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Finished God of War (2018) main story, and I’ll probably go for 100%, but I gotta admit — this wasn’t the game I hoped it would be. I see why people like it and why it was (and still is) a big deal for Sony, but I don’t think I’ll be playing Ragnarok anytime soon. Here’s a couple of things that bugged me (spoilers ahead):

This isn’t typical hack and slash - and that’s OK. I get that they needed to elevate the franchise, but for me, it was a bit too much. All the runes, equipment, and extras… usually as a game progresses, so do the weapons and skills. But this time, with skill trees, and you have to buy/craft gear which you have to choose and upgrade- it all felt like it slowed things down. I usually enjoy that stuff - if it’s in an RPG like Diablo or Torchlight.

The whole “open-world” thing didn’t work for me either. First off, it wasn’t really open. You can’t jump, so you're constantly blocked by small obstacles. There’s a rock between two areas? Nope, can’t hop over - gotta hop in a canoe for a 6-7 minute trip. And those portal doors? Useless for the first 15-20 hours. Long-distance travel just got tiresome. Which brings me to maybe my main gripe: the game’s pacing.

I’d turn on the console, expecting some action, and then spend 30 minutes doing… something… without a single fight (if I followed the main story). And then when enemies did show up - it was waves of them. Same with puzzles. All previous games had a better rhythm: single enemies-puzzle-group fight-cinematic-boss-etc - or something like that. Here, it felt like I was playing two different games stitched together.

The story didn’t win me over either. I don’t know if it was the voice acting or just the weird logic of it. Like, your main villain attacks you because he was looking for your wife, who recently died, but he didn’t know that… so now you just beat the shit out of each other for 20 hours? The father-son arc also lacked progression. Kratos just ignores him, then yells once when the boy finds out he’s a god, and then suddenly - boom - Kratos is chill with everything at the end? That’s it? Nothing to ground that transition.

And then there was this moment near the end: I was messing around with my PS account, changed my profile pic to Kratos (OG style, smaller beard), and immediately started humming the God of War theme from 15 years ago. THIS ONE And just like that, I could picture it: flying off Mount Olympus, Zeus blasting thunders after me, landing on giants, ripping apart Prometheus - guts and blood everywhere. And here I am, canoeing, looking for closets with a single sad violin music playing. In the snow. I hate snow, like Anakin hates sand. (Even worse: I finished the game, and returned to Kratos' house the Ragnarok trailer drops… and guess what? More snow.) Oh, and that whole “Nine Realms” thing? What a dick move! You show all nine, but you can only travel to six and three of those are the size of a broom closet!

Anyway, it’s not like I didn’t enjoy it at all (though the main story felt a bit short?). I will play Ragnarok at some point. But before that, I think I’ll go back to some remastered originals from the 2005–2010 era.
Once I finish this, I’ve got the Bioshock trilogy lined up (I played the first one years ago on PC, but I’ve forgotten pretty much everything)
Also, just got an email that PS+ is 50% off (1- and 3-month subscriptions), so I might check what that gets me.
 
Spambot said:
Finished God of War (2018) main story, and I’ll probably go for 100%, but I gotta admit — this wasn’t the game I hoped it would be. I see why people like it and why it was (and still is) a big deal for Sony, but I don’t think I’ll be playing Ragnarok anytime soon. Here’s a couple of things that bugged me (spoilers ahead):

This isn’t typical hack and slash - and that’s OK. I get that they needed to elevate the franchise, but for me, it was a bit too much. All the runes, equipment, and extras… usually as a game progresses, so do the weapons and skills. But this time, with skill trees, and you have to buy/craft gear which you have to choose and upgrade- it all felt like it slowed things down. I usually enjoy that stuff - if it’s in an RPG like Diablo or Torchlight.

The whole “open-world” thing didn’t work for me either. First off, it wasn’t really open. You can’t jump, so you're constantly blocked by small obstacles. There’s a rock between two areas? Nope, can’t hop over - gotta hop in a canoe for a 6-7 minute trip. And those portal doors? Useless for the first 15-20 hours. Long-distance travel just got tiresome. Which brings me to maybe my main gripe: the game’s pacing.

I’d turn on the console, expecting some action, and then spend 30 minutes doing… something… without a single fight (if I followed the main story). And then when enemies did show up - it was waves of them. Same with puzzles. All previous games had a better rhythm: single enemies-puzzle-group fight-cinematic-boss-etc - or something like that. Here, it felt like I was playing two different games stitched together.

The story didn’t win me over either. I don’t know if it was the voice acting or just the weird logic of it. Like, your main villain attacks you because he was looking for your wife, who recently died, but he didn’t know that… so now you just beat the shit out of each other for 20 hours? The father-son arc also lacked progression. Kratos just ignores him, then yells once when the boy finds out he’s a god, and then suddenly - boom - Kratos is chill with everything at the end? That’s it? Nothing to ground that transition.

And then there was this moment near the end: I was messing around with my PS account, changed my profile pic to Kratos (OG style, smaller beard), and immediately started humming the God of War theme from 15 years ago. THIS ONE And just like that, I could picture it: flying off Mount Olympus, Zeus blasting thunders after me, landing on giants, ripping apart Prometheus - guts and blood everywhere. And here I am, canoeing, looking for closets with a single sad violin music playing. In the snow. I hate snow, like Anakin hates sand. (Even worse: I finished the game, and returned to Kratos' house the Ragnarok trailer drops… and guess what? More snow.) Oh, and that whole “Nine Realms” thing? What a dick move! You show all nine, but you can only travel to six and three of those are the size of a broom closet!

Anyway, it’s not like I didn’t enjoy it at all (though the main story felt a bit short?). I will play Ragnarok at some point. But before that, I think I’ll go back to some remastered originals from the 2005–2010 era.
Once I finish this, I’ve got the Bioshock trilogy lined up (I played the first one years ago on PC, but I’ve forgotten pretty much everything)
Also, just got an email that PS+ is 50% off (1- and 3-month subscriptions), so I might check what that gets me.
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Almost all of your complaints are fixed in Ragnarok. The story is bigger, the realms are more vast, and most importantly, you can go to all nine of them.

It’s hard for me to get a frame of reference since I never played the original trilogy, but I enjoyed both 2018 and Ragnarok very much.

The Bioshock trilogy is fantastic. The second one is actually my favorite, although most seem to prefer the first.
 
Currently going through Dark Souls 3 for the first time. I'm done with the base game and started the DLC yesterday.
It's a pretty good game, but by far my least favorite so far. My rankings would be:

Demon's Souls >>> Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin > Dark Souls Remastered > Dark Souls 3: The Fire Fades

I must've mentioned this before, but the difficulty in those games is massively overstated and hyped for no reason. The Nameless King for example has been proclaimed to be one of the greatest boss fights in the franchise, incredibly challenging and arguably one of the best fights in gaming. Well, turns out he's a complete chump lol
The spectacle, the atmosphere and the vibes were immaculate, I'll give him that. But the fight itself? Mechanically and difficulty-wise? Utter disappointment. I had him down in fewer than 10 tries, half of which were me goofing around with different spells and weapons to see my damage output. Hell, I had more trouble with the Twin Princes than I had with him.

I'll stand by that Yozora from Kingdom Hearts 3's DLC is one of the hardest and best designed boss fights I've ever seen. I died more to him than in my entire platinum playthroughs of Demon's Souls, DS1 and DS2 combined.

There are still a few infamous bosses left in the DLC for DS3, so I'll see if my opinion on the game will change much, but I kinda doubt it to be honest. The music is phenomenal though, gotta give the game props for that.

Edit: Forgot to add my biggest complaint lol
The constant callbacks to Dark Souls 1 and the fanservice makes this one feel like it's not sure about its identity. Either tie all games from the trilogy in (DS2 has incredibly interesting additions to the lore) or focus on delivering a unique experience. This heavy emphasis on DS1 feels like a crutch and the game is worse off because of that.
 
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Spambot said:
Finished God of War (2018) main story, and I’ll probably go for 100%, but I gotta admit — this wasn’t the game I hoped it would be. I see why people like it and why it was (and still is) a big deal for Sony, but I don’t think I’ll be playing Ragnarok anytime soon. Here’s a couple of things that bugged me (spoilers ahead):

This isn’t typical hack and slash - and that’s OK. I get that they needed to elevate the franchise, but for me, it was a bit too much. All the runes, equipment, and extras… usually as a game progresses, so do the weapons and skills. But this time, with skill trees, and you have to buy/craft gear which you have to choose and upgrade- it all felt like it slowed things down. I usually enjoy that stuff - if it’s in an RPG like Diablo or Torchlight.

The whole “open-world” thing didn’t work for me either. First off, it wasn’t really open. You can’t jump, so you're constantly blocked by small obstacles. There’s a rock between two areas? Nope, can’t hop over - gotta hop in a canoe for a 6-7 minute trip. And those portal doors? Useless for the first 15-20 hours. Long-distance travel just got tiresome. Which brings me to maybe my main gripe: the game’s pacing.

I’d turn on the console, expecting some action, and then spend 30 minutes doing… something… without a single fight (if I followed the main story). And then when enemies did show up - it was waves of them. Same with puzzles. All previous games had a better rhythm: single enemies-puzzle-group fight-cinematic-boss-etc - or something like that. Here, it felt like I was playing two different games stitched together.

The story didn’t win me over either. I don’t know if it was the voice acting or just the weird logic of it. Like, your main villain attacks you because he was looking for your wife, who recently died, but he didn’t know that… so now you just beat the shit out of each other for 20 hours? The father-son arc also lacked progression. Kratos just ignores him, then yells once when the boy finds out he’s a god, and then suddenly - boom - Kratos is chill with everything at the end? That’s it? Nothing to ground that transition.

And then there was this moment near the end: I was messing around with my PS account, changed my profile pic to Kratos (OG style, smaller beard), and immediately started humming the God of War theme from 15 years ago. THIS ONE And just like that, I could picture it: flying off Mount Olympus, Zeus blasting thunders after me, landing on giants, ripping apart Prometheus - guts and blood everywhere. And here I am, canoeing, looking for closets with a single sad violin music playing. In the snow. I hate snow, like Anakin hates sand. (Even worse: I finished the game, and returned to Kratos' house the Ragnarok trailer drops… and guess what? More snow.) Oh, and that whole “Nine Realms” thing? What a dick move! You show all nine, but you can only travel to six and three of those are the size of a broom closet!

Anyway, it’s not like I didn’t enjoy it at all (though the main story felt a bit short?). I will play Ragnarok at some point. But before that, I think I’ll go back to some remastered originals from the 2005–2010 era.
Once I finish this, I’ve got the Bioshock trilogy lined up (I played the first one years ago on PC, but I’ve forgotten pretty much everything)
Also, just got an email that PS+ is 50% off (1- and 3-month subscriptions), so I might check what that gets me.
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I enjoyed it more than you did, but I was also somewhat disappointed.

But it's the same as with The Last of Us - very often when people say the game is "like a movie" or even "like a book", my immediate thought is "well, you haven't watched many movies and haven't read many books, have you?".

Meaning the narrative storytelling and characters and "cinematography" and everything (like God of War's oner - the entire game is one continuous shot) is almost always overrated, with certain exceptions (yes, RDR2 indeed is like a movie - or more precisely, TV miniseries and Planescape: Torment is like a book, but those are the outliers).

I agree that the pacing of the game is quite lacking and the "set pieces" kinda jarring ... and the combat was trying to be hard, but wasn't as well-done and carefully crafted as with from soft, so it was more frustrating than it was necessary.

Had the game come out when I was fifteen, it would almost certainly become my favourite game ever. But it hadn't, so it didn't. As it stands, I have trouble forcing myself to replay it to play Ragnarok, which I have already bought, some time ago.

Freya is incredibly hot, though.
 
Vaenyr said:
Currently going through Dark Souls 3 for the first time. I'm done with the base game and started the DLC yesterday.
It's a pretty good game, but by far my least favorite so far. My rankings would be:

Demon's Souls >>> Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin > Dark Souls Remastered > Dark Souls 3: The Fire Fades

I must've mentioned this before, but the difficulty in those games is massively overstated and hyped for no reason. The Nameless King for example has been proclaimed to be one of the greatest boss fights in the franchise, incredibly challenging and arguably one of the best fights in gaming. Well, turns out he's a complete chump lol
The spectacle, the atmosphere and the vibes were immaculate, I'll give him that. But the fight itself? Mechanically and difficulty-wise? Utter disappointment. I had him down in fewer than 10 tries, half of which were me goofing around with different spells and weapons to see my damage output. Hell, I had more trouble with the Twin Princes than I had with him.

Edit: Forgot to add my biggest complaint lol
The constant callbacks to Dark Souls 1 and the fanservice makes this one feel like it's not sure about its identity. Either tie all games from the trilogy in (DS2 has incredibly interesting additions to the lore) or focus on delivering a unique experience. This heavy emphasis on DS1 feels like a crutch and the game is worse off because of that.
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Without attempting to be glib, what did you expect? Based on the fact you've made this ranking at all, you have played at least 3 Souls-like games before this, so you were bound to find it easier than the average player.

With regards to the series in general, I personally feel the difficulty is there but its misconstrued. It's not a test of mechanical ability, but a test of patience and pattern recognition. These can be huge roadblocks for a first playthrough but once they're down they transfer very easily between the whole series.
 
You know what? I'm buying the Oblivion remaster. Sure, it's the same old jank under the new coat, it's just another in the stream of Bethesda's re-releases, but Oblivion always filled that sweet 00s fantasy spot, you know, the LOTR movies nostalgia and everything. It's going to be a trip down the memory lane. And it looks really good.

So I guess instead of going through the excellent games of Larian, Remedy, Naughty Dog, Vavra's Kingdom Come 2, new Dragon Ages and Avoweds and whatnot I'm instead whoring out to Todd "It just works" Howard, but

4ac527b5-3604-4214-9de5-0adc542faa78_text.gif
lol.

It's actually hilarious, now twenty years later, if I got a penny for every time my PC can probably barely handle Oblivion and I hope I don't have to play at my friend's instead, I'd get two pennies. Which isn't a lot, but it's still pretty weird that it happened twice.
 
JudasMyGuide said:
You know what? I'm buying the Oblivion remaster. Sure, it's the same old jank under the new coat, it's just another in the stream of Bethesda's re-releases, but Oblivion always filled that sweet 00s fantasy spot, you know, the LOTR movies nostalgia and everything. It's going to be a trip down the memory lane. And it looks really good.
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They fixed the levelling system which is pretty massive - I've always preferred being able to play games without having to use a spreadsheet.
 
DJMayes said:
Without attempting to be glib, what did you expect? Based on the fact you've made this ranking at all, you have played at least 3 Souls-like games before this, so you were bound to find it easier than the average player.

With regards to the series in general, I personally feel the difficulty is there but its misconstrued. It's not a test of mechanical ability, but a test of patience and pattern recognition. These can be huge roadblocks for a first playthrough but once they're down they transfer very easily between the whole series.
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It's not that I'm chasing explicitly difficult experiences. I'm just once again noticing how overhyped the difficulty in Souls games is. Once you get used to the fact that even normal enemies can kill you quite quickly if you don't pay attention, they are rather straightforward (and fun!) experiences.

I've been hearing for years that DS3 has the best bosses, that some like the Nameless King are these legendary and super difficult fights. Turns out half the fights in the DLC for Kingdom Hearts 3 are much more difficult than anything I faced in DS3 or the predecessors lol

I'm still having fun overall, but 3 doesn't quite reach the highs of DS1 or DS2 (let alone Demon's Souls) for me.

What I'm really looking forward to is playing Bloodborne at some point. I used to watch my brother play it, but I've never completed it. That's probably going to be a lot of fun.
 
9saeni.jpg

Anyway, the remaster is fun, as expected. Beats the overrated Skyrim for me, as it always did (I suppose I'm more of a LOTR bloke than Game of Thrones bloke, lol).

In other news, I'm devouring the Witcher 3 replay (and managed to work around the notorious bug in Blood and Wine (Wine Wars: Belgaard)), I'm beyond halway through in Doom 2016 on nightmare and I've returned to Kingdom Come 1 again.
 
Oh yeah

494821138_565568496147823_1558630941034488695_n.jpg

495268745_1804813557044377_4902378744421740322_n.jpg

9 years later, I still got it, on Nightmare this time around. My flex for today.

Well, that and the fact I did La Cage au Fou in Witcher 3 today, on Death March and with enemy upscaling.

I mean, who's your Daddy, huh? :D
 
I'm almost done with Dark Souls 3. Explored all areas, defeated all bosses. Still need to grind two covenants (two more Proofs of Concord Kept and 27 Vertebra Shackles) and then two speed runs through NG+ and NG++ to get the platinum trophy.

Good game, but still my least favorite in the franchise. Sister Friede went down on my third try. Midir, Halflight and Gael I defeated first try. The spectacle and music is awesome, but I prefer the slower bosses of the previous entries.

I think my biggest issue is the constant call backs to DS1. Feels too much like nostalgia baiting.

I'll be glad once I'm done with the platinum.
 
Man, playing Kingdom Come: Deliverance (either one, but now I'm replaying the first one) is a complex experience. On one hand, the general experience, role-playing, atmosphere, beautiful vistas and music, challenging gameplay etc. really give off old-school, Oblivion-style vibes and I can totally get the people who play this and want every game to be like that. I kinda do too, bugs be damned.

But there's also the fact that we have certain... issues with our own history

9st6ki.jpg

and there's also the fact that I've never played a game like 1 where not fucking everyone you meet was literally the hardest challenge of the game. I am trying to play a somewhat historically authentic chaste Henry and the game keeps forcing me to fuck everybody and his horse. Accepting a shirt from lady Stephanie, trying to solve the village witches, go drinking with Father Godwin, like the game has literally the mind of a fourteen-year-old.

Still great, though.
 
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JudasMyGuide said:
and there's also the fact that I've never played a game like 1 where not fucking everyone you meet was literally the hardest challenge of the game. I am trying to play a somewhat historically authentic chaste Henry and the game keeps forcing me to fuck everybody and his horse. Accepting a shirt from lady Stephanie, trying to solve the village witches, go drinking with Father Godwin, like the game has literally the mind of a fourteen-year-old.

Still great, though.
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Call me a prude (and your game sounds worse certainly) but this is one of several issues I have with Witcher III.
 
I don't think I'm brave or patient enough to go it on Nightmare. I went for Hurt Me Plenty on my first runthrough (I always go for the medium difficulty on a first play, maybe try the next one up on my second) and almost threw my controller across the room trying to take on the Marauder :lol:

Detective Beauregard said:
Looking forward to Dark Ages?
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I am. I was sceptical of the slower gameplay style when it was first announced, but seeing it in action it looks weighty and powerful, and the demon designs are fucking cool as shit. I think I'm finally gonna have to buy a new-gen console to be able to play it.
 
Detective Beauregard said:
Eternal frustrated the hell out of me on the easiest difficulty; I couldn’t imagine playing it on nightmare.
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Well, playing it on console (I mean, already playing FPS with a controller instead of keyboard+mouse) makes it even worse. The first slayer gate, where you have next to no equipment, was downright sadistic, just an absolutely unhinged vortex of everything and Cult Base, where you get mancubi in the mix, but no super shotgun at first, really tests if you're the best.

It's absolutely insane, just this cocaine-fuelled seizure of slaughter, colours and reloading, but it really gives you a strong rush. I mean, after you manage to do it, it's really exhilarating and you feel like a fuckin' Hercules.

Detective Beauregard said:
Looking forward to Dark Ages?
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I am. I was a bit afraid, because the change feels really drastic, from the videos I've seen, but I have no reason to not trust ID to once again make it as much fun as possible.

I mean, picking up a shield and go fight in the Dark Ages, that is what I was always born to do, right?

EDIT: Although I'm picking it on console again, because, contrary to rumours, what a surprise, I don't shit money
 
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I think it looks pretty good, and although the combat looks like a blast, I hope there’s some decent exploration. I loved finding all those dumb little enemy figures in the last two games.

From what I’ve heard of the soundtrack, I’m impressed. Not sure if anything can touch Mick Gordon’s BFG Division, but at least one of the new tracks is a banger.
 
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