On 4/3/2024 8:02 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
> On Tue, 2 Apr 2024 09:01:04 -0700, Justisaur <justisaur@yahoo.com>
> wrote:
>
>> On 4/1/2024 10:16 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
>
>>> What Have You Been Playing... IN MARCH 2024?
>
>> *** Ghostwire Tokyo (epic frebie)

>> I will note it doesn't have English dubbing and it can be a bit hard to
>> catch all the subtitles during hectic bits.
>
> Are you sure? I recall it being in English when I played it. I mean,
> it's not a hill I'm going to die on, but it's one of those things I'd
> expect to remember about the game.

Hmm. I looked for it, because I was having trouble following the
subtitles at times, and didn't find it, but I never got to the point of
looking on the internet to see... Looking up now it says it's available
in English dub, I guess I just didn't find the option.

--
-Justisaur

ø-ø
(\_/)\
`-'\ `--.___,
¶¬'\( ,_.-'
\\
^'

On 4/3/2024 8:12 PM, H1MEM wrote:
> candycanearter07 wrote:
>> rms <rsquiresMOO@MOOflashMOO.net> wrote at 15:58 this Wednesday (GMT):
>>>> There won't be played games in April, as I have busted my arm
>>>> and wrist badly.
>>>
>>> Whoa, hope you recover soon, man :)
>>>
>>> rms
>>
>>
>> What happened? Are you alright?
>>
>
> Stupid dumb accident at home while spring cleaning. I have bruising from
> the hand to half of my forearm, can't move the right wrist a lot or make
> efforts without pain (like picking a heavy backpack or push the bloody
> coffee table back into place), and it requires a wrist brace for safety
> until it heals.
>
> Guess it would be a good time to learn how to play Nethack.

That explains why we didn't see you here for a while.
Nethack is easy. You just start the game, and then die a lot.

On 02/04/2024 18:20, candycanearter07 wrote:
>> I find the games pretty varied, and extremely rewarding, but at times
>> they can definitely get a bit much. Breaking controllers throwing them
>> out of frustration is a common meme of people playing these games.
>
> I absolutely can't stand super difficult games. Thanks, though.

I used to enjoy games with big manuals and a steep learning curve when I
was younger - the type of game where you have to spend at least an hour
reading the manual and several hours playing just to get the basics of
the game. Nowadays, totally different and I really want to be able to
pick the basics in at most an hour and preferable far less than that.

Kyonshi wrote:
>
> That explains why we didn't see you here for a while.

The accident was just 6 days ago, last saturday. I'm afraid I have been
absent for a bit longer than that. The reason for that is the usual: Uni
subjects for the second half of the year are a literal speedrun,
textbooks are twice as big, and I have 2 papers to deliver in two weeks
that I still have not begun to write (just shoving the data into SPSS).

Other than Splatoon 3 and the splatfest, I spent most of the spring
break studying at twice the usual effort, so there was not a lot of
gaming (well, maybe i was able to shove a few Binding of Isaac Rebirth
Runs while going to work by train).

I was also absorbed on a hobby project setting a personal site +
Wordpress + "old school" PHPbb bulletin boards / forums, but that was
more like me throwing a tantrum because they closed another forum for
Lanparties and replaced it with Discord.

> Nethack is easy. You just start the game, and then die a lot.
Got myself killed from overeating while trying to pet the cat. I really
need to read the guide, but there's an enjoyment on dying because you
took for granted that the game was going to nanny you.

Justisaur wrote:
> Oof. That's all rough, sorry to hear.
>
> Nethack's probably the most difficult of that type of that game, or
> at least up there, and really requires writing *everything* down (or
> a photographic memory, which I don't have) to make much progress.
>
> I really liked Zorbus, which is (or was) free, fairly simple, IIRC
> you can play it with only using kb as well.
>
> I hear Golden Krone Hotel is supposed to have good accessibility
> features and good for newbies to roguelikes, though it is $2, not
> free.
>
> There's always the original Rogue, and the fork Brogue as well.
>
> I really like Dungeon Robber which is a little bit different of a
> game, but is playable I think 99% keyboard only.
>
> You can play a number of old games like platformers with keyboard
> only, especially stuff on mame, like I was playing Rastan with only
> keyboard a little bit a month or two ago. Doom and the like also work
> keyboard. Though those games may be too twitch depending.
>

Thanks. TBH, the reason I decided to get into Nethack was the Ylliad's
UserFriendly comic Strip. I got to the part where Sid introduces the
game and causes a productivity nightmare.

I'm trying to set it on a server at home so that I could SSH into it. I
know it sounds dumb, but I wanted to put the "Net" in Nethack. Another
thing to try would be using shaders / overlay bezels to simulate playing
it on an VT220.

H1M3M <wipnoah@gmail.com> wrote at 11:25 this Thursday (GMT):
[snip]
> > Nethack is easy. You just start the game, and then die a lot.
> Got myself killed from overeating while trying to pet the cat. I really
> need to read the guide, but there's an enjoyment on dying because you
> took for granted that the game was going to nanny you.

Sounds like the opposite of my kind of game.
--
user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom

H1M3M <wipnoah@gmail.com> wrote at 11:28 this Thursday (GMT):
> Justisaur wrote:
>> Oof. That's all rough, sorry to hear.
>>
>> Nethack's probably the most difficult of that type of that game, or
>> at least up there, and really requires writing *everything* down (or
>> a photographic memory, which I don't have) to make much progress.
>>
>> I really liked Zorbus, which is (or was) free, fairly simple, IIRC
>> you can play it with only using kb as well.
>>
>> I hear Golden Krone Hotel is supposed to have good accessibility
>> features and good for newbies to roguelikes, though it is $2, not
>> free.
>>
>> There's always the original Rogue, and the fork Brogue as well.
>>
>> I really like Dungeon Robber which is a little bit different of a
>> game, but is playable I think 99% keyboard only.
>>
>> You can play a number of old games like platformers with keyboard
>> only, especially stuff on mame, like I was playing Rastan with only
>> keyboard a little bit a month or two ago. Doom and the like also work
>> keyboard. Though those games may be too twitch depending.
>>
>
> Thanks. TBH, the reason I decided to get into Nethack was the Ylliad's
> UserFriendly comic Strip. I got to the part where Sid introduces the
> game and causes a productivity nightmare.
>
> I'm trying to set it on a server at home so that I could SSH into it. I
> know it sounds dumb, but I wanted to put the "Net" in Nethack. Another
> thing to try would be using shaders / overlay bezels to simulate playing
> it on an VT220.

Cool-retro-term?
--
user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom

JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote at 10:23 this Thursday (GMT):
> On 02/04/2024 18:20, candycanearter07 wrote:
>>> I find the games pretty varied, and extremely rewarding, but at times
>>> they can definitely get a bit much. Breaking controllers throwing them
>>> out of frustration is a common meme of people playing these games.
>>
>> I absolutely can't stand super difficult games. Thanks, though.
>
> I used to enjoy games with big manuals and a steep learning curve when I
> was younger - the type of game where you have to spend at least an hour
> reading the manual and several hours playing just to get the basics of
> the game. Nowadays, totally different and I really want to be able to
> pick the basics in at most an hour and preferable far less than that.

Yeah, exactly.
--
user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom

candycanearter07 wrote:

>
>
> Cool-retro-term?
>

Huh. And here I was, trying to apply Reshade to Putty or MobaXTerm.

H1M3M <wipnoah@gmail.com> wrote at 14:09 this Thursday (GMT):
> candycanearter07 wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> Cool-retro-term?
>>
>
> Huh. And here I was, trying to apply Reshade to Putty or MobaXTerm.

Well, at least you learned how to use Reshade?
Ive been using c-r-t for a while.
--
user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom

candycanearter07 <candycanearter07@candycanearter07.nomail.afraid> wrote:
> JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote at 10:23 this Thursday (GMT):
> > On 02/04/2024 18:20, candycanearter07 wrote:
> >>> I find the games pretty varied, and extremely rewarding, but at times
> >>> they can definitely get a bit much. Breaking controllers throwing them
> >>> out of frustration is a common meme of people playing these games.
> >>
> >> I absolutely can't stand super difficult games. Thanks, though.
> >
> > I used to enjoy games with big manuals and a steep learning curve when I
> > was younger - the type of game where you have to spend at least an hour
> > reading the manual and several hours playing just to get the basics of
> > the game. Nowadays, totally different and I really want to be able to
> > pick the basics in at most an hour and preferable far less than that.

> Yeah, exactly.

Ditto. And not grinding.
--
"But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons." --Galatians 4:4. Slammy Thursday?
Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly.
/\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://aqfl.net & http://antfarm.home.dhs.org.
/ /\ /\ \ Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail.
| |o o| |
\ _ /
( )

candycanearter07 wrote:

> Well, at least you learned how to use Reshade?
> Ive been using c-r-t for a while.
>
I did. And It's not something that can be used with putty, xD. It does
go great with Quake II to give it the look, particularities and flaws of
a 3dFX card, though. Glide wrappers like nGlide make the games run in
modern computers, but it does not look like the real deal at all.

On Thu, 04 Apr 2024 14:42:48 +0000, ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) wrote:

>Ditto. And not grinding.

Ditto as well as to what JAB said but I am still ok with grinding. :-P

On Wed, 3 Apr 2024 15:20:15 -0000 (UTC), candycanearter07
<candycanearter07@candycanearter07.nomail.afraid> wrote:

>Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote at 14:52 this Wednesday (GMT):
>> On Mon, 1 Apr 2024 18:40:08 -0000 (UTC), candycanearter07
>><candycanearter07@candycanearter07.nomail.afraid> wrote:

>>>Well, I've been kinda all over the place this month. Mostly was on the
>>>3DS tho. I did beat 3 of the Rhythm Heaven games, got past the terrible
>>>terrible case in Phoenix Wright, and some Mario Kart 7 (Modded, CTGP).

>> At first I thought you wrote you were playing games on the 3DO and was
>> surprised not only that you were playing games that old, but that you
>> had the hardware!

>Lol, that would be cool. I could be wrong, but I think the 3DS has a 3DO
>emulator.

I don't know what that surprises me. It shouldn't. But every time I
run into another example of just how powerful our computing devices
have become there's this moment of shock. Emulation is hard,
especially if the underlying hardware is significantly different (and
I can't imagine there's a lot of similarity between a Nintendo 3DS and
the 3DO). So learning that a simple hand-held toy console can manage
to emulate something like a 3DO - presumably running at a playable
framerate - just reminds me again that we're living in an age of
(computing) wonders.

The 3DO got a bad rap when it was released. It wasn't entirely
undeserved. Lacking a single manufacturer, it entered the market
fragmented and without a single standard. Its controller was awful, it
was far too expensive, and its release game was terrible. Worse, its
hardware was only /slightly/ ahead of its competitors, and at the rate
technology was advancing in the 90s, that sole advantage quickly
disappeared.

But...

On its release, it was - at least in terms of its tech - one of the
best gaming platforms around. With a CD-ROM drive and (admittedly
limited) 3D support, it was better than pretty much any 'high-end' PC,
and the years ahead of consoles. It had - eventually - a number of fun
games (many of them enhanced versions of PC classics), including "Need
for Speed", "Shockwave", "Super Wing Commander" and "Road Rash". It
help push forward the 'multimedia wave' and seeing it play full-screen
video smoothly (well, smoothly by 1993 standards) was amazing.

Or maybe I'm just looking back at it with rose-tinted glasses. But
while the 3DO was never a /great/ console, I think it deserves a
better reputation than it currently has, as a laughingstock.

Ant wrote:
> candycanearter07 <candycanearter07@candycanearter07.nomail.afraid>
> wrote:
>> JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote at 10:23 this Thursday (GMT):
>>> On 02/04/2024 18:20, candycanearter07 wrote:
>>>>> I find the games pretty varied, and extremely rewarding, but
>>>>> at times they can definitely get a bit much. Breaking
>>>>> controllers throwing them out of frustration is a common meme
>>>>> of people playing these games.
>>>>
>>>> I absolutely can't stand super difficult games. Thanks,
>>>> though.
>>>
>>> I used to enjoy games with big manuals and a steep learning curve
>>> when I was younger - the type of game where you have to spend at
>>> least an hour reading the manual and several hours playing just
>>> to get the basics of the game. Nowadays, totally different and I
>>> really want to be able to pick the basics in at most an hour and
>>> preferable far less than that.
>
>> Yeah, exactly.
>
> Ditto. And not grinding.
>
Still, I would settle for a middle ground approach. In-game learning,
then a thick manual for when I need a refresher or there is something I
did not properly learn (and I can't see that tutorial again).

This is the case for the Disgaea games A zillion mechanics and systems,
but you can get through the game with the basics,at least the first 20
hours, without having to use stuff like geopanels. Then open the manual
when you feel ready for them.

What I don't like is the current trend of no manual, only telling the
basics, dropping tips on social networks, then "There are guys that will
write a wiki on the game for free, so we don't have to worry about
explaining things".

Bloodborne will tell you how to move, attack and parry, but without a
manual, it's impossible to know how to create the character and assign
skill points correctly, requiring to use a wiki (because apparently
printed strategy guides have gone the way of the dodo) if you don't want
to be stuck after several hours because your character sucks, even if
you did not pick the default "Waste of skin".

On Wed, 3 Apr 2024 15:52:33 -0700, Justisaur <justisaur@yahoo.com>
wrote:

>On 4/3/2024 8:02 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
>> On Tue, 2 Apr 2024 09:01:04 -0700, Justisaur <justisaur@yahoo.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> On 4/1/2024 10:16 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
>>
>>>> What Have You Been Playing... IN MARCH 2024?
>>
>>> *** Ghostwire Tokyo (epic frebie)
>
>>> I will note it doesn't have English dubbing and it can be a bit hard to
>>> catch all the subtitles during hectic bits.
>>
>> Are you sure? I recall it being in English when I played it. I mean,
>> it's not a hill I'm going to die on, but it's one of those things I'd
>> expect to remember about the game.
>
>Hmm. I looked for it, because I was having trouble following the
>subtitles at times, and didn't find it, but I never got to the point of
>looking on the internet to see... Looking up now it says it's available
>in English dub, I guess I just didn't find the option.

Well, I'm just glad that my memory wasn't COMPLETELY wrong about this.
Possibly the dub was added in a patch after you installed it?

Anyway, "Ghostwire" is one of those games I'm almost tempted to play
in the original Japanese (with subs, of course). It's a game which
already embraces its Japanese roots, and playing it in its original
language would only enhance that.

But then I'd have to play the game again, and while I generally
enjoyed "Ghostwire", its lackluster gameplay isn't something I'm
really eager to re-visit.

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote at 15:13 this Thursday (GMT):
> On Wed, 3 Apr 2024 15:20:15 -0000 (UTC), candycanearter07
><candycanearter07@candycanearter07.nomail.afraid> wrote:
>
>>Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote at 14:52 this Wednesday (GMT):
>>> On Mon, 1 Apr 2024 18:40:08 -0000 (UTC), candycanearter07
>>><candycanearter07@candycanearter07.nomail.afraid> wrote:
>
>>>>Well, I've been kinda all over the place this month. Mostly was on the
>>>>3DS tho. I did beat 3 of the Rhythm Heaven games, got past the terrible
>>>>terrible case in Phoenix Wright, and some Mario Kart 7 (Modded, CTGP).
>
>>> At first I thought you wrote you were playing games on the 3DO and was
>>> surprised not only that you were playing games that old, but that you
>>> had the hardware!
>
>>Lol, that would be cool. I could be wrong, but I think the 3DS has a 3DO
>>emulator.
>
> I don't know what that surprises me. It shouldn't. But every time I
> run into another example of just how powerful our computing devices
> have become there's this moment of shock. Emulation is hard,
> especially if the underlying hardware is significantly different (and
> I can't imagine there's a lot of similarity between a Nintendo 3DS and
> the 3DO). So learning that a simple hand-held toy console can manage
> to emulate something like a 3DO - presumably running at a playable
> framerate - just reminds me again that we're living in an age of
> (computing) wonders.
>
>
> The 3DO got a bad rap when it was released. It wasn't entirely
> undeserved. Lacking a single manufacturer, it entered the market
> fragmented and without a single standard. Its controller was awful, it
> was far too expensive, and its release game was terrible. Worse, its
> hardware was only /slightly/ ahead of its competitors, and at the rate
> technology was advancing in the 90s, that sole advantage quickly
> disappeared.
>
> But...
>
> On its release, it was - at least in terms of its tech - one of the
> best gaming platforms around. With a CD-ROM drive and (admittedly
> limited) 3D support, it was better than pretty much any 'high-end' PC,
> and the years ahead of consoles. It had - eventually - a number of fun
> games (many of them enhanced versions of PC classics), including "Need
> for Speed", "Shockwave", "Super Wing Commander" and "Road Rash". It
> help push forward the 'multimedia wave' and seeing it play full-screen
> video smoothly (well, smoothly by 1993 standards) was amazing.
>
> Or maybe I'm just looking back at it with rose-tinted glasses. But
> while the 3DO was never a /great/ console, I think it deserves a
> better reputation than it currently has, as a laughingstock.
>

I'm sure it was good, but I've never heard of it. On a similar note of
"controversial console being emulated", there's also a VirtualBoy
emulator which does the 3d stuff suprisingly well.
--
user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom

On 4/4/2024 3:23 AM, JAB wrote:
> On 02/04/2024 18:20, candycanearter07 wrote:
>>> I find the games pretty varied, and extremely rewarding, but at times
>>> they can definitely get a bit much.  Breaking controllers throwing them
>>> out of frustration is a common meme of people playing these games.
>>
>> I absolutely can't stand super difficult games. Thanks, though.
>
> I used to enjoy games with big manuals and a steep learning curve when I
> was younger - the type of game where you have to spend at least an hour
> reading the manual and several hours playing just to get the basics of
> the game. Nowadays, totally different and I really want to be able to
> pick the basics in at most an hour and preferable far less than that.

I personally don't think the souls games are all that hard, that's just
the reputation. Especially if you compare to older games like nethack.
If you die in a souls game, you only loose souls (money) and even then
only if you don't manage to get back to where you died and pick them up
again (happens a lot until you get used to spending them before going
after bosses/new areas.) The controls aren't particularly difficult to
pick up.

The real difficulty is figuring out weaknesses, ways around things,
and/or learning patterns of behavior of enemies and how to avoid
attacks. That seems to vary a lot between people, I seem to be a slow
learner in that regard, and I tend to look up spoilers for ideas when I
get to the frustration point, but I get through, some others just zip
through the games first time without much issue. I consider anything
below 20 tries against a boss to be easy for me (Most in Bloodborne for
me took 2-3 tries, which I consider to be laughably easy.)

A lot of difficulty of the game is people deliberately (or caving in to
internet sentiment) restricting themselves, such as only using melee, no
spells or items, no co-op, not going over internet suggested levels for
each boss/area (o.k. I do that last one as it makes co-op more likely)
etc. because so many spout off nonsense that that's the only way to play
the game 'for real' and that gets to 'no true Scottsman' territory.

I feel DS1 and DS3 both have a bit too high of difficulty initially for
someone unfamiliar with the type of game, which is why I suggested Elden
Ring or DS2 (only if your specs aren't up to Elden Ring, as it can be a
lot harder, more getting through the areas than the bosses) to begin on it.

That perceived difficulty results in a greater feeling of
accomplishment, at least for me. That might actually be a reason to
avoid them though, after you're accomplished at souls, most games don't
give that dopamine hit as they're more like a walk in the park. On the
other hand sometimes a walk in the park is a nice change.

--
-Justisaur

ø-ø
(\_/)\
`-'\ `--.___,
¶¬'\( ,_.-'
\\
^'

On 4/4/2024 8:15 AM, H1M3M wrote:
> Ant wrote:
>> candycanearter07 <candycanearter07@candycanearter07.nomail.afraid>
>> wrote:
>>> JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote at 10:23 this Thursday (GMT):
>>>> On 02/04/2024 18:20, candycanearter07 wrote:
>>>>>> I find the games pretty varied, and extremely rewarding, but
>>>>>> at times they can definitely get a bit much.  Breaking
>>>>>> controllers throwing them out of frustration is a common meme
>>>>>> of people playing these games.
>>>>>
>>>>> I absolutely can't stand super difficult games. Thanks,
>>>>> though.
>>>>
>>>> I used to enjoy games with big manuals and a steep learning curve
>>>> when I was younger - the type of game where you have to spend at
>>>> least an hour reading the manual and several hours playing just
>>>> to get the basics of the game. Nowadays, totally different and I
>>>> really want to be able to pick the basics in at most an hour and
>>>> preferable far less than that.
>>
>>> Yeah, exactly.
>>
>> Ditto. And not grinding.
>>
> Still, I would settle for a middle ground approach. In-game learning,
> then a thick manual for when I need a refresher or there is something I
> did not properly learn (and I can't see that tutorial again).
>
> This is the case for the Disgaea games A zillion mechanics and systems,
> but you can get through the game with the basics,at least the first 20
> hours, without having to use stuff like geopanels. Then open the manual
> when you feel ready for them.
>
> What I don't like is the current trend of no manual, only telling the
> basics, dropping tips on social networks, then "There are guys that will
> write a wiki on the game for free, so we don't have to worry about
> explaining things".
>
> Bloodborne will tell you how to move, attack and parry, but without a
> manual, it's impossible to know how to create the character and assign
> skill points correctly, requiring to use a wiki (because apparently
> printed strategy guides have gone the way of the dodo) if you don't want
> to be stuck after several hours because your character sucks, even if
> you did not pick the default "Waste of skin".

Pretty much all of From's souls game have a fairly simple good build

* spend your first 20-30 levels raising health, and at least 2 levels
per 1 in anything else until that point.

* enough into endurance or mana to use your weapon/spell enough times to
kill a normal monster or two, usually around 10 levels total.

* only put enough levels into other ability scores to wield the weapons
or spells you want to try and only stick to weapons or spells that use
those same one or two scores until you've spent 20-30 levels on health
then put the rest into those scores. (The internet typically recommends
a 'quality' build starting as knight or similar which puts the same into
str & dex. I prefer spells and magic weapons so go all int with a tiny
bit of str and/or dex as needed to wield int weapons. Or int & fai for
DS2 & DS3 which is for hexxors or pyromancers respectively which I find
more effective, or really make a few characters and try the different
type of character before committing.)

--
-Justisaur

ø-ø
(\_/)\
`-'\ `--.___,
¶¬'\( ,_.-'
\\
^'

On 4/4/2024 8:04 AM, Mike S. wrote:
> On Thu, 04 Apr 2024 14:42:48 +0000, ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) wrote:
>
>> Ditto. And not grinding.
>
> Ditto as well as to what JAB said but I am still ok with grinding. :-P

You can grind in any of the of the souls games to a rediculous point if
you want, somewhere around 800-900 levels maxing out all your ability
scores. Even going around 30 levels higher that what the internet says
for an area will make the game much much easier. The levels have
increasing costs so it becomes slower to grind for them unless you
progress to where more souls are found (although there's some very easy
to get to places in ER, one I stumbled on fairly early without spoilers,
that can give you huge amounts of souls earlier than expected. There may
be places like that in the other games.)

I generally don't grind level much in the games, as helping in co-op
gives you plenty which I like to do at least a little. Unfortunately
the older games co-op is dead and you have to do it the hard way (or get
a friend to drop a bunch of soul items, which I also haven't done.)

I do grind upgrade materials a bit as I like to have multiple weapons
upgraded, I generally don't find that terribly grindy though, except
when I make another character and have to do it all over again (I did
cheat up some materials one time in DS1 as I found that 3rd grind pretty
annoying.)

--
-Justisaur

ø-ø
(\_/)\
`-'\ `--.___,
¶¬'\( ,_.-'
\\
^'

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> writes:

> What Have You Been Playing... IN MARCH 2024?

Only Horizon Forbidden West. Streaming the Playstation version with PS
Plus.

I have now about 100 hours in it. I guess I'm hopelessly enamored with
the game since I'm nowhere near finishing it, I think. And the reason is
clear, HFW is exactly what I want from games these days. Exploration,
entertaining little stories in the side missions and a main story that
isn't complete crap. And action that doesn't suck either. I'm not really
sure the last is true, the game's limitations are starting to show. In
some ways it feels like a PS2 game, step out of the local little bubble
and back in and almost everything resets. Convenient for farming to be
sure but meh otherwise.

The tech issues with PS Plus streaming have pretty much stabilized. I
don't mind the occasional video glitches and drops in
quality. Controller disconnects usually just mean I need to restart the
gamepad emulator (DualSenseX) and PS Plus patiently waits through that.

As a gaming platform PS Plus seems a little poor in information, for
example I have no idea if I'm playing the PS4 or PS5 version of HFW or
if there's any way to choose that. Also the DLC doesn't seem to be
available. So it looks like a meh effort by Sony. They also "helpfully"
recommend you save your game if the connection quality goes down but not
all games have save anywhere, anytime.

Controller delays are a bigger issue especially when I fail an easy jump
five times in a row. I've come to the conclusion it's not that I suck,
it's the streaming that sucks, at least some of the time. This likely
affects combat also but it's harder to see there, I have no way to
compare.

The PC version of HFW was released in March but as there seems to be no
way to transfer a save from the PS version, I don't think I'll get that
until later, in a sale. I'm not sure I want to replay the whole thing,
maybe a speed run of sorts.

>Magic the Gathering: Arena

Do you buy physical cards for this? I've watched streams where they just
unwrap cards and comment on how they look or hoping for rare ones :)

rms

>Only Horizon Forbidden West. Streaming the Playstation version with PS
>Plus. I have now about 100 hours in it. I guess I'm hopelessly enamored
>with
>the game

Haha that's how I was with the first game, very good. I'll get to this
one eventually

rms

On 4/4/2024 11:53 AM, Anssi Saari wrote:
> Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> What Have You Been Playing... IN MARCH 2024?
>
> Only Horizon Forbidden West. Streaming the Playstation version with PS
> Plus.

I assume it's pretty much just more HZD which is essentially an
AC/Farcry clone with enough difference/innovation to barely keep me
interested to finish.

> I have no idea if I'm playing the PS4 or PS5 version of HFW or
> if there's any way to choose that.

I looked a bit into that previously, and found info that they claim
they're using the highest listed version, so it should be the PS5 version.

Unlike with Bloodborne which is listed as only PS4, so it plays like
it's running on a PS4 (People claim it works much better on a PS5, and
looking at old stream recordings vs. newer ones stating they were played
on PS5 that looks to be the case, and the streaming more closely matches
PS4 play.)

> The tech issues with PS Plus streaming have pretty much stabilized. I
> don't mind the occasional video glitches and drops in
> quality. Controller disconnects usually just mean I need to restart the
> gamepad emulator (DualSenseX) and PS Plus patiently waits through that.

> As a gaming platform PS Plus seems a little poor in information, for
> example I have no idea if I'm playing the PS4 or PS5 version of HFW or
> if there's any way to choose that. Also the DLC doesn't seem to be
> available. So it looks like a meh effort by Sony. They also "helpfully"
> recommend you save your game if the connection quality goes down but not
> all games have save anywhere, anytime.

Yeah they really need to give more info, finding anything is horrendous
even compared to Epic's app. The DLCs of games not being available on
PS streaming and being not at all indicated by them was a big
disappointment. Apparently you can buy the DLCs, but you can't play
them unless you stream or play from a PS4 or 5 you have running it.

> Controller delays are a bigger issue especially when I fail an easy jump
> five times in a row. I've come to the conclusion it's not that I suck,
> it's the streaming that sucks, at least some of the time. This likely
> affects combat also but it's harder to see there, I have no way to
> compare.

I'm still not sure how much of my difficulties with Bloodborne and God
of War (2022) were from any input lag, vs. my old reflexes. They have
some sort of predictive input, but I'm not sure how good that is, nor if
that means I'm really playing, or their logarithm is playing the game
for me, or maybe it's just failing on those games.

Some games, like Spider-Man: Miles Morales didn't seem to have input
delay (except for the rare lag spike as we've experienced,) but that may
be more the way the game is made with allows inputting the next move in
while the current is executing and having long chains of moves possible.

--
-Justisaur

ø-ø
(\_/)\
`-'\ `--.___,
¶¬'\( ,_.-'
\\
^'

On 04/04/2024 17:13, Justisaur wrote:
> On 4/4/2024 3:23 AM, JAB wrote:
>> On 02/04/2024 18:20, candycanearter07 wrote:
>>>> I find the games pretty varied, and extremely rewarding, but at times
>>>> they can definitely get a bit much.  Breaking controllers throwing them
>>>> out of frustration is a common meme of people playing these games.
>>>
>>> I absolutely can't stand super difficult games. Thanks, though.
>>
>> I used to enjoy games with big manuals and a steep learning curve when
>> I was younger - the type of game where you have to spend at least an
>> hour reading the manual and several hours playing just to get the
>> basics of the game. Nowadays, totally different and I really want to
>> be able to pick the basics in at most an hour and preferable far less
>> than that.
>
> I personally don't think the souls games are all that hard, that's just
> the reputation.  Especially if you compare to older games like nethack.
> If you die in a souls game, you only loose souls (money) and even then
> only if you don't manage to get back to where you died and pick them up
> again (happens a lot until you get used to spending them before going
> after bosses/new areas.) The controls aren't particularly difficult to
> pick up.
>
> The real difficulty is figuring out weaknesses, ways around things,
> and/or learning patterns of behavior of enemies and how to avoid
> attacks.  That seems to vary a lot between people, I seem to be a slow
> learner in that regard, and I tend to look up spoilers for ideas when I
> get to the frustration point, but I get through, some others just zip
> through the games first time without much issue.  I consider anything
> below 20 tries against a boss to be easy for me (Most in Bloodborne for
> me took 2-3 tries, which I consider to be laughably easy.)
>
> A lot of difficulty of the game is people deliberately (or caving in to
> internet sentiment) restricting themselves, such as only using melee, no
> spells or items, no co-op, not going over internet suggested levels for
> each boss/area (o.k. I do that last one as it makes co-op more likely)
> etc. because so many spout off nonsense that that's the only way to play
> the game 'for real' and that gets to 'no true Scottsman' territory.
>
> I feel DS1 and DS3 both have a bit too high of difficulty initially for
> someone unfamiliar with the type of game, which is why I suggested Elden
> Ring or DS2 (only if your specs aren't up to Elden Ring, as it can be a
> lot harder, more getting through the areas than the bosses) to begin on it.
>
> That perceived difficulty results in a greater feeling of
> accomplishment, at least for me.  That might actually be a reason to
> avoid them though, after you're accomplished at souls, most games don't
> give that dopamine hit as they're more like a walk in the park.  On the
> other hand sometimes a walk in the park is a nice change.
>

I can't say I've played any DS type games but I have wondered before
whether the whole they are really difficult is overplayed and it's more
not that they are overly difficult but instead it's modern games tend to
be relatively easier.

As for the genre itself, it's not the reputation for being difficult but
more they just aren't my type of games. So as slight comparison to make
sense of that. I like CRPG's but something I never do is look at guides
of how to make 'good' character builds. I just pick what I fancy and
accept that it's quite possible at some point I'll have to change the
difficulty setting as the game thinks you're this level so you character
is this powerful.

That kinda ties in with my initial comment in that unlike when I was
younger I no longer gain much enjoyment from learning the in-and-outs of
a game.