That stuff doesn’t bother me. It’s just collectibles, notes, etc… I don’t bother with most of that, but some people do. I’m fine with that stuff as long as it is mostly optional. And there is still plenty of potentially useful loot to get. Depending on the be might be new armor, weapons, upgrades, parts, etc…

I had mixed feelings in Valhalla. Each region was was basically its own story. Which in some way was interesting, but it made the larger story feel disjointed. But overall I enjoyed the game.

Wait… you don’t see the issue with needing to grind 20 hours for one car? In a full priced game? And we’re not even talking about some reward at the end of a campaign. It’s one random car that you will need to race the same tracks over and over for 20 hours to get.

I don’t think the sizes of these games is the problem (at least not from a consumer perspective). Plenty of people enjoy large games and how much time you spend in them is largely dictated by how much time you spend on optional content.

It really isn’t that big. I think I finished the main story in around 60 hours. It’s definitely not small and there were still dozens of hours of side quests I could have done, but you don’t have to do all that. For these big games I tend to do a mix of main and side quests early and then switch to solely main…

I refuse to kill any of the turtles in the game. The closest were the ghostly turtles you had to hit to make disappear to get into a Rise tower. Unless there is a mandatory turtle boss somewhere I’ll stick to this.

It is. And note that main bosses all start with G, R, or M.

Yup. IMO games these games are punishing enough as is. All kinds of ambushes, traps, and bosses that can one or two shot you. So when it comes to a difficult foe I say it is by any means necessary.

That’s the dirty not-so-secret secret about the Souls games. The same crowd that loves to play gatekeeper in discussions about the difficulty loves to exploit and cheese the hell out of every game.  You get a fair number that will claim they don’t, but I don’t buy it from most.

Yeah, I make this mistake constantly. The long wind-ups should make things easier, but only if you remain calm. Instead many people, including myself, just start rolling the moment I see a wind-up and I either dodge too early or expend too much stamina and get smashed.

Nah, most of that is just hindsight. By that logic the massive part of the map that is behind is hardly part of the game. The sight of grace and then the church are the obvious first places to go. The rest is hindsight.

TBF, it is a remake rather than a remaster. But, yeah, I don’t think it should have ever been $70.

TBF, it is a remake rather than a remaster. But, yeah, I don’t think it should have ever been $70.

if you can’t put things off in the real world for 1-3 minutes while you log out or warp somewhere, that’s the bigger issue than not being able to pause.

My guess would be increasing popularity of the games.  Then probably some increasing frustration from some of the existing fan base hoping features like this will eventually be added.

Calling it MP focused is bit of a stretch.

It’s just obtuse. Which is pretty par for the course for FromSoftware games. Though I totally agree about the discourse. Some people basically worship From games and will defend literally anything no matter how legit a complaint might be or if no harm was even meant by it.

I don’t think “miss” in the context means didn’t see it. It means you might not realize that is a tutorial area and just head out the door. I didn’t need the tutorial, but I almost missed it myself. I walked up next to the door and didn’t get the open prompt. I guess I was just out of range since you have to be…

Yeah, and I suspect the comments being closed is to silence any complaining. Will this end up like Deadspin where the regular writers all leave (they kind of have been already though) and no one is allowed to comment?  I certainly won’t be hanging around if that is what happens.

BotW2 is the only one I’m really interested in ATM. But I’m not counting on that one this year. I may check out Kirby after I see more of it.

Fair point.