weylfar on 25/6/2024 at 13:13
Quote Posted by demagogue
I just imagine a Thief remake would be flooded with, well not with this exactly, but some variation on not comprehending why anyone ever liked the game to begin with because Boomers still can't work their browser and use flip phones, we can't expect they'll know anything about what makes a game good... (I'm not even sure that reviewer is joking when he says the save system is from the 1970s.) Long story short, I don't think the market's there for a straight up direct remake, even though that's the only way I could imagine the series being continued in any constructive way.
New Thief game should be made for new players if Thief franchise would like to continue. Younger players want to have streamlined and fun gameplay. I was thinking new Thief should be a mix of intuitive and fun gameplay but leave enough space and exploration for old players to enjoy.
Tomi on 28/6/2024 at 17:25
Just finished playing Sea of Stars on the XBox. It's an old school (J)RPG with turn-based combat, and some nice retro graphics. I kept playing it for the story mostly, even if it's quite predictable and a bit naive. There's a lot of combat in the game, but it gets a bit tedious pretty soon. It doesn't help that a lot of the enemies in the game are cutesy slime blobs or mushroom monsters that could be straight out of some Super Mario game, and the badly balanced difficulty doesn't make things any better either. Most other games have difficulty levels, but in Sea of Stars you find relics throughout the story that you can choose to wear if you like. It sounds like a cool idea in theory, but I think it's just awful in practice. I mean, if I find a relic that gives my heroes +50% HP, why would I not wear it? There are like 20 different relics in the game - some make the game easier and some make it more challenging - and during the 30 hours that I spent in the game, I couldn't find a combination that is challenging enough and fun. I wish that they had just stuck with traditional difficulty levels instead.
henke on 1/7/2024 at 13:28
wot I'm playing besides Sonar Shock:
American Arcadia - It's the Truman Show, but with an entire city. Unfortunately Trevor is getting terrible numbers so he's about to get cancelled. PERMANENTLY cancelled, ya dig? Well, not if Angela has anything to say about it. Angela is an employee of the network producing the show "American Arcadia", and she begins surreptitiously helping Trevor escape. Trevor's parts of the story play out as a sidescrolling platform puzzler, and Angela's parts play out as first person segments. The story is kinda humdrum, but the way it's told is very fun. It cuts not only between the dual perspectives of the protagonists but also liberally skips ahead in time and frequently cuts to commercials, documentaries, and character interviews to help tell the story in an entertaining way. The gameplay is mostly enjoyable, but not as polished as something like Inside. Overall, good game.
Horizon Forbidden West - started this up on the PS5. I never finished - nor much cared for - its predecessor and I doubt I'll make it far in this one.
FREAKHUNTER - a fast paced first person shooter that plays like a dungeon crawler mixed with a rail shooter. Quite unlike anything I've played and it has inspired me. I started a new game prototype today.
salass00 on 2/7/2024 at 13:04
I've just recently gotten into the Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree DLC with my NG+3 character. I haven't gotten up against any of the real bosses yet (I've kept a wide berth to the giant flaming wickerman from the trailers as I don't think I will stand much of a chance against him yet), but I have defeated two mini bosses both found in catacombs. Unlike the ones found in the main game, which were rather easy, these have been quite relentless and unforgiving of mistakes. The latter I suppose may be mainly because the damage you take and deal in the new DLC area is scaled off of your scadutree blessing level (I'm currently at level 2) rather than your gear level.
Also while unlocking the DLC I happened upon a new dungeon (Leyndell catacombs) in the main game that I hadn't encountered on any of my six earlier playthroughs, which was quite exciting.
Thirith on 3/7/2024 at 06:19
I played some Leap Year over the last few days. I've heard very good things about this platform puzzler, but my brain doesn't gel with its kind of puzzles. In hindsight I can recognise that it's clever about teaching the player its various tricks, but I wasn't receptive for these lessons at all: I lucked into getting things right once or twice but didn't realise what the systems driving the solutions are.
So I went back to Thief 2 and completed the bank level and got through most of the following level, "Blackmail", which restored my faith in my grey matter... somewhat.
I also got started on the Game Pass version of Still Wakes the Deep (which apparently doesn't have all of the optimisations of the version on Steam/GOG, which sucks), and while I'm enjoying it as a scary funhouse ride with great graphics and sound design, it's definitely the least engaging game by The Chinese Room I've played. At times it tries to be more of a game than Dear Esther and Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, but those moments are so on rails and at times frustrating that it takes away from the atmosphere. I'm fine with walking-sim game design, but for me it works best when you're piecing together a story that has already happened. Here at least it doesn't work at all with the more "do this now or you're dead" moments. I'm still curious to continue for the story and the atmosphere, but I'm glad I can play this on Game Pass, even with the iffy optimisation.
Sulphur on 3/7/2024 at 08:22
As far as I know, this version of The Chinese Room that made SWtD isn't the same one with Dan Pinchbeck leading it, which means it'll likely be a bit removed from the things he was fascinated with. I've heard both good and bad things about SWtD, which make me quite intrigued by it, but not intrigued enough to get it on my machine that can play it properly (the PS5) at the moment.
Meanwhile, I've dipped into a few games here and there, like the Riven remake and Baba Is You, which are full puzzle meals brimming with design and character (and in Riven's case, an absolutely gorgeous recreation of the original's genre-benchmark visual design), but it's the junk food that keeps calling out to me, namely AssCreed: Odyssey. I think at this point in my life, I appreciate being able to dip in and out of a game and not care about narrative quality or gameplay design (both of which have moderate high and low points but average out to lukewarm noodle soup) because Odyssey can very easily be digested in short 15-20 minute hyperpalatable chunks. I daresay it may even have been made that way, which is why it works for either bingeing or snacking depending on my day - but like most junk food, I'm going to get tired of it very soon and get back to a good meal instead.
Thirith on 3/7/2024 at 09:15
Still Wakes the Deep feels weird in that it feels like someone played the older The Chinese Room games and really enjoyed them, but they wanted to address the things that some people dislike about those games (walking sim! not a game! no agency!) without necessarily understanding what worked about the old games or what kind of effects the changes and additions would have on the game. It's a bit like a game made by fans that are enthusiastic but that don't fully understand the thing they're fans of.
My main issue would be that Dear Esther and Everybody's Gone to the Rapture let you explore the places where they're set (the island and the village), and for me that was key to how I experienced the games and their stories: as a sort of witness/archaeologist. It's not agency, it's not even player freedom in a particularly deep sense, but it works for me the way that site-specific theatre works. Take that away and put the player in very narrow corridors, lose even that minimal agency and replace it with what amounts to repetitive though minimal QTEs (at least so far) and you're not gaining anything, or at least I don't think you do.
I wonder how A Machine for Pigs compares. I don't remember the details: was that one more corridor-y? If so, it'd probably be the game by the original The Chinese Room that is the most similar, but I don't remember being annoyed by the same things.
In any case: if you could play the game on Game Pass, I'd say check it out, but if your PC isn't up to it and you'd have to play on PS5, I'd definitely wait for a nice discount.
henke on 3/7/2024 at 16:07
I got 4 days of game pass left so I guess I better hurry up and play this thing. Downloading it on the XBox...
Thirith on 3/7/2024 at 20:53
Curious to hear what you think, henke.
Edit: Having played some more of SWtD, I've concluded that what it feels like to me is basically Dragon's Lair, just through the filter of The Chinese Room's sensitivities (with the caveat that Sulphur mentioned, that the people behind the original TCR games are no longer there).
Sulphur on 4/7/2024 at 13:14
Quote Posted by Thirith
I wonder how
A Machine for Pigs compares. I don't remember the details: was that one more corridor-y? If so, it'd probably be the game by the original The Chinese Room that is the most similar, but I don't remember being annoyed by the same things.
AMfP was the more corridor-y one in my recollection, yeah. I never finished it though, because I remember not being very interested in where it was going, and it felt like it was out of sync at a few levels.
TCR's games have always excelled in a certain kind of specificity for me, and that was related to the sense of archaeology you mentioned. I liked how they were able to evoke something very personal out of what could be alien and distant - and while I've never said anything about Everybody's Gone to the Rapture before, I enjoyed its ability to wrap some human, and humane, stories around its sci-fi tragedy. The naturalistic performances helped (some of the best VO in a while), and even if I'm not particularly rapturous about the overall game (apart from the music, which was wonderful), its transportive nature and idyllic setting were perfect for what it was trying to do.
