Video game spotlight thread
-
Could you maybe put titles of games in your posts? I can't click those links at work, so I can't make a note to look up a game later if I don't know what it's called :)
-
#Two really good games I bought in the sale:
A Story About My Uncle
Grow HomeThey both fall into the category of "games without an elongated failure state that consist of rock climbing using methods that most games either ignore or don't notice and that have light blue crystals that make you able to move around more easily".
#Also a third one which I got as a birthday present:
This one is for people who want to play Dwarf Fortress but don't like micromanaging the jobs of every character. Or for people who want to play Sim City but don't like installing malware on their computer.
There you go.
Look at that, another discoparser bug.
-
A Story About My Uncle just looks like the swinging mechanic from the Xbox Spider-Man games without any of the other stuff that made the Xbox Spider-Man games so amazingly awesome.
In short, watching that trailer just made me want to play Spider-Man 2 on Xbox.
I wonder if we're at the point where indie devs are so young they literally don't remember games from 2004, and think their game mechanic is soooo original.
-
Ffff.... I forgot to mention how great The Talos Principle is and its sale ends in 3 hours.
It's reminiscent of Portal, but with different puzzle elements (and no Portal gun).
Well, OK, both games have lazer redirecting, but The Talos Principle does a lot more with it.
Now, its DLC probably isn't work the extra money...
-
owww. missed it.
if i liked portal should i get it?
-
I would suggest giving the demo a try. I played through the demo and didn't feel that it had a lot of Portal's charm. That being said, it was interesting enough that I kept it on my wishlist and will probably pick it up next sale (too many other things to play through at the moment).
-
The robot is petting a kitten.
... that is everything I know about the game.
-
I think it's a really good game.
Apparently this was the cheapest its ever been too... oh well, it could come back on the final day of the sale, so keep an eye out for it.
Some places in the game really make you think.
The game has multiple endings. The hardest ending of the endings requires that you find and use 30 Hidden Stars (or 27 if you play the free Sigil of Elohim game and use the codes to unlock 3 extra stars).
A lot of the Hidden Stars mentioned above require you to do unorthodox things. I'm not sure I want to spoil anything, but they require careful observation of the environment and out of the box thinking. Sometimes, they even require you to solve the puzzle in a way different than the obvious way.
At least the game tells you how many stars and tetrominoes are still left in each of the smaller puzzle hubs, which really helps if you're trying for the extra ending.
-
Free healthcare, it's only half of the tax we collect.
-
I spent some time last night playing a game called Please Don't Touch Anything. It's a moderately-difficult little puzzle game, one of those where you're given a very simple setup that rapidly balloons into a bunch of choices and puzzles. What I liked is that the game isn't really ever a total dick to you: every puzzle can be solved using clues that exist somewhere in the game, though you might have to uncover them while solving other puzzles. There's always something you haven't solved yet, so you're never wondering "WTF do I do next?", and since every puzzle has a clue, generally solving them consists of matching one of the clues with one of the puzzles. And it keeps you apprised of your progress toward 100% completion unobtrusively (there's a [spoiler]poster on the back wall and a yellow light[/spoiler] for every [spoiler]ending[/spoiler] so you know how many are left).
It's on Steam, but I can't access any game-related sites at work, so I can't link.
-
Yay for TL4s :)
-
Having played the demo, I can definitively say that I have absolutely no fucking idea what the cat has to do with anything.
If you're honestly looking for a synopsis, it's a first-person puzzle game where you use items to redirect lasers, open barriers, activate fans, and other typical puzzle stuff. There's a whole philosophical sci-fi story layered on top of it, but not much is revealed in the demo and I don't really want to spoil anything for myself by looking it up.
I'm also amused by the fact that it was made by the same people who did Serious Sam.
-
Having played the demo, I can definitively say that I have absolutely no fucking idea what the cat has to do with anything.
-
It's a kitten, and
-
It's super compelling marketing
If you're honestly looking for a synopsis,
Why would you think I am? Did I ask for one? When did that happen?
WTF is wrong with people around here. No. I am not looking for a synopsis, "honestly" or otherwise.
-
-
I'm also amused by the fact that it was made by the same people who did Serious Sam.
You can even get DLC that replaces Elohim's voice with the Serious Sam announcer's voice. Also, replace your player model with the Serious Sam player model.
It was free when it came out, now it costs like $5 when it's not on sale.
-
Why would you think I am? Did I ask for one? When did that happen?
Google Translate: Stop being so damn helpful.... it's offensive.
-
Google Translate: Stop being so damn helpful.... it's offensive.
HOW IS GIVING ME SPOILERS FOR A GAME I BOUGHT BUT HAVEN'T HAD A CHANCE TO PLAY YET HELPFUL!
Jesus I hate you all.
-
Spoilers? Where?
You're either defining that term extremely broadly, or I have no idea what you're talking about. Or both, I guess.
-
Look, unsolicited "help" is the worst thing. The worst thing in the universe. Satan and Hitler point at unsolicited "help" and say, "hey compared to us? that thing is worse."
If you weren't asked for help, don't give it.
-
Did I ask for one?
Have you read Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land?
Not a trick question. Curious if you're familiar with the concept from that book of a Witness.
-
Have you read Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land?
I think I read about a third of it before I said, "this is a piece of shit" and put it down.
-
I think I read about a third of it before I said, "this is a piece of shit" and put it down.
Ok. The relevant bit here is a Witness is a person trained to report exactly what they see, and who is trusted like a notary public. The example given was, "see that white house up on the hill? If you ask most people what they saw, they'd say 'a white house on the hill.' A Witness would say 'I see a house that's white on this side.'"
You interact with people at times in a way loosely analogous to that.
-
You interact with people at times in a way loosely analogous to that.
and it is annoying as shit.
-
and it is annoying as shit.
Yeah, but once you know about it, it's kind of fun, because you can write things in a way that I like to imagine makes him quiver in rage because you've left no easy purchase for a rant.
-
I just read what people type.
-
-
Considering he didn't state that he also breathes, we have no guarantee he can reply.
-
I just read what people type.
And don't try to interpolate anything additional, correct?
-
If he was consistent with his witness shtick it wouldn't be nearly as annoying, which is probably why he isn't consistent.
-
I've just gone to buy Tropico 5 on steam - I love the tropico series and it's on sale at the moment - but I'm giving it a miss due to some terrible reviews. I am disappoint.
-
Sometimes, they even require you to solve the puzzle in a way different than the obvious way.
Hidden secrets require straying off the beaten path. SHOCKING!
Might pick it up eventually, but not now, and not at this price.
-
An interesting game, still in kickstarter phase, about surviving in a city full of people on crazy pills.
-
Talos Principle is on sale again during the Encore sale.
-
If he was consistent with his witness shtick it wouldn't be nearly as annoying, which is probably why he isn't consistent.
Yup. I'm trying to map out the state machine, you might say.
-
Talos Principle is on sale again during the Encore sale.
i've been meaning to buy that for a while, so i went to pick it up on sale and steam told me i already owned it.
i've owned this game for how long and never installed it?!
-
Downloading right now. :D
-
Still too rich for me, I think I'll wait another year for this one.
-
The whole point of this thread is to describe games for people who haven't played them yet. You did a shit job of it, so @soy had to step in and do it properly. It was presumptuous of you to assume that description was intended only for your benefit.
-
-
Madden NFL Twitter account trolls Seahawks' play calling
At this rate, it seems the Seahawks will never live down the end of Super Bowl XLIX. Madden NFL's Twitter account is the latest to troll Seattle for its decision to throw from the 1-yard line.
https://twitter.com/Seahawks/status/623932038840758276
https://twitter.com/EAMaddenNFL/status/623959114352340992
-
#The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
Mini-review.
- Graphics: Excellent (except some frame rate stuttering while streaming in new areas-- there are no load screens).
- Music/Sound Effects: Good.
- Voices: Generally good, a couple lines that probably should have had a second take.
- Story: Solid, although the "riffing on H. P. Lovecraft" stuff is really cliche at this point, the game takes it in a different direction near the 1/3rds mark that makes it more interesting. Then turns it completely around in the ending.
- Gameplay: Ho boy.
I'm going to tell you two things about The Vanishing of Ethan Carter that the game itself never tells you:
- The purpose of the game is to solve murders.
- When you see a wiggly word on the screen with a question mark, that's a type of "radar system" that points you towards the next clue.
Now that you know that, you might have an enjoyable gaming experience. Me? I went in expecting an exploration game like Dear Esther or Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs. Well you can play this as an exploration game, but you can't complete the game that way. What you will end up doing is walking right past the first 3 or 4 murder scenes, not realizing you were supposed to even be solving the murders, until you hit a locked door and have no idea how to progress further.
When you finally consult a walk through, you'll go, "ooooo!" and then go back (which BTW is a lot of walking-- there's no fast-travel) and solve the murders-- but since you walked through them the first time, you'll get the story all jumbled-up. Ugh. (In theory, you can complete the murders in any order. The game is written assuming you solve them as you encounter them, though.)
All this because the authors wanted to keep the game "mysterious" by not providing you with any kind of hint system or tutorial, and purposefully made the opening narration lie to you about the objective of the game (well, mostly.) I can't imagine why they thought that was necessary.
Still, that all said, I'd still recommend it if you enjoy exploration games. Just don't go in expecting a game up to the par set by Dear Esther, Gone Home, or Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs. At the same time, it's not nearly as bad or unfair as Montague's Mount, especially if you go in knowing the two tips I gave at the top of this review.
As an added humble-brag, I totally called the twist ending. But don't let that discourage you, because I'm just a genius at calling the twist ending early on. (I annoyed my friends by figuring out the twist in Lone Star and The Sixth Sense in the first half-hour.) Genius. Right here. Booyaa.
-
hey! anyone tried the homeworld remakes?
are they worth it?
-
They are exactly what it says on the box.
Did you enjoy Homeworld? Then you'll enjoy the remake.
-
Oh hey, as long as this topic has been resurrected, I see that System Shock is for sale on GOG now.
Oh, and don't believe what it says the Bundle Price is for both System Shock games. It says $17.98, but it's actually $15.98.
Turns out they drop the price for the first game if you already own or are buying the second at the same time.
-
#SOMA
If you enjoyed any of the following games:
- Bioshock
- Bioshock II
- Bioshock Infinite
- Gone Home
- Amnesia: The Dark Descent
- Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs
- Dear Esther
- The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
- Montague's Mount
- Betrayer
- Probably other linear, heavily story-based games I'm not thinking of at the moment
You will probably love this game.
Bad:
- Game forces you (as protagonist) to make a few questionable decisions for absolutely no technical reason at all
- One or two questionable graphic effects (in particular, one effect of water flowing down a pipe that looked so unlike water it took me several seconds to figure out what it was supposed to be)
- One or two questionable lines of dialog
- The Amnesia: The Dark Descent mechanic of hiding from monsters is in full effect here. It wasn't very fun in Dark Descent, and it's not very fun here. I had to replay one of these segments 4 or 5 times before beating it, and nothing yanks you out of an immersive game like a "you died" screen and having to replay the last 5 minutes over and over again.
- Questionable UI decisions. (When you hover over a healing item, you get an icon that looks like the D-pad of your controller. It's supposed to be a cross to indicate healing. The D-pad does nothing. It took me WAY too long to figure this out.)
Good:
- Pretty much everything else.
Be sure to stay for the credits.
-
I'm playing this at the moment as my podcast game:
The Enchanted Cave 2
The Enchanted Cave 2 on Steam
Uncover the dark secrets of a cave with an endless supply of monsters and loot!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tvi-lh2f9uU
It looks like JRPG but it's not. It's actually a "roguelite", with some interesting choices. All the enemies are completely static, like in Desktop Dungeons, and it's up to you to engage them at your discretion. Once you attack, the combat is automatic and real time. All you can do is use items, cast spells or run away. Outside the combat, you explore, upgrade the character through a boring stat-based skill tree, craft potions and enchant items.
At any point you can decide to teleport out of the dungeon into the menu-town, which restores your health and saves your progress. Yes, unlike in "real" roguelikes, death isn't a complete disaster here. You just lose your current progress and are reverted to the state you were in before you entered the dungeon.
Main mechanics is that of greed. The game is fairly easy. You're never in any immediate danger and can usually just teleport out to safety whenever you want. And yet, you end up dying all the same. The game lulls you into a false sense of security, and you end up taking more risks than its warranted. One moment you're cruising through combat after combat, next you're back in town, with the last 20 minutes of progress lost.
I expect to defeat this today or tomorrow. Overall, a nice little 2 day distraction. Not bad.
-
Rivals of Aether
Someone built their own smash bros. They did a good job. The combat is a bit different, but has a lot of the same mechanics.
It's all pixel art, since that's popular again these days, but tasteful in this case; it reminds me of Megaman games, and several of the characters would be believable bosses in such a game. If you have a problem with that, I'd still suggest seeing how it plays, since it's quite good.
The goal of the game is to deplete the enemy's stock, or have the most remaining when the time runs out. The damage system is percentage based, causing attacks to launch you further as your percentage grows, and exiting the game area in a colorful explosion is how you die. So far, exactly like Smash.
Some of the points where it differs:
- No shielding. You can do a quick block, which puts the enemy in a vulnerable state, but it's fast: you can't hold it.
- Far less "can't do anything" states, though ^B will still generally cause one.
- Three button combat. You have specials, pokes, and smashes. What I'm calling 'pokes' autocombo.
- No grab.
- No items.
In addition, you have very differentiated characters:
- The lion:
- All his specials light people on fire, and his ^B is Fox's
- Burning enemies get launched twice as far
- The legged whale:
- Some of the specials place a puddle.
- ^B teleports you to a puddle, and leaves one where you're standing, if you're on the ground.
- Smashes are larger and more powerful if they consume a puddle, by being somewhat near it.
- The stone beetle:
- His neutral special makes a rock cube that can be thrown, then shattered to fire projectiles.
- He's basically like Bowser. Tough, decent range on his melee attacks.
- The bird:
- Jumps five times
- Can smash in the air, and only in the air.
- All his attacks lift enemies.
- The fire ninja:
- He makes smoke clouds and body doubles
- The plant ferret:
- Specials place seeds on enemies.
- Smashes stun seeded enemies.
- Can somehow do crazy grapples to seeded enemies, I don't even know how.
Typically, other people can take advantage of your buffs. If everyone is the lion, it's practically sudden death.
Anyway, so, the combat is slick, fast, and controls well.
Possible downsides:
- Early access. But it's already fun, so that's not so bad.
- Only six characters. Probably 8 later on, but that's still not many. Very differentiated, but I'd still hope for more.
- Only 1v1 online multiplayer is available currently, though local is up to four players.
- Story mode and such aren't in yet.
It's $15 on steam. I think it's worth it, but it's exactly the kind of thing I like.
-
Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide
THIS GAME HAS A DUMB NAME however it is very fun.
Ok, so. Take Chivalry's combat. Add ranged weapons and magic. Combine it with Left4Dead gameplay. Put it in the Warhammer universe. Then replace the zombies with wise-cracking skaven.
Oh. And there's loot drops. And you can forge new items from loot drops. And there's like 5 characters instead of 4. And there's 13 scenarios instead of 4 or 5. And the net code works great, and the game engine looks amazing and runs full screen windowed by default, and it uses the standard Steam matchmaking instead of re-implementing its own which is a PITA and basically this is fun-ass game.
... basically my only complaint is there's only one volume slider.
-
Well, I was already planning to get that, so now I definitely will!
#Transformers: Devastation
Do you like Bayonetta? How about God Hand?
The people who made them made a transformers game. They used the art style of the original TV show.
The combat is simplistic but fun, and there's randomized Diablo-loot. You can play as Grimlock, Bumblebee, Optimus Prime, Sideswipe, and some engineer guy who has shields and... ranged vehicle finishers *shudder*.
I liked it a lot and played a massive amount of it in the last two weeks. But it's short and $50. With challenges and the next difficulty, it isn't too short for me.
-
RESIDENT EVIL ONE DIRECTORS CUT
The first resident evil trilogy is on sale for the psvita so I picked them up for for nostalgia's sake. I'm currently replaying the first one. It's not the remake but the god awful original. The gameplay is still enjoyable but my fucking god the voice acting is just as awful as I remember. That alone is worth the price of entry.
-
#Deus Ex: Revision
https://www.dx-revision.com/website/
It's a free mod for Deus Ex that upgrades the 1998-like graphics to 2005-like graphics, fixes bugs, and adds content. If you ever wanted to play or replay the game or the series now is the time. By the time you finish, Mankind Divided will be out.
