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Hogama posted:Metal Gear Solid takes a whole lot of cues from Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. Kojima has been making the same game for 30 years and getting away with it.
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Feb 22, 2024 00:08
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Bruceski posted:Kojima has been making the same game for 30 years and getting away with it. Lol, yeah. Playing this one through, it was surprising how close it felt to what I've seen of MG2, but also how there was recognizable stuff in it for the sequels all the way through MGSV.
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Feb 22, 2024 00:14
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Death Stranding also answers the question of "what if Kojima got to make what he wants with no one to tell him no" (it rules)
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Feb 22, 2024 00:20
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e: wrong thread
The 7th Guest fucked around with this message at 00:39 on Feb 22, 2024 |
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Feb 22, 2024 00:21
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victrix posted:Death Stranding also answers the question of "what if Kojima got to make what he wants with no one to tell him no"
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Feb 22, 2024 01:20
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Scalding Coffee posted:Still wondering how it ended up with a Director's Cut. Was the original someone else's cut? Speculation is that it was a Sony marketing move to call it that, as a publisher. Kojima himself has said he doesn't like the term in this case since it implies something was cut from the original that got restored, when instead the DC added new stuff that wasn't cut.
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Feb 22, 2024 02:16
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Me walking around Death Stranding, delivering stuff, helping and being helped by other people: This game rules I love it sm Me in combat or stealth or basically anything gameplay that's not traversing the world: Why am I doing this whyyyyyyy* * It's not like bad but more like not what appeals to me about the game at all so it just became a chore and I never finished it
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Feb 22, 2024 02:24
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Artelier posted:Me walking around Death Stranding, delivering stuff, helping and being helped by other people: This game rules I love it sm Hoping Death Stranding 2 improves the combat, or just like removes it altogether. The challenge of traveling across the landscape and avoiding environmental hazards, was the best part of the first game.
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Feb 22, 2024 05:22
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I agree that the best part of Death Stranding is delivering stuff and all the logistics that come with it, but I did end up enjoying the combat more when I embraced the perhaps-not-obvious-enough art of box-fu, aka beating the crap out of people by throwing boxes at them. Once you learn of it, you realize the game is secretly built for it since every MULE you beat is carrying dummy boxes which means more ammunition to throw: beat up a MULE with your fists which makes their box drop, catch it during the slow mo and throw it at them, catch the rebound, throw it at someone else, and so on. It ends up as a endlessly flowing combo of fists and boxes being hurled at faces: no guns required. Here are some examples of the depth of combat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daNWgBCt0Yw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQ1doqdZvnE FutureCop fucked around with this message at 06:14 on Feb 22, 2024 |
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Feb 22, 2024 06:06
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Just finished and 100%ed Poems and Codes, a sequel to Prose and Codes, a pair of fantastic games in support of a great cause. Both games use an excellent, frictionless interface to present material from public domain literature (prose in the first game and poetry in the second), encoded in letter substitution cipher form, for the player to solve. After you solve a cipher and reveal the source, you can get a short bio of the author and a direct link to the text in Project Gutenberg, again, opening seamlessly in the background. With hundreds of ciphers from hundreds of texts, these are a fantastic way to expose yourself to a wide range of reading you would not have encountered otherwise, all in a very chill format. 10% of sales are given to Project Gutenberg, and the first game has received occasional updates with additional ciphers (the second just came out a bit ago). Both games have a number of difficulty settings and a range of accessibility options. Also just beat RYB- a great free abstract puzzle game... except there's a single point of total conveyance failure in one of the last puzzle sets, which was a source of real frustration when everything else worked so well. Discendo Vox fucked around with this message at 07:35 on Feb 22, 2024 |
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Feb 22, 2024 07:28
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FutureCop posted:I agree that the best part of Death Stranding is delivering stuff and all the logistics that come with it, but I did end up enjoying the combat more when I embraced the perhaps-not-obvious-enough art of box-fu, aka beating the crap out of people by throwing boxes at them. Once you learn of it, you realize the game is secretly built for it since every MULE you beat is carrying dummy boxes which means more ammunition to throw: beat up a MULE with your fists which makes their box drop, catch it during the slow mo and throw it at them, catch the rebound, throw it at someone else, and so on. It ends up as a endlessly flowing combo of fists and boxes being hurled at faces: no guns required. The Director's Cut adds dropkicks, it's the best. gently caress stealth against humans, run into their area and suplex fools.
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Feb 22, 2024 08:04
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Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden What starts off with a lot of promise, turns into a very tedious and boring action RPG / Adventure. Very padded out game length with what amounts to a gigantic fetch quest. Repeating the same tired and tedious puzzles over and over again, with a story that goes no where, and a lot of backtracking on top of all of that. I wanted to like this game, it starts off really cool at first, but then you start to realize the gameplay loop is so simple, and there is zero variation during the entire length. Making the 20 - 25 hours for the main story feeling twice as long. And then there is just the world design; clearing obstacles that are blocking your path, climbing ladders, solving puzzles for blocked elevators, squeezing through tight spaces to get around load times on last gen consoles, it just feels like a huge chore. I was so frustrated by the half way point. 5/10
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Feb 22, 2024 08:39
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Tomb Raider (2013) Fast-food of video games. A competent but ultimately very safe reboot of a beloved franchise that does everything ok, but never stands out. For an action-adventure-collectathon game it never really does any of those things particularly well. As an action game it's fairly mediocre with very few enemy types and really easy enemies. Most of the game you will just fight Men (somethimes Men will have Shields), with a rare Boss who also acts just like A Man but has more health. The first level of Tomb Raider 1996 had better enemy variety with bats, wolves, and a bear, and while the game starts on a survival note with a few wolves stalking you, it ultimately goes to human enemies and never comes back. The adventure part of the game is probably the best thing about it. The game is divided into one-time corridor action sequences and bigger "levels" you can return to which contain a multitude of secrets. The set-pieces are gorgeous and very cinematic, but I wonder what I'd feel replaying this game. Even on the first time the amount of times you just hold W and jump sometimes was overblown, and I can't imagine those scenes feel much better the second time around. Collectathon parts are very underbaked. Not only do most items you collect fade into the background and are hard to notice unless you mash the "Lara vision", but in each location the game gives up on secrets whenever you find a "Secret Tomb". I use the game's wording here, but none of the optional tombs are secret. They are the most obvious things, contain a single Half-Life 2 tier puzzle, and give you out a full map of the area. The game has a lot of moments like that where it gives you the option of being less frustrating. Throughout the game everything gives you exp which you spend on some of the most boring options imaginable. Do you want to get slightly more exp or make the game less dull is effectively your only choice at any point. Weapon upgrades are a little nicer, but the RPG system feels like a bandaid on a flawed game that's designed to give you good number up chemicals. The story is fairly boring and only makes me wish the game had more weird enemies in it, because if you were to skip all the cutscenes nothing would stand out as strange up until the final area which has magic happening. No t-rexes here. Lara as a protagonist is also extremely boring, which I assume is why the game tortures her on every opportunity. Sorry, doesn't really work on me, just because she's a sick puppy who gets eaten and pierced every 2 seconds doesn't make me like her more. I still would say I've enjoyed my time with Tomb Raider. It's got some great set-pieces and wonderful-looking levels, and the shooting and climbing around can be fun. However just because it's not a bad game doesn't mean it's any good. I probably won't return to it and I've got no desire to check out the sequels.
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Feb 22, 2024 12:08
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You're good skipping out on the sequels. The second one adds more crafting! And they don't tone down the death animations.
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Feb 22, 2024 12:46
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Yeah, as someone whose only experience with TR is the reboot trilogy, the whole thing is diminishing returns; I liked a lot about the environments and set pieces in Rise (although not as much as 2013), but Shadow felt very phoned in
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Feb 22, 2024 14:14
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Yesterday I beat Lies of P. I liked it a lot! Bloodborne/Sekiro-style souls-like using Pinocchio Deepest Lore to create a Dishonored-style world to explore. Linear game but the build possibilities are vast due to the system of being able to break apart weapons to make new ones. Quality of Life things I liked: - NPCs show up on your fast travel menu when they have quest dialogue or updates - Apparel is separate from defensive stat gear, play pretty princess dress-up all you want - Mix and match your favorite blade with your favorite handle (moveset), I played with a GIANT greataxe head on a fast sword handle and annihilated the late game. - Only 2 multiman bosses, and emphasis on clever placement of enemies instead of just throwing a million at you like Lords of the Fallen - Robust respec system that compliments the intersecting systems The game is hard but it feels like 1) you have a TON of options to adapt and mix up your strats and 2) it's a little easier to Git Gud in this one I think. I had a ton of fun with it, I thought the story was compelling enough, the sequel hook is nuts, and I think this might be the best non-From soulslike from a polish and execution standpoint.
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Feb 22, 2024 14:54
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I said come in! posted:Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden What starts off with a lot of promise, turns into a very tedious and boring action RPG / Adventure. Very padded out game length with what amounts to a gigantic fetch quest. Repeating the same tired and tedious puzzles over and over again, with a story that goes no where, and a lot of backtracking on top of all of that. I wanted to like this game, it starts off really cool at first, but then you start to realize the gameplay loop is so simple, and there is zero variation during the entire length. Making the 20 - 25 hours for the main story feeling twice as long. And then there is just the world design; clearing obstacles that are blocking your path, climbing ladders, solving puzzles for blocked elevators, squeezing through tight spaces to get around load times on last gen consoles, it just feels like a huge chore. I was so frustrated by the half way point. Thats too bad, I was looking forward to play a bit more but already was turned off by the combat and long walks at the start so I'd probably end with the same conclusion. I wish they'd just do Remember Me again but better... still the only game I really liked from them despite obvious flaws.
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Feb 22, 2024 20:04
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haldolium posted:Thats too bad, I was looking forward to play a bit more but already was turned off by the combat and long walks at the start so I'd probably end with the same conclusion. Ooh gently caress yes, Remember Me was really cool at the time. I played that on PS3 and enjoyed it a lot.
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Feb 22, 2024 22:38
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I beat Enclave HD. This is a remaster of an Xbox game. From 2002? I had never heard of it. I found that weird because I owned an Xbox and this game would’ve been right up my alley. In effect, it’s like I’m playing a brand new game from a 20-year old design era. I’m fascinated by late 90s/early 2000s 3d games because they were made before many of the standards of today were developed. Ways of movement, level design, collectibles, character upgrades—even UI elements—all fit into a few buckets used across most games that come out nowadays. That wasn’t always true. Enclave is a linear, level-based action RPG with both a good and evil campaign. I don’t think that style was ever common. It doesn’t seem to exist anymore. Levels are seen as inherently inferior to open world by most. Enclave also borrows a 3d platformer economy by hiding bags of gold throughout the levels, which aren’t super complex but have enough variance and alt paths to keep them interesting. You can find maps to bonus levels, too. Gold increases your loadout capacity. The more gold you amass, the higher tier weapons, armor, potions, etc you can equip. You start as a basic knight but in several levels you rescue other character classes who you can then play as (archer, druid, engineer, etc). The evil campaign has counterparts who match the enemies you fight as the good side. A neat touch. The story is basic fantasy but also weird. As the “good” side, you start off in jail because you refused to pay the kingdom’s exorbitant taxes and as a reward for fighting off the baddies, you’re allowed your freedom to save the land for the potential reward of. . . not going back into the dungeon. I was happy to stomp those fuckers as the bad guys. The biggest con is the controls, specifically the melee controls. It’s hard swinging your jank rear end sword in inexplicable patterns in a world where several Dark Souls games exist. It’s best to abandon melee ASAP to play one of the ranged characters (I played most of the good campaign as the druid, all of the evil campaign as the sorceress after she's unlocked) and only come back when you have much better weapons to equip on the halfling. She is best because she’s fast and can bait a swing then attack, backpedal and bait, attack, backpedal and etc. It looks like this:  I kept expecting the game to either introduce a horrendous platformer section (common to the era) or a major difficulty spike. It skips the former and only sort of engages in the latter. The penultimate level is a pain in the rear end but not insurmountable, and I was playing on hard, since I read that that was the original Xbox difficulty. There’s a handful of bullshit insta-kill parts. When you die, you have to start the level over. Levels are short though, especially when you know where to go. There is one level late in the evil campaign where if go through the exit portal—the same portal you have used for nearly every level so far—the boss NPC who has been giving you missions betrays you and instantly kills you. You have to play the whole level again and go around it to a new, different portal. This is hilarious. Game’s just don’t troll you like they used to.
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Feb 23, 2024 01:44
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Ah Enclave, very much the archetypal example of an Action RPG that I 100%'d and then 100% forgot about. Does the HD remake still include secret characters if you beat all the campaigns/collect all the gold?
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Feb 23, 2024 01:50
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Jossar posted:Ah Enclave, very much the archetypal example of an Action RPG that I 100%'d and then 100% forgot about. Does the HD remake still include secret characters if you beat all the campaigns/collect all the gold? Yep, and the final two are packing rocket launchers.
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Feb 23, 2024 02:43
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I remember Enclave because it was featured in a video game magazine (PC Gamer, maybe?) and it had a zoomed in shot of the leather g-string wearing character's rear end as she was climbing the ladder, and the caption was something like "This game delivers!" and it was when I think I realized I didn't like the state of games journalism.
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Feb 23, 2024 03:57
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This was a bit ago when I finished Grandia XTREME. Your job is to enter four themed dungeons, fight the boss to gather their macguffins, and open up more dungeons to stop the thing that is destroying the world. There is a world you don't get to explore and you only have two towns to visit. You get some bit of lore by talking to everyone after doing a dungeon and advancing the plot until the last Act. The last Act has like half the dialog in the game and there is an exhausting amount of talking and dinner conversations with your party. Certainly a different way of designing a Grandia game and the best use of the battle system. This game is all about constant combat and dungeon diving for stronger items. The encounters are harder than in any other game and you will need to use Cancels against stronger enemies and bosses. You are rewarded for finishing battles quickly or perfectly, so having overwhelming power in easy dungeons provide more benefits to growth. This is more of a roguelite with static dungeons that play out almost exactly the same way each time they update. You have one place to save in the whole game and occasionally save during plot happenings. There are four Acts in the game which determine how strong the enemies are and the value of items in each dungeon. Beating the Act boss also resets your mid-points, so you have to challenge the dungeons again and can get new stuff that appears after you beat the improved boss. There are dungeons inside dungeons and they are hours long if you take your time. There is an undub patch and I recommend it, because the dub can be really bad. It doesn't have that feeling of being a Grandia game beyond the IP system, but it allows a lot of customizing your characters. You can break the game early by abusing the teleport in the water dungeon and opening the nearby clam shell for Mana eggs and books and teleporting.
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Feb 23, 2024 05:51
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ultrachrist posted:I beat Enclave HD. If you want a similar game that feels even more like Dark Souls, check out Severance: Blade of Darkness. I believe there's somewhat modern HD version of it as well - that game feels extremely like a prototype Souls game, but with much clunkier movement. Still really fun, though. I also always recommend Shadow Tower: Abyss, which is basically the middle point between King's Field and Souls. You'd need to emulate it with the translation patch, but it's a very good game.
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Feb 23, 2024 12:30
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ultrachrist posted:I beat Enclave HD. Oh holy poo poo, I loved Enclave back in the day. A little annoyed that the remaster isn't available on PC, but still definitely gonna give this a go.
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Feb 23, 2024 13:48
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I beat Blasphemous 2. I'm one trophy away from the plat but I'll do it later. Despite this game being better than many ways than the first, I think I still like the first more. I think part of it is, blasphemous 2 is more of the same, for good and the bad that implies. They did make the game a smidgen easier, it goes a lot easier on you and the beginning pacing is better. (spikes and falls no longer instant kill you) But the first was still unique, especially for it's time so that's why I think I have to give it props more. For what it's worth, blasphemous 1 made my 2023 goty top ten in the thread but I think blasphemous 2 will miss being top ten.
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Feb 23, 2024 18:46
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Ineffiable posted:I beat Blasphemous 2. I'm one trophy away from the plat but I'll do it later. Honestly I feel the same way and talked about it in the Metroidvania thread; there’s a lot to like gameplaywise but I feel there’s some pretty dramatic design missteps that you start to feel in the later game. I would absolutely do another NG+ run of the first game over the second at this time.
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Feb 23, 2024 19:11
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Hakkesshu posted:If you want a similar game that feels even more like Dark Souls, check out Severance: Blade of Darkness. I believe there's somewhat modern HD version of it as well - that game feels extremely like a prototype Souls game, but with much clunkier movement. Still really fun, though. I haven't played it yet, but I actually own the Severance remaster due to an article I read that basically said the same: It's a proto-Dark Souls and also one of the most underrated games of all time. It was only a few bucks on PSN at the time. I hadn't heard of that one either but it makes more sense since it was a PC game and I had poo poo PC's for a while. I'll have to dive into that soon.
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Feb 23, 2024 19:28
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Oh I remember playing Severance in...2002 or something, after buying a pirated copy from a shady back-alley store in south asia. Man, I had no idea what the game was or what I was getting into and did not get further than the first area. Really kicked my rear end, that one.
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Feb 23, 2024 19:55
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Also I just finished Metroid: Fusion for the first time since...eh, whenever it came out. Some aspects I quite liked about the game, like bosses being tougher, enemies hitting harder, and hunting for items being a little more...involved? Dunno how to put it, but it felt like I had to hunt some stuff down rather than it being easy to get. Plus the ability to grab ledges/ladders seems like such a little thing but it really helps Samus feel more flexible in her movement. I forgot how much it sucked having a mission guy who directed you where to go and how you couldn't go places until they let you. And the whole "Adam, oh he called me Lady because he respected me" was so gross, I am so glad that Dread dropped all that like a rock. What I found really bad, however, is the last stretch of the game, where after you get the screw attack, you go to the navigation point and are told to blow up the station. At this point, you are no longer allowed to explore, doors are locked around you, you're funneled into finishing the game, and there is no indication at all that this is going to happen. If you return to the save after beating it, you can explore further, but...I'd rather do that before beating the game. Anyway overall still a good package, but definitely one of the weaker Metroids given its structure.
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Feb 23, 2024 21:13
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Morpheus posted:
Oh that was in Fusion too? I thought that was just Other M's thing, but I haven't played it since the OG DS days where you could still use GBA cartridges. Doesn't sound like a really strong recommendation to figure out a way to replay it, though.
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Feb 23, 2024 21:19
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Fusion is good and the adam stuff is fine.
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Feb 23, 2024 21:42
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Oh hey just beat Remnant From the Ashes. Didn't realize how close I was to the end of the game. I loved this games twist on the souls-formula. I know the randomness isn't as well appreciated by the general audience but it's interesting how this game feels like a Diablo-souls game but with a bigger focus on Guns I also played the prequel: Chronos Before the Ashes and it was surprising how much stuff is in both games. I saw some familiar enemies and locations. I guess I have to check out remnant 2 huh. Is it similar to this, with the guns and all?
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Feb 23, 2024 22:05
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I beat the new Dragon Warrior Monsters. I am of course referring to Dragon Warrior Monsters 2: Tara's Adventure  I had the first game as a kid and played it a ton, but despite making my dad mad by printing out some 20 page breeding guide from Gamefaqs and putting together a big hand drawn chart of all the monsters I needed, I was never able to get the game's ultimate monster, Darkdrium. It was fun doing the runback in this one - the second game has a lot of nice additions that make the postgame more interesting and breeding the high end monsters more reasonable. Only downside is that they added version exclusive stuff - there's 6 postgame worlds but you can only do 3 without trading with the other version.
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Feb 24, 2024 01:20
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Captain Hygiene posted:Oh that was in Fusion too? I thought that was just Other M's thing, but I haven't played it since the OG DS days where you could still use GBA cartridges. Doesn't sound like a really strong recommendation to figure out a way to replay it, though. Adam (the dead Federation officer who was Samus's commander when she still worked under the Federation) and ADAM (the AI based on the person) were both introduced in Fusion. Other M was a prequel that was meant to show the still living human Adam for the first time (and really dialed up the romantic subtext), and it was so unpopular that it doomed both characters into Bad Game jail 
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Feb 24, 2024 01:57
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Ineffiable posted:Oh hey just beat Remnant From the Ashes. Didn't realize how close I was to the end of the game. Remnant 2 is pretty much a slam dunk if you liked 1, it's very much a game that was made for people who were already onboard with what it's building on
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Feb 24, 2024 02:07
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mycot posted:Adam (the dead Federation officer who was Samus's commander when she still worked under the Federation) and ADAM (the AI based on the person) were both introduced in Fusion. Other M was a prequel that was meant to show the still living human Adam for the first time (and really dialed up the romantic subtext), and it was so unpopular that it doomed both characters into Bad Game jail ADAM still exists in Dread.
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Feb 24, 2024 07:59
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I said come in! posted:Hoping Death Stranding 2 improves the combat, or just like removes it altogether. The challenge of traveling across the landscape and avoiding environmental hazards, was the best part of the first game. Pretty sure the latest trailer for 2 showed combat or at heavily implied it with all sorts of new enemies. theres cyborg samurais now
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Feb 24, 2024 08:51
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Bruceski posted:ADAM still exists in Dread. It's easy to forget since he only shows up in a small part at the start of the game
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Feb 24, 2024 14:46
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Bruceski posted:ADAM still exists in Dread. HenryEx posted:It's easy to forget since he only shows up in a small part at the start of the game On top of that he's written out for most of the game because the one you see is an imposter who doesn't know his catchphrase, but I didn't want to 
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Feb 24, 2024 17:01
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