TyrianMollusk
@TyrianMollusk@lemm.ee
- Comment on What is your Game of the Year? 1 day ago:
Twin-stick shooter against various bugs and robots with some ARPG gearing, and the action here is fantastically tight with probably three key factors:
- Enemies target you but hit each other, so you manage their attacks to help your fighting instead of just staying out of trouble.
- “Frenzy” orb pickups, which act a bit like combo meter fuel except instead of chaining hits you make frequent choices about whether an orb drop is worth chasing, keeping you close to danger.
- Instant gun switching with overheating instead of reloading, so you fight hard and switch constantly between your three guns to keep any one from overheating while getting the best out of their specific properties.
I play a lot of twin-stick and top-down shooters, and this does a great job mixing the arcade twin-stick feel of high intensity fending off a swarm with tactical top-down dungeon crawling elements, and it’s just really special feeling to play. The core action feels not just well designed but like it was made just for me, and I’m genuinely glad someone made it (or is making it, since it’s early access). Plus, it’s extraction style instead of being a roguelite, so you’re always right at the best action while still getting procedural levels, so each run is a little different.
- Comment on What's your favorite controller? 3 months ago:
Get a controller with underside buttons. I also consider stick-clicks an abomination, but it’s great now that there are under-buttons we can hard-remap to L3 and R3.
8BitDo Ultimate Bluetooth controller has some awful ergonomics on several things, but the underbuttons are excellent examples.
- Comment on What's your favorite controller? 3 months ago:
The slightly more bulbous wings on the 360 controller actually do a lot for ergonomics, but it’s very hand-sized based. For me, the 360 is almost perfect in how the wings tuck into my palms. With the controller about 6 or so inches in front of me, my arms are at a natural angle with wrists straight and the controller is securely held without even a finger on it, and I can press any button without even having to brace it. Take even a little of those wings away, and that gets lost. My partner on the other hand, would need a smaller controller to get that same feel or to cross-thumb the dpad as easily as I do. As much as I originally preferred the symmetry of the playstation layout, I have to give the nod to the xbox layout for being able to dpad with the right thumb.
We desperately need controller makers to stop acting like controllers are one size fits all, when that’s not even close to true.
- Comment on Arcade shooter Nova Drift is a Petri dish in which to spawn the daftest, deadliest spaceship 4 months ago:
Jeez, the laziness of reviewing it based just on the store page. It’s been in early access for like five years, getting better every update, and not one person there can even bother to actually play the game they recommend to others?
- Comment on Steam Summer Sale - Top Deals 5 months ago:
Cactus is probably the single best mastery/arcade style twin-stick shooter out there. Don’t let the cute looks fool you, while this game is solid to just enjoy, the chaining and level design offer great challenge if you want it, and the way each character changes both the basic play and the way you chain a level show a just fantastic design level.
It usually goes $5 in sales, but it’s still crazy we can get games that good for so little.