Coelacanth
@Coelacanth@feddit.nu
- Comment on Steam Deck / Gaming News #19 10 hours ago:
These posts are some of the best content on Lemmy and bring me back to the early 00s days of reading the physical PC Gamer magazines in all their glory.
- Comment on Gachapwned: How gacha MMOs drown us in progression and randomness | Massively Overpowered 1 day ago:
I knew what that video was before even clicking the link. Great insight into the horrible people ruining the games industry.
- Comment on Gachapwned: How gacha MMOs drown us in progression and randomness | Massively Overpowered 1 day ago:
Great article. The entangling web of endless progression systems is one piece, but one thing they failed to mention is time gating and daily quests. It’s very important for these games to force you to play a little bit every day, instead of in large chunks all at once. This helps move the game subconsciously in your brain from “a game” to “a habit/a hobby”, and that makes your purchasing decisions very different.
- Comment on Neverwinter Nights 2 Gets Enhanced Edition, Due July 15th | RPGFan 2 days ago:
Hearing the bit about rights hell and patches makes me feel a lot better. House at the End of Time followed by that final broken capital area was just some of the least fun gameplay I’ve experienced in a CRPG. And I was there back in the day getting one-shot by Gibberlings in BG1! I’m not as big a fan of the epicly mythic type of narratives and settings as I am of more grounded stories, but if it makes the combat more fun and better balanced I might stomach it.
And if the game is genuinely that amazing I might bump it a bit on my priority list. I already bought it on sale last year, but the Kingmaker slog (what is it, 200 hours or so?) kind of wore me out on western CRPGs for a bit.
- Comment on Neverwinter Nights 2 Gets Enhanced Edition, Due July 15th | RPGFan 2 days ago:
Good to know again, thank you! I played through Kingmaker last winter and your description is pretty spot on. There were parts of it that were great, parts of which that were not, and parts of it that were downright awful. And particularly the latter parts really soured me on it, and made me super reluctant to play Wrath of the Righteous. If that is Owlcat’s idea of high level play I don’t really want an epic adventure from them.
I’ve played Divinity 1&2 and BG3, but I’m less high on Larian than everyone else these days. They’re fine games and fun to play but Larian’s style of writing isn’t my jam and I also think BG3 has a lot of problems that get kind of glossed over.
I missed Pillars 1, so I guess that is on some sort of to-do list. I played about half of Pillars 2 but got bored and never picked it back up.
PSA: If you play ANY of the Pathfinder CRPGs? Get blind fight ASAP. And make sure every arcane caster has a few charges of Glitterdust at any moment.
I had Blind Fight on every single party member and that final bit of the game was still a hellish slog that made actively detest Owlcat.
- Comment on Neverwinter Nights 2 Gets Enhanced Edition, Due July 15th | RPGFan 3 days ago:
Thank you! I guess the question is, is sitting through 100 hours of mediocre main campaign worth it to get to Mask? My guess is probably yes, but that knowledge will likely end up de-prioritizing the game on my backlog.
Thanks a lot for the rundown! Are the other two expansions any good?
- Comment on Neverwinter Nights 2 Gets Enhanced Edition, Due July 15th | RPGFan 3 days ago:
That’s good to know. Are the expansions independent or do you have to get through the base game first? Would you recommend just doing Mask of the Betrayer and calling it a day there?
- Comment on Blue Prince - Have you played it? How blown is your mind? 3 days ago:
I meant it’s a $30 indie game as opposed to a full price $60 game, so even if you don’t end up liking it it’s not as big of a loss.
- Comment on EVE Frontier Goes Public Today with Founder Access: New Era 3 days ago:
To be honest, I was flying with a specific group of people and when the main FC/corp leader quit I sort of just quit too. So I’m not sure I’d come back regardless, unless he miraculously comes back. But it’s been like 8 years now. Also, EVE consumes your whole life and it’s kind of nice to have time to play other games.
I was doing primarily small gang warfare, as well as some Blops dropping. And bombing runs whenever the opportunity presented itself. For income I was stocking the market of our home station, which I really enjoyed doing.
- Comment on EVE Frontier Goes Public Today with Founder Access: New Era 3 days ago:
What’s it like these days? I sometimes miss the heyday of like 2011-2014 EVE, but I stopped keeping track of what was going on some time after quitting. I also kind of lost faith in the direction it was going and what CCP was doing.
As someone who’s been around the block, is it in a good state now?
- Comment on EVE Frontier Goes Public Today with Founder Access: New Era 3 days ago:
I guess it’s like Rust but in space? Survival MMO set in the EVE universe? Not really what I’m looking for but it could work I suppose.
- Comment on Blue Prince - Have you played it? How blown is your mind? 3 days ago:
It’s not a perfect game as I’m sure you’ve gleaned from this thread. It varies from individual to individual how much the RNG affects your enjoyment but I can understand some people’s frustrations.
That being said: it’s not a full price game, it’s an incredibly interesting and unique concept and it’s put together with an incredible amount of detail and care. It’s also made by a small indie studio, and I love supporting those. If the puzzle you helped solve seemed interesting and you like puzzles and escape rooms and piecing things together then you should absolutely buy it, in my opinion.
- Comment on Neverwinter Nights 2 Gets Enhanced Edition, Due July 15th | RPGFan 3 days ago:
This will probably make me finally get around to playing it. I had a lot of fun with NWN back in the day, but that was more the multiplayer custom servers. The single player campaign was pretty mediocre.
I never actually played the sequel, but I remember hearing very good things about the Mask of the Betrayer expansion to NWN2. Hope it lives up to the reputation.
- Comment on Blue Prince - Have you played it? How blown is your mind? 3 days ago:
There are several more. Some examples (light spoilers):
spoiler
Pick any room upgrades that give you extra dice. There are also two items that let you reroll, though they aren’t the easiest to acquire (but can be Coat Checked!). I also recommend looking into the Sheet Music puzzle.
There are some other ways to reroll or affect RNG, but I don’t know how to hint at them without spoiling too much.
- Comment on Blue Prince - Have you played it? How blown is your mind? 3 days ago:
There were a couple of moments for me that made me go “wait, how fucking big is this game actually?”, but otherwise yeah it’s more of a game where you gradually scratch at the surface and peel at the corners and bit by bit it keeps opening up and opening up and opening up beneath you.
- Comment on Blue Prince - Have you played it? How blown is your mind? 3 days ago:
I played it obsessively for a solid month or so following its release. One of the best puzzle games ever and still a GOTY contender for me.
I know some people didn’t like the RNG, but for me it never became a real big problem. You get some control over the randomness eventually, and I also just found the drafting part of the game enjoyable in itself.
Piecing together the story and the world building bit by bit and uncovering the mystery was also super enjoyable. It’s one of the most rewarding games ever for note-takers. So much so that keeping physical notes in a journal was like half my enjoyment.
- Comment on Being Kyle Katarn - Interview with Jason Court 4 days ago:
Mapocolops played through Dark Forces II recently and it was incredible watching those FMVs again that blew my mind as a child. I will always love Kyle Katarn.
However… the level design is absolutely wild! I have no idea how I got through that game as an 8-year-old!
- Comment on Trending Communities for Tuesday 10th June 2025 4 days ago:
I think you may be right. Would be very unfortunate.
- Comment on Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of June 8th 5 days ago:
Finished playing F.E.A.R. for the first time and am now about halfway through the first expansion Extraction Point. Man, it really holds up incredibly for a 20-year-old game.
The particle effects look fantastic for their age, the lightly destructible environments add a beautiful layer of carnage and the gunplay is surprisingly great for such an old game. Every single gun feels satisfying to use (bar the bizarrely awful assault rifle), with the highlight of course being nailing people to the wall with the famous 10mm HV Penetrator.
The AI is also just as good as people say and it continues to surprise me with shockingly good dynamic behaviour for again a game of this age. Especially the way they interact with the environment in unscripted ways impress me: closing doors behind them as they retreat to wait in ambush or smashing windows and vaulting over to charge you for example.
The horror and story is actually the weak point, at least of the main game. It’s all pretty predictable, the horror is fairly mediocre and not even the jump scares really land. I will say it has been better in the expansion so far, though, even if it’s still only sort of okay.
But that doesn’t really matter. The atmosphere does enough to sell its pseudo horror identity, but the fantastic gunplay across these well designed claustrophobic levels is worth experiencing. It’s a classic for a reason and I completely get why. And with it frequently being for sale for like a dollar on GOG it’s a must play, I think.
Just make sure to install the EchoPatch!
- Comment on MOUSE: P.I. For Hire | Summer Game Fest Trailer 6 days ago:
Been keeping an eye on this for years, and every trailer it looks better and better. Looks like they really have found more of their own identity by now. Very curious to try it.
- Comment on The first weekly What Are You Playing? thread! 1 week ago:
Fun! Keeping a notebook is like half the fun of Blue Prince, at least it was for me. Same with Obra Dinn. I ended up with like 50 pages of notes for Blue Prince, as well as hundreds of screenshots.
- Comment on Lies of P: Overture - Launch Trailer 1 week ago:
It looks like a great game but I think it’s too difficult for me.
- Comment on Mina the Hollower: Release Date Announcement Trailer (October 31) 1 week ago:
“Modern retro” games are such a vibe. All the charm of retro games but without the clunk. I played Skald: Against the Black Priory earlier this year and loved it and this looks amazing too.
- Comment on ILL - Official Trailer 1 week ago:
This type of gore and body horror doesn’t really get to me, but the gunplay looks very satisfying and this seems like it could be a fun zombie horde shooter.
- Comment on Feel That Boxing - Gameplay Trailer 1 week ago:
Ok this actually looks fucking sick. It’s not often we get something fresh like this.
- Comment on Mortal Shell II - Official Announcement Trailer 1 week ago:
Thanks. My backlog is too long anyway, glad to hear I’m not missing out.
- Comment on Mortal Shell II - Official Announcement Trailer 1 week ago:
I got the first one for free from Epic. Is it worth playing?
- Comment on What are you all looking forward to at Summer Games Fest? 1 week ago:
Control 2 entered full production this year. I don’t think it’ll be more than 3 years unless something goes terribly wrong.
- Comment on What are you all looking forward to at Summer Games Fest? 1 week ago:
I had no idea it was today so I’m not looking forward to anything in particular. Having just finished Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 it would be amazing news if they had an announcement that they’re intending to release a DLC.
Would also love to see something from Remedy about Control 2 as I love those guys and the Remedy Connected Universe. Well, what I’m really desperate about is Alan Wake 3, but that’s surely not even in pre-production yet (sadly).
Would not mind seeing something from Bloodlines 2 either out of morbid curiosity, but I have no hopes it will actually be good.
- Comment on Summer Games Fest begins in 15 minutes 1 week ago:
Is it really a replacement? Isn’t this just a show (like the Game Awards) as opposed to a huge ass convention like E3?