T w e n t y S i d e d
From The Archives:
Ludonarrative Dissonance
What is this silly word, why did some people get so irritated by it, and why did it fall out of use?
Fable II
The plot of this game isn't just dumb, it's actively hostile to the player. This game hates you and thinks you are stupid.
Free Radical
The product of fandom run unchecked, this novel began as a short story and grew into something of a cult hit.
Please Help I Can’t Stop Playing Cities: Skylines
What makes this borderline indie title so much better than the AAA juggernauts that came before?
The Gradient of Plot Holes
Most stories have plot holes. The failure isn't that they exist, it's when you notice them while immersed in the story.
The ascii orcs do look better on this version :D
Man this takes me back to playing Angband, although, I never played it using ASCII characters, neither Dwarf Fortress, I can’t barely tell what I’m doing with clear sprite to begin with.
But I’m sort of interested in Caves of Qud, is it good?
Loading Ready Run is doing Caves of Qud on their Talking Simulator stream for like three weeks or so (one stream is done, two more to go), with the newer modernized UI. I’ve never seen or played it before, but watching it seems to work. Lots of little fiddly character creation options that seemed fun. Cori spent a ton of time sprinting away from things, which made it look more lethal than it turned out to be when Cameron (first time player) went in and fought stuff just fine for a while (until it wasn’t fine). Everyone has passive regeneration (at least that they played) so if you can get away you can heal, but wandering off into the desert unprepared can run you out of water leading to an inevitable death, as one would expect.
Very in-between the simulating exploration of Dwarf Fortress (which I’ve also watched them play a bit of), and the Diablo-eque dungeon clearing with lightly randomized world of Tales of Maj’Eyal (which I’ve played a bunch of). The sprites in Qud are much simpler, better than ACII but not nearly as obviously readable as TOME (which has visible equipment changes on your character and spell explosions and effects and buff auras etc).
Don’t think I’ll pick it up myself, but I will finish watching their series.
The “it’s fine until it isn’t” is why I suck at oldschool roguelikes. Years of more traditional RPGs have generally set my brain in a mode of “if I’m okay with this dungeon in general this stronger creature has to be beatable too” and I end up dying a lot but failing to do what you’re supposed to do, which is learn what is and what isn’t above your challenge rating.
Dorf Fort mentioned!!!!!!
Man, I really hated that damn elven archer. Robbed me blind.
You know how hard it is to get financing to set up a used armor store on the 5th level of a dungeon?