Thirith on 24/7/2023 at 07:35
Already when Ghost of Tsushima offered a Kurosawa mode that was basically just a graphics filter I thought that some game developers seem to know Kurosawa just from framed stills hung on walls. I can well imagine it's little more than that here. But yeah, the aesthetic is pretty nice, and right now I'm actually not unhappy to play a game that I'm not particularly invested in as a game. Sometimes mediocrity is just what's called for - though it can easily tip into boredom and frustration, but that's where it helps that a game is short. At least I hope so, and otherwise I'll move on to another short game. :cheeky:
WingedKagouti on 24/7/2023 at 09:40
Finished Tunic and messed around with NG+ for an hour or so. It's an interesting title for sure, I'd probably call it something like a cross between isometric Zelda games and Dark Souls. A lot of the game is based around discovery of mechanics and areas, with a core element being searching the manual to the game. A lot of both the manual and ingame text is written in an alphabet that you have to translate, if you want to know exactly what is going on. The various pictograms and already translated words do help guide the player around, but there are still things you need to learn by experimenting.
Overall I do recommend checking it out.
henke on 24/7/2023 at 17:11
If you've got a decent grasp of English four-letter words ya gotta check out Daniel Linssen's new game (
https://managore.itch.io/wordward-draw)
Wordward Draw. It's free, playable in-browser, and I just spent over an hour with it. Got about half of the picture-words. It's a delight. Play it! Have I EVER steered you wrong?
Jason Moyer on 25/7/2023 at 01:02
I stopped when there were no images for TITS or SHAT. Also apparenly MOSH isn't a word.
nicked on 25/7/2023 at 15:52
Hey that was fun! I got em all eventually. Finally hit IDEA by rearranging AIDE.
Jason Moyer on 26/7/2023 at 03:52
I finished TNO and the Freedom Chronicles and have been picking away at the Ubercommander missions. I stand by my opinion that the best parts of the Wolf reboots are Youngblood, the Freedom Chronicles (when they're not being weirdly glitchy - I had a guard in the stealth one literally vanish as I was creeping up on him + assassination objectives not completing), and these post-game ubercommando missions because the game shuts up and lets me sneak around and shoot nazis. It's not a quality of writing thing, it's just that the only time I care about a story in a videogame is if it's either a.) interactive, you know, the whole point of a videogame or b.) something you have to dig for in the environment. Otherwise, I'm completely ok with "there's evil afoot! are you a bad enough dude to shoot it until it has no health left?" And then when I want a real story I'll go read a book or watch a movie. The sneaking and shooting and exploring in these games are so good, I just wish it would shut up and let me do it. And also stop throwing lame gimmick levels at me.
I dunno what's next. I guess I'll roll the backlog dice after I kill some more ubercommanders in the face for great justice.
Sulphur on 26/7/2023 at 07:47
The thing about TNO and TNC is that the gameplay really isn't tight enough to depend on stealth as your main go-to. As you've noticed, it's only partway viable, because the games are balanced towards peeling off some part of a level's enemies quietly and then using the ludicrous arsenal they've given you to paint the rest of the place with blood and fire. What's interesting to me is that they make BJ more vulnerable than a game like Doom would, and the weapons are sort of off - they feel slightly unwieldy and very much not crowd-pleasing despite their design. Makes for a different vibe.
But yeah, well, the story's actually the bigger draw than the gameplay (and TNC's story is... variable), because I thought they played fairly average overall. Not enough depth, but just enough variety to remain okay. Youngblood was a solid 7/10 if you played it in co-op, but otherwise a 5/10 because it's very much just a run of the mill looter-shooter with the Wolf reboots' retrofuturistic art design.
henke on 26/7/2023 at 18:32
Quote Posted by nicked
Hey that was fun! I got em all eventually. Finally hit IDEA by rearranging AIDE.
Took me 3 evenings but I finally finished it as well. :)
QUIZ was the hardest one for me. Finally got it via SUIT > QUIT > QUIZ
Jason Moyer on 26/7/2023 at 20:15
Quote Posted by Sulphur
Youngblood was a solid 7/10 if you played it in co-op, but otherwise a 5/10 because it's very much just a run of the mill looter-shooter with the Wolf reboots' retrofuturistic art design.
It really wasn't a looter shooter since there's not any loot. Like, the moment to moment gameplay is basically a modern hitscan shooter with level design instead of a big corridor. I'd give the singleplayer a 7/10, the only real issue I had with it aside from the aforementioned hitscan aspect (which is why I'll always prefer games like Descent, Quake, Hexen II, Amid Evil, etc) was the stupid enemy levelling, but in general it was unobtrusive enough that it didn't bother me. If I found an area I couldn't deal with I just went and did something else. And speaking of unobtrusive, the story is "we're in Paris looking for our dad, while we're here let's shoot Nazis because that's fun" which is the best story ever put into a Wolfenstein game. And, unlike TNO, the hub base isn't sprawling and annoying to navigate.
Tomi on 26/7/2023 at 22:24
I've been playing Pentiment and it's fantastic! It may be more of a visual novel than a game, and it's certainly not for everyone, but I love it. It looks great and feels authentic, and it's a very relaxing experience. The characters may be the best that I've seen in a game since Ultima VII; some are funny and some are annoying as hell, but they're all interesting in some way. I don't even mind the lack of action in the game - apart from the standout events of each chapter nothing much ever seems to happen in the game, and sometimes it feels like you're spending most of the time talking about the weather (and other mundane things) with some peasants, but that's actually my favourite thing about the game. And the great thing is that you don't actually have to do any of that.
I finished the game yesterday and I'd sort of like to play it again already, but I'm not sure if it's a good idea. Pentiment tells a great story and it at least gives you an impression that your actions make a difference, but do they really? Or is it just an illusion? Do I want to break that illusion? No. :D
I also played through Ori and the Blind Forest again (last time was a couple of years ago) because I felt that I should do it before starting Ori and the Will of the Wisps. I'm happy to say that The Blind Forest was still an excellent game, and from what little I've seen of The Will of the Wisps so far, it feels even better, especially the combat!
