Game Discussion ?

Is it just me or are we talking about ganes less now....

The most likely reason is theres just no new games that have come recently.... thats usually what people talk about here....

But I thought that with no new games we would talk about the previous ones....

So... uhm.... whats up with that ?

This board is for general gaming discussion and that's pretty much all I see aside from the occasional (or maybe not-so-occasional) spam. Yeah, not a lot of topics about specific games. But I don't mind seeing as a lot of them are just "So-and-so game is overrated/sucks" or something negative along those lines which really aren't great for discussion.

Probably because people are too busy creating topic after topic on how some game is only 30FPS or 900p, and therefore sucks...

It breaks my heart.

:(

Or topics about feminists and SJWs attacking games and gamers...

Games are dead. Didn't you hear? It was quite the story some months back.

@c_rakestraw:

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO !!! :0

Tis a tragic day indeed...

Yeah I noticed that too...

All I see here these days are adds for viewing sports broadcasts.

System Wars happened.

We're talking about games dude

Once those new games come out it'll be back to normal, I'm sure of it. Hell the 2015 lineup shows there will be a s*** ton of games to talk about, from Witcher to Batman to Uncharted and such.

@The_Last_Ride:

Barely....

And you are yo blame.... partly.

I agree, I would like to see more game related posts as well. I feel like I see the same old topics day in and day out(digital vs. physical, gamersgate, people complaining about how much games suck nowadays and so on)

@c_rakestraw:

It's because the market has been saturated with major game releasesl! Back in the golden era of gaming(PS2,Xbox, nintendo) there where only 3-4 major games released a year!

Now, with gaming gone mainstream, the number has tripled!

@MarcRecon: well thats why we pick the ones we only carr about. The rest is cannon fodder.

@Gamerno6666: Actually system wars has been here for more than 12 years.

I've noticed this, too, which is why I rarely go on these forums anymore. Hell, I've had threads locked down because they were about specific games.

People like to bitch about how bad games are nowadays.

Not dead. preparing for the 2015 war :)

Apart from this being the general games discussion section, I'd say a lot of discussions about specific games aren't that interesting. At least, not in here. It usually starts with someone saying some game is over or underrated without any apparent desire to elaborate or discuss it and then the replies turn out to be similar. I'm probably a bit cynical, but it seems a lot of people are simply making threads to see their opinions confirmed, not to actually discuss them. And when someone does start with a detailed introduction about a specific game, noone replies, because it's too long and noone bothered to read it (or people reply with a oneliner). I'm not saying this is always the case, but it seems to happen a lot.

Died 8 times, got back up 9.

Don't kill that which respawns :3

@loafofgame:

Yep.... pretty much.... I'm still waiting for confirmation of Dark Souls shittiness..... ;)

That seems sooooo hard to believe...

@loafofgame:

Actually I've gotten many confitmations, agreements and half agreements from every well adjusted person in gamespot about whats wrong with Dark Souls...... now I'm just harrasing the poor saps who actually believe this trash is some sort of god send....

To be honest I think they like it.... if your masochistic enough to enjoy such tedious punishment such as Dark Souls then an argument with me is an absolute joy.... I'm like an invader.... I penetrate your world with the express purpose of making your dark souls experience miserably.... fight me off and you are awarded with more Elitist attitude....

Soul fans love me !

@loafofgame: he only means a select few who agree with him over the overwhelming majority who think the game is great. He's insecure like that, never accepting that his opinion, though shared by others, is not to be considered as the final say on a game's quality. Just let him rant, laugh/shrug it off, and then leave him be.

Haha, well, I've already discussed using the term masochistic for that game with you a while back, so I don't have to do that again. Anyway, I never liked Dark Souls for its trial and error gameplay. I loved the art design and traversing that dark and mysterious world.

Don't worry, I'm well aware of the general comment patterns of the most active forum posters. But thanks for the heads-up.

@loafofgame:

I liked Ash Lake.... they shouldve calked it the Twilight Beach.... unfortunately there was nothing to do there..... after you kill the Hydra obviously and the Covenant us so far away from the edge of the Hollow... still very pretty though.... definitely better than Annor Londo.

Also entering the Chamber of The Sun Princess was so cool.... even after doing it multiple times....

Anyway.... 4 more bosses and I'm done with this Infernal game..... infact I could wrap it up right now if I wasn't too busy farming for resources.

@mastermetal777:

Actually you are the only one left I want confirmation.... you are clearly intelligent and somewhat what reasonable but yet for some reason we still can't see eye to eye on something as obvious as Dark Souls.....

Infact you coukd say the only reason I bothered playing it was just for you...... ;)

So.... whaddya say, handome..... are you prepared to die ?

@Lulu_Lulu: nope. I clearly enjoyed the game and I'm not changing my opinion on it any time soon.

And also, flattery will get you nowhere with me.

@mastermetal777:

You see right through me.... :)

Flattery worked easily on Grammaton Cleric.... I could bait him into anything if I told him he was pretty enough.

Anyway I'm not saying you didn't enjoy thr game or that others can't enjoy it.... I'm saying you and From Software need to be more upfront about what others are getting into...

I mean the only reason I got interested in Dark Souls was because they said it was the most difficult game ever.... but then as I know more about how it aquired such a misleading title I began to lose interest in the game itself and more interest in the people playing it.... even Miyazaki has been far more honest about Dark Souls than the Fanboys are.... so in an indirect way I have confirmation from him too....

@Lulu_Lulu: it is a difficult game though. Maybe not to you or me, but there are others who A) have never played the older and highly sadistic Nintendo games, and B) aren't used to a game making them play defense instead of wrecking everything in sight like most action games. It's a kind of difficulty that's harsh but fair. "Oh yeah that boss wrecked me the first time or two, but now I know it's tricks and moves so I won't die again." This is how it works with many games, and Dark Souls just takes it up to 11

It's difficult to look at new games fondly now. At this point: it seems like gamers are simply complaining about stinky business practice. Which is understandable, since most of the goodness from gaming now gets overshadowed by it.

@mastermetal777:

Its also a colossal waist of time to go into every boss chamber whiches miles away from bonfires and guarded by pitfalls, traps and enemies just to experiment and memorize a bosses moves..... which is pointless anyway since 90 percent of them just require an Exploit..... bait them onto the desired scenario then wail on them exactly as you would in the many modern games soul fans like to look down.....

The difference is other games are actually interesting.... some let you scale the bosses, some let defeat them using some level of intelligence.... they may not be soul crushingly hard but atleast they were far mire interesting than Dark Souls and its exploits..... lets be honest... making a hard game is easy..... you can turn many games into a Dark Souls experience just by going to the Difficulty settings and selecting the one that turns on the instant deaths for even the lightest scratch.....

I leveled up My Chosen undead to the point where the game is almost fair now... and once you you can get hit multiple times by aboss without dying and defeating them by dooing the same amouny of damage they can do to you then the game becomes very boring very fast.... that was my case with The Legendary Ornstein and Smough..... once the fight becomes fair (the real fair... not the fair you made up) then it becomes soooooooo boring..... infact that fight was unfair..... With my Gear both Ornstein and Smough didn't stand a chance against me..... unless they veer off screen and attack from my blind spot.

Bare in mind sone games don't let you heal in the middle of combat.... so sometimes winning in dark souls is trading blows with your opponent and healling when it gets too much then rinse and repeat..... this strategy is viable with just 10 estus flasks....

@mastermetal777:

Also bare in mind my Dark Souls experiencewas extremely different from yours......

I didn't engage in jolly co-operation with players or NPCs.... I didn't see other players blood stains and nobody left my any messages to guide or warn me....

Perhaps you should reassess whats fair and what isn't when you go into this game blind as a bat.... because I assure you.... fighting multiple enemies simultaneously in any scenario is defintitely not fair.... and thats before we add the perpetual darkness, tge narror corridors that prevent you from swinging your weapon but doesn't have tge same effect on the enemies... the pitfalls you might fall off of just by performing a straight and parralel backwards roll while locked onto an enemy...... the enenies that can attack through each other...... and still thats before we throw in bugs into the mix aswell....the messed up hit boxes, the framerate dipping, the input lag (yes... its still there).....

Like I said.... harsh but fair simply doesn't apply to dark souls as much as you think it does..... its nice that ypu had a great experience but maybe you should exercise some empathy and think of how a scenario would be different for everyone else before you use the word fair again..... even Miyazaki doesn't say it that much.... he just wants people to die.

@Lulu_Lulu: I barely played with other people. I went through 99% of the game solo. So I didn't engage in co-op either. I still enjoyed plowing through the hordes to get to (or past) the bosses.

As for difficulty, I hate most difficulty settings in games because all they do is increase damage done to you and make enemies damage sponges. Dark Souls is as easy or as hard as you want it to be based on your play style. You create your own difficulty even if it's not what you were going for. That's the fair part of it.

mastermetal777:

"As for difficulty, I hate most difficulty settings in games because all they do is increase damage done to you and make enemies damage sponges."

You just Described Dark Souls.... the difference is theres no settings.

The game is as easy or ad hard as what stats ypu have....

Playstyle does play a roll but its extremely minor.... this is a game where numbers definitely trumps skill and when numbers fail then switch to exploits and where that fails switch to co-op....and then when that fails... then and only then do you get in abd fight fairly with the game's mechanics....

@Lulu_Lulu: I don't care about the numbers in the game. I play cuz the combat is excellent. I've always played for the combat and lore, not the numbers. Skill got me halfway through the game before I needed better equipment. Hell, my friends can get to Anor Londo with literally the beginning items and one strong weapon. In record time no less. Skill matters, and most speed runs prove it.

@mastermetal777:

The combat is boring.... especially on the beginning where the shitty gear renders some game mechanics useless.....

And I also got to Annor Londo with the beginning items.... through execessives upgrading... the very first battle where the gameplay becomes even mildly interesting is the Kellogs Cornflakes Witch in Kellog's Domain.....

I went in there expecting more overpowerrd bullshit and unblockable attatcks and one shot kills but to my surprise this boss fight actually has options... the boss is not stupid at all and is alot less exploitable.... its the first time the game is fair and interesting at the sametime... usually its just one or the other.

This happened two more times with Ornstein and Smough and The Four Kings......

I doubt the next three boss fights (Gravelord, Bed Of Chaos and Gwyndolin) will be both fair and interesting.....

@Lulu_Lulu: you don't need to upgrade much actually. Or at all with some of the stats. Some aren't necessary for any build.

And you know, having a different experience with a game than others doesn't mean the overall game is bad. Far from it actually. It just means you in particular didn't like it. That's fine. Just don't mistake a feature you don't like with a bad design choice.

@mastermetal777:

Actually it is bad..... especially in a game as cryptic as dark souls..... the only reason I haven't killed Bed Of Chaos yet is because I don't know how to get there..... as with many other locations....

A good developer would make the necessary adjustments to ensure everybody has the best experience.... in dark souls you just get lucky..... maybe you won't fall off in the crytal caves the 1st time.... maybe you are already wearing toxic resistant gear In blight town.... maybe an enemy pushes you off a ledge and you accidentily discover some treasure that you definitely wpuld have never known was there.... maybe you'll roll into an illusory wall while dodging enemy arrows and revealing shortcut.... maybe you'll already wearing the Darkmoon Seance ring when you enter the Bonfire at the bottom of the mechanism is Annor Londo..... maybe a necromancer will drop the skull lantern BEFORE you get to the tomb giants.....

Im not joking when I say I can keep listing all the things that can happen purely by luck.... things that can drastically alter ones experience.... things that definitely should not be left to random chance..... things other developers avoid because a random game that appeals to people who get lucky is.... what was that wors again ? Oh yes.... FAIR....

@Lulu_Lulu: it was never meant to be a game where everything is given to you easily. Did Castlevania: Symphony of the Night give you clues? Nope. Did the Metroid games give you clues? Barely any involving how to get somewhere. All you had were vague platforms and environmental details that showed you where to go. Dark Souls is a lot like those games, and it's a design choice. It's not a game that holds your hand, but expects you to figure things out through observation and patience, not having the game shove hints down your throat if you get stuck. It's a valid type of design that treats players like thinking adults instead of children who need help

@mastermetal777:

Do you not understand how random chance and luck works ? None of the things I mentioned have anything to do with skill or difficulty..... observer and be patient all you want this has absolutely no affect any random unpredictable even..... Poker requires way more skill than those things...

Most importantly.... you naturally assume handholding is a bad thing or a design choice..... well that depends... would it be hand holding to put a map ? Sure if you see it that way... but its definitely not a bad thing.... like you said.... you like it for the combat.... a map would help reinforce that.....

Would it be handholding to know what gear ypu might need to have before you enter a specific area ? Sure.... but what does keepibg this information from the play do but waste their time and resources backtracking or dying ?

Actually Dark Souls does hold your hand in the form of Summons and Bloodstains..... clearly there is some Hypocrisy there

@Lulu_Lulu: the bloodstains are player-made, not an inherent part of the level design. They're player hints, or players being stupid, so it's too variable. And as for the luck part, it's not. You can figure out where to go just through observation of the environment.

As for hand-holding, it might work for a kids game, but consider that the majority of gamers are in their 20s and 30s. Games should never make an assumption about the player's intelligence. You give them tools and an environment to use them in, and let them figure it out. It's a design choice that people should try more often instead of assuming your audience is full of idiots who can't figure anything out. Plus, it's much more satisfying when you figure it out yourself instead of the solution being given to you.

What games should we discuss?

But this is games discussion a general forum about gaming not just games.

@mastermetal777:

The Blood Stains are definitely an Advantage.... especially in Crystal Cave...... its not swing or miss... you are definitely be better off knowing its there.

And by not knowing where to go I'm not talking about looking for a tiny opening in the level Im talking about the entire region.... I spent 5 hpurs combing every nook and cranny looking for the 2nd bell in the wrong places... namely the farside of blight town.... the depths and New Londo Ruins..... this doesn't require observation.... this requires something called a map.....

Besides what good id Observation if you spend most of your time in perpetual darkness.... theres a fuckton of illusory walls in these dark areas.... its impossible to observe this in the light so it in the dark its more than just useless.... its a dick move.

Adults as you know don't have alot of time on their hands.... Adults would definitely stay clear of a game like Dark Souls snd its so called lack of hand holding which does nothing but waste the players time....

I don't know why you believe Dark Souls is an intelligent game ?..... there's not a single intelligent thing about it other creating a handy chart of all the gear optimizing which ones are the best.

@Jacanuk:

Something simply are not game related

@Lulu_Lulu: whatever you say. All I hear is you don't like the game and want to force others to see it the same way. I could talk about why Half-Life 2 is poorly designed, but I won't force my opinion on others. I'll just accept that others like what I dont like. And that's fine.

And Dark Souls is a time waster as much as any game out there. The difference is that it was designed to be that kind of game without having to wait for things to level up and encourages you to press on in spite of the challenge. It has exploitable areas and systems, but so does every single game in existence. What makes it different? It acknowledges that it's brutal and doesn't care. You want to finish the game? Work for it.