Trip Hazard

I'm still playing through this, slowly (I'm recording it for youtube for some dumb reason), and am up to Brightstone Cove. Not too happy with my strength build - spent a bit of time with a friends Dex rapier build and it was a ton of fun, and very powerful. Absolutely can't wait to try the DLC. The vanilla game is not offering me enough challenge atm... Hmm, should try covenant of champions

It was bad. I didn't like it. I still read all of it, and that's not just because I feel obliged to when it's a book I've borrowed from a friend. Throw a few VG references my way, and I'm all yours...

A friend lent me Ready Player One, cautioning me that it reads like a book written for teens. Yes, it does, but teens who are weirdly really into 80s pop-culture. Peculiar! Set in the future, the plot involves a VG "easter egg" hunt in an almost-limitless virtual environment known as The Oasis, which basically everyone in the world is addicted to and connected to as often as possible. After the creator of the Oasis, Halliday, passes away, a video is broadcast of him promising to turn over full control of the Oasis to whomever can decipher his clues and ultimately find his easter egg. Now, this prize is so incredible that millions of people, who become known as "gunters", devote themselves full-time to hunting for it. The protag is Wade, and it is he that solves the first clue and becomes the first on the path to grabbing the grand prize. Several things seem a bit off to me right from the start. Firstly, despite the overwhelming number of people trying to crack the clue Halliday leaves behind, it takes over a decade and is achieved by one person, with no help from anyone. Even more astounding when you consider that Halliday was utterly self-obsessed, and all the clues directly involve his favourite things. Games he played or programmed, films he watched dozens of times etc. And all the gunters realised this long ago, and have been microscopically poring over every detail of his life and interests. And yet still, over a decade. Huh. (With this as the foundation, it should come as no surprise that the whole book is basically an excuse to reverentially refer to nerdy stuff from the 80s, which rapidly induces a queasy feeling) There are a couple of points where I naively though the book would try to make some kind of statement about the dangers of addiction, or about how slavishly imitating ones idols is not the path to self-enlightenment. Nope! It's just "ooh, here's pacman!" or "wow, a whole chapter about Wargames! I love Wargames!" There's one female character and she's basically a trophy to be won, as well, so that was gross. I was actually quite angry and disappointed when I finished the book, because clearly it had the opportunity to be something really creative and wonderful (an infinite virtual world!) but doesn't have an original bone in its body. Laura Hudson says it better than I do: http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2015/07/armada_by_ernest_cline_follow_up_to_ready_player_one_reviewed.single.html

Just show us how the parrying works, already!

"We've never had it so good!" (we really haven't!)

Quick-step your way to the top of the leaderboards (just watch out for red bats) Enjoyed doing these vids for Spelunky, but I'm completely burned out on that game. Crypt of the Necrodancer kicks the shit out of me on a regular basis. Revel in my suffering, and share some suffering of your own in this topic Here's the daily for 7/5/15

Snes9x to the rescue

Good question! There are some levels from Doom which I'll probably never forget, like Mt. Erebus, and the first time you meet the Cyberdemon in The Tower of Babel. That's an extremely simple and quite plain level, but it absolutely terrified me as a kid. I would spend upwards of 20 minutes in the first (safe) room listening to the monster stamping around outside, just trying to pluck up the courage to go out and face it. That was tough. Zombies on the SNES had some amazing levels, and some amazing names for those levels! Titanic Toddler was a pain in the arse to play, but a very cool idea. Mars Needs Cheerleaders was always fun and had great music. Dr. Tongues Castle of Terror had a lot of cool stuff going on - secrets galore, and some tough new enemies to try and beat/desperately flee from. If Blighttown from Dark Souls can reasonably be called a level, then that. Encapsulates (almost) everything great about that game, in my opinion. Probably more! I'll have a think and come back.

I've been co-oping loads with a friend of mine, who frequently laments that he sucks at Dark Souls. He doesn't really, he's always getting better, but his confidence isn't there so he feels every failure hard. Anyway, I'll be a phantom and let him take the lead, maybe guiding him a bit if he's missed something important and letting him get the last hit in on enemies etc. It's awesome. I feel like SotFS is the game DS2 was always meant to be.

Cheers Ben! I did a search for it, but that topic didn't pop up. My clumsy sausage fingers must've typed swingle or sindwel or something

The Swindle looks really fun! Here's Matt Lees playing it, in his endearingly cheerful way: I'm excited to play it for a few reasons. Firstly, it's a 2D platformer, and I'm typically quite good at those. Secondly, it doesn't tell you upfront what everything is and how best to deal with stuff. I loved experimenting with the different items and enemies and stuff in Spelunky, and it looks like the same will be true of this. Thirdly, VIVIAN CLOWNFACE. Hah, a silly word! I'm British so that sort of thing is hilarious to me.

Is the original post even asking what games we return to regularly, or habitually? 'Cos, like, Spelunky for me. And Doom, I often bung that on when I don't know what else to pick.

After I heard this had cross-play between the PS4 and PC versions, I knew I had to have it. But, I've no money. Might set up a patreon

I really want to get into La Mulana, but I'm basically terrified of it and my I start having palpitations when hovering my cursor over 'Play'. Will pluck up my courage, one day! Did anybody ever play the freeware game Les Abbayes Des Morts? It's a nifty little adventure title with graphics and sound designed to emulate the ZX Spectrum. You have to explore underneath a big abandoned abbey, using clues to solve simple puzzles and collect items to unlock the boss. I'm not saying it's a metroidvania, but it's pretty neat!

Mr. Nutz! I choose to believe that you are a chipmunk. A chipmunk that is far superior to me at a game aimed squarely at humans. Well played, Sir.

Think I'll sack off Oblivion. I knew it was a waste of money when I bought it in the Steam sale, but I just couldn't resist 'cos it was so cheap! Unless anyone can recommend some good mods to liven things up a bit? I've already got one called Oscuro, and some graphics mods, but it all seems so uninspired and generic. I just can't be fucking arsed wandering around this big, daft, bland basin doing fetch quests for lazy twats who could just do it themselves. Being the ultimate saviour of the world has never felt like such a chore.

Yeah, where's the speedrun of Ultima Underworld? Gimme. But, I would love to see a speedrun of Portal Stories: Mel, because I bet there are some really crazy skips and things. And I think I've got time in my schedule for just one more Dark Souls speedrun...

Aye, there's that quite famous image of a hyper-muscled, scantily clad Simon Belmont brandishing his whip at the gates of Dracula's castle, as his painted face looms in a very garishly coloured sky. That really sets the tone for the whole series, I've always thought. I like SCIV a lot, and it's worth playing even if you don't like any of the sprawling, metroidvania titles. It's a laser-focused game, not an ounce of fat, and it also has a kicking soundtrack. Sno, I thought you said a while back that you thought Rogue Legacy only bore a superficial resemblance to Castlevania? If you did, I agree with you. The movement in Rogue Legacy doesn't feel like anything from any 'Vania I've ever played, and the (uninspired) appearance of the different zones seems derivative of any number of other games, not any location specific to Castlevania.

If you can't even get on with the music, it's not for you! (it's probably in my top 5 VG soundtracks ever)

I'm very much in the "don't know much about him" camp, but from reading about him it certainly sounds like he was a pretty special guy. I was particularly wowed to find that he programmed Earthbound, a game I hold very dear to my heart. RIP

No, it doesn't, and it's too easy. I still love it though. Admittedly, the weird motion blur never really bothered me? How far in are you?

Will do! I only have a level ~30 Witch 'cos I've not played in a while, but with the expansion just having come out, I really want to get back into it. I've mainly prioritised Ice magic and I think my Witch is fairly formidable, but she probably isn't. Good thing it's almost impossible to make a useless build for playing through Normal mode, huh?

Aye, I only played Wolf 3D once or twice because I'd already played the hell out of Doom and I was like "this is crap". So, you're not planning on playing with any source ports or any other guff? Commendable! I generally play with Zandronum, but there was absolutely nothing wrong with Doom the way it was. Is this your first time playing Doom?

We should all play Path of Exile instead, as we've all got it and it's good

The opposite of Shovel Knight, which you also don't like! FUSSYEdited so it makes sense