Video Game Chat Thread - Pre-Alpha Experimental Version

[Judge Dredd]

Does anyone know what Snowpiercer is? There's a bunch of indie games like Pandemic Train and Zompiercer that I see described as "Snowpiercer but X". However, in search for it all I find is some Netflix series about class warfare of a train. I assume the connection is "has a train in it", but that seems vague for a genre.

Probably V (which has Space Battleship Yamato 2199 as the guest star)

Yes, it's that one. I'm on the late 20s, early 30s, with the male pilot. When I learned there's 50 missions per campaign, 2 campaigns, and a few branching path missions in the campaign.

I'm never going to finish this thing. Iirc, there were two difficulty options. Easy and Hard, so I chose hard. The game is quite easy, until it pulls some trial and error bullshit. Also, I have no idea what is going on. It's all multiverse shinanigans. I hope other games aren't as confusing.

That said, as far as cross promotion games, it makes me want to watch Yamato, Getter, and whatever that weird one is with girls hunting dragons. The inclusion of a bunch of Nadesco stuff is nice too. That anime never gets any love.

I've made homebrew shit awhile ago turning it into a Capitalist Utopia instead

Did it work? I considered it for a mech campaign I'm running, but I didn't know how tightly it was integrated to the setting. Also the dependence on apps really put me off as well.

Metal Wolf Chaos was fucking great, played the original, never felt more American in my life God damn.

Yes. It's also the one example of something going mainstream being good, since supposedly the Super Best Friends playthrough of it going viral is what caused Devolver to buy the rights and release it in the west.

I'm always looking for more if anyone has some.

I know more. Starting with the bad and getting to the good, or at least okay.

Cavalry Girls I heard was good, and it has potential, but it's just so dull getting through the tutorial. It's still introducing stuff, and there's still no threat.

Damascus Gear and Project Nimbus are not good. I don't remember much about them.

Shogo had potential, but as a game the random crit system makes it unplayable, and the missing content means the story falls a part. Great as a curiosity though.

I remember Lost Planet 3 being okay when I played it back in the day. Never finished it, and is currently on sale for £4. It's very much a design by committee game though. Lots of trends of the time.

Iron Brigade was fantastic at the time. Is a tower defense game where you stomp around in a "trench" fighting spiders made of TVs. 30fps lock, clearly made for a controller. It was one of the few games Double Fine made before completely shitting the bed with Kickstarter money and wokeshit.

It plays well single player, but co-op was where it was at. The "salute" button was way more fun than it had any right to be.

Honourable mention to EDF 4.1 and 5. They aren't mech games, but you can use mechs in them once you unlock them as a vehicle option for the air raider.

 

[Happy Camper]

While I do have some issues with it, Black Flag was not only my favorite pirate game, it's my favorite AC game. Not much of a challenge.

Would have to agree, the naval combat in particular is great and still holds up. I played Rogue for the first time though quite recently and was positively surprised by it. I ignored it at the time because it was a last gen piece at the time released to almost no fanfare in 2014, but playing it after Black Flag it really struck me how many of the aspects of the naval combat and overall gameplay were improved. The wanted system was less exploitable, the options after boarding ships was slightly improved, just a fair bit of QoL improvements across the board. Also really enjoyed fighting Assassins, it was nice to have enemies to fight that weren't just sword fodder. The game still had its fair share of blemishes sure, but it was a positive surprise all the same.

Really makes you wonder what might've happened if they'd kept experimenting with these gameplay elements within AC's gameplay framework and just spun things off to a "Pirate's Creed" series. I'm sure the end results would've been very Ubisoft in the end, but it can't be any worse than what they actually did: piss away the better part of a decade making Skull & Bones.

 

[Captain Chromosome]

Okay, I just beat the main story for Dead Island 2. Before the ending, I had the feeling I'd come back and replay the game eventually, but lol that's not happening anymore. I hope the DLC expansions are worth it, because if I paid for this game I'd be properly irate. I have a lot of complaints about it, but this r*ddit post sums it up very well.

Spoiler: DI2 Plot spoilers

The ending is super half-baked. There's interesting stuff, what with the hive mind and Gigeresque biomass, but it's never followed up on. The final fight is incredibly easy and it feels like they cut a solid third of the game. Final cutscene is you choosing to stay and fight with the antagonists talking with you through the hive mind. Nothing explained.

I get the same vibe from this and BOTW, in that I lost all interest in continuing after fighting the final boss. The side quests are charming, mostly, but it just doesn't feel worth it.
Before the last stretch of the game - 7/10
Afterwards - 5.5/10
Edit: You get your ass handed to you mutliple times by strong independent women of multiple races and both the quips and millennial vulgarity became incredibly grating.

 

[J50 Hamwich]

Does anyone know anything about this? It looks cool but I have no idea if its worth it.
There's also this but the comments make me reasonably weary.

 

[Wendell X]

Does anyone know anything about this? It looks cool but I have no idea if its worth it.
There's also this but the comments make me reasonably weary.

I wish listed the scramble vice, I don't know anything about it but I love the soundtrack and the gameplay looks right up my alley. Stories from Sol also looks neat, but it's hard to get excited about a visual novel. Still, it kind of looks like if System Erasure made Raging Loop, so it could be genius.

 

[Happy Camper]

Does anyone know anything about this? It looks cool but I have no idea if its worth it.
There's also this but the comments make me reasonably weary.

Scramble Vice looks awesome. Will have to look it up myself. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Back me up!]

So how bad was Kerbal Space Program 2? Its looks like Take-Two is shutting down the whole studio and firing the lot of them.

https://esd.wa.gov/about-employees/WARN

 

[Mr.Miyagi]

So how bad was Kerbal Space Program 2? Its looks like Take-Two is shutting down the whole studio and firing the lot of them.

https://esd.wa.gov/about-employees/WARN

View attachment 5952021

If I remember right, the project was basically cursed from the start with some big clusterfuck where the original studio (Star Theory) set to develop it basically had half the team poached by Take-Two (who owned the rights to KSP but not ST). With no game and no funding, ST couldn't get any money and shuttered, with some of the remaining team getting snatched up by Take-Two into the newly formed Intercept Games. The game was delayed from 2020 to 2021, then delayed more and more until an early access release early last year. My understanding is that the development has been glacial with lots of bugs and very little in terms of promised added content (Steam only lists one Major Update). I hadn't bought it myself, so hopefully someone with firsthand experience can chime in.

Guess we get to see if Take-Two either shutters the game completely now or throws a third studio at it to try and get something to 1.0. Looks like there's already a bunch of negative reviews warning people the studio's dead, which makes the update a few days ago talking about "the status of KSP2" funny in hindsight.

 

[WULULULULU]

If I remember right, the project was basically cursed from the start with some big clusterfuck where the original studio (Star Theory) set to develop it basically had half the team poached by Take-Two (who owned the rights to KSP but not ST). With no game and no funding, ST couldn't get any money and shuttered, with some of the remaining team getting snatched up by Take-Two into the newly formed Intercept Games. The game was delayed from 2020 to 2021, then delayed more and more until an early access release early last year. My understanding is that the development has been glacial with lots of bugs and very little in terms of promised added content (Steam only lists one Major Update). I hadn't bought it myself, so hopefully someone with firsthand experience can chime in.

Guess we get to see if Take-Two either shutters the game completely now or throws a third studio at it to try and get something to 1.0. Looks like there's already a bunch of negative reviews warning people the studio's dead, which makes the update a few days ago talking about "the status of KSP2" funny in hindsight.

KSP2 was released on the same year that Cities Skylines 2 was released and my goodness both were so not fucking ready for release and felt like Early Access rushjobs.

 

[Tri-Tachyon'sClown]

Did it work? I considered it for a mech campaign I'm running, but I didn't know how tightly it was integrated to the setting. Also the dependence on apps really put me off as well.

I think I did well enough. I wanted it to be based off older works of fiction like The Republic, The City of the Sun (in case of Diasporan World), and some bits and pieces inspired from The Dispossessed, but not straight up yoinking them. Not fully Utopian, but better than a lot of places in our reality. I was trying to be realistic rather than "HURR DURR CAPITALISM PERFECT" or in the case of actual Lancer "HURR DURR COMMUNIST UTOPIA DON'T THINK ABOUT IT TOO HARD" because that's just bad writing.I can't remember much but I'm sure I have some notes on it lying somewhere. The few people I've shared it with seemed to like it at least.

Cavalry Girls I heard was good, and it has potential, but it's just so dull getting through the tutorial. It's still introducing stuff, and there's still no threat.

Damascus Gear and Project Nimbus are not good. I don't remember much about them.

Shogo had potential, but as a game the random crit system makes it unplayable, and the missing content means the story falls a part. Great as a curiosity though.

I remember Lost Planet 3 being okay when I played it back in the day. Never finished it, and is currently on sale for £4. It's very much a design by committee game though. Lots of trends of the time.

Iron Brigade was fantastic at the time. Is a tower defense game where you stomp around in a "trench" fighting spiders made of TVs. 30fps lock, clearly made for a controller. It was one of the few games Double Fine made before completely shitting the bed with Kickstarter money and wokeshit.

Never heard of any of these, I'll check those out too. Well, except Iron Brigade. If the devs aren't worth it now I sure as shit ain't funding them...maybe I'll "yarr harr" it, dunno.

Would have to agree, the naval combat in particular is great and still holds up. I played Rogue for the first time though quite recently and was positively surprised by it. I ignored it at the time because it was a last gen piece at the time released to almost no fanfare in 2014, but playing it after Black Flag it really struck me how many of the aspects of the naval combat and overall gameplay were improved. The wanted system was less exploitable, the options after boarding ships was slightly improved, just a fair bit of QoL improvements across the board. Also really enjoyed fighting Assassins, it was nice to have enemies to fight that weren't just sword fodder. The game still had its fair share of blemishes sure, but it was a positive surprise all the same.

Really makes you wonder what might've happened if they'd kept experimenting with these gameplay elements within AC's gameplay framework and just spun things off to a "Pirate's Creed" series. I'm sure the end results would've been very Ubisoft in the end, but it can't be any worse than what they actually did: piss away the better part of a decade making Skull & Bones.

I think Fleekazoid summed it up best. They saw everything good about Black Flag and did the absolute opposite.

Does anyone know anything about this? It looks cool but I have no idea if its worth it.
There's also this but the comments make me reasonably weary.

I remember seeing these two. Mechs? Check, mostly on the first game. 80's/90's anime style? Check. Interesting gameplay? Well the first video at least, wonder what the second's gameplay will be Ah, that pretty much the gameplay because it's a visual novel, I can dig it if it's well written. Tomboy bonus points on the first game. Sold. Games that focus on being an actual game will always be more interesting than whatever the fuck AAA games are doing.

 

[Happy Camper]

I think Fleekazoid summed it up best. They saw everything good about Black Flag and did the absolute opposite.

Will give that video a view later, actually kinda interested in getting a summary for that mess. All I really know about it is that it's very sad things ended up where they did. "Black Flag but the opposite" sounds right on the money from what I know though, like how you instead of visiting islands just "mine" them for resources by parking your ship next to them. It just really seems like a cavalcade of bad ideas like that. It's baffling how things ended up like they did.

 

[Jonah Hill poster]

Five games of the X-Com series (Apocalypse, Enforcer, Terror from the Deep, UFO Defense and Interceptor) are on sale on GOG for almost $7, so I’m going to try that out to see what that gaming series is like.

 

[Judge Dredd]

Be sure to use openXcom for the originals. Gets rid of a lot of the clunkiness.

 

[Pattern Juggler]

Be sure to use openXcom for the originals. Gets rid of a lot of the clunkiness.

And fixes the bug in TFTD that puts it on the hardest difficulty no matter what you chose.

 

[Scream Aim Fire]

Here's a bit of a blast from the past; I was thinking about getting into Dungeons and Dragons Online, but I was curious if anyone here had any thoughts on it? Do you guys think it's worth it? Is it fun, or is it taken over by woketards?

 

[Unexpected Genitals]

This is pretty niche, but Endless Ocean Luminous just came out and from what I can see online, it's a stripped-back imitation of the first game with too much focus on multiplayer. EO was a Wii series originally so it collected a small but devoted fanbase with a lot of nostalgic love for the first two games, myself included. It is what it is, but it's still a shame. After fifteen years of nothing, we all got crazy excited when a third game was announced, so maybe Luminous would have never lived up to the hype regardless.

 

[Catgirl Fornicator]

Does anyone know anything about this? It looks cool but I have no idea if its worth it.
There's also this but the comments make me reasonably weary.

I don't understand the appeal of going back to 1980s graphics. It just seems cheap and lazy no matter how much flashy fx you put over it.

Since even back then on platforms like PC ENGINE, developers at least added way more colors whenever they could and made things infinitely more interactable with the player than anything made today. If you actually take a look at the older games art direction these yuppie retards claim to be faithfully emulating while neglecting everything else and censoring any valid criticisms under the guise of calling it "hate" or "racism".

 

[Back me up!]

I don't understand the appeal of going back to 1980s graphics. It just seems cheap and lazy no matter how much flashy fx you put over it.

Since even back then on platforms like PC ENGINE, developers at least added way more colors whenever they could and made things infinitely more interactable with the player than anything made today. If you actually take a look at the older games art direction these yuppie retards claim to be faithfully emulating while neglecting everything else and censoring any valid criticisms under the guise of calling it "hate" or "racism".

Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I think for a lot of dev creators its basically combining the rose tined glasses of what you "remember" the game and graphics were liked combined with "What we can actually put out as a small team". I really don't have a problem with stuff like Sea of Stars which is basically SNES.....but Enhanced!. There is stuff like Micro Mages that can run on actual hardware but I don't think the personal limitations is worth it.

 

[Wendell X]

I don't understand the appeal of going back to 1980s graphics. It just seems cheap and lazy no matter how much flashy fx you put over it.

I feel the same way about psx/n64 style 'low poly' graphics but love this kind of thing, so nostalgia and budget/scope is definitely a big part of it like Back me up! said, but it also sets the tone and player expectations. And I think you might have been unlucky with these games - while there are a lot of devs who just use the aesthetic as a cheap hack, a lot of the best games that restrict themselves to mimic old pc engine, NES, GB or MSX titles - Axiom Verge, Zero Ranger, Cathedral, Astalon, Void Stranger, Death May Die, Anodyne, Minute, World of Horror - do live up to that level of interaction with the player, or specifically attempt to lower your expectations to then totally throw you with meta game elements. Part of the reason I am intrigued by those trailers is because they hint at depth beyond what I'd expect, and I am an optimist.

 

[Judge Dredd]

I don't understand the appeal of going back to 1980s graphics. It just seems cheap and lazy no matter how much flashy fx you put over it.

"Cheap and lazy" dev here. I can explain the appeal. The other two have it right, but I'll break it down further.

First is nostalgia. PS1, N64, DS, and even Dreamcast all had a specific look to their games that has a certain appeal. To the point where you can even tell the console a game was for just from a screenshot.

Second is design. People joke about yellow paint, or Suicide Squad's UI (or if you prefer, Eldan Ring with good UX).

This is necessary because of the visual clutter that comes with "realism". You're not going find a pistol magazine in all that grass, rocks, wildlife, and detail. But a flat plane with a grass texture on it? Easy to spot something on that.

Third is creative. When you're given limitless options, how do you choose? It's like being dropped in the middle of a desert and being told to choose a direction. Get it wrong and you die. In contrast, you drop someone on a road, it gives you options. You can follow the road one way, the other, or even leave the road entirely, but at least there's something to base a decision.

Finally, there's what you would call "lazy", but I call "actually possible". Let's say you can only work on a game an average of 2 hours a day. A single AAA quality gun takes 100 hours of art labour to model, texture, animate, add materials, and add LODs, you're going to take almost 6 months in to add 3 weapons. In contrast, if a retro style weapon using modern tools takes 2 hours, you can make a weapon a day. You can use that extra time for either more content, or to do something else.

The usual come back is "just use stock assets", in which case congratulations, your game will look like those ugly "I made GTA5 in a week" type videos, and be ignored as yet another asset flip.


Where the question comes in is how loyal you stay to those limitations. There are people who use "PS1 style" to mean low effort graphics and a VHS filter (the PS1 didn't look like a VHS tape). I remember a horror walking simulator about an online PS1 FPS with no players online, which made no sense on many levels. Then you have autists who make something that strictly adheres to limitations, but I think most are happy with a middle ground where, sure, this technically wouldn't be possible on period hardware, but it's close enough to get the feeling.

Edit: Since it's an interesting topic, there are even people archiving old texture CDs, which is what devs used for reference and textures before OpenGameArt and Unity Asset Store existed.