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

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah, that was the part I was talking about needing a guide for!

Well it looks like this is a case of great minds....not having any clue what the fuck to do with cryptic puzzles.

[Nel_Annette]

I also played up until Firelink Shrine. That was about a month ago. Just don't have time for a game that doesn't actually pause right now. XD

The controls for DS are weird to me. It feels like the square/triangle/circle/x buttons and the trigger buttons should be switched. I'm used to running using triggers.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I also played up until Firelink Shrine. That was about a month ago. Just don't have time for a game that doesn't actually pause right now. XD

That bugs the hell out of me as well. I'm fine with games that don't let you access menus while a game is paused and force you to do it in real time (such as Dead Space, for example). However, outright lacking a pause function entirely is just stupid. And nobody tell me that it's to make the game more difficult. Plenty of the hardest games of all time have a pause function. It's one of the most basic things that you can have in a single player game that doesn't absolutely require online access (even if that is a component of the game). This is just obnoxious design. What if I get a phone call or need to go to the bathroom in the middle of a fight?

The controls for DS are weird to me. It feels like the square/triangle/circle/x buttons and the trigger buttons should be switched. I'm used to running using triggers.

I agree 100%! I've played a shit-ton of character action games in my life, and literally the hardest thing about this game for me at this point is getting used to its control scheme. You have no idea how many times I've mistakenly used an Estus Flask when I meant to attack an enemy. Using the shoulder buttons to attack in a melee-combat focused game is something that I haven't experienced since Jedi Knight II, but even that game was at least a hybrid FPS to explain that particular control-scheme.

Of course, that isn't to say that the controls themselves are bad. They feel responsive and mostly precise. It's just that I find the layout to be so bizarre right now. It'd be nice if the game gave you the option of customizing your control scheme to what your prefer like a lot of other games do, but I suppose that it's not so bad that I can't adjust.

[Nel_Annette]

We're in complete agreement. I'm putting the game on hold until I live on my own or something. There's constantly shit I have to do that makes me pause a game, and I just can't do an unpausable one at the time. My character will die any time I have an important phone call. It's inevitable.

I really wish there was a way to remap controls. I'm so used to the Zelda setup (and stuff like Saints Row) with the run and roll button being the triggers that it my natural reaction was making me do extremely stupid things in an already hard game. Not the game's fault, but still. I want to like the game (I damn well better, I have Demon's Souls, DS2 and DS3 sitting on the shelf too.), it's just an odd duck to me for now.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

We're in complete agreement. I'm putting the game on hold until I live on my own or something. There's constantly shit I have to do that makes me pause a game, and I just can't do an unpausable one at the time. My character will die any time I have an important phone call. It's inevitable.

Tell me about it. I'm currently living with 5 relatives, and can't seem to get more than 5 minutes of silence at a time before I need to help someone with something (which, to be fair, my Dad is working all day, my cousin is recovering from a leg injury, and my aunt is pretty old and has back problems). While I don't mind being of use, it makes playing a game without a pause function unreasonably frustrating.

I really wish there was a way to remap controls. I'm so used to the Zelda setup (and stuff like Saints Row) with the run and roll button being the triggers that it my natural reaction was making me do extremely stupid things in an already hard game. Not the game's fault, but still. I want to like the game (I damn well better, I have Demon's Souls, DS2 and DS3 sitting on the shelf too.), it's just an odd duck to me for now.

In addition to Zelda, I'm a huge fan of hack n' slash series' like Ninja Gaiden, Devil May Cry, and Bayonetta, so using face buttons for quick and heavy attacks and shoulder buttons to dodge or move faster just feels so much more natural to me. I understand that this game isn't a hack n' slash and not designed to work like one, but it has just been so deeply ingrained in my mind that melee combat has to work like that.

I will say that mapping the block/parry function to a shoulder button does actually feel appropriate to me, since it's similar to other games that I've played.

[Foggle]

Every game should have a pause function, full stop. Yes, I know DS has online capabilities, but if you're playing offline, you should definitely be able to pause, and it's stupid that you can't. Fair warning: Nioh also doesn't have a pause button.
About the controls, I thought they were weird at first too, but I've grown to find them very intuitive and comfortable... though I often end up wasting a healing item or two when I haven't played in a while.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Nioh still has a Beta version coming out for people to give feedback on before the full game officially releases. Make sure to tell them to add in a pause function for offline play in the surveys. We still have a chance to fix this, damnit!

The controls themselves in DS aren't bad. It's just awkward so far. But, if I could get used to the controls in RE4 and MGS2 and 3, then I'm sure that I'll be just fine with DS after some practice.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, I completed the Undead Burg area on my first try. That's to say that starting from the Bonfire in that area and working my way to the final boss fight, I managed to clear the whole area and all enemies in one run. The funny thing is that I ended up using all five of my Estus Flasks on the regular fights before even reaching the boss. Then I used a Gold Resin to buff my weapon and pretty much managed to waste the boss. I did take one hit during the fight, and it brought me down to a sliver of health, but I never got hit after that because I learned how to time my i-frames to avoid getting hit. I suppose that most new players would instinctively try to roll away from the boss, then come back in to score a quick hit before the boss could attack again and prolong the fight by running away and then charging back in. However, I've played way too much Ninja Gaiden, Devil May Cry, and Bayonetta over the years so I know how to exploit i-frames. I basically just rolled toward the boss every time that it swung and the attack completely whiffed every time, giving me time to score a clear hit on him with each successful dodge. So, essentially the boss fight was the easiest part of the area, IMO.

That's not to say that the game itself is easy, but I do believe that it helps to know some of the basic technical concepts of melee combat present in almost all of Japanese game design.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I finally found the real Dr. Drago Pettrovich Madnar in Metal Gear. Then he said that he wants me to rescue his daughter first, and he won't talk until then. I was just thinking of how if this same scene were in a Metal Gear Soild game, the good doctor would go on a 20-minute monologue about philosophy, then ask me to recuse his daughter or he won't talk, then would immediately proceed that by talking out 10 more minutes worth of exposition about where to find his daughter followed by some more philosophy. What I'm trying to say is that it's kind of refreshing to see Kojima limited by technology and focusing more making an actual video game.

I got to Undead Parish in Dark Souls. I haven't completed that area yet, but I did find the shortcut back to Firelink Shrine. You want to know what the toughest enemies were that I came across between Undead Burg and Undead Parish, though? Not the Boar (which I simply just skipped trying to fight for now), not the Undead Knights, and not the giant knight mini-boss thing from the altar room. It was the fucking rats. The little fuckers kept on poisoning me almost every time that I had to play through that area.

Anyways, I managed to reinforce my Estus Flask using a Firekeeper's Soul, and I also found an Undead Asylum key, though I currently have no idea how to even get back there yet.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, a friend of mine recently convinced me to give the Splinter Cell series a shot, or at least the original trilogy for now (he likes Double Agent and Black List, but Pandora Tomorrow and Chaos Theory are his absolute favorites). The only exposure that I've ever had to the series so far was with the first level of the original, the first level of Chaos Theory, and the demo for Conviction. As you can probably tell, I utterly suck at stealth games and was even worse back when the older games released, so I couldn't make it past the beginning of either and just gave up at the time. As for Conviction, while the developers clearly made it easier, it felt very watered down and I didn't want to play a Splinter Cell game that shunned many of the elements that made the series appealing to its fans in the first place. It's not that I wanted an easy experience, but rather wanted to understand how to play the games for what they were in the first place.

My friend told me that I should probably start with Pandora Tomorrow and then go onto Chaos Theory, and then come back to the original if I'm interested since while it's a good game, it hasn't aged the most gracefully in his view. He also advised me to stay away from the HD collection since those are apparently pretty bad ports with numerous technical problems. So, it looks like I'll have to hunt down the original XBOX versions of those games.

Speaking of Tom Clancy games, I've recently had a strange itch to revisit the Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter games. Both of those games were among my favorite TPSs from last gen, but I haven't played them in a while. I suppose that after I complete Dark Souls, I'll tackle the Splinter Cell games, and then after that if I still feel like it, I'll revisit the GRAW titles.

[Mustang]

Finally got away from Ultra Street Fighter 4 only to go to Street Fighter 5. I know I sorta kinda dissed the game in the Fighting Game thread, but when you get a lot of testosterone in one place throwing out challenges I'm not gonna back down. I won't lie. Definitely had a blast (especially when you have wacky friends and family), but I had a lot of fun when I was using Ken and Karin. They are no Dudley, but both of them have different parts of him where I can dabble between the 2 characters. I never got a chance to use Necalli, but I do plan to try him out. Dude hits like a tank (more Dudley lol). So I'll be jumping back and forth between SF3 and SF5 (until I get the urge/challenge to play USF4)

I've also been playing Dragon Ball Xenoverse. Oh man where do I begin with this one? It's fun, but infuriating. The randomness of the game is probably the biggest drawback, but it also feels very rewarding when you finally get said item/skill. The grinding (and you will be doing tons of it) is something I don't mind because you're actually fighting instead of pressing 1 button and waiting on your turn again. I do hate that the A.I. on your team can range from too aggressive to straight dumb in a blink of an eye. Yesterday I was doing the PQ- Power Teams and each fight was 2 vs 3, but somehow managed to turn into 2 vs 1 because my team is just watching me get beatdown by both Gohan and Piccolo. It gets even worse when you fight Goku and Gohan on a later PQ because all they do is spam Super Kamehameha's and you don't have time to charge ki or attack (not to mention doing it the first time you are alone). Why do I continue to torture myself with this average/good game is a question I can't answer. I do want a character with Vegito's clothes though. I'm also looking forward to Xenoverse 2.

[Foggle]

He also advised me to stay away from the HD collection since those are apparently pretty bad ports with numerous technical problems.

Aw, really? I was looking into replacing my PC versions with that collection since they really struggle on modern hardware. SC1 is particularly bad, as my computer's speed apparently causes enemies to not actually take damage when I shoot them half the time (wtf!?). Pandora Tomorrow, meanwhile, has a completely broken lighting engine on newer video cards, so the game looks simply awful. It's so bad that they haven't even released it on Steam. Chaos Theory is mostly fine, but still fairly wonky compared to the console versions in terms of performance and controls.

Anyway, Pandora Tomorrow, Chaos Theory, and Blacklist are definitely the best ones IMO. The first game is still really good, but it suffers from poor/bizarre design at times, while Double Agent and Conviction are alright, but nothing special. Speaking of which, if you ever decide to play Double Agent, check out the PS2/original Xbox version. The Xbox 360/PC version is a completely different game and nowhere near as good (with the PC port being one of the worst ports of all time).

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Wow, it looks like the PC versions of most of these games got shafted pretty bad. Which is odd considering that Tom Clancy games were mainly designed for the PC in the first place way back in the late 90's when titles like Rainbow Six hit the tactical shooter scene.

If you have a working XBOX360, though, then it's worth noting that the original XBOX versions of these games should be completely backwards compatible with that console.

Aw, really?

Well, it IS Ubisoft that we're talking about here, so I'm not all that surprised.

I should probably do more research on it anyways, but a YouTuber that I frequently follow (TheSeraphim17) did a guide for one of these games a few years ago, and I also remember him complaining about the HD port having an inexplicably choppy frame-rate and numerous graphical problems that were never contained in the original release. So, it looks like there may be some unfortunate truth to that statement.

[Foggle]

If you have a working XBOX360, though, then it's worth noting that the original XBOX versions of these games should be completely backwards compatible with that console.

That's a relief! The PS2 ports were always a little wonky too. Xbox is definitely the best way to play the first 4 games.

[gunswordfist]

What, completely different? I thought the PS2/Xbox version just had an extra spy vs spy mode