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Post by windfisch on Oct 31, 2019 19:05:00 GMT -5
Well, I read enough ravings about Crash and Spyro to shell out for Humble Monthly. They don't really explain the options all that well. I guess I can keep pausing as long as I want? Seems like a fine way to stay on their Classic plan forever and ever. Now I just have to decide whether I want to pay $9 for Toejam and Earl. Decisions, decisions. I too am eyeing that bundle, but it's Frog Detective, Flippin Death and possibly Minit (seems kinda stressful) I'm curious about. (Toejam and Earl is way beyond my hardware's capabilities...). Which tier to choose? On the other hand I could just get Hollow Knight or Guacamelee 2 on Steam/GOG sales atm (two game I'm certain I will like)...
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Post by jorpho on Oct 31, 2019 20:17:12 GMT -5
I too am eyeing that bundle, but it's Frog Detective, Flippin Death and possibly Minit (seems kinda stressful) I'm curious about. Oh, did you miss it when they gave it away on the Epic store? I posted about that a few pages back. It's good for a couple of hours of fun – but I certainly wouldn't pay more than a couple of bucks for it. None of it is really especially difficult, except that there are a few hidden secrets that are a little too obtuse, especially with the time limit. What makes you think that..? It's a 2D game that should even run on an ancient computer. I'm much more worried about whether I'll be able to run Crash and Spyro. I just can't shake that feeling that whatever game I buy next is going to be a giveaway on Epic long before I get around to playing it. Kinda like Minit. :-P
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Post by shelverton on Nov 1, 2019 5:33:04 GMT -5
I don’t usually play mobile games but I decided to give Raid: Shadow Legends a try, and I’ve put quite a few hours into it by now. All you ever really do in this game is grind. Grind for potions, grind for scrolls, grind for levels, grind for silver.
The battle system is both shallow and deep at the same time, and it’s especially interesting to try and put together a team of champions that can truly slay in the pvp arena. There are so many stats and skills at play here, and so many opportunities to upgrade and improve different attributes and gear. Not paying attention to what you equip and how you equip it can really put you at a huge disadvantage.
And yet... you can put the battles on auto pilot and do pretty well.
Is this game fun? Not really. Is it even a game? Barely. I play it more as a form of meditation than anything else. It’s repetitive and tedious but also strangely addictive. Will not put any real money into it though I can see how that’s the only way to really succeed at this, at least past a certain point.
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Post by windfisch on Nov 1, 2019 9:25:11 GMT -5
I too am eyeing that bundle, but it's Frog Detective, Flippin Death and possibly Minit (seems kinda stressful) I'm curious about. Oh, did you miss it when they gave it away on the Epic store? I posted about that a few pages back. It's good for a couple of hours of fun – but I certainly wouldn't pay more than a couple of bucks for it. None of it is really especially difficult, except that there are a few hidden secrets that are a little too obtuse, especially with the time limit. What makes you think that..? It's a 2D game that should even run on an ancient computer. I'm much more worried about whether I'll be able to run Crash and Spyro. I just can't shake that feeling that whatever game I buy next is going to be a giveaway on Epic long before I get around to playing it. Kinda like Minit. :-P Thanks for the advice. Regarding the Epic Store: I've already got too many accounts: Steam, GOG, Humble etc., so another one (+launcher) feels like overkill. Of course I'm missing out on a couple of quality free games atm, but I'm fine with that. After all, I've got a huge backlog of shame to fall back on...
Toejam and Earl's minimum requirements on Steam list a Quad-Core 2.4 GHz processor - I've only got a meager Dual-Core 2.2 GHz Maybe T&E is not optimized that well, or maybe there is much more processing going on than meets the eye.
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Post by Bumpyroad on Nov 1, 2019 16:59:30 GMT -5
Your daily trailer pulp
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Post by mainpatr on Nov 1, 2019 20:59:52 GMT -5
Does anyone else here think that modern game patches are too big? 8 days to patch Final Fantasy XV with 2-3 MB per second internet? What are low speed internet users supposed to do then?
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Post by jorpho on Nov 1, 2019 23:32:22 GMT -5
Does anyone else here think that modern game patches are too big? 8 days to patch Final Fantasy XV with 2-3 MB per second internet? What are low speed internet users supposed to do then? Eh, I can still remember all the fury when Half Life 2 was released with its manditory Steam install. And speeds were really slow back then. I would think that if Internet speeds are too slow to make the patch downloadable in a reasonable amount of time that the game would likewise be unplayable – but then, it's not like it's something I've ever tried. Also, yay! Shenmue 1+2 was in the Humble Monthly! (I probably could have looked that up somewhere.) I have no regrets about the purchase – or at least, I won't until it ends up being given away for free some day in the distant future when I still haven't played it.
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Post by mainpatr on Nov 2, 2019 1:47:20 GMT -5
Oh, did you miss it when they gave it away on the Epic store? I posted about that a few pages back. It's good for a couple of hours of fun – but I certainly wouldn't pay more than a couple of bucks for it. None of it is really especially difficult, except that there are a few hidden secrets that are a little too obtuse, especially with the time limit. What makes you think that..? It's a 2D game that should even run on an ancient computer. I'm much more worried about whether I'll be able to run Crash and Spyro. I just can't shake that feeling that whatever game I buy next is going to be a giveaway on Epic long before I get around to playing it. Kinda like Minit. :-P Thanks for the advice. Regarding the Epic Store: I've already got too many accounts: Steam, GOG, Humble etc., so another one (+launcher) feels like overkill. Of course I'm missing out on a couple of quality free games atm, but I'm fine with that. After all, I've got a huge backlog of shame to fall back on...
Toejam and Earl's minimum requirements on Steam list a Quad-Core 2.4 GHz processor - I've only got a meager Dual-Core 2.2 GHz Maybe T&E is not optimized that well, or maybe there is much more processing going on than meets the eye. If you could run Frog Detective, you would be able to run Toejam and Earl. Unity based.
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Post by windfisch on Nov 2, 2019 6:22:24 GMT -5
Toejam and Earl's minimum requirements on Steam list a Quad-Core 2.4 GHz processor - I've only got a meager Dual-Core 2.2 GHz Maybe T&E is not optimized that well, or maybe there is much more processing going on than meets the eye. If you could run Frog Detective, you would be able to run Toejam and Earl. Unity based. Not sure I can follow you. Do you mean all Unity games require the same hardware specs? I really don't know much about game engines, but I think I've played Unity games that ran worse than others.
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Post by dsparil on Nov 2, 2019 7:54:47 GMT -5
Unity is a crappy engine in my experience and usually needs more power than what you'd think. That or Unity devs have less experience and just write crappy code but it's been such a common issue for me that I'm leaning towards the engine.
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Post by Apollo Chungus on Nov 2, 2019 12:38:56 GMT -5
Out of nowhere, I decided to try playing Castlevania: Circle of the Moon yesterday, and I'm actually really enjoying myself on it. There's a couple of things about it that are a little iffy, like needing to sprint in order to get any kind of distance for your jumps and the luck-based item drop system (though I've had somewhat better luck than I expected, I haven't picked up any cards since the first two you always get at the start), but I'm otherwise digging it so far. This is especially bolstered by a genuinely awesome soundtrack; yes, it's largely made of rearrangements of songs from previous games, but when you've got remixes as awesome as this game's rendition of Sinking Old Sanctuary from Bloodlines, I'm definitely not gonna complain.
(This also acts as an extra point to what I was saying some time ago that you can have Mapformers with overtly melodic music without it getting annoying if the music is good, since I've only listened to two or three tracks despite playing the game for nearly two hours at this point and I haven't gotten sick of them. In fact, it makes me relish the thought of revisiting earlier areas to find new places to go since it means I get to listen to their awesome tunes again.)
Also, as an aside, in looking up information on the DSS card system used in this game, I stumbled across a fairly old Castlevania fansite that run up until 2012 called Castlevania Dungeon, which I particularly want to bring up because one of the people who set up this site is HG101's editor himself, Kurt Kalata! There's even a section for fanfics and comics, some of which are done by Kalata! Behold!
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Post by windfisch on Nov 2, 2019 12:53:30 GMT -5
Unity is a crappy engine in my experience and usually needs more power than what you'd think. That or Unity devs have less experience and just write crappy code but it's been such a common issue for me that I'm leaning towards the engine. Probably wouldn't call it crappy since there are lots of good Unity-based games. But otherwise I tend to agree: I've played some very basic-looking Unity games that still would require me to switch to higher performance settings on my PC in order to run properly.
Circle of the Moon is a pretty good game, albeit with some very rough edges. As a whole it may be just a bit too frustrating for my tastes.
It's funny how CoM and Harmony of Dissonance turned out almost complete opposites: Combat in CoM is too difficult, but in HoD it's too easy. Music in CoM sounds excellent, not so much in HoD (there are some neat compositions but instrumentation-wise it really does live up to its name). Controls and animation in CoM are a bit stiff, but backgrounds look classy, whereas HoM has fluid controls and animation, yet backgrounds can be quite messy.
The main thing that makes CoM superior imo is that I found navigating the castle way less confusing and irritating than it was in HoD.
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Post by Snake on Nov 2, 2019 13:32:02 GMT -5
Still have lots of love for the Castlevania Dungeon site. I feel like I remember it being around since like, 2003 or 2004.
Circle of the Moon was certainly one of the better launch titles for Gameboy Advance. The collection of remixed soundtracks had a lot of good picks. Aquarius being among my favorites. I was a bit surprised that the last form they chose for Dracula was reminiscent of the one in Castlevania 64. It does kind of fit I guess, as being among the post-Belmont alternate timeline games.
The team that did Circle of the Moon seemed to have gotten better sound programming out of the Gameboy Advance than Iga and the Harmony of Dissonance development team. More polished, synthesized notes.
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Post by windfisch on Nov 2, 2019 14:13:53 GMT -5
I was a bit surprised that the last form they chose for Dracula was reminiscent of the one in Castlevania 64. It does kind of fit I guess, as being among the post-Belmont alternate timeline games. I think both were made by Konami's Kobe department.
Also "alternate timeline" is just another way of saying: "Castlevania games Igarashi did not work on nor like, so he retroactively made them non-canon". Not that I care about canon, it's just such an odd and childish thing to do.
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Post by dsparil on Nov 2, 2019 14:14:49 GMT -5
I mention this every time it comes up, but there are two ways to generate music on a GBA. The higher quality option is to use the GBA's processor, but that has a certain amount of overhead and decreases the amount of graphics and general processing that can be done. The other option is to use the GB processor which can be used for music in GBA software either supplementally or exclusively.
It's a trade off. HoD went a little crazy with a whole lot of enemies with sprite rotation and that SotN style trail but music that's literally GB quality. CotM sounds great but looks a little bland. AoS gets the right balance.
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