What are you playing?

[Mods Help]

Surprised you never did story mode in GG before Bebpo. XX had an innovative story mode for 2003. You should check it out.

[tiesto]

Finished Episode 4 of Life Is Strange with the girlfriend just some small time ago, and started Episode 5

spoiler (click to show/hide)

now on the plane to SF

[close]

Very nice twists and turns, even if a few of 'em are taken almost verbatim from The Butterfly Effect. Definitely leagues beyond any 'walking sim' and up there with the classic point and clicks of yore.

[Mods Help]

Glad I've toned down my purchasing habits in the hobby. Took a couple of years but I find games enjoyable again, if only a very limited selection of games. Every time I have minute interest in a game, like Dark Souls 3 or Dragons Dogma I take a look at videos and realize that type of game isn't for me anymore. So that's good and it saves me time and money. I find them to be time sinks and nothing more. Besides fighting games these are my next purchases: undertale, life is strange.

Any other alternative good game purchases?

Games where you fight AI largely don't interest me anymore unless it's something like Ninja Gaiden. Looking at alternative games that are short and sweet to play when not playing fighting games. I guess I'll throw gravity daze and tear away in the bunch. I'm not sure on gravity daze because I'm not sure how long it is. Looking for games that are different and not a commitment.

Imports would be great too, preferably on ps4 and digital I guess. Japanese language isn't an issue unless it's like Kiseki level of Japanese.

Also, what are good sites to find news on alternative games like this: short, sweet, different, no commitment?

[Bebpo]

Tearaway is short and good.  There aren't really any imports on PS4/Vita for the most part since everything comes over these days, except for some reason Time Travelers never came over.  That's a nice 8-10 hour 3d cutscene visual novel but you gotta be into that and your Japanese needs to be fairly good.  There's stuff coming out in Asia now with English subs like Gundam Breaker 3 and the next Super Robot Wars OG game, but those aren't really short games.

Gundam Breaker is kind of like a musou game meets a loot game meets armored core meets chaos legion style combo-combat.  It's worth playing one of them.  SRW OG is SRW.

Most short games you're gonna find are on PC indie stuff.  I made categories in my steam backlog based on length. 
In my "under 90 mins" category I have: The Beginner's Guide, A Bird Story, Bleed, Octodad.

In my "3-5 hours" category I have: Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, Crysis Warhead, Dropsy, Dyad, Hard Reset, Her Story, Jazzpunk, D4, Lara Croft Temploe of Osiris, Lone Survivor, Little Inferno, Metal Dead, Not a Hero, Stasis, Super Time Force, The Swapper, To the Moon, Vanishing of Ethan Carter, Westerado, Wizorb.

Not that's only stuff in my backlog.  There's a bunch I've played.  I use "how long to beat" and see how long some of my backlog stuff is when I wanna play short games.

Although if you want really short and challenging, maybe it's time to get back into Shmups.  There's a ton available on PC now and most are under an hour for a full game run though it'll take a half-dozen hours or more to get good enough to beat them on a credit or two.  Also indie PnC adventure games tend to be around 2 hours long like Blackwell series and Chzo Mythos and stuff.

Oh and you can play Devil Daggers.  It's like 40 seconds long.  I hate it, but everyone else seems to love it.

[Bebpo]

I've been trying to find the one song I like in Cold Steel/Sen1.  There's like 6 battle themes and all the music is fine/good, but there's one part of a song that is killer.  Finally found it:



The riff that kicks in around 1:08 is the sickest riff in the entire game so far.  It's like aweeeeesome epic battle music.  Wish it was the main battle theme lol, but at least it seems like the main important boss battle theme so those sound pretty kick ass. 

[mormapope]

Also, what are good sites to find news on alternative games like this: short, sweet, different, no commitment?

Sadly, there isn't a big website or that many blogs that have have constant updates on good and random indie findings.
 
This actually looks like what you're looking for: http://freegameplanet.tumblr.com/
https://www.freegameplanet.com/

[Mods Help]

What are the best PC adventure games these days

[archnemesis]

Most games from Wadjet Eye Games are great (try Resonance, Primordia, Technobabylon, or the Blackwell series). Broken Age was really fun. The first episode of the re-imagining of King's Quest was good too.

[Mods Help]

Cool. Thanks everyone.

Any idea when rise of tomb raider comes out on ps4? It's the only AAA game that interests me.

[tiesto]

Mods, I'd definitely recommend giving Gravity Rush a shot... I haven't played the PS4 remaster, only the Vita version. It's not a terribly long game (probably a bit under 10 hours), has some breathtaking visuals and art style, and a really neat gameplay gimmick (the manipulating gravity). At least in the Vita version, there were some issues with touchy controls, shitty cameras and poor hit detection in combat, I wonder if these were fixed? They're noticeable issues but it's not too tough to overlook them.

In the middle of Undertale and Life Is Strange and I highly recommend them. Unique and unforgettable games with actual good gameplay.

If you want challenging oldskool indies, have you tried Shovel Knight? Odallus also looks really good but I haven't played it yet.

And for shmups, a few of them are now on Steam... Crimzon Clover and Mushihime-sama are both great.

For story-based games with minimal gameplay, there's To The Moon and Never Alone. For VNs I've been hearing good things about Danganronpa... and have you played any of the Zero Escape series?

And if you want to bury yourself in RPGs again, I've been hearing lots of positive about Trails of Cold Steel and Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth.

[Rufus]

Any idea when rise of tomb raider comes out on ps4? It's the only AAA game that interests me.

"Late 2016" is all we know, I think.

[archnemesis]

Mods, I'd definitely recommend giving Gravity Rush a shot... I haven't played the PS4 remaster, only the Vita version. It's not a terribly long game (probably a bit under 10 hours), has some breathtaking visuals and art style, and a really neat gameplay gimmick (the manipulating gravity). At least in the Vita version, there were some issues with touchy controls, shitty cameras and poor hit detection in combat, I wonder if these were fixed? They're noticeable issues but it's not too tough to overlook them.

I'm playing the remastered version now and it is definitely a large improvement, mostly because of the controls and the improved frame rate. I haven't had issues with the camera yet. Hit detection is not great. Some enemies are only vulnerable from specific angles (even though it looks like hits from the animations).

[Mods Help]

Mods, I'd definitely recommend giving Gravity Rush a shot... I haven't played the PS4 remaster, only the Vita version. It's not a terribly long game (probably a bit under 10 hours), has some breathtaking visuals and art style, and a really neat gameplay gimmick (the manipulating gravity). At least in the Vita version, there were some issues with touchy controls, shitty cameras and poor hit detection in combat, I wonder if these were fixed? They're noticeable issues but it's not too tough to overlook them.

In the middle of Undertale and Life Is Strange and I highly recommend them. Unique and unforgettable games with actual good gameplay.

If you want challenging oldskool indies, have you tried Shovel Knight? Odallus also looks really good but I haven't played it yet.

And for shmups, a few of them are now on Steam... Crimzon Clover and Mushihime-sama are both great.

For story-based games with minimal gameplay, there's To The Moon and Never Alone. For VNs I've been hearing good things about Danganronpa... and have you played any of the Zero Escape series?

And if you want to bury yourself in RPGs again, I've been hearing lots of positive about Trails of Cold Steel and Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth.

I haven't played Zero Escape.

[Mods Help]

Any idea when rise of tomb raider comes out on ps4? It's the only AAA game that interests me.

"Late 2016" is all we know, I think.

wait, so they said the first tomb raider reboot under performed so they decided to make it exclusive to xbox one, which is distant second these days, and are waiting a full year to release it on the main gaming platform most people own?

[fistfulofmetal]

the game was only allowed to be made because they made the deal with MS to make it timed exclusive.

[Mods Help]

ah

[Bebpo]

Most games from Wadjet Eye Games are great (try Resonance, Primordia, Technobabylon, or the Blackwell series). Broken Age was really fun. The first episode of the re-imagining of King's Quest was good too.

Yeah I agree mostly on Wadjet Eye.  I find PnC's to be all over the place in quality these days, but Primordia was great, Gemini Rue was solid, Blackwell the first 3 games are solid, Resonance was ok, The Shivah is ok.  Still need to play the last two Blackwell games and Technobabylon, but yeah I find myself sticking with their games more than other publishers.  Part of it is the great pixel animation/art, part of it is the interesting settings and part of it is that the games are around 3-6 hours so they don't take up too much time.

I hear Dropsy is really good and reminiscent of 90s artsy lucasarts games like Sam & Max, and I plan to get to that soon.  I've still haven't devoted the time to play Tesla Effect but I heard it's a fantastic followup to the Tex Murphy Live-Action series; but it's long like 20-30 hours and you need to be aware of the prior story of the previous games.  Contradiction is supposed to be good too; it's a shorter ~5 hour England? live-action sherlock mystery with a goofy sherlock lead.

Book of Unwritten Tales was supposed to be a fantastic King's Quest style adventure.  Anna's Quest is supposedly good as is Metal Dead, Some people swear that The Dark Eye: Memoria is Daedelic's first A+ game, but it's part 2 to The Dark Eye: Chains of Sativ and I tried playing it but like all Daedelic games I struggle to stick with them because their long drawn-out and boring mostly.

Oh The Dream Machine is an awesome episodic clay-animation PnC.  Not sure if the final chapter has come out yet.  Heroine's Quest is supposed to be a great and FREE Quest for Glory spiritual successor.  Quest for Infamy is supposed to be good too in the same QfG style.  The Journey Down chapter 1 is apparently great, but I don't know if they ever made a chapter 2 so it might be dead.  Tales of the Borderlands is supposed to be the best Telltale game since Walking Dead S1.

And on top of that the classic PnCs on GoG still hold up pretty damn good and many of them play better than the newer games since the gameplay hasn't changed much and its all about story/characters/puzzles/art/music.

There's just sooooo many PnC adventure games out there now if you're a fan of the genre.  They really made a comeback about 5-7 years ago with the indie scene.  As a big fan of the genre since I was a kid, I still try to play an adventure game every month or two, but as an rpg fan I also try to make it through a 30-70 hour rpg ever month, and as a fan of like 4-5 other genre I try to play those as well.  That's the problem with enjoying so many damn genre!  I'm just glad I never got into the Simulation genre of Civ and City builders and stuff because those are even longer timesinks I don't have time for.

[Mods Help]

how is brothers

[Bebpo]

Overrated, a little slow, but a B+ Ico game.  It's worth a play, but I wouldn't say it's a must play.  It's only a little over 3 hours but goddamn it feels like 6 hours.  Took me a few sessions.

[Mods Help]

i still have the RPG love, but mostly for jrpgs. ffxv doesn't look like my tea, unfortunately, but i'm ready for DQ8/DQ7/DQ11/Pokemon Moon. I plan on getting FF14 and P5 and playing them at the end of the year. I'm not too hyped for P5 tbh and I'm more excited for the new SMT4.

I tried TiTS but it's really slow at the beginning. When does it pick up?

[Bebpo]

Hahaha, 80 hours in


Nah, FC gets good in the final chapter.  But it takes a while to get a feel for the strengths of the game which are the NPC building, the character development of the main cast, the how the world works lore.  Some interesting things start happening around chapter 3-5, but 5 is where it really takes off and that's like 30-40 hours in.  Cold Steel/Sen1 is just like this and it's why I'm struggling a bit to get through it.  But the difference is I know how Trails/Kiseki is when it DOES pick up, so it's worth pushing through the slower first entries to get to the meat which is in the 2nd entries.  If you force yourself to stick with Sora FC, by the time you beat it and watch the ending you'll be hooked and excited for SC.  But the game is slow and tough to plod through.  The only reason I made it through FC was because of the hype and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

fwiw even though I really like the series, I've complained heavily about every single entry in the series while playing them on gaf.  Usually for the shit pacing.  Apparently Sen2/Cold Steel 2 has the best fastest pacing so maybe from here on out they'll fix that issue.  But Sora FC and Sen I are the absolute worst in pacing (Sen 1 is worse than Sora FC because Sen 1 is a 70 hour drawn out version of the 40 hour Sora FC).  Sora FC isn't super long, so just try to stick with it if you can.  The payoffs are worth it.  Every Kiseki game really comes together in the end for an awesome ending (except Ao, which is the best game in the series but I thought the ending was weak).

Part of the thing with FC too is that it's the very beginning of the battle system so it's super slow and lacks depth and combat options.  By SC you've got enough stuff in your belt that combat is much better and by The 3rd you're almost at Grandia-style combat so much that a dungeon crawler works.  Zero/Ao/Sen all have good battles and the combat becomes a big draw to support the good writing.

[Mods Help]

it feels like a VN. Is a way to cheese it so I can just do the story?

[Bebpo]

New SMT4 is fun for sure.  I'm playing it alongside with Sen1/Cold Steel.  But man, there's lots of good rpgs out there.

These are the rpgs I've played in the last year or two:  The bolded ones were at least 8/10 good and worth a play.
Pokemon Y, Sora no Kiseki SC, FFXIII-2, SRW Z3-1, SRW@3, SRW Dark Prison, Sora no Kiseki the 3rd, Shadowrun Returns: DMS, Bloodborne (I count it as an action rpg), The Banner Saga Ep1, Tales of Zestiria, Zero no Kiseki Evo, SRW BX, Xenoblade X, SRW Z3-2, Nayuta no Kiseki, The Witcher 1, YsVI,Dark Souls,Ao no Kiseki Evolution, Exist Archive

My rpg backlog right now is:
SMTxFE, Undertale, Nier, Lisa, Pillars of Eternity,  The Witcher 2&3, Dark Souls 2 and soon 3, Wasteland 2, Shadowrun Dragonfall, Shadowrun Hong Kong, Dead State, Might and Magic X, Mass Effect 3, KoTOR2, Dragon Age 1-3, Divinity OS, Skyrim, Fallout 4, Avadon, Vampire the Masquarade,, Arc Rise Fantasia, Last Remnant, Bravely Default 1&2, Sen no Kiseki II, Tokyo Xanadu, Valkyria Chronicles 2 & 3, Soul Hackers, Persona 2 IS/EP, Tales of Xillia 1, Tales of Xillia 2, Suikoden V, DQVIIr, FFXIII-3 Lightning Returns, Disgaea D2, Disgaea 5, Zettai Hero Project 2, ZHP3, Fire Emblem Wii, Fire Emblem Awekening, FE Fates, Baten Kaitos 2

...and then this year will add Star Ocean V, FFXV, Persona 5, SRW OG The Moon Dwellers, YS8, Tales of Beseria

So yeah even at 1 rpg a month, I've got plenty of rpgs to play for the next 3-5 years easily along with new ones that keep coming out.  There's always good rpgs to play, and that's not even dipping back into retro PS1 or earlier stuff.

it feels like a VN. Is a way to cheese it so I can just do the story?

Cheese what?  Like the fights?  You can avoid almost all the normal enemy fights in the game.  That's what I did.  You can get quartz that let you see the enemies on the mini-map and quartz that make the enemies avoid detecting you.  I basically never fought normal enemies, and was always underleveled for bosses but I beat them and would catch up levels from their xp.  If you want to avoid quests?  Just skip the non-essential quests, although there's a lot of good quests out there and they'll had nods to them in the following game if you do some of them.  Since the game's on PC maybe there's even a trainer for fast movement on the map and being super powered so you can blow through it faster.  It's only about a 35 hour rpg if you rush it. 

[demi]

FC is garbo. Nothing literally happens until the last 5 minutes. Just look up a tl;dr

[Bebpo]

FC is garbo. Nothing literally happens until the last 5 minutes. Just look up a tl;dr

Don't do this.  All the character development is in FC to setup for the story events in SC.

[Mods Help]

New SMT4 is fun for sure.  I'm playing it alongside with Sen1/Cold Steel.  But man, there's lots of good rpgs out there.

These are the rpgs I've played in the last year or two:  The bolded ones were at least 8/10 good and worth a play.
Pokemon Y, Sora no Kiseki SC, FFXIII-2, SRW Z3-1, SRW@3, SRW Dark Prison, Sora no Kiseki the 3rd, Shadowrun Returns: DMS, Bloodborne (I count it as an action rpg), The Banner Saga Ep1, Tales of Zestiria, Zero no Kiseki Evo, SRW BX, Xenoblade X, SRW Z3-2, Nayuta no Kiseki, The Witcher 1, YsVI,Dark Souls,Ao no Kiseki Evolution, Exist Archive

My rpg backlog right now is:
SMTxFE, Undertale, Nier, Lisa, Pillars of Eternity,  The Witcher 2&3, Dark Souls 2 and soon 3, Wasteland 2, Shadowrun Dragonfall, Shadowrun Hong Kong, Dead State, Might and Magic X, Mass Effect 3, KoTOR2, Dragon Age 1-3, Divinity OS, Skyrim, Fallout 4, Avadon, Vampire the Masquarade,, Arc Rise Fantasia, Last Remnant, Bravely Default 1&2, Sen no Kiseki II, Tokyo Xanadu, Valkyria Chronicles 2 & 3, Soul Hackers, Persona 2 IS/EP, Tales of Xillia 1, Tales of Xillia 2, Suikoden V, DQVIIr, FFXIII-3 Lightning Returns, Disgaea D2, Disgaea 5, Zettai Hero Project 2, ZHP3, Fire Emblem Wii, Fire Emblem Awekening, FE Fates, Baten Kaitos 2

...and then this year will add Star Ocean V, FFXV, Persona 5, SRW OG The Moon Dwellers, YS8, Tales of Beseria

So yeah even at 1 rpg a month, I've got plenty of rpgs to play for the next 3-5 years easily along with new ones that keep coming out.  There's always good rpgs to play, and that's not even dipping back into retro PS1 or earlier stuff.

it feels like a VN. Is a way to cheese it so I can just do the story?

Cheese what?  Like the fights?  You can avoid almost all the normal enemy fights in the game.  That's what I did.  You can get quartz that let you see the enemies on the mini-map and quartz that make the enemies avoid detecting you.  I basically never fought normal enemies, and was always underleveled for bosses but I beat them and would catch up levels from their xp.  If you want to avoid quests?  Just skip the non-essential quests, although there's a lot of good quests out there and they'll had nods to them in the following game if you do some of them.  Since the game's on PC maybe there's even a trainer for fast movement on the map and being super powered so you can blow through it faster.  It's only about a 35 hour rpg if you rush it.

cheese fights yes.

[demi]

FC is garbo. Nothing literally happens until the last 5 minutes. Just look up a tl;dr

Don't do this.  All the character development is in FC to setup for the story events in SC.

There is no character development in FC.

[Bebpo]

FC is garbo. Nothing literally happens until the last 5 minutes. Just look up a tl;dr

Don't do this.  All the character development is in FC to setup for the story events in SC.

There is no character development in FC.

You know, sometimes you're spot on Demi like with Mad Max, and then other times I totally disagree with you.  I wouldn't have cared about any of the character interactions in SC without the FC build up.

Ps.  Never play cold steel in this case.  You'd seriously hate it more than Sky FC.

[demi]

Feel free to tell me what development I may have missed that I absolutely must need to know before playing SC.

[Joe Molotov]

The budding relationship between Joshua and Estelle. 

[Cerveza mas fina]

Got Batman Arkham Knight a week or so ago. Game is gorgeous but doesn't grab me as Asylum did. Car combat is cool, but the "open world" thing is a letdown.

I really should learn my lesson after all the GTA's, Skyrims, Oblivions, Fallouts, Dragon Ages Inquisitions, Far Crys and Ass Creeds that open world fetch quest games are not my thing.

I think Witcher 3 and Fallout 3 are the only open world games I finished in the last 10 years, but maybe I'm forgetting something.

[Bebpo]

Got chapter 5 in Trails of Cold Steel/Sen no kiseki - Finally after a slooooooow pace which hit rock bottom in Chapter 3, at 30 hours in with the start of Chapter 4 the game started moving.  This is what I was waiting for, the point where the game actually starts.  Hours 30-40 in Chapter 4 were good, no real complaints besides I wish the main characters were a little less dumb, but they're getting better at deductions by Chapter 4.  I'm kind of spoiled because the lead guy in the Crossbell games is basically a young sherlock holmes smart protagonist who would actually figure shit out at the same time the audience did and not 20 hours later after being oblivious.  Anyhow, the game's still got some issues, especially coming from Crossbell, but I'm into it now and enjoying it.  Really just want to get to Sen II because I know that's where stuff is gonna pay off.

[Mr. Nobody]

Got Batman Arkham Knight a week or so ago. Game is gorgeous but doesn't grab me as Asylum did. Car combat is cool, but the "open world" thing is a letdown.

I really should learn my lesson after all the GTA's, Skyrims, Oblivions, Fallouts, Dragon Ages Inquisitions, Far Crys and Ass Creeds that open world fetch quest games are not my thing.

I think Witcher 3 and Fallout 3 are the only open world games I finished in the last 10 years, but maybe I'm forgetting something.

Man are you in for a treat 

[demi]

Arkham Knight was mud sandwich

[Bebpo]

Arkham Knight was mud sandwich

Best game in the series.  Don't get why so many people hate it.  Story was a great conclusion to a 6-7 year long series.  Gameplay was tops, graphics fantastic.  Good length, not much filler.  Driving was fun.

[Mr. Nobody]

Driving/tank missions really brought the same down for me. It was cool the first 2 or 3 times but by the midway point of the game, I was so over it. The disc being a Batmobile tire really should've tipped me off though. 

Doesn't help that Scarecrow felt like a side mission for the most part when he was supposed to the main villain either.

[The Sceneman]

So I've been binging on Spelunky again.

I'm definitely getting better, managed a high score of ~450k which is pretty good (theres an achievement for 500k). Also made it to Hell for the FIRST TIME EVER, and got killed 5 seconds into the level by a bouncing Magma Man

 

Going to try again soon. I'll beat Hell eventually! I also rented Remember Me, looking forward to checking it out.

[tiesto]

Got to the final battle in the Undertale Genocide run... I breezed through the Genocide run aside from one of the boss battles in the middle, but the final boss is just ridiculously hard so far. I'm lucky if I can even survive his first attack! I might do a hack to fill up my inventory with all of the best recovery items

[Cerveza mas fina]

Quit playing Batman and started the Banner Saga. Looks gorgeous so far.

[brob]

So I've been binging on Spelunky again.

I'm definitely getting better, managed a high score of ~450k which is pretty good (theres an achievement for 500k). Also made it to Hell for the FIRST TIME EVER, and got killed 5 seconds into the level by a bouncing Magma Man

 

worst aspect of Spelunky is how tedious it is to get to hell. There is a severe incline in difficulty between the regular levels and hell, and at a certain point you are in this quagmire of being good enough to feel unchallenged by everything up to Olmec, but still struggle with hell. Even getting thru the chain of events required to get to hell is a bit of a crap shoot given the RNG involved.

All of this would be solved with an unlockable shortcut to hell, like there is for the other levels imo.

[Bebpo]

Driving/tank missions really brought the same down for me. It was cool the first 2 or 3 times but by the midway point of the game, I was so over it. The disc being a Batmobile tire really should've tipped me off though. 

Doesn't help that Scarecrow felt like a side mission for the most part when he was supposed to the main villain either.

Ok, that's fair.  I thought the tank missions were pretty fun arcade-style mini-game.  There's way too many of them, and they lack depth, but they're pretty easy and quick so it didn't bother me personally.  A lot of it was optional too.  I never had a problem with the driving since the city is pretty small and there's only maybe 3 or 4 missions where you need to actually chase something.  I liked the car integration in puzzles.  I felt the puzzles throughout were a lot of fun.

I thought Scarecrow had a good role and was pretty major for the entire game

spoiler (click to show/hide)

I mean he unmasks batman

[close]

but I was also more interested in the Arkham Knight story so I thought the story was good.  I liked how it pulled all the plot points from the previous 4 games together for a final conclusion to it all.  Batman's

spoiler (click to show/hide)

mental breakdown dealing with the Joker's death was fantastic imo, and since in the end the entire story of Arkham is Batman/Joker's relationship, Knight's resolution with Joker gave a great ending to it all.

[close]

On top of that the fluidity of the stealth was good.  The combat was ok, and the electrocuted enemies really disrupted the pace, but it was serviceable. 

[chronovore]

I played some HELLDIVERS thanks to PS+ freebie-ness. The gameplay takes some getting used to. Friendly fire. Manual reload, even when the clip is empty. Your power-ups are entered combo-style. It all seems centered around the player keeping their cool while their space marine gets around the map. The part I enjoy the most is the plot and propaganda coming straight from Verhoeven's Starship Troopers. I'm happy to see I'm not the only person on the planet who enjoyed that critical take on Heinlein's work.

[The Sceneman]

So I've been binging on Spelunky again.

I'm definitely getting better, managed a high score of ~450k which is pretty good (theres an achievement for 500k). Also made it to Hell for the FIRST TIME EVER, and got killed 5 seconds into the level by a bouncing Magma Man

 

worst aspect of Spelunky is how tedious it is to get to hell. There is a severe incline in difficulty between the regular levels and hell, and at a certain point you are in this quagmire of being good enough to feel unchallenged by everything up to Olmec, but still struggle with hell. Even getting thru the chain of events required to get to hell is a bit of a crap shoot given the RNG involved.

All of this would be solved with an unlockable shortcut to hell, like there is for the other levels imo.

A shortcut would be great, but Hell really is the "extra for experts" mode and is such a pain in the ass to get to.

Spelunky is so rewarding yet so frustrating! I was on level 4-1 and already had 430k, was all lined up to get to City of Gold and crack the 500k cheevo no sweat (I had ghosted 3 vaults already). Nope wasn't careful enough and died a stupid as hell death to Anubis. Argghghg my blood pressure. Still, one of my best runs ever and it's only up from here, right? Gonna limit myself to one or two runs a day for sanity reasons.

Started Remember Me also. Really enjoying it so far. The art is amazing and the world design is pretty neat. Combat is fine, basically Batman-lite but they clearly add a lot of bells and whistles as you progress. "Remembering" your moves and skills is a pretty cute way of presenting your stock standard upgrade system. The dialogue is lol, its that classic Euro shit where the English is 85% correct but there's the odd word and weird grammar every couple sentences. I always enjoy this feature in a game. Protaganist is bleurgh, hate the posh spice look zzzzz. They introduced a sweet character in Chapter 1, "Olga" who's character design was just so much better. I was thinking "damn why cant I play as her".

[tiesto]

Played a whole ton of Guardian's Crusade. Right near the end, just have to collect the pieces of legendary armor and do a bunch of sidequests. Very charming game, and the challenge kicks up a bit after a certain point. I like how a lot of the objects inside the houses have unique dialogue, whether it be a plant sitting on a table, a cabinet, or a fireplace. And the whole 'living toy' wind-up aesthetic is cool, it's reminiscent of Clockwork Knight. Very underrated game and good for someone who wants a classic, charming RPG that's none too long (I'm about 18 hours in and think I have ~4 or 5 or so to go).

[archie4208]

Chapter 23 in FE Fates Birthright.   

[Cerveza mas fina]

Chapter 4 in the Banner Saga

Great fun so far and like the switching between the two caravans, only downer is no movement cancel button and no camera rotation as far as I cant tell. I hope that makes it into the sequel.

Funny how some games just grab you. This game has got a nice story that is somewhat interactive and your decisions matter, great looks and good sound. The gameplay is not too complicated but it has that addicting quality. Do I rest and let my troops be fully fit and waste rations? Or do I walk on and maybe get slaughtered.

[The Sceneman]

made it to Hell 5-3 in Spelunky and then died to one of those spiky balls as I was on one health. I'm gonna do this

[brob]

you can be fairly liberal with bombs in hell because if you do make it to the boss you are guaranteed to get two bomb boxes from the two enemies that spawn on either side of you at the start. And I find it's near always worth it to go for the Dracula brooch just because dying to some fire bullshit is heinous.

[The Sceneman]

yeah I was bombing like there was no tomorrow and I did grab Vlad's Amulet because yeah the magma men can suck it. I didn't have a jetpack which totally sucked also.

I've watched a bunch of Baertaffy videos where he kills King Yama so I have an idea of the strat for the boss, looks pretty easy if you have a shotgun. It's just a matter of time before I beat Hell I reckon.

[brob]

tbf I have never made it to the boss and not won. if you have what u need to get there, finishing the job isn't terribly hard. Tho there are plenty of one-hit KO situations on the boss stage, so it still got me paranoid every time. 

[chronovore]

Yeah, managing my own fear is my biggest problem in Spelunky. Avoiding panic is difficult as time goes on, but it is funny how difficult a stage seems at first, and then becomes a trivial waste of time after going through it dozens of attempts.

[The Sceneman]

ARGHG I DIED ON FUCKING YAMA 

Was on 1 health when I get to Hell, used about 30 bombs to safely bomb through all the levels then one of those falling skulls hit me (I assumed I had a block above me as I was climbing a chain, nope)

Next time his ass is mine my heart is still pounding like crazy so thats enough Ass Spelunking for one day

[TakingBackSunday]

TP HD is p. cool

[BobFromPikeCreek]

TP HD is p. cool

Did they do anything to speed up the first couple of tutorial hours?

[The Sceneman]

Whoop whoop beat Hell in Spelunky

Now trying for the no treasure achievement, this one us rooough

[brob]

ghosting all these vaults

[TakingBackSunday]

TP HD is p. cool

Did they do anything to speed up the first couple of tutorial hours?

no but it didn't take me nearly as long as I remembered it.  maybe like 2 hours

[Mr. Nobody]

On a PS1 kick outside of SFV sessions.

Beat Parasite Eve some days ago, beat Crash Bandicoot last night, and I'm playing Megaman Legends right now.

[Stoney Mason]

Just started playing Arkham Knight. I don't understand the side quest missions. Do I just need to roll around until I find these extra side missions or something?

[Bebpo]

Just started playing Arkham Knight. I don't understand the side quest missions. Do I just need to roll around until I find these extra side missions or something?

For some.  But don't worry about it and just do the main story, you'll come across all the missions as you play.