Games That Don’t Have a Thread Catch-All

Ohhhh that's good to hear. I might have to go back to it.

Recently returned to the physics sandbox game Mars First Logistics after not touching it since this time last year. You build Mars rovers out of what are basically Lego Technic pieces in order to haul increasingly unwieldy objects over rough terrain. As you complete missions you unlock new building blocks and get to see the settlements grow and evolve around you.
Since the last time I played they added a ton of new building blocks and mission types as well as the ability to build infrastructure such as roads, power lines, and transmission towers.

So Alien: Rouge Incursion is not the game I expected and that's a great thing.

This is the VR alien game that, based on the previews, I figured was just going to be another run and gun bug hunt. But it's actually more of an actiony Alien: Isolation or System Shock lite. You're doing a lot of exploring of what seems to be a giant base, solving puzzles, listening to logs, and of course killing lots of xenomorphs.

I was not expecting the base exploration part. You're basically working your way all around the base getting new access or tools that let you unlock more areas to explore. This is also the most interactive VR game I've played in a while where you can pretty much pick up and manipulee almost all objects. Like you'll find cardboard boxes and you can take the top off and there might be some ammo or health in there. Or pick up, and even put on, a work hat where there may also be goodies hiding under. You can interact with some of the computers but there's quite of few of these 70s sci-fi stylized machines I'd love to tinker with but cannot.

The game takes place around when Alien Isolation took place and they try for that atheistic, which is great. And they do nail the environment. Lots of nice lighting and plenty of effects going off (fires, steam, fog, electrical surges). But overall, the graphics are just ok. Skydance's Behemoth looks incredible, and this is not that at all.

There is a bit of jank in the game too. Grabbing things can be problematic at times - particularly grabbing things on your person. Like each time I try and grab the motion tracker off my right arm I'm pulling out my pulse rifle which is over my shoulder. Same problem with pulling out my pistol and putting it back in the holster area. A lot of times I'll mistakenly drop it on the ground. Aliens will also do strange things at times - like stand right there waiting for you to shoot them. Or get confused where you are, and you'll see them strangely crawl back and forth trying to find you.

So those things need to be tightened up a bit.

I had some initial technical issues with the game where it was running like crap. It was easily solvable however (use VDXR runtime) and now I have graphics up to High and running at 75-90 fps and having a blast.

I have been wishing for a full-on System Shock style game in VR and this is scratching my itch somewhat.

I want to believe that's a makeup tutorial game set in the Alien universe.

muraii wrote:

I want to believe that's a makeup tutorial game set in the Alien universe.

Apparently Infiniti Nikki really goes some places

Picked up Trombone Champ on sale. It’s a treat. Basically Guitar Hero, but with trombones being played by Mii’s. Had to put it down cause if was making me laugh while kids were napping. Beethovens fifth will never be the same.

Oddly, a game you will appreciate more if you have played Dark Souls beforehand. Very much worth the $6 on steam.

As I said in the "What are you playing this weekend?" thread, I am playing Cursed Castilla Ex on the PlayStation 4. The game is basically Locomalito's homage to Ghosts'N'Goblins but with Spanish folklore, and just like Capcom's classic, it is very difficult, at least for me. Unfortunately, just like Ghosts'N'Goblins, you can't save your game at any time, which makes it extra difficult. Right now, after using 30 continues (they appear to be unlimited, at least so far), I am fighting the final boss of Level 3, named Crazy Quixote. It has been a fun but extremely frustrating experience, and I thought I must be close to the end, as I was under the impression this was a fairly short game. I looked it up, and there are eight levels, a fact that made me cackle and froth at the mouth a little. Eight levels! Will I reach 100 continues? I might... unless the power goes out, because the only reason I've made it to the end of level 3 has been the ability to suspend the game and come back to it, as you can't save your progress at any time, like I said above. Or maybe I will just quit in a fit of rage, I don't know. I bought the game for a couple of bucks knowing full well I might never finish it, so it wouldn't be a huge loss, but now that I've started it, I kinda want to see it through. Will I be able to? I don't know. In any case, I just wanted to share my thoughts. It is a cool game, and it is impressive it was made by only one person (plus another guy for the music), so if you like Ghosts'N'Goblins and pixel art, by all means get it. Also, if you are good at sidescrollers and want to tell me "Dude, it's not that hard!", you can go get it as well. Start the year by doing something nice like supporting an indie developer!

Sounds like they were faithful to the source, because Ghosts'N'Goblins is one of the most frustrating & unfair arcade games of all time.

The only reason I beat it was because I was playing on an emulator that let me save/reload state at any time. And that was STILL frustrating.

Well technically I didn't beat Ghosts'N'Goblins because when you defeat the final boss, the game tells you that you have to replay from the beginning a second time to get the real ending.

SAME! That's how I played through Ghosts'N'Goblins... but only once, thank you very much. I am a patient man, but even I have my limits!

I'm spamming this everywhere. Do we have a "character action games" thread kicking around somewhere?

And their little surprise treat:

I promptly downloaded the Xbox and Steam versions. They're great. The purists will have plenty to nitpick but I think they did a wonderful job recreating the game in UE5.

After a long and tragic development cycle, apparently Defender's Quest 2 is finally out.

Early feedback seems to indicate a rough launch. I still don't have the supporter key that I bought through Humble over a decade ago.

Been playing Eternal Strands the last two days and really loving it. Lots of actiony combat. Lovely fantasy environment to explore. Love the character interactions. And they nailed the climbing mechanics for when you get on top of any of the giant monsters.

But I think a fair number of people will be put off by it initially by the pacing. You're given some wonderful areas to explore. But you can't explore too far the first few times both due to power and mainly resource inventory space - which is quite limited initially (it expands somewhat quick). You have to head back to camp where there are long dialogue interactions. And this goes on quite a bit initially.

For me I loved the characters so all the dialogue didn't bother me too much. And with the limited resource inventory you learn which resources are worth putting in there after about an hour and half. But people who want to loot everything are going to have a hard time with that play mechanic.

Game isn't too far removed from Dragon Age: Veilguard. Both actiony games with lots of character dialogue and crafting. But this is a step down in production. Still looks and plays fantastic though.

There's a demo on Steam that offers a lot of gameplay. And think it's free on Gamepass.

It is indeed on GamePass. I've been playing around with it for a few hours.

I would compare this more along the lines of Breath of the Wild. Pretty neat environments. Big too.

You might also compare it to Fenyx rising but I think that game stands above this one especially in the writing.

Controls feel a little loose/squishy to me. Not a lot of variation in combat but that might just be early on. Parry timing feels pretty good and I think it will become more important as the game goes on. Lock on option seems to be hit or miss but that might just be me.

I do wish they would be more clear on when fire and ice areas will cause damage.

I haven't bounced off it yet but it feels like one of those games that if I put it down for something else, I won't come back to it

I will say I rather liked the crafting system. Being able to swap out materials was honestly fun and interesting. More games should steal that. Otherwise I agreed with yatzee's review of them game. In that most of the gameplay was ok and the story/characters were eh.

All of these thoughts pretty much mirror my opinion on Eternal Shards. Its good not great, I may finish it but I too worry if I stop for to long I'll just abandon it.

The crafting system is fun with the material options and I hate crafting so good job there.

Not sure why this one is a huge hit for me but I'm obviously liking it a lot more than most. But yes the crafting system is great. Can even desconstruct crafted items to get back all your components. So yeah, no penalty that I can see for any crafting choices.

About 8hrs in now. And just loving exploring.

On the last run took out this fat giant lizard type thing. Was very hesitant to attack it since I had just come from the previous zone without heading back to camp. Had a lot of resources on me.. But figured I'd give it a shot at least - running away is a valid option. In any case was able to take him out and only got in trouble near the end of the fight. So far though the Drake was the most difficult one.

I do find there are too many smaller enemies around to fight. You sometimes can barely travel before something is trying to attack you.

Looking forward to spending time on it this weekend.

I think I may have mentioned it in another thread when it first hit early access, but I’ve gotten back into Abiotic Factor and it’s really good. Survival crafting in a sprawling underground research lab undergoing an alien invasion. Think Half-life 1 if Gordon decided to stay behind and build forts and traps out of office supplies.

After I saw Quill play it I grabbed Exogate Initiative, which you can call "Stargate management simulator".

You recruit soldiers, scientists, scholars, medics etc. and explore a hex-grid set of planets, getting material to make better kit, getting science and samples you can research, and have some other alient factions to compete with.

It feels nearly great. but it's fun to play, even though I would like someone better than me to play it and tell me the optimal strategies.

Recent Exogate Initiative Steam reviews are not happy about game-breaking bugs in a 1.0 release. Did you run into anything? The game looks right up my alley, based on gameplay videos.

No bugs as such, the UI is a bit clunky (specifically team management, knowing when the team's mental health is good enough to unpause their mission, seeing when a gater is assigned to something else).

Placing lockers and beds is a bit fiddly - you can put a bed next to a locker but not vice versa.

I'm still a bit unclear how the foundries work to and what actually has to be connected directly.

Nothing game breaking for me yet.

Anyone going to give Kingdom Come: Deliverance II a try? I enjoyed my time in the first one, but I'm not sure if a sequel is worth $60.

Nevin73 wrote:

Anyone going to give Kingdom Come: Deliverance II a try? I enjoyed my time in the first one, but I'm not sure if a sequel is worth $60.

Already bought & installed, but trying to get through KC:D 1 (for the CRPG club) before I start the sequel.

Waiting to see how much of the anti-fun b.s. from the first game is still in the second before I make any purchases.

Funny, I tried playing it and found the entire thing anti-fun.

Moment-to-moment I enjoy the game enough that I’ve made half a dozen unsuccessful attempts to finish it since release but after 5-10 hours the obnoxious elements always reach a critical mass that drives me away.

Same reason I dropped I could see the fun but had to fight to get there. Given all of the other games coming out this month I assume kingdom come 2 will move to my get it when it is free on epic list.

It looks like a game I will inevitably get annoyed with and either drop or have to force myself to finish unless they overhauled some of the design choices and systems from the first game.

Nevin73 wrote:

Anyone going to give Kingdom Come: Deliverance II a try? I enjoyed my time in the first one, but I'm not sure if a sequel is worth $60.

I’m definitely going to buy it (eventually) and give it a try. Comparisons to Red Dead 2’s slow/deliberate pace, that were offered as a negative, made me feel more confident that I’ll enjoy the game.

From what I’ve heard, they do seem to have significantly improved many of the systems from the first game but that it is, at the end of the day, just an improved version of that game rather than a reinvention.

My current jam is Tokyo Xtreme Racer, an Early Access revival of the series from the original developer.

I think the top Steam comment nails it: "Plays like a modern PS2 game in the best way possible". It's a throwback to when racing games weren't excessively complex or bloated. Everything is early 2000s levels of complexity and it is f*cking refreshing. A small, manageable semi-open world. Simple car tuning and customization. Menus that don't make your eyes bleed from having 10,000 different options.

Supposedly plays well on Steam Deck, which I hadn't tried yet due to lack of cloud saves, but yesterday they announced cloud saves are getting patched in and enabled tomorrow.

Definitely still has some things that need work, but it's a great pick-up-and-play game right now.

Nevin73 wrote:

Anyone going to give Kingdom Come: Deliverance II a try? I enjoyed my time in the first one, but I'm not sure if a sequel is worth $60.

Eventually I'm sure I will. I completed KCD1 for the cRPG club last week and had a lot to say about it. It will need some significant modding available before I'm prepared to put myself through it again.

Nevin73 wrote:

Anyone going to give Kingdom Come: Deliverance II a try? I enjoyed my time in the first one, but I'm not sure if a sequel is worth $60.

On it already, 4 hours in at the moment and I'm hungry and miserable but having a blast. Don't neglect your food sources, kids!