General Gaming Megathread: What are you playing?

At the moment? The first Stronghold game. After playing it, you will absolutely hate wolves, I assure you. Oh, and I was also playing SimCity 3000 a week or two ago, because I felt the sudden urge to run a city full of ungrateful pricks.
 
You are setting the bar waaaaay too low there to call BSI a well written game.

I said the writing was better than CoD's storylines, I never said anything about gameplay or what boss battles there were. Also, can you provide the link to the thread were you gave your reasons?
 
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http://www.nma-fallout.com/showthread.php?199933-Bioshock-Infinite

This thread has a pretty long back and forth on the merits, or lack thereof of the game. I participated in it.

To summarize my points on the game:
Gameplay is barebones, encounters are repetitive and lacking in any kind of skill, Has very little variety in weapons and most of the vigors are pretty interchangeable, or not even usefull.
Storywise: It's the definition of pretentious, it tries to seem like it has a message to tell by including themes of racism and religion, yet fails at actually saying something meaningful or complex because those themes are presented in very childish ways and then get dropped halfway through the story to center around some rather mediocre use of the Multive Universe idea in fiction. It also doesn't even make sense within it's own setting half the time.
 
Story of FPS? shorter is the better.
I haven't seen much FPS that has better story than Thief series.
is Thief's story long? nope, it's short and I heard it's plot itself is kind of copy of The name of rose.
but, still, there aren't much FPS that has better story than Thief.
while their storys are good, they also don't bother's player's action.

Story of HL? at HL1, there is no actual story to bother player but bunch of scenes that look like story .
you are a scientist, you do some work, something wrong, monsters are attacking people and marines too!, kill all the things, eventually arrive to portal, go into portal and kill some important looking giant monster. while in this plot, nothing is explained just like other oldschool FPS.
well, there is G-man who looks like important but other FPS also have similar things: hint for sequel.

but HL2? it bothers me too much.
I can't even open a single door without permission of story or Alyx.
to open a door, I have to hear all the meaningless dialogs.
but still, compare to other games, it's not that long.
and Gorden is still connected with player.
well...not until Breen refering to Gorden's possiblity.


story of BSI? it's too long and bother too much.
unlike HL, player is not Dewitt nor Comstok but game trying to say I am both.
bullshit! I'm not connected with them.
their past, experience, idea, etc. nothing is connected to me.
but game still tell me I am Dewitt and Comstok.
and blocks my way too much.

I'm not good ad explaining with English and I'm not sure wrong or not, but story of BSI is failed as a game.
remember, BSI is game, not a novel or movie.
game should be connected with player.
should let player choose, solve, find himself.
and player should be connected with protagonist.
but BSI failed to do that.

I'm not Dewitt and I don't know who is he and why he became Comstok.
it just don't make sense for player.
they didn't explain them with game play but dialogs which are disconnected with game play.
they're goal doesn't affect player and player's actions doesn't affect the game neither.
so there are three characters in player's party(?): Dewitt, Elizabeth and player.
player can't do anything with plot but just butchering enemy.
and after player butchered all enemy, and then Dewitt and Elizabeth advence story.
so, basically, game is totally seperated into to part: story and shooting.
is that really a successful story? I don't think so.
 
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Dishonored brings a lot to this discussion. Just enough story, gameplay, and lore to make the world interesting and the game memorable. I prefer it over Thief personally. I look forward to a sequel.
Bioshock Infinite fits the very definition of overhype. H2 blows it out of the water in every aspect besides graphics and thats a gimme. As a matter of fact, the entire Bioshock series is mediocre imo. System Shock is better in every way. I forced myself to play through them since everyone claimed they were revolutionary, but I found myself bored halfway through most of them. Granted I still did beat them, but it was a slog. Bioshock was simply "consolized" for the masses. Follow the arrow the whole way through, you're being controlled yadda yadda, anti-climactic encounter with Andrew Ryan, lame boss battle, shitty ending, end. I can't believe people praised the story on the shit. I guess some may have liked the open environments and atmosphere. I thought that was done okay.

Same with Bioshock Infinite. They threw everything that would stick at the game and dropped it all at the end. I didn't bother with the DLC. By that point I didn't see the point in paying for something that everyone claims to be deep and insightful. When I hear people claim that Bioshock is some kind of pinnacle of story in games, as I have heard in many discussions, it really bothers me because Levine just comes off as ultra pretentious and the story isn't anything special. The rumors of Levine being a pretentious douche who screws up projects by constantly changing the game....might be true. He acts like he is bringing all of these mature themes into a game, but none of them hold any weight. It all feels shallow and forced. Dishonored actually felt natural. It flowed.

I still can't understand the complaints of HL2. It's one of my top 5 FPS games. I feel it still holds up. There are also some really nice mods for it to improve the graphics, which I haven't tried yet. I feel like there was just enough story in HL 2. It tied into the original perfectly. It left me wanting to know more as does any good story. It wasn't just the gameplay, which was and still is awesome, it was the atmosphere and characters that drove the narrative. Which is the sign of a good story.

Now off to play Wasteland 2.
 
It's kind of surreal hearing Levine vomiting praise for his own ideas in interviews, he always makes up stuff that wasn't there at all, or sugar coats basic elements that are always on everything with nice words to sound smarter, or tries to make cliched stuff seem revolutionary (like the video on the Transparent generic ghost Lady Comstock design). He was laughed out of hollywood but found a place were his shit is praised it seems.
 
I still can't understand the complaints of HL2. It's one of my top 5 FPS games. I feel it still holds up. There are also some really nice mods for it to improve the graphics, which I haven't tried yet. I feel like there was just enough story in HL 2. It tied into the original perfectly. It left me wanting to know more as does any good story. It wasn't just the game play, which was and still is awesome, it was the atmosphere and characters that drove the narrative. Which is the sign of a good story.
I'm agree that HL2 still hold up.
it's not as good as HL1 but still have good level design and puzzle.

but for story, I really can't think HL2 has story.
all I saw is just bunch of disconnected parts of plots to make player a hero rather than deep story. it's story explain nothing and solved nothing.
maybe because it's not end or maybe because I compare HL1, Thief or Deus ex with it.
feel like Gorden or myself is disconnected from story. only thing I can do is just helping Alyx or other character to advence story.
 
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BSI does have good writing. Great, in fact. The game is solid in general. It just has issues that "the writing's so good" cannot shake off, which means while still on the clear "positive" end of the spectrum, the writing's still not very spectacular. Just as *cough* certain individuals failed to understand that a dialog-driven game's focus was on its character's dialog, BSI's writing's focus wasn't on blowing your mind, it was on developing the relationship between the two main characters, and it pulled it off flawlessly. Elizabeth came off as believable, admirable, and likeable, and Booker came off much the same. The most unbelievable aspect of either of their personalities was, of course, being so 21st Century open minded about racial and sexual segregation and classism... in 1912, no different than James Cameron's characters being independent and able to love for the sake of love instead of money in his film Titanic... Just not realistic. Yet that movie is still praised for its writing and direction and such. *shrug*

For me, BSI's greatest pitfalls were its ties to BS1. At the end of the game, the "easter eggs" that joined the series was clever and appreciable, but by the DLCs these ties weighed down the story and ruined BOTH games' respective integrities. BS1 firmly established the value of choice, in that Jack's journey wasn't really his choice but certain things certainly were well within his power to decide. Then BSI rewrote his entire excapade as predestined, ruining that once and for all. BSI meanwhile had a lovely and ambiguous ending which was rife with conflicting theoretical notions (but then, anything associated with quantum physics and multiverse theory WILL be rife with contradictions) and then its DLC killed off said ambiguity, and worse left the story in a disappointing shambles. The GAMEPLAY of "Burial at Sea - Episode 2" was phenomenal, but the aforementioned story fucks were just too many nails in a coffin that, without the DLCs, would have had next to 0 nails at all.

BS1 isn't revolutionary, but it IS great storytelling. Its greatest failings are reaching a dramatic climax halfway through the game, and then having half a game left to drop the ball... which it did. The final boss was a letdown, and there was no sense of redemption so much as a continuation of the game's railroading. In the game Breakdown, halfway through it pulls a twist that you never see coming, and afterwards it uses the plot device of said twist to COMPELTELY change the gameplay in equally unexpected ways. If BS1 had used Jack's "liberation" from mind control as an excuse to completely change up the game's form, that would've been a stroke of genius. But alas, it kept the arrows and the linear approach to level hubs. It wasn't a failure as much as just not reaching its potential. But if you wanna accuse the confrontation with Andrew Ryan as "anti-climatic" then you're just desperately grasping for something to hate. That scene was a masterpiece, and I still quote it to this day. But does any such singular- masterful or not -determine an entire game's value? Hardly not, so that's why BS1 is great and ought to remain a recommendation, but not hyped to such an extent that you should expect it to be flawless. It's really not. Great, but definitely flawed.

But I will totally agree with assessing BSI to be over-hyped. STILL a good game (if ONLY it hadn't been for those God-fucking-damned DLCs!!!) but just too much hype around them. I can't remember lots of great games having a shred of the same degree of hype as BSI *COUGH*Fallout*COUGH* and its absence did them no disservice.
 
Well, now we have confirmation, BSI is pretentious shlock. :P

That really wasn't confirmation that it's shlock (in fact, I know it's not confirmation because SnapSlav said it was good multiple times throughout his post). It's more like confirmation that it's overhyped, but good, game.
 
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I think you misunderstood the extreme snideness of my message.

In any case, the Bioshock Infinite thread is linked there for anyone who wants to continue the discussion, now back on to games we are playing
I have been trying to make a completionist run of P4Golden on very hard, I have to do it with a guide on my legs because I just can't possibly go about planning all the Social Links and sidequests around the calendar of the game, and others have done that for me already.
 
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Halfway through Wasteland 2. I plan on updating the it before I get to California, but it has been relatively bug free thus far. Very good game. Well worth the wait. I can see where some of the complaints have come from, but I haven't found the combat to be lacking as others have implied. It seems sufficient for what they were trying to go for. I was able to avoid a lot of it. I think the level design has been fairly decent if not a bit simplistic in parts. I did find a strong desire to start over 15 hours in. My party is horrible. One of the worst I have ever made in a game. They get the job done, but they are horribly unoptimized.

I plan on going back through on the hardest difficulty after my first playthrough which is saying a lot. The writing has been fairly good so far. I can see where some might have been off put by the tone. It is a bit tongue in cheek with lots of pop culture references. If you hated that about Fallout 2 you will hate Wasteland 2. If anything this has made me desire to beat the original Wasteland. I have a hankering for more Wasteland lore. Speaking of which. The Southwestern Lore skill is awesome. I can't see playing without the extra dialog.

I will say that I skipped the Rail Nomad area on accident and went to the Canyon of Titan first and that was a bitch. I ended up leaving the Canyon over halfway through to go to the Rail area and I powered through like a boss. I returned a few levels later to finish the stupid sludge quest at Titan....which I hated. Losing your monk in that place is a bitch if you want to go relatively stealthy. I love the enemy designs too. The text readouts are great. Even better than Fallout at times. A lot of the jokes are hit or miss which is a minor problem. I could gush forever on this game.

It's rather sad too because I have about 25 hours in Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, but that thing is going in the backlog pile for awhile. Damn good JRPG too. Best I've played in awhile. It has a Pokemon-like element to it, cinematics by Studio Ghibli, and a huge fucking world map. What more do you want? It is pretty...childish at times. The whole game feels like one long fairytale. Very interesting stuff. Worth a look if you are a fan of the genre. I've been wanting to pick up P4Golden myself, but I haven't had the chance.
 
Well, now we have confirmation, BSI is pretentious shlock. :P

That really wasn't confirmation that it's shlock (in fact, I know it's not confirmation because SnapSlav said it was good multiple times throughout his post). It's more like confirmation that it's overhyped, but good, game.
He was saying it's pretentious PURELY because I liked it and praised it to any degree. According to him, I am a pretentious asshole, therefore if I'm saying it's good, it's by extension pretentious shlock. In short: he comment was douchebaggery directed at me.

Case in point: "I think you misunderstood the extreme snideness of my message." - Walpknut

Dude's just got it out for me, so you can expect from time to time he'll lob out insults without any provocation, like the above.

~~~~~~

As for me, certain unfortunate circumstances, which I won't go into, have prevented me from accessing my PS3 for the last couple of days, so my progress on NGS has been stifled in the meantime. However, I have been enjoying some NGB MN KR (Master Ninja difficulty Karma Runs [high score attempts] for Ninja Gaiden Black) videos, with commentary explaining the tactics being demonstrated, and they've been pumping me up to strive for better scores on my upcoming attempts! I don't plan on getting top 10 by any means (in fact, there seems to be some kind of cheat being exploited where the top 5-7 scores are impossibly high, so that only leaves room for 3-5 legitimate scores in the top 10...) but the tactics in these videos made me realize I could aim for far greater heights than I initially anticipated. Although, MN is the difficulty where most karma runners spend all their attempts, so I'd be up against far more competition that, say, VH, so for all I know my efforts could be best spent racking up a high score on VH instead? Time will tell.

I'm just looking forward to those inconveniences clearing up so I can get back to playing my PS3 when I have spare time.

Of course there's always Dota2, as usual. =) But nothing to report on that end, besides my noticing how trends have violently shifted in the past couple weeks, such as Medusa being a thing. That game never ceases to entertain!
 
Well, now we have confirmation, BSI is pretentious shlock. :P

That really wasn't confirmation that it's shlock (in fact, I know it's not confirmation because SnapSlav said it was good multiple times throughout his post). It's more like confirmation that it's overhyped, but good, game.
He was saying it's pretentious PURELY because I liked it and praised it to any degree. According to him, I am a pretentious asshole, therefore if I'm saying it's good, it's by extension pretentious shlock. In short: he comment was douchebaggery directed at me.

Case in point: "I think you misunderstood the extreme snideness of my message." - Walpknut

Dude's just got it out for me, so you can expect from time to time he'll lob out insults without any provocation, like the above.

~~~~~~

As for me, certain unfortunate circumstances, which I won't go into, have prevented me from accessing my PS3 for the last couple of days, so my progress on NGS has been stifled in the meantime. However, I have been enjoying some NGB MN KR (Master Ninja difficulty Karma Runs [high score attempts] for Ninja Gaiden Black) videos, with commentary explaining the tactics being demonstrated, and they've been pumping me up to strive for better scores on my upcoming attempts! I don't plan on getting top 10 by any means (in fact, there seems to be some kind of cheat being exploited where the top 5-7 scores are impossibly high, so that only leaves room for 3-5 legitimate scores in the top 10...) but the tactics in these videos made me realize I could aim for far greater heights than I initially anticipated. Although, MN is the difficulty where most karma runners spend all their attempts, so I'd be up against far more competition that, say, VH, so for all I know my efforts could be best spent racking up a high score on VH instead? Time will tell.

I'm just looking forward to those inconveniences clearing up so I can get back to playing my PS3 when I have spare time.

Of course there's always Dota2, as usual. =) But nothing to report on that end, besides my noticing how trends have violently shifted in the past couple weeks, such as Medusa being a thing. That game never ceases to entertain!

You two get a room. ;)

Since you like Ninja Gaiden what are your thoughts on Bayonetta? I figure you would like it since the two series are so similar. I plan on getting the newest one for the Wii U soon.
 
Since you like Ninja Gaiden what are your thoughts on Bayonetta? I figure you would like it since the two series are so similar. I plan on getting the newest one for the Wii U soon.
Similar??? Note even remotely!!! That's like saying God of War is similar to Ninja Gaiden. Sure, they're both third person action slash-em-up games, but that doesn't make them similar. Or to go with a better example to express why they're not, it would be like comparing Bioshock with Call of Duty, or even Borderlands, cause "they're shooters". Clearly, while they may fit into the same genre, they're not alike in just about every other aspect.

I personally couldn't get into Bayonetta because the controls felt clumsy and unintuitive, to me. I watched friends get really showy sequences, and it was like watching them play Street Fighter instead of Tekken; i.e. the controls are convoluted and ridiculous, rather that practical and designed with flow and pacing in mind. The controls in the modern NG series have a flow and a feel to them that elicits a really showy and acrobatic combat ensemble that the player can feel like they're in control of, yet has enough depth to it that despite feeling "simple to grasp", there's so much more to learn and perfect to actually exceed one's own previous attempts. Or, put simply, the good ol' "easy to learn, hard to master" idiom. Bayonetta just doesn't do that. She doesn't feel like she's easy to pick up and start pulling off some showy moves by just messing around with the controller. The character feels stiff and unresponsive, and that just creates a stuttered and impeded flow that I personally didn't like. Furthermore, the combat and platforming were integrated in the NG series, which had highs and lows, but the combat in DMC and B by extension were really separated from the rest of the gameplay. It's like comparing the Sands of Time PoP games with the 2008 PoP game in terms of combat; the former used the acrobatics of the titular prince to within the combat itself, while the latter segregated the 2 forms of gameplay, with controls violently shifting in utility between exploration and combat segments. Not bad design choices, by any means, but they're noticeably different.

Also I seem to be a bit of an anomaly, cause the sex appeal of all the games that have it just doesn't do anything for me. Okay, there's this absurdly busty chick strutting around in black, studded leather in NG/B/S. Neato. Okay, the main character is a fetishized glasses-wearing babe with revolvers for high heels who's a witch whose magic involves repeatedly disrobing in B. Alright. Quite frankly, those just don't gravitate me toward either. If Kratos was a handsome model or the pale bald bastard we know or if he was some buxom babe, what would matter to me is the gameplay, and it so happens that the combat in the GOW series was solid and well-designed enough that I was able to embrace the games.

I couldn't say the same about the XBox Spawn game, which was almost identical in structure, approach, and presentation to GOW. I may love the character and the series (and Goddamnit every time they get Keith David to reprise his role, I'm practically sold right there!) but the actual controls are so loose and flimsy and the design is just so haphazard and messed up, I couldn't get into that game. At least when you fuck up in GOW, you fucked up. When you die in NG, it's largely your fault (with no small degree of a excess thrown at you by a game that delights in its sadistically demanding level of challenge), not because something was poorly designed. But Spawn? Oh those platforms just didn't get much playtesting, you'll get used to how poorly spaced they are. Oh this level looked cool, we didn't really care how the designed functions, you'll put up with the absurdities the AI is capable of in this space, won't you? No game, fuck you. I'm going to go play something with some actual polish...

Thus my love for NGS. NG was a phenomenal game, then they refined it with the Hurrican Pack. Then they refined it some more with NGB. Then they refined it some more with NGS! Then some MORE with NGS Plus! Each version has additions and omissions, so there's no "perfect version" of any one title, but they each have incredible degrees of polish and fine tuning. They really refined these games to a wonderful state, and unless you have a fragile ego that can't recognize that failing to meet a challenge is YOUR fault, it's incredibly fun to play. =)
 
Just started Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. It's the only Fire Emblem I haven't played other than Gaiden and Shadow Dragon, but even with all of that experience, good grief it is hard! Sure, I'm playing on Maniac despite being unfamiliar with the new battlefields and characters. Sure, I'm trying to make sure everyone survives. Sure, I had no idea Micaiah automatically gets a class-up. Sure, it's regarded as the hardest in the franchise (it isn't, Thracia 776 is)... But what really makes it a pain is that on several occasions teammates defect after you put forth tons of effort to make them tough and that the AI is a cheating bastard to it's apex.
 
Since you like Ninja Gaiden what are your thoughts on Bayonetta? I figure you would like it since the two series are so similar. I plan on getting the newest one for the Wii U soon.
Similar??? Note even remotely!!! That's like saying God of War is similar to Ninja Gaiden. Sure, they're both third person action slash-em-up games, but that doesn't make them similar. Or to go with a better example to express why they're not, it would be like comparing Bioshock with Call of Duty, or even Borderlands, cause "they're shooters". Clearly, while they may fit into the same genre, they're not alike in just about every other aspect.

I personally couldn't get into Bayonetta because the controls felt clumsy and unintuitive, to me. I watched friends get really showy sequences, and it was like watching them play Street Fighter instead of Tekken; i.e. the controls are convoluted and ridiculous, rather that practical and designed with flow and pacing in mind. The controls in the modern NG series have a flow and a feel to them that elicits a really showy and acrobatic combat ensemble that the player can feel like they're in control of, yet has enough depth to it that despite feeling "simple to grasp", there's so much more to learn and perfect to actually exceed one's own previous attempts. Or, put simply, the good ol' "easy to learn, hard to master" idiom. Bayonetta just doesn't do that. She doesn't feel like she's easy to pick up and start pulling off some showy moves by just messing around with the controller. The character feels stiff and unresponsive, and that just creates a stuttered and impeded flow that I personally didn't like. Furthermore, the combat and platforming were integrated in the NG series, which had highs and lows, but the combat in DMC and B by extension were really separated from the rest of the gameplay. It's like comparing the Sands of Time PoP games with the 2008 PoP game in terms of combat; the former used the acrobatics of the titular prince to within the combat itself, while the latter segregated the 2 forms of gameplay, with controls violently shifting in utility between exploration and combat segments. Not bad design choices, by any means, but they're noticeably different.

Also I seem to be a bit of an anomaly, cause the sex appeal of all the games that have it just doesn't do anything for me. Okay, there's this absurdly busty chick strutting around in black, studded leather in NG/B/S. Neato. Okay, the main character is a fetishized glasses-wearing babe with revolvers for high heels who's a witch whose magic involves repeatedly disrobing in B. Alright. Quite frankly, those just don't gravitate me toward either. If Kratos was a handsome model or the pale bald bastard we know or if he was some buxom babe, what would matter to me is the gameplay, and it so happens that the combat in the GOW series was solid and well-designed enough that I was able to embrace the games.

I couldn't say the same about the XBox Spawn game, which was almost identical in structure, approach, and presentation to GOW. I may love the character and the series (and Goddamnit every time they get Keith David to reprise his role, I'm practically sold right there!) but the actual controls are so loose and flimsy and the design is just so haphazard and messed up, I couldn't get into that game. At least when you fuck up in GOW, you fucked up. When you die in NG, it's largely your fault (with no small degree of a excess thrown at you by a game that delights in its sadistically demanding level of challenge), not because something was poorly designed. But Spawn? Oh those platforms just didn't get much playtesting, you'll get used to how poorly spaced they are. Oh this level looked cool, we didn't really care how the designed functions, you'll put up with the absurdities the AI is capable of in this space, won't you? No game, fuck you. I'm going to go play something with some actual polish...

Thus my love for NGS. NG was a phenomenal game, then they refined it with the Hurrican Pack. Then they refined it some more with NGB. Then they refined it some more with NGS! Then some MORE with NGS Plus! Each version has additions and omissions, so there's no "perfect version" of any one title, but they each have incredible degrees of polish and fine tuning. They really refined these games to a wonderful state, and unless you have a fragile ego that can't recognize that failing to meet a challenge is YOUR fault, it's incredibly fun to play. =)


Sorry I tend to disagree. With pretty much everything you said actually. What a surprise! Bayonetta features one of the most fluid fighting systems I have ever played in a third person action game. If they felt unresponsive to you then I don't know what to say. You can say Lollipop Chainsaw is unresponsive and I will agree but Bayonetta? Disregarding the story aspects and the character qualms one may have, Bayonetta is an excellent score based third person action game. The next best thing to a new Ninja Gaiden. Metal Gear Revengeance and the DMC reboot doesn't measure up that is for sure.

Now I'm not outright saying you liked Ninja Gaiden so you should like Bayonetta. The games are similar though. Your analogies to the other games were nothing like the one I made. I feel like you probably didn't play much of Bayonetta to fully grasp it's play style. Yes it is not exactly like Ninja Gaiden, but the genre is the same, they play similar, and it is generally agreed upon that Bayonetta controls very smoothly. As a matter of fact I haven't heard too many complain about it not controlling well. I've heard people moan about sexism and other tired nonsense, but not the control gripe. If you are unable to play it simply because it doesn't play exactly like Ninja Gaiden I don't know what to say. That would be like me not playing Wasteland 2 because it isn't as good as Fallout 2. :)

God of War has nothing to do with this. The amount of combos in that game is weak. The game is structured completely different. Bayonetta really picks up after you beat the game. That is when it truly gets challenging. At any rate I can't wait to pick the new one up. All I was saying is maybe you might like the competitive nature of the combo system and score attack and the great replay value. Generally I turn the music down on Bayonetta since it annoys me. I know Ninja Gaiden isn't as tongue in cheek so that probably is one of the problems you may have. I feel like you may be too serious to enjoy games for what they are.

Edit: That fragile ego comment is funny. You might apply that to yourself and try Bayonetta again. Some of it may be on you. The combat is very deep once you dive into it.
 
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