Just started DS2 today after playing through Salt and Sanctuary (fun little game!). Getting wrecked in the first real area by those giant armored turds with maces, but enjoying it and feel like I'll definitely play it through. It's the last Soulsborne game I'm playing, started at DS 3 then went to BB, finished DSR just before Salt and Sanctuary.

Any suggestions on that opening area in terms of adjustments I should make? I felt like my start to DSR was a lot smoother, but assume I just need to spent some time getting good here.

Ha! Well at the time of writing this we are around SL120 at the Archives/Princes, on PS4

Holy shit, Blasphemous got a release date and no one told me
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/grues ... 0-6469298/

Did you go to the Forest of Fallen Giants first? 'Cause that area is much easier to start with than Heide's Tower of Flame, which is where I assume you are now.


Yup, looks dope.

I think it just got that release date at Gamescom. It looks fantastic, been waiting for an official release date for awhile since I saw it first a few months ago.

Dove back into The Division 2 with a new character and game. After getting the platinums for both Dead Cells and Doom, I'm looking for something a little less taxing. Blasphemous will probably be the next game I dive into, so I'm hesitant to start up anything else. Maybe Blazing Chrome, but I'm not sure how goddamn hard that is.

Blasphemous looks mega-rad. Can't wait to play it. Seems like forever ago it was on the cusp of release.

Hey I'm also stoked as hell for Blasphemous! Gameplay looks good and brutal and visually it looks like some of the best pixel art I've seen recently. From From the trailers and gameplay footage it looks like as if Salt & Sanctuary leaned more towards Castlevania than Dark Souls. Damn, I am just so on board with this new wave of awesome Metroidvanias. And Sept. 10th is right around the corner!

Speaking of which, I'm almost done Hollow Knight! Well, at least I think so. I just have two more Dreamers to go and then that's it. I've started peeking at guides and stuff to go back and get items and upgrades I've missed AND I haven't touched any of the bonus content, so yeah, still a bit of a ways I guess. But holy sweet jesus this game is just as amazing as everyone led me to believe. Perfect balance of deep but accessible gameplay and I just love how much the game steadily expands and expands from the beginning. It actually boggles my mind a bit thinking about how big it is. Anyway, glad I can finally talk about this game with you all! Bring on Silksong!

Control is fucking amazing so far. Third-person metroidvania in a giant, shifting building, with a strange, Stephen King–influenced paranormal-sci-fi story. Remedy and Sam Lake do not let me down.

How's the combat in Control? I keep hearing about the visuals, but not about mechanics.

Remnant is a lot of fun. I haven't done any co-op yet though. I also picked up Metal Wolf Chaos XD, Devil May Cry 5 and God Eater 3.

Remnant is one I'm interested in and I'm not into Soulsborne-ish games. The allure of forming an adventuring party in a hellish post-apocalyptic nightmarescape, though, is very alluring.

How's the combat of that one feel?

I feel like I'm in Book of Eli with aliens.

Melee combat isn't anything to write home about. It's a solid 3rd person shooter. Enemies are interesting enough. Enemy placement is randomized. So you never get the same level twice. My only gripe is sneaking doesn't really work. The crouching mechanic doesn't stop enemies from detecting you.

I'm trying really hard to talk myself out of WoW Classic. I was way too addicted to that shit in high school but I don't have the time now.

I've been trying to clear up my backlog since March so I'm playing about 2-3 games a little bit each day.
Recently I started playing Neverwinter, and after some conflict between sticking to the character I've made or starting a new one, I'm almost hitting level cap. I think.
Finally got comfortable after figuring out a way to keep going through System Shock 2... then SHODAN reveals herself.
I've also started Shadow Tower on PS3 but I'm not sure if I'll be much into it.

Yea, leveling up in the forest will help to go back to Heide’s Tower. I did the same thing as you. I didn’t see the forest path and I died a shit ton of times against those overpowered knights. The fact that enemies respawn a limited amount of times in this game seems like a blessing and a curse.

It’s not gonna take much more hype than this to have me blowing money on this game.

One thing I really hate about DS2 so far is this influx of little kids who think it’s the funniest thing in the world to write “illusion ahead” on every wall and “message” all over the place. I don’t remember this shit from other Dark Souls experiences.

Yes, it is finally happening.

https://www.pcgamer.com/mount-and-blade ... ease-date/

If you want to cheese that a bit you can always just join the Covenant of Champions, grind the endlessly respawning enemies as needed, then leave.

That’s not a bad idea. I’ve heard it referred to as “hard mode”, but if it just respawns enemies forever it doesn’t sound as terrifying.

There are other aspects to it, like higher enemy damage/defenses and disabled co-op, but yeah I usually just jump in and out if I need to farm.

That's just the early access date. Who knows what shape it's going to be in. It might be another 7 years before it's finished at the rate Taleworlds is moving.

Scholar of the First Sin in the Company of Champions is brutal, dude. Hardest game of the series.

Lud&Zallen and Elana and her goon squad are pure insanity at max ng + company, i don't know if i can manage them without the red twinblade

Fume Knight on the other end is an absolute blast and one of the best bosses of the whole series, even my girlfriend was on the edge of her seat when i beat him. The appeal of dodging flames and an offensively large blade is universal

I'm on level 3 in Remnant. Solid, simple and fun. DS2, still not enjoying it. I'm currently at The Pursuer at the top of the tower.

Getting Astral Chain tomorrow, my first ever Platinum game (although I hear the studio is built from the ashes of the Okami studio, played that one through twice). Pretty damn good reviews so far!

Got to borrow Game Boy + Link’s Awakening DX from a friend in preparation for the remake. BotW was my first ever Zelda game and this game holds up remarkably well I must say. Did not get into the very first Zelda so much, but yeah now I’m hoping for more Zelda on the Switch. I never owned a Nintendo console other than original Game Boy way back when.

Started Dark Souls 3 a few weeks back, seems awesome as always. Got pretty burned out on From Software games there for a while after finally completing Sekiro - lovely game in many ways, but just too hard and stressful for me to call enjoyable through and through. DS1 and Bloodborne hit just the sweet spot for me personally.

Also playing Subnautica whenever my girlfriend joins the fun. Good and chill game good to play as a couple like No Man’s Sky also was, but it has a pretty big lack of polish that I personally find hard to look past (also the PS4 port is ROUGH, man). The survival genre ultimately may not be for me exactly, but the element of discovering things on your own is very strong in this game.

Ghostbusters: TVG Remastered drops on October 4. SQUEEEEEEEE

Y'all ever have a game for years without getting into it then suddenly you can't get enough? That's me and Enter the Gungeon right now. I literally, today, for the first time, made it to the 3rd chamber. I'm obviously terrible at the game but it's just so satisfying! The simple act of flipping a table or watching The Hunter spin her revolver brings me such joy.

I don't really know much of the games secrets yet. Other than I unlocked the Oubliette from Chamber I and then got bodied. I love getting new weapons and I'm hoping to get some synergies(??) poppin' soon.

Ionno man. The game is just too cute. I got a Vertebraek-47 today. An AK made from someone's spine....

I don’t know how I feel about this. I didn’t hate the game, but I didn’t love it either. I’m a huge Ghostbusters slappy and while they got the proton pack sound down perfect the rest of the game was a little lackluster to me. I felt like Bill Murray specifically phoned in his lines.

I think my problem was that it was too linear. Ghostbusters really feels a game that could’ve really utilized a sandbox style game with you getting phone calls at HQ to go out and bust ghosts. Real open world style. I think I’d be more excited for that.

Link's Awakening and Majora's Mask were my favorite titles in the franchise. Games where they broke free of the standard "Gannon takes Zelda, Link defeats Gannon" storyline tended to be the most creative and enjoyable for me. Link's Awakening is fun, charming, dark, and haunting in equal measure.

I'm really digging Fell's Seal, strategy RPG very much indebted to FFT. Nothing will ever beat FFT for me, but it's a solid experience so far.

Link's Awakening is a masterpiece and still after all these years the best handheld game in the series. I love the Oracle games, Minnish Cap's a blast, you could make an argument for A Link Between Worlds, but at the end of the day there's just something magical about Awakening that's never been recaptured. I can't wait for the remake. The toy-like graphical direction might not have been my first choice, but eh, it'll be amazing to play that game on Switch.

And in current news - I'm still playing Hollow Knight and I just beat Nightmare King Grimm! Holy crud, that was a doozy. Far and away the hardest boss in the game so far and if they get any harder (haven't done any of the Godmaster dlc and don't even know what it is, plus still haven't gotten enough Essence to do the White Palace and don't know anything about what that is either) then I don't think I can handle them. Gotta say once I figured out all his patterns, it was an epic boss fight and I felt satisfied as heck when I finally beat it.

Spent some time with Astral Chain. An absolute must for fans of 3rd person action, and I'm just going to have to put Dark Souls 3 on hold for now. The style is pleasingly over the top in that futuristic anime way but also feels like a fresh and very fun take on it. Love the crazy Legion+chain combat moves and every hit just connects in that way I love when video games do. Platinum games are decidedly for me it turns out, and from what I've read this is their biggest game yet on a production level (which is maybe why it's the first one they've put out in a while).

On the commute, Into the Breach is currently my jam on the Switch. Probably one of the top 5 games I've played on the system, it's the really the console that has finally turned me on to some turned-based stuff such as Mario + Rabbids and SteamWorld Heist. ItB is the best one yet though. Maaaaybe getting Final Fantasy 8 Remaster for commute play later, would be fun to revisit after 12 years. I did play through FF9 this spring, still good but maybe hasn't aged as well as I'd hoped (goddamn it's slow, and fast forward function only helps so much).

NKG seems to be in everyone's top two hardest. I still have him and Godhome finish.

Hell yeah! Been playing this also, it's so good.

Just saw that South Park: The Fractured But Whole is on sale until Sept. 10. Is it worth buying? The Stick of Truth was fun and I got it on sale about a year ago. Does the second game hold up?

It really is amazing how much the game does with the limitations of the Game Boy. Great music, dungeon puzzles are clever but not obtuse, sword and shield feel good to use and yeah the atmosphere really is something different and weird. Mario crossover stuff really throw you for a loop.

Just announced in the latest Nintendo Direct, finally SNES games on the Switch! Getting to A Link to the Past right after this one.

I'll also add to the chorus of Hollow Knight being stunning in every way. I only completed the "simple" ending a year ago, the one that gave me the credits and all. That boss did push me past the point of enjoying the game and I hear the's stuff after that that's even more brutal. Nah, I'm good - what a journey getting there though and I'll definitely revisit the game at some point in the future.

This Remnant: From the Ashes game is real good, but holy shit do I ever feel overwhelmed at times in the “dungeons”.

The Fractured But Whole is a much more polished and refined JRPG than Stick of Truth was, but I definitely miss the oodles and oodles of wacky weapons and armor, and the de-emphasis of timed button presses is a bit of a bummer. But your attacks have incredible amounts of versatility in their utility and mix-and-match potential, and the superhero costuming is a lot of fun. I inevitably made a blaster mage superhero with silly thunder-themed armor and a cute little golden circlet and a robber mask.

The story is incredibly fun as well. Just like Stick of Truth, it's joke after joke with fan-pleasing call-backs around every corner. A certain deranged con artist returns as the central antagonist, and I was ecstatic to see him return. And the DLC chapters are really funny, too, but not worth more than $3 a pop since they're relatively short.

But if you enjoyed Stick of Truth, The Fractured But Whole is a no-brainer. And it's on sale. Get it immediately.

Has anyone played Enderal: Forgotten Stories? It is a massive Skyrim total-conversion mod that essentially turns it into a whole different game set in a different world. The leveling and skill increase mechanics are completely different. The gameplay is also harder than Skyrim, being that different parts of the game world are higher level and enemies will oneshot you if you aren't careful. Hell, I'm level 65 and I still find enemies that can kill me quickly - but I focused my attribute increases on Mana instead of Health.