Harvester on 11/1/2025 at 12:39
Not much, trying to read more and watch quality content. But I’ve picked up NFS Payback on the PS4, an arcade open world racing game, I’m about halfway through. I’ve also installed Gears of War Ultimate Edition on the PC, might play that soon.
And I recently played through the charming Monument Valley 3 on the iPad on a single day, which is available for Netflix subscribers. Also tried Braid there but the iPad controls are terrible. They also have Kentucky Route Zero, I might give that a try.
henke on 11/1/2025 at 14:36
Ooooh, thanks for the heads up about Monument Valley 3 on Netflix, I'll have to check that out. Loved the first game, not sure I ever played the sequel.
I should do some kinda wrap up on games I've played recently but never posted about:
Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts - I never was a 3D mascot platformer fan so I never gave this the time of day back then, but I'm glad I checked it out in the Game Pass now. The vehicle-assembling is very Zelda:TOTK / Mars First Logistics -esque, and I love both of those. Nuts & Bolts is also very physics-y, also a plus. Yeah I've played a few levels of this and I'm digging it, but I dunno if I'll keep playing. It's alright!
Thronefall (aka the only game Yakoob liked last year) - actually seems like this has plenty of fans here. The friends leaderboards are full of TTLGers who are better at this than me. It's a fun game. Like Kingdom but in 3D. Or 2D, I guess? 3D graphics with 2D gameplay, whereas Kingdom - a masterpiece of minimalism - is 2D graphics with 1D gameplay. I'm enjoying Thronefall. Good game to play while listening to a podcast.
Wall World - Also good podcast-gaming. Ya climb yer robo-spider up and down the wall and drill into the wall to get resources to level shit up. Compelling in a grindy way. Every 20 minutes a boss shows up, and on the 3rd time it kills you. Except now I think I have what I need to defeat it on that 3rd appearance? But also I'm kinda too bored of the game to wanna sit through another hour of it... so maybe I'm done with this.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown - yeah, it's great, like everyone says.
Sulphur on 11/1/2025 at 15:28
Well, I've been playing Vampire Survivors on and off because I was curious about what it brought to the table... and the answer is a series of compulsion loops. The initial foray is figuring out which combination of weapons and passives gets you through to the end of level, and that quickly opens the door to the compulsion loop ladder with one building off the other. So you discover the Evo combos, the arcanas, the power-ups in the surprisingly large maps, the secrets, the secret characters, and they all chain off of each other while enabling a steady dopamine release from the ever-increasing waves of enemies popping like corn. Frankly, the late stage of any level where you're literally mowing through enemies feels like it's made for serial bubble wrap poppers who wanted that feeling maximised so hard it puts them into a trance.
I don't necessarily resent that so much, but I do get irritated by the fact that until you get the unlocks, each run lasts 30 minutes, which is just enough to think 'maybe one more', and then lose complete track of time because the loop and grind's ensnared you to keep going, at which point you're just trying permutations and being jazzed by the low effort triggering your brain's reward centres until it's later than you thought it would be.
At the same time, it does what it does very well - there are no microtransactions, it's very cheap, the collabs like Castlevania are smart marketing, it has retro charm in its bones, the music's very much on point, and it's pretty much frictionless. It's the epitome of a good bad game, something that initially feels fun but eventually is redolent of inhaling entire platters of junk food. I can't hate it for that, but I'm not going to pretend it's much more than a compulsive time-waster either.
Also, collecting coins has led me to be Tetris Effect-ed by runs consistently after exiting the game, so much that I can only assume that it's an intentional part of the design.
Harvester on 11/1/2025 at 17:05
Quote Posted by henke
Ooooh, thanks for the heads up about Monument Valley 3 on Netflix, I'll have to check that out. Loved the first game, not sure I ever played the sequel.
Part 1 and 2 are also on Netflix, so if you want to play part 2 first, you can [emoji846]
Malf on 11/1/2025 at 21:45
You put faaaar to much work into that picture henke, but it's much appreciated :D
Still Stalker 2 and Dwarf Fortress.
Kinda ready for Stalker 2 to end, but at the same time, I want to see if it's got anything else astonishing to show me.
With DF, I'm toying with the idea of making a fortress and getting it up and running, then uploading it for others to play with, if anyone would be interested in that.
Sulphur on 14/1/2025 at 04:30
One of the more irreconcilable things in entertainment for me is encountering something I strongly dislike, and watching or playing through it anyway: things like Star Trek: Discovery, Picard, or games like @^#@*$%! Danganronpa. No, it's not the hope that 'it'll get better over time', which was my initial thought, but it's easily dismissed as one kidding themselves. Something closer to the truth is these have elements of something good deep down, but bad habits, tendencies, and decisions tend to feature so strongly that when the good bits suddenly arrive, it's like the sun briefly peeking through on an overcast day.
And, because of that, I keep going, even though I know it's the exception, not the norm. The problem is, unlike Picard or ST: D (a perfect abbreviation), Danganronpa does have stronger core design (some of it borrowed from Ace Attorney) and talent, but it's always overshadowed by crassness, obviousness, repetitive overlong dialogue, and the unfortunate tendency to sexualise high school students. It's somewhat infuriating that its cast is always annoying stereotypes, but it is sometimes able to mine depth out of them - if you put in the effort to spend the time needed. It speaks to a level of ability that's being drowned out by the tendency to pander, and... ugh. They've got me though, because I want to see where it all ends. On to Danganronp 3, then.
Yakoob on 14/1/2025 at 21:45
@Sullphur - I think that's a good summary of how I feel about Metaphor: ReFantasio. I'm some 55hrs in, and it has some good themes and ideas, but they're all underutilized to make way for JRPG tropes and convoluted story with, lowkey bad pacing (like 10hrs of straight gameplay followed up by 3hrs of nonstop cutscenes with multiple hamfisted plotwists that immediately undo each other. It pulled the oh no this plot character is dead - 10 minutes later - sike, he's alive move TWICE now)
It's still a fun romp overall, but like you said, the good bits are almost made better when contrasted with all the eye-rolling between them.
Aja on 14/1/2025 at 22:10
Comparing a game to Star Trek Picard is one sure to way to convince me never to play it.
Sulphur on 15/1/2025 at 05:51
Frankly, I wouldn't blame you. You're not missing much with Danganronpa. (Picard S3 is an improvement if you're a TNG fan and don't mind entire wads of fan service, though. The showrunner was Terry Matalas, who was a writer on S3 of Enterprise - which may, uh, not be the compliment I think I'm making.)
Quote Posted by Yakoob
@Sullphur - I think that's a good summary of how I feel about Metaphor: ReFantasio. I'm some 55hrs in, and it has some good themes and ideas, but they're all underutilized to make way for JRPG tropes and convoluted story with, lowkey bad pacing (like 10hrs of straight gameplay followed up by 3hrs of nonstop cutscenes with multiple hamfisted plotwists that immediately undo each other. It pulled the
oh no this plot character is dead - 10 minutes later - sike, he's alive move TWICE now)
It's still a fun romp overall, but like you said, the good bits are almost made better when contrasted with all the eye-rolling between them.
Yeah, I figured after Persona 5 that M:R would still bear the hallmarks of anime tropeyness and unnecessarily convoluted takes on things. From what you're saying it sounds like there's enough good stuff in there to keep persevering, though! With Danganronpa, it's broadly inconsistent, and the only thing that keeps me hanging on is the investigation and debate layer uncovering the increasingly ridiculous and creative ways murders happen and are being covered up. Frankly, even these try my patience more often than not because the minigames' gameplay is, let us say,
lacking - but there is fun to be had in seeing how how the writers shape plot contrivances into twisty situations you have to sift the truth out of.
