What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[Sumez]

As far as I can tell, the bigger of the two patches came out like a month or two before the release, so definitely no way they'd have been able to get that build confirmed for pressing.

But if they'd maintained communication with the devs they'd know that update was coming out, and delayed the release accordingly. This happened with Celeste which was delayed nearly a year to get the DLC on the game card/disc, even though it wasn't originally advertised to include it.

It really sucks it isn't included, and I won't defend LRG over it. They definitely should have considered this

But the physical release is still a complete, playable game without the patch.

[m.sniffles.esq]

It would be one thing if they had release/ship dates to try and honor, but since their entire business model is "give us money, then you get it when you get it", I'm forced to believe they just don't give a shit

Also

I think that map demystifies the game a bit too much since it actually tells you where to find all the upgrades, but it's pretty cool.

Agreed. I know A LOT of people cried about the lack of map when the game was released initially, but getting lost and whatnot was one of the things I liked about the game. So I chose not to use it during the switch playthrough.

[To Far Away Times]

LRG has been getting dunked on recently because they shipped a $60+ "collectors edition" 3DO game that was burned on a CD-R instead of a more professional CD pressing.

I don't trust that company one bit.

[m.sniffles.esq]

I don't trust that company one bit.

Yeah, there was thread on the main forum where I made my feeling known on the subject. And in avoidance of 40 more posts/counter-posts of controversy, I'll just state that I'm complete agreement. I've never been in agreement of their business model (and other companies with the same model) and have used them twice. Once for Black Bird because I wanted the poster, and it came creased, folded, and jammed in a box (and no amount of ironing will make it not look like shit). The second for Shadow Man because I wanted to save HD space on my Switch (it was the same price as digital) and I ended up having to download a 5GB patch. So, I'm done.

[Sumez]

I should have just kept the LRG talk to that thread. I just wanted to talk about Shadow Man

[Lander]

Ooh, Shadow Man talk! Almost slipped under the new page

A stonking game. Rough edged, but the broader theming and presentation hoist its lesser parts into an almost Yakuza-esque binary of goofy charm and weighty self-seriousness. Without a doubt greater than the sum of its parts.

For instance, the nailgun baddies in the asylum: They're meant to be fucked up, mentally-stunted creatures, wandering around bloody halls muttering Pretty... while idle. But you can easily mishear it as a cockney-thick enunciation of PISS, and both work for drastically different reasons

I thought the combat came together reasonably well toward the back half; it's a bit rough at baseline, but once you get a decent amount of Shadow Gun levels and Voodoo weapons (particularly the Enseigne,) there's some interesting situational mix-matching and push-pull gameplay to be had.

Made all the better for the Nightdive version giving it a nice definitive coat of paint; of all their remasters, I'd say Shadow Man is the most transformative and complete between the new areas, enemies, weapons, and true final collectible/s. Took 'em a while to finish it what with all the patching, but the final product is really great.

It's crammed with secrets too, beyond the explicitly-codified ones you unlock in the menu. The wily bastards went as far as to hide stuff in the background LODs and shuffle it around between patches, which creates a nifty meta-layer where the act of finding speedrunner collision exploits and breaking the game actually counts toward true 100% completion.

[m.sniffles.esq]

Nu-Shadow Man ended up arriving like two days before an actual new game I was anticipating was released (Labyrinth of Galleria maybe? I can't remember), so I only played like 4-5 hours before it got kicked to the back burner. It's been living in my Switch case ever since, and while I've been meaning to get back to it, something is always cutting it line ahead of it (currently Radirgy 2)

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Risk of Rain Returns

It's a pretty good remake of the first game without introducing anything too weird or game breaking. Everything new can also be disabled, so if you're having trouble with the new enemies or struggling to find the Miner because he's weirdly not part of the pool of new maps, you can disable a lot of the added stuff in the tweaks which helps to get stuff unlocked. Any time there's a remake, I'm always a bit scared some fundamentals will be broken like in the fanmade RoR "Starbound" mod which added void enemies that cause your mobility to flatline. If they so much as got near you you're hit with a slow and jump reduction effect that makes it nearly impossible to escape, and there's void worms that are guaranteed to proc the slow effect. Fortunately the official remake has none of this, with the few new enemies designed sensibly to be tough, but entirely fair.

The online, using Steam's infrastructure, is quite reliable. Disconnects basically don't happen unless someone's using something that adds instability such as a VPN. I only had one crash, and that was expected as we were on a 3 hour multi looping run and the game effects were causing my system to noticeably chug. This is kind of to be expected as the game normally ends after about 40 minutes or so unless you keep looping and repeating levels to get crazy strong, and crashing the game this way is a kind of ending itself and you don't lose anything you unlocked. :p But yeah, the game's online component is now wonderfully stable, addressing the main issue the initial release had.

RoRR's graphical tweaks are quite nice and I appreciate that each character has extra colour options to use.

Every character now has alternate moves that can be unlocked. It's a lengthy process to unlock everything, especially with the bonus challenge mode that requires you to go through some gimmicky challenges with each character (and to unlock everything requires beating 15 of the 30 or so under the par times). Fortunately most moves can be unlocked by simply playing the character and getting a number of total items or kills with them, with the remaining ones that require playing the game ranging from easy to absurd and needing specific planning (the Sniper one where you have to kill the final boss while in your backflip animation actually counts if you kill its first phase, so you ideally go in with no drones or attack items, and only use the Gauss Cannon to score the kill, using it as you backflip).

Several are very tough and I don't see casual players going to any effort to unlock them legitimately, with multiple characters having "do X without taking any damage". Fortunately, despite it feeling like a bit of an achievement hunt at first to unlock everything, the game lets you unlock nearly everything playing under whatever difficulty and whatever damage modifier tweak settings you want. Artifacts you can obtain often help out a lot here, with Glass allowing you to kill everything very fast and Kin making only one enemy type per level spawn, allowing you to reroll until easy enemies are present for the Commando and Miner "no damage" unlocks.

The unlockable alternate moves feel like a bit of a mixed bag. Several are quite good alternative upgrades such as the Commando's shotgun, the Enforcer's dash attack, the Acrid's teleport, but there's a few others like the Miner's alternate 2nd and 3rd moves that are clearly tacked on to give you an option for the sake of having an alternate move, but go against the original character's game design and are generally suboptimal compared to the original moves.

major spoilers here re one character unlock

There's a really obtuse subquest now to unlock a hidden 16th playable character where you have to find an item in the Easy difficulty mode, stash it in a chest on the final level, play another game on Normal or Hard, retrieve the item, then exit the third stage when the timer shows 22 mins to 23 mins on the clock so that a little robot needing the item appears.

Apparently the only way to find this is by sheer accident, have someone else online tell you, or unlock all the character logs and realize there's a apparently a line in hexadecimal in each you can translate or something?

It's by far the silliest thing in the game, and it nets you a joke character. Unlocking it also kills the current run immediately as all your items are stolen the moment you unlock it.

Unlocks are now pretty much all obtainable through online co-op play, whereas previously several were only doable in single player, such as finding the Miner. Also, anything you unlock becomes immediately available in the pool of randomly dropped items whereas in RoR, you had to wait until your next playthrough for any unlocked items to start dropping.

Rapid fire and several other accessibility options are now present, minimizing button mashing for the two characters who used to require it.

I'm still miffed the original game was left in its state with broken netcode that was subject to regular crashing, but I imagine the way it was coded made it tough to address... and I'm not fond of RoR2's shift to 3D (I prefer the Earth Defense Force games for cooperative 3D action), but it's nice to see the game finally get a release that does it justice.

edit: I should note that while the online is super stable, the online has a few flaws:

• When anyone clicks the Ready button it starts a 60 second timer for the game to begin. If you're waiting for a friend to join but want to keep the room public, you need to coordinate a bit.

• There's no way to rejoin a room when a game is in progress, even if you were originally in the game and had a disconnect. This is my biggest complaint. It also means players can't join to spectate and then join in the next match. Odd that we don't get the option when the EDF games let you join the game room while a game is in progress... At least let newcomers join as a drone or something like when you die.

• Rooms are strictly limited to 4 players. This is really a stability limitation, but in RoR1 you could actually adjust the settings and increase it to a whopping 10 players. It tended to disconnect people, but it was hilarious while it worked.

[Marc]

I really enjoyed RoR, finished it once, never went back. I'd like to pick this up on sale, still have the sequel in the backlog as well. I do worry about getting hopelessly addicted to stuff like this, approaching 150 hours on Dead Cells now.....

I’m TRYING to play Burnout 1 & 2, but keep hitting brick walls.

Via my phone it’s perfect, until I connect a Bluetooth controller, which destroys the frame rate for whatever reason. So, I picked up a nice modded fat Xbox and an HDMI adaptor, and it looks like smeary dogshit. I then realised that both are compatible with the X360, which plays just fine, up until any courses with weather effects on B2, which slows down to a crawl.

Worth me forking out for a component to HDMI adaptor (I have the original cable), or will this not look much better?

[m.sniffles.esq]

I really enjoyed RoR, finished it once, never went back. I'd like to pick this up on sale, still have the sequel in the backlog as well

I only played the sequel, as it was like $2 on sale. And... It's odd. It's like a twin-stick top-down swarm shooter, but 3rd person 3D, and you can only shoot one direction. So basically, you run, run, run, RUN, and then run some more. There's power-ups, but most of them need to be purchased with currency you pick up via killing things, and the game doesn't pause while you try negotiate these transactions. So you purchase a gun upgrade, but in the process, get completely swarmed by lizard men and giant cyclops things. So -- more often than not -- you're dead before you get to use them (health can be regenerated by -- you guessed it -- running).

The game was so intensely focused on trying to kill me as quickly as possible, I was convinced I was missing something. But more experienced players assured me I was not. You die 600x for every good run you achieve mostly by blind luck. I guess eventually the game gives you starting upgrades, but I couldn't hang in that long.

I mean, I played plenty of rougelikes or whatever. But, usually each death grants you something. Even if it's as small as "arrrggghh! I did this when I should of did that. Well, next time I'll know better" knowledge. RoR2 is just "Well, I ran around, managed to kill some things, then got swarmed and died. Perhaps, this time I'll manage to kill more things and live a minute longer..." and it just starts to feel pointless after awhile. Constantly escaping isn't real fun.

[vol.2]

Slogging through another run of Eye of The Beholder. This time I'm going to bring my party all the way through 3, though I don't know if I'll do the optional dungeon that drains your levels and insta kills you early on.

Been lost in all things RPG lately and I was really digging on the Cover art for EOB3 by Keith Parkinson (originally done for a Fritz Lieber Lankhmar campaign).

[Arino]

Slogging through another run of Eye of The Beholder. This time I'm going to bring my party all the way through 3, though I don't know if I'll do the optional dungeon that drains your levels and insta kills you early on.

Been lost in all things RPG lately and I was really digging on the Cover art for EOB3 by Keith Parkinson (originally done for a Fritz Lieber Lankhmar campaign).

DOS version?

I just read a quote on Wikipedia saying "in contrast to previous AD&D titles, there's more emphasis on puzzle-solving than combat". How are the puzzles like? I have never played a game of this genre where puzzles were involved so I can't imagine how that would be like.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

RoR2 is just "Well, I ran around, managed to kill some things, then got swarmed and died.

I never played RoR2 because I didn't like the art style shift to 3D. I agree that I'm skeptical with how well it can work; enemy spawns are chaotic and that's far more difficult to manage in 3D, whereas in RoR1 / RoRR having the environment be 2D means enemies are generally easier to manage. You have occasional flying types but for the most part it's easier to visualize. For multiplayer 3D coop I prefer the Earth Defense Force games. Enemies spawns are fixed, and for the chaotic fights you have control over what equipment you've got going in, and I just really like the series. RoR2 in 3D just looked and felt weird because I was so used to it being a 2D sprite based game.

I'm also not sure how well the system requirements are in 3D; the more items you get the crazier the effects are and one of the official "endings" in the community you can go for is to loop the game so many times that it just straight up crashes from all the crazy effects happening. I imagine this happens far earlier in 3D than it does when the effects are just in 2D...

[vol.2]

DOS version?

I just read a quote on Wikipedia saying "in contrast to previous AD&D titles, there's more emphasis on puzzle-solving than combat". How are the puzzles like? I have never played a game of this genre where puzzles were involved so I can't imagine how that would be like.

Yep, the DOS version. It's the only one I've ever played. Although I don't think it matters too much what you play as the assets are mostly the same on every platform. Some of them have reduced graphics a bit.

The puzzles are not on the level of the best adventure games, and there is very little in the way of contextualization; it's basically just environmental puzzles ala pulling levers and such. There are some magical transport puzzles as well. It fits very nicely into the whole DnD world though, and makes sense in the dungeon crawl setting. Essentially, the puzzles exist to extend the concepts of the maze levels; they provide extra complication and impediment to forward progress. However, they turn the puzzles "off" when you finish them, and they give you a means of rapid transit (though somewhat circuitous) through the levels when reach a point, so it doesn't ever get super tiring or anything.

Probably the most annoying thing about the game is that it wasn't ever really finished. The second game has a "sufficient" amount of polish, but the first game has several elements clearly designed to be "more game" that were just never done. There is a whole rapid transit channel that doesn't go anywhere and is missing it's key, and remaining levels in the game code that were just left hanging. Also a few puzzles that do not function as puzzles at all and only make sense as being unfinished.

The third game is horribly unbalanced and the writing is convoluted to the point of being uninteresting. The most difficult part of the whole game is an optional dungeon in the beginning, and most people stopped playing after that, probably assuming that the rest of the game would just be a slogfest. Thankfully, it gets more manageable from that point on, and it is essentially playable if you can still stand to look at it after that. More than one person has suggested just skipping the first dungeon as it isn't required in any way to finish the game, and you don't really need the experience to be competitive, especially if you are importing powerful characters from the first two games. In fact, the first dungeon may have been built to address the fact that many people playing the game will have min maxed four characters and loaded them down with +5 weapons, as it features a monster that can drain your levels and a single wand capable of restoring them, not featured anywhere else in the game.

All of the games (and especially the first one), are important steps in the direction of first person 3D RPGs; it is the link between the Wizardry series and Blue Sky's Ultima Underworld games. Blue Sky would go on to become Looking Glass, who created System Shock and Thief, and then when they got shut down by Eidos, key members went on to create Deus Ex and Bioshock. You can think of the first Eye of the Beholder game as being a baby step towards that style of gameplay. Combat is quasi realtime, and you can move (although clumsily) your characters in four directions to strategically attack.

The best and worst thing about the EOB series is that it's based on the Second Edition AD&D ruleset. You can just play the game through if you want and you will likely make it through the first two games just fine, but if you want an actual explanation for why your characters stats are having the effect they are having, or why you mysteriously level up numbers in a certain way, it will not be found in the game or by directly reading the manual. You need to give yourself a crash course in 2nd edition rules to understand Thaco and Constitution bonuses, etc. And then comes the third game, that I don't think you want to play without knowing that and min maxing a whole party through the first two, and to do that you need to know the ruleset.

IIRC there are some EOB changes to the 2nd edition rules that effect level caps for certain races and classes, which are stated in the manual, but they simply state those caps and such, and they do not mention that they are deviations.

[Arino]

DOS version?

I just read a quote on Wikipedia saying "in contrast to previous AD&D titles, there's more emphasis on puzzle-solving than combat". How are the puzzles like? I have never played a game of this genre where puzzles were involved so I can't imagine how that would be like.

Yep, the DOS version. It's the only one I've ever played. Although I don't think it matters too much what you play as the assets are mostly the same on every platform. Some of them have reduced graphics a bit.

The puzzles are not on the level of the best adventure games, and there is very little in the way of contextualization; it's basically just environmental puzzles ala pulling levers and such. There are some magical transport puzzles as well. It fits very nicely into the whole DnD world though, and makes sense in the dungeon crawl setting. Essentially, the puzzles exist to extend the concepts of the maze levels; they provide extra complication and impediment to forward progress. However, they turn the puzzles "off" when you finish them, and they give you a means of rapid transit (though somewhat circuitous) through the levels when reach a point, so it doesn't ever get super tiring or anything.

Probably the most annoying thing about the game is that it wasn't ever really finished. The second game has a "sufficient" amount of polish, but the first game has several elements clearly designed to be "more game" that were just never done. There is a whole rapid transit channel that doesn't go anywhere and is missing it's key, and remaining levels in the game code that were just left hanging. Also a few puzzles that do not function as puzzles at all and only make sense as being unfinished.

The third game is horribly unbalanced and the writing is convoluted to the point of being uninteresting. The most difficult part of the whole game is an optional dungeon in the beginning, and most people stopped playing after that, probably assuming that the rest of the game would just be a slogfest. Thankfully, it gets more manageable from that point on, and it is essentially playable if you can still stand to look at it after that. More than one person has suggested just skipping the first dungeon as it isn't required in any way to finish the game, and you don't really need the experience to be competitive, especially if you are importing powerful characters from the first two games. In fact, the first dungeon may have been built to address the fact that many people playing the game will have min maxed four characters and loaded them down with +5 weapons, as it features a monster that can drain your levels and a single wand capable of restoring them, not featured anywhere else in the game.

All of the games (and especially the first one), are important steps in the direction of first person 3D RPGs; it is the link between the Wizardry series and Blue Sky's Ultima Underworld games. Blue Sky would go on to become Looking Glass, who created System Shock and Thief, and then when they got shut down by Eidos, key members went on to create Deus Ex and Bioshock. You can think of the first Eye of the Beholder game as being a baby step towards that style of gameplay. Combat is quasi realtime, and you can move (although clumsily) your characters in four directions to strategically attack.

The best and worst thing about the EOB series is that it's based on the Second Edition AD&D ruleset. You can just play the game through if you want and you will likely make it through the first two games just fine, but if you want an actual explanation for why your characters stats are having the effect they are having, or why you mysteriously level up numbers in a certain way, it will not be found in the game or by directly reading the manual. You need to give yourself a crash course in 2nd edition rules to understand Thaco and Constitution bonuses, etc. And then comes the third game, that I don't think you want to play without knowing that and min maxing a whole party through the first two, and to do that you need to know the ruleset.

IIRC there are some EOB changes to the 2nd edition rules that effect level caps for certain races and classes, which are stated in the manual, but they simply state those caps and such, and they do not mention that they are deviations.

Really appreciate every single thing you explained! Did you know about this Steam version with auto map etc? https://youtu.be/G32xLEDVs6s?si=-dGoTi8nR-8_RA9I
I can't wait to play one of those first entries of the genre, I always wanted to. The oldest games of the genre that I have played are the ones where the genre was already quite developed I guess, like Shin Megami Tensei (1992).

[vol.2]

Did you know about this Steam version with auto map etc? https://youtu.be/G32xLEDVs6s?si=-dGoTi8nR-8_RA9I

Yes, I know about that. It's not an exclusive version, it's just the DOS version played in DOSBox with a tool called "The All Seeing Eye." You can just buy any version of the game (GOG, Steam), and then launch ASE after starting a game and it will automap for you.

It also can show the locations of swag you leave behind and active monsters.

Most people will want to play this way so you don't have to draw your own maps, and you can easily orient yourself, but I don't like to use it for a couple of reasons. First of all, it's not really the experience that was intended; in those days, people had fun making their own maps with graph paper. Secondly, I play it on my modern PC, but I output the video to an older CRT monitor. The problem with ASE is that you have to play the game in windowed mode, and a CRT monitor more or less needs to use the "exclusive full screen" mode of DOSBox in order to set the graphics mode correctly (EOB runs into 640x400 non-square pixels).

I do use the ASE in one situation, and that's level humping. EOB is very difficult to get your characters up to the maximum level per game, and you need to spend hours farming high experience monsters to do it. I can't be bothered to do that the old fashion way, and I use ASE to show me the locations of the monsters as they spawn and then run in and kill a whole bunch at a time, rinse and repeat. Then I go back to playing the regular way when I'm done.

But YMMV and the ASE definitely creates a more contemporary and streamlined experience to the game. It also does so gradually rather than giving you the whole map at once like the official Clue Book does.

The oldest games of the genre that I have played are the ones where the genre was already quite developed I guess, like Shin Megami Tensei (1992).

It's been years since I played that one, but IIRC, it's not quite the same thing. EOB series are action RPGs, where you have to click on your weapons to fight as you are running around. Shin Megami Tensei is more like a traditional CRPG in that you select you actions in combat and they are carried out for you, like was done in Wizardry, but also in the other games like Bard's Tale and Might and Magic. The first three Bard's Tale games are all great, and Might and Magic is great, but the first game is *extremely* basic and super difficult with insta-deaths all the way through the game. GOG is selling all of the Might and Magic games for $2 right now, so it's a good time to grab it if you are even just curious.

The original Bard's tale has a remastered version that I have never played, but it looks to have decent reviews. I actually played them on an Apple IIe in my school's computer lab when I was a kid, so those are the only versions I know. I know not where to buy the older versions, but I think they are probably not anywhere. Maybe check out the internet archive if you're curious.

[m.sniffles.esq]

I'm also not sure how well the system requirements are in 3D; the more items you get the crazier the effects are and one of the official "endings" in the community you can go for is to loop the game so many times that it just straight up crashes from all the crazy effects happening. I imagine this happens far earlier in 3D than it does when the effects are just in 2D...

My (not terribly great) set-up seemed to run it without a problem -- but then again -- I never got very far. I think I spawned the first boss a few times (which you have to fight while regular enemies continue to swarm you) but never beat it (or if I did, I don't remember doing it)

[BareKnuckleRoo]

My (not terribly great) set-up seemed to run it without a problem -- but then again -- I never got very far.

For a quick single loop clear, you're playing for about 30 to 40 minutes and will never have anywhere near enough items to make a half-decent system chug.

What I'm talking about in terms of crashing the game deliberately is something like a crazy long multi-looping run. I did one RoRR run that lasted three and a half hours with looping the game who knows how many times without going to the final level where people had literally hundreds of items apiece triggering various effects. We were blazing through each loop at like 20 mins per loop due to sheer damage output by then, but at the end of it you could tell a crash was coming as it started to really chug and stutter under the weight of trying to process an absolutely insane number of item effects along with many, many enemies at once. There's no upper limit to what the game will allow you to collect and it's possible to play for far, far longer than needed or intended without going to the final level, simply to collect a hilarious number of items.

[Samildanach]

I remember mapping out all three Eye of the Beholder games on graph paper. I can remember being distinctly pleased each of the first games' 10 levels neatly would each fit into the same sized perfect square and each square would only have two enemy types. Also the warp doors spoilt things a bit as they allowed you to skip too much.

The EOB2 was the first I played and felt very atmospheric. The dread I felt descending into the catacombs with the seemingly endless spawning of skeletons prevented my progress for what I thought was ages. Dran Draggore proving a great villain making my jump out of my skin more than once.

EOB3 was a massive let down both in level design, atmosphere and difficulty balance (hard at first becoming pitifully easy later on). The baddy (Moandar?) was rather a damp squib too. Still mapped it out like a chump, but I never enjoyed it anywhere near as much as the first two.

[vol.2]

Also the warp doors spoilt things a bit as they allowed you to skip too much.

I didn't feel that way. The warp doors are carefully placed so that you can only access very specific parts of lower levels, and are used in this way as sub-dungeons to the starting location. It's not until you end up in a level in the proper manner (through a staircase or pit), that you can access the the full map of that level and connect it to the area with the warp doors. They actually accomplish this before you get far enough to use the warps (very end of level 7) by creating an isolated loop between 7, 8 and 9 that can only be accessed on 7. It's the exact same thing as using the warp doors to get to 10 via 8 and 6, but they are just using the warp doors as a staircase. I think it's very clever level design actually.

[m.sniffles.esq]

There's no upper limit to what the game will allow you to collect and it's possible to play for far, far longer than needed or intended without going to the final level, simply to collect a hilarious number of items.

Yeah, people were telling me if I stuck with it, I'd eventually become Shiva the world ender. And I can see how that would be very satisfying after getting ones ass handed to them several thousand times. I just wasn't having a whole lot of fun suffering through those few thousand times, I suppose. And the promise of enjoyment at some undetermined later time wasn't much of an incentive when I could just play something else and have fun immediately.

[Samildanach]

Also the warp doors spoilt things a bit as they allowed you to skip too much.

I didn't feel that way. The warp doors are carefully placed so that you can only access very specific parts of lower levels, and are used in this way as sub-dungeons to the starting location. It's not until you end up in a level in the proper manner (through a staircase or pit), that you can access the the full map of that level and connect it to the area with the warp doors. They actually accomplish this before you get far enough to use the warps (very end of level 7) by creating an isolated loop between 7, 8 and 9 that can only be accessed on 7. It's the exact same thing as using the warp doors to get to 10 via 8 and 6, but they are just using the warp doors as a staircase. I think it's very clever level design actually.

It's been a long time since I played it and my memory was of getting through the game via the warp doors initially, then later being surprised by how much I had missed by going down via stairs etc. You obviously have far better knowledge than me, though I do remember the quality of the level design being good in that game. EOB3 was just too many mindless, endless mazes in comparison.

[vol.2]

It's been a long time since I played it and my memory was of getting through the game via the warp doors initially, then later being surprised by how much I had missed by going down via stairs etc. You obviously have far better knowledge than me, though I do remember the quality of the level design being good in that game. EOB3 was just too many mindless, endless mazes in comparison.

The warp doors aren't accessible at all until level 5, and even then it only transports you to a single room that you can't get out of. It's designed to be a fast transit method for backtracking that is only usable once you have finished the preceding level. The only exceptions to this are the two spots where you are given an isolated spot to explore on another level that contains part of a fetch quest, and this isn't really getting "ahead," but just using sections of lower dungeons as sub levels.

There is also a magical rapid transit system in lv2-3 that is fairly isolated and only functions as part of a puzzle to open doors and retrieve items. It's all designed that way and using them is necessary to progress and not a crutch for the lazy.

[Creamy Goodness]

Playing Midnight Resistance on the Genesis. Seems like a decent game, but man those controls will take some time to get used to. But the OST is definitely .

[Sumez]

This "final goodbye" message in Shadow Man is something else. It's introducing a bunch of concept art pictures added into the remaster, so not sure if it even made it into the original game, but here it is...



"Hey thanks for playing our game. Remember, out there in the real world people will kill and rape you. Take care!"

[m.sniffles.esq]

"Remember, out there in the real world people will kill and rape you."

And you should pity them...

If that was in the original, I don't remember it (and I feel like I would have)

[Lander]

This "final goodbye" message in Shadow Man is something else.

Ah, the developer poem! If there was any remaining doubt that the plucky, janky 3Dvania had heart, that soundly seals the deal.

Shame that Asmodeus' spoor didn't work out though; Shadow Man: 2econd Coming had a rough development cycle, got rushed out the door, and ended up whiffing various key elements in favor of PS2-era grit. Mike's a Vin Diesel / Ice Cube buffdude instead of the likeable down-and-out loser, Shadow Man's a decaying zombie skeleton, Nettie's a trendy sex symbol, and the structure and concept are just weaker overall.

Though the the Mike LeRoi arc of the comic is worth a look if the game caught your interest. It's much darker in tone, with very little in the way of goofy funnies, but dives deeper into fucked up Voodoo lore and paints Nettie as a more sinister character. Definitely interesting.

Still wondering how that new Jack Boniface game is going to work out, as all's been quite since its announcement. Though the theme seems to be rising in profile lately; Alone in the Dark's latest entry ended up as roughshod RE2make by way of Louisiana Voodoo, and was quite interesting for it.

[Sima Tuna]

Is Asmodeus' Spoor what's left on the couch after Asmodeus invites his Tinder date over for some Netflix and chill?

[m.sniffles.esq]

I played Shadow Man 2nd Coming (fittingly, it was $2), I remember absolutely nothing about it, including enjoying it.

I DO remember the girl at GameStop giving me like .25 cents for it and saying "I liked this game. I mean the original. This one SUCKS"

[Arino]

EOB series are action RPGs

Oh. Right. I didn't realize EOB was real time action. Only glanced at it.

...Oh wow! I remember the Might and Magic games from back then. Haven't played those in decades. Will be interesting to check those out again.

I'm playing Nex Machina right now.