Coelacanth

@Coelacanth@aggregatet.org

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

  Finished it today. One of the hardest games to rate ever, for me. There were some undeniable highs in there but large parts of the game were just not enjoyable to play through. The final act in particular felt like pulling teeth.

  I think I’m happy to be able to say I have played it, but I honestly don’t know that I think it was a good use of 20ish hours. Large parts of it honestly felt like just designed to waste your time.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is the Fediverse stalling?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  That makes more sense. His phrasing did not convey that to me but it is probably a me-problem.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is the Fediverse stalling?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Every single person that I’ve ever told about Lemmy has not only refused to join, but outright chided me for having recommended it to them. Every. Single. One.

  I have a hard time believing that since it implies every single person you proposed Lemmy to was already aware of it. The reaction I personally tend to get is “…what? Huh. Never heard of it”.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is the Fediverse stalling?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It definitely will happen. I’ve already noticed I’m sometimes getting weird “your IP is blocked” warnings when using old.reddit. They go away after a refresh but it wouldn’t surprise me if they’re trying to get people to stop using it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is the Fediverse stalling?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  We had some nice steady growth up until some months back, probably partially driven by dissatisfaction with Reddit rallying behind Trump and further enshittification of it. But predictably the lions share of users just accepted the new normal as the inertia of leaving is just too high to overcome. For another exodus event there needs to be a bigger shock to the system, probably something like turning off old.reddit.

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

  I hope you do, it’s been great fun so far!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What are the games you played in your youth that you still play today?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I wish it was on Steam or GOG. I guess I’ll keep an eye on the Playstation store, I do still have my old PS4.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Sable is free on Epic until tomorrow⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I’d like to imagine I’m responsible for the first!

  You were indeed! You’re convincing me, I’ll pencil this in as a palate cleanser at some point this year!

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

  I think the data collection controversy was addressed in patch 1.2.7?

  It’s been a great game so far so I hope you’ll pick it up, but I totally get overspending on Steam/GOG sales and causing an already bloated backlog to further overflow.

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

  You’re right, Fallout Shelter for mobile and I guess I forgot about 76. I was thinking “mainline” Fallouts.

  New Vegas is an amazing game with an even more amazing modding scene. Absolutely recommend you getting to it down the line, it’s a bit closer to the OG Fallouts than the Bethesda ones. Superb DLCs as well, all of them really good.

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

  I’m playing two games this week. First is Pentiment, and the only reason I’m also playing another game at the same time is that I needed something to break up the sometimes excruciating sessions of playing Pentiment. I’m in the final act now so I don’t think there are too many hours remaining.

  Now, Pentiment is actually not a bad… I want to say game but let’s face it, it’s not a game. Pentiment is not a bad visual novel. It is absolutely gorgeous, it’s extremely well researched and it has some interesting things to say, and some interesting characters to get to know that are more layered than you think at first. But holy shit is the game tediously slow and laborious to slog through. Half the playing time is spent blankly staring at the screen as your character slowly waddles around the town of Tassing. The conversations themselves are painfully slow, and many feel shallow and sort of… banal. There is good stuff sprinkled in there, but you have to sift through a lot of mundanity to get to it. It also sort of rubbed me the wrong way that everyone uses such modern phrasing and language when historical accuracy was such a selling point for the game. I’m still appreciating it - mainly the art and the history - but I need to take breaks from it.

  …which I’ve done by playing Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree. I’ve had my eye on it since it’s written by Bloodlines-writer Brian Mitsoda, and with it being 25% off at the summer sale I thought why not.

  It’s a Metroidvania Soulslike with a skill tree inspired by Path of Exile, and I’m really enjoying what I’ve played of it so far. Combat has been solid though I’ve only played a few hours, but the bosses have been good. There are a bunch of different play styles that all seem very different and I am already having fun thinking about builds and planning a second run with a completely different character. The game is beautiful too, the art style is great and I like the splash art for the characters.

  The writing has been okay so far, the world is kinda cool but nothing earth shattering - generic evil energy threatening to consume everything type deal. I’m hoping for some twists down the line. You’re playing as an inquisitor so I assume it will be revealed the witches you hunt are maybe not so evil after all. The goldsmith Yrsa is so far the highlight with some entertaining lines.

  So far from what I’ve seen I definitely would recommend it if you like these types of games.

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

  You’ve played every Fallout except for New Vegas? How come you skipped that particular one?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Deus Ex devs say they weren't trying to make a statement when they made one of the most political games of all time: 'What I think is the right future for humanity is irrelevant. It's all about...'⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah, I believe Warren Spector has said before that the premise of Deus Ex was literally “what it every conspiracy theory was true”, and not really anything deeper than that.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Deus Ex devs say they weren't trying to make a statement when they made one of the most political games of all time: 'What I think is the right future for humanity is irrelevant. It's all about...'⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I just finished Mankind Divided earlier this month. I think it has higher highs than Human Revolution but suffers from being the planned “middle game” in the trilogy. It has better gameplay than HR, some great levels and some really good side quests. Also a really well executed apartheid theme that played out really well.

  I definitely recommend you playing it. It’s not gonna be OG Deus Ex, but it’s a good game.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Thinking about doing a magic-only challenge on Dark Souls⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It probably will, but I think it should be doable. I haven’t tried it personally though so ymmv.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Thinking about doing a magic-only challenge on Dark Souls⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Pyro only isn’t really possible without glitches or summons since Queelag is fire immune. But Sorcery+Pyro “spells only” should be fine. Enemies tend to be resistant to damage types, not general “magic”, so if you can switch it up you’re all good. Dukes archives shouldn’t be a problem if using Pyromancy.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Developer Interview: my Q&A with the dev who runs 'the' Switch piracy freeshop⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  First your regular articles, and now an in-depth interview. And you dare suggested your not a proper gaming journalist?

  Love your work as always.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Sable is free on Epic until tomorrow⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Thank you, I’ll keep it in mind! I might slot it in as a palate cleanser between longer games.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Sable is free on Epic until tomorrow⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Well, there is time to lose. 7ish hours main story and 20+ completionist is a pretty wide range. How many hours did it take for you?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Sable is free on Epic until tomorrow⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  This is the second really positive review of the game I’ve read the past few days. I might actually slot it into my backlog now.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨‘There Isn’t Much Sway Held by Past Success’: Baldur’s Gate 3 actors reveal it hasn’t boosted their careers⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Samantha Béart (who plays Karlach in the game), Theo Solomon (Wyll) and Dave Jones (Halsin) were asked how the success of the game had changed their lives and careers.

  Okay listen I don’t want to sound rude, but I’m not that surprised. Maybe Karlach deserves a bit more recognition but while both Wyll and Halsin were both fine and perfectly adequate, I can’t say that either was the kind of memorable performance that gets you tons of new roles. Though it’s also in part due to the script and direction of course.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What are the games you played in your youth that you still play today?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m interested in trying Shenmue after it was (to me rather surprisingly) awarded the “Most Influential Game of All Time” award by BAFTA.

  How do you play it there’s days? Physical Dreamcast? Can you play it on PC? Emulator?