What are you playing 4: HD Remaster Gold Collector's Edition Thread of the Year

[Rodin]

Having finished off the books, I've just started playing the original Witcher game. Gonna do this in order.

The first time I played it (or tried to), I had a PC that was right on the edge of being able to run it. Given how janky the Remastered edition is, I can see why I was having so much trouble. The graphical glitches weren't just my drivers/graphics card - they were the game itself. I have a hard time paying attention any time Triss talks because her hair is doing its best to leave her head, stretching out its polygons like so much silly putty.

The combat is also...not good. Even by 2007 standards its pretty poor. The combination of bad fighting, poor graphics, and a setup that demands some base knowledge of the Witcher universe really turned me off last time, and I don't think I even got out of the tutorial. Given that the first boss fight glitched out on me and made the boss invincible, I'm not surprised. All I'm saying is, people really shouldn't have been surprised that Cyberpunk was buggy as hell.

I'm gonna try and push through it though. The game got rave reviews for its story at the time, and the game being set some indeterminate time after the books makes me hopeful for the setting.

I was deeply amused by how they handled the player not knowing what a Witcher can do. They gave Geralt amnesia. Very selective amnesia that appears to hold extend to "How do I Witch at stuff?" and nothing more. He knows who the other Witchers are, he remembers how to sword fight, etc. He's just forgotten what his potions do, how to do Signs...

I get why they did it, and I think in some ways its preferable to the way Witcher 2 threw a billion different techniques at you during its tutorial. Even so, the amnesia angle is so hackneyed I can't help but laugh at it.

[Rynjin]

He also forgot all his friends and stuff, so it's not just that; he doesn't even remember Yennefer existed, for example.

As someone who got into the series WITH the first game, I feel like it works very well to bring new players in.

As for the combat...I hated ti at first but it really started to click with me later. It's at the very least more UNIQUE than the path they took with 2/3, that has standard action combat. You don't often see rhythm games as a core mechanic in RPGs.

The only other time I remember this being a thing is in Yakuza 5's Haruka story, where as the only non-fighter in the playable cast of all 8 games, her main method of gaining experience is having dance battles with people on the street to hone her skills for her idol career. The boss fights are, likewise, big concert dance battles that are a bit harder.

I hear Undertale has a bit too?

[Anteros]

He also forgot all his friends and stuff, so it's not just that; he doesn't even remember Yennefer existed, for example.

As someone who got into the series WITH the first game, I feel like it works very well to bring new players in.

As for the combat...I hated ti at first but it really started to click with me later. It's at the very least more UNIQUE than the path they took with 2/3, that has standard action combat. You don't often see rhythm games as a core mechanic in RPGs.

The only other time I remember this being a thing is in Yakuza 5's Haruka story, where as the only non-fighter in the playable cast of all 8 games, her main method of gaining experience is having dance battles with people on the street to hone her skills for her idol career. The boss fights are, likewise, big concert dance battles that are a bit harder.

I hear Undertale has a bit too?

Have you tried Sekiro? It's basically "rhythm game disguised as combat" except turned up to 11. It's also excellent.

[Rynjin]

Have you tried Sekiro? It's basically "rhythm game disguised as combat" except turned up to 11. It's also excellent.

Yeah I...kinda hated Sekiro and how it played, sadly. I've always preferred dodging to blocking in games, and Sekiro PUNISHES dodging, meaning it felt like every fight devolved into just...standing there and waiting for an opponent to throw an attack, then countering. Rinse and repeat.

Sekiro felt to me sort of like the Batman Arkham games, or Sleeping Dogs, something like that but with the challenge cranked to 11...and kinda the whole point of those games is that they're flashy and fun, not super difficult. Sekiro didn't feel fun to me.

It didn't help that I really loved how the movement felt in that game. Like just maneuvering around was an absolute joy. So the combat often devolving into just a flat-footed slugfest most of the time was doubly unsatisfying.

Mind you, I understand this is an unpopular opinion, so this is firmly a "me" problem, but I just couldn't get past that aspect of the game.

[Lord Raziere]

Yeah I...kinda hated Sekiro and how it played, sadly. I've always preferred dodging to blocking in games, and Sekiro PUNISHES dodging, meaning it felt like every fight devolved into just...standing there and waiting for an opponent to throw an attack, then countering. Rinse and repeat.

Sekiro felt to me sort of like the Batman Arkham games, or Sleeping Dogs, something like that but with the challenge cranked to 11...and kinda the whole point of those games is that they're flashy and fun, not super difficult. Sekiro didn't feel fun to me.

It didn't help that I really loved how the movement felt in that game. Like just maneuvering around was an absolute joy. So the combat often devolving into just a flat-footed slugfest most of the time was doubly unsatisfying.

Mind you, I understand this is an unpopular opinion, so this is firmly a "me" problem, but I just couldn't get past that aspect of the game.

Sekiro is the only soulslike that I ever decided to install a mod to beat. and I play like four others when I feel like it. Nioh 2, Dark souls 1 and 3 and Code Vein those all feel fair at least. Sekiro? sure Genichiro Ashina was the toughest, hardest most exhilarating fight of my life but that was only the half-way boss and I just felt tired and spent after that, so I just cheesed my way through the rest of it. I think that speaks for itself how unnecessarily hard Sekiro is.

[Rynjin]

Nioh 2 is definitely a great game. It's also ball-crushingly difficult especially if your build isn't super efficient, but it definitely always feels fair.

If you haven't played Dark Souls 2, I recommend it. It's actually my favorite game in the series. It's the only game where magic is actually pretty good (without mods; Dark Souls 3: Cinders overhauls everything and makes all playstyles viable).

Its bosses are kind of weak (outside the DLC, which are the best in the series) but it make sup for it in how genuinely difficult and interesting to explore its various areas/levels are.

[factotum]

The combat is also...not good. Even by 2007 standards its pretty poor.

In his review of The Witcher Yahtzee effectively called it a single-player MMORPG, and you can kind of see where he's coming from--that sort of combat that's basically just relying on you clicking at the right speed to fill in the combo, the quests where you have to find a certain number of animal parts to complete them, and so on. I found it enjoyable enough to finish despite the combat, although the "collect all the nude portraits" card thing was frankly risible--no idea why they ever thought that was a good idea.

[Rodin]

In his review of The Witcher Yahtzee effectively called it a single-player MMORPG, and you can kind of see where he's coming from--that sort of combat that's basically just relying on you clicking at the right speed to fill in the combo, the quests where you have to find a certain number of animal parts to complete them, and so on. I found it enjoyable enough to finish despite the combat, although the "collect all the nude portraits" card thing was frankly risible--no idea why they ever thought that was a good idea.

I think I can tell you why - The Witcher was released in 2007. Video games as a whole were coming out of a very PG era and companies were trying to match the success of God of War with its over the top gore and nudity. One of the reasons The Witcher made a splash was that it was sold as an "adult" RPG that didn't shy away from sexy times. At least, that's what I recall from reading the reviews at the time.

If memory serves, the whole "shock the audience" thing hit a wall with Dante's Inferno, which was so thoroughly mocked for trying too hard that companies toned things down and found a happy medium.

[Eldan]

Which game was it again that advertised with "your mom will hate it!" and videos of older women being disgusted? That era of gaming, anyway.

Edit: Dead Space 2, 2011. That went on for a few years, it seems.

[Anteros]

Yeah I...kinda hated Sekiro and how it played, sadly. I've always preferred dodging to blocking in games, and Sekiro PUNISHES dodging, meaning it felt like every fight devolved into just...standing there and waiting for an opponent to throw an attack, then countering. Rinse and repeat.

Sekiro felt to me sort of like the Batman Arkham games, or Sleeping Dogs, something like that but with the challenge cranked to 11...and kinda the whole point of those games is that they're flashy and fun, not super difficult. Sekiro didn't feel fun to me.

It didn't help that I really loved how the movement felt in that game. Like just maneuvering around was an absolute joy. So the combat often devolving into just a flat-footed slugfest most of the time was doubly unsatisfying.

Mind you, I understand this is an unpopular opinion, so this is firmly a "me" problem, but I just couldn't get past that aspect of the game.

Well, you don't have to stand there and wait for them to attack. In fact, you shouldn't. You should attack yourself if you have the opportunity.

It's definitely not the typical "poke the incredibly slow enemy and then roll away until you can poke again" Dark Souls gameplay that a lot of people went in expecting though. I'll give you that.

[Lord Raziere]

Well, you don't have to stand there and wait for them to attack. In fact, you shouldn't. You should attack yourself if you have the opportunity.

It's definitely not the typical "poke the incredibly slow enemy and then roll away until you can poke again" Dark Souls gameplay that a lot of people went in expecting though. I'll give you that.

Oh yeah, when I was fighting Genichiro, I was running all over the place and attacking as much as I can. the fight was frantic, it was a back and forth of sword and bow as I spiraled into madness, and by the time I finally beat him, I felt like I had run a marathon. like were they trying to make me feel like I was in actual combat? geez. in that fight I glimpsed how Sekiro was meant to be played and I managed after so many tries to pull it off.....but I'm not sure its something I'd want to do again, if I could even repeat the feat. I'd rather just play ninja build in Nioh 2.

[warty goblin]

I found it enjoyable enough to finish despite the combat, although the "collect all the nude portraits" card thing was frankly risible--no idea why they ever thought that was a good idea.

I liked the nude cards, and still consider them some of the better erotic content to come out of games. Quite a few of them are funny, in a playfully naughty sort of way, occasionally they offer some insight into the character in question, and a couple are actually hot. That's a much wider, and much better, expression of adult sexuality than you'll find in most games.

[Man_Over_Game]

Have you tried Sekiro? It's basically "rhythm game disguised as combat" except turned up to 11. It's also excellent.

Furi is what I'd recommend for those who want to like Sekiro but can't. It's a bullet-hell sword-duel boss-rush game that's hard to explain in a single sentence. But it's really good. It's the only game where I bothered challenging the bosses on a harder difficulty after beating the game, just because of how fun those bosses are to fight.




My wife just started playing Terraria, so I'm trying really hard not to be overbearing and help her every time she has a question. She plays very differently than most Terraria players I've seen, she's spent the first 4 hours working on her house, and explores mostly to find rare wall materials to decorate her room with. I wonder sometimes if the game will be too hard for her, but then I remember that she's beating both Celeste and Hollow Knight at the same time, so I think I just need to stop being such a helicopter husband. I kinda missed that experience of learning the game from the very beginning, and it's been pretty cool to watch her go through the same thing.

[Rodin]

What strikes me about The Witcher so far is that it's effectively book 6 and it feels like it. It's not just place names and concepts - I'm already seeing direct references to Ciri's prophecy*, references to characters from the books like Vilgefortz, and the events that were just kicking off as the main saga ended are now in full swing. I had always imagined the time skip between the books and the games to be pretty big - after all, Geralt ages incredibly slowly so you can afford to reset the setting. Instead it appears that a few years at most have passed.

Usually, I'd complain about this sort of thing. I don't like video games coming and stomping on the canon of the books and messing up the ending I liked. In this case though, I hated the final book in the Saga and taking a big mallet to Geralt to get him to forget his character development but still let us explore the world in his shoes is exactly what the doctor ordered.

Spoiler: *

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And the fact that Ciri never resolved said prophecy, meaning it's still hanging around waiting on either her or her descendants. She should have chat with Eugene if she gets a chance, those blood oaths can be a real pain in the butt.

[LibraryOgre]

What Are You Playing 5: New Thread+

[Anteros]

Furi is what I'd recommend for those who want to like Sekiro but can't. It's a bullet-hell sword-duel boss-rush game that's hard to explain in a single sentence. But it's really good. It's the only game where I bothered challenging the bosses on a harder difficulty after beating the game, just because of how fun those bosses are to fight.




My wife just started playing Terraria, so I'm trying really hard not to be overbearing and help her every time she has a question. She plays very differently than most Terraria players I've seen, she's spent the first 4 hours working on her house, and explores mostly to find rare wall materials to decorate her room with. I wonder sometimes if the game will be too hard for her, but then I remember that she's beating both Celeste and Hollow Knight at the same time, so I think I just need to stop being such a helicopter husband. I kinda missed that experience of learning the game from the very beginning, and it's been pretty cool to watch her go through the same thing.

I keep meaning to try Furi. It's somewhere in the backlog, but I have a hard time convincing myself to bust out the controller these days.

For Terraria, the best part is discovering everything for yourself. I'll never understand players who play a game like that with one eye on the wiki, or having someone tell her what to do. I'm sure she'll appreciate you letting her explore