What games are you playing now?

The demo for Resident Evil Village (RE 8).

I'm pretty disappointed. I was expecting a lot more, but the demo isn't very good from a technical or a gameplay standpoint. Maybe the full game is better, but I won't be buying it at release despite being a big fan of the series.
 
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Bought Total War ROME Remastered today on Steam. It wasn't on sale but I still bought it. It looks and plays better then the original game and it's expansion pack at least.

I played the original to death back in the day. Did they at least fix the absolutely braindead AI in this remaster?
 
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Oct 18, 2006
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Still playing Disco Elysium, still depressing AF. I passed the POINT OF NO RETURN and had a major situation in town... In Harry's words "It was a shitshow." In Kim's words "We used diplomacy to prevent shooting. They still did it." Everyone involved was eliminated except for myself and Kim. It really seems like if you want good results you have to be a dick. I've decided I'm going to do a Hardcore play right after this one with more Dirty Harry, less Harry Angel.
 
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I dug into Iron Harvest a bit, and I really want to like this game. The setting is brilliant, and I just know there is some gold here. However, with the legacy of poor reviews dogging it's every lurch forward, it's criminally overpriced at this point.

Good luck getting 50 bucks for this.
It needs to be ratcheted down to 30 total, 15 on sale.

Also, "Free weekend" just isnt enough time to evaluate a game like this. Especially if you got other things going on. The concept of a "free weekend" itself is fundamentally flawed anyway, in my opinion. "Free weekdays", instead, now that would be far more productive for me :D
 
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I played the original to death back in the day. Did they at least fix the absolutely braindead AI in this remaster?
Somewhat they mostly redid the graphics, and added a new GUI. Anyway after a few days it's basically still the same game, and a way to charge $30-40 for the game again.
 
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And another annoying fight down in Sekiro, O'Rin of the Water, or whatever her name is. God this was a hard fight for me. I could only take her down with my sword, since I don't want to waste the divine confetti. So, basicall I had to focus on deflecting and jumping on her head during her sweeps. And for some strange reason, it seems I have the bad habbit of moving the movement thumbstick to anything but straight ahead during those times. So, I constantly missed opportunity of jumping on her head and dealing posture damage. But, after around 10 retries I got it down. So annoying.

And now I learn of another hard fight, right near and after that one. And anothe apparition. I'm starting to get tired. My fingers are actually starting to hurt. Damn you corrupted monk. :(

EDIT: not too happy about it, but I cheesed the corrupted monk illusion. Spammed him with firecracker and dust and snapseeds while I got his health down to 25%. Then I enabled a divine confetti just to make sure I didn't spend all of those items for nothing. Not too proud of myself, but I really didn't feel like another 10 retries after the retries on O'Rin. At least now I get to explore a lot with the diving ability. :D

EDIT2: and I've reached the infamous Guardian Ape fight. Holy shit is it chaotic. And for some reason the ape always manages to grab me and throw me around. After about 10 tries, I only managed to reach his second headless phase once. And I reached it without any more healing. This is one fight that I expect to be the end of me. :(
 
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Holy shit this fucking ape in Sekiro. 20+ retries and still not done. Actually, I'm not even sure anymore. They all just blend together. And what's discouraging is that I started looking on others playing the fight, and I must be seeing things, because it seems to me like it's moving a lot more chaotic for me than for others. I can't even imagine trying the two ape optional fight after this. Good thing it's optional. :(
 
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@danutz_plusplus; I have to admit, after a few tries, I just ran past O-rin and never beat her. She's relentless. All I could do was try not to get hit.

The monk illusion wasn't too tough for me, for whatever reason. Maybe 4 tries, no cheese.

Yeah, that ape… I also watched video, and it annoyed me like it always does. Youtubers always make look trivial what feels nigh impossible to me.
 
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I started playing Fell Seal yesterday (@Carnifex), and so far, so good. I'm actually interested in the story so far, which is good because I don't think the fights would hold my attention on their own. But the combination of the story and the ever-increasing array of classes/abilities is fairly addictive. I'm early on still. Scene 11, maybe. I always liked tactical JRPGs and it's been a long time since I've played any other than a brief bout with Disgaea 5, so it's a welcome return.
 
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AC:Odyssey
Finally encountered Medusa, got her down to like 10% health - and choked :|

I have to say that I'm glad she's utterly horrible. I was hoping they didnt make her some sort of enchantress w/ snakes for hair.

She reminds me of the black-blood vomiting possessed in the Evil Dead films. Even the weird sounding shrieks she does are unsettling. Perfect.

It's one of those fights that sure, it would have been nice to slay her on the first try, but i dont mind going around again because it's such a cool battle.
 
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Good on you, JFarrell71, in the end I found Fell Seal much more enjoyable than I did Disgaea 5. I've not picked up the expansion for Fell Seal yet, so I've that to look forward to running through at some point, and the thought alone is quite tempting! Come for the story, live for the battles! =)
 
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Been mostly on an Age Of Fear binge lately. Finished the Dryad/Forest Folk campaign of AOF3 and thoroughly enjoyed it. On Hard difficulty the AI really shines and makes for a challenging campaign. Currenly playing the Vampire Hunter campaign for AOF4 and it's just great, with new features that in a month's time will be backported to the previous entries in the series. Turn-based just doesn't get better than this imho! Hope u guys are enjoying whatever you're playing as well. Much love and blessings, all! <3
 
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30+ retries later, I FUCKING KILLED THE GUARDIAN APE in Sekiro. Holy shit this was the hardest of all fights so far. For about 2-3 times I managed to get him down to 10% health in his last phase. And he always somehow managed to behave eratically and not as I expected, and managed to catch me in a whirlwind of strikes, ending my run.

But this last time I knew it had to be special. I somehow managed to finish his first phase using only just one health gord. And then I took my time, and managed to dance with him, and FINISH. HIM. OFF.

God I'm tired and spent. I think I'm gonna need to sleep.
This fight was a real churn. Not fun. But I'm glad it's done. And no way am I tackling the two apes fight. No frikkin way!

My hands are still trembling as I'm typing this.
 
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those are the most memorable fights :D

You can say that again.

Just for kicks, I looked at a guide for the dual apes fight. And in theory, it shouldn't be that hard. Fighting the headless ape is more of an endurance game. But the brown gorilla that joins in the fight is the real issue. Managing to isolate her and kill her off before resuming the fight with the headless ape.

But man, there's such a big difference between in theory and what happens when all hell breaks loose during a fight.
 
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That really doean't sound like much fun to me, but we all have our different ideas of what's fun.

It's also why I hope Elden Ring doesn't feature the same level of difficulty as Dark Souls or Sekiro. I have no desire to spend two hours on a boss in a game as lengthy as that.
 
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That really doean't sound like much fun to me, but we all have our different ideas of what's fun.

It's very much what you make of it. It's infuriating when you keep screwing up, but 90% of the time I can honestly say it's my fault. And while the annoyance is grand, so is the personal reward afterwards. If it were easy you wouldn't have the same feeling of accomplishment.

But I do believe, that at least in part, the fact that we find it so annoying to keep retrying and needing to actually improve our skills before overcoming the fight is due to expectations. Expectations created by all other games where victory usually comes fairly easy. If all games had this level of difficulty, it would just be the normal level of challenge.

I do have thoughts about when does playing turn into work, if you keep needing to run through the same scenario. I guess that's for everyone to find out for themselves. Personally, I can't remember the last time I had such a visceral and intimate relationship with a game. And there might likely never have been anything like this for me. A situation where the game itselves somehow becomes personified as this great adversary you wrestle with, have respect for, curse when you're fed up with it, but ultimately maybe try again.

But one thing is for sure, at least in my case. I don't think I would have had the patience to put up with it as much as I did (and I still have doubts if I'll actually finish it) had I not finished Bloodborne before this. That really was my entry drug into the house of pain. While Sekiro's gameplay is top-notch and better than Bloodborne's, I need more than just gameplay to get attached. And that's what Bloodborne provided for me.

It's also why I hope Elden Ring doesn't feature the same level of difficulty as Dark Souls or Sekiro. I have no desire to spend two hours on a boss in a game as lengthy as that.

It'll be interesting to see what approach they take. I'm particularly interested in the spin they will put on the same world, death and combat mechanics. And the story motivation for it all. But I do hope they incorporate as much of the combat systems of Sekiro as possible. The deflect/attack mechanic is too good to drop, imo. And just go back to rolling/dodging everywhere.
 
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@danutz_plusplus; While you're waist deep in Fromsoft games, I don't know if you're familiar with the community, but I just watched this frankly astounding video of the results of a Bloodborne art competition and thought you might be interested. The talent on display is top notch. I'd play a lot of these games. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhpZhZV3XTY
 
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@danutz_plusplus; While you're waist deep in Fromsoft games, I don't know if you're familiar with the community, but I just watched this frankly astounding video of the results of a Bloodborne art competition and thought you might be interested. The talent on display is top notch. I'd play a lot of these games. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhpZhZV3XTY

Yeah I'm very familiar with Vaativydia's videos. I follow his content quite closely. They're some of the best on FromSoft's games.
 
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