Patient Gamers

KLEI publisher sale.

EDIT: heck i assumed steam and gog would be the same price right now!!

Original below:

or perhaps i should be asking if it's worth it to wait on the sales?

a lifetime ago, played Morrowind and oblivion for countless hours and have always wondered why i haven't gotten into Skyrim yet! apparently it's so i could share this experience with the wife!

I have had a copy of Skyrim forever now, and she is enjoying life as a khajit!

a far cry from sharing the OG xbox controller (the Duke!) with my little bro, this time around I'm interested in the Multiplayer mod so we could run through all this together.

if it was 15 or 20 bucks on steam I'd go without avacado toast and grab another copy, (/s) but it's currently at $40 and i just don't have the budget to justify that right now. (especially not knowing if the multiplayer works well and stuff.)

i didn't know if there was a secret humble bundle or similar

or like, y'all know that it'll be 12.99 on arbor day

or someone accidentally has extra copies of Skyrim special edition keys they keep tripping over on the way to the bathroom,

does the mod work well?

Thanks in advance, happy gaming!

I mean, I guess I shouldn't say "surprisingly" because that's sort of an insult to all the positive reviews it has. But still, I was hesitant based on the trailers making it look like it's too repetitive and simple relative to FTL and Slay the Spire.

It's pretty satisfying to have modules that chain with each other in generating more and more energy after you've spent your last cell. It's really cool to see an enemy set to annihilate you even when you're at max health, only for you to cleverly manipulate your energy numbers and generate more to turn the tide all the way to even striking them instead. It feels like a "slower" Cobalt Core (even though they're both turn-based).

TLDR: my warrior fully upgraded their main weapon and now face a deficit of titanite chunks to upgrade other weapons, severely limiting my build in time when mages gain several new awesome spells as well as resources to upgrade their pyromancy flame and catalyst.

I'm replaying Dark Souls 2 (SotFS) after years of not touching the game and generally not spending much time with Souls-likes. I went for a warrior type, focusing on swords and crossbows. Despite not having access to any magic, I have a blast!

Yet, once the early game full of experimentations with weapons and ~~drip~~ fashion reached its' end and I settled on a claymore +10 and a pretty looking "armor" set, my build became stale. I used up my titanite chunks on the claymore and I can't gain more since the useless ore merchant can't sell shit until you are 2 bosses away from winning. I have murakumo +7 and I switch to it sometimes but it's hard to compete with a fully upgraded claymore.

The game throws twinkling titanite to me and I would love to use it on some cool weapon... but there are none! The only special weapon that could fit this build, Drangleic greatsword, is just worse than my claymore in terms of reach and moveset. Maybe it has a bit more damage when it's fully upgraded but I'd still prefer the more convenient option.

Now, there are also boss weapons. Again, there's only one that actually interests me - the flexile sentinel's curved greatsword. It's pretty similar to my murakumo except it weighs more and... that's it? Stat scaling is a bit different but moveset seems identical. It looks cool though. But I dunno if it's worth the investment. Are there other interesting boss weapons worth waiting for? I don't really want to grind for petrified bones...

It's especially aggravating because, when a mage reaches Drangleic castle, they get such a huge upgrade. Great combustion, several fire seeds, Soul greatsword, Firestorm, twinkling titanite for the best catalyst... it's arguably the best part of the game for casters.

This is a story focused puzzle game where you are on a tropical island in 1934, investigating the disappearance of your husband and his expedition on this exact island.

The puzzles are not Baba is You level, but also not too easy so that you just run through.

The main focus is the story and reaching new areasby solving the puzzles. There is a linear progression from level to level, but each section is a nice looking area you can walk around in.

There is no action though, which gave my experience with it a nice, cozy atmosphere that I didn't expect from a Lovecraft inspired work. With the direction the story was going it makes sense in the end, but still, unexpected to me.

I had a fun time with it and want to see more Cosmic Cozy now! Anybody has some recommendation in that regard?

Started Max Payne 3, holy cow the physics of shooting, and how windows break when shooting them just superb, makes me wish GTA V could havehad more of this, or.been on the 8th gen consoles, Cant wait to experience more of.it

No idea if there is now a name for this kind of "crawling through archives" puzzle game, but this was the first and only one that I played with this mechanic.

Her story is a puzzle game where you sit in front of a police database software with videos of interviews with the titular her woman. The interviews are cut into many smaller fragments and you can search the database for key words. You then get presented all the videos where that keyword was spoken. The catch is that the database software is shit and only the first 5 entries are shown. So you have to get creative what words you search for so you really find a new lead and not just filler. So you better have a notebook (digital or real) ready to write down things you want to ask later.

You don't really get a direct goal, you need to be motivated just by curiosity alone to find out more.

The videos are real movies shot with real humans, which gives the whole thing an interesting twist, since graphics doesnt really matter, since its real footage. But the quality of the acting matters, and I was satisfied with it, even though its nothing exceptional

I tried the developers next project, Telling Lies, but the interaction (fast forwarding and rewinding) with the movies in that one annoyed me so much, that I only tried it 2 times and gave up after 2 minutes each time, so can't say anything more about the sequel.

Fez is a nice 2D platformer where the unique mechanic is that the world is 3D in reality and you can shift the world in 90° angles, whereby you can then reach new platforms and places, because now the backwall is suddenly a 2 block high platform that you can jump on.

You play as a cute little dude who gets the titular fez, which gives you the world turning power. Then you explore to your own liking and solve secrets to find cubes. A bit like The Witness in that regard. There is no real story or narrative, but simply exploring to my hearts content was enough to motivate me.

The music is also great and I still listen to it, since it portrays very fittingly the adventure spirit and mystique of some places. The atmosphere is similar to Tunic in that it feels whimsically adventurous.

If you like exploring things and finding hints and connections to solve puzzles, this game is for you. Especially if you like con languages and secrets behind secrets, but then you probably already played this game.

Sadly we will probably never play another game by this developer, as he behaved like an asshole and then the (not unfounded) backlash to that pushed him enough to quit developing.

cross-posted from: https://kbin.earth/m/soulslike@lemmy.zip/t/2750872

How the Realm of Shadow Fits Into the Lands Between (in video format this time, non-youtube link in description)

Non-youtube link (only in 720p to fit within file size limits): https://streamable.com/0j2w4a

I posted my idea for this a few weeks back here, and eezeebee@lemmy.ca suggested making a video about it, so here it is!

I recently finished LoS2, including the DLC, and while I highly enjoyed the design of Castlevania, the castle, I didn't really enjoy the increased Metroidvania aspect in the gameplay. The reason for that is that it didn't really led to "wow I want to explore that later" feeling, but only "great, another ability-gate, nice that I wasted my time exploring this side path". And there is no world map so you can mark it for later. To accommodate for that, they included an item that shows you where the closest unfound secret is. Which solves the problem by removing all the fun from it and making it literally a chore.

In contrast to the first LoS, they created two big interconnected world maps, where you unlock more parts with the abilities you gain. Another problem is though, that it is still absolutely linearly unlocked. So you can only explore for optional upgrades. The castle itself looks great though! Normally you see concept art and then the finished game and you can see the influence of the concept art and how they simplified the CA to create the in-game assets.

Here?

You put the concept art next to the finished game and it is simply the same picture. (you unlock concept art in game through destroying destructible objects). Its over designed to hell and I love it!

Although you play as Dracula this time, the gameplay isn't that different to the first game, the fights feel pretty much the same. Which wasn't a big problem to me, as I liked them. This was especially true when you fight against a similarly abled boss, which luckily happens in this game again.

The story is functional but has illogical parts, so don't expect great storytelling here. The DLC is more of the same, especially the fights, even though you play another character. But the DLC area is nice and visually different from the main game.

Would I recommend this game? Not specifically, if you didnt already liked the first game or just want some pretty looking game where you can turn your brain off and pummel some demons.

I finally finished the System Shock Remake and I was surprised how much this game already got right in its original installment in sense of story progression and open world level design, but also how much they improved the general gameplay and graphics with the remake.

The new lightning effects and graphics in general are of course much better than the 20+ years old original, only downside there is that they made everything bright enough, that you never need the vision enhancements.

Sadly the last level in the remake is standard "evil tyrant SciFi" optics over the surreal Giger-like textures in the original due to time constraints.

The cyber space "hacking" is a 6 degree of freedom shooting mini game, same as in the original, but much better to conceptualize now. Now everything has textures and proper 3d models instead of being some polygon clusters with edges but no surfaces.

The story is unchanged in the big moments, but some smaller changes in the details. The beginning has you explore your apartment on planet now instead of only being a cutscene.

So if you were always interested in the birth of the immersive sims genre, but don't want to play a very difficult to control game with sprites pixely enough to make Minecraft look HiRes, I would recommend this game version over the original.

If you've been waiting to play one of these classics, now's your chance! Just leave a comment with the name of the game you want (please check the comments first to see if someone else has already requested it), and I’ll send you a DM.

Also, please limit one per person, so more patient gamers can enjoy, and please redeem right away since keys expire, and let me know when you do so I can take it off the list!

• ~~ABZU~~
• ~~BioShock Remastered~~
• ~~Control Ultimate Edition~~
• ~~Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice~~
• ~~Hollow Knight~~
• ~~Hyper Light Drifter~~
• ~~Machinarium~~
• ~~Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor Game of the Year Edition~~
• ~~Mutazione~~
• ~~Psychonauts~~
• ~~River City Girls~~
• ~~Sable~~
• ~~Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic~~
• ~~Undertale~~
• ~~Vampire Survivors~~
• ~~The Witness~~
• ~~Yooka-Laylee~~

Optional: What are you listening to/watching/reading this weekend?

Another game that I didn't expect much from ... and was pleasantly surprised to be proven wrong.

The first time I saw the Book and Coppertop NPCs, I audibly groaned... I usually dislike "permanent companions" that just won't shut the heck up, and this game has TWO of them, just great. But I quickly learned to like them for their witty dialogue and constant barter.

I haven't actually finished the game yet so I can not vouch for the second half being as nice as the first, but what I've played so far had me wishing the in-game days were longer because I want to do All The Things™ everyday everywhere. Luckily there's no rush, no timer, no penalty for taking your time, so you can just continue where you left off the next day, but I've had my fair share of "nooo I don't wanna go home yet!"-moments nonetheless.

The main gameplay is a mix of garden simulator, town builder and exploration/adventure game with some fetch quests and puzzles sprinkled in. You can spend all your time pulling weeds and planting trees and fishing / catching bugs in the various worlds you create, or you can spend all your time creating and growing your settlements (plural!), building houses and shops and other facilities, customizing those, populating the area by deciding which visitors should stay, or you can spend all your time exploring the overworld, finding temples, caves, treasures, hidden NPCs while advancing the storyline (finding "song fragments" to restore the Evertree). There's no penalty for neglecting either one - your plants can't wither, NPCs don't need a 24/7 babysitter, facilities don't decay, and the story isn't going anywhere unless you advance it yourself.

All in all a very charming, easygoing but still engaging game.

PRO:

• Relaxed gameplay: no enemies, no "game over". Even if you drown, you'll just get put back on land after a quick fade-out

• The world opens up gradually, making it possible to learn gameplay mechanics at a comfy pace. It never gets overwhelming

• The NPCs have some delightfully snarky dialogue, make frequent use of puns and tongue-in-cheek references, but it never felt out of place or annoying to me

• ALL THE ACHIEVEMENTS! You always have something to do, but you're also not penalized for not doing anything

• Treasure chests, caves, certain little creatures playing hide-and-seek, alchemist's desks and full-fledged temples encourage and reward exploration

• The temples and caves I've found so far all had different, unique puzzles that were self-explanatory and engaging

• You can build your own settlements that grow over time, and decide which NPCs move in and what jobs they get

• You can create an agender character, complete with the singular "they" in every dialogue. It was a surprise to see that option in a 5+ year old game when even the most recent AAA titles tend to struggle with the concept

• There are even a bunch of romance options (NOT tied to specific gender) that stay kid-friendly throughout the playthrough (no kissing etc.)

• The "worlds" you can create can have noticably different biomes: from standard-looking forests, plains and deserts to neon pink landscapes with tree-sized glowing mushrooms populated by caterpillar-dogs. I even had a world once where the ground had eyeballs that blinked and watched what you did, and one with a little gnome in a hut that scolded me after accidentally tripping over his tiny furniture.

• You can tame most of the animals. Ever wanted to have a farm full of buffalo-sized green hamsters or a pet dragon-cat-poolnoodle-mix? Here you go.

• Personal little pet peeve of mine: you can invert X- and Y-axis of the camera controls separately and even chose how close the camera is to your character (it's a slider, not just 2 settings). I would love if other games followed that example because I legit can't stand games with un-inverted or even mixed camera controls.

CON:

• it occasionally lags, but I'm playing on a first gen Nintendo Switch and that thing has the processing power of a moist tortilla chip, so it might not be the game's fault.
• fish and insects are basically all the same. I stopped paying attention to them pretty quickly
• The explorable world gets HUGE eventually but you do not have a map, minimap or compass. Expect to get lost often until you memorize the layout of the land. Luckily you can always fast travel to your destination if you get lost, but not getting lost in the first place would have been preferrable.
• Even tho there are multiple different humanoid races that can populate your settlements, character creation is limited to only one species: Human. Not that big of a deal, but it would have been nice to play as something else
• You can rename you worlds anytime, but the descriptions of items you got from them are stuck. If you have 7+ worlds that you renamed a bunch of times and then want to find out what specific world a caterpillar or flower came from when the description only states the old name, it's a little inconvenient

Honestly the missing map is my only real complaint here. Everything else is just nitpicking and can probably be modded out if you're playing on a PC.

The main theme somehow popped into my head recently and I retried the game.

This time, I tried an geologist with egyptian magic, fighting unarmed. (other favorites are the werediggle curse, Mathemagic and necronomiconomics. )
It's been a while since I last played and I don't think I ever got far.

I also discovered a bunch of new things which I've never seen on my playthroughs before (new updates, or maybe just bad luck in the past) Pocket dimensions and Secret wizard dimensions that can only be accessed by finding their names (and remembering them!)

Everything feels silly like drinking beer to restore mana, using an ingot press to make omelettes from diggle eggs, drinking from fountains with mystery liquids, vandalising statues of the dungeon lord to level up.

But at the same time it's very easy to adjust the game to suit your taste.
The difficulty level is adjustable, Permadeath is an option, plus there is an option for slower floors with the same amount of experience (to reduce grinding if you have less time to play) + Modding support.

Overall a great small title that I enjoyed playing again after so many years.

I just finished it ....I think? Honestly I'm not sure because the game seems to end right in the middle of the story, and it feels weird that the only mention of this I can find is an article from 2014 that casually mentions that the game isn't yet finished but the creators will surely provide more content soon^[1 "The Squids’ stories are still not complete, so I’m sure The Game Bakers will produce additional and ongoing episodes of our heroes’ misadventures." ]... and then radio silence for 12 years?! Am I missing something crucial here or is everyone who bought the game somehow ok with the story just flat-out ending the moment it finally picks up some steam?

All in all it's an interesting game - colorful environment, characters with personality and different abilities, the art style is cute, gameplay is simple to understand yet challenging to execute. But the weirdly axed story arc left a really sour taste in my mouth and, frankly, retroactively tainted the fun I've had so far.

To elaborate: During the story it becomes clear that you have to visit and liberate 7 temples, defeat their guardians and then clobber the end boss that is teased relatively early on and makes frequent appearances.

You can clear 2 temples and defeat their guardians, then you can clear a bunch of random tasks and HALF of the third temple and the game ends. No guardian boss battle, the end boss is never even encountered and the only thing that pops up after a brief cutscene (that can be summed up with "and then the party continued their adventure") is that you unlocked hard mode now, but hard mode is just the same levels again with beefed up enemies - no additional story, cutscenes or levels. Not even credits or a simple "the end". Even a cliffhanger would have been okay-ish, but what you get is a big nothingburger with a side dish of confusion.

It feels weird and disappointing. If you still want to play it, you should wait for a massive discount, because what you get is not worth full price IMHO.

So I had had these guys on my wishlist for a while. Last December I pulled the trigger on them while on sale. I've had a bit of downtime and decided to try them out. They are a Xcom successor, but I had not played the original or the Sid Myer reboot, so I didn't really know what to expect. The game is really fun. I do like the mechanics of it all and the isometric view. For sure worth getting and has been a fun 20hrs so far.

I'm not going to lie - at first I didn't expect much from it. Had that title on my "To Do"-list for years but somehow assumed it was just some generic run-off-the-mill fantasy RPG with cute animals and not much else.

Boy, was I wrong. Such a charming little gem of a game. The story had some interesting twists that actually surprised me, which is something I hadn't experienced in a very long time. The characters are charming, some of them a bit quirky, but still manage to feel genuine. There's both rich lore AND some tongue-in-cheek humor within the story, without either one feeling forced or out of place.

All in all, I really enjoyed it. My only "complaint" is that it is a bit short, but since they have a super tiny indie dev team, one can't rightfully expect the same story length or map size as the ones made by big studios with hundreds of employees.

I actually regret not having played it sooner and I am stoked for the sequel. ;)