Coelacanth

@Coelacanth@feddit.nu

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨NINJA GAIDEN 4 - Official Story Trailer⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m playing through Ninja Gaiden 2 (X360) at the moment partly in preparation for this release. NG4 looks so fucking different but still - I think - promising. I’m not sure what I think about the full cyberpunk aesthetic but who plays these games for the story anyway? Combat looks vicious, fast and brutal and even though it looks very different from the old games it still looks good I think.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨LEGO® Batman™: Legacy of the Dark Knight - Official Reveal Trailer⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  Actually doesn’t look half bad.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Vampire: the Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 Pre-Order Trailer⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  Buy it on GOG, I believe the Steam version of Bloodlines doesn’t even launch. GOG version comes bundled with the “basic” version of the Unofficial Patch which - as far as I know - is literally required to be able to finish the game. GOG also has a one-click installer for the Plus Patch with more restored content as of like a month or two ago, if you’re into that. I personally recommend playing non-Malkavian Basic Patch for a first experience and doing Malkavian with the Plus Patch for a second playthrough.

  The game is absolutely worth it, it’s a cult classic for a reason. The combat sucks so be prepared for that and the second half of the game is extremely rushed as the developers were forced to shove it out the door but even having said that it’s a great experience for what it is.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Hollow Knight: Silksong - Special Announcement Stream (starts in 48 hours)⁩ ⁨⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  I wonder what the public response will be when Silksong releases and turns out to be just a good game and not literally curing cancer and resolving world hunger.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨A Fistful Of Yankees, an RTS x tactics hybrid with base building, with a spaghetti western setting, released on steam.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  Spaghetti Western is a very common term for those movies, or at least it was when I grew up. Sergio Leone was one of the pioneers of the genre so I guess that’s where the name comes from?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Weekly Recommendations Thread: What are you playing this week?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah from what I’ve heard 90% or so of HK is fine, and it’s the remaining 10% that’s a true ball buster. Though some of it is probably optional if you’re fine with skipping “good endings” and whatnot.

  I don’t know why I can’t vibe with platforming, but for me it just doesn’t give me any dopamine at all. Which is a problem as an ADHD sufferer. Combine that with me being pretty bad at it and platforming games just lead to me being angry and frustrated.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Weekly Recommendations Thread: What are you playing this week?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  One of those games that I can tell is a 9.5/10 or more but will never even attempt to play. I know my limits and I know what type of gameplay frustrates me and the combination of near-impossible difficulty, lots of challenging platforming and the corpse recovery mechanic I’ve heard about means I don’t think I’ll have much fun playing it.

  I wish it was for me, though. Looks fantastic. I’ll watch a Let’s Play of it one of these days.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Weekly Recommendations Thread: What are you playing this week?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Other devs taking on the FromSoft “deal with it” attitude to difficulty/accessibility options is such a shame. I think as there are more and more older gamers out there hopefully things will slowly start to change.

  Were you playing on PC? One saving grace there is usually there are plenty of mod options available for toning down difficulty.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Weekly Recommendations Thread: What are you playing this week?⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah, it’s kind of just misery for the sake of misery. I suppose conceptually it’s supposed to test your patience and hearken back to the olden days of gaming, but as you say it’s just tedious and unfun.

  Ninja Gaiden has some absolutely wild ones where you fight a boss, then the next level starts, then there is a fight in the next level before the next save point. If you die in that fight, where do you think you respawn? That’s right, before that boss you beat. There is no auto saving at the start of a level here! Team Ninja seemed to concede that this wasn’t optimal though as supposedly Ninja Gaiden 2 has both more generous save points and a “retry boss” function.

  But again, playing on emulator with save states eliminates this frustration so please anyone reading this, so don’t get discouraged by it!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Weekly Recommendations Thread: What are you playing this week?⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  I finished Ninja Gaiden Black on Normal. All in all it wasn’t as hard as I had feared. Having access to save states definitely did make it a much more tolerable experience though as some of the checkpoint placements are diabolical. I didn’t really abuse it in any way, but just being able to for example instantly retry a boss instead of having to reset the console and do a runback just avoids a huge time waster that adds nothing to the difficulty.

  Overall the game was absolutely brilliant - though not perfect. A couple of the bosses were outright bad, the ghost fish are not fun gameplay designs and Chapter 9 is atrocious. Whoever thought it was a good idea for the game to suddenly become Call of Duty and force you to take on tanks, helicopters and a radio tower full of bazookas armed with only a longbow and using horrific controller first person aiming hopefully got fired.

  But even having said all that, when the game is good it’s damn good. The combat is just perfectly satisfying, the weapons at your disposal are very well balanced and all have their uses and the ultra aggressive AI demands your full attention constantly. This game has no trash mobs; slip up once and any encounter can kill you. There is something singularly thrilling about that. It’s also fast, proactive and positioning-based - there are tons of almost instant grabs that you can only avoid by correct positioning and use of your nimble movement.

  Overall a fantastic experience and well worth checking out. If I can beat it on Normal then anyone can - don’t be afraid to check it out. Especially with Ninja Gaiden 4 on the horizon. Hell, I’m even considering jumping back in for a go at Hard at some point.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Final Fantasy X programmer doesn’t get why devs want to replicate low-poly PS1 era games. “We worked so hard to avoid warping, but now they say it’s charming” - AUTOMATON WEST⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I do agree that it’s nostalgia-powered and fuelled by millennials with disposable income being a fertile market, but to me here’s the weird thing: I think pixel art can look incredibly beautiful while the old early 3D game style looks like absolute ass (such as the OG FF7 screenshot above).

  But I grew up much more on the latter than the former. There has to be more to it than just nostalgia.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Rockstar Games Working Closely With Remedy Entertainment on Max Payne 1 & 2 Remake⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  They already walked back on it in Max Payne 2, which made me irrationally upset at the time. But in Alan Wake 1/2 the Max Payne stand-in Alex Casey had Sam Lake’s face again… so, maybe?

  I’m more worried about how they’ll approach James McCaffrey’s passing. He is Max Payne, but I feel like they will recast him out of sheer necessity (unless they really just stick slavishly to the originals and give them a fresh coat of paint).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Who would win Kernel level anti-cheat or middle age man with a Raspberry Pi?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Basically Homeless is an absolute treasure. The gas powered PC (and followup) are a personal favourite but all his build videos and his Stupid Setups are absolute gold. Using a printer as a monitor was another highlight.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I want to go back⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Not even Most Wanted (2005)?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨what are in you're top 3 favourite games of all time?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Disco Elysium sits completely unchallenged at the top spot as the most meaningful experience I’ve had playing a video game. I resonated deeply with its themes and its main character as someone who has struggled with depression, addiction, obsession and trouble moving on. It’s an astonishing achievement in both writing and in the use of a game as a storytelling medium, an one of the best ever examples of “video games as art”.

  The rest of the list is almost impossible to order, because there are so many different ways to rank them. Games I’ve played that I think are the objectively best? Games I would like to just sit down and play right now the most? Games that made the biggest impression on me as a person, especially growing up?

  Regardless, it’s probably any two out of:

  • Dark Souls 1
  • Baldur’s Gate 2
  • Civilization 5
  • Bioshock 1
  • STALKER SoC/CoP/Anomaly
  • Alan Wake 2
  • Fallout: New Vegas
  • Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines
  • EVE Online (up until 2015 or so)

  Will probably add Expedition 33 to it in the future, but need the dust to settle on it first.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨what are in you're top 3 favourite games of all time?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Good-aligned “resist the Durge” works out better anyway imo and feels like the intended canon playthrough.

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

  I never played S&S but it’s on my wishlist. Would you say you prefer it over Blasphemous?

  (…) the level of difficulty of some areas are too high. I would appreciate more checkpoints to solve this.

  The terrible platforming and abundance of instant-death hazards was one of my major gripes with the game. Especially when the controls are very clunky, hitboxes are janky and grabbing a ladder is inexplicably difficult. I’m not a platformer guy though, but it felt very unfun to me. Also some of the enemy design and placement is just deliberate made to waste your time, which is another complaint I had about the game.

  Also I have at the moment some confussion on how the things work. For example, I recently got my third “potion” and I have no idea how I did. I also guess that I can improve my character like if I level up it, but apparently you dont have levels or I dont know how to do it.

  Yes, the game is extremely opaque and very hard to play without consulting a wiki. You get more flasks by finding or buying more Empty Bile Flasks, then taking them to one of the blood fountains you can find and paying some currency (Tears of Atonement) to fill it. The healing amount can be upgraded by sacrificing one flask and paying a Quicksilver item and some currency to a guy below Albero.

  Upgrades are done at Mea Culpa Shrines, which you find throughout the world. Instead of levels, what upgrades are unlocked is tied to how many shrines you have found. You can’t grind for levels, they only unlock by exploring.

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

  Is it your first time playing Blasphemous? How are you liking it? I just finished it and have… mixed feelings about it.

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

  If either the puzzles are better or there is more of a story to it I can see myself liking INSIDE more. Most people seem to prefer it, after all.

  Any puzzle platformer will face an uphill battle with me though as it’s just not a genre I enjoy. Sometimes - like GRIS - they come through, but often not. I also really liked The Unfinished Swan, if that counts as a puzzle platformer.

  LIMBO had a couple of good puzzles (the antigrav one with the boxes near the end comes to mind) but also a huge amount of either forgettable ones or frustrating and/or outright bad ones. A few too many relied on trial-and-error instead of observation and deduction, which I don’t find fun or interesting.

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

  Why did you stick with Blasphemous 😂 I remember you hated it a couple of weeks ago.

  I bought it and so I wanted to finish it, especially since it’s not all that long. And I don’t like leaving things unfinished 😂 And I did really like the art, story and world building.

  INSIDE is better than LIMBO, IMO—in terms of production and sound design, at the very least. Without revealing too much, some sections are more fun. Although the core gameplay is not much different, unfortunately.

  That makes me feel so-so about it, especially having spent I think around $9 on it (last chance before it getting delisted). I heard there is somewhat more of a story in it? That was one thing holding LIMBO back for me.

  Word of warning about Ninja Gaiden 2 Black: it’s more or less Sigma 2 reskinned, unfortunately. They called it “Black” for marketing, but it’s not really the definitive version. You can pick it up and install the White mod, which brings it closer to OG NGII, but if you already have Xemu set up, might as well just play OG NGII—it’s an incredible experience, but also get ready to experience a ton of NES bullshit moments in 3D 😂 It’s downright hilarious how OG NGII just doesn’t give a flying fuck about balance, but it’s definitely part of the charm.

  Yeah I’ve heard. Ninja Gaiden series really is a clusterfuck of multiple versions of each release that both add and subtract things. Original NG2 was on 360 unfortunately, and is trapped on that ecosystem. It apparently runs okay on Xenia Canary but I haven’t looked into it yet. I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. I’m currently thinking playing both NG2 and NG2 Black (those visuals look so good). But… that’s all contingent on me beating NGB first! I’ll definitely look into that mod, there is also the Ninja Gaiden Sigma Black mos, but I don’t know how much they’ve been able to restore considering the huge differences between Black and Sigma.

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

  Extra long post today, so I’m experimenting with spoiler tags to not take up too much space. Let me know if it’s a good idea.

  Blasphemous

  I finished Blasphemous. I didn’t go through the DLC as I apparently missed the chance for the True Ending by not doing it early anyway, so I couldn’t be bothered as I wasn’t really enjoying the game that much. Also I’ve heard it’s even more annoying. I’ll save it for a hypothetical second playthrough. I did beat the one optional DLC boss I had access to - Isidora - and the difference between the main game and the DLC is staggering. I first tried the last two bosses in the main game, but Isidora took me probably 50ish attempts. And I’m not sure it was “fun difficult” either, that second phase sure was something. My notes remain the same: terrible platforming (and an overabundance of it) and design elements that are deliberately meant to waste your time and/or piss you off hold back what could otherwise have been a great game. I respect the artistic vision, I just didn’t have a lot of fun playing it.

  LIMBO

  As a palate cleanser I played through LIMBO, which I bought solely because it is supposedly an indie darling and was being delisted on GOG. I didn’t really like it. I don’t enjoy platformers, and this is a mediocre puzzle platformer. Despite being assured otherwise on here I did not think the “vibes” were enough to carry it. In the end it’s like a 6/10, and I’m glad I only paid a dollar for it. Maybe I’d think otherwise if this was 2010 and it was my first artsy indie game, but for contrast literally just the other week I played through GRIS. In my opinion that’s an artsy puzzle platformer that’s worth it on vibes alone. I hope INSIDE is better as I foolishly bought both.

  After that I was in a mood for something different, and after realising how easy setting up Xemu was I went headfirst into Ninja Gaiden Black. I played Ninja Gaiden (2004) on the original Xbox as a kid back in the day, but I never finished it and always wanted to go back. With Ninja Gaiden 2 Black being released recently-ish and Ninja Gaiden 4 on the horizon this felt like the perfect time to play the definitive version of the best game in the series.

  Now, I don’t know whether I’ll be able to finish it. I’m playing on “Normal” and not “Ninja Dog” (the easy mode). I’m 8 chapters in now and so far so good, but I’m well aware of the game’s reputation as being prohibitively difficult. And I never did beat it back when I still had teenage reflexes.

  That being said, I’m loving the ever-loving shit out of every moment so far. There is nothing like Ninja Gaiden combat out there, the relentless nature of every single encounter with extremely aggressive enemies constantly forcing you to push yourself to the limit and use every tool and trick at your disposal is satisfying like nothing else. It’s extremely fast, but at the same time measured, deliberate and precise. You can’t get away with button mashing, you have to consciously use actual combos and you have to use the right techniques and right weapons at the right times. The essence mechanic is also unique and offers constant mid-battle decisions.

  The story is… it’s there I guess. It’s pretty terrible, truth be told. And the voice acting is hilariously bad early 2000s style. But let’s face it, nobody plays NG for the story. At least the environments are cool and well designed, as are most of the monsters and characters (let’s not talk about Rachel). The futuristic mashup with traditional Japanese ninjas and samurai is a very cool setting.

  The graphics also need to be shouted out. Sure, I turned up the rendering resolution by 6x in Xemu, but still. Barring some low-res ground textures and the like the game looks phenomenal for a 2005 console release. What Team Ninja were able to extract out of the scuffed ass original Xbox hardware is just black magic. Character models still look great and the animations are fantastic.

  Definitely recommend checking it out if you like character action games. NGB is considered by many to be the peak of that genre and it’s easy to see why.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Humble Choice this month contains Persona 5 Royal, My Time at Sandrock, Lil Gator Game, more⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  If you don’t like anime, and you’re too old to relate to teens anymore, and you might cringe at edgy youth fiction… Is P5R still worth playing?

  I’ve heard some people really love it, but I’ve been very hesitant to play it for the above reasons. Also it’s like 200h long so it’s a big commitment.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What's your preferred way of buying games? (digital/physical/physical digital)⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah install sizes are getting outrageously large these days, I can see you running out of space if you like to keep many games installed and ready to return to. I never run into it because I am typically “install -> play through once -> uninstall”, but it could definitely be a problem yeah.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What are some games with absolutely fantastic soundtracks?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Lucas Pope is so fucking talented it makes me mad. Not only has he designed genius level compelling gameplay out of ostensibly boring professions (border guard and insurance inspector?!), but he also composes absolute bangers for the soundtracks.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What game sequel ruined a beloved franchise or character for you?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t play D&D - in fact I don’t play any TTRPG anymore (imagine having friends) - but I’ve heard a lot of criticism about WOTC’s products, yes. A lion’s share of it is about how unhelpful the official adventures are for DMs, but I’ve also heard the writing criticised from time to time.

  I’ve heard good things about Waterdeep: Dragon Heist and the Curse of Strahd remake though.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What's your preferred way of buying games? (digital/physical/physical digital)⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  90% of the games I play are bought on Steam or GOG, 9% are free Epic giveaways and the last 1% is Alan Wake 2 which I had to buy on Epic because it’s not available anywhere else and I wanted to support Remedy.

  I know the discussion about digital only, and I think game preservation is a great cause. There is definitely a danger with digital only. However, for me as a user having a digital library is just unbeatably convenient. My whole library is easily browsable and sortable and with modern high speed fiber internet any game I feel like playing or re-playing is just a click and a few minutes away.

  I don’t really have any desire to go back to having to constantly fuck around with discs when I want to play something.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What game sequel ruined a beloved franchise or character for you?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Well, canonically Edwin gets punked by Elminster and lives out his days as a bar wench. And since they decided from the get-go to set BG3 a hundred years after the originals he’d be long dead, along with any other human NPC from the older games. Which, the fact that they started from the point of “let’s set it 100 years later” tells you enough of how much they wanted to deal with the older games. Viconia is not the only thing in BG3 that gives vibes of disdain at worst and disinterest at best for the originals. Flail of Ages is a useless trash weapon randomly sold by a vendor, for fucks sake!

  I wonder how many at Larian even played BG1&2. I get such a Wiki-research vibe from a lot of the callbacks.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What game sequel ruined a beloved franchise or character for you?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Viconia and Sarevok had no reason to be in BG3 and by choosing to use WOTCs deplorably terrible supplemental product lore as canon Larian has now cemented those character portrayals forever, which was just pure character assassination.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What are some games with absolutely fantastic soundtracks?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Almost 200 comments and not one single mention of Disco Elysium? What are we doing here guys? It’s one of the most fitting , most perfect and beautiful soundtracks I’ve heard. Captures the vibe so perfectly Robert Kurvitz personally convinced Sea Power to get on board, including - allegedly - by being the man inside the bear costume at one of their gigs.

  Have listen: youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_n9enLNuLjWTn67q…

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What are some games with absolutely fantastic soundtracks?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Absolute underrated banger for sure. God Chaos Theory was just such a perfect game.