April 21 – April 27

Section: 

It's pretty much a given at this point that Dark Souls is an exceptionally good game. It's just that it's not an exceptionally good game for me. I've tried to psych myself up to play Dark Souls or its sequel, which arrives on PC this week. I've watched gameplay videos. I've managed to occasionally not tune out Shawn or Cory when they start talking about it. I've read articles about it. And I always end up in the same place: It sounds like you guys are having a lot of fun, and I don't want to play it.

Still, on a week where there's not much else to talk about, I'd be remiss not to give it the nod it is so sorely due for its PC arrival.

I used to be more bitter about games not launching at the same time on the PC as they do console systems, but what I'm finding in practice is that I make a lot better buying decisions by being able to see what kind of legs the games have after a few weeks on the market. If Titanfall for the PC had come out a couple of weeks after it hit the consoles, I might not have been so quick to pull the trigger. It's not that it's a bad game at all, it's just that it's one of those games that seemed to have a half-life of about 5 minutes.

PC
- Dark Souls II
- Trials Fusion
- Max: The Curse of Brotherhood
- FRACT OSC
- Perpetuum
- Blackwell Epiphany
- Tesla Effect: A Tex Murphy Adventure

PS4
- Octodad: Dadliest Catch
- Cel Damage HD

Xbox 360
- Warface

PS3
- Cel Damage HD

Wii U
- LEGO The Hobbit
- NES Remix 2
- Super Mario Advance 3: Yoshi's Island

Vita
- Demon Gaze
- The Walking Dead: Season Two
- Cel Damage HD

Comments

I'll be binging on FRACT until the weekend of souls arrives.

Getting my Kickstarter copy of the Tex Murphy game, and that's it for me

FRACT caught my attention a fairly long time ago. So long ago that I forgot about it. Anyway, it's good to see that it's finally being released. I think I'll be pulling the trigger on it. Pile be damned.

Demon Gaze for the Vita looks interesting. Otherwise, that is it for me!

Finally!

IMAGE(http://i.minus.com/iberRuVSc6ppWd.png)

IMAGE(http://i.minus.com/ibzJaMTuoeLEH3.gif)

The wait has been agony.

DS II - I know exactly what you mean. I've watched multi episode play throughs of the first one, things which purport to be 'Beginner's Guides', read endless bits of information etc...and am still thoroughly convinced that if I bought it, then my controller and the wall would pretty soon have a climactic coming together. The vaguely 'hipsterish' vibe that emanates from many of the videos doesn't really impress me either...it's probably just my prejudices, but the 'we're playing this super hard game, and this is my 6th run through, and you have to do A followed by B followed by a completely non-sequitur C else you'll never get it' really gets on my tits. It's like if the people who write for Pitchfork could play a game, this would be it. If they ever finished convincing themselves that the Strokes were the best band ever.

Yes, the Souls games have that gaming hipster thing going on, but if you ignore the BS they're really great games. Sure, they're not for everyone and the difficulty thing gets blown way out or proportion, but From Software hit on something that was missing in gaming.

Sean likes his polished experiences and I'm not sure the Souls games are for him, but when someone comes along and delivers on a more refined package I think he'll join in. Just like how many people didn't like Armored Core but loved Chromehounds.

Cel Damage HD?

2 questions: They decided to do an HD remake of an old GameCube title and it was Cel Damage and not, say, Chibi Robo? Who's on crack?

And the second question is: since Sony has explicitly said they won't support BC for PSN titles, will anyone buy this?

The last Steam sale had DS going for about £4 - I'd pick it up for that and have a good go at it.

doubtingthomas396 wrote:

Cel Damage HD?

2 questions: They decided to do an HD remake of an old GameCube title and it was Cel Damage and not, say, Chibi Robo? Who's on crack?

Nintendo owns Chibi Robo (and recently released a new one on the 3DS), so that's why you're not seeing that one remade for the PlayStation.

And the second question is: since Sony has explicitly said they won't support BC for PSN titles, will anyone buy this?

It's releasing on the PS4, as well, so people can get it on their platform of choice.

garion333 wrote:

...the difficulty thing gets blown way out or proportion...

I played Demon's Souls for two nights and never reached the first checkpoint. I think that's a difficulty level of pretty epic proportions.

Tanglebones wrote:

Getting my Kickstarter copy of the Tex Murphy game, and that's it for me

The latest Atlus newsletter arrived in my email box and it says they had to push the release back to May 7th

shoptroll wrote:
Tanglebones wrote:

Getting my Kickstarter copy of the Tex Murphy game, and that's it for me

The latest Atlus newsletter arrived in my email box and it says they had to push the release back to May 7th :(

Just saw :/ - I've got enough of a backlog that it's not the end of the world. The two I'm really going nuts waiting for are Wasteland 2 and Torment

Tanglebones wrote:
shoptroll wrote:
Tanglebones wrote:

Getting my Kickstarter copy of the Tex Murphy game, and that's it for me

The latest Atlus newsletter arrived in my email box and it says they had to push the release back to May 7th :(

Just saw :/ - I've got enough of a backlog that it's not the end of the world. The two I'm really going nuts waiting for are Wasteland 2 and Torment

Crying in my beer over here too, but I've got plenty to keep me busy. Until the 7th, Mutant League!

davet010 wrote:

DS II - I know exactly what you mean. I've watched multi episode play throughs of the first one, things which purport to be 'Beginner's Guides', read endless bits of information etc...and am still thoroughly convinced that if I bought it, then my controller and the wall would pretty soon have a climactic coming together. The vaguely 'hipsterish' vibe that emanates from many of the videos doesn't really impress me either...it's probably just my prejudices, but the 'we're playing this super hard game, and this is my 6th run through, and you have to do A followed by B followed by a completely non-sequitur C else you'll never get it' really gets on my tits. It's like if the people who write for Pitchfork could play a game, this would be it. If they ever finished convincing themselves that the Strokes were the best band ever.

I'm not sure I see the "hipster" so much as a the broader elitist vibe.

I find it odd at how hesitant people are to go after Dark Souls now that I've had the pleasure of jumping into the scary unknown. But I also feel I did it with the right mindset, which made all the difference in the world.

Then again, I don't want anything to do with GTA or Saints Row.

mrtomaytohead wrote:

I find it odd at how hesitant people are to go after Dark Souls now that I've had the pleasure of jumping into the scary unknown. But I also feel I did it with the right mindset, which made all the difference in the world.

I can't speak for other people, but at this point the endless evangelism for Dark Souls has been more off-putting than anything else.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
mrtomaytohead wrote:

I find it odd at how hesitant people are to go after Dark Souls now that I've had the pleasure of jumping into the scary unknown. But I also feel I did it with the right mindset, which made all the difference in the world.

I can't speak for other people, but at this point the endless evangelism for Dark Souls has been more off-putting than anything else.

Let's talk about JPRGs for a moment then.

garion333 wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:
mrtomaytohead wrote:

I find it odd at how hesitant people are to go after Dark Souls now that I've had the pleasure of jumping into the scary unknown. But I also feel I did it with the right mindset, which made all the difference in the world.

I can't speak for other people, but at this point the endless evangelism for Dark Souls has been more off-putting than anything else.

Let's talk about JPRGs for a moment then. :P

Eh, no one was going to play anything not called "Final Fantasy" anyway, so if my evangelism puts them off, no loss.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

I can't speak for other people, but at this point the endless evangelism for Dark Souls has been more off-putting than anything else.

I can get on board with that. There is tons of popular media I can't stand because it was too hyped before I got to it. Then again, anyone selling Dark Souls as a perfect game is either a liar or delusional. It has greatness, but a bunch of funky bits that could/should be better / fixed. But From software seems to operate that way. 3D Dot Game Heroes hit me the wrong way with a few things so it was just merely an ok/good game.

Dark Souls can't be hyped too much.
It surely isn't about the difficulty though. All the games can be made quite easy, if you choose to do so.
Where they excel is at being the most rewarding exploration games out there imo.
Go down that off-the-road path over there? You will likely find something cool, whether it is an item, another weird piece of lore or similar.

Shadout wrote:

Dark Souls can't be hyped too much.
It surely isn't about the difficulty though. All the games can be made quite easy, if you choose to do so.
Where they excel is at being the most rewarding exploration games out there imo.
Go down that off-the-road path over there? You will likely find something cool, whether it is an item, another weird piece of lore or sudden death.

FTFY

Awesome items, lore or death. It is all the same in my head
That risk is what balances the reward of course. Cool stuff around every corner, without any risk involved in exploring said corner, would make for a boring game imo.

Shadout wrote:

Dark Souls can't be hyped too much.

Just about anything can be over-hyped. Only exceptions that come to mind are theological in nature.

Double dipping on day 1 for Dark Souls 2 PC. The biggest problems with the console release are technical in nature, so it should be cool to see what the fancy PC version looks like.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

I can't speak for other people, but at this point the endless evangelism for Dark Souls has been more off-putting than anything else.

Sorry, but it's hard to stop when the nectar tastes so sweet

wordsmythe wrote:
Shadout wrote:

Dark Souls can't be hyped too much.

Just about anything can be over-hyped. Only exceptions that come to mind are theological in nature.

Oh no you di'n't.

I agree with Sean on his assessment of Titanfall in the last few sentences. I don't buy many games when they are first released but I did with Titanfall. I find myself still playing occasionally but not as much as I would have thought. Trials looks a little interesting but I've never played a Trials game so not sure if it would be my cup of tea. Oh well, I guess I'll hit the backlog until another sale pops up.

wordsmythe wrote:
Shadout wrote:

Dark Souls can't be hyped too much.

Just about anything can be over-hyped. Only exceptions that come to mind are theological in nature.

i liked Loki before he was cool.

MrDeVil909 wrote:
wordsmythe wrote:
Shadout wrote:

Dark Souls can't be hyped too much.

Just about anything can be over-hyped. Only exceptions that come to mind are theological in nature.

i liked Loki before he was cool.

The gods are difficult to over-hype.

Tanglebones wrote:

Just saw :/ - I've got enough of a backlog that it's not the end of the world. The two I'm really going nuts waiting for are Wasteland 2 and Torment

Oh man. I put in far more hours than I was expecting into the Beta... They just updated it and I'm trying to resist jumping back in, as I don't want to totally spoil everything in the early game (I would have flat out failed that particular saving throw had it not been for Might and Magic X hitting the Macs, finally.)