Path: ...!news.mixmin.net!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: Justisaur <justisaur@yahoo.com>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action
Subject: Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN JULY 2024?
Date: Thu, 1 Aug 2024 10:59:38 -0700
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
Lines: 136
Message-ID: <v8giea$29k3n$1@dont-email.me>
References: <1i3naj90mqqakd2jekrig0iflu0tpusmbc@4ax.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Injection-Date: Thu, 01 Aug 2024 19:59:38 +0200 (CEST)
Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="15c42392bd8a343677ec6713c3408677";
	logging-data="2412663"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org";	posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1/FppyT09GxWjmwKIPkKDpN5H1R4gJgll0="
User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird
Cancel-Lock: sha1:2LR+IVhu7WlOa4qJBHHDWSqdgtU=
Content-Language: en-US
In-Reply-To: <1i3naj90mqqakd2jekrig0iflu0tpusmbc@4ax.com>
Bytes: 6814

On 8/1/2024 6:44 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
> 
> 
> Did this month go by faster than the others? It seems like just a few
> days ago we were doing the June iteration of this thread. I barely got
> in any time to play video games too. How am I supposed to make a list
> of games I've played when there's no time to play the games?!?

Not a lot of time for me as I was away for a couple weeks.  Still got 
some mobile gaming in.

> * A Plague Tail: Requiem

> The core gameplay revolves around its stealth

I'm out.  I think it's more the slow going stealth takes in most games. 
It probably wouldn't bother me in a turn based game.

> * Mad Max

Fun game, short enough, Yeah there were some repetitive missions I 
didn't complete.  It felt Max Max enough for me, but more would've been 
better.

> 
> ---------------------------------------
> 
> And, yeah, believe it or not, that's it for me this month. Oh well,
> August lies ahead of us, so maybe things will pick up on the gaming
> front for me.
> 
> Anyway, enough about my playlist; what about yours?
> 
> What Have You Been Playing... IN JULY 2024?

TDLR;
** Elden Ring DLC
** Brotato (mobile)
*** Earth Defense Force 6

The Verbose:

** Elden Ring DLC

Mostly just more of the same of the base game, If you loved that, you'll 
love this.  It's just with more new weapons spells etc. some of which 
are slightly better, and somewhat more agressive/long attack chain 
monsters.  Difficulty isn't much if at all more than the base game as 
long you seek out and use the DLC leveling items, perhaps even less.

ER is already too big, and I'm well bored of it.  I'd love to try 
different builds, but the game is too long.  I could respec, but prefer 
to do new builds organically.  I still haven't finished it, but have had 
to rely more on looking things up as I've pretty much exhausted all 
easily accessed areas.  I'm trying to slog through the last bit, but my 
heart's definitely not in it anymore.

I still got more Inappropriate Activity Detected starting co-op cropping 
up before the last patch which just came out a day or two ago.  After 
verifying files in Steam it seems to be gone.  People are now blaming 
the dread "IAD" on the P2P networking matching getting overloaded. It 
was at least partially an issue with the cheat detection software too. 
I've pretty much stopped doing co-op as I just want it over with.

I did take a short break from the DLC to make a new character to "Play 
the Real Way" tm.  I started a Vagabond (knight) and was using only 
knightly weapons and nothing flashy, magic, or unrealistic for a real 
knight to use and no summons (I was using a talisman though) and no 
sequence breaking.  I got through Margret and all bosses fairly easily 
up to that point (other than the dragon which I didn't defeat!) under 
leveled as well at 25 (should be 30-40 by M.) It did take a little 
longer than my no restriction dex character, but not an awful lot.  By 
Margret I'd proved to myself I could do it, but I didn't really care for 
that sort of play so went back to the character in the DLC.

Part of my boredom with the game may just be I've finally gotten past 
the "Git Gud" stage of skill, and it isn't very challenging, but a lot 
is just how huge and repetitive it is.


** Brotato (mobile)

So this was a 'bullet heaven' oft cited as similar to and people's 
favorite after Vampire Survivors.  Well it appears to be only map, which 
is pretty boring, and the weapons etc. aren't terribly interesting in 
comparison either, it seems the SMG is the best weapon which you start 
accessible with, and the best character - ranger is also one you start 
with.

It's also somewhat full of MTX/adds.

 From looking up why people liked this game, people said the mobile 
version is much worse, as the PC version may not have the MTX, 
advancement is much faster as well. It works much better with a 
controller and more screen realestate which allows seeing the whole map, 
and allows you to dodge better.  While that is much more appealing, I 
don't really see anything in the game that would bring me back for more.

It at least kept me occupied when I was stuck on the cruise ship with 
nothing appealing to do.  It was rainy and cold, while a nice change 
from the heat here, it meant none of the above deck activities were good 
to do.  Most of the indoor activities seemed to be more geared to 
younger folks that may have been looking for friends/companions, which 
didn't appeal.  I also caught up on some movies, I saw the new top gun 
one, rewatched Princess Bride.  I watched some other movies that weren't 
memorable (since I don't remember them) and some Love Boat episodes.


*** Earth Defense Force 6

It's very similar to EDF 5, which is similar to EDF 4.1.  There's enough 
changes it's still interesting, and there's still slaughtering thousands 
of bugs, and getting in mechs etc.  The classes seem improved to me, 
with Air Raiders getting various attack drones that are very effective.

I mostly bought it to play with my daughter, and she was excited, but 
she lost interest after a couple days.  If she doesn't regain any 
interest soon, I'll start playing it by myself.  I'm much more exited 
about playing it than finishing ER, but I'm holding off for my daughter.

--------------------------------------------

It looks like I may not get a day off for months as I've been added to 
doing CloudStrike fixes.  Lots of OT perhaps at least, and I can sure 
use the money.  So I may not get much gaming in for quite awhile.

-- 
-Justisaur

  ø-ø
(\_/)\
  `-'\ `--.___,
   ¶¬'\( ,_.-'
        \\
        ^'