comicallycluttered

comicallycluttered, 7 miesięcy temu

Lol, it’s actually pretty funny.

On June 14, 2007, the Yes Men acted during Canada’s largest oil conference in Calgary, Alberta, posing as ExxonMobil and National Petroleum Council (NPC) representatives. In front of more than 300 oilmen, the NPC was expected to deliver the long-awaited conclusions of a study commissioned by U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman. The NPC is headed by former ExxonMobil CEO Lee Raymond, who is also the chair of the study. When the Yes Men arrived at the conference they said that Lee Raymond (the promised speaker) was unable to make it due to a pressing situation with the president. The Yes Men then went on to give a presentation in place of Lee Raymond.

In the actual speech, the “NPC rep” announced that current U.S. and Canadian energy policies (notably the massive, carbon-intensive processing of Alberta’s oil sands, and the development of liquid coal) are increasing the chances of huge global calamities. But he reassured the audience that in the worst-case scenario, the oil industry could “keep fuel flowing” by transforming the billions of people who would die into oil.

The project, called Vivoleum, would work in perfect synergy with the continued expansion of fossil fuel production. The oilmen listened to the lecture with attention, and then lit “commemorative candles”. At this point, event security recognized the Yes Men and forced them off stage, and the ‘punchline’ — that the candles were made of Vivoleum obtained from the flesh of an “Exxon janitor” who died as a result of cleaning up a toxic spill — was not delivered to the audience, but only to reporters.

Love these kinds of protests. The fact that no one even bothered to verify anything and still listened without much resistance says a lot about these corpos. The candle thing is just the delicious cherry on top.

comicallycluttered, 7 miesięcy temu

It’s been a few years, so I’m replaying the Ace Attorney games and enjoying myself.

comicallycluttered, 7 miesięcy temu (edited 7 miesięcy temu)

I decided to just randomly try Overwatch again.

So many changes since I last played.

It really does seem like they’re just throwing shit at the wall and seeing what sticks.

Zero direction. Benefit of that? Pure chaos. As a Junk main (when I DPS, which isn’t as often as it used to be), the lack of direction and wildly inconsistent game design speaks to me on an emotional level.

As usual, it’s more enjoyable when you don’t take it even remotely seriously and just fuck around. Turns out you can ironically accomplish more when you’re not putting yourself and/or everyone else under pressure. Gives you incentive to experiment and pull off some weirdly effective shit that usually only works once, but still feels great anyway.

Win? Laugh. Lose? Laugh. It’s not that serious.

I’ll get sick of it soon and the toxicity will rear its head at some point, but right now I’m enjoying it for what it is, even if the game is an absolute shell of what it used to be.

Edit: Lol, already got sick of it again, so ditching that now.

comicallycluttered, 8 miesięcy temu (edited 8 miesięcy temu)

En Garde!

Short, but fun. Sometimes a little frustrating, but I’ve played too many games recently which either take themselves too seriously or randomly try to hit “poignant” emotional beats.

This is just straight up swashbuckling cartoony fun that I totally need right now.

comicallycluttered, 8 miesięcy temu (edited 8 miesięcy temu)

I think I might play the Tomb Raider Legend/Anniversary/Underworld trilogy. Just to get ready for the I - III remasters.

As much as I enjoy the newer trilogy, I really miss old campy Lara. The fun adventures that don’t take themselves too seriously.

Edit: Man, I forgot how finicky the controls of these games can be.

Edit 2: No, seriously, fuck these controls. Anniversary feels like a nightmare to play. Legend had its control problems, but at least there wasn’t platforming in literally every room. I can appreciate that it’s got waaaaay more puzzles (I mean, it’s a remake of the original), but that doesn’t matter if the controls make the puzzles unnecessarily frustrating.

comicallycluttered, 8 miesięcy temu (edited 8 miesięcy temu)

Tried out Palworld a couple of days ago on Game Pass.

Not really my thing. People focused on the monster catching “Pokémon with guns” stuff, but it’s still a survival/crafting/building game at its core, and I rarely ever enjoy those (there are like three exceptions total). Glad other people are enjoying it, though.

Might go back and replay Cassette Beasts at some point. Also, buy the deluxe edition with the DLC and all (I know it’s small and short, but I don’t mind) because the devs deserve every cent. Soundtrack as well, because it’s fucking awesome.

Kind of funny how I never cared about “catching 'em all” when it came to any of the Pokémon games, but I was more than happy to record everything in CB given the right motivation.

EDIT: Yeah, Cassette Beasts has been fun again. Also, I really like the DLC monsters. It is short, but it’s still a fun little experience. Started a new run with randomised monster locations and types and it feels like a different game entirely. Had to try a few times due to RNG fucking me on the first two runs, but third one is going well so far (although I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to Telekitty not being lightning).

comicallycluttered, 8 miesięcy temu

I expect Elder Scrolls VI to be similarly received. Although, it seems that after Starfield, people are definitely beginning to temper their expectations of the new TES game.

Also announced far too early and it’ll probably only start major development later this year once the Starfield DLC is out (at best), and that’ll last for about four years, but more likely somewhere around five, which means it’ll probably be released about five to six years from now, which is… At least 11 years after announcing it (2018) and a full 18+ years after Skyrim.

Someone could literally have been born after Skyrim and begun college by the time TES VI is released. It’s fucking wild.

comicallycluttered, 8 miesięcy temu (edited 8 miesięcy temu)

But movie streaming is a HOT MESS right now. I looked up the X-Men movie franchise the other day for some reason. No joke, it’s split across 3 or 4 different streaming services!

Dunkey made a pretty hilarious video about this a few days ago.

The Pokémon bit was especially funny.

comicallycluttered, 8 miesięcy temu

I finished Cassette Beasts a couple of days ago and now I can never go back to Pokémon.

I honestly can’t sing its praises enough.

Don’t even know if I can play any other monster tamers now. Still, I might pick up Coromon and/or Nexomon: Extinction or something else at some point, but man, Cassette Beasts absolutely spoiled me.

Highly recommend to anyone who’d like some chill vibes (with some dark moments to make for good contrast) and no significant stress in terms of strategy. Like, yeah, it technically matters when it comes to type advantages, but sometimes it’s just fun to fuck around and see what fusions you can come up with, regardless of type.

Oh, and if you like games where you aren’t restricted to gender norms and can romance anyone of any gender, also a good option.

I feel like if you enjoyed the vibe of games like Stardew Valley or Spiritfarer or (going old school here) Chrono Trigger, you’ll probably enjoy this, even if the gameplay is entirely different.

Honestly, even if you enjoy Pokémon but might be sick of it for whatever reason, it’s a nice change of pace as well. It has enough in common to feel familiar, but sets itself apart in a bunch of ways which make it stand entirely on its own.

Music is also great, though you might get sick of one song that repeats. And repeats. And repeats.

comicallycluttered, 8 miesięcy temu

Tell your friends I fucking loved their game and can never go back to Pokémon again because they’ve absolutely spoiled me.

Also, tell them 70% of my time ended up with me playing as Khufo and using Wonderful 7 far, far too much. Love that design (I didn’t even realise it wasn’t the default Allseer transformation until I looked online later).

comicallycluttered, 9 miesięcy temu

If Hades didn’t have God Mode (which actually works in a pretty interesting way and isn’t just invincibility or whatever), I would have given up incredibly quickly.

Once I enabled it, shit started to actually feel fun for me.

Now it’s one of my favourite ever games.

comicallycluttered, 9 miesięcy temu

Having just finished Shadow Gambit a few hours ago, I can kind of agree.

I loved it, but it did reach a point where it felt like it was going on too long and overusing some of the maps.

Regardless, if people prefer pirates over samurai/ninja or the Wild West, Shadow Gambit plays to its strengths and feels like an actual pirate game which takes a fair amount of inspiration from Ron Gilbert (of Monkey Island fame) and other swashbuckling adventures, which works out pretty nicely.

Quirky crew, pretty lighthearted, and doesn’t take itself all that seriously for the most part.

It’s fun, but can maybe overstay its welcome for some people. Best to play it over several sessions instead of diving into everything and rushing it, otherwise it’s going to feel a bit tedious.

After the several hours I spent on the final mission (which I mostly enjoyed, but for a few frustrating moments), I definitely feel I need a well-deserved break. I’ll get to the post-game later, which I actually do want to do at some point.

(And for the DLC, playing Shadow Tactics first and then playing the Yuki DLC for Gambit after is the best way to experience her character arc as well. I mean, it’s not super necessary, since she works fine standalone. But the relationship between her and Kuma is much sweeter once you know how it came about.)

comicallycluttered, 9 miesięcy temu (edited 9 miesięcy temu)

I’m sad they’re shutting down, but glad it was their decision.

I don’t think there’s anyone who does (did) stealth tactics like them, and there aren’t a ton of games in the genre to begin with, so I’ll miss them quite a lot.

comicallycluttered, 9 miesięcy temu

I find their last DLC awfully expensive, but I think I’ll buy them anyway, as I really loved all their games (bought desperados 3 day 1, same for shadow gambit, and no regrets).

I find the Zagan DLC to be a bit boring, but he’s got some really interesting abilities.

Yuki is just fucking perfect, though. She might even be a little OP. Also, she adopted Kuma. It’s great.

It also carries forward her story from Shadow Tactics in an interesting way, but remains subtle enough that no one has to have played that before to enjoy her character.

I bought the DLC at full price because I’d already gotten the base game on sale (also because the DLC hasn’t gone on sale and I wanted to finish up the collection before year’s end).

Honestly, could definitely have done without the Zagan DLC. I’d only get it if you really like his abilities (they can be legitimately fun at times) and the darker tone of his story. Otherwise, no need.

Yuki was worth every cent, though.

It’s also fun chopping everyone into wood. Her passive is basically “everyone she kills turns into a block of wood that guards don’t notice or care about”.

Link up with John and Quentin/Suleidy, and you’ll never have to drag any dead body into bushes or throw them in the ocean ever again.

comicallycluttered, 9 miesięcy temu

Decided to finish up my Mimimi collection now that they’re shutting down and I’m now in full stealth tactics mode.

I’ve been playing Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew and man, I never realized how much I miss tactical stealth games. Having so much fun.

Immediately made a beeline for the Yuki (from Shadow Tactics) DLC as soon as the option opened up.

Love that rascal and her having adopted Kuma is just perfect.

It has a super varied cast of characters as well, and I haven’t unlocked them all yet, but enjoying the ones I have so far.

I also find it kind of funny how “save-scumming” is treated as an integral mechanic in the game. Like, you don’t have to do it at all, but if you want to, the game encourages you to enjoy it and not feel bad about it as long as you’re having fun.

comicallycluttered, 9 miesięcy temu

I started playing The Outer Worlds basically right after Starfield, and it’s hard to come up with anything that Starfield did better, honestly. This is just a better version of that, for the most part, and with a good sense of humor on top of that.

Lol, I’ve actually been thinking of replaying it at some point because as soon as I started becoming frustrated with Starfield, I remembered that we already have a way better “Fallout in space” game.

Also, Parvati is my fellow ace BFF. So fucking happy I got to connect with a character, help her find romance, and not be the fucking center of attention for once. Wish RPGs did that more.

comicallycluttered, 9 miesięcy temu (edited 9 miesięcy temu)

Edit: Lol, wrote a whole thing about Elite: Dangerous here since I was about to start it.

As predicted, not for me.

Trying out Deathloop. It’s not bad, but also kind of just makes me yearn for older Arkane. I do enjoy the setting and humor, and the '60s spy-fi vibe and artstyle is great.

Just feels like it’s missing something. It might be that the whole thing is in like bite sizes as opposed to the usual “wide open levels” of other immersive sims.

A quick run through a mission takes a few minutes. They get longer as the game goes on and each Loop itself can take a bit of time to finish, but it also feels a bit like it rushes you with to the whole “times of day” thing instead of really letting you take your time and soak it all in.

All said, it’s got charm and is pretty fun. Less emphasis on stealth than I expected, but I can still generally stealth through most of it.

Also, I thought Dunkey’s video with all the kicking was just him being, well, him. But the kick is actually very versatile (sometimes feeling a little, but not too, OP) and does make for some pretty funny moments.

comicallycluttered, 9 miesięcy temu

Okay, I’m really enjoying Deathloop now. At first I wasn’t super feeling it, but as it went on, it seems to have become kind of like “Dishonored, but if it didn’t take itself seriously at all”.

Part immersive sim, part detective/puzzle game, part rogue-lite.

Has a lot in common with the Sexy Brutale as well, which is interesting, but plays very differently.

Weapons are fun and I love the '60s spy-fi vibe, so I’m enjoying it.

comicallycluttered, 10 miesięcy temu

Styx: Master of Shadows. Been meaning to play it for years.

On paper, I should be enjoying the fuck out of this. Stealth is my favorite genre, I enjoy fantasy, and it even reminds me a little of Thief in some aspects (mainly art design and some of the mechanics).

Yet, I’m just not enjoying it. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s the skill tree gating basic abilities like aerial/ledge kills, but I never had an issue with the skill tree or gated abilities in something like Dishonored, just as an example.

Maybe I’m finding the AI overly aggressive and hyper aware, but I rarely have that problem with most other stealth games, some of which do have acutely aware enemies who’ll spot you immediately.

Maybe it’s that it feels like there are just too many guards/enemies in each level, while also feeling cramped (like there’s oftentimes no corner you turn without a new enemy to deal with), which makes it crowded and much more difficult to navigate.

Maybe I’m just not vibing with the controls or the story or something.

I honestly don’t know. It just doesn’t feel fun for some reason, despite checking nearly all my boxes. It’s missing something that I can’t quite put my finger on.

comicallycluttered, 10 miesięcy temu (edited 10 miesięcy temu)

Charrua Soccer.

Man, I miss these pure arcade football games. Feels a bit like FIFA circa early 2000s, although a lot more fast-paced, no commentary, and no offsides. I would have said FIFA Street, but this sticks with the general rules, stays eleven-aside, and without super powers (although you do get some crazy screamers from outside the box and knocking in a bicycle kick feels ridiculously fun).

A little bit like Redcard in terms of silliness, though it’s been a couple of decades since I played that.

Also, bonus for having women’s teams and leagues/cups. Only about four (maybe five, I’ve forgotten) cups/leagues in total, but that’s just a touch less than FC 24 which has two women’s tournaments and five leagues.

When I saw the “store”, I was immediately all, “oh, fuck no” only to realize we’re doing good ol’ PS2-era stuff where you actually unlock things by playing (earn coins from games, buy random shit).

Now I need to try the other one I bought, Kopatino All-Stars Soccer. Looks wild with all the powers and gameplay modifiers and what have you.

Edit: Lol, Kopatino is basically a “cute” version of Redcard. No rules, foul the fuck out of everyone because no cards, score crazy goals. Powers can also result in some funny scenarios. Turns out you can teleport yourself with the ball directly into the opposing goal net because why the fuck not.

All that said, I can see myself getting a bit bored of these because I get the sense that they’re geared heavily toward multiplayer (offline included). They do have a shit ton of stuff to do, though, even single player, so who knows. Probably best for short sessions here and there, rather than longterm.

comicallycluttered, 10 miesięcy temu

EA FC 24 is so unrealistic.

Imagine Barcelona Feminí actually conceding more than like 2 goals in an average Liga F game IRL.

Ridiculous.

comicallycluttered, 10 miesięcy temu (edited 10 miesięcy temu)

Huh, didn’t even realize it had started.

Taking a look at my wishlist, and seems like I’ve got enough in my wallet to snag a couple of heavy sale games purely from all the cards I’ve sold on the marketplace.

May not get anything, though. Got tons of other shit to play and I’m not aching for anything in particular, although Charrua Soccer and Kopanito All-Star Soccer might be options because I want some good old fashioned arcade football and they seem fun enough.

Oh, and Shadow Gambit and Desperados 3, mainly because getting them now is one of the last opportunities to actually have the money go directly to Mimimi (the developers), who are shutting down end of year (which at least was their own choice and not because some publisher/holding company fired them).

Edit: Oh, I might get one of Frogware’s Sherlock games. Don’t know what the consensus is on the newer ones.

comicallycluttered, 10 miesięcy temu

Pulling off a Junkrat mine-assisted jump and destroying Pharah on a wide outdoor map is always glorious. Love(d) doing that shit.

Then just spring a trap and blast Mercy as soon as she immediately goes to res the dead Egyptian rocket lady, because that’s what she almost always does.

Man, I miss the good days of that game.

comicallycluttered, 10 miesięcy temu

Lol, some of these replies…

I think you know what it is you enjoy, so you’ve just got to remember not to fall into that trap of “well, everyone says it’s good, so I must try it”.

The great reviews come from the people who already enjoy that kind of game. Like, reviewers on a site usually favor specific genres. If something gets a good review, you’ve got to put it into the context of whether or not it’s something the reviewer usually plays.

You’re not often going to see an RPG review by someone who mostly plays platformers.

So if an RPG is good to an RPG-enjoyer reviewer, and most of the people picking it up are already RPG fans, then good reviews are always going to be biased in favor of people who enjoy that gaming experience.

My advice?

Take a look at the tags on Steam. I know they’re user-submitted and “RPG” is on like every fucking game now, but things like “turn-based”, “tactical”, “simulation”, “crafting”, and a few others I’m forgetting will most likely be the things you’ll want to avoid (maybe there will be some exceptions here and there).

Also, wait a bit. No need to play games immediately. Play some stuff you enjoy for a year and then see if you still want to play it.

As for how and why people play these games… Just preference really. It comes down to the energy and time someone’s willing to commit. Neither a good thing or bad thing. Some find that thrilling, others find it chore. Both perspectives are perfectly valid.

Sometimes, people just enjoy them as is without getting too deep and never bother with “the meta” or whatever. Usually one of two things happens here: either they really enjoy it because they don’t have people backseat gaming them and telling them how to play and they’re finding creative ways to do things, or they find it a miserable experience because it’s just not fun if they don’t like the core mechanics.

I personally don’t have the energy for “deep complex games”, despite enjoying RPGs and immersive sims. I don’t ever bother with crafting or strategy games (although I did get into Civ V for a while, which was nice).

Over the years, I’ve learned what I like, what I don’t like, and just wait things out. Game Pass and deep sales help a lot here, actually. (Also other options, but not strictly ones people necessarily approve of for various reasons.)

comicallycluttered, 10 miesięcy temu

Finished up Return of the Obra Dinn earlier.

I’ll admit I started getting a bit frustrated about halfway through, but then some more stuff started clicking and I managed to get through the rest.

I had looked up a couple of hints to point me in the right direction when I was stuck, which I ended up only needing for about three cases. Admittedly, I did also brute force some shit with pure guesswork, but I don’t really mind all that much.

Still, it was interesting. Might hit up some other detective game soon, not quite sure.

comicallycluttered, 10 miesięcy temu (edited 10 miesięcy temu)

Edit of original comment:

Loaded up Vampyr after ditching it a while ago. Remembered why I didn’t enjoy it and ditched it again.

Took a break, listened to some podcasts, saw Jusant finally got an accessibility update which makes it actually playable for me, so going to spend some more time with that, since I can actually enjoy it without destroying my wrists now.

comicallycluttered, 10 miesięcy temu

God, I so badly want more.

There’s maybe a chance that the Adam Jenson trilogy gets finished up, but the Embracer situation has made that less clear.

comicallycluttered, 10 miesięcy temu (edited 10 miesięcy temu)

More stealth games that aren’t horror and don’t allow you to punch or shoot your way out of the situation, should you get caught.

If you have any weapons, make them underpowered to the point of useless in combat (eg. Thief) or you just have gadgets to use that won’t help if you get caught (except maybe something that helps you get away like smoke bombs or some shit).

At the same time, though, I don’t want that “get caught, immediate game over” thing. You should still be able to run away and hide or whatever. Just make it exciting enough that you don’t feel like you need to load up a quicksave.

Similarly (if not directly related to stealth), more espionage/spy games. Not as many as there used to be.

I’d also like more actual detective games. Zero action and preferably ones that let you fuck up a case by accusing the wrong person or making the wrong conclusions and have it impact the narrative. Like, if you get it wrong, you get it wrong and you have to live with that. There are several currently, but I’d love more.

comicallycluttered, 11 miesięcy temu

Still on my ten hour trial of FC 24, which is almost done.

Trash optimization, but I prefer the gameplay over 23. Still not going to buy it.

It’ll probably come to regular EA Play around May/June, so it’s not a terrible wait and not like I’m in a rush.

I do wish we had more straight up arcade football games. EA tries too hard to straddle the line between “sim” and “arcade” and feels less fun because of it (IMO), especially in comparison to the older FIFA games.

The only reason I really play it is because right now it’s the only game with actual women’s teams.

They do the bare minimum, and the commentary reflects that better than anything (more generic than male teams, also occasionally hear “he/him/his”, though it’s fairly rare), but at least it’s something.

Otherwise, I booted up Mad Max the other day as a spontaneous decision. Seems fairly fun and might get into that, but I could also just catch up on TV. Who knows.

comicallycluttered, 11 miesięcy temu

May have something to do with this.

To be honest, ever since that news hit, I’ve been expecting something like this to happen.

I’m actually surprised it took as long as it has.

comicallycluttered, 11 miesięcy temu

They’ll definitely release the CK.

But it’s not for the benefit of modders anymore. It’s because of how they can monetize them like they did with Skyrim and Fallout’s “Creation Club”.

Get modders to make what’s essentially some minor DLC for you and offer it at a “small price” or with a “Special Edition upgrade” while those same modders are actually making waaaaay better mods and releasing them for free on Nexus or wherever (this is basically the state of Skyrim AE; some very notable modders did some cool stuff for CC, but their other mods were way fucking beyond those in terms of quality).

comicallycluttered, 11 miesięcy temu

Lol, I love how they can’t mention it in the article, but freeing the main bugfixing patch from Arthmoor’s grasp is probably a bigger accomplishment than the patch itself.

comicallycluttered, 11 miesięcy temu

Started the Dead Space remake.

Played up to chapter 4 and not really vibing with it. I don’t usually like ditching games when I’ve already sunk time into them, but I’m not really having much fun with it, so I might switch over to Jusant or something.

Or just watch some TV I’ve been meaning to catch up on instead. Don’t know. We’ll see.

comicallycluttered, 11 miesięcy temu

Okay, so started Jusant.

In a weird way, it reminds me of the 2008 Prince of Persia game. Mainly because there was also a lot of climbing and platforming there, and also because of something I guess is story-related so won’t get into.

Anyway, doubt I can keep it up for much more. If they had a toggle option for the triggers, maybe, but it’s hell on my already strained wrists.

Otherwise, it seems like a nice little game. Probably just not for me.

comicallycluttered, 11 miesięcy temu

Agree with others that length/price ratio doesn’t really reflect how much I enjoy a game.

If I like it, I like it. The hours are irrelevant to me. I can get just as much enjoyment out of a six hour game with zero replayability as I can with a dozens-of-hours-long replayable RPG. It’s the experience, not the time.

Also, with Game Pass and the fact that I buy everything on sale, there’s no real good answer if I did approach it that way.

That said, the only two games I’ve bought at full price in the last decade or so were Breath of the Wild and Spider-Man PS4.

Massively fun and I didn’t feel like I had wasted any money.

comicallycluttered, rok temu

Gotham Knights.

It’s not terrible, but it’s pretty much what I was expecting.

Could really do without the crafting shit and leveling system. I know the Arkham games also had skill trees and what have you, but it wasn’t ever as bad as this.

I do think I fucked myself over a bit in not focusing on the main story early on, because I very nearly burned myself out on the side activities.

Turns out that a lot of my issues are kind of addressed at key points in the main story as well, so I really should focus on it more (like getting the glider thingy from Lucius, which I had no idea existed and would have been a tremendous help earlier on when I was navigating the unnecessarily large - and, to be honest, very boring - open world).

comicallycluttered, rok temu

Man, Unity was so good.

If anyone enjoyed the earlier AC games, but avoided Unity because of bugs or bad press from its admittedly disastrous launch, all of that is mostly ironed out (at least on PC), so give it a shot.

It holds up surprisingly well, honestly, and probably has the best movement and parkour in the entire series.

Plus Revolutionary Paris is one of their best environments. Like, I like them all, but Paris is particularly well-done (I’d make a joke about Notre-Dame being well-done as well, but that was more of a medium-well result).

comicallycluttered, rok temu (edited rok temu)

Theoretically, you should be able to fix it by going into the command line (if on PC) and disabling it from there.

Unfortunately, without a specific mod installed as well, that will also disable all of your achievements.

Also, no guarantee that the thing stuck to your ship is just a single item. If it’s treated like a ship with a bunch if interiors and exterior components, this is a useless method because you’ll need to disable every single door, piece of furniture, clutter, whatever else is attached to the ship exterior, etc. (Also need to be careful not to disable your own ship.)

comicallycluttered, rok temu

Shalebridge Cradle is one of the most terrifying fucking levels I’ve ever played.

Like, you know something bad and creepy is coming up before the level. The dialogue hints, the general unease around the building, random things here and there in the game, etc.

Yet it still hits you like a brick to the face. Nothing prepared me for it.

No surprise the lead designer for that level went on to design one of the more creepy parts of BioShock as well.

comicallycluttered, rok temu

The beginning of the “campaign” in Battlefield 1 was really good about this.

SPOILERS AHEAD ^(I know there are spoiler tags, but they don’t work on my app.)

Opening begins with the following:

Battlefield 1 is based upon events that unfolded over one hundred years ago.

More than 60 million soldiers fought in “The War to End All Wars”.

It ended nothing. Yet it changed the world forever.

What follows is frontline combat.

You are not expected to survive.

You’re then thrown into the start of a regular battle. This is the game, right? Cool, let’s shoot some bad guys.

Nope. Doesn’t matter how good you are, you will die. After you get killed, the name of the soldier and how many years he’d lived are shown on-screen.

Then you switch perspectives to a different kind of battle (eg. artillery, air, tank, etc.). Same thing. This goes on a few times.

Eventually you reach a point where it’s just you, face to face with a lone German soldier, your rifles pointed at each other. Both soldiers just lower their guns, realizing the futility of it all.

Intro ends.

The rest of the game is the typical military FPS stuff we’re used to, but that intro was pretty great about how war has no winners when it comes to individuals on the battlefield. We all lose in the end, whether we live or not.

comicallycluttered, rok temu

I think I might get started on New Vegas again. Maybe. I’ve got a lot of other shit to keep me occupied, so we’ll see.

It’s been years, so while it won’t be “playing it like new”, I’ve forgotten enough to keep it a little bit fresh.

Just need to sort out my mod list first. All the major bugfixes and shit are there, but I want to add some of the radio mods and maybe updated character models or just textures in general (although I honestly don’t care much about graphics, but still).

Everything else is staying the same.

(For radio, I might actually add some audio drama podcasts and older radio dramas that I feel could still fit in the world of Fallout. Pretty much anything pre-Atomic Era works without needing some suspension of disbelief since the timeline only split around or slightly after WWII.)

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“Fools! This isn’t even our final form!”

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Considering the chart still lists Starfield’s release date as “H1 2023”, it was probably made before Starfield’s delay and Spencer’s comments on it being 5+ years away are probably more in line with their current outlook.

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Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Although, it’s less foresight for random actions and more of a way to set the tone for the rest of the game.

There are two possible outcomes of how one of the early missions plays out, depending on actions you wouldn’t initially consider.

There’s a hostage crisis and if you don’t listen to Sarif and get to the transport on time, they’ll all be dead when you arrive there.

Thing is, you’re not really given like a ticking clock on the top of your screen or anything. And in most games, you expect the “meet me there now” thing to not actually matter much, because oftentimes NPCs will act either as if we’re perfectly on time or just make a minor note about it in dialogue. We’re also used to most missions starting the same or only with minor differences depending on choice, but there is no explicit choice here.

So if you treat it like any other game, ignore the quest marker, and just wander around the building, exploring and looking for interesting shit before actually leaving, you arrive at the location and get berated because you took too long and now a bunch of innocent people are dead because you were fucking around.

If you go immediately, you have a chance to actually save them all.

I think you’ll actually find a lot of stuff like this in immersive sims, just due to their nature, although it’s less “we know you’re going to do this exact thing” and more “you’ve got freedom and we know you’re going to do something we didn’t expect, so we’ll embrace that instead of limiting your options”.

I know that when Arkane was developing Prey, they knew the GLOO Cannon was going to be experimented with in a bunch of ways that they couldn’t necessarily anticipate, so instead of imposing limits on it, they embraced it, gave the gun to you at the beginning (well, very close to beginning) and just said “go wild”.

They basically turned what would otherwise just be a random, only semi-important utility into a super useful tool for traversal and combat engagement. Went from “cool, does gluey things” to “okay, I’m going to make a staircase with this thing because it looks like there’s something up there”.

Apparently, they were inspired by Bethesda’s famous lack of usable ladders up until that point, which is pretty funny. Or rather, they used that as a metaphor for design in general (though, they did put up posters or notes or something that just said “NO FUCKING LADDERS”, if I recall, but I’ll have to find the video/article about that later).

It was basically this approach of “there doesn’t need to be a ladder if you can make one yourself”.

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Progression is a real grind. 32 hours in and I’m only level 22, AND I feel like I don’t have skill points in basically anything compared to how big the skill tree is.

Thank you. I’m in a similar situation and finding that the grind is really annoying with not a lot of payoff. And then you’ve got so many skills to invest in and you never quite know if you’ll actually need some of them.

I know planets don’t all have to be super interesting, but I dread landing on anything now, because they’re just… so boring to me.

Running to buildings from landing spots is a real bore.

Don’t know if you know this already, but bringing up your scanner and pointing it to your ship icon lets you fast travel to it.

Also, you can skip the whole “return to ship” thing altogether and open up the star map or whatever it’s called and immediately jump to space and set course/land on another planet. I think it only works if you’re unencumbered, though, but I’m not certain.

Edit: Lol, I accidentally misread that as “running from buildings to landing spots”, so ignore that last bit. Hard agree on running to the buildings. At least in TES/FO there’s interesting stuff along the way. Here, it’s just rocks and minerals and maybe a few animals.

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The factions are all boring. Permanent skills, with no respec options?! And for god’s sake, let me eat food on the ground by long pressing E.

Apparently that last one is being added with an update soon.

I think the factions are okay, but not nearly as good as their counterparts in previous games (eg. NCR > Freestar Collective, although that’s probably more thanks to Obsidian than Bethesda).

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Lol, that’s actually fucking hilarious.

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I think the problem is also that Bethesda doesn’t really “do” vehicles, probably due to engine limitations.

Usually, it’s just horses or “passenger” travel (like when you man the guns in FO4 birds). I guess one could maybe consider power armor in FO4 to be kind of like a “vehicle”, but it works more or less the same as just walking around.

Oh, there is dragon riding in Skyrim, but it’s a mess and you don’t have that much control.

I’m surprised the engine can even handle space combat, honestly. And 360° movement as well, which would have been great for dragon riding in Skyrim. But most of the dragons in TES are dead, so we probably won’t get proper dragon riding in whatever TES: VI is.

(Sidenote about dragon riding/combat: Before Larian delved further into CRPGs, they made a regular third person RPG where you could play as a dragon. It was actually pretty fun. Still didn’t have full control, and it was only in certain sections, but it was entertaining. Divinity II: Director’s Cut, in case anyone’s interested. Don’t know how well it’s aged, but I enjoyed it a few years ago.)