LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Aug 25, 2022 7:58:10 GMT -5
I'm on record as not really liking Breath of the Wild, but every now and then I do want to return to it, specifically for the shrines. They were just about the only thing in the game I really liked, which is appropriate considering how unpopular they seemed to be.*
*Is what I gather. My finger is hardly on the pulse of BotW fandom.
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Aug 25, 2022 8:12:33 GMT -5
In other news, I played through two and a half episodes of Heretic yesterday. Occasionally I'll fire up classic DOOM or DOOM II but always get bored with them fairly quickly. Heretic proved surprisingly sticky though. I kept wanting to play more. The version I bought on sale include the expansion of course, so another 2.5 episodes to go. Maybe I'll finish it up this weekend.
The weapons don't feel great. There's no BFG equivalent, the "rocket launcher" is notably worse than DOOM's, and the highest numbered weapon, which presumably would be the strongest, is pretty crap in boss encounters.
So there's your update on 1994's Heretic by Raven Software.
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ABz Bđź‘ąanaz
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Post by ABz Bđź‘ąanaz on Aug 25, 2022 9:25:21 GMT -5
In other news, I played through two and a half episodes of Heretic yesterday. Occasionally I'll fire up classic DOOM or DOOM II but always get bored with them fairly quickly. Heretic proved surprisingly sticky though. I kept wanting to play more. The version I bought on sale include the expansion of course, so another 2.5 episodes to go. Maybe I'll finish it up this weekend. The weapons don't feel great. There's no BFG equivalent, the "rocket launcher" is notably worse than DOOM's, and the highest numbered weapon, which presumably would be the strongest, is pretty crap in boss encounters. So there's your update on 1994's Heretic by Raven Software. I SEEM to recall Hexen being a much more fun game overall, but it's been forever so I don't know for sure. |
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Aug 25, 2022 9:37:07 GMT -5
So there's your update on 1994's Heretic by Raven Software. I SEEM to recall Hexen being a much more fun game overall, but it's been forever so I don't know for sure. Ya know, I wonder why I never played Hexen or Hexen II. I certainly played Heretic, and the DOOMs, and Duke Nukem 3D, and Half Life, and the System Shocks. But I let the Hexens pass me by. I was just reading a little bit about it and don't love the idea of having classes with limited weapon sets in my old-school shooter. But I'll still probably check it out. Especially since I'm playing with GZDoom, which upgrades the graphics, improves the lighting, solidifies the frame rate, and makes it widescreen. |
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ABz Bđź‘ąanaz
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Post by ABz Bđź‘ąanaz on Aug 25, 2022 9:42:49 GMT -5
I SEEM to recall Hexen being a much more fun game overall, but it's been forever so I don't know for sure. Ya know, I wonder why I never played Hexen or Hexen II. I certainly played Heretic, and the DOOMs, and Duke Nukem 3D, and Half Life, and the System Shocks. But I let the Hexens pass me by. I was just reading a little bit about it and don't love the idea of having classes with limited weapon sets in my old-school shooter. But I'll still probably check it out. Especially since I'm playing with GZDoom, which upgrades the graphics, improves the lighting, solidifies the frame rate, and makes it widescreen. I played SO MANY FPSes back in the day. All of the ones you listed. System Shock 2 is still one of my all-time favorites, and I'm excitedly waiting for the new updated version to be completed. |
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Baron von Costume
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Post by Baron von Costume on Aug 25, 2022 9:43:54 GMT -5
I'm on record as not really liking Breath of the Wild, but every now and then I do want to return to it, specifically for the shrines. They were just about the only thing in the game I really liked, which is appropriate considering how unpopular they seemed to be.* *Is what I gather. My finger is hardly on the pulse of BotW fandom. 100% |
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Post by MrsLangdonAlger on Aug 25, 2022 13:06:06 GMT -5
Guild Wars 2 got released on Steam the other day and between an achievement that takes veteran players all over the maps and veteran players wanting to show off/"help" newbies, the starter maps are insane right now. Apparently people are following newbies around kind of ruining their experience by being overbearingly helpful. I had planned to give out 20 slot bags to new folks but now I feel like I'd just be part of overwhelming them.
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Post by liebkartoffel on Aug 25, 2022 14:57:41 GMT -5
I'm on record as not really liking Breath of the Wild, but every now and then I do want to return to it, specifically for the shrines. They were just about the only thing in the game I really liked, which is appropriate considering how unpopular they seemed to be.* *Is what I gather. My finger is hardly on the pulse of BotW fandom. Actually, I'd say the general consensus is that the shrines are great while the "dungeons" are collectively something of a let-down. They were definitely my favorite part of the game. (Excepting the handful of "marble tilt" ones that were impossible to play in handheld.) |
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Post by Nudeviking on Aug 25, 2022 17:29:38 GMT -5
I'm on record as not really liking Breath of the Wild, but every now and then I do want to return to it, specifically for the shrines. They were just about the only thing in the game I really liked, which is appropriate considering how unpopular they seemed to be.* *Is what I gather. My finger is hardly on the pulse of BotW fandom. Actually, I'd say the general consensus is that the shrines are great while the "dungeons" are collectively something of a let-down. They were definitely my favorite part of the game. (Excepting the handful of "marble tilt" ones that were impossible to play in handheld.) I did a marble tilt one last night with the Switch docked and using a proper controller and it wasn’t any better. |
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Post by Nudeviking on Aug 25, 2022 20:01:15 GMT -5
Yeah I've since upgraded stamina a couple times so climbing up a mountain is not as much of a fiasco. I also have a hang glider so I don't have to mess around with climbing down when I get to the top anymore. I think I might now grab an extra heart the next time I have Challenge Orbs or whatever those deals are called so I don't get one-shotted by a lizardman hiding behind a rock when I'm walking down a path. If you haven't already, after the great plateau it's generally a good idea to make a beeline to Kakariko, where you can pick up some armor that will make you considerably less squishy. Also, cooking isn't so much a fun minigame as an outright requirement for many of the game's less hospitable areas. I made it to Kakariko and whatever the second town they send you to from there (the one with the science lab). I didn't have any money in Kakariko (no monsters seem to drop rupees in this game which is weird) and didn't know how important the random junk I've been collecting is to the actual game until the time I got to the science lab town at which point I bought metal pants and a hat. |
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Aug 26, 2022 7:22:14 GMT -5
I'm on record as not really liking Breath of the Wild, but every now and then I do want to return to it, specifically for the shrines. They were just about the only thing in the game I really liked, which is appropriate considering how unpopular they seemed to be.* *Is what I gather. My finger is hardly on the pulse of BotW fandom. Actually, I'd say the general consensus is that the shrines are great while the "dungeons" are collectively something of a let-down. They were definitely my favorite part of the game. (Excepting the handful of "marble tilt" ones that were impossible to play in handheld.) I always wondered how the tilt ones would work in handheld, and I could never think of an answer other than, "they don't." |
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Post by Nudeviking on Aug 26, 2022 8:29:14 GMT -5
Actually, I'd say the general consensus is that the shrines are great while the "dungeons" are collectively something of a let-down. They were definitely my favorite part of the game. (Excepting the handful of "marble tilt" ones that were impossible to play in handheld.) I always wondered how the tilt ones would work in handheld, and I could never think of an answer other than, "they don't." I know with the one I did last night I legitimately ended up with the controller completely upside down in my hands which is all well and good when I’m looking at a TV across the room but I don’t know how that would have worked out if I was playing on a Switch Lite. |
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matt
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Post by matt on Aug 26, 2022 14:35:50 GMT -5
On one hand, the hot wheels expansion of Forza Horizon 5 doesn't include the weiner-mobile, but the game proper does have the Warthog from Halo.
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Aug 30, 2022 9:28:23 GMT -5
Haiku, The Robot is a good new Metroidvania that hews closer to Hollow Knight than most, which is for the better. Unlike a lot of other modern Metroidvanias that stack up the mechanics until they distract and annoy - item crafting and large arsenals of weapons being the most common thorns - Haiku keeps things simple. You only have one weapon, a limited move set, and just a couple auxiliary actions. Success is more about how well you play than how you've decked out your character, which I like.
The Hollow Knight comparisons also run deep:
- Haiku moves like the knight; his jump timing and "float" feeling almost exactly the same. - Again the single weapon that carries you through the whole game, with regular, up, and down strikes. - You can pogo on enemies endlessly just like the knight, and this can also be used to complete platforming challenges.
- The wall grab ability feels exactly like Hollow Knight's; after grabbing a wall you start sliding down until you jump. - The chip system is very similar to the charm system, including several chips that perform the same actions as certain charms. - The map system is as close to Hollow Knight's as any other Metroidvania I've played. You first explore regions without a map until you find it within the area, after which everywhere you've been fills in (no quill equivalent thankfully). And what's more, it's artistically similar: each region has a distinct color, they're labeled, the shape resembles the actual shapes of the rooms,and important rooms often have little hand-drawn flourishes to help you remember what they are.
- Even the story has similarities as you explore a vast underground world of "infected" enemies.
I have not finished the game yet, but several hours in, Haiku, The Robot is the most Hollow Knight game I've played since Hollow Knight, and if you're in to that, you might like it too, at least until Silksong comes out.
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Post by sarapen on Aug 30, 2022 13:42:35 GMT -5
I'm playing Everspace for PC. I forget when I got it but it must have been on sale for super cheap since I haven't played a flight simulator game since probably Ace Combat 4 on the PS2.
It's a decent enough roguelike, you take your spaceship from one star system to another and then jump from one sector to another. You fight and explore in each system and have to survive until reaching the end of (I think) Sector 7. After you die a new clone gets crapped out and you get to try again, and you may even be able to salvage stuff from the wreck of your previous run. You also get to do RPG stuff like upgrade some ship systems, but you also lose some resources and items on each death.
Anyway, the last time I played a flight simulator game on PC was probably on TIE Fighter and it's kind of annoying not having a flight stick this time around. I'm not buying one just for this game, the gamepad I have works okay enough, but it's kind of weird how flight simulator games were so big for that brief period in the 90s.
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Post by Nudeviking on Aug 30, 2022 21:56:48 GMT -5
Was there a nuclear holocaust or something in that there Animal Forest Switch game? Like my little dude seems to be the only human being among all these animal-human hybrids and last night while playing I encountered a wisp who got scared because they thought I was a ghost and then seemed shocked to learn that I was a real live human being.
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Post by Roy Batty's Pet Dove on Aug 31, 2022 11:03:44 GMT -5
As I don't own a PS5 (or a PS4 for that matter) or any sort of XBox, I wanted to find a decent simcade racing game for the Switch, and settled on GRID Autosport (made by the developer Codemasters, who also do the official F1 video games). This appears to be the only simcade racing game for the system to have gotten good reviews. And while I'm not good enough at racing games to properly judge these kinds of things, I think it is, in fact, a good game.
Part of my enjoyment surely derives from me actually trying to make a serious attempt at getting better at racing games. I've always been really bad about pushing cars past their limits and running off track/crashing in the Gran Turismos that I've played in the past, as well as braking too late when racing against other cars, running into them from behind, not knowing where to attempt overtakes, etc. Finally forcing myself to actually learn how to drive properly in these sorts of games has been a big help. The game itself is designed in such a way to facilitate this, though. I'm sure the actual quality of the racing itself is probably a bit lacking compared to some of the more recent Gran Turismo or Forza games (and yeah, the graphics are pretty good, but obviously not like PS5 or X Box Series Whatever quality), but there are a couple of things the game does that do a good, non-gimmicky job of investing you in any particular race. Instead of something like Gran Turismo, where you have a bunch of random cups to race in, often without qualifying, or a chance to practice beforehand, and where, if you don't know a lot about the cars participating, you're likely to bring a car that is either ridiculously overpowered to the point where the races will be way too easy even if you drive like shit, or woefully underpowered to the point where you've no shot at winning, in GRID Autosport, each event is framed as a season in your player's career as a driver. You choose a team, each of which has certain goals in minds in terms of where they want you and your team to finish. You have a teammate, who might be really good, or might be one of the worst drivers on the grid. You're also told that you have a rival each season, and during the race, there's a button you can press to inquire of your race engineer where your teammate and rival are relative to you. This helps you to actually give a bit of a shit about who you're racing against, unlike in other racing games where they're literally all just a bunch of entirely interchangeable names to me. Depending on the team, your car might be slightly better or worse, but you'll never be in a car where you're, like, guaranteed a win if you don't crash out, or guaranteed to finish near the back of the pack. Seasons are generally pretty short, but what I like is that you're allowed an optional practice session before each race to get a feel for the track, and to offer you an opportunity to tune your car, and you get a qualifying session as well. There are five different disciplines that you can race in: touring, endurance, open wheel, tuner, and street circuits. Endurance races aren't really "endurance" races per se, they're just the only ones where tire wear is a factor, and the tuner series has drift events, which are honestly a bit gimmicky and which I don't much care for.
The AI is pretty smart for racing game AI from an eight year old game (this Switch version is a port of a PS3/XBox 360-era game), although when defending they have a tendency to weave back and forth on straights to block you off which makes it hard to pass in a way that I don't think most actual real-world motorsport allows, and makes it tough to figure out how to attempt to pass on corners. I'm pretty sure there's some rubber-banding going on, at least at the lower levels of difficulty (I'm currently set at the middle level of AI difficulty), which makes for a more interesting race so you aren't just going to spend the entire race in last if you spin out, and you're also kept from getting complacent if you take the lead, but I've noticed that in the touring car discipline this leads to cars being bunched all together, taking evasive action to avoid collisions in ways that are hard to predict, making it really hard to pass a group of like three cars running almost all alongside one another without getting into an accident yourself, and then having other cars you'd passed catch you up, making it really hard to avoid making contact (I'm sure a lot of this is also due to my own lack of skill). Which brings me to the damage system, which was apparently widely praised by reviewers. I'd say it's pretty good, albeit more forgiving than you'd probably expect in real life, but given how aggressively AI defends their positions, and how unrealistically the game ends up packing the field together, that's pretty helpful. The last race I was in, however, I nearly went from like 4th to 7th, because 3rd place and another back marker were stuck behind a car they were trying to lap with a blown tire, and driving very slow as both were flaking this car from behind, making it very difficult to pass and very easy to get caught by cars behind me.
The difficulty level is customizable on a granular level, if you want, so I was able to switch from automatic to manual, and then take off stuff like ABS, traction control, stability control, and the racing line at my leisure, without at the same time increasing the difficulty of the AI, which is nice.
Anyway, I'm enjoying this game quite a bit, and even though I'm not particularly good at it, I feel like I've improved from being complete shit at racing games, so that's fun. I'm pretty sure this is the game I've played the most since buying a Switch at this point.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 2, 2022 0:49:18 GMT -5
Games* I've preordered well in advance in a supreme act of self-care: AI: The Somnium Files - nirvanA Initiative (fantastic sequel name guarenteed not to have any negative impact on sales) Chrono Cross: Radical Dreamers Edition Chaos;Head NOAH/Chaos;Child Combo Pack Incredible year for releases with gobbledygook names The first two sucked and the third has been delisted from Steam! (in Chrono Cross: Radical Dreamer Edition's case, it's only because it was a really shoddy port with constant fps dips. The original game is still one of my absolute favorite JRPGs with remarkably vibrant, impressionistic background texture work, a clever and engaging turn-based combat system, and a uniquely reactive narrative for PS1 games of its genre) |
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Post by Nudeviking on Sept 2, 2022 2:34:50 GMT -5
Games* I've preordered well in advance in a supreme act of self-care: AI: The Somnium Files - nirvanA Initiative (fantastic sequel name guarenteed not to have any negative impact on sales) Chrono Cross: Radical Dreamers Edition Chaos;Head NOAH/Chaos;Child Combo Pack Incredible year for releases with gobbledygook names The first two sucked and the third has been delisted from Steam! (in Chrono Cross: Radical Dreamer Edition's case, it's only because it was a really shoddy port with constant fps dips. The original game is still one of my absolute favorite JRPGs with remarkably vibrant, impressionistic background texture work, a clever and engaging turn-based combat system, and a uniquely reactive narrative for PS1 games of its genre) What were you playing Chrono Cross on since I think it got released on like every system that exists in 2022? I was thinking of picking it up because like you I kind of loved it when it came out (and sadly don't have any way to play the original anymore) and didn't know if one port was better/worse than others. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 2, 2022 12:43:43 GMT -5
The first two sucked and the third has been delisted from Steam! (in Chrono Cross: Radical Dreamer Edition's case, it's only because it was a really shoddy port with constant fps dips. The original game is still one of my absolute favorite JRPGs with remarkably vibrant, impressionistic background texture work, a clever and engaging turn-based combat system, and a uniquely reactive narrative for PS1 games of its genre) What were you playing Chrono Cross on since I think it got released on like every system that exists in 2022? I was thinking of picking it up because like you I kind of loved it when it came out (and sadly don't have any way to play the original anymore) and didn't know if one port was better/worse than others. I got it on PS4 and played with the remastered visuals they implemented turned off which seems to alleviate most of the issues. There are a couple dungeons 20+ hours in where it starts to chug sporadically but if you're already that far into the game I doubt it's going to frustrate you into dropping it completely. |
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matt
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Post by matt on Sept 2, 2022 23:30:47 GMT -5
What were you playing Chrono Cross on since I think it got released on like every system that exists in 2022? I was thinking of picking it up because like you I kind of loved it when it came out (and sadly don't have any way to play the original anymore) and didn't know if one port was better/worse than others. I got it on PS4 and played with the remastered visuals they implemented turned off which seems to alleviate most of the issues. There are a couple dungeons 20+ hours in where it starts to chug sporadically but if you're already that far into the game I doubt it's going to frustrate you into dropping it completely. Wonder if this is just a case of being optimized for next gen hardware even though it is a last gen game. |
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Post by Roy Batty's Pet Dove on Sept 5, 2022 14:40:42 GMT -5
Further adventures in GRID Autosport.
I decided to buy the one decent racing wheel for the Switch, that being the Hori Mario Kart branded “Pro Deluxe” wheel. You’re probably wondering if a wheel branded for a very unrealistic racing game is on par with an actually good racing wheel, and the answer is, well, no, but people who’ve reviewed it say it’s pretty decent for what it is, and in my limited experience thus far, I’d agree. It doesn’t have force feedback, which alone keeps it from being a wheel that can give a particularly realistic performance, but it’s solidly built, and I want to learn how to play racing games with a wheel rather than a controller, and for something that allows me to do this on a budget, it should do fine.
Anyway, I think I underestimated how difficult the transition from controller to racing wheel would be. I figured that a wheel would give me finer control over steering, and the pedals’ finer control over accelerating and braking, especially considering that I’ve been driving real cars (though obviously just like street cars on my commute to work or trip to the store or whatever) for over a decade, but the lack of feedback from the wheel, the difference in feel between the pedals and a real accelerator or brake pedal and the playing a game where you’re driving much faster than I ever have or will drive in real life made me realize there’s going to be a significant adjustment period here. Also operating the pedals with both feet instead of just my right foot like I normally do (since I drive an automatic) will make learning how to apply the brakes a bit tricky, although so far not nearly so much as I’d feared.
Anyway, I went to a fairly easy to navigate track with an easy to drive car where I was able to get a lap time in the 1:34s with a controller. First serious attempt with the wheel was just under nine seconds slower, which is wild. I’m really going to need some practice at properly correcting when I have oversteer and not just over correcting back and forth and back and forth and just weaving my way down the track. But over the course of ten laps or so I was able to improve to a time that was just a little over three seconds slower than the best lap I set with a controller. I hadn’t played the game in a few days, and my first lap on a controller was pretty bad by my standards for a lap where I didn’t crash or spin, and my best lap on the wheel beat that by a few tenths of a second. So I’ve got a ways to go with respect to to effectively learning how to play the game all over, but I’m making faster progress than I initially feared, and even with a controller, I’m unskilled enough that 3 seconds improvement isn’t as drastic an improvement as it seems.
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Post by MrsLangdonAlger on Sept 6, 2022 13:21:45 GMT -5
The fight music for Baldur's Gate 3 is so fucking stupid. Sounds like a bunch of dudes singing "yummy yummy, yum yum yum yum!"
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Post by Didja Heah That, T? on Sept 6, 2022 16:57:05 GMT -5
doing a gofundme so i can buy this
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Sept 8, 2022 6:58:42 GMT -5
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Post by liebkartoffel on Sept 8, 2022 19:59:44 GMT -5
Good for them. Never been to a live SGDQ. We keep bringing up going, but stuff gets in the way. |
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Post by liebkartoffel on Sept 14, 2022 7:21:32 GMT -5
I like farm sims/farm sim-RPG mashups as much as the next guy, but jesus christ they took up a third of yesterday's Nintendo Direct.
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Post by Didja Heah That, T? on Sept 14, 2022 14:19:25 GMT -5
if this isn't completely fake then tekken 8 is the most impressive game of this gen so far imo
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Post by Nudeviking on Sept 15, 2022 1:25:34 GMT -5
I like farm sims/farm sim-RPG mashups as much as the next guy, but jesus christ they took up a third of yesterday's Nintendo Direct. One of them was called Various Daylife though... |
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Post by Lurky McLurk on Sept 15, 2022 8:22:27 GMT -5
Over the course of six months (90+ hours of which was actual game playing time - I took it slow) I have replayed Dragon Age: Origins. I swear this is the last time, as I've played it in just about every combination of character, class and play style possible. This time, a cunning-based Dalish Elf rogue archer.
If you'll forgive the smuggery: the problem with this game is that once you understand its mechanics, and know everything it's going to throw at you, it's just not difficult enough. On Nightmare difficulty the origin story is quite challenging, especially for a squishy (Shale was correct) rogue, but by the end I just felt embarrassed for the Archdemon. Poor thing got slaughtered so quickly it didn't even manage to summon any minions.
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