tegan

I Had a Random Thought (About Video Games)

Recommended Posts

...I'm about to stream Dota just because I have it set up and was about to stream Styx before my friend asked me to play Dota and I'm weak and Dota.

 

I suck at Dota.

 

You probably don't want to watch me get mad at how bad I am and blame everyone around me.

 

Anyway here it is. http://www.hitbox.tv/Togglesworlh

 

(This all assumes streaming doesn't murder my ping.)

 

EDIT: I can't get video to work apparently so now I'm gonna try my Twitch to see if that'll work.

 

yeah twitch worked here it is http://www.twitch.tv/togglesworlh

 

(don't watch)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I was playing Quake the other week and heard the sound the micmics in Dark Souls make. That threw me off.

 

 

Also, people say Half-Life doesn't have satisfying combat so I made a little video showing why it's great, shameless self promotion going on here.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Disney put a bunch of games up on Steam. It's mostly licensed nonsense, but it includes a few standouts like the output of the short-lived Blackrock Studios. (Pure and Split/Second are stellar arcade racing games, especially Pure.)

Also, Tron 2.0 went up on Steam seemingly as part of all of this, and that is a game i thought would never see the light of day again on account of the labyrinth of licensing around it.

So if nobody's ever played Tron 2.0, let me put a recommendation on that game. It's incredible, it's a favorite of mine. It's a Monolith-developed game with some very early bloom tech being used with style and purpose and some FPS/RPG leanings in the vein of Deus Ex. (Notably, your character has a limited amount of memory that you can allocate to upgrade subroutines, but that memory varies with the computer systems you infiltrate over the course of the game.) Tron 2.0 also contains, as a mini-game, one of the better adaptations of the lightcycles concept.

On the downside though, you do have some extremely unforgiving stealth mechanics and quite a number of really, really unfortunate first-person jumping puzzles. (My recollection is that most of the required hops are actually quite short and easily controlled by taking advantage of the walk key.)

The game is probably particularly interesting to go back to as a strange pop artifact for being a sort-of-official alternate interpretation for how Tron could have been sequelized, an alternate interpretation with which Tron Legacy is completely irreconcilable. They had Bruce Boxleitner on board though! That's gotta count for something.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I played when it came out with a similar positive recommendation. The speeder bike mini portions were pretty great.

I'll probably get and replay when it inevitably hits super sale price, did it have multi player of note?, the steam page says sp only.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'll probably get and replay when it inevitably hits super sale price, did it have multi player of note?, the steam page says sp only.

I played the MP quite a bit back then, I recall it as being a first-person "discs of tron"-style thing and i remember it being quite fun.

I'm going to go ahead and assume that its server browser was run through Gamespy though, hence Steam identifying this re-release as SP only.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I will also recommend Tron 2.0, even though I never finished it.  I hit a game stopping bug most of the way through, and yet even with that, I have some super fond memories of it. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

here's my random thought: I don't think Doublefine makes very good games. Painful to realize, because I adore the DFA videos, and think the people who work there are genuinely great people, who both work hard and have to make a lot of tough decisions. But man. Re-watching some DFA content recently (and catching up on the (unfortunate on all fronts) Spacebase debacle) got me thinking about how much I like that studio, and how utterly uninterested I am in their games, and what a weird dichotomy that is. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I am also just super ambivalent towards their games. I'm glad somebody enjoys their stuff and that they're able to keep doing what they do, because the DF guys seem like awesome dudes and their games are super stylish and charming, but nobody will ever convince me that Costume Quest is a good game.

The closest i've come to really loving a Double Fine game was Trenched, and that game still has big frustrating problems. (Oh... Oh, sorry... "Iron Brigade".)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

They do seem to be quite hit and miss. Psychonauts is one of my favourite games, and I enjoyed Stacking as a small game that had some neat ideas and didn't outstay its welcome. But some of their more recent games seem to have fallen a bit flat. I'm looking forward to seeing where they go with Broken Age though.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

the DF guys seem like awesome dudes and their games are super stylish and charming

 

This is the reason I like DF's stuff.  I wouldn't necessarily count most of them among the greatest games ever made, but I still enjoy the heck out of playing them because I find them so stylish and charming.  A large part of it is also me being a Tim Schafer fanboy.  I think its totally fine to be a fan of a developer but not necessarily their games.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I've bought every DF game so far, and don't really see that changing.  It's not that they're the best, because they're not.  But they are always super charming, and often fit in well as a very nice palate cleanser between bigger/deeper games. 

 

Broken Age is one of my favorite adventure games now though, in a large part because it's essentially Feminism: The Game. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

here's my random thought: I don't think Doublefine makes very good games. 

 

Kinda agree. A lot of people talk about them as though they're the greatest things out there, but personally, I've not enjoyed a single DF game. It's a shame because they have some good ideas, I just don't find them engaging at all. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I liked Stacking pretty well, didn't like Spacebase or the demos of Costume Quest, Trenched, or The Cave, and haven't been interested enough to play anything else. But I think it's cool that they're putting out such a wide variety of stuff even if not a lot of it appeals to me personally.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Psychonauts is amazing, Costume Quest is great, Brutal Legend is more fantastic than it deserves to be, Broken Age is ahh just the best.

 

That's all the ones I've played. Stacking looks good, Massive Chalice sounds good although I admittedly have not been following the Kickstarter despite backing. Everyone seems down on Hack 'n' Slash but I am pretty sure I would enjoy it (although I am a programmer, so that probably has something to do with it).

 

Spacebase had me so excited but then it fell apart, so I guess that's my number one DoubleFine disappointment.

 

In other words, you're all dumb and you should feel ashamed and probably just move to Antarctica or something where no one can find you and do bad things to you for saying such horrible things.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm going to amend my statement a bit, Brutal Legend is absolutely brilliant and remains one of my favorite games from the last generation. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm actually a little down on Brutal Legend.  I loved the idea and the world, I just didn't like the actual gameplay.  That sentence describes a lot of DF for me really.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

There's more than one way to appreciate something. I've liked stuff for making interesting choices or having weird ideas even if the actual playing of the game was clunky and unengaging.

That's why sometimes I have to make an effort to really try something. Like with Crusader Kings II, or Planescape Torment... which I will eventually go back to making a real effort with.

 

Likewise I liked a lot of what Pyschonauts was selling me on, but when I was playing it I got pretty bored early on just running around and collecting stuff.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The only DF game that I've genuinely loved with no caveats was Broken Age. Everything else I've loved the aesthetics and charm of, but not the gameplay. I'm glad that they do what they do though. They're like Wayforward that way.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm actually a little down on Brutal Legend.  I loved the idea and the world, I just didn't like the actual gameplay.  That sentence describes a lot of DF for me really.

 

I liked the mix of action/adventure and RTS, but totally get how it wouldn't gel with someone else. The thing with Brutal Legend is that it hooked me so hard. I'm not one to really like just fucking off in an open world (like just cruising around in GTA or Skyrim). But I would in BL. Even once I was done, I'd occasionally just fire it up and go driving around jamming out to some metal, looking for the few secrets I had missed. And I've played through the opening hour or so I don't know how many times. It's one of the best openings ever made, imho.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Brutal Legend is definitely one of my favorite DF games. Really, it's what got me to notice them as a studio. I also liked Trenched and Doublefine Happy Action Theatre a lot. I'm pretty meh on Psychonaughts, Costume Quest, Broken Age, and Spacebase.

 

But in the end, the enthusiasm they show has made all of my purchases worth it. Seeing Brad Miur demo his game at PAX for our small little group was one of my best experiences of the weekend.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I liked the mix of action/adventure and RTS, but totally get how it wouldn't gel with someone else. The thing with Brutal Legend is that it hooked me so hard. I'm not one to really like just fucking off in an open world (like just cruising around in GTA or Skyrim). But I would in BL. Even once I was done, I'd occasionally just fire it up and go driving around jamming out to some metal, looking for the few secrets I had missed. And I've played through the opening hour or so I don't know how many times. It's one of the best openings ever made, imho.

 

I totally agree with the second half of your post.  In general I'm not a huge fan of open world games but that was the best part of BL to me.  I loved cruising around that world just checking everything out.  The parts I didn't care for were sadly the game parts.  I thought the combat was decent but nothing special.  The RTS stuff I didn't enjoy at all but I'm not a huge RTS fan to begin with.  If it had been a straight up DF adventure game set in a crazy heavy metal open world, it might have become one of my favorite games ever but as it stands now I think its just ok.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The only DF game that I've genuinely loved with no caveats was Broken Age. Everything else I've loved the aesthetics and charm of, but not the gameplay. I'm glad that they do what they do though. They're like Wayforward that way.

 

I'm like this except great writing gets me over the line, so I enjoyed Psychonauts and I enjoyed Brutal Legend until it got a bit rough. Wayforward are equally as rough but have much worse writing, and I'm not a fan of the character design.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Brutal Legend always struck me as a game that doesn't know what it wants to be, it seems totally insane that it has this vastly elaborate strategy game component to it that is virtually unexplored, multiple fleshed out factions that each might show up only twice if even once. It's not limited to that though, because there are areas in the back half of the game that are as big and as elaborate as those in the first half, but are just burned through at an insane pace, it comes across as extremely rushed.

I do really like Brutal Legend, but holy shit, what a weird game.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now