What Are You Currently Playing? 6.65: Neighbor of the Beast

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Alright, well I only mentioned it because the guy I was talking about basically did a no upgrade run of the game on his first playthrough, so (as he claims), he didn't have a ton of ammo that he could hold for each gun and thus didn't have the resources to "action movie" his way through many situations. That doesn't mean he used stealth on everything, either, but what he p basically meant is that there are plenty of stealth-possible segments throughout the game, and that it wasn't that hard to do stealth in those sections once you understood the enemy AI, but it is hard on AKUMU difficulty because they are much more aware of your presence than on Survivor.

Also, in case you're wondering why anyone would do that, it's because his channel relies on doing incredibly difficult walkthroughs of games, which is what people (including myself) subscribe to his channel for, so he makes money off of the views that he gets, hence why he has to be masochistic and get the guides out as quickly as possible. He actually commented that he can't wait to go back to the game after finishing AKUMU difficulty and play normally with upgrades so that he can just enjoy the game for what it is.

[Foggle]

Damn. I, personally, would have done a normal run first, though if he still enjoyed it anyway, it's all good. I will say that I've never really had much more ammo at any point in time than can be held in your initial, un-upgraded stock, but of course that's made up for with damage upgrades and such. I'm only incredulous because, well, there only seems to be one or two moments per level where the enemies don't immediately notice you one way or another. Of course, perhaps he just means that he used stealth during all of these sequences - which would honestly be pretty damn hard even on Survival, I've tried myself - and I'm just misunderstanding what he means.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Looking back at the video where he said it, I recall him saying something along the lines of "the stealth on Survivor mode is actually pretty simple once you understand it, but the detection just isn't the same on AKUMU, so you literally can't stealth kill most enemies on this difficulty," which I may have misinterpreted as him using stealth throughout the whole game, when he actually just meant stealth in general for the sections that actually allow it. Either way, the bottom line is that, however much you may or may not be able to use it on survivor difficulty, you DEFINITELY won't be able to use it on AKUMU difficulty outside of the first few chapters and certain scripted events that might allow or require for it.

[Foggle]

Ah, that makes sense. I will definitely be trying Akumu eventually just to see how horrifyingly difficult it is, but probably not unless I can play it with someone else in the room to keep me sane.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

At least you can use upgrades.

[Foggle]

Wow The Evil Within just got kind of bad... first there's a boss with tons of health and a one hit move that can activate without actually touching you, then you literally fight waves of enemies with assault rifles. This is some straight up RE5 shit and ungodly difficult. I actually yelled at the TV multiple times from frustration. I pray the game goes back to the way it was soon...

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Was that chapter 14 by any chance? Because I remember TS17 saying that there was a boss fight that he was dreading in his guide from that chapter where the boss had way too much health (and keep in mind, he had no upgrades, to boot), and there were these little bug things that kept attacking him and eating away at his health while he was trying to fight the boss (which of course is just insta-death on AKUMU difficulty).

[Foggle]

Nah, it was chapter 10. The boss itself isn't too hard once you figure out a strategy, it just happens to have a completely broken OHK move that ruined any sense of enjoyment I could have gotten from it.

I think maybe I just wasn't in a gaming mood today, though. Looking back on it, the level I'm stuck on with the gun enemies isn't actually that terrible, I've just been feeling bad all day and needed to vent. Should probably restart the entire chapter tomorrow once I feel better and give it a fair shake.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Well, even good games can have bad chapters. Like, I love NG2, but Heart of Darkness is and always will be a horrendous level. It's the same with The Library in Halo. It doesn't make it a bad game, but it's still a shitty level that I tend to skip on all of my replays.

As for boss fights, playing Gears of War on Hardcore or higher has gotten me used to bullshit. General RAAM was hard enough, but the Queen on Gears 3 is a fucking nightmare, and I'm not looking forward to fighting her on my replay. And while I haven't beaten it yet, I hear that Karn on Judgement is pretty goddamn infuriating since the fight has multiple phases and no checkpoints.

[Foggle]

I think it's a little bit of both. This is definitely the worst level in the game so far, but it's not really bad or particularly hard, I'm just sleep deprived and have a headache.

Heart of Darkness

I hear that Karn on Judgement is pretty goddamn infuriating since the fight has multiple phases and no checkpoints.

I hate that, especially when each phase goes on for the length of a normal boss fight.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah, it's supposedly a good 15-20 minutes of fighting to take him down, so that's a long way to send you back if you fail. That said, it's supposedly more of a problem on. Insane difficulty, which I'm not playing on. At least on Hardcore in this game you get downed and have a chance to have one of your squad mates revive you, which to the AI's credit they usually put high priority on.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Today, I used some Birthday money that I got from my cousin early (since he just happened to be visiting town and had to leave a few days before my actual birthday), and bought 3 games: Anarchy Reigns, Bulletstorm, and Max Payne 3, all for under $20 (including tax). And this is why I never buy games full priced anymore. Who cares if I'm playing these games "late" instead of when they're the new hot thing? I don't. All I know is that I saved $160 by buying them now compared to if I bought each of them when they were brand new. I'd say that's a great deal.

I could've bought The Evil Within, but like I said, I'll wait until after my exams are done to play it. Since it's a longer game, I don't really have time for it right now. I could play it in shorter bursts, but the problem that I've experienced with such games is that they aren't meant to be played in such sparse intervals. Just like with RE4, I need a time when I can afford to spend several hours at a time to sink into the game, whereas the games that I've got are all seemingly much more well-suited to being played in shorter intervals.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I'll be eager to hear your opinions on all three. But especially MP3 since you're so big on the first two.

I've been trying to play Smash online but haven't been getting much outside of heavy lag. I got destroyed by RSW in a match as he was Rosalina and simply too good. You pair that with lag and you might as well just put the controller/3DS down. I got two matches that weren't so bad, but it seems random when I get them.

Still beats Brawl's online by a mile.

[Foggle]

Just warning you, Max Payne 3 is also quite long and has unskippable cutscenes that can run up to 20 minutes in length at times. Also, Anarchy Reigns' single-player campaign is not particularly good IMO. Not saying you won't like the story mode, but the multiplayer was really the only Platinum-quality part of the game. The bot match mode (MP simulator) is very fun, but it becomes a bit too easy after a few hours of practice. Still, it's probably worth playing if bought for cheap.

I probably would have suggested Nier over any of those games, but it's even longer and more engrossing than The Evil Within, so that might have been a bad choice right now as well.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah, I had actually considered that one, to be honest, but decided against buying it for the reason that you mentioned. I just can't do long games right now, or I'd I did, my experience would be ruined by having to play so little at a time that I barely felt like I was making any progress in them.

As for AR, I mostly got it based on what TS17 said. He's a huge fan of Platinum but only got into this game a few months ago because he heard that the single player was bad and because he doesn't really play multiplayer games because his "Internet connection is shit," or so he claims. That said, he claimed that he liked the single player better than what people gave it credit for, despite its faults. Either way, I got the game for less than $10, so I can't say that I'll feel ripped off if I don't end up liking it. I just hope that The Legend of Korra game that comes out soon is better, since it's by the same director of AR, and largely seems to follow its gameplay style with its combat.