Everyone else covered stuff pretty well. I guess I want to elaborate more on the writing style of 40K:

The reason why 40K grimdark stuff is so fascinating and not just depressing is because humanity has spread so far, to countless untold worlds being found and re-found as the warp fucks up space travel etc. that the value of a human life is essentially NOTHING.

They live in such horrible fascist, imperialist control, surrounded by countless incredible enemies and dangers that most imperialist groups just wipe out groups of people (or even planets) that seem corrupted, or straying, or whatever else.

I think understanding the level of oppression for these people is tantamount to understanding the morality and characters of rogue trader. As a rogue trader, you are one of the only wildly privileged people in the galaxy. Everyone else is so used to existing in this deeply fucked hierarchy in this deeply fucked universe, that to understand them you need to accept this is how their lives are.

Sorry if that was too vague, but it is important context, I think. This is a universe where the value of a human life is infinitesimal.

I feel like if you don’t enjoy any sort of “rush” from beating a boss or section you struggle with…this is exactly how it feels. I used to love souls because I felt accomplished when I succeeded. Now, I feel almost nothing because it’s never a matter of knowing if I can…it’s spending the time just to win. You need a way deeper combat system for me to feel like I accomplished anything more than memorizing the boss moves through trial and error.

Actually just got here with my friend. I felt the same way, I really wanted there to be a world where there was more than a “get improved dodge+ nimble onslaught, get auto revival and guts” for builds. Same thing with the majority of damage stats, there are only a couple that are actually good (big and multiplicative, pretty much just tyranny and stamina) so builds become very restrictive and based on specific sigil drops WAY too fast.

I feel your pain. You kind of HAVE to do perfect dodges to survive later fights consistently. I will say, if you get max Improved Dodge sigil it makes dodges practically twice as easy.

I will say though, endgame is so goddamn grindy. They’ve almost lost me as well, my interest has only survived because I’m able to AFK farm in the background while doing things on a second monitor.

Like my experience with most remedy games by this point. Cool concept, interesting world, so many things I SHOULD love…but the combat got so damn repetitive and unfun. Same enemy types over and over again. Killed all enjoyment for me. At least I finished it.

Goddamn interstellar wizard alliances at it again.

Yeah when my name is used by a customer, even in a positive context (unless they are talking to someone else to say how good I was), I assume they are going to use my name to harm my job in some way. Don’t think that is too unreasonable in today’s service industry.

Definitely had a few customers who we both know our names and are actually interested in chatting. But it’s like 1/1000.

While I don’t have full leggie rings yet, this one is probably a pass unless the grind seems more reasonable just because I can’t see myself ever using the effects. All the swimwear people eating good though

I hope you have a good one near you! I met many social workers at UU churches.

Good luck!

I would see if you have a Unitarian Universalist (UU) Congregation near you.

It IS technically a religion, but it doesn’t feel like anyone is trying to make you believe anything, is aggressively LGBTQIA+ friendly, and is also welcoming to all races and cultures (it is literally in their commandments to respect people regardless of creed or views, and respect their individual search for truth and meaning).

While people there are incredibly nice, welcoming etc…the big downside is that most people at UU churches are usually older. It’s got a lot of “old hippie” energy, which is great but they might have less younger people if you’re looking for people in your age group. You won’t really know until you visit your (hopefully) nearby congregation.

They do have traditional church services, with sitting at pews and singing hymns (a select hymnal with a lot of pagany hymns) and a sermon, but the sermon is always about philosophical things and thought provoking stuff, or more recently about current events. For example, when I went for my first time to a nearby church, the reverend spoke about her life growing up queer and everything the world did to make her feel like she didn’t belong.

If you can give the church format a chance, I can’t recommend it enough. A lot of the greatest most loving people I have met have been UU, and I still love and cherish them to this day.

Sorry if this is too churchy for what you are looking for. I would say if you’re pretty liberal/leftist and you want to find groups that do/talk about stuff like that you can often find those connected to UU churches in some way and they’ll never pressure you beyond “oh we hope you will stay, we love to have you” and things like that.

Been playing absolum with my buddy, as well as playing Tainted Grail since it was on sale. Absolum is an incredible co-op game, and tainted grail surprised me with how much I’ve enjoyed it. Really happy with them both all around.

Facts. I had a 12 hour day yesterday. I wish I was full of cheese, only full of sadness.

You really gotta be willing to slam your head against the game for a while in the first one. I say this as a person who loves KCD, I rage quit/uninstalled the first one multiple times.

The second one is far more accessible and smooth than the first while still remaining as wildly ambitious and satisfying (or more) than the first. Sadly, to get the best experience you have to suffer through the first…which is a great game but yeah, tons of friction and I don’t blame you.

Flaming giant guy being so early in Sekiro is actually a totally fair reason to drop it. I STILL cheese him years later because his grab hitboxes are so shit, he is one of the only enemies in the game I feel are indefensible garbage.

The Friede fight was also my first biggest souls like fatigue moment. Such a long boss fight and I didn’t really enjoy…any of it. I know she is probably a good boss by from soft standards but damn if I don’t find her 3-phases exhausting. She made me take a month break til I came back and beat her.

I feel like Gael, the final boss of The Ringed City, is absolutely NOT exhausting because he isn’t visually phased into 3 healthbars. He just has 1 fucking huge one and awesome in combat phase changes and settings. They are a good comparison cause I still hate Friede to this day, but like Gael.

It’s probably my second favorite fromsoft after bloodborne and it’s a shame, but I totally see how some people can experience the game this way. In the end the game is just pattern recognition of bosses and how well you can parry, once you learn that the game is practically “solved” but I like that style.

Totally understand your perspective, because it is def the only souls game where you are forced to play a certain way, if you don’t it will be suffering.

I used to play every souls like, I started with dark souls in my teens and played every single one, even went back for demon souls. My favorites (and the only from soft I still play) are bloodborne and Sekiro.

I got to Elden Ring and I was honestly already burnt out on the style. I managed to force myself through 99% of the game, got probably 90% of the way through the final boss’s health bar (terrible boss IMO) after a couple fights and my desire to play souls games just…died. I don’t think I ever went back and beat it.

Seems like eventually the “excitement” on beating bosses just…went away for me in souls games. It is still there for games more actiony, where it feels like there is more to learn on the player side than the boss side. Nioh has never gotten old to me, because the weapons are complex and the game is begging you to break it. Games like DMC5 and Ninja Gaiden 4 (which I beat last night, so much fun) have so much more for the player to learn of their own skillset than a souls game and they remain infinitely more interesting to me.

He made a pretty solid argument (I say this as someone with no interest in CoD so that’s my perspective) that the entire game was the first CoD built with AI “assistance” from the ground up. Probably by force by management.

If I wasn’t already totally uninterested in CoD that video certainly killed any interest I had in it. Kinda refreshing to see someone so vehemently against a shitty product that they feel it is a “moral good” just to tell OTHER PEOPLE not to buy it.

I used to play FF14 religiously, met so many friends on there that I still play with. Very few of us except the most dedicated have quit the game, since the pace of updates (and being adults) have prevented us from playing the game enough to justify the sub price (~$15 USD a month).

However, I still enjoy MMOs and have moved onto a game I used to play some but never invested a TON of time into: Guild Wars 2. My girlfriend and I have been playing it some when we have time off work, which is rare right now but the game has no sub price and doesn’t feel like it demands your time in a way the sub-based MMOs do. They have little to no FOMO, horizontal progression (no gear treadmill like WoW or 14, whatever endgame gear you have is mostly always relevant), a fun open world with enjoyable mount travel and a pretty decent community. The game has had its ups and downs over a year but I feel like, from a working adult perspective, it’s the only MMO I’ll ever have time for.

Really love the moonman talking to you on every boot up. I always find myself looking forward to seeing what he says.

Damn and I was going to post in this thread that my friend BOUGHT this game for me even though I said I wouldn’t enjoy it, and lo and behold, my girlfriend and I have barely enjoyed outside the prologue of Expedition 33. I’m most of the way through act 2 I think? And I just dropped it. I’ll finish it someday to finalize my feelings but they are pretty negative, and everything i’ve heard from other people is not improving my opinion. Just not my type of game I guess