audaxdreik
@audaxdreik@pawb.social
- Comment on Indie Video Game ‘Mina the Hollower’ Sells 300,000 Copies in Three Days 2 weeks ago:
I sympathize, even just from the trailer I did have expectations and there was a bit of friction for the first hour or two as I had to work past them and meet the game where it’s at. As someone very familiar with all of the influences it draws from, this can be kinda difficult.
For the right person, this is going to be a GotY candidate.
The discourse around this one is going to be brutal already I can tell. As you say, it really is just a matter of taste and at the end of the day there’s no arguing that if this isn’t your kind of thing it’s not going to click. But it does frustrate me some already seeing people so confidently assert their taste as “simply bad game design”. So it goes, I can only argue on the internet so much, but I do want Yacht Club to do well and I want the game to find its audience without being turned off by disingenuous reviews. After Shovel Knight and this, I can see they have serious chops and I’m praying they stick around long enough to get another few games out before the industry eats them alive T_T
- Comment on Indie Video Game ‘Mina the Hollower’ Sells 300,000 Copies in Three Days 2 weeks ago:
The game is absolutely fantastic, I plan to do a writeup here once I’ve progressed through a bit more of the game. I’m 14 hours in and partway through the 3rd of 7(?) main dungeons, largely because I’ve been picking every last scrap of meat off the bones. If I had to use one word to describe the game it would be dense. I didn’t play the demo, so I was a bit surprised to find it has less in common with Link’s Awakening and Castlevania than you might think, though it’s certainly wearing their skin. I’d call it Saturday morning cartoon Bloodborne with a heaping helping of adorable, furry characters and I mean that all 💯 positively.
Unlike Link’s Awakening, progression isn’t tied to finding items in dungeons. A lot of traversal is tied to subweapons you find unceremoniously strewn about the world that opens things up for you and you can really go most anywhere you want if you can figure it out. Instead of simply navigating each screen there are secrets and bones tucked in almost every corner encouraging you to observe, explore, and platform every inch. Dense.
There’s already discourse about the difficulty and if I give one concession, it’s that the early game is perhaps a bit “overtuned” like Silksong was, partially because the early game power curve is just rough when you don’t have a lot of stats or options to work with and part of it is maybe spending ~6 years in the oven. Stick with it, it’s worth it. Go slow, be deliberate, and I promise you losing your bones is not that big of a deal. Grinding is actually fairly easy and painless once you figure things out and if you decide to go that route (grinding is not necessary but you can absolutely do it if you want to accrue an early edge with a lot of items). Other than that, use the build in modifiers. They disable achievements, but also some of those achievements are just ass anyways and there’s no way I’m 100%ing this game (beat the game without ever entering the underlab, are you for serious?!)
Starter tips:
- The game moves fast in the beginning and doesn’t run you through a tutorial but it WILL lead you into most things if you give it a chance, just pay attention and try everything on everything.
- There’s a manual in the start menu! It’s cute and informative, read it, it actually contains helpful info
- The game does a great job of pointing you down the optimal, beginner’s path if you read the newspapers, listen to the NPCs, and just pay attention to clues. Knowing where to go is half the battle, but you can always explore and push into other places early and get some nice treats for it. Be creative, you’ll be surprised the places you can go
Ultimately, this is a game for sickos. If you are a sicko, especially a Fromsoft sicko, then this is a no-brainer.
- Comment on Going in blind on this bad boy 4 weeks ago:
Anyone familiar with this, would you recommend the original here or the DS one? It’s been sitting on my list for awhile now, too …
- Comment on Day 645 of posting a Daily Screenshot from the games I've been playing 1 month ago:
Super Mario 3D World is a fascinating game when you think about it.
When Mario moved to 3D, it simply wasn’t practical to make a lot of course-based levels like this, you can understand how intense that work would be. That’s what necessitated the move to the more open, star-based missions.
It’s only recently that the skill and tooling has allowed for this and 3D World/Land are the expression of that: an evolution of the Mario 3/World formula.
Personally it’s one of my favorites, I should go back and play it again.
- Submitted 1 month ago to games@lemmy.world | 0 comments
- Comment on Great at gaming? US air traffic control wants you to apply 2 months ago:
Finally! As someone who has played the only(?) available English translation of “I am an Air Traffic Controller: Airport Hero” on the 3DS, my time has COME!
What’s that? Drug test? … Nevermind.
- Comment on Nier Automata 2 months ago:
If you’re having fun with it 3 hours in, just wait. This game fucking goes places …
Do not quit, make sure you play it to the [E]nd. And that’s all I’ll say about that.
The soundtrack is amazing and one of my favorites to put on in the background while I’m working. The story is definitely silly and paced oddly at times, but it has a lot of things to say that really spoke deeply to me. I get a bit choked up thinking about it still. Hope you continue to have fun, I think it’s reputation is well-warranted!
- Comment on How to install Windows on your Steam Deck 2 months ago:
Alright, don’t take this diatribe personally, but it just set off a chain of thoughts for me I’m gonna post now because loudly hating on AI at all times is the morally correct thing. You don’t seem like a person looking to be convinced.
In a capitalist society our only real power is as consumers. I know even that’s not really terribly true these days as they largely dictate the markets at us but it’s all we’ve got. An overwhelmingly negative public sentiment does still erode value and makes it harder to support the illusion, we’ve seen that recently with the DLSS5 stuff. It also fortifies community opinion by creating a unifying front. It can slowly shame susceptible targets into changing their stance and help convince people who may be falling for it when they see they’re friends and respected individuals take a firm stance. Anyone who says armchair warriors can’t accomplish anything just wants you to shut up so you don’t accomplish anything. Ideally you do more, but what other options do we have against this currently?
I understand how AI works and what its legitimate intended use cases are (largely referring to the current crop of LLMs here and not broader ML) and that’s exactly why I don’t use it. People who say that they have figured it out and that their specific use cases are legitimate are practically indistinguishable from those who have drunk the Kool aid. Are you one of those rare people I don’t even fully believe exist who has a valid use case or are you another mark who’s fallen prey to the lying machine that lies, was built off plagiarism, destroys the environment, and was purpose built to devalue labor? One of these things seems slightly more likely than the other.
Fuck AI.
- Comment on Peak 3d game. Nothing can beat this 2 months ago:
- Comment on The Anatomy of an Impossible Port: Bringing Dead Cells to the R36S 3 months ago:
I have an R36s that I installed Rocknix on to give it a tiny bit of an optimization and performance boost and that thing still kinda choked on some PS1 and most PSP games. The thought of it running Dead Cells 💀
Massive props!
- Comment on EA invents new microtransaction nightmare as it breaks paywall promise on Skate: rent a playable area for 24 hours or buy a premium pass, bucko 3 months ago:
Games are a modern media and I think suffer from a lot of modern engagement mechanics.
We need to stop viewing them as a constant stream of “new content” and more as an established library.
- Comment on EA invents new microtransaction nightmare as it breaks paywall promise on Skate: rent a playable area for 24 hours or buy a premium pass, bucko 3 months ago:
My brain just shuts off when I read stuff like this.
Man, I dunno. Fuck AAA gaming, I’ll go play something else.
- Comment on OpenAI retired its most seductive chatbot – leaving users angry and grieving: ‘I can’t live like this’ 4 months ago:
It’s kind of a weird phenomenon that’s been developing on the internet for awhile called, “just asking questions”. It’s a way to noncommittally insert an opinion or try to muddy the waters with doubt, “Did you ever notice how every {bad thing} is {some minority}? I’m not saying I believe it, I’m just asking questions!” In this instance it seems that by even asking for a clear statement of value you are implying there may not be one, which is upsetting.
To be clear, I’m not accusing you of doing this, but you can see how stumbling into a community that takes their own positions as entirely self evident would see any sort of questioning it as an attempt to undermine it. Anything short of full, unconditional acceptance of their position is treacherous.
It’s worth thinking about because it’s a difficult and nuanced problem. Some things are unquestionable like when I say I love a bad movie or that human rights are inalienable. Still, I should be able to answer sincere questions probing into the whys of that and it really comes down to an assumption of bad faith or not.
- Comment on Order of the Sinking Star | Official Announcement Trailer 6 months ago:
I’m with you on that one, but I do understand it’s very much a game to a specific taste. When people tell me actually they hate The Witness it’s like, “Well … yeah.”
I just enjoy it as a cozy, pleasant little puzzler with an interesting idea. I can appreciate Braid, too, but find it generally unpleasant to play and overwrought. It doesn’t do anything for me, but given when it was released in the early days of the indies I understand the impact it had.
JB is a talented dev/designer no doubt, but he just doesn’t stand out in the crowd of indies these days like he used to.
- Comment on Epic boss Tim Sweeney thinks stores like Steam should stop labelling games as being made with AI: 'It makes no sense,' he says, because 'AI will be involved in nearly all future production 6 months ago:
Beyond just Tim Sweeney sounding dumb, there’s something truly evil and malicious about this framing.
His response was to a tweet that said: Steam and all digital marketplaces need to drop the “Made with AI” label. It doesn’t matter anymore. (Emphasis mine)
All well and good for that guy maybe, but why do they need to drop it and why does Tim Sweeney agree? Why is less information for the people that want to have it a necessity. And WHY does he feel compelled to comment on the behavior of his competitors in this way.
Fucking ghouls, the whole lot of them. I hope their AI creations destroy them and they suffer even a single moment of hubris.
- Comment on What's a recent game you've tried playing that isn't worth the hype? 7 months ago:
I always think it’s fascinating to see how the discourse around games evolves. It’s always most telling when people stop talking about a game at all. Remember Starfield? No one even talks about Starfield anymore, not even about how bad it may or may not have been. Just kinda flopped a bit and passed from memory.
I had to search “Bethesda space game” just now to even remember its generic name …
- Comment on FCC to rescind ruling that said ISPs are required to secure their networks 7 months ago:
Cyber security effectively doesn’t exist without consequence in capitalism. If there aren’t regulatory fines or monetary damage from breaches, what incentive is there to spend on enforcing anything? When they can’t innovate or compete anymore, they’ll begin cutting at the structural systems to save more money until it’s just a shell of an appearance of security, and maybe not even that. Who will care?
- Comment on Xbox is more expensive for developers too, as Microsoft bumps up dev kit cost [Eurogamer] 7 months ago:
Absolutely boggles my mind that they would even consider this? I can’t imagine the amount raised would come anywhere close to justifying the damage done?
- Comment on ASCII Smuggling Attack Lets Hackers Manipulate Gemini to Deliver Smuggled Data to Users 8 months ago:
Mom places an
@on the table“I found this under your bed”
Sweating profusely
“It’s just a little *band at night to help me sleep. I can quit any time I want!”
- Comment on Microsoft doing shady Microsoft stuff again 8 months ago:
You’re absolutely right, but there’s a bit more to it than that.
As someone who deployed Windows professionally for years and was a power user at home, let me supply some additional details,
Windows has become business software through and through. It can run fine enough if you go with a basic install and minimal tweaks through only the standard channels (like Group Policy) and this is probably what those people always loudly claiming “well I never have an issue!” are doing and then they’ll accuse you for bringing it on yourself from deviating from this.
But what everyone should understand, especially them, is that this is not how normal people use their computers and it’s utter bullshit that Microsoft continues to restrict people into this box. Most businesses don’t need hardly anything aside from Office and perhaps one or two industry specific applications, an overwhelming number of these being SaaS these days anyways. Normal people on the other hand use a wide variety of software for their businesses and hobbies in a wide array of configurations and what’s more, we enjoy personalizing our experiences on top of it, as we should! This unsurprisingly leads to more instability that Microsoft simply doesn’t want to take responsibility for.
People still complain about not being able to move the taskbar from the bottom of the screen and Microsoft apologists will say, “but it’s such a small thing!” And well, it is and that’s kind of my point; it’s a bellweather. I bet it’s a simple fix, they could do it, they could please people and provide further usability but they just don’t have to. How long has it gone unaddressed now? You want to play Call of Duty, you cretin? Lick our boots! And don’t even get me started on the whole SecureBoot/TPM 2.0 DRM lockdown issue.
I use Arch BTW and here’s my quick pitch for that. It really is a good distro for people of moderate or above skill level. I slowly built it out over time, bolted on each carefully selected piece of software from the repository, reading the wiki and making configurations as I went. In doing so, I gained a better understanding of Linux in general and my system in specific so on the rare occasions something does break, I don’t feel as clueless addressing it. The reason we all start to sound like cult-like zealots after awhile is because we’ve established a personal relationship with our computers; it is my friend again. It’s hard to understate the actual palpable relief that comes from cutting out a bloated, malicious corporation from that chain of trust with a machine we use in our daily lives.
It’s time to end Microsoft. Reach out, be helpful and welcoming in the Linux community. They’re losing balance, they’ve overplayed their hand on 11 and over-invested in AI and while I doubt we’d be lucky enough to be truly rid of them, we can see them suffer some real damage.
- Comment on Who plays like that x_x 9 months ago:
For me a lot of it depends on the perspective.
- For an FPS, I think non-inverted feels more comfortable. I generally just want the view window to move in the indicated direction, but I understand people that like it inverted.
- If it’s third person, I actually prefer completely inverted (including horizontal). Especially with something like Dark Souls where one stick controls the player and the other stick controls the camera. It’s more clear that the camera is an external entity and I’m controlling the angle, not the view window. It feels unpleasant and unnatural to me to push left and then also have the camera bend to the left.
- If it’s a rail shooter like Panzer Dragoon or something, we’re back to non-inverted. I’m controlling the absolute position of a targeting reticle and I just want it to move to where I want it to move.
- Comment on Weekly Recommendations Thread: What are you playing this week? 9 months ago:
Shadow Tower Abyss (PS2 - FromSoftware 2003)
There’s a growing trend in indie games for the King’s Field-likes; Lunacid, Dread Delusion, etc. I’m a huge fan and if anyone has any other good ones to recommend, please let me know!
But for this I thought I’d return to the roots. I’ve picked at King’s Field I (JP) and II a bit before and while I enjoy them, they’re overall still very clunky and I usually get distracted. I wasn’t sure how long I’d stick with Shadow Tower Abyss, but I feel like this one I may very well see through, I’m enjoying it quite a bit so far. That’s not to say it’s not still a clunky slog, and it’s certainly not for everyone, but there is real charm there.
(Scoring system: 1-5 being bad, OK, good, great, excellent with decimals being vibe based to push it closer to one rather than the other. For example 3.2 is meant to indicate a bit better than just good, but still not great. 3.8 might indicate close to great, but missing a few aspects that prevent it)
Sound: 3.2/5, Good. Like a lot of FromSoft games, there’s not really much music aside from the occasional musical sting which provides effective ambience. The sound design is minimal as well, but there are some very good moments of creepy thrumming, droning, and distant screeching that make it an intense environment to inhabit.
Graphics: 3.5/5, Good. What’s on display is generally competent and atmospheric, each new area has its own theme which is interesting to explore, but still, I feel like they could’ve done a lot more with the PS2 graphics. It’s certainly an improvement over King’s Field '94, but exactly how much is debatable …
The monster design is pretty good, everything has this kind of alien/abyssal feel to it. The overall theming is on point. Areas of the game have simple descriptions (i.e. Blue Light Area) that give the impression the player character is a foreign explorer rather than anyone with innate knowledge of this weird world. It’s a small aspect of world-building I appreciate.
Gameplay: 3.8/5, Good. Overall control still feels dated, but much less clunky than previous entries. The player moves at a brisk enough pace, but still slowly enough that you soak in the environment and progress feels meaningful. Being an older game you can’t really rebind the controls, but there are a variety of schemes including Type 4 which allow for the expected, modern dual analog stick looking/movement.
Combat can still be a little boxy and clunky but each weapon offers a left and right slash as well as an overhead bashing and frontal thrusting attack. Each weapon also has related stats for these types of attacks and enemies will have weaknesses or possible points of dismemberment making them vulnerable to particular attacks. Unlike some of the earlier King’s Field games, connecting attacks always feels good and has satisfying feedback.
The stats system is definitely very obtuse, even if you are familiar with From’s games and I recommend consulting a guide quickly before your first time playing. Again, as is very typical in From’s fashion, there isn’t an abundance of items but what exists is very deliberate. Money consists of these single large coins which you usually only find 1 or occasionally 2 at a time. Most things will only cost a handful of coins with healing potions being 2, boxes of ammo (for your gun!) being 1(?), and weapons and armor ranging anywhere from ~4-15. You’ll also find a plethora of items scattered throughout the game so there’s no shortage.
There is a unique balancing though as in order to heal yourself from the rare healing stations you have to sacrifice items for their value, although I’m early enough in the game that a basic Hat still seems to fully heal me from low health. In order to repair durability on your items from the rare purple repairing stations, you must sacrifice health with items like magic rings requiring sometimes more health than you currently have! This creates a tense and balanced management situation that feels like you might possibly softlock yourself by eating through too many resources, but so far hasn’t proved an issue for me. As a personal aside, I’m a big fan of playing games as they were designed so I’m doing my best to only save at the rare save points and not save state my way through the game, although this is of course up to your own tastes and discretion.
But is there a poison area with forced damage, I hear you ask? Yes, you fool, YES! Why would you even doubt it? Don’t let this discourage you though as understanding the stats system and equipping proper armor allows you to minimize the damage per poison tick such that it creates urgency as a pressure point more than a pain point. Definitely sacrificed a few lives just scouting the area out, though. Game Over means reload a save.
Summary/TL;DR Shadow Tower Abyss is a very competent dungeon crawler with a unique theme and atmosphere that’s worth exploring if you’d like to see historic FromSoft (it’s 20+ years old, as an ancient gamer I can use “historic” if I want). Miyazaki gets a lot of credit for modern From games and while a lot of that is certainly due, it’s fascinating to see how many of these deliberate design concepts have always been in their DNA.
As an aside, one day I’m going to write an entire essay on what makes a Soulslike a Soulsike. I missed the boat on the original hype and only got into them during COVID lockdown in 2020. I didn’t think I’d be a fan of the grueling, “git gud” experience but I’ve come to realize that’s not what makes those games interesting. It’s one concept and some people may find it unsatisfyingly vague, but it’s not the bonfires, or the losing souls on death, or the dodge rolling. It’s the stone-cold deliberateness. A lot of the difficulty from these games arises out of that deliberateness; what items you choose to equip and how you observe and approach unique situations. The games aren’t good because they’re hard, the specific design elements that make them hard are also the things that make them good.
- Comment on Lords of the Fallen 2 Will Be Revealed During Gamescom 10 months ago:
The Surge 1 & 2 are massively underrated. They’re not without their annoying issues but even despite them I can enthusiastically say I enjoyed my time with those games. 2 was a big improvement as well. I’ll get around to revisiting them sometime and doing a second playthrough.
I never even got terribly far in the first LotF, it just straight up did not feel good to play. Everything was just a bit too clunky and jank around the edges. I intended to check the second one out but never made it a priority, guess I never will.
I’d absolutely take a Surge 3 from the other guys though!
- Comment on High Score on DoDonPachi DaiFukkatsu 10 months ago:
Thanks! Yeah, only the first score extend. I’ve been trying to figure out the game on my own since I kinda treat these things as puzzles, but I think I’ve really maxed out what I can understand and it’s time I watch a video or two of a pro playing. I have a general concept of how things work, but I often forget where the hidden bees are. I’ve memorized a bunch of patterns but I still don’t really approach things with a “plan”, mostly just survive and pick up bees when/where I remember them. I also probably hold onto my hypers too long to use on the midboss and endboss, I could be more efficient with them.
Had no idea I was so far off on the scoring, though, oops. I can get the hidden extra on Stage 3 before getting the extend pretty easily, but I’ve only ever been able to get into Stage 5 twice as it is. I thought my barrier was skill, but maybe it’s scoring (AND skill). I appreciate the advice!
- Submitted 10 months ago to games@lemmy.world | 3 comments
- Comment on Any good Android games that aren't roguelikes? 10 months ago:
I really like The Quest for being a simple first person, dungeon crawler RPG. There’s an overworld and towns and a story, so it’s not just straight dungeon crawling. Nothing mold-breaking, but for a mobile game that I just want to fill some time when I have nothing else in my pockets, it absolutely does the trick.
- Comment on Games Where Nothing Happens (SPOILERS for various game plots) 10 months ago:
github.com/sayucchin/P2-EP-PSP/
This isn’t the CJ Iwakura patch, but if you’re not into fan translation drama that won’t mean a whole lot to you. It’s fine!
- Comment on Games Where Nothing Happens (SPOILERS for various game plots) 10 months ago:
This reminds me that there’s an official fan translation for Persona 2: Eternal Punishment PSP version. It has some many quality of life improvements I was holding off on completing the duology until it was available.
- Comment on Need a keyboard with a dedicated "slop" button 10 months ago:
Yeah, sorry, that wasn’t directed so much at you as it was using your post as a starting point.
I remember the Folding at Home program, that was more about distributed computing than AI. Game AI has been well-discussed for decades now, but in 99.9% of other AI cases it’s usually in reference to the current trend (or trying to ride that wave) and like 0.1% niche nerd talk you caught a stray from.
- Comment on Need a keyboard with a dedicated "slop" button 10 months ago:
I really don’t think there is any useful generative or general AI.
So a lot of the issue is how marketing got their slimy tentacles around the word, but most “useful” AI is domain specific, symbolic ML (machine learning). Even LLMs have their uses in very specific domains, but again, general usage is very questionable.
People are already somewhat familiar with ML, but that’s been kind of covered by the catch all term “algorithm”. What most people understand as “the” algorithm (YouTube, Twitter, whatever) isn’t a single algorithm, but a complex set of algorithms often at least partly compromised of some sort of ML.
All that to say, the general public really doesn’t need to know this stuff and the serious engineers couldn’t care less of our opinion of it. Fuck AI.
