heywood on 28/2/2023 at 13:52
Qud sounds like something I would have jumped into in high school. Read into that what you may.
I think we all are all feeling the glut of content in almost every medium.
nicked on 2/3/2023 at 08:34
Finally remembered that I had a code lying around for Game Pass, so got a bunch of games to try from that - first up was Jedi: Fallen Order. It's incredibly slick, polished lightsabre combat coupled with solid metroidvania-lite level design, a pinch of Uncharted platforming, a dash of Dark Souls in the deep combat and enemy respawning at save points system, and a really excellent cinematic story that puts the newer movies to shame. Highly recommended, although there's pretty much no reason to keep playing once you're done with the story, unless you really want to unlock that pink lightsabre handle...
Then I started playing Vampire Survivors, and wow, what a masterclass in deceptively simple design. At first glance you think "Pssh, I could knock this up in a weekend in Klik and Play", but the more you play, the more you realise the strategic depth and variety of gameplay to unlock. The cheesy Castlevania setting and presentation is just the icing on the cake. I think I'll be dipping in and out of this one for a long time.
Malf on 2/3/2023 at 10:11
Yeah, Vampire Survivors is probably my favourite game from last year. And it works fantastically on the Deck.
Not really surprising it was one of the most played games on the Deck last year.
I've dug back in to it for the new content that was recently released, and it's still a perfect commute game.
WingedKagouti on 2/3/2023 at 13:43
Quote Posted by nicked
Then I started playing
Vampire Survivors, and wow, what a masterclass in deceptively simple design. At first glance you think "Pssh, I could knock this up in a weekend in Klik and Play", but the more you play, the more you realise the strategic depth and variety of gameplay to unlock. The cheesy Castlevania setting and presentation is just the icing on the cake. I think I'll be dipping in and out of this one for a long time.
From what I can tell, a major aspect of why it works is the drip feed of unlockables. And while the core gameplay could be put together over a weekend, the wide range of unlockables and how they interact are what has taken the majority of development time.
nicked on 2/3/2023 at 19:13
Yeah exactly - the core loop is super simple. It's like the ultimate easy-to-learn, tough-to-master
rachel on 3/3/2023 at 16:16
I'm not really playing anything new but I'm getting my Steam Deck in a few days and I'm pretty excited :D
Harvester on 5/3/2023 at 19:34
Detroit: Become Human is a game I should like in theory but I don't like it in execution. I find it pretty frustrating, though maybe I should've started on Casual instead of Experienced difficulty. Often it's not clear at all which approach to a problem works and which produces the opposite effect. Like if you're the detective android and you're trying to get a human detective to like you, you can ask him stuff about his personal life and some questions he appreciates and others he doesn't, but it could've just as easily been the other way around, the player has no way of knowing. Should I take the firm approach or be gentle? There's no way of knowing until you try, but the wrong approach might cost you a character. The conversation system reminds me of the frustrating interrogations of LA Noire, a game I also didn't finish. And it's not inconsequential, the only way to get the good ending is to get people to like you and the public opinion of androids to be positive. It has the added problem of showing only keywords, where when you select one the android often says it in a vastly different tone/vibe than I intended. While influencing people and conversations based on keywords are also part of games like Life Is Strange, it's far less frustrating there than in this game, the characters in Life is Strange say more or less what you expect them to say when selecting a keyword and it's possible to properly deduce what approach to take on a character, where in Detroit I'm constantly choosing wrong and it doesn't seem fair.
I was enjoying the Kara and Alice storyline the most (and actually succeeding in making Alice like me, in contrast to the grumpy detective when playing Connor) but now I've made a mistake during a stealth section (contrary to most people here I don't like stealth gameplay) and now they're both dead. You can't restart a chapter, to save them I'd have to start over from the beginning and I'm not enjoying the game enough to do that, nor do I want to continue with no way of getting the good ending anymore and not being able to play a third of the chapters anymore, the chapters of the story section I was enjoying the most.
Well, people have warned me about David Cage games so I have only myself to blame... Maybe in a couple of months I might give it another go on Casual difficulty, but for now as a palate cleanser, I'm going to play something else entirely. I found out Stray was also released for the PS4 and I've already seen it in action when a friend showed it on his laptop, I'm fairly certain I'll like it.
Thirith on 6/3/2023 at 09:12
I suspect I'm a few hours away from finishing Chimera Squad; I've investigated two of the factions and I've done a handful of missions investigating the third one. My team is as geared up as they'll ever be, but they're not all fully trained, and I'm not sure I'll manage to do so before the end. It's been a fun game: not as substantial as the mainline XCOM games (including the expansions), but very enjoyable as a more snack-size XCOM. Afterwards I'll probably return to Returnal (to coin a phrase).
Malf on 6/3/2023 at 11:53
Finally finished mining out my tree-farm in my current Dwarf Fortress, so I breached the first layer of caverns this weekend. Sure enough, cave moss has started spreading over my tree-farm layer, and I have some juvenile tower caps (mushroom trees), but none have reached logging size next.
Of course, breaching the caverns comes with its own associated *FUN*.
I've created a bastion between the fortress and the cavern floor, with a squad of ten (including the Queen) permanently stationed there to stop anything nasty getting in.
I've also cage-trapped the entrance, and am starting to cage-trap the off-map entrance ways. Still, my dwarves wander out into the caverns to collect the various "riches " they offer, so I've had a couple of cave crocodile attacks which have set happiness back a little, as well as some stupid suicidal troglodytes charging my troops.
However, the most recent news from the caverns is that we've caught some naked mole dogs, so I've started a domesticating regimen. They can't be trained for war or hunting, but more sources of protein are always welcomed by my dwarves.
Outside of DF, I am still playing Elden Ring and am still finding things I missed first time round. It's also far less oppressive playing it at this level, where bosses actually feel fair. I was watching a video from one of the many Elden Ring streamers recently, and they highlighted why so many battles can feel unfair. Apparently, the AI is able to cancel and change their attack based on the first frame of your attack, giving them a limited ability to predict and react. I suspect that this was implemented in order to promote players pushing poise as high as possible, but it does explain while the early game can often feel unfair.
I'm gradually pushing further in Returnal, and my current mission is to kill the first boss, which I've not managed to do yet. It's still excellent, but I can only play it for relatively short periods before getting the itch to play something else.
I've started up a new game of V Rising, with settings better suited to playing single player, and am still enjoying it. I feel like I'm probably going to reach the games limits fairly quickly at its current stage of Early Access, but there's still a lot to like.
And I picked up a new game on a whim this weekend, and gave it a quick blast yesterday, Patch Quest. It's a bullet-hell / Pokemon / roguelite hybrid that seems to have a lot of depth, is ridiculously cute and is extremely polished. Very impressed to far, and I suspect this is going to see a lot of playtime on my deck.
Hopefully more than Wizard of Legend, which on the face of it, I though I'd enjoy, but in reality, has some weeb overtones that raise my hackles.
Thirith on 6/3/2023 at 12:47
@Malf, are you playing Returnal with KBAM or with a gamepad? The former obviously allows for better aiming, but for some reason I notice hitches in the framerate a lot more when playing with a mouse. I'll have to test this some more (after Chimera Squad), but I might end up playing with the control method I'm worse at because the game itself feels better (because smoother).
