T w e n t y S i d e d
This week I’ve continued to play Rimworld. I’ve gotten all of the research done and my book collection has reached 110 books with a reading bonus of 16%. Other highlights include: one of my colonists threw a tantrum and attacked a mortar causing it to explode, also detonating 60 high-explosive shells and 3 antigrain warheads with it, another colonist divorced Crawdad, then married his son making Crawdad her father-in-law ex-husband. I also decided I didn’t want to deal with raids anymore, so I made a wall of uranium slug turrets with a total of 117 turrets and no more problems with raids.
Stardew is also still going. Not a whole lot to mention, I’m mostly mining in Skull Caverns for radioactive ore.
Anyway, what is going on with you guys?
The Best of 2011
My picks for what was important, awesome, or worth talking about in 2011.
The Best of 2018
I called 2018 "The Year of Good News". Here is a list of the games I thought were interesting or worth talking about that year.
The Terrible New Thing
Fidget spinners are ruining education! We need to... oh, never mind the fad is over. This is not the first time we've had a dumb moral panic.
Control
A wild game filled with wild ideas that features fun puzzles and mind-blowing environments. It has a great atmosphere, and one REALLY annoying flaw with its gameplay.
Free Radical
The product of fandom run unchecked, this novel began as a short story and grew into something of a cult hit.
Went back to playing Wargroove, an Advance Wars-style indie game which is able to be played with just the mouse. Specifically it’s like Advance Wars Dual Strike, the game where the commanders are on the field and can die and cost you the map. The mission I’d stopped on featured a poor economy, supposedly compensated by heavy-hitting air-to-ground dragon units, but they can’t fight air units at all, and you don’t have a tower to produce air units and the enemy does, so if they kill them they’re gone and you’re just left fighting a superior economy. Turns out it’s vital to immediately hit a town with both the dragons, because apparently that puts the enemy just under the threshold to buy an air-to-air unit, as opposed to just over it. Frustrating stuff. I’m torn whether that’s good or bad in a strategy game.
Paper Sorceror is an homage to old cRPG series like Wizardry, with the one-color style of Return of the Obra Dinn. I never played many of those old games and have barely beaten the first boss in Paper Sorceror, but so far this looks like a very light version of them, mostly homaging the combat and not the level design, which is a good thing because those old games were mazey hells. You seem to assemble your final party in the tutorial dungeon; I have a good feeling about my Main Character/Red Mage/Black Mage Who Can’t Wear Armor/Speedster Who Can’t Use Weapons party. I’m sure this is what the speedrunners use.
Personally I think I dislike it when strategy game maps come down to “do X or lose,” because then it’s not a strategy game: it’s a puzzle game, often with little enough feedback it becomes a Do It Again Stupid puzzle game. Perversely in this instance, I would never expect rushing a “resource node” to be the solution, because eons of other strategy games where the enemy blatantly “cheats,” not actually caring about the resource numbers you do, means that you would have no reason to expect you can stop them from buying those AA units. Especially when they could just save up across turns anyway, but apparently won’t in this instance? Meanwhile in say, Total War games, the difficulty slider is basically the AI cheat slider, which some people can just apparently turn all the way up and win against all the time, while I’m sitting here on normal being like “how am I supposed to even build a functional army here?”
It’s a very fine line to walk where beating the “AI” always means either the AI was set up to fail, or has an exploitable flaw that you will exploit, and that’s just the way games work. If it can be made to feel good and skillful then it’s fun, otherwise it’s not. In some ways I found Into the Breach very refreshing, because it doesn’t make any suggestion that the enemy is working with resources, or you for that matter: its combat very obviously and immediately degenerates into a pseudo-random puzzle where you can see everything you had to do for this turn and next turn new things will be introduced which you can delay or position for but otherwise you will see when you see. But indeed, as chonky and fun as its robots feel, the combat is puzzles (and as a run-based game you’re not meant to always have a way to win), which I haven’t felt like returning to since my initial blitz of the game. Even The Last Spell feels like a puzzle game eventually in spite/because of all its character builds, where I only know one solution (chain lightning snipers go on every map).
On the other hand, stuff like the old Starcraft/Warcraft 3 campaign maps didn’t bug me at all, that was fun. But it was less a grand strategy game, and more a single player linear story that you happened to play through with mobs of dudes instead of a single dude (never did pick up parts 2-3 of Starcraft 2 though), so having to do X then Y then Z is just like any other game.
Into the Breach is pretty much a procedural puzzle generator, yes. I wonder if it’s the only one of its kind.
I don’t think the levels are procedurally generated (but it’s not out yet, so knows about the full game), but you might want to check out Tom Francis’ new game (there’s a demo out now), Tactical Breach Wizards. It’s like a combination of Into The Breach and XCOM: Chimera Squad, and continues his infatuation with defenestrating enemies.
Interesting. I just played the demo for Metal Slug Tactics, and that one’s also got some clear Into The Breach inspiration.
old RTS games could be so painful. I think WC3 had at least 2 maps which were painful to no end and the whole second half of the orc campaign. FFS the Hyjal mission was so bad and the Dalaran mission as well.
In Starcraft 1 the second half of every campaign was just tedious to no end. Okay for Terrans it was just the last two mission but it got earlier with every campaign.
That was handled way better in Starcraft 2. The missions were all fun even on higher difficulties. Never finished the Protoss campaign for that. Still want to know how this ended.
Warcraft 2 and old Command and Conquers got really bad as well. I am happy that those games evolved over the years. But NOD mission 10 and GDI mission 12 are still stuck in my head and they are really bad and the missions get worse.
For Warcraft 2 the breaking point was somewhere close to where you got Paladin/Ogre mages and hat to transport them using ships.
I agree with your assessment about strategy games here. The idea of these kinds of games (and in particular Tactics-style games like this one) is to get to try different strategies to achieve your goal. That’s the whole fun of it, even if lots of RTS games devolve into brute-forcing your way by Zerg-rushing the enemy. For Tactics games in particular, though, where the entire point is to plan things out in advance with your limited starting information about the map and adapt as you go along and the enemy formation and units reveal themselves, having only one solution is irritatingly frustrating.
Make no mistake, I like puzzle games, but if I wanted to play one I would. I’m not in a strategy game to play puzzles.
It’s Wednesday again already?
Don’t think I’ve played Elden Ring since last post, though I’ve definitely got a few dungeons and a big boss left there (stuff in
the Consecrated Snowfieldandthe much hyped Melania, if I didn’t mention). Instead I hopped back on the Exoprimal train since they had the final boss raid open again. Which they apparently not only have multiple small variations on, but also larger variations (with their own smaller variations): this time had a payload escort instead of switches to open doors, with what seemed like a lot fewer big dinos. I think they also decreased the time window on taking out the drones which trigger the field wipes (to the point that it’s literally impossible to fully prevent them, at best you can mitigate the first wave but I don’t think you can fully stop it), and made the numbers much tighter on the back end. Because winning was way harder on this one, even on runs that were doing near a full minute or more faster near the end it would just evaporate under just constant pressure, many runs running out of time during the final push (on more than one occasion with the mcguffin carrier being thrown into the back corner by double triceratops), and one run actually triggering a voice line I’d never heard for not dealing enough damage in the final “you’ve won just finish it off” window because too many people were downed. Real funny hearing the final boss uttering it’s last croaking words and then just getting back up and nope you lose lol.Deep Rock Galactic‘s new season hits this Thurs so I’ll be doing that when it drops.
Last time I played rimworld, I discovered a thing: I was in the middle of an heat wave, and some faction was trying to get me to pay them I don’t remember what, otherwise they would use their satellites to start an heat wave on my town.
Did you know the effects of two simultaneous heat waves cumulate ? I didn’t. It was 80°C (that should be something like 175F), everybody died the instant they went ouside.
Still playing a whole bunch of Inkbound. Difficulty definitely ramped up. Still enjoying it, still not as good as Monster Train.
I also played the demo for Tactical Breach Wizards. It’s from the same dev as Gunpoint and Heat Signature, which I liked a lot, but it’s an xcom-type game this time. Chimera Squad is the best comparison, I think. I’m excited for the full version to come out.
I also played some Heat Signature. Because playing Tactical Breach Wizards reminded me that it was a lot of fun. Using limited resources to pull off heists on spaceships midflight is a really cool premise.
Yo, big fan of Tom Francis here. Also super excited for TBC. Really loved Gunpoint, but Heat Signature is outright one of my favorite indie games out there.
I’m looking forward to TBW too (though I never played Heat Signature, I enjoyed Gunpoint quite a bit).
Since my last check-in here I went on a point and click adventure binge:
Broken Sword 2 Remastered still holds up quite well. It has issues like the back for the time usual you have to talk to someone about an item even if you already see the item as the player but you can not interact because the character has not heard of the item yet. Also the ending felt rushed. Still an enjoyable time.
Broken sword 5 Years later and it still has some of the same issues as part 2. Also the puzzles range from obtuse to way too easy. The story was enjoyable. A bit much backtracking and rail roading at times. Also felt rushed towards the end. And stupid pixel hunting. (2 had that as well) At least there was hotspot highlighting once you found the feature. Also fun.
Primordia is not a bad game just way too tedious at times. The interface is clunky and there is too much backtracking. The voice acting is awesome. The backgrounds are great at times. The sprites range from boring to really great. It has atmosphere. Now everyone together: There is pixel hunting.
Blackwell Legacy, Unbound, Convergence are the first three games in the Blackwell series. For achievements I played them with the commentary track active. At times the commentary is really interesting. In general I like to binge series in quick succession if the games are short enough. It is cool to see developers improve their skills. The first two feel graphically outdated even for the early 2000s. The third one is a huge step up. There is still loads of weird triggers and pixel hunting and backtracking. Interface is painfully clunky and there are no keyboard shortcuts to enter the menu. Also the game just closes on finishing it.
Gat out of Hell I play with a friend just for the heck of it and to get the missing achievements. It is still fun, plays well and is cool to talk on the side while doing stuff.
World of Warcraft Retail is as always my usual brain dead game in the evenings to unwind. Still finding cool stuff previously unknown to me. :D
Broken Age I played back when it came out first but never played the second half. Now I played it through beginning to end. It is fun. The art style has something. Maybe a bit on the easy side and I do not enjoy timing puzzles. Still a good game.
Escape Academy I finished up together with the friend with whom I am playing Gat out of Hell right now. We basically made it into a sort of speed run challenge to us. Because we were hunting the achievements and had to play the same levels over and over again. Made the competitive mode into a coop mode. :)
Fran Bow and Little Miss Fortune did not do it for me. The art is really interesting but the pacing is poor. Also it feels annoying at times. Also I am not a fan of limited save slots.
I think there were a few more games I played. Mostly short and relaxing stuff like Alba.
But have not really found a game that really intrigues me in the last few months. It is just sad that Case of the golden idol and chants of Sennar are the two best games I played this year.
I do like lackluster games with issues but most I played are just somewhat mediocre with redeeming features but nothing that annoys me to no end. I will find something in the future.
A lot of Saints Row 2022. Ridiculous shit like part 3 but with better graphics and the same amount bugs and glitches. But the antagonists are worse.
Almost done with Satisfactory. It’s more or less a waiting game at this point to produce the space elevator parts.
Got in another run of The Old Republic with my Sith Warrior. The plot is coming together a bit more in my head as he is going on a quest to develop the Force powers that he learned he had going through the Bounty Hunter storyline so that he can figure out what he really wants, and he’s working for someone who pretty much gets him to kill any of his agents that have outlived their purpose, so the Warrior is totally prepared for that to happen to him. Again, not as much fun as my previous character but it has its moments.
Also played more Mass Effect. Despite my character here being essentially the previous character from TOR whose catchphrase was basically “I’m not a nice person”, right now she’s more Paragon than Renegade. The more Renegade options here, at least, seem to often be a bit mean unless you’re out in the world dealing with enemies — you can start a conversation with someone, ask them a question, and then say that you don’t care about the answer, which isn’t mean but is instead just stupid — and as my character started with the origin of having her entire colony wiped out by a raid there’s a scene where another survivor — who was taken as a slave — is in the docking bay threatening to kill herself and Shepard is asked to help and convinces her to take the sedative — because she will feel sympathy for someone like that — to get help and that gave her a bunch of Paragon points. I am worried a bit about the split potentially making me miss interesting scenes — like the ending with Saren — but for the most part I really just want to go through this and do things the way that character would do things and see what options I get, so that should be okay.
Wrapped up Yakuza 6, it was a slow starter but the last 10 hours or so of the game was perhaps the finest storytelling I’ve seen in the crime drama genre. Gameplay was more or less copy and paste from the previous two games, which is fine, they found their formula and it’s fairly engaging.
Started Wasteland 3, my first experience with that series. It’s very combat-heavy where I probably prefer story and roleplay focus in RPGs, but the combat system is pretty strong and well balanced – every fight feels like a serious threat that requires strong tactics, but gives good rewards for playing well.
You might not be surprised I’m still (no pun intended) deep into Dave the Diver. I tried, I really tried to play something else, but save for a few demos from the Steam event I just really don’t have the drive to get into another game. This one is consuming my soul. I truly cannot comprehend how I’ve not only not gotten sick of it already, but my playtime sessions are getting progressively longer. The only reason I barely touched it yesterday was that it was my birthday and I spent it at my parents’ home. I’m still glad I didn’t go for the Switch version or my entire life would be spent on it.
I’m gonna do my best to play something else this week, but I don’t make any promises.
Missed the last one, when I was playing Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening on the Switch. I’ve since beaten it; it’s not a particularly difficult game but it was very satisfying. I find 2D zeldas in particular have very enjoyable progression for me; they’re more prone to requiring items to reach large chunks of the world than the 3d ones, where either you can go almost everywhere after the first hour or two or there’s just a series of broken bridges blocking your way. It gives a feel halfway between the 3d zeldas and a good metroidvania, and I kind of miss it in the newer games
Ah, Link’s Awakening, my favorite Zelda that I never actually owned. No spooky dark world to scare me off when I was a kid and the shield actually blocks attacks, unlike Link to the Past. Still have a big fold-out map I borrowed from a friend’s strategy guide along with the game, had to call them up for help getting through one of the later dungeons. Cannot say I was impressed with the remake though, one look at that art style and I noped out. Could have used an excuse to play it again.
I never actually played the original Awakening but from my memories of playing Oracle of Ages/Seasons it seems like the new one has pretty much the same gameplay, except that you can move and attack in eight directions instead of four.
The art style definitely put me off at first too, but Tears of the Kingdom made me want to go back to classic Zelda enough that I eventually held my nose and bought the game. Once I was actually playing it, I found the graphics kind of charming; once you get past how cartoony they are, they really feel like a nostalgic update of the old-school graphics and designs
It’s worth checking out MeccaPrime’s Let’s Play of Link’s Awakening on lparchive. He plays through the original version and demonstrates just how nonlinear the game can be with the right techniques.
Ooh, I’ll have to check that out, thanks!
Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries was on sale, so I bought it for myself and my nephews, and have been playing Co-op with one of my D&D friends. We stumbled across one of the DLC missions, went in undergeared and underleveled with a handful of medium and light mechs, with one or two heavies and things escalated. It was a grueling campaign, constantly outnumbered and outgunned, with a lot of decisions on what to repair, what to sell, and scrounging for pilots and supplies from salvage. Eventually, we came out of it with an Assault Mech and a full lance of Heavies.
I was unaware that this game had co-op. Going to have to take another look, maybe bump it up in the queue if my co-op friend would be interested.