What VIDEO GAME(s) have you been playing?

This obviously isn't me but man this rhythm game is so far beyond the pale

I spent the weekend resisting the urge not to buy new games on Steam, until I finish some old ones. Weekend was eaten up between Payday 2, Payday: The Heist, and Raid: World War II. Finally, I got a bug up my butt, and remembered an old, vintage game (2006) called Instinct, that I had played 2/3rd of the game, but didn't finish it due to hardware limitations at the time. Now, nearly 16 years later, I loaded it up and finished it. All the while, Webroot and was yelling at me about MALWARE (StarForce Copy Protection) for loading it up. After all that time, it was NOT worth the wait.

The game, for lack of a better comparison, is a poor man's attempt at making a Half Life clone. It plays like it, no run button, puzzles slightly simpler than HL, In Media Res scenes (that sometimes break immersion due to glitches). To their credit, the Russian devs did make a nice threading script between three characters and their each separate viewpoints when entering a complex overrun by a virus, instead of aliums. And, the atmospheric music and battle music was top notch. Unfortunately, I could not find the audio tracks. So, once I finished it, I uninstalled it. Sent Webroot after the copy protection and promptly threw the game in the garbage. I know no one else would go through that BS, and I only paid like $6 for it anyway at Big Lots (back when they USED to have software).

I've been doing a hotseat cities skylines game where my spouse and I tradeoff sessions building the same city. It's a very funny experience. My wife is much better at quickly building up the city for $$$ and then spending a ton of time on little features she's interested in. Then I come in and I'm like "why is this city filled with 2 lane roads that 6 sessions down the road are going to be intractable messes?" and I expand the roadways, put in public transit, etc. But I also waste immense amounts of money and barely expand our population at all.

Moving to a new country is a great opportunity to play lots of video games:

Slay the Spire: After a year or two of owning this one, I really got into it in the last year or so. That doesn't mean I'm any good at it; I struggle to get any clears at all. This last week I resolved to get really good at it, so I watched some Jorbs videos on the Iron Clad, and kept doing run after run until I finally got a clear with him. I broke through yesterday, which means that between my laptop and the Switch, I have clears with the three main characters. I still have something of a brain cloud with this game, but it sure is addictive.

Stardew Valley - Speaking of games that I've bought twice, I rebought this one to be able to play on my laptop because apparently having a second Switch makes it way harder to play something you downloaded. Anyway, this is a game that is really soothing in a time of transition. You can totally optimize the game and do everything really efficiently, but you don't need to. You can just putter around and do what you like. There's something soothing about having an ideal place to move to, make friends, and just generally get settled.

Animal Crossing: New Horizon - I played this one a lot early on, after a year or so of not touching it. I started a new island on my Switch Lite, and it was the right thing to have for the flight over. That said, I think I'm starting to hit a wall with this game. After the initial settling of the island, it starts to feel really grindy for me, and I don't like the subtle pressure to check in every day. Still it's in the rotation I'd say.

Hades - The third and final game that I bought a second time on my laptop, this time mostly to enable cross-saves with Steam, and therefore my second Switch. Not much else for me to say on this one, I can pick it up and do another run pretty much anytime. I've played a little on my laptop, but the mouse-and-keyboard controls feel really weird after 150 hours on the Switch. Still, nice to have it whenever and wherever I like.

Bastion - On the Lunar New Year sale on Steam, I went all in on every Supergiant title, based totally on my obsession with Hades. I have actually had Bastion in my Steam library for years, so before going through Transistor or Pyre I'm doing this one. I like it so far, though its pleasures are more atmospheric and narrative. That's fine, I can dig a 5-10 hour game that may be a touch shallow if it gives nice feelings in the process. It's certainly a lovely game, and there's a nice loop to the hack-and-slash gameplay. It's no Hades, but I can see why people took notice of Supergiant way back in 2011.

The recent talk of Talisman reminded me that I had the digital version on Steam, along with a couple of expansions. There is a steam sale currently, so I picked up The Dungeon, The City, and The Sacred Pools. The dungeon seems really cool! I have not been to the City yet but the AI was stomping around in it.

Been playing lots of digital Talisman. The computer AI is a real dick. I suspect their AI is geared towards fucking with you, the human, as often as possible over choosing an AI opponent, even when one of them is clearly winning. Regardless, it's a lot of fun. And moves so much faster than the real thing, of course.

On a whim, I picked up the old, OLD, classic F.E.A.R. on gog.com for $1.49. It comes with both expansions, neither of which I ever played. This game is SO cool, and holds up. However, it is challenging. You have to use medkits to heal, and if you will recall, it was renowned in the day for its enemy AI routines. They are still worthy of mention, as they will flank you and beat your ass. This game deserves a modern remake.

I remember all the creepy stuff from F.E.A.R. being mostly included in the demo. I don't recall anything noteworthy about the gameplay itself but the endgame is a masterpiece of video game finales. Without wanting to spoil anything (about a decades-old FPS), they nail the feeling of desperately running for your life.

EDIT: That AI. Man, there is a sequence where a murderbot chases you through a dilapidated house while everything explodes into splinters around you. So fun. SO difficult.

san il defanso wrote: Bastion - On the Lunar New Year sale on Steam, I went all in on every Supergiant title, based totally on my obsession with Hades. I have actually had Bastion in my Steam library for years, so before going through Transistor or Pyre I'm doing this one. I like it so far, though its pleasures are more atmospheric and narrative. That's fine, I can dig a 5-10 hour game that may be a touch shallow if it gives nice feelings in the process. It's certainly a lovely game, and there's a nice loop to the hack-and-slash gameplay. It's no Hades, but I can see why people took notice of Supergiant way back in 2011.

Although I haven't had a chance to play Hades yet, Bastion is one my very favorite videogames. The design and controls are airtight, the music, narration, and visuals are all par excellence, and the difficulty feels perfectly calibrated. I own like four titles on Steam because I've been gaming on a laptop for the better part of a decade; Bastion is the only one at 100% completion.

What's your favorite loadout? I preferred the pike and the shotgun, although all of the weapons are fun. The toughest special challenges/achievements I was probably using some version of Fang Repeater / Mortar cheese. I thought the weapon-specific side challenges were particularly well-done. Everything in the game is just so well-considered. Like Cate Blanchett, or an egg... it's a perfectly formed thing.

Cole Wehrle and (?) Leder were recently discussing their love for TITAN. It inspired me to finally download TITAN HD for my underused tablet. Holy, what a great-looking implementation!

I haven't played for a couple of years so I was super rusty. I was getting my ass kicked by the two bots but was able to recruit into Colossi. One bot was eliminated so it was down to the two of us. After finally making some gains and finally gaining TITAN Teleportation, I went up against its 12 power Titan, 2 Warlocks, 3 Cyclops and 1 Gorgon (it clearly shat the bed on making a strong stack), with my 10 Titan, 4 Colossi, 1 Giant and 1 Angel. Its stack was destroyed in 2 turns.

Sweet Baal, I miss playing this in person.

I didn't know Titan HD was stilla vailable!

I played Portal for the second time. It was a lot of fun though I didn't love it as much as I did the first time because I already knew the solution to the puzzles. I'm not sure if I still think it's one of the best games ever made, but it's a lot of fun and I enjoyed it.

Virabhadra wrote:

san il defanso wrote: Bastion - On the Lunar New Year sale on Steam, I went all in on every Supergiant title, based totally on my obsession with Hades. I have actually had Bastion in my Steam library for years, so before going through Transistor or Pyre I'm doing this one. I like it so far, though its pleasures are more atmospheric and narrative. That's fine, I can dig a 5-10 hour game that may be a touch shallow if it gives nice feelings in the process. It's certainly a lovely game, and there's a nice loop to the hack-and-slash gameplay. It's no Hades, but I can see why people took notice of Supergiant way back in 2011.

Although I haven't had a chance to play Hades yet, Bastion is one my very favorite videogames. The design and controls are airtight, the music, narration, and visuals are all par excellence, and the difficulty feels perfectly calibrated. I own like four titles on Steam because I've been gaming on a laptop for the better part of a decade; Bastion is the only one at 100% completion.

What's your favorite loadout? I preferred the pike and the shotgun, although all of the weapons are fun. The toughest special challenges/achievements I was probably using some version of Fang Repeater / Mortar cheese. I thought the weapon-specific side challenges were particularly well-done. Everything in the game is just so well-considered. Like Cate Blanchett, or an egg... it's a perfectly formed thing.

The narrative in Bastion is much more obtuse than that in Hades, which foregrounds its characters with lots and lots of spoken dialog. So I think I felt like the story was keeping me at arm's length until right about now, around 4 hours in. I like how the game lets you play with load outs, like you said. I think my favorite so far has been the Dueling Pistols and the Sword, though I just got the Fire Bellows and enjoy those a lot. I've also got some love for the Carbine, since its range is so great. But I reserve the right the shift my opinion later on.

I'm being recruited to play Space Empires IV. I've never played. Anyone here want to join?

I think I am done with DEAD CELLS. I beat it on the easiest level but just keep beating my head against the final boss on the next difficulty level (“1 boss cell”). I don’t know if it’s a precision thing (I play touch controls on iPad) or if I’m just not good at video games any more. Strangely, the difficulty increases on the mini-bosses on this level feels like a much more natural ramp-up. Like yes, they’re a little harder, but beatable with good strategy. Then I get to the final boss and just get demolished almost immediately. Repeat for several dozen tries.

I got BASTION for iPad (the first level is free, also touch controls) and it looks okay. I’ll probably pay to unlock the full game.

I was intending on doing all the boss cells in Dead Cells, since there are new levels/bosses at the higher levels, but I had a similar experience. I was on the second boss cell and it just wasn’t fun so I stopped playing.

I have been trudging through Disco Elysium. I've supposedly given it 5 hours over the past 10 days, but I don't feel like I have done anything. Enough game time has passed for it to be midnight in the game. I suppose I am looking at it as a modern version of some Sierra Game like Police Quest, only with no puzzles and few decisions. It doesn't help that I currently despise my character, though having someone over the police radio making fun of me losing my firearm gave me a chuckle.