whatchu playing now

U4 is Naughty Dog's first post-TLOU, and the groundedness of the latter really shows up in their games from then on.

So what changed, exactly? Did it suddenly click with Druckmann (or whoever) that it was time to (creatively) "git gud"? Those first three Uncharteds are fine and fun, but TLOU is a huge leap, and U4 seems to continue that streak. Was it just better technological capabilities available? Did they earn a longer leash to get more ambitious?

Btw, I totally forgot about TLOU2, which I have not played and which has (against all odds) remained unspoiled for me. If I'm not Naughty Dogged out after all these Uncharteds, maybe that would be a good winter game, though I'm still debating playing the (remade) TLOU again first, depending on sales. That, fwiw, is why in my admittedly limited experience I'm so willing to go to bat for these playable movies. If the story is good and compelling, it's ok if the gameplay is kind of rudimentary. At least imo. Something like the From games, those are all about gameplay; while I couldn't really give a poop about figuring out the opaque lore, I can see why playing them again, but differently, could be appealing. Something like Last of Us, the gameplay *and* story would of course remain the same for a second play, more or less, but I can see myself enjoying it a second time like a would rewatching a movie or re-reading a book.

Just play TLOU2!

After these last two Uncharteds! I already own TLOU2, and I'm a sucker for PS5 optimized PS4 games, so that's a step in the right direction.

Just spitballing, but the Uncharteds were basically updated Indiana Joneses, so the tone was mostly going to be breezy and quippy. I think with the critical success of TLOU, Druckmann's cinematic, grim/gritty aspirations became a viable commercial approach. (He was also only a designer on the first Uncharted, a co-producer/co-writer on 2, and not involved much with 3 because that was when he was working on TLOU.)

I also bought Inscryption in the sale, just got to the end and holy wow I loved it. I mean, I'm a pathetic sucker for anything meta so probably the exact target audience, but I thought it did it *so* well. There were definitely a few secrets I didn't discover, and I'm not a big one for replaying, so I might just google for them at some point instead.

― emil.y, Saturday, November 5, 2022 6:39 PM (four days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Cool! I'm playing it verrry slowly with my partner (we're only at the beginning of 'act 2'), so the meta stuff has only just begun to emerge, but I absolutely love it. Even if it was just the base card game, it would still be very enjoyable.

deaths door is SO GOOD. I want more of the same but not Dark Souls and not Tunic, other recs welcome, obv zelda but I've played all those

just wondering... why not Tunic? I've had my eye on it for a while.

Tried it and just didn't click with it, but don't let my ambivalence stop you! I think I'm in a minority, loads of people seem to enjoy it.

Dropping in to rep for SIGNALIS. Very nice and atmospheric nugget of sci-fi survival horror. Definitely wears it's influences on it's bloodied sleeve (Res Evil, Silent Hill, Evangelion, Blade Runner) but combines these in a way I don't think I've really seen before. Existential robo body-horror? Kinda?

also rep for signalis here (can't remember if i posted about it before). really enjoyed it, and not a long game either which is nice sometimes!!

for those who are worried it'll be too scary i can confirm as a fellow scaredy cat that it only really scared me once and it was early and it was gameplay

i am going to play Pentiment

I would do that but I don’t have Xbox or Windows :(

only the sheer power of Xbox and/or Windows can run this game

U should stream it

On Stadia.

sorry i don't have any of that stuff installed rn also don't have my 2nd monitor set up, too arduous for today

also this game is like entirely dialogue/reading and i like to read fast and without interruption, not a good stream game

this game is very good though i regret choosing the bookworm class since every dialogue option it unlocks is the corniest shit i would never say

hedonist i assume would have been way more fun

Played the first 90 minutes of Persona 4 Golden and fell asleep.

now repeat that 50 more times and you might finish the game and also get a lot of sleep

I tried Signalis and the first hour was great. Clearly inspired by early Resident Evil games but not afraid to diverge from the formula when it serves a purpose.

I beat Tinykin. Pictures make it look like Pikmin but it's more of a 3D platformer collectathon in the style of Mario 64 -- the tiny helpers can't be lost and the game always selects the right one for your task. The main character zips across the screen really fast which is quite satisfying. Lots of stages are based around getting as high up as possible, and I love that games don't need to restrict viewing angles any more, letting you see everything.

i've failed every single dialogue check in pentiment in act 2 and 3 so far, even the ones i had a favorable roll on, feel like i'm missing like half the game's content. really testing my 'no backsies' stance on playing this type of game but i'm still enjoying it

everyone hates me! i was trying to be nice..

on one of them i misclicked and accidentally talked a character into giving up on life and becoming a nun

damn

I give you permission to mildly savescrum

given the game creators, though, you might be meant to fail most of those

i will not. apologies to the nun

i'm sure i was meant to fail a lot of them but there were 2 in particular that i felt like i had navigated well and still didn't get there

I really want to play Pentiment but I have the same issue as silby: no windows or xbox for me.

definitely looking forward to looking up just how broad the outcomes tree of this game is, after i finish it. some of the consequences to my choices have been much bigger than i expected and it didn't really feel like i was railroaded into them but that might have just been some clever sleight of hand

i'm a big skeptic of 'Choices Matter!' as a selling point for games but it's cool when a game gives you the feeling that the story could have played out completely differently in someone else's playthrough even if that's not actually the case

vampire survivors is ridiculously stupid fun

i think it's that vs elden ring for game of the year

The fonts are really doing the heavy lifting in terms of historicity in Pentiment. Characters sound very bloggy to me... people say like "hehe" and shit (but don't worry, it's in an old typeface).

pentiment is goty

i finished it, good game but does not beat out vampire survivors for goty

next up is Norco

Finished Xenoblade Chronicles 3, the conclusion was kinda just fine for me but it hit some real heights along the way

I think I'm in the final stretches of "Uncharted 4" (relatively speaking). So, I don't know what the original PS4 version looked like, but this PS5 version looks absolutely great. In fact, having just seen the trailer for Avatar 2 again, there are aspects of this game that look just about as good as that, which is kind of amazing for a six year old game.

has anyone here played Cult of the Lamb? It sounds a bit like Hades crossed with Dungeon Keeper, is that about right?

Gameplay wise, I guess? I haven't heard if Dungeon Keeper, so maybe the other half is Animal Crossing set in Jonestown. In any event, it's really fun!

sounds good, thanks! Dungeon Keeper is a Peter Molyneux game that was really good fun c. 25 years ago...

"Uncharted 4" was a great game, perhaps ironically hurt a little by being such a great game. It of course looks spectacular, and is well-written and acted. At the same time, the fundamentals are largely the same kinda silly, b-movie scenarios that comprised the previous games, and while I'm not sure what the solution might have been, it's a weird balance to offer solid drama and emotional beats when your protagonist is a giddy mass murderer with superhuman upper body strength. Anyway, still enjoyed the heck out of it and might play it again some day. Now I'm going to move on to "Lost Legacy," which at least should be shorter.

i think you’d appreciate this fan film at this point Josh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5CZQpqF_74

I think I saw that when it first came out! Fillion of course was perfect casting. Tom Holland ... was not.

Marvel Snap is pretty great btw

been playing various things since I was last checking in on ILG but the very recentest things are Inscryption and Tactics Ogre Reborn, both on Switch, The Only Console™

should i get tactics ogre y/n?