Video Games

[the swede]

Currently playing Death Stranding.

Kinda abandoned this game before. Was thinking about just watching a recap and just getting 2, which everyone is saying is way better, but that just felt weak.

I think it could be worth that.

For me DS is a game that needs you to ”feel” it, feel the mood and place yourself there, as Sam. Don’t abuse the game functions. I had big problems with certain features making me sink time into something that suddenly made me feel I lost the purpose of the game. Had to quit it because I felt I had ruined everything. So for me, I need to go with the games story flow, otherwise I’m lost. I will return to DS when DS2 comes to Xbox.

 

[DrewJD82]

I totally forgot about DS2, or didn’t even know when it was being released. Death Stranding is my favorite game of all time, I’ve just never had something draw me in like that game and it does it with such subtlety it’s totally the opposite of something like GTA or a 1st person shooter. Walking across a mountain scape when the chill music kicks in, you either feel desolate and alone or hopeful and triumphant depending on what just happened before.

The story is so damn original and ‘WTF?’ that I’ve ever never experienced anything like it. I won’t even try explaining that game to people, “Well, you have a baby strapped to your chest and it detects dead things so you don’t end up stuck in oil, running from an evil whale thing….” and that doesn’t explain jack about it.

Going to plow into it tonight after the dog park. I start my vacation at 4PM and for 3 of the days next week I’ll be stuck in a hotel while work is getting done at my apartment, so I’ll surely bang out a considerable amount of it this week, if not all. Trying to stay off Reddit (not hard) to prevent any spoilers.

 

[the swede]

I totally forgot about DS2, or didn’t even know when it was being released. Death Stranding is my favorite game of all time, I’ve just never had something draw me in like that game and it does it with such subtlety it’s totally the opposite of something like GTA or a 1st person shooter. Walking across a mountain scape when the chill music kicks in, you either feel desolate and alone or hopeful and triumphant depending on what just happened before.

The story is so damn original and ‘WTF?’ that I’ve ever never experienced anything like it. I won’t even try explaining that game to people, “Well, you have a baby strapped to your chest and it detects dead things so you don’t end up stuck in oil, running from an evil whale thing….” and that doesn’t explain jack about it.

Going to plow into it tonight after the dog park. I start my vacation at 4PM and for 3 of the days next week I’ll be stuck in a hotel while work is getting done at my apartment, so I’ll surely bang out a considerable amount of it this week, if not all. Trying to stay off Reddit (not hard) to prevent any spoilers.

Make sure to clear YouTube also.. I have had to do that several times now because the mother brain of all ai fuckamabobs is spying on me and knows we have three consoles with DS on two, my son plays DS now… so my feed is constantly attacked by either DS2 shorts, Reedus/kojima interviews or some weird party with three DS2 girls acting strange… oh… I’ve also got random vids about feet, something feet and kojima… weird as fuck.

But yeah… clear everything and don’t even talk about death stranding 2, or type it even.

 

[mbenigni]

I've still never played DS1 but I do wanna try DS2 at some point. I got a few homies that have finished it and loved it

DS is Dark Souls, but I'm gonna let that go.

I tried playing Death Stranding but just couldn't get past the crazy ass menus when you finish an assignment. I couldn't tell what I was supposed to care about and what was flashy window dressing. (If I'm willing to sell a multi-FX processor over a shitty UI, I'm surely willing to dump a video game for same. )

 

[the swede]

DS is Dark Souls, but I'm gonna let that go.

I tried playing Death Stranding but just couldn't get past the crazy ass menus when you finish an assignment. I couldn't tell what I was supposed to care about and what was flashy window dressing. (If I'm willing to sell a multi-FX processor over a shitty UI, I'm surely willing to dump a video game for same. )

You didn’t notice the auto skip in the mission summary thing? It’s really good to have. But i agree… even with auto skip, it becomes kinda annoying, especially the sounds when blasting the sound system haha.

 

[mbenigni]

You didn’t notice the auto skip in the mission summary thing? It’s really good to have. But i agree… even with auto skip, it becomes kinda annoying, especially the sounds when blasting the sound system haha.

It's been a couple of years and I don't remember the details. I'm sure I stared at the screen cross-eyed for a few minutes and then did indeed "skip", one way or another. The trouble is that I got to a point where I felt like the game was trying to tell me something, but I just couldn't fathom what. What were my objectives, what constituted playing well or playing poorly, etc. I take all the points about the story and the atmosphere being very interesting, but when a game hits me with a computer screen covered in numbers, I assume at least one of them is supposed to be important? For the life of me, I couldn't figure out which - and finding out felt too much like work. In fact that was basically the game up to the point where I quit: commute to work, watch a cut scene (where I get ready for work; I usually do this in the opposite order), look at a depiction of a computer screen that looks like my work, repeat.

I'm easily frustrated and lazy AF, I know. But in my defense, I have very little free time to play video games. I need them to be more consistently fun.

 

[Jynx]

GOTY.

 

[Devin]

DS is Dark Souls, but I'm gonna let that go.

Demon's Souls: "am I a joke to you!?!"

 

[DrewJD82]

It's been a couple of years and I don't remember the details. I'm sure I stared at the screen cross-eyed for a few minutes and then did indeed "skip", one way or another. The trouble is that I got a point where I felt like the game was trying to tell me something, but I just couldn't fathom what. What were my objectives, what constituted playing well or playing poorly, etc. I take all the points about the story and the atmosphere being very interesting, but when a game hits me a computer screen covered in numbers, I assume at least one of them is supposed to be important? For the life of me, I couldn't figure out which - and finding out felt too much like work. In fact that was basically the game up to the point where I quit: commute to work, watch a cut scene (where I get ready for work; I usually do this in the opposite order), look at a depiction of a computer screen that looks like my work, repeat.

I'm easily frustrated and lazy AF, I know. But in my defense, I have very little free time to play video games. I need them to be more consistently fun.

That’s pretty fair as those menus are time consuming and pointless for most players, but you don’t really know that until you’ve done several missions. I think only the people go for 100% or create their own in-game goals are interested in any of it.

I’m not sure the part in the game you left at, but once you travel to a different section of the US the game picks up and while you still have those screens every time you make a delivery, you have goals to accomplish and the ‘point’ is much clearer. Obviously I’m going to say I think it’s worth it, but I think it’s particularly worth it as a de-stressor just from the isolation aspects of the game. Or maybe that’s just me enjoying isolation.

 

[the swede]

It's been a couple of years and I don't remember the details. I'm sure I stared at the screen cross-eyed for a few minutes and then did indeed "skip", one way or another. The trouble is that I got a point where I felt like the game was trying to tell me something, but I just couldn't fathom what. What were my objectives, what constituted playing well or playing poorly, etc. I take all the points about the story and the atmosphere being very interesting, but when a game hits me a computer screen covered in numbers, I assume at least one of them is supposed to be important? For the life of me, I couldn't figure out which - and finding out felt too much like work. In fact that was basically the game up to the point where I quit: commute to work, watch a cut scene (where I get ready for work; I usually do this in the opposite order), look at a depiction of a computer screen that looks like my work, repeat.

I'm easily frustrated and lazy AF, I know. But in my defense, I have very little free time to play video games. I need them to be more consistently fun.

There is a whole game (actually several) within the game that is a “online” community work together thing. It encompasses all the things we see today in social media and our culture. Hideo intended it as a reminder about how sick and twisted everything has become, but in Death Stranding it is turned into something positive, because the world in Death Stranding is pretty fucked and people hole up in caves and bunkers, don’t even have sex or integrate in anyway with each other. So a “like” really means something there.

So you get this from the story itself and the npc porters, sending you likes and you help each other in the world. But there’s also a real online thing going where you are in a pool of other players. It’s pretty advanced under the hood it seems. Other players structures/achievements show up in your game, and your stuff shows up in theirs, and eventually you’ll develop real “strands” with real people. It’s a whole rabbit hole to dive in to and it’s a pretty cool aspect with a fundamental deeper meaning tied to the story and is meant to make you reflect.

So yeah… the numbers are mostly all that shit… screen after screen after screen with stats and crap, after every single mission.

 

[DrewJD82]

 

[mbenigni]

Demon's Souls: "am I a joke to you!?!"

There was no Demon’s Souls 2. Alack and alas.

 

[mbenigni]

Gave up, put it in easy mode, killed the croc, put it back to Legendary Stalker mode. I've never resorted to this in any other video game ever, but JFC...

I've gone just a bit further into Overture, and I'm occasionally dipping back into the base game beyond where I'd left off, kind of playing in parallel. Observations: the base game is way easier than I remembered, sometimes almost too easy. (Familiarity is a big part of this, of course.) Overture is pretty well-measured in terms of difficulty. Excepting the Tyrannical Predator, who was just stupid and annoying and for me, as good as impossible. Level design in the base game is much, much more interesting than in Overture. The outdoor scenes (snow, etc.) in Overture were beautiful to look at, but the level design is very linear except where it seems very arbitrary. Maybe it will improve after this whole Jurassic Park schtick is over?

And then the very next boss is ridiculously easy. Walked in, completely unprepared, beat her on my first try.

#crazydifficultyspikes

 

[laxu]

So you get this from the story itself and the npc porters, sending you likes and you help each other in the world. But there’s also a real online thing going where you are in a pool of other players. It’s pretty advanced under the hood it seems. Other players structures/achievements show up in your game, and your stuff shows up in theirs, and eventually you’ll develop real “strands” with real people. It’s a whole rabbit hole to dive in to and it’s a pretty cool aspect with a fundamental deeper meaning tied to the story and is meant to make you reflect.

That weirdly also helps you feel less alone in the game world, and also wants me to build stuff in it to help other players. I've got a whole lot of roads going at this point.

So yeah… the numbers are mostly all that shit… screen after screen after screen with stats and crap, after every single mission.

Welcome to Japanese game design. Everything needs its own screen, everything needs to be confirmed.

It's hugely annoying and basically the only thing that matters in those screens is the 5-star rating for each location. For every star, you unlock new gear so they're worth doing. You can miss some really useful gear otherwise.

Bring the deliveries in good condition and you fill those stars faster.

 

[Jynx]

Wait! Can you re-do missions on Death Stranding? I don't see how.

 

[the swede]

Wait! Can you re-do missions on Death Stranding? I don't see how.

Many missions respawn I’ve noticed. Main story related (“star”) mission doesn’t. Good example is the ones that involves collecting materials and I’ve also seen “get the stolen stuff from the camp” missions respawn.

 

[Devin]

And then the very next boss is ridiculously easy. Walked in, completely unprepared, beat her on my first try.

#crazydifficultyspikes

I hit the final boss

Fucking insane lmao

Only tried like 5 times but haven't been able to survive more than 10 seconds of his second phase so far

 

[mbenigni]

I hit the final boss

Fucking insane lmao

So I've heard. I'm not looking forward to it.

I'm actually having a lot of trouble with some of the unnamed mini-bosses, like the juggling puppet in the Carnival Garden, and the big basher at the bottom of the Zelator compound. For the former, someone online recommended a particular amulet that requires completing the base game. So I'm trying to get past Manus the Awakened God right now, and I'm wondering how I ever did this before, with a much weaker character no less! I get him down to about 10% of his health and he performs some ridiculous instakill move that takes me down from a full health bar.

I'm about ready to give myself permission to switch to easy mode for any bosses I've previously beat on Legendary Stalker. Going through some of these fights again, who knows how many times, feels like wasted effort.

Otherwise, the DLC has picked up considerably. I'm really enjoying the new characters, etc. since arriving at The Eventide. And in re-playing base game content, I'm hitting all sorts of story beats and achievements I missed the first time. The writing, acting, artwork, music are all lovely.

 

[Devin]

I've read that some stuff in the base game changes as you progress through the DLC; not sure how true that is but if so it's cool as fuck (and would make sense since you've gone back in time)

 

[JiveTurkey]

Went to a new arcade in the Ozarks over the weekend. Bunch of usual suspects. Galaga, Gauntlet, Street Fighter II, Tron (HARD AF), Asteroids Deluxe. Bunch of pinball machines and a combo machine that had a TON of old school shooters/side scrollers that took me WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY back.

I will say this. Old school games were definitely not any easier. Good lord I killed off a HUGE roll of quarters with a swiftness! It was a blast nonetheless and will be popping in next year to see what other games they get in.