So I recently got a hankering to play some XCOM 2, specifically with the Long War of the Chosen mod, which adds a bunch of stuff and makes the game significantly harder, so making sub-optimal tactical and strategic decisions can be disastrous. It was going well, but a couple of nights ago I'd had a long stressful day at work so I kept playing into the wee hours of the morning, even though I was practically dozing off in my chair, and let me just say... playing LWotC on XCOM2 while you're half-asleep is not a good idea. It wasn't even stuff like making sub-optimal strategic decisions, I was often misclicking and ordering my soldiers to stand out in the open without cover. It took a few failed missions and about a dozen dead soldiers before I decided that this wasn't a good idea, and that I should go to bed.
Unfortunately, losing a dozen high-ranked soldiers makes me think that this run may be doomed now, because this setback can easily snowball into an insurmountable obstacle.
Unfortunately, losing a dozen high-ranked soldiers makes me think that this run may be doomed now, because this setback can easily snowball into an insurmountable obstacle.
Spider-Man 2
Sooooo, yeah, Im very much enjoying this. Not done the main story yet, but finished a few side missions so far. I thought I'd hate the new gliding system, but I'm loving it.
Sooooo, yeah, Im very much enjoying this. Not done the main story yet, but finished a few side missions so far. I thought I'd hate the new gliding system, but I'm loving it.
figmentPez
Staff member
Alice Madness Returns
I have been debating getting this one for a long time; since before it was delisted from Steam so EA could try to make all their games exclusive to their own launcher, only to return to steam after EA failed. I enjoyed the first game way back, but I know that game was more style than substance, and the sequel had even worse reviews.
This game is mediocre. It's got some good points, but even the art style isn't well executed. The first game did more within it's limitations than this game does. I'm mostly going to type just to hear myself think. No one cares about my opinions on a poorly reviewed game from a dozen years ago, and that's fine.
The Good: There's some solid platforming. It's not really stand-out, but it's okay. I'm enjoying running, jumping, collecting stuff. The game looks okay, for it's age, while none of the level design is mind blowing, none of it is truly awful either. It's standard stuff that's learned it's lessons from other games well.
When combat works, it can be pretty fun. Most of mechanics have a solid basis, and the concept of most enemies works pretty well. The exceptions I'll get to later.
The Meh: The story is bland, and the voice acting is wildly inconsistent. The art assets and modeling are also wildly inconsistent. I remember the first game doing a better job of storytelling, and doing a quick search on YouTube reveals that my memory is correct about the voice acting for the Cheshire Cat in the first game being much better.
There's a game mechanic where you shrink down to see invisible clues and paths, which in theory is a cool mechanic, kinda like Batman's detective vision. (Wait, this game came out two years after Arkham Asylum? Wow, this game looks like shit in comparison.) However, you have to be standing on the ground to use it, you can't jump or do anything else while it's active, and any revealed platforms will start to fade out as soon as you stop holding the shrink button. What this ends up doing is massively slowing down a lot of the game as you repeatedly shrink, look around, jump, land, shrink, jump, land, shrink, over and over. It's not a terrible mechanic, it can just really bog down the game with how frequently it's required.
A lot of this game feels like padded repetition. I'm a little over halfway through, and I've already had 3 times where I've had to collect blocks and then use them to solve a rudimentary sliding block puzzle. This feels like a game that was trying to hit a certain number of hours-of-playtime and stretched itself too thin trying to be a 15 hour game when it should have been 8.
The segments in Wonderland are interspersed with segments in old timey England, and so little happens in those that I wonder why they make you walk down bland environments with bland looking models to do absolutely nothing for a bit. I don't understand why they exist, unless it's to be time padding, or maybe they were segments that were meant to be something more and never got completely replaced with cut scenes.
The Horrible: I hate the camera, I hate it so much. The camera is the main reason for the combat not working. The lock on system does not work right. It's wildly inconsistent. The camera is sluggish and hitches frequently. The target will just randomly switch what enemy it's locked on to. Dodging is inconsistent because of how unpredictable the camera is. The worst boss fights are more about fighting the camera than they are about fighting any enemies.
Oh, and I don't think there have been any real boss fights. Everything feels like a mini-boss, at most. I don't think I've fought a single enemy that hasn't been thrown at me multiple times. There have been zero set-piece battles against any of the named/iconic characters.
Lastly, this game has some weirdly horny bits. The oysters that get eaten by the Walrus? They're naked, except for a garter belt and stocking on one leg only. It's not sexy, because they look like vaguely doll shaped lumps of mucus covered tumor, but they're dancing like showgirls with one leg in fishnets. Later in the game there's porcelain geisha statues with bare breasts (no nipples) that then have ant-headed versions, still with human bodies, later in the chapter. Maybe this all has some connection to Alice's nursemaid now being a hooker, or maybe they just felt they needed some psycho-sexual element because of Freudian stuff, I dunno, but it feels oddly out of place.
What a weird game. It doesn't feel much like the original at all. Only some of the visual style is the same. Very little of the gameplay is.
I have been debating getting this one for a long time; since before it was delisted from Steam so EA could try to make all their games exclusive to their own launcher, only to return to steam after EA failed. I enjoyed the first game way back, but I know that game was more style than substance, and the sequel had even worse reviews.
This game is mediocre. It's got some good points, but even the art style isn't well executed. The first game did more within it's limitations than this game does. I'm mostly going to type just to hear myself think. No one cares about my opinions on a poorly reviewed game from a dozen years ago, and that's fine.
The Good: There's some solid platforming. It's not really stand-out, but it's okay. I'm enjoying running, jumping, collecting stuff. The game looks okay, for it's age, while none of the level design is mind blowing, none of it is truly awful either. It's standard stuff that's learned it's lessons from other games well.
When combat works, it can be pretty fun. Most of mechanics have a solid basis, and the concept of most enemies works pretty well. The exceptions I'll get to later.
The Meh: The story is bland, and the voice acting is wildly inconsistent. The art assets and modeling are also wildly inconsistent. I remember the first game doing a better job of storytelling, and doing a quick search on YouTube reveals that my memory is correct about the voice acting for the Cheshire Cat in the first game being much better.
There's a game mechanic where you shrink down to see invisible clues and paths, which in theory is a cool mechanic, kinda like Batman's detective vision. (Wait, this game came out two years after Arkham Asylum? Wow, this game looks like shit in comparison.) However, you have to be standing on the ground to use it, you can't jump or do anything else while it's active, and any revealed platforms will start to fade out as soon as you stop holding the shrink button. What this ends up doing is massively slowing down a lot of the game as you repeatedly shrink, look around, jump, land, shrink, jump, land, shrink, over and over. It's not a terrible mechanic, it can just really bog down the game with how frequently it's required.
A lot of this game feels like padded repetition. I'm a little over halfway through, and I've already had 3 times where I've had to collect blocks and then use them to solve a rudimentary sliding block puzzle. This feels like a game that was trying to hit a certain number of hours-of-playtime and stretched itself too thin trying to be a 15 hour game when it should have been 8.
The segments in Wonderland are interspersed with segments in old timey England, and so little happens in those that I wonder why they make you walk down bland environments with bland looking models to do absolutely nothing for a bit. I don't understand why they exist, unless it's to be time padding, or maybe they were segments that were meant to be something more and never got completely replaced with cut scenes.
The Horrible: I hate the camera, I hate it so much. The camera is the main reason for the combat not working. The lock on system does not work right. It's wildly inconsistent. The camera is sluggish and hitches frequently. The target will just randomly switch what enemy it's locked on to. Dodging is inconsistent because of how unpredictable the camera is. The worst boss fights are more about fighting the camera than they are about fighting any enemies.
Oh, and I don't think there have been any real boss fights. Everything feels like a mini-boss, at most. I don't think I've fought a single enemy that hasn't been thrown at me multiple times. There have been zero set-piece battles against any of the named/iconic characters.
Lastly, this game has some weirdly horny bits. The oysters that get eaten by the Walrus? They're naked, except for a garter belt and stocking on one leg only. It's not sexy, because they look like vaguely doll shaped lumps of mucus covered tumor, but they're dancing like showgirls with one leg in fishnets. Later in the game there's porcelain geisha statues with bare breasts (no nipples) that then have ant-headed versions, still with human bodies, later in the chapter. Maybe this all has some connection to Alice's nursemaid now being a hooker, or maybe they just felt they needed some psycho-sexual element because of Freudian stuff, I dunno, but it feels oddly out of place.
What a weird game. It doesn't feel much like the original at all. Only some of the visual style is the same. Very little of the gameplay is.
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Aaaaaand the game locks up on me at a certain point. It lets me pause or use menus, but it won't let me proceed.Spider-Man 2
Sooooo, yeah, Im very much enjoying this. Not done the main story yet, but finished a few side missions so far. I thought I'd hate the new gliding system, but I'm loving it.
I'm at the point where you learn the Galvanize move near the end. The button prompt pops up for R1 + X, but nothing is happening. This is the kind of pop up the occurs and the game won't proceed until you hit the button combination. So now the game just freezes at that moment and doesn't do anything.
Tried changing settings. Tried quitting and restarting. Nothing. It takes me right back to the same moment and freezes once the prompt comes up.
I'm very frustrated because I wanted to finish this before the start of my work week.
And just after I posted this, I tried again. I tried hitting the prompt just before it popped up. That did the trick. Hopefully that gets patched out for others.
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Spider-Man 2
Finished it last night. In fact, aside from a couple of trophies, I've nearly 100% completed it. I've basically been playing it non-stop since Friday evening, which is a testament to how amazing it is. I thought I would hate the gliding mechanic, but I wound up enjoying it quite a lot.
The main story is just as good, if not better, than the first one. The black suit storyline is probably the most compelling it's been in any media, including the original comics. It feels more personal, and given more time to breathe than any other time. The new black suit powers are both terrifying and awesome. I think there might be less villains, overall, than the last one, which is good because it makes the game feel more focused as a result.
While the main story doesn't have the same gut punch tear-jerker moment as the first one, I actually found two particular side quests endearing and heartbreaking. Both of them involve senior citizens, which make me wonder if the same person wrote them and they're working through some shit.
There are, unfortunately, still some regular human stealth quests like the first one, though they're a little more manageable this time, as they give you multiple tools to work with. So much so that the final one felt like Uncharted-lite with duck-and-cover shooting.
I encountered a few bugs. During one main storyline mission, I clipped through the floor and fell through the world until I died. And there were a few little niggling glitches, but nothing that ruined the overall experience for me. Nothing that can't be patched out.
So yeah, I'm very happy with the way this turned out. Insomniac know how to make a heck of a game and they proved again here.
Finished it last night. In fact, aside from a couple of trophies, I've nearly 100% completed it. I've basically been playing it non-stop since Friday evening, which is a testament to how amazing it is. I thought I would hate the gliding mechanic, but I wound up enjoying it quite a lot.
The main story is just as good, if not better, than the first one. The black suit storyline is probably the most compelling it's been in any media, including the original comics. It feels more personal, and given more time to breathe than any other time. The new black suit powers are both terrifying and awesome. I think there might be less villains, overall, than the last one, which is good because it makes the game feel more focused as a result.
While the main story doesn't have the same gut punch tear-jerker moment as the first one, I actually found two particular side quests endearing and heartbreaking. Both of them involve senior citizens, which make me wonder if the same person wrote them and they're working through some shit.
There are, unfortunately, still some regular human stealth quests like the first one, though they're a little more manageable this time, as they give you multiple tools to work with. So much so that the final one felt like Uncharted-lite with duck-and-cover shooting.
I encountered a few bugs. During one main storyline mission, I clipped through the floor and fell through the world until I died. And there were a few little niggling glitches, but nothing that ruined the overall experience for me. Nothing that can't be patched out.
So yeah, I'm very happy with the way this turned out. Insomniac know how to make a heck of a game and they proved again here.
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figmentPez
Staff member
Storyteller
TL;DW It's a puzzle game where you're given story elements (events, locations, objects, characters, etc.) that you put into book pages to make a story that achieves the goal.
It's a little like Scribblenauts, except you can't just summon up anything, and you're often very limited in page space, so it takes some thinking to figure out how to assemble elements efficiently. The game is relatively simple, but it's well executed, and the art style suits the game perfectly. There's a real absurd sense of humor to the whole thing. Heartbreak, murders, ghosts, kings, monsters, and more are all done in cartoonish style, and one puzzle resulted in Nietzsche shooting God with a pistol.
I've been playing on Android because it's free with Netflix, but it's also available on Steam, and elsewhere.
TL;DW It's a puzzle game where you're given story elements (events, locations, objects, characters, etc.) that you put into book pages to make a story that achieves the goal.
It's a little like Scribblenauts, except you can't just summon up anything, and you're often very limited in page space, so it takes some thinking to figure out how to assemble elements efficiently. The game is relatively simple, but it's well executed, and the art style suits the game perfectly. There's a real absurd sense of humor to the whole thing. Heartbreak, murders, ghosts, kings, monsters, and more are all done in cartoonish style, and one puzzle resulted in Nietzsche shooting God with a pistol.
I've been playing on Android because it's free with Netflix, but it's also available on Steam, and elsewhere.
I have played the game all the way through, and it took me about 10 hours all told, I think. I don't remember what I paid for it, but I don't think it was as high as current list price..and when I got done, I remember thinking that the value versus cost was worth it to me.
edit: Logged into steam to check the price and it looks like there's an update with more story..guess I'll have to reinstall it
edit: Logged into steam to check the price and it looks like there's an update with more story..guess I'll have to reinstall it
figmentPez
Staff member
FUCK THIS GAME. Alice Madness Returns can take it's edgelord bullshit, fold it until it's all sharp corners, set it on fire, and shove it up it's fucking ass!
Putting this behind a spoiler, not because I think anyone should play this game and find out for themselves, but because it needs a trigger warning for being about the sexual assault of dozens if not hundreds of minors.
"this game has some weirdly horny bits" Yeah, that's because this game shifted the story from "Alice went crazy when her family died in a fire" to "Alice went crazy because she and her sister had both been sexually abused by the doctor who set the fire to cover up that he'd been raping Alice's little sister Lucy. Not just that, but his mental asylum and home for wayward children were just an orphan grinding machine set up to drive children insane, wipe their memories, and sell them to perverts.
That's why this whole game is absurdly obsessed with dolls. The vast majority of enemy encounters are with abominations of black slime with doll heads. There are other enemies, but you face the doll-headed ruins first, and in every area of the game, right up until the end. They're not just representations of Alice's lost childhood, they're a whole bunch of children who have been sexually trafficked.
At one point in an end game level the way forward is through the crotch of a giant naked baby doll. There's even a "press LT to move the camera to a cinematic location so you can get a good look at the landscape you're headed towards; you don't want to miss the fact that you're headed into a doll's fanny, do you?"
That's why this whole game is absurdly obsessed with dolls. The vast majority of enemy encounters are with abominations of black slime with doll heads. There are other enemies, but you face the doll-headed ruins first, and in every area of the game, right up until the end. They're not just representations of Alice's lost childhood, they're a whole bunch of children who have been sexually trafficked.
At one point in an end game level the way forward is through the crotch of a giant naked baby doll. There's even a "press LT to move the camera to a cinematic location so you can get a good look at the landscape you're headed towards; you don't want to miss the fact that you're headed into a doll's fanny, do you?"
I've heard criticism of this game. I knew it was going to be unpolished, mostly bland, not living up to the original game. Not once did someone point out that the sexual assault and trafficking of children becomes a major plot point that's handled so horribly. The first game had some issues with it's portrayal of mental illness and asylums, that doesn't even come close to comparing to how horribly handled this game's plot is.
Also, from a purely game design and mechanics: The scariest thing in this game is the camera. Fuck this camera. Fuck how terrible the lock on is. Fuck that you can't change your lock to enemies that are off-screen, or just randomly depending on the game's mood. Fuck how the camera tends to randomly decide it'll reset, or not, when you're platforming and jump into an updraft.
Lastly, I'm so fucking sick of invisible platforms. If I ever don't see another platform again, it will be too soon.
Fuck this game. 0/10 do not recommend.
Inkbound is pretty excellent (and currently on sale).
The best brief description I've come up with for it is a roguelike, turn-based ARPG, with the combination of skills, upgrades, items, that you get per run feeling a lot like developing a character in Diablo 3 did, but over the course of 20 minutes to maybe 45 instead of weeks. It's by the developers behind Monster Train for people who have played that, and while it's still in early access it's getting frequent updates and there's basically zero risk of it being abandoned along the way.
Oh, and co-op for up to 4 players, for anyone who's into that.
The best brief description I've come up with for it is a roguelike, turn-based ARPG, with the combination of skills, upgrades, items, that you get per run feeling a lot like developing a character in Diablo 3 did, but over the course of 20 minutes to maybe 45 instead of weeks. It's by the developers behind Monster Train for people who have played that, and while it's still in early access it's getting frequent updates and there's basically zero risk of it being abandoned along the way.
Oh, and co-op for up to 4 players, for anyone who's into that.
Another reason to maybe like Inkbound:
Steam indie hit goes against industry trends, removes all monetization
Co-op roguelike game Inkbound from Monster Train developer Shiny Shoe is removing all in-game monitzation to avoid FOMO and to get with player sentiment.
www.pcgamesn.com
--Patrick
Finally getting around to playing Northgard. Haven't gotten very far yet, having fun so far though. I can see how this might be too "light" for people who want survival games, but for me looking for a fairly forgiving Settlers-like game it's okay. I'm looking to unwind, not a great big challenge. Just playing story mode for now.
I rather enjoyed Northgard. Highly recommend, if you want something close to Settlers.
I got talked into trying OSRS. lol We'll see how long this lasts.
"Old School RuneScape" for anyone else that doesn't want to Google.
GasBandit
Staff member
So I decided to give this a try, since I was too mired in Everquest to try Runescape when it came out in real time. And let me tell you, this is not what I was expecting.
It's got an interesting leveling dynamic where every single skill has its own XP bar and level. You gain XP and levels in that skill by using it. You chop trees, you get get woodcutting XP and go up woodcutting levels. You cook, you get cooking XP and Cooking levels.
You do attack damage, you gain THAT kind of XP and go up levels in that kind of attack.
But here's the thing. For the most part, the amount of XP you get is just straight up "Damage you did times four." You get it every time you do damage, no matter what you damage, and killing the thing in question is not what grants the xp - just doing the damage is. So mass-slaughtering the level 2 goblins gives you the same XP rate as challenging a level 19 black bear, with much less risk.
Also there's no grouping. Every open world fight is single player and 1 on 1. You can't even jump in to help somebody who is in over their head and about to die - it won't let you attack and tells you "somebody's already fighting that."
So (outside the little bit of experimentation it took for me to come to the above conclusion), for six hours I stood in the newbie area committing goblin genocide and got Attack accuracy, STR, and Defense leveled up quite effectively.
My take? This is a good game to half-pay attention to while you watch youtube videos.
IMO this is just how things should always be. For one thing, it completely eliminates kill-poaching.
--Patrick
GasBandit
Staff member
But it changes it from an MMO to a single player RPG with background noise generated by other players... when it advertises itself as an MMO.
I can't play "with" Wasabi. But either of us can sit there and watch the other do our thing.
My Time at Sandrock
Or maybe 15 minutes of it because holy shit, this game is poorly optimized. It makes my computer run way harder than it has any right to be and it's janky as fuck even on the lowest graphic settings. When the game goes to the menu, it even has a message like "Looks like your computer is struggling to run this game. Maybe close some other programs." I did, but the programs I closed didn't run hard in the first place, so it didn't make a lick of difference.
Unless they patch it to run better, I don't think I'm even going to bother with this. Which is a shame because I liked My Time at Portia (which also ran poorly, but not THIS poorly), and I backed this game on Kickstarter.
Or maybe 15 minutes of it because holy shit, this game is poorly optimized. It makes my computer run way harder than it has any right to be and it's janky as fuck even on the lowest graphic settings. When the game goes to the menu, it even has a message like "Looks like your computer is struggling to run this game. Maybe close some other programs." I did, but the programs I closed didn't run hard in the first place, so it didn't make a lick of difference.
Unless they patch it to run better, I don't think I'm even going to bother with this. Which is a shame because I liked My Time at Portia (which also ran poorly, but not THIS poorly), and I backed this game on Kickstarter.
I’m playing on my SteamDeck and I’m loving it! I got the same message, but it ran fine once it loaded. The first time loading took forever though. Early access loaded much faster.
I’m having issues expanding my home in the workshop. I don’t know if it’s because I’m using controller type controls or if I’m missing something.
figmentPez
Staff member
PictoQuest
I'm only happy with this one because I got it for under $2. If I'd paid full price for this game, I'd have been severely disappointed. It's a nonogram / picross style game, and it just barely adds in some RPG elements. It's not particularly good at anything, but not particularly terrible, either. It's an acceptable time waster, if all you want are some basic puzzles, but I'm sure there's better out there.
I was hoping for something that integrated RPG features better. Instead, enemies just act as a vague timer / punishment for errors, and consumables act as a hint system. Very rarely enemies will send out attacks that erase parts of your progress, but other than that there's no impact on the puzzle logic, and most of the puzzles are pretty basic. Which is probably for the best, since the game lacks a lot of the tools found in nonogram games that have been around for decades, like alternate pen colors for making notes / testing logic. The nonogram program I had on my Handspring Visor had better features than this.
I guess I shouldn't complain too much that $2 got me 12 hours of puzzle solving, but some of the puzzles were just repeats with added requirements like "don't make any mistakes" or a shorter timer.
I'm only happy with this one because I got it for under $2. If I'd paid full price for this game, I'd have been severely disappointed. It's a nonogram / picross style game, and it just barely adds in some RPG elements. It's not particularly good at anything, but not particularly terrible, either. It's an acceptable time waster, if all you want are some basic puzzles, but I'm sure there's better out there.
I was hoping for something that integrated RPG features better. Instead, enemies just act as a vague timer / punishment for errors, and consumables act as a hint system. Very rarely enemies will send out attacks that erase parts of your progress, but other than that there's no impact on the puzzle logic, and most of the puzzles are pretty basic. Which is probably for the best, since the game lacks a lot of the tools found in nonogram games that have been around for decades, like alternate pen colors for making notes / testing logic. The nonogram program I had on my Handspring Visor had better features than this.
I guess I shouldn't complain too much that $2 got me 12 hours of puzzle solving, but some of the puzzles were just repeats with added requirements like "don't make any mistakes" or a shorter timer.
Want an actual good game?
Murder by Numbers is a picross puzzle game combined with ace attorney style murder mysteries.
Mafia: Definitive Edition
i was really enjoying the vibe and narrative of this game...
...right up until a racing mission. Apparently, this mission is infamously hard, dating back to the original game. I thought maybe they made it a little more winnable in the updated version but I guess not. Googling the mission tells me many struggle with it.
I've said before that I hate racing games. That goes double for forced racing games in a game that isn't all about racing.
I tried beating this multiple times but it's just an exercise in frustration. I gave up and uninstalled the game.
i was really enjoying the vibe and narrative of this game...
...right up until a racing mission. Apparently, this mission is infamously hard, dating back to the original game. I thought maybe they made it a little more winnable in the updated version but I guess not. Googling the mission tells me many struggle with it.
I've said before that I hate racing games. That goes double for forced racing games in a game that isn't all about racing.
I tried beating this multiple times but it's just an exercise in frustration. I gave up and uninstalled the game.
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figmentPez
Staff member
Note to self, install a mod to make the racing super easy if I decide to play Mafia.
I played the original way back. The racing was absolut bullshit. I'm not sure how I did it, but I believe I downloaded a mod back than too. Driver was another game I used a savefile to skip the beginning.
It's not often a challenge bugs me enough that I feel a strong desire to go back and overcome it, but this damn racing mission did it for me.
So I reinstalled the game and tried again...and beat it on my second try. Finally. Ugh. Hopefully the rest of the game is a cakewalk by comparison.
Lost in Random
Pretty good action deckbuilder platformer with great Sellick style character designs but DAMN if fights can take too long.
Pretty good action deckbuilder platformer with great Sellick style character designs but DAMN if fights can take too long.
This is exactly why I could never get into Final Fantasy Tactics. I'm sure it's a great game, but I always preferred the wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am combat of the other Final Fantasy titles to Tactics' style. It got too tedious for me.
I feel you, and in deckbuilders like Random some turns you get NO attack cards so you gotta go through a WHOLE 'nother round to get a good hand, and ALL I wanna do is get the bomb to kill the Scarecrow Mayor!
