Accidentally started a fight against an entire outpost worth of baddies in Breakpoint.
Got critically injured very early in the fight.
Result?
Forest of corpses care of a lot of tenacity. Was kinda surprised I survived, tbh.
5 Likes
This was my favorite puzzle yet, purchased used at a thrift store for $3. Every piece was present.
hidden within many pieces were slight but dazzling treasures
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Kawasaki Superbike Challenge is a weirdly well put together…racing simulator? for the Megadrive. I’m not sure why the polyginal games on the megadrive aren’t talked about more (F-22 challenge sticks out in my mind) I guess running at 5-15fps does a number on that whole idea.
Controls are alright despite using only a d-pad and two buttons. The game’s approximation of Brands Hatch is “squint and you can maybe see it” but the sense of speed and the way you roll in and out of turns semi-smoothly is really good. You don’t really crash, you bonk into obstacles and then the game slowly moves you back onto the road.
Anyway check out these driver names
You can pick between Low and High gear, and sometimes the weather is rainy and driving sucks. this is random because the first time I played the weather was bad. There is no track select screen, the only mode is championchip, so I drove through a race to see the next track, which was Hockenheim ring. I know enough about the track that this would be the “Older” version of it which has long straightaways.
13 Likes
The content I crave of seriously looking at these old games of genres folks don’f care about.
There is a F1 Sega CD game by Sega that I was similarly impressed by. The screen shook when you were on bumpers. I don’t remember the name because it was an F1 game.
7 Likes
there is also a really good GBA game called Moto Racer Advance (?) and it’s a really good Super Hang On like. They also have dirt bikes. The road is a stretched texture and looks really slick in motion. It’s just fun to ride around the track.
5 Likes
i know one of the f1 games on mega cd is named heavenly symphony, which is a cool name for a racing game
6 Likes
Final MML2 Session. We explore Elysium’s habitat areas, which are a bunch of houses on islands connected by portals. This game really kind of does the Pre-human advanced alien civilzation thing better than halo, complete with world ending device using ancient technology.
We enter The Master’s House. And in the basement is…
A boss rush. There are like 4 bosses. The Frog one, the Blob, the 3 robot jellyfish, and the huge dinosaur.
After that we are about the enter The Library and take on the final boss. Data explains that beyond the door is the genetic code for every human that made the The System, and by destroying it you would presumably destroy all that genetic material and prevent them from being revived? I think this is also the ultimate plot of the Nausiica manga. Data also explains that you and Sera fought before and that in the process destroyed each other’s bodies, because of the mandate of The Master to destroy The System. Sera can’t think outside of “The System” and is jealous that The Master liked megaman more. There is…a lot going on here
anyway we fight Sera, in a final battle that is a really good callback to MegaMan Legends 1’s final battle. but the 2nd stage gets really interesting
One attack warps the entire screen like it’s Devil Daggers. What if someone made a Devil Daggers 3rd person game using MML’s vibes??? hmmm
Anyway well, after that’s over, Sera “dies” or something. Then Roll’s Mom shows up and is like “you’re not really dead” but by dying, Sera has activated…all the Reverbots on earth
Because Sera killed the helper robot that flew the space capsule to Elysium, everyone is stuck on there until they can build a rocket
So this final shot implies that the capsules are all carbon resetting devices (from megaman one, we defeated one before it could zap kattalox island) and so this implies there’s a lot more hovering over Terra? this also implies that earth is just one big science experiment done by bored and immortal humans.
So now it’s up to Roll and Co to build a rocket to reach MegaMan, setting up MML3, a game which will never fucking come out!
“sorry megaman, looks like you’ll be stuck up there for a while” yeah
So with that it’s the end of the most vibrant and well produced Action Adventure series for the PSX era. After this every game developer forgot how to compose a shot and write well paced dialog. I wonder what secrets Mega Man Legends 3 would have uncovered in the game’s backstory.
26 Likes
Demon Lord (PC)
Okay real crack at this free, super-streamlined Wizardry-like.
Game Jam juror’s video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8TtFM8G0Y4
Dungeon Crawler Jam 2023 entry: Demon Lord by Surt R. for Dungeon Crawler Jam 2023 - itch.io
Control: arrow keys, space bar.
Randomly generated characters join you at the campfire near the start point. Party of 4 face random monster encounters in 1-floor dungeon; stay near campfire until can crush them. Campfire heals. Outside of camp, your team only recovers HP by winning fights, which also raises their stats.
In battle, you pick Attack / Defend / Escape once per round for whole party, then watch the round play out. Attack uses random(?) skill. Run is 100% except can’t run from bosses, and kinda can’t run from eh well there’s a spiral passage w/ a party of 6 goblins, and if you run they attack again in the next square, back at full strength.
In jam feedback, the dev acknowledged the goblin encounter “wasn’t balanced that well” Post by Surt R. in Demon Lord jam comments - itch.io and that Attack/Defend “only affect the party leader,” “a quirk […] that was too late to change.” OH. Post by Surt R. in Demon Lord jam comments - itch.io
No inventory, town, or map.
After struggling for a while w/ thieves, archers, mages etc getting killed a lot–there’s no traditional Wizardry front/back rank party formation–I finally took a party of 4 huge beefy dudes and spent about 30 mins grinding random encounters to raise their stats, to where they could crush the 1st gate-keeping encounter. Could probably get down to like 10 mins of spamming space bar. At that rate, the pink slow screen flash when taking a hit could get painful.
There’s another fixed encounter after that, which didn’t feel much harder. Then a boss fight that didn’t feel much harder either; I didn’t do any real grinding to speak of after I could take out the 1st gatekeeper easily.
Then there’s a big twist, which kind of makes the whole thing pay off a bit. ^ _^ Then a final(?) twist, which I didn’t survive because I didn’t know how to prep a team for it:
(spoilers!): Post by CryptRat in Demon Lord jam comments - itch.io (and reply). So that’s what the tease about leading an army of monsters means. Now I want to try again!
The upcoming July 20th remake, Demon Lord Reincarnation – Demon Lord Reincarnation on Steam – promises some progress will be retained even after a wipe. A trailer shows a treasure chest (a reason to have a thief in your party?) awarding a mystery potion (raised stat), per-character Attack/Defend commands, picking a skill to use (w/ SP values), and a Save option. The dev says they’re aiming for 10-15 hours play time.
It replaces the jam version’s slow pink screen flash on hit w/ screen shake, which they say will be made optional: Will there be an option to turn off screen shake? :: Demon Lord Reincarnation General Discussions
This free game jam pre-Reincarnation thing is a super-stylish and atmospheric spacebar masher, only gameplay being deciding when to stop mashing near the campfire & mash to the endgame.
So there could be more meat to Reincarnation. But in its trailer, the non-meaty party member is still the one who dies.
I asked about the viability of non-meaty characters on the forum Will finesse characters be practical? :: Demon Lord Reincarnation General Discussions and the developer replied
"hybrid characters and especially magic users are very brittle in the beginning and can be a liability until they grow a bit or learn an offensive skill or two to decimate enemies before they get a chance to act.
Since you have direct control over your characters in this version, you can put them on the defensive during harsh battles to greatly increase their chances of survival and run away if things get too risky."
Jam version definitely not balanced for non-meaty classes. For Reincarnation I suppose it’ll come down to how effective their skills will be & how effective Defend will be. If under $10 it’ll be worth it just to mess around with. Might actually be a game. I kinda like this meat masher though (gonna play it w/ arcade stick & Joy2Key).
12 Likes
Started up Hollow Knight, it is definitely a looker and I like most of the designs of these little bug people. The map takes some definite getting used to and having to purchase the ability to see where the save points are on it is definitely a choice (as is having to use an equipment slot to see where you are on said map), I can sort of follow the logic behind it but it strikes me as a bunch of half-measures. Game itself is fun enough, either the PS5 version has a good bit of lag or jumping near the edge of platforms is a bit borked so I’m hoping it doesn’t become too big of an issue in the late game when I assume things become more demanding.
7 Likes
tonight it’s the System Shock remake + the Teaches of Peaches. I can’t hear what Shodan is saying but it sounds really cool over Cum Undun.
6 Likes
keeping an eye on xbox emulation cause I want to play splinter cell 1 with the original graphical effects and checkpoint saving. xemu seems the better emulator. it gets updated more frequently, it updates itself, it works with crt shaders. it uses isos though and my whole xbox collection was in folder format
it’s not quite there yet
9 Likes
Really digging that first corridor shot.
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Me again
JSYK this game gives you 10 points per frame that you fast-drop a piece 
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I’m deeply curious of what you make of the other post Compile puzzler Takoron/Octomania, but that’s not a dropping block game
it has all the Puyo intermission scene insanity though
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Playing the System Shock remake is sort of confirming or at least supporting this feeling I’ve had for a decade or more by this point that the praise System Shock 2 gets feels a bit like it’s based on nothing. I am almost willing to say SS2 is not a very good game. It does have atmosphere and great sound design but where the simple combat feels for some reason more in harmony with the boxy-dungeon level design and exploration in the first game, with the more realistic seeming setting and levels in the second I think the combat comes across as just a severe weakness. I don’t know, SS2 just doesn’t feel very coherent to me, but it’s been a few years since I seriously played it. I just don’t remember it ever making me take on the slow, cautious pace that I have to take in this remake of SS1. Maybe I just really like this remake a lot is the real take away.
8 Likes
the praise for SS2, and for bioshock, and a few other games, owes a lot to how few people actually played the first system shock, due to how poorly its release was timed and executed.
it’s the velvet underground line except Ken Levine was like a vamping cbgb roadie who successfully got credit for their shtick for a decade and a half afterward. and he wasn’t the only one to get credit for having actually paid attention to early to mid 90s PC releases a decade later when they were just not part of the curriculum.
7 Likes
it’s all atmosphere and banging music and mean computer lady 100%. just like bioshock is primarily normal mapped wet shaders, bobby darin, and deco signage. (no shade to bioshock 2 and its delightful trap-laying setup encounters)
i would believe the many seemed less hackneyed in 1999? but with hindsight after binfinite… no
5 Likes
yeah the best thing about ss2 is the first three minutes after the tutorial that bombards you with insane noise, like a broken beeper, a woman with the iciest voice imaginable reading basically the wikipedia entry on C&B Torture in a roundabout way to tell you to get going, while pipes explode with hissing steam, alarms go off, and great drum and bass all at once.
9 Likes
in 2007 it was also weirdly difficult to play system shock 2! i set up some kind of win98 partition because it didn’t play nice with win2k/XP. before GOG getting post-DOS pre-2k windows stuff running was a pain, and they didn’t get the licensing worked out until years later
5 Likes
This is how I played it too. But with a borrowed Dell tower and a shit CRT monitor in a Las Vegas hotel room in the summer. Extremely memorable experience. I still think about how the version I downloaded had support for co-op multiplayer and wonder what the point of that would be, and what it would be like to try.
5 Likes