SleepingSilence

Video Games: The General Discussion & Community Thread Number Two

To make this quick; I do not recommend Source Of Madness.

I don't hate this game. (Yet.) And I might even attempt to struggle through more of it tomorrow. But Source Of Madness' gameplay is incredibly passive, and it has a single useful loadout for every situation as I feared. Aka, double life steal. (And that becomes the biggest problem in its boss fights.)

Because all you do for every boss is chip away at the long health bar, and watch it act as brain dead as most of the other enemy AI. (Though at least there’s usually some extra visual spectacle for your troubles.)

Except for “Krampus” (ha ha meme.) A snow boss. In a small boring-looking arena. With +14000 health. Environmental hazards that make it impossible to pay attention to what’s on screen. Combined with attacks that basically cannot be tactically dodged. Doing 6 damage per shot, despite both of my weapons' higher stats. (And there was no way to do extra damage.) Got him down to 200 HP, before I got stun locked to death.

A fight that could not have been any more insufferable and boring to experience. And the idea of grinding for upgrades to “outlast” the borefest a 2nd or likely 3rd time, does not excite me.

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Point is, I really hope this upcoming season has better "good shows" than this.

@SleepingSilence

Narrator: There was not. But at least you get another season of Mob Psycho and Chainsaw Man...

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So...

What's everybody else watching?

Video Games: The General Discussion & Community Thread Number Two

I guess you can say "Well, you have to pay a sub for WoW." But it still doesn't change the fact that people have been getting $50+ expansion packs for free. I just don't see Overwatch being F2P now as an issue when people clearly have no issue with Blizzard making their other games or rather expansion packs free all the time.

@Kuro

I feel like this is an apples and oranges comparison though, no? Because one is essentially giving old paid-for DLC content free to its players. A net positive for basically everyone. (That I'm sure still upsets nerds who don't like new and healthy player bases.) Versus making their paid game (an objectively worse) free-to-play model, with additional microtransactions and heaping helpings of new server issues and bugs.

Unless the argument is "Blizzard gives people plenty already. So this going F2P, in order to squeeze more money out of its players, should be considered a fair trade."

Stuff like this only tends to happen when you're an Evolve-level marketing disaster. (Thus, the company is desperate to recuperate costs.) But I can't imagine the Overwatch player base was low enough to justify this decision. (According to articles like this, it was between 5-7 million players.)

Which sounds healthy to me. But I guess, for now, the marketing still clearly panned out in its favor with 10 million active players for its "sequel". (With only a tenth of that being currently online.)

However, in terms of competing with other vastly overrated FPS's. (Valorant, Fortnite, Apex Legends, etc.) It's getting crushed in numbers. So it almost feels like its an attempt to join in the F2P gold rush too little, too late.

But I suppose I don't really have a dog in this fight...

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Because I was playing Source Of Madness. A rogue-lite with random generation, and a lovecraftian art style.

And yeah, I suppose it's precisely what you'd imagine would happen. Killing enemies from off-screen, from unreachable ledges and small cracks like the coward you are. Because everything is an incomprehensible mass of tentacles, that will only kill you by getting yourself stuck within them. So it was a mostly passive experience through my first run, with me getting an item that leeched life when it hit a target. (Obviously better than most of the other things that I was rewarded with.)

Then the second area had nothing but poison swamps and poisonous self-destructing enemies. So, yeah. I'm sure that will be a blast to deal with.

Though I enjoyed the atmosphere and how fair its challenge and upgrades appeared to be. (Compared to a much harder Dead Cells.) But I am concerned with how quickly repetitive and one note that it might feel in the future...

But it was more fun than suffering through Destiny 2.

Video Games: The General Discussion & Community Thread Number Two

I mean, I guess, but no one complains about Blizzard-

@Kuro

Imma let you finish but-

Blizzard is one of those companies that actually gets heat when its deserved. Because it got popular over a few nostalgic IP's, meant for PC gamers (the ones least willing to deal with bullshit) and it's been constantly fucking them all up. (Let alone all the other reasons the company gets shit.)

So yeah, WOW has gotten flak for a variety of reasons. Though I don't know which you're referring too. But looking it up leads to articles pointing out that Blizzard went on to ban boosting organizations. So I'd imagine someone/somewhere complained.

That said you should still have everything you had on your account at the time.

@Kuro

I said that due to everyone on twitter/social media stating the opposite. But it's apparently some widespread bug. (And not intentional design.)

I've basically never bothered with most of Blizzard's games. Overwatch, very much included. I only got into Heroes Of The Storm. (R.I.P)

Edit: I forgot Diablo games existed cuz tired. Don't judge me.

Video Games: The General Discussion & Community Thread Number Two

@Dark Cloud PM me your Destiny 2 handle. Assuming you have yet to get tired or bored of grinding in that game too. :P

I struggle to come up with reasons to want to buy an expansion for Destiny, to get real content to chew on. When they completely gutted my last purchase and nerfed all my items to the point of rendering them forever useless.

It also made me question my PC specs, when it couldn't hold a consistent framerate when things got busy.

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Because topical.

It's just free to play Overwatch. That got rid of everyone's already paid for content.

Books!

I have to admit, I prefer physical, tangible books when it comes to reading. You'll never catch me reading a book off of a tablet or kindle.

I feel similar, albeit not as strongly.

I recently got myself a library card and read through a few graphic novels. So I have the potential to get my hands on some more material. But I don't have too many recommendations. Since I'm still struggling to find something particularly engrossing myself.

Video Games: The General Discussion & Community Thread Number Two

HAAK's final boss is a one-way to win gimmick boss and fuck that.

Unfortunately, Zapling Bygone, is another one that I'd not recommend in its current state. Because its bugs locked off (potentially) critical parts of the game for me. But I also REALLY don't like this game's appalling sense of direction. Having little to no clue what you're meant to be doing. (And someone REALLY needs to tell developers that no one liked Ori And The Blind Forest for its trial and error chase sequences.) Shame, because I do like the art design/world building comic panels. (But I'm putting this on hold until I get answers for fixing that.)

What Are You Listening To?

Why is everyone so horny on this site?

Because they're the RP's that garner the most consistent activity on average.

Toontown | The Guild's #1 Stop for Cartoon Discussion

I know bad anime tends to have the exact opposite problem of bad western shows. In that its hack writers are giving people exactly want they want.

But after trying to watch, and eventually skimming through the entire montage episode of "Reincarnated As A Sword." It was just insufferable to sit through. (It was just the Spider anime all over again. But the MC is now a far more obnoxious, mass murderer, without the actual need to kill. Including the slice of life Isekai staple of having the overpowered MC adopting his own slave girl.)

Point is, I really hope this upcoming season has better "good shows" than this.

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But to review the few anime that I actually finished...

Summertime Rendering is the best kind of anime that improves upon its source material. And its one of the few anime's in recent memory that ended satisfyingly.

Made In Abyss' Second Season might not have been the strongest in terms of logical writing. But it still makes for a compelling watch for the most part.

Also, Crunchyroll apparently paid their English voice actors only $300 bucks for the Jujutsu Kaisen movie.

Just another story of how good they've been to the anime industry.