Video Games

[mbenigni]

I personally thought Lies of P was incredible; easily my fave non-FS "soulslike" game

As far as the FS games I'd probably rank them like this:

1. Elden Ring

2. Sekiro

3 Bloodborne

4 DS3

5 Demon's Souls

6 DS2

7 DS1

You’ll be happy to know I’m now completely addicted to Lies of P. I just had to get past that first boss, and then a brief period of skepticism through the first post-hotel level, which seemed somewhat lazily designed. Now I’m in that soulslike “what’s in the hatch” mode, where I just. Can’t. Stop. Exploring. Ever. Send help and possibly a divorce lawyer lol. Just past the cathedral now and I’m getting major Sen’s Fortress vibes.

It’s not a perfect game. It’s got some annoying targeting and stun-lock issues, and a fetish for killing you with falling damage. (Though to be fair, so did some of FromSoft’s games.) But it is way better than I expected it to be. Very, very pretty game - even running on an XBox One S. And you can’t beat the price, c/o GamePass. :)

 

[mbenigni]

P.S. @Devin, it's really weird hearing an approximation of my (not especially common) last name spoken aloud so frequently in a video game.

 

[Devin]

P.S. @Devin, it's really weird hearing an approximation of my (not especially common) last name spoken aloud so frequently in a video game.

 

[Devin]

The damn soundtrack is so good too.....when I found this vinyl album in the game and played it for the first time I got goosebumps

 

[mbenigni]

Les Claypool Venigni!

 

[mbenigni]

The damn soundtrack is so good too.....when I found this vinyl album in the game and played it for the first time I got goosebumps

That song caught my attention, too. It kind of reminded me of the Persona 5 soundtrack... although that game I do not like.

 

[Devin]

That song caught my attention, too. It kind of reminded me of the Persona 5 soundtrack... although that game I do not like.

I've never played any of the Persona games.....the simple fact that there is like a 20 different versions of it made me say "fuck all that" lol

 

[mbenigni]

I've never played any of the Persona games.....the simple fact that there is like a 20 different versions of it made me say "fuck all that" lol

You chose wisely. Overrated dreck (imo).

 

[Whizzinby]

Yeah the Guarma section seems weirdly unnecessary overall. I have no idea why it's in the game at all.

I guess the developers intended for you to play the main and side stories longer because if you keep doing side stuff for a longer time after Guarma, the random coughing by Arthur makes it more noticeable.

The game even has the entire RDR1 map built into it, it's just pretty much barren with nothing the player can do even though they can ride there. I wish they had done something with that, or released a RDR1 DLC for RDR2 by now considering the original RDR1 is apparently unportable due to shitty code.

Yeah Guarma almost made me throw in the towel. I think they realized it and then shortened it to get you off the island quick, which made it even more ridiculous that you go from near death to defeating naval ships in a couple missions. lol

I’ve done about 95% of the Stranger missions, so I got all the coughing and such, it’s just that the first third of the game there is really no foreshadowing that he may be sick. Or at least nothing that jogged my memory after the fact.

RDR2 deserved at least a Sadie Adler DLC. I wish Rockstar stopped fucking over singleplayer fans and PC gamers with their nonsense. They should pivot GTA to its own online service and leave GTA VI as a pure singleplayer game.

100%. She’s actually the character I ended up most invested in. When it appeared she got clipped by the Pinkertons I thought “HELL NO, ANYONE BUT SADIE”. It was awesome going full rage mode to get the docks to check.

 

[eggpl@nt]

I’m really enjoying Palworld

 

[Devin]

Anyone check out the Enshrouded early access yet? I saw some pre-release gameplay of it that looked promising; kinda considering picking it up

 

[mbenigni]

Eurogamer hates everything LOL.

I’m really enjoying Palworld

Is Palworld actually any good? Of course not

Eurogamer's thoughts on Palworld, which are in brief: it's not great.

www.eurogamer.net

Anyone check out the Enshrouded early access yet? I saw some pre-release gameplay of it that looked promising; kinda considering picking it up

For a survival game, Enshrouded feels too safe

Eurogamer's thoughts on Enshrouded, a pretty, polished survival game that's just a little bit tame.

www.eurogamer.net

 

[mbenigni]

I came very close to rage-quitting Lies of P last night. The trek up through St. Frangelico Cathedral is brutally unforgiving, and for all the wrong reasons. (The distinction between walking and running is an almost imperceptible unit of force on the left stick, and walking/ being pushed off beams to one's death - after surviving a bunch of challenging encounters - is altogether too easy.)

So... I kept making it as far as the second jump just prior to the mini-boss, and the controls would wig out and I'd fall to my death. Aaaargh! I eventually managed both jumps, but with too little health/ too few consumables to beat the mini-boss. I was too demoralized to run up the cathedral again, and was about to call it quits (permanently) when I remembered I'd pulled a lever without knowing what it did. A Google search suggested there was a shortcut to the mini-boss (huzzah!) but didn't say where. I eventually found the (now working) elevators and now I'm back in the fray. :)

 

[eggpl@nt]

Eurogamer hates everything LOL.

Is Palworld actually any good? Of course not

Eurogamer's thoughts on Palworld, which are in brief: it's not great.

www.eurogamer.net

For a survival game, Enshrouded feels too safe

Eurogamer's thoughts on Enshrouded, a pretty, polished survival game that's just a little bit tame.

www.eurogamer.net

Honestly, I could understand hating Palworld. It’s a bit grindy, it’s janky, I’ve lost Pals that I was super excited to catch to crashes. Traversing the world feels really slow even when you’re flying on a giant bird. I can go on.

But I have wanted Nintendo/Gamefreak/TPC to make a Pokémon game like this for decades. Even with the weird addition of guns, Palworld takes the direction that Pokémon has been going since Sw/Sh and throws a bunch of interesting ideas at it.

The whole base and resource management concept is fun. Fighting alongside the Pals is fun. Battles are challenging and my shit gets rocked constantly. I dunno. To me, it’s fun but it definitely is on the knife’s edge of the fun to play and too buggy to play.

 

[PLX]

I hope I'm still alive when this finally gets released.

 

[mbenigni]

I hope I'm still alive when this finally gets released.

I was never a big GTA fan, but that does look pretty awesome. Brilliant casting!

 

[mbenigni]

There are also a couple of also-rans from other devs: Mortal Shell, Wo Long, Lies of P, etc. None are great... Wo Long and Lies of P both smack of this new trend where every Souls-like has to revolve solely around parrying. I.e. "Press the button at exactly the right time or you die! That's the whole game! Such fun!" Hooray. Now can I please have my genre back?

Man, I was really speaking from a place of ignorance where Lies of P is concerned. (Jury is still out on Wo Long?) Lies of P is shamelessly derivative of the From games (Candle Maiden again? LOL), but neverthess - it's one of the finest games I've ever played! I wonder how many people will have (as I nearly did) bounced off that first boss and never play the rest of the game. Shame, as the difficulty and playstyle are much more balanced than that early encounter would suggest. Anyway...

Defeating the Eldest of the Dark Brotherhood with a fire axe while 4 or 5 other characters battled around us: Epic.

The White Lady cutting me down with her balletic sword fighting skills... until I returned to bash her over the head with a giant pipe wrench. Which I'd lit on fire: Priceless.

Finally took down the King of Puppets, and the game briefly took on a tone as if it were about to wrap up, and I actually got a bit depressed at the thought of not having something this good to play anymore. (Usually by this point, a couple dozen hours into a game, I'm starting to look forward to the end credits.) But it now it's looking like the game's just getting warmed up!

 

[DrewJD82]

I hope I'm still alive when this finally gets released.

I heard recently that he’s getting annoyed with being typecasted as a Trevor-type. Found that pretty odd since he took that role in The Walking Dead, basically being post-apocalypse Trevor and played into the role a few other times in various bits. I can’t say I’d be bummed out if I were being typecasted as a psychopath that blows shit up, that’s exactly why I love GTA, so I can do exactly that.

 

[PLX]

I heard recently that he’s getting annoyed with being typecasted as a Trevor-type. Found that pretty odd since he took that role in The Walking Dead, basically being post-apocalypse Trevor and played into the role a few other times in various bits. I can’t say I’d be bummed out if I were being typecasted as a psychopath that blows shit up, that’s exactly why I love GTA, so I can do exactly that.

The "Trevor" cut-scenes in GTA 5 are all comedy gold.

 

[Mongillo19]

Finished Mario RPG already short game and def not worth $60 imo but still very well done and fun.

Trying what to do next, Pal World is not doing it for me despite being crowned as the game to end all games. I think I may try getting back into Elden Ring