Videogame Thread

[Tobyc 22]

4 hours ago, ijuin said:

Wait, there's a King's Quest newer than Mask of Eternity?!

Yep, an episodic game set around the events of the originals. The first chapter is about Graham's arrival in Daventry and how he became a knight, the second just after he becomes king, and the third is about his early relationship with Valanice.

One great thing is that it shows Graham is an old man (Christopher Lloyd) telling the story to his granddaughter (Alexander's daughter), so any time you get Graham killed he'll immediately correct himself without you needing a saved game. And I don't there's any unwinnable scenarios like the "throw boot at cat" thing from KQV.

[Tobyc 22]

I started a game of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness this afternoon, and I was much amused by my partner repeatedly being referred to as "Chicken' - not much of an insult, being as she was a Torchic. This doesn't seem to be intentional, since I started a new game with a Pikachu partner, who was still called chicken.

[PSadlon 88]

 

[Tobyc 22]

My Pokemon Platinum replay continues, and I'm outside Snowpoint City waiting for Ash to arrive.

 

Anyone have any thoughts on the Sun/Moon trailer and the starters?  Can't say any of the three have grabbed me the way Fennekin or Tepig did.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kn25hijDL7c&feature=youtube_gdata_player

[partner555 170]

I love how the cover legendaries look, especially the Eldritch Bat one. As for the starters, the Fire-type looks nice.

[partner555 170]

I did it! I finally did it! I got EVERY LAST TROPHY IN THE RATCHET AND CLANK GAME! YEEEEEESSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!

[Zorua 124]

On 5/14/2016 at 8:28 AM, Tobyc said:

Anyone have any thoughts on the Sun/Moon trailer and the starters?  Can't say any of the three have grabbed me the way Fennekin or Tepig did.

I like Rowlet. He's kinda cute somehow.

 

I've recently dusted off MegaMan Battle Network 6: Cybeast Falzar. I don't remember restarting, but I did, and when I started it back up again I was between the Seaside Town level and the first Expo Navi test. Right now I'm trying for 100% Completion (minus the secret chips, at least). Still need to get past that S door in the Graveyard.

Interesting note: If you have the "Oil Body" NaviCustomization program equipped and run around Central Area 2, BlastMan will be the only opponent you encounter (after you've fought him once in that area, anyway, since that first encounter is on a specific tile). Oil Body attracts Fire-element enemies, and since BlastMan is the only Fire enemy in that area...

 

Also, Minecraft version 1.10 is out. Took three weeks from the first snapshot to the final release. Polar Bears and new Zombie and Skeleton variants were added, Mesa biomes have a lot more gold, magma blocks were added to the Nether, and a few other things.

[PSadlon 88]

Unfortunately I finallly got around to installing Steam.

[partner555 170]

27 minutes ago, PSadlon said:

Unfortunately I finallly got around to installing Steam.

What's unfortunate about that?

[ijuin 572]

Probably all of the shiny games available quickly became a major distraction.

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

2 hours ago, PSadlon said:

Unfortunately I finallly got around to installing Steam.

All the cool kids are using internal combustion or hybrid electric engines nowadays.

[Scotty 1,061]

3 hours ago, partner555 said:

4 hours ago, PSadlon said:

Unfortunately I finallly got around to installing Steam.

What's unfortunate about that?

I think because in less than a week if rumours are true, wallets are going to be crying out in anguish.

[banneret 45]

If you're new to Steam, just try to pace yourself. Make sure you try an hour of anything you buy, within a week or so of the purchase. If you don't like it, you can refund it. In my experience, people who tend to slip down the slope are buying games they don't actually enjoy, or simply never get around to playing, because they're deals. Good luck!
 

[PSadlon 88]

On 6/19/2016 at 4:53 AM, ijuin said:

Probably all of the shiny games available quickly became a major distraction.

On 6/19/2016 at 7:56 AM, Scotty said:

I think because in less than a week if rumours are true, wallets are going to be crying out in anguish.

I tend to be very budget conscious but yeah.

[Zorua 124]

My brother got a Wii U, Smash, and the new Star Fox games a little while ago, and recently got Twilight Princess HD + Wolf Link amiibo.

For Smash, an ongoing thing I was doing was trying to get all the custom special moves. It's ongoing. Corrin and Shulk are pretty fun to play as, though. I gotta say, I love Lucario's "Advancing Force Palm" custom move. It's a good horizontal recovery.

Twilight Princess, the fact that the map was reversed from what I'm used to was kinda messing me up a little, but I think I'm okay now. Except in the original version, when you had a full wallet and you opened a chest that had money in it, you'd put the money back and leave the chest for later. I didn't like that they removed that for Skyward Sword, and I don't like it that they removed it for the remake. Also, all those Miiverse stamps are annoying. Dangling a chest in front of your eyes, going through all the effort to get it, only to find a stamp for a feature we don't even use! I'll take the ten Rupees over a frikkin' stamp any day.

[banneret 45]

The Wii U is just a splendid system. What little it gets is excellent, and I - for one - am a strong fan of Splatoon.
 

[PSadlon 88]

There were a couple issues with the Wii U, IMO. First and foremost they did not sufficiently differentiate it from the Wii; marketing-wise it looked like far less of an upgrade than it was. Second, they really could have handle the tablet controllers better, if only by not making them required for some tasks and making it feasible to get another if you wanted. Seriously, crap happens evening the best products and it's kinda stupid to make allowances.

[banneret 45]

Certainly, although the greatest problem with the Wii U is the same problem that plagues the Wii, the 3DS and the Vita: Major developers are unwilling or unable to experiment due to the pressures of capitalism, which result in conservative organizations developing products for the lowest common denominator to maximize sales and thus return on investment. I'm still bitter about Ubisoft's rolling delays and cancellations, culminating in canceling finished games because - although they would be profitable and the investment was already made - there were not enough Wii U consoles in market for the titles to be "profitable enough".
 

[partner555 170]

7 minutes ago, banneret said:

Certainly, although the greatest problem with the Wii U is the same problem that plagues the Wii, the 3DS and the Vita: Major developers are unwilling or unable to experiment due to the pressures of capitalism, which result in conservative organizations developing products for the lowest common denominator to maximize sales and thus return on investment. I'm still bitter about Ubisoft's rolling delays and cancellations, culminating in canceling finished games because - although they would be profitable and the investment was already made - there were not enough Wii U consoles in market for the titles to be "profitable enough".
 

That seems silly, if you are already that far, then surely the extra cost is minimal compared to potential revenue should you actually bring it to market. Any decision to not make games for the Wii U should have been made far earlier in the development process.

[banneret 45]

You caught me before I could edit it, but I was going to remove the Ubisoft aside. Technically speaking, they made the decision to drop the console because they weren't able to get their desired return on investment. Since we don't have access to their internal financials, we can't actually say whether it would have been profitable to continue releasing titles. I suspect they were making money, but not enough money - most of the titles sold in the millions, many of them were ports. The finished game they dropped was a party game - not a top selling genre - and it may not have been a particularly good example of the genre. Cynically, I assume that the qualities of the game were major factors in the decision to suppress it. Anyway, these are just my bitter opinions on a particular situation, and they're not as well supported with evidence as I should like.
 

[ijuin 572]

Yes--once you've already sunk the development costs (which makes up about 80% of the cost of a game outside of marketing/advertising), then you may as well recover whatever revenue you can by selling it, considering that the alternative is to get ZERO revenue by not selling it. The only times when it makes sense NOT to release it are when 1: there is still significant expenditure needed before it could be released, or 2: releasing it would harm sales of your other present or future products (e.g. you think it will flop so badly that it will hurt the franchise's popularity).

[The Phoenixian 9]

So, I just came across an interesting, early access indie Action RPG: CrossCode. And now I'm going to gush a bit about it.

Looking around shows that it seems to be moderately well known, but I was immediately struck by the sheer level of polish in it, one beating many published games and which I've only seen matched among early access games by Factorio and AM2R.

It's not finished, and lasts about 15-20 hours so far but what's done is very well done.

To begin with you start as Lea, a character who is not so much "stuck" in an MMO, as traveling through it in order to recover her memories. And likewise not so much a "heroic mime" as fully able to put more personality and expression into three words than many characters get with a full vocabularies. Rather than being the player avatar, she stands as her own character, and one who both has a distinct personality and is very easy to engage with as a character.

As far as actual gameplay goes, the combat system is quite well polished, even with numerous powerups still saying "not implemented yet", and only gets better as one progresses towards unlocking its elemental variants. It feels like a proper branching path, with the option to either make a balanced build, or aim for specialization.

Setting wise the game itself does a very good job on selling the idea that the world is a popular MMO, Players run to and fro along thoroughfares, guilds and frustrated players hand ask for favors just as do NPCs, and folks you meet early on can be seen in the background progressing alongside you. (From both party members and rivals, to even simple running gags such as the girl who inexplicably sits on tables when there are chairs instead.)

The music is good, and the art can only be described as "gorgeous".

Lastly, I would be remiss not to mention the ice floors, which don't take up much of the game, but are notable in that sliding on ice + twirly dodge mechanics + fire element = flaming ballerina.

[/gush]

[partner555 170]

It looks very interesting, just one question, is it only on steam?

[PSadlon 88]

6 hours ago, The Phoenixian said:

CrossCode

It is on my wishlist. It did not make tomorrow's $66 budget however.

4 hours ago, partner555 said:

It looks very interesting, just one question, is it only on steam?

Full game, yes... Demo, no. http://www.cross-code.com/en/start

[Tobyc 22]

Over the last few days I've made a start on both Loom and Grim Fandango after finding them on Steam. I've also tried and failed to get anyone to ask me about them.