#doom eternal difficulty level

[visionsofmagic]

― • doom: eternal [choose difficulty level] • ―

⋆ I’m too young to die

⋆ hurt me plenty

⋆ ultra-violence

⋆ nightmare

⋆ ultra-nightmare

[iamthekarmapolice]

i can't put my finger on why exactly, but im enjoying doom eternal's combat a little more than doom 2016's. they're so similar i honestly cant put my finger on why im enjoying this more

[amiya-shirou]

Spoilers about Babel and Zwillingstürme im Herbst

I was thinking about Arknights' recurring dynamic of siblings who must confront each other no matter how important the other is for them and realized there are more parallels than I expected between Theresa/Theresis and Arturia/Federico - to the point the latter pair feels like a still growing, less actualized, somewhat inverted version of the first.

Arturia is Theresa: focused on emotion and empathy, has weird mental powers (that interact pretty well with Theresa's, as seen in her interactions with Amiya), her ultimate ideal is a level of connection that goes beyond the scope of her own civilization and in trying to achieve it she's at the same time dooming herself, her halo almost looks like the Black Crown (which I doubt wasn't intended, since the Law is definitely comparable to Civilight Eterna). The contrasts between them are pretty evident too: a white Devil who perfectly looks the part of the saintess and a black Angel who perfectly looks the part of the villainess.

Federico is Theresis: the more down-to heart, more serious, less idealistic brother, who has difficulties expressing emotions to others (or even understanding them in Fede's case) and is extremely close to his sister but also feels he must stop her as her ideals lead her down a dangerous path for others. Theresa/Arturia are going against the will of the Myriad Souls/the Law, and Theresis/Federico confront them by acting as protectors of that will for the sake of the people that would be affected. Even in this case, there are evident contrasts: Theresis is seen as a negative figure, the villain in Theresa's story, while Federico is seen positively and Arturia is presented as the villain in his story.

Despite everything, the siblings know each other best. Federico can tell if a crime is Arturia's fault or not because he understands her more than anyone else; when Arturia's ideals crumble after the discussion with the Witch King and she seeks death, Federico is the one she wants to be killed by. Years of civil war and aiming for the others' destruction didn't put a dent in the trust and affection that exists between the Sarkaz twins, and when they're reunited in Londinium they're once again betting everything on each other like it's the most natural thing do to.

Civilight Eterna chose both Theresa and Theresis as successors for the will of the Sarkaz; they were special, the legendary twins with the potential to change Kazdel's fate. The Law calculated the immense adversities Terra is going to face in future, and chose both Arturia and Federico as the next Saints, essential for Laterano to prepare against them.

The one advantage the Giallos have over the twins is that they're younger, less caged by the collective will of their people. They can still reach a good middle point and work together for a better future without needing to extinguish the other for their ideal to prevail. While Theresa and Theresis understood the value of the other's belief, they were fundamentally opposed because they acted as the symbols of two separated possibilities for the Sarkaz, possibilities that clashed with each other despite their continued survival being the ultimate objective for both. Instead, Zwillingstürme im Herbst shows Federico taking steps towards Arturia and learning to use emotion as a way to understand her even if he can't feel them the same way she does, while Arturia realized the value of Federico's logical approach and that his approach can make her objective more concrete rather than just an abstract ideal.

Federico helps Arturia give footing to her philosophical inquiries, reminding her that it is possible to find an answer and reach a conclusion and that her ideals do not need to remain abstract but she can actually take steps to realize them; meanwhile, for how strong the Kazdel twins' bond is, Theresis will always be an eternal reminder that most of the Sarkaz reject Theresa and her dreams for an hopeful future, and was never able to truly help her sustain Babel. And just as Federico one-ups Theresis on this matter, the same does Arturia to Theresa: she wants to see her ideal realized, she has learned that she also has a role in her utopia and that she shouldn't forget about herself while seeking it, in opposition to how Theresa can only see herself as a sacrifice, the soil upon which the flowers will grow after her death. Theresa and Theresis were doomed by the weight of Kazdel's history and suffering, but the two Sankta's story ends in a hopeful tone as their fate is not yet written, and in fact both of them are less a symbol of the will of Laterano and more clear outsiders in their society, rare different voices in a very conformist state and thus have the potential to change it rather than be shackled by their people's voices.

[cupcake-mcsprinkleman-iii]

I really don’t understand people who think the Switch 2 is pointless or not a worthwhile upgrade.

I love my Switch 1 as much as anyone else does - I’ve poured several thousand of hours into hundreds of games, so I’ve seen the best and worse of the console. It’s amazing, but it’s really outdated. That doesn’t mean its bad - I still pick it up from time to time because its portable play is still very comfortable, but games are struggling to run well on it and thats just factually correct.

It’s not even a ‘Pokémon runs like shit’ situation because everyone knows that and I truly believe the fault there lies with GameFreak’s horrible optimisation. But look at how many other first party Switch titles struggle - Mario and Luigi: Brothership has horrible frame drops in the overworld. Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom’s constant performance difficulties made it hard to appreciate the game as much as I should. Breath of the Wild, even back at the launch of the Switch, was having a rough time running optimally. Animal Crossing New Horizons’ load times are abysmal. Xenoblade Chronicles’ dynamic resolution makes the game look extremely blurry. There’s a good reason people were clamouring for a Switch Pro to make these games play better.

I know most people buy Nintendo consoles for Nintendo games, but when you look at third parties as well, it’s really easy to see the Switch, which is on par with 20-year-old Xbox 360 hardware, can barely run most PS4-level games and definitely fails at PS5-level ports. We have miracle ports like Nier Automata which look and play phenomenally on the Switch, but then you have Mortal Kombat 1, Batman: Arkham Knight, even the miracle ports like Doom Eternal really struggle on the Switch 1, because the hardware is objectively outdated for the games.

But what the Switch 2 does, absolutely miraculously, is fix almost all of Switch 1 games’ problems for free thanks to its backwards compatibility. Brothership and Echoes of Wisdom perform excellently now. Breath of the Wild, without the upgrade pack, still runs at a constant 30fps on Switch 2. The Xenoblade Chronicles games now run at their highest possible resolution at a fixed framerate and look sharper and clearer than before. Animal Crossing New Horizons’ load times are massively shortened! And 99% of the Switch 1’s library is playable on the Switch 2. What Nintendo accomplished with backwards compatibility is nothing short of miraculous, because these games needed better hardware to reach their full potential.

And it makes me excited for future Nintendo games too. Donkey Kong Bananza looks far more ambitious and expansive than Mario Odyssey. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment runs at a flawless 60 frames per second when Age of Calamity had notoriously abysmal performance on the Switch 1 (now fixed with the Switch 2). Metroid Prime 4: Nintendo Switch 2 Edition looks unbelievably beautiful and runs at 120 frames per second - Absolutely jaw dropping! It’s obvious too that Nintendo has outgrown the Switch with their development ambitions. They want to make bigger, bolder, more ambitious games that the Switch hardware is incapable of. The development interview for Mario Kart World revealed it was originally being developed for the Switch 1, but wouldn’t run without massive compromises, and the developers desperately needed the stronger hardware for their artistic vision.

I understand if you don’t care that much about performance, you just want to play the games. Believe me, I beat Outer Worlds and Doom Eternal on my Switch, I’ve been through hell (pun intended). Nintendo isn’t abandoning the Switch because they clearly have games planned for it in the foreseeable future - Metroid Prime 4 and Pokémon Legends Z-A are releasing on the Switch 1, and next year Tomodachi Life 2 and Rhythm Heaven Groove are as well. You can keep playing your Switch, especially if you own an OLED or think its too soon to upgrade, and don’t personally see value in the stronger hardware unless more games like a big new Animal Crossing or Zelda release. That’s okay!

But calling the entire console unnecessary because of some spite towards the company is silly. I know how badly the Switch needed the upgrade. I played dozens of hours of No Man’s Sky religiously on my Switch and believe me, as amazing as it is to play the game portably, I can’t pretend the Switch 2 edition wasn’t direly needed. Developers are moving forward at a pace that was unsustainable for the Switch. Games like Cyberpunk 2077 or Street Fighter 6 or Yakuza 0 shine on the new console. Nintendo’s upcoming titles show me they feel freed from the hardware shackles of the Switch 1. That is a good thing. The Switch 2 won’t be outdated in 5 years as much as the Switch 1 was.

If you’re an artist, you can’t live with a compromised creative vision for the rest of your life - Eventually, you need better tools. And for players like me, the Switch 2 answers all my dreams and then some - It makes all my Switch 1 games run flawlessly, and opens the gateway to an amazing new library to explore. It’s expensive, but it’s worth the price in my opinion, and the same is true for millions of players around the world. Because of that I think denouncing the console as unnecessary is just a bit goofy.

And before anyone else does this, I’m not excusing $80 games or game key cards or $10 tech demo. I have legitimate gripes with the console and Nintendo, and I refuse to buy Mario Kart World at its price point. But I think the Switch 2 hardware is brilliant, and I can finally experience the games I love better than ever before.

[pikkish]

As one of the only like, three of us doom fans that care about lore, and author of The Doom Fic Of All Time(TM) thoughts on the dark ages so far? 'm waiting for the dlc before beating my head against a wall but at least it seems a little more coherent then eternal.

So tbh, I have not been able to finish TDA yet. I got a little less than halfway through, then ran into some computer issues I'm still waiting on a fix for. (Look, I knew running my new gaming pc on Linux MInt would have some issues, and I wouldn't have the knowledge or experience to be able to fix them myself, but I will still take that ANY day over whatever corporate spyware disguised as corporate bloatware Microsoft is trying to push with Windows 11.) So I can't give an accurate rundown of thoughts yet, and I don't want any spoilers yet! But here's what I've got so far.

(spoilers at least for the beginning of TDA under the cut!)

The biggest comment I have so far is: good lord there are already SO many contradictions and retcons. We start with Novik having apparently handed Doomguy off to the maykrs for containment because he was nervous about DG's intentions and didn't trust him to act on his own or something like that. Except... Eternal says Novik was the one who chose to make DG a Night Sentinel, despite various protests against it! So which is it, does Novik trust him or not? And then there's Hebeth, the very second level. In Eternal, Hayden says it was a "lost city" that was "before [Doomguy's] time." But TDA says not only is it not lost, but DG's even been there before! And then there's the whole heart of argent thing. They say it's the last wraith soul or something, but the fact that Valen is still there and everyone still more or less trusts the maykrs says this is still well before Valen's betrayal, so the Night Sentinels should, in fact, still have three sleeping wraiths in their care! I'm vaguely dreading what other possible contradictions await further in the story.

I'm also a little disappointed in the gameplay. Like, it's solid enough, it's just... not what I was hoping for. It's not the intense, fast paced, reflex movement shooter the rest of the games are. I admit I'm not very good at parrying as a mechanic in general, but like... while parrying is fine a little bit, like for marauders n whatnot, I don't feel like it should be a main mechanic of a Doom game. Or, if they really wanted to make it such a central mechanic, they should've made the majority of attacks parryable, rather than just specific ones. It feels very... slow? tedious? when you're just sitting around waiting for an enemy to throw a parryable attack at you. The parry window also feels kinda off to me? It feels like you have to parry way before the actual collision of the attack, and I'm not sure if the accessibility settings can adjust that.

(That said. BIG props for the idea of highly customizable accessibility settings. I admittedly haven't messed with them too much, but I appreciate how dedicated Doom has always seemed to be to having multiple difficulty settings.)

There are a few things about the writing I've enjoyed. Thira is cool, and the shift of her talking about Doomguy to talking directly to him as she realizes he's just trying to save people is good. Also a huge fan of how DG breaks free of the tether- he fails the first time bc rage alone isn't enough (--something also about knowing the mark is Davoth's mark, and he's imagining it the first time he tries to break free- I have thoughts about that, but those can wait til later.) But then, when he realizes people- civilians- might be dying, then nothing can stop him. I admit I was a little worried about the writing potentially ignoring that the core of DG's motivation has and should always be about love and wanting to protect people, but thankfully, it did not disappoint, at least not here.

I'm sure I'll have more thoughts once I can actually finish the game, but that's it for now. I'm down to talk more about it, but one more quick reminder that I don't want any spoilers just yet!

[efangamez]

Hey y'all! Here is Efan's quick rundown and review of almost all the cool games I played this year, as well as my Steam in Review!

1. Darkest Dungeon

I've been playing this game for nearly ten years, and I finally beat it this year. Not a 2023 release, but a huge milestone for myself. After a terrible year before it, I made it a goal to face my fears and beat this game. Lo' and behold, I did, and it's one of my own personal gaming accomplishments. It's solidified as the best turn based game I've ever played, but it does have its late-game issues, specifically with the Crimson Court maps and the final dungeon maps. It's just absurd tbh. However, this is one of my favorite games of all time, if not my favorite, and it's a must have for horror fans, HP Lovecrft fans, and turn based game fans. 9.7/10

2. Sun Haven

A wonderful and cute farming sim that scratched an itch no other could scratch. Its characters are fun, the music is solid, the graphics are very bright and fantastical, and the combat was simple yet kinda fun. I really loved the progression in this game too. It still has its issues, such as the late game (it may have been fixed because this game was in early access) and some of the utility of the workbenches you can use. All in all, a very solid farming sim (and just life sim in general tbh) if you like a little bit of fantasy mixed in. 9/10

3. Halls of Torment

My favorite Survivor game. The music, aesthetics, progression, characters, and maps are all different enough to keep you coming back for more. As I am disabled, these games are actually super fun to play because I only have to play with one hand. It was in early access when I played it heavily, so it had some issues like the handling of inventory, some balance issues, and feature creep issues, but they may have been fixed now. 9.3/10

4. Cassette Beasts

A must-play monster battler with an amazing plot, an incredible soundtrack, interesting monsters, and great characters for the most part. If you've been really wanting a game that is reminiscent of Pokemon colleseum but also want that 2d love of the Black and White games, this is a must have. It does have some balance issues (again, early access game when I played), but other than that and maybe some performance issues that are probably fixed by now, it was an incredible game that made me want a 2d Pokemon game more than ever. 9/10

5. Roboquest

A fantastic FPS roguelike game with great gunplay, movement, art direction, and music too. Each weapon feels pretty unique, it has melee weapons (wish there were more though) and a progression system that's really cool. It plays like if Doom Eternal had a kid with Borderlands, and I think plays a bit better than any other RANGED FPS roguelike/lite that I've played. I will say the difficulty settings are really cool, but I think they are a little too enticing due to game balance as of 1.0 due to progression being a bit of a grind. I think that having different endings for each difficulty might be a cool idea, each as satisfying as the other, but I know that can be a pain to develop. 9/10

6. Mortal Sin

A beautifully dark and trippy mostly melee FPS roguelike that takes the intensity of DOOM and the melee weapons of Elderborn and drenches it in a slow-mo filled, heavy swinging fun time. It's definitely the most FUN game this year as I've been craving an FPS melee roguelike for a while. It accomplishes this and then some with pretty cool progression that adds some variety to each game. The art direction reminds me of a more purple and red MORK BORG (fellow TTRPGers rejoice) and I LOVE it. The only issues to me are that the story and lore are a bit boring and lacking, but again it's in early access, so it has time to cook. 9.5/10

7. And last, my game of the year, LUNACID by @stylishkira

What a gorgeous game all around. The music has probably the most atmosphere out of any indie game I've played outside of Darkest Dungeon. Its levelling system is accessible but fun, you can create your own character with their own name and profile picture which I think is SO cool (Mortal Sin should totally do this if it's not too much of a copy). The combat is really fun and the sound design is probably second, once again, to Darkest Dungeon. It was an absolutely magical experience playing this game, and an experience I don't think I'll ever forget. I do think, however, that the ending feels really really rushed, and that sullied my experience a little bit, and the bosses are pretty unbalanced because you can just spam all of your health potions and tank the bosses, but the experience leading up to the ending is amazing. Also, I know the true ending is purposely a little complex, but tbh, if the goal was to have the "true" endings similar to the Souls games, having the final climactic boss (which I won't spoil, but is really cool) be the core of the normal ending, paired with alternate endings WITH that really cool final boss I think, might make the experience a bit more satisfying. It's already kinda implemented, but I loved this game so much that the standard ending just kinda felt....empty. Don't let these critiques stop you from playing this game, however. It's one of my favorites of all time, and I only give these critiques because I love this game so much. This is a MUST PLAY, and for the price, it's an absolute steal and should be priced up, imo. I cannot wait to see where the direction of possible King's Field style games come, because I am THIRSTY for more! 9.6/10

Annnddddddd that's it! Some great other games I played this year were the Demon Souls remake (9.2/10) Shadow of the Colossus (9.3/10), and Bloodborne (for probably the 30th time, and that's no joke, 9.8/10), and Quake (9.8/10).

[grimvestige]

From Mixed Grab Bag of OC Asks... 18 & 19 for Inigo, 11 & 12 for Armaros! :3

ohoho!! These are fun indeed!!! tysm for the asks!!!

Do they like/dislike the holidays? Why?

Inigo LOVES holidays. Any excuse to party is a good enough excuse for him, and holidays are just that to him! Part of that is because he was spoiled with the excellent parties his sire, Darios, would throw, so they're also pretty nostalgic for him.

A knight loves his revelry, what can I say?

What do they like to read? If they don't like to read, what do they prefer and why?

Inigo likes nonfiction, especially history! It's helped him get his bearings since waking up from torpor. Since he sees his main purpose in life as a sword to cut down tyrants, studying history is a way for him to figure out the patterns of their behavior so they can be cut down before harm comes to innocents.

He does on occasion like to indulge himself in reading poetry, but he hasn't gotten to since waking up just out of not really owning any books anymore or figuring out where a bookstore that's open late enough is.

Aaaand on to armaros questions! :3c

What can lead/tempt them to making poor decisions?

Absolutely Armaros' temper short temper...and well...a certain voice in her head. Which may or may not be connected to his temper. They're fine! Everything's fine! :)

Armaros totally doesn't also have undying loyalty issues like Inigo whaaaaat? Why would I, an OC haver, be fascinated with the same tropes across characters? *Aggressively shoving Moirin and Warden and Max Berrymore under the couch.*

Gamer AU time! What do they play? How are they at it?

Armaros oscillates between playing Doom on the hardest difficulty at an extremely high skill level, and playing Animal Crossing on a regular basis with no time travel whatsoever. She's the living embodiment of Doom Crossing: Eternal Horizons.

Ask Game

[beatthegame]

Elden Ring just beat me...and it's a bummer because I REALLY wanted to like this game. It has all the ingredients to make up a killer game. An open world with crazy art direction. Plenty of challenging options to keep you playing. But what went wrong? Why do I hate this game so much? I'm getting angry just trying to think about it, so let's try to make this quick...

In a nutshell: The setting seems to involve a fantasy setting where you are a fallen soldier. Getting involved in a brief skirmish with a giant spider demon. Then waking up in some sort of medeval hellish landscape with giant gold trees? There seems to be a detailed backstory written by George RR Martin (Game of Thrones). Although I wouldn't know because I'm too busy getting gangraped by skeleton warriors every step of the way to take notice. It's a "souls" game. So these games are annoying by design. But the broken game mechanics and tedious grinding make this game unplayable. Let me break it down like this...

The Good: The graphics are visually stunning, let's be honest. The environments and character designs are insane! Every enemy you encounter is menacing and emit pure nightmare fuel. Which is exciting to say the least. Elden Ring offers one of the best character creators in modern gaming. You can get really detailed adjusting the most minor facial features. Multiple character disciplines that greatly affect your gameplay experience. Diverse skin and body types. You can be really creative, which I adore! And then you put on some in-game armor that covers up the details you spent hours building. Cool! But let's appreciate the good elements because there's a whole lot of bad. Where do I begin...

The Bad: My first attempt playing this, I noticed these glowing rocks scattered around the floor. Apparently they were messages from other players across the Playstation network. Messages like "hidden treasure behind boulder" was pretty neat and helpful. But then you see more and more of these glowing messages. With a lot of not-so-useful messages like "is this dog?" and "finger in ur but". But what crossed the line was "boss up ahead" and you know what? There was a fucking boss ahead! What kind of troll shit allows spoilers mid-game? Can you imagine playing Resident Evil. Right before opening the door of that iconic dog chase scene, you read a community message saying "bow wow ahead lol" Like, way to ruin the immersion asshole! At that moment, I hated the game and pretty much gave up. But after discovering you can disable online messages, I tried it again. Which made a huge difference. I was starting to enjoy the game at first. But once you leave that cave, it was a pure shitshow from there. But let's start with the name "Elden Ring". This would imply upon a grandiose adventure involving a magical ring of some sort. But I would have appreciated it more if they were honest and called the game "YOU DIED" Because that's pretty much what you experience throughout the entire game. Every enemy you encounter was a pain in the ass with little relief in between. Please don't misunderstand, I'm not complaining about the challenge level. I appreciate a good challenging game. I hate to compare, but you have hard ass games like Cuphead, Doom Eternal and Battle Toads that are fantastic, despite their difficulty. There's a balance to their difficulty. Plus their controls are tight and responsive. But when you have to try and maneuver through shitty mechanics, you're not playing a fair game. I recall one instance where I was running around a stone wall to avoid an enemy. But I can't explain why the enemy's spear could clip through this stone wall for a one-shot kill? And what good is perfecting the timing of a defensive parry if a giant boss can just one-hit stomp you like a cockroach? And you get paid in turds so the risk/reward balance is off. I'd rather work a sweatshop, hand-sewing Lulu Lemon leggings than to grind hours for one stamina point. At least you'll get paid at the sweatshop. But if you play Elden Ring long enough, and memorize the patterns and "git gud" you'll eventually beat one of the bosses and get a weapon you can't use, because your charisma stats or whatever is too low. LOL! This game blows.

Overall: Video Games are supposed to be fun. But Elden Ring was a burden to get through. It felt like work after a while. Like an abusive unpaid intership in hell. You can hire a dominatrix if you enjoy the abuse. It won't take up as much of your time and it's better support for your local economy. LOL! Fuck Elden Ring.

(Edited: Just remembered more things I hated about this game, but adjusted the score to something more reasonable. This game is obviously not shit and had me hooked for a while. It just wasn't fun for me. Plus it's not cool to shit on a particular fanbase. Play whatever you want. Don't let my opinion take a shit on your cereal. This is just a place to vent since it would be super weird to scream about Elden Ring out in the real world, with real life problems. But the game still sucks in my point of view so whatever. LOL!)

D-Class

[a-friend-of-mara]

Hey just thinking out loud but uh

Am I the only person who's been told they're "smart" their whole life but analyzes everything to the point that they feel like one wrong calculation or some parameter of their life being changed would result in a very different and probably less stable person?

It might be the [4:47 AM] talking but right now I could really go for horrifying a group of people in a swordfight by letting my impulse to act bat shit insane out

... I mean Raiden before the Monsoon fight levels of insane

If you get that reference then you get internet points

Edit: it occurs to me I play every game like I'm bat shit insane

Apex: "I wanna go shoot someone" is my most said phrase

Factorio: during the last 2 days I both made a plane full of [fallout mini nukes but with less damage and more fire] and a circuit thing that just sends RGB lights in a circle

Project wingman: F/S-15 MLAA, more MLAA, MLAG, AOA limiter, just fucking sending it towards everything, also I rarely come back with much ammo for my main gun, no I didn't run out of missles, I just like [gun go brrrrrrr]

Helldivers: I bring 500kg, napalm strike, and the arc thrower normally, I do not care about safety

Subnautica: seamoth gets eaten by reaper, my response was "Hey! Fucker I using that! That was mine!" Not scared of this thing that can one shot me just yelling at it

Pizza tower: I spent 3 hours on the first level tryna tryna S rank it, was six points off, died 12 times bc I refused to leave unless I did two laps solely because the soundtrack slaps that hard

Doom eternal: sets difficulty to max, refuses to elaborate, shoots demons (dies a lot)

I don't think I physically can play like a normal sane person, primarily bc I'm not "normal"

Fuck you [group of 6 psychiatrists] who spent 4 hours just to tell me they couldn't tell if I had autism, they also couldn't tell if I didn't

Docs in CA are pretty [pick your favorite insult]

[hrodvitnon]

(Shamhat scenario I randomly came up with. Kinda goes with another submission I was gonna do but separated them cuz this was too different than that other one)

There's lots of games on the Xbox on Infant Island that Rodan hasn't touched. He kinda just randomly picked a few and was sticking with them. He had seen the one titled DOOM: Eternal, and written it off as some weird game about Hell. However, when he off-handedly mentioned that he hadn't played it to Vivienne, she demanded they run through it together. She needed him to experience the game's carnage and speed, knowing he'd love it. So, she and him sat down one day and fired it up on Ultra-Violence. Goji was there too, lounging on the other couch in one of his patented naps after frantic fun times with the others. He woke up once the heavy metal started and basically just figured they were playing another one of their games, opting to watch as he flutters between states of unconsciousness.

The two were swapping on and off each time they died. Vivienne had played the game a lot before, but wasn't playing too seriously to let Rodan play more. Rodan was, however, catching on fast and playing like crazy. After a few early deaths getting a hang of the controls, he's off and killing like there's not tomorrow, even managing to outpace Vivienne at some points. Vivienne opts to blame morning sickness- Rodan cites 'Kaiju Power!' for being so good. Eventually, Rodan wants to up the difficulty. Vivienne's not really feeling it- she was already a little under the weather (hence why she wasn't out having frantic sex) and they had just reached what she considered to be a major difficulty spike, Taras Nabad. She says it would probably be a bad idea this late, and that they can try one next time. Nonetheless, after Vivienne dies early on, Rodan clears the level no problem. Without dying, he hands it back to her for Nekravol, saying he wants her to have a turn instead for this level. Vivienne could tell he was a little bored and felt kinda bad for being an anchor around his leg somewhat. That's when Goji stands up, takes the controller from her, plants it in Rodan's lap, gets on his knees in front of the firebird, and places his clawed hands on his knees.

"I may know a way to challenge you a little more. Wanna see how good your focus is?"

With wide eyes, Rodan looks between Vivienne and Goji, Vivienne as shocked as him for a quick second before chiming in,

"Sounds like a challenge."

And Rodan could never refuse a challenge.

Ohoho, Vivienne would get a real kick watching the challenge ensue... in fact, should Rodan manage to do well enough with Goji's attentions, she adds to the challenge by purring some dirty talk into Rodan's ear.

[dillweedshole]

I give up. Fuck the Frontiers DLC. I quit.

Final Horizon, the Frontiers DLC, started super nicely, I liked everything about it right up until trial 2. trial 3 was fine, 4 was fine too so my hopes were back up. then the master trial hit, and now i'm at the boss, and now it's just bad to me.

here's the thing: I would love if the mechanics were refined and fixed up, the difficulty would 100% be tolerable. I did Doom Eternal's Ultra Nightmare mode, I did Dead Space 2's Hardcore mode, I GOT 106% IN CRASH FUCKING 4. I am TOTALLY FINE with difficulty (especially when it gives you something for doing it (fuck you crash 4 lmfao))

but the game is about as nutritionally balanced as a fast food meal. It's just not bro.

the perfect parry requires near FRAME PERFECT inputs, but you can spam the stomp until the sun collapses. the titan animations look like they SHOULD be telegraphed correctly but they're off. Sometimes the attack hit is late, sometimes it's early.

Y'know what, I also hate these fucking babymen who can't handle that their precious little blue rat game is getting criticized so they hide behind their meaningless skill in a single player video game for children. I can understand wanting difficulty, the rest of Frontiers is a cakewalk, and at the end of the day it's a totally free content update that doesn't change fuck about the main game, but this is not real difficulty. It's bad jank. I love Sonic to the end of the fucking earth but this is literally just annoying content. the last of any big spectacle at the final boss was completely ruined by the terrible gameplay that lead up to it. I am in absolutely no fucking rush to play it, in fact I'll probably just watch it online and uninstall the game to make space for something else. (steam deck storage issues)

I feel like I need to bring something up, relevant to all this: Doom Eternal also got DLC, The Ancient Gods, and it was ALSO fucking NUTS HARD. (talking more about Pt 1 here lmao)

HOWEVER. Once you learned how to play through TAG 1 at a high enough level, the REST OF THE GAME opened WIDE UP. It's a hurdle, but once you do it you feel like a fucking CHAMPION. You genuinely feel like you become a master of the art of "Fucking Shit Up".

Final Horizon makes me feel like a child who just got beat up by the school bullies. I don't feel any cooler or better at the game, I just feel like walking back home and maybe crying and pissing myself a bit.

How cool a comparison, DOOM's TAG 1 is a martial arts master where Final Horizon is a group of school bullies lmfao

It's not rewarding skill at all, it's just needless skill. Skill that will never apply to anywhere else in the main game. Because the game was never built for this type of difficulty. (the pre-trial tower climbs were all perfect though) Combat in Frontiers was almost entirely spectacle. It was fucking cool spectacle but at the end of the day you could totally get through the entire game mashing X and you could get away scot-free.

Now, I think the Cyberspace stages are about where the difficulty is present AND correct. It makes sense HOW they're hard, and they don't break any rules just to make the game harder. You can still do absolutely everything you could do in the base game's Cyberspace levels with zero changes to your moveset, the goal posts are now basically expecting you to use your skills. THAT is good skill usage. Not "Let's make your parry window fuckin 8 frames long, go fuck yourself" like what???

I had an idea for how the combat could be just a bit tougher (i'm no game designer yet so this could be ass): Make the boost gauge affect what attack moves you can make and how many times you can make them, and while in combat it recovers a little slower but speeds up by attacking normally. Spamming stomp would basically be impossible, now you have to time it out. i don't fuckin know i just want frontiers's difficulty to make sense.

[deckof-dragons]

I have just beat Act 2 of Ultrakill and ah, I am screaming internally. I need Act 3 so bad! Part of me wishes I had waited until the game was fully out before getting it but at the same time, ooh, I love it so much. Perhaps I'll feel differently when I'm no longer actively hyped up on it but I think this might be the best single player FPS I've ever played. I like it more than Doom. Which is saying something because I loved 2016 and Eternal so much I immediately replayed them on the second highest difficulty setting (I don't vibe with permadeath) after I beat them. I gonna go through on the hard difficulty setting for Ultrakill too (I'm not 100% sure I'll be able to beat it because it's standard difficulty is already more difficult than Doom's normal difficulty mode but I'll try because it's fun) after I go through all the levels again to get the secrets and bonus objectives that I missed this first time through. I'm really hoping nothing gets unlocked via S ranking every level because if so I'm gonna have to try to do that too.

But anyway the boss fights against Gabriel are top tier. I love him so much. I might try to draw him if I can get past my art block finally.

[linuxgamenews]

Azoove 1.0 - Teamwork Required for Survival

Azoove launches the epic roguelite co-op card game on Linux, Steam Deck, Mac, and Windows PC. Thanks to the creative minds at Timeless Toucan, this adventure comes to life with style and heart. Which you can find on Steam with its 90% Positive reviews. Strap on your desert boots and shuffle your deck — Azoove launches now, and it’s not just another card game. This is a desperate, cursed journey through scorching dunes, twisted magic, and eerie silence, and it demands teamwork... without saying a single word. Think you and your friends can handle that? Developed by Timeless Toucan, Azoove launches you into a roguelite co-op card game where survival hinges on more than luck. Since it takes intuition, trust, and a bit of psychic co-op chemistry. Out now on Linux (yes, it's Steam Deck ready!) via Steam, it’s the kind of title that turns every run into a story you'll be talking about for days.

The Mission: Return the Book, Avoid Eternal Damnation

You and your partner are cursed wanderers. Your goal? Haul a powerful book back to its rightful place before the curse swallows you whole. Every day you draw cards that give you Action Points, and then — here’s the twist — you pick which Opportunity cards to play... without talking to your partner. No chatting. No emotes. Just vibes and deduction. Azoove launches you into a tense tabletop night in the middle of a desert apocalypse. You’ll need to manage health, food, mental stability, and deal with unexpected disasters that hit harder than a sandstorm at midnight. But all’s not lost — each hero has a unique power to turn the tide. Sage conjures food, Oriana meditates for extra actions, Rin brings the group back from the brink with healing, and Auri calms rising despair. Use your Action Points wisely — they vanish at the end of the day, and you’ll regret hoarding them when the next crisis hits.

Azoove Early Access Launch Announcement

Expanded Multiplayer Mayhem

Here’s where it gets even wilder: the Azoove now supports 3- and 4-player co-op in the launch. More players means more chaos, more strategy, and more chances to completely misread your friends’ intentions.

Ration Scaling keeps things fair when your squad grows.

Mishaps, a new deck of 12 bite-sized disasters, start hitting from Day 2 onward.

Card Passing adds a fresh twist to coordination — cards now rotate clockwise, making every decision even riskier.

Fine-Tuned and Polished

Timeless Toucan has seriously leveled up the experience:

Trinkets got a rebalance, and five new ones add depth to every run.

Early-game Misfortunes have been smoothed out, while biome-specific threats bring fresh art and audio to each region.

The Spite system (aka difficulty levels) has been sharpened for a fairer but still brutal challenge.

The revamped lobby system lets you manage players, assign order, and kick trolls before the journey begins.

Plus, with a beefed-up tutorial, Steam Deck-friendly UI, smooth animations, and tight controller support, it’s a joy to play on the go or at your battle station.

Now that Azoove launches what’s next?

The devs aren’t done. Localization and accessibility improvements are on the way—so soon, even more players around the world can brave the dunes. So rally your co-op crew, light a candle for your mental stability, and dive in—Azoove launches the roguelite co-op card with style, substance, and just enough doom to keep things spicy. The title unleashes 1.0 on Steam. Priced at $11.24 USD / £9.59 / 11,09€ with a 25% discount for Linux, Steam Deck, Mac, and Windows PC. Will you return the book together—or become another tale lost to the sands?

[maximuswolf]

Gaming midlife Crysis?

Gaming midlife Crysis? So I just turned 39. After getting my ass kicked by dogs in Ninja Gaiden 2 black. I decided to start going thru all my fav games but on hardest difficulty to prove to myself, "I'M not that old!." Crysis 1-2, Halo 1-3, and now on last level of Doom Eternal. Curious if people in my age group do the same thing and what games do you test yourself with? Submitted March 06, 2025 at 04:05AM by Soless https://ift.tt/E5d8zlR via /r/gaming

[hlekani-666]

<091> 13. Atheist Republic Newsletter: Is there any meaning to a life without God?

On our Facebook page and website, we often have theists ask how we can possibly find meaning in life without God. We also frequently see questions like, "What is the point of living without an afterlife?". The implicit message is that people don't have the strength required to endure difficulty and grief; we require a god, the hope of eternal life in paradise and the belief that we will be reconciled with those we care about. How can an atheist possibly bear the weight of grief when a loved one dies if they don't believe they will see that loved one again in the afterlife? Theists also have the conviction that the only things of consequence, are those things that have eternal value – a person or action can't really have "true meaning" if it has an absolute end.

Atheists know we must invest everything into this life because it is all we have. We can teach others, care for others, impact the lives of those around us and create a better world for generations to come. We alone have the responsibility and the creative power to live our own life with meaning and to imbue it with significance. This can be both invigorating and terrifying.

So what does a religious person actually mean when they say life is meaningless without God?

In a bit of a twist, it's probably the human evolutionary process that leads people to religion. Our own brains compel us to find patterns in our world, enabling us to predict what might happen so we can make better choices and survive. We also long to explain those patterns, for without an explanation, we experience ongoing cognitive dissonance and unrest. It is this desire for explanation that has led to ascribing the patterns to a god or gods.

We want someone to care for us so we do not have to feel the weight of caring for ourselves and others. We want someone to forgive us so we don't have to bear the heavy weight of conviction and reconciliation when we have wronged someone. We make stupid mistakes and do not want to bear the consequences. The reality of living a full life without god is often too much to bear. Creating our own meaning is often too daunting.

In addition, we are frequently perplexed by our own behavior. Why do we hurt those we love? Why do we so often feel out of control? Why is there so much pain and heartache? We can't explain why people commit heinous acts. After all, we are just now beginning to gain a tiny amount of knowledge about how brain physiology and chemistry affects human behavior; so all throughout human history, we had no way to understand these things. In a way, it's probably easier to explain this often overwhelming sense of dis-ease by giving responsibility for it to a demon or devil or some inner spiritual defect. Christians call this the "sin nature" that all got started when Eve chose to disobey God and Adam chose to go along with it.

This sin nature puts us all on a track to hell no matter how good we are in life. If our "badness" is on a fundamental spiritual level, our salvation must then in turn be divine. There must be an all-powerful being to guide us and give our sinful existence some sort of meaning and then guide our eternal soul to paradise; for without god, we are eternally doomed. And because this god is so amazing and saves us, we must give this god thanks, and praise it, and give it offerings of prayers and worship.

This then is the basic tenet of "meaning" found in religion: to recognize that the only true good comes from God and the only true hope can be found in eternal life. Christianity teaches we all have a "sin nature" and so ultimate meaning for our lives must come from God who will save us if we submit to him. The "good" we do must be in the name of God and for his glory and ultimately, this life is fleeting and our only hope and joy comes from knowing that we will one day be with God in heaven for eternity. Jesus is our savior and we must accept this and worship God. Islam teaches that nothing happens without God willing it to do to and because of this, we owe God everything and must constantly be thankful to him and worship him. The meaning of life is to worship God through Islam and without total submission and surrender to God, we are damned.

But there is something very childish about the impulse to pass responsibility off to a divine being. Taking responsibility for our own behavior and making our own lives full and meaningful comes with maturity. When we believe all meaning is to be found in how we live our lives instead of where we go when we die, we are faced with the knowledge that we have quite a lot of work to do while we are alive, which can be scary. But it also frees us to fully embrace the wonder of the universe head-on without the marring cloud of spiritual fantasy. We have ways to judge our decisions and how we treat other living beings that share this planet with us. We have the freedom to figure out for ourselves what a full life looks like. We have the freedom to be creative, to explore, to question and also answer.

"The significance of our lives and our fragile planet is then determined only by our own wisdom and courage. We are the custodians of life's meaning. We long for a Parent to care for us, to forgive us our errors, to save us from our childish mistakes. But knowledge is preferable to ignorance. Better by far to embrace the hard truth than a reassuring fable. If we crave some cosmic purpose, then let us find ourselves a worthy goal." - Carl Sagan

Many great minds have explored the issue of life meaning. Richard Dawkins has a series called "Why Are We Here?" and in "Grand Design", Stephen Hawking addresses ancient and profound questions about the meaning of life.

Link To Original Post

[m39]

Doom WADs’ Roulette Bonus Round: Community Chest 1

We interrupt Decade of DOOMstruction to give you some bonus slop.

B18: Community Chest 1

Main author(s): Various (project lead by Dale Harris (cadman))

Release date: June 13th, 2003 (database upload)

Version(s) played: ???

Required port compatibility: Boom

Levels: 32 (standard 30 + 2)

Well, folks… Community Chest series had to start somewhere. I reviewed the second and third installments, of which the former was a better experience despite being more polarizing. And now, we will be taking a look at the first one.

I’ve already talked about how this project came into fruition in my CC2 review, so I’ll try to be quick here – Dale Harris (TeamTNT member) wanted to give less-popular WAD makers a spotlight, came out with the idea for community project that was released around almost a year later, and one of its contributors, Kevin Reay (Magical), died weeks before CC1’s release, with his death only being known half-a-year later.

Now, before properly taking a look at this community project, I’d like to tell you that I won’t be playing the maps the aforementioned Kevin Reay contributed, AKA Goin’ Down (not to be confused with Cyriak’s WAD) and Citadel at the Edge of Eternity, because from what I’ve heard and seen, these two maps are borderline masochistic in terms of the difficulty (mostly the latter map), and crypticness. If I wanted to check these maps as well, I feel like the in-making progress of this review would get longer by at least two weeks just to calm my nerves after playing them.

Also, I only played most of the maps twice. I don’t really have enough patience to go through some of these more than one time.

The story with how the maps look is the same as with any other community project that I played, AKA mixed to the max. Some maps look great, some look primitive, some are in between, yadda, yadda yadda. All in the good, old, 2003 standards of quality.

You might as well mute the music while playing this project because only the title and text screens along with 6 other maps in the final third have the new tracks. Not to be an asswipe, but making the maps as orthodox as possible with textures and music doesn’t sound like a great idea to begin with.

Gameplay-wise, it’s basically the same mixed bag as with every other community project; maps are either big or small (although there weren’t many that felt like they overstayed their welcome), simple or convoluted, and might usually have at least one annoying gimmick that felt outdated even by 2003, like long backtracking, chess-moving floor (although it happened only once from what I can remember), areas that are dark as shit, etc.

I think that in order to not end this section too quickly for the lack of better words, it would be a good idea if I talked about some of the more memorable authors (mostly for the wrong reasons). Starting with Gene Bird.

scare chord

Now, I already talked about him in my CC2 review, so I’ll try to be brief – his maps feel like a 1994 mess made by a preteen back then, and then uploaded years later, only to end up in this community project, making me feel like these were filler maps, because not enough people were interested. But at least his maps were more enjoyable to play compared to some of the more moon-logic-filled WADs I’ve experienced in the past.

Ground Floor felt like a mushed-up, mangled maze; like it’s the first thing I would think of when it comes to bad WAD design, making me go around the large chunk of a map to reach an area right behind the wall I stand next to. But at least the theme wasn’t a complete mess like the maps from Gene Bird.

Mike Alfredson, meanwhile, puts out annoyingly large maps that tend to have a lot of backtracking to be brief. These maps are basically what I was expecting from the first CC. I played them only once, and I don’t think I’d like to play them again (even if MAP13 feels more straightforward)

Oh, yeah, there is also the Ultimate Doomer himself – Stephen Clark. His maps are actually interesting, with Pistol Panic (as the title says) focusing on playing most of it with only your peashooter, and Technodrome having a bomb at the end of it and giving you two minutes to exit the map after activating it (at least it’s not the entire map). But, for some reason, he shoved a bunch of Voodoo dolls into his maps, to make them artificially harder in some areas, because… uhm… Muh artistic vision. Am Le Artiste.

Pretentious snorting

I don’t think I’ll ever understand this guy.

Oh, yeah. I almost forgot. Icon of shit in MAP30. What a lovely surprise... At least it looks great and it has a cool gauntlet of enemies before it.

My opinion on how hard these maps are will end up incomplete (as I mentioned at the start, I only finished most of these maps twice), but I can’t recon them being hard. There were annoying moments for sure (like in every community project), but never into the terms of I don’t want to play this map ever again.

I do remember, however, seeing a couple of bugs; it was mostly demons getting stuck in the floors, at least one instance of void in the ground, and one of the voodoos stuck in the floor on the first map.

Community Chest 1 is rough, to say the least. At least 1/4th of the maps feel like a filler due to these being released before the compilation, and the rest of the content can be good at best, but that’s rather rare from my experience. I just feel happy that I won’t have to deal with this WAD anymore… well, not until 100 most memorable maps at least.

And yet, in spite of everything, I can’t really bring myself to hate this WAD. Because without it, I don’t think we would have bangers from future installments like Mucus Flow for instance.

Now with that WAD done, come back in the (hopefully) near future, as we will be going back to the Decade of DOOMstruction.