Yeah, I heard about that. Seems they're even letting people who aren't up to Sumeru in the MSQ in on that deal too, which is pretty nice for them.
What are you currently playing?
- Thread starter Nick Calandra
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F.E.A.R.
I’m at the end of Interval 05 after checking a walkthrough, and I’ve been playing here and there since like 2016 lol. At least that’s what my earliest saves show, and the last time I played was apparently January 2018. I like it but I’m pretty sure the main reason it’s taking so long is because it’s been repetitive as all hell. 99% of the game takes place in some type of office building.
Fun gunplay too but I would prefer if your movement was normal speed during slo-mo stuff. The atmosphere goes a long way considering how samey the maps are. At least the level design has some thought put into it, but OTOH it’s kinda easy to get disoriented when nearly everything is labyrinthine office spaces veiled in darkness. IIRC I cfg’d the flashlight so it recharges almost instantly, so that helps. Speaking of, what kind of flashlight loses power so quickly anyways? Maybe it’s Alma playing tricks.
I’m at the end of Interval 05 after checking a walkthrough, and I’ve been playing here and there since like 2016 lol. At least that’s what my earliest saves show, and the last time I played was apparently January 2018. I like it but I’m pretty sure the main reason it’s taking so long is because it’s been repetitive as all hell. 99% of the game takes place in some type of office building.
Fun gunplay too but I would prefer if your movement was normal speed during slo-mo stuff. The atmosphere goes a long way considering how samey the maps are. At least the level design has some thought put into it, but OTOH it’s kinda easy to get disoriented when nearly everything is labyrinthine office spaces veiled in darkness. IIRC I cfg’d the flashlight so it recharges almost instantly, so that helps. Speaking of, what kind of flashlight loses power so quickly anyways? Maybe it’s Alma playing tricks.
After a long weekend without video games doing lame IRL stuff with like actual people, the potential hankering for time-sucking RPG nonsense kicked into full gear and I started
Pillars of Eternity
This is the console release of a CRPG that was explicitly inspired by Baldur's Gate et al. And as the intro kicked in I realized I had actually started this once before and forgot, lol. I must have quit real quick in a mood because in one session I made it past the intro (I think?) and am in a village and inn already. It's because I put it in easy. I think the reason I'm more into it at least for now is that I really steeled myself for the bullshit part of this game- the menus, all the menus, inventory and journal and maps and crap. I'm here for it now!
Playing on easy mode, though, because I am primarily interested in the story. For the character creation I mostly just went with defaults so I can get into the action ASAP.
I'm gonna see how far I can get without looking stuff up too much, I hope, I don't really care about CONTENT or achievements, I just want wizardry and creatures and other nerd stuff in my life right now.
Pillars of Eternity
This is the console release of a CRPG that was explicitly inspired by Baldur's Gate et al. And as the intro kicked in I realized I had actually started this once before and forgot, lol. I must have quit real quick in a mood because in one session I made it past the intro (I think?) and am in a village and inn already. It's because I put it in easy. I think the reason I'm more into it at least for now is that I really steeled myself for the bullshit part of this game- the menus, all the menus, inventory and journal and maps and crap. I'm here for it now!
Playing on easy mode, though, because I am primarily interested in the story. For the character creation I mostly just went with defaults so I can get into the action ASAP.
I'm gonna see how far I can get without looking stuff up too much, I hope, I don't really care about CONTENT or achievements, I just want wizardry and creatures and other nerd stuff in my life right now.
After hearing how great it was for the past couple of decades, I decided to go back and finally try Psychonauts (free with Game Pass.) While I can see where the charm might be there in doses, I don't think this is one that has aged well.
Foremost, for a platformer, it's platforming fucking SUCKS. It makes the cardinal sin of basing its core gameplay around something it does very poorly. Raz slides everywhere and there's a noticeable delay between my input for "jump" and his actually jumping. And the double jump? Well, more often than I'd like, that second input doesn't register at all. And he doesn't jump very high or far; even with a double jump, the height gained is nominal to the effect that could have just omitted the double jump altogether and made his basic jump worth a damn. Those few missteps have led to great amounts of frustration when I know exactly where to go and HOW to get there, but the game finds me sliding off a narrow platform or doesn't register me landing at all, over/undershooting jumps and plummets me back down to the bottom to make the ascent again and again until the stars align and the game and I find ourselves on the same page.
Another irksome point is the exposition. Maybe I've lost patience with these types of games or outgrown them, but when the game stops every 2 minutes for expositive cutscenes, you lose me; I fall off from indifference into full-on "I don't care; please shut up."
As for the action, I've made it through two of the main encounters so far, and both served as little more than heavily protracted tutorials. I got the gist after the first minute or so, how many more waves of guys beat or platforms need I traverse before I can move along?
I know complaining about a 17-year-old game is pissing in the wind, but I just expected, I dunno, more. I don't no what more of, but certainly not what I've got so far. Perhaps not having played the game back in its day, I'm missing the nostalgia as for me it's just an old game a lot of people love(d).
Foremost, for a platformer, it's platforming fucking SUCKS. It makes the cardinal sin of basing its core gameplay around something it does very poorly. Raz slides everywhere and there's a noticeable delay between my input for "jump" and his actually jumping. And the double jump? Well, more often than I'd like, that second input doesn't register at all. And he doesn't jump very high or far; even with a double jump, the height gained is nominal to the effect that could have just omitted the double jump altogether and made his basic jump worth a damn. Those few missteps have led to great amounts of frustration when I know exactly where to go and HOW to get there, but the game finds me sliding off a narrow platform or doesn't register me landing at all, over/undershooting jumps and plummets me back down to the bottom to make the ascent again and again until the stars align and the game and I find ourselves on the same page.
Another irksome point is the exposition. Maybe I've lost patience with these types of games or outgrown them, but when the game stops every 2 minutes for expositive cutscenes, you lose me; I fall off from indifference into full-on "I don't care; please shut up."
As for the action, I've made it through two of the main encounters so far, and both served as little more than heavily protracted tutorials. I got the gist after the first minute or so, how many more waves of guys beat or platforms need I traverse before I can move along?
I know complaining about a 17-year-old game is pissing in the wind, but I just expected, I dunno, more. I don't no what more of, but certainly not what I've got so far. Perhaps not having played the game back in its day, I'm missing the nostalgia as for me it's just an old game a lot of people love(d).
To be fair, it's fairly tutorial heavy early on. Later it lets you wander around the camp and collect stuff, power up your abilites and the real good stuff comes a little later on when you get to do the stages like the milkman conspiracy, Waterloo world and Black Velvetopia.
Though to be fair I haven't played it since around the time it came out so honestly It could be a lot worse then I remember it being. At some point when I'm in the mood I'm gonna replay Psychonauts and play Psychonauts 2 back to back and see how it all shakes out.
Double Fines stuff is really hit and miss it seems. Psychonauts is considered good or great, Brutal Legend is really good for at least the first half and possibly a lot less good in the second when there's a very noted shift in the gameplay from action adventure to 3rd person RTS and Broken Age had this really wierd thing where it was really good except when it totally wasn't(notably around the 2nd half where the twist ending of act 1 totally isn't supported by anything you learn in act 2). And of course, you have to be onboard with DF's brand of humor and quirk to really get into it. THen there was one game they just abandoned on the internet before finishing it and told the fans to deal with it.
Man, remembering Brutal Legend makes me wish it had really been done differently.
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I'm going to stick it out a bit longer, maybe even finish it, but my expectations have been thoroughly tempered. At this point, I'm willing to settle if the frustrating bits are just few and far between enough to be tolerable; if they start coming in droves or if every precious resource I need is atop a tower or series of platform that take 2 minutes to traverse, but 2 seconds to fail, fall and start over, and that's happening every couple of minutes, I'm calling it quits.
Saints Row, the newie one. Apart from the buggy nature of this release, I don't get why so many are going hard on this. It's brought a couple of chuckles and the posh British woman voice character has really grown on me, especially with those wonderfully pronounced swear words at opportune moments. Tbh, I like the characters more than anyone from the very 1st saints row. In fact, it took me till the third SR game before I started to see them as somewhat human enough to care about. It's a bit of cheery breezy fun for now at least.
I think the most fair reviews have basically said that if you already are into what Saints Row is offering, you're gonna get some fun out of it, and if you're not you won't. That was Marty Sliva's 3MR and I think AV Club.
I started two games I would never have paid for beyond my subscription and dropped off so, you know, no harm no foul.
Pillars of Eternity
Yeah I was wanting some RPG nerdity but.. then I wasn't. It's ok. I can recognize there's a deep wonderful story in here but every reason I dropped off of these games came flooding into my brain and I'll leave it to those with more patience.
Ninja Gaiden Sigma
Yeah ok it's hard but that's fine. There's also an easy mode which I used so I was able to get through the prologue and first chapter and a couple of boss fights. The reason I'm dropping off is that the main reason is hard is that I'm fighting with the camera, not the ninjas. The camera is so bad that I almost regret all my complaints about From Software games. Almost. The camera is just wild and the beginning of the game has lots of fights in narrow corridors so I'm staring at walls while getting chopped up. Then even worse is they introduce dudes on horses riding around so I have to chase and avoid them while the camera is somewhere else and I dunno.
Well both games are really just trying their best to recreate older experiences in modern technology and it's not easy so I'm not crapping on them, it's just not for me. Like I'm playing a mimic of something. Pillars is a CRPG, it's basically Baldur's Gate or whatever, and they do an impressive job of translating an experience intended for sitting at a desk with kb+m into couch controller play. Ninja Gaiden is like from the 20-30yrs ago? So this is an update/remake/remaster and I'm sure it's as good as it can be.
But, you know, I'd rather play something made for the technology I'm using and more recent. Still I do recommend either of these for those looking for a true RPG or nostalgia action trip, respectively.
Pillars of Eternity
Yeah I was wanting some RPG nerdity but.. then I wasn't. It's ok. I can recognize there's a deep wonderful story in here but every reason I dropped off of these games came flooding into my brain and I'll leave it to those with more patience.
Ninja Gaiden Sigma
Yeah ok it's hard but that's fine. There's also an easy mode which I used so I was able to get through the prologue and first chapter and a couple of boss fights. The reason I'm dropping off is that the main reason is hard is that I'm fighting with the camera, not the ninjas. The camera is so bad that I almost regret all my complaints about From Software games. Almost. The camera is just wild and the beginning of the game has lots of fights in narrow corridors so I'm staring at walls while getting chopped up. Then even worse is they introduce dudes on horses riding around so I have to chase and avoid them while the camera is somewhere else and I dunno.
Well both games are really just trying their best to recreate older experiences in modern technology and it's not easy so I'm not crapping on them, it's just not for me. Like I'm playing a mimic of something. Pillars is a CRPG, it's basically Baldur's Gate or whatever, and they do an impressive job of translating an experience intended for sitting at a desk with kb+m into couch controller play. Ninja Gaiden is like from the 20-30yrs ago? So this is an update/remake/remaster and I'm sure it's as good as it can be.
But, you know, I'd rather play something made for the technology I'm using and more recent. Still I do recommend either of these for those looking for a true RPG or nostalgia action trip, respectively.
So I've been playing a fair bit of Diablo Immortal. As in, "proper playing," with it my primary focus. Up to the end of the Shassar Sea, and now the game requires me to do grinding to progress into the Library of Zoltun Kulle (because god forbid you play the game your way). This isn't really the first time I've commented on it, but I don't see my opinion changing much, so here's the sitch:
-The monetization system is either going to be the worst thing about the game, or a completely non-issue, depending on how you want to play. If you want to become the most powerful kid on the block, you can either grind your arse off, or splurge on currency to buy stuff that allows you to get better chances of getting other stuff, or in some cases, buy the stuff directly. There's nothing gameplay-wise that's gated off, but you can get a sense of what's what. If, on the other hand, you just want to play the game, not buy anything, and not do anything related to PvP, then it's a non-issue -gear, XP, gold, etc., all of that drops at a solid rate, and I've already got my first legendary item. So, on one hand, the monetization is objectively terrible, but on the other, it's completely avoidable, so you can either pick your poison, or pick not to have poison.
-When it comes to the gameplay, this can basically be thought of as having the combat system of D3 (left click to attack, special abilities mapped to numbers, with the player only able to equip so many at a time), but streamlined, and bearing in mind, D3 was already streamlined compared to D2. Skill runes are gone, for instance. The itemization is streamlined. The levelling system is streamlined. IMO, to its detriment.
-It isn't just that - the gameplay loop is streamlined as well. And like the above point, I get why - this was designed as a mobile game, and likely designed to be played in short segments, given how short quests are, how linear the questline is, and how small zones are compared to D2/D3. It's not bad, per se, but just, well, "dumbed down." And I hate using that term, I don't think streamlining is bad per se (hence why I like D3 more than D1/D2 for instance), but it's hard to get invested into a setting when it's so barren. With the exception of Westmarch, very little in Immortal feels like part of a living world. This even trickles into NPC interactions and the like. Do you like chatting with NPCs outside the main questline? Did you like the character band in D3? The tomes that fleshed out the world? Well, too bad, you're not getting them here. FFS, this even extends to the item descriptions - D3's item flavor text fleshed out the setting, and sometimes told mini-narratives over the course of a single set, but nothing like that exists here.
And again, I get why that's the case. But, well, yeah. But with that being said, is there anything I DO like? Well, I'm glad you asked Little Jimmy (not really), because I'll give credit where it's due, in that:
-When it comes to the story, things are ultra-streamlined, with your character being funneled from one objective to the next. Still, the moment-to-moment writing is...well, it's nothing special, but it's servicable, and unequivocably buoyed by its voice acting. This is ironic, having come off from XC2, which is a case of mostly solid writing let down by hit-or-miss voice acting, whereas here, it's a case of average writing buoyed by above-average voice acting. It's actually kind of impressive how much characterization your toon gets, and this extends to the NPCs as well. In Ashwold, Alyssa, Hemlir, and Liene die in quick succession for instance, and all made some impact on me (especially Liene, which is entirely down to the voice acting). Similarly in the Shassar Sea - I can't call Tabri or Zov "deep" characters by any means, but there's enough characterization packed in that they're certainly defined characters. It kind of reminds me of the divide between D1/D2 & D3 - is it better to have a small group of characters that are well fleshed out, or is it better to have a wide array of characters that are moderately fleshed out? This being an ARPG (sort of - I maintain that Immortal isn't really an RPG, but rather a hack n' slash that has RPG elements), I imagine many people don't care, but well, I'm the person who pours over character and setting lore in MOBAs FFS, analyzing story and characters is my jam.
So, yeah. Is Immortal a good game? So far, no. It's pretty shallow, really. Is it a bad game? Not really - if you really want to go the full mile with gems and such, then it could be, since you're faced with the P2W elements, or grinding your arse off, but if you don't care about that, then said elements are a non-issue. However, it's easily the weakest Diablo game I've played. And TBH, I don't see that assessment changing.
-The monetization system is either going to be the worst thing about the game, or a completely non-issue, depending on how you want to play. If you want to become the most powerful kid on the block, you can either grind your arse off, or splurge on currency to buy stuff that allows you to get better chances of getting other stuff, or in some cases, buy the stuff directly. There's nothing gameplay-wise that's gated off, but you can get a sense of what's what. If, on the other hand, you just want to play the game, not buy anything, and not do anything related to PvP, then it's a non-issue -gear, XP, gold, etc., all of that drops at a solid rate, and I've already got my first legendary item. So, on one hand, the monetization is objectively terrible, but on the other, it's completely avoidable, so you can either pick your poison, or pick not to have poison.
-When it comes to the gameplay, this can basically be thought of as having the combat system of D3 (left click to attack, special abilities mapped to numbers, with the player only able to equip so many at a time), but streamlined, and bearing in mind, D3 was already streamlined compared to D2. Skill runes are gone, for instance. The itemization is streamlined. The levelling system is streamlined. IMO, to its detriment.
-It isn't just that - the gameplay loop is streamlined as well. And like the above point, I get why - this was designed as a mobile game, and likely designed to be played in short segments, given how short quests are, how linear the questline is, and how small zones are compared to D2/D3. It's not bad, per se, but just, well, "dumbed down." And I hate using that term, I don't think streamlining is bad per se (hence why I like D3 more than D1/D2 for instance), but it's hard to get invested into a setting when it's so barren. With the exception of Westmarch, very little in Immortal feels like part of a living world. This even trickles into NPC interactions and the like. Do you like chatting with NPCs outside the main questline? Did you like the character band in D3? The tomes that fleshed out the world? Well, too bad, you're not getting them here. FFS, this even extends to the item descriptions - D3's item flavor text fleshed out the setting, and sometimes told mini-narratives over the course of a single set, but nothing like that exists here.
And again, I get why that's the case. But, well, yeah. But with that being said, is there anything I DO like? Well, I'm glad you asked Little Jimmy (not really), because I'll give credit where it's due, in that:
-When it comes to the story, things are ultra-streamlined, with your character being funneled from one objective to the next. Still, the moment-to-moment writing is...well, it's nothing special, but it's servicable, and unequivocably buoyed by its voice acting. This is ironic, having come off from XC2, which is a case of mostly solid writing let down by hit-or-miss voice acting, whereas here, it's a case of average writing buoyed by above-average voice acting. It's actually kind of impressive how much characterization your toon gets, and this extends to the NPCs as well. In Ashwold, Alyssa, Hemlir, and Liene die in quick succession for instance, and all made some impact on me (especially Liene, which is entirely down to the voice acting). Similarly in the Shassar Sea - I can't call Tabri or Zov "deep" characters by any means, but there's enough characterization packed in that they're certainly defined characters. It kind of reminds me of the divide between D1/D2 & D3 - is it better to have a small group of characters that are well fleshed out, or is it better to have a wide array of characters that are moderately fleshed out? This being an ARPG (sort of - I maintain that Immortal isn't really an RPG, but rather a hack n' slash that has RPG elements), I imagine many people don't care, but well, I'm the person who pours over character and setting lore in MOBAs FFS, analyzing story and characters is my jam.
So, yeah. Is Immortal a good game? So far, no. It's pretty shallow, really. Is it a bad game? Not really - if you really want to go the full mile with gems and such, then it could be, since you're faced with the P2W elements, or grinding your arse off, but if you don't care about that, then said elements are a non-issue. However, it's easily the weakest Diablo game I've played. And TBH, I don't see that assessment changing.
Finally finished up Persona 5. It really says something about that game that I spent over 80 hours on my first playthrough, and I'm torn about whether to do a New Game Plus or play a different game instead. If you are into JRPG's at all and somehow managed to avoid playing Persona 5 until now (you know, like me), HIGHLY recommend it.
That's a game I really want to play but man I hear a lot of people bouncing off of it early and it does not bode well for when I plan to take a crack at it...someday.
Anyway, Still cracking at Dragon Age: Origins. Haven't made too much progress because Ive been busy this week with back to school stuff for the kiddo and trying to paint my porch, but I decided to take a break at Lothering and run through the origin stories of the other 5 guys other then my City Elf Rogue I'm going to play through as. I've done Mage, Dalish Elf and I'm doing the Human Noble(which is the only Human specific one). It's interesting there's no Human Commoner but apparently there were plans to do one and they ran out of time to implement. While it's annoying to get the same tutorial pop ups every time, I do dig the fact that the origins allow you to get 6 different perspectives on Thedas culture and politics without being too lore dumpy or distracting about it. I mean you can get into a bunch of long conversations about your particular form of culture for that origin but it doesn't seem required. And the world building pretty good, honestly. The whole balancing act with the Mages and the Templars and everyone else is pretty interesting and the constant references to the previous civilization that apparently abused the shit out of magic and IF the stories are true, created the Darkspawn and are the reason Mages aren't really trusted.
Also, I'm so glad the XBOX360/PS3 era is gone because I really do NOT miss that "BROWN and TAN and MUD" color palette that generation was weirdly obsessed with. It's okay to have bright colors, guys. Bright colors are nice to look at and they age a hell of a lot better than what these guys were doing.
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Pillar of eternity is pretty decent as CRPG, but it doesn't have the greatest start and it does tend to throw a lot of stuff at the player at the start. The sequel is better about that and even though its a direct sequel you don't really need to know much about the first to play it. It's nothing amazing but its fun and they actually made their own RPG system rather than akwardly try to adapt a pen and paper one (a la baldur gate godamn TACO).
For dragon age, the previous civilization is still around, think of the roman empire after the schism, the game take place in the former western roman empire while the eastern one is still very much alive (and getting its ass kicked by the mongol). Supposedly the next dragon age takes place in it.
Made it past the infamous brick-wall boss Gattuso in Tales of Vesperia, on my first try, without lowering the difficulty... but it really isn't that much of a flex because I had to use all of my healing items to do it, including about 10 revives. Supposedly it was made really strong to make it seem unbeatable in the demo version and they forgot to change it back in the proper release, but it could just be an intentional difficulty spike. Either way, it's doable with either a proper set of AI commands and knowing when to call them out, or (according to a post I found) just having Rita throw a lot of Fireballs.
I forgot just how much I love the party's dynamic with each other; they argue a lot, and they all keep secrets, but not to the point of being dysfunctional or grating. And the way those conversations and arguments develop makes it pretty believable that this ragtag bunch of misfits could become a serious team in the future. A couple parts of the game show their age, especially in the animation department, but I think it's still a pretty great game, and I'd recommend it if more people on this forum liked JRPGs.
I forgot just how much I love the party's dynamic with each other; they argue a lot, and they all keep secrets, but not to the point of being dysfunctional or grating. And the way those conversations and arguments develop makes it pretty believable that this ragtag bunch of misfits could become a serious team in the future. A couple parts of the game show their age, especially in the animation department, but I think it's still a pretty great game, and I'd recommend it if more people on this forum liked JRPGs.
Spartan: Total Warrior finished. Honestly, it's weird how closely this game follows God of War considering it only released half a year after. But I guess some things are only natural if you are making an action game about an ancient Greek warrior. Like fighting the hydra, minotaur and gorgon. And who else would be a final boss other than Ares?
Speaking of whom, Ares was very annoying and very difficult. He has a tremendous amount of health, blocks your magic and rage attacks, has a grab and throw attack after you hit him a couple times, and worst of all, periodically summons minions including ones that explode on death and have the capability to wipe around 70% of your health! They can also damage other minions, but most of my deaths were a result of those buggers. It took around 2 hours of attempt to beat him, after 20 minutes of regular mission of course.
Overall, the game was somewhat fun at times. Mowing down hundreds of enemies is satisfying as always, and groups aren't usually too much of a challenge once you learn that you can turn them all to stone with the gorgon shield and then take them out really fast with Athena's blades, getting most of your magic back in the process. That works great against the really dodgy and blocky enemies that are just a pain to fight normally. The story is completely throw away, though. Silly plot and voice acting. It's kind of funny in its camp, however. The combat is a little janky and repetitive, and that's the main drawback in an action game. God of War did it better, first.
Speaking of whom, Ares was very annoying and very difficult. He has a tremendous amount of health, blocks your magic and rage attacks, has a grab and throw attack after you hit him a couple times, and worst of all, periodically summons minions including ones that explode on death and have the capability to wipe around 70% of your health! They can also damage other minions, but most of my deaths were a result of those buggers. It took around 2 hours of attempt to beat him, after 20 minutes of regular mission of course.
Overall, the game was somewhat fun at times. Mowing down hundreds of enemies is satisfying as always, and groups aren't usually too much of a challenge once you learn that you can turn them all to stone with the gorgon shield and then take them out really fast with Athena's blades, getting most of your magic back in the process. That works great against the really dodgy and blocky enemies that are just a pain to fight normally. The story is completely throw away, though. Silly plot and voice acting. It's kind of funny in its camp, however. The combat is a little janky and repetitive, and that's the main drawback in an action game. God of War did it better, first.
Last time I tried playing trough the game I set the difficulty at hardest and that boss hard block me. So weird to have such a random unimportant boss literally be the hardest fight in the entire game, including optional boss. But overall gameplay wise Vesperia is not that great and this boss really show this, the companion AI is dumb so you gotta babysit them and there's not enough gameplay system to make it interesting.
Yeah with Pillars it's just, I'm not in the mood for that sort of thing and even though I had a brief hankering/nostalgia for it I realized how brief it was when I saw all those menus and inventories. Seriously just I don't want to deal with inventories. I could tell there's a great game in there for younger me or those still willing and eager for SYSTEMS and party management and... zzzzz...
Instead, what I'm in the mood for is..
Bloodroots
Holy cow what a fun game! I vaguely remembered this getting some decent reviews and then like no one talks about but, my dudes... why?!
Ok so you know how everyone loves Neon White because each level is these quick little speed-runny things you can restart quickly and then replay for improved style points, with leaderboards and a fun art style? Ok so Bloodroots is that but with more of an emphasis on combat then platforming.
But here's the appeal of the combat in this game- everybody including you gets killed in one shot. So each little area is like a playground of mayhem- you got a bunch of enemies and more importantly pretty much everything is a weapon. Hatchets, swords, wagon wheels, barrels, carts, carrots, chairs, decorative plastic flamingos, beach balls, harpoons, and so far my favorite ladders. I am a death with a ladder, lemme tell y'all, like Jackie Chan in Super Cop.
Art style is kinda like Guacamele I guess? I mean it's indy, so very simple, bright colors and that's fine because so far I have no trouble seeing stuff (this is my biggest problems with most games, I just can't tell what's going on what with all the fps and darkness and browns or, the other extreme, flashing neon everything, what Girlfiend Reviews calls "diarrhea christmas lights.") The goal in each area is simply to kill everybody and some "weapons" include navigation elements- so pretty much Neon White inverted- and if you're clever or git gud you can string together some pretty stylish kills sequences.
My one big annoyance is the platforming, it is like 2.5D I guess, so sometimes I have to jump up or across stuff and I can't tell where I'm going. I just have a real struggle with 3d platforming, like Frogun is my biggest nightmare I won't touch that. But that won't be a problem for most I imagine.
This is just a lot of fun- I go to an area, I run around smashing and killing, getting killed or falling off, trying again and so far not getting too mad when I die (this is key!). I don't know/care if I even finish it, I'm just glad to find a game that is just a cool game. And the whole style points thing obviously invites tons of replay for those that are into that.
Instead, what I'm in the mood for is..
Bloodroots
Holy cow what a fun game! I vaguely remembered this getting some decent reviews and then like no one talks about but, my dudes... why?!
Ok so you know how everyone loves Neon White because each level is these quick little speed-runny things you can restart quickly and then replay for improved style points, with leaderboards and a fun art style? Ok so Bloodroots is that but with more of an emphasis on combat then platforming.
But here's the appeal of the combat in this game- everybody including you gets killed in one shot. So each little area is like a playground of mayhem- you got a bunch of enemies and more importantly pretty much everything is a weapon. Hatchets, swords, wagon wheels, barrels, carts, carrots, chairs, decorative plastic flamingos, beach balls, harpoons, and so far my favorite ladders. I am a death with a ladder, lemme tell y'all, like Jackie Chan in Super Cop.
Art style is kinda like Guacamele I guess? I mean it's indy, so very simple, bright colors and that's fine because so far I have no trouble seeing stuff (this is my biggest problems with most games, I just can't tell what's going on what with all the fps and darkness and browns or, the other extreme, flashing neon everything, what Girlfiend Reviews calls "diarrhea christmas lights.") The goal in each area is simply to kill everybody and some "weapons" include navigation elements- so pretty much Neon White inverted- and if you're clever or git gud you can string together some pretty stylish kills sequences.
My one big annoyance is the platforming, it is like 2.5D I guess, so sometimes I have to jump up or across stuff and I can't tell where I'm going. I just have a real struggle with 3d platforming, like Frogun is my biggest nightmare I won't touch that. But that won't be a problem for most I imagine.
This is just a lot of fun- I go to an area, I run around smashing and killing, getting killed or falling off, trying again and so far not getting too mad when I die (this is key!). I don't know/care if I even finish it, I'm just glad to find a game that is just a cool game. And the whole style points thing obviously invites tons of replay for those that are into that.
Been having fun wandering around the player hub in Splatoon 3. Character creator is pretty good
There's almost no inventory management since 95% of what you get is vendor trash or crafting mats that can just stay in your inventory forever. PoE 2 goes a bit further and every item that's worth looking at it is highlighted as such and you get maybe 1-2 per dungeon.