Coelacanth

@Coelacanth@feddit.nu

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of May 10th⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  Errr… Court, right? This one. Anyway, I hope it’ll resonate with you, for my it’s likely to be a personal GOTY contender.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of May 10th⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  Ooh I loved INMOST. Played it on PC though. Great art, great music, great vibes. Story was also good although the ending could have been more subtle.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of May 10th⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Played Titanium Court. Its great. You should play it. Don’t look up anything about it, just put your trust in the Steam refund window. You will know if it is for you or not within the first 2hrs. I am still struggling to describe it in an enticing way without spoiling anything, because this is a game that delights in constantly surprising you. Disregarding the gameplay (which is completely different) you could say Titanium Court is a little bit like Undertale for adults? That’s what I felt, at least. If you want a little bit more thenthis short sort of captures it.

  ---

  After finally tearing myself away from Titanium Court I began playing AI Limit. It’s an anime-styled Soulslike, and while I’m not huge on anime I’d heard a lot of good things about it. So far it’s been pretty solid. It has its flaws, but it was made by a small team after all. I wish the art direction was a little stronger and more distinctive - anime post-apocalyptic modern sceneries seem like they’re dime a dozen, especially paired with mutated fleshy alien matter. There are plenty of sceneries here that may be competently designed in isolation, but just feels like I’ve seen before. The graphics are also very uneven and some textures look terrible - again, small team I guess.

  Combat is pretty decent though. There is no stamina, instead there is a combined stamina/mana bar called Sync that also depletes when you get hit and recharges when you hit enemies (or parry them). Normal attacks and dodges don’t cost any Sync, so combat had a distinctly different feel from most Soulslikes. You also deal more damage at maximum Sync, but your special attacks stop working at lower Sync. If your Sync is totally deleted you get into a vulnerable state that often means death. It’s an interesting twist that makes combat feel a bit different.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of May 10th⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Is there a new one or the Melody of Moominvalley? That’s actually been on my wishlist for a bit, I grew up on Tova Jansson and it has great reviews too.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What was the last physical retail store game purchase you've made?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  I honestly can’t remember. I bought a couple of physical 3DS games semi-recently, but those were ordered online. I bought Rayman Legends on the PS4 for my sister from a physical game store like 12 years ago? Might genuinely be that.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Alabaster Dawn Early Access OUT NOW⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Oh, this is by the CrossCode devs? I’ve heard nothing but good things about that game.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨MIXTAPE | Launch Trailer⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  DontNod really went and created a whole new genre of game, huh? What do we call these, Teenage Simulators?

  I’m sure it’s great for the target audience and I like the music selection but… I’m too old for this, I think.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Day 659 of posting a Daily Screenshot from the games I've been playing⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ve heard a lot of good things about this one. Maybe I should give it a priority bump on the wishlist.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Fandom Strain: On the IP Illness That's Killing Magic: The Gathering⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  The first death of the story and lore of MtG was the Gatewatch. Magic moved from localised and discrete stories with characters rooted in the specific worlds of the recent formats towards something more akin to Marvel movies or a Sunday morning cartoon. Instead it was Jace and the gang turning up every week and beating the enemy with the power of friendship. Maybe there was also some turnover in the staff around this time, because it felt like the quality of the writing declined as well.

  This current era of Fortnite style IP mixing and complete sell out is just embarrassing though.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Anybody else get Titanium Court?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I didn’t realise it was out!? God damn it my backlog is already a behemoth. I didn’t play the demo because I didn’t want to be spoiled but I loved the reveal trailer song and from what I’ve heard everyone who played it during next fest couldn’t stop gushing about it and talking about potential GOTY. So I’m very keen to try it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Has to be STALKER Anomaly for me.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why is Greg, Pastor of the Promised End playing guitar???⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Not a Souls game but Alan Wake 2 has some great liminal spaces.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of April 12th⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It also has two separate ways to make sure you don’t get stuck. I’m sure you found the Puzzle Oracles already, which is a great mechanic, and then on its webpage there are great two-stage hints for every puzzle/side quest in the game: first a smaller nudge in the right direction and then under a second spoiler tag the full explanation.This dev is so thoughtful it blows my mind.

  I also like how all the game mechanics fit into the lore so naturally. The curse mechanic is one of my favourite game mechanics ever.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of April 12th⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Ah, still so much to come! I loved that bit, you can really spend some time to perfect your build down there. The game just keeps getting cooler, doesn’t it. Whenever you think you have it figured out you discover some new surprise it throws at you.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of April 12th⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s not really a point and click adventure, there are no puzzles in Pentiment and no item-based interactions or anything like that. It’s purely a visual novel.

  Also I had such a hard time with Pentiment. There are parts I adored, like the art and the characters and writing (mostly), but man is it slow and boring at times. Maybe I’ve just been brainrotted by modern pace of information but the commitment to authentic portrayal of the world and times sometimes led to sitting through absolutely mind numbing conversations with uninteresting farmers. It felt like a slog at times, especially in the third act. I was very close to being unable to push through the third act.

  At the same time I think the payoff was great, the journey Andreas goes through is great, and some of the moments related to his personal struggles and doubts were very impactful and moving. In the end I am glad I played it and I think it’s an objectively good piece of art, despite my gripes with it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of April 12th⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s actually unreal how good it is. It does have Overwhelmingly Positive on Steam but yeah, this should be a smash indie hit and not a hidden gem. How far in are you?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨37 years since Prince of Persia, Replaced is the bombastic cinematic platformer I've been waiting for⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I am so completely torn on this game. On the one hand I suck at platformers and don’t much enjoy them and also from reviews it seems this game can be pretty fucking hard at times with some extremely precise timings.

  On the other hand the game looks like and absolute work of art that I am craving to experience.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[Suggestion] MiSide by AIHASTO⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Looks very Doki Doki coded. How do they compare?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨MOUSE: P.I. For Hire releases on Steam⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  True gamers make do with a single mouse button. Mac is the ultimate platform.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Crimson Desert sales top five million⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  They did a pretty significant marketing push on Twitch for Crimson Desert, but in financial terms I don’t know if that is all that expensive, and certainly not in relation to 5 million copies sold.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of April 12th⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Oh damn I missed that in the OP text! -_- Shame on me for skimming. Happy birthday!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Case Against Gameplay Loops⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m not a huge fan of the excessive use of exclamation points in the writing, and there is also something about the entire thing that strikes me as off. I don’t think this author actually likes video games. Especially as the cited illustrious examples of video game excellence at the end are more art pieces than games, and while there is absolutely nothing wrong with that (I also like that genre) I think there is more to gaming than simply making slightly interactive movies.

  A good example is the discussion of Celeste compared to Getting Over It. The author acknowledges that repeatedly performing the gameplay loop in Celeste feels good and is fun, but then immediately dismisses it out of hand as having “no meaning”. Again I think this author is too firmly stuck in purely narrative and artistic media. The operative verb in gaming is “play”. It is closer to dancing in that sense. Why do people dance? It has no meaning either. But it feels good. We enjoy exercising our hand-eye coordination, we enjoy moving to a rhythm, we enjoy learning and executing patterns. These are all elements of gaming too.

  There is space in gaming for art, and I think there is something to the suggestion that a game that is purely narrative and/or artistic does not need a gameplay loop. But I think it’s also important to not lose track of the fact that games can exist in a pure “medium is the message” state akin to sports or dancing or whatever else - playing an instrument. We don’t play a pickup game of basketball with our buddies because it has a higher meaning, and we don’t denigrate it for lacking that meaning either.

  Gaming is just something we do with our free time. It can have a “higher meaning”, or it can just be the pure dopamine of clicking heads and watching them explode in Doom. Both types of games are valid. Either way we’ll die eventually and that time will have meant just as little whether we played another hour of Doom or spent it reading Dostoevsky.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Got gifted an XBOX360 S. What now?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Ninja Gaiden 2 is calling.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Game franchises you like, but wish were anothet genre of video game?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Have you played STALKER Anomaly? It has the looting and shooting without being an extraction shooter, but still scratches a similar itch.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of April 12th⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  You will not regret it! I hope the sequel sells millions of copies because this guy needs to be let loose on a AA budget. I was completely shocked when I found out he composed the OST himself (apart from one track and one Bach piece). Some people are just too talented.

  Haven’t had this much fun exploring a dangerous and interesting world filled with weird ass NPCs since Dark Souls 1 all those years ago.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Game franchises you like, but wish were anothet genre of video game?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  CDPR gambled for the masses and won with Witcher 3. I agree with you and would prefer the combat to be more methodical, require more preparation and be more visceral. I wish you’d have to actually manually brew the correct potions and oils in preparation, and then see those have a huge impact on whether you win or lose the fight.

  At the same time, the super lightweight combat they went with allowed the game to be so approachable by the causal market that it sold millions and millions of copies and singlehandedly catapulted CDPR into a AAA studio. So it’s hard to argue they made a mistake not catering to players like us.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Game franchises you like, but wish were anothet genre of video game?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Some games have started to crop up that straddle the line between Souls and CAG, The Nioh series and First Berserker: Khazan come to mind. I’ve also heard good things about AI Limit, it looks pretty fast and it doesn’t have stamina.

  Also not a Soulslike but I assume you’ve played Ninja Gaiden?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of April 12th⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I finished Withering Rooms a few days ago, having done both a full first playthrough and a quick run through NG+ to get the ending exclusive to NG+. Since then I’ve been in that odd spot where I’m kind of having trouble moving on to the next game. I just keep thinking about Withering Rooms.

  This game was so amazingly good, it is seriously unbelievable it is the work of a solo dev. Especially since he also composed pretty much all the music - and the music is as phenomenal as the game. I don’t think I’ve been this impressed with a solo dev since Lucas Pope and Obra Dinn.

  If you vibe in any way with what you see on the Steam page, I heavily encourage you giving it a shot. It is one of the most unique games I’ve ever played, which is funny because it simultaneously wears its inspirations on its sleeves. But the influences never end up leading to derivative end product, instead they are just the foundation for the very distinctive artistic vision of an auteur developer that is doubtlessly doing his own thing.

  And it’s not just about the story and world building and art direction and atmosphere, but the gameplay and build variety is also really good. All the gameplay systems are so well designed, the puzzles are intuitive and the game has so many thoughtful little touches you wouldn’t expect from the first game of a solo dev, especially on the QOL front.

  The combat itself is a little clunky, but you do get used to it and there are several ways to build both melee and spellcasting, there is a ranged weapon build that leans more into consumables, you can sneak around and place traps, you can be a summoner… Probably more that I didn’t think of yet. And using all these different tools is a lot of fun.

  Having played this I am unbelievably excited for the sequel, which enters Early Access this year.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Please suggest me Comedy Based Games⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It can be a little moon logic at times and might be frustrating to play without a guide, but yeah it’s great and quite funny.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Day 630 of posting a Daily Screenshot from the games I've been playing⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s a very fun series, they play very differently from a lot of other games so look up some video footage first maybe, but I think they’re fun. The missions are somewhat sandboxy and can make you feel pretty clever when you figure out how to set up a nice sequence.