Video Games General

[Rakdos92]

Already did. Another question, is that area high level, or can I take it on now at level 30ish?

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You could, but it's not worth it. I got the rescue and then the hell out of there via lantern.

 

[Melmar]

Already did. Another question, is that area high level, or can I take it on now at level 30ish?

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If you're willing to cheese the bagmen by taking advantage of them being too big to fit down the stairs to the lower area, it's a good place to farm blood stone shards and twin blood stone shards.

 

[Megaolix]

How's the game so far? Would you recommend getting it or say wait for a sale?

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So I played more of Triangle Strategy. I have no quite finished it yet, but I am getting close. I do have 20+ hours clocked in.

There is a lot of story and there is no denying that. Those that do not like to read will complain. For those that like stories, like me, they will still enjoy. There's also a good amount of lore about the setting and locations.

Your main cast is a party of 8. As you may have guessed from the trailer, 3 of them have been picked to represent an alignment. And if you recall, one of the main draws of the game is its voting system for branching options.

Could the story branches themselves be better? Yes. At the same time, we cannot ignore the limits a game has and it's not a AAA-budget game here. So I would say it's good for what they could do.

But surprisingly, the characters are not one-dimension for votes here. The writers didn't just stick to making characters just vote for the alignment they represent. For voting times, the characters will present their arguments for each option. And while you can persuade them, you cannot just pick any option and think it will work. Benedict, for exemple, is the trailer representative for Utility. That still did not prevent him from starting on the Liberty option vs an Utility option in a vote. And with him, you cannot just present 'blind optimism' arguments. Just as he present options some may not want to hear and good reasons why he would do that, he will acknowledge the possible issues with the votes he stand for.

And you know...characters can change

Spoiler: LATE GAME SPOILERS

Despite being representatives of an alignment, the way they made the final choices is quite the nice surprise.

Frederica, presented as the Liberty option, take outrage at injustices and unfairness now. Having grown stronger since the start of the story, her path becomes ultimately a Morality option.

Benedict, our retainer, was set as the Utility option. Argue with facts and logic. Yet, his own branch become the Liberty option, not willing to simply roll over for a doctrine.

Roland... Oh boy, Roland. The Morality representative. The story saw him start full of vigor and optimism, then slowly made him a broken man that see no solution to all his issues. His path ultimately become that of the Utility option, giving up and willing to sacrifice the few for the greater good.

There is also a NG+ in this game. You keep pretty much the stuff and characters you had, along with conviction points earned. But the game will raise the level of your foes on battle maps, so don't think NG+ will be an easy and fast breeze. Level limit is set at 50, which you will hit at your third run.

As for battles themselves, I enjoy them. The party memebers each have set roles and only have minor customization at most for some. But I do not care. Each provide something, which you will like ot use or not. And you WILL need to know oyur tactics, because the game is quite willing to chew up and spit out anyone you send solo against a group. The fights can easily become chaotic melees as each side try to surround the other for extra attacks. And your foes are not shy about using skills either. Hell, the AI will even retreat for a healer if one is available! So yes, they have a brain.

 

[Lykaia]

So I played more of Triangle Strategy. I have no quite finished it yet, but I am getting close. I do have 20+ hours clocked in.

There is a lot of story and there is no denying that. Those that do not like to read will complain. For those that like stories, like me, they will still enjoy. There's also a good amount of lore about the setting and locations.

Your main cast is a party of 8. As you may have guessed from the trailer, 3 of them have been picked to represent an alignment. And if you recall, one of the main draws of the game is its voting system for branching options.

Could the story branches themselves be better? Yes. At the same time, we cannot ignore the limits a game has and it's not a AAA-budget game here. So I would say it's good for what they could do.

But surprisingly, the characters are not one-dimension for votes here. The writers didn't just stick to making characters just vote for the alignment they represent. For voting times, the characters will present their arguments for each option. And while you can persuade them, you cannot just pick any option and think it will work. Benedict, for exemple, is the trailer representative for Utility. That still did not prevent him from starting on the Liberty option vs an Utility option in a vote. And with him, you cannot just present 'blind optimism' arguments. Just as he present options some may not want to hear and good reasons why he would do that, he will acknowledge the possible issues with the votes he stand for.

And you know...characters can change

Spoiler: LATE GAME SPOILERS

Despite being representatives of an alignment, the way they made the final choices is quite the nice surprise.

Frederica, presented as the Liberty option, take outrage at injustices and unfairness now. Having grown stronger since the start of the story, her path becomes ultimately a Morality option.

Benedict, our retainer, was set as the Utility option. Argue with facts and logic. Yet, his own branch become the Liberty option, not willing to simply roll over for a doctrine.

Roland... Oh boy, Roland. The Morality representative. The story saw him start full of vigor and optimism, then slowly made him a broken man that see no solution to all his issues. His path ultimately become that of the Utility option, giving up and willing to sacrifice the few for the greater good.

There is also a NG+ in this game. You keep pretty much the stuff and characters you had, along with conviction points earned. But the game will raise the level of your foes on battle maps, so don't think NG+ will be an easy and fast breeze. Level limit is set at 50, which you will hit at your third run.

As for battles themselves, I enjoy them. The party memebers each have set roles and only have minor customization at most for some. But I do not care. Each provide something, which you will like ot use or not. And you WILL need to know oyur tactics, because the game is quite willing to chew up and spit out anyone you send solo against a group. The fights can easily become chaotic melees as each side try to surround the other for extra attacks. And your foes are not shy about using skills either. Hell, the AI will even retreat for a healer if one is available! So yes, they have a brain.

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I've been playing the demo and its been fun so far. Really story heavy but the two battles that I've been through were fun. The tourney took me a try or two but it was satisfying to pull it off. I think that I'll probably be buying it but I might wait a bit first though.

 

[Megaolix]

I've been playing the demo and its been fun so far. Really story heavy but the two battles that I've been through were fun. The tourney took me a try or two but it was satisfying to pull it off. I think that I'll probably be buying it but I might wait a bit first though.

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Well, you at least still have one chapter left in the demo. And you get to try Democracy!

And maybe you will fail at it too. Heh.

 

[Lykaia]

Well, you at least still have one chapter left in the demo. And you get to try Democracy!

And maybe you will fail at it too. Heh.

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Nah, I managed to pull it off. We're heading to Not!Russia like I wanted. The only ones I wasn't able to convince were the Wife and Butler who still wanted to go to Not!ME but they got outvoted.

 

[Anonnermus]

Already did. Another question, is that area high level, or can I take it on now at level 30ish?

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If you know what you're doing and are willing to give it some time, you could kill the pigs for a good chunk of echoes, early game. Killing Paarl opens up a door to another area you can reach more easily elsewhere - the easy path leaves you dodging turret fire though.

That area also changes later on, though I never did find out if the originally accessible loot disappears myself. All in all, there's nothing terribly vital there. Farm twin bloodstone shards off the bagmen if you're up for that but there's no reason you need to be there.

'cept for the nun, I guess.

 

[Rakdos92]

If you know what you're doing and are willing to give it some time, you could kill the pigs for a good chunk of echoes, early game. Killing Paarl opens up a door to another area you can reach more easily elsewhere - the easy path leaves you dodging turret fire though.

That area also changes later on, though I never did find out if the originally accessible loot disappears myself. All in all, there's nothing terribly vital there. Farm twin bloodstone shards off the bagmen if you're up for that but there's no reason you need to be there.

'cept for the nun, I guess.

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There's the electriried mace further up the street, quite a worthwhile trip imo. The other end of the road has a full set of clothes.

 

[rx915]

Battle brothers free dlc of flesh and faith has been released just today.

 

[Athlumney]

Is there a way to mass download dlc on steam? I bought a bunch of dlc for different games during the Winter Sale but didn't download them at the time because I wanted to get another hardrive and move a few big games first to free up space. Is my only option to go through and verify local files for each game to make sure the DLC downloads?

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Never verify a game on Steam unless the install is stuffed, what it pretty much does is uninstall, redownload, and reinstall the game. Sadly the only real option is to click on the game in the library, go to the DLC manager, and click each DLC you want.

 

[ShogunTrooper]

Reinstalled Starsector, as well as a load of Mods, among them a few that add Gundam-esque Mechs to the game (Diable Avionics, Tahlan Shipworks, Arma Armatura), and dear Lord, I forgot how you could easily sink hours upon hours into it! Especially if you got Nexerelin installed.

Between managing your fleet, administering your own colonial holdings, handling and engaging with the longer story quests like the Galatia Academy (which are surprisingly deep, with really elaborate descriptions of events and places), all while exploring deep space outside the core worlds, you can at times wonder where the rest of your day went, and why the sun seems to be rising outside the window.

Like, hell, thanks to Nexerelin, there are quests that allow you to farm relation with [REDCTED], meaning deep space can, on occasion, be a safer place to be than the core, which is ripping itself to pieces in constant, brutal wars. At times that region looks like the fucking Somme, I shit you not. Planets get invaded, systems raided, and at least one planet already got saturation bombed from orbit.

 

[NameOrdane]

Does Insight in Bloodborne have any value (aside from purchasing stuff and summoning players)? I've got a lot of Madmens knowledge stocked up that I haven't used, so I wondering if it has any value.

 

[Bear_Mint]

Does Insight in Bloodborne have any value (aside from purchasing stuff and summoning players)? I've got a lot of Madmens knowledge stocked up that I haven't used, so I wondering if it has any value.

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It has some interactions with the beasthood stat and frenzy resistance stat. A high insight will lower the beasthood stat, but also lowers your resistance to frenzy.

 

[NameOrdane]

It has some interactions with the beasthood stat and frenzy resistance stat. A high insight will lower the beasthood stat, but also lowers your resistance to frenzy.

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Is the benefit of lowering Beasthood adjusting damage input/output while transformed?

 

[Nervaqus987]

Is the benefit of lowering Beasthood adjusting damage input/output while transformed?

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Higher Beasthood gives higher damage but lower defense when using the Beast Claw, the Beast Blood Pellet, and the Beast's Embrace Rune.

Higher Insight also reveals certain things, like at I think 40 or so it shows you the Amygdala and such.

IIRC, you can also hear Winter Lanterns from further away and other enemies are buffed.

 

[Rakdos92]

IIRC, you can also hear Winter Lanterns from further away and other enemies are buffed.

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Yeah, like the villagers in the coast-side village and the church servants with those white faces. Also, the soundtrack and surrounding sounds change in minor ways, at least that was my impression.

 

[The-Lewd-Dude]

So just found two terrifying things in elden ring
1. A place where my game just freezes up for no explicit reason in storm veil castle.
2. Siofra River. I'm kind of freaking out between the very resistant to my weapons weird golem Lance things and the music. They really sell you on how fucking weird this place us. Just found a giant deer corpse too.
Edit: Also the ghost minotaurs can snipe you across the map.

 

[Lykaia]

2. Siofra River. I'm kind of freaking out between the very resistant to my weapons weird golem Lance things and the music. They really sell you on how fucking weird this place us. Just found a giant deer corpse too.

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Try blunt damage maybe? They're so slow I just whacked them my sword as I ran around them in circles on the horse. The ghost fuckers with giant bows are way, way worse though. Same for the floating magic balls of fuck you who can one-shot you in a single volley.
No idea what the giant deer corpse is. Maybe a potential boss fight? There are fires you need to light at the stone monuments so maybe if you light up all of them it does something.

 

[The-Lewd-Dude]

Try blunt damage maybe? They're so slow I just whacked them my sword as I ran around them in circles on the horse. The ghost fuckers with giant bows are way, way worse though. Same for the floating magic balls of fuck you who can one-shot you in a single volley.
No idea what the giant deer corpse is. Maybe a potential boss fight? There are fires you need to light at the stone monuments so maybe if you light up all of them it does something.

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I think the only blunt weapon I got is a torch. Lol that's what I get for trying to do a dex build cause I wanted to be a cool Samurai guy.
The floating orbs cost me about 3000 runes. Fucking pieces of shit.
And the deer corpse is a boss found that out via a YouTube video.

 

[Lykaia]

I think the only blunt weapon I got is a torch. Lol that's what I get for trying to do a dex build cause I wanted to be a cool Samurai guy.
The floating orbs cost me about 3000 runes. Fucking pieces of shit.
And the deer corpse is a boss found that out via a YouTube video.

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The Flail is a good blunt weapon for Dex. You can get a unique one down in the Weeping Peninsula by killing one of the Night Calvary that's near the fallen fortress.

 

[Melmar]

The claymen, those skeleton guys, are basically harmless as long as you keep moving since they don't seem to have the same lunging grab the other skeletons like them possess.

 

[Digital_Devil]

2. Siofra River. I'm kind of freaking out between the very resistant to my weapons weird golem Lance things and the music. They really sell you on how fucking weird this place us. Just found a giant deer corpse too.
Edit: Also the ghost minotaurs can snipe you across the map.

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Siofra River is a really cool area, but those aim hack spirit snipers suck. Also, that deer corpse is a boss you can activate if you want.

 

[The-Lewd-Dude]

so I ran away from the river, got a second katana after fighting some SKELETON WARRIORS, continue to be confused by the ash of war system, and started to think about swapping over the claws since two handing those are pretty fun...
and then I ran into Caelid.
I love souls borne games since they can still make my cynical seen it all self go "what the absolute fuck am I looking at and why is scrappy doo stretched over a t-rex?" I really need to watch those vattivida lore dumps since I really need context for the fuck is going on there.

 

[Selias]

I was checking Dot Hack G.U.'s Nintendo Store page (pre-ordered a physical copy from Bandai Namco's website for the bonuses, so I need to wait for it to be delivered), and I noticed that the description calls it the first Dot Hack game on the Switch. Might just be reading into it too much, but I'm hoping that means the original four games will be getting ports, too. If we're really lucky, they might even get a remake, or we could even get a new game.

 

[Lykaia]

so I ran away from the river, got a second katana after fighting some SKELETON WARRIORS, continue to be confused by the ash of war system, and started to think about swapping over the claws since two handing those are pretty fun...
and then I ran into Caelid.
I love souls borne games since they can still make me go "what the absolute fuck am I looking at and why is scrappy doo stretched over a t-rex?" I really need to watch those vattivida lore dumps since I really need content for the fuck is going on there.

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Ashes of War basically give your weapon a special technique you can use for MP. You know how some of the enemies sends torrents of wind at you with their swords? You can do that too. Also, it lets you swap which attributes your weapons scale with I believe if you have the right whetstone.

 

[Anonnermus]

Does Insight in Bloodborne have any value (aside from purchasing stuff and summoning players)? I've got a lot of Madmens knowledge stocked up that I haven't used, so I wondering if it has any value.

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From a purely mathematical/mechanical standpoint having insight sucks - as mentioned it lowers your beasthood (an opt-in berserker mode for mad damage but does nothing until you trigger it) and your frenzy resistance (which hurts a lot when you need that, frenzy sucks major dick) with no mechanical bonuses. Also as mentioned, once you hit certain breakpoints things start changing on you, like old enemies getting new attacks and seeing freaky things, like a big porcelain doll coming to life.. Generally, high insight makes things harder.

So just found two terrifying things in elden ring
1. A place where my game just freezes up for no explicit reason in storm veil castle.
2. Siofra River. I'm kind of freaking out between the very resistant to my weapons weird golem Lance things and the music. They really sell you on how fucking weird this place us. Just found a giant deer corpse too.
Edit: Also the ghost minotaurs can snipe you across the map.

Click to shrink...

All great bow enemies suck but those are some of the worst. Love the area though, wonderful lookin' place.

and then I ran into Caelid.
I love souls borne games since they can still make my cynical seen it all self go "what the absolute fuck am I looking at and why is scrappy doo stretched over a t-rex?"

Click to shrink...

The scarlet rot is some weird shit man.

 

[Scygnus]

Got taken to a Pizza/Arcade/Amusement place for my birthday, and they had Beat Saber for 5.50 a play. Not too much else worth playing- mostly Juvenile Gambling, if you know what I mean- so I spend half my $30 game card playing three rounds. Not much selection, and I haven't played before, so I just did the song- Beat Saber- on Easy, Normal, and Hard.

Easy and Normal were too easy, but Hard was just right. It is rather fun. I need to get a headset one of these days...

What's the best one for gaming with? Last I looked they all had their problems...

 

[Velk]

Well, I managed to kill the Taurus Demon via repeated stabs to the skull but I died to rats on the under side of the bridge so I need to find my way from Undead Burg back to the bridge. Anyone know if there is a nearby Bonfire near-ish the Taurus Demon? It's a bit far to keep walking after I die and I need to stock up on Humanity and souls.

Edit: Dark Souls, I'm talking about Dark Souls.

 

[SwiftRosenthal]

Well, I managed to kill the Taurus Demon via repeated stabs to the skull but I died to rats on the under side of the bridge so I need to find my way from Undead Burg back to the bridge. Anyone know if there is a nearby Bonfire near-ish the Taurus Demon? It's a bit far to keep walking after I die and I need to stock up on Humanity and souls.

Edit: Dark Souls, I'm talking about Dark Souls.

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The next bonfire after the Taurus Demon is the same as the last bonfire before the Taurus Demon. The center part of the bridge is the same tower that the previous bonfire is at the bottom of, and there's a ladder that you can knock down to make a shortcut.

E: To get to the next bonfire after that, either lure the drake away from its perch and then make a mad dash to the shrine on the other side of the bridge (also making a shortcut past the rats), or continue the way you were going and make your way to the back-right of the church area.

 

[Velk]

The next bonfire after the Taurus Demon is the same as the last bonfire before the Taurus Demon. The center part of the bridge is the same tower that the previous bonfire is at the bottom of, and there's a ladder that you can knock down to make a shortcut.

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Fuck me, I didn't see anything that pointed that out. Not a room, not a pubic hair of a door.

The tower your talking about is the one I had to fight the demon to get to, yeah?