I'm not finding any compelling reason to actually be on my ship, other than to get to submerged areas. There's no real aim to it other than a few fetch quests. Maybe I need to progress the story a bit more? I mean AC Black Flag had the whole fleet thing so capturing ships was a goal in and of itself. The only reason I have right now to use my ship is to get resources to upgrade my ship. Right now, I'm better suited to use those resources to upgrade my weapons instead.

Was on a video game hiatus for a while because of life. About to start up Far Cry 6 tonight since I got it for Christmas. I've heard shitty things about it but I've liked the Far Cry series for a while now.

You will use your ship more to island hop down the road as well as to fight naval conquest battles on some of the smaller islands. I am not sure how far you are in the game, so I don’t want to spoil anything, but you will have to utilize your ship more than you think as part of the main story line.

I finished it. But it was pretty weak compared to previous Far Cry games. Just felt flat. The storyline wasn't as good. Graphics are pretty sweet though.

I enjoyed playing Far Cry New Dawn but it was easily the worst story in the bunch. They've gone downhill in the story department the last couple of entries but the gameplay is still top notch.

That's good to know. Right now there's really no incentive to me hopping on my ship to do anything. It's really hard to isolate targets and not get swarmed and the rewards are just meh.

Maybe if I could find some ships that had better cargo, I like looting the chests and finding garbage. Not.

There are many different sizes of ships. The good ones you can't really take on until you upgrade your ship. There's also a bunch of missions involving the ship. And there are several Cultists that hang out on ships.

I really enjoyed the ship stuff myself. I spent a lot of time just sailing around getting into fights.

Thanks, that's good to know. I did kill one cultist that was on a ship and it netted some pretty killer set gear so hopefully there's more of that.

Honestly, the thing that is keeping me going right now is the looting. It's an interesting dynamic in that they give the player choice in keeping their gear and just leveling it up but you can't actually change the appearance to something high level until you've acquired that high level gear. So building the perfect load out is multi-faceted, especially if you're into the cosmetics.

You can also seek out Alpha ships (although I would not recommend that until you have upgraded yours quite a bit). They have cool gear to change your ship some.

Well they've gotten worse with each one....so I can see that.

This reminds me of something else that I enjoyed from the game: you could hunt the members of the Order at your own pace.

I remember one time I was dicking around, probably hadn't completed a main storyline quest in like 10+ hours. I got swarmed by a mercenary or some guards in the middle of a city somewhere and this douche civilian comes at me. Of course I brutally murder him with a quickness, only to find out he was an Order member.

I thought that was cool.. Had a similar experience while randomly raiding a fortress somewhere.

Oh, and I have been playing the shit out of Mortal Kombat 11.

First of all, it's probably technically the best fighting game I've ever played. The graphics are great and the presentation of the fatalities, brutalities, etc. is top notch.

Generally I get pretty bored with fighting games after a week or so, but this one's got a shit ton of customization so you're constantly fighting to unlock skins and gear. It makes it a grindfest but I suppose that's a big part of what's keeping me engaged.

Also, it really is just a cool blast from the past. I remember the original Mortal Kombat on SNES..? Maybe Sega Genesis. Having to put in the code to get all of the blood.

It's hilarious too because muscle memory is insane. I can take a character, fight with them a ton for a couple days, then not play with them for 2 weeks. The instant I load up a fight with them again I can easily remember 10 different combos, their fatalities, etc.

Our brains are ****ing ridiculous lol

I've had that happen a couple of times. Nothing better than getting into a big fight in a fort, only to have a merc that's 5 to 6 levels higher than you show up.

By the way, I'm barely using my bow. Seems REALLY underpowered compared to melee and stealth.

Man, **** them bows! In my experience with these latest ACs, the juice just isn't worth the squeeze.

In Odyssey I basically just spammed the chain assassination. IIRC, once you max that bad boy out you can take out like 4-5 guards pretty much instantly.

And in Origins they had a poison sword and a flaming sword. I'd just cut dudes up then run away and watch them burn to death or die of the poison.

At least in Origins, the zoom-in bow could get head shots. Now they've made that zoom and ability and it's shit, even with head shots. Some things should still be instant kills, within reason of course.

I use fire and poison a lot in Odyssey. With the skill upgrades, they're both pretty powerful. They're just not weapon specific anymore, they're abilities.

I will say this about the combat - I'm enamored with the Greek Hoplite fighting style. I feel like they did a very good job with all of the weapons but most so with the spear. I find myself using a spear about 90% of the time, which is rare for me. I usually go for a sword most anytime.

Lol. I remember the first time I played, I attacked a fort and did not trap the beacon first. Next thing you know, the place was swarming with all sorts of troops with reinforcements coming. I quickly maxed out my bounty and I was also swarmed by mercenaries. Little did I know, but one was the guy (name eludes me) that was by himself at the top of the mercenary ranks (the one that gives you the flaming horse) and found out he was also part of the cult. It was epic and caught me off guard. Never thought that happened with any other cult members like you did until now.

Once you get fire on your weapons, it doesn’t matter much. Strike them a few times, dodge their attacks and watch the hilarity that ensues they run around on fire. I swear that fire damage is too OP for that game.

Love using daggers. The Atlantean Blade or Dagger of Kronus with fire on it is so unstoppable. I just love the speed of daggers.

I'm playing on the max difficulty. I have to be really careful because a merc, captain, or cultist 5 levels higher than me can kill me in 2 hits, sometimes 1.

I love the range and crowd control of the spear. The overpower attack is especially useful at creating space around me and keeping guys off of me.

That makes sense based off of your difficulty level. I just get spoiled with the speed of daggers.

I don't think I armed a spear a single time in that game... :hmmm:

I always kept Poseidon’s Trident on me though, just not actively equipped for those times when I have to dive down for significant stretches of time. It’s handy for that, but other than that, like you I never equipped it.

I fired up the game after dinner and literally had this happen (killed a previously unknown cultist) within 5 minutes of starting.

I got to the area in Dying Light 2 where you first get the paraglider. The map is a lot bigger and more robust than I thought. It's almost overwhelming how much shit there is to explore.

I'm trying to knock out as much as possible before Elden Ring on Friday, since I know that's gonna be my #1 priority for the next few weeks.

I'm finally hooked. I discovered these multi-stage side quests last night. I did one where I defended a village full of women from some bandits and another where I defended a village from pirates. Each one of them had like 5 or 6 sub-quests so it was like a little mini-series inside the game. Really cool stuff.

Picked up Cyberpunk 2077 a few days ago (on sale on PSN). I pre-ordered the game and ended up getting a refund from Sony due to the shitstorm, so I've avoided it like the plague, just waiting for the next gen upgrade (and this 1.5 patch). It's fantastic. The game is so cool, it's almost overwhelming at times.

Whenever I think of pirates, I think of the town in the Pirate Islands where people you fight are intermingled with the town people. Lol you kill a few baddies and take a quick break to upgrade weapons and go back to killing as villagers wander by.

Another under appreciated aspects of the game is all the side stuff that goes on at the same time. With that same town, I watched as wild boars make their way into the town and attacks the bad guys and random Soldiers that appear. One accidentally strikes the other and then they start fighting. It’s hilarious and happens all over. I have been able to get guards in a fort to attack mercenaries chasing me (although I am not always successful). I have released caged wild animals and watch them kill Soldier’s in the fort as well. It’s just small nuances in that game that I love.

I completed a quest on Keos that basically pacified the whole Pirate Islands, so no killing villagers for me, they're no longer hostile. :D

And yes, I love releasing animals into a camp, that's about the only use I have for my bow right now - remote garage door opener. :D

These were the days of my early gaming

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The quests and the graphics are incredible and next level stuff. I also felt like the character animations were just a complete quantum leap and made every other game looks like complete ass in comparison. It was just mind-blowing to me.

Just sucks that the open world was so weakly implemented.

Elden Ring reviews are overwhelmingly positive, was a 96 on meta critic last I saw lol…

I cannot wait…so hyped.

Elden Ring sure looks cool. But the fact that it's a Souls game will prevent me from ever playing it. **** those games and their shit fight mechanics.

That game looked awesome.....until I realized it was basically Dark Souls but open world. No ****ing thanks.

I bought that months ago. Played for a few hours and then just quit. It wasn't a difficulty thing - it just didn't interest me. Can't really put my finger on the reason.

Perhaps I should pick it up again at some point.

These.

So it's apparently the most "accessible" Souls-like offering from FromSoft, so there's that. I'd recommend taking a gander at the review below and making your judgements from there:

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From what I've read so far, "accessible" means making dying easier on the player, whereas I prefer a game to make staying alive easier. ;)

Man I hope they make the open world a lot better and implement drop in coop, would love to just walk around and have street fights. :)

I mean you can do that now but it's not great.

Same, not into frustration sims.

Mother****er rolled 15,884 times in that video. LMAO

So first the first time ever, I decided to pursue a romance option in a game where it wasn't required and...

Picked up the youngest kid an oculus last weekend. Haven’t really tried much on it yet, but the roller coaster was pretty cool. Looking forward to finding some cool games for it.

ROFLROFLROFL I don’t even remember that. The game is so huge that I probably did it and forgot about it.

I've always thought a roller coaster game would be perfect for VR, not sure if Planet Coaster has VR but that would be amazing.

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GI's Dan Tack says Elden Ring is the "one of the best games ever made"...

https://www.gameinformer.com/review/...hing-adventure

This game looks epic and I WANT to play it and love it.

But I know that Dark Souls type games and me just don't mix.....and I'm not going to spend $60 for it to spend hidden away...collecting dust.

I read a developer interview this morning and he actually said that one of the ways they've made the game more accessible is that, with the open world, you can actually just avoid fights if you don't want them.

So the answer to over-the-top difficulty is just to bypass a central portion of the game. Sounds terrible IMO.

Soooooooooo what's the point of the game then? Run away from shit and not do anything?

It's an open world where everything is explorable. Enjoy the scenery!

I read a couple of reviews and the first thing they said was "Oh shit, we can actually jump now!"

LOL, that's so Dark Souls..

But yeah, I've also seen lots of reviews saying it's the least Dark Souls type of Dark Souls game yet. It sounds like they listened to some of the frustrations from gamers at least. But the super technical and unforgiving combat looks very similar, with a few tweaks. That's always what made me rage quit. The hour long battles that consisted of 500 precisely timed rolls and 250 perfect parries to defeat the 200' tall boss.

https://c.tenor.com/ZpBMkWyufhMAAAAM/dead.gif

My son has been super excited waiting for this to drop.

I'm sure plenty of youngsters with fast reflexes and youthful hand/eye coordination will love it. I just can't do it anymore. "git gud" is not an option for someone my age.

Same here. Sadly I rarely play any video games these days. It is as much an ability to focus on the games long enough to not suck as anything else.

Yeah, I've never really enjoyed games where you have to memorize timing and patterns to beat a boss.

And watching a video about it....the bosses will change up their timing just to **** you over. Sounds like a blast.

It sounds like you can run away, go explore to get better gear/more experience or stronger or whatever, then possibly come back and whoop ass.

If the gear is anything like other From games, it really only makes a difference in how long a battle takes. It doesn't actually help you "win" because that's entirely based on player skill.

No idear. I've only ever played one Souls-like game (Bloodborne, which I stopped playing because it felt really dated), so I'm not sure what to expect!

Well, I'm one of those that has never gotten past the first few bosses in a From game. They're just too hard. And I play almost every game on the hardest difficulty.

You must learn the ways of the cheese, young Padawan.

I am all primed to start Elden Ring tonight. Hope I’m not disappointed. I’m not huge into Dark Souls, but I have heard that this is pretty approachable for more casual players. Loved Skyrim.

I have heard people say that the PC version isn’t running as well. This will be the first next gen game I play on the PS5

I'm old enough to be your dad. Young indeed. ROFL

Super early on, couple of hours in but goddamn Elden Ring is awesome…this game will consume me.

Is it forgiving at all or is it like a normal Dark Souls game?

It’s not easy per se but with it being open world, you can escape from encounters and fights now.

There’s more places to save, easier ways to refill flasks, etc.

Also depends on where you’re at…I wandered into an area I had no business being in and got absolutely wrecked lol.

I just watched a review. It looks great, but damn, I don't want to have fight something for a hour before it dies.

Or fight it for an hour and then YOU die and have to do it all over again.

And start at a save point that's far away and have to fight through a bunch of respawned crap to get to the same battle again, right?

Games without a reasonable quick save feature generally annoy the shit out of me.

I get that Dark Souls is supposed to be hard but damn….create a mode that is a little more forgiving and you’d have more people buying your game.

Can you escape, regroup and come back right away? Can you go an upgrade gear a bit and make the fight easier?

Because if the answer is just "run away and go do something else" that's not really a good answer, at least not to me. I want to experience the content, not avoid it.

Elden Ring is already 6 times more popular on Steam than any of their previous titles.

I can't think of a single sponge boss in the entirety of SoulsBorne. If it's taking you that long to kill a boss you're simply not ready for it. Level up, upgrade your weapon, find a new weapon with higher DPS to work with, etc.

Also, if you really want to git gud you need to learn minmaxing. Don't waste levels on attributes that are useless to you.

Is the point to just kill lower level enemies, not bosses, to level up?

Yes. Sometimes you need to grind to level up and get materials to upgrade

I couldn't beat the first boss in Dark Souls III. So leveling up, getting better gears, etc. wasn't even really an option yet. It was that hard for me.

I think that's where Bloodborne ****ed up. It requires some pretty intense grinding to even get a full set of blood vials, much less actually progress your character. That's too much to start.

Doesn't sound like this game has an old fart mode, either.