What are the 30 year old plus gamers playing?

As a huge Souls games fan, 2 of the series eluded me. Bloodbourne and Sekiro. The former because of old tech, waiting for a refresh of the title. The latter I just didn't click with.

Well, the weekend just gone I spent every waking minute with Sekiro and it might just be up there with the original dark souls experience for me. It's a bloody masterpiece!!

For anyone who previously dabbled but got put off, 2 things. Don't care about dieing, the dragon rot really isn't a problem and you can ignore it for the most part (it only effects side quest progression).

Secondly, the first half of the game is challenging, but it's not because the game is unfair. It's because you don't have all your unlocks. About half way into my current playthrough it just clicked. And now I can't put it down.

Here is a little checklist I've been using as a rough guide for my first completion as well which is vague enough that it's not intrusive or hand holding.

 
As a huge Souls games fan, 2 of the series eluded me. Bloodbourne and Sekiro. The former because of old tech, waiting for a refresh of the title. The latter I just didn't click with.

Well, the weekend just gone I spent every waking minute with Sekiro and it might just be up there with the original dark souls experience for me. It's a bloody masterpiece!!

For anyone who previously dabbled but got put off, 2 things. Don't care about dieing, the dragon rot really isn't a problem and you can ignore it for the most part (it only effects side quest progression).

Secondly, the first half of the game is challenging, but it's not because the game is unfair. It's because you don't have all your unlocks. About half way into my current playthrough it just clicked. And now I can't put it down.

Here is a little checklist I've been using as a rough guide for my first completion as well which is vague enough that it's not intrusive or hand holding.

I find sekiro by far the hardest souls game! It's the only game I bounced off due to difficulty. I'm stuck on a boss about 3/4 of the way through the game. It's on the roof of a castle iirc.
 
As a huge Souls games fan, 2 of the series eluded me. Bloodbourne and Sekiro. The former because of old tech, waiting for a refresh of the title. The latter I just didn't click with.

Well, the weekend just gone I spent every waking minute with Sekiro and it might just be up there with the original dark souls experience for me. It's a bloody masterpiece!!

For anyone who previously dabbled but got put off, 2 things. Don't care about dieing, the dragon rot really isn't a problem and you can ignore it for the most part (it only effects side quest progression).

Secondly, the first half of the game is challenging, but it's not because the game is unfair. It's because you don't have all your unlocks. About half way into my current playthrough it just clicked. And now I can't put it down.

Here is a little checklist I've been using as a rough guide for my first completion as well which is vague enough that it's not intrusive or hand holding.


Good stuff! Sekiro is such a wonderful game, and I keep meaning to have another playthrough one day. I think It is a great feeling when the game clicks. I died so many times to that first mini-boss after the ogre and then suddenly found I could do it. Mind you, I still rotted the entire galaxy on the final boss...

I find sekiro by far the hardest souls game! It's the only game I bounced off due to difficulty. I'm stuck on a boss about 3/4 of the way through the game. It's on the roof of a castle iirc.

I also think it's the hardest of the Souls/Souls-like games. And I dont' think it's particularly close, either. The DLCs of DS 1, 2 & 3 have some brutally tough bosses, and Malenia in Elden Ring was equally as difficult, but the final boss of Sekiro has them all beat for me in terms of how precisely I felt I had to play, how much I had to remember and execute almost perfectly. And then you add in several other fiendishly dificult bosses, mini-bosses and even regular enemies that can dispatch you remarkably quickly. I struggled with regular spear-wielding enemies and mini-bosses throughout. But it's always fair, there's a beautiful rhythmic grace to the fights and when you pull off a string of parries and counters I don't think any other game provides the same feeling of satisfaction. The combat is just amazingly tight and fluid.

I gonna give a big shout out to Lies of P as well as another difficult-but-rewarding game in this genre. In some ways it makes me appreciate how immaculately tuned Sekiro was and how difficult it must have been to achieve that, but it's definitely worth checking out for anyone who likes this type of game (it's on Game Pass at the moment, so can be tried out without chucking £40 at it).
 
Last edited:
Absolutely addicted to Hollow Knight, have finally finished the final pantheon with all bindings (,one at a time, no way I could do them all at once)

Currently enjoying Cocoon. Beautiful looking, great music, atmosphere and seemingly simple but mind bendingly infuriating puzzles at some points.
 
Absolutely addicted to Hollow Knight, have finally finished the final pantheon with all bindings (,one at a time, no way I could do them all at once)

Currently enjoying Cocoon. Beautiful looking, great music, atmosphere and seemingly simple but mind bendingly infuriating puzzles at some points.

Any suggestions for a souls player to get hooked? I've tried it multiple times and I simply never clicked with it. It felt very slow and basic.
 
Completed Starfield, enjoyed bits of it, some of the missions are good but after getting the achievements I uninstalled seconds later. I'm done.

Oddly ended up playing Deep Rock Galactic afterwards with a friend, hadn't touched it in years so guess that's the latest game!
 
Any suggestions for a souls player to get hooked? I've tried it multiple times and I simply never clicked with it. It felt very slow and basic.
For the metrodivinia element I would say you should have wayward compass equipped at all times to minimize wandering around lost. I definitely needed to use YouTube to help with the later bosses. But hey, maybe it's just not for you and that's ok too.

I only like simple short indie puzzlers and platformers. I cannot stand open world stuff and never will.
 
Recently got into PCVR gaming, bought a Quest 2 then a Quest 3 two weeks later, but playing Half Life Alex for the first time and i'm conpletely blown away by it. cant wait to finish it then try some mods / new games.
 
Assassin's Creed Odyssey - brilliant, 9/10 minimum.

Since I stopped buying games on release because they do not work properly, I wait a year or two til you get a proper sense of which games are great plus you can get them cheaper and all the launch bugs are fixed. This was less than a tenner, is excellent and immense.
 
Absolutely addicted to Hollow Knight, have finally finished the final pantheon with all bindings (,one at a time, no way I could do them all at once)

Currently enjoying Cocoon. Beautiful looking, great music, atmosphere and seemingly simple but mind bendingly infuriating puzzles at some points.

Hollow Knight is fantastic and looking forward to Silk Song.
 
Batman arkham City

I have played this game a couple of times in the past but never completed it.

This time i am most of the way through it and am determined to finish the main story line at least.

It is a good game, it is 12 years old now so not as impressive as it was back then but still good
 
Back
Top Bottom