Thirith on 21/5/2024 at 07:00
I played the penultimate mission of Thief: The Black Parade over the weekend. These missions are so good and varied, and the level design is largely fantastic, but I do wonder a bit what the purpose of the second, smaller castle is for the level. It does feel a bit like the map for the main castle required them to fill the space with something, but it's definitely the least interesting part of the mission.
WingedKagouti on 21/5/2024 at 23:29
I've been playing Hades 2 (early acces) this last week and it plays as well as Hades while introducing several new mechanics. Lots of content already in the game, but not all story is in yet, there are some obvious empty holes in various spots and several of the new characters use unpolished/placeholder artwork. But the core gameplay loop itself is there and you can beat the final boss (once you figure out his patterns).
Thirith on 26/5/2024 at 08:27
Just finished the final mission of Thief: The Black Parade. It's a shame that mission 10 doesn't play to the strengths of The Black Parade, and in that respect it reminds me of Half-Life's Xen: it's a weird, atmospheric change of scenery, but I didn't find it nearly as enjoyable as what came before. (It didn't help that I searched that villain's lair several times before I realised that I simply had to get Arzan's key, and that would let me continue.)
My frustrations with the level don't take away from the great achievement that this mod is. It very much felt like the first time I played the original two Thief games. How does Shadows of the Metal Age compare, especially in terms of level design? I have to admit that once or twice while playing The Black Parade I was kinda wishing for the occasional smaller, more compact level (not a criticism so much as a preference), so for my next Thiefy endeavours I might prefer something along those lines.
Twist on 26/5/2024 at 22:38
How experienced are you with fan missions of the last decade or so? If you enjoyed The Black Parade but wanted something smaller and more compact, there are a ton of great single mission fan missions you'll probably enjoy. Many of the best of them are by the authors of The Black Parade.
A decent place to start is the (
https://www.ttlg.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=151128) One Million Units Contest. Many of those entries are pretty amazing, but the winner, Alcazar, is one of my all-time favorite Thief missions (including OMs). Because of the size limitation of the contest, all those missions are more on the short side of playing time.
It's difficult to compare Shadows of the Metal Age to The Black Parade. The Black Parade has the advantage of an improved, more capable version of the Dark Engine, as well as being informed by more than two decades of community experimentation, discussion, debate and iteration of Thief level design. It was also led by a pretty experienced professional level designer. While impressive when it was released, the scale, scope, detail and polish of Shadows just doesn't feel quite the same compared to something like The Black Parade.
However, you might find it has better pacing in some respects. Missions 2 through 9 of The Black Parade can feel a bit like a series of one-off mammoth masterpieces of design rather than a series of missions paced for a campaign. Shadows of the Metal Age is a little more like the original games in that you have varying types and sizes of missions. Along the same lines, though, you also have pretty widely varying levels of quality among those missions.
Take a look at the credits of The Black Parade and find the authors' individual releases. If you haven't played any of them yet and you enjoyed The Black Parade... well gosh, lucky you. You'll find several missions worthy of an Arkane blush.
henke on 27/5/2024 at 13:18
Nifflas just released a new, small, free game: (
https://nifflas.itch.io/xenosphere)
You should play it. Don't look up anything about it. Just play it.
Tomi on 27/5/2024 at 15:10
Quote Posted by henke
Also got back into
Kingdom: Two Crowns. Picked up the Norse Lands DLC. I continue to be impressed by the minimalism of this game's controls. A strategy game that can be played with 3 buttons. Left, right, and a "toss coins" button. It's beautiful and engrossing and occasionally quite frustrating. Seems like every time I die I shout "oh so THAT can happen!?". A lot of trial and error. But I still have a hard time putting it down.
4 buttons, actually. Left, right, toss coins, and sprint/special. But yeah, still kinda minimal. :D
I've only played Kingdom Classic before, so I decided to play
Two Crowns a bit during the weekend. From what I can remember of Classic, the two games are almost identical. The pixel art aesthetic is brilliant, but I do wish that your kingdom looked a bit more like a real place with maybe houses here and there, instead of just guard towers and walls. But this game wants to be minimalistic on all levels, I suppose.
I like it how the game doesn't really help you with anything - you gotta figure out everything the hard way. I still have no idea what some of the statues and monuments and some NPCs are supposed to do. In fact I don't even know what
I am supposed to do! Despite being somewhat frustrating indeed, it's very addictive. I sometimes wish that I had more control over things, but it'd be a completely different game if there was some more micromanagement.
Is Norse Lands practically the same game but in a different setting?
Thirith on 27/5/2024 at 16:08
Cheers, Twist. I've played some of The Dark Mod, but none of theThief 1/2 fan missions yet, so those are some good pointers.
Tomi on 29/5/2024 at 14:56
For the last couple of weeks me and my 5 yo daughter have been playing Stardew Valley together, and it's been a lot of fun so far.
Gaming with your kids is never quite what you expect, but Stardew Valley is exactly the kind of a co-op game that I've been looking for. We're both living/working on the same farm, but the game is in split-screen so we can both do our own things if we like. Most of the time we hang out together though and do the daily chores and stuff, but there are times when my daughter wants to do some funny kid stuff, and I get a moment to go exploring the caves on my own.
There's a lot of same kind of parent/kid interaction that happens in real life too. I often have to ask my daughter multiple times to help me with some basic chores, and she gets distracted every two minutes while doing them, but a little bit of bribery always does the trick. "You can go buy yourself an ice cream if you feed all the animals today." And that works just about every time. :D My daughter is a better role-player than I am for sure, and it's fun to see how immersed she often is in the game. But the best thing about Stardew Valley is that I don't have to constantly help her with everything, like in most other games that we've played before. The controls are intuitive and easy to learn, so she can practically do anything she likes on the farm. And there's no pressure in the game, so you don't have to worry about anything, which is nice.
So, I can definitely now see why Stardew Valley is so highly rated. The gameplay is simple, kinda repetitive but rewarding, the pixel art looks nice, and the characters are fun and interesting. I'm looking forward to where our adventures take us.
Aja on 30/5/2024 at 20:15
Still playing Balatro; still loving it. The difficulty progression feels well-tuned. Thirty-five hours in and I'm still learning the strategies, still unlocking jokers, and learning how to play the cards I'm dealt instead of relying on luck. As it turns out, luck isn't nearly as important in winning consistently as is knowing how to build a deck to suit the circumstances (even the unlucky ones). The single song that plays in the background is in 7/4, and at this point I can hear it clearly in my head whenever I please.
I've also been playing Baba Is You, which I'm finding an odd mix of relaxing and stimulating for how difficult the puzzles are to me. I held off on buying this for years because I imagined I'd bounce off it, but it's so frictionless in terms of experimenting and undoing and restarting that it's not frustrating at all. That said, even some of the early puzzles took me way longer than they rightly should have, so I'm wondering how far I'll get before my brain gives out.
And I've put a bunch of time into Vampire Survivors. Initially I thought this was a bit one-note; the first time I won a round, I spent the last 10 minutes being more or less invincible, and that was boring. But the more you play and unlock, the more challenges become available, and while it's never difficult, it does take a bit of thought and strategy to come up with builds that can achieve your goals. For the most part it's just good mindless fun, a steady dopamine trickle that's great for down time.
Thirith on 4/6/2024 at 07:00
Still on Animal Well. I retrieved the third flame and am now heading for the fourth. Not sure yet whether I'll continue after what I understand to be the first ending; in the past, I've found it difficult to remain engaged after reaching a story ending, but perhaps Animal Well's story and ending(s) are fuzzy enough not to give me this sense that I finished the game. (I'm especially not a fan of returning to a save game just before the finale after I've finished the story of a game; it always leaves me with a deflated feeling.)
Other than that, I began a new replay of Thief 2; I'd installed the game with all the bells and whistles a couple of years ago but stopped playing in the second mission for some reason. Now, after having played The Black Parade, I very much feel like persisting, because Thief is definitely one of those games that I need to give some time, but once everything falls into place I'm absolutely hooked. At the same time, the engine upgrades that come with NewDark and one of the common texture mods make the game feel a bit sterile, at least to begin with, and after the grungy look and feel of The Black Parade this takes some getting used to.
