Coelacanth

@Coelacanth@feddit.nu

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨"Defeat the Backlog!" community⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Is there a sister community for people who keep buying games and still keep playing the same old games as always regardless? Definitely asking for a friend, absolutely haven’t spent another month on STALKER Anomaly instead of working on the backlog. No sir.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨'Huge respect to the folks at Obsidian': Todd Howard invited Obsidian devs onto Fallout season 2's set so they could see New Vegas in the flesh⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  I mean, I love NV and think it’s by far the best 3D Fallout, but it’s also got a ton of performance and bug issues. Partly due to the engine they were working with and the insane development cycle, but still. The game isn’t without issues. It’s famously unstable and buggy if played without mods. I also think it needs mentioning that a lot of the assets look out of place, because they are. The game had such a short development cycle that a lot of them are just reused FO3 assets.

  I love it, but there is a reason so many people recommend something like the Viva New Vegas modlist even for a first playthrough.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨'Huge respect to the folks at Obsidian': Todd Howard invited Obsidian devs onto Fallout season 2's set so they could see New Vegas in the flesh⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  I have seen debates of both 3 and 4 over New Vegas. These arguments tend to come almost exclusively from newer fans. Anyone who played 1 and 2 first, especially back in the day, tends to have a much less favourable view of the Bethesda Fallouts. But there are tons of Bethesda-first fans who came into Fallout after first playing Skyrim, typically. The 4 fans either love the base building or tend to think the other games are “too old looking/feeling”. The 3 fans… I don’t even know, that game is pretty terrible I think. But they tend to argue the design of the world in 3 is better to explore than New Vegas.

  I haven’t personally heard anyone argue 76 is the best Fallout, but I’m sure someone is out there.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The best games of 2025, picked by NPR's staff⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  I forgot about those because I never played them myself and honestly this year has been awash with so many good releases that they kind of slipped my mind. But you’re absolutely right!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The best games of 2025, picked by NPR's staff⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Interesting that they didn’t include Ninja Gaiden 4 in an otherwise incredibly exhaustive list, but apart from that I think this is as close to “every notable 2025 release, summarised and collected” as you’re going to get.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨steam vs gog, which game store to buy from?⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  F.E.A.R. was eventually fixed. I’m pretty sure only the multiplayer.exe. still has DRM. I played it recently including the expansion and it was just fine.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨steam vs gog, which game store to buy from?⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  The only black-and-white rule is: if you’re buying an older game you should always buy it on GOG. No exceptions. There’s too many retro games on Steam that won’t even launch on modern machines, and beyond that GOG is typically very good at including fan made patches and fixes into their versions of old games, ensuring older games actually work and are just plug-and-play.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Best vertical games on Android?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I haven’t played it in a million years but I remember Cut The Rope being really fun.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨It's been a while, which Lemmy instances should I be on?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Browsing /subscribed only is definitely the way.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Weekly Recommendations Thread: What are you playing this week?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ve honestly mostly been vibe coding my changes to STALKER Anomaly mod TALKER and writing more backstories and personalities for it. It’s been fun, although frustrating at times.

  I have played some Chaos Zero Nightmare on my phone. The game is fun, I just kind of wish it wasn’t a gacha mobile game. Also wish the character designs were a little less ridiculous, most are acceptable but some are playing to sexuality way too much making me just roll my eyes. All the usual trappings of daily energy and menial tasks to grind out to progress and level up your characters also feel extra annoying and needlessly time-wasting when the main gameplay is so good.

  The actual roguelike deckbuilder gameplay is surprisingly good, though, and so far has kept me interested. The variety and versatility of builds is a lot of fun, with lots of specific or extra-rare upgraded versions of cards unlocking niche strategies and combos and stuff like that. Balance seems surprisingly good despite being a gacha and with the right builds you can make pretty much any character you like shine.

  Also the story has a fast forward button that is almost like a skip, which is great because the writing is terrible and the translation is awful. But I’m not really here for that, so I don’t really care as long as I’m not forced to engage with it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What game is a guilty pleasure of yours?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Does the story actually get good? I tried it out around launch but when they introduced a knockoff Paimon I noped out. I was there for a dark post-apocalypse story, not Sunday morning cartoon. Not that there is anything wrong with it but just not for me. I felt a little mislead.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What game is a guilty pleasure of yours?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Recently it’s been Chaos Zero Nightmare on my phone. Yeah, it’s a gacha. Yeah it has some absolutely ridiculous gooneriffic character designs that makes me roll my eyes. Yeah it’s poorly translated and the story is garbage.

  But you know what? The actual roguelike deckbuilder game mode is actually a ton of fun. The characters are well balanced enough that I’ve never felt like I was behind on power even with comparably “bad” pulls from the gacha. The game has been generous enough anyway that I have a lot of pulls saved up too. And the mutability and variety in the roguelike mode is just amazing. Tons of combos, tons of variations of every card and tons of opportunities to make niche builds work just because you happened to get one specific rare upgrade variation on one specific card while also stumbling upon one specific neutral card to add to your deck and stuff like that.

  And all for the price of free? I can’t complain.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What is your favorite Metroidvania?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It is… kind of. Hence the half-cheat. First off it’s 3D, but the game is completely centered around the Oldest House, which is the headquarters of the fictional FBC. Like a Metroidvania you explore and backtrack back and forth through it and unlock new areas opening up from previous places. There is also one (although only one) proper ability gate that lets you explore previously unreachable parts of earlier areas once unlocked.

  Even if you don’t classify it as a true Metroidvania it’s definitely Metroidvania-inspired.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What is your favorite Metroidvania?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t know, I played Blasphemous this summer and had a very mixed time with it. I really wanted to love it but it mostly pissed me off. Too much gameplay design specifically intended to waste your time and make you miserable. Which - I guess - is the point because the game is all about the virtue of suffering. I just didn’t find it particularly fun to play.

  Great world building, music and art though.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What is your favorite Metroidvania?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Can I half-cheat and say Control?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Weekly Recommendations Thread: What are you playing this week?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It was a special event route for the Pokewalker, but you can unlock it via connecting your 3DS to a pirate network. The myth of Surfing Pikachu was a whole thing back around Gen 1&2 proper so I think they did this one-time event around the time of HGSS release as a nod to that.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Weekly Recommendations Thread: What are you playing this week?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Just went and read your other post. Great read. I love HGSS, I know people sometimes complain about the level curve but to me those games were always the peak of the series. So much content, so much charm, just an absolute love letter to Gen 1 and 2, the dual region is still the coolest thing ever and the Pokewalker was a great little gadget. Though I still haven’t gotten my flying or surfing Pikachu from it as those fuckers have like a 2% spawn rate and no pity system.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Weekly Recommendations Thread: What are you playing this week?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m back to the modding relapse. My playthrough of STALKER: Anomaly has stalled out again as I’m week-deep into a project of modifying the mod that got me playing again in the first place: TALKER (the AI-powered mod that lets you chat with NPCs in game).

  What begun as some tweaks to the prompt and minor edits to faction personalities has turned into both some hacky vibe coding and a ton of prose writing as I’m pushing to see how much character description I can feed the model to improve the output.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨‘Clair Obscur’ Leads The Game Awards 2025 Nominees With 12 Nods; ‘Silent Hill f’ Has Four Nominations⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Even on Normal you can just build defensively and use Maelle with Egide to tank through like 99% of the game even without nailing a single parry or dodge. It’s only maybe the optional superboss that might give you trouble.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨‘Clair Obscur’ Leads The Game Awards 2025 Nominees With 12 Nods; ‘Silent Hill f’ Has Four Nominations⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I know it never had a chance to win it. It never had a chance to win the soundtrack award either, but a nomination is still something.

  I’m assuming Silksong snags the Indie Award but Best Debut Indie should be possible to win perhaps. It’s such a unique, interesting and inventive game and it deserves recognition.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨‘Clair Obscur’ Leads The Game Awards 2025 Nominees With 12 Nods; ‘Silent Hill f’ Has Four Nominations⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Blue Prince only being nominated for the two indie awards is an expected travesty. Merited a GOTY nomination imo and also a OST award nomination. Sad times.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Noah Caldwell-Gervais - "Death of the Author: An Alan Wake Series Retrospective"⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Perfect for when I shake my current STALKER addiction and get back to actually playing the AW2 DLCs. Bookmarked, thanks for sharing!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Same story for almost every passion industry. I remember being surprised at first to learn how underpaid Formula 1 engineers are when some of them are literal rocket scientists, for example.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Red Dead Redemption Coming to Netflix, iOS, Android, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch 2⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  There is an alternate universe out there where the N-gage was a smash hit, Nokia is reigning supreme in the handheld market and we’re all rocking gull-wing phones.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Weekly Recommendations Thread: What are you playing this week?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m more or less done fiddling with mods at this point, and so the last week I’ve been spending my time actually playing STALKER: Anomaly. It’s been an interesting experience, both familiar and different as I’m using several mods that have released since my last playthrough and that completely change the game. Some for the better, some I’m not sure. STALKER players seem to love three things: misery, immersion and realism and while I am one of those too I also recognise that the pursuit of them can sometimes get in the way of enjoyment.

  But even with a heavier-than-I’m-used-to Military presence around the starting areas the early game is playing out much the same as always. Grind some simple missions, take the fights you can win, try to loot NPCs kills if possible, abuse any free temporary companions you can get from quests and gradually scavenge your way towards assembling the kit required to move north. Which involves finding a better armoured suit, finding a better helmet with gas mask, finding a scoped rifle or sniper to repair (I got lucky and found an SVT-40), finding a pump-action or semi-automatic shotgun, crafting your entry level tier night vision goggles, getting enough good healing items and anti-radiation meds…

  I’m just about setup now and ready for the trek to Dead City where I’ll make my next base of operations I think, but I decided to finish up some missions in the Great Swamps first while I’m still in the south. Despite my initial misgivings about the idea I managed to clear out the military outpost thanks to being able to sneak my way to a perfect cover and some well timed headshots, so now I should be good to actually do some missions in this area.

  Despite the bump in difficulty with the new mods I’m having a great time, Anomaly is just such a unique and special experience - the immersiveness, the desolate loneliness, the horror elements, the atmosphere and world design… It’s hard to explain the beauty of it in text, and it definitely isn’t for everyone. But whenever you get that specific itch, there really isn’t a lot else that can scratch it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Red Dead Redemption 2 overtakes Mario Kart 8 as the 4th best-selling video game of all time, boasting 79 million sales⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I want to finish it some day but I also kind of get sick of it quickly whenever I try to play it for extended periods and actually do main story missions.

  Fucking around in the open world and fishing and hunting and all that is great though.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Weekly Recommendations Thread: What are you playing this week?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I think OLR is based around circa build 1935, but it’s using stuff from all the early builds and also incorporating material from the design documents heavily.

  Anyway, as long as older versions are available it’s fine. At least they aren’t trying to justify those new changes as “lore accurate” and push them on everyone like a certain Skyrim modder who shall not be named, right? Please say yes.

  I’m not sure about this honestly as a lot of the community is in russian, but they have the older version up at least so that’s a good sign.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Weekly Recommendations Thread: What are you playing this week?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I heard the A-life implementation in 3.0 is very impressive, so there’s that. But yeah it’s kind of unavoidable with projects like this. Same thing goes for the Unofficial Patch of VtM: Bloodlines. Eventually the fan group dev team starts running low on material to restore but want to keep working and so start extrapolating single lines of unimplemented code references into full fledged quests and taking throwaway sentences from design documents and turning them into wholesale mechanics and stuff like that.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Weekly Recommendations Thread: What are you playing this week?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  You’re welcome, always happy to talk STALKER! If you want to try OLR, make sure you grab the 2.5 version as they apparently started inserting more liberal/fanfictiony changes in version 3+. You can download it here (don’t worry, the installer lets you chose English as language).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Weekly Recommendations Thread: What are you playing this week?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  CPU has been a bottleneck for CoC/Anomaly forever since Xray was originally made in that time when people thought super fast single core processing was the future. So GSC optimised it for that idea. Instead it turned out clock speed has pretty much flatlined since then and multithreading was the future. Plus it doesn’t help that all the offline simulation of what the world is doing in the background offsceen is incredibly CPU heavy.

  STALKER modding is absolutely crazy, not quite as large as Skyrim but also harder to quantify since in addition to the by-now massive Anomaly scene there is also a massive scene that’s still spread out over other older offshoots, particularly in eastern Europe. They’re very big on modding and remaking the original trilogy there (STALKER is huge there in general). Hell, I actually have Oblivion Lost Remake installed and ready to go, which is a fan-recreation of the original vision of Shadow or Chernobyl, recreated from design documents and early dev builds that have been leaked. GSC famously had to cut down their vision massively to get the game out the door and OLR 2.5 has been described by many as the closest thing we’re ever going to get to what they actually wanted to make (Oblivion Lost was the original title before it became SoC).