|
Too Shy Guy posted:10. Insanity Clicker The bottom left monster in the third image appears to be blatantly stolen art from D&D 4th edition. The rest of the art might be stolen too.
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2016 20:30
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 9, 2024 17:42 |
|
|
Terrible Opinions posted:The bottom left monster in the third image appears to be blatantly stolen art from D&D 4th edition. The rest of the art might be stolen too.
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2016 20:50
|
|
|
Thinking about Phantasmagoria 2, didn't one LP of it here actually get an interview from Trevor's actor? Don't really remember anything about it other than being impressed they actually managed to get in contact with him. edit: Found it in the LP Archives! Link for anyone interested. I found it a really neat read. smuh fucked around with this message at 22:00 on Oct 10, 2016 |
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2016 21:07
|
|
|
Insanity Clicker appears to be a reskin of Clicker Heroes.
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2016 21:11
|
|
|
Blattdorf posted:Insanity Clicker appears to be a reskin of Clicker Heroes. most clicker games nowadays are, or are at least close enough insanity clicker just also likes to steal images from other works
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2016 21:27
|
|
|
Does Roberta Williams still feel the first Phantasmagoria is most representative of her work? Because there's some sad, scary implications if that's the case. I wish the second game didn't have such obtuse puzzles, especially. I wonder if the game would be more favorably remembered if the puzzles weren't so awful.
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2016 21:27
|
|
|
SUPERMAN'S GAL PAL posted:Does Roberta Williams still feel the first Phantasmagoria is most representative of her work? Because there's some sad, scary implications if that's the case. IIRC she considers Phantasmagoria 1 to be her masterpiece. Was she involved with 2? I thiiink she's trash talked it before.
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2016 22:05
|
|
|
Glad you understand what I mean when I say Phantamagoria 2 was a revelation compared to 1, boy are my arms tired. fake edit: 
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2016 22:11
|
|
|
Okay, I don't think I was critical enough of Insanity Clicker enough before recommending it. I'm going to scratch that one and go with something campy and fun that I can feel good about. 1. DISTRAINT 2. Shadowgate 3. Miasmata 4. SOMA 5. Haunt the House: Terrortown 6. Oxenfree 7. Vlad the Impaler 8. Condemned: Criminal Origins 9. The Last Door: Season 2 10. Shadowgrounds    Shadowgrounds is, for me, the quintessential alien shooter. There are no gimmicks, no twists, and barely any surprises. There are aliens, and you shoot them. There may be better alien shooters out there, with more guns or complicated stories or crazier aliens. But Shadowgrounds is the old reliable, the game that you picture in your mind when you think "I want to shoot aliens". In a remote colony on Ganymede you are introduced to Wesley Tyler, a security chief turned mechanic after a tragic backstory had its way with him. The power goes out, and Wesley tags along with two short-lived cohorts to discover that man-eating bugs are crawling out of the reactor. You'll soon find similar chaos breaking out all over the colony, with bigger and angrier aliens to shoot with bigger and angrier guns. Don't expect any complex setpieces or shocking revelations, this is a bug hunt through and through. Shadowgrounds plays from a top-down perspective with a fixed camera above Wesley's head. This allows you to scoot around with WASD while rotating your view with the mouse. It's a simple and effective control scheme that'll have you dancing around ravaging aliens as you fill them full of ordnance. You'll find ten different weapons in your journey, none of them particularly creative but all upgradable using tokens dropped from enemies. These upgrades can be as simple as more damage or faster reloads, or as complex as new fire modes or changes to weapon behavior. It's a nice touch that lets you shore up your weapons in whatever areas you're unsatisfied with, and the fact that you get tokens from enemies will have you always seeking out that next fight. The quest to shoot all the aliens will take you through bases, factories, caves, and starships. Along the way you'll meet more than a few characters that'll give you direction or request your aid. They're all pretty wooden and the voice acting is hammy at best, but there's something endearing about their stiffness, the same way an afternoon movie on SyFy can charm with its ineptitude. This extends to the rest of the game, really. Shadowgrounds has a distinct B-movie feel that's not at all intentional, and is more a produce of its age and budget than anything. And that's not to say there aren't a few sparks of brilliance, like the first time you encounter the stealth aliens. You might have the impression that Shadowgrounds is an unremarkable action game, and you're mostly right. The aliens are a standard mix of bugs and dog-things and serpent men, your guns are the same guns you've been using since Doom, and an infant would be able to predict the plot beats. And yet, there's an earnest charm that keeps me going all the way to the goofy action hero finale. It's well-made for what it is, with clean environments and balanced encounters and plenty of aliens to shoot. It'll last you around four hours total, and there aren't any secrets or achievements to turn up, so it really is just four hours of simply shooting aliens. But we all need to shoot aliens now and then, and sometimes simple is best.
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2016 22:17
|
|
|
Improbable Lobster posted:IIRC she considers Phantasmagoria 1 to be her masterpiece. Was she involved with 2? SUPERMAN'S GAL PAL posted:I wish the second game didn't have such obtuse puzzles, especially. I wonder if the game would be more favorably remembered if the puzzles weren't so awful.
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2016 22:18
|
|
|
boy are my arms tired posted:huh what game am i misremembering that had 9 discs then, weird Danaru posted:I think Ripper had a poo poo ton of CDs, I don't remember exactly how many, but it was a comical amount.
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2016 22:44
|
|
|
Black Dahlia had 8 CDs if I recall right.
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2016 23:02
|
|
|
I'll always have a soft spot for this game, it's pretty much exactly what you'd expect, and your review summarizes it perfectly. It's implemented really well though, the alien shootery somehow doesn't get old, there are enough upgrades and variants on the enemies and situations to keep it interesting. It's also a game with a bit of exploration and flow to the progress, you have to make your way through the different maps in a way that doesn't feel at all linear, rather than the unfortunate sequel Shadowgrounds: Survivor which just did the shuttle you along through series of rooms that lock and spawn waves of enemies at you. I always meant to play more top down shooters, but never got to try out many, and they seem kind of quaint today. I didn't regret this one at all though.
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2016 02:07
|
|
|
Re: Condemned, The loving locker scene, jfc
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2016 03:30
|
|
|
Basticle posted:Re: Condemned, Hah Things you never forget about Condemned 1: the locker scene, dummies Things you never forget about Condemned 2: that time you get chase by a bear
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2016 05:33
|
|
|
I never forgot about shouting so loud that homeless dudes heads exploded
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2016 05:35
|
|
|
smuh posted:I never forgot about shouting so loud that homeless dudes heads exploded I never forget them adding breakable weapons and making unarmed attacks really good so that you mostly punched dudes until you got to levels where you had enough guns not to need to play the fun kind of combat. Condemned 2 was fun but kinda disappointing.
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2016 05:53
|
|
|
smuh posted:I never forgot about shouting so loud that homeless dudes heads exploded Don't forget you get in a fist fight with alcoholism.
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2016 06:01
|
|
|
Nohman posted:Don't forget you get in a fist fight with alcoholism. I actually did forget that part because it was buried in with the head-explosion screaming.
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2016 06:04
|
|
|
I thought that bit was kind of stupid great in a gameplay/story handshaking (and hands shaking) kind of way. After that point, Ethan's hands don't shake when he uses a gun.
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2016 06:26
|
|
|
Terrible Opinions posted:The bottom left monster in the third image appears to be blatantly stolen art from D&D 4th edition. The rest of the art might be stolen too. Much of it is, or at least was. I counted art assets from Warhammer 40k and the Splatterhouse remake, as well as bits and pieces taken from the internet at large.
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2016 14:14
|
|
|
I really wish I could kickstart a gog.com port of Condemned 2.
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2016 16:49
|
|
|
Skyscraper posted:I really wish I could kickstart a gog.com port of Condemned 2. Agreed. I just started playing Condemned 1 on my xbone and man I'd love to play 2 as well... that bear
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2016 17:04
|
|
|
Skyscraper posted:I really wish I could kickstart a gog.com port of Condemned 2. Wait has gog ever ported a console-only game before?
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2016 17:51
|
|
|
Basticle posted:Wait has gog ever ported a console-only game before? Good question! I have no idea about the answer, but the xbox isn't far removed from the PC. I've certainly seen games that had working PC demos that were scrapped for an xbox-only release.
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2016 19:25
|
|
|
Slow day, huh? How about a little horror bite for $0.59? 1. DISTRAINT 2. Shadowgate 3. Miasmata 4. SOMA 5. Haunt the House: Terrortown 6. Oxenfree 7. Vlad the Impaler 8. Condemned: Criminal Origins 9. The Last Door: Season 2 10. Shadowgrounds 11. The Last NightMary    I always get excited when we get horror from unexpected places. Zombies and vampires and long-haired Asian girls have pretty well run their course, but when was the last time you encountered a creature from Brazilian myth? The Last NightMary is just such a tale, pitting you against a bulbous, scampering thing in a deadly race against time. And just like a lot of races, it'll be over before you know it. You play a young woman named Mary, fresh off a troubled past and now stuck in the wrong place at the wrong time. The entire game takes place in fields of tall grass by a river and the one dilapidated shack out there, all of which factor into the story of the thing chasing you. I'll keep it vague but there's a thing you need to do to keep it from killing you, and it's steeped in mysticism you'll need to collect a handful of notes to understand. The Last NightMary plays like a first-person adventure game. Each scene can have elements to look at, items to take, and points to use those items on. However, much of your time is going to be spent scrambling around the fields, which form a maze of very samey clearings with the occasional point of interest. The one structure in the game is only four rooms as well, so in the end you're not going to be finding much to puzzle out. As a matter of fact I think there's only 10 or so items in the whole game. Also, I'm going to avoid spoiling anything about the monster but its effectiveness is short-lived once you puzzle out the simple mechanics behind it. You might be thinking this doesn't sound all that great, and indeed I was on the fence about recommending this game. The Last NightMary was the product of a game jam and it shows, being easily beatable in 20 minutes even on your first attempt. And yet I stuck with it for longer, poking into the details and corners and finding little details and secrets there. There are a mess of endings depending on what you find on your way to the conclusion, and a secret ending that takes plenty of effort to get but will please the Silent Hill fans in the audience. The art is perfectly serviceable for a game of this scope, especially the monster which manages to unsettle in his aggressive loping. The sound design helps with the proper horror moments, thanks to some clever tracks and well-placed stingers. Again, it's an incredibly short game with few hurdles to clear, but I enjoyed my time with it. There's more to unpack if you start delving into the many achievements, and even if you don't it's a fun, sometimes tense ride the first time through. Any horror fan looking for something new will get some mileage out of this lean little tale.
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2016 21:39
|
|
|
I was on a real good streak for awhile there, but I have played some games that ended up sucking. Here's one now! 1. DISTRAINT 2. Shadowgate 3. Miasmata 4. SOMA 5. Haunt the House: Terrortown 6. Oxenfree 7. Vlad the Impaler 8. Condemned: Criminal Origins 9. The Last Door: Season 2 10. Shadowgrounds 11. The Last NightMary 12. Kholat    Walking simulators get a bad rap much of the time, but it can be hard to argue it's not deserved. Too many try to hang their appeal on strong stories or writing instead of engaging gameplay, and you need extraordinary talent to pull that off. Kholat attempts to impress not only with story but with style, atmosphere, and remarkable production values. This puts it ahead of most walking simulators out there, but it turns out even that isn't a very enviable spot. Kholat centers on the storied Dyatlov Pass incident, where nine Russian hikers perished in the Ural Mountains under unknown circumstances. You play an unnamed investigator who treks out to the site of the incident alone, long after the last official investigations, to uncover the truth once and for all. To do this, you'll have to hike across inhospitable ridges and valleys, orient yourself with your trusty compass and map, and turn up clues in the strangest places. And of course, you're not alone up on those frozen mountains. You will feel quite alone though, thanks to some absolutely stellar environment design. Kholat captures the feel of remote, icy peaks perfectly, from the crunch of the snow beneath your boots to the howling winds buffeting you. Each area of the vast map has a different atmosphere conveyed through sharp cliffs, water-logged caves, fierce blizzards, or oppressive darkness, to name a few. But no matter where you go, your solitude will ride high in your mind. It's a fantastic effect that helps keep your nerves on edge and sell the scares. There are more than a few scares to be had, between the setpieces and the encounters. The excellent sound design extends to some very effective audio cues and stingers that will get you when you least expect it. They also support some genuinely creepy moments when you locate certain key pieces of the story. As for the encounters, I won't say too much about them here but they have a tendency to sneak up on you and inspire some pretty panicky moments. I'm sure all of this sounds fantastic to fans of moody horror explorations. And it is, for about the first hour. The orienteering using your map, landmarks, and coordinates is pretty engaging to work out, especially when it leads you to new clues or camps off the beaten path. But very soon you're going to realize that what you're doing isn't going to change much past that first hour, and that's a problem when all you're doing is wandering around looking for notes. There are no puzzles, no choices, and no challenges other than a few tepid chases to break up the loop of find note, find another note. This is also going to be compounded by the things that can kill you, and I'm going to describe them here so if you're averse to spoilers then skip this paragraph. There are three things that will send you back out to the menu with little ceremony, and none of them are very fun to deal with. I know I talked up the encounters before but that's really just the first few times they get you. The monster in Kholat is mostly invisible, can appear right in front of you, and is really only avoidable if you back off of him immediately. If you have your sprint saved up you can escape him, but he'll just appear again after a minute to resume the chase. Beyond him there are traps like spike pits and falling rocks that have very little warning to them, and the aforementioned chase scenes that will end you if you sprint at the wrong times or take the wrong turns. The worst part is the save system, which saves automatically when you reach a camp (also used for fast travel, thankfully) or pick up a note. That means if you get caught dead after wandering for 20 minutes without finding anything, you're going all the way back. This will matter less once you realize how compartmentalized the danger is in the game, but that in turn only saps the tension that the environment and atmosphere worked so hard to create. And don't get me started on the story, which is the worst possible clusterfuck of every imaginable conspiracy theory you could muster for this incident. There's a ton of potential here for a great game, and I guarantee you'll see it in that magical first hour of trekking with Sean Bean's expert narration in tow. But it just doesn't go anywhere, in mechanics or story or... anything, really. Once you grasp the navigation and coordinates, you can finish the whole game in two hours or so. The atmosphere is incredible, until you realize how it masks the shallow gameplay. And that's really the story of Kholat, plenty of revelations to be had, but all of them ultimately disappointing.
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2016 18:26
|
|
|
Yeah. It kinda squanders the weirdness around the (actual real) event by just making it be a spooky monster that kills you.
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2016 18:29
|
|
|
The PS4 version also happens to be the single UE4 game with framerate issues, I had to quit and check it wasn't actually running on Unity.
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2016 18:53
|
|
|
Yeah... Kholat had some really, really good atmosphere going, but it took a lot of frustration to get to the end and added up to not very much at all. Shame, really; the Dyatlov Pass incident is a ripe story for a horror setting, but it seems all of the existing stories using it are lacking in something.
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2016 23:54
|
|
|
I honestly couldn't stand the game, even though I have enjoyed orienteering games in the past. Death feeling so random and unavoidable at times drains a lot of the tension, because it feels arbitrary and random no matter how hard you try. Someone needs to make a real Dyatlov Pass game
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2016 00:07
|
|
|
Uggggh I was enjoying Alien Isolation so much, but man did it really fall apart in the last act. Had some really good moments in there, like when you are operating the final set of controls, but it went from feeling like I was saving myself to feeling like I was in a cheap haunted house with constant nonsense fakeouts.
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2016 00:14
|
|
|
GlyphGryph posted:Uggggh I was enjoying Alien Isolation so much, but man did it really fall apart in the last act. Had some really good moments in there, like when you are operating the final set of controls, but it went from feeling like I was saving myself to feeling like I was in a cheap haunted house with constant nonsense fakeouts. Said it before but yeah, there's a certain point in Isolation where you can really tell the game was probably supposed to end, but then a publisher or something stepped in and said gently caress that, game's gotta be longer!
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2016 04:35
|
|
|
there are few things that frustrate me more than getting lost or random meandering and from the look of an lp of some of kholat i watched I would have hated it
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2016 05:38
|
|
|
Yardbomb posted:Said it before but yeah, there's a certain point in Isolation where you can really tell the game was probably supposed to end, but then a publisher or something stepped in and said gently caress that, game's gotta be longer! I didn't really get that sense at all. It felt more like the developers had a bunch of great ideas still on the table, but realized they'd gotten to the end and still not implemented several of them Vent in reflection of helmet followed by you looking up and getting dragged through the vent, second alien dropping down as you're sneaking by the first, entering the tramway from the side, the alien doing that cool jump over the table from the hallway into the blocked off room, the penultimate scene with all the aliens prowling as you activate the detachment clamps, the final ejection into space. It didn't feel stretched out, it was obvious a huge chunk of effort was put into those final bits, and thats the kind of thing I would expect more from a team that feels like it's run out of plot but still has so many more awesome things they really REALLY want to do.
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2016 18:19
|
|
|
Relin posted:there are few things that frustrate me more than getting lost or random meandering and from the look of an lp of some of kholat i watched I would have hated it yeah same, kholat is "getting lost: the game" and i didn't like it much at all same with those "find the page" horror games like slender and whatnot, the entire gimmick is to be lost and have things shifted every death, its very boring
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2016 18:21
|
|
|
Kholat was on the cheapest tier of a recent Humble Bundle, though, so at least I don't feel like I spent too much for it.  I think I'd rather play Miasmata for the wandering + orienteering. I actually found that game (which IIRC was a two-man production) really engaging for its mapmaking.
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2016 18:27
|
|
|
I end up reviewing a game like Kholat every year, one that has an incredible amount of promise and an excellent set-up, and just utterly drops the ball at some point. Miasmata is definitely the superior take on the concept, even if it's lacking on the polish and production values. 1. DISTRAINT 2. Shadowgate 3. Miasmata 4. SOMA 5. Haunt the House: Terrortown 6. Oxenfree 7. Vlad the Impaler 8. Condemned: Criminal Origins 9. The Last Door: Season 2 10. Shadowgrounds 11. The Last NightMary 12. Kholat 13. Fran Bow    Asylums and insanity tend to be a crutch in horror games, but Fran Bow manages to avoid the usual tropes of haunted hospitals and delusional psychos. It actually avoids a lot of storytelling tropes, forging off in an uncharted and often bizarre path towards its final revelations. You can be sure it's a beautiful and entertaining ride, but not one without a few bumps. Fran Bow is the name of the spindly, doe-eyed ten-year-old you guide through this grotesque adventure. Her happy homelife was interrupted by her parents getting filleted and her cat vanishing, so the game opens in an asylum for children. What starts as a quest to break out and reunite with your lost kitty spirals into an insane journey across... I'm not even sure what nouns to use here, honestly. The story is going to go places you're not going to expect in the least, and the surprises never really stop coming. The actual gameplay is plenty familiar for adventure fans, with clicks to move and a plentiful inventory to Use, Combine, and Examine. For most of the game you'll have an additional gimmick in the form of pills that warp reality (or how you see it, anyway) around you, essentially giving you two scenes to explore for every one you find. Chapter three of this five-chapter adventure also has an additional gimmick that's used to great effect in some rather clever puzzles. You'll come across NPCs to chat with as well but don't expect dialog trees or complex interactions, as your part in the conversation is usually a binary choice between "continue talking" and "bye". As for the puzzles themselves, they're pretty logical despite the insanity blossoming around them. Items tend to have clear uses, explanations abound, and there's something of a hint system present for most of the game. There's even a few with multiple solutions that can earn you achievements for working out the less common way. As long as you have a modicum of patience you won't be needing a walkthrough. Scene transitions are often instant and can be double-clicked through if not so the quality-of-life elements are there to stave off frustration. The only thing that might put you off a bit is the story, and in an adventure game that's admittedly huge. I mentioned before that the plot goes off in some bizarre directions, and if anything I'm understating the point. Fran Bow is ostensibly a horror game, and while there's plenty of gruesome scenery and creepy beings, the entire third chapter is something I never expected to see in a horror title. The chapters themselves are a bit disjointed in terms of tone, pace, and mechanics as well, so much so that the game might feel episodic at times. It all comes together in the end but does so in a very jarring, sudden way that still doesn't answer all the questions it raises. Flawed though it is, the story is still an entertaining one and is carried on the backs of its charming cast. Fran is incredibly upbeat and pleasantly irreverent for being a disturbed orphan, and the people and creatures she meets often echo her childish exuberance. There's an excellent balance here against some darker and more serious characters, and Fran herself has a morbid streak that's used to great effect. It's a good pairing with the gorgeous hand-drawn graphics, giving the game a look somewhere between Tim Burton aesthetics and stop-motion animation. I wish I could say the same about the sound design but it's honestly pretty lacking, with little more than a competent soundtrack and some simple effects that don't always fill out the scene. The adventure genre is a bit heavy on the horror side but Fran Bow does plenty to stand out. The look, the feel, and the story are all unique draws and come together to form an impressive experience. It might not always make sense, but you'll have so much fun chuckling at Fran's black humor and marveling at the beings she meets that I doubt it'll hold you back much. There's a full six hours or more of exploring to do in this dark and beautiful world, and plenty of reasons to dive right in.
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2016 21:49
|
|
|
I'm going to have to ask for a spoiler because I'm one of Those People who get really disturbed by animals and pets and such being hurt, and Fran Bow looks really interesting and I may check it out. Is the cat okay/does anything horrible happen to it/etc?
Safari Disco Lion fucked around with this message at 22:38 on Oct 13, 2016 |
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2016 22:32
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 9, 2024 17:42 |
|
|
Safari Disco Lion posted:I'm going to have to ask for a spoiler because I'm one of Those People who get really disturbed by animals and pets and such being hurt, and Fran Bow looks really interesting and I may check it out. Is the cat okay/does anything horrible happen to it/etc? This is a very important question.
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2016 22:34
|
|
