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Absolute Drift :tmeh:

It's a small game about driving a tiny car. Completing the game isn't really difficult, it's just a matter of spending enough time in the open world. The tasks you have to complete are quite easy. You don't have to get a certain score at the various tracks, in fact the tracks are optional (and you can play them from the main menu anyway). Had to tweak the steering setting a bit to get more control over the car. So the open world is short, and not much to do. And the tracks are somewhat few and the goal is just to compete with online leaderboards. It was fun to play anyway. I got it as part of a humble bundle. I wouldn't buy it at the full price of 12 euros, there's just too little entertainment for that.

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Yeah I liked Absolute Drift, but there's not that much to it. It's a neat idea, well executed, tho a bit short.

 

Finished Assassin's Creed: Syndicate today.

 

Here's some gameplay I captured, mostly of me hanging out down in the Thames.

 

 

Those riverboats and barges were my favourite location in it. Love the dynamic playspace they create as they keep passing eachother down the river. Out of the 5 AC games I've played (1,2,3,Black Flag and this) this is probably my favourite! Tho that's not saying much. Never really been a big fan of the series, yet I can't stop myself from buying the damn things. Feels like they've tightened up the gameplay in this one. Instances of me accidentally scrambling up the wrong wall or fumbling with the controls were noticably less than in earlier entries. Story was as bland as in every open world Ubigame, tho there are some nice character moments. Mission design is middle of the road, and sometimes frustratingly rigid. The sideactivities are where you're given the most freedom to play it by ear, and thus the most enjoyable. There's still a ton of sidemissions, only after finishing the main story did I discover that there's basically a whole other game in here where you're running around WW1 London doing missions for Churchill. More content in this game than I'll ever have time for.

 

Next up: Axiom Verge!

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It took me several months because it demanded play sessions longer than I often had time for but I just finished Shadowrun: Dragonfall. Gameplay wise it didn't really convert me into a CRPG fan, but as someone who wasn't really there for the combat it totally worked and there weren't any runs that felt particularly unfun or unfair. I obviously would've gotten more of out the story if a 12 hour game didn't take me like 4 months but it's definitely where the game shines. I'm no stranger to narrative choice in games but this was probably the first game where those choices actually felt hard and even challenged my sense of real world morality (which is kind of exactly what I want my sci-fi to do). 

 

The choices regarding Firewing particularly stood out for me. When the game asks you "Hey man is it cool if I kill every single dragon?" I was like "I don't know. I don't feel like this game has taught me enough about dragons in this world to inform my choice." But then I immediately realized how fucked up that thought was, like there probably isn't any information that should justify genocide. Vauclair characterizes Dragons as greedy and pulling the world's strings but a) that doesn't seem necessarily true and B) that's p much the same justification that killed millions of real life Jewish people (now that I think about it the game taking place in Germany and my ending having very direct allusions to post WWII Germany seems v deliberate). Idk i love when sci fi makes me think about real shit by means of not real shit and I think it did a pretty good job of it.

 

I picked up Hong Kong in that recent bundle and I'm not ready to jump right into but I am excited to check it out in the near future for sure.   

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Just finished up Oxenfree.

 

Further, their just isn't enough breathing room between lines, with characters speaking without having any time to think or reflect beforehand. The game would also often prompt me to make a dialogue decision whilst someone else was speaking, and though sometimes the game would wait to trigger the line, it often just interrupted the other character. The result being a mess of people speaking at the same time or being cut off. I appreciate the attempt to capture teenage energy in the dialogue but I found myself annoyed at the relentless pace, in what could have been a more sedate, tense experience.

 

Pretty much everything you describe here is exactly why I liked Oxenfree. It was like the first time I watched "The Mexican" and laughed because they talk all over each other in that film rather than doing the normal thing of delivering lines and waiting for responses. People do that in real life all the time and it is refreshing to see it in a game.

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It took me several months because it demanded play sessions longer than I often had time for but I just finished Shadowrun: Dragonfall. Gameplay wise it didn't really convert me into a CRPG fan, but as someone who wasn't really there for the combat it totally worked and there weren't any runs that felt particularly unfun or unfair. I obviously would've gotten more of out the story if a 12 hour game didn't take me like 4 months but it's definitely where the game shines. I'm no stranger to narrative choice in games but this was probably the first game where those choices actually felt hard and even challenged my sense of real world morality (which is kind of exactly what I want my sci-fi to do). 

 

The choices regarding Firewing particularly stood out for me. When the game asks you "Hey man is it cool if I kill every single dragon?" I was like "I don't know. I don't feel like this game has taught me enough about dragons in this world to inform my choice." But then I immediately realized how fucked up that thought was, like there probably isn't any information that should justify genocide. Vauclair characterizes Dragons as greedy and pulling the world's strings but a) that doesn't seem necessarily true and B) that's p much the same justification that killed millions of real life Jewish people (now that I think about it the game taking place in Germany and my ending having very direct allusions to post WWII Germany seems v deliberate). Idk i love when sci fi makes me think about real shit by means of not real shit and I think it did a pretty good job of it.

 

I picked up Hong Kong in that recent bundle and I'm not ready to jump right into but I am excited to check it out in the near future for sure.   

 

I finished Hong Kong last month. It's really good and there's enough differences and improved mechanics to keep it interesting, but it's good to take a break in between. As for the end of Dragonfall...

I took to heart the warnings about dragons controlling your mind, so I killed Firewing without even talking to it, not realizing the story bits I was missing out on. *shrug* In the end, I watched the other endings on YouTube but I'm pretty happy with my character's decision. It seems like being impulsive and desperate like that is something he'd do.

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Dreamfall Chapters :tdown:

Just finished the last "book". It was even worse than the parts before it. It was even more of just shitting in you chair looking at non-interactive cinematics. There were't even choices which could influence anything. It was just wrapping up the story (and in some cases even quick and dirty).

I really loved the longest journey. I quite disliked the way they went with Dreamfall. But this... this was quite terrible. A lot of tedious walking around in stale environments, having boring dialogues which were pretty much always too long. And puzzles... they were mostly just clicking around until you find the right interaction elements.

No, this whole game was a serious disappointment. I almost fell asleep a couple of times while "playing" it.

Funny (or maybe odd) thing.

Apparently there's an issue with a main character coming out as gay. I don't understand why they even included that short scene in the game as it added really nothing to the story and the whole "objectionable" part was the character just saying "I'm gay", and that was it. No actual love interest or something, just a short scene mostly out of context. Of course this unleashed the usual "SJW ruin everything" stuff.

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I picked up Hong Kong in that recent bundle and I'm not ready to jump right into but I am excited to check it out in the near future for sure.   

 

I rushed through my second playthrough of Dragonfall and got stuck on the final mission, so I think the slow, steady approach you took is best.

 

Hong Kong is also fun and they took the companion progression even further.  I need to replay it!

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I forgot what the current game under discussion was and in skimming over the latest post was like "when did they make a dragonforce game... WHY did they make a dragonforce game?!"

 

I'm either sad or happy my immediate interpretation was not correct. Can't decide, yet.

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Doom (2016) :tup:

Finished it this afternoon. A really great FPS like they used to be. Although they did add some new things like challenges and upgrades, but non of that health regeneration and cover stuff. Doom 3 was a  piece of shit. This one was everything besides that. Pretty much every enemy is more bad ass than the original. The Baron of Hell is probably the most brutal one of them all.

The various challenges they added were often the reason why I died, instead of just killing enemies the most efficient way I tried to do it the special way. I played it on normal, and that was just about right. So the challenges and (especially) the collectables were kind of distracting, but fun anyway. I can't really think of a bad thing. But if I had to name one it would probably be the boss battles. They sort of lacked imagination as they played out against a special foe in a plain, flat arena. Killing them was just dodging their attacks while shooting at them. They could have made that more special. Story wise it was also quite ok,

I like the back story about the doom slayer I hope they are going to expand upon that.

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Pony Island - very funny! At 2h long it kept a good pace and didn't drag too much.

 

Axiom Verge - a solid Metroidvania with an engaging story and tons of secrets. I did have to resort to a walkthrough towards the end tho, when I was hopelessly lost.

 

Up next: Unravel, Firewatch and Dex.

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Bloo Kid 2 is an incredibly solid platformer that is far from original that even bosses are "borrowed" (the first one is just the tree boss from Kirby), but it plays with the borrowed elements well, you only have a doulbe jump to defend yourself but the game slowly changes so I never got tired of the game at all.

 

If it weren't for the small "mobile" elements (star ratings), this could be a lost Amiga game of yore!

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I've been playing Beeswing by Jack King-Spooner. This is a game mostly about walking around and listening to NPCs. There are a few 'quests' in the game, but they're small and optional. The visual art is almost completely non-digital and hand-drawn. A lot of the drawings are very good. They're sloppy in an off the cuff, sketchy way but still interesting to look at, and you can tell the developer is a talented artist. You begin to feel like you're wandering around in a stranger's sketchbook, and I liked the way different visual styles & media were used, often on the same screen together. The music is similar, it seems like it was all recorded with real instruments in somebody's bedroom. It works well, and there's a lot of it. It seems like many screens have their own musical tracks.

 

The problem with the game is the writing. It's incredibly on the nose and self satisfied. I feel like I can imagine the developer patting himself on the back after every sentence. The game is about meeting and listening to different characters, but very few of the different characters in the game feel like they were given a genuine sense of personality. Instead, they just serve as a mouthpieces for the developer to shoot philosophy at you. It's a shame, because if the developer had allowed his music, art, and dialogue to communicate his ideas rather than dumping them over your head with a steam shovel, it might have been a beautiful experience. Instead, I've noticed myself physically cringing every time I encounter a new character because I feel like I'm about to be punched in the face with Wisdom again.

 

I don't think I'm going to finish this one, but I'm glad that I played it if only because it makes me more aware of how not to write dialogue in my own games.

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Just bought and beat Toren in a few hours. Really charming Brazilian game that reminds me of a N64/Xbox360 action platformer. It's got some jank, but the atmosphere and writing and art direction are very cool. Definitely recommend picking it up during the Steam Sale.

 

Here's a link, in case you're interested: http://store.steampowered.com/app/320820/

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I just played/finished Thirty Flights of Loving and Gravity Bone yesterday for the first time! I know, I'm years late. They're really good! Also, I had them on my wishlist forever without ever knowing about the Idle Thumbs connection, so it was a strange (and exciting!) surprise running into the Thumbs logo.

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Oxenfree 

 

I'd heard some good things when it launched at the start of the year. The DLC podcast interviewed the game lead a while back and the game sounded pretty interesting. Seeing as I only had a PS4 at the time I kinda just forgot about it. Skip ahead, it launched on PS4 recently but I managed to get it on the Humble store for something like 40% off.

 

I had avoided everything about this game because I heard to go in completely blind, so apart from its about a group of kids and has this cool atmosphere and mystery I knew nothing. Oh, and I knew the game had an awesome dialogue / speech system which was really fresh and different.

 

So yeah, I finished the game in maybe 4 or 5 hours. Normally when I finish games I just move on to the next one, but I want to immediately want to start it back up due to the dialogue choices and every collectable I missed.  Wow this game was great. The art is beautiful, the soundtrack is outstanding and I bought it instantly from Bandcamp. The mystery, atmosphere and everything was great. I enjoyed the dialogue mechanic. It's a little weird interrupting and cutting off the other characters because I would like to hear what they have to say. Sometimes it would interrupt them and other times your character (Alex) would wait until they've finished talking before she spoke. But as far as a "natural" dialogue flow in a game its one of the best.

 

I completely recommend it, and go in blind like I did.

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I finished DOOM (2016) last night. 

 

My god what a great game. I played through o ultra-violence, which I found quite difficult, but that sweet spot of difficulty where you die enough to feel challenged, but never enough to feel frustrated. 

 

I've made the comment before, but it feels like Bayonetta The Shooter, which means I've enjoyed it way more than I do most single player FPS campaigns. It also means however, that I find playing it stressful, and I'm going to need a break from playing it until I try and 100% it (because I have to, I loved it).

 

If this is what the future of FPS games is, rather than the RT-LT/take cover to regen health, I'm down with the FPS genre. 

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Summer vacation is here and I've been catching up on a few of the finest indie titles of recent times.

 

Firewatch - Best game of the year so far! I'm sure this has been discussed to death around here, I don't really have anything to add except that I loved it to bits.  :)

Hyper Light Drifter - Finished this today. Loved the gameplay and exploring the world, looking for secrets. Couldn't make heads or tails of the story tho.

Invisible, Inc. - Currently nearing the end of my second playthrough, on Experienced this time. This is some damn fine turn-based stealth gameplay!

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Finished two different games in co-op this weekend. Woah!

Full Mojo Rampage - A voodoo themed roguelike.  Pretty fun for playing through its multiple campaigns a couple of times each to unlock some stuff, though ultimately it doesn't have the staying power of a lot of other roguelikes, mostly because each individual run isn't that memorable. Items tend to just be flat stat boosts, rather than creating new playstyles.  Local co-op summons in a spirit who's stats are based on the main character and has a slightly more limited power set.  

1993 Space Machine - Finished this in less than two hours, an okay side scrolling shmup.  I wouldn't go out of my way to pick it up, but it came with a bundle and was nice to having something different to play in co-op since we hadn't had a game in this genre for awhile.  It's got the foundation to be a richer game than it is, with multiple ship variants and a variety of weapon that can be swapped back and forth and upgraded, but ultimately the campaign is too short to support anything other than leveling up your first ship and the first two guns you buy.

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Almost picked up Full Mojo Rampage for the four player Co-Op, shame that it didn't add markedly different experiences with new unlocks.

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Yeah, I think that Isaac has really spoiled me in terms of what I expect from a roguelike empowering different playstyles with each go.  The closest Mojo gets is you can pick up different wands, but they wear out fairly quickly (even with a wand duration buff you can activate).  Which is a shame, because there was real potential to have execute some fun ideas.

 

I'd still suggest picking it up on sale if you've got a group looking for that kind of online co-op experience.  It's fun enough. 

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I finished Zero Time Dilemma on the 3DS.

 

For the uninitiated, this is the last in the trilogy of games about people being kidnapped and forced into a Life and Death situation with puzzles, philosophy discussions and intricately explained game theory. The other two games are 999 and Virtues Last Reward. I liked the series a lot, though it's definitely pulpy nonsense. Many times the series will set up intricate logic for things, and base them on some science but mostly made up theories and things I presume the writer thinks sound cool.

 

They're solid visual novels with passable puzzles, and I like the gimmick of what the multiple endings/paths mean. Which... I can't really explain without spoiling it. Even if you don't generally care about spoilers, this is the kind of story that hinges on them because it's ends up being dramatic and twisting rather than anything deep.

 

For ZTD specifically? It was probably my least favourite of the three, tho I still enjoyed it a lot. Not having a more specific game to frame your branching decisions probably gave them a lot of freedom but felt a little more hollow. As did the villain, who was a non presence for so much of the game, and was still weirdly underplayed even when they were on screen more visibly. That said, I liked a lot of the weird conclusions they brought in. I wasn't expecting a good ending (and didn't get one*), but there was some nice ways of tieing up loose ends that made me not care so much about where the game ended.

 

' I... think. I'm in two minds about the ending. In some ways I like the choices they made intellectually. But I think the choices would be more suitable for a game that was better written and had good character or thematic development. Instead, as pulp, these choices just didn't fit well.

 

Also it looked baaad. 3D models looked out of date but might have been ok if not for the stiffest animation I've seen in a long time. I wish they'd stuck with 2D, it looked much better.

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Two things i want to champion:

8-Bit Armies

Do you like Command & Conquer? Do you want a true spiritual successor to Command & Conquer? Well here it fucking is, coming literally out of nowhere to surprise the shit out of me, Petroglyph has finally gone and done it.

It adheres most closely to the original C&C, it even has a story that even references a despotic villain "Kain" and differs only in a few key areas. There's no landing pad aircraft, they act like normal units, and instead of tiberium/ore fields, you have oil wells. Engineers also don't capture buildings anymore, they act as a universal healer instead, and there's some other smaller differences as well. Other than that, it's pretty much the original C&C with modern visuals and controls. I have just been thrilled with this thing, it's great. It even has a Frank Klepacki soundtrack with him unambiguously doing his C&C thing.

 

Also, it's got a co-op campaign, so that's fun. (Btw, 8-Bit Armies apparently launched with just one faction, a GDI analogue, but the second faction - a Nod analogue - was a free DLC. There's also a paid DLC for that second faction's campaign.)

 

I'll also use this opportunity to again pimp Petroglyph's previous game, Grey Goo, another game i liked quite an awful lot. (I'm a little out of the loop on it, but I understand Grey Goo has a fourth faction now.)

 

Guilty Gear 2 Overture

 

So this just came to Steam and is a port of a 9 year old 360 game that was kind of a proto-Lords Management when Lords Managements were only just finally starting to become visible to the mainstream, it was a game that left its fighting game fanbase confused and actually quite angry. (Tip: Don't try to present your obvious spin-off as a true sequel.) So yeah, it was a game nobody played and nobody liked. I felt like a lone holdout, because the game seemed incredibly interesting and cool to me, kind of blending fighting game mechanics and RTS mechanics, leaning into both with scarcely any restraint. It's a super strange game and having played a lot of it, i think its balance is actually pretty wonky and its campaign is admittedly terrible, but if you can get some friends together for a casual game like i used to, i think it's a ton of fun. It's chaotic and fast and full of odd ideas.

If you need the one sentence review: It's like Brutal Legend's multiplayer two years earlier, but better and more sophisticated. I've always had a ton of fun with this one despite how widely hated it was, and i feel somewhat vindicated by the quite positive reception it's had with the Steam crowd.

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Don't worry Sno - I have your back on Guilty Gear: Overture.

 

I really wish they would put this on the back compat list for Xbox One as I would play the shit out of it.

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For what it's worth, the Steam port is pretty solid. It's one of those ultra basic ports that are common of japanese developers, but it runs perfectly, i haven't had any issues with it at all. ArcSys seems to be doing ongoing work to it as well, and it has all of the original game's DLC just built in. (Most of the negative reviews it has on Steam were from a rough launch window, and there actually aren't many negative reviews at all considering, the game is finally getting the positive reception it deserves.)


For other people: You need a gamepad for GG2O, do not try to play this game without a gamepad.

 

Also, here's some ancient grainy footage of what it looks like when people know how to play that game:

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Finished Rise of the Tomb Raider :tup:

Like the previous game this is a bit like a mediocre Uncharted. The game simply doesn't feel like a continuous adventure. The hub areas are interesting, but not in a story like this. Doing the side things feels like you are taking a break from a thing which is really pressed for time. I don't recall the previous Tomb Raider enough, but I think that game didn't have a story which presented everything as time critical.

The spelunking part can really use some polish. Pretty much every time I died it was because Lara lost sense of direction and tried to grab onto something a few pixels to the side she should have tried to grab.

The stealth part is also a bit flawed, when you break complete stealth the enemies knows exactly where you are even though they didn't actually see you yet. I just screwed up and made them aware I was around, but the AI knew where I was coming from. I guess my bow makes too much noise.

Anyway, despite all that it's still fun running around murdering a shit load of people while violating resting places.

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