Bay 12 Games Forum

Quote from: scriver on September 06, 2020, 05:26:50 am

What are you taking?

Classes, probably.

What kind of weak-ass college is this?!   
The answer is drugs, obviously. Jeez.   

Oof. I really am half-asleep, missing that first one.   

By "japanese novel series", is it inspired by stuff like Phantasy Star Online and packed with manga/anime storytelling sensibilities, or is it more like the surreal, indefinable goodness written by badasses like Haruki Murakami whom I generally associate with Japanese fiction?   
I feel like I've never paid attention to Sword Art Online because I saw (not watched, saw, on Netflix or whatever) the anime long before I'd heard of the novels.   

So, what's the general consensus on Ready Player One, here?   
It got added to Netflix lately and for some reason my brain pinged it as controversial. I'm sure I've heard some rather strong opinions of it, probably negative ones, but I can only find like one actual instance of that (in this very thread, actually). Obviously it seems pretty ridiculous from the standpoint of a modern nerd, but from what little I've watched so far it seems entertaining enough.   
Just ride the wave of rule-of-cool and pretend it all makes sense.   
The architecture is maybe a bit of a stretch, but y'know, it's only there as a backdrop to remind you how much the future sucks.   


The guy    

There was this FPS game I saw semi-recently - well, probably a few years ago - you know, one of those dime-a-dozen old-school brutal shooter-type-deals. Paying homage to the classic gore and gibs shooters as hammily as possible, you know that whole revival that's going on.   

This one, though, stood out because of the simply amazing trailer it had. Like a miniature period piece taking you back to the '90s (or late '80s) with brilliantly cheesy acting as it followed two brothers seated before this prehistoric beige shitbox of a computer, all hyped up to play this ultra hardcore newly released videogame, [NAME].   
Of course the older brother went first, and looked set to hog the game all to himself before he FUCKING EXPLODED FROM THE SHEER INTENSITY. Then little bro, horrified at his brother's fate, wiped bloody goop out of his eyes and bravely took up the gamepad himself.   
This cinematic tour-de-force ended with their mother coming in and giving an Oscar-worthy performance as she broke down in tears over the fate of both her sons, cut down in their prime by this sadistic, ultra-violent videogame of Satan.   

...And then she set her face in a expression of grim determination, set aside the bodies of her children, and picked up the controller.   
Never mind the actual gameplay (I'm sure it was derivative as fuck), that trailer itself blew me the hell away. Bravo, I probably screamed at the screen.   
Even if the game never got released - it did seem to be getting an unhealthy amount of hype for such a simplistic kinda game, and you gotta wonder how much of the budget was blown on the trailer even if it was clearly a labour of love - I just really, really want to watch that again.   


I was pretty sure it had a catchy, single-word title, like Prey or Ruins or something, and I could have sworn I wishlisted it on Steam, but none of the handful of one-word-title gore fests on my list appear to be it. They certainly don't have that magnificent trailer, or really a shred of this game's sheer style.    

Played a bit of something called Spellbreak earlier, (one of?) the latest in the long line of free-to-play BR games.   
It tries to do something different with a weird magic system where you have gauntlets enchanted with different elements allowing you to cast various spells and stuff, but... maybe I'm not the target audience for the game, but it doesn't really grab me. With all its attempts at innovation, combat still seems pretty dang boring.   
Most of the gameplay consists of looking through fiddly clusters of items that float and glow and show you only one of their descriptions at a time. You also have to spend a lot of time chugging health potions and absorbing extra armour scraps into your codpiece (at least, that's where I assume it goes - you can't use armour until you have a belt equipped. Go figure) if you want to survive for long.   
It gave me a serious Realm Royale vibe, or whatever that one game was called, right down to the zoomed-out camera angle and derpy flying. Also all the tedious picking-up of items around the map. I think there were even little forges of some kind where you can presumably upgrade/build stuff, but I'm not sure - I just saw a teammate stand in front of a fiery hole in a wall for a while doing something.   

Combat itself, well, I can't really give a proper opinion since I only played briefly and didn't really dig too deep. In fact, I skipped the tutorial. For all I know there's a tonne of depth to the combat system, but I didn't really see it - you have your handful of different gloves to choose from and a few different levels of each, but they seem to have fairly similar effects: one AoE spell (which admittedly look pretty cool, at least) and one that's a sort of rapid-fire thing.   

It also takes a leaf out of (eugh) Fortnite's book and has you playing as a random character each time, with their outfit the only thing you can customise. Now, after playing Hunt: Showdown I actually really like the idea of random gen'd characters, but this really isn't the same.   
Also, it seems like most times at the game-end screen your character changes to someone entirely different, anyway. Not sure what that's about.   

Also, there's no sprint button, and clicking the left stick on a controller sends a 'ping' to your teammates instead. Believe me, there were a lot of meaningless pings in the first game I played. It just feels unnatural not being able to run or boost, aside from the slow flying you can do with the jump button or these mini-spells you can equip that mostly seem to launch you forwards a short distance. Weird.   


On a more positive note, it's a pretty pretty game. Well, the concept-art type illustrations that pop up occasionally in menus/loading screens/tutorials are kinda hideous, but the in-game graphics themselves are kinda neat. Cel-shaded and bright, without looking as eye-bleedingly garish as a certain popular BR I could name.   

Anyway, I'm not entirely sure why I decided to type out a review of this game I played briefly at the recommendation of absolutely no-one, didn't particularly enjoy, and might not even play again, but... well, there ya go. *shrug*   



Otherwise, I've still been playing a heap of Hunt: Showdown and PVZ: Battle For Neighbourville.   
I have a bunch of games in my Steam library I need to try properly (especially Beholder, it seems like it could be really interesting if I could only get into it), but I'm really slack with that these days. Of course, it doesn't help that my laptop doesn't run all that well, but it's not that bad.   
Maybe I should get a comfier chair.   

Haven't played this in ages, started up the "hardcore survival" scenario, whatever it's called.   
I wasn't taking it very seriously, just attempting to eat pretty much everything in sight, but I somehow completed the "find a weapon" quest - thanks to someone lodging said weapon in the base of my skull. Mine now, I guess?   

One is 'PC' and the other isn't. Don't bother even trying to make sense of it beyond that.   
That way lies madness.   

Quote from: Donald Trump

“Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.”

Might be the first time I agree with Trump. Save for American involvement in World War II, the US has only waged immoral wars.

lmao what