whatchu playing now

yeah savescumming is an essential part of the trial and error fun when fooling about in the sandbox

xpost That video is fun, but I wonder how many failures were just edited out to make it fun? Anyway, I think the specific issue I've run into a few times is having on what I think is a solid disguise and then crossing some invisible line whereupon a baddie goes "hey, you don't belong here!" And then I turn around immediately and they stay pissed and in pursuit! I mean, it was an honest mistake, baddie, I turned around and left immediately! Though honestly, I find this game too silly to be stressful.

Also, I don't know what the deal is, but the autosaves appear so dark I barely know what point they're at. A few times I'd pop back in seconds before I was shot only to just get shot again. So I have started my own save files, which makes things more manageable for sure. I do wish there were a quicksave button rather than having to go the menu each time and select it.

Regardless, I had fun and succeeded in the second/Italian villa/bioweapon level, though I feel like I kind of did it stupidly. But I'm not following any of the challenges/objectives, which direct a specific approach. I've been freestyling it, so any stupidity is my own. Garbage in, garbage out.

really enjoying hob's barrow

it was really good. after that and return to monkey island, though, i was wishing those kinds of games were longer. i finished each in a few days.

i'm open to more suggestions of sierra/lucasarts-style point and click adventure games on the switch, please

What was that one, Tumbleweed Park?

played it! that one actually lasted longer

I wish monkey 1&2 were easier to get on iPad and switch.

OK I am addicted to Oxygen Not Included, even playing on the easy level

I found a good tips video for Hitman that has helped a lot. Between that and saving the game has both opened up and gotten a little easier. I can totally see great (uncompelled) replay value.

Could you share the tips video?

Yeah! This Russian (?) guy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7RfnHN1aV8

BTW be care about whose Hitman vids you watch, there's a guy whose handle is a Batman villain who's been accused of grooming kids.

Well, I think I'm done, but that's gross to know all the same.

Just finished Yakuza like a dragon. Love this Goku-ass main character. Surprise pop in of other big characters was very hype. Combat was fun. Story was typical Yakuza saccharine goodness. Not sure what to touch now. Might pick up 4 (played 0-3 so far), or might get back on my resident evil kick. wouldn’t be against another jrpg though, ni no kuni is on game pass as an option

Went for Dragon Age inquisition, realized in about 10 seconds I couldn't deal with this cheesy WRPG mark of the dragon scourge killing nonsense, picked up soul hackers 2.
The sign one has finally matured in life: admitting that it is actually the wrpg that is cheese, while jrpg's speak from the heart in their campiness (which was previously identified as cheese).
Another sign: accepting the pokemon gameplay loop actually ain't half bad. God bless you megaten.

they're good in different ways, except dragon age is not a good series

I have fond memories of playing bioware games in my teen years so I thought I would be in for something good,. Maybe I would grow to it if I gave it more than 10 minutes? But alas, only so many hours on this earth

Briefly thought you were talking about Bioshock, which I thought people liked and which I intend to play for the first time in the ... next year or so?

Anyone play Eldest Souls? 2-d boss rush game, I can't remember why I haven't tried it before but it looks fun.

they could have called it Dark Ring just to be clear

the excellent, grimy, open-world platformer Sludge Life is free until March 30th on Steam in honor of its sequel being announced.

Check it out if you want: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1144770/SLUDGE_LIFE/

ty

thanks! looks interesting.

Anyone gonna pick up "Dredge"? Looks cool.

Still having fun with "Hitman" (2016). I have to keep reminding myself that essentially the game is built around cheesing. That is, there is no wrong way to win in a game that intentionally offers you dozens of "wrong" ways to win. If you can push a guy off a balcony and get away with it, no problem. If you can throw a pool ball at someone's head, go for it. If you can poison a plate of sushi, go for it. That's the fun. And then if you get bored or want a different challenge, you can pursue some of the more specific missions/challenges, which are equally devious if more constrained/directed. So many different ways to play, though maybe less a game to be experienced start to finish and more a game to dip in and out of.

I bought the humble bundle puzzle pack a few weeks ago and I'm making my way through it. I'm playing Creaks atm, a platform puzzler in a crumbling tower with cutesy-gothy-sketchbook style art. Halfway through and the puzzles feel like the right level of difficult so far. It's short, but has felt substantial - I was surprised that I've only played three hours - I guess bc it's a good brain workout? Recommended, anyway.

Man, I'm still creeping along with the first Hitman, and there is just so much to do and so many ways to do it.

I recently played:

The Last Campfire, which turned out to be a twee puzzle game with bright, cute graphics, no way to really fail at anything, and narration that I only tolerated because it's done by a Scandi-sounding woman with a relaxing voice. Few of the puzzles were properly challenging, especially coming straight from Creaks.

Pentiment, a text-heavy 'walking around and talking to people' game in the vein of Disco Elysium, but set in a fictional medieval Bavarian town where you try to solve murders. It's clear a lot of thought went into the game. There's a large cast of townsfolk whose back stories you get to know, sometimes over the course of decades, along with the town's own history. Speech bubbles have different typefaces depending on the education or occupation of the person. The game's glossary, which provides historical and religious contextual information, is bordered with little folk art illustrations. Downsides are that the system of 'impactful choices' doesn't work nearly as well as Disco Elysium, there is A LOT of walking back and forth, and the decision-making process for 2/3 of the game is more 'what is the least awful choice I can make' than 'what is the best choice I can make'.

Currently playing:

Darq, a short 2-3d platform puzzle game whose gimmick is that you rotate the setting around the character to progress. I like to think my brain is good at processing spatial information but the perspective shifts can be challenging. That's really the main puzzle here rather than the more traditional 'find an item and make it interact with something else' element of the game. Atmosphere is the right level of creepy for me - dark and haunted but with very few threats. Having said that, there has been one puzzle that was actually disturbing. Don't think I've ever felt threatened by a puzzle before, so that's something.

the decision-making process for 2/3 of the game is more 'what is the least awful choice I can make' than 'what is the best choice I can make'.

thank you for mentioning this! i haven't been gaming much recently but pentiment is one i've been thinking about. but i've realized that i don't really enjoy playing most games that involve a lot of least awful choice gameplay. frostpunk felt like that to me, too - lots of stress involving how evil i have to be toward children and the infirm

Frostpunk children should consider themselves lucky to have sawdust to eat tbf.

I have played a lot of games recently:

REmake: made me want to play more point and click adventure games. It’s like the middle step between p&c’s and your run of the mill 3rd person adventure game schmuck popularised by re4
Re4: which I also just played. God damn some of the finest writing in videogamedom. Obviously you can’t do the B-movie all the time, but I am surprised that this goofy ass writing didn’t sweep over gaming like a wave (or maybe it did? Someone educate me). Besides that, very fun game, the hype is fair (although perhaps a bit too over the top?)
Re2make: I now see why re3make got a bad wrap. Re2make leans much more into the puzzles survival compare to re3make which leans into what re4 was doing (shooty shooty bang bang lets have fun). I’m glad I did Re3make first so I could appreciate it on its own merits, but compared to Re2make and re1make which i played afterwards, it seems the re’s had a downward spiral in quality (for my taste) when it became a little too easy to survive.

TLOU: finally up to spring. Seems doing things backwards is a consistent trait for me. Maybe it’s just that I’m playing the most recent remake, but I was expecting at least one element of this game to feel dated compared to TLOU2 but they’re really a continuous work. Good entertainment, thought kind of bland enough that there’s not much interesting to say about it?

Looks like I made it through the first Hitman and the game automatically moved on to the second, which is cool with me. I find the best/easiest way to play is to wander around until I trigger one of the missions, then complete the level that way. There is no "right" way to play a level, there are dozens, so I figure might as well finish them any which way but loose, and then come back to it in the future when it's done and try a different way, since trial and error can lead to all kinds of fun results. Like, I was just playing the Colombia level, and bodies I barely stashed were discovered before I could take out the baddie with a sabotaged statue. So instead, while some other baddie was giving a speech I ran to the top of the hill and just pushed the statue off and smooshed her, and got away with it, too.

Nearly finished Demon's Souls, just gotta beat King Allant who's a pretty tricky customer. I managed to get almost completely white tendency other than Boletaria because somehow Ostrava got himself killed after I saved him

Also dipping in and out of FFVII (original) because it's a friend's all time favourite game. It hasn't totally gripped me yet and I'm kind of put off by some of the language localisation.

What I've mostly been playing though, is Theatrhythm Final Bar, which is a ridiculously addictive rhythm game based on the music from the Final Fantasy series of games. It's very simple really - just tap the buttons in time with the music. But my god it's snacky and fun

robotron: 2084

10 virtual 10p pieces every evening, which lasts about 20 minutes as i can't get to 10th wave yet. high score: 152225

(blue label)

I'm playing Dredge, a questy gotta-catch-em-all fishing-mystery-horror game with madness effects if you stay out too late with your fishing boat

It's great

Game looks great, but I'm going to wait a few months.

Been tempted for Dredge, looks like a nice chilled experience similar to Spiritfarer which I enjoyed.

I tried out Shadows of Doubt, a voxel cyperpunky sandbox detective game. It's interesting to play, and has tons of atmosphere. It's early Alpha, which is pretty impressive for what's in it at the moment. Although I am feeling some of the investigations require the player to go through tediously similar motions. Side jobs are more fun. Interaction in the world is impressive, but needs work as a bit janky right now. Don't even try playing with a game controller tho.

https://deadline.com/2023/04/vampire-survivors-video-game-animated-television-series-story-kitchen-luca-galante-poncle-trailer-1235340337/

waht

what if vampires were survivors

Finished Hitman 2, enjoyment def. hinges on your own creativity as a player. But it's fun, for sure.

Had a friend over last night who is in a similar situation to me several years back (he hadn't had a console in years, loved Nintendo back in the day, bought a Switch). He was curious about PS5, so I let him play some Ratchet and Clank, and it blew his mind. Mine, too, tbh; I hadn't started it yet, but it looks great. Looking forward to seeing what comes of more PS5 exclusives rather than games hampered (however slightly) by PS4 limitations. New Horizon Zero West DLC is PS5 only, right?

New Horizon Zero West DLC is PS5 only, right?

Yes, because clouds: https://kotaku.com/horizon-forbidden-west-playstation-5-burning-shores-ps5-1850283566

Clouds, reflections, rain, foliage ... nature is hard on the processor!

trying out honkai star rail. it's like a light version of trails of cold steel kinda? i have no idea how the gacha stuff works and it's pretty confusing, but i clicked something once and apparently got the best 5 star character. also controlling 3d game on a mobile phone is abysmal

Aeterna Noctis, from the souls-like humble bundle -- what if Hollow Knight but you play as Alucard? It's fun so far (2 hours in) but I hear it gets ridiculously hard near the end.

I finished Xenoblade 2, also doing every quest except one (the pop idol one which takes 8+ hours of waiting). The game does some things extremely well and other things very poorly. The strategy for preparing for combat is great. The story is good. The world looks amazing. Then the 3 main characters are awful, the actual combat is repetitive chaos, all of the quest rewards are procedurally-generated garbage. The worst is that the writers of the main story must have kept it a secret from everyone else on the team. For example none of the town NPCs have anything to say, usually just nattering on about their favorite food or whatever. And when your characters respond they only have 3 or 4 lines each. "Wassup?", "Looks like another quest complete.", etc.

Anyway I started Xenoblade 3 and I immediately see that most of these problems have been solved. One quirk of Xenoblade 2 is that the mini-map has 4 different size settings, but only two are useful, so you need to press the button 3 times to cycle from the good big size back to the good small size. XB3 just has the two good sizes. I guess other people had the same issue.

I finished Dredge last weekend. It it turns out it's a bit front-loaded quest wise, possibly as enticement in the demo, so ended up suffering in its second half from having a few promising looking areas to explore without much above-water life. There's still a whole fish encyclopedia to complete, which I did enjoy doing, particularly for the satisfaction of finding the aberration horror fishes, but a few more quests and NPC interactions could've deepened the story. Good game length though, maybe 15-20 hours if filling in the encyclopedia rather than just running through the story.

Anyway I started Xenoblade 3 and I immediately see that most of these problems have been solved

funnily enough I've been playing the Xeno 3 expansion Future Redeemed and it's fixed a lot of the problems I had with Xeno 3 main game e.g. pacing/cutscenes, exploration, levelling.

Buncha games out now that look cool. Strayed Lights, Afterimage, After Us. Anyone played/seen reviews/have thoughts?

I finished Jedi Survivor last weekend, less than a week after release


I feel no shame