enjoying nu-xcom 2 but quickly feel overwhelmed by popups about the many different things i’m supposed to be paying attention to between battles
I played the first 2 on the Xbox, and have 3 on the pc. I am a touch worried about this.
I should probably hunt down a save file or something.
Thanks!
I - like many people - thought I could overlook the flaws in Rainworld due to its gorgeous art but sometimes everyone hates something for the right reasons. I’ll give it credit for trying something fairly original but it’s just a uphill battle from the moment you start playing. You can tell when certain games are created based upon the artwork and not the mechanics, and this is a prime example of what can go wrong when adhere you adhere to that philosophy.
I played Rain World for about fifteen or twenty minutes so I haven’t really formed an opinion yet. But I read it described as a “disempowering fantasy” as a contrast to the usual kind of “power fantasy” trope most games fall into. I think the idea with Rain World is that it’s supposed to be a struggle for the entire time.
During my time with it I got through the short tutorial bit and to the first save point and then explored a bit looking for the next save point until something ate me. Then I ventured out again and managed to avoid getting eaten by the same creatures long enough to make it further, where I was eaten again by a different creature that was disguising itself as a climbable portion of the background. I also saw two of the kind of creatures that ate me the first time attacking each other which made me wonder if there’s an actual ecosystem type thing going on or just pre-programmed/slightly-randomized behaviors. Apparently I could have killed some of these other creatures since you can pick up and through objects but I didn’t think to actually try that since I was trying to play it stealthier.
Anyway I want to give it a fair shake before writing it off so I need to spend some more time poking at it because right now it’s kind of a mystery.
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The first two levels in ME3 (Intro/Tutorial levels, whatever you want to call em) are pretty damn great. They are hitting a solid action movie feel for the opener and there is some neat-o set pieces and what not. So far killing ME2’s opening. To be fair it has been a long time since I have played the second one, but I can’t for the life of me remember anything on the snowy planet place that followed the Cerberus station.
This is so wrong it hurts. It is one of the great tragedies of video game history that despite Mario 64 nailing moving in 3D so amazingly well, no other game ever followed up on it. Not even later Mario’s quite got it right, they diverged and did other things instead. If there was a game that codified the genre, it was Banjo Kazooie, with its complete absence of interesting physics. Floaty ass non-committal double jumps became the norm, tons of shit to collect became the norm, wacky characters to talk to, even shooting stuff was already in it. Because making running and jumping around in itself a joyful experience is hard to get down. Really hard. It takes months of prototyping and tweaking the core engine. And developers can’t be arsed. Instead they choose to throw content at the problem to inject the game with “fun” things to do, because the platforming itself just isn’t interesting enough to sustain a game.
There is no Mario 64 2. There is no Kickstarter to remake Mario 64. Yooka Laylee will be as vapid a platformer as all the other 3D platformers inspired by RARE. If there’s a game that deserves to be retroactively removed from the timeline, it sure as hell isn’t the entry in the genre that got the basics down. It’s the entry that set a bad example by watering the basics down and replacing them with bullshit.
(Here is me hoping that Mario Odyssey will be my Mario 64 2.)
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Man, how good is the hub world in Super Mario 64? The best part of the whole game. Looking for the secret switches etc. There should be an entire game surrounding that. Yea, Odyssey is my most anticipated Nintendo game for sure. Has the combinations of world-building seen in Sunshine with the platforming physics and mechanics from 64. Perhaps they can pull off a perfect fusion.
It makes me wonder if HAL Lab is still working on a full 3D Kirby game they mentioned a few years ago when the Switch was still the NX. An open 3D hub world where the level-doors are scattered through out the land?
That would be pretty fucking sick.
1 Like
#######RealSnakeProtips
What i realized and what blew me away last time i played around in Super Mario 64 (in the Star Road ROMhack actually) is how fine Mario’s movement is relative to the control stick. Booting up and trying out some of the original levels ground-pounded it home for me: the game is designed around using the full range of motion afforded by the stick. Like, you’re actually expected to walk or tiptoe through certain parts – how often do games ask for that level of control anymore?
It’s easy to forget now how delicately tuned that control stick was, especially since it’s the part of old N64 3-prongs that’s the most prone to breaking. I think the uniquely tight-yet-slippery physics of that game owe a lot to the hardware.
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It’s extremely Myst. As a Myst-head, the castle fascinated me and is one of the reasons I still hold SM64 in such high regard.
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Rain World is a bad videogame.
Yeah I agree with this after playing it some more last night. But as an interactive hobbyist art project thing it’s pretty neat. It’s a shame it blew up and got real hype while in development though. The response to it is kind of reminding me of how No Man’s Sky was received.
grow home and snake pass are, honestly, the first real entries in this genre in years
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D:
The Official Hinge Problems Review of Resident Evil 7 Biohazard is we stopped playing 90 minutes in to read the plot summary and watch the ending on Youtube.
We had just come off playing PT which is still fucking incredible.
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Going through the first quarter of Shadow of the Colossus. Is it just me, or are the finer parts of this game completely overlooked? The sole inspiration seems to be mainly on the platform-giants (with merit) regarding many a videogames after this.
For instance, the sword and the light-beam as a form of navigation. The emergent (I stress this word in direct relation to the gameplay) condition of Wander as he continues to slay the gods of paradise. All with minimal dialogue.
And let’s not forget the asexual architect who describes each god you slay on your journey to revive your mistress. It redefines the save-the-princess trope by doing the reversal:
You were unable to save her, now you must face the forbidden trials to revive her from your failure to save her thereby sacrificing yourself.
Powerful shit, I must say.
I think designers only took note of the base “innovations” of that game but forgot everything else.
A shame, really.
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Haven’t had much time to play anything lately except for a few minutes here and there with Pinball Arcade. I love the random table feature they put in a while back.
Favorite table is still Theater of Magic but I was doing pretty well on Centaur yesterday, which usually kicks my ass.
I wish the second-to-last world of snake pass had three levels and the last world had four rather than the inverse. the last world is so gorgeous and the one before grates a little bit
I’m at the last stage now, this was a Good Game, I might try some time trials later