Bjomesphat

Fair enough. But I would definitely hold off on doing anymore chalice dungeons. As for your question, you're certainly not underleveled for the DLC, so you could do it now. The DLC is harder than most of the main game, so if you do it now you will probably have a tough time. Which would then make going back to the main game even easier. If you finish the main game first, the DLC should still be a healthy challenge. If you go for the Moonlight Sword, you have to beat like 1/3 of the DLC. If you end up doing the main game first, just don't beat the final boss until you've finished the DLC. It will take you to NG+.

108 and you just beat Rom?! Yeah, the rest of the game including the DLC is going to be trivial for you. You're definitely overleveled. And from personal experience, it's probably going to lessen the experience by a ton. The atmosphere of these games is built on the idea that you have to be mindful of every step you take, while weighing the risk/reward of where to go and how to fight. Being too powerful takes away all of the tension and challenge and you're left with a middling experience. Personally, I'd start over and not touch the chalice dungeons. I did something similar on my 2nd playthrough. I beat the game when it launched, but never did the DLC. I re-played the game, but before I did the DLC I wanted to beat some of the really challenging chalice bosses. Well unfortunately that made the DLC a breeze, and it just wasn't that interesting to me. If I could do it over again I would have done the chalice dungeons after the DLC or even on NG+.

What I meant was, within each area it all blends together. The rooms aren't memorable enough and everything is so dense that I was in my map for half the game.

I think a lot of my problem with Hollow Knight is that it all kind of looks the same, and the level design is more convoluted than necessary. When I think about Super Metroid, I can visualize every room in my head because it's so unique. Hollow Knight has great art and atmosphere, but everything just blends together and you're constantly in your map trying to navigate. Another thing with Super Metroid, as long as you're not sequence breaking, it really funnels you down the critical path as long as you're being the slightest bit observant. In Hollow Knight, you can go a lot of places with only a few select upgrades. I don't even think I got the second in-air dash upgrade until like 25 hours in or something, because I went one way and not another.

Thank you, I'm glad others think this way. The pacing is really bad, and like you said, it's so bloated. I almost always 100% Metroidvania games, but I gave this one 30 hours and just gave up after that. That's insane for pretty much any single player game that isn't an RPG. I didn't even touch the DLC. I do think the game looks and plays great, but combat and traversal is severely lacking. One of my favorite aspects of Metroidvanias is getting a variety of powerups and interesting ways to traverse. Hollow Knight had none of that. You use the same weapon and charge shot for the whole game. I also love feeling like a total badass by the end of a Metroidvania, Hollow Knight pretty much feels the same for the whole game.

Since the first 3 are basically a given, imo, I'll give 8. 1. Super Metroid 2. Metroid Prime 3. SotN 4. Blaster Master 5. Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom 6. Alien Isolation 7. Super Adventure Island II 8. Goonies II Honorable mentions: Prey, Cave Story, Bloodstained, Axiom Verge

Two months ago, Amazon had a bundle deal for NSMBU and MK8 for $60. I was in the same boat as you. Owned both games on the Wii U and refused to pay full price, so $30 each isn't too bad. And I never got to play Luigi U so I'm excited for that.

I think this looks great. Didn't play BtS because I felt I saw enough of the story, and LiS2 looked completely uninteresting all together. I'm really glad this isn't episodic though, but I'm also hoping it's not just 5 parts stitched together. Being able to explore the town and do things that don't necessarily progress the plot would be awesome.

Sure, but you have to go in the DLC and find them in the world.

My receiver doesn’t have eARC support, or even ARC. And my setup would be a pain re-routing to the TV instead of the receiver. I think I can wait though. My only problem is my receiver’s hdmi out is busted and I hope the whole unit can last a little longer.

I've seen maybe a quarter of those? I know of most of them but have decided long ago I have no interest in watching. Watching a trailer of Guinea Pig 2 in college was more than enough for me. Stuff like A Serbian Film though almost becomes a parody. Like it's so serious and full of itself that it's going to shock you like no other, it actually becomes cheesy and a bore to watch. Martyrs on the other hand, that scarred me for life, and pretty much turned me off of extreme cinema. Looking at this list now, there's a lot I would have immediately jumped on 10 years ago, but I just don't have it in me anymore. Funny story, when Netflix streaming first came out, they had the movie Slaughtered Vomit Dolls on there. I just found that so bizarre since it's basically just exploitation and gore. It was removed pretty quickly though.

I think some of last year's Samsungs have Gsync too. Tbh, I don't really understand much about either formats. I know Gsync only works with Nvidia cards, and FreeSync is supposed to be an open standard that AMD uses, but should work with Nvidia cards? I dunno. But I'm desperate for a new TV. I've had a Samsung LED for over 7 years now, and I need to jump on the 4k train. But I know if I'm patient it will be worth it in the end investing in a good mid-range TV from this year. I also need a new receiver badly, but that's another mess as VRR support is even worse. I think almost all of the receivers released last year have a hardware fault that severely limits VRR.

Edit: Looks like I was wrong about the regular Quantum, it does support VRR. Though it seems like it has issues with Nvidia? I'd check out the review and do some more research. https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/vizio/p-series-quantum-2020 Only the Quantum X has VRR, not the one you've linked to. Also keep in mind it only support FreeSync, not Gsync. I think only LG TVs have Gysnc support. However, I still think you can use it with your card, but apparently the VRR capabilities are limited. The Quantum X 65" is the TV I was waiting all of 2020 for, but decided to hold off as it still felt half baked in terms of HDMI 2.1 support. I'm waiting for some 2021 models to come out before I pick up a new TV. Here's the RT review to read about VRR. https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/vizio/p-series-quantum-x-2020

Mostly here and ResetEra. Basically just use message boards as a news aggregator.

I have the first one I need to play. How do these compare to other metroidvania's this gen? Like Hollow Knight, Axiom Verge, Bloodstained, Monster Boy, Ori, etc.

Does that have HDR passthrough? Does it passthrough HDMI 2.1 features? That was my concern with getting this.

About finished with this one on the Switch. I don't know where it was at launch, but I probably wish I had gotten it on PC. Obviously I like that it's portable, but the 30fps was a real bummer, and load times are pretty bad. Like just switching rooms can sometimes take 2-3 seconds depending on the location, and after a death it can take 30 seconds to reload. Not sure if a new Switch would really help. Seems like bad programming.

I wish I would have done it sooner, tbh. I just finished a second playthrough of BB since it released so I could do the DLC for the first time, and I smoked every boss. Like first try on most of them, even the final boss that everyone says is one of the hardest in a From game. This is in no way a bragging post, more of a warning to watch your level. As it's really easy to over level in this game.

I hope they bundle this with and Aim controller. Can you even buy those anymore?

I would say if you're afraid you will be turned off by Soulsborne games, than BB is a good starting point. It's a more streamlined Souls experience and it's something you just want to keep playing because the setting is so unique. I think it's easier to be turned off initially by the other games than BB. With that said, I do think there is value in starting at the beginning, as the progression of the gameplay mechanics and QOL features is better suited playing in order of release. Basically if BB is your starting point, the other games might feel more rough around the edges and clunkier. Personally, I would say play Dark Souls first. It's the one that really put From on the map, and I still think it's the best game they've made. However, I'm not sure I would have appreciated it as much had I played some of the later games that had a chance to iterate more on the mechanics.

It's weird, the Guardian Ape was so hyped up for me as a game killer for a lot of people, but it ended up being not that big of a deal when I got to him. I love the boss fight, and think it's one of the best From has done, but I found it pretty manageable after about 30 minutes of attempts. For me I think the hardest bosses in the game is Owl 2 (in Hirata), and Demon of Hatred. Those easily took longer to beat than any Soulsborne boss. I would also say the first time you fight Genichiro on your first run. Up until that point, you can kind of brute force your way through the game, even with Lady Butterfly you don't really have to play by the "rules". But once they throw Genichiro at you, you better know how to play or you will be grinding him for a long time. It's funny going back and fighting him after beating Saint Isshin, it's like playing in slow motion. It's amazing how much your skills improve over the course of the game.

Thanks! Yeah it was a new construction about a year and a half ago, I didn't build it myself or anything. Just picked out the type of house we wanted on the plot we chose. Then customized the whole interior and some of the exterior. It's always been my dream to have a big yard, and a single family home so I can blast movies/games/music without care. Got really lucky though because finding something like this that is affordable in the Northern Virginia area is almost impossible.

Built a new house and had everything wired in the walls. My living room has a 5.1 setup with speakers in the walls and ceilings. I love it. Also love being able to mount a TV without having a cable raceway. HTPC on the right. Switch, PS4, and all of my mini retro consoles are in the cabinet. Everything else is in boxes. All my blurays are ripped then put on my Plex server. Getting a new TV this year. Just waiting for some good LED HDMI 2.1 compatible. Comfy couch

Ooo I like this. I love a good challenge and I'm not intimidated by any kind of game, with that said, I rarely go above the standard difficulty because I don't just want an artificial increase. I want to play the game how the developer tuned it for and is intended to play. I often find difficulty from a menu just turns into frustration and tedium, whereas a hard game on it's own like Souls or Celeste is very rewarding.

Is this the same tired, "Souls games aren't actually hard, you just have to recognize patterns, memorize enemy attacks, and understand how the game works"? This is pretty much the case with literally every game to varying degrees. Can't we just all agree that Souls games are hard, and there's nothing wrong with admitting that? Because really, what's the alternative for hard modern games? Dark Souls games are hard because the gameplay systems are obtuse and it requires a lot of focus to manage your endurance while quickly reacting and countering enemy attacks. BUT, they're made easier when you have more understanding about key stats and gear upgrades, so you can build your character to help you. But this doesn't invalidate it's difficulty, because every game becomes easier once you have more knowledge about it. With Sekiro, the systems are very straightforward and the character gameplay is very easy to understand, so there's really not a high barrier for entry. What makes it way harder than any Souls game is you can't do anything in-game to increase your chance of success. You have to memorize patterns and execute moves at a pretty high accuracy rate. And like with every game, once you master this it's easy. And that's why subsequent playthroughs you can take down bosses in minutes versus potentially hours. But I still think Sekiro is very much as hard as people make it out to be. I actually really love Sekiro and it's one of my favorite From games. I didn't mind the lack of character customization probably because my Souls runs are always the same with a fast character, and a fast sword with minimal armor.