ICastFist

ICastFist, 2 miesiące temu

Earth Defense Force. You can probably get 4.1 on a sale really cheap and that could be a decent introduction to the series as a whole, it also has the best overall story tone in my opinion, made of 110% grade B cheese

If you two enjoy it and don’t feel burnt out, you can later get EDF 5, which has several QoL updates compared to 4.1, but tends to have a higher price.

ICastFist, 2 miesiące temu

Not the first one on the PSX, that’s for sure. Also, getting some extra stuff for 100% a game wasn’t new by the time of Spyro, both Donkey Kong Country and Crash Bandicoot already did that

ICastFist, 2 miesiące temu

I know the “hold a button to lock-on to an enemy” was in Mega Man Legends, but in the first game you had to stand still for the lock to work. On MML2, you could lock and run around freely, but that game came after OoT

ICastFist, 2 miesiące temu

Those mechanics were lifted/copied straight from Monster Hunter, mind you :)

The PS2 and PSP Monster Hunter games are basically dark souls but you gotta kill giant bosses to transform their scales into better armor and weapons.

ICastFist, 2 miesiące temu

In a way, I’d say World of Warcraft (2004 onwards) popularized that.

Here’s your starting place. Here’s a bunch of easy quests and monsters.

You quit the starting area. Everything feels huge and really, really fucking far away. One step in the wrong direction and you’re assaulted by an enemy with a 💀 for a level. Not only that, most people would only see the loading screen once before doing an hours-long playthrough and that also increased the sense of “fucking huge world”

ICastFist, 2 miesiące temu

Street Fighter 2 popularized and pretty much set to stone what a tournament fighter game should be. Mortal Kombat came first, but its single-player progression was this weird “tower” with some gimmick fights thrown in, like you vs 2.

Thinking about it, I’d say Mortal Kombat popularized the “REALLY fucking cheap sub boss/final boss” that many other fighting games have (looking at you, SNK) - I mean, good luck getting close to Goro in the first place.

I wonder which korean mmo could be considered as the one that de facto popularized pay-to-win as an integral mechanic.

Diablo hands down popularized not only the action RPG genre, but also having enemies as loot mystery boxes. One lucky kill and you could get your hands on a really great piece of equipment. The amount of clones speaks for itself.

I think Gran Turismo popularized the “carreer mode” of racing games.

ICastFist, 2 miesiące temu

He was a cheap motherfucker, but nowhere as much as Goro, who had unblockable moves and could interrupt your hits and combos

ICastFist, 2 miesiące temu

My old PSP3000 is one of my favorite pieces. It hasn’t seen any action in 5+ years now, but it will probably get some around september.

Mandatory jab at the switch. Not awful but cmon, the controls suck

cries in 3 left joycons with drift

Another of my least fave is my laptop’s monitor. It’s an ASUS ROG whose screen sucks major balls. If it ever gets over 40ºC, it starts showing some “scanlines” or something like that, with horizontal lines that don’t refresh correctly or something, kinda hard to describe. In any case, if I ever game straight on it without anything blowing cool air on the screen, games will become unplayable because it’ll reach a point where I literally can’t see shit, because the screen won’t be refreshing correctly, several lines will be “stuck” for 1 second or more. The keyboard is also a piece of shit.

ICastFist, 2 miesiące temu

If New Horizons was your first animal crossing game and you were disappointed by the lack of personality that the villagers had, go play the original AC.

Is the original N64/GC the one where other villagers have the most personality? What are some other differences regarding NH, New Leaf and City Folk?

ICastFist, 3 miesiące temu

Mega Man X on the SNES is an amazing trilogy and still holds up. Moving on, X4 and X5 are great to play as well, X6 and beyond can be avoided.

Mega Man Legends 1 and 2 (PSX) are interesting games, a mix of action platforming and light RPG elements, but I have deep nostalgia and still enjoy the games, so you may find them very archaic. Playing the first game, the first thing you should do is change controls so turning around is left/right and L1/R1 strafe.

If you haven’t tried them yet, Donkey Kong Country 1, 2 and 3 are well worth playing, but the games can be unforgiving, especially in later levels. While there’s no coyote time, doing a forward attack off a ledge will allow you to jump once anytime during the fall. It’s very clearly a deliberate feature, as some level skips can only be accessed with that trick.

Castlevania Symphony of the Night on the PSX, if you haven’t played yet, you definitely should. This motherfucker stood the test of time with gold marks.

I know you asked to avoid final fantasy-esque titles, but Final Fantasy Tactics (PSX) is worth checking out. If the battle system, or the party management/job system, don’t pique your interest (things that you should get a feel within the first 20-30 minutes), then it’s not for you, no problem.

Tekken 3 on the PSX is probably the best 3D fighting game on the console. Graphically ancient by today’s standards, but it still has its charm. Later games got better with more characters and everything, but that game has the normal arcade mode, a “volley” mode and a beat-em’ up mode.

Bomberman games are their own category. The SNES ones are some of the best, but playing them all in sequence will get really tiresome, as the formula doesn’t change. Bomberman World on PSX can be completely avoided, it sucks.

ICastFist, 3 miesiące temu

The Thief games are all available on GOG, probably Steam, too, but I prefer GOG.

ICastFist, 3 miesiące temu

Battletoads, Little Nemo: Dreammaster

Those games are hard as fuck. The train stage in Little Nemo is a nightmare (pun totally intended)

ICastFist, 3 miesiące temu

I’ve been hesitant of the mega man games for some reason, I’ll check em out!

I can understand that hesitancy for the NES games. If you never played anything like them, they can feel unfair or too hard. A lot of people love Mega Man 2, but my personal favorite of the NES era is 6, which could be a decent entry point if you ever decide to venture that way. X improves everything and the first is my personal favorite as well (it easily has the best music of the 3, too).

ICastFist, 3 miesiące temu

It took me a number of attempts before FFTA grew on me. I’m not too fond of race-locked classes there, or the judges, but the progression felt fun.

Worth noting: Ogre Battle (Tactics Ogre) was released for SNES (then re-released more than Skyrim) and is basically FFT’s father. FFTA’s sprites come straight from TO.

ICastFist, 3 miesiące temu

Oh, 2 and 3 are also great on the PSX. Way more missiles than needed for any mission, but the flight controls are amazing

ICastFist, 3 miesiące temu

Adding to a FOSS list: Mindustry and Unciv. The latter is an amazing Civilization 5 clone.

ICastFist, 3 miesiące temu

To take down those filthy Eastern Romans!

ICastFist, 3 miesiące temu

*Hadincests

ICastFist, 3 miesiące temu

If that’s happening, I sure hope whoever dubs the elder god has a thundering voice similar to Tony Jay.

Having the first Soul Reaver come with an option that adds the cut content would be awesome - after beating Kain in the time chamber, you’d still have to beat a human witch, then Turel, kill/absorb/merge Ariel with the spectral blade (as shown in one of the “futures” before you fight Kain) before finally facing Kain for the last time, proceeding to fully eradicate ALL vampires and realizing you’ve been made a complete fool to the elder god’s whims.

And please, keep Ozar Midrashim playing as the theme. I’ve come to love that song.

ICastFist, 3 miesiące temu

I just received an email from GOG saying the mod is available for free there (you still need to own the FO4 base game). The “catch” to download from them is that you have to subscribe to their email advertising.

www.gog.com/en/game/fallout_london

ICastFist, 3 miesiące temu

And older game that people seem to like a lot is Sword of the Stars (2008), while despising the 2nd for lacking features and bugs aplenty. You can get it on GOG too, if you prefer, and being old makes it very cheap even out of a sale. I’ve tried it once but got slightly intimidated by the UI, but then again I barely spent 10 minutes in game (I also gave up on X3 the very first time I played, so…)

For a “lite” version of space empire building, Sins of a Solar Empire can probably satisfy you as well. It’s an RTS, you only play skirmishes, but there’s a lot of setting up new colonies, researching new tech, building stuff besides shipyards, propping up your fleet, etc. Combat doesn’t require a lot of micromanagement, usually just using a capital ship’s power every few seconds and defining target priorities.

ICastFist, 3 miesiące temu

Maybe for Bethesda specifically, there’s also a shortage of skilled work? I mean, they often hire modders and Creation Engine STILL uses flash (Starfield’s menus are .swf files),

ICastFist, 3 miesiące temu

With some jquery, yes. Without it, suicide feels like a release

ICastFist, 3 miesiące temu

I don’t know about the details, but I found that out while browsing the menu mods, as the Undelayed Menus, which removes the pointless delay in opening and closing of menus, comes with a bunch of .swf and that was when I thought to myself “You have to be fucking kidding”

Checking any other menu mod, it’ll be .swf files.

ICastFist, 3 miesiące temu

My first experience was with a demo of the first game, it came with 3 maps, the only one that I remember by name being the Battle of Kadesh, despite the 2nd map being the one that I played to absolute exhaustion (it was the map with base building, but no gold), since it was very easy to beat the first computer enemy.

Once I got a 🏴‍☠️ copy of AoE2 (2002-ish?), brother, I spent more time on the map editor than anything else for the first couple of weeks. I loved the huge map size but hated the paltry 200 unit limit. My older brother definitely spent more time playing than I did during that period.

As much as I played, I was always kinda bad at it, mostly because I’m more of a turtle player and always got pissed at how medium AI enemies would always build 4 separate town centers with at least one being very close to my starting area. Yet I would still play and, more importantly, I always loved the numbers and graphics at the end of a game.

Frankly, I think AoE2 really stood the test of time. For a game originally released in 2000 to remain not only relevant but also enjoyable without any official updates or patches for over 15 years (the remaster was announced in 2017) is a noteworthy feat.

ICastFist, 3 miesiące temu

Thank god I managed to get an older version of the switch that could be jailbroken by shorting the right joycon slot. Best thing I did to mine. Too bad the drift happens to every fucking left joycon i have.

ICastFist, 3 miesiące temu

cries in USD-BRL conversion

What really annoys me is that the screws are 3 pronged instead of 4 and they also feel stuck as fuck.

The real irony is that I bought some chinese knockoff that actually lasted longer than the fucking originals. Oh, both originals also stopped registering the tiny L-R buttons. Way to go, Nintendo.

ICastFist, 3 miesiące temu

I would personally pick HoMM5 and avoid 4 altogether.

ICastFist, 3 miesiące temu (edited 3 miesiące temu)

For the most enduring single player experiences, you really should give some grand strategy games a try, like older Total War entries, Crusader Kings, Civilization, Swords of the Stars, etc. Stuff like Factorio or Cities Skylines can also become addictive, but none of these games is action oriented.

Also, Age of Empires 2. I haven’t played 4 yet, but I think it speaks volumes that, at least on steam, AoE2 has more players at any given time than 3+4 combined.

Ziggurat might be an interesting pick, as it’s a roguelike FPS with magic weapons, though it might feel super neutered compared to Ultrakill. Risk of Rain 2 is 3rd person and roguelike, so every run you start from scratch and enemies will keep spawning at certain intervals, but it’s a fine shooter

Fallout 4 might have a rather clunky shooting, but if you get into it, you can spend many, many hours blasting a variety of enemies, finding all sorts of places and weapons. Skyrim is a close second, while better played in 1st person, it’s medieval sword and sorcery.

ICastFist, 3 miesiące temu

This one. It’s basically an upside down Mega Drive/Genesis controller for one of the Brazilian famiclones, with turbo buttons for A and B

https://cdn.awsli.com.br/600x700/17/17021/produto/219337057/PhotoRoom-20230530_140203_3.jpg

ICastFist, 3 miesiące temu

Earth Defense Force 4 or 5 can be good “training” games. They’re 3rd person shooters, you’ll spend more time moving around than aiming, since your targets will be giant insects, giant spiders, giant aliens and giant alien ships. Even playing online with randos is fine and fun, and I say that as a similar 30+ yo dude.

It’s a grindy game tho and, much like Dynasty Warriors, you should NOT let your pride dictate that you should “start with hard”. Go with medium and, if shit gets too hard, drop down to easy, get better weapons and more health, then come back with a vengeance

ICastFist, 3 miesiące temu

Definitely not casual or low stress, especially as you progress through the planet, but a great game nonetheless

ICastFist, 3 miesiące temu

You can check out whatever is available on F-Droid. I personally enjoy playing Freebloks once in a while, it’s a mobile version of the Blokus boardgame

An alternative is checking out itch.io, searching with the proper tags, like puzzle, might yield decent results for your tastes.

You can also get Cookie Clicker or play the web version

ICastFist, 4 miesiące temu

Well, at least they won’t need to make “thousands of planets” worth of “content”, so the game might at least look consistent

Still, after Starfaild, my expectation is for TES6 to have something that kinda almost resembles Dark Messiah of Might and Magic’s melee combat; only Archery, Melee, Magic and Armor skills to level up; Emil Pagliarulo’s “greatest” story yet with double the time travel and multiverse bullshit; twice the amount of stories that get nowhere and that nobody in the world cares about; removal of stealth

ICastFist, 4 miesiące temu

Doing better than starfield shouldn’t be hard for them. Getting on par with the quality of Divinity Original Sin, much less Baldur’s Gate 3, is likely beyond bethesda’s ability, tho.

ICastFist, 4 miesiące temu

The story is just so damn BORING.

Oh boy, you’re lucky. I trudged through for 70h out of sheer morbid curiosity. The boring main story goes straight into “icecream on forehead” when the starborn show up. The ending is just a shit cherry on top of that, with Emil Pagliarulo’s best “fuck you for asking questions” ever

ICastFist, 4 miesiące temu

Try Daggerfall Unity. Only the engine is newer, also loads of bugfixes and mod support.

ICastFist, 4 miesiące temu

I don’t think they ever said that. It’s their “first new IP” in 25 years, and was “in production” since 2013, likely just planning stages. In reality, production only really started after FO76, when more people were available to do actual work.

ICastFist, 4 miesiące temu

DON’T YOU GUYS HAVE PHONES???

But what really hurts is that diablo immoral is a HUGE money printer.

ICastFist, 4 miesiące temu

Which would be an improvement over the 10 different “dungeon” buildings + 3 caves + 6 POIs you can find in starfield

ICastFist, 4 miesiące temu

Not quite. It’s just harder to disconnect the 3D visual of a sword or mace swing very clearly hitting a creature and said hit missing entirely, especially as you’re in direct control of when and where the attack happens. For comparison, it’s much easier to accept misses in Neverwinter Nights because you’re not directly controlling the attacks. The fact that you can also look at the log of dice rolls helps a lot, too.

Hell, even in Arena and Daggerfall, where you’re also in direct control of your swings, it’s easier to accept when it doesn’t hit thanks to the slow animations and 2D graphics of your equipped weapon and the enemy sprite.

ICastFist, 4 miesiące temu

I hope they’re not biting off more than they can chew. I mean, the scope of the whole project sounds bigger than Daggerfall, which means it’s unlikely they’ll finish on time and, when they do release something, there’s a high chance it’ll be lacking tons of features at launch.

massive, procedurally-generated world with plenty of variety in the environments and locales. Dungeons and cities are crafted to feel unique from one another, offering limitless options for layouts and aesthetics. The world itself is ever changing; cities can grow, deteriorate, or be entirely destroyed by war, and the sky, landscape, and flora change with the seasons.

Unless they’re Dwarf Fortress level masters of procgen, I won’t expect much more than typical single pass “random perlin terrain”

ICastFist, 5 miesięcy temu

Been playing Rebel Galaxy on and off a bit. It’s decent enough, think of it as a Freelancer lite, big emphasis on “lite”. It’s more “naval combat in space” than any sort of space game.

Also some Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, I really suck at it but it’s so flashy and fun!

ICastFist, 5 miesięcy temu

I’m partially aware of people not liking Rebel Galaxy Outlaw as a sequel, though I never read into the whys, though if you can actually pilot in all 6 degrees of freedom, that’s a plus for me.

What was that exclusive deal? Something with Sony?

ICastFist, 5 miesięcy temu

Isn’t Obsidian also owned by Microsoft? Pretty sure it’s just a matter of Satya Nadella giving the greenlight

ICastFist, 5 miesięcy temu

They’re all out of fun game ideas and need something to do.

They could try fixing something for a change

ICastFist, 5 miesięcy temu

Not being able to make satirical comments about any game-related material would mean nobody could say something like, “Controlling Iron Man feels like fighting Jarvis for control of the suit”, or “Storm is as effective as a light breeze”

ICastFist, 5 miesięcy temu

I see no mention of Emil Pagliarulo’s head rolling. Still worried about Elder Scrolls 6

Fuck you, Microshit.