General Gaming Ok...the dust has settled. Which is better?

[best3444]

55 minutes ago, Paperclyp said:

*A week into a 60 hour game that most people will have barely scratched the surface of…

 

Well folks the dust has settled…

 

The dust has settled to make a good judgment in what is better, smart ass! 

 

I just checked and I'm 40 hours in. A lot of people here are really far into it so I decided to create the thread. 

[Kal-El814]

Tears of the Kingdom > Vampire Survivors > a million fuckin miles > Elden Ring

[best3444]

14 minutes ago, Kal-El814 said:

Tears of the Kingdom > Vampire Survivors > a million fuckin miles > Elden Ring

 

I see you talk about vampire survivors but I never know if you're being sarcastic. Is it really that good?

[Kal-El814]

Just now, best3444 said:

I see you talk about vampire survivors but I never know if you're being sarcastic. Is it really that good?

 

I'm not going to pretend that it's "as good" as Tears to Elden ring, but it's like taking a couple shots of 195 proof grain alcohol instead of having a well crafted cocktail. It's dumb and it's great.

[best3444]

1 minute ago, Kal-El814 said:

 

I'm not going to pretend that it's "as good" as Tears to Elden ring, but it's like taking a couple shots of 195 proof grain alcohol instead of having a well crafted cocktail. It's dumb and it's great.

 

Got it. It's definitely not my type of game but I know you and a few others here really had a good time with it. Thanks.

[Keyser_Soze]

9 minutes ago, best3444 said:

Got it. It's definitely not my type of game but I know you and a few others here really had a good time with it. Thanks.

 

It's on game pass you should give it a try.

[best3444]

16 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

It's on game pass you should give it a try.

 

I haven't turned on my Xbox since the tragedy of Redfall. Thanks for the heads up. I only focused on downloading that game and didn't see what else was being offered. 

[Keyser_Soze]

11 minutes ago, best3444 said:

 

I haven't turned on my Xbox since the tragedy of Redfall. Thanks for the heads up. I only focused on downloading that game and didn't see what else was being offered. 

 

I know you often disqualify yourself from enjoying a game before even actually playing it but Vampire Survivors is just a game you have to put your hands on and you'll be hooked.

[best3444]

21 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

I know you often disqualify yourself from enjoying a game before even actually playing it but Vampire Survivors is just a game you have to put your hands on and you'll be hooked.

 

MAYBE...

[Xbob42]

1 hour ago, best3444 said:

 

The dust has settled to make a good judgment in what is better, smart ass! 

 

I just checked and I'm 40 hours in. A lot of people here are really far into it so I decided to create the thread. 

The problem is, I feel like TotK just gets better and better the more you play and discover and actually engage with all the systems. The quality of Elden Ring is pretty consistent with some weak spots later on.

[best3444]

7 minutes ago, Xbob42 said:

The problem is, I feel like TotK just gets better and better the more you play and discover and actually engage with all the systems. The quality of Elden Ring is pretty consistent with some weak spots later on.

 

I take your word for it. I'm currently doing the water temple and it's fun. Like I said above, the gameplay is obviously more varied in TotK but I really was stunned by the world in Elden Ring. Is it because it has better tech behind it? I can't put my finger on that. 

[Paperclyp]

2 hours ago, best3444 said:

 

The dust has settled to make a good judgment in what is better, smart ass! 

 

I just checked and I'm 40 hours in. A lot of people here are really far into it so I decided to create the thread. 

 

You can certainly judge / compare the games. I think to really place either one in front of the other - assuming you enjoy both experiences - a certain amount of time needs to pass before you can actually come to a conclusion that is trustworthy. Our brains are very stupid and I think without that time we're susceptible to things like recency bias that cloud our judgment. 

 

Not sure who said it, but one of the gaming pods I listen to had an idea that you should do the game of the year a year later. Love that idea. 

[Xbob42]

14 minutes ago, best3444 said:

 

I take your word for it. I'm currently doing the water temple and it's fun. Like I said above, the gameplay is obviously more varied in TotK but I really was stunned by the world in Elden Ring. Is it because it has better tech behind it? I can't put my finger on that. 

It's because they remembered they were making a video game world, so the sky's the limit. Unfortunately they didn't seem to embrace that same freedom of expression and design when it came to new gameplay ideas to differentiate it from just being "big Dark Souls," which in the end was my biggest disappointment despite thoroughly enjoying the game. A lot of the game world was pretty but ultimately set dressing because of the limited ways to engage with it, besides like sliding off weird tree branch geometry and getting pissed. Still a fantastic game of course. Absolutely loved my time with it. But I wasn't nearly as mesmerized with it like I was with TotK, which only got more and more fun.

[legend]

The other thing you have to give to TOTK is just how fucking creative and awesome the combat can be. Obviously there is the crazy machines you can make, but even in the more "traditional" combat space good players can do some amazingly epic shit by playing on all the systems. My twitter feed is like 30% TOTK content at this point and some of the shared videos are really fucking cool. 

 

Ultimately, you'd be hard pressed to find a game with systems as expressive as the ones in TOTK, even ones that are built to be simulators of some sort. It's a staggering design and programming feat.

[best3444]

1 hour ago, Paperclyp said:

 

You can certainly judge / compare the games. I think to really place either one in front of the other - assuming you enjoy both experiences - a certain amount of time needs to pass before you can actually come to a conclusion that is trustworthy. Our brains are very stupid and I think without that time we're susceptible to things like recency bias that cloud our judgment. 

 

Not sure who said it, but one of the gaming pods I listen to had an idea that you should do the game of the year a year later. Love that idea. 

 

This is good stuff. I agree with what you are saying. Bias is a big issue with me sometimes so I get it.

 

1 hour ago, Xbob42 said:

It's because they remembered they were making a video game world, so the sky's the limit. Unfortunately they didn't seem to embrace that same freedom of expression and design when it came to new gameplay ideas to differentiate it from just being "big Dark Souls," which in the end was my biggest disappointment despite thoroughly enjoying the game. A lot of the game world was pretty but ultimately set dressing because of the limited ways to engage with it, besides like sliding off weird tree branch geometry and getting pissed. Still a fantastic game of course. Absolutely loved my time with it. But I wasn't nearly as mesmerized with it like I was with TotK, which only got more and more fun.

 

All very true. I'm not a creative person so I'm not actually experiencing all TOTK has to offer which is a testament to how varied this game can be. Great points.

 

59 minutes ago, legend said:

The other thing you have to give to TOTK is just how fucking creative and awesome the combat can be. Obviously there is the crazy machines you can make, but even in the more "traditional" combat space good players can do some amazingly epic shit by playing on all the systems. My twitter feed is like 30% TOTK content at this point and some of the shared videos are really fucking cool. 

 

Ultimately, you'd be hard pressed to find a game with systems as expressive as the ones in TOTK, even ones that are built to be simulators of some sort. It's a staggering design and programming feat.

 

Yup. I'll give this game more time and really decide which is better. Obviously we don't even need to be comparing these games so it's all in good fun and I'm thankful these two games released within a year of each other. Truly special gaming experiences. 

[Moa]

19 hours ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

I think a better comparison would be TotK vs MGSV as they're both largely player-directed sandbox experiences.

 

MGSV

 

I feel like the emergent clown show gameplay in MGSV came out much more organically. In ToTK you can be a mad scientist, but the game hasn't really presented many situations where the mad scientist route is actually beneficial. MGSV maybe has less depth but I often felt like the wacky prank playstyle was actually the optimal way to solve most problems.

[Xbob42]

1 hour ago, Moa said:

but the game hasn't really presented many situations where the mad scientist route is actually beneficial.

Well, aside from literally the entirety of the depths and traversing from sky island to sky island, getting around the world faster, building defenses against monsters much stronger than you, setting traps, etc.

 

I mean, you could just play it like BotW in each of these situations, but you'd take like 10x longer or more than someone who actually engaged with the systems!

[best3444]

It's tied at 12 a piece. This is interesting. 🤔 

[stepee]

I’ll break that tie and vote for Elden Ring so far. I haven’t found a way to have fun with the TOTK combat yet. I feel like it’s been 10 hours or so since I’ve had a fun fight. Seems like the best way is to just try to run past everything where I’m at now. Every time I move past some hit sponge enemy that can kill me with one hit with a huge 7ft reach or just a damn arrow out of nowhere the next enemy is the exact same thing.

 

Totk so far feels like every enemy is that knight on the horse you run into at the start of Elden Ring and you never level up.

[best3444]

9 minutes ago, stepee said:

I’ll break that tie and vote for Elden Ring so far. I haven’t found a way to have fun with the TOTK combat yet. I feel like it’s been 10 hours or so since I’ve had a fun fight. Seems like the best way is to just try to run past everything where I’m at now. Every time I move past some hit sponge enemy that can kill me with one hit with a huge 7ft reach or just a damn arrow out of nowhere the next enemy is the exact same thing.

 

Totk so far feels like every enemy is that knight on the horse you run into at the start of Elden Ring and you never level up.

 

It seems as though you just need better weapons, shields, and armor. I own enemies and never die in combat. You need more heart containers too. 

 

But I respect your opinion because I absolutely love Elden Ring and I know you did really well in that. 

[Kal-El814]

14 minutes ago, stepee said:

I’ll break that tie and vote for Elden Ring so far. I haven’t found a way to have fun with the TOTK combat yet. I feel like it’s been 10 hours or so since I’ve had a fun fight. Seems like the best way is to just try to run past everything where I’m at now. Every time I move past some hit sponge enemy that can kill me with one hit with a huge 7ft reach or just a damn arrow out of nowhere the next enemy is the exact same thing.

 

Totk so far feels like every enemy is that knight on the horse you run into at the start of Elden Ring and you never level up.

 

The designers of Elden Ring were cowards for not letting me put a mushroom on the end of a stick that I can use to bounce enemies off cliffs.

[stepee]

I think TOTK is going to be a hard game to try to talk about for a year or so :P

[best3444]

1 minute ago, stepee said:

I think TOTK is going to be a hard game to try to talk about for a year or so :P

 

What do you mean?

[stepee]

2 minutes ago, best3444 said:

 

What do you mean?

 

I think it’s a game that by nature is going to offer a wide swath of experiences and also one that people are going to mostly want to relate to similar experiences during the honeymoon period.

[Kal-El814]

14 minutes ago, stepee said:

 

I think it’s a game that by nature is going to offer a wide swath of experiences and also one that people are going to mostly want to relate to similar experiences during the honeymoon period.

 

The honeymoon period will never end, she'll always let me do whatever I want to her.

[Biggie]

@stepee doesn't like the game I can tell. Bruh, if you could beat the monsters in Elden Ring then Zelda will be EzPz once you get stronger.

[best3444]

3 minutes ago, Biggie said:

@stepee doesn't like the game I can tell. Bruh, if you could beat the monsters in Elden Ring then Zelda will be EzPz once you get stronger.

 

Yea, I'm confused why he is struggling and doesn't like it. It's absolutely incredible in basically all aspects.

[stepee]

There are moments where I really like the game. I was quite into it at the start, but I’m at probably (hopefully) a low point of the journey. That point where the challenge has moved up considerably and I need to learn how to scale myself up to it.

 

I think where I’m at with TOTK might be like the uncanny valley of open game design for me. It’s like I find the combat difficult and/or not fun because every encounter is stacked so the enemy’s have very few disadvantages. Everything is fast and can hit you from far away and will sneak up on you and won’t react much to such and such options. In the end, trying to actually heavy hand you into choosing the one option it actually wants you to use.

 

I think that may be the thing it’s best at so far, tricking you into thinking you chose this creative option thinking the game is so open when it’s just shutting off enough options to lead you towards that one. Which is probably why I keep reading people gushing about some unique solution to a puzzle and then all the responses are saying they did the same thing.

 

Not that you can’t get super creative with its tools but it requires a lot of trial and error and the swiftness of death makes me want to engage with it less.

 

Like just now I’m trying to clear out this camp and I’m running all around trying to stay away from the one hitters using the environment and powers and tools and whatever. Things are going haywire, it’s responding well with explosions and the enemy’s dying. But also it’s taking awhile and I kinda want to just kill shit. As soon as make that choice to engage and actually just fight one of the enemy’s and hit them with a weapon he hits me from half a screen a way with his staff and that’s it start all over again. That sorta thing keeps happening and right I’m just waiting for the scale to tip more in my favor so it’s fun again.

 

Im only being extra critical because I think it could still be so good and I’m giving it an honest shot after not being impressed with BOTW, but I’m gonna bitch until I get some more power on my side.

[stepee]

Also wish I had more arrow pickups, Im always out of arrows 

[best3444]

4 minutes ago, stepee said:

There are moments where I really like the game. I was quite into it at the start, but I’m at probably (hopefully) a low point of the journey. That point where the challenge has moved up considerably and I need to learn how to scale myself up to it.

 

I think where I’m at with TOTK might be like the uncanny valley of open game design for me. It’s like I find the combat difficult and/or not fun because every encounter is stacked so the enemy’s have very few disadvantages. Everything is fast and can hit you from far away and will sneak up on you and won’t react much to such and such options. In the end, trying to actually heavy hand you into choosing the one option it actually wants you to use.

 

I think that may be the thing it’s best at so far, tricking you into thinking you chose this creative option thinking the game is so open when it’s just shutting off enough options to lead you towards that one. Which is probably why I keep reading people gushing about some unique solution to a puzzle and then all the responses are saying they did the same thing.

 

Not that you can’t get super creative with its tools but it requires a lot of trial and error and the swiftness of death makes me want to engage with it less.

 

Like just now I’m trying to clear out this camp and I’m running all around trying to stay away from the one hitters using the environment and powers and tools and whatever. Things are going haywire, it’s responding well with explosions and the enemy’s dying. But also it’s taking awhile and I kinda want to just kill shit. As soon as make that choice to engage and actually just fight one of the enemy’s and hit them with a weapon he hits me from half a screen a way with his staff and that’s it start all over again. That sorta thing keeps happening and right I’m just waiting for the scale to tip more in my favor so it’s fun again.

 

Im only being extra critical because I think it could still be so good and I’m giving it an honest shot after not being impressed with BOTW, but I’m gonna bitch until I get done more power on my side.

 

Fair enough. I suggest to keep playing and you will soon realize just how special this is. Just make small progress each playthrough and things will start to come together. But, if it's not really your type of game that's completely understandable. 

[Xbob42]

16 minutes ago, stepee said:

There are moments where I really like the game. I was quite into it at the start, but I’m at probably (hopefully) a low point of the journey. That point where the challenge has moved up considerably and I need to learn how to scale myself up to it.

Uh... what? In my experience, the game only got easier and easier. You just get more hearts, more stamina, stronger weapons and more contraptions to lay waste to the enemies. They do scale up a bit like they did in BotW, but I had them at silver rank in my first few hours (which is their max rank) so I continued to get more powerful while they stayed silver.

By the way, if you don't know, the game works on a hidden experience point system. The more enemies you kill, the stronger enemies appear. Up to silver, like I said. This also levels up the random weapons they'll have and that you find. Since they also drop super strong fuse items (please tell me you're using fuse, you should never ever be fighting with unfused weapons after the first few hours) you quickly overpower them.

That or just build a fuckin' homing canon laser monstrosity that can go kill them all for you! Or use bomb arrows, or chuck bombs if you're out of arrows, make sure to level up your gear ASAP, etc.

 

11 minutes ago, stepee said:

Also wish I had more arrow pickups, Im always out of arrows 

Wooden boxes almost always contain arrows, and there are certain areas around the world that always have bundles of 5 or 10 just lying there, such as the balcony facing Lookout Landing in Hyrule Tower.

[stepee]

6 minutes ago, Xbob42 said:

Uh... what? In my experience, the game only got easier and easier. 

 

Wooden boxes almost always contain arrows, and there are certain areas around the world that always have bundles of 5 or 10 just lying there, such as the balcony facing Lookout Landing in Hyrule Tower.

 

Yeah I see the boxes but it seems about my journey I’m always low. I need a lot because of the one shotting.

 

The game might get easier, I freakin hope so, but so far the tutorial section on the sky island was the only time where I could take a hit or two it’s been nothing but one shotters since.

 

Also just as a note in general, I feel like you can have a difficulty in games without relying on one shotting. That’s the most frustrating way to do difficulty because it makes the person wait on reloads over and over wasting countless time instead of being able to use that time to figure out how to pass the challenge.

[Xbob42]

You should not be getting one-shot at this point. You either have not gotten many hearts or have not powered up your armor. Do those ASAP.

[stepee]

1 minute ago, Xbob42 said:

You should not be getting one-shot at this point. You either have not gotten many hearts or have not powered up your armor. Do those ASAP.

 

I’m trying to it’s just everything keeps killing me :P

[Biggie]

29 minutes ago, stepee said:

Also wish I had more arrow pickups, Im always out of arrows 

Crates. Break every thing.