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I just finished the Age of Empires 4 campaigns. The English, Russian, and French campaigns were not good imo. The Mongol campaign did feel good to me, with more standout mission design and clear connections between each mission. The other campaigns pluck you in and out of random battles on a 1-2 hundred year timeline and so they don't feel like proper campaigns so much as lightly themed mission packs. I'm not a big fan of the Age of Empires formula but I'm also desperate for decent rts campaigns so I'll probably come back to it to play the new DLC next year.
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Nov 26, 2023 18:46
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| # ¿ May 13, 2024 13:48 |
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I finished Steamworld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech, it's a card game rpg that's alright. The mechanics of the game are decent enough. You build your deck by adding 8 cards from each of your 3 active party members, you draw until you have 6 cards in your hand each turn, play 3, and if you play 3 cards from the same character in a turn they take a bonus action depending on their equipped weapon. Later cards also have bonuses if a specific party member took an action earlier in the turn, so it isn't always about trying to match 3. Some cards cost resources that are generated by playing any basic attack or upgrade card so there's a natural ebb and flow to most fights. Late in the game you have a ton of options for building an interesting deck, it's just brought down by a couple big issues I have with the game. 1. It took way too long to assemble enough cards for me to make real decisions with building my deck. Even 6 hours into the game (granted I am slower than the average elite gamer on these forums), I wasn't building for any synergy beyond keeping a decent balance of basic cards in each character's set of 8 to make sure I could reliably get the match 3 and pay for my expensive attacks and heals. There just weren't any options besides that for most of the story. I also think it's hosed up that they put some cards in well hidden treasure chests, some that are keystones to a specific build you might like to try. 2. The game is really stingy with its gold, crafting, and upgrade materials. Did you spend everything on a build that you don't like anymore? Just wanna change it up? Too bad, go grind random enemies, or maybe you can try the arena that only opens up when you've reached the final act. From the moment I unlocked the character that could mug enemies I kept them in my team for the entire rest of the game and I was still gold poor at the end of it. Getting a full collection was balanced around reaching 100% on ng+ rather than on your first run, and that sucks! Really bringing down what should have been a very good game.
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Dec 1, 2023 23:24
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Verviticus posted:i tried that game 2-3 times during early access and i kinda lost interest about 4-5 ships in. is the pacing any better now that there's a story? I also just finished Hardspace and played a bunch during early access, and the answer is no.
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Dec 4, 2023 00:40
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I have reached the credits for Patrick's Parabox, it's the best block pushing game out there. It uses paradoxes, infinite loops, puzzles that contain themselves, a lot of weird stuff that gets you thinking in strange ways.
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Dec 30, 2023 16:36
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Holy poo poo the last set of levels and the finale in Pizza Tower are spectacular. It's a truly great game, a shame I didn't finish it in time for the '23 list.
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Jan 8, 2024 22:38
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Cultic is a pretty good shooter, just shy of great. Just needs a little more enemy variety, a little better pathfinding for enemies, and a way to make a boss fight that doesn't suck rear end. Other than that it's doing pretty much everything right.
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Jan 12, 2024 17:42
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Finished Anodyne 2: Return to Dust and reached an ending in Slay the Princess. They're good and I'm gonna spend some time tomorrow trying to find a way to turn my thoughts on them into coherent words. I made a list of 10 games I'd finish this year and I've already burned through 4 of them.
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Jan 17, 2024 03:04
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I have finished The Zodiac Trial, a visual novel that is heavily inspired by the Zero Escape trilogy. The game is remarkably good considering how obvious the lack of a budget is. I really like the character writing and the death game within the story was interesting enough for me to spend entirely too long thinking about it and if it would be possible to turn into a decent forum game. The final mystery is difficult but mostly fair. While I did get it wrong I had been on the right track until I got tripped up over some misunderstanding on my part. It needed another editing pass to catch some (occasionally really important) typos, and a few routes don't think through the rules of the game enough to hold up under scrutiny. Considering how much time is spent going over the rules you would think the mechanics of the death game would have been relevant in a lot more routes than it actually was. There are more routes where the rules are completely changed by a unique item in a way that completely abandons the base game than there are routes that engage with the base game mechanics. It's a bit funny to me that Mouse is such a mean girl to Sheep. Sure, she gives everyone some sass, but she just does not relent in any one on one conversation with Sheep. At one point she even gives her the "you should learn to take a joke" line after saying something terrible. It's funnier in the route where Sheep is the killer. Mouse is insulting her so much while doing a bad job investigating her crime scenes that Sheep starts giving her strong hints about how they actually happened just to have some way to put Mouse in her place.
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Feb 9, 2024 02:32
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I was expecting Rime to be a puzzle platformer collectathon thing that took place on a nice island, and it was that for an hour or so. But it gradually morphed into something else, something I found much less interesting. I only ended up finishing it because it ended a lot sooner than I expected it to. The first half of the game seems to setup the idea that you're chasing after your father's ghost, but it turns out, plot twist, the child you're playing as died at the start and your whole journey is a fantasy thought up by their grieving father. As you complete each chapter the environments get more abstract and miserable, I suppose to reflect the father getting closer to accepting the truth about his son's death. I didn't care very much so I don't really have anything else to say. It's an okay game. I wouldn't recommend it but I wouldn't be surprised if people liked it either.
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Mar 15, 2024 21:52
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I've beaten Slayers X: Terminal Aftermath: Vengance of the slayer, it's a decent shitpost boomer shooter that's got a bit of heart to it hidden in a few secrets and post-credits maps.
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Mar 29, 2024 13:46
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Played through all of Pepper Grinder today, shorter than I expected it to be (about 4 hours without the time trials). Really good outside of the final boss, who was infuriating. Drilling forces you to keep moving making it feel like you're barely in control even when you're doing well. It keeps it exciting.
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Mar 30, 2024 22:47
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| # ¿ May 13, 2024 13:48 |
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Finished a couple games this week. Zortch is a good budget shooter. A decent amount of variety in enemies, guns feel good with well defined and unique strengths that keep them all relevant. Finding secrets was very rewarding as the powerups and armor pickups are strong as hell. Animal Well, though I'm not 100% complete. It's a pretty good puzzle platformer that lets me feel very clever. You get a good set of multi-purpose tools to work with that enables some really interesting puzzle design. I know some people are immediately turned away by how it looks but I really like the style. The platforming is too demanding considering this is supposed to be primarily a puzzle game. Still, I'd give it a strong recommendation.
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May 12, 2024 16:14
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