The general population has no clue what a button or a trigger is most of the time and also have no clue what LB,RB,LT,RT even mean. You have to sit there and go “hmmm okay I see it’s right but now I need to remember what T and B mean” and it’s unintuitive, only makes sense to those who know it already.
Whereas numbers people actually know how they work and when you just say L and R people pick up on it easier. They can just figure out that top is 1 and 2 is bottom. Even helps them understand L3 and R3 better.
I have almost never seen someone new to games understand the stick button prompt easily with Xbox. Whereas a lot of PS controller sessions taught me that people who are new can even figure that out before I jump in to help them. Plus the icons are better. Shapes are less brain work than letters for a lot of people I know.
You’ve essentially described meme theory except your blaming the products of memes for the memes themselves. Trump isn’t the cancer, nor is musk or Putin or whoever. They all have supporters and a lot of them. Trumps approval rating is still near 45-50%. And the supporters aren’t something he grew or cultivated.
Trump is the product of a meme. Conservatism isn’t the end point results of a meme, it’s an expression of an underlying cultural phenomenon where after much progress is achieved, people begin to miss the familiarity of the past and wish to stop making progress for a short time.
And so the real thing being spread and what needs to die is the meme itself. And the only way you kill a meme is to change it into a better version of itself. Better meaning beneficial. Whereas what memes naturally do is become larger and more popular ideas until they are out competed by another meme.
You can’t kill a meme by turning conservative people liberal. All you can do is make people better conservatives and help them criticize and improve their own memes. Same way with religion and it’s been happening for millennia for most of them.
Looked it up and according to their claims (which we don’t have much other info on) they said that 70% needed manual review. And I’m saying AI here but really that’s the buzzword, there was a whole engineered system behind this that was automated to some degree. So yeah it wasn’t AI but it also wasn’t just people either.
From an engineering perspective they didn’t want to do this since it’s not just about AI tasks. If you go watch videos of it they have camera arrays and special shelf layouts and all sorts of stuff.
Not to mention the engineers probably wanted to be able to test it privately and without disrupting an actual store and community.
So it’s what I would’ve done as well frankly
Peoole aren’t appreciating just how bad these things are because they’re misinterpreting it. The goal of what they are doing here and with Amazon was never to just fake the technology right. The goal was to fake that the technology existed by using humans to do an automated thing and then to leverage that into making it actually automated.
But essentially what that means is theyre inventing technology that hasn’t been invented yet and selling it to you and the reason for doing so is to replace you with technology before it can even technically happen.
It’s essentially like someone building a new automated factory and telling workers at their other locations that they can’t be hired there since it’s automated but then someone goes inside and finds out they’re just using child laborers until the robots are ready and also robots haven’t been invented yet.
They’re using blood to grease wheels that don’t even exist to turn yet.
The manufacturing of rockets out of stainless steel also does not have much existing knowledge behind it. Nor does landing a rocket booster or first stage back on earth. Or staging a rocket this large and reusable.
What the engineers at SpaceX are pulling off on a regular basis is crazy. Having a reusable rocket system of this kind and size was unthinkable at many points in history. Just a shame their work gets overshadowed by a guy who takes all the credit while doing almost none of the work.
Good points and yes the rabbits at the farm are insanely hard for the very first encounters. It’s easily the hardest fights you’ll have in the entire first act.
I did appreciate the different types of dialog skills but really I think it could have been done better. Mostly because there are so many other skills to level into that by the time you’re done, you’ll probably have not even hit level 10 on your main weapon skills with some characters. I’d say you get about 2 skills that you can max out with each character and then 2 other skills you can half invest in by the end. And that’s out of close to 30 skills I think? So there’s just much more meaningful stuff to invest in.
IMO the way this should’ve been handled is through skills. So have a general speech stat that allows you to talk your way through difficult conversations and then either use items or actual skill points to get special outcomes using kiss/kick/smart ass. They also aren’t used the same amount it seems. Smart ass barely seems used in the second half of the game. Kick ass is used the moss, kiss ass somewhere in between. Just an odd choice of systems.
Good to hear. I’ve heard really great things about 3 so I’m excited to try it. Your points did bring up what I thought a lot about this game though. It feels like they had a lot of time for world building, dialog, and level design but just never put all that work to good use. Likely that was due to time and budget but what you get is a product spread too thin. Still fun but not enough meat on the bone to stay constantly engaged.
And yeah talking to people was fun with the voice actors doing a great job but I look forward to actually seeing their faces instead of a poorly rendered character portrait.
eh don’t write it off entirely, these things bothered me but I still think the game is decent especially for an old school RPG
Off the top I'll say that Wasteland 2 isn't a bad game, its actually quite good in a lot of ways. The ways in which it isn't though are what really end up hurting the game for me.
My main gripe is that this has the Bethesda style of choice impact where NPCs are hardly bothered by your choices and the world around you only meaningfully changes with a small handful of your choices. And when it does change, the thought put into those changes isn't all that impressive or meaningful.
The world mostly reacts to your changes by just changing NPC dialog and then there is a slideshow at the end. Thats it. So each time you leave a location you feel like your main contribution is just clearing it of enemies.
The other side gripe I have about it is that the story and characters aren't of particular interest. It has a couple good storytelling moments in it (that I won't spoil here for anyone interested) but otherwise I just can't say it pulled me in. I was initially interested after hearing the 3rd game got good reviews and this series is somewhat similar to fallout but I can still see why Fallout maintains its charm all these years later and Wasteland does not. You see glimpses of greatness with certain voices or ideas or plotlines but you are ultimately just edged by these stories and the payoff isn't really there.
This isn't just a space to complain though, I had a lot of fun with the combat and gore and other aspects of the game. They also feel light in a lot of ways but still are satisfying. I enjoyed my time here, looking forward to playing Wasteland 3.
So did anyone else play this or are interested in it? I'm curious if anyone shares these thoughts. Its a game I definitely feel like classic RPG fans will enjoy more than I did.
You realize that the US has nukes inside of the EU right?
Most likely the election for midterms will be rigged or rejected if it doesn’t go their way. Or it will be otherwise delayed. It doesn’t really matter, if they start to lose power faster they actually become more dangerous.
Yep but honestly I still don’t think the benefit matches what they spend. Especially true since they often match donations or make their own large donations.
And after all, if they’re helping money go to charity by advertising it to their customers, I’m fine with them getting a little benefit in return.
It decreases your tax burden in the same way that giving away all of your money to charity decreases your tax burden.
And in case people need it cleared up: Donating at a register during checkout also does not help the company on their taxes. Its the same as you donating individually except they get the PR for it.
I mean yes but I view this stuff as deeply unserious in the US politics.
If RFK actually cared he would ban high fructose corn syrup from food. Or implement a sugar/calorie ban. Or focus on incentivizing exercise in everyday life. Or limiting/taxing fast food. Or force portion regulations to be stricter, even banning certain portions of things like soda.
There are one million billion things the US government could do to improve health and they’re doing essentially nothing by going after something that (probably) impacts us very little in comparison with the entire rest of the industry.
Call it what it is: pandering. They know that this has broad general support so they get brownie points while doing very little to actually help us.
Yeah I’m not sure why I had so much trouble doing the controller combos but they would trigger fine sometimes and other times not at all. I just think doing combos with the movement stick is awkward in general because I have to move differently to activate them and can’t go where I want for a moment.
And yes the secondary attack for some weapons is very different, that is true but the game oddly doesn’t make much use of the bumpers so it would have been easy to do a combo button that way.
The way I would’ve done it probably is just to make the left stick a modifier button that made it to where you could do LT+A,B,X,Y combos to heal and what not. Holding LT+Left stick direction+attack would do the katana combos. And then just use RB for the alt fire button.
I think I share a lot of your thoughts and they apply pretty cleanly to my experience on hard difficulty as well. I can’t imagine insane difficulty just because as you said it’s like walking a marathon except the marathon is longer.
That and there are many many instances of damage in this game that are just basically impossible to avoid and deal way too much for group scenarios. Like yes I’m busy fighting 15 of the low level grunts but I took a third of my health in damage from some mob pounding on the ground out of my view.
Also maybe this is just a controller thing but the combos were infuriating to activate. Most of the time they would be ignored as inputs unless I was very deliberate and they never really flowed properly.
A bizarre decision was to use combos like moving the left stick right twice and left trigger to heal. Instead of just.. hold right on movement and press left trigger. That was only done because they needed two attack buttons for some reason even though holding the right trigger for a heavy attack would have worked just fine.
What’s even more funny is that the victory lap you asked for is in there. It’s just not a level, it’s the ramp up to the final boss area. And I recognized it for what it was and got pretty disappointed that I could only use the sword that this entire game has been working up to for like a total of 3 minutes on mobs. That’s insane and just plain bad design for an FPS like this. Now reflecting on it I’m not sure if I’d land at the 8 I initially said. I think it’s a 7 or maybe even a bit lower for me
What I noticed is that my favorite FPS in this genre really do a nice crescendo towards the end that the 2013 reboot game lacks.
I mean they do great on enemy variety. They need some tweaking on damage but otherwise fine. Gun play is mostly good to excellent. But what’s lacking is that thing where the arenas get more and more intense. Enemies are combined in various types to make each encounter play much differently.
Like how in the newer doom games you typically have units that snipe at your from range, ones that are highly mobile, others that can tank damage. So in higher level combat you’re just swapping weapons constantly to counter each different mob while also coming up with unique strategies for each arena.
The arenas here are mostly plain. You have almost no verticality in any arena. Your movement is beyond basic and stilted. And then when you finally get some bigger battles you realize that none of the mobs really mesh together well at all.
To put it bluntly it’s like the difference between Batman Arkham series games where each enemy makes you dance to kill them versus Skyrim fighting 50 NPCs. They don’t play off of each other, they’re all just constantly fighting for your attention versus a complex and rewarding dance. A good FPS game is mostly measured by how differently you need to approach each encounter and here it’s almost all one note unfortunately.
I think the idea of playing through the OG game is a good one, the one I played (2013) you might just play for about an hour or so and if it’s not really clicking with you at any point, you may just drop it is my advice. The game is alright enjoyable but it never evolves much until the very end so if it’s not your thing, don’t force yourself to play it
So I just finished Shadow Warrior (2013) and I wasn’t blown away by it but I had a decent time. I always like hearing about experiences that people had with the game when it first came out and whether or not a modern perspective paints it differently.
To summarize what I thought: The writing is humorous, but not outright funny to me. The graphics hold up very well and the gore is great. Combat is mostly pretty good. Some enemies are annoying or overly difficult on the hard difficulty but overall it’s pretty good.
I did think it was modeled to be kind of akin to a Serious Sam type game and it lives up to that but similar to that game, many of the weapons/enemies/levels overstay their welcome a bit. Other than that I had a pretty good time with it, thought it was an 8/10 fun time.
What’s everyone’s story with this game series? When did you first play it and what did you think about it?
I don't think the game is all that good or fun(personally).
I'm a pretty seasoned SoulsBorne player playing all of the games aside from Elden Ring. I've only had trouble on two of the bosses so far. But my big issue is I'm just not having a good time like with the other games and I'm almost done with it.
I know the combat is much faster paced which I appreciate but its also very dull. Its the same Dark Souls combat with most of the creativity removed and a looooot of parrying. And the parrying isn't even rewarding, it makes it like a rhythm game.
Problem with it being a rhythm game though is that I expect to know when I need to parry but the timings are all over the place. I also just don't think the enemies are all that different to fight, most of them are the exact same in this game just different timings or tells.
I mean I see the reviews, everyone loves this game and I loved all the other games but is it just the fast paced combat and grappling hook that helps it? Having a visible story is nice so far too I suppose.
I'm just curious if other people do or don't like it and why or why not.
I really enjoyed the Witcher 3 so I thought I would go back and play the first two games even though some people seemed to have mixed opinions on what they think of them both. Then after playing the first two games my partner got interested in W3 so we then played through that together. I feel like now I have some good perspective to offer on the whole series and what people should do if they really enjoyed 3 but haven't gone back.
Witcher 1
spoiler
I think the biggest thing scaring people off of this game is that it is very old now and operates almost entirely with the mouse. Coming into it, I thought this would be a big deal but actually the gameplay is very simple and has aged really well for how old this game is. You should obviously be played the updated enhanced edition by the way, it really cleans up a lot of the old feel from what I could tell.
The combat is a bit clunky but if you've ever played an MMO or similar point and click combat system, its not hard. Using the mouse you can time out combos and parry but thats about it, its not very complex.
The world and story are pretty basic and again I would equate it to the light type of storytelling done in MMOs around the 2010s. If you really didn't want to engage with the combat, the game could be enjoyed through a cutscene movie and you wouldn't miss much. The characters don't have long conversations like in games since then and their personalities are somewhat lacking in depth. Also the levels are small so you really aren't missing much exploration here.
So my ultimate advice is that you will know if you like playing this game in the first hour or if you enjoy some dated MMO style games. The writing is decent and humorous as well so at the very least watch someone else play it.
Witcher 2
spoiler
I have very mixed opinions on this game and I actually didn't like it as much as the first. It definitely felt like a much shorter game but it still looks great and feels really decent to play. Switching to a stick controlled 3rd person action game is a hard thing to nail the first time and CDPR did a good job with that. Geralt controls well especially for the time period in gaming we're talking about (early 2010s).
My main gripe would probably be the writing as the entire premise of the game and how it starts is just.. kind of stupid? At least how its depicted in the game it is.
StorySpoiler
Geralt having very little suspicion of a man in a cloak with his face covered and also walking away from the king and also being the only other person in the room for this exchange is just.. not believable. And somehow Geralt is able to remember important details and people from his past but for whatever reason his entire time working with the main villain is blanked.
spoiler
Aside from just the bad starting premise, I can't really say that the story ever hooked me or kept me all that intrigued. The locations are done a lot better and the characters are much better developed though so that is a big complement. Still the levels are pretty small and you'll spend a lot of time pacing back and forth in them. Also the humor is almost entirely removed from dialog for some reason, so it makes the writing very dry in my opinion.
Would I recommend this? Yeah I probably would. If you enjoyed the third game you'll probably enjoy this as the combat is very similar and decently well done and the characters are there that you will recognize. This game provides far more backstory for the third game than the first game does so yeah I'd recommend it.
Witcher 3
spoiler
This isn't a break down of the witcher 3 but playing through it after the first two gave me a lot more appreciation for it and for where CDPR was coming from. I really enjoyed how it blended the writing style of the first and second game while also fixing a lot of the missteps from the second game. Also the DLC for this game just has such good writing and I'd almost recommend them over the second game.
Hopefully that helps some people out if you were on the fence about trying either one of them. They are much shorter than W3 so giving them a go is not the same type of undertaking, I'd recommend both of them if you fit the demographic. Playing these also made me a lot more excited to play Cyberpunk 2077 and the upcoming Witcher release for 2025/26. These games are also probably a good idea to play ahead of the remaster of the Witcher 1.
Thanks for reading and let me know if you've played these and what you think or if you want play these in the future!
I just wrapped up on playing the iOS version of Professor Layton: The Curious Village (HD) and let me just say, it was an experience I wasn’t expecting. I’m curious how other people think about these games.
My overall impression was that the game is really well animated and stylized, the music is really well done and relaxing, and the story is (in my opinion) mostly just fine until the end where things close out on a very sweet and touching note. The controls are also surprisingly good for being a DS touchscreen port.
As for the puzzles, there’s really good variety here and the hint system makes sure that you never get stuck unless you want to be. They’re basic puzzles for the most part but I’d say your average adult is still going to take 5-10 minutes on harder puzzles and 15-20 minutes on just a few of them. Some of them are looking for obscure solutions or are worded wrong, not a big deal but noticeable.
If you like brain teasers or logic puzzles and you want a good mobile game that’s easy to pick up and put down, this is really good and it’s worth the $10 or so. I got about 8 hours out of it (so says my save file), so I’d say that was money well spent.
Let me know if you played these games on the DS and how the other ones in the series are!
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/20867322
> This is a long post about the various aspects of Fallout, don't read it all unless you care to. Instead, find a section and comment on that so we can have a focused discussion if you prefer. > > ## Summary > I modded the ever loving crap out of Fallout 4 with minimal effort using the A Story Wealth mod pack . My reasoning was that on my first play through I found the world empty but I mainly enjoy stories and quests, which this modpack seemed to do. Also I didn't have time to spend modding and didn't want to get lost in that hellhole of doing it myself. This play through was long, about 150 hours (yikes) which is probably all the fallout I'll need for many years to come. I also used an addon to the modpack to make the game extremely difficult with healing items. More on that later. > > ## Mods > The mods here are really quite varied and I was surprised at how coherent they are. With Skyrim modding, I always felt that the mods are somewhat disjointed and it takes skilled modders to stitch together. Here in FO4 its impressive how stable the pack was and how well the quests worked together. The most standout mod by far is The Fens Sheriff Department which adds hours of story, actually interesting quests, and in my opinion content miles better than Bethesda's own content. It was worth coming back just for that alone. > > ## Story > ::: spoiler spoiler > After seeing what mods have done, I have no good words to say about FO4 in terms of story. The entire plot revolves around you getting your son back and its all in service of setting up the surprise that he isn't a child anymore. Its predictable, boring, etc. All of the factions are uninteresting. Minutemen are nobodies and their story is minimalist. So is the Railroad. The Brotherhood of Steel are cool in concept but can't back up their grit at all and end up being too friendly with zero depth to them as well. The Institute makes an attempt at depth but geez, its barely deeper than a puddle. I chose to end the game with the Fens Sheriff Department and it ended up being way more interesting despite the muted ending to their plot. If you're playing this game for story, don't. > ::: > > ## Graphics > I'll spend little time here, I didn't spend any time beautifying the game at all but it looks surprisingly good at times. But at other times, the engine is terrible. The way it handles LOD stuff is awful and graphical glitches and clipping are extremely common. And yet, I do enjoy the aesthetic. The art is charming as ever and my main and only complaint is that the wasteland itself is very one-note and could've used some changes. > > ## Engine > Take it out back and kill it. I won't blame the vanilla game entirely but mods didn't contribute to the instability of the game much. It has always been rough. In the city, due to a lack of proper culling you will get half your FPS or worse. My rig is very well equipped and still struggled to maintain 30-40fps in the cities. Then add in the few quest bugs that I had (mostly vanilla quests too) and the large amount of physics and items bugs and this really feels barely glued together in ways mods can't fix. This engine needs to be worked on. A lot. > > ## Characters/Followers > I'll be honest, I'm not a huge fan of Fallout 4's followers. Dogmeat is great but the interaction is minimal and Nick Valentine is easily the best in my opinion. He's one of the few with a great set of dialog that actually makes use of the setting and feels grounded. Everyone else could almost belong in a different game. As with the story, a lot of the characters are poorly written and have lackluster dialog. The DLCs fix this but the main game struggles big time to ground everyone properly. I played the entire game with Heather Casdin and that was a real treat. She is what every follower could have been and provides really unique story commentary and relationship moments. It actually feels like you get to know her well instead of her just spouting backstory at you constantly. Bethesda take notes. > > ## Locations > One of the better noted parts of Fallout 4 and Skyrim are the random locations and storytelling within them. Only problem is, FO4 doesn't reward you often enough with location exploration beyond loot and thats not what people play fallout for in the first place. Its a mixed back here, some of the locations are very well done and are 10/10 settings where others are bland as mayo and waste your time. > > ## Settlements > As intrigued as I initially was a long time ago at launch with them, the settlement system really brings the game down. Its impressive, don't get me wrong but it eats up way too much of your time to configure and there isn't any real point in setting them up. Sim Settlements helps with this but it still misses the mark in my opinion. I hope this system returns but very diminished in terms of tedium. > > ## Gameplay > Guns feel good, fights are great. The mods all enhance that by giving the high stakes gunfights I really enjoy. Yet the game still became too easy despite me playing on survival. Needs just became annoying distractions. And being overencombered is just... awful. Especially with scrap being a thing and I hate scrap honestly. The scrap is a cool idea but has you doing the even more annoying part of Bethesda games, looking in every nook and cranny for a desk fan or box car. Its stupid and it takes you out of the game completely. I think this could have been fine if they toned it down, not every item needs to be able to be used like this. > > ## DLC > This was the highlight of my time because I had never played the DLC, I couldn't afford it back when this launched. Far Harbor blew me away with how cool it was and just really showed what parts of the base game were missing. The moral grays presented here were fun to work through and the quests unique. I wish Far Harbor was its own game almost. Nuka world feels more like a lightweight DLC but still shows that Bethesda can write decent stuff and have decent art when they try. I have no idea why the quality of these DLCs is so high when the rest of the game is kind of bland compared to FO3 or New Vegas. > > ## The Takeaways > I hope Bethesda gets their act together because FO4 was a pretty decent game. Not perfect but also very dated. Quests are mostly bland and are often fetch quests or don't reward you with much dialog or story. And the mods just show how easy it would be to get this stuff right the first time. The lack of grit to the story is something that really sucks in my opinion. Its not a game for kids clearly, there is blood and guts and mutants abound. So why don't any of the major characters die? Why don't they meet horrible ends? Why not have your son meet a horrible demise if you make the wrong choices? The only time any of that happens is the end of the game. Far too little far too late. The game just has absolutely no stakes to it, no impact. At least in Skyrim the Civil War shakes things up. Thats what I really wanted from this game is to feel like my actions were doing something and the mods really helped with that. > > If you made it through this wall of text, I appreciate it. I spent way too long on this but I felt like telling someone about my experiences. Don't get me wrong, I had a lot of fun with this game but by the end I was exhausted of Fallout 4's short comings. Let me know what you think!
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/20867322
> This is a long post about the various aspects of Fallout, don't read it all unless you care to. Instead, find a section and comment on that so we can have a focused discussion if you prefer. > > ## Summary > I modded the ever loving crap out of Fallout 4 with minimal effort using the A Story Wealth mod pack . My reasoning was that on my first play through I found the world empty but I mainly enjoy stories and quests, which this modpack seemed to do. Also I didn't have time to spend modding and didn't want to get lost in that hellhole of doing it myself. This play through was long, about 150 hours (yikes) which is probably all the fallout I'll need for many years to come. I also used an addon to the modpack to make the game extremely difficult with healing items. More on that later. > > ## Mods > The mods here are really quite varied and I was surprised at how coherent they are. With Skyrim modding, I always felt that the mods are somewhat disjointed and it takes skilled modders to stitch together. Here in FO4 its impressive how stable the pack was and how well the quests worked together. The most standout mod by far is The Fens Sheriff Department which adds hours of story, actually interesting quests, and in my opinion content miles better than Bethesda's own content. It was worth coming back just for that alone. > > ## Story > ::: spoiler spoiler > After seeing what mods have done, I have no good words to say about FO4 in terms of story. The entire plot revolves around you getting your son back and its all in service of setting up the surprise that he isn't a child anymore. Its predictable, boring, etc. All of the factions are uninteresting. Minutemen are nobodies and their story is minimalist. So is the Railroad. The Brotherhood of Steel are cool in concept but can't back up their grit at all and end up being too friendly with zero depth to them as well. The Institute makes an attempt at depth but geez, its barely deeper than a puddle. I chose to end the game with the Fens Sheriff Department and it ended up being way more interesting despite the muted ending to their plot. If you're playing this game for story, don't. > ::: > > ## Graphics > I'll spend little time here, I didn't spend any time beautifying the game at all but it looks surprisingly good at times. But at other times, the engine is terrible. The way it handles LOD stuff is awful and graphical glitches and clipping are extremely common. And yet, I do enjoy the aesthetic. The art is charming as ever and my main and only complaint is that the wasteland itself is very one-note and could've used some changes. > > ## Engine > Take it out back and kill it. I won't blame the vanilla game entirely but mods didn't contribute to the instability of the game much. It has always been rough. In the city, due to a lack of proper culling you will get half your FPS or worse. My rig is very well equipped and still struggled to maintain 30-40fps in the cities. Then add in the few quest bugs that I had (mostly vanilla quests too) and the large amount of physics and items bugs and this really feels barely glued together in ways mods can't fix. This engine needs to be worked on. A lot. > > ## Characters/Followers > I'll be honest, I'm not a huge fan of Fallout 4's followers. Dogmeat is great but the interaction is minimal and Nick Valentine is easily the best in my opinion. He's one of the few with a great set of dialog that actually makes use of the setting and feels grounded. Everyone else could almost belong in a different game. As with the story, a lot of the characters are poorly written and have lackluster dialog. The DLCs fix this but the main game struggles big time to ground everyone properly. I played the entire game with Heather Casdin and that was a real treat. She is what every follower could have been and provides really unique story commentary and relationship moments. It actually feels like you get to know her well instead of her just spouting backstory at you constantly. Bethesda take notes. > > ## Locations > One of the better noted parts of Fallout 4 and Skyrim are the random locations and storytelling within them. Only problem is, FO4 doesn't reward you often enough with location exploration beyond loot and thats not what people play fallout for in the first place. Its a mixed back here, some of the locations are very well done and are 10/10 settings where others are bland as mayo and waste your time. > > ## Settlements > As intrigued as I initially was a long time ago at launch with them, the settlement system really brings the game down. Its impressive, don't get me wrong but it eats up way too much of your time to configure and there isn't any real point in setting them up. Sim Settlements helps with this but it still misses the mark in my opinion. I hope this system returns but very diminished in terms of tedium. > > ## Gameplay > Guns feel good, fights are great. The mods all enhance that by giving the high stakes gunfights I really enjoy. Yet the game still became too easy despite me playing on survival. Needs just became annoying distractions. And being overencombered is just... awful. Especially with scrap being a thing and I hate scrap honestly. The scrap is a cool idea but has you doing the even more annoying part of Bethesda games, looking in every nook and cranny for a desk fan or box car. Its stupid and it takes you out of the game completely. I think this could have been fine if they toned it down, not every item needs to be able to be used like this. > > ## DLC > This was the highlight of my time because I had never played the DLC, I couldn't afford it back when this launched. Far Harbor blew me away with how cool it was and just really showed what parts of the base game were missing. The moral grays presented here were fun to work through and the quests unique. I wish Far Harbor was its own game almost. Nuka world feels more like a lightweight DLC but still shows that Bethesda can write decent stuff and have decent art when they try. I have no idea why the quality of these DLCs is so high when the rest of the game is kind of bland compared to FO3 or New Vegas. > > ## The Takeaways > I hope Bethesda gets their act together because FO4 was a pretty decent game. Not perfect but also very dated. Quests are mostly bland and are often fetch quests or don't reward you with much dialog or story. And the mods just show how easy it would be to get this stuff right the first time. The lack of grit to the story is something that really sucks in my opinion. Its not a game for kids clearly, there is blood and guts and mutants abound. So why don't any of the major characters die? Why don't they meet horrible ends? Why not have your son meet a horrible demise if you make the wrong choices? The only time any of that happens is the end of the game. Far too little far too late. The game just has absolutely no stakes to it, no impact. At least in Skyrim the Civil War shakes things up. Thats what I really wanted from this game is to feel like my actions were doing something and the mods really helped with that. > > If you made it through this wall of text, I appreciate it. I spent way too long on this but I felt like telling someone about my experiences. Don't get me wrong, I had a lot of fun with this game but by the end I was exhausted of Fallout 4's short comings. Let me know what you think!
This is a long post about the various aspects of Fallout, don't read it all unless you care to. Instead, find a section and comment on that so we can have a focused discussion if you prefer.
Summary
I modded the ever loving crap out of Fallout 4 with minimal effort using the A Story Wealth mod pack . My reasoning was that on my first play through I found the world empty but I mainly enjoy stories and quests, which this modpack seemed to do. Also I didn't have time to spend modding and didn't want to get lost in that hellhole of doing it myself. This play through was long, about 150 hours (yikes) which is probably all the fallout I'll need for many years to come. I also used an addon to the modpack to make the game extremely difficult with healing items. More on that later.
Mods
The mods here are really quite varied and I was surprised at how coherent they are. With Skyrim modding, I always felt that the mods are somewhat disjointed and it takes skilled modders to stitch together. Here in FO4 its impressive how stable the pack was and how well the quests worked together. The most standout mod by far is The Fens Sheriff Department which adds hours of story, actually interesting quests, and in my opinion content miles better than Bethesda's own content. It was worth coming back just for that alone.
Story
spoiler
After seeing what mods have done, I have no good words to say about FO4 in terms of story. The entire plot revolves around you getting your son back and its all in service of setting up the surprise that he isn't a child anymore. Its predictable, boring, etc. All of the factions are uninteresting. Minutemen are nobodies and their story is minimalist. So is the Railroad. The Brotherhood of Steel are cool in concept but can't back up their grit at all and end up being too friendly with zero depth to them as well. The Institute makes an attempt at depth but geez, its barely deeper than a puddle. I chose to end the game with the Fens Sheriff Department and it ended up being way more interesting despite the muted ending to their plot. If you're playing this game for story, don't.
Graphics
I'll spend little time here, I didn't spend any time beautifying the game at all but it looks surprisingly good at times. But at other times, the engine is terrible. The way it handles LOD stuff is awful and graphical glitches and clipping are extremely common. And yet, I do enjoy the aesthetic. The art is charming as ever and my main and only complaint is that the wasteland itself is very one-note and could've used some changes.
Engine
Take it out back and kill it. I won't blame the vanilla game entirely but mods didn't contribute to the instability of the game much. It has always been rough. In the city, due to a lack of proper culling you will get half your FPS or worse. My rig is very well equipped and still struggled to maintain 30-40fps in the cities. Then add in the few quest bugs that I had (mostly vanilla quests too) and the large amount of physics and items bugs and this really feels barely glued together in ways mods can't fix. This engine needs to be worked on. A lot.
Characters/Followers
I'll be honest, I'm not a huge fan of Fallout 4's followers. Dogmeat is great but the interaction is minimal and Nick Valentine is easily the best in my opinion. He's one of the few with a great set of dialog that actually makes use of the setting and feels grounded. Everyone else could almost belong in a different game. As with the story, a lot of the characters are poorly written and have lackluster dialog. The DLCs fix this but the main game struggles big time to ground everyone properly. I played the entire game with Heather Casdin and that was a real treat. She is what every follower could have been and provides really unique story commentary and relationship moments. It actually feels like you get to know her well instead of her just spouting backstory at you constantly. Bethesda take notes.
Locations
One of the better noted parts of Fallout 4 and Skyrim are the random locations and storytelling within them. Only problem is, FO4 doesn't reward you often enough with location exploration beyond loot and thats not what people play fallout for in the first place. Its a mixed back here, some of the locations are very well done and are 10/10 settings where others are bland as mayo and waste your time.
Settlements
As intrigued as I initially was a long time ago at launch with them, the settlement system really brings the game down. Its impressive, don't get me wrong but it eats up way too much of your time to configure and there isn't any real point in setting them up. Sim Settlements helps with this but it still misses the mark in my opinion. I hope this system returns but very diminished in terms of tedium.
Gameplay
Guns feel good, fights are great. The mods all enhance that by giving the high stakes gunfights I really enjoy. Yet the game still became too easy despite me playing on survival. Needs just became annoying distractions. And being overencombered is just... awful. Especially with scrap being a thing and I hate scrap honestly. The scrap is a cool idea but has you doing the even more annoying part of Bethesda games, looking in every nook and cranny for a desk fan or box car. Its stupid and it takes you out of the game completely. I think this could have been fine if they toned it down, not every item needs to be able to be used like this.
DLC
This was the highlight of my time because I had never played the DLC, I couldn't afford it back when this launched. Far Harbor blew me away with how cool it was and just really showed what parts of the base game were missing. The moral grays presented here were fun to work through and the quests unique. I wish Far Harbor was its own game almost. Nuka world feels more like a lightweight DLC but still shows that Bethesda can write decent stuff and have decent art when they try. I have no idea why the quality of these DLCs is so high when the rest of the game is kind of bland compared to FO3 or New Vegas.
The Takeaways
I hope Bethesda gets their act together because FO4 was a pretty decent game. Not perfect but also very dated. Quests are mostly bland and are often fetch quests or don't reward you with much dialog or story. And the mods just show how easy it would be to get this stuff right the first time. The lack of grit to the story is something that really sucks in my opinion. Its not a game for kids clearly, there is blood and guts and mutants abound. So why don't any of the major characters die? Why don't they meet horrible ends? Why not have your son meet a horrible demise if you make the wrong choices? The only time any of that happens is the end of the game. Far too little far too late. The game just has absolutely no stakes to it, no impact. At least in Skyrim the Civil War shakes things up. Thats what I really wanted from this game is to feel like my actions were doing something and the mods really helped with that.
If you made it through this wall of text, I appreciate it. I spent way too long on this but I felt like telling someone about my experiences. Don't get me wrong, I had a lot of fun with this game but by the end I was exhausted of Fallout 4's short comings. Let me know what you think!
Seems like my VPN has been targeted for blocking by this instance which I appreciate is a security thing and prevents BS accounts from taking over the platform.
However I hold a dedicated IP with said VPN, so is it possible to unblock just my dedicated IP?
Noticed this update got pushed just now.
Edit: Seems they’re doing this to prevent costs from arbitration. Read comment below.
Noticed this just moments ago and got this email. At first seeing this I thought that were forcing users into arbitration like many other companies have trended towards. That and the denial of class action suits included in many ToS agreements take away the users rights.
This is a promising move from Steam from a layman’s perspective. I’m surprised this has happened considering Valve did not need to do this and it protects them legally from their users.
Edit: Seems like this is being done because of ongoing lawsuits with Valve so they did in fact need to do this, still possibly a win for consumers.
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/18115420
> TL;DR This is a review of both Turnip Boy indie games. The first is a sort of classic Zelda clone, the second is a rogue-lite twin stick shooter. Both are short to play and I recommend them but especially the second game. > > # Tax Evasion Persuasion > The last thing I ever want my veggies doing is paying unjust taxes. The good news is that Turnip Boy does not want to. The first game of these two is one that I played months back and I ended up having a really good time with it. This game is obviously based on some of the older adventure games, particularly older Zelda games, and so you should expect that coming in. It mostly consists of doing small quests for people but the game never gets too elaborate and does not have a huge map making it too complex. > > ## What even is a joke game? > I'll bring this up again later but this game is very lighthearted and most of the mechanics here are in service to the comedy and joking nature of the game and its characters. If you've ever played a game that does this, you'll know already that this tends to polarize the game into being either way too focused on the joke to the detriment of the gameplay, or it ends up with the gameplay being passable but the joke falling flat on its face. I'm happy to report that this game does neither of those things and balanced it pretty well, though not to my full satisfaction. > > ## If only the Triforce was cantaloupe > In totality, the first game is a nice and tidy adventure with a decent amount of fun and jokes and with just enough depth to sell the fun of the game without over complicating it or dragging it on for too long. You can beat this in just a couple of sittings and if "Classic Zelda joke game" sounds like a good time to you, go play it! > > # He's not done squashing yet > To move on to the second game, Turnip Boy Robs a Bank, this is where I had most of my fun. The game becomes a twin stick shooter on just one map where you break into a bank, take as much cash as you can, leave, and repeat until you've found and defeated all of the bosses and done as many quests as you have desire for. Unlike other rogue-lite games, this one is very approachable and not having a procedurally generated levels means that you get to know where you're going over time. The jokes are also better though the story is lighter here. All of that exists in the shadow of the gunplay though, the weapons here are the real highlight. The first game I didn't really find much challenge at all with, the actual gameplay was almost more about questing than its bosses. Here though, you have some decent boss fights and enemies, very fun mechanics. > > ## Theres a few donut sized holes > The main criticisms here are that despite the mechanics being deeper: There is a gun locker that is almost pointless, the upgrades don't feel balanced, the gun trade in system is not worth utilizing, and the different areas do not do money scaling very well. > > A good example is that you have items that cost 10k and you're working towards upgrades that cost 25k. You could buy the upgrades, but it is pointless because the progression item at 10k unlocks and area that lets you get a trophy for 100k with almost no effort. I think that the treasures on the pedestals needed to be scaled better, they kind of undermine the whole game. > > ## This summary is a pickle, or just a vinegar cucumber > Both of these games are worth playing for entirely separate reasons and both will take you no more than 5 hours to beat, I'd estimate 3-4 for most people. They're short but in a very good way and a nice refresher from a long RPG playthrough. As good as these games are though, they don't survive without their specific brand of humor. One is a very short and simple adventure game, the other is a short and simple rogue-lite. I really hope that the developer feels they are able to make a longer game if they feel like doing so because I'd like to see how they could make these mechanics work without just using them as a backdrop to cheeky dialog. > > But that's it, I hope that you go play one or both of these games if you have time. Both of these are also simple enough that they'd be welcoming to newcomers to their genres. > > People who have played these games, feel free to throw in what you like and didn't like below. Thanks for reading and let me know what you think!
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/18115420
> TL;DR This is a review of both Turnip Boy indie games. The first is a sort of classic Zelda clone, the second is a rogue-lite twin stick shooter. Both are short to play and I recommend them but especially the second game. > > # Tax Evasion Persuasion > The last thing I ever want my veggies doing is paying unjust taxes. The good news is that Turnip Boy does not want to. The first game of these two is one that I played months back and I ended up having a really good time with it. This game is obviously based on some of the older adventure games, particularly older Zelda games, and so you should expect that coming in. It mostly consists of doing small quests for people but the game never gets too elaborate and does not have a huge map making it too complex. > > ## What even is a joke game? > I'll bring this up again later but this game is very lighthearted and most of the mechanics here are in service to the comedy and joking nature of the game and its characters. If you've ever played a game that does this, you'll know already that this tends to polarize the game into being either way too focused on the joke to the detriment of the gameplay, or it ends up with the gameplay being passable but the joke falling flat on its face. I'm happy to report that this game does neither of those things and balanced it pretty well, though not to my full satisfaction. > > ## If only the Triforce was cantaloupe > In totality, the first game is a nice and tidy adventure with a decent amount of fun and jokes and with just enough depth to sell the fun of the game without over complicating it or dragging it on for too long. You can beat this in just a couple of sittings and if "Classic Zelda joke game" sounds like a good time to you, go play it! > > # He's not done squashing yet > To move on to the second game, Turnip Boy Robs a Bank, this is where I had most of my fun. The game becomes a twin stick shooter on just one map where you break into a bank, take as much cash as you can, leave, and repeat until you've found and defeated all of the bosses and done as many quests as you have desire for. Unlike other rogue-lite games, this one is very approachable and not having a procedurally generated levels means that you get to know where you're going over time. The jokes are also better though the story is lighter here. All of that exists in the shadow of the gunplay though, the weapons here are the real highlight. The first game I didn't really find much challenge at all with, the actual gameplay was almost more about questing than its bosses. Here though, you have some decent boss fights and enemies, very fun mechanics. > > ## Theres a few donut sized holes > The main criticisms here are that despite the mechanics being deeper: There is a gun locker that is almost pointless, the upgrades don't feel balanced, the gun trade in system is not worth utilizing, and the different areas do not do money scaling very well. > > A good example is that you have items that cost 10k and you're working towards upgrades that cost 25k. You could buy the upgrades, but it is pointless because the progression item at 10k unlocks and area that lets you get a trophy for 100k with almost no effort. I think that the treasures on the pedestals needed to be scaled better, they kind of undermine the whole game. > > ## This summary is a pickle, or just a vinegar cucumber > Both of these games are worth playing for entirely separate reasons and both will take you no more than 5 hours to beat, I'd estimate 3-4 for most people. They're short but in a very good way and a nice refresher from a long RPG playthrough. As good as these games are though, they don't survive without their specific brand of humor. One is a very short and simple adventure game, the other is a short and simple rogue-lite. I really hope that the developer feels they are able to make a longer game if they feel like doing so because I'd like to see how they could make these mechanics work without just using them as a backdrop to cheeky dialog. > > But that's it, I hope that you go play one or both of these games if you have time. Both of these are also simple enough that they'd be welcoming to newcomers to their genres. > > People who have played these games, feel free to throw in what you like and didn't like below. Thanks for reading and let me know what you think!
TL;DR This is a review of both Turnip Boy indie games. The first is a sort of classic Zelda clone, the second is a rogue-lite twin stick shooter. Both are short to play and I recommend them but especially the second game.
Tax Evasion Persuasion
The last thing I ever want my veggies doing is paying unjust taxes. The good news is that Turnip Boy does not want to. The first game of these two is one that I played months back and I ended up having a really good time with it. This game is obviously based on some of the older adventure games, particularly older Zelda games, and so you should expect that coming in. It mostly consists of doing small quests for people but the game never gets too elaborate and does not have a huge map making it too complex.
What even is a joke game?
I'll bring this up again later but this game is very lighthearted and most of the mechanics here are in service to the comedy and joking nature of the game and its characters. If you've ever played a game that does this, you'll know already that this tends to polarize the game into being either way too focused on the joke to the detriment of the gameplay, or it ends up with the gameplay being passable but the joke falling flat on its face. I'm happy to report that this game does neither of those things and balanced it pretty well, though not to my full satisfaction.
If only the Triforce was cantaloupe
In totality, the first game is a nice and tidy adventure with a decent amount of fun and jokes and with just enough depth to sell the fun of the game without over complicating it or dragging it on for too long. You can beat this in just a couple of sittings and if "Classic Zelda joke game" sounds like a good time to you, go play it!
He's not done squashing yet
To move on to the second game, Turnip Boy Robs a Bank, this is where I had most of my fun. The game becomes a twin stick shooter on just one map where you break into a bank, take as much cash as you can, leave, and repeat until you've found and defeated all of the bosses and done as many quests as you have desire for. Unlike other rogue-lite games, this one is very approachable and not having a procedurally generated levels means that you get to know where you're going over time. The jokes are also better though the story is lighter here. All of that exists in the shadow of the gunplay though, the weapons here are the real highlight. The first game I didn't really find much challenge at all with, the actual gameplay was almost more about questing than its bosses. Here though, you have some decent boss fights and enemies, very fun mechanics.
Theres a few donut sized holes
The main criticisms here are that despite the mechanics being deeper: There is a gun locker that is almost pointless, the upgrades don't feel balanced, the gun trade in system is not worth utilizing, and the different areas do not do money scaling very well.
A good example is that you have items that cost 10k and you're working towards upgrades that cost 25k. You could buy the upgrades, but it is pointless because the progression item at 10k unlocks and area that lets you get a trophy for 100k with almost no effort. I think that the treasures on the pedestals needed to be scaled better, they kind of undermine the whole game.
This summary is a pickle, or just a vinegar cucumber
Both of these games are worth playing for entirely separate reasons and both will take you no more than 5 hours to beat, I'd estimate 3-4 for most people. They're short but in a very good way and a nice refresher from a long RPG playthrough. As good as these games are though, they don't survive without their specific brand of humor. One is a very short and simple adventure game, the other is a short and simple rogue-lite. I really hope that the developer feels they are able to make a longer game if they feel like doing so because I'd like to see how they could make these mechanics work without just using them as a backdrop to cheeky dialog.
But that's it, I hope that you go play one or both of these games if you have time. Both of these are also simple enough that they'd be welcoming to newcomers to their genres.
People who have played these games, feel free to throw in what you like and didn't like below. Thanks for reading and let me know what you think!
I’m not going to do a detailed write up on this but I’ve always heard that The Force Unleashed was a really good set of Star Wars games that are still worth playing today, if not for the game at least for the story. That wasn’t my experience at all.
This is just my opinion and experience but the first game is awful to play in 2024. Most of your abilities miss the target every time. Picking up objects with the force has a 50% chance of picking up the wrong thing, sometimes from way off screen and often missing stuff in the foreground. Throwing them is also incredibly inaccurate, often times you’ll just throw things at walls or the sky. The combat isn’t balanced whatsoever and it’s basically unplayable at higher difficulties.
Your force grab and throw abilities make most enemies pointless and your light saber does surprisingly little damage even with upgrades. Far better to just bounce people off the wall. Then what’s worse is later on they introduce shields that stop you from using the force on some enemies. They do pretty much the same but with the lightsaber getting blocked. Rather than encouraging variety, they just leave a giant hole in the combat. It’s dreadful. The mechs are also ridiculous to engage and can’t be engaged in melee should they stomp you to death. The even worser part is, the story is 6/10 interesting and the boss battles are a mess.
Then the second game, oh boy. On PC it’s almost entirely broken. It crashes and most of the cutscenes don’t play unless you patch the game (I did) and even then, crashes happen often. I had about 10 over just 4-5 hours. Textures also glitch and slowdown is frequent. I played both games with a 60fps patch (necessary imo) and the performance issues exited with or without that patch. Awful.
The good news is the second game has a decent story and surprising visuals. The combat is much improved and a lot more balanced honestly. It’s just that the gameplay is incredibly dated. The whole game is mostly just go to room, door is locked, enemies appear, you kill them, door unlocks, repeat until boss fight. There’s also platforming here which is.. bad. Inaccurate controls and imprecise movement makes that hell. So the second game is much better even with the issues, but I still barely had fun with it.
Seems to me like these games rode by on the gimmick of the dark side and extreme power. In their time, both games were pretty good. All of my friends seemed to like them. But in this year? I don’t think there’s any reason to play the first, and only novelty in the second. Just watch the cutscenes are movies.
I’m sure many people have nostalgia for this though. These games used to be more unique and the story was unusual for the time. Sadly we aren’t likely to see a continuation and finish to this series. Thoughts?
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/16914590
> # What’s the rush? > > Hi-Fi Rush is a rhythm based third-person melee combat game that rewards you by landing your hits on the beat. From a list of flowing combos comes a catchy beat, skilled moves, and rocking visual effects. This is a masterpiece of a game and its stylistic characters banter in hilarious ways, its world comes together to feel alive, and its art style just never stops hitting those notes. If you want to know about the hype, let’s get into it. > > ## Music make you lose control > > This is what keeps the game together in a rhythm-based fighter, it’s the peanut butter that glues the bread into a sandwich. The music is phenomenal, I just need you to listen to it.This is what I’m talkin’ about. What’s missing from this though is the kicking beat that you make with your moves as you play. The game rewards you as you hit your combos by adding to the soundtrack, and it all works so so so well. > > ## Never stop fighting, rockstar > > Combat is the actual bread that makes our sandwich and this is what you spend most of the game doing. Each time you get locked in an arena, it’s intense and thrilling as you dodge enemy attacks, time your parries, and plan out elaborate combos to maximize your score. > > I can’t emphasize this enough though: you can be bad at this and still have an incredible amount of fun. I’ve always stayed away from games like DMC that require you learn combos but the list here is roughly 20 moves long at most and you learn them intuitively as you experiment. > > ## Enemies have legs or wheels or fire or.. > > One of the highlights of this game is the enemy design. Each enemy is distinct and it’s rare to see a game have this many types without feeling repetitive or copied. We’re talking shields, robo-bikes, owls, fire using boxer robots, samurai, fire owls?!, and many many more. Each feeling unique and requiring a different approach and more importantly, blending fantastically. The enemy variety in each arena gets really creative by the end and you really never stop adapting. > > ## Art so good, it gave me nostalgia > > That’s serious by the way, I got nostalgia for this game thinking about how amazing the art is. It feels like it’s from a past era and yet I also can’t think of anything like it. It’s so stylized but also never gets in the way of the gameplay. It will constantly add to your experience and honestly it’s just perfect, I need the merch. > > ## Video game stories are bad, this isn’t > > What you’ll notice about this story is that it’s both very simple and very effective. A good mark of storytelling is sometimes how complex a story can be while still having you follow along, this isn’t that. Instead it’s so good that the story is very simple and yet keeps you entertained and gives context and detail to everything you’re doing. > > The way they seem to have achieved this is by adding a lot of depth to their characters and giving them real personality. So even though the story is very simple in essence, you enjoy seeing what characters are going to say even in highly predictable moments. You know something is a trap, but the reactions to it are what you’re there for, not the plot point. It’s great. > > ## And the masterpiece award goes to.. > > I truly believe this game is a masterclass in game design in so many ways. Everything it attempts works really well and the only complaints I can even come up with is that I could’ve used just a couple more combos and the readability in combat suffers due to some of the effects and camera. Other than that this game is perfect in my eyes. > > It’s rare that I mark a game down as masterpiece but you absolutely should try this game. If you don’t, you’re missing out on something amazing that doesn’t come around very often. It’s also rare that I ever plan on replaying a game in the future, but I can already imagine rediscovering this game 5 years from now and picking it up for another playthrough. > > ## Addressing the coffin in the room > > Last things last, Tango Gameworks was shut down by Microsoft in May. This game is the last thing they produced and it really is a pity. They went out on one of the best games I’ve ever played and I was baffled to hear about their closure Please go play this game in honor of the loss of the studio, maybe then you can be as angry as I am at Microsoft if you aren’t already. > > That’s it for me though, I feel like I’ve really experienced something here and if you haven’t played this game, I want you to give it a shot. It’s charming, it’s fun, it’s thrilling, and a good listen always. > > If you played this, drop me a comment and share your thoughts. I’d love to hear what your experience is with rhythm games in general too. What else is good in the genre? > > Until next time.
What’s the rush?
Hi-Fi Rush is a rhythm based third-person melee combat game that rewards you by landing your hits on the beat. From a list of flowing combos comes a catchy beat, skilled moves, and rocking visual effects. This is a masterpiece of a game and its stylistic characters banter in hilarious ways, its world comes together to feel alive, and its art style just never stops hitting those notes. If you want to know about the hype, let’s get into it.
Music make you lose control
This is what keeps the game together in a rhythm-based fighter, it’s the peanut butter that glues the bread into a sandwich. The music is phenomenal, I just need you to listen to it.This is what I’m talkin’ about. What’s missing from this though is the kicking beat that you make with your moves as you play. The game rewards you as you hit your combos by adding to the soundtrack, and it all works so so so well.
Never stop fighting, rockstar
Combat is the actual bread that makes our sandwich and this is what you spend most of the game doing. Each time you get locked in an arena, it’s intense and thrilling as you dodge enemy attacks, time your parries, and plan out elaborate combos to maximize your score.
I can’t emphasize this enough though: you can be bad at this and still have an incredible amount of fun. I’ve always stayed away from games like DMC that require you learn combos but the list here is roughly 20 moves long at most and you learn them intuitively as you experiment.
Enemies have legs or wheels or fire or..
One of the highlights of this game is the enemy design. Each enemy is distinct and it’s rare to see a game have this many types without feeling repetitive or copied. We’re talking shields, robo-bikes, owls, fire using boxer robots, samurai, fire owls?!, and many many more. Each feeling unique and requiring a different approach and more importantly, blending fantastically. The enemy variety in each arena gets really creative by the end and you really never stop adapting.
Art so good, it gave me nostalgia
That’s serious by the way, I got nostalgia for this game thinking about how amazing the art is. It feels like it’s from a past era and yet I also can’t think of anything like it. It’s so stylized but also never gets in the way of the gameplay. It will constantly add to your experience and honestly it’s just perfect, I need the merch.
Video game stories are bad, this isn’t
What you’ll notice about this story is that it’s both very simple and very effective. A good mark of storytelling is sometimes how complex a story can be while still having you follow along, this isn’t that. Instead it’s so good that the story is very simple and yet keeps you entertained and gives context and detail to everything you’re doing.
The way they seem to have achieved this is by adding a lot of depth to their characters and giving them real personality. So even though the story is very simple in essence, you enjoy seeing what characters are going to say even in highly predictable moments. You know something is a trap, but the reactions to it are what you’re there for, not the plot point. It’s great.
And the masterpiece award goes to..
I truly believe this game is a masterclass in game design in so many ways. Everything it attempts works really well and the only complaints I can even come up with is that I could’ve used just a couple more combos and the readability in combat suffers due to some of the effects and camera. Other than that this game is perfect in my eyes.
It’s rare that I mark a game down as masterpiece but you absolutely should try this game. If you don’t, you’re missing out on something amazing that doesn’t come around very often. It’s also rare that I ever plan on replaying a game in the future, but I can already imagine rediscovering this game 5 years from now and picking it up for another playthrough.
Addressing the coffin in the room
Last things last, Tango Gameworks was shut down by Microsoft in May. This game is the last thing they produced and it really is a pity. They went out on one of the best games I’ve ever played and I was baffled to hear about their closure Please go play this game in honor of the loss of the studio, maybe then you can be as angry as I am at Microsoft if you aren’t already.
That’s it for me though, I feel like I’ve really experienced something here and if you haven’t played this game, I want you to give it a shot. It’s charming, it’s fun, it’s thrilling, and a good listen always.
If you played this, drop me a comment and share your thoughts. I’d love to hear what your experience is with rhythm games in general too. What else is good in the genre?
Until next time.
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/16411001
> ## Summary Time > The Impossible Lair is a 2D platformer with low complexity and fun characters than has you exploring levels to build up protection to take on a boss level that is available to you right from the start with all the moves unlocked. If you like a more relaxed platformer with decent explorations and puzzles, give this one a shot. However, if you're a platforming regular you should probably just stay away from this one as it doesn't invent anything new here. > > Now lets get in to it. > > ## Putting on the Rose Tinted Glasses > > I've grown up on platformers. Since I was young I've had every Crash Bandicoot game in my hands and just recently went back to 100% the first 3 games. I've also been playing them in 2D most of my life, starting out with Sonic on the GameBoy. In other words, I know what it is that makes these games work. So when I hear that this game is going to present the initial challenge to you at the start and make that the premise, I immediately assume that the difficulty will be that you need to unlock moves to progress. That isn't the premise. Instead, your basic moveset is unlocked immediately. > > So upon hearing that info you might think that its obvious, the game is going to teach you how to use this limited moveset in new ways to get you further into the lair. With ~20 whole levels to choose from and 2 variants of each level, there's a whole lot of level there to learn from. > > ## We Have Good Bones > > The good news here is that graphics are really great. They're much more cohesive than the 3D platformer in the series and they have a solid artstyle now. I can say much the same of the music, it isn't anything iconic but now the themes of visuals, music, and obstacles are all working together here. They really improved to say the least. The story is still as plain as ever and I have nothing to say about it. The characters however are also better. Most only have a few lines to say to you but hey, at least its interesting or funny most of the time. > > ## There was a mark and we missed it here > > I want to be clear, this game is very average in its space and that is really hard to achieve with a platformer. So take my criticisms with that in mind. I'll start off light on the devs here but when your main character is hit in this game, the bat flies off their head and starts flying around at random until you recapture it or it flies away. This serves as a 2-hit mechanic to make the game easier but I really hate it. Go ahead and imagine you're playing through a difficult scene and you get hit. Now, your momentum is all off as you halt your progress to recollect the bat. I think I died more times doing this than to an actual challenge or obstacle. Its odd from a gameplay design perspective because it changes the goals of the player and takes their mind completely out of what they're doing. > > Then lets talk about tech. For those that don't know, platformers often have a lot of "Tech" which describes how the moves given to you play into each other. They're sort've unstated combos. A typical example is Crash Bandicoot can slide before a jump to get extra distance off the ledge and height. He can also bodyslam at the top of a jump to get boxes barely beyond his reach. Mastering that tech is usually integral to skillful play of these games. > > The Impossible Lair has almost no tech. You can roll off of ledges like with crash but that is the only combo I know of in the whole game. The game makes use of that feature only a small handful of times. So you won't be learning very much at all about your moves the entire way through. This makes it more approachable to new platformer players, but entirely boring for everyone else. > > ## So Why Play the Levels? > > I wish I had a good answer for this but the real answer is that each level gives you a bee to be used on the boss level to protect from a hit. So to be clear, the Impossible Lair doesn't require you learn much of anything and the sole thing preventing you from completing it at the start is that the Lair is hard. Not the fun type of hard either, the type of hard where you take no hits during the skill section but misjudge a hitbox and take a hit getting too close to a spike. > > I identified that pretty early on and so it never felt like a goal for me. I just wanted to experience the levels, which I found were okay in fun, and then just slog my way through the final level. I'm not afraid of a challenge either, but this kind of game doesn't make the challenge interesting enough for me. > > ## Should you buy it? > > Again I'm going to say: if you have knowledge of other 2D platformers then this one is entirely unnecessary and will only serve to annoy you. However: This game is really perfect for a younger person. I know that games like Crash Bandicoot can get extremely hard. Its what they are known for. In my eyes though, this is a great game to teach someone how to play games without boring them to death. So it isn't for me at all. For someone who has played a lot of these, I'd say this sits around a 6/10 for me. This game does not compare well to any of the Crash games at all. However, for someone just learning this is probably one of the best games you can pick up to have them play before torturing them in It Takes Two! > > As always, if you took the time to read my review, thank you. I encourage you to share your thoughts about similar games you've played, my review, or if you plan on playing this one or have played it.
Summary Time
The Impossible Lair is a 2D platformer with low complexity and fun characters than has you exploring levels to build up protection to take on a boss level that is available to you right from the start with all the moves unlocked. If you like a more relaxed platformer with decent explorations and puzzles, give this one a shot. However, if you're a platforming regular you should probably just stay away from this one as it doesn't invent anything new here.
Now lets get in to it.
Putting on the Rose Tinted Glasses
I've grown up on platformers. Since I was young I've had every Crash Bandicoot game in my hands and just recently went back to 100% the first 3 games. I've also been playing them in 2D most of my life, starting out with Sonic on the GameBoy. In other words, I know what it is that makes these games work. So when I hear that this game is going to present the initial challenge to you at the start and make that the premise, I immediately assume that the difficulty will be that you need to unlock moves to progress. That isn't the premise. Instead, your basic moveset is unlocked immediately.
So upon hearing that info you might think that its obvious, the game is going to teach you how to use this limited moveset in new ways to get you further into the lair. With ~20 whole levels to choose from and 2 variants of each level, there's a whole lot of level there to learn from.
We Have Good Bones
The good news here is that graphics are really great. They're much more cohesive than the 3D platformer in the series and they have a solid artstyle now. I can say much the same of the music, it isn't anything iconic but now the themes of visuals, music, and obstacles are all working together here. They really improved to say the least. The story is still as plain as ever and I have nothing to say about it. The characters however are also better. Most only have a few lines to say to you but hey, at least its interesting or funny most of the time.
There was a mark and we missed it here
I want to be clear, this game is very average in its space and that is really hard to achieve with a platformer. So take my criticisms with that in mind. I'll start off light on the devs here but when your main character is hit in this game, the bat flies off their head and starts flying around at random until you recapture it or it flies away. This serves as a 2-hit mechanic to make the game easier but I really hate it. Go ahead and imagine you're playing through a difficult scene and you get hit. Now, your momentum is all off as you halt your progress to recollect the bat. I think I died more times doing this than to an actual challenge or obstacle. Its odd from a gameplay design perspective because it changes the goals of the player and takes their mind completely out of what they're doing.
Then lets talk about tech. For those that don't know, platformers often have a lot of "Tech" which describes how the moves given to you play into each other. They're sort've unstated combos. A typical example is Crash Bandicoot can slide before a jump to get extra distance off the ledge and height. He can also bodyslam at the top of a jump to get boxes barely beyond his reach. Mastering that tech is usually integral to skillful play of these games.
The Impossible Lair has almost no tech. You can roll off of ledges like with crash but that is the only combo I know of in the whole game. The game makes use of that feature only a small handful of times. So you won't be learning very much at all about your moves the entire way through. This makes it more approachable to new platformer players, but entirely boring for everyone else.
So Why Play the Levels?
I wish I had a good answer for this but the real answer is that each level gives you a bee to be used on the boss level to protect from a hit. So to be clear, the Impossible Lair doesn't require you learn much of anything and the sole thing preventing you from completing it at the start is that the Lair is hard. Not the fun type of hard either, the type of hard where you take no hits during the skill section but misjudge a hitbox and take a hit getting too close to a spike.
I identified that pretty early on and so it never felt like a goal for me. I just wanted to experience the levels, which I found were okay in fun, and then just slog my way through the final level. I'm not afraid of a challenge either, but this kind of game doesn't make the challenge interesting enough for me.
Should you buy it?
Again I'm going to say: if you have knowledge of other 2D platformers then this one is entirely unnecessary and will only serve to annoy you. However: This game is really perfect for a younger person. I know that games like Crash Bandicoot can get extremely hard. Its what they are known for. In my eyes though, this is a great game to teach someone how to play games without boring them to death. So it isn't for me at all. For someone who has played a lot of these, I'd say this sits around a 6/10 for me. This game does not compare well to any of the Crash games at all. However, for someone just learning this is probably one of the best games you can pick up to have them play before torturing them in It Takes Two!
As always, if you took the time to read my review, thank you. I encourage you to share your thoughts about similar games you've played, my review, or if you plan on playing this one or have played it.
CleoTheWizard @lemmy.world Hi, I’m Cleo! (he/they) I talk mostly about games and politics. My DMs are always open to chat! :)