whatchu playing now

playing Hypnospace Outlaw, this is overwhelming and amazing

lol there's a parody of ishkur's guide they really thought of everything

ok wow this is goty

ok i finished it. really good! i wish the second half was a bit more intricate though, it's pretty easy to infer what happened so i thought it was going to be more of a drawn out or contested process to prove it than it was.

I like to revisit Myst every so often--so I just finished that up. Every time I play through, I forget how absolutely obnoxious the underground sound spaceship is to play--it's long and unnecessary, especially considering you have to do it twice if you want to get both pages.

As a result, I purchased Riven (the sequel to Myst). I am having a lot of trouble getting into it--it seems a lot more contrived than Myst does, and quite a bit more confusing in a maze-like sort of way. The original Myst is simple: you're in a hub, from which you can access multiple worlds with contained sets of puzzles. With everything more interconnected in Riven, I have a really hard time understanding how to get between places, what puzzles affect what areas, and so on. I kind of gave up without putting more than like an hour or two into the game.

Aside from that, I've had a Vive for a bit--I love VR, and wish I had more space in my 1br apartment for it. I bought Skyrim a while back and modded it out, but didn't feel super great about it in VR. Might have to pick it up and give it another go. Still waiting on that triple-A VR title to come out that's going to absolutely blow me out of the water.

Still waiting on that triple-A VR title to come out that's going to absolutely blow me out of the water.

i think a lot of people are waiting on that. unfortunately for me i don't think i'll ever be able to play VR because my dog and cat are very present in my life, and i would definitely trip over them within 5 minutes of my VR-at-home experience

I don't think most people will ever want to have VR goggles on for very long. That limits the sorts of games that can be successful until the experience becomes less cumbersome.

Tilt Brush by Google is still the only VR app I've tried that really made me want to keep the headset on for a while. Design software in VR makes much more sense to me than AAA games do.

i got Prey as part of a cheap bundle with Dishonored 2 (which was fine). Prey was ok! clever-enough plot twists in the story, great location, loved the retro-future 60s space age design of everything. zero-g exterior stuff was scary and fun. the first half, when you're powerless and it's much more of a sneak/monster horror/mystery type game, is better than the finale.

riven is the genre's single masterpiece imo, worth sticking to next time you feel like giving it a shot. otm that it is more interconnected, its puzzle environments no longer sealed off from each other, and probably harder for this; but it strikes me as the opposite of less contrived-- puzzles arise from the always semi-plausibly-imagined machinery and systems of the archipelago all having broken down just so, and from your initial lack of comprehension of the inhabitants' numerals and symbols. myst is a game where a guy has hidden his password in the constellations on a planetarium roof. in case he forgets it?

riven lives up to channelwood.

excellent use of fauna.

i played a little riven at the time but found it too hard-- years later in college i turned to it as procrastination tool and will never forget once being stuck for days until dreaming the solution

sorry-- the opposite of more contrived obv.

riven is way better than myst imo

i think i started the 3rd game at a friends house once but didn't get very far so idk if they ever hit those highs again

do not feed the monkeys feels like some kind of bizarro forgotten scummvm engine voyeur sim. it's puzzle / pseudo-narrative adventure esque w/ a quirky sense of humor.

riven is my #3 game of all time, behind super metroid and another world. stick with it, it's worth it.

riven ... super metroid

not unrelated!

those are both among my childhood favs too

Started running dead cells again, been a long time. Haven’t played it all since full release at least. Can get by the first boss but can’t live much longer past that. Game’s tough boys.

finally playing 999 for real, i did one route a couple years ago and then never finished it for some reason

it's a great experience! play vlr too. skip the third one.

i liked the 3rd too! (second was better tho i agree)

speaking of which, I just beat the zanki zero demo last night and uhhhh i ordered the game right after, so i guess i'm looking fwd to that!

I picked up Shadow of the Colossus and the Last Guardian in the last sale, started the former. The controls are not as terrible as if heard.

Also trying to finish Edith Finch, I'm going to be pretty strict about playing it in 20-30 minute intervals to try to mitigate my motion sickness.

Also started A Case of Distrust, quite enjoying the noir dialogue and the atmosphere.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GadL-6wpp3U

999 and vlr were very cool

playing atelier lulua now, the first major release of 2019 afaic

ooh, what is the alchemy system in Lulua like? I hated the more recent tetris shape ones.

its not the tetris grid, its got a 4-element system. i haven't played the dusk games but i think it might be similar to one of those?

ive only plyaed the first hour though so maybe it gets more confusing

ok that sounds better at least. I'm just waiting for the original Trilogy to get an eshop sale tbh.
trying to wean myself off a dangerous Lumines addiction atm, was starting to see blocks dropping when falling asleep etc.

ive still never cleared the standard mode in lumines though i got into the 90s recently for the first time. the song that starts at level 80 kills me on a good chunk of runs

My last Lumines run was my best, I forget where I got to though. Closer.

I've only cleared standard once, countless other runs got in the 90s and fallen apart. Now I just stick to the Endless mode that unlocked.

Shake yr body down to the ground

otm

i love the 'i hear the music in my soul' track that has the extremely slow tempo/clear speed that's always the highlight of every run

oh yeh that's a cracker, v Daft Punk. think the only track I dislike is the one on the white and brown bubbles stage, has a kinda grunge riff?

i just finished yakuza 6

that was the longest 20 hour game i have ever played in my life

Is that a bad thing?

it was a struggle

yakuza 6 was a universally praised game, i don't know what is wrong with me

even the fucking ending! there were TWO different credit sequences, separated by another 20 minute movie in between. holy shit

i didn't realize it was such a story-heavy game, though, so i guess that's on me. i will say that the zaniness of the dialogue and the situations they were in made me lol irl several times, which is more than pretty much any game! sometimes it was genuinely very entertaining. in general i really enjoy that uncanny valley zone, in life and videogames. the nathan fielder awkwardness. and yakuza 6 frequently entered that zone and was all the better for it. but most of the time, it rests somewhere just outside of the uncanny valley. like if The Room had just slightly better actors and just slightly better dialogue and made slightly more sense

also a few too many instances of missions like "GO TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE TOWN AND STAND ON A SPOT". then as soon as you do that, it skips you from morning turns to dusk and the new missions is "WAIT! go back all the way across town to where you just were, and stand on that spot again"

the wordsies i cannot type them

anyone thinking about picking up one of these?

Introducing Playdate, a new handheld gaming system from Panic.

It fits in your pocket. It's got a black and white screen. It includes a season of brand-new games from amazing creators. Oh and… there's a crank???? https://t.co/WiIPUkpjSq

Yes. A thread… pic.twitter.com/47BwSOtiiP

— Playdate (@playdate) May 22, 2019

i'm intrigued! includes games by the likes of bennett foddy (QWOP, getting over it...and a former bass player for cut copy, i just learned from wikipedia?)

it's also $149 for 12 games, so

no thanks

off topic, but i have this mint condition OUYA i've been trying to get rid of

you know what's better than an OUYA is TWO OUYA and i have one i could sell to you for MSRP

Speak of the devil:

OUYA & Razer Forge TV Services Shutdown
Thank you for your loyalty to OUYA Gaming and Razer Forge TV.
We're writing to let you know that these platforms will be shutdown and no longer available for usage on June 25, 2019.
Your Account:
On June 25, 2019 your OUYA / Razer Cortex account will be disabled. So, we encourage you to utilize your account funds prior to the shutdown.
Games/Gameplay:
After June 25, 2019 continued gameplay will vary depending on the individual game developers, but the games will no longer be available on the OUYA platform. Contact the developers for more information.
We thank you for your loyalty over the years and hope you've enjoyed the service. With the innovations continually happening in the gaming industry, we're looking forward to bringing more great gaming options in the future.
Best Regards,
The Razer Team

lol, I was gonna post that!

Wait, so Ouya became... Razer (sic) Forge?