up at the dock, in the corner, but she never did and I didn't see her for the rest of the game so couldn't use her. I had Anomen for a bit, but he ran off when I didn't do his quest in time. Quite glad about that in retrospect, he was a bit annoying.

But yeah, there's lots modern RPGs could learn from BG2, but also a lot of it is pretty antiquated now as well. Bioware seems to have nailed character interaction these days but suffered in many other ways.

Written by [user id=4365] on 26.07.2015 at 04:48


Also finally broke into Planescape: Torment after about the 6th attempt. Damn, that game is ugly, buggy and with God-awful combat. But I agree that the story and characters are immensely engaging. I've just reached Curst, which is when Bloodborne arrived so I put it on hold. Will get back it it now though.

That was quite a lot of text.

I find PS:T suffers from crap combat less than other infinity engine RPGs, I guess maybe because you don't have to combat that much at all. I literally could not get through the intro area in BG2 without attempting to gouge my eyes out...

Also, welcome back oO.

Written by [user id=142921] on 28.07.2015 at 07:41

The roll and sidestep have the exact same amount of I-frames.

There doesn't seem to be much info on this oddly enough. From what I can tell the sidestep / back is quicker, and also gives you a different attack when done right out of a forward step. Either way I wouldn't mind seeing this implemented in future Souls games, based entirely on weight of course.

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Storm King is great. It's my avatar on this site ^.^ Rom and Micolash heavily remind me of Demon's Souls. They'd fit right in I think. I think Rom is my favourite boss in the game. She can also be the hardest for some if you don't know how to dodge her vertical glacial cascades.

Micolash sort of annoyed me, for one his dialogue got in the way of me picking up the items dotted about =P and he also spammed a call beyond spell and nearly killed me as it's almost impossible to dodge right. Rom was also my favourite though. Just a very memorable battle. I loved the design of Rom too. She looked so pathetic and helpless, yet by the end of the fight there were at least 50 spiders crawling toward me. That fight was a total hit and run job from the off. Never stop moving, don't bother with the baby spiders, just get in a hit and run out and around again. Did it with a blood vial to spare too.

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It's good but I skip most of the songs on it :/ Gerhman's theme and Hunt or be hunted(?) are the highlights for me there. Can't beat the Maiden Astraea theme though!

Well there's The Hunt, which is Gascoigne's. I assume you mean that one? That one, Cleric beast and Queen of the Vilebloods (loved the last 30 seconds or so) were the standouts for me I think.

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Ye I always preach environmental lunacy. For a map that big I expected more. Skellige delivered. Velen and White Orchard not so much. We can both agree that keeping the game linear like the first two would have been the better road to take. I hope MGSV doesn't suffer the same fate.

I have a feeling MGSV will be a few smaller sandboxes with more handcrafted layout so I reckon it should be ok.

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Going into a Witcher game for gameplay? You silly man! Gameplay is the last thing you play the Witcher series for haha. I hope you don't go to McDonalds looking for a sophisticated meal too. I have a real habit of loving extremely flawed PC games. Vampire The Masquerade and Stalker are are riddled with tech issues, Deus Ex is putrid to look at, Deadly Premonition has gameplay that looks like it just came out of steam greenlight and Witcher 1 and 3 have many small issues that just pile up.

Anyway I played Dark Souls at 60fps for a brief moment yesterday. It was so satisfying but for some reason my button layout would change whenever I landed a backstab on an enemy and when I plunged on the Asylum Demon. Then my game would black screen on startup and google temporarily fixed it but the problem has resurfaced and applying the same solution doesn't work anymore.... I've fiddled with it so much I'm over it and just hoping when windows 10 drops these issues will be fixed. PCs are fucking aids. Onto Dead Space in the meantime. Jump scare central that thing is.

Well, gameplay, and lots of adventure-y awesomeness and reward incentives; such as loot, new weapons and armour, cool locations and things to see, etc. Witcher's fairly vanilla medieval (I guess?) setting really isn't my thing either tbh so nothing really ignited my imagination. Witcher 2's locations felt a bit more unique and lively to me. So yeah, really the game was going off its story for me and not much else =P

I assume you're using the DSfix thing then? I've never had trouble with my button layout changing (are you using a 360 controller, if not that could be why) but I've had issues with the game not starting up with the 60fps function turned on. I'd also recommend downloading the texture pack too, it really improves the overall look of the game.

Written by Uldreth on 28.07.2015 at 13:18

I find PS:T suffers from crap combat less than other infinity engine RPGs, I guess maybe because you don't have to combat that much at all. I literally could not get through the intro area in BG2 without attempting to gouge my eyes out...

Also, welcome back oO.

At least in BG2 your characters don't get stuck on each other during battle -_-

I basically tanked my way through BG2, so you could try that. That's problem with the system, that melee builds are basically fire and forget, whereas magic builds often require ludicrous amount of management. It took a long time to figure out what spells are useful and what aren't, but when you've learned a few key ones you can get through off those alone. I barely bothered with attack spells, just a few buff and debuff ones.


And thanks ^^

Written by [user id=4365] on 28.07.2015 at 13:32


At least in BG2 your characters don't get stuck on each other during battle -_-

I basically tanked my way through BG2, so you could try that. That's problem with the system, that melee builds are basically fire and forget, whereas magic builds often require ludicrous amount of management. It took a long time to figure out what spells are useful and what aren't, but when you've learned a few key ones you can get through off those alone. I barely bothered with attack spells, just a few buff and debuff ones.


And thanks ^^

Might try playing some warrior-styled character but I am really put off by the fact that they basically have no active abilities. They did not even fix this in Pillars Of Eternity really...

Not to mention that often attributes that would make them good at diplomacy is detrimental to melees, and I tend to build my characters to be able to talk or coerce myself out of stuff.

Originally I was also incapable of playing Neverwinter Nights 2, but at least the OC gives me enough fighter companions early on that I can use THEM to tank and I just use ludicrous AoE spells for mass destruction, but NWN2 compensates by having unbearable camera settings.

Written by Uldreth on 28.07.2015 at 13:38


Might try playing some warrior-styled character but I am really put off by the fact that they basically have no active abilities. They did not even fix this in Pillars Of Eternity really...

Not to mention that often attributes that would make them good at diplomacy is detrimental to melees, and I tend to build my characters to be able to talk or coerce myself out of stuff.

Originally I was also incapable of playing Neverwinter Nights 2, but at least the OC gives me enough fighter companions early on that I can use THEM to tank and I just use ludicrous AoE spells for mass destruction, but NWN2 compensates by having unbearable camera settings.

I don't know if you know, or if you want to know regarding diplomacy stats as I suppose it's sort of a spoiler but...

It doesn't matter at all in BG2. Charisma is a total dump stat as it only affects shop prices, certain attitudes toward your character from your companions, and maybe 1 or 2 interactions within your party. You can safely play a main character with the lowest possible charisma and not lose out on anything. You can be a thicko brawler and I'm pretty sure you'll have all the same opportunities as a super clever mage. You can die though from one enemy that reduces your charisma permanently. If it goes below you die, though it's a pretty rare occurrence. There's also a weapon that randomly reduces it, which I ended up accidentally using without realising and had to permanently use a ring to compensate.

It sounds shallow but I don't think I could ever play a NWN game because of the archaic 3D visuals.

[edit]

Double checked and Wisdom and Intelligence also have next to no use for conversation options. Apparently 10 minimum is advised. It's like the polar opposite of Planescape.

Real time with pause works perfectly well for games where you control a single character. NWN and NWN2 are a piece of cake - though no doubt in part because I've played NWN online for 10 years now, and there's obviously no pause option. The radial menus and quickbars are pretty easy to get the hang of. The problem, IMO, only applies to party-based combat: either you have to pause it all the time to assign new orders to everyone, you try to control everyone real-time, or you let the AI take care of your companions. The problem with this is that option 1 makes it effectively a clumsy and irritating turn-based game, while options 2 and 3 mean that in order for them to work, the game difficulty must be too low - it's always inferior to properly planning your moves with pause, so when you do run into trouble you can just do that and it becomes easy mode. (Unless, I guess, you have enough self-control never to use pause.)

Also, if you're looking for a PnP experience, I really encourage you to try NWN online. There are still a bunch of privately owned persistent RP worlds around, with dedicated DM teams and playerbases ranging from a few hundred to a few dozen. As crazy as it sounds, there has been no comparable platform released for online D&D (or RP in general) on a persistent server since that game. That's 13 years! There is no real RP to be had in MMORPGs, and obviously no DM oversight or opportunity to affect the world. Shards Online is looking promising, though.

Written by [user id=142921] on 28.07.2015 at 15:11


Ye using DSfix which is integrated with the texture pack. Removes all the muddy textures and makes murals actually decipherable. My problems are just incredibly inconsistent. I mean, when I was on a Win7 OS I used ps3 controller with DSfix and w/o the texture pack and everything worked fine. I'm on Win8 now. Yesterday I had a black screen on startup then after fixing that a button layout change caused by a backstab. I could hear the *device has been recognized* sound as the layout changed. Today backstab worked fine but a plunge attack lead to the button change. Then I reinstalled the game and went through the same method to fix the blackscreen issue but it didn't work. I'm so confused on how my layout changes like that. How on earth does a cause b in this situation?!? Ps4 controller doesn't work at all, tried 2 ps3 controllers and 3 programs to recognise the controllers. Choices now are for Win10 to magically fix my issues or just play w/o the texture pack which i'm sorta fine with but ya know.....I didn't buy a gtx980 to play Mud Souls at 30fps...

Probably not the answer you want but you should really consider getting a 360 (or better still the Xbone) controller and the official dongle thing, as most games (aside from RTS etc.) tend to be pre-programmed to respond to it, Bark Moles included.. Cost you a bit of money but would save time and effort. The 360 controller is pretty good, aside from the d-pad.

Written by IronAngel on 28.07.2015 at 11:03


I do get why people love BG2 so much, though. For many, it was a revelation of what RPGs could be. It is a well-rounded package that has aged relatively well, with awesome fan content. (There's a mod that lets you play both the games and expansions in a single playthrough and even bring some companions from 1 to 2 - it's essential.) For me, the game that I see through rose-tinted glasses is Final Fantasy IX. It was the first RPG I got for myself, when it was released. Those areas, characters, that music, I'm still convinced it's in the top 5 most atmospheric RPGs ever.

it's rose tinted for me as it was the game-changer. i can see why people retro playing it the first time after immersion in other games would find issues. much like any other game i played. some age well - like, say, Star Wars: A New Hope. others have aged like the tv show The A-Team, where you watch now and wonder, "what was I thinking back then?"

... never finished IX. Or X. not sure why IX never really got me. I liked VII and enjoyed a lot of VIII, though a lot annoyed me about that one (including the shift to more "realistic" looking characters.) ... IX was a step back to a preferred style. maybe i finally got my PS2 and just that was the reason? just never pulled me in like II, III, or VII. shit, one of my Navy buddies and i when we meet up and go drinking still reference "Fire Claw" that the kung-fu bodybuilding broheim of the prince used.

X i just played more water polo than anything else. got really bored with the game. maybe logged 20 hours of "game play", outside of side games.

i think a good chunk is just getting a good new p and getting BG2 then DAOC that helped kill FF for me.

IX probably holds up the best of the PS1 trio, though I more or less covet them equally. IX's offbeat main character (a slightly pervy, offbeat and cheerful monkey-man) was a nice change and the overall art style was amazing, and generally had a very memorable cast of companions.

The pre-rendered backdrops would look fantastic in an HD remake: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=551612

I'd probably give that one a go. my lappy could easily handle it and i have a lot less competition for my time now than around it's time.

Written by [user id=142921] on 28.07.2015 at 07:41

Exclusives atm just The ORder 1886 and Bloodborne and The Last of Us if you don't have a ps3. I'ma be all over Ratchet and Clank. Game looks great. It just needs to stay true to the original and maintain good performance. I dunno if its gonna be at 60fps. I hope so.

Not at all interested in The Order 1886 and I can borrow The Last Of Us on PS3 from a friend any time I'd like. And all the remasters (God Of War III for example) don't interest me at all, since the only difference will be a graphics boost, but graphics are secondary in games for me. I already enjoyed the fuck out of GoW 3 and having it look pretty isn't gonna make me enjoy it any more.
I hope that R&C game is good though, god I love that series. Or most of it at least. Still haven't played the Nexus, but I heard it was pretty short, so I don't know if it's worth the money.

In light of the recent discussions I gave BG2 another shot, this time asa paladin. The interface, the combat, and the graphics still irritate the shit out of me, but this time I did not feel like stabbing myself in the butt over and over again... And the story/characters sucked me in well enough to make me invested. Damn it!

*Rides off into the distance*

Did you patch it, to include widescreen etc? I guess you're probably playing the Enhanced Edition which has most of that (and a host of its own problems apparently). I found quite a lot of the game to be pretty nice looking. For an isometric game (always found it far less appealing than the pre-rendered style of FF7 etc, which obviously wouldn't have worked for the combat).

I tried playing Icewind Dale for a bit (EE version) as it seemed a lot nicer looking than BG2. I stopped pretty quickly though when I learned how much combat there is. There's a non-combat option on it though, but the story is total guff apparently so didn't bother with it, as I would be playing it just to look at the backdrops.

To be honest I have no excitement for the new one coming out, Siege of Dragonspear. It looks awful. Why did they choose the exact same engine, with janky animations and all? That's nostalgia taken to silly levels. At least Pillars of Eternity looked modern whilst retaining the style.

---

Forgot to mention that I finally completed Xenoblade. My first try, way back when it was released, I got about 25 hours into and became put off by the ludicrous amount of battles you're drawn into. This time round I ended up cheating and giving myself a x3 exp modifier (yay for emulators). Even then, being able to skip 70%+ of the combat there was still too much of it; the clock was pushing 60 hours by the end. It's another game that wears its time to completion like a badge of honour, and would have taken well over 100 hours if I hadn't cheated. Problem is the combat is really, really dull. Like a vastly simplified version of FFXII's combat. It's a shame though as the story is surprisingly good for a JRPG in this day and age. It's no Xenogears but constantly engaging. The environments are pretty amazing too, in scope that is. They're still very lo-res because of the Wii but they still impress regardless.

From what I've read the new X sequel coming out is basically more of the same, but without the good story, so I don't feel so bad about not owning a Wii U now.

Written by [user id=4365] on 29.07.2015 at 23:50

*Rides off into the distance*

Did you patch it, to include widescreen etc? I guess you're probably playing the Enhanced Edition which has most of that (and a host of its own problems apparently). I found quite a lot of the game to be pretty nice looking. For an isometric game (always found it far less appealing than the pre-rendered style of FF7 etc, which obviously wouldn't have worked for the combat).

I tried playing Icewind Dale for a bit (EE version) as it seemed a lot nicer looking than BG2. I stopped pretty quickly though when I learned how much combat there is. There's a non-combat option on it though, but the story is total guff apparently so didn't bother with it, as I would be playing it just to look at the backdrops.

To be honest I have no excitement for the new one coming out, Siege of Dragonspear. It looks awful. Why did they choose the exact same engine, with janky animations and all? That's nostalgia taken to silly levels. At least Pillars of Eternity looked modern whilst retaining the style.

Nah, its the complete edition from gog, I doubt it is patched. Truth to be told, I am not sure if the widescreen patch for BG2 works better or not, but I remember it caused some issues for PS:T when I used it, so I didn't bother with it this time. Small screen size is annoying, but otherwise I doubt any graphical improvement would be significant. And yeah it is not *that* terrible graphic-wise, the combat irritates me far more. Seriously, Divinity: Original Sin's turn based system worked so well, I don't see the point behind this real-time with pause bullcrap.

Yeah I surprisingly dig the graphics *and* gameplay of Pillars, it does have issues, but I find it to be a really good nostalgia RPG. Which also means I should play it more, it is quite funny, when it came out I played it for a while, then decided to do with NWN2 what I did with BG2 now, and give it another chance (prior to that NWN2 was also barely playable to me), and that game sucked me in so much I never finished Pillars .

Written by Uldreth on 30.07.2015 at 00:23

Nah, its the complete edition from gog, I doubt it is patched. Truth to be told, I am not sure if the widescreen patch for BG2 works better or not, but I remember it caused some issues for PS:T when I used it, so I didn't bother with it this time. Small screen size is annoying, but otherwise I doubt any graphical improvement would be significant. And yeah it is not *that* terrible graphic-wise, the combat irritates me far more. Seriously, Divinity: Original Sin's turn based system worked so well, I don't see the point behind this real-time with pause bullcrap.

Yeah I surprisingly dig the graphics *and* gameplay of Pillars, it does have issues, but I find it to be a really good nostalgia RPG. Which also means I should play it more, it is quite funny, when it came out I played it for a while, then decided to do with NWN2 what I did with BG2 now, and give it another chance (prior to that NWN2 was also barely playable to me), and that game sucked me in so much I never finished Pillars .

Planescape's widescreen mod is a total pain in the arse. Causes crashes once an hour or so and I had to uninstall and reinstall it (along with the text size mod) a few times because it wouldn't load up the next screen.

And yeah, Divinity's turned based combat was poetry. Hard as fuck and very unforgiving but it totally made the game (whereas the story didn't really interest me too much, but it didn't matter too much coz it was fun to play).

I think BG2 was interrupted about 3 times before I finished it. Probably took me a month to do, whereas Pillars I spammed 70 hours over a few days. Games should learn not to butt in when you're on a roll!

Written by [user id=4365] on 30.07.2015 at 00:51

Written by Uldreth on 30.07.2015 at 00:23

Nah, its the complete edition from gog, I doubt it is patched. Truth to be told, I am not sure if the widescreen patch for BG2 works better or not, but I remember it caused some issues for PS:T when I used it, so I didn't bother with it this time. Small screen size is annoying, but otherwise I doubt any graphical improvement would be significant. And yeah it is not *that* terrible graphic-wise, the combat irritates me far more. Seriously, Divinity: Original Sin's turn based system worked so well, I don't see the point behind this real-time with pause bullcrap.

Yeah I surprisingly dig the graphics *and* gameplay of Pillars, it does have issues, but I find it to be a really good nostalgia RPG. Which also means I should play it more, it is quite funny, when it came out I played it for a while, then decided to do with NWN2 what I did with BG2 now, and give it another chance (prior to that NWN2 was also barely playable to me), and that game sucked me in so much I never finished Pillars .

Planescape's widescreen mod is a total pain in the arse. Causes crashes once an hour or so and I had to uninstall and reinstall it (along with the text size mod) a few times because it wouldn't load up the next screen.

And yeah, Divinity's turned based combat was poetry. Hard as fuck and very unforgiving but it totally made the game (whereas the story didn't really interest me too much, but it didn't matter too much coz it was fun to play).

I think BG2 was interrupted about 3 times before I finished it. Probably took me a month to do, whereas Pillars I spammed 70 hours over a few days. Games should learn not to butt in when you're on a roll!

wow who is back ---- lol

Written by Bad English on 30.07.2015 at 02:17


wow who is back ---- lol

More like passing through just to vent about games for a bit ;]

Written by [user id=4365] on 30.07.2015 at 12:27


More like passing through just to vent about games for a bit ;]

So yer not here to stay?

Written by Uldreth on 30.07.2015 at 12:40

So yer not here to stay?

Probably not =P maybe if I listen to new music this year, but I barely have.