|
Hello and welcome to the SomethingAwful Games Forum Games Club - Like a Book Club But For Video Games. 11/24 UPDATE: I'm changing up the thread as follows: Greetings friends and posters! You may have noticed I've done a poor job stewarding this thread so far, so I'm going to change it up some. I think that my original plan was not really realistic with how people game and post around here, so here is my new idea: Rather than a game every two weeks, I'm going to pick (or we can vote or w/e) a theme or genre for a month or so and everyone can post about that. Play or replay games if you want or just talk about stuff you've already played. I think going bigger for longer will give a lot more breathing room for conversation, and it will be less to manage and less stress to finish things in a small amount of time. For this first month (11/24 to the endish of December) I'm going to go ahead and pick adventure games. Further, I'll nudge it toward the Lucasarts style and their progeny, though if you want to talk about the lesser Sierra games I won't try and stop you. A brief thought to get things rolling: I've been thinking about Loom a lot recently, and I really need to replay it soon because so much of the imagery has stuck in my head since I played it as a kid. It's a shame we never got any of the sequels to it, I would have loved to see more of this world. I didn't realize it until well into adulthood but I was an extremely anxious kid who loved video games, so sometimes stuff like Doom was just too much. I appreciated adventure games like these because they sometimes gave the illusion of hostility or dangers but I knew that nothing bad could happen to me so even at my most dire I still could play these. Also here is some real cool unused poo poo from Monkey Island that just came out: https://gamehistory.org/monkeyisland/  Be respectful and don't assume the worst of your fellow posters, you know the rules. 
Red Alert 2 Yuris Revenge fucked around with this message at 03:22 on Nov 25, 2020 |
#
?
Jun 11, 2020 01:42
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 29, 2024 10:18 |
|
|
Reserved for a list of some kind i guess
|
|
#
?
Jun 11, 2020 01:43
|
|
|
Huh that game sounds pretty cool! I'll be sure to check it out, thanks 
|
|
#
?
Jun 11, 2020 01:45
|
|
|
jeez that's a heck of a disclaimer
|
|
#
?
Jun 11, 2020 01:53
|
|
|
Should we hide spoilers behind spoiler tags?
|
|
#
?
Jun 11, 2020 02:17
|
|
|
I'm leaning yes, but am open to suggestion there - I don't mind spoiler tags myself
|
|
#
?
Jun 11, 2020 03:04
|
|
|
Jay Rust posted:Should we hide spoilers behind spoiler tags? I would say probably at least through the end day of the “play period”
|
|
#
?
Jun 11, 2020 03:04
|
|
|
that's the tricky thing about a games club. many games aren't neatly divided into sections to help structure group progression and discussion, and progression times can vary wildly between people.
|
|
#
?
Jun 11, 2020 03:18
|
|
|
Like I think spoilers might kill the flow of discussion, but I don't know a solution around the issue. Not without clear "chapters" we can agree on beforehand.
|
|
#
?
Jun 11, 2020 03:26
|
|
|
This sounds like a cool concept and I am definitely up for it!
|
|
#
?
Jun 11, 2020 03:58
|
|
|
Rinkles posted:Like I think spoilers might kill the flow of discussion, but I don't know a solution around the issue. Not without clear "chapters" we can agree on beforehand. yeah same, i'm leaning toward just use them for now and if folks think it's ruining the discussion just say so and we can adjust
|
|
#
?
Jun 11, 2020 04:07
|
|
|
I beat the game! It took about two hours. I got some general thoughts I can spit out, but I can safely say for now that the content warning the author gives is spot-on: the game explores some serious LGBT issues. But it’s also extremely goofy.
|
|
#
?
Jun 11, 2020 05:17
|
|
|
This sounds fun, kinda reminds me of those Retro Game Masters threads from a while back
|
|
#
?
Jun 11, 2020 07:38
|
|
|
I wanted to write down some quick thoughts before it’s too late and I forget everything about the game. It’s still early so it’ll be spoiler-free. This game is essentially a visual novel with some action gameplay interspersed throughout. I didn’t get the impression that there are branching paths; seems like it’s more of a “decide which of these two scenes to watch” kind of deal. Although there is one decision point in the latter part of the game that gets underlined by the narrator, because, apparently, one leads to a scene that is much more of a bummer than the other. I picked the lighter one, I think. I’d love to hear about the bummer path. The game, outside of the character portraits, is stupendously ugly, but I can’t say how deliberately. The combat arenas in particular look sloppy, with already-messy assets being stretched out and haphazardly copy-pasted. The backgrounds during the dialogue scenes are made up of ASCII art, which I didn’t quite get, kinda felt like it didn’t fit with the rest of the game, aesthetically or thematically. The dialogue is the probably the game’s main selling point, and it makes no attempt to hide that it was written by some Very Online people. You’ll see that from the very first scene, where one of the characters’ dialogue is absolutely aping hip, ironic Twitter posts, punctuation included. And this recurs throughout. I’d like to hear what people thought this point in particular. I remember folks criticizing Night in the Woods for having unreal-sounding dialogue, and this is an even more extreme example of that. The best of the writing, I think, is found in the short second-person text dumps you see before each of the combat sequences, when your selected character is suiting up. They highlight the mech-as-personal-identity metaphor: this is YOU, you are IN CONTROL, this is WHO YOU ARE, this is how YOU want the world to see you, that kind of stuff. These segments also do a great job in getting you pumped up to beat up some fascists. Didn’t mean to turn this post into a review but gently caress it. I have more to say, about the combat, about the whole “beating up the fash” thing, about the strange setting. Should probably wait for more people to play it
|
|
#
?
Jun 12, 2020 04:10
|
|
|
It was way more online than I expected even, but I wouldn't criticize it as being 'unreal sounding,' I think that if you can believe meat mechs fighting in the desert by knocking each other off of cliffs, people talking like they do online isn't that hard either. Whether it works is more up to taste, but I found it to sort of have an embarrassing charm. I'll have to stew on the game a bit more to give any real in-depth take, but I came away fairly positive. It's going for a definite tonal whiplash and I'm not sure if it succeeds or if I am just inclined to give something like this more leeway. The combat towards the end becomes kind of obnoxious, probably could have saved after each encounter. If they were trying to do the communicate-misery-through-gameplay thing then it didn't work for me. The soundtrack was pretty alright. I could do with more biological machinery cum body horror though, this and a book called 'The Stars are Legion'
|
|
#
?
Jun 15, 2020 08:00
|
|
|
I'm sorry, but this game just wasn't for me. Jay Rust posted:The dialogue is the probably the game’s main selling point, and it makes no attempt to hide that it was written by some Very Online people. You’ll see that from the very first scene, where one of the characters’ dialogue is absolutely aping hip, ironic Twitter posts, punctuation included. And this recurs throughout. I’d like to hear what people thought this point in particular. I remember folks criticizing Night in the Woods for having unreal-sounding dialogue, and this is an even more extreme example of that. As a side note, I get that this is a small project, but I think any VN-like game should have a rewind function for any accidental dialog skips. Jay Rust posted:The best of the writing, I think, is found in the short second-person text dumps you see before each of the combat sequences, when your selected character is suiting up. They highlight the mech-as-personal-identity metaphor: this is YOU, you are IN CONTROL, this is WHO YOU ARE, this is how YOU want the world to see you, that kind of stuff. These segments also do a great job in getting you pumped up to beat up some fascists. Sorry for not having anything more interesting to say, my brain's in low power mode.
|
|
#
?
Jun 16, 2020 07:43
|
|
|
Also was this a typo/glitch, or is my internet speak too weak? Cause it showed up a few times.
|
|
#
?
Jun 16, 2020 07:51
|
|
|
I think it’s supposed to be like smashing your fingers on a keyboard in exasperation. Yeah I didn’t want to mention this before but I didn’t have very much fun with the game. The combat was really tedious pretty much all the time. The AI is reduced to “run straight towards player”, facing off more than two enemies means you’re going to be pushed around for a long while before you can knock someone off a cliff, and the longer a fight goes on, the more damaged your mech gets, which means your controls become sluggish, like your guy or girl is fighting on ice. But! I lost one battle early on, and discovered that dying gives you the option to skip the entire rest of the combat sequence. So that’s a useful tip to keep in mind for anyone reading this and wants to play the game but hasn’t yet.
|
|
#
?
Jun 16, 2020 11:51
|
|
Rinkles posted:Also was this a typo/glitch, or is my internet speak too weak? Cause it showed up a few times. Jay Rust posted:I think it's supposed to be like smashing your fingers on a keyboard in exasperation. Smh at these grandpas.
|
|
|
#
?
Jun 16, 2020 11:54
|
|
|
I played the first chapter and decided it was enough. It certainly has an evocative title and cover art, but I wanted out before the end of the first fight.
|
|
#
?
Jun 16, 2020 13:11
|
|
|
you can say you didn't have fun you goobs I skipped at least one of the combat because I made it several fights in then got ping ponged across the arena and died instantly
|
|
#
?
Jun 16, 2020 15:40
|
|
|
So to follow up some more: I'm increasingly down on how the game worked tonally. I don't think the idea of 'these characters getting to know each other/themselves in a bleak world' is inherently a poor idea, just for a game that takes place over a few days I didn't find the arcs between characters that believable, specifically the ones that just met. Related: HELP CHOOSE THE NEXT GAME I don't know if y'all would prefer a vote or some kind ranked list or just choosing randomly from a pool of suggestions
|
|
#
?
Jun 18, 2020 01:30
|
|
|
Looks like there are still 1,740 other games in the bundle... RNG it??
|
|
#
?
Jun 18, 2020 02:37
|
|
|
Jay Rust posted:Looks like there are still 1,740 other games in the bundle... RNG it?? I like those odds
|
|
#
?
Jun 18, 2020 02:48
|
|
|
Jay Rust posted:Looks like there are still 1,740 other games in the bundle... RNG it?? oh no we rolled blades in the dark guess we'll have to play to find out what happens
|
|
#
?
Jun 18, 2020 03:08
|
|
|
Played a little bit of Meatpunks tonight, definitely giving me early Messhof or Cactus vibes, aesthetically. Maybe there's only so many ways to apply filters over monochrome silhouette sprites and have it look good, I dunno. I think the arbitrary ASCII thing was definitely something Cactus used in a few of his older games. The story is feeling a little contrived, but there is something about the corny moment to moment dialogue I enjoy, so I'll try to finish the game later. I'm down for the next game being an RNG mystery. Amorphous Abode fucked around with this message at 04:42 on Jun 18, 2020 |
|
#
?
Jun 18, 2020 04:39
|
|
|
I meant to come back and address JR's question about the 'bummer' dialogue path the game warns you about : (cw suicide ideation) I didn't take notes so if I get details wrong I apologize, but the conversation is essentially that Cass is simply throwing themselves out there because they feels they has nothing to live for/no reason to keep on going. In a ludonarrative sense this worked out for me because I picked them most for the combat sections because the ability to stop your momentum saved me from a lot of cheap shots. Regarding the ending i feel it makes it even more bleak, and I'm curious if the eventual season 2 is going to try and cover something like 'you don't need to succeed to have a life with keeping' or something.
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2020 00:32
|
|
|
I should probably play the game I loudly suggested at some point before we move on.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2020 15:53
|
|
|
Played a bit of it. I like it as a game, but i didn't enjoy it to much. The writing was a bit bleh. It was very "THIS IS WHO I AM AND THIS IS MY PROBLEM". The gameplay was alright. It worked. I think you really have to judge it on its own and not to games with a budget. With that in mind it does everything it wants to do and does it well enough to communicate it to the player. My favorite part had the narration you get when you get in your meatsuit. It was such a shift in tone and i found it so evocative.
|
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2020 20:59
|
|
|
I didn't post it due to current events but the next game is Lenna's Inception
|
|
#
?
Jun 26, 2020 17:38
|
|
|
Looks neat. I won’t have access to a PC for a few weeks, so depending on the deadline, you might have to make do without my banal contributions.
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2020 01:11
|
|
|
I have played about half an hour, it is pretty neat. Zelda clone with some bits of procedural generation, and a goofy sense of humour
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2020 01:18
|
|
|
Another hour in, getting flashbacks to Dead Cells, or specifically my “god this would rule if it wasn’t procgen” feeling
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2020 11:09
|
|
|
Jay Rust posted:Another hour in, getting flashbacks to Dead Cells, or specifically my “god this would rule if it wasn’t procgen” feeling That's the feeling I'm getting. I don't even know if I find the gameplay of LttP strong enough to want to just run around and hit things forever without context, but Lenna doesn't feel as good as the Zeldas it's imitating. Which is not entirely a knock, those are some of the best 2d games ever made. There are cool parts: The glasses are fun, and shooting the bow while you're holding a bomb is a nice touch. Spring shoes go in the shield slot! Unidentified potions shoulda stayed in Rogue, nobody likes you (maybe there's a Toejam exception).
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2020 07:39
|
|
|
Some dungeon rooms are empty except for a small body of water, and an enemy on the other side. The enemy immediately falls into the water, dying instantly. The room’s enemies now defeated, a dungeon key falls from the sky, you did it congrats!
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2020 18:51
|
|
|
I am playing this game!  Very relatable, tbh. 4 dungeons down. The gameplay seems pretty straightforward so far, so what's pushing me forward is wondering how metafictional the story is going to get. I did notice the scythe in the first room which seems very Chekhovian...! As mentioned by others, I am not sure what the procedural generation is doing for a game like this, because as of now it doesn't seem like something I'd be replaying once I finish it... The puns and music are good
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2020 08:38
|
|
|
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2020 20:22
|
|
|
Well this 8th dungeon and environs are... somewhat tough on the eyes. I understand why the epilepsy warning at the beginning was more strongly worded than usual, lol
|
|
#
?
Jul 7, 2020 09:56
|
|
|
i don't have anything super clever to add but it's a cool game - i'm probably gonna continue to dig into it after the book club period since i started late. speaking of which, unless someone wants to suggest something else I'm just gonna go with what SR suggested for the next game tomorrow, which is pikuniku
|
|
#
?
Jul 7, 2020 22:02
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 29, 2024 10:18 |
|
|
Pikuniku is pretty a pretty short narrative focused adventure with some light platforming, so it should be easier for more people to play it and discuss the story.
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2020 04:57
|
|
