tegan

I Had a Random Thought (About Video Games)

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I picked up a copy of that game awhile ago, and really want to play it, but have yet to. Overwhelming game year, etc. Lovely art style.

 

The moment where it really clicked was last night, when I got to Shambhala and was faced with a boss battle for which I was completely overmatched... until I realized that I could make the boss scared and then most of his attacks would miss. There's a really great progression of "use whatever attack fits the mood" > "change the mood to fit your party's strongest attacks" > "use the mood change itself to debuff the enemy and buff your party" as you learn the game. Opening up Friendly, waiting for the enemy to go Friendly as well, and then turning Aggressive to take advantage of the boost to attack is always satisfying. Ten hours in, I'm still finding wrinkles, which makes me feel optimistic that the one weakness in the design (physical attacks are much weaker than speech attacks unless used to counter an overly Friendly enemy) is probably just a sign of my inexperience.

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I saw that show up on the front page of Steam, but didn't have a clue what it actually was. Now that I take a look at it, it seems pretty cool.

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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 :P

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Oh yeah, I remember Silver! Started it many times, never finished it. Always played it on PC. I rather remember it as a punishingly difficult game, though. The crashes don't help, and neither does the fact that the save points grow further and further apart. There is a somewhat iffy fan fix for the latter problem, though. First time around I couldn't continue past a certain point because of a bug. The game is quite silly in many ways, but also incredibly atmospheric. I love its music, thanks to your post I just listened to some of its tracks again. Especially the tune that plays while you fight monsters at night in a city while rain pours down is great. Silver is definitely a game dear to my heart.

 

Edit: In case you might want to try your luck again with the fan fix I attached it to this post. It's compatible with the GOG version. Maybe there's a newer version of this fix, I dunno, my version is from December 2013. I probably got it from the GOG forums.

Silver Save Anywhere.zip

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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.

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I played through silver on the PC once I believe, though I wasn't too enamored of it it fit an interesting niche that was mostly unfilled on PC.

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Whenever something Zelda related comes out I always feel out of touch. So many people seem to be losing their minds over that trailer, while to me the most prominent thing was that it looked like a 360 game. I mean, I can understand why people get excited about it, because they're watching it in a different context, but it still feels strange. Nothing about the trailer looks remarkable if you don't specifically place it in the context of this series people go apeshit for.

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Counterpoint:

 

A boulder rolls down a hill, fire propagation, weapons breaking mid-combat.

 

New Zelda is the Nintendo's Far Cry 2.

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I thought that whole Zelda stream was super dull. I only watched the bit that Giant Bomb streamed out but everything about it made it feel like an open world also ran.

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Is there a way to sell keys to games? I have a DOOM key, but it's for PC and I'd like to sell it in order to fund some PS4 purchases. 

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I don't think there's a way that wouldn't be considered "gray market".

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Last month I was playing through Dark Souls for the first time and having a blast. I got up to a particularly hard boss fight (Ornstein and Smough), and then went on vacation for 2 weeks. And immediately after returning, I had food poisoning for about a week. So, in total, a 3-4 week break from playing Dark Souls.

 

And now I think my playthrough is pretty much dead, unfortunately. I feel like most of the aptitude I had built up in this game is gone, and I'm not having fun running into this stone wall of a boss fight over and over again.

 

My enjoyment of video games is so fickle. Does this happen to any of you: you have to stop playing something for a while and you just can't get back into it?

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If you mean Solaire, yes, I'm doing that. I get a bit farther that way, I guess. If you mean internet dude, they don't seem to exist in this game anymore, at least when I'm playing.

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If you mean Solaire, yes, I'm doing that. I get a bit farther that way, I guess. If you mean internet dude, they don't seem to exist in this game anymore, at least when I'm playing.

 

Are you playing on PC? I fought O+S in April for the first time and the third guy I summoned helped me beat them (the first two died unceremoniously without offering much in the way of help), so there definitely are still people playing. Also, a large group of players recently started playing again solely to revitalise the online play, so soon quite a lot of them will reach O+S.

 

http://www.pcgamer.com/today-is-the-dark-souls-global-restart-day/

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I guess I didn't doubt that people were still playing, but I haven't encountered any evidence of it for a good long while.

All sort of beside the point, though. My point was, life kept me away from this video game for a month, and now I find no pleasure in it. And that's sad. :(

That restart day thing is cool, though. I've got a few more tries in me I guess. Hopefully beating these dudes will have the revitalizing effect on my enjoyment that I'm imagining it could have.

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I guess I didn't doubt that people were still playing, but I haven't encountered any evidence of it for a good long while.

All sort of beside the point, though. My point was, life kept me away from this video game for a month, and now I find no pleasure in it. And that's sad. :(

That restart day thing is cool, though. I've got a few more tries in me I guess. Hopefully beating these dudes will have the revitalizing effect on my enjoyment that I'm imagining it could have.

 

I'm not sure what region you're in, but if you're an EU player I could probably be summoned in to help depending on your level? I think I have a character sitting in DS1 that'd be about the right level for Anor Londo. (in case you don't know, you can only summon people if they're close to your level)

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I guess I didn't doubt that people were still playing, but I haven't encountered any evidence of it for a good long while.

All sort of beside the point, though. My point was, life kept me away from this video game for a month, and now I find no pleasure in it. And that's sad. :(

That restart day thing is cool, though. I've got a few more tries in me I guess. Hopefully beating these dudes will have the revitalizing effect on my enjoyment that I'm imagining it could have.

I would simply create a new character, to be honest. There's so much joy for me in these games in especially the early power arc that you can get. The unstructured nature of the game also means that you can now take a different route than you did on your first playthrough and smell the roses in other places first.

 

I'm definitely going back some time soon as well, though I've got Scholar of the First Sin waiting for me first.

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I'm in North America.

 

I would simply create a new character, to be honest. There's so much joy for me in these games in especially the early power arc that you can get. The unstructured nature of the game also means that you can now take a different route than you did on your first playthrough and smell the roses in other places first.

 

Yeah I thought about trying this. Wouldn't hurt to give it ago. First character I went in semi-blind, in that I had no idea what any of the stats meant and trusted that I could figure it out as I went along. This time I think I'll straight-up find a min-maxed build and follow it.

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Everybody is expecting the catbird to die in The Last Guardian. But what if it's the boy that dies.

 

what if.

 

:|

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I organised a "Zelda day" yesterday, and had some friends over in an attempt to play through all of A Link to the Past in a single sitting. Using Snes9x and a steam controller, which all worked largely painlessly, we sat down with copious amounts of snacks and drinks, and passed the pad every twenty mins or so.

In honour of all the filthy casuls, I named Link "Zelda". We didn't quite manage to finish in the ~9hours(!) we played, but it was a fantastic start and has served as a timely reminded, after many years of being a drapes-drawn hermit, that games are at their most engaging when sat on the sofa with your mates.

Best of all, nobody thought about the referendum *thinks about the referendum*

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*can't stop thinking about the referendum*

Nice Zelda day! Yesterday, as a micro tribute to her 20th birthday (and in an effort to stop thinking about the referendum), I cracked out my trusty N64. Man, I think it might be peak video games. LOVE that console. It's a really pleasing, beautiful, chunky object. The slight screech of the springs as the dust protectors fold and the clunk of the heavy cart slotting in...ah, it's so satisfying. The pads, all colourful; the weight of a rumble pak clicking in. Everything being 'Something 64'...

Going through an HDTV, there's some weird screen stuff going on, mainly with expansion pak games, but it's SO good. I played Bob-omb's Battlefield, a load of Rogue Squadron (still fantastic), a little Episode 1 Racer and Mumbo's Mountain. Going to play some more today.

I love the Gamecube, I love the modcons of current consoles, but N64 is toppermost of the poppermost.

...*returns to end of days referendum thinking*

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