31.10.16

After another 4 hours with Seraph, I think I'm done with the game. It's not that I've seen everything the game has to offer, no, but the more I play the more I realize that behind (or in front of) this great idea lies a not-so-good implementation.

Partially reiterating what I mentioned yesterday, here are but some of the things that bug me:

The level layouts aren't all that good.

The AI's pathfinding often causes it to get stuck. (Sometimes even in an open space. Overall, it's highly abusable.) In addition, some attacks can not be reflexively avoided, which is a source of frustration.

Particularly combined with the previous problems, the camera is zoomed in too close. And it seems our aiming AI can't really aim off-screen much.

I can't understand why the platforms that can be shot through, can't be jumped through. This would alleviate a lot of the the level layout problems as well.

The mote pickup range is way too short, and pre-placing them in some hard-to-reach places isn't really helping a game that has its main focus on combat. The places aren't actually hard to reach at all, as our character is incredibly mobile, it's just annoying. I guess this falls into the "bad level layouts" thing.

Interaction with chests, weapon closets, and other such things is too clumsy and takes away from the momentum of the game.

So, yeah, again, great idea, good combat, bad execution of mostly everything else. I think this would be a much better game if it were dumbed down a little. Needs to be less complicated, more flowing.

30.10.16

I am now 2 hours into Seraph, and I would probably love to be 2 more hours into it in the future. The movement feels fluid, and I hadn't really ever thought about the idea of giving control of a central game mechanic to the AI so the player could focus on the rest, but it works great. I am really enjoying the combat, and it seems there's plenty of character progression as well as replay value in this game.

The story feels a tad forced, and not too well made. I wouldn't have minded gratuitous shooting without forcing little bits of story on me, but it's not something that would take away much from the experience.

Also, the lack of a map combined with (in my opinion) confusing level layouts makes navigation slightly frustrating.

While it doesn't look like something that has replayability up into multiple tens of hours, I will definitely be playing some more of it later on.

Surprisingly, I managed to continue Divinity: Original Sin after about a 2 month break, and that took most of my afternoon and evening. I've started that game maybe 5 times now, each time the other player ditches me after a while, but you know... Maybe this time will be different. It's a long game, and my playing times don't depend entirely on me, so I might sometimes unexpectedly cut my other plans short for this.

29.10.16

Tried about half an hour of Blue Revolver, and it just doesn't sit with me. Probably more of a niche for people who are already familiar with these kind of Bullet Hell games, but everything seemed very repetitive and confusing for me. Starting from the controls which were poorly explained (no mouse control, glad I at least knew the default navigation buttons for these eastern games), to not properly explaining the goal or mechanics.

And the rest of the morning was spent on Project Highrise. 3 hours, I can't say I really miss them, but I can't recommend the game either. It's a management game, and it's not that it was bad, it's just that there are plenty that are better than it. It felt a little bit linear, and too stable. As in, if you got stuff working, then stuff was working, and there weren't any setbacks or anything that could force you into ruin unless you got overly ambitious and completely reckless. And there wasn't too much of a variety in things to do either. So, it's an okay game, just not worth playing in comparison to the great ones out there.

28.10.16

8 Chapters, and much longer than I anticipated, but I finished reading it. From the beginning, I expected some action-y magic-combat-filled stuff, but what I got was like a side-arc before the main arc had managed to kick off, along with no magic, no action, and, yet again, a tearjerker near the end. They could've just ended it on that sad note, but the story moved slightly past that and ended on a cliff-hanger. Like I'd need that to read the second Episode.

But what did I think about Fault - Milestone One overall? Well, starting from the less important parts:

The music was good and fitting, but nothing really amazing.

The (dare I say) three main characters, as well as the Event CG were of great quality. The other characters, not so much. And some of the backgrounds were just downright awful. (Oh, and I wanted to note it was sweet that once you complete the story, your new party member appears onto the title screen's picture.)

While the story didn't go along the path I hoped it would, I can't say I was disappointed. I would've hoped for a full fantasy setting, but they handled the science okay. I would've hoped for more action and magic, but they instead delivered decent feels. But for the large majority it remained unpredictable, well thought-through, and making me want more, and I appreciate that.
I should also mention that the writing was natural-seeming, which is always a relief. There were quite a few grammar mistakes or simply forgotten words, but that seems more like sloppiness than bad writing.

Oh, and about that one choice near the beginning. That has no effect at all on the story. About a minute's worth of different dialogue before they do the same thing anyways. I believe most would make the "right" choice, but if you don't, the characters will basically tell you that that isn't the right thing to do. So it's kind of dumb to even have a choice. Being a Kinetic novel is fine.
With the apparent moderate success of the first Episode, I have hope the next ones will be more polished.

So, yeah, would recommend if you like this kind of stuff. I'll take the time for another game or two before I move onto the next Episode though, because this took longer than I anticipated.

27.10.16

Continuing from last night, Chapters 3 and 4 have been finished, and the story's getting better. That's good, even though it seems I have been misinformed about the its length. I feel as though what seemed like the main storyline is not that after all, and that strong deviation and completely forgetting events that were previously left unsolved is slightly bugging me, but we'll see how it goes.

Oh, late edit - I also remembered that the game actually had me make a decision in the beginning of the 3rd Chapter. I thought this was a Kinetic VN, but I guess not. I think the decisions won't have a large impact on the story though, seeing as each Episode is on the short side, and they don't look like they have the budget to be making cross-episode effects on the choices you make.

Another thing of note is that the art it "sells" to you (not referring to the separate art thing you can purchase) is notably above the quality of the rest. It's not that I judge a story (much) by its art, but everything except the main characters and "Event CG" are of noticeably poorer quality. Often improper shading, and the worst case was where it was very glaringly obvious that the items on a shelf were just pasted there. But other than that, it's pretty good.

26.10.16

I wish to briefly blame procrastination for why we are not already a thousand years' worth more advanced, among other things.

But less cryptically speaking, I finished Chapter 2 (out of 3 or 4, I presume) of Episode 1 of Fault today. It keeps bordering on taking a turn for the worse, but manages to keep itself oddly enjoyable. It kind of switches between "incredibly well thought through" and "kinda cliché", but so far it hasn't stepped in any (il)logical buckets, and the silly non-story-advancing dialogue bits make for a nice, cheerful change of pace from the increasing amount of questions the story leaves unanswered, making you want more. I'm really more of a fan of the "thought through" parts, but the balance is all fine and good even for my taste.

25.10.16

I normally wouldn't list any interesting VR games I find, since I don't own a headset nor am I planning to get one in the foreseeable few years, but Accounting is something particularly interesting. Why, you ask?

For one, it's free, so there's no reason not to try it. (Aside from the ludicrous headset cost of course.)
Secondly, the rating's pretty good.

Thirdly, it's made by Crows Crows Crows, who made another pretty good game. (Which is also free, and doesn't require a VR headset, so, this time, there really is no reason not to try it.) P.S. They also made like half of The Stanley Parable, so that's another something.

And finally, something that has of no significance to me, but apparently it's a pretty big deal - It's also made by the co-creator of Rick and Morty.

So, interesting bunch of people, and apparently a good game. Shame I won't get to try it.

24.10.16

Aaand Dredmor run completed. Ended with over 3 million Zorkmids, figured out at the 14th floor I could get the Double Rainbow achievement at long last (and made a trip to the 1st floor and back to actually get it), crashed a bunch of times, once losing 2 hours worth of progress, but in the end, took down Dredmor without too many problems. That puts me at 48% achievement completion, mostly not having deaths to various monsters, and then a whole bunch of skill trees I haven't mastered. But I've filled my dungeon crawling urge for the time being, especially as the game gets quite unstable towards the end.

I want to get back to Fault, but in reality, I probably won't have time today. Hopefully tomorrow, but I make no promises.

23.10.16

I remembered I had an unfinished Dungeons of Dredmor game. Went down two more floors to 13, and things are proceeding rather easily. About every attack yields a combo for one extra attack, then I usually either dodge or completely block the enemy, still following up with a counterattack that combos as well, and half of those are criticals or go haywire, creating for some interesting effects and a total of about 4 attacks worth of damage in one hit. Also fun stuff like in the picture to the right. Money's increased to over 2 million Zorkmids, not that I'd ever do anything with them... So yeah, going great!

22.10.16

Go to sleep on Saturday, wake up on Saturday. Just one more turn, I swear. No, but in all seriousness, I don't really have the time to be playing all that much Civ right now. Backlog doesn't stop expanding for anybody, so I have to hack away at that.

Started today with the Fault series, which is a VN of which episodes 1 and 2.1 are out, 1's prequel should arrive this year, and 2.2 sometime next year. Point is, it's got a bunch of content out and coming.

As far as I got (and perhaps almost as far as the first episode goes, as they're on the short side - less than 10 hours a piece it seems), it was just setting the scene. Some cryptic inspirational prologue followed by a quick story of the basics of the magic system and it's evolution and spread, and how that all lead to a war. Followed by the actual story starting.

So far, I love the magic system, as there's clearly some thought and rules behind that, which makes for a more immersive setting because there aren't any obvious loopholes. I was a bit concerned when they introduced science into all this, but I didn't read further than that for the day, so hopefully the story stays all nice and logical. But that's just my personal taste.

Other than that, the character art looks quite nice, but most of the backgrounds are, in stark contrast, flat and boring. Which strikes me as odd, seeing as the... whatever you call the backgrounds that are shown when character sprites aren't on the screen, but rather in the background itself... are very well done. In any case, I'll definitely be continuing reading later on.

21.10.16

Thought I'd load Civilization VI up for a quick try. And as expected, it took the entirety of my evening. It was plenty fun though, and not too similar to the previous one.

As far as I played (Civ games never drag into the late ages for me, for some reason.), I'd say that it's an improvement in terms of gameplay. In no particular order, I like that:

• The AI is smarter.
• Districts force more attention to city placement.
• Diplomacy victory was removed. (It was too one-sided.)
• Culture now has it's own tree.
• Faith is slightly less useless.
• Districts force some degree of city specialization.
• Good strategies are (probably) less obvious.
• And probably more stuff. No glaring downsides for me.

Now, what I didn't like one bit, was the UI and settings side of things. The most glaringly obvious and serious problem was that very often, crucial parts of the UI overlap. I'm not a fan of the art style either, the minimap was too small, visual cues are a downgrade so I have to spend a bunch more time making sure I didn't miss anything. Some wonderful menus that Civ V had seem to just have been removed, etc. The game is also missing multiple settings available in the previous one that, while not crucial to playing it, simplified things.

So, overall, I think it's a step up from the previous game, because it's not really missing anything, yet has added stuff. It is, however, not more pleasant to play because it isn't as accessible. But I wouldn't hold that against it too much, as it's much easier to fix than gameplay would have been, had it not been as good.

20.10.16

12 days before I managed to not make a post one day. That better than I hoped, actually. Well, as you could expect, nothing much happened. University is really giving me a bunch of work sometimes, so some days are occupied by that. Highly likely much won't happen tomorrow either, but if I'm lucky, I can get some Civilization VI done with my friends in the coming weekend.

19.10.16

Some weeks I only find one game, some weeks it's two per day. So today's two are:

Project Genom - It's an MMO, still in Early Access, and the reviews aren't all that good, but I'm always a sucker for MMOs. In reality though, probably another something I won't even try in the end.

GoNNER - A procedurally generated platformer. It's got plenty of action, and from the looks of it, it's quite hectic. So, looks interesting, hopefully not too repetitive.

Well, despite Blogger acting up, I think I managed to get the background properly in there, and the rest of the template back to how it was. Even though Blogger might not be as up-to-date as some other popular sites of similar categories, it's really easy to use, and I like the default style it offers. So in the end, I'm okay with Blogger because I'm really lazy but want something that looks half-decent. And in the rare case I might feel like actually fixing some of its flaws, I have that possibility. (HTML editor full of >2000 lines of uncommented code, yay...)

18.10.16

So, found 2 games today:

Thumper, which is some kind of action rhythm game. I've heard a reasonable amount of hype towards this game, but I don't actually understand what the game is about. It looks like Audiosurf, but reading about it, it seems it's not that at all. I guess I'll find out when I try it.

And Blue Revolver, which I'm not even sure I'm going to play. It's a Bullet Hell game, apparently on the short side as well, but the visuals seem rather nice in comparison to most such games on Steam these days. I'm not really a fan of the genre, but the challenge it provides is sometimes enjoyable, so we'll see if I ever get around to it.

Another day with no time to play anything, with some thanks to having to fight Blogger in terms of the background. For about 3 hours. They suggest one at least 1800x1600 pixels, and everything looks fine up to 2000x2000 until you apply it and look at the live version. Then it's scaled down to 1600x2000 if it was any larger. And when you switch back to one of the default backgrounds, it also resets your entire color scheme. So, I'll get it working eventually, but I'm out of mental fortitude for the day.

17.10.16

Despite all my free time today, I only got a couple hours of Planetside 2 done in the morning. (That is, in addition to the 1K+ I already have.)
So, uneventful day in terms of this blog, but I'm making a new background for this place, so hopefully today's low content will be compensated for. =)

16.10.16

Little things aside, I continued with, and finished, Momodora. I don't really have much to add to yesterday's impressions. Spent a fair amount of time backtracking today, getting the little things I missed or couldn't get to before. There's plenty reason to do so, as Momodora offers a little more than most Metroidvanias in this regard - the items you collect are usually desired by some NPCs for a little extra content, story, or unlocking the true end. I also want to say that the attention to detail in so many parts of the world is a rather rare thing to see.

There are also reasons to re-play the entire thing. Higher difficulty levels don't only tune the damage numbers and hitpoints of enemies higher, but also rework enemy placement in many parts of the world. There's 20 bugs (not the software kind, mind you) scattered around the place, and while I achieved 99% map completion and checked every nook and cranny I could possibly bother, I only found 5 of them. I'm not sure if there's a special reward for gathering them all, but it's highly likely. And apparently there's also rewards for beating each boss without taking damage. And then a mysterious door I have no clue what's behind.

I'm not going to bother re-playing it. I did enough backtracking for my own liking. But regardless, I really enjoyed the game, and would definitely recommend it.

And on a completely different note: I found the rare urge to play some KSP tonight. I probably won't finish this in the near future, but since 1.2 requires relays to effectively pilot unmanned crafts, I figured I'd make a relay that can transmit to the entire Kerbol system. Going to plant one or two of these in low Kerbol orbit, and they should suffice for going anywhere except Eeloo. (That is, using the DTS-M1 antenna on the receiver ship. I could always use something beefier for an Eeloo trip.) Now, this is only the portion that will carry it after I reach Kerbin orbit, and even then I think I'm a little light on fuel, but I'm definitely sticking to the design, because just look at this thing.

15.10.16

Started the day by remembering that EVE Online was going F2P on the 8th. So I figured that since I had a starter pack lying around, and there wasn't any pressure to spend my time in there efficiently once I could play for free, I activated it, and flew around for a couple hours. Not much really happened, and I haven't the slightest what I could or should do, but maybe I'll bother playing enough one of these days that I'll start to understand the game. In any case, it's as big of a time sink as I want it to be, and I don't have all that much to spare for it, so you probably won't hear about it again in the near future.

Rest of the morning went on Dungeons of Dredmor again. Got two Dark Mirror Shields for a fancy 100% spell reflection, also happen to have 100% block chance, 50 armor, yet still dealing 60-70 damage a hit (critical included). Noticed I had amassed half a million Zorkmids, and got that rare Clockwork equipment achievement. So this is actually turning into one of my better runs in the past year or so.

And last but not least for the day, played some Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight. It's kind of a Metroidvania with Souls' influence, and I really like it. Really has been a while since a game of this genre has managed to catch my attention for several hours that passed without even noticing them. It's not terribly long, being maybe 6 hours if you rush through it, 10 if you want to backtrack and find mostly everything you missed. And I'm a little more than halfway through.

The pixel art is both really cute and a little creepy, and animations are particularly excellently done. Didn't even know you could have that amount of emotion and facial expressions with so few pixels. The music is also nice, as is the layout of things on the map.

The amount of enemies between bossfights and new enemy types is just right, being enough that you are forced to learn their attack patterns and how to counter them, yet not so much as to render fighting them tedious. Bosses are a rather frequent sight, which is good because fighting bosses feels so much more rewarding than fighting through a few waves of regular enemies. Sadly, rapidly firing your bow is a cheesy and easy way to beat them. I'd much rather be forced to use my "sword". But that is about the only problem I had with the game.

I'll almost definitely finish this tomorrow, but they can't possibly screw up the end badly enough for me to not recommend this game. It's really good, and you should try it if you like these kinds of games at all.

14.10.16

I might be getting a little lenient, adding games to my queue that I won't (with a high certainty) truly enjoy, but Beglitched looked like something that might not be a complete waste of my time.

As for the games I actually played:
Some more Dungeons of Dredmor. About 40% through the current run, but there's nothing really noteworthy there.

Tried The Witness. I feel like I could have given it a longer try, but honestly, the mazes weren't fun in the first five minutes, nor were they fun after an hour of solving them, despite the pretty surroundings and differing rules and display forms for the mazes themselves. It really felt like an interesting concept, but apparently the entire thing is over 20 hours of solving mazes... It's... just mazes... Only mazes. It's not fun for me.

And finally, I also gave a brief attempt at playing Angry Arrows. It's not a bad game, just lacks content. It's local co-op only, but I'd assume that if you did get a few people together, it'd be a fun few hours spent. It simply has nothing to come back for, nor is it all that funny when played alone.

13.10.16

Didn't find just 1, not even 2, but an entirety of 3 games on Steam today that I want to try. That's an absurd amount for one day...

First off, something by the name of Hunger Dungeon. It advertises itself as a MOBA, and while I can already feel the "oh god, not another one" sensation coming up, it's free (to play), and the reviews aren't half bad. So while I don't expect much, I'll be giving it a try in possibly the near future.

Next up - Endless Space 2. In name, it's a sequel to Endless Space, but as far as I know, it'd be more accurate to say it's a sequel to Endless Legend, which is currently my favorite TBS out there. So while it's still in Early Access, I've already heard good things about it, and will definitely be giving it a try at some point.

Finally, Shenzhen I/O is another Puzzle game from Zachtronics, which, I dare say, makes the best Puzzle games out there. I've played nearly every one of their games since they were still making free Flash games, and I'm not going to miss this one either. It looks to be more on the programming side this time, possibly something along the lines of TIS-100. It's also in Early Access, so I'll give it time to get ready before playing.

Spent the rest of the morning playing Dungeons of Dredmor, inching ever closer to getting all the achievements. This of course calls for funny builds. I needed Unarmed Mastery, and, well... obviously the only route is to have a shield. In both hands. Couple that with Shield Mastery and Armor Mastery for nigh 0 damage, Berserk for more damage, and add Sneaking, Burglary, and Assassination to the mix to be the stealthiest raging tin-can alive. It's oddly efficient, and I'm getting 4 skill tree achievements completed.

Hunger Dungeon turned out to be terrible in the sense that it has like 5 players online, which basically means no multiplayer. 60% of the characters are locked, and it's not actually good in any way either. So that was an instant delete, same as most previously unknown free games.

12.10.16

Found something by the name of Butcher on Steam this morning. It's going on my terribly long wishlist for the time being because people apparently think it's good, so I want to try it at least.

I actually use an RNG to select a game from those that I have in my waiting queue (Early Access titles aside), so everything has a chance to be played. And by pure coincidence, the RNG chose Planetarian.

It was an... experience. I definitely didn't at all relate it to the VN I played 3 days ago, and I dare say I actually enjoyed this one. My main issue is that it's damn old, and thus suffered from a tiny window and a poor UI, but neither relates to the story, which is obviously its selling point. So from that perspective...
Suspension of disbelief is always a problem for me in non-fantasy stories, but this one had a below average amount of such problems, as most of the logic flaws were actually covered. The character through whom you experience the story (for lack of a better term) may not always make the most rational decisions, and often points out errors in what he himself is doing, but this does not feel out of place - you are reminded that such irrational thoughts are only human in times like those, and I felt like at least I could sympathize with their actions and not view them as moronic, despite possibly being such were one in an ordinary situation and state of mind.
The Planetarian was also surprisingly well made for a robot. I was afraid of another one of those suspiciously human-like robots with a full set of emotions and all. Instead, the story constantly points out the machine-like nature of the Planetarian, which has a nice comedic effect in the start, and a surprisingly saddening effect the further the story progresses. Plausible enough for an advanced robot, yet intelligent enough to feel for it. You know what she's about to say, yet the predictability is characteristic, and should in no form be removed.
The entire thing is built around being a tear-jerker, and I'm not really a fan of those kinds of stories, because they rarely have an effect on me. Didn't shed a tear here either, but it definitely came a lot closer than most stories aiming for this effect, and it only used up 4 hours of my time. So, eh, I guess it's worth reading if you like getting all sad over a story.

11.10.16

In the 3 hours I had today, two went into some more Hyper Light Drifter, and one into trying out something that claimed to be a MMO/MOBA hybrid.

The latter is Crush Online, and, honestly, I only tried it because of the curious mix it said it was. Wouldn't have lost anything if I hadn't... It isn't really good as an MMO or a MOBA, and while I may not even have gotten to the main game, you can pretty much tell that if something that's trying to be a MOBA only has 3 characters to play, obviously bad item balance, very lackluster abilities... It's not going to be good. And as far as I saw, the MMO part was just some struggle over territories - nothing particularly interesting either.

As for Hyper Light Drifter... It looked like something I really wanted to enjoy, but it's getting highly frustrating, and worst of all, it's not because of the difficulty. I'd be fine fighting enemies again and again - they're rather well made, even if the combat system doesn't feel as fluid as it could be. (And the most efficient strategies are kind of cheesy.) No, my main problem is the exploration. The damn thing feels like a puzzle game, but not the kind where you have to figure out a problem based on the information you're given, but the kind where you got a 1000 pieces and you got to find the fitting one.

The game's open-endedness does it a disservice in this regard, as I'm not sure if I'm missing something in the current area that is halting my progress, or if I need to have been somewhere else first? So I'm spending most of the game not on the combat that this game feels like it should be trying to capitalize on, but instead looking under every bush, tree, and cliffside to make sure I'm not missing anything, and while the world looks pretty, it does a very poor job of telling me where I can and can't walk. I can't even find the stuff necessary for the main game, and I hear half the content's purposefully hidden. I can't even imagine trying to look for that...

I understand it's trying to be pretty and cryptic by literally not saying a word to me, with characters speaking in pictures, and the only text being glyphs that I can't read, but gosh, I need to know what to do, okay? It's not that obvious.

I'd like to point to Titan Souls here, which I feel is quite similar, yet much more enjoyable for me. Fights are just as difficult and learnable, environment and music are pretty, I get to walk around a bit between the fights, and it doesn't really have any in-game written text either, but the game focuses on what it does well - combat.

10.10.16

Aside from my daily fix of PvP, usually in the form of Brawlhalla these days, I didn't really get any playing done. What a shame.

09.10.16

Honestly feels like the first post should be special somehow, but I got nothing special and have to start somewhere.

I tried Harmonia today, which is a VN developed by Key, possibly known for also making Clannad and Planetarian. I haven't read either, but apparently Harmonia is similar to Planetarian, which I've also been wanting to read for some time.
Sadly, I didn't enjoy Harmonia at all. Both the characters and setting seemed too implausible to relate to, and thus, even when presented with an event outside the slow build-up, I couldn't really care much for it. It's about a 4-8 hour read overall, and I stopped slightly more than halfway through after I found myself just clicking through the text - barely reading, barely caring.

Also tried about 2 hours of Hyper Light Drifter - that's about a fifth of the entire game. It's decent. Nothing particularly good or bad about it so far. It's plenty difficult where a boss fight can take >10 tries and you can actually die during the tutorial, but you'll eventually learn how to approach each enemy type, so it's not overwhelming.
My main issues so far are that the game does a poor job of telling you what you're supposed to do, it's often difficult to distinguish floor from wall from abyss, and the combat could feel just a little bit more fluid.