What Video Games Are You Currently Playing

[MaartenVC]

Elden Ring

Highly recommended

Genre: Open-World Action-Role-Playing Game
Setting: Dark Fantasy

Positives:
+ Explore vast intricate lands with tons of dungeons
+ Find numerous weapons, armour and items
+ Meet mysterious characters
+ Fight soldiers and countless monsters
+ Defeat unique menacing bosses
+ Fight and play however you like
+ Gather materials and craft stuff
+ Sneak, jump, jump-attack, ride your horse, jump your horse, double-jump your horse
+ Relaxing exploration mixed with intense fighting
+ Imaginative world-setting and beautiful art-style
+ So much freedom
+ Also fun for non-dark-souls-fans
+ Atmosphere

Tips if you start as a Wretch:
0. Go and unlock the first, second and third Sites of Grace.
1. Get the Spirit Calling Bell by meeting Melina at the third Site of Grace, to be able to summon spirits in boss-fights.
2. Learn how to fight with the club: Two-hand the club. (Y+RB) Do heavy jump attacks. (Forward+A, RT) Follow up with light attacks. (RB) Dodge roll away from attacks. (Direction+B)
3. Farm some runes by fighting the soldiers along the road to and at the Gatefront Ruins near the third Site of Grace.
4. Buy the chain armour from the first merchant at the second site of Grace, the Church of Elle.
5. Success.

Technical: Except for a few frame-drops I had no issues at all playing on my laptop.
(2560x1440, Ryzen 7 5800H, RTX3070, 16GB, SSD, W11)
(I heard some people have stuttering issues; So test first or wait for patches)

[Hail Sagan]

Walked in to Best Buy kinda early in the event they still had Elden Ring in stock for PS5. Copped it. So far it seems pretty incredible but despite George R.R. Martin’s input (which was seemingly minimal) it appears it’s back to very little story. I know that was the big advantage of the Souls series but I’m not gonna lie, I would like to see souls like combat and difficulty married with Witcher 3 or FF7 type storyline just one time. Never in the Souls universe mind you, but in at least one game (unless Sekiro was like that. That’s the only From game I Haven’t played). 
 

Maybe it’s because I’m super early and there will be more dialogue and cutscenes but so far story-wise it’s more of the same. That aside it’s beautiful, the combat with jumping seems much more fun, the spectral steed is a great addition, the open world elements seem incredible, and I think it’s fair to say this is greatest game From has made so far. If you’ve never taken the leap into this world I strongly advise you do it. I’m really early in and it’s already blowing my mind.

[milkface]

Only been playing fifa 22 and gta 5 for the last 9 months. I wanna get elden ring but I'm so shit at dark souls.

[Dpek]

I've been playing Shovel Knight: Pocket Dungeon and I've been having a blast. It's a bit hard to get into, but once you know what you're doing, it's really deep and enjoyable.

 

[ambermonk]

I started getting into Vampire Survivor yesterday. It's dirt cheap on Steam and super addictive.

I still don't see how some players manage reach LV 100+ though. I'm lucky reach LV 15. Wonder if there's any strategies besides just "get gud".

[logakght]

SOMA. Liking it but the monsters are not that "scary" to be honest, but I love the dark post-apocalyptic atmosphere. Any similar game to this? Apart from Frictional Games own.

Edited March 1, 2022 by logakght

[Squee]

Someone convince me to continue playing Elden Ring. I've spent 2 nights playing it and I don't feel like I've made any progress.

EDIT: I've just spent 3 hours finding cave after cave, monster after monster that fucking annihilates me in matter of seconds. I'm missing something.

[Silent Member]

Sounds like a From Software game, I'm too lame to play them, apparently there's something wrong with my hands.

[MaartenVC]

9 hours ago, Squee said:

Someone convince me to continue playing Elden Ring. I've spent 2 nights playing it and I don't feel like I've made any progress.

EDIT: I've just spent 3 hours finding cave after cave, monster after monster that fucking annihilates me in matter of seconds. I'm missing something.

My Elden Ring tips: (no spoilers)

Caves and dungeons can be quite hard at the start. They're more of a challenge, to acquire something valuable.
I started as the wretch starting-class and the first caves and dungeons were pretty damn hard I remember.
It was mostly because I had no armor at all, only had a simple club as a weapon, and hadn't unlocked anything yet.
Unlock the first 3 Sites of Grace as soon as possible. They unlock item crafting (throwables), your horse (mobility), and ashes of war (ghost summons at boss fights).
I suggest exploring the open-world some more. Some areas are easier than others.
Explore Limgrave: both the left side were you start, but also the right side, the south, and eventually the north.
You don't have to beat most bosses yet. You can do them any time you want.
Try leveling up your endurance and health.
Try out weapons. They all have different advantages and attack-patterns. I decided that bleeding weapons are my go-to in this game.
When you like a certain weapon's fighting style upgrade it. Upgrading your weapon is key.
There's an easy cave close-by near the lake area with tons of weapon-upgrade materials.
Be sure you're not fat-rolling. Rolling is important to dodge attacks.
When you first encounter a new enemy learn its attacks by triggering them and then rolling away.
Or block with a shield if you prefer. Shields are a bit OP in souls games in my opinion.
You can two-hand weapons. If you do a heavy jumping attack with a weapon two-handed, and follow up with another heavy attack, the enemy will get stunned in most cases. Really powerful. The stun thing is an important hidden mechanic in this game. A bit comparable to the stun-mechanic in Sekiro. (I haven't played that game yet though)
Maybe you could start a different starting-class. Some starting-classes are easier to start than others.
But in the end all characters will be able to do most things. So no stress.

For reference:
I'm 40 hours in and I still haven't completely finished Limgrave. I still have to do the main-quest castle and some optional bosses. Reason: I became distracted by 2 other truly magnificent higher-level areas. I was in awe.

Don't give up on this game.
It's a magnificent game with tons of amazing areas and things to find. It might be hard at the start, but because you can do anything you want to do and go anywhere you want to go, it's actually not that hard really. I find it way easier than previous souls games because of this. It will get easier once you learn how to play, upgrade your weapon, and find more helpful awesome stuff.

Edited March 6, 2022 by MaartenVC

[Squee]

Thanks, man. Is the easy cave near the lake the one with all the miners? They fucked me up. 

[J3FF3R00]

I’m back on the Dead By Daylight mobile game after getting so mad with it that I deleted the app and stayed away for nearly 2 years.

I used to get super upset playing it because I would only play in survivor mode and it usually takes up to 5 minutes just to join a game only to have some numbnut get you killed in 30 seconds… then you have to wait 5 more minutes just to begin a new game. 
I realized that it’s just an amazing game and I will try and employ mindfulness to whether the storms of constant frustration in hopes that it becomes a refined practice that I can apply to other challenging aspects of my life. 

[Grain Bastard]

On 3/6/2022 at 8:07 AM, Squee said:

Thanks, man. Is the easy cave near the lake the one with all the miners? They fucked me up. 

Lol, git gud man

[cloud capture]

I'm about 30 hrs into elden ring.  I never thought I'd like a fromsoft game more than bloodborne, but I do.  The difference really might come down to framerate.  I've had no problems running the game on pc(mid-level).  But also, the vast open world and ability to explore really does the trick for me.  Also, there's a lot ways to summon help if needed.  I wouldn't go as far as to say hand-holding, but for a fromsoft game it really goes the extra mile to help you enjoy the experience. I definitely have to playthrough again as a mage build, the magic looks really cool.

[Grain Bastard]

In all seriousness Elden Ring is making me a tad angry - I’ve been one shotted by the wildlife wandering around never mind the bosses.

I’ve played about 40 hours so far and I’ve still got no real idea on what I’m supposed to be doing. I’ve gone with a plain strength build and can hit quite hard at the moment but I’m squishy as poop due to trying to keep the weight down.  Therefore anything can still wipe me out if I’m not totally concentrating. It’s about 12,000 runes for my next level up and I keep loosing them when I get to about 8,000 which is a little frustrating.

 

the level up advice is about the only thing I can say too. Grind some areas you’re comfortable with and then upgrade a weapon. For reference I can one-shot the soldiers for fun with a long sword +5 but the miners in that cave took a couple, so they are a step up. 
 

took me ages to see that prick off on the golden horse. The tree sentinel?? I held my pad aloft in victory and swore at my tv…..

[MaartenVC]

On 3/6/2022 at 9:07 AM, Squee said:

Thanks, man. Is the easy cave near the lake the one with all the miners? They fucked me up. 

Yeah, Limgrave Tunnels, that's the one with some low-level Smithing Stone Shards.
You can kill the miners quite easily by 2-handing your weapon, doing a sneak attack or a charged heavy attack from behind, making them fall down on their face, and when they start getting up time another charged heavy attack. That should kill them. Beware of the rats further down though.
If this tactic doesn't work there's another good old dark souls tactic that always works: Run for the item(s). It doesn't really matter if you die. You'll still get the loot. Except you lose your runes/souls of course.
 

[Squee]

1 hour ago, Grain Bastard said:

I’ve played about 40 hours so far and I’ve still got no real idea on what I’m supposed to be doing.

^That's me playing that fucking game. Fucking witchcraft.

56 minutes ago, MaartenVC said:

Yeah, Limgrave Tunnels, that's the one with some low-level Smithing Stone Shards.
You can kill the miners quite easily by 2-handing your weapon, doing a sneak attack or a charged heavy attack from behind, making them fall down on their face, and when they start getting up time another charged heavy attack. That should kill them. Beware of the rats further down though.
If this tactic doesn't work there's another good old dark souls tactic that always works: Run for the item(s). It doesn't really matter if you die. You'll still get the loot. Except you lose your runes/souls of course.
 

I tried that cave like 10-12 times. Then at one point I fell off that wooden structure near the entrance and got attacked by old men and rats.

[chronical]

19 hours ago, Squee said:

I tried that cave like 10-12 times. Then at one point I fell off that wooden structure near the entrance and got attacked by old men and rats.

Just wait until you get to the endgame dungeons. I noped out of there so hard at level 104.

[QQQ]

On 3/7/2022 at 7:22 PM, Squee said:

^That's me playing that fucking game. Fucking witchcraft.

I tried that cave like 10-12 times. Then at one point I fell off that wooden structure near the entrance and got attacked by old men and rats.

the mining lads are weak to striking weapons, if you're just rocking a sword they'll seem more difficult than they are

[Rubin Farr]

This one is still plodding along on Kickstarter, no release date yet, but they have really developed the mythology and lore of the game. Seems like a right mashup of occult and Pikmin, with some Scribblenauts/Okami style Sigil drawing/spell mechanics 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/chasingratsgames/worship/posts/3431528

[logakght]

Just finished SOMA. I liked the story a lot, but then again, the monsters were fun but trivial, specifically the lady one. Would like to know more about that. I particularly loved the ending, great way to showcase what consciousnesses might be, or what the implications  of its existence are. Any other similar game you recommend like this?

Edited March 10, 2022 by logakght

[usagi]

19 minutes ago, logakght said:

Just finished SOMA. I liked the story a lot, but then again, the monsters were fun but trivial, specifically the lady one. Would like to know more about that. I particularly loved the ending, great way to showcase what consciousnesses might be, or what the implications  of its existence are. Any other similar game you recommend like this?

there isn't any, I don't think. SOMA's one of a kind at this point. individually some of the themes and ideas have certainly been seen in other games but no other game brought them all together in the way SOMA did. and it's also been a culmination of Frictional's game development of the years, they've gotten better and better at their niche style of game.

you said post-apocalyptic earlier and I was playing Metro: Last Light at the time, so that might do if you just want a post-apocalyptic atmosphere. the Metro games do that very well and look/sound great, but have none of the themes or depth of SOMA. story's completely different and pretty bland, really.

Edited March 10, 2022 by usagi

[chronical]

For those of you playing Elden Ring - when you kill a group of enemies or a larger enemy of some kind your flasks get partially filled up. The sound effect that plays reminds me loads of a vocal bit in one of AFX's songs, from Syro I think, can't find it right now but look out for it. It's amazing

[bronchuseven]

I've been playing Final Fantasy VI pixel remaster - it's been one of my favourite games since it was released as FFIII on the SNES.

[chronical]

52 minutes ago, bronchuseven said:

I've been playing Final Fantasy VI pixel remaster - it's been one of my favourite games since it was released as FFIII on the SNES.

The pixel remasters finally do the older titles justice I think. Those old android ports still make me shudder

[colunga]

On 3/1/2022 at 2:53 PM, ambermonke said:

I started getting into Vampire Survivor yesterday. It's dirt cheap on Steam and super addictive.

I still don't see how some players manage reach LV 100+ though. I'm lucky reach LV 15. Wonder if there's any strategies besides just "get gud".

Ive been playing Vampire Survivor also! Ive been busy recently and its so easy to pick up and play for 10-20 minutes here and there. Ive been able to sneak in some play time between waking up and leaving for work (something i never really do with games). Ive only made it to level 14 tho.