With a mod that lets my burst pistol reload automatically while holstered, and the fact that my melee weapon is a pretty badass shotgun with some swords attached to it that never runs out of ammo can be drawn and fired almost instantly, playing Banshee in Warframe has become an experience not unlike something that blends Mirror’s Edge, DOOM, and Dynasty Warriors.
It’s been real fun. Also neat reaching the point where I do enough damage I can just turn off things like “Show enemy health bars” and “Show damage numbers.”
I take a bit of pleasure dropping into groups with weapons and warframes that are widely considered to be vastly superior to mine and both managing to out kill and out damage them while taking less damage and not getting downed while I play the 'frame the loud part of the community widely considers completely garbage.
I’m also looking forward to the next round of changes adding an effect to Impact procs that lets them open up enemies to Parazon finishers in a manner reminiscent of DOOM (2016).
right. my other reference point is Teleglitch where to me it always looked like there are these tall black pillars overhanging the playfield but i think it’s just meant to be simulating the limits of your character’s FoV
Playing Black Mesa. It’s my first time playing hl1 in earnest, since I could never get further than Blast Pit in gold source hl1 because I’d get UNBELIEVABLY DEBILITATING MOTION SICKNESS after a ten minute session. I might be one of the few people who has played hl2 to death since release before finally playing hl1 in fukken 2020.
Black Mesa seems like an impressive upgrade in many ways, but from the top I’m annoyed by constant presence of dumb trashhumor that got worked into world details (a can WD-40 having it’s label re-worked to say AN-US, chips called “Nekkid Fries” on desks and in every vending machine, and on and on and on in every corner). Like, you got Valve’s blessing to sell it, have like 20% more shame and hide it in an easter egg!
On the plus side, the re-recorded dialogue is surprisingly good for a thing that is basically a fan project, and I appreciate the effort that went into turning all of the npc’s into unique characters. Was there a woman scientist in the original? One shows up in BM.
I’m close to the end of Surface Tension and I’m still having fun. There seems to be a lot of weapons in the game and not many of them are super effective against hit scan soldiers and tanks, but I’ve really enjoyed fighting grunt/vortigaunt/marine combinations when they show up. Any time there’s more than 5 marines in an area the game really forces you to stretch your awareness of the map and your inventory, which is nice.
I’m also starting to appreciate why Combine Soldiers had most of their identifiable human features distorted or hidden. You chew through so many Marines in this thing before you even get to Surface Tension, which basically starts with the Lobby scene from the Matrix once you reach the surface (not sure how different if at all that this was in the remake…but the soundtrack certainly pushed it over the edge). I know Gordon is trying to escape but at a certain point I just feel like Deathwish III Bronson ya know?
One other thing I appreciated: when you get access to all your Special Powers you don’t cycle through them like weapons, you just hold down the left trigger and point at a thing and one of your powers pops off in a more context sensitive manner. It’s a small thing but for me I felt like it added some versimilitude.
It’s funny how many other games this game brings to my mind. Bits of Bioshock, Dead Space, Metroid Prime – heck the GLOO gun seems like it’s lifted from Shadow Complex. It’s all mixed together very well and puts its own stamp on it. Overall I think I recommend it to anyone who likes the sneak/loot/fight loop of the Dishonored games. Although that reminds me I’ve still gotta play Death of the Outsider.
Erm, nothing’s changed with the Zakti. It still opens up normal finishers (just gotta press X, like Parazon finishers), and probably won’t open up Parazon finishers effectively as it’s pretty bad at applying Impact procs.
My kids made some mini-zines about Element Ranger who has to go through variously-themed line mazes & proto-platformer levels. They dug them up again as we go into stay-at-home mode, I remembered Seiklus, we played it, they love it.
Surprised myself with how much I remember from when I last played it in a library computer lab.
I’ve played the hell out of HL2 (mostly on the Xbox/360), but I still haven’t gotten more than maybe half an hour into the first game, if that. Which I only have done in the past… I don’t know. Time is weird. Might be two years; might be ten. Recent, anyway.
Decided to try out Tales of Phantasia (the PS1 version) for about an hour tonight after a friend’s recommendation. It’s absolutely dripping with production value. Everybody probably already knows that the sprites and tile sets are gorgeous and full of detail, but it’s even better in motion. There are some awesome animation flourishes all over the place, whether it be the way you run through puddles of water, or how satisfying it feels to step onto a save point mid-dungeon. Or this juggling clown NPC which, by the way, has its own background music that fades in and out as you walk towards it.
I dunno, I feel like even if you don’t give a shit about the story in this game because it’s too anime or whatever, the opening hour’s presentation is so slick that it will make you want to progress to the next area to see what other one-off things they packed in there. No wonder the Super Famicom original was on the biggest cart.
Combat can be a little weird because if an attack causes your character to move forward or whatever, finishing the move causes the character to walk back to its initial position (but it’s inconsistent? maybe it’s just single hits and not combos? I dunno haven’t figured it out yet) I heard somewhere there’s an item a couple hours in that lets you shut that off, and there’s another item you can buy that lets you use Street Fighter motions in combat to pull off moves instead?
i’ve been playing super mario 64 while sick and it’s somehow able to grab my attention away from being sick yet doesn’t overwhelm me, maybe cuz i’m basking in the nostalgia or something, or maybe because i find a lot of stars you get to be rather simple. it’s mostly just “explore this huge area and see what you find”. i’ve got 75 stars and plan to get all 120, and by plan to i mean i will prolly get like 90 or something and then stop. also, i’m playing a hack where mario is replaced with isabelle, which is v important.
Beat Yakuza 3, in the same way that I “beat” 0, Kiwami, and Kiwami 2 - crossing the finish line after nearly 50 hours, only to find out I got shy of 50% completion.
It was…OK? The stuff with the kids and the small time gang in Okinawa was honestly more engaging than just about everything in Kamurocho. The final villains were pretty bland, and a considerable step down from Nishikiyama, Goda, and (look I know it came way later but!) the whole crew of Zero foes.
The ending would have been a hell of a cliffhanger for Yakuza 4 if the post credits cutscene didn’t show that everything went back to normal.
Gonna do the murder mystery side quest in Premium Adventure mode and then probably call it. Not super interested in getting better at all the minigames, dating all the hostesses, fighting in the arena, etc. etc.
Then, uh, onto 4!
Oh shit also - uhhhh where should I hook up my PS3 and play Dead Souls in all of this?
did more final fight streetwise on stream. the game was fine, until i got to those end bosses, who are all complete bullshit. and despite my best efforts, i could not defeat the final boss: demon drug addict cody.
