hybridial

But Dark Souls is easy a lot of the time. Least I thought so. Honestly I don't think the difficulty is what you're referring to but Dark Souls intentional lack of transparency; and the gameplay just being what it is, requiring patience, observation and rote repetition of effective strategies. And that is just not my idea of fun; or challenge frankly, but obviously it seems to be a lot of people's, because they seem to equate this with the game being a challenge, and that is part of its mystique. But does this lead to the fanbase being toxic? I think as I said before, the marketing didn't really help with that; somewhat encouraging a sense of vanity around beating the game that isn't particularly warranted or constructive.

But you said it yourself, that's a setting, an option. It's not the only way to play, it's not even the default way to play. Because their obnoxious, because they don't know you, because they want to enforce a value on you you don't share. And to be honest this is the only thing the OP really sought to talk about. To me it's not much different from the Keyboard and mouse crowd. After going through a lot of experiences with for health and enjoyment reasons of seeking and asking about support in older games, asking developers to include controller support in games in development, and believe me, I know where the practical limitations of controller support are, I've never been unrealistic about it. And yet... well I went past my limit with the KB&M elitists long ago and I don't believe they deserve to be acknowledged as human beings. They've invoked visceral feelings of psychopathy in me because constant, sociopathic repetition of such toxic behaviour will grind anyone down to that point. And yeah, I kinda realise that the topic is just about people being toxic and not about game design or how people play games. Those people do not give a shit about the person they are talking to actually getting better, that's not what motivates their behaviour. They wouldn't behave that way if it did. You are giving them way too much credit because as someone who's main hobby is writing, and I genuinely want to be good at it, what do you think is my response to anybody who's only input on my work is "this sucks, git gud." Yeah, it's not fucking very helpful. The OP is not talking about encouraging or productive behaviour.

It's true, it's just at the time, consoles were still new, game design for home retail was in it's infancy, and so the lives system was conceived because it was *similar* to the arcades. The fact of the matter is lives fell by the wayside for a reason, and today, even intentionally retro designed games generally don't utilise lives and continues in the same manner. Even say, Blazing Chrome, Contra clone extraodinaire, saves your progress between levels. It does operate on continues and lives within levels, but even that game has no actual game over, which I define as a game ripping all progress from you, and it's one of the most stringent modern takes on a classic 8bit/16 bit series. And honestly if your game isn't going to have Game Over(absolutely the right decision), it ultimately questions the point of having lives at all.

No, the lives mechanic always sucked and always needed to go. It's nothing more than an archaic equivalent to arcade games demanding hard cash but limiting someone's playtime with a game and forcing to start over after x tries never made any sense in game design outside of arcades and at the end of the day, that was pretty aggressive monetisation, only really justified by the expensive tech involved. Outside of that context it never did and it only ever denigrated games that could have been so much better with out, that is going to be my controversial statement for the thread :P As a choice, an optional way to play, go nuts, but that's a different matter.

I honestly do blame From's marketing for fostering this attitude and it sucks. The really dumb thing about this is the Souls games aren't even consistently very hard. They have their moments, but in actuality the difficulty of them judging from playing 1 and 2 is extremely uneven, often offering no challenge at all as often as they do. I did not find them much fun or satisfying to finish partly because of this. I respected the exploration element but not the combat element. It was just tedious most of the time. If someone says the game wasn't fun for them, chances are that is exactly the case because they are not some perfect product that does no wrong. The difficulty has nothing to do with it. But ultimately it's about fun, it's about what someone looks for in a game, there are games that were hard that I enjoyed because of the gameplay. The fun I had was the reason I played, not the challenge. Given I play with a controller, I don't play Blood on a very high difficulty. I tried it once, I beat the first level... gave up pretty fast on the second. Wouldn't recommend it. Doom is often an interesting case. I beat Doom 1 and 2 on Ultraviolence, they're not that difficult but I felt the game experience was worse than Hurt Me Plenty, it's a tad more obnoxious to play. Getting into most other wads the difficulty shoots up so I wouldn't even bother with UV on the likes of Plutonia. I finished TNT Revilution, Back to Saturn X E1 and No End in Sight on Hurt Me Plenty. I finished Plutonia 2 on Not Too Rough. My experience of that told me I would not enjoy going any higher on that one in particular. Ironically most of the more reasonable maps I liked more were in the second half. Well... admittedly that might be a bit true of Plutonia itself. But my point is... it's best to find a comfort zone. If the game doesn't offer it, then it's fair to criticise it depending on the specifics, but it's also rarely worth bashing your head against it.

Got a ticket to go see them and Ne Obliviscaris in May.

Freedoom Phase 1, I'm on the secret level of episode 2 now. I like it overall, though the levels are maybe a little long and obtuse at times. Very detailed and pretty though, but essentially it's more Doom only not quite and free. Hard to complain. I'm also primarily using the Doom Retro source port now and with the addition of full controller support it meets all my requirements. I'll be using it a strong alternative if not replacement to GZdoom for vanilla style maps (which is what I like in the end)

A 1975 Giallo called Strip Nude For Your Killer, before that was 1972's All the Colours of the Dark. Both starred Edwige Fenech. I've seen her previously in The Case of the Bloody Iris and The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh. The latter three are all different from the first in that she very much is in the central role and they all make use of her stage presence. She has the most expressive eyes, and she does illicit sympathy above the norm I think because of it. Colours of the Dark overall was pretty good, the reveal of the mystery going on was kind of weak but the movie itself was psychological and visual in satisfying ways. There's some interesting direction. Strip Nude For Your Killer is what happens when the premise is decent but the film making is just not there, and the sleaze goes too far bordering on gross at points. I think contrary to what some might assume, I believe from what I've seen that most Giallo films do like to be sleazy but most of them don't go too far with it; to imply more than they show. This one, ugh, bit uncomfortable. I will say despite the title there was no connection between the killer and the sleaze scenes, they literally had nothing to do with one another. The more famous of these films mostly are because of inventive direction, particularly for making the murder sequences memorable. It was mostly absent in this movie.

On the subject of immersive first person cut scenes, Breakdown, that weird experimental game Namco made exclusively for the Xbox to this day did a better job of that than any other game so far. It still had some that were kinda just stand there and listen a yapping NPC but even those, the NPC's movements and actions whilst they were talking were more natural. But, ultimately they realised to make that kind of thing work, it had to not just exist for exposition dumps. So a lot of them were proper cut scenes in the sense things happen to you you cannot stop or control, and they tried to do a lot of visceral exciting things; but the cinematics were backed up by a fairly interesting game. Difficult and weird gunplay but it's focus was melee and that stuff was solid. The plot was really just Terminator 2 only weird punch happy aliens instead of machines, but well... it had a plot. I'm still not convinced Half Life 2 had one. But it is the game I would point to as a comparison to say Half Life 2's story presentation wasn't impressive, not even at the time because Breakdown literally came out before it. It was also a 2004 game but made it's Japanese debut early in the year. It was still out everywhere else by June. For gameplay it had janky parts and it definitely wasn't a game for everybody, but I think to this day it's cinematic element was impressive and much more so than other games released at the time.

Would be kinda repeating a lot of stuff here but, like everyone else is to so why not, but I'll try and provide some more insight into my thoughts. Even though there's almost no reason for me to even consider the question. Doom Eternal wins by default. It wouldn't even be a contest even if I thought Doom Eternal wasn't an ideal sequel to Doom 2016, but I think it is a resoundingly better game than that one. It's not one I'd really feel much like going back to, but I think that's just true of how contemporary games are designed for me. I think the DLC sucks, and just isn't really worth bothering with but that is a different thing altogether. Halo has no worth to me. If I was ever into the multiplayer, maybe I would get more from it but I'm not so, it has to be the solo campaign stuff. And I've had this realisation that I might shit on Half Life 1 and 2 all the time, but you know what, I played those games. I finished them. I think I've tried Halo at three different points of my life, and my only conclusion is the entire series is an insomnia cure. That what I played wasn't even worth the relatively short time I played. And hell, even when I was at the most curious for trying retro FPS games, the Marathon games did nothing to hold my attention. I watched Mandalore's video on those games, and so I got from that that there is like a major sci-fi novel written into them, but then why not just fucking write a novel. I guess that became more the case later because I know there are Halo novels. But essentially, there's playing something and I did not like it, and there is trying to play something and concluding that I cannot get anything from it. That's Halo. I guess my one last comment would be on Half Life 2. The first game is definitely better. @TheMagicMushroomMan pretty much says everything I would say on HL2, other than for some reason he tries to replay it still. Why even bother?

Okay so I shifted my focus entirely over to Triangle Strategy. I already finished a run, using split save files to finish the three normal ending routes. I'm neck deep into New Game + to get the Golden Route, and I absolutely adore this game. It's brilliant, and it's the best JRPG type of game I have played in years, maybe since Suikoden V, and the game has a lot in common with Suikoden despite the different subgenres of gameplay. It probably also wins as the best Squaresoft/Square Enix game I've ever played but it doesn't have much competition for that.

Write more Read more Swim more Visit People more Pretty much all covered there.

Oh yeah that graph was complete nonsense for me, with "co-op campaign" being the major one and I don't even know where it's getting it from. I certainly never played anything online the whole damn year because I just don't do that. I guess Solasta technically has that now but if this shit made sense the graph would be stronger on the Dungeons and Dragons Label at the top.

I am oh so glad when I see this stated, because I hated that bullshit. Doom 2016 was dragged down so much it it's not even funny. Portal is fine... it's well established I think Half Life is the most boring thing ever made (well, Halo competes, hence staying out of that other thread) but that's one of the things that I think doesn't belong in any action game under basically any circumstances. Had Half Life been a different type of game, something more adventure based I think it's approach would make sense to me, but as an FPS, no, just no on any level. You're not doing any service to the gameplay itself in terms of pacing and whatnot, and it's just not a particularly good way to tell any kind of story.

What I mean has nothing to do with voice acting. I didn't take this as having anything to do with actual voice acting but rather how much the character is involved in dialogue in the game. Silent Protagonist might not be the term for what I'm getting at though, but that said I'm not really sure what the term means when I actually think about it. Are they silent if they only ever speak in text? I guess if you put a hard line on it that it's a character that never speaks ever then what I'm talking about is something different but probably the most interesting approach for me.

To be honest this doesn't take into account the time I spent on Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 this year which were gog installs, nor Doom 1 or 2 which I just play in portable installations with GZDoom. I did a lot more time on those things I think than what is listed here.

I have this in the background a lot when I read

I have no preference because both can work and depend pretty much on the intent of the game. What I think is more interesting to talk about is their uses in story driven games with choices. I think games like Fallout, like Baldur's Gate, Shadowrun, Suikoden have silent protagonists because the only time they ever say anything is by a dialogue prompt. This is a very different approach to making a protagonist who converses in normal dialogue all the time. And I think it's very interesting and I tend to enjoy games that do it.

I feel like I should say something and I don't really know what to say because I threw my hands up and walked away from current day anime years ago. There is a lot to unpack about why it's happened, really. But I guess I'll side step that and just kinda focus on a couple of things. I was into DBZ a little in my early teens. I'll give myself a pass on that because young but I fairly quickly wanted more from storytelling after that. Which is why I avoided the big name shonens like the plague because thematically they are too simplistic and one dimensional. Not to mention the number of episodes; it's a giant mass of bland, colourless food made for constant and pointless consumption. Fullmetal Alchemist is one that I'm not sure if it's considered shonen or not but I say not because it's different, it's actually good and I so wish more anime took notes from it. Have some ambition and structure goddamnit. It applies just to certain types of anime but I generally don't like how most of them avoid a relatable setting. This applies in a lot of ways, it still applies to fantasy settings, because what I am getting is the world building aspect feeling relatable in a human way. Grittiness is one aspect of this but not the only one. The anime/manga that I've generally liked over the years did better with this than most, and it is my favourite thing about the Devilman Lady anime. It's completely tied to a very realistic late 90s Tokyo that also makes a conscious choice to focus on the mundane urban realities of both how it looks and how people live their lives. It actually makes the insanity of people suddenly turning into monsters work so much better than it would in anything more typical of the medium. But to give an example on the other end, I will name Twelve Kingdoms, which I wish the original novel series got fully translated as I'd love to follow more in it, but it is an Isekai (which is another trend I find annoying but only because it's done far too much now) with a very interesting fantasy world where the Gods make their selected kings and nobility immortal and where the young of all races are literally born from trees. And we get a pretty blunt story about abuse of power, the nature of trust and the pressures of social expectation. It's a very fantastical world with unicorns and mouse people but it tells a very human story. Nowadays though I just hang around the Devilman fanbase on deviantart, doing the adaptation of the Lady anime because that's where I'm at, that's more interesting to me than following any recent media. I have a collection of the shows I was impressed by, most were released in the 00s, and I'm following the Berserk and Black Lagoon mangas as long as they run but I'm out of the loop on anime now because I don't see anything worth my time.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1227690/Severed_Steel/ For some reason this game completely passed me by and I just noticed it was available on Steam today. I bought it. This game is absolutely incredible. I have maybe never had as much fun playing a shooter as this. This is easily the best bullet time orientated game I've ever played. It has a clarity of vision which I love, and this is before getting into the super gun arm cannon that can literally punch through walls and the floor letting you through them. It's... it's just amazing.

Currently, I have 12 games that are installed in portable source port folders (the Id games from Doom to Quake 2, and Heretic+Hexen, the Build Trio as well), and also Doom 64 CE. And the rest are on Steam numbering 15 for the moment. I generally prefer not to have a tonne installed so I can focus.

Gonna get a chance to go see Swallow the Sun and Draconian live in April. Then Ne Obliviscaris and Persefone in May because why not.

Meh, I think there's little to be gained by my prior response, it didn't add much of anything, please ignore it if you saw it. I had tried some of Chained Echoes and Signalis both of which seem very promising, but I decided I was spreading myself out a bit too much, so I plan to focus on Triangle Strategy for now.

Well, I'll say this about the visuals first, I wasn't too impressed with Octopath Traveller. It's overly harsh bloom effects practically hurt my eyes, but I think with this game and what I've seen for the Octopath sequel they worked out some of the real issues like that with the style. I guess it will not necessarily be for everyone still but Triangle Strategy compared to Octopath is a massive improvement for me. Next up, what I said has nothing to do with the original Tactics Ogre or Final Fantasy Tactics. I've never had the option of playing either of those games in the past. I would almost certainly have liked them, but you know, they never came out in Europe till the PSP and I never owned a PSP. I did have a GBA at one point so I played Tactics Advance a bit. Not one for emulation either as I'm very annoyed by any compatibility/performance issues at all which are always inevitable with emulation. But I would certainly be all over a Final Fantasy Tactics Reborn which I imagine has to be under strong consideration right now. So Tactics Ogre Reborn is just a quality remake of an older game with effort put into it, and if the same effort got put into other 16/32 bit remakes of games I never really got the chance to play I'd be up for that. Triangle Strategy being a proper new game however is more of a strong indicator to me that Square Enix has finally hired some really good artistic talent to do that stuff. I like Amano's work like anyone else but you know, past FFVI he only really ever did some cover artworks, and his involvement isn't very high. But most of Square Enix's output to me FFVII onwards was very visually generic, a lot of money thrown in but not much class or style. And I've traditionally never liked Final Fantasy but even I must admit XVI's painted artwork is a breath of fresh air over what they've been doing for years now. I guess the irony is, Square Enix is improving at that stuff, whereas Fire Emblem, a series I never really got into but I loved a lot of the 2D artwork used throughout the series... until recently, where Engage specifically is fucking tripe in terms of that stuff. Completely sold out to being the most generic anime shit. JRPGs rely a lot on the character concept stuff, portraits etc. even if they're not necessarily used in the game (that generally depends on the game) but that stuff is where the personality will come from and it's been a big part of why I strongly dislike a lot of big name JRPGs, most by Squaresoft/Square Enix. It's a big deal to me.

Triangle Strategy I'm quite into it, I'm not a big one for Square Enix's games traditionally but this and Tactics Ogre I have to say demonstrate some positive changes that might end up in me playing more of their games.