So What Are YOU Playing II: Electric Boogaloo

[Ayn]

Finished Valkyrie Elysium.

..Eh.

It'd be an ok game if Valkyrie Profile Lenneth never existed.

Instead it's the framework of a promising game that falls short. I liked Hilde's design. I was ok with the Einherjar but would've liked more of their stories (the 'radio drama' esque memories sorta remind me of Lost Odyssey). I'm ok with a switch to action, but man, it'd have been a lot more fun if they had a better combat director.

[Mayareira]

Found my DS lite at a drawer in the family house. Mint condition, not booted once for probably longer than 15 years, with Castlevania Portrait of Ruin cartridge in it.

To my surprise, the device still works and more importantly has an incredible battery life (still). I've been playing for 5 hours at least now and the battery indicator did not even visibly decreased a bit. Simple is the real sophistication really, this is what happens when you don't bloat the device with unnecessary updates and all.

DS Castlevania games are incredibly fun, it is as if the device was created solely for them lol. Funny how human mind and long term memory works, the music, the stages all came back to me once I started playing. I think back in 2000s I've left the game in the Egypt stage, time to finish the business!

[Ayn]

I remember Portrait of Ruin! I unexpectedly enjoyed it.

Even if I had to constantly hear "Charlotte! Jonathan! Charlotte! Jonathan" during the switch.

[Lokus]

I did the same recently with my old DS lite as well. Hadn't used it for over 5 years and turned it on to Order of Ecclesia and played for about an hour with no hint of the battery dying. I dunno what Nintendo did but they are some battery wizards with that handheld.

[Yuri-G]

I remember Portrait of Ruin! I unexpectedly enjoyed it.

Even if I had to constantly hear "Charlotte! Jonathan! Charlotte! Jonathan" during the switch.

unironically my favorite non-SotN Castlevania, it's so good. the game gets a lot of flak for the way it was presented as a more Americanized / Saturday Morning Cartoon type of presentation, but the gameplay in PoR has worlds of depth the other games can't touch imo. Anyway yeah it's great

[Ayn]

Oh yeah, I vaguely remember the flak I got.

Then I played it and was like "WTF were these people on? This game is great"

[Zealot]

Getting SO CLOSE to the end of They Are Billions, playing at 500% difficulty for the RTS missions and 800% for the roguelite and tower defense missions. I'm also like 15k points away from the 70,000 you need for the highest achievement, if I can get that I'm just gonna put the rest of the game on easy mode to win.

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[Odesseiron]

Getting SO CLOSE to the end of They Are Billions, playing at 500% difficulty for the RTS missions and 800% for the roguelite and tower defense missions. I'm also like 15k points away from the 70,000 you need for the highest achievement, if I can get that I'm just gonna put the rest of the game on easy mode to win.

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I've had this game on my wishlist for like 2-3 years now. But every time I revisit the page, someone is bitching about the difficulty in the reviews. Is the game that unrelenting? Like are there difficulty settings and do they matter?

You're the first person I can actually ask since nobody I personally know plays it and internet opinions are all over the place.

[Cantih]

If you don't crank up the difficulty, I'd say it is not quite Frostpunk hard.

[Zealot]

I've had this game on my wishlist for like 2-3 years now. But every time I revisit the page, someone is bitching about the difficulty in the reviews. Is the game that unrelenting? Like are there difficulty settings and do they matter?

You're the first person I can actually ask since nobody I personally know plays it and internet opinions are all over the place.

I was playing on 50% difficulty and getting my ass handed to me all the time. There's a fairly decent guide up on Steam for 500% that I've been following and with the exception of a few choke points it's helped me clear on 500% each time. The difficulty ramp up is very noticeable - like I accidentally had it set to 800% for one level and couldn't even live long enough to get to the first horde; toned it back down to 500% and now I can make it to the end (still struggling on that because it's ALL GIANTS).

The best advice I can give is to find and use a tech tree guide because the game - in the campaign setting, at least - is absolutely unforgiving on any difficulty if you don't have the right tech researched. Overall it's a fun challenge, but for as rewarding as it is when you win it can feel like absolute bullshit sometimes when you lose. Literally one zombie can fuck your entire run - shambles by without you seeing it, infects a building, suddenly you've got 10 zombies, and then 50, and then 200, and then you lose.

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[Cyn]

it can feel like absolute bullshit sometimes when you lose. Literally one zombie can fuck your entire run - shambles by without you seeing it, infects a building, suddenly you've got 10 zombies, and then 50, and then 200, and then you lose.

But I mean.... that's sort of the entire thing about zombies though, right? Like, that's the whole point.

[Zealot]

It doesn't make it feel any better knowing my defeat is thematically appropriate, Cyn.

That said, crushed the giant level tonight, will resume pushing toward the end.

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[Zealot]

Hit 70,000 points, lowering it down to normal difficulty for the last 20% of the game, Sweet Christmas.

[Koul]

Got a Hades-esque game on Steam called Warm Snow. If you're looking for something to scratch that itch, I would highly recommend it. Tons of shit to unlock and variety of builds to try.

[Qalbert]

so Warframe is one of those games I've been playing a long time, but in bursts. maybe once a year or so I'll hyperfixate on it for a few weeks at a time. this has to be one if my longest-term gaming accomplishments.
https://twitter.com/Qalpal/status/1746575374195069335

[Kaisha]

And now your Legendary Rank grind begins. Congrats though. Reaching MR30 itself is a good 2k hour grind. Think I quit around the point LR2 was obtainable and I was halfway through LR1 at the time, shortly before they announced Soulframe. Heard they added a lot of much needed QoL fixes after Reb took over though.

Apparently the last achievement I had to grind after reaching that was the stupid Kdrive one.

[Qalbert]

I'm less worried about that, I'll still try new things but not going to push for it as hard, the benefits from being level 30 were a big motivator, forma-ing is mostly painless now, can give the 3h blessing to my friends, more riven slots, etc.

[Kaisha]

Main perk for me definitely was not having my mods get removed when formaing things for sure (why couldn't it just keep them slotted but show as grey or some other indicator that it wouldn't apply?), aside from the few weapons that went to r40.

Blessing is nice for when you plan on doing a quick couple rounds and got something to level/helping a buddy.

[Mayareira]

Got back to RE1 Remake HD on Switch..holy crap the game aged so well. I've always loved pre-rendered backgrounds back in 16-128 bit era. Even in today's standards the game looks jaw dropping.

Screw Chris' inventory space though.

[Andalusian girls]

pre-rendered backgrounds hold up so well fr decades later. know they got abandoned in the shift to full 3D and camera controls but miss them a bit