T w e n t y S i d e d
This week I’m still playing Roblox. Hopefully soon I’ll be out of my rut. We’ve just finished my move into my siblings’ place. It’s weird. I guess I played Rimworld recently as well, I haven’t played it in a while.
What are you guys up to?
Borderlands Series
A look at the main Borderlands games. What works, what doesn't, and where the series can go from here.
The Gameplay is the Story
Some advice to game developers on how to stop ruining good stories with bad cutscenes.
Object-Oriented Debate
There are two major schools of thought about how you should write software. Here's what they are and why people argue about it.
Mass Effect Retrospective
A novel-sized analysis of the Mass Effect series that explains where it all went wrong. Spoiler: It was long before the ending.
The Truth About Piracy
What are publishers doing to fight piracy and why is it all wrong?
Played through Cocoon. It’s a cool little puzzle game, quite short and generally easy but the mechanics were fun and the puzzles got interesting near the end. I wish they’d pushed it a little bit farther. Sometimes it’s nice to just be done with a game after 4 hours.
And more Lies of P, of course. Still fun but I’m winding down on it.
Roblox? Is there really anything worth playing on that platform? It feels like the equivalent of the old flash game aggregator sites of the early 2000s, except the games are even crappier and they give begging you to engage in microtransactions.
I can’t argue with some of that. It’s true, microtransactions are an issue. But no one is going to jump for microtransactions on a game with nothing to offer. There’s incentive to make something engaging because if you don’t, you get nothing. If Roblox ever jumps on the ad-revenue market I’m probably going to drop it, but as it is, there’s some surprisingly good games on there. (Even some which don’t even care if you pay)
‘Roblox’ as a idea has a lot of baggage, but I’m basically just playing Garysmod games with more reliable servers. It’s a platform, so it has its highs and lows. Some of the real good games are things I appreciate because they wouldn’t have justification as a stand-alone experience, but can exist on Roblox because they handle all the servers and moderating client-side. It’s in no way well done, but it’s a nice way for a young programmer to experiment without needing to learn marketing and getting a business license.
It’s approachable, for better or worse, and with all of the slog that comes with making something so community driven. There’s some games I just can’t get anywhere else.
I have no particular opinion on Roblox largely because of my ignorance of it, but I do wish people would stop harping on accessibility of creative tools. We went through this with Flash, RPG Maker, to (I think) a lesser extent with Game Maker, Unity… Yes, it does allow people to make a lot of crap and I totally understand if someone is not willing to go through the effort of sifting through it to separate wheat from chaff. There is even some argument to be had for things like, for example, a deluge of poorly made games lowering the visibility of the good ones, but generally I am in favour of stuff that lets people experiment with their creativity.
Final Fantasy 8 is almost done. I named Rinoa “My Word” to go along with the stupid “My Name” joke I made for Squall, not realizing just how much of Disc 3’s dialogue is people ending sentences with Rinoa’s name. It’s been a good time. (“I know I should be listening, but My Word…”)
Tales of Berseria continues. I’m still disappointed in myself for not realizing the character named Medissa was going to be a snake woman.
Slay the Spire continues to kill me and I continue to learn nothing from it.
Chess continues. My schedules lets me play lichess’ King of the Hill tournament every day, so I can track how stupid I am today. I should probably stop doing that.
The thing about Chess, and other such ancient strategy games, is that it’s a very specific sort of intelligence, one that isn’t necessarily needed that much these days. Seeing down the exponentially branching path of possible moves a bajillion steps ahead, which is probably always fairly applicable, but also executing and reading plans though those paths one move at a time. Which back when armies and battlefield information were literally controlled and conveyed through messengers that could only see and move so fast, would have indeed shown who would be the better at “microing” their army.
Nowadays almost all communication is instant unless you deliberately decide for it not to be, especially for civillians, and anything that requires chess-like planning is automated. So, flippant as it may be, I wouldn’t say that being bad at Chess makes you dumb. Pretty sure most people are absolutely terrible at chess actually.
I’m good at chess, but I’m significantly worse on certain days, and I can tell because I’m playing this daily tournament against roughly the same people, with wildly different results. It’s a skill I have, and then a skill I don’t.
I always thought Chess was more of a game of patience than one of intelligence. You certainly need smarts, but you’re more likely to fail at it if you’re impatient.
Well, I played through A Short Hike. Cute little short exploration game about climbing a mountain. Finished the main quest and I nearly every side quest. The only thing really left is to gather some collectibles and achievements, but I think I’m done for now. It’s fun and all, but I don’t want to ruin the experience with what’s basically grinding.
Now I’m playing through Trek to Yomi. This game’s presentation is absolutely gorgeous. It nearly perfectly evokes old samurai films, especially in the cutscenes. The gameplay, on the other hand, is a bit of a problem. There’s some very light exploration here and there, but the game is mostly linear, which is fine, but the game tantalizes you with many doors and only lets you open a handful of them. Some contextual actions allow you to dispatch enemies in a certain way in a few areas, but it’s very situational and not something you can plan for. This would all be perfectly ignorable, though, if it wasn’t for one major issue: the combat. I really wasn’t feeling it, thinking it was imprecise, grindy and buggy. I thought it might have been my imagination, but looking at the Steam reviews it seems to be a common issue. Here’s hoping it doesn’t get much worse, because it sours what would otherwise be an amazing experience.
I had to pause the other games I was playing due to a bunch of different factors. Probably going to retake them next week.
Still playing Sunless Sea. I’ve visited most of the locations in the zee, and I’m working my way down the Fulgent Impeller questline, but it feels like there’s going to be a bit of a grind between the early game and the late game. Like, at a certain point I’m going to need to buy a bigger ship, and all of the options are ridiculously expensive (the Frigate literally costs more than a mansion), and also slower than the starting ship. Which is not great when the game is mostly about efficient travel, with cargo runs only being profitable in a few select cases.
I managed to get in another session of The Old Republic, and my Bounty Hunter is now in the endgame (the last three planets). I plan on hopping over to the Republic and playing a Consular next. I always have a really hard time coming up with characters for playing as a Trooper, but I will need to at some point to clear all the class stories off the board and create diaries for all of them, which is my current (long-term) plan.
I also started playing Dragon Age: Awakening. My plan is to try to get through that and Witch Hunt by the end of November, and then do a final Inquisition run during my December vacation. Then will come the New Year and a new game series to work through (likely the Gold Box D&D games).
My trooper’s name is A’ba (a super trooper, if you will)
I have a long-standing tradition of taking characters from popular culture works and using them as characters in games, going back to KotOR where I started with Corran Horn from Legends. In TOR, I started with a Jedi Knight based on Corran, but did have two original characters that I played through (a Sith Warrior and an Imperial Agent, using the same character as a Smuggler later). My current Bounty Hunter is based on Sisko from DS9, and my previous one was based on Jag Fell from Legends. My first Consular was based on Galen from Crusade (the B5 spin-off) and my latest one was based on Captain Trunk from Sledge Hammer! (and that was the first diary that I actually did and finished on my blog, I think). I’ve done a Consular as Sinclair and a Smuggler as Garibaldi from B5. I can’t remember who my Trooper turned out to be the first time (Wolverine, maybe?). But in general I can come up with characters for all the classes easily enough EXCEPT for Trooper, which not coincidentally is the class that I care least about playing through.
I tend to play characters in an unoriginal or social chameleon way, letting the game authors tell me who I am from one minute to the next rather than bringing in something extra of my own. (Dark Brotherhood in my quest log? Well, I didn’t think I was evil, but I guess I am now, for now …)
However, SW:TOR has one of the few exceptions: there’s an NPC during the Inquisitor storyline who is presented as way too kind to survive the Sith training. I tried my best to make my later Consular identical to her, as a sort of “alternate universe” “what might have been” if her environment had tapped power from good instead of evil.
I love and can completely relate to how you’re mapping out time for role-playing games over the coming months. :P Given how long some RPGs are, especially the first Dragon Age, it’s genuinely tricky to figure out whether you have the time to commit sometimes. I think my full playthrough of Dragon Age: Origins, Awakening and the other, smaller pieces of DLC is still my longest ever at close to 100 hours, and one of my favourite role-playing experiences. I’ve still never played the third entry, though: would you recommend Inquisition?
It’s part of a big accomplishments kick that I’ve been doing for the past few years, where I look at my lists and my stacks of things that I’ve wanted to get through — sometimes for years — and start figuring out how to do them. So far, the Dragon Age replays are working out pretty well, which is the first big one for video games on the latest list.
Persona 5 Royal was my longest at 100 hours (and was technically replay since I played the original) but I think that Persona 3 was my favourite: it took me 40 hours to play the first time, but the instant I was done I replayed it to get more S-links, which spawned my long-standing love of that series.
It’s hard to say. My final thoughts on the game are here, and my final comment was that if I never played it again it would be too soon (which makes it ironic that I’m planning on replaying it) but the main issues I had with it was that it wasn’t very casual-friendly, I didn’t really care for the open-world model that it moved to, and that while the plot and characters were serviceable the game was too long — because of the open world and my own fear of not having enough XP to do the next part — but if you like more open-world games at least some of that would go away. It’s not as epic in my opinion as DAO and lacks DA2’s simple and addictive gameplay, but it isn’t terrible. It just goes on too long if you aren’t really into it, and I wasn’t.
Haha, again, very relatable — I keep a relatively concise list of games, books and movies/series that I’d like to get to at any given moment. And on the flipside, it’s fun to reflect on the media and art I’ve experienced and enjoyed at the end of a year.
It’s interesting that your favourite role-playing time was with Persona 3 — a good reminder that length isn’t the determining factor for an RPG’s quality or depth, which is something I wish more of games media would wrap its head around. On that note, your gripes with Inquisition remind me a lot of Noah Gerrvais’s video essay on it. He similarly noted that the open world leads to unnecessary padding that makes the game excessively long without adding much substance. Which is exactly what I’m afraid of subjecting myself to. :p
Bouncing back and forth between Cook, Serve, Delicious! 3 and Loop Hero. Both are in the same spot for me: light games that I am enjoying in a somewhat addictive way, but wish that there was a little more visible path to progression.
CSD, a typing-based restaurant game, is a bit grindy because there was apparently very little programming friction in the way of taking the basic structure of a level, switching up the requirements for the menu you cook slightly, and then simply making 400 more levels that way. They do escalate in difficulty, but not in a particularly meaningful or satisfying way. Having fun with it, but I’ll be damned if I spend all of October playing a cooking game so after a week of solely focusing on it, I’m keeping it as a sidebar/warmup/closer for my gaming days.
Loop Hero is a bit grindy because grinding seems to be a core part of its design ethos, which is fine if you know that’s what you’re signing up for. It’s a roguelite with the unique conceit that you’re not fighting monsters yourself, you’re simply building the dungeon around the adventurer to ensure his success. Add enemy spawnpoints for XP, add friendly villages for quests and healing, and just watch the little guy go. Very intriguing and addicting premise, but when you get to the end of your first 20-30 minute run and it goes “nice! You got 3 rock and 4 wood, only need 15 more of each to build a +1 potion upgrade” it’s a bit of an “oh.” moment. There are a lot of carrots dangling to get you to keep going, but the steps you take towards them are absolutely glacial in pace. Nevertheless, the thought of playing more of the game excites me as I sit here at work, and it’s a time eater in the same “one more turn” way that many good roguelikes are.
Hmm. I don’t remember Loop Hero feeling that grindy, more like “what mysterious thing do I have to do to unlock these remaining cards?”. But then, I blitzed down a ton of the game at once, and went at it pretty hardcore- in the sense that a friend who played it did so as a “background noise” sort of game and had barely even beat the first boss, if that, where I’m pretty sure I was making it to the boss on just about every run from the beginning. There are also a lot of combo things to build as you’re filling out your map, the difference between full optimization and no optimization being fairly immense.
Coincidentally, I too got back into RimWorld recently after not playing for a few months. Did my usual “spend hours poring over mods to get the ‘perfect’ mod list, and then a few more hours finding a perfect spot and building an interesting ideoligion”, and I’ve got a start I’m relatively invested in, for now at least.
I finished Metro: Exodus the other night, and have mixed feelings. Each “Metro” game adds new features and tries new things that are really ahead of what other studios are doing, but also introduces new shortcomings that stop me from unequivocally loving it. In this case, the gorgeously atmospheric mini-sandbox levels offer unprecedented immersion, player agency and genuine discovery that other open-world games can really take notes from. The quiet moments with the crew and Anna on the train between these sandbox levels depict human relationships in an empathetic and honest way that so many big-budget games still fail to do. On the other hand, the different sandbox vignettes of the story feel thematically underdeveloped and disconnected. Artyom’s anxiety disorder that prevents him from speaking with other characters adds a layer of uncanny disconnect to the train segments. And the English translation and voice acting remain as unconvincing as ever. Still, I would definitely recommend this game to anyone that’s into first-person shooters. The passion of the developers shines through in every aspect, and the good bits really don’t have any equivalents.
I’ve also been jamming through Quake: Enhanced Edition in shorter game sessions over the last few weeks, after having played it for the first time four or so years ago, and am again struck by how solid and engaging its core gameplay loop is, not to mention its excellent level design, which always keeps the pace up by nudging you in the right direction.
Between normal work and a bunch of extra courses I’m taking in the evenings, I’m looking for another game that lends itself to shorter bursts. Maybe I’ll finally dive into Hades, and leave Elden Ring until the December holiday.
For the record I have not played Exodus but I have watched a friend go through it on stream and it felt a bit like it abandoned the essential thing that defined the game, by which I mean the titular metro, in favour of going through a series of post-apo vignettes: here’s a
tech hating cult, here’s amad maxy desert with a warlord of some kindhere’scannibals who also happen to be the dehumanised government/armywhich was overall a trade I’m not sure paid off. Then again like I said I haven’t actually played it so maybe getting immersed in the game helps lift it a lot.Of my issues with the game, the change in setting isn’t really among them. I would have been perfectly happy for 4A to never make a third Metro game, but seeing as they did, I think the new settings were a good call. I found the move to the surface quite impactful precisely because of how sharply it contrasts with your time in the metro in the first two games. The three major settings are also all visually stunning and immersive in their own right. More than the metro itself, I felt the absence of the paranormal undercurrent. Without spoiling too much, that element does return during the final chapter of the game, and feels very disconnected from the preceding chapters. I think they could have still embraced the new settings, but better connected them to the series’ defining tone by weaving the paranormal vibe throughout them more purposefully. In any event, I’d say it’s definitely worth playing; it has a lot of passion behind it and evocative ideas, even if they don’t always fit together perfectly.
I startetGirl Genius: Adventures in Castle Heterodyne. A nice old-Zelda-esque game with a lot of GG atmosphere. Then I bought the Airbourne Expansion for Trailmakers. Finally I can create somewhat good flying vehicles. And the usual Genshin Impact – I finally caught up to the current storyline and area. The new underwater movement in Fontaine is great, the story not as good as Sumuru.
I finally finished Baldur’s Gate 3, after almost 100 hours of playing. And they were 100 hours of mostly original, good content!
The ending (as in, the ending scenes after the final boss) was slightly disappointing compared to the rest of the game, but I understand that they couldn’t create poignant ending sequences that also accounted for the myriad choices you could make on the way. I guess you should consider the end of each companion quest as part of the “ending”.
Now I wanted to replay Cyberpunk 2077, but I want to upgrade my graphic card first. I played the game when it had just came out and I liked it quite a lot, I’m looking forward to replaying it now that a lot of its weakest gameplay decisions were apparently improved.
While I’m waiting for that card upgrade, I just started Sea of Stars. The gameplay is fun and the art, music and atmosphere are top notch, but for now the story is a bit too slow for my tastes. Let’s see if that improves after I get out of Tutorial Island.
Oh buddy oh pal get through the tutorial and you are in for a treat, a head pat, and belly rub. The game def starts slow but snowballs into an odyssey. I remember thinking the same when I started, now at the endgame im looking fondly at the simple beginning.
Holy guac batman I never knew there was a website too, quite literally discovered this because of rediscovering the youtube channel a few days ago. Well now better than ever to jump in.
I’ve been synaptically rewired and addicted to
Sea of Stars. I am Destiny 2-addict, CoD/ FPS-kid, zoomer who never could stomach turn based games (exception of pokemon when I was still in grade school), but Sea of Stars’ excellent qol and engaging battle mechanics kept me glued to the screen. Also, it being a prequel to my favorite 2D Platformer The Messenger, makes all the story n lore that much richer. If anyone needs a palette cleanser, wants a layered and always engaging turn based battle system, a wholesome story that knows its place, or just enjoys gorgeous pixel art (with realtime day/night cycle n shadows) this game will keep you stuffed for days (maybe weeks?). Sea of Stars feels like the culmination of every turn based jrpg, and Sabotage studios double jumping up their game to roll the finest pixel art blunt for everyone to enjoy get zooted with. I’m ~30 hours in and reached the final end game, still some loose ends to snip and few of the combo skills to unlock but I feel very compelled to platinum the game. Even with 2023 being packed with so many bangers, Sea of Stars is the game I’m bruising my knees for.
I might bump Sea of Stars up the list based on that recommendation. Also, though it’s not necessarily my place to do so, welcome to the site.
I’m traveling so Metroid Prime Trilogy is on hold. Same for fighting games, except messing around with single player stuff a bit. I don’t want to inflict shitty WiFi on people!
I’ve been playing Magic Arena again. Drafting the new set is fun, and I’m trying to build standard decks around Third Path Iconoclast.
I was on sick leave this week which means that, depending on just how sick I am, I either get a bunch extra gaming time or I am in no condition to play. This was more of the latter case plus even when I did manage to sit down to the PC I have found myself easily distracted and mostly played things in short bursts or doing non-gaming stuff.
Having said that I have played a little bit more BG3. I’m more than 70 hours in and I am finally ready to move on to Moonrise Towers, which I am led to believe is act 2 proper, though I have done pretty much everything humanly possible up to this point and as I was told part of that is effectively “Act 1.5”. There is a part of me that hopes things will be a bit more streamlined further down the line, and there is a part of me that wishes this goes on because the game is just excellent.
I do think my warlock gnome may be straight for best girl Karlach though. I was initially charmed by Gale because he seemed to be a wizard (that I’ve respecced into a rogue for reasons) with a bard’s flair but the constant pinining (spoilers for parts of Gale’s personal arc)
for his ex, even if she is a goddess, and then going all “yes, I’mma blow myself up for her to prove I was worthy of forgiveness!” (for something that I’m still a bit confused is considered such a major trespass though I may still be missing some context)is decidely unsexy.Looking for a bit of filler I’ve also started Assassin’s Creed:Origins. I’m not that far in so I’m going to reserve longer comments for later but, despite the changes to gameplay, my quintessential stance remains similar to most of the series: plays nice and tickles the reward centers of the brain good but almost every singular bit of writing is awful. Like, certain dialogues must have been written by either aliens or at least someone who has never participated in human conversation and it feels like some of the in game concepts have only been very loosely thought through or are based on extremely vague descriptions of existing game world phenomena. I’m not yet ready to hold that latter part against the game because this is literally the titular Origins so maybe some of that will be at least lampshaded as part of the continuity rather than a blatant misunderstanding or disregard of it.