sakesushi

The most exciting part of the Nintendo Direct for me was looking at the Nintendo Switch feed to remind us of the most interesting nuggets from their Direct just to stumble upon this small announcement!

I generally enjoy video games, and that enjoyment has morphed and evolved over the years along with my tastes. For the latter half of my life though, the most constant reason I game is to not give it up from the pressures of societal norms. It's a much easier thing these days, but I still get those awkward feelings of childishness and irresponsibility for enjoying what used to be just a kid-centric hobby.

I consider Gerstmann the reason I critically follow video games these days. I was deep into Destructoid years back, and seeing an article there about Jeff getting fired was that first light bulb in my head of "shit, there's something more to these games than just an obsessively unhealthy hobby".

What got me hooked on Giant Bomb was the Beasters' Contradiction playthrough, the first time I ever got my wife to enjoy dumb internet videos I enjoyed. Learning soon after that this is what Jeff was up to was a cool "small world" moment for me!

I was getting the same deja vu from the Abby's First Day RPG, but I think it was caused by Pat Baer's Let Pat Play videos. Maybe it's similar to that for you?

Terrible thing to hear. Keep your loved ones close and never be afraid to lean on them. I'm gonna hug my wife's tummy just for you as soon as I get off work.

Just beat the boss with 2 Boss Cells with this build:

Since the 1.0 update capped damage per hit (I think someone said it's at 5% boss health?), I've found my early access build of Heavy Crossbow/Ice Bow to be far too slow; there's a big difference between 3-shotting and 20-shotting a boss. I aimed for a loadout with big, quick damage to keep mobile, so I threw all my money at these items right before the Hand. The mods on the sword were insane, plus a bonus of oil on the stun grenade to boost the fire grenade. I still have a hard time dropping the Ice Bow, since stacking dmg red is huge as you add on the Boss Cells. Then the trap damage reduction mutation as security from the spikes.

Finally got around to playing 1.0, fresh save file and all. Shook up some of the dust in my head, so here's a few random tips:

1) Probably the biggest tip I could think of: rather than spend all your cells, you can break down the door past the collector, similar to the pay doors in the dungeon without the curse. This way, you can start grinding early towards getting + rank and higher gear in your runs at the forge when you feel confident in a consistent run past the first boss.

2) Always talk to the collector after picking up a blueprint! If you don't, you haven't deposited that blueprint yet. This'll only really creep up on you when you start finding a flow in your runs and have less things to unlock, which could lead to skipping the Collector altogether. It's always disappointing seeing a blueprint fly out of you on death you forgot you grabbed two or three zones ago.

Another fun pair of weapons to keep an eye out for is Spiked Shoes/Frost Bow or Frost Blast or Ice Shards. Since the boots crit on anything that's attacking, the slow effect widens the timeframe to land those crits - and that distinct crit sound over and over is quite satisfying! Ice Shards can make this a straight red build, so you can throw in grenades with reduced cooldown - Fire and Oil Grenades for added damage, or dual Ice Grenades for increased slowed effects.

Happy to see some Contradiction love in here! Of all the content on GB, somehow that's what pushed me over the premium edge. I need to thank Vinny for sharing those FMV games I hate to play but my wife loves to watch.

From my experience with Nightmare difficulty up to right before 1.0, my #1 build is Frost Bow/Heavy Crossbow. At that difficulty, you can't afford to take any hits, so the speed of the bow is a must for crowd control; Frost Blast is great, but just a smidge too slow for my taste. And rerolling the bow to Pierce all enemies with reduced chance to thaw ok hit is absolutely deadly. Add on a few grenades that drop arrows on hit, and you even save yourself a mutation slot! From others here though, it sounds like attack dmg is capped on bosses, so you might not be able to freeze/shotgun the second boss before they get an attack or even dialogue in.

Another fun build is Pyrotechnics/Ice Shards. Just a simple keepaway build, but surprisingly effective with some turrets to help as backup. That last blast in the Pyro combo is veeery satisfying on clumped mobs.