Coelacanth

Coelacanth, miesiąc temu

That clip of Jim Cummings talking to a fan and telling them “please remind Larian that I exist” still breaks my heart. I guess Matt Mercer is a cheap PR move or something to boost sales but I wish Jim got to come back to do Minsc.

Coelacanth, miesiąc temu

Also who replaces ::: spoiler spoiler Viconia. Though the whole character assassination of Sarevok and Viconia in itself is a travesty. :::

Studios like Remedy and Sandfall have shown you can have mocap done by an actor other than the voice actor and still end up with a great product. Stuff like this is just one of the many little things that make me feel like Larian had very little regard for the original games, and only used the IP for brand recognition and marketing. Which makes me sad.

Coelacanth, miesiąc temu

Slogging through Cronos: The New Dawn, probably around the 60% mark now, maybe a bit more? I’m at the Hospital area, which I think is the final main area out of three. I have a lot of things to say about this game, and not too many of them are positive sadly. I’m really on the verge of dropping it and have actually taken a break from it today playing other games.

And it’s a shame because Cronos does have its qualities. It’s beautiful to look at, both visually stunning and with environments displaying immaculate art direction. The atmosphere is on point, and both the alternate-reality Poland with its brutalist nightmare architecture and the sci-fi future tech is fantastically realized - with the caveat that the “Travellers” the protagonist belongs to might be a tad derivative of Bioshock Big Daddies.

Where the game falls flat, sadly is the gameplay. First of all it’s a survival horror with a heavy emphasis on survival and a very weak “horror”. The game is not really particularly scary, even accounting for the occasional cheap jump scare. Instead it’s an absolutely gruelling action slog where the real horror is inventory management and ammunition scarcity. And this would have been fine if the action gameplay was good, but it’s just… boring, stale and uninspired.

The enemies are just the blandest garden variety zombies you can imagine, the touted “merge” mechanic feels cosmetic at best and doesn’t factor in as much as you’d think and without a dodge button a lot of the fights are just running around kiting and waiting for a chance to charge up a shot and repeat. Most enemies are slow enough that it doesn’t even feel particularly thrilling, you’re not really in danger and are just waiting for them to go into an animation you can punish.

On top of that the ammo scarcity is so ridiculous that I often feel compelled to reload my last save if I miss more than two shots in a fight as I don’t want to risk getting soft locked. I know I’m not a god gamer and my aim isn’t the best, but it feels too harsh. And yes, I’m charging every shot to conserve ammo already.

On top of that the body-burning mechanic combined with the restrictions on flamethrower fuel dispensers leads to repeated situations of running back-and-forth between bodies and a dispenser for like 10 minutes straight, which feels like an enormously unfun waste of time and just adds to the endless tedium and frustration the game delivers constantly.

And it’s a shame because the story is actually kinda intriguing. It’s what’s kept me going this far. I do like the world building, the mysterious “Collective” you belong to has me interested still and when the story delves into some more philosophical musings occasionally I am enjoying myself. It could still all fall flat though, as this is a time travel story and those often devolve into timey-wimey messes full of plot holes that fall apart under close inspection. But so far I’m still wanting to see how it ends.

Coelacanth, miesiąc temu

Ooh I remember hearing about that game last year. I was intrigued by the appeal of the premise of like, playing a bit part character in the universe so to speak. The idea of the “real conflict” happening between massively powerful factions and creatures in the background while you scuttle in their shadow felt very interesting.

Coelacanth, miesiąc temu

Yeah I remember that. Definitely will keep tracking this game, sounds cool!

Coelacanth, miesiąc temu

At this point I trust Fitgirl repacks more than some official publishers.

Coelacanth, miesiąc temu (edited miesiąc temu)

Argo Tuulik along with Martin Luiga were players in Robert Kurvitz’s Elysium TTRPG sessions, perhaps less important than Robert in the creative process and world building but still definitely participating enough to be considered co-creators of the setting. Torson and Mcclane were characters created and played by Argo and Martin during the tabletop sessions, for example.

Argo Tuulik was also a writer for Disco Elysium who was hugely important to the game, and wrote several iconic parts of it like the Hardie Boys. His involvement in trusting the people who betrayed Robert is something he personally regrets, and has talked about in his extensive interviews with the 41st Precinct YouTube channel.

EDIT: Argo Tuulik’s interview series below. Be warned it’s like 20 hours of content. Interview part 1Interview part 2Interview part 3

ZA/UM - The Inside Story Part 1ZA/UM - The Inside Story Part 2

Coelacanth, miesiąc temu

Yeah I agree. I never used Gamepass as I am not the target audience, but the value proposition made sense to me and I understood why some people paid for it.

This new pricing makes no sense at all, wouldn’t you rather just buy the games you want at that point? $360 a year gets you a lot of games, even accounting for a couple of AAA day one purchases every year.

Coelacanth, miesiąc temu

I’m not sure I understand the camera mechanic but it looks cool! Mannequins moving when you’re not looking reminds me of the weeping angels from Doctor Who.

Coelacanth, miesiąc temu

Spoiler tags aren’t working for me either, I don’t think they’re correct for Lemmy markdown. It should look like this:

::: spoiler Spoiler Title

Spoiler text body goes here

:::

And hopefully work like:

Spoiler TitleSpoiler text body goes here

---

Anyway for Cyberpunk endings I agree, and happy endings don’t really go with the setting. Personally the one I felt best about was doing the “Don’t Fear The Reaper” secret ending path into the Temperance ending, for me that was an awesome and fitting resolution. But I had grown quite close with Johnny over my playthrough. Caveat that I haven’t finished the DLC yet and I know it adds endings, so maybe I’ll like one of those better.

Coelacanth, miesiąc temu

Nothing has ever hit me harder than Disco Elysium, and I don’t think anything else ever will. Everything from its themes of failure and depression and addiction and clinging to the past to its surprising message of hope in the face of unrelenting nihilism resonated with me on a molecular level. And the Final Dream is just the single most impactful, emotional and heart-rending moment I’ve had in any game ever. The culmination of the entire game distilled into one scene, and even the whole pathos of that one scene concentrated into three closing words:

spoiler“See you tomorrow”

Coelacanth, miesiąc temu

Reaching Room 46 the first time is the first of like three or four natural jumping-off points, I’d say. You can totally stop playing there if you’re satisfied, but if you want to keep digging you can go so much deeper.

Coelacanth, miesiąc temu

For me that was the first ending I got, Rogue’s path followed by the Sun. I felt like absolute shit afterwards personally. I took Johnny’s offer because I was appealed by the idea of redemption, but instead he dragged Rogue down with him one last time. And then in Path Of Glory V had learned nothing, discarded all the character growth and ignored every lesson to instead let Night City consume her like it does everyone else that fails to realize it’s a festering swamp you must leave behind at all costs. That’s why the two endings that have a positive undertone - The Star and Temperance - involve the main character leaving Night City behind.

Coelacanth, miesiąc temu

That formatting is what Reddit uses and Sync still has the code to process it.

Coelacanth, miesiąc temu

Finished Enotria: The Last Song and even did a quick NG+ run to get the secret ending and its achievement. Not going to bother with 100%-ing it, however. I really enjoyed my time with it overall. For a somewhat janky AA Soulslike it’s got a lot of charm and the Commedia Dell’Arte framing is great. Beautiful environments and some well designed levels, enough fun to be had with the skill tree, loadout switching, active abilities and elemental/status system. Not too hard (which is fine by me at this stage of my life) and short enough to not overstay its welcome. If you’re a Soulslike fan and can stomach AA games it’ll do the job if you’re done with the usual suspects. I still wouldn’t pay full price for it, but as part of the current €17 Humble Bundle it feels like good value and if you’re not interested in the other games in there then keep it in mind for a future deep sale.

Next I’m not sure. I started playing GRIME that I’ve had my eye on for a while and snagged recently when it was on an all-time low sale, but even though I can tell it’s really good it’s not grabbed me yet. Spooktober made me pirate Cronos: The New Dawn to try it and see if I like it, otherwise I have an impending Alan Wake 2 revisit planned. I still haven’t played the DLCs but I want to replay the Final Draft again first in preparation.

Coelacanth, miesiąc temu (edited miesiąc temu)

Did the customary scroll through my 50-game wishlist for irresistible 80-90% discounts and basically came up empty. Most of the deep sales are games that will surely be on another deep sale before I finish my upcoming few planned games to play, nevermind my whole backlog. Normally I end up adding something to the pile out of the old “well this is too good to pass up” but for once my wallet might be safe.

Maybe I give in to temptation and pickup one of Virgo Versus The Zodiac(-70%), The Banner Saga(-80%) or Salt and Sanctuary(-75%).

Coelacanth, miesiąc temu

If it would have had Swedish voice acting I would have bought it.

Coelacanth, miesiąc temu

I think he’s talking about the second one, which I’ve heard mixed things about. I thought the first one was an excellent - albeit short - experience that knows what it tries to do and doesn’t do anything else.

Coelacanth, miesiąc temu

I’d probably have snapped it up already if I didn’t recently buy GRIME on an all-time low deep sale and it sort of fulfills the same niche.

I had no idea about co-op actually but I don’t have anyone to play with so it probably won’t move the needle for me.

I will get to it eventually though, it looks great.

Coelacanth, miesiąc temu

Isthereanydeal.com is such a good resource for knowing if a deal is actually a rare opportunity or it’s a game that comes up for deep sale constantly.

Coelacanth, miesiąc temu

Yeah I’m feeling a little out of the loop here. I know of The Crew only because of it being the flashpoint starting Stop Killing Games. Is it supposed to be a timeless classic I’m missing out on?

Coelacanth, 2 miesiące temu

I feel like I’m the only one unexcited by this. It looks good and reviews well but 50ish hours of Ghost of Tsushima was more than enough for me. I don’t really have appetite for another helping of “more of the same”.

Coelacanth, 2 miesiące temu

A remaster like this is pointless in the first place, it’s not meaningfully doing anything to make people play it who wouldn’t otherwise. A proper Nightdive-style remake is what the game deserves.

Coelacanth, 2 miesiące temu

I guess that’s probably fair. I never had huge issues with them but it’s been a hot minute since I last played through.

Coelacanth, 2 miesiące temu

I’m playing two games at once this week, firstly I’m playing bits and pieces of Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword on my 3DS. It’s a really great game so far, super fun and surprisingly good at translating the mainline NG gameplay onto a handheld and using stylus input for controls. Might well end up one of my favourite DS/3DS games when I’m done with it. I’m about halfway through so far I think.

I’m also playing through Enotria: The Last Song on PC for the first time. So far I’m having a blast with it, after some initial information overload I’m finally starting to engage with the systems and am starting to really enjoy using the stances and elemental rock-paper-scissors. From what I’ve seen so far it does not really deserve its mixed steam reviews - yes, there is some jank and it’s plainly AA but there is a lot of good to make up for it. The world design is gorgeous, the level design is great with lots of verticality and the setting is so lovely and unique. I have heard it’s fairly short, and I do maybe concur that it might not merit a full price purchase, but I do think it’s worth wishlisting for a deep sale if you like the genre. I’m having a lot of fun with it so far.

Coelacanth, 2 miesiące temu (edited 2 miesiące temu)

What difficulty setting were you playing on? I think Story mode post nerfs should be manageable even if you get hit a lot - at least as far as main story goes.

If you want to give it another shot, invest in HP and Defense, bring a healer and build Maelle as a tank with Egide to give yourself a lot of margins and sort of grind out encounters safely. There aren’t many DPS checks - if any.

Late game you can stack so much damage on Maelle that she one-shots everything, if you like.

Its a great game and worth trying to finish. Now as far as the optional superboss… Yeah, that’s another story.

Coelacanth, 2 miesiące temu

I couldn’t beat it “fairly” either, but approaching it as a puzzle fight where you’re trying to figure out how to deal with its bullshit is also kind of fun. I ended up stunlocking it, which in itself you can do in several different ways. The game has a lot of fun things you can do with builds.

Or just Stendhal.

Coelacanth, 2 miesiące temu

Lune was by far my favourite to use mechanically, the stains system just made for such fun planning of rotations. There is a lot of fun with various weapon combos too, like the Potierim support build that applies Greater Slow. I personally used her as AP and buff battery with Typhoon giving everyone max AP and refreshing greater versions of all buffs every turn. And then I used Braselim with Storm Caller and Lightning Dance to farm a tier 3 Gradient every turn.

The Genesis build is AP efficient but once you have 9 every turn it gets outdamaged by Lightning Dance (single target) and Hell (AoE). Though you wouldn’t guess so going by the astronomically poor and unclear skill descriptions.

I didn’t get Medalum either but honestly you don’t need it. The one shot builds only need it pre Cheater to start in Virtuoso, after that you can just Last Chance anyway.

Coelacanth, 2 miesiące temu

250GB install sizes plus an additional 100GB shader caches. This is what the future looks like, buckle up.

Coelacanth, 2 miesiące temu

Make sure you play the Mankind Divided DLCs after! A Criminal Past in particular is probably the best “new Deus Ex” content they ever put out.

Also, congrats on being made a mod! I literally cannot think of a better person for the role.

Coelacanth, 2 miesiące temu

If the recent pathetic patent filings were not enough to finally wake you up to what an awful company Nintendo are I don’t know what to tell you.

Coelacanth, 2 miesiące temu

Existing IPs, maybe. But the real point of this patent is to stifle innovation and preempt competition. No indie developer is going to dare enter this creative space anymore as they don’t have the resources to challenge Nintendo’s patent - even though I think this won’t hold up in court.

Coelacanth, 2 miesiące temu

Let’s hope so, because this sounds like it could be pretty disastrous doesn’t it? But who’s gonna afford challenging Nintendo?

Coelacanth, 2 miesiące temu

I have no idea what people were expecting to be honest. Hollow Knight was already known for being an extremely difficult game with punishing anti-fun elements like runbacks and corpse runs. Which game had everyone played that got them so hyped for Silksong?

There’s a reason I stayed away from HK, and I will be staying away from Silksong too. Game looks great but I won’t be able to beat it and I won’t have any fun failing to do so.

Coelacanth, 2 miesiące temu

Not everything that makes the game harder or more challenging to play is good game design though, and a game shouldn’t get a free pass just because its developers stated “well the game being hard is part of our artistic vision”. It’s fine to criticise things, even - or actually maybe especially - things we like. We don’t have to be binary about things, we can like something while still recognising its flaws.

Excessive runbacks for example is something that is primarily concerned with disrespecting your time as a player and even FromSoft seem to have realised that they’re not a good addition or a fun way of increasing difficulty seeing as they introduced Stakes of Marika in Elden Ring. Hell, even Ninja Gaiden went away from boss runbacks starting from the second game, and that came out in 2008!

Coelacanth, 2 miesiące temu

Mandragora had the exact same difficulty system, you could adjust enemy HP, Damage and even Stamina cost at every bonfire. Great accessibility feature.

Coelacanth, 2 miesiące temu

To each their own, I always think of difficulty and challenge as proportional and relative to the individual. You can just as easily turn the question around the other way: how can you feel any satisfaction beating a Souls game using magic and summons and level ups and items when there are people who have beat it at Level 1 hitless and using a dance pad instead of controller? What’s “appropriately challenging” is way too individual for the bluntness of a single difficulty setting.

And coming up with solutions isn’t even that hard. Add some sliders to adjust the length of parry windows and i-frames on dodge rolls and whatnot and you’re probably a good part of the way there. Gameplay intact, people still go through the same motions they just have a chance now even if they don’t have the reflexes or timing for frame-perfect inputs.

Coelacanth, 2 miesiące temu

You can also do the 2.5D style of like Trine or Mandragora.

Coelacanth, 2 miesiące temu

Buying on GOG is always the play whenever the option is available.

Coelacanth, 2 miesiące temu

The 2D sidescroller base that’s at the foundation of Metroidvanias is quite a bit older than that, though, so I think it’s fair to call it an older genre. Even though it is fairly evergreen.

Coelacanth, 2 miesiące temu

To each their own, but when I played through Blasphemous just recently it felt like the game had tons of design elements intended to either piss you off or deliberately waste your time or both.

Coelacanth, 2 miesiące temu

Well, I was merely speaking in general, I didn’t actually buy Silksong! 😅 The combination of being prohibitively difficult and having tons of tricky platforming (I hate platforming) means I’m just doing like with Hollow Knight and staying away to save myself the frustration.

Coelacanth, 2 miesiące temu

Bloodlines 2 should be in the crew as well, though it is also actually coming out now.

Coelacanth, 2 miesiące temu

Football Manager.

Coelacanth, 2 miesiące temu

An upside of SI tending to have very minor year-on-year upgrades between FM editions is that most people don’t buy it every year. It’s common to buy every two or three years, unless a momentous change is implemented. The sortitoutsi.net site has squad updates among its mods that let you play older games for longer.

Not that I want to be encouraging you to take it up, the game is literally like crack and I don’t let myself play it anymore.

Coelacanth, 2 miesiące temu

I have not. How does it compare to FM?

Coelacanth, 2 miesiące temu

I’ll take a look at it, but like I said above I don’t let myself play FM anymore and this sounds equally dangerous. Do you need a PES install to play or is it fully standalone?

Coelacanth, 2 miesiące temu

It’s a great console. I’m not buying any new Nintendo products but the 3DS was amazing and the N3DSXL just feels so nice in your hands.