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2614

Got 3 games for the Switch the other day.

Super Mario Bros. Yeah. The old arcade version. I’m clearly not used to playing it… Also, when I continue it says to press (blue button) to continue, but I start at the beginning - World 1-1. Not sure what’s going on there.

Bad Dudes by Data East. Another oldie from the 80’s arcades. It’s a bit janky/clunky, but I think I can git gud if I memorize the enemy patterns. Most of the bosses seem like they’re a test of how many coins you have since they’re cheap af. My biggest issue is being unable to reassign the jump and attack buttons.

And last but certainly not least…

The House of the Dead (Remake). It was on sale and I’ve always debated about getting it since it doesn’t support a light-gun (the Switch -that is). I haven’t played it using the ‘gyroscopes’ yet, but I think I’ll have a better time using that method. The analog stick is okay… And your best strat is mainly remembering where the enemies will be on the screen. Get into the habit of counting your shots and reload when needed, or if you’re low on bullets anyway and will need a rapid-fire burst soon.

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2615

I have now dealt with another stealth classic and played through the first Thief! I’ve apparently had the gold edition in my Steam library for ages and just didn’t notice it. Well, it was finally time to give it a try as it’s one of the series that popularized the stealth genre, alongside MGS. Just had to install a widescreen fix and since a HD texture mod was apparently a thing, I installed it as well.

I’m just barely older than the game but it still holds up! The main mechanics are quite simple but they work (well, the sword combat is crappy but at least it’s not the main focus), the shadows aren’t just as reliable as in, for example, Splinter Cell. Thankfully there’s a visibility meter. There are some fun gadgets, I just didn’t get to use the rope arrows as much as I would have wanted to, maybe in the next game. The map system is not the most accurate one as you can’t see your exact location within an area, but that’s part of the charm. The soundtrack is very atmospheric and the sound design is great overall. I can never get enough of the burricks’ crying when I hit them enough lol. Voice acting and AI are what I’d expect from NPC:s in a late 90s game. There are classic Thief missions, levels spiced with horror elements and some unorthodox experiments. While they’re not for everyone and the last three missions certainly weren’t the best ones, at least they’re something new so that not every mission is a mansion ransacking job. There was something good even in most of the bad missions. I played through the game on hard difficulty, expert seemed too much and normal would have made me miss too much as the game gives you more objectives and higher loot requirements on higher difficulties. Some thoughts about the missions and a ranking, starting from the best one:

  1. Song of the Caverns - The cavern section is short and sweet, thankfully. I love the opera house and all its secret passages. An interesting environment, great level design, good challenge and fun voice acting.
  2. Lord Bafford’s Manor - A perfect first mission, does everything right in teaching the basics of how a classic Thief mission works. After my playthrough I managed to beat this one stealthily without saving too.
  3. The Sword - What a fever dream, just in a good way. Nothing is what you would expect. There are a lot of routes around the place and it’s easy to get lost but also easy to learn the map because almost every room is so unique.
  4. Undercover - A Hitman-esque mission before Hitman so I might be biased. Well, I still took out most guards but you could mostly just blend in, at least before the unavoidable alarm. The levers are hidden well but there’s a good clue for them. I have to play this one differently later lol.
  5. Assassins - Tailing is no one’s favorite activity but at least there are some metal surfaces to watch out for. The mansion is classic fun, just quite easy if you only want to do the minimum. However, if you get an alarm, you must go all the way back home after the mission with guards looking for you. A nice little twist.
  6. The Lost City - I enjoy Tomb Raider missions, they’re a nice change of pace. Not every part of this one is great but I especially loved the King’s tomb. The map is easy to learn but I still wished there was an intended way to get out without backtracking through the entire level.
  7. Down in the Bonehoard - The first Tomb Raider mission and way shorter than the Lost City. Well-built environment and a great vibe. Good side objectives too. The enemies are just zombies and burricks so nothing too threatening, maybe I would have liked some more difficult enemies.
  8. Strange Bedfellows - Talk about a controversial opinion, I must be the only one to not hate this one. Definitely the best one out of the last three missions gameplaywise. Even though there is no valuable loot it’s an enjoyable stealth mission and not combat oriented like I expected.
  9. Return to the Cathedral - You like fetch quests? Meet Brother Murus! The other tasks are fine but carrying two bodies to their graves, really? There is no loot requirement and you don’t get to buy anything after this one so looting is rather pointless. Well, still the better one out of the two cathedral missions.
  10. Break from Cragscleft Prison - The caves are ok, the factory is bad and the prison is…solid. It’s fun to cause chaos by releasing everyone. The second time I played this I got a seemingly random alarm on one side of the prison, idk if a body was found in the factory and that caused it. The extra objective on the expert difficulty seems very tedious.
  11. Into the Maw of Chaos - Looks very cool and has some ok sections, otherwise not that interesting. A very easy and linear last mission with a lackluster final “boss”, but at least it’s not a sword duel. I can enjoy the visuals but I wished for much more.
  12. The Mage Towers - The central part is good and there’s a lot of darkness, too bad that most of your business concerning the main objective is conducted in the towers that are just uninspired and tedious, especially the earth tower.
  13. The Haunted Cathedral - The point I really started to pray for a more accurate map system. I couldn’t make any sense of the streets but with trial and error I ended where I was supposed to go. There are still some nice areas like the hidden mansion.
  14. Thieves’ Guild - Everyone dislikes this one for a reason. The beginning and the two mansions are actually pretty good, but the sewer section is way too long and confusing and it’s not clear where you should go first. The bracelet is way too well hidden for a mandatory objective and I guess the safe as well if you don’t know about cutting the banners with your sword.
  15. Escape! - I couldn’t be arsed to play stealthily here and it probably wasn’t even expected. A very short mission that I just ran through dodging all enemies. Peak Thief gameplay!

I gotta play the second game as well later, it’s said to be more of a traditional Thief game and many say it’s the best in the series. Well, that’s for later.

Thief 2 Final 1.27 17_08_2023 08_02_11
Thief 2 Final 1.27 17_08_2023 08_02_111920×1080 205 KB

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2616

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk just released today for Steam. It should be available on consoles on Sept. 1st.

Ever play Jet Set/Grind Radio?

I’d get it myself, but not until my credit card payment gets applied to my card (don’t want to put too much on there), and I better make sure I have enough space on my hard drive. But since it’s at $40 USD… I’ll have to think about it.

Edit to add vid.

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2617

Found out I claimed Borderlands 3 last year, playing it now.

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2618

Loved Jet Set Radio. Really want to try Future and Grind at some point but they’ve never been ported. There was a Sega leak that suggests Sega are remaking the first game, it was the same leak that showed a clip of the Persona 3 Remake which has now been confirmed, so hopefully the franchise won’t stay dead.

Will definetly need to get Bomb Rush Cyberfunk at some point.

BL3 is a fun time, I want to go back and do a playthrough and play the expansions. I just wish the game wasn’t so badly written though. Painful how much wonderful lore and stuff there is in the Borderlands universe and how much it seems like it constantly gets squandered. I’m still bitter over that moment in BL3 too.

I really need to get around to the Thief games, I hear so many things. And Civvie’s videos about the first game are a must watch:

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2619

I only played BL2 casually and that was long ago, so I surely forgot the important bits to notice the bad script. I remember the playable characters (I played Zero) and I was quite glad he is appearing here and there as an ally.
Though in my book his canonical appearance is the Portal skin. :triumph:

Thanks for not spoiling though what you talk about. :grin:

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2620

Can’t wait for him to start playing the 3rd one. :grin:
As for actually playing them, I say go straight to T2 or 3. The first one has way too many annoying levels that are just a hassle to play stealthy. Freaking zombies, man…

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2621

I’ve watched many Thief retrospectives but didn’t know about these. So thanks, gotta watch them too.

Yeah I didn’t care about stealth at all in those sections, but zombies and burricks are easy to deal with at least, some other fantasy enemies like the haunts are a different thing…Still enjoyed most of the levels filled with monsters but I get why many people don’t. The classic missions are surely better and that’s why I’m expecting a lot from the second game.

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2622

J̴̧̗̟͓̫͎͎̘̝͂̐̈́͐̎͆͛́̾̆̓͜ơ̶̛̭̜̦̬̝̥̫͓̠̈͌̅̀̇̆͛̈̓̃̂͑̓ͅì̶̧̛̼͙̝̺̣̭̮̣̥̍̉̎̑̒̈͆̽̄̅̚͜͝͝ň̷̛͇̗̦̞̝̘̏́̓̅̆̆̾͝ ̶̭̳̤͖͍̹͚̼̦̹̪͗͝ư̵̛̺͉͇̼̥̻̍́̒̌̒̉̀̈́̏̀̈́͝͝ş̵̨̢̰͓̰̫̪̩͖̰̍̾̈́̔̈́̐̇́́̏͂͠ ̸͉͑n̶̛̲̻̪͎̳̹̗̆͒̿͐̈́̃͜͜͠͝͠ͅͅǫ̶̘̜̱̰̗͙̰͉̅̏̑̅̄͌̂͝͝w̴̨͎̹̩̮͇̯̖͗̋!̷̨̛̠̩̞͕̪̯̠͉̘͕̪̥̳̯͌

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2623

Im playing the Mortal Kombat 1 Beta and despite not featuring any character i have interest in playing in, its already awesome.

I love the aesthetics going back to that asian/mystical the first two games had.

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2624

From what you played, is the two on two tag team thing a premanent feature or something you can turn on and off?

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2625

Went ahead and got Bomb Rush Cyberfunk for the Switch.

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2626

The Kameo fighters are permanently, and i was really skeptical about this at first but playing it myself now i honestly don’t mind it that much, it’s actually quite fun to try out to extend your combos with them.

I still hope there is going to be a classic Mode, just having options is always good.

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2627

Ack! I just found out Immortality is leaving Gamepass at the end of the month. Time to buckle in and finish this thing. I’m about… halfway through? It’s a great piece of art and entertainment. It’s just not always the vibe I’m looking for when I sit down with precious few gaming moments on hand.

Tinykin is also leaving GP at the same time. That game I did play and finish, and let me tell you, it is delightful.

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2628

Seems Sony has a bunch of big contracts expiring recently too for the PS+ Extra Catalog.
Stray was last month (a year after it debuted on the service, and shifted to a new Xbox release) and for september its Deathloop and some big ubisoft game (i forget, but Ubi+ is noted as a feature of Extra, so it’s weird that even Ubi titles aren’t a guaranteed stay)

I’m installing Deathloop now and am considering shifting around my current docket of games to try it out. Maybe I’ll like it, and will have the time before it’s removed in a month. (Also have a little trip beginning of sept, soooo…)

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2629

Deathloop was a divisive game, but I really liked it, despite its flaws. I would say its biggest flaw is that conditioned on Hitman, I expected a game where you can arrive at the ending through a variety of choices and paths, but in reality there is only one true path to killing the leaders and getting to the end. While the levels themselves are open ended and encourage immersive sim gameplay, the actual key story beats must be performed in sequence.

Played it heavily, beat it, and then was completely done with it. (Didn’t do any of the multiplayer mode.)

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2630

Ahh, okay, well, that’s what I feared (and might’ve heard before, but kinda forgot…

It does seem like a good Hitman-reminiscent experience (replay small sandbox levels to figure out the best paths at different times of day) though so far I’m having some trouble with the minor stealth elements involved.
(It’s not a stealth-centric game, and I’m always bad with FPS-stealths like even with Dishonored)

Finished the lengthy batch of tutorial/hand-holdy missions and stumbled upon how to retain stuff across loops, so now I’m set free… and I died 3 times pretty quickly on my first new mission, but I hope I’ll get the hang of it, maybe…

I’m a little worried the “one true solution” and the FPS stuff I’m always iffy about might turn me off from it.
Eh, there’s always other games to get to…

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2631

I’m a touch disappointed with Serial Cleaners. The first game had a cool 70s vibe, but their 90s aesthetic just seems like a weird mix of bland and edgelord, with a bit of Pop-Up Video thrown in to annoy me.

There are four characters to choose from this time, but the differences between them feel superficial, especially since they’re confined to levels that are designed specifically for them. In fact the two or three levels where you can switch back and forth between two of them–letting each of them open up new pathways for the other–just make me wonder why they didn’t do more of that. Or at least let you choose which cleaner to take into a given level, with your approach changing depending on who you chose. Do I want to do some hacking with Viper, go old-school sneaky with Bob or start chucking limbs at cops with Psycho? (The fourth one…jumps over stuff?)

But the core gameplay–dodging cops while vacuuming up blood and disposing of bodies–is still pretty fun and I still haven’t come across anything else that does the kind of arcade stealth that these games do. I just wish they had refined it more.

On the other hand, I really enjoyed Citizen Sleeper. It’s a text-heavy, combat-less RPG (or at least what I think of as an RPG–I hate video game genres). You play as a nameless runaway Sleeper, the emulation of an unknown person’s brain in a robot body. Arriving on The Eye, a ring space station, you have to figure out how to survive and (of course) help the people that you meet and maybe figure out a way off the station.

The writing is good, in a straight sci-fi/cyberpunk kind of way and the simple conceit of getting up to five pre-rolled dice to allocate to your choice of activities/jobs/goals every cycle quickly becomes more complex as they add in money, food, data and other things. It definitely takes a while to learn the rhythms of the game, so especially on a first playthrough there are cycles with far too much going on and cycles with literally nothing as you wait for timed events to complete, which can take away a bit of urgency.

The characters are engaging and they do a lot to set the mood and build the world with a minimalist style. There’s no voiceover and no avatar to directly control, so some cool character portraits and barebones music do a lot of heavy-lifting, along with the writing, of course.

It’ll be interesting to see how the sequel shapes up, since it looks like they’re adding in actual animation and voiceover, as well as taking the action out into space by letting you captain your own ship.

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2632

Finally I completed Gotham Knights, it is ok kind of game, but still that wow factor was missing when I played Batman Arkham Origins and Knight. The villians on its previous installment performed well than this. This game may be good for players who didnot play previous games.
Returnal is on the queue and I am planning to buy Sniper Elite v5 next month. Now I am back to Hitman Freelancer.
The problem with me is I made myself more expected in quality of games after playing games like Hitman, Demon Souls, Sekiro etc etc.

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2633

Despite wanting to give it a fair shake, and being a fan of weird dystopian future shit, I just couldn’t get into Atomic Heart.

I gave it probably about ten hours, getting to the point where you escape the facility and get outside and there’s cameras and bots to avoid as you make your way across the landscape to the train and after that a trailer-worthy boss fight in a landscaped garden. Then I finally rage/disappointment-uninstalled. (Making room on the XSS for Starfield was also a factor, though I would have finished this game had I actually enjoyed it.)

This game has enough little annoyances, and you quickly hit the wall of the game’s capabilities and scope, that despite liking its overall aesthetic, and wanting more games like this, I wasn’t enjoying my time.

First of all, there’s too much crafting and collecting and shit. Let’s get that out the way now, because these efforts at “creating a personal play style and approach” end up actually dragging down the experience.

The story, I couldn’t tell you much of anything about. It’s simultaneously sweeping and bog-standard.

The protagonist sucks, a detriment to the game that is well advertised by most reviews. But in addition to his character and voice actor sucking, he also sucks to control. No sprinting, slow movement when moving backwards, and no running while strafing or slightly turning to change direction. A baffling decision.

So basically you’re fighting this boss who you have to run away from and whose big body you need to avoid, but you also need to be facing it as it zips around the battlefield, especially to notice when it jumps and sends out flaming shockwaves you need to jump over. But if you want to run away and get space, your back is turned and you can’t time the jumps. But if you’re facing the thing, moving backwards or sideways slows you to a walk. It’s very annoying and I was just over the whole game at that point.

I’m a “patient gamer” who missed years of prime gaming so my game time is usually catching up on slightly older titles. For example Im playing through The Stick of Truth and Axiom Verge on my Deck now. But I’m going to be playing STARFIELD because I pay for Gamepass and I’m so rarely playing whatever the zeitgeist is, never able to participate in the conversation. So that’s on the docket and despite not being a Bethesda or Fallout or Skyrim guy, I’m excited for the possibilities.

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