Here we are again: the thread where we discuss the games we are playing in 2024

I‘m playing controversial game Ready Or Not. I havent reached the controversial levels yet, mostly because the game is very hard. I’d say it‘s a competent S.W.A.T. 4 clone, which was itself of course a very good game. Apart from the premise (you’re a cop) the right wing stuff is mainly expressed in the plot thread about secret cults and sex trafficking among an elite class and their abettors in different social strata. I guess that's not really a right wing POV necessarily but the internet has laid claim on that concept in such a way I suppose.

The game does the _S.W.A.T. 4_ thing of establishing a setting in a fictional city and using light-touch environmental and contextual details to fill in a narrative. However Ready or Not is clumsier about this and can lay it on a little thick. I think it's partially down to foreign developers doing a second hand vision of America, so some details don't convince and some are just wrong (like a mission set in a city post office, not understanding that's not how it works here). On the other hand that stuff can be kind of amusing. I think the game is pretty decent as exploitation in the movie sense. It's not as good as _S.W.A.T. 4_ because it lacks tonal and aesthetic strength at times, but when it works it's good

About the cop stuff: it's not very rah rah imo. Less so than your average COD. The game indulges in a sort of cops as underfunded and under supported grist in the mill of urban decay frame, which is itself reactionary, but as far as I can see, there's no social-problems-are-solved-by-force messaging at least. And fwiw, the single player Commander mode has a squad mgmt system that's mostly about your fellow officers mentally deteriorating due to exposure to violence and stress

Just watched No Country for Old Men for the first time. Now I‘m gonna continue my playthrough of Boku no Natsuyasumi 2. I don’t think I could pair together two pieces of media more spiritually opposed to each other if I tried

@“yeso”#p147303 cop management sounds kinda cool can you put toys in their crib for enrichment time?

I added some DS games to my 3DS by using Twilight++.

I have to say, I think Arkanoid DS is my favorite version of Arkanoid. It's the only one (other than the Game Boy) that doesn't seem like the ball passes through the paddle. I even have problems with most versions of Breakout, even the Atari 50th anniversary. The other game in this genre I miss and wish I could find somewhere is Magic Orbs (originally Magic Balls) for the PS3.

I also think Dragon's Lair on the DS is my favorite version. It's so much easier to play with the controls on the bottom screen and the animated feature on the top.

If anyone has any DS recommendations, send them my way.

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@“yeso”#p147303 plot thread about secret cults and sex trafficking among an elite class and their abettors in different social strata

Goty

@“bwood”#p147352 There‘s a paddle controller for the DS that was made for Arkanoid. I’ve always wanted to mess around with it, but they‘re pricey (also it wouldn’t work on my DSi). Seems like it would be a cool way to get in some Arkanoid.

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@“Karasu”#p147218 I’ve tried a few of them but have found the fan service elements of the Rorona and after games pretty offputting honestly. But I do like the other stuff they do! I want to try the Marie remake.

@“sabertoothalex”#p147400 thankfully most of the most egregious fanservice is gated behind DLC for the most recent games!

Yeah this stuff was a turnoff for me too but I was pleasantly surprised at how not present it is in this very recent one (I mean it is a jrpg so I think some amount is practically naturally occurring).

When the series x got irrationally cheap in December, I let myself have one. And so far, the wonderful thing about gamepass, for my particular brain, is it lets you satisfy your curiosity about many different games, including and especially ones you don’t think you’ll like much but your just want to see them on your TV.

On top of that, or as part of that, it pretty much entirely removes the sunk cost fallacy from my decision to keep playing. I’m a terrible sucker for this as I hate the idea of wasted time, and indeed that’s always been a tricky part of my relationship with games, generally. But in the last week, I have (many times!) reached the “okay, I’ve had fun but I now get what the rest of this experience will be” point of games big and small, and had absolutely no compunction in Marie Kondoing it and moving on to the next shiny thing.

Games nibbled at in this way so far: AC Origins, Starfield (a shocking 45 minutes, there), Far Cry 6, Halo Infinite, Lies of P, Jusant, Hardspace Shipbreaker, Darktide, and lordy there’s at least three more that I’ve forgotten!

Games are here for us. We are not here for games, and we owe them nothing. I feel closer to being able to act in that way than ever before.

(*I say this through my own personal lens. Of course I hope that those who make these games and all games are treated well, paid well, and their work finds the right people for it and those people have the focus to really enjoy what they enjoy.)

@“kyleprocrastinations”#p147291 you‘ve twisted my arm. Started playing Legends on the CRT - but I have no excuse now for my poor reflexes lol. I need to get used to those counter attack timings. It’s a cool system.

I finally started up Yakuza 0 again. I took the advice of this podcast and toggled that difficulty switch straight to easy mode and I'm having a heck of a good time. Last time I tried playing it I got frustrated fighting the first boss and them had terrible dreams that night and abandoned it for 4 years.

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@“yeso”#p147303 I havent reached the controversial levels yet

the level that's based on the pulse nightclub shooting is pretty gross. There's a big pile of corpses in a heap on the dancefloor. It's undercut a little by the terrorists wearing silly masks like the one the bad guy wears in Death Stranding. It's definitely in poor taste. Made me think that while it is crass and dumb, is this not a predictable media product foreigners would make about the USA at this point in its history? "Love and Napalm: USA" - JG Ballard. USA as alternately Cool and Abject

I decided to finally play through Star Ocean First Departure R and then maybe see if I can squeeze in that new remake of the second one before FFVII Rebirth comes out. Still plan on finishing it but the pacing of this story is all kinds of wack lol. When I boarded the spaceship like an hour in and they gave me the tour I thought it was going to be the main hub and we’d be visiting all kinds of planets, but then we time travel back 300 years on the starting fantasy planet and close to the 8 hour mark we’re still aimlessly traveling around trying to find our friends who went through the portal first so we can start doing the thing we came here to do? What is even the point of all the Star Trek stuff

I do really like the idea of the skills/specialties even though I think I’m mostly just going to be investing in the ones that improve stats and fooling around with cooking and drawing every once in a while. Are these more fleshed out in later games?

Picked up Lufia 2, about 6 hours in and I have no idea if I got this far or not the first time I played it. Lufia 1 spoils you on the ending anyway.

I was surprised it took this long to get a third Zelda tool for the dungeons. I was also surprised as how breakneck the pace is. The first person you meet in each town tells you what the town's problem is, talk to a couple more people to find out what direction to head to get to the cave/tower where you need to beat a boss to fix the problem (if you didn't notice the dungeon on the world map already), then beat the dungeon and the town leader unlocks the teleport shrine to the next town. Repeat.

I remember constant roadblocks in Lufia 1 from the enemies and just not knowing where to go. Here the only resistance so far has been from all the block puzzles.

I've played a bunch of small games over the last couple of weeks that I can recommend.

Bloody Hell is a short (3 hour) twin stick roguelite game where you're a bird from heaven sent to kill Satan. My only criticism is that some of the level layouts are a little confusing or meandering and the traversal upgrades feel like I've stumbled across them by accident. But the action is good, the boss designs are great and the art is really nice too.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2056220/Bloody_Hell/

Salamander County Public Television I can best describe as Tokyo Crash Mobs and Wario Ware. It's a very silly series of mini games that are linked by a light narrative of having to film items for a public broadcast channel. One of the mini games made me and my girlfriend audibly bellow with laughter. Good stuff.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1521810/Salamander_County_Public_Television/

Wonderputt Forever is crazy golf viewed from an isometric perspective that takes place across evolving landscapes. You don't have a traditional golf gauge, only an arrow that you point and gauge the strength of your shot based on the size and colour of it. It took me a little while to start liking it as I ended up with a lot of above-par scores (as in, worse) but it was a pleasant experience overall.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1766540/Wonderputt_Forever/

Riptide GP Renegade is a jet ski racer / Wave Race-like with more emphasis on performing tricks to charge a boost meter. I really enjoyed the previous game in the series so this was an easy pick for me. It's very generous with the number of events and challenges and a fun one to dip in and out of.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/443860/Riptide_GP_Renegade/

Maximus 2 is a short, silly belt scroller with less of a "punch dudes in face" vibe and more of a "bop goons on head" vibe. I wasn't expecting to particularly enjoy it but I gave it a shot and had a good time with it. There are a bunch of throwaway references to the likes of Golden Axe etc al too.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1469540/Maximus_2_Street_Gladiators/

Whisker Squadron is a Starfox-like rail shooter that has a roguelite structure and progression system. Each "run" is about 20-30 minutes and as you shoot enemies you'll gain experience that translates to upgrades like extra fire rate or critical hit heals and so on. It's pretty good though there are only three stages and I wasn't fussed with going the whole hog with unlocking all of the meta progression stuff. I enjoyed it.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2140100/Whisker_Squadron_Survivor/

i played Venba this week and now i want to go to an indian restaurant

also i should learn how to cook properly

Charade?? in my cop game ??

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I started Birushana: Rising Flower of Genpei last night, and it is extremely my shit. It‘s a historical otome that deals with Buddhist ethics and grand political intrigue. I feel like this game has interesting dilemmas for the love interests and I really like all the characters I’ve met so far.

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Plus Jun Fukuyama‘s voice acting is smoldering. He’s going to be a great villain.

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Still playing Diablo 4 before life heats up again. I think I'm going to start a new character class when the next season starts up at the end of the month.

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@“Emily”#p147211 i finished sonic the hedgehog 1 for the first time yesterday on my 3ds, weird and kind of bad game

> but also good, definitely makes me wanna check out the other sonic games on genesis

I agree with your analysis. _Sonic 1_ in 2024 is a proof-of-concept for other better Sonic games. _Sonic 2_ is pretty great because you can play it with a save state (because it's very long and the boss battle at the end is too hard). _Sonic 3 & Knuckles_ is incredible all the way through. _Sonic Mania_ is probably "the best". _Sonic CD_ is "what if Sonic was slower and exploration-based?" and it's not great but also, it's Sonic so still fun and weird. I like it but never got "good" at it in that I never made/looked at a map of where to time travel and where to find the evil machines.

Working on Starfield and Judgment at the same time feels like exploring two very different ways to create an open experience combined with the lure of main story and side plots.

Starfield as an experience is coming together for me. I'm going down a couple of quest lines (like Ryujin Industries - not sure why I went the megacorp operative route) and using that as an opportunity to bum around Neon and the destination towns I end up at. I love the grungy NASA aesthetic, as well as the goofiness of places like the Astral Lounge, a place where you can get illicit narcotics while watching people dressed as colorful spandex big-headed insects get their dance on. It does require a lot of player discipline to not wander too far afield. I have a long list of missions I'm not currently doing and may never get to.

Judgment is really good. Just got to Chapter 11. The thing I love about Judgment is that it introduces the side stories gradually, and I know what I'm getting into with each one, roughly: something at least mildly entertaining that won't take too much time. I can certainly get lost in the minigames, but the game gently pulls me back to progressing the story if I ever feel tired of the exploration: just show up for the next thing. It's a lot easier for me to figure out what I'll enjoy doing and what I'll do for a session, even after a week away.