whatchu playing now

i've fallen deep into the trails rabbit role. the first two games (trails in the sky fc and sc) will definitely scratch any classic jrpg itch. i wouldn't say they're a HUGE time commitment compared to SMT games, but each arc kinda requires you to have played the previous games in the arc so you can't just jump in anywhere

just to make it easier for anyone curious since everyone should play these games:

liberl arc (play them on PC so you can use turbo mode):
trails in the sky fc
trails in the sky sc
trails in the sky the 3rd

crossbell arc:
trails from zero - the PC version with the geofront english patch
trails from azure - no english version but geofront patch is nearing completion

erebonia arc:
trails of cold steel 1-4 - all have ps4 versions, first two on ps3, 3 on switch, 4 on switch next year

ok, now i remember why i was so confused by that series... shame they're not on mac

as the resident trails fan i wouldn't really recommend getting into it unless you're interested in the long haul, its like the jrpg equivalent of one of those long-running shonen anime with hundreds of episodes and some major highs and lows in story quality.

also it kinda shifts tone over the course of the series to match the popular anime of the time so trails in the sky is extremely 'game made during the initial height of popularity of fullmetal alchemist' whereas cold steel is a bit more like the light novel magic school harem stuff that was popular a decade ago, which causes a lot of folks to balk at it. which is totally fair, but at the same time persona is also that and people love persona so ymmv i guess

also they put tokyo mirage sessions on switch if you want to play the SMT game for cool people

I am once again feeling regret that I never finished Vagrant Story, which I had ages ago and got distracted by “real life”. Would it age well? Should I just install a PS emulator or whatever? hmm

If you're OK with spending a lot of time in the menus then I recommend it. The ending is quite the mindfuck.

Some tips: Cheat your way through the weapon crafting with a chart. For stats, blunt/edged/piercing is important, the other stats not so much.

it's been a while since i played Vagrant Story, but i do remember it being pretty complex. i vaguely remember having to start over after several hours because i had completely bungled my upgrades (the blunt/edged/piercing stuff abanana mentions rings a bell)

more than anything i remember the VIBE of Vagrant Story, which is set in the same universe (Ivalice?) as FF Tactics and FFXII (which i still have never played). that's my favored Final Fantasy universe

it is a super cool universe, no doubt, having played FFT and FFTA1. i think i bought it on PSN on my PS3 years ago and never touched it, it is kind of intimidating

i wonder how the graphic style holds up? it might be in that "so-low-poly-it's-good-again" zone

isn't ff9 also ivalice? or is it a different but similar world

ah its the latter

ffxii had a v protracted development phase and yasumi matsuno (ogre battle, FFT, VS) ended up leaving the project a year or so out "for health reasons" after a few months of vague stories about his being "temperamental". i don't know what if anything actually changed in development as a result but i do wonder if matsuno's taste for deliriously intricate 30-years-war fanfic found itself at odds with the demands of the flagship juggernaut. certainly the finished product (which is pretty great tbh; i am very pro-gambit) seems to take place in the star wars universe.

some website did a Vagrant Story article recently about how well the visuals hold up! they really put a lot of work into make it look good, if jagged polygons

modern psx emulators can upscale, disable dithering, etc to make things look pretty good. i personally keep everything original because i like the look

completed hollow knight. 66& completion

66%

i have never watched the "The Game Awards", but they have announced their nominees for 2020 (but a month + is left?)

Game of the Year:

Doom Eternal (love this pick, even though i haven't played it)
Final Fantasy VII Remake
Hades (um fuck yes, this is actually the answer)
Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Ghost of Tsushima
The Last of Us Part II

...along with nominees in many other categories.

https://thegameawards.com/nominees

the game awards are stupid. only reason everyone watches it is they have E3 style announcement trailers between the awards

stupid-off: grammies vs game awards

Has anyone played “cloudpunk” ? Kind of a blade runner thing

https://www.google.com/search?q=cloudpunk&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari

i played a demo of that, it looks real nice but is pretty light on gameplay, you just deliver packages for people and there's a story of some sort that emerges, i didn't see enough of it to tell if it's interesting. falls under 'walking sim'

despite being driving and not walking

did anyone play fight'n rage ?

I played and finished Cloudpunk. I liked it and they've updated a few cool things recently like adding an in-ship view with cockpit.

I posted upthread about it but to recap.

The voice acting is a little irritating, so I turned it off.

The ai traffic can also be annoying so avoid the main roads.

The graphics and city look superb, they've done a real good job of making a believable city out of voxels, it's processor hungry though.

The game itself is decent, it's not difficult and you'll not struggle with any of it. It's pretty much drive here and walk there, which I like.

In short if you like the look of it you'll get some joy from it. Once you finish it though there is nothing really to go back to (I collected everything in the map)

Thanks

listed out all the current/previous gen games i still want to play before i allow myself to buy a PS5 and got to 50 before capping it. so i guess I'm set for a while.

Well done lol

there are so many video games

Enough, probably

too true. that's why i'm not feeling too bad about missing out on a PS5 this season

Beware: Slay the Spire is super addicting.

ugh, yes it is. i went through a phase with that a while ago. it's also crazy walking into a game like that, which you expect to take over your life. feels good

it's so good

what I wouldn't give for a slay the spire / dominion with decent art direction

post yr 50 ciderpress, imo

yes pls

I’d read any list of 50 video games listed by ciderpress no matter the premise tbh

i got cities: skylines and shadow of the tomb raider on sale. the latter is very reminiscent of the uncharted games - looks amazing, some fun puzzle parts, pointless combat, very on-rails and easy. i know some people hate those kinds of games but i like them once in a while. i was a little high when i started playing it and the graphics were blowing my mind
cities: skylines is really cool but also makes me feel dumb. there's a lot going on in it and a lot to manage but also it doesn't help that the instructions/tutorial are very minimal. i've started like five cities and i'm still not sure i'm connecting power correctly. but it's one of those games where you play it for a bit and then when you are trying to go to sleep it's running on the back of your eyelids

cities skylines ultimately turns into a traffic management simulator, when my cities got big enough to have to deal with that i'd usually check out

it's really fun to zoom all the way in and watch people walking around and houses being built

My ps4 came with both horizon and god of war and I threw away the download card (in error) cause the box art looked terrible. Sigh

shadow of the tomb raider on sale. the latter is very reminiscent of the uncharted games

this annoys me because clearly Uncharted stole all of TR's ideas but also because TR has missed so many opportunities over the years that Uncharted became the default and better franchise and TR is a poor imitation

not really fair to Tomb Raider, considering its concept was "Indiana Jones with boobs" while Uncharted got to be "Indiana Jones" period

just realized that if i can develop something called "boob simulator" and price it at $0.99, i may make a millions dollars

what would nathan drake look like with boobs? pay less than a dollar and stop wondering

probably pretty easy just put a spring inside a boob and let the user touch the boob to drag the spring, tune the parameters a bit and it's done

i like that idea but i want to add ray tracing

also, what about detachable boobs? the frogs were onto something there

I'm on the final boss in Mortal Shell. Highly recommended for anyone who digs soulslikes.