Whatchya Playin' - Brand New Digs Edition

[A.I Impaired]

Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes whenever I'm killing time in the office, XCOM 2 whenever I do have long hours to kill and Gabriel Knight: Sins of the fathers before bed time.

I find Gabriel knight still holds up pretty well, great game. You playing original or remastered?
Curious to hear how the remake holds up.

Been down with the witness.
What I've played has been pretty straight up puzzling, not floating in so much pretension. Really thoughtful.

Almost ready to say I've cleared all of Witcher 3, or at least the stuff I care about. Rich and full, this game has kept on giving.

Also had a LAN party recently. The Hidden:Source still remains fun.

[RedSwirl]

Huh, just saw a random instagram pic of a cancelled Game Boy version of Gabriel Knight. Always wondered why western developers never bothered with the opportunity to put their old school-style games (adventure, CRPG, simulation) games on dedicated handhelds. They could have worked on the DS or something. Now we just get a few released for phones.

[Alex Connolly]

Huh, just saw a random instagram pic of a cancelled Game Boy version of Gabriel Knight. Always wondered why western developers never bothered with the opportunity to put their old school-style games (adventure, CRPG, simulation) games on dedicated handhelds. They could have worked on the DS or something. Now we just get a few released for phones.

You're not referencing our man Asatiir's Gameboy pixel demake screen of Gabe Knight, are you?

I thought the original Broken Sword on Gameboy Advance was absolutely incredible, given the system. Nothing bar voices was lost.

[Alex Connolly]

Devil Daggers, friends. A fiver. Do it.

[A.I Impaired]

Love the 32 bit stylings of the art style, looks like there are really cool enemies in there. Not sure about arena survival games, but I may check it. Part of me wishes it had levels like Hexen, but with these crazy enemies. Indies are doing amazing wonderful things.

In other news, I have yet to have jumped on the survival game trend, but the Solus Project looks compelling and beautiful. Hot diggity.

[Alex Connolly]

I'd certainly describe Devil Daggers as Stephen Cakebread's Hexen. You don't play this for long stretches, unless, like, the whole Super Meatboy near-instant restart compulsion takes hold. Revolves around leaderboard scores. So far, the best I've done is survive for 63 seconds.

But these instincts and reactions are withering by the day. Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. But age does, and the years do!



In other news, I've started playing We Are The Dwarves. Comes out on the 26th of this month, and it's a fascinating mesh of The Lost Vikings meets Dragon Age-esque pause-and-plan tactical combat, made by ex-STALKER devs. It's very competent, and takes place in an utterly bizarre limbo world of ornate floating biomes. A trio of Dwarven astronauts have suffered a crash, caused by some sort of rift or anomaly, and they have to make their way through incredible pockets of flora and fauna. The visual design recalls...hell...Evolva? Vangers? Neverhood? Worldshift? All sorts of strange. But very fine. Would recommend it when it drops, six days from now.

[RedSwirl]

I like horde/arena survival. I don't think there's a single shooter that wouldn't benefit from horde/survival. It serves a lot of the same purposes as multiplayer without actually having to be multiplayer. I hope it becomes the new hot trend in shooters.

I guess I'll check out Devil Dagger some day. Does it run at modern resolutions? Upscale like Chocolate DOOM? I'm mostly intrigued on how good its core mechanics are, because that's what's under the spotlight in a horde/survival mode. A big reason to have that kind of mode is it's a great way to test out a game's core combat mechanics. Part of me hopes the current Devil Daggers is just a preliminary thing for some later Hexen/Quake-a-like.

[Alex Connolly]

Devil Daggers has a really good sense of physicality. There's a tiny level of tilt and slip with the character, which infers inertia in a subtle way. The shooting feels powerful and dynamic; spraying like a shmup with the button held down rattles your claw/dagger thing around and spreads the shot in a weird recoil, where a double-tap acts like a shotgun - which can also be used to rocket-jump.

It scales really well, but there are no real graphical settings to speak of. It's lean. Also sports very well-implemented surround sound - virtual or otherwise. Which you'll need.

I think it'd suit you, Red. Here's the current world champ, with an 8 minute run.

[RedSwirl]

New interesting thing I'd like to see impressions on: The Town of Light

http://store.steampowered.com/app/433100/

Horror-themed first person adventure game.

Based on a true story apparently.

1930's Italy.

[A.I Impaired]

1930s Italy is somewhere I've never been in a game. Indie games man, they know how to keep it fresh. I love that little Timmy's formative game experience doesn't have to be an action game, or any brainless big budget affair. Town of light may be for mature audiences, but games like that which assume the player is somewhat intelligent... It's nice. I don't have to dodge collapsing buildings that are often collapsing for stupid reasons. Insert action scene. No! We have an out.

Not that I dislike ultraviolence though, that's not me. Dumb violence though is just so common and tiring. Action games are so often just guitar hero. Not that Guitar Hero is a bad thing that can't be enjoyed,.but games often are designed to flow by like a movie or music video, simply testing your reflexes.
Superhot did something simple that suddenly changes our relationship to the action scene. Reflexes become a puzzle to get you out of a tough situation. The difference appears very subtle. It's actually not that different from dumb action, but increases the variables. It takes Movielike scenes but is disinterested in the pacing of a movie. Disinterested in providing dumb context for dumb action. It's pure beautiful game, unfettered with justifications, unapologetic for being a game, and stylish. It also lets you appreciate the action, as it is punctuated. It turns the cheap thrills of action gaming, into something satisfying... worth waiting for. Worth enjoying. Worth repeating. Levels encourage an obsessive replay-ability, like in Hotline Miami. When you pull things off in just the right way ... you feel satisfied, and the replays show off your legendary moves with style. The ability to grab enemies guns on the fly (on ground or in air), really keeps things flowing as you dance around your victims orchestrating a beautiful death ballet. If you havent, play it.