#but i wouldn't recommend replaying the dlc

[emdotcom]

"I have played x" assumed you have played either The Kaleidoscope or Tattletail until credits roll for any endings.

Tattletail, for the un-initiated, was an indie horror darling that, for maybe a month or so, was big on YouTube in 2016, & then fell to the wayside shortly after. It still got a free DLC (The Kaleidoscope), but the DLC did not recieve the same widespread coverage.

[risu5waffles]

[LBP - LBsP 02/16/24] 295 - DLC Dive: Metal Gear Solid

Well, we did it. A bit surprised; it wound up coming pretty much to the wire, but we did it.

The big takeaway is MGS remains a really great set, even played in LBP3 (wiv some caveats); but gosh do i ever wish they'd stuck wiv the scrapped Shadow Moses theme, instead of the vaguely Middle Eastern one we got.

Depicting real worldiness isn't impossible in LBP, i think, but it's always going to feel a bit uncomfortable if it's not done wiv a deft hand. There's a bit of the saccharine to SackThing, which, honestly, i love; but it makes things outside of strict deconstruction a little tough. Having iconography that is clearly invoking real war, that effects real people, and then putting SackThing in the midst, and it's a bit... but why tho'? Couple that wiv the story itself being tongue-in-cheek chiding on a completely low-stakes subject, and... like, they really should have gone wiv Shadow Moses.

All that being said, like, it's a good set. Probably the best of the lot for bang-for-your-buck, if you're asking me. The material set is incredibly solid, and super easy to build wiv. The decos look nice, even if they're a bit limited in the environments that support them (and even then, i shrunk those missile pods down and used them as braille strips in my train station hub, and they're a bit bumpier-looking than the real thing, but not so much as you wouldn't recognize what they are supposed to be). The stickers... well, the ones that work, work really well. The ones that don't (for me, the realistic branded ones), they just take up space.

All the levels are pretty much bangers, and don't overstay their welcome. The full lot probably takes 40minutes max to finish if you're really poking around. There's nothing that requires multiple players, so you're not juggling controllers, or feeling sol if you can't swing couch co-op. It plays a little worse in LBP3, but not so much that things are broken (except for the Super Sentry Turret you get as a collected object, that's just busted and nothing i tried could get it to fire properly).

i do recommend playing in LBP1 if you have the ability; it looks gorgeous, the Rex fight is a bit trickier and more tense, and you can still get 10 out of the 11 trophies.

All told, if they'd just gone wiv a different setting, and given us the "Middle Eastern" (actually probably Moroccan) materials in, like, the History set (they're all really nice materials, and that region doesn't really get any rep in the mainline LBP games), this would be perfect. ---------------------------------------------------------------------

The way they handled the "cutscene" here was pretty neat, and i really liked that they gave an active reason to replay the level by changing it into a shooting gallery. It's a little confusing as to what you're actually supposed to be shooting to get the prize bubbles to drop, but the level's only about a minute and a half long, so replaying isn't so much a chore.

This one is really, really keen. Incorporating the tutorial into an actual playable level instead of shunting it into the tutorial menu (and having it be possibly not implemented in LBP3 and locking us out of the logic tools, like wiv the Move cursor and the Memorizer) was really clever. What really makes this one special, tho' is how different it is when you play it the second time. Even in story mode, we seldom saw really big changes like that (that one race in DaVinci's Hideout is the only one i can think of off the top of my head). i can understand why. Trying to do something similar wiv the scenic/challenge modes for the archives and flag level, and it's really a lot of work. This one being short and sweet probably made it a lot easier from a design standpoint.

The stealth in this bit was a real fun concept, and i wish they'd made that section of it a little longer. The level's a fun one all-around, but it probably suffers the most from the tone/setting mismatch.

This one has the same tone issues as Act 3, but is also a really solidly designed, fun level. i think this might be the first time we see secrets implemented in an official level, tho' i'm sure there were creators in the community that were playing around wiv getting that kind of system to work by this point. The use of the paintinator for platforming wiv those drop-down platforms was really cool, and something i wish i'd seen more of in community levels. While i ran into the paintinator a lot, it was generally limited to "kill thing/open door." i know Paczek132 (shoot... was it 132 or 123?) had a level that really leaned into paintinator platforming, but it only really worked in LBP1, because of how they changed impact physics on the paintballs.

As much as i like this fight, and it does remain fun in LBP3, it probably suffers the worst from the transfer. There's something gone screwy wiv the rotation of one of the firing pods, and it shoots downward a lot less often than it does in LBP1, so it's a lot easier to just stay stationary for chunks of the fight and wait for the target to open up. Which, the third-phase target doesn't drop down the way it's supposed to; you can still hit it, but you have to be just about under it to manage. One oddity, but i played the set for the episode in all versions 1, 2, and 3, and all the visible tags we see here? They're visible in 2 as well. i wonder if it was an issue where Mm couldn't push an update on it, because of it being DLC? It seems strange that they would have just forgotten about it. When 2 came out, the tags thing was a known issue, and there were only the three big level kits out at that time (this, PotC, and Marvel. Monsters, History, and Incredibles were all one-offs). Maybe they just didn't think it was a big deal. They stand out like a sore thumb, tho'.

i can't hardly stand survival challenges. i just get bored of them way before whatever goal that's been set, and this one's no different. i think the only one i've ever really enjoyed was chronos453's Virtual Return, and i was totally pants at that one. It was really, really good tho'. i mention in the gameplay bit of the LBsP episode, but you can see all the plasma balls have green tags on them, and i would love to know what those were triggering.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

It's weird being done wiv this after spending, what, 3weeks or so wiv it taking up the majority of my brainspace and available time. i'm glad to see the backside of it, to be honest. Glad in the good way. This is a good episode, right up there wiv the Chapter Zero one. But it was a lot of work, and it's good to be finished.

i don't know if i'll do another of these. None of the other sets really hook me like this one does, tho' i feel like i could make a decent go at a Move Pack episode, and i have a lot of questions about the Marvel set. i really, really don't want to do a PotC episode. There is just nothing about that set aside from the introduction of water, and a couple of materials that really interests me at all.

Whatever i wind up doing, it's going to be a good while before i even want to get started on it. Want to spend some time wivout anything more pressing than keeping up wiv the DLC archiving. Let me tell you, the Move Pack (i'm working on that right now) is some kind of pain in the butt.

[webbedphantom]

BEAT TACTICA!!

Took way longer than I expected, but that's probably because I'm an idiot and decided to do every quest-

Anyways, full spoiler breakdown below the thing

Okay, so I called a lot of the twists for the third kingdom ahead of time. Like the second I saw Eri, I was like "She's gonna die," and when they kept covering up the ruler's name in static, I was like "It's Toshiro's shadow"

But like even though I kinda called it, those moments still hit me hard. Like I didn't think the creepy principal would push her in front of a train, or that she'd survive only to have her spirit broken.

And while I kinda saw the God thing coming too, I didn't think the Shadow was a fake created by him, or that Erina would turn out to be TOSHIRO'S PERSONA LIKE WHAT???

(Though that does mean that my whole concept of Arsène becoming his own person is now substantiated in canon, so that's neat)

Also the Velvet Room becomes a Train because shut up it's cool

The final kingdom was a bit of a slog, though probably because I'd been marathoning the entire game for several hours with no sleep, but still doing a boss rush, broken up by lengthy combat arenas is like... like the most padding that has ever padding'd.

Still I did it, beat all those refights, and even did the bonus quests to unlock everyone's ultimate skill which was SUPER NOT WORTH IT FOR EVERYONE BESIDES JOKER AND TOSHIRO BECAUSE LITERALLY ALL OF THEIR GUNS DO MORE DAMAGE

(And I'm pretty sure Joker would've been in the same boat if I grinded to get his best weapon)

Granted, that's my fault for not putting points into the amplifiers, and spending a lot of time fiddling with Personas to get the best weapons possible, but still like c'mon! Why would you ever want to spend like 75 SP for a big blast when I could just use my gun and do like 10-15 more damage??

Granted, the AOE on those attacks came in handy sometimes, but because by the time I unlocked them for everyone (because yes you still have to put points in for them after doing the quests), I was at the final boss, so there weren't a lot of enemies to blow up

Final boss was a good time though! Had some fun gimmicks, a cool design, actually made me think for a bit, didn't last too long, had great music, all the good stuff you'd want from a final boss. Certainly better than Midnight Suns final boss, I'll tell you that much-

AND THAT ENDING FINISHER HOLY SHOCK

I thought Strikers had a good ending with them doing an All Out Attack on the final boss, but this-!! OH MAN, this a whole other level of cool

Literally an entire shonen anime fight scene to cap the whole thing off, everyone gets a moment to shine, Joker uses his grappling hook in some very Spidey-esk maneuvers, Erina has a Super Saiyan moment, turning into her Persona form to blast away some gears, it is EVERYTHING I could've ever wanted.

The ending was really sweet too. I had a feeling Erina wouldn't be coming into reality, as much as I wanted her to, but they had a touching good bye, Toshiro exposes his father's crimes and breaks it off with his "fiance" on live TV, the team has a cute scene in Leblanc, and then after the credits-

ERI SHOWS UP

We don't get to see much of her sadly, nor much of their reunion, but it still really tugged at my heart strings, as all Persona games are apparently required by law to do now.

Overall, I really enjoyed my time with Tactica. Is it worth $60? Honestly not sure. It's definitely short for an RPG, but there's definitely some extra content to keep you coming back. I'm looking forward to replaying the game on hard whenever I eventually save up enough to get my own copy (gotta play that DLC at some point)

So, while I do recommend it, especially if you're into Tactics games, maybe try to get it on a sale if you're planning to get the DLC. $60 was already pushing it, but $80?? Yeah, no thanks-

Strikers is still my favorite spin off though. Doesn't even come close.

PLAY STRIKERS I SWEAR TO GOD

[thatrandombystander]

Okay so I’m kind of curious! I know nothing about Dragon Age other than a bit of what I’ve seen from you, but it looks like Inquisition is on sale on steam right now. Is it a game you’d recommend playing yourself vs watching the cutscenes? And is it like part of a continuity or mostly standalone? :D

Dang all THREE Dragon Ages (Origins, DA2, Inquisition) are on sale on Steam right now. 10AUD each. Those are good prices. Wish I only paid that much for them.

Disclaimer that I have not played any Dragon age since 2015 and may misremember some stuff or my opinions may not hold up once I get around to replaying them.

I'm incapable of being brief sorry. This is almost 1000 words. 😔 TL;DR you can play the games stand alone, and I personally would recommend playing yourself.

Are they stand alone?

So each Dragon Age game's core plots and major characters are generally independent of each other. The protagonist is also a completely different person in each of the three game. You don't need to play any of the other games but they are all in the same world occurring sequentially one after, so you do get more out of it from playing previous games.

Characters from previous games will appear (or be referenced) in subsequent games, but usually it's major characters getting a cameo, or minor characters playing a larger role. There's a few exceptions - e.g. Varric is a party member in both DA2 and Inquisition - but it shouldn't leave you too confused. Events from previous games also build into newer ones, but anything important should be covered within the game you're playing. They're designed for both returning and new fans to enjoy.

Even if you start with the first game (Origins) you're gonna feel a bit lost with the world at first, because they did a fair amount of worldbuilding during development so even in Origins they'll reference characters and events as if your character already knows about them. Ya sort of just figure it out, although I think Origins does the best job of introducing the various factions and groups in the world and how they interact with each other.

That being said, I've only ever played the games in order so I can't really comment on how well they work for new players. But at the same time I never played the DLC for Origins and DA2 either, which I later found out had relevance in later games. (I believe current Steam versions of the games come with all DLC)

Watch cutscenes or play yourself?

Each of the Dragon Age games has some gameplay problems. Origins and Inquisition are both pretty long games with some slow or annoying bits, especially if you're doing sidequests and such. Fandom jokes include complaining about pretty much every main quest in Origins (there's a even a mod to skip one section) and especially complaining about The Hinterlands in Inquisition. DA2 is shorter but also... that game was very clearly rushed out and needed more development time. Lot's of location repetition.

Personally, since I'm a character-driven person and I like fantasy, I'm happy to push through the boring bits since I like a lot of the characters in the game and I want to romance people uwu. Frankly I don't even remember that much of the gameplay or actual plot details. I remember characters and vibes.

Speaking of romance; Dragon Age is a franchise that gives you choices that effect the world and characters around you. Choices vary in the significance of their consequences, but some of those choices can carry over and effect the worldstates into the next games.

This is why I personally would not watch a playthrough of the games. I have some strong feeling about the choices I make and would be annoyed to watch a playthrough that does things differently. (Tabris is best HoF option I shall not be swayed. King Alistair players DNI, this is a Queen Anora household. Templar supporters also DNI.) It's also why I'd need to replay the other two games before I get to Inquisition, because I don't like the default worldstate.

As a new player you wouldn't have that same issue, but you do lose out being able to make those choices as a playthrough watcher. If you don't want to play the previous games and want to go straight to Inquisition I don't think it would bother you either, since you wouldn't know which choices the game has defaulted for you. But again, they're decently long games so if you're rather just watch a playthrough, that's an fair option.

Side note + conclusion

If you're interested in the Dragon Age posts I reblog, warning that they're proportionally most likely to be from DA2, although I do like and share posts about all the games. It's a love or hate game for pretty good reason (some people will just recommend skipping it) but I fall into the love camp, I think because I like the characters and the plot is on a smaller scale.

Choosing to start with Origins and play all three is valid, only playing Inquisition is valid, playing Inquisition and then maybe feeling like playing the previous games is also valid. I only wouldn't recommend starting with DA2.

Ah, also the games have mature ratings. You can look up/ask about the details on that. From memory the most distressing would be implications/suggestion/aftermath of sexual assault (I think mostly in the first two games?) and slavery being a sort of thriving institute in parts of the Dragon Age universe.

If you have any other questions or confusions about the games/characters/world at any point, you're welcome to ask me. Even if I don't quite remember the details I can check the wiki to help block you from any unwanted spoilers. ✌

[lunar-anomaly]

i do !!!!

ill try to summarize each game the best I can but i highly recommend all of these

all of them are completely different and I hope you enjoy

Potionomics- A cute little deck-building game where you brew potions and sell them. This game is just so charming and I fell in love with every character as soon as they were introduced. You can also date/befriend 10 of them which gives you more cards. The artstyle and animation is also SO amazing. Literally my only complaint is that theres no endless mode. My playthroughs are usually about ~15 hours but i've replayed many times to romance different characters.

Webbed - An adorable 2D platformer where you play as a little spider trying to save her boyfriend. The web mechanics are super fun to mess around with and I absolutely adored the pixel art in this game. Takes around ~8 hours to beat.

Roadwarden - A super interesting text-based RPG that I played too long ago to remember entirely what it's about!! What I DO remember is that I enjoyed every second I played and was fascinated by the story. I recommend choosing the difficulty that gives you unlimited time to stay because I didn't do that and was forced to leave before I finished the story and got super bummed. My playthrough took about ~10 hours and I believe I chose the easiest difficulty with a time limit. Replayability is ehhh but that could be an issue with me specifically.

Outer Wilds - This is the most amazing singleplayer game I've ever played and I cannot tell you ANYTHING about the game because it will spoil it. You need to trust me and not look up anything at all about this game and just play it. (I WILL say tho it is a game entirely about exploration and if you don't like reading it might hinder your experience BUT even then I HIGHLY recommend you still give it a try.) Also there is DLC for this game that I suggest buying after playing through the main game. I was hesitant to because I was scared it wouldn't be as good but it is. I have about ~35 hours on it from the main game and the DLC combined.

image ID: the "before year x ends / anyone want to admit they got a crush on me" j cole meme, edited to say "before steam summer sale ends / anyone want to recommend me some good pc games / especially indie or lesser-known ones" end ID.

[lockhvrts]

how did you feel about resident evil 3? I’m almost done with it and really enjoying it!

thank u for asking ! :D 

so i have positive things to say but also some negative stuff

first the negative: i didn’t feel that scared tbh i know its more action oriented and plus its a resident evil but i would’ve loved it if they idk made it more ‘horror’ (idk?) like the scene with jill having a nightmare about getting infected and having no control over herself was neat i wish that they’d focused a bit more on her trauma from the first resi etc  it felt kind of rushed imo

2. nemesis (or how i like to call him/it: nemmy) wasn’t as intimidating and creepy as i thought he’d be based on the trailers, i personally thought of him more as an annoyance (jill reactions after several encounters with nemesis had me laughing hgjsd) also it felt kind of scripted the way he just suddenly appeared. i prefered mr x tbh.  i mean i didn't expect an ai like in alien isolation bc that was an excellent one , i'm in the mood to replay alien now ugh

3. not gonna spoil anything but the ending was kind of underwhelming imo i liked re2′s more. also re3 felt sort of rushed tbh i heard that some areas from the original re3 haven’t been included which is a shame  btw i've never played any classic re title but i plan on doing that

4. just a small thing but sometimes the trigger to shoot wouldn't react especially in boss fights idk might be just my controller but its weird that it works normally in other games

the positive things

 1. i love jill and carlos they’re literally the best part of the game

2.it had a great atmosphere due to its fantastic sound design and music plus the graphics are beautiful i feel like the re engine has improved since re2 remake

3.the story was nothing special considering its a re game but i didn’t feel bored or anything i still liked it

and yeah i can’t think of anything else plus i don’t want to spoil it more. all in all i’d recommend to get it on sale bc of its length it felt more like a dlc to re2 remake and not like a full game