Popping back into Strafe makes me realize that my ability to deal with mouse-aim in FPS games has totally atrophied and also that I probably need some kind of standing desk or some other change to my desk setup because my arm fucking hurts from playing like 40 minutes.
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The female player character voice in Anthem is the same voice actor as we used in Galak-Z as the Operator and all I can hear is lines I should have written better and directed better as I play the finished game. Itās the same personality and delivery and direction we did and wow this is weird Beam Iām sorry this line I didnāt write is so awkward and forced
10 Likes
thereās a stage with a small desert town where thereās a crashed ufo
m a x i m u m
n i n e t i e s
6 Likes
I finally played through Detention čæę ” after feeling like it was a game I should have already played for months. Light spoilers for this obscure Taiwanese horror / adventure / historical melodrama game below, not gonna bother tagging sorry yāall.
I thought it was pretty cool, very atmospheric and creepy. But ultimately the story is really depressing. Itās hard to find accessible stuff about this period in Taiwanese history and Iām afraid this game continues the trend, if you donāt already know the basic details of KMT anti-communist persecution in the early days of the ROC on Taiwan itās probably not going to make a whole lot of sense. Itās definitely more about the fictional interpersonal melodrama the characters are involved in than the bigger picture historical stuff, but if you either know or can intuit the basic details of the background the story they are telling becomes even sadder and maybe even profound.
I will spoiler this part because itās basically the whole plot: It ends up being about a girl who is wracked with guilt because she snitched on the members of a high school reading group who were reading contraband books. The game presents it as though all of these people died because of this, but in one of the endings at least that is apparently not the case. All of the supernatural monster stuff gradually disappears, and the game ends up being about how sheās basically trapped in purgatory because she is unable to admit to herself that what she did was wrongā¦ I think? But honestly Iām still not sure
As for the interactive parts, itās probably better to treat it as interactive fiction with light puzzle elements than a genuine horror / adventure gameāI suck at this type of game and was able to solve every puzzle without too much struggle. So for people who have beaten like every kingās quest game or whatever Iām sure the video gamey elements are barely enough to hold interest, but the atmosphere and circuitous narrative progression are pretty well done.
I have only seen one of the two endings, I think a major criticism is that itās not entirely clear what the dialogue options that determine the ending are actually meant to imply. Part of this may be a translation issue but I suspect itās mostly just the creators having a kind of opaque perspective on what the āmessageā of the game is actually supposed to be. Again, itās a grim story and itās about a pretty dark period in history, but there is also this subtext about redemption and guilt and all this that leaves me feeling a bit uneasy, but maybe when I think about it more Iāll have a better idea of what theyāre actually trying to say with the game.
Anyway, did anyone else play this? Iām very curious to see what others made of it.
Oh, if youāre thinking of playing it, it starts out with some really dramatic content warnings. It is not actually that gory, but the violence in it is pretty disturbing, so be warned I guess.
11 Likes
I second a recommendation of this good little horror game.
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I was just thinking about this game today, coincidentally. I didnāt actually know there were multiple endings, maybe when I have less on my plate I will go for another playthrough.
I think I have heard that even in Taiwan it is hard to find much in the way of media involving this subject, that generally people who lived through it donāt really want to discuss it. I guess also works dealing with events considered to be a kind of ānational shameā like this tend not to find funding through grants as easily. Same reason you donāt see much out of Australia dealing with the Stolen Generation.
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I finally started playing my copy of Horizon Zero Dawn which I got forever ago, and golly, what a fantastic game. First one to keep me up to 2 am for a long time, I love pretty much everything about it so far. Except for crafting, that stuff is silly, but everything else! The world is great! The writing is actually decent! The combat is actually engaging! Itās nice to know a AAA title can still excite me.
isnāt it wild? itās like, just extremely solid. and it has better friction than almost every other game iāve played lately (though the dash in Nier is good)
my partner saw this on my switch library when we were booting up smash tonight and was real interested (which is why i got it in the first place) so i expect weāll check it out soon. what synchronicity!
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Created by a team including former HITMAN leads and the designer of PAYDAY
Fuckinā sold
Yeah I saw a letās play of the demo and itās a really cool xcom-like
I think I said it at the time, but Detention was the point where I was like, āok, we need to stop this Silent Hill 2 bullshit.ā Just, does anyone find that sort of thing satisfying anymore?
I thought it was alright, overall, Iāll play whatever that team does next.
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no I just needed to turn down my mouseās sensitivity lol
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Iāve never been in to this type of game otherwise, so I didnāt make the Silent Hill connection but I just read a synopsis of SH2 and, yeah, itās pretty similar!
They are making another game, apparently 2 but the next next one doesnāt have a trailer yet. I just posted a link to the trailer for the next game in the News thread, it looks like it could be good but there isnāt much in the trailer.
I think I understand the desire to make a game in Silent Hill 2ās image more than most slavish reinterpretations because nothing else gave me that desire for the good version of it. Thereās something ineffable about Silent Hill 2ās blend of psycho-horror and yet comfortable, broken-down mood, and yet Silent Hill 2 still feels like an under-written, semi-trashy version of a game somebody could really make shine ā it feels too obvious, a bit pulpier than it wishes it was, like it was at the limits of its creatorās ability. But despite that the mood of it sticks in the mind, and then we get the tragedy of at least a dozen imitations that may be smarter but miss the mood.
Itās enough to just return to Pathologic as the best horror game there is and sit happy on offal mountain.
2 Likes
was fussing with RPCS3 today and thinking about just how good EA was in like 2010-2011 and how I donāt think Iāve given a single shit about anything theyāve released since
Fight Night Champion, Skate 3, and Fifa 12 were all like the pinnacle of their respective genres
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titanfall
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true but EA didnāt even buy them until after TF2!
Ottoman World Conquest wasā¦unsuccessful! *sad trombone*
Of the countries that exist, only Great Britain, France, Portugal, Commonwealth and Spain are independent. The other countries featured in this screenshot are my vassals.
It was probably my easiest transition to high Absolution (thus cheaper to take land from others) and I couldnāt spend my ducats fast enough by the 1700s. I actually ran out of provinces to build 500 ducat manufactories!
I think the biggest mistake I made was not shifting back to the Christian countries as soon as I had a border with Ming. I needed to slow down the colonizers so I could fight the natives directly in smaller nibbles instead of being caught in a web of European alliances and having to take big gulps of their land (waiting out the coring time in-between). The second biggest mistake was not taking advantage of a guarantee on Tunis that Spain had on them back in the 1600s so I could start ruining their American colonies.
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I did not expect Mario and Luigiās Bowserās Inside Story to have the real racist Mario italianio voice.
Also the handholding was too much and the character action was not good.