demagogue on 3/1/2022 at 02:23
I played Timelie yesterday. It's a puzzle game that looks like it's meant for a smartphone... The controls are in line with Tomb Raider Go & it's in the style of Monument, both of which I'm into, so it works for me. Otherwise it's basically a stealth game, which of course I'm also into. You have to sneak through rooms & you can move time forwards and backwards to time your movements precisely, or move a 2nd character at the same time. It's cute. It's not mindbending like Baba Is You, but it's better than the typical puzzle game & speaks to me anyway, like e.g. The Witness doesn't, even if it's greatly more polished.
I've been following the dev for G String, Eya, for a while. She's an interesting case. She's logged in something like literally 40,000+ hours making that game over the last ~15 years, I think she reported recently, and she has a kind of edge about how much time and energy it takes an individual to make a decent game. But for all that, to this day she's still showing off weekly updates like it's something she just can't leave alone. Or she couldn't just leave it as a mod when people were calling for her to make a proper game out of it 10 years ago, and she can't just leave it as mod-looking game now. But she also has a wicked sense of humor about the whole thing, and life in general, so it's fun to watch anyway.
As for the game, it's also an interesting case. It's inspired and has a definite aesthetic. It's also fragmented & disjointed, and for stretches you can lose the thread of what's actually happening; but you're usually in interesting environments and reacting to what's happening around you scene to scene anyway, so you catch on to what's important about it. I just find it interesting that a person has devoted so much of her life to that world. It feels lived in or has a spirit in it, like a auteur film, that you don't see with blockbuster made-by-committee games that are play & forget. And you can pick up on her obsessions, with cyberpunk & Star Wars & kink (each update is A-cup, B-cup, etc.) Putting aside whether it's a great game or not, it definitely makes a lasting impression.
henke on 3/1/2022 at 07:54
Yeah G String is interesting. Plays like Half Life 2, but the aesthetic reminds me of Cruelty Squad or Observer. Just absolutely disgusting future-capitalist-hell. I can't hang on to the thread of the story. Hell I had such a hard time just understanding what anyone was saying I had to turn on subtitles. It sure looks wild tho, and at times vaporwave music kicks in while you're blasting dudes away in desolate slums and it feels like Hotline Miami. I like it.
WingedKagouti on 3/1/2022 at 08:51
I'm mostly playing Shadow of the Tomb Raider atm (thanks for the freebie EGS) and it's very much like the previous two games in the trilogy, with much less clown car shooting galery than the first so far (a good thing IMO). The game is worth a try if you enjoyed the moment to moment gameplay of the first two.
I initially went in using DX11 and the game struggled to hit 60 FPS in 1080p with low-ish settings on my RTX 3060 (no shadows or AA and so on), then I enabled DX12 and found that I could crank up things quite a lot (like Raytraced Shadows on highest setting) while still maintaining stable 60 FPS in 1080p. At first I just turned on a few things, but when that was super smooth I just said f- it and tried maxing out settings I would never have thought to mess around with previously. The game looked good even on the low settings I tried with DX11, but it's easy to tell that the devs put in time to make sure the visuals were impressive at high/max settings.
glslvrfan on 3/1/2022 at 10:16
My granddaughter loves playing Fortnite, so I started up an acct for her dad to link to their playstation acct. They had daily gift giveaways for a few costumes and in game decorations for the holidays.
I bought Dishonored 2 last night off CDKeys. it was 4 bucks. Connection was a bit goofy after so I didn't download it yet.
I got Red Dead Redemption 2 when Epic sale started . Its only 20 bucks with sale and 10$ coupon. Its fantastic. Very slow going in the beginning, Lots of cinematics and loads until you get thru the first few stages. Really amazing graphics. Even more so on new monitor.
Halo Infinite mp and campaign. I got a new monitor on Friday, we waited a week to do our Christmas. Ive had Halo for a minute Campaign is amazing. I'd never played halo before, and not much multiplayer since RTCW and SOF2. Looks and plays really great, I'm really horrible.
Malf on 4/1/2022 at 11:12
I've yet to get started on Tenderfoot Tactics, Battle Brothers or The Master Chief Collection (Thanks Thirith, henke & Jesh respectively!)
I got a little hooked on Ultimate ADOM over Christmas while with family, and then got absorbed by Greedfall.
What starts out as a rather humdrum, Eurojank budget-Bioware title gradually blossoms into a genuinely thought-provoking tale about colonialism and the White Saviour complex.
It plays a bit like a Piranha Bytes game with some Bioware companion stuff thrown in, while also not really being open world.
Instead, it's a series of large, semi-open maps with restricted exploration corridors, which can be a little irritating at first if you've been playing more open games.
Combat is passable, but nothing to write home about, and enemy variety is fairly limited.
But it's the setting and story where it really shines. It has a very Regency era feel to things (tricorns, rapiers and muskets), with some magic thrown in for spice.
There's several main factions, with varying tensions between all.
You represent the Congregation of Merchants, who are seemingly the relatively neutral glue that acts as an arbitrator between all the other factions. To that end, your character is very much a diplomat, which is surprisingly fun to play. Political intrigues and machinations are the name of the game here, and escalate pleasingly, giving you time to understand the story and appreciate the repercussions.
The natives of the island have a lot in common with Native American people, and have been/are being taken advantage of in many of the same ways, not having any understanding of the legal systems or concepts foisted upon them by the various colonialist factions. They have a mystical connection to the spirits of the island, and are very much in tune with nature. Yes, sure, it's a bit of a stereotype. But it works.
The Bridge Alliance are a secular nation with a focus on science. They want to exploit the island for its rich natural resources, and due to their secular nature, are at loggerheads with the next faction...
Thélème are a full-on religious nation, looking to convert everyone and expand their nation this way. They run an Inquisition, who think nothing of punishing non-believing members of the other factions.
Then there are the Nauts, seafarers who jealously guard the secrets of maritime navigation, and are the only people able to transport members of the other nations (and goods) to the island. Due to the power of the position they hold, they control commerce and movement, but take a relatively light-handed approach to politics.
And finally, there's the Coin Guard, a large mercenary company who provide security and military services to the three main continental factions (the Congregation, Alliance and Thélème).
Add in to this mix a deadly plague that is killing people on the continent, and the perception that the island potentially holds the secret of a cure, and you get a satisfying powder keg ready to blow at any moment.
Now the quests themselves can feel very low-effort, and require a lot of to-ing and fro-ing. But they do all have solid connections to the main theme, meaning your role as diplomat is always at the fore, and the themes are given plenty of room to breath and implant themselves in your conscious mind.
I've just hit what I am assuming is the first escalation point, and it's getting positively gripping. Despite the gameplay being relatively mediocre, the story is playing out very nicely, and I can't wait to see where it goes next.
I'm not sure that my actions have a massive impact on the story yet, but it doesn't really take away from an interesting story that examines colonialism and its consequences.
It's also not let down by the voice acting, which is always a worry with B-list RPGs. Instead, you get solid performances from all (even if none really stick out). Sure, there's a limited number of voice actors, so you end up noticing the same actors doing multiple voices, but I can accept that.
Overall, I'd recommend it if you're looking for a long RPG with an interesting setting, albeit with combat that won't set your world on fire.
Thirith on 4/1/2022 at 16:42
I got myself a Logitech steering wheel, mainly to play Dirt Rally 2.0 in VR. I absolutely suck at it, never having driven a car, but with each race I suck a tiny bit less. Much more than that, though, it makes a world of a difference: even in VR, playing with a game pad meant there was a constant disconnect. I might look around and see the I side of a car, but the pad in my hand is a constant reminder that I'm not. With the wheel, though? That disconnect is 99% gone. In addition, the force feedback effects give me a better feel for the surface I'm on. I may not play with the wheel for hundreds of hours, but right now this feels like exactly the right purchase.
Tomi on 4/1/2022 at 19:43
Ooh. I love Dirt Rally 2 and I almost bought a steering wheel just because of it, but then decided against it when I realised that I don't really play other racing games and I'd have to buy a new desk as well. Perhaps one day... I wish I could test the game with a steering wheel somewhere and see how much fun it really is. :)
Yakoob on 4/1/2022 at 21:19
I've been playing lots of Orcs Must Die 2 and 3 with my GF and it's basically video game crack. It's just stupid fun, and watching orcs get flipped back and forth never gets old. Tho I am a bit disappointed by 3. It looks way nicer and plays way slicker, but the balance has definitely shifted from traps to shooting stuff, which is pretty disappointing. I re-played the first level a whole ton trying different strategies, and the cheesiest strat (i.e. a single beeline of spike traps) was disproportionately most effective. There's a lot of interesting synergies between traps, but it doesn't really feel worth exploring them since the cost is often too high for a marginal benefit. (I'll also never forgive them for making my tar traps almost 2x as expensive as previous game )
On single player front, I played Slime Rancher and it's quite delightful and addictive. Such a simple idea but works so beautifully. My only surprise is that it feels a lot... shorter/simpler than I expected given the wild hype it's gotten. The different slime types are fairly insignificant (and don't matter once you put them in a pen), and combining them doesn't really yield any particularly interesting results. After 10hrs I already reached the end of the world and found all the slime types so there isn't much incentive to keep grinding all those extra lab unlocks. The game isn't bad for being short in the least, I guess I just imagined there being more to it based on the hype and occasional 150hr reviews.
Jason Moyer on 5/1/2022 at 03:24
My gaming PC decided to stop POST-ing a few weeks ago, so I used that to justify buying a dedicated DAW PC and a new gaming rig. Which means I could theoretically be playing Deathloop finally, but instead I'm letting backloggery pick my next game and ended up with Doom 2016. I just finished the tower level, and it's really really good so far, but for some reason I find myself finishing a level a day and not wanting to play anymore.