EvaUnit02 on 19/11/2021 at 05:14
Quote Posted by henke
Speaking of Subnautica (as someone was doing, recently, I assume, since this is TTLG) I fired up the PS5 version tonight but to my dismay it doesn't carry over the PS4 save!
A lot of cross-platform games on PlayStation 4+5 have some extended save import/export procedures (eg (
https://archive.ph/MpoCR) (
https://archive.ph/RVqKG)). Every developer themselves have to cook up methods, Sony doesn't provide any mechanism on the OS level (unlike Xbox's Smart Delivery feature). Have you looked into whether the Subnautica devs provided a save transfer mechanism?
EDIT: Googled it. No save transfer for Subnautica on PS. Oh well.
Starker on 19/11/2021 at 06:48
Quote Posted by Aja
I mean, if you're going to be Zylonbane about it, yes, the time loop mechanic itself is fairly basic. Do you want to argue about whether it's an interesting game with a time loop or a game with an interesting time loop? I'd rather just talk about how great it is and how everyone should play it.
I don't want to be Zylonbane-ing here, but here's where we are at the moment:
Catbarf -- there's room for innovation in timed mechanics
You -- look at Outer Wilds
Me -- Majora's mask already did it
You -- maybe it was inspired by it, but it also did other things unrelated to timed mechanics
I'm not attacking Outer Wilds, I'm just saying it didn't innovate a great deal in this regard. There's nothing wrong with copying a game's mechanics and doing your own take on it.
henke on 19/11/2021 at 10:19
Quote Posted by WingedKagouti
as a general rule, there's less aggressive fauna in BZ than in the original. BZ also has a smaller underwater environment due to the focus given to the surface and the story as a whole is shorter too.
These all sound like positives to me.
Considering I burnt out on the original earlier this year, starting it up again feels like a fool's errand. I'd rather do something smaller, then maybe return to Subnautica in a year or so.
edit: playing Below Zero now! I'll post thoughts in the appropriate thread once I've gotten into it a bit.
Aja on 19/11/2021 at 16:13
Quote Posted by Starker
I don't want to be Zylonbane-ing here, but here's where we are at the moment:
You know, most people here just ignore me when I make unsound arguments. I'll have to find some other angle to proselytize Outer Wilds.
EvaUnit02 on 19/11/2021 at 22:24
Quote Posted by Aja
You know, most people here just ignore me when I make unsound arguments. I'll have to find some other angle to proselytize Outer Wilds.
I hadn't really looked into the game before this back and worth. I have a bias against the publisher Annapurna since the bulk of their catalogue seems to be interactive movies and walking sims. I watched some gameplay footage and it's definitely on my radar now.
Yakoob on 27/11/2021 at 22:19
I'm playing Fallout 4 and close to 10hrs in. It's finally clicking and getting fun, but..... am I doing something wrong, or is the difficulty curve all over the place???
On two quests now (the Kellog one and the find the railroad), I would be doing fine, then hit an encounter that I have to reload like 10 times to get thru. Then the next one will be fine, then next one will be uber hard again.
Like the synths in Kellog's base, I was doing fine until I got to one part where they would all swarm me at once (like 5+ of them) and there was nothing I could do to stop it. As soon as I attacked one, all of them would run straight at me from multiple angles, and they'd rip me up in like 4 seconds, barely even had time to use stimpacks.
Also, fuck raider grenades. They can apparently throw a molotov across 200 feet and hit me right in the fucking face, which is a always an instant-kill.
Tl;dr the game feels like it goes very "this is fine, this is fine, this is fine, I'm dead" every other encounter. Wtf am I doing wrong?
Anarchic Fox on 1/12/2021 at 04:35
Lotsa Metroidvanias last weekend.
Alwa's Legacy, a sequel to Alwa's Awakening. Its selling point is that its movement upgrades are distinct from your standard dash/doublejump, and it has a system in which you gain further powers via collectables that can be reallocated freely. The difficulty was weird, as the game started hard and ended easy. Also, the game's story seemed to want to throw some kind of gut punch toward the end, only to back off at the last moment.
Metroid: Dread, in which I'm stuck on a boss that I... dread returning to.
Escape from Tethys, of middling quality. Its best feature is that half of its optional upgrades provide significant qualitative changes, in contrast to Metroid where the optional stuff is all plus health or plus ammo upgrades. (Heck, its big secret upgrade that requires three well-hidden keys is the Long Beam, a la the original Metroid.) Its boss fights were too easy, but the difficulty of exploration was pitched just right.
The Messenger, which has superb controls and good (though maybe too easy) level design. I liked it enough to get the optional seals and the resultant upgrade. It reminds me of Timespinners in how little its story does with its central conceit. However, it has a breezy and self-referential tone to its writing that works in its favor. I particularly liked the shopkeeper's stories, which always carried passive-aggressive morals. I've also done most of its bonus content, but I'm stuck on a section that requires speed, in a game that previously emphasized precision.
Astalon: Tears of the Earth, which I've only started. It's good so far, though. Nothing quite scratches that La Mulana itch I have, though.
Aside from Metroidvanias, I've started playing the entire Deadly Rooms of Death series, which is tied with Hexcells Infinite for Best Puzzle Game Ever. (Yeah, Portal's great, but the two Portal games have maybe twenty hours of content between them. DROD has roughly infinity hours' worth.) It's a game in which you must clear rooms of monsters using the world's most awkward sword. The various monsters attack (or spawn) in set patterns, their interactions producing novel challenges. Its levels follow a "lynchpin" philosophy, designed to seem hard until you understand their gimmick, and easy afterwards. Also I briefly tried NaissancE, which is me versus evil grayscale architecture?
Thirith on 1/12/2021 at 07:37
I finished The Artful Escape yesterday. The things it does well - tone, style, aesthetics, music - it does well until the end, but it's definitely one of those games that by and large you play in spite of the gameplay. It's basically a coming-of-age story that's told sweetly and inventively in terms of style, but the story itself doesn't go anywhere particularly new. Halfway through, you can mostly anticipate the storybeats to come, even if they are all wrapped in prog rock visuals and therefore might not be immediately recognisable. The game is also very earnest about the story it's telling while having a lightness of touch when it comes to its characters, which works well.
The gameplay, though, is little more than a means of getting from A to B. There's some ultra-simple platforming that, at its best, builds up a sense of momentum, but it can hardly be described as gameplay, because there's little to no challenge or creativity involved. Then there are Simon Says-style musical sequences, and they're laughably easy at first, then fiddly, because of the controller setup. You can repeat them ad infinitum, though and you'll always get through them sooner or later. These sequences have their function in structuring the story, but by the halfway point I definitely felt that I'd played enough Simon Says. I don't think The Artful Escape necessarily needed tougher challenges, but in terms of the story that's told, it would've been great at least for the musical mini-game to be less rote and allow for more creativity.
The ending, while sweet enough in the game's own terms, did feel like something of an anticlimax to me. The story hints at more ambivalent elements, but these are never developed, so what we have is your basic story about a young man who feels the burden of living up to expectations that he doesn't want to live up to, and who goes on a fantastic journey to find the courage to be himself instead. Spell it out like that and it feels very trite. The Artful Escape has good enough storytelling chops to make its story feel like more than this synopsis while the game is going on, but in the end it didn't feel like there was all that much more to it after all.
Aja on 13/12/2021 at 17:31
Now that I'm part of the PS5 cool-kid crowd, please add me as a friend. Username is dimedancing
First impressions of the console were really positive. I suspected it'd have a mountain of updates, and it did, but I let them all through and was up and running within 10 minutes or so. I'd forgotten how much I missed gaming where I don't have to use Windows at all, my typical PC-gaming-from-couch routine going something like: turn on the computer, wait, Xbox app opens, game can't update for some reason (oh well), hit "Play" anyway, game isn't full screen for some reason, close game, open Firefox, use terrible wireless keyboard/touchpad to try to research the issue -- et cetera et cetera. Twenty minutes later the game is finally up and running and now I'm in a bad mood, so it's time to fiddle with graphics settings until I get optimal performance, restarting the game each time I change a setting. Oh, and now Windows needs to install an update. Oh, and my controller is no longer recognized. Open Bluetooth settings...
PS5 is more like, "Welcome" and that's it. Even with my disc-based games, I could start playing while they were installing. Some other general impressions:
* It looks like you should be able to make paninis in it.
* The menus are pleasingly swooshy and ambient-feeling like Playstation is supposed to be.
* It integrated with my PSN account without a hitch, and some digital games I had bought before the console arrived were immediately available.
* Download speeds off Sony's servers are very fast.
* The controller is surprisingly great. It's comfortable, the buttons feel good, the vibration is the most nuanced I've seen, and the adaptive triggers are addictvely good. I can't wait to see how Gran Turismo uses them. The speaker is a little gimmicky, but it does add a bit of depth to some sounds, and in games like Deathloop, where Julianna's radio messages come out of it, it's cute.
* Battery life on the controller is real bad, especially compared to Xbox and Switch.
For games I got Demon's Souls, mainly for the graphics, but then I realized that -- whoa -- it's incredible, owing mainly to the sound design, beautiful graphics, and the controller feedback. I didn't think I'd want to play this again after having played so many more refined From games since, but it's so crunchy and weighty and engaging in a way that I don't remember the original being. But apparently they fixed the fog glitch where you can cheese the Maneater, so I'm not sure how I'm going to get past that.
Next is Deathloop, which is trying so hard to be cool it's almost endearing. But again, those adaptive triggers feel amazing and genuinely add to the sense of satisfaction in using the guns, and, typical for Arkane games, the movement is perfect. I think I'll probably have fun with this. It doesn't seem to want to judge me for shooting everything in sight and that is a welcome change.
As penance for actually getting a PS5 order in, I was forced to buy the bundle that included Ratchet and Clank and a second controller. I haven't opened either yet. I also downloaded Bloodborne, Horizon Zero Dawn, and The Last of Us. So, yeah, way too many games. Good thing I've got some holiday time coming up.
reizak on 13/12/2021 at 19:32
All's well that ends well! Make sure you give Astro's Playroom a go as well, it's great.
Maneater goes down in a couple casts of firestorm. Alternatively you can cheese it by wearing the thief ring, running to the side of the stairs going up to the center area and waiting to lose aggro, then walking out and casting poison cloud when the thing loses aggro and turns its back to you and twiddling your thumbs for 15 minutes. But firestorm is definitely less hassle.
