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Cocoon is rad

Do you recommend it for someone who didn't finish Inside?

Idk, what didn't you like about it? They're both pretty short. So far Cocoon is pretty brilliant at introducing you to new mechanics (without any text or dialogue) without being overwhelming. There's always a new little application to what you just learned and you feel pretty smart, but it stays very focused at the same time. It's pretty masterfully designed, especially considering it only uses one button.

There are "boss fights", but they're very forgiving (if you get damaged, it just tosses you out of the world so you can restart the fight immediately).

Inside being horror-adjacent was hard for me to keep playing (I gave up after a mermaid ate me).

It's the 2023 Interactive Fiction Competition lads. That'll be my month of games.

Oh, Cocoon is much more colorful and friendly. You're a little bug and the occasional big mean bug isn't that mean to you. Mostly it's environmental puzzles and playing with the "worlds are also spheres that you can carry around and use as tools, as well as jump in and out of" mechanic.

I'm loving Cocoon. Never played their other games, but now intend to. Bought Limbo on sale years ago and never touched it.

No Man’s Sky. I think I can get into the loop of this, but the UI is absolutely terrible. Have to Google and annoy my brother with questions like “how to find my base it’s not on my compass or map” routinely.

Warhammer Darktide finally launched on Game Pass. If you are a Left 4 Dead fan, this is a good one of those.

Mortal Kombat 1 is fun, but feels a teensy bit lacking for some reason, mostly that after you beat the story mode the Invasions/Tower/Krypt mode feels pretty bare. I enjoy it and played a lot of Kombat League, but I'll probably be moving on for a while, figure that like MKX and MK11 there'll be a lot more to play with in a year or so. Spider-Man 2 is out at the end of the month, anyway...

Rust, only because my friend wants to. it's crap imo

We have been trying minecraft in vr, playing co-op makes it better. Almost fell over looking down from high cliff tops.

For reasons that are not clear to anyone really,

I have started Total War: Warhammer (1) on my small and v basic PC.

I suspect this will go the same way as my venture into Starcraft about a decade ago..

fun being rubbish till I realise managing the logistics is too much like my real life to make it something I do to relax.

finished FF7R and had fun when it was a game.
one of the things that I really hate about modern AAA games tho is when they do that barely interactive not-a-cutscene thing - you know, you walk along slowly pushing up on the thumbstick for aaaaaaages while the characters banter and talk about the plot until you get to the next bit of gameplay. or another walking section. or squeeze slooooowly thru a gap. if you want to tell the story just gimme a cutscene ffs!
anyway I enjoyed what they did with the already daft story, even when it went a bit meta, and the button mashing with occasional pause to cast a spell or limit break was serviceable enough. actually looking forward to part 2!

that not-a-cutscene thing was ripped directly from the original FF7. at least I think that bit where you're walking with Aerith through the rubble was

i assumed the squeezing slowly through gaps bits in FF7R were meant to hiding loading times.

currently really enjoying Dragon's Dogma, weird medieval action RPG that does not take itself seriously. does a surprisingly good job with atmosphere thanks to a day/night cycle with dark nights that really impact the gameplay

squeeze through a wall is 100% loading in the background.

dialogue throughout journeys is just to stop you getting bored... GTA always did this well, but on the 24th time?

would rather the game find other ways to make traversal fun besides listening to video game dialogue small talk. and anything actually important should be in cutscenes, agree on that

Dragon's Dogma is cool! Such a unique & quirky take on an action RPG. I'm very curious to see how the sequel turns out.

My favorite gaming podcast is doing a bonus ep this month on Majora's Mask, so I'm doing a playthrough of both N64 Zeldas rn. I've been zooming through Ocarina, the first time I've played it in...20 years, maybe? It holds up pretty well for like 90% of the time. That other 10% is pretty rough though.

finished the Yuffie side content for FF7R, really enjoyed it. never cared for her in the original game but she was a charming brat in this, hope she turns up a decent amount in later games. FF7R also made me appreciate how good Square are at skin textures, freckle game on point.

Just about done the "Burial at Sea" DLC for "Bioshock Infinite." I guess I respect them doubling down on the gibberish, and also tying it to the first game. Feels kinda like "Infinite" would have been a better second game, and the second game, with some extra work, might have been a better third game.

It's the 2023 Interactive Fiction Competition lads. That'll be my month of games.

― emil.y, Tuesday, October 3, 2023 3:22 PM (one week ago)

Anything catch your attention yet?

Playing Chrono Trigger at the moment, think I’m relatively close the end? This game was so hyped that I thought I was going to be blown away every 5 seconds. Instead, it’s been around 20 hours of entirely pleasant 16bit jrpg’ing and even though it hasn’t reached those lofty heights promised, I don’t feel let down at all so I guess that validates it to me as a great game.

Frog is such a cool dude.

I bought the first “The Legend of Heroes” game but feel daunted at the prospect of getting into that massive series. Might try Romancing SaGa 3 after this, or Dragons Dogma does seem interesting.

Also reading the Chrono Trigger thread on this board really makes you realise how much this place has changed

started starfield, it's aggressively 'okay'

sometimes you gotta spend a bit of time in a middling game to fully appreciate the good ones

I played Lords of the Fallen for a couple days and got a little frustrated with the swamp area (hard to figure out where to go and tons of difficult enemies, unsure if this is due to questionable design or part of the From Software tribute). I don't know if I've ever played a game with such a weird mix of polish and jank. The 'two worlds' mechanic with the lamp is really well done. Some of the jank is technical stuff that I don't care about and the devs are clearly fixing day by day, and some of it's around balance.

Judging by the daily patches they're clearly still working on the game. And I've been seized with the motivation to work on music instead of playing video games, so I'm going to honor that and come back in a few months when it'll probably be a great game.

Playing Kingdoms: Eighties and finding it charming. There’s enough variance to each level to keep it interesting after years of this series

sometimes you gotta spend a bit of time in a middling game to fully appreciate the good ones

― ciderpress, Friday, October 20, 2023 9:39 AM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

grew up w morrowind/oblivion/etc so it hits all those spots really well. definitely plenty of jank and is definitely not a 'next gen' title whatever that means. it's perfectly pleasant

Started Wolfenstein: The Old Blood, strictly for catharsis.

I bought Returnal months ago but I only just managed to get out of the first biome today.

^ that’s when it starts getting good.

After hearing all the hype for Alan Wake 2, I grabbed Alan Wake Remastered on Xbox on sale for like 9 bucks. Wanted something spooky.

This game fuckin rules. Get the cultish following it has. Totally pulpy but actually kinda intriguing story, wonderful atmosphere, fun references (a lot of Twin Peaks nods so I’m there for that), and combat mechanics that felt pretty hokey and simple at first but are revealing themselves to be actually kinda sophisticated and satisfying.

Good stuff. I bounced off of Control even though I recognized the artistry there, but I’m going to revisit knowing that it’s part of the same world and somewhat connected. And I’m jazzed for Alan Wake 2.

Similar boat, I bought Alan Wake in anticipation of the sequel, and will play it soon. But I also really loved Control and recommend giving it another shot. At the very least, there is one challenge or level in Control that is one of the best times I've ever had playing a game.

I was about to post about AW Remastered as I'm mostly in the same boat (though Control was my gateway Remedy), but it's been really rough for me, namely the unfun combat. I thought about bumping the difficulty down from Normal but apparently I can't do that without starting a new game.

Absolutely stick with it. I was in the same boat, got caught up in a few situations early on that were annoyingly difficult. And was equally pissed I couldn’t turn the difficulty down mid-level.

Look around, there are supply caches. If you’re in the same spot I was stuck on, with a cave nearby, head into it. Always follow the yellow notes for goods, they’re there to help. I will say it’s rarely a survival chore later on, you get pretty well supplied.

The combat feels really dumb at first, but once the arsenal starts to expand it’s actually dope.

And I will totally be giving Control another go after this. I didn’t dislike it, thought the combat mechanics were cool, just didn’t really click with it. I’m all primed now tho.

My main criticism of this game is Alan wearing a fucking hoody under a blazer. Maybe one of the most horrifying fashion trends in recent memory.

Still mostly playing Elden Ring (ng+ now!) and TotK, but I just downloaded Cocoon to my Switch and the Spiderman Miles Morales PS5 that has the remastered Spiderman. F-Zero 99 is a hoot too

I don't remember too much about "Wolfenstein: New Order" except that I thought it was OK, but I really enjoyed "Old Blood." It might be just a situational thing, these FPS deals; you have to be in the right mood. That said, I was going to roll right into "The New Colossus," which I'd heard mixed things about, but I think I'm inspired to try "Alan Wake Remastered" first.

Will be playing those same Wolfensteins soon, and curious how "The New Colossus" strikes you, since "Youngblood" was the one I've read the most criticism on. IGN called it "aggressively OK".

Now working through the newer "Prey", hoping I get better at avoiding the long reach of the mimics.

I've heard nothing but bad things about "Youngblood."

On the other hand, I've heard such great things about "Prey," it's been sitting in my never-ending backlog.

prey would be an unimpeachable 10 if the combat were better but it’s arkane and their gunplay is dogdirt

I've been moving house so had to put gaming to one side for a minute. When I finally plugged my PS in, I realise with serendipity that the last game I downloaded on PSN was Unpacking! It's quite good!

Alan Wake 1 was a wonderfully spooky and atmospheric action horror game. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

Alan Wake 2 is something else though. Really going balls out, Lynchian weird. More of a detective, puzzle, maze game so far. Much scarier. I was thoroughly clenched up through a lot of the opening stuff. Does not hold your hand either.

Stunningly atmospheric. And you have no idea what kind of space you’ll end up in level to level. It’s a gorgeous game and the way light and dark is used is genuinely just… sick.

Very impressed so far. You don’t see AAA stuff like this outside of Kojima really. Big swing.

If anyone wants to jump directly into 2, I suggest watching a YouTube recap or something beforehand.

Thanks for the plug, loved Alan wake 1 on release, I’ll check out 2.

Just started getting into factorio. Reminding me of the first time I got into Civilization V and lost all concept of time/my regular sleeping schedule. Bastard of a time sink

Ok. I just played through literally the most bonkers ass sequence I’ve ever seen in a video game in Alan Wake 2. Makes me wonder wtf else is in store.

2 thumbs up, this is somethin.

Super psyched, gonna be a while, though. Especially if it's digital only (right?) I need a good sale.

Just started Alan Wake Remastered, seems cool.

Factorio still sucking my life away. The factory must grow

Anyone try Jusant?

I was about to post about AW Remastered as I'm mostly in the same boat (though Control was my gateway Remedy), but it's been really rough for me, namely the unfun combat. I thought about bumping the difficulty down from Normal but apparently I can't do that without starting a new game.

I hit my first spot where this occurred to me. Tbh, I see it as a failure of game design (even though this game is by and large cool as hell). Where I first got (briefly) stuck was after the introduction of flares. They're all, "use flares to subdue large groups of enemies!" I thought, cool, and did that. But what the game does not indicate is that the flares are limited, and there will be a *shitload* of enemies, in waves, and if you use up all your flares it's a real PIA. But of course, how would you know to conserve them? And there was no way to go back before the most recent checkpoint, which was of course past the point of no return.

Well, I know about conserving shit *now*, lol.

It's a neat game, otherwise, a spooky conflation of Stephen King (explictly) and Twin Peaks (sort of implicitly).