|
Post by retr0gamer on Dec 5, 2022 4:14:49 GMT -5
Speaking of games that are a little bit off, I finished stalker clear sky. Had to mod it up as the original release was just too janky and I bounced off it.
Shadow of Chernobyl is for me one of the all time great PC games but clear sky feels a bit off. The focus on. Human on human combat and the faction system doesn't quite come off as you eventually get a bit sick of it and start mainlining the main quest which isn't isn't entirely satisfying. It's definitely a step back for the brilliance hard sci-fi of the original. The lack of underground missions really hurts it as well as those were the best part of the original. As a result a lot of the horror of the original is lost.
It was still so compelling that I inhaled it over a dreary rainy weekend but I guess that's down to stalkers best in class firefights aided by excellent gun feel and enemy AI. The world is also just a bleak, miserable joy to spend time in.
|
|
|
Post by JDarkside on Dec 5, 2022 5:45:49 GMT -5
Bulletstorm beaten, it was pretty fun and I may go back in to mess with the free play mode...or play Shadow Warrior 2013 again, which is the non-compromised form of what Bulletstorm wanted to be (also made by Painkiller devs lol). Do wanna play the Duke DLC just for the dialog, very dumb DLC where Grayson is replaced by Duke Nukem and everything else is the same so now the lead character is confused as to why he's there, amusing.
The campaign needed to give you two guns at start instead of one, it would have given me a much more positive feeling from it earlier. There are great ideas here and it really starts to come together in the last stretch, but the focus on keeping in then modern trends (regen health, hitscan gun men, a need for cover to survive and I suspect there was a cover system at some point that was taken out) weakens it. I suspect People Can Fly wasn't wild about all these concessions either. Also, the writing was surprisingly good? The characters are well defined and have some depth to them, and Grayson's core inner conflict works well. There's even some meta commentary in there on FPS trends that would read better if not for publisher mandated mechanics. The one major flaw is using curse words (very epic) as a crutch when they can't think of a joke for a scene - which is weird because there's some good lines in here.
Also returned to The Painkiller Hole, the first one still slaps, Overdose is solid enough but has a new layer of dickishness clear even just after two levels, and I have no idea why Hell and Damnation exists. It's an impressive remaster, but the story is also a direct sequel to the first game (sort of???) and there's weird changes I fucking hate (WHY DO I HAVE TO UNLOCK THE PAINKILLER, THE BASIC PISTOL/MELEE STARTING WEAPON YOU FUCKS). I am terrified of the other three sequels, I hear bad things.
|
|
|
Post by JDarkside on Dec 6, 2022 6:17:35 GMT -5
Found the Painkiller in the HD version...except I almost missed it because this version of the game makes things like weapons realistic sizes on the map with no effects, so even though it was right in front of me at the start of a level, I couldn't tell it was there in the dark lighting. Also they simplified the physics to cut back on loading times but removing the goofy physics, which is a crime how dare you
|
|
|
Post by lurker on Dec 6, 2022 12:38:54 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Woody Alien on Dec 10, 2022 10:37:57 GMT -5
It's made by the same people that made the Toki Remake which I really liked. Didn't even realise a remake was on the way. Was spending time building up a new mame collection and gave it a go! Interestingly, a Joe & Mac remake was in the works in 2009 or so by the same studio that was supposed to make originally the Toki remake: Golgoth Studio, the ones responsible for the Magical Drop sequel/remake on Steam and... nothing else. They were clearly a bunch of charlatans, since both Toei and Joe & Mac were stuck in development hell (J&M never got past character designs actually) and the Magical Drop game was released unfinished, with broken PvP interaction and the patches for better quality of life were never released. I did buy it at the time and regretted it ever since... I didn't know about this Joe & Mac remake either but it seems fairly nice, actually I'd like to see more Data East game remakes!
|
|
|
Post by windfisch on Dec 10, 2022 12:58:51 GMT -5
It's made by the same people that made the Toki Remake which I really liked. Didn't even realise a remake was on the way. Was spending time building up a new mame collection and gave it a go! Interestingly, a Joe & Mac remake was in the works in 2009 or so by the same studio that was supposed to make originally the Toki remake: Golgoth Studio, the ones responsible for the Magical Drop sequel/remake on Steam and... nothing else. They were clearly a bunch of charlatans, since both Toei and Joe & Mac were stuck in development hell (J&M never got past character designs actually) and the Magical Drop game was released unfinished, with broken PvP interaction and the patches for better quality of life were never released. I did buy it at the time and regretted it ever since... I didn't know about this Joe & Mac remake either but it seems fairly nice, actually I'd like to see more Data East game remakes!
Mr Nutz Studio = former Golgoth Studio (essentially)
Recently they also made Asterix & Obelix Slap them All!, which seems to be a decent brawler in the vein of Konami's arcade classic Asterix.
|
|
|
Post by personman on Dec 10, 2022 14:05:27 GMT -5
Oh hey. Look whos back.
|
|
|
Post by excelsior on Dec 12, 2022 20:34:08 GMT -5
After falling off a few games I decided to go with something familiar and did a second playthrough of Metroid Dread, this time for a 100% run. My opinion hasn't changed from a second play, with my only real issue being that the collectable items are heavily backloaded when it comes to what upgrades are needed to collect them. Otherwise I really like this Metroid game. I considered going for all the completion reward screens but there's one for completion in less than four hours, which seems like it'd require an awful lot of dedication whilst not being a way I'd enjoy playing, so I'll stick with the Fusion completion screen. Anyway, there's something fitting about this being both my first completion of the year and also my last.
Also I gifted the new Pokémon to my other half for his birthday this weekend. He'd been dubious this time around because he thought it was going to be like Legends Arceus, which is his least favourite entry. Fortunately he seems to be having a blast. Even he's said it's glitchy, but I don't think it's all that important as long as the game works and he's enjoying it. I'm really liking a lot of the presentation this time around. It looks like they've held onto the right things from Arceus as far as removing the battle transition screens to keep the pace, and dropped everything that wasn't really relevant. The only thing that would really bother me is all the pop in, which I'm sick of seeing in open world games on Switch. Otherwise visuals have improved a great deal from Sword/Shield and Arceus in my opinion so I'm thinking it looks like quite a nice game. I'll see down the line whether this holds when I get my own hands on it.
|
|
|
Post by jorpho on Dec 13, 2022 2:13:57 GMT -5
Finished Scott Pilgrim. It's quite a bit more enjoyable once you figure out how to properly power up your character with items, which is more difficult than it needs to be, as I mentioned. (Also at one point the game bugged out and wouldn't let me into the stores in the Shopping District, just when I was about to go pay off Scott's Late Fees, and so I spent my money elsewhere, and then I had to grind to get it back... blah. I have no qualms about cheating for money after encountering something like that.)
Started up Hades after reading some glowing anticipation about the sequel. It looks like a troublingly deep rabbit hole. Haven't beaten Meg yet. I'm starting to wonder if I might be better off with mouse+keyboard controls, or maybe warming up with Bastion or Transistor.
And I should probably consider uninstalling Fall Guys before it consumes any more of my time.
|
|
|
Post by lurker on Dec 13, 2022 22:18:33 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by jorpho on Dec 14, 2022 1:13:46 GMT -5
Surely Capcom's not given up on Legends and Tron Bonne, have they..?
(I'm a little surprised no one apparently wants to touch that leaked source code from a few years ago.)
|
|
|
Post by chronotigger65 on Dec 14, 2022 2:56:22 GMT -5
Surely Capcom's not given up on Legends and Tron Bonne, have they..? (I'm a little surprised no one apparently wants to touch that leaked source code from a few years ago.) Would be nice to get a Mega Man Legends collection that included Rockman DASH 2 - Episode 1: Roll-chan Kiki Ippatsu! It was some demo for MML2 that was released with The misadventures of Tron Bonne in Japan I believe. Also should include the MML3 demo.
|
|
|
Post by lurker on Dec 15, 2022 20:13:33 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by spanky on Dec 15, 2022 21:02:13 GMT -5
I usually don't gripe about these releases, but these are all things that have been on like a zillion collections already. They're all solid games though. OK, I don't know anyone that care about Columns and Golden Axe II isn't that much different than the original (still good though). Virtua Fighter 2 is an interesting oddity and Alien Storm rules.
|
|
|
Post by lurker on Dec 16, 2022 14:58:59 GMT -5
I'm surprised no one's built a Ghostbusters game off of Alien Storm.
|
|