whatchu playing now

Soldiering on with Demon's Souls- I took a break from 1-2 (it's that group of crossbowmen with a blue-eyed knight; I've managed to get through it once only to die to the second knight because I'm still a little shaken up from the first one) to work on 2-1, which is markedly easier, and made it to the boss, all while making pathetic whimpering sounds as I notice the giant spiderwebs all over the deepest parts of the tunnel. Unless the Armor Spider turns out to have more nasty one-shot abilities than the flame breath that killed me last time (new plan: swap out Thief's Ring for Ring of Flame Resistance, also run away) I might have my second boss down soon!

I also popped into 3-1 and 4-1 to check things out. Those illithids in 3-1 and their horrible little bells are a little too much for me to handle, though I did manaage to kill a couple on my second attempt and back out with some nice loot. But within seconds of entering 4-1 I was almost killed by a FUCKING NINJA SKELETON what the hell. I was only saved because I was super paranoid- someone had left a bloodstain literally at the very patch of ground you spawn at upon entering the level.

i still like the idea of playing FC2, but it's difficult in a way that feels unfair (unlike the Souls games). FC3 was great but you sorta have to make your own fun.

good luck Telephone, i love reading Souls diaries. i spent sooooo long on 4-1, more than any other level in the game i'm sure (except for maybe 5-2). i think i died in body form there as well, which adds even more (and more powerful) ninja skeletons.

Metal Gear Solid V Ground Zeroes -- Damn this game is smooth. Revisiting it after a long break, and feel like I'm getting the hang of it again. It's such a great sandbox. I'm really into extracting enemy soldiers and putting them on the heli. Apparently you can use the ones you get from this in TPP.

Metal Gear Solid -- On an original PS1. I finally got a decent controller and last played the incredible Psycho Mantis fight. "You like Castlevania, don't you?" "It's true that [Solid Snake] has killed a lot of people, that doesn't mean he doesn't have a heart." LOL

Donkey Kong 64 -- Tried this one out, absolutely loved the intro rap, then the game started. Looked pretty nice but I was in some kind of hub world where the only thing I could do was jump in a barrel and attempt a mini game with the most obnoxious circus organ on speed music I have ever heard. I won. Back to the hub world. Couldn't find anywhere else to go so I jumped in another barrel. Cue the awful music. Cue me shutting off the game.

Castlevania 64 -- Ok I have never played this and I'm sort of a 2d snob esp. when it comes to Castlevania but this game is DAMN impressive! Getting very strong Dark Souls vibes right from the start. Semi-open world that is unlockable, combat that centers the camera on the enemy, that first boss the giant skeleton set piece, etc. Refreshing lack of scrolling text boxes and tutorials. Might try and play this one all the way through.

I've never played castlevania 64! I thought it was supposed to be legendarily bad? Maybe it was ahead of its time

<3 <3 <3 talos principle <3 <3 <3

Yeah as long as you realize Castlevania 64 is a 1st gen 3d game (thus shitty camera and awkward platforming a sort of a given) it's a pretty spectacular thing imo. Most 3d games of the time had a hub world structure but this game feels like a real world unfolding in front of you. I'm probably doing a bit of projecting but fighting that giant skeleton for the 2nd time, while a crew of skeletons roll around him on motorcycles, and cutting off his left arm and still having him chase me, all felt very Dark Souls II.

rocket league is a goty contender for me. maybe my favorite futbol game full stop.

The last six months, I've been checking on and off this one damn puzzle in Hexcells Infinite. Can't bring myself to quit or win...

Debating how much more Wasteland 2 I wanna do. Am deep into the SoCal portion after several dozen hours.

The free-to-play Trials Frontier (iOS) is really addicting.

The reviews make it sound like IAP hell...

yeah, it's definitely heavy on IAP, although i've always managed to steer clear without a problem. i played about 3 to 4 hours straight and constantly had new stuff to do, without having to wait for any countdown timers. (althoooough i can foresee a point in the near future where i won't have enough fuel to race and will choose to view a 30-second ad to get more fuel rather than waiting for a countdown timer to give me more)

but mainly it's just fun. if you've played other Trials, you know what you're in for.

<3 <3 <3 talos principle <3 <3 <3

oh this is good? i'll check it out when it hits PS4, it's been awhile since i've had a good puzzle game.

the cat cover alone convinced me... to eventually buy it when it goes on clearance

still jamming Swarm Simulator (because I am an idiot) and today I finally finished getting all the achievements. 20 ascensions! and I am STILL letting it run. I like watching numbers get bigger.

talos principle is very fun. the puzzles are generally not particularly difficult but get kind of baroque in terms of implementation and are thus satisfying. the mechanics are consistent enough that one can generally enact one's envisioned solution.

what makes it really compelling imo is that it feels very expansive. obviously it's a puzzle game so there are discrete puzzles, but there are hub worlds and optional worlds and little unexplained details that are left up to the player in a very 90s fashion. a little portal, a little myst, a little old fashioned fps in momentum and movement.

(also there are optional puzzles to solve that cross those discrete puzzle boundaries in ways that demand a different kind of thinking than the rest of the game, which is cool.)

fwiw i feel much less railroaded into a meme-y theme park ride than i did with portal (which i liked)

still a slave to destiny trying to break the habit w a USB snes controller and roms of every snes game. looking very much forward to play through #20ish of ff3

Spent some quality time w Fallout: New Vegas. First time playing a Fallout title for a substantial amount of time.

Tutorial NPC was a grizzled hunter/trader with a faithful companion dog who she loved. She took me on a mission to shoot some geckos and when she was off-screen her dog got in the way and met an unfortunate end. Running into her a few minutes later, she had little to say on the matter. I think if you were living in a post apocalyptic wasteland and a stranger had just killed your companion you'd be upset but nothing much seems to upset ANYONE in this world. Ran into an NPC later that told me about losing his wife and daughter and retained a pleasant and cheerful disposition for the entire conversation. It wasn't long before I just started skipping all dialog. Oh, Bethesda.

The world is fun, if a bit boring and empty. Everything is a bullet sponge, from the scorpions that take a dozen shots with a 10mm to wasteland bandits that can withstand a barrage of shotgun blasts at point blank range while wearing NO armor. The bullet-time is fun, but it gets a bit ridiculous shooting limbs off with a frequency only matched by Arrested Development's armless man.

Mod the hell out of FONV if you cast.

Anyone else playing Rocket League?

If you can, rather

rocket league RULES. my only beef is the huge gap between bot intelligence between amateur and pro levels when playing offline. but not a biggy. fucking love it.

Started playing this last night - i suck so much at it. I'm trying to hang back and anticipate the ball coming out of the scrum but it consistantly goes sailing over my head. Haven';t tried going online yet, I'd be destroyed.

it's all about using the double jump/forward spin combo to gain speed - its a quicker way to get down the pitch than boost... also learning when to go slow as the ball is SLOW, and at first i would zoom past it every single time

Ok you guys have convinced me to try it this weekend

I've only been watching videos of Rocket League so far. It's beautiful to watch when players know how to pull off insane aerial hits. Looks really fun.

I was going to pre-order MGSV when it came to Steam and it finally did yesterday, and comes with a free copy of Ground Zeroes. This is the fist time I've bought a new video game since Mortal Kombat II came out for SNES. Trying to get 100% on GZ before MGSV comes out. It still impresses, both graphically and gameplay wise. The lighting is amazing. The level design is GREAT. Kojima has spent so many years making immersive linear levels that he knows what he is doing, as opposed to most Open World AAA games.

If you spot me online and want to play Rocket League I'll happily drop anything else I'm doing to jump into a game. Managed to get together with 7 other guys from work for a few matches last week and it was my gaming highlight of 2015 so far.

josephcotten on psn if anyone wants to rocket

i will try this later on

phwoar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrBmF_BeyZA

I need to develop my aerial game

I made the colossal mistake of downloading the Destiny demo (ps3 version) and plowing through it in the course of an evening- I've done everything I can except the 3-man "strike" instance. I'm insulated against it for a little while, since I don't have a ps4 and I'm in no danger of buying it until I do, but it does something terrible to the reward center of my brain. And not even the loot grind, which is negligible at this point; it's more just the core runny-jumpy-shooty gameplay loop. I never got into Halo (only ever played the PC demo, and that felt bizarre compared to "normal" PC FPSs) but whatever the game's other failings- and they are many, even this early on, Dinklage being only the most noticeable- Bungie know damn well how to make an FPS that's deeply satisfying to play on a gamepad.

yup. the gameplay was rock solid

It's a great great game. I just wish I didn't hate it.

Finally quit for good recently, when I managed to get Icebreaker in a nightfall and then within a couple of days they announced they were nerfing it.

Tried Rocket League yesterday. Damn it is fun! I don't think I've ever played a first-person soccer simulator.

it does something terrible to the reward center of my brain.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g79dWuqXe5o

the upcoming changes w/ the next destiny expansion seem promising tho, many of them are major overhauls of the base game

yeah the joke is that the destiny beta ends with the release of the next expansion in nov. i remain conflicted, recognizing on the one hand that much of the content should have been packaged with the original game and the dlcs are fairly obvious cash grabs but on the other hand i really love the game and it is reuniting college gaming sessions with cross country friends which i have been thoroughly enjoying. luckily nothing else on ps4 has really commanded my attention so a destiny addiction isn't so bad

well at the very least everyone who's bought in already gets the major changes whether or not you buy the expansion. but yeah nothing says middle-finger cash grab more than a dlc that entirely consists of going through already existing maps but backwards.

so i changed up my camera settings in Rocket League to something similar to some of the best ranked players and suddenly went from average, to scoring goals in two winning ranked games,
and winning a tournament at pro level vs bots.

omg love rocket league.

what did you change?

try this:

Camera FOV: 110
Camera Height: 100.00
Camera Angle: -3.00
Camera Distance: 230.00
Camera Stiffness: 0.70
Camera Swivel Speed: 3.20

No Camera Shake. Also you should use ball cam 95% of the time.

i mean its not gonna give you instant skills, but i found it a huge help in improving my play

i am terrible at rocket league but it's fun

Got rocked by DMT_SHAMAN last night.

I just tried the strike included with the Destiny demo (Devil's Lair) and my team got stomped into jelly by one of those spider tank things. The tank itself isn't so much of a problem- I've participated in killing one in a world event, and got an ascendant shard (I understand this is fancy) to show for it, and the instance has some nice areas to block line of sight from its turrets- but the endless flow of level 8 enemies in a demo that caps out at level 7 seems a bit cheap.

This is me, for what it's worth (I seriously don't get why there is character customization in this game if you can't switch your character's helmet off even in social apps like bungie.net but whatever)

https://www.bungie.net/en/Legend/Gear/2/4611686018451908605/2305843009323124448

Can Steam RL talk to PSN RL networks?

Yes but no. If you go into matchmaking then it's cross platform, but as far as I know there's still no way to intentionally team up with people from the other side. They say that'll be in a future update though.

Stayed up all night beating Bayonetta.
How. How did I get through life without playing this game? It is truly an amazing thing.