No worries. I got other games on my play list. Moonrider comes out next week.
What are you currently playing?
- Thread starter Nick Calandra
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A bit into the first Zero Escape game. I've made my second major choice.
So far I'm not feeling it. The puzzles are a bit too simple and once I've figured them out and is about to do the last steps to solving them I missclick and is immediately treated to a piece of dialogue that more or less says "Hey, here's a hint the size of a mountain of what to do.". Though that might just be because I've already figured it out that I find it annoying.
The premise means that the characters are strangers to each others, which means there are no established dynamics. I kind of wish there were; as is there are instances where some people insult each other which felt mean without any pre established relationship to justify it. Apart from that, it seems several of the characters have a Wikipedia article each that they managed to memorize before getting in this situation and they talk a fair bit in terms of the strategy of surviving, like participants in the reality TV series Survivor. None of which really showcases their humanity.
The graphics are also underwhelming. The Myst-style environments look like they were rendered ages ago, and the character portraits looks a bit off.
I'm gonna write in spoilers some speculation of what I think:
The first thing that happens is that the people are told that "if you disobey the rules I've laid out you're gonna explode". Immediately after this a participant panics, disobeys the rules and explodes behind closed doors. I think that guy was a plant, the carcass they discovered was not his but added to make sure they will follow the rules, in a piece of acting on his end.
There are also talks about "You don't know who you can trust.". I hope the game does not go down that route, of a surprise traitor or what have you.
So far I'm not feeling it. The puzzles are a bit too simple and once I've figured them out and is about to do the last steps to solving them I missclick and is immediately treated to a piece of dialogue that more or less says "Hey, here's a hint the size of a mountain of what to do.". Though that might just be because I've already figured it out that I find it annoying.
The premise means that the characters are strangers to each others, which means there are no established dynamics. I kind of wish there were; as is there are instances where some people insult each other which felt mean without any pre established relationship to justify it. Apart from that, it seems several of the characters have a Wikipedia article each that they managed to memorize before getting in this situation and they talk a fair bit in terms of the strategy of surviving, like participants in the reality TV series Survivor. None of which really showcases their humanity.
The graphics are also underwhelming. The Myst-style environments look like they were rendered ages ago, and the character portraits looks a bit off.
I'm gonna write in spoilers some speculation of what I think:
The first thing that happens is that the people are told that "if you disobey the rules I've laid out you're gonna explode". Immediately after this a participant panics, disobeys the rules and explodes behind closed doors. I think that guy was a plant, the carcass they discovered was not his but added to make sure they will follow the rules, in a piece of acting on his end.
There are also talks about "You don't know who you can trust.". I hope the game does not go down that route, of a surprise traitor or what have you.
Having made it to Redcliffe for the first time since 2015 (if I remember correctly), I'm happy to say I'm finally getting into groove with Dragon Age Origins. Once the initial setup is done, it's finally getting more interesting than "nebulous world-ending evil threat must be stopped by legendary heroes". A zombie-infested castle where you can't really be sure who is the culprit and who to trust is much more engaging, and is making me actively consider my dialogue choices. The easy mode feels just right, putting up enough of a fight that I have to pay attention in combat, but not so much that I have to stupidly be chugging healing potions every 5 seconds. I still don't like it: it feels like I'm looking at everything but what's actually happening and I have serious issues with the camera and certain skills (the windup on Pinning Shot is like 5 years, and by the time the character fires it the target you were hoping to stop will already be nuzzling up to your molars, making it pointless), but it's tolerable enough. The pace of the game feels nicely relaxed and straightforward.
Morrigan deserves a fedora mod though. Parts of her dialogue were close to making me groan with their reddit atheist-ness.
Morrigan deserves a fedora mod though. Parts of her dialogue were close to making me groan with their reddit atheist-ness.
I get Morrigan being the way she is because of her upbringing but yeah, she has a bad tendency to dip deep into contrarian asshole territory a lot. It's not just "We need to be pragmatic to beat the darkspawn" but "Why are you helping the less fortunate? They'll never learn if you help them!" selfishness she has a tendency to exhibit is really offputting.
There's a choice later on that she advises you take, despite the suffering it would inflict in the process on others. You can propose she undergo the same thing and suddenly she's not nearly as game for it, because it affects her directly.
Sten to some extent as well though Sten gets more of a pass for not really understanding the culture very much and what we later learn about the Qunari as being extremely caste based and collective-centered his attitude seems less obnoxious in context.
Construction Simulator - Free trial (ain't gambling god-fearing cash on these murky jobbos)
If it's free, it's worth trying! [insert many asterisks here] So it made sense to waste a spare 2 hours seeing if this trial could live up to the sheer frigid obligation the cover and description promised.
Not gonna waste your time here, it's awful, and Snowrunners is probably the game you were meaning to get. Got to shovel the first pile of dirt into the first shovel tractor for the training mission and just quit n deleted cause it were plain amateurish, washed out, weightless, unintuitive gloopy glitchy boredom. Perhaps it may appeal to those who dislike the mud/tyre physics in Snowrunners - to whom I disappointingly shake my head at in the way old conservatives do when they see a stranger with face tattoos.
An hour of the 2 hour trial I played was wasted on the menu screen only cause I got distracted by some phone bullshit and forgot the menu screen counts toward the time. That hour of Schrödinger's zen was likely the most positive reception it could've hoped for, till the next 5 minutes of gameplay spilled out. So now I don't those data harvesting nazis getting the impression I was enjoying that first hour, I gotta make this clear on this obscure public forum: It were fuckin shite, mate!
If it's free, it's worth trying! [insert many asterisks here] So it made sense to waste a spare 2 hours seeing if this trial could live up to the sheer frigid obligation the cover and description promised.
Not gonna waste your time here, it's awful, and Snowrunners is probably the game you were meaning to get. Got to shovel the first pile of dirt into the first shovel tractor for the training mission and just quit n deleted cause it were plain amateurish, washed out, weightless, unintuitive gloopy glitchy boredom. Perhaps it may appeal to those who dislike the mud/tyre physics in Snowrunners - to whom I disappointingly shake my head at in the way old conservatives do when they see a stranger with face tattoos.
An hour of the 2 hour trial I played was wasted on the menu screen only cause I got distracted by some phone bullshit and forgot the menu screen counts toward the time. That hour of Schrödinger's zen was likely the most positive reception it could've hoped for, till the next 5 minutes of gameplay spilled out. So now I don't those data harvesting nazis getting the impression I was enjoying that first hour, I gotta make this clear on this obscure public forum: It were fuckin shite, mate!
Well, that's saves me time and money because I already have Snowrunners. Weeeeeee.
Got back into Evil West to do my Hard Mode run. I beat that leech boss and turns out I made it tougher than necessary. The lack of checkpoints for this one boss is still stupid, but thankfully, its health goes down fast when you're upgraded. I managed to get an achievement of beating the boss without killing its suicidal minions. I don't know if I will do Evil Difficulty, but it's something I might do later.
Still playing through the first Zero Escape game. I got my first ending. It was considered a Bad Ending by the game, and it asked me to play different routes to get the full story. Since you are meant to figure out the overarching plot, I'm gonna put in spoilers what I think so far. The things in the spoiler will only make sense if you've played the game.
The puzzles are honestly not interesting, but this meta thing of solving the overarching plot I am enjoying, hence why I put it into words here.
It has been established that one of the people of the test is Zero, the mysterious person arranging this game. My bad ending came with discovering the body of Lotus, and then getting stabbed in the back. As I lay dying, I saw the killer and felt nothing. The description and the achievement I got for the ending made me think the killer wanted Lotus' bracelet.
I am now trying to think out who Zero could be. And while I suspect analyzing the death of Lotus, who had the 8-bracelet, could be fruitful, there is a much earlier scene that I found more interesting: the death of Snake, with the bracelet number 2. He died by getting in the room 3 without deactivating the DEAD system.
For him to activate that door he would need a digital root of 3, which in his case would mean a sum of 12. In other words, whomever had him murdered must've had a sum of 10(or possibly 18, but that would require so many people that I suspect that is not it).
So it's either 1+9 or 2+8 or 3+7 or 4+6 or 5+5. 2+8 and 5+5 are literally impossible. 9 is dead. Of 3+7 and 4+6 I find the former more probable since 7 claims to have no memory, a convenient excuse, and 3 more shifty since he wondered if he's a bad or a good guy. And 6 is the love interest. I am currently leaning towards 1 being Zero. He could've picked up 9:s bracelet and killed 2 on his own. The fact that he was seemingly willing to sacrifice himself yet the other guys immediately came back was probably meant to make himself seem trustworthy in the eyes of the other participants. That also cuts the number of antagonists down to just one person, which from a writing perspective is easier to keep track of.
Why he wanted Lotus bracelet I don't know since it could have been anyone who after the exit door had been found figured "We have the exit, *I* can escape, murder is acceptable" regardless of who Zero is.
I am now trying to think out who Zero could be. And while I suspect analyzing the death of Lotus, who had the 8-bracelet, could be fruitful, there is a much earlier scene that I found more interesting: the death of Snake, with the bracelet number 2. He died by getting in the room 3 without deactivating the DEAD system.
For him to activate that door he would need a digital root of 3, which in his case would mean a sum of 12. In other words, whomever had him murdered must've had a sum of 10(or possibly 18, but that would require so many people that I suspect that is not it).
So it's either 1+9 or 2+8 or 3+7 or 4+6 or 5+5. 2+8 and 5+5 are literally impossible. 9 is dead. Of 3+7 and 4+6 I find the former more probable since 7 claims to have no memory, a convenient excuse, and 3 more shifty since he wondered if he's a bad or a good guy. And 6 is the love interest. I am currently leaning towards 1 being Zero. He could've picked up 9:s bracelet and killed 2 on his own. The fact that he was seemingly willing to sacrifice himself yet the other guys immediately came back was probably meant to make himself seem trustworthy in the eyes of the other participants. That also cuts the number of antagonists down to just one person, which from a writing perspective is easier to keep track of.
Why he wanted Lotus bracelet I don't know since it could have been anyone who after the exit door had been found figured "We have the exit, *I* can escape, murder is acceptable" regardless of who Zero is.
The puzzles are honestly not interesting, but this meta thing of solving the overarching plot I am enjoying, hence why I put it into words here.
Played and got a second ending. One with proper credits. The "submarine" ending. My thoughts in the spoiler.
After going with 8&7 through the doors I found out that 7 used to be a cop investigating the very ship we're on for a bunch of kids that had been kidnapped, and 8 is the mother of two of the aforementioned children. 7 feels less shifty now that I know his backstory.
Anyway, once we grouped up with the others, they were dead. 1, 3 and 4 lied in bloody piles, and I eventually found 6, dying in my arms. Once I got up, I found 7 & 8 dead, so EVERYONE was dead apart from me, and still at this point someone killed me.
One detail was mentioned in the narration that also was present in the previous ending: 8:s bracelet was stolen.
I am lost right now. Either Zero is an additional character walking around or someone faked their death. And the fact they needed 8:s bracelet specifically is throwing me off course. The need to reach the digital root of 9, which is the regular sum of either 9, 18 or 27. Subtraction by 8 suggests that Zero requires one of the sums of 1, 10 or 19. To get 1 they'd need 1+0. If Zero is a third party with a 0 bracelet then they ought to have picked up 1:s bracelet. To get 10, they need0+10, 1+9, 2+8, 3+7, 4+6 or 5+5, with the impossible struck out. 4+6 would mean that the love interest was the killer, which I suspect is not the case, although 4 has been acting weird, but given that her brother dies it makes sense. 1+9 is possible if 9 faked his death and stole 1:s bracelet... or if 1 already had taken 9 and is the true Zero, having faked his death. He did take a sedative to make him sleep earlier, so he could have been faking his death in this ending.
I am still leaning towards 1.
Anyway, once we grouped up with the others, they were dead. 1, 3 and 4 lied in bloody piles, and I eventually found 6, dying in my arms. Once I got up, I found 7 & 8 dead, so EVERYONE was dead apart from me, and still at this point someone killed me.
One detail was mentioned in the narration that also was present in the previous ending: 8:s bracelet was stolen.
I am lost right now. Either Zero is an additional character walking around or someone faked their death. And the fact they needed 8:s bracelet specifically is throwing me off course. The need to reach the digital root of 9, which is the regular sum of either 9, 18 or 27. Subtraction by 8 suggests that Zero requires one of the sums of 1, 10 or 19. To get 1 they'd need 1+0. If Zero is a third party with a 0 bracelet then they ought to have picked up 1:s bracelet. To get 10, they need
I am still leaning towards 1.
Going back to Doom Eternal for a bit, I think I could finally pinpoint why the Marauder (and by extension the final boss of the second DLC) is such a frustrating enemy. It's because fighting it is strictly reactive, whereas every other encounter is proactive. With any other enemy or grouping of enemies you dictate the terms of the encounter: what weapons to use, who to target, what to prioritize, how to maneuver and so on. Whereas with the Marauder literally the only tactic is to bait out an attack, and then counterattack. He decides when he's damaged, not you. While there are plenty of enemies with rock-paper-scissors type mechanics to deal with them (shoot the turret of the arachnotron, the guns off the Mancubus, grenades for Cacodemons etc.) they aren't the only way of dealing with those enemies, and you can ignore those mechanics altogether if you wish. With the Marauder I think the only way of damaging him outside of counterattacks is to make him block with his shield by shooting the BFG, and attacking him from the back while he's blocking. And even then I'm not sure if it works, I just saw that as a possibility.
Got myself a third ending. A "Bad Ending" without credits. It involved an axe.
Went to the captain's quarters with 4 & 1, and found the captain, dead, with a 0 bracelet.
Afterwards the 9 room had been discovered by the other group, and at 4:s insistence the only unexplored room 2 were to be explored. Afterwards 4 murdered 3, 6 & 7, offering to escape with me and the 0-bracelet she took from the captain. She claimed the murder was in revenge for her dead brother 2, and my hesistance led to my death.
In addition to this, she confided in me about how she reasons that 3&7 must have been her brother's killer, and I got no backstory from 1.
My earlier theory of 1 being the real killer stands. The fact that there was a bracelet with 0 free for the taking and the real Zero apparently needed a 8 bracelet means that if 1 is the killer the digital sum would be 0+1+8=9. It also stands since 1 left to talk with 8 about something, and the real Zero is apparently interested in 8:s bracelet.
Afterwards the 9 room had been discovered by the other group, and at 4:s insistence the only unexplored room 2 were to be explored. Afterwards 4 murdered 3, 6 & 7, offering to escape with me and the 0-bracelet she took from the captain. She claimed the murder was in revenge for her dead brother 2, and my hesistance led to my death.
In addition to this, she confided in me about how she reasons that 3&7 must have been her brother's killer, and I got no backstory from 1.
My earlier theory of 1 being the real killer stands. The fact that there was a bracelet with 0 free for the taking and the real Zero apparently needed a 8 bracelet means that if 1 is the killer the digital sum would be 0+1+8=9. It also stands since 1 left to talk with 8 about something, and the real Zero is apparently interested in 8:s bracelet.
Elden Ring.
I always bounced off Dark Souls. The games always felt unpleasantly hostile to the player and despite my best efforts to get into them they never stopped feeling like a chore. Still, my desire to understand what people see in these games hadn't subsided so I bought Elden Ring. I'm glad I did. Elden Ring is different. Elden Ring is fun. Elden Ring's world demands to be explored and is separated into easily digestible chunks of content. After eleven hours of play I haven't gotten lost once yet. Being able to teleport to any Site of Grace and generally putting item vendors right next to them makes building out your character with new equipment and abilities very simple. There are no overly long drags of dungeon before boss rooms (that I've found yet anyway). Combat also feels like less of a miserable slugfest although I'm not sure exactly what changes they made to achieve that. It's also one of the most well designed and interesting to traverse and explore open worlds that I've ever experienced.
I always bounced off Dark Souls. The games always felt unpleasantly hostile to the player and despite my best efforts to get into them they never stopped feeling like a chore. Still, my desire to understand what people see in these games hadn't subsided so I bought Elden Ring. I'm glad I did. Elden Ring is different. Elden Ring is fun. Elden Ring's world demands to be explored and is separated into easily digestible chunks of content. After eleven hours of play I haven't gotten lost once yet. Being able to teleport to any Site of Grace and generally putting item vendors right next to them makes building out your character with new equipment and abilities very simple. There are no overly long drags of dungeon before boss rooms (that I've found yet anyway). Combat also feels like less of a miserable slugfest although I'm not sure exactly what changes they made to achieve that. It's also one of the most well designed and interesting to traverse and explore open worlds that I've ever experienced.
Jumping and larger stamina bars. And suppose the faster pace to an extent, but that was already present in Dark Souls 3 and Bloodborne. In Dark Souls 1 and 2 you could get only a few attacks off against a boss before you ran out or they darted away, making attacking demand more caution. Dark Souls 3 reduced stamina costs across the board quite drastically and upped the pace quite a bit, and Elden Ring is pretty much the current endpoint of that evolution. Elden Ring's combat is closer to a shounen anime duel than the heavy, much more realistic combat of the original Dark Souls. I mean, the showiest thing any human-sized boss does in that game is a front flip when they attack, whereas in Elden Ring even the first boss jumps like 50 feet into the air and is doing crazy flips all over.
Axiom Verge 2
- It's a lot of fun the way gameplay evolves as you gain the ability to affect the world and enemies around you.
- The environments are certainly more diverse than in the first game.
- I like how obtuse the map is and the where do I go now moments. It's exactly the level of headscratcing I can tolerate/enjoy.
- The enemies suck. The first and most basic goomba type will never stop chasing and rushing you across the whole screen, sometimes will follow you across screens and remain in high alert even after leaving and returning. Boy are they annoying.
- The story seems even more throwaway than in the first game (and unrelated, despite the cliffhanger). And the dialogue is especially terrible. Everybody has the same "voice" (it's all written text) and sounds like a thirteen year old texting. It's not quite lolspeak but you know, you have people in their 40s through 50s (?) and scientists and ghosts and transdimensional entities and ancient Sumerian AI all speaking along the lines of "shut up", "dunno" and "whatever".
- Along those lines, I wish so many rewards for exploring weren't mere .docs. Even if the writing weren't internet forum grade, it would still feel as unrewarding.
- It's a lot of fun the way gameplay evolves as you gain the ability to affect the world and enemies around you.
- The environments are certainly more diverse than in the first game.
- I like how obtuse the map is and the where do I go now moments. It's exactly the level of headscratcing I can tolerate/enjoy.
- The enemies suck. The first and most basic goomba type will never stop chasing and rushing you across the whole screen, sometimes will follow you across screens and remain in high alert even after leaving and returning. Boy are they annoying.
- The story seems even more throwaway than in the first game (and unrelated, despite the cliffhanger). And the dialogue is especially terrible. Everybody has the same "voice" (it's all written text) and sounds like a thirteen year old texting. It's not quite lolspeak but you know, you have people in their 40s through 50s (?) and scientists and ghosts and transdimensional entities and ancient Sumerian AI all speaking along the lines of "shut up", "dunno" and "whatever".
- Along those lines, I wish so many rewards for exploring weren't mere .docs. Even if the writing weren't internet forum grade, it would still feel as unrewarding.
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Having the horse helps too, at least out in the overworld. Weapon ashes can also make much quicker work of anything in front of you with proper tuning. It doesn’t hurt that there’s a ton of variation now too, where even builds based on similar stats can feel very different. Bloodborne’s weapons are universally praised for their uniqueness and trick functions, but ER also has a lot of hidden gems among the typical Souls armory which can be tricked out in their own ways.
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I'm somewhere near the end of this. It's surprisingly long. Obviously the closest comparison would be Fire Emblem. What sets Symphony apart is that rather than fielding specific characters and growing them throughout the game you build squads with leaders. Leaders sometimes are In game characters, but the majority of your team is going to be mercenaries you find or hire throughout the game to lead the squads. Symphony is honestly a little too deep in this regard. Every single member of your army is a full character with stats traits, levels classes. The maximum number of squads you could potentially field is 15, but I think you can have something like 200 individual members. Unlike something like Labrynth of Refrain where you form groups that basically are just one character, this is a strategy RPG so squad content and growth is really important. You find yourself spending 20-30 minutes developing spear guy Brian towards samurai class so that you can pull him out of some junior squad and put him in a dedicated Archer samurai composition squad with range and defense. I was really engaged but I'm burning out near the end the end. I also think I love these games with so many micromanagement options, but it always breaks my back before I get to the end and Im too OCD to stop.
I beat this over the holiday. Ignore critics, I found the whole experience positively delightful and was thoroughly depressed when it was over, while acknowledging that were it any longer the mechanics would have outstayed their welcome. For those curious about the context, its mostly a kind of cat perspective point and click adventure game with a really immersive story and some mild action elements. I never really struggled with anything beyond the first music collecting puzzle.
My buddy bought me a PS5 for christmas so I finally broke down and started playing this. I've never really been interested in any of the God of War games and thought this was gonna be some kind of linear beatm up. Of course I was floored when the game opens up and is actually a pseudo open world branching game with a ton of interesting lore and borrows heavily from zelda and dark souls - mechanics style and atmosphere. I forget what scene it was, but theres an area that is almost literally copy/pasted from dark souls II, though speaking fairly it was more of a homage. Sadly due to my afore mentioned OCD I spent way too long searching every nook and cranny and solving every puzzle long before I'm supposed to, in some cases not knowing when it literally cant be solved until later in the game. I love the game, but now that I'm near the end I'm kinda burning out again. I wish I had a wrist buzzer or something that would alert me when its time to stop faffing about and move the game along.
Well then have fun with Ragnarok.
'What? We never said there wouldn't be a giant optional level at the tail end of the game.'
Saved the best for last as far as I'm concerned.Well then have fun with Ragnarok.
Eh, it's cool, but it feels completely devoid of any plot or character relevance. And at that point in the story it's a very odd fit. To be fair, most of the optional content feels rather disconnected, but at least those areas feel more like extensions to plot related areas. Though I'm not really a fan of the level design in Ragnarok in general. Feels more Kingdom Hearts/Ratchet and Clank and less Zelda/classic God of War.