Warhammer 40k Mechanicus is a really fun tactics game that emphasizes meter management, has a percentage bar in the corner like Dragon Quarter, elements of dungeon crawling, tons of customizability and valid strategies, good writing, great sound design, and really gets cookin in its second half
I don’t know shit about Warhammer, I just thought the game looked cool and I am glad that I bought it
I had this plan for 2020 to go and play six games (well five games and a sequel) I had bounced off of or disliked many years back and give them a second shot that I got halfway through before… well 2020 got particularly dark and I got sucked into the whole bundle deal. I figured I should probably go back to that so I started up the one game I didn’t play before but was a sequel to one I tried before, Bayonetta 2.
This may be an old observation but A) why did the game start with this much cutscene content, and B) I forgot about the Joe Pesci knock-off character why do they keep wasting time on him? Then I got to the game part itself and was quickly reminded how skeevy it feels at times, so not the best start. Anyways either the game is easier or I am just better at these types of games now (when in doubt, dodge) and there hasn’t been many insta-death QTEs so far so that is nice at least.
EDIT: I forgot, Bayonetta 2 starts with what I assume is a big lore dump, but because they have you battle a ton of enemies during it (along with someone else) without any sort of “this is how you play” intro I was basically so focused on trying to figure out what each button does while trying not to die I literally have no idea what was said so hopefully it doesn’t end up being important.
There’s Angels in a secret war with witches for the fate of the world and also Demons are here now too but you get your power from Demons and your mom and your partner/wife/sister is there so get killing.
FM1 is more obtuse but actually easy, since there’s no real difference in in wanzer builds like 3 you just slap the best missiles and MGs you can get on everything. What really bogs FM4 and 5 down is that they make the games totally reliant on the links system so all your enemies are so tough you basically have to gang up on them individually to take them out in short order. FM4 being a bit obnoxious in that it takes too long to actually bring the link system into play, FM5 in that it loves to make missions that force you to then split your team up.
I think the way of ubisoft development has something wrong with team work. Their background team always has abimition to draw the dark side of the world, into the frontline got the hands-on experience, read the library and talk to every fuckin’ history professor. But thier storyline team have no availability for that, they only can write a shitty masculinity-father-issue story. And the gameplay team? Maybe they on the other side of the earth, never have a chance talk to the background team. They just wanna build an amusement park cause a game should be playable and add tons of ‘roller coaster’ for the park. I forget the dev team, they may ‘produce bugs’ in several tax-free-cheap-salary citys.
So every team got what they want, satisfied with their job, but when they mix, the whole game turns a way of dislocation. Sometimes they have a good topic, but a shitty story, sometimes they have a dope character, but a boring lawn mowing playthrough, sometimes shooting is fun, then the game crashed.
Every far cry game goes in that way. But if you want to find African colony, island warlords, Bhutan’s Villain and the American crazy cult in video game? Only in far cry.
Now the background team of far cry 6 is going to draw a complex picture on dictator, the country, power, freedom and the subversive forces. And the story team looks like offer a masculinity-father-issue story as usual. The gameplay team is still on their amusement park(I just checked the new game play video, they bring cock as enemy and a crocodile as teammate now https://i.imgur.com/OiO8HJ6.gif), I think it will give us the same wierd-dumb-someting-intriguing feeling again.
A little bit of GOG Library Roulette landed me on Bio Menace and Jill of the Jungle which are both a couple of PC game fever dreams. I mean, they aren’t good at all and I won’t play more than few minutes a piece I already have but just watch a few minutes each:
(Jill of the Jungle has an absolutely nonsensical soundscape, please wait until this player finds the first key and cackle like I did at the absolute non-sequitur SFX)
(Please note contrast between cuddly looking badguys and the depicted carnage)
GOd I forgot anything about this game but that SFX is amazing. All the sounds are just the most random samples that have nothing to do with anything. The sound of the stalagtites hitting the ground is also perfect.
Also wow I played Bio Menace as a kid and had no idea what it was till just now.
I have Bio Menace installed on my desktop! It’s a great artifact from a time when most games were made by a single person.
i dispute the fact that Jill of the Jungle isn’t good! the controls are clunky but i think it’s pretty fun. also Biomenace has some good moments even tho it’s too hard.
I just may not have much of an appetite for games that are quite this old school, anymore.
The mention of Jill of the Jungle reminds me of two videogame things that I’ve been thinking about a lot:
The Jill engine was licensed out to a Christian game dev, who made Onesimus: A Quest for Freedom, which is somehow based on the book of Philemon.
Allen Pilgrim, a bloke who worked with Epic early on (he made two one out of three of the official Super ZZT worlds and later worked on Xargon (a Jill successor)), got his start with the company thanks to a ZZT game contest. His game, Fantasy (which would be officially published by Epic in the ZZT’s Revenge level pack), ends with him literally inviting you to convert to Christianity (source). (Oh and yes he was a youth pastor.)
Point number 1 here becomes much less inexplicable in light of point number 2.
Bio Menace has a really good look. The sprite art feels pretty modern and cohesive. The chunky gore is really satisfying.
I played the absolute shit out of the shareware version of bio menace as a kid, I could sing you the music from the first level right now
Those red grenades were really satisfying
I think you could play a version of lunar lander in the menu for some reason?
i got bit by the rimworld bug again
i have mixed feelings about the new dlc so far but the mod community always brings me back
Punished a zangief lariat with heavy dragon punch and they didn’t press a button for another 15 seconds
I can’t stop playing INFERNIUM, it’s not often I find a game I can’t put down.
What a night on alpha 3, guess i should play in tournaments if im making tournament players ragequit 🤷🙆♀️
I played Procession to Calvary. I don’t love the writing, but I love the paintings and ridiculeness of the actions that take place. Overall, I enjoyed it a lot, and it does not overstay its welcome (lasts about 2 hours)
Getting my ass kicked by what I assume is the final challenge in INFERNIUM, here are some pretty pics i took in the meantime
great nightmare world tourist simulator
also i have to give mad props for the dev letting you play how you want to play, including turning the enemies off all together so you can focus on navigating the world and puzzles. for the record i turned on slower enemies because i stress easily.
Return of the Obra Dinn is pretty good but the music is killing me.
