#Isometric Game Community

[games-franco]

Lillybrook 🐸

[dirt-mann]

figured out how to modify + repackage existing zt1 mods to match stats for similar objects in-game and have them still run lmao

[luiscosta13]

Nem Sei o Que Dizem playing Ember - Part 3

[galoogamelady]

What’s Fallout like? Like I know I can google what kind of game it is but more than that what games would you compare it to? and is it more story-based or gameplay-based?

That's a difficult one to answer and I'm not sure I have the authority to do it lol

But I'll try!

The Fallout fandom is fairly complicated due to the IP being passed around and the lore/values of its storytelling being muddied over the years. That being said I think both old-school and new fans would still agree that the story is the most important element, as they're meant to be role playing games where you make decisions on often heavy matters (especially in the games of the original devs).

Fallout 1 and 2 are turn-based isometric rpg-s from the late 90s. If you like that type of gameplay, they're fantastic games and cult classics. They don't shy away from heavy themes.

Then the IP got sold to Bethesda and their version of Fallout is a FPS/TPS action experience, as seen in Fallout 3 and 4. The combat is fun but even the newest game is shit by shooter standards. If you played an Elder Scrolls game (like Skyrim), they're like that but set in a retro futuristic post apocalypse. A large slice of the fandom has only played these ones and skipped the original turn-based games.

Fallout New Vegas was made by the original team but using Bethesda's engine. Many fans would tell you that out of the modern titles, that's the one with the best writing.

Fallout 4 was a very popular title due to the scrap and build system. As you adventure, you can scavenge all sorts of trash and then build your own little settlements in the wasteland and populate them with settlers. Add mods to that, and the community really did some magic. It made people connect with the world of Fallout on a personal level.

The story in a nutshell: in an alternate timeline, survivors of a devastating nuclear war are trying to rebuild and make the irradiated wasteland of the United States liveable again but every group and faction has a different take on how society should be rebuilt. When the writing is done well, your choices have weight and it's impossible to be fair and please everyone. You get to discover a variety of different factors that lead to the Great War and you have to wager whether humanity is doomed to make the same mistakes all over again. Is there a way to avoid them? What kind of sacrifices does that require? Etc.

A lot of it is supposed to be a critical look at war, 50s Americana and the dangers of nationalism, rampant consumerism, xenophobia, etc.

Hope this helped a little! It's difficult to find two Fallout fans who are on the exact same opinion of all the games. I personally think, the fun part of the games is when you get to carve a little slice out of the wasteland for yourself and your community and the stimulating part is the overarching story and lore.

It's no wonder the original writers made The Outer Worlds too, which I don't consider a legendary game but the similarities are obvious in the themes.

[goblincow]

401% FUNDED | ONLY 5 DAYS TO GO!!

Field Agent Handbooks: Observancy Dept. 1924–28

Sharpen your ESP skills and seek out suspicious activity as a pendulum-dowsing Field Agent

This set of four Field Agent Handbooks are an always-on solo RPG/LARP to play with when out and about. They’re created as in-world artefacts from the 1920s, made for you to note your observations about the world around you through a lens of suspicion. 

1924 – Revolution

We suspect the animal kingdom of plotting a revolution and you are here to help us understand their devices.

Our mission in the Observancy Department is to spot any such behaviour or signs of suspicious activity, note them down, and draw our conclusions.

Additional pages include:

Blank map with grid references

Table of potential signs of revolutionary activity

List of weather types and symbols for notation

1925 – Leviathan

The age of flight may still be in its infancy but we have heard worrying reports from our aeroplane and dirigible pilots of glimpses of giant beasts roaming the aether, just out of sight.

Our fresh mission is to observe the clouds, look for unusual shadows & formations, and attempt to discern the activity and anatomy of these sky-bound leviathan.

Additional pages include:

Common anatomy of leviathan (hypothesised)

Illustrated chart with types of clouds and symbols for notation

Illustrated chart for estimating distance to horizon

Table to identify the Beaufort Number for the wind

List of weather types and symbols for notation

1926 – Communication

While we looked upward, we didn't think to concern ourselves with the growing cacophony in our very own gardens, forests, and fields.

Our mission turns to our leafy neighbours to see if we can understand their speech and intuit their meaning throughout each season.

Additional pages include: 

Signs and shapes to look out for

Size estimation chart

List of weather types and symbols for notation

1928 – Giants

From the landscape sprung the flowers, but who formed the landscape? Newly uncovered texts indicate the folklore might be true and giants may have indeed roamed and shaped the earth.

Our mission is to lower our gaze to the ground to identify oddly shaped mounds, mimetoliths (rocks resembling faces), gouged earth, and suspicious urban planning decisions. Under the hills there may be sleeping colossus.

Additional pages include:

Signs to look out for

Common rock types

How to draw landforms & rocks in an isometric fashion

I wanted to shine a light on this project because I met Luke at Dragonmeet in December '23 and fell in love with the way he thinks about RPGs, graphic design and play/ritual/thinking-the-world in his games!

I can't recommend this project enough and I've been waiting excitedly to support it and see it succeed! It really represents everything I think is special about RPGs and the things I also want to explore in this design space *and art movement* and if you have any interest in TTRPGs beyond the scope of dungeon games, Luke is making some of the freshest and most evocative design you can find in the entire medium.

Everything you see here is directly from the kickstarter. Go back it! I promise you'll be glad you did, there are few more unique and inspiring things you could spend your money on in TTRPGs right now!

[dezertvideogames]

Video Game of the Day: Project Zomboid

Project Zomboid is a difficult and realistic isometric zombie survival game developed by British-Canadian indie dev team, Indie Stone. In Project Zomboid you are not truly expected to survive, but simply prolong the life of your quite customizable playable characters in poly-graphics.

The game is incredibly difficult and detailed. There's a massive modding community too.

Don't forget the ability to play in both multiplayer in solo.

Gameplay takes place in Kentucky USA. The main aspects to know when playing is

Once bitten you're infected, no cure, no options (expect for that amputation mod)

You can wear anything and everything you find

Beware that time is passing. Winter is coming.

This is how you die

[med-ex]

feelin rlly idk HAPPY?? over this franchise as a whole✨

I wasn't even alive for Fallout 1 & 2 - but upon entering the world 3 years after they were released, would grow up hearing its name constantly... never did i think it would take GTA's place as my favourite video game series. Like literally never thought the weird little isometric game talked about by my older cousins would be the one.

I played Fallout 3 at the worst period of my life- it became a pure escape from graduating high school, becoming a severe alcoholic and moving off my mountain into my province's capital city. I was in love with it to the point that when I came home to my family home to visit, I would haul my xbox 360 in my backpack and strap my little tv to my back with a rope- ✨that's✨ how addicted I was to it.

It resonated with me in a way no other game series has. No, I obviously didn't grow up in the same standards as the wastes, but could resonate with foraging for food, no clean water & mess, destruction and despair everywhere you turned.

Fast forward a year or so, and I try Fallout: New Vegas. This is where it finally became my favorite series ever. I could list all the reasons, but they're similar to what you'll see all over the net; it's just amazing. I already was all "fuck the government" since I was a child but it made me think- think about the rule of authority, think about perseverance, weigh out what "right" and "wrong" truly means and the blurred line between the two.

By the time I was 21, I tried Fallout 4. It took some getting used to in the terms of its modern graphics, but I really loved how I got to experience conversations that felt like I was actually having them. I loved building the world back up and when I was brave enough to try mods- then shit got real interesting. I was already obsessed with Fallout 3 & NV but we can thank Fallout 4 for getting me into the community as a whole.

I was one of the ones to make fun of FO76- the launch was a huge part of that, but I just didn't understand how it could ever truly fit into the Fallout series. I played it for the first time when I was 2022, and now after 2 years I wholeheartedly regret shitting on it so hard. There are so many cool quests/stories and though some of them are silly seeing as it's online-based and they need to cater to that and though it's a bit strange at first, it feels so cool to be around other players adventuring the wastes + actually having to persist to build your own base, feed yourself and survive- as console commands don't exist in the same realm they used to with the earlier titles.

Now, we arrive at the airing of the first Fallout television show. I seriously thought it was gonna be shit- I just couldn't imagine them being able to do a good job but as we can see, here we are. The show is amazing and I didn't even know it was something I wanted so badly. The only real-life renditions of Fallout I've seen is that one live action trailer for 76 + cosplay- so seeing it in film, is seriously so fucking cool.

Idk guess im just gettin a little ✨sentimental✨ towards a series that has given me so many lessons, so much ability to cope with my own shit + gotten me into such a fun community filled with funny jokes, amazing art, discussions and rich lore that maybe one day could leave the video game + TV screen and become even a book.

Ty to the crew of original artists who started this back in the 90s, and thank you to the crew of artists at Bethesda in this current century who kept this game going💖

[regrettablemeasure]

I always love hearing about other people's D&D games and I was wondering if you had like a method for how you plan out your sessions? In a slump rn myself so looking for some inspo lol

ok so i need to get better at this again (depression made me a way more 'seat of my pants' DM) BUT i basically lay out a "timeline" of main story points the party will eventually hit, and place "questlines" there. Essentially like a tree of quests and their progression in a videogame. This is NOT always detailed by any means but it helps me get a linear view of what's going on. If you run pre-made modules, this is the book stuff. My current game started out this way before I went "I like doing this myself" and went completely off the rails.

Then I go into the main details of the questline. Stuff like where it is, if there's going to be new lore introduced, the actual contents of the quest itself and it's requirements, etc. My players and myself are big on RP, so I also try to always make sure the quest will have interest for Story or Character reasons. If it doesn't directly push the plot in a major way, will it still give the party interesting interactions with each other and npcs? Are there going to be any new threads for some of the game's mysteries?

Then I also ask what in the questline is going to play to the party's habits and strengths. I admit this is WAY looser, and again kind of wraps around into "what would be cool RP for them" - but for example; knowing an encounter with nobles will give our noble-born artificer some additional lore, since he understands the city's politics.

After that, I do sometimes "script" certain lines of NPC dialogue or location and item descriptions. Stuff I'll be narrating that I want to make sure has a certain weight to it, or to flow well. You might not need to do this if you speak succinctly, but I find my brain stutters when trying to describe scenery on the spot, so it usually helps to write it. After that I make the session from there!

For me that usually includes picking out "splash screens" for the conversation backgrounds in our game, drawing new npc portraits if I have the time (it started because some of my players have aphantasia/some former players were new, so I drew PC and NPC portraits to make RP easier to visualize - then it just became the Only Way I Want To Do It Now LOL), and making maps. I use Epic Isometric for my maps, highly recommend. I get most of my splash screens from Art Station, but I have to say obviously that's unwise if you're streaming a game. Same goes for using pre-existing art as character/NPC art -- I know myself and other artists don't care if someone uses our stuff for their home game that no one's ever gonna see. I plan to release some of my portraits in packs one day free of use though.

Here's the RP Backdrop kind of splashscreen I use in R20 (but you can make one in FVTT too, I've done it) and an Epic Iso map I threw together (the party tokens were drawn over Epic Iso assets. If you join their discord people make community edits constantly. I'm currently working on a project to color all the released decor assets)

[thesimquarter]

Jade Pingree is the all-business (and pretty rude) head of the Barkersville Companion Club.

Meredith is part librarian and part party girl. She’s serious during the day, and playful at night.

v - ramblings under the cut - v

I almost never see people talking about the characters from the Sims 2 Pets GBA. I mean. that's understandable. Sims 2 Pets for GBA was not only released two years after the DS was released, but it was also bad.

The Sims 2 Pets for GBA takes a lot of inspiration from the other GBA Sims games, with an isometric artstyle and a mixture of adventure elements and simulation elements. Howeverrr, the problem seems to be that it doesn't feel like it actually knows what to do with it.

The minigames are tedious and boring. Aforementioned minigames pay peanuts and rely on an NPC being in a specific location to do them. Characters have little personality; 70% of the dialogue in this game is completely exchangeable. There's no way to easily find NPCs that you need to find (read: phone call), even though they all have schedules and move all the time. The game doesn't keep track of missions. There's like three different kinds of burglars, and there's no way to stop them from coming to your house (what the fuck). Training your pets is so tedious and repetitive and yet everything else feels like a distraction from it. You can randomly, and frequently, get sick, from fully cooking your food with eight levels of cooking skill and using good kitchen items. Everything breaks down and is dirty all the time. Eating dog food is safer than cooking. This game is having me eat dog food because just cooking feels like a risk. And there's just so much more that annoys me about it.

Okay, I'm done complaining. There's not much to compliment about the game. It does have its charm but wears off as the tediousness of all of its various mechanics settles in. I mean. I'd like to know more about the characters, but also... I don't care.

I really wanted to make Jade. Unlike nearly every other character, she does, actually, have a personality. Even if it absolutely sucks. Meredith is my favorite character in the game. I can't explain why, but her design is neat and she seems really nice and likable. I was considering doing more (read: Elza and Hugo) but after I finished these two I. couldn't be bothered.

I feel as if Meredith brings the Blue Hair and Pronouns to Barkersville. She also has this kind of warmness that I haven't really gotten from other characters in this game. And I believe she's close with Kirk (... Carbon?). I'd suspect they were dating, as they both have positive reactions when they mention each other and I caught them going on a Graveyard Date at 1:00 AM. But when I talked to Kirk he said even though he's with a girl, he thought Celina was hot. So I can only make one conclusion: leave your shitty boyfriend, Meredith!!!

And on Jade: She's definitely on the Barkersville HOA (and Barkersville definitely has one!). She's just that kind of demon. It's mentioned that the Pingree's are a wealthy family. So, I don't think she has a job. Instead, she just torments her community with her influence.

Anyways. I don't actually know anything else about these characters beyond this. So. Um.

I had a lot of fun making these; I'm planning on doing something similar to this for all the Sims 2 GBA characters. I remade them all a few months ago, wanted to do renders to show them all off, and I want the excuse to write things like this about every single character. :) (and. I tried to do them all at once. but um. hm. that's just a little too much.) It'll take a while to actually finish anything w/ that because i need to experiment with format. I gave some of them outfits in other categories than 'everyday,' so I'm thinking about rendering those out, butttt that's up in the air.

[satoshi-mochida]

Noctuary coming to PS5, Switch in 2025 - Gematsu

Game Source Entertainment will release PlayStation 5 and Switch versions of Gratesca Studio-developed isometric action adventure game Noctuary in 2025, the company announced.

Noctuary first launched for PC via Steam on November 28, 2023.

Here is an overview of the game, via its Steam page:

About

Colorful and splendid! An intriguing fairy tale of illuminators!

Alina Nightsong – One of the two protagonists and Fancia’s partner from the Earthcaress Beacon, is passionate…but a bit slow on the draw?

Fancia Dream – One of the two protagonists, the younger sister in the Dream family. Works hard to pass the Arboranger test to fight Darkritters.

Noctuary is a dual-protagonist visual novel. Players can play the role of the duo, Fancia Dream and Alina Nightsong who have dreams of “becoming Arborangers who protect and serve everyone.” Travel through the fairy-tale-like world as the duo, experience their lively daily adventures, and gradually encounter the life story of a mysterious girl who came down from the sky. Meanwhile, don’t forget to fight against the ever-present monsters—“Darkritters!” These dangerous enemies threaten the life of Illuminators constantly. Sharpen your fighting skills, defeat ferocious monsters and ensure peace in your community!

Practice Your Fighting Skills in Marvelous Battles

During your adventure, you will fight against various enemies. You can defeat them with a cascade of powerful combo attacks! The two main characters master different skills and present various fighting styles, which allows you to win a battle in whichever method you choose. Switch between the two girls in battles to cope with enemies’ attacks and finish them off with the powerful On-field Switch skill and the Synergy.

Support Your Favorite Protagonist and the Choices Your Make Will Impact the Ending of the Journey

You will venture into this dreamy world of Aborteria through the lenses of Illuminators. Intriguing character performances, original and melodious music, high-definition game scenes and character images… All this will make your gaming experience unforgettable.

Explore the Sophisticated “Blessing” System

The friendships and blessings you harvest along the journey will strengthen you in battle. Feel free to combine the “Blessing Petals” that are embedded with features of different characters to customize your battle style. In addition, there are many other well-designed cultivation systems that are ready for you to explore!

Watch a new trailer below.

Gameplay Trailer

English

Japanese

Traditional Chinese

[the-mspfa-200-favourites-project]

DIMMADOME OF DIMMADALE

Hey. I was just talking about more gamey suggestion-based comics, and here we are, with another one of those. This one’s probably the most game-like of them all, and also, maybe the best one of them all? Depends on the other sleuthlikes, I guess. What I’m trying to communicate here is, I’ve been looking forward to this one.

For starters, this isn’t your typical, ordinary, average sleuthlike with a front-on perspective or isometric perspective. No, this is from a TOP-DOWN perspective, which easily sets it apart. There’s also the coolest detail of them all; the fact that there is, in fact, seemingly for no other reason than it being a cool feature to have, a mini-comic where the typical MSPFA face usually is. Which is just. Absurdly cool. Did I mention that I like it when there’s details like that in a comic, where it uses the website itself as part of its narrative design? Because I like it when that happens.

What I think this comic does very well for the suggestion-based gamey comic is that it realizes, rightfully so, that the game doesn’t have to be fixed by the time you start. In other words, you can add on as many ridiculous mechanics, meters and stats to track as you go along, which means that this comic is also a master of “Yes anding” the audience. It might refuse to do a certain command, but that does not mean that that command has been in vain, for it usually just means another system has been tacked on to what, if it were real, would be the ridiculous roleplaying system ever invented. Or like, in one of the commands, we get the classic “hey what if you kissed this other character” command everybody loves. So of course, the intentions of the commander was probably for this to be like, a romantic kiss, but the comic twists it into being a platonic kiss, because it can do that now. And now, worldbuilding has been built off the back of twisting a command as a twisting of subversion. I’ve used the word “twist” so many times I think I have lost count, twisting it’s meaning until it’s been pulled right off of it. Moving on.

OH SHOOT. THERE’S BANJO MEGALOVANIA IN THIS. OH SHOOT THERE’S REALLY COOL LIKE…Pointillism Environments in this? Hey uh I’m starting to think this might be peak. Okay yeah I’ve been convinced this is peak. If this isn’t the best one of all the Gamey Sleuthlikes, then I am *very* excited to see what could possibly top this.

Random stray note I guess: I love how many people in this are from the country and thus have Texan accents it’s great. That’s all I have to say.

[postgamecontent]

Nintendo Switch Weekly Round-Up for the Week Ending October 5th, 2024

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the Nintendo Switch Weekly Round-Up for the week ending October 5th, 2024. A little quieter this week than the last couple, at least in terms of things worth paying attention to. Plenty of garbage, but I don't feel like giving any of that oxygen. Still, any week with a new Q-Games release is one worth writing about. Let's check out this week in the world of Switch!

Select New Releases

Sword Art Online Fractured Dream ($59.99)

This is an action game that is mainly designed for online play, where up to twenty players are supported. It features a whole bunch of Sword Art Online characters, and the buzz from people who played the game via Steam Early Access is solid. Provided this Switch port has been handled well and the community is there for it, this could be a fun diversion. Those are some big provisos, though.

All You Need is Help ($19.99)

Okay, so first up and very importantly: this game is four players only. You can play local multiplayer, or you can play online multiplayer. But if you don't have four, you don't play. No single-player. None. Anyway, each player controls a different fluffy puzzle piece, and you have to work together to solve each stage. It's from Q-Games, so you can count on a certain degree of quality here. If you have the people to play it with, I'm sure you'll have a good time.

SpongeBob SquarePants: The Patrick Star Game ($39.99)

Another effort from Outright Games, specifically the team behind the rather good Justice League: Cosmic Chaos. This appears to be a Patrick Star-flavored take on Human: Fall Flat, and if that's the case then I suspect SpongeBob fans are going to have a really good time with it. You've got an open world to play around in, and plenty of activities to do in it. What's the main goal? I have no idea. We'll have to see how this one plays out.

I*CHU: Chibi Edition ($29.99)

If you want to play this particular free-to-play mobile game at a premium price with the money squeeze removed, here you go. It's a rhythm game with some story bits in between the action, focused around an academy for idols in training. Unfortunately, with the gatcha-dependent progression and rather spotty localization, this isn't an overly pleasant experience. You get all of the grind, you just can't buy your way through it. I imagine this might appeal to fans of the mobile game anyway.

Picross Records of The Shield Hero ($10.99)

Another Picross game, this time themed around the manga/anime Rise of the Shield Hero. An episode mode has been implemented here to tell some of the story as you solve puzzles. You get a bit over two hundred puzzles in total, all related to Shield Hero in some form or another. More Picross for those who need it, or those who are piling up Picross games for a rainy day.

Skautfold: Into the Fray ($14.99)

Here's a third game in the Skautfold series ported to the Nintendo Switch. This one is a top-down action game with plenty of gore and lot of ways to dispatch your foes. While it's not exactly the same kind of game as the previous ones (or the ones that will follow it should the whole series get ported), I'm sure if you enjoyed those you won't have a bad time of it here.

Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel ($5.99)

So, first up: despite that screenshot, Zero's sprite hasn't been edited in the actual game. He is still sporting the rising sun headband, and the symbol is all over the place. I'll leave it to you as to how you feel about that. As for the game, this is the Aero the Acro-Bat spin-off featuring Aero's rival Zero, and it's a very challenging game thanks to its reliance on the player mastering Zero's rather unusual move set. It's in that nicer emulation wrapper that Aero 2 released in, so that's good. For those wondering, this is also the Super NES version of the game. I'll review it soon.

Kill Knight ($14.99)

If you're hunting for your next great isometric twin-stick shooter fix, Kill Knight is a good choice. It's a tough game and it has a lot of interlocking systems that you'll have to learn before you'll make any progress, but if you stick with it I think you'll find that this is a rather rewarding game.

Circus of TimTim ($9.99)

Another horror game that relies on people being creeped out by mascots, this time with an added circus twist for that clown phobia spice. Explore a ruined carnival and watch out for things who won't be kind to unwelcome visitors. Use a metal detector to find items, but be careful as its beeping will attract attention. Not my kind of thing. Maybe yours.

Planetiles ($12.99)

Another one of those games where you place tiles strategically in a landscape to try to produce the best results, this time planet-themed. I've been into this kind of thing since around a year ago, and this is another solid one. I wouldn't recommend it over Dorfromantik or anything, but if you're looking for another game that offers a similar experience then you might want to check this out.

Macho Shot ($5.00)

This new SAT-BOX release is essentially another spin on the ol' Suika Game concept, but with macho dudes instead of fruit. Merge your machos into bigger machos, but be careful not to overflow the field. Nothing new under the Sun, but the choice of theme was so odd I had to include it here.

Dawngrown ($5.99)

Is this top-down 2D PowerWash? Not really, but it is a game about cleaning up a messed-up world. It's cute, it takes about an hour and change to run through, and while the whole thing feels like it could have used a little more everything, it's an amusing enough ride while it lasts.

Arcade Archives Moon Shuttle ($7.99)

Nichibutsu scored its first big hit in 1980 with Moon Cresta, and for a good while after that it was all about the Moon. Here's 1981's Moon Shuttle, a very simple side-view shooter. I can't call it side-scrolling, because it doesn't. You alternate between two types of stages. The first sees you trying to shoot a path through a field of debris as your shuttle approaches. The second has you fending of waves of enemy attackers while dodging their attacks. Nothing special, but for its era it does its job. Not available in the North American eShops, for some reason.

EGGCONSOLE Silver Ghost PC-8801mkIISR ($6.49)

Yes, I'm still imagining the world where D4 Enterprise puts the extra resources into localizing all of these amazing Japanese computer classics it's tossing out onto the global eShop. Silver Ghost is a beloved strategy RPG for many Japanese gaming enthusiasts, and has been cited by one of the Shining series creators as a source of inspiration for those games. It would be really nice if fans outside of Japan could more easily enjoy this, but you're again dealing with a lot of Japanese text if you choose to tackle it.

Damikira ($7.99)

Sure, this is a pretty standard-looking run and gun platforming game, but it has a grappling hook! A grappling hook! The rules say that grappling hooks and/or web-shooters add an extra point to a game's score. That's a rule. That probably brings this up to a good three-and-a-half out of five.

Rolling Football Player ($3.20)

This is a goofy little thing. You have to roll your football player through five stages, trying to land him in a cup. It's a very short game, but it's more of a weird physics toy than anything else. For the price, that's probably fine.

That's all for this week, friends. We'll be back next Saturday with another Round-Up as we continue into October and the many games that will come with it. As ever, I will plug both my Patreon (where you can find lots of cool exclusive articles) and my Ko-Fi (tips help me run this blog). There, plugged. I hope you have a super Saturday, and as always, thanks for reading!

[k1spiegel]

hi. here is that list of games i've enjoyed this year that i talked abt making, now under a read more for your viewing pleasure. not in any order besides the order i remember them

links will be to steam store pages if applicable, if not general home pages, though some of these will be available on multiple consoles

Inkbound - an isometric turn-based roguelike game in mid-beta where you play as a Needless, a blank, "generic" character with no supposed imagination or will, accompanied by a Kwill, a ball of light that helps you along. i'll be honest and say i haven't paid much attention to the story but i don't think i have to when the gameplay is so good. i love roguelikes and turn-based combat both, and the amount of customization you can get from random items and abilities during runs makes the game difficult but not soul-crushing. eventually you Will figure out how to make urself almost unkillable. no premium store or pay currency, just unlocking and in-game currency.

Cassette Beasts - a 3D environment-2D sprite creature capture game with a nostalgia theme (made in Godot!). i played(/replayed) a lot of creature captures this year, with cassette beasts probably being the earliest and one of the most memorable. there are some parts of the game i'm iffy on (the music, some of the companion quests compared to others), but the creature design and element mechanics in the fight make up for it by leaps and bounds. i've got a lotta favorite beasts in this one. suggested esp if you like 2v2 fights.

Palia - if you've hung around the "cozy games" scene at all, You Know This One. palia is a casual mmo currently in open beta that focuses mainly around farming, questing, and integrating yourself into a new community (though that's not All you can do.) by "casual" and "cozy" i mean that there's no real rush to do anything, your crops won't grow without you there and there's no friendship(/romantic) relationship deterioration. play as you want when you want. also it's free lol

Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince (no link available; currently only on switch) - i have never played a dragon quest game before. i think this was the funniest way i could've gotten into it. a creature capture-creature combiner game in the dragon quest monsters series where you play as a young Psaro, The Dark Prince, The Manslayer, the future King of Monsters, and go through different echelons of nadiria(/the area where monsters rule) beating ass and taking names. i probably don't have to sell this to DQ fans so much but the monster designs are fun, the story is funny to me whether on purpose or not, and i like either using the auto battle for quick levelling Or giving commands directly to my beasts. good stuff.

Lies of P - do you remember a few years back when everyone saw the pinocchio soulslike and went No Fucking Way and then forgot about it? lies of p is the pinocchio soulslike (though it's much more obviously a bloodborne-like, or to be even more specific, a code:vein-like). i love it. the setting and characters is kind of insane when you think about how it's All based on pinocchio, but it takes itself seriously enough to where you just go with it and enjoy your time with P and the npcs. the gameplay is fast and fun, with a pretty extreme amount of customization (swappable and upgradeable robot arm, usual soulslike Put Points Into Skills stuff, weapons with switchable parts that can be upgraded or change their scaling, etc.) i'm just having a really great time with it and want other people to too.

Risk of Rain Returns - an incredibly polished remake of the original Risk of Rain, a 2d side-scrolling roguelike where you play as a survivor on an alien planet full of things that want to kill you. i have almost 200 hours on the original ror and the remake has earned At Minimum 200 hours more - not only do the original characters and stages feel refreshed, but there's now new areas to visit, new survivors to unlock, and fun challenges to beat to try and get new items or abilities. plus chris christodoulou's soundtrack is, as always, The Best. if you didn't play the original RoR, i'd really recommend giving this a shot instead.

SPECIAL MENTIONS (no links. im lazy.)

Guilty Gear: Strive - tim managed to get me into fighting games this year and ggst was probably the best introduction i could've gotten. classic weird as fuck characters and story + an insane soundtrack.

Lethal Company - you've seen someone playing this, somewhere or somehow. funniest game to play if you and your friends are wussies. now has arachnophobia mode (<- is an arachnophobe, so i like it.)

Fortnite - sorry

[froghubb]

Project Zomboid Mods That You Must Install

Project Zomboid Mods That You Must Install – Project Zomboid, the isometric zombie survival game developed by The Indie Stone, offers a deep and immersive experience as you try to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. One of the best aspects of Project Zomboid is its modding community, which has created a plethora of mods to enhance and expand the game. Here are some must-install mods to elevate…

[regarding-stories]

The Fallout Series as stories (part 1, also: not about the TV show)

"Fallout" is a series of games set in a post-apocalyptic future. The world "ended" in 2077 and the player gets to explore the aftermath and interact with the people inhabiting "the Wasteland." What "Fallout" is about, however, is defined differently by various games, as they were produced by different people and companies.

To make things a little easier to follow, let's distinguish the games a bit:

Fallout 1+2 (FO1, FO2) were isometric 2D roleplaying games released by the original designers for Interplay, they run on the same engine and their stories build on each other. The settings are California and Northern California, respectively.

"Van Buren" was a design document for a third installment on a more modern engine that was never made since the publisher had to sell the IP. Its setting covers the Mojave desert, Utah, and Colorado.

Fallout 3 (FO3) was instead made by Bethesda, the RPG behemoth responsible for the Elder Scrolls series ("Oblivion", "Skyrim") and nowadays "Starfield". It is set around Washington, DC.

Fallout: New Vegas (FO:NV) was made under a license from Bethesda, using their FO3 engine, but by many of the people originally behind Fallout. It recovers a lot of the "Van Buren" material but ends up telling a different story. The game focuses on the Mojave desert, but you can visit Utah in a DLC.

Fallout 4 (FO4) is another RPG made by Bethesda, this time set near and in the ruins of Boston.

Fallout 76 (FO76) is more of a multiplayer shooter with RPG elements than a Fallout RPG. It eventually offered things like a Battle Royal expansion. It's set in the Appalachians.

Let's look a bit at the stories of these games, and especially what kind of stories they try to tell.

Dark yet hopeful

Fallout 1, a game released 1997, was a strange groundbreaker. It was celebrated as a spiritual successor "Wasteland" (1988), probably the first, or at least the first interesting, post-apocalyptic game. This is true and then not. Whereas "Wasteland" was a game about an organization called "the Rangers" trying to restore peace to a post-apocalyptical America and the party becoming heroes saving the world, FO1 has a different, more personal, and maybe noir vibe.

First of all, humanity, at least in North America largely survived the nuclear holocaust thanks to underground bunkers called Vaults, built by a company called VaultTec. The player character in FO1 sets out from such a vault to find a chip to control the vault's failing water purification system and begins to explore the surroundings, fighting various mutated monsters and dangerous raiders on his way.

During the course of the game you will deal with various factions, including the technology-preserving Brotherhood of Steel, a group of irradiated, long-lived and sentient ghouls, a sort of do-goodie hippie community, a cult worshipping a bomb, raider gangs, etc. Ultimately the player gets to decide the fates of many groups in the Wasteland, and combats the Supermutant menace threatening them all, ultimately thwarting "the Master's" plans to create a new sort of "super-human" from the Forced Evolution Virus, another threat released into the world during the war, and ultimately the cause of all these mutations.

I remember getting FO1 on a CD-ROM as part of a compilation and being to no end surprised by it. It looked at first like a low-end title with maybe nothing much to it, but it quickly blew my mind. Its mix of atmospheric dark music, a clever combat engine taking place within the portrayed world, its multitude of choices, and its storytelling were a unique combo.

Fallout itself has no simple story, it keeps telling you many things and expanding. It tells you how the world ended, but it's fair to say the world ended before "the bombs fell." Pre-apopalypse America was a militaristic police state that had occupied Canada and was battling China for the world's resources. The world from the before the final war looks bleak, and yet may in some respects look like heaven to those who came after.

Conflict remains a central theme, but this time it's about what the world will look like going forward. Raiders only think about what to grab and whom to extort, but settlers and merchants are trying to eke out a living. The Brotherhood wants to preserve technology, but is isolationist and ultimately an outgrowth of the last vestiges of the US military, formed by survivors in a bunker. Resources are contested, and the players pokes around in a lot of pre-war stuff.

When you walk around an old nuclear power plant or delve into the lore of the world it may seem Fallout is a game about the past. But its people are all looking to the future, even if the past exerts its influence through undetonated warheads and mutation viruses, and even if this future is full of hardships.

An evolving world

Nothing proves this more than FO2. Instead of setting another game in just the same place, the designers fast-forwarded 80 years into the future, and forward they did!

When we leave FO1, the protagonist cannot return to his home. He's cast out as the ones he's saved fear what he has become, so he goes north and founds a small community. These "tribals" live a lifestyle more oriented towards the land, as harsh as its, and revere the "Vault Dweller" as their ancestor.

Other elements have also evolved from the original setting. The settlement you came across first in the original game? It became the seed for a new nation state, the New California Republic. The Brotherhood is still around. Another vault has built a (stagnant, isolationist) city in the region. Supermutants still exist, some as roaming raiders, but also at times integrated into society.

FO2 (released 1998) has a bit of a different vibe from FO1. The basic gameplay is there, but there's more humor (sometimes so absurd that people dislike it). And it keeps building the world, this time north of San Francisco. FO2 evolves the feel of the original and adds new elements. Let's leave the feel aside for a moment (discussed below) and look at what FO2 throws at us.

You can visit locations like San Francisco (essentially its Chinatown), New Reno, mining towns, etc. There are Western elements here, and vibes of the American West. There's even more to do, and it's even more personal. You can now gain titles and reputations, and you can become a "made man" (a top-notch mafia-style gangster), a boxing champion, and a pornstar - and that's just in New Reno!

FO2 is also more about people than anything. Power and control are definitely among the themes, because even among the people just trying to survive there are those who'd sell them drugs just to take advantage of them. Bullies big and small. And the biggest bully of them all is the antagonist, the Enclave.

FO1 was about the world that was beginning (again) and the one that ended. In FO2 you learn many dark truths about the world that has ended and refuses to stay dead. Vault-Tec was never truly meant to save humanity, and most of what it did was conduct a large scale experiment on humanity. The Enclave is essentially the US government, and it's as dark a villain as you can expect.

This "government" hid itself on an oil rig, and is using the technology left to it (like "vertibirds", i.e. helicopters) to work towards its goal: Erase the population of the mainland and start it over in its image. (The "remaking by force (and virus)" theme of FO1 is alive and well, apparently.) Talk about persistence... Their plot unfolds 164 years after the war. Given it's the same government that launched the nukes and left humanity to die, mutate, and experiment on them, this is as villainous a blast from the past as can be.

Original Fallout, however, has a way to have villains make fools out of themselves. "The Master" ultimately was a fool, as his Supermutants turned out to be sterile - and hence have no future. They could not supersede the human race. And "the Enclave" cannot escape the effects of the FEV virus, even though they pretend they can. The irony is condensed into their main enforcer who has become a super-mutant monstrosity himself after exposure.

An aesthetic

Even though a lot of it was conveyed through videos, character closeups, and various game screens, Fallout managed to evolve a strong aesthetic and unique vibe. It's setting is futuristic and retro. The 1950s are back with their cars with fins, their ideas how a robot might look like, and their "Atomic Cafe" like vibes in reaction to the development of the hydrogen bomb.

Many design elements of Fallout have had a lasting impact on people coming in touch with them, including:

The Vault Boy, the iconic mascot of VaultTec, featured in its "educational" films and promos, but also in the various game screens. This becomes especially strong in FO2 where all these little reputation images and illustrations feature Vault Boy in various guises.

PipBoy, a (clunky) wearable device that acts as the world's biggest smart watch, including maps, a radiation detector, and various other things.

Full body power armor and massive guns, as used by the original US army, the Brotherhood of Steel, the Enclave, and ultimately the player.

Supermutants, looking like big, green, hulking brutes.

Deathclaws, a sentient giant monster.

You will find robots that have heads looking like brains in jars, robotic dogs, a "Mr Handy" utility robot with lots of tool arms, may own a fusion-cell powered car reminiscent of a Cadillac. You might even recover an oil portrait of Elvis from a crashed UFO labeled "property of Area 51."

FO1 and FO2 are a unique mix of genres, and its aesthetic of decay, rust and rot, its selective use of futuristic items define it. This combines with a dark synth soundtrack to a tight package. FO1 also has a pretty grim manual, explaining a good deal of what nuclear weapons are "nowadays" held by the various powers and how they are intended to be used at "lower yield" (150 kilo tons vs the multi-megaton monsters developed in the 1950s) to limit the phenomenon known as "fallout."

The combination of its graphics, lore, gameplay, design aesthetics - it all conveys together something that has become uniquely "Fallout". So much so that when watching "Loki" I couldn't shake the feeling of seeing something reminiscent to "Fallout", in spite of it taking its cues more from the technology and design of the 1960s.

Games about decisions

Part of the lasting impact the originals had was the fact that they left a lot to the player. Choices you made during the game would impact "the ending" - slides you were shown showing you the consequencs of your actions. Often these choices are between differing options, and not all of them can work out, even if taken. This alone added replay value as one tried to achieve the various endings.

But choice was baked in everywhere. Nothing prevents you from finishing the games killing all and everyone, or with as little violence and as much stealth and diplomacy as possible. This spiked people's ambitions, and is very different from many RPGs before and after it, often only offering slight variations of one path towards the end.

This also brings the concept of morality and consequences of your choices into focus, as your choices impact how you are received to a degree. You can also decide to play smart or dumb (which can be hilarious and limits dialogue). What you do and what you say feels like it matters. Already by that, the original games left a lasting impact on game design itself, being copied in various ways by later games.

This is the legacy of the original two games, and here my coverage of it takes a short break and is continued in other articles taking advantage of this groundwork. To be continued here.

[miloscat]

[Review] Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova (PS5)

I love to see budget licenced games still being made.

Prodigy is one of my favourites of the (many) new Star Trek shows. It’s got some Star Wars vibes, not just from the The Clone Wars-esque art style, but also the story of a band of misfits coming together to survive in a crapsack galaxy. Now that I’ve caught up with part 2 of season 1 (which was split in half for some reason) I thought I’d check out this companion game.

Like the show, the game could be classified as “for kids”. It’s not dissimilar to the Lego games which I always enjoy: a semi-isometric perspective, puzzles and simple combat, objects to bash and collectibles to find. The two main gameplay modes of puzzle-solving (via block-pushing and logic gates) and robot-battling (via bashing and pew-pewing variations on the show’s Watcher drone) are fairly well-developed if lacking in variety, while the rest of the experience is rough around the edges. These two modes are also very discrete, with rooms basically alternating between the two.

The game is wired for co-op but is technically playable solo by swapping between the two characters. Dal has more ranged options with different kinds of phasers, and for puzzles can lift heavy boxes and “camouflage” past security cameras. Gwyn is more melee with her “fretwork” heirloom morphing between sword, fists, and spear, and can also use it as a bridge or shield against certain lasers. Rescuing the rest of the crew is the main initial objective and once found, they can open certain themed doors and periodically activate a combat effect.

While the game is set in the mid-season gap, there’s a few plot details that are more impactful coming from the show’s second part as opposed to their insertion here. For example, the antagonist is a third Drednok from the Vau N’Akat Order who has enslaved the three-world system that is Supernova’s setting. It works well as an interquel adventure, and the show’s actors all reprise their roles nicely (although the two leads only having two oft-repeated attack and dash grunts gets grating).

The lead game designer and co-creative director Pere Suau Massanet of the upstart Spanish dev studio Tessera is credited with the original story, while actual writing fell to freelance Brit Martin Korda, many of whose most recent credits centre around the Fifa games’ story modes. Some questionable tendencies seem to have snuck their way into the game script, such as Janeway at one point cloaking the ship (something the Protostar is not supposed to be able to do!) using “Bajoran magic” (???), or out of nowhere giving Dal the character trait “constantly making shallow and nonsensical references to Star Trek stuff”, along the lines of “it’s hotter than a Cardassian fire pit” or “it’s colder than a Betazoid freezer”. On the other hand, there is some fun to be had such as with the collectibles, one being a toy version of Voyager’s Salamander Janeway, and I enjoyed the running gag of the crew picking up the expression “check it” from Dal as a part of their official communications.

After rolling credits, I considered replaying levels to find more relics for the captain’s quarters or to unlock more concept art, but having to redo the busywork of puzzles I’d solved before and undertake yet more repetitive combat was a prospect that lacked appeal. But I had a decent time playing through it once. I just wish there were more than two of those attractive, stylised motion comic-style cutscenes that bookend the game. Not that the in-game graphics don’t look good and match the show (except for Dal who looks a bit weird).

Two final notes. I called this a “budget” game because it has a budget feel on the development side, but on the consumer side it’s actually quite expensive at the A$70 mark. Try to get it on sale. And I loved seeing some casual nonbinary rep in this game from Lorn’ess, one of the two oppressed natives you meet. This is in addition to the main cast’s Zero of course, who joined the ranks in new Trek alongside Discovery’s Adira and Strange New Worlds’ Captain Angel. Pride!