Sulphur on 5/6/2024 at 12:30
Good memory henke, but not good enough to remember I agreed it borrowed stuff from imsims! C-! See me after class.
Quote Posted by Malf
I saw Sulphur briefly playing
Baldur's Gate 3 at the weekend, and am curious to see what he thinks of it. I'm champing at the bit to play it in co-op with someone, but would rather they've had a chance to experience the campaign solo first.
I was just giving it a spin to see how much of my CPU fan
it was giving a spin. Turned out, quite a bit! Good thing I got that new fan. BG3 is a ways off for me, I'm afraid, because summer has been melting everything here (sometimes literally) and I'm waiting for stuff to simmer down before I get on with extended gaming sessions on the PC. Will get around to it, but we could always co-op something else. How do you feel about D:OS 2? :p
Malf on 5/6/2024 at 12:38
Quote Posted by Sulphur
How do you feel about D:OS 2? :p
Not sure if the :p is because you've read some of my thoughts about the game before (I
despise the gear, armour, ambushes and "special" fire surfaces that can only be cleared with Bless), but I'd be up for some co-op, to see if it makes the game more palatable, for sure. Maybe some custom scenarios to avoid that early-game burnout?
I've played that first island so many damn times, albeit solo.
henke on 5/6/2024 at 14:21
Finished (
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1558000/ECHOSTASIS/) Echostasis yesterday.
It certainly is a hugely ambitious conclusion to the Enigma trilogy. This thing looks like a puzzly walking sim so it was surprising to see how much twitch FPS gaming skillz it required as well. You're tasked with exploring dreamscapes, but you only have enough resolve (time) to stay in them for a short while at a time. So you run around, dodging enemies until you find ways to unlock more of the 'scape. Eventually you find THE SHOTGUN, which lets you shoot enemies to add 5 seconds to your clock, and this is when the whole thing becomes a kinda FPS racing game. The story is engrossing stuff as well, if you're into stories about AI going mad. It looks amazing and sent shivers down my spine a few times.
If you haven't played the earlier entries, I do recommend starting with (
https://store.steampowered.com/app/977810/THE_ENIGMA_MACHINE/) The Enigma Machine, as it's a much shorter/tighter experience and it'll let you know if this is your kinda thing at all.
qolelis on 6/6/2024 at 20:17
Yes, Echostasis, I'm playing it now. My progress is currently at 66.666... percent. If I had to give it a simple genre, I would probably call it something like "experimental narrative puzzle shooter explorer". It's positively frustrating and annoying, but absolutely worth it for the post-traumatic satisfaction and haunting beauty beneath its raw distorted surface. As for guidance, you get a few general pointers to get you started, but then it's all up to you to explore, be curious and hella stubborn.
henke on 7/6/2024 at 04:26
I figured you might be playing this qolelis, it seems like your kinda game. :)
I did give up a couple times and go hunting for clues in the Steam discussions. It was hard to find any hints with the game being so new. It has an amazing ability to hide pathways in plain sight. There were certain places I ran past a dozen times before realizing "oh wait I can go in HERE!?"
qolelis on 7/6/2024 at 07:03
Oh yes, I've done that too. The distortion filters isn't helping in that regard. Also been running the same long route a couple of times, only to later realize there was a much shorter route already available. Finding anything is a challenge. Makes it feel real, though. We're as lost as the main character before slowly finding... our [path], our [role].
Thirith on 10/6/2024 at 09:35
I'm three levels into my first replay of Thief 2 in years, and after having played The Black Parade just recently I'm both enjoying this one a lot and finding the change in vibe quite striking. They complement each other really well, though, and I like how Thief 2 already changes things up quite early, e.g. with mission 3 ("Framed") and the way you can't just blackjack your way through the police station.
I also saw Animal Well's end credits and am now trying to play some more, but I think there's a good chance I'll put it aside, at least for now. While I find the game's mysteries reasonably engaging, it's a somewhat abstract engagement: I'm curious to see what else Animal Well will come up with, but I can't really say that I care, and without that emotional engagement I don't know how much I'll persist.
henke on 10/6/2024 at 10:26
Yeeeeeah I get what you mean about Animal Well. It does kinda feel more like it has a lot of secrets and layers for the sake of having a lot of secrets and layers rather than because there's any deeper meaning behind it.
I'm playing some T2 as well from time to time. Just played through The Stone of Alarus. A good, but fairly straightforward FM. Hey if Black Parade gave you a taste for FMs I recommend the (
https://www.thiefguild.com/fanmissions/7065/) Death's Cold Embrace campaign. Good world/level design and storytelling.
I got Aliens: Dark Descent on PS5 last week but haven't had time to start it yet because I started replaying GTA:SA (Definitive Edition) for some reason. I've been chased out of Los Santos now, out in the boondocks. Probably one of my all-time fave games but I'm still kinda surprised that it holds up and is still captivating after all this time.
Also played a good bit of En Garde this weekend. Very fun and stylish combat connected by some light platforming and bad writing. Feels quite Prince of Persia Sands Of Time-ish actually.
Malf on 10/6/2024 at 10:41
@henke, I made a start on Aliens: Dark Descent, but it's one of those games I really have to be in the mood for. The tension is constant and wears me down quite quickly. I will probably head back to it at some point, but as noted, I'll have to be in the right mood.
Sulphur, Jesh and I played some DOS2 this weekend and had a good laugh. There's lots of opportunities for shenanigans, and I'm looking forward to playing some more.
But I think the loot system kinda gets in the way of the fun, and the game would have been better off just relying on character progression, with gear just dictating cosmetics.
I'd be interested to see what Larian could do if they took the same formula, but then stripped out all of the more tedious RPG bollocks; make it more of a horizontal progress game, with levelling allowing you to unlock more options, but then restricting how many of those options are available to you; learn a little from the original Guild Wars and deck builders.
Thirith on 10/6/2024 at 11:25
@henke Thanks for suggesting Death's Cold Embrace! I'll make sure to check that one out. As far as GTA: San Andreas is concerned: how's the Definitive Edition these days? San Andreas is definitely my favourite one of the GTA Trilogy.
