toxicitizen

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.

Doomenstein sounds like a kickass name for a German metal band. Anyway, I wasn't being entirely serious with my question. Just seemed weird to call Axiom Verge Metroivania when it clearly just wants to be Metroid. But, since you answered, didn't Metroid pretty much lay all the foundation to begin with? I know the "vania" half comes from Symphony of the Night but that came like a decade after the original Metroid. It's something I always wondered about. Like, what did Castlevania do to earn its half of the genre? It's not like it brought anything new to the table, at least, nothing that's commonly associated with Metroidvania games. The only thing I can think of that SotN had that Metroid/Super Metroid didn't is the loot system. I guess it makes more sense if you ignore the original and just assume it's from SotN and Super Metroid. Those came out a lot closer to each other and could be seen as having properly defined the genre.

Axiom Verge. Is it still Metroidvania if it's pretty much just straight up Metroid? Like, which part of the formula does the "vania" half refer to exactly? Anyway, yeah, Axiom Verge is basically someone that went "Remember that game Metroid? That was a good game. I should make that." It's actually a little bit creepier and weirder than Metroid, though, which I really dug. The price was a little off-putting initially but I thought it was worth every single penny. It's definitely one of the best games I've played this year so far. Go buy it now. I know Cowboy called it an early GOTY or whatever but don't let that put you off the game. I mean, even a broken clock is right twice a day! Also, kind of unrelated but the game got me thinking about this recent trend where game creators go to Kickstarter to pitch "Totally not [insert IP that defined my career]". That's not what Axiom Verge is but it might as well be, especially given how Nintendo seem to be uninterested in making more Metroid games these days. And, in that sense, I kinda feel like Axiom Verge set the bar pretty high for those games. I don't really give a fuck about Yooka-Laylee (or however the fuck it's spelled) because I never played or cared about Banjo-Kazooie, but I really want Mighty No. 9 and Bloodstained to turn out great. But if Axiom Verge is the level of quality they have to to meet, then I'm worried we might be in for some disappointment here. I mean, it's way too early to tell about Bloodstained but the most recent screenshots I've seen of Mighty No. 9 looked like fucking shit. The game might still be fun but visually it's just so bland and lifeless, especially compared to the concept art from the initial Kickstarter pitch. It feels kinda weird to be so negative in reaction to a game being great but nothing I've seen of MN9 has made me feel really optimistic. I dunno, maybe I'm just being a cynical asshole.

Invisible, Inc. Beat the game on Beginner, which is essentially the tutorial difficulty. It gives you a bunch of safety nets like mission retries and a rewind turn function (you still have rewind on harder difficulties but you're much more limited in how many times you can use it), so I think it's essentially impossible to fail completely. Or at least, you'd have to suck pretty damn hard for that to happen. Anyway, the game's pretty damn great, it definitely lives up to Klei's previous efforts. And that's no small feat considering how much I fucking loved Mark of the Ninja. It's basically a roguelike stealth XCOM, which is right up my alley. It's also the first game I bought as soon as it was available in Early Access (before it was even on Steam's EA), so it was nice to see it slowly coming together over time. That being said, it kinda reinforced my main fear with Early Access: getting tired of the game before the final version is even out. That's not quite what happened here, but it still had a small impact. Last time I tried the game was last fall and I played for something like ten hours before I decided to stop and wait for the final version. It was a blast because it was the first build I played that was starting to have a skeleton of a campaign. It was great to see how far the game had come since the initial build, which was little more than a prototype. The release version wasn't all that different from that build, it was just way more balanced and polished. So, when it finally came out this week, there wasn't really that "magic" period, it didn't feel new or special. I'd already gone through that phase a little less than a year ago, it almost felt like just replaying a familiar game after a big content patch. It's not a big deal but it's certainly something I'll keep in mind the next time I'm tempted to buy an Early Access game. Especially when it comes to story-driven games, which this one isn't. Oh and I still think Incognita was a much better title.

I've been up all night and now I'm just trying to stay awake as long as possible in an attempt to unfuck my sleep schedule. But it's 11 AM now and I'm getting kinda tired and bored, so I bought this. Hopefully it'll keep me awake for a few more hours.

Well, that's just... fuck. I'll give it a shot anyway, hopefully the lowered expectations will work in its favor. What was so bad about it? Story? Mechanics? As for Pier Solar, might not get to it for a little while since I'm not sure I'd be able to finish it before Witcher 3 next week, and even then I'd rather not play two RPGs back to back.

If that's the case, then I guess I wasn't paying close enough attention during those flashback scenes because I somehow missed that detail. Lol. That would make more sense, though.

Humble Weekly Bundle: RPG Edition I mostly got it for Pier Solar and, to a lesser extent, Rollers of the Realms. Pier Solar looks like a great throwback JRPG and I've been meaning to get it for a while. Never heard of most of the other games but I went for the 8$ tier because I'm curious about Agarest: Generations of War. I could use a decent SRPG on Steam. Actually, I could use Disgaea on Steam. But that's probably never happening.

Don't know if you guys heard but Konami actually did a DMCA takedown on that SuperBunnyHop video I posted last week. But Konami being Konami, their usual ineptitude got in the way and they couldn't even keep the video down for an entire day. George just made a follow-up. I really wonder why Youtube felt the need to get involved this time. This could set an interesting precedent.

Yeah, the main story is kinda disjointed and unfocused. I doubt I'll remember any of it 6 months from now. And, on a more specific/nitpicky note, there was one detail that made me go "wait, wat??" so hard that I actually had to look up Tolkien lore. I'm not a big enough LOTR nerd for this to actually bother me but you'd think that's the kind of details they're make sure to get right while making a game like this. And now I kinda feel like rewatching the LOTR movies...

Middle-Earth: Arkham's Creed Shadow of Mordor. So, uh, why was this anyone's GOTY? Seriously. Why? I mean, don't get me wrong, it's not bad. Far from it. It was great to play this kind of game in a setting that's not Assassin's Creed and I'm glad to see Ubisoft getting some competition in the genre. Plus, having an actual combat system was nice for a change. The Nemesis sytem was a cool idea and innovation like this is always welcome. I also hadn't played a LOTR game in fucking forever (I think the last one was that turn-based RPG from like two gens ago, The Third Age?), so that was nice as well. But there was nothing about the game that really blew me away. The main story kinda sucked, which I understand was somewhat intentional since they wanted to focus on the "emergent storytelling" resulting from the Nemesis system, but I dunno. Even the Nemesis system wasn't quite the revelation I'd been led to believe it was. It's cool but imho it wasn't deep enough to carry the entire game. Halfway through the game, I was already sick of the intro "cutscenes" constantly interrupting me in the middle of combat. And I'd regularly end up having 2 or 3 of these assholes coming at me while I was already trying to take down one of them. That got old pretty fast. The good outweighed the bad and I'd love to see the system iterated upon and improved, but I never really felt like any of it added up to anything remotely close to a "story". And it had some annoyances that were hard to look past. Overall, it's pretty much the same game as Assassin's Creed, so I don't want to sound overly negative here. The game's fun as hell to play, it just doesn't really beat AC at its own game. It's kinda like Darksiders where it's highly derivative of other, better games but fails to really surpass them in any way. It borrows gameplay elements liberally but never makes any attempt to improve upon them, the execution is sometimes even slightly worse. Its biggest strengths are the Middle-Earth setting and the (flawed) Nemesis system and, I dunno, I just feel like there were much better games that came out last year. It definitely deserves to be on a top 10 list for 2014 but being the actual GOTY? Hell no. That being said, I'm glad the game was successful and I'll be looking forward to the inevitable sequel. There's a lot of potential with the Nemesis system, they just need to work on it a bit more.

I kinda wish Konami had a conference as well. I can picture it so easily: their top executives all on stage making a huge bonfire and throwing effigies representing all their IPs in it. And the entire time, the big screen is showing nothing but that gross goatse picture. At the end of the two hours presentation, their CEO walks on stage: "After the release of MGSV, Konami will be leaving the games industry. Fuck video games and fuck you!" *drops mic and walks away*

Wolfenstein: The Old Blood. It's more of the same gameplay but without the character-driven hub stuff between missions. Which was arguably the most interesting aspect of The New Order, but it's not like its absence ruins the game or anything. Also, I was a little disappointed that The New Order did away with all the supernatural stuff so I was glad to see it come back, even if there's just the one enemy type. I'm kinda curious why they released it as a standalone game, though. The way it's split into two distinct parts, I wouldn't be surprised if it was originally intended to be two separate DLC packs, like Dishonored got. Anyway, if you liked The New Order you'll probably enjoy The Old Blood. It's kinda short but not excessively so. Took me about 6-7 hours, which seems reasonable for the price.

I have a Corsair Vengeance C70. Not my build but it gives you a better idea of how much space there actually is in there. And yeah, I don't think I'd ever mess around with replacing a GPU's cooler. My cousin once broke a brand new card trying to install one. He had bought two, so he still had one left but man, that was a lot of money going right out the window.