Yeah I can’t like… do any of this yet. Think I need to power some story missions and stop dicking around with bad guys I don’t have the tools to fight.
I have definitely been like level 4 trying to kill a level 9 guy and then some level 28 ambusher jumps out behind me and makes me shit my pants, that’s kind of cool
I don’t know what you actually mean by that second clause, but I want to emphasize that the combat isn’t “easy,” when you can only take 2 hits until death that means 2 missed counter-prompts and it’s very easy to get shredded on the regular. It’s just… not difficult in an interesting way. It is forcing me to play differently around this weakness (never attack large groups, counter only when very confident and other wise always dodge instead, if more dudes show up just run) that certainly enforce the kind of stealthy assassin playstyle, which is nice again in theory, but at the end of the day the core mechanic is mash A and then press Y when the QTE comes up and don’t fuck up!!! Limited appeal.
That’s it, because the core skills asked of the player are shallow though broad, there’s only so much we see a player get better at the core combat (and the hardest difficulty shortened all the timing windows to the minimum I felt was responsible). Past that point, improvement comes from understanding and exploiting game systems, the systems that sit on top of core combat rather than as a core part of it. Spotting environment opportunities, maintaining situational awareness, knowing what buddies and gear to bring, etc.
also, I’ll pre-emptively apologize for the Chapter 1 closing mission, which is just unfair on this difficulty and probably the nastiest spike in the game. It’s a bad mission!
Got Subnautica and am actually enjoying it now. I’m getting close to the base building part of the game, which has been interesting to puzzle out. Fun!
But today I played this game developed by the University of Malta called “Doors” which is a short thing demonstrating some weird philosophical points about doors in videogames. If that’s something you’ve ever thought about, or never thought about, it’s short and worth the time I thought. https://doors.gua-le-ni.com/
I reached the half of the second episode of Dusk. It’s really good!
Still, as far as “boomer shooters” go, I prefer Quake Remastered. I can’t pinpoint why, precisely. It may be the fact that Quake levels are more labyrinthine and remind me dungeons…
Has anybody else played both? If so, what do you think?
I also greatly prefer Quake. I actually feel like most “boomer shooters” don’t really adequately understand what makes Doom/Quake compelling to me (the mix of tactical shooter decision-making with D&D-esque dungeon crawling). Out of the current spat of retro shooters, only Wrath: Aeon of Ruin and a few levels of Dusk really “get it”. And even then they are pale imitations.
I dunno what black magic id did to make Quake and Doom so enduringly good but I’m glad they still hold up to my glowing nostalgic memory.
I also love the dungeon-y feeling of Quake maps and have always thought most Dusk levels were really boring. The later episodes have a lot of maps that are way too open, it feels like there is barely any encounter design sometimes, at least not any more than the average Serious Sam level with just lots of enemies charging or sniping you. The first episode of Dusk is the best, maybe, then there’s a couple good ones here and there. It’s definitely not Quake, and I never got the love for it.
I blew threw Dusk for the first time recently on the Ultra-Violence equivalent and had a good time, but yeah, I don’t think it really has the staying power of Quake. Like I don’t see myself ever replaying it, though who knows, that could just be because death approaches and I’ll never replay anything again.
Definitely thought it improved as each episode went on. I don’t mind the alternation between claustrophobic and wide open spaces, it’s a nice enough contrast. Episode 2 had some really cool abstract forever urban sprawl near-dreamscapes, almost like G-String in a way. Episode 3 was more of a grab gab through the multiverse but they let their hair down with the wackiness and I dug it. Only fight I ever really had problems with was the final gauntlet, but FPS final levels always suck in some hilarious way, it’s a tradition.
On the other hand, uninstalled Shadow of War. Played a story quest where they set everything up for you to have an easy kill on a captain, limit the bad guys around, no interruptions, put him near like 2x of his weaknesses, and it still took me like 8 tries to kill him. Plus it’s so ugly, no Romes or Duomos anywhere. Fuck it man
My strongest memory of the Shadow of LotR games is that I swear I beat the first game but whenever I boot it up to mess around in, my save file looks like it’s still in the middle of the campaign and I to this day still can’t tell if I just imagined beating it or not. I remember the campaign just sort of stopping with little resolution or fanfare, but maybe this entire time I’ve just imagined that myself stopping playing the game was me beating the campaign. A true mystery.
I’ve only played a little bit of Aria of Sorrow so far, but I’m pleased to report that box pushing no longer has HoD’s unanimated start-up time. Thank you, IGA, for being kind enough to listen to my feedback.
The current vibe the game is giving me is “disconcertingly clean,” like the castle walls have been scrubbed recently. Not sure how much I like it yet, but it fits the near-future/post-Dracula setting in a way.
Also, I looked at some footage of Mirror of Fate on a lark and by golly that looks awful. Like, I don’t even feel comfortable using it as the butt of a joke in 2D CV discussions anymore.
I got and started SMTV after finally figuring out a scheme to avoid paying retail (answer: the Australian switch store is still doing vouchers for 20% off 2 games and this plus the upcoming new tactics ogre thing were eligible, and the currency conversion is currently favourable if you have an Australian friend and can toggle your store region briefly). I’m glad I did but I have no time at all to play it right now between seeing a lot of my wife’s family at the holidays this year and starting a new job and doing a bunch of minor home projects while learning to ski, and all I want to do in my downtime is watch sports and 4K criterion releases. However, deals are forever, and I’m glad it will be waiting for me to chip away at sometime prior to the release of said new tactics ogre and elden ring.
the most recent thing I put any time into prior to this (not counting a bit of splitgate and forza) was baldur’s gate 3. very amused that I only play RPGs now. feels like some laboured aging process is complete
