What VIDEO GAME(s) have you been playing?

Surprised at the games coming out that I want to play---For Honor looks great, Nioh looks like something I'd be interested in, and Yakuza 0 looks surprisingly cool.

I've been enjoyin WATCH DOGS 2, which was like $40 on PS Store the other day, and it's a great title at that price. Huge sandbox environment, and I mean HUGE. I was really impressed with my drive from Marin to SF to meet with my fellow hackers! We hack things. The storyline is pretty funny what with all the hacking, but what can you do? Trying to keep it nonlethal, and I think it's working so far, but I am seriously ganking some dudes with my yoyo thing and they might be dead.

I haven't been playing VGs at all. I need to finish my Dishonored re-play. I just haven't been in a gaming mood lately.

Wasting $30 on GTAV really bummed me out, especially since I should have known better. I kind of want to get Doom and will probably get Dishonored 2, but honestly laying on the sofa reading old copies of Fortean Times has been far more appealing lately.

Played the first (of two) spotter mission in Sniper Elite 4 with my friend. I was the sniper, he was the spotter. He runs around on the ground while I navigate various mountain paths. He tags enemies and objectives, I keep him alive. It was fantastic, and took us 2 hours to complete. This game does not disappoint.

I finished Dark Souls II. I'm glad I'm done with it. Pretty disappointing overall.

Regarding the DLC, I finished the first one, and liked it well enough. Since I had already played through two-thirds of Brume Tower earlier before realizing it was DLC, I decided to just finish it. Then I thought, "Well, I have two of the three DLC crowns, might as well get the third." So I head over to the third area, immediately encounter a mini-boss, and for some reason, I just decided I was done. Left the area and went to fight the final boss. Which was pretty disappointing by the way. Not that Lord Gwyn from DS1 was very difficult, but the final two bosses of DS2 just brought into focus how boring and easy most of the bosses in the game are. They have a very basic pattern of attack that generally seem pretty easy to avoid. I'd say I was able to beat more than half the bosses on my second try (after the initial meeting where I was able to see what they were before dying).

It'll be nice to get back to the roots with DS3. But that needs to wait a while, as I need a break from Dark Souls. I just picked up Hitman, so I think I'll start that next.

I've come to a dead stop on Nioh...ON THE FIRST MAJOR BOSS. You've probably read about here, Hino Enma or something like that. I think it may be the most difficult boss fight I've ever seen. It isn't really unfair (but it borders on it), it's just really fucking hard. Nothing seems to be working and I should be over-leveled for it. I've tried different builds, different approaches...can't get her below half.

After trying for the past week to beat her, I think I know what the problem is. There is no way that I can see to cheese her. In Souls, it seems like there is always a way that you can totally cheese out and beat all but the toughest bosses. In this, I can't figure out anything. There are no elemental weaknesses in particular. The only thing I've been able to completely thwart is her paralyzing attacks, I have a ton of defense against that.

Weapons, I've tried my main kusari-gama and katana, but neither has the reach I feel like I need. And spear, I have no points in. Hammer is too slow.

It seems like totally a hit and run fight, but I just can't get the rhythm of it right. If there is a rhythm.

I'll probably try again for 20 minutes tonight and wind up getting frustrated once more.

Man, I've been stuck on this same boss for like a week (15-30 minutes of daily frustration). Spear is most consistent in terms of hitting her, but the most I could get her to was a quarter life-bar.
It is pretty irritating having to kill the dudes in the cave next her every single time, because they recharge your spirit weapon and there's a chance they'd drop elixir.
And talking about cheesing, this boss is cheesing. The only reason she is alive is because her health bar is too long and too tough. I thought the same about the previous boss, too. So the fight becomes an exercise in slow and controlled chipping.
Meanwhile, my inventory keeps filling up with all kinds of useless loot. Just the run to the boss nets 2 or 3 items.
I'll probably keep trying, but at this point I would only recommend this game to people who solo Souls and still find them too easy, and that's very unlikely to change...

Watched the Hino-Enma fight on Bossfight Database, and it was all spear and low stance, so I suspect you all are on the right track. Looked hard-as-balls. Many an elixir was drunk, and it looked like she only has one "bad" move where you can string four hits when she whiffs. Good luck, guys!

I'm just over half-way through the campaign of Sniper Elite 4. No mission has taken me less than 2 hours to complete every objective. Every part of the game is so much fun, you WANT to wring every bit out of it. There is, for me, literally no part of this game that isn't fun. Even the collectables have personality. You will find various documents strewn around the levels. Some of them are letters to home, written by nazi soldiers. Most are benign, but every now and then you will find one that is funny, dark, or otherwise hinting at some side story bits. One was written to the soldier's landlord, implying that his wife would do "anything" in order to cover the rent.

If you like games like Assassin's Creed or Splinter Cell, you should check this out.

I love the Sniper series, if for no other reason than the nut-shot x-ray animation.

I'm still playing Battlefront when I can.

Also, Jason beats her in the giant bomb quicklook of this game, actually. (he beat her earlier but is replaying the level for the quicklook).

Didn't know about boss fight database, Jeb, thanks for the link!

I wince every time I shred a nazi's balls.

Disgustipater wrote: I'm pretty close to finishing Dark Souls II. Are the DLC areas worth playing through? Because unless they are pretty good, I'm going to skip them. DS2 just didn't grab me like the original, and I'm not a big fan of the gameplay changes, so I've just been powering through it..

Some of my favorite DS2 stuff was in the DLC, but the blizzard portion of the Ivory King DLC is among my least favorite things in Dark Souls (since Tomb of Giants anyhow. There were a lot of uninspired boss fights that were just "hey, try fighting three of these pricks at once". DS3 was a nice return to form, but I appreciated some of the things DS2 tried to change or add.

Michael Barnes wrote: After trying for the past week to beat her, I think I know what the problem is. There is no way that I can see to cheese her. In Souls, it seems like there is always a way that you can totally cheese out and beat all but the toughest bosses. In this, I can't figure out anything. There are no elemental weaknesses in particular. The only thing I've been able to completely thwart is her paralyzing attacks, I have a ton of defense against that.

Ha! I'm heading into that fight now, but haven't encountered her yet. Thanks for giving me something to look forward to. Ugh!

Beat that Nioh boss tonight. It was pretty much like that video posted by Jeb above. No tricks, no special moves, just dodge, dodge, dodge, hit, dodge, dodge, dodge, hit, etc. I felt slightly better about myself after vanquishing her, but not enough to justify the time invested in it.
Then I did a side mission (rescuing the village... for the 3rd time!), tried some random coop and then the next story mission. I did not die once until I got to the boss, who wasted me in approximately two seconds.
I have a feeling that the base game is actually kind of easier than Souls, thanks to very efficient ranged weaponry and the fact that enemies drop healing stuff on regular basis (with the appropriate blessing), all the combos and enemy stamina control. Maybe the designers have realized that, felt bad (because making a game easier than Soulbornes is probably a cause for embarrassment in Japan) and decided to amp the difficulty of boss fights.

Oh, those Diablo-like drops are really annoying. It is all the same stuff but with different numbers. It is also annoying to have a currency separate from souls that only serves you to buy arrows and bullets (I love how you can only carry 9 bullets on yourself + 100 suits of armor and 500 semi-identical weapons).