Bloodborne is the bestest game. I’ve given up on Hollow Knight: it’s too bloody hard

I gave up on bloodborne early on - couldn’t get past the guy with the big axe. Yet I’ve done the majority of Hollow Knight.

I’ve also completed Demon Souls and Dark Souls.

The reason why it's so frustrating is also why it's so good, you've always got something in jeopardy, whether it's Souls (sorry, Blood Echoes) or progress. But you're always tempted to go around one more corner...

Just let me pause the fucking thing.

You don’t have to use the map, but if you’re not enjoying the courses, I suppose it doesn’t matter.

Just pulled the plug on a couple of Switch games; those being

Sonic Mania Plus - quite liked Sonic Mania for being such a no nonsense, supercharged Mega Drive style Sonic.  Didn't really enjoy the new characters' special abilities introduced in Plus.  They're a little bit too fiddly for me.  Would much prefer to just zip through a level without thinking too much.  The new Yellow guy does look really cool though.

Snake Pass - if the new sonic characters are too fiddly for me, then I had no hope with this!  Anything more complex than slithering along the ground had me nearly throwing my Switch across the room.  My own fault; heard it was a collect em up platformer with complex/novel controls going in, and that's exactly what it is.

pantyfire wrote:

Celeste - not what I was expecting at all after going in blind. A few screens in and there's stupi combo jumps, falls into insta death that need to be experienced once to be able to know what to do and the dash on the Xbox controller seems to be very poor when it comes to direction, so for a precise platformer that's a can't be arsed from me.

I had to put the easy mode on Celeste because I'm just really shit at it. It's a shame because I love the story and the cheaty mode has made the gameplay feel pretty pointless but I felt like there were too many bullshit deaths (probably still my fault tbf)

I've posted this vid before in the Celeste thread, but it really sums it up for me:

Yeh, that video is not selling it to me.

The Messenger

Thoroughly enjoyed the platforming 8 bit part, great controls, great music.

Then you get to the 16 bit and freedom to travel around the map.  Initially, that is great also - fun switching between 8 and 16 bit (graphics and music), and exploring new parts of the map.

Then it descends into unfocussed wandering and I had no real idea where to go next as it's not like there are obvious parts of the map you recognise as needing an extra ability to get to.  Couple that with a few pointelessly frustrating platform sections and my desire to contine playing evaporated almost instantly.

The 8 bit part is excellent and worth playing for that.  There is probably lots I haven't seen, but naa.

Bulb Boy (Switch)

Only played maybe 40 minutes. Utterly bored already.

No, they were always fucking awful. PlayStation's answer to Mario 64, dear me.

Properly bobbins, but as a bit of crossover from the Level Design thread I was a bit obsessed with them as a kid and used to screenshots from my own Crash levels, especially the sewer style ones.

Definitely the weakest of the three mascot titles that appeared in that period (time has been far kinder to NiGHTS).

Yeah, Crash is trash. It's a mystery why they became so popular. It's not even a good character.

Bowsers Inside Story 3DS Remake

It's a beautifully presented little game but it wore away at me over the 10 hours or so I spent with it.  Found it a bit too fiddly with the controls (with the top 2 face buttons controlling Bowser on the top screen, and the bottom 2 face buttons controlling the Mario Bros on the bottom.  My muscle memory for the very top face button being the menu button in JRPG's did my head in!).  There's a bit of Nintendo DS gimmickery as well which results in a lot of varied mini games, few of which are compelling.  

Battles with the riff raff enemies are about as common as a normal JRPG, but far more involved, with having to time your button presses etc at the correct time.  Lots of button mashing is not fun on the bus.  There is something to be said about normal RPG fights that are over and done with quickly.  Found it quite disheartening, having a 2 minute fight and getting a tiny trickle of EXP for it.

Tipping point was a puzzle that required regular swapping between Bowser and Mario Bros, which takes longer than is ideal.  The puzzle wasn't hard but it was taking ages, over several screens, and was too fiddly to worry about.  It was really tedious so I pulled the pin.