henke on 13/3/2023 at 08:05
Yeah I imagine all the lore stuff is more interesting for someone who's played the earlier games. I've only finished Dread before this one.
Thirith on 13/3/2023 at 08:23
I (very briefly) played Metroid Prime in VR, via a Gamecube emulator, and while it'll never happen, a fully functional VR port or even a good mod of the game would absolutely rule. I loved the atmosphere of Metroid Prime, and its speed isn't too frantic. Having that kind of coherent, well-designed environment to traverse and explore in VR would be great (though there's obviously the question of how well the grapple beam would work for those who are susceptible to VR sickness).
rachel on 13/3/2023 at 08:58
I just got (
https://store.steampowered.com/app/553420/TUNIC/) TUNIC... I watched a video about it a few weeks back and it's not only gorgeous, it seems that it's actually a really good and challenging puzzle game. Can't wait to give it a spin.
Sulphur on 13/3/2023 at 09:12
I'm going to get back to Tunic once I'm done with my game pass shenanigans, but in case you, like me, love words - and I know you do - please give this (
https://www.eurogamer.net/tunic-review-its-a-marvel) review-slash-write-up of Tunic by Christian Donlan a read. He's crafted some of my favourite paragraphs in video games writing, and whether or not I agree with the magnitude of his praise for various titles, I always feel like he's awakened an inner joy in me once I'm done reading an article of his.
Thirith on 13/3/2023 at 09:39
Tunic was indeed lovely, though I kept wondering whether it would've resonated with me even more if I'd played those (S)NES-era Zelda games, as its frame of reference was very specific.
Looking at games like Tunic or Hyper Light Drifter or FEZ, games that try to capture what it felt like to discover a new game back in the '80s and early '90s while doing things that wouldn't have been possible back then, I do wonder whether we'll ever see an interesting modern riff on the Ultima games. Perhaps they don't lend themselves to this as much (did they find interesting solutions for the technical limitations of the time, or were they just limited by them?), but I would love to play a game that makes me feel as much like I'm discovering an actual world as Ultima did in between Ultima V and Serpent Isle, something that the gigantic open worlds of Skyrim or the last three Assassin's Creed games managed to do for me much less. I suspect it's got something to do with using limitations creatively vs. doing away with those limitations, and some of the most interesting games do the former at least as much as the latter.
demagogue on 13/3/2023 at 16:03
Ah, you're reminding me of your reaction when I posted those isometric environment tiles and animated sprites I made for a kind of lowfi "realistic" fantasy world, wondering (hoping a little) if it'd be for a kind of old school '90s era Ultima clone, which wasn't too far off. I'd just read Le Guin's first Earthsea book and had been playing a lot of Caves of Qud, and I wanted to make a world like that in a different retro aesthetic, and late-'90s fit the bill. And I'd gotten Fuse, the character & animation generator, which was good for making characters in that setting.
It's still a good idea for somebody to make a game like that. I have a penchant for making the assets and first levels for projects I dream up, way more than I think I'd ever have time to make.
As for what I'm playing, Sable is Game Club's game this month, so I'm back in it doing all the experimental post-game exploration and stuff you can do in a world like this. It's still my favorite game of the last few years.
henke on 13/3/2023 at 19:30
Oh yeah I also picked up Sable on the PS5 and started a replay. With the time that's passed since release and with the PS5's beefy hardware I was hoping for a smoother experience, however I am sad to report that it is laggy as shit. It might actually be worse than it was on release on PC. Still enjoying the game though, which is a testament to the design. There's something so wonderfully chill about this low-stakes open world adventure.
Also, Kingdom update: the thing I hate most about New Lands is that it's so un-handholdy that you learn by trial and error. This is especially egregious since a run at this game might take several hours to complete, so when the game throws something at you on hour 2 that you had NO WAY to predict was coming, you just gotta throw up your hands and say "guess I die now". My last run was 2+ hours, managed to build the boat, get it to dock, get my army on board, then was 3 coins shy of setting sail. Then a blood moon hit, and that was that.
Discovered Two Lands is actually included in PS+ Game Collection, so I started playing that. Some things, like NPC AI seems better and certain elements feel more forgiving.
Thirith on 14/3/2023 at 07:47
Sable's on my list, but I tend to forget Game Pass games for some reason... I'm finally trying my hand at The Witness, but I also have one of these semiregular hankerings to replay one of the city-based Assassin's Creed games. Sometimes they only last for an hour or two while I use the games as walking simulators, but for me they're usually a good way of airing out my head after a day of work exactly because they are pretty but shallow. It doesn't always work, but periodically they're just the right thing.
Malf on 14/3/2023 at 11:37
I know you like your AC games Thirith, so much I suspect you'd really like Guild Wars 2 (they share a lot of the same gameplay mechanics), but I'm always hesitant to recommend MMOs to people, as I know they can be time vampires, and I've just extricated myself from its greedy clutches.
I did see you playing Returnal at the weekend though, which reminded me to play it, and I got all the way to the end boss (before dying after a prolonged battle). There must have been a performance patch, because it's playing a LOT better now, and it's very moreish.
As suspected, Patch Quest has become my next Steam Deck go-to for the daily commute, and it's charming while also being mechanically deep, as well as a serious bullet-hell shooter. Very impressed, especially as it's the work of one developer.
It's got almost Nintendo levels of polish. Highly recommended for those of you who like a good rogue-lite.
And I picked up DOS2 on Steam having already got it on GOG. Steam just makes it so much easier to manage mods on Linux.
I've just got out of the fortress-prison, and am a bit nervous. I remember that the game started well the first time I played it, but that the mechanics quickly became unbalanced after leaving the island. The armour system and prevalence of effects that bypass all the mechanics the game has previously taught you is just mind-bogglingly stupid,
On top of which, you have to deal with an awful, AWFUL gear system that invalidates your equipment every time you gain a level, meaning you spend more time shopping for gear than playing the game. Seriously, how this got lauded by so many publications as being the best RPG in years is beyond me.
So that's why I'm modding the SHIT out of the game.
To be honest, I've probably over-modded it as it's very easy now, but I'm here for the power fantasy.
And Dwarf Fortress is still a constant.
I'm still fighting an ongoing war with the neighbouring dwarven civilisation. I keep razing their sites, and their attempts at diplomacy to end the war consist of "We want you to stop destroying our settlements SO GIVE US STUFF!"
I'm not sure they understand how diplomacy works.
(This makes for a fun little story, but in fairness, I'm not sure the diplomacy system is developed enough for them to offer me stuff in return for the cessation of hostilities)
I'm also seeing regular cavern incursions of Bat Men. Not masked vigilantes who make my dwarves fear the night, but bats the size of men, wielding spears and shields. They also smell REALLY BAD (by which I mean, they start emitting miasma remarkably quickly after dying).
I've captured a few and am unsure what to do with them. They can't be tamed, so I'll probably just end up selling them to the humans.
Thirith on 14/3/2023 at 11:49
@Malf I'm kinda glad to say that I've bounced off the handful of MMO games I've played to date, because of how much of a time sink they end up being for lots of people. For me, the thing with Assassin's Creed is mainly their take on real-world, primarily environments that I know (at least to some extent). I like walking through historical London half-knowing that if I go left here and all the way down this street, I'll end up at Trafalgar Square, but there are also things that don't add up, so a location ends up feeling like a weird blend of a Las Vegas recreation and the place as it might appear in a dream. There's something intriguingly uncanny about it. Honestly, the gameplay barely comes into it - though it's nice to replay an Assassin's Creed where a hidden blade assassination doesn't just remove a third of an enemy's health bar... (#ubisoftsrpgelementsandbulletspongeenemiescangofuckthemselves)
I'll want to get back to Returnal, but I suck so much at it - by which I mainly mean that I suck at getting to the first boss with more or less full health, and without this I just end up failing the boss fight. I still enjoy the game while playing it, but when I come away from playing an hour without feeling there's been *any* progress, it feels rather hollow.
