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[Dalisclock]

Finished Earthbound. Spoilers for a 30 year old SNES game.

It does very much hold up from 1995, for the most part. They whimsy/quirky plays well with the fact the main characters are a group of 13 year olds going to save the world from cthulhu/satan. Which is also one of the reasons it stands out so much, the surrealism aspect of....well, everything. The plot itself it fairly tame, mostly being "Giygas is going to conquer the world and in 10 years from now has won. Stop him now" and "Find 8 power locations to do so". Every so often you get someone telling you Giygas is growing stronger(but is getting more afraid of you) and your annoying Neighbor Pokey/Porky, is on the bad guy side. But as the game goes one, Pokey apparently gets more and more competent(if not braver, because he always runs away from you) being able to advise an evil corpo, fly a helicopter, steal a time machine, and it's apparently implied he been abusing the shit out of time travel or something? Oh, and the other big bad is an evil statue someone dug up in the first town and it keeps showing up causing problems wherever you go until around the halfway point...and even then still shows up again as a late game boss.

But of course the most talked about part of this game comes in the late game, where you're finally ready to fight Giygas and find out that not only is he in the most remote place on earth, but apparently he's in the distant past(so much that you're not told how distant, so it could be eons), so essentially you need to turn yourselves into robots(or put your soul into robot bodies to go back in time to fight him). The whole thing is creepy and weird, and even the present version of the final dungeon(which you only see a little of) comes across as....OFF. And while the Giygas battle isn't as shocking as it was in 1995 due to how much it's been talked about, it's still very fucking different then anything else of that era or hell, I struggle to think of another game where you effectively fight cthulhu, in that you can't even understand what youre seeing and thus the screen is basically a jumbled psychedelic pattern mess. When you defeat him the screen effectively starts spazzing out before dropping you in the endgame.

The ending shifts back from "Holy Shit, what game am I playing?" back to "Chill as fuck". Two of the team leave the party and go home, you get letters from loved ones to pick up and read(and serve no other purpose), and all of the enemies vanish from the overworld. But even better, you can literally go visit everywhere but the final dungeon and just walk around unmolested talking to NPCs while calm pleasant music plays. Trying to call the various phone numbers will result in them all giving you a final amusing message(though your delivery service is now unavailable, so you can't get your bike back to ride it again). It's a nice feature to have. You literally only have to take paula home and then go home yourself, so if you want you can just teleport and end the game quickly, but I decided to enjoy the endgame and visit each of the locations again before riding the bus from Fourside to Twoson, making stops along the way to visit people before finally walking home to finish the game and after the Giygas battle was a nice wind down. Having played Mother 3 I appreciate it more because I know Mother 3 grows steadily more sad the further you get into it and there's no chill epilogue like Earthbound.

And I have to say, Itoi is a wierd, weird guy who honestly may not even know how video games work(apparently Satoru Iwata helped Itoi actually get the game into a playable state not long before release) but his very interesting take on what video games are or what he wants them to be no doubt explains why the Mother series is so memorable.

That being said, I still wish EarthBound had the ability to stack inventory items because holy shit is it annoying to realize you're STILL playing tetris with your inventory at the endgame and the storage locker you can use to store your excess shit fills up, so if your inventory fills up and your storage locker fills up, you basically have to decide what to sell or drop so you can start pulling shit out of your locker to sell/drop until you clear some room. And the fact some items can't be sold or dropped long past the point they appear to have any use. "Did you get Monkey's Love? Well, guess what you're stuck with it because you can't drop it and nobody will buy it from you. Enjoy that clogging up your storage forever".

But overall good game and if I weren't downloading Elden Ring I'd probably be getting ready to play Mother 3 right now.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Seems like everytime I'm here I'm complaining about Horizon: Forbidden West, and yeah...

The topic of my annoyance today is the optional fight competition stuff; the melee pits, the hunting grounds, and the Arena. The melee pits are all about spear fighting with a little bit of bow stuff, but the strict manner in which you are required to complete certain challenges is infuriating. You're given a set of moves that you need to complete in that exact order to pass, and if you mess up one action you have to retry the whole sequence. And while the melee combat in this game is slightly improved over the original, it is nowhere near the quality to design these type of challenges around. There's so many times where I failed due to the awkward melee not responding correctly to the button inputs. There was one challenge that I simply could not pass because the game just would not allow me to perform a move despite me pressing the correct sequence of buttons over and over.

The hunting grounds I dropped almost immediately, because for some reason the game found it unnecessary to show me my progress as I was trying to finish objectives. You'll need to, for example, detonate the power cells on the backs of certain machines and electrocute other nearby machines... but then the game doesn't give you any onscreen objective numbers to let you know how close you are to succeeding. Or I'm just totally blind, but I could not see any HUD indicators telling my how I was doing.

The Arena is fine, until it suddenly dictates what weapons you're allowed to use and completely changes your armor, traps, and health items. And this when you previously spent dozens upon dozens upon dozens of hours creating your own way of fighting with the weapons, armor, and items you choose. And then suddenly its 'yeah no, we say you fight like this now'. Who thought that'd be fun, to take away shit from the player and replace it with weapons and skills they might not have even bothered to familiarize themselves with?

I think I kinda fucking hate this game, and the only reason I keep playing is to maybe make my time with it mean something. If I do actually reach the end, I don't think I'll ever touch this game again. Instead of using this sequel to iron out most of the faults of the original, they just added more content that comes with its own faults that are now stacked onto the ones that were already present. The only two genuine improvements I can point to are the inventory and the swimming.

Also, why are regular things like shopkeepers, upgrade benches, and your stash box highlighted by question marks in newly discovered settlements? Question marks are supposed to highlight interesting little quests or puzzles in the open-world, NOT shit that we are already totally familiar with and expect to find in every damn town. As is it's just this annoying chore to find out what question mark is the bow shop, and which is the stash everytime you enter a new place. What's the point? Just have it highlighted immediately like the campfires! Who thought this was a good idea?

*sigh* God, fuck this game.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Seems like everytime I'm here I'm complaining about Horizon: Forbidden West, and yeah...

The topic of my annoyance today is the optional fight competition stuff; the melee pits, the hunting grounds, and the Arena. The melee pits are all about spear fighting with a little bit of bow stuff, but the strict manner in which you are required to complete certain challenges is infuriating. You're given a set of moves that you need to complete in that exact order to pass, and if you mess up one action you have to retry the whole sequence. And while the melee combat in this game is slightly improved over the original, it is nowhere near the quality to design these type of challenges around. There's so many times where I failed due to the awkward melee not responding correctly to the button inputs. There was one challenge that I simply could not pass because the game just would not allow me to perform a move despite me pressing the correct sequence of buttons over and over.

The hunting grounds I dropped almost immediately, because for some reason the game found it unnecessary to show me my progress as I was trying to finish objectives. You'll need to, for example, detonate the power cells on the backs of certain machines and electrocute other nearby machines... but then the game doesn't give you any onscreen objective numbers to let you know how close you are to succeeding. Or I'm just totally blind, but I could not see any HUD indicators telling my how I was doing.

The Arena is fine, until it suddenly dictates what weapons you're allowed to use and completely changes your armor, traps, and health items. And this when you previously spent dozens upon dozens upon dozens of hours creating your own way of fighting with the weapons, armor, and items you choose. And then suddenly its 'yeah no, we say you fight like this now'. Who thought that'd be fun, to take away shit from the player and replace it with weapons and skills they might not have even bothered to familiarize themselves with?

I think I kinda fucking hate this game, and the only reason I keep playing is to maybe make my time with it mean something. If I do actually reach the end, I don't think I'll ever touch this game again. Instead of using this sequel to iron out most of the faults of the original, they just added more content that comes with its own faults that are now stacked onto the ones that were already present. The only two genuine improvements I can point to are the inventory and the swimming.

Also, why are regular things like shopkeepers, upgrade benches, and your stash box highlighted by question marks in newly discovered settlements? Question marks are supposed to highlight interesting little quests or puzzles in the open-world, NOT shit that we are already totally familiar with and expect to find in every damn town. As is it's just this annoying chore to find out what question mark is the bow shop, and which is the stash everytime you enter a new place. What's the point? Just have it highlighted immediately like the campfires! Who thought this was a good idea?

*sigh* God, fuck this game.

It’s odd how well they can execute some things on a technical level like the machines and Aloy’s mechanics in general, but then completely flub seemingly minor design details by contrast.

 

[Casual Shinji]

It’s odd how well they can execute some things on a technical level like the machines and Aloy’s mechanics in general, but then completely flub seemingly minor design details by contrast.

Yep, like the metroidvania way of locking off certain parts of the map, but only allowing access maybe 50 hours later. The game has these vines you'll spot here and there that block openings that you can't cut through, and so obviously there'll be some device you get later that will help with that. But depended on how much side content you want to interact with you're looking at 70+ hours until you get this device. And then the game I guess thinks you'll just want to go back to each spot on the map these vines are located to get resources and valuables, which aren't in anyway unique or worth going around the damn map again. Way to introduce that mechanic in an interest-piquing manner Guerilla.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Yep, like the metroidvania way of locking off certain parts of the map, but only allowing access maybe 50 hours later. The game has these vines you'll spot here and there that block openings that you can't cut through, and so obviously there'll be some device you get later that will help with that. But depended on how much side content you want to interact with you're looking at 70+ hours until you get this device. And then the game I guess thinks you'll just want to go back to each spot on the map these vines are located to get resources and valuables, which aren't in anyway unique or worth going around the damn map again. Way to introduce that mechanic in an interest-piquing manner Guerilla.

GOW 2018 kinda did this too but not nearly as egregiously given the map size and game length. Not really an innovative trend by any means though.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Having played Arceus some more, exploring around the second map and continuing the main quest a bit, I've been thinking about how it works when Sword and Shield utterly failed to make an engaging open world. As I said back when it came out, the open areas simply don't fit the model of a standard Pokemon game. But for a spinoff that can do whatever it wants with the creatures, it's able to actually design itself entirely around the open world. Being allowed to run away from strong wild Pokemon if you get dragged into a fight with one unexpectedly helps a lot too, as well as being able to catch them even if you can't order them around yet if you have the skill and luck to do so.

That, and the design of the open world is actually kinda interesting rather than a simple flat plain with a few impassable areas scattered around. It's far from the best open-world exploration I've played, but it works well enough, and following paths to new areas to look for new Pokemon or items is worthwhile in and of itself. Especially since the game doesn't mark anything except direct quest objectives on the map, leaving you to figure out for yourself how to find rare Pokemon spawns - which are a large amount of the game's reason for existing.

The story's interesting enough but nothing world-shaking yet, the combat mechanics have a little extra depth to them above the standard single-player Pokemon experience, I love being able to throw Poke Balls myself and catch Pokemon without having to fight, and overall, I think this is one of the best Pokemon games I've played. Definitely the best one available on the Switch; as much as I enjoyed Snap 2, I can only really play it in short bursts, rather than the sustained expeditions I've done in Arceus.

And I honestly don't think it looks that bad - not that graphics are the sole arbiter of a game's quality, or anything.

 

[Drathnoxis]

I recently bought Vampire Survivors for about the price of a bottle of soda. It's perhaps the purest mindless game there has ever been. There's no story, hardly any mechanics, and the controls are literally just the movement keys. The only meaningful mechanic is choosing upgrades, the only challenge is staying alive for as long as possible. And it's so satisying. It has that same visceral lizard brain satisfaction of blowing up 20 enemies with one RPG shot in an FPS, except that's basically the entire gameplay loop. It's still in early access and right now the Garlic is massively overpowered in comparison to everything else, but I've already gotten more than my money's worth out of it. Perfect for zoning out and listening to a podcast.

The garlic is good, but really only in the early game. Late game it doesn't really have the dps, even when evolved. I think the bible is generally considered the best weapon in the game.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Finished Earthbound. Spoilers for a 30 year old SNES game.

It does very much hold up from 1995, for the most part. They whimsy/quirky plays well with the fact the main characters are a group of 13 year olds going to save the world from cthulhu/satan. Which is also one of the reasons it stands out so much, the surrealism aspect of....well, everything. The plot itself it fairly tame, mostly being "Giygas is going to conquer the world and in 10 years from now has won. Stop him now" and "Find 8 power locations to do so". Every so often you get someone telling you Giygas is growing stronger(but is getting more afraid of you) and your annoying Neighbor Pokey/Porky, is on the bad guy side. But as the game goes one, Pokey apparently gets more and more competent(if not braver, because he always runs away from you) being able to advise an evil corpo, fly a helicopter, steal a time machine, and it's apparently implied he been abusing the shit out of time travel or something? Oh, and the other big bad is an evil statue someone dug up in the first town and it keeps showing up causing problems wherever you go until around the halfway point...and even then still shows up again as a late game boss.

But of course the most talked about part of this game comes in the late game, where you're finally ready to fight Giygas and find out that not only is he in the most remote place on earth, but apparently he's in the distant past(so much that you're not told how distant, so it could be eons), so essentially you need to turn yourselves into robots(or put your soul into robot bodies to go back in time to fight him). The whole thing is creepy and weird, and even the present version of the final dungeon(which you only see a little of) comes across as....OFF. And while the Giygas battle isn't as shocking as it was in 1995 due to how much it's been talked about, it's still very fucking different then anything else of that era or hell, I struggle to think of another game where you effectively fight cthulhu, in that you can't even understand what youre seeing and thus the screen is basically a jumbled psychedelic pattern mess. When you defeat him the screen effectively starts spazzing out before dropping you in the endgame.

The ending shifts back from "Holy Shit, what game am I playing?" back to "Chill as fuck". Two of the team leave the party and go home, you get letters from loved ones to pick up and read(and serve no other purpose), and all of the enemies vanish from the overworld. But even better, you can literally go visit everywhere but the final dungeon and just walk around unmolested talking to NPCs while calm pleasant music plays. Trying to call the various phone numbers will result in them all giving you a final amusing message(though your delivery service is now unavailable, so you can't get your bike back to ride it again). It's a nice feature to have. You literally only have to take paula home and then go home yourself, so if you want you can just teleport and end the game quickly, but I decided to enjoy the endgame and visit each of the locations again before riding the bus from Fourside to Twoson, making stops along the way to visit people before finally walking home to finish the game and after the Giygas battle was a nice wind down. Having played Mother 3 I appreciate it more because I know Mother 3 grows steadily more sad the further you get into it and there's no chill epilogue like Earthbound.

And I have to say, Itoi is a wierd, weird guy who honestly may not even know how video games work(apparently Satoru Iwata helped Itoi actually get the game into a playable state not long before release) but his very interesting take on what video games are or what he wants them to be no doubt explains why the Mother series is so memorable.

That being said, I still wish EarthBound had the ability to stack inventory items because holy shit is it annoying to realize you're STILL playing tetris with your inventory at the endgame and the storage locker you can use to store your excess shit fills up, so if your inventory fills up and your storage locker fills up, you basically have to decide what to sell or drop so you can start pulling shit out of your locker to sell/drop until you clear some room. And the fact some items can't be sold or dropped long past the point they appear to have any use. "Did you get Monkey's Love? Well, guess what you're stuck with it because you can't drop it and nobody will buy it from you. Enjoy that clogging up your storage forever".

But overall good game and if I weren't downloading Elden Ring I'd probably be getting ready to play Mother 3 right now.

Yeah, the ending was pretty great. Being able to walk around and talk to everybody one last time does wonders for making the world feel more alive and show just how far you've come. I can only think of a handful of other games that have even done something like that, most are simply content to simply cut to credits after the climax and be done with it. Off the top of my head there's Paper Mario, Dragon Age: Origins, Undertale, and The Forbidden City, and it always makes the game better. Well, except in Forbidden City because, lol, these people don't even ever remember seeing you and it doesn't really work.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Seems like everytime I'm here I'm complaining about Horizon: Forbidden West, and yeah...

The topic of my annoyance today is the optional fight competition stuff; the melee pits, the hunting grounds, and the Arena. The melee pits are all about spear fighting with a little bit of bow stuff, but the strict manner in which you are required to complete certain challenges is infuriating. You're given a set of moves that you need to complete in that exact order to pass, and if you mess up one action you have to retry the whole sequence. And while the melee combat in this game is slightly improved over the original, it is nowhere near the quality to design these type of challenges around. There's so many times where I failed due to the awkward melee not responding correctly to the button inputs. There was one challenge that I simply could not pass because the game just would not allow me to perform a move despite me pressing the correct sequence of buttons over and over.

The hunting grounds I dropped almost immediately, because for some reason the game found it unnecessary to show me my progress as I was trying to finish objectives. You'll need to, for example, detonate the power cells on the backs of certain machines and electrocute other nearby machines... but then the game doesn't give you any onscreen objective numbers to let you know how close you are to succeeding. Or I'm just totally blind, but I could not see any HUD indicators telling my how I was doing.

The Arena is fine, until it suddenly dictates what weapons you're allowed to use and completely changes your armor, traps, and health items. And this when you previously spent dozens upon dozens upon dozens of hours creating your own way of fighting with the weapons, armor, and items you choose. And then suddenly its 'yeah no, we say you fight like this now'. Who thought that'd be fun, to take away shit from the player and replace it with weapons and skills they might not have even bothered to familiarize themselves with?

I think I kinda fucking hate this game, and the only reason I keep playing is to maybe make my time with it mean something. If I do actually reach the end, I don't think I'll ever touch this game again. Instead of using this sequel to iron out most of the faults of the original, they just added more content that comes with its own faults that are now stacked onto the ones that were already present. The only two genuine improvements I can point to are the inventory and the swimming.

Also, why are regular things like shopkeepers, upgrade benches, and your stash box highlighted by question marks in newly discovered settlements? Question marks are supposed to highlight interesting little quests or puzzles in the open-world, NOT shit that we are already totally familiar with and expect to find in every damn town. As is it's just this annoying chore to find out what question mark is the bow shop, and which is the stash everytime you enter a new place. What's the point? Just have it highlighted immediately like the campfires! Who thought this was a good idea?

*sigh* God, fuck this game.

These all seem like minor complaints about optional stuff.
A game like this is so big that if the critical path and some key side missions are good, then it's good?
Granted my bias is I really like the first game and am looking forward to playing this.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

I am playing Demon's Souls remaster and I am having a blast.

It's such a weird game. So, it's like 12 years old, the original? Pre-Dark Souls, right, so that means jank-ass slow mechanics and slowly walking around guys and bullshit ganks and horrifically annoying quirky traversal areas and dark corners, my god I forgot how much the Souls games rely on dark souls to confuse me both in terms of orientation and to hide enemies.

But it's also polished and looks beautiful because it's a PS5 exclusive remaster. It's like I'm listening to the cleanest newest refurbished Victrola 78 record player.

The last boss I beat is called Armor Spider and it's a.. .well, the name.. so you gotta run through a tunnel dodging its projectiles to be able to whack it while also avoiding its melee attacks. But the hitbox, distance, whatever, to do that, was so confusing, like I didn't know if I was even hitting it or it was hitting me until I was done. I imagine this was 100x worse on PS3. So they remaster does an excellent job of preserving infuriating FromSoftware bullshit, lol.

Keep in mind I had just finished playing the crap out of the buttery smooth, vertical traversing and graphically clear Sekiro that going back to Souls bullshit is annoying but in a fun way. I am giggling a lot, and it's because I had played the Dark Souls.

The level design is pretty cool- I know Dark Souls' big interconnected world is part of its genius but the simple hub-world thing in Demon's is nice, too.

 

[Casual Shinji]

These all seem like minor complaints about optional stuff.
A game like this is so big that if the critical path and some key side missions are good, then it's good?
Granted my bias is I really like the first game and am looking forward to playing this.

I also really like the first game, and the sequel just feels messier overall. I've never run into these kinds of weird trip-ups in Zero Dawn in any of the side content. There's good stuff in Forbidden West, but it feels like the focus was mainly on making it bigger and prettier.

 

[BrawlMan]

but it feels like the focus was mainly on making it bigger and prettier.

The game industry still hasn't learned that bigger doesn't always mean better. This seems to be the running theme with the recent amount of open world games that have been releasing recently. Though this is history repeating itself, as the same thing can be tracked back to last generation and even during the 6th generation.

 

[Dalisclock]

So my ER download finished last night and after getting set up and doing the character maker thing(I'm a pirate lass, ARRRRRGGGHHHHH. It's impossible to tell this because I'm also wearing armor), I got to play for about 30 min before bed. I got through the intro dungeon(I jumped down the dark pit because I already knew that's where it was) and as a souls vet, it was pretty standard. It gives you a quick little training run to get you familar with the basic shit in this game and then you fight a boss who is a joke if you've ever played souls before(and possibly if you understand how to use your shield and/or dodge).

Basically walked around paranoid as fuck because Souls vet even though in hindsight I might as well not bothered. I died to the dude(didn't catch the name) with way too many hands because of course I had to(to be fair, I'm getting really good at spotting FROM boss Rooms before I enter them, despite the millions of messages telling me to beware boss). I look forward, however, to hopefully coming back here in about 30 or so hours when i figure out where this is and how to get back to it and beating spider boy's fucking ass.

But yeah, it's a souls, it feels a little more responsive then DS3 and sekiro, I need to get used to the UI changes but otherwise got to grips with it pretty fast. And oh shit, I can see the point people make about the Tree Knight. He's like 50 fucking feet from the first bonfire once you get out into the open world. I decided to scout around the building instead, killed some of the local wildlife because I suspected they were murderous(I remember those fuckin pigs, FROM) and then decided I have no idea where to start so best go to bed.

So hooray, time to get utterly lost in the woods and murdered!

I hope you guys are enjoying my "witty" running commentary because I've barred the doors from the outside. Get comfortable. It's gonna be a LONG game. *Insert Creepy laughter*

I am playing Demon's Souls remaster and I am having a blast.

It's such a weird game. So, it's like 12 years old, the original? Pre-Dark Souls, right, so that means jank-ass slow mechanics and slowly walking around guys and bullshit ganks and horrifically annoying quirky traversal areas and dark corners, my god I forgot how much the Souls games rely on dark souls to confuse me both in terms of orientation and to hide enemies. I've been trying pretty earnestly since the beginning 2022 and they're still a PITA to get.

But it's also polished and looks beautiful because it's a PS5 exclusive remaster. It's like I'm listening to the cleanest newest refurbished Victrola 78 record player.

The last boss I beat is called Armor Spider and it's a.. .well, the name.. so you gotta run through a tunnel dodging its projectiles to be able to whack it while also avoiding its melee attacks. But the hitbox, distance, whatever, to do that, was so confusing, like I didn't know if I was even hitting it or it was hitting me until I was done. I imagine this was 100x worse on PS3. So they remaster does an excellent job of preserving infuriating FromSoftware bullshit, lol.

Keep in mind I had just finished playing the crap out of the buttery smooth, vertical traversing and graphically clear Sekiro that going back to Souls bullshit is annoying but in a fun way. I am giggling a lot, and it's because I had played the Dark Souls.

The level design is pretty cool- I know Dark Souls' big interconnected world is part of its genius but the simple hub-world thing in Demon's is nice, too.

Honestly, the Demons Souls Remake is like the only reason I want a PS5 at this time. I have the PS3 one but my PS3 is currently on strike and was pretty iffy for some reason even before then so it's either try to revive my PS3, emulate it or hope I win the lottery for a PS5.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Finished chapter 1 of Crying Suns on my first run and I think I'm done with the game. The story and visuals are nice, but I can't stand the combat. The game is basically FTL but worse. It has this terrible hex grid real time ship combat that you need to pause constantly to have any idea whats going on and micromanage your ships. The enemies also have really annoying attacks, like the little drones that blow up after you kill them destroying your own ship also, and there isn't a way to kill them from a range so you just have to take the loss, or the cannons that hit like 15 hexes blowing up all your ships at once. It's not outrageously difficult, it just feels really bad to play and I'm not enjoying it.

 

[Worgen]

Finished chapter 1 of Crying Suns on my first run and I think I'm done with the game. The story and visuals are nice, but I can't stand the combat. The game is basically FTL but worse. It has this terrible hex grid real time ship combat that you need to pause constantly to have any idea whats going on and micromanage your ships. The enemies also have really annoying attacks, like the little drones that blow up after you kill them destroying your own ship also, and there isn't a way to kill them from a range so you just have to take the loss, or the cannons that hit like 15 hexes blowing up all your ships at once. It's not outrageously difficult, it just feels really bad to play and I'm not enjoying it.

I really wanted to like Crying Suns more then I did. I don't think I had the same issue with the combat that you did, but, it still didn't grab me at all and I went off to play other things.

 

[Bedinsis]

I am currently playing Bury me, my love. A piece of interactive fiction set within a long smartphone conversation where you guide your wife who is escaping the war torn Syria.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Started playing The Talos principle because I felt like doing some puzzling and I remember SGF had it on his top ten list one year. Way too many random text files that I have no interest in, so I think I'm gonna ignore the computer terminals. I made it through 3 worlds then I had to stop playing because I was feeling really motion sick. I found a whole option menu just for adjusting settings related to motion sickness, so apparently this is a common issue with this game. Weird. I actually wanted to turn down the look sensitivity as soon as I started playing, but I was looking for the option under gameplay, and didn't think to click on motion sickness.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

World 2 of God Hand finished. Only died 9 times in that one, so that's an indication of getting better at the game. World 3 has some pretty tough bosses though, so I don't know if I can keep that up. I've finished the game before, though, so I've got no reason to give up even if I do get stuck.

 

[Dalisclock]

Started playing The Talos principle because I felt like doing some puzzling and I remember SGF had it on his top ten list one year. Way too many random text files that I have no interest in, so I think I'm gonna ignore the computer terminals. I made it through 3 worlds then I had to stop playing because I was feeling really motion sick. I found a whole option menu just for adjusting settings related to motion sickness, so apparently this is a common issue with this game. Weird. I actually wanted to turn down the look sensitivity as soon as I started playing, but I was looking for the option under gameplay, and didn't think to click on motion sickness.

The terminals are primarily there for you to engage in philosophy arguments/discussions with an "AI". IIRC, you're not required to do them to finish the game, though they do add context to the overall story and theming

 

[BrawlMan]

World 2 of God Hand finished. Only died 9 times in that one, so that's an indication of getting better at the game. World 3 has some pretty tough bosses though, so I don't know if I can keep that up. I've finished the game before, though, so I've got no reason to give up even if I do get stuck.

I died 89 times on my first playthrough on Normal. Second playthrough was 47. By the time of my 4th I got down to 4 deaths. On my 6 playthrough, I managed to do a no death run. One of my proudest gaming of my life. Good luck out there man, you can do it.

Been playing Streets of Rage 4 again. Trying out some of Axel's alternate attacks and seeing all the crazy combos I can pull off. I did some more experimenting with Zan and Estel. I tried to beat my old record of reaching past level 37 in survival, but no luck unfortunately.

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 I am stuck on stage 5 right now. The difficulty picks up like crazy. I briefly tested my physical copy of the Castlevania Collection on Switch; works perfectly.