What Has Everyone Been Playing This Week? 4

[dataDave]

Also playing Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. It's quite good and I'm not as frustrated as with past Mario Karts somehow, but it is still baffling how they haven't improved the design to differ between single and multiplayer. If you're playing couch multiplayer with friends and family, it's hysterical when some bighead gets hit by a blue or red shell and goes from first to last in an instant. When you're playing single player and you're literally getting hit by stuff every few seconds, it's absolutely miserable. If the items are based on your position in a race, why can't they also be based on single vs multiplayer? Imagine if even in single player NSMB you still had to put up with three AI supports getting in the way and bouncing you all over the place.

Practice more. Play online for a few hours and you'll be absolutely rinsing 150cc/200cc trophies in an unfair fashion in no time. The items will become a non-issue eventually. You obviously won't be having as much fun in local multiplayer when you can dominate everyone effortlessly, mind.

[Atticus]

Switch: Octopath Traveller, Splatoon 2 and Arms. Having way too much fun. Since reconnecting with and completing Odyssey I've totally fallen for the Switch again.

[noobish hat]

Practice more. Play online for a few hours and you'll be absolutely rinsing 150cc/200cc trophies in an unfair fashion in no time. The items will become a non-issue eventually. You obviously won't be having as much fun in local multiplayer when you can dominate everyone effortlessly, mind.

I don't need to practice, I've got gold in most cups on the first try (hence it not being as frustrating as other Mario Karts). But it's still annoying being hit literally constantly.

[dataDave]

I don't need to practice

With all due respect the people that have hundreds of hours clocked up are still getting better and better all the time. You're not expected to master the game overnight, or even over the course of a month. Besides, it sounds like you're having problems with defending proficiently vs. the AI. Everyone is going to get hit at some point when trying to create a gap from the chaos of mid-pack, it's how well you recover that matters. Patient and intelligent usage of the items takes you a long way.

When you play online you need to be aiming for top 50%, so as long as you're accumulating points it's all good. First place, or around that, is a bonus. Whenever you enter a room and someone is on 50k+ points it's guaranteed that they are going to win no matter what happens. They've ploughed the hours in, so it's natural.

[noobish hat]

With all due respect the people that have hundreds of hours clocked up are still getting better and better all the time. You're not expected to master the game overnight, or even over the course of a month. Besides, it sounds like you're having problems with defending proficiently vs. the AI. Everyone is going to get hit at some point when trying to create a gap from the chaos of mid-pack, it's how well you recover that matters. Patient and intelligent usage of the items takes you a long way.

When you play online you need to be aiming for top 50%, so as long as you're accumulating points it's all good. First place, or around that, is a bonus. Whenever you enter a room and someone is on 50k+ points it's guaranteed that they are going to win no matter what happens. They've ploughed the hours in, so it's natural.

I was talking exclusively about single player mode. In multiplayer mode, the chaotic design makes sense - anyone can go from any position to any other position at any time. No matter what happens, someone benefits and enjoys the game. What happens in single player? The AI benefits and enjoys the game? It's just a design flaw.

[dataDave]

I was talking exclusively about single player mode. In multiplayer mode, the chaotic design makes sense - anyone can go from any position to any other position at any time. No matter what happens, someone benefits and enjoys the game. What happens in single player? The AI benefits and enjoys the game? It's just a design flaw.

I was talking about all modes, not just online. AI is present in most games to present a challenge. When it beats you down fairly (as all good AI should) you learn the ropes and rise up to to turn the tables, you can't really put it down as a design flaw unless it's abusing power such as rubber-banding or item bias or whatever. Thankfully there's none of that here, and it actually does quite a handsome job of imitating entry-level online play.

[noobish hat]

Have you ever even player Mario Kart? Item bias and rubber banding is its raison d'etre. Nintendo doesn't even hide the fact that it's not fair, that's literally how the game works. The best items are given to the worst players and vice versa. I'm not even bothered by that (except that it makes the game quite boring, getting nothing but bananas and coins throughout the entire campaign). The problem is they need to tone down the number of items being thrown around non-stop. Letting everyone hold two items is just making things worse.

[dataDave]

I've played MK8/MK8D for what must be 500 hours combined, yep. Not had any problems stomping the AI since around the 50 hour mark.

[importaku]

The best part about 8 is you can finally defeat the blue shells, that speaker powerup totally destroys them if you time it right. However it relies on you getting one & keeping it till the end which is easier said than done as that damn lightning removes everyones powerups when activated by a salty cpu controlled player in last place.

[dataDave]

The Lightning and the Boo are my worst enemies atm. Another meth for the Blue Shell is to use the rear view to slow down so that second place takes the splash damage at the same time. As long as you're in front you'll still get the faster recovery and first dibs on item boxes to solidify your position. Otherwise they pose no harm to you if you're far enough in front - it's just the one impact. Triple reds are far worse.

[Dogg Thang]

I finished Gris. Lovely looking and a beautiful soundtrack but it was a bit of a chore as a game and is so abstract that no story comes through at all. Not what I was hoping for. Back to Octopath now.

[noobish hat]

The Lightning and the Boo are my worst enemies atm. Another meth for the Blue Shell is to use the rear view to slow down so that second place takes the splash damage at the same time. As long as you're in front you'll still get the faster recovery and first dibs on item boxes to solidify your position. Otherwise they pose no harm to you if you're far enough in front - it's just the one impact. Triple reds are far worse.

You're still talking about this like my complaint is that getting hit causes me to lose.

[dataDave]

You're still talking about this like my complaint is that getting hit causes me to lose.

I was replying to Importaku, but never mind.

[Atticus]

More Octopath Traveller. Around 10 hours in now with 5 characters on the go. Really enjoying on the whole. Just the right blend of accessibility and depth. Some lovely touches in the production too. I made my way to a costal town last night and the shimmering light on the water was amazing.

Only slight criticism is each character's intro is slightly long-winded. It sets the scene but I just want to get cracking with the knacking

[speedlolita]

I finished Gris. Lovely looking and a beautiful soundtrack but it was a bit of a chore as a game and is so abstract that no story comes through at all. Not what I was hoping for. Back to Octopath now.

I'm curious, what did you think of Journey?

Gris came across as you are describing to me when watching gameplay. It looks like something I'd get more enjoyment from watching someone play.