What VIDEO GAME(s) have you been playing?

I'm about 60hrs deep on rogue Legacy 2, finishing up NG+ 1. it's great. The bosses and biomes are all fun, the NG+ challenge modifiers are cool, there are intense post game challenge rooms to find and play, and the overall hook of leveling up your lineage as you go is still very hooky and good.

Lots of video gaming lately, since I bought a few new titles for my birthday...

Persona 5 Royal - I feel like JRPGs are kind of a near-miss for me, I've put in about 20 hours into a couple Final Fantasy games, but in those ones I felt like I was only getting cutscenes and battles. But Persona 5 is REALLY working for me. There are a lot of extended dialog scenes and a lot of combat, but I feel like it's given a lot of context with all the high school stuff. Life-sims are also a near-miss genre for me, but I guess combining them with JRPG-style dungeon crawling is what I needed. I'm only like 17 hours in, so I have a looooong way to go, but it's been highly addictive for me so far.

Dark Souls Remastered - My first Soulslike game, and I'm still not totally sure what to think. There's a certain appeal to the challenge of it, but I've never been a person who really derives a lot of pleasure from challenge, especially not in things like games that are just for fun. But the game is just SO well-regarded that I felt like I'd take the plunge on Switch. It truly involves unlearning a lot of things that I've ALWAYS done in video games, from using the A-button on the Switch to select things, to being patient when in combat. So we'll see how I do long-term. But I just defeated the Taurus Demon, which was something I'd been struggling with for a good hour, so that's nice.

Darkest Dungeon - Got this on the Steam winter sale, and I've spent barely any time with it. I theoretically like dungeon crawling, and I'm fascinated by the ways that it reinvents the genre. But the atmosphere might end up being a bit much for me in the long-term, so we'll see.

Don't hesitate to play "radiant" mode in darkest dungeon. It's a bit easier but mainly it just wastes less of your time.

san il defanso wrote: Lots of video gaming lately, since I bought a few new titles for my birthday...

Persona 5 Royal - I feel like JRPGs are kind of a near-miss for me, I've put in about 20 hours into a couple Final Fantasy games, but in those ones I felt like I was only getting cutscenes and battles. But Persona 5 is REALLY working for me. There are a lot of extended dialog scenes and a lot of combat, but I feel like it's given a lot of context with all the high school stuff. Life-sims are also a near-miss genre for me, but I guess combining them with JRPG-style dungeon crawling is what I needed. I'm only like 17 hours in, so I have a looooong way to go, but it's been highly addictive for me so far.

They always miss for me, but I usually have one burning low key in the back of my head. My brain really wants to m in-mix and it's very challenging to this when I am not sure which demons to eat or how many DarkKnaughts can fit in one SkyC4psule. I always feel like I am failing. I have been failing at P4G on the Vita for many years now, for example. Plus I want everyone to be boy/girlfriend, and it's hard to choose.

Dark Souls Remastered - My first Soulslike game, and I'm still not totally sure what to think. There's a certain appeal to the challenge of it, but I've never been a person who really derives a lot of pleasure from challenge, especially not in things like games that are just for fun. But the game is just SO well-regarded that I felt like I'd take the plunge on Switch. It truly involves unlearning a lot of things that I've ALWAYS done in video games, from using the A-button on the Switch to select things, to being patient when in combat. So we'll see how I do long-term. But I just defeated the Taurus Demon, which was something I'd been struggling with for a good hour, so that's nice.

Good for you! Every win like this in this game is a triumph. And you will literally, actually get better. More things will connect, and you'll be able to go through areas you used to hate with such ease it will stagger you. Except it won't because you are only wading through these guys to get to some more dangerous place now and they will seem like buzzing flies rather than old nemeses. I wholeheartedly recommend getting guides and things; it helps immensely, and the difficulty in the game doesn't make it feel like cheating at all. Then you can skip those for DS3, BB, ER, and the others if that's your bag.

I played DS Remastered on Switch for about a year, and beat it probably 15 times with different builds and so forth. And this was after taking a break from it for about six years post Xbox360. Don't be afraid to put it away. You might come back.

Darkest Dungeon - Got this on the Steam winter sale, and I've spent barely any time with it. I theoretically like dungeon crawling, and I'm fascinated by the ways that it reinvents the genre. But the atmosphere might end up being a bit much for me in the long-term, so we'll see.

I like this game a lot, because I find the tone hilarious. It's SO over the top. Yes, I would like to learn more about the extent of your failings, narrator! The gameplay is a little weak, as you can lowroll SO badly. But for the most part it nudges you to the correct path, and if you keep fires going you can handle anything they recommend. I'm going to go back to it with GarySax's advice.

As for me, I have been playing HEARTHSTONE (natch), dabbling in MARVEL SNAP. My kid is really into SPACECHEM, which made me get SHENZHEN I/O back out, you know how it goes.

Mostly though, of late, I have been doing Battle Royale stuff. FORTNITE is very very pretty on the PS5, like, graphically gorgeous. I played this game for about an hour in my whole life, because I do not like the building part of things, and that seemed to be a lot of FORTNITE. But they added "No Build" as an option and now it's fun. If they added, "you need to be 25+ to play here" servers, I would like it even more. It's a little weird to be calling out "knocks" and "kills" with 8yos.

Speaking of FORTNITE for 25yo's, I have been playing APEX LEGENDS again. Like CHESS, I am fascinated by how much I suck at this game. I am terrible. I will lose every 1v1. Guaranteed. I hit them for 148, they hit me for 160. Late game, I hot for 180, they hit for 220. I get punched out, shot by their teammate, hit by Fuse's shrapnel (thanks, my teammate!), killed by the ring, whatever. I will lose. It's amazing! I have to keep going back and disappointing my team. One thing I can do in this game is snipe. Frigging deadly. Taking players out with a Kraber from far away. I picked up a Legend (Vantage) that makes this extra good. I feel like I contribute before my inevitable demise.

I've been enjoying Diablo 3 in Seasonal mode. I have a Crusader named Stacy who I'm plowing through all the seasonal achievements (currently playing on Torment 5 and farming set items). It's a lot of brainless fun, so I can turn the volume down and listen to music while I play.

also I cancelled PS Plus as I never used any part of it

jeb wrote: Good for you! Every win like this in this game is a triumph. And you will literally, actually get better. More things will connect, and you'll be able to go through areas you used to hate with such ease it will stagger you. Except it won't because you are only wading through these guys to get to some more dangerous place now and they will seem like buzzing flies rather than old nemeses. I wholeheartedly recommend getting guides and things; it helps immensely, and the difficulty in the game doesn't make it feel like cheating at all. Then you can skip those for DS3, BB, ER, and the others if that's your bag.

Been playing some more. I'm starting to learn that you need to take a broad view of what constitutes "progress" in the game, sometimes as small as getting into a new area and immediately dying. In times like those you at least find out where you have to go next.

For years now I have heard people say about how much they love Dark Souls, how the frustration is kind of the point. That made no sense to me, for YEARS. But now I get it. There's this really unexpected cycle of "this is impossible," to "I made it a little further," and then to "I'm almost there." I've never played a game that is addictive in quite the same way, but it makes sense to me now.

I just made it to the second campfire, and found the blacksmith. Getting my longsword upgraded makes a huge difference, because it often means I can cut through guys in one shot instead of 2-3.

Agree 100%.

I have never played a game where I was so excited and proud of myself for the act of opening a single door.

I got myself a Steam Deck (256GB) as sort of a cheaper option to getting a new PC, plus we had our yearly Cabo trip coming up, so I pulled the trigger. This thing is pretty great. It is thinner and lighter than I was expecting, and the screen looks great (note: I have never seen a Switch in real life). I picked up Cuphead specifically to play this past week as: a) it was on sale, b) I’ve been wanting it forever, and c) it seemed like a perfect game for the Steam Deck. Turns out I was right on that last one. When you are on a plane for 4 hours, spending 45+ minutes trying to beat that one level/boss doesn’t really seem like an issue. If I was sitting at home at my PC, no way.
I’ve mostly just been playing Cuphead and the Vampire Survivors DLC, though I’ll probably start Hitman 3 here pretty soon.
I did get my Epic Game Store games on there, and I also put all the emulators on it as well.
I was originally on the fence about how much I would actually use this outside of traveling, but I think it is going to get me to play more games overall.

Humankind is on sale this weekend for $17. Does anyone still playing this have any words of warning or encouragement?

BillyBobThwarton wrote: Humankind is on sale this weekend for $17. Does anyone still playing this have any words of warning or encouragement?

I've written a lot about it around here. It's a big recommend at that price from me but no at full price. It hasn't been super well received but I'd play it over Civ 6 most of the time, even if it's not as polished.

therewillbe.games/forum/video-games/208890-humankind#333961

It is civ 6 in terms of map focused classic civ game but with some smart changes I personally like more. The shifting civ identity mostly works for me and I love their outposts system, it prevents city spam until the end of the game while still allowing you to hold a lot of territory. The on map battle system is just sort of a sidegrade which I don't hate but don't love.

Still slowly plugging away at Dark Souls. I made it past the Capra Demon, who gave me a lot of trouble until I finally managed to get past it to the staircase on a consistent basis.

I had heard this many times about From Software games, DS in particular, but you really do learn how to play the game effectively as you go. I'm noticing that exploration has become less intimidating as I go along, because I'm getting better at dealing with the lower level enemies. I'm still not 100% sure I'm "enjoying" the game in the conventional way. But I want to keep playing so that's something.

Ugh, he was a HUGE pain the ass. It wasn't even him! It was those two dogs!! I finally beat that guy by rushing in, going left to dodge dog #1, heading up the stairs and hacking the dogs in a panic. Capra gets mad and climbs the stairs eventually, but I could then hop down, daring him down, then run back up and do drop attack cycles to kill him. Exhausting.

Yeah, what was giving me all the trouble was that I couldn't get to the stair case. But I started putting the shield up and locking onto him right away. I might take a hit or two, but if I make it up the stairs it's all good. I also had some of that moss that made my sword a fire sword, and he folded to that in a big hurry.

On the round where I beat him, he got held up in the nook beneath the ledge, and never tried to climb the stairs a second time. I got lucky, but as all Dark Souls players know, lucky counts.

I've also been digging Vampire Survivors. I tend to only play one or two games at a time before getting burnt out on it but it's very addictive. I was initially dubious but was quickly sucked in. Gotta say I'm not great at it but last a little longer each time I play. My record after a couple of games a night for the past week is lasting around 11-12minutes and hitting level 17. Pure chaos.

I've also been reliving teenage years with the remaster of Goldeneye on GamePass. Such a great game.