(Archived) The thread in which we discuss the videogames we are playing in the year 2023

video games
1069

I‘ve continued to chip away at TotK and I’m still extremely mixed on it! As in somehow I have it in me to both be thinking about what‘s going to happen next in the story parts that I’m in the middle of right now and simultaneously be thinking about what other game I feel like playing instead. It‘s odd, because it’s on the surface a fun game, an ambitious game, and a game that has a good sweet spot of trickling out new mechanics to the player, a lot like Mario Galaxy, of all games, where it always felt like each level introduced a new thing you can do or way to interact with the world. I don‘t even really have any complaints, unless you consider ’I could be playing this for the next 6 months‘ a complaint. It’s just such a big world that I feel as though my 1-2 hours of play each night gets me nearly nowhere.

I'm still extremely mixed on the whole ultrahand thing in the game. I know that for like 95% of BotW fandom the big draw has always been bodging a bunch of crap together to do some wild flex, but for me when I roll up on a pile of garbage that I have to stick together to get to a chest that will inevitably contain 5 arrows or a piece of amber, I'm pretty ambivalent. I mean I applaud peoples' ingenuity in doing this stuff but for me it's just not that much fun.

I know this would probably be best discussed in the official thread, but I'm a little spoiler-shy about reading there (I guess another sign that I give a shit about the game). I arrived at the >!wind temple last night and for all of the talk that the game has actual Zelda style dungeons this time around, it sure does feel like it's a divine beast in all but name in terms of its relative simplicity. The approach was interesting and extremely cinematic, which is a plus! I guess maybe people were talking about some other later in the game thing that I haven't gotten to?!<

1070

I finished Black Mesa, a notable fan game or community mod that is a full game. It's good. But! …

It's a hugely impressive remake/interpretation of Half-Life, and a somewhat unconventional one at that: the chapters taking place in the research facility are almost dogmatically faithful to the original, while the remade Xen, originally only a couple hours long, amounts to practically an entire other video game appended to the end of Half-Life. And I guess in terms of mechanical focus that's what some players felt Xen was in the first place: low-gravity platforming (with fall damage!) didn't please a lot of people. I enjoyed the original Xen for that reason—alien world, alien gamefeel—but was interested to see what in the world Crowbar Collective had been up to in the eight years since releasing the first chunk of the game.

I've left a number of [comments](https://forums.insertcredit.com/d/494-videogame-remakes-and-the-attitudes-surrounding-them/4) on this forum sounding like a cranky whippersnapper about remakes/remasters/I hate this whole glossary of terms etc etc. Black Mesa seemed more interesting, both for being a fan project (not beholden to consumer demands/interests), and for its [16-year development period](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_TcAxAKCAI).

The research facility levels are pretty good. The new graphics are detailed, but they don't overwhelm the art direction, and in fact lend a somehow new sense of scale and power to Black Mesa's interiors—something I think is one of the original game's biggest strengths. Among the liberties Crowbar Collective took with the design, several in this section ultimately seem for the better, like keeping the player from getting a gun until a bit after they do in the original, or cutting down the notoriously overlong "On a Rail" chapter (although I applied a mod to play the whole chapter fully remade, which I regret).

On the other hand, a few days after finishing it, I don't think I liked the new Xen a whole lot, at least not without reservation. The graphics are incredible: it's clear the team spent eight years developing this portion of the game. But at the same time, the more I think about how the new Xen looks, the smaller it becomes in my imagination. New Xen adds a lot of visual specificity to the wider Half-Life universe which makes it feel ultimately lesser. The levels also notably play like they're on Earth—it's got fantastical quarries and jungles, but they all have clear paths designed exactly for Gordon Freeman to walk and jump on. No weirdly wide open spaces, not much variation in jump distance, it all feels too constructed. The Interloper chapter takes a step toward fixing this with some less obvious platforming/climbing similar to the final area in Portal, but undoes that progress by allowing you the impression that Vortigaunt society is all just corded plugs and sockets, which compose far too many of the chapter's "puzzles." And every Xen chapter is three times as long as it should be, following the common game design of having the player solve three separate instances of some puzzle, even when the puzzle is not complicated enough to justify so many repetitions (which is every time).

I don't like the music much at all. Piano and strings and synth pads conspire to make it sound corny, like in a "whoa dude, EPIC.......!" way. The original music, while occasionally cheesy in its own way, was more understated and more successful at evoking a sense of place, which sense of place is imo one of the greatest things Half-Life has going for it.

They had an actor speak G-Man's lines in exactly the way he says them in the original. Felt weird.

Goodbye forever

1071

@“Karasu”#p117263 Same. A lot of the discussion over there is people with mixed feelings, and feeling bad about having mixed feelings. Everyone is so scared of spoilers, but we‘re not really discussing much spoilery stuff. It’s been general feelings the whole time. But right now it‘s getting more and more dangerous, as youtubers and crazy people are beating the game just to slap spoilers into a video. I’ve already had way too much spoiled for myself, but I think any normal person wouldn‘t be that far past the first dungeon, or want to be. Like I don’t even trust your opinion if you just blasted through the game.

Anyways I'm very disenchanted in general with video games. I should focus on retro stuff more. Zelda is so frictionless that it causes me guilt.

1072

Finally finished Landstalker. Highlights were the piano concert at the palace (there is oddly no video of this cutscene on YouTube, maybe one of us should fix that), the witches hut, the tree dungeon with ghosts inside of it, and the final dungeon. The music was all really good, my favorite was the music in the final dungeon.

https://youtu.be/9rYUkbHf4zI

It was so cool paired with all the little puzzles where you had to do precise corner jumps and perfectly time everything. Glad I played through to the end instead of giving up on it. At the end the weird isometric platforming felt kind of fun in a way. I played all the way through the final dungeon like 3-4 times before I could beat the final boss and it was fun feeling more proficient each time I ran through it.

1073



Stunt Race might be the best racing game ive played.
1074

My long memorial day weekend is starting early, so I‘m kickin’ it by the pool with my 3DS, sipping some coconut water, and celebrating our brave Hoshido troops by playing

It's cold outside though, so I'm wearing a sweatshirt. Why is cali having another winter in June?

Birthright in particular is a misunderstood game... At least I _hope_ it is... I didn't love it the first time around. I mean, the characters are nice enough and the maps are good! But I remember the story sucks, there was tons of filler, and the overall experience is inferior to Conquest. But I haven't played this one in a long time so I want to see if I can glean any new insights out of it now that I'm older and wiser, and can ignore the story. I'll probably get into the weeds of it in the horny war thread. Would I be a terrible person if I marry my ex-husbando Kaze's twin, Saizo?
1075

Snatched a few games recently so might as well:

**Pathologic 2**: nothing intelligent to add but smooth so far (as smooth this can be).

**The Great Ace Attorney**: enjoying it a lot more than I thought, loving Sholmes's antics.

**John Wick Hex**: love the franchise, cool idea to make a cerebral timeline-based strategy game out of it. But I feel the visual flair is a biiit lacking compared with the source. Like, stage replays are neat but it's so goofy seeing Wick zigzagging around.

**Saga Scarlet Grace**: a masterclass of doing more with less. No budget for towns or dungeons? Make a huge world map littered with tons of neat events, with well crafted, almost puzzle-like battles where every action matters (no healing in battle!). Loving the [churro vendor](https://saga.fandom.com/wiki/Paul_Hejjin?file=SSG_Paul.png) party member.

**Travis Strikes Again**: went with low expectations and, well, should have lowered them some more. Still it had its moments.

**Batman Arkham Knight**: liked other Arkhams, but heard mixed stuff about this. Wow! It's so neat. Pretty well polished, city size and side stuff is about right. Batman's armored core is still a bit silly but agreeable enough.

1076

I beat my chill Birthright playthrough… it's a fun one to chip away at during a lazy 4-day weekend! It took about 22 hours, which makes me laugh that I spent more time with it this month then I have with Zelda. I think because TotK is such a meaty experience, I needed to take a break and snack on some junk food before returning to such a “chewy” main course.

Mechanically Birthright has its share of problems... but it's Fire Emblem at its breeziest. It's a game which you truly do not have to overthink, and probably _shouldn't_ think too hard about. Naturally hardcore lunatic FE players say it's one of the worst games, but for me it's one of them "7/10"ers. I still rate it above FE6 and maybe FE11 but not by much. For all of its problems (which are legion), it's a **fun** game. At some point I will need to do a lunatic run of it and dive deeper into the systems, but I like the things that makes FE14 gameplay unique.

Obviously, the writing is some of the worst in a series. I think Corrin was just the wrong lord for this game. Putting such a contrived plot as having two families, having her be an additional "chosen one", with rigid pacifist ideals.... who leads everyone into very bad decisions and everyone just follows her blindly is just bad. No one questions her, she doesn't question herself >!even as she kills innocent people, her friend commits suicide, and she literally makes Azura suffer even after finding out about it. In fact, her only real character growth was killing Iago and Xander instead of sparing their lives. Oh and Camilla and Leo are totally cool with their kinslayer sister. This game kind of has a pro-murder message when you think about it.!< This game would have been better received if they just made someone boring like Azura the main character, and had you follow around the lords of whatever route. I have more to say which maybe I'll post at another time.

But the staple cast is good (I didnt bother with most kids this time). I married Kaden and did raise a good family with him. Would romance again.

1077

I‘ve been playing Humanity since it came out last week. Very cool puzzler in the vein of a Lemmings with an absolutely killer art style and presentation. Not surprising, since it’s from The Tetris Effect team, but one thing I‘m really surprised about it is the sublime Dualsense implementation on PS5. There’s a pleasant typewriter-tapping rumble when dialog bubbles pop up, it feels like a light hand massage at times. I‘m still working through the game, but I find myself daydreaming about it when I’m not playing. Think this might be a good video game!

1078

@“Navster”#p117679 dang it, I thought it was a PS5 exclusive because I couldn't see it on Steam or Epic. Turns out:

[URL=https://i.imgur.com/HE5o6XC.png][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/HE5o6XC.png[/IMG][/URL]

because it supports VR, my telling steam to not show me VR stuff ended up hiding it from me!

1079

Disappeared into Death Stranding this weekend. I found myself stranded deep in the middle of nowhere, truck absolutely LOADED with valuable & heavy road-building materials, and my truck started giving double alerts for low battery and low health. I came to what I hoped would be a valley and it was a deep river on one side and a sharp hillside on the other. My poor truck couldn't handle either. And then the timefall started. Just as all seemed to be lost, my paving dreams dashed on the river stones, I came across a brand-sparkly-new truck, straight chilling on the shore. Whoever left this here, to save some idiot like me, I love you.

Love can bloom even in the timefall!
[URL=https://i.imgur.com/xfmBDeG.jpg][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/xfmBDeG.jpg[/IMG][/URL]


Sorta-spoiler meme:

>!

[URL=https://i.imgur.com/ABedtvg.jpg][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/ABedtvg.jpg[/IMG][/URL]



Bonus meme:
[URL=https://i.imgur.com/GYd9jcx.jpg][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/GYd9jcx.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

Bonus bonus meme: Have you seen [the Ace Attorney version of "they're taking the hobbits to isengard"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fN0Wo5UcigU)?

1080

great news everyone I got a new fake job

[URL=https://i.imgur.com/DOvr5c6.png][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/DOvr5c6.png[/IMG][/URL]

lots of images FYI::::

I'm getting fake paid $15.88 and hour to fly tourists around the Caribbean. Cape Air operates in parts of the continental US, but I'm based in San Juan, PR.

This mod even generates a fake contract you have to e-sign

>!

>!

I don't know who Steve McCroskey is but I guess he's my boss.

How did my first day on the job go?

got in my gently used BN2 Islander. I've never flown this plane before but I don't think I need to practice.

My mission: depart Luis Muñoz Marin International Airport in San Juan, PR carrying 8 passengers all weighing exactly 170 lbs and 400 lbs of their luggage to Virgin Gorda Airport on Virgin Gorda Island in the British Virgin Islands (don't say that's the perfect airport for you, they named the island after you, etc).

My copilot also weighs exactly 170 lbs if anyone is wondering why there's a ninth on the manifest. The mod generates the load and weight distributions I think.

>!

Here's my airplane

>!

Luckily it's not too complicated, but it did take me a while to find the parking brake

>!

>!

to starboard: the foothills of [El Yunque National Forest](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Yunque_National_Forest)

>!

leaving PR

>!

the BVI on the horizon, and the island of [Culebra](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culebra,_Puerto_Rico) at 2 o'clock

>!

The Islander is stable and easy to get the hang of. Didn't take much fussing w trim to maintain level flight. Stick is not very responsive though and feels like steering a boat lol

approaching the main island

>!

flying over the [Roadtown](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_Town) harbor

>!

[URL=https://i.imgur.com/ERTDpX6.jpg][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/ERTDpX6.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

The approach to Virgin Gorda is tricky because the strip is on the other side of hill, so you can line it up from a distance

>!

but because you have to hug the slope of the hill, you lose sight of it

>!

until you've crested it, which gives you little time to make any corrections. It's also challenging to slow down enough to be able to put the plane down on the runway intact, while also maintaining enough kinetic energy to clear the hill

>!

And full disclosure I bailed on the first attempt, and had to loop around for another try (which wasn't the prettiest)

>!

In my defense this is something irl pilots fuck up from time to time

https://www.721news.com/2017/02/small-plane-crashes-vgs-taddy-bay-airport-no-injuries-reported/

got my flight report. TBH they have me dead to rights about forgetting to turn on my strobe and landing light. With the flaps, that was a tactical decision bc I wanted to be sure I a) made it over that hill and b) wanted to avoid the nose pitching up when the flaps moved

>!

>!
1081

@“bnn”#p117459

@"bnn"#p117459 could you (or anyone) speak to how much repetition/iteration Pathologic 2 demands from the player? Can you finagle a decent run by just being conscientious and taking notes, or are you expected to genuinely fuck up and restart a few times? I've had the game for years but I've stayed away because I assume it will take triple the nominal playtime to finish.

1082

@“treefroggy”#p116245 my friend completely independently started playing Magician's Quest yesterday, so I caved in and started it out too.

The very first person I talked to told me her cousin had said to her once that if she likes someone she should imagine what it's like to marry them. She then said this presents a problem, since she likes lots of people. Should she imagine she's married to them all at once or only one at a time?

Anyway, I haven't felt this excited after starting a game in quite a long time. If TotK is making you depressed, maybe take a break and play this weird game!

1083

>

@“CrumarBones”#p117730 could you (or anyone) speak to how much repetition/iteration Pathologic 2 demands from the player? Can you finagle a decent run by just being conscientious and taking notes, or are you expected to genuinely fuck up and restart a few times? I’ve had the game for years but I’ve stayed away because I assume it will take triple the nominal playtime to finish.

Our resident _Pathologic 2_ weirdo, @"yeso"#385 , has long been giving the recommendation for those wanting to start and finish _Pathologic 2_ to approach it thusly:

  • - Start the game on default difficulty

  • - Play the game and accept failure/struggle/unwanted outcomes to the best of your capabilities
  • - As soon as you feel the game is becoming overly frustrating difficulty-wise rather than engaging, go ahead and crack open the difficulty control panel and adjust to your desired experience
  • - Enjoy the rest of the narrative as you see fit

    • For instance I raw dogged the game at default difficulty for most of my playthrough, but when I was getting tired of banging my head against a particular combat challenge (that I was, to be clear, woefully unprepared for, but narratively committed to clearing), I just gave myself every combat advantage possible with the difficulty sliders.

    I might have adjusted things here and there before that as well when I had really cornered myself. And by the time the narrative was revving up to a climax, I basically put on God Mode and wrapped things up.

    I dearly love the game and feel I had an immensely satisfying experience!

    It _does_ expect you to restart from a previous save or checkpoint, fairly regularly (when you die basically, which will happen a lot). It does _not_ expect you to restart an entire _playthrough,_ actually, if anything, it actively discourages this.

    1084

    >

    @“CrumarBones”#p117730 could you (or anyone) speak to how much repetition/iteration Pathologic 2 demands from the player? Can you finagle a decent run by just being conscientious and taking notes, or are you expected to genuinely fuck up and restart a few times?

    It's not really designed to be repetitive. If/when you die, you're not restarting from the beginning; you re-enter the game not long before death. The game is 20+ hours and takes into account that people will kick the bucket along the way, so that's built into the structure. The only caveat is that due to the frequent auto saves and how punishing the game is on standard and harder difficulty, there's a remote chance you can get caught in a spiral of doom you can't escape from.

    IMO - the thing to do is play on recommended difficulty settings until you "get the point," then adjust the sliders as needed to allow you to get through the game.

    The narrative is quite dense, and it's not going to be possible to see and do everything in the course of the game. It's about doing the best you can and having the experience that you have. Not everything is going to be resolved. Some things will stay shadowy and mysterious.

    So no, it won't take triple the nominal playtime if you just go with the flow and play as intended. It's absolutely not meant to be a game you can "optimize" your way through

    >

    Can you finagle a decent run by just being conscientious and taking notes

    Refer to the "Mind Map" in-game for exactly this purpose

    Also: we have [a spoiler-free advice/support thread](https://forums.insertcredit.com/d/1263-p2thologic-tips-n-tricks-n-emotional-support-no-spoilers) if you have any questions or need a _Pathologic_ sherpa

    1085

    # 75% off on Steam until June 2nd

    https://store.steampowered.com/app/505230/Pathologic_2/

    1086

    the lowest price yet! Also - I'd recommend buying the bundle with Darkwood for a dollar and change more bc that game is quite good itself!

    1087

    @“CrumarBones”#p117730 Besides what other fine folks have said, my early take is that the game doesn't want to you die but to struggle. Messing up seems expected, while being careless (non engaging with its systems) is punished. But I approach this with a rogue-like mindset, in that even when you lose you (the person) still level up.

    1088

    @“yeso”#p117760 this is excellent thanks