Bbbut biovestites is so much funnier (and transgeneder sounds less clueless which I find slightly more offensive). What’s the word in the original? (edit: It’s bio-halfs. Love it.)
Honestly at this point this sort of bizarre misogyny is part of the appeal of Kojima for me. It’s like Frank Herbert or something, right. Can you believe these boys, what will they come up with next…
Oh wow, I totally don’t remember this, but it’s been a while since I played it. Was this in the Saturn translation that came out a couple years back?
This Prince of Persia DLC was designed to make me cry, making me think I could finish it before Zelda comes out.
It’s not a very long DLC, if you’re good and don’t have rickety old ass reflexes. Alas.
I think what’s driving me up the wall is how fucking long some of these sequences are, without any sort of checkpoint. Getting to the home stretch and eating shit again and again is exhausting.
Not sure when the updated version came out, but I did take these screenshots back in 2021. This is the Saturn version, I also don’t know if the other ports got the same treatment.
Are trans-jean-ders acid washed or raw denim
people like to say that i’m washed, but i like to think i can still be pretty raw.
Jeeze, there was a lot of groan inducing bits that must have all just blurred together for me. There’s a whole thing with the partner’s daughter too if I recall correctly.
I slept on my friend’s couch and we marathoned the whole thing in a weekend from Friday night to Sunday on her Saturn. Probably one of the nerdiest things I’ve done in my adult life and I’m still shocked she was down for it. We had played through Snatcher together a couple years prior and that’s like a one evening game, so I think we were expecting another of those. I didn’t bring a change of clothes or anything.
So content (and the bomb mini game and getting stuck in the space museum for most of Sunday afternoon) aside it was one of my favorite video game experiences in recent memory.
Tried a bit of Deadlock
I just can’t get my head around MOBA shit. Like I’d be fine with basic toolkits and ability sets but the levelling up and the shop create so many variables I feel like it becomes a tediously complicated journey to the meta when I’d rather the design just focus on characters and what characters do. I have this problem with every MOBA so it’s more of a me problem. Just going to a shop/upgrade menu midway through an online action game feels like such a pacekiller to me. I’m glad people are enjoying it though. I like seeing Valve making something people like that doesn’t require VR. I like the goo person
i’ve had similar problems to this in other games!
the trick to enjoying complicated games is focusing on one thing at a time. there are an incredible number of axes that you can get better at, and when you’re just starting you should focus on one thing and try to excel at it. do your best to ignore any mechanic that makes you feel overwhelmed (i assume deadlock has some “just buy default recommended items” equivalent?) having sub-optimal items won’t matter when you’re still learning characters, mechanics, whatever.
when you have everything else down, go back to items and it won’t seem nearly as overwhelming.
It’s good advice and I agree it would make sense to go steps at a time. I think I just see the end point and have no interest in the optimisation. I think fighting games are a similar genre where the perception is they are difficult to learn but really ‘just’ require deliberate learning of pieces over a long time and it can be very fun to do so. I think the difference for me is the promise of high level play in fighting games is highly appealing whereas that level of play in MOBAs feels inscrutable like some kind of courtship dance on a nature documentary. I think this is where social play comes in as a second appeal.
I think people should give Deadlock a try though, if just to see the design and art direction coming along.
I played a brief time loop VN named Four Before Midnight and I ended up pleasantly surprised by it. The story is a tongue in cheek send-up of Cinderella but what appealed to me is that you end up as the fairy godparent having to jump back in time to use your magic to change things to avoid a poor conclusion, but you can only affect four things each loop so it becomes about figuring out what are the possible consequences of the changes you make are and how to possibly change them together to change the result. You end up having to do this a few times (i.e. you prevent the first bad result but that leads to another poor future, so you deus ex your way to the first being permanently solved and move on to the next) and there are multiple ways to handle each problem, although I think how you solve earlier issues changes which later options are available to you. It isn’t can’t miss or anything but I found it to be a fun thing to play around with.
The thing that for me elevates MOBAs over, say, Overwatch, is that itemization allows you to be reactive to an opposing team. You can say to yourself “I’m getting owned by this hero/item” and, instead of being resigned to your fate, you can swing the calculus in your favor by picking items well and playing strategically instead of with raw skill.
It’s definitely a lot to take in but that ability to be reactive puts it ahead of the pack. I’m tired of games simplifying the strategic play out in favor of pure reflexes.
I played Laika. It is a beautiful and very tricky game.
i completed Pseudoregalia!! i really really like it!!
it was actually my third attempt to play it i bought it awhile back. the first time i stalled out cuz there was no map, the second time cuz they added a map but it wasnt very helpful so i still got “stuck”. these are arguably flaws but eh. this time i kept notes & a chickenscratch map of the main castle area, and the way forward turned out to be in 2 areas i was aware of but had just ignored. That i got as far as i did without the power ups you need (the wall run and the hit objects/enemies to double jump) is a testament to the flexibility of the movement i think. Its a game that feels very nice to move around in!
lot of why i like it amounts to the movement & then just the aesthetic/vibes being right in the pocket for me. I have lots of affection for N64 games and this game doesn’t just nail it with smeary textures, its also big oversized areas for no reason except seemingly to longjump across
(Fun tip: if u use the longjump & time a jump when you hit the ground, Sybil (rabbit-goat-cat player character) goes into a full on rabbit jump that u can chain as long as u time yr presses right :))
the music is also rly sick and perfectly would fit in the N64 library. It is overall kinda just the right quality to be a great lost N64 game
I appreciate that the movement powers are never as simple as a regular double jump, there is a bit of a skill floor for each one that makes chaining all your various techniques together feel extra thrilling and satisfying. As noted you also have a good amount of “hidden” techniques that i can easily see being used to sequence break (ex. i missed the extra wall kick powerup until late in the game
combat is. so so and kind of over present. There’s only a handful of enemies and theyre never that exciting (the flame headed maids are cool i guess). Its not a slog, like the rest of the game it feels nice in the hands, just rly featherweight and not the games strength
Sybil is cool as hell i of course love her. i guess shes kinda like, a more badass Klonoa? jumping into dream realms on a mission. idk the story is pretty minimal but im im rly into what’s suggested
and the lil goat butler NPCs are just, so good
Damn that sounds very cool even for someone like me who is very distanced from the competitive scenes
https://twitter.com/BreathofFire_/status/1668376825066840064
Can’t confirm it though, and it appears he might have wrote SF5’s story too, so 
As grindy as it is I thought World Tour was better than it needed to be. The ending is kinda a bad end but it rolls with so many fun ideas and doesn’t really steer the player too much on what it all means which was kinda nice. It’s an open question. What does it mean to be strong?
The new Zelda is alright. Figuring your way around the world or solutions to puzzles and whatnot using the powers are pretty cool, but as I feared, combat kinda sucks. The only time it’s OK is when you activate the meter that pretty much just turns you into Link, otherwise it’s a lot of plopping down your own enemies and hoping their timing beats the CPU timing, or that they target the right monsters or whatever. Bad sort of flailing feeling.
I’m still very early in, it could get better! I hope it does, anyway. Combat aside, I’m liking it.
