icemann on 4/11/2017 at 09:06
I backed Dex during its KS campaign. Played the beta a while back. Glad to hear that the main game is enjoyable.
henke on 7/11/2017 at 07:15
Mini MetroHere's a timelapse of Mini Metro being played by someone who knows what they're doing (i.e. not me).
[video=youtube;mJlZOqFaRUI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJlZOqFaRUI[/video]
Mini Metro is a game that takes one part of city-simulator games, namely transportation, and just hyper-focuses on that area (much like (
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=148261) Freeways). At first you only have 3 stations, but as the game progresses the camera zooms out and more stations are added. The challenge comes from setting up your subway lines in a way so traffic flows smoothly where it needs to go, when a station becomes overcrowded, the game is over. I am enjoying this a lot, it has a very addictive "just one more go" quality, and I'm constantly learning and improving on my previous score.
I also picked up the Android phone version for a fiver, but I gotta say it doesn't play as well on a phone as on PC. Dragging lines and trains is a bit too fiddly, and your finger ends up obscuring much of what you're trying to look at. On a tablet I suppose it might play ok, but it's not a great mobile game.
edit: after discovering the pause function the mobile version became a lot more playable AND my highscores started increasing significantly. 2895 highscore in Melbourne, baby!
FATE: Keeping this one around for sure!
Next week, the final game: Quantum Break
Technobabylon UpdateI finished it last night! Took my sweet time, I know. I like the story and the characters a lot. Good writing and voice acting. The puzzling is logical and fun for the most part. There were a few annoying sections though, like the big final sequence, which I had trouble figuring out
with a walkthrough. But the whole ending after it made it worth it. Overall, a wonderful cyberpunk adventure.
PigLick on 7/11/2017 at 16:39
Technobablyon wasnt bad, but there was way too much dialogue at times. I found the first half way better than the ending, and yeh that final sequence was a piece of shit. Have you played the Blackwell series of adventure games? Takes a bit more to get into as it is a 5 part series, but well worth it, probly the best point n click I have played.
henke on 7/11/2017 at 18:10
I tried and failed to get into the Blackwell games. Only Wadjet Eye game I've finished is The Shivah.
Tomi on 8/11/2017 at 01:03
17) Kentucky Route ZeroInline Image:
https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/876375256892626396/FA10F4F5BB6B7B1ACAC536940A08592D9A724666/?interpolation=lanczos-none&output-format=jpeg&output-quality=95&fit=inside|1024:576&composite-to%3D%2A%2C%2A%7C1024%3A576&background-color=blackWhat a strange game. I've played the first chapter of this and I don't really know what to think. I kinda dig the weird and spooky atmosphere, but there's something almost distressing about it that I can't even explain. KRZ is the only game that I remember playing that has made me feel somehow uncomfortable like this. That's not necessarily a bad thing, I mean it's quite rare that a game evokes any emotions in me - it's just that almost everything about this game has been so damn
weird so far.
FATE: I will play Chapter 2, but if things don't start making
any sense at all by the end of it, I'll just give up.
18) Renowned Explorers: International SocietyInline Image:
https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/876375256892665412/EAB25E0F6FD4FDFEB73A398223C62666389C8585/?interpolation=lanczos-none&output-format=jpeg&output-quality=95&fit=inside|1024:576&composite-to%3D%2A%2C%2A%7C1024%3A576&background-color=blackI like exploring stuff. In Renowned Explorers you get to explore fascinating locations all over the world and your target is to become the #1 Explorer in the world. You build a team of three explorers that all have different kind of skills, choose the location of your next expedition, then prepare for the new adventure by choosing the most suitable equipment, and off you go! I played Renowned Explorers for nearly five hours and found out that it's quite a complicated game. It's easy enough to learn so that you'll be able to play it and progress in the story, but your first few expeditions will most likely fail miserably. I think I'm starting to get the hang of it now, but I have a feeling that I still haven't figured out everything that I'm supposed to know to actually be any good at it. The most unique feature of the game is the "Attitude system": You don't
have to choose the Aggressive approach for every encounter in the game and kill everyone, you can also try to win the enemies on your side by being Friendly to them, or totally piss your enemies off by being Devious so that they leave you alone. The outcome of each encounter is determined by your approach, and your decisions often have long-lasting effects in the current expedition. To make things more complicated, your enemies also have their own attitudes, and the combination of the attitudes of both sides determines the
Mood of the encounter that also plays a big role in this game... And that's just the very basics of the "combat" system explained, most of the action in the game happens on a separate map where you prepare yourself for these encounters.
But no, the high learning curve isn't my main gripe with Renowned Explorers - in fact I like the challenge and love it when I learn new things a little by little and become a better player. What I don't really like about the game is that your success depends a bit too much on luck. It's really cool how you can build your team in so many different ways and teach the members different kind of skills that you think you're gonna need, and it
is a nice feeling when your plan works out, but in the end it's all about luck. If you're not having a lucky day, Renowned Explorers can be a very frustrating game. :mad: After around five hours of playing some of the random events are also starting to repeat themselves a bit too often - in Scottish Highlands for example you can't avoid the numerous flocks of sheep that will attack you and it just gets boring after a while, but there are still some locations that I haven't visited at all yet, so it seems like there's quite a lot of content in Renowned Explorers.
FATE: Hmm. This is a tough one. I'd love to be good at this game, because when things go somewhat well in Renowned Explorers, it's a lot of fun! But it takes time to master all the game mechanics, and I don't feel like spending so much time on just one game right now when there's so much backlog reducin' to do! So... one more expedition where I check out the remaining locations, then uninstall.
henke on 8/11/2017 at 06:21
Ah, good write-up on Renowned Explorers, you gave it a much more thorough look than I did.
K.R.Z. I played up until the end of chapter 3 I think. I liked it, but not enough so to see it through to the end. Great visuals and music tho.
scumble on 11/11/2017 at 11:36
OK, Furi was a game I got in a humble bundle but probably wouldn't have bothered buying.
I didn't put an hour into it, mainly because I couldn't be arsed to work out the first fight. I get what you're supposed to do, learn what the enemy does and have another go, but I just wasn't getting any motivation to retry. The design of the game is nice, but the dialogue is an awful bunch of enemy cliches and got on my nerves. In this case I'd rather save my lengthy battle patience for something else, essentially just thinking, do I want to spend another half an hour getting through this battle I don't particularly care about?
Even(
https://kotaku.com/indie-boss-battler-furi-is-the-wrong-kind-of-hard-1783130485) this reviewer who enjoys boss battles wasn't that wild about it.
twisty on 11/11/2017 at 11:43
I gave up at the first boss as well. Given he was a tutorial boss that I couldn't defeat after many attempts (without really knowing why, which was the main problem) I simply threw in the towel and eventually uninstalled. A bit of a shame really as it looked like it could have a lot of potential.
scumble on 11/11/2017 at 15:31
Yes, well the vibe of "It's a hard game for proper gamers!" doesn't help.
I've also had a go at Silence today. The art style was looking promising, but I'm finding it quite compromised by mediocre writing and voice acting. There's also the point-and-click arbitrary puzzle design thing going on where I'm just clicking on all the things you can click on in various combinations until I figure out what works. Also the way the dialogue is arranged with the actions make the pace of the game almost painful. I know the designers would have intended some cute or humorous dialog to be part of the charm they were trying to achieve, but it's often just cheesy. Better actors could get away with it, but the voice talent here just isn't up to it.
Visually there's a bit of a problem blending 2D backgrounds with the 3D parts of the game locations, and the character meshes seem a bit rough as well.
It's a shame really as it's nearly quite good, just for want of a bit of polish. It also shows how hard it is to make a good adventure game. I'm comparing it to Life is Strange primarily, which isn't perfect but the writing and voice acting are superior.
henke on 15/11/2017 at 17:05
Quantum BreakInline Image:
https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/871872300553311816/8DAF6A14BE0E8935C51B46B66681A4BFDA145B15/Remedy's latest manshooter is a slick afair with fun gameplay and pretty visuals. Not only does it look great, there are some very inventive sequences, for instance at one point you're walking through a timelapse and it's one of the coolest visuals I think I've ever seen in a game. I'm not really feeling the story or connecting with the characters though, which is bad, since the game is
very heavy on story. In between the gameplay chapters it suddenly turns into a live-action TV-show. Anyway, I'm kinda digging it, I've only played a couple hours so far, but I'm starting to enjoy it more and more the further I get.
FATE: I'll break a few more quantums and see how I feel about it.