[Mentalist]

Horizon 2 coming to PC early 2024.

Sa-weet. Should have a new GPU by then.

[Maark Abbott]

Ace Attorney hit Game Pass so I played some last night.

It was a lot of fun - but it's also harder than it needs to be for me. Why? Because I keep approaching it like I would a Judge of HMCTS and Japanifornian criminal law is markedly different to English civil law. For example, in Turnabout Sisters, there is a contradiction between what one character says they saw and what another witness says happened at that time, and so I go to a piece of evidence to show they couldn't have seen who did the thing - but that wasn't right. In an English Court, a Judge would probably throw the other side's entire case out on that sort of error.

Despite that it's a lot of fun and I look forward to whatever other wacky cases it has for me.

[Maark Abbott]

Been playing Stardew again. Hit year four on my beef save. Ran into the problem where my farm is now too large to clean up and replant on Spring 1.

Someone said that leaving wilted crops / using winter seeds to keep the fields from returning to basic soil and getting messy - keeps the tiles watered too, as I understand - so I should be able to scythe, plant and be done with it way quicker.

For context, I am overstocking up to 200 of each seed when they become available, and I'm trying to make sure I have stuff like Strawberries always in stock / greenhouse so I can plant those very fast too.

[Mentalist]

Good Lord, the madmen have done it.

Age of Empires II DE is getting a Caucasus DLC with Georgian and Armenian civs.

This has been something that's been discussed to death for almost a decade since AoE II HD became a thing; but I never expected them to actually do this.

And now Persians get a proper campaign (Ismail I, founder of the Safavid Empire). Meaning from the OG civs only Vikings, Chinese, Japanese, Koreans and Turks are left ignored (and the Celts, I guess, since all they have is the tutorial)

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 30 November 2023 - 08:34 PM

[Mentalist]

So I guess GTA 6 is a thing that's actually happening. Should be a trailer in December.

Honestly, these huge blockbusters (Starfield, GTA) just feel overwhelming in their scope, which really dampens my enthusiasm towards them.

[Mentalist]

Some neat stuff in the PC Gaming Show today.

Flintlock: Siege of Dawn for a new release window (summer 2024). Nu-Bloodlines 2 revealed its 3rd clan (Banu Haqim, formerly knows as Assamite), and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 was voted the most anticipated PC game of 2024, and got a new story trailer, featuring a return of one of your party members from Call of Prypyat'

Also, Homeworld 3 looks amazing, and a bunch of games got demos.

[Maark Abbott]

I hope they make Homeworld 3 a bit more reasonable than 2 was. 1 (pre-remaster) was already extremely hard (the remaster was a lot more bearable), but I couldn't get past mission 2 or 3 on the second game (the one where you warp away from Hiigara and have to set turrets up around asteroids), I honestly found it unreasonably hard

[Mentalist]

Maark Abbott, on 05 December 2023 - 07:59 AM, said:

I hope they make Homeworld 3 a bit more reasonable than 2 was. 1 (pre-remaster) was already extremely hard (the remaster was a lot more bearable), but I couldn't get past mission 2 or 3 on the second game (the one where you warp away from Hiigara and have to set turrets up around asteroids), I honestly found it unreasonably hard

They say that it'll be more accessible, having both RTS and FPS-style control schemes.

We'll see.

in other news, Outcast 2 got a release date!

Hopefully they'll do another "features" trailer at TGAs. ACG did a video about his hands-on preview, and it sounds like they're just building directly on the original, which is very neat.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 05 December 2023 - 04:57 PM

[Maark Abbott]

Mentalist, on 05 December 2023 - 04:55 PM, said:

Maark Abbott, on 05 December 2023 - 07:59 AM, said:

I hope they make Homeworld 3 a bit more reasonable than 2 was. 1 (pre-remaster) was already extremely hard (the remaster was a lot more bearable), but I couldn't get past mission 2 or 3 on the second game (the one where you warp away from Hiigara and have to set turrets up around asteroids), I honestly found it unreasonably hard

They say that it'll be more accessible, having both RTS and FPS-style control schemes.

We'll see.

in other news, Outcast 2 got a release date!

Hopefully they'll do another "features" trailer at TGAs. ACG did a video about his hands-on preview, and it sounds like they're just building directly on the original, which is very neat.

I don't really want FPS controls to be honest. The control scheme was never the issue; the issue was always that it is a very, very hard game by default and whilst I've finished the first one before a couple times, it never felt reasonable in the difficulty. I get that's what the devs might be going for but it made for a stressful experience.

[Mentalist]

Some decent buzz around Game Awards announcements tonight.

Should be interesting.

[Maark Abbott]

Main takeaways I saw from the Awards was Monster Hunter 6 in 2025, and a new Jurassic Park survival game.

Sega announcements were all Dreamcast focused and included an 'and more'... Do I dare be delulu

[Mentalist]

Maark Abbott, on 08 December 2023 - 08:48 AM, said:

Main takeaways I saw from the Awards was Monster Hunter 6 in 2025, and a new Jurassic Park survival game.

Sega announcements were all Dreamcast focused and included an 'and more'... Do I dare be delulu

Arcane Lyon is making a 3rd person Blade game. I am excite.

That Exodus game that featured Maconehay is apparently a new Mass Effect like from a bunch of ex-Bioware people, bankrolled by Wizards of the Coast.

Really liked the look of that cyberpunk game's trailer, "The last Sentinel". After GhostRunner 2, I need more cyberpunk bike action in my life.

The Bantu mythos metroidvania from EA Originals, and the new Prince of Persia share a similar art style- and I happen to like it.

There was also that game from Finji, Usual June, which looked pretty neat. Ontot he wishlist it goes.

I didn't care much for the reveal of the game my Ikumi Nakamura (the woman who was creative director of Ghostwire Tokyo when it was first revealed), because the trailer screamed co-op looter, but apparently it can be played solo. And they used a Ukrainian song in the trailer, which is kinda neat.

And Rocksteady will now apparently patch in a way to play Suicide Squad offline in single-player "sometime after launch".

The chances of me picking this up in some sale eventually have just skyrocketed.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 08 December 2023 - 04:06 PM

[polishgenius]

Mentalist, on 08 December 2023 - 04:04 PM, said:

The Bantu mythos metroidvania from EA Originals, and the new Prince of Persia share a similar art style- and I happen to like it.

Very different setting and less guns, but both seem to have a lot of Metroid: Dread DNA (which itself seems to have been inspired by the 2014 Strider, which I've not played but has a good rep and has that style both visually and in the smoothness of movement).



Hello Games' new one, Light No Fire, looks balling, even if I'm pretty much never likely to play it. No over-promises this time, but even without anything other than the trailer itself, it looks insanely ambitious.


And of course Motion Twin, of Dead Cells fame, are taking their next game top-down isometric, and thus going for Hades' crown.

[Maark Abbott]

Mentalist, on 08 December 2023 - 04:04 PM, said:

Maark Abbott, on 08 December 2023 - 08:48 AM, said:

Main takeaways I saw from the Awards was Monster Hunter 6 in 2025, and a new Jurassic Park survival game.

Sega announcements were all Dreamcast focused and included an 'and more'... Do I dare be delulu

Arcane Lyon is making a 3rd person Blade game. I am excite.

That Exodus game that featured Maconehay is apparently a new Mass Effect like from a bunch of ex-Bioware people, bankrolled by Wizards of the Coast.

Really liked the look of that cyberpunk game's trailer, "The last Sentinel". After GhostRunner 2, I need more cyberpunk bike action in my life.

The Bantu mythos metroidvania from EA Originals, and the new Prince of Persia share a similar art style- and I happen to like it.

There was also that game from Finji, Usual June, which looked pretty neat. Ontot he wishlist it goes.

I didn't care much for the reveal of the game my Ikumi Nakamura (the woman who was creative director of Ghostwire Tokyo when it was first revealed), because the trailer screamed co-op looter, but apparently it can be played solo. And they used a Ukrainian song in the trailer, which is kinda neat.

And Rocksteady will now apparently patch in a way to play Suicide Squad offline in single-player "sometime after launch".

The chances of me picking this up in some sale eventually have just skyrocketed.

Sega saying 'we're reviving a bunch of IPs' and my brain thinking 'Skies of Arcadia is an IP'

I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be delulu I won't be 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[Mentalist]

So far they've shown Shinobi, Golden Axe, Jet Set radio, Streets of Rage and Crazy Taxi.

More IPs to come, but ionno if they still care about RPGs as a genre.

[Mentalist]

GSC Games finally committing to a release date for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.2- Sept 5th

On Thur Microsoft is doing their Developer Direct, with gameplay premiere for the Inidiana Jones game. And there's now a leak that Hellblade 2 will be out in May- so maybe we'll finally get a decent gameplay slice for it.

Also, rumour of a Gears of War collection (again). Hopefully something actually pans out this time. Would be neat if Sony also did a God of War collection this year- both GoWs on PC would be neat (also, funny)

[Mentalist]

Sony will release Horizon 2 on PC on March 21st.

Considering I'm planning to pick up both Outcast and Alone in the Dark in March, this may have to wait. Maybe until they put it on GOG a few months down the line.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 25 January 2024 - 04:23 PM

[Mentalist]

State of Play on Wed that's 40 min long, and covering 15+ titles.

Stellar Blade will have a deep dive. Hopefully they'll have a release date and finally list it on steam.

Until Dawn is rumoured to be getting a remaster and a PC port. And there's going to be a Metro VR game (???)

In sad news, the Embracerpocalypse reached Eidos Montreal. leading to 97 people being laid off and a neww Deus Ex game 2 years into pre-production being cancelled.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Quote

The World’s Most Popular Video Game Is a Huge Mistake

[...] you essentially enslave these cuddly creatures, condemning them to unpaid labor in the mines or lumber fields to gather resources, or[...] arm them with [...] machine guns so they can assist in the subjugation of their peers. [...] Palworld is a Pokémon rip-off where you can shoot poor, defenseless creatures. [...]

[...] Players must be consistently monitoring the “sanity” meter of their incarcerated Pals. Work them too hard and you will fray their minds, causing their production to decrease. Once you’ve gathered a large enough legion of serfs, they will dutifully assist in the homestead you’ve crafted for yourself in one of the glorious hillside vistas[...]

[...] A generation of young people are currently falling in love with this new incarnation of Pokémon—tuned to the dehumanizing horrors of late capitalism—where these lovable creatures are nothing more than assets from which to extract value, a means to an end. Palworld believes that we are a sick society, and lamentably, the numbers don’t lie.

Palworld: This Pokemon rip-off is now the most popular game in the world. Big mistake. (slate.com)

... preparing them for adult life under late hypercapitalism?... when they could be learning to fly combat drones... though AI may have that covered by the time they grow up.

[Tiste Simeon]

Yeah that just sounds like "America: the Video Game"