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Im_Special posted:Who comes up with this poo poo, ask yourself one thing companies who do this, what does this add for the customer, any benefits? Nope. Then maybe don't do it. They have confirmed that it does not need Origin client. You log into your EA account just like with pre Origin games.
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Mar 12, 2020 09:36
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Infinity Gaia posted:Provided you're far enough in, you can also just teleport to a fast travel point from the map screen. I think that ability unlocks when you hit the town hub, but I'm not totally sure.
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Mar 12, 2020 12:10
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Cardiovorax posted:Oh yeah, that's actually worth mentioning because I only found out about by coincidence myself and the game doesn't advertise it very well: you can teleport to spirit wells from anywhere once you have the town, not just from another well. Just select one and keep A pressed (or whatever the equivalent button is for you) and you'll teleport there as per usual. It doesn't seem as if there are any restrictions on it, but maybe I just haven't run into them yet. You can't teleport if you're underwater.
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Mar 12, 2020 12:34
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Cardiovorax posted:That is very sad to hear. God I loved that I game, I really did. It's one of the first big-name PC action games I ever played and man, was it worth every cent. They managed to get the guy who voiced Bruce Willis in my native language for the protagonist guy and it's wonderful. As many games as I play, there's only a handful I've ever completed. This is one of them. It's an experience I would recommend to anyone. 
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Mar 12, 2020 13:30
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Boba Pearl posted:Outer Worlds feels like a test of how little can be put in a game, and still have people buy it. There's a solid 25% of the planets/map that is devoted to nothing but side quests and doesn't matter at all
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Mar 12, 2020 14:19
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https://twitter.com/pshanley88/status/1238102461405188099
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Mar 12, 2020 15:13
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ori 2 is god drat fantastic, and the soundtrack is phenomenal
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Mar 12, 2020 15:14
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I want more life, fucker!
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Mar 12, 2020 15:16
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exquisite tea posted:I want more life, fucker!
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Mar 12, 2020 15:39
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exquisite tea posted:I want more life, fucker! Blade Runner is on GOG right now if your lifespan is short. It got added at the end of last year, so I guess this Enhanced Edition is something Nightdive decided to do only recently.
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Mar 12, 2020 16:27
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Rebel Blob posted:I'm still bummed they replaced the amazingly-overwrought CG intro. When I originally played this (back when it was new) it did something weird. After I'd installed and ran it for the first time it skipped the intro cutscene, so I was just dumped straight into the game with no context. If I recall correctly the game also didn't have a good way to replay the cutscene, for some reason (non-traditional menu system or something). Anyway, seriously impressive game back when it came out but it did terribly sales-wise and Appeal went bankrupt trying to make the sequel as Atari essentially shut them down. I think they were also juggling around a second project, Totems or something, which didn't exactly help their bottom line near the end. Here's footage of the PS2 prototype build: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zy1lqQNcHbc
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Mar 12, 2020 16:59
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The theming of the new COD Battle Royale is so weird. Most multiplayer games obviously handwave respawn mechanics and persistent characters, but this might be the first time I've seen the game explicitly say, "Oh well fellas, head back to base, better luck next time" after getting your head blown off by a .50 cal sniper on the field, and then riddled with buckshot in the gulag.
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Mar 12, 2020 17:07
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Mordja posted:The theming of the new COD Battle Royale is so weird. Most multiplayer games obviously handwave respawn mechanics and persistent characters, but this might be the first time I've seen the game explicitly say, "Oh well fellas, head back to base, better luck next time" after getting your head blown off by a .50 cal sniper on the field, and then riddled with buckshot in the gulag. "These things happen"
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Mar 12, 2020 17:15
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This last review is less a recommendation and more a reminder to go back and check out all the stuff they've added over the years, because it's just as good if not better than the original release. Also this was supposed to come much closer to the final release, but you know how life goes. Platformebruary 2020: Ultimate Collector's Edition 1. Blasphemous 2. Duck Souls 3. Dune Sea 4. A Robot Named Fight 5. Sonic Mania 6. Izeriya 7. MagiCat 8. Runner3 9. Harold 10. Spirits Abyss 11. A Short Hike 12. Super Time Force Ultra 13. Touhou Luna Nights 14. Spark the Electric Jester 2 15. Serious Scramblers 16. PONCHO 17. Umihara Kawase 18. Noita 19. Rain World 20. 8BitBoy 21. Wings of Vi 22. MO:Astray 23. Total Party Kill 24. Dandara 25. Potata 26. Skautfold: Usurper 27. Ikeda: The Scrap Hunter E.P. 28. Tobari and the Night of the Curious Moon 29. Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove    Normally, when a game takes over five years from its initial release to be considered complete, that’s a very bad sign. But Yacht Club Games took a very different approach with Shovel Knight that didn’t route through the roiling Early Access hells at all. They released the original Shovel Knight, one of the few truly great retro platformers on Steam, and then pledged to continue adding new modes to it. And add they did, eventually cramming four additional full-sized games into what’s now known as the Treasure Trove. You’d think that some part of this plan would have fallen apart, that one of those many games and modes would be undercooked or poorly balanced or rushed or something. But you’d be wrong. The heart of Shovel Knight is the titular shovel-wielding hero, and his quest to best the nefarious Enchantress. The lands surrounding her Tower of Fate have fallen onto dark times, thanks mainly to her Order of No Quarter carving the place up like a messy game of RISK. Despite the loss of his partner Shield Knight, Shovel Knight is determined to dig his way past the other charmingly-themed knights in the Order and restore peace to the land. That’s going to require a lot of running, jumping, and shovel-pogoing off of things to get through the many castles and dungeons on the way to the Enchantress’ tower. Fortunately there are plenty of friendly faces to help you out, trade with you, poke fun at you, and guide you towards the many abilities and upgrades and secrets sprinkled throughout this expansive adventure. You will never run out of indie games that attempt retro trappings but there are precious few that actually pull it off as well as Shovel Knight. From the moment you drop into the very first stage, incredible soundtrack pumping and STRIKE THE EARTH blinking on the screen, you’ll feel the inspiration baked into every platform and button press. The developers took their cues from all across the NES library, starting with a basic Mega Man structure to levels and powers, a Ducktales pogo jump as a cornerstone of your moveset, and a Super Mario Bros. 3 world map to tie it all together. These and other inspirations are not thoughtless copies either, as they are made entirely Shovel Knight’s through clever interactions and expert art design. Thoughts of those ancient classics will soon fall away as you start contending with the many challenges and options the game hands you with how these elements are used. There’s plenty I can gush about in Shovel Knight’s gameplay, tight controls and exciting powers among them, but it’s the levels themselves that really make this game what it is. Each of the game’s dozen-plus levels feels like a fully realized world centered around its theme, whether it be airships or golden castles or volatile laboratories. There are multiple gimmicks to every one of them that ties back to the theme in some way, while also offering a wildly different gameplay challenge to overcome. None of them become tedious, either, because we’re talking about exploding pot lids and sinking platforms with weighted skulls, not fiddling with switches or slogging through mazes. The only gimmick I didn’t completely love were the air gusts in Propeller Knight’s stage, but that’s because they’re a little more complicated than you might be expecting. Mastering these different themes will also help you access the dizzying array of secrets tucked into each stage, including treasure for buying upgrades, secret upgrades, extra powers, additional music tracks, and other collectibles. Add to that some wonderfully involved boss fights and some very unique side areas, and you’ve got a recipe for an all-time great platformer. That’s all been true since Shovel Knight’s initial release in 2014, mind you. Since then, the developers have undertaken the immense task of turning three of the game’s bosses into their own playable characters. The first of these was Plague Knight, who gets his own parallel story running through the Shovel Knight world with a very different set of movement options and powers. I found Plague Knight to be very fun in very different ways, using his giant, explosive jumps to float past obstacles and pepper foes with all kinds of bombs. It was a great take on an alternate character mode, but somehow Yacht Club Games pressed past even this for the others. Specter Knight and King Knight didn’t just get their own move sets and progression systems, they got entirely new levels to explore in prequel stories. King Knight even got an optional card game in his campaign that has a surprising amount of depth to it! And they both play even more differently from Shovel Knight, with Specter using aerial dashes and strikes similar to The Messenger, and King focusing on a shoulder dash that chains into all sorts of spins, bounces, and further attacks. So instead of one of the greatest retro-styled platformers of all time, Treasure Trove is four of them bundled together in an unparalleled cornucopia of platforming bliss. Each of the playable characters is entirely unique, missing none of the exploration, upgrades, or depth that Shovel Knight has, and the latter two practically have their own games to play through. As if that wasn’t enough, Yacht Club also created and included Showdown, a multiplayer brawler loosely in the vein of Smash Bros where the Shovel Knight cast can compete on single-screen stages to steal gems or beat each other up for victory. Even this is rich enough to stand as its own game, as it has a compelling story behind the single-player campaign of fights, a really cool final boss, and an utterly mind-boggling number of characters to unlock. I could go on about Showdown, or about the near-perfect NES-style graphics, or the incredible soundtrack, or the additional challenge modes outside of the five complete games you get here. But honestly, extolling the virtues of this one seems entirely unnecessary at this point. Where other games vie to be good or even just decent retro platformers, Treasure Trove is five of the best ever made all rolled together. If that’s not enough of a case for you, then platformers just might not be your thing. I'll be back in a few hours for a belated wrap-up to this series!
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Mar 12, 2020 17:21
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Oh man, 198X is dreadful. lovely versions of 80s arcade games combined with terrible writing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IN63cMp_Zck&t=732s
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Mar 12, 2020 18:50
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Kennel posted:Oh man, 198X is dreadful. lovely versions of 80s arcade games combined with terrible writing. It does feel like half or a third of a game. The writing tropes are pretty spot on for the 1980s though, whether intentionally or not.
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Mar 12, 2020 19:03
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I found this in my queue and I kind of love it: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1231540/Test_Tube_Titans/ It's a physics based kaiju destruction game with a funky, dreamlike aesthetic. You can hump buildings down. You can hump buildings down.
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Mar 12, 2020 20:16
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Interesting how they ignore the very recent GOG release and our (ScummVM) work on restoring the engine, fixing bugs etc. I mean understandable in a marketing piece, but still kind of pretentious.
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Mar 12, 2020 20:23
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Platformebruary 2020: Ultimate Collector's Edition EXTRAS I know I missed the end of February pretty hard, but I wanted to put a proper cap on this series for a couple reasons. So now that we're done, let's recap the titles I touched on in my tour of indie platformers. The Best Stuff 1. Blasphemous 11. A Short Hike 29. Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove We started and ended with two of the best games in the genre, Blasphemous if you're into edgy metroidvanias and Shovel Knight if you have any nostalgia for the 8-bit era at all. I snuck A Short Hike in the middle though it's only loosely a platformer, but it's just so drat good and charming that you really can't afford to miss it. The Good Stuff 2. Duck Souls 4. A Robot Named Fight 5. Sonic Mania 7. MagiCat 10. Spirits Abyss 12. Super Time Force Ultra 13. Touhou Luna Nights 14. Spark the Electric Jester 2 18. Noita 22. MO:Astray 23. Total Party Kill 26. Skautfold: Usurper It's not that hard to find good platformers, but good comes in a lot of different flavors. For metroidvanias, you've got A Robot Named Fight, Touhou Luna Nights, and Usurper. More puzzley offerings include Super Time Force Ultra, Total Party Kill, and MO:Astray, though there's a lot of difference between even those. Duck Souls and MagiCat are more baseline platforming experiences, Sonic is extremely Sonic, and Spark actually brings some 3D quality to a genre that doesn't see much of it these days. And do not miss Spirits Abyss and Noita for all kinds of roguelike chaos. The Might Be Good Stuff 15. Serious Scramblers 17. Umihara Kawase 24. Dandara 25. Potata 28. Tobari and the Night of the Curious Moon We've always got games that straddle the line, but may very much appeal to you in their own special ways. Umihara and Tobari in particular are great, creative games that just have steep difficulty curves (and indie jank) to deal with. Potata isn't hard but it's definitely janky, and Dandara is a great game if you can handle its very finicky control scheme. And Serious Scramblers is just there for a simpler, more arcadey experience. The Ungood Stuff 3. Dune Sea 6. Izeriya 8. Runner3 9. Harold 16. PONCHO 19. Rain World 20. 8BitBoy 21. Wings of Vi 27. Ikeda: The Scrap Hunter E.P. There's at least as many bad platformers as good, and all of these miss the mark somehow. Rain World is surely the most contentious in this list, because I know a lot of people love it, but after three hours of trying I just couldn't find that magic. The other titles here are less debatable but you might get some mileage out of them. Or at least get a chuckle at how hard they flub what they're trying to do. So that's it! A fourth year of running down indie platformers is done. Hopefully I mentioned something of interest to you, or at least something you've got tucked away in your backlog that you need a reminder to revisit. I've always enjoyed the variety of games these series summon up for me, but I do believe this is the last one I'll be doing. Some of you know I do a lot of streaming now, and while its mostly been a good fit with writing reviews, these review series just take too much time and effort to work through every few months. I'll still be here to drop reviews of whatever I'm playing a few times a week, probably as long as Steam threads exist. I just can't do big blocks of them for a month anymore. If you ever want to revisit the series I've done over the years, you can find them here. And as always, thanks for reading!
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Mar 12, 2020 20:39
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Too Shy Guy posted:
If you start running now you might be able to escape Knorth for besmirching the name of their beloved slug cat.
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Mar 12, 2020 20:57
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 trying to look up state of decay 2's patch notes and apparently they know what the max age of a human can be :T
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Mar 12, 2020 20:58
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StrixNebulosa posted:
Lol I tried getting on there before and no matter what date I selected the page just refreshed and asked for it again.
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Mar 12, 2020 20:59
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Problems with my age aside State of Decay 2 looks good and I went ahead and preordered it. And now I need to really stop buying video games, my money is not infinite and I need some left over to buy more Dorohedoro volumes.
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Mar 12, 2020 21:10
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explosivo posted:Lol I tried getting on there before and no matter what date I selected the page just refreshed and asked for it again. Same here. It's broken.
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Mar 12, 2020 21:13
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Too Shy Guy posted:
When you have the time watch a video of a playthrough of the ZearothK fucked around with this message at 00:09 on Mar 13, 2020 |
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Mar 12, 2020 21:14
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StrixNebulosa posted:
I mean seeing their AI people in action it does seem wildly optimistic "hey let's kill this really dangerous zombie" *one fight and several serious injuries later* "ok cool, I'm just gonna limp home now through that pack of zombies over there see ya!" "agh!"
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Mar 12, 2020 21:26
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AbstractNapper posted:Interesting how they ignore the very recent GOG release and our (ScummVM) work on restoring the engine, fixing bugs etc. Yeah, it's weird, but that's press releases for you. Anyway, blame this guy: quote:The Alcon-Nightdive partnership was brokered by Joe LeFavi of Genuine Entertainment, who is co-producing Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition alongside Nightdive and Alcon Interactive Group. LeFavi previously produced the companion art book for 2017's Blade Runner 2049, The Art and Soul of Blade Runner 2049. 99% certain this guy wrote it.
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Mar 12, 2020 21:40
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Oh man the Silent Woods area in Ori 2 is wonderfully creepy. Game very good.
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Mar 12, 2020 22:37
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That giant field of dead owls was way darker than I expected from the game, I'll say that much. Serious mood flip.
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Mar 12, 2020 22:51
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There's no way to rebind the QTEs in Vanquish is there? My E key is working very sporadically, but an early boss has a move that pulls you into a QTE where you have to mash that key or you die, so it's effectively an instant-kill for me.
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Mar 12, 2020 23:15
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If there's no rebind in game you can Autohotkey or keyboard macro a second key to E
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Mar 12, 2020 23:16
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Finished Ori and the Will of the Wisps. I think anyone who liked Ori and the Blind Forest will love it, but anyone who didn't like it will probably not have their minds changed despite the improvements. pro tip: early on you meet a monkey dude who offers you a free skill. Take Spirit Smash, you can replace your sword with it and wreck pretty much everything. This monkey dude will also sell you water breathing later on.
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Mar 12, 2020 23:18
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I’ve never played ori but I can’t ignore the hype anymore. Do I need to play the first to get the most out of 2?
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Mar 12, 2020 23:20
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Ainsley McTree posted:I’ve never played ori but I can’t ignore the hype anymore. Do I need to play the first to get the most out of 2? It would help, yeah The first one is worth playing on its own merits anyway, the sequel’s heavily tweaked a lot of the underlying combat and leveling mechanics
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Mar 12, 2020 23:27
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Thank god, I can safely ignore the hype for 2. I hated 1 and its obstacle course-style platforming, it wasn't about exploration but being good with a controller and screw that.
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Mar 12, 2020 23:32
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Ainsley McTree posted:I’ve never played ori but I can’t ignore the hype anymore. Do I need to play the first to get the most out of 2? StrixNebulosa posted:Thank god, I can safely ignore the hype for 2. I hated 1 and its obstacle course-style platforming, it wasn't about exploration but being good with a controller and screw that.
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Mar 12, 2020 23:38
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StrixNebulosa posted:
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Mar 12, 2020 23:49
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ori himself is also a lot of fun to control, which mitigated the difficulty for me fluid zippy little fella
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Mar 12, 2020 23:55
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I hardly even remember the first Ori aside from general feelings of it being pretty but shallow. I don't think I'd recommend it to anyone unless they really like the visuals. The second one, on the other hand, is much more of a proper game. It has an actual combat system with things like launchers and air combos, throwing enemies into spikes, spending mana on spells, and whatnot. It has a proper explorable world with lots of your typical metroidvania "can't progress further here until you get the right special ability" points and tons of secrets to find. Movement feels good and fluid, and your repertoire of movement abilities keeps growing to make it faster and easier to get around. After the first one I went into this with low expectations, on the level of "walk through these pretty environments and look at all the nice trees they painted" but I keep being pleasantly surprised. Only issue is I wish I hadn't played in on normal difficulty because the game is really easy, and has absurdly generous checkpointing to the point where dying often means it reloads your save from literally 10 seconds ago, so nothing really feels like a threat.
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Mar 12, 2020 23:55
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Thanks; I think I’ll probably jump into the second then.
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Mar 13, 2020 00:00
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