What are you playing?

[kamikazekeeg]

Gone hard into Elden Ring and it's pretty fantastic.  All the general improvements and QoL stuff has really made the game super enjoyable to play and the open world is pretty well done.  It's pretty different from the usual open world games these days in a good way as nothing feels too bloated or unnecessary, they didn't add in a bunch of side quests you pick up in a log that has you going out to kill 10 boars, it's all the same side quests that Souls has had before, where you stumble across an NPC, talk with them, they tell you about doing something and you'll maybe meet them again or not and maybe you'll screw up the questline and fail it until you do a new playthrough. 

Not that I always mind open world games like that, I'm gonna be playing Horizon 2 eventually, but it's nice that they managed to build this open world version of their games, but still keep everything intact from the previous Souls games.

[kamikazekeeg]

Elden Ring might be my favorite open world experience I've had since BOTW, for similar and very different reasons.  BOTW was great for the freedom it had to it, letting me explore and tackle things how I wanted a lot of the time and that kind of stuff really absorbed me into it.  Elden Ring does much the same, less in terms of pure freedom of movement such as scaling sheer rock walls or gliding long distances, but offering a ton of freedom in how you approach fights and rewarding you for exploring everything on the map.

I've put a ton of hours into the game and I am just getting to the 2nd main boss right now.  I just want to keep finding caves, and castles, and creepy mage schools with the most terrifying enemy design I've ever seen, and haphazardly stumble across new characters and the "side quests" you might get.  It also helps that most all of the gear you get is unique, it's not like a lot of these types of open world rpg's that involve being a loot goblin with different rarity weapons and stat boosters.  Unless it's a type of game like Fallout where being a loot goblin is more advantageous to me for parts scavenging and its done in a more survival sense, I prefer Elden Ring's take where most gear and spells you get are unique and are a legit reward for completing a boss, cave, or just for thoroughly exploring.

It's all just very satisfying to me and why it's going to be hard to finish this game and go play something like Horizon: Forbidden West and I'll probably be annoyed by its weapon and stat booster setup like I was with it in the first game if they kept that.  It's 2017 all over again, where I held off on Horizon to play another game I wanted to play more, and I loved it, and I'll get to Horizon soon and just think the game was fine because all I can think of is the other game I just got done playing lol

[burningdoom]

Elden Ring might be my favorite open world experience I've had since BOTW, for similar and very different reasons.  BOTW was great for the freedom it had to it, letting me explore and tackle things how I wanted a lot of the time and that kind of stuff really absorbed me into it.  Elden Ring does much the same, less in terms of pure freedom of movement such as scaling sheer rock walls or gliding long distances, but offering a ton of freedom in how you approach fights and rewarding you for exploring everything on the map.

I've put a ton of hours into the game and I am just getting to the 2nd main boss right now.  I just want to keep finding caves, and castles, and creepy mage schools with the most terrifying enemy design I've ever seen, and haphazardly stumble across new characters and the "side quests" you might get.  It also helps that most all of the gear you get is unique, it's not like a lot of these types of open world rpg's that involve being a loot goblin with different rarity weapons and stat boosters.  Unless it's a type of game like Fallout where being a loot goblin is more advantageous to me for parts scavenging and its done in a more survival sense, I prefer Elden Ring's take where most gear and spells you get are unique and are a legit reward for completing a boss, cave, or just for thoroughly exploring.

It's all just very satisfying to me and why it's going to be hard to finish this game and go play something like Horizon: Forbidden West and I'll probably be annoyed by its weapon and stat booster setup like I was with it in the first game if they kept that.  It's 2017 all over again, where I held off on Horizon to play another game I wanted to play more, and I loved it, and I'll get to Horizon soon and just think the game was fine because all I can think of is the other game I just got done playing lol

How is the difficulty compared to Dark Souls?

[Cartagia]

I started as the absolute base class (the Wretch) and I've found it to be more difficult than I expected, but I also started with no stats and no armor.

There are a couple of bosses that I got really stuck on, but that was probably more due to my stubbornness than anything else.  Once I got geared though, I've found to to generally be on par with DS3.

[burningdoom]

I started as the absolute base class (the Wretch) and I've found it to be more difficult than I expected, but I also started with no stats and no armor.

There are a couple of bosses that I got really stuck on, but that was probably more due to my stubbornness than anything else.  Once I got geared though, I've found to to generally be on par with DS3.

Well dang. I tried to get into Dark Souls but the difficulty made that hard for me to do. Elden Ring looks cool, but I think I'll have to pass on it.

[Cartagia]

I started as the absolute base class (the Wretch) and I've found it to be more difficult than I expected, but I also started with no stats and no armor.

There are a couple of bosses that I got really stuck on, but that was probably more due to my stubbornness than anything else.  Once I got geared though, I've found to to generally be on par with DS3.

Well dang. I tried to get into Dark Souls but the difficulty made that hard for me to do. Elden Ring looks cool, but I think I'll have to pass on it.

I will add a clarification that I found DS3 to be far and away the easiest one in the series.

[burningdoom]

I started as the absolute base class (the Wretch) and I've found it to be more difficult than I expected, but I also started with no stats and no armor.

There are a couple of bosses that I got really stuck on, but that was probably more due to my stubbornness than anything else.  Once I got geared though, I've found to to generally be on par with DS3.

Well dang. I tried to get into Dark Souls but the difficulty made that hard for me to do. Elden Ring looks cool, but I think I'll have to pass on it.

I will add a clarification that I found DS3 to be far and away the easiest one in the series.

I will probably check it out on a price drop.

BTW, when I try to add an emoji from the board, my post disappears. Thought the admin might want to know.

[kamikazekeeg]

How is the difficulty compared to Dark Souls?

All of the games have a very similar amount of difficulty I think, though as Cartagia said, DS3 felt easier, but I think alot of that is because FromSoft at that point had done a lot to cut down on the games jank and just make a better, smoother, game, which in turns makes it abit easier.  It's even more so with Elden Ring as you have very normal movement with a dedicated jump button and using the horse is very easy.  You can do a lot of fights out in the world on horseback, which makes some fights that seemed super hard on foot, way easier to deal with on horseback using hit and run tactics, though it's not a guarantee always if you aren't careful.  The games freedom also allows you to tackle fights as you want, so if you go to a castle, it's kicking your ass, just go elsewhere to do other fights, maybe you'll find better armor or a weapon you like more, or new spells/ashes of war (Weapon abilities you can change out), and you can get runes to level you up, that makes a fight easier.  And not too mention at big fights, you can summon people to help you out if you are having a pretty tough time.

Elden Ring is still quite hard, but I feel like the options the game gives you is a quite bit freedom to tackle it how you want more than ever.

[kamikazekeeg]

My post-Elden Ring time has been more about doing casual stuff, while including bits of leftovers I keep seeing that I missed in Elden Ring lol

I poked around the new Kirby game demo, which was charming, but this isn't a 60 dollar game to me, it feels like a budget title.  Certainly nothing wrong with it, but it's not exactly Super Mario Odyssey.

With a return to some Switch gaming, I also played the new Mario Kart 8 DLC.  The beginning of the influx of new maps is here and I feel like it started off a bit soft, like I am happy to see Choco Mountain, I love the N64 game, but the rest of the other maps other than the Ninja map don't have a whole lot going for them feature wise I felt.  Nothing bad, and this is only 8 maps of 48 more, but could've maybe used one or two more maps with neat gimmicks.

[ignition365]

My wife doesn't do tough games very well, and we got her to play the Dark Souls games, they were tough for her and required a lot of assistance from myself and other folks... Elden Ring, she's been playing on her own with minimal guidance... like she's level 115 and has put in over 120 hours into the game.  Elden Ring is hands down the most accessible Souls game.  I could talk about this game for hours, even from just a design perspective.  It's a tough game for sure, but it does a lot more than any previous Souls game ever did to attempt to be fair and accessible to more casual players.

[kamikazekeeg]

Got into a couple of those "rage" games lately, for no reason.  I guess I saw some folks playing them and decided to give them a shot.  I started with Jump King a few weeks back, but I wasn't liking how there wasn't visual feedback to the jumps, like you don't vibrate faster or anything, it's all just timing and feel to judge the jumps.  I loved the pixel art, all that stuff was great, but I felt like I wouldn't progress with it, refunded it, and then went to Pogostuck.  I like how that has way more control and I feel like I can better do the jumps, but that world is not great looking and it's not designed as well as Jump King, but I've put 6 hours into Pogostuck, just to get almost halfway through the first map, it's so hard lol It's good to play for like an hour and then just stop, come back fresh the next day and try to get past the point.  It's just gonna be one of those games I'll probably never beat, but I'll keep randomly coming back to try and beat.

I hit a point in Pogostuck though that I can't seem to get by, so I decided to give Jump King another shot and I am liking it more.  Once you get the feel of things, I can appreciate how it's designed compared to Pogostuck, because everything has a specific jump to it, you just need to figure it out, way less randomness due to all of your rotating movement.  It's absolutely very hard, but I managed to get up to the town section reasonably quickly, like a good 40 minutes, which is some nice progress, like I think that's a quarter through the first map.  Normally I'm not the biggest fan of the crazy hard stuff, but something works for them in a more casual sense for me than like watching streamers who will dedicate like 8 hours to trying to beat something lol

[kashell]

I've been playing the new Kirby since yesterday. I'm on the third world and all Waddle-Dees have been rescued so far. This game is a real treat.

[megasilverx1]

Got the new Kirby game the other day and am up to the third world. Been enjoying the game so far and have been trying to get all the Waddle-Dees in the levels. Other than that, I'm bouncing between other games like Picross S4 and Snowboard Kids Plus.

[Cartagia]

Lord help me, I re-upped my World of Warcraft subscription.

[justin8301]

Lord help me, I re-upped my World of Warcraft subscription.

I've been playing a bit too... just casually though.. i can keep it casual right??? RIGHT?