I can imagine the interior decorators for Volcano Manor being like, “Sooo, do you folks like reddish orange? Because, well, due to your um…location, openings and furnace-like ambience that’s about all we can work with.”
What are you currently playing?
- Thread starter Nick Calandra
- Start date
I can imagine the interior decorators for Volcano Manor being like, “Sooo, do you folks like reddish orange? Because, well, due to your um…location, openings and furnace-like ambience that’s about all we can work with.”
- Apr 1, 2009
- 14,997
- 3,856
- 118
- Gender
- Whatever, just wash your hands.
The basic controls feel pretty much the same. The ships feel a bit better to pull apart though. Like back in EA I remember multiple points where I would have to use the cutter to cut walls into pieces to get something, now it feels like if you do need to do that then you can just disintegrate the wall easier, windshields can still be annoying and are just valuable enough that I'm hesitant to just toss the whole thing into the processor, although the last ship I did had cut points for the cockpit window, so that was nice. They also added a living area for you that you can decorate with stuff you find on the ships, mainly posters but there are other things you can find also.
I did a speedrun of Dandara (56 minutes, limit was 1hr 17m) and got Platinum N° 74.
I'm gonna take a break from all these metroidvanias - Xeodrifter, Momodora, Dandara - as I feel I'm not appreciating as much as I should on their own. It's like my favorite games (Hollow Knight, Blasphemous et al) ruined these perfectly good ones for me.
I'm gonna take a break from all these metroidvanias - Xeodrifter, Momodora, Dandara - as I feel I'm not appreciating as much as I should on their own. It's like my favorite games (Hollow Knight, Blasphemous et al) ruined these perfectly good ones for me.
Right before I left for work I started the download on My Time at Sandrock, the sequel to My Time at Portia. Portia is basically a 3d version of Stardew Valley with a few tweaks. I really enjoyed Portia, the focus on the player as a builder as opposed to farmer made it even better than SV for me. So I'm looking forward to getting right to building when I get home.
The story as it is progressing is interesting. Post apocalypse, but in the "generations later, rebuilt but simpler" stage rather than the blasted wasteland of something like Fallout or Mad Max. A church that forbids "ancient" technology warns against any kind of technical advance, but as a builder you are often at odds with them in an attempt to make life better for the people. And a new "free cities" alliance gearing up for a potential conflict with another powerful country.
Sandrock is in early access as opposed to full release. Normally I would wait for a full release and never usually go with early access, but Portia was good and apparently the price will go up in full release. I'll let you all know if that was a mistake.
The story as it is progressing is interesting. Post apocalypse, but in the "generations later, rebuilt but simpler" stage rather than the blasted wasteland of something like Fallout or Mad Max. A church that forbids "ancient" technology warns against any kind of technical advance, but as a builder you are often at odds with them in an attempt to make life better for the people. And a new "free cities" alliance gearing up for a potential conflict with another powerful country.
Sandrock is in early access as opposed to full release. Normally I would wait for a full release and never usually go with early access, but Portia was good and apparently the price will go up in full release. I'll let you all know if that was a mistake.
I really liked Portia, so Sandrock is on my wishlist I'm looking forward to your thoughts
Well, I'll have more to say on Tuesday, workdays I don't get more than an hour or so to game. But I did go through character creation and a few days on the calendar. So, first impressions...
They have some optimization work to do. It isn't terrible, but there are problems. Load times are horrid right now. I had about 90 minutes to game today and I spent what seemed like a full half of it staring at loading screens. The time scaling seems different than Portia's, but I'm not sure exactly how. I'll dig deeper into that this weekend. Otherwise technically, its fairly solid. Gameplay noticeably chugs down when a cutscene is triggered, but frankly Portia did that too and you just kind of get used to that. The menus are more complex than Portia's, but I'm sure once I get used to them that will change from "they are overcomplicated," to "they are improved and are more functional." Graphics and overall look... improved but still noticeably "My Time" like.
Character creation... needs work. There needs to be more options. Plenty of sliders to change facial features, but 1 male and female body and that's your lot. You eyes can be canted to any degree and set on your brow at any height... but you are always a generic skinny dude/dudette. Only a half dozen or so hairstyles each way, and no wardrobe choices. I know that is part of the in-game mechanics to buy new stuff... but still give us at least a few shirts to chose from at the start.
Story and tone... even more of a mixed bag. They went away from Stardew Valley's "Dad/Grandpa left me a farm/workshop" framework. Change is good... but the replacement "Sandrock's Builder is retiring and you are the fresh from apprenticeship Builder that is taking over" storyline doesn't give you much connection to the story. Still, I'm early in so I'll still probably get invested at some point. Sandrock itself isn't as pleasant as Portia. It too will probably grow on me, but looking back I kind of fell in love rapidly with Portia's quaint little town surrounded by fields and forest on the edge of a vast desert. Sandrock is more like dustbowl Oklahoma built on the sand-covered ruins of war destroyed Tulsa. A good portion of Portia's appeal to me was the disconnect in its setting. It really is the story of a destroyed civilization struggling to rebuild itself, but the picturesque beautiful little town and its saccharine kawaii inhabitants was constantly pulling the breaks a little. As if to say "yes, rebuild... but also take time to enjoy what you have." It lent it a kind of languid pacing, disconnected from the timer centric gameplay inherent in the genre. With Portia it was never "how am I supposed to get this all done by Tuesday AND work on my relationship with ____?" Even though you most probably DID have to get that all done by Tuesday, in Portia it was like you had Sean Connery's Alan Quartermain constantly behind you saying "You have all the time you need, all the time in the world." Even though it is a deadline based game, the setting gave it a peaceful languid pacing. Sandrock doesn't. Yet. Maybe it will get that way. Sandrock seems to be in more dire straits. It needs... It "needs." Portia was more "could use," or "would be nicer." Sandrock seems to "need." So far anyway.
Last edited:
Without the pointer in Alien: Isolation, it took me an annoying length of time that I'm too embarrassed to specify to get from the Martial's Office back to Ski/Med Tower. Yet using the pointer feels too much like hand-holding. Sevastapol is a bad maze that really needs proper signs and maps on the walls, like any international airport. I couldn't use the pause map because Nightmare disables it. The map progression is a far cry from something like old Resident Evil. If getting to that standard makes the game somewhat shorter, so be it.
Far: Lone Sails
Thought it time to give this a go seeing as the sequel is now out, implying that enough people must liked it for that to happen. Is alright, very calming, simple yet keeps a consistent pace with having to fiddle with your vehicle's needs without feeling overbearing. It's the essence of "mild peril" distilled into a videogame format.
Modern Warfare: The Newish One
How the fuck can anyone make merely getting to the single player campaign this fucking obtuse and frustrating?? Downloaded almost a hundred gig of bloody nonsense as it was the only option I could see, only for it to tell me in a shoveled away menu that I still hadn't got the "campaign pack" and needed to free up even more space! Fuck you and everything you stand for! (Haven't even started the campaign yet, it's still causing issues trying to download, and I'm still not entirely sure if it is the bloody campaign...what is this fresh bullshit?) (Omg it actually wasn't the correct campaign file download too, Jesus effing Christ, what is wrong with this videogame series??)
Thought it time to give this a go seeing as the sequel is now out, implying that enough people must liked it for that to happen. Is alright, very calming, simple yet keeps a consistent pace with having to fiddle with your vehicle's needs without feeling overbearing. It's the essence of "mild peril" distilled into a videogame format.
Modern Warfare: The Newish One
How the fuck can anyone make merely getting to the single player campaign this fucking obtuse and frustrating?? Downloaded almost a hundred gig of bloody nonsense as it was the only option I could see, only for it to tell me in a shoveled away menu that I still hadn't got the "campaign pack" and needed to free up even more space! Fuck you and everything you stand for! (Haven't even started the campaign yet, it's still causing issues trying to download, and I'm still not entirely sure if it is the bloody campaign...what is this fresh bullshit?) (Omg it actually wasn't the correct campaign file download too, Jesus effing Christ, what is wrong with this videogame series??)
Last edited:
I'm currently trying to make my way through 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim and christ it is the most boring game I've ever played. I feel bad, I had no idea you dont have any agency and its basically just a visual novel. I don't think I would have bought it knowing that. It wouldn't bother me so much but it pretends to not be a novel in the worst way possible. It forces you to move around and click dialog to talk to people, but you dont have any choice about who you talk to. Imagine watching Aliens, but it stops every 30 seconds for you to advance the scene. Thats pretty much the whole game.
Theres turned based mech combat but it doesnt require any skill. Youre basically just clicking whatever button the game tells you to and stuff blows up. I'd give up, Im stuck in sunk cost fallacy land. I like the story and characters I just wish this were an anime or something instead of a game.
I'm 5 or 6 hours in over the past two weeks and I just found out I'm still in the prologue. Before the game even really opens up to where you have any agency at all you have do the prologue which is tutorial/visual novel for 13 freaking characters. I really dont want to give up on this game, but I'm kind of at my breaking point. I'm surprised theres not any divisiveness in the media over this game. Literally everybody thinks its gods gift to gamers so I feel obligated to figure out why they all think its so magical. I'd be really curious to pester Yahtzee and see if he actually finished it.
Theres turned based mech combat but it doesnt require any skill. Youre basically just clicking whatever button the game tells you to and stuff blows up. I'd give up, Im stuck in sunk cost fallacy land. I like the story and characters I just wish this were an anime or something instead of a game.
I'm 5 or 6 hours in over the past two weeks and I just found out I'm still in the prologue. Before the game even really opens up to where you have any agency at all you have do the prologue which is tutorial/visual novel for 13 freaking characters. I really dont want to give up on this game, but I'm kind of at my breaking point. I'm surprised theres not any divisiveness in the media over this game. Literally everybody thinks its gods gift to gamers so I feel obligated to figure out why they all think its so magical. I'd be really curious to pester Yahtzee and see if he actually finished it.
Does Elden Ring have active scaling? I've been legit pondering. Because the challenge level on some of the bosses I've fought recently has been totally off whack. Morghott the Omen King, one of the central boss fights of the entire game, went down like a wet paper towel, 90k souls. Mohg the Omen, an optional boss in the sewers, gave me more trouble than any other boss so far, 75k souls. I don't know if it'd been even possible to clear the dual Crucible Knights without summoning help.
I've gotten to the Snowtops of the Giants, but also been doing cleanup and questlines. I completed Sellen's questline, and hoo boy what a downer. Souls questlines are almost always depressing, and Sellen was a pretty outwardly villainous character, but getting the "I have no mouth and I must scream" treatment is still pretty rough. I also cleared the Dung Eater's questline (so far), and he's kind of refreshing in how just straightforwardly and one-dimensionally evil he is. Whereas most NPCs in Souls tend to be morally dubious and questionable, Dung Eater is there just to torment, torture and make everyone's lives worse. It's a testament to how well it's done that they managed to make a character literally called "guy who eats shit" - and even calls himself that - genuinely intimidating.
I've gotten to the Snowtops of the Giants, but also been doing cleanup and questlines. I completed Sellen's questline, and hoo boy what a downer. Souls questlines are almost always depressing, and Sellen was a pretty outwardly villainous character, but getting the "I have no mouth and I must scream" treatment is still pretty rough. I also cleared the Dung Eater's questline (so far), and he's kind of refreshing in how just straightforwardly and one-dimensionally evil he is. Whereas most NPCs in Souls tend to be morally dubious and questionable, Dung Eater is there just to torment, torture and make everyone's lives worse. It's a testament to how well it's done that they managed to make a character literally called "guy who eats shit" - and even calls himself that - genuinely intimidating.
Oh, maybe a little too much swearing there, might've given the impression of needless aggression, but alcomohol does encourage the french to roll off the tongue somewhat. So I shall endeavor to continue annotating this annoying experience without dropping a single curse word, in spite of the frustration. *Breathes deeply*
So in the end, I had to download four seperate files in the shoveled away menu before the campaign could work, which it didn't bother to explain at all.
When looking at the game size on the store page, it said 15gig, an estimate which at most is doubled with other games for reasons unknown, by now though I usually anticipate having to make room for any game purchase using this double size rule. With a solid 30gigs space put aside, it was a little bit of a shock to see over 95gigs needed after clicking the download button instead. More deleting required yet again.
A day later is when I found out that the game I chose to download actually wasn't the game I chose to download and had to find the hidden extra packs to download as well, which totalled another 50 - 60 gigs, yay. Their hilarious "reasoning" for this avant garde approach to hiding the campaign behind multiple extra download files somehow completely unrelated to the initial 95gigs is apparently so the player can optimise their storage space and pick and choose what they want to play/install. Except that massive 95gig compulsory download file it literally lies to you about on the store page, which I assume is that fat unwanted F2P warzone battle royale game. So much for player choice.
You may well be old, but no other game has done this as far as I'm aware, no matter how fresh and modern. So it's definitely a "them" problem, not an age issue. Some games ask whether you want to prioritise single or multiplayer when downloading, which is the thing that works and no-one has a problem with. But this is something else entirely. Whoever in the publishing/development team is responsible for pushing this is in dire need of a hearty slap.
Wait, I just ruined my perfect interwebs illusion! Nooooooooooooooooo!
- Apr 1, 2009
- 14,997
- 3,856
- 118
- Gender
- Whatever, just wash your hands.
The amount of souls you get is set by your playthrough. There are some hard bosses that don't give as many souls as easier bosses, but also, everyone has different issues with different bosses.
I enjoyed just killing the dung eater. Fuck that guy and his making everything worse and just being a... dung eater.
I finished RE2Remake on XBONE. Leon A, Claire B. I'll do the other way later. I did some more playthroughs on Guardian Heroes.
Late stage (hopefully) capitalism happened.
*puts in teeth*
Get off my lawn, whippersnapper... unless you're a whippersnapper with a whippersnipper, in which case give it a trim first then piss off.
Heh. Welcome to the club. I got so pissed off just installing this shit show that it's been half a year and I still haven't even touched the campaign, which was the only reason I even got the game in the first place. I don't know if I'll ever bother.
Xbox One X. The version I am playing is the 360 version released back in 2011. Ironically, you can't play it, or most other old XBLA games on the 360 anymore. You have to own a One or Series to download or re-download. Thankfully, I saved my profile, so I did not need repurchase, and only had to re-download. I highly recommend the game. Sucks Sega won't bring it to other consoles and PC.
A lot of games that copied the Guardian Heroes formula are not bad (mostly), but most of them are not as good as the original. The only one that comes close is Code of Princess. The true spiritual successor to GH as many former staff from Treasure worked on the game. It's only flaw is that it's not as fast paced in comparison to Guardian Heroes. Even with with the revamped combat system in Code of Princess EX on Switch. Still a great game, and recommend it too. The original versions are on 3DS (the only version with the excellent English dub), PC/Steam (the 3DS version up-rezed and runs at 60fps), and the Switch version (60fps and revamped combat).
Last edited:
The AI is so dumb. The humans see their buddies getting killed by the alien in the same room and still they shoot at Ripley when she's discovered and draw the alien. Developers don't think enough about behavior when designing AI.
Most stupid of all is the release for the docking clamp. They designed it like the nuclear self-destruct in Alien and even write "nuclear bolt" on the screen. It's just a docking clamp. Nostalgia-mining is so dumb sometimes.
Making Amanda Ripley the protagonist was a mistake. Now I have to think she went through this big adventure when I watch that short scene in the Special Edition of Aliens. Actually, who am I kidding? The theatrical cut is the default. It's a better cut. Ripley didn't have a daughter, because if she did she'd be the worst mother for leaving her for months or years on end. Also makes Newt feel like a weird replacement and makes the mother-daughter theme too on the noise. It's not like Ellen Ripley needs that motivation to protect Newt, after they bonded. A good adult should do that anyway.
Most stupid of all is the release for the docking clamp. They designed it like the nuclear self-destruct in Alien and even write "nuclear bolt" on the screen. It's just a docking clamp. Nostalgia-mining is so dumb sometimes.
Making Amanda Ripley the protagonist was a mistake. Now I have to think she went through this big adventure when I watch that short scene in the Special Edition of Aliens. Actually, who am I kidding? The theatrical cut is the default. It's a better cut. Ripley didn't have a daughter, because if she did she'd be the worst mother for leaving her for months or years on end. Also makes Newt feel like a weird replacement and makes the mother-daughter theme too on the noise. It's not like Ellen Ripley needs that motivation to protect Newt, after they bonded. A good adult should do that anyway.
Last edited: