What are you currently playing?

[XsjadoBlaydette]

Evil Wizard. Not bad pixel art metrania about a wizard. A wizard that might. Just might. Not be an all-round fella in the eyes of our lord and/or saviour, the Eternal Maw of Invisible Endless Eyes.

It's also a 4th wall-molesting comedy.

Sorry, I meant "comedy."

Sorry, I meant """"""comedy.""""""

Depending on tastes, it can shift between all three interpretations during a single conversation. It's also gaming reference humour, so wear appropriate cringe guard PPE if these are your sensitivities.

It tried to have voice acting at the start but I think I must've reacted so negatively it kinda just stopped doing it? You can't be doing an evil Wizard comedy character and have them merely voiced by "some guy" ...they gotta be weird, interesting, memorable. They gotta be Invader fucking Zim or the Pyre announcer, not some dude told to read some joke in some jokey tone. Was he Christ Pratt? He could've very well been Chris Pratt and wouldn'tve noticed!

So, you basically got your topdowns with your twinsticks sometimes stabbing sometimes shooting, but shooting whatever element your staff last rubbed against. A strange compulsion I must admit soon as I saw the "void" element my only goal was obtaining it and counting that as official game completion. Not gonna bother looking further into that. Unfortunately the game has concerning stability issues, like regular crashing enough where I only quit once from choice instead of from another hard crash the other couple of dozen times. One boss even bugged out into their next form early after I got too close to an exit door while fighting them, yet their animations were still stuck in their first form. Luckily it quickly killed itself by mysterious means unseen. Unluckily the game hard crashed again.

As an aside, there's a rubber duck collection sub quest where each duck is reference and pun to mostly a single certain fiction. Won't say which, cause I reckon esteemed people already know or can guess: Whatspopulartfictionadorlazy hack (specifically American) comedianswmineaforrreferencessas a crutch for when they got nothing left?

 

[meiam]

Started playing the phantom liberty path of phantom liberty (cyberpunk 2077 DLC). It's interesting but very uneven, dogtown is really cool, but too small for what they're trying to do, so you always stumble onto another event when doing something, which gets a bit annoying. Story/lore wise, it doesn't makes much sense, or rather, its one more case where the whole "corporation are all powerfull" breakdown, since there's just this guy that manage to carve himself a personal bastion, where he allow all kinds of stuff that hinder corporation (stealing from them, kidnapping and so on) like 15 minutes drive from the HQs of all the biggest corp, and none of them do anything about it...?

The actual story also suffer from the 2077 problem of trying to do too much too quick, where you have a quick 20 minutes sequence with songbird (super hacker for the US government) and the story just assume you're now super best friend. Also, the story keeps bringing up a traitor in the government who sold out the president and at that point you know a grand total of 2 peoples from the government, songbird and the president, OMG who could be the traitor?!?!?! It's also rather annoying that the story pretend you're trapped in there and you can't possibly extract the president, when 10 minutes after I was free to roam around I was out of the enclave (trough a secret tunnel that's not guarded anymore after the guard had to mysteriously all go to sleep) and I was just hanging out with my girlfriend. The story just isn't setup well for an open world game is my point.

But a lot of the new content is great, the new handler mission are more detailed than usual, where there's a quick explanation at the start and end and otherwise its no different than attacking random hostile NPC. Now they usually have unique NPC with special interaction and even take into account how you played them, I got one where I didn't kill anyone and allowed me to avoid a fight and save some NPC at the end, was neat. Definitely hope we get more of this for the sequel, could easily have been less handler misssion (I also hope they actual make it so those handler missions tell a story and have some sort of finality next time).

 

[Dalisclock]

Finished Mafia 2(actually a week ago but I haven't had time to post). Ended up having a good ending(Well, not so much for Vito but it feels like it works for the most part) and the final act of Vito's life slowly going to shit as he digs himself into a hole he can't escape from actually pretty compelling. You know this is all going to end badly but not unlike Spec Ops years later Vito is doing the driving here and you, the player, are just along for the ride.

Decided to go on a different track altogether and played through "Bramble: The Mountain King". It's a puzzle/platform game like Inside, Limbo or Little Nightmares, with the big difference being that it's occasionally cheerful(not often, but there are some genuine lighthearted moments during the daytime) and it's based around Nordic Folklore ( in this case the young child is wandering a particularly scary version of the Scandinavian forests). And man, it really wants to press home that fairy tales can be fucking terrifying if played right. It's also a bit more colorful then games like Limbo, Inside or Little Nightmares, taking advantage of the natural tones of the forest and wilderness. It doesn't break any particularly new ground with this sort of game but it's commitment to the folklore/fairy tale theme and wringing as much horror out of the setting as possible(over the course of like 4 hours) is the big draw for anyone who might want to check it out.

 

[Dalisclock]

I do enjoy fighting the alien creatures, but im not a big fan of fighting the military guys. The alien creatures either attack exclusively in melee, or telegraph their ranged attacks, so if you take damage, it was probably your fault. In contrast, the military guys use guns, which are basically hitscan. If you can see them, they can see you, and fights with them almost always result in you taking some damage. This is fine in a game with regenerating health, but it does not in Black Mesa, and so you are reliant on finding health kits to patch yourself up. Admittedly they don't deal much damage, and the health kits are rather abundant, but it does still feel rather unfair to take damage that you couldn't avoid.

There also doesn't appear to be much in the way of a story. You will have some immediate objectives (eg kill the giant tentacle monster), but so far there is nothing to link one chapter to the next seemingly other than "don't die". Very little is communicated to you, and you play as a silent protagonist, so it often feels like you are going from one objective to another "just because". Similarly, the game doesn't even have a pause objective screen, so I'm anticipating coming back to this game after a few day's break, wondering what I'm supposed to be doing.

In general though, I'm enjoying myself. There is a steady drip-feed of new weapons, enemies and scenarios, so it always feels like I'm discovering something new. it isn't doing anything particularly incredible for 2024, but when I see it through the lense of 1998, I can see why this game has stood the test of time.

Those issues are basically because those were key parts of the original HL. When it came out, the Marines were lauded for having great Human Enemy AI, which was very impressive in 1998. The issue it's been almost 30 years since then and AI has advanced a lot so those marines aren't particular impressive anymore.

And the story, yeah, HL was basically doing the Dark Souls thing before it was cool where you get little bits of story and you''re more or less just meant to infer it from the environment because there are no cut scenes. Essentially to make it more immersive, or so was the intent. Considering most shooters in 1998 didn't have a story to speak of or had bad stories, Half Life stood out.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Another Crab's Treasure

I think I'm past like the equivalent of "chapter 1" or something because I just defeated what was presented as the antagonist (but of course it turns out it won't be..) which was like the 3rd or 4th boss, unlocked all the types of upgrades and major abilities, so I think I'm far enough along where I can opine.

And the opine is good! I mean the game is good. I mean I've having a lot of fun and it's exactly the game I needed because as you may have seen from some of my posts I was in a gaming grump.

I totally and angrily burnt out on Soulslike because of how twisty and camera-screwy they've become and have went beyond "hard" to "just annoying." And the whole crumbling world thing got boring, even if pinocchio or porn-ass or whatever trappings they use.

Well this game avoids both. It's challenging but so far not too hard. Yes it takes a few attempts to figure out the boss movements but then I did and then I won- the way it should be. So far only one enemy did one move that was all camera screwy, otherwise it's fair. I think the tech/budget limitations served the game well, or at least the designers made it work well, because everything is really simple and straight forward but it's fair and makes sense.

And yes all the reviews will tell you about its meta humar and irreverance and it's delightful but if the game was ass none of it would matter. It's the perfect kind of game that isn't doing any one thing amazing but the whole presentation is great if you're in the mood for this kind of thing and I clearly was.

I'm stuck in this grey area where games that emphasize the kick-you-ass difficulty like that Italian themed Souls demo I tried are too off-putting for me and non-action narrative walking games like Hellblade are just too boring. I feel with games it's like movies- less and less of the kind I like, in the middle. I'm a goldilikes and Crab is the correct temperature porridge.

Side anecdote/observation: I was actually wanting to play Forspoken before I got this one. I was in the mood from some mediocre open world faffing about and I just assumed surely this disaster of a game that had its studio shut-down would be discounted by now lol... nope, full price, $69.99 (on Playstation digital store). Hahah... no, no thanks. I was looking to spend ~$30 for my mid gaming entertainment.
I remembered the Crab game and its full price is indeed $29.99 hence why I'm playing it.

 

[BrawlMan]

I've been doing HF Rush on Very Hard Mode now. I've been playing all these different versions of Final Fight w/mods or modified to look more like/play the Arcade game. WTF is wrong with me? I going full brawler junkie right now!

I love it!

 

[laggyteabag]

I finished Black Mesa, and I didn't love it.

This might be a hot take, but this game is basically DOOM (2016) in premise and execution, but worse in just about every way.

A portal to another world is opened inside of a science facility. Creatures from this other world overwhelm the inhabitants of this facility, many becoming zombified. Eventually you work your way to portal to the other world, where you fight a giant spider-like boss, and stop the invasion.

There are a few exceptions, of course. DOOM has the whole "hell energy" plotline, and the human who orchestrated the invasion. And Half-Life has the military presence, and the "Vautigaunts are actually slaves" thing. Not to mention that one's other world is literally hell, and the other looks more akin to Avatar's Pandora (but in space). But both stories are really short on plot and waste little time telling it to you (though I would still argue that DOOM still tells a more compelling and coherent story), and both games are really dependent on combat and traversal. Unfortunately for Black Mesa, DOOM has the benefit of being a much more modern game, with much more satisfying and functional combat, and Black Mesa really doesn't have anything to compete with that.

As for some positives though:

The Xen areas were a clear high point (which I understand was certainly not the case in the original game.

The game looked really quite nice at points (again, Xen)

The music was great

There was a nice variety in enemy creatures. Headcrabs and Barnacles are just really cool in concept and execution.

Gibbing enemies with a shotgun will always be satisfying, regardless of the game

------

Otherwise, onto the next thing. I might replay Frostpunk in time for the sequel next month.

 

[CriticalGaming]

I've finished just in time for the expansion.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

View attachment 11256

I've finished just in time for the expansion.

So I’ll venture a guess here and say you’re going for a master of all trades kinda thing?

 

[CriticalGaming]

So I’ll venture a guess here and say you’re going for a master of all trades kinda thing?

Not really. Just wanted to level everything, do all the quests. Hard to explain my mindset's all over the place with that game.

 

[XsjadoBlaydette]

System shock. Remasticated.
Hiding, creeping, stealing, guzzling, gorging, panicking, fiddling, skimping and sneaky sweaty stabbing is a state of existence I find all too comfortably natural, as much as my CV has to say otherwise. This feels like, or maybe it even is. Home.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Platinum trophy for Crab's Treasure attained. Yes of course I resorted to the cheat options and youtubes but I also legit beat most of the bosses. Getting to choose how to play the game was a joy.

Overall I love it but it has a couple problems:
1- Performance. A couple crashes and even worse its stuttered and slowed down more than a few times. I just don't like that happening on smaller games.
2- Some of the timing of enemy attacks and platforming demands don't seem to match the ambition of the scenarios. It's hard to explain but there are a couple of boss fights where I just felt like they were cool in concept but my character can't move well enough to address them.

It didn't bring me back into the fold for soulslikes- the thought of another two phase boss fight with particle effects and janky movements makes me ill- but it was a nice little tribute to that era of my gaming life. Kind of like watching Blazing Saddles after watching a bunch of for-real westerns.

 

[BrawlMan]

Platinum trophy for Crab's Treasure attained. Yes of course I resorted to the cheat options and youtubes but I also legit beat most of the bosses. Getting to choose how to play the game was a joy.

Overall I love it but it has a couple problems:
1- Performance. A couple crashes and even worse its stuttered and slowed down more than a few times. I just don't like that happening on smaller games.
2- Some of the timing of enemy attacks and platforming demands don't seem to match the ambition of the scenarios. It's hard to explain but there are a couple of boss fights where I just felt like they were cool in concept but my character can't move well enough to address them.

It didn't bring me back into the fold for soulslikes- the thought of another two phase boss fight with particle effects and janky movements makes me ill- but it was a nice little tribute to that era of my gaming life. Kind of like watching Blazing Saddles after watching a bunch of for-real westerns.

You ready for Double Dragon Gaiden yet?

 

[NerfedFalcon]

A Runescape clan I joined is starting a massive event with an in-game prize pool up for grabs, so I'm gonna be dedicating the next two weeks of my life to contributing as much as I can towards my team's victory. After that, I'll probably take a break from the game for a few weeks, get some other things off my list.

 

[Worgen]

Songs of Conquest came out, I loved Heroes of Might and Magic V so tried it, was having fun till chapter 1 act 4. That stage is retardedly hard and it feels like you have to play a very specific way to beat it. Plus it seems like magic builds are just much much more powerful then general builds, which annoys me since I prefer a general build with a lot of units and tactics. General works well against normal groups, but a mage weilder will just fuck you up something hard before you can even get your units over. So I might go back to that, but I might not.

There was a cool sounding expedition in No Man's Sky so I started that, pretty neat being in a largely dead universe, trying to figure out what happened.

Also Selaco came out, and its awesome. Plays kinda like fear but no slomo as far as I can tell. The gunfights are fast and frantic, the levels are big with lots of secrets, the graphics are really impressive, especially considering it was made in the gzdoom engine. If you like FPS games at all then you need to give it a shot.

 

[Piscian]

Started playing Far Cry Primal because I am not going to restart P5R. ENOUGH. No more Persona..except maybe spinoff games...AFTER FAR CRY...

 

[Dalisclock]

I finished Black Mesa, and I didn't love it.

This might be a hot take, but this game is basically DOOM (2016) in premise and execution, but worse in just about every way.

A portal to another world is opened inside of a science facility. Creatures from this other world overwhelm the inhabitants of this facility, many becoming zombified. Eventually you work your way to portal to the other world, where you fight a giant spider-like boss, and stop the invasion.

There are a few exceptions, of course. DOOM has the whole "hell energy" plotline, and the human who orchestrated the invasion. And Half-Life has the military presence, and the "Vautigaunts are actually slaves" thing. Not to mention that one's other world is literally hell, and the other looks more akin to Avatar's Pandora (but in space). But both stories are really short on plot and waste little time telling it to you (though I would still argue that DOOM still tells a more compelling and coherent story), and both games are really dependent on combat and traversal. Unfortunately for Black Mesa, DOOM has the benefit of being a much more modern game, with much more satisfying and functional combat, and Black Mesa really doesn't have anything to compete with that.

As for some positives though:

The Xen areas were a clear high point (which I understand was certainly not the case in the original game.

The game looked really quite nice at points (again, Xen)

The music was great

There was a nice variety in enemy creatures. Headcrabs and Barnacles are just really cool in concept and execution.

Gibbing enemies with a shotgun will always be satisfying, regardless of the game

------

Otherwise, onto the next thing. I might replay Frostpunk in time for the sequel next month.

So on one hand, Half Life came out after DOOM but before DOOM 2016(and the remake came out before 2016 as well). So while it's basically aping DOOM with the portal thing, the hell energy thing was a DOOM 2016 thing that was much later. BM's intial release was before DOOM 2016 but it took years for the XEN levels to get added in, making those afterwards. So it's a wierd thing where it intially copied DOOM's premise but did it's own thing, but then DOOM 2016 came out while BM was getting it's final polishing and Xen levels. And also the fact DOOM 2016 had time to learn from the things HL did right for it's own benefit.

So it's kind of the issue that HL was groundbreaking in 1998 but the rest of the industry has caught up in the intervening 25 years. It doesn't feel fresh because yeah, it's been 25 years, and while BM helped clean it up somewhat, it's still essentially remaking HL and can't stray far from what HL was.

And yes, the XEN levels in the original game were the low point for sure. Nobody liked them even upon release(I was there, I remember quite well) and that's one of the reasons the BM team took years to get them finished(releasing the rest of the game first without them). When the HL expansions came out Xen was scaled back a lot because of that(and also the expansions were much shorter to boot).

 

[Thaluikhain]

Magical Diary Horse Hall and Magical Diary Wolf Hall, which is the sequel, ish.

Which...indy game by someone that read Harry Potter and wanted to make their own version set in the US, only with better worldbuilding and MUCH better social politics.

Played them, (mostly the first) a bunch of times, but still good.

 

[XsjadoBlaydette]

LOTR Return to Moria.
Could be just a malfunctioning human, but this dwarf mining/base building/explory-survival game having pretty middl(earth!)ing tepid reviews still managed to rob precious sleeping hours way more than any other title of late. Not sure why the purchase wasn't affected by reading the unflattering review aggregates beforehand, am ultimately glad the doubt kinda double doubted and canceled itself out in this case. Appeal could be exploration's similar vibe to Dragon's Dogma nighttime bumbles with how it allows darkness to appear realistically claustrophobic and suffocating, yet now there's option to do your civic duty and construct your own public lighting network along the merry way! Combat is a panic faff hassle though.Not that it matters when there are underground castles to build and maintain!

 

[BrawlMan]

Wario Land Virtual Boy. A great game, but I don't know if it's better than the Game Boy original. I have not gotten too far yet. I know this is the game with a bit more of a Metroid style aspect and is not exactly level/world based like the original.