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March 28, 2024, 03:23:18 PM

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Doom Eternal

Started by popcorn, March 22, 2020, 12:27:45 AM

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madhair60

#30
Quote from: Thursday on March 22, 2020, 06:38:45 PM
You're likely to melee enemies yes, because you have so little ammo at the start, and yes then you chainsaw enemies, but once you've used up the ammo from that, you might not get more chainsaw fuel.

You have unlimited fuel, it recharges in about 20/30 seconds.

popcorn

I do have a feeling that there is some method behind all this madness and that like MGS5 if I keep at it I might eventually click with all the systems and start enjoying myself. but gosh it makes me cross when games are hard to get into and it makes me especially cross when they don't teach you things in fun/effective ways.

popcorn

urghhhhh I downloaded an update and now when I boot the game it forces me to make a Bethesda online account?



EARN AWESOME PRIZES get fucked

am I missing something? is there a way to skip this?

madhair60

the only way to skip is to be offline at launch I think

rack and peanut

Enjoying the combat, only played Doom 2016 last year so it's kinda fresh in my mind. I reckon I've had more deaths from falling into lava than from demons though.

popcorn

Played a bit more of this and quite liked it.

ASFTSN

This game is like a playground filled with blood for anyone that knows their way around FPS games. It's amazing.

ALTHOUGH I don't really like a lot of the bosses except for the first one and I'm stuck on the penultimate one on Ultra-Violence. But generally this is a masterpiece. I think some of these fights are so frantic that they've taken a year off me life.

I turned off tutorials immediately by the way.

And the melee - when you get Blood Punch it's incredibly useful and has saved me on several occasions.

ASFTSN

Quote from: Thursday on March 22, 2020, 06:38:45 PM
You're likely to melee enemies yes, because you have so little ammo at the start, and yes then you chainsaw enemies, but once you've used up the ammo from that, you might not get more chainsaw fuel.

Chainsaw refuels constantly - you always have 1 chainsaw fuel if you wait a few seconds.

ASFTSN

Just finished this. Had to turn difficulty down to HMP for
Spoiler alert
Khan Maykr boss fight and onwards
[close]
but that's 85% of the game done on UV. Looks like you can replay any part of it again once you have completed it so I can git gud some other time. Great game!

madhair60

Quote from: popcorn on March 24, 2020, 11:31:25 PM
Played a bit more of this and quite liked it.

I played a bit more of it and got really irritated by it. Hahahaha.

Benjaminos

Really didn't get on with this to begin with. Was playing it like Doom 2016, getting battered in every fight even on Hurt Me Plenty, feeling like I was fluking my way through fights and generally getting frustrated.

Something clicked around the first boss fight though. It's a thing of beauty once you learn how to do the dance - chainsaw that dude, farm some armor from that group, snipe off the arachnatron turret and feed that cacodemon a sticky bomb, double jump and dash to the next victim, firing a frag grenade into the melee as you go. It just flows, and it's splendid.

Story is a load of old bollocks mind, and I could do without the Prince of Persia platforming bits. But who cares when the core gameplay loop is so slick.

bgmnts

Quote from: popcorn on March 22, 2020, 12:27:02 PM
This is just a senseless barrage of tutorials, weapons, power-ups and enemies within minutes of starting the game. It's grossly overstuffed, it's bewildering, it has no pacing whatsoever. Before you encounter a new enemy it interrupts you with a tutorial explaining what its weak point is, fuck. off.

This usually happens at the start of most games. It's so you can learn the mechanics and features of the game.

ASFTSN

Quote from: Benjaminos
Really didn't get on with this to begin with. Was playing it like Doom 2016, getting battered in every fight even on Hurt Me Plenty, feeling like I was fluking my way through fights and generally getting frustrated.

Same. Unlearning the 2016 habits was the point I actually started to get better at the game. For something that looks like it shares similar mechanics, not a whole lot of it plays the same at all. You actually have to think to a degree that surprised me for something so brutal.

Quote from: Benjaminos
Something clicked around the first boss fight though. It's a thing of beauty once you learn how to do the dance - chainsaw that dude, farm some armor from that group, snipe off the arachnatron turret and feed that cacodemon a sticky bomb, double jump and dash to the next victim, firing a frag grenade into the melee as you go. It just flows, and it's splendid.

YES. That first boss fight was the best of them all I thought.

Quote from: Benjaminos
Story is a load of old bollocks mind

Is it ever. Still, there's a couple of funny bits in there around
Spoiler alert
Mars Core
[close]
.

popcorn

I continue to find this bewildering and rock hard but enjoying it as I get used to it. I was stuck on a single encounter for over an hour - the closest I came to success was heartpounding. When I'm wheeled into A&E with coronavirus the nurse will ask "does he have any pre-existing conditions" and my dad will tell them "yes he played Doom Eternal".

I finally thought fuck it I'm going to have to go to easy mode and discovered I'd somehow been playing it on hard the entire time??? Normal mode now feels like enemies fall over when I breathe on them by comparison.

ASFTSN

Quote from: popcorn on March 29, 2020, 02:23:29 AMI was stuck on a single encounter for over an hour - the closest I came to success was heartpounding.

Which one, out of interest?


Benjaminos

Yeah, that encounter nearly made me stop playing entirely, must have tried it 10-15 times before I cracked it. It's really tough for so early on in the game - you only have like 1 rune, 1-2 weapon upgrades, one sentinel crystal (and if you didn't pick health, you're extra boned), and the 'combat chess' thing hasn't clicked yet, or at least it hadn't for me.

popcorn

#47
Quote from: Benjaminos on March 29, 2020, 02:25:43 PM
It's really tough for so early on in the game - you only have like 1 rune, 1-2 weapon upgrades, one sentinel crystal (and if you didn't pick health, you're extra boned)

This is the thing I'm most struggling with (apart from the accidentally inflated difficulty level which I am putting down to my fault). I've no idea what sentinel crystals or runes are and I'm pretty sure I haven't got any extra health so far.

I recall that being one of the few things I didn't like in Doom 2016 - the vague sense that there were all these upgrades that felt superfluous but which I seemed able to ignore without cost. They seem to have doubled down on that.

There are so many menus and controls and power-ups and I have no idea what any of them do. And the UIs are so badly designed, with font so tiny I genuinely have to get up and walk over to my TV to read ... every time a menu pops up and I have to choose some sort of upgrade of power-up it's a gigantic energy drop. Half the explanations don't even make sense without having to understand several other concepts. It's like DnD! I want Doom to be visceral, not cerebral, if you know what I mean.

Anyway, once I'd switched to normal mode I did that encounter on my second try, so things are a bit more relaxed now.

ASFTSN

Quote from: popcorn on March 29, 2020, 02:43:05 PM
This is the thing I'm most struggling with (apart from the accidentally inflated difficulty level which I am putting down to my fault). I've no idea what sentinel crystals or runes are and I'm pretty sure I haven't got any extra health so far.

Sentinel Crystals: Allow you to pick from a list of options to upgrade your Flame Belch or give you little bonuses to the way pickups affect you but more importantly each upgrade also allows you to make a choice of whether to increase Ammo, Health or Armour maximums. That's the only way to do it, in fact (I think).

Runes: You've got three "slots" ultimately that you can plug in runes you have picked up so far into. Mostly but not always these are passive changes that do things that affect your playstyle like bullet time, enemies being in stagger state longer, pick up health/ammo from further away etc. The most important one of these in the early game for me was the one that allows you more control when you're in the air.

Praetor Suit Points: Points that buy upgrades in the Suit section of the menu. From memory there's five categories: Frag Grenade upgrades, Ice Bomb Upgrades, Secret-hunting improvements, Environmental damage modifiers affecting radiation/fire etc, and er...the other one.

Runes can be changed around at any time from the menu, the upgrades you get from Sentinel Crystals and Praetor Suit Points are permanently set.

ASFTSN

Quote from: popcorn on March 29, 2020, 02:43:05 PM
I recall that being one of the few things I didn't like in Doom 2016 - the vague sense that there were all these upgrades that felt superfluous but which I seemed able to ignore without cost. They seem to have doubled down on that.

You might not want to read this, but I actually think all those upgrades are a lot more necessary than they used to be. In fact whenever I found myself totally stuck it was usually because I'd decided to ignore a certain power up/upgrade/weapon mod that would have made my life a lot easier if I'd just switched it on.

This is definitely one of those games that is more forgiving than it might seem though - I never felt like I'd upgraded myself into a corner or chosen the "wrong" weapon mod, and you can always go back and replay the missions to get mods you missed before carrying on.

popcorn

Quote from: ASFTSN on March 29, 2020, 03:46:11 PM
Sentinel Crystals: Allow you to pick from a list of options to upgrade your Flame Belch or give you little bonuses to the way pickups affect you but more importantly each upgrade also allows you to make a choice of whether to increase Ammo, Health or Armour maximums. That's the only way to do it, in fact (I think).

Runes: You've got three "slots" ultimately that you can plug in runes you have picked up so far into. Mostly but not always these are passive changes that do things that affect your playstyle like bullet time, enemies being in stagger state longer, pick up health/ammo from further away etc. The most important one of these in the early game for me was the one that allows you more control when you're in the air.

Praetor Suit Points: Points that buy upgrades in the Suit section of the menu. From memory there's five categories: Frag Grenade upgrades, Ice Bomb Upgrades, Secret-hunting improvements, Environmental damage modifiers affecting radiation/fire etc, and er...the other one.

Runes can be changed around at any time from the menu, the upgrades you get from Sentinel Crystals and Praetor Suit Points are permanently set.

Thanks for that. Much prefer reading forums to game menus.

All of those ring bells. I know I extended my glory kill range at some point. I still don't really understand what the Flame Belch is all about. Definitely didn't get any health/armour/ammo upgrades though.

ASFTSN

Quote from: popcorn on March 29, 2020, 03:57:54 PM
Thanks for that. Much prefer reading forums to game menus.

All of those ring bells. I know I extended my glory kill range at some point. I still don't really understand what the Flame Belch is all about. Definitely didn't get any health/armour/ammo upgrades though.

No worries!

Flame Belch is used to set fire to enemies (or groups of enemies). When enemies are on fire, they take damage and spit out green Armour Shards that you can pick up. If you kill an enemy while it's still on fire, they spit out a load more Armour Shards. The bigger the enemy, the more armour they spit out.

Thematically, makes fuck-all sense, but works great as a gameplay incentive. For problem enemies like Arachnatrons I usually just Flame Belch+Grenade combo on sight and then start unloading the guns at them.

Have you got the Super Shotgun yet?

popcorn

Quote from: ASFTSN on March 29, 2020, 04:01:46 PM
Have you got the Super Shotgun yet?

Nope!

Quote
For problem enemies like Arachnatrons I usually just Flame Belch+Grenade combo on sight and then start unloading the guns at them.

This is yet another thing I don't really get yet - the various alt-fires. I am vaguely aware that one of the left shoulder buttons does grenades or something but sometimes it does the flamethrower thing instead.

These are things I could put the effort into spending like 5 minutes figuring out but I have no patience whatsoever for things in games that don't make immediate intuitive sense.

ASFTSN

Quote from: popcorn on March 29, 2020, 04:09:20 PM
Nope!

Game changer, to be honest. As soon as I got it some of the enemies that I kept my distance from previously were mincemeat if they got too close to me. Don't even have to aim half the time. I think you'll get it in the next level, if you're still at the place you posted the video of.


Quote from: popcorn on March 29, 2020, 04:09:20 PM
This is yet another thing I don't really get yet - the various alt-fires. I am vaguely aware that one of the left shoulder buttons does grenades or something but sometimes it does the flamethrower thing instead.

On PS4? Shouldn't do. Triangle is flamethrower thing. L1 is grenades (or ice bomb). L2 always fires the selected mod of the gun you're currently wielding.

popcorn

Hmm, clearly I'm more confused than I thought.

Like I said though, I realised I'd somehow been playing on hard mode the whole time and it became a less bewilderingly difficult game after that.

ASFTSN

Keep us posted anyway. It's rare that a game I was this hyped for lived up to it for me, and I'd rather talk about it here than in "gamer" communities...

popcorn

Might stream it a bit later if anyone fancies TUNING IN!!!!!!

Thursday

Oh no another one bit by the streaming virus! :(

popcorn

Streaming's fun because you can complain about video games while your mates take the piss in the chat.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

This game really doesn't make a good first impression, does it? It's not hyperbole to say that I didn't have any fun at all for the first two levels, which seems like a massive waste. Level 2 in, particular, deserves to be in the hall of fame for piles of poo. Level 3 has proved to be a big improvement, mostly because it finally gives you some decent weapons and doesn't make you fight while surrounded by lava.

The whole "combat chess" thing seems a bit like bollocks currently. If this were chess, you'd only be able to see a few squares on the board at a time and your opponent would keep pulling new pieces out of their pocket, which rather hampers your efforts to play strategically. And what strategy you can employ ends up feeling a bit rote - e.g. if an arachnotron turns up, you've basically got no choice but to knock is canon off with a sticky bomb, as any other tactic leads to a swift death.  The original Doom did a much better job of the concept, giving each monster distinct sounds so that you could plan a fight out before it even started.

I have to question whether this was play tested at all on consoles. Not only is the aiming atrocious (which wasn't the case in the previous one, or most other FPS's I've ever played) but all the extra bells and whistles require me to take my thumbs of the control sticks, frequently leaving me motionless at just the wrong time. All of which is exacerbated now that the monsters have had their speed and aggression turned up to 11.

Other gripes: The redesigned HUD does its level best to obscure useful info, like how much fuel your chainsaw has. This is especially shit if you need to chop up a heavy and can't tell if that's even possible; First person platforming, woo! Everyone loves that; Why do the loading screens say 100% but then still linger for a further 10 seconds after you press the button?
I'm willing to persevere with it and hopefully things will continue to improve as I get used to the (vaguely) different way of doing things. At this point, though,  Doom 2016 was already one of the best games I'd ever played. Doom Eternal is going to need something bloody spectacular up its sleeve to make all this frustration worth it. I mean really amazing, not a From Software style, "Oh I finally get it. Yeah, this is quite fun now."