Tony_Tarantula on 29/5/2019 at 17:47
I fired up MGS V again to work on some of the "Post ending" missions and listen to the tapes.
I missed the most important part of those games. It changes MGS V from some hokey, bizarre action game and souless cash-in into a stealthy anti-globalization screed. Skull-Face and Code Talker's tapes go on at length about how mass media enables old languages to be effectively extinguished, and that imposing a language forces you to adopt the psychology of the oppressors.
Coincidentally I have been studying on some history (I always am, but this time on a different topic). One of the things that came up listening to a lecture was how the British took over Canada and started forcing the natives (who had been largely left alone under the Catholic French) to speak English and starting scalping those who didn't. The upshot was that language is a powerful tool of colonialism and then I stumbled into some of the philosophy hidden in MGS V talking about that.
That's one thing I love. When a game doesn't tell me what to think, but succeeds in taking a step further to make me think.
Aja on 2/6/2019 at 20:56
Devolver Digital has a bunch of games on sale for Switch right now, so I bought three of them (er, I might end up buying more).
The first is Minit, which is an odd Zelda-like game with a twist that you die every 60 seconds, so you have to do as much as you can before that happens. It's a novel premise although a little bit more stressful in practice than I'd like. I'm only a little ways in, so I'll wait until I get into the swing of it before judging.
The second is Gato Roboto, which is Metroid except you're a cat in a robot suit. It's very cute (my favourite part so far is when the cat balks at going in the water) and has responsive controls. I'm only about an hour in, but: RECOMMENDED.
The third is Gris, which I think has been discussed here before.
I didn't really know about Devolver Digital until now, but browsing their games on Switch, they seem to have a lot of interesting titles. I'm also curious about Katana Zero, Ape Out, The Messenger, Pikuniku, and Red Strings Club, if anyone has any thoughts on them.
Thirith on 3/6/2019 at 08:34
I just got started on A Criminal Past, one of the DLCs for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, after finishing the other two. Especially System Rift was nice enough, but in terms of its environments it felt very much like the main game, so A Criminal Past's more unique environment makes for a welcome change. It's also more of a challenge, especially early on, since your augmentations don't work. The writing is... iffy, to say the least, but I like how it feels like a homage to Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. It makes me think, though, that if there is another Deus Ex at some point, I very much hope that they'll mix up the environments more than they have with the last two games. Obviously a lot of what's there is variations on high-tech offices and high-tech labs, but I remember the original Deus Ex having more variety.
Other than that, I also started playing Outer Wilds. It's a very different game from Deus Ex, but it does sort of remind me of that thing Warren Spector (?) said, that he'd like to design an open-world game where the world is very small, one block of buildings, but very detailed, rather than large but generic. Outer Wilds offers a miniature solar system with a half dozen planets, and each planet is relatively small - you can walk around them -, which is also necessary because the sun goes supernova after less than half an hour - but then you find yourself back at the beginning, remembering everything that happened during your last 'life'. The planets aren't hyperdetailed, mind you, but each has a couple of locations, ruins, ancient machines that you can check out, slowly putting together the puzzle pieces of what happened in the past and what you can do in the present in order to possibly prevent a cataclysm. I've not played much of the game, but I very much like its miniature world and its more homespun take on sci-fi. It's very much an indie game, though; if your idea of sci-fi is the glossy polish of Mass Effect, you might not like what Outer Wild offers instead.
Sulphur on 3/6/2019 at 15:45
RE: Outer Wilds, I think there's so much unexplored space for sci-fi that exists between the two stereotypes of a glossy high-tech future and gritty cyberpunk, I pretty much got Outer Wilds because of how it chose to be different.
Having said that, it's not really sci-fi so much as it's an exploratory adventure/puzzle/mystery with space trappings. I love how handmade every inch of it is, and the clockwork machinery of its solar system reminds me of the initial jaunts in a Hitman level where you're observing the elements of a level and slowly peeling back the layers to expose the possible paths towards your goal. The sense of clockwork exactitude is heightened by the accelerated time that has sunrises and sunsets in quick succession, the periods between dappled in shadows that grow and slide across the land almost like they're dancing before your eyes.
But the best part is that despite how cleverly its mysteries and loops are constructed, for a game where you're a four-eyed alien in an exploding solar system, it's one of the coziest experiences I've had. There's an almost instant familiarity and charm to it, no better example of which is the very opening of the game: you're started off gazing straight up at the night sky, and when you point the camera down to look around you, you're with a friend at a campfire. And the very first verb the game gives you besides 'talk' is to just sit at the campfire, hold out a stick, and toast marshmallows for as long as you want.
And that's just it: it's a game about hopping into space and exploring the sights of a miniature solar system, yet it knows that the smaller moments are just as important as all the bigger ones.
The icing on the cake is the music. It's making a banjo lover out of me.
Aja on 3/6/2019 at 17:43
Quote Posted by icemann
Gato Roboto is definitely on my list. Love Metroidvania's.
It's not so much a Metroidvania as it *is* Metroid. Nearly every aspect of it is an homage of some sort, but at the same time it doesn't feel like a knock-off.
Sulphur on 3/6/2019 at 19:36
I gotta admit seeing Kiki perched on Samus's suit (and let's be frank, it is Samus's suit, witness the ridiculous oversized spheroid shoulders) gives me a chuckle. It's Metroid, but instead of dark and foreboding it's charming and silly entirely because you're a cat. A cat that fires rockets from a mech suit, and a cat that doesn't complaint about swimming.
Somewhere in there, some part of that is a blatant lie, but it's okay; it's a game with a cat in a goddamn mech suit.
Aja on 3/6/2019 at 20:29
I also love the way Kiki scowls, Doom Guy style, whenever you fire your gun.
Thirith on 4/6/2019 at 08:26
I've also bought Gato Roboto, but most likely it'll be a while before I play it. It looks sweet, though, and I'm usually in the market for a well-made Metroidvania.
Great thoughts on Outer Wilds, Sulphur! I could imagine that the game would strike some people as too twee, as it's a certain brand of indie gaming to a fault, but it's got a lightness of touch and a real sense of mystery and wonder that I don't remember many games managing. I've only played two 'rounds' (so to speak) so far, but I loved how much it does make you feel like an actual explorer of a world, rather than a visitor in a theme park.
henke on 10/6/2019 at 18:26
Played the first couple missions of Recore today, up until the world opens up, and then a bit after that too. It feels dated in a lot of ways. Kinda rough graphics, unpolished animations. The platforming and shooting feels like an early 2000s third person action-platformer, but not in a bad way, in fact I'm kinda enjoying the gameplay. It's hectic and you always gotta be on your toes. Dunno if I'll keep playing.
qolelis on 11/6/2019 at 10:38
I'm playing Underworld Ascendant and liking it. Yes, they did release it too early, but they have gone through 3 or 4 patches now, and the great environments, sound design, and the overall exploration (including verticality) plenty makes up for the bugs that are still there (now that my machine is finally up to snuff, it has only been minor annoyances -- although they do add up, so I'm hoping those will be fixed soon as the devs continue working on it). Some of the NPCs are a little too cartoonish for my tastes, but it doesn't bother me enough to not enjoy playing (I just roll my eyes a little when I see them and then I move on). For things to do and experiment with I have probably only just scratched the surface yet.
