Tomi on 25/8/2021 at 06:29
Quote Posted by Anarchic Fox
I have a Steam folder titled "Goddamn Fox Games," which currently has 27 entries, with a dozen more wishlisted. Looks like it'll get even bigger.
Is
The First Tree in your Goddamn Fox Games already? It's a fun little indie walking simulator kind of a game, perhaps a bit too "arty" for my liking, but you might like it if foxes are your thing. :D
Anarchic Fox on 25/8/2021 at 09:02
...Did I say 27? I meant 28. :sweat:
I'll bump it up in the queue and let you know what I think. My current fox-game-in-progress is Rime, which is also the closest I've seen yet to Team Ico's work.
Aja on 26/8/2021 at 16:10
Quote Posted by Anarchic Fox
Is that advice still worth following? I grew dubious around the time he said the FF VII remake was "as FF VII as FF VII has ever been."
I dunno. Maybe not if you're only looking for advice. I enjoy his presentation style, and after watching nearly an hour (!) of him talking about the controller, it seemed like he made a solid case. I liked it enough to not return it, but I'm still doubtful of its long-term durability. His opinions on games sometimes differ from mine, but again it's more the videos themselves than the advice they give that I'm interested in. I'd probably never play Tokimeki Memorial, but I loved his review of it.
Anarchic Fox on 26/8/2021 at 19:49
I was very fond of Tim Rogers back in the (
http://www.actionbutton.net/) Action Button days, when he wrote rambling text reviews. I'm glad he found success in gaming journalism.
EvaUnit02 on 26/8/2021 at 20:38
Tim Rogers? That takes me back. I recall him being made roasted by SomethingAwful like 15 years ago. He's the guy who would turn game reviews into rambling travel diaries in Japan, right?
Aja on 27/8/2021 at 00:16
Yep. Some of his old writing is cringey, but I find his (
https://www.youtube.com/user/ActionButtonDotCom) recent video series compelling. All of the videos are insanely long, and his style takes some getting used to, but I kinda got hooked. It feels to me like he's on the verge of creating something of literary greatness.
Anarchic Fox on 27/8/2021 at 03:03
Quote Posted by EvaUnit02
He's the guy who would turn game reviews into rambling travel diaries in Japan, right?
Vice-versa, I'd say. Also, he didn't stay a tourist, but was hired by Grasshopper as a game developer for the No More Heroes series.
Yakoob on 31/8/2021 at 00:07
So I just replayed Bioshock (remastered) for the first time since it came out. It's interesting playing it while a lot older. I think I can appreciate it a lot more now, but can also understand some of its flaws better.
First, the game does a phenomenal job of setting up the atmosphere and making Rapture feel like a place. The whole premise requires a hefty dose of suspensions of disbelief, but once you get past that, it all feels very cohesive and deliberate. You know how they say in movies not a single frame is wasted? It's a bit like that here - every audio log, every bit of environment contributes to the greater story and themes. Whether you like the ideas or not, it is really expertly crafted.
I also forgot how much more... complex the game is. Sure you got your guns and plasmids, but then you also got multiple types of ammo per gun. Headshots from the crossbow insta kill. Then you can also upgrade guns in various ways. And then there are the upgrade plasmids, split into 4 different categories, which add further depth. There's also hacking, getting security bots to follow you, freezing/setting enemies on fire (and how wrench affects them), setting traps and electrifying water, enraging/hypnotizing big daddies, there's sneaking and there's protect-the-little-sister sequence... There's a legitimately great amount variety that's made fairly accessible.
But that is also where things kind of fall apart. The gameplay is often so fast and chaotic, a lot of the nuance gets lost. Sure, I can set up elaborate traps and mines to try to defeat the big daddy... Or I can just spam my granade launcher 6 times. Sure I can try to dispatch splicers in creative ways... or I can just kill them quickly with anti personal bullets - they'll respawn in a few seconds so why bother with anything that isn't the least path of resistance? The TL;DR is that there is a whole fantastic set of systems and mechanics, but the overall design kind of pushes you to (and rewards you for) going guns-blazing with the most powerful weapon you have at hand.
The storytelling and visual design, as awesome as it is, also does eventually get a bit same-y. Everything is the same teal green with occasional yellow/orange highlights. So after 10hrs, it all sorts of blends in. I wouldn't have minded having a few areas that break away from this style. Arcadia could have been a fantastic mini nature break from the style, but even that feels like "Trees, but teal." Or Fort Frolic, could have completely flipped the color style on its head to express Cohen's madness, but alas.
The remaster also came with dev commentary, so two interesting things Ken Levine mentioned is how the "two ending" was actually requirement from the publisher. He also called the final boss battle really silly. So it's interesting to hear both of these somewhat ham-fisted elements were, indeed, ham-fisted. I haven't found all the dev commentary hidden in levels, but I wonder how much they were not happy with in the end?
In any case, I enjoyed my replay of Bioshock a lot more than I expected, and even with its flaws, I could appreciate the work put into the game. In retrospect, it does not surprise me why the game became as popular as it has, and how it managed to make a bit of the complex systemic design appealing to broader audiences.
EvaUnit02 on 1/9/2021 at 05:37
Quote Posted by Yakoob
I also forgot how much more... complex the game is. Sure you got your guns and plasmids, but then you also got multiple types of ammo per gun. Headshots from the crossbow insta kill. Then you can also upgrade guns in various ways. And then there are the upgrade plasmids, split into 4 different categories, which add further depth. There's also hacking, getting security bots to follow you, freezing/setting enemies on fire (and how wrench affects them), setting traps and electrifying water, enraging/hypnotizing big daddies, there's sneaking and there's protect-the-little-sister sequence... There's a legitimately great amount variety that's made fairly accessible.
The System Shock 2 RPG DNA was still very much there, which I greatly appreciated. Things didn't really turn to shit until Infinite when they heavily dumbed down the mechanics to attract CoD players. Eg the CoD/Halo style measly weapon limit greatly discouraged experimentation with the arsenal provided. Your best bet was just to keep upgraded the same 3 or 4 guns throughout the entire playthrough.
Quote:
But that is also where things kind of fall apart. The gameplay is often so fast and chaotic, a lot of the nuance gets lost. Sure, I can set up elaborate traps and mines to try to defeat the big daddy... Or I can just spam my granade launcher 6 times. Sure I can try to dispatch splicers in creative ways... or I can just kill them quickly with anti personal bullets - they'll respawn in a few seconds so why bother with anything that isn't the least path of resistance? The TL;DR is that there is a whole fantastic set of systems and mechanics, but the overall design kind of pushes you to (and rewards you for) going guns-blazing with the most powerful weapon you have at hand.
I replayed the game about a year ago myself. The "new" extra hard difficulty imported the PS3 version did go a long way in forcing me to rely more on the weapons toybox provided + researching enemies to make them less bullet spongey over time.
Yakoob on 2/9/2021 at 05:29
Now onto another topic. With all due respect, screw Control. It's one of the few rare games I just rage quit and immediately uninstalled. It's a GEORGEOUS bombastic "shooter" that oozes atmosphere and intrigue, held hostage by design decisions that constantly say "fuck you" to the player.
I skimmed the Control thread (didn't wanna necro) and very much agree with henke's description of the loop from hell: die in a really stupid way, stare at loading screen for 1 minute, backtrack through the same areas for 1 minute to where you were, die in a really stupid way, repeat.
So far I died because:
* I entered a room that insta kills you
* I stepped over a ledge into infinite void that looked like it was glass
* I got kileld by enemy spawning behind me
* I got killed by enemy throwing stuff at me because my pinky stuck out of cover
* I got killed by a thing I picked up, because Jesse decided to pick up something explosive, and it happened to get stuck on something in front of me and explode in my face
* I got killed by an enemy I couldn't even see around the corner because of the off-center camera
* I got killed by exploding enemies because I didn't know they explode and the game, instead of introducing me to it one at a time, threw SIX at me at once
* Enemy shot something next to me that exploded
* The game introduced a new weird aberration that doesn't even look like an enemy, but it does quickly move towards you in a narrow pathway and if it touches you, it insta kills you
* etc. etc.
My breaking point was when I reached the Research department. After spending 20 minutes running around in circles (because the map is useless and all the paths it shows you are actually "locked"), I found I need to drop into a massive pit and then fight some new monsters. They kill me on first try, ok fine. I wait a minute for game to reload and respawn back at the START OF THE WHOLE LEVEL, and all the enemies in the whole area now also respawned. FFS.
BUT Fine, I kill them, I make it back to the pit, jump down, back to the area where I died. I'm more careful now, trying to take out enemies sniping me on the other end of the huge cave, making steady progre- I die, because an enemy spawned BEHIND ME. FFS.
Ok, 3rd time. I cave in an enable the 1-shot-kill Assist Mode because fuck it. At least I'll be able to progress. So another minute-long loading screen, going through the same initial area killing the same re-spawned enemies for the 3rd time, I jump down into the pit...
... Jessie gets stuck on some ledge halfway through the fall and dies instantly.
Back to minute long loading screen.
Holy fuck. Alt+F4. Uninstall.
I don't like Dark Souls and souls-like, but at least I can appreciate the smart design and the fact most of my deaths are my fault. But Control just CONSTANTLY keeps saying "fuck you" and finding new dumb ways to get me killed, and throwing me into the tedious loading screen/backtracking/killing the same enemies loop over and over.
----
And you know what the real kicker was? When I was in the astral plane one, I accidentally fell off into the void. Guess what happened? I INSTANTLY respawned back up. No loading screen, no backtracking!
So the game could have been instantly re-spawning me after death at the nearest checkpoint all this time! But it chose not to, because fuck me.