general gaming

[slim thorn]

there's lots of games, indie and AAA, that people tell me are incredibly good but just bore or frustrate me

and of course plenty of great ones I never heard about except through one random source years after it came out and then tried and loved

[fresh bane]

even some AAA franchises suffer from this, some of my favourites being character action or fighting games

[teal sonnet]

now days yotubers and streamers are helping a lot on indie games becoming big

[fresh bane]

the types of games that even when made by AAA publishers don't reach the same amount of popularity or sales as other mainstream games

[teal sonnet]

example: amogus

[slim thorn]

like Blasphemous came out... 4? years before I was aware of it, and I loved it enough to do almost all the optional content

I really need to try KRZ someday but the mood just hasn't struck me yet

[teal sonnet]

not all indie games, even if they are good, are not for everyone

[fresh bane]

I almost bought Blasphemous which was on a ridiculous sale this christmas

but I wasn't sure if I was gonna play it since I'm playing other things

[slim thorn]

at some point there are just too many games/movies/shows out there

[teal sonnet]

example for me is Omori, there is people who love that game like a religion, and I LOVE, LOVE A LOT RPGMAKER GAMES

and I found omori a boring as fuck game

[fresh bane]

Yeah but that's different

[teal sonnet]

it was just not for me

[slim thorn]

even if you knew by divine magic exactly which 500 games would be amazing for you, there aren't enough hours in a life to play them all to completion

[fresh bane]

because I can say I don't like the witcher or I found it boring but it still is regarded as a great franchise of games and beloved by many

[teal sonnet]

maybe because I played do many rpgmaker games is the reason I don't like it

felt like just one more, with bit of better art and long as fuck

[fresh bane]

but I can't say the same for something like... Signalis, which for its very niche audience is a masterpiece of a game, but everytime anyone references Signalis everyone on the internet goes ''oh hey what's that?''

[slim thorn]

mm-hmm, I've played Witcher 2 and 3 but not 1, and for that I totally get it

everyone says Witcher 3 is better but honestly it's a perfect example of why I don't like most open world games (unless they're "tiny open worlds" like A Short Hike or The Pathless), W2 was significantly better for me

of course I'm also the weirdo that got my mom involved in a replay of Witcher 2 where she picked dialog choices while I did the gameplay; that's clearly not one of the intended ways to play the game but it sure as hell gave her the optimal experience as someone with zero twitch skill but a huge fan of modern adult fantasy stories (like GoT/DotD or Netflix's Witcher show)

[fresh bane]

Oh god another example of this is Inside and Limbo, both who are actually listed and regarded by some to be amongst the greatest games of all time!
and I think that if I were to say Limbo or Inside most people wouldn't know what the fuck I'm talking about

[slim thorn]

never heard of Inside

[fresh bane]

See?

[slim thorn]

Limbo I'm familiar with, saw partial LPs of, never played myself, but I also suspect it wouldn't be as highly regarded if it came out today since it feels like it was one of those first few indie puzzle platformers that made everyone realize this is a thing indies do really well

oh I never played Braid either

[slim thorn]

and even within it's niche, there's a pretty wide spectrum of opinions on whether Signalis was a great ambiguous story or just a confusing mess

[fresh bane]

I can see why anyone especially anyone who isn't very familiar with these plots would find it to be a pretentious confusing mess

[slim thorn]

and personally even I think it'd be even better if it was a little clearer

[fresh bane]

But I'd have to think about it a lot more to give a clear answer

I definitely feel like a lot of it is very overly ambiguous especially when the screen starts flashing or messages appear or any kind of heavy symbolism appears

especially because it happens a lot in the game

if it was a bit clearer it probably would be better for it, but I'm not a professional writer and I don't know what the writers' intention was so I can't fully say

Even SH2 which at the time was heavily criticized for its confusing and messy story (this is true) is still a pretty clear story, just with a mystery that is slowly uncovered

[slim thorn]

even SH2 only becomes clear later, so it heavily relies on the player being mentally ready for a story that's not going to make sense for the first 10+ hours

[fresh bane]

Oh god I just remembered Bloober is making the remake...

oh man

[slim thorn]

IIRC Tale lost interest in SH2 long before getting to the part where it clears things up, and I can't blame her

[fresh bane]

Survival horror games, as much as I'd like to imagine they aren't, are niche

especially Silent Hill

[slim thorn]

part of what fascinates me about "mind screw" stories is that I don't fully understand how to nail this engaging sense of ambiguous reality without the viewer/player being so lost they can't even engage with it at all and lose interest entirely

SH2 and Signalis definitely push the "wtf is even going on" boundary very far

[fresh bane]

It's purely a whether you like it or not type situation which is why a lot of indie games or even aaa games of these genres aren't super extremely popular and mainstream

I'm not saying the average person doesn't enjoy a bit of a mysterious and complicated story in favor of something that's more clear cut and directly told to the player

... but I am saying that the average person doesn't enjoy a bit of a mysterious and complicated story in favor of something that's more clear cut and directly told to the player

SH2 I feel is way easier to understand than Signalis

as someone who is very familiar with SH, even I had issues fully grasping or understanding Signalis, it definitely fucks a lot with the ''is this real? is this a dream? what is even happening?'' thing a lot more

[slim thorn]

tbf, with SH it helps that the other SH games give you a lot to latch on to

but I suspect that for someone unfamiliar with the whole series, SH2 would be similarly difficult to Signalis

probably a little less so given it's contemporary, on Earth, in one town, and only a single timeline/PoV/reality(???), but still

[gaunt marten]

The answer is in the budget. Indie games can afford to be a lot more experimental because they only need to make a small amount of money to be a success, but AAA games are made by hypercapitalist companies who have to make as much money as possible, not just enough money for every employee to have a decent wage. The result is AAA games don't take as many risks during development.

They appeal to as broad a population of paying customers as possible

[fresh bane]

I would've understood that back in 2012 but at this point is it really a ''risk''?

[slim thorn]

it's also that AAAs tend to have a bazillions more systems and mechanics in them, so they can't diverge too far from familiar design choices or half the content they already made has nowhere to go any more

[fresh bane]

They can just look at a popular indie game and try to replicate that, I mean that's what every AAA game already does they literally just copy each other at this point

[gaunt marten]

It's a much bigger risk than before. Most indie games do not make back their budget

[fresh bane]

there's a reason why Elden Ring was so praised in comparison to other open world rpgs

and Elden Ring was a complete success

[slim thorn]

I don't know if AAAs are more or less reliable than indies, or if one could even pin down a fair definition of that question

honestly Elden Ring is hardly "indie" at this point, they had the open world budget

[fresh bane]

I don't know if I totally buy the risk point of view about it

[slim thorn]

maaaaaybe Dark Souls was but even that wasn't their first game

[fresh bane]

They were already a AAA publisher by the time DS3 came out but my point is that Elden Ring is nothing like the other RPGs that it shares genre with

Dark Souls was always sort of a niche franchise even to this day

Elden Ring is essentially Dark Souls but big and open world, and it was extremely successful

[slim thorn]

sure, niche and AAA aren't quite mutually exclusive

[fresh bane]

So I don't know if I buy the 'it's too risky' approach personally

[hasty patio]

Also the fact that plenty of bigger companies are forever hobbled by one bad game or near-miss in terms of finances. Perfect example is Obsidian, who was forever on the brink of bankruptcy and even their good games didn't put them into a position to be on their own for long.

[gaunt marten]

Yeah

[slim thorn]

after all the stories I've heard of both huge and tiny studios going under after a single bad game, and constantly being anxious that a single bad game would probably ruin them, I honestly cannot take seriously any skepticism of the idea that every video game is a huge financial risk

yeah, the only chill devs I've seen are the ones that have another income and genuinely don't care if it flops, and those tend to be for even tinier games than what we normally call "indie" these days

(and they usually do produce flops before we hear about them; even Touhou didn't take off with ZUN's very first game)

[hasty patio]

Don't need to be passionate, but it helps. Have a plan, have the people and skills needed to work for and through the project, adapt to changes, and hope it works out in the end.

[slim thorn]

mm-hmm, I've toyed with the idea before, but I know the only thing I'm passionate about is the programming, and I'm pretty risk averse, so indie game dev would be a terrible fit for me

[slim thorn]

e.g. I doubt Davey Wreden needed The Beginner's Guide to sell well to put food on the table

[hasty patio]

The Dwarf Fortress guys worked for decades for free, but did other things on the side to keep going until the steam edition made them millionaires (officially in February when those checks clear).

[slim thorn]

come to think of it, Nire, are you familiar with Stanley Parable / Beginner's Guide?

it's obviously more "walking sim" than "survival horror", but TBG does have a very ambiguous metafictional abstract narrative going on, so I'm curious how you'd respond to something like that

The Beginner's Guide

[fresh bane]

I've heard of it and seen gameplay of it but I never actually played it myself

I find the concept to be extremely interesting and fun and something I'd enjoy because I always liked the idea of games being self aware like that to the point where even the most insane action that you'd think the game would have nothing to react to actually does react to

I like games reacting to things players do in a way that's believable and is why I sometimes scoff when people say MGS is just a movie and not a game because there's loads of little details in MGS games that are awesome

[slim thorn]

that sounds like something totally different lol

[fresh bane]

Especially in MGSV

Is it? Isn't Stanley Parable the game with the narrator?

[slim thorn]

yeah TSP has the silly narrator

TBG has similar themes but is not at all a comedy

[fresh bane]

Are you talking about the story or the style of game?

[slim thorn]

(I think we've hit the point where I can't say any more about TBG without either spoiling or lying )

[fresh bane]

because I thought you were asking me if I would like it based on the style of that game and not the narrative

I don't really know what the narrative is all about in either of those

[slim thorn]

oh, they're both very minimalist with gameplay, hence "walking sim"

and TSP arguably doesn't even have a "narrative", I guess it's more like a collection of skits? if you had to put it into any box at all

seriously just play them, they're super short and half the point is that there's very little else like them so the more you try to compare them to other games the more misleading it gets

[gaunt marten]

The Stanley Parable is the Dark Souls of Undertales?

[slim thorn]

The Beginner's Guide is the Signalis of Gone Homes (unironically, kind of?)

[fresh bane]

Gone Home...

[slim thorn]

I never actually played Gone Home myself, but I recall it being one of the early games that got people fighting over whether this sort of minimalist narrative gameplay is even a "game" and if "walking sim" is a pejorative term and yada yada

heck, the way I remember it, The Stanley Parable kinda stopped that bickering by being a "walking sim" that everyone enjoyed

[uneven epoch]

i should play more death stranding

im aware the genre is kinda different i just thought of it because. you know, "walkin sim"

[fresh bane]

Death Stranding is actually really good

[slim thorn]

yeah, genre terms are funny like that

[uneven epoch]

i just wish the gameplay didnt stress me out so much

[fresh bane]

Kojima refered to it as a strand like game?

I know they're making a movie out of it or something like that too?

[slim thorn]

Death Stranding is the only game I've seen actually simulate how hard it is to walk under certain conditions

[uneven epoch]

i get spooked easily n the creepy crawlies areas are. not fun

i mean i applaud the way the devs can make you feel tension but i dont particularly wanna play games for more anxiety u know?

[slim thorn]

speaking of topics we could spend hours on

at least for me, there's a fun kind of tension that comes from being focused, in the zone and trying not to suck

and that's very different from the "if I mess this up I lose an hour of progress" kind

[uneven epoch]

this is exactly why 112 operator turned out to b a game i dont play much. i enjoy the premise but its a bit too good at bein stressful

[slim thorn]

never heard of it!

have we mentioned there are too many games?

[fresh bane]

That's a similar reasoning that I've heard of why a lot of people dislike Fromsoft's games and also a similar reasoning to why games like fighting games and character action games like DMC don't attract as much people as other mainstream ones which is that most people don't share that excitement and love for games that require you to get 'in the zone' and concentrate a lot and punish you heavily if you fuck up, some people either find it way too complicated or kinda get upset and they don't wanna play a game to get upset whereas the people that like these games also get upset but they enjoy it because they want to get better the next time

[mossy flume]

The Long Dark would like to know your location. As soon as it finishes building a GPS.

[slim thorn]

I am literally watching a video about some of the recent Long Dark updates lol

[mossy flume]

I just discovered TLD and gave it a go. Was surprised to discover that walking up a steep enough hill will result in your ankle getting sprained.

[slim thorn]

what I mean is TLD doesn't simulate the walking part, it's mostly focused on resource management and route planning to keep cold, fatigue, hunger and thirst under control

[mossy flume]

Which…. Okay, but that seems kinda unrealistically sensitive

[slim thorn]

there's no "the ground sloped slightly to the right and I fell over because I forgot to shift my weight" in TLD; that's a DS mechanic

[mossy flume]

That’s true

[uneven epoch]

(talkin about 112 operator) you're a first responder operator. the gameplay consists of sendin emergency units to appropriate places n then answerin calls of ppl and tryin to decide how to best help them or if theyre abusin the emergency line n u should hang on them to free the line for actual problems. which isnt easy to determine bc the calls are often based of real cases n humans arent good at bein clear in face of panic. like that one call ||where i couldnt stop the caller from commitin suicide.|| its possible, but quite hard to navigate the dialogue to dissuade the caller long enough for help to arrive

[slim thorn]

but yes veteran TLD players will mountain goat down unrealistically steep geometry and just tank the sprains because they're mostly harmless when you know what you're doing and have your next sleep spot planned out already

[arctic fern]

But it does simulate you being more likely to be injured from sharp inclines if you're tired or otherwise impared

[mossy flume]

I do like how Death Stranding works

[arctic fern]

Ha, yes

[mossy flume]

It’s a bit too Walking Simulator for me (ie, just trucking) but the systems in it are really cool

[slim thorn]

when I googled it I immediately thought of Papers Please, and this description only cements that impression

[arctic fern]

I've totally mountain goated down the literal mountain

[uneven epoch]

there is a 911 operator that is american version (as opposed to 112 set in europe)

[slim thorn]

(I did play Republia Times and some of Papers Please, but sadly never finished the latter)

[rose rose]

hey, sometimes it decides actually it wants to be a completely different genre

[slim thorn]

"Your family has been executed. But to incentivize future work, a new family has been provided for you." still gets me

[arctic fern]

Wait what

What game does that

[slim thorn]

pretty sure that's one of the Republia Times "endings"

[arctic fern]

Huh

[slim thorn]

speaking of solo indie devs that can afford to do a bunch of flops before they get big

Papers Please is that dev's breakout hit

and I bet half the lurkers are going "what?" even at that name

[fresh bane]

A million years later I found it even though no one cares but these two talk slightly in depth about this and I thought it'd be nice to share
https://youtu.be/bP0q5ihHxkI

[arctic fern]

Papers please was great

[slim thorn]

yeah, I'm awful at actually precise timing but I like it when games feel precise

which are two wildly different things because human perception is silly

[mossy flume]

True. I guess I was just hoping for more MGS in it than there is

[slim thorn]

agreed, Death Stranding is at its weakest when it tries to be a third-person shooter, instead of a walking sim (in the literal sense) or a stealth game

not unlike MGS1-3

[fresh bane]

Death Stranding ties into the whole 'flow' conversation and what sparked my reasoning was the whole ''it gives me anxiety to even walk'' because of the inherent mechanics of that game

and my point was all about how for a number of people that's exactly why it's so fun

because it's so hard and difficult and it requires you to focus and know how it works and it's rewarding when you manage to do it correctly

[slim thorn]

exactly

you know how the start of the game is a cutscene where the protagonist is forced to take shelter in a cave to wait out bad weather after losing their vehicle and half their cargo?

for me one of the best moments in the game was when all of those same things happened 100% organically for me during regular gameplay without any scripted events

which was of course entirely my fault for taking my vehicle through enemy territory

[fresh bane]

Similarly, a lot of people have hundreds of ''cinematic'' gameplay fights in DMC5 where the actions performed seem like what you'd see on a cutscene but no, that's just pure mastery over the gameplay mechanics and pure mastery over how the AI works

and that's inmensely satisfying

[slim thorn]

but choosing to rest under that tiny overhang until the rain let up was just enough to get the stamina I needed to get back to base alive

[fresh bane]

I also get a similar feeling playing MGSV

specifically Ground Zeroes and not Phantom Pain because Venom Snake is too OP and the AI gets dumbed down significantly in Phantom Pain

[slim thorn]

the more you talk about the Vs the more I'm tempted to maybe actually play one of them someday

[fresh bane]

in Ground Zeroes the AI is much smarter and the room for error is tighter

[slim thorn]

after MGS1-4, as great at 4 was, I was so ready to mentally check out of the franchise forever lol

[fresh bane]

https://tenor.com/view/metal-gear-rising-raiden-cyborg-ninja-character-action-gif-16560186

[rules of nature plays in the distance]

[slim thorn]

(Revengeance doesn't count because that was Platinum spectacle fighting)

[fresh bane]

darn

Well there's Peace Walker

Peace Walker was really good, it was my first MGS as a kid

[slim thorn]

it's like when I talk about Zelda games I played and someone brings up Hyrule Warriors; yes Link's in it but it's not a Zelda game in the usual sense

[fresh bane]

And Portable Ops, and Ghost Babel, and... the AC!D games
yes that's how they are spelled

Okay I will stop you there

Because I hear it a lot but other than the gameplay MGR plays by the exact same rules as other MGS games

[slim thorn]

if you mean the story, I agree that has a lot in common

[fresh bane]

If you're talking strictly about gameplay then yes it's true but I hear it a lot that MG Rising is a bad MGS game but it's totally not true at all

also technically there already was a ninja in MGS1 and you could play as him...

and MGS2

[slim thorn]

what I meant was just "I played it because PlatinumGames made it", the whole being a Metal Gear thing was barely a consideration at time of purchase

[fresh bane]

I played it for both initially because I was already a DMC fan and also I liked MGS so it was perfect, especially on a more recent playthrough like back in 2019 I think, the only bad part is that it's too short

but thank god that Kamiya did not direct that game, jesus christ thank god

[slim thorn]

oh for me it was plenty long

[fresh bane]

Oh no Rising is depressingly short it's like not even 10 hours

I bet you people have completed that game in like 5 hours

[slim thorn]

but if half of our DMC conversations are any indication, you probably have actual skill so that'd affect our perception

[fresh bane]

I'm not too sure, I remember struggling a bit with the game although I think I played on Hard

[slim thorn]

come on Steam, it does not take this long to load my library...

[fresh bane]

I did get an achievement for beating the game quickly

[slim thorn]

oh, then scratch the "probably"

[fresh bane]

I can't remember if I've shown how I play DMC here before, I should look into maybe recording some of my games sometime

I can't really say whether or not I have actual skill or not

[hidden elbow]

https://youtu.be/jY6yBTYxLko

Okay ,this is like ,the best ost I ever heard

[slim thorn]

ok finally got the number I was looking for

[slim thorn]

"31.5 hrs on record"

and I'm pretty sure I only did a single playthrough

[fresh bane]

that's the amount of time for 100% completing the game

[slim thorn]

which I certainly did not do lol

I think I did the extra mission or whatever as Sam

and maybe tried a level on a higher difficulty before moving on to something else

and there's always the "oh I forgot to close the game" issue with Steam times

but it's probably a safe bet that it took me 10-20 hours to beat

[fresh bane]

https://youtu.be/72JIQKWbyqk
Even though Rising is not as in depth with its combat as DMC it's still pretty impressive to see what people can pull off

[fresh bane]

I think the intended time is like 10 hours but most experienced players would finish in like, 6?

Playing it on hard makes that time a lot longer since, well, it's harder I struggled a lot with Sam I remember

even though Sam is crazy powerful as a character, just like Vergil

[slim thorn]

I think Sam was the one boss I never "figured out" properly, despite winning the fight

[fresh bane]

https://youtu.be/MO1Z2ym10-8

I still remember this video which is still amazing

I had a bit more trouble with Armstrong than Sam simply because I went into the fight with low health

so it was a bit of a struggle

[hidden elbow]

Oof ,I remember how first time I beated the game I thought
"Hey lets try it in revengeance difficulty ,I know nearly all combos so this should be pretty easy (clueless)"

[fresh bane]

Yeah in typical character action game it's not very easy

I'm struggling a lot through my current DMD difficulty run on DMC5

[slim thorn]

and as much as I like this genre, it's often too hard for me, in particular turning up the difficulty almost always makes it less fun

I'm still not sure if I struggled to finish Bayonetta 2 because it was harder than I expected or I was even worse than usual at button timing that month

[fresh bane]

Funnily enough Bayonetta 2 was criticized by fans for it's much simpler combat and difficulty...

Not very harshly just ''ahh this is much simpler than Bayo 1, that's a bummer''

For me pumping up the difficulty only gets frustrating with certain enemies, there's loads of enemies that break your tempo on purpose and don't allow you to dictate the fight

Furies in DMC5 are characters that you cannot hit because they teleport and they're super quick so you have to parry them or dodge their attacks and only when they're recovering you can hit them and only for a couple of hits until they scurry away

Luckily if you are good at parrying them they're not an issue, but if you aren't.... yeah, it's frustrating

[slim thorn]

ah, is this like how many people dislike the Berserkers in Doom Eternal because you have to wait for them to stop being invincible and the game's not supposed to involve waiting?

[fresh bane]

Not entirely but kind of, a lot of these enemies are purposefully designed in this way but I think the best are the ones that don't involve a wait period or a timer, simply you being able to learn how the enemy works and properly take care of them

another enemy for example once you hit them enough times or once you knock them to the ground will enter a berserk mode and will charge you and not get staggered, but if you parry them, you can keep hitting them, so it's on you whether or not you can dispose of them quickly and efficiently or not

I know people complained about that enemy though, it is a frustrating one, but once you learn how they work they're not a huge issue, just kind of annoying

[slim thorn]

yeah, there are a number of games where whether I'm capable of enjoying it as designed comes down almost entirely to whether the parry timing makes any sense to me

or rather, whether it's non-tedious to figure out the parry timing

in practice I've never seen a game just tell me what the window is for every enemy so I can usually only do it if the window is (by "real gamer" standards) really huge

[fresh bane]

mmm, there are some moments like that in DMC but a lot of the times it just comes down to learning the timings

I know games like Arkham and I think God of War actually have some mechanics like that? Where they give you hints about an incoming attack

so that makes it easier I suppose

[slim thorn]

I guess I should clarify

there's a difference between a clear visual indicator that a certain category of attack is coming

(be that a parryable attack, or an unblockable attack, or a grab attack, all of which may overlap or be mutually exclusive depending on the game)

and a clear indicator of what the parry/block/dodge timing window is for that attack

IME games are really good about indicating attack type

even in Soulslikes I'm often clear on what's unblockable

it's the timing window that they simply never give me any clear information about

in Arkham it was never a problem because the window's so wide I just kinda guessed and it mostly worked, also it was pretty forgiving anyway

[fresh bane]

Ahhh, I'm not really sure how one would indicate the parry timing, a lot of games including Dark Souls just kinda let you know because you learn the enemy movement patterns

so once the enemy prepares an attack you recognize it and you plan out the timing and just do it

[slim thorn]

right, and when your only indication of the parry timing window is "did the parry work or not?", that's tedious trial and error, unless you can do a whole lot of trials really fast with minimal punishment for not already being perfect at it (i.e. not any of the games being discussed, except maybe Arkham?)

[fresh bane]

I just kinda 'feel' it personally, that's how I managed to succesfully parry on DMC5

I've seen these attacks so much that I kinda start to get a feel for the timing

Uhhhh well DMC does have a practice mode

sort of

Is that what you mean?

[slim thorn]

mm-hmm, either you're reading indicators that aren't visible to me, or you're just so much better at hitting a timing precisely that you only need to guess right once and then do it over and over

practice mode helps but it's still tedious if the window is small, not reliably indicated by anything else and there's a million other things going on that affect whether you can do it anyway

[fresh bane]

Hmmm well, a specific enemy in DMC5 always does a very specific thing before an attack, their arm glows red, they get into position, and they jump, they disappear for a couple seconds as they jump around the arena and THEN they attack, so you see that, and you see them jump, you kinda get a feel for how long is too long, and then you parry

I fail a lot of course, I've died to this enemy countless times

But that's how I usually do it

Right, when there's too many enemies it's very difficult

Especially when there's too many of THAT enemy at once in higher difficulties that happens sometimes

Oh man, Devil Trigger and Sin Devil Trigger help a lot in those situations....

[slim thorn]

yep, there's a lot of games where the combat mechanics fall apart completely as soon as there's more than one enemy involved

[fresh bane]

I wouldn't say it completely falls apart but it is hard to do, you just usually kinda clear the room and then focus on that one enemy

[slim thorn]

getting back to indie games, this is why it's nice when a dev can just say "my game has only boss fights" and actually invest in those mechanics that make no sense for fighting a horde of mooks

[fresh bane]

or you just use a room clearing super powerful attack or something to help out a bit

[slim thorn]

remember I'm not talking about DMC specifically because I mostly haven't played it

(I have no clear memories of the few hours of DMC1 I did forever ago)

[fresh bane]

I was gonna say

I wonder how you'd like DMC1 since it's a lot more... simple? than the games that come afterwards, especially DMC3

I don't know if it's easier... but there's definitely not as many in depth mechanics as other DMC games

[slim thorn]

Shadow of the Colossus and Furi are some excellent examples of boss-only indies, if anyone wasn't aware of that trope

[fresh bane]

I played SotC once, it was really good

I never noticed that it was a boss only game

[slim thorn]

I kinda want to replay it

[fresh bane]

Same, it's a good game

And I apparently missed a lot of stuff my first time on it

[slim thorn]

I'm curious what you'd think of Furi

maybe "it's too simple" lol

[fresh bane]

Hmmm never heard of it

[slim thorn]

it's basically Anime Boss Fights: The Game

[fresh bane]

It looks interesting

Ah this reminds me I should go back to Sifu.... that's another similar one

It's so painfully hard.... but man is it good

[slim thorn]

yeah, I might try Sifu someday

[fresh bane]

It's coming to Steam!

finally

[slim thorn]

for the lurkers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Np-zuXblNd0

[fresh bane]

looks pretty dope

[slim thorn]

(that's a good boss for the trailer too; I think she was the first one I struggled with in a satisfying "then I got gud" way)

[fresh bane]

It doesn't look ''simple'' to me

looks like I'd probs struggle with it a bit

[slim thorn]

sure, but I mean compared to Bayonetta/DMC/whatever, it's "simple" in the sense that I actually know what all of the controls are, none of them are ever superfluous, there's no "combo" system beyond "attack N times in a row"; almost all the learning is per-boss fight

which is part of why it clicked so well for me

[fresh bane]

Well, that doesn't mean it can't have its own type of complexity! God of War has tons of combos and controls but I wouldn't say it's as complex as DMC personally

[slim thorn]

oh yeah, there's plenty of subtleties about where and when to block and slash

[fresh bane]

Yeah and dodging apparently, from what I see

definitely doesn't look super simple

and it has shooting too?

[slim thorn]

for the most part your controls are analog stick to move, slash button, block button, dodge button, shoot button, the end

your own shooting is pretty weak though, it's mostly used to interrupt an enemy from far away rather than deal real damage

[fresh bane]

Interesting, I might check it out sometime

though I'm with RE3 currently and I wanted to try out Metroid Fusion later

too many games....

[slim thorn]

and I bought half a dozen new games yesterday

but now I want to do a quick Furi boss just because

[fresh bane]

That's the feeling I get from most challenging games for me, it's tough but it's great when a game is so fun you think about it and you go ''oh I might play for a quick sesh'' just because of how fun the game is

that's a good sign

[slim thorn]

one of the best signs is when I willingly do optional boss fights even though I suck at the game

Blasphemous and Furi being two good examples

(granted, Furi's second optional boss is way beyond me, I'd be stupid to even try it, but the first was a blast)

streams Furi in VC

[fresh bane]

I don't know if I'd enjoy Blasphemous... even though I recognize it's probably a fantastic game

I guess once I try Metroid Fusion I'll know for sure

[slim thorn]

yeah, try regular Metroids first

Blasphemous is very much a Soulslike Metroidvania

mostly melee combat, commitment to slower uncancellable attacks, fairly punishing difficulty, a very gloomy and post-apocalyptic world with a cycle you may or may not perpetuate and characters who barely explain anything

[fresh bane]

Do the characters speak in extremely cold distant ways and also end all their lines with ''..heheheheh.....''?

I did play Metroid Zero Mission a million years ago but I remember... liking it? and also Metroid 2 for 3DS and I remember enjoying my time with it
My only problem was Super Metroid... I... didn't fully finish that one and I don't know if I'll go back to it

I know it's the entire point of Metroid to explore but to me it's super daunting to have a very large map like Super Metroid's and not exactly know where to go

I get lost super easily and... I gotta be honest I wasn't fully enjoying it

I know Fusion is a lot more linear, so maybe I will enjoy it more?

I sure don't want a super linear experience... that would take all the fun away from it (ahem Other M ahem) but a bit more direction or a bit of a smaller map would be nice....

[slim thorn]

yeah Fusion is a pretty good balance of linear in theory but still requires exploration to find the route

[slim thorn]

sometimes

[fresh bane]

Sounds good
I do remember from a previous video essay I found that you're only allowed access to previous areas to get power ups or extra items before the final fight? Which is a bit of a bummer but not a huge deal breaker

I may probably try out either Super Metroid or Zero Mission again sometime too.. While I'm at it

[slim thorn]

if this is referring to Fusion, then that sounds like an exaggeration

it is true that Fusion will makes changes to early areas later on that make them either temporarily inaccessible until you get one more upgrade or just much more dangerous

but in general you can still access most of the places you've been before most of the time, aside from the obvious places where you pass a point of "no return (until you get the upgrade a few rooms later)" that every Metroidvania has

[fresh bane]

Hmmm guess I'll find out once I play it I suppose
I do appreciate the usual freedom these games give you

I remember doing a bit of sequence breaking or just accessing places in creative ways in Metroid 2

That's very fun to do, I appreciate Metroid 2 having the radar function

My god it's so much easier to find anything, even secrets, and I appreciate it! now I actually have a chance instead of relying on a guide

[slim thorn]

yeah, the best 2D Metroids mark the uncollected items on your map so going back for them is actually fun lol

pretty sure Fusion did that

I dunno about sequence breaking because I never manage that, but I know Fusion has a secret bit of dialogue in one place if you sequence break into an inescapable area

[fresh bane]

Ooooh

That's fun

[slim thorn]

welp, made it to phase 5 of the optional Furi boss despite literally not even remembering the controls, happy with that for a quick and wildly impulsive session

[mossy flume]

Yeah, Fusion and Zero Mission

I don’t remember if Other M or Dread do this

Metroid Prime 3 sorta does this if you use the optional Chozo observatory

[slim thorn]

in 3D it's more understandable since the map's not made of squares so the whole circle and dot thing wouldn't cut it

aaaaah I knew I forgot something in MP3

[wind stump]

You forgot Waluigi Island in Mario Party 3?

[river veldt]

(Marauders)

[gaunt marten]

Same thing

[river veldt]

no?

[gaunt marten]

All berserkers maraud and all marauders berserk

[river veldt]

[hushed onyx]

To be fair, it’s often unclear what can be done, and often recent technical advances seem to offer the prospect of something cool that turns out it be impractical (there are tons of military projects that worked out like this)

Well, this isn’t inherently a problem. The way it works, in theory, is to make tons of small bets (or a fair number of medium-sized bets), so that the ones that work out pay for the ones that don’t and also give you a profit.

This is how Hollywood used to work, and it’s how venture capital works. The problem, for games (and movies) is that it’s not very profitable; you don’t have Twitters or Instagrams that make out like gang busters, just a constant stream of small successes and failures.

So not many producers/production companies want to do that. With the resources available to an EA or Microsoft you could fund hundreds or thousands of indie devs, but you wouldn’t make the kind of money you would with a GTAV or the like.

(That being said, there is the possibility of a Minecraft or Terraria…but those are so rare that you can’t really use them for expected profit)

[dire gate]

This is interesting

Sakurai did a poll about physical copy vs digital copy

It seems while both fans prefer physical copies, western fans prefer it way more than Japanese fans.

In Japan it is roughly 5:5~6:4, but in west it's more like 7:3

[gilded moth]

I saw that and voted on it yesterday. I went with digital because it's just more convenient.

[rose rose]

I think the sample is very biased given the context

[dire gate]

Probably, but still it is quite impressive difference

[visual hill]

I like digital personally, just don't delist games or make them impossible to run due to intrusive DRM

(a nice website to keep around: https://delistedgames.com/)

[slim thorn]

for modern games where the disc is little more than a DRM key, preferring physical confuses me

back when the whole game was actually on the disc I at least get the arguments

[fresh bane]

buy game disc
still have to wait for the game to download

[dire gate]

While the preference of physical game itself probably derives from the incredibly biased audience pool, the difference between the results is the point where I think it's interesting

[fresh bane]

I actually find it fascinating that Japanese gamers out of all of them aren't in the majority when buying physical copies

[slim thorn]

the first explanation that comes to mind for me is that living spaces are significantly smaller in Japan

[teal sonnet]

now days I just get physical for nintendo switch stuff

or collector editions

because most games physical editions, if they actually comes with a disk, you need to download the game anyways

pretty much useless

[dire gate]

Only reason I'd buy a physical copy for Switch for me is that I don't have to care about memory space

[teal sonnet]

and most of my games are pc anyways, so steam 100% digital stuff

[random steppe]

I wonder if a large amount of it, is the ability to sell your game into the used market after you are done with it

[teal sonnet]

Do people still do that?

[random steppe]

I mean, gamestop still sell used games, so someone must be selling the game to them

So yes, the used market for console is still pretty massive

I wonder how much the subscription services like PlayStation plus and gamepass are cutting into it in the last couple of years tho

[slim thorn]

and AFAIK Cex is still doing that here in the UK

[river veldt]

i still can't believe the UK has a store named that

[dire gate]

C'ex

[grim stirrup]

😤 poundland is clearly the best store name in the uk

[river veldt]

I only know of Poundland because of Ashens haha

[thorny loom]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5HTW0V4bYY

@mossy flume

https://www.pcgamer.com/halo-3s-holy-grail-the-pimps-at-sea-build-has-leaked/

[mossy flume]

Oh wow

And I found the download. If I get my JTAG'd 360 running again I'll probably toss it on there.

[rugged flax]

https://kotaku.com/ps2-emulator-android-aethersx2-developer-death-threats-1849955012

[visual hill]

I'm pretty sad to see this, but this shows why open source is important so that people can continue his (great) work. Android apps often fall victim to backwards compatibility breakage, it's not Windows where you can double-click any 25 year old EXE and it will usually run ok

unfortunately, the author is pretty resistant to the idea thus far, and I don't see this changing

there is a similar situation with Exagear, a commercial PC emulator for Android that ceased development years ago. It only lives on via shady APK mods nowadays, there is no real replacement for it just yet

Exagear can run Crysis on a high-end phone with playable performance, it's quite the sight to see in action

[rose rose]

I can’t say I’d be inclined to release the source of my project as a thank you for all the death threats

[rugged flax]

one of the assholes who drove the dev to quit is gloating about it on that Subreddit.
fucking yikes

[river veldt]

why are people so fucking awful

[rugged flax]

Unfortunately there are many people of the opinion that everything should just be free, especially on Android. Users of free apps are some of the most demanding buttholes out there.

I'm perfectly fine with paying for reasonably-priced stuff that I have a use for. I’ve bought paid versions of several Android apps that have their source code available on GitHub. I could compile them myself, yes, or I can just pay $1 for the download, supporting the dev in the process, even if only a little bit.

The few ruin it for the many.

[visual hill]

I'd say, if you make this kind of app, you need to paywall support to remain sane

I'm on a few paywalled Discord servers and it makes a huge difference to the environment

[light gate]

Why would the author open source after the threats? Also this is the only PS2 emulator with ARM support, so now that’s gone.

[visual hill]

not right now, but maybe in a year or two after things have cooled down. Android will eventually make changes that prevent old apps from running entirely

(remember scoped storage?)

[light gate]

It’ll take eons before PCSX2 to even gets to the level that Aether did.

[visual hill]

PCSX2 can run on Apple Silicon via Rosetta, there are builds for it

it ran Burnout 3 at fullspeed on a M1 Mac mini when I tried it this way

it's certainly less power efficient though, and you can't push resolution as high

[light gate]

Yes but once you use Aether, it goes insane.

[mossy flume]

I feel like if anything the community would have voided the right to demand source code for this app.

You reap what you sow.

If you want the source code that badly, start disassembling.

[visual hill]

well, we should also not let random asshats decide for others

[light gate]

But yeah, PS2 emulation once again has been sent into the shadow realm.

It’ll probably take a few years before we get back to where we were.

[visual hill]

it will take a looong time before PCSX2 gets an ARM recompiler, it's a lot of work and people's motivation is probably killed by what happened to AetherSX2 (and DamonPS2 is never that far away)

[light gate]

Also this is the second emulator to die this way.

[visual hill]

bsnes and Ares are still going along, because they are open source (and were conveniently relicensed shortly before Near's death)

[random steppe]

Keep in mind that with community, you probably mean 0.5% asssholes and 99.5% just like, normal people, and you are punishing pretty much everyone regardless of what they did.

[light gate]

Near’s death was absolutely terrible

[random steppe]

It's up to him what to do, I didn't even know the thing existed, but punishing the whole isn't necessarily a "just" thing

[mossy flume]

Near's death was a genuine tragedy

[unreal quest]

Wooohooooo ! 🥳
Today, for the first time since I play KSP, I managed to make a manned trip to Duna and back !

[mossy flume]

The announcement implies that he had been harassed for about a year, which seems to be more than just "random" trolls.

[light gate]

Sure, but it might not follow what Near’s vision was. I hope they stick to the vision, being high accuracy one emulator to rule them all.

Also I forgot Duckstation, at least an ARM port exists now for AS.

Stenzer is incredible I won’t deny., and the entire team.

[mossy flume]

Harassment to the point of destroying someone's passion isn't just random acts of being an asshole, that takes concerted effort.

[random steppe]

He explains better, that it's mostly emails, because he is forced to deal with them
Also says that the community is about 1.2 millions, so like...even if it was a few thousand people it's still a very small minority that were being assholes

[mossy flume]

Eugh

[visual hill]

they seem to be doing a pretty good job so far

DuckStation is maintained again, but only for desktop. Android app no longer receives updates, and it wasn't open sourced either (its ARM recompiler is open source, but not the UI)

[light gate]

Yeah, that sounds like Android playstore reviews.

[mossy flume]

I'm not sure how that makes it any better, though.

[random steppe]

It's mostly people coming in from google play I assume, so really not even part of the community

I mean for him it doesn't, but I was just commenting on "the community were assholes, they deserve to be punished" thing

[visual hill]

mobile users that don't have any PC tend to have low tech skills, which doesn't help. So anything feels like magic to them

[random steppe]

Most of the people responsible probably don't even know what "open source" means

[light gate]

I can’t imagine what the UTM guys are dealing with.

“Plz give 3D acceleration”

[visual hill]

UTM is iOS-only, this naturally adds a barrier to entry which is helpful here

it's still mobile though, so yeah

[light gate]

And desktop

[visual hill]

yeah but still Apple-only 🙂

[light gate]

Yeah but its problems are mainly QEMU.

QEMU just has a bunch of instability if its anything below Windows 7.

[rugged flax]

that remind me, I have to use QEMU to compile Docker images for @thorny cedar because I don't have an ARM64 machine with Docker buildkit on it

[rose rose]

Izzy runs on an ARM machine?

[random steppe]

HOOF machine

[mossy flume]

Wait, where does Izzy run?

What service are you using to operate that bot?

[rose rose]

who needs to worry about platforms, build for everything at once: docker buildx build --platform=linux/arm64,linux/amd64 . --push -t ghcr.io/katharine/tidbyt-enphase:v0.0.4 😄

(yes, this does in fact use QEMU internally.)

[visual hill]

praise GOARCH

[rose rose]

praise GOARCH and GOOS

[visual hill]

something I'd like to look into eventually is Zig's cross-compilation capability, it can compile C/C++ code too

(we may need it for Godot in the long run, as an optimization to compile GDScript into native code. LLVM can do it but it's chonky)

[rose rose]

when I worked on Kubernetes we built most of our docker images using the Deep Magic where we could build our docker images for every architecture without any emulation at all.

just manually construct the empty output image and stick your cross-compiled go binaries in there.

also didn't have to run on linux

[rugged flax]

She will be shortly!

[mossy flume]

May I ask why?

[rugged flax]

Oracle Cloud.
https://solutions.amperecomputing.com/solutions/oci

[rose rose]

…

[mossy flume]

Ohhh

Um

[rose rose]

why

[mossy flume]

Is there a specific reason why Oracle Cloud was chosen?

[rose rose]

I was afraid you were going to say a raspberry pi but this is somehow worse

[rugged flax]

Perpetually free VM tier.
Ampere gets you a 4 core 24GB for free.

[teal sonnet]

just to remind everyone why yoko taro is based

https://twitter.com/yoracrab/status/1610738967111925770

大きなカニ 🦀YORA (@yoracrab)

yearly reminder again 🗿

Likes

41112

Retweets

6954

Twitter · Jan 4, 2023, 8:44 PM

[mossy flume]

Ah-ha. That's a neat offering.

[rugged flax]

wheres their x86 AMD VMs are 1/8 OCPU and 1 GB memory for free.
Ampere A1 has enough free allocation for any combination of 4 OCPU cores and 24GB of memory. (1 with 1 core and 6GB, 2 with 2 and 12, etc)

[rose rose]

I wonder what their game is with that

And how long it will last

[peak mesa]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Minecraft/comments/t8x30e/i_made_a_near_life_size_minecraft_jukebox_that/
I swear Microsoft better approach guys like them to mass produce those.

They probably will benefit much.

Or maybe at least have a small portable one for your table and everywhere else!

Sometimes fan can make stuff not thought of by official companies and it shows here. No, I’m not saying official stuff is bad.

[river veldt]

idk about that i bought a pretty cool creeper hat back in 2014

[peak mesa]

Not saying official stuff is bad, saw a couple of cool official Minecraft mugs at a store that has the pickaxe acting as the handle.

[fresh bane]

big companies seldom approach fans like these when it comes to producing merch

if it were a thing official MLP plushies wouldn't be so horrendous

[random steppe]

To be fair, Hasbro isn't doing what they are doing badly

They do poll their target demographic I'm pretty sure

We just aren't it

But I am pretty confident that focus testing happens a lot

[river veldt]

how do i get intpo the focus testing

[random steppe]

Not sure how they pick people, but for pony products I think they are looking for 8 years olds or around that age

[river veldt]

I could probably pass for 8 years old

[random steppe]

[river veldt]

(i am lying)

[random steppe]

The walk confidently a bring some papers or a briefcase probably doesn't apply in this case

Also probably I shouldn't say hasbro as a whole, the pony division specifically

Hasbro owns Wizards of the Coast and they just put out that nonsense

That's one decision that they clearly didn't know what they were doing

[green fulcrum]

What exactly happened? I heard there was this big scandal with DnD but I'm not sure what it is.

[random steppe]

Basically, as I understand it, they are seeking to strongly restrict what you can do with the D&D IP and to control a lot more whatever content comes from it, videos included

Or whatever content anyone could make

If you want to commercialise it at least

Which is extremely dumb for something that is essentially a game based on players making up their own stuff

I didn't actually look into it that deeply yet tho, so I might be wrong on the details.

[river veldt]

do you think someone has made Mario in DnD

[random steppe]

for sure

[river veldt]

he would obviously need high acrobatics

and I think he would be lawful good

[random steppe]

Even without homebrew stuff, I wonder how I would go about it to make a Mario inspired character

I am not up to date for recent games and what he can do in them tho, so I'm probably not the best person to come up with it.

[river veldt]

he could use a warhammer?

cuz he uses a hammer in the RPGs

[green fulcrum]

This is the dumbest thing I've read in a year.

And I have read a lot of dumb things.

[river veldt]

tbh I dont know a lot about DnD character creation

[green fulcrum]

What about Critical Role, which relies on the video format? What about basically any streamed or recorded DnD session, like Ember's?

What about the games?

[river veldt]

so with oour powers combined, Gen, we could make the perfect Mario

[random steppe]

For now no one knows exactly from my understanding

Also as I said, I need to read up better on it before actually know exactly what the plan was
It looks very dumb on the surface tho

[rancid herald]

I'm actually of the impression a lot of the changes are due to hasbro getting upset that they're not getting a slice of the critical role pie

[random steppe]

That's speculation from content creators

Which IDK if it's fair to take their words for it, since they are the ones that stand to lose

But it could be the case

Another thing I heard, is that the move was because of that one NFT D&D project, that led them to want to tie down more on what could be done with the D&D name, but that is also speculation

[sonic dune]

Me getting RDR2 story mode on my Xbox even tho I've already beaten the game on PlayStation:
Me buying food that costs more than a couple bucks:

[heady bridge]

I own Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana for Switch, PS4, PS5 and on Steam. I think I have a problem. The only version I don’t own is on PS Vita, because who ever owned a Vita…

That and the Vita version in the UK goes for like over £100

[dire gate]

Ys 8 is such a good game

I should finish it

[heady bridge]

https://youtu.be/HvBla5NUlvk

Not sure there are many music tracks better in the industry for the main opening area of a game

[green fulcrum]

Holy shit, the Space Cadet pinball...this brings back ancient memories long forgotten.

[wind stump]

Speaking of nostalgia

[slim thorn]

I like it when the puzzle requires you to "cheat"

[gaunt marten]

To be fair you are playing a joke game

[wind stump]

What game is this even lmao

[gaunt marten]

The Looker

It's a parody of The Witness

[wind stump]

Ahhh

[slim thorn]

sadly I had to look up the puzzle after that because the thing they needed me to see was dark enough I just didn't see it despite checking where it was

[wind stump]

Bruh the only damage I'm feeling here is emotional!

Crash is fucking hard dawg, who knew mass homicide could be so difficult?

[visual hill]

it definitely requires trial and error, it's not 100% intuitive what is the most effective combo

[slim thorn]

I'm liking "pinball metroidvania" a lot more than I thought I would

[dire gate]

https://twitter.com/wizard0rb/status/1611453244970000384

zorb (@wizard0rb)

always silent protagonist meetup

Likes

77249

Retweets

12179

Twitter · Jan 6, 2023, 8:02 PM

[quiet swift]

https://youtu.be/5yUXggS00So

[fickle garnet]

"Didn't expect homeowner" me in court when I break into someone's house

[quiet swift]

[mossy flume]

The developer of Baba Is You just released a new game: Baba Files Taxes

https://hempuli.itch.io/baba-files-taxes

[wind stump]

With that, I shall take a break
Because holy shit I've played Burnout 3 all day

[uneven epoch]

i have once again fallen into ace attorney pit n am replayin the triology. aa music my beloved there truly is nothin quite like this soundtrack

https://youtu.be/0nPfjHuKtw8

[uneven epoch]

the tried n true classic

[wind stump]

rip ffxiv

[sonic dune]

RIP Mr. Adler

Damned O'Driscolls and damned Micha

[uneven epoch]

[gilded moth]

Cult of the Lamb is probably the most unexpectedly wholesome game I've ever played.

[quiet swift]

Until your followers shit everywhere

[slim thorn]

@gaunt marten I think I accidentally found a glitch

[gaunt marten]

Neat

How did you do that?

[slim thorn]

fell off the side of the map, and when one of the Beeline buckets tried to auto-position itself as I approached it whacked me up into the stratosphere

I eventually landed just outside the skull gang hideout entrance

[gaunt marten]

So something like a zip

[thorny loom]

https://www.pcgamer.com/eve-online-has-two-expansions-coming-in-2023-following-a-2022-boom/

[sonic dune]

I'm playing RDR2 again and

Holy hell there's a lot of foreshadowing in chapter 1

[river veldt]

i love

new hc that Gordon Freeman speaks with sign language

[gaunt marten]

My headcanon is he doesn't know sign language but pretends he does

[random steppe]

This mod seems absolutely insane: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yj1wZE-i6GQ

No C&D From pls

[sonic dune]

Gordon Freeman "speaks" in vibes

You look at him, your eyes meet, and you just know what he's tryna get accross

What's that Gordon?
"😶"
Lamarr is stuck in the well?"
"😐"
And you lost your gravity gun?

[light gate]

oh no

Not a single fucking good option except the first one.

[hasty patio]

I think the first answer sums up their preferred response IMO. Doesn't hurt to ask and see, especially since they are competing with steam and EGS.

[light gate]

They also want to make a mobile app.

Which is like… unnecessary… because their web app works well.

Also I have no friends on GOG because not a whole lot of people know or use GOG.

[hasty patio]

You'd be surprised at how much traffic comes from mobile these days. For example, reddit's traffic is more than half via various mobile apps.

[light gate]

Yes because they force it.

You can’t scroll down on a reddit post unless you install the app and redirect it.

Which entirely defeats the point of having a mobile webpage if you ask me, just make a landing page that says “you need to use the app” because that is what you’re already doing.

But they do this so they bait people to downloading.

[hasty patio]

Just checked with Firefox Focus (for mobile). It does ask if you want to install the app or continue. Continuing lets me scroll and what not. Might not be true with other browsers though.

[light gate]

That continue is only for the first page, after a while it will force you.

[hasty patio]

Went to three pages. No issues, at least on my end.

[light gate]

Then you are probably in an A/B thing because every time I look at a post, it just says “download the app to continue using Reddit”

It doesn’t even want to load.

But yeah, having a GOG app just seems useless. Specially knowing that they need to finish their GOG Galaxy client.

[thorny loom]

https://www.pcgamer.com/left-4-dead-prototype-leaks/

[minor plover]

man L4D was so well refined

[thorny loom]

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/81291

[cunning moat]

@bronze abyss Arenas hard carry

[bronze abyss]

gadam

gaming

im also playing well rn

[cunning moat]

Nice

[wind stump]

Ya gonna be too busy sleuthing to save Eoreza

[peak mesa]

https://youtu.be/XiNimNaUWFs
Halo CE: Anniversary as it should have been.

[visual hill]

I bought the MCC during the last Steam sale, I've never played any Halo game

[arctic fern]

oh, enjoy!

[visual hill]

it seems updates have made it much better compared to launch

I'll get the new graphics card tomorrow, I'll be taking a week of holidays to try it out

I also got Hitman 3, but not Doom Eternal yet

[arctic fern]

dont bother buying 1 and 2, i think they're going to be making those free for all users at some point

[visual hill]

yeah, I bought Hitman 3 to prepare for that

[arctic fern]

nice

[fresh bane]

https://youtu.be/riOYDaf1MdQ
I can see why people love Kiryu as a protagonist, very wholesome interaction and surprisingly progressive for a japanese game in 2009, I guess japan is more progressive than I thought

[green fulcrum]

Daily dose of Internet nostalgia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbaGodU_Gkw

[fresh bane]

https://youtu.be/lD55ebQyg9E

this is so incomprehensible as a DMC player I can't imagine from the perspective of a non DMC player

[quiet swift]

https://www.pcgamer.com/this-indie-dev-made-a-free-3d-horror-version-of-minesweeper-set-in-a-masquerade-ball/

[craggy vine]

A horror version of mindsweeper...

[grand cargo]

funny though, minesweep has already been frightening 😆

[slim thorn]

I can't believe disguising my pinball worked

[gaunt marten]

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/654276816730587136/1061974984395853824/1673238613-comic805.png

[slim thorn]

ok, that's Yoku's Island Express 100%'d

[quiet swift]

https://www.pcgamer.com/city-builder-games-2023-pc

[arctic fern]

[gaunt marten]

That was fast. I get frustrated with the controls after playing it for an hour or so each time

[slim thorn]

the controls?

[gaunt marten]

I don't know how to get my ball to hit a specific spot consistently

[slim thorn]

I got frustrated at a handful of the final chests I missed because they were slug jumps with weirdly tiny margins of error / necessary dumg luck, but in regular gameplay the closest I got was being annoyed that I suck at pinball lol

ah yes I'm not good enough at pinball to hit things consistently either

[gaunt marten]

Yes, it's the latter but all the time instead of some of the time

Game's otherwise great

[slim thorn]

fair enough, I'm probably just barely good enough that 100%ing the game was fun

could use a Celeste-like assist mode slowdown thing

I appreciate that the flippers have patterns on them, such that I can consciously think "flip when it's on the 4th tooth" and that usually gets me to >50% accuracy

so a little bit of bullet time would likely completely resolve that for us

that, and the game is almost completely devoid of progress-deleting mechanics; if I need to hit one target 5 times, it's fine if I also hit every other target in the table 10 times first

even falling out of a table is basically harmless if you're collecting enough fruit

(the main exception is those multi-tables where falling out of one puts you into another until you climb back up)

[gaunt marten]

Hmm

[slim thorn]

(fwiw the juicer was the only multi-table that nearly stopped being fun, because that 3rd table was a multiball where both balls must live until I hit the target, but again it won't delete a successful hit, so I still managed it)

and one nice thing about pinball table design is that often, even when you miss your intended target, you end up in a route with one of those sets of lights you want to fully light up, so while you're waiting those few seconds for the ball to "come back" you can still flip to rotate the lights

[gaunt marten]

What are you gonna play next?

[slim thorn]

haven't decided yet because when I got 100% I realized I had a work meeting 2 minutes ago

(the kind I'm only expected to listen to, not participate in, hence still chatting here is fine lol)

[grim stirrup]

100% a,b and c sides of celeste if tou havent, including the pico game

[slim thorn]

nah, Celeste I'm not good enough at to enjoy any of the post-game content

[gaunt marten]

You might like Bleed 2

[static bluff]

I have a suggestion

[slim thorn]

(I'm aware of assist mode. If I get the precision platforming itch again, maybe, but for now I had my fill and maybe more just by reaching the summit.)

[gaunt marten]

It's an arcade style action platformer with focus on boss fights

[grim stirrup]

hatty time ||including all death contracts||

i also second bleed 2

[slim thorn]

which reminds me I never got unstuck in They Bleed Pixels

[gaunt marten]

They Bleed Pixels is way harder than Bleed 2

It's almost Wings of Vi levels of hard

[slim thorn]

ok work's done now

agreed, Bleed 2 looks like my kind of thing wishlists

but for today, I've got these games installed, which one to start next...

[gaunt marten]

Chippy has a session time of fifteenish minutes

[slim thorn]

I was actually leaning towards a little bit of Chippy and then Ender Lilies on the assumption Chippy's a short session game

[gaunt marten]

Meanwhile, Monster Sanctuary prefers longer sessions

It's short until you decide to try again over and over until you get that one boss right

[grim stirrup]

shovel knight is incredible, i keep meaning to pick up chippy+ender lilies, monster sanctuary was great though i never completed it because of the completionist mind goblins

ender lilies has been on my wishlist since i saw iron pineapple talk about it in one of his "heres a bunch of souls like" videos (which are always great) but its never been on a big enough sale for me at least during a time i've felt like playing it

[gaunt marten]

Rain World is a beautiful and complex simulation of life that I do not enjoy playing

[thorny loom]

Someone doesn’t like oreos https://www.pcgamer.com/worlds-worst-cookie-gets-an-xbox-version/

[grim stirrup]

thats what i thought my opinion would be looking at the videos on its steam page, but i've never played it

[untold vigil]

I'm collecting city builders like legos recently, it's a problem

[gaunt marten]

I have a very specific taste in city builders so most don't appeal to me

[river veldt]

shovel knight shovel knight shovel knight

[slim thorn]

three (non-tutorial) Chippy bosses feels about right for a first session of that

[gaunt marten]

My favorite is the geometric hydraulic one

[slim thorn]

Guardian?

[gaunt marten]

Yeah

If you're fast enough at the start of the fight you can slip between its front lasers before they start

I think you might be able to see my best replays in the leaderboard

[untold vigil]

They mostly just need to be fantasy or sci fi

And I'm usually sold

[gaunt marten]

The theming is not as important as the mechanics. I prefer ones that focus on the management

[slim thorn]

ah, are you "Omega"?

[gaunt marten]

That's me

https://steamcommunity.com/id/Violet6/

[slim thorn]

then yeah I noticed your times were all roughly half mine

[gaunt marten]

I aimed for gold medal times on all the bosses but a lot of them were so tricky I couldn't get there

[uneven epoch]

ah, yes, shield hades runs. u know maybe the block is a little overpowered in some cases.....

[untold vigil]

no

Shield only

I won't be able to win if they nerf blocking

[uneven epoch]

fists are my favorite but i started a new file n still need a few keys to unlock them

[untold vigil]

Spear is actually my favorite too but

Still

My preferred way to do anything in that game is stack a bunch of athena blocks

[quiet swift]

I am terrible with the shield

Also, Rama bow > all

[wintry canopy]

I finally got to Anomaly Research rank 150, 50 more to go and I'm at maximum rank as of right now.

[slim thorn]

Ender Lilies making a good first impression so far; that first boss fight was great, and I'm more interested in the story than usual for the opening hours of a Soulslike narrative

[rancid herald]

the best weapon is gun

[static bluff]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/32340/LOOM/ Dude I had no idea they made a steam remaster (?) of this

Steam

LOOM™

Long after the passing of the Second Shadow, when dragons ruled the twilight sky and the stars were bright and numerous, came the Age of the Great Guilds. Blacksmiths. Shepherds. Clerics. Each dedicated to the absolute control of secret knowledge. Another such Guild was the Weavers. Over the centuries, their craft transcended the limits of...

Price

$5.99

Recommendations

459

▶ Play video

[gaunt marten]

Cool Stardew Valley opening scene videogame https://i.imgur.com/S3GlP0N.png

[random steppe]

Ender lilies is not as polished as other games I think, on the combat side, but it's pretty great

I kinda love the whole summoning things to fight

Let's see if it holds true that in 2d these kinds of games click better for you, like it happened with Blasphemous

[gaunt marten]

I have a midterm exam tomorrow

But I don't wanna study

I wanna play a new videogame

[quiet swift]

https://www.pcgamesn.com/dead-space-remake/dead-space-2-free-steam-game

[thorny loom]

Thats good

Now we can remaster the 2nd game

[quiet swift]

I'll be getting codes for the remake thanks to my workplace

[thorny loom]

You better

Cant let your work ethic points go to waste

[quiet swift]

[slim thorn]

there must be a Hard Drive/Onion article like "Resident Evil 10 and 10 Remake simultaneously announced" out there somewhere by now, right?

[gaunt marten]

Oh good you're still awake

[slim thorn]

lol

[gaunt marten]

If you buy Bleed 2, know that there's a bundle that also includes Bleed 1.

Bleed 1 is lower quality, but it's more of the same, so it may be a good idea to buy the bundle if you think you'll like both

[grim stirrup]

if you bought that one itch.io palenstine bundle last year or year before (?) i think it was in there

or it might have been the blm one

[gaunt marten]

I wish the itch launcher would list all my bundled games

[grim stirrup]

i get there intent in not (because they dont want to flood search completely) but yes, very much the same

ah, it was in the "Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality" from 2020, "Indie bundle for Palestinian Aid" from 2021, "Bundle for Ukraine" from 2022

bleed 1, bleed 2, and they bleed pixels the weirdest threequel

[gaunt marten]

Here you go. You're gonna know the password

Do buy the game if you like it. This is a bared down speedrunning version, about half the file size

(The full version is too big to put in chat)

[graceful bridge]

"Oh hey, this video about the history of Castlevania looks int-"

[chilly mural]

which video is it? I'll watch it

[graceful bridge]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peVgerhXJlU

[chilly mural]

thanks

[graceful bridge]

That title is not lying.

[chilly mural]

just got done watching that 8 hour mega man lore video by the ben saint and watched other PCP lecture videos

[quiet swift]

[chilly mural]

wait what, how is yours a second longer?

[quiet swift]

[wind stump]

Jesus fucking CHRIST, Marisa.

[dapper cedar]

Oh I need to get on this

[thorny loom]

Reminds me of these elder scrolls videos

https://youtu.be/T-otpq6oI2Q

12 hours

[wind stump]

sigh
adds another multi hour video essay to the pile

[thorny loom]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/368260/Marvels_Midnight_Suns/

Steam

Marvel's Midnight Suns

Marvel's Midnight Suns è l'evento crossover definitivo, che unisce la storia intricata, le relazioni tra i personaggi, la personalizzazione e la progressione di un GDR con la strategia tattica e le meccaniche da combattimento di un nuovo rivoluzionario gioco di strategia basato sulle carte. All'interno del lato più oscuro dell'Universo Marvel po...

Price

$40.19

Recommendations

4405

▶ Play video

Already $30 off

[hasty patio]

Not too surprised honestly.

[river veldt]

the only reason ive heard of this game is because someone showed me it because of how bad Spidey's suit is

[hasty patio]

I know it from XCOM (2012 and 2) and the lead Dev being behind this effort.

[random steppe]

It's pretty good, that said, it's an odd mix for the crowd that usually plays Xcom games

[hasty patio]

From the bits and pieces I've seen, just knock out the story bit, make the card system feel better, and it's probably alright.

[thorny loom]

I would definitely try it when its $30 or less plus updates

[random steppe]

A lot of the story parts are the whole point for a lot of people tho

[thorny loom]

that and really hope venom is playable

[hasty patio]

It's not a Nintendo product, so that will happen eventually.

[random steppe]

Like, Blade has a book club you can partecipate in, in the game

Being half dating sims with superheroes is kind of the selling point

[thorny loom]

Lol what

Your telling me i can have my spider man and wolverine fanfic

[random steppe]

You have friendship levels, and by boosting it they get stronger in the field

[thorny loom]

Ooooh

I thought you meant like actual dating sim

[random steppe]

I'm half joking with dating sim, but it has a LOT of character interactions

Some flirty, but generally preestablished

[thorny loom]

Is it just heros on your team or are there villans too

[random steppe]

On your team only heroes afaik

[thorny loom]

Ah

Maybe that will be an expansion or dlc cause theres alot of potential for a villan side as well

[random steppe]

You also have your character that you get to customise and shit

It's an interesting mix

As I said, the most doubtful part, is that Xcom players might not be that much interested in the whole concept, but marvel fans will

The question if there is a big intersection among the two

[thorny loom]

But i love it when the game tells me i have 99% chance to hit and then they get a critical failure

[hasty patio]

Shouldn't have rolled a 1. Easy. /s

[random steppe]

TBH I am kind of happy they branched out a bit

Xcom 2 is amazing but I feel that they kinda brought the concept to a point, that another game from this team would have given minor changes

It's good that they get to do something different

[hasty patio]

I believe that's why Jake did what he did. Something new and different. My main complaints from a glance have been mostly outside mechanics (I don't know about the loop enough to make an opinion).

That reminds me. I still need to finish Chimera Squad.

[random steppe]

It is definitely something that not all of the Xcom fans will like, it's much more character driven and narrative compared to past games, even Chimera squad

Which was already a step towards making the game more character driven

[mossy flume]

Welp, Portal RTX appears to be rather unstable now

Playing it again and I found that there’s a bunch of texture/geometry tearing and it apparently now crashes.

[visual hill]

yeah, I had many crashes

I'm playing Spider-Man Remastered to test out the new GPU

DLSS FG is doing Celestia's work here, native 4K 120 FPS with all raytracing enabled

[rose rose]

I sufficiently enjoyed that game to finish it

Good game, few complaints.

Possibly would have more complaints if I weren’t running it on a wildly overpowered computer

[quiet swift]

Seems if you change the graphical settings in the game's original options, it can make it unstable. Apparently have to use the special added menu

[sonic dune]

*playing Red Dead Redemption 2*
Dutch: Arthur go save Micha and help out Strauss

Me: But I don't waaaaannaaaaa
Arthur: but I don't waaaaannaaaaa

[mossy flume]

https://www.theverge.com/2023/1/9/23546851/nyxi-wizard-nintendo-switch-driftless-gamecube-controller-hall-effect

[teal sonnet]

https://www.theverge.com/2023/1/9/23546139/steam-10-million-concurrent-players-record-breaking-valve-gaming

Holy shit

I guess epic with their free games and gamepass did not hurt steam at all

[mossy flume]

I’d bet the Steam Deck was quite helpful.

[teal sonnet]

for sure

[fresh bane]

https://youtu.be/ltJ8KqNvPpY

My eyes

It's like a flashbang everything is so white

[cedar badge]

So I have been playing Trials of Mana ...

No Future difficulty...

And Zehnoa took all day to beat.

If you know the boss, you know exactly why.

[slim thorn]

#EnderLilies: yeeeesss , 3rd boss down, only took 3 attempts, and I even had quite a bit of health left over

it does seem like Soulslikes work for me consistently in 2D

even the worst hit I took in the last phase felt like a "oh, right, should've seen that coming" (namely, her teleport-grab attack can also happen when I'm healing out of range of her other attacks )

[grim stirrup]

i wasn't feeling salt and sanctuary when i played it, but i played mage which felt really jank in it

[gaunt marten]

Salt and Sanctuary is janky in general

But it's got a great world

[grim stirrup]

yeah, i did enjoy the world, but i kept running into enemies that felt specifically bad for casters i may have just been bad

[gaunt marten]

The enemies are bad for everyone

Especially the fucking unicorns

[grim stirrup]

are they better or worse than ds2 unicorns

maybe thats where they were inspired from

[gaunt marten]

https://youtu.be/sfWCXoxXaNk

They have a hard to avoid attack that basically kills you instantly

[grim stirrup]

oh, i recall that attack, its the one used in speeduns

but ye, those enemies look annoying af to fight

[gaunt marten]

Their hitbox is annoying. They're fast and they don't give you much time to react

Their health is middling so having a very high damage attack can kill them in one or two hits

[random steppe]

Horses are generally bullshit in souls games for some reason

Not as much as dogs in ds1 tho

[grim stirrup]

no, by far the worse is the unicorns in ds2

fuck those unicorns

they're the only soulslike enemy in 1-2-3-elden ring that i fucking loath

[random steppe]

I think that a large part of the experience is the area they are in

[grim stirrup]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsIKqrcdrbE oh hey, zullie the witch has a video on them

[gaunt marten]

Every multiplayer map sucks in DS2 if you do it alone

[random steppe]

The aptly named horsefuck valley

[grim stirrup]

they're super tanky, they have incorrect hitboxes, they stagger everyone and their moms

theyre fucking smite attack is hard to see, they're hard to stagger, if you dont kill them quick enough another spawns on your ass

[random steppe]

That one sucks more

[gaunt marten]

Doesn't help that the area is really annoying to traverse

[random steppe]

But agreed

[grim stirrup]

yeah, when replaying ds2 i complete all of the zones apart from horsefuck valley

[random steppe]

As a sidenote, do you know they aren't actually infinite?

They have pretty close spawn points

[grim stirrup]

ye, but it just takes so long to despawn them i dont bother

[random steppe]

But they are a limited quantity

[gaunt marten]

I'd totally be up for multiplayer, by the way

[grim stirrup]

my ds2 is currently setup for ds2 ascended because i hate myself apparently

[gaunt marten]

They are limited like any other enemy, but you still have to kill like 12-15, which is a lot

[grim stirrup]

ds2 ascended, despite it being designed to be unplayably agrevating, is still less painful than horsefuck valley

[random steppe]

I have a lot of patience but my uninstall the game limit would hit before I despawn every horse in that fucking valley

[slim thorn]

[random steppe]

The multiplayer areas were a good idea, done badly

[gaunt marten]

Yeah

[grim stirrup]

i kinda liked old iron king's memory (mr weeb man), and iron passage (second dorito) and cave of the dead was pretty nothing to memory

[gaunt marten]

Iron passage was the best one

[grim stirrup]

you also get the pretty flower skirt from cave of the dead

finally, an outfit fit for a queen

[gaunt marten]

That outfit is so great for poisoning all your friends

[grim stirrup]

but yeah, horsefuck valley is to me, what people claim ds2 is in general

[gaunt marten]

True and valid

[random steppe]

I linked this a few days ago but I will do it again since it's vaguely on topic

https://youtu.be/yj1wZE-i6GQ

This mod is looking very fucking promising

I am not sure if it is a mod or just more souls game made by using From Soft assets at this point, which is why I am worried for cease and desist

[grim stirrup]

if i recall, its a ds3 mod

it looks like the right engine+assets for that

yeah, thats straight up a place in ds3 with a new lighting engine

[random steppe]

Yeah but then you end up in ||DS2 locations|| and shit

Some major work has been done there

https://youtu.be/yj1wZE-i6GQ?t=229

At this point it's a bit more than a mod

Also uses enemies movesets from Sekiro
There is quite a bit mashed up in there

[fresh bane]

https://youtu.be/t5QawuTn23w

Flames of Old is doing a great job of overhauling DS2 visually in a way that SOFTS should've done

New lighting, new geometry, new textures, enemy placements, item placements, etc

It doesn't fix the actual game for me, for me it will always be an unenjoyable experience and the weakest from my personal experience on past playthroughs, but at least it will make it look like it should've looked on release

https://youtu.be/JRE_OtI54-8

not a great choice of thumbnail, should probably be showing some comparisons or frames from the video rather than the ds2 title screen but whatever

[grim stirrup]

one of the two really popular ds3 mods that i'm forgetting the name of has that for one of the bosses, its the magic mod and you just end up having to fight him in place of the fucking tree boss

https://youtu.be/gVYkibSluH8?t=326 its convergence (timestamped, idk who this video is so just watch it on mute :^) it's the first one that came up that had what i wanted )

[random steppe]

That's pretty awesome

[grim stirrup]

convergence adds so much cool shit, i would defo recommend convergence+cinders playthroughs if you like ds3, they're both great mods

the only downside of convergence is that it gets really easy later on

2.0 lessened that slightly, but not that greatly

[random steppe]

I played Cinders, right now if I want to get my souls fix I still have some endings left to do in ER so I'd probably go for that

Good to know tho

I'll keep convergence for a rainy day

[grim stirrup]

i still need to finish ER, it has the problem a lot of open world games have for me of "i need a more focused thing than this" also the one rapier build that got to the end game suffered from doing less damage than my faith cestus build that didn't have scaling and was also 1/2 way as far in the game and also didn't have the sheer utility the faith build did

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2067920/view/3635000903593576573 unrelated, but intresting post about rogue genesia development

[static bluff]

Is this similar to any other games

[mossy flume]

Looks like another take on Vampire Survivors

[grim stirrup]

its kinda vampire survivor misxed with slay the spire

kinda, only tiny amount of sts

[gaunt marten]

Rogue Genesia is unique only in that it parcels progression to stages you choose one after the other, Slay the Spire style.

Otherwise it's a pretty standard bullet heaven game

[quiet swift]

https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2023/01/10/game-pass-january-2023-wave-1-announce/

[quiet swift]

Number one killer of dwarves: gravity

[grim stirrup]

the greatest enemy in many games

[thorny loom]

https://www.pcgamer.com/yikes-hackers-are-hiding-malware-inside-a-fake-pokemon-nft-card-game/

[proud warren]

I thought we were past NFTs at this point

[gaunt marten]

Just because something doesn't show up in the news doesn't mean it doesn't exist

After all, are we past MLP?

[wind stump]

Whether it's a convincing pop-up ad or a strange email thread (opens in new tab) you've been CC'd on, play it safe and don't click on anything. Except this link (opens in new tab). That one's totally safe.
I hovered over it to make sure it wasn't a rickroll, lmao

[graceful bridge]

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2023/01/meta-ends-support-for-original-quest-headset-after-less-than-4-years/

[cunning moat]

That is not a good look

[fresh bane]

saw this tyler1 video about him reacting to Riot's ''apology'' and wondered what was up, apparently there has been some... controversy, over their latest cinematic

https://youtu.be/cJT5d5Ue3ao

whew

Haven't played League in about a year now, and even when I'm not around they still manage to disappoint

[river veldt]

whats the problem

[bleak lintel]

They are slow killing LCS and didn't want to spend money on the yearly trailer.

[fresh bane]

https://youtu.be/mDYqT0_9VR4
Because it's nowhere near the same level as previous pre-season cinematics, not even close, it's literally just a camera going around an unreal engine'd Summoner's Rift

and a lot of people are very displeased especially due to Riot's poor treatment of League and its playerbase

Seems like they honestly just don't really care about the game anymore, which is fine, just would like them to be transparent about it and not make excuses for themselves, the relationship between the community and Riot has been tense for years to say the least, this cinematic was the cherry on top on what seemed to be an incredibly disappointing last few years for the game

[dire gate]

So funny, they were being praised just like yesterday for finally changing how they are doing their international tourneys

And then they immediately exploded the fanbase

[bleak lintel]

They also lost a lot of money due to the crypto crash.

They've also been moving a lot of internal resources to get the other League products out the door.

[dire gate]

+Valorant

[bleak lintel]

They moved their esports stuff over to that.

[dapper cedar]

So damn excited
https://youtu.be/nAY3uGo3U2E

[craggy vine]

You know, funny thing, I have had don't starve for ages and have played it a fair amount but... Suddenly watching videos about the game, I realize it is a thousand more times in depth than I thought. I just focused on trying not to die.

I never even knew the game had bosses

This reminds me of minecraft, not knowing what the nether or end is, or how to craft much, just knowing to survive and make a house

[hushed onyx]

I managed to get a gold medal in the second (New York Central) scenario of Railroad Tycoon II on my third attempt at the scenario. That was nice.

Despite the game teeing you up to build the NYC Water Level route, it really makes more sense to build basically the PRR route. It’s shorter and straighter and only a little steeper, so it’s easier to get trains from one end to the other quickly (you need to get a certain number of loads from each end to the other by 1858 to win the gold)

It’s also easy to make a ludicrous amount of money by developing the Washington-NY corridor and then the Midwest around Chicago.

Like, I had around $4-5 million in debt when I connected to Chicago (this is a large amount in game), and then the profits I made afterwards let me pay it off literally decades before it was due (the interest rates were rather high, so this made financial sense)

[chilly mural]

I forgot who posted it, but I finally watched the 7 hour and 20 minute castlevania retrospective

[gaunt marten]

Why?

[chilly mural]

because I wanted to watch it

[gaunt marten]

How was it?

[chilly mural]

I enjoyed it, did not know there was several castlevanias released on the gameboy original

[robust spear]

That first Castlevania on Gameboy was not good. I owned it and played it a lot only because it was the only new game I got at the time.

[static bluff]

Very fun stuff.

???

[rough sleet]

I think I'll do better screenshots

[static bluff]

lol okay

[thorny loom]

Did someone say screenshots

[rough sleet]

lol, look at the dude in the right corner

another one

[rough sleet]

WTF THIS ONE LANDED SOMEWHERE AND DESTROED SOMETHING

[grim stirrup]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peVgerhXJlU this vidya, i'm currently like 5 hours in and it is fun seeing stuff about the games i haven't played, such as rondo of darkness/the bad handheld games

[thorny loom]

Rest of screenshots

[chilly mural]

ye, it was that vidya

[dapper cedar]

Don’t tempt me, I will play all the classic Castlevanias again

[thorny loom]

I would play 1 and 3

And have a guide in back for 2

[dapper cedar]

Still haven’t finished 2, that one’s funky tho

[thorny loom]

Gotta remember the classic. Hold red orb at wall to teleport to next area with no explanation or hint moment

Thanks AVGN

[quiet swift]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kr7RGkFuPdQ

[dire gate]

That feels like asking a lot

For just porting a game

[slim thorn]

game dev is so much work if you wanna do it right

[quiet swift]

The "doing it right" is what makes or breaks a port, really

[gaunt marten]

It's time to end lousy PC ports. Instead we should have no ports at all

[slim thorn]

mm-hmm, the fact that we get as many PC ports as we do is already kind of amazing

(granted, it's mostly due to hardware and engines becoming so commodified that you'd have to go out of your way to make a game that can't be cross-platform)

[quiet swift]

Sony oddly enough is one of the few doing actually good ports at the moment

[thorny loom]

I will say this

If your gonna do a pc port at least make the keyboard scheme decent

And dont do what I found out bioshock 2 did recently and leave the controller prompts on when your using keyboard

[slim thorn]

to be fair, I've never seen a game lack rebindable controls when I wanted them, so clearly port quality (or "options quality" of PC-first games) has gone way up since I was a teenager

issues like shader complation stutter are peanuts compared to that

[thorny loom]

https://www.pcgamer.com/a-new-mechwarrior-game-is-coming-in-2024/

[dire gate]

https://twitter.com/pcgamer/status/1613230073284288527

PC Gamer (@pcgamer)

PC port? What PC port? https://t.co/5pgcGiCZPe

Twitter · Jan 11, 2023, 5:43 PM

https://www.pcgamer.com/final-fantasy-16-producer-wonders-why-people-think-a-pc-version-exists-its-because-square-enix-previously-one