i can nearly 100% guarentee that the developers have never heard of the stanley parable or if they did would not under any circumstances put anything like it into a call of duty because if you show them any fps where the player is not holding a gun they will stare, slack jawed, and exclaim “but what does the player do!?!?” while coming up with an entire design based off the trailer for a war movie they didn’t see.
2 Likes
Well…although that may be, an extended bit near the end of that game is
u moving through an environment as a monologuing voice insists that u go a certain direction & take various actions as u come to various branching paths and then the environment rejiggers itself and changes depending on whether u follow the directions or choose to go elsewhere as the narrator gets more or less exasperated.
Parallel thinking it could be but…I mean…I feel like it’s essentially an explicit homage
4 Likes
this looks actually interesting which is not something I would expect from a call of duty game
4 Likes
there’s a reason why people defend cold war’s campaign it is like the most slightly interesting thing anyones done with a cod campaign since black ops 2. compared to mw2019 its a marvel of storytelling. treyarch really gets a lot of mileage out of fucking with mkultra shit as a mechanic in their games while infinity ward is like “What new and exciting war crimes can we come up with today” and then they spin a wheel to figure out which of americas enemies to pin them on
5 Likes
borderlands 3 feels like a tribute to the dirty side of capcom in ethos. there are moments where it seems to say fuck you to destiny and cyberpunk via cribbing their entire art design vibe for some of the worlds, but its so indirect you’re not sure if its on purpose or not. there are moments where it seems to say fuck you to you and gives you every trendy visual idea from video games from 2014 to 2023, and it does this impossibly because it came out in 2019. everything is a reference to sex, you’re staring into the soul of a reddit sex nerd and it somehow isn’t disgusting because it is their soul. duke nukem… forever
borderlands 4 dream cast:
larry david
jb smoove
wanda sykes again
james austin johnson
dlc characters:
brandon wardell
kevin gates
15 Likes
playing re4 2k5 pro mode as i am wont to do… i really adore this game
i really love how well this game ties together setpieces and encounter design. something which i think it does a lot better than the generation(s) of shooty console games with big setpieces which generally feel a little disconnected from the regular flow of the game ig. yeah the ac130 mission on modern warfare is cool but it’s not something like… particularly deep to actually play
my fav encounters thus far… obvs the 1st village encounter and the rope bridge battle in 1-2… the cabin is amazing… i also lovvve the chainsaw sisters battle
also cruising around on a motorboat in the rain after u kill the lake boss is soooo memorable and vibey… and then you can pull into a blue torch lit cave for a rendezvous with the merchant…
3-1 is just a ridiculous slab of difficult and extremely fun encounters. currently stuck on the double crossbow battle which is basically the most arduous checkpoint so far and maybe in the game if my memory is any indication. also love how suplexing changes the dynamics of combat… you can do super high single target damage (esp considering it sets you up perfectly for knife attacks on the ground) or roundhouses, whereas the utility of the high kick and roundhouse is kind of similar generally speaking.
i am in like such a groove with the combat system. like i really think pro mode demands you understand hit reactions to aimed shots and that you make split split second decisions about who and which body part to shoot basically constantly in a way that is just like deeeeeply stimulating to me. or the dynamic of spending ammo to execute a downed enemy so as not to cede the spot youre standing in if its especially advantageous… this remains one of my fav like console action games (surprising no one ever)
(doing some sicko shit like a trip shot and then shooting for the head and getting a crit remains one of my favorite slices of videogame ultraviolence)
also getting a decent amount of mileage out of using ashley to draw aggro (also extremely useful—any enemy carrying ashley will immediately get tripped if you hit them)
red 9 for lifeee
but yeah… ive never actually beaten this game on pro mode or even gotten this far in it. its a cool game on normal mode and just like a full on god hand-dark soulsian gauntlet on pro mode
(i do not own re4 2023 bc i am broke as shit all the time i have gotten to play it on a couple ps5s connected to oled screens at the homes of various lovers and friends and i like it so much im coping by playing the original instead)
the double crossbow guy battle probably seems especially difficult bc most of the levels give you a series of points you can fall back to… like in the encounter after the chainsaw sisters battle you can just sit on a spot and thin the herd by just shooting people off ladders repeatedly. it’s the first battle thats left me feeling this totally exposed and surrounded i think. if only i had a universal parry mechanic lol… so far i like the castle as much as the village tho
did they keep ashley cheeeing for you when you shoot guys off the lift in the remake
9 Likes
She still does it and it owns but i remember barely ever seeing it because Ashley was usually just out of frame enough for me to not see it, and I really only saw her fistpumping in 2k5 in that part specifically, running through it again just last year
I really need to buckle down and run through pro, seeing how folks are mixing up melee move setups when I just get by boringly with kicks on standard/normal
4 Likes
the infamous water room wasnt actually hard once i bought the semi auto rifle and just deleted everyones heads
i did die an astounding 119 times tho… and the thing with the cranks is no twilight sniping
4 Likes
Meet Your Maker (PS5) - fascinating, compelling, good potential, but a bit too grindy. the ‘maker’ in the title is meant to evoke mario maker - this is a user-generated content first-person shooter where you build deadly trap-laden outposts and other players raid them to steal resources. it’s by the same devs as dead by daylight, which i’ve never played.
raiding is a tense affair, with yourself, enemies, and traps all being one-hit-kill. ammo has to be manually retrieved, and you have a grappling hook which is fun to use. there’s a distinct kaizo feel to the various ways the game allows outpost maintainers to troll raiders, and it can be pretty funny/frustrating depending on which side of things you’re on. importantly, you can restart or hop into a new raid easily and without consequence, raids can be as short as a minute or two, and the load times on PS5 are blink-and-you’ll-miss-'em.
it’s a fun idea, but currently there isn’t a ton of variety in the stuff you can build. just a handful of traps, block types, and enemies. there are modifiers you can purchase to upgrade your stuff, but the economy is rather miserly. building interface is quick and easy on controller, though it can be a bit fiddly at times. i was pleased with how quickly i was able to rattle off a base, coming back between raids to make adjustments.
the best feature of the game is you can watch complete replays of every player who raids your base. this can be exceptionally hilarious and the game might be worth it just for this specific bit alone
17 Likes
Avoided the controversy of AAA remaking Castle Doctrine by naming it something different huh?
4 Likes
thankfully your outposts are devoid of wives or children in this game
11 Likes
There was a time ubisoft had a fairly experimental FTP game where you made diablo like levels and castles where you raided other players setups. You would take the gold and meager premium resources to expand your own castle. I didn’t play it long and I don’t think it lasted much longer but it was pretty good at just getting you to cycle through levels and edit with decent menus.
Mighty Quest for epic loot was the name. It was very much trying to go for a clash of clans mobile demographic but probably had to much gameplay for that market.
4 Likes
smth i was thinking about this morning is how i think of the camera in resident evil 4 as being a 3rd character like the cloud guy in mario 64. the other 2 being leon and ashley… one of the reasons this game isnt like a really annoying 20 hour escort mission is that her behavior is mostly predictable and mainpulatable even stuff like her ducking for cover when u aim at her.
so its like… all the levels in re4 are designed around the way leon moves and also the way the camera moves (and like a lot of those big hallways feel built for 2 like the space gets noticeably tighter when ashley leaves the party)
this is one of the really big similarities between re4 and souls games for me… theres a frisson that comes from the camera and the characters and the levels all rubbing together like that (which is not something i get out of games more ostensibly about controlling a camera like most 1st / 3rd person shooters bc i think they make the camera too synonymous w/ ur character) like of course an re4 spun from the fixed camera nightmares of devil may cry and resident evil demos would still be a camera game… just in its own late gen gamecubey way, like that feels like a point in like the game industry where developers were thinking really hard about how a camera could / should work in a 3d game instead of just assuming there was a normal way to do it
ummm i guess im just trying to explicate the link between resident evil 4 and demons souls i think they made a lot of very similar very intentional decisions like that. like i feel like souls is one of the only really popular games i semiregularly hear ppl be like “the camera sucks” about (which is a good thing for me sometimes)
also i think pro mode is like one the best unlockable difficulty modes ive played it really makes u engage with it in different ways and more intense ways like its very well tuned
alt post: i love when a camera makes my fujobait character die gruesomely bc i couldnt see shit
9 Likes
there was also wheel of time which had players/teams setting traps and guards in their castles at the start of a match, and then when it starts you raid each other’s castles
2 Likes
Back on that grind
The photo system is interesting and stupid in that the camera has limited memory and it’s easy to just forget to change which photo gets overwritten so I took and submitted a bunch of bad photos to otacon which was funny.
you can slip on the bird poop and you take a little bit of damage, I bet there’s a way to die from this that takes forever to do but is very funny to watch. I got stuck trying to find my way off the roof of Strut A and I ended up accidentally doing the ledge crawl into the sea, which was also kind of funny.
I’ll say it the dudes in this game are hot.
15 Likes
yesss MGS2 is a good way to spend a day off
3 Likes
Lucky and Wild lived up to the years of hype.
The Retro Arcade in Akiba Gigo 3 is really good.
I got to play Police 911 2, which I was sure I’d never play again. That’s like my favorite arcade game of all time next to Para Para Paradise. Both of my favorites have motion controls? I don’t think any of the kinect and company games use motion controls that simply. I guess there is Superhot VR which is pretty much the same as Police 911 2.
9 Likes
Silent Hill: Book of Memories (PS Vita) - we got another freakazoid here. wayforward made an irreverent diablo-esque hack’n’slash with silent hill fan-service makeup on. it is… not very good? in any regard. just a limp, dissociated, squirming extruded game product. the touch controls are bad ideas, implemented poorly. even still, the tonal whiplash of this being a silent hill game is enough to make me want to play a bit more…
5 Likes
more meet your maker thoughts:
game is kind of buggy in some admittedly minor ways. trying to buy an upgrade you can’t afford causes the game to pause awkwardly for 5 seconds or so. sometimes the “build” button in the command center takes multiple press-and-hold cycles to register. if you use rest mode while in a raid, you’ll be forced to disconnect after resuming as the PS5 cannot reconnect to the network before you are booted out of the raid. if you pause while doing an action, the action will repeat infinitely (pretty funny to see a grappling hook launching off into the horizon indefinitely). if you pause at the same moment you end a raid, the pause screen gets overlaid on the results screen which is pretty amusing
these next bits aren’t bugs, more curious design decisions. annoying: if you have any decals on a block, you can’t slot another block adjacent to it unless you first remove the decal. ALSO as someone who likes painting things to look pretty, traps can’t be painted and any painted block can’t ever have a trap, even with the Second Wind mod where it only activates after the raider nabs your outpost’s macguffin. so if you see a painted/decal’d wall, you know there will never be a trap there, even after you pick up the GenMat at the core.
i really feel like the progression and economy is the main issue with the game. pretty dire, grinding is absolutely required. furthermore, they haven’t made it particularly viable to be a dedicated raider or builder - due to the stingy progression, you’d be foolish to neglect either side of the equation. i think this is a real problem, as i’m imagining many of the very best builders will likely be specialists and might not be particularly interested in raiding. similarly, there are probably a fair few people who love raiding but can’t be arsed to make bases. making either/or viable economically would surely increase the quality (and variety!) of player builds
5 Likes