Sulphur on 27/8/2019 at 14:48
If there's one thing all From Software Soulsborne games are great at doing, it's making me feel impatient and clumsy. They're perfectly calibrated to be at odds with all the built-up muscle memory and intuition I've carried from decades of other games by a matter of a few degrees: I like to get my licks in quick and slash about before dodging away with the litheness of a mountain lion. Dark Souls, instead, makes me feel positively pachydermal, like some thick, brutish fuck lumbering over and poking at Chthulian horrors in the face with a freshly snapped twig before being twatted back into prehistory by some ghastly configuration of limbs.
Recalibrating intent with intuition in the face of the series' paucity of i-frames, its lack of animation cancelling, and the slow deliberation of its animation cycles matched up with sudden bursts of viciousness is, on most days, not in my wheelhouse, something I have no truck with, too much effort. You can ask me to speed up, video games, but for god's sake don't ask me to slow down. And yet, like that most masochistic of birds, I feel the need to rise from the ashes and try again, even if it means being set on fire once more. Because they really are exquisitely well-designed.
So maybe someday I'll feel up to slowing down to its level. Phoenixes live forever anyway, so on that day: fuck you very much, Dark Souls.
MEANWHILE, J'AI JOUÉ--
Her Story: essentially, what if Google video search was a game. The conceit is you're doing keyword searches on archived interviews concerning a... murder? An assisted terminal guidance? A nested Russian-doll deception? An ambiguously described shaggy dog macguffin? Well, sniff out the keywords and find out, detective bootheel Dick.
It's pretty easy. There are some overarching plot points that are left intentionally vague, and there's no specific endpoint per se in uncovering the videos except the gradual dawning upon your noodle that you've pieced together all the important events in the situation. Some clever - if unrealistic - restrictions bring the game to the keyword search in that you have only five videos available to view per keyword, even if the keyword matches far more; so you have to sift downwards for more keywords, which will uncover more videos, and so on. There are, however, certain points where the search funnels you towards key reveals. This can be undercut by how non-linear your searches are, so you might hit on an interview fairly early on that unspools most of the story for you implicitly - not that this happened to me, but I can very easily see it happening to others. Even if it does, though, this is still an intriguing narrative experiment.
Steve Jackson's Sorcery! Parts 1 & 2: apparently these were Fighting Fantasy books from a long, long time ago. The CYOA-kind, with a magic system and dice for combat. The computerised version of this reads like interactive fiction, but with lots and lots of branching choices that will wind you down various avenues that can get you befuddled, bedazzled, bewitched, becaptured, bedevilled, or most often, betwatted. Thankfully, there's a rewind system that lets you track back at will and redo things to see if you can make a better fist of it, and there's a lovely set of spells to futz around with and see if they help or move you from merely being twatted to completely fucked (and subsequently call for a do-over).
The combat's simplistic but neat - you read the text for clues on the enemy's stance, and you defend or choose attack power accordingly. If you guessed correctly and your attack overpowers the enemy's, you deal a proportionate amount of damage. If you put your entire force behind a move that the enemy defends against, you've wasted power and need to build it back up (or get twatted).
All of these elements combine for a pretty engaging role-playing yarn with magic and inscrutable forces and various branchings-off in the events within the story. In one playthrough, I left a trap-infested city with no gold in my pocket as it went up in flames from an armed uprisng; in the next, I'd broken out from a prison with an elf friend who later turned out to be one of the leaders of the uprising, but still left the city in flames; and in the last one, we weren't friends, and I crisped the warring forces with an arcane power I'd learned to control.
In short: it's good stuff, and while its unpredictability can lead to some backtracking (which was at a few points hellish - the number of times the second chapter's paths/traps led to its maze-ish sewers bordered on legendary, even if it was observed with a droll wit), the joy of exploring the links on its chains of causality trumps much of the tedium involved in retracing your steps.
And that's just the first half! I've started Part 3, and already there are hijinx involving interdimensional juxtaposition that are immediately fun to negotiate. Onwards!
demagogue on 27/8/2019 at 16:33
Oh I finished off State of Mind today. I was strangely sucked into it.
It basically throws in every cyberpunk cliche it can, and unlike Deus Ex, where the core game is still an FPS with some RPG filling, this was an adventure game, so the whole thing is story telling, it rises and falls with the plot; with a few mini-games on the side. But it's just one thing on top of another... now robots have free will, now humans don't, now we're putting humans into robots, now we're putting robots into humans, now we're putting robots into humans into VR, now we're putting VR into humans into robots, now we're taking up arms to defend the robots in humans in AI, now we're taking up arms to destroy the AI in humans in robots, now here's a mini-game where you have to align the widgets up to open the thing... Lol, you get the idea. And it wasn't even trying to be consistent with its own rules.
But all of that said, I couldn't stop playing. And it was long too, something like 10 hours. I think what made it work is the characters and their personalities. I liked that the main player character was actually a real dick, and you wouldn't trust him to take care of anything you care about. But he still had you rooting for him and seeing where he's coming from. And the other main character was a good guy but still too square for his own good. Everybody is flawed; every relationship and connection and ambition is somehow incompatible with each other or reality; and you know it won't or shouldn't work. But you still try to square the circle and do your best anyway, because what else is life really about.
It was good storytelling with a ridiculous story and plot overkill.
I particularly liked the visual storytelling. In a moment where a character questions his own reality, the camera would pan back to frame him alongside a line of remote control drones, as if he's just one more drone in the line. Little touches like that are all over the place if you look for them.
Well overall I liked the experience, and I really got into it what it was selling. You'd play it for the experience as well, definitely not the gameplay, and not even the story per se. I'd recommend it if you're into cyberpunk stories and 3D visual novel types of games. It's not really that interactive, just a lot of walking and minigames. But it does pin you down to your choices in a fair and sometimes clever way, and you usually don't have good options to choose from, so it's a matter of picking your poison and thinking about your own values.
Jumping Taffer on 28/8/2019 at 14:55
I've been rotating between Mario Party Advance, Heroes of the Storm, Dragon Quest Builders 2 and recently re-installed both Thief games to play again before trying my hand at FMs again.
Thirith on 31/8/2019 at 16:20
My Subnautica adventures continue: I've just discovered the Lost River biome and the alien base there, and after returning to my home base I made myself a PRAWN. Once I've upgraded it a bit, let's see if I can't go deeper.
Also, I'm really enjoying Dirt Rally in my Mini, but I kinda dread getting faster, better cars, because I don't think I'm a particularly good driver. I also wish that there was a more structured campaign or career, just something to give me more of a progression. But then I'm a filthy casual when it comes to racing games.
WingedKagouti on 31/8/2019 at 17:36
One thing that partially ruins my immersion in Subnautica is that the player suffers no adverse effects (beyond increased oxygen consumption without a rebreather) regardless of depth, but all three vehicles suffer structural damage if you go just 1 foot beyond their safe diving depth.
Tomi on 31/8/2019 at 20:13
Quote Posted by Thirith
Also, I'm really enjoying
Dirt Rally in my Mini, but I kinda dread getting faster, better cars, because I don't think I'm a particularly good driver. I also wish that there was a more structured campaign or career, just something to give me more of a progression. But then I'm a filthy casual when it comes to racing games.
I also started with the Mini, and being a filthy casual racer like you, switching to the more powerful cars and RWD cars was pretty tough at first. The way those cars handle is totally different, but when you do eventually learn it, they're also much more fun. Mini is so clumsy, and it's by far the worst car in its group, so winning races won't be easy. Renault Alpine is currently my favourite car, but for now you should probably forget the older RWD cars, as they're really difficult to drive. Lancia Stratos for example is a real deathtrap. However, you might want to try some 4WD car. Lancia Delta Integrale (in Group A) is a good choice, or if you do want to check out the RWD cars at this point, I think Fiat Abarth (1970's) might be the easiest one to drive. The handling in the most modern cars is of course superior and they're all 4WD, but they're also super fast (and most of them look really ugly inside). Oh yeah, Ibiza Kitcar might be a decent choice too; it's a modern FWD car and fairly easy to drive.
Have you got a racing wheel or do you play with a gamepad? And did you know that there are some driving assists that you can (and maybe should) enable to make things a bit easier?
I agree that some sort of a career mode would be nice, but I can live without one. You do know that if you finish first or second in the Championship, you'll be promoted to a more challenging one, right? There's some progression for you. :)
irg on 1/9/2019 at 04:26
Been on something of an FPS binge over the summer. Catching up on some new and old, though mostly old perhaps.
Started off with DUSK. Had a good time for the most part. The levels certainly got more interesting as things went on, but I felt the need to take a lotta breaks with how long each of the 3 episodes started to feel. Weapons were solid but getting nearly all of them so early kinda made me gravitate to a select few.
Right after that I went through AMID EVIL since I had bought both games in a bundle during the latter's launch. This one kept me interested a lot more throughout thanks to shorter episodes with strong enemy variety and environments between each. Overall length wound up similar but the pace was a bit easier to digest, I suppose. The magical weapons were all solid, found myself trying to make full use of them all, though I definitely had some faves.
With those done I went back and gave a proper run of Blood: Fresh Supply. I took a much more methodical approach than earlier attempts and got way more enjoyment out of it. Love the full arsenal of weapons and the immense satisfaction of overcoming everything thrown at the player. May still be my fave of everything I played since I really wanna go back and play more already.
I had started to look into more of what else was done by the person behind the new Blood remaster and wound up trying Doom 64 EX. Once I found where to raise the framerate cap I quickly got hooked. I can't overstate how much I was blown away by the downright sinister atmosphere of this one. It gave that same feeling as a lot of creepy Thief missions I like.
By the time Doom was done, Ion Fury was out and I picked it up pronto. I think I would have to replay it soon to decide where it ranks up with other faves, but the weapons selection was definitely one of the funnest. May have my favourite revolver in anything I've played. Certainly makes one of the best starting weapons.
After that I was full in the mood to play some other games I hadn't never gotten to before. I basically went back and forth with Rise of the Triad and Duke Nukem 3D. Triad got a bit tiring to navigate at times with such labyrinthine maps but the music kept me going most of all. Duke was a solid time all around. I was a bit unsure at first with some of the crude content but the gameplay quickly picked up and kept me going. Though some times I was having fun for possibly the wrong reasons such as sequence breaking with the jetpack.
Then luckily as I was unsure what to do next, Shadow Warrior Classic Redux went on sale dirt cheap. It felt pretty janky at first but a quick search lead me to tweaking the mouse aim. Also wound up leaving auto aim enabled per the default after encountering a few too many bees. Much more enjoyable so far.
I think this might actually be the most games I've consecutively started and finished in years. Was actually doing more hours at work than usual for the past two months for the matter. Guess I wanted to make full use of reduced leisure time.
Thirith on 1/9/2019 at 06:39
@Tomi
I'm playing with a gamepad. I had a racing wheel for a couple of years but ended up only using it once or twice, so on the whole I think it'd be a waste of money and space for how much I play racing games. If I ever see a special offer for a good one, though, I might be tempted.
Thanks for your tips re: a second car. Concerning cars and progression: do the tracks change when I do another championship? Or is it basically doing the same tracks over and over again, just with different cars? If it's the latter, I'll probably just play two or three championships and then move on, since I've got tons of other VR games to get through.
Jason Moyer on 1/9/2019 at 11:52
The Mini is actually kind of a beast in DR, you just need to use the handbrake to make up for having FWD.
Tomi on 1/9/2019 at 19:01
I would have thought that Renault Alpine is
by far the best car in the 1960's group, but then again I quickly moved on from the Mini as soon as I stopped crashing in every other curve and learned to drive a bit.
Quote Posted by Thirith
Concerning cars and progression: do the tracks change when I do another championship? Or is it basically doing the same tracks over and over again, just with different cars?
I'm afraid that it's basically the same tracks over and over again, but there's some variation when you drive them "clockwise" and sometimes the opposite way, and occasionally only a small part of a certain stage. And then there's the weather conditions and day/night time. So it's not
exactly the same tracks. In the harder championships there'll be more stages to drive anyway. But yeah, there are only six different locations and not that many different stages, so every now and then you will get that "not this stage
again" feeling. However, in a way I think it's nice to know the tracks a bit beforehand, as you can then really concentrate on getting some good times. :)
