Videogames: Spooktober Season

[Fez]

I'm generally not one for horror games, but I've picked up Inscryption based on the reviews: https://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/inscryption I haven't actually read the reviews (besides the RPS one from yesterday), because apparently its a game you really want to go into unspoiled. But I know it's a card game but more than just that, that it doesn't rely on jump scares, and it's by the same developer who made Pony Island.

Another good game for the season that I played years ago is Tormentum- Dark Sorrow. It's a short, pretty easy point-and-click adventure game that is all about its artwork and atmosphere.

[Fez]

So I beat what seemed like the final boss of Inscryption on the third run; which I suspect is faster than the developers intended, but I've played a lot of deck builder games before. However, fortunately it turns out that winning that battle is just the cue for the game to get really weird. I'm only on my next run after that now, but it seems like the game has a Hades-style progression for advancing the story. Where winning an individual run doesn't actually matter that much.

[Fez]

Well, sorry for the triple post, but I love them videogames.

Not sure if this trailer will stay up, its on Bethesda's channel but is unlisted currently. It's got concept art and a bit of lore about Starfield.

[Kalbear]

Am doing an internal Xbox video, and they're showing some of the Forza sizzle reels. Holy crap is that gorgeous. I normally don't go for the racing games, but that looks absolutely absurd.

[Caligula_K3]

Quote

Yeah, Super Metroid's controls are ehh, to the point I've not yet ever finished it despite it being the ur-example of my favourite genre. Dread is actually causing a bit of controversy in-fandom coz its focus on tougher bosses is making it harder to get through for fans who got into the series when it was easier on bosses but tougher on exploration. I really like the bosses, but I do get their complaint. 

 

In the meantime, got back into Eastward, a sorta-Zelda-ish-but-more-story-driven, no-backtracking top-down action adventure indie, post-civilisation-breakdown thing. It's very engaging and the graphics/art design are stupendous.    

@polishgenius Interesting. I've fought two major bosses in Dread so far and while they've both been tough (I probably died eight times to the first, five times to the second), they felt very fair. I learned their patterns and eventually could beat them while barely getting it. It helps a lot that if you die, you're respawned right outside the boss door. Super Metroid, meanwhile, had very little strategy to the boss fights - shoot super missiles and hope you don't die. And I found some of them to be very tough, especially the one in the Wrecked Ship. Annoyingly, you also had to walk from your last save point in Super Metroid. So I'm not sure I understand the complaint.

I do at times wish that Dread was a big tougher on explanation. I've gotten lost for a bit twice, but otherwise it's always been pretty easy to tell where to go, and the game sometimes even prevents you from exploring by funneling you down a clear path and blocking off some exits. When I get new upgrades, I want to go exploring to get some missile upgrades I'm never going to need!

I'd never heard of Eastward - that sounds very cool. I'll check it out.

[Werthead]

To be fair, a better ending than the trilogy actually got.

[The Anti-Targ]

That video deserves more than one reaction. I must admit, for my definitive ending I did pretty much the same thing. The moment I was weapons free in the final scene I shot the star child in the face... So be it, the cycle will continue.

When you think about it, with the state of species relations in the galaxy there was no particular reason the star child should have said given Shepard the option to end the cycles.

Speaking of Mass Effect. There is apparently a Witcher make up room photo with Henry Cavill sitting in his make up chair and a blurry image of a page with some Mass Effect prose on it. TV series? Cavill as a VA in Mass Effect 4?

Also, read an article today that a PS3 emulator can now play over 60% of all PS3 games. I hope Sony will buy it and install it on PS5. It seems like the minimum specs for the emulator to work are lower than the PS5's specs.

[Fez]

I've gotten a bit further into Inscryption and, without spoilers, things have gotten really weird. And not entirely in a way I like.

With spoilers (extremely big spoilers if this is a game you're interested in)

Spoiler

Absolutely everything advertised about the game is Act 1; the creepy, horror vibe rogue-like deckbuilder with a Hands of Fate-style narrator. When you beat the final boss after having also figured out some other stuff, you move into Act 2, a very different game. It's still a card game, but with much more complex rules and now it's a top-down 2D game and that isn't a rogue-like at all. I don't know what Act 3 is, but apparently is yet another style of game. Meaning this isn't really a rogue-like at all, it's a story-driven game. Which isn't really what I was looking for, though the story is kinda neat. More importantly, I don't like how Act 2 looks or plays at all. I respect the bait and switch, but its frustrating. I was looking for a horror-themed rogue-like for the Halloween season, and that's only Act 1.

 

[Rhom]

I like Tom Holland… I like Uncharted… but the two together does not seem to be a good mix.

Also… I like Ramble On.  But that may quite possibly be the worst song pairing for a trailer I have ever seen.

[Derfel Cadarn]

Completed Resident Evil 2 Remake as Claire! Now to play the alternate run-through as Leon.

[polishgenius]

On 10/21/2021 at 6:17 PM, Caligula_K3 said:

Interesting. I've fought two major bosses in Dread so far and while they've both been tough (I probably died eight times to the first, five times to the second), they felt very fair. I learned their patterns and eventually could beat them while barely getting it.

 

Yeah I mean I died a lot more coz I'm dyspraxic but I don't think they're unfair- but I don't think that's really the complaint. I do prefer it this way, but I think ultimately because in Super Metroid and others the bosses were so straightforward and almost an afterthought game design-wise, the series has some OG fans who aren't really into boss battles as a puzzle-reflex challenge at all, and they've been left a bit disappointed by having a gameplay aspect they don't really enjoy enough to have fun toughing through it. I do get it, for an established series, even though for me it's a good improvement. And it's also probably fair to say it's possible to have well-designed bosses that aren't quite as much of a challenge, which these still can be even knowing the patterns (Iconoclasts is a perfect example there, you've still gotta learn the patterns and weakspots, and you still gotta work for it, but they're not quite as punishing as here). 

 

I'd have happily have taken more bosses, mind. 

[Kalbear]

Accessibility and diversity in action: RE4 V4 is awesome, provided you don't have boobs

 

 

[Fez]

Trailer for the GTA III/VC/SA remaster/"definitive edition"

It looks like they Rockstar actually put quite a lot of work into this, but I'm not sure I like the end result that much. All the characters just look so cartoony.

Still, I've never played III or Vice City, and it's been 15 years since I've touched San Andreas, so I'll probably pick this up. Especially with the new mission checkpoints and other QoL improvements also added.

[Gorn]

18 minutes ago, Fez said:

Trailer for the GTA III/VC/SA remaster/"definitive edition"

It looks like they Rockstar actually put quite a lot of work into this, but I'm not sure I like the end result that much. All the characters just look so cartoony.

Still, I've never played III or Vice City, and it's been 15 years since I've touched San Andreas, so I'll probably pick this up. Especially with the new mission checkpoints and other QoL improvements also added.

It does? Huh, I would say the exact opposite. To me, that trailer screams "minimum effort nostalgia money grab", where they upscaled the resolution, touched up the lighting and called it a day. It's not even faithful to the originals - they weren't cartoony, they were as photorealistic as it was possible to be with the hardware of the time.

Also, I am troubled by their complete silence about restoring the original soundtrack.

[IlyaP]

On 10/22/2021 at 7:15 AM, Werthead said:

To be fair, a better ending than the trilogy actually got.

One of these days I will play ME 2 and 3. 

I get the feeling that I could skip 2 entirely and miss absolutely nothing, and that ME3 serves as a better direct sequel to ME1 and its main Reaver storyline than ME2. 

In the meantime, I'm still making my way through Anthem and Diablo 2: Resurrected. Also picked up Mass Effect: Andromeda, which, despite being famously buggy and unstable, worked absolutely fine and had zero problems when I tried it out recently. 

[IlyaP]

6 hours ago, Rhom said:

I like Tom Holland… I like Uncharted… but the two together does not seem to be a good mix.

Also… I like Ramble On.  But that may quite possibly be the worst song pairing for a trailer I have ever seen.

I know hey? I could not figure out what the audio choice there was all about. 

[karaddin]

I've seen much more positive reactions to the playability of Andromeda from people that gave it another chance after the LE rekindled interest. I always liked it and never got the bad bugs so can't really comment on the changes, but I take the comments from others as a sign the worst bugs were fixed.

I finally got around to playing The Witcher 3 and did really enjoy it. My main actual criticism would be that the DLCs don't tonally fit the story. They're both good in isolation, effective characters, good atmosphere, quests that did a decent job of foreshadowing in the right way, but they just don't fit the main story. I spent all that time searching for Ciri, throwing Geralts entire life into it, only to spend a couple of months with her and then peace out after defeating the Wild Hunt? It probably fits a Geralt that didn't care about her much and got what i assume the bad ending is, but my Geralt? He'd still be with her.

Heart of Stone could fit chronologically into the main quest before you find her I guess, as it doesn't take much time in game, in which case the issue is just the level requirement. Blood and Wine on the other hand is clearly later on, but could easily have been during the period where he was training Ciri before she goes off on her own. Her powers might have impacted the threat level, but you can write around that and having her there would have resolved my emotional issue with it.

I know it's meant to be the epilogue to his story, that it's where my Geralt retired with Yen, but emotionally I wanted more of his time with Ciri and it could have easily been their last contract together.

A less serious complaint but one of the main things putting me off jumping straight into a NG+ - the weather and setting for the main game is so fucking dreadful lol. Velen is a swamp, Skellige are inhospitable islands and while Novigrad is ok countryside it still has awful weather. The constant storms really wore me down lol. Then Toussaint is a breath of fresh beautiful air and it's hard to go back to the mud.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

8 hours ago, Fez said:

Trailer for the GTA III/VC/SA remaster/"definitive edition"

It looks like they Rockstar actually put quite a lot of work into this, but I'm not sure I like the end result that much. All the characters just look so cartoony.

Still, I've never played III or Vice City, and it's been 15 years since I've touched San Andreas, so I'll probably pick this up. Especially with the new mission checkpoints and other QoL improvements also added.

Take my money!!!

Plus it has auto-aim, and it sounds like play wise it will largely be just like GTAV. 

[Slurktan]

6 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Take my money!!!

Plus it has auto-aim, and it sounds like play wise it will largely be just like GTAV. 

Thank god.  The old ones have shit controls.

[IlyaP]

33 minutes ago, karaddin said:

A less serious complaint but one of the main things putting me off jumping straight into a NG+ - the weather and setting for the main game is so fucking dreadful lol. Velen is a swamp, Skellige are inhospitable islands and while Novigrad is ok countryside it still has awful weather. The constant storms really wore me down lol. Then Toussaint is a breath of fresh beautiful air and it's hard to go back to the mud.

THANK YOU. 

I keep wondering why people would live in those places where the weather and, well, everything is so awful.