I’ve been playing Kid Icarus (NES) here and there, and really having a good time.
My past experience with it was with the 3D Classics release on 3DS. I guess I didn’t stick with it very long, but I remember thinking it was excessively difficult at the time.
This time around I’m just winging it. But this time I had more patience and managed to make it past 1-3. That level does have a lot going on. You’re early in the game, so barely any health. You’re platforming upwards, so the ground that was below you scrolls away for constant death traps. And you’re being pressured to move quickly, by enemies spawning in from below. You also can’t afford pretty much anything from the shops to help you. Makes a satisfying little challenge.
After that you get to a labyrinth, which is like a teeny tiny Metroidvania. Very different kind of pace and feel that makes for a fun change up. I’m on the second labyrinth now, and I think I’m gonna have to take paper notes next time to navigate.
The going seems much easier now in world 2’s platforming stages, since I have several powerups. Glad this game has infinite continues and gives passwords though.
Anyway, I want to be playing more of the new DK… but right now KI’s been kinda hitting the spot.
I’ve basically been marathoning Kingdom Come: Deliverance II. It’s hard to state just how much improved from the original game without writing a book, but the highlights are that combat is way better, the stealth is way better, the mission designs largely don’t ask you to do anything tedious for the sake of “immersion” without something interesting happening along the way, and they do a better job of recording everything you need to know about a quest in your journal this time around, while signaling the things that they won’t. I’m having a hard time putting the game down. It’s Witcher 3 levels of “every side quest is interesting”, and the game gives you a lot of freedom. My alchemy skill is now maxed out, and there’s basically no problem I can’t solve with potions. So far, this is the best game I’ve played this year.
I remember you asking. It’s fun seeing familiar faces.
I’m excited too play though! I like to give games a try myself and not just take popular consensus on them (assuming the games are morally just ofc) and I wanted to try this. The consensus seems to be all over the place because I see people saying either it was really good Or it was the worst thing ever. I’m excited though to try it
It’s so good I stopped playing half way and installed mods to make it harder, imposed some self-restrictions and made it work in VR (Vorpx) so that I can be fully immersed in the experience, reading all the logs which I never do in games and try to milk every bit of this masterpiece. I have not finished it yet, but it’s still the best game ever made in my book.
And to think I took like 4 years to buy it and thought the trailers made it look boring as hell - I was new to immsims back then…
Honnestly, even with just a controller and the usual “gunface” from Vorpx, it’s more immersive than most actual VR games, and since weapons are more of a fallback/tool in this game. Well worth a bit of config with Vorpx.
Damn. Redfall kind of explains it. I remember seeing bad reviews for it. I had kind of hoped it would get a sort-of-but-not-really redemption arc like Back 4 Blood did with how it kind of found its player base. Albeit small
I think it’s definitely worth trying. I thought it was popularly received but I’m hearing some people were mixed. If you have Game pass I believe it was on there so it’s worth trying
It’s a metroidvania of sorts, it’s great from a game mechanic standpoint (lots of ways to beat the game, lots of possible builds for your character), but you do feel very lonely throughout it. The environments manage to stay more or less varied given the fact that you’re on a space station, and the art direction is fantastic.
I think it suffered from being named after another game and a lot of people being confused or disappointed by it having nothing to do with Prey from 2006. It should have gotten a different name. I played it for the first time last year, can recommend.
Same with wowhead or runescape wiki. Really kills the video game wonder.
Good news is that you can just ignore that if you want to. I recently played classic wow without any external tools and it was such a fun, adventurous experience!
I’ve long argued that games like Minecraft and Stardew Valley with their seeming inability to actually teach you the game have become far too overreliant on Wikis and walkthroughs. Minecraft for example: its highly unlikely you will naturally discover the path to “winning the game” and defeating the Ender Dragon. Its arcane nonsense.
Mine
Craft
Go to Hell
Go to the End
Kill the Dragon
The official Guide expects you to do this in ways that are 1 no longer possible and 2 rely on innate understanding of the physics of the game (specifically that beds explode when used outside the overworld [excuse me what the fuck how am I supposed to recognize that can be a weapon?]).
It is heavily implied in “Minecraft: Guide to The Nether and The End” (part of the official guidebook series published my mojang) that you’re meant to use beds to cheese the dragon. This is the easiest and most effective way to handle the Dragon, but its arcane nonsense, as stated in my previous comment t.
All of the Elden-Soulsborne games are like that but it never really bothered me. I would have missed tons of the game without the wiki as help, just because of how crazy their games are with hiding stuff
Those are what’s known as knowledge gated games, where your progression as a player is either wholly or mostly tied to your own personal knowledge of how the game world works. Indeed, many of the mechanics may make no sense due to being crude mockeries of how the real world works. But some of them have become so ingrained in the popular consciousness that developers of later Indie Crafty Survival Sandboxy games can rely on the notion that most players will reflexively begin their adventure by punching a tree, and can probably accurately guess what the crafting shape of a pickaxe will be. This is no doubt down to the Earth-shattering popularity of Minecraft itself.
If you ask me, these games refusing to handhold the player and letting them discover things for themselves is part of their appeal. Expecting to be able to dive right in and know everything right from the starting block really rather misses the point. You have to admit that if you’ve been playing, say, Minecraft since the alpha days, your experience and approach to the game if you spun up a new world right now would be vastly different from your first playthrough, and none of the wonder or sense of discovery would be present.
Gating progression by knowledge (byzantine knowledge though it may be, e.g. in the case of specifically knowing not only how to construct a portal out of obsidian but also activate it by lighting it on fire) mirrors real life in an ineffable way that skill or time/microtransaction/XP accrual gated games can’t.
Some games do both. For instance, ask any Dark Souls player. The Souls games are both knowledge gated and very, infamously, exasperatingly skill gated.
I actually played Noita before. I though I was doing pretty good by myself, managed to get quite deep. Then somebody told me about the outside map and all the parallel worlds and wow…
the thing about noita is that you think you’ve discovered the entire game and you’re impressed with how much there was to find, then you notice something and find another game to discover, then you watch a video on noita and realize you found roughly a fifth of the actual full game content
I’m gonna push back on this idea. Take Rimworld. It’s also a “have the wiki open” game. The game tells you how long plants take to mature, but there is a mechanic that plants “rest” a certain amount of time that isn’t mentioned anywhere, so the figure is just flat wrong for all plants by some factor (same factor for all plants). I love these types of games, but it’s not an excuse for relying on wikis to explain things.
I actually replayed runescape classic as Ironman recently and surprisingly most quests can be solved without the wiki! It’s takes much longer though but so much more fun. You get to explore the world more and its a really good world with most characters having some personality and little areas that have you’d never visit otherwise.
The more time passes, the more I feel Prey was one of the best games I’ve ever played. Can’t really feel bad for System Shock 3 not happening, Prey was the SS3 that I wanted.
I really hope Raph Colantonio’s new game delivers more immersive sim goodness upon this world, games with such reactivity are sorely missed.
I’ve only played parts of the first System Shock, so can’t speak of that or its remake until I finish it. But Prey’s very much a spiritual successor to System Shock 2, devs have said it themselves, and the similarities are a ton. Prey (2016) is still its own thing, different story, world etc., but the underlying immersive sim systems, the once again story of “you’re locked in this space station/ ship gone wrong and have to gradually progress through it while finding all its inhabitants mysteries” - it hits the same notes and it’s exactly what you’d want from a spiritual successor.
I think you’ll get a similar kick of the System Shock 2 remaster, the first one might be a tad more retro and limited even with the modern remake.
Absolutely love this game for a lot of the reasons you listed and more. They really give you a lot of tools to toy around with and solve problems your own way. I spent my first playthrough carrying turrets everywhere with me and setting up killzones to lure enemies into, spent another using my powers to blast the shit out of everything, and then yet another using the goo gun on just about everything I could. That goo gun seems lackluster at first but really is one hell of a useful tool. Black hole grenade things are awesome too, use them wisely to get a ton of good resources.
A lot of people did not like the mooncrash DLC but I found it enjoyable too. Its definitely different, with the way you need to replay and upgrade characters between who each have a different set of skills. The hazards change each playthrough but the map layout itself doesn’t. When you learn your way around its satisfying to do the whole thing in one run trying to get every character to escape. Just takes a different kind of planning. Maybe being on a timer messed people up,
The turrets are a lifesaver. Set up a firing line and bait the enemies into it. Maybe provide assistance fire with the Goo Gun and it makes quick work of everything.
I’m not big on rougelites, maybe I should give it a try though. It doesn’t seem like it’d be too expensive on sale
Maybe I should start a list of everything I’ve played. I’ve certainly got enough for a good list and I’ve saved everything I’ve 100% in a Steam list, so I’ve already got some of them tracked
bin.pol.social
Aktywne