Chris

Idle Thumbs 204: The Reader's Pleasure

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C'mon, Neon Genesis Englandelion is right there.

 

what a fool I've beeeeeeeeen

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i was really taken by Otogi: Myth of Demons, the From Software game for the big block Xbox in 2002. I think it kind of set their template for Souls & Bloodborne, as third person, shockingly hard "brawlers" go. I remember it baffling me at how punishing some sections were, and that it demanded you to cover very long distances in the air, but never provided you with an effective flying/long jump method. The best way to was to essentially air juggle enemies, using an upward sword lunge to shimmy along.

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The template for Souls is something they've been playing with for a long time. Evergrace basically bombed, but was a launch title for the PS2 that had similar gameplay and its own weird, lonely atmosphere, though far less dark. I actually liked it a lot when it came out. I mean, it's actually weird regarding From's output as a whole and seeing how connected everything is -- the stamina system in Dark Souls is almost identical to the energy system in Armored Core, despite them being vastly different games, and there's also a through-line of rewarding in-depth statistical tweaking

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I hope someone's going to play Pillars of Eternity by next week. It has a lot in common with Cities Skylines, both are in unity and both are published by Paradox.

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The template for Souls is something they've been playing with for a long time. Evergrace basically bombed, but was a launch title for the PS2 that had similar gameplay and its own weird, lonely atmosphere, though far less dark. I actually liked it a lot when it came out. I mean, it's actually weird regarding From's output as a whole and seeing how connected everything is -- the stamina system in Dark Souls is almost identical to the energy system in Armored Core, despite them being vastly different games, and there's also a through-line of rewarding in-depth statistical tweaking

 

And the line from King's Field through Souls is one of the more obvious ones.  I played King's Field 2 back on the PS1, and the first time I was playing Demon's Souls I had this feeling that it was similar somehow, without remembering at all that From made the Field series as well 

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People complaining that Cities is a baby game.. Have you tried just turning on the built-in Hard mode?

Or, alternatively, download the Proper Hard mod from the workshop.

It apparently adds stuff like fire spreading being more likely to happen, which in turn would make your traffic infrastructure much more important because if the fire trucks get stuck in traffic a big chunk of your city could burn down. Instead of just one building..

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This episode made me feel really inadequate about Cities: Skylines. I have 30 hours in that game and I still can't construct a city that doesn't implode around 40-50k

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I'm more surprised that Nick was on the cast than Spaff.

 

Love you Nick!

 

I was amused when Chris credited somewhere between 1/4 to 1/5 of the cast to Spaff, even though there were only 4 hosts this week and Nick left early.

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I thought Spaff and Danielle worked really well together.

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I haven't played a whole bunch of Cities yet but in regards to it being a baby game I'd recommend imposing your own challenges on the game similar to how Dwarf Fortress/Civ/CK players limit themselves in their builds.

 

I liked the idea of creating believable cities by bringing in the problems of expanding small towns beyond the scope they were planned for. It just reminds me of places like Auckland, New Zealand which has a real traffic nightmare because it's gone from being a city that supports a few hundred thousand citizens to 1.3 million (out of a 4.4 m total) in about 2 decades or so.

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I randomly stumbled upon the old gross 'logo' we were talking about whilst looking for other old things.

Enjoy!

 

zOzo6Qt.jpg

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I randomly stumbled upon the old gross 'logo' we were talking about whilst looking for other old things.

Enjoy!

 

zOzo6Qt.jpg

I was looking for that. I think Stevan used to have it on his website, but not anymore.

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i was really taken by Otogi: Myth of Demons, the From Software game for the big block Xbox in 2002. I think it kind of set their template for Souls & Bloodborne, as third person, shockingly hard "brawlers" go. I remember it baffling me at how punishing some sections were, and that it demanded you to cover very long distances in the air, but never provided you with an effective flying/long jump method. The best way to was to essentially air juggle enemies, using an upward sword lunge to shimmy along.

 

Otogi was one of my favourite games on the original Xbox! I'd never considered the through line from that to Demon's Souls/Dark Souls, I guess because by the time I played the Souls games I'd kind of forgotten most of my experience with Otogi and its sequel. I remember them being difficult, but I don't feel like I played them in the same was as I play Souls games, where I'm cautiously progressing and taking stock of everything; they always felt more similar to Ninja Gaiden to me. I do feel like I should definitely go back to them at some point, though.

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