whatchu playing now

I started

I

...BALATRO

(multiplier sounds)

I haven't won with the black deck, and only have one win on the red difficulty.

Make sure to go into settings and speed up the game once you've gotten the hang of things.

Omg thank you I didn't know you could do that!

why is slay the spire so hard

Any of you playing "Dragon's Dogma 2"? Seems similar to something like "Baldur's Gate 3," but ... goofier? More accessible? I haven't played either, but I am kind of intrigued that both of those games are optimized for single player, yet feature a sort of custom campaign crew that follows you around. "BG3" seems a bit much to me, but from what I've seen online I could imagine one day getting to "DD2."

I have it but haven't got that far in, I probably shouldn't reaaaally have bought it while still buried in FF7 rebirth, but needed a little palate cleanser

DD is hard to describe tbh, it's not like BG3, it's a real time third person combat thing. It's superficially similar to Souls games but actually more emergent/systems-based. You get cool stuff like climbing onto the back of some huge monster that's lurched out of a canopy to whale on its head while your mage sets your sword on fire and your rogue starts doing gnarly stuff with traps and bombs.

There's way less variety in terms of enemies and weapon styles than a Souls like, but more in terms of customising useful followers and sharing them with other users, and more action game/MMO style cool abilities you can unlock with XP.

Not totally sure how the console versions are faring, but it seems to be one of the most absurdly CPU-bound games ever made, to the point where people with high end PC rigs were/are barely getting 30fps in the crowded areas. They had to patch it so that NPCs will just pop into existence a foot away from you like GTA3. I find it alright with a variable refresh rate TV though really, and the lighting in picturesque outside areas is really nice looking

The thing I keep reading which seems like a blast is that there are all sorts of random encounters and events that can happen. Often in these open world games some of my favorite parts are when you come across NPCs fighting monsters (or the reverse) and you can kind of decide if you want to get involved or just watch and/or avoid.

I've heard that DD2 is poorly optimized out of the gate. Might be worth it to wait a bit and let them iron a few more bugs out.

The first one is usually very cheap and has a big cult following. Might be a good option in the meantime. No one is saying the new one is a breakthrough in graphics.

the thing that really struck me about dragon's dogma was that i looked forward to going from place to place and the random encounters along the way, stretches that in other games are typically a slog. i really wanna play DD2 but yeah, it needs fixing, and i don't have a ps5 yet or a PC capable of running it so i'm forced to wait anyway

that and the day/night cycle was dramatic and impactful, which i think i've mentioned itt or elsewhere before

I only know of it from Carbot:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lwSXSOzRjk

I put about a good 20-25 hours into Dragon’s Dogma 2 and have some things to say, haha.

Played a few hours of the 1st one a few months ago. Thought it had the bones of a really cool game, but it very much felt like a PS3 game, so seemed like a sequel that took its ideas to the next level sounded perfect. Set it aside knowing 2 was around the corner.

DD2 starts out kinda boring, then opens up and gets interesting, and then unfortunately gets boring again. It doesn’t feel like a significantly updated iteration of the first one. I’m totally down with fast travel being not something you can rely on, but I quickly found my journeys across the map to be repetitive. Same cycle of goblin camps every 30 yards, occasional big monster, some caves to explore that typically aren’t that interesting, treasure chests that are always “hidden” in the same types of areas. After Elden Ring, that kind of open world feels ancient.

Quests are dull and rote. The “emergent” gameplay scenarios that are played up aren’t exactly filled with variety. You kinda see the same sorta stuff happen pretty regularly. Not a lot of enemy variety either.

It gets very easy once you get your character’s class high enough. Game more than subtly suggests to try out new classes, but after spending a lot of loot on upgrading class specific gear I’m not too keen on starting fresh every few hours. And I think having to constantly change your class to keep the game interesting is kind of a cop out of game design.

So IDK, I put it down for now. A lot of the potentially-alienating-to-casuals features aren’t really the problem for me. I’m a From guy, so that’s what made me interested.

Played it on PS5. 30 fps, which is disappointing, but performance problems haven’t been much of a problem.

Two point and click games: strangeland and the excavation of hob's barrow. Strangeland is directly inspired by i have no mouth and i must scream, and does it well. Hob's barrow is a slow burn paranormal investigation sort of like gabriel knight. It's let down by an ending where the player character does a dumb thing that you can't control. These games both scratched an itch but i'd like to find some more innovative games in the genre.

we talked about 'hob's barrow' last year, enjoyed that and the similar (style wise anyway) 'the case of the golden idol'

will checkout strangeland

Hobs Barrow stars Karlach! I haven't played it yet but the comparison to Golden Idol has piqued my interest.

Hob's Barrow has cutscenes that look like rotoscoped footage into pixel art. I liked those. Its gameplay is very different from deduction games.

helldivers 2 is fantastically dumb fun, 'live service' done right. i recall bouncing off of destiny 2 after about 15 minutes. surprisingly nontoxic and friendly atmosphere among players for the most part also

finally got sick of hades, just in time for hades 2 early access (i think)

Venba is a real heartfelt treat. If I'm a little teary while playing, it's because of all the onoins I have to chop

Finished Venda in a few sittings. Lovely lovely lovely game

It's actually my favorite game from last year, and they also released the cook book as DLC recently.

I'm intrigued to check out Animal Well, published by Videogamedunkey's Bigmode. 89 on opencritic, written up in NYT... pretty good day-one scenario for a solo dev: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/09/arts/dunkey-animal-well-bigmode.html (sub required)

i bought it. reminds me of batbarian, but easier. 60MB install size lol.

i played the first 10 minutes of it at an expo, it looks/sounds nice but i didn't really get a sense of whether it was going to get elaborate and puzzley or just ride on aesthetics

early impressions sound like it's the former, or at least that there's additional layers of more obtuse puzzles beneath the main game. i'll give it a try this weekend

have heard interesting things about it. can you turn off the scanlines?
got burned out on Monster Hunter with 4 and hadn't played the series since, but had a pang to play again so picked up Rise the other week when it was cheap. still the same basic game but there's been lots of great QoL improvements making it much easier to play, riding around on my dog while whetstoning/eating/etc never gets old.

the only option in the options menu is "turn off scanlines"

I think I'm pretty far into Animal Well. Very interesting powerups, not things you would suspect from a Metroid-inspired game. There are moments that really feel like it's a Dunkey Type game, where something unexpected happens and I think to myself "I meant to do that".

There are some cryptic bits that I haven't figured out yet. Possible spoilers: I think there's something going on with the pillars in the swordfish room, possibly a song you can play on the flute? But I haven't found anything that works. The only song I have found is the warp song.

Between Horizons seems promising except that the early Steam reviews say that its UI is pretty annoying: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1921980/Between_Horizons/

animal well is really really good, closest any game has gotten to la mulana

starts out as a very solid exploration/puzzle platformer and then slowly gets more elaborate and cryptic, but executed much better than say, fez

woah wasn’t on my radar at all but looks really cool

i beat the normal game. i need to continue, obviously.

games with similar cryptic quests: environmental station alpha did a similar thing with an optional post-game quest. Both games tiny spoiler: it had parts of a code written on the walls too. And ESA has an area directly inspired by La Mulana. Axiom Verge 1 also has a small well-hidden quest. Tunic and Fez are other ones.

finally playing case of the golden idol and yeah this is the sort of thing i like

yeah it's great

'little kitty big city' is fun so far. sort of like 'untitled goose game'

oh i got to the point in animal well where it just fully becomes fez-style ultra-cryptic codes and i think that's enough for me.

it was pretty good up until that point, though finding the last few eggs was a bit too tedious. it was really really good for a bit but that didn't really last long enough and now i'm slightly underwhelmed.

i really love the la mulana type of cryptic puzzle but not the fez type, in short

i like both style of puzzle.
I still need to find 7 eggs. i solved one of the big puzzles without looking at hints, which i was proud of the one with the symbol pillars. i think I've found 4 rabbits, which seem to do nothingness. haven't looked at any big discussions of the game yet.

finished case of the golden idol, good stuff, glad they're making a second game, i will be there day 1

next up in my 'well-regarded indie games that snuck by me' queue is void stranger

i finished obra dinn earlier this month. started it years ago but got stuck. looked up some general game tips and that was enough. great game, 10/10.

I tried a little bit of Animal Well last night, the lack of hand-holding is not sitting well with me so far.

I've also been playing Hexcells, soothing ambient Minesweeper-like but without ever needing to guess. I'm not as gaga about it as this guy but it's nice.

hexcells does rule, i have dumped many many hours into it

Tametsi is, I think, better, though Hexcells Infinite is good because a) it's actually (practically) infinite, and b) it's the right length for "about ten minutes", whereas for Tametsi it might take you ten minutes of scribbling to lock down the first move (not often!)

I beat the second phase of animal well then looked up spoilers.

Around half of phase 3 is doable by a single player -- but the other ones aren't. One can't be done on steam deck because you need to shake the window of the game. another wants your computer to have a printer connected, but there's a very hidden alternative way to get the code. Phase 4, involving the poster, is completely impossible solo. I wish they had put in clues for harder parts of phase 3, then put all of the ridiculous stuff in its own restricted area.

I was right that Fez and Tunic were inspirations as there are codes to turn your character into the characters from those games. (These are just for fun and aren't a part of any other puzzle.)

All in all I loved the game.

High praise for Lorelei and the Laser Eyes: https://www.polygon.com/reviews/24156442/lorelei-and-the-laser-eyes-review-steam-pc-nintendo-switch

saw that one the ohter day, looks cool

Cryptmaster also looks cool whatever it is - word game based first-person dungeon crawler?

cryptmaster has a steam demo which i have now completed. seems like a good laugh

Animal Well question: I've gotten the flute and I'm gearing up to do the m disc shrine but I don't know how to fast travel. I've seen the code online and I've input it while holding down the whistle button but nothing happens. I've played the song right next to the fish and all.

You need to hold the direction you want and tap the button. Wasn't what I was expecting either.