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Hey, Talking Time, Whatcha Playin?

karzac

(he/him)
Maybe it was just because it was late and I was tired and/or feeling sick, but I hit a point in The Witness where a lot of the tutorial tetris-block puzzles were throwing maaaaajor roadblocks at me. I'd looked up a few hints online for a few puzzles I'd been stumpedon here and there. But for the tetronimo ones, I was looking up how the puzzle concept was even meant to work in the first place, and still having trouble. Part of the problem was that I thought I'd been doing what the puzzle wanted me to do already, but was wrong somehow, but was close enough that I'm not sure what I'd been doing wrong. And then there was one with a 4-square of subtraction blocks in a single space (third puzzle), and even looking up the solution outright and staring at it with my pencil and paper scratch in front of me, I just couldn't grasp how it was supposed to work - I assumed the subtraction had to be in that 4-pattern, but could not for the life of me figure out how to get that final shape with a solid 4-square to subtract from it. Ugh. Anyway, I've made some decent progress(?), I have 3 lasers going right now, I think the monastery area was my favorite so far.

It was giving me really bad motion sickness but I cranked the field of view way up high and turned on the reticle and it got better.
Those puzzles gave me a lot of trouble too.

My first piece of advice is that when you feel stuck,you should just go somewhere else. Almost always the issue is that you've gotten stuck in a rut of thinking of the puzzles in a certain way, and what you need is to go to a different location, solve different puzzles and come back with fresh eyes.

The second piece of advice, for the tetrominoes specifically, is they actual physical pieces and play a around with them. It makes it much easier to experiment and see how they fit together. I just cut a bunch of pieces out of paper when I was in that section.
 
Playing Rise of the Tomb Raider on PS4. It's fun Uncharted-lite: Maybe a few more puzzles and less of an emphasis on set piece action. One optional tomb is really throwing me for a loop though: I think I know what I'm supposed to do, but the timing is so finicky for the necessary action that I'm not completely sure.

Will probably finish it tonight or tomorrow; beat the one piece of DLC integrated into the main quest already, and while I am enjoying the various sidequests, I don't need any new gear to complete the game.
 

Paul le Fou

24/7 lofi hip hop man to study/relax to
(He)
Those puzzles gave me a lot of trouble too.

My first piece of advice is that when you feel stuck,you should just go somewhere else. Almost always the issue is that you've gotten stuck in a rut of thinking of the puzzles in a certain way, and what you need is to go to a different location, solve different puzzles and come back with fresh eyes.

The second piece of advice, for the tetrominoes specifically, is they actual physical pieces and play a around with them. It makes it much easier to experiment and see how they fit together. I just cut a bunch of pieces out of paper when I was in that section.
Oh shit I actually have a set of tetromino magnets right on the side of my desk! That's a good idea!
 

nataeryn

Discovered Construction
(he/him)
did you all know that The Witness designers included an architect and landscape architect. Just some little video game architecture facts for you.
 

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
Picked up Rogue Heroes: The Ruins of Taros this weekend, after trying the demo, and b’gosh I likes it!

It’s a multiplayer zeld-em-up that, as the title suggests, is a rogue lite. However only the dungeon layouts are randomized each time, the world map is untouched and it’s more of a shuffling up of rooms rather than building entirely new ones from scratch.

Also has influence from one of the better parts of Link Between Worlds; with Dungeon Items that work as random drops in the dungeons (and which you immediately lose upon death), and with upgradeable permanent versions unlockable if you put in the effort for some side quests.

It does have that thing that’s in some rogue lites where victory is basically impossible until you unlock a pile up of upgrades with failed runs first (a la Rogue Legacy or Sundered), and that’s a deal-breaker for a some people. But each run is fast and fun enough that it’s not exactly debilitating.

Haven’t tried the multiplayer yet to see how well that’s handled, but either way, this feels like the Four Swords follow up we inexplicably never received.

I refuse to acknowledge Triforce Heroes in polite company.
 
Playing Rise of the Tomb Raider on PS4. It's fun Uncharted-lite: Maybe a few more puzzles and less of an emphasis on set piece action. One optional tomb is really throwing me for a loop though: I think I know what I'm supposed to do, but the timing is so finicky for the necessary action that I'm not completely sure.

Will probably finish it tonight or tomorrow; beat the one piece of DLC integrated into the main quest already, and while I am enjoying the various sidequests, I don't need any new gear to complete the game.
I bought the trilogy for ps4 since it was marked down to $20, I've been playing the first one again and I actually really like this! I think when I played it on PS3 originally I got annoyed at how it was basically a worse Uncharted, but given the direction Uncharted proper took in the PS4 era I think I am content to have my fun with it.
 

jpfriction

(He, Him)
Picked up Rogue Heroes: The Ruins of Taros this weekend, after trying the demo, and b’gosh I likes it!

It’s a multiplayer zeld-em-up that, as the title suggests, is a rogue lite. However only the dungeon layouts are randomized each time, the world map is untouched and it’s more of a shuffling up of rooms rather than building entirely new ones from scratch.

Also has influence from one of the better parts of Link Between Worlds; with Dungeon Items that work as random drops in the dungeons (and which you immediately lose upon death), and with upgradeable permanent versions unlockable if you put in the effort for some side quests.

It does have that thing that’s in some rogue lites where victory is basically impossible until you unlock a pile up of upgrades with failed runs first (a la Rogue Legacy or Sundered), and that’s a deal-breaker for a some people. But each run is fast and fun enough that it’s not exactly debilitating.

Haven’t tried the multiplayer yet to see how well that’s handled, but either way, this feels like the Four Swords follow up we inexplicably never received.

I refuse to acknowledge Triforce Heroes in polite company.

I’ve been playing this too. Concur that it is quite fun. My main gripe is that enemies hit too damn hard, but unlocking the knight class helps with that.

I think the quest gates were a little busted up until a recent patch, but seems to have been resolved. I spent way too long combing the swamp for the second dungeon until this week when suddenly the dude at the entrance had something helpful to say.
 
After 25 hours of ambivalence about Assassin's Creed: Valhalla, I decided to give Demon's Souls another go, this time with a mage build. Managed to down Phalanx, Armored Spider and Fool's Idol, so I'm officially the furthest I've been in the game. I don't know how long this will last. I tend to run into walls on these Souls games, I'll take a break for a few months, and then try again from scratch; it's usually the 3rd of 4th attempt before I finish the game. But right now? Yeah, having fun with it, far more fun the my initial quality build from a few months ago.
Good Luck! My first play through of Demon's Souls was as a mage and I found completing the game as a mage doable. Stick with it. I'm not a skilled gamer by any means. A general tip if you want it: I got in the habit of leveling up my character 1x or 2x every time I logged onto the game so that I would make some progress each session. I found my spells overpowered by the end of the game.

My second play through I tried the priest and it was a lot harder. Although when playing the priest Atlus set the world tendency to white on the servers so I got to areas and items that I did not get to on my first playthrough.
 

4-So

Spicy
I'm definitely making progress, slow and steady like. (https://talking-time.net/index.php?threads/demons-souls.482/post-56719). I decided to take a small break and I rolled a priest for a faith build and, yes, it does feel more difficult. I'm not going to abandon my mage; I just wanted to change it up a bit. Thinking about trying to platinum this one but I'm uncertain of the level of effort. Figured I can evaluate once I get a game clear.
 

Patrick

Magic-User
(He/Him)
I've been playing through The Witness and for most of the game I was really enjoying it. I would get stuck constantly, but I would do this:

My first piece of advice is that when you feel stuck,you should just go somewhere else.

And eventually I would come back and figure out whatever weird thing the game wanted. I was pretty much happy doing that, until I was down to my last laser the Jungle with bird calls, and I didn't have anywhere else to go. Also, I'm not good with music/audio stuff, and I was struggling to figure out what notes/whatever I was supposed to pick. And, the audio in that area is super annoying. So, I just looked up the solutions. But, other than that one area (where I didn't have another region to bounce back to), I had really enjoyed the game.

Then, last night, I got to the second level of (late game area) the mountain, where there was a series of puzzles with intense flashing colors. It was similar to other areas of the game, where they give you a puzzle that seems straightforward, but there's some element there to confuse or distract you. But, these puzzles made me physically ill to look at. I got through three of them out of five or six, and I had to really push myself to get that far.

I could probably go back and muscle my way through, or just look up the solutions and do them really quickly, but I think I'm going to quit the game instead. That one roadblock basically burned any good will I had for the game. I feel like I'm past that part of the game that was interesting to me, and I've run out of patience for this kind of thing.
 
I bought the trilogy for ps4 since it was marked down to $20, I've been playing the first one again and I actually really like this! I think when I played it on PS3 originally I got annoyed at how it was basically a worse Uncharted, but given the direction Uncharted proper took in the PS4 era I think I am content to have my fun with it.
Agreed. Uncharted 4 tried so hard to be a statement about growing old and family bonds and responsibility that it forgot to be a good pulp adventure. Naughty Dog lost so much when Amy Hennig left.

I'm now playing Shadow of the Tomb Raider. I love that Lara keeps her gadgets from the prior game. She briefly loses them in the early going, but for most of the time, she has all her exploratory tools. Yay.
 

Sarge

hardcore retro gamin'
Shadow was a lot of fun. Not a huge change from Rise, which I liked slightly more, but more of really good is fine by me.
 

karzac

(he/him)
I've been playing through The Witness and for most of the game I was really enjoying it. I would get stuck constantly, but I would do this:



And eventually I would come back and figure out whatever weird thing the game wanted. I was pretty much happy doing that, until I was down to my last laser the Jungle with bird calls, and I didn't have anywhere else to go. Also, I'm not good with music/audio stuff, and I was struggling to figure out what notes/whatever I was supposed to pick. And, the audio in that area is super annoying. So, I just looked up the solutions. But, other than that one area (where I didn't have another region to bounce back to), I had really enjoyed the game.

Then, last night, I got to the second level of (late game area) the mountain, where there was a series of puzzles with intense flashing colors. It was similar to other areas of the game, where they give you a puzzle that seems straightforward, but there's some element there to confuse or distract you. But, these puzzles made me physically ill to look at. I got through three of them out of five or six, and I had to really push myself to get that far.

I could probably go back and muscle my way through, or just look up the solutions and do them really quickly, but I think I'm going to quit the game instead. That one roadblock basically burned any good will I had for the game. I feel like I'm past that part of the game that was interesting to me, and I've run out of patience for this kind of thing.

I stopped at exactly the same point, for exactly the same reason.

Did you do any of the MAJOR WITNESS SPOILER secret environmental puzzles ? If you have any more interest in the game, but don't want to be bothered with that area, you may want to look for more of those, they can be quite fun.
 

Patrick

Magic-User
(He/Him)
Yes, those were really neat. I know that there are a lot out there that I missed, but I always liked figuring them out when I found hints that there was one in the area.
 

Adrenaline

Post Reader
(He/Him)
Super Mario Odyssey is very good. Each new kingdom is a joy to discover and explore. That said I find the particular story angle where Bowser is forcing Peach to marry him and her complete lack of agency disturbing.
 

Exposition Owl

more posts about buildings and food
(he/him/his)
That said I find the particular story angle where Bowser is forcing Peach to marry him and her complete lack of agency disturbing.

For what it's worth, at the end of the game, Peach arguably shows more agency than in the rest of the series put together.
 
Phantasy Star [Sega Master System]! I always wanted to play this entire series and the Switch had a sale on alotta' Sega stuff so I got the Ages version, and the MegaDrive/Genesis collection. I started playing IV because I got about ten hours on a friend's copy a long time ago, but went back to the original with Alis. I'm liking it a lot so far despite the age. It reminds me of Dragon Quest, but the art and music really stands out - the saturated colors and bizarre yet fun FM sound chip shows what the SMS was capable of!
 

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
Picked up Maneater from out the Walmart bargain bin and lemme tell ya, this is a very Octo piece of video game.

Which is ironic as it’s about sharks, not octos.

It’s an open world sandboxxy game except underwater and you are a shark, seeking revenge on the star of a shark hunting reality show who killed your shark-mom. And, because this is a video game, you gain experience points and precious DNA from eating stuff (other fish, gators, people, containers of toxic goo) and you can use that to fast track evolution, giving yourself less sharky things like poison glands and bio-sonar. And the whole time you’ve got Chris Parnell narration offering spurious nature facts

And if you eat people the feds come after you.

It’s pretty janky (good luck maneuvering safely when fighting other predators), but who cares?!? YOU ARE SHARK!!

Be Shark!

Do as Shark do!!
 

Mr. Sensible

Pitch and Putt Duffer
Just started playing Pac-Man 99 last night and I've already managed second place as my best attempt. I know can eke out a win if I just stay focused and get into my Pac-zone.
 

SabreCat

Sabe, Inattentive Type
(he "Sabe" / she "Kali")
I re-upped my Xbox Game Pass subscription (they have a $1 for first month promotion going, haha), so now I'm playing Eastshade on stream and Octopath Traveler off. I find the latter an amusingly quirky mix of decades-old and recent design trends. Like, you get tutorial blurbs about elementary things like "this is a save point! You use it to save your game!" but how your character's unique abilities work or what they're even for? Yer on yer own, go read a wiki or something!
 

Bongo

excused from moderation duty
(he/him)
Staff member
I seem to recall there's a button to display tooltips that explain moves.
 

4-So

Spicy
After finishing Demon's Souls I decided to try Nioh. From a bird's eye view, the moment-to-moment feels slightly easier than a Souls game but the bosses feel harder. I spent a good hour, perhaps an hour and change, just running back to the paralysis vampire lady before I finally got her down. I think I dig the gearing system in Nioh more than Souls. It certainly satisfies my loot cravings, and the ability to cash in or disassemble gear feels better here than anything in Souls. On the flip, Ki Pulse and stances add a layer of complexity that do nothing for me.
 

Lokii

(He/Him)
Staff member
Moderator
Can't stop

playing

Crash 4

RuwZMSO.gif


It compels me
 

zonetrope

(he/him)
I picked up Crash 4 based on this post and Loki's other recommendations. It's definitely fun, and feels properly like Crash. But I'm running into the DK: Tropical Freeze problem where the level of detail in the graphics is causing me to misjudge platforms and die a lot. It's not a dealbreaker, but it's a minor sticking point in a very good game.
 

FelixSH

(He/Him)
I started playing Baba Is You again (I feel like I already mentioned that?). Still really great, still really hard, but I made it farther than one year ago. Every location on the overworld is unlocked. I also made one of the levels into Baba and one of them into a Flag, and got into that weird special world, in which I already unlocked that ABC-World.
 
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