What video game are you playing?

[greyhammer90]

My brother-in-law got me Dark Souls 2 for my birthday. Not sure I've ever hated a game more than this one.

Git gud

 

[Whiskeyjack]

Lol, why, it’s too hard or simply bad or other???

Pointlessly punitive. Fromsoft just opts not to tell you how to do all sorts of critical things (like adding your Estus Flask to your belt, how to light your torch at a bonfire, how to level up, etc.) There's no pause function. No guidance whatsoever on where to go.

I ended up in Heidi's Tower of Flame after Majula at level 1 because it seemed like the most obvious place to go. Proceeded to get 1-2 shot by the Old Knights (these are trash mobs) wandering the area for the next couple hours. I started just running past everything and made it to the first boss of the area; died a bunch of times but finally killed him. Hit the home button on my PS controller (because that pauses most games) so I could go help my kids with something, and came back to find out that nope, not even the home button pauses, and trash mobs had rushed into the boss arena and killed me while I was away. Lost thousands of souls. I've since lost 22,000 and 11,000 souls trying to get through No-Man's Wharf, etc.

It's just not fun.

 

[greyhammer90]

Pointlessly punitive. Fromsoft just opts not to tell you how to do all sorts of critical things (like adding your Estus Flask to your belt, how to light your torch at a bonfire, how to level up, etc.) There's no pause function. No guidance whatsoever on where to go.

I ended up in Heidi's Tower of Flame after Majula at level 1 because it seemed like the most obvious place to go. Proceeded to get 1-2 shot by the Old Knights (these are trash mobs) wandering the area for the next couple hours. I started just running past everything and made it to the first boss of the area; died a bunch of times but finally killed him. Hit the home button on my PS controller (because that pauses most games) so I could go help my kids with something, and came back to find out that nope, not even the home button pauses, and trash mobs had rushed into the boss arena and killed me while I was away. Lost thousands of souls. I've since lost 22,000 and 11,000 souls trying to get through No-Man's Wharf, etc.

It's just not fun.

This is sort of like reading Koon's early experience with hating the Witcher 3 in that it doesn't sound like you're playing the game correctly or with the right mindset. The series doesn't have the tagline "prepare to die" because it's hardcore. Its telling you "dying is a part of this experience, you're expected to die, that's fine." The fact that you're capable of playing Witcher on Death March but dying to trash mobs should probably indicate that you're not playing correctly because you're clearly pretty competent with video games, and dark souls is not nearly as hard as it's reputation indicates. You're probably being way too aggressive or way too timid. The biggest tip I can give is that your stamina bar is way more important than your health.

It might just not be for you, but I do wish you had recieved Dark Souls 1 or Bloodborne as those are the real cream of the crop. DS2 is widely considered to be the mediocre one, though it's still better than most games IMO.

 

[Whiskeyjack]

This is sort of like reading Koon's early experience with hating the Witcher 3 in that it doesn't sound like you're playing the game correctly or with the right mindset. The series doesn't have the tagline "prepare to die" because it's hardcore. Its telling you "dying is a part of this experience, you're expected to die, that's fine." The fact that you're capable of playing Witcher on Death March but dying to trash mobs should probably indicate that you're not playing correctly because you're clearly pretty competent with video games, and dark souls is not nearly as hard as it's reputation indicates. You're probably being way too aggressive or way too timid. The biggest tip I can give is that your stamina bar is way more important than your health.

I think I'm level 37 right now? I've got my Dex up to the soft cap of 40 and my Rapier to +6 already. Need to bring my Agility up to 100 for more i-frames on my roll and dodge, but I'm definitely moving in the right direction at least. Cleared out the Forest of Fallen Giants and No-Man's Wharf, currently working on the Hellkite Dragon in Heidi's Tower of Flame and the first Pursuer fight in Lost Bastille.

I'll at least beat the game once, but I doubt I'll do any more than that.

 

[gkIrish]

The Dark Souls series is one that is 1000% not for me. I tried one of them a few years ago and hated it with a passion.

 

[ulukinatme]

I honestly didn't care for Dark Souls either when I first played it. Heard people clamouring over and over about it. I still say it's overrated. It does have a certain kind of brutal difficulty that you don't see in mainstream games today. The dark atmosphere is nice. The lack of plot/story is bogus though. Yeah, I know, there's shit buried in item descriptions and such, but there's also a lot of crap that is speculation on the fans part or you have to do some serious reading into the hidden messages to get any semblance of plot (At least in the original game, I haven't started DS 2 even though it's in my Steam). Bottom line, if your entire plot is tied up in cryptic messages and item descriptions, you don't really have a plot to speak of.

That said, I do enjoy the combat. It took awhile to adjust my play style, but it was fun once it clicked. I do feel like the combat is a bit unbalanced. You're definitely better served using dodge based builds over heavy armor/tank blocking. When the suggested load out for some boss fights is no armor and lots of rolling around...you could use some balance. The only other thing I wasn't a big fan over was the PVP. I don't have the time to compete with punks with no life that will invade your game and fuck with ya. I prefer just to deal with the NPCs and progress.

 

[ulukinatme]

I should also say that I've been a From Software fan since '97. I've played the hell out of their Armored Core series, love mech games that let me tweak loadouts. I also have Evergrace, but that was more of a one and done. That said, Dark Souls is still more of a B+ game for me. RPGs have to have some semblance of a plot with characters for me to become invested. I can't name any of the characters from DS besides Solaire, and that has mostly to do with memes.

 

[ACamp1900]

I just broke madden,... I saw in the ‘rumors’ tab that the Rams were ready to sell due to cap hits,... so I gave it a shot.

Aaron Donald now lines up opposite Myles Garrett. Time to 85 Bears these bastards.

 

[ACamp1900]

NCAA 14 rebuild of Wyoming,... on Heisman, no slider adjustments auto save on and can only receive 20 commits. Once I reach that I delete all other recruits from my board.

Very fun thus far. Finishing up years four

 

[IrishLion]

NCAA 14 rebuild of Wyoming,... on Heisman, no slider adjustments auto save on and can only receive 20 commits. Once I reach that I delete all other recruits from my board.

Very fun thus far. Finishing up years four

I've been doing the same thing, but I kind of cheated...

I downloaded the 2020 rosters and played a season as ND, coaching as OC Tommy Rees.

THEN I took my bottom-dweller job. Passed up some unrealistic job offers and took the HC job at Arkansas State. Ran train on the Sun Belt for two seasons, and now I'm on my second season at Louisville as HC.

Hoping virtual BK retires soon so I can coach ND for a season or two before I get bored and restart.

 

[IrishLion]

Also dipping my toes into Shadow of Mordor.

Very entertaining, though parkour is a bit clunky at times and results in some frustrating immersion breaks. You start climbing a wall with Talion to try and get in position for a stealth finisher on a captain, but he decides to go 'around' the wall instead of 'up,' and now the whole garrison of Orcs is on alert and the captain you're hunting is protected and unbeatable.

Also a bit frustrated by some of the power-struggle opportunities... I tried one last night where I had to take out a heavily-armored captain and his 5 lackies... by the time I took out his guards, three other captains had shown up, and I had no chance. I died, and all four captains involved grew in power.

 

[ulukinatme]

Also dipping my toes into Shadow of Mordor.

Very entertaining, though parkour is a bit clunky at times and results in some frustrating immersion breaks. You start climbing a wall with Talion to try and get in position for a stealth finisher on a captain, but he decides to go 'around' the wall instead of 'up,' and now the whole garrison of Orcs is on alert and the captain you're hunting is protected and unbeatable.

Also a bit frustrated by some of the power-struggle opportunities... I tried one last night where I had to take out a heavily-armored captain and his 5 lackies... by the time I took out his guards, three other captains had shown up, and I had no chance. I died, and all four captains involved grew in power.

Wait, are you telling me Shadows of Mordor is a fuckin' Assassin's Creed clone? There's one more game in my Steam backlog I'll never get to...

It's fun climbing buildings and shit for awhile, but gets tedious...like Zelda: Windwaker. 75% of that game is fucking sailing.

 

[IrishLion]

Wait, are you telling me Shadows of Mordor is a fuckin' Assassin's Creed clone? There's one more game in my Steam backlog I'll never get to...

It's fun climbing buildings and shit for awhile, but gets tedious...like Zelda: Windwaker. 75% of that game is fucking sailing.

It has similar mechanics, but the game itself isn't centered around the parkour and vertical obstacles the way Assassin's Creed is, if that makes sense.

You can climb walls and towers to infiltrate forts or to put yourself in position to accomplish certain tasks, but you aren't constantly climbing and traversing rooftops as the primary means of getting around. It doesn't create a sense of repetitiveness in the same way... though there are like 6 towers you MUST climb to unlock the map, but there's no effort involved really, so it's not tedious like when you're on the 75th church spire of the second city in AC.

Shadow of Mordor is much more about strategizing and planning the proper approach to things. There is a pretty wide range of strengths, weaknesses, and special factors to each captain that you are supposed to be going after, and you have the freedom to try whatever approach you wish (unless it's a main story mission that has you locked in to a certain approach). If you try something that is clearly not one of their weaknesses, you gonna get wrecked, and make all the enemies stronger in the process.

 

[gkIrish]

Also dipping my toes into Shadow of Mordor.

Very entertaining, though parkour is a bit clunky at times and results in some frustrating immersion breaks. You start climbing a wall with Talion to try and get in position for a stealth finisher on a captain, but he decides to go 'around' the wall instead of 'up,' and now the whole garrison of Orcs is on alert and the captain you're hunting is protected and unbeatable.

Also a bit frustrated by some of the power-struggle opportunities... I tried one last night where I had to take out a heavily-armored captain and his 5 lackies... by the time I took out his guards, three other captains had shown up, and I had no chance. I died, and all four captains involved grew in power.

Bought Shadows of Mordor for 8 bucks. Played it for about 10 hours and stopped. It just didn't do it for me.

I had the same issue with difficulty. Didn't seem like the game waited for you to get the hang of things before it made things challenging. I was still learning basic shit and was getting ambushed by powerful captains for reasons I couldn't decipher.

 

[ACamp1900]

Yeah, not for me either,...

NCAA 14 update: My star senior receiver sat out the Sugar Bowl to stay healthy for the combine and I still beat Miami but three scores. He ended up going first round so it was a win/win.

 

[NorthDakota]

Yeah, not for me either,...

NCAA 14 update: My star senior receiver sat out the Sugar Bowl to stay healthy for the combine and I still beat Miami but three scores. He ended up going first round so it was a win/win.

I didn't know they had built that into the game that guys would sit out for combine/professional reasons. Thats neat.

 

[ACamp1900]

I didn't know they had built that into the game that guys would sit out for combine/professional reasons. Thats neat.

I did it on my own,... lol

 

[Whiskeyjack]

Wait, are you telling me Shadows of Mordor is a fuckin' Assassin's Creed clone? There's one more game in my Steam backlog I'll never get to...

It's fun climbing buildings and shit for awhile, but gets tedious...like Zelda: Windwaker. 75% of that game is fucking sailing.

As Lion points out below, the parkour is similar to AC, but it's not the main focus of the game. The combat is, which is most similar to Arkham Knight.

Shadow of Mordor is much more about strategizing and planning the proper approach to things. There is a pretty wide range of strengths, weaknesses, and special factors to each captain that you are supposed to be going after, and you have the freedom to try whatever approach you wish (unless it's a main story mission that has you locked in to a certain approach). If you try something that is clearly not one of their weaknesses, you gonna get wrecked, and make all the enemies stronger in the process.

Bought Shadows of Mordor for 8 bucks. Played it for about 10 hours and stopped. It just didn't do it for me.

I had the same issue with difficulty. Didn't seem like the game waited for you to get the hang of things before it made things challenging. I was still learning basic shit and was getting ambushed by powerful captains for reasons I couldn't decipher.

SoM is definitely a little unbalanced (SoW is much better on that front). It can be frustratingly difficult early on if you don't bee-line for the most powerful abilities, but after you've got those, it gets to be too easy. Double Charge + Combat Drain allows you to quickly turn all the best Uruks in an area (Defenders and Berserkers) mid-combat. They in turn create space for you to focus on the Captain. As long as you've gotten intel on him first, it's usually pretty trivial to exploit his weakness then.

 

[IrishLion]

SoM is definitely a little unbalanced (SoW is much better on that front). It can be frustratingly difficult early on if you don't bee-line for the most powerful abilities, but after you've got those, it gets to be too easy. Double Charge + Combat Drain allows you to quickly turn all the best Uruks in an area (Defenders and Berserkers) mid-combat. They in turn create space for you to focus on the Captain. As long as you've gotten intel on him first, it's usually pretty trivial to exploit his weakness then.

I'm still wayyyy early in the story and main missions, so my ability tree is still locked past the first row. I'll start stockpiling ability points to get to these lol.

 

[greyhammer90]

I'll agree that SoM and SoW were meh. It wasn't that the game was too difficult, the loop just didn't grab me enough to have me want to spend another 15ish hours doing more of the same. I liked the nemesis system, but the game felt more like a tech demo on that front. If they could put the nemesis system into something I like to actually play that would be amazing.

 

[bkess8]

Yeah, not for me either,...

NCAA 14 update: My star senior receiver sat out the Sugar Bowl to stay healthy for the combine and I still beat Miami but three scores. He ended up going first round so it was a win/win.

I've been playing NCAA 14 off and on just messing around. Want to start a new dynasty but I have to travel soon so that won't be an option for a while.

 

[ACamp1900]

I made mega conferences, and Wyoming is in the Big 12. I had a job offer from southern miss (SEC) and almost took it (great stadium and they have a GREAT young defense) but my Wyoming team is on the cusp so I stayed at least one more year. I have a list of ten programs I’ll leave for and they were on the list. UNLV is in the PAC and offered too (and on the list, again cool stadium and I love the idea of building a run heavy team there, Runnin Rebels in football too) but they are prob the worst P5 program right now and I didn’t want to jump to that just yet. It’s been very fun. Heisman, no sliders, scholarship restrictions (if you discipline yourself to really do this it makes recruiting so much more fun), super conferences, and self imposing things like seniors sitting out of bowl games,... it’s been a blast thus far...

 

[IrishLion]

It’s been very fun. Heisman, no sliders, scholarship restrictions (if you discipline yourself to really do this it makes recruiting so much more fun), super conferences, and self imposing things like seniors sitting out of bowl games,... it’s been a blast thus far...

I toyed with this idea, and might implement it for my next 'from the basement' dynasty.

If you recruit on a 5-year cycle (plan on redshirting most freshmen, minus the ones that NEED to play in your first couple of years at a job), you can restrict yourself to 14 players per cycle, which puts you at a perfect 70-player roster. That leaves you under the limit with unexpected transfers and NFL early entries, which is appropriate, especially if your goal is to coach at ND to close out your dynasty lol.

 

[ACamp1900]

I’m sticking to 20 with Wyoming but yeah I may cut it down even lower soon. Yes, any time I take over ND I keep it low because otherwise you crush everyone within two years,...

 

[ACamp1900]

I want Kansas, Iowa, Colorado, WSU, SoMiss, Miss St, GT, Wake, UNLV, or UNC next,... just passed on two of those as it’s still early (just finished year four with Wyoming). I think UNLV would be a blast if it comes around again in three years (it prob will as they are awful currently). Of course ND is always an option but they’ve been doing well so BK will prob be there a while still,...

 

[ACamp1900]

Btw, there are communities online that still play NCAA 10, 07, 12, 13 whatever and share experiences. I thought of picking up an older one as I really like the older recruiting systems but I remember two things: NCAA 14 has the cool ND unis and the Pistol formation is so freakin satisfying and if I remember right that was new to 14

 

[IrishLion]

I had all of the uniform packs downloaded once upon a time, but I deleted them because it was causing issues with our online dynasty matchups where it would crash if one of the users didn't have the same packs downloaded. I might explore to see if there's a way to re-download them. Playing as Louisville without blackout jerseys as an option is a travesty.

In terms of the pistol, I re-created ND's playbook, and took out most of the Ace formations and subbed in their pistol counterparts. Being able to run the read and still attack the middle downhill when playing on Heisman is key when you're playing as a crappy school.

 

[NorthDakota]

Btw, there are communities online that still play NCAA 10, 07, 12, 13 whatever and share experiences. I thought of picking up an older one as I really like the older recruiting systems but I remember two things: NCAA 14 has the cool ND unis and the Pistol formation is so freakin satisfying and if I remember right that was new to 14

I got unstoppable on NCAA 10 but the game definitely breaks after a few years in Dynasty. I'd end up with solid depth at every position while other blue bloods would end up with enormous holes. Same thing happens on FIFA where Man United ends up with like 5 strikers over the age of 30 who are all 88-91 overalls but no midfield or defense.

 

[ulukinatme]

I made mega conferences, and Wyoming is in the Big 12. I had a job offer from southern miss (SEC) and almost took it (great stadium and they have a GREAT young defense) but my Wyoming team is on the cusp so I stayed at least one more year. I have a list of ten programs I’ll leave for and they were on the list. UNLV is in the PAC and offered too (and on the list, again cool stadium and I love the idea of building a run heavy team there, Runnin Rebels in football too) but they are prob the worst P5 program right now and I didn’t want to jump to that just yet. It’s been very fun. Heisman, no sliders, scholarship restrictions (if you discipline yourself to really do this it makes recruiting so much more fun), super conferences, and self imposing things like seniors sitting out of bowl games,... it’s been a blast thus far...

That's what I did with Tex St. when I built them up. I put them in the Big 12, then moved all the other teams from 14 into their eventual homes, like Navy to the AAC. The other thing I did was take the top 5 SEC teams and tank their recruiting for 4 or so seasons. It was interesting to see which teams took their spots and how the landscape changed. NCAA finally came down on the bag men! It was nice seeing some variety during bowl season too.

 

[dublinirish]

disappointed by the lack of Irish Lion AC: Valahalla hype on here