The Miscellaneous PC & vidya Games Thread

[crazy canuck]

What is a Jedi Survivor twitch block path?

[Josquius]

What is a Jedi Survivor twitch block path?

Hit the block button at a precise moment in the enemy's attack animation to block rather than old school hold down the block button.

[Syt]

It's similar Sekiro's system, though nowhere near as hard. In Sekiro, most fights are about bringing down enemy posture to strike a fatal blow. Posture can be brought down with attacks, but - more crucially - timing when to block enemy attacks.

The Jedi series uses a similar system, but is much more generous than Sekiro, i.e. you often only need to block once or twice with most enemies IIRC (plus, you can drop the difficulty level in Jedi and adjust the "block time window" in the settings, if memory serves).

It's basically a variant of the "timed parries" you see in many many many games.

[crazy canuck]

Playing the warrior in POE 2 is a lot like that, there is a passive block, but using the active block skill is necessary for a number of boss fights.

It's not a game for hardcore mode 

[Syt]

I think Dark Souls popularized this in recent years. Your default block is left bumper, raising your shield or whatever is in your left hand. Even so, you probably don't want to block all the time because your stamina recharges a fair bit slower with your shield raised (and blocks cost stamina) - as a result you only really want to raise it when necessary.

Left trigger is a parry. Now, there's a few things that influence how parries work in those games: enemy attack (e.g. if it is parryable in the first place), type of shield you use (generally, smaller shields have more generous time windows to parry than larger ones, and greatshields can't parry at all), etc. Esp. in Dark Souls 1 it's not as hard against many enemies as it's made out to be, though DS3 and Elden Ring increase the speed (though Elden Ring also buffs the humble "normal" block by giving players more generous attack chances after blocking an attack). It's mostly about trying it until it "clicks". It's hard to describe. I was struggling with it for a long time, but at some point I had figured out the timing for some enemies and then it becomes a lot easier, though there's many enemies where I still struggle.

Sekiro dials the timing up to 11. There's a number of enemies where you basically need to learn the rhythm of their attacks, and unlike Dark Souls or Elden Ring you can't overcome challenges by leveling up or getting better equipment, or summoning NPCs or players to help. It's you and your sort. That purism can be lauded, but it reduces replayability, and also sets an IMHO significantly higher difficulty than the other games.

That said, I can see why it inspired the Jedi games, what with Jedi based on Samurai and what. And they lowered the difficulty of it a lot to keep it appealing to the larger market (instead opting to give you unlockable abilities that give you more moves).

[Syt]

Making slow progress with Indiana Jones. The gameplay is not revolutionary, but it's all in the presentation. They render 1930s Indiana Jones (i.e. young Harrison Ford) so well, and the voice acting is really, really good in matching Raiders' Indy. Environments are lovingly designed with many nice details. It's been a few years since I've been to Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome, but it felt real enough.

Not much into stealth, but I see how it fits the theme. Sneaking through an area and being stealthy until you aren't and have to scrap. Combat feels messy and a bit clunky (and I feel that fits Indy), with tons of props around each area to use as ad hoc weapons, throwables, or distractions. Next up should be the first "open" section of the game. Curious to explore more.

[Syt]

Also, happy that Christmas Holidays start soon - so many games to play
- Indiana Jones
- Star Wars Outlaws
- Starfield (still want to progress in it ... )
- POE2
- Victoria 3
- wanted to catch up on podcasts, so "Let's start a new game of CK3, because EPE has been updated" ... spends whole day on it ...
- ???
- want to do Cyberpunk 2077 some time ...
- other strategy games

[Syt]

[Norgy]

The Norwegian krone is worth so little these days that I have to decide, do I want a game or do I need a new mortgage on the house to pay for it?

70 Euros? Are you fucking joking? 

[Syt]

Need to pump more oil.

[Norgy]

There's little chance of us not doing that. Someone has to pay for all the Ukrainians flocking here.

[crazy canuck]

Foundation is coming out of early access at the end of January - very excited about this.

[Solmyr]

Veilguard at 35% off for the next week. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1845910/Dragon_Age_The_Veilguard/

[Habbaku]

Helldivers 2 got a big update. Time to wreck some squids. 

[Josquius]

Foundation is coming out of early access at the end of January - very excited about this.

I've noted it. Wonder how it compares to Manor Lords. I've yet to take the plunge on either.