Topic: Recent Retro/Misc Gaming Purchases? (Not PS4/PS5)

Orederd a Super NT yesterday so I can play all my SNES cartridges. Can't wait for it to arrive which is a year away.

@RogerRoger So far:

• VERY dull aesthetics. Everything is dingy and dark. Hopefully levels start gaining a sense of identity later on, but so far, they're all running together for me.
• Enemies are insanely annoying due to how damaging their projectiles are. The game likes to put these units that use grenade launchers in hard to hit parts of the map above where you'll enter a room, so you're swamped in explosions that can kill you in one or two hits.
• Environments are loaded with traps, which makes even the usual run and gun gameplay a bit of a chore.
• Weapons don't have the visceral OOMPH of DOOM weapons.

I'm not giving up on it, but this is going to be an uphill battle for me. Maybe later levels improve, but even if so, it doesn't make a great first impression.

I got Quake on PS4 a few months back @Ralizah (I've only played the first 5 levels) and can totally see where you're coming from.

Honestly I thought the weapons themselves are bit uninspired and my personal biggest gripe. Nail gun, bigger nail gun, Shotty, super shotty, grenade launcher, The Axe... Just a very boring selection to me compared to DOOM even if they're relatively similar.

@HallowMoonshadow @RogerRoger I'm into the second world now, and it IS somewhat better, but yeah, this isn't a patch on DOOM.

Had a good time with Elden Ring earlier in the year, so I bought a friend's copy of Dark Souls Remastered for the Nintendo Switch so I could give the series another chance. Unfortunately, I have no idea what the hell I'm supposed to be doing atm, and the game doesn't explain itself (apparently I can't select whatever "reverse hollowing" is at bonfires because I lack "humanity"; googled all this and just came away more confused than before!).

Started as a pyromancer. Any unsolicited tips for a beginner are appreciated.

@Ralizah you’ll gain humanity as you go… so just keep playing (as long as you’re enjoying it that is) and it’ll rack up. Also, as far as I’m aware the pyromancer is a great choice for a noob, so you should be grand. All I’d say is journey in a direction for as long as you can until it feels like your hitting your head against a brick wall and then try a path less tread. The difficulty should guide you… it’s pretty intuitive tbh.

@colonelkilgore Yeah, I researched the classes, and that one seems to allow for some magic use without gimping your melee / armor options, so it seemed like a good choice at the time.

I guess my concern is that no matter which direction I go, I'm running up against intimidating enemies that block my path. I can probably get around them, but I don't want to die in an inaccessible area and lose my souls.

The best way to go feels early on feels like it's kind of tucked off to the side, out of the way. I was originally going down to the Londo Ruins, but quickly discovered ghosts that didn't seem to be damaged by either fire or steel, so I doubled back to Undead Burg.

The game looks amazing on the SWOLED handheld display. I seriously need to spring on an OLED monitor at some point.

Still wish this game had a damn map, but otherwise it's OK so far. VERY slow and clunky compared to ER, but I guess that's what to expect from a decade or so of iteration on the formula.

@Ralizah yeah so the ghosts of the Londo Ruins are a definite roadblock… I mean it is possible but you’re better off coming back to it later in all honesty. There are a couple of methods that can be used to deal damage to them but I won’t spoil that for you. Sounds like your on the right track now though.

In regards to a map… it would honestly detract from the exploration and the ‘aha’ moments of uncovering short cuts and piecing all of the areas together in your mind. It might not sound that fun but honestly, it’s one of the games strengths. Just try venturing forward with the aim of locating the next bonfire each time and it’ll all start falling into place.

Yeah the Switch port is really good to be fair. I didn’t play it on an OLED as my Switch is one of the 2017 variety but I can imagine it looks awesome… it looked and ran great on mine. I’m hoping it clicks for you as I’m always interested in peoples first forays into Miyazaki’s games.

@Ralizah If you talk to some of the npc's and exhaust their dialogue, they should give you hints about where to head to next. I seem to remember the bloke sitting near the bonfire at firelink shrine being helpful at this stage.

@colonelkilgore Good to know I'm broadly on the right track! It's increasingly looking like the areas guarded by abnormally difficult regular enemies are indeed turning out to be too high level for me.

We're going to agree to disagree on the maps. Not knowing where I am doesn't add to the experience for me. The map system in Elden Ring also didn't spoil that game's exploration one little bit. Games like Metroid Prime with similarly complex and interconnected areas feature maps, and that doesn't ruin the exploration, either. It's just a poor design choice I'm never going to agree with.

One of the things that prompted me to finally buy the OLED was being blown away by the footage of Dark Souls running on this device. Fatal Frame as well. I'm suddenly much more interested in games that envelop the player in darkness!

It's actually not quite my first time. I played this for a few hours a decade or so ago. Also played through half or so of Bloodborne when that came out. I'll probably never enjoy these games half as much as Elden Ring, but I did want to properly play through at least the first game. There are elements I hate about it, but I'm not going to let that keep me from appreciating the aspects it does right.

@JohnnyShoulder Their dialogue changes if you keep speaking to them, eh? Good to know. I generally only talk to NPCs once.

Just preordered Sonic Frontiers on Series X. First time I've preordered a Sonic game I think, but I have high hopes for this game and it actually looks very promising. Hopefully it will deliver a decent experience at the very least. Otherwise I think this will be my first and last time I preorder a Sonic game, lol.

@Ralizah Yeah so you should always keep speaking to them until they start repeating their dialogue. They will also have more to say after certain events and will move to other areas, much like they did in Elden Ring.

Just bought Rogue Legacy 2 on Switch. Played for about two hours and it's so addicting, just like the first game. It also feels perfect to play on the Switch.

Really excited to be playing Rogue Legacy again. It's like being transported back to the golden days of PlayStation indies.

Just preordered Pokémon Violet on Switch. I have very high hopes for this game so I'm hoping Game Freak will deliver!

Ah who am I kidding, they never do. But hopefully it will be just another fun Pokémon experience.

Just ordered Gotham Knights, The Quarry, Dying Light 2 and Tiny Tina's Wonderlands on Xbox during the Black Friday sale. Been wanting the first two games for some time now so I'm happy to use the sale as an excuse to get them now. Also looking forward to giving the other two games a go!

@RogerRoger Yep, I'm definitely looking forward to playing Gotham Knights the most out of those games. After all, I was originally planning on getting it at launch but other games took up my time and I decided to postpone the purchase.

If there's one new release that I'm surprised got a steep discount so shortly after launch, it's Sonic Frontiers. The PS5 version only costs €38 now, which is very cheap since the game only came out last week!

Just ordered Saints Row on Series X for €28. I knew the game would eventually see a massive price cut due to how poorly it was received. But I'm hopeful it'll be to my liking since I don't see anything inherently wrong with the game. It's been a long time since I've played a Saints Row game, let alone a sandbox title, so I'm definitely looking forward to giving it a go.

Also bought Lost in Random for €6 on Xbox. Looks like quite the unique experience and I'm always happy giving indie games that look promising a go.

Just bought Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey, Ghostrunner and Journey to the Savage Planet on Xbox for €30 in total. Been contemplating buying some games in the digital Black Friday sale and it came down to these three. I got the first one purely because it looked so original. I've never played a game about human evolution before so I'm really excited to play it even if it's a game where you have to do a fair amount of grinding. In terms of Ghostrunner, it basically looks like a mix between the combat of Ninja Gaiden and the traversal of Titanfall 2. In other words, it looks absolutely awesome and I can't wait to give it a go. Lastly, Journey to the Savage Planet seems like a fun and relaxing experience, which could be a fitting game to play in between all the heavy action titles I've been playing lately.

@LtSarge Journey to the Savage Planet is one of those games that I really liked the look of so downloaded from PS Plus and then it ran abysmally on PS4. Hopefully the frame rate’s a bit steadier on Xbox, it seemed like a solid game otherwise.

@nessisonett Ah I didn't know it was that bad on PS4. Yeah hopefully the game runs well on Series X.

@xeofate That's great to hear mate. I'm looking forward to playing it even more now!