Games That Don’t Have a Thread Catch-All

Robear wrote:

Aaron, does the offline mode in Troubleshooters work for you? It's failing for me... Do I need to set up an account to do offline?

Strange.

I just fired up the game and it allowed me to switch between Online and Offline mode in the main menu screen. It only asks for a confirmation between either mode before launching into it.

Maybe there was a glitch when you attempted it?

You don't have to set up an account or anything, it only asks what regional server you'd like to connect to.

Online is actually pretty cool and unobtrusive. It shows stats for other player choices when picking dialogue options, has daily bonuses based on server progress in specific districts you're currently working in. I think there was talk of adding in co-op as well but I think that's further down the line.

Thanks! I will try again today.

Okay, Troubleshooters is *very* impressive and fun. Looking forward to getting more into it.

IMAGE(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steam/apps/610160/ss_92bc0a45531f1afc38c148dcc1f87dc8a966080f.1920x1080.jpg)

Aeronautica Imperialis: Flight Command

This is one of these games where the Steam review system doesn't quite demonstrate what you might want to know about a game. Currently, it's sitting at 'Mixed', which is a fair assessment by Steam standards.

Functionally, the game operates like a Sid Meier's Ace Patrol crossed with Frozen Synapse. You choose how your planes will move, the enemy chooses how their planes will move, and when the turn is executed, all moves happen at the same time. Pilots have skills that determine how successful they are when attacking or defending, and planes can be loaded out with different weapons. Combat all takes place over a ground plane and looks very much like a WWII dogfight with lasers. And orcs.

And it feels incomplete. In the campaign, there are features that appear to be placeholders without any real function. The campaign itself is a sequence of random scenarios strung together with a rudimentary points system. You're not allowed to select the planes you take into a given combat. There are only two factions. The ground-based anti-air seems a little unbalanced. I could go on like this for awhile. All of the negative reviews here are right. BUT. Put that aside, and it's one of the best tactical gameplay experiences I've had in 2020, a year that has seen a lot of tactical releases. It is absolutely thrilling to watch three of your planes go into a swirling lascannon tornado with three enemy planes and watching all the smoking pieces come raining down.

So yes, this game is going to depend pretty heavily on developer updates, expanded content and the mod community (and hey Binary? if you're listening, the best thing you could do for this game is to put in tools for users to create their own campaigns). But I think it's going to be a bit of a diamond in the rough down the road. If you look at the list of problems and think that's going to bother you, then you should probably give it a skip. It reminds me a little bit of another Games Workshop property: Cyanide's implementation of Blood Bowl. That game was also pretty janky on release, but saw a lot of post-release support and eventually settled into a pretty solid experience that had its own small but dedicated user base. I expect the same if not greater out of this game if given half a chance. And even if Binary Planets shuts down tomorrow, I think there's still enough enjoyment to be had out of this release that it's worth the 22 bucks.

IMAGE(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steam/apps/1318690/header.jpg?t=1591897943)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=S...

shapez.io is Factorio-lite and a steal at $4 USD.

Sometimes you just want a low-impact version of the games you like and shapez delivers. A minimalist logistics title that focuses on transferring various shapes via convener belts to your home base. Along the way you unlock increasingly complex tools to split, twist, turn & color various shapes from resource nodes from around a surprisingly large map.

IMAGE(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steam/apps/1318690/ss_ceec9ec9975ef0d9f79374ccca4e090d4f96b190.1920x1080.jpg?t=1591897943)

There's currently no cost for adding & subtracting tools so it make the game feel like a friendly puzzle experience that encourages experimentation every step of the way. Presentation is super-clean making reading the board pleasurable & intuitive. Complimented by great UI interface and smooth music.

There's a progression chain of unlocking both tools and speed upgrades that give goal focus & direction. Nice balance of complexity & approachability.

IMAGE(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steam/apps/1318690/ss_aea26609b1c3d00d855086cf5d41d65a1c86c320.1920x1080.jpg?t=1591897943)

Thumbs up.

Hardspace: Shipbreaker came out today in Early Access.

The premise is pretty simple. You've been hired to salvage ships, in spaaaaace! To get there of course you had to pay the corporation to launch you off Earth and you owe a billion credits for your ride, your equipment, even your oxygen. So you'd better get to work cracking open ships. Each one is a freeform 'puzzle' in that you have a set of tools and lots of valuable bits to pull off it and send toward one of the three 'buckets'. Just don't crack the pressurized cabin without a plan for dealing with it!

So far (1.2 hours) its a lot of fun, even in early access. It's semi-mundane, which I love, and sort of a commentary on wage-slavery, while having great physics and fun hazards to overcome (or not and have to pay for a cloning, ouch!)

I'm really interested in that when it comes out of early access. Glad to hear the initial impressions are positive.

I streamed a bit of Hardspace: Shipbreaker this morning, and besides a bug or two, I had a GREAT time.

https://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/...

Shipbreaker does get a thread!

Nice.

I'm all about some Shipbreakers but I'm gonna let it cook in the EA oven a bit before diving in.

Not sure there is a thread (yet) but Torchlight III is out on Steam for Early Access. I haven't dove in yet.

West of Dead is up on Game Pass. Also available other places, I'm sure.

Structurally, it's a rogue-lite almost identical to Dead Cells (bleh), but instead of being a platformer, it's an isometric twin-stick shooter. And boy, is the shooting fun. It feels a bit like a real-time take on XCOM, with a strong emphasis on cover and crowd control, and it's got a rhythm quite unlike other twin-stick games I've played. The sound design is also fantastic.

I'm reasonably sure I'll bounce off the structure because that kind of thing does nothing for me, but damn, it's worth playing for a bit just for the sake of the combat.

With Ron Perlman voice work. Sure sounds fun.

I got no idea whether this game is going to be any good. But I may have to dabble in it after my wife made me do a long exhibition of all of my horses in Red Dead Redemption 2:

IMAGE(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steam/apps/1166860/header.jpg)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1...

edit: On closer examination, it looks like a mobile game with slightly uprezzed graphics. So maybe not a sleeper.

Just got Warhammer: Sanctus Reach through the Steam sale. I have to say, it feels like the closest thing going to get to the actual miniatures game (saying that as someone who hasn't played said game, but I've watched videos). It's a shame that there are only two factions, Space Wolves and Orks.

I'm enjoying my time with it.

Townscaper. From the video: "It doesn't do much, but what it does, it does really well"

The algorithm for the building connections etc. is so impressive.

Ooblets hits early access on Epic tomorrow. Low key excited. Been waiting for this one for ages.

Townscaper looks really cool. Thanks for sharing!

Neon Abyss looks interesting.

Feels like an Isaac-like to me. Yeah Isaac is a roguelike but there's a bunch of specific stuff in that trailer that lean real close to Binding of Isaac. Long string of followers, synergizing pickups, 'evolving dungeons' (depending on what they mean by that), bosses, lots of characters to play.

Anyone have some impressions? There's a demo Ill try out soon. My game controllers are all packed away unfortunately.

Ooh its on Switch too. Interest piqued bigtime.

I let my spouse play Ooblets while I took some work calls and now they won't give back my computer.

Edit: Had to go to work from the office this afternoon and I am pretty sure they haven't moved from that spot. Mumbled something about 'should grab a shower before kids are back' and still hasn't stopped. It might be good is all I'm saying. Or I married an addict and we just hadn't found their itch until now.

polypusher wrote:

Neon Abyss looks interesting.

This looks very cool and up my alley. I’d be keen to hear your thoughts after playing the demo!

Screen Rant review of Neon Abyss is pretty mixed. Good on the gameplay itself, but the variety of content is kinda blah.

Friendly reminder that Hell Let Loose is free to play on Steam this weekend.

charlemagne wrote:
polypusher wrote:

Neon Abyss looks interesting.

This looks very cool and up my alley. I’d be keen to hear your thoughts after playing the demo!

I ended up buying it on Switch (so I shifted my input to that thread) First, on Switch the performance can chug in important situations so I'm not recommending it there until they patch it.

Assuming that's not a problem on PC, its awesome. Its clearly a deep tribute to Binding of Isaac. There are direct copies of item effects and characters and bosses and features (marked rocks, devil deals).

The gameplay is a lot of fun and you unlock cool stuff as you go. For $20 I'd call it worthwhile, especially if you want something like Binding of Isaac.

Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin is releasing November 10th in the States, 12th in Japan, and 20th in Europe for PS4, Switch, and Steam.

It looks to be a side-scrolling character action combined with Harvest Moon type game and has usurped Destiny 2: Beyond Light as "most interesting thing releasing on November 10th" for me.

There's the trailer, but Nintendo had 20 minutes of gameplay at last year's E3.

I have no other place to really put this, but I'm still wrapping my head around the idea and I have to say, I don't think I've ever seen anything like this before. Chess, but you can time travel to check your opponent in the past, but then to counter that, the opponent creates a multiverse where they have two queen to take themselves out of check in that timeline, or is that out of check in a different timeline, but then you can potentially be checkmated on the initial board with time traveling (from what I saw in one of the puzzle levels).

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1...

The Trailer:

Some people playing a game out talking to each other...

and I think my mind is in a knot now... I'll probably have to get this on its pure concept alone.

IMAGE(https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/689/189/2e1.gif)

Carrion is out, a stylish Metroidvania-like in which there's a lab that's unleashed a horrible squirmy mass of tentacles and teeth (which is, of course, you). You bring a sticky, squid-y, spidery death to terribly misguided researchers and their inept guards in your search for more biomass. Some light puzzling in the form of remote switches and tossing things around to break stuff. Appropriately gruesome effects abound.

This is from the folks who brought us "Destroy All Monsters". A tasty, fast-moving, darkly comedic tentacular romp.

Aaron D. wrote:

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https://store.steampowered.com/app/1...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=S...

shapez.io is Factorio-lite and a steal at $4 USD.

I got delightfully sucked in two days ago and then stumbled upon this thread just now.

I agree; a complete steal at the asking price and really scratches the Factorio itch.

Personally speaking, I'm starting to think that maybe Factorio was scratching the shapez.io itch I never knew I had until now.

For anyone wanting to give it a quick try, the demo is browser based: https://shapez.io/

Also, the game is open source (JavaScript). Perusing the code is how I found out that the official name for the trapezoidal shapes is "windmill".

Robear wrote:

Carrion is out, a stylish Metroidvania-like in which there's a lab that's unleashed a horrible squirmy mass of tentacles and teeth (which is, of course, you).

I'm really looking forward to trying this one once I free up some time.