general gaming

[river veldt]

well

[slim thorn]

corn rows!

[river veldt]

James Franco is a creep irl so i guess it works

[slim thorn]

so, for perspective, when people describe comics as "growing up" in the bronze and especially dark ages, they mean relative to this silver silliness

[fresh bane]

I can imagine yeah, I feel like that gives it way more context

Suddenly 60s Batman makes sense now

[river veldt]

Ixrec what are the best one off Spidey comics, something like Year One or the Long Halloween ? or does Spider-Man not have anything like that

[slim thorn]

Watchmen, The Killing Joke and The Dark Knight Rises were not the first grimdark superhero deconstructions (the earliest I've personally read was Moore's Miracleman), but they were by far the most influential

[slim thorn]

Superior Spider-Man and Kraven's Last Hunt are some of the standard answers

[fresh bane]

Ooooh I saw Kraven's Last Hunt at the convention I was like a week ago

I wanted to pick it up but I picked up a different book instead

I don't know if you were there when I discussed that little Spidey anniversary collection

[slim thorn]

Kraven's Last Hunt was late 80's, incidentally, and the writing is indeed very bronze age

[fresh bane]

I ended up picking a book called Revelations which is || after Morlun?'s fight with Spidey when Aunt May finds out Peter is Spiderman ||

It was very good

[river veldt]

epic

[fresh bane]

oh

I have one actually

Spiderman Blue

[slim thorn]

oh yeah, I read that

I'll endorse that, especially if you don't plan on reading the whole silver age era that it's recapping

[fresh bane]

The Night Gwen Stacy died isn't necessarily a one off but it's still a very very popular pick

Spiderman No More maybe too

[slim thorn]

the Gwen Stacy thing is a historic turning point, but I don't think that arc by itself carries much weight when taken out of the few-hundred issues run that it's a part of

(at least, it certainly didn't when I read it )

[fresh bane]

Yeah I did read it by itself and it didn't do much for me

probably works best within the context at the time

As in, it carries more weight when you've been reading and following Spidey at the time and then suddenly that happens

I've always been more interested and I have been planning on looking towards reading some of Peter and MJ's earlier stories after Gwen dies, when they meet and they build up their relationship

I feel like that's an era of both of them I've never seen before

[slim thorn]

in proper context it was probably more like Ned Stark's execution, a real "wait, no, you can't just kill a character like that, it's against the rules! ...right? "

[river veldt]

Superior is the one where Doc Ock takes over Spidey’s body yes?

[slim thorn]

yes

[river veldt]

is it good

[fresh bane]

I've seen people who hate Dan Slott say it's his best work

Dan Slott is the writer

[slim thorn]

yes I loved Superior

[fresh bane]

Oh I recently have been loking into maybe reading some Wolverine stuff?

Last night I was sketching some Logans because he's fun to draw and I kinda thought to myself outside the X Men movies I kinda don't know anything about the guy

So I might look into reading some of Wolverine's essential stories and maybe also Laura afterwards? She's cool

Slightly relevant since || Logan is the first one to notice something is weird about Peter during the Superior Spider-Man arc, his smell is the same I think but Logan knows Peter enough that he immediately notices something is weird about him whereas others don't notice anything at all ||

[slim thorn]

Wolverine and the X-Men in general I've read a decent amount of but nowhere near enough to be able to make up my own mind on recommendations, just "everyone recs X and yeah X was good"

e.g. everyone knows the Brood Saga was good you don't need me to tell you that

[river veldt]

i am brooding

what is he Batman lmao gotem

[slim thorn]

why is Batman

bat crashes through window

[fresh bane]

You're going to pay for that?

[slim thorn]

"I shall become a milkman!" #deepcut

[fresh bane]

Imagine if a pigeon flew into the window that night instead of a bat

[river veldt]

i dont get it

[fresh bane]

''Yes father, I shall become a pidgeon''

[slim thorn]

(I would be surprised if anyone here knew what I was referencing)

[astral field]

Oh wow, requiring realistic proportions. Liefeld would have been out of a job if he had to abide by those.

[slim thorn]

<insert feet joke>

[fresh bane]

Well thankfully for him the rule only applies to females

[slim thorn]

if we really compare the comics Liefeld worked on to the CCA rules, I think he'd have much more trouble with things like "If crime is depicted, it shall be as a sordid and unpleasant activity." and "In every instance good shall triumph over evil and the criminal [shall be] punished for his misdeeds." and so on

you know, the rules that outlaw the entire Dark Age

[fresh bane]

Man

those people really know how to suck the fun out of everything huh

It's mostly parents too I've noticed

[slim thorn]

granted 90's comics often went for an equally hilarious and absurd extreme of edgy darkness

[fresh bane]

that's what happens when you over-correct to the other extreme from one extreme

[slim thorn]

I'm so glad we got Cable in a movie adaptation, and half of it was Deadpool mocking how overserious he was

that whole bit has extra layers for people who know the industry trends

[river veldt]

have you guys watched that Killing Joke video that Hbomberguy made

[fresh bane]

Sounds familiar but I can't pinpoint exactly

[slim thorn]

nope

[fresh bane]

it's the perfect foil

[river veldt]

it's good
https://youtu.be/4xRDiUD1a8c

[slim thorn]

even in the comics, one of the best books for either character is unironically Cable & Deadpool (2004-)

[fresh bane]

[river veldt]

2004 to what?

[slim thorn]

I only checked the start year lol

[fresh bane]

2004 to infinity

[slim thorn]

apparently 2004-8 but whatever

[fresh bane]

2004-2008

yeah

50 issues

Not.... that long

[river veldt]

2008 more like 2000 and late lmao

[slim thorn]

and now I'm remembering Deadpool & Thanos

[river veldt]

what

[slim thorn]

(it's as dumb as it sounds, usually in a good way)

[river veldt]

do they kiss

[slim thorn]

no

[river veldt]

oh

do Deadpool and Death kiss

[slim thorn]

I feel like that might've happened but I'm not sure

[fresh bane]

This reminds me of a youtube short I watched about how dumb Thanos was in the movies and people in the comments saying that adapting his plot where he just simps for Death and wants to impress her would've been better than trying to make him good somehow

[slim thorn]

"dumb" is a very... contextual term when we're dealing with wacky metaphysical stories like Starlin's cosmic Marvel stuff

stories like Infinity Gauntlet very fundamentally rely on the villain not wanting to take the effortless win when it would've been effortless

[fresh bane]

Well mostly how the whole kill off half the universe due to dwindling resources is kind of... well dumb
especially when you have such a powerful thing like the infinity gauntlet with the stones which can literally just completely rewrite reality

[slim thorn]

at the risk of sounding like a broken record

Thanos is often written as a high INT low WIS character

he's so terrifyingly clever and powerful he really could wipe out most of the good guys in most stories, and half the time his problem isn't losing a battle, but not understanding what he really wants, or wanting what's fundamentally impossible

[river veldt]

what about the Thanoscopter

[slim thorn]

I believe that was unique to Deadpool Roasts The Marvel Universe

because that's what Deadpool does when he gets the Gauntlet

[river veldt]

why wasn't the Thanoscopter in the movies

it was in Loki

LOKI

[slim thorn]

Loki was amazing for comic references

I still can't get over the Throg cameo

[river veldt]

is that Thor frog

froggo

old Loki has comic Loki's costume right

[slim thorn]

yeah

[river veldt]

e🅱️ic

[slim thorn]

classic comic Loki at least

[river veldt]

yeah

[fresh bane]

I will admit I don't know much about THanos so I don't wanna get into the discussion but the arguments I heard against his motivation for the movies convinced me that it really wasn't as good as people made it out to be

[river veldt]

Ixrec have you read the Doom comic

[slim thorn]

no

[river veldt]

omg

it's only 16 pages but it's worth a read
https://www.doomworld.com/10years/doomcomic/comic.php

[slim thorn]

well "good" is subjective; of course it's not factually the best way to make life in the universe healthily sustainable, but what mattered to me was that it was believable, and just logical enough that him getting followers was also believable

[river veldt]

oh right i guess gore warning but it's Doom gore so it's pretty cartoony

[slim thorn]

I think a lot of the people who have this complaint about movie Thanos would have similar reactions to the relevant comics

[river veldt]

could I read the original Infinity Gauntlet without reading any prior comics

[slim thorn]

(and it's a reasonable reaction, cosmic Marvel ain't for everyone)

yes

but if you do, be sure to read Infinity War (1992) afterward, that's better than Infinity Gauntlet (1991) but does require reading Gauntlet first

[fresh bane]

https://youtube.com/shorts/THXAPyHplAc?feature=share

I found the video lol

[river veldt]

epic

[fresh bane]

It does have a more humorous approach I feel but yeah

[river veldt]

i assume ||Thanos wins in Gauntlet and War is the heroes trying to reverse it or is it different||

[slim thorn]

not even a little close

[river veldt]

ooooh

intrigue!

[slim thorn]

^

[river veldt]

right right

[fresh bane]

Yeah I remember reading a bit of the original infinity war or guantlet story and it's completely different

[slim thorn]

and batshit insane

[fresh bane]

and I would've loved to see it in the MCU

[river veldt]

ok this is off topic do you guys know that Lisa Simpson gif where she's in a Sherlock Holmes costume and she says "ooh mystery" or did i make that up?????

[fresh bane]

Look at this sillyness

[river veldt]

i do think i like classic Thanos' costume a little more

[slim thorn]

(to be clear, there's a bunch of comics set before Gauntlet, but it's a decent place to just jump in because e.g. how he got the gems really doesn't matter once he's got them)

reminisces about all the other great Thanos books

[river veldt]

thanos

snap!

[young creek]

I am inevitable

[slim thorn]

the 90's Infinity Gauntlet + War + Crusade trilogy was the first Thanos story I'd say was genuinely really good, rather than "good for its time but-"; after that his best stuff is the Thanos (2016-8) solo comic, and his role in the Hickman's Avengers saga

[river veldt]

he has a solo comic?

[slim thorn]

my personal single favorite arc would probably be "Thanos Wins"

yep: https://www.marvel.com/comics/series/22653/thanos_2016_-_2018

[river veldt]

what's it about

[fresh bane]

I'd imagine it's about Thanos /s

[gaunt marten]

What about the comics where Thanos shows up at one dude's birthday every birthday, ruins his life and leaves?

[slim thorn]

that changes over time but at the start its Thanos trying to figure out wtf to do with himself after realizing he's gotten stuck in a rut of repeatedly trying and either failing to conquer the universe or not being happy when he technically succeeded briefly

[river veldt]

aww

midlife crisis

[slim thorn]

it really is

[river veldt]

i'll give it a read

i really like Thanos he might be my ffavourite Marvel villain

[rancid herald]

thanos was a great villain, full of weight

[slim thorn]

Thanos has really good luck with comics; nearly every appearance is at least decent, seemingly no one trots him out for the truly lazy and mediocre stories

which is my excuse for having read literally every Marvel comic in which Thanos appears

(a feat not possible for most of the famous characters)

[green fulcrum]

Currently watching a FF9 let's play. I also forgot that Kuja is literally wearing a thong in full view. Man, the animators made his hips, thighs, and abs very detailed.

[river veldt]

oh right this is the gaming channel

[slim thorn]

I was wondering when someone would notice

[river veldt]

are the solo comics collected in an omnibus or will i have to buy them individually

[rancid herald]

those animators are doing god's work and I won't hear a word saying otherwise

[slim thorn]

oh, I read all this with Marvel Unlimited so collected editions weren't an issue

[river veldt]

well

to Amazon i go

[slim thorn]

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thanos-Vol-Returns-2016-2018-ebook/dp/B0716Q4BN2 yeah it's got your standard collected editions

[green fulcrum]

Lol, I tried to send a picture of Kuja, and Clyde was like NOPE!

[rancid herald]

never buy individual comics

[river veldt]

epic!

i'll give it a read sometime

also yeah what about that comic where Thanos ruins that one guys birthday

[slim thorn]

if you do want to try the 90's Infinity Gauntlet/War/Crusada saga, then read that first, since this solo comic is set after it and in many ways is a reaction to it (as you may have inferred from stuff I said above)

[river veldt]

epic

[slim thorn]

I believe that's in a random anthology I forgot the name of; it's amusing to mention its existence but not that special to read

[river veldt]

wtf is this

[slim thorn]

probably more than you want to read lol

Collecting: Silver Surfer (1987) 34-38, 40, 44-60; Thanos Quest (1990) 1-2; Infinity Gauntlet 1-6; Cloak & Dagger (1988) 18; Spider-Man (1990) 17; Incredible Hulk (1968) 383-385; Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme (1988) 31-36; Quasar (1989) 26-27; Sleepwalker (1991) 7
oh yeah you don't need ALL the tie-ins

[gaunt marten]

There's no other way to read

[slim thorn]

I mean if you want to go for it but what I'm recommending is just the Gauntlet/War/Crusade miniseries-es

[river veldt]

oh ok

[slim thorn]

this was technically a crossover event

[river veldt]

can you tell i dont buy comics that often

[slim thorn]

but IMO it's better read as a Thanos villain protag story without any of that tie-in stuff

(there are other events where the seemingly endless tie-ins are the best part, see me rambling about the Bendis Avengers era)

[fresh bane]

it's not your fault

it's just complicated

[slim thorn]

it's a lot simpler than it seems at first glance, but they also do make it much less clear than it needs to be

and if it wasn't clear, for Marvel comics, the best value for money will always be get a Marvel Unlimited subscription; even if you cancel it after a month you can easily read several hundred books in that time

[gaunt marten]

Can I download them and read them later?

[slim thorn]

yep, the MU app has download for offline reading

[river veldt]

is this legit

[slim thorn]

(back when I regularly used it it was glitchy but functional)

yes it's 100% legit

like a Netflix or a D+, just for comics instead of TV

[gaunt marten]

Yes but can I read them after the subscription lapses?

[slim thorn]

ah, no

[gaunt marten]

Because with the amount of time I have reading I can read like five pages a month

[rancid herald]

I always find comics super short myself

[slim thorn]

well in that case comics are out of the question anyway

[river veldt]

is Thanos cool

[slim thorn]

Thanos is whatever you want him to be

[river veldt]

:0

Thanos is my dad?????

[arctic fern]

my thanos is hot

[river veldt]

fucking autocorrect

[arctic fern]

sorry i meant thermos

[slim thorn]

thane wasn't bad either

[river veldt]

is Thanos a good dad in the comics

[slim thorn]

no

duh

[river veldt]

oh

are you sure

[slim thorn]

there's a long answer but it'd all be gibberish anyway until you read the relevant comics

[river veldt]

Ixrec please answer the Thanos birthday question

[slim thorn]

I... already did?

[gaunt marten]

Thanos is supposed to be evil so he can't be your dad

[river veldt]

did you

[fresh bane]

|| Am I not Thanos! Did I not butcher the woman who gave me birth, who force-fed me into this hell called life?! Is not the wake of my passing crimson with the blood of my enemies and allies alike?! Death is with me every second of the day! My every moment is spent in either dealing out death or worshiping it! So tell me, who under the stars is better suited than I to be Death's consort? ||

can you imagine that Thanos dialogue on the MCU?

metal

[green fulcrum]

OW, the edge.

[river veldt]

could Doomguy beat Thanos in a fight

just to bring it back to gaming

[green fulcrum]

Ehhhh, it depends. If Thanos has the gauntlet and all the stones, hell no, Thanos is beating the shit out of Doomguy. But in a one-on-one fight without the Infinity Stones, or even with just a few of them, Doomguy is gonna mop the floor with Thanos.

[river veldt]

you what?????

[green fulcrum]

Pressed enter prematurely, lol

[fresh bane]

I always find these conversations about ''can X character beat Y character'' funny

[slim thorn]

by standard comic power levels, Thanos probably still wins even without the shiny rocks, but it's always hard to compare across franchises

[river veldt]

it's fun

[slim thorn]

eeeeeeh

[fresh bane]

Knock yourself out, I just find them funny and dumb sometimes, especially when you see people talking about stuff like ''Can Kratos defeat all of Fromsoft characters?''

[river veldt]

can he?????

[slim thorn]

like, it can be fun, but 90% of the people who ask these questions are not capable of having a decent conversation about the subject

[green fulcrum]

Actually, this might be an even fight.

[river veldt]

ok

[slim thorn]

e.g. if we really want to have a Thanos vs Doomguy talk

[river veldt]

i dont want to anymore it's fine

[slim thorn]

I wanna hear from the Doom lore expert how much punishment from physical and arcane damage we know the Praetor suit can take

Doomguy's main issue against Thanos would likely be that most of his damage dealing is ultimately normal-ish firearms and fisticuffs, which Thanos can do but he's also got energy beams that demolish most other sci-fi shielding in his native universe

[fresh bane]

The Praetor suit does have some enhancements through Argent energy stuff and weird ancient relics and runes and demon magic stuff

But honestly arguing about this kinda stuff is about as hard as arguing who wins between a samurai and a knight

[slim thorn]

Thanos is also not above winning with "cheap" but effective moves, e.g. flying out of Doomguy's melee range and easily deflecting any rockets he fires

[green fulcrum]

Can he deflect the BFG though?

[slim thorn]

it's possible the Praetor Suit can take anything he has on him, but that brings us to Thanos' second advantage: like Iron Man he's also a tech wizard that can and regularly does upgrade and reinvent all his gadgets, so if he didn't have a weapon that could kill Doomguy he'd just make one

[fresh bane]

Or just show up on his starship and disintegrate Doomguy with a blast

[slim thorn]

ah, the BFG he'd probably have to teleport away from, but it gives plenty of warning

I am reminded of the comic where Hulk (who is ludicrously OP in the comics) ends up in Thanos' way and even Thanos goes "nah, even for me fighting head-on would be a pain, I'll just sit here and wait him out"

[river veldt]

did you read the funny Doom comic yet Ix

[slim thorn]

nope

[river veldt]

you shoukd

it's really short

[fresh bane]

Hulk is like one of the strongest characters in all of Marvel in the comics right?

He's like stupid OP

[slim thorn]

yep

I've recommended Planet Hulk before, right?

it's telling that his best story is when they gave him a whole planet to mess up away from all that annoying shared continuity with the other heroes

(though Immortal Hulk might be challenging that, it was still coming out back when I actively read comics so I dunno if it stuck the landing)

[fresh bane]

You haven't recommended it to me personally but it is the one I hear about all the time and one of the most recommended ones

[hushed onyx]

I mean, that’s like asking who would win between a knight and a knight, or a samurai and a samurai

[slim thorn]

the knight doing fat rolls loses

[hushed onyx]

Not to mention that both were around for hundreds of years, a samurai cop from 1830s Edo is just really different from a general from the Genpei War is different from a foot soldier in the Sengoku period…

The same is even more radically true of knights because the title is actually still in use

I mean, Bill Gates is technically a knight, but if he’s beating anyone it’s probably going to be by throwing money at them!

[fresh bane]

Yeah exactly

and just so we don't forget this is the gaming channel

https://youtu.be/n5KgrYz_dzE

Hi Fi Rush is literal perfection everyone buy it now
I'm totally not being payed by Tango Gameworks to say this

[random steppe]

If you are looking for a action rhythm game hybrid, there is definitely nothing better than this on the market.

And it is pretty high up even just as an action game

[dense crypt]

no straight roads would have been it if it actually had REAL rhythm to the gameplay outside of boss attacks.

[fresh bane]

Ocelot canon in Marvel universe?

[thorny loom]

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/84329?tab=description

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj82By7SY8c

[rancid herald]

ooof, wild hearts is at 32% on steam

[quiet swift]

Yeah it's almost exclusively due to performance issues too

[random steppe]

Assuming the fix is as easy as they said it would be, it should be possible to turn it around.
Personally I need to see the patch to believe that

[solid pulsar]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJl8ADpJQtE

[visual hill]

that's still the most expensive videogame I've bought

[young creek]

worth every penny

[visual hill]

worth every pony*

[fresh bane]

[chilly mural]

[hushed onyx]

[quiet swift]

https://www.gamesradar.com/the-day-before-community-is-somehow-even-more-confused-after-watching-its-new-dev-vlog/

[rough sleet]

so they realised requirements for KSP2 and their discord server is now in havoc, lol

[quiet swift]

Finally got around to trying it with my fiancée. Yeah, I can see why people complaining. It's unacceptably bad given our rigs. Is it "literally unplayable"? Nah, just feels like bullet time in some instances rather than framerate being choppy? It's 'playable' but not a good experience. Def gonna wait for the patch. Since I got it free for us it's not a big loss

[random steppe]

Yeah and if reports are to be believed, later zones get worse

Probably they are bigger and are more demanding

Or maybe they had less time to optimise them

Fingers crossed for the patch

[quiet swift]

Based on what I played (up to getting the blacksmith), it was pretty fun performance aside

[random steppe]

Yeah from what I've seen the game seems above the average entry in the genre

Not quite MH level, but MH had like 20 games to refine their formula

This seems to be very high quality and adds fresh elements to it, which is like, above expectations

[quiet swift]

Basically what i've seen/heard

[slim thorn]

#DiscoElysium: okay, I give up, what is a "green orb"?

[river veldt]

an orb that is green /j

[thorny loom]

was about to say

[slim thorn]

I feel like I might be doing something wrong here

[wind stump]

Huh, the new update to Branch of Legend added some dialogue to the first act boss at least.

[dense crypt]

marisa stole it, cuz she steals the precious things

[slim thorn]

pffff did I just make progress in this case thanks to ||the racist mug we found in the trash||

[wind stump]

If only, lmao

[slim thorn]

[wind stump]

... this feels like something i would write

like the definition of Noodle Incident just to fuck with people

[gaunt marten]

In regards to the war thunder situation:

https://orteil42.tumblr.com/post/707922240418840576/please-stop-leaking-confidential-cookie

[quiet swift]

@random steppe https://www.reddit.com/r/WildHeartsGame/comments/114brjc/psa_fps_fix/ gonna try these

[random steppe]

Basically turn your audio settings in game to 5.1 and 7.1.

Something very weird is happening in that game

[gaunt marten]

Why would that make FPS better? It's more processing load

[random steppe]

It appeases the gods my best guess is

[thorny loom]

https://www.tweaktown.com/news/90383/saints-row-sales-bomb-has-changed-how-embracer-greenlights-new-projects/index.html

Saints row reboot is officially a financial flop

[dense crypt]

i dont even know what the game is like all i know is the characters look like they spew cringe one liners and had probably never touched a firearm or gotten into a n actual fight before the game started

[thorny loom]

You remember how rockstar tried making gta 4 super serious and realistic?

Its like that

[dense crypt]

they did? never played it either

[thorny loom]

You should. Its a good game

[dense crypt]

i've heard it is but idk if i'd ever get around to it

[thorny loom]

But rockstar knew people liked the goofiness of san andreas more so they brought some of it back in gta 5

[sour hill]

Jfc

[quiet swift]

So I tried all three steps and it's like night and day. Still not perfect mind you but it's so much better. I'd forgotten to save after the first ragetail so I did all that fight again. So much smoother.

[slim thorn]

[visual hill]

sometimes, minimum requirements are intentionally raised to avoid people with potato PCs raising too many support questions. It's about setting expectations

it's a bit like Returnal's 32 GB of RAM thing

[slim thorn]

I am so curious what I just avoided here

[dense crypt]

||you outsmarted the bullet.||

[slim thorn]

omg all that geeking out about old war stories and tech with the random guy playing marbles finally paid off!

...how the horseapples did I fail that roll

there we go

[fresh bane]

https://youtu.be/A2xkR27zx8A

woah

[fresh bane]

You can totally fail rolls with high percentages

and succeed in rolls with like, 3% or something

[slim thorn]

yeah, the overlay always says that a nat 1 fails and nat 12 wins no matter what, so the odds are always 3% - 97%

...wtf I just got a 3% check

I was just being a completionist there, this doesn't even matter yet lol

[gaunt marten]

Nice work

[slim thorn]

ok it didn't do anything anyway

[gaunt marten]

That's what makes it a challenge

[visual hill]

I feel bad for the people who worked on it

[slim thorn]

so back on the main quest... do I really have no choice but to save scum this 8% Authority check on Titus? it took three sidequest bonuses just to get it above 3%, and Authority can't be upgraded any more

so far it seems like first skill check in this game was the only one where failure is a non-blocking outcome

[slim thorn]

[gaunt marten]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/294100/view/3635003893225166041?l=english

https://i.imgur.com/Xe2n01y.png

Only affects Europe, Israel and the UK

[slim thorn]

"I have to say -- this is not disco."
pfff

[slim thorn]

okay, I think I've done literally every sidequest that can help break through this skill check, I feel zero shame save scumming it now

[gaunt marten]

You should savescum first then do sidequests later

[slim thorn]

hm?

[gaunt marten]

Savescumming is fun so you should do it early when your odds are lower

[slim thorn]

even with these odds it's not fun lol

seventh time's the charm, geez

[gaunt marten]

At 42% you should expect to do savescum once to thrice, not seven times

[slim thorn]

yep

[fresh bane]

It does say godly there

Did you go with particularly more authority yourself?

Because if you didn't really go for much authority then yeah it makes sense, and also it also makes sense that you won't make every single check in the game and you will fail some here and there

Fortunately in Disco Elysium you always fail up, even if you fail checks the plot and story keep going

[slim thorn]

right, that's only a problem because this one is apparently mandatory

[fresh bane]

If you fail a mandatory check it doesn't mean failure in the sense that stuff doesn't keep moving

The only true 'mandatory' checks are red ones, white ones are the ones you can always come back to try again

[slim thorn]

that's not what I mean by mandatory, I'm taking about advancing the main quest

also you can't come back to white ones if you're already at the cap for that skill, like in this case

(or if you run out of other exp-gaining stuff to do, as I very nearly did on the last bottleneck)

[gaunt marten]

Memories of me playing Divinity Original Sin 2 and going through every chest hoping for scraps of money and experience

[slim thorn]

I am literally recycling bottles for pennies

[gaunt marten]

Don't forget to savescum pickpocketing everyone then figuring out which people you can kill without impacting the story

[slim thorn]

well, not any more, I ran out of bottles

you're talking about Divinity right?

[gaunt marten]

Yeah

I only played a couple of hours of Disco Elysium but it felt similar

[slim thorn]

okay, cool, in Planescape I had those options and in one case (on a temporary save) I did kill a random nameless NPC because I had good reason to think it'd go somewhere interesting (and it did)

DE is a CRPG in many ways but it doesn't have a "combat system" in the traditional sense, there's no press this button and click to attack/pickpocket/cast meteor on any random character in the game

[gaunt marten]

Divinity Original Sin 2 had the problem of combat draining you of resources, so you wanted to farm every bit of experience you could get off-combat

To minimize the loss of resources during combat

They rebalanced things a bit with definitive edition so these strategies became less necessary

[slim thorn]

ah, in Planescape I avoided combat not for any mechanical reason but because for me it's more fun to find the diplomatic solutions to quests, and that game almost always had one (and because the writing is the whole appeal of that game)

[gaunt marten]

In Divinity there are many encounters where combat or stealth are the only way through

[fresh bane]

I forgot this was a necessary one to advance

you can always take some drugs

[slim thorn]

there are drugs that increase authority? everything I've found so far heals health or morale

wait

[fresh bane]

Smoking +1 intellect
Pyrholidon +1 Psyche
Alcohol +1 physique
Amphetamines +1 motorics

[slim thorn]

ooooh this boosts my psyche base stat

[fresh bane]

yea

[slim thorn]

okay that might've bumped it to a 50-something

though even if it was 97% I'd need to quicksave in case of unlikely failure that can't otherwise be retried

[fresh bane]

of course drugs not only damage you in different ways but also Kim will be very disappointed in you

which hurts the most

[dense crypt]

i should try this game out sometime

[slim thorn]

yeah, that really does hurt the most

[dense crypt]

something about getting the perfect outcome in dialogue always makes me happy

[fresh bane]

Imagine getting approached by a cop and he asks you some questions and you refuse to answer until he snorts some coke really quick in front of you and asks the same thing and now you feel compelled to talk

although I guess he's more of a detective than a cop

[slim thorn]

he has many copotypes

[mossy flume]

That ratio seems mildly implausible

[gaunt marten]

The ratio only counts players who launch the game

Usually this indicates a bug in the achievement that gives it too early

[slim thorn]

I appreciate that the stat boosts on clothing encourage you to dress in the most schizophrenic manner possible

[fresh bane]

''What are you wearing?''

''It's my case-solving outfit, bitch!''

[mossy flume]

The day 3 patch seems to have introduced a crashing bug, so that's unfortunate

[slim thorn]

I unironically switched glasses before doing that "godly" Authority check earlier

[mossy flume]

In a game that's meant to have uninterrupted sessions, crashing is the last thing you want

[green fulcrum]

@slim thorn How is Planescape as a game compared to other CRPGs, actually? And is it fantasy-themed or sci-fi?

[slim thorn]

it’s one of those early 90’s CRPGs where the mechanics and setting are straight-up D&D

[fresh bane]

https://youtu.be/39TP4YZHf3M

Important NPC like 2 sessions ago: ''Yeah, there's a client who has been harrassing other clients of mine, please convince him to stop, but don't do anything drastic that might call attention! (please don't fucking kill him)''

The party: [beats him up, cuts his arm off, throws an octopus on his chest and basically force him to leave and take up a new life under a new name]

great job guys....

[slim thorn]

the SF vs fantasy thing is hard to judge given the mishmashed setting of Sigil, but I’d say it’s still heavily in the fantasy direction overall

I’m not sure if that’s a complete enough answer on mechanics, but since I haven’t played any other CRPGs and mostly ignored the details even in this one, I doubt I could do better without a more specific question

oh, and for the Disco Elysium people: my current theory at the end of day 2 is that ||the merc committed suicide, then the Union made it look like they hanged him||

[fresh bane]

Interesting theory

what leads you to think that?

[green fulcrum]

Lol, welcome to Critical Role. The description of the story is all serious and epic, but the characters and players are all idiots.

[fresh bane]

NPC: ''I'm sorry, I remember how [x character] looked like but.. I don't know if that's who you're speaking of''

The entire party: Desesperately trying to communicate with this character to know if this NPC knows him, desesperately trying to describe him in detail or even draw him and show it to the NPC, entirely oblivious to the fact that at least 1 of them can totally just cast an illusion or just turn themselves into that character

[fresh bane]

To be fair this is all happening after a quite serious and impactful moment in the story of this party but yes 99% of the time they're all just lucky idiots

like when they try to intimidate someone or do something really cool and badass and bam

natural one

I've said it before but it always comes up, I just love how the party can do something incredibly stupid or try to do some weird shit and the DM just has to roll with it and can do nothing about it

[green fulcrum]

The whole campaign is basically homebrewed as F*CK.

It was so homebrewed that it became an official module

[fresh bane]

Multiple times at the beginning the entire party was incredibly curious about the shit people were reading, to the point where almost the entire party took a shot at asking an innkeeper what book she was reading and she got increasingly mad because of how ridiculous and weird they were being until one of them finally succeded, the book was ''Feathered Leather''

[unreal idol]

Finally I am free. Pack 58 of 60 and I finally get the alt art Knightmare Unicorn (blue card with yellow unicorn)

[dire gate]

Yay YMD

[unreal idol]

Exactly 1000 gems

A batch of 10 packs is 1000 gems and the best way to buy packs because of high rarity guarantees

[mossy flume]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l51UJqOsHzA

A nice video review that came out today.

[gaunt marten]

New Steam update:Added new feature that allows Steam users to copy existing Steam game installation and update files from one PC to another over a local area network, without having to download and install from a Steam content server on the internet. This reduces internet traffic and can speed up installs or updates.

Steam users have control over who files can be sent to: self only, friends only, or everyone. The default setting is self only.

More info about this new feature can be found here: https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/46BD-6BA8-B012-CE43```

[thorny loom]

https://www.pcgamer.com/pc-gamers-are-getting-fed-up-with-one-shitty-port-after-another/

[dire gate]

It's really astonishing how they shadow dropped literally one of the best switch games ever.

[mossy flume]

Or really one of the best Nintendo games ever. And better still, one of the best FPS games ever.

It is pretty nuts how it didn't leak beyond one guy insisting it was real

[dire gate]

Nintendo casually giving top tier games to switch, using metacritics score the platform got 97(BotW) 96(SMO) 95(MP1R) 93(SSBU) 92(Bayo2) 92(MK8D) 90(ACNH) 90(Bayo 1+2) from Nintendo

8 90+ games only counting Nintendo games

They really don't have to give a fuck to anything else as their own games are so good

But they do realized they have to support third parties, and Switch is also doing pretty well that part

[young creek]

I heard it wasnt much of an fps game since all combat is with lock on firing

never played it but was considering it cause everyone is loving it

I dont like fps games at all so hearing that was a big bonus

[dire gate]

It had to be a lock on firing because back in gamecube the control was kinda shit

[young creek]

well the reason why doesnt really matter

[dire gate]

Fortunately they fixed the control since they added dual-stick control

[young creek]

hm im a pro controller gamer

[slim thorn]

yes, >90% of the shooting in the Metroid Primes is done with lock-on

there's a handful of exceptions where an enemy can prevent lock on or if you're trying to clear out the poison grass it's easier to aim manually, but until Metroid Prime 3 that stuff is rare

[random steppe]

What is this article? They say it like it's a new thing, if anything the ports have gotten better

Not that they are good, but like...were they here in the early 2000s?

Playing almost any console port with a mouse was an ordeal

[gaunt marten]

That's pcgamer for you

A day late and a dollar short with every article

[mossy flume]

You can choose between classic, new dual-stick and hybrid classic + gyro if you’re so inclined with a pro controller in MP1R

But yeah if you’re not big on FPS you’ll like Prime, as it doesn’t play much like one

It’s often dubbed a first-person adventure game

[slim thorn]

[wind stump]

Speech: 100

[slim thorn]

well, obviously I have nowhere near enough evidence to rule out other stuff, but between ||the fatal shot being fired into his mouth, the Union feeling the need to cover up the real cause in order to take credit for it, the weapon being military-grade (and the other likely owners of such a weapon having no motive that we know of yet), and maybe it's just me but Klaasje's testimony made him sound just... sad||, all together feels like it's pointing in that direction

[uneven epoch]

hmmmmmmmmmm. ||into?||

[slim thorn]

[wind stump]

sus

[slim thorn]

[slim thorn]

now THAT is more like it

welp, not exactly a shock that I was dead wrong

[wind stump]

Question!
Can you save scum your rolls?

[slim thorn]

yes

(in fact my only real complaint with this game so far is that more than once I've been required to save scum a roll)

[sage iris]

I actually started doing it myself, but apparently failing a roll is just as equal and impactful of an outcome as succeeding and the story will move on regardless (you're encouraged to just go with what you get)

[slim thorn]

sometimes that's the case, but not always

oh god the voices in my head are gaslighting each other this is hilarious

[quiet swift]

https://www.pcgamesn.com/far-cry-6/free-pc-game-ubisoft? free from feb 16 to 20 and then a 70% discount for a while

[arctic fern]

i wouldnt pick it up even for that price

[slim thorn]

of all the low-percent red checks I could've won without any save scumming... it was the antique pinball game

[slim thorn]

...I found my car

and moralist pants

[young creek]

Do we have a release date for Kingdom of Latria: Vows of the Virtuous?

[wind stump]

Ixrec, Stealer of Pants

wait, wrong game

[quiet swift]

Make sure to chat with the nearby drunks

[wind stump]

You called?

[slim thorn]

oh I did

Tequila Sunrise by the Eagles has been playing in my head ever since

I've decided Tequila Sunset is how I will refer to my prior dangerously drunk incarnation from before the amnesia

[wind stump]

hahahahah

[quiet swift]

I mean, that's 100% fact

[slim thorn]

"-1 Kim's presence makes it awkward"

[hushed onyx]

I kind of want to play Mass Effect (not Andromeda), but I can't make up my mind what background/psychological profile I want to play as. I'm leaning away from Earthborn, and I definitely don't want to do a Sole Survivor (I feel that background isn't well-integrated into the plot), but I can't decided between War Hero/Ruthless or Colonist/Spacer (and Earthborn is still an option if someone can sell me on it)

[quiet swift]

Vegeta has your answer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkCd5hn3yrI

[hushed onyx]

Nah

I usually play Paragade, i.e. mostly Paragon but Renegade sometimes.

[quiet swift]

[untold vigil]

Spacer/WarHero is my Shep

[slim thorn]

[quiet swift]

[slim thorn]

why is it so funny that his name is Gary

[quiet swift]

I think you're past where I got to so i'll stop paying attention

[fresh bane]

[fresh bane]

there you go

[fresh bane]

well, turn it on and go for a ride

[fresh bane]

Pants!

I think after you find your car one of my all time favourite moments in the game with Kim happens but I can't remember if it's directly afterwards or not

[slim thorn]

there are so many things in that sequence that might be what you mean I don't even know what to guess

[fresh bane]

Okay I just checked it does happen during that entire finding your car sequence

It's the || whistling and sitting on the swings with Kim ||

[slim thorn]

ah

perhaps I should describe my thought process some more

oooh this must be the car whose tracks we found outside the Whirling
hm, is it really worth waiting an hour for low tide? oh, apparently I'm already locked into waiting, okay
I assume there's something in there worth waiting for, why bother putting a car wreck into the game otherwise
wouldn't it be funny if my badge and gun were in there
oh... oh fuck, it's my car

clicks "Kim, why do you put up with me?"
well... at least I found my badge, finally

[fresh bane]

:pippscream:

an appropriate reaction

and almost exactly the way Harry ends up reacting

[slim thorn]

Morale -1

ten minutes later

pants! Morale +1

[fresh bane]

Woo!

[slim thorn]

I think I got Morale -1'd again by... the drunks maybe?

[fresh bane]

See? it worked out in the end

You have a system

[slim thorn]

Tiago is so weird in a good way

[fresh bane]

Oh you've met the crab man

🦀

also I forgot to mention this earlier, since I'm watching that car finding moment again, probably the most surprising thing about finding out more about harry is that || Harry prior to this incident has been a pretty... successful detective and has been incredibly good at his job, even better than most people on his precinct entirely, especially with his low number of kills ||

[slim thorn]

ah, I got that from the clipboard on day 1

since then I've been under the impression he was ||an above average cop for a long time, then something specific happened that made him spiral out of control very quickly; everything I've found since seems to confirm that, and imply the "something specific" was a lost love interest||

[fresh bane]

Hmmmmm who knows

[slim thorn]

in-game it's nearly 23.00, so I figured I'd finish my initial sweep of the peninsula and then go to bed, but noooope I just found ||a second dead body!||

[fresh bane]

no rest for the wicked

get to work detective

|| that entire little side quest is quite sad, I think Kim allows you to bypass it completely and leave it to other cops but I find it valuable to do it anyways ||

also what day are you on?

[slim thorn]

3

[fresh bane]

Because a very big highlight of the game happens on day 3

did you already find a phone booth?

[slim thorn]

uh

oh yes I found it but had no reason to use it

[river veldt]

omg Harry and Kim meet the Doctor and go on an adventure????

[fresh bane]

Might wanna use it maybe and see what happens

Unless the game just doesn't let you

[slim thorn]

and now I have a reason to use the phone booth

[fresh bane]

[slim thorn]

...during daylight hours

[slim thorn]

okay that was odd

[fresh bane]

I don't wanna spoil it I'll just say one thing

keep calling

[slim thorn]

if you insist lol

Shivers is such a weird voice

[fresh bane]

shivers is great

I can't believe the game didn't use to have voice acting originally

[slim thorn]

Kim's probably worried about me standing still talking to myself in the middle of nowhere for 5+ minutes

again

(I equipped all of my Shivers-boosting clothing so I could try the Shivers check inside the church)

[gaunt marten]

Kim's worried about literally everything

[fresh bane]

Kim gets used to it

Kim watching you standing there talking to yourself is probably better than seeing you || punch a phone booth after repeatedly calling someone until your hand turns blue and starts bleeding ||

[slim thorn]

interesting, double-failure on the impossible Shivers check still gave me a hint

at least this time I had the option of failing it twice

...wait

||when Shivers speaks in all caps, that's our only female internal voice, isn't it? ||

[fresh bane]

Correct

you get... somewhat of an answer to that later on

it's quite fascinating

[slim thorn]

I know Kim is sleeping in a real hotel when I use this shack, but seeing him waiting for me every morning in that little mini-shack on the side looks so silly

[fresh bane]

and if you talk to him Harry doesn't go all the way around so you end up talking through that little divider there

rewatching that whole phone call moment and knowing the rest of the story kinda drives forward how important it is for the overall narrative for me
|| it's a little unsavory, and some people would rather not do it just to not be that guy, but considering all the stuff that happens afterwards and the end? I feel like it just makes Harry feel like he went through a massive development as a person ||

[slim thorn]

I'm gonna not click that one

[fresh bane]

not yet no

and by not yet I mean not until you finished the game

[slim thorn]

||"Teleport to the roof" -> 83%|| what the buck

[fresh bane]

Do it!

[slim thorn]

I did

[fresh bane]

I take it you met the man and his child

[fresh bane]

[slim thorn]

yes, right now I'm in the tunnels

[fresh bane]

that area is pretty interesting

[slim thorn]

just reshuffled my wardrobe to maximize blurple skills

[fresh bane]

I take it you've also met the night club dudes?

[slim thorn]

and I made them promise to stop with the meth

[river veldt]

Breaking Bad reference?!?!?!1!!11?!?

[fresh bane]

yeah! hardcore to the mega!

[slim thorn]

what a weirdly specific pair of questlines to worry about

welp, time for a cleanup run

[fresh bane]

Hmmm yeah

that is pretty weirdly specific

[slim thorn]

||I've already decided to not do more Evrart missions because after the first one got me nothing, I no longer believe I'm going to get my gun from him no matter what I do||

[fresh bane]

I want to reply to that so bad but no matter what I say it will tell you exactly whether or not you're wrong

and I don't know whether or not you want to know the answer to that

[slim thorn]

not yet

[fresh bane]

If you want to know the answer with minimal spoilers then the short of it is || that yes, he does help you find your gun ||
the kinda spoilery answer is || doing Evrart's tasks is literally the ONLY way to get back your gun ||

[slim thorn]

...dude

[fresh bane]

Calling
Calling
Calling
Calling still...

[slim thorn]

well good thing I've put a few points into Endurance and Volition

speaking of minmaxing

why would I ever spent a skill point to forget a thought, rather than unlock a new slot?

[fresh bane]

Mmmmm well

You may want to forget a thought in case you either don't want what it gives you anymore or don't want it to fully develop, as the fully internalized effect it gives you may be detrimental or have some penalties

You can free up another slot too though sure

[slim thorn]

pfff, video game moment

ok, she's asking for the thing in that container I couldn't open because of the -20 penalty for having not found a better prybar yet
can I ask her if she knows where to get a better tool for opening it? clicks "how do I get it open"
"wtf is your problem, do I have to do everything for you?"
"ok fine I'll figure it out, quest accepted"
"cool, btw here's my super prybar"

[fresh bane]

Oh you've met Soona

[slim thorn]

yes

[fresh bane]

which means you went to the church and saw.... the thing

[slim thorn]

I saw many things there

I keep worrying these two are about to steal Kim's hubcaps

[fresh bane]

Hmmmm should go talk to them and see what they want

[slim thorn]

oh I already did

[fresh bane]

those are some pretty cool jackets they got

[slim thorn]

I stopped after getting the ontological argument for "fuck the world"

[fresh bane]

did no more options show up or did you just stop talking to them without exhausting all their trees and options?

[slim thorn]

the latter

I'd gotten >90% of them anyway

even I have my limits lol

[fresh bane]

|| so did you try to make them give you their jackets? ||

[slim thorn]

lol nope

doesn't seem like what my Harry would do

[fresh bane]

it's a weird scenario at first but it's actually pretty funny how you do it, at least the way I saw it happening is really funny, and weirdly I feel like it ends up being the right thing to do?

it sounds weird but it ends up making sense

harry is a weird person

[slim thorn]

if I use a drug to raise one of my four base stats, does it stay raised forever? or is there more to it?

it was on the way to the real case I swear

[fresh bane]

Drugs last like an hour

[fresh bane]

It all adds up Kim, it's all connected! You'll see!

[slim thorn]

ok so if I want to play that game I'd better stockpile skill points first

there's a handful of super high Empathy checks I'd like to see the outcome of, but I think my base stat is so low that even with drug boosting I'd need serious save scumming to do it, so maybe not

[slim thorn]

god that had no right to be that stressful

[wind stump]

Yes, praise me more~

Denied an ult and went ham for a swift team kill for the victory.

[slim thorn]

ok now I have officially run out of sidequests that I want to do and know how to do

point of no return time

[uneven epoch]

did you help the church kids?

[slim thorn]

yes

[uneven epoch]

did u get the full music?

[slim thorn]

not quite yet, I did everything I could figure out how to and they're dancing in the church at least

[fresh bane]

It's part of the job...

[fresh bane]

Uhhh so what were the last few things you did?

Usually that's the point of a game where I run around until I find something I miss, an NPC I didn't talk to, an option I didn't click

also once you get the music on the church oh my god

hardcore to the mega

[minor plover]

currently a Retro Descent tournament qualifier going on https://www.twitch.tv/roncli

[quiet swift]

Well, I can officially say I have finally beaten my first soulslike game (Elden Ring).

[grim stirrup]

i'm sorry to tell you

now you need to startin running all the games blindfolded hitless on a pair of donkey kong bongos

[random steppe]

Whooo! Congrats

ER is on the harder side for Soulslike too IMO

[visual hill]

I thought ER was a bit easier than most soulslikes

[random steppe]

The later part of the game I felt was quite a bit harder than DS3

[quiet swift]

Two story bosses in particular gave me a lot of trouble

I'll probably keep it installed to poke around with Newgame+ (taking revenge on that first mob felt gooooood) and explore a brand new build

[random steppe]

The 1st one is also usually the biggest hurdle, the games are very iterative of each other.
ER has the different that it's the only open world so far, but the way magic works, the way scaling works, the upgrading, etc...all that translates pretty seamlessly from game to game

[fresh bane]

I wouldn't say ER is easier, it's hard to quantify difficulty for these games

[random steppe]

Not to mention the skill for timing dodges and stuff

[fresh bane]

I'd probably say it's a bit more accessible maybe

Just like DS3 is the more accessible Souls

Well technically DS1 is also somewhat of an open world

and.... Sekiro too I think?

[random steppe]

I wouldn't say it's an open world, it's just a bit less linear than other games

[slim thorn]

Sekiro being more linear than DS1 is part of the reason I gave it a chance lol

[quiet swift]

This was actually my second attempt at the game. First time was a literal year ago, and I didn't know enough about the game or didn't have the builds available and all that type of stuff. So the path I took wasn't very good and ended up being exceedingly frustrating to the point of rage quitting

Then my fiancée got into the game again and did super well against first real "boss" (3 tries, when it took me like 15 the year before) and it made me want to try it again. Watched some videos, some guides, followed them since they were actually GOOD guides and not "hey this is what you should do at max level, lol you're level 10? fuck you."

[slim thorn]

ah, so you were using a walkthrough or wiki or something?

kk

[quiet swift]

A wiki is unfortunately necessary for this game. Heck, there is an outright interactive map where you can blend in/out every object and boss and stuff

I did do a lot of exploring but did look stuff up when I felt the need to

https://www.youtube.com/@NizarGG anyway, this is the guy whose builds I found, and they're really helpful

[random steppe]

I mean, it's not necessary, but it's good if you enjoy it more with a wiki

It's probably necessary if you want to find every single item

[quiet swift]

Yeah if you're really wanting to explore yourself, then avoid it. But it's super helpful

I needed two weapons that I wanted, the first one was relatively easy and on the first landmass, the second one is muuuuuuch further ahead and was harder to get. But I did (at like level 6, lol) and I had lots of fun with it

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyT5NcCVqdX_V_f4l1Fpl18hHXiuhwOCf I also watched all the vids in this before settling on a weapon type that I wanted

I think next... I will continue my Disco Elysium game

[slim thorn]

heh

so with all the guides and builds and maps and stuff, how much would you say you died and/or had to replay content due to deaths?

[quiet swift]

Oh there are absolutely some bullshit moments. You can see me rage in the elden ring channel about a few of the bosses because of the way they move and hit and it's madness

[river veldt]

did you beat that one boss that people didn't like

Melenia or something

[dire gate]

Life has some bullshit moments.

[quiet swift]

Yes, in 4 tries. She was shockingly easy

[river veldt]

whoa

hardcore gamer

Jerma beat her while doing a weird 1920s esque voice

[quiet swift]

I was expecting 15-20 or so. Some of the later bosses (story ones) actually took me that many tries

[river veldt]

did you find the Elden Ring

[quiet swift]

[river veldt]

idk anything about ER's story lol

[quiet swift]

But generally I didn't go into bosses prepared, I learned the move set from fighting them and whatnot. The builds helped me a) not die TOO fast, or b) be able to keep up with damage

[slim thorn]

makes sense, a few the videos I've seen talked about how Malenia goes from impossible to easy depending on your build

[quiet swift]

SHe was admittedly one I was prepared for (seen her in other streamers/youtubers vids), and I kinda got lucky with my build too

The ash of war on it is a multi hit that kinda is a bit like her giga attack (but not as wide-hitting). I also had the spirit that duplicates you, and it can use that too

So we actually melted her first phase down surprisingly easy on the try that I won. Second phase, similar. Waited for opportunity and got her

She still hit hard though, and that's a theme. I think some non story bosses or elite mobs I was trying, I ended up looking them up and finding they were 20 levels ahead of me

Came back with that gap either narrowed to 10 or less and they definitely felt a LOT more manageable

[river veldt]

was the music good

[quiet swift]

For example, regarding levels. That big horseman you see right as you get into the open world, you're like level 1-2 or something. He's 25, and obviously wrecks you

[river veldt]

why is it called Elden Ring

[quiet swift]

I went back at like 15-20, was a hard fight but beat him

Elden lord is part of the lore of the game. A description or rank or so. The ring part, not so sure

[river veldt]

i see

[bleak lintel]

Time for Mario to find the Elden Ring.

[quiet swift]

[dense crypt]

The Elden Ring is an object granted by THE god of the Lands Between that's filled to the brim with power and is used by the Elden Lord, aka the ruler of the lands between. It got shattered, there was a big war over the pieces of it that resulted in TLB being mostly destroyed.

In case you were truly curious lole

[slim thorn]

#DiscoElysium: finally talking ||to Ruby||, and it just hit me who those blue-uniformed people in Whirling are

[river veldt]

whoa

[slim thorn]

phew, well at least I was right that ||Ruby didn't do it; no one reporting a gunshot had me suspicious of where things were going even before my inner voices started bickering about Klaaje's story||

[random steppe]

The Elden Ring is the thing you see in the sky on the cover of the game

That thingy

It essentially governs the laws of the world, and with a power squabble among gods has been shattered

As such the laws of the world are massively fucked

Your job is finding the pieces and putting it together, the various finales hinge on what you put in it when you do that

[dense crypt]

But most importantly

It's the sickest, most badass god-slaying game since god of war

[river veldt]

there are multiple rings here

[random steppe]

The whole thing is called Elden Ring

[river veldt]

i count at least 4 rings

[random steppe]

If you disagree with the nomenclature, you can probably email Miyazaki, or George RR Martin

[river veldt]

ok

[slim thorn]

it's an artist's rendition of a ten-dimensional ring whose true shape no mortal can comprehend

[quiet swift]

At least 6 endings but 4 of them are slight variations of each other

[river veldt]

[email protected]
hello mr Miyazaki and Mr RR Martin, i am writing to you because the Elden Ring is actually 4 rings so i think you should change the name to Elden Rings
thank you, CaptainMario the II

[rancid herald]

GRRM be like, "I guess Winds of Winter is delayed another year"

[fresh bane]

I'mma put a donut in it

They will never know

[weak river]

No, Captain, you have to paste that into your email, not the Discord chat bar

[fresh bane]

just in case, the elden ring rune is technically comprised of multiple runes put together
It's not a literal singular ring

🤓

[random steppe]

Given some of the shit the other people in this game want to put in there, they probably wouldn't

[river veldt]

wait no

[rancid herald]

TOO LATE

[river veldt]

NO WHAT HAVE I DONE

[slim thorn]

#DiscoElysium: am I correct in assuming that "check island/boardwalk for bullet traces" can't be done yet? there's been no sign of a way to even reach the island, and I've been over every inch of what I thought was the boardwalk multiple times

oh fffff they did disable fast travel for plot reasons

[green fulcrum]

I nearly choked on a cookie while reading this. That's funny af.

[fresh bane]

Oh no I can't believe Ix || actually shaved off Harry and got rid of the expression ||

-1 Health

[slim thorn]

I... genuinely do not know if I'm on track for a bad ending or not

[rancid herald]

isn't that game famous for them all being bad endings?

[slim thorn]

if it is no one told me

[fresh bane]

I don't... think so, no??

In any case, this situation is messy regardless of what you do Ix

[slim thorn]

yeah I am not looking up the flowchart for this any time soon

the uncertainty is half of what made that sequence so amazing

[fresh bane]

Much like sometimes failing in this game is better than succeeding or failing still earns you something sometimes you can't perfectly diffuse or perfectly solve a situation

[slim thorn]

what actually happened could be one of the best possible outcomes, or one of the worst possible outcomes, I really do not know (and narratively that's great)

[fresh bane]

As long as you and Kim are okay, that's the best outcome /s

[slim thorn]

to be clear, what happened was ||mercs: 2/3 dead, 3rd heavily wounded, 4/7 Hardie boys dead, Harry and Kim both wounded but alive, Martinaise is in lockdown but no further violence||

[green fulcrum]

You know, I should really get back to playing PoE II: Deadfire. I started to, but I think I was a bit burned out from basically play-binging D:OS 2 for several weeks straight. I remember having fun with Deadfire, it was just very different, and I needed time to get the hang of everything.

[fresh bane]

There is certainly different ways that situation can play out but rest assured
there's no way in hell anyone could ever possibly peacefully diffuse a situation like that successfully

[slim thorn]

I'm not expecting a flawless peaceful ending, but from what little I do know, it's conceivable that I could've ||had Klaasje in custody, or had my gun||, or passed the multiple skill checks I failed, which maybe could've reduced casualties

but again, do not tell me

the suffering is important

[fresh bane]

You still don't have your gun?

Oh man

I mean the entire game is suffering so you're not really getting away from that either way

[slim thorn]

"still"?

ok don't tell me more lol

[quiet swift]

Do it!

[green fulcrum]

This is such a f*cked-up scene (FF9 let's play):

[mossy flume]

🎵It’s not 👏👏creepy🎵

[gaunt marten]

Yeah Kuja and Brahne are both wack

Are you playing FF9?

[green fulcrum]

No, watching a Let's Play

[gaunt marten]

Oh, all right. Did you know about the secret scene that happens if at the very start you select the wrong option "And then we Kidnap Queen Brahne!" Over and over?

[green fulcrum]

I think Ruby walks in and yells at Zidane?

[gaunt marten]

https://youtu.be/tJSa7bvfK7M

Yeah

[river veldt]

is Cloud in this one

[gaunt marten]

You have to do it until the counter rolls over at 64 times

[gaunt marten]

Cloud is only in seven.

[green fulcrum]

Funny thing, if they did kidnap the queen instead of Garnet, they could've actually stopped sooooooo much of what was to come.

[gaunt marten]

It never made sense to me that she was called Ruby when she doesn't have red hair

[river veldt]

what about Sephiroth

[green fulcrum]

Only in 7 again

This is FF9

[river veldt]

nuh uh he's in Kingdom Hearts also

[green fulcrum]

Completely different world and completely different characters.

[static bluff]

lol this is so random

[river veldt]

why am i getting eyerolls :(

[static bluff]

GT with the rolling eyeballs!

[gaunt marten]

Because we're obviously talking about Final Fantasy

Sephiroth is in Smash Bros but that doesn't count.

[mossy flume]

Mario is just being silly

[fresh bane]

I always found it weird how out of place FF7 feels, at least when compared to the other more medieval fantasy worlds of other FF games

[river veldt]

yeah it's cool

[gaunt marten]

Like eight, six, or ten?

Final Fantasy has always experimented with the fantastical machinery

[river veldt]

Midgar is cool but i wouldnt want to live there

[gaunt marten]

Well you've only seen the slums

[river veldt]

no ive seen the residential stuff

it was in the remake

[gaunt marten]

Oh okay

[river veldt]

you go visit uhhhhhh

why cant i remember her name

Jesse?

[gaunt marten]

Taking a break from Team Rocket

[river veldt]

the Avalanche gal that isn't Tifa

you go visit her parents

[gaunt marten]

I never played the remake. Still waiting for it to come out

[green fulcrum]

Nah, FF8 is waaaaay more out of place. That one is a full-blown modern world, like 15 but even more so.

7 is dieselpunk, but has a lot of fantasy elements still. 8 was modern as f*ck. 9 was pure fantasy. 10 starts off in a modern world, but then switches to a fantasy world. 11 was medieval, 12 was fantasy, 13 was...I guess science-fantasy? 14 was pure fantasy all the way, but also more of a kitchen sink world. 15 was modern with bits of fantasy here and there. And 16 is pure fantasy again.

[gaunt marten]

14 seemed pretty modern to me

[green fulcrum]

Noooooope

Very much nope

[river veldt]

oh yeah i suppose it hasn't all the way come out

[gaunt marten]

I played it. It has a lot of fancy devices and fancy clothes

[green fulcrum]

It has a few modern/sci-fi elements in it, but it is very much a fantasy world.

[gaunt marten]

I don't see it

[fresh bane]

You gotta open up your eyes

[rose rose]

14 has a lot of magitech and is definitely not pure fantasy but the main setting definitely is fantasy.

[river veldt]

how do we have no Tempest emojis

[green fulcrum]

How can you look at this and call this "modern"? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kcw8xNxkZtM

[rose rose]

(I would perhaps argue that the Empire isn’t and the Allagans weren’t.)

[green fulcrum]

Or this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSKNntvdRJk

Or this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7ForHMX-xs

This is fantasy, not modern.

[mossy flume]

FFXIV is all over the place.

[gaunt marten]

Oh sorry

[mossy flume]

It is firmly rooted in fantasy, but there are high tech settings as well.

[gaunt marten]

I was thinking of 13

[mossy flume]

Ahhh

Yeah, 13 is also pretty science-fantasy

[green fulcrum]

Yeah, 13 is absolutely sci-fi/modern, but with a very slight fantasy aesthetic.

This is 13: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPEr1cArWRg

Man, 13 had so much potential to be good...instead it flopped so badly that it ended up becoming obscure, even though it was a modern FF game.

[river veldt]

FFVII remains the best one 😎

<---- has never played another FF

[gaunt marten]

Lots of them are fun

[mossy flume]

Play 1000 hours of FFXIV and say that again.

[gaunt marten]

2 is my favorite

[river veldt]

i dont like mmos

[mossy flume]

FFXIV is my favorite by far

[rose rose]

Well it didn’t flop so badly that it didn’t get two direct sequels.

[river veldt]

mmos are too overwhelming

[mossy flume]

13 was disliked because of its relatively linear nature, but was otherwise enjoyed

[river veldt]

also people ew

[mossy flume]

FFXIV is introduced to you gradually and intelligently avoids the issue of feeling overwhelming

[green fulcrum]

FF6 is my favorite story-wise, 14 is my favorite setting-wise (haven't played it, but I really want to), and 9 is my favorite gameplay-wise (aside from the horrible stealing rates).

[gaunt marten]

If I recall correctly, before FF13 was released we kept getting news about two FF13 games in development

Eventually the teaser trailers were nothing like the final product

[mossy flume]

Also it’s very focused on single player experiences. Multiplayer is essential, sure, but you can mostly just ignore that if you have a partner or small guild to play with.

14 is interesting because it strikes a really neat balance between being a single player story experience and an MMO.

[fresh bane]

I don't doubt FF7 is an excellent game but I also don't doubt this is actually a real thing and FF7 being the most popular will inevitably have people say it's the best one, especially people who didn't play other FFs

Me personally I only played Crisis Core to completion, not even FF7

[mossy flume]

The first like 50 hours are done solo before you get to the first dungeon, IIRC?

[gaunt marten]

I like FF8 for the fun optional bosses

[mossy flume]

Also many dungeons can be done with AI now

No other players necessary

[rose rose]

I think if it takes you fifty hours to get to level 15 you have done something wrong.

[mossy flume]

Heh true

[green fulcrum]

Tbh, I never hear that much from FF1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 11, 12, or 13.

[river veldt]

i should replay FFVII

[gaunt marten]

Eventually the teaser trailer ended up having the same character as FF15

[river veldt]

i never even got Cloud's ultimate weapon

[rose rose]

FF15 started life as yet another 13 sequel (and is in the same general continuity ballpark), so that makes some sense.

[gaunt marten]

Forget Cloud's weapon. You want Barret's

[river veldt]

but i like cool swords

[gaunt marten]

All Cloud weapons are cool swords

[rose rose]

(There are in fact actually seven games deriving from FFXIII in some manner)

[river veldt]

i think the Buster Sword is the coolest but it's not viable to use it the whole game

[gaunt marten]

FF8 has cooler swords

[river veldt]

no

[gaunt marten]

They're swords and also guns

[river veldt]

that's lame

[gaunt marten]

You're lame

[river veldt]

only sword

[green fulcrum]

I'll say it: the Buster Sword is overrated. It's just a really long rectangle with a corner snipped off the end. The only thing it has going for it is its size, otherwise it looks ridiculous.

[river veldt]

😢

[river veldt]

banned

Buster Sword is based

and cool also

[gaunt marten]

The ultimate Squall Weapon is an energy weapon, the Lion Heart.

It allows you to limit break dealing a bunch of 9999 hits at once. Very fun

It still explodes like a gun if you time your hits right

[green fulcrum]

You want to know what a cool blade looks like?

THE F*CKING GUNBLADE, THAT'S WHAT.

[river veldt]

gun blades are very lame

you took something cool (a sword) and put something lame (a gun) into it

[green fulcrum]

Uses magitek explosive rounds to heat up the blade so that it slices through metal like a lightsaber. How badass is that?

[fresh bane]

I forget his name is Squall and not Leon because I know Leon from Kingdom Hearts and not FF8

Is FF8 good?

[gaunt marten]

Yeah

[river veldt]

generic RPG guy 78

[gaunt marten]

The Lion themes in ff8 are clear

[light gate]

But Buster Sword

[river veldt]

Cloud also falls under the generic RPG guy umbrella even though I love him so

[gaunt marten]

Yes the protagonist is nothing special. My favorite is Selphie because her limit break slot machine has "The End" which ends the fight immediately and you win

[river veldt]

whoa!

[gaunt marten]

https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Slot_(Final_Fantasy_VIII)

Destroys almost any enemy, including Omega Weapon; the final boss can also be affected and will move onto the next battle stage when being hit by The End. However, the spell will fail on the undead. During battles with multiple phases (Biggs before Wedge shows up, X-ATM092's repairs, Ultimecia's final speech), it will only end one phase of the battle.

[dense crypt]

meanwhile quistis is my favorite because blue magic is sweet

[gaunt marten]

Also she had a whip which is kinky

[dense crypt]

euh, no

[river veldt]

like Catwoman

[gaunt marten]

Irvine is my least favorite, even though he is really good for speedrunning

[mossy flume]

There’s a story reason for them to exist, though!

Everything has a story reason to exist in 14

But explaining it would be mild spoilers

[fresh bane]

isn't the gun sword from 8?

[gaunt marten]

Yes but it shows up in later games

[fresh bane]

Is there not a reason for it to exist in 8?

That's where I was going with the question

[gaunt marten]

Well in FF8 it exists because people want to shoot someone while they cut someone

[slim thorn]

roughly same (I also never hear about 4 or 6), I think a lot of these long-running RPG series have relatively few fans who get around to playing even a majority of the games, just because of how long they all are

[fresh bane]

I can't personally say I don't hear lots of praise for games like FF4, FF6, FF9, FF10

I think FF11 was also an mmorpg?

[mossy flume]

It was! And it's still going

[fresh bane]

An mmorpg... for the ps2

[mossy flume]

I hear it was actually pretty great for its time

[mossy flume]

Yeah, so was Phantasy Star Online =P

[fresh bane]

Hell I even hear praises for the first few FF games! People seem to think they're really good

but for others like FF11, FF12 and 13 yeah that entire era is completely unknown to me

And now that I look at them they all seem to have overall a very similar aesthetic

[mossy flume]

Yeah, they are very influential titles for the classic top-down RPG format.

[fresh bane]

I think I know 13 for being the 'bad' one

[mossy flume]

They were recently remastered and released on Steam

1-6

[slim thorn]

usually I don't meet anyone who's even played the pre-7 FFs, or at least never brings them up

[mossy flume]

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/21478/FINAL_FANTASY_IVI_Bundle/

I've played them a little and I'd like to at least finish FF1, but it's still a time commitment I haven't fit in anywhere yet

I tend to get my RPG fix with Golden Sun or Tales Of

[slim thorn]

I played 7 and 9 purely for the story and haven't felt any need to add to that

[mossy flume]

Updated the link for all six remasters

[fresh bane]

I started playing FF4 but never actually ended up finishing it

it was yeaaars ago

Other than that I only played Crisis Core...

[dense crypt]

if you wanna play a final fantasy game for their stories, 6 and 12 apparently have the best ones.

7 was meh and its story aged hilariously badly.

[fresh bane]

Can't help but feel saying FF7 is 'meh' is a bit of a hot take

but then again I haven't played it

[dense crypt]

it isn't

[mossy flume]

FF7 seems to generally be hailed as the best FF story

[dense crypt]

people who say that really need to play the rest of the series

[mossy flume]

I do hear 12 is good

[dense crypt]

7 is remembered so well because it was the big breakout hit for the franchise that made it popular

[fresh bane]

When Japan makes an entire day surrounding the release of FF7 and it's eternally hailed as one of the best games ever made... sorry but I can't help but feel it is a hot take

[mossy flume]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/595520/FINAL_FANTASY_XII_THE_ZODIAC_AGE/

Steam

FINAL FANTASY XII THE ZODIAC AGE

FINAL FANTASY XII THE ZODIAC AGE - This revered classic returns, now fully remastered for the first time for PC, featuring all new and enhanced gameplay.RETURN TO THE WORLD OF IVALICEEnter an era of war within the world of Ivalice. The small kingdom of Dalmasca, conquered by the Archadian Empire, is left in ruin and uncertainty. Princess Ashe, t...

Price

$49.99

Recommendations

5453

▶ Play video

12 has a remaster

I would assert that 14 has the best story, though.

[fresh bane]

[dense crypt]

honestly i think nostalgia just has everyone think 7 is the best of them all

[mossy flume]

But it is a massive time commitment.

[slim thorn]

I have no complaints about 7's and 9's stories, given you go into them expecting a JRPG-length story and all the slow burning that implies.

[fresh bane]

oooh ff12 has the cute bunny ladies

[slim thorn]

I had no clue what to expect from 7 other than that one death and I loved it

[dense crypt]

viera are also in FF14

as playable characters :))))

[mossy flume]

Yep, you can be bnuuy

[slim thorn]

and I played 7+9 looooong after they were new

[mossy flume]

I had never meaningfully played anything other than 14 until the remasters and remakes started to come along.

[slim thorn]

I think FF7 is still the only game I've played on a physical PS1

[mossy flume]

And I had managed to avoid spoilers for FF7 until the first few days after its remake came out.

[slim thorn]

in retrospect I'm not sure why we even had that console

[fresh bane]

I kinda wish FF7 got a nice remaster alongside the remake

[slim thorn]

I guess one upside to JRPG-level plot complexity is that a lot of spoilers won't make sense out of context

[mossy flume]

Alas, the big omg moment of 7 doesn't need further context

[slim thorn]

if you mean that one death, I heard of that long before I played it, and still got hit hard by it in the game, which was a pleasant surprise

[mossy flume]

Yeah, that part

[fresh bane]

If I ever played FF7 I'd have a very interesting perspective on it I feel considering I'd be going into FF7 with Crisis Core's previous knowledge

[slim thorn]

...ok that would be odd lol

[fresh bane]

Either that or a lot of moments would be ruined

[slim thorn]

I don't remember it in enough detail to judge

[gaunt marten]

The biggest story beat is ruined by Crisis Core

[fresh bane]

also I just checked in case I was going insane because I did remember a remaster of sorts for the original FF7, as in, an actual remake in the same style and it is a thing that exists... or will exist, FF7 Ever Crisis
But just like FF7 remake it seems like it's a reimagination or recontextualization or whatever of the original plot and it's a live service micro transaction mobile game

come on man....

[gaunt marten]

|| The story completely relies on you believing that Cloud is a reliable narrator||

[fresh bane]

Cloud is just a phony pony full of baloney