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Let's Talk poo poo - A Weekly Let's Play Based On Discussion and Interaction Let's Play Format Let's Talk poo poo is an irreverent Let's Play with a focus on discussion. Every week we play a new game and analyze it in detail before moving on to related gaming news and current events. Each episode is just over an hour in length. We play a wide variety games--some new, some old, some weird and obscure. A new episode comes out every Wednesday at 8:00AM EST. Goal of Thread The goal of this thread is to encourage discussion. Andy and I try to be entertaining, but for me the best part of the show is the discourse about the games and the topics. There are a few things I hope to accomplish with this thread: 1. Hear your feedback regarding the games and topics discussed on the show. What did you think about this game? What's your take on that topic? 2. Game suggestions. They can be new, old, indie, AAA, PC, console. We play a lot of different games. 3. User submitted questions or topics. Each week I will post the episode along with a detailed description of the game and a list of topics with quotes from me or Andy explaining the position we took. I encourage you to share your thoughts about the games and topics. I love hearing from people with varied opinions and engaging in honest discussion, so don't hold back. Episode List Darksiders - Warmastered Edition Vampyr One Hour One Life The Council Prince of Persia (2008) The Talos Principle Okami - Part 1 Okami - Part 2 Iris.Fall Enderal SINNER: Sacrifice for Redemption Episodes: Prince of Persia (2008)  Game Description Prince of Persia (2008) is an acrobatic platformer developed by Ubisoft Montreal. The nameless player character is accompanied by a support character named Elika, a princess with the power to reverse time. The player trapses through ancient Persia using their athletic skills, their sick climbing gauntlet, and the assistance of Elika. Unlike other entries in the series, there is no real player death; you are revived by Elika immediately if you fail. All of the combat is one-one-one against single enemies. It's counter-based--you have sword and claw attacks, and you perform quicktime events mid-combat to parry blows. If you "die", Elika revives you, but the enemy also regains a chunk of health. Storywise, the game is similar to Sands of Time--it's more about the relationship between the player character and the support character. There is also some vague magical threat and a plot about Elika's father, but let's not spoil it. Episode Topics Prince of Persia Andy: "Very mixed review on this one. It had a lot of good ideas. The way they integrate story and gameplay using the animations of Elika and the player character is impressive. She could just follow you, but instead she clings to your back to show that they are building a relationship. The combat is trash." St0rm: "It's not really want I want out of a Prince of Persia game. I don't like how the combat and platforming are completely separate. It also looks like rear end." Difficulty Settings in Games Andy: "I think it's good to have a variety of settings so that anyone can get into a game, whether they are new or a veteran." St0rm: "I don't always think difficulty options are a good thing. Games that are trying to tell a story about despair may rely on difficulty to emphasise hopelessness, for example. I do think a game should have a recommended difficulty setting if it does have options." A couple of really good videos from Mark Brown at Game Maker's Toolkit about difficulty settings in games: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5tPJDZv_VE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NInNVEHj_G4& Remakes Andy: "I like the 'Remaster' - same controls, same levels, better graphics. I also like the 'Reboot' where we take the same basic concept and do something more interesting with it. I don't like the akward middleground, like the RE2 reboot." St0rm: "I think it's fair to redo parts of a game that don't work or make the game less fun, such as removing the fixed camera angles in Resident Evil 2." Nintendo Stores Andy: "Maybe Nintendo is trying to get into the 'Lifestyle' market." St0rm: "Nintendo makes good hardware. Maybe people would be willing to buy a Nintendo phone." Hypothetical Question - If you could live in a video game universe, but you were a regular shlub or NPC, which world would you get born into? Andy: "Breath of the Wild universe. I mean, yeah, it's post-apocalyptic and it can be dangerous, but it seems like it's only really dangerous if you go looking for it. I could probably be a hunter or a merchant and never have to fight anyone. Plus, it's beautiful." St0rm: "Subnautica Universe. I wouldn't be stuck on an ocean planet. I'd have a replicator and a nice corporate job." Culture Corner: 'Tidying Up w/ Marie Kondo' St0rmTheGates fucked around with this message at 03:46 on Mar 21, 2019 |
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Feb 6, 2019 14:10
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The Talos Principle Game Description The Talos Principle is a story-driven puzzle game by Croteam, creators of Serious Sam. You awake as a newly born artificial intelligence to be greeted by an entity known as Elohim, who instructs you to search his lands for sigils--floating, glowy tetrimino blocks. To get to these sigils, you will need to overcome obstacles like exploding spherical robots and automated mounted machine guns using only your wits and the resourcs at hand. You are given free reign to explore as you wish, but Elohim warns you not to climb his tower as doing so will cause your demise. Mechanically, the puzzle elements of the game are stellar. They start by introducing a simple jamming device to disable doors and enemies. However, it must be placed in a stationary location, and can only jam one thing at a time. The game slowly introduces more items and mechanics, then ramps up the difficulty by combining those elements. It has a nice, gradual difficulty curve and the puzzles are well-crafted--it's easy to figure out what the goal is, but can be difficult to determine how to get to that goal. The one caveat with The Talos Principle is the engine. It had to be patched with extensive motion sickness controls because the insane running speed of the player character and lack of head-bob tend to make players queasy. Even for someone like me who rarely experiences motion sickness and can play on an HTC Vive for hours without issues, I found that I had to take a break from The Talos Principle every hour or so, lest I lose my lunch. Episode Topics The Talos Principle St0rm: "It's great! The story is well-written and engaging, the puzzles are fun and, mechanically, it is perfectly adequate. My one complaint is that the lightning fast run speed and lack of head-bob (even when enabled in the options) gives me motion sickness. I get the impression that they built this huge and interesting world and then realized that it takes way too long to move around it, so they cranked up the run speed to compensate." Andy: "It has fists of ham and fingers of butter. I'm just kidding, but the religious metaphors are pretty on-the-nose. I don't want to just quote Red Letter Media, but every few minutes I found myself saying 'Got it!'. Then again, I am very familiar with historical and cultural allusions in media. For a general audience, these themes might not be so obvious." Apex Legends Roster Accused of "Pandering to SJWs" St0rm: "No one has any right to be offended by the lineup for Apex Legends. You can't claim that a property is pandering just because it has LGBT characters. This is a complete non-story." Andy: "I can see why people are turned off by it. It seems like a lot of games just use this roster of progressive stock characters. It's uninspired. The reason I agree that this is a non-story is because it's published by EA--of course it's going to be creatively bankrupt. People who get upset by this need to realize that Respawn/EA are not trying to make a statement with their roster. This is just how games are made today; you are expected to make your games perfectly diverse." Hypothetical Question - If you were in charge of naming the current age, as in 'stone age', 'bronze age', 'space age', etc, what would you call it? St0rm: "The Age of Incompetence. I see people continuing to behave like children later into their lives, and generally refusing to take responsibility. The trend is to defer to authorities like politicians and corporate leaders. The problem is that many of these supposed leaders are frankly not competent. They lack the expertise to make informed decisions and the self-awareness to realize their deficincies." Andy: "The Brain Age. Both the largest growing problems and most exciting advancements for humanity concern our minds. Depression, anxiety, and other mental illnesses are on the rise. At the same time, we are starting to realize our limits, and we are working toward exceeding them." Culture Corner: 'Turbokid' St0rmTheGates fucked around with this message at 16:43 on Feb 13, 2019 |
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Feb 13, 2019 15:57
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Okami HD - Part 1 Game Description Okami is a highly stylish action-adventure game by Clover Studios, done in traditional sumi-e (inkwask) style. You play as Amatarasu, Shinto Moon Goddess and sweetie wolf who has returned to restore a world blighted by evil. The art style is more than just a reference to the folklore that the game is based on. Amatarasu uses her Celestial Brush to change the fabric of the world, filling in rivers, creating wind to blow aside obstacles, and even slicing up foes. The game slows down while in 'Painting Mode' to make it possible to input the semi-precise movements using a controller. The story is jam-packed with references to Shinto and other Japanese legends. It's also very dense. At times, Okami has been criticized for it's verbose dialogue. However, it is important to remember that this game was made in an era when a full price game was expected to net you 40-60 hours of play time. Okami is wordy, but it's so well written and the references and imagery are so enticing that it never feels "boring". Episode Topics Okami HD Andy: "I really like Okami. I'd call it 'The Best Legend of Zelda Game Nintendo Never Made'. The art style is fanstastic, all the references to Shinto and Japanese folklore are very interesting. Even the things people criticize the game for make sense in context. You have to remember that this game came out in the early 2000s, before cutscenes became passe. People were blown away when this game came out, and the art style still holds up. I wish the PC port had shorter loading times." St0rm: "I agree that the cel-shaded art style really holds up. It still looks great thirteen years after release. I also think the transition to PC for the HD version would make it easier to play since precise drawing controls are much easier on a mouse than on a controller. The combat looks a little simplistic for my taste, but I get the impression that challenge is not the point of this game--it's really about the setting." Project Hornet - PC Controls Using Mouse and Nunchaku Andy: "I think one of the reasons why Okami wasn't as popular as it could have been is because the drawing controls are tedious on a controller. Granted, the most difficult thing you need to draw is a spiral for wind, but it's so much easier with a mouse and keyboard. One of the things I have been interested in is Project Hornet from Jack Packard and Rich Evans of Previously Recorded. It's like a Wii Nunchaku controller in one hand and a mouse in the other. You get the precision of a mouse with the convenience of a controller. I don't think it's ever been tried on a large scale before, but I'd love to try it." St0rm: "I could see room for a new controller scheme if it was done right. For No Man's Sky, the keyboard flight controls were so bad that I would use keyboard and mouse on land and then pick up my controller when I got into my ship. Then again, a middleground could just end up being the worst of both worlds." Sexiness in Japanese Games Andy: "I appreciate the way the Japanese approach sexiness in games. It's there, but it's cheeky and mostly played for laughs. There's a recurring joke in Okami that the flea character, Issun, is constantly perving on the women in the game, but it's helpless and charming because he's not a threat." St0rm: "drat, look at them anime tiddies." Loading Screens Andy: "It seems like some PC ports like to keep the loading screens, even when they are not needed. I'm not sure if this is because the games are poorly optimized or to keep them more 'authentic', but I'm not a fan. It only makes sense for games like Bayonetta where you want to practice your combos in-between levels." St0rm: "I think interactive loading screens can be charming. I remember playing Dragon Ball Z: Budokai as a kid and spinning the analog sticks to summon Saiyamen." A Few Resources on Inkwash Painting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xncb1-wHM3k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gm63WcJXTkY Culture Corner: 'Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle'
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Feb 20, 2019 03:53
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Okami HD - Part 2 Game Description Okami is a highly stylish action-adventure game by Clover Studios, done in traditional sumi-e (inkwask) style. You play as Amatarasu, Shinto Moon Goddess and sweetie wolf who has returned to restore a world blighted by evil. The art style is more than just a reference to the folklore that the game is based on. Amatarasu uses her Celestial Brush to change the fabric of the world, filling in rivers, creating wind to blow aside obstacles, and even slicing up foes. The game slows down while in 'Painting Mode' to make it possible to input the semi-precise movements using a controller. The story is jam-packed with references to Shinto and other Japanese legends. It's also very dense. At times, Okami has been criticized for it's verbose, unskippable dialogue. However, it is important to remember that this game was made in an era when a full price game was expected to net you 40-60 hours of play time. Okami is wordy, but it's so well written and the references and imagery are so enticing that it never feels "boring". Episode Topics Hideki Kamiya (0:53 - 5:00) Andy: "Hideki Kamiya is like the Robert Zemeckis of video games. He has directed a ton of games that everyone has played, but no one knows that he directed them. He started at Capcom and made Resident Evil 2, Devil May Cry, and Viewtiful Joe. Then he quit and started Clover Studios, which made Okami, and finally he started Platinum Games with Shinji Mikami." St0rm: "I played Resident Evil 2, Okami, and Devil May Cry, and I never had any idea that they were directed by the same person. Though, I was aware that Devil May Cry was originally supposed to be a Resident Evil game." Difficulty Level in Okami (12:17 - 15:18) St0rm: "It seems annoying that you get timed on the encounters, but then you have enemies like the shamisen guy who keep become invincible and you just have to wait. This game really needs a guard break." Andy: "In general, the combat isn't very difficult, and the only thing you lose out on for not beating them quickly is a little extra money. I do think it's interesting that the combat is super simple, super easy--especially since it was directed by the same guy who did Devil May Cry and Bayonetta. I think that's something you can really appreciate--when you know the developer is capable of doing very precise and difficult combat, you know that the more simplistic combat was a deliberate choice." St0rm: "Okami probably doesn't need to be challenging. If we go by the Yahtzee Crowshaw 3 Cs of game design--Challenge, Context, and Catharsis--the setting is beautiful--especially with all of the references to sumi-e painting and Japanese folklore--and the game is serene and cathartic to play. It can stand up on those two legs, even if the challenge aspect is weaker." Hollow Knight - Silksong (17:30 - 18:36) Andy: "It looks like more Hollow Knight. If you liked Hollow Knight, then it will probably be good. The extertion noises of the player character are pretty annoying; I hope you can turn them off." St0rm: "It's Hollow Knight with faster-paced, acrobatic combat. I'm super stoked. I'm also glad they made it into a sequel with its own map instead of just adding a character DLC to the original." Game Company Stock Decline and Activision-Blizzard Layoffs (19:10 - 24:25) Andy: "A lot of people have been saying that AAA development is too bloated and that the bubble is getting ready to burst, but I think that would be a shame. Look at all the acheivements that AAA studios have put out in the last few years--Breath of the Wild, Horizon Zero Dawn, the new God of War. I think we're starting to see just what you can do with game technology if you have the resources. There are just things that AAA developers can do that no indie studio will ever be able to pull off. To put it another way, I love Lucas Pope, but there aren't enough hours in the day for a Lucas Pope to put out Horizon: Zero Dawn." St0rm: "Regarding the layoffs, it is important to remember that a lot of these were non-development employees, and I agree that it is the responsibility of these companies to trim the fat and keep costs down--I just get frustrated every time a company lays off hundreds of employees, when they could lay off one or two executives and save the same amount of money. I don't know why this doesn't get questioned more often--I guarantee that 1 executive is not as valuable as 400 employees who actually work for a living. I would also argue that if your company is doing poorly, that is the fault of the decision makers, not the worker bees on the ground." Amazon's New "Colonization" MMO (25:30 - 36:00) St0rm: "Amazon announced a new survival MMO set in the colonial era with gunpowder. I loved the idea, but I was disappointed to find out that they added zombies as the main protagonist. The zombie thing is played out. I think they made this design choice to avoid getting called racist." Andy: "The controversy is 'oh, you're doing the colonization of the new world by the Europeans as a game'. Frankly, I think that's an interesting setting. Are we supposed to pretend this period of history never happened?" The Sliding Definition of MMO (36:00 - 41:00) Andy: "It feels like the definition of 'MMO' has expanded to incorporate more brands then what I would traditionally think of as an MMO. I know not all MMOs need to be RPGs, but I can't think of a game like PUBG as an MMO, even though you are playing online with a ton of people." St0rm: "To me, MMO implies a world that exists independant of the player. It can't be composed solely of instances, there has to be a persistant world where players can run into each other and interact." Culture Corner: 'Pirates of Penzance'
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Feb 27, 2019 13:47
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Iris.Fall Game Description Iris.Fall is a puzzle-adventure game built around the theme of light and shadow. You play as a little girl making her way to the top of a magical tower. The story-telling is very hands off--it's never clear if this is a dream or a memory or if it is actually happening. The puzzles range from interesting perspective tricks using lighting and reflection to underwhelming block-sliding puzzles and Rubik's cubes. The run-time is very short, netting most players between 2 and 3 hours of gameplay. Episode Topics Iris.Fall vs Contrast - Should you be able to use your shadow powers anywhere? (2:23 - 5:31) Andy: "I will say Contrast could play with the shadow mechanic better than this one can because it didn't have set points--there was just a shadow button. You were still limited by needing a bright light to cast a shadow, but anywhere you could find that, you could use your shadow ability. It allows it to be both a puzzle and a platforming mechanic, whereas in Iris.Fall it is just a puzzle mechanic." St0rm: "I think Iris.Fall may work better because it is a straight puzzler rather than a puzzle platformer. When you try to program a platformer, you have to test the game thoroughly because there are so many variables. As an indie developer without a huge QA department, it may be advisable to keep the gameplay simple instead of biting off more that you can chew and disappointing you audience, like 'We Happy Few'." The Score (6:34 - 7:40) St0rm: "The music in this game is really good and it is used sparingly. There are long stretches with no score at all, but it works because you have areas such as 'The Gear Room' where the rythmic clanking of the gears functions as a sort of stand-in." Andy: "I read an interview with the game's composers, Thomas Parisch and Edwin Wendler, and I confirmed that they did the sound design for the game in edition to the score--It's sort of an Akira Yamamoto situation." Symbolism and Theming - Part 1 (11:27 - 13:26) Andy: "This is perhaps me just being cynical, but I find myself constantly asking 'Was there a real artistic intent here, or did they take a bunch of known artsy cliches and just mash them together?'. When I heard the name 'Iris.Fall', I thought it sounded like a My Chemical Romance album." St0rm: "I think the developers had a clear intent with the visual design of the game. It's hard to talk about without spoiling because there isn't an in-depth story here, it's more of a premise. What I will say is that the eye is sometimes associated with the soul, a theme we talked about when discussing Neil Gaimon's 'Coraline', and I think that's what Iris.Fall is hinting at." Puzzle Design (20:21 - 24:11) St0rm: "The quality of the puzzles in this game vary. There are some really interesting applications of the 'using shadows to affect objects in the real world' puzzle, such as the Clockwork Servant room where you have to turn the shadow gears to affect a real mechanism. However, there are also some extremely basic puzzles such as sliding-block match-the-pictures and Rubik's cubes. One change I would make is to space the puzzle types out. There are many segments where you do the same type of puzzle three times in a row with escalating difficulty, such as a series of progressively harder Rubik's cubes. I would have tried to mix it up a little to keep it fresh." Andy: "One of the tricks of Puzzle Design is to let the player know when they are succeeding without making it so obvious as to let them brute-force the solution. It looks like Iris.Fall struggles with this." Symbolism and Theming - Part 2 (38:30 - 47:48) Andy: "I get that this is a puzzle game, but it has the feeling of 'puzzles for the sake of puzzles'. If you want to do the artsy thing, I feel like the puzzles should have some sort of thematic connection to the game. If you really wanted to make a game that symbolizes the theme of 'light and shadow', these sliding block puzzles would be horribly misplaced in it." The Ping System from Apex Legends (56:07 - 1:01:20) St0rm: "The ping system is revolutionary. It lets you mark any spot on the map for your teammates and also call out the position of things like weapons, ammo, armor, and enemies. It lets you communicate effectively with any player, even if they don't speak your language or understand phrases like 'Bogie on your 6'." Andy: "It's a neat system. Unfortunately, it's pretty easy to copy--Fortnite has already implemented its own ping system." Culture Corner: 'A Ghost Story' St0rmTheGates fucked around with this message at 21:57 on Mar 6, 2019 |
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Mar 6, 2019 16:51
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Enderal Game Description Enderal is a free total conversion mod for Skyrim that adds a new map, story, quests, NPCs, and monsters. It also has tweaks to increase the difficulty, such as more restrictive fast travel and needing food or healing items to regenerate health. Enderal is touted as having a darker and more psychological story than Skyrim. Just a few minutes into the game, we are introduced to a sinister father character. The walls of your family home are plastered with disturbing images like diagrams of the human body and a replica of Saturn Devouring His Son by Francisco Goya. This mod is a bit slower in pace than the original game. However, if you loved Skyrim, this is your chance to experience playing it for the first time again. Episode Topics Darker Tone (4:09 - 8:30) Andy: "I think Enderal does a decent job establishing a darker tone. I mean, if you can make a bright, sunny day seem creepy, you're doing something right. I think some of these horror scenes fall a little flat due to the voice acting and the limitations of the Skyrim engine, but I like it when people take an existing system and adapt it to a different genre--like when people make games in RPG Maker that aren't RPGs." St0rm: "I can appreciate what they are trying to do, but it does come off a little silly at times. I'd guess that the imagery has more of an impact when you're playing it alone rather than talking poo poo over it with a friend." Mechanical Differences Between Enderal and Skyrim (08:59 - 12:45) St0rm: "What are the differences between Enderal and Skyrim?" Andy: "I want to give a blanket disclaimer: All of the criticisms I am going to give this game are not me saying 'this game is bad' but rather me giving a caveat emptor. In my opinion, they made some changes to the gameplay that some people will love and some people will hate: - Health no longer regenerates over time. You have to eat food and use healing items. - There is a new mechanic called 'Mana Sickness' where healing magic and potions will build up mana sickness over time. - You no longer gain skill points by using them. You have to find skill books and trainers. The skill point change is the biggest issue for me. My favorite thing about Skyrim is that any time you want to try a new build, you just do it. You grow your character organically by playing the game. This new system forces you to search every nook and cranny because you can't risk missing a book." Pacing (16:49 - 20:40) St0rm: "Skyrim knew how to start. You wake up on the cart, you create your character, then people start getting executed and a dragon attacks. By contrast, Enderal seems to be taking a very long time to get started. Even with the portions that you edited out, it's almost 30 minutes into the video before we get to gameplay. I can appreciate ambiance and world-building, but that may be a little too slow for me." Andy: "Enderal is a slow burn. I think it was an odd choice to tutorialize the game again. Ostensibly, anyone playing Enderal is already familiar with the Skyrim controls, so it seems like a waste to bog down an already slow opener with a tutorial section." Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice - First Impressions (29:53 - 38:00) Andy: "I'm excited for Sekiro. I've always said the From Software is great at what they do, and it would be nice to see them try something else. It's still a 3rd-person combat focused game, but it's definitely not just 'Weeb Souls'." St0rm: "To me, the biggest changes in Sekiro are related to the combat. You now have a grappling hooked used for movement and to close in on enemies. They have also updated the dodge mechanics: There are 3 dodges--a parry, a dodge, and a jump for low, sweeping attacks. Gone are the days of idly pressing 'dodge' right as the enemie's attack is about to connect." VaatiVidya's Episodes on Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice The First Five Hours of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice Story Trailer Breakdown The New Progression System Culture Corner: 'The Kirlian Frequency' St0rmTheGates fucked around with this message at 22:16 on Mar 13, 2019 |
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Mar 13, 2019 16:58
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SINNER: Sacrifice for Redemption Game Description SINNER is a third person action RPG with a theme of sin and sacrifice, made by Chinese developer Dark Star. The unique selling point is that you level down and get weaker as you progress through the game, the opposite of the traditional RPG character arc. There are 7 bosses, each based off of one of the seven deadly sins, and in order to unlock each boss fight, you must sacrifice some of your power and abilities. Sometimes this can be as straightforward as losing health and stamina or charges for consumable items. Sometimes it adds new mechanics to the game like causing you to get winded if you dodge while out of stamina. Sinner has snappy, satisfying 'Souls-like' combat, and some really interesting encounters. It a straight boss rush with no trash mobs, so don't expect to get more than a handful of hours out of it, but it has a lot of heart and polish. Episode Topics SINNER: Sacrifice for Redemption (Starts at 0:37) Andy: "There's this joke that 'Salt and Sanctuary' is 'Castlevania Souls', 'Nioh' is 'Weeb Souls', etc. This is 'Team Ico Souls'. The main character really looks like a Team Ico character, and it takes place in this sort of quiet, mysterious setting. The 'Dark Souls' comparisons are obvious, but I think there are also some parallels between this and 'Shadow of the Colossus'. " St0rm: "Each boss is based off of one of the seven deadly sins, but some are done with more aptitude than others. The Envy boss is very interesting, where you fight a single woman who interchanges her heads to become one of two personalities, before fighting both of them as a pair. On the other hand, Gluttony is a fat guy. I was also confused about the theming with the main character. Your name is Adam, but all of the symbolism seems to be Christ imagery, which I guess fits the theme of Sacrifice." Andy: "In Christianity, Christ is the second Adam--The father to the second phase of Humanity." Another Steam Controversy(15:38 - 23:38) Andy: "Valve has been reported on again because of a game on their platform called 'Rape Day', a visual novel where you play as a serial killer rapist. They have since taken it down. This has been happening a lot recently because Steam released a policy where they would censor only poor quality or troll games, and the entire Making of Objectionable Content industry said 'Hold my beer.'" On the basis of the name sounding like Trolling, I'm completely fine with Valve taking the game down. They are under no obligation to host hardcore pornography or things that they find objectionable on their platform." St0rm: "If I owned a corner book store, I wouldn't sell some novel called 'Death Rape' with a picture of a lady getting stabbed on the front cover. Look, I'm against censorship in most cases, but I think all of the games that Valve has pulled so far are content that most reasonable adults would find objectionable: 'School Shooter Simulator', 'Rape Day', etc." Andy: "I think the current system of Valve evaluating questionable games on a case by case basis is the correct way to do it. My only concern is that if they try to create a set of rules to censor games by, groups will use wide interpretations of those rules to try to get any game they disagree with banned." SINNER Combat Mechanics (28:07 - 32:58) St0rm: "Maybe I should take a second to talk about how SINNER differs from Dark Souls. You do have regenerating health, though it restores very slowly. The dodge is very whippy and you have a lot of i-frames, so I'd say it's more forgiving. It's a straight boss rush, so the only trash mobs are the ones in the tutorial section. As we already said, you get weaker as the game progresses, and the 'sacrifices' that you have to make are interesting. You don't just lost straight health and stats, the powers that you lose are more personal. One of the powers you can sacrifice is your armor, which lowers your defense and takes away your regenerating health. Interesting note, it is the only sacrifice with a visual effect on your character" Andy: "I kind of assumed this game would have a mega-man style meta--which is the correct order to face the bosses in. Since you can choose which order you want to fight the bosses in, you can also choose which order you lose the powers." Very Interesting Part Of The Game - Contains Spoilers (37:13 - 43:20) St0rm: "The Lust boss fight was very hard, so around that time I was about to say 'gently caress this game'. But, I pushed through and beat it, and that ended up unlocking the most interesting encounters in SINNER: After you defeat Chanel, she shows up in the world. You can exhaust her dialogue options and she summons a giant egg that allows you to fight Modic the Cowardly, a giant chicken in Mad-Max style armor who attacks you with pecks and claws and lays eggs that summon malformed chicken enemies. The fight was fun, hilarious, and one of the easier fights in the game. I think it was placed there intentionally as some relief. For the bosses second form, it's head splits off and becomes an independant enemy. However, if you hit it with consumables like the spears/fire pots, it will become small and inert for a short time so that you can beat up on it. I think this encounter was awesome and really elevated the game." Andy: "This reminds me of the cow level from Diablo II. I really wish more souls-like games would be colorful and funny. It's a good system and makes for an engaging game, but they are always set in dour, dark-fanstasy settings." Flambard - Discussing the Wavy Sword (47:09 - 48:18) Storm: "Do you know why his sword is all wiggly?" Andy: "There are a number of theories about that. Some think it gives it the weapon the benefits of a saw. Others say it just looks cool. One theory I find interesting is that allows you to have a straight sword with some of the benefits of a curved blade. A curved blade is better for cutting because you have less contact with the target and therefore a smaller surface area, but a straight sword is easier to wield." Wikipedia Page on the Flame-Bladed Sword Culture Corner: 'There Will Be Blood'
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Mar 20, 2019 14:19
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