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Pierson posted:How's the Avengers game if I don't give a poo poo about a game-as-a-service or getting a thousand hours out of it (lol that they ever thought that was possible). Is there at least a cute singleplayer story in there? the first chunk of it after the tutorial plays like the Tomb Raider guys thought they were making a Ms Marvel solo title, and that part is okay to good, but then you start getting the other characters and the levels become like "stand in this circle and prevent thirty of the same two robots from standing in this circle" I tapped out when I got to the second hub area where weirdly enthusiastic gear vendors tried to sell me plus one bangles of jump recharge rate while Hank Pym and Bruce Banner had a conversation offscreen where I couldn't tell who was saying what because the casting and direction for both was "sad dad" if the whole game was Tomb Raider starring Ms Marvel with the Avengers in guest star slots they might have had something but the second it strays from her it becomes just overbearingly generic, you're fighting wave after wave of fodder nobodies while Nathan Drake as Deadpool as Iron Man does wisecracks I got it free from Verizon and it still wasn't worth it
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Dec 27, 2020 16:26
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Yeah whenever I'm complaining about rtwp I'm specifically talking about games that convert an already turn-based ruleset (tabletop rpg) into a simple but still weirdly overcomplicated rts, and those games emulating that style of tabletop adaptation. If I were to complain about, say, Stellaris it wouldn't be for its implementation of rtwp. It would be about many other problems caused by the lack of clear design goal in that game.
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Dec 27, 2020 16:28
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Early game stellaris is fun. I hear late game stellaris is also really good. Too bad I’ll never know because the mid game is loving terrible.
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Dec 27, 2020 16:29
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Ugly In The Morning posted:Early game stellaris is fun. I hear late game stellaris is also really good. Too bad I’ll never know because the mid game is loving terrible. 
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Dec 27, 2020 16:30
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exquisite tea posted:Congrats to Larian for winning the BG3 IP but also boo Larian, I wanted Divinity XCOM more. In Larian's defense they weren't developing it, that's on Logic Artists (makers of the excellent Expedition RPGs) who "completed" their work in the game and then picked up a new contract, leaving Larian with a bad/unfinished game that they decided not to release. In theory Larian might complete it after they've finished with BG3, but who knows when/if that will happen. Also random musing on this persistent RtwP vs Turn-Based litigation. I'd say Pathfinder and PoE2 implementing post-release turn-based mode is more a result of trying to ape the industry's leader than anything else. The way conversation goes one might think that PoE2 and D:OS2 are evenly matched in popularity, which they might be amongst goons. For the general population that was certainly true in PoE1 (86% positive and 11K reviews) and D:OS1 (89% positive and 14K reviews); but for the newer games it goes 78% positive and 15K reviews for Pathfinder, 86% positive and 8k reviews for PoE2 and 95% positive and 96K reviews for D:OS2, which also saw very successful releases on all modern consoles. Reviews are obviously not sales number and vox populi ain't vox dei, but they're enough to say that D:OS2 has outsold its competitors by an order of magnitude and has been better received, so I imagine that's the direction a lot of isometric-party based western RPGs are going to follow if they're seeking commercial success. (I would also add that PoE2 certainly deserved to at least outsell the first game, it improved massively upon it in every way. I originally slept on it because I was underwhelmed by PoE1, so I imagine the same happened to a lot of people)
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Dec 27, 2020 16:49
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steinrokkan posted:There's no problem with RTWP per se - he problem is specifically with games that use this system to simulate a RPG ruleset based specifically on sequential turns. Then it turns into garbage fire.
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Dec 27, 2020 16:59
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Hard to look at Pathfinder's move as cynical when all they did was knit a working and very popular mod into the core game, the mechanics of which are written for turn-based in the first place. They were "apeing the industry leaders" in pursuit of commercial success by hacking together a RTWP system with the ruleset.
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Dec 27, 2020 16:59
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Hub Cat posted:( probably easier to get stuck getting into the building because there's only a few bonuses to those checks but seems like it would be difficult to get stuck on both checks) ... I've read so many "oh man RTWP, amirite guyz?" discussions in this thread, and still have 0 clue what is the issue you're all having. Xander77 fucked around with this message at 17:22 on Dec 27, 2020 |
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Dec 27, 2020 17:17
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I have never played a tabletop RPG but keep foolishly thinking "maybe this will be the time one of these games is fun for me" so I have tried a bunch of them and the biggest problem they all share is that they all tutorialize as if you're familiar with the rules of a different game. Like Original Sin 2 has a tutorial but that tutorial is like "here's how a mouse works to make your guy go, okay, see ya" and basically every guide is geared towards genre enthusiasts looking to "break the game in half" or whatever I'll usually play until the game introduces a wacky guy with a wacky pet or treats the concept of cats as inherently funny
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Dec 27, 2020 17:17
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Black Griffon posted:Been a spell since I've played Dragon's Dogma. Is Hard Mode a bad idea or nah? I played on hard mode and it was...quite an experience. At the start, you will constantly be getting one-shot by enemies, and it can be quite infuriating, especially since while it might make sense to die from getting slammed by an ogre, even a bandit just nicking you can do the same, so expect a lot of constant saving and loading as you learn the ropes. I did have fun eventually since it did force me to play very strategically by using buff items, healing, conserving stamina, dodge and block, you know, the stuff you might not even feel the need to use on an easier difficulty because you can just walk up like a boss to any enemy. Later on, however, as you start to level up, it can end up getting to the point where enemies can't even kill you since you're so powerful, so it kind of made a lot of the hard mode challenge become moot, so why bother? Basically, the leveling does seem to cause the world to be incredibly imbalanced and vary wildly in how combat plays out: hard mode kind of helps by preserving the challenge but also hinders by overdoing it at times, since it is, at its core, just a huge multiplier to the amount of damage you take: it makes it where learning combat is not done within it by taking a few hits and learning, but by dying to single hits and reloading your save, so I'd just say if you want a smoother experience to keep the story pacing, do normal, but if you don't mind a spiky difficultly curve, feel free to try hard. FutureCop fucked around with this message at 17:52 on Dec 27, 2020 |
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Dec 27, 2020 17:49
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haldolium posted:One of the very few games where reading the collectible letter really adds a lot to the understanding of the world and the immersion. Ya I really like the tone and setting in a secret government agency. The letters are all fascinating, with coverups, assassination's and bunch of crazy poo poo in general. I feel like there is a bit too much of the notes/letters which stops the flow of the game. They could have perhaps given the characters a bit more dialogue so they could do some of the exposition. It kinda reminds me of Bioshock 1 so far but level design and combat is better done. I have only played Alan Wake 1, I didn't finish it, I absolutely loved the tone in that too but the gameplay was not enjoyable. I really need to get it to it because the atmosphere was terrific in that as well.
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Dec 27, 2020 18:09
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Xander77 posted:https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1457428835171441127/AEF0F9A01DAAF4075FA414544B473AC95496D3DD/ Hub Cat fucked around with this message at 18:22 on Dec 27, 2020 |
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Dec 27, 2020 18:14
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Nephthys posted:I really wish they'd have patched that quest or something just because of how many people have died once to it and immediately quit forever. Swarms are very rare in the game, its not really that important to teach the player about them that early when they have limited ways to beat them. There should also be a section in the game code that looks like this: If PLAYER is on SWARM TUTORIAL QUEST and PLAYER has SWARM TUTORIAL QUEST ITEM and uses it to attack a SWARM SET TO-HIT ROLL to 20 and SET DAMAGE to 1 MILLION Putting a critical fail in there is some rookie DM poo poo. Are you trying to teach them a mechanic or should this be a place the entire campaign can end? Good thing you planned out this massive campaign and then put a loving failure state right at the beginning dependent on random dice rolls! Who ever rolls lower than 10 anyway. I'm about to start Pathfinder btw. Thanks for letting me know about this ridiculous roadblock.
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Dec 27, 2020 18:23
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Pierson posted:How's the Avengers game if I don't give a poo poo about a game-as-a-service or getting a thousand hours out of it (lol that they ever thought that was possible). Is there at least a cute singleplayer story in there? I put about 15 hours into the campaign plus the free Hawkeye update. Never touched multi-player. The characters feel great, the story feels like it could be a MCU movie, the enemies are boring, and the games as a service is the worst part of it. I think there is 30 worth of game in just the solo content. I'm honestly sad that they went games as a service, because the core is actually good outside of taking damage not being as impactful as it should be.
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Dec 27, 2020 18:38
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Black Griffon posted:Been a spell since I've played Dragon's Dogma. Is Hard Mode a bad idea or nah?
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Dec 27, 2020 18:57
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This discussion has inspired me to buy Dragon's Dogma for PS4 since it's on a deep discount right now, which marks the fourth platform I've bought it for. Maybe I'll try a Hard Mode playthrough this time around.
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Dec 27, 2020 19:00
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All this talk about RPGs made me think about checking out Pathfinder. Not only do I already own it, I've apparently played 4 hours of it! You got me again Steam. I did pick up Desperados III though. I loved Shadow Tactics so I'm looking forward to more.
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Dec 27, 2020 19:28
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I have a giant wishlist that's honestly too large, and so my boyfriend decided to help this xmas season by gifting me random items from the middle of it, and I'm going to share my amusement/impression of these games: The Void Rains Upon Her Heart: Purely by chance he hit upon one of the best games I've played this year! This is a SHMUP roguelike that's built around fighting only the bosses and unlocking more of the surprisingly excellent story. I'd say it's closet comparison is Immortal Defense - not in the sense that they play the same, but in that they're both clearly outsider art and have outstanding stories in genres that don't tend to have stories. This game also features the gentlest difficulty curve I have ever seen in a SHMUP - it has a tutorial, it clearly explains its mechanics, and then the easy difficult is easy enough that I've been able to beat it multiple times - and then it ramps up as you unlock more items, bosses, and difficulties. I think my favorite mechanic in it is the Quickplay mode - as you fight bosses you get "tetrids", colored gems that you can use to unlock the bosses for this mode - so as you beat more of the story mode, you unlock new items and bosses for this mode, and playing in this mode in turn unlocks more things, and it's a satisfying back and forth of enjoying the game and the unlocking progress. Final note: the story is excellent, and also contains my sole warning. The story is about a girl who is trapped alone with a robot, and it won't stop raining black, and the monsters are out there. She can convince them to be her friend, but they'll forget everything by the next day - hence the roguelike structure. You slowly get her to remember more things and make more monsters remember her, and it's satisfying. The warning? She's depicted in the nude. It's nonsexual, but it's still weird and could give anyone watching you the wrong impression. Fortunately there's a censor option, and the nudity doesn't come up in the main game itself. Splendor: I haven't put much time into this one because it's a board game / deckbuilder and not in the mood yet. It has good reviews, though! Onimusha: Warlords - I missed this PS2 classic when I was a teenager, and now it's on PC and I can revisit it in style. Revenant March: A visual novel? I added this to my wishlist because of this curator review from sklurb: "An indie gem of a VN w/ SPECTACULAR writing that sucked us right into the intrigue. We became captivated, as the author led us through foggy forests, towns, & tunnels w/ his carrot on a stick." And now I can try it! And then as actual gifts, my boyfriend got me WHAT THE GOLF, which is... honestly it feels like Katamari Damacy? It has that kind of irreverent humor but tuned towards golf and I'm having a LOT of fun trying to get a crown for all of the levels. The other gift, naturally, is the Hornet for DCS and we're going to go flying together! But first I had to actually remove the free trial coupon from my steam account because Steam assumed I'd bought it and no... that's not how the free trial event works, Steam... 
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Dec 27, 2020 19:29
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Hub Cat posted:Yeah that is the bottleneck, having a 3%(or more) chance to get locked out of the ending without save scumming no alternative is crummy no disagreement there. I was just speculating whether the Savoir faire/Physical Instrument checks after the Mural may be worse because there aren't many bonuses you can add to those checks.
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Dec 27, 2020 19:35
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Doobie Keebler posted:All this talk about RPGs made me think about checking out Pathfinder. Not only do I already own it, I've apparently played 4 hours of it! You got me again Steam. I did pick up Desperados III though. I loved Shadow Tactics so I'm looking forward to more.
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Dec 27, 2020 19:37
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obra dinn clearly thinks i am smarter than i actually am by telling me i can identify all these people already and i have no loving clue. i just keep finding more and more bodies and im not solving any of them past the first few extremely obvious ones.
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Dec 27, 2020 19:42
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Humble has Slime Rancher for $5.99 how is it? https://www.humblebundle.com/store/slime-rancher It’s pretty impulse buy territory tbh.
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Dec 27, 2020 19:48
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You have to be an actual genius to figure out an identity as soon as it's possible to do so for most of the crew. For mere mortals like you and I, you'll need some additional information and a chance to review the scenes you've already witnessed.
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Dec 27, 2020 19:48
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MarcusSA posted:Humble has Slime Rancher for $5.99 how is it?
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Dec 27, 2020 19:55
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Cardiovorax posted:Really fun, I think I must've put almost 20 hours into it. It's a very cute game with a large and varied world to explore. It's deceptively simple, but there's actually some entertaining depth in the various combinations of slimes you can create. It's definitely worth 6$. Awesome! Definitely gonna get it. Thanks!
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Dec 27, 2020 20:05
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Gort posted:Sure, but turn-based is much better and we can leave RTWP to mods Pathfinder does it the best, you can swap between them and both work really well.
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Dec 27, 2020 20:11
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Awesome! posted:obra dinn clearly thinks i am smarter than i actually am by telling me i can identify all these people already and i have no loving clue. i just keep finding more and more bodies and im not solving any of them past the first few extremely obvious ones. I'm playing this right now and having both a blast, while also hitting my head against the desk a ton. Here's two things that helped me reach 15 fates figured out without spoiling anything in specific: In one of the scenarios, you can see people sleeping. There's a number in each hammock -- they are relevant. Every important position in the ship has a helper position called "mate": gunner's mate, surgeon's mate, etc. They usually hang together in pairs with their superiors. Formosa was the former name of Taiwan. Formosans and Chinese can understand each other, though their languages aren't 100% the same.
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Dec 27, 2020 20:23
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Lol I finally managed to win my first run in Demoncrawl by pretty much setting the entire board on fire. Game is good.
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Dec 27, 2020 20:24
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sebmojo posted:Pathfinder does it the best, you can swap between them and both work really well. I mean most modern JRPGs have a sped up autobattle mode to steamroll trivial encounters and that's basically the same as switching to realtime unpaused mode, except even faster.
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Dec 27, 2020 20:28
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Awesome! posted:obra dinn clearly thinks i am smarter than i actually am by telling me i can identify all these people already and i have no loving clue. i just keep finding more and more bodies and im not solving any of them past the first few extremely obvious ones. Take notes and explore every scene as far as you can go. You'll get it. 
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Dec 27, 2020 20:28
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TheOneAndOnlyT posted:Don't worry about it. A character getting unblurred just means "the evidence you need to ID this person technically exists somewhere in a scene you've been in." But that can mean anything from "you missed an obvious clue" to "there's literally nothing that IDs this person specifically but now you technically have the evidence to ID someone else and use the process of elimination to ID a second person, and only THEN you can eliminate a third guy and ID this person." Honestly it feels like a character getting unblurred doesn't really tell you anything, just that a character still being blurred means you can move on. This is a really important note; there are a few cases where you only fully identify someone by clearing all of the other people they could be. Others where all the information is there but it's just possible and sometimes easier to infer using some intuition after you've logiced out the basics. Think more sudoku then adventure game.
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Dec 27, 2020 21:16
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More people should to post their steam hauls. Besides Umurangi Generation which I definitely plan to buy like half my wishlist now is games I've never heard of until I saw them mentioned in this thread, and then the steam algorithm recommending similar things. Also, good time to clear out a bloated wishlist. If it's 75% off and its been sitting on your list for over a year and you aren't buying it, probably time to remove it.
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Dec 27, 2020 21:34
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noone: me: *slides in* did someone say lists??? here's some of my favorite games I played this year, it's separate from the list I posted in the 2020 GOTY thread because this is for games released in any year, and I'll focus on PC. most of these should be on sale, if not all of them Favorite Metroidvania   #1: Blasphemous ($12.49) - Some have said this doesn't technically qualify as a Metroidvania because it's too linear, but I think it's close enough. This game is fantastic, and I played through it BEFORE they fixed a lot of the issues people had. The combat borrows from Souls but without being brutal, the upgrades are good (not a huge fan of the skill tree though), the world is fun to explore because of just how hosed it all is. #2: Journey to the Savage Planet - I've already talked about this in the 2020 GOTY thread, it's quite good but unfortunately not on Steam yet because of Epic exclusivity (and now the studio is owned by Google Stadia so.. I'm not sure when/if it will ever hit other storefronts?) #3: After Death ($6.99) - This one has stayed with me long after, and it's maybe a bit hard to recommend, as the walking speed is slow (think Castlevania 1 speed) and the visuals maybe a little off-putting, but I liked the deliberate design, and the Genesis-style music is rad, and it's just an interesting world to explore, much like Blasphemous. #4: The Mummy Demastered ($20, not on sale) - A run and gun metroidvania from the licensed game kings WayForward. Actually, their licensed games aren't really as good as people say, generally, just better than the average. But I actually think Mummy Demastered is really good and probably their best licensed game they've ever done. I like it more than most of the Shantae games?? And this was made for a loving Tom Cruise flop. #5: Supraland ($7.99) - A first-person Metroidvania that is all about exploration, looking for secrets, and does just a little bit of everything. #6: Cathedral ($10.49) - Imagine Shovel Knight as a Metroidvania, with music that is of a similar (but not quite as good) quality. Should be a slam dunk right? Well, I'd say it's somewhere between Shovel Knight and Castle in the Darkness in terms of its design, and so it's not a perfect game. It's also maybe a little too long for its own good and has a little too much busywork in order to get into the dungeons. #7: Aggelos ($5.09) - Monster Boy-like with a Sega Master System aesthetic. An example of a game that is perfectly fine, but doesn't rise to the top in a crowded genre. Favorite Non-Metroidvania Platformer  Spark the Electric Jester ($3.99) - It's hard to quite fit this peg into a hole. Of course it draws comparisons to Sonic and that's intentional as it started as a Sonic fangame. The mechanics play quite differently though, with all the different costumed abilities Spark can swap between. And not all of them are about speed. But it is relatively fast, and sometimes has level visuals and music on par with Sonic Mania. Favorite Walking Simulator   #1: Tales from Off-Peak City ($4.99) - Talked about it in the GOTY thead, but this is more patented Cosmo D weirdness and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys walking around a weird world with weird NPCs. #2: Broken Reality ($7.49) - Oddly not the only vaporware exploration game I've played this year, this one takes place in a 90s-rear end VR environment where Likes are essentially a currency and everything MIGHT be just a little bit dying. #3: Everybody's Gone to the Rapture ($20, not on sale) - I've not really been a fan of The Chinese Room's games, I feel like they nearly ruined the Amnesia series with A Machine For Pigs. But Rapture redeems them. Great story, lovely visuals, and the only real problem with it is the slow-rear end walking speed. Maybe CheatEngine can help with that?? #4: Heaven's Vault ($14.99) - A space archeology game where you travel to ruins and learn about an ancient civilization by deducing how words should be translated. Sometimes you get some hints from reading books but mostly you're on your own, determining what words should be based on the context of the area around them, the room they're in, or how they are connected to previous words that have surrounded them in sentences. It's cool, and the only issue I have is it doesn't support cloud saves so I have to start all over on my new PC  #5: Observation ($9.99) - You're an AI on a spaceship that witnesses complete science fiction disaster. Presented almost like a Paranormal Activity game, everything is controlled via cameras and little orb the AI can pilot. Primarily your job is just to open doors for the main character to get through, or to find a code in one area and punch it in somewhere else. It's still pretty intriguing, and there's an interesting sci-fi mystery going on to unravel. It's not perfect but I thought it was pretty interesting. Favorite Non-Walking Story Game   #1: Hypnospace Outlaw ($13.99) - It's wild to have a game that is so nostalgic for an older time of the internet, WITHOUT succumbing to a bunch of lazy pop culture references. It's all self-contained and only referential to itself. You really get to learn a lot of personal stories about the people making the websites. You learn the history of Coolpunk and whether it is dead, alive, or just 10 different spinoffs now. The actual story for the game is alright, but for me the the best storytelling came from the websites themselves. #2: Elsinore ($7.99) - A time loop game where you play a character from Hamlet, and have to figure out how not to die. You also are essentially trapped in the cycle with little recourse for getting out unless you capitulate to the whims of a real jerk! Everyone has real-time cycles, and you can learn things by following them, and making certain decisions can save your life and irreversibly alter the story. The game has several endings, none of which are perfect, but you don't have to have a miserable finish to your life! Other characters might, though, and you'll just have to live with that on your gamer conscience. #3: Later Alligator ($13.49) - A series of minigames presented similarly to Professor Layton with some of the cutest animation you'll ever see in a video game. Favorite FPS   #1: DUSK ($10.99) - My favorite of the neo-retro shooters of all time. I love the speed, I love the weapons, I love the encounter design, and I loving super love the map design as a tribute to Quake... but also, just unique? The lab level where the gravity keeps changing, or the level where you're sort of bouncing through distorted versions of past levels. The sky city... there's just many memorable moments for me. #2: Project Warlock ($4.08) - My favorite Doom-like out of the many retro revival games. Granted, the weapons are more akin to Heretic, but the level design reminds me a lot of Doom, much moreso than the actual new Doom games from iD. It was fun to play through levels conventionally and then find secret walls on a second run through where you could actually bypass some of the keycard requirements. I sought out secrets in this one which I have not done for a lot of retro-revival shooters. #3: Amid Evil ($10.99) - Here we have a sort of combination of Quake and Hexen, and while the weapons are much more fun than I was expecting (shooting stakes into people and pinning them to walls is ridiculously fun), the level design was a bit lacking for me and not well signposted. Still plays very well. You can get DUSK and Amid Evil in a bundle together on Steam. #4: Strange Brigade ($4.99) - Somehow Rebellion has made an actually fun version of Zombie Army Trilogy, and it can actually be played through solo without being tedious. It's also vibrant and lively, and the pulpy narrative helps to keep the player peppy. Favorite Puzzle Game   #1: Carto ($15.99) - Talked about it in the GOTY thread already, but it's just a very charming puzzle game where you re-arrange the world map to solve puzzles. #2: Baba is You ($11.24) - Everyone's already talked a ton about this game last year, I'll just say that the game is great at making you feel like a genious right until you realize you hosed up the last step. #3: Tametsi ($0.99) - Basically Hexcells cranked up to 11. Gets VERY hard. #4: Golf Peaks ($1.99) - A slick card-based minigolf puzzle game, where you have to select the instructions in the correct order to send the ball to the hole. Favorite Action Game   #1: Control ($19.99) - I guess Control is a lot more of a love-it-or-hate-it game than I was expecting, but put me in the 'love it' camp. Besides the great story and optional lore to discover, I just love the movement and how engaging the combat is. The optional bosses are pretty rad too (actually much more interesting than the main story bosses). Then again, I also thought Quantum Break was alright, so maybe I'm just a big idiot! #2: Nier Automata ($19.99) - Hey, an open world game that is okay! It helps that the world is not as humongous as the average open world game, and you move around it fast. Also you get the patented Platinum uptempo combat, and Yoko Taro's bleak but humourous storytelling. That said, I did not feel like I gained a whole lot from playing the second playthrough and would rather they have just worked those additional cutscenes into the first playthrough and saved me time. #3: CometStriker ($4.99) - Take Hero Core and make it a linear score attack game and you have CometStriker, a room-by-room dungeon shmup that hit all the right notes for me. It's no Monolith but it gets the job done for someone who just wants to play something for a little bit and then move on. Favorite Mystery   #1: Murder by Numbers ($10.04) - This could also go in the puzzle category, as it is Ace Attorney meets Picross. I did a writeup of this in the GOTY thread, so I'll just say here, it has ample of what fans of both come to look for (just no trials). #2: Unheard ($3.49) - A deduction game where your playfield is just a blueprint and you hear the real-time audio of a mystery playing out. You can walk around the map to follow different conversations, and every character in the mystery has a full slate of actions. All the while, you are deducing who the voices belong to, and what their role in the mystery is. It should appeal to fans of Obra Dinn, although I will say that the voice acting is quite stiff and stereotypical (get ready for quite a few "eyyy i'm a new yorkah ovah heeere" voices). Favorite Point & Click Adventure   #1: Whispers of a Machine ($5.24) - By the makers of Kathy Rain comes a Cyberpunk adventure game with some fantastic visuals and interesting puzzle solutions. You have augmentations that can be used to help investigate, and you gain new abilities based on your approach to conversations. If you choose to be empathetic, or cold, or aggressive, you will gain unique abilities (and be locked out of others). I thought it was actually a better game than Kathy Rain and hey, I heard people are looking for decent Cyberpunk games this year... #2: Guard Duty ($3.99) - It's weird, this isn't the prettiest game, it's not particularly funny, but I was just very charmed by it. It's rare to see a main character 'nice guy' who is actually nice. Almost every NPC you talk to is willing to tell you a lot about themselves, and the main character is happy to learn about them and make friendships. There are callbacks that I wouldn't expect; there's a painting in the castle in the beginning, and later on you talk to an NPC and the main character is elated to find out that they were the artist who painted it. The painting doesn't even factor into the game, it's just an optional hotspot to look at. That kind of stuff I really appreciate. The game also has a future segment that is trying to riff on Metal Gear (and at least they nail the Snake-like as being kind of a doofus) and that's not as great, but the game's not too long so I thought it was fine. Also pretty cheap as well. Favorite JRPG  #1: Atelier Escha & Logy ($40, not on sale) - Probably my favorite game in the Atelier series, it's well-structured with goals to follow, the fun bingo board system, an interesting setting and premise (essentially being civil servant alchemists), and a good mix of characters made for the game and brought in from Ayesha. Favorite Interactive Fiction   #1: PataNoir ($3.49) - A detective game where the solutions involve treating noir metaphors literally. If the light in the room is described like a pool, you can hop in the pool. If someone's face is 'cold and hard like marble', you can take the metaphorical marble, and then that person is no longer unfriendly to you. It's just brilliant, and the game exhausts all possible puzzle possibilities out of this premise before ducking out at the right time. #2: Color the Truth - This one isn't on steam but it's also free so, you can just google it? It's pretty fun, you're investigating a mystery and you have the ability to go inside people's flashbacks and act as them to relive their memories. Your inventory is made from the clues you uncover, and you can ask people about them to get new information. It's cool. #3: The Shapeshifting Detective ($12.99, not on sale) - An FMV game from the developer of The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker, you play as a being that can shapeshift into anyone they've talked to. You pose as a detective and try to solve a murder mystery in a small sleepy town where everyone has something to hide, tarot card readers have pulsating cards, and aliens might be real. It's fun, the actor who played Jenks (Contradiction) plays a sassy police chief, and there's an audiobook by Tex Murphy in the game, but the game's biggest flaw is inherited from the dev's previous game: the killer is randomized at the start of a playthrough. Which means that there are certain FMVs that -have- to play in order to implicate them. They make the signposting pretty obvious, and it also makes future playthroughs much less interesting because you're just essentially looking to see what new cutscene plays to implicate a different person. They need to come up with a different gimmick for these games. and now the stupid awards Most Disappointing Game:  #1: Beyond a Steel Sky ($22.74) - I remember being interested in Beneath a Steel Sky dating back to the 90s just because of that loving slick computer box Virgin Games made for it. It finally had been released as freeware for SCUMMVM at the turn of the century and I really enjoyed it, the dieselpunk look and comic panel cutscenes setting it apart from other games of the era. So hearing about a sequel releasing this year was really exciting. But adventure games have largely caught up to Steel Sky in terms of variety of aesthetic and modernization of puzzle design. Worse still, Beyond doesn't much feel tonally like the original, while also looking visually genericized. And the puzzles are just.. bad. It basically feels a lot like Revolution's other mediocre revival (Broken Sword 5), which makes me think they should maybe outsource their IPs to a better studio. #2: Paradigm ($4.64) - Not sure why my most disappointing games are point & click adventures, but maybe it's just because it's very easy to make a completely unfunny comedy game, and Paradigm is one such example. It seems like it wants to have a kind of Cartoon Network college-kid humor, but just none of the jokes land. And almost every line of dialogue is throwing a joke at you, which makes it more painful. It's not the worst adventure game I've ever played (loving Runaway), but definitely not as good for me as all the recommendations said it was. #3: Divinity: Original Sin ($13.99) - This is largely because of the combat which is too slow for how much of it there is. A lot of not great encounters on your way to each objective. I'd prefer if the fights were more tailored to the campaign or if there were multiple options (including pacifistic) like a true D&D campaign. #4: Greedfall ($19.99) - Not Spidersy enough Most Average Game:  Generation Zero ($8.74) - Every year a game gets my coveted award of most inert game that I am indifferent to. One year it was Red Faction Armaggeddon, a game that took everything people liked about Red Faction Guerilla and said "well what if we took all the sandbox fun out of it?" This year it's Avalanche's Generation Zero, a game that should hopefully teach the developer a lesson, that they need to stop designing open world games. Avalanche's best game for most will be Just Cause 2, but I bet even that game's world is maybe just a bit too big and generic for some. Whether it's Mad Max or RAGE 2, the best aspects of Avalanche's games have nothing to do with their open worlds, which are mostly barren and full of copy-pasted assets across the map. Generation Zero is no exception; if you've been in one bunker you've basically been in all of them... and you HAVE to go through all of them for story progression. There are endless houses on the map, and they conform to one of maybe 3-4 designs. All barns are the same, including the placement of a toilet in the exact same spot. Every warehouse is identical. I won't say "low effort", instead I'll say "low interest"... the complete lack of interest in crafting an interesting world is the biggest sin Generation Zero commits. It SHOULD be a fun game, as you fight against robots and can destroy them part by part. But it makes me wonder if the game initially started as a battle royale before being converted into a co-op story FPS, based on how much of your playtime is running miles across nothing to get to copy-pasted houses in order to loot them for ammo and mostly the same weapons. It can be fun, it is often extremely tedious, but it was at least chill when playing with a podcast on. I wouldn't recommend it personally, but it was in a Humble Choice bundle, so some of you already have it. I'll leave the choice to you. Most Anticipated Games for 2021:  War Girl (May) - The developers of previous freeware darling (and somewhat ugly duckling) Khimera are now doing a Treasure style run and gun game. Should be a good time.  Gestalt Steam & Cinder (TBD) - A 32-bit Metroidvania that legit looks like it could've been released on the PS1/Saturn.  UFO 50 ("Coming Soon") - In 2020 we had the itch.io BLM bundle.. in 2021 will we have another great collection of games in UFO 50? They all look great, and if even a few are outstanding, then this should find its way to my GOTY list easily. It helps that they have a NAM-1977 looking game in there!!  Lore Finder ("Coming Soon") - A queer Lovecraftian Metroidvania with an enby protag and cool abilities (at least played on the demo I played). Should be excellent.  Bushiden (TBD) - Essentially a new Strider game and it looks loving gorgeous.  Outrider Mako ("When It's Done") - Deliver packages while defeating enemies with Sonic-esque homing attacks.. played the demo and it was pretty sweet.  Rhythm Doctor (February) - Rhythm Heaven meets the Healthcare Industy. Demo was pretty fun although someone in a discord I'm in said it might have run into development problems? Hopefully not. If you've survived this post without adding any games to your wishlist... CONGRATULATIONS, this was a test and you passed. This is the Last Starfighter and you'll be recruited into our upcoming space war. Please wait for further instructions. The 7th Guest fucked around with this message at 21:56 on Dec 27, 2020 |
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Dec 27, 2020 21:38
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Trickyblackjack posted:Lol I finally managed to win my first run in Demoncrawl by pretty much setting the entire board on fire. Game is good. On that note, is there something about the defense value I'm not understanding? I know armor points are separate from defense and are temporary, and even if you have the defense to match an attack you'll still take a minimum of 1 damage. But I just had a case where I had 6 lives, 8 defense, clicked on a monster that rolled a 6, and I died instantly. Does it invisibly decrease in effectiveness the more mistakes you make in a single stage, or something? Also is there a Demoncrawl thread
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Dec 27, 2020 21:52
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Just going to point out that Journey to a Savage Planet and Hypnospace Outlaw from The 7th Guest's luxurious and informative write up are both currently on Game Pass, at least for Xbox. There's a lot of overlap on selection between console and pc so it's very likely they're on Game Pass PC as well I'm just not 100% sure on those two being available.
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Dec 27, 2020 22:34
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MonkeyforaHead posted:On that note, is there something about the defense value I'm not understanding? I know armor points are separate from defense and are temporary, and even if you have the defense to match an attack you'll still take a minimum of 1 damage. But I just had a case where I had 6 lives, 8 defense, clicked on a monster that rolled a 6, and I died instantly. Does it invisibly decrease in effectiveness the more mistakes you make in a single stage, or something? No matter how much defense you have, you will still take at least 1 damage. You should have taken 1 damage and survived easily, but it's possible there was some interaction with items/strangers that killed you outright.
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Dec 27, 2020 22:37
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You can also check the event log (the little book in the corner) after death to see if that reveals more context.
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Dec 27, 2020 22:46
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Any opinions on Elderborn? Does it scratch the Dark Messiah of Might and Magic itch?
Chas McGill fucked around with this message at 22:50 on Dec 27, 2020 |
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Dec 27, 2020 22:48
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The 7th Guest posted:Lots of words It should also be mentioned that PataNoir and Hypnospace Outlaw are made by goons (perhaps other games on the list as well?)
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Dec 27, 2020 22:52
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| # ? Jun 4, 2024 23:18 |
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Speaking of goon made Dropsy is $2.50. I haven't played it but remember the raging excitement during the cyoa threads.
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Dec 27, 2020 23:01
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