Video game spotlight thread
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I loved Commandos. Worked brilliantly on my Wion95 PC, but when we upgraded to a 1GHz XP machine it started going way too fast. We fixed it with a hacky little tool to run in the background and consume 75% of the CPU doing nothing.
Got it on GOG more recently, and it's harder than I remember. You really need a lot of patience, since running in guns blazing tends to get your team killed in a few seconds.
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You really need a lot of patience
Tell me about it. I think I spent like 6 hours in total on that island mission in Commandos 2 first time through. You can complete some full priced modern games in less time.
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Anachronox
It's an RPG about a
dickdetective in a futuristic planet, who meets a scientist and does adventurey things together. If you like RPGs and don't mind old games, I recommend it (keep in mind I've only played for a few days though).I've been playing my Steam library (90% of which comes from Humble Bundles, I wish they added gog.com support) in roughly alphabetical order, so after AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA, this one came up. Turns out it's actually good!
Sadly, it has bugs. There seem to be few old games that work flawlessly on modern computers. Funny, if you look in the game files you find 5 readme.txt files from (apparently) third-party patches that were added to the Steam release. I also managed to go through walls you're not supposed to twice by accident, got completely stuck and had to load an earlier save.
Oh, and if you play it, the '' key makes it fast forward, at least on the Steam version. This is incredibly useful.
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Worked brilliantly on my Wion95 PC, but when we upgraded to a 1GHz XP machine it started going way too fast. We fixed it with a hacky little tool to run in the background and consume 75% of the CPU doing nothing.
Update on this: Just started my Wine install of Steam to install the Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator, and there was apparently an update that fixes the speed and savefile issues. Since I already messed with custom patches I'm now re-downloading the whole thing to see what it does.
Speaking of Artemis, hoping to test the thing with some friends in the following days and will report on the experience. Unfortunately, we'll have to do it the online + Teamspeak route, since we can't meet up in person to do a LAN game.
EDIT: Oh, I forgot how small the download is... ok, ran around a bit, saved a game, loaded a game, all seems fine from my quick 2 minute test. Disregard the Steam version problems I mentioned earlier I guess, it has been fixed.
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How is Artemis these days? We tried a couple years ago and there wasn't much to do, and the official forum were full of reasonable, cool suggestions getting closed by the developer as "Why the hell would ANYONE WANT TO DO THAT!?!?!?"
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Is that the original Guacamelee (or Gold) or the Super Turbo Championship Edition? I haven't actually beaten either on hard I don't think.
Anyway...
Lately, other than fixing some outstanding bugs in TF2 PropHunt (because I'm its current developer), I've been playing Binding of Isaac: Rebirth.
It's like the Binding of Isaac but using a real game engine instead of Flash! Which also means it has real gamepad/joystick support.
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How is Artemis these days?
Well, just played for the first time now... Had fun, don't know how much variety there is, doesn't look like there's many missions.
I had fun but I need to play it more to be able to pass a judgement.
EDIT: Also, if anyone intends to play it through Wine as I did: If launching from Steam, turn the overlay OFF. It buggers something up and the game crashes on keyboard input. After that, I can confirm it running on Wine 1.7.30 without apparent issues.
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It's like the Binding of Isaac but using a real game engine instead of Flash! Which also means it has real gamepad/joystick support.
They promised that for Binding of Isaac, then when it was released it says "oh install some third-party app which, BTW, doesn't fucking work instead".
Fucking assholes. How do you even BUILD a two-stick shooter without TWO STICKS? Incompetent idiots.
Then they charge money to get the version that does what the first version was supposed to do. And you gave the money to them. Which means more shitty games for everybody, because developers get rewarded for serving up shit. Yay.
I didn't get enough sleep last night.
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Then they charge money to get the version that does what the first version was supposed to do. And you gave the money to them. Which means more shitty games for everybody, because developers get rewarded for serving up shit. Yay.
Yeah, I hoped I'll be able to just download the new one now, especially since they never ported the first version to Steam on Linux in any way. No such luck. Assholes.
At least Super MeatBoy got a Steam port, even though they said they're not going to do it. But I think it was a different team that handled the port anyway.
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And you gave the money to them. Which means more shitty games for everybody, because developers get rewarded for serving up shit.
I think we know who TRWTF is here, and it's you. If you don't want shitty games, don't keep paying for them.
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I don't, that's my point.
Binding of Isaac was nothing but broken promises. I got fooled into paying for it. So I don't give the developer more money. See how that works? It's pretty simple.
In fact the way I see it, they owe me a copy of Binding of Isaac that works with controllers in a sensible fashion. I'm in the hole.
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To be fair, they have added new stuff to it... still, it should have been priced as an expansion instead of as a new game.
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I don't, that's my point.
Weren't you buying and playing terrible sims? Wood Chopper Sim or whatever? Or were they demos/gifts/free in some way?
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Is that the original Guacamelee (or Gold) or the Super Turbo Championship Edition? I haven't actually beaten either on hard I don't think.
Gold edition.Speaking of which, I've also managed to get gold in all of El Diablo's challenges. I feel like I cheated on the final challenge though. I was supposed to fight through several monster-filled rooms and reach the exit in under 2m30s, but one of the rooms bugged out and didn't lock me inside, which gave me just enough of an edge to beat the clock.
I still don't have 100% on every area. There's one chest I still haven't managed to get at in hard mode (although I've managed to get it on regular mode); and there's something I'm missing in Santa Luchita. It may have something to do with a QR code, maybe? The site it points me at says it is an invalid QR code, so I don't know.
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It was a bundle deal, like $1.99 for 8 of the fuckers.
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If the others are as bad as the one video I watched, that's still a rip-off. They should pay you for pain and suffering.
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I'm going to write a Simulator Simulator, where all you do is play a guy who sits at a PC and plays nameless crappy simulator games.
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I've been on a roguelite FPS binge lately. The first one I played is...
#Tower Of Guns
Tower of Guns – Terrible Posture Games
Tower of Guns is a fast paced first-person-shooter for the twitch gamer… with a few randomized elements to keep it fresh with each playthrough.
This one is pretty sweet. I like the graphics and steampunk environment. The choice to include mostly stationary turrets and flying robots was a brave one, but it paid off IMO.
Progression is nice too. You start as a pathetic worm, barely able to slither your way trough humongous levels. But if you do well enough and get jump upgrades, you become a superman effortlessly jumping all over almost afraid to touch the ground. The big payoff is hunting down all the craftily hidden secrets. I never get 100%, it's always a joy to find these.
Unfortunately, you can't control the jump height, which at some point becomes annoying. Like you want to hop over a tiny step and end up flying all over the map. At first I thought this is a strange oversight, but then I reached the levels with ceiling spikes and realized, they fucking knew what they were doing.
Overall, game feels unbalanced and sort of rough around the edges. But for me, that makes it enjoyable. It's as good or maybe even better than Heavy Bullets.
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The second FPS roguelite I've been playing is...
#Ziggurat
Save 60% on Ziggurat on Steam
Dungeon-Crawling First Person Shooting at its finest! Fast-paced combat! Dozens of perks, spells and enemies! Level ups! Random Dungeons! Traps! Badass bosses! Carrots!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8yKmGf6PGE
Total Biscuit creamed himself over this one, but it left me cold. The game feels like roguelite version of Hexen 2. Combat is cool. Presentation nice. But... meh.
First off, you get TONS of updates after every level. New weapons, perks, characters etc. Unfortunately, you rarely get the chance to experience any of these. There's zero opportunities to grind , you get the enemies and items you get and once they are cleaned up, you have to move to the boss fight. If you're low on health, too bad, you're screwed. This is true for Tower Of Guns too, but here it feels more pronounced.
Second, levels are crap. They are huge, but feel utterly empty. As soon as you enter, all enemies rush you and you end up fighting them off in the same small corner you first appeared. Once that's done, the doors open and you can wander around this huge map. There's nothing there. No puzzles, no exploration, no secrets. Sometimes you get "sacrifice resource X for random gain" room, or a trap room, but overall, there's no joy to exploring.
I might play a little bit more of this, but probably not much. If you're looking into this genre, better try Heavy Bullets or Tower of Guns.
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Overwatch
Overwatch mod for Half-Life 2
Overwatch is a cooperative asymmetric multiplayer Real-Time Strategy Shooter (FPS/RTS hybrid). Overwatch is powered by the Source engine and is set in the Half-Life² universe.
(no, not this bullshit)
Basically, one team plays Half-Life 2: Deathmatch and the other team (consisting of one player) plays Lambda Wars. The FPS team has to complete an objective and the RTS team has to kill the FPS team before that happens.
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I'm going to write a Simulator Simulator, where all you do is play a guy who sits at a PC and plays nameless crappy simulator games.
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That comic, and "i hope you like text" are two of my favorites from PA.
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These combination RTS and FPS games intrigue me. I LOVED Super Monday Night Combat but that was more of a first person MOBA.
What's the best attempt yet? There was that Nuclear Dawn game on Steam too..
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Natural Selection 2 is quite good.
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I can't wait for the day when computers have increased in power enough for someone to implement the JRE in redstone and run Minecraft from within Minecraft.
I'm not sure whether that'll happen before or after someone writes a C++ runtime using minecarts in Dwarf Fortress.
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PA hasn't been good since they did comics about Tribes.
Once I played those guys (and their friend SafetyMonkey) in Tribes 2. They were two heavies and a medium, and I was a scout. I killed 2 of them almost the third before they got me.
True story.
Scouts were the best:
They looked and flew (more-or-less) like fighter jets, but were actually hovercraft (like everything in Tribes.) Which means if you were being chased with a newb, you could just stop forward motion and thrust straight up or left out of their gunsight. You could also follow ground troops at running speed if you knew the "secret of the hovercraft." They were, legit, pretty hard to fly.
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True story.
I think they've never refused to admit they're not the best at every game.
Having said that, if you don't think that Sims toon was funny there's something wrong with you, and it's not just the eggnog moustache.
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I loved the Rhythm Heaven[/Rhythm Paradise] games for Wii and Nintendo DS.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKvgZI1CJq0
One of the few games you can play without looking at the screen. And the only game I can "play" just by watching a video of it on youtube! (tap tap taptap
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In contrast to Binding of Isaac discussion: this is what was waiting for me today on my Linux install of Steam:
http://i.imgur.com/DR1fbQH.png
We’ve just released a BETA of Trine Enchanted Edition for Mac and Linux on Steam. The BETA also includes a Windows version to allow multiplayer between different operating systems.
Trine Enchanted Edition is a free upgrade to Trine that adds new content and features, such as online multiplayer, midlevel saving and improvements to visuals and gameplay aspects. Please refer to our blog[www.frozenbyte.com] for more information and pictures.
Much appreciated, fine gentlemen of Frozenbyte. I tip my hat to you.
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I much preferred the previous MNC. SMNC threw away all the impact to make it more like LoL. Snipers take 3 headshots to kill anyone? Seriously?
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I much preferred the previous MNC. SMNC threw away all the impact to make it more like LoL. Snipers take 3 headshots to kill anyone? Seriously?
I thought MNC was pretty good. SMNC on the other hand... it's like they took the worst parts of LoL and then added in pay to win elements on top of them.
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I haven't played since they let me into some kind of beta. I thought it was repulsive, so I haven't given out the three coupons they gave me to share with people.
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I played enough of SMNC to get the TF2 unlocks (which I never use, so I guess it was a waste of my time) and during that time I discovered that you have persistent unlocks attached to your characters.
Unlocks whose sole purpose is to give you stat benefits and new abilities. Whose higher levels are rarer (you have a chance of getting one after every game), but you can conveniently buy them for real money in the in-game shop! This is opposed to the original MNC where all abilities were reset every game and the only persistent unlocks were reskins.
I actually installed it back in January so I could play it again... only to find that 3 or so servers were still running worldwide. And they weren't even full.
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Yeah, a sad fate for a great (if small) game. The environment alone (that announcer...) made me love it. Some friends and I all bought it for a LAN while I was still in NZ. But there's no one else...
These days, when I feel like playing something MOBA-ish, I end up playing Awesomenauts, for the 80s sci-fi cartoon theme it has.
...But recently they added a new character. Who I've won 80% of matches as.
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...did you just get whooshed?
The context for the first mention of SMNC (and this is in the reply chain) was
These combination RTS and FPS games intrigue me. I LOVED Super Monday Night Combat but that was more of a first person MOBA.
I assumed FrostCat said "Senescent Mutant Ninja...Cocks?" for the lolz.
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But the previous one is awesome. It's presented as a heavily commercialized sport, despite being a shooter, complete with a sports announcer.
The second one is MNC rebuilt out of raw, unrefined boring.
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But the previous one is awesome. It's presented as a heavily commercialized sport, despite being a shooter, complete with a sports announcer.
It's almost like they ripped-off that idea from Unreal Tournament!
... seriously, though, I loved Monday Night Combat. I never played it when it got "Super". I don't think.
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You'd know if you had. It has 3x the characters and takes 5x the time to kill anyone, because it's supposed to be more like LoL. Eugh. It even looks worse...
Unreal Tournament did it as well, but was much more grim. The fact that they made MNC into something like American football with an announcer who comments on random things and sponsors and everything... All I know is, they got the theme down perfectly.
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I assumed FrostCat said "Senescent Mutant Ninja...Cocks?" for the lolz.
That and because I missed jeff's post where he named the game.
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Don't worry, you're already better than Jeff, who inadvertently revealed that he has the same taste in games as he does in forum software.
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I'm pretty sure SMNC had a "classic" mode. I never played the original.
Turbocross | Monday Night Combat Wiki | Fandom
Turbocross is the new gamemode which was introduced in Rule Change 7. Turbocross has been described by many as a mode which returns Super MNC to the original Monday Night Combat's approximate game...
So maybe that's what you wanted?
These are the new features of Turbocross:
- Higher lethality - Health set to Super Crossfire level 15, damage even higher.
I guess you didn't really understand how SMNC worked?
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Google says “Super Monday Night Combat”. Sounds awful.
The problem with living on the East Coast is that the Monday night games don't start until I'm ready to go to bed.
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Oh, whats this? Jeff telling me I was doing it wrong?
I definitely quit long before this mode was introduced, but the way skills work and the way physics work were totally different than the first game. That was a large part of the 'impact' I mentioned. But it's cool that they decided to try approaching fun again.
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This game is sooo fun to abuse.
"The poor orphan [during a zombie invasion] is crying, give her something to calm her down!"
Hmm... A pony? A doll? A nice little fluffy kitten? Eh, fuck it...
> MORPHINE...hey, that worked too.
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http://i.imgur.com/quiYsec.png
>TINY CTHULHUis not amused at being delegated to the role of a class pet.To be fair, though - the game is pretty cool with the vocabulary, but almost actively discourages you from finding innovative and clever solutions. Most of the time, you don't even get to see what you put in - the outcome is the same - and almost every puzzle has a very obvious solution right there in the question.
The more you try to find something fun, the more you get limited by the dictionary (huge, but there are a lot of words deliberately not put in - anything violent or copyrighted, for instance), or by the moon logic of the devs (a mission in the hospital - to cure a kitten, you just need to [spoiler]append a "cured" adjective to it[/spoiler], but it doesn't work for the next patient [spoiler](a set of teeth... go figure)[/spoiler], for no good reason.
It's a bit like struggling with an 80's text adventure parser. You can try its limits by telling it to
>WALK WEST,>TRAVEL WEST,>HEAD WEST, but the outcome is the same - either it works and you go west, or the parser goes "huh?".There are a few clever puzzles - in the haunted house, a ghost of a bride demands three items for her wedding, [spoiler]you need something old, something blue, and something borrowed[/spoiler]. But those are counterbalanced by ones where just anything works (the local restaurant guy needed something on his billboard to "tell people what we sell here" - [spoiler]I created an artist to paint the billboard, but accidentally put him on the billboard - and that worked[/spoiler]), or blatantly obvious ones (aforementioned haunted house - an alchemist needs something old for the philosopher stone - [spoiler]you just give him something described as old, there's no thought involved - while there are more solutions (I gave him a grandma), the outcome is the same[/spoiler]).
In short - not a bad game, but not thought out too well, and way too long and unchallenging to be fun to the end.
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I'm tempted to start playing WoW again. I need someone to talk me out of it.
In the meantime, I've been playing Dust: An Elysian Tale... which is a Metroidvania-style game.
I managed to craft a +50 attack item rather early on and it kinda made the first part of the game really easy, though.
I also have Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc on my radar now that I have a PSTV. ESPECIALLY since my ISP has been playing the "lets die right when you finish dinner and get on the computer to do stuff" card. Which pisses both me and my friends off.
Incidentally, it appears I can't transfer all my PS1 PSN games over to the PSTV. No clue why games like Spyro the Dragon wouldn't work while games like Wild Arms do. Oh, and I apparently need an HDCP stripper if I want to be able to stream playing it.
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In the meantime, I've been playing Dust: An Elysian Tale... which is a Metroidvania-style game.
"Is he Cassius?" "Is he Jin?" "No, he's Dust!!!" (Literally 2 minutes of story later) "Is he Cassius?" "Is he Jin?" "No, he's Dust!!!" (Literally 2 minutes of story later) "Is he Cassius?" "Is he Jin?" "No, he's Dust!!!" (Literally 2 minutes of story later) "Is he Cassius?" "Is he Jin?" "No, he's Dust!!!" (Literally 2 minutes of story later) "Is he Cassius?" "Is he Jin?" "No, he's Dust!!!" (Literally 2 minutes of story later) "Is he Cassius?" "Is he Jin?" "No, he's Dust!!!" (Literally 2 minutes of story later) "Is he Cassius?" "Is he Jin?" "No, he's Dust!!!" (Literally 2 minutes of story later) "Is he Cassius?" "Is he Jin?" "No, he's Dust!!!" ...
... sorry it's actually a pretty good game, but man, that awful story. Ugh.
I also have Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc on my radar now that I have a PSTV.
... WHY!?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jpiym8Dh_KQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvMn729nbSw
If you want a good visual novel that runs on PSTV (I assume-- it's a Vita game) get Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward. It's actually... good.
No clue why games like Spyro the Dragon wouldn't work while games like Wild Arms do.
Because it's not a perfect emulation, games still need attention from a developer to figure out the controls and such. Stupidly. The Vita is technically capable of running them, they just haven't been "greenlighted" by some idiot at Sony yet.
