u/silent-drill

Does Civ 7 run better than 6?

I love 6 to death but after 200+ turns, the game becomes extremely sluggish.

From the time it takes for AI to make turns to the stuttering and sluggishness of the camera panning across the map.

Is Civ 7 better in this regard?

I know, this is not new or news to anyone reading this.

Please forgive the long winded post, and talk of playtime and what not, however it is all relevant to the topic and I really needed to articulate this.

I was what you would call a Dark Souls purist.

Starting with Dark Souls 2 back in 2014, March 11 (having never played rpgs before). Needless to say, it changed my life and it will always be my favourite souls game. I put 500+ hours into it and had never put that much time into a game, other than online FPS games like Black Ops 1, and 2 / Battlefield 3, and 4.

I was 17 at the time and also facing a fit of teenage depression, I guess you would call it. DS2 helped me to over come it.

I then became addicted to souls likes, and went on to play Dark Souls 1, Demons Souls, then Bloodborne, Dark Souls 3, then Sekiro. With several hundred hours in each and multiple completed playthroughs.

Fast forward to Elden Rings release and my hype was off the fucking charts (as it was for any new fromsoftware release).

I had put 150+ hours into it over a year and I was actually underwhelmed. I kind of hated it. I really didn’t rate the transition to open world and felt it sullied the traditional experience I grew to love. I felt it lost its wonder a bit and level design. I haven’t finished the base game yet, I made it to Maliketh and hard stopped for a long time. Moving onto Armored Core 6 which I fell in love with.

After a while of replaying Bloodborne, I missed Elden Ring somewhat and it always bugged me that I never finished the base game nor ever played the DLC. I purchased Shadow of the Erdtree this year and thought it was good timing because you never want to play fromsoft DLC on ng+ so pretty much had a perfect load for it.

My god, this DLC is fucking sublime.

It is massive. It is beautiful. It is everything I love about fromsoftware games. It is dense. Full of wonder.

20 hours in just a week.

It highlighted to me that the base game was this for everyone else when it released. I don’t know why it’s just clicked for me like this.

The exploration, the map… I heard it was as big as Limgrave…yeah no it’s way fucking bigger than that.

I can’t put into words how floored I am with how perfect this DLC is and thus how much I realise how perfect this game is overall. I can’t believe I actually hated it at one point.

Anyways yeah that’s me. Stoked that I can just play Elden Ring now in its full form with full enjoyment like I was hyped for so many years ago.

Hope everyone is still enjoying this and having a great time.

Appreciate you reading this far if you have.

TLDR: As a huge soulsbourne fan, I hated Elden Ring upon release, feeling it strayed so much from the traditional experience (open world and what not), now with the purchase of the DLC just recently, I absolutely love it and realised I was sleeping on the game heavily.

Which one is more worth my time?

Which one is your favourite?

Is the ultimate collection for Unbound worth it? It’s current sub $20 for me.

There is so much content in this game i don’t know where to start or where to focus my time.

Village quests? Hub quests? Training quests? Foraging quests? Hunt quests?

Different villages have different progression?

I have 220+ hours in World/Iceborne, 200+ hours in Rise/Sunbreak, and 30+ hours in Wilds (which i’m having a lot of fun with at the moment - but i cannot wrap my head around the progression of GU??

Any help is appreciated.

I am a huge fan of naughtydog, from Crash Bandicoot to Jak and Daxter series, to The Last of Us and now Uncharted.

I am extremely glad I played the first 3 before 4 because the payoff is absolutely worth it. From characters, context, character relationships, to seeing the evolution of all the systems alongside the platforming and combat.

What a victory lap.

I’m currently on Chapter 6 “Once a Thief…” so please no spoilers.

Current ranking for the series is as follows:

1. Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception

2. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

3. Uncharted 1: Drake’s Fortune

The games really got better with each and every entry. I thought nothing could top 2 but 3 really came in hard with its intro, insane set pieces, evolution of the melee mechanics, and the enemy combat encounters requiring actual positioning and strategy, even more than 2. The uptick in actual environmental puzzles was also really good, snd the story being more personal to Nate was the cherry on the sundae. The ending was amazing.

Playing 4 now and on Chapter 6, I can already tell it’s going to be my favourite. I will then go on to play The Lost Legacy but i’ll be taking my sweet time with 4 and also will be replaying it straight after as well so it’ll take me sometime to get to The Lost Legacy.

What’s everyone’s ranking for the series? What’s everyone’s favourite moments? Explain why your favourite is your favourite?

I need to get this off my chest. I just put 73 hours into Marathon, played it with my whole heart, and I've come to a conclusion: this game is going to fail at retention. And it's not because the game is bad - honestly it's the art in gaming, absolute cinema. The problem is permanent progression, or the complete lack of it.

After 73 hours I don't have a single purple item, let alone gold. I had some purple weapons and items - not a full bag, but some - and they mostly got wiped. The only ones that stick around are the ones I never used, and what's the point of gear you have to hoard and never touch? On top of that there's a seasonal reset, so even the little you scrape together gets wiped again anyway. All the tension I carried, the energy I invested, the brainpower, getting my ass kicked out of fear match after match... no ROI. Zero.

Here's why I think this is a retention killer:

The only permanent progression is cosmetic - and not even the good ones. Only blue cosmetics are free; purple and gold are paid. The codex is one-time utility - read it once and you're done. So functionally there is nothing permanent to call your own. After 73 hours, all I have are some blue skins I don't even use.

The game only rewards expertise (PvP). Anything below that level and you get punished - and the majority of players are not at that level. A hardcore pro-level PvP player will catch up fast every season, sure. But everyone else? By the time an average player grinds up to where they want to be, the season ends and it resets. They're on a treadmill that wipes before they ever reach the end. The intense gameplay can only carry you so far when none of that intensity ever pays off into something you keep.

This is actually the reason I stopped playing PvP in the first place. And it's why I keep coming back to the same comparison: if I put 73 hours into Warframe or Destiny, I'd be king - soaking up power fantasy by the bucket, on my own terms. That's what those games give you that Marathon doesn't: something that's yours, that lasts, that makes the time feel earned. This whole genre is niche for exactly this reason. It's a genuinely sadistic genre - it dictates how you're supposed to play, and punishes you for not being elite.

So here's where I've landed: I need permanent progression in a game, full stop. For me personally this is concluded.

And the painful part is Marathon really is the art in gaming. Absolute cinema, but a flop movie. A masterpiece that punishes everyone who isn't already "a pro" or at least very good with PvP like "sweaty" good, in a genre that's niche for exactly this reason - incredible work that almost nobody is going to stick around for.

P.S.
Also no, I don't buy the "just wait for Destiny 3" hope either. That's like waiting for Half-Life 3 or Titanfall 3 - it's not coming. Marathon isn't going to do good numbers, and I think Bungie ends up dissolved as a result. That's how this story ends.

Gothic 1 Remake is fucking incredible.

The fact there is 0 hand holding, the NPC dialogue, the structuring of quests, the progression and the difficulty, are all of extreme high quality.

The world is so rich, and the music is chefs kiss.

This game is so immersive, I haven’t felt this way about an RPG in a long time.

I can only imagine how much of a victory lap this is for veterans of the series. I myself am glad I’m actually getting to experience this game now.

They quite literally don’t make them like this anymore. S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2 is the only other I can think of with this much player agency, freedom, difficulty.

Also I love the euro jank in this. There’s something charming about it to me and it makes the game feel like an actual video game (if that makes sense). Games like S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2, DayZ, Arma Reforger, Mount & Blade 2 Bannerlord, The Witcher 3 etc. I don’t know why but I find myself really enjoying the game when it has this jank, this clunkiness to it and I don’t know why. Don’t really see anyone else talk about it, but yeah I’m going off on a tangent.

All this to say, I’m fucking stoked about this one.

I can see myself playing this one for a very long time.

I don’t see any youtube reviews talking about this - for anyone that’s played the OG, is the playtime for that indicative for this new remake? Is this a long game? Does it have replayability and longevity?

I want to get at least 100 hours out of it.

I recently just got into RoR2 on ps5 via my ps plus subscription. The game was just sitting in my library for the longest time and I never paid any attention to it.

Fast forward to recent times and i’ve really gotten into roguelikes/roguelites. I love the concept, love the replayability, the fact that it’s casual in nature but can be deep as fuck if you want it to be.

Although i had really gotten into the genre, i wasn’t finding one that stuck with me.

I’ve played Hades, Returnal, The Binding of Isaac, Dead Cells, etc. I love them, but i play them casually.

I then decided to jump into RoR2 and i’m completely blown away. I’m actually obsessed. I’ve now purchased the game to own and purchased all the DLC and i’m loving everything about it.

The art style, the MUSIC, the survivors and how differently they all play, the item stacking, the difficulty timer in game, the shrines and all the enemies and bosses.

I feel like with this game i completely understood roguelikes in general. I feel like i found my one.

This is has quickly risen to my all time top 25 in all my 20+ years of gaming.

Keen for the new dlc.

Sorry for the long winded ( most likely low effort ) post. Just wanted to share.

Thanks.

Let me start off by saying I am an extremely casual Diablo enjoyer. I love ARPGs and have played 150+ hours in this and around the same in Diablo 3 and PoE2. I consider myself more a PoE2 fan.

I’ve never played this game for the lore or the campaign; more for the fun of the playable characters, the loot chase, the build crafting, etc. The story/campaign was always such a background thing for me, i did take the time to get absorbed in Diablo 4’s story, just because but it was always just a driver for me to enjoy the gameplay. The base campaign and Vassal of Hatred were decent, but my god is the campaign done extremely well in Lord of Hatred.

The voice acting and cutscenes alone take this to a whole new level, but the actual pacing of the story and every aspect of what’s occurring is very engaging. I’m hung on every piece of dialogue, every scene, looking forward to what happens next.

This is such an odd feeling to have in an ARPG for me, because i’ll play singleplayer action games or other RPG sub-genres for this experience. To have it in a ARPG feels pretty damn good.

On top of all of this the two new classes seem so good. I’ve only played Warlock thus far, but it’s been incredibly fun and there seems so much choice and so much more build options now and i’ve seen that every class prior has had a rework like this. I still haven’t played Paladin so that’s a whole playthrough just waiting there for me in addition to running the other characters back.

Skovos Isles is such a breath of fresh air. I enjoyed Nahantu enough, but it didn’t really do much for me. Neither did the Spiritborn class.

I haven’t even dived into the endgame yet to experience Warplans but i’m keen to. Taking my time with this phenomenal campaign though.

I didn’t think I would enjoy Diablo 4 again but here we are.

Apologies for the long winded post, just had to share. Thanks.