oooohhh. i feel kind of stupid for not putting this together sooner.
1 Like
Still playing Saturn Grandia. This is a big game.
If you play it patched you might lament the lack of subtitles or English dialog in the cut scenesā¦ dont. I went back and watched them up to where I am in the story and it imparted no extra information and the voice acing and particularly the voice audio quality is dogwater. Some of these recordings sound like they were made in a bathroom.
Its all: āyou are very close to the big secret, you are very near dear hero! the legendary Alent is to the east, go and seek it!ā
The cut scene ends and hero boy is like āWow we should go to the east to find the legendary Alent!ā
Game is 100% details, vibes, lil guys and big art.
10 Likes
lol yeah where was it that i read the description that good russian literature is when either the reader, the author, or the characters suffer, but itās great literature when all three suffer together
11 Likes
Iām home sick today and this game is making me feel worse
4 Likes
Played a lot of Assassinās Creed Shadows todayā¦once you get acclimated to some of the new stuff (crawling, stealth swimming, grappling hook swinging, and to some extent the grappling hookā¦though they sorta had something functionally similar in Assassinās Creed Syndicate), it is still very much another one of these big RPG Assassinās Creed games. Scouting out small outposts or big forts and castles, and taking out enemies one by one and looting it.
Well, thatās if you play as Naoe, the shinobi. I was kinda unsure about how Yasukeās play style would integrate with traditional AC gameplay, and the answer is - it doesnāt, at all, and it kinda rules for it. Dude is tank, he hits like a truck, and when Iām finally sick of sneaking around those outposts I can just switch to Yasuke for a while and literally run through dudes and cut their heads off.
Heās also a very enjoyable character, and a lot of his missions have flashback elements to how he became one of Nobunagaās favored samurai. Itās not that his story isnāt a revenge story (it is, though maybe not as much as Naoeās), but the whole story of how he integrates into Japan and finds his place is really refreshing from the sort of standard Assassinās Creed plots.
Plus the Japanese voice acting is pretty damn good. It still trips me up whenever you hear missionaries speaking Portuguese, or the weird scifi missions with English.
Anyway! Still enjoying the game. I think it is too big and too much of the same for too long, but it looks so damn good, and the two play styles feel like they kinda complement one anotherā¦itās good. Mostly. For people like me who play these games for too long.
Lot better than Valhalla, anyway.
7 Likes
I tried this today. It was interesting - the new final second half is 50% āuse everything you got to surmount these obstaclesā and 50% āplayspace to mess with your full moveset inā, all wrapped up in an incredibly drab visual package. The ending is āworseā; instead of escaping you just get overtaken in a cutscene with no control. I guess Iād call the whole effort half-hearted at best, and maybe even a bit of a fuck you for not doing it the REAL way at worst.
2 Likes
I would say it was less half-hearted and more incredibly rushed (there was a legit harsh pushback from a section of the gameās audience about that last chapter and hence he sorta dropped everything to cook up an alternative as fast as he could manage) but yeah as much as the original back half of chapter 8 often frustrated me it was clearly a lot better.
Fallout 1 sorta collapsed into a state of constant hard crashes for me whenever I had to try and wander the world map between places, I tried to re-verify my download but that just broke the mod which let it run halfway stable in the first place, long story short I eventually got the mod working again (in an upset I remembered to back-up my saves before messing with the files) but couldnāt get it re-integrated with Steam so I just ran itā¦ without that.
Unfortunately while it helped briefly the crashes came back harsh, it might have been a placebo effect but upon reverifying again it generally ran okayish for a few minutes, decided it was time to go into speedrun mode so got to that mutant factory in the NW and blew it up, crashed and reverified again to get from there back to the vault, crashed a lot, reverified again and basically skipped from town to town until I got to the cathedral and proceeded to kill everything there, blow it up and roll the credits. Fortunately I used an āif you have no idea what you are doing just use thisā build which was seemingly focused on luck/criticals and with the two rare weapons I found most of the end game enemies were exploding in a single shot, so aside from one bad luck instant-kill critical death I ate (the irony~) I basically walked through it as a walking apocalypse, blew it up and credits roll!
Soā¦ well a classic PC game experience broke on me again, but this time I think it is fair to blame it on the game itself (like with Deus Ex) instead of on me (like with Placescape: Torment).
One of these days I will play through a classic PC game without incident :\
8 Likes
use dgvoodoo
3 Likes
Fixt is problematic because it is seriously outdated and buggy compared to more modern ways to run fallout 1 like the Fallout Community Edition (which is the most purist no ui enhancements way to play the game) and Fallout et tu (linked before, ports fallout 1 into the enhanced fallout 2 engine, sfall, and the gameplay changes are optional unlike fixt)
3 Likes
How about PCEM?
1 Like
seems a bit much to use a whole ass windows 95 pocket plane for anything other than the weird 95-99 MultiMedia things that donāt fall within dosbox or dgvoodoo2 coverage
2 Likes
KATAMARI DAMACY REROLL
A great whimsical time, with a fantastic soundtrack. Sure, a lot of the environments are re-used, but they make them feel different to play through.
Some problems I have is that some sounds are INSANELY GRATING, like the warning sound when something is approaching. It can also feel quite stiff, and itās too easy to get hung up and stuck on things, and it really takes the wind out of your sails to have your momentum killed. Also I often felt like I should have been big enough to pick up items only to be bounced off them.
But I forgot about all that when I was rolling up the whole world in the final level. What a great feeling that level gives you! Ah.
Iām not sure if this re-master changed anything for the worseā¦ itās supposed to be closer to the Japanese original and people seem to think this is better for the most part (including improved controls, making the game easier in places, and making everything brighter) aside from some odd changes here and there. Iām planning on playing the sequel remaster next, which I remember being a better gameā¦ will see if I still feel the same.
Also, I suggest not playing on Switchā¦ I played the remaster on PS4 first, and it was so much easier to do the boost with that controller design. Itās too awkward when the thumbsticks arenāt parallelā¦ plus it just feels better to play with them. Itās what the game was designed for, after all!
ANODYNE
SHORT VERSION: A Zelda clone with well designed dungeons and an interesting variety of aesthetics, though the writing is weak and it tries too hard to be dark sometimes.
LONG VERSION: A Zelda clone inspired by Linkās Awakening (which I love) and Yume Nikki (which Iām yet to play), this game is oookkaayyy.
There isnāt much of an over-arching story outside of some characters who continue to re-appear throughout the game, and each dungeon is more of its own little vignette. Some of these I quite enjoyed, especially the ones with more modern themesā¦ I enjoyed working my way through a skyscraper, for example, though most feel more like traditional fantasy dungeons. The puzzle design is solid and enjoyable, and is definitely the gameās strongest point, I think. Combat and boss fights are also solid, and feel like traditional Zelda stuff except your weapon is a broom instead of a sword.
Oh, itās also not item/ability heavyā¦ itās mostly hitting switches and interacting with objects in order to navigate yourself around to where you need to be, while avoiding obstacles and dealing with enemies. But itās all designed well!
Likewise, the overworld also has some really interesting places, like a ghost suburb, or some surreal location populated by cube people, but most of it is traditional fantasy overworld aesthetic.
You can certainly feel the Linkās Awakening influence from a lot of the oddball characters and quirky dialogue here and thereā¦ plus a heavy focus on jumping. Then there is darker stuff which I assume comes from the Nikki influence. I liked the former, but the horror stuff felt like it was trying too hard to be edgy and really fell flat to me.
The whole game has trouble with tone, really, not knowing when to be goofy and when to be serious, and does a really bad job of balancing them both. Itās like To The Moon in that respect, I suppose. You can tell they really wanted this to be a vibes kinda game, but the vibes just arenāt that interesting when they are so all over the place or trying too hard to be dark and mysterious.
I mentioned earlier that this isnāt an item/ability heavy gameā¦ so how does the game let you advance? Well, there are gates, and you have to have a certain number of ācardsā to open them. You find those cards in treasure chests in dungeons and in the overworld. Wasnāt a fan of this, felt so artificial. Plus you need all the cards to get to the final area, so I had to go back into dungeons to find ones I missed. Luckily the collection screen clues you in on where ones you missed are.
But yeah! I enjoyed the dungeon design and some of the more interesting aesthetic choices, but overall I felt the story and writing was uninteresting, and the tone and vibes were all over the place and failed to make a real impact. At the games worst, the writing just made me roll my eyes.
So, itās okay! Itās short and fun enough, but nothing great. I hear the sequel is better and plan to give that one a try.
TONIC TROUBLE
SHORT VERSION: Despite some personality and lots of different abilities you can unlock, this still feels like a generic, basic 3D platformer from the early days of them. The levels and challenges simply arenāt interesting enough!
LONG VERSION: This game has got to have one of the worst opening sections of all time, Iāve tried to get into this multiple times but that terrible slide section plus getting dropped in some random open space with no way to defend yourself just bounced me off every time.
This time I stuck with it a bit longer, and you DO get the ability to defend yourself, plus other abilities like swimming, pea shooting, and eating popcorn to turn you into a beef cake. The popcorn is Newmanās Own brand which I found to be VERY funny. OH, you also get the ability to fly. Unfortunately, this game also has the worst flight controls ever.
Anyway, the game is a pretty generic 3D platformer, unsurprising considering how early it is. There is lots of very French animation, though it gets old fast (especially on your own character). I liked the heavy use of purples and greens and such in the environments, even if most areas look like generic caverns with floating platforms. There are more interesting areas here and there, such as a giant fridge, but yeah.
The game itself has you going through different levels, and in each you have to find all the collectables in order to complete it (the collectables lead to new abilities). Each level is made up smaller areas connected by doorways or what have you, it reminded me of Croc in that way.
But yeah, it plays okay but feels very generic and just isnāt very interesting despite all the different abilitiesā¦ the levels just arenāt very exciting, and if you miss a collectable, you gotta go back and try to find it. At one point I decided Iād rather just stop playing instead of going back to find whatever I missed, which should go to show how engaging this game is.
BROTHERS: A TALE OF TWO SONS
SHORT VERSION: A combat-free action adventure with lots of light puzzling, in this game you control two characters (or share control in co-op) as they journey across a dark fantasy world full of memorable moments and fun challenges.
LONG VERSION: A dark fantasy action adventure game, this is basically a long journey across a vast fantasy world, with lots of Zelda-style puzzles on the way, and no combat.
The main gimmick is the fact that you control two characters at onceā¦ though I played it with my partner, and it worked very well despite it not originally being designed for it. I think some of the jankiness we encountered was a result of this, but it was worth it, because overall I felt it was a great co-op gameā¦ despite it getting a little awkward at the end (ifykyk).
I really loved the world, it felt very Elder Scrolls (in a positive sense) with a human village, then mines with huge steampunk machines, a battlefield littered with the bodies of giantsā¦ there is some great world building, and wordless storytelling (wellā¦ no coherent words). Despite being very linear, it really did feel like I was exploring a big, mysterious world.
The story is simple but effective (and depressing) and told well with mechanics, I liked the characters you meet, there are lots of memorable moments and encounters, and the puzzles were just the right amount of challenge to make you think but not get you stuck as it was more about the journey.
Some puzzles did get used a bit too much (the broken ladders everywhere kinda killed the immersion), and I didnāt like how the major women characters were portrayed (fridged, damsel in distress, and ).
But overall, I thought this was a great, short adventure in a dark fantasy world. Great as co-op with a like-minded person.
ARISE: A SIMPLE STORY
SHORT VERSION: Has an interesting time-shifting mechanic that lets you manipulate huge parts of the surreal worlds you explore, but overall feels too clunky and unpolished which leads to a frustrating, unfulfilling experience when this kind of game should be a very smooth ride.
LONG VERSION: Another ācommercial artā game in the vein of Journey. The story is, as the title says, rather simple. Youāre a dead guy (a viking I think?) and as you journey to the afterlife, you relive your life through various surreal environments. Itās a cute story but they try way too hard to make it feel powerful and emotional (itās neither).
Anyway, itās an A-to-B 3D platformer, with the main mechanic being able to move time back and forth. For example, you can make snow melt and flood areas and vice versa, or move the sun around to make gigantic flowers wilt in different directions, allowing you to jump on them and access different areas.
Itās a cool idea and mechanic, but not much is done with itā¦ it often feels like the game is playing itself, and most of the āpuzzlesā are just moving time back and forth to give an indication of where youāre supposed to go next and then move platforms around in order to get there.
It also doesnāt feel very good to playā¦ your character is so weighty, constantly sounds like he needs an inhaler, and dies if he drops more than 10 inches (slight exaggeration). Itās actually not always clear where a fall will kill you, or where water will drown you, or which rocks you can climb (climbing in particular felt VERY wonky)ā¦ often I thought I found the correct path, but the game would go ānot that way, sillyā and kill me because Iād bounce off a rock I though Iād be able to grab onto or some such. It often just felt so clunky to play, and frustrating.
To make matters worse, it does NOT run well on the Switch, and has horrible noise errors on the third world which gave me a headache.
Overall, lacks the polish and joy of movement/exploration that similar games do. Definitely feels like a game designed by environment artists more than an actual game designer.
Not terrible, but not really worth playing with so many other similar games out there.
WORLD OF SOLITAIRE
SHORT VERSION: A solid Solitaire collection. I donāt like how you have to unlock different aesthetics, but the āquestsā are cute and overall this is fine if youāre looking for a cheap Solitaire package.
LONG VERSION: Pretty solid little Solitaire collection! Has multiple variations, plays well, has hints if you like, has rules, and it looks and sounds nice. I would have liked an option to be always dealt a winnable game, but I guess this is just for hardcore Solitaire headsā¦ or the designers didnāt know how to program that.
Anyway, you get experience for playing games (you donāt have to win to gain it, which is good because as I mentioned, games are often unwinnable) which can then be used to unlock new decks, backgrounds, and music.
In theory thatās neat, but back in MY day, all that shit was unlocked from the get go and you just found the stuff you liked (ideally a game would let you select your favourites and would shuffle them) and then played with them. So, not a fan of this unlocking stuff.
There are also āquestsā to complete, like āuse hint 5 times,ā āmove 30 cards in Klondike,ā etc. These are neat, and encourage you to try different Solitaire modes you may not be familiar with. You get experience when you clear quests, and clearing 9 will unveil a neat looking picture. I liked this kind of unlocking better, and wish the pictures told a story, but itās still a cute idea. Overall I wish the exp and quest stuff was more interesting.
So yeah, solid if not perfect Solitaire collection!
LUDOMANIA
SHORT VERSION: Seemed like a decent if cheap feeling Ludo collection at first with some good options and multiple variations, but undermines itself by giving different dice roll results depending on how far you are on the board.
LONG VERSION: I was originally going to give this a higher rating, because it was pretty decent for a shovelware Ludo game.
It has the four major variations of the game including Parcheesi, and it was fun going through them with my partner and seeing how they kept trying to make the game more strategic but also having their own brand of bullshit. Iād like to see some kind of history of Ludo game that concludes with some modern variations that cut out most of the bullshitā¦
Anyway, it looks and sounds like a shovelware game but good enough for what it is. It has rules for all the games (though there are typos here and there), and you can change some of them to your preferences. You can play with CPU opponents, and though they arenāt smart enough to make strategic choices in the more ācomplicatedā variations, theyāre competent enough and were fun for my partner and I to team up against. Difficulty settings for them would have been niceā¦ like an easy mode where they miss obvious captures.
Anyway, why did I decide to only give this a one? Because it bites itself in the ass by rigging the dice! The closeness each player is to winning the game is shown as a percentage, and the lower the percentage, the more likely youāll get good rolls. If you have a high percentage and have no pieces on the board, have fun only rolling ones and not being about to do anything until everyone else catches up. It makes the games drag on for too long, and feel phoney.
Having catch-up mechanisms could be okay if they could be toggled and customised, but nope, you have to play with them! Completely destroys the game. At least it means basically everyone gets out of their starting spot on the first rollā¦
OMNO
A ācommercial artā game in the vein of Journey, involving exploring/platforming around pretty areas trying to find all the crystals before moving to the next area. Has some light puzzle solving, and the movement mostly feels pretty good (I liked sand/snow surfing).
Has a cute wordless story, with your character on a pilgrimage while taking an interest in all the unusual fauna about the place, with a slight twist ending.
Overall, a chill vibe kinda game thatās cute and fun enough to spend a few hours with if youāre in the mood for this kind of thing, but ultimately forgettable.
I liked this article about the ending: Zarf Updates: Design ruminations: Subverting the ending
QUAKE 64
SHORT VERSION: Want to play a shorter, stripped down version of Quake with cool Suspiria lighting? Play Quake 64! Via the remaster, though.
LONG VERSION:
This port is pretty impressive! There were some concessions madeā¦ some levels are cut, other ones have simplified geometry, you select the difficulty via the menu and play through the game in a linear fashion rather than picking episodesā¦
ā¦ but it very much is recognisabily Quake, runs decently enough, and would have been a fine alternative to the PC version back in the day! There is even two-player splitscreen deathmatch, though the framerate isnāt a fan of that.
There are differences here and there such as switched around enemies, some sounds are different, there are new exits to some secret levels due to the original exit being in a cut level, etc.
Oh, the NIN music is replaced with a much more minimalist but equally as moody soundtrack. And there is the wacky primary colour lighting that makes it all look like Suspiria! I actually really like the aesthetic of this version, even if the lighting doesnāt quite fit the gritty mood of the original.
It also has an extra deathmatch map from McGee that wasnāt finished in time for the original game, but itās widely available for other versions of the game now.
The main problems with this port is that the controls are pretty clunky due to the N64 controller, which can be frustrating during the more intense moments. There are also no mid-level savesā¦ so try not to die right at the end of a massive level.
Luckily, they put this in with the remaster, which is how I would recommend playing it. Itās almost a perfect conversion (there are some oddities here and there), it plays a billion times better, and they carried over the aesthetic including the N64 blurriness which works well with the CRT filter they use.
Oh, one more thing that bugged me about this gameā¦ while the simplified geometry doesnāt impact the game in most cases, sometimes it does like removing cover from the Shambler fight at the end of Necropolis. Very rare they made blunders like that, though.
Ultimately, there isnāt much reason to play through this one these days, reallyā¦ itās shorter than vanilla Quake but not enough for it to matter one way or the other, so itās really just here for the aesthetic. Worth a play at least once in the remaster to see another spin on the game, but thatās about it!
HONEY (QUAKE)
SHORT VERSION: Two excellent Quake maps with an immense sense of scale and some fun ideas, plus the best credits scene in any Quake mod ever.
LONG VERSION: Ay, this is a good time!
The hub starts in a small, cute rural village where you discover (via signs and a very casual inner-monologue) that the water supply was poisoned, hence the place being deserted. So, you head beneath the church, select a difficulty, then select a level to make things right!
Both of the levels have a mechanic of being able to axe zombies to death, something I quite enjoyed, and both levels are huge and feel VAST, with tall ceilings, deep pits, and areas that stretch into the distance.
The first level Iāll talk about takes place in a gothic sewer/water system catacombs. Itās the weaker of the two, but is still a damn good time with excellent architecture, encounter design, item placement, tight pacing, and fun secrets. Has great flow too, and you likely wont get lost despite how big it is (though arrows pointing the way do help at times). Just a damn solid Quake level.
Now the second level, thatās where itās really at! It takes place in a ruined temple/city with some kind of mechanical infrastructure built through it. It looks incredible, with the ruins hanging over a bottomless pit. There are lots of cliffs and jumping around, but thankfully you just respawn if you fall down and take a minor health hit. This level feels even more vast than the first one, like the temple was a model made by giantsā¦ there is a real sense of mystery and wonder to it.
It also has two new mechanics. First, there are new ogres who can shoot further, making for some fun combat with them over long distances. Second, there are locks that can only be activated with rockets. So, you go through the level once, then back through it with the rocket launcher, which opens it up more (and there are plenty of enemies waiting for you on the way back). More innovative and interesting than the first map, though some may prefer the more traditional gameplay of the previous one. The previous one also made better use of vertical space, but again, because it was more traditional.
Anyway, once you activate machines at the end of each level, you return to the town for some very silly surprises and one of the greatest credits scene Iāve seen. I wont spoil it, Iāll just say that it does not take itself seriously at all.
Highly recommended!
10 Likes
Anodyne is definitely a game I feel is carried by its vibes. Itās good, but not astounding gameplay-wise, but the theming is on point. Anodyne 2 on the other hand is just all around superb probably one of the best games ever.
5 Likes
Now halfway through New Game Plus in Silent Hill f I can definitively say I do not like melee combat in the Unreal Engine. Didnāt like it in Slitterhead, or Silent Hill 2 make, or here. Glad I bumped the combat to Casual so i can just ignore it. Also same problem of 4 enemies for a 10 hour game.
That said nice to play a Silent Hill. I got a dozen small complaints about it. Which is much less than SH2make where I had a thousand.
okay I did like it in No More Heroes 3 which made it feel really different. I thought it was real weird when I immediately identified an animation from Travis Strikes Back
4 Likes
I forgot how much I hate the cow and bear levels in Katamari Damacy. Whatever. Whatever. Iām playing this for fun. Itās not worth raising my blood pressure because I accidentally rolled over a teddy bear for the dozenth time and blew it.
12 Likes
iāve been playing the original saturn version of soul hackers in japanese with my girlfriend. the game does have a localized 3ds port but sheās a translator and i know a tiny bit and itās fun to walk through it slowly together while she interprets. i donāt know if itās the best 90s smt, but itās probably my favorite. i love its uncanny atmosphere of pre-millennium tension in a society teetering on the brink of internet ubiquity and weāre enjoying messing around with all the different weird funny characterful demon interactions, especially in japanese. a pox on the sequel!
20 Likes
Iāve played it on 3DS. The vibes are immaculate with that game. The gun computer is probably one of the stupidest coolest things ever.
6 Likes
Blame the Fallout community at large, searching around the answer I repeatedly got was Et Tu is the better one but least faithful to the original version (being in a completely different engine which IMO felt wrong for an initial playthrough), if not that then Fixt if you want something purer (if you select the vanilla version). Community Edition stuff came up very infrequently with very few swearing by it :\
1 Like
nobody is a purist anymore because fo2ās engine is objectively better and the core of the game isnāt very different
3 Likes