Yakoob on 25/9/2021 at 20:02
I've been hearing a lot of good about Sable but I remember when the demo came out not too long ago and people were not impressed. Lots of empty space and the chonky animations did not feel good. Has that all been fixed or still in?
Anyway, I just played Alan Wake for the first time and enjoyed it a lot more than I expected. Great Stephen King meets Twin Peaks atmosphere and each story segment was a delight. The light and dark mechanics feel like such a simple/old idea yet I can't recall any other game ever doing it, so it felt really fresh and fun to just blind people with my flashlight. The game also has fantastic side-kicks - Barry is just a lovable caricature all around, and the cop lady is actually useful (I never felt I had to baby-sit them). The shooting itself, while basic, feels adequately punchy and does the job.
My only complaint is that the game does get repetitive fast, mainly due to environment. The whole first 3 episodes you're basically non-stop running through identical woods, and later episodes are still half woods. The little town section was a nice reprive, but still a fairly short segment. The story was also kind of... ok at best? I wish they did bit more with it (or left it insanity vs. darkness more ambiguous) but it gets the job done.
I also played the 2 extra scenarios that come with Steam version. The Signal was meh and felt like just pointless "more of the same" but The Writer had some genuinely fantastic set pieces (like jumping through floating platform or being inside a giant spinning wheel with different rooms you visited before - brilliant!) Though I wish they advanced the story a bit more. The Writer almost did, feeling like Wake's introspection on his own guilt and thoughts, but ultimately it felt like you end up exactly where you started.
Starker on 25/9/2021 at 20:39
Now play American Nightmare.
Pyrian on 26/9/2021 at 07:14
I've been playing Darkest Dungeon. I like the combat a lot, the interplay of positions and abilities is relatively well balanced, there's a lot of different effective strategies to mess around with. I'm not sure I like anything else about it, though, lol.
henke on 26/9/2021 at 09:28
Quote Posted by Yakoob
I've been hearing a lot of good about Sable but I remember when the demo came out not too long ago and people were not impressed. Lots of empty space and the chonky animations did not feel good. Has that all been fixed or still in?
Ehhh... the "chonky animations" looked great in the demo and yes they're still in the game. And yes there's lots of empty space. These are both things the game GOT RIGHT, and if you're not into either then stay away.
reizak on 26/9/2021 at 10:18
The Sable demo was locked to 30fps at first though which was pretty awful, and that seems to have been fixed, so the animations are a lot less chonky at least. You must've played the later version of the demo.
Briareos H on 26/9/2021 at 10:55
Quote Posted by Yakoob
I've been hearing a lot of good about Sable but I remember when the demo came out not too long ago and people were not impressed. Lots of empty space and the chonky animations did not feel good. Has that all been fixed or still in?
I for one was very impressed with the demo and it cemented a day-one purchase. That being said, I'm glad the locked 30 fps framerate was removed, it sucked ass. Years back when the first videos came out and garnered a bit of hype, I remember arguing with the main dev that while low-framerate animations were a great idea for style, it was a silly idea to apply the same limit to physics and camera, as it only resulted in the feeling of a jerky game engine completely abstracted from the game itself. It took him feedback from the demo to concede the point, although I see he still has his pet 24 fps option available for "cinematic" effect. Not that I want to be insulting, I think he and the whole team did an amazing job but it was obvious the framerate issue wouldn't be a hill they could die on.
My other negative with the demo was the wonky physics and collisions, they have been somewhat improved but not as much as they could. It still feels very much rough and indie, but that doesn't at all detract from the charm IMO. It's even... almost refreshing to have a collision system that is not too restrictive, you can glitch-climb some weird inclines and I love it.
Agree with henke that lots of space and exploration is the big draw, especially for such an aesthetic-driven game. No combat is a great choice too.
EDIT: Forgot to add that I experience a lot of tolerable but annoying stuttering, and that the framerate drops visibly in certain areas. I wonder if it's CPU-bound as I have an old Haswell refresh but a 2080 Super and the geometry isn't that complicated. The menus are also completely bugged, especially when playing with a controller. Hope this gets fixed soon.
Yakoob on 26/9/2021 at 23:06
Thanks for all the input. It sounds like it might be a nice game to lose yourself and explore for a while, but prolly best I wait for some patches/QOL improvements (the RPS review was particularly scathing and I know myself enough to know I'd be bothered by that stuff as well).
Anyway, following Starker's coercive post, I did indeed get Alan Wake: American Nightmare and beat it in one long session. Overall, I enjoyed it. The combat feels tighter and the crossbow is my MVP, tho I was annoyed the flashlight no longer passively kills of darkness. The time loop does get a tad repetitive, but I thought they did a good job of mixing things up, giving you shortcuts, and shortening each loop to avoid it being grating.
The overall format of a mini-episode was solid and fit well in the world of Wake (especially with some allusions to his TV show and playing further on themes of re-writing reality). The big-picture framework and the storytelling is a superb as the original, with the radio shows giving some nice "world after Wake" context and Mr. Scratch being a fantastic psycho to watch.
Now, while the big picture stuff is fine, the actual time loop story events are... disappointing? It just never goes beyond feeling like a gimmick to extend playtime. Particularly the 3 characters and their stories (or lack thereof). It could have been such a fantastic opportunity to make each loop reveal more about them and really strengthen the relationship, but the game almost goes out of its way to avoid giving them any depth. Sure there's extra dialogue, but it's all literary fluff. There didn't seem to be any meaning to any actions you take, and I was sad choosing to save the 3rd girl (which was totally optional) did not amount to anything. I'm still unclear if the whole episode is actually set in real world being invaded by darkness, or purely in fictional dark world (which makes the 3 characters even more meaningless).
Also, why are all of them hot "maidens in distress" bimbos (even the fucking scientist)? I almost hoped it would be some kind of a metaphor of Wake only thinking up hot girls in his writing and thus subconsciously objectifying women/emotionally cheating on Alice, but nope, none of that... I guess it's just pandering to male gamers :V
EDIT: as a side note, I saw it had Mixed reviews on Steam and most people complaining how they turned Alan wake from a horror into a shooter... which I think it's a bit silly considering Alan wake was already a set of glorified shooting set-pieces separated by "spooky forest!" American Nightmare just does this better. The whole "Horror" of both games is completely undone by the fact that every single encounter is paragraphed by music change and a FUCKING CAMERA FOCUSING ON THE ENEMY for a few seconds. There isn't much horror when you never need to worry exploring a new area.
Starker on 27/9/2021 at 00:04
I liked the flashlight much better in American Nightmare as it was more powerful, but also drained faster. For me it really improved the flow of the combat.
I've actually never considered Alan Wake to be horror. Rather, it gives me more of a psychological thriller vibe, since it draws so heavily from Twin Peaks and Hitchcock movies and Twilight Zone. American Nightmare especially feels like a Twilight Zone episode.
henke on 29/9/2021 at 20:29
Hey folks just chillin on top of a big ass sword statue no biggie
Inline Image:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ntzho5yfcu3xass/Sable%20%2829%29.png?raw=1Almost done with my rumspringa, just got a few more chum eggs to collect and maybe a CRIME MYSTERY to solve before I head on home and decide to be a mechanic for the rest of my life probably. Wanted to be a cartographer but once I saw what the cartographer mask looked like I was like "I'm not wearing
that fucking thing for the rest of my life". ok byyeeeeeeee
EvaUnit02 on 30/9/2021 at 16:14
I started playing Ninja Blade. It's a From Software game that's probably as far from Dark Souls as you get. The game is cinematic and QTE heavy, but thankfully you can disable the necessity to bother with the QTEs. Storywise it's pretty much Resident Evil with a ninja protagonist. The cinematic story is pure schlock, very fun in the B movie sense.
The actual hack and slash gameplay is basic but well done IMO. Definitely more akin to OG God of War rather than Devil May Cry or Ninja Gaiden. Light attack, heavy attack, dodge, block, ranged magic attack are the basics. Your movelist expands as you upgrade your weapons and magic.