|
Post by beeebon on Sept 24, 2023 3:00:22 GMT -5
Not long ago I started Mortal Shell on the switch and I am really enjoying it. I have read that it is compared unfavourably to Dark Souls but because I never played that it doesn't really bother me. Very cool atmosphere and a real challenge, especially early on in the game!
|
|
|
Post by talvisynth on Sept 24, 2023 10:37:24 GMT -5
Are you playing those Sierra games using walkthroughs? I've always loved Lucasarts point and clicks but could never get into Sierra games, kind of intimidated by how insane the puzzles can be and how easy it is to softlock yourself. I had King's Quest 5 when I was a kid though and have some nostalgia for that even though I wasn't able to make any real progress. I've watched video playthroughs of a lot of those games though, even like Mystery House, that stuff is all very interesting to me historically. Disco Elysium I really want to get into. I've started playing it several times and was loving the writing, but it just hasn't been able to hook me yet. One of these days... I've been using walkthroughs with the parser games to some extent, yes. Especially with the King's Quest and Police Quest series which I never got to play too much myself as a kid; for the most part just watched as other people tried to struggle with those. Of all Sierra games, I've always been most familiar with Space Quests and Larry series, so been faring a lot better in those even without too much of extra help. All in all, there's so much to play these days - both old and new - so I don't want to get stuck for too long with just one title, thus checking up on hints when needed so I can experience the stories, avoid getting locked and move onwards to next endeavours. Currently I'm ~4 hours into Disco Elysium; I have to admit the experience so far has been quite confusing, trippy and even bizarre. I can't relate to anything on a more personal level as I usually tend to do with many other games of RPG nature; the initial setting is a thing of its own to get a grasp of (even though I generally like hazier beginnings), the main character is a horrible and disgusting person and seems to become more and more so regardless of what kind of choices I make. At first I desperately tried to build him the way I would act myself in a real-life situation, but quickly gave up on that attempt and now just pick whatever makes the character even more absurd and irrational, just to see what kind of an absolute psychotic mess this will take me to.
|
|
|
Post by andrewwerdna on Sept 24, 2023 22:18:12 GMT -5
I've been using walkthroughs with the parser games to some extent, yes. Especially with the King's Quest and Police Quest series which I never got to play too much myself as a kid; for the most part just watched as other people tried to struggle with those. Of all Sierra games, I've always been most familiar with Space Quests and Larry series, so been faring a lot better in those even without too much of extra help. All in all, there's so much to play these days - both old and new - so I don't want to get stuck for too long with just one title, thus checking up on hints when needed so I can experience the stories, avoid getting locked and move onwards to next endeavours. I end up using walkthroughs at least once for pretty much every point and click I play, even the easy modern ones. Generally I'll give a puzzle half an hour or so, maybe sleep on it if the puzzles had been fair up until that point, but I'm thinking the same as you, there are too many other games I've been meaning to play to just meander back and forth trying every possible combination of inventory and hotspots. I feel like I'd be tempted to lean on a walkthrough the entire time for those old Sierra games though. Have you played any Lucasarts point and clicks? Do you think they're easy compared to Sierra? Yeah, it definitely gives lots of opportunity to be a scumbag or psycho. I think making him be such an unrelatable character works well to encourage players to roleplay out of their comfort zones with their choices. But from what I played I got the sense that there is some room to try and be decent and give him a redemptive sort of story, certainly there were moments when you could do good things that I experienced. Still, with my initial attempt to get into it, I did the same thing as you, trying to do and say what I would irl in that situation, and shortly after I got the "Sorry Cop" trait for apologizing too much haha, felt like the game was making fun of me personally.
|
|
|
Post by talvisynth on Sept 25, 2023 2:42:52 GMT -5
andrewwerdna : I think I've never finished any Sierra game without any help from walkthroughs, but some of the Lucasarts classics I've managed to figure out on my own back in the day; Monkey Island 2, Sam & Max Hit the Road, Full Throttle and The Dig come directly in mind, but with the rest at least some help has surely been needed along the way. Generally I've always felt that Lucasarts adventures were indeed easier than Sierra games, or at least remarkably less punishing (f.ex. no deaths or softlocks etc.), but ofc, even with the "easier" ones wrestling through the most obscure moments definitely was a time and energy consuming trial & error galore. Also the early parser games of Sierra vs. mouse-controlled games of Lucasarts was a significant factor in hard vs. easy, as English is not my native language. What it comes to modern point & clicks, I've been using walkthroughs a lot more systematically, especially for games with a lot of hidden stuff and lore, achievements and/or multiple endings that some of the games seems to be packed full these days. I'm a completionist by nature, so I always strive for discovering as much of the content as possible, but due to rather limited time & energy (& even [deeper] interest) at this point in my life, I don't really care about re-plays of the new stuff over the good ol' classics, thus I prefer to lean on hints for not missing anything important and get it over and done in one go. As for Disco Elysium, yesterday I got myself to a point where the game almost started getting on a personal level with me; trying to play it nice and decent only leads to me being mocked in some way by either the narrative or the NPC's, and yeah, I'm the Sorry Cop now too, haha. So I then thought 'screw this' and now just going with whatever, as I feel I can't help anything but just watch all possible diddlies hit the fan and let it all burn. I can't say I like this one bit, but I guess I can't stop now and instead I'll just suffer through it this one time now, trying to make it as quick as possible and so not going to touch this game again once I manage to finish it for the 1st time.
|
|
|
Post by andrewwerdna on Sept 25, 2023 10:07:47 GMT -5
Oof, yeah I can't imagine trying to get through a parser game while also just struggling with it being a second language. I started playing this game recently called Enclosure 3-D, and was really excited to check it out because I had seen this 3d visual effect the person had applied to old Sierra games and was really curious to mess around with a game that looked like that. But as soon as I realized it was a parser game, albeit a modern one so I'm sure not as cumbersome, I still immediately turned it off. I haven't uninstalled it yet, but I doubt whether I will get around to revisiting it. I'm spoiled by the pointing and clicking I guess. That might be the most negative reaction to Disco Elyisum that I've heard! You don't like it one bit? You got to admit the density of the writing and choices and branching is admirable for the level of effort at least. I get it though, it is pretty bleak. Seems like you might have the opposite reaction that I did, like I was loving the writing and the intensity of the story and setting, but just could not manage to continue coming back to it, but it sounds like you're pretty frustrated with those things but can't stop playing haha. Well I hope it turns around for you, and I would be interested to hear your evolving opinion on it because you definitely seem to have a unique take.
|
|
|
Post by talvisynth on Sept 25, 2023 11:05:38 GMT -5
Oof, yeah I can't imagine trying to get through a parser game while also just struggling with it being a second language. I started playing this game recently called Enclosure 3-D, and was really excited to check it out because I had seen this 3d visual effect the person had applied to old Sierra games and was really curious to mess around with a game that looked like that. But as soon as I realized it was a parser game, albeit a modern one so I'm sure not as cumbersome, I still immediately turned it off. I haven't uninstalled it yet, but I doubt whether I will get around to revisiting it. I'm spoiled by the pointing and clicking I guess. This actually looks cool! I'll definitely check out Enclosure 3-D, it appears it's on Steam and also free, thanks for the tip! Ah, that "not liking one bit" -part was mostly aimed at how any choices I've made thus far seem to take things into if not worse, then at least not in a direction of my personal preference, initial expectations or - in some cases - even deeper liking. And this raised a thought that if that's how the game rolls, could any new replays really change my experience considerably to be worth it to go through again, or would I just end up as another mess of a character but only via a different route. But all in all, Disco Elysium feels like an absolute masterpiece in what it does and achieves; as you said, the writing and all that tense and highflown verbal content, the design of how the character is built and developed with attributes and how those are connected to the game world, the role of all interaction... generally the enormous amount of effort put on all this; I absolutely raise my pint to the creators for being able to get anything like this to even exist. It can be that it's still too early for me to make any sensible statements just yet; I'm still quite much at the beginning anyway, and perhaps this can take turns into a better experience again, but at least so far it's been a bit of a rollercoaster of whoahs and WTFs, and currently I'm finding myself between a "what the hell am I actually even supposed to think of all this" and "why are you doing this to me". The creators have done an incredible work in making the player go through so many mood-swings, existential questioning and doubting one's zest for life already at an early stage of the game, so deffo kudos to that, hehe. And yeh, can't stop now, as I really gotta see how this ends.
|
|
|
Post by andrewwerdna on Sept 25, 2023 22:15:49 GMT -5
But all in all, Disco Elysium feels like an absolute masterpiece in what it does and achieves; as you said, the writing and all that tense and highflown verbal content, the design of how the character is built and developed with attributes and how those are connected to the game world, the role of all interaction... generally the enormous amount of effort put on all this; I absolutely raise my pint to the creators for being able to get anything like this to even exist. Yeah, that was basically my feeling from what I had played. I remember watching a youtube video basically saying that the creators were screwed over by the publisher or something, but I hope they'll find a way to figure that all out and keep making games, though I feel like they probably would struggle to repeat that achievement even under the best conditions. Let me know if you play that Enclosure 3-D. I'm still very curious about it, and would be interested to hear how it compares to those old Sierra games.
|
|
|
Post by beeebon on Sept 26, 2023 10:11:25 GMT -5
I've recently put about 20 hours into Icewind Dale. I remember playing it when it came out so it has been very enjoyable revisiting it all these many years later
|
|
engraven
Fighter
No heroes. No lords.
Posts: 119
|
Post by engraven on Oct 11, 2023 0:03:12 GMT -5
Monkey Island is the only point-and-click I can remember beating without using a walkthrough at some point, and I've played a lot of them hahah
|
|
|
Post by angbandslasthero on Nov 15, 2023 15:26:22 GMT -5
I've been playing a bit of Potion Craft, it's a very casual game that has a medieval style and it focuses on running an apothecary. It's a sort of lethargic game to play, great when you want to play something but aren't that motivated either ✧・゚: *✧・゚:
|
|
|
Post by starigard on Jan 21, 2024 0:55:17 GMT -5
I currently play Baldur‘s Gate (EE) for the first time! I have no clue why I didn‘t do so before. Beyond that I have found my Nintendo DS in the attic and had forgotten what an amazing handheld this device is. Games I play here at the moment are:
• LOTR The Fellowship of the Ring (GBA/2002) – it‘s terrible but some parts of the OST are nice • Orcs & Elves (DS/2007) – a solid little Dungeon Crawler
|
|
|
Post by lordemeriss on Jan 30, 2024 19:40:13 GMT -5
I've just finished replaying Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, an all time favourite.
So much nostalgia and crazy how good the mechanics are.. it still holds up.
Anyone played this game? and have any recommendations for similar feeling games? I've never found anything quite like it.. Its simplicity makes it so approachable but still challenging and fun.
|
|
|
Post by merusmetratron on Feb 19, 2024 2:26:14 GMT -5
I recently finished Inmost for the Nintendo Switch and I haven't been this sad from an ending since Ocarina Of Time, so I'm trying to cheer up with other upbeat platformers like Chico and the Magic Orchard DX and OmniBot. Also, because I like punishment, I've picked up Blasphemous and Cuphead again.
|
|
|
Post by henrysimulator on Feb 27, 2024 17:24:40 GMT -5
big love for blasphemous, hated it at first though. giving pillars of eternity a try now, very slow paced rn, but good writing.
|
|
|
Post by ancientdread on Mar 4, 2024 2:25:55 GMT -5
I am playing Red Dead Redemption 2 on the PS4 since a few month. Don't want to finish it, so I keep myself busy with the challenges and sidequests 🙂
And besides, since I am into retro gaming, I play from time to time Links Awakening - GB Hexen - PS1 (but in the meantime I remembered why I stopped playing it when it came out lol)
|
|