Video Game Chat Thread - Pre-Alpha Experimental Version

[Smug]

I was trying Dead Cells the other day since there's a full game trial for Switch currently. Not liking it, seems way overrated. Writing is quirky slop out of the gate (indie devs CANNOT write to save their lives), art style is serviceable at best, music is forgettable, and I'm really not feeling the combat...

Feels weird to see someone complain about the writing of Dead Cells when the writing in that game is almost non-existent. I mean the protagonist is some sort of pseudo-immortal regenerating blob of cells, and the world around you is various flavours of fucked. There's not really any depth to it and I doubt anyone who's a huge fan of the game cares about it either.

What that game does well if anything is having a good sense of progression over the first 10-30 hours as you unlock things in a vaguely metroidvania kind of way except over multiple runs. Also the Fractured Shrines biome is kino.

The combat is alright but when you get to higher difficulties it becomes punishing in a way that drains all of the fun out of the experience imho.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

It's quirky in a "OMG! Big chungus! Please laugh!" or in a Borderlands edgy way?

The former, it's similar to The Messenger. First thing an NPC says to you is something like "What's wrong, cat got your tongue? ...Oh, right, you have no head." I audibly groaned, and that was like 15 seconds in. Then one of the shop owners did the thing where they get progressively annoyed when you repeatedly talk to them. It's really dull stuff. It's not a character centric game or anything but I kinda hate them all anyway.

Feels weird to see someone complain about the writing of Dead Cells when the writing in that game is almost non-existent. I mean the protagonist is some sort of pseudo-immortal regenerating blob of cells, and the world around you is various flavours of fucked. There's not really any depth to it and I doubt anyone who's a huge fan of the game cares about it either.

What that game does well if anything is having a good sense of progression over the first 10-30 hours as you unlock things in a vaguely metroidvania kind of way except over multiple runs. Also the Fractured Shrines biome is kino.

The combat is alright but when you get to higher difficulties it becomes punishing in a way that drains all of the fun out of the experience imho.

I only put about an hour into it, there wasn't a lot but what was there is grating. I'm just allergic to quirky millennial writing.

Toward the end of my time with it I did begin to appreciate the progression which I was just barely scratching the surface of, I'm sure it does that well. It's not irredeemable shit or anything, but the combat is a little clunky feeling, and I hate the platforming. That's what sealed the deal for me, there were a bunch of spinning spiked balls and platforms with spikes on the below and it was too demanding for what they give you to work with.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole 2]

I played early Dead Cells and it was ok, but it was too easy to see the level pieces that the levels were made of. It worked in Spelunky since that was more of a puzzle at times but in DC it soon started to feel tedious. Maybe that has changed. Didn't feel like the game was anything special.

 

[⋖ cørdion ⋗]

I finally quit my "I'm totally gonna play these games I'm not organically drawn towards" delusions and now want to focus on just cozy, pausable, low-stress games. And I can't find any. First I looked at zoo games and they're either overly complex or simplistic to the point they're puzzle games more-so than animal keeping games. Then I looked to the few survival games I haven't played yet; Abiotic is borderline horror which I'm meh about. Valheim has no achievements and was ballbustingly hard last I played it. The Sims? Even if I caved and bought the re-releases, chances are the future patches will suck dick and the dated game design will still leave me preferring sims 4, which is fucking dead to me.

I've got funds on this key site and even browsing the sub $5 mark, tens of highly rated games, I just can't bring myself to buy into them, knowing I won't have lasting interest. I WISH I was severely addicted to WoW or dota, at least it'd be less of a purgatory than I am in now.

 

[Thiletonomics]

I WISH I was severely addicted to WoW or dota, at least it'd be less of a purgatory than I am in now.

Given how full-on rainbow Blizzard has gone, and they even hired Jon Weenieskeet from the massive failure Concord, it's probably for the best that you stay away from their games. And DOTA isn't any better either, although they haven't gone full-on rainbow.

Also gonna quote myself, as one of the few remaining DOTA competitors in SMITE, suffered a setback with a massive amount of layoffs at Hi-Rez this week:

Bumping this thread, as the upcoming SMITE 2 hasn't done as well as Hi-Rez expected, and they're laying off almost 50% of their staff (69/144) / Archive, which is in addition to the layoffs that were done last year, so the many years of bad Hi-Rez decisions have finally caught up to them. Also, because of the layoffs, SMITE 1, Paladins, and Rogue Company will no longer get updates, and it is unknown how long those game servers will last.

In response to the layoffs, one of staff at Hi-Rez, Radar, posted this statement about what will be happening with SMITE 2, but it comes off as panic damage control instead. / (Archive) Also, since Hi-Rez isn't publicly traded, I don't know if any other game company would be even interested in acquiring their assets, given that it's likely that Hi-Rez will completely implode financially and could go bankrupt as soon as this year.

 

[Xarpho's Return]

I WISH I was severely addicted to WoW or dota, at least it'd be less of a purgatory than I am in now.

The best time to play WoW was like, two decades ago.

 

[LifeAlert]

I finally quit my "I'm totally gonna play these games I'm not organically drawn towards" delusions and now want to focus on just cozy, pausable, low-stress games. And I can't find any. First I looked at zoo games and they're either overly complex or simplistic to the point they're puzzle games more-so than animal keeping games. Then I looked to the few survival games I haven't played yet; Abiotic is borderline horror which I'm meh about. Valheim has no achievements and was ballbustingly hard last I played it. The Sims? Even if I caved and bought the re-releases, chances are the future patches will suck dick and the dated game design will still leave me preferring sims 4, which is fucking dead to me.

I've got funds on this key site and even browsing the sub $5 mark, tens of highly rated games, I just can't bring myself to buy into them, knowing I won't have lasting interest. I WISH I was severely addicted to WoW or dota, at least it'd be less of a purgatory than I am in now.

My nigga, you say you want cozy and low stress games but you're looking in all the wrong places. Modern day slop isn't going to do it for you. I'm assuming you want PC games only and it sounds like you gravitate toward god/simulator games so try some of these:

-Sims 3 with mods (Violence & Aggression is pretty funny)
-Black & White
-Dungeon Keeper
-RollerCoaster Tycoon 2
-Sid Meier's Railroads
-Tropico
-Viva Piñata (the original from 2006, yes there's a PC version)
-Plague Inc
-Anything from PopCap (they're technically puzzlers but they don't take much brainpower, they're good for a quick fix)

 

[Croak & Caw]

I finally quit my "I'm totally gonna play these games I'm not organically drawn towards" delusions and now want to focus on just cozy, pausable, low-stress games. And I can't find any. First I looked at zoo games and they're either overly complex or simplistic to the point they're puzzle games more-so than animal keeping games. Then I looked to the few survival games I haven't played yet; Abiotic is borderline horror which I'm meh about. Valheim has no achievements and was ballbustingly hard last I played it. The Sims? Even if I caved and bought the re-releases, chances are the future patches will suck dick and the dated game design will still leave me preferring sims 4, which is fucking dead to me.

I've got funds on this key site and even browsing the sub $5 mark, tens of highly rated games, I just can't bring myself to buy into them, knowing I won't have lasting interest. I WISH I was severely addicted to WoW or dota, at least it'd be less of a purgatory than I am in now.

I could probably recommend Heroes 3.
Get GOG version of HoMM 3 Complete Edition with the free, fan-made HD mod (The Launcher) for various QoL improvements. It is turn based, fairly easy to jump in to, but hard to master.

Spoiler: Heroes 3 complete + HD

Edit for video, I compressed the shit out of it, but you can get a feel of the game. I don't like this map layout, but I might roll with it, early Gunnar and Necklace of Swiftness is very intriguing.

Spoiler: Short gameplay video

 

[⋖ cørdion ⋗]

My nigga, you say you want cozy and low stress games but you're looking in all the wrong places. Modern day slop isn't going to do it for you. I'm assuming you want PC games only and it sounds like you gravitate toward god/simulator games so try some of these:

Issue is that I also don't want an infinite timesink. I do enjoy Going Medieval now and then but it's a literal waste of time outside just feeling cozy and achieved, which is difficult without a narrative end or achievements to go for. I don't rest enough in myself to simply sit down and be cozy for 3 hours if I know there's no end to it. "Great, I'm done, on to the next thing".

I play WoW when I've literally nothing else I want to play. I got games I'd like to play, but to quote every other post I see about any game franchise ever, "Thinking about playing it Playing it.. ". I can sit down with the full commitment to learn a game like Planet Zoo only to buckle once I give way to the thought of "well, I could also just not bother with these challenges and play something simple and fun".

I got all the kingdom heart games to beat, a few 20 hour indies, the upcoming tomb raider remaster etc. But to come home from work, somewhat energized, and then sit down and go "aight time to put 3 hours into beating 2 levels until I can do it for 6 hours on saturday and beat 5". I'm far too jaded by games at this point to sit down with perfect 90 degree posture and focus with intent on a game, but it happens enough that I keep having hope. Not that I do shit in WoW when I do log in, but at least it feels like I'm actively engaged with a game other than booting up, sighing and closing it again.

 

[JustSomeDong]

I could probably recommend Heroes 3.
Get GOG version of HoMM 3 Complete Edition with the free, fan-made HD mod (The Launcher) for various QoL improvements. It is turn based, fairly easy to jump in to, but hard to master.

Spoiler: Heroes 3 complete + HD

View attachment 6959630View attachment 6959632View attachment 6959633View attachment 6959635View attachment 6959634

Edit for video, I compressed the shit out of it, but you can get a feel of the game. I don't like this map layout, but I might roll with it, early Gunnar and Necklace of Swiftness is very intriguing.

Spoiler: Short gameplay video

View attachment 6959728

This, but just grab the game off GOG and then grab heroes launcher, it will handle hdloader, install WoG, HotA, and even VCMI (open source engine port, pretty damn good, too) and a few other mods, all the tweaks from hdloader are there, and theres even an online mod I haven't tried yet.

I should play some Horn of the Abyss before I crash for the night...

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

Gave Little Witch Nobeta a shot, played through the first boss on Standard. It's extremely rare for me to think an action game, let alone a Souls-like, is too easy but I know I was sucking and half-assing it, yet was practically invincible.

I'll restart on hard but I can already tell it's gonna have damage sponges enemies since even Standard took too long to kill basic enemies... Maybe I'll invest in high attack instead of HP to breeze through it? Idk.

 

[Burt Ryan]

My ME2 re-playthrough goes on.

How the fuck is this game so good. Bioware not even in a million years could reach this level of game-making.

I'm quite mad that a full Paragon maleShep can't romance Samara till ME3 Citadel.

 

[Bonedome]

I finally quit my "I'm totally gonna play these games I'm not organically drawn towards" delusions and now want to focus on just cozy, pausable, low-stress games. And I can't find any.

Hello Kitty Island Adventure. Stress free? Check, cozy? Check, pausable? Check.

It's a silly recommendation but it's a more fun Animal Crossing type of game (in my opinion.) There's less town building and more hanging out with friends and doing quests but the actual gameplay loop and island is fun stuff. There's no combat and no dying but still a good amount to do and I've been consistently impressed by the results of certain quests.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole 2]

I finally quit my "I'm totally gonna play these games I'm not organically drawn towards" delusions and now want to focus on just cozy, pausable, low-stress games. And I can't find any.

People are divided on the game itself but I really liked The Good Life. It's Deadly Premonition slash Animal Crossing.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1452500/The_Good_Life/

 

[Xarpho's Return]

People are divided on the game itself but I really liked The Good Life. It's Deadly Premonition slash Animal Crossing.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1452500/The_Good_Life/

I remember being really turned off that the demo didn't work on my machine. It may be the closest to The Sims Bustin' Out/Urbz GBA by having something similar to Animal Crossing in buying shit and making friends but with a plot that drives it. The core gameplay loop is these games is mini-games that can earn money (the Urbz has an Excitebike clone and an entertaining original card game based on horse racing betting), but I'm not sure what The Good Life has.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole 2]

I remember being really turned off that the demo didn't work on my machine. It may be the closest to The Sims Bustin' Out/Urbz GBA by having something similar to Animal Crossing in buying shit and making friends but with a plot that drives it. The core gameplay loop is these games is mini-games that can earn money (the Urbz has an Excitebike clone and an entertaining original card game based on horse racing betting), but I'm not sure what The Good Life has.

It has photo journalism so one thing you can do is check a stock photography website for "hot topics" to take pictures off and then you have to try and remember where you saw [thing] or [theme] that fits the description. There is also a bit of murder photography, that can earn you big bucks if it's gnarly. And at every new moon the inhabitants of the town turns into dogs and cats. It's a flawed game for sure(there's a bit of combat, it sucks) but overall I really liked it.

 

[Nick Obre]

Didn't this thread used to be pinned? Anyway:

2K Announces Project ETHOS, a New F2P Third-Person Hero Shooter with Roguelike Elements
View attachment 6535032

I sense the arrival of another game nobody wants.

This is from a few days ago, but reception for this thing was so bad, they fired the president of the studio.

https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/less-than-4-months-after-revealing-his-studios-new-game-michael-condrey-has-reportedly-been-given-the-boot-by-2k-games/

Now, I probably shouldn't say, but I've done third party work for this. Aside from how bad the graphics and art direction are and how uninteresting the gameplay looks, the whole thing is up to the gills with DIVERSITY of all kinds, and the story revolves around CLIMATE CHANGE.

 

[ZMOT]

the story revolves around CLIMATE CHANGE

actually that can work - if you have a competent writer. same for "diversity" and all the other shit they push, but then if companies would employ actual competent people they wouldn't be in this mess to begin with

 

[Pig Boss]

actually that can work - if you have a competent writer. same for "diversity" and all the other shit they push, but then if companies would employ actual competent people they wouldn't be in this mess to begin with

Brink was fun and I'll argue that until the day.

 

[Google.com]

I enjoyed Anno 2070 and this shitty deeply flawed game that ran out of development I picked up for 0.99 on steam called Hydrophobia. Both had some global warming meme.