. There's always that good calm before the storm.BIL wrote: "Small sack, LOTS OF CUM" - Nikola Tesla
I love Half Life, don't get me wrong, I just wonder if I would have the same reaction to a game with that kind of unskippable intro if it came out today, regardless of the story. I'm suspecting that it gets a pass (for me) because it came out in that window where developers were experimenting with methods of introducing players to new mechanics, and technology was really just explodingdrauch wrote:Half-Life is the one I don't mind myself, having just bitched about this. A lot of the reason I like it though is because I like the narrative of the game, and I think it ties in with it all perfectly. I almost like itmore having played it over and over for the sole fact I know I'll be in every area shown, and this is what it all looked like before shit went wrong. It builds up the mundane of being a boring scientist, waiting for crap to be unlocked by the guard, waiting for an eye scan to get into a door, getting stuff from my locker, etc. The dichotomy of these simple tasks or events as it all gets flipped on its side, making you still feel like said boring scientist, only everything is fucked and said simple tasks are still there, just no longer as simple. That's what I like about the Half-life narrative so much: I'm always playing it, and I feel like my character is part of this environment. The tutorial is optional, and what little is shown is just a quick flashing text, not some bozo staring at me, waiting for me to perform a jump or swing my crowbar and then tell me good job. In short, I just think it works, actually providing some context/flavor to a linear story.
Plus I just love disaster/survival scenarios
I think where this sort of thing especially fails is with the 'choose your own adventure' mentality of an open world. Especially when a 'main' quest of sorts is entirely optional, you shouldn't be forced into any lengthy opening. Morrowind handles it really well. Who are you? Oh, okay. Get off this boat and go through this office. Ok, see ya later!
Cruelty Squad. It's Deus Ex: Dadaist Arcade EditionSima Tuna wrote:Maybe I should ask what everyone's favorite Immersive Sim is? I'd probably go with OG Day o' Sex, or System Shock 2.
That's one I haven't gotten to yet, actually. I keep forgetting it exists. Seems pretty cool though.Vanguard wrote:Cruelty Squad. It's Deus Ex: Dadaist Arcade EditionSima Tuna wrote:Maybe I should ask what everyone's favorite Immersive Sim is? I'd probably go with OG Day o' Sex, or System Shock 2.
Dread is extremely overrated. But I still had a good time going in with low expectations. I think my biggest gripe in the end was that the game was too long for my taste. The noticable loading times all over the game certainly didn't help.blackoak wrote:I picked up Metroid Dread the other day, hoping for something to hold me over till Silksong (how many times have I said that now? haha). Man, do I feel bamboozled. I'm only a couple hours in but there's no sense of exploration and I despise the EMMI sequences. Not really feeling the overall aesthetic so far either.
III and especially Hard Corps have some of the most unashamedly dancing, flailing, pirouetting death machines ever.XoPachi wrote:I went through Contra 3 and Contra Hard Corps and I'm really noticing how fucking funny a lot of classic games actually were sometimes. The goddamn mech on the bike stage in 3 is hysterical.
My favourite is possibly HC's Great Takeda Robot, so named for Takeshi Takeda... the final form - a trident-wielding, carpet-bombing cyclops on chainsaw treads - looks positively thrilled to be there. 
Axel is definitely the most straightforward character in the cast. He was pretty underpowered in earlier revisions of the game but got scaled up over time. Generally I like his meat-and-potatoes approach: his high damage and relatively limited tools mean he's all about traditional crowd control, setting groups up to satisfyingly shred them with his Grand Upper, his combo special, or his group-dispersing charge kick.BurlyHeart wrote:Went hard on Streets of Rage 4 last week, and actually injured my hands playing so much. Will probably take a rest until the weekend.
On the positive side, using Max's default moves, I managed to S rank all the stages on Mania+. Will try put it all together and get a clear in Arcade mode.
New patch is tremendous fun. That said, I had a quick playthough with Axel on normal and the difference with Max was night and day. Perhaps I wasn't used to Axel's playstyle, but it was actually quite boring. Think I will stick to Max for now, and play Floyd a little later on (I've heard he's much improved.)
Congrats on the clears! Did you do the haunted arcades as well? Going to give it a go this weekend, but I think I'm a few weeks away yet.Sir Ilpalazzo wrote:Axel is definitely the most straightforward character in the cast. He was pretty underpowered in earlier revisions of the game but got scaled up over time. Generally I like his meat-and-potatoes approach: his high damage and relatively limited tools mean he's all about traditional crowd control, setting groups up to satisfyingly shred them with his Grand Upper, his combo special, or his group-dispersing charge kick.BurlyHeart wrote:Went hard on Streets of Rage 4 last week, and actually injured my hands playing so much. Will probably take a rest until the weekend.
On the positive side, using Max's default moves, I managed to S rank all the stages on Mania+. Will try put it all together and get a clear in Arcade mode.
New patch is tremendous fun. That said, I had a quick playthough with Axel on normal and the difference with Max was night and day. Perhaps I wasn't used to Axel's playstyle, but it was actually quite boring. Think I will stick to Max for now, and play Floyd a little later on (I've heard he's much improved.)
That said, I've been playing as him a bit the last few days, and damn - I've beaten arcade mania+ with Floyd and Max but I haven't been able to beat even the final stage (still on mania+) by itself with (default) Axel at all. Both heavies have plenty of screen-sweeping tools that let them plow over the crowds of Zs and the hellish fat guy rush at the end, but with Axel and his smaller-scale group management options, I haven't yet figured out how to manage stage 12's trouble spots. They were tough enough on old Mania+, but with the new enemy design changes it's a whole new level of brutal.
I did all of them except for the one with the SoR3 twins, in stage 11. I actually don't think many of them add much to the run's difficulty unless you break some of them at a bad time, as most of them are fairly nonthreatenings olo, so it's probably easier to do them just to get some extra stars (for the purpose of nuking bosses' elite mooks, if nothing else). The only ones I find especially problematic are the aforementioned twins and stage 10's Souther, who is a genuinely nasty addition to what is already one of the hardest fights in the game; I'm not sure I ever made it past that fight unscathed.BurlyHeart wrote: Congrats on the clears! Did you do the haunted arcades as well? Going to give it a go this weekend, but I think I'm a few weeks away yet.
Can imagine Axel being tough to play on the later stages. I might learn him eventually. I can definitely see myself playing this game for quite the while.
That was my take-away as well. Great world, atmosphere, story and characters. The combat is just good enough to keep you entertained.guigui wrote:Nier Automata, years after everyone.
Not the best combat system ever, but damned do you get involved with those characters and world as you progress with the story. I love it.
The best 2d soulslike ever made.Less than one third of the game I think. Definitely worth getting back to it if newer PC, on get a console release.XoPachi wrote:I remember playing Automata on an older PC and got to a point where the game brought my system to it's knees. Old AMD Radeon 7850. Terrible card.
It was some massive snake made from junk flying around the sky in the main city hub at around the 10 hour mark.
