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Drathnoxis

I love the smell of card games in the morning
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Trudging through The Silver Case. Two things can be true: I can experience and appreciate Suda51's paranoid postmodern hysterical realism Y2K punk noir thriller by way of Auster/Pynchon/Murakami... but also, at the end of the day, when I just want to play a game, it's kind of a bummer being sat with a visual novel. Whatever itch I need scratched from booting up the ole console that's not it. Also I'm a big reader, and I'm always reading something, so being saddled with both Oliver Twist and Suda51's wattpad crack fic is a bit much.

Also it's kind of annoying that you can only save the "game" whenever there's a rare moment of interactivity and you're given control over a character, since 85% of the game is scrolling through textboxes (to the Chinese torture of a typewriter clanking at every letter).
Yeah, a couple years ago I realized that I just can't play visual novels. I'm also a big reader, but when I'm playing a game I want something that challenges me in some way. I like visual novels well enough, but only experienced through the medium of a Let's Play.
 

meiam

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Alright finally finished Baldur Gate 3 after like 150 hours.

I gotta say, it really doesn't leave me with the best impression. Two big issues, one the final battle happen over two screen and my game really bugged and would constantly flicker in between the two screen during opponent turn, making it impossible to figure out what was happening.

But the big one was the ending choice with the emperor. There's just no reason why you have to chose between freeing Orpheus or siding with the Emperor, those two are perfectly compatible. The conversation with the emperor around that was just plain weird, he keeps making it about whether or not you trust him, when its really not about that. Worse, there's no way to keep the emperor alive in the end, when, again, it really easily should have been doable, he was literally right next to you in the final moment and once the netherbrain is out, would have been free from its control.

I think there was some disagreement internally over the emperor, with some people of the dev seeing him as some complex grey figure and other just seeing him as a manipulative evil person. It seems like they cut the apple in two by forcing the choice with Orpheus but also making it so he doesn't betray you in the end. Anyway, I really liked the emperor because its rare game try to make true neutral character, so seeing him tossed aside in the end was a big disappointment.


Otherwise, I was kinda pushing myself for the last 30 hours or so, once you reach max level, the gameplay feel more static. Fight are much easier late game (tactician) aside from a couple big spike in difficulty, so most of the fights just felt like cleaning mooks. The UI issue also really started grating me, party member having to be led individually (if I play again I'm installing that mod that let you teleport your party to you at will), and party member getting in the way of object you want to interact with, really wish you could disable being able to talk to them in the field, since there's no reason to. Carrying capacity was also a major pita, I think carry weight can work as a mechanic, but when you can almost always go back to camp to dumb stuff in the chest, it just transform the whole process into tedium.

I think story/character wise, its okay, none of the party member really worked for me (Gale was closest but he's really annoying to use in the first act and wizard are kinda trash then, unless you exploit long rest after every battle, which is a big pita). But what really work is the sheer number of possibility they account for, all the weird combination that are acknoledged by the game is really impressive (except saving the emperor), I can't even imagine how many days worth of text lines there must be.

Gameplay wise, I have quite a few disapoitment, spell slot is a terrible system which makes some sense for table top, but in video game, its just bad. Class balance is also pretty poor honestly, half of them are either worthless or only useful for one or two things (I can't think of any reason why you'd go full rogue, why can't they at least get a 2nd attack naturraly?). It really feel like the best party (outside of exploits) is just 4 paladin. I can't figure out why half the feats exists. I really dislike the short/long rest system, its so generous with supply that you can easily long rest after every fight, which means you can go all out every fight, completely throwing the balance out of wack and cause big ludo narrative dissonance. I tried playing the other way, only resting once I exhaust all short rest (3 with bard) and skipping short rest as much as possible, which is better from an immersion point of view, but meant caster really struggle compare to figther/archer. I also was really baffle by the decision to make only one character able to do check in conversation, I got around it by making my main a bard halfing, so I was able to do almost all check I wanted, but its really bizarre that, say, my cleric would let my character waffle on a religion question instead of just taking over here and there.

Anyway, I sound negative, but ultimately I wouldn't have stuck with it till the end if I didn't enjoy myself overall. But still feel like divinity 2 is better (at least if they really fixed the bizarre scaling issue that existed at game launch).
 
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The Rogue Wolf

Stealthy Carnivore
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I decided to go ahead and finish off The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. The game is undeniably gorgeous; I won't take that away from it- but the puzzles range from uninspired to illogical and the story is downright nonsensical. And it seems to pull the whole "dying dream" thing at the end, even.
 
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Worgen

Follower of the Glorious Sun Butt.
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Whatever, just wash your hands.
Beat the dlc campaign for 40k Battlesector: Deeds of the Fallen. Story was decent, but with some weirdly large holes, like you are mostly fighting orks, but someone is directing the orks, since there is always someone doing that and after you fight them a few times they just kinda run off with no closure as to why they are doing that, maybe the next dlc will go into it or something. The difficulty is also a bit all over, fighting orks can be pretty rough since there are so many and they love nades but the ones directing the orks are rather easy to deal with, the ai isn't the best, but it tries. Even with a bit of work with the story I quite enjoyed it and even its mystery. I do hope they get out of the Sisters of Battle being like 100% all about the emperor, I mean I know that all humans are about the emperor but in space marine they managed to not have it be so much about faith in him... even though that is like what the Sisters of Battle are all about. Either way, I had a lot of fun, its good to play Battle Sector again, seriously its like the best non shooty action 40k game.
 
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NerfedFalcon

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Deltarune just released. I will be playing that, and spending as little time as possible here or anywhere on the Internet until I've finished the new chapters.

I probably won't post my impressions on the new stuff either, but if you want them now, I would say download the demo (first two chapters out of four), then decide if you're going to buy the game. I imagine you will decide you're going to buy the game. It is very good.
 
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Never underestimate people's ability to make really bad designs. You have to take into account that a lot of homes back then weren't designed by architects and were made by people building their own homes. My great Aunt's house had a bedroom that was only accessible from another bedroom. The rationale was that when they built the house they had babies and put the kid's room connected to their room. Obviously, once the kids get older this ceases to be a benefit and now they need to walk through your bedroom every time they get up in the middle of the night.
Plus, John, Uncle and Charles (outlaw hooligans) literally built a whole damn house themselves from a basic schematic. I find that more unrealistic than a mere period-inaccurate floor plan.

 
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I finally put in the work and managed through what is undeniably my least favorite area of Elden Ring so far: the Haligtree. What the actual fuck, dude?? Mobs that hit like mini-bosses, mini-bosses that hit like actual bosses, Scarlett Rot status everywhere, another goddamned ulcerated tree spirit, and "Pest Thread Alley" towards the end might as well be up there with "the archers" from DS1 or Shrine of Amana from DS2 as patently unfair.

Now I'm standing at HER fog door. I'm too mentally defeated right now to even try.
Ehh. If it makes you feel any better the lore-accurate end boss from the DLC still make her seem easy too. No wonder she had to use the rot bomb that nuked Caelid as a last ditch Hail Mary.
 

Drathnoxis

I love the smell of card games in the morning
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Plus, John, Uncle and Charles (outlaw hooligans) literally built a whole damn house themselves from a basic schematic. I find that more unrealistic than a mere period-inaccurate floor plan.

I mean, is it? Other than the fact that it's huge and they clearly have no idea what they are doing based on how they are hammering nails and shingles into completely random and wrong spots. I would imagine it was pretty common back then to build your own home and not have as much help as you might like (which is why the floor plans are weird). Like I said in my post, my great aunt's and also my grandparents houses were built by themselves. Couldn't have been more than 10 of them working on it.
 

BrawlMan

Lover of beat'em ups.
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I did another Rushing Beat Ran playthrough on Normal. Killed about 440 bad guys total.

Sonic Blast Man II I managed to 1CC on Normal, but barely. Final score: 520,100. SBII I find to be a much better brawler than all of the Final Fight games on SNES and the Rushing Beat Trilogy.
 

Old_Hunter_77

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Turnip Boy

Steam had both of these games as a bundle on sale: Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion and Turnip Boy Robs a Bank

While neither is exactly my genre (first is a top-down RPG, the second some sort of roguelite), they are both very silly and short. I tried a Tax Evasion demo and it was silly and cute but it didn't hook me enough. Seemed like the typical "maybe on sale and I have nothing else to play" kind of thing which is exactly where I'm at. And especially since I'm looking for something on my handheld and these seem perfect for that.
Hooray for short cheap games!
 
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Johnny Novgorod

Bebop Man
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Finished The Silver Case.

We're not going to talk about Judy at all.

Here's what I have on Suda51:

He believes most sociopolitical conflicts between ostensibly different parties and factions are bullshit scenery staged by The Man.

The Man is an idea that is either inherited or appropriated. No one's actually at the steering wheel.

The digital era helmed a post-truth, loss-of-self reality. Everyone holds multiple conflicting ideas, identities and allegiances.

He oscillates wildly between telling without showing and showing without explaining. Incoherence is warmly embraced.

He'll splurge on ridiculously expensive animation (or even a live action enactment) for something completely pointless or mundane, yet will barely acknowledge a crucial development with a line of text.

Edward James Olmos was cool in Blade Runner.

Everybody needs to be dead or insane by the end. Also nothing ends. The cosmic chess game between two indifferent observers goes on.
 

NerfedFalcon

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Finished The Silver Case.

We're not going to talk about Judy at all.

Here's what I have on Suda51:

He believes most sociopolitical conflicts between ostensibly different parties and factions are bullshit scenery staged by The Man.

The Man is an idea that is either inherited or appropriated. No one's actually at the steering wheel.

The digital era helmed a post-truth, loss-of-self reality. Everyone holds multiple conflicting ideas, identities and allegiances.

He oscillates wildly between telling without showing and showing without explaining. Incoherence is warmly embraced.

He'll splurge on ridiculously expensive animation (or even a live action enactment) for something completely pointless or mundane, yet will barely acknowledge a crucial development with a line of text.

Edward James Olmos was cool in Blade Runner.

Everybody needs to be dead or insane by the end. Also nothing ends. The cosmic chess game between two indifferent observers goes on.
Yeah, all of that sounds like Killer 7, admittedly the only Suda51 game I've played. Hopefully you enjoyed it or at least got something out of it.

Finished Deltarune Chapter 1 (I decided to replay the first two chapters before moving on to the old stuff). It's as good in 2025 as it was in 2018 when it dropped. And Chapter 2 is even better than that, with more content, more and even funnier characters, and the amount it develops the plot. Can't wait to play through it for the (I think) fourth time.
 

Johnny Novgorod

Bebop Man
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Went back to Dark Souls, NG+. Shocking how quickly you can speedrun the game to Anor Londo. Went down to fight Quelaag through the back gate, completely sidestepping Blighttown, then tore through Undead Burg/Parish to fight the Gargoyles. No Depths, thank you very much. Sen's was not that bad either. NOW I discover you don't have to run past that final stretch of guillotines in one go, since there's a safe zone in the middle.

Only way I could defeat O&S was by finally using a summon, although Solaire was half-dead by the time he joined in and lasted just long enough as a distraction for me to get rid of Ornstein.

 

Xprimentyl

Made you look...
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Played through Firewatch. It's basically a walking simulator where you play a man, Henry, on a summer stint in a national park in Wyoming as a fire watch ranger in the late 1980s. The story is told via communications with the head ranger (Delilah) as you are tasked with mundane objective around the park, but intrigue slowly unfolds involving their communications being monitored and the unsolved mystery of a young boy missing for 3 years.

Can't recommend this one, but I enjoyed it for how different and refreshing (for me) it was. As frustrating as it was at times, I appreciated having to use an actual map and compass to traverse the park; reminded me of my Morrowind days, so much so that...

I downloaded Morrowind from Game Pass. Only about 45 minutes or so in, but damned if it doesn't still feel good. I've forgotten a lot, but the muscle memory kicked right in.
 
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Old_Hunter_77

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Played through Firewatch. It's basically a walking simulator where you play a man, Henry, on a summer stint in a national park in Wyoming as a fire watch ranger in the late 1980s. The story is told via communications with the head ranger (Delilah) as you are tasked with mundane objective around the park, but intrigue slowly unfolds involving their communications being monitored and the unsolved mystery of a young boy missing for 3 years.

Can't recommend this one, but I enjoyed it for how different and refreshing (for me) it was. As frustrating as it was at times, I appreciated having to use an actual map and compass to traverse the park; reminded me of my Morrowind days, so much so that...

I downloaded Morrowind from Game Pass. Only about 45 minutes or so in, but damned if it doesn't still feel good. I've forgotten a lot, but the muscle memory kicked right in.
I really liked Firewatch, even though I'm not a walking sim type of guy. It was short.
 
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FakeSympathy

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Sanabi.

Because it was made by a fellow Korean. I thought I would be biased to say this game is good.

Bias is not needed; This game has an colorful 2d artstyle, satisfying platformer combat, kick-ass soundtrack, and a phenomenal story.

Dare I say it, it's 5/5 in nearly every aspect. Especially the story that made me cry hard at the end.
 
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Dreiko

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Just got the Lies of P dlc bundle. I somehow ended up never playing the game and then they announced dlc that adds a bunch of stuff to the main game too on top of the extra story so I figured it’s about time. And then I saw they added gunblades which moved the game to top priority. Will definitely become a lion, no maybes.
 

Old_Hunter_77

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Summer Game Fest demos

Spent the morning trying out demos from three games that caught my eye during ysterday's SGF festivities. To my small surprise they're all indies- yep, I've become that guy, the guy what likes the indies, I guess.

However, none of the three got past my own pickiness and hang-ups. They are:

MIO (Memories In Orbit)

The trailer made me think it was like Gris or Neva, with a beautiful art style and platforming and simple combat. Unfortunately for me it's more of a Hollow Knight- metroidvania with unforgiving combat (you start out with only two health points). Combined with the character's slow walking speed I was annoyed by having to restart at the checkpoint way too fast.
I think there's a potentially interesting currency/upgrade approach that some might enjoy, but yes there is that thing where you drop currency upon death.
It's obvious that the game will add mechanics to let you move around quicker (there are obvious grappling points scattered about) but I didn't get that far.
If you're desperate for Silksong and need something of that ilk to fill the void... well, I guess play Nine Sols, but if you still need something... well, play like a million others things also... but also this, 'cause it's pretty. I'm out though, I just can't stand all that backtracking.

Possessor(s)

You're a demon-possessed high schooler or something. Also a metroidvania and that visual/art style is sort Hades-like in the character presentation and a movement/gameplay feel that is kind of stiff but on purpose- kind of like Elder Lillies.
I loved the premise, the look, the setup. But as soon as I got a whip that is also a grapple I simply could not figure out how to use. I had to do some sort of grab/jump thing and I couldn't get her to swing up to the ledge.
Sure maybe I get too frustrated too easily but that's ok.

BallXPit

If I found the correct youtube video, it was the sole focus of Devolver Direct's showcase and therefore I just had to try it.
It's basically Indy Game the Game. It combines every trend except for deckbuilding. I mean it literally is a roguelite, Vampire Survivors-like with base management and sort of farming.
You shoot at hordes of blocks while collecting things to upgrade until you get overwhelmed and die, but you keep some XP and resources, then you do some clicking of menus and squares to make more things, then you do it all over and over. And then I guess you go online to read about the best items to look for when bullet-helling so that you can have the best build at some point or whatever.

This will either be many folks' GOTY or the start of a backlash, because it's so much of everything from the past 10 years that it's actually kind of brilliant. It's like a meta-game of the entire indy sphere that I love it and I never want to play it again.
 

Xprimentyl

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I really liked Firewatch, even though I'm not a walking sim type of guy. It was short.
I liked it as well, just kinda hard to sell to most gamers as a worthy gaming experience since there's very little "game" outside of the tedium of using the map and compass to walk around. I think of it as a quick, self-contained cinematic experience where the story really IS the meat of the thing. It was appreciably different, but not anything I'd put on anyone's radar as a "must."