SleepingSilence

What shows/movies are you watching?

I made the mistake of being bored and watching a YA novel adaption called "Panic". (It's bad.)

And to save you the time I wasted, here's the plot and I'll let YOU guess what the twist is.

There's a small town where (30 year old actors playing) teenagers run a super secret game that everyone in town knows about. Except the police. Yes that already doesn't make any sense. But hear me out. And these "tradition of games" have lead to reported injury, death, and crime. Where dozens of teenagers are apparently stupid enough to kill themselves over 50 grand.

BUT, ya see, there's a twist. Someone is secretly behind a conspiracy to...what? How did you guess that the bad guy was the cop? I haven't explained the rest of the plot yet and-

Video Games: The General Discussion & Community Thread Number Two

@Dark Cloud Would depend on your definition, I suppose. :P

It certainly seems like a visual eyesore in the beginning. But it does open up and change its look in places. But there's just other games in the genre that I'd rather play/have better online receptions. Including ones I got for the steam sale.

Video Games: The General Discussion & Community Thread Number Two

I watch Switch Up, for reviews since they do rather good reviews

@Dark Cloud

And now I will attempt to do so, too.

Since you mentioned Salt & Sanctuary. I find it interesting that the game and its sequel seem to be divisive. In that, reviewers who didn't care for the first game, like Zero Punctuation. Praise the second one for its improvements. (But another youtuber who said the first was his favorite game in the genre. Explained why the 2nd isn't even a good game by comparison.) And that mindset seems present on the internet in general.

Similarly to a game I've been on-and-off interested in playing, Axiom Verge (and not its sequel). Where if you like one, you'll likely be disappointed in the other. In how Axiom Verge 2 doesn't even sound like a very good game in concept. But the first one seems like it might actually be worth playing. (To me.) If I wasn't blinded by how hard it is to look at.

Feedback Please!

It's not that most writers, don't write. It's just that they usually don't read. Or want to improve. Or want to help others improve. Or edit...

But I gave the piece a fair shake. And I sent you a PM.

Video Games: The General Discussion & Community Thread Number Two

But I'm losing my fucking mind rn waiting for SAO: Fatal Bullet to go on sale again or at least Triangle Strategy gets a discount ffs.

@Dark Cloud

I really want Metroid Dread on sale. Since I'm almost certain that I'd like it. But when I can easily get three to five games for the same price on Steam. It's quite a tough sell to purchase one $60 game. Or god forbid $70 on other modern consoles. (Especially for games that aren't Skyrim-long in terms of 'bang for your buck' content.)

Hollow Knight does have a lot of extra goodies in it. (Ala the end game boss runs, that will surely take some time to complete.) But I'd say its easily the best game for atmosphere, soundtrack & a fair challenge.(That I've played in a while, anyway.) It's my Ori and The Blind Forest. For everyone who claimed that game was the best thing since sliced bread.

If you want recommendations for the future. I've gotten (and ignored) several games because of this youtuber who does no damage boss runs of a bunch of games. youtube.com/c/Gellot/videos (If you don't mind the spoilers, I guess.)

Video Games: The General Discussion & Community Thread Number Two

>Steam Summer Sales be like

OH MY GOD, MY ENTIRE STEAM WISHLIST IS ON SALE! *mouth gargling/foaming sounds*

Just when I finished a decent chunk of my backlog. I got me a few more games to play. Maybe more, depending on how broke I'd like to become.

Death's Gambit: Afterlife.

Yes I will finally fork over 16$ for Hollow Knight, to please my friends who 'bug' me about it. xD

@Dark Cloud

Let me know how that plays, if you do.

And it's been $15 since release. GEDDIT! (ya know if ya want.) It's fun. :P

A cultured [INSERT TOPIC HERE] discussion thread

Video Games: The General Discussion & Community Thread Number Two

@Fabricant451
It was labeled a rant.

I likely expressed my issues with this game better a year prior. Especially when I played and compared it to the new Dead Cells' gameplay loop.

Honestly, I've never felt like any death in Hades was something I did wrong and could've easily avoided.

So without any consistent ability to heal in the beginning. (Something that I just don't like.) The environmental damage, spam mobs, or smaller enemies that charge you from off camera, tend to steal your HP, lil by lil. (Unless you're doing particularly well. And then this game will throw some extra hard/damage sponge mini-bosses at you.)

Plus, due to no fault of its own, my Switch controller must really not like this game. Because it stick drifts and fucks up at critical moments, more than any other game I've ever played. So a single moment where my stick drifts off into the lava on level two, even after all the enemies are dead, and oops half your health is gone. Thus, it feels like positioning somewhere (where AI pathfinding fails it) and camping, is almost always the most effective method to dispose of the mobs.

And that "never should've happened" moment tends to end every single one of my runs. Like my first time losing to Meg, was because of her 'surround you with four death circles'. Where one dodge often failed to keep me from taking damage. Opposed to my very next time, where you can upgrade for a double dash. And I never lost to her, ever again.

Or the second boss (who I beat on my first try). Seemed very hard to "figure out a pattern for", when all I saw was spam seeking missiles, random environmental hazards, and several far ranged attacks coming from off-screen in varied directions.

So I dunno. Each boss feels like "you haven't gotten enough upgrades" road blocks. That all boil down to "kill them before they kill you." (And I know how that sounds.) But it feels like your meant to be strong/lucky enough to tank all their off screen spam attacks, until you have more health and luck than they do. Then you can succeed and pray you run into enough health upgrades/rooms before your next paddling.

And maybe if the story or characters were strong enough to grip me, then I'd learn to love bashing my head against the wall. (Git gud. So to speak.) But it takes far too long to go anywhere, even if it does.

Though I know I'm in the minority with this game. (I know it was at least once your GOTY.) But no, "the gameplay loop feels like a chore to me" is the most accurate way to sum up my feelings toward this game. I can understand feeling engaged and addicted, like a MMORPG or mobile idle game. Where you will ever-so-slowly progress to certain victory. But if I do happen to ever beat Hades. I'll likely call it quits there and never touch it again... Everyone's a critic.

(I guess I technically did that with Pyre too. Despite having a much better time with that/enjoying its story & characters far more. Plus, I usually play to completion once and then never again.) But it feels like the end game of Hades *is* the real game. Especially since you have to beat/repeat all the content ten times over, to see the 'true ending'.)

And how can you not become repetitive, when you're forced to go through a game that many times? *Shrugs*

And maybe if there more of the weapons and etc, unlocked from the very start. I'd agree that it gives you more than enough variety to get anyone through the game. But that's my two cents again. (Frankly I feel that way about other games I enjoy playing more. Like Risk Of Rain 2, would be infinity better with more characters unlocked from the start. But no, the worst or least interesting weapon or character is always what roguelikes start you off with...)

Sorry, this post is long as fuck.

Post a random fact about yourself.

This month summed up.

I cannot find volunteer work for the life of me. Despite seeing how nearly everyone around me is still hiring/looking for people to fill out jobs. A thing I would've very much loved, when I first got out of school.

I paid $200 for the privilege of having the vet almost kill my cat at his dentist appointment. Only for a single tooth to be cleaned in the process.

And I'm very glad that I'm not renting anymore.

Video Games: The General Discussion & Community Thread Number Two

Undertale can be a little bit pretentious at times. I know. Hot takes. But it's ultimately very "cute" and charming. (As someone who finished a true pacifist run, and will not do a genocide run, because I'd feel too bad.)

There's a bunch of games that I put on hold, because I felt like it was taking too long to get to "the fun". (Or the controls were just garbage/clunky at best.) But I reinstalled Hades. Since I never got around to finishing it. Can't imagine why, for how much universal praise that it received...

Hades Rant

Is it wrong to want to play a game to, ya know, have fun/actually win? Because I'm pretty open to challenges in games. (Much as I suck at the vast majority of 'em.) But, I feel like "losing" in games should be, because you as a player, can get better at them.

So when I die in Dark Souls or whatever else. Its because of my lack of knowledge or some fucked up hitboxes. But in Slay The Spire, it's various flavors of 'why and how you're going to lose'. Same feeling with Hades. It's never, "Oh, I was fairly bested and I'll get them next time!". It's "Yep. I lost because of this bullshit. And I learned absolutely nothing."

You don't get better at Hades. You die to make the game easier/get better RNG drops. (Until you've played enough to become one of those "Yeah, it gets better after forty hours" people. I'm kidding. Kind of.) I mean, I understand that the game is content-rich. And it's just engaging enough to play. But honestly, I get to moments like Eurydice. And I do genuinely enjoy those moments. The parts where I don't do the endless repeating combat arenas/play the game. But all the nice music, voice acting, dog petting and set dressing aside. The actual gameplay feels like a chore to me.

And my own personal pet peeve, is when I look up information about the game and find absolutely nothing useful/honest in the responses. I.E. When someone asks "What do you think is the best weapon is? Or, "What are some of your best and favorite builds?" Or, "Help, I'm stuck on this?" and I see hundreds of "Every. Single. Thing. Is. Perfectly Balanced. There is no bad. Only good. There is no explanation to help you."

It only annoys me to no end. Because its bullsh*t, and I don't think "spoiling" little things about a game, do anything but improve the person's chances of enjoying the rest of it.

Example: Don't tell me that Deepnest is any less terrifying in Hollow Knight, because new players look up "Holy shit. I fell into the darkness and I have no skills. Save me!" and can easily find directions on where to go.

All games have answers, exploits, and min-max ways to play them. So you don't have to pretend that they don't.

(After writing this, I've realized that I already grieved about this game a year prior. But it has not improved with time and hindsight.)

---

Today I will purchase Vaporum, it's very hardcore from the gameplay I've seen.

@Dark Cloud

How is the game treating you? (If you've played it.)

And, because you asked earlier, Underhero (thus far) has been quite an enjoyable experience. The humor and subversive elements in the writing are on point.