Recently Played Games

Gaming
101

Yeah, I had a lot of fun with the stealthing and stuff. I remember the opening bit where you first get a bow and you’ve got to shoot the deer. I really enjoyed that, made me feel like a real predator :joy:. Then a few minutes later I was locked into a load of cutscenes and then this really stupid segment where I couldn’t move and had to shoot down a bunch of wolves. Would have been alright but I had to start over twice- once because of no warning so I got savaged and another where I got savaged right near the end. Within about ten minutes it had taken something I was really enjoying and made it 1000x worse.

The thing about the wounds made me laugh, that had honestly never occurred to me, although I’ve had quite a few moments of “how is she even standing?!” when I take back control after a cutscene like that.

That kind of handholding in a game winds me up with the ‘just push this button and we’ll do all the work’. I get that some people might like games that simplified but it’s getting more and more common, especially for big-budget titles. It takes away all the satisfaction of gaming IMO. Just make a film instead :joy:

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102

considering the stuff we get actual achievements for (and how much some people care about them), are you really that surprised, they would try to make it seem like some sort of glorious feet; you not only managed to find but also press the up button?
:joy_cat:

wait, there are still actual people that use mouse and keyboard on PC?!? :dizzy_face:
if you go on the steam forum sometimes it’s crazy how many people seem to demand full controller support for games these days, even games that maybe isn’t all that suited for it :ghost:
(sadly i can’t even remember which game it was i looked at, a couple days ago, where tons of people said “no controller support? no buy” which made me laugh so immensely)

it’s like when @m0n0 mentioned the Tomb Raider fan remake, logically my response was
https://206.81.1.216/t/next-months-humble/5806/16?u=gnuffi

and maybes it’s simply just too much of a strain on the poor poor devs to program anything but simple climbing/console mechanics these days. :confused: Imagine if they actually programmed something that took advantage of the PC’s control capability :thinking:
i mean, clearly it’s a deliberate choice; something like that would obviously be the precursor to SkyNet, so they have to halt its progress somehow, right? :smile_cat:
otherwise the icecaps melts when the nukes fly, and we can’t have that. Better to be safe and stay with “press X” for now
-oh look, you even got a cheevo for pressing it, good for you, congratulations!
:joy_cat:
:joy_cat: :joy_cat:

2 Likes
103

The problem fundamentally lies in that these huge block buster trippel-A titles have to appeal to as wide an audience as possible and even with the huge sales Tomb raider got Squeenix were still unhappy about it and it didn’t break even until years later. Apparently they were just pissing away money on this game, mostly on marketing I’d wager. Only reason it did break even eventually is the long sales tail the PC platform has. Had they made it a console exclusive it would probably have gone with a permanent loss.

Video games are of course an art, this means there is a lot of tricky stuff to get them right. The one thing so many AAA titles absolutely fails at is to make the highlights of challenge in the story coincide with the same in game play. As exemplified by TR here, climbing that damn mast was an ensured success that held zero suspense for the player. But was one of the great trials and real character defining moments for the protagonist. She will forever remember the day she fought her fear and the elements to climb this tower to secure communication, this was like her defining moment, the point where she realised she could really DO this shit.

But for me it was a Tuesday.

Been trying to think of a title that exemplifies the opposite but while I’ve been thinking of Ori and the blind forest and the challenge to get out of the first dungeon as a very fulfilling moment in the game I’m not sure how to tie it to the story progression. If anyone have any good examples though please share. Though be a wary of spoiling things.

2 Likes
104

remember back when people made games (mostly) for games sake, that then were good, and then just so happened to do/sell well a bunch of the times. And wasn’t focus tested to death or not just trying to ape another’s success or repeating a formula over and over because “it did well that one/couple of times”[quote=“Fraggles, post:103, topic:4634”]
As exemplified by TR here, climbing that damn mast was an ensured success that held zero suspense for the player
[/quote]
i struggle to remember which game it was (got a real shitty memory), but wasn’t there this one game, where the character’s hand would “slip”, and you were supposed to get all panicky and quickly press x or whatever to get your grip again. And then it turned out, if you never did/pressed it, you still didn’t ever fall down, but just kept dangling there with 1 hand forever :rolling_eyes:
real big “thrill” that was. Really makes you notice just how much tuesday that day was lol

i got nothing…
i can barely remember what i played last week(grim dawn? probably grim dawn? i’ll assume grim dawn lol), let alone the subtle contents of a game that much later, even one i like :smile_cat:

Edit:[quote=“Fraggles, post:103, topic:4634”]
Been trying to think of a title that exemplifies the opposite
[/quote]
@Fraggles, maybe:
Telltales Walking Dead might actually be an example of something that holds your hand so very much, gives you the illusion of impact with 0 actual influence, yet; can still make you feel like it does and instills a sense of “Yes, i did this, it was my choice and it was the right call, and i’m different because of it”, and things somehow are changed because of it, slightly, just enough

Resident Evil/Silent Hill could be another maybe, not because of the “survival” challenge you overcome, but you are a thrust into this seemingly simple mess, yet you are changed forever because of it, and not how you expected, both character and player

Shadow of the Colossus might be a bit cliche to mention in that regard, and “exemplifies” might be a strong word, but the sense of accomplishment and impact is still there as it unfolds and the the whole thing wraps up

MGS series could maybe be considered to have similar defining moments

and perhaps; Brothers a Tale of Two Sons does it well on the story part maybe actually heightened by the simplistic mechanics. Where suddenly your “long learned” feat of “dual controls” gets stripped from you at its peak, the right moment, and now everything is “simple” again, highlighting what you actually “learned”/accomplished on the dual control journey. Both character and player… (tho “exemplifies” might again be a tad strong word here due the the overall simplistic nature of both mechanics, story and character development)

3 Likes
105

Shadow of Mordor does pretty good with that I think, in the way the main missions progress. You have to really work hard and achieve something to progress in the story and overall, it’s pretty damn fulfilling. It does the opposite too- you mess up and basically get set back, potentially further than you ever were if you mess up enough. AFAIK (not finished it yet- it’s actually one of the games I forgot to mention, to nudge the thread back on course a little) they’re not really big, character-defining moments but it’s definitely either an accomplishment or a set back in story as well.

That game is so much fun. Never, until I die, will I forget the name Pumpskrin Long-Tooth. I’m coming for you man :rage:

4 Likes
106

reminds me, i really gotta finish that game too lol
don’t know what’s worse, having good unplayed games in backlog, or good games played halfway through then “forgotten” about/moved on to others, and still “never” getting the good game played to end/completed
urgh, reminds me i’m not done with wasteland 2 either, dangit! :rolling_eyes:

107

While not exactly the same thing as hitting story points with game play challenges. But my old favourite Mark of the Ninja does this thing at a point at the end where the game conflates the player and the character in the story in a wonderful way, questions your own perception of the events. The game makes you the protagonist of the story in a way that Tomb Raider never does.

1 Like
108

Pretty sure the bad writing isn’t Team Ninja, I’m almost certain the story was all Nintendo. I can’t imagine they would hand off a franchise without having somebody overseeing what was going on at the least.

That being said, Other M had tons of nonsensical plot and character stuff going on. The actual game was so so in my opinion.

1 Like
109

Earlier today I gave someone two pure bladestones in Demon’s Souls co-op. Feels good… :wink:

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110

I got an Nvidia Shield Portable a few days ago, it’s a thing I’ve wanted for years and it actually lived up to what I expected.
With it I’ve been playing a some good Pokémon rom hacks, there’s plenty of them.

5 Likes
111

Been enjoying myself lately, and managed to go through a bunch of games this week
(and hopefully a bunch more this weekend)

Valley, holy hell did this one surprise me, and i ended up getting way more than i expected. Damn awesome game, gorgeous and amazing experience. (played it nonstop this entire day):sushing_face: :blush:
Steal of the year!

replayed Dark Messiah of Might & Magic, for that badass first person melee/magic combat feel :smirk:. Linear game done right imo
Such a shame Skyrim didn’t “borrow” the good stuff from this game

Toren
very short super linear and simplistic “adventure”. Beautiful story and art, yet a bit full of itself(can’t skip any damn cut-scenes or dialog) and odd “poor” graphics(havent seen a game both pretty and lacking at the same time in a while lol). Short(like 2½ hours worth) and sweet. Not disappointed, but at the same time, very glad i didn’t pay more than 2€

and Monster Loves You… aeh… dono what to say about this one… it’s cute, weird, silly, hilarious little “choose your own path” story. Short and simple.
Man, if only they had elaborated and expanded more on it, it could have been one “magnificent monstrosity” :smile:

PS. @Fraggles, 14 down, 24 to go :crazy_face:

7 Likes
112

Good job so far, but next steam sale is probably only a few weeks away now. Time’s running out!
Also wasn’t it 50 games?
https://206.81.1.216/t/what-have-you-picked-this-steam-sale/4923/85?u=fraggles

113

i blame Chrono sales for stealing my time away from playing steam sale games :joy:
not since Xcom2 release have i poured so many hours into a single game like i have Wasteland 2 and Grim Dawn
so i’m pretty glad most of these steam sale games are fairly short lol, otherwise it would take years to sniff through them all

yea 50 games total, but a couple was from small bundle(s) where only interested in a single/few
and others were just a nostalgia/“backup” purchase, like Half Life, simcity 4 and fallout classic collection, never really intended to go through any of them again “soon”, since those weren’t “new” games to me, (but “just in case”/if the mood strikes)
so i think it was like about 10 games i’ve preemptively taken off my “to play list” in the end because of that. Still plenty left for the more “immediate”-playthrough tho :dizzy_face:

114

on today’s menu we had Submerged
urgh… :unamused:
i don’t know what they set out to do with this game, but it just oozes missed opportunity allover, and falls completely flat to me
Unlike Toren, that was simple and short too, and whose 2€ price tag didn’t feel wasted, Submerged takes casual and simplistic to new (frustrating) heights.
You can’t die or even fail. Since you mainly just use left stick the entire game, with some button remapping it could be a 1 “button” game.
But unfortunately it’s not even a walking simulator, which might actually have served it better committing to that route.
And so the 4€s(then) spend feels like money down the drain, and time lost with very little “joy reward”.
it’s not a “bad” game, it just doesn’t have enough “gameplay”, and doesn’t take any advantage of what little good it might have had going imo.
such a shame, sank like a rock, -forever submerged beneath its sea of sub-par mediocrity

(3 crates into the game and i repeatedly kept thinking to myself “why are you still playing this and not Valley instead?”) :smile:

3 Likes
115

I haven’t had a lot of time recently but I’ve been playing Golf With Your Friends a fair bit this last week, just relaxing mini golf.
Also a bit of Crash Bandicoot 3 on the Shield when I’ve had the chance, felt like going through it again.

3 Likes
116

Both Toren and Submerged are games I first looked at with desire in my eyes, they both look real pretty and initially interesting. Explore this strange landscape, maybe even solve the riddle of what’s going on. But as I’ve heard and seen more of them it seems much like you’ve described them, vacuous and pointless, nothing deep to uncover and nothing to really do. Great shame.

117

yea, Submerged i’d say is a downright disappointment, because it has these moments where you get of a whiff of something that could have been good, if they had used it/that better or more…

Toren on the other hand wasn’t a disappointment, just felt like it should have been more had it costed more, and thus glad i only paid 2bucks, because felt like it was an ok price for the 1 time experience(which was an overall nice experience tho)

But even for the 4(then)-2€/$(now), Submerged just isn’t “pretty” or “sweet” enough to make up for its shortcomings and lack of sustained enjoyment, to me…
It’s a major shame when a game’s main fault is its own potential, -for being unused…

Edit. i just read this lol

Imagine a game made up entirely of Ubisoft’s beloved radio towers, and you’ve imagined the sole driving force of this particular adventure

all that is lacking is “adventure” being in quotes, and it would have been perfectly apt description of the game :smile:

1 Like
118

So, having recently experienced my first Souls game (Demon’s Souls as noted above), I am now on my first ever playthrough of Metal Gear Solid 4 Guns of the Patriots. The Metal Gear series is one of my favourites of all time, although I’ve heard that the exposition might be a bit OTT in this one. So far I’m enjoying it, although I’m a little puzzled why the Soliton radar of the other games has been replaced by an inferior system despite the fact that I am in the future!

3 Likes
119

I just finished Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. Short game, but really sweet and emotional, takes you on a fantastic journey and has a unique control system with intuitive gameplay. Not hard but good to just chill and play, look at the fantastic scenery and just soak in the world it builds. 10/10 would play again.

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120

:+1:
them turtles tho :blush::hugs:

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