toxicitizen

That's... not true at all. It's been a while but I'm pretty sure I remember reading that the first XCOM took quite a few years to make. I think it was something like five years or so, all things considered. And Jake Solomon had been trying to get the game made for even longer. So no, it wasn't that quick of a game to make. Not sure why you bring up Beyond Earth at all, though, as that's clearly a different internal team. And I'm sure most of those guys are working on the expansion for BE, anyway. Also, it's only been 2 years since the Enemy Within expansion, which is a fairly standard development cycle that could indicate minimal iteration. Hence why I'm hoping it's been in the works for that full 3 years.

Well, shit. That's not at all what I was expecting. Also, PC exclusivity is a really nice surprise, can't wait to hear more about the logic behind that one (and thank fucking God I upgraded instead of getting a PS4!). I mean, the last game was fairly successful on consoles, so I never expected them to go down that road at all. Hopefully that means they'll be taking full advantage of the platform and designing gameplay features and the UI without having to simplify for gamepads like last time. The November 2015 release worries me a little, though. I'm glad that it's coming so soon but I really hope it hasn't been rushed or anything. Sounds like Jake Solomon is lead designer once again, so considering he wasn't on Enemy Within, I'm hoping development started shortly after Enemy Unknown's release. One of my biggest hope for a sequel was the return of procedurally-generated maps, so I was kind of hoping they'd rebuild the game from the ground up. edit: Actually, reading that IGN piece, it does mention procedurally-generated maps! Yay! I'll have to be careful, though. When Enemy Unknown came out, I played so much that my semester went to complete shit. I'm on track to graduate at the end of next year so I absolutely cannot let that happen again.

I fail to see how that contradicts anything I said. Besides, that's going to vary from game to game. And even when it's an issue, we're talking about a midrange card here. Like I said, if you want to be completely safe then go for a higher end card. Otherwise, yeah, a fucking midrange card isn't going to be able to handle all games at 4K. So?

What? I was replying to Mal and all I said is that the VRAM thing wouldn't have that much of an impact. I didn't say anything about recommending the card as futureproof nor am I backpedaling now.

Sure, there's an impact but will it really make that much of a difference? I mean, at that point you might as well just go for the higher-end models if you really want to be safe. The 70s cards have always been mid-range and the 970 is still exactly that. The problem is only for people that bought one thinking it was more than that.

That was blown WAY out of proportion, imho. It definitely sucks for those that were misled and they have a right to be angry. But otherwise, as far as buying the card now goes, from what I understand it's still a great card for all intents and purposes. I would've gotten one if it hadn't been out of my price range. I really don't think that last 0.5GB of VRAM being slower is going to make or break the card as far as futureproofing goes. If it's still not good enough for you, you can always go with AMD. I'm not a fan but people keep recommending them so they must be doing something right (although it sure as shit isn't their drivers). And if futureproofing is what you want above all and money's not an issue, the GTX 980Ti is just around the corner.

Yeah, between the new Deus Ex announcement and what looks a lot like a new XCOM announcement tomorrow, I think now/the near future is the perfect time to upgrade. I'm certainly glad I did. The current consoles are already feeling fairly outdated hardware-wise, so any decent rig built now should be good to last through the gen. I think I'll be fine with maybe just a GPU upgrade in a few years, and even then it probably won't be absolutely necessary.

1001 Spikes. The final entry in "FLD's NES Fun Times" trilogy. I went into this one not really expecting to be able to beat it. And at first that seemed to be what was going to happen. Holy shit, this game is hard! Some of the early levels felt goddamn impossible at first. But at some point everything just kinda clicked and I got good, and when that happened I fell in love with the game. It is so fucking good! The weird thing is that the game is so full of fucking beginner's traps that it should feel like complete and utter bullshit. Like, shit that you couldn't possibly know is there ahead of time. The game starts you out with 1000 lives and there's a damn good reason for that. You are going to need those lives. Die 20 times getting through that platforming section until you get the timing juuuust right and BAM! You land on a block and fucking hidden spikes come out of it and impale you. But for some reason it never feels cheap, you just kind of accept that that's how the game is. Probably because the level design is actually very good and by the time you actually make it to those spikes you have the preceding section down to a fucking science anyway, so you can redo it pretty easily. For like the first two thirds of the game I wasn't even getting frustrated. I kept dying and dying but it was so much fun and satisfying once I beat a level that it didn't bother me at all. It got pretty insane near the end and I started getting annoyed on some of the levels, but overall I'm really glad I picked this one up. At first, I thought I had made the right move by waiting for a sale. Early on, it seemed like I would've been a bit disappointed if I'd paid full price. But now that I've actually beaten it, I think it would've easily been worth the 15 bucks. Especially considering that over the course of the game I unlocked: 2 extra arcadey game modes, a set of levels called "The Lost Levels" which I haven't touched yet, and at the very end an entire second campaign! Really happy about those last two because I kinda want more! So, that was a fun little nostalgia trip but I think that's enough retro games for now. Gonna focus on finishing Dragonfall now.

What XSEED lady? Like I said, XSEED have nothing to do with Re;Birth whatsoever. It's not their game, they're not localizing it, publishing it or anything. Idea Factory is doing all of that themselves nowadays and I'm pretty sure it was done by NISA before (around the time of the original PS3 releases). Are you sure you're not confusing them with IF? Would make infinitely more sense for her to be an IF lady... Do you mean Sara? I mean, I guess it's possible she worked for IF as well but, if she did, then it wouldn't have anything to do with her work at XSEED. XSEED are little more than a localization outfit. It's just that when it comes to Steam releases they're sometimes able to go a little beyond their usual MO by adding achievements and sometimes other stuff. For example, TitS FC on Steam is pretty much the definitive edition of the game now. They got their one programmer to add a bunch of improvements that were only added for the PSP port, they also touched up the translation a bit and there was talk of even adding HD assets from the Japanese-only PS3 versions (haven't kept up on whether or not that actually happened, though). On the other hand, when it came to the PSP version they didn't patch in the translation adjustments because they had no way of doing that themselves. That would've required sending their edits to Falcom and apparently they no longer have any PSP devkits. Yep, IF are doing it themselves now. And considering how half-assed the localization is, I don't think they're outsourcing anything. I ended up playing the first Re;Birth in Japanese (something I usually never did for games) because I was getting annoyed with how the english dub only had voiceovers for like a third of the lines. Also, considering how ridiculously long SC has been taking, I seriously doubt XSEED are taking outside work. They even had to enlist the Carpe Fulgur guys to help with SC and that didn't go so well, from what I heard.

Holy shit, seriously? Guess I'll stay away for now then. Let me know how the port is, I'm really tempted to get it while it's 50% off. I skipped the Vita version of this one when I found out about the Steam releases, so I've been waiting to play it for a few months. Also, XSEED wouldn't have learned anything from Re;Birth 1 because XSEED had absolutely nothing to do with Re;Birth 1. This is Idea Factory and Compile Heart. FYI, XSEED aren't a dev. They don't do ports or anything like that, only localization work. They only have like one programmer and, IIRC, she's not even full-time staff, they only contract her when they need to implement specific stuff, like Steam achievements or whatever. I think TiTS FC was the biggest thing she'd done for them yet.

Order cancelled in 3... 2...

Castle in the Darkness. Holy shit, this game is fantastic! I beat the fake final boss last night and got the bad ending and went back to get 100% completion and get the good ending just now. I was initially planning on playing Shadowrun: Dragonfall right after FFXIII-2, and I did start Dragonfall, but Castle in the Darkness just sucked me in instantly and I've wanted to play nothing else for the past few days. If you're a fan of retro NES-style action platformers, then trust me: go buy this game right the fuck now. It's still on sale for like 5 bucks on Steam for another day or so (it's normally dirt cheap anyway) and it's easily worth three times as much. They're not all that similar mechanically (this is more of a light Metroidvania), but the entire time I was playing I kept being reminded of Shovel Knight. It has that same "love letter to the NES days" vibe and, imho, it's every bit as good. There's some genuinely funny easter eggs in there and it's shock full of references to stuff like Castlevania, Mega Man and the likes. I'm pretty sure I also caught a Demon's Souls reference in there. Speaking of which, this game is pretty damn hard. It proudly displays a death counter every time you die and by the time I was done with the game it was pretty damn close to 1000. But Castle in the Darkness smartly handles death kinda like Super Meat Boy where you're back into action pretty much instantly, so it never feels frustrating and you always want to keep trying. The boss fights are also pretty well designed. There was only one out of like fifty (yes, fifty!) that felt like bullshit, the vast majority of them feel very doable right off the bat and it's always clear what you did wrong when you fail. So yeah, this one really took me by surprise. I bought it hoping it would be good but I never expected it to blow me away like this. It's fucking criminal how little this game's been talked about. If it wasn't for a short-lived OT on Neogaf when the game came out a few months ago, I probably never would've even heard about it. At this price, it should be a no-brainer for anyone that likes this kind of game. And if all of that didn't convince you, I think this trailer (and dat music!) speaks for itself:

From what I understand, Acquire did the port in-house. So, XSEED aren't to blame for this one. Apparently they warned Acquire about port quality and all that stuff but it sounds like it turned out to be kinda meh anyway. Anyway, I enjoyed it on Vita but I didn't really feel like it was worth full price. I'll double dip when it's on sale for 10-15 bucks.

That's a remake of the original, right? Might be worth looking into. In the meantime, Castle in the Darkness should scratch that itch nicely. The Steam store page makes it a point to namedrop both Metroid and Castlevania.

I've been in a retro/NES mood since I played Axiom Verge. At first I thought it might be fun to finally play the original Metroid on an emulator (I only played Super Metroid) but that unfortunately turned out to be a little too frustrating for me. Man, that game is hard as fuck. Anyway, those two have been on my radar for a while, I've been hearing really good things about both. And they just so happen to both be among the current batch of weeklong deals on Steam, so that's pretty good timing. Fun fact about Castle in the Darkness: much like Axiom Verge, it was made entirely by one guy. And that guy just so happens to be the lead artist that worked Binding of Isaac Rebirth.

What towns? There aren't any, at least not in the traditional FF sense. I mean, FFXIII had some areas that were technically towns as well. Otherwise, there's nothing anywhere near as open as Gran Pulse from the first game. I found them both incredibly bland and boring. I actually like Lightning but that's just me, the thing is the original game had 6 main characters, so you're more likely to have someone you like. Most people seemed to really like Sazh, for example. I'll give you the hallways thing, though, but I don't find XIII-2 to be significantly more open. You're just constantly warping back and forth between a handful of small maps. And the overall structure seems less like a traditional FF to me than XIII was. Sure, there's only a couple of maps that are straight up lifted from the main game but most of the new ones are pretty obviously made up of existing assets from the original game, for the most part. And they're reused again and again by having you revisit them in different time periods with only the slightest changes. I mean, I'm not trying to shit on the game by pointing this out, I understand it was made to recoup costs. But I dunno, it's still something worth considering when comparing it to the original, I think. I think you're on to something with the 30 hours thing, though. FFXIII has a few boring chapters before you get to the good stuff, I can definitely see how FFXIII-2 might be more immediately engaging. I guess I wasn't looking at it from the standpoint of someone that couldn't get through the original. Not sure why that person is even playing the sequel, though. Yeah, I'm with you there. The battle system rarely gets to truly shine in the first game. But I don't see how XIII-2 is any different, if anything it shines even less. I was able to mash auto-battle without thinking about shifting much more than I was in the original game. I actually just did the side-quest where you kill the Long Gui and it was piss easy compared to how it was in FFXIII. The only fight that's been truly challenging so far has been the final form of the final boss. And I'm almost done going through the side-quests at this point. Only need to finish a few monsters-related stuff and then the paradox endings and I'm done. To give you an idea, I still haven't unlocked the achievement for doing 1000 paradigm shifts. I'm probably gonna have to grind for it a bit. Lemme guess: Treasure Hunter? Man, that one was a fucking pain in the ass.

It's a mod but holy fuck, it looks great. Gonna have to give it a shot as soon as I manage to beat the last couple zones.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 a.k.a. Assets Reuse: The Game. This is another one for the "What exactly is everyone seeing in it?" pile. The general consensus seems to be that it's better than FFXIII and I just don't get it. I mean, it's alright but the reason for its existence is pretty blatant. FFXIII's dev cycle was way too long and costly, which affected its profit margin pretty badly, so they had to try and milk it some more while spending as little as possible. So, they grabbed a bunch of characters and enemies models, a few maps and stitched together the flimsiest excuse of a plot to make you go through that content for another 20-30 hours. Although, in FFXIII-2's defense (and because shitting on that game just doesn't get old), it was still handled better than Dragon Age II. Anyway, not that it's bad or anything, I enjoyed it for the most part. I just really don't get how it's supposed to be the superior of the two games. Serah was a boring protagonist, I really wasn't a fan of only having two party members and I wasn't into that monster hunter bullshit either. Oh and going back to random encounters? Really? But, more importantly, what the fuck was up with that story? I was worried I'd be a bit lost picking the game back up halfway through after a two months break, and at first I had no idea what the hell was going on. But I was quickly reminded that the plot was complete fucking nonsense to begin with. Like, holy shit, I actually feel dumber having experienced it. It's enjoyable dumb, mind you, but it's still fucking retarded. It's borderline stupid enough to make me regret having ever cared about the original game's story and characters. I was actually laughing my ass off through the entire ending cutscene, even when it took a dramatic turn towards that cliffhanger. I still loved the combat system, though, even if it was significantly easier. Outside of the final boss, I rarely found myself having to paradigm shift all that much to survive. I'm still working on the side stuff, though, so maybe that's going to change soon. Anyway, overall it was alright. I'll grab Lightning Returns if they ever get around to releasing it. It's been kind of a while since the announcement, actually. Wonder what the hold up is.

I had to share the pain. I'm sorry.

If you think PewDiePie is bad, look up Markiplier. I kept seeing his name pop up all the time so I looked him up. I'm not sure how to even describe what I saw. I can't process how that shit is so popular. It's just painfully unwatchable.

I'm with you guys on not caring for Let's Plays in general but with one exception: I tend to really enjoy LPs of roguelikes. There's essentially nothing to spoil as far as story goes and I don't consider content like items and bosses to be spoilers, so that's not a concern. But there's also how watching someone better than me play those games helps me learn how to play them a little bit before jumping in myself. I probably wouldn't have bought Spelunky and Rogue Legacy if it hadn't been for Northernlion, and I'm pretty sure going into Spelunky with some basic knowledge about the game played a major part in how much I enjoyed it versus getting frustrated early on by the difficulty and quitting.

10 bucks on the Humble Store. I've been meaning to grab it ever since it came out of Early Access and I regretted not pulling the trigger last time it was on sale, so it was an instabuy this time. Seems really cool so far, even though I'm terrible at it.

I played the PS1 version on my Vita and it was great. The sprites look amazing on the smaller screen, especially if you have the OLED model.

Right, not sure why I said loot system but that's what I was talking about. Those RPG elements aren't really a staple of the genre in general, are they? At least, not in my experience. I mean, almost every genre seems to have RPG elements these days, but for me a Metroidvania is defined more by the level design structure and the upgrades-based exploration.