Looking forward to playing it tonight. I’ve been excited about this one since the reveal.
I think I know where Red Dead 2 is headed…
Summary
Pretty sure that Arthur caught TB when he was collecting a debt from a guy with TB. I remember thinking “Not a good idea” while Arthur was beating the very obviously sick man to a bloody pulp. Just found out that this guy died due to TB, and Arthur has started to cough during dialogue. The first time I noticed was when I robbed a homestead with Javier and our conversation just sorta ended with Arthur coughing. Not a ton, just a couple coughs, which I thought was weird and possibly an accidently unedited clip. But now, Arthur seems to be coughing like that more often. But only in side content, because my side content is further along than my critical path content.
Definitely an interesting turn that was bread crumbed pretty well. I’m wondering if:
Summary
Arthur will revisit the family of debtors he went back to collect from after the husband died. It didn’t sit well with me that immediately after getting a $2,500 take from a bank heist, Arthur went to a grieving widow, demanded like $100 and threatened to kill her son. Is this just Dallas Buyers Club the game? A man faced with his mortality begins to turn a new leaf and become a better person?
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We’ll be playing tonight. This is my first release-day game for my six year old. He found the trailer in the original (which he has played and replayed a lot) and has built this up into a must-play. He told me this morning he thought there would be a cool boss at the end of every level, and I was like, “Who taught you level design?” Astrobot, Mario, and Sonic did. Kid doesn’t know what a meta critic is.
So yeah, it’s truly ASTROBOT DAY for me. If the reports are accurate, it’s going to be ASTROBOT DAY for a while. Long live ASTROBOT DAY!
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Really wish I could justify spending the money today, because the overwhelmingly positive reviews makes me so curious. But alas, probably have to wait for a sale and get Zelda later in the month instead.
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I’m the opposite. I’ve played every Zelda, but I just can’t muster a lot of excitement for this one. After TotK, the last thing I need is another Zelda with a million tools and a focus on player freedom/creativity. ASTRO-BOT DAY for me.
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I think I’m going to use the library to play both Astro Bot and Zelda. It might be a bit of a wait but I think I have about 10,000 other games in my backlog to enjoy in the meantime.
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I’m gonna go library mode for that new Mario and Luigi but I think I’ll buy the Zeldy and I expect the person with whom I playstation game share to purchase the robot game soon enough. I’m about to leave the country for a couple of weeks so nothing imminent on my end but I’m also going to have to buy that new Dragon Age game that looks like a Fable game along with Metaphor. I try to limit my AAA games purchases at launch but this time of year it’s always difficult.
1 Like
Yeah I think I’m running on ROMs until Metaphor which I expect to fully take over my life. I wonder if it’ll be on Gamepass like persona.
Anyway my buddy gently expressed interest in Astro Bot so hopefully I’ve urged him correctly so I can mooch. I don’t even have a PS5.
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I played some Garbonzo Quest. I saw it come out on Steam a couple days ago and I felt like playing a plain, no-nonsense platformer, so I checked it out. I think it might have the stuff! It’s extremely a Super Mario World homage (I would say it’s drawing on the original and the romhacks), but it doesn’t really play like Mario. It’s more like I Wanna Be The Guy in the sense that it’s about managing your jump and a projectile, but a projectile more used in the service of platforming than killing enemies.
So far, it’s done a good job of introducing new level gimmicks and I’ve been enjoying every new thing introduced. It’s got some good difficulty but it’s not as hard as I think the Store page would want you to believe.
The thing I’m not enjoying so much is the writing. It’s got that twee, Diet Undertale sort of thing going on. I can look past it because the platforming is solid, but it’s a bit irritating. Embarrassing, even. I do like the way the little dude animates.
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Brief first impression on Astrobot: they have a lot more of these “pleasing extension of initial mechanic” moments from the original. One of the early levels gives fists to punch with. Then it adds sticky spots you can pull, cylinders you can punch and swing around, and in an especially pleasing moment, cylinders that you swing around to rotate a platform in place you can boost to. It’s small, good, tactile or haptic joy.
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If we’re talking upcoming games, after Demonschool’s delay, I have three must-play games remaining for the year: Astro-Bot, Metaphor: Refantazio, and No Longer Human.
I’m keeping my eye on about 20 other “2024” games (many of which will undoubtedly slip into 2025), but I can’t tell you which of those I will actually end up playing.
EDIT: I’m sitting at home, waiting for my Astro-Bot disc to arrive. I’m still stuck on physical media.
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it is certainly past my bedtime
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I snatched up Samba de Amiga Party Central for just $15 when I saw it in hopes of it being a good bit of fun for my nephews. I always test drive everything so I’m able to relate the controls, it’s not too difficult etc. to them and to make sure there’s nothing weird that might not be appropriate for little kids.
Never played any of the other games before but after giving the game a spin for 20 minutes or so I think this might even be an uncle Herb game. It’s just simple, dumb fun - the best kind of fun. I’ve never been good at rhythm games but this one seems generous with the inputs. I was even able to get a couple S ranks. I was pleasantly surprised by the track list, most of these games I’ve encountered are littered with 3rd string pop songs that are no conceivable person’s favorite song. Samba de Amiga, from what I quickly scrolled through, has a lot of popular bangers - like stuff from Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus and my girl Charli XCX. I did spot one huge turd in the form of “Macarena” but you can’t win them all.
My one gripe is that the songs don’t go long enough, generally the session ends about halfway through a track which is annoying given the time it takes to get a song going. It’s like just as soon as you start really synching in and begin unnecessarily shaking your ass to a song it ends. Hopefully I’m just oblivious to something and there’s a way to make tracks go longer.
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i beat order of ecclesia. i abused the rewind function so much that it started showing up in my dreams ala the tetris effect. that’s okay, though because i really enjoyed the game. the enemy designs, environments, music (!), and overall atmosphere were all exactly my speed. it reminded me of the time i painted my room purple and hung up a bunch of black sabbath and celtic frost posters on the walls.
i’ve also been playing a little bit of dredge, which as @whatsarobot said is surprisingly pleasant. most people feel the ereldritch stuff is a little played out by now, which it is, but it’s just an ingredient here and not the main course. the tone of the game is serious without being overly so.
12 Likes
I’ve decided to give up on Arco, because I played the first two chapters and wasn’t particularly hooked by the gameplay or characters. I got a sense that the plot will pick up at some point, but I have limited time for games.
Tactical Breach Wizards fuckin’ rules though. Highly recommend.
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I’ve been poking at this one a bit the last couple of weeks. I’m liking it! The simplified tactical combat is fun to tinker with and I like the atmosphere a whole lot. I’ve been stuck on one optional fight that keeps crashing the game. I need to back out of the fight but I’ve been stubbornly running my head into a wall about it.
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Ecclesia is a heck of a game. It’s my 2nd favorite, behind Rondo. I really like the variety in locations. I know the name is Castlevania but it’s nice to stretch your legs and go outside once in a while.
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I was traveling this weekend and put around 10 hours into Monster Hunter Freedom Unite on my vita. Going back to old monster hunter games is real fun. A lot more chill than the newer ones where they fast track you to the big monsters instead of forcing you to do village busy work. Very enjoyable for plane rides and long ubers. Also shout out to the vita form factor literally made for claw gripping.
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After some time dabbling, I’ve landed on San Andreas * on my Deck (evening/weekend deep dive game) and FF6 Advance on my SP (bedtime game) to commit to thru the end. I’ve only finished both once, back when I first played them, and have started both many a time over only to get a few hours in before moving on to another nostalgia induced game session. But now I’m ready to get fully cozy in both of these worlds again.
*(Somewhat related, I’ve been listening to old IC eps and it hurt my heart hearing the crew build up San Andreas only to tear it down so cruely. I agree with Tim’s take on most things videogames related, but def not that GTA IV is the best GTA. Nah dawg. Thank you Frank for being the one on the panel to have the correct San Andreas take. Episode 28 for those interested.)
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I’m about 45 minutes into Mirage Feathers and having a lot of fun.
I picked it up because it looks like a rail shooter designed in 1987 like After Burner 2 and Space Harrier, but you’re an anime girl. The story features a few girls drawn in what I think is a chibi art style (girls drawn like they’re 12), set in a sci-fi 2020 world where girls fly around and blow-up airplanes for the government? I don’t really know. I just click through the dialogue to play the levels. The girls are dressed in short shorts and shirts that show midriff, but you can change their clothes to something closer to body suits in the “options” screen. I also think once you beat the game you can play in arcade mode, or at least skip the story.
Mirage Feathers costs $4.50, which I think is a perfect price. I’m definitely going to play it again after I finish it, because I think it makes a great arcade-like game. I love those late 80s graphics (think After Burner and Oh, Deer!"
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