No.4573 SYSTEMKONTRA [Last 50 Posts]
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Pirates vs Royal Fleet edition
No.4574
P.S. thread number 2
No.4579
>Pirates
Man, I loved that game as a kid, played it into oblivion. Did you know that you could score more than 100 points in the end, despite it said "of 100 points", and only needing like 95 for the highest rank "King's Advisor". I think my best was 127 or something. I loved attacking with small ships, like Barques, or Sloops when they became available in later ages. For the big 'uns Frigates or Fast Galleons were the ship of choice, but those could be hard to come by sometimes, so they were always the single ship I always kept thoughout my career. Also you could extend your campaign when your crew was inevitably getting mad after a while by attacking a strong city and intentionally losing a sizable chunk of your crew, so the rest would be happy because of their increased share they'd get when you divide the plunder. Also I still know the map by heart, don't even need to double-check that this is Tortuga (Haiti), with Santiago (Cuba) in the West, Port Royale (Jamaica) in the Southwest, Port-au-Prince and Leogane (both not in all ages) in the South (still Haiti), Eleuthera and Grand Bahama in the North, temporarily also Nassau, and San Juan (Puerto Rico) in considerable distance to the East.
Yes, I'm a huge autist about this game.
No.4587 KONTRA
Pirates reminded me about an old game called Merien Valtias. It was fully localized to Finnish which was incredibly rare. Don't think it was developed here.
If I recall correctly you played as a nation state, managed your coastal cities and fleets, traded and used diplomacy, as well as battle hostile naval forces and coastal fortresses.
Found an article from Pelit lehti (Games magazine), published 1998. Only got 61/100 points. Main criticism was that there's no story and it gets boring after a while. I enjoyed making my own stories and had a great time with it.
Here's the source, in Finnish of course.
https://www.pelit.fi/artikkelit/merien-valtias/ No.5307
>>5302Good choice, it's one of the better titles in the series, Hironobu Sakaguchi even said it was his favourite part. Gameplay is pretty straightforward, if I remember correctly equipment teaches you abilities, and if you earned enough AP or something, you will have that ability ready even without having it equipped. You still have to activate it, and you can only distribute a given amount of points to your special abilities, so it's always good to know which enemies are around, so that you can equip bird killer for flying enemies, clear headed for enemies that use confusion, and things like that. Surely beats the junction system of FF8. Also Vivi's focus ability can be used multiple times, so if you're in a boss fight and he's about to trance, do focus a few times, wait for the last hit and then rape the boss with Dbl Blk.
No.6444
>>6345Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror was my favorite. Finished it. Played a lot of
Madden NFL against my brother. Usually lost. Also loved
Prince of Persia:Rival Swords. Got stuck against a giant and quit.
Burnout:Legends was good. Played it to kill time with quick races. Also
KLAX.
No.6556
>>6550Is that a button masher "game" or do you just hammer your peripherals?
No.6560
>>6550IMO, Holocure is just as comfortable on a controller as it is on keyboard+mouse. You don't need precise aiming or something like in FPS games, just use the right stick to aim, d-pad to move and right trigger for special.
>Logitech F310Not really sure about this one anymore. I used them for a long time (borrowed one from a friend, then bought my own because I liked it, and then another one when it started to fail), but it seems that their quality started to drop while the price stayed the same. My first one worked for about five years until it started having mechanical problems, while the second one only worked two years, and now the cord is fucked, the L1 button is fucked and ABYX buttons start to get stucked (again) and I have nothing to repair them with because I already used the membrane from my old controller. Apparently a lot of people having problems with these controllers too, if comments on online stores are to be believed. So I guess it's better either to just buy no name chinkshit which would have the quality but would be two to three times cheaper, or splurge some more and buy an Xbox/PS/Nintendo controller or something (I bought Xbox controller recently; we'll see if it fail just as fast as Logitech).
No.6562
>>6560>we'll see if it fail just as fast as LogitechI bought controllers (all wired) for 360, One, and recently "Series" or whatever the latest iteration of Xboxes is called. They all survived years of daily use. Would buy again.
t. not a shill
No.6567
>>6562All of my four original PS1 gamepads still work with the exception of one where the L2 and R2 buttons are broken. Those controllers were bought between 1997 and 1999.
I know this because last month I played Tekken 3 on my old PS1 with a friend.
Half of my PS2 gamepads are broken.
100% of my PS3 and PS4 gamepads still work perfectly.
I've never touched a controller from the XB360 or newer generations, only the two versions of original Xbox controllers. But I've never owned any of them, just played with them at a friends, so I can't really compare the quality due to bias of familiarity.
I'm familiar with all gamepads from Nintento up to and including the Wii, and I will say with confidence that the best of those is the Gamecube controller.
t. not a shill
No.6568
>>6567Addendum: On my PC I exclusively use the PS4 gamepad as that is the best gamepad I have ever gotten used to and it works perfectly on Linux (the driver is native to the kernel, you don't even have to install anything, as is the case with all PS gamepads)
No.6570
I hate the stick/button layout differences in comparison to the XBox pads. Of course that's personal preference, I'm not saying either solution is objectively better.
No.6571
>>6570Also adding something: The convex stick tops of PS1 through 3 were a stupid idea. The couple of times I used them my thumbs slipped off after a while.
t. sweaty
No.6573 KONTRA
>>6571I have that controller on the right, can recommend. Though after years of use the usb connector is a bit unstable and the left stick has worn out so much it's almost flat. Mainly use it for rally drivings so the stick has suffered the most.
T. Shill of many things
No.6574
>>6572>You mean like left stick and d-pad being switched compared to PS controllers? I thought I would hate it too, but after a while it felt fine.I gave it a fair chance, I'm not just ranting without any proof. But seriously, it hurt my thumb.
No.6581 KONTRA
>>6577The original Xbox controller S version is my favorite. Duke was a bit unwieldy because of the far placement of black and white buttons. Overall very comfy though. S version fixed that and was way ahead of the competition. The latest controllers might be a bit better in every aspect than the S. But in context their improvements since then are incremental, rather than
revolutionary, like Duke and S were.
Duke was like a sofa for your hands, dawg.
No.6586
>>6581> Duke was a bit unwieldy because of the far placement of black and white buttons.Never really used that one myself aside from a couple of minutes at demonstration "booths" in electronics shops. Do these things even still exist today? I honestly have no idea.
No.6593
>>6588I meant the consoles hooked up to screens to try out in stores by "do they exist", not the controllers.
No.7102
I am considering to buy a PS5 just to play Baldur's Gate 3 at this point
No.7115
>>7102Why not play on PC?
If you get a PS5, I strongly suggest to also look at Final Fantasy 16, even if you've never had an interest in FF. Also, for buying consoles games second-hand I can recommend rebuy.de (they also have controllers and consoles, but the PS5 is a bit new for that)
No.7116
>>7102>>7115>Why not play on PC?This. And FFXVI is available on PC too. Buying a console in this day and age isn't really justified, because most of the "big" games also come out on PC. The only console worthy of consideration is Switch, because it actually has some exclusives, but then again, if you hate Mario/Pokemans/Kirby etc. there's no point in buying it either.
No.7128
>>7115>Why not play on PC?Because getting a proper gaming PC to play Baldur's Gate is at least double the price of a PS5 and I doubt I will play many other games with it
No.7132
>>7128A proper gaming PC can do way more things than a PS5 though.
If you only buy a PS5 to play BG3, you pay what? 500 Euro? for a single game.
Also, what is so great about BG3? As far as I can tell, it's just electronic DnD, but without the fun of playing with an actual group.
No.7139
>>7116>And FFXVI is available on PC tooNo, not until some time next year at the earliest. It's been announced that it will be released for Windows, but no date has been given except for some "not before" date.
>>7132There is a lot to BG3, even though it's (obviously) not what the hype is promising. For a non-fanboy review of what BG3 is and isn't I can recommend
https://yewtu.be/watch?v=F-iSTvmYaac No.7144
>>7132>Also, what is so great about BG3?The many dick options for your character.
No.7153
Since I have already talked about this on /b/, but still have a need to talk about it, let's talk about Perfect Dark.
The cool kids might remember it from being one of the last N64 games to be released, and one of the best FPS of all time.
The geeks among you might remember the shitty 360 remaster.
I won't talk about that one, because it sucks, and instead focus on the N64 version, because they have managed to fully decompile it (albeit not 100% byte matching) and there is a sourceport currently being worked on (
https://nightly.link/fgsfdsfgs/perfect_dark/actions/runs/6085990272/pd-i686-windows.zip).
I have already played through it a few times over the past weeks and am currently chewing my way through the Perfect Agent difficulty.
What I especially like about PD is the attention to detail, all the TECHNOLOGY, and that palpable love that went into making this.
Also, I find the implementation of difficulty levels very good, because the higher difficulties don't just make the enemies react faster, but they also add additional tasks to the levels, as well as unlocking areas that weren't accessible before, like that thing in the first picture - you only ever see this in a cutscene if you only play on Agent.
And since I suck at FPS, even on PC I still get capped often enough to present a challenge to me.
I won't talk about the bad stuff, because obviously it exists, but I am way too hyped to be able to play this with more than 15 fps that I don't care.
No.7156
>>7155>The Powder ToyThat sounds familiar.
No.7157
>>7155Oh yeah, I remember that. Good times. It looks like it's been extended since the time I've used it, there is now also heat dissipation in materials such as iron. I'll forcce myself not to play or the rest of my day will be accounted for :-DDD
No.7350
The Pirates! remake was a rubbish game but had a great OST
No.7359
>>7358Is this Tomb Raider? Sorry, I have no glue, but it's a woman in a green top.
No.7363
>>7358>>7359I believe that's Vampires the Masquerade. Only played it once, the HUD seems familiar.
No.7378
>>7359>>7363Yes, that is Heather from VTMB
No.7397
You can just tell when a game is designed by TTRPG nerds. I don't like such games.
The only exception for this is id software, who solved the issue of bad ttrpg inspired games by making a dungeon crawler with guns.
No.7402
>>7397>I don't like such games.Fun fact: You don't have to play them.
No.7403
>>7402...but you can still hate themcheckmate
No.7404
>>7403That sounds like a waste of one's time, and being angry about something you are not forced to use gotta be bad for your health.
No.7407
>>7397I can think of the following games:
1. Shadowrun - very good game.
2. Disco Elysium - very good game.
3. Neverwinter Nights - shitty game tbh, but people like it.
No, I have to disagree with you.
No.7416
>>7404You didn't read his post properly.
He talked about hating something, not about being angry about something. In fact, hating something isn't even a prerequisite for being angry at something.
That said, I left the first hub. Santa Monica is pretty cool, but also small and now, upon reaching "Downtown", the game starts to open a bit. I have over 20 xp to allocate, but recently I've gotten into a habit of just hoarding them until I need them.
I like systems where you get point and spend them more than systems where you develop skills with usage, because it's usually not well-implemented.
No.7488
>>7486>Ernst's favorite boss fightsNone.
t. sucks at playing videogames despite doing it a lot
No.7590
>>7486The boss in the Jungle level of Contra (purely for nostalgic reasons: it was the first boss that I've ever defeated in my life; also it feels good not just going for its weak spot, but kill the sniper first, then destroy both guns, and only then come to the weak spot and unload onto it point blank so that it goes "brrreen-brrrreeen-brreeen"), the ship in the Ratship Rumble in Battletoads and Double Dragon (it's fun to tear it apart piece by piece, especially since each piece goes out with a satisfying "boom!"), the last boss in Serious Sam: The Second Encounter (for the pure chaos that goes on there and a kickass rock/metal soundtrack), most bosses in Devil May Cry 3 (except the centipede and the Leviathan's heart; the rest are really fun and memorable), Artorias from Dark Souls (probably the most fair challenge-wise boss in Souls series: no bullshit AoE attacks, no hitbox shenanigans, no ridiculously long combos that just kill you no matter what and are unbreakable, unblockable and unparryable (looking at you, Malenia!)), bosses in classic Sonic games (despite they are pretty easy and are basically being the same premise — Robotnik invents another crazy machine and rides it to battle — they're still quite diverse and fun). There are also many that I can't remember just like that, but they are mostly from older consoles like NES/Famicom and Megadrive/Genesis; bosses in PC games usually aren't that memorable for me for some reason.
No.7594 KONTRA
>>7486I think the Skeletron bossfight in Terraria was pretty good. Before all the fancy updates it was the "Ultimate challenge" of the game, but over the years all the new item additions to the early game have turned it into a short midway pit-stop in the early game.
But the bossfight itself is still fun with a cool patter where a giant skeleton tries to slap you with its hands or slam you with its head.
No.7839
>>7407I can add Solasta and Pathfinder Kingmaker. Both games are very true to their TTRPG inspiration and both are (very) good.
No.8371
>>8370We call them DLCs today, granpda
No.8385
>>8371I thought about it but chose word "addon" because it has less negative connotations
No.9318
I finally finished it. Took me around 13 hours first try.
The more I played it, the more I started to enjoy it. Monday was absolutely awful, but as I played more and more of the days, the mission design got more bearable and I got the hang of the shooting and the mechanics.
Now I'd say save for two-three missions, I'd probably replay the whole game again.
The main difference now is that most of your errands turn into mini-games or sub-levels which you are forced to play without saving. The one where you clean a sewer and the one where you betatest a VR videogame are truly awful. Dark, confusing level layout and constant nagging on part of the game for you to hurry up. If you up the contrast, then you have a chance of seeing things, but by default the contrast is so low, you can't see shit.
The shooting is actually very fluid and feels good. I actually enjoyed using the guns and the firefights with the enemies, unlike in 2. The enemy AI could stand to get a bit smarter thought.
From a technical perspective it's miles above Postal 2, though I suppose most of that is on the new engine and not on RWS.
It's full of bugs though and crashes often. There's also this nasty bug where if you run out of ammo for a gun, then you can't buy more of it until you find at least one. Don't know what caused this but I basically was unable to use the sniper rifle for my entire playtrough because of this.
(Not to mention that some parts run like ass. I lost like 20-30FPS when the apocalypse started.)
Postal 2's humour wasn't exactly high brow, but it wasn't overdone at least. The cutscenes were minimal and not really in your face. I feel like the bigger budget did it some disservice. But I still got a few laughs from jokes I saw while wandering through the town.
I think it will age like milk first, and then it'll rebound. Like 2. It feels like opening a bottle of vintage, Bush-era Americana with the Al-Kaida infiltrating the town and the like. It's curious how the terrorists for example are completely missing from this one now that I think about it. Reflective of the zeitgeist.
The map design is a bit mixed for me. I feel like 2 got it right. It was small, but that smallness made is sure you HAD to interact at least a bit with the NPCs. They got in your way, they irritated you non-stop and so on. Here, the streets are wide and everything's just a bit airy, so while walking you rarely have to go around someone.
But it's not like you'll be walking much. The map is full of points where you can rent a motorized cart for 10 bucks. Then the NPCs will get in your way non-stop as you try to drive around town. The vehicles are okay.
I actually was expecting the NPCs to steal your ride if you leave it unattended for a while, and they sure do steal it. It's just fun to turn around only to find someone has already made it off with it and you desperately dump an entire mag at them to shoot them off the scooter.
No.9319
Another part of the map's airyness is that I wasn't really attacked by any of the groups I angered throughout the week. I don't think I ever ran into SJWs, Hillbillies or anything. I was playing on normal and I had my scooter stolen more often than anyone returning fire during a rampage.
The difficulty is weird. You're flushed with cash, ammo and guns. You can buy crack for 30 bucks at one place, so basically the only limit to healing items is your patience to stock up at Civvie's shop. (Which is an e-celeb cameo, but I'd say it's tastefully done at least.)
But this abundance of resources becomes utterly meaningless due to the way the game handles death.
You don't re-load the last checkpoint's autosave when you die. You RESPAWN at the place the save was made, but the game carries on in the meantime. Basically you have no incentive to heal, because you get to have another try at killing whatever's managed to kick your ass.
I'm utterly baffled but it's probably for the best, considering how utterly unforgiving some of the missions are. (And most of the time you can't save during these sub-missions, so you are forced to re-spawn.)
Probably my greatest gripe with the game. P2 was good because you were motivated to explore the town to get resources, which then would allow you to tackle challenges more effectively. This death-system basically breaks that gameplay loop. By Friday I basically lost my motivation to do breaking and enterings throughout town.
I'm never going to get all the collectibles. The only reward for getting those is more in-game resources like money. The death basically fuck up the entire gameplay loop and I just don't get why this was done like this, even if some parts are ball-busting due to the shit level design and the overabundance of hitscanner enemies.
As for the sound, I think the biggest controversy besides the early access release was the Dude's voice. They got John St. John to do it and I got a whiff of that and I wasn't having any of it. It's just fucking awful. RWS will probably go to heaven that they somehow got Rick Hunter to return and do another game's voice acting. It's good.
Though I don't feel like I've experienced everything the game has to offer. Like I definitely haven't found all the weapons and I could stand to get better at the shooting and the like. So I'll definitely be replaying it sometime again. I don't regret buying it and making it one of the main reasons to upgrade my PC.
I'm sure once I hit the reply button I'll want to add something else to this "review", I just don't know what, so if anything else comes to mind I'll add it later. Also: Text too long lmao. Also 2: Flood detected.
No.9321
>>9318>I finally finished it. Took me around 13 hours first try.Do you have any
regerts now?
No.9322 KONTRA
>>9321I regert(sic!) nothing!
No.9325
>>9318The first time I tried to play it, I got stuck because of a bug.
After a few months I tried again and got stuck in a different place. Even reloading and playing the last hour or so again got me stuck in the same place.
Postal was always a buggy mess, but that is too much for me.
No.9338
>>9325Yeah, I guess I should count myself lucky that I didn’t experience any game-breaking bugs. (But I mean, after what, 4 years of development it’s kind of expected that the player at least can complete your game.)
The only one that hindered progress for me was during a friday mission when I triggered a cutscene while being ragdolled. The cutscene played, but afterwards the game wouldn’t render anything and would still allow me to press the space-bar to skip the cutscene. Indefinitely.
So I had to reload that one.
Otherwise the most common bugs are really just people floating, textures sometimes not loading as fast as they should and the occassional physics fuck-up where a ragdoll flies off into the sunset.
No.9850
wait a sec "immersive sim" and "metroidvania" are the same genre
No.9851
>>9850Neither Metroid nor Castlevania are immersive sims in my book.
But now that you mention it, I suddenly feel the urge to play them again.
No.9860
>>9857> watch NPCs haplessly walk into wallscan confirm. that is best way to kill most/all mobs, even with worst ranged gear - just takes a little longer.
> Come play Veloren with Ernst!i prolly wait until the other weapons beside swords get an update before "playing". already talked with some of the devs/contributors of the game, thou :D
i'm lately more in the "create" mood and less in the "consume" mood :)
the game has some really nice things, but not thaaaaaat much content, yet.
No.9862
>>9860T'was a fun but short excursion with you, fren :3
No.9948
>>9851>>9850I have now also watched the video from Caleb Gamman and see your point.
You're a twat, though. Twats are persons who (pretend to) like immersive sims but also think they are better than people who talk about immersive sims.
I still love you (in a sexual way (no homo)), brick.
No.9955
>>9948I have never played a metroidvania, and I've only ever finished 1 immersive sim, so I feel pretty confident in my opinions.
No.10018
World of Horror is out and they've made an animated trailer for it. Damn, I love that art style:
https://yewtu.be/watch?v=yAH4CiNIcaY (
https://youtube.com/watch?v=yAH4CiNIcaY )
Apparently inspired by Junji Ito, who is pretty rad when it comes to weird horror.
No.10020
>>10018The developer of that game once called me a retard on 4chan, so I now hate his game despite not having played it.
Also, game looks like all aesthetic no ideas.
No.10022
>>10018>Apparently inspired by Junji ItoYeah, he was the general inspiration along with Lovecraft
(and look-alikes of both of them actually appear in the game), but it may also have been influenced by Kazuo Umezu, and some events remind me of Fuan no Tane. Soundtrack is also as cool as the visual style.
>>10020>game looks like all aesthetic no ideasWell, the whole gameplay is basically a continuous queue of skill checks peppered by JRPG-style fights of varying difficulty, and you just hope and pray that RNJesus looks upon your current build favorably. Still, even if it's not super intellectual, it's pretty addictive.
No.10046 KONTRA
>>10045>almost 20 dollars for another pixelshit "indie" sidescrollerWhat kind of absolute shit-for-brains would actually buy that?
No.10048
>>10046Get your pixel allergy treated.
No.10049 KONTRA
>>10048I'm not allergic to pixels, but to shit.
No.10052
>>10049Then why did you have to mention pixels at all?
No.10053 KONTRA
>>10052Because it's pixelshit.
No.10055
>>10022So he decided to go the route of adding an arcadey/gamey gameplay loop to carry the player through his imagery.
Reasonable choice.
I am saying this because if I remember correctly, back when he was in the earlier stages of developing the game, he didn't have a gameplay concept, only a bunch of artwork and vibes. He intended it to be a PC adventure game type of ordeal. You know, mouse click on the screen to progress to the next screen, etc.
So I guess it took him half a decade to get to this point, huh.
I'd gloat about it if it weren't for the fact that making a mediocre high concept video game is the height of my dreams, and I'll never achieve it, unlike him.
Still, fuck that guy for calling me a retard on 4chan all these years ago.
No.10059
>>10055>He intended it to be a PC adventure game type of ordeal.Making the game a rogue-lite instead of an old school adventure was a good call, IMO. Let's face it, adventures (and point 'n' click adventures in particular) aren't a very popular genre, and it would be difficult to impress the small audience that is actually interested in them (IIRC, only Daedalic and that Czech guy with Samorost and Machinarium made successful old school adventures in the late 2000s), and that's why when bigger developers make an "adventure" game, they target the wider audience instead of hardcore fans, so it ends up being some telltale-shit-like interactive movie which any normalfag idiot with an attention span of two seconds can get into. This is not really an option for an indie developer, so a rogue-lite with a high accessibility is a good alternative. The game is also potentially pretty streamable (watching a streamer butthurting over failed skill checks and unfair fights is way more entertaining than watching a streamer hunting for pixels and using every item with every item until it works), so that can increase its popularity.
No.10062
>>10059>IIRC, only Daedalic and that Czech guy with Samorost and Machinarium made successful old school adventures in the late 2000sThere was also wadjet eye games, who made some amazing p&c adventures. First and foremost the Blackwell quintology, which I recommend to anyone.
No.10063
>>10046Definitely overpriced but I don't think that it's shit, contra is a good game and shooting at Crooked Killary on Epstein's island must be fun. I'll try it from torrents.
No.10064
t. also had prejudices against pixels and retro style until played "Into the breach".
No.10068 KONTRA
>>10064Pixel graphics =/= pixelshit
ITB is great btw
No.10070
If a pixel art style does not abide by the limitations of an actually existing retro hardware platform, then it doesn't count tbh
No.10098
>>10055> I'd gloat about it if it weren't for the fact that making a mediocre high concept video game is the height of my dreams, and I'll never achieve it, unlike himI have a really weird idea of a game.
The basic premise is:
> ASCII/rogue_like like user interface> create your own font specification and use that one.default font for that game would include super edgy-l337-spe4k characters for language specific chars and very limited overall language characters, so that you have to use the replacements. [key-mapping should be done in a way that you don't need to relearn typing]
as little twist:
a char should be treated as a variable of up to ~3 overlapping ~vector graphics, which each can have a separate hue and opacity value.
that way you can use your font as kind of tile-set && shader for the game. you could use overlapping text editors. front layer typical GUI stuff like status, hp, cross hair, whatev and background layer could be scroll-able via mouse/touch/gamepad/whatev. [smart, dynamically loading; you don't need to have everything preloaded, just a small-ish off-screen area for smooth gameplay.]
you might even be able to have an elaborate 3D-engine running as core-gameplay loop with decent-ish graphics.
> why do ~ascii-ish, if you end up doing actual graphics?just because.
this Ernst would want to create a really stupid font and bait other people to use it via a ~decent-ish game.
some ideas for the font:
- only support monospace [character space dimension see DinA [german industrial norm A]]
- assume CAPSLOCK is broken and always enabled, define capslock either as 1*2 or 2*2 chars, so that capslock actually is multiple characters in the database. [they should look like lowerCase characters, though]
- assume the system isn't binary but ternary. so character-count would be based on ~
[[[3^3]^3] = 19.683] instead of four HEX [ = 65.536, utf-8]
- have moar numerical and mathematical characters than language characters, maybe even a different base as default. e.g. 12 or some prime
- leave enough free space so anyone can load their default/native language characters in.
do not include by default, though.- [...]
but what kind of game could bait people in?
maybe some terminal executable multi platform lightweight engine with online ~SUDO function?
> templeOSan online ~SUDO function, e.g. a browser game, would be decent for testenings and local application could be used for modifications (adding your own language support, for example)
as core gameplay loop you could do some form of seed generated singular shared world. because that is pretty quickly too much data, you prolly should outsource hosting the world-file to the decentralized clients and have some form of protocol for requesting a: is here already generated? b: what differs?
maybe you could even attach some form of "in-game" $COIN$-value to uploads and sharing of world data.afterwards the gameplay loop could split up via different mods [mmo-ish, creative map design/building, single player survival, pvp-focused...] and the world could split up as well, e.g. "we like dis random seed moar" or "gonna try different world gen"...
> dwarf_fortress.png Title text: I may be the kind of person who wastes a year implementing a Turing-complete computer in Dwarf Fortress, but that makes you the kind of person who wastes ten more getting that computer to run Minecraft. No.10109
Hey, Half-Life is now 25 years old. And Valve just shipped an update for it, together with a website:
https://half-life.com/de/halflife25This might actually work on me, I'm tempted to re-install this thing now.
No.10110
>>10109That documentary linked on the page is actually really cozy. Good stuff for a saturday evening.
picrel, screenshot of guy with unfortunate name
No.10111
>>10110He's known for his commentary on Half Life development.
It was the beginning of the end.
No.10134
Have you heard about sand tetris?
https://sandtris.com/ No.10137
>>10134Just tried it, only managed to get 2 lines in my 3rd try. No surprises here, I suck at normal Tetris, too.
No.10139
>>10137You can also try this version. I found it easier because blocks are more liquid.
https://lightpotato.itch.io/setris No.10174
>>10109>Valve just shipped an update for itAlso given away for free at the mo
No.10280
>>10109Looks amazing, wish they'd also open source the engine so that we could have a second wave of retro throwback boomer shooters
No.10281
>>10280There's already more than enough Half Life mods, we don't need a billion Counter Strike clones.
btw, Half Life is overrated *drops mic, kicks door, skates off*
No.10288
>>10281I did a quick survey and checked twitch for the number of people streaming HL1 several times during the weekend.
It was depressing, I didn't see any large streamers* and only occasionally there were one or two streamers with close to 100 viewers for any HL game.
Based on that I would say HL1 is severely underrated when you go by number of people (outside of steam) that care about this game.
By other metrics HL1 may be considered overrated, but I can't come up with any from the top of my head.
*streamers with thousands of viewers
No.10290
>>10215Have you checked out Frostpunk? For some reason I never played it, but it's been on my TODO list for many years and it was generally considered a pretty good game of the genre (apocalyptic town builder?).
No.10294 KONTRA
>>10288I think he means from a standpoint of video game history it is overrated.
I think he is wrong. Half-life had enormous influence on video games after it was released, especially on the narrative front.
What could be argued is that this paragim shift from Doom-clones to Story-focused single player FPS with set-pieces was ultimately an exhausting detour that instead limited pure, gameplay focused development and experimentation that’s enjoying a sort of revival recently.
You could argue this imho. Personally, I do not care too deeply. I’m just arguing for arguing’s sake.
No.10296
>>10294>I think he means from a standpoint of video game history it is overrated. Wrong.
I can perfectly fine acknowledge its importance in history, its influence on later developments, but unlike e..g. Ocarina Of Time it's not a great game.
No.10299 KONTRA
>>10296>OoT is a great game Good Lord what’s happening in this thread.
No.10304
>>10299For being such a compulsive contrarian in all other aspects that's a pretty zoomie-popular opinion you have there.
No.10305 KONTRA
>>10304I’m convinced every single N64 game is terrible and it’s just late millenials jerking off over their childhoods.
The same goes for unplayable C64 shit and terrible NES games. There are very few games which are still “playable” from so far back, let alone “good”.
And I say this as someone who loves to play old shit like X-com. The point is that QoL features have come a long way.
Also the N64’s controller design wasn’t made for humans.
No.10307
>>10305Well, you're wrong in everything you said, but that's ok.
Your juvenile mind exculpates you.
No.10317 KONTRA
>>10290>Have you checked out Frostpunk?Yes. A lot of good aspects to it, but ultimately I have a problem with the core design. It's either way too easy like the campaign, or focused on a very narrow solution like with the challenges(or whatever they were called). If you pick the wrong approach with the challenges you will notice it too late to alter the course. So even if you try, you'll end up wasting hours and hours with only the possibility of starting from the beginning.
The game is very well liked, so it's definitely a matter of preference. A friend who considers Frostpunk one of their favorites didn't care about my gripes with the game at all.
No.10430
>>10305>Also the N64’s controller design wasn’t made for humans.My hands are so big I could hold the side "horns" and still operate the stick on the middle one. No, I guess that there's no proof of humanity in that sentence.
No.10433
>>10305Opinion status: correct ✔️
Growing up with Nintendo gives people brain damage (see: americans).
The proper gaming trajectory for developing into a proper human being is:
Sega mega drive -> PS1 -> PC
No.10449
>>10433>Sega mega drive -> PS1 -> PCHah, no. Xbox is best box.
t. SNES - Xbox - Xbox 360 - PC
No.10455 KONTRA
>we have now reached a point where people actually engage in console wars
It was 4chan tier and it was on the Ernstchan
No.10457
>>10305>I’m convinced every single N64 game is terribleWeeeeell, some of them are fine, like Super Mario 64 is actually a 3D platformer done right, but then again, why would you want to make a 3D platformer when 2D platformers are obviously superior? FPS games on N64 are shitty though, and if you see someone praising them, make no mistake: you're dealing with a moron.
>terrible NES gamesNES was great, and it perfected mechanics and controls for some of the vidya genres: you can't make a better platformer than SMB3, you can't make a better run 'n' gun than Contra, you can't make a better beat 'em up than BT&DD. There were a fuckton of genuinely terrible games, but I don't think that the percentage was higher than on other platforms.
>Also the N64’s controller design wasn’t made for humans.I have no idea why Nintendo insists on experimenting with controllers and coming up with shit like GameCube controller or WiiMote, when they used to make perfectly fine controllers for NES and SNES. Hilariously, they made a proper controller for Switch, and it's so much better than default Joy-Cons, that you're more or less have to buy it.
>>10433>Growing up with Nintendo gives people brain damageGrowing up with JRPGs gives people brain damage. Just avoid them and play actually good games like Megaman or Castlevania.
No.10459
>>10457>coming up with shit like GameCube controllerI will never understand what people have against the GC controller. It's the second best 3D era controller right after the Xbone one.
No.10475
>>10459I don't even have to look further than "convex stick tops". I hated these on the older PS controllers. I don't want to slip off in the middle of whatever.
No.10476
>>10475The left stick was ribbed and rather flat, so no slipping off. The C-stick was also not convex.
Sony had actual convex tops up until the PS3, so not just on the "older" consoles.
But it's telling that all these criticisms seem to come from people who never actually used them, just like with people who weren't born at the time bitching about "muh three prongs how was I supposed to know how to use them". Next they bitch about fixed camera angles and tank controls.
No.10477
>>10476> PS3, so not just on the "older" consoles.2006 is old in tech years
>But it's telling that all these criticisms seem to come from people who never actually used themAnd you know that, how? You don't.
No.10479 KONTRA
>>10477>And you know that, how? You don't.It's pretty obvious by comparing the GC sticks to the PS sticks.
No.10731
>>10668I did the tutorial two more times because frankly I wasn't really paying attention to the hints the first time, and misunderstood a mechanic pertaining cavalry, but I slowly seem to get the hang of it - the first time I won with 7% losses, the last time it was only 3% losses anymore, with also less roman losses because victory conditions were either >60% total losses for the romans or >40% losses with at least 25% more than my own, so while last time I basically just slowly hacked away, this time I managed more earlier.
I still have a hard time properly using cavalry because they need to constantly move, but turning takes a lot of AP and then they don't necessarily have enough to attack anymore, so positioning and anticipating enemy movement seems pretty important.
No.10957
Since I can't sleep I tried some CC3 again.
My dudes are still very, very slow, so even "moving fast" does not mean running, but it's manageable.
Anyhow, I tried capturing this house, and as it turns out a well-placed MG, with a bit help of a single StuG and a mortar can hold up a soviet assault very well, especially when done in the classic (and modern) "just throw all the mobiks at them" way.
So as I was getting raped by the aryan Übermensch squad, I decided to take some pictures, but this game really doesn't like tabbing out, so when I came back I got some graphics glitches and then it crashed.
No.10968
>>10966Does that work? I mean, does it not fuck up the whole game? Because older games were often coupled to the framerate, so increasing that through whatever means could lead to funny stuff happening.
No.10970 KONTRA
>>10968Better ask Google, buddy. I don't play retro games but have heard that people use CE for speeding them up.
No.10971
>>10970Ah I see. I thought that was some known thing. CC is so old and obscure that not even PCGW has proper info on it.
No.11109
I've been trying out different campaigns, so while taking a bit of a break from assraping frenchies I decided to go with the leaf boys and instead go assraping some huns with a Firefly.
This thing really fucks. Day 4 of the campaign and so far only one tank of the squad has been knocked out, and that was only because we were ambushed by AT and one of them got one right up the bunghole.
Anyway, this day was also rather successful. Before noon we had already passed the first map region with almost no resistance - granted, there was barely anything big or armored, most of it was just some krauts with small arms, like in the second picture you see like 90% of all encounters that day. HMG. They shoot and shoot and shoot, but even IF they hit, there is no chance of actually penetrating this beaut (she's called "Daisy", btw).
Then right before the day ended, we encountered a lone Panzer IV, and it wasn't even one of the later models, but just one of those small dicked L28 ones.
Fun fact with AP: With those smaller ones, even a full frontal hit is a pen and a pen in this game, at this state is an automatic knockout. So that was the last one for the day.
Smoke is used everywhere, hence the low hit rate, but they can't hit either, so it's basically just taking potshots at each other until the Sherman wins.
And that's this day done. The crew, led by Albert "Beef" Landry, is in high spirits and ready to fuck up some more swabian shitters and jerry jackoffs tomorrow.
No.11178
>>10134That particle physics reminds me of the actual linux gaming:
https://www.gnu.org/software/liquidwar6/Me & boys played that like crazy on ubuntu during schools' computer classes.
No.11179
After playing the "demo" of AC2, I decided to pull the trigger and get the actual game. It's a tenner on Steam, which is more than ok for the depth and for it being made by mainly one guy besides his Chinese Studies PhD.
But oh boy, it has A LOT more features than this old free version.
Most of the changes are pretty cool, but some I didn't like (mainly interface/control changes, but it's probably a matter of getting used to them).
And I feel like this full game is actually harder than that demo.
So, what did I do?
I chose the easiest campaign (Red Army in Poland) and jumped into a BT-7.
First few battles were not that hard, I even encountered the famed polish husars (made me chuckle a bit thinking of that polandball comic where the horse thinks "tfw when your owner is of idiot").
But holy shit, when the Poles popped out their AT, shit was getting real REALLY quickly.
Second picture shows the destruction of one particularly irritating 37mm gun, and third picture shows the log of the day.
As you can see, in that battle this asshole knocked out not just one, but TWO of my squadmates from right at the front (because reversing in a soviet tank is nearly impossible), hit my own tank for spalling damage and later that day, because my commander was not buttoned up, which was, in fairness, my very own fault, he got his nuts busted very badly and had to spend almost two weeks in a field hospital.
After Poland was successfully liberated from the Poles, the crew was sent to Karelia to liberate that from the Finns.
They also got a new tank and because the BT-7 is only for a crew of 3, one additional crewmate, a fresh recruit assigned to assistant driver position. There you can also see a gripe of mine with the interface - before you could see the whole name AND the nickname of the crewman, now it only displays the nickname if present.
No.11184
This day was more successful, but it was battling and advancing.
To me the "hold" missions are not really fun, it's just waiting and getting attacked and reconquering lost ground.
I still haven't quite found out what combat engineers do here. There is a skill that makes the driver pay attention to mines, so I assume with those teams present there can be mines laid out.
Also, I am really starting to hate the T-34.
I already knew how miserable it was in there. They couldn't really look out, the commander was also the gunner, they had no radio (!!!) - and remember this was AFTER the Wehrmacht steamrolled France WITH radio communications.
This was also a reason why they were getting raped by german armor until they had material superiority. You just COULDN'T see a german tank before they could see you. And if it was a StuG, it was over before it began.
Nevertheless, the crew, led by commander Anton "Nehui" Slavinsky, will carry on. Even the guy already learned a lot of stuff and proved his worth.
Let's see if they can make it to the end of the war.
No.11199
Well, that was it.
The Stalingrad campaign went well and all the crew survived.
They got a brand new IS-2 and were happy to go to Berlin.
Then, on the first day of the campaign, on the very first combat encounter, the worst thing imaginable happened:
They came to the rescue of another unit, just to be faced with a bunch of fascists from all directions, among which there were a StuG IV, a Panzer IV *AND* a PaK 43.
Just reversing was impossible and a squadmate was knocked out right away.
The crew still managed to take out the Panzer IV and the StuG, but then were hit by the AT gun because they were facing the wrong direction.
I wonder how it would have worked out had I decided to face the PaK instead of the tanks, or just threw smoke.
Anyhow, the hit penetrated and ammo racked the whole thing that then went up in a blaze, as is russian tradition.
After almost five years together as a crew, they all found fiery deaths, but will be remembered as heroes of the Motherland.
No.11517 KONTRA
>>11514This would probably fit more in the today thread.
Fact is that german electronics stores are dying out. You can go there for bottom barrel appliances/entertainment devices or phones.
The "game" and film sections are slowly dying out, but taxes are becoming more and more complicated. I assume they were just using the free space and didn't give a fuck about the labeling just like they don't give a fuck about anything else.
No.11533 KONTRA
>>11514I played through Buhl 2022 and 2023, including Anlage KAP and the privater Veräuserungsgewinn-AddOn.
No.11534
>>11517>You can go there for bottom barrel appliances/entertainment devices Of course, the best they have is Miele, not VZUG. Only paupers would ever buy such cheap garbage. Some people just have no self-respect at all. Even the idea of having the help load your dirty laundry into a 900€ electrolux-washer, I would die of shame!
No.11573
Since nobody else seems to play anything at the moment, let me tell you about the latest exploits of my tank crew.
On the german side again, in the middle of Operation Barbarossa, more precisely near Bryansk during Operation Typhoon.
As you can see this is almost the hardest kind of way one can play the game. +175 % is the maximum, but I am not THAT masochistic. In fact, for the next playthrough I will dial down the difficulty again, mainly because it makes the mobile units way too mobile and I'm constantly chasing after them. It's not hard, it's annoying. Also without random vehicles because I constantly get absolute shitboxes assigned.
Now back in the action. The crew of Unterfeldwebel (recently promoted) Uwe Schulte has just gotten a brand new Panzer IV F1. They have known each other for quite some time, although the Assistant Driver Leitner (who would later get a son called Felix von) is rather new; he had to step in as AD when the former AD became Loader because the former Loader became dead. And that's Adolf Thomas, who was predestined for that position because he was passing ammo before already, and now he's going to do that more hands-on.
And all of this was because the tank was knocked out. And let me tell you, Uwe had A LOT of tanks knocked out, usually through bad luck (like a very lucky penetrating hit of some shitty APC or one of those 2% chance CAS attacks that also hit), but sometimes indeed through bad decisions.
He's been at it since the Poland campaign and especially in the early days there was a lot of fluctuation among the crew. As you can see, Uwe has been awarded four wound badges already. Frankly, right before the end of the France campaign I was sure he wouldn't see the end of it.
But here we are, halfway towards Moscow and ready to take it before the winter. I am sure glad the bolsheviks don't have any tanks that our 28L 75mm guns can't deal with, that would be one hell of a deal-breaker, I tell you.
No.11595
>>11573>Since nobody else seems to play anything at the momentHaven't played for a year or so. But recently downloaded:
1. Into the breach.
2. Invisible Inc.
3. Superhot
4. Superhot Mind Control Delete
5. Tyranny
Have already played #1-#3 from torrents, maybe will replay them eventually.
Playing #4 now, it's like Superhot but cooler.
#5 -- tried it a bit, reminds me of "Dragon Age", but made by (for) more autistic people. Ohhh we are sooo orderly legionairs. And we are sooo chaotic auxiliaries. I have high athletics skill, this means that I'm able to take weapon from that guy keeping hostage. Because otherwise it would be unfair to people with high athletics skills as they don't have much options in dialogues. DnD nerd vibes. I expect it to have hardcore gameplay.
No.11696
SUPER
HOT
SUPER
HOT
SUPER
HOT
No.11793
>>11791I heard the swapper was a good puzzle game.
No.11798
>>11791>Plague Inc: EvolvedMade some fun for half an hour and then i got bored. Kinda like some mid 00s flash game with a tiny bit more content.
No.11799
>>11798Isn't it literally just a commercial version of Pandemic 2? I remember the meme of Madagascar and SHUT EVERYTHING DOWN.
No.11800
Btw let me shill Armored Commander 2 more.
It's currently on sale for 7,49 Nazigold, which is more than fair in my opinion.
I am currently in the middle of the tunisian campaign, on the eve of the battle of El Guettar.
Finally able to properly upgrade, after using a Pz IV G for most of the days here (with a short stint in a Pz III L), I have now access to the Tiger. Early model, so unreliable drivetrain, plus a -10 % VP modifier I will probably not be able to reach 200+ per day again (289 is my absolute record, and that was in a Stug III B in France with only a +55% modifier), as I did before.
On the other hand, short of a lucky crit or air attack I should be virtually invincible.
No.11808
The new System Shock is 35% off.
The best single player shooter I played this year.
I have to admit that it was the only one, but I still like it.
No.11812
Hempuli's (baba is you) new game is out, and currently 100% off for a limited time.
https://hempuli.itch.io/mobile-suit-babaIt's basically baba + into the breach.
No.11816
Finished the Afrikafeldzug. The damn schweinhund allies were just too strong and pushed us out of Africa, not least because the italians are so useless.
Anyhow, the whole crew made it through, despite the unspeakable happening: After quite literally assraping gay Tommys for two weeks or so, they brought tons of CAS, which, as predicted, led to the Tiger actually being knocked out. After a short stint in a Pz IV G, which got knocked out too shortly thereafter from a lucky short from a Stuart or something, so the crew got back into a Tiger and stayed in there until it was over.
On the very last day of the campaign the crew also managed to pull the so far highest amount of VP in one single day: Almost 400. Boy how I love patrols.
Anyway, over 10k VP in a single campaign sounds ok, I guess. Sadly still no promotion for Uwe Schulte, by now in the rank of an Oberfeldwebel.
Sadly the boys can't catch a break, and are thrown right into the Operation Citadel, which has been going on for about two weeks at this point.
Let's see if they can make it through.
No.11867
1/2
As a follow-up to the last post here's my review for Robocop. Warning: Spoilers
In short, I can recommend it if you like Robocop and classic "Shoot it until it dies" shooters.
The gameplay is exactly that, shoot stuff. Bosses get shot until they die, no special tactics or anything, just peace through superior firepower.
Especially on Hard and in the beginning it is actually necessary to maneuver a bit, but apart from some very nasty situations, later on I actually felt like a battle cyborg just waltzing through the levels and mowing down HORDES of enemies. And it is fun. What I like is that there are indeed actual bossfights.
I assume there is not a lot to do concerning skills, because I found focus and scan to be pretty useless, as well as psychology beyond the first milestone. Everything else was maxed by the end of the game.
The mainboard system for the pistol that unlocks different kinds of specials (like bigger magazine capacity, autoreload for basically infinite ammo or simple explosive bullets) invites tinkering and experimenting, though in my opinion there were only one or two actually useful mainboards.
Imo you also have replay value because most levels are rated, and I still haven't gotten the best ratings on all levels.
Apparently there's also different endings, or at least different outcomes of events depending on what you do and how you play Robocop (or Murphy).
The story, set after Robocop 2, is far better than 3's. This is the true sequel imo.
The characters are all well-written, apart from the main antagonist, who makes the typical "have hero at your mercy and don't finish him off right away" mistake about three or four times (the last two don't make any sense because of story reasons), but the corporate stooge here, Max Becker, is a grade A scumbag. He is so devoid of any soul (like the company he works for) with a mind set on money and power, plus a constant bad mood, that I had to laugh out loud a few times, and when he said "Bitches come" I lost it. Yes, I am receptive for fan service (which this game is chock full of). The other characters are also funny, like the bank guy who is more concerned about the company profits than his own life, or the guy visiting funerals, or several others I haven't taken pictures of.
No.11868 KONTRA
>>118672/2
What I found very impressive about the writing though was the dystopic worldbuilding. We already had that in the first film, but the little bits and pieces here and there that expand on all of that really had me sometimes [I really have no idea how to say it in english, maybe someone can help: "Da bleibt einem das Lachen im Hals stecken"]. Especially the privatized healthcare, with a service where you can sell your organs legally, or the medical treatment lottery where you can win a medical treatment (any, not necessarily the one you need), only 6% of people dying of contaminated water in Wyoming being presented as a good thing, corporate-bought media and general megacorp shenanigans like some managers talking about "finding the solution for suicide jumpers" being "-What, psychological treatment? -No, nets!" makes one ponder just how much of that we already have.
After all the lauding, we obviously have to talk about the technical side. It's an UE5 game, which sucks.
The performance, even on my decent machine, is mediocre. I rarely get more than 50 fps, sometimes it drops down to the teens.
Not even KCD ran that bad on average.
They do that thing where the level loads before the graphics, so sometimes the UI writes something before I can even see anything. I didn't think I'd encounter that in 2023.
There is no actual save function, just autosaves and checkpoints. Since those are only triggered on changing a map (e.g. when entering or leaving a building) or on finishing a mission/quest/task, depending on what one is doing there is a bunch of progress to be lost on crash (I had 4 in 12 hours of playtime), and it's also not possible to just save and quit. No idea why someone thought this was a good idea, but here we are.
However, because the rest of the package was so good it's in the plus.
Wait for a sale though, it's not a 50 Euro game.
No.11976
I've been playing Combat Mission Red Thunder recently - I originally tried the Black Sea game - but everything being hyper lethal made it difficult to learn at first. This is much more forgiving (as Soviets), given it's set in in the closing months of ww2. Soviets are interesting to play - essentially, infantry fan out and draw fire (dying in the process), while tanks level whichever building offended them. Any other method leads to burning tanks from panzerfausts or AT guns.
I've been playing the 'to Berlin' operations, so most of the opposition so far has been stragglers - probably volkssturm will be mixed in as the operations move into Germany proper.
Plan for current operation is attached. A lot can go wrong very quickly, so I'm trying to take things slow to clear the town. Reinforcing infantry will arrive soon - so they'll do the human wave action in the town - my main force will just secure the avenues of retreat.
>>11852I've heard that Steel Fury Kharkov is quite good, once modded (supposedly there are issues with the default steam version). If it's half as assburger as the graviteam games (same dev), it will be worth it.
>>11799Pretty certain it is. It's not bad, but definitely a mobile game at heart.
No.11977 KONTRA
>>11976so far, I've been very methodical - but I think I need to speed things up in order to achieve the objectives in time.
The regimental HQ objective is about to be captured (a few anti tank teams, a marder, and a stug were guarding), and I'm hoping this will allow me to control the outskirts of the town, and escape routes. The reinforcing platoon has also arrived. They're mostly on halftracks, and have 50cal's attached. Currently they are assembling - most units are now jumping back on their trucks ready for the push to the town, once the Reg HQ is captured.
The intention is to have my allied reinforcements dash across the field to the park objective, firing their 50's at all local buildings as they go, with their attached t34's providing close fire support once they hit the town. My shermans and infantry will provide cover (I don't want to get them beat up as they'll carry over to the next mission - hence allies doing the messy work). If all is safe, the tank riders, trucks, and shermans will follow across to commence village clearing.
All of this should hopefully allow me to avoid the giant field I know is covered by AT to the South.
It'll either be a massacre or a master-stroke.
No.11981
>>11976Happy new year, m8, didn't think to ever see you post again.
I actually already have played Steel Fury (I think I posted about it in the last vidya thread, with the Japanese Community Mod that is STILL updated), but it's really unwieldy because there's a million keys that need to be bound and such. It's pretty janky overall.
Apart from that it's pretty great. Never played Graviteam though.
Speaking of these kinds of games, didn't you also post about Close Combat? Or do I misremember? I started Modern Tactics, but I didn't really "get" it, mainly because half the time I couldn't even see my dudes.
No.11984
>>11981Happy new year too! - though I may be a different Ernst to who you think - I've been on and off EC for years (so I think I know who you mean - there was another Aus Ernst who I remember forever ago was learning Kazakh, and was far more active than I - truthfully, I actually found out about Combat Mission from said Ernst originally). It's sad to hear if they're not posting recently though. I usually only lurk, spam graviteam in the games thread, or add to the film thread.
I had the same issues with their more modern armor game (Steel Armour) - but I'd hoped it was smoother in Kharkov.
I think the other Ernst did post Close Combat at a time - I'm sure I remember it. Graviteam is quite good anyway though, if you're after a realistic tactical level wargame. It's one of a kind, but you do need to read the manual and spend time learning the controls/communication avenues.
I find similar with regards to detachment from not seeing the guys - modern operations are a bit like that due to kill-speeds. One of the really good things with Combat Mission that I like, is that because it's essentially turn based (where you set orders), then 1 minute of real time (where you cannot interfere) - it gives you the chance to really see what's happening, or replay anything interesting you might otherwise miss.
No.12076
Hey guys,
you might not like it, but this is how top performance looks like.
BlueScuti, 13 years old, is the first human ever to beat the 34 year old game named "Tetris" (NES Tetris).
here is a VoD of his whole play-through; timestamp close before the kill screen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUYt6Zp8a04&t=2302sexcerpt from
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2024/01/someone-has-finally-beaten-nes-tetris/
> After PixelAndy hit Level 148 in November, the race to hit the first human "kill screen" in NES Tetris was on. Fractal, the champion of the 2023 CTWC, was joined in that race by BlueScuti, a 13-year-old Tetris wunderkind who went from joining the competitive scene in late 2021 to placing third in the 2023 tournament. On December 19, BlueScuti managed to make it to a new record of Level 153, just 18 lines away from the game's first possible crash point.>> Then, on December 21, everything finally came together. No.12080 KONTRA
>>12076He looks exactly like the kind of neglected kid who would try to "win" an extremely autistic category at such an age.
Is this really better than had he played Cookie Clicker all day?
No.12081 KONTRA
>>12080even with the proper technique - compare-able to mastering a material art
's punch - it still requires a lot of attention and planning ahead over a somewhat long period of time.
the actual game-speed doesn't change after lvl 29. the kill screen is achieved via crashing the game. the game starts glitching at lvl 138. there are some nasty glitched colour schemes, making it hard to see the tetris pieces. some of those happen before the first possible crash of the game. (there is a spread-sheet for when game crashes can happen, if you wanna dig into it)
No.12082
>>12081Yes, I read the article, and some other when they first published it and I am not trying to badmouth that achievement *in principle*. Personally, I take offence with that very arbitrary criterium of "beating Tetris by making its memory overflow or some shit".
But come on, it's a 13 year old boy (who has been doing this since he 11 nonetheless, which means he spent 1/6 of his life so far on this). He shouldn't be speedrunning or whatever this can be called.
Leave that to mentally ill 20-somethings. You just know he will go down that path. And of all things you could do, this is one of the more pointless ones, like the one Zelda run at last ESA that took 14 hours or so because 13 of them were spent slowly glitching through some gate. Interesting to find that mechanic, put actually spending time on practicing to pull it off, come on.
Plus, nothing will ever top Streets 1:12 anyway (which had a similar level of luck and rng coming together).
No.12084 KONTRA
>>12082> Personally, I take offence with that very arbitrary criterium of "beating Tetris by making its memory overflow or some shit".Sports.
E-Sports can be very obscure, yes. But essentially every sport has some form of arbitrary criteria.
I, personally, would much rather have my kid pwning at some niche speed running category instead of being scouted by some "professional-gamer"-stuff-agency because my kid is owning the ladder in a commercially successful e-sports game
where the actual pros all drug up; like in every professional sport.
> I am not trying to badmouth that achievement *in principle*. > But come on, it's a 13 year old boy (who has been doing this since he 11 nonetheless, which means he spent 1/6 of his life so far on this). He shouldn't be speedrunning or whatever this can be called. > of all things you could do, this is one of the more pointless ones,Time enjoyed wasting isn't wasted time. Don't super impose your idea of ~"time well spent" on that kid.
... though... I would kinda agree with your initial statement. He does look like the kinda autistic kid who would grind an extremely autistic category at such an age.
No.12085 KONTRA
>>12084E-"""Sports""" isn't sports. Never has, never will be, no matter how hard industry shills will push the opposite notion. Even horseback riding is more sports.
But if you want to use that analogy, let's spin this further and claim you don't "beat" football until you have managed to put one ball in each corner of the goal, plus the exact center of the intersection point of the bisectors, plus the centers of the edges. This is not what the original goal of football is, it was never intended by anyone and "beating" Tetris this way is certainly not how Pajitnov intended it, so yes, this is an extremely arbitrary criterium, especially if we consider video games that, as long as they're not explicit sandbox games, DO have an actual win state.
And as long as it is not declared as a variant, e.g. "Tetris variant with the explicit goal of getting a 29 rollover" or whatever, then no, this kid hasn't "just beaten Tetris", he has "achieved the goal of this particular style of play that uses the game Tetris as a base". But this is just me being assburger about semantics, so let's drop it.
>Time enjoyed wasting isn't wasted time. Don't super impose your idea of ~"time well spent" on that kid. It's a kid, that's the point. When I come home from work, yeah, I can waste my time watching tv all night if I want to, because I am an adult who should be aware of the ramifications and if I get quadratic eyes it's nobody's fault but my own.
The kid would probably also rather game all day than going to school, but let's hope he has responsible parents who won't allow that.
Then again, maybe he's bright enough to not let his grades slip by this.
Worked for me
except for that short time after Pokemon came out and I got my first 5 in maths.
No.12128
>>12085> E-"""Sports""" isn't sports....
Agree. Only sports done without any tools is real sports. Baseball? Not a real sports because you use a bat. Football? Only without shoes and nakked. Clothes are tools, too.
On a more serious note, why do you draw a line exactly where you've put it? Chess not real sports, but chess-boxing is? Or where is your line? What about go, archery, darts, pool, [...]?
No.12134 KONTRA
>>12128Are you seriously trying to use a very far-fetched and constructed strawman to cope? Ach Ernst...
If E-Sports is sports, then my computer-centric office job is sports, too.
>>12132Plus, if we look at that link, and ignore that it's all medieval sources, we can find
>The restricted sense of "amuse oneself by active exercise in open air or taking part in some game" is from late 15c.and
>The meaning "game involving physical exercise" is recorded by 1520s.Now let's assume by "game" in the first example they mean ANY game, and not something connected to "open-air active exercise" (by which e-sports is definitely not a sport), then any card game, Mensch-ärgere-dich-nicht, Mikado, competition drinking etc. would be a "sport".
I certainly agree here that sports have in common a certain demand of athleticism.
Board games are not sports (although something like Go would certainly deserve it more than CSGO), darts and billiards are fringe cases, but archery certainly is.
No.12135 KONTRA
>>12134Well the problem hinges upon a two crucial aspects that see to define sports: a competitive game and/or physical exercise. Often they are combined when using the word sport. But dart hardly is physical exercise I'd say and yet it shows in sports channels.
No.12136
>>12135I find this interesting.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sport
>Sport pertains to any form of physical activity or game,[1] often competitive and organized, that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators.[2] Sports can, through casual or organized participation, improve participants' physical health. Hundreds of sports exist, from those between single contestants, through to those with hundreds of simultaneous participants, either in teams or competing as individuals. In certain sports such as racing, many contestants may compete, simultaneously or consecutively, with one winner; in others, the contest (a match) is between two sides, each attempting to exceed the other. Some sports allow a "tie" or "draw", in which there is no single winner; others provide tie-breaking methods to ensure one winner. A number of contests may be arranged in a tournament producing a champion. Many sports leagues make an annual champion by arranging games in a regular sports season, followed in some cases by playoffs.To me this is inconsistent as it metiones racing. So called "Motor sports" are pretty much the early 20th century equivalent to esports because there is no real physical exercise in it. But skills and the improvement of skills, which is also the case for esports.
No.12145 KONTRA
>>12135>But dart hardly is physical exercise I'd say and yet it shows in sports channels.I'd argue that's more historically grown than anything.
>>12136>because there is no real physical exercise in itThis is factually wrong. Racing is not only mentally, but also physically very taxing. Formula 1 driver lose LITERS of sweat over the course of a race and they all need bull necks so they don't snap during the extreme g-force shifts, even with modern harnesses; it's more akin to fighter pilots (which you also wouldn't claim don't require physical fitness).
You can do what you want, stand on your head and wiggle your ears, e-sports are not sports and no matter what you do will change that fact.
No.12150
>>12145>You can do what you want, stand on your head and wiggle your earI'm not the Ernst you were arguing with originally. I just like to ponder the concept of sports as I have a humanities education - just happened to come across your quarrel and saw a potential for differentiation.
>Racing is not only mentally, but also physically very taxing.Formula 1 is the most extreme motorsport perhaps. You don't need to be a fighter pilot to drive Rallye or touring cars for example, yet you have to be quite skilled nonetheless. This is also motorsports.
And that is why what you pointed out in your post first is probably also valid for esports, it will and probably already has grown historically as a sport
mind you I don't care about gaming at all, neither a gamer nor enthusiast, just culturally/philosophically interested, no stakes here. Esports is mentally taxing and also physically (your back, eye strain etc).
Same could be said for the office I know, but the office is not a competitive game, albeit even an office can require certain skills to be improved :^)
No.12153 KONTRA
>>12150>Rallye or touring carsThat's still physically taxing, of course not necessarily the G-forces of F1, but there's enough up and down and round-round. And that is the required athletic component. E-Sports don't have that any more than board games and, as mentioned, office work. Should competitive typing be called a "sport"?
Note that nobody is ever denying the competition aspect, but actually trying to equal wrist-flickers with actual athletes is simply preposterous and trying to artificially create some kind of legitimacy. I doubt any competitive Quake player could have ever cared to be called an "athlete". In fact I remember reading the training manifesto of some big name Q3 pro who said he does a lot of sports in order to stay healthy besides the gaming, so he himself already differentiated between a pro gamer and a pro athlete. The only people who care about that are those who would willingly sign up for some corpo team, or who play stuff devised explicitly with e-sports in mind (LoL or OW and all that), and by using all that shilling the companies try to heave this activity into mainstream, of course for the sole purpose of making money and promotion. In other sports it took way longer for this level of commercialization to happen.
So yeah, call it competitive gaming or pro gaming or whatever, but don't call it a sport, because it isn't.
No.12163 KONTRA
I wonder if it is the case that Germans are raised to becoming linguistic prescriptivists. Culture of respecting authorities.
Darts is not a real sport, neither is vidjagamen. Motorsports are real, whatever diminished physical effort is made up by the possibility of wrapping your motor vehicle around a light post.
No.12168 KONTRA
>>12163>I wonderIn case the question was not rhetorical, the answer is yes. Reasons:
national penchant for perfectionism
spoken language that differs from written language, sociolects and regiolects that differ from standard language. Children have correct German beaten into them in school, reasonable knowledge of standard German is a status symbol.
No.12169 KONTRA
>>12168>reasonable knowledge of standard German is a status symbol.Compared to other languages (all savages btw) that don't have any kind of *lects and where it's perfectly fine to just grunt and hoot?
No.12170 KONTRA
>>12169Binary thinking, the post.
No.12172
>>12169Other languages are more unified, it's not an achievement to speak standard English when everyone does it. You have to show off with your elite pronunciation.
No.12173 KONTRA
>>12168It wasn't rethorical. This discarding of dialects are "incorrect" was something I had seen before. Even your post betrays this - "correct German". Maybe a stopgap solution to dealing with the peculiarities of the German mind is just to channel all of their nadsism into the linguistic field.
No.12174
I interrupt this collective ec overdose with more combat mission spam.
I completed the previous mission, and one additional. Our forces move further towards Germany, but attrition is starting to bite. I've lost a couple of tanks to panzerfausts, and the infantry are starting to feel things. Each engagement leads with at least 1 or 2 casualties before the submachine-gun spam overwhelms the defenders. Some absolute massacres have taken place though.
On the most recent battle, a platoon of Volkssturm attempted to flank into the town I had just taken - thankfully a spotter was able to alert two halftracks which cut them down in the open (pic4). They tried to surrender - so I moved up units to capture them - but then they decided to return to the fight and killed the gunner of one of my halftracks.
Where possible I'm trying to burrow through connected buildings, but it isn't always possible. As the missions wear on, the enemy force has changed composition from straggler Wehrmacht units, to a composition of SS, and Volkssturm, with some Wehrmacht mixed in. Even though they're not too skilled, the Volkssturm can have an impact. Pic 3's (posthumous) iron cross recipient killed a Maxim gun position with his panzerfaust.
The next mission is in the midst of Operation Solstice - so I'm hoping my battered units can weather what will come.
No.12175
>>12174>Pic 3's (posthumous) iron cross recipient killed a Maxim gun position with his panzerfaust.That's a very lucky shot, considering the Panzerfaust was explicitly constructed as an anti-tank weapon, though it's certainly possible to achieve (slight) anti-infantry capability with a HEAT warhead.
I had a very tense point-blank tank duel between a Sherman and a Panzer IV yesterday in The Troop, but of course I forgot to take pictures.
Basically the Sherman tried to sneak up on the Pz IV through a walled orchard. The Pz IV noticed that and in turn tried to follow the Sherman.
However, the Sherman was already in position and the Pz IV's action points were not enough to shoot after moving, so the Sherm managed a nice and clean turret pen from ~20 m away. Sadly a bunch of infantry snuck up on him afterwards and killed commander and loader with a well-aimed grenade toss because they were still hatch open and enemies in this game ALWAYS get better odds for hitting anything
All in all I didn't think I would be able to actually win that mission because right in the beginning a Sherman was knocked out by a Panzerschreck hit from like six or seven hexes away, see above on enemy actions. Then again, I only had one PIAT team that was also shredded to bits pretty early when they tried to traverse the village in order to get close enough (i.e. adjacent hex) to any tank to do damage. Fucking useless PIAT piece of shit. But that's what you get for only being able to play Commonwealth troops here.
No.12177
>>12175>That's a very lucky shot, considering the Panzerfaust was explicitly constructed as an anti-tank weapon, though it's certainly possible to achieve (slight) anti-infantry capability with a HEAT warhead.I had read that later in the war, many Soviets actually used it exactly for the purpose of anti-infantry, or more so room breaching. Supposedly it was quite good at quickly making man-sized holes in walls, while also incapacitating those on the other side. How much of this was from splinters though - I'm not sure. The crew it killed were situated in a building/window - so it's feasible that this could've occurred.
I've actually been looking at The Troop though - it looks very interesting. I love turn based strategy - though artificial difficulty through increased accuracy sounds gamey (at least in xcom - I can rationalise it - they're aliens a thousand years ahead in tech).
Have you tried Second Front? I've heard very positive things about it - and it's actively in development, so only more in future.
No.12178
>>12177Ah yes I guess for walls it's another thing - in my head it was a regular machine gun nest "in the open". That probably makes sense, shaped charges are used in demolition, after all.
From my limited experience with X-Com I don't think it's as bad here. From what I can gather from the Steam forums, there's grief with enemy mortars, but the on-map units seem to play by the same rules as the player.
However, I had a mission where - and I counted - almost half the enemy shots (before I lost) were "lucky hits", which means that despite low odds (e.g. in this picture I have very low odds of actually hurting them) they still managed to kill dudes and knock out my vehicles etc. The next few missions were more-less a "breeze" again, though. It's probably confirmation bias or maybe really bad rng luck or something.
Haven't heard of second front, but I rarely check EA stuff anyway, and with all the other tactics games I am currently playing, I am set for quite some time.
No.12213
Played some more The Troop.
Basically the task was to prevent a bunch of SS dudes from taking the village. They brought Panthers.
I finally managed to beat it on the fourth or fifth attemp.
First pic is from an earlier one, it's basically the start - enemy enter from north (or west or east) while my men lie in wait in the village. This took some time to understand because I tried to apprehend them right at the top, but it only led to grief, because the morale system means that when a faction runs out of morale, they withdraw, so getting a bunch of dudes killed to lure the enemy doesn't work.
My next plan was to set everything up along the village main road and just throw my AT stuff at the tanks while they try to pass.
This was a pretty good idea; sadly I forgot that when the game tells me to hold objectives, they have to be held CONSTANTLY. There is no conquering back and such. The moment I fall under the minimum amount of objectives to be held, I'm done for. So I almost had them when a tank passed into an objective zone while I had vacated because I'm a dumbass and we lost.
Then on my final attempt I managed a bunch of lucky shots and while the enemy approach was pretty different from the earlier ones, it was only to my advantage, plus I got a bunch of lucky shots while they got (almost) NOTHING! NOTHING!
Second pic is from the first knocked out tank. The dead men on the floor managed to immobilize it with an AT charge, but got mowed down by forces further north pretty shortly thereafter (one of those lucky enemy shots that wiped out an entire squad), but I had a PIAT team in the second floor of the house in the foreground who then managed to finish it off.
Third picture is from the end; it was only two tanks left, one who was constantly getting hit and suppressed and the other had a disabled gun and couldn't do anything but throwing smoke and fucking off. I sent a PIAT team after him, but as you can see in Pic 4 my M10 I had in wait further down the village (who took out another Panther right next to a church) took out another Panther in the village I needed to break their morale.
I wish I could punch my boss for that stupid quip though; this was by far the hardest mission so far, but that doesn't mean the next mission will be even harder - I had another mission I didn't win first try and the next few were almost a breeze.
No.12329
Some more Troop posting:
This was taking some orchards heavily guarded by the SS.
This was off to a less then stellar start because I got spotted by not one, but two PaKs who managed to cripple two of my tanks right on the first shot. That was the middle and left flank.
On the right flank I entered an orchard and lost two squads right away when they were wiped out instantly by enemy fire. This is absolute bullshit, but I carried on.
Gladly the AT guns didn't manage to hit anything afterwards and I actually managed to disable them without losing a single tank. Sadly three of them were severely crippled and couldn't do much but shoot from a (semi-)stationary position, but oh well.
Also, one of my squads also got a single-turn wipe from an SS flamethrower squad. The place where they coaled by boys can be seen in the first picture.
However, I managed to whittle them down slowly.
There was not much resistance in the orchard after the initial fire that killed two of my squads through absolute bullshit RNG, although two Panzer IVs were in the area.
So in the end I managed to take the orchard on the left flank with a massive infantry assault, which took forever because the remnants of an LMG team were constantly shuffling around, but in the end they were encircled. The lone Panzer IV that came by was disabled by grenades (getting swarmed by even non-AT infantry is not good for a tank) and finally knocked out by the Sherman arriving at the orchard.
On the right flank the same happened. LMG squad, decimated, running around, as did the Panzer IV that you can see in the last picture about to get gangraped by three Shermans from three different directions - and this knockout was the final straw that broke the nazi's back.
I didn't manage to take the objectives in time, but I killed enough enemies to make that not matter anymore.
No.12495
I should make a habit of taking more pictures.
This one was interesting. British forces were up against a delegation of the Panzer-Lehr-Division who tried to take the village.
FINALLY a defense mission again - although defense missions can go south pretty quickly because objectives need to be held and the moment they leave my possession they are lost, and if I fall below the minimum number of object to be held I lose. The whole map had 4 objectives and I had to hold at least 3 of them.
The major difficulty of defense missions is how to set up your force, mainly the AT guns because they're not quite mobile.
In this mission it was the case too, because one of them didn't saw any action until it managed the decisive knockout of a StuG (it's the piece of smoke next to the Hanomag).
As you can see from the bird's-eye view, the right side was pretty well defended, whereas the main brunt of the enemy attack came from the west, where they managed to take the single objective they were allowed to take, although I managed to kill a bunch of units there, including two armored ones (next to the StuG).
In the very east a single LMG group managed to bully a tank that, pestered by grenade attacks, didn't do anything but just evading.
No.12867
>>12629When I played. I found interface fully intuitive. On the other hand, I don't remember those two purple check marks. What do they mean?
No.12869
>>12867I didn't say that I find the interface unintuitive, on the contrary, but sometimes so much is happening on screen that it's hard to make out what exactly, like who is attacking whom at a given moment.
It's gotten better while getting back into it, though.
No.12907 KONTRA
>>12867Sorry, totally forgot to answer your question: Those are "Alpha" variant indicators. There is one non-alpha firefly on that board, plus one BOSS firefly, as indicated by the skull icon. As far as I remember they were already there before AE though.
No.12997 KONTRA
>>12042I've been eyeing this. But it being on early access puts me off. Really want to go through nand2tetris with this game.
No.13075
Played with VR headset. Well, that was fun. But I still think that this is like 3D cinema -- thing, which is cool because of it's novelty, but won't go anywhere.
Recommend you to try.
No.13080
>>13075>3D CinemaAre there films you can watch in 3D or was that really a fad somewhere in the 2010s
forgot when it was a novelityWith VR there is more than gaming or entertainment options, simulation can be used for a lot more and hence I'd say it is abetter contender for staying around as a technology. Not sure how long 3D Cinema has been developed historically but VR is at least since the 1980s a vision if not longer.
No.13081
>>13080> simulation can be used for a lot moreLike what, for example?
I like the idea of VR controllers but as I understand they don't really require VR headset -- see Nintendo Wii. Maybe will buy it in order to do cardio with fun.
No.13083
>>13081Any kind of vehicle simulation. It's a whole other level compared to sitting in front of the screen.
Obviously it's a niche thing, but well, simulations are already niche by themselves.
No.13092
https://neal.fun/infinite-craft/Seems like crafting rules in this game are auto-generated based on word2vec embeddings or something like this.
Anyway, can you craft Hitler?
No.13101
>>13081>Like what, for example?Any training situation that can be simulated and is usually performed by humans and where a first person simulation comes in handy. The other German mentioned vehicles. Top of my head is medical area and gun training/military of course, the latter has a long history of simulation anyway.
>>13083From a cultural studies or media studies perspective simulations are widespread when you consider that not only a computer can be used to simulate things, you can simulate events or "situations" (military speak I think). Simulations are kinda niche but they play a crucial role and simulating is a very interesting practice tbh.
No.13105
>>13101>when you consider that not only a computer can be used to simulate thingsYeah and this is the dedicated vidya thread, so it should be obvious that we are talking about the vidya kind.
No.13131
>>13080>Not sure how long 3D Cinema has been developed historically but VR is at least since the 1980sApple has decided they need a new steam of revenue and has started selling this bullshit to their cultists, so you can be certain that it's not going to be a 'vision' for much longer, since it has now progressed from 'niche technology for yucky nerdy creepy loser pervert neckbeards' to 'hip new thing, look at me I'm-so-cool'.
No.13146 KONTRA
I'm very close to finishing Persona 5 and I feel like I'll have to write a very long post about the game to get it off my chest. Please look forward to it as I pour my endless autism and enthusiasm onto paper.
No.13153
>>13146What even IS Persona? I see discussion pop up from time to time, but I never even learned what kind of genre it is and what it is about in the first place, except that it seems to be some kind incel game.
No.13154
>>13153It's a JRPG series that is a spinnoff of the Shin Megami Tensei JRPG series.
The latter revolves around fighting angels and demons and shit, and also killing the judeo-crhstian god (who is evil)
The latter takes place in a japanese high school and revolves around solving a mystery or whatever, but most people play it to self insert as the cool edgy chuunibyou protagonist whom every male character in the game likes and wants to be friends with, and every female character is horny for and wants to date.
No.13156
>>13154I don't know what Shin Megami Tensei is, either.
No.13158 KONTRA
>>13153As Kazakh put it bluntly, it's a JRPG series.
The game itself is made up of two parts that interlink, one is a so-called "social simulation" where your blank-slate main character interacts with other characters from the story in the real world. This progresses sub-plots and builds bonds between the main character and the others, allowing them to give you bonuses or perform better in combat. This part of the game takes on the form of basically attending a Japanese highschool. You do quizes, exams, hang out with friends after school and such. It's highly idealised, the cast is colourful and the female casts is purpose-made to move your heart, because you're bound to find at least one of the archetypes relatable or hot.
This is probably why the series is such an otaku-bait. I've never heard people talk about its gameplay before, only seen them post fanart of the characters, and even that is usually only related to the early parts of the game.
The other part of a Persona game is taking your scooby-gang to investigate a series of sinister plots in some paranormal realm that parallels reality, and it's why the social interactions in the real world and such have an effect on your combat performance. The combat itself is a party-based JRPG. Every party member has a "Persona", a reflection of their souls' desire to be liberated. These are all modelled on mythological creatures and figures. (And they also have a short entry that tell you some trivia about the real-world version.)
The combat has a bunch of elements that trump each other like rock-paper-scissors, allowing you to focus on an enemy's weaknesses to progress combat quicker.
You crawl through multiple dungeons, fighting enemies and solving puzzles and that's the gameplay part, but the money you earn there then can be spent in the real world. The two realms form a pleasant gameplay loop in my opinion.
The RPG part is basic I think (I've never played a JRPG before), but ultimately it's more about the story and the cast of characters. Who you will find either unbearable or lovable depending on how tolerant you are of some anime tropes and Japanese media in general. Even then I'd say that it's tame on the usual "I fell on ur boobs xddddd" type anime bullshit.
For some reason I have a feeling that by writing this post I'm inviting some sort of borderline cosmic wrath form someone else.
>>13157That's in Persona 5 too. Afaik Atlus basically recycles a bunch of shit for SMT and Persona.
No.13164
No.13166 KONTRA
I think the most interesting thing about a JRPG is that it takes a completely different approach to “roleplaying”.
My experience with western RPGs points towards the idea that choices are constantly there. in every mission, and your character gets shaded through the actions he takes throughout the quests. The roleplaying aspect is about you creating yourself an aesthetic/archetype and then adhering to those laid out principles throughout the campaign. “Yes, this game I’m going to be a lawful neutral dwarf.”
In a JRPG your choices are much more subtle, and when you are given a direct choice, it’s usually obvious that they wanted to motivate you one that’s obviously the right one. You’re not expected to or supposed to create a pre-defined system of morality to your character.
So in the end, I think it reminds me more of a play. You are literally assigned a role in a play, and your task is to execute that role given to you as well as you can. It’s not playing pretend, it’s acting.
>>13164How the fuck did I manage this?
No.13216
Well, would you look at that! I've finished it! For real! I guess I should share my half-baked, self-centered thoughts on it because of course I abused this thing as a tool of introspection as much as it's humanly possible.
There's this historical term that comes up in Ottoman studies from time to time, that's "Kizil elma" in Turkish, and it means "Golden apple" (Or red. In history class we used golden apple, but I guess gold can be red too, anyway it's besides the point). The ottomans allegedly used this term to denote important cities they wished to conquer. So Constantinople was a golden apple, Belgrade was one and so was Buda and Vienna.
But why am I talking about this? Well, because for the past 8 years, Persona was my own "Golden apple". I saw some screenshots, the colour scheme and the aesthetic, heard a bit of the music and I immediately felt I had to have it. Alas, it was a PS3 exclusive so it wasn't meant to be. Then like three years ago I learned that they ported it to the PC completely by accident. Of course it was still out of reach because of the system requirements.
Ultimately, this game was the sole reason I even bothered to upgrade my PC.
So, what's there to say about the PC port on the technical side? Well, first of all, it runs like fucking ass. Or at least it did so until I did some troubleshooting with the exe file to turn off some feature windows has I never heard off.
The interface is completely controller centric. I didn't have a controller, but by the end I was basically able to use the keyboard to manage the interface basically blindly. It became a reflex.
I guess these are the "bad things" about the game. Otherwise it ran without bugs, serious hitches or crashes.
So, was this thing worth having desires for almost a decade? Am I satisfied now that I've experienced all of it. I think yes. Absolutely.
Had I had access to a Playstation 3 in 2016 and played it when I was 16 years old, I think it'd have had the most terrifying effect on me. It'd have been like seeing Evangelion for the first time. I guess this comes down to my personality, because I feel like that playing this thing was cathartic for me.
Okay, the plot is basically just a well-written, somewhat interactive anime. But I'm the player and I get to think about the stuff I see. The entire game is basically centred around teenagers and young adults fixing their problems. Of course the world isn't as idealistic as it is in a JRPG, but it's very rare that something as art jumps me and makes me think that yes, my very, very vulgar understanding of Nietzsche's Bejahung from my teenage years was right and I should get out there and do things because there's always tomorrow. That's what Zarathustra and Evangelion taught me.
Initially I thought I was going to fall into despair because of the narrative and aesthetic idealism presented in the game, and sure enough, I did have a day of despair, before it all clicked. I could just do stuff IRL and feel good about it. There's ultimately precious little preventing me from reading on the bus, drinking good tea and coffee, take the hottest showers ever and also exercise daily. And I've been feeling great. I've avoided the trap of escapism.
No.13217
I guess my experience with the contents of the game was different than that of most people. It takes an inspiration from a lot of places, and I feel like it reawakened my curiosity for intellectual things outside my "specialisation". I started reading out of curiosity again. And enjoying it.
I know most people's normal reaction to this thing like "I wonder if the narrative of the game was indirectly influenced by Mencius' idea that those who abuse their power and are without virtue or humaneness to those under them should be toppled?" or "I should check out some primary sources of Japanese mythology." or "Hey, this is so cool, I've read the epic this monster is from. Hey, my favourite hero from German myth is in the game!" or "I cannot believe this character's name means "Justice" if you read the original kanji".
I don't know if this is normal or not. But it's my experience. The execution reawakened a curiosity I haven't felt since I've left high school. I think my 4 years at university worked systematically to exterminate this feeling and desire from me despite my best efforts.
I'd post some screenshots but I seem to have only taken them during crucial story moments for some reason. Like for example I haven't thought about ever taking a screenshot of a battle. As I wrote in a previous post, the gameplay in the very technical sense is an expanded rock-paper-scissors system with different attack types.
I think one of the most interesting attack type is the "gun damage" one, where your party uses toy guns, but because the dungeons are inside the cognition of people, the guns are perceived as real and so they do real damage. It's a fun concept.
(So to say something for the lack of screenshots: Most of the game is played from a third person perspective, sometimes switching to a fixed-camera for the sake of the scenery.)
Generally speaking there's a satisfying loop between the "cognitive world" and the "social simulation" part of the game, where little team building activities make it so that your party performs better in combat. Of course even if some of the bonuses are terrible, the party members' stories are still rather interesting and moving a lot of the time. So I'd say the game is relatively well written and narratively motivating. Like I was actively curious about the main plot and the sublots of the "confidants" you have throughout the game, and funnily enough I was more of then wrong than right about my predictions.
None of the systems are "overly deep", but there's enough of them that the game feels complex enough that you don't get bored of it. Your character has 5 skills he can develop, and these 5 skills allow him to craft better items or be more effective socially. There are constant deadlines in the game to achieve stuff but you never feel too rushed. The pressure isn't unbearable.
No.13218
Though one thing that surprised me and I ultimately ended up enjoying a lot was how your character is a high schooler. So he attends high school. In-game this is simulated by events where during classes teachers will ask you a question. Usually some sort of trivia about history, society, mathematics or etymology. If you answer well, then you get some skillpoint rewards. But the absolute shocker of a part came when during the game's exam season period they actually test you and have you take an exam where you answer the questions again. And in some cases the question isn't even the same. Like there was one geometry related question where you were basically asked to apply a principle (That the angles within a triangle always ad up to 180) and calculate the result yourself.
If you answer all of the questions correctly during an exam then you get to be top of the class. Which is mentioned a few times in game.
Your skills can be translated into social progress. As you build friendship with other characters they teach you new things or lend you their help, positively influencing your combat abilities from things like backup party members earning XP during dungeon sessions or even such basic things as being able to switch out party members during anyone's turn. So there's this dual motivation thing to everything where you care about the character and want to see his or her story be resolved and you also know that you will learn something new that will help you immensely throughout combat or exploration.
Though I never got addicted to it like I get addicted to some gameplay loops in let's say, X-com or Stardew Valley.
As for the combat in a bit more detail: Each of your party members has a "Persona" which is the expression of their will to rebel. These personas are based on mythological creatures or heroes. Of course the really cools ones like angels from Christian lore or the Indian gods or someone like Siegfried or Fafnir are for late-game use.
Your main character is an extra special guy because he can also "make deals" with personas he sees in the wild and have them tag along.
They made it sure that it fits into the narrative very nicely. Every character you encounter and team up with is assigned a card from the Major Arcana of the Tarot. Your main character has a card too, but he's assigned the Fool, which has no number and no suite associated with it either, and when the Tarot was used as an actual card game it was the one which could turn around the tide of battle because it amounted to the most points when the game ended and the points were tallied. So he's the "Joker" of sorts. And lo and behold, his codename is Joker too.
What surprised me is that this Hermetic/Neoplatonic Tarot theme is woven very nicely through the game, even in tiny details like how in the menu when you look up your connections they are not ordered by the level of their social link or alphabetically, rather, they follow the traditional order of the major arcana of the Tarot based on which character has which card associated with them. I just feel like a lot of love was put into the game.
No.13219
You can combine the personas you catch to level them up and create new ones for you to use. This is the preferred method, because this way you can have them inherit skills and preferable traits.
The "dungeons" themselves which you are supposed to explore aren't "complex" or anything. Most of them are essentially corridors you progress through linearly. The only twist is that you can find three secret items in each one, which are usually hidden behind a strong enemy or a puzzle. The puzzles aren't going to make your brain grow by any margin. Most of them are dead simple, save for like two in the entire game where you have to wake up because "Oh shit I need to use my brain for this" and then solve it in two minutes.
I guess this could be said of the entire game that its design is very casual in a sense. It can sometimes ramp up the difficulty, but usually it's to force you to change your tactics and find the "solution" to a problem. But if you pay attention, do as the game directs you then there's no way you can get lost. If a secret treasure is nearby your party members will notify you, if you can progress a bond or build a new one you are told how to do it. There's very little you have to "figure" out when it comes to story progression. Of course you get zero advice on how to build a strong persona or what's important for a party member, but even if you screw up, there's always a way to turn it around and fix the progression.
I didn't use a guide for my first playthrough. I didn't know anything about the story either. But I never got stuck or felt like I needed a guide.
So yes I love this game and it's the best thing since sliced bread. I was afraid it wouldn't live up to the expectations I've been nurturing in my head over the years but it's really good and I'm glad I took my time to play it and experience it. Worth the wait and I owe the friend who helped me build this PC a beer I guess. Or maybe an entire crate of it.
No.13595
Postal 2
Each feature such as "pissing on people" or "using a cat as a silencer for shotgun" doesn't really add anything to gameplay, but their synergy creates the trashy atmosphere and makes the game enjoyable (because otherwise, as a shooter, it's shit).
First 5 days are sandbox, and weekend is a linear game.
Hotline Miami, Hotline Miami 2
Fun aesthetic games.
No.13601
>>13596Every time I tried to play anything in the "sony game" genre, my experience could be summarized with the attached video.
>>13595Postal 2 is an interactive art commentary on the american zeitgeist and the collective insanity of the inhabitants of usastan.
It belongs in a museum.
No.13602 KONTRA
btw, the moral majority boomers were right, video games are for (overgrown) children, a waste of time, and aren't in fact, an art
No.13604
>>13602Videogames are art, as they entertain a vast amount of people on a daily basis. Any attempts to delegitimize this is just elitist behaviour, and pretty much the artists' way of saying nigger, since it discriminates based on identity. In any form of socialism, the self-proclaimed artist noblesse would be hanged, as video games are the working class of artists.
No.13605
>>13601You know, brick, I must agree here, on all accounts.
No.13606 KONTRA
>>13601YES!
And it also explains its enduring popularity in Eastern Europe. Because it’s a piece of Americana that perfectly embodies the 2001-2008 period of the American mind.
No.13607
>>13602>and aren't in fact, an artI wouldn't lump that statement in with the others, because I, an adult, am as free as anyone else to decide what I do with my free time.
"Video games are art" on the other hand is a statement which I have only heard so far being made by either bad (indie) devs who couldn't make it elsewhere or fans of the aforementioned or vidya "experts"/"""journalists""". It's usually the same kind of people who think story is more important than gameplay.
No.13663
Finally finished World in Conflict.
I had been playing this on-off for a good year now, no idea why it took me so long; probably because it's so stressful with the constant zooming around and stuff.
I actually find it funny that the devs are apparently swedish because if you had a film written and directed by Roland Emmerich and produced by Michael Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer, it couldn't get any more MURRICA FUCK YEAH than this.
In fact, the final cutscene ends with two unnamed grunts finally finding batteries for their portable CD player (!) and listening to Here I go again by Whitesnake.
So, overall it was pretty fun, though Easy was indeed a tad too easy, but I don't know if I could deal with even more stress on higher difficulties. Missions where all kinda samey, it was always "capture point, move on to next". The few missions that did things a little differently in between really nicened everything up a little.
What I liked about the credits, and realized that I had never seen that before, was "outtakes" from development, i.e. funny bugs and glitches being shown, along pictures of the dev team in different stages of development and drunkenness (which a few others have done too, though).
No.14271
Best Dune vidya is morrowind
No.14582
It's 2k24 and it's the first time when I played "Plague Inc."
Spent half a day and stuck with zombie virus. I've beaten it once on casual difficulty and now trying to reproduce the result.
No.14603
>>14582OK, I've finished every type of game on "normal" except last two which I finished on "easy".
What I liked about "Plague Inc." is that it is a strategy game, and there no tactic and micromanagement here, only strategic decisions.
9/10. Not 10, because not much replayability.
No.14613
>>14603How can a game without replayability be anything more than a 5/10?
No.14614
Morrowind graphic extender is a far superior graphic alternative to Openmw, allowing distant object to get more and more blue as if they blended with the sky. Sadly this mod is incompatible with the OpenMw engine that has a lot of other qualities (tamriel rebuilt compatibility, improved performance and so on). I am angry
No.14660
>>14657Man I remember playing some old hunting simulator game at a relative’s house and it was the most captivating shit ever because of how different it felt.
This is unironically so cool.
No.14662
Tamriel rebuilt is incredible. I’m currently buying stock to fund colonial mining venture with the east empire company.
I am playing a Nordic barbarian dreaming of fortune and slowly getting entangled on commerce and politics, gaining interest for serious trade and turning into an early venture capitalist.
No.14671
This one was really, really bad.
Just one ingame hour before I had shot (and instakilled) a black bear female from over 100m away, at night, with open sights; that probably went to my head a bit too much. It was a pretty lucky shot anyway, since I didn't even really see the animal.
And because I'm a dumbass like that I shot the black bear I found drinking also half through the foliage. As it later turned out, this would have been a killshot irl, but the game decided that a 50cal lead ball going through the scapula and into the upper thoracic spine (without even grazing the lungs) is just a light injury.
So I tracked the animal. That is the green line you can see going west from the orange marker.
Apparently it then looped back to its original spot (already hurt) to get some more sips, but by the time I arrived there, sipping time was over (animals in this game are on very tight schedules!) he was already moving away. I tried to shoot him, but had shitty lead, and since I am playing on my non-dedicated-gaming laptop, anytime a shot is fired the game lags like ass because it's doing all these calculations, which makes shooting a moving animal almost impossible. And as I found out later, I only managed to hit him in a hind leg.
And from there on, I tracked him for almost a kilometer.
At the end I thought I had lost him because the tracks somehow just stopped. Then I did what I have done before so often when hunting bears and which ALWAYS spooks them and started running.
Gladly this one was already hurt and didn't just run away, but actually stood up to look and that's when I finally put him out of his misery.
I know it's just a game and I could have just let it be and move on, but irl I would also track a wounded animal (in fact I'd be forced by law).
Didn't take a picture of the harvest screen because it was too embarrassing.
No.14711 KONTRA
>>147102/2
After that I went to Siberia to hunt wolves.
I was actually pretty lucky because I was doing with the wind to a spot I apparently hadn't discovered before and right there was actually a pack of wolves having their resting and drinking place (on a frozen lake).
I shot one from 350m away and then another one because the pack didn't really move, but I was pretty close already so they fucked off. But because their need time wasn't over yet, I set up on the other side of the frozen lake where they were drinking and waited if they come back.
And they did.
I tried to shoot one, but apparently missed. That seemed to have pissed them off though because after that they were coming right at me. You can't properly see it because it's already pretty dark, but I actually shot a bunch of angry wolves that tried to rip me a new breathing hole. You can see the state of one of them when I shot him, he was really angry, and the log in the last picture shows the quick succession in which I shot four of them; the last bitch left ran away. I would have had only one bullet anyway.
But this is also kinda ehhh. I think I'll go back hunting red deer with the Drilling now.
No.14814
The game has trophy lodges. It's basically a kind of late-game money sink and a great opportunity to sell some more DLCs.
And it gives someone who has done all the missions a bit more to do. In fact I had ignored them completely, but apparently they made one of them free, so I tried it out.
It's basically a hunting lodge in the first american reserve. It's nice, albeit a bit american-corny.
It has dedicated spots for the basic animals of the basic reserves, so I spent some time getting specimens of those animals to hang in the lodge.
I have to admit, it does push the right buttons (which it was apparently designed to), because of course better trophies means e.g. bigger antlers, and there's a lot of room between a low-level red deer and a high-level one.
What I don't like is the often tacky poses and presentations; I prefer neutral poses IF I really want to put a stuffed animal somewhere (which I never would irl).
Also, you can only do the typical american way of hanging the whole head of the animal on the wall, or only the antlers. German trophies are usually prepared with part of the skull (only the bone), which I think looks better than the variants with head or fur. I still wouldn't hang one of those anywhere, but when it's there I like it more than the other options.
But now I have all trophy spots filled. Next up will probably be getting all kinds of ibexes in Spain to do a big display piece and then it's back to black powder black bear bagging. Or maybe more red deer with the Drilling.
I also took a picture of the full moon (in game, today's full moon is behind a cloudy veil, plus I'm too lazy to get my camera), and the probably longest killshot I made with the bow. It was a pretty risky and lucky shot because I hit him from around 90m away (with tailwind) right from behind into a lung. At that distance, the arrow could have gone anywhere.
What I find increasingly irritating though is the way terminal ballistics are modeled. If I shoot a roe deer into the shoulder from around 30m away with a standard load .223, the bullet will NOT get stuck in the shoulderbone.
If I shoot a fallow deer from 20m away into the chest - even from the front - with a .44mag bullet, the bullet will NOT get stuck in the pectoral muscles. If I shoot an animal into its chest cavity, there WILL be lethal damage even if the heart and lungs are not "directly" hit, because there's cavitation effects and blood vessels there and so on. There are more examples from shitty angled shots, and while I understand that it's primarily my own fault for actually taking unsafe, unethical and shitty shots I would never take irl, that doesn't change anything about just how badly implemented it is. Oh, and the bear that stopped a 12 gauge slug from 25m with his sternum, but I already mentioned that.
No.15115
Campaign for improving consumer rights with video games. You can do your part. Here
https://youtu.be/w70Xc9CStoE is a longer version of the video.
https://www.stopkillinggames.com/ No.15116
>>15115Wanted to do this but am too lazy to draw up a letter in my own words to the Verbraucherzentrale. You don't happen to have a template?
No.15120
>>15118>>15119Yes, I've seen that too, which is why I asked because I don't want to draft my own letter.
No.15121
>>15120I won't provide you mine. But if you intent to copy anyway just copy the bullet points and remove the not fitting part. I think that will have less impact, but copied is copied.
Maybe some Ernst has experience with letting AI formulate something and could provide that.
No.15122
>>15121Don't worry, we won't get graded on this and there is no teacher to bust us.
No.15123
>>15121You get a 3+.
>>15122You get a 3-.
Setzen.
No.15124
>>15123I don't believe that you're a teacher. Can you prove it?
No.15577
A video about a ps2 era sequel to a Russian game written by a prominent "vatnikist" politician figure.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LZPsrVVe2cQ No.15615
>>15577Ohh, I recognized this guy, it's Kirill Nesterov or Kazimirka. He was a eceleb in Runet, making extremely autistic but original videos about computer games and politics. He hanged out with a very toxic subgroup of nationalists (enough to say that their head died by jumping naked from the window while being drugged).
After Kazimirka had a quarrel with them, he deleted his videos and switched to English audience. Seems like he achieved a success in that field.
No.15616 KONTRA
>>15615Shit, it looks like he was pretty far off from all the English written traces of his past I can gather. For having followed him for a few years, he seems to now be perfectly westernized liberal. Though I noticed some fun weird references to some underground internet communities he made in his vids, it doesn’t surprise me, plus his subjects and knowledge base, it doesn’t surprise me that much. Still, it’s one of the best gaming channels I know of
No.16070
I want to play vidya.
I start up some vidya and immediately quit again.
I think I would like to play some strategy games, but I don't feel like thinking in my free time.
I think I might just be in the process of abandoning gaming as a pastime.
No.16134
>>15115There is a follow up video to the campaign.
https://youtu.be/Jezi1bE4xvc No.16252
I am playing metal gear solid 3: snake eater. The game is called snake eater because the story makes you hunt down the members of a soldier group called cobra. But eating snake for survival is also a core part of the game, there’s a dozen species of snake you can pick up and eat. This is very silly
No.16254
>>16252Zoomers discovering the classics is always c&a.
Keep us updated on when you meet characters and bosses.
No.16267
>>16254Just finished the game. I half expected a grounded, relatively realistic story and serious characters. What I had was the jojo of infiltration games. A dying man, arbitrarily designed as the father of modern sniping, who pops his eye out to better his aim and uses his old people head spots as camouflage. The villain uses electricity to shoot bullets straight from his hands. The characters were hilarious, I didn’t laugh this much for months at the over the top gun tricks of young Ocelot. Sometimes you wonder how much of this goofiness is intentional, but then I realized that besides that the game series manages to be one of if not the only to not have an idealistic approach of warfare and the condition of soldier (in 2005!!!). Being a Japanese game it probably spared it a lot
The gameplay of infiltration in itself got a bit old. Especially the novelty they tried to add to the first mgs formula which to me at least aged better. With things like the new hitman out in store it’s difficult for a game of this generation to be up to date in what it new ideas it tries to accomplish. The bosses as for the first mgs were a blast. The face models were perfect, even though facial expression are now kind of goofy.
No.16268
>>16267> I half expected a grounded, relatively realistic story and serious characters.Oh, this was your first MGS?
Anway, the wackiness IS what makes it so endearing imo because, as you say, the gameplay is kinda eh.
In fact, I found MGS always to be bottom tier of the common stealth games. Thief and Splinter Cell were way, way better. I wouldn't put Hitman in the same category as the others, because it's not "stealth" in the sense of "avoid line of sight" and such, but it's better than MGS, too, and in fact as someone who could probably still speedrun Blood Money, I very much enjoyed NuMan.
No.16269
>>16268>Oh, this was your first MGS?I played half of the first one about five years ago and failed miserably to change the virtual disc on the emulator to play the second half. I found it tamer in terms of wacky stuff compared to snake eater, and preferred the gameplay. As I play it on the newly released steam version, a disclaimer at the start of each game apologizes for the sexism lol
No.16304
>>16302No idea how the state on M*c is, but for Windows, PCSX2 is pretty good, Dolphin works almost flawlessly, Swanstation can emulate most of PS1 pretty well, Mupen64Plus works well in most cases, Snes9x or bsnes are for those, can't remember what I use for Gameboy.
All of this is running on a 2019 upper-class laptop through Retroarch.
The only problem you might run into is availability of ROMs; the Internet Archive has a lot of stuff, but there have been purges, especially of Nintendo stuff, which might now be pretty hard to come by.
No.16307
>>16304Honestly I have zero interest in Nintendo's catalogue.
In general, the Nintendo-centricity of retro gaming spearheaded by Americans online is very stupid.I'm not looking for anything so obscure I cannot find it. Just the first two three Persona games (will probably never sit down to play them I just put them on my hard drive) and maybe I will fire up Crash Team Racing to see if it holds up at all because I loved it as a kid when I had a PS1.
(None of these will ever happen.)
No.16309 KONTRA
Okay I fixated on a minor detail in that comment.
I have zero clue about the quality of emulation on Mac but it cannot be that bad. (I mean worst case scenario is that I just turn on the PC. Nope, gonna have to use the PC because I only can get an X360 controller and that's not supported on Mac and I'm not fucking around with extra drivers.)
No.16310
>>16307In wonder where that animosity against Nintendo comes from. Is it pure contrarianism? SNES was the console everyone had before everyone had a Playstation.
No.16311 KONTRA
>>16310It's not really directed against the NES or the SNES or Nintendo itself, rather I just despise their rabid fanbase sucking them off and saying that Ocarina of time is the greatest game ever. (It's not) (No, these people are not in the room with us right now.)
No.16312 KONTRA
Though I might add that Nintendo's 2D catalogue probably aged a lot better than its early 3D one.
SMB3 is still a very fun game.
Or the Tengen version of Tetris on the NES is an amazing party game with that multiplayer mode. (But it's not like that was up to Nintendo.)
I don't mind Nintendo games, I do mind people fellating Nintendo endlessly as it whips them. It's the oddest mass-BDSM relationship on the web.
(But in general I do have little interest in their games nowadays. Maybe I'd try Breath of the Wild but I don't see myself buying a switch to play it.)
No.16313
>>16311>muh fanbaseGood thing I don't care about that, or I couldn't enjoy Silent Hill, for example. Or Factorio. Or Disco Elysium, or many more.
And from what I can gather, the Nintendo fanbase is not any more rabid than other console's fanbases; and while Ocarina of Time might not be the greatest game ever (because we're not at the end of time yet), it's pretty damn close.
No.16369 KONTRA
>>16312In the early 2010s, at the height of millennial cultural relevance, pixels and 16 bit nostalgia was at its paroxysm, and early 3D catalogue was a bit disregarded. Now that us zoomers have the lead, early 3D nostalgia seems at its height. A lot of creative new games use low poly aesthetics and PS1 UI.
What’s Ernst favorite console generation?
No.16627
Currently replaying Star Wars Episode 1 Racer.
IMO it's still one of the best racing games of all time, and definitely my favorite scifi racer.
I actually remember getting it "on accident", so to day. I had been pestering my mother to get me Pokemon Stadium. We went to the store but they didn't have it for some reason, so I somehow managed to make her buy me this game, even though she was rather strict about "no games outside of birthday/christmas", and I even got Pokemon Stadium later.
Anyway, I was an absolute shitter back then, like most young boys on the cusp of manhood, and only managed to beat the game by cheating (cheats could enabled the debug menu, where I also made my racer go twice the speed).
A few years later when I was more familiar with the concepts of cornering and braking (as a kid I never used the brake in racing games, so it was always smashing into walls to steer), I found that it wasn't that hard.
It's also interesting to the style of play between N64 and PC differs because of the framerate issues. As you might know, the N64 was the first retro console that had modern console framerates, and with the usually already pretty worn N64 sticks, I always chose Bullseye Navoir (because he's such a silly looking fellow I always made him into Cy Yunga by cheats, who looks more alien and less like a sausage version of the Michelin man, plus I liked his pod design more).
Now, on PC, with better framerates, the small, twitchy pods that were necessary on console were TOO twitchy, so I came to prefer Aldar Beedo for that, though I think his pod was one of the largest.
What I also like about the game is that seemingly every single racer was someone's favorite, which is understandable because gameplay-wise there aren't any major differences. One has better boost (like Ben Quadrinarios with his four engines) while Neva Kee's peculiar setup with the cockpit between the engines made him a cornering god.
Though for time trials, Ben is absolutely broken exactly because of his insane boost.
Then, the sense of progression is just so insanely fun. You win money through races (and the wagers can actually be changed from "everyone on the podium gets something" to "winner takes it all") and spend that on upgrades. However, there is a junkyard where you can buy higher tier parts that aren't even unlocked yet in the regular shop for less money because they're busted. Now the punchline is that over the course of a race, provided you're not smashing into things constantly, they are repaired, so late-game parts can be hard by early-mid game for almost no money, and while I am still doing the cups, I constantly buy busted versions of my parts on the junkyard to earn even more money. What for? It doesn't even matter, but making Watto pay me money is very satisfying.
Last, the iconic taunts like
>DOOKA DOOKA PISTOYA
>CHUPA
and the enthusiastic announcer with his
>IT'S A NEW LAP RECORD!
will stay in everyone's memory forever.
No.16630 KONTRA
>>16369Consoles are for children, man-children and paupers.
No.17188
Replayed Majora's Mask because they released the static recompilation.
Runs flawlessly, and especially without crashes - something I had a few times during emulation.
The only downside is that there is no CRT filter, so I actually had to use downsampling. I didn't touch framerate, aspect ratio or anything though. Although, playing at 60 fps really feels smooth as fuck, but it doesn't feel like an N64.
But enough of the technical side.
The game is almost 25 years old; I played it on release and a bunch of times ever since. I was a dumb kid back then who actually used cheats and walkthroughs wherever he could. Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
As for the actual game, well, there are some spots that are frustrating because of the ancient tech. One or two times I actually got fucked over by the camera during Z-Targeting, and for some reason I wasn't able to properly steer the Goron roll anymore, which led to me having to scale the Snowhead Temple step by step instead of rolling upwards.
Nevertheless, it's an incredibly well-designed game. The first cycle alone is set up in a very clever way - that is, a bit too clever for the modern gamer. While Tatl is often telling you where to go, i.e. what your destination is, you still have to figure out the way for yourself. What people considered unbearable handholding just 20 years ago would be considered needlessly obtuse today. I think that's also part of why people are put off by it. The time limit and the dungeons that are way too clever for a videogame (at least considering modern sensibilities) probably filtered millions.
For those who don't get filtered you get solid 3D Zelda gameplay, a very interesting world and a very, very special atmosphere that seems to hit harder the older I get.
Honestly, I didn't pay much attention to the themes back then, or at least I don't remember that, though one line of one of the masked kids on the moon should have affected me in some way - the question whether your friends are actually your friends, a question that was indeed relevant back then for me.
Also, the music hits differently. While doing the Kafei quest and having to wait literally until two minutes to apocalypse, for the first time ever I actually noticed the music track (see file) and it gave me feels.
I could probably ramble on for hours, but I'll leave it at that.
Next up is the Lego Rock Raiders remake called Manic Miners, which is fucking rad.
No.17725
Took up Brigador a few days ago.
It's basically a real time tactics game with mechs.
I still don't quite know what the story is about, just that a brigador is a mercenary and there's some great leader who dies and some company that pays brigadors to conduct acts of terrorism.
Apparently the meat of the game is the "Freelance" mode where one can build their own vehicle - a tank, a biped mech or a antrigrav "car" - and set it up with all kinds of weapons. Doing single missions gives money which is used to buy new vehicles, weapons, pilots and LORE bits.
I am currently doing the campaign, which is also just a bunch of missions strung together; the difference here is that the loadouts are pre-set and it's only a small choice of different ones.
So far I can dig the spritework and music, and while I sometimes get stuck in corners (a large pet peeve of mine concerning games), controls are pretty good too. I am about halfway through the campaign and had my first mission I would call "kinda difficult" and which I had to try a few times.
They also wrote an accompanying novel and made it into an audiobook. In my opinion they should have written a proper manual instead, because some game mechanics just aren't explained anywhere, and I am really not interested in listening to the most stereotypical brit voice reading mech action.
With about four hours into the game, I must admit I am still not sure if I like it. It certainly has some kind of draw, but I don't see how I will put hundred of hours into this unless something clicks. Maybe I have to do a bit of freelance.
No.17726
>>17725There wasn't enough room for more pictures, so here are some more.
The mission descriptions and all of that is generally kept in a diegetic way. Note the corpo euphemism lingo.
Second picture is one of the more hilarious vehicles, which is basically just a pile of junk cars with a heavy machine gun and a thrower for grenades that release some corrosive gas.
Also, I kept listening to the audiobook. Apart from it still being not really interesting after the first half hour or so, listening to that guy is just funny. He sounds exactly like Sharpe (dare I say, he is a Norf), but the best is as always having an anglo pronouncing a non-english word. Every single one of them comes out as if he was in great pain, or had to exert heavy force to wield his tongue in such an unusual way, all while completely butchering the actual word. We are talking about spanish and portuguese here, mainly, although as far as I can tell, one of the characters is called "Armbruster".
No.17738
Damn, I forgot to post about how I enjoyed WH40k: Rogue Trader, wish I did when it was fresh in my mind. That was a fairly well written RPG taking full advantage of the setting and the concept of Rogue Traders in it. It is, essentially, a TTRPG adaptation, but the story is engaging, the characters are interesting, if a bit simplistic, and the gameplay is something I enjoy a lot, a turn based squad combat, akin to X-Com and Larian games, with pretty in-depth progression and classes. I really liked the locations and the environments they've made too.
In the negative category I would list a lot of bugs, and the fact that the difficulty falls off extremely quickly after the first act. Essentually, the combat becomes way too easy regardless of the difficulty setting. The story also kinda takes a turn in act 3 but I'd say it picks up after that. I felt that the affinity system is a bit lacking as well, whilst "dogmatic" and "iconoclast" dialogue options and choices usually make some semblance of sense, the "heretical" ones could be much better written.
Overall, if you like turn-based combat and RPGs, I'd say it's a great choice for you even if you know next to nothing about 40k. I don't have any screenshots saved so I'll just attach a picture of Argenta
No.18000
Ok so by now I have played a good 20 hours and frankly, the gameis still growing on me, especially after finding out that the correct way of reversing can be set (as "inverted" reversing).
I have also been starting to unlock shit, like a pilot that gives me a huge multiplier, plus a vehicle that gives me a huge multiplier - pictured, a tuktuk; in the game it belongs to the "tank" class.
Just for fun I tried a mission with a specific setup - a not-MG42 (called "Bonesaw" in the game) and some gamma ray emitter that just burns things through walls, called "Black Hand". Basically I managed to keep a bunch of enemies at bay and not get killed by a boss I had to kill in turn and got a hefty 100m payout - probably the largest single-mission payout possible.
Only longer runs can net more money.
The webm on the other hand shows the adorable spritework and detail.
On hovercars and lighter vehicles recoil actually matters - it slows them down (e.g. from automatic guns) and, in the case of this light mech that simply wields a huge tool between its legs, it makes it take a step back to stablilize, and, aimed in the other direction, makes it run faster.
This is especially funny when equipping a fast vehicle with the "König" chaingun (which is the not-Vulcan-as-know-from-the-A10-airplane in the game) because sustained fire will just push the hovercar back.
I still have to beat the campaign; the "regular" campaign wasn't that hard, but there are several lettered assignments (D,E,F) that were added in later updates and the F maps are community maps, and since this community seems to be masochistic, those missions kick ass. It took some tries to beat the first one and right now I am slowly grinding through the second one. Fuck Corvids and their suicide tuktuks.
Also been listening to the audiobook some more. The guy still sounds like Sharpe, but ever since they stopped introducing characters I can't remember anyway and "setting the mood" and actually getting some action, it's become rather entertaining, I must admit.
And it makes it all clearer that You, the Player, as a brigador, are NOT one of the good guys. In case you couldn't tell from indiscriminately destroying houses and causing millions of casualties of collateral damage.
No.18127
Done with the campaign.
The final mission (the last community mission) was a very big map with a lot of enemies.
Compared to that the penultimate one seems rather small.
Once you understand how they work, and it clicks, it's all a matter of execution, which I suck at. A bunch of attempts failed because I blew myself up and such. One time I only had to escape and did something stupid. Not panicking when getting overwhelmed is the key.
Anyhow, with that out of the way, I can safely say that I like the game. The different loadouts provide a lot of variety, both regarding playstyle and challenge. Trying to do some of those in just a powersuit is pretty fun, although powersuits can be equipped with a nasty gamma ray emitter. Let me cite the flavor text (nevermind the scifi technobabble):
>The Black Hand is a gamma emitter used almost exclusively by Spacers; fielding the weapon alone is sufficient for war crimes charges, but the few militaries with means to pursue action against the Spacers are also the ones who employ them. Against an unshielded target, single ignitions can inflict 3rd degree burns and a guarantee of cancer at 100 yards, and within 50 you begin to see 4th degree burns and spontaneous contracture. Exposure at 25 yards is a death sentence even when protected behind several inches of armor plating; liquefaction of the dermis and internal organs is common, and even if a target somehow survives exposure at that range they are permanently incapacitated.
I have also started modding. Sadly the game was not developed originally with modding in mind, so it's not "put stuff in folder and/or edit some text files", but like we had to do back in the day with unpacking assets, changing and/or adding stuff and repacking. Reminds me a bit of the good old GTA modding days.
The first thing I did was modding in the Addax tank, used by enemies, but not playable, which is a shame.
The thing is basically a Sturmgeschütz and it's fun maneuvering around, surprising enemies from behind and running away just to ambush the goons that come looking.
I certainly don't regret this purchase, though I have muted the music now, because it was all the same synthwave Stranger Things sound (in fact some of that band's songs were used for the show) that sounded the same despite being like 20 different tracks or so. The final few maps (community made) were hard, but not in a "hard" way, but more tedious - long, dragged out. In fact I found a post by the one who made the final map saying that it's basically the biggest map possible with the most enemies possible. I don't know what caused that trend in recent years for community mapping thinking more enemies = more good (see also: Doom slaughtermaps). I enjoyed the puzzle-like maps more where you have to actually strategize instead of cheesing and peekabo. Though it was carthatic playing that same map with the aforementioned Mother's Love vehicle. Just waltzing in, sounding the seventh trumpet and let them come to me while letting the autofiring ordnance take care of everything.
Now I am in the process of doing campaign missions with the different provided loadouts - every campaign mission lets you choose one of four setups, which also serve as a kind of difficulty setting - the big tank with the big cannon will probably have an easier time than the small powersuit with its puny MGs. Some of them are hard as balls though, and I don't think I want to try the final missions again. The mere prospect of spending three real life hours scooting and shooting with a tiny vehicle and having to restart after one hit is not my idea of fun. I enjoy a challenge, but I am not a masochist.
No.18175
>>18127The trick with small armor in this game is to understand the stealth mechanics and use double Donkey Punch.
A short range, high damage, single shot weapon with enough ammo.
Emptying a single barrel obliterates most smaller armor, going for a double tap eliminates even larger vehicles in a single burst.
Then it's just a game of picking your targets while staying clear of those scout enemies that actually can report your presence or taking them out quickly.
Also I rather enjoyed playing with relative controls than tank controls.
It's a nice game, yeah.
Would be top tier if it would give more overall incentive like some conquest mode, with rudimentary economics or whatnot, as I'm not a big fan of this single-mission arcade gamestyle.
No.18176
>>18175Heh, yesterday I tried a run with the Hoker and double Donkey, but I am not gud enough to pull it off. Getting right in their faces is scary, plus the kamikaze units can very quickly fuck me up.
No.18177
>>18176Donkey and that long range mortar with silent shot and extreme impact sound is nice too, with the latter you can kind of guide them into a more or less set up ambush under shelling.
But if you get swarmed and heavies get involved, you're toast, 1 Donkey just doesn't cut it to take them out quickly enough without taking a load into your own face.
Also note that one of the pilots is the Cruelty Squad player character.
No.18178
>>18177I actually never played Cruelty Squad, or Starsector or know about the other references (frankly, I read all of that up on the wiki), nor do I hang out in the Discord. I only dipped my toe in there once, but with every new Discord server I join I hate the whole concept of Discord more and more.
At least I know about the Party Van :3
No.18179
>>18178StarSector... now this game has some nice progression from an explorative tanker fleet to AI-homeworld-backed dreadnought with carrier support!
And modded "shipbuilding companies" are great as well.
Also best 2D explosions ever.
Probably could make a lot more money if this guy moved to Steam.
No.18181 KONTRA
>>18177I really should get down to playing Cruelty Squad. Supposedly it's really good.
No.18182
With the thread now on autosage, I decided to do a short retrospective of what happened in here and noticed that I must have posted almost half the pictures in the thread and probably made the most posts as an individual poster.
Basically I am almost only working and gaming anymore.
No.18189
>>18181It really is.
One of the rare, finishable games that I actually finished and even rarer, have the urge to play again not too far out.
Deus Ex on LSD and capitalism.
No.18215 KONTRA
>>18182> Only working and gamingI can say the same about myself, at least for the last week. Trying to become decent at workers and resources, I play on hard, but I still make stupid mistakes. It's the worst kind of pseudo-achievement I'm chasing here. I need to stop. But the little cats and people going round are so nice to watch...