Games You Played Today Part 007 Goldeneye

[Tuxedo]

This is the Metroidvaniamer talking exclusively about Metroidvania

F.I.S.T. Forged in Shadow Torch

I have beaten the game and I’m sorry to say there’s no shadow torch anywhere. The title is just nonsense. or secret lore…?
The game is fine. Very standard, aside from the main character being an edgy grizzled rabbit who’s hunting down an edgier, more grizzled rabbit in a vaguely steampunk society.
Many gigantic detailed rooms that you only get a glimpse at by travelling from left to right. I love when 2.5D does this.
Combos go way too deep for a game like this, which is very apparent in the hardest part of the game (the training area that teaches combos)

Souldiers

Eh. There are great ideas here, the big issue is all the dead space. The levels are gigantic but breathe too much. They need to be half the size, with the same amount of enemies.
The Faustian pact the devs made to have this pixel art also includes having the game crash during save. The second time this happened, right after a boss, I uninstalled.
The main character being a random nameless featureless soldier is interesting, though this and the military theme seem vaguely facist-adjacent. There’s also a nice town that’s obviously going to be obliterated later because the mayor is too much of a pacifist

Cathedral

Oh boy this is supposed to look like a NES game, but it feels more like a C- tier Megadrive eurojank game, real James Pond vibes. Some sickos would like this but I am instantly repulsed forever. The main character moves their sword around like it’s inflatable

Vision Soft Reset

One of these Majora’s mask-like with 20 minutes to beat the game and the ability to go back in time, with permanent rewards to unlock. Cool game.
Movement is very quick, which is obviously great, but also kind of a curse in this type of game because it makes memorizing places harder. When it came to the Last Perfect Run, running around the map to get most non-permanent upgrades before fighting the final boss, I got screwed over by a random timed door I forgot about, and had to restart the entire thing. I gave up instead.
The ability to rewind in battle is cool and not that powerful! It’s just like how save scumming in action games can be difficult, because your attention is divided between playing the actual game and managing your saves

Vernal Edge

Best one yet. Phenomenal sound design and movement. Sometimes it feels like that’s all I need? Levels are all scattered mini-Metroidvanias maps (accessible via a low poly 3D Skies of Arcadia world map), and are very varied in terms of challenge and look. There’s a real sense of exploration and mystery here. Enemies feel too durable but combat almost only happens in « combat arenas » that don’t respawn. Healing is weird: You have to throw a burst of energy at an enemy that will stick to them, then you can use a few moves that will cost drain HP from that enemy back to you, some riskier than others. This costs points that are won back by hitting enemies with your sword
The story is slight but should have been minimalist IMO. I also wish this had no character portaits. Small complaints

[VastleCania]

I played about 6 hours of Techtonica, a new early access uh, Factorio-like in 3D? I got it because the soundtrack is good and it looked like my jam.

Unfortunately, this game has convinced me that a Factorio-like in 3D is a busted idea from the start. I’ve talked at length about how Satisfactoy is one of those games that should be good, but makes a ton of stupid decisions that hold it back (like conveyor belts having to go directly into machines rather than using inserters, making the creation of a main belt basically impossible. also the tech tree is ass).

Well, Techtonica makes basically all the right decisions, but it still feels like shit to do anything more complex than running a few machines together. I think this comes down to 3D just being a different beast for 2 main reasons.

---

1: Everything is too big. Even though everything is actually fairly small in this game, it’s still too big. Many of my struggles are just trying to figure out where the fuck I can fit more machines in. But if everything were small enough that I was happy with this part, it would look stupid and tiny.

I also think the large size of everything makes it harder to conceptualize what needs to happen, or what is already happening. This might just be a me thing, but it’s easier to consider all the elements when I can see more of them at once.

2: 3D games should have interesting geography, but this limits the repeatability of any lessons learned. Factorio is essentially an almost infinite 2D plane with some barriers, like water and cliffs. This means that I can come up with a decent idea for a layout, then repeat it a bunch without running into weird problems. And I can think of problems almost in the abstract - I don’t need to worry about where the machines will fit.

But when the geography is interesting, then any solutions are essentially bespoke. I set it up this way because it fit this geography. I need a totally different solution for that geography.

Satisfactory has this problem somewhat, mostly because all the machines are gigantic and require tons of space. This game has it even worse despite the machines being way way smaller because it’s set in a cave system, so space is sorely limited. This, to me, is not an interesting challenge, especially considering that this game really ramps up its tech tree very quickly.

And yet, an infinite 2D plane in a 3D game would look like dogshit. I simply don’t see a solution to this.

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There are other problems with the game, but I really like the tech tree and the way it’s split up, and I really like how you progress through it. The game forces you to explore the cave structure to make progress, and the points you need to move through the tech tree take up physical space, and I appreciate that.

I also really, really appreciate the belt editor. Putting down belts in 3D is a real real challenge and this game does the best it can with this IMO. It’s fairly intuitive and much easier than figuring it out manuyally.

But it’s just too much of a pain in the ass to get anything done. I spent a good 3 hours just getting automated iron and copper production set up, and that’s not even including producing anything of value afterwards. These are problems that early access can’t solve, they are intractable.

Good soundtrack though.

EDIT: I should also say that the game is really bad about giving any numbers on anything, so it’s impossible to tell how many inserters/belts you’ll need per machine. This doesn’t bother me so much because I just overbuild a little, but it is really about trial and error. Which isn’t great. The ratios are also very fucking weird, so it seems like maximizing output will be a matter of building 9 of one building and 2 of another and 4 of another and it still won’t match perfectly.

But this is all early access stuff that could be fixed. I think the idea itself is fundamentally not-great.

[L]

I 1CC’d this difficulty for the second time in my life

Panel de Pon – S-HARD 1CC (AGAIN!!) | パネルでポン ー S-HARD ノーコンティニュー （再び！！）

I love this game a lot. Ever since I’ve known about it, I’ve longed to be “good” at it. And yet… the game is so strict, so unkind to mistakes, has so much to learn yet does so little to teach. It was only this week that I learned that STOP time also stops garbage falling as well as the blocks rising, even though that hardly makes sense.

OK I’m done. Smack that potion if you still think 3x chains are difficult

[meauxdal]

Dysmantle (PS5) - very good mindless listen-to-a-podcast game. the mode is good, i mean. the actual game is… eh. it’s fine. it’s a top-down survival/crafting/building/zombies thing. break things to grab resources. use resources to craft stuff, including better weapons to knock down heavier stuff. when you die, you have a chance to recover all the goods on your body, but a second death wipes your corpse and stuff off the map. combat is very, very simple and not very good (your heavy attack interrupts enemy animations, so as long as you step back and time your heavy attack to when they inevitably step toward you, you’ll never take damage unless you get swarmed). overall, though, the game is dumb fun. i recognize a specific birdcall used in the backing ambience as one native to my area. hear that motherfucker every morning. i assume they used a library sample but i kept thinking it’d be sick if they lived somewhere in the same bird region

Star Wars Episode I: Racer (PS4) - this is a really straightforward port of the game. it’s largely identical to the N64/Dreamcast versions, just in 1080p60 16:9. it even has the nice intro cutscenes from the Dreamcast/Windows/Mac versions. audio sounds great. yes that link is just a link to watto voice lines. what did you expect

the game itself? fabulous. one of the better 90s futuristic racers, just behind unimpeachable top dogs F-Zero X and WipEout XL/3:SE but ahead of Extreme-G, AeroGauge and other also-rans. impossible to overstate how big of a difference the huge framerate and res bumps are to this game. a significant difficulty in the original N64 version is just being able to discern where you’re meant to go and react in time. no such issues here. the feeling of speed is incredible.

don’t listen to this unless you want the (problematic?!) watto voice stuck in your head all day: outlanders, ehhhh, they come here, how do they find me, huhhwehhhh, they come here, mess up my store ehhHHHHHHHh

if only more retro ports could be so… obvious. they did fuck up the title screen, tho (REGISTER YOUR GAME)

anyway tl;dr this is a strong port and i recommend it.

The Ascent (PS5) - this is very fun in co-op. kind of a twin-stick RPG thing with aesthetically pleasing cyberpunk trappings. shades of Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance. just me or are there are lot of these top-down co-op things out there lately? i’m not complaining, these games are addictive

NEO: The World Ends With You (PS4) - dripping with confidence and style. i never got around to playing the first game on DS, but this one makes a pretty strong impression. downside - the game is piss easy. even when you make big reduction stacks and up the difficulty modifiers (to hard at least, didn’t get a chance to try “ultimate” yet) you can just bulldoze most enemies without hesitation. the music slaps - fucking nu-metal vibes all over this thing

Melty Blood: Type Lumina (PS4) - this game is great in that i can just mash buttons and half-remembered street fighter inputs and my character does a bunch of flashy shit. hit-button-feel-good is very strong with this one. i miss 2d fighters, 3d fighters are never as responsive and immediate to me

[hellojed]

One thing about FEAR I just remembered: everyone at my lan party club in college was really into it for a minute because at some point they just gave out Multiplayer for free, so everyone had it installed and we had intense multiplayer deathmatches. I also remember someone playing the singleplayer using a high end graphics card and they were like “it’s just like CGI!”

[Tegiminis]

one thing @BustedAstromech pointed out to me is that the creative director for fear (craig hubbard) was the lead designer or creative director on basically every iconic Monolith FPS from Shogo through FEAR, ending with Gotham City Imposters (he was just a regular designer on FEAR 2)

Shogo
Aliens vs Predator 2
No One Lives Forever 2
FEAR
Gotham City Imposters

so many ahead-of-their-time shooters. now monolith is relegated to the wonder woman mines

[LaurelSoup]

@Broco

Speaking of Fez, I think it aged the best on these dimensions. Music from Disasterpeace (who went on to score Hyper Light Drifter)

And

[LaurelSoup]

Thanks to my Steamdeck, I got to sit down with Ys 1 for the first time in forever and in just a couple minutes found three key items I had missed, got the silver sword at long last, and maxed out my level. Time to finally kill that vampire. I probably would have finished this a year ago if I let myself use a guide (but the map is comfortably sized for stumbling around, something we need more of).

[smbhax]

I don’t think Hubbard actually did much on AVP2, looks like he just happened to be Monolith Creative Director or something at the time, I guess that was a handy label for when they needed somebody important sounding to talk to someone. Might be similar situation for FEAR but I dunno. AVP2’s designer was William Westwater. Possibly he and Hubbard had convos early on in pre-design about general game design stuff or something, or maybe Hubbard was involved in Monolith taking on the job in the first place, but anyway as QA Lead on the project I never saw Hubbard around the team as far as I can recall.

[Tegiminis]

Whoa! Good apocrypha. Do you have any other stories of Monolith from around that time?

[BustedAstromech]

@Tegiminis

the soundtrack to this game is insanely good? you don’t notice it at all unless you pay attention and then you sit down and listen and it’s like how, what the fuck, this composition is bizarre? every game like this goes hard on the heavy metal rock shit but FEAR is like fuck you. reverb steel drums and dissonant square synth. you’ll take your experimental ambience and LIKE IT. you could probably take any track from this game and find a place for it in Pathologic

looked it up and it’s all Grigg, who’s been there for decades and is still there. He’s always been good at doing what people ask of him but keeping himself interested. Very nice guy, he was so happy to start cutting into polyrhythms when we were working on the Hi-Fi Rush combat prototypes

[SEGA Genesis Music] Demolition Man - Full Original Soundtrack OST

[physical]

there’s a bunch of 75% off sales on the xbox store so i picked up a couple games i’d been wondering about for cheap

Outward is incredibly entertaining so far. things went so poorly with my first character lmao. died and got rescued across the map, then beaten by bandits and dragged into a cave by monsters, only to find the shield someone in town wanted. except at this point i’d spent so much time unconscious my house got repossessed.

started over as an old lady and this time i bought a better backpack and found a way to not lose my house, tho i have none of the equipment found via misadventure from my last go i think not having to work myself out of even deeper debt is going to make for a better attempt. what a treat

Far Cry 6 is stupid as hell but the pretty tropical islands, less rigid setpiece design, and lack of heroic NPCs yelling “cocksucker!” as they mow down goons is a step up from 5. it feels like they’re already foreshadowing bioshocky “but the guerillas are bad too!” stuff that i have absolutely no trust in these writers to pull off. at least the player character is a local and not some white CIA goon? anyway this is a far cry game, stuff explodes, you’re friends with a gator, love to do action movie violence on horseback. i wouldn’t pay any more than the $20 tho because it’s very one note, just a LOT of that note.

[Father.Torque]

@physical

anyway this is a far cry game, stuff explodes, you’re friends with a gator, love to do action movie violence on horseback.

If you like this MGS5 shit you should play Breakpoint with us!!

[iguferon]

breakpoint works because unlike wildlands, despite being a CIA goon (you dont have to be white! wowow thank you mr clancy!!!) you are dealing with a problem stupid white people made for themselves instead of slandering a real country of non white people using an issue they more or less eradicated without the US interfering

[daphaknee]

I asked but it’s not crossplay with computers

[iguferon]

one of the many depressing side effects of them murdering the game before people could turn around on it r6 siege style

[meauxdal]

@physical

Far Cry 6

i have dumped an unholy amount of time into this game. playing it rn lol. please continue to share impressions i cannot stop thinking about this one haha

[Father.Torque]

Ah, hell.

[smbhax]

Uh well I think the first time I saw Jay “Shade” Wilson was late in Blood 2 development, late at night when pretty much everyone else was gone and the offices were dark and empty and he was shuffling down the narrow hallway like a zombie, lit only by a single overhead light. It seemed appropriate.

[smbhax]

Demon Lord Reincarnation (PC)

So many one-way doors and tiny, tiny rooms! = oo

Enemy power curve continued smoothly from floor 1; floor 2 brings some new enemies to mix with your old beat-up buddies.

Those banshees gotta lotta tricks!

Floor 2 has a different color tint than floor 1 (I think they all will), a different architectural style, and a different, very chill outside-of-combat music track.

The 8th skill slot stuff has been impressive. ^ _^