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Post by windfisch on Oct 13, 2021 16:49:17 GMT -5
Weird music choice, but ok.
While I'm generally in favour of trailer music that goes against genre conventions, this feels indeed rather off and a bit random to me. I guess they tried to be kinda clever with the images loosely matching the lyrics. While I give them credit for trying, "trailer bass drums" completely destroy the contrasting effect of playing a softer song against violent images. I'm not exactly a Resident Evil person, but even I realize that the trailer is pretty heavy on fan-service, combining lots of familiar shots, modelled after RE 1+2 (if I'm not mistaken). It does look rather generic, but maybe it'll end up being mildly entertaining - which was also the case for the original RE movie from 20 years ago.
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Post by 🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀 on Oct 13, 2021 16:57:50 GMT -5
I have bought some time ago Loop Hero during the Steam sales but started playing it only now. It's addictive and it has a very nice art style and soundtrack! However, is it me or after the initial amount of hype earlier this year people have stopped talking about it already? Maybe because it's kind of difficult to describe... it's nominally a roguelike but it is mostly based on deckbuilding, resource management, strategy and maybe a bit of tower defense too? It sure is original. It's a rather niche game in an oversaturated market...it's well received but people move on quickly online. Maybe the Switch release will do it good. I remember hearing more about the game before release than after, a lot of people pointed out the very nice pixelart in the game.
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Post by ZenithianHero on Oct 14, 2021 9:47:02 GMT -5
Loop Hero will be talked about again when the console edition comes. Switch has the loudest indie-audience at the moment. I definitely want to buy it when the ports arrive.
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Post by JDarkside on Oct 14, 2021 17:21:09 GMT -5
Figured I'd just list out some games I've been playing worth a shout out Psychonauts 2 - Probably going to be my game of the year, depending on how some more time with Cruelty Squad goes.Finally sold to drop sixty bucks instead of waiting for a sale after Nitro Rad's review said the game has good combat, a rarity in collectathon platformers, and it is absolutely true, even if it does get a bit too chaotic at times. Using four different powers simultaneously is so fun and satisfying to do well. Of course, the main draw is Schafer's script, which is aces from start to finish, a great all ages sort of game more in the style of 80s or 90s PG films that weren't afraid to bring up dark subject mater. The game does order on going too dark, including a level based around a character's alcoholism and some major plot details I won't spoil, but it manages to keep the tone on point with a mixture of strong symbolism and an empathetic and sweet core to the story that argues everyone deserves a second chance. Except rich people, something it shares in common with Cruelty Squad.
Only major complaints is finding all the figments to 100% is better but still bad due to how big the levels get, and the last power, projection, is very half baked and there's not a lot you can do with it.
Dread Templar - Boomer shooter from a team sharing a publisher with Viscerafest (which is getting a second episode soon!). I think it needs some work, mainly in the narrative presentation and maybe some new tunes, but it's pretty fun and has some neat tricks to its arsenal. Love the throwing katana, even if the cooldown is way too long.
Max's Big Bust 2 - Goes without saying this is a raunchy visual novel just from the title alone, but I wanted to bring it up because it's almost finished and it has an absolutely wild story behind it. I actually reviewed the developer's first game, Gender Bender DNA Twister Extreme, as a kusoge, and since, he's made two finished but rough games. The first Max's Big Bust was another gender bender story, but it experimented with puzzle segments where you have to solve crimes in adventure game style nonsense logic segments that get increasingly meta, and the whole game sort of collapses in upon itself as it gets more ridiculous and purposefully dumb. Alluna & Brie is a direct sequel following two magical girls, one who can only make various types of cheese sandwiches, done as a sort of Persona like. Surprisingly fun, nine out of ten love interests are girl x girl, the script is even more self aware and focuses heavily on absurd situations. My favorite bit is finding out the girls got their powers making a poorly thought out deal with a succubus and Brie got stuck with her sandwich powers on complete accident.
Max's Big Bust 2 is not only a sequel to these games, but one or two never completed RPG games the developer mentions in the catch-up that he couldn't finish because his first PC died and he had to go back to his laptop to make something in renpy. It is a wonderfully clever and delightfully stupid comedy mystery where Max, normal Australian cop turned normal Australian policewoman turned moron turned electrical elemental spirit idiot, gets exposed to magic gas and ends up getting their magical state of being stabilized, and the game retcons the drifting intelligence of the character as simple flanderization to them genuinely having brain damage from their bizarre magical state in the previous games. Also, because the last two games happened, magic is now real, death has effectively been solved due to revive magic and items from the magical world, one of your fellow officers is a wolfman and he is a sweetheart, there's a secret terrorist group planning world domination mostly staffed by loser drug dealers from the first MBB, a throwaway character made fun of for his weird pose is now a dancing zombie CEO of a company set to mass produce revive items on Earth, there's a magic water witch cult just sort of hanging around, there's some sort of smuggling conspiracy going on, Brie has become one of the most powerful beings in existence and canonically beat a crab god, and Max has to deal with finding out every few minutes they were apart of some sort or criminal act or something because they were easily manipulated with shiny objects or obvious lies while basically being a god level magic ditz.
It is the most ridiculous game I have ever seen, and there is so much effort, including an entire collectable monster fighting minigame coded in renpy! It's almost post modernist in how often it breaks apart the forth wall, but manages to keep the cast interesting or likable, giving seemingly one note characters layers to them if you're willing to look. And yet, it all started with one of the most laughably bad visual novels ever made - which not only has continuity nods here, but returning characters (though slightly renamed and personalities turned up to 11) and it was a genuine treat to see them again.
I needed this so badly this year, and I hope this absolutely ridiculous person keeps making absolutely ridiculous things.
Weirdly Steam has it as adults only when there's not that much worse here beyond your average M rated game. I think it's because characters just talk about sex openly, maybe the dev was planning some raunchier stuff in the later chapters I haven't gotten to yet. Be aware if interested.
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Post by 🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀 on Oct 14, 2021 17:34:44 GMT -5
So I'm sure people have noticed Namco games are being added to Arcade Archives. After the last Nintendo Direct I went to the eShop to pick up Pac-Man but then noticed Namco Museum was priced down and only 50 cents more than Pac-Man and that includes Pac-Man plus 10 other games, so I obviously got that instead. I've always been dissapointed by Namco Museum Switch's list of games so I didn't pick it up before. Now they're adding games separately via Arcade Archives and it's been 4 years so I'm guessing they're not going to make a second one any time soon. It's always a bit annoying when new consoles come around and companies slowly start releasing their old crap again in general, but would it have killed Namco to at least include Xevious and Mappy? Or maybe at some point there will be a new one and buying these AA releases will be a waste. It would've been nice to have at least early Namco all in one place. Going in and out of different early arcade games easily is pretty convenient too.
Anyway, I'm not sure where I was going with this, but I at least have been enjoying Namco Museum. I've been very busy, so fifteen minutes of Galaga or Dig Dug here and there is all I've had time for. I might just have to add some of those AA releases after all.
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Post by 🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀 on Oct 14, 2021 17:51:55 GMT -5
Figured I'd just list out some games I've been playing worth a shout out Psychonauts 2 - Probably going to be my game of the year, depending on how some more time with Cruelty Squad goes.Finally sold to drop sixty bucks instead of waiting for a sale after Nitro Rad's review said the game has good combat, a rarity in collectathon platformers, and it is absolutely true, even if it does get a bit too chaotic at times. Using four different powers simultaneously is so fun and satisfying to do well. Of course, the main draw is Schafer's script, which is aces from start to finish, a great all ages sort of game more in the style of 80s or 90s PG films that weren't afraid to bring up dark subject mater. The game does order on going too dark, including a level based around a character's alcoholism and some major plot details I won't spoil, but it manages to keep the tone on point with a mixture of strong symbolism and an empathetic and sweet core to the story that argues everyone deserves a second chance. Except rich people, something it shares in common with Cruelty Squad. Woah, blast from the past! I saw Nitrorad's video on this the other day too (and of the first Psychonauts) and I was struggling to think of any other games that kind of balance that all-ages aspect with more mature subjects. I think that's just absent from media in general these days. It got me very interested in picking up a copy of the original. Gotta say that the teeth level from Psychonauts 2 really amazed me, but sadly I don't have anything to play that one on. And always cool to see a high-profile, highly regarded 3D platformer in the year of our lord 2021 that doesn't start with the words Super and Mario.
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Post by ZenithianHero on Oct 14, 2021 19:21:51 GMT -5
So I'm sure people have noticed Namco games are being added to Arcade Archives. After the last Nintendo Direct I went to the eShop to pick up Pac-Man but then noticed Namco Museum was priced down and only 50 cents more than Pac-Man and that includes Pac-Man plus 10 other games, so I obviously got that instead. I've always been dissapointed by Namco Museum Switch's list of games so I didn't pick it up before. Now they're adding games separately via Arcade Archives and it's been 4 years so I'm guessing they're not going to make a second one any time soon. It's always a bit annoying when new consoles come around and companies slowly start releasing their old crap again in general, but would it have killed Namco to at least include Xevious and Mappy? Or maybe at some point there will be a new one and buying these AA releases will be a waste. It would've been nice to have at least early Namco all in one place. Going in and out of different early arcade games easily is pretty convenient too. Anyway, I'm not sure where I was going with this, but I at least have been enjoying Namco Museum. I've been very busy, so fifteen minutes of Galaga or Dig Dug here and there is all I've had time for. I might just have to add some of those AA releases after all. I do not think we will see another Museum for arcade games. I take Arcade Archive versions as a sign that Namco is doing this for remainder of generation and for PS5 players. However, Hamster has been helping in a few collections later (the Konami arcade one and the upcoming Taito Milestones) but I wouldn't hold out for it. Have you gotten the 8bit Museum Archives? Xevious and Mappy is available in NES form. It also has the NES only sequels. I hope to not see much overlap in a roll because I have the collections. Genpei Toma Den and Rally X is not in the Museum collection so far. Hamster manages to ring out deep cuts out of companies. I believe will see Namco games that haven't been on modern platforms in a while like Baraduke, Dragon Saber, Outfoxies, Burning Force, Marchen Maze, Libble Rabble (which has a freaking song in Smash Bros)
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Post by Deleted on Oct 15, 2021 2:05:49 GMT -5
Woah, blast from the past! I saw Nitrorad's video on this the other day too (and of the first Psychonauts) and I was struggling to think of any other games that kind of balance that all-ages aspect with more mature subjects. I think that's just absent from media in general these days. It got me very interested in picking up a copy of the original. Gotta say that the teeth level from Psychonauts 2 really amazed me, but sadly I don't have anything to play that one on. And always cool to see a high-profile, highly regarded 3D platformer in the year of our lord 2021 that doesn't start with the words Super and Mario. Storytelling in video games is still in it's infancy unfortunately and we have a situation where the prominent games pushing the story aspect are the least mature on the market because violent games are what sell. Overall it's just a shame there's so few making content that includes younger players in the first place. Once we get there perhaps they can learn to tell stories with actual nuance and sensitivity. It doesn't sound likely even as I type it. I'm still going to plug the most mature and sensitive storytelling in games as Celeste. The fact that it approaches a story of mental illness and yet manages to speak to the player almost entirely through gameplay is something I will continue to hold up as what the industry should be aspiring to. After all, it's an interaction driven media, so it really pains me when so-called cinematic games can only tell their story through cutscenes and spoken dialogue. Unfortunately the games media wouldn't appreciate what they have with a product like this and I consider it an absolute embarrassment that God of War won GotY over it. Until people stop accepting cookie cutter garbage like GoW as great storytelling (and gameplay for that matter) nothings going to change. Sore subject here I guess. Maybe I should lighten up since I go away in like 2 hours.
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Post by Woody Alien on Oct 15, 2021 7:21:23 GMT -5
From what I've seen and read, it's basically based on almost everything Kimura made up to this point: the base mechanic is taken from MOON's missile mini-game, the hero "Baron Soisoir" is a little mustachioed man looking like Yamada from Dandy Dungeon and the enemy mooks from BLACK BIRD, kissing everyone comes obviously from Chulip and, I dunno, those fruits seem like the ones from Million Onion Hotel? (Well, that and the whole "rescuing people" stuff) Also from Dandy Dungeon there's the collect-a-thon aspect, only here you collect princesses instead of outfits, though here they seem to be just a cosmetic reward.
I have bought several of Onion Games' apps and titles on Steam up to this point, and I will probably buy this one too because I want to support Kimura, but I'm a bit on the fence about this one. I never liked Flappy Bird and its clones and I'm a bit worried about a game that prides itself on being so difficult ("99% instadeath rate!" or something like that) and based on quick reflexes since I'm not good at these. But maybe it's just a matter of practice and it is not so frustrating if you don't feel the need to climb the leaderboards... Anyway here's an interesting insta-review: (also, the image of the hero as a Latin macho man with long hair and a rose is just so damn hilarious)
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Post by dsparil on Oct 15, 2021 8:05:06 GMT -5
After playing Sewer Shark, I wondered about some of the other now maligned FMV rail shooters of the 90s. My first thought after that one was Loadstar since I played the DOS version back then although I tried the Sega CD version first before moving onto the DOS port. Oh boy, Loadstar is actually awful. There's barely any FMV and the gameplay is both too hard and super boring. There's a relatively lengthy intro, but barely any cutscenes after that and it ends on a cliffhanger after 3 levels and a boss battle. Not that I got that far since I couldn't stand the tedium. How the DOS version managed to bloat up to 3 discs is perplexing. The one small positive is that Rocket Science did splurge for decent CG so those aspects haven't aged too poorly, but the handful of sets look much worse. The whole thing comes off like a cheap pilot for a low budget sci-fi show for the most part.
It's also such a transparent rip off of Sewer Shark. Instead of being a currier in a tunnel, you're some kind of space trucker on the Moon. Instead of a smiley face robot navigator, you have a digital smiley face on a monitor. Instead of being directed by the visual effects supervisor of Star Wars, it had some work done by one of the concept artists with a top line credit to boot. Even the manual is a near copy of Sewer Shark's. The differences that do exist are in the tweaks to the gameplay. Instead of being a health-less score chase game that you can lose in certain ways, there's a more traditional damage meter and lives. There's also some significant changes between the two platforms. The Sega CD version is much more difficult which does not pair well with the more complicated controls. The targeting cursor moves too slowly and there's separate buttons for deflecting enemy projectiles and attacking the enemies directly. The DOS version combines those two functions into one, drastically reduces the difficulty on the default setting (there's also a Hard mode I forgot to check), and adds in a menu with selectable levels once they're reached. It also looks better given the 3 CDs, but it still isn't worth playing or really looking up on YouTube. It's a little weird that it so heavily promotes the design being by Brian Moriarty formerly of Infocom and LucasArts since he had zero action game design experience and clearly no penchant for them either.
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Post by JDarkside on Oct 15, 2021 15:59:16 GMT -5
Finally beat Gabriel in ULTRAKILL on normal and gosh I just love Gionni's performance. It's so perfectly prideful and pathetic and yet he has such flowery and spiteful language. I did an easy mode run on the second lowest difficulty after I hot an initial wall and that helped me a lot to get used to the game's frantic rhythms and teach me the importance of weapon switching, even if I can't exactly hotswap. Will do act two later.
Think my favorite weapon so far is the drill attachment for the rail cannon, helps a lot with really tanky enemies.
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Post by davidpacman on Oct 16, 2021 2:04:13 GMT -5
Quick question about the recent release of Dariusburst Another Chronicle on PS4 and Switch. DB is confusing, but according to the article here, this is a port of the arcade game, and not the PSP game? If so, since I already own Chronicle Saviors on Steam, which is also a port of the arcade game, am I missing content by skipping this?
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Post by retr0gamer on Oct 16, 2021 6:11:20 GMT -5
I think it's a port of the update of the arcade game whereas the steam release is an earlier game. Also.... I think maybe the psps game is included. I'd need to check.
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Post by windfisch on Oct 16, 2021 7:50:13 GMT -5
Woah, blast from the past! I saw Nitrorad's video on this the other day too (and of the first Psychonauts) and I was struggling to think of any other games that kind of balance that all-ages aspect with more mature subjects. I think that's just absent from media in general these days. It got me very interested in picking up a copy of the original. Gotta say that the teeth level from Psychonauts 2 really amazed me, but sadly I don't have anything to play that one on. And always cool to see a high-profile, highly regarded 3D platformer in the year of our lord 2021 that doesn't start with the words Super and Mario. Storytelling in video games is still in it's infancy unfortunately and we have a situation where the prominent games pushing the story aspect are the least mature on the market because violent games are what sell. Overall it's just a shame there's so few making content that includes younger players in the first place. Once we get there perhaps they can learn to tell stories with actual nuance and sensitivity. It doesn't sound likely even as I type it. I'm still going to plug the most mature and sensitive storytelling in games as Celeste. The fact that it approaches a story of mental illness and yet manages to speak to the player almost entirely through gameplay is something I will continue to hold up as what the industry should be aspiring to. After all, it's an interaction driven media, so it really pains me when so-called cinematic games can only tell their story through cutscenes and spoken dialogue. Unfortunately the games media wouldn't appreciate what they have with a product like this and I consider it an absolute embarrassment that God of War won GotY over it. Until people stop accepting cookie cutter garbage like GoW as great storytelling (and gameplay for that matter) nothings going to change. Sore subject here I guess. Maybe I should lighten up since I go away in like 2 hours. Mature storytelling: "Someone is going on a long and mysterious path of ripping heads off and pissing on corpses, occasionally doing a poorly coordinated victory dance, emotions ensue. And then the dog dies. More emotions. The end." Also, when has any gamer ever had issues with mental illness?! So why would anyone want to play such silly nonsense? ... ... ... Okay, maybe there is more to it and maybe I actually I agree with you in general. Celeste tells an engaging story and it tells it well - for a platformer that is. It's more successful in that regard than most platformers and also more ambitious. I'd even argue its story is too ambitious to work 100% in sync with the gameplay. Because at its core it's still N++ or Super Mario Bros. As the player I am always aware that the primary reason for this moving platform's or that spike-pit's existence is that it's a tried and true gameplay mechanic. Any metaphorical meaning associated with these elements probably did come after the fact. Ideally gameplay and storytelling elements really need to be tailor-made for each other to truly work. Any new story-facet would have to go hand in hand with a corresponding change in gameplay. However, this might potentially clash with the player's need to get accustomed to the rules, getting the hang of it etc. The latter usually requires repetition with only step by step variation. On the other hand, any bigger gameplay-change might take the player briefly out of the experience. Dilemmata, dilemmata! In Celeste repetition arguably goes rather well with themes like depression and anxiety and the constant struggle to overcome them. But there will inevitably be moments when it'll become "not that stage again", rather than "this frustration makes me feel like Madeline". Another factor is that logistically it would probably be almost impossible for developers to come up with fresh yet polished gameplay for each small part of the story. I still admire Celeste for all its aspirations and achievements - it's simply a great game. Subtracting its story elements, would certainly result in a lesser game, but it still would be a really good one. The story doesn't feel like a main ingredient, but rather like very spicy flavour or the delicious icing on top. I still believe that this particular story should be interactive, but I’m not sure if this type of game is the best way to tell it. All I'm trying to say is: I also agree with your "infancy"-assessment. Celeste to me still falls into that category, albeit to a lesser degree. But then making great games is very hard and creating great stories is also very hard. Thus combining the two into a cohesive whole must be very, very hard - maybe even very, very, very, very. Or, summing all that up in hipster-speak: ludo-narrative dissonance.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 16, 2021 8:16:51 GMT -5
Mature storytelling: "Someone is going on a long and mysterious path of ripping heads off and pissing on corpses, occasionally doing a poorly coordinated victory dance, emotions ensue. And then the dog dies. More emotions. The end." Also, when has any gamer ever had issues with mental illness?! So why would anyone want to play such silly nonsense? Oh, windfisch; I never thought you'd be the type for a Rom-Com. On Celeste, from my own experience only, playing through the game as someone who deals with these issues as a part of life, I found every theme within the gameplay to mirror the symptomatic feelings I would go through. Not only that, but I was able to reexperience these feelings in a more controlled environment and find kinship with the character, which is something I find rare. By the end of the game I was able to take a shared experience with Madeline and look back at past times in a more positive light, and I think that is something to be commended. That is not to make light of anyone else's time with the game, and I know that I'm not the only one who deals with these kind of issues. I would say though that Celeste's biggest issue is that people who don't share the experiences of the character are likely to miss the story to a great extent. Whereas of course anyone can relate to the fulfilment of pissing on a headless corpse.
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