Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Iduno]

I was considering that one myself, but the massive install size, and the fact that it's published by Amazon, put me off.

Sounds like those are good instincts.

[Nighthawk]

I've played a decent bit of Lost Ark in the evenings while winding down for the day. And while I'm not a fan of the usual boring MMO-style quest structure (talk to person, kill thing, complete quest), I'm entertained enough by the gameplay to give it a go for a little longer. Hitting enemies with attacks and watching them go flying/explode is more gratifying than I expected.

Whether it continues to keep me amused for long is up for debate, but I see no reason to take a massive crap on the game after 30 minutes because it has the usual trappings of an MMO. I have my own criticisms to offer, of course, but the game costs nothing to play, so I don't really feel cheated.

I think a lot of people go into free to play games anticipating disappointment (understandably so) and overreact with negativity when their minds aren't completely blown. Inversely, after a person sinks $60 (or more, God help us all) for a game, they often want to believe it's good so they can justify the money they spent on it. And hey, even if said $60 game is objectively bad, maybe they had fun anyway.

Edit - Just to clarify, I'm not saying it's amazing. At best it's like a Diablo with more entertaining attack skills and a story that is equally unremarkable. I just feel like people are a bit too quick to take a dump on free-to-play MMOs because there's a (somewhat justified) stigma around them. But what do I know; I'm dumb as a rock. Hitting stuff fun. Haha, big explosion go BRRR.

[Folly]

Lost Ark very much follows the Korean MMORPG structure. Several hundreds of hours of running around talking to NPC's, and if you can endure that, you eventually get to group up with other players to raid some dungeons or whatever.

If you like dialogue, exploration, and collect-a-thon, then Lost Ark is can fill all those needs quite impressively; even more so when you consider that it's free to play.
Personally, I prefer MMORPG's that focus more on the multiplayer and combat aspects. Massive online worlds are much more satisfying when there is incentive to explore them with a group of friends. And beating up monsters is much more fun than delivering letters for an NPC.

[Aoi]

Nah, there's plenty of decent F2P MMOs out there that are at least entertaining, or, if nothing else, intriguing, but I found this one to open up leaning towards the infuriating side of the spectrum. I personally find about... 80% of the ones out of the Asian market to just be bland and just not worth commenting on, but this one left me wondering.

I went into it knowing nothing about it other than "big new ARPG breaking Steam records", with the article at the time saying it just broke #2 most concurrent players, so I was expecting... at least something novel, but after about 40 minutes of "When do I actually get to play?", I was legitimately wondering what exactly I was missing about it (though I admit my phrasing was much more irritated), because...

Lost Ark very much follows the Korean MMORPG structure. Several hundreds of hours of running around talking to NPC's, and if you can endure that, you eventually get to group up with other players to raid some dungeons or whatever.

and I've clocked into the thousands of hours with its ilk already.

And does Steam prohibit outside-of-Steam downloads or something, because I've seen Korean MMOs allow background downloading of assets twenty years ago. 70 freakin' gigs...

[Nighthawk]

I'll absolutely agree that it takes far too long for Lost Ark (and a lot of games, now that I think on it) to actually get to the relevant conundrum and let you have fun. It took me probably two hours before I got into a dungeon and I started to feel like I was playing a real game, and longer than that before I started to feel a little challenged (which doesn't mean much because I don't play these kinds of games much and I suck at them a bit).

I played FFXIV for probably 100 hours at the behest of those who promised it would "get good," and haha, no. Level 60 was the same as level 1; I was still spamming the same attacks at enemies, albeit slightly more attacks, and said attacks never felt like they amounted to anything more than a damage number thanks to the awful hit feedback.

I'm a lot happier with Lost Ark so far compared to that game because A) there are a good number of different skills to use and combo right off the get-go and B) when I hit enemies with a massive weapon, they actually react as if they're being hit. It's satisfying to carve a path through hordes of mobs because the game does such a good job communicating that I'm actually doing something.

Still too much pointless dialogue and not enough hitting, but I think I've had more fun in the first five hours of Lost Ark than I had in all of the time I spent playing FFXIV, and I actually had to pay for FFXIV. That game definitely left me feeling cheated.

[MCreeper]

Looks like i got another game to keep on radar, if not wait for. Little Goody Two Shoes, that, by developers of Pocket Mirror, that i praised at length (not that big one, turns out) there some time ago. And wouldn't i know, the art is gorgeous again, but now on whole new level. Release date, though, is not as gorgeous, as it doesn't exist.  Thought the project was dead in the water, but some searching turned up a semi-active twitter and appearance of active work on patreon (most posts paywalled there). And they have a hour-long demonstration video from ye olde 2020. I poked around in it for a bit and very much like what i see. However janky gameplay turns out again, it will be worth it for art alone.

Also, just now they announced Pocket Mirror remastered, and i can't help but wonder what for, from player's standpoint (getting some moneys for once is always fine reason for dev  ). Original game hardly lacked in art department, so much so that this thing appears to barely change anything without comparing side to side, besides new cutscenes, of course. And new music? By the way, i feel like i heard something strikingly similiar to first 10 seconds of the trailer not too long ago, but where was it? Umineko? Touhou? This, perhaps 

Eh. I wish some youtuber would make a Pocket Mirror playtrough while fully appreciating it or at least not letting his inflated ego get in the way. I searched for one (not for too long, mind you) with some simple requirements that youtuber has to meet for me to even consider watching him:
1. Name of the game in video name.
2. No caps in video name.
3. No face ever in game videos.
Succeeding that,
4. No being a dick, which involves no speaking in vile tongues and no swearing without proper reason.
And guess what? I haven't found one.  I know just the man for the job, but there is no chance in hell he will make a playtrough of this particular game, of course.

[MCreeper]

So Steam was pretty insistently recommending me NEEDY STREAMER OVERLOAD. Looked at "man, not funny" in negative reviews, looked at overwhelmingly positive reviews, decided to check it out. Don't regret it one bit. Sort of like Princess Maker, except its a satire on streamers, interesting and sometimes actually funny.
So true, so true. I once knew a guy who sometimes took to raving about communism and conspiracies in chat, and there always was someone who got along with it. Hilarious.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

For first playtrough ended up in a vicious circle. Maxing affection means game over, as Ame goes stark raving loving. Affection is best dropped by sexy streams, which raise mental darkness and stress like crazy. Mental darkness is baaaad, since it randomly prevents streaming once it gets high. IIRC it can only be lowered by sleeping it off (barely) and fucking (which dramatically raises affection). In the end most streams turned out to be sexy streams, breakdown streams (i feel bad, pity me... but even if you do, i'll get stressed out as hell anyways!  ) and telling people to not do drugs on subscriber count celebration streams (like hell they are worth it, raising mental darkness so high). And the ending was her quitting streaming and fucking me all day. 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

One of 21, ordinary fuck overdose included.

[Rolan7]

IM DED

[Robsoie]

On my Salt&Sanctuary adventure i was dreading the time when i would encounter spindlebeasts, as i heard they're insane.  But i avoided more spoilers about them so i had not even an idea of their looks.
Anyways, after completing the Ruined Temple (the boss can be extremely hard or easy depending if you can avoid or not to aggro the 2 ghosts at the same time) , i was left with 2 locations to go, the optional Pitchwood and the Siam Lake (that is required on the story).

Siam Lake is a short zone but home to the most magic spamming/hard hitting boss of them all, the Witch of the Lake. While Pitchwood has a boss said to be very easy but that has some drop that are very interesting to me in order to transmute my good 2 handed sword i am using since the Sodden Knight into a stronger one.
So of course, i decided to go to the optional zone, should be easy.

Spoiler: or so i thought (click to show/hide)

And after noticing on top of me there was a disappearing platform puzzle/mario lost levels-like path that seemed annoying (and very very long with too much platforming to do) i decided to continue on ground, hoping i could circumvent that nasty looking aerial flickering platform game.

Oh ! there are 3 white horses with odd horned heads (looks like a narwhal's head) , while i never saw those monsters until now , after all those boss beatings i was confident in my abilities after all that time, i approached ready to destroy those things.
Maybe i approached a bit too much as i aggro-ed the 3 horses in the same time, and they rushed to my position really faster than i thought, i managed to one shot (my great warhammer i had buffed with an elemental potion) the first one, but the 2nd one came in contact and impaled my character immediately , draining its life bar ... until he was dead .

It's where i learned the type of monster that killed my character : a ... spindlebeast, oh so it's them horned horse ?

2nd attempt, managed to attract the first one and killed it , then the 2nd one started to rush me, i decided to go with a warhammer jumping strike, except that the spindlebeast simply caught me mid air and impaled me again, draining my character to death (i thought i had lots of health at my level but a spindlebeast do not care)

3rd attempt, 1st beast killed again, then instead of jumping i stayed on the ground for the 2nd one and hit, excepted that bastard didn't die because he was the monster that had stole my salt by killing me before, and monster that own salt get a boost of health, basically i needed 2 strikes.
Unfortunately after the strike that didn't killed the monster, he impaled my character and drain-killed me again. 

Maybe i'll go back to my shield + weapon, but unfortunately a spindlebeast does not care about a shield, it will impale through your blocking...
 
Damn those.

Managed to finally defeat the 3 of them, the way i managed to deal with the 2nd more resilient spindlebeast was to take a health potion just before attacking it, so when it impaled me the healing effect was "fighting" his draining, resulting with me still alive when he finished his draining, allowing me to re-warhammer him in the face to kill that bastard.

Good thing is that continuing to move past the spindlebeast allow you to unlock some gate underground that join one of your sanctuary, allowing you to bypass the spindlebeast when coming back to Pitchwood.

Then i understood that the ground way in fact lead nowhere, looks like the boss can only be found by taking the long flickering platform path, and after trying several times, it's probably one of the worst thing of that whole game, much worse than spindlebeasts

[Robsoie]

In Salt&Sanctuary, i managed to clear the Crypt of the Dead Gods .
 

Spoiler: Defeating the boss of the location (click to show/hide)

and the optional boss that was found in a hidden big area of the crypt.

The spoilery nature of the optional boss present there was a surprise and a rather huge twist that hint about what has really happened at some point of the world history.
It made me much more interested in the lore hidden behind all the events and locations you're going through in Salt&Sanctuary . Lore is often vague as in most soul-like and is hinted from the few NPC dialogues and the many descriptions of every items and loot.

For people interested in world building and lore about Salt&Sanctuary
Inspired by "The Paleblood Hunt" , a Bloodborne analysis by Redgrave :
https://www.reddit.com/r/bloodborne/comments/3vaq4r/the_paleblood_hunt_finalized_and_revised_with/

There exist "The Drowned Tome - A Salt and Sanctuary Lore Analysis" by Asuko_XIII  , it's an interesting reading on the world behind that strange island, trying to tie informations together to answer the mysteries left behind and present the world around the game.
you can download the pdf/docx/epub there :
https://www.reddit.com/r/saltandsanctuary/comments/4g8o47/the_drowned_tome_a_salt_and_sanctuary_lore/

 

[nenjin]

They're working on Salt & Sanctuary 2 as well, which will feature coop. So if you enjoyed S&S (I know I did) get ready for moar.

[Robsoie]

They named the sequel " Salt & Sacrifice ", there are some trailer floating around. I wonder if it's a sequel in the same world or totally different.

Anyways Salt&Sanctuary for me was an odd experience at first after getting it as a freebie on the epic store.
Up to the Sodden Knight it was fun and original, i had some trouble beating that boss as i had invested in my tree skill in totally wrong way , but then i stopped playing because out of the blue absolutely everything was one-shotting my character regardless of armor or shield.  After repeated death again and again without feeling i was progressing anymore and having to come back from far again, it just ceased to be fun.

Only recently i learned why : i simply took the wrong passage (as the game seemed to point me there the most obviously), meaning that i was way under leveled for the zone that was my unfun wall.
Sure some people may like that, after all there are some player that edit their save to start directly in NG+ with a level 1 character. 

After going in the correct area (for the story progression) this time things got back to be fun, often challenging but enjoyable, it was also fun after beating a few bosses and zones to finally come back to the area in which i was underleveled (as the story progression had to go there now) and dealing with the challenge at the proper level (and better equipment, better focused skill tree) became way more interesting. 

I only have the last boss to beat in order to complete the game and it's been a lot of fun, so yeah it's a really good game when you follow the proper zone order

Sad they never published the game on gog (especially as Salt&Sanctuary is reported as being DRM free), hopefully for the sequel they'll do.

[Il Palazzo]

Anyways Salt&Sanctuary for me was an odd experience at first after getting it as a freebie on the epic store.
Up to the Sodden Knight it was fun and original, i had some trouble beating that boss as i had invested in my tree skill in totally wrong way , but then i stopped playing because out of the blue absolutely everything was one-shotting my character regardless of armor or shield.  After repeated death again and again without feeling i was progressing anymore and having to come back from far again, it just ceased to be fun.

Ok, where are you supposed to go after sodden knight and which way is it?
It's been a while, but from what I remember my experience was pretty much like you describe. That plus getting confused as to where I am and how I got there. I think I eventually gave up after having wandered into some bullshit platforming in the trees (I don't know, maybe that was the optional area with the horse-things you mentioned earlier).

[Robsoie]

After the sodden knight you should encounter a NPC on your way to the next zone (and that lead to the area you shouldn't go), the npc is supposed to reveal to you that there's another way under the castle you just came from (that had the Sodden Knight on top) .

This i very likely accidentally clicked too much as this is a part of the dialogue i never saw.

I don't remember where was the exact entrance as it's been more than two dozen of hours since i went there, but i remember the opposition was -much- more appropriate to my level.
Platforming wasn't really fun in Salt&Sanctuary, especially some part later that need you to bounce from walls (a power you'll get later) and "double jump" in the air (another power you'll get from later), coupling that with platforms flickering in and out of existence, long space between them up/down or left/right and it can quickly become extremely infuriating.
Nearly a miracle i managed to move through some area without throwing my monitor through the window.

[Akura]

Saw a video on Tiny Combat Arena, which releases into Early Access in a day or so. It's the first I've heard of it.

Some of the comments are people being reminded of various old flight sims from TCA's graphics style. The one it reminded me of, and I haven't seen any comments mentioning it, was the old freebie YS Flight Simulator. And I forgot I still had that one installed, haven't thought about that one in years. Looks like it was still being updated up 2018, though multiplayer hasn't worked since 2015 if I'm reading the version notes right.