this actually kinda makes sense, the genre takes a lot from the original no
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Seems easy to rule out based on its uninspired 2.5D aesthetic
Why would you make a double-jump this gaudy
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Idk I think a double jump deserves a bit of pizzazz
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I’ve really never liked glowy magic effects and whatnot on things in 3d games. It always seems so cheap
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found the magical beat demo on @Ymer 's ps3 and the characters are so adorable, i gave it a try.
so color matching puzzle game like puyo and puzzle fighter but you have to manually drop blocks on the beat or they spread everywhere randomly. it kind of sucks. there’s an adorable rabbit you can play as tho. i finished one stage, got my ass beat by the rhythm, passed off the controller and ymer lost his way to the end of the demo and beat the very final opponent
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Beat Stranger of Paradise, and it was thoroughly “okay”. Itemization is ridiculous (Nioh 2’s actually made sense…), levels are super linear dungeon grinds, plot is nonsense, but it evens out into a fun game about mixing and matching action combat builds based around iconic final fantasy jobs. You bet I pogged when Delkfutt Tower was a level. A solid “get this game on sale”.
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I finished DROD: Gunthro and the Epic Blunder. I hadn’t heard of this series before seeing @username post about it, so thanks! I loved it! Scratches the same itch as other once-in-a-generation indie puzzle games like Stephen’s Sausage Roll and Baba is You. And DROD is not even Sokoban-based! I didn’t have to push a single block.
(I try all of those Draknek games that come out, but I never quite gel with them. I love Alan though. One time he came to my house and I made him watch me play through all of the La La Land games and now I think he hates me.)
Anyway, Gunthro and the Epic Blunder is the fourth entry in the DROD series and it’s a prequel that’s supposed to be a good entry point for newcomers. The puzzles were the perfect difficulty: not too challenging, just a variety of isolated mechanical exploits you have to learn to identify, proudly engineered ‘aha’ moments. I’m not sure I even want to play a more difficult DROD game (I didn’t bother completing any of the secret rooms in this lol). And if you ever get stuck you can click a button in-game which takes you to a custom feature of their web forum where you can search for posts tagged with the specific room of the game you are in, and the community always provides useful hints which nudge you just the right amount.
Seems like just the right intersection of game/community/web technology to allow a kind of utopian gamemaking practice to take root and develop for a few decades. I’m overenamoured with nostalgia for circa 2012 indie games but whatever. I’m glad the game has a bunch of fantasy worldbuilding, amateur voice acting, a slightly-grotesque illustration style, and a Sands of Time-style narrative framing device. The story is bureaucratic but not satirical. That stuff is probably not for everyone, but it gets away with a lot by being a puzzle game.
I can definitely see myself playing DROD RPG at some point.
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I joined freedom in escape from pripyat because I had a simple quest to retrieve a package from them for the barman but the freedom commander told me the worst story I’d ever heard so I was so moved to slap down 15,000 rubles on the table and help them take revenge on the bastards who wronged their buddies. I was given a new freedomer uniform which was worse than what I was wearing but it was good because it meant I could use my stalker suit as a disguise to infiltrate the bar. With all this in mind Lukash gave me a mission to “deal with the problematic stalker” presumably to test my resolve, to see if i had what it took to be in the freedom faction.
I made it past the duty checkpoint coming out of the army warehouses, carefully did my business in the bar, and then watched the guy I was supposed to kill patrolling in the foyer outside of the bar. when he was on the other side i planted a remote IED behind the pillar next to where he stood still for a while, then continued my way out of the bar to the edge of the remote detonator’s radius. I changed out of my disguise, hit the switch and in true 
fashion the detonator didn’t work the first time and went off too late but I fragged the motherfucker and sprinted back to the warehouses. I am in the game now, it’s for real, I’m doing terrorism on the duty bastards of rostok in the hopes I will get love from the homies
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More Immortals of Ave-whatever. More exposition from Gina Torres. Every magic spell gun thing feels the same. Movement feels weightless and unresponsive. It took them five years to make this thing.
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yeah okay this seems pretty decent, with a lot of sensible tweaks to keep my now elderly gfx card from grinding to a halt
i was only downed twice on my first mission, wooo
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Does the fps with magic just feel like an fps with weird guns?
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it was headed by an ex call of duty lead so thats probably why
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yeah, all the guns feel like nothing and everyone talks about how special you are. It’s just like Anthem.
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I convinced my husband to play Ace Combat 7 today, after having played it myself (and Project Wingman) during the pandemic. I was lying on the couch thinking how relaxing it would be if they played the “Mission Complete” screen music while you were in a tanning bed.
I then played some of the fan translation of Shiren the Wanderer 4, and gameplay-wise it’s as good as any of that series, but you can see why it was never released in the West. I’m looking forward to the new entry next month, the claymation visuals are cute.
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watch out that’s a gateway game to tactical nexus
(both clearly heavily inspired by tower of the sorcerer)
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Tactical Nexus is my code-phrase to activate the gamer goblin neurons
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finally got around to Lilith Zone’s Room Map, it’s fantastic…disembodied intimacy, a beautiful kind of “play” going on here, feeling like Video Game as whatever idea in my head got a little richer which comes with a bit of wistfulness that that’s such a rarity but ultimately inspiration and like gratitude that this exists so thank you (hope you don’t mind me @ing you) @townmap and @spinnylights (whose explanation of some of the code logic going on (in the comments here) is really neat) will share this with some friends, here’s some of me playing (something to play for one’s self without reference tho imo!)
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looking at a beamNG map someone built, with impeccable details like abandoned buildings on the side of the road, a rundown small town, and a seedy motel
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What’s this one called?
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