Gaming thread

[Nols]

I was enjoying TB's impressions of TLOU2. Was looking forward to good thoughts on the end.

Just rage-quit the Witcher 3 for the first time.
Playing one of Ciri's flashback levels on NG+ and it's obnoxiously difficult, like they didn't scale the difficulty correctly. Keep getting one shotted from full health to dead out of nowhere. :x

[Dinsdale Piranha]

I was enjoying TB's impressions of TLOU2. Was looking forward to good thoughts on the end.

Just rage-quit the Witcher 3 for the first time.
Playing one of Ciri's flashback levels on NG+ and it's obnoxiously difficult, like they didn't scale the difficulty correctly. Keep getting one shotted from full health to dead out of nowhere. :x

What's killing you? With Ciri, even before she gets her extra special abilites, you can mostly keep out of the way of things.

[Fonz]

Gaming thread before a training thread Nols? Shows where your priorities lie huh...

[tabascoboy]

I was enjoying TB's impressions of TLOU2. Was looking forward to good thoughts on the end.

Well I'm here now to continue with my incoherent opinions on it! Still got a bit left to do ( Seattle - Near end spoiler )

Spoiler

Show

the Abby v Ellie confrontation is going to piss some people off, having to try and bash Ellie's brains out after she's been our beloved protag for so long...

I haven't looked at many comments because of spoilers, but I did see some about "they ruined the characters". That seems as if people just want them to be the same without any kind of growth or development after 5 years and which is IMO especially unrealistic. It's a royally fucked up world and you can't expect people not to have their moral compasses completely skewed.

When we go the 'The Farm', I wondered actually if that was it - the ending. Didn't expect to see Tommy turn up as I thought Abby had killed him. He's the only character really where I do wonder why he was so hell-bent on revenge and relapsed back presumably into the way he was with Joel when the implication is that they were Hunters. A Tommy based DLC might be interesting.

Oh and woo-hoo, easy spoiler tagging! :)

[CM11]

I was enjoying TB's impressions of TLOU2. Was looking forward to good thoughts on the end.

Just rage-quit the Witcher 3 for the first time.
Playing one of Ciri's flashback levels on NG+ and it's obnoxiously difficult, like they didn't scale the difficulty correctly. Keep getting one shotted from full health to dead out of nowhere. :x

The witches?

[Mr Bungle]

I hope this thread picks up where PR left off and we're delivered page after page of fucking Witcher chat.

[Nols]

Gaming thread before a training thread Nols? Shows where your priorities lie huh...

No gyms here. Still. :(

[Nols]

I was enjoying TB's impressions of TLOU2. Was looking forward to good thoughts on the end.

Well I'm here now to continue with my incoherent opinions on it! Still got a bit left to do ( Seattle - Near end spoiler )

Spoiler

Show

the Abby v Ellie confrontation is going to piss some people off, having to try and bash Ellie's brains out after she's been our beloved protag for so long...

I haven't looked at many comments because of spoilers, but I did see some about "they ruined the characters". That seems as if people just want them to be the same without any kind of growth or development after 5 years and which is IMO especially unrealistic. It's a royally fucked up world and you can't expect people not to have their moral compasses completely skewed.

When we go the 'The Farm', I wondered actually if that was it - the ending. Didn't expect to see Tommy turn up as I thought Abby had killed him. He's the only character really where I do wonder why he was so hell-bent on revenge and relapsed back presumably into the way he was with Joel when the implication is that they were Hunters. A Tommy based DLC might be interesting.

Oh and woo-hoo, easy spoiler tagging! :)

Yeah, that's seriously grim.

Spoiler

Show

Ellie's decent into a heartless monster is perfectly believable in that world, but is still rough after how beloved she was after the first game.

Was weird having a whole boss fight sequence where she's the baddie.

Still really like how they portrayed Abbie. She's introduced in a way which causes a visceral hatred of her, and then unpacks it to the point where she's a sympathetic character.
People who just want "pure" baddies should go play Doom or something a bit less concerned with story

[Nols]

I was enjoying TB's impressions of TLOU2. Was looking forward to good thoughts on the end.

Just rage-quit the Witcher 3 for the first time.
Playing one of Ciri's flashback levels on NG+ and it's obnoxiously difficult, like they didn't scale the difficulty correctly. Keep getting one shotted from full health to dead out of nowhere. :x

The witches?

The last one you do where you're escaping in Novigrad with Dandelion. Run up to the top of the hill on horseback and then have to fight about 10 baddies to trigger the cutscene.

I'd dance away with her dash teleport ability, draw them out in ones and twos, deal a good bit of damage without getting close, then one of them would one-shot me in the couple of frames I was actually in range without any windup, or an archer at the back would kill me.
Wasn't even on a high difficulty.

[CM11]

I was enjoying TB's impressions of TLOU2. Was looking forward to good thoughts on the end.

Just rage-quit the Witcher 3 for the first time.
Playing one of Ciri's flashback levels on NG+ and it's obnoxiously difficult, like they didn't scale the difficulty correctly. Keep getting one shotted from full health to dead out of nowhere. :x

The witches?

The last one you do where you're escaping in Novigrad with Dandelion. Run up to the top of the hill on horseback and then have to fight about 10 baddies to trigger the cutscene.

I'd dance away with her dash teleport ability, draw them out in ones and twos, deal a good bit of damage without getting close, then one of them would one-shot me in the couple of frames I was actually in range without any windup, or an archer at the back would kill me.
Wasn't even on a high difficulty.

Sounds like a pain alright. Are you using blink?

[Nols]

Is that the one where she does of flurry of quick teleports and does a flurry of attacks from behind enemies?
I haven't really mastered that, never needed it on my fist playthrough, and found that I'd finish in the middle of a bunch of enemies and I'd get that one-shot before dashing away.

Ended up just switching to the easiest difficulty for that section and playing very passively. Draw them out, in for a couple of quick slashes, back off. Run in circles for a minute to regen any health lost and go again.


There was no point in trying to get it done on the higher difficulty, it was brokenly difficult for what is a 2 minute flashback sequence.

[CM11]

Is that the one where she does of flurry of quick teleports and does a flurry of attacks from behind enemies?
I haven't really mastered that, never needed it on my fist playthrough, and found that I'd finish in the middle of a bunch of enemies and I'd get that one-shot before dashing away.

Ended up just switching to the easiest difficulty for that section and playing very passively. Draw them out, in for a couple of quick slashes, back off. Run in circles for a minute to regen any health lost and go again.


There was no point in trying to get it done on the higher difficulty, it was brokenly difficult for what is a 2 minute flashback sequence.

Fair enough.

[tabascoboy]

TLOU 2 - another city, another bunch of cunts

[Raggs]

Why is it when I plan on upgrading my graphics card in the future, I start looking immediately, and wondering about deals etc Got to resist the urge until next year!

[ASMO]

You will probably get some good deals on a GTX1080 Ti right now

[tabascoboy]

TLOU 2 - Finished! I've seen it can be completed in 20 - 25 hours apparently but I racked up 40 hours on the game save info and reckon it was more like 50 with all the reloads I had to do.

Very,very good, not sure it quite merits some of the perfect 10/10 scores I've seen but technically it's excellent, can't comment on the gameplay as I haven't played enough of action games to judge against others. Story lacks some subtlety at times for sure and many of the cutscenes and short chapters are not very replayable. Loading the saves or resuming after skipping cutscenes takes forever at times.

I don't think the overwhelmingly nihilistic tone will please everyone, but

Spoiler

Show

it's a logical outcome for a world that's virtually lost all hope and maybe it's some payback from Naughty Dog to say "you still think Joel did the right thing at the end of the first game?" LOL. It's really going to piss some off to see the changes in Ellie, and not even give a glimmer of a hopeful ending, let alone to have to play as her enemy for long sections.

It's not trying to repeat the formula of the first game where much of the great experience was seeing two characters with absolutely no reason initially to bond and open up emotionally, in this game it's pretty much the opposite. It's kind of a brave choice to force the player to take actions they know are stupid or completely unjustifiable - and I'm not surprised it's getting a backlash. I didn't consider it overtly preachy but it does knowingly push a lot of buttons.

That said I'll be replaying it (on the lowest difficulty this time!) to reflect on it further and get some of those pesky trophies...

[Raggs]

You will probably get some good deals on a GTX1080 Ti right now

There's some OK deals out there, but I'd be buying now for a game not released until Nov I think (cyberpunk), and I'm unlikely to get it on release anyway, planning on March. So either current cards will have dropped anyway, or there'll be new cards that might be invested in.

[Nols]

Spoiler

Show

I like that they actually addressed the outcome of Joel's rampages from the first game. In games, enemies are just hordes of samey characters that get mowed down with little consequence. Actually acknowledging that he murdered lots of other people who were just trying to get by, or even help, was good, IMO.

Ellie's decision to ditch her loving family and go after Abby one more time really annoyed me. But I suppose it shows just how important Joel was to her, just how much his murder affected her. Her last interaction with him the night before was a fight which they sorta kinda patched up, but they certainly weren't on great terms.

The sequence in the museum was one of the genuinely sweetest things I've watched. Loved it.


The closing sequence was one of the most heartbreaking and depressing things I've watched. I was genuinely upset. She's lost everything, and in her attempt for vengeance. She's lost Joel, then loses Dina and the baby through her own decisions, and then loses her fingers and can't even play music anymore, which was the one lasting "gift" she still had left from Joel
The music has figuratively and literally left her. Awful stuff.

Superb story overall though, even if parts of it were hammered in with the subtlety of a sledge hammer.

[tabascoboy]

Spoiler

Show

I like that they actually addressed the outcome of Joel's rampages from the first game. In games, enemies are just hordes of samey characters that get mowed down with little consequence. Actually acknowledging that he murdered lots of other people who were just trying to get by, or even help, was good, IMO.

Ellie's decision to ditch her loving family and go after Abby one more time really annoyed me. But I suppose it shows just how important Joel was to her, just how much his murder affected her. Her last interaction with him the night before was a fight which they sorta kinda patched up, but they certainly weren't on great terms.

The sequence in the museum was one of the genuinely sweetest things I've watched. Loved it.


The closing sequence was one of the most heartbreaking and depressing things I've watched. I was genuinely upset. She's lost everything, and in her attempt for vengeance. She's lost Joel, then loses Dina and the baby through her own decisions, and then loses her fingers and can't even play music anymore, which was the one lasting "gift" she still had left from Joel
The music has figuratively and literally left her. Awful stuff.

Superb story overall though, even if parts of it were hammered in with the subtlety of a sledge hammer.

In among all the gore there are some more heartwarming scenes!

Curiously there are times when I feel the improved graphics work against the new game a bit, in the first one you walk into a dilapidated building and you feel you could smell the rot and mould, not so much in the new game. OTOH the gruesome way in which human enemies (and even NPCs have names) die and scream really brings the horror home.

[Insane_Homer]

anyone do any iracing?

[anonymous_joe]

I was enjoying TB's impressions of TLOU2. Was looking forward to good thoughts on the end.

Just rage-quit the Witcher 3 for the first time.
Playing one of Ciri's flashback levels on NG+ and it's obnoxiously difficult, like they didn't scale the difficulty correctly. Keep getting one shotted from full health to dead out of nowhere. :x

The witches?

The last one you do where you're escaping in Novigrad with Dandelion. Run up to the top of the hill on horseback and then have to fight about 10 baddies to trigger the cutscene.

I'd dance away with her dash teleport ability, draw them out in ones and twos, deal a good bit of damage without getting close, then one of them would one-shot me in the couple of frames I was actually in range without any windup, or an archer at the back would kill me.
Wasn't even on a high difficulty.

Just drop the difficulty down? New Game+ gets really hard for the odd fight.

[MoreOrLess]

anyone do any iracing?

I joined in January. Right before the Covid deluge, so not sure if my experience is typical for more longerstanding members.

Has it always been full of diving-bombing Iberians ranting over the radio?

[Raggs]

OK £8.99 on CDkeys for TW3 GOTY edition is too good to ignore. Just bought it. Will download soon.

[Insane_Homer]

anyone do any iracing?

I joined in January. Right before the Covid deluge, so not sure if my experience is typical for more longerstanding members.

Has it always been full of diving-bombing Iberians ranting over the radio?

Yes, but more so now with the influx.

Once you get out of the bottom splits it gets considerably better.

Watch this guy
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnwafX ... ttB1ptFPnQ

[ASMO]

Don't know if you guys are familiar with Viva la Dirt League, but some very good pisstakes of gaming scenarios across different games...example below

[Raggs]

Find VLDL really good. Watched tons of their stuff, and try and keep up with each new release now.

[ASMO]

Looking forward to the short movie they just crowdfunded, NPC Man

[Raggs]

Looking forward to the short movie they just crowdfunded, NPC Man

Baelians journey :D, definitely excited.

Back to actual gaming. Recommended mods for tw3? Seen a popular graphics one, and I think I've read about fuss with oils? And a mod that helps?

[CM11]

Looking forward to the short movie they just crowdfunded, NPC Man

Baelians journey :D, definitely excited.

Back to actual gaming. Recommended mods for tw3? Seen a popular graphics one, and I think I've read about fuss with oils? And a mod that helps?

Have a look at Ghost mode mod. It rebalances a lot of gameplay and fixes some broken stuff.

Also a stash mod unless you're into immersive gaming (where you carry around multiple swords and armour but still fight unburdened!).

There's also a mod that puts up all your quests on the map, not just the active quest.

Haven't looked at the graphics ones.

[Raggs]

Looking forward to the short movie they just crowdfunded, NPC Man

Baelians journey :D, definitely excited.

Back to actual gaming. Recommended mods for tw3? Seen a popular graphics one, and I think I've read about fuss with oils? And a mod that helps?

Have a look at Ghost mode mod. It rebalances a lot of gameplay and fixes some broken stuff.

Also a stash mod unless you're into immersive gaming (where you carry around multiple swords and armour but still fight unburdened!).

There's also a mod that puts up all your quests on the map, not just the active quest.

Haven't looked at the graphics ones.

Ghost mode is a bit concerning, I tend to like playing as the developers made. However, the mod that puts all the quests on the map sounds bloody useful, I hate games that don't tell me these things, so much more convenient if you know you're close to something you're not actively tracking.

[CM11]

Baelians journey :D, definitely excited.

Back to actual gaming. Recommended mods for tw3? Seen a popular graphics one, and I think I've read about fuss with oils? And a mod that helps?

Have a look at Ghost mode mod. It rebalances a lot of gameplay and fixes some broken stuff.

Also a stash mod unless you're into immersive gaming (where you carry around multiple swords and armour but still fight unburdened!).

There's also a mod that puts up all your quests on the map, not just the active quest.

Haven't looked at the graphics ones.

Ghost mode is a bit concerning, I tend to like playing as the developers made. However, the mod that puts all the quests on the map sounds bloody useful, I hate games that don't tell me these things, so much more convenient if you know you're close to something you're not actively tracking.

I take your point and you'll enjoy the vanilla game. I looked for ghost mode for my second playthrough because there were some gameplay aspects I'd tired of but nothing I'd have had a problem with initially.

[Nols]

What does ghost mode do?

Just play the vanilla version. On PS4 is grand. Maybe the stash mod, as it can be annoying trying to carry gear you want, and a load of lot that you want to offload at the next shop.

[CM11]

What does ghost mode do?

Just play the vanilla version. On PS4 is grand. Maybe the stash mod, as it can be annoying trying to carry gear you want, and a load of lot that you want to offload at the next shop.

Ghost mod is a big overhaul. Moves some side quests around to make more sense, changes experience so that you get more if you complete a quest early and less late on a sliding scale as opposed to the more basic vanilla version, adds some minor lore content but the biggest change is the combat/skill overhaul. Too much to go into but it makes spamming one technique void and you have to think/dodge better. Also rebalanced the signs and made some more realistic for example Quen - first hit no longer absorbs all damage, just a certain amount based on your quen ability. Made the second playthrough different enough for me to enjoy relearning the gameplay (I found I had to dodge a lot more as opposed to spamming roll).

[Raggs]

Going for better graphics (textures, so shouldn't hit the frames too badly), and then the quest map thing. Then I think I'll just play as intended, see if there's anything I desperately want.

[MoreOrLess]

anyone do any iracing?

I joined in January. Right before the Covid deluge, so not sure if my experience is typical for more longerstanding members.

Has it always been full of diving-bombing Iberians ranting over the radio?

Yes, but more so now with the influx.

Once you get out of the bottom splits it gets considerably better.

Watch this guy
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnwafX ... ttB1ptFPnQ

If I were that chap I'd probably have tried to change my name...

Anyway, I'm hovering around 1300 iR in Skippys so my racing is generally closer to the replays at the end

[CM11]

Going for better graphics (textures, so shouldn't hit the frames too badly), and then the quest map thing. Then I think I'll just play as intended, see if there's anything I desperately want.

You'll cave on the stash mod! It's not just extra capacity but you get access to stash in shops so makes it easier to check what you're missing for crafting and alchemy.

[Nols]

Not having to drag your arse back to your stash to pic up something you'd left there is missing out on core gameplay! Especially fast travelling to Crow's Perch and having to ride the whole way through the town to get to the keep.

[CM11]

Not having to drag your arse back to your stash to pic up something you'd left there is missing out on core gameplay! Especially fast travelling to Crow's Perch and having to ride the whole way through the town to get to the keep.

Such a pain in the arse that the travel point is so far for Crow's Perch. I know why they did it but still.

[HighKingLeinster]

[EnergiseR]

Gamer dudes. My young one can't get a bike J just discovered due to Covid blah blah. She wants a Switch instead. I get they aren't what you would use but anybody know what you need with it as in do you have to get extra controls etc?