Shagger

Let's just say he contagious and leave it at that.

Scalps, toes, souls, the usual. Seriously though, no really. I've got a modest amount of retro gaming stuff and one or two bits of heavy metal memorabilia, but nothing I'd call a collection.

I'm about to speak negatively of the Souls games. Before you read what I have to say, let me make something perfectly clear. If you're a fan of these games, I've got nothing against you. This is a re-telling of my own experience combined with what is only my own opinion, nothing more, nothing less. These games have appeal, just not to me. If you like them, good for you. I'm glad that you managed to find fun and satisfaction in them where I could not. So if you simply can't take negative critique of these games, I'm not responsible for how you feel if you choose to read on. Sorry, but I felt compelled to say this little disclaimer because some fans of these games are so sensitive and unable to take criticism they rally round to kick me off message boards and gaming communities just for expressing my opinion. I'm not kidding, it's happened before. I gave up on Deamon Souls, not because it was hard, but because it was crap. Basically, the game's "challenge" is a lie. Enemy behaviours and patterns are cryptic, nonsensical and unfairly prey on one's natural instincts as a gamer, so you can't use strategy, not to mention the blind traps in the environments. The controls are cripplingly and deliberately sluggish and slow to respond, so you can't rely on skill. All you can do is tediously go through a frustrating gauntlet of trial and error to figure out those cryptic patterns and trap placements, so all you really need to beat it is time. Time that the game just flat out doesn't deserve. I'll need to take a brave pill before I say this, but because of that the game isn't even challenging, at least not genuinely so anyway. You're even discouraged you from taking on enemies at a higher level for, well, you know, a challenge because you earn almost no XP from them. What other RPG has you earn no experience for taking on tougher enemies? I discovered this because the game deliberately misleads you into entering the wrong level at the start, that's how much an ass hole this game is. I get the mechanic of when you die, you have to try to fight back to where you were to get some of your XP back, I don't have a problem with that, but that's still very harsh in a game where you pretty much have to die then employ trial and error to progress. All that might have been fine if the rest of the game had something to offer, in fact no, nothing can absolve the bullshit this game throws at you, but the point is I think that game hides behind it so-called difficulty to distract players from its other issues. The graphics are horrible even by the standards of the day, cliché in its design and art style, has no story worth telling and the online component is pointless and only means the game can't be paused (In a single player RPG, that is just ludicrous). That "trial and "error" approach also makes the game more repetitive than it needed to be. I've never played a game that managed to be both this frustrating AND boring all at that the same time. I want an RPG to test my skill, reflexes and strategy. This game and it's inexplicably popular brethren are only good for testing your patience. I know in the minority with my view on this, but I don't care. Soul's fanboys always say I hate the game because I need to "Git Gut" and I'm just don't like a challenging game, but that's not true. That "trial and error" style of difficulty that these kinds of games employ is cheep, lazy and I'm even tempted to call it padding. So it's not that the game is hard, it's why it's hard that makes me hate it. To be clear, I have not played any of the Dark Souls series (Deamon Souls put me off for life), but from what I hear a lot of the problems like the storylines, blind traps and control issues are gone or greatly lessened, but that "trial and error" approach to difficulty is something that will always be a pet hate of mine, so I'm not interested in playing those types of games ever again. Thank you for reading. Can I ask that you at least sterilize your pitchforks before you use them? I don't want to get an infection.

Well, Christmas is all done, the kid's asleep, I've got a PS4 controller in one hand, a can of Lager in the other, Horizon Zero Dawn on the TV, I don't go back to work until the 6th of January and she's making a curry. Things could certainly be worse.

My son to be healthy and happy. I'd also like him to be rich, so I can retire early and mooch of his ass.

I'd have to look it up to get the precise details, but I believe what happened was a community leader and popular player on Fallout 76 exposed a bug or exploit in the game, recorded footage of it and reported it to Bethesda. However to show the exploit in the footage he obviously had to use it and that got him banned. I might be wrong, but I think that's what happened.

It's more like a Fallout 4 asset flip.

If 19 of them stop playing, the last one will get what we all wanted, a single player Fallout game.

Yep, this is the dumpster fire that won't stop burning. It almost not funny any more. Almost.

I have to agree. I never seen a game with the dawn and dust more beautifully done.

The Polybius story is always a classic in video game urban legends. AVGN did an episode on it a couple of years ago. This well worth watch, James Rolf is just hilarious.

Having played A Plague's Tale: Innocence (By the way, if you haven't, PLAY THIS GAME! It's fantastic.), every 3rd person game should follow this example and have the nearby foliage fade when the camera is close to it so you can see what you're doing. I know that sounds ludicrously simple, but so few games in this genre actually do this, even amongst good games.

The only aliens I can guess for are the ones who were meant to play Star Fox Zero, I'll call them the Lylatgorfs. The have two sets of eyes to allow them to monitor and have real time cognitive understanding of both the handheld screen and the TV and the same time. Something like this. PS. That game sucks

Well, I've been here for a number of weeks and have gone past 100 posts now, so I feel like it's time. Well, VGR community, lets have it. I'm not nervous or anything...

I currently game on a pre built gaming Laptop, but have built my PC's in the past. I see the pro's to pre built. More convenient and easier to set up with actually little to say in price difference these days. Pre built used to be much more pricey, but not so much now. Even so, I still always say build yourself for a desktop if you're confident enough to build it. More flexibility, easier to repair and upgrade and you can customize to suit your needs more accurately. I helped with my bother's @Crazycrab PC by building the solid tubing for his liquid cooling system, and because of stuff like that custom building isn't going to stop, but I do see it becoming less popular in the next few years.

Only 3 days left, so some time to play in bedlam that is the holiday season I suppose.

I've worn glasses my whole life, so that's maybe why I don't understand the theory, but why would that help? I'm not making fun or anything that, just curious. Back on topic. As for me, I'm not big on accessories. Most of it is gimmicky bullshit. There's the usual headsets and stuff, but I mostly like to spend my money on games. I am, however, thinking about investing in a more functional gaming mouse, so if anyone has a suggestion.

My boy got me back into a Horizon: Zero Dawn play through I started a while ago. New game, not New Game+ on Ultra Hard. Love it. This is such a fun game anyway, but at this difficultly is brutal, but it all the right ways. The one thing I don't agree with it is the merchant prices, those are for New Game+, so I turn the difficulty down to buy stuff. If I didn't, the game would be an insane grind. Still, I love this game and will die and die and die right to end.

I can also happily report the website is moving much quicker. Nice one @DC

I'm with you, but when you have a young kid, the choice is no longer yours. Anyway, gave him a couple of Switch games for Christmas/Birthday (His birthday is the 23rd). Licensed stuff for kids like Paw Patrol, Train Your Dragon and a Lego game.

Yep, it is a classic meme...

Like I said in the other thread, it wasn't stupid mistake, it was error in judgment brought on by sheer arrogance. Video games and the people who play them are beneath Andrzej Sapkowski and his art, according to him. I believe CDPR offered a sales stake at first, but he just took the modest cash sum instead because gamers wouldn't by it. I'm repeating a lot of what I said in the other thread, but the game made him a fortune through raising awareness of the book. Looking into the history of the publication, the literature wasn't even published in English until around the time the first game came out and that can't be a coincidence. That man owes so much the success of his books to the game, especially outside of Poland, and for him to say because he underestimated the gaming community, insulted their intelligence and didn't have faith in CD Project Red to make it a success he deserves a bigger cut of that success is just, that word again, arrogant. Sadly, because of Polish law he had a strong legal case, and it would be just like CD Project Red to "be the bigger man" and just settle with him. I won't deny the man his due, he's a great writer and novelist, but if this is anything to go by he's an archaic, arrogant, stuck-up, snobby turd of a man.

I'll post done now. Today being the winter solstice, I've not had a huge amount of time, I'll get it now.

I completely agree. Andrzej Sapkowski wrote a brilliant book series, but that doesn't mean he isn't a high and mighty prick. He has no respect for video games as a medium and that's why he done himself bad in the original deal. It was his own damb fault. So much of the interest in the books was generated because CD Project Red's games, especially internationally, and thus generated a lot of sales for the books, so he already got a massive payday that he himself said he wouldn't because of arrogance and disrespect for the medium. Not to mention there is no way he would have been able to earn that licence fee from Netflix for the new TV series if the games hadn't been successful. Like @Crazycrabsaid, they settled out of court, but I will always believe CD Project Red owed him nothing.

I am so sorry to hear that. I know that's little comfort at the very most, but please know you're still capable of so much. Don't doubt yourself.