Those lots of little reasons are gonna keep building up until it’s all the reasons to quit.
I played through all of What Remains of Edith Finch yesterday alongside my sister. I’m not even sure how I feel about it. I really enjoyed a lot of its vignettes, and kind of love how the house functions as a level select / enviro-storo-tello set piece. Pretty cool to play a thing so well made that feels like a set of short stories linked by their theme rather than their story content or mechanics. It’s defo the first time I’ve played something so polished and large scale that draws on the weird wonderful work of smaller experimental developers working in the vignette/diorama space. I’d recommend it.
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I got songbringer and dead cells today because I was suddenly in the right mood. wow are they both good! it’s been a little while of me being unfazed by otherwise decent pixel action roguelikes (e.g. flinthook) so this is very happymaking
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Yeah, I like Dead Cells a lot but it gets stuttery in later areas for me. Hoping they fix that eventually. Good to hear Songbringer is cool. I saw a video of it a while ago but then forgot about it.
dead cells really clicks where a lot of other games would like to – the challenge is earned, the breadth of upgrades and loadouts are interesting, the maps are memorable enough – and all it’s really missing at this stage is solid late-game progression which it will in all likelihood get around to.
songbringer isn’t necessarily as successful, but I’m having a hard time deciding how much of a problem that is. the basic audiovisual work is great, but it lacks variety and really active scenes can be kind of muddy and hard to pick details out of; it leans pretty hard into NES Zelda in its systems design but is functionally pretty linear and doesn’t really beckon you with secrets in the same way; the setting is moderately inspired but the writing is sworcery-style and still doesn’t quite come off.
mostly it serves to remind me how much I liked titan souls even though it was at least as enthusiastically derivative & willing to be a “minor” work.
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Games What I Played Over the Holiday While On Vacation
Uncharted: The Lost Legacy – Probably the best Uncharted to date. Good characters, tight story-telling, good mix of puzzling/shooting/set-piecing and the open world-ish level in the middle was excellent and where I spent the majority of my first play through. Just finished it on Crushing and might go for the platinum trophy but I also might hold off and save that for the next time I feel like Uncharting.
Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens – The best Lego Star Wars game since the first two Lego Star Wars games. Those are the only Lego Star Wars games I’ve played so far. This one is really good though. The story overlaps with the movie for the major beats but is also kind of its own thing and fleshes out things that were either happening in the background or between scenes from the movie.
The story overall is very focused and provides a lot of forward momentum for the rest of the game. Each level also has a section where you take cover and shoot at enemies like in Gears of War or something. They work out a lot better than you might think they would. It’s kind of like the game gives you a short shooting gallery break every twenty minutes. Vehicles control the best they have in any Lego game so far.
Dishonored: Death of the Outsider – Only gotten to the second level so far but I can tell this one is going to be good. The premise is great and the first level where you break Daud out was really good. I’m going to focus on finishing this one next.
Final Fantasy XV – Also on my list to play more over my break. I got the car back and made it to the first stop, after doing the first few available hunts and dorking around a bit of course. Game has a great vibe to it, Noctis feels good to control and the combat is so far a lot better than the demos were making it out to be.
Assassin’s Creed: Origins – I got this one over Thanksgiving. I’ve probably put 20+ hours into it and I still feel like I’m only scratching the surface. The world is absolutely wonderful. Egypt is just gorgeous and you can fly around as the eagle as much as you want. You can literally fly around the whole world just checking things out as soon as you get it. You can also set your horse to follow the road while heading towards a way point and then switch to the eagle and fly around watching yourself ride your horse. It’s awesome.There are also cats wherever there are people and if you crouch down by a cat other cats will show up and then you’ll automatically start petting the cats. This is what I’ve been doing with my time in the game.
Combat is a lot better too but still not quite what it needs to be. You can tell they wanted to just make it like Dark Souls but they also were still aiming for mass appeal and didn’t want to alienate anyone so it’s only Souls-ish and not really Souls-like. They should definitely keep this model for future games and keep improving on it.
Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy – I have not Gotten Over It yet but I know what I need to do which is just be patient and not panic. Playing it on an iPad Pro and can’t really imagine what it would be like with a mouse. Probably harder since I’d have to relearn it a bit. I get fatigued because I keep pressing too hard on the screen when I start making actual progress (only gotten to the first tree so far) and inadvertently shoot myself off the side of the mountain.
There are more games I have been playing too but I don’t have much to say about them at the moment.
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Until the final boss mission apparently, I can’t best it at all
A pity
I was shocked to see the warm reception after the twee disaster that was Unfinished Swan and Sony dropping this game after 4 years in development.
But good for them, and good to have more good in the world
I finished Gorogoa
It was very good and satisfied the expectations set by 4 years of gentle froth
Now, to make my loved ones play it
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I finally made some progress in Bloodborne—took me a while to get used to not having a shield. I found the first set of hunter’s garb and made my way to the Cleric Beast. I got very close to beating it but DIED, then again and again, many times after. the game is already incredible but makes me so angry. 
now I learn that’s an optional boss—of course. it’s pretty great how truly labyrinthine this opening area is as compared to DS1 and DeS which were fairly straightforward in the beginning.
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I got my kid a Lego PS4 thing for Christmas. It’s the first time he’s ever really used a dualshocky controller. It’s very interesting the things he picks up on quickly and the things he doesn’t, it isn’t at all what I expected.
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I introduced my 5-year-old niece to video games when she was staying with us for a week last month. We played a few Wii U games, and playing with her made me conscious of some unfortunate design choices.
Having to constantly switch controllers and hold them in different ways with different buttons was a challenge for her, since she had no experience with any controllers. She didn’t give up, though.
It was also annoying to have to get through so many menus and things just to play the game. And of course, since it was Nintendo, we were constantly interrupted by talking parts that went on too long.
We had the best results with the Virtual Console version of Kirby’s Dreamland 3. It’s a much better game than most of the modern Wii U titles anyway.
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The Lego games have two things going for them which make them relatively kid-friendly: 1. they are completely playable in couch co-op but only one person is ever really needed to do anything, which means I can play with him and do stuff if he asks or gets frustrated and 2. though they are somewhat 3d they take place in constrained areas and don’t ask you to ever move the camera. Dual-sticking is the impossible task.
Not being able to read is an obstacle obviously.
I’d thought that jumping would be tough because it requires an action from each thumb (stick + button to jump in a direction), but actually he doesn’t have much problem with that, because you can stick first, hold it down, and then hit jump. Two discrete actions that layer rather than a single dual-action. If jumping was a fighting game style foward+X it’d be impossible for him to do.
One thing that really trips him up is all the state changes related to different button presses. Is he supposed to tap once, or tap really fast, or hold down the button? He often stands around getting beat on by bad guys because he’s just holding square (the attack button) instead of mashing it. I have to remind him to tap tap tap! But then other special abilities require you to hold down square instead. Ultimately it’s in service of giving each character a suite of unique little lock and key abilities and given that there’s a zillion characters already it’s too much. It confuses me sometimes.
One thing he’s good at that I really didn’t anticipate is the narrative structure and relating actions to proceeding in the level. We have to hit this switch to open this door to hit this switch to open that door to blow up a generator. (Daddy, what’s a generator?) He doesn’t get it exactly the first time, but the second time it’s locked in. It’s the peculiarities of input he has trouble with, not the goals as stated. Reinforces a belief that the biggest obstacle to people getting into games is the little plastic things we play them with.
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i saw product photos of this journal/planner made by shigesato itoi:
and i really, really wanted to get it for myself, but i didn’t because
a) i’m broke
b) i haven’t beaten mother 2/earthbound
and idk. i’d feel like a fake if i got this thing that’s meant to evoke memories of time spent playing that game when i haven’t even done so. so i’m playing earthbound on my roommate’s wii u and i’ve been playing it in bed under three blankets and i have to lay in a certain position because if i don’t the gamepad can’t link to the console in the living room through the wall and i just got to twoson and i feel like this game is made for someone who is not me and it’s pleasant in a strange way to get to experience this loving world trying to imagine how happy it would make someone else playing it
i like that when you are a high enough level you automatically win encounters with enemies just by running into them. i like the music. i like that it asked me what my favorite thing was and i said provia and now i have a really powerful magic attack called provia that oneshots everything i encounter
also played some over the past couple of days:
monster hunter beta (nothing clicks with me but dual swords, missions in the beta are either way too easy or way too tough for me which is bothersome)
i am bread (like qwop but in 3d and more obnoxious, high skill ceiling and can pull off some wonky moves)
human fall flat (surprisingly satisfying 3d physics puzzle platformer thing)
wolfenstein ii (flows better than new order, although it’s also twitchier because bj is faster. interested to see where the plot goes)
battlefield 1 (both of the new dlc maps are fun, and i was lucky enough to encounter the glitch where the ship behemoth is floating in the air over the ocean like some star wars destroyer. people were shooting anti-air cannons at it, which was too appropriate)
majora’s mask (thought i was in the mood to play a 3d zelda, but i bounced off of the first hour of the game so i guess i’m not. another supposedly very good game to maybe play someday in the future, like mother 3 and chrono trigger and portal 2 and witcher 3 and etc etc etc)
i wish i had kept a list of all the games i beat this year. i’m going to do that for 2018.
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I have the cover, and also a bunch of other Earthbound ones too. He releases a new ones every year, but I’ve been weening off the Earthbound ones and going for the more original designs. I’ll post my collection later.
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please do! i’d love to see them.
do you use a hobonichi techo regularly? how do you like it if so?
Seriously I think everything in that list is good but please just play Chrono Trigger. It’s just the most pleasingly and breezily paced thing. It’s the only jrpg I can even tolerate thinking about playing any more.
Re: input mechanism barriers, fired up Rocksmith Remaster since it turns out the stupid Ubicable I got with the original 360 version is fine for proper computers too
I can play a Chording of the Dead game and other neat things badly
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I bought battlefield 1, since it was also only 20 dollars. I don’t know if anyone here plays it on pc but I’m CoffinEdJohnson on Origin if you need a buddy.
Shrug have you played Hot Dogs, Horseshoes & Hand Grenades yet?
I was religious about mine but then I lost this year’s when I went to PAX. It had a ton of work and irreplaceable mementoes in it and I still wince whenever I think about it. I got a replacement with that very same cover you linked to but it still irks me that the first 3 months are blank now. Also whole weeks are missing from it since. Like instead of filling in pages I’d make 2,000 word posts to the Axe, which may not be the best idea? Should probably be just be keeping most things to myself. But I really love it even though I doubt it’s very different from any other journal!
If I can find the new Mother 2 cover when I’m in Tokyo I’ll send you my old cover if you want it.
I played games in my bedroom with another human being today which is something that hasn’t happened in…years? Decades? Tried Videoball but it wouldn’t recognize my second controller and locked up my computer so we went for Spelunker Party and uh apparently I’m the only person on Earth who likes Spelunker. Then we tried some old horrible FMV thriller starring John Hurt and that was also a bust. So I really have no clue how to entertain people with games and may never play one again.
Though we did watch Nathan For You and a Douglas Sirk movie after and those went over well.
But now I’m alone and can’t sleep cuz I’m sad about it so…nothing ever goes ever well enough and I’ll never be satisfied.
3 Likes