Video Games- At least 2023 looks like a banger

[Darryk]

11 hours ago, Ran said:

I've heard QfG4 is considered the best of the series, but I admit I've not played it.

Not sure if you know, but the designers/creators of the QfG series, Lori Anne and Corey Cole, made a spiritual successor called Hero U: Rogue to Redemption. Reviews were fairly positive, but I admit I've not tried it.

Yeah I was one of the backers on that  But still haven't gotten around to playing it , sadly.

I'm often reluctant to play sequels to old favourite franchises of mine cause I'm worried they won't be able to compare to the nostalgia of the originals. Same reason I havem't played any Legend of Zelda games since Ocarina of Time.

[Darryk]

14 hours ago, Werthead said:

I think I came to the Quest style of game a bit too late. I'd already played most of LucasArts' adventures up through Monkey Island 2 and Delphine's games like Future Wars, as well as Lure of the Temptress and Legend of Kyrandia, so the likes of King's Quest, Space Quest and Police Quest were all too primitive and pedantic by that point. My abiding memory of Police Quest was hitting "fire gun" and promptly blowing my own leg off because the game did not specify you had to type "draw gun" first.

The only one of those games that I actually finished was - ha! - Leisure Suit Larry 1, which had the same engine. And that was ten times easier than any of the rest and about 10% of the size.

One of the two games I really missed out from that time were Delphine's Cruise for a Corpse, which was a Poirot-style murder mystery on a boat and had stuff like characters all on time schedules, so you had to slip in and out of cabins looking for clues at just the right moment and if you sat there and did nothing, the killer would strike again, but if you were really good you could stop him after just one death. Very smart and advanced game for the time. The other one was Beneath a Steel Sky, which I've been meaning to get back to before playing the recent sequel Beyond a Steel Sky (I know someone who worked on it).

They were brutal. In Space Quest there was an item you needed to get at the beginning of the game that you only used at the end, so if you got to the end and didn't have it you had to start all over again.

In Police Quest you catch a drunk driver at one point and you have to type the exact sentence "administer field sobriety test".

[Darryk]

14 hours ago, IlyaP said:

When I go into Steam, and type in King's Quest, this is what I see. So there *are* King's Quest games, but it...doesn't look like they're the same as the original games. 

 

As Ran said you can get episode 4+5+6 off Gog.com.

Then there's a way to play the Kings Quest 6 windows version off the GoG files. You definitely want to play that version rather than the DOS one.

So you can get remakes of the first three games off AGD Interactive, read plot summaries of KQ 4 & 5, then play 6. I'd be interested how 6 holds up after all these years.

I imagine you'll be using a walkthrough most of the time as the puzzles are hard and quite counter-intuitive in a lot of cases. There's one part involving a sleeping potion ( @Ran may remember) that I have no idea how I figured out what you're supposed to do with it.

[IlyaP]

Have purchased all eight King's Quest games on GoG this morning, thank you! 

 

[Slurktan]

On 12/27/2022 at 7:33 PM, Werthead said:

This is a cool concept demo.

It does feel overdue that we've had excellent Batman and Spider-Man games but no good Superman ones until now.

The problem with making a Superman game is that there will never be any sense of progression unless you do a young Superman game which then cuts out the Daily Planet folks and most of his villains.  But yes I'd love a game where I can just fly around saving things. Cats, Bystanders, Aliens, Batman, everything.

[Werthead]

2 hours ago, Slurktan said:

The problem with making a Superman game is that there will never be any sense of progression unless you do a young Superman game which then cuts out the Daily Planet folks and most of his villains.  But yes I'd love a game where I can just fly around saving things. Cats, Bystanders, Aliens, Batman, everything.

I don't know, assuming you won't be in physical jeopardy for much of the game (aside from the inevitable final battle involving kryptonite, natch) then having sequences where you play Clark Kent and have to avoid being exposed could be another way of generating some form of tension.

[Rhom]

2 hours ago, Werthead said:

I don't know, assuming you won't be in physical jeopardy for much of the game (aside from the inevitable final battle involving kryptonite, natch) then having sequences where you play Clark Kent and have to avoid being exposed could be another way of generating some form of tension.

Good luck finding a phone booth Kent!!!!

[Toth]

3 hours ago, Werthead said:

I don't know, assuming you won't be in physical jeopardy for much of the game (aside from the inevitable final battle involving kryptonite, natch) then having sequences where you play Clark Kent and have to avoid being exposed could be another way of generating some form of tension.

I was always thinking a Superman game would have to run a property damage/casualty counter that will game over/punish you if you fight carelessly and allow villains to level the city around you. It should be a "world of cardboard" where you could be a ludicrously powerful monster, but have to somehow fight very carefully, restraining both yourself and your opponents' attacks.

I was also thinking of a power gauging mechanic where Superman has to take a token number of hits first in order to assess how strong an opponent is and allowing you to adjust the strength of attacks so that you won't end up turning low level grunts into red smears all the time.

[Werthead]

55 minutes ago, Toth said:

I was always thinking a Superman game would have to run a property damage/casualty counter that will game over/punish you if you fight carelessly and allow villains to level the city around you. It should be a "world of cardboard" where you could be a ludicrously powerful monster, but have to somehow fight very carefully, restraining both yourself and your opponents' attacks.

I was also thinking of a power gauging mechanic where Superman has to take a token number of hits first in order to assess how strong an opponent is and allowing you to adjust the strength of attacks so that you won't end up turning low level grunts into red smears all the time.

I was thinking of a mechanic that the Justice League are available in the game as optional summons, but their sole purpose is to move bits of kryptonite out of Superman's way, and he then proceeds alone.

[polishgenius]

I can think of plenty of ways to make a meaningfully tense and built-up Superman game tbh. There's no rule it has to be open world, for starters. But assuming that's what they'd go for, because it would be:


Braniac invasion. Open world, but with either a timed or story-gated progression of Braniac tech taking over Metropolis and spawning more and more powerful enemies as it goes. Plenty of scope here for Clark Kenting too. 

Could do something similar with Lex Luthor building his power, though it'd be harder to plausibly keep up a consistent threat level. Lex teaming up with someone like Project Cadmus- or even project STAR potentially- then needing to do reporter work to prove he's nefarious and split him off could work. 

Pretty much the inverse, full-on Rock of Ages/Final Crisis Darkseid takeover for Earth. Progression via clearing the map of fatherboxes. Depending how deep you wanna take it, could be a fairly basic corrupted Metropolis-and-environs, or Metropolis as a hub for a splintered-reality type dealio (allowing for more fantasy in the level design and perhaps levels customised to the bosses). 

Abandon Earth entirely. Lots of ways to go once you do that. Braniac-in-space, something Apokalips-and-New Genesis- but my personal preference would be a combination of the old Hfuhruhurr story from the Superman in Exile arc back in the day with a borrow of an arc Mr Majestic had of a giant spaceship stealing all people from Earth. Basically make one giant spaceship the open world, which gives plenty of scope for creative level design, allows for loads of flying while still keeping it contained, and for going about the ship and arsing about in space in meaningful ways too.  

 

 

(ps the Abnett-and-Lanning Majestic arc I'm reffering to is great fun and more people should read it)

[Werthead]

Completed a run-through of Frostpunk. I decided to be peaceful and seek justice and honesty for all, and of course ended with a total police state with regular public executions, a full prison and the propaganda centre blaring out fake news at all hours. Oops.

Will try not to do that again. Completely forgot that I'd missed out on ever doing the Rifts expansion, so will give that a run through next.

[Ran]

Finished Pentiment, from Josh Sawyer and Obsidian Entertainment. What a lovely, indie-style mystery adventure this is! The last act ending up consuming Linda and I and we played through it all over a few hours. In total, the game took about 20 hours, which I think was very reasonable. Lots of lovely touches as your character, a journeyman artist working on his masterpiece while taking commissions at an abbey, gets pulled into a murder mystery, and we see the effect of the choices you make over a period of time. There's a deep level of research to the history of  Bavaria in the 16th century, with Lutheranism becoming a growing social force. 

What I will say, since Sawyer has been open about it, is that  the game plays out over the span of 25 years, with several acts with time jumps between them. It's no joke that you can see the effect you have after a span of years. Spoilers:

Spoiler

This is most obvious at the very end, when you see a mural depicting a family tree  that shows what happened to some of the characters after the game ends -- you'll discover how someone you convinced to try their luck at wooing a woman led to a big, happy family, how someone you pushed away died unmarried and childless, how someone whose heretical thoughts you indulged ended up being burned at the stake, etc.

But there's more immediate effects in the course of the game. One of the most touching, for me, has to do with a hat, of all things. There's some really sweet, and sometimes bittersweet moments in the game.

Very much recommended. I just saw it was one of Eurogamer's Games of the Year, and it's appeared on other end of the year best lists, deservedly.

ETA: Though, that said, there are some bugs. The funniest was one where a monk was telling me that a fellow brother had run away in the night out of fear... and yet he's sitting right down next to him in the scene, and can even be spoken to. But yeah, a couple of places where the game thinks X has happened and in fact Y has happened, leading to some continuity problems. Nothing major, just takes you out of the moment at times.

Also, there's a bibliography at the end of the game which, among other things cites a graduate thesis paper(!). The Xbox site published a suggested reading list from Sawyer as well. I believe both cite The Name of the Rose, which is a definite influence.

[IFR]

17 hours ago, Ran said:

Finished Pentiment, from Josh Sawyer and Obsidian Entertainment. What a lovely, indie-style mystery adventure this is! The last act ending up consuming Linda and I and we played through it all over a few hours. In total, the game took about 20 hours, which I think was very reasonable. Lots of lovely touches as your character, a journeyman artist working on his masterpiece while taking commissions at an abbey, gets pulled into a murder mystery, and we see the effect of the choices you make over a period of time. There's a deep level of research to the history of  Bavaria in the 16th century, with Lutheranism becoming a growing social force. 

What I will say, since Sawyer has been open about it, is that  the game plays out over the span of 25 years, with several acts with time jumps between them. It's no joke that you can see the effect you have after a span of years. Spoilers:

  Reveal hidden contents

This is most obvious at the very end, when you see a mural depicting a family tree  that shows what happened to some of the characters after the game ends -- you'll discover how someone you convinced to try their luck at wooing a woman led to a big, happy family, how someone you pushed away died unmarried and childless, how someone whose heretical thoughts you indulged ended up being burned at the stake, etc.

But there's more immediate effects in the course of the game. One of the most touching, for me, has to do with a hat, of all things. There's some really sweet, and sometimes bittersweet moments in the game.

Very much recommended. I just saw it was one of Eurogamer's Games of the Year, and it's appeared on other end of the year best lists, deservedly.

ETA: Though, that said, there are some bugs. The funniest was one where a monk was telling me that a fellow brother had run away in the night out of fear... and yet he's sitting right down next to him in the scene, and can even be spoken to. But yeah, a couple of places where the game thinks X has happened and in fact Y has happened, leading to some continuity problems. Nothing major, just takes you out of the moment at times.

Also, there's a bibliography at the end of the game which, among other things cites a graduate thesis paper(!). The Xbox site published a suggested reading list from Sawyer as well. I believe both cite The Name of the Rose, which is a definite influence.

I'm playing this game right now! I love it so far. It has such a unique style and setting. Interacting with the various characters and seeing the consequences of these interactions evolve is fantastic. And this game is very reminiscent of The Name of the Rose.

I'm not very much of a gamer - the last game I played was Disco Elysium - but over the holidays I have been playing quite a lot. In addition to Pentiment, I'm also playing a game called Soma, which is very interesting, too. A friend bought it for me because he knows I like Greg Egan's works, and he said that Soma touches on a lot of the same themes of transhumanism.

I'm more into books and shows for my entertainment, but I am having a good time with games at the moment.

[Ramsay B.]

Just did the quest ‘Possession’ in my latest replay of The Witcher 3. It has to be one of my favorites.

Spoiler

I think the first time I played it I refused to throw the baby in the oven. Even know right before you have a talk with Cerys and she says that I had to be in the dark with her plan, I still thought it was too wild of a move. 

That house was spooky as hell too, and seeing the Hym’s shadow shape on the wall just briefly. Good shit.

Skellige is my favorite place in the game too. The islands are so fun to explore and helping pick the new leader has a bunch of great quests.

All the different clans are funny also. Always shitting on the other villages and thinking they’re all the toughest.

[RumHam]

Spent three hours in Dwarf Fortress before refunding it. I wanted to like it, I really appreciate what it's going for. Rimworld just seems better in every way except having multiple floors.

Am I missing something or is there no better way to place multiple beds that hitting build->furniture->bed for each one? In rimworld you can click any object you've built and select "build a copy." I really missed that feature.

[Werthead]

My playthrough of The Last Autumn expansion for Frostpunk was going superbly until the last gasp, when I completed the generator but then discovered I had to somehow survive for 7 days with no food and no fishing available.

The net result of this was that all but one of my workers (apart from me) died of starvation. The game gave me a very sarcastic, "Well you kind of won, I guess," concluding message. Oops.

I've seen an argument you should only run the initial camp on food from fishing alone (maybe a bit from the first food camp you encounter but no more), gradually increasing fishing output (via Advanced Fishing and then 24 hour shifts on the fishing docks) and only start tapping the 4 food camps right at the end of the game, so they can take the strain over from the fisheries, rather than combining the two. You end up with tons of food but it's very easy to lose it through things like Church Services which give you a massive contentment boost at the expense of food.

[RumHam]

Using Your PS5 Vertically May Result in Hardware Failure

Hopefully it's not a wide spread thing, but just to be safe I'd lay the thing flat.

[Rhom]

38 minutes ago, RumHam said:

Using Your PS5 Vertically May Result in Hardware Failure

Hopefully it's not a wide spread thing, but just to be safe I'd lay the thing flat.

Wow... I lay mine flat due to space limitations, but certainly every promotional picture I've seen has them vertical.

[RumHam]

7 minutes ago, Rhom said:

Wow... I lay mine flat due to space limitations, but certainly every promotional picture I've seen has them vertical.

I seem to recall the Xbox 360 had something similar, where they eventually admitted the disk drive wore out faster if they were vertical. I might be misremembering though.

Hopefully this is just like one batch of PS5s that had a manufacturing error.

[Slurktan]

On 1/6/2023 at 4:32 PM, RumHam said:

Using Your PS5 Vertically May Result in Hardware Failure

Hopefully it's not a wide spread thing, but just to be safe I'd lay the thing flat.

Nothing in that "report" says anything about any other condition other than potentially it being vertical. Anecdotal evidence is just that. On a similar note I've had mine vertical since launch day with absolutely zero problems.