Ultima Underworld, I feel like getting back into retro gaming, so the first thing I have to do is to follow the tradition: read the manual. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have known I could make popcorn with a lit torch; that is an early prototype of “combine items” like in survival horror games.
I have tried a little Ultima 7: The Serpent Isle just to test how it runs on my machine; they definitely made sure that you pass the test of the history of Britannia before you can even continue the game.
Really like the old days when they still made booklets like History of Britannia (as told by Kyle the Younger), just so that you get immersed in the game world before you even play the game.
Picked it up for $13 CAD a few days ago. Runs great on my Steam Deck with Lossless Scaling. Minor framerate dips, but I can’t afford the time or money to build a better computer so I’ll take what I can get. Being able to pick up the Deck, play for a few minutes, pause, and put it to sleep so I can deal with my kiddo is the only way I can play anything right now. Sucks that I “lose connection to the game server” if I put the Deck to sleep for too long, but it doesn’t seem to impact the gameplay too much.
Kojima definitely self-indulges too hard with his storytelling and celebrity worship, but I have to give him (or maybe his writers) credit for his world building.
The controls and gameplay can be a bit frustrating at times, but they’ve also resulted in some memorable moments. I’ll take the odd annoying moment, like losing my balance in a deep creek and dropping all my cargo, if it then creates a fun event, me scrambling down the creek madly picking up the wet suit cases of quest specific items to then narrowly deliver it all without failing.
It’s worth checking out if you enjoyed the Metal Gear games, or enjoy exploring maps and unlocking areas and the emergent gameplay of something like Breath of the Wild.
Playing the same. It’s the first game I encountered where you can pause cutscenes…that alone is worth so much with two young children with very bad sleeping habits 😂.
I feel your “review”. I kinda love the story, but the delivery (ha) feels a bit off.
Just started Horizon Forbidden West, absolutely gorgeous game. I’ve had just finished Zero Dawn remastered (almost, missing parts of the DLC) so it made sense. All I can say is the story is borderline transcendental and I’m all here for it.
Godspeed. I also nearly beat the game and then put it down and forgot most of it so ended up beating it almost twice. It’s a great game. Still haven’t finished the Blood and Wine DLC though…
Lol same. Overall I’m finding it to be a big improvement over the original, but I just got through a boss fight that was absolutely terrible. They really went all out on everything; movement abilities, progression, visuals, the whole shebang!
I’m at the “end” of the story. I have one more run to get the first ending, and then an uncertain amount of optional grind to get the true ending. I will probably reserve my final thoughts for when I see the endings, but overall this game has been fantastic. Regardless of what you think of the story I’d say the gameplay is solid enough to be worth giving it a shot if you enjoy the genre, and if the story interests you then that is just a cherry on top. Despite not really being that into anime I found myself enjoying several of the characters and getting pretty interested in the plot once it got going, and I’m intrigued to see how it closes out. Mechanically I think it’s just really great, with both solid core gameplay and some really fun and interesting boss designs.
Ninja Gaiden 4
I haven’t played a whole lot this week, but I finished another chapter. Still very early on in the game. It’s very good. I have some issues with it (and it’s one of the most egregious offenders of “yellow paint” in recent years) but overall it’s a great Character Action Game. In some ways it feels more like a cousin to the earlier entries than a core family member - removal of specific combo strings combined with addition of parrying and stance switching has altered the DNA quite a bit. That being said it’s fantastic in its own way and really fun and fluid. Plus the bosses are actually good in this game (so far), which is… not really something you can say about previous games.
Ninja Gaiden 2 Black
The fantastic “White” mod is about to get a huge update with more or less 1:1 recreated spawns of the original NG2, and at the same time a Modified Moveset Mod released, so I had to to back and play some of the best chapters. NG2 combat still is really something special, and the moveset mod really makes it even better.
I feel like Noita has some really high highs and some really low lows. I have a friend who used to rave about it and how “every death teaches you something” which is all fine and good until the thing that it taught you on your first really good run in hours was that breaking a light can cause electric sparks, metal tunnels conduct electric sparks, and conducted electricity can one-shot you. I play a lot of souls likes so I don’t mind learning through failure but considering my go to build in those games is tanky builds, it’s incredibly frustrating that so many of the failures I run into in Noita will be the end of a 2 hour run without anything to show for it. At least in souls likes I can still try to do something about that failure, or at least I can start back from a nearby bonfire, but in Noita there’s no recovering a run that’s already died. All there is to do is start all over from scratch.
I completely agree. As a fellow souls-liker, it’s way more punishing than those games. It teaches you lessons, but there are a lot of them to remember, and even then, shit happens that you can’t always prepare for. It might be nice to have a checkpoint system at the last Holy Mountain you visited, but then again that might take away from the replayability. The difficulty is kind of part of its charm!
Finally got around to playing Caves of Qud and it took me a while to figure it out and dial in the controls on Steam Deck but now it’s starting to become clear just how insane this game is…
I just started Wildermyth and I’m having a good time with it. Part of me wants to install some of the visual mods for faces and hair types, but part of me wants to wait until I finish one game.
It depends on your tastes in games, of course. It’s quite linear, it’s got some puzzle element, some boss fighting, but what it makes it good is the storytelling. Good characters, lovely scenarios, compelling writing.
Feels a bit like Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, or the Amnesia series: there’s a story there, and some gaming elements thrown in to keep you going. I’m quite liking it, I want to know what happens next.
It’s not hard. I loathe hard games, we used to have them in the 80s because, well, how much can you pack in 48 kilobytes? You had to kill the player over and over to get longer engagement time.
Nowadays, with the amount of storage we have available, it makes no sense to make the game hard unless you are targeting the masochisticcompetitive crowd. You can use it to tell a good story, or pull the player into an immersive reality.
That’s great to hear. I don’t mind a hard challenge now and then, but it’s also nice to just have an easygoing narrative and more cinematic experience in between so you don’t get exhausted.
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I just finish Disco Elysium. I think it’s more like reading an interactive novel with choices. But damn isnt it an excellent novel.
I recommend it wholeheartedly. It made me really question my conviction to my own ideology.
Ultima Underworld, I feel like getting back into retro gaming, so the first thing I have to do is to follow the tradition: read the manual. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have known I could make popcorn with a lit torch; that is an early prototype of “combine items” like in survival horror games.
I have tried a little Ultima 7: The Serpent Isle just to test how it runs on my machine; they definitely made sure that you pass the test of the history of Britannia before you can even continue the game.
Really like the old days when they still made booklets like History of Britannia (as told by Kyle the Younger), just so that you get immersed in the game world before you even play the game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkLyC6PSjC4
Death Stranding: Director’s Cut.
Picked it up for $13 CAD a few days ago. Runs great on my Steam Deck with Lossless Scaling. Minor framerate dips, but I can’t afford the time or money to build a better computer so I’ll take what I can get. Being able to pick up the Deck, play for a few minutes, pause, and put it to sleep so I can deal with my kiddo is the only way I can play anything right now. Sucks that I “lose connection to the game server” if I put the Deck to sleep for too long, but it doesn’t seem to impact the gameplay too much.
Kojima definitely self-indulges too hard with his storytelling and celebrity worship, but I have to give him (or maybe his writers) credit for his world building.
The controls and gameplay can be a bit frustrating at times, but they’ve also resulted in some memorable moments. I’ll take the odd annoying moment, like losing my balance in a deep creek and dropping all my cargo, if it then creates a fun event, me scrambling down the creek madly picking up the wet suit cases of quest specific items to then narrowly deliver it all without failing.
It’s worth checking out if you enjoyed the Metal Gear games, or enjoy exploring maps and unlocking areas and the emergent gameplay of something like Breath of the Wild.
Playing the same. It’s the first game I encountered where you can pause cutscenes…that alone is worth so much with two young children with very bad sleeping habits 😂.
I feel your “review”. I kinda love the story, but the delivery (ha) feels a bit off.
Airport CEO.
Just started Horizon Forbidden West, absolutely gorgeous game. I’ve had just finished Zero Dawn remastered (almost, missing parts of the DLC) so it made sense. All I can say is the story is borderline transcendental and I’m all here for it.
The “slim” option of helldivers 2, it looks bad but is way way less glitchy and buggy and crash prone.
Demon souls remake ! I’m doing upper latria and I’m liking the vibe in this archstone so far.
This remake is lacking the quintessential FS atmosphere, but it’s not bothering me that much on this section.
level design is great, boss fights are very different from what I’m used to. It’s quirky. Really wish I could play the OG.
Just restarted The Witcher 3. I burnt out in skellige 5 years ago.
Godspeed. I also nearly beat the game and then put it down and forgot most of it so ended up beating it almost twice. It’s a great game. Still haven’t finished the Blood and Wine DLC though…
Everything is soooo slow and, idk, tiring for the brain in that game
“Ori and the Will of the Wisps” for me. I played the first one a few years ago and really liked it. So far, the sequel is even better!
Lol same. Overall I’m finding it to be a big improvement over the original, but I just got through a boss fight that was absolutely terrible. They really went all out on everything; movement abilities, progression, visuals, the whole shebang!
Chrono Ark
I’m at the “end” of the story. I have one more run to get the first ending, and then an uncertain amount of optional grind to get the true ending. I will probably reserve my final thoughts for when I see the endings, but overall this game has been fantastic. Regardless of what you think of the story I’d say the gameplay is solid enough to be worth giving it a shot if you enjoy the genre, and if the story interests you then that is just a cherry on top. Despite not really being that into anime I found myself enjoying several of the characters and getting pretty interested in the plot once it got going, and I’m intrigued to see how it closes out. Mechanically I think it’s just really great, with both solid core gameplay and some really fun and interesting boss designs.
Ninja Gaiden 4
I haven’t played a whole lot this week, but I finished another chapter. Still very early on in the game. It’s very good. I have some issues with it (and it’s one of the most egregious offenders of “yellow paint” in recent years) but overall it’s a great Character Action Game. In some ways it feels more like a cousin to the earlier entries than a core family member - removal of specific combo strings combined with addition of parrying and stance switching has altered the DNA quite a bit. That being said it’s fantastic in its own way and really fun and fluid. Plus the bosses are actually good in this game (so far), which is… not really something you can say about previous games.
Ninja Gaiden 2 Black
The fantastic “White” mod is about to get a huge update with more or less 1:1 recreated spawns of the original NG2, and at the same time a Modified Moveset Mod released, so I had to to back and play some of the best chapters. NG2 combat still is really something special, and the moveset mod really makes it even better.
Minishoot adventure
This game was made for me…dual stick shooter with metroidvanias elements. Strongly recommend it. I’m having a blast.
Such a fun game! Felt like it just kept getting better as it went
I see what you did there.
Noita. There is still so much to learn.
I feel like Noita has some really high highs and some really low lows. I have a friend who used to rave about it and how “every death teaches you something” which is all fine and good until the thing that it taught you on your first really good run in hours was that breaking a light can cause electric sparks, metal tunnels conduct electric sparks, and conducted electricity can one-shot you. I play a lot of souls likes so I don’t mind learning through failure but considering my go to build in those games is tanky builds, it’s incredibly frustrating that so many of the failures I run into in Noita will be the end of a 2 hour run without anything to show for it. At least in souls likes I can still try to do something about that failure, or at least I can start back from a nearby bonfire, but in Noita there’s no recovering a run that’s already died. All there is to do is start all over from scratch.
I completely agree. As a fellow souls-liker, it’s way more punishing than those games. It teaches you lessons, but there are a lot of them to remember, and even then, shit happens that you can’t always prepare for. It might be nice to have a checkpoint system at the last Holy Mountain you visited, but then again that might take away from the replayability. The difficulty is kind of part of its charm!
dude I suck at that game.
Finally got around to playing Caves of Qud and it took me a while to figure it out and dial in the controls on Steam Deck but now it’s starting to become clear just how insane this game is…
I find it way too difficult to be enjoyable, sadly
Play the version that saves when you enter a village. The game is too punishing for new players imo
I’m talking about that, still too hard for me :(
Fair enough, its def a tier harder than something like DC:SS or similar. Id recommend cataclysm bright nights :)
I just started Wildermyth and I’m having a good time with it. Part of me wants to install some of the visual mods for faces and hair types, but part of me wants to wait until I finish one game.
Two of my childhood friends helped develop that game. One of them wrote the music for it, the other was a programmer who helped code it.
That music is absolutely beautiful!
Hey that’s super cool! I hope they’re very proud of themselves. It’s gorgeous
A Plague Tale, Alien Breed, Hellslave. Quite the mix, huh?
How are you liking A Plague Tale? I have it on my docket for sometime this year.
It depends on your tastes in games, of course. It’s quite linear, it’s got some puzzle element, some boss fighting, but what it makes it good is the storytelling. Good characters, lovely scenarios, compelling writing.
Feels a bit like Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, or the Amnesia series: there’s a story there, and some gaming elements thrown in to keep you going. I’m quite liking it, I want to know what happens next.
Sounds good to me! Is it difficult or just a “going along with the ride” type of experience? Trying to get a feel for when to schedule it in.
It’s not hard. I loathe hard games, we used to have them in the 80s because, well, how much can you pack in 48 kilobytes? You had to kill the player over and over to get longer engagement time.
Nowadays, with the amount of storage we have available, it makes no sense to make the game hard unless you are targeting the
masochisticcompetitive crowd. You can use it to tell a good story, or pull the player into an immersive reality.That’s great to hear. I don’t mind a hard challenge now and then, but it’s also nice to just have an easygoing narrative and more cinematic experience in between so you don’t get exhausted.