I love my 8Bitdo Ultimate controller. It’s comfortable to use and holds a decent charge. Having a charging stand is really useful too. If you have multiple non-PC devices, I would recommend getting the Pro version so that you can use Bluetooth. Otherwise, the USB one will work well.
Only other minor negative is that the d-pad is a little mushy so I will occasionally hit the wrong direction accidentally. So not the greatest for fighting games.
If you don’t need the charging stand, there are cheaper USB only controllers too.
Lastly, if you want to try to improve your posture, my family bought some chair restraint straps for my grandma who kept tilting in her chair. The ones I linked aren’t what we got her but they were the cheapest I could find. You may also want to get your eyes checked. Could be the reason you’re leaning forwards so much is because you can’t see as clearly as you think.
I would recommend grabbing a third party controller since for some reason ($$$), none of the big three consoles make first party controllers with hall effect sticks. Search on Amazon for “Xbox hall effect controller” and 99% of the results will work fine. Off the top of my head, I know 8BitDo and GameSir are reputable brands
I have a couple Beitong Asura 2 Pro+s with hall effect sensors. They work great and haven’t worn out like the litany of xbox and ds4 controllers that preceded them.
If you like Offset sticks, the Xbox elite series controllers are phenomenal, it will require additional drivers.
I prefer my sticks aligned, so I usually use my custom DS4 from scuf.
Sometimes I like my stadia controller, it just feels nice in the hands.
I hate the switch pro Controller, it feels… Off somehow.
For retro gaming I use an OG Xbox controller (custom USB bodge job) or my 8bitdo sn30pro+ while I like the 8bitdo, its bluetooth is Unreliable so I recommend using a cable.
Well I have never used any controller or a console before. For almost 20 years I have been a keyboard+mouse guy. So for me, a plug and play controller would be nice. Bluetooth is not a priority for me rn. Given that as well as all the advice in the comments, I am leaning towards this one.
I’ve been using an Xbox pro controller for a while on my Mint setup, just plugged in. I can’t get the Bluetooth to connect and I assume it’s because I need to update the drivers for the controller via Windows. 🤷 Whatever.
But my controller bit the dust somewhat recently, so I grabbed a PS5 controller this time and it works right out of the box, no issue. I haven’t tried the Bluetooth to be honest because I’m so used to playing plugged in, but meh. The little trackpad thing on the PlayStation controller also works well as a mouse trackpad when I’m far away from my PC (like if I have it running in the living room instead of at a desk).
While the package names and how to install them will be different since you’re on mint, this section in the Arch wiki discusses your options for Xbox controllers.
Souls games didn’t make sense to me until I saw Giant Bomb play through Demon’s Souls. Mechanics that I didn’t know were there were explained in plain English, and then I could better understand where I went wrong when I died.
There was a time when I could not have imagined liking those kinds of games. My partner got me Dark Souls Prepare to Die Edition and I hated it. Hate may be too kind a word for how I felt. I’ve always loved metroidvanias and the style seemed right up my gothy, witchy alley, but I couldn’t get past the first basic zombie.
Then we watched a bunch of videos and realized that the game was designed to be played slowly and deliberately. There were no “junk” enemies and paying careful attention at all times was the game. When it clicked, it clicked, and now From Software games are my favorite.
I had a similar experience. Went the wrong way in DS1, headed straight for the catacombs, went “oh. This isn’t hard. This is punishing.” And dropped off. Later a friend gave me some guidance and some pointers on what the game did/didn’t expect of me and I’ve been a giant fan ever since.
Sekiro took me a little time to figure out what it expected from me, too, but now I absolutely adore that game. That’s more of a mechanical “what should I be doing in combat” statement of the fact that the game expects you to act aggressively while focusing on defense. Though
I’ve enjoyed a lot of Soulslikes, but none of the ones made by FromSoft. Their style of providing poor explanations of mechanisms just makes no sense to me, even if you want to give players those moments of self-driven discovery.
Honestly I think a lot of people miss that these games are full of soft difficulty options. Magic, in particular pyromancy, summons, there are lots of ways to make the game easier, and that’s a good thing!
I recently replayed Dark Souls 1 and tried a Strength build to see how it goes.
Full Havel’s straight up lets you face tank Artorias, and you’re taking almost a 1/15th of his health with just a hit.
Armor was nerfed after that, but still, it was rather hilarious. Magic was nerfed too by the virtue of bosses getting more gap closers and ranged attacks - by Elden Ring, magic is far from the boring “stay back and just spam attack” idea, but on the contrary, the cheesiest tactics I used when needed were Greatshields or dual jump attacks for stunning bosses. There’s videos out there of people beating Malenia by just shield poking her to death with a spear, and I certainly used that when I wasn’t having fun with Rellana. It’s crazy to me how most people just grab a greatsword and only use that the whole game, then say the game’s shallow or too hard.
I really struggled when I tried magic, and then in DS2 I picked up an ultragreatsword and great shield and the game just felt right to play. Like, every boss timing seemed to be perfectly in line with my speed, where before it was always a struggle to refrain from trying to get one last button mash in with the faster weapons.
My first attempt was Dark Souls 3. I went in expecting challenging but rewarding battles, and a mysterious world to explore. Unfortunately, I found myself bored within an hour every time I played, and gave up on it after maybe a dozen sessions.
I tried Elden Ring maybe a year or two later. I stuck with it for longer, but the experience was roughly the same. The combat felt tedious. The art and animation didn’t appeal to my tastes. The world seemed big, but desolate. The controls somehow made me feel awkwardly disconnected from my character. Nothing about the game made me care about it at all. The biggest challenge was in keeping my eyelids open.
I wonder if I would find soulslikes more appealing if I had grown up on console games. They’re clearly popular, but it seems they just aren’t for me.
I actually bought DS3 twice, For the PS4 the first time, and couldn’t do anything. I’m not a console person by nature. Then I found out it was on PC, my jam, got it and OMG is that port shitty
I love the fuck out of dark fantasy. The problem is that while souls-games and Elden Ring, are drenched with dark fantasy elements, the game execution itself just didn't appeal to me at all. I just don't like the idea of tediousness mixed with a scale of difficulty where all and any progress of mine are just dashed because a slight misstep.
Graphics are great. Hardware requirements are low, but there are bugs that accumulate with more play time. Learning curve is infinite and permadeath is only option despite a bunch of claims to mod/patch it. PVP is broken, constant spawn camping and pay to play behavior. Microtransactions are a pain. Huge variety of mission types, yet it still ends up feeling like a bunch of fetch quests sometimes. Side quests are the way to go, the main campaign is not super rewarding
Side quests are the way to go, the main campaign is not super rewarding
The worst part is that you’re forced to spend at least 1/3 of your time playing grinding out the main campaign. Then you are highly incentivised to spend another 1/3 of your time in game not playing due to the rest mechanic. That only leaves 1/3 of your time in game for any other tasks, including extra preparation for the main quest. Not to mention the fatigue system which often leaves you unable to do side quests when you have the opportunity.
I’m glad I didn’t roll any of the classes with extra lives, to be honest.
Most people here are recommending controllers with the Xbox layout. They are correct in most cases.
However, if you’re a weirdo like me that mostly plays 2D games, I highly recommend getting a Sony DS5 instead as the Dpad is in a far more ergonomic position for that.
I’ve used xbox 360 controllers forever, works great and doesn’t rely on batteries. And the cable is very long, will definitely solve your monitor issue.
I liked the game well enough when it came out, had a good friend at the time whom I always traded little game design insights and fun facts about the AssCreed games with.
But the one thing nowadays I always remember about this one is that the ‘opening’ part is looooo(…)oong - until you really swing you sword and hidden blade about it takes hours of grand opening, shipping to America, learning the controls, doing little ‘preview’ missions in a restricted zone, then
Spoilerfinally switching to the actual main character only to have to do a new tutorial intro all over for a couple of hours.
It felt somewhat compelling the first time round but on subsequent playthroughs it really stretched your patience - imo, of course.
Yeah, I’ve sunk maybe 4 hours in already and I only just got out of Haytham’s part. Granted I went off and started doing all the Sync points, but still. The game’s pacing really is it’s biggest issue
It was mind blowing to me on a technical level back then though. I just remembered the footprints in the snow, the slow-trudging animations in the deep snow, the free-running along trees, all that was really cool.
Sidenote: thanks for always posting some interesting games to learn and/or reminisce about. Haven’t been posting much in your threads but they are always a joy to read when they pop up!
I was always a guild wars fan, in part because there’s no subscription fee.
Guild Wars 2 is still going. They do expansions every so often, but it’s been almost nothing but horizontal growth. No new level caps or gear tiers. Just stuff like “as a necromancer, you can summon spirits to fight for you instead of getting a death powered scythe” trade offs.
I am absolutely loving the expansion that was just released. Just like the one released last year, it has excellent “hangout maps” where I can just roam around and enjoy the ambience, complete random events, and find the occasional collection/achievement item. The music is gorgeous and the scenery immersive.
I haven’t tried all the new subclasses yet, but I’m having fun with the ones I have tried.
Nice! I got the new expansion but haven’t gone far in it yet. I played around with ritualist (my favorite from gw1) but reaper might still be my true love.
But I love that it’ll all just be there when I get around to it, and I can still have fun doing old content. The wizard tower convergence is a recurring favorite of mine.
I do love that convergence. It’s got the right level of challenge where you can’t just coast through it, but failures are rare. I like how they added the weekly rewards to convergences. It keeps them populated.
I mostly play engineer, and similarly it’s difficult for me to give up my beloved holosmith for the new subclass.
I was wary of the new yearly expansion format, but so far all 3 have been excellent.
I just can’t be bothered to grind through levels in an MMO anymore. I recently thought play LOTRO again, by level 15 I couldn’t be bothered with collecting 12 boar foreskins for the 25th time just to unlock more quests doing the same fucking thing. To make it worse, no one is playing helms deep, the 1 bit of level scaled content IIRC.
ESO was different by level scaling eveverything so you can play with anyone for almost anything and it works pretty well. But their cash shop puts me off.
I also don’t have much patience for “it gets fun later I promise!”.
Guild wars 2 will scale people down for earlier levels, but the majority of content is aimed at the level cap (which hasn’t changed since launch ten years ago).
I don’t know how long it would take a new player to hit the cap. With friends, I think you could get to the cap via crafting in like 30 minutes if they spot you the resources.
I played this one purely for Desmond’s story. I found everything about Connor’s story utterly tedious and the setting meant that the buildings were awful for traversal.
This is the game that taught me the hard way to never preorder. And yes! The Desmond stuff was like 70% of my excitement for this game after playing Revelations and boy did they fumble that story…
Fair enough, especially the traversal. I can see how it’d be bad for the traversal with how spaced apart everything is. Some of them are way too far apart
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Aktywne