Trip Hazard

Heard this on BBCR2 the other day, probably the only decent track they've played on that station Edit: the bad lip-synching at the start reminds me of Bob Mortimer in some indefinable way

Oh snap! I had no idea that existed, and I had already been on the GOG forums to see many people complaining about the crashing; compounded, as you say, by the somewhat sporadic checkpoints. Nobody mentioned that fix. Because I'm a silly billy, I peevishly deleted Silver after it crashed, and (I think?) my saves went with it. It was an easy game on the dreamcast. My memory of it is quite hazy, but I don't think there was any gesturing to do different attacks; the face buttons changed your style of attack, and it was also easy to quickly cycle to another special move after you'd used one. I feel like it has a bit of an inverse difficulty curve, whereby you struggle along with wimpy weapons, few specials, no party and no magic at the start, but eventually develop into a complete powerhouse. The life orb basically removes any need for food as well, and casting it after almost every encounter ensures that all of your magic will level up. It's frustrating how they handled the saving. Use a save point once and it is somehow "used up" - the only way to get to a new one is to advance the story. Saving doesn't replenish your health, and it's totally possible to run out of healing items at the start of the game, so you'd have to struggle through the next section, not knowing how long it would be - or even sometimes if you're going the right way! - to reach a new save point. One thing that I think is worse on the PC, besides the controls which I personally did find more cumbersome, is that party members have next to no AI. You always have to manually tell them to attack someone, or they'll just hang around until an enemy decides to hit them. It's especially odd when the Grandpa character at the start *will* follow you around without any intervention and will automatically seek out and kill enemies. I think on the DC version your party actually helped you out on their own. I think The music is bloody gorgeous, isn't it? I'd pay good money for a fully orchestrated version of the soundtrack. It's absolutely a silly game, which is really endearing. The plot is about this murdering maniac who wants to rule the world with an iron fist, who enslaves women and imprisons the young and weak. Pretty downbeat stuff. But then you've got his henchman being killed after a classic "look behind you! No, really!" gag, an aging prisoner who feels proud that the guards test out their new torture devices on him first, and who keeps a key up his bum, and a guy who tells you he'll have to chew on his family after you decline his offer to sell you provisions. (Eat the provisions, jackass) Top game, Silver. They don't make 'em like they used to.

Why is it that no matter how many shiny, new video games I have to play, I always gravitate towards replaying old ones? If a game pops into my memory that I played like crazy as a teen, I'll drop everything and play it to completion. My most recent trip down memory lane involved the dreamcast (and also PC it seems) RPG 'Silver'. Anybody played it? I must have finished it three or four times on the dreamcast back in the day, 'cos it was unchallenging, uncomplicated fun. It's a bit clunkier with a mouse and keyboard interface, but after a few hours I was chopping up hordes or baddies with gay abandon. I didn't finish it though. Unlike the dreamcast version, the PC version was apparently quite buggy, and after my fourth hard crash I called it quits. Alas, if only it were possible to save anywhere Next up will probably be (the vast and vastly more complex) Wizardry 8. This is a new one on me though, so I might struggle. Still, it beats playing anything even remotely modern

Do you have to fly a key past spiders to view the walkthrough? Ain't nobody got time for that

Well done! Glad you enjoyed the DLC - I always get a thrill going in to fight Artorias. I was having a tough time of it with my zweihander in Darkroot Forest t'other day. Came up from past the hydra, slew many walking trees, then got buggered up by the magician and his burly defender. 2nd attempt I killed the trees again for the sake of security, then followed the cliff anticlockwise towards the archer. She managed to kite me close enough to the bandit that he was aggroed, but by playing fairly carefully I drew him to the cliff and he rolled off by himself, as I thought he would. Back to the archer and she pulled me back still further into the cleric, but I killed her before he could kill me. I breath a very deep sigh and go to work for several hours. As soon as I'm home I try again;same basic tactic but - praise Jebus! - the archer doesn't respawn. Parry kill bandit, do the same to the barbarian and the zwei guy, then with an evil glint in my eye, hammer the magician into the ground. Go to bed satisfied! Love that area. Fundamentally a big arena with pairs of enemies whose strengths cover the weaknesses of the other. Also I realise that the AI is actually following a few simple patterns, but it does vary quite a bit based on the enemy and does a good job of throwing off my chi, so to speak

Crate & Crowbar is boss. Needs moar Tom Francis

Heh, I think I heard that one. With Jim Trinca? He's another one who's always harping on about how people who care about technical stuff should be killed horribly, without realising that he's being much more irritating by moaning about it so much. Just ignore it! That said, I quite like Lees and Quinns. And Trinca, sometimes.

It's the best comedy I've seen in years, Mike Judge at the absolutely peak of his powers. The whole "middle-out" bit at the end of S1 had me crying with laughter

Hold the PHONE - the Crestfallen Knight sells large shards? I did not know this. I didn't think he sold anything at all, that wastrel. If you stream that I'll absolutely tune in. My issue is that I'll want a +10 fire club and a +5 lightning club, a really solid shield (upgraded Balder probably) and I guess I'll probably need at least a +6 or 7 somethingorother just to get far enough in the game to get the embers. Also, I've completely forgotten where everything is and who sells what. It's a really nice feeling truth be told, not quite going in fresh but not going through the motions either. I'm at the parish now with 8k souls, MAY need to grind a bit for the shield but hopefully not. Edit: Those gargoyles wish they'd kept playing dead.

Yup, cherish that sense of apprehension. Actually, trying to play again without leveling has made me a lot more cautious (as you'd expect), and I'm having a blast so far. I do feel that soon I'll have to grind for shards etc. and upgrade my weapons and shield, or I'll be way underpowered, which isn't a great way to be when one hit can kill you. Not looking forward to O&S; will defo be taking Solaire along for that one.

Got a code for A Boy and His Blob on Steam if anyone wants it

I'm going to do the SL1 run, for the mad street cred it'll surely earn me. I don't expect it to be that much fun though...

Got a code for Paragon (Early Access), due to an RPS giveaway. give me a shout if you want it Edit: gone!

I finished the first part of Broken Age Really fun so far, I'm particularly digging the hipster lumberjack. All downhill from here, right?

There is a performing dog on Britain's Got Talent called Trip Hazard. People are going to think I'm a big fan of this fucking dog.

PS4!

Don't have time for a proper response, but don't put any more points into Resistance. It's a junk stat, and there's no way to respec.

Ploughed through Apotheon, having heard it was a fairly short game, on the easier side, and I just need to actually play things to completion goddammit It was really quite good. Not top-tier metroidvania (it doesn't even really qualify, tbh) but generally a fun time with some interesting design choices. Obviously, the visuals make the game stand out really strongly, but I was quite surprised at how much the mythical, god-bothering story grabbed me. It's super cool to be able to go and fight Poseidon on a storm tossed sea, and descend into Hades where tormented souls lunge at you, desperate to steal your vitality for themselves. These elements helped pull me through areas where the map design was a bit convoluted, or where an overabundance of trash enemies kept hindering progress. Combat is more involved than it seems at first blush, with different weapons being better for certain purposed (clubs to break guard, daggers to backstab etc.) and where yours and the enemies' body will react differently if struck in a certain place, but it did still sometimes feel like a bit of a clusterfuck 'cos you're almost always outnumbered but can muddle through by just lashing out wherever. Took me 12 hours to complete, with most of the achievements. Nothing about the game stands out as being particularly bad, and several elements are very good, so...

After I heard that Geralt of Rivia was the voice of Victor Vran, I had to have that new Humble Bundle. I don't want much else from it though, so I've got stuff to shovel heap onto whoever. Provided they're not completely new to the forum, natch. Ultimate General Gettysburg GRAV (early access) Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons I've completed Brothers, and can attest to it being A Good Game. It's short, and the focus is mainly on exploration with some light platforming elements. Worth a punt if you're fed up with spending hours gathering herbs or grinding for loot or collecting pelts, or any of that shit.

That's a risky stratagem, Mawd... This has been getting some rave reviews, hey? I just hope it can challenge me more than DS2 did, but I think I might be just too familiar with the combat by now. I have such fond memories of those first, faltering steps when I played Dark Souls - can't get those days back. Need to ignore any feelings of nostalgia going into this, and examine it objectively

Finished Grim Fandango Remastered with my partner. I've completed it many times before, and so let her ponder as much as she wanted on the puzzles, throwing in a hint if she wanted one. It's a good game, one which I think will always hold a special place in the engorged nostalgia centre of my brain, but the cracks are starting to show. It's pretty inconsistent, some of the puzzles are just ludicrous, and I think there aren't enough opportunities to get stuck into snarky conversations. More Domino and Nick, please!

My time for playing pinball is pretty scant at the moment, but I did manage to play for about half an hour today. Cool table! I like all the little details and the sound-effects; the rootin-tootin' cowboy theme just works for me and I vastly prefer the colour scheme to Moon Knight's "grey on grey". I'm having trouble reading the messages that come on the dot-matrix viewer and also the bandits which sometimes appear blend in a little too well with the background. Love the minigame on the train, but only managed to make it to the second carriage. In fact, I didn't complete any of the challenges, but I had a ton of fun working out how some of them are activated. Look forward to playing more of this

I got a nifty Podcast app on my phone, and have found a couple of neat podcasts. The best one so far is called Lore, and it's about mythical beasts, unexplained sightings, and other supernatural tomfoolery. The chap who researches the show and presents it has a very soothing voice, and there's some great ambient music to along with the stories. Plus, an episode is about 20 minutes long, so my attention doesn't wander like it does with so many ~2h podcasts.

I've got INK Speedrunners (Early Access) Dead State: Reanimated to give away. Fire a DM if you're interested.

I always thought Terranigma was decent, after a bit of a slow start. Real-time combat in that one though