Sulphur on 5/1/2023 at 11:06
Here's some what ifs: what if Halo 2, instead of going where it did, was a game that was almost entirely an expanded version of The Silent Cartographer? What if you gave Chief a grappling hook, explosive barrels, and the ability to negate fall damage by grappling the ground? What if you took even more elements of Just Cause and sprinkled them about the now suddenly open world, like propaganda towers and bases that need to be exploded? What if these felt fun initially, but soon gave way to that inevitable hollow feeling from a Ubisoft game? What if Marty O'Donnell never came back to score the game, and you got a few other composers, including the one who did the scores for the Ori games, and had them do Marty impressions instead of unleashing their potential?
What if you gave Halo fun combat, but stuck it in an open world that refuses to give way to a sense of wonder or discovery because your design makes everything visually pleasing at the outset, but drops away in a few hours into an over-arching set of similar objectives and map icon clearing missions that highlight how samey the world is? What if the sight of a sunset across the rim of your ringworld sending shadows across the mountaintops leaves you just a little bit cold, and you're left silently slinging yourself across giant columns of basalt towards some glowing science fiction monument girdling a valley? What if your villain's the most boring thing possible, a scenery-chewing ogre who monologues you to death at every occasion? What if the game killed your Windows assistant a few years ago, but has nothing to fill that void with now, so simply slots it back in with a facelift?
What if a game's haunted by the ghosts of its own past, subconsciously etching onto its landscapes the idea that its best days are behind it, but just can't bring itself to let go?
You get a pretty decent game, but also an alternately tepid and infuriating one. We don't need infinite Halos, just one that doesn't stick a plasma grenade on its own face. Potential is easy to see, but harder to realise. 6.5 exposition venus flytraps / 10.
Aja on 6/1/2023 at 16:42
New year, new games I bought on sale. First is Disco Elysium, which feels to me like Thomas Pynchon: The Game. I talked to my limbic system and my necktie, tried to be self-effacing about last night's blackout session, and, uh, found my other shoe. I decided to set the voiceover mode to psychological (characters only) because the narrator felt too slow, but I'm curious what others would recommend. It's already making me feel like an intellectual lightweight, but hey, what's an English degree for if not trying to understand literature that's too smart for you?
Second is Need for Speed Unbound, the relative opposite game. It's the first NFS I've played since Porsche Unleashed, and it's really scratching an itch. I like the the driving model with its hairtrigger drifting, the rain-soaked open world is pretty and feels alive and interesting to explore, and the story is silly but endearing in a Fast and the Furious (the original) sort of way. Great soundtrack, too, although being old I've never heard of any of it. It's also hard, but it pays out enough when you lose to make it worth your while, which lends it a sense of progression that's lacking in something like Forza Horizon. Recommended.
demagogue on 6/1/2023 at 17:53
What do you mean "recommend"? You mean vis-a-vis the voiceover mode? I played the original which only had voiceovers for maybe the first three or four major dialog options of characters. So I couldn't say.
But I did notice they changed Cuno's voice so he's not so much of a comic book parody character. I didn't like the new voice... I mean if your character is defined by the catch phrase "Fuck does Cuno care?", parody is kind of part of the package to begin with. But apparently I'm in the minority, and most people like the realism, in the Reddit page anyway.
I did notice that people get really partisan in their opinions about this game generally though, which I guess makes sense, given that the whole game kind of revolves around partisanship. But it made me really like this game more for my personal experience with it, and not eager to read other people's opinions on it.
Aja on 6/1/2023 at 18:25
Yeah, I mean I started playing it and instantly wanted to turn off all voiceovers so that I could just read it at my own pace. But then I wondered if I'd miss out on some great performances, so I set it to the mode which silences the narrator and skills but leaves characters in. And yet it still feels kind of stilted, like this type of dialogue is meant to be read rather than spoken. It's also odd that characters speak but you don't, which gives it a one-sided feel. And I'd rather ask for experienced TTLG opinions on the matter than the Reddit stans.
nicked on 7/1/2023 at 20:04
I love the narrator voice though, even if it's a little slow. It's a game to take your time with anyway, so I was happy to just kinda treat it like an audiobook in that regard.
Aja on 8/1/2023 at 07:41
I decided to switch all voices back down and chill out, slow down. I love this game so far. I thought I'd have to internalize some racist ideology to get the racist to let me past the gate, but then I managed to pass an against-the-odds skill check to hop over a railing, which I did heroically.
Thirith on 8/1/2023 at 15:44
I got started on Shadow of the Tomb Raider. I still don't give a damn about Lara in this particular incarnation (not sure I did in the others, but at least she had a personality), but of the reboot series this one definitely has the best graphics and environment, visually speaking. Expecting this to be okay rather than great, but that'll keep me engaged for a couple of weeks.
WingedKagouti on 8/1/2023 at 16:17
Quote Posted by Thirith
Expecting this to be okay rather than great, but that'll keep me engaged for a couple of weeks.
Gameplay wise, Shadow is the best of the reboot trilogy IMO.
Sulphur on 9/1/2023 at 16:05
Shadow's great for just fucking around in the jungle and enjoying the sights, IMO. It has the least amount of combat of the new trilogy, which was a breath of fresh air for me. The story's rubbish, the framework is still optional side-nonsense sprinkled all over the place, and the platforming is slightly more involved mechanically, but still has about a zero skill ceiling. Which is fine, I guess, because there are lots of tombs (if you have the DLCs), and they're pretty great. The puzzling is fine, and overall it's enjoyable even if I felt my enjoyment of the experience had somewhat deflated by the end.
Speaking of tombs, if you can co-op those with someone, I'd recommend it. Slight Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light vibes there when you have a buddy, which was rather nice.
Anarchic Fox on 10/1/2023 at 07:22
Quote Posted by Aja
I decided to switch all voices back down and chill out, slow down. I love this game so far. I thought I'd have to internalize some racist ideology to get the racist to let me past the gate, but then I managed to pass an against-the-odds skill check to hop over a railing, which I did heroically.
I'm glad to hear it! Disco Elysium really is something special. It has flaws, severe flaws, but I devoutly hope other developers realize that RPGs don't have to be built around combat.