What are you playing? (2024 Edition)

Tomi on 19/12/2024 at 09:18

Quote Posted by Aja

I'm not sure if your guys' description of Nine Sols is making me want to play it less or more.

If you're good at these games, then definitely go for it! If you're not, then stay the hell away from it.

You need to have both patience and skill to enjoy Nine Sols, and I thought that I've got what it takes, but turns out that I was wrong. Having patience helps overcome most obstacles, and I'm a very patient guy, but sadly I seem to be lacking in the skills department. :D

Thirith on 19/12/2024 at 09:43

I wasn't particularly good at the game, but for me playing it felt very much like Sekiro. There were lots of moments where I was ready to give up because it all felt too frustrating, but up to the final boss I always ended up trying and trying until I managed, because I definitely felt that the game was fair, just hard.

In hindsight, I'd say that it probably nudged over the line and became too frustrating for me. By comparison, Hollow Knight is probably at the upper end of my sweet spot. I'd say it's worth giving Nine Sols a bit of time to see if you'll come to enjoy it, but if you're not there after a few hours, then it might be better to drop it.

henke on 19/12/2024 at 18:00

Finished Indy. Reminded me of Far Cry 2 at certain points. And King Kong 2005 at other points. Good games to be reminded of. The final bossfight was annoying tho. Actually, the game is at its worst whenever it traps you in a big setpiece. Which is a shame, since the best parts of the movies are usually the big setpieces. Anyway, overall a good game.

Now I'm playing Daikatana. For some reason. No seriously. I just got to level 3 of Daikatana. I'm not kidding.

Aja on 19/12/2024 at 20:53

Quote Posted by Sulphur

I'm not sure most narrative horror games have good gameplay to begin with. I think Alien: Isolation's best in class when it comes to that, but even then people were complaining about its design being restrictive while they were hoarding their tools for later, and not using them when they should have.

That's true. I don't expect great gameplay in this style, but I do expect not-actively-bad gameplay. Incidentally I replayed Alien Isolation this year, and apart from the padded runtime in the last few acts, I loved it.

Quote:

Anyway, frustrating stealth aside, what part of the narrative's hooking you? I played the demo and I got a sense of ye ol' corporate capitalist critique from it, combined with being stranded/alone and starving to death, which seems a potent combination regardless of the surrealness (which these days I'm starting to see in games as an excuse for simply being bizarre for the coolness factor and not as a comment on anything in particular).

It's been a couple days since I've played it, and in retrospect not much hooked me, to be honest. It had some good lines about the burdens of command and what it means to be a leader, and its depiction of trauma and addiction felt nuanced and sensitive. But it was also something of a semiotic soup, with its dream sequences and flashing words, the endless overt reminders that terrible things have happened. People on Reddit who enjoy discussing what the horse represents might find some meat here. I found it tedious and overwrought, and it undermined the good storytelling. That being said, I missed a whole plot point involving a character's implied sexual assault, so maybe I'm the one who needs better media literacy.

Sulphur on 20/12/2024 at 08:57

I appreciate knowing why it's not working for you. Subtlety certainly isn't its strong suit, from what I saw in the demo, and that's borne out by what you're saying, too. Seems a shame, but I'm interested in seeing where it takes all of its setup nevertheless. At the very least, their vision for the game was executed with a certain boldness and/or confidence, and there's something to be said for that.

faetal on 20/12/2024 at 18:12

Finally playing Cyberpunk 2077 now that it seems to have reached peak patch and am actually really enjoying it.
I think I even prefer it to the Eidos Montreal Deus Ex games. Scratches the same itch, with a decent open world and really good missions and characters.
There are still some quirks which shouldn't be in a AAA game, and I hate the driving physics so far, but overlooking that, one of the best games I've played in a long time.

henke on 20/12/2024 at 19:32

Well I done it. I played the first quarter of Daikatana.

Inline Image:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/3m1eytf4th43plekona50/daikatana02c.jpg?rlkey=2m7oytgaibzgbzx5o5co6djey&st=ryxs9rr0&raw=1

THOUGHTS:
I kinda enjoyed playing this because it evoked a lot of nostalgia for late 90's FPSes and this is one I haven't played yet, so it was all fresh. But no, it's no underappreciated classic or anything. Right out the gate you see why it got a bad rep, starting off with a boring ass 10 minute cutscene (I timed it) before throwing you into the first level, which is a swamp full of frogs and mosqitoes. They're tiny, hard to hit, annoying as hell. It's a swamp level! And, like, I get it. I get the mood they were going for. Swamp mood. It's SUPPOSED to be annoying and gross, but this is a hell of a way to start off a game. Imagine if Dark Souls started with Blighttown, and you had to get through that before you got to experience the rest of the game? I don't think it'd be the revered classic it is today. The tutorializing is almost non existant. Guess they expected folks to read the manual? I went like 1.5 hours before I realized there's a USE button. That swamp was difficult as hell, but TURNS OUT that you can USE the numerous berry-bushes scattered throughout it to replenish your health. I didn't know that! I also didn't know how to spend my leveling up points before I googled it. Ya gotta press K and L on the keyboard to switch through skill categories and then ; to level up. What da fuck.

ANYWAY

Once you get out of the swamp things get better but not much. Hitscan enemies that shoot you the instant you open a door. Oh but don't linger in that doorway for TOO LONG. I died from getting crushed by closing doors so many times.

It all looks cool at least. I got a lot of nostalgia for this aesthetic. I played with the unofficial 1.3 Patch btw, which improves certain aspects, like letting you give your NPC buddies way more health.

It's not all bad. Quite often I felt like elements of this game danced on the edge between Bold Design and Terrible Idea. Mostly they fall over into the latter side, but not always!

Things I liked about Daikatana:
-your default gun. The "green snot gun" as it was described to me by the internet long ago. It's pretty good! That green snot bounces off walls you see, and I got really into the habit of bouncing shots around corners to hit enemies out of sight.
-all the weapons are pretty weird actually, and I appreciated that. There's a shotgun, but it's one that blasts off like 6 rounds in a row every time you press the fire button. Wasting an insane amount of ammo, but it's a good way of clearing a room. The grenade launcher has such a wide damage radius that you're as likely to injure yourself as you are your enemies. The rocket launcher is solid.
-your first companion, Superfly Johnson, has some really funny lines and insane line readings. I guess they just told this voiceactor to GO WILD in the booth and man, it shows. I love you, Superfly.
-the level design is fun, in a Quake 2 kinda way. I liked exploring these levels and finding secrets.

At the end of Ep 1 you get the titular Daikatana and get sent to a desert world. You'd THINK that if someone names an entire game after a weapon they'd try to make that weapon fun to use? Folks, this is probably the worst sword in all of videogamedom. Just garbage. I'm done with Daikatana.

Aja on 20/12/2024 at 20:52

Quote Posted by Sulphur

Indeed. It's worth playing if you want to know where it goes, and it does do a lot of things right. For my money, though (which is actually half of the money required to buy Mouthwashing), Anthology of the Killer is better in pretty much every way. Not that they're directly comparable, but they are both narrative-driven weirdo satirical art games. I'm tempted to buy AOTK for everyone in my Steam friend list just so I have someone to talk to about it.

<Username> on 23/12/2024 at 13:25

I set myself a goal to complete 12 games in 2024, one game for every month and each for a different platform. Most of the games I selected were on the shorter side, otherwise I would not have been able to complete the challenge. I tried to cover a variety of genres but at the same time stick to genres that are fun for me personally.

The biggest difficulty was the limited time I had between work and other personal commitments. I remember struggling to fit the February game into the stressful final phase of a project at work, completing it during the night. For the May game, I used an old savegame of mine from years ago and still had to invest about a week of a holiday to complete it. The August game I rushed through in three hours on the easiest difficulty while liberally abusing save states, barely completing it before midnight of the last day. In July and September, I deliberately chose very short games because I did not have more than a couple of hours for gaming each weekend.

I enjoyed doing this challenge. Next year, I will not set myself any goals other than to play games I really want to play and to play them in the time I need to complete them at a leisurely pace.

Deus Ex: The Fall
Release year: 2014
Platform: Google Android
Developer: N-Fusion Interactive
Genre: Action Role-Playing
Date completed: 20.01.24
Emulated: yes
140 characters review: Perfect start to the challenge. Had just the right length and I enjoyed the game much more than bad reviews had led me to believe.
Game rating: 3/5
Personal enjoyment: 5/5

Mario Party 2
Release year: 2000
Platform: Nintendo 64
Developer: Hudson Soft
Genre: Boardgame / Minigames
Date completed: 26.02.24
Emulated: no
140 characters review: Even better than the first game in the series. Even solo, it motivated me to keep playing until the end of the driving school bonus game.
Game rating: 5/5
Personal enjoyment: 5/5

Simon the Sorcerer
Release year: 1994
Platform: Commodore Amiga CD32
Developer: Adventure Soft
Genre: Point & Click Adventure
Date completed: 24.03.24
Emulated: no
140 characters review: I frequently had to consult a walkthrough and felt a little bored. I recognize it is a classic, but just not my taste.
Game rating: 4/5
Personal enjoyment: 2/5

MediEvil
Release year: 1998
Platform: Sony PlayStation
Developer: SCE Studio Cambridge
Genre: Hack & Slash / Platform
Date completed: 03.04.24
Emulated: no
140 characters review: Lovely design, gameplay, and humor. From the many PS1 top sellers I have yet to play, I am glad I chose this one for the challenge.
Game rating: 4/5
Personal enjoyment: 4/5

Minecraft (Vanilla 1.20.6)
Release year: 2011
Platform: Oracle Java
Developer: Mojang
Genre: Sandbox / Survival
Date completed: 20.05.2024
Emulated: no
140 characters review: My old savegame I started with already had an Eye of Ender completed, but it was still a brutal grind to the defeat of the Ender Dragon.
Game rating: 5/5
Personal enjoyment: 3/5

Streets of Rage 2
Release year: 1992
Platform: Sega Genesis
Developer: Sega
Genre: Beat `Em Up
Date completed: 09.06.24
Emulated: yes
140 characters review: Reached the second to last stage normally, then restarted and completed the game with the help of save states. Excellent brawler.
Game rating: 5/5
Personal enjoyment: 4/5

Passage
Release year: 2016
Platform: Emscripten
Developer: toolness
Genre: Memento Mori
Date completed: 31.07.24
Emulated: no
140 characters review: From all games I played over the course of my life, this five-minute game had the biggest emotional impact. It is an ingenious work of art.
Game rating: 5/5
Personal enjoyment: 5/5

Star Fox
Release year: 1993
Platform: Super Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo
Genre: Rail Shooter
Date completed: 31.08.2024
Emulated: yes
140 characters review: Star Fox 64 is one of my favorite games. Playing the original, I finally realized it is a remake. Both original and remake are fantastic.
Game rating: 5/5
Personal enjoyment: 4/5

Marie’s Room
Release year: 2018
Platform: Microsoft Windows
Developer: like Charlie
Genre: First-Person Adventure
Date completed: 28.09.24
Emulated: no
140 characters review: Picked it based on recommendations online and because it is very short. It is okay. The big exposition dump at the end did not impress me.
Game rating: 3/5
Personal enjoyment: 3/5

Metroid Fusion
Release year: 2002
Platform: GameBoy Advance
Developer: Nintendo
Genre: Action-Adventure / Platform
Date completed: 13.10.2024
Emulated: no
140 characters review: Struggled with certain bosses and hidden passages, but loved everything else. I have been listening to the OST a lot since I completed it.
Game rating: 5/5
Personal enjoyment: 4/5

Forbidden Forest
Release year: 1983
Platform: Commodore 64
Developer: Cosmi
Genre: Shoot'em Up
Date completed: 30.11.24
Emulated: yes
140 characters review: Surprisingly epic considering the limitations of the hardware it is running on. I got lucky when I hit the Demogorgon with my second arrow.
Game rating: 5/5
Personal enjoyment: 3/5

Rescue on Fractalus!
Release year: 1984
Platform: Atari 5200
Developer: Lucasfilm Games
Genre: Space Combat
Date completed: 23.12.24
Emulated: yes
140 characters review: Had never heard of this game. Only chose it because I wanted to have an Atari game in the challenge. Ended the year on an absolute banger!
Game rating: 5/5
Personal enjoyment: 5/5

Thirith on 26/12/2024 at 09:51

Sovereign Syndicate has potential, but it squanders much of it for these reasons: it suggests that it is about player choice and agency, but it really isn't, not even on a character level (to compare: you can't really change the plot much in The Walking Dead, but you can change who your Lee is), and while the worldbuilding is solid and interesting, the characters are underdeveloped and the plot is a shapeless mess. I came away thinking that they should have made this a point & click adventure rather than something that looks and plays but doesn't behave like a RPG. They raise expectations with the stuff they borrowed from Disco Elysium and with what seems to be choices, but the game doesn't fulfil any of these expectations, so I think they would've been better off dropping the hints at a game that is better overall but that is vastly better at being that kind of game in particular. At the same time, I do think their world has potential, even if the game goes from wanting to be about themes to a rather tacky steampunk Avengers Initiative ripoff in the last half hour or so. But if they do continue this, they'll have to decide what game and what kind of story they want to make, because right now Sovereign Syndicate is pulled in two different directions and it fails to decide for either of these, suffering in the process.