whatchu playing now

i think you could argue that the internet, with the instant gratification of an answer to any simple question, has rendered the adventure game as valid as your self-control lets it be

lol yes. well it's another aspect of what i was trying to get at in the zelda thread, to what extent is being stuck and wandering around a part of the uh diegesis of these games

that first laura bow game really pointed to a way forward that no one ever took up, didn't it? man, that was an adventure game that was also .. a game, what a thought

when i was fourteen and knew no better it more or less WAS the game but as they say, game done changed

i remember thinking over puzzles in games like Secret of Monkey Island while away from the game. yeah being stumped was a huge part of gaming.

nowadays people are very goal-oriented for lack of a better term. just being in the world, just playing, is not enough. they need to see that Completion counter work its way up to 100%. they need to get those Achievements. the temptation to look up a walkthrough is too great. gaming is more like work.

kind of sad that the days where you could be stuck and have no one to turn to and just work things out yourself are over.

bought Rainbow Six Siege today, Rainbow Six Vegas was one of my favorite shooters (it rewarded moving strategically more than running and gunning) but I'm a little worried about the complete lack of single player in this one

finished grimfam. pretty fun. last few puzzles easy enough for me to solve, hooray. did spend a lot of time going 'i wonder if this is the one i need the liquid nitrogen for.' enjoyed the fire extinguisher payoff.

oh man you can't really play it with the director's commentary on w/o stopping and waiting for people to shut up, that's annoying

xp thomp - i only played the second Laura Bow game, btu what do you mean?

errr so. it's a murder mystery where everyone's trapped in the grounds of a mansion and getting killed off one by one. the interesting bit is that you can play it completely missing every important conversation and literally every puzzle, and at the end you just come across two people fighting over a pistol and have no idea whose side to intervene on

after you finish it tells you you suck, start again, look harder. so the next time you start you will find the secret passages that let you spy on conversations, etc., and start working out what's actually going on

it's not actually a very good game but i like that idea a lot, also that your knowledge from former playthroughs affects what you do

... and that that affects what you do

i just got episode one of 'life is strange' in which i am hoping the time rewinding has a similar effect on the gameplay, kinda doubt it though

hey guys rn i just finished super mario 64 a week or two ago and rn i'm playin:

undertale (just started)
fallout 3 (just started)
kami

oh ok. Dagger of Amon Ra continued with those things, and I agree, the ideas were really cool, if incredibly frustrating in a lot of ways

The Last Express played with this idea too, but was much more forgiving and linear (no alternate endings)

errr so. it's a murder mystery where everyone's trapped in the grounds of a mansion and getting killed off one by one. the interesting bit is that you can play it completely missing every important conversation and literally every puzzle, and at the end you just come across two people fighting over a pistol and have no idea whose side to intervene on

this was essentially the premise of deadline iirc. varicella is kinda the final word on this kind of adventure game (w/ puzzles occurring dynamically over time). gab knight 3 tried to do something similar but i really did not enjoy it. when done well this style (which i don't know if there's a good name to describe, 'time-impacted adventure game,') is really dazzling.

i think the last express did something similar tho i've never played it myself. for years i've felt like i should get around to it.

oh wow and apparently it's on steam. next time it goes on sale i'll give it a try

oh yeah Shadow of Destiny did this too and was pretty obtuse about it (better be outside that mansion on Day 3 to save that kid's life or OH WELL), but at least it had the array of multiple endings and time-looping built into the plot/game structure

yeah has anyone looked at the board game 'tragedy looper'? that seems like an experiment in a similar sort of narrative

varicella is one of the adam cadres i have not played. and deadline sounds p good! i am really not good at text adventures though so i suspect i would be very, very frustrated very quickly w both

Got in on the DOOM Alpha and it is super, super fun. Not doing anything spectacularly new, but one map, 6 guns, 6 on 6 team death match basically ruined our going out plans.

played 'life is strange' for a minute, but it doesn't like my gamepad and i had the feeling 'yeah, that guy's gonna be the killer' like, before the game even informed me there was going to be a killer. i liked a lot about it but i just don't know if i can deal with those two things

Varicella is excellent but it's super-hard. I think I had fun about five different times playing with it and failing hard, and then finally went to a walkthrough to see what actually happens. I'm sure there are way more text adventures with this style but I can't really think. Oh, maybe Make It Good by Jon Ingold, for another detective one? Similar-ish, anyway.

R6:Siege may be way too difficult for my casual gaming ass. I can't do shit even in the training 'situations' that pass for single player.

Played some Kickbeat this evening. For those unfamiliar it's a rhythm game with a kung-fu theme and you're some guy on a quest to retrieve the source of all music from an evil music executive, or something. Production and gameplay are decent, but it's hard to love it because, well, the music is not really my cup of tea. So I get to the boss stage and

CUT MY LIFE INTO PIECES, THIS IS MY LAST RESORT

and i sigh

Speaking of kung-fu, has anyone played the Bruce Lee 2 game, playable on a Commodore 64 emulator?

It's pretty nifty,here's a link to the programmers page about it:
http://kollektivet.nu/brucelee2/

Back in 1984, Datasoft Inc released a game based on the Bruce Lee character featured in motion pictures.

starting to play some games that might end up filling out my year end ballto on steam... dropsy, undertale, gods iwll be watching, life is strange... a very nice coutnerpoint to the emotional tundra of post-apocalyptic boston & environs

gods will be watching was 2014. life is strange i've still gotta get to.

basically been playing fallout 4 + binding of isaac: afterbirth exclusively

in that case i shall replace it with jotun (my friend wrote for this!), beginner's guide, her story, cibele, and republique remastered.

i haven't played it yet but Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and the Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist is a new 15 minute free game on steam by William Pugh who worked on Stanley Parable w/ Wreden

Xenoblade X - I think this is the first time I've played a game and thought "this is too big". For the first five or so hours it felt like drowning, too much of everything - constant on screen messages in tiny fonts, systems upon systems that are barely if at all explained, absolutely massive maps teeming with gnomic symbols. On a purely technical level it's a big achievement, it really feels like you are exploring a massive alien planet with minimal to no loading times, although I doubt I'll get anywhere close to the end before monotony sets in. Funny coming to this from Fallout 4 which now feels like it took place on the back of a postage stamp.

Watching some footage of Xenoblade was the precise moment I realized japanese RPG gaming is finished, and will largely be regarded as a historical curio that engaged in a conversation with the west for a couple of decades about stat blocks and leveling and character classes. It's done. Japan is history, and this game is deeply, deeply trashy and stupid.

To the great surprise of absolutely nobody I like Undertale a ton, although I haven't quite finished my first playthrough as of this moment. It's like Earthbound but with Wario Ware as the combat engine.

I have also been refining my Puff in Smash during train trips back and forth between SF and LA so be warned. I also finally beat the story mode on the 3ds Kirby game, which is actually quite great (forget if I mentioned this already) as well as Mii Force and Find Mii II.

I've been playing the original and first Final Fantasy. Surprised both by how long and how difficult it is. Not that it's been objectively super long or super difficult, just that I figured the earliest RPGs would be relatively breezy. I dig the stripped-down vibe and mechanics, though. Very meditative, in a way. I played a shitload of Sword of Vermilion back in the day so it nicely scratches that itch (since one is basically a carbon copy of the other). Also started playing the original and first Phantasy Star. Not as into it, but it's all right. It feels much more like a game of its era.

Got Rocket League last week. Now I am staying up until 5am every day playing it. So so so so addictive!

Still plugging away at MGSV, doing mostly FOB, but also slowly making my way to 100% Completion.

i brought my ps4 home for the holidays but i forgot to bring my little wallet of games ughhhh

Just got introduced to vs and co-op multiplayer on Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker using the PPSSPP emulator to play on PC. It's pretty cool! I already play too many video games tho...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaqOp67gALc

We had a 3-player co op battle today.

Also just learned how to add non-Steam games to Steam. Which is good cos I just started playing DOOM again.

i brought my ps4 home for the holidays but i forgot to bring my little wallet of games ughhhh

PS+ backlog!

any ps+ games i should be playing? for ps4? idk if any of them really excite me tbh.

i also have my laptop anyway, so i have vbeen playing some steam indie games, and star wars battlefront was in the tray which i hadn'tr even played yet...

The Gauntlet game they're giving away right now for free is pretty fun if you like arcade-y hack-and-slashers. Nuclear Throne is also supposed to kick much ass although I haven't had a chance to really sink my teeth into it yet (it's also cross-buy if you have a vita btw). Galak-Z is fun as fuck too if you like games like Spelunky or La Mulana.

whhooooaaaa her story is creepy and coool

I bought an Amiga 500 HA!

Bubble Bobble

http://i.imgur.com/DioVCWw.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/jRXnaug.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/TbET32M.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/XlZ4IDc.jpg

Did we talk about Life is Strange on any of these threads except the PS4 one? I watched the Giant Bomb East playthru of the entire game( which seems like the best way I could have experienced it) and man, the ending of the game is far more emotionally affecting than I've ever would have imagined from just its premise. It goes from this Twin Peaks/Veronica Mars thing (and echoes Gone Home, even), and gets far deeper than that.

The song played during the emotional climax/denouement is one of those where you find its vid on YT on the comments from the last 5 months are nothing but people commiserating over the gut punch of the ending.

I'm a pretty cynical/reserved/hyperintellectualized type, but the game got to me, even.

Otherwise, been alternating Xcom 2 with a lot of what are pejoratively called "walking simulators," and I'm enjoying the heavy narrative bent.