Laco

Oh, definitely. I'd never expect that in other roguelikes because they're clear up front that success is only about player skill and knowledge, and you keep nothing from one game to the next. I played hundreds of hours of Nethack in the early '00s without ever even completing a class quest, and was totally fine with that. I think I just got the wrong initial impression from RL, that it was more of a compromise and had a focus on slowly building up your character. Which, apart from mob scaling, seems to be true! It's just that skill is still way more important than I expected. It's good to hear that. It might not be in the spirit of this thread, but I think I will stick with it for a while longer. I discovered that a workmate has just started playing too (and has already beaten the first two bosses ), so that's a pretty good incentive to keep going.

I only just started playing Rogue Legacy, but I'm leaning towards quitting already. While they're not all that similar in many ways, it's instructive to compare against Spelunky, which I've played about 20x as much and am still nowhere near tired of. In both games, levels are randomly generated, death is permanent, and a certain amount of player skill is required. But while Spelunky seems to expect and even welcome death, Rogue Legacy seems to punish it. Why when I die do I get booted all the way back to the main menu, then need to choose a new character, leave the castle, walk across a screen, confirm that yes, I really do want to try again, and walk across another screen before starting again? Seriously, that's a minimum of 30 seconds wasted every time, compared with Spelunky's single button press. I know there are sometimes decisions to be made on those screens, but the fact that everything starts to require a minimum amount of gold to unlock (around 700 for me now) and you don't keep much between lives means that rather than contributing even slightly towards some goal, runs that earn less than a certain amount are just completely wasted. I'm also pretty disappointed in the character trait system. When I first heard about the game I assumed there was some genetic algorithm, so the character you chose in one generation influenced the traits of the next. Nope! Everything's just totally random, and most of the traits have minor effect at best (apart from the ones that are seemingly super important, like being tiny so you can reach hidden treasure chests). This goes for class choice, too. Wanted to play the awesome new Shinobi you unlocked? Tough luck, you got a choice of three shitty wizards, go waste five minutes killing yourself so you can roll again. I won't even go into detail about how all character upgrades are super expensive but give negligible benefit, the boss of the first world kills me every time within seconds of entering, or the fact that (as I only just discovered) apparently enemies scale with me!! What's the fucking point of grinding for hours improving my character if it gets me nowhere? At this point I'd rather just be playing a hardcore platformer like La-Mulana; at least then I'd know I was failing because I suck as a player and not because I haven't unlocked the right upgrade or spent enough time on it. Grargh. I feel like there's a good game in here somewhere, I just don't agree with so many of the design choices.

New hotness for December (PAL regions): It's kinda lame that one of the Vita games is actually for PSP, but on the other hand I wish they'd put more PSone (or any PS2) games into the instant game collection. It looks like that stopped last year, for some reason.

Sweet, thanks for the reminder! I had the purchase page for the original bookmarked for the longest time back in 2009, and somehow never got around to buying it. This remake just prompted me to do so. Finally being released on Steam doesn't hurt, either.

Yeah, I discovered soon after unlocking it that the temple shortcut is actually very close to useless. You really need sticky bombs, and more than 4 of them, to get very far at all in there.

Yeah, it does require a good understanding of the game. For those who have that, the deadpan lack of explanation makes it funnier; don't read on if you plan to learn more yourself. Totally unrelated, this jump (by @BananaRex) is pretty unbeatable for sheer death-defying luck:

I think my two favourite Android games (that I hadn't already played to death on iOS) are Ending and Dungelot. Ending is a puzzle game with a procedurally-generated roguelike-like mode, and Dungelot is somewhat similar to (though much simpler than) the recently-released Desktop Dungeons. They're both cheap, have free flash versions, and are turn-based and therefore playable in short bursts.

It really is incredible. Vine is just the perfect medium for it, too, it's like a three-act play squashed into six seconds. Today I reached the city of gold for the first time. I got really lucky rescuing damsels early on, so I arrived at the black market with tons of health, and made my first ever successful robbery of it; I think at one point I actually survived a shotgun blast. I kind of blundered through the rest until reaching the golden door, and only got inside with a handful of bombs left. Grabbed the book without remembering that it spawned Anubis II, took him out with my very last bomb, and thought I might be trapped until I found another crate. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough bombs to dig a wide enough pit for Olmec, and got crushed trying to tempt him into digging his own. My 199th death, so close to Hell! This game

If anyone thought unlocking the Temple shortcut was hard, Davey Wreden (creator of The Stanley Parable) posted this great Spelunky Vine yesterday: https://twitter.com/HelloCakebread/status/399250902227623937

After a week of compulsively playing for a few hours every day, I finally beat Olmec today! I was playing it pretty safe, really only trying to Somehow, after doing that the Temple was easy; Anubis was in the very first room, but I had huge numbers of sticky bombs to take him out. The compass was handier than I expected, since I was able to basically just bomb my way straight down to the exit. It feels good to have made definite progress. Getting this far took me 177 attempts; I wonder how many more it'll take to reach Hell?

So, I found this article explaining why Beyond comes off so poorly. (Warning, it's rather long and rambly). http://playersdelight.blogspot.ca/2013/10/beyond-two-souls-most-unique-feature-is.html I'm unlikely to play it anytime soon, but this makes me feel like perhaps it has some okay ideas that are just poorly presented, rather than being outright bad. But then, presentation is kind of important in a game like this. Something about the tone (or pace?) at the start of Fahrenheit made its level of seriousness feel believable, but the couple of hours of Heavy Rain I've played just felt laughable. On a random unrelated note, I'm living in Paris right now and the other day happened to meet a couple of North American guys who are writers at Quantic Dream. They were pretty quick to assure me that, no, they didn't have anything to do with Beyond. It must be a weird experience to work somewhere that is so polarising to public opinion.

If price is a factor, the Steam version of I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream is available for $1 (or more) at http://vodo.net/bigbrother right now. Personally, I'd recommend Condemned. It's been a long time since I played it, but it's the only one of these I've managed to finish, and I still have quite fond memories of it. Being a slow-paced FPS where guns are rare, and thus very powerful, makes it quite unique. Sleeping Dogs is good too though, it's definitely worth $5 for a bit of fun.

Oh hell yes. I picked this up yesterday because sale, not expecting to be able to play it for a long time because I'm away from my Windows machine. Today I happened to find a mention of a wrapper to run it in OSX, and it works well and is totally easy! It's going to be a weird and interesting experience to be actually competing in the daily challenges, instead of just watching attempts from Chris, Nick, Tom Francis, etc. I'm super excited!

I'm overseas and will be away from my PS3 for at least the next six months, but for some reason (absence makes the heart grow fonder?) decided last month was a good time to subscribe to PS+. It's pretty fantastic value, especially for Australia considering most retail console games stay at $60+ for years. A single decent game each year would mean breaking even, and I already have half a dozen queued up to play when I get home. Having to use the godawful online store still makes me sad, though. Apparently I can't "purchase" (for $0) MotorStorm RC, even though it's in the instant game collection this month. I can click "Try Free Demo" and add the trial to my download queue, but presumably that means I'd need to pay to unlock it when I get the chance next year. It's not that big a deal, but does anyone know a way around this? Perhaps I should try and pick up a Vita sooner rather than later...

So I logged into this yesterday and mysteriously had something like 6000 extra "memoria" (currency for buying cards). This when winning a low level game earns you 50-100 memoria. This means I've been able to go crazy buying the most expensive boosters, and despite having played a grand total of one match against a human opponent, I'm swimming in cards. Apparently this was a one-time bonus for early backers, but they're not going to wipe accounts after the beta, so... I guess any idea of balance in terms of unlocked cards vs. player experience are out the window? Oh well. I guess a few thousand isn't that big a deal to some hardcore players, but if it took 50+ wins there's no way I'd have earned it legitimately without playing for a few months at least. Anyway, I'm still liking the game. The match I played I went mostly for forest creatures, while early on my opponent dropped a couple of buildings that dealt direct damage to me each turn, right over the other side of the board where I couldn't get at them quickly. So I slowly built my way over to their orb, building up an army as I went. I was already down to half health when it arrived, so it wasn't going to be enough, but a couple of turns from the end I dropped a creature that rerouted any damage dealt to me to itself instead. My opponent was doing tricky things with moving the hexes my creatures were standing on, so it eventually came down to a single turn before I managed to wipe them out. So many possibilities make it feel pretty tense! As as an online-only game, I like the simplicity of decisions (no complex targeting or interrupts), and the way each player just has a 20 minute time limit instead of having to wait a few seconds for every... single... phase... in a turn, which is the main reason I've never played Duels of the Planeswalkers online despite sinking many hours into those games offline.

I backed this and played the handful of tutorial missions in the beta, no multiplayer yet. I've enjoyed it so far! I like that positioning is important without being just a boring 5-lane thing, but that it's still primarily a card game and not, say, a wargame (not that there's anything wrong with that). I also appreciate their definitive stance on microtransactions. It felt quite polished and well-designed despite being from a pretty small, inexperienced(?) team compared with the massive M:TG or even something like SolForge. That's one of my main concerns with games like this: with few designers it seems pretty hard to build a deep game that's also reasonably balanced and can support an active community of players. They appear to have solved this by having just worked on it for a bunch of years already? I backed at the $25 level, because apparently if you choose $15 you'll need to pay another $15 at final release. That's kind of a weird choice that they don't seem to make clear anywhere; most projects offer beta or early access at higher tiers only, on top of the full game release. I guess they're hoping people will try the beta and then upgrade their pledges. Anyway, I'm looking forward to playing more someday. Looks like they'll make the goal pretty comfortably.

Have they confirmed whether or not this new model will be getting a release outside Japan? How about the Vita TV? I'm more tempted by a Vita than I'd ever expected to be, especially having just signed up for PS+ and therefore slowly accruing a library of games, but I don't think I can justify it right now. I have two models of PSP, neither of which I've used for more than a handful of hours. The vast majority of the games just seemed to be badly suited to the device, trying to repeat the success of all the 3D action games on the PS2 but without the power to actually achieve what they were aiming for. And god, the whole custom memory card thing. Remind me why can't I just buy a massive SD card for next to nothing, like with my 3DS? It's not like Sony doesn't already manufacture a wide range of SD cards. Still, if I ever get a PS4, all the free stuff via PS+ and Cross-buy will make a Vita pretty much mandatory.

Oh, cool. I have the original Wasteland Kings build from the Mojam 2 bundle, but haven't checked it out because there's waay too many released games that I'd like to play rather than "waste" time on alphas. I'll definitely get into Nuclear Throne when it's finished, though. I've enjoyed all of Vlambeer's stuff so far (well, maybe not Serious Sam), and this seems like the most substantial thing yet. I love that this has basically become the year (era?) of the roguelike-like. New Binding of Isaac soonish, and I can't wait for 868-HACK to be released on IBM-compatible Personal Computers.

God, this game is just incredible. Having been away from any kind of gaming machine for months, I only got a chance to start playing last Friday. Last night I finally reached the end of level 4 (unlocking the option to start new games from level 3, hurrah!), and somehow actually ended up making it all the way to level 6. Killing the main bosses in level 5 was basically a reflex action, I was so tense by then that as soon as the doors shut I fired off all 16 rounds from my double-barrelled rifle without even having a chance to think about it. According to the Steam achievements list, almost as many people have completed the game (0.8%) as have defeated the giant robotic worm that killed me in level 6 (0.9%). Does this mean I was almost at the end of the game? Beating level 7 is actually rarer (0.7%) than beating the game, so I don't know how that works yet. But I've kind of intentionally avoided looking up any advice, Teleglitch feels like a game I'd like to learn gradually and organically through play, like Dark Souls. The chunky, wobbly pixels are beautiful, but I especially adore the sound design. I can see why they decided against having any music play during the game. The silence interspersed with random machinery sounds from different rooms certainly increases the tension, and it's vital to learn to recognise, for example, the stomping footsteps of gun-wielding enemies starting from level 3 or 4. My favourite, though, is the sound of a monster being sucked into the anomaly. It's such a minor, understated "gloop" noise, so powerful because you're dispatching enemies without wasting precious resources, but always so risky because you're, you know, standing and dodging them right next to a wall of instant death. Definitely my GOTY.cx. (It would probably have been Spelunky, but I'm on a Mac and won't have access to a Windows machine until next year, so this is giving me my fix until then.)

More potentially interesting conversation material: http://blastbombshell.com/2013/08/21/gaming-has-two-big-problems-and-these-aint-them/ Being mostly a PC gamer, I've never played a Vanillaware game and probably won't ever get around to playing this one, but I find the ongoing discussion (in reasonable places like these forums) quite fascinating. It feels like a relatively nuanced issue, which is a nice change from the usual clear-cut video game stupidity.

I just played Steamworld Dig for three hours straight, since I finally had some spare time after buying it a few days ago. It's really good! The upgrade structure strongly reminds me of Torchlight and recent mobile games like Ridiculous Fishing: head out into the world for a minute or two to find loot, then come back to town and sell everything so you can buy upgrades to your earning ability. I get much less of a timewastey feeling from this, though. The direct controls allow a lot more nuanced interaction than most games with this structure, and the persistence of all the dug blocks, enemies, and gems makes your progression feel like more than just your upgrades or how much you've earned. There's also a bunch of optional caves, with entrances scattered around the main one, that work like puzzles. You can't use special items, and any digging you do is reset each time you enter or die, so you have to work out the series of digs or jumps or whatever to reach the treasure. I like that none of this is explained, it's all just there to discover.

Hey there. After years of indie bundles and sales and such, I have Steam inventory gifts or unused keys for the following games. PM me if you want anything. EDIT: I'm keeping this list updated, so if you see something here, it's available! Just ask. Afterfall Insanity Extended Edition Aquaria A.R.E.S. Extinction Agenda Awesomenauts The Basement Collection Bastion The Binding of Isaac + Wrath of the Lamb Bob Came in Pieces Botanicula Breath of Death VII Broken Sword: Director's Cut Brütal Legend Burnout Paradise Capsized Cargo Commander Chains Commandos 3: Destination Berlin Crayon Physics Deluxe Crusader Kings II Cthulhu Saves the World Dead Space Dear Esther Depths of Peril Dino D-Day Dynamite Jack English Country Tune FEZ Fortix Fractal FTL Frozen Synapse Garshasp: The Monster Slayer Garshasp: Temple of the Dragon Greed: Black Border Greed Corp Guardians of Graxia + Elves & Dwarves Half-Life 2 Hamilton's Great Adventure + Retro Fever Hammerfight Hydrophobia: Prophecy IL2-Sturmovik: 1946 Incredipede Introversion Complete Pack Intrusion 2 Iron Grip: Warlord Ittle Dew Jamestown: Legend of the Lost Colony The Journey Down Knytt Underground Limbo Lunar Flight Mark of the Ninja McPixel Men of War Men of War: Condemned Heroes Men of War: Red Tide Mirror's Edge Nightsky Offspring Fling Oil Rush Organ Trail: Director's Cut The Polynomial Portal Proteus Really Big Sky Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad GOTY Rigonauts Rush Bros Saira Sanctum Scoregasm Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter Shattered Horizon Sniper: Ghost Warrior SpaceChem Space Pirates and Zombies Splice Stealth Bastard Deluxe Stellar Impact The 39 Steps Thomas Was Alone Tiny and Big in Grandpa's Leftovers The Tiny Bang Story Tower Wars Trauma Trine 2: Complete Story Tropico Trilogy Tropico 3 Turba Two Worlds II Vessel The Void Worms Reloaded Zeno Clash

The latest update explains some of the game's "words mechanic". It sounds incredible / utterly insane. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1841885340/tangiers-surrealist-stealth/posts/549398 I have no idea how a two person team with no experience is going to pull off such an ambitious concept, but I'm willing to pay to watch them try!

God, yes, Moonbase Commander needs to be on everything (preferably with cross-platform play). Rebellion seems an odd match for strategy games, but apparently they do a lot of republishing, so fingers crossed.

Yeah, I've been wondering about that in relation to the lack of DS games on the eShop, which would presumably be technically feasible. Is it only so they can add crappy 3D effects to DS hits and sell them again for full price? It looks like SMT4 is coming out after EO4 in PAL regions, so I guess I'll be playing the latter first (which seems more my style anyway).