Been slacking a lot on the Backlog challenge. Sorry Team! Technically I've beaten one game so far, but it was on Xbox One, and was acquired specifically for review purposes. I'll try to knock something out before the deadline.
But, I kind of just want to play through FFVII again right now. See back in the school year of 1998-1999, I roomed with a fellow Computer Science major who introduced me to the joy of that game. Two years later, after he'd graduated, left, then come back to work for the college, I borrowed the game for a couple of months and did a full play through (to the slight detriment of my Senior year grades).
Since he and his wife now lived off campus, and had both internet and cable TV (something us dorm-dwellers didn't yet enjoy) another friend and I would often load up computer towers, massive 17" CRTs, and truck over to his house in a Saturday to play Starcraft or Diablo together.
We kind of lost touch after I graduated. Oh, we'd exchange Christmas cards every year, but that was about it. He had a Facebook page, but never did more than just sign up.
Anyway, I just found out, from a hand-written note sent in reply to our annual Christmas card, that he passed away last August, at the far too young age of 42. It hurts that my friend is gone. It hurts that we'd drifted so far apart that I didn't even know he was gone for six months.
I'm going to call one of my other college friends whom I haven't spoken to in a couple of years this weekend. And like I said, maybe start an FFVII play through. Life's too short to keep losing contact like this.
We know another game that will be together with Civilization VI in current Humble Monthly - Owlboy.
... yeah, that's pretty good. 12 $ would be a good enough price for Civ VI alone, and now we get one of more interesting indie games of last year. One more really good game and it may be one of the best bundles ever.
If you subscribe to the bundle can you give the keys away to others?
Yeah, I've given away a few Humble Monthly games I've gotten when I already owned them or didn't have any interest in them.
It has been a very long time since a game has gotten it's hooks into me like They Are Billions has. For the first time in close to 10 years I found myself looking at the clock thinking it's around midnight only to realise it's almost 3am.
Slime Rancher is a great pick. There's exploring, some farming/ranching, and overwhelming amounts of cute. I've adored both games. Some other possible options include:
Stardew Valley - This one is definitely heavier on the farming aspect, and there's less exploring, but it's a delightfully friendly world to lose yourself in.
Castaway Paradise - It's basically a small animal crossing clone (but definitely not as good as the real thing).
Yono and the Celestial Elephants - A simple Zelda-clone where Link is replaced by the cutest elephant you've ever seen. (It is on the shorter end of things though, and has an actual end.)
Okami - There is combat in this, but it really nails the delight in bringing the landscape back to life, and you gain "experience" not by killing things, but by helping things grow, feeding animals, doing favors for people, etc. It's also really beautiful and really long (although it does have an end).
Also look up Staxel on Steam. It's early access and I had a lot of doubts on it but it turns out it's amazingly neat. It's a Minecraft/Harvest Moon/Animal Crossing meld with multiplayer
Also have a look at My Time At Portia, which seems to be the same thing as Staxel but with a cartoony look instead of a blocky one. I haven't played either, but both came out on the same day and are getting positive reviews, so maybe have a look at both of them.
Of course I can't find it, but there is an internet theory that if you downvote songs enough times on Pandora, you always end up at Green Day.
You guys are turning this into the Steam version of that theory; but I haven't quite figured out which game you'll always come back to (but I'm guessing Zelda).
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KalnaurI See Rain . . .Centralia, WARegistered Userregular
There are worse game types to land on
I make art things! deviantART:Kalnaur ::: Origin: Kalnaur ::: UPlay: Kalnaur
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H3KnucklesBut we decide which is rightand which is an illusion.Registered Userregular
We know another game that will be together with Civilization VI in current Humble Monthly - Owlboy.
... yeah, that's pretty good. 12 $ would be a good enough price for Civ VI alone, and now we get one of more interesting indie games of last year. One more really good game and it may be one of the best bundles ever.
If you subscribe to the bundle can you give the keys away to others?
That's what I did with some of the last monthly bundle, so yes.
It has been a very long time since a game has gotten it's hooks into me like They Are Billions has. For the first time in close to 10 years I found myself looking at the clock thinking it's around midnight only to realise it's almost 3am.
Slime Rancher is a great pick. There's exploring, some farming/ranching, and overwhelming amounts of cute. I've adored both games. Some other possible options include:
Stardew Valley - This one is definitely heavier on the farming aspect, and there's less exploring, but it's a delightfully friendly world to lose yourself in.
Castaway Paradise - It's basically a small animal crossing clone (but definitely not as good as the real thing).
Yono and the Celestial Elephants - A simple Zelda-clone where Link is replaced by the cutest elephant you've ever seen. (It is on the shorter end of things though, and has an actual end.)
Okami - There is combat in this, but it really nails the delight in bringing the landscape back to life, and you gain "experience" not by killing things, but by helping things grow, feeding animals, doing favors for people, etc. It's also really beautiful and really long (although it does have an end).
Also look up Staxel on Steam. It's early access and I had a lot of doubts on it but it turns out it's amazingly neat. It's a Minecraft/Harvest Moon/Animal Crossing meld with multiplayer
Also have a look at My Time At Portia, which seems to be the same thing as Staxel but with a cartoony look instead of a blocky one. I haven't played either, but both came out on the same day and are getting positive reviews, so maybe have a look at both of them.
Of course I can't find it, but there is an internet theory that if you downvote songs enough times on Pandora, you always end up at Green Day.
You guys are turning this into the Steam version of that theory; but I haven't quite figured out which game you'll always come back to (but I'm guessing Zelda).
Stardew Valley would be a strong contender.
Other stuff that is often highly recommended by multiple people usually have some caveats attached, e.g. you won't enjoy Alien: Isolation if you don't enjoy horror, you won't enjoy Deus Ex if you can't handle early 2000s controls and interfaces, you won't enjoy Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines if you can't enjoy colons, etc.
H3KnucklesBut we decide which is rightand which is an illusion.Registered Userregular
edited January 2018
@Drake Have you played any of the Dark Souls/Bloodborne games? If you like games with ambient storytelling that you have to discover and piece together yourself, they might be right up your alley. When I was watching a playthrough of Bloodborne, there was a guy on the channel's subreddit who would expound on all the bits they were finding or missing, combining item descriptions with their locations in game, NPC dialogue and locations, and so forth and so on, to slowly piece together what was going on, and it was really fascinating to follow.
I got a second hand Steam Link cheap on EBay to go with my shiny new 8bitdo blue tooth controller I got in the G&T Secret Santa. Easy to set up wired for me so it seems to work great! I'm bit confused at what appears to be an extraneous steam logo-ed usb dongle that came with it though. Is that meant to be part of the Link setup or is there somebody buying a Steam Controller from this guy in for a nasty surprise?
I'll have to look at my box tonight and see if it has a USB dongle, but think you might be right.
According to Steam's page this is what is in the box.
Steam Link
Power cable and adapter
HDMI 2.0 cable
Ethernet cable
What should I play
Hmm...let me open Steam. How about...
Cuphead
Deus Ex: HR - DC
Flinthook
Tomb Raider (2016)
War for the Overworld
Cuphead is gorgeous and controller-crushing, obscenity-hurling difficult in the best ways.
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SteevLWhat can I do for you?Registered Userregular
I can definitely vouch for Cuphead and Tomb Raider, although I'm assuming you mean Tomb Raider (2013) there. Unless you mean Rise of the Tomb Raider, which did come out in 2016. Regardless, both modern Tomb Raiders are fine games!
I can definitely vouch for Cuphead and Tomb Raider, although I'm assuming you mean Tomb Raider (2013) there. Unless you mean Rise of the Tomb Raider, which did come out in 2016. Regardless, both modern Tomb Raiders are fine games!
This, and also Deus Ex: HR: DC. Wonderful game, but it's not short if that's a consideration.
KoopahTroopahThe koopas, the troopas.Philadelphia, PARegistered Userregular
Just to let everyone know and so you're not offended, I'm starting to go through my unplayed games on Steam as I get to them and refunding ones that I don't like or won't play. I'll send you a message to ya if I refund your gift, in which case you are then eligible to refund them yourself and gift new better stuff to other people.
Just to let everyone know and so you're not offended, I'm starting to go through my unplayed games on Steam as I get to them and refunding ones that I don't like or won't play. I'll send you a message to ya if I refund your gift, in which case you are then eligible to refund them yourself and gift new better stuff to other people.
Consider it a library cleansing of sorts.
I figured gifts would be under the same rules as regular purchases before you can refund; that is, 2 hours or 2 weeks owned, whichever comes first.
Just to let everyone know and so you're not offended, I'm starting to go through my unplayed games on Steam as I get to them and refunding ones that I don't like or won't play. I'll send you a message to ya if I refund your gift, in which case you are then eligible to refund them yourself and gift new better stuff to other people.
Consider it a library cleansing of sorts.
I figured gifts would be under the same rules as regular purchases before you can refund; that is, 2 hours or 2 weeks owned, whichever comes first.
Yeah, I'm not sure if this is really going to work with Steam CS.
Just to let everyone know and so you're not offended, I'm starting to go through my unplayed games on Steam as I get to them and refunding ones that I don't like or won't play. I'll send you a message to ya if I refund your gift, in which case you are then eligible to refund them yourself and gift new better stuff to other people.
Consider it a library cleansing of sorts.
I figured gifts would be under the same rules as regular purchases before you can refund; that is, 2 hours or 2 weeks owned, whichever comes first.
Yeah, I'm not sure if this is really going to work with Steam CS.
Well, not exactly the same thing, but I just got a refund today because my son's friends never claimed the gift copy of Terraria I sent them for Christmas.
Steamworld Dig 2 complete! Such a great game, I even went ahead and got 100% of the secrets. Haven't done that in...over a decade?
What should I play next?
Did you clear the super hard sky dungeon at the end? Just curious.
Wait, the what now?
When you get all the artifacts, the artifact guy gives you basically a key for a hidden dungeon. It's in the sky above the main desert. You need the final jetpack upgrade to get up there and when you do enter, it's some extremely hardcore Super Meat Boy style platforming challenges.
Unfortunately, I never got to try it because it REQUIRES the fully upgraded jetpack to get to and there's not nearly enough money in the game to buy every upgrade. When you're right before the ending, there's no area with tons of extra money or anything like that, it's just a big oversight from the devs. They also don't warn you to DEFINITELY get the final jetpack upgrade, which is basically a HUGE unnecessary luxury. The only way I could get access is by grinding the blood diamonds from certain respawning enemies for hours. I said fuck it and moved on though.
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KalnaurI See Rain . . .Centralia, WARegistered Userregular
Psychonauts done. Level 101, all the in game things gotten. Missed a few "interactions" but I wasn't really interested. The asylum and fishthing were the best parts. I don't see why Meat Circus is so loathed, but I was also 'naut level 98, with all the health I could bring.
Not sure what to play next. I don't know if I can play through another game before the end of the battle, nor end of the month, but I might try for Bard's Tale, regardless. I find it interesting that apparently these games, both of which were released pre-2005, were given some love at least as recently as 2011.
I make art things! deviantART:Kalnaur ::: Origin: Kalnaur ::: UPlay: Kalnaur
Steamworld Dig 2 complete! Such a great game, I even went ahead and got 100% of the secrets. Haven't done that in...over a decade?
What should I play next?
Did you clear the super hard sky dungeon at the end? Just curious.
Wait, the what now?
When you get all the artifacts, the artifact guy gives you basically a key for a hidden dungeon. It's in the sky above the main desert. You need the final jetpack upgrade to get up there and when you do enter, it's some extremely hardcore Super Meat Boy style platforming challenges.
Unfortunately, I never got to try it because it REQUIRES the fully upgraded jetpack to get to and there's not nearly enough money in the game to buy every upgrade. When you're right before the ending, there's no area with tons of extra money or anything like that, it's just a big oversight from the devs. They also don't warn you to DEFINITELY get the final jetpack upgrade, which is basically a HUGE unnecessary luxury. The only way I could get access is by grinding the blood diamonds from certain respawning enemies for hours. I said fuck it and moved on though.
Huh, I'll have to check it out. I had enough cash to buy everything with some to spare. Granted I did go heavy to economy early so that might have had something to do with it.
Edit: Found the dungeon you were talking about. Yeah, that's so not for me. Not fun at all.
Looks like I'll be playing Deus Ex next, unless the poll changes by tomorrow.
MNC Dover on
Need a voice actor? Hire me at bengrayVO.com
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051 Steam ID Twitch Page
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SteevLWhat can I do for you?Registered Userregular
Psychonauts done. Level 101, all the in game things gotten. Missed a few "interactions" but I wasn't really interested. The asylum and fishthing were the best parts. I don't see why Meat Circus is so loathed, but I was also 'naut level 98, with all the health I could bring.
Not sure what to play next. I don't know if I can play through another game before the end of the battle, nor end of the month, but I might try for Bard's Tale, regardless. I find it interesting that apparently these games, both of which were released pre-2005, were given some love at least as recently as 2011.
The Bard's Tale is a Diablo-like that took pride in its simplicity. There was never any reason to keep less powerful weapons or armor, so the game automatically "sold" them for you and you'd get the money as soon as you picked it up. The story tried its best to be funny, although I felt it kind of fell flat at times on that front.
I played through it on PS2 years ago. My notes in backloggery state that I didn't find it to be a good game for whatever reason, and that it took me over 25 hours to beat it. But I also got all three endings. I was probably a little harsh on the game at the time.
Just to let everyone know and so you're not offended, I'm starting to go through my unplayed games on Steam as I get to them and refunding ones that I don't like or won't play. I'll send you a message to ya if I refund your gift, in which case you are then eligible to refund them yourself and gift new better stuff to other people.
Consider it a library cleansing of sorts.
I figured gifts would be under the same rules as regular purchases before you can refund; that is, 2 hours or 2 weeks owned, whichever comes first.
Just to let everyone know and so you're not offended, I'm starting to go through my unplayed games on Steam as I get to them and refunding ones that I don't like or won't play. I'll send you a message to ya if I refund your gift, in which case you are then eligible to refund them yourself and gift new better stuff to other people.
Consider it a library cleansing of sorts.
I figured gifts would be under the same rules as regular purchases before you can refund; that is, 2 hours or 2 weeks owned, whichever comes first.
Is it two weeks? I thought it was 6 months?
Nope, 2 weeks owned or two hours played, whichever comes first, unless something has changed very recently.
I make art things! deviantART:Kalnaur ::: Origin: Kalnaur ::: UPlay: Kalnaur
Psychonauts done. Level 101, all the in game things gotten. Missed a few "interactions" but I wasn't really interested. The asylum and fishthing were the best parts. I don't see why Meat Circus is so loathed, but I was also 'naut level 98, with all the health I could bring.
Not sure what to play next. I don't know if I can play through another game before the end of the battle, nor end of the month, but I might try for Bard's Tale, regardless. I find it interesting that apparently these games, both of which were released pre-2005, were given some love at least as recently as 2011.
So.. Things I dislike about Meat circus:
1) Gross
2) Escort Mission
3) The tightrope scaling part after the Escort Mission just requires too much accuracy for the controls the game gives you. Half the time you'll wind up falling in the water through no fault of your own, but because Raz fails to grab a ladder or some such.
4) Still Gross
Now you just need to go back and confusion grenade the ad painting dog in the Matador's head.
But yeah, Psychonauts really suffers from the overworld being slow.
And it doesn't really pick up until the fishman world, where the overworld is quietly ditched.
Then the Meat Circus throws us back into the platforming from the overworld, and it's just an unfortunately disappointing capstone.
Psychonauts manages to save itself though by trying a lot of different ideas I think, so even though the overworld is rubbish, the fishman world, or the milkman world, are just so remarkable that they overpower the other once-off mechanics that don't land so well (like the nightmares).
Hopefully they can examine what worked well here and focus only on that in Psychonauts 2 (whenever that's releasing).
Anyway, Day of the Tentacle is done.
Maniac Mansion is also included in the remastered version of the game, but I didn't complete that.
Day of the Tentacle is fairly decent.
There's some Adventure game logic in there, and some contextual puzzles that don't offer up their solutions even when you have all the pieces together and are attempting a similar solution.
It also has an object interaction highlight which I didn't use until the end, and then didn't help any.
It's got some decent humour though.
There's also some decent prompting throughout the game, pointing at what might need to be done.
And probably the biggest improvement over many adventure games is the split character control allowing for parallel puzzle solving.
See, you control three protagonists in this game, split over three time eras, each having their own objective that needs to be completed before they can all be reunited again.
This means often you'll be able to solve puzzles on one path whilst being blocked on another.
And that just keeps you from reaching for the walkthrough, as you're not often completely stuck.
At least, not until you've completely solved some of the storylines.
Maniac Mansion looks like it won't pull any punches though, and will let you destroy key items (or even passively allow key items to be destroyed by taking too long) and accidentally kill everyone, preventing you from finishing the game.
So, 3.5/5 for Day of the Tentacle for videogame logic, Did Not Finish for Maniac Mansion (prob 2/5 why won't anyone answer my tentacle mating calls).
IanatorGaze upon my works, ye mightyand facepalm.Registered Userregular
Once again I have exhausted all the Neps in my inventory. So until I get my hands on Seganep and Cyberdimension it'll be back to filthy regular video game peasantry instead of glorious metahumor JRPG-starring-personifications-of-game-consoles master race.
*ahem*
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MegaTagmension Blanc + Neptune VS Zombies!: Competing with "The Room" for Blurst Horror Movie Ever
Developed by Tamsoft, also makers of Senran Kagura, Blanc+Nep VS Zombies is technically a sequel to their previous Nep product, Hyperdimension Neptunia U, which I don't entirely remember posting a review for. It's an action game similar to Dynasty Warriors or, well, Senran Kagura in which you button-mash your way through hordes of mooks. Zombie mooks, in this case.
Our setting this time is Gamicademi, an island school under imminent threat of closure. The core Neptunia cast decides to enter the school as students in an attempt to spur enrollment. Our protagonist this time, the small-statured Blanc, puts aside her authorial ambitions to write, direct and star in an amateur movie alongside Neptune, president of the school's Film Club. Suddenly, a real zombie outbreak strikes the island - the ideal conditions for Blanny and Neppy to make a zombie flick! Can the film club grow into legitimacy, save the school from closure and save the day from the undead, or is it deep six for all involved?
The game is divided into "cuts", individual stages with set objectives and rewards and often preceded by a story sequence detailing what's being filmed. The player selects two characters (from a selection of up to thirteen) and can switch between those characters in-mission, regenerating HP for whoever's in the back line. Each character has their own movesets, divided into ground and aerial attacks utilizing branching combos of Fast and Strong attacks, and stats to determine what they're best at. You also have four SP Attacks, simple special moves on a shared six-second cooldown, and an EXE gauge which fills when hitting enemies and fuels super-strong EXE Drives or lets them transform into a superpowered form with increased stats and alternate combos. The characters you take will earn EXP, granting stats and Skill Points at level-up. Skill Points let you further raise their stats or expand their movesets.
Standard enemies are mostly brainless, mobbing together and attacking you a few at a time. Many missions frequently ask you to take down tougher miniboss enemies which have stronger, more frequent attacks and much greater health. Depending on how your characters are leveled (primarily determined by if you've been sticking with Blanc and Neptune from start to finish) these minibosses could range from interesting targets to total bullshit damage sponges. Certain enemies are strong or weak to certain types of damage (pierce, thrust, impact, ranged or magic) but the tough enemies hit hard enough to punish players who bring underleveled characters. Your choices are thus to either grind up the appropriate less-used character, modify your more-used characters' weapons with type-adjusting "Patches" or just play keep-away long enough to whittle them down with SP attacks and do your best to not get taken down in a couple shots.
After missions end you receive funds, equipable Patches and crafting ingredients. Patches are applied to your characters' weapons for a certain amount of missions, after which they must be restocked or replaced. The game's not terribly clear on that and the indicators seem a bit poorly translated so I found myself not bothering for the most part. There is also a decorative accessory setup that allows you to place silly hats, glasses and other things on your characters, ostensibly to show off your custom Neps in multiplayer.
The characters say things when you explore the menus which gets kind of grating. They try to get your attention if you put the game down for a bit - the loading screen "tips" call it conversing with them but I just found it... objectifying? I identify with the characters more when they aren't going out of their way to target lonely otaku sensibilities and wanting me to treat them as Mai Waifu. STOP BUGGING ME, I HAVE TO GO TO THE BATHROOM.
...Kind of ironic that this game isn't on a Nintendo system despite placing the Wii personification in the spotlight, eh?
In summation: Blanc+Nep VS Zombies is a fun little sidestory romp that's held back by a bunch of low-budget oversights including frustrating balance decisions and limited or hard-to-read information. It's still fun when things work out and I'd love to get together with someone for online multiplayer.
My Score: 2.5/5
Total Playtime: 11 hours
Twitch | Blizzard: Ianator#1479 | 3DS: Ianator - 1779 2336 5317 | FFXIV: Iana Ateliere (NA Sarg) Backlog Challenge List
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KoopahTroopahThe koopas, the troopas.Philadelphia, PARegistered Userregular
Just to let everyone know and so you're not offended, I'm starting to go through my unplayed games on Steam as I get to them and refunding ones that I don't like or won't play. I'll send you a message to ya if I refund your gift, in which case you are then eligible to refund them yourself and gift new better stuff to other people.
Consider it a library cleansing of sorts.
I figured gifts would be under the same rules as regular purchases before you can refund; that is, 2 hours or 2 weeks owned, whichever comes first.
Is it two weeks? I thought it was 6 months?
Nope, 2 weeks owned or two hours played, whichever comes first, unless something has changed very recently.
Faaaaaaaaaaaaak. Nevermind then. They shall remain like graves in my library.
Are some of the mechanics as infuriating as the PC game? Please sell me you can instantly game over from an enemy that moves faster than you, attacks multiple times a turn and each attack adding a stack of disease.
Are some of the mechanics as infuriating as the PC game? Please sell me you can instantly game over from an enemy that moves faster than you, attacks multiple times a turn and each attack adding a stack of disease.
Sorry, never happened to me. I'm gonna doubt it tho.
Psychonauts done. Level 101, all the in game things gotten. Missed a few "interactions" but I wasn't really interested. The asylum and fishthing were the best parts. I don't see why Meat Circus is so loathed, but I was also 'naut level 98, with all the health I could bring.
Not sure what to play next. I don't know if I can play through another game before the end of the battle, nor end of the month, but I might try for Bard's Tale, regardless. I find it interesting that apparently these games, both of which were released pre-2005, were given some love at least as recently as 2011.
So.. Things I dislike about Meat circus:
1) Gross
2) Escort Mission
3) The tightrope scaling part after the Escort Mission just requires too much accuracy for the controls the game gives you. Half the time you'll wind up falling in the water through no fault of your own, but because Raz fails to grab a ladder or some such.
4) Still Gross
Now you just need to go back and confusion grenade the ad painting dog in the Matador's head.
But yeah, Psychonauts really suffers from the overworld being slow.
And it doesn't really pick up until the fishman world, where the overworld is quietly ditched.
Then the Meat Circus throws us back into the platforming from the overworld, and it's just an unfortunately disappointing capstone.
Psychonauts manages to save itself though by trying a lot of different ideas I think, so even though the overworld is rubbish, the fishman world, or the milkman world, are just so remarkable that they overpower the other once-off mechanics that don't land so well (like the nightmares).
Hopefully they can examine what worked well here and focus only on that in Psychonauts 2 (whenever that's releasing).
Anyway, Day of the Tentacle is done.
Maniac Mansion is also included in the remastered version of the game, but I didn't complete that.
Day of the Tentacle is fairly decent.
There's some Adventure game logic in there, and some contextual puzzles that don't offer up their solutions even when you have all the pieces together and are attempting a similar solution.
It also has an object interaction highlight which I didn't use until the end, and then didn't help any.
It's got some decent humour though.
There's also some decent prompting throughout the game, pointing at what might need to be done.
And probably the biggest improvement over many adventure games is the split character control allowing for parallel puzzle solving.
See, you control three protagonists in this game, split over three time eras, each having their own objective that needs to be completed before they can all be reunited again.
This means often you'll be able to solve puzzles on one path whilst being blocked on another.
And that just keeps you from reaching for the walkthrough, as you're not often completely stuck.
At least, not until you've completely solved some of the storylines.
Maniac Mansion looks like it won't pull any punches though, and will let you destroy key items (or even passively allow key items to be destroyed by taking too long) and accidentally kill everyone, preventing you from finishing the game.
So, 3.5/5 for Day of the Tentacle for videogame logic, Did Not Finish for Maniac Mansion (prob 2/5 why won't anyone answer my tentacle mating calls).
When I was around 10 or 12 we got a pack of Lucasarts adventure games that had Day of the Tentacle, Sam & Max Hit the Road, and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. It also had some demos of LA Star Wars games that we played about 1,000 times. So many good memories of playing those adventure games! I went back and played the Day of the Tentacle Enhanced recently, and remembered how to do almost all of the puzzles. What useless stuff to be storing in my brain for two decades!
I just ordered a 2TB SSHD to replace the 1TB HDD in my laptop. Because an excessive amount of storage space (by laptop standards) - for let's face it, mostly Steam games - is awesome.
Still, it occurs to me that I've never replaced a hard drive in a computer up to now, only added them to what was already there. And the last time was a while ago. So, since this is the D drive and not the boot drive, am I to assume that a simple copy/paste of everything from the old drive to the new is good enough and I don't need to faff about with cloning software? I've picked up an external enclosure as well so one of the drives can be plugged in to a USB port while the other stays in the PC, and the old drive can be a backup drive afterwards. Also; is it better to do the copy before switching the drives over?
I just ordered a 2TB SSHD to replace the 1TB HDD in my laptop. Because an excessive amount of storage space (by laptop standards) - for let's face it, mostly Steam games - is awesome.
Still, it occurs to me that I've never replaced a hard drive in a computer up to now, only added them to what was already there. And the last time was a while ago. So, since this is the D drive and not the boot drive, am I to assume that a simple copy/paste of everything from the old drive to the new is good enough and I don't need to faff about with cloning software? I've picked up an external enclosure as well so one of the drives can be plugged in to a USB port while the other stays in the PC, and the old drive can be a backup drive afterwards. Also; is it better to do the copy before switching the drives over?
For off-drives, copy/paste will typically work fine as long as you keep the original paths and you weren't insane enough to do something like installing your anti-virus to . You ideally will want to attach the new drive with the enclosure first and then copy the data over, and then do the actual swap after that.
During the charity drive, you [collective you, not just you, though you know who you are] went completely bonkers. Consequently, y'all get to go equally bonkers with my Steam profile.
Yep, once again everything is up for you [collective... see above] to change everything. Steam name, avatar, background, badges, showcases, whatever. Whatever it ends up being, it will stay that way for one month. Well... 30 days. I won't even cheat y'all by using February.
PM me any suggestions for things you want to change. Anything is fair game as long as it won't get me banned. After a few days, I'll take all the suggestions and start a bunch of polls just like last time.
I just ordered a 2TB SSHD to replace the 1TB HDD in my laptop. Because an excessive amount of storage space (by laptop standards) - for let's face it, mostly Steam games - is awesome.
Still, it occurs to me that I've never replaced a hard drive in a computer up to now, only added them to what was already there. And the last time was a while ago. So, since this is the D drive and not the boot drive, am I to assume that a simple copy/paste of everything from the old drive to the new is good enough and I don't need to faff about with cloning software? I've picked up an external enclosure as well so one of the drives can be plugged in to a USB port while the other stays in the PC, and the old drive can be a backup drive afterwards. Also; is it better to do the copy before switching the drives over?
For off-drives, copy/paste will typically work fine as long as you keep the original paths and you weren't insane enough to do something like installing your anti-virus to . You ideally will want to attach the new drive with the enclosure first and then copy the data over, and then do the actual swap after that.
Yeah, I'm not changing any paths and the only things actually installed on the existing drive are games. Everything else is just easily copyable files of various types. Thanks for the advice
Posts
Oh geez, I'm so sorry to hear that @shdwcaster!
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
Yeah, I've given away a few Humble Monthly games I've gotten when I already owned them or didn't have any interest in them.
My Backloggery
Of course I can't find it, but there is an internet theory that if you downvote songs enough times on Pandora, you always end up at Green Day.
You guys are turning this into the Steam version of that theory; but I haven't quite figured out which game you'll always come back to (but I'm guessing Zelda).
That's what I did with some of the last monthly bundle, so yes.
Stardew Valley would be a strong contender.
Other stuff that is often highly recommended by multiple people usually have some caveats attached, e.g. you won't enjoy Alien: Isolation if you don't enjoy horror, you won't enjoy Deus Ex if you can't handle early 2000s controls and interfaces, you won't enjoy Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines if you can't enjoy colons, etc.
Steam Profile
3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
What should I play next?
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
Steam ID
Twitch Page
Got a shortlist for us to mull over?
Did you clear the super hard sky dungeon at the end? Just curious.
I'll have to look at my box tonight and see if it has a USB dongle, but think you might be right.
According to Steam's page this is what is in the box.
Steam Link
Power cable and adapter
HDMI 2.0 cable
Ethernet cable
http://store.steampowered.com/app/353380/Steam_Link/
Steam: betsuni7
Wait, the what now?
Hmm...let me open Steam. How about...
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
Steam ID
Twitch Page
Cuphead is gorgeous and controller-crushing, obscenity-hurling difficult in the best ways.
My Backloggery
This, and also Deus Ex: HR: DC. Wonderful game, but it's not short if that's a consideration.
Steam | XBL
Consider it a library cleansing of sorts.
Twitch: KoopahTroopah - Steam: Koopah
I figured gifts would be under the same rules as regular purchases before you can refund; that is, 2 hours or 2 weeks owned, whichever comes first.
3DS Friend Code: 2165-6448-8348 www.Twitch.TV/cooljammer00
Battle.Net: JohnDarc#1203 Origin/UPlay: CoolJammer00
Yeah, I'm not sure if this is really going to work with Steam CS.
Well, not exactly the same thing, but I just got a refund today because my son's friends never claimed the gift copy of Terraria I sent them for Christmas.
Steam ID: Good Life
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
Steam ID
Twitch Page
When you get all the artifacts, the artifact guy gives you basically a key for a hidden dungeon. It's in the sky above the main desert. You need the final jetpack upgrade to get up there and when you do enter, it's some extremely hardcore Super Meat Boy style platforming challenges.
Unfortunately, I never got to try it because it REQUIRES the fully upgraded jetpack to get to and there's not nearly enough money in the game to buy every upgrade. When you're right before the ending, there's no area with tons of extra money or anything like that, it's just a big oversight from the devs. They also don't warn you to DEFINITELY get the final jetpack upgrade, which is basically a HUGE unnecessary luxury. The only way I could get access is by grinding the blood diamonds from certain respawning enemies for hours. I said fuck it and moved on though.
Not sure what to play next. I don't know if I can play through another game before the end of the battle, nor end of the month, but I might try for Bard's Tale, regardless. I find it interesting that apparently these games, both of which were released pre-2005, were given some love at least as recently as 2011.
Huh, I'll have to check it out. I had enough cash to buy everything with some to spare. Granted I did go heavy to economy early so that might have had something to do with it.
Edit: Found the dungeon you were talking about. Yeah, that's so not for me. Not fun at all.
Looks like I'll be playing Deus Ex next, unless the poll changes by tomorrow.
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
Steam ID
Twitch Page
The Bard's Tale is a Diablo-like that took pride in its simplicity. There was never any reason to keep less powerful weapons or armor, so the game automatically "sold" them for you and you'd get the money as soon as you picked it up. The story tried its best to be funny, although I felt it kind of fell flat at times on that front.
I played through it on PS2 years ago. My notes in backloggery state that I didn't find it to be a good game for whatever reason, and that it took me over 25 hours to beat it. But I also got all three endings. I was probably a little harsh on the game at the time.
My Backloggery
Is it two weeks? I thought it was 6 months?
Twitch: KoopahTroopah - Steam: Koopah
Nope, 2 weeks owned or two hours played, whichever comes first, unless something has changed very recently.
So.. Things I dislike about Meat circus:
1) Gross
2) Escort Mission
3) The tightrope scaling part after the Escort Mission just requires too much accuracy for the controls the game gives you. Half the time you'll wind up falling in the water through no fault of your own, but because Raz fails to grab a ladder or some such.
4) Still Gross
Now you just need to go back and confusion grenade the ad painting dog in the Matador's head.
But yeah, Psychonauts really suffers from the overworld being slow.
And it doesn't really pick up until the fishman world, where the overworld is quietly ditched.
Then the Meat Circus throws us back into the platforming from the overworld, and it's just an unfortunately disappointing capstone.
Psychonauts manages to save itself though by trying a lot of different ideas I think, so even though the overworld is rubbish, the fishman world, or the milkman world, are just so remarkable that they overpower the other once-off mechanics that don't land so well (like the nightmares).
Hopefully they can examine what worked well here and focus only on that in Psychonauts 2 (whenever that's releasing).
Anyway, Day of the Tentacle is done.
Maniac Mansion is also included in the remastered version of the game, but I didn't complete that.
Day of the Tentacle is fairly decent.
There's some Adventure game logic in there, and some contextual puzzles that don't offer up their solutions even when you have all the pieces together and are attempting a similar solution.
It also has an object interaction highlight which I didn't use until the end, and then didn't help any.
It's got some decent humour though.
There's also some decent prompting throughout the game, pointing at what might need to be done.
And probably the biggest improvement over many adventure games is the split character control allowing for parallel puzzle solving.
See, you control three protagonists in this game, split over three time eras, each having their own objective that needs to be completed before they can all be reunited again.
This means often you'll be able to solve puzzles on one path whilst being blocked on another.
And that just keeps you from reaching for the walkthrough, as you're not often completely stuck.
At least, not until you've completely solved some of the storylines.
Maniac Mansion looks like it won't pull any punches though, and will let you destroy key items (or even passively allow key items to be destroyed by taking too long) and accidentally kill everyone, preventing you from finishing the game.
So, 3.5/5 for Day of the Tentacle for videogame logic, Did Not Finish for Maniac Mansion (prob 2/5 why won't anyone answer my tentacle mating calls).
*ahem*
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MegaTagmension Blanc + Neptune VS Zombies!: Competing with "The Room" for Blurst Horror Movie Ever
Developed by Tamsoft, also makers of Senran Kagura, Blanc+Nep VS Zombies is technically a sequel to their previous Nep product, Hyperdimension Neptunia U, which I don't entirely remember posting a review for. It's an action game similar to Dynasty Warriors or, well, Senran Kagura in which you button-mash your way through hordes of mooks. Zombie mooks, in this case.
Our setting this time is Gamicademi, an island school under imminent threat of closure. The core Neptunia cast decides to enter the school as students in an attempt to spur enrollment. Our protagonist this time, the small-statured Blanc, puts aside her authorial ambitions to write, direct and star in an amateur movie alongside Neptune, president of the school's Film Club. Suddenly, a real zombie outbreak strikes the island - the ideal conditions for Blanny and Neppy to make a zombie flick! Can the film club grow into legitimacy, save the school from closure and save the day from the undead, or is it deep six for all involved?
The game is divided into "cuts", individual stages with set objectives and rewards and often preceded by a story sequence detailing what's being filmed. The player selects two characters (from a selection of up to thirteen) and can switch between those characters in-mission, regenerating HP for whoever's in the back line. Each character has their own movesets, divided into ground and aerial attacks utilizing branching combos of Fast and Strong attacks, and stats to determine what they're best at. You also have four SP Attacks, simple special moves on a shared six-second cooldown, and an EXE gauge which fills when hitting enemies and fuels super-strong EXE Drives or lets them transform into a superpowered form with increased stats and alternate combos. The characters you take will earn EXP, granting stats and Skill Points at level-up. Skill Points let you further raise their stats or expand their movesets.
Standard enemies are mostly brainless, mobbing together and attacking you a few at a time. Many missions frequently ask you to take down tougher miniboss enemies which have stronger, more frequent attacks and much greater health. Depending on how your characters are leveled (primarily determined by if you've been sticking with Blanc and Neptune from start to finish) these minibosses could range from interesting targets to total bullshit damage sponges. Certain enemies are strong or weak to certain types of damage (pierce, thrust, impact, ranged or magic) but the tough enemies hit hard enough to punish players who bring underleveled characters. Your choices are thus to either grind up the appropriate less-used character, modify your more-used characters' weapons with type-adjusting "Patches" or just play keep-away long enough to whittle them down with SP attacks and do your best to not get taken down in a couple shots.
After missions end you receive funds, equipable Patches and crafting ingredients. Patches are applied to your characters' weapons for a certain amount of missions, after which they must be restocked or replaced. The game's not terribly clear on that and the indicators seem a bit poorly translated so I found myself not bothering for the most part. There is also a decorative accessory setup that allows you to place silly hats, glasses and other things on your characters, ostensibly to show off your custom Neps in multiplayer.
The characters say things when you explore the menus which gets kind of grating. They try to get your attention if you put the game down for a bit - the loading screen "tips" call it conversing with them but I just found it... objectifying? I identify with the characters more when they aren't going out of their way to target lonely otaku sensibilities and wanting me to treat them as Mai Waifu. STOP BUGGING ME, I HAVE TO GO TO THE BATHROOM.
...Kind of ironic that this game isn't on a Nintendo system despite placing the Wii personification in the spotlight, eh?
In summation: Blanc+Nep VS Zombies is a fun little sidestory romp that's held back by a bunch of low-budget oversights including frustrating balance decisions and limited or hard-to-read information. It's still fun when things work out and I'd love to get together with someone for online multiplayer.
My Score: 2.5/5
Total Playtime: 11 hours
Twitch | Blizzard: Ianator#1479 | 3DS: Ianator - 1779 2336 5317 | FFXIV: Iana Ateliere (NA Sarg)
Backlog Challenge List
Faaaaaaaaaaaaak. Nevermind then. They shall remain like graves in my library.
Twitch: KoopahTroopah - Steam: Koopah
Go give it a look see if that interests you at all.
Sorry, never happened to me. I'm gonna doubt it tho.
When I was around 10 or 12 we got a pack of Lucasarts adventure games that had Day of the Tentacle, Sam & Max Hit the Road, and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. It also had some demos of LA Star Wars games that we played about 1,000 times. So many good memories of playing those adventure games! I went back and played the Day of the Tentacle Enhanced recently, and remembered how to do almost all of the puzzles. What useless stuff to be storing in my brain for two decades!
"Yoo-hoo, Mr Tentacle Guy?"
Still, it occurs to me that I've never replaced a hard drive in a computer up to now, only added them to what was already there. And the last time was a while ago. So, since this is the D drive and not the boot drive, am I to assume that a simple copy/paste of everything from the old drive to the new is good enough and I don't need to faff about with cloning software? I've picked up an external enclosure as well so one of the drives can be plugged in to a USB port while the other stays in the PC, and the old drive can be a backup drive afterwards. Also; is it better to do the copy before switching the drives over?
Steam | XBL
For off-drives, copy/paste will typically work fine as long as you keep the original paths and you weren't insane enough to do something like installing your anti-virus to
During the charity drive, you [collective you, not just you, though you know who you are] went completely bonkers. Consequently, y'all get to go equally bonkers with my Steam profile.
Yep, once again everything is up for you [collective... see above] to change everything. Steam name, avatar, background, badges, showcases, whatever. Whatever it ends up being, it will stay that way for one month. Well... 30 days. I won't even cheat y'all by using February.
PM me any suggestions for things you want to change. Anything is fair game as long as it won't get me banned. After a few days, I'll take all the suggestions and start a bunch of polls just like last time.
Yeah, I'm not changing any paths and the only things actually installed on the existing drive are games. Everything else is just easily copyable files of various types. Thanks for the advice
Steam | XBL