Delphouneso

3 hours ago, theunderstudy said:

What gun is gonna be ridiculous and cause outrage next? 

 

Whichever one they want to sell skins for.

Yeah I get that, but it kinda feels like the equivalent of a Rockstar easter egg hunt only hidden behind it is all of New Austin (probably a bad example seen as NA was criminally underused in RDR2). I like a good puzzle or riddle or mystery, I'm all for some exploration, some hidden parkour spots, but it just didn't feel very intuitive in Bloodborne. And for me the middle section of the game could've really done with a decent narrative to pull you through, but I'll admit style-wise the game's not really my thing anyway though and I'm mostly here for the challenge.

Like I said after the Ebriatas breakthrough (cough) I decided to look up at least the boss locations to make sure I got them all as I wasn't sure I'd bother with a second playthrough. So I haven't missed anything, but I'd have preferred to find them on my own, and I can say for certain I'd have missed Ebriatas, Amygdala, Moon Presence, Logarius, and maybe Laurence - I knew he was there but had to look up how to fight him.

And done. Overall I enjoyed it, I found large chunks of the game post-Cathedral Ward a tad tedious and started to lose interest, but Cainhurst (shame it wasn't longer) and the DLC really brought it back for me.

I don't get why it's basically designed to be played with a guide, that's just not how I like to play games. I looked up the Emissary fight after I beat because I beat it first time and felt like I must've missed something, and in doing so discovered how to access Ebriatas, by doing something you can't do anywhere else in the game.. that coupled with how you find Rom made me decide to just break the immersion and start looking stuff up. And ultimately I'm glad I did because it turns out some of the best content in the game is completely missable, entire areas (Cainhurst, Upper Cathedral, Nightmare Frontier, not to mention the entire DLC - thanks @Chindie for the heads up) are missable, and as far as I can tell 8 whole bosses. And that's before you get into the fact that the entire story is basically hidden as well, a lot of the NPC interaction is missable/timed, and most of the weapons are basically only available in NG+ because you get them so late in the game and they're stat restricted. I just don't get it.

The camera can be frustrating but you kinda get used to it, the whole game can be a bit buggy sometimes but again you kinda get used to it, but I'll never stop being annoyed at being hit through walls/floors etc. I also kinda wish there was a food item or some sort of out-of-combat health regen, using vials to top off 5% of your HP can feel wasteful, and going through two loading screens to port to the HD and back for a free regen is tedious, in the end i just gave up and went into fights without being full.

Credit where credit's due though there is some really enjoyable content, the combat is generally well done and there's tonnes of variation, and way the game continually challenges you, forces you to hone your skills, learn new ones, and ultimately turns you into an unrecognisably better player is a great gaming journey. After killing Kos I felt like I was at my gaming peak, I just wanted to shout 'what else?! put something in front of me and I'll beat it'. And of course two minutes later I got my arse handed to me by the two shark headed guys in the next room over.

Favourite bosses: Orphan of Kos, Blood Starved Beast, Ludwig, Lady Maria, Shadows of Yharnam.
Least favourite: Cleric Beast, Micolash.

Not sure what to do now, don't think I enjoyed the main game enough to play through the lot again, but I wouldn't mind trying some of the weapons and playing through the DLC again. DS3 is on sale at the minute as well but I'm not sure how much I'd enjoy the slower playstyle.

Thankfully none of you lot are football managers, you;'d be out of subs by HT every game.

Orphan of Kos is great fun, bloody difficult but really enjoyable. In fact the DLC has been by far the most enjoyable content of the game for me, the main game was starting to get a bit tedious but this has really drawn me in again.

14 hours ago, jackbauer24 said:

Whilst not directly relevant to this game... Do you 'hint' to McGinn, Grealish and Targett that if they were to pick up a yellow card in this game then they'd be banned for the cup game they probably won't play in anyway rather than a league game... Innocently and completely coincidentally of course...

Unless cards are competition specific which I'm never 100% sure on.

Tough run of games come up and can see us losing all three at some point before the cut off.

Pretty sure the ban only applies to PL games so they'd miss the Spurs game. You'd hope Jack should be able to keep out of the book 'til the amnesty - it's his mouth that's most likely to get him in trouble - but I can see us having to cope without one or both of Targett and Ginny for a game.

There's no more reassuring sound in football than hearing Emi shout 'keeper's!' Brilliant point and no suspensions for the Manure game, can't ask for more than that.

Utterly outstanding. Shades of Rotheram away that, Deano going for the jugular again. Such a shame there weren't fans there to watch it.

Massive performances all round, but special mentions to:
Targett: Ref may as well have closed that side of the pitch for all the chance Palace were gonna get past him today.
Watkins: What a performance in that second half, may not have got his goal but we don't win that game without his work rate today.

There was a time when we used to routinely embarrass ourselves  on the tele. Those days are over. Merry **** Christmas Villa fans.

Cheers @Chindie, turns out the eye of a blood drunk hunter was already in my inventory, like I said, don't know what half the stuff I've got does. Also turns out i'd already been to Upper Cathedral Ward, somehow managed to erase that from my memory, but I guess I didn't have the key for the gate back then. Took down Emmissary who potentially receives the easiest boss award, tied with WoH maybe? And Ebretias, who also should've gone down first time but for the one shot laser attack that it suddenly pulled out at 10% HP. Maybe I just play better after a few festive beers.

I'm not really sure what point of the game I'm at but I've seen people mention doing the DLC before finishing the game, is it quite clear when you're at that point? Seems like a silly question because nothing is clear, obviously. Also seems odd to be trying to avoid spoilers when I have absolutely no idea what's going on story-wise in this game. Nonetheless I've beaten the following: Cleric Beast, Gascoigne, BSB, Amelia, WoH, Shadows, Rom, Paarl, One Reborn, and Micolash. Should I be thinking about the DLC yet? There are definitely a couple of areas I haven't explored, there's locked door at the top of the cathedral tower (although I think I have the key for that now), the area before I got ported to Micolash island, and there's loads of items/keys I have that I haven't used, plus boss names I've seen in this thread that I haven't encountered.

Saying that how do I even access the DLC? Fairly certain I have it seen as I bought the GOTY edition, does it just appear at a headstone in the HD when I'm 'ready'?

Edit: I've done zero chalice dungeons either, should I do those before the DLC? I feel like I'm maybe underlevelled a bit as well cause I've not done any farming really, I watched a video of the One Reborn after beating it and the guy mentioned having like 40+ Vit, I think I'm at 28.

Don't know why you're all so worried about Man Utd, Leeds have shown us the way.

Do people Google a lot of stuff whilst playing this game? I ask cause I generally like to play games blind, I feel like I get the best experience that way, and then I'll maybe google stuff on a second playthrough to make sure I don't miss too much. But with Bloodborne I'm starting to feel like I'm missing out on a lot by playing blind.

I Youtube every boss after I've beaten them cause I like to see how it's 'supposed' to be done, whether I missed any weaknesses or clever strategies - as a side note it's genuinely surprising how many of these 'how to' boss guides are just people eating hits and chugging vials, and even more surprising that it works - but outside of that I've been playing blind, up until Rom the spider thing. I must've spent close to half an hour fannying around at Byrgenwerth, I was convinced there must be a boss because there was a summoning point, I ran everywhere, I went through every item in my inventory trying to find something that might summon a boss, I panicked that maybe the old guy in the chair was the boss and I killed him rather than using an item on/near him, I even took a peek over the edge looking for something to drop down on, until I gave in and looked it up to discover you have to jump in the sea. You know, that thing that kills you instantly anywhere else in the game.

And it got me thinking, surely I'm not in the minority in not being able to find Rom? And if I can nearly miss what - as far as I can tell considering it teleports you to Yahar-gul after - is not an optional boss, what else have I missed? I mean there's so many items in my inventory that I've got no idea of their purpose I wouldn't be surprised if I've missed a boss or two.

Every time I start to enjoy this game it does something to annoy me. What on earth is Darkbeast Paarl? Luckily - despite my intitial fears - it's not a difficult fight, but man is it an awkward mess. And that whole area leading up to it with the bell ringers and the giant laser beams, hopefully that's not the direction the rest of the game is heading because running around manically looking for one enemy whilst being chased by half the map, being shot through walls and round corners by magic bullets, and trying to avoid being zapped by a giant laser is not my idea of fun, not even in this game.

Baggies xG was 0.04. Whether you put much stock in xG stats or not I don't think I've ever seen one that low.

Amelia, Witch of Hemwick, and Shadows of Yharnam down. 

Man Amelia pissed me off. Fight felt like a carbon copy of BSB, only with all the camera wrestling and furry leg hacking unpredictability of the Cleric Beast. I kept getting sort of stuck on her legs, when she wriggles about the back of her legs interrupt your attacks and I kept getting stuck in a series of push-back animations. Glad that one's over The other two were a piece of piss, although the areas leading to both were a bit annoying. And I lost 100k echoes when I went AFK near the Forest lantern forgetting there's a pair of crows there.

Still not really sure where I sit with this game, I think I'm enjoying it? The art style isn't my thing, there's no real story to speak of, the environments are mostly a bunch of copy paste, it's intentionally infuriating, and at times a bit buggy. But I keep playing it, and it's kinda giving me that nostalgia hit of playing a good MMO.

Blood Starved Beast down. Made harder work of it than I should have but I kept getting poisoned going into the final phase which put me on the defensive and trying to use multiple items whilst fleeing from a hyper aggressive boss wasn't working out well for me. The game changer was accidentally discovering you can backstab/stun it during its transformation, which allowed me to get a visceral off going into the final phase meaning no poison and I only needed a couple of hits to finish it off. Was extra satisfying in the end because my successful attempt was such a clean run, didn't use any consumables and I think I only got hit once.

Didn't really know where to go from there so I wandered back to Cathedral Ward to see if I'd missed anything only to get killed by a new enemy and end up in prison, a lot of beating my head against a brick wall later and I gave in and googled the area to discover the general consensus is I should just run and leave that place, so I did.

Found a lift near the Cathedral lamp that I'm pretty sure wasn't there before, fell down a tower and died but clocked a door on my way down which piqued my interest, some very frustrating parkour and a few more falling deaths later and I'm now dressed like a doll.

Quick question: I'm playing offline, is there any use for Insight or is it just for summoning people online?

9 hours ago, Stevo985 said:

Finished it in typically slow fashion for me!

I'm really surprised by the stick the story got when this first came out. For me it's the best story in any game I've ever played to be honest. It is very dark and had some genuine shocking moments that were brilliant

 

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Ellie killing Mel and then realising she was pregnant was a big one!

Gameplay carries on from the first and is superb again. At first I hated the flashbacks and playing as Abby but it slowly grows and grows on you and all comes together in the end brilliantly.

 

My only criticisms are the same as the first game. Too easy to know when an area is cleared. It's useful, but takes the tension away for me. You shoot a few baddies and you or your partner says "All done" or "That's all of them" and you know you're free to walk around. It would be far scarier and more tense if you weren't sure when you'd cleared an area, but would probably make it far slower. I also found it much much harder to do things stealthily in this game. In the first game most areas I could clear without alerting anyone. This game nearly every time I ended up alerting people of my presence. Which is fine, I guess, but I like the stealth element.
It was also quite slow to begin with which felt like a bit of a slog and very cut scene heavy. But it soon finds its flow.

Superb game!

 

Oh and as for exploration, I consider myself pretty **** thorough in terms of exploring. I basically try and explore every nook and cranny. The only thing I know I miss is one safe in the game because I accidentally advanced past a bit I couldn't go back on, and hadn't got a save before that. But I'm no where near to unlocking all my abilities and upgrading all my weapons. But there are trophies for that so I know it's possible. Am I being dumb? I could understand if I was like one upgrade or one ability away, but I had a fair few for both Ellie and Abby

You can play through individual chapters if you know where that safe is and wanna go back for it.

As for the supplements/weapon parts I can only assume you've missed them as I'm pretty sure they're all fixed drops and not tied to difficulty or anything (supplements definitely, not 100% sure on weapon parts). There aren't enough to unlock everything in one run but it's not far off, so I guess if you've missed a few it might seem like a lot but I definitely missed some and I'm pretty sure I still maxed out two skill trees on my first run. I posted this earlier in the thread but if you're planning on a second play through there's an option for turning on 'enhanced listen mode' in accessibilty options, it lets you pulse for items in an area, I wouldn't use it on a first playthrough but for a collectible run I found it more immersive than trying to play and read a guide / watch youtube.

Had this a while but finally got round to playing it this week. I like some things, I don't like some things.

I almost put the game down because I just couldn't take down Cleric Beast, must've taken 30 attempts to beat it and it wasn't even satisfying when I did because the whole episode felt like I was fighting the game with its janky camera angles and awkward hit boxes rather than fighting the boss. Nonetheless I persevered and next thing I know I've made light work of Father Gascoigne in 3 attempts (which should've been 1 or 2 if not for some fumbling with ammo conversion) and lo and behold it was challenging, but fair, enjoyable, satisfying..  just what I'd been promised. I guess me and the Cleric Beast just don't get along.

SInce then the game's kinda clicked, you pick up some quality of life improvements and combat mechanics the game doesn't tell you about (jump attacks have been a game changer for me, when they work), find some short cuts etc (actually more satisfying than beating a boss I think). But it's still got it's annoyances, the camera has yet to annoy me again quite like it did for Cleric Beast but it's still far from perfect, getting hit through walls/pillars/floors is never not going to be annoying, and there does seem to be a decent amount of luck/RNG involved. I don't know whether this is just how the game is now I'm out of the starter area but prior to Gascoigne I generally had more blood vials than I knew what to do with, and if I did run out there were reliable farm spots, since Gascoigne (up to Blood Starved Beast now) I've barely been dropped a single blood vial, and no ammo at all from enemies other than a stack hidden in a corner. I don't find that challenging so much as frustrating, when I finally get to a boss after fighting through an entire area to find I've no pots and have to go all the way back to buy some and go again, really disrupts the flow of the game.

As for Blood Starved Beast, nearly took it down first attempt and thought it would be a gimme after that, but it's proving a tad more difficult than that, mostly because it seems to have a disproportionately small hitbox. I've no problem dodging its attacks, get myself into great positions to strike, and then I can't hit the fecking thing, my attacks seem to just go straight through it half the time, which frustrates me so I get sloppy and it gets some hits in/poisons me. I'm only about 5 attempts in and I've not been using consumables either (like to save them until I feel I'm on a good one) so I've no doubt I'll get it soon, might even have a crack with the extended reach of the whip see if that helps.

Edit: Forgot to mention that sodding gattling gun with it's nonsensical LoS! And is that hunter (the ground level one not the big boy) by the church supposed to behave like that? Kept running at me then running away, then when I got him into melee he kinda just seemed to get stuck and didn't even try to hit back, felt like he was bugged out.

Must be really difficult for the BBC to find a picture of Dean in Villa garb.

6 minutes ago, TRO said:

No one is proposing Rejects, from Top Teams.....that is an interpretation of a falsehood.

The players being suggested are fringe players, who are frustrated at a lack of game time, trying to push out world class players.

These same players are in and around an environment of serial winners, with the spin off of listening to world class managers and their strategies for success.

They are trusted to play when called up on in highly motivated teams that breed intensity and drive and a thirst to win.

They are anything but Rejects.....thats a poor interpretation.

was Danny Ings a reject?

See my post above in regard to Danny Ings. I get the point you're trying to make, but surely if these players are that desperate to play first team football they'll be on the phone to us and other clubs anyway? And I actually think it shows more ambition that rather than just accept cast offs from above we're trying to compete with the top clubs for these players' signatures before they move.

13 minutes ago, Villastine said:

Danny Ings

You can't really use Danny Ings as a yardstick for the kind of signing we should be making. Firstly Southampton are his boyhood club so they'd  have had more pull signing him and were always more likely to get a tune out of him. Secondly with his injury record £18m was still a pretty big risk, he was just as likely to get a season long injury in his first game as he was to score as many as he has, we weren't and aren't exactly in a position to take those kinds of risks. Yeah it looks like a great signing in hindsight but could easily have been an £18m Danny Drinkwater.

Henry's red card rescinded.

Getting towards mid-way through my second run and for anyone who's finished the game and doesn't fancy a full second play through I'd definitely recommend at least just playing through some of the individual encounters again on max difficulty, the gameplay and combat mechanics really are brilliant. The variety of enemies and tools you have at your disposal makes for so many different fun ways you can play through each encounter

On the subject of difficulty I'm not keen on the super passive AI on Survivor+, it's not that I need or want their help, but it makes them feel less a part of your experience when they keep getting stranded half way across the map, and I've actually missed a couple of bits of dialogue due to them being so far away from me.