The 2023 Backlog Challenge

[ConfusedCollector | 36]

On 7/23/2023 at 11:01 AM, Reed Rothchild said:

Yakuza Kiwami - 40.1% completion

Fun stuff.  Some rough, PS2-ish edges.  And some of the boss fights were a trainwreck.  And I fought Majima like 42 times, which got a little long in the tooth.  But overall a good time.

1. Elden Ring (10/10)
2. Hades (9.5/10)
3. Deathloop (9/10)
4. Baba Is You (9/10)
5. Gradius V (8.5/10)
6. Super Mario 3D World/Bowser's Fury (with the kids) (8.5/10)
7. God of War (8.5/10)
8. MGS: The Twin Snakes (8.5/10)
9. Resident Evil 2 (8.5/10)
10. Ori & the Will of the Wisps (8.5)
11. Ghost of Tsushima (8/10)
12. Sin & Punishment (8/10)
13. Nier Automata (8/10)
14. Dusk (8/10)
15. Into the Breach (8/10)
16. Deus Ex (7.5/10)
17. Hellblade (7.5/10)
18. Ace Attorney 2 (7.5/10)
19. Uncharted 4 (7.5/10)
20. Eternal Darkness (7.0/10)
21. Xenoblade (7.0/10)
22. Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold (7/10)
23. Yakuza Kiwami (7/10)
24. Resident Evil 3 (7/10)
25. Onimusha (7/10)
26. What Remains of Edith Finch (6.5/10)
27. Everblue 2 (6.5/10)
28. Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order (6.5/10)
29. Yoku's Island Express (6.5/10)
30. Pilotwings 64 (6.5/10)
31. Contra Shattered Soldier (6/10)
32. Strife (6/10)
33. A Short Hike (6/10)
34. Mischief Makers (6/10)
35. La Pucelle (5.5/10)
36. Buck Bumble (5.5/10)
37. Indigo Prophecy (5.5/10)
38. Yoshi's Story (4.5/10)
39. Winback (4/10)

TBD:

1. Shenmue (crap)
2. Paper Mario (decent)
3. Knights of the old Republic II
4. House of Fata Morgana (too early to tell)

Not started

1. Control
2. Nioh
3. Dark Souls II
4. Last of Us Part II
5. Danganronpa
6. Doom Eternal
7. Trails in the Sky
8. Ion Fury
9. Shadowgate
10. Prey

I gave up on that one, the beat em up style made my hands hurt on a ps4 controller.

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

Finally finished up A Way Out, which I've been working on with one of my good buddies for quite a while now. It's an interesting game with a strong ending, but gets bogged down by some lackluster gameplay in certain segments. The game has a tough time balancing story, co-op design, and gameplay. It really feels like the awkward teenage phase for Hazelight Studios and director Josef Fares. It improves upon a lot of the concepts from Brothers (a greatly overrated game in my opinion), but never coalesces into the magical feeling that It Takes Two somehow managed to carry for its entire length. 

Overall: 6.5/10. It's worth checking out if you're desperately searching for a modern a co-op game that offers slightly more story than your typical shooter. Just don't expect it to blow your mind and try not to be too disappointed when it inevitably does devolve into a typical co-op shooter. If you have the option, It Takes Two is better in every possible way.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,597]

I've been binging Dark Souls 2 for a couple weeks now.

I think every Soulsborne person either knows the game or knows the reputation, so not exactly a lot of revelations here.  But yeah, it has a lot of problems.  Questionable mechanics changes, lack of cohesion to the world map, subpar boss lineup, PS3-ish graphics, endless mobs of mobs, etc.

Still, even a weaker Souls game is like an 8/10 overall.  But after doing Elden Ring and Sekiro over the last year this definitely feels inferior in comparison.

Like, I bet I one-shot most of the bosses so far, and the hardest one yet (Smelter Demon) was still probably only like 5 attempts.

And why does it constantly eat my inputs for using a heal?  Drives me nuts.

Anyway, I'm aiming to do Bloodborne early next year, and then Dark Souls III around a year from now, and then I'll be caught up.

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

48 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

I've been binging Dark Souls 2 for a couple weeks now.

I think every Soulsborne person either knows the game or knows the reputation, so not exactly a lot of revelations here.  But yeah, it has a lot of problems.  Questionable mechanics changes, lack of cohesion to the world map, subpar boss lineup, PS3-ish graphics, endless mobs of mobs, etc.

Still, even a weaker Souls game is like an 8/10 overall.  But after doing Elden Ring and Sekiro over the last year this definitely feels inferior in comparison.

Like, I bet I one-shot most of the bosses so far, and the hardest one yet (Smelter Demon) was still probably only like 5 attempts.

And why does it constantly eat my inputs for using a heal?  Drives me nuts.

Anyway, I'm aiming to do Bloodborne early next year, and then Dark Souls III around a year from now, and then I'll be caught up.

I started Demon's Souls when the PS5 first released and only made it to the second level before moving my attention elsewhere so I think it's gonna be a long, long time until I make it to the newer games. Even with its problems, would you say it's still better than the Souls-like imitators?

[Reed Rothchild | 9,597]

6 minutes ago, DoctorEncore said:

I started Demon's Souls when the PS5 first released and only made it to the second level before moving my attention elsewhere so I think it's gonna be a long, long time until I make it to the newer games. Even with its problems, would you say it's still better than the Souls-like imitators?

So, because Im not caught up on the actual From games, I've ignored most of those.  Passed up Mortal Shell, The Surge, etc.  Maybe some day.

I do plan on playing Nioh here this fall. 

And I completed Jedi Fallen Order in the spring.  I gave it a 6.5, lower than any actual Soulsborne, because the mechanics, which are very similar to Sekiro, feel a lot less refined.  And the levels are a pain to traverse.  And the items are all cosmetics.  And the levelling system sucks.

But it's still a good game.  It's all relative.

[Brickman | 4,020]

3 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

I've been binging Dark Souls 2 for a couple weeks now.

I think every Soulsborne person either knows the game or knows the reputation, so not exactly a lot of revelations here.  But yeah, it has a lot of problems.  Questionable mechanics changes, lack of cohesion to the world map, subpar boss lineup, PS3-ish graphics, endless mobs of mobs, etc.

Still, even a weaker Souls game is like an 8/10 overall.  But after doing Elden Ring and Sekiro over the last year this definitely feels inferior in comparison.

Like, I bet I one-shot most of the bosses so far, and the hardest one yet (Smelter Demon) was still probably only like 5 attempts.

And why does it constantly eat my inputs for using a heal?  Drives me nuts.

Anyway, I'm aiming to do Bloodborne early next year, and then Dark Souls III around a year from now, and then I'll be caught up.

Yeah DS2 is definitely the weakest in the series. You can use an item that makes the game harder if you want a challenge. 

Dark Souls 3 is a good improvement but nothing beats the first in the series imo.

Bloodborne is amazing. You’ll have a lot of fun with that. You should drop DS2 and go play that instead 

[Foochie776 | 1,062]

I foolishly didn’t put Tears of the Kingdom on my list but that’s taken up most of my free time for a while now. 
 

I did finally upgrade my Switch online membership and started Oracle of Ages today which I’m enjoying so far. I’ve also put in some work on Super Mario Land 2, just needing to beat the last level. 
 

I plan to pick up (and finish) Yoshi’s Story this week. 

[Sumez | 2,995]

12 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

subpar boss lineup

On replaying DS2, I think the boss selection actually ended up being one of my favourites of the combined series. It tries to do a lot more odd things with the bosses than any of the other games, especially compared to BB or DS3 where a lot of the fights just expect the same repeated approach. And it all plays into the game's locations and moments really becoming some of the most memorable of the entire soulsborne franchise.

The bosses in DS2 are generally much easier than in the other games, but they also mostly require a different approach. A souls veteran will ace them without having to learn much of their patterns. The funny thing is, going into the game on release it was my third Souls game (because it was the third Souls game ever made), and I still hadn't figured out how the mechanics of rolling worked, so I made the game much harder on myself than it needed to be, and in that context the bosses were actually much harder than any of the previous games.

In short, DS2 bosses require you to abuse i-frames which none of the previous games do. But when you do, they become very easy.

11 hours ago, DoctorEncore said:

I started Demon's Souls when the PS5 first released and only made it to the second level before moving my attention elsewhere so I think it's gonna be a long, long time until I make it to the newer games. Even with its problems, would you say it's still better than the Souls-like imitators?

First of all, I'm not sure what the "problems" of Demon's Souls is, I'd be curious to hear this? I haven't played the remake, but I hear it plays pretty much exactly the same, and the original Demon's Souls is one of the best Souls games hands down, and an excellent place to start.

So yeah, it's easily better than any imitators, even Nioh which is really good.

Edited August 3, 2023 by Sumez

[Sumez | 2,995]

Bayonetta - Beaten 31/7

Playing DMC3 back to back with Bayonetta 1 is a little interesting, as the latter is pretty much Hideki Kamiya's own take on a follow-up to the Devil May Cry series that he co-created. Like I said previously, on one hand Bayonetta feels like a much more fluid and modern take on the action where everything just works more smoothly, and the controls feel more in line with how a human would actually hold the controller. But on the other hand it's almost "too smooth", and often feels like it's just playing itself.
The comparisons to DMC are in fact even more prevalent than I thought they would be, with the game featuring many of the exact same minor concepts just with a different name. Secret Missions are Alfheim, Orbs are Halos, Purple Stars are Purple Lollipops, Green Stars are Green Lollipops, etc.

One of the aspects that differ however, is that instead of one attack button applied in different situations, Bayonetta gives you two attack buttons, a punch and a kick. What's the difference between using one or the other? That's never really made clear, but you can string together a massive variety of different combos by switching out your attacks, doing moves like PPKKK, or PPKP, etc.
What's the difference of using one combo over another you ask? That's not really made clear either - and as a result I wager most people play the game simply by hammering punch and kick randomly, with the same results.

However most combos end with a special finisher where a giant boot or fist comes out of nowhere to deal massive damage to the enemy, so ultimately what you want is reaching that point as reliably as possible, which means a short Punch-Kick-Punch combo is gonna be your bread and butter throughout this game.
There are other combinations which can help with crowd control, but usually enemies that are flimsy enough to be juggled around anyway, tend to be too little of a risk anyway that there is rarely much advantage in not just finishing them off. If you want to increase your damage output, you can hold down an attack button to extend each attack depending on the weapon you have equipped (like a shooting salvo from a gun), which is a pretty cool feature, but IMO it only further detracts from the value of having so many other different attack variations to rely on.

If you spend hundreds of hours playing Bayonetta, you'll probably learn how and when to vary your attacks in order to gain slight advantages, or at least look cooler - but the ultimate effect of oversaturating the move list to such a degree is that it forces me to flat out just ignore the majority of them, which doesn't do the game any favors. I'm sure there's a really deep system in there, but it's even less prevalent to me than it was in DMC3 due to how approachable it is to just play the game mashing buttons.

The other big departure from Devil May Cry's mechanics is that Bayonetta has a dedicated dogde button. Since simply jumping is usually enough to dodge most attacks in DMC, this might seem like a minor difference, but it allows you to cancel pretty much anything you're doing into an evasive maneuver that you can easily follow up with further attacks without ever breaking your flow, and there is usually not much need to consider your defensive options while being on the offense as long as you know when to throw in a dodge.

The game emphasises this by rewarding a well timed dodge with a "Witch Time" slowdown period which can be used to safely counterattack with a style bonus to your combo meter on top. Although it is possible to play without Witch Time entirely, the game really wants you to use it, which often gives the game a "dodge-to-win" feel where the timing of the input is more important than your spatial positioning, another aspect I'm not massively fond of. This is especially prominent in the game's major boss fights which are often entirely about knowing when to push dodge.

Of course fighting stuff is only one half of Bayonetta.

The other half is watching extremely long cutscenes which constantly intercut the action before, after, and repeatedly within stages to the point where you will often forget you're playing a game. 
And it's not like the story is particularly grand either. Well, there's the overall mythological worldbuilding which is fairly cool, a version of heaven and hell, but with each side basically just being their own equal variation of weird demons that want control over the other. And then there's the story of the amnesiac main character herself, who she is and what her purpose is. And finally there's the actual events of the game, which is entirely isolated to four-to-five characters running around doing goofy antics without any sort of a plan until they eventually end up at a final boss.
The focus in all those scenes is so at odds with the actual story the game wants to tell that it creates that super awkward dissonance that only video games (think they) can get away with. The story scenes are typically quite comedic in nature, and honestly sort of funny, even if they mostly just rely on sexual jokes. But as for purveying a story, it feels mostly like a waste of time, and the game could easily have done away with at least 75% of it, and focus more on gameplay instead.

[Foochie776 | 1,062]

I blew through Yoshi’s Story.. which I’ll do a review of tomorrow and I am 64 Jiggy’s into Banjo Kazooie. I’ve played the game a handful of times but never got 100% so I’ll sure I will have that done over the weekend.

 

Oracle of Ages is better than expected so far 

[Reed Rothchild | 9,597]

I accidently beat Dark Souls 2 because I didn't realize I was at the end of the game.  Haven't done most of the DLC, and I'm unsure if I'm gonna do it now-ish, or shelve it and move on in the backlog.

1. Elden Ring (10/10)
2. Hades (9.5/10)
3. Deathloop (9/10)
4. Baba Is You (9/10)
5. Gradius V (8.5/10)
6. Super Mario 3D World/Bowser's Fury (with the kids) (8.5/10)
7. God of War (8.5/10)
8. MGS: The Twin Snakes (8.5/10)
9. Resident Evil 2 (8.5/10)
10. Ori & the Will of the Wisps (8.5)
11. Ghost of Tsushima (8/10)
12. Sin & Punishment (8/10)
13. Nier Automata (8/10)
14. Dusk (8/10)
15. Into the Breach (8/10)
16. Dark Souls II (8/10)
17. Deus Ex (7.5/10)
18. Hellblade (7.5/10)
19. Ace Attorney 2 (7.5/10)
20. Uncharted 4 (7.5/10)
21. Eternal Darkness (7.0/10)
22. Xenoblade (7.0/10)
23. Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold (7/10)
24. Yakuza Kiwami (7/10)
25. Resident Evil 3 (7/10)
26. Onimusha (7/10)
27. What Remains of Edith Finch (6.5/10)
28. Everblue 2 (6.5/10)
29. Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order (6.5/10)
30. Yoku's Island Express (6.5/10)
31. Pilotwings 64 (6.5/10)
32. Contra Shattered Soldier (6/10)
33. Strife (6/10)
34. A Short Hike (6/10)
35. Mischief Makers (6/10)
36. La Pucelle (5.5/10)
37. Buck Bumble (5.5/10)
38. Indigo Prophecy (5.5/10)
39. Yoshi's Story (4.5/10)
40. Winback (4/10)

TBD:

1. Shenmue (crap)
2. Paper Mario (decent)
3. Knights of the old Republic II
4. House of Fata Morgana (too early to tell)

Not started

1. Control
2. Nioh
3. Last of Us Part II
4. Danganronpa
5. Doom Eternal
6. Trails in the Sky
7. Ion Fury
8. Shadowgate
9. Prey

[Sumez | 2,995]

5 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

I accidently beat Dark Souls 2 because I didn't realize I was at the end of the game.  Haven't done most of the DLC, and I'm unsure if I'm gonna do it now-ish, or shelve it and move on in the backlog.

On one hand, the DS2 DLC feels completely removed from the rest of the game. The boss fights and level design is completely different in nature, and feels much more in line with the upcoming Bloodborne and DS3. So playing them is absolutely not an integral part of "playing DS2" IMO.

On the other hand, they are incredibly good, much better than the base game. Each of them are much more substantial and well designed than the DS1 DLC, if you played that. And there are three of them. They can easily be considered a separate standalone entry in the Dark Souls franchise. 

That said, each of them also has a separate area clearly designed with coop play in mind. I'd recommend just skipping those areas entirely, no one likes them. Especially not frigid outskirts. 

[ConfusedCollector | 36]

On 8/5/2023 at 7:39 PM, Reed Rothchild said:

I accidently beat Dark Souls 2 because I didn't realize I was at the end of the game.  Haven't done most of the DLC, and I'm unsure if I'm gonna do it now-ish, or shelve it and move on in the backlog.

1. Elden Ring (10/10)
2. Hades (9.5/10)
3. Deathloop (9/10)
4. Baba Is You (9/10)
5. Gradius V (8.5/10)
6. Super Mario 3D World/Bowser's Fury (with the kids) (8.5/10)
7. God of War (8.5/10)
8. MGS: The Twin Snakes (8.5/10)
9. Resident Evil 2 (8.5/10)
10. Ori & the Will of the Wisps (8.5)
11. Ghost of Tsushima (8/10)
12. Sin & Punishment (8/10)
13. Nier Automata (8/10)
14. Dusk (8/10)
15. Into the Breach (8/10)
16. Dark Souls II (8/10)
17. Deus Ex (7.5/10)
18. Hellblade (7.5/10)
19. Ace Attorney 2 (7.5/10)
20. Uncharted 4 (7.5/10)
21. Eternal Darkness (7.0/10)
22. Xenoblade (7.0/10)
23. Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold (7/10)
24. Yakuza Kiwami (7/10)
25. Resident Evil 3 (7/10)
26. Onimusha (7/10)
27. What Remains of Edith Finch (6.5/10)
28. Everblue 2 (6.5/10)
29. Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order (6.5/10)
30. Yoku's Island Express (6.5/10)
31. Pilotwings 64 (6.5/10)
32. Contra Shattered Soldier (6/10)
33. Strife (6/10)
34. A Short Hike (6/10)
35. Mischief Makers (6/10)
36. La Pucelle (5.5/10)
37. Buck Bumble (5.5/10)
38. Indigo Prophecy (5.5/10)
39. Yoshi's Story (4.5/10)
40. Winback (4/10)

TBD:

1. Shenmue (crap)
2. Paper Mario (decent)
3. Knights of the old Republic II
4. House of Fata Morgana (too early to tell)

Not started

1. Control
2. Nioh
3. Last of Us Part II
4. Danganronpa
5. Doom Eternal
6. Trails in the Sky
7. Ion Fury
8. Shadowgate
9. Prey

Man, you are slaying your backlog this year.

[Sumez | 2,995]

Kaze and the Wild Masks - Beaten 1/8

I seem to have stumbled into quite a lot of platformers without this year. I didn't really know what Kaze was going into it, I just saw it looked nice and generally people have been talking really positively about it.
Surprising, given the current climate in indie video games, it's not a metroidvania nor any such thing, relying on exploration, unlocking skills or whatnot, but is instead a completely traditional, straight-forward linear platformer, seperated into individual stages. In that sense it feels both quite refreshing while also being extremely basic and traditional. This is appreciated.

What. You're telling me this looks familiar??

Maybe some people would find it a little too traditional? The game is extremely derivative, feeling much like a stereotype of what western developed platformers usually looked like in the 90s, straight out of the Amiga. Samey grassy platforms everywhere, and lots of gems to collect along the way, as was dictated by the coins of Super Mario Bros.
Mechanically the game takes a few cues from Crash Bandicoot, which is funny coming straight from that series, but overall it feels more closely related to the Donkey Kong Country series, and has a similar focus on collecting items throughout stages. Not to mention at least two of the eponymous masks are literally the animal companions from that series.

Each stage has three types of collectibles, though they are quite similar. 100 red gems are the "Mario coins". Each stage usually has more than 100 giving them some leeway, and they are largely there to reward an optimal route through the stage and not taking too many hits - while four "K-A-Z-E" letters tend to offer a slight additional challenge, again this is straight-up the K-O-N-G letters from DKC. There are also two bonus rounds hidden on every stage, often easy to miss, each presenting a small challenge that when completed will help unlock extra optional stages on the world map.
Each of those challenges are represented by an individual colored gem, and you'll most likely get them all in one or two runs through a stage. More interesting, however is that the game will also recognize beating a stage without taking a single hit, and replaying stages also allows enabling a time attack mode, where all pick-ups on a stage are removed. These two approaches are actually the most fun way to play a stage, since they challenge your familiarity with the stage, and ability to execute it mostly flawlessly. The time attacks actually have a lot of leeway, often allowing you to screw up multiple jumps and still making the gold medal with 5 to 10 seconds on the clock. But they are still tight enough to reward staying with a stage long enough to become intimitely familiar with it, rather than just brute forcing your way through the game with its infinite lives system.

And it's great, because the game actually has a really fantastic sense of flow through each stage, which only starts to really show a few stages into the game, where each of them become dedicated to their own unique gimmick. Typically those are tested-and-tried platformer tropes, such as springs, wind, ziplines, or lamps that turn off over time. Even the underwater stages and the equivalent of an autoscrolling minecart stage, are actually really fun to play in the hands of the talented people who made Kaze. While playing through, I rarely moved on to the next stage until having finished every challenge in the previous one, which I'd probably recommend in general, but it's cool that you can also just return to a stage later to pick up the "no damage" badge - just do yourself a favor and don't miss out on it.

Honestly the only thing I'm not a big fan of is the boss fights, they follow the same design as many DKC bosses, where you'll just be dodging attacks for a long while until you get to the one point where it goes into a state that can be damaged, and then repeat the dodging at a higher difficulty. I always find it tedious when the boss controls the entire pace of the fight, especially for fights that last this long, playing out completely deterministic patterns. That said, the dodging challenges are as well designed as the rest of the game, and consistently fun, so it's a faint complaint. And the final boss is actually really, really cool.

The graphics are obviously beautiful, and do their job even better than it looks, with precision and hitboxes always feeling completely on-point, and unlike the DKC games, all your actions actually come out at a split-second's notice, making it feel a lot more responsive. The music is a very loving homage to David Wise's best works, though with very strong qualities of its own as well.
If you are a fan of "DKC-likes", Kaze is easily the best of its ilk since Tropical Freeze. What it lacks in extranous production value compared to that game, it maintains in basic solid video game deisgn. And yeah, Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair has absolutely nothing on this game.
 

[Reed Rothchild | 9,597]

10 hours ago, ConfusedCollector said:

Man, you are slaying your backlog this year.

Let's just say I have a window here and need to take advantage

[Foochie776 | 1,062]

Yoshi’s Story is done.  

 

I wanted to play this because I have always enjoyed Yoshi games but this one was.. a little different. I didn’t dislike the game but it was different. I know Yoshi games are notorious for their lack of challenge but this one just seemed far too easy. Though I do have to say one of the levels where I had to use the worms to climb up the level did frustrate me greatly.  

 

I will say the game is very aesthetically pleasing and it has some charm. I just had a high bar set because I enjoyed Wooly World and Crafted World so much that this one just fell short. 

[Reed Rothchild | 9,597]

Made it chapter 4 in Paper Mario, a game I've been working on since January.  Been slow going, but I'll share those thoughts once I wrap it up.

Found a $7 steam code for Trails in the Sky, so I'll be playing it on my laptop soon.

Been rocking Doon Eternal the last few nights.  You know how @Tanooki is always going on about games and button kung fu?  Well, here's a game where that's actually true.  Like with the Doom Remake you need to be constantly moving around as fast as possible.

Now you also have a double dash, in addition to the double jump.  And this whole gymnast thing.

And you have a regenerating grenade that you want to make heavy use of with it's own dedicated button.

And the chainsaw now regenerates and needs to be used liberally to spawn ammo.  Dedicated button.

And there's a flamethrower used to spawn armor drops.  Dedicated button.

And the melee attacks, for spawning health.  Dedicated button.

And the secondary fire, and weapon wheel. 

At any given moment you're probably pressing all of the buttons.

Good stuff.

[Sumez | 2,995]

I touched on that issue with the game in my own writeup earlier in this very thread. Ultimately I think you need to actively limit yourself to a certain subset of the weapons and skills until you find yourself intuitively comfortable enough with that selection to expand it a bit.

Honestly you're probably better off only using one type of grenade for the entire game. They become hell a lot more useful when you upgrade the cooldown to be short enough that it's never a factor you have to consider. 

[Reed Rothchild | 9,597]

26 minutes ago, Sumez said:

I touched on that issue with the game in my own writeup earlier in this very thread. Ultimately I think you need to actively limit yourself to a certain subset of the weapons and skills until you find yourself intuitively comfortable enough with that selection to expand it a bit.

Honestly you're probably better off only using one type of grenade for the entire game. They become hell a lot more useful when you upgrade the cooldown to be short enough that it's never a factor you have to consider. 

The fact I have to sink so many suit resources into any particular grenade upgrade makes it feel like it's better to focus on just one of them.

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

5 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Made it chapter 4 in Paper Mario, a game I've been working on since January.  Been slow going, but I'll share those thoughts once I wrap it up.

Found a $7 steam code for Trails in the Sky, so I'll be playing it on my laptop soon.

Been rocking Doon Eternal the last few nights.  You know how @Tanooki is always going on about games and button kung fu?  Well, here's a game where that's actually true.  Like with the Doom Remake you need to be constantly moving around as fast as possible.

Now you also have a double dash, in addition to the double jump.  And this whole gymnast thing.

And you have a regenerating grenade that you want to make heavy use of with it's own dedicated button.

And the chainsaw now regenerates and needs to be used liberally to spawn ammo.  Dedicated button.

And there's a flamethrower used to spawn armor drops.  Dedicated button.

And the melee attacks, for spawning health.  Dedicated button.

And the secondary fire, and weapon wheel. 

At any given moment you're probably pressing all of the buttons.

Good stuff.

Doom Eternal is one of the best FPS games ever made. I've never had a game work every part of my brain simultaneously like that. It's so good and so different from everything else that it's almost in its own genre. It's a puzzle-rhythm-shooter-platformer and I loved every second of it.

[Webhead123 | 687]

6 hours ago, DoctorEncore said:

Doom Eternal is one of the best FPS games ever made. I've never had a game work every part of my brain simultaneously like that. It's so good and so different from everything else that it's almost in its own genre. It's a puzzle-rhythm-shooter-platformer and I loved every second of it.

Once you get into Eternal's "zone", it becomes almost a ballet of carnage and it is glorious. Seriously one of the most impressive modern FPS experiences I've ever had. The Marauders and Doom Hunters are my only real gripe, as they tend to force you to stop your beautiful dance of death and play to their very rigid, patterned attacks...but otherwise, just about every moment of the game is pure adrenaline-fueled joy.

Going back to play Doom (2016) after Eternal makes 2016 feel positively sluggish and cumbersome by comparison...and that's a game that was (rightly) lauded for how it reinvigorated the modern FPS formula. That's saying something.

Edited August 10, 2023 by Webhead123

[Sumez | 2,995]

The Doom Hunters? I don't know what you're doing, but I just fill them with lead. They are a good place to unload some of the bigger ballistics, especially because you usually want them at a distance anyway.

[Webhead123 | 687]

9 hours ago, Sumez said:

The Doom Hunters? I don't know what you're doing, but I just fill them with lead. They are a good place to unload some of the bigger ballistics, especially because you usually want them at a distance anyway.

I only mean that when they show up, they change the flow of the game. They're not difficult, just tedious damage sponges and I don't find fighting them very enjoyable...at least, relative to the rest of Eternal.

[Foochie776 | 1,062]

Banjo Kazooie is done! 
 

This game was always been a favorite of mine. I’ve been playing it since I was a kid but never 100% it. The closest I came was years ago I did 100/100 Jiggies and 896/900 on the notes. I missed four in Click Clock Wood and couldn’t bring myself to try again. 
 

I loved the game as a kid and I love it now. Can’t recommend it enough.

 

Kirby 64 will probably be next, otherwise I may try and start Super Mario 64. LoZ Oracle of Ages is still a work in progress!

[Sumez | 2,995]

I wish I could keep my write-ups as short as you guys, maybe people would actually read them then