#also both classic and 2 have shit combat mechanics if they just made it so that you have to avoid fights it might be better experience

[spoopy-moose]

I might be in the minority but I think they should’ve made your reputation LOWER if you killed bandits in pathologic

[thanatika]

pathologic 3 thoughts... i almost made a post awhile ago about hoping that they incorporate frostpunk-like gameplay mechanics into the bachelor remake, if they really are going all in on getting rid of the fps survival elements and adding more town management and resource sim elements. and now i'm mad that i never actually wrote it, because it seems like pathologic 3 is going to be incorporating frostpunk-like mechanics into its town management. "shape their lives with your decrees" and all that.

though one resource that frostpunk never really deals in is currency, and i hope they lean on that for dankovsky's town management mechanics. in that long dev post back in 2022 or something, i remember an offhand mention about getting rid of the survival elements because dankovsky's position means he shouldn't have to struggle for food, healing items, or money... and for one thing, pathologic classic has him struggle easily without it feeling unrealistic, so i think they might as well have just said "we wanted to do something original instead of a reskin of the previous game" and left it at that. but with money specifically... even if dankovsky is put in control of funds due to his position (which he canonically is, there was just no fleshed out mechanic for it in the first game) the bigger question would be how to effectively use them? based on the original game, the amount of medicine and food and money was never quite enough, even when the town's nobility would finally hand it over after trying to ignore the problem. so you have access to resources, the real painful challenge comes from having to allocate them, whether it's an equal distribution that isn't enough to help anyone at all, or an unequal distribution where some are left out.

i'm imagining something like The Fund in pathologic 2, which was a very barebones mechanic of just "heal more people = get more money". the bachelor route is possibly going to be more hands on in its management, and more incriminatory towards you if resources run scarce due to mistakes or mismanagement.

and as for dankovsky's own survival, well, i guess he could be sitting pretty if he has access to all of the resources, and can just take however much he needs off the top. that's certainly what npcs are accusing him of doing throughout both games and the dlc. but is that really in character for him? you certainly have the option to do that, most explicitly with taking lara's money and running on day 2. but personally i think that characterization makes less sense than him trying to distribute as much as possible. not because i think he's such a great guy, but because:

a) why does the first game have so many side quests that hinge on him agreeing to go put his own life at risk and his own mission on hold just to save someone else for 0 reward, if it's out of character for him to do it? like taking over from all the ladies who agreed to test medicines, or going and getting shot at by soldiers to save the father of two random kids. what a waste of writing and scripting, if he really isn't "supposed" to do those things.

b) even if he doesn't give a shit about the town or its people (which his dialogue and quest logs imply he does care, up to a point), his whole purpose in trying to stop the plague is that it's his mandate from the powers that be, with the promise that they'll restore his lab to him if he succeeds. his lab that he canonically values so much that he equates losing it to his own death or suicide, all the way back from day 1. yeah, i think he'd deprive himself if he thought the resources might make the difference between saving it or not.

so i think that's also important to keep in mind for his motivations, because especially if they do end up removing the pressures of surviving against hunger and combat, the tension is kinda lost if we're supposed to think that he actually doesn't care about what he's trying to save, at least in the beginning.

[swordcoasts]

Nah, be uncharitable. All Larian does is make Divinity over and over again. BG3 is just Divinity with a shitty Forgotten Realms veneer over it. The companions are generic as fuck, the mechanics are the same, it's tired and tiresome. I'm also skeptical of the whole Early Access release cycle, but that's the video game industry as a whole now and not on Larian themselves.

I understand that the first two games are a thing of the past and that isometric RPGs are nowhere near as popular as they used to be, but holy shit. The visuals are good but everything else feels so hollow and empty.

while i'm not as cynical about it, i get where you're coming from for sure.

i say this as someone who loves divinity, but i do think the format is not good for baldur's gate. the isometric rpg format that made the original bg games so popular is ideal for the series because it allows for a strong emphasis on combat, but allows you to opt out of it entirely if you want to. all that without losing much (if any, tbh. durlag's tower was the only interesting combat area for me bc i'm just not a huge ad&d/3.5 fan) gameplay value. the fact that there weren't involved cutscenes in bg1/2 allowed for so much variability that i'm afraid the bg3 format simply won't accommodate.

i think this is in general one of the big critiques i have about modern rpgs, publishers are so focused on pushing out visually appealing games that they don't have any resources to put into substance. and i genuinely don't mean to sound like a boomer or whatever, but there's a reason why bg1/2 are still considered genre classics while modern rpgs will be forgotten in ~5 years.

i do think larian is capable of a lot, i love both dos1 and dos2, but i think the pressure put onto them and the formulaic approach to baldur's gate will lead to something disappointing or mediocre.

[quasieli]

top six: fictional characters that give you gender envy, flowers, little things that make you happy and d&d moments :D

Ooh lotsa questions!

Gender Envy:

1) Bow from She-Ra (2018). Something about buff athletic dude who wears crop tops and is soft as hell is very Gender to me.

2) Vax from Critical Role. Pretty boy, kinda goth rogue? That’s sexy as hell and I wish that was me. 

3) In a wildly different idea of gender envy, I’ve been thinking about it lately and @quantum-lesbian’s character in the Frostmaiden game I’m in with them, Ambrose, is Big Gender. Beautiful non-binary drow with a starry and kinda witchy aesthetic that dresses super grandly and ostentatiously no matter the occasion? Yes please.

4) Pete from The Unsleeping City, specifically season two. I adore season one Pete but season two Pete that works in a queer bookshop and has a teapot arcane focus, is artsy and is unapologetically a trans man who doesn’t give a shit about gender roles? Sign me the fuck up.  

5) Beau from Critical Role. Buff GNC lesbian mixed with academia, but like academia from the prospective of a grad student with ADHD trying to learn everything about their special interests? A+, I love her and I’m jealous. 

6) I’m gonna cheat a lil bit for this last one. I know the prompt is fictional characters, but Julia Lepetit and Jacob Andrews in their Hitman streams? Simultaneously both of them were Gender for me. Jacob esp felt like that for me, which is weird cause dresses can make me dysphoric, but I am also slightly envious of the Dude in a Dress type of gender presentation. 

Can you tell that I’m a confused trans masc enby

Gonna put it under the cut from here cause oof, there’s still a lot more.

Flowers:

1) Big slut for Sunflowers, always have been, always will be.

2) Fun fact, my dad’s family used to own a flower shop (in like the 70s, so I never got to see it :(), and one of their big things was hydrangeas. My dad has always loved them and now I love the snowballs too!  

3) A recent favorite, the Baker’s Globe Mallow. It’s a type of flower that only grows from the soils of forests that have been affected by wildfires. It’s a simple little flower but I love the idea of something beautiful rising from the ashes after tragedy. A little dramatic, but I’m queer, ofc I’m dramatic.

4) Roses are another important flower to my family (Rose was a family name for a couple generations), and ya know, they’re a classic. 

5) There’s this beautiful magnolia tree in front of my house that blooms with the most beautiful white and pink flowers every spring, and it’s one of my favorite things to see every year. 

6) There’s so many different types of Lillies and they’re all very pretty, but the Purple Stargazer is prob my favorite.

Little Things That Make Me Happy:

1) My cat, Maddie. She may be a cranky girl at times, but she is also very sweet and will always be my baby (even though she is 12). 

2) Not a little thing really, but my best friend. Just getting a sweet/silly text from her or the two of us chilling in a room, sitting in a comfortable silence because we just like being together, nothing better. 

3) Baking, esp if I’m doing it for others. I’m not much of a sweets person myself, a little treat every once in a while type person, but I love baking. It’s a very relaxing process for me, even when it can sometimes get stressful, but seeing people enjoying something I made, especially something that brought me great joy to make, is simply the best. 

4) In the same sorta vein, crafting and other art, but that’s a bit more personal. I love making things for others, but art, particularly drawing, is something I do more for me. It’s such a great feeling when you can get into a really good art mood and just sink yourself into a project. I love it.

5) My plush toys. Yes, I am a 23 year old, no I will not stop loving my plushies. I just got a few new friends, which I made a post about recently, and they such good cuddle buddies. However, there is one king amongst them all. I have this old, beat up christmas puppy beanie baby, on his tag named Jingle Pup, but I just call him Jingle. I had one version of him since I was like 6, but he currently lives on a shelf cause he is very beaten up and fragile, but his “brother”, who I got when I was 8, is still in kinda good shape and is currently chilling on my chest as I type this lol.

6) Again, not a little thing, but it’s important to mention; D&D. The game itself is such a joy, but truly the best part of it is the people. I love creating stories and memories with people through this weird little game. Truly one of my favorite things to do.

D&D Moments:

These are all gonna be personal moments, rather than anything from actual play shows/podcasts. RC is Reforged Campaign, where I play Saube, and FM is Frostmaiden, where I play Sparks.

1) RC - Meeting Mahety, Saube’s girlfriend. We met her way back in session 12 and we are now up to like session 73. Saube saw her and was immediately big heart eyes at her but also felt a bit awkward and shy. So, being a game a dice, I decided to roll. 10 or higher, Saube would talk to her, 9 or lower, she’d stay put. I rolled a 17, 17 is now a lucky number for me. I love Mahety and I’d die for her. 

2) FM - This was an insane fight that should not have been so crazy, but in a fairly early session, my group went up against an angry druid and her awakened animals. So much batshit stuff happened in that fight, and we unfortunately lost our bread loving bard (RIP Agneyis), but one of my favorite combat turns happened in this fight. Our artificer, Omaren, has a robe of useful items and one of the patches on it creates a large pit. Thinking quickly, Omaren tore off the patch, slid it under one of the dire wolves we were fighting and created a looney tunes style pit under it, allowing us to take it out easily via pot shots. Such a clutch move and such a funny visual, especially because the dire wolf kept failing the checks to get out of the pit.  

3) RC - Saube’s Zebrith (I will never remember how this actually spelled RIP). So, for context, Saube ended up with a death curse (long story) that mechanically meant they had disadvantage on any death saving throws. Scary as hell, need to get that fixed! So, Saube and their party had to be smuggled into another country to talk with some religious leaders of a goddess known as The First, the goddess of death. They were told that Saube would have to go through the aforementioned ritual, which included her soul leaving her body for a short period of time. During this ritual, her friends had to call back to her, to say things that would bring her back to her body and I still cry thinking about that game. That ritual was not only important for Saube bodily, but spiritually as well. After that ritual, Saube officially became a cleric of The First! 

4) A real sappy one, RC - Saube meeting all of her friends. Anyone who follows along with the rantings on my blog probably knows how important this game is to me. I met this random group of strangers on tumblr and formed a D&D party with them and now, a year and a half later, I honestly think it’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I know that sounds silly and dramatic but not only has this game brought me so much joy and comfort, but I also gained a group of really amazing friends who have been nothing but amazing since day one. As much as Saube knows she can depend on SICL, I know I can depend on my group of weirdos lol. We both love our friends very much and even though we’ve all been through some crazy shit, we wouldn’t change it for the world.    

5) RC - Just playing Saube in general. I really didn’t intend for it to be this way, but Saube is very much a reflection of myself. She is the first long term character I have ever played and so much of me is in her. I try not to treat D&D like therapy, because that’s unfair to my DM and fellow party members, but playing Saube has allowed me to work through some of my own problems, especially social anxiety, in a lot safer of an environment. It isn’t so much that I’m asking this game to help me fix my life, but playing out these scenarios that, in the real world, would make me anxious or make me freak out, I can stop, take a moment to breathe and work out these issues in a way that makes sense to me. Playing her has led me to understanding myself a bit better, as well, and that’s truly such a wonderfully unexpected gift from this whole experience. 

6) Lastly, a silly one: RC - Getting a crit 6. The last session of this game got real interesting. Saube’s party ended up in the ethereal plane and magic got real fucky there. So, any time any of us tried to cast a spell, we’d roll a d20, not look at the result, and then try to guess what number rolled. The closer to the number, the better the result. A few times, a few people managed to get within like 3 or 4 of their roll, but oh the power I felt when I rolled a 6 (on Saube’s die!) and guessed it correctly! So, not only did the spell (Bless) work, but it worked super well. So instead of getting +1d4 to attack rolls and saving throws, Saube and two other party members got +2d4 to attacks, saving throws and skill checks. So powerful I broke the rules of D&D lmao. 

[ratfuck]

first impressions of cyberpunk 2077/critique I guess

In all honesty it's a superb open world action game, with roleplay elements ranging from okay to eh

Graphically, the game is beautiful, but thats like, the selling point of the game

It is VERY buggy, no doubt about it, not as bad as a bethesda game but they really could've delayed it a couple months to fix things. I haven't had any crashes, but the most stand-out problems I've had so far include:

Character model problems, with shit like cigarettes and chopsticks floating around in the air away from character models

I viewed my V in the mirror in the apartment and for some reason she was now bald, albino, and the gamma was so blown out it looked like a fucking nuke went off

I summoned my car and it teleported a few feet in the air above civilian NPCs, dropped on them and killed them, and the cops then went nuts and killed me

Tutorial elements on the HUD not going away, even appearing in the in-game menus

Performance needs optimized badly. I have a high-end PC I built for games and editing and processing RAW-format video and I still have framerates dip into the teens, even after lowering shading and lighting settings

Too early in the game to really tell, but I enjoy the writing so far. I was worried that this game would drift towards "Wow! Cool neon dystopia!" and the shit that makes cyberpunk punk would be given the back seat, but I'm happy with how the game covers themes expressed in classical cyberpunk media and literature like inequality, racism, poverty in a way that isn't performative or edgy/offensive

I am also VERY surprised with the game's inclusion of trans people in a way that isn't a fucking joke or demeaning to us. While I agree that more can be done with character creation, such as nonbinary pronouns as well as different body types, I was expecting a Polish developer financially backed by the Polish government would fuck it up

I've heard that the feminine voice for V is the best way to play the character as apparently the masculine voice actor's performance is dry and makes dialogue stale, I dont know if it's true but I really do enjoy the feminine VA

Gameplay is pretty tight, the combat is fun and player mobility allows you to experience Night City in an extremely immersive and fun way, however...

Driving needs fixed, with PC keyboard controls being unenjoyable, feeling like you're driving a hockey puck in anything larger than a small car

The in-game economy is broken, with it being nearly impossible to buy things such as weapons, clothing, cars, cybernetics because they're damn expensive and trading in junk you find and obsolete items nets in little cash, though I feel like this is almost purposeful as a subtle commentary of capitalism or w/e

You are constantly swapping out things in your inventory for shit you find on enemies or lying around, leading to you not being attached to weapons for more than an hour. This also unfortunately carries over into clothing, you may find stuff that you want V to wear because it looks cool as hell, but you almost always end up replacing it for whatever you find that has higher stats just so you can survive better, leading to you dressing in mismatched and unappealing clothing

The crafting system is all but useless. As described above, you're constantly swapping out shit for shit with better stats. It takes way too damn long to gather resources to craft new items, and by the time you do, the item you crafted is already made obsolete

That's about all I have for problems I have with the game, everything else about it is pretty damn good. The sound design and soundtrack is fucking phenomenal, the game world and visuals are stunning, the worldbuilding is fantastic, the writing is great with both main and side stories and character dialogue being entertaining and thoughtful, it's frankly superb in most areas. If the gameplay mechanics, as well as the many bugs and performance issues I've described above were fixed, it'd probably be the best game of the decade

As for how it fares on the Lawnmower Man/System Shock 2 Media Perfection Test,

Body Horror? Certain NPCs with cybernetic augmentations look fucking terrifying and twisted and horrific, metaphorically demonstrating how consumerism and runaway technology can act like a sort of parasitic infection. Pass

Apes/Monkeys? I haven't seen any simians in game yet, however, there are frequent usage of chimps and monkeys in street art, advertising, and graphic design everywhere across Night City, along with the "Gorilla Arms" cybernetic augmentation. Uncertain

Mind Powers? Nothing related to psionics is featured in game, and cybernetic powers do not count. Fail

So overall, it's a damn great game marred by bugs, performance issues, and features that weren't given enough time and need to be overhauled or fixed. Wait a few months so these things will be patched before purchasing the game, or just pirate it since it's gonna make billions of fucking dollars anyway

[endlessdoom]

Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures #005

bildoom1.zip

THT: Threnody (oh shit)

Heroes 2 (oh fuck)

Hells Half Acre

Demon's Revenge

Dreams

FATE01.WAD "Fate Series"

bildoom1.zip

Uploaded to the archives in 2011, but with real date being 1995. This WAD with 3 maps is probably one of the reasons why so many tenge are afraid to explore the /idgames archives randomly. It is clearly a rather novice WAD from 1995 that has all the kind of bugs and factors that we would find during that decade. Admittedly, 1995 was not a very bright year for WADs, but what can we expect? They were barely a year old with real editors. One way or another, this collection of 3 maps is one that has a certain childish charisma that I can't help but laugh at. It's crap, sure, but even in the crap there's a certain charisma.

The first map is probably the most understandable of them all. It looks pretty ugly and plays pretty ugly. The use of only one type of texture on extremely high walls is quite common, as well as a strange use of linedefs that seems to mimic a kindergarten crayon drawing. On the other hand, the path is understandable enough and the secrets connect well enough to at least deliver some playability.

The second map is a simple combat arena with Mancubus and a few extra enemies. From an objective point of view, it's the best map in terms of quality for the simple fact that it doesn't ask for much and does what it needs to do. And yet it is mediocre.

The third map is probably the most interesting in terms of design, but a headache in terms of path-finding. What we have here is a layout that starts with a hub system that hides a multitude of secret paths in total darkness. We have to search through each of the paths until we find all the keys to escape this nightmare in a final fight. While the beginning gives a certain sense of adventure, it quickly becomes a miserable dungeon crawler with unfair combat and lots and lots of darkness. I don't want to imagine how this looked in the original DOOM.EXE. In conclusion, it's very bad, but I've seen worse.

THT: Threnody

A collection of 20 maps makes this a respectfully large megawad that works in the style of Community Project, with the difference that the authors have managed to work under a fairly cohesive factor that gives a certain palpable identity to THT. Speaking of THT, this is also a WAD in the form of a tribute to one of the legends of the community, one of our greatest pillars and fantastic creator. THT stands for Ty Halderman Tribute, creator of the iconic TNT mappers group and also the maintainer of /idgames archive from 1997 to 2015. That's an amount of effort that very, very few of us in the community will ever manage to encompass. That's a lifetime of providing us with both content and pure hard work. This WAD is a dedication to Ty, a love letter of sorts that without needing to be an exact replica of his past works, has certain monuments to his legacy. A WAD that contains a particularly special essence, let's see what it is all about, shall we? 

While the megawad is designed in the form of a tribute, it does not attempt to replicate Ty's style exactly, nor copy directly from his creations; on the contrary, it chooses a system of references so subtle that they function like little poems whispered in silence. As we move forward, we will see things that remind us of his great contributions, while at the same time we play with the vague notion that we were already in this place once. A kind of dream that we never dreamed, and in that this megawad manages to carry that fantastic tribute idea.

I may have felt quite frustrated at times thanks to the constant hordes of enemies and the pseudo-slaughter gameplay at times, but every stage made it worthwhile. On the other hand, I'm capable of putting up with punishing combat, but confusing layouts? That really kills my patience, but I understand that sometimes the glory and fun lies in this singular aspect, the exploration and the feeling of being lost. On the other hand, don't let my words sound so extreme, this isn't Eternal Doom either, but you will need to pay attention and take note of where you've been and where you're going. If you like that, then you will love it. But even if you don't, let me tell you that I had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed the megawad. It's a long, but satisfying adventure that ends on a nostalgic note through space and time, like a dimensional goodbye from mirrors we don't see. A fine tribute that I'm sure Ty would love.

Heroes 2

An interesting megawad that works similar to what we would find in the ''shovelware'' discs of the 90s, that is, a compilation of random items united under the desire of commercialization. On the other hand, Heroes 2 doesn't have more than 3000 levels and won't make us regret our existence... that much. It is a compilation of 32 maps for Doom 2 compiled during 1996. What we will find here are maps so 90s that we will breathe both nostalgia and frustration. All the tropes that are common during these times lie in this megawad in such a way that it becomes like a kind of relic museum. It's perfect if you love this kind of WADs, but on the other hand, it's a great punishment if you prefer the life changes of modern times.

Hells Half Acre

From 1996, there is not much to expect in this WAD. It is a map that replaces E2M1 and contains some questionable design decisions. It starts with a simple room that then expands to reveal a pool connected to a multitude of paths. These paths are a marvel. As lost as they are cramped, it feels like I'm playing Daggarfall or a dungeon simulator. Possibly that was the author's intention. There is nothing special about this WAD that seems to set no higher expectations. While the design isn't truly terrible, it isn't great either and falls perfectly in the realm of mediocre in all its features. From the bland gameplay to the extremely confusing path system, the progression is just too boring. You don't miss anything by skipping this map, so it's an experience I'd totally recommend ignoring.

Demon's Revenge

A solid level designed with a theme reminiscent of Thy Flesh Consumend. Quite small but with enough detail and good touch to give it a charismatic essence that successfully unfolds in an enjoyable average time. With a relatively challenging gameplay, the level features an excellent balance between visuals and combat, offering a solid effort that is worth playing, even if it doesn't stand out for much else. Small errors here and there in decision making can be found, but overall, there's nothing major that truly destroys the map. As I said, solid all around. The only strange thing is that it doesn't have any MIDI songs, which makes it feel slightly awkward, but still fun.

Dreams

Simple, concrete and without much appearance. This is a 1996/7 level that doesn't try to be pretentious and delivers what it sets out to. A short level with a dungeon design that combines the classic textures of a hellish fortress with a few tints of absolute darkness. Nothing special but nothing terribly bad. Decent, honestly.

FATE01.WAD "Fate Series"

It looks like this is a 90s marathon this week. A simple, straightforward WAD replaces a single map and offers a system based on three connected rooms on a ''find the key'' basis. Combat is explosive, intense but simple without much tactical tact or any sort of deep mechanics within it. It's not too bad, but I would honestly classify it as mediocre. Nothing special or worthwhile.

[casualotptrash]

Why the Persona 3 FES vs Portable Debate Makes Me Want to Fly Into the Sun Pt. 2

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Hello everybody and welcome to Part 2 of this emotionally fueled rant. In my previous post I went over a lot of the changes that Persona 3 Portable makes from Persona 3 FES, and how a majority of them can make the game more enjoyable for certain people. This spawned from the comment I see a lot, which is that instead of playing Portable people can just play FES with a controllable party mod and it makes everything hunky dory.

Below I will go over the next thing that infuriates me about this whole discussion: the idea that FES is objectively better because it has cutscenes and is not done in the “visual novel” style of Portable.

To cut to the chase, Portable gets shit on quite a bit for its presentation and some choices available in the game. One of the most popular suggestions I see when someone is asking which game to play is to first play FES and then play Portable for the FeMC route, if they want to see that one. This is in order to get the “real” experience first, and I think that is some bullshit.

It seems people forget completely that Portable has a Male route option! Newsflash, it does. As far as I know, other than the gameplay changes I mentioned in my previous post, the Male route in Portable is exactly the same story-wise as FES. However, I assume this isn’t brought up because people who enjoy FES and don’t like Portable consider the FeMC route the only reason to do a run of Portable. Normally, this wouldn’t be an issue....but this isn’t really the case.

What elevates this into being a part of the reason why I hate this debate is because I see so many people essentially demand that newcomers to the game play FES first. They say it is the “real” way to experience the game, and they say that everyone will have more of an impact from FES and enjoy the game more. Like I said, I see this so often that it frustrates me. Shout out to people who are actually cool about the comparisons and don’t sound like they’re forcing the newcomer into either game. Anyway, there is one glaring, serious issue with this type of statement about FES.

It is completely subjective.

Surprise surprise, an opinion is subjective. Now I know that sounds obvious, but remember I’m talking about the issue where people act like FES is factually better than Portable. So much so that they say it’s the “real” way to experience the game.

I’m going to be real with y’all, I know for a fact that if I had played FES first I would have taken way longer to finish it, might have not even finished it, and definitely wouldn’t have enjoyed it as much. Thankfully I had a family member who got me into Persona, so when discussing which version I would play I decided P3P would be better based off of what he said, and he also happened to have the game on Vita.

I think the main reason that this statement gets thrown around is because 1. FES was the first of the two to come out, so it could be seen as the best experience by the people who played it first or became a sort of “classic” among the fans, and 2. it is coming from a specific crowd in the Persona fandom.

As anyone who steps into the fandom can see, people play Persona for a wide variety of reasons. Some play for the gameplay, and like to challenge themselves to beat the game on the hardest difficulty with one persona only. Others play for the social sim aspect of the game, and enjoy the dating, characters, and social links/confidants. Obviously the story brings most people into the game in the first place, but some might enjoy the story and the lore of the series the most.

I am not trying to knock anyone from any of those categories, but I think the reason that this statement about FES gets thrown around is because it comes from the first and perhaps third category of people.

For the first category of people, they think Portable is too easy (despite a harder difficulty than FES being implemented and the option to just use the tactics like FES) and prefer the FES combat. I have even seen someone try to explain the lack of direct control of party members by saying that the MC wouldn’t be able to “control” the party members and they would do whatever they want, aka the party members would have autonomy if they were real. I can see this being a nice little headcanon about the gameplay, but they also don’t mention that you can do the exact same thing in Portable and set party members to something other than direct command; so it’s not really applicable to the argument of why FES’s combat is better as far as the tactics are concerned.

I assume that the main gripe with the story of Portable from FES fans, aka some changes to the plot with the FeMC route (a rant for another time because the changes to the plot aren’t that well-done in the first place...so they don’t really change the story...) and the overall presentation of the story, is from the third category of people.

This is brought up with two factors: the lack of cutscenes and an overworld in Portable, resulting in a “visual novel” type of presentation. Like I mentioned earlier, this is a bad reason to say that one game is better than the other because it is completely subjective. Some people may really benefit from the cutscenes and overworld, while others might not care that much. That being said, I can understand the issue with the lack of cutscenes a lot more than the issue with the overworld. It makes sense that a cutscene could have a larger emotional impact, depending on if it is well done or not. However, I really don’t understand the problem with the overworld. I suppose it’s cool to see Port Island in 3D...but the mechanics are really not that different in Portable? An argument could be made that moving in the 3D environment makes people feel more connected to the locations, but like I just mentioned the mechanics aren’t too different so a player in Portable is still seeing all of the locations and “moving” around in it. The difference is that they’re just moving a dot instead of a character model. Now I do like the idea of an overworld better, and I agree it’s cool to see your model walking around and to see all of the party members in the dorm and such, but I think it is the weakest point to bring up when trying to say that it affects the plot in any significant way. Lastly, for the lore bits, I assume people in this category like the addition of The Answer, but even opinions on whether or not that is worth it are very divisive.

(Side note, I forgot this in my previous post but Portable also adds the fast travel mechanic like the one P4 has, so instead of needing to run everywhere like in FES you can just fast travel to locations)

However, this is still my subjective opinion on the matter so do with that what you will. Perhaps it does really affect someone’s enjoyment of the game, but claiming it will affect everyone’s enjoyment is just a false statement to try and spout.

If you’re wondering why I haven’t mentioned the second group, it’s because I believe they would either like Portable a bit more or not see much difference between the two. I personally fall into this category. To be honest I don’t think the visual novel style took that much away from the story itself, and I really enjoyed the additional social links with the male party members in the FeMC route. I think it gave them a lot more “life” per say, and elevated their characters from being good to great. I will agree that the lack of cutscenes made some scenes a little less impactful/cool, such as the MC persona awakening, but that didn’t negatively effect my experience with the game as a whole. In fact, Persona 3′s cast is actually my overall favorite of the three neo-Persona games, and in large part because of the additional characterization that Portable gives them.

Well...I think that’s everything I had to say? Overall, just uh don’t try and force someone to play either of the versions because of your own subjective views, don’t act like those views are anything but subjective, and let people come to the decision themselves based on facts about both of the games (Ex. They can decide themselves if no cutscenes would impact them or not rather than someone stating it will impact them less for sure).

I think this all really just boils down to needing a legit, definitive version of the game...but I’ll save that for later :)

(Last side note, I know emulation is a thing but why do people suggest buying/emulating/a mix of that for two games instead of just one game or the other? This is 100% me being lazy but that just seems like a lot of work when you could either buy one game and get the content, or buy another game and get the content in a slightly different way (barring The Answer).)

[doktorpeace]

I respect you and your right to have opinions, but also fuck you, Xenoblade 2 is good

I’d rather not spend any time discussing the minor up sides of a Singleplayer Offline Only RPG that has a fucking Gachapon mechanic built in. A Gachapon mechanic that’s a soft buffer for combat progression and also is used to completely remove organic rewards and genuine player experiences based on  exploration compared to 1 and X. Meanwhile it tells a story that is just a stock standard shonen anime plot while sprinkling elements in from a story that desperately wants to be a harem anime but is stuck being in a relatively mainline AAA game instead of some game nobody’s heard of on PSVita or whatever.  Yeah I sure do love going from the themes, environments, and characters of Xenoblade 1 and X which are well written and delivered, if not over the time from time to time, to a game with such classic moments as “Mythra sleepwalked into Rex’s bed haha, I wonder what wacky hijinks will happen now ;)” “Nia randomly falls in love with Rex for no reason and then demoting herself from party member to literally a tool for him to use” and who could forget “ “The Child Robot gets forced into a nearly naked adult styled body with huge tits by her incel creator who all game has forced her to call him master and wear maid outfits.” The game literally never fucking explains shit. It sets up things like the conflict between Uraya and Mor Ardain and then just fucking completely abandons it. Mythra and Malos just have orbital destruction lasers they’re tied to for no fucking reason with no explanation ever. Jin pulls the line “This ability lets me move faster than the speed of light” out of fucking nowhere and it’s meant to be taken seriously. It then bullshits in a fucking 30 minute exposition dump at the end how it’s somehow connected to Xenoblade Chronicles 1 by Fucking Retconning It in a way that has no buildup whatsoever and doesn’t fucking make sense. It constantly tries to string you along by simply leaving out details so you hope it gets explained or resolved later but they never fucking do! They just get dropped or resolved in a flaccid, meaningless way! Jin, the ONLY villain in the game worth anything in terms of intrigue dies unceremoniously with his motive and story largely unexplored and unexplained when Lora dies offscreen in an explosion. Sure makes me want to play Torna, The Golden Country, knowing that it’s just going to lead to that ultimately huh!? Not to mention all the times it just pulls beats or ideas from either previous game without understanding what made it work. You start in a semi-secluded area, go on a job where then something Bad Happens but this time the main character almost dies instead of a girl, then go to big fucking grassland and then go to a fucking swamp that glows at night. Then you go to the only actually unique environment concept in the game with Mor Ardain and wow! That area is actually fun and memorable and I like Mòrag Ladair and Brighid they deserved to be in a good game! Then you go to a series of floating islands and then you go to a Cold Place That’s Really Vertically Built And Has Ruins In It! LIKE XENOBLADE 1 GUYS, REMEMBER THAT GAME!? “Mythra can see the future a little bit” *nudge nudge* Just like Xenoblade 1 remember! Remember that game!? “Malos has the Monado in these two fights for no reason.” GET IT, JUST LIKE XENOBLADE 1 REMEMBER!? THE ARCHITECT IS KLAUS, YOU KNOW, THE GUY FROM FUCKING XENOBLADE 1, REMEMBER!?!?!? The scene where Vandham dies is so fucking forced. I had had my misgivings before this but was still hoping it would improve but then I got to this scene and knew the rest of the game would just be Like This. Both Mythra AND Nia could have just fucking done something to prevent it. Nia is at least given a LITTLE BIT of a reason to not have (even though she IMMEDIATELY AFTER THIS REVEALS HER FUCKING SECRET TO EVERYONE BUT REX NULLIFYING THAT REASON) but Mythra sure fucking don’t have one. Oh and speaking of Vandham this game goes out of its way to stop literally every fucking story important boss and tell you Why You’re Actually Losing This Fight midway through even if you’re busting their fucking ass. Anytime a boss fight gets interrupted by a cutscene in Xenoblade 1 the boss either Escapes or Fucking Dies except for Dickson. Dickson is the ONLY ONE where that isn’t what happens so it at least feels SOMEWHAT earned. If the game wants you to lose a fight for story purposes it actually supplies a mechanical reason to the gameplay so you, the player, can feel the powerlessness that the characters do in that moment! I have never in my LIFE, hope against hope, wanted to enjoy a game more than I did with Xenoblade 2. It was meant to be a sequel to a game that I could easily put in my top 3 of all time, any day of the week, so I wanted to fucking like it even if the early trailers and art style had me worried! I tried so fucking hard, I ended up doing most of the game’s content and beat all the superbosses and shit trying to ultimately come out with a positive view on it and I fucking couldn’t! NEVER has a game or piece of media disappointed me in the way Xenoblade 2 did by simply being a bad fucking experience that has no business associating with its alleged IP. It is so severely different from not only the other to -Blade games but from the entire Xeno- franchise that it boggles my fucking mind that it’s even considered apart of the same greater IP. Ask any of my friends, I play video games to have fun. I love diving deeper into their themes and discussing the comparative merits of different entries. I make it a point to try and enjoy games for what they bring to the table, even pretty mediocre games I can sit down with and have some fun by learning more about its mechanics and just having a nice little time! But not this fucking game! Not fucking Xenoblade 2. 

And, I know this was a long post. I know it was and I know it’s scathing because after a few years I still can’t let this shit go. But I’m not trying to make it so you, anon, or anyone else who likes this game, feels like they are obliged to agree with me or not like the game. I don’t want to take away what good experiences others have had with it but I do think it’s completely fair for me to be able to express the experiences and feelings I had and have kept with me after playing it. Have your fun, that’s fine, I won’t and don’t want to stop you. But in the same way I despise this game and I’m not gonna shy away from saying so.

[dent-de-leon]

I’ve seen you blogging a lot of Dragon Age (and a lot of other ppl I follow too, honestly) and I was wondering if you could tell me a bit about it. It seems pretty cool!

oh ya sure!! oh boy this is gonna be a lot lmao,, but,, Dragon Age is an RPG by Bioware–they also made Mass Effect and Knights of the Old Republic, in case you’ve heard of those–and the DA series are easily some of my favorite video games. They go super in depth with lots of lore and there’s tons of world building,, I’m embarrassed by the number of fantasy Elvin words I know and I can tell you way too much about the history of fake countries cause that’s where I’m at lmao,, 

To try and summarize: the first game is called Dragon Age: Origins, and the focus is very much on fleshing out and playing through a backstory that you handcraft for your PC. You can be everything from an elf trying to reclaim their lost history, to a privileged human of the ruling nobility, a sheltered mage that’s locked away from the rest of the world for “their own good,” a dwarf just trying to survive whose always been a fighter at heart–skilled enough to champion a tournament, and so on. I played the City Elf origin and it just about killed me. 

The appeal here is you can start with various different branching paths and backstories, all of which culminate in your character becoming a Grey Warden. Essentially, DA has these monstrous sort of demonic creatures called darkspawn and usually they’re very disorganized and attack at random. But sometimes there’s a more powerful demon that can connect to them and control them as a kind of hive mind; they become a more organized army force, and spread a “Blight” and its taint wherever they go–it causes sickness and a long suffering death, makes the land completely uninhabitable, lots of bad shit. There’s only been four Blights before Origins, so they’re pretty rare, usually centuries apart. 

In the event of a Blight, the only thing that can stop the lead demon and its army is a Grey Warden. They’re a,, supposedly “neutral” party in political affairs; they’re meant to be an outside force from other armies and they aren’t divided by nations or anything, if you’re a Warden, you’re a Warden everywhere. So they’re also kinda above the law. Wardens can requisition land and resources, forcibly recruit condemned criminals and high ranking nobles alike–“anything to stop the Blight.” They’re elite warriors, and the only ones who can actually sense the darkspawn. That’s because they’re already tainted by them. You drink some darkspawn blood,, probably you die, but maybe you don’t,, and if you survive,, congrats!! You’re in the Wardens. Forever. You can run, but they’ll probably find you. There’s really no running from the fact that the taint will get you eventually in a few decades though. In Origins you end up being one of the only two surviving Wardens left to defend the country of Ferelden during the Fifth Blight–you have to travel the country, gather allies, try to prove you’re not a war criminal, save the whole world, and don’t forget to pet your dog :’) 

Dragon Age 2 is a lot simpler to talk about with all that context out of the way–you’re Hawke, a Ferelden refugee fleeing from the Fifth Blight. The Warden saves the world and everyone throws a big party just as you’re getting settled in your new city. Kirkwall is…a lot,, real creepy place. Maybe it’s that it used to be the center of the Imperium’s slave trade and is still called “The City of Chains.” Maybe it’s all the centuries of blood magic and death that’s seeped into the walls. Maybe it’s those architecture plans you find for the city that point out it’s been built in the shape of one big magical glyph. But there’s something weird there and the whole place is incredibly unsettling. Way more demons crammed into one city than most of the country combined, templars ready to turn on every mage in sight, there’s a lot happening in that one little place. 

I always say that other Dragon Age games are more about the player, but DA2 is really about your party members. It’s your companions’ stories��Hawke is sort of this unsuspecting bystander that just gets dragged under by all the city’s malevolent machinations. And ultimately–accidentally, so very unfortunately–they wind up at the very epicenter of it all. Maybe it’s about Hawke, a snide, sarcastic refugee just trying to provide for their family and take care of their friends. But it’s probably more so the story of a quintessential Byronic antihero tortured by his past and sparking a war for mage freedom, or a charming pirate captain in search of her mysterious lost treasure and who knows more about the city’s supposed “invaders” than she lets on. Or the silver-tongue dwarf with a love of telling stories, and a penchant for extravagant lies–the narrator of it all, and entirely unreliable. 

At its core, DA2 is about mages and templars. The mages typically being locked away in towers known as Circles because they’re seen as “too powerful, a danger to themselves and others,” etc. They’re guarded by knights that work for the dominant religious order known as Templars. Only the Templars frequently harass and systematically abuse the mages in their charge instead of “protecting” them. Ultimately, it’s also about betrayal and redemption, how far someone can go before they’re beyond redemption, etc. 

DA2 always hits this very melancholic note that neither of the other games quite reach. I think it’s because Origins and Inquisition are very grandiose in scope and scale,, you’re a chosen hero,, you’re saving the world,, the player is incredibly empowered. But in DA2, it really does feel like you have no power. Like you’re just trying to scrape by and look out for the people you care about. Like everything keeps going wrong no matter how hard you try to help, like you’re a failure to your family and somehow lost your friends. DA2 is confined to a single city and so much smaller in scope and scale, but the little glimpses of intimacy that you do get from that unique experience really hits you in the end.

Lastly, there’s Inquisition. You can choose your player’s race like in Origins, but you don’t really get to play out your backstory or anything, you’re just kinda thrown right into it. Inquisition is very go big, so everything is big–lots of exploration, lots of questing, LOTS OF DRAGONS,, THIS GAME IS IMPORTANT SOLELY FOR THE 13.5 DRAGONS YOU GET AS OPPOSED TO THE 1-2 IN EVERY OTHER DRAGON AGE GAME,, SERIOUSLY LACKING ON THE DRAGON PART THERE HONESTLY IT’S KINDA FALSE ADVERTISING,, but yeah I’d say DAI is the most like an open world sort of deal,, very classic high fantasy like Origins (though not so brutal or grisly like Origins), very You are the Chosen Savior stuff,, big departure from Hawke running round the sewers 

DAI builds directly off the previous games and decisions players made in them, but it’s also actually very easy to jump right into with no info on prior games. I’d say it’s also the most user friendly, and it’s probably better for new players to start with it to see how they like the world. Combat and mechanics in Origins can be very tedious, and parts of it just haven’t aged well. DA2 is easier mechanically, but much more punishing and harsh with its consequences. DAI is very forgiving by comparison, and you won’t accidentally get party members killed for the calls you make. And while DAI is very lore heavy, I think it’s the perfect place for newcomers to kind of run around and try to explore the living breathing world crafted from that world. 

The essential plot is that you’re following on the heels of the Mage Templar War, and rogue members from the Chantry (church basically) are looking to upstart the Inquisition again, a huge military organization that waged holy wars back in the day. You end up accidentally being in charge of everything because, and I quote, “You killed everyone who was in charge.” Oh yeah, there’s also demons tearing open rifts from their world into yours and you’ve been blessed/cursed with a magic mark on your hand that makes you the Only One who can close those rifts and save the world. Build your army, get drunk with your friends after slaying dragons, dance with your partner after usurping the empress at her own ball, try not to get torn to pieces by the magic in your own hand, get good at reading tarot cards, and maybe don’t romance the Elven God of Trickery on your first (heartbreaking) play through,, 

Lastly, there’s actually a fair amount of queer characters in DA, which is pretty cool. And a lot of them are romanceable partners for your character, so you can definitely play a queer PC. So,, off the top of my head–Bi characters (and romance options): Leliana and Zevran [Origins], Fenris, Anders, Isabella, Merrill [DA2], and Josephine [Inquisition]. There’s also Iron Bull, and he’s a pan character who’s romanceable in Inqusition. Dorian is gay and romanceable, and Sera is a romanceable lesbian, both also from Inquisition. Krem is a trans man and Maevaris is a trans woman, the former is a side character (and best friend of Iron Bull) in Inquisition, while the latter only appears in supplementary sources like comics, but she does get mentioned from time to time in Inquisition as Dorian’s close friend. Oh! Also--Solas and Josephine’s routes in Inquisition don’t culminate in a sex scene, so lots of people headcanon them as asexual. And you can also swing Dorian’s romance so it doesn’t have a sex scene if you wanna romance him but kinda play an ace Inquisitor, which is cool! Sorry for the long rant lmao but uhhh, I hope this helps?? :’)

[bmaxwell]

Best Games of 2002-2003

Between Warcraft 3 and Rise of Nations, this marked the era when my love affair with realtime strategy games ended. There were a couple of my classics and a whole lot of not much else for me. 

7. The Simpsons Hit and Run

What if you mixed The Simpsons with Grand Theft Auto? The result was actually pretty good. Open world gameplay with lots of secrets and show references.

6. NHL 2K3

NHL 2K3 on the Gamecube was the last hockey game I really gave a damn about. My preferred way to play hockey games is the slog of playing through a full season and playoffs. I did that with the New York Rangers in 2K3, memorable to me because after dominating in the regular season and playoffs, I found myself down 3 game to 1 in the conference finals. I benched all-time Rangers great goaltender Mike Richter for never-heard-of-him-but-has-a-cool-name backup goalie Dan Blackburn. We came back and won that series and the finals. Here’s to you, Dan Blackburn.

5. Eternal Darkness

In Eternal Darkness you play as a granddaughter of a recently deceased fella. You go to explore his mansion and find mysterious old books and relics and shit. There’s an ancient evil relic that has been in her family for generations, and you play as various ancestors throughout history and see how the relic came to be passed down through the generations. Which is all cool as shit. 

There’s also a sanity mechanic, and if your sanity gets too low you’ll start seeing things that aren’t happening - in game stuff like your character’s head falling off, or all of your attacks missing - or fourth wall breaking stuff like a Blue Screen of Death, or a message that says “Thank you for playing the Eternal Darkness demo!” and appears to boot you to the title screen. A lot of this stuff would be corny and tryhardy today, and I am 1000% sure this game doesn’t hold up at all. But in 2002 it was AMAZING.

4. Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

Final Fantasy Tactics is one of my absolute favorite games ever, so when they finally made a sequel for the Gameboy Advance only it was time to buy a new handheld. Final Fantasy Tactics Advance was both profoundly disappointing and a very good video game. It’s a tactics game with much of what comes with that title - grids, turn-based combat, equipment, classes, levels, and so on. 

The look, tone, and feel of the original game is long gone, but the game is still a very good One of Those. Also I just realized that I’ve been counting the years backwards on here and missed Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2, WHICH IS NOT ACCEPTABLE*

3. Warlords Battlecry II

Man, fuck Warcraft III. Warlords Battlecry II is my Betamax. My Private Selection ice cream. Because Warlords Battlecry II was very much off-brand Warcraft, and also much better than Warcraft III. Warlords added heroes to the mix, and did it far better than Warcraft III’s prepackaged heroes. More races, more classes, and your heroes persisted from game to game. 

Man. FUCK Warcraft III.

2.Culdcept

Magic the Gathering + Monopoly in a game no one has ever heard of. Sorry, ladies - I’m taken.

1. Animal Crossing

The Animal Crossing games have been a series of diminishing returns for me. Every few years a new one comes around and I get hooked for a couple of months before moving on. I’d never played anything quite like it back in the Gamecube days though. A peaceful sandbox island about fishing, decorating your home, chatting up villagers and catching bugs was exactly what I needed when it came around. 

*I accidentally had the caps lock on for this sentence and I am leaving it. 

[brothermouzongaming]

Games I’m excited about for 2018

Spider-man (PS4 exclusive): This list is in no way ranked. That being said this is my most anticipated game of 2018. I have been waiting for a Spider-man game to grab me since Spider-man 2. When I was at E3 the gameplay looked really promising and showed that the developers knew what made the good games good. From what I can see they even were able to pull some of the things that made the bad games good a la “Web of Shadows”. I’m not going to say much else for fear of this whole post turning into a Spider-man rant. Don’t let me down Insomniac. Do not.

Dragon Ball FighterZ: This game looks SHIT HOT and I’m excited to have a fighter I really want to get into from this generation. Smooth seamless combat at breakneck speeds and so much source material it was probably daunting. DBZ is special to me and many people like me, the guys at Arc Systems have their work cut out for them and I’m excited. My fighting games thus far have been Soul Calibur 3, MvC 2, and the little I dabbled in Injustice 2 ....yeah as you can see fighting games aren’t my thing. This, however, this is gonna be something I commit to. Come January 28th these hands will be on sale, come and get it

Days Gone (PS4 exclusive): 28 Days Later-esque pandemic centered in a rich yet frightening wilderness with survival mechanics? Single Player based?Yes please and thank you I will be having all of it. The gameplay looks great and just as importantly, the story seems engaging. Yes, it’s the same Last of Us scenario we’ve encountered time and time again in both games and movies. This time I think that may have been taken into account. There’s a somber yet rooted tone that though again has been done before, really seems to hold up even in the brief cutscenes available online. Am I worried that the developers have really only accomplished the Syphon Filter series (dating myself here which is a scary thought), two PS Vita Uncharted games, one unremarkable Resistance game, and Bubsy 3D in ‘96.... NOPE fuck it cause it’s almost promised to be free of micro-transactions and actually be an enjoyable and enthralling experience.

Monster Hunter World: The beta was fun, combat felt a little empty at times but once it gets going there is no stopping this game. Something about hunting a Slug Fish creature in a swamp, turning a corner only to see some unholy being vaguely reminiscent of a T Rex fused with an Armadillo. At that point I realized that we may be the monster hunters but holy shitfuck we better come correct. Really really really deep equipment and tools settings. Your main weapon is just the beginning with perks, buffs both passive and active, as well as a few other key tools also being at your disposal. I got a buddy to join me and the two of us dragged each other through that ordeal but it was hard because it was new, I was still having a good time. I’m excited to see what Capcom brings to their first console rendition in 11 years for a franchise that is as highly acclaimed as this one. 

Far Cry 5: This is a series that has always done an amazing job at the whole “Hunter v Hunted” aesthetic. I always feel so powerful and dangerous when I play Far Cry and 3 was a huge step in the right direction. 4 had a lot of things that I enjoyed, the gunplay, vehicles, and characters were really good. It did, however, fall a little short story-wise as well as some worn game mechanics with this being the fourth in the series. I did not get to play FC5 at E3 because that line was absurd. That being said, from the gameplay available on Youtube and various interviews it does seem that Ubisoft is aware of the potential stale twinge Far Cry has developed over the years. I’m looking forward to cutting down zealot cultists in the open Montana landscapes. March 27.

Anthem: This game is important, after the fuck-shit-stack that was Battlefront 2 and the cacophony of backlash that came with it; EA have to get this right. This loot box based online shooter, the “Destiny-killer” it’s being called. How does one kill what is already dead? Fuck if I know but I am interested IF they can do it right. That being said, my hopes aren’t high, but this game will be a barometer. This will show whether EA is willing to bend at all on their plans for monetization. They know a BF2 scenario is totally on the table now, and if they misstep, there will be more backlash. Either way, we win, either we get a good game or EA get put on another stake to burn.

Vampyr: From the developer that brought us Life is Strange and Remember Me comes a new game set in London 1918 during the Spanish Flu pandemic. We will play a vampire (sigh prime journalism over here folks) in town with a set number of NPCs and each death will have consequences for both you and the city. Semi-open world with an RPG and combat focus, I’m so down and I really hope this game can do new things. Q2 (Jan., Feb., Mar.) 2018

Soul Calibur 6: My fighting game is back and this is going to be a weird year for me with not one but two fighting games that will find my focus this year. Mitsurugi, Sophitia, and around 20+ are back to beat the everloving snot out of each other. I’m excited because this is supposedly a “reboot” of the franchise which means a lot of the original characters will be back (Nightmare, Maxi, Ivy, Taki, Kilik, etc). Things like armor breaking are both interesting and worrisome. I suspect Taki, Ivy, and the other unreasonably busty women of the series will be left awfully vulnerable sans armor by the mid/end of a battle. Regardless, this revamp maybe what the fighting franchise needs to enter the ring against the big boys of this generation. 

Death Stranding: DEATH MOTHER FUCKING STRANDVXIRJORWTMDNGHF  Let me tell you something, Kojima is going to save us all. I’m serious he is going to take all our hands and walk us into the sunlight of gaming where there are no microtransactions, the singleplayer is an epic odyssey, the multiplayer is fun but unnecessary, and the gaming experience is not only unique but has a lasting impression on every gamer brave enough to hold a controller. This game is going to test us, change us, and maybe most importantly: make people rethink the way games are made/designed. The third person sci-fi nightmare adventure will be here before we know it and great Scott am I ready to dive in. 

Red Dead Redemption 2: Had you asked me about RDD2 and it’s hypothetical production about 3 years ago; I would’ve said something along the lines of  “Fuck yes yippie kai yay mfs where mah horse at”. After Take-Two (parent company of 2k and Rockstar) came out and essentially supported EA’s usage of loot boxes. The CEO stated that “Recurrent consumer spending was the way of the future,” which is concerning to say the very least. I’m worried my West World sim is gonna turn into well...something more like West World. “Oh what’s that want a new hat? 5 bucks. New horse? 10 doll hairs plz. New gun? 15 smackers and the skin off your respective genitalia. Thank you come again.” My once resounding and honestly strange response is definitely more tepid and cautious. GTAV is lending itself quite nicely to the ways of the microtransaction and I can just see little buckets of gold nuggets or some dumb shit like that hinging in front of me or at the local shop. If so may there be backlash, and lots of it. 

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

Greedfall: Developed by Spiders, a team with an... interesting track record in gaming (Sherlock Holmes v Jack the Ripper, Bound by Flame, and Technomancer [yikes]). On paper, this game sounds like it might be worth a damn and this is the most publicity any of their games have gotten so that does peak my interest. That and the publisher is Focus Home Interactive, makers of games like Divinity 2 and The Surge as well as my highly anticipated Call of Cthulhu and Vampyr. Who knows, this team up might just work. An open world RPG with online mechanics sounds fun.

God of War: I have never played a God of War game all the way through. With this being my first PlayStation that does make sense. That being said, I’m very excited to sit down and try my hand at this rebooted series. Given the reputation and clear influence a game like GoW has had, it does lead my expectations up rather than down. Santa Monica is developing, Ready at Dawn for some reason isn’t but it’s good to see the original team getting another crack at the Spartan. This time Greco-Roman gods are put aside for a more Nordic feel. The chain blades replaced with a hefty ax as well as a few other tools from what I’ve read/heard. Another interesting single player experience for those turned off by multiplayer and microtransactions. Not to say it won't have them just look at Shadow of War. It does, however, make it considerably less likely.

BioMutant: Traverse an open and changing world as an also everchanging bio-genetic mutant. Supposedly going to have big rpg mechanics involving the fact that your character’s schtick is evolving and changing. Brought to you by THQ Nordic the people that brought us the highs of the Darksiders series, Painkiller: Hell and Damnation, and Red Faction (2001). As well as some lows like the recently imploded Elex, Alan Wake, and the classic Spynx and the Cursed Mummy. I really don’t know what to make of this resume let alone what to expect. I am however excited for something new in the third person adventure genre. 

[swingbeard]

Matt’s Top 7 Games of 2017

2017 was a weird year.

At times, it was hard to focus on games.

On a global scale, we found ourselves often transfixed on news both positive and negative; in my opinion, it was often more of the latter. Games became an afterthought in a lot of ways. 

But at times, it was easy to focus on games.

They provided a sanctuary, a place to take a breather and relax, to joke and laugh and have fun with friends or on my own. Even at times when the subject matter of some games took on relevance to real world issues, it was still fascinating and an escape in a way but a thoughtful one.

With this all in mind, I still wanted to take some time to celebrate some games I very much enjoyed (and others I’m just starting to get into and very much enjoy) in 2017.

Originally… this was going to be a much longer and more involved thing. 

Instead, I’m going with something a bit shorter and more succinct so here’s seven games I really enjoyed this year, one of which has taken up a spot as my favorite game of the year. Thanks for reading and following along this year! 

ABSOLVER (Sloclap)

As someone who doesn’t exactly enjoy playing fighting games, Absolver would seem a bit of an anomaly, right? You’re correct! 

When it was presented at E3 a few years ago, I actually saw it as a Dark Souls-esque RPG with martial arts combat and lore instituted in place of sword-and-board action. I was so into the world, into what they were trying to build, into the ideas of gameplay (stances and switching between them, the moves themselves).

To a degree, this game is that… but the true endgame? What really drives the game once you’ve defeated the campaign? It’s the PvP, the actual “fighting game” part, and it’s something I’ve very much enjoyed - I never thought those words would leave my mouth.

Ever.

For someone like me, Absolver has proven to be a perfect introduction into that world; into fighting the same people online over and over to learn their movesets, to practice timing and get that down, to get frustrated but also understand why I’m getting beat and getting better.

The year is 2017 and I now enjoy playing an honest-to-god fighting game. What has happened to me?

FINAL FANTASY XIV: STORMBLOOD (Square Enix)

2017 was the year I truly got into Final Fantasy XIV.

I had struggled in the past, but the quality-of-life improvements plus finding two jobs/classes (Samurai and Monk) that I really liked propelled me into the main story of the core game, the Heavensward expansion, and the recently released Stormblood which brings you - the Warrior of Light - to far-off places like Gyr Abania, Othard, and the Ruby Sea.

I’m someone who’s never really been into the series in general, but the story and characters of FFXIV has grabbed me in an unexpected way and brought me along for a pretty wild ride at times. What World of Warcraft lacks in terms of consistency in its lore and sometimes not going far enough with its visuals? That’s what this game makes up for me.

I’m glad I finally got into this game and am looking forward to whatever patches and stories Yoshi-P and team have next for us. 

* A shoutout goes to the people in my free company too, some of whom I like to think are pretty dang good friends now.

DOOM (id Software) 

A game from 2016 on 2017’s list?

You’re correct, but this game is just that good and there’s a good reason for why it shows up on this list.

I actually purchased this game last year, but was never able to play it due to technical limitations. When I purchased a new PC in early September, this was one of the first games I installed.

And holy shit, all of the hype? All of the coverage I read? DOOM delivers on that, and more. It understands what it is, reverential in a way to the first games in this series… but also fresh, fun, and thrilling with modern twists and turns. While short, the campaign is worth the price of admission and I hope we get to see more of this story in a proper sequel after a good cliffhanger ending.

All in all, this game is a hell of a thing.

Literally.

WOLFENSTEIN II: THE NEW COLOSSUS (MachineGames) 

I’m only a couple of hours into this game, and there’s already been a few moments where I’ve had to just sit back and let out a loud “What the fuck?” at what I’m seeing on the screen. It’s enough to put it on this list. Really. 

As someone who never played The New Order but is generally aware of what happened, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus appears to be something that stays true to the themes and roots of what that game set… and then expands that beyond those boundaries and confines to a degree that at times feels unsettling and uncomfortable in a way which reflects the fears of many in modern times.

It’s a game that is both an escape and a reality check in a way.

Even in a game with such great characters and shows reverence for them (but also will pull the trigger at any time), the compelling performance and depth Brian Bloom gives as B.J. Blazkowicz is absolutely incredible. The little things he says as you traverse levels, the flashbacks to a brutal past; the catharsis you seem him go through in often spectacularly bloody and violent fashion? It’s incredible to watch, mesmerizing almost.

Sure, the gameplay isn’t exactly what a lot of folks love… but at the same time, it almost doesn’t matter.

The New Colossus succeeds because the themes and message are heard loud and clear.

DESTINY 2 (Bungie) 

I’ve seen a lot of negativity aimed toward Bungie lately.

And I think it’s understandable.

They’ve messed up a lot on a variety of fronts, including the most important - communication and transparency - and at times? It seems like Destiny 2 may be an unsalvageable situation, a repeat of the mistakes the company with the first game.

But a lot of the time? I have a great time with this game still and have spent hours exploring, raiding, or just chaining Strikes over and over with an occasional foray into the Crucible. I still appreciate the lore of Destiny to a ridiculous degree, to how the idea of “post-apocalyptic space fantasy opera” is explored. As frustrating as it can be sometimes, when Bungie does their lore right? It’s some of the best worldbuilding and storytelling I’ve ever seen.

I hope that Bungie can iron out the issues, because this game has the makings of a great foundation with which to build upon. Only time can tell if they can pull that off.

SUPER MARIO ODYSSEY (Nintendo) 

Remember the crazy trailer for this game at E3?

I don’t think we actually thought this would deliver, right? Maybe?

Who knows?

What matters is that Nintendo delivered on that crazy gameplay reveal and gave us Super Mario Odyssey, which at its heart is the Mario everyone wanted all along with a few twists and turns that make it a fresh experience. Incorporating the “Capture” mechanic to the way this game does is tremendous and getting to utilize Cappy himself as a tool for exploration allows for you to fully explore the beautiful and vibrant worlds of this game.

Plus there’s the 2D sidescrolling element, and the photo mode, and the post-game stuff which-

You get my point. There’s so much here. 

The thing I want to give Odyssey the most credit for? It’s just a happy game. It’s about making exploration fun, it’s about having a damn good time, and it delivers on those in every single way possible. In any other year, it might be my favorite game of the year but…

THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: BREATH OF THE WILD (Nintendo) 

If you know me, this is no surprise.

I’ve been thinking on how to best write this since early March.

For Nintendo to basically blow up the standards of what a Zelda game is? To bring back the roots of what made games like the original the thing that caught fans’ attention and kept them hanging on for thirty-plus years? It’s a hell of a thing to do, but I feel as though they stuck the landing and with aplomb.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is an incredible thing; an open-world action-adventure game which takes so many elements plucked from so many other genres and then blends them all together in something that never fails to awe or amaze. It’s something I wanted for them to do for so long, to shake up the franchise and do something different.

Does it have some flaws here and there? Absolutely. It’s not a perfect game daresay, but damn it’s… an experience, it’s something I’ve told almost all of my friends who likes games to go play. Those dungeons you loved to explore or those items you so loved from past titles? They’re not here, but for good reason.

Why?

Because Breath of the Wild’s true challenge is exploration in this vibrant and amazing world of Hyrule. It’s conquering that highest mountain top or finding that shrine in a den full of dangerous enemies; maybe it’s hunting Lynels all day or trying to find all 900 Korok seeds.

In a year where I feel like I needed an escape at times? This game provided just that. 

Hell, I’ve put 400+ hours into this thing and I can see myself putting in more.

What surprises me most about this game is the emotional impact I felt. In previous games, the same plot is often followed; many of the tropes and story beats in Zelda games are often circular. While this story is sparse in some places, the delivery of it is interesting enough that it makes me more interested in the canon of this universe than I have been since Wind Waker. I want to know what’s next for this incarnation of Link and Zelda in this world Nintendo has so elaborately constructed.

All in all, I wouldn’t call Breath of the Wild just my favorite game of 2017.

It’s without a doubt one of my favorite games ever, a classic that propels this franchise into the future and for the better by drawing upon its “you can do anything anywhere at anytime” beginnings. 

[lacquerware]

2017 Recap Part 1: LTTPs

::UPDATE:: Added DARIUSBURST: Chronicle Saviours! 

It’s time we acknowledged there are too damned many games, and too many of them are spectacular. If nuclear war breaks out tomorrow and all video game production ceases permanently, I’ve still got a mountain of unplayed masterpieces high enough to keep me entertained until death, even if I manage to immigrate to an underground survival vault and only die of natural causes many decades later.

Unless that happens, I fear I’ll never even come close to playing ‘em all. I certainly didn’t play all of 2017’s must-plays in 2017. I did, however, catch up on a few greats from years past. Here are my favorite non-2017 games I played in 2017. 

The Last Guardian

Despite spending the better part of a decade acting like an absentee father, The Last Guardian so splendidly averted disappointing me—and on the heels of a year whose running theme was disappointment—that it almost mended some deep, long-broken thing inside my soul—the part that is always whispering, “Expect the worst.” My 2016 sure could’ve used TLG at the end of it, but as it stands, it made for a strong start to 2017. I could follow that sentence with a lot of cynical things about how 2017 turned out, but as far as gaming is concerned, 2017 was one of the most triumphant years in recorded history.

I already wrote at length about my experience with The Last Guardian, but I’ll just reiterate the main takeaway: the game made me feel a personal connection with an in-game character. This is something almost all modern games attempt and fail at (for me). In TLG, connecting with Trico is the game. You achieve the connection through doing and experiencing—not through watching conversations unfold or making superficial dialogue selections. In this way, it demonstrates a base understanding of the merits of the video game medium that I feel many modern games miss. Fumito Ueda’s oft-noted influence from Another World is clear to see here; the action is the story, and Trico and the Boy’s evolving relationship is almost a wholesale recreation of that between Another World’s protagonist and alien buddy (Ico of course did this as well, right down to the hanging cage escape). The Last Guardian and Another World should both be required playing for aspiring designers or anyone who wants to better understand the medium.

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Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag

Ubisoft, to me, is the headquarters of Western game design. I can’t believe how big and feature-rich and user-friendly their games are. They are less “games,” more comprehensive simulations of specific identity fantasies, like “assassin” or “hacker” or “Italian.” They want to let you do everything. 

But also, they want to be the user’s best friend. They will betray their own painstakingly achieved immersion if it means letting the player cram a little more fun into the two hours a week they have to dedicate to gaming between work, parenting, studying, and such. 

That is why in Ghost Recon: Wildlands—ostensibly a game about US grunts gittin’ ‘er done and surviving the Bolivian wilderness—still lets you teleport anywhere at will, or change your loadout or upgrade your arsenal at any time, from anywhere, with no explanation. The explanation is understood: “It’s supposed to be fun.” I respect these decisions. Games are fun when they’re fun.

The problem is that many of their games are peppered with shallow activities which employ the cheap but powerful thrill of checklist psychology, and after awhile all their different franchises start to feel like one ongoing subscription to Highlights Magazine. How many Ubi games are going to challenge me to climb a tower that was designed only to be climbed? Is this any more a challenge than connecting a series of numbered dots in the order they’re numbered?

And yet, part of me still loves climbing those damn towers.

Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag is very much a Ubisoft Highlights Magazine game, but it’s also gaming’s quintessential pirate simulator and as such, one of gaming’s most distinct and necessary sandboxes. Pirates, like cowboys and ninjas and sneaker hedgehogs, were just meant to be a video game premise, and just as Red Dead Redemption did for cowboys, Black Flag lets you live out just about any pirate fantasy Hollywood might have planted in your childhood brain. Until Ubi makes a sequel, that makes Black Flag THE pirate game, as well as Assassin’s Creed’s most deviant installment (full disclosure: it’s the only one I’ve spent significant time with, but I am pretty sure I’m right). Your being an assassin feels like merely a convenient side effect of being a bloodthirsty pirate, leaving you free to focus on more thrilling pursuits like sieging island fortresses and rope-swinging onto enemy ships to singlehandedly thin out their crew to the point of surrender. What a joyous fantasy they have created here.

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Yakuza 5 (and 4)

I bought Yakuza 5 in Japan in 2014 after hearing part of the game takes place in my beloved Nagoya. (Go Dragons!) Well, I sat on that copy of Yakuza 5 until PlayStation Plus subscribers received both Yakuza 4 and 5 for free, and then I sat on it some more. At the start of 2017, as Yakuza 0 released and the series finally started to get the praise it probably deserved in the West, I suddenly remembered that these games were supposed to be good, and that part of 5 takes place in Nagoya, and finally I vowed to play through 5 before the end of 2017. 2017 is ending now, and I still haven’t done that. If I were a yakuza, I guess I’d have to like, lose a pinky joint or something.

I did try. But I figured I should start with Yakuza 4 to minimize my knowledge gap, and then it turned out that these games are tremendously long. Yakuza 4 was pretty fun sometimes, and also malevolently tedious at others. I found myself annoyed with the things I expected to like and quite taken with the things I expected to find insipid. Though the combat had its charms, it also had lots of annoying shit that made it feel bad. Lots of things knock you down, and getting up takes one thousand real-life years. Grappling is almost completely useless after the first couple hours. Critical elements which shouldn’t be locked behind an upgrade wall, are.

On the other hand, the hostess club minigame, which I fully expected to be an embarrassing blemish on the experience which ensured I would never be able to play the game with my wife in the room, turned out to be weirdly tasteful and compelling. I started the tutorial mission with my eyes rolling, and five minutes later my wife and I were having an earnest, spirited discussion about how we should do so-and-so’s makeup.  

Unfortunately, Yakuza 4 suffers from some pretty severe obtuseness. By the time I took control of the third protagonist, I was more interested in pursuing the hostess club subplot than the main storyline (which was surprisingly engaging but simply too long and twisty). But early on in the hostess club questline, a colleague sends you to the streets to hustle for new customers, giving you only the vaguest hints about where to go and what to do. After a full hour of fruitlessly patrolling points A, B, and C in search of anything worthwhile, I just gave up on the whole thing and ended up rushing through the rest of the game. When I finished, I was bewildered to learn that I had only completed “2%” of the game. Two percent?! Welllll fuck it.

Anyway, I did start Yakuza 5 and was delighted at how immediately better it looked and felt than its predecessor. I’m still in the first area with the first protagonist (of freaking FIVE), but the fighting is already more fun, and the dumb side stuff more readily accessible. And above all else, it does something I’ve never seen in a video game: it gives you a car, but demands that you follow the rules of the road. I don’t understand the science or the psychology here--but it’s fun.

Maybe in 2018 I’ll see Nagoya.

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(Image courtesy of Mobygames)

Castlevania Chronicles

I distinctly remember this game reviewing kind of poorly in certain publications, for the crimes of being too hard and too old-fashioned. The reviews also mentioned it was a port and a reworking of a remake of the original Castlevania which had first appeared on something called the X68000, and that was all convoluted enough to scare me away for the next sixteen years, despite very good box art.

I finally checked it out this year after grabbing it on a PSN sale for between one and two bucks, and now it seems to me that the “Arrange Mode” version of the game is actually one of the more fair and visually attractive moments in Classic Castlevania. A nice way to fill the ongoing Castlevania void (though I’m pretty sure that void is permanent).

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DARIUSBURST: Chronicle Saviours

Shoot-‘em-ups are the jazz of video game genres. Without ‘em, none of the other stuff that followed would’ve happened, but you still sound like a boring old dinosaur when you start name-dropping the old hits, and to be any good at them you have to be some kind of crazed savant with a mechanical brain and clockwork fingers. Or at least that’s the image.

Like jazz, shoot-‘em-ups still occupy a tiny, neglected corner of the party like obligatory chaperones. Most of the time they cost too much to convert anyone who isn’t already a fan of the genre, or even secure a sale from anyone with less than a hardcore personal investment in saving them from extinction. At least jazz has public-funded radio to work with. Shmups come out about once per decade per franchise, but the new ones still slip onto shelves at a full $59.99 price point as though they’re just like any other modern gaming franchise. To borrow a jazz lyric, something’s gotta give something’s gotta give something’s gotta give.

DARIUSBURST first came out on PSP, where I guess it was just a standard Darius, meaning you were a spaceship that shot exclusively at flying robot sea creatures. The Vita/PS4/PC upgrade, Chronicle Saviours, is by far the most justified shmup I’ve played of the last couple generations. It is fun, visually slick, digestible, and brimming with fan service for your shmuploving grampa.

I’ve only bothered with the Chronicle Saviours version of the game, which divides everything into little bite-sized branching missions on a progression tree, and every attempt you make awards points which can be used to buy ships, each of which changes the core gameplay mechanics in some way.

I like that the missions are so tiny and boss-centric. Many of them are just bosses, and although you repeat the same bosses over and over, they are such awesome sights to behold and so challenging to master that I am game for the repetition. The bosses also all seem to have variant types similar to Monster Hunter, and come to think of it, this is sort of the Monster Hunter of shmups. Lots of games are now the Monster Hunter of something.

Chronicle Saviours also introduces the “Burst Counter,” a risk-reward mechanic which challenges you to time a beam shot in sync with the enemy’s beam shot. When you succeed, your reward is a clash of beams that makes you feel like a ninja dueling atop a tightrope.

The thing that first sold me on the game—and I’ve never said this before ever—was the DLC. What Taito has done is just released a bunch of content packs which pay homage to beloved shmups of old, divided by publisher. There’s a Sega pack, a Capcom pack—even a Taito pack. Each one gives you access to old ships inspired by all the games that made me a shmuploving dinosaur in the first place—Layer Section, Space Harrier, Section Z, and on and on. And when I say “inspired,” I mean they use the actual names of the games and ships and stick those other games’ shooting mechanics into DARIUSBURST. It’s an unexpectedly explicit and thorough ode to some decades-old classics. Something about seeing a Layer Section logo in HD in 2017 (though Chronicle Saviours came out in 2015) feels like a triumph over the odds, like hearing your favorite unknown band on the soundtrack to a summer blockbuster or hit TV series.

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Earth’s Dawn

In a year in which I failed to play several of the most lauded games which released, including several that I already owned, it is downright silly that I made any time for Earth’s Dawn, which is an indie Japanese niche action title, but on second thought, I’m exactly the person who should’ve made time for Earth’s Dawn. That said, I only played it for a single session. Still, it’s weird and cool enough to deserve mention here, especially since it has been completely invisible since its release to PSN in 2016.

Earth’s Dawn is a 2D action game with bite-sized, quest-based progression and a loot and crafting system, all of which echo games like Monster Hunter. I keep seeing it compared to Metroidvanias, but this is a superficial comparison based solely on its being 2D and having a map. Metroidvanias are about exploration of unknown terrain. Earth’s Dawn is about fighting different enemy types and formations on a series of quickly learnable, compact boards, and getting resources for your trouble. It’s Monster Hunter. More accurately still, it's Mercenary Kings. It's really not Metroid at all. 

The combat feels like many of the recent wave of 2D “jugglers” like Odin Sphere or Shank or The Dishwasher. Honestly, I don’t ask for much more than that, but the game also has some pretty slick, colorful art, and a compelling cherry-on-top twist on its familiar structure: a countdown timer sits at the top of your mission and upgrade hub (just a set of menus), clicking down as you attempt to upgrade your character through missions and crafting. Once the timer expires, you must attempt a “Counter-Offensive” mission, which is a little meatier than your standard missions and culminates with a boss fight. So the game becomes a race to strengthen yourself enough to take on the boss before the timer runs out. This is reminiscent of one of my all-time favorites, Valkyrie Profile, and a clever way to give the entire experience a greater sense of importance and purpose, and also help prevent endless grinding.

Earth’s Dawn is just pretty enough, slick enough, and weird enough. Decidedly Lacquerware.

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Mitsurugi Kamui Hikae

Two things are true of all my favorite combat-driven action games: 1) they give me an actual, literal adrenaline boost, and 2) they would be just as fun in a blank chamber with no such thing as level design.

MKH tests and supports this claim. It makes me wonder if games like Devil May Cry are actually any better for all their exposition and exploration and platforming. MKH is much like other "stylish action" or "character action" games, but dispenses entirely with the levels. All you do is cut suckas on a flat circle of terrain. But the combat is so fun and satisfying, the minimalism just means a faster track to that adrenaline kick. I played through MKH in one sitting and immediately began another. 

2017 was a great comeback year for flashy melee action, but MKH may well have been the only respectable installment in the genre in 2016 (PS4 release). Any fans of the genre would be remiss not to play it.

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Lost Planet 2

I’ve been a vocal LP2 fan since shortly after its release in 2010, so I'm technically not late to this party at all, but I need to toot its horn again. It is one of Capcom’s more misunderstood titles and came right at the brink of Capcom’s several-year-long identity crisis, which caused shit like Operation Raccoon City and DmC to happen (for the record: I love DmC). But I maintain an assertion that much of the game’s criticism was the result of misplaced expectations; people thought they were getting a space marine shooter—instead they got Monster Hunter with rad future shit, but in 2010 everybody here still hated Monster Hunter. I suspect the world is a lot more ready for LP2’s wild ride now than they were then, and the about-to-be-massive-success of Monster Hunter: World is all the proof you need.

I replayed LP2 in its entirety this year. Twice. I’m still unlocking new stuff, and most of it is cool: most recently, I got some grenades that let you open portals where you throw them (kind of like the portal gun in Portal), a shotgun that shoots confetti (and does more damage than any other shotgun), and a whole bunch of goofy dance emotes. I could (and eventually will) gush at great length about LP2, but for now I’ll just say that, yet again, it was one of the most enjoyable gaming experiences of the year. The Lost Planet games are the only internally-developed Capcom games of the previous generation that haven’t been rereleased, so, uh, we can probably expect an eventual rerelease. Yay! If I'm right, this time don’t miss it.

Next up: Bests of 2017!

[poppiseed]

Okay so I beat Sonic Forces.

First things first, not the worst game in the series. You would rather play this than Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic 06, the Storybook games, or Sonic Boom.

But considering that they were continuing on a playstyle that was previously, in my opinion, fine tuned, it's quite disappointing.

In recent years, I found Generations to be a high point in the series. It's a game that took what was created in Unleashed, refined somewhat in Colors, and simply nailed it. While Unleashed was too "boost-2-win" and linear (still LOVE the game though omg) and Colors too platform heavy with constant breaks in momentum, Generations had a perfect balance with fluid platforming that did not have you feel as if you were constantly in a state of stop-and-go, the sense of speed needed in a Sonic game, and various pathways to discover. Many people consider Sonic's Adventure formula to be the pinnacle of Modern Sonic and I think what we got in Generations was just as good.

I expected Sonic Forces to improve or simply just continue established, solid mechanics and it didn't.

Level design is the dullest of dull. Go straight, just straight, reach the goal. Especially in Sonic and classic Sonic stages. Any minor detour is made simply for a red ring and nothing more. Modern Sonic has no 3D platforming as well. If you're in 3D, you will be boosting and that's it. I know this is a complaint often made in Unleashed, but it's even more shallow here. Unleashed had platforms, drifting, fun level gimmicks and even some nifty qte tricks to pull off. This game has very jarring qte segments and little else.

Avatar stages have more variation, but if you don't have the right wispon, you're stuck doing more of the same. Colors did it better, you unlock the wisp, you can now use the wisp if it's there. In Avatar levels the wisp options shuffle and vary, but again if you don't have a wispon compatible, it's a waste.

Classic Sonic? Why? Why were you just shoehorned into this game? With Generations and Mania behind my belt, it's disheartening to see these stages. There's just a few classic levels (again, shoehorned), and they're lacking in pathways and fun gimmicks. The level with the casino elements was a nice touch, but the physics didn't act the way I expected to. How am I flipping off a flipper and not going sky high? Now I know that Generations doesn't have classic physics down to a tee, but Classic Sonic felt awkward. Really awkward.

In fact, controlling all three was awkward. Sonic's homing attack reticle wouldn't always appear when I expected after years of previous gameplay. The Avatar was meant to have gameplay a little less speedy than Sonic's (hence a delayed homing attack) with a minor, really minor, focus on combat but the character moves as fast as Sonic so I would unintentially zoom off the edge. At one point I started to use the d-pad to alleviate this in 2D sections, and while that helped (until I got to wall jumping...), that shouldn't be a thing I need to do. Control, depending on the character, can be too stiff and awkward or to loose and awkward. Even with a double jump. Sonic has controlled super smooth in previous titles and it was not the case here.

Levels aren't just barren in terms of design, but also looks. It's not Shadow the Hedgehog bad, but does every level have to feel like a factory? A Sonic game can have a darker tone and not overly bleak level design. SA2 doesn't have much of a light story and it doesn't have overly bright levels like Heroes, but they aren't saturated in dark grays and dark greens. There were times when I had a hard time seeing my character because of the way they blended in the level. That's pretty damn bad. I get it, Eggman took over everything but it was a bit much.

Also... kinda tired of both Chemical Plant and Green Hill at this point lol.

Music was fine minus whatever the fuck that shit was for Classic Sonic. All of those themes were grating. I can honestly dig a Sonic game rocking a soundtrack with loads of dnb, though I can't remember most of it. I'm going give it another listen through some headphones though. I STILL LOVE INFINITE'S THEME SO MUCH OMG.

Character interactions were great (minus Shadow being hard to hear), Knuckles wasn't a moron, and Tails was PRECIOUS. I was apathetic about my character's involvement in the plot, but I'm not really in this series for that anyway.

I'll probably end up deleting this off my Switch when I wanna do some housekeeping on it, but I'll most likely keep playing to see if I warm up to it.

I bet this sounds harsh, but this is coming from a fan. I've loved the series for a long time and truly felt they nailed it with Generations, I didn't expect them to go so backwards with the winning formula. If you're a fan, try the game. Try it first, don't buy. But I, personally, don't feel the same kind of thrill and joy in this game and expected more after so long of a wait.

As a friend said: Unleashed >= Generations >> Colors >>> Forces

[innuendostudios]

Everything You Thought You Wanted: Thoughts on Thimbleweed Park

[no spoilers]

There are a lot of ways to think about adventure game puzzles. Here’s one I like: a good adventure game puzzle is one you enjoy being stumped on. This is not the only definition of a good puzzle, nor are good puzzles the only rubric of a good adventure game, but I’ve long been a fan of the puzzle that grinds in my head for the hours I’m not playing the game. I spend a day away from my desk and, always in the back of my mind, ponder things I will try when I get home. Kathy Rain had a puzzle like this; Resonance had almost no other type of puzzle; this was the driving experience of Braid (which is not an adventure game). It’s a hard needle to thread, the puzzle having to be challenging but not too frustrating, and if the solution isn’t satisfying then the challenge won’t feel worth it. But, done properly, these are the kinds of puzzles I don’t want to look up the solution to, because being stumped is fun. This kind of puzzle is, understandably, rare, as it contrasts with the more popular design of, say, Portal 2 or Twilight Princess (neither of which are adventure games), where a puzzle is an easy thing that makes you feel clever without requiring you to be clever. These puzzles can be enjoyable, too, but I end up appreciating the designer’s cleverness more than my own.

Not to be too harsh, but if a good adventure game puzzle is one you enjoy being stumped on, Thimbleweed Park has no good puzzles.

I’m sorry. I wanted to like this game, and it certainly begins well. It’s the product of Ron Gilbert himself going back to his roots, and being that Ron Gilbert’s roots include The Secret of Monkey Island, aka Probably The Most Formative Gaming Experience Of My Childhood, I am squarely on Gilbert’s side here. I don’t actively dislike the game, or think any of the puzzles are outright bad, but I didn’t have fun, and I’m not thrilled by its design philosophy.

Thimbleweed Park follows the footsteps of Gilbert’s own Maniac Mansion so closely I’d think it’s attempting to track and kill its predecessor. It uses the same big head/chunky pixel aesthetic, the multiplicity of playable characters, roughly the same screen resolution, the same drawer of verbs on the lower left and the same inventory-of-infinite-size on the lower right. It’s been souped up with a number of modern affordances, both graphical (scrolling that cheats on the pixel grid, a vastly deepened range of colors) and mechanical (fast travel options, more sensible methods of connecting verbs to game objects). Most work, a few don’t work as well as they should (the run button seems calibrated for a game that scrolls faster than this one), but, on the whole, it does what nostalgia trips should always do: feel like the past while also sweetening it.

I am not surprised that a number of classic adventure fans are already calling it a new benchmark of the genre.

Let’s step back a bit: For a lot of adventure diehards, the pinnacle of Classic Era design is Part II of LeChuck’s Revenge: Monkey Island 2. In Part I, you’re on an island with a number of locations, characters, and objectives, and when you’ve solved all the puzzles you can leave the island. Part II is the same, but on a much grander scale. You now have three full islands and there are four map pieces scattered among them - you will advance to Part III when you’ve collected all four. There are dozens of characters, dozens of locations, dozens of objectives; long, snaking puzzle chains that span multiple islands and even a dip to the bottom of the sea that will, at some point, you hope, end in a map piece. It’s huge. This is only Part II of IV, but, for most players, Part II will likely consume about 90% of your time with LeChuck’s Revenge. The intense nonlinearity of this segment is one of the reasons “linear” became a shorthand criticism of other adventure games by fans of the genre.

The lead designer of LeChuck’s Revenge was, not coincidentally, Ron Gilbert.

Thimbleweed Park is Part II of LeChuck’s Revenge blown up to feature length. I’ve known the solution to every puzzle in LeChuck’s Revenge since I was 9 years old, so it’s impossible for me to judge it dispassionately, but the sprawl of Thimbleweed Park is so overwhelming that it makes me question whether it ever worked in the first place. Like, is the nonlinearity of LeChuck’s Revenge only enjoyable when you already know all the solutions? Is a huge knot of intersecting puzzles actually fun to solve, or is it just fun to know?

All the ways that LeChuck’s Revenge frustrated me in 1992 came back to me with Thimbleweed Park, as well as all the reasons I never finished Maniac Mansion. There are five playable characters. Each character has their own To Do list, full of objectives. Each character has their own inventory, only some of which can be transferred to other characters. Some characters have unique relationships with NPCs and will get unique dialogue options with them. There are certain things only one character can do, and other things only one character can’t do (there is a puzzle at the radio tower where the only character who can solve the first half is the only character who can’t solve the second half and this puzzle may or may not be time-sensitive). Every character has a number of red herring inventory items that never serve any purpose.

You get what I’m saying? Everything that made Part II of LeChuck’s Revenge challenging is multiplied by five. Not to mention the game world is bigger - there was the point around four and a half hours in when I realized I still had not traversed the entire map. If the game I’m describing is Breath of the Wild, maybe that’s a good thing, but when it’s an adventure game where you  have to keep every interactive object in every location in mind at all times and where the NPCs quickly exhaust all their dialogue options and there’s no combat or cooking or horse riding or fishing to faff around with, sheer size is no longer appealing.

In a game with well over 100 puzzles, I looked up solutions to 5 or 6. I’d say that’s not too bad. None of the solutions were horribly obtuse, but I didn’t regret looking up the answers, either. In about every case, my reaction was, “I would have tried that if I’d thought of it, but I wouldn’t have thought of it for hours.” This is simply because most solutions are no more or less plausible then about 30 other things you could try. With so many characters and so much inventory and so many objectives, there are just so many things you could try. And half the time I don’t know why I’m trying it. I can’t tell you how many puzzle chains I followed simply because I could tell they were puzzles and that the game wanted me to solve them. There was no hint that the payoff would be a random item that I’d been looking for in an unrelated puzzle chain (or, worse, an item whose purpose was still obscure to me), I was just doing it because I was clearly supposed to. So, yes, each solution I looked up, the relationship between that inventory item and that game object was immediately obvious, but the only way I would have thought of that connection on my own would be if I walked, methodically, though every location with every character until the association presented itself. There are simply too many objects and items to make all those associations in my head. The solutions aren’t finding a needle in a haystack, they’re finding a needle in a fucking Monet.

And what gets to me is how adventure fans seem to think this is smart design, that the player who goes from room to room with every character until the solution presents itself is more intelligent than the one who says “fuck it” and looks up the answer. I am not a gamer who equates wit with stubbornness. For me, looking up the solution is a matter of pattern recognition. I solved the majority of the puzzles without help and could determine that none was entertaining enough to spend more than a certain amount of time on. Being stumped was never enjoyable, so I took no pride in solving puzzles the hard way.

There are other weirdnesses. For one, the characters hardly ever talk to one another, so it doesn’t make sense how they all know what the others have learned; there is, in fact, no narrative reason why any but Ray and Reyes are working together. This is a thing in Gilbert’s Maniac Mansion and The Cave, and Tim Schafer’s Day of the Tentacle and Broken Age, so apparently LucasArts alums think this is one of those things players will just suspend their disbelief on, but no, I don’t think it is. Also, Gilbert’s flippant sense of humor made me chuckle audibly for the first hour or two, but it makes it hard to get invested in a story that keeps mocking the very idea of being invested in it. (And, boy, if you thought the ending of LeChuck’s Revenge thumbed its nose at anyone who gave a shit about the plot or characters, the ending of Thimbleweed Park will strike you as unbearably smug.)

So, yeah. Y’all, I don’t know. I tried. Maybe it’s that irony just doesn’t scope up to 15 hours, maybe it’s that adventure design can only sprawl so much, maybe it’s that a game centered in one major location for its entirety just feels too much like a Sierra game for my tastes. But I didn’t have fun with this. Make of that what you will.

[cardinalfeng]

LoZ: BotW Review

I know I don’t really like post game reviews but I’ve loved Zelda for a really long time and I wanted to talk about this new installment because I just finished it.

Let it be said however: Spoiler Warning! I’m talking about all of the main quests and a small amount of the side quests.

So, Let’s start with the great plateau. I thought this area was ingenious. Not only did it get you right back into the feeling of Zelda, with locations like the Temple of Time, but I felt like it was really a mission statement for the game, and I loved it. I encountered the Stone Talus right after the Stasis trial, so I had the hammer, but it took a few tries to realize that the hammer was a better weapon than the swords I had. I thought the sense of mystery throughout the entire area was awesome, and the fact that there were somethings which were just as hard as areas in the rest of the game, like the decayed guardians near one of the shrines. And the fact that you re-encounter the old man at the Temple of Time was awesome, because you have 4 spirit orbs and so, before you know to look at the steeple, you just walk inside and see the goddess statue glowing.

I also liked the run from the Great Plateau up to Kakariko Village. On that trip I encountered moblins and lizalfos, which were the other two extremely common enemies in Hyrule, and the difficulty spike was present but manageable. That whole trip also introduced Hestu, and had one of the most amazing tonal shifts in the game. I went through the East Barracks at night, and it was an extremely hard and lonely area, especially when I had like 2 swords and a few arrows. However, upon leaving that area, you meet a friendly NPC, and then a stable, which leads to not only catching horses, but also changes from the loneliness to feeling like you have friends somewhere at least. 

In Kakariko Village, I feel like they capitalized really hard on the Sheikah. It’s where you learn about the memories, and Hyrule’s past, and the Sheikah’s past, and the Yiga. It was pretty intense in terms of the whole story line. But, it again helped me feel less lonely in Hyrule. And the side quests weren’t hard, but they were full of personality. 

The hike to Hateno Village was also interesting, because of the sheer number of dead guardians you see near Fort Hateno. However, the Hateno Village shrine was pretty terrible. The motion controls are pretty inaccurate and unfun, and I won by basically cheating. Though the goal is to show what the switch can do, I really felt that it was more tedium than fun. I felt the same way about bringing the ancient flame up to the Tech Lab. It was mostly just walking through the village. For comparison, I really enjoyed the Akkala one. However, the NPC’s in both Hateno and Kakariko were fantastic and full of personality, in a way that felt more like an older Zelda, like LTTP.

Meta-game I think was pretty interesting. Sure, it’s basically just Korok seeds, Shrines, Towers, and scavenging. However, the sheer number of things you can find really just filled up my time. And things like shrines and korok seeds are genius little ways to have tons of puzzles filled in the game. Such as the “Steady thy heart” shrine, which was a mini-dungeon, and on the way to finding it, I found like 2 korok seeds, and there’s a bit of combat involved too. And the towers were also their own puzzle-combat combination, which just felt very Zelda, even if it was such a new feature. However, the Gerudo Tower, for the Gerudo Highlands was a load of bullshit, and I had to look it up. It’s just an issue of placement. 

The Divine Beasts were a really cool idea, and I think that there were enough variations in the formula of get to a place, do a fetch quest, fight the divine beast, finish the dungeon, beat the boss. I really liked the Zora’s Domain one, because of the sheer factors involved. The Zora people hate you, you need a shit ton of shock arrows (you didn’t but I played ball), and you need to get inside Vah Ruta. I felt like that mission wasn’t just to get inside of Ruta, but really for Link’s sake, and that of Hyrule. It was multi-layered, and the fetch quest was mostly combat. And Ruta was an interesting gimmick, and I enjoyed the dungeon in its entirety. 

The Goron City quest was fun, and people often harsh on it for getting into Eldin and not being fireproof. However, on either stable next to Eldin you can get fireproof elixirs or fireproof lizards. Plus, Eldin is literally crawling in fireproof lizards. I thought that Rudania as a whole was really fun, but I wish that they’d stuck with the darkness inside Rudania that was there at the start. It might be annoying at first, but the puzzle possibility and interesting mechanics were too good to pass up. I think Arin Hanson is right, however, that the boss cutscenes shouldn’t happen when they do. Rather, when you’re about to fight the Divine Beast, to see it in all of it’s glory. Because I could decide for myself to fight the massive volcano lizard.

My least favorite quest was Vah Medoh. First, getting to Rito Village wasn’t hard. It’s not in a dangerously cold area, Tabantha tower is really close, and Medoh is right above it, so it’s impossible to miss. Second, the fetch quest was really close and not hard to get to, and the task to get Teba on your side was aggressively easy. You have 3 minutes and it took me 30 seconds. Then the battle against Medoh just felt like the same task as the flight range, but with bomb arrows, and one less target. With Teba taking fire, and with Teba as cold and flat of a character, there’s no collateral for Link. Even after you find out that he’s been hurt, I didn’t care because the game gave me no reason to. The Dungeon wasn’t hard, and it’s gimmick felt shockingly similar to Rudania. The boss was easy, and as long as I had arrows, didn’t even mean Link had to get within close range. Furthermore, Revali is annoying and condescending, and has few redeemable qualities until after the boss fight, making me wonder why I even freed that asshole.

I liked the Gerudo quest, but I wish that it didn’t have the rupee gate to get inside Gerudo Town, and it felt like 2 dungeons in one. The Yiga Hideout and Naboris were both a dungeon in their own right. Naboris’s gimmick was annoying at points, and the boss fight had too many phases, but it all felt original and interesting. (Note: I did the beasts in order of Ruta, Naboris, Medoh, Rudania). My biggest point about the game is that there should have been more dungeons. The Gerudo quests left me satisfied, while every other one felt too short. If there were 8 dungeons, plus Hyrule Castle, that might be enough dungeon.

In terms of animals and extra stuff in the game, there were really great things. I liked how Lurelin Village didn’t seem to be balanced on Link, and was just there in Faron. I liked the Triforce Springs, especially the quest to save Naydra, which was new, but fascinating. Tarrey town was super fetch quest filled to build, but another way to make the player really feel how they affect the world. The labyrinths were complicated but fun, as were many shrine quests. The memories got me acquainted with a combination of Hyrule, the modern day, and 100 years ago, and were an interesting way to have a player choose if they want exposition or not. The Master Sword was an interesting way to get the player progress on their own but still have greater goals. Hyrule Castle was really fun, but a little too disjointed to allow for exploration without risking total decimation from the guardians (and the North Gatehouse is such bullshit).

Finally, is the ending. I personally love all of the cutscenes and the boss fights. The first one felt like a greatest hits of the previous bosses, but was still fresh and interesting to see how the mechanics interacted. Dark Beast Ganon was a more classic Ganon fight, but made Zelda’s role both prominent and non-intrusive, and explained the weird malice eyes. All of the cutscenes afterwards were amazing and lead the way to a great set of post-game quests to fix up Hyrule. And then the game stayed the same as if I never beat Ganon. With all of the cutscenes, I would love to see typical NPC Zelda, and travel Hyrule with her, even fix up the castle, use the Guardians to make a game plan against Ganon in the future. Sure it makes Hyrule less dangerous, but it gives the player power in Hyrule’s future beyond Ganon, which is where every Zelda game stops defining Link, and where Botw could have strived to be better.

TL;DR: BotW is a fantastic game that fills the time with tons of activities, and the changes to the Zelda formula only make it more fun. However, the Dungeons were too few and far between, and the ending was particularly underwhelming given the sheer number of hints at post game were in the final cutscenes. But overall, an unforgettable Zelda experience, and the best in a long line of great games.