Video Game Thread v. Series Xbox One X Series Switch S 5

[Dublagent66]

HFW is truly one of the best games ever.  I had forgotten all about HZD until now and will probably go back and re-visit that again too.

[Melphina]

It feels more difficult than the first game. Last night I fought a couple Leaplashers, I think, and one or two other raptor like machines while running around with Varl and Zo. I always struggle using a variety of weapons in combat; if my sharpshooter or hunter bows aren't knocking off a piece, I retreat. There are so many weapons and skill trees and I'm already struggling to learn how to use what I already have at my disposal. Plus the skills from the skill tree I forget about. It's overwhelming but the kind I like because I'll be able to play this game so many ways for many years.

And I'm not a graphics obsessed person but I cannot get over how beautiful it is. I don't even need to do any adjusting on the photo mode other than the angle and maybe lens. Definitely convinced me to get a 65" or larger TV soon.

[ErHaO]

I am reading/watching nothing about Horizon, as I want to go in blind. The original was excellent. But at this rate I won't get a PS5 until summer 2023 or something. I can't justify spending 300 euros more than MSRP when I already have a next gen console with plenty of games I like (one that actually also still sells out when a restock hits). Still, when God of War 2 hits it will probably be very difficult for me, not going to lie 

The state of the PS5 stock here seems pretty dire as of now, I literally don't know anyone with one, whereas the PS4 is an extremely common item in a household here. I believe last month in Spain there were only 130 PS5's available for sale during the entire month, it feels like it is the same here.

It feels more difficult than the first game. Last night I fought a couple Leaplashers, I think, and one or two other raptor like machines while running around with Varl and Zo. I always struggle using a variety of weapons in combat; if my sharpshooter or hunter bows aren't knocking off a piece, I retreat. There are so many weapons and skill trees and I'm already struggling to learn how to use what I already have at my disposal. Plus the skills from the skill tree I forget about. It's overwhelming but the kind I like because I'll be able to play this game so many ways for many years.

And I'm not a graphics obsessed person but I cannot get over how beautiful it is. I don't even need to do any adjusting on the photo mode other than the angle and maybe lens. Definitely convinced me to get a 65" or larger TV soon.

Go with a TV with good HDR (around a 1000 nits or higher with a good gaming mode), that is in my opinion the biggest upgrade. The first Horizon had great HDR, so I expect the sequel to be amazing in that regard as well.

[Podaar]

Horizon Forbidden West runs phenomenally well on PS4 and PS4 Pro. Just sayin'

More HFW Talk:

Move over Fromsoft, we have a new player in the incredibly difficult boss genre. Fortunately, it's completely optional. The last entry in the beginners column of the Arena challenges pits the player against a Slitherfang. Now that's bad enough, but you must play with a loadout that includes porous armor and the game's more obscure weapons. Now that's awful, but the armor and weapons are base models. Now all that's horrific, but they also throw in a timer requiring the deed get done in within 5 minutes. Then it just gets insulting when they charge you an entry fee of 250 shards.  Yeah, I'll be skipping the Arena, me thinks.

I was farming some upgrade materials this morning--needed Rockbreaker mining claws, so I popped over to where one is clearly marked on the map. I strolled up, flagged the requisite components on my display, and proceeded to rip them off the poor monstrosity in quick order. Now, if y'all remember Rockbreakers from HZD, you'll remember that without their claws, they can submerge, so there he is flopping on the sand like giant mechanical beached whale and I proceeded to pummel him with my best DPS...and he just kept after me, while I was barely moving his health bar. I rescanned him, and realized I'd taken on an Apex Rockbreaker! The bloody thing is a damage sponge. Nevertheless, a few minutes of real time, and a couple dozen exploding spears later he was toast.

Time to gather up the spoils, so I surveyed the battlefield and no mining claws to be found anywhere. Apparently, we'd destroyed the components during the fracas. Oh well, I know where to find more. 

[Podaar]

It feels more difficult than the first game. Last night I fought a couple Leaplashers, I think, and one or two other raptor like machines while running around with Varl and Zo.

Ah yes, the giant mechanical kangaroos-from-hell. Did you have one grab you with it's prehensile pouch cable and then kick you in the chest yet? That's always great fun. 

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

Elden Ring is filled to the brim with secrets. I love how you sometimes feel like you are going beyond the borders of the intended leveldesign only to find a big, fully designed level hidden away.

Seems about right 

I will say some bosses seem to think they are in Bloodborne or even Sekiro but with my slow moveset in this game it can be hard to find a window of oppertunity. My typical Dark Souls playstyle does not feel super compatible with this game (bigass sword and no shield, just rolling and hitting). I had to incorporate archery and summons into it. But there are so many build options. I am certain that if I truly hit a wall and good old levelling does not work, I can look up some gameplay/build tips and come back with a vengeance.

Also, do not sleep on summons. Or the new shield parry (guard counter, from the safety of blocking), which I don't use but I saw a friend obliterating a small boss with it.

I find the corpses to be very useful since they reanimate, it's also handy to level them up which I didn't know you could do until yesterday.

I defeated both Margit and Godrick today which feels nice. The one boss I found so far that's just destroys me is Leonine Misbegotten, he's so fast in his movements. I think I need a build with more agility since i'm running around in full armor.

Yeah, that is the one I use as well. Did not know you can upgrade them, nice. But as is the summons have trivialised some bosses for me. I died a grand total of three times in the entirety of the academy, only once to the final boss and that was a draw. I did find out that a draw with a bossfight is a win for you ultimately.

That's funny, it is interesting how different bosses are diffcult to different people. I took Leonine first try without summons and all, before I did Stormveil. A friend of mine is also struggling with him. But I am always weird in these games. In Sekiro I died a million times to the raging bull and especially both forms of the monk, but I took care of Isshin and especially Owl quite swiftly. And my Isshin deaths were almost all in the Genichiro phase.

And please tell me you don't have heavy load? (you have three rolling speeds I believe, based on how much % of your max equipment load you are using, in my experience mid load is sufficient).

If you wanna know how to do that talk to Roderika and follow her questline, she's a spirit tuner.

Yea, my armor weighs alot so i'm not far from that. I'm slowly working my agility up but I'll probably wear something else for certain fights in the meantime just to be able to roll more efficiently.

Have you fought any dragons yet?

[Podaar]

More Horizon Forbidden West talk v. Noob Gamer:

I picked up a shiny new, Very Rare, Glow Blast Sharp Shot Bow last night. It just so happened that I had enough upgrade mats to immediately bump it up to level four. So I sold my old reliable Slicing Sharp Shot Bow, went to the workbench, upgraded the new bow, and skipped out into the wilds to put it through its paces. Nearby was a herd of Fire Bristlebacks, so I crouched down in the grass from decent distance, smiled evilly, and grabbed the new bow for my favorite opening move from cover, Braced Shot...but Aloy simply loaded another arrow. What the hell? Why is she doing the Double Notch skill when I'm clearly pressing the combination of buttons for Braced Shot?

I sorted through all the information in the skill tree, the weapon descriptions, anything in the game I could find. Nothing. I did notice that all of the special moves in the skill trees use the same button combination though (that should have been my first clue). Eventually, I actually went back to the vendor and bought back the Slicing Sharp Shot Bow, went back out to the herd, and blew them all up with the old bow. Mrs. P was quietly chuckling at the string of expletives leaking out of my mouth. I decided to put the game away for the evening and figure it out some other time.

So, this morning I did an internet search for my problem and found a Reddit post asking the same question I had. The first response was, "Uuuh, you have to use the D Pad to select what skill you want to use with that weapon. It always defaults to the left most option until you make a different selection." What? What is this magical formula? I fired up the game, hit the weapon wheel, selected the new bow, and sure enough, right there in the middle of the wheel are small emblems showing what skills are available to use with this bow. I pressed right on the D Pad and braced shot was ready to rock. Who new? I've only been playing the game for about 50 hours now.   

[Dublagent66]

I knew those options were there but don't really use them much.  Maybe I should start.

[Phoenix87x]

GTA trilogy was on sale for $39.99 on switch so I picked it up. With all the updates, its seems fine for the most part.

I will say that it is very nice to have portable versions of the trilogy.

[Revenge319]

Over the course of around 15-20 hours in the past couple days, I got 100% completion in Kirby and the Forgotten Land. I love this game, and I have a strong feeling it'll be my personal Game of the Year for 2022.

[Lonk]

Over the course of around 15-20 hours in the past couple days, I got 100% completion in Kirby and the Forgotten Land. I love this game, and I have a strong feeling it'll be my personal Game of the Year for 2022.

I played the demo for a little bit and it didn't really grabbed my attention. I might wait a bit to get it as I still think it looks fun, but the demo did not do much for me.

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

I feel the devs in Elden Ring collected all the weird suggestions of enemies and bosses from the whole team and just threw everything into the game.

[Melphina]

That Kirby game is an absolute delight. It's so cute and charming. I've actually laughed out loud several times between the sheer ridiculousness of things like him wrapping his body around cars and staircases and watching his OH SHIT face. I play it in short bursts so even though I got it at launch I've only just now gotten to the second region. Going for 100% along the way.

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

I love Kirby games. My favorite is still the original on the NES. I'll end up picking this up at some point. Probably after I 100% Breath of the Wild.

[Dublagent66]

Finished the main story in HFW last weekend.  Pretty cool, although I think there was a little too much dialogue.  I did a bunch of side quests just to take a break from the story, so by the time I got to the end I was already at level 50.  Making the final quest easier than it otherwise would've been.  Now it's time to finish up any other quests and level up some gear and outfits.  I think the hardest thing for me in the game was getting parts off machines still intact with tear damage for upgrade purposes.  For example, having a hell of a time getting the Storm Cannon off the Stormbird without destroying it.  Anybody have suggestions on the best way to get parts off a machine still intact when the part is destroyed when killed?

[Podaar]

Sharp Shot Bow with tear blast arrows. The trick is not to do elemental damage first. A ropecaster can help.

Oh and pick up whatever you knock off right away. Don’t wait until the end of the fracas…the goodie’s can get destroyed from AOE attacks.

[Podaar]

Finished the main story in HFW last weekend.  Pretty cool, although I think there was a little too much dialogue.

I was a bit surprised by my emotional reaction to parts of the main story. I was really pissed after Gemini, then teared-up in the scene outside the Base, only to be elated with what came after, ...

One of the consistently great things in this game is the dialog that is written for Aloy. She does not suffer fools easily, that woman. She often responds to bullshit with exactly what I'm thinking (maybe a bit more diplomatically).

I've got one, perhaps two, more missions left in the main story (I think). I've been putting it off because, like you say Dublagent, I'm already at the level cap now, and I keep wanting to discover other bits of the map. A couple of days ago I scored a Legendary Bow by clearing out all the rebel camps. I was under the impression that legendary gear was only attainable through purchase. It makes me think about completing other activities, like ruins. Those are fun, and kind of relaxing.

[Podaar]

More Horizon Forbidden West chat:

Some of the end-game grind to upgrade legendary gear is a bit egregious...I finally succumbed to the temptation and customized the difficulty settings to "easy loot" so that I'd actually get the drop I was looking for after a tough fight. The combat is still set to Normal, so it's still quite a challenge, but I was getting tired of long tough battles with a Apex Tremortusks only to not have either one drop a Primary Nerve. 

[Melphina]

Beat GTA5 for the umpteenth time. Can't believe how good that game is, it sucks me in every single time and I always end up playing through the whole story. Okay, now that itch is scratched and I can get back to HFW and ER 

[Herrick]

I love Kirby games. My favorite is still the original on the NES. I'll end up picking this up at some point. Probably after I 100% Breath of the Wild.

I thought the original Kirby was a Gameboy game.

[Revenge319]

I love Kirby games. My favorite is still the original on the NES. I'll end up picking this up at some point. Probably after I 100% Breath of the Wild.

I thought the original Kirby was a Gameboy game.

The first Kirby game, Kirby's Dream Land, was on Game Boy. Kirby's Adventure was the second game in the series, and that one was on NES.

[Herrick]

I love Kirby games. My favorite is still the original on the NES. I'll end up picking this up at some point. Probably after I 100% Breath of the Wild.

I thought the original Kirby was a Gameboy game.

The first Kirby game, Kirby's Dream Land, was on Game Boy. Kirby's Adventure was the second game in the series, and that one was on NES.

The Gameboy one was the only one I played. I remember enjoying it very much.

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

I love Kirby games. My favorite is still the original on the NES. I'll end up picking this up at some point. Probably after I 100% Breath of the Wild.

I thought the original Kirby was a Gameboy game.

The first Kirby game, Kirby's Dream Land, was on Game Boy. Kirby's Adventure was the second game in the series, and that one was on NES.

I completely forgot there was a Kirby game on the Gameboy first. Huh... My point still stands 

[Herrick]

I love Kirby games. My favorite is still the original on the NES. I'll end up picking this up at some point. Probably after I 100% Breath of the Wild.

I thought the original Kirby was a Gameboy game.

The first Kirby game, Kirby's Dream Land, was on Game Boy. Kirby's Adventure was the second game in the series, and that one was on NES.

I completely forgot there was a Kirby game on the Gameboy first. Huh... My point still stands 

Have you mangs ever played Leetle Nemo The Dream Master?

[Dublagent66]

More Horizon Forbidden West chat:

Some of the end-game grind to upgrade legendary gear is a bit egregious...I finally succumbed to the temptation and customized the difficulty settings to "easy loot" so that I'd actually get the drop I was looking for after a tough fight. The combat is still set to Normal, so it's still quite a challenge, but I was getting tired of long tough battles with a Apex Tremortusks only to not have either one drop a Primary Nerve. 

I see what you mean.  Farming parts is a pain in the ass sometimes.  Although, I am getting better at tearing parts from machines.  Some easier than others.  Just have to be careful not to hit an exploding part that destroys everything around it.  Right now, I'm trying to upgrade weapons and outfits.  Can't find anymore side quests.  Got a couple Cauldrons still to finish.  Starting to run out of things to do.  Hope they update the game with more side quests.  I probably had more fun doing those than the main story.

[cramx3]

Was looking at my call of duty warzone stats this morning to see the stats from my gaming session last night... I noticed a well known streamer in my lobby who finished 2nd place on a game we won.  Went back when I got home today and watched the video of the gameplay I had.  Looks legit as StoneMountain64 (2.3 million youtube subscribers) killed me right at the end but my teammate got him and we won.  If that truly was him (username and clan tag match) that would be the first known time I've played against one of the biggest gamers in COD.  Too bad he wasn't streaming as he's one of those daily streamers for a living. 

[Podaar]

I see what you mean.  Farming parts is a pain in the ass sometimes.  Although, I am getting better at tearing parts from machines.  Some easier than others.  Just have to be careful not to hit an exploding part that destroys everything around it. Right now, I'm trying to upgrade weapons and outfits.  Can't find anymore side quests.  Got a couple Cauldrons still to finish.  Starting to run out of things to do.  Hope they update the game with more side quests.  I probably had more fun doing those than the main story.

Frost Claws and Fire Claws, amirite? I've found that the quickest and easiest way to take them down without bursting their elemental sack is to hit them in the face with the braced shot skill.

Yeah, I'm running out of activities myself. I may try the racing challenges just to have more to do.

[Stadler]

Was looking at my call of duty warzone stats this morning to see the stats from my gaming session last night... I noticed a well known streamer in my lobby who finished 2nd place on a game we won.  Went back when I got home today and watched the video of the gameplay I had.  Looks legit as StoneMountain64 (2.3 million youtube subscribers) killed me right at the end but my teammate got him and we won.  If that truly was him (username and clan tag match) that would be the first known time I've played against one of the biggest gamers in COD.  Too bad he wasn't streaming as he's one of those daily streamers for a living.

You're on a celebrity roll!

[cramx3]

Was looking at my call of duty warzone stats this morning to see the stats from my gaming session last night... I noticed a well known streamer in my lobby who finished 2nd place on a game we won.  Went back when I got home today and watched the video of the gameplay I had.  Looks legit as StoneMountain64 (2.3 million youtube subscribers) killed me right at the end but my teammate got him and we won.  If that truly was him (username and clan tag match) that would be the first known time I've played against one of the biggest gamers in COD.  Too bad he wasn't streaming as he's one of those daily streamers for a living.

You're on a celebrity roll!

  for a virtual meet and greet, I think it would need to be live streamed for it to count

[Stadler]

Yeah, but I'm being serious. Sorry to get existential here, but one of the things I like about you is you just DO IT.  You want to see a show?  Let's GO!  You're gaming with professional gamers, you're getting retweeted out by Valerie Bertinelli (and don't let anyone here tell you otherwise; there are more than a handful of people here that realized that girls don't have cooties by watching her on "One Day At A Time")... I admire that a lot.  It's something I've tried to instill in my kids; don't sit and wait for life to come to you, because it won't.  Get yourself out there, and good things will happen. 

[cramx3]

Well that has little to do with gaming, that's just completely random.  But the rest of that was something I learned and wasn't always that way.  It took a life changing event to make me realize I don't want to be on my death bed one day and look back thinking of all the could or should haves and be content that I lived my life the best I could. 

[Stadler]

Whatever the case, I find it very admirable and I respect it. 

Okay, creepy awkwardness over! 

[Dublagent66]

I see what you mean.  Farming parts is a pain in the ass sometimes.  Although, I am getting better at tearing parts from machines.  Some easier than others.  Just have to be careful not to hit an exploding part that destroys everything around it. Right now, I'm trying to upgrade weapons and outfits.  Can't find anymore side quests.  Got a couple Cauldrons still to finish.  Starting to run out of things to do.  Hope they update the game with more side quests.  I probably had more fun doing those than the main story.

Frost Claws and Fire Claws, amirite? I've found that the quickest and easiest way to take them down without bursting their elemental sack is to hit them in the face with the braced shot skill.

Yeah, I'm running out of activities myself. I may try the racing challenges just to have more to do.

Exactly, and at this point, I need about 9 Frost Claw Sac Webbings for the upgrades I'm doing.  Still have a bunch of hunting grounds and melee pits to complete too.

[XJDenton]

Anyone here play DOTA?

[Dublagent66]

Never heard of it.  Had to google.  Haven't been a PC gamer since the late 90's.  Doesn't look like it's available on consoles.