comicallycluttered
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What game is this even? I mean, why would any game need a graphic rape scene? Who is this going to sell to?
Don’t video games outside of Japan try to avoid getting AO rated any more?
Sounds like some typical David Cage bullshit. Wouldn’t be surprised at all if it was one of his games.
Edit: Considering the content of the games, and looking over her IMDb credits, it was very likely one of The Dark Pictures Anthology games, which was actually my second guess after David Cage (well, those or Until Dawn; same developers) due to some of the weird shit Supermassive Games add in for “shock value” because “horror”.
No surprise that she suddenly stopped working with them after House of Ashes, so that was probably the game in question, if I had to guess by context here.
There are only a handful of studios that’ll throw that kind of shit in their games. Quantic Dream and Supermassive are always the most likely culprits.
I’ve been waiting to see how they’re going to fuck up NSFW subs and I’m willing to bet that’s where this is going.
I can only hope it affects the ones that focus on self-promotion, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they just decide to charge users directly for access to NSFW subs entirely, since they already removed it entirely from the free API, which apps like RedReader use.(*)
I know I’m not the only one who basically only has an account for that stuff, although a lot of those subs have turned to shit over the last year or so, anyway. AI generated nonsense, self-promotion even when it’s discouraged, bad moderation, some disappearing entirely because they were abandoned back last year…
(*) Technically, you can still view that content without an account via Old Reddit (or at least you could a few months ago, haven’t checked recently), but that’s inevitably going to be killed as well, it’s just a matter of “when”.
Maybe “very” was too strong a word, but I mainly meant the melee combat.
Although to be honest, other than the blackjack, people shouldn’t really be using melee much, so it’s not that much of a problem.
It’s mostly when the zombie dudes come into play that the sword combat can feel dated if you take them on directly.
No prob. The first game actually has some fantastic mods and also a ton of incredibly well-crafted fan-made levels.
You might want a few tiny mods for Deus Ex as well, though it doesn’t really require much.
Kind of funny that it was “too violent” because you can go through most of the game without even killing anyone. It’s my preferred playstyle, just sleep darts and stealth stuff.
Actually, you’ll have a bit of a rough time if you go in guns ablaze. A lot of people used to shooters end up being obliterated on the first level when they initially play it, which is what happened to me when I first played it on release. Came back to it years later after I’d discovered Thief and suddenly felt right at home.
Edit: Oh, and it’s also available on GOG. Most of the earlier immersive sims (Thief, Deus Ex, System Shock, Ultima, Arx Fatalis, etc.) are.
Do note that in your post you mentioned things that have aged well, and while I think it’s fine, they can feel a bit clunky, especially in comparison to some of the games heavily influenced by them (e.g. Dishonored, among others).
Edit: I’m mostly referring to direct melee combat here, and not the rest of the game. Truth is, you probably won’t find yourself using it much against humans, but the sword can feel a bit dated against some of the nonhuman creatures. And now that I think about it, Dishonored’s swordplay isn’t exactly super fluid either unless you’re countering and parrying.
You might want to add some mods just to touch some things up.
Also, while the second game is my favourite, don’t sleep on the third, especially if you like horror because one of the later levels is fucking incredible. I say all of this as someone who ordinarily hates supernatural-type horror.
And the third game also expands on the lore, which I like.
All of them are available on GOG and Steam.
Similar to Thief, the original Deus Ex is a great game which might also show its age a bit, but I think stands the test of time for the most part.
Played the three games developed Accidental Queens because I’ve been in an interactive fiction/detective mood.
Started off with A Normal Lost Phone and Another Lost Phone, then headed into their gem of a game they later developed called Alt-Frequencies. Super fun narrative-focused game with a cool time loop premise. Great voice acting as well.
It’s been nice playing these short little games lately. Enjoying them quite a bit.
Anyway I finished another game! This time chants of senaar. This game is sooooo good. One of my faves all time id say. Scratches the obra dinn outer wilds itch.
Yeah, really great game. Without getting into spoiler territory, I appreciate how there’s that one thing that every society in the game appreciates and it’s what brings them together despite their differences, most of which were down to (obviously) lack of communication. It’s just this simple, yet emotional touch of humanity that unites them all over the course of the game.
Anyway, as for me, I finished up Song of Farca, which was a fun little experience. Then I played Overboard!, a darkly humourous narrative/interactive fiction/puzzle game about getting away with murder.
Took me a little while, but I successfully murdered the husband, got the insurance, tied up all loose ends, and got a delicious snack as a bonus.
After taking a couple of days to digest the ending I got in Not for Broadcast, I’m hoping to go back and replay it differently sometime soon. One moment in particular, I need to approach differently.
Man, that game is equal parts hilarious and fucked up. Not much I can say without spoiling it, but it’s really worth a shot if you like dystopian fiction (especially the kind that starts just before everything slowly goes to shit), dark humour, satirical takes on news media, or just narrative-focused games in general with a fair amount of choices and consequences which gradually play out over time.
Like, there are 14 main endings and within all of those there are also “mini news stories” which play out over the game that have a wealth of different outcomes themselves. The amount of variables is pretty impressive, honestly.
Anyway, now I’m playing Do Not Feed The Monkeys for a similar darkly humourous experience of “fuck with the people on the other side of the camera”.
Got some stuff in my cart, but need to play some demos first before I hit the “buy” button. Surprisingly quite a few games I’m interested in have one available, which is nice.
In the meantime, I’ve started Case of the Golden Idol because I loved Return of the Obra Dinn and I know it’s highly recommended for fans of that.
Don’t know if I’m really feeling this as much, though. I’ll carry on, of course, because I still enjoy the detective puzzle aspect. But it isn’t drawing me in the way Obra Dinn did for some reason.
I remember first trying the original when I was like 11 or something.
At the time, I didn’t really understand much beyond “shooty shooty” when it came to games with guns (it would be shortly after this that I’d find stealth games and have that passion ignited), so I was given guns, used them how I usually did at the time and proceeded to get obliterated in the first level and gave up.
A few years later, after I’d gotten into stealth games, my love affair with immersive sims began.
Along with playing the Thief series, I went back to give Deus Ex a try and it all just clicked. I think it and Thief II were instrumental in cementing my love for the genre.
After playing and enjoying the first one, I played them all over the next few years and Mankind Divided is probably my second favourite after the original. Loved every moment.
Then fucking Square Enix does their bullshit, and then fucking Embracer ruined it for good.
All in all, I love Deus Ex and I’m super glad I found myself getting into stealth games and immersive sims, otherwise I would have missed out on it so many other of my favourite gaming experiences, Deus Ex being one of them.
What’s weird is that it’s like the only Looking Glass/Ion Storm/Eidos Montréal immersive sim franchise that doesn’t have a clear spiritual successor. For System Shock we got not only BioShock, but Prey (2017) as well. For Thief, we got Dishonored. For Ultima, we got Arx Fatalis/Libertatis (and early Elder Scrolls to a very lesser extent).
But for Deus Ex, we’ve got… I don’t know, Cyberpunk 2077, maybe? But the whole open world thing doesn’t really fit in with the usual gameplay loop of Deus Ex. There are a fair amount of great cyberpunk games, but none seem to really scratch that immersive sim itch. I guess Prey is pretty close as well (in addition to its System Shock influences), if you consider some of the body/power upgrades, but it’s not all that similar thematically.
I’d love for someone to come around and pull a Thanos by just going, “fine, I’ll do it myself”. If the franchise is dead, maybe now there’s more motivation for that, since, before a few months ago, we were still clinging to what little hope remained for the third Adam Jensen game. Or maybe someone already has and I’ve missed it.
Was getting all set up for another playthrough of New Vegas, mods and all (even made my own, though I ditched it last minute), and then I realised, “Wait, why am I doing this? I don’t actually feel like playing this at all right now, even with the new mods.”
So, now I’ve downloaded some stuff in my backlog, but don’t know if I’ll play any of it at the moment because I’m kind of burned out a little.
Not exactly playing, but learning my way around the GECK to create a few personal radio stations for New Vegas. I’ve learned how to do most of it, I just now need to sort the audio files and add them. Too cold to sit at my desk and finish this, so I’ll do all that later.
(Before anyone says “why not just use the mod that lets you add your own music files”, it’s because I need separate radio stations with unique names that I can switch between, each with their own chronological order, rather than one giant one which basically works by saying “random bullshit go”.)
I did mention it as a smaller, compact alternative, but I maybe wasn’t specific enough with regard to the scope of gameplay.
Probably should have specified that I meant Outer Worlds as an alternative to Starfield mainly for people interested in a game set in space with the familiar approach to worldbuilding that Bethesda and Obsidian seem to share a bit, and also because it’s not uncommon to hear either of them referred to (maybe a bit unfairly) as “Fallout, but in space”.
Then again, most people interested in that would probably already have played it by now (although lots of new Fallout fans this year, so maybe not).
I’m really surprised that neither of the 2019 “Outer” games with similar names showed up in any of your posts: The Outer Worlds and Outer Wilds.
Worlds because if we’re talking about Starfield, it’s something to consider as a smaller, more compact alternative (although I recently finished a playthrough and there’s actually very few comparisons to be made between the two), and Wilds because… well, it’s just straight up space archaeology that makes heavy use of travel and planet exploration. Also because it’s probably one of the most critically well-received space games.
Something else I wanna throw out there: Heaven’s Vault. Nice little narrative game which takes place in space and has quite a calming (even if completely unrealistic) method of space travel.
Also on Netflix:
Play Wonderputt Forever if you like physics-based and/or golf games. I found it pretty fun and fairly challenging in the later levels.
Desta is also a really interesting narrative turn-based tactics game with some poignant emotional moments (it can actually be a bit heavy at times, especially if you’ve dealt with LGBTQ+ prejudice personally).
And I’m also really glad Netflix resurrected Cut The Rope from its grave. New puzzle daily and several months worth (i.e. hundreds) of puzzles to play if you’d like to catch up.
Quantum Break was really fun. I’d love some more time travel games like that.
While Remedy don’t own the rights and it can’t officially be “canon” to Alan Wake and Control, there are some things that the community has kind of put together which establishes how it’s a part of the wider universe/multiverse.
Loaded up The Outer Worlds yesterday because I wanted some first person Obsidian RPG goodness after finishing New Vegas a couple of weeks ago.
Forgot how absolutely fucking saturated and vibrant the colours are. My old monitor must not have had the saturation turned up or something because, as someone super sensitive to bright or intense anything, I don’t remember it immediately hurting my brain like it did last night.
Anyway, used ReShade and toned down a ton of shit. Then I realised I’m not actually feeling it all that much, so I’m going to start a new playthrough of New Vegas instead. I think this time I’m not gonna fuck Benny and kill him in his sleep. Well, maybe I’ll still rock his world because it’s hilarious, we’ll see.
Edit: Oh, also I’ve been playing a bit of XDefiant. It’s not terrible, honestly. Like, I’m not paying for their battle pass and I’ll definitely lose interest fairly quickly, but it’s not a bad distraction.
Something is very wrong with me… I’ve been playing Overwatch and… enjoying it? Still a shell of its former self, but it’s not always too terrible.
I need to get away from the computer desk and mouse/keyboard for a while, though, so I’m thinking of either giving Fallout 76 a shot or starting up a new playthrough of New Vegas and going for a different ending.
Got a few new mods to try, particularly new radio stations and other goodies, but I’m wondering if I should use that “make your own radio” mod to add some old time radio shows like The Shadow(*) and sci-fi podcasts that fit the theme.
Sure there are a bunch of mods with great shows like Dimension X already, but after hearing the same episodes over and over again, it might be nice to listen to other popular shows (e.g. The Shadow) or more obscure ones (e.g. Candy Matson).
Might actually just use one of the other radio mods as a base and make my own mod entirely. Did that with Skyrim to much success (power metal when dragons appear, bardcore in the taverns, all kinds of fun).
(*) (I mean, that’s pretty much what The Silver Shroud in FO4 was, which I should maybe also try and get into my NV radio because I enjoyed that as well.)
Hah, I was actually considering Tunic! But I’m also a little mentally burned out, so I think I need to be in a bit of a different headspace, otherwise I’m going to ignore some of the more interesting parts like the little secrets and slowly revealing the instruction manual and all that curiosity-rewarding stuff.
It’s definitely on my “to play relatively soon” list, though, and thanks for the suggestion!
Okay, just finished Chants of Sennaar. That was a lovely experience. Reminded me a bit of my time a few months ago with Jusant, along with a touch of Journey and Heaven’s Vault thrown in.
Had to laugh out loud when I ended up playing a fucking mechanical crank handle version of Flappy Bird. That was pretty entertaining.
One puzzle completely stumped me, but some kind soul on the Steam forums (!!) had a really good explanation without giving away the actual answer to the puzzle, which I always appreciate.
Anyway, highly recommend for anyone who likes puzzle games, environmental and organic storytelling, languages and written script, and just an examination of history, culture, and how (ideally) we can all connect if we just listen to one another and find shared interests (there’s a particular interest that almost every culture in the game shares, which is something a lot of people IRL bond over as well; I found it pretty interesting because it felt so… quintessentially human).
What to play next? No idea. I think I’m done with intense action games for a while, so might find something else relatively chill to play.
For all the shit it gets, I still love that game. It might be more heavy on the action than the RPG, but it still feels like Fallout, which is more than enough for me.
Plus it has some of the more interesting vaults, IMO.
Companions are also great. Nick Valentine in particular is a treasure to be savoured.
Oh, and there are like two sidequests I absolutely fucking love and don’t want to spoil, but just keep an eye out for a ship lodged in a building when you’re exploring around the city areas near the Eastern coast.
Yeah, I enjoyed the whole background narrative with the Survivalist, and there’s some great loot as well, but I think maybe I was a bit burned out and having a bad day because I just couldn’t really get into it.
Thinking back, it seems like my only real issue with it was just navigating the map. Maybe I was just tripped up by the sudden change in landscape and didn’t adjust well to it.
Could also be that I just finished OWB and the immediate change in tone and pace gave me a bit of narrative whiplash. Lol, probably should have done some more stuff in between instead of rushing it.
Anyway, a nice break should do me well. Then I can come back with fresher eyes and appreciate the little things without feeling too overwhelmed.
Still on New Vegas, but going to take a bit of a break.
Last time I played (over a decade ago, at this point), I only did the Dead Money DLC. So, over the last couple of days, I’ve been doing some of the other DLC and ignoring much of the main quest.
Old World Blues was super fun (and reminded me of Outer Worlds a lot; I wonder if they took inspiration for OW from their earlier work here), but it kind of took a fair amount of energy out of me.
I probably should have taken a break there, but decided to try Honest Hearts. I really didn’t enjoy it, but at least it wasn’t too long.
After that, I realised I’m burning way out here, so I’m going to get back to the game in a few days.
Wii U gamepad was a lot more comfortable for me. I’d play Windwaker or Mario Maker or 3D World or Splatoon for hours and never feel all cramped up with half-numb palms. I play Ace Attorney for an hour and it just hurts.
Plus the charging port location makes it annoying to play while charging. It makes sense for the dock, but it ruins it in handheld mode.
I’d love to just get a Steam Deck and be done with it, but Valve won’t be shipping here anytime soon and the cost of importing it along with our shitty forex rates end up with the base model hitting PS5 cost territory for me (which is also more expensive here than in most Western nations).
Fallout: New Vegas, because it’s been like a decade and I want to play again, especially after watching the series.
Took a while for me to get back into it (and figure out the right mods and settings for me), and I’m still feeling a little bit of that overwhelming “fuck, there’s maybe too much shit to do”, but I’ll just chill with it for now.
Edit: LOOOOOOL. Legion already hates me and I haven’t even met (and killed) Caesar yet. Barely even started the main quest at this point, which I suppose is tradition with Fallout, to be fair.
Skyrim and the mainline Elder Scrolls games (Oblivion, Morrowind) can run fine on most setups these days. Skyrim: Special Edition was released in 2016, which is almost a decade ago now.
Edit: Forgot you mentioned platforms. Considering your hardware, don’t play them on anything other than PC. The PS3 version of Skyrim in particular is a disaster.
Problem with them is sometimes mods are required for performance because they can be optimised terribly. There are actually some good mods which make the games play a lot better on older hardware, but it’s been a while and I don’t remember them.
Still, you’re going to want to play mostly un-modded because too many mods will tank an older system. I personally think vanilla Skyrim can be pretty fun, so it’s not a big deal, IMO.
The combat is a huge con, though. Bethesda hasn’t ever really been “good” at melee combat, and have only started to improve their gunplay starting with Fallout 4.
That said, since I’ve brought up FO4, Fallout 3 and New Vegas should run fine on pretty much anything. Although, when I say “fine”, I mainly mean “work”, because optimisation is still terrible and bugfix patches might be needed.
Works fine on Android as well (which is weird considering how bad Apple software can be on non-Apple devices). Just need to create an Apple ID and you’re set.
Testing out the trial right now and it’s pretty great so far.
UI is way better than Spotify as well (IMO), plus lossless for the same price as current Spotify Premium. (And it also has a max cache size limit option, so even playing a shit ton of lossless isn’t going to eat up more space than what you select.)
Getting my fucking Spotify library and playlists I’ve built over the years on here is going to be a long nightmare, though.
I really enjoyed Origins. It embraced the “detective” aspect a lot better, IMO. Also enjoyed the, well, origins of what essentially became Batman and Joker’s inevitable “love story”. Troy Baker played him really well.
Also, it’s pretty funny hearing Sonic voice Batman. I mean, I know he does a ton of other voices, but the contrast is always hilarious to me.
Anyway, onto me…
After taking a weeklong break from video games, I started playing something on my wishlist that finally went on sale again: Unheard - Voices of Crime. Detective game where you solve the cases by listening to conversations and identifying people by their voices/dialogue. The visuals are basically just floor plans and moving from room to room from a top down perspective in order to hear whoever’s speaking in that room.
All the recordings are binaural as well, so wherever you move your “character”, the volume and location of the voices change. It’s pretty interesting and not too long.
Today, I began Dungeons of Hinterberg. At first, super fun. Then got a bit bored because stuff felt samey. Then got interested again. I expect this pattern is going to continue. Despite being a dungeon crawler, it’s a pretty chill game.
Basically, think Breath of the Wild-type shrines mixed with Persona-style social sim gameplay. You do dungeons (or not, you don’t have to if you don’t want to) in the day, explore and spend time with people in the city at night.