Topic: What PS5 Games Are You Currently Playing?

Having played quite a few hours of HL I wouldn't recommend it unless you are the patient type for me there is way too much time spent running from place to place it really spoilt the game for me.

@Jimmer-jammer @colonelkilgore @Th3solution What's up boys? I just freed Yuria from the tower, defeated Penetrator with Biorr (first try again) and obtained the Brothers-In-Arms trophy for doing that obviously and obtained Curse Weapon by trading Penetrator's Soul with the Witch for it, tried it out in 4-1 ,very powerful stuff. Probably not necessary but I intend to upgrade my DBS to plus three for a bit of extra power, but, yeah, after all this time my build is finally more or less complete! I am thinking I will probably need those extra two levels for the final boss, but not really outside of that. I was chuffed with myself as it has obviously been a lot of ("pleasant" haha) work.

How are your games going guys?

@Max_Headroom walk don't run 😆 it is school, after all haha

I'm patient if the world is immersive enough so not really a problem.

These things remind me of ubisoft though, my favourite 'run to a quest for absolutely no reason out of the blue' moment was when you finally meet your mother after years in AC Odyssey, an emotional scene plays, and then she just pegs it off to a quest marker right after and you have to chase her to start the next quest 🤣🤣

@TheBrandedSwordsman That’s awesome! Nice to have all of your hard work pay off in a satisfying manner. Penetrator is such a great boss fight though I didn’t know you could be accompanied by a companion for it. Think you’ve got the rest in the bag, man!

I haven’t had much time to play anything over the last week or so. Been itching to get back to Alan Wake II but with the ongoing and impending festivities, it’s mostly been a mix of the end of the year rush at work, never ending house cleaning and a grossly miscalculated amount of wrapping etc. Have got a few sessions of Rabbids: Party of Legends in with the kids so that’s been fun!

@Jimmer-jammer Thanks man! Yeah, I saw on YouTube that if you freed Biorr from his cell while you are going for Curse Weapon he can assist you later in the boss fight, you don't have to summon him or anything! I just initiated the battle and he was immediately in there, drawing aggro for me, it would have been a lot harder for me if he hadn't been there.

I am glad you are socializing and mixing with your compatriots over the holidays, not so good about the never ending house cleaning and grossly miscalculated amount of wrapping though haha. Glad you got to play Rabbids with the kids.

Do you have any experience with the Nioh games? My backlog order at the moment, for the impending future is: DeS, Lotf & then Nioh, get round to the, allegedly much easier, sequel later. You can do a 'Guts' (Berserk manga) build in the first one apparently.

@TheBrandedSwordsman Man, Nioh 2 is an all timer for me. I felt it improved on the first in pretty much every way. The first is still a great game but I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as the second for reasons that were entirely addressed in the follow up. A little tip for the first: if you want to make your play through much easier, unlock the sloth talisman asap!

@TheBrandedSwordsman Great job! It’s so satisfying to see a build come together. It’s where these games come to life.

Everything is okay for me, nothing new to report. But I’ll hopefully have some updates in the week to come. I’ll have a couple days off for the holidays. I’m just not sure how busy I’ll be.

@TheBrandedSwordsman The Nioh games are awesome... arguably the 'best' combat model in any game I've played, probably ever. They use a really unique 'stance' system in which you have 3 x separate movesets per/weapon, leaning into low-stance (quick/weak) mid-stance (balanced) and high-stance (heavy but slower).

Nioh 2 is definitely the better game, but I'd highly recommend playing through the first Nioh beforehand - just to get used to the overwhelming set of mechanics and gameplay nuances to learn. Nioh 2 really doubles-down on the mechanics and adds a ton of new stuff..... I couldn't click with Nioh2 for this reason, until I went back and played through Nioh 1!

I would say this though - the Nioh series often gets lumped into the Soulsbourne category, mainly due to its difficulty and also it has some Souls-y mechanics (losing currency upon death, enemies respawn at rest spots etc) But IMO, Nioh 1 and 2 play more like ARPGs, with an overwhelming amount of loot!

I'd probably recommend Lies of P over Nioh 1/2 if you're looking for a Souls fix

@TheBrandedSwordsman as others have said, the Nioh games are excellent. I played the first one back about 5 years ago and just started the sequel a couple of months ago (I’m about half way through). I’d actually rate the sequel as one of the more difficult souls-likes tbh… as I was discussing with @CaptD in another thread the other day, some of the boss fights are absolutely brutal.

@colonelkilgore Is there a way to become op in Nioh 2? If so, please share!

@TheBrandedSwordsman I’m sure there is but I haven’t looked into it tbh. I’ve just gone in blind and selected the skills that I like the sound of. I did find that I beat the last one or two bosses that I came up against with a lot more ease than the previous ones, so I’m guessing the skill upgrades I’ve chosen are helping.

Having said that, I’d completely forgotten about sloth until @Jimmer-jammer brought it up earlier, so I might have a look at introducing that into my skill set moving forwards.

@colonelkilgore Yeah @Jimmer-jammer did mention that, I will be interested in using that for my first playthrough of Nioh 1 , but yeah. I reckon that it may be unavailable in the second game as he only mentioned with regard to the first game, unless you know otherwise. On a related subject, I am eagerly anticipating Rise of the Ronin next March.

@Jimmer-jammer The second game sounds like it will be a significantly more enjoyable playthrough then, I will try to unlock that talisman asap, as per your recommendation.

@CJD87 Yeah, with further regard to what I said above Rise of the Ronin ,their next game looks to be much more of an ARPG even than the Nioh games, with difficulty settings and everything apparently, a much more "accessible" experience. Do you reckon you will play that one as well?

Edit: I am sure, from what I have seen and a brief attempt at Nioh a few years ago, they are basically harder versions of the Souls games but, as you say, presented in an ARPG format, definitely hardcore gamers fare, they even said in a press release for Rise of the Ronin that the hardest difficulty setting will present the experience that the hardcore Soulslike fans are looking for, so I would say, to conclude, that even though they are essentially ARPGS, they share some of the same DNA with the Souls and Soulslike games.

@TheBrandedSwordsman yeah sloth is in Nioh 2 albeit a somewhat nerfed version by all accounts.

In regards to the difficulty of the series, compared to From’s games… I reckon it’ll be down to a case by case (or player by player) basis. I say this as a souls-like player whose main defence has always been dodging and rolling. These are considerably impaired in Nioh (& even more so in Sekiro as it goes) as there are no i-frames. It takes a lot for me to break from my modus-operandi and to start focusing on blocking for some reason but once I do, I see the difference.

@TheBrandedSwordsman I'm currently in a state of 'handheld only', with a Switch OLED and a SteamDeck 256GB (LCD). I don't have high hopes for Ronin running well on deck, as Wo Long was a bit of a disaster. (strange, as the Deck can quite capably run the likes of CP2077, Elden Ring, Sekiro... and even Baldurs is playable!)
I'm interested that the devs are actually putting in difficulty sliders/settings... as I know that the Souls community considers this sacrilege in some corners of the internet! I suppose though that as long as the devs are clear that the hardest setting is what Souls players "are looking for" then they've avoided alienation of their key audience whilst welcoming new players on board. I hope the game lands well!

Finally completed my build in DeS. It currently stands at: 50 Vit, 18 Int, 34 Str, 50 Magic - and I haven't levelled any of the other base stats, started as Royalty. Weapons: Crescent Falchion+1 , Dragon Bone Smasher +2, Shield: Adjudicator's Shield. Armor: only Fluted Greaves for ease of movement, and to maintain a little dignity, haha. Spells: Curse Weapon (to be used with DBS+2) .Rings: Cling Ring, Regenerators' Ring.

I had some trouble finding Ed the Blacksmith to get my DBS levelled up, and had to resort to YouTube to find how to get to him, and I traded with Sparkly for the second colorless demon's soul. (The first I obtained from 1-1 after obtaining PWW in that world, and found it in a secret area near the start of the level).

Started Death's Door, and some of the references to Dark Souls might be a bit too on the nose for some lol. So far I've met an over enthusiastic NPC called Pothead who is very similar to Onion Knight, and a mini boss who is basically Smough.

As for the game, I'm liking it so far. The combat and puzzles are pretty easy going so far in the main, which is what I was after at the moment.

I'm finally getting around to Immortals Fenyx Rising. When I'm not doing a puzzle I'm enjoying it. You can't go five feet without a puzzle tho.

Finished FF XVI, it was an amazing game, and now playing CP 2077: Phantom Liberty