What are you playing?

#1363

Because of all the amazing reviews I bought Elden Ring today.

I am not a Souls fanatic. I played Demon’s Souls a bit back when it came out but probably didn’t make it very far; I played Bloodborne about 30 minutes; that’s about it. I’m not entirely sure what I think about Elden Ring yet. The game feels almost exactly like the others to me and I am absolutely terrified of everything that moves, though I’ve learned that I can handle some of the basic enemies like wolves and skeletons pretty easily. The world looks great but so far the game seems pretty aimless. There is an arrow of sorts that points me where the game thinks I should go but at some point I’m going to have to face something big and scary and I am in no way ready for that. Im hoping to put a good amount of time into the game but if it suddenly becomes overly-frustrating I may sour on it. After seeing how bad I was at Dead Cells I’ve come to grips with the fact that I am just as at games.

3 Likes
#1364

Despite taking beatings for it, I prefer striking out and going my own way, and I’ve been playing them since I imported Demon’s Souls. I find it so much more satisfying.

#1365

Based on that sentiment alone you’ll probably love Elden Ring. It’s an open world now and you’re plopped down right into the middle of it to do as you please.

1 Like
#1366

I’m generally not a fan of open world games, but I’ve been having a blast exploring the map of Elden Ring. I’ve probably got about 4-5 hours in so far, and I haven’t killed a boss yet. With the open world nature, I’m not even sure which boss I should start with.

Whoever thought L3 to dismount was a good idea when a game has mounted combat needs to be fired though!

#1367

If you keep the item used for summoning in the item slot you can dismount with square as well.

I’m also unsure of the bosses. Just based on proximity that knight that you see about 10 seconds into the game seems like a possible first boss. Or that thing in the keep right after you get your mount.

I don’t really know what I’m doing or where I’m going and I am purposefully avoiding looking anything up but so far I am enjoying myself.

I agree with you, though, that open worlds aren’t really my thing. I like my games more linear and often find myself getting sidetracked too often and losing interest in most open world games. I think Breath of the Wild was the last one I enjoyed.

1 Like
#1368

I’m a little saddened how often the Elden Ring community has left notes telling me to jump off a ledge.

I’m even more saddened how often I’ve taken their advice…

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#1369

Yeah, once I switched the dismount binding it only took me a few tries to kill that knight. I spent an hour last night trying to get him on foot.

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#1370

Blame GRRM. He’s obviously not responsible for this design decision, but he certainly deserves the blame for every complaint about any project he’s been associated with over the past 10 years.

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#1371

Fingers but whole.

Imagine it was me.

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#1372

And look how many likes, or whatever they are called, that one has, lol.

#1373

Super Auto Pets: Auto-battler on iOS/Android (and probably PC, too) in which you build a team of animals with different abilities, then watch them fight and hope your team has the last animal standing. Free to play with IAP for an additional animal pack and some cosmetics (cosmetic stuff can also be purchased with in-game points). I have spent waaaay too much time with this game since its iOS release.

Arabilis: Newly released farming-themed arcade game on iOS/Android in which you plant different crops and how well they grow depends on how you link their roots. Has both a competitive mode in which the difficulty ramps up, and a relax mode if you just want to chill and build a cool garden. Well worth the $3 I spent already.

1 Like
#1374

We just brought the kids to a Dave & Busters with some friends and what a nightmare that was. The whole place was the arcade version of the “Top Free Games” section on the App Store. I kid you not, there was a floor-to-ceiling version of Flabby Birds and an arcade cabinet with Marvel Realm of Champions. It was such a depressing 90 minutes. A 1980s Pizza Hut was 1000x the arcade that this place was. I’m sad that this is what my kids have to experience. The whole thing angered me.

6 Likes
#1375

Yep, why have a proper arcade, or retro arcade, when you can have a child casino instead.

My kids have become much much less interested in the ticket gambling type machines now all the tickets are electronic. I keep the same card and tell them we are saving for something good. They end up playing the light gun games or skill games when there’s no ticket incentive to play the other ones.

2 Likes
#1376

Same thing at the arcade my girls visit when we go to Great Wolf Lodge. Twenty-five frenetic seconds of that Raw Deal, uh, Thrills version of Space Invaders is about as gamey as it gets for the most part. Others were just reskinned slot machines or App Store escapees. Or both.

There was one bizarre machine that bucked the trend: some sort of zombie light gun shooter that fired real water, which was watering plants underneath it. It was actually a full-on game, with scores and levels and play time of several minutes per card swipe, and paid out big time in tickets too. Only downside is that it ran out of water quickly. We had some fun there for a while.

At the same time, I can’t truly fault the arcades. Home gaming is too powerful to overcome without a gimmick. You want people to spend money that realistically would make more sense to save up for a new home console title, you have to scratch a psychological itch that can’t be done by AAA production values alone.

3 Likes
#1377

fully recommended by me too :star: :star: :star: :star: :star: (4.9 in appstore)
astonishing depth for such a smart little game.
and in fact you need not spend ANY money to be fully competitive.
no timers, no ads.
you can play in short bursts or as long as you want and can save at any time.
and…it’s great fun :smiley:
even friendly matches possible.

3 Likes
#1378

Battle Brothers: What If Grim Attrition Was A Game? In charge of a mercenary company, you have to recruit, equip, and direct a rag-tag bunch of idiots against golbins, orcs, direwolves, and other humans, in a series of battles as you freely roam the land and take any jobs you want, in order to pay the bills. The best thing about this game is that the payment for a job, and it’s difficulty, are only tenuously linked. 900 gold to deliver a parcel? Okay. 350 crowns to stop graverobbers, only it turns out to be an undead army? Fuck.

Said battles are unforgiving. Injuries are common, and permanent disabilities can result. Good armour can help, but it’s expensive, and death is cheap and commonplace. Morale is an important part of the battle, and having men who can stand their ground is just as important as having men who can fight. Hiring new men is a gamble, and each background has buffs and debuffs associated with it.

My current company sergeant, Rambert, is a case in point. As a witch hunter, he’s an excellent shot with a crossbow. Unfortunately he’s also an incredible coward, and at the first sign of things going wrong, he flees at speed. Kunold the Gelding is a fantastic pikeman, but fears the undead, and is missing an ear after a close encounter with a goblin’s knife. Bernfried is a rock-solid front-line soldier, partially because he now has brain damage and doesn’t perceive how badly battles are going.

Picking and choosing weapons and armour, as well as provisions, means there’s logistics to juggle, which informs battlefield performance. If they’re not well-fed and haven’t had the occasional beer, they’re not going to be happy to start with. Alongside that, the battles are affected by fatigue, with armour weight influencing the base stat, and then every action building up fatigue until the character has to take a break to get his breath back. The size of your company also obviously means your wage bill and costs are higher, meaning you can’t afford to skip a lot of jobs because your company size compels you to take them. The battle scenarios need more variety, but it has a compelling logistics-battle-explore trifecta.

4 Likes
#1379

I’ve heard BB is very good, but haven’t made the plunge, yet.

#1380

It’s good. It needs more battle variety and some nuance to the contract negotiations beyond “Give me more money.” because the only response you get is either “No.” or “Here’s 2% more.” which doesn’t really cut it on a 150 gold contract when your daily wage bill is over 200 gold. It has some great battles though. There’s nothing stopping your mercs catching a random crossbow bolt to the face, same as any enemy, and that feeling in games is really rare.

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My troops were ambushed by twenty-seven ghouls, and up 'til then, my biggest battle had been with twelve, poorly armed, brigands. They aren’t too tough, but if they eat a corpse they grow much tougher, but I ended up only losing one man in the last few turns. Sadly, Friedrich, my axe-wielding maniac and centre of my front line, took a bad arm injury, and I considered pensioning him off, before realising I needed someone to carry my new standard…
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So I outfitted him in some improved armour, gave him some javelins to hurl, and keep him behind the front rank now. He’s rock-solid, and an example to all.

2 Likes
#1381

This sounds really cool to me on paper but it also sounds demoralizing. I had a similar feeling when playing through Darkest Dungeon.

5 Likes
#1382

It can be. I dodged an early TPK when I went nosing around an old ruined castle, only to find 20+ zombies and half a dozen ghosts. The latter scared my company off the battlefield before the zombies could kill them. So, that was nice.

First encounter with orcs ended with half a dozen decapitations. Not theirs, either.

An abortive attempt to hunt a necromancer went completely wrong as the waves of zombies were easily rebuffed, but a Fallen Hero literally chopped through half my team. Then the zombies started resurrecting.

Starved to death in the wilderness.

Ripped apart by direwolves. That was really bad as my team had high ground, fending them off with spears, slowly whittling them down with arrows and crossbow bolts, and then one man got tired, had his throat ripped out, and they flooded up onto the little plateau we were sitting pretty on and tore us all to shreds.

Absolutely destroyed by ghouls, as we shot down the first wave of zombies, then the ghouls ate those corpses and, as that makes them much more formidable, wiped the floor with me.

You can always run away. And you should.

3 Likes