Video Games

[mbenigni]

Tried Nioh 3 demo. It's massive!

This goes on my to buy list, because it's Nioh 2 in all the best and worst ways.

Still all the garbage loot, not visually that great but the open levels seem fun to explore and the aerial attacks add a bit of interest.

I need this for PC though because the PS5 performance is very janky at times even with the "favor fps" mode.

I complained in my little review up there about Team Ninja tripling down on complexity, with Samurai/Ninja added to all the stance, skill, weapon, etc. etc. etc. stuff. Also:

"The circle that fills up to the left of your health bar - no not that circle to the left of your health bar, the other circle to the left of the circle to the left of your health bar. We have clever but entirely arbitrary names to differentiate them - weren't you paying attention? Press triangle and circle when it fills up... No wait, that one's L1 and square! No wait, in this stance it only seems to work half the time, maybe? And there's a weird delay so that the enemy will have retreated by the time it fires, if it does, so you really needn't have bothered. Oh, and trying your luck has left you vulnerable so now you're dead. Again. Are we having fun yet?"

 

[Devin]

Having the core game on Game Pass for so long, and then yanking it, has left me in a weird position. I played through the game twice for "free" (for the cost of the subscription) and now if I want to play the $30 DLC (I do) I have to buy a $90 bundle.

I know, I know. It's a fantastic game, the devs deserve my money, all that jazz. But it's kind of a mindf*** paying retail for a game I'm not likely to play again for DLC whose quality and duration are a complete mystery to me. My inner cheapskate says, "Quit while you're ahead."

Damnn that blows man. If Steam is an option, the bundle is $60 there

I hope you get to play it kimg

 

[mbenigni]

Damnn that blows man. If Steam is an option, the bundle is $60 there

I hope you get to play it kimg

I haven't had a gaming PC in a long while (and any potential budget for one just got earmarked for a Helix Stadium LOL.) I can't do $90 for a video game, even though that's slowly becoming the new normal. I'm just not there yet. Hopefully this will go on sale in a few months and I can dive back in then.

 

[laxu]

I complained in my little review up there about Team Ninja tripling down on complexity, with Samurai/Ninja added to all the stance, skill, weapon, etc. etc. etc. stuff. Also:

"The circle that fills up to the left of your health bar - no not that circle to the left of your health bar, the other circle to the left of the circle to the left of your health bar. We have clever but entirely arbitrary names to differentiate them - weren't you paying attention? Press triangle and circle when it fills up... No wait, that one's L1 and square! No wait, in this stance it only seems to work half the time, maybe? And there's a weird delay so that the enemy will have retreated by the time it fires, if it does, so you really needn't have bothered. Oh, and trying your luck has left you vulnerable so now you're dead. Again. Are we having fun yet?"

Oh yeah it throws a shitload of terms at you, and you forget half of those things exist soon after. But that's again standard fare for Nioh. Nioh 2 kept adding new mechanics even in further NG+ modes.

Samurai/Ninja styles really just split the Nioh 2 weapons into two categories allowing you to switch with ease, or do "tank vs nimble" type builds. I think the intention is to switch often since they tied the red attack parry to the same button.

There's a no cost skill you find that allows you to switch it so that R2 is only red attack parry, and holding R2 switches styles. I tried it for a bit and went back to the instant switch because at least in the demo areas there's just not enough red attacks coming where it would be beneficial to stick to the same style over just having a very fast switch.

It took me a long time to get back into the groove of the game, and I still can't do stance switches on Ki pulse the way I used to.

 

[mbenigni]

Oh yeah it throws a shitload of terms at you, and you forget half of those things exist soon after. But that's again standard fare for Nioh. Nioh 2 kept adding new mechanics even in further NG+ modes.

Samurai/Ninja styles really just split the Nioh 2 weapons into two categories allowing you to switch with ease, or do "tank vs nimble" type builds. I think the intention is to switch often since they tied the red attack parry to the same button.

There's a no cost skill you find that allows you to switch it so that R2 is only red attack parry, and holding R2 switches styles. I tried it for a bit and went back to the instant switch because at least in the demo areas there's just not enough red attacks coming where it would be beneficial to stick to the same style over just having a very fast switch.

It took me a long time to get back into the groove of the game, and I still can't do stance switches on Ki pulse the way I used to.

Maybe since this was structured as a demo they had to "cut to the chase" and throw everything at you at once. It seemed to come more gradually and naturally in the earlier games. Nioh 2 was quite complicated by the time all was said and done, but Nioh 3 just piles more on and it seems almost comical at times. The two glowing circles recharging while your ninjutsu is also recharging and God only knows what else... Gah.

I just found the "Resolute" skill last night, and personally I prefer it. I do like to have distinct controls for distinct actions, and changing my playstyle (and clothes LOL) just because I blocked an attack felt weird to me. They managed to make the short press R2 vs. long hold R2 feel pretty good, which surprised me.

But overall, I'm still just not feeling it. Everything feels floaty and death often feels arbitrary. After the fact I tell myself I must have lost track of my stamina again, but all I really feel is: Kind of a shame, since I was an absolute Nioh/ Nioh 2 fanboi. Ah well, alpha. Maybe they'll turn it around.

 

[laxu]

I got to the final boss in the Nioh 3 demo. For a demo, this is just huge. I can't imagine how big the full game might be, considering Nioh 2 was way longer than I honestly preferred.

The final boss is really tough. I have a hard time pulling off parries on it, and it's tough to get in the mentality of swapping the styles on the fly.

 

[Jynx]

Has anyone tried The Alters? Heard it's great.

 

[Devin]

I haven't had a gaming PC in a long while (and any potential budget for one just got earmarked for a Helix Stadium LOL.) I can't do $90 for a video game, even though that's slowly becoming the new normal. I'm just not there yet. Hopefully this will go on sale in a few months and I can dive back in then.

Booted it back up for the first time in years and forgot that I had started NG+

So now I gotta play through 75% of the game again until I reach the point to enter the DLC lmao

 

[Dave Lewis]

My 20 year old son has been a big gamer since he was around 7 or 8 .
I was chatting with him about the new GTA game and when is it being released ?
He then tells me he has invested a shit load of money in it .
I wasn’t expecting that

 

[mbenigni]

Booted it back up for the first time in years and forgot that I had started NG+

So now I gotta play through 75% of the game again until I reach the point to enter the DLC lmao

Exact same boat LOL.

I restarted the Nioh 3 demo and really took my time the second time. Almost convinced myself I was liking it. In fairness, I was liking it on and off, but the kitchen sink vibe combined with the steep difficulty spikes and open world randomness eventually wore me down again.

Then I noticed Lies of P (the main game) was half price on Playstation, at $30. And the DLC was also $30, but it wasn't 100% clear to me that it wasn't a standalone prequel. So I bought it (Happy Father's Day to me), found that I couldn't download it, and then noticed the tiny little "level" badge that indicates it's DLC. Sigh. So I bought the main game. Fine, great game, $60 in total instead of $90 on XBox, woot. Then I launched it and found out that you can't play the DLC without having a late game save file. For a prequel WTAF?? All my saves are on XBox, naturally. So that kind of annoyed the shit out of me since I hadn't really intended to play LoP a third time, and had hoped to play some new content right away. I thought about trying to get my money back... But of course I got addicted and played the game for a few hours anyway.

Here we go again, apparently...

 

[mbenigni]

Has anyone tried The Alters? Heard it's great.

First I'm even hearing of it!