What are you currently playing?

[BrawlMan]

Street Fighter Alpha 3 Upper again. Then I finally played Power Stone and did my first arcade run with Rouge. Fuck that final boss. He gets easier once you know his specific exploits, but I hate him. His third and final form is much easier, and only have to do 1 round on.

I played a little bit of Kill Knight. Pretty fun isometric run n' gun and slash'em up game. The game is on sale at PSN for $7.49.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Deltarune Chapter 3 finished.

Goddamn it, Toby, how can you end the chapter there? I know Chapter 4 is available to play immediately, but still!

 

[Ezekiel]

Looked and looked for "driver difficulty" in Assetto Corsa, found "driver strength," lowered it significantly, but 'twas still too hard. Fed up, I crashed intentionally into a wall and was disappointed that there was zero visual damage. What is the point of licensing cars if you're not gonna damage them? I'd rather have much fewer from car makers that did approve total destruction or even knock-off cars over this bullshit. I assumed crashes were among the things racing viewers enjoyed most.

 

[BrawlMan]

I tried the Rushing Beat X demo for the first time. Despite the game not looking so good with the backgrounds, the character models look good. The controls are actually pretty smooth and you attack on command. You can launch enemies in the by pausing combo and then juggling with either a regular combo or auto combo by holding the B or Y Button. Depending on what last attack button you use or directional inputs, the combo ender will be different. There are grapples moves unique to each character. A super meter that builds up, and automatically activates when full. RT is to activate a character's super ender. You can kick enemies while they are down with Y or B,

Weapons come in two flavors: limited use small weapons you can store, and press X bring out, or large weapons that break eventual;y, take longer to break, but you can's store them. You only get one life, but the game allows you to store food items for later use. You can also make food combinations, if you have the money and proper ingredients.

My only main problems with the game is dashing sometimes doesn't activeate, and characters move too slow. I started with the fastest character, Kaluha, in the game, and she still had trouble catching up to a zombie or one specific mini boss. Even when running/dashing properly. There was some minor slowdown too in the middle of one the fights. The enemy AI seems improved for the cannon fodder, but they're still pretty easy. The bosses and mini bosses provide a much better challenge. You can't change the control lay outs at all in the demo. Hopefully, the game allows control customization, because I like having my light attack button be on X/[SQR] and heavy attack be on Y/TRI.

There is a ranking system that's pretty easy to follow. This game is clearly more casual friendly, and that's fine. I do hope they add multiple difficulty modes when released. I do say give the demo a shot.

Before all of this, I did play og Rushing Beat. I did get a 1cc, but I abused save states, because the game is really cheap and dickish with enemy placement.

 

[Worgen]

Its steam nextfest so I tried out some demos.

First was Neon Inferno. Its a side scrolling shooter where you do occasionally shoot into the background or foreground at enemies. Its got fantastic pixel art and animation, plays smooth and is kinda weightless. I mean shooting enemies feels odd and lacks impact. Its neat though.

Next is Cleared Hot and I love it. Its like an arcady less serious version of Desert Strike from the genesis/snes. Top down isometric chopper action where you can winch enemies and explosives and fire guns and rockets and its wonderful.

Then I got into a couple fps games. Slyders, this is a roguelite that seems to be set in just a big arena, you have 15 min to kill enemies and you lvl like in vampire survivors. Initially I wasn't big on this but after getting near the end of the run when I had a bunch of upgrades and abilities and there were lots of enemies I was really feeling it. But I did have to turn up the mouse sensitivity all the way and even then it was still a bit slower then I wanted.

Finally is Metal Eden, a movement arena fps game that might be a roguelike, but might not. You do some easy but kinda neat platforming and then fight enemies in an area. Visually it looks pretty great, killing enemies feels good and you have a jumpjet which feels good to use. It is a little stiff, but I'm not sure how to really quantify that, but it is pretty neat.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Finished Deltarune Chapter 4. What can I say (without spoilers)? This game is next-level. Everything about it, from the core design to the creativity on display, it's... I hesitate to use the word 'perfect', but if it doesn't apply here, I don't think I can use it anywhere.

US$25 is a steal for a game this good, and if that doesn't sound convincing, there's still the demo with the first two chapters to win you over. At least give that a shot. I normally don't say this, but everybody should try it.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Finished Deltarune Chapter 4. What can I say (without spoilers)? This game is next-level. Everything about it, from the core design to the creativity on display, it's... I hesitate to use the word 'perfect', but if it doesn't apply here, I don't think I can use it anywhere.

US$25 is a steal for a game this good, and if that doesn't sound convincing, there's still the demo with the first two chapters to win you over. At least give that a shot. I normally don't say this, but everybody should try it.

Does it have an ending? Is chapter 4 the end?

 

[Bedinsis]

Finished the Eriksholm: The stolen dream demo. You get to play through chapter 1 and a fair bit into chapter 2.

The setting is an early 1900's fictional European country, one in the north, where a disease apparently lurks in the background, factory owners do not shy away from exploiting workers and social services is an unknown concept. You play Hanna, orphan and on the lookout for her brother who disappears in the introductory cutscene and then have to stealth her way around the labyrinthine city without alerting the attention of the policemen; they spot you once and it is reloaded from the latest autosave spot.

It has really charming graphics and a very nicely animated cutscene at the start of each chapter. Based on the presentation I think they are focussing more on the story and the world than on the gameplay. It has a decidedly safe-for-all-ages depiction; you only unlock one hostile weapon during the demo and that is for sedating policemen with darts, and being spotted only leads to a black screen saying so. What I'm saying is that it isn't a violent game whatsoever, and so far I've not encountered any character that's morally repugnant or evil. I was reminded of various children's TV series when playing it.

I wish they would let me double click tell Hanna to run; [shift]+clicking is a hassle.

Gameplay wise... it's passable.

 

[Bartholen]

I got the Overture DLC for Lies of P, defeated the first boss and went to the next area. It's a properly done DLC: new beautiful areas to explore, new enemies, new weapons, all that good stuff. I'm playing it on NG+, so difficulty wise it doesn't fuck around: I had to try the first boss probably like 30 times. I'm a tad worried about the new minibosses and bosses becoming frustrating to fight, because they have that Sekiro problem where the approach to up the difficulty seems to have been just longer attack chains and more delays. It hasn't gotten there yet though. Not much idea on the story yet, which is what I'm really interested in, since they've got Neil Newbon doing his most fabulous Astarion voice in the trailer. The one disappointing thing about it is the amount of recycled enemies. While there are plenty of new ones, there's also plenty of the generic mutant enemies from the main game. It makes up for it with creativity though: the snowy hill and zoo sections have you fighting mutated kangaroos, baboons and gorillas among other things, which is certainly a novel concept.

It's still very linear, so in that sense it's in line with the main game: there's still very little exploration or secret pathways to find. But it's much more palatable in a DLC, and Lies of P is more about the story than the world anyway. The devs are on point with the expansion, which makes me very excited for the previously possible, but now probable sequel.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Does it have an ending? Is chapter 4 the end?

Respectively: yes (four of them, in fact), and no.

Essentially, it's like a boxed set of the complete first season. It may not be "the whole thing" per se, but what is there is plenty to justify the price tag, especially since the subsequent episodes are coming at no extra charge. Unless you have hangups about 'incomplete' things, I would still strongly recommend playing this game.

Put another way: I've spent more on "complete" games that I enjoyed less.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Respectively: yes (four of them, in fact), and no.

Essentially, it's like a boxed set of the complete first season. It may not be "the whole thing" per se, but what is there is plenty to justify the price tag, especially since the subsequent episodes are coming at no extra charge. Unless you have hangups about 'incomplete' things, I would still strongly recommend playing this game.

Put another way: I've spent more on "complete" games that I enjoyed less.

I don't like to start something and then spend years waiting for a conclusion that may or may not be worth it. I'll keep waiting.

 

[Ezekiel]

Tried to sync the 26 radios in Portal for the first time. Was five short. Wish there was some kind of checkmark in the chapter selector. Game's still really good, but puzzles get lamer after the testing ends and it could have been harder.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Tried to sync the 26 radios in Portal for the first time. Was five short. Wish there was some kind of checkmark in the chapter selector. Game's still really good, but puzzles get lamer after the testing ends and it could have been harder.

Sync the radios? What's that mean?

 

[Ezekiel]

Sync the radios? What's that mean?

When you carry the radio to the frequency, the Hawaiian music is interrupted by static and the light turns from red to green. It stays green even after reloading the save so that you know it's done.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Sync the radios? What's that mean?

In a bit more detail, every 'room' in Portal contains a radio, usually hidden in some hard-to-reach, obscure corner. Most of the time, they just play the same song that the radio in the prologue does, but if you pick up the radio and carry it to another extremely specific (and usually hard-to-reach) part of the room, they'll start playing static and change their light from red to green as Ezekiel described.

Activating all 26 radios this way is a requirement for an achievement. It's basically a collection sidequest like removing the cameras, though it's significantly harder.

 

[BrawlMan]

Its steam nextfest so I tried out some demos.

First was Neon Inferno. Its a side scrolling shooter where you do occasionally shoot into the background or foreground at enemies. Its got fantastic pixel art and animation, plays smooth and is kinda weightless. I mean shooting enemies feels odd and lacks impact. Its neat though.

Next is Cleared Hot and I love it. Its like an arcady less serious version of Desert Strike from the genesis/snes. Top down isometric chopper action where you can winch enemies and explosives and fire guns and rockets and its wonderful.

Then I got into a couple fps games. Slyders, this is a roguelite that seems to be set in just a big arena, you have 15 min to kill enemies and you lvl like in vampire survivors. Initially I wasn't big on this but after getting near the end of the run when I had a bunch of upgrades and abilities and there were lots of enemies I was really feeling it. But I did have to turn up the mouse sensitivity all the way and even then it was still a bit slower then I wanted.

Finally is Metal Eden, a movement arena fps game that might be a roguelike, but might not. You do some easy but kinda neat platforming and then fight enemies in an area. Visually it looks pretty great, killing enemies feels good and you have a jumpjet which feels good to use. It is a little stiff, but I'm not sure how to really quantify that, but it is pretty neat.

snip

Any of you tried out the demo yet. I finally getting the hang of the combat and can mostly get consistent high combos. I've played with almost all the characters on the roster so far. I got an A++ Rank with Rick, and an A+++ with Kahlua. The game basically wants you to get the highest combos without dying, so you can a huge payout to buy more food/food combinations to keep your health full. I'll be sending some screens in a few.

 

[Worgen]

Beat Deltarune chapter 4, its amazing, go get it.

 

[Catfood220]

So, I just finished a game called Nice Day For Fishing.

Everyone knows who Viva La Dirt League are and what Epic NPC Man is, right? Good, that saves me a bit of explaining. This is a game based on the video series about a fictional MMORPG called Skycraft. Basically, an in game accident disconnects all the players and gives sentience to the fisherman, Baelin. Stuff happens and an ancient evil is unleashed upon the fantasy world and it is up to Baelin to save the world...by fishing. You see, even though Baelin has sentience, it seems he has no real agency of his own and gets sent on a seemingly endless series of fetch quests for the other NPCs of Honeywood, the town in Skycraft and central hub of the actual game. If I'm not being too confusing here.

What Nice Day For Fishing is, is a side scrolling fishing RPG, you get your quest, which is usually to go and get fish or some item from the bottom of lakes or the seas and bring them back to the quest giver. You would never of though fish could be so versitile. The fishing is a sort of turn based combat, you get a fish to bite and start reeling them in during your turn, before the fish will fight back and try to break your line during which you can block or parry their attacks. As you progress, you get spells to attack the fish or buff yourself. All of which is very useful. And as course, as you progress you get upgrades to increase your abilities and get fish who are deeper down.

The game is not hard, there is no game over if you fail, your line breaks and you have to start again, so there is very little challenge to be had here once you get the parry timing down for each fish. I was so over levelled by the time I got to the final boss that it was over in minutes. Also, despite Viva La Dirt League being a comedy channel, taking the piss out of stupid video tropes, the humour is lacking here, rarely ever getting more than a smile out of me. I think some more voice acting would have helped get the jokes across. And some of the humour does start to grate, like the repeated quest to get the blacksmiths hammer from the well.

But despite those grumbles, I enjoyed my time with this game, the combat is solid and satisfying, the world is beautiful to look at and the fish themselves are all pretty creative, especially the ones is the depths. Its not a long game, it took me about 30 hours to get the platinum, which was more grindy than difficult to get. So yeah, have a look if this sounds interesting.

In fact,

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

In a bit more detail, every 'room' in Portal contains a radio, usually hidden in some hard-to-reach, obscure corner. Most of the time, they just play the same song that the radio in the prologue does, but if you pick up the radio and carry it to another extremely specific (and usually hard-to-reach) part of the room, they'll start playing static and change their light from red to green as Ezekiel described.

Activating all 26 radios this way is a requirement for an achievement. It's basically a collection sidequest like removing the cameras, though it's significantly harder.

There was also an Easter egg behind this. The static could be run through a spectrograph to produce images; this was how Valve teased Portal 2.

 

[Drathnoxis]

In a bit more detail, every 'room' in Portal contains a radio, usually hidden in some hard-to-reach, obscure corner. Most of the time, they just play the same song that the radio in the prologue does, but if you pick up the radio and carry it to another extremely specific (and usually hard-to-reach) part of the room, they'll start playing static and change their light from red to green as Ezekiel described.

Activating all 26 radios this way is a requirement for an achievement. It's basically a collection sidequest like removing the cameras, though it's significantly harder.

I don't think I had that achievement on my Xbox 360 copy.

There was also an Easter egg behind this. The static could be run through a spectrograph to produce images; this was how Valve teased Portal 2.

Imagine putting in all the effort of deciphering all these codes and following the trail of obscure clues, it must have taken dozens of hours by hundreds of people. Then at the end of all your hard work it's just an announcement for a game that was going to be announced in a couple weeks anyway.