The parody of Iskur’s Guide to Electronic Music in Hypnospace Outlaw has me lollin’. Contains descriptions and full actual songs from like 20 made up genres. Some real heads made this game.
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I beat it yesterday morning. I think it’s a good game. (I also liked the previous one, so I’m not sure if that means anything to you.)
The game definitely felt harder than the previous one, at least as far as first playthroughs are concerned.
The main planets all have good theming imo. Area E’s is a particular stand-out, imo.
There’s still talking and chatter. There are several characters you run into along the way (this is not a lonely game). The writing ranges from okay to hamfisted shounen nonsense.
The guns in the overhead portion feel a lot more balanced. The higher level ones have some clear disadvantages to counteract their strength, and the lower level ones are still useful in a pinch. Nothing is as broken as chain lightning and wave were in the previous game, or as useless as the level 0 pea shooter.
Regarding the counter-attack gimmick, it feels weird at first but I ended up liking it. I mean, the game (hilariously) doesn’t explain how it works, and yet the first dungeon you run across has a skill check that is basically impassable without it. The main gotcha that I had to figure out at first is that time still passes (slowly) during the way-to-flashy counter animation, so you still have to dodge stuff. There’s a couple more wrinkles to the system, but I’ll let you figure it out.
Regarding the gimmick with Sophia’s suspension system turning landings into sub-weapon energy: [extremely tim voice] I love it. It adds an interesting dynamic between the platforming and action, especially in the boss battles. It also fixes an issue I had with the previous game, where in many instances the only thing you could do to fill up that meter was wait.
It feels like there’s a better balance between top-down and side-view boss fights.
There are some other Sunsoft references besides Ikki, but that’s by a large margin the most prominent.
Getting the Good Ending is, mercifully, not contingent 100% completion any more. Just keep in mind that there is a point of no return if you’re going for that ending. (Also, the Bad Ending doesn’t even show you the credits lol.)
The game ends with a sequel hook. I want another one of these.
3 Likes
played a wee hours of sekiro. not quite feeling it yet. i am not sure what is the point of mediocre stealth mechanics in a game that has really good combat.
It’s to give you something cool-looking to do while approaching the boss instead of just running bare-assed past everyone like in other Souls games. The stealth mechanics compliment the combat; they don’t supplant it. It’s a cool way to start a fight by picking off the enemy that will give you the most trouble, or in some cases to halve a midboss’s health. If you’re trying to hide and reset the alarm like in a stealth game, you’re doing it wrong, and you’ll feel wrong.
The “stealth” per-se is just a more compelling evolution of backstabs.
1 Like
yeah, i agree that it’s a fun way to initiate combat, but I also feel that it (and the overall verticality) gives you way too much leverage over enemies, at least in the beginning.
About half of the enemies later on can’t be stealthed, at least without items (which I’ve never bothered with) and the game is very generous with crowd situations where you can expect to alert and have to deal with everyone at once no matter what. It does just become an initiation tool, and many bosses stoically glare at the only entrance so you can’t get the drop on them.
thank you for this write up. I’ll check it out next time it goes on sale!
Nearly to my first million credits being a Space Trucker in Elite Dangerous, but I stumbled upon a happy accident.
By mistake I clicked on Universal Cartographics at a starport and it said I had some scan data to sell, which confused me at first until I remember that my ship has scanners. I was under the impression that all the systems I had been through were thoroughly explored and, thus, nothing of value could be gleaned. Turned out I was wrong.
A couple hours later I’m deep into the Full-Spectrum Scanner (which was hella confusing at first but I stuck with it and got the hang of it) with every system I encounter. Some pirate actually tried to pull me out of Supercruise while I was scanning a system, while I was only hauling cheap foodstuffs, and I thought “how rude!”
Apparently my current ship, the Hauler, can become an exploration vessel fairly easily, but to do so I’ll have to give up my Space Trucker ambitions. Still, exploration in this game looks rad and I really want to get deeper into it.
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No problem. Let me know if there are any other questions you need answered.
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About a quarter of the way through Threads of Fate which I’ve never played before. I like the idea of having your stats grow naturally through gameplay without explicit leveling up, but sometimes you run into walls where a minimum amount of MP is required to progress and as far as I can tell, you have no choice but to run around in circles and just spam magic until you get the magic number of MP (117) required to get through that part. I hope there aren’t more of those later on.
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okay, yes, that’s a fair criticism
but you’re playing Mint first, right
it sounds like you are
just, uh, stop after you finish with her
HAHAHAHA
WAIT A SECOND I LIVE IN JAPAN MY APARTMENT ISN’T BIG ENOUGH FOR KINECT
I am owned.
12 Likes
no way, transformer guy rules
Of course.
Please post this as the official Hinge Problems review of the Kinect, like however many years too late.
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baba is you is clever and everything, but it mostly just makes me feel dumb 
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I alternate between feeling extremely clever and extremely dumb. The best is when you solve a hard puzzle, and the next level is a harder version of that puzzle. Cleverness whiplash
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Had a fun moment last night where the wife came home while I was out exploring in Elite Dangerous. She wanted some wine and I was heading to a station so I handed her the controller and went to clean a wine glass for her. All of a sudden she’s like “uhhh… what’s happening?”
I was being interdicted. I started trying to tell her how to counter it, until I realized she had never played the game and didn’t even know the controls. I speedily scrubbed the glass and ran back to the couch, just in time for my ship to jolt out of supercruise and be at the mercy of some space pirate.
I’m pretty sure it was just an NPC, because it was awfully chatty on the text comms, more than I’d expect an actual player to be. They made some glib comment about how I should have carried some gold next time. Thankfully my hold was empty - I was making exploration jumps into empty systems and wasn’t hauling anything. Mercifully they left me alone.
So that was fun.
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I really like Elite Dangerous, y’all.
The only things I’ve been playing otherwise are Thimbleweed Park, which I think I’m almost done, and Steamworld Dig 2 on my Vita.
Oh, and I restarted Severed. Love that game.
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I’ve hit a wall with progression and I’m not sure if I should be mad at the game or be mad at myself
(the answer is myself probably)