As Iāve said before, Iāve got a full-time job. Fair play to you for sitting on your arse and going through the game six times. Thatās a real achievement.
Code for youāre struggling at it, as I said Iāve took my time and got 100% on the first go through not I can smash it in 90mins roughly.
Yeah, I saw the screenshot you deleted saying so. Iām dubious about your overall claim. You mean to say you never died once?
Anyway, if you fancy doing something really hard, Iād suggest one of the following options.
- The Dark Souls games
- A 9 to 5 job.
Died many times just can play games slightly above average thats all, just wait until youāve fought some difficult things in Elden Ring and then comment. If youāre in a 9/5 why arenāt you working now? You canāt be skiving surely?
Then you didnāt finish it first time and youād still be getting g speared by the Tree Guardian without Gareth Google
You were saying?
Indeed I did. But Iām not claiming to be an uber gamer. I think I specifically said that Iād be too old, too shit and would probably spend Ā£50 notes on it and never play it. That happened with Dark Souls. Iāve got the remastered version on PC and I donāt think Iāve gotten out of the nick yet.
Can I just say that it amuses me that you are relentlessly competitive?
Can I also say that it must be fucking depressing to live a life predicated on shitting on other peopleās good times?
Can I finally say that I will beat Elden Ring? Itās not Dark Souls. You can grind your way into contention for every boss battle and you can run away like a pansy on your horse in most circumstances.
Any muppet can do it. Itās just a question of time. Thatās why twelve year olds, students and you are particularly āgoodā at it.
Triggered, I also said I was an average gamer, and yes I am competitive but I know my limits.
Then the only differentiator is time.
I wish my missus paid for everything but she doesnāt. I have to do at least forty hours a week and am on call for 112 hours a week.
Someone has to pay the bills. I wish it was not me. Bravo Barry for figuring it all out!
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I work 35 hour week minimum and then maybe 45 hours, if youāre on call for that long then I suggest joining a union and getting better working conditions as yours are wank.
If you are one of these people that swerve a lot of games due to not being able to move and look around at the same time, I have a question and a recommendation.
Q: How the fuck do you manage in real life? Even Batman in Batman Begins could move his eyes.
Recommendation: Road 96. Available on GamePass. Itās a first-person adventure in which youāll have a blinding time and can learn all this moving and looking at the same time shit without being harangued by hell-demons, etc.
Cracking little soundtrack too.
Finally making progress on Castlevania : Symphony of the Night. Itās 25 years old.
Or should that be Catslevania?
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So 25 years later, I have completed Castlevania : Symphony of The Night. A bit. I got the bad ending. To get the good ending, you have to find a way to save, not kill the final boss.
At this point, the entire castle flips upside down and you get to start on the real endgame. Going to do it.
It is a fantastic example of the genre, btw - and inspired a whole slew of games afterward. If I had any gripes, itād be that one of the powers you get (wolf form) is a bit shit. Havenāt found much use for it yet.
However, the game really opens up when you get other forms. Turning into a bat to explore the nether regions of the castle is always fun.
I recently reported that I saw one ending for Castlevania : Symphony of the Night, a 25 year old game released for the original Playstation. Iāve now done the proper ending, which only opens up through a specific set of circumstances.
I would probably still be hacking away if not for YouTube. Saw a good video on the most overpowered weapon in the game, quickly procured one myself and spent the rest of the run going through enemies like hot knife through butter.
It has aged a lot better than most other PS1 games. Pixel art looks great today still and some of the music is superb.
Iāve moved onto Bloodstained : Ritual of thre Night, a modern spiritual successor directed by the auteur behind SOTN.
Regular readers will remember me talking about Castlevania : Symphony of the Night and moving onto its spiritual successor, Bloodstained, Ritual of the Night.
Itās by the same creator so I donāt feel itās sacrilege saying this. I think itās the batter game. The fundamentals are essentially the same. Itās one giant 2D map that you can explore, with certain parts inaccessible until youāve acquired certain abilities.
The original also saw you change form a lot. You were able to switch into a bat, a cloud of mist or a wolf. It was an entirely new mechanic back then, even though wolf form was next to useless.
Bloodstained refines on this. The protagonist can absorb shards, bits of a creatureās essence, from anything she kills - which gives her a bit of their ability. You can level each of these up, either through crafting or killing more of the thing that gave you the ability in the first place.
The graphics are marvelous; I was worried about losing the pixel art charm - but this game has a charm of its own. Light spilling through stained-glass windows as you mash a morning star into somethingās mush.
That, and the fact that each trip is made worthwhile, either through loot drops of opening up new areas of the map, means backtracking is not the pain in the arse it can be.
Itās on my two game rotation list and is good on everything except the Switch, where it runs like arse.
Iāve been taking a look at the new Saints Row game, a series I have much affection for. I want to chat about this one because it has middling reviews, and I donāt know why.
The series began as the XBox 360ās answer to GTA, initially going for a more serious vibe, but as GTA itself got more serious, the developers Deep Silver decided to embrace the craziness of the original GTA games. Saints Row 2 was bananas. Saints Row 4? Fucking hatstand.
A wonderful thing about Saints Row, for Saints fans, is that your gang is continuously referred to as The Saints, which I think is excellent.
As a long term fan, Iām liking nearly everything theyāve done here. As someone who has done more than my share of open world games, theyāve ripped off a fair few mechanics, such as wingsuiting and towing, from the Just Cause series.
Iāve been playing it in ultra-quality 1080p mode, which is something I want to see more of. Iām fine with normal HD if you can bung lovely effects about.
Been having a look at Grid Legends. Itās on Gamepass.
Surprisingly good. Essentially a lot like the Netflix TV show Drive to Survive. Wouldnāt have felt jipped if Iād paid full price for this.
Having a look at Death Stranding on Gamepass PC. Thanks to @gavstarās comments, I had an idea of what to expect. Its critics have derided it as a walking simulator. It kind of is, but itās also worth remembering that itās a Hideo Kojima game. Itās a fucking weird fucking good walking simulator.
Iāve just played my way through the prologue. Very tense, very good cinematography and probably something I wonāt forget for a bit. Mind you, MGS V had one hell of an intro sequence and I lost interest in the game about 30% through.
I think MGS3 was the last Kojima game I actually finished. Time will tell on this one but so far, so good.
Stick with it. It is an absolute grind at times but well worth it in my opinion.
Given the rocky release it had, it may surprise some to know that Cyberpunk is one of the best games you can play in 2022. Since launch, the devs have made a number of patches which have improved performance and removed bugs.
If this game had been release then as it is now, itād be one of the most celebrated games of the generation. It does take elements from other games, such as Grand Theft Auto, Deus Ex and the Fallout series, but seems now at least, to do it all better.
You can build your character whatever way you want. Iāve elected to do most of my fighting with a blade, because you donāt need ammo and you can dismember your foes.
The story is also excellent despite featuring a lot of Keanu Reeves.
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