What I’ve Been Playing This Week

Furi: I’m playing Furi. I’m not going to write a lot about Furi. Because I’m utterly god awful at it.

Truthfully, I’m not entirely sure that I even enjoy it. What’s happening (or has happened, maybe) is very similar to my feelings to Enter the Gungeon at a certain point: a game that I persevere with out of love but out of stubbornness and compulsion. I’ll come back later (hopefully) with some better skills, and a more rounded view point.

Some evidence I’ve done something good in this game. A minimal amount of good stuff, but there’s still some there.

My natural dislike of bullet hell isn’t helping though. That’s not really helping at all.

Absolute Drift: It is a supreme feeling to play a game without the intent of getting a high score, of seeking technical brilliance or discovering some sort of transcendental, immersive experience but with the sole intent of having fun. All those things are great in their own ways but playing just for the fun of it is one of those pure experiences.

Absolute Drift is a game I come back to just to mess around in the over world. My days of getting the challenge scores are long since gone. I just like drifting around while listening to the game’s great sound track (best song is Crystal Hearts).

I just drift around, crash into walls, spin in doughnuts of varying sizes and try to do silly things. Like a few nights ago, by accident I almost jumped a fair distance from a ramp to a roof. And I spent the rest of my time dealing with near misses, decent attempts and things that landed in different area codes. But with enough effort, I made it. Completely pointless, but very satisfying.

All of them.

Just joyful to do something silly, free from the tyranny of high scores and purpose.

Dark Souls III: I’ve written lots about Dark Souls III over the last few months, but I don’t think I’ve written in any great detail about the Spears of the Church boss fight from the Ringed City DLC. It’s one of the few boss fights in the game that can give each player who attempts it a completely unique experience. I say “can” because it depends entirely who is summoned to face you.

Either an NPC is summoned (thoroughly okay and nothing else) or, far more excitingly another player is summoned to face you. Throughout the fight Painting Guardians can be summoned, and they heal the player (or NPC) with miracles as the opponent in this fight doesn’t get estus flasks. The Guardians will also harass and attack, but they aren’t tough to kill. Do be careful of the Painting Guardian Sword though. That thing can combo like no tomorrow.

The whole fight is cool (well, NPC version aside). You have no idea who you are going to face. It could be a mage, a pyromancer. A pure strength build can muscle in on you, or a swift dexterity build may attempt to shred you finely. Builds aside, humans do not act like an AI. They move in accordance with their own rhythms and do things an AI would not even consider. Running around for back stabs is one of those things. The AI in Dark Souls III really doesn’t do feints and spacing. It will not attempt to bait out your swing and then catch you in the aftermath of a move cooling down. And the AI certainly will not go for the Hornet Ring riposte.

Beyond the mechanical aspects of the fight, there’s also the demeanour of the player that needs to be considered. Sometimes a Spear of the Church will hang back, and let you finish off the Painting Guardians before having a one on one duel. That’s a pretty cool happening, and I’ve been lucky to have that. Some players will use the distraction of the Painting Guardians to try and fuck you up good and proper. And then there’s the demeanour of the person coming into the fight. Are you bringing a legion of summons, turning this into a gank? Remember, the Spear of the Church doesn’t get estus. Once the Guardians are gone, and it gets real close will you drink the estus, or leave it by you side? It’s a boss fight I get a lot of joy out, for these reasons and more.

And then the most important thing, the fashion souls. So many outfit combinations to check out. Some people have the best ability to co-ord outfits.

It’s just a really cool fight. And if you want to be a Spear of the Church, you’ve just got the simple task of defeating Darkeater Midir. Have fun with that.

Speaking of Darkeater Midir, I’ve found something cool (well, other people will have already found it but it’s new to me). The bridge that Midir divebombs before the Shared Graves bonfire, there’s a spot on there were Midir cannot hurt you will continue to divebomb, blowing fire everywhere and just looking cool. So naturally I started to record footage of the whole thing. Midir just looks awesome. Definitely in the Video Game Dragon Hall of Fame. Hell, make that the Dragon Hall of Fame.

And now for some general Dark Souls III stuff. I’m still mainly being a Warrior of Sunlight. In fact, it’s pretty much all I do now. It’s all I really want to do. I just really like helping people in the game and fighting bosses all over again something that never bores me. However, it’s just bosses I help with. Nothing like going through entire areas with people, because that leads to invaders being ganked and I don’t like ganking on either end.

One thing I’ve never noticed before with Dark Souls III is the little flourishes some weapons have with their movements. The R1 with the Onikiri will see a wonderful hand twirl upon returning to the players side. And the final R1 of Friede’s Great Scythe combo see the weapon twirled mid swing before landing the final blow.

I wonder what other little details I’m missing from this game.

I do love this game.

Bad North: For someone who said that he can’t think tactically I’ve somehow to managed to finish two strategy/tactics games in back to back weeks. Into the Breach last week, and Bad North this week.

I mean, I won with 6 troops left and all the houses where burned down on the final island but a win’s a win. It came in rather dramatic fashion as well. It was the final wave, and my right flank utterly collapsed. I was terrified of failing at this point, the thought of doing this again after being so close. But with a valiant sacrifice by my last band of knights (well, armoured dudes) and some very resolute pike men we held on. It felt great. It felt earned. And along the way I triumphed over my great enemy numerous times, the dreaded Vikings with great bows. Turns out hanging back and rushing them with elite armoured dudes does the trick.

For the curious, the winning combination was 2 sets of armoured dudes and 2 sets of pikemen. Usually I’d go with 2 armoured dudes, 1 set of pikemen and 1 set of archers. Archers are brilliant but 4 groups of close range troops does allow more flexibility in close fought battles. Up close archers can’t do anything and sometimes that can lead to a unreversable crisis. Whereas the others not having range isn’t nice, will be able to handle the nitty gritty work all of the time. That’s a great thing.

Onto the next rougelike!

On a more serious note, this game while being fun on the Switch does have issues (I meant to mention these on my first write up but forgot – many apologies). There are crashes, it’s possible to get stuck on an island on the map screen and I’ve had an enemy turn invincible so that I couldn’t finish an island that lead to a restart. It’s been updated with patches, but I’ve still been getting crashes. So just a heads up there.

Bullet Hell, The Loveliest Horse and Dragons Oh My.

Adventures in Bullet Hell and Shmups: This is the tale of two games. One in which I feel I can improve with each attempt and one in which I really don’t know what’s going on half the time. My Switch has been being used as a puzzle and dialogue game machine as of late but I had the pang for something a bit more action packed, something a bit more shooty bang bang. So I laid down my money for Enter the Gungeon. Meanwhile on my PS4 Astebreed had sat in my backlog for the longest time (read 6 months). Both of these games have bullet hell elements yet both games are taking different paths with me. I honestly feel like I’m making progress in Gungeon, getting to level 3 semi consistently feels pretty good. In fact I’m loving Gungeon with its combination of gamings most adorable dodge roll, incredibly fun weapon selection and the hitherto unknown joy of flipping tables over. Bonus points if the table has books on it. There’s a lot more I want to say about Gungeon at a later time so I’ll leave all that for now.

Now for a full disclosure I’ve spent less time with Astebreed. But with the final few bosses, Christ on a bike. There are points in Astebreed I have no earthly idea of what I am meant to do. In fact there are parts I can’t even see my own character in amongst all of the visual effects. I’m trying to follow the advice of hold down fire and focus on your own character, but it’s not going great. And when I win I don’t feel accomplished, just more of a sense of “thank fuck that’s over”. I’ll keep on going but things get better right? You learn how to work with shmups right? It just feels very overwhelming right now. Gungeon feels so much better with the way the bullets stand out from the back ground. In Astebreed at times it’s a complete neon nightmare. But onwards and upwards. Hopefully.

And I’m only playing on normal. Sweet Christ.

Agro is a lovely horse: This has already been discussed on this blog but I just really want to talk about this again. Agro is the most majestic and brilliant horse ever committed to a video game. There is a good chance that I care for Agro more than the woman Wander brings to the temple. Agro’s great.

Part of that is the fact she feels like a horse. Not a car with four legs, but a horse. So while at first she wasn’t the easiest to control I learned how to slightly lean her either way to maintain a gallop as opposed to just forcing her in a general direction. And that felt great. It really felt like we were establishing a bond and an understanding, which really helps to transform Agro from simple A to B transport to a trusted and loved travelling companion. When Agro is left to her own devices she will wander around for a bit, maybe she will drink from a pond or just take in the world around her. She actually feels alive, which feels really great.

https://gfycat.com/MisguidedHarshAfricanrockpython

Agro is also animated amazingly well. I mean just look at her running here. She really is majestic. And not just in between moments between the Colossi fights. Seeing Agro hold it together whilst the sand worm colossus chases her and Wander is pretty damn magnificent. Watching her keep pace with the flying colossus in the desert while Wander jumps onto its wing is another reminder of how much these two trust each other.

Basically what I’m trying to say is that I love Agro. In fact, this video should perfectly illustrate this feeling rather well.

 

 

 

 

That ought to do it.

The Joy of a Dragon fight: Whilst listening to the Darkeater Midir once again I was reminded of just how good a boss fight that is. And then my thoughts drifted to how good fights with dragons can be. For me I guess some of that is cultural. Being British St George is always there or abouts. Europe in general has always had mythological figures battling dragons; the battles with Fafnir and the dragon of Krakow are two that spring to mind. This can even stretch to dragon like beings, such as Thor’s end of the world showdown with Jormungundr.

https://gfycat.com/NimbleNauticalIbizanhound

In more quantifiable terms dragons are suitably big to create that epic David vs. Goliath feel in a fight and that always feels good to overcome. Their mythological standing gives them immense amount of credibility in terms of challenge. Their reptilian nature and appearance gives them a great primeval power and their ancientness means that they have seen much conflict in their lives and are just as battle tested as you the player. A good dragon fight is just something that is hard to beat.

Of course if I got the chance to make friends with a dragon ala the Nameless King, I’d take that as well. There’s lots of fun to be had with that premise.

What I’ve Been Playing This Week

Dark Souls III: Now that I’m back from Norway, and I’ve just finished the DLC, I want to talk about Darkeater Midir. I thoroughly enjoyed all of the DLC (just wish it was longer) but I really want to talk about Darkeater Midir.

I’ve spoken before about bosses in Dark Souls III and how I found them to be good but not as good as Bloodborne’s. How that particular fight – the Ludwig battle, the Kos war had eluded me. I had problems with the Demon Prince (although in retrospect I should have had less trouble), Sister Freide was pretty damn great (ended in a draw though – need to rectify that) but both required less than 20 attempts. Slave Knight Gael only took 6 to 7 attempts. Aside from Gael’s health the fight wasn’t bad – just required patience and practice. It was a great fight from an aesthetic point of view with the arena of the long ago city playing host to Gael’s story line coming to a close. That stuff was pretty great.

Then along came Darkeater. My first proper dragon fight in video games. I distinctly remember my first attempt. I got rid of roughly a quarter of his health. I also had no estus flasks left. The first ten or so goes maintained this theme. One attempt lasted the better part of 15 seconds. It was about roughly attempt 15 when Midir reached half health. So I set up these little milestones. Midir at half health. Then he’s at half health but I have estus flask’s remaining. Midir gets down to quarter health. Now he’s down quarter health and I have estus flask’s remaining. Those little mile stones keep me going in a boss fight like this.

(After the bridge section I may have assumed Midir couldn’t be that difficult)

Then it happened. Midir went for a biting attack. One lunge dodged. The second one dodged. There had been enough attempts to allow some kind of muscle memory to be formed. And then I started to run because I know he’s dropping back to spew forth a stream fire. Running parallel to the dragon fire then slamming the Dragonslayer Armour Axe into Midir’s head signalled the end. The dragon rocked back, staggered. What followed is one of the most satisfying R1 button presses ever resulting in a glorious riposte and the end of Darkeater Midir.

And then I read the description of Midir’s soul and feel bad for killing him. I know he was falling to the dark, but he was only doing what the God’s asked him to do. Poor fellow.

It’s one of the best boss fights I’ve had. First of all being a fight against a dragon gives the fight a sense of occasion. Midir’s size really makes gives his attacks a grand scale and a truly wondrous weight. Every hit feels forceful. And when he spews forth fire streams and dark energy beams it’s everything that a fight with an ancient dragon should be.

The rest of the DLC is really good but I just ended up loving the Darkeater Midir fight so much. I loved the snow fields of Ariendale (snow is always good) and I must give a shoutout to the Covian settlement. I really dig a ramshackle village with plenty of backstreets and alleyways to rummage through.

And the Ringed City is pretty good. The sheer drops down the dreg heap gave a real sense of depth and descent. The gorgeous views of the city made one want to advance and the surreal sight of the abyssal swamp was a glorious little hellscape. Also it was nice to catch up with Dragonslayer Armour again. I missed that dude. Plus I have to thank him for his weapon. It’s pretty good.

Just Cause 3: Finished it! Well the stories all wrapped up. Now it’s just messing around fun time. Honestly thought that I would have given the game up by now. Figured the game play loop would get boring. Very happy to have been proven wrong. Rico’s parachute and wing suit combine to form one of gaming’s most fun ways of getting about.

I am even going after the collectables. Just because it means I can do more wing suiting. Gliding through canyons and skimming over the ocean are wonderful experiences. I would honestly buy the game just for the wing suit, parachute and grappling hook alone. They really lift the game out being a generic sandbox game.

All of that said the game does have glitches. On occasion vehicles disappeared and sometimes the floor gave out. At one point I had to restart from a check point because the game wouldn’t stop targeting an enemy that was left over from a completed mission. They aren’t constant, but they are there. I’m playing on a PS4 Pro for those who are interested.

For my last point about Just Cause 3, I would like to profess my love for the trains in this game in the form of gif’s. God bless you you glorious locomotives.

Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice: I have enjoyed it so far, but I have some reservations.

Let’s get some story set up first. Senua is in search of her husband who has been taken by the North men (Vikings) and he now resides in Helheim (the Norse underworld). Senua sets off in order to bring him back.

Let’s start off on a positive note. The sound design is great particularly with the voices Senua hears in her head. Senua’s village (before the Vikings ravaged it) thought that Senua could speak to the Gods. In actuality Senua has a form of psychosis and this affects the game in a few different ways. The game recommends that you wear headphones and it soon becomes apparent why.

Senua’s village (before the Vikings ravaged it) thought that Senua could speak to the Gods. In actuality Senua has a form of psychosis and this affects the game in a few different ways. She hears voices, and when wearing headphones the voices come from all around. Some voices tell Senua she can’t do it, she can’t make it through this, and that she’s weak. Others tell her that she can do it, that she should get up when she falls down and reassure her.

In general I’m going to say this effect works very well. There is a genuine sense of being unnerved when all the voices are speaking at once and when combat gets tense the self doubt is definitely there and overcoming that feels good. However sometimes it can get annoying. Like when I’m lost in a level and trying to find something hearing “she’s lost” on a constant loop doesn’t feel good. But maybe that means its working, and that is how it’s meant to feel.

The psychosis also affects the visual end. By filtering the world through various gates thing appear and disappear. Walls fade away revealing paths and wooden planks come into view showing new ways across previously inaccessible areas. It’s a very cool effect and further throws Senua’s world view in uncertainty. Combining with the voices there is a very real sense of what is real and what isn’t.

Speaking of the visuals, bloody brilliant. Given Hellblade’s price point (£24.99) and market point (independent AAA) you would be hard pressed to tell the difference between this and a fully priced AAA game. Truthfully there is no difference. By turn’s colourful and dark and taking full advantage of its setting and the rich imagery that Viking mythology provides, it’s a world that is really worth exploring.

Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice has a really good photo mode.

And progressing requires exploration, with doors remaining locked until Senua finds the runes necessary to progress.  The runes are scattered the area’s nearby the door and are found by bringing environmental clues together to form the shape of the rune. Once Senua has this in her mind she can search for the other runes. When this mechanic is good, it forms really cool puzzles with a genuine feeling of cleverness upon completion.

When it’s bad it’s just annoying particularly when you have some things that are shaped as the rune but the game decides that not the thing you should be looking at. It hasn’t happened often so far, but it can occur. Also sometimes when walking around it isn’t always clear as to which ledges are climbable and which aren’t and which can be dropped off, and which can’t. It’s a small frustration but it’s there. It’s not open world, not as big as a Souls game or Metroidvania, but there are different paths to go down.

And let’s get to the combat. This is the year I discovered From  Software games. I now have expectations of combat. Hellblade’s combat isn’t that good. But it has does some things very well.

Enemies appear at certain sections. It’s pretty clear when this is happening because the screen gets something similar to an instragram filter on the screen which prompts Viking warriors to show up and fight Senua. They are hellish visions, further enhancing that effect of Senua’s mind vs reality. As hellish as they look, they aren’t the most difficult fights. Full disclosure I’m playing with the difficulty on Auto, but barring some hiccups when I was getting used to the combat I’ve found that blocking and then hammering buttons works well. These buttons included heavy and light attacks with a kick button. There’s also a dodge button, but I don’t find it as responsive as Bloodborne or Dark Souls.

Also backing away and having the enemy form into a little queue works just as well. The other problem is these fighting areas are essentially little blocked off arenas. There’s no chance to do Dark Souls things like using high ground and plunging attacks. And since Senua’s sword is the only weapon in the game (so far) there’s no real variance there so no fun time with axes or maces or anything else like that. Also, there is no real variance with the enemies. Outside of the boss fights, I’ve only ever encountered these guys over and over again.

But there is a lot Hellblade’s combat does really well. The sword does feel good to use, and attacks do have weight to them. The sounds of the sword coming into contact with flesh are visceral. And after being the struck the enemy shows it. Wounds show up, and correspond to slashes and stabs, which is nice attention to detail. Beyond that, the enemy will often show up initially with hands outstretched, almost goading. But as they take damage they visibly slow down, clutching shoulders and sides, walking slowly, their breath gradually fading. But the same happens to Senua, requiring care has to be taken. But seeing a boasting enemy reduced to limping is a nice feeling of progress.

There has been 2 boss fights so far, both with great presentation. But coming right on the tail of the Darkeater Midir fight, they are thoroughly okay. Good, but not great. They also do that annoying thing of ending in cut scenes for the final attack. I’m going to write more about this at some point in the future. It’s utterly infuriating.

Also a slight nitpick but there is a run button, but it’s really more of a jog button. And you can’t practice combat or dodging outside of the combat arenas. I like doing that so that has taken some time to get used to.

But I do want to keep going with the game. The setting works, and I just want to see Senua reach her journeys end. Melina Juergen’s does a great job with her portrayal of the embattled character. When Senua breaks down, it’s really difficult to watch. It makes her moments of peace all the better.

I’m definitely sticking with this game.

We Are Doomed: A thoroughly okay twin stick shooter with fun graphics and a nifty soundtrack. It’s pretty fun.