The dev posted an update mentioning that they were planning to substantially redo that frozen island, including reworking the seagull transportation system. I’m on that island now and I do feel like it’s the absolute nadir of the game so far, so I’m glad they’re working on it. But the fact that it’ll likely be improved totally kills my motivation to continue playing until that happens. Great game overall though.
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I saw that, FWIW once I got used to it I’m fine with the seagull system but I’m sorta “stuck” as certain of the stars/keys there are clearly impossible to get currently… yet I’m neither quite certain how to change that nor quite certain that all of them can’t be done atm.
Mainly though ice puzzles generally aren’t my favorite to begin with.
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BTW I figured out what to do in the next area somewhat by accident (I mean what I did was intentional, but it revealed/did more than I anticipated) but I also “solved” a fairly involved one solution room by ignoring two-thirds of what was in it so I may just be breaking things in a fortunate manner >_>
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A girl purchased me a copy of Helldivers II to play with her and other girls.
And yeah, this is very much co-op MGSV with a thourough layer of Game Numbers on it, though the feel is shockingly good for One of Those sorts of games.
I did the tutorial, died at the first challenge. And did one ‘actual’ mission on what’s clearly the extreme newbie difficulty, I watched my companion, dressed in tacky american flag colored armor compared to my honestly pretty aesthetically neat black and yellow starting duds, flamethrower the fuck out of a bunch of Tyranids Termanids, then more starting coming in some kind of post mission bonus phase or something.
I toss a grenade, hoping to help, he gets caught in the blast and dies. I clean up the Zerg Termanids that are left, and awkwardly wait for the space helicopter from Aliens and Halo to pick me up.
I can feel how this could be very good if the situation had more tension and I was coordinating with actual friends, and I am impressed by how much the writing matches the game design in a way few multiplayer shooters I’ve encountered have outside of Team Fortress 2.
I wonder why more games don’t go for ultraviolent black comedy as a tone? It feels like a much better fit for games that just…pure stoic ‘be the greatest in cyberwar’.
Anyway, I hope to play more because it seems like it might actually be good.
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It is very good! I also like something nobody has talked about here, which is that the devs release new game-wide objectives for the entire playerbase to complete every four or five days and then, depending on whether we all succeed or fail, write the next chunk of story, which is becoming more and more complex as time goes on. Almost a take on live videogame game mastering. But: it is all 100% optional, you can pay zero attention to it and just do missions and shoot guys if you want. It’s such a good idea for an online game (I almost called it a “service game” and I guess it sort of is, they do have battlepass things, but it’s a much lighter touch than any other service game I could name).
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I’m still plugging away at Eiyuden little by little. Someone released a cheat engine speed hack and I’ve been playing at 2-3x speed which helps a lot. I’m also turning off random battles for when I was just exploring looking for recruits but I’ve now recruited someone who can basically do that in game so that hack is no longer needed.
It’s still more Suikoden, which is good. I like the character designs and building out teams of goofballs like a guy that throws cannonballs and a cat in one of those dragon heads like you’d see at a parade, and another dude who’s just a bosozoku punk with a straight kick for an attack.
The castle building mechanic is still hitting the right notes but now in addition to recruiting characters you need to build facilities for the characters using resources you gather in dungeons (ugh), as well as a time-gating mechanic (your castle generates money passively that can only be used for upgrading the castle). In the old games the characters just moved in and started their shops right away. I don’t think either of these (especially resource gathering) is an improvement.
The characters all feel pretty unique and fun and even the people who join just from talking to them and only have 1-2 lines of dialogue are unique enough that I can remember who they are and their backstory just by looking at them.
I do want to complain about the translation. It’s very meme-heavy and silly, which kind of recalls the wierdo translations of the PSX era, but there’s something off. I think it’s because the PSX translations only had text (so you couldn’t go back to the Japanese VO for tone) and also I believe there was more of an emphasis on censorship back then so everything had this funny PG quality to it. In this one though i’m having trouble vibing with characters (ok it’s basically one character that always tags along that is extremely irritating) calling each other “fart head” in one line and then a “shit eating bastard” in another line, and then referencing a real life memes in the line after that. It’s just a weird mix.
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Playing CHIBI ROBO! on GC (emulated 1080p). It feels like its in the Katamari universe (and I think shares at least one sound effect).
Its a very cute little lock and key easy game about expanding your mobility outward from the opening living-room. I find it incredibly engrossing despite being so simple. I put 3-4 hours into it the first time I just test booted it. The small world and available elements has me wondering “oh will THAT work??” and then most of the time it does and I progress. Perfect simple. A great small game after Elden Ring and Tears of the Kingdom dominated so much of my time. The fact that you cant go far without plugging in has you planning your moves in a fun way. This game has serious range anxiety but it enhances the simplistic nature of the environments and adds 1 little meta layer. Its the salt that makes the meat tasty.
The sound design especially the walking jingles for different surfaces is really fun. The voices are like chopped and screwed Japanese.
This is like the perfect home sick game, its easy its light and its fun.
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enjoying shadow dancer 1989 the more time i put into it, it has some quirks (awkward hitboxes, enemies approaching from weird angles or attacking from hard-to-reach spots, etc.) and all but i think it’s excellent, really. great sound great graphics great vibes love the dog mechanics (rn i probably like it more than shinobi 1987, which is also an excellent game)
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They weren’t kidding about needing to read the manual to play Bahamut Senki for Megadrive. Moving on!
I keep plugging at The Lion King Genesis. Last week could consistently get to the Elephant Graveyard, this week can’t time the double jumps in stage 2. This game is cruel to all. I do enjoy poking at it when I only have 10 minutes. Do you know the level skip code for the Genesis version was only found via romhacking and was never published in the 90s. Believe me I kept my eyes out on all the mags.
It also doesn’t help because if you beat a stage you just get kicked to stage 2.
Looking at GameFAQs everyone gets stuck at a different dastardly part.
Using the level skip I did beat the Stampede in a single life, don’t think that is gonna happen again.
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well tir na nog has bested me for now, sort of. the puzzles are all inscrutable and important items are just sort of lying around the place which i like but even with a guide this world is pretty unhangoutable* on acount of how restrictive the perspective and navigation are, and on account of being big. finding i cant just flip it on… requires planning… takes more effort to exist here than im used to and lives up to the manual’s characterization of tir na nog as “a jealous land”. which is its own feel to be sure but im starting to get worn out!!
i like how deserted the place feels, apart from some isolated interiors. kiiinda like the original legend of zelda and decidedly unlike what ive played of the sequel, dun darach. the map contains recurring geographical features which toe the line between worldbuilding and “level design includes loops so you can walk around the sidhe if you haven’t found the sword yet/copypasted, mechanical”, as well as copious dead ends to enhance the Trapse
theres lots of good strange details like the olcweed and largely superfluous cave wights and evil pillars(?) that pop out of the ground to steal your items, but drop them on the floor right in front of you so you can just pick them up and carry on as usual
i’ve been playing more old games this year and im struck by how much you can miss in them bc they dont tell you anything. the other time i felt this was playing la abadia del crimen and not figuring out that there was a secret passage for an entire playthrough. very terse effect. another thing tir na nog shares with la abadia is movement that forces me to rewrite my brain’s spatial awareness (which was half the reason i didn’t find that secret passage)
this game might stick with me… too soon to say… i might need to reframe my mind or spend some time away to learn how to Chill Out to it
*umm wrong word but its not conducive to puzzling is what im trying to say
16 Likes
Ooh, I had a year like this back in…2017? Have you played the Atari classic, Mercenary?
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downloaded Smash Remix and played a bunch of single player SSB64 for the first time since i was like. 13 lol??
Marina is immediately my main she’s really fun and weirdly technical. Instead of a projectile her 
special is a lunging grab which i think does more damage/smashes farther if it connects in midair (she socks em in the face instead of throwing them, as she does when you midair throw in Mischief Makers). Her 
uses the Clanpot to absorb projectiles and you can shake-shake them together to make stronger ones that can be picked up and thrown by anyone. You can also grab and shake-shake a gem out of an opponent and chuck it at em. Pretty fun! I have to be careful not to approach anyone on level ground though since their projectile harassment stops Marina’s lunge short. good Smash instinct to have reinforced tbh, ive gotten used to more trad fighters where you dont want to jump around a lot
I also messed around with Goemon and Ebisumaru (who’s treated kinda like a palette swap but has a variant moveset) and boy are they OP lol, their 
recovery is nuts and they’re like very fast middleweight fighters. I have no idea how or what Smash communities are incorporating Remix into tier lists but (speaking as a fighting games hayseed tbf) these guys seem borderline banned tier haha
of course according to this video mArInA iS bRoKeN ! too so again idk shit lol. heeeelllllpp meeeeeee mariiiiiinaaaaaa
Played some Melee too while i was in the zone, reminiscing on when i had it in high school and unlocked every single trophy. It might still be the game ive put the most days of my life into by volume, like collective playthroughs of Morrowind and Dark Souls come close but the hours and hours of multiplayer have to put SSBM up top
Why did they give up on fighting related names after Brawl? that’s so weak
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i haven’t! it looks neat
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It’s much friendlier and approachable than other ambitious games from that time. There’s one secret that blew my mind when I played it. So graceful and inspiring.
There’s a really helpful site that also hosts a port of the game to windows.
http://mercenarysite.free.fr/mercframes_graphic.htm
1 Like
Has anyone been playing Cemantle and Pedantle? They’re daily puzzles about identifying, respectively, a word and a Wikipedia page based on the semantic similarity of your guess to the word itself or to the text of the article.
I hate them. They feel awful and make me hate myself and I want to play them until I’m the best. Fuck these games. You should try them
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cemantle is awful, but i do enjoy me some pedantle-likes on occasion
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Got to the credits roll in Isles of Sea and Sky in just over 18 and a half hours and with 83 out of redacted stars found. You can thankfully continue from a finished save (puts you right outside the final room) and go try to clean up any loose ends. There were two main things holding up my progress elsewhere (still no clue how to even begin to approach the upgrade challenge on the ice isle, and I was short a couple dark shards from being able to unlock the ability for the seemingly optional serpent isle( but I got lucky in my post-game poking around and resolved that latter one, so I guess I’ll poke around there and see where things take me.
The back half of the game is definitely weaker than the front half, but overall it’s still easily recommended for those interested in it.
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Cemantle is awful because the possibility space is just “words” and feedback is near useless until you’re right on top of the answer; but those same features also give it kinda the reward loop of [defining schroedercore classic] Minesweeper, where you flail helplessly for most of your time playing until, purely by accident, you hit the sweet spot of the puzzle and every remaining move is perfect.
The key difference is that struggling at Cemantle feels like being illiterate, which possibly makes it more schroedercore yet.
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cemantle made me so mad and when I got the word (after only 29 guesses) I was still mad because some of my earlier guesses feel semantically closer to the answer than what my closest guess was
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