I liked what I saw of rain world but then I heard alot of talk about it having the Another World or Abe’s Odyssey problem of running into obtuse problems that you have to keep banging your head against until you see the esoteric solution the designer placed for you.
2 Likes
And the consequences for dying are very harsh.
Rain World gives me the same vibes as Ecco and Clock Tower on the Snes. It is good, I have only played it for 30 minutes and will never touch it again
3 Likes
I haven’t played it yet but I was hoping for more of a mood piece with some slippery and stretchy gamefeel and moments like that would just take me out of it.
I’ve been feeling nostalgic lately (typically an indication that a period of depression is on its way) so I’ve decided to spend some time re-evaluating older games on my top 10 list to see if they’re still legit. Silent Hill 2 was chosen because it’s been a particularly miserable fall so far and uncharacteristically cold here in Georgia.
I was a little nervous going in but after about 5 minutes I knew the game was still - and will always be - a masterpiece. Far better people than me have written at length about this game, so I’ll spare you my feeble insights but it’s still a remarkable achievement in terms of world building/atmosphere/narrative/environment. The experience is akin to slipping into a warm bath and I am genuinely more excited to play it right now than I am Red Dead 2. This stems partly from the fact that I don’t feel catered to as much in Silent Hill 2, the world feels indifferent to my presence. The mannequins and mutants would still be shuffling in the dark even if I wasn’t exploring their filthy apartment building. They don’t exist to murder me or say “howdy partnerrrrrr! you hear about some mushroom in the woods I want you to get?!?”.
8 Likes
i just got to the fourth area and i haven’t seen anything like that. the two things that required some mental systematization are: the relationship between the cycles with the gates and, in one specific instance, how to go through certain scavengers so you can progress more or less safely (and your hologram-friend gives you a tip about that).
maybe there will be more byzantine things going forward, so who knows. the “advanced” controls are absolutely wild and tricky to get a hold on, which may make it similar to out of this world i imagine.
this is true; even on medium difficulty (“survivor”) losing progress tends to be easier than making it in some sections. i realized i can’t really play it for more than, say, one hour-something at a time. it gets draining.
Because I was procrastinating on the last wave of assignments for the semester, I kicked off a game of EU4 by as Granada, a small Sunni kingdom embedded on the ass end of the Iberian peninsula. Since this is populated by the very Catholic countries of Portugal, Castile and Aragon they generally don’t last long. However, you can sort of hold an uneasy ground by securing alliances with Morocco and Tunis and then smashing Tlemcen enough so that you’ve got a shiny new vassal by the name of Algiers and slightly more to work with. But this is the best case situation I’ve encountered thus far out of … 10 runs? I’ve tried of this. It often ends up derailing after your Sunni allies start squabbling with each other, weakening everyone involved so that Castile sees a tasty treat: YOU.
I had enough, switched immediately to Ottomans. Said fuck you to the Sunnis by converting religions and another fuck you to the Catholics by converting to a relatively unknown branch of Christianity, COPTIC (usually run over by whoever kills off Ethiopia or Armenia). Now I’m going to stomp all over the world.
1 Like
Playing Ottomans is cheating.
But, you deserve to treat yourself sometimes.
2 Likes
Turkish Delight: You Deserve to Treat Yourself, Sometimes
4 Likes
The closing bits of Rain World are an appropriately horrible escalation iirc
1 Like
Finally started The Witness. My personal experience is interesting with this one because I am surprised with how much I like it. I usually don’t connect with the exploration in games. I prefer set pieces and good old fashioned clean designed stages. But with this game I am really feeling immersed just walking around checking out the island, it is very fulfilling. The puzzles are great as well. The game is beautiful, imo.
5 Likes
yeah Nier is real good so far. i like that it makes your controller go pink
5 Likes
Neat, I did not know this! Tell me any other hues
1 Like
I’ve become horribly addicted to Slay the Spire. It just makes hours disappear, but I can mute it and listen to new music so I don’t feel like it’s totally wasted time. Solidly engineered deckbuilding plus roguelike random upgrade mechanics is more powerful than any slot machine.
4 Likes
controller lighting is absolutely the most underrated area of game design imo
(will do!)
5 Likes
Ps4 controller lighting is the kind of useless detailing I live for and I really ought to take notes when I encounter it.
Red Dead 2 makes it well, red
Rocket League makes it blue or orange depending on your team iirc
Alien Isolation uses green and turns your controller into the motion tracker from Aliens.
I also love the fact that there’s a speaker in there. The greatest wow moment the Wii provided me with was when in No More Heroes, I had to put the wiimote to my ear to take and listen to a phone call.
3 Likes
Are there many games on PS4 that actually use the speaker? I turned the volume off a long time ago and completely forgot it was even a feature
Horizon Zero Dawn, anything that’s next to your ear makes a noise through the speaker (so bows and the little focus thing)
Destiny changes the color of the light on the PS4 controller when your health gets low.
I do like that later PS4 controllers have a clear section of the touch pad so that the light shines through, making it actually visible to the person holding the controller.
1 Like
GTAV phone calls go through the speaker and it is super annoying. Especially because GTAV forgets your settings every few months. So you will load up and be playing quietly and then have to scramble as YO PLAYER CHARACTER explodes from your controller with little way to stop it quickly.
I use a controller without a speaker in it, and now I’m paranoid I’m missing out 
Then again, I also use headphones, so I’m gonna miss that stuff anyway.
I remember Shadow of Mordor played super fucking loud grass noises when you even so much as grazed a patch or bush.
Playing more of Hitman 2 and damn, it’s pretty hard. I’m sure I’ll find my comfortable routes, but trying to take out the movie star in Mumbai alone has gotten me killed half a dozen times.