2021 GAMING DIARY

Posts

Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
No significant game-playing updates today, but, I do want to touch a bit on what games I'll want to play.

Playing some games from Seasons of the Sakura RMN 4 is on my bucket-list, if for no other reason that to have some kind of basis for this year's Misaos. Not sure if I will have enough viable content for a review, or media submission, for Release Something 16 RPG Maker's Birthday, as my focus there is to produce at least a demo of <Heaven's Gate spin-off I haven't titled yet>. However, what commentary I would have for what I manage to I play will be placed here.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
A few updates today.

Breath of Fire 3
Balio and Sunder have been defeated, at least! Ryu and company can roam with relative freedom! The next plot-event is to return Nina to Castle Wyndia, but, really, this is a good time to mess with masters, and just take a general break from the plot. I don't recall what my fishing rank is (I feel it's around Rodman+?), but, it could probably be a rank or two higher because Giotto.

Suikoden 3
About to start Hugo's Chapter 3. I was looking at the character recruit notes for this chapter, and there's quite a bit of globetrotting here. Oh, man, Hortez VII and Landis are on the list. These are just the worst characters to get. Hortez because tracking him down is half where the globetrotting in the chapter comes from. Landis is even more BS because there's never a message telling you he's been recruited because... reasons? Like, okay, I get the guy is supposed to be creepy, but, I just feel his recruitment could have been handled sooooo much better than this.

Borderlands 2
To be honest, I've been putting off playing this game for the last few days. However, I played a bit today, and went off and did another quest on my list. Got a level from my effort. I don't think that would make too much of a difference. However, I'm inclined to point out that my playstyle is certainly more about sniping guys from afar, and that just doesn't seem possible with the boss fight I was having trouble with.
Vaccaria
You'd think MZ would use a dictionary for switches/variables by now?
4936
Alright, update time!




FINALLY. I finished this game after cheesing my way on to some fights. In all honesty, I never thought I'd cheese this game at all. Then again, with how this game went with its own idea, I might as well do with my own. If anything, I was rather surprised on the amount of enemies that I can fight in DMC 2. There's more variety of opponents compared to DMC 1 and DMC 3. However, DMC 2 lacks a lot of stuff in it, and not just in the gameplay alone. The music was banging, but the atmosphere wasn't. If Kamiya managed to enter the fray earlier, DMC 2 could've been a really good game. Too bad it came too late.

I have nothing else to say about this game. Nothing else.




mfw not good







Oh boy, oh boy. Here we go again with the franchise that has no shame at all... wait a minute. Oh yeah, this franchise has a biiit of restraint. Anyway.

Senran Kagura Reflexions is something that I expected as a visual novel from the way it was presented. Turns out it wasn't. I don't know. I don't know where to even categorize this game at all. It has the looks for a visual novel, but it's characters are definitely 3D (not rendered, actual 3D models). You can interact with them... intimately. You can even do some rather uh... yeah, fanservice. Right, that's the right term.

If anything, I was rather bummed that it wasn't a visual novel, but at the same time felt like I was still hooked up to the concept. I mean, you don't get the chance to actively interact with the hot shinobi girlfriend right in front of you all the time, you know. Definitely will not recur in the next franchise addition, I swear.




At this point, my heart melted. Goddamnit, game.


This was the only game that managed to make me blush so damn hard because of it's interaction. It really made you feel like you're actually right in front of her. It's not like my eyes were dilating the moment she starts to lean on me. Definitely did NOT start to sweat abnormally.

And then this happens.






If there's one thing about this videogame that I did not expect, it was this one. Because hooooooooooooooooooooolyyyyyyy molly. That's a lot of freedom for a game. Uh, no. I didn't do that area first, I swear. I'm talking about hand-holding, you fool. Who likes mammaries these days haha what a kid.

So uh... yeah. It kinda felt bad that I had to repeat the game for five times just to get its secret ending, but I still had fun nonetheless. The game also had an option to skip these sort of things, but I never found myself skipping them—

Oh right, the little sister scenario. Seriously Japan, stop being creepy I swear to God.




Stop reeling me back in you damn game aaAAAA


Worst part is that I'm not over with this game yet. I only managed to finish one out of the five characters that I can be with. I might as well just play this game if I ever feel down bad considering that I still don't have a girlfriend.

Note: This game had some of its moments. 'Electric Massager' was one of them. I can never get over that one.





So uh... what's next? Next up are Outlast 2, Amnesia, DMC 4 and Bloodstained. I would finish them the moment I also finish this fictional story of mine sooner or later, and as well as properly configuring myself to Godot Engine after making the transition away from RPG Maker.

Welp, see you all then.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
I'm gonna try doing a weekly update, rather than doing one whenever I feel I have enough to actually talk about. That aside, here's what I can say today.

Breath of Fire 3
Now in the second half of the game, with only Ryu and Garr in the party. Ogre Road is next, which I'm fairly sure means Rei'll join fairly soon, after a mess of story-events is cleared.

Suikoden 3
Just recruited Landis, and made a journey back to Budehuc Castle to sharpen weapons, config armor, feed stat-stones and all that good stuffs. Chisha Village houses Emily, the next step in recruiting Hortez VII, and the next story-sequence.

*Edit: Seasons 4 should be ending within the next couple days unless an extension happens. Again, I have no idea how many of those games I'll be getting to, but, I should have more games to talk about next week.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
Now that Seasons 4 has ended, it's time to play some RMN games! On my docket is Dyhalto's Legend of the Mystical Deer, pianotm's Decline, Zorga's Sweet Middleground 4, and OldPat's The Lady Puppet!
AtiyaTheSeeker
In all fairness, bird shrapnel isn't as deadly as wood shrapnel
5424
Hoo boy. I'll ready an update later, but I'm tempted to create an "On Hold" part of my main journal. I might fuss with Skyrim again at some point, and I want to freakin' finish Dragon Quest 3. Yet I feel like shelving Wasteland 3 and La-Mulana 2 for the moment. I wanna say I'm at least 2/3rds of the way through WL3, and LM2 isn't appealing right now.

I did grab Wasteland 2 off my GOG shelf (and it runs like a charm now), and still wanna fuss with Heroic Tale VALUE!. I might add Wizardry 8 and/or Elminage Gothic to the mix, though Wiz8 has been a pain. I actually like Wiz8 a whole lot for the blobber subgenre, as it hardly feels like one with those low-poly environs. Eventually, Tales From Zilmurik.

In other words, my chaotic interests for my hobbies are chaotic. Eh. Always have been. No shame in it.

author=Vaccaria
So uh... what's next? Next up are Outlast 2, Amnesia, DMC 4 and Bloodstained.
Bloodstained. Do it. Do eet. DO EET. ...do it.

I've watching this pure-arsed neko girl play it on Twitch lately, which has spurned me to wanna pick that one up too. It's a ton of fun. But uhhhh, which one? I've played Curse of the Moon and Ritual of the Night, and wanna get CotM2 eventually. Both were great.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
Breath of Fire 3
Since last time I posted, I've acquired Nina, Rei, Momo and Peco back into the party. I've also cleared the Plant, and have escaped Castle Wyndia. My saved game is currently at the inn in Rhapala.

Suikoden 3
I evenutally hacked a Champion's Rune to make my life easier for the last leg of recruitment in Hugo's chapter 3. Next time I play this, it will be Chris' Chapter 3.

Borderlands 2
After several more failed runs on Captain Flynt, I finally broke down, and used Cheat Engine to get past him. So sue me. There was another side-quest I just completed that I don't recall the name of that made me consider doing that again, but, I pushed past it without resorting to such tactics.


Forgive the lack of comentary on those games. However, in an attempt to make it up, these are the games I played last week that came out of Seasons 4!

Legend of the Mystical Deer

The game is definitely a tighter squeeze than Fire RMNblem. I know I save-scummed more than I care to admit to prevent character death. Still, I can still appreciate the humor the game puts forward.

I think the last map had me a bit more on edge than normal with the Gorgons spamming their stun-attack from their more-than-uncomfortable-distance. Even so, I managed to beat the game, and I have this sense of accomplishment. Though, for Soy, this is just an ordinary day.


The Lady Puppet

I thought the game was just plain slow, but, no, it was actually my computer lagging! On my regular settings, The Lady Puppet ran at around 15 FPS. Running it on high performance mode raised it to more playable levels, though, think the game could use a "press Shift to walk" feature.

That aside, I'm getting a certain sense of deja-vu as I play this game. In regards to dodging enemies, this feels exceptionally reminiscent to Karma Flow. However, unlike Florien, Lailah can't attack in any way, shape, or form.
What she does have is this "doll" system, and it's a pretty unique spin on tools in the vein of Legend of Zelda or Wild Arms. I definitely recall attempting to help OldPat with the rope-ladder implementation, even if coelocanth was ultimately of more help. I think I noticed a number of spattering grammatical errors in the writing, but, unfortunately, I didn't note any specifics.

If this game stays a demo, it's a well-placed contender for "Most Promising Demo". I think I recall OldPat saying he might work on this for for Release Maker Birthday, so, that might be something to follow.


Sweet Middleground 4

The gamepage warns that this game would be best played with some understanding of the previous games. However, even with the handicap of not playing any of the other games in the series, I went through the game in it's entirety, and can appreciate this tale. Though, some of the puzzles had me wracking my brain, but, this was an overall positive experience for me. It seems almost a shame Zorga requested this not be streamed with the other Seasons 4 games, but, what can ya do? Though, I guess, in a certain sense, I understand.

Saying that, I'd be neglectful if I did not note that the game lagged on the beach screen. It might lag elsewhere too, but, as soon as I recognized it as lag, I applied the solution that I used in The Lady Puppet.

There's some pretty neat music in here. Of particular note is "amazing sand castle" (of which there are two versions) and "acorns -sand castle edition-". The in-game credits make no mention of where this stuff is from (Goddamn it, people, stop doing this ;_;), but, still, very inclined to a "Summoner of Sounds" nomination here.


Decline

I don't know if it's merely the fact that combat is from a first-person perspective, with your party members showing their backs. However, this game feels strangely like Phantasy Star to me? Though, I can't help but to see this Council of Elders, and not think of the Gazel Ministry of Xenogears. The game seems to present them in a similar light, too.

I will note of one fight that made me do a double-take. The Blaster and it's two minions Maintenance Nodes. One my very first attempt, I had spent a decent amount of Arda's MP NTP, and probably spend some of Nya's as well. I noticed that main boss resisted the Death state, and both Nodes re-spawned. It felt a little BS, but, after gaining a level, and knowing that the boss re-spawns it's bits, I gave it another attempt, and beat the thing!

This game also had a pretty decent overall musical score! Another contender for "Summoner of Sounds"!

author=Marrend
There's some pretty neat music in here. Of particular note is "amazing sand castle" (of which there are two versions) and "acorns -sand castle edition-". The in-game credits make no mention of where this stuff is from

Zorga makes his own music - they're original pieces.
Cap_H
DIGITAL IDENTITY CRISIS
6625
Playing Crusader Finns mod for CK2. I think I might uninstall steam soon to prevent myself from sinking more hours into more mods for CK2.
OldPat
OrudoPatto, kisama!
5107
Well, the chasing sequences of The Lady Puppet are supposedly different than those of Karma Flow (the Corrupted Ones act very differently than the Karma Patrol unit). Hopefully the deja-vu feel isn't as much of a negative after all the work I've put into making this game stand out on its own and having its own identity.^^'

As for the lagging, I hope it's a "your rig" specific thing otherwise it'll be a hard one to fix. For now, nobody has been having those issues so fingers crossed. It has to be said, The Lady Puppet has been made with the RGD implementation. It improves overall performance and adds neat stuff like dynamic lighting by relying on DirectX libraries. I'm guessing that it basically shifts all the heavy work from the CPU to the GPU. And PCs in "power saving" mode might cut a lot on the GPU power. Just guessing here.

I'm sure Zorga will be glad to know you've appreciated his game despite not having played the previous ones! (Which I suggest you do 8) )
And yep, he makes his own soundtracks!

As for the English issues, I need a proofreader. T_T
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
I find it likely that the lag from Sweet Middleground 4 and The Lady Puppet is more about my system being crappy than anything else. Like, my system lagged with World Movers. Which isn't a graphically intensive game by any means, but, may have been intensive in other areas?

Also, thanks for the info on who did the tracks for Sweet Middleground 4. If I have time, I'll look into the other games in that series, but, I'll want to focus on games made this year for the purposes of this year's Misao nomination data thread conversation.

*Edit: If I had to chose my "Best Event Game" nomination from just Seasons 4, I think I would be hard pressed between The Lady Puppet, Decline and Sweet Middleground 4. Each of these are great games in their own right for different reasons, ya know?
OldPat
OrudoPatto, kisama!
5107
I'll collect more opinions, hopefully the lag is an isolated case.

A bit of a shame I too wasn't considered for Summoner of Sounds after all the work that went into sound design but eh, I'm glad enough that I make the decision of "Best Event Game" difficult. 8)

Zorga and Piano make extremely fierce "rivals" for that spot, they always make very good games, so I can see the decision there being difficult. I'm glad we already got ourselves some Misao contenders! 2021 is gonna be one hell of a year.

Thanks for playing and for collecting Misao data, we really need those!

I need to catch up on the event streams/gams myself in order to have a much better opinion for voting and all.
Vaccaria
You'd think MZ would use a dictionary for switches/variables by now?
4936
Welp, looks like I have to reduce my playtime for now. Classes and all that.

But when I do make another entry, I'll have to add stuff such as some of the online games I play (CS:GO in particular, 'cause I'm planning to go to Global Elite).
AtiyaTheSeeker
In all fairness, bird shrapnel isn't as deadly as wood shrapnel
5424
Wasteland 3
Finally, an update. Has it really been like two weeks or so since I'd updated? Anyway. Got past the part where I lost progress. Turns out that distress signal was the AI on a supercar that never was! Although Morningstar never got to help out the real Reagan before the bombs fell, the Rangers gave him new purpose as the AI for their vehicle. And as it turns out, his AI was sufficient enough to handle some awesome new car hardware too, which is something you could miss if you didn't recruit him.

Various misadventures were had, and my squad is gearing up to take down Nelius Dorsey. The time to avenge the Rangers lost in the intro adventure, let alone Lucia's family, is drawing near. North of unwelcome territory however, things are getting a lot more dangerous. I fought not one, but two Scorpitrons, those huge death machines on the title screens of InXile's Wasteland titles. In addition, a side-mission to take down a Bad Santa would've ended in tragedy if I didn't reload my save.

Remember how I said fights were getting more and more dangerous by the time I hit the Bizarre? Well... the fight with "Santa" had managed to kill Dana. She got injured and dropped enough times that she bled out. Obviously, I did not want my main post-apoc character to die, so I reloaded and tried again. It was still a tense-ass battle in a confined space. Santa's deadly helpers could not only strike multiple squadmates in melee, but there were also little bastards with serious firepower shooting into the room too.

Paige / Alleycat has been having trouble feeling useful. However, it seems that an upgrade to her Brawling weapons (let alone other goodies) are available in Aspen. It's there where I can take on the sociopath of The Patriarch's brats, Victory "Vic" Buchanan. I tried to fight my way into Nelius's place first, but was in bad need of a resupply and bailed. The way I see it, I need to do a shopping spree at Aspen for better gear. After that? Nelly goin' die.

Good news for a coming update -- there will be a respec option at Ranger HQ. I think it'll be free for the first two Rangers, but a cumulative cost for others will be applied. I'll probably use this to get rid of vestigial skill ranks, though I think I spent my stat points well. I may select different perks though, as I had to make some not-great decisions when given the choices. I don't like to be balls-tight about picking perks / feats / etc in games, and I don't like being hands-on with making sure I fulfill stat requirements. It feels more organic to pick character upgrades that suit my needs and how the game's going.

Luckily, it's probably not a big deal if I don't focus too hard on picking perks anew. This ain't Underrail.

Fallout 4
Yeh, I started this one up too. One of the reasons why I added the On Hold thing to my journal post. Didn't get far, just enough to get through the intro adventures and do some basic settlement building. Plenty of mods, and just getting the thing to run well was a pain. Who knows? I might start "Rachel Journals Fallout 4" up proper, because I actually have a computer that can run the dang game. :p

Other Game News
Added a new section to my main journal: "On Hold". I'm not in the mood for La-Mulana 2 nor Skyrim right now. So far I'd played a session or two of games that I haven't recorded: Wasteland 2, The Dark Spire, Elminage Gothic, Wizardry 8, and Chasm. I'm not recording those yet because I don't feel I've dedicated properly.

I still want to clear Dragon Quest 3 and WL3. Technically Heroic Tale VALUE! is also in-progress, but I also only played one session too. It's still a game I wanna beat and review, but things have been turbulent for me these past couple weeks.
I started Borderlands 2 and gave up near the very beginning. (BoomBewm kicked my ***) Apparently I suck at FPS and never knew it before? Currently playing Pre-Sequel, but I don't imagine I will be playing it for long seeing as I've given up on the first two games in short time.

Other updates
- I own Breath of the Wild and Three Houses but haven't started them yet.
- I own Bloodstained Ritual of the Night but I get fed up at having to sit through a full on blank white screen for like half a minute each time the game starts up. I can look partially away from the screen so it doesn't hurt my eyes as much, but I still find it generally triggering and assaultive.
- I decided to properly play the Dragon Quest 11 demo to the end. Of course I underestimated how long the demo was going to be. Ended up with a save file over 5 hours. I might get the full game at some point, not sure. It's nice to have a long game I can binge/grind in when I want to kill time or relax, and which isn't overly intense, but I already have Pokemon Shield for that purpose. (At least now I have something I can get if I'm ever done with Pokemon Shield.)
- Mario Odyssey marks the first 3D Mario I've sat down and properly beaten. Also, the game is amazing.
AtiyaTheSeeker
In all fairness, bird shrapnel isn't as deadly as wood shrapnel
5424
Shucks, that's two prospective Bloodstained players. Weird that the Switch port has such an unpleasant (and long ._.) loadup, Zeello.

Fallout 4
I did crawl out back into the fallout after all. By some miracle, I didn't get mini-nuked trying to get into the Corvega plant. Or struggle to get inside from the front door patrol. On the contrary, somehow I snuck up from behind the plant and... uh, got lost inside. :v

But I cleared it! Fussing with building Sanctuary Hills has been kinda fun too. I created my usual inn and weapon / armor storage building, let alone pimped my OC's crib compared to everyone else's pad. Below are Dana's stats from where I left off. As mentioned in my prior post, I am doing an in-character journal about my playthrough. Due to the random jank and events that can happen in such a huge open-world game, my experience recording things has been fun. Expect an update for my latest session today. ;)


Dana M. Howard, Sole Survivor
Lv 8 - HP 123 - AP 115
Faction Quests Completed: Minutemen 2
Quests Completed: 5 - Misc. Objectives Completed: 3
Days Past: 5 - Locations Found: 17
Bobbleheads Found: Perception, Repair


Strength 3: No perks yet
Perception 6: Locksmith 1
Endurance 3: Toughness 1
Charisma 3: Black Widow 1
Intelligence 5: Scrapper 1, Medic 1
Agility 5: Sneak 1
Luck 6: No perks yet
Misc. Perks: Barbarian 1 (Grognak the Barbarian comic book)

Main Weapons:
* Combat Knife - 11 Impact Dmg, no notable mods or bonuses
* Pipe Sniper Rifle, "Longshot" - 42 Impact Dmg, hardened receiver?
* 10mm Pistol, "Sanctuary Special - 22 Impact Dmg, comfort grip and hardened receiver

Armor and Outfit:
Total Resist = Impact 25, Energy 31 (+10 IR from Toughness perk)
* Leather Armor - Worn on body and all limbs - IR 13, ER 31
* Road Leathers - Clothing - IR 2
* Sunglasses - Eyewear - Perception +1
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
Breath of Fire 3
Welp, I did the second hide-and-seek game, and fixed Rhapala's ship. It didn't look like Deis was ready to be a master yet, so, off to become an Iron Chef, and make shisu!

I re-checked with Deis before shoving off to the Black Ship, and I'm kinda glad I did, since I could visit her as a master at that point. I put Momo under Deis, and she'll probably stay there for the rest of the game. Of course, the irony of being teleported back to Steel Beach in the blink of an eye is a little frustrating, but, what can ya do?

As of this writing, I'm about to go through the Factory, and after that should be the infamous Desert of Death section!


Suikoden 3
Polished off Chris' Chapter 3 early in the week, then proceeded to ingore/avoid it for a bit. Thomas' Chapter 1 was complete on Thursday, with his Chapter 2 following suit on Saturday. I even played a bit into Chapter 4, but, of course, I've not quite gotten to the point where I can recruit.


Borderlands 2
The game has introduced Eridium-based guns. The assault rifle they gave me as a "test" of such weapons had a huge clip size, but the reload speed was super-ugly-slow. I'm kinda glad I didn't get to keep it, because I would probably want to sell it.

There's been a few times when I think to myself that I should use Cheat Engine to make an "exchange" of money for Eriduim bars. Finding Eridium might be tough, as it's still a low-end value (9 or 10 as I type), but, fetching the money value when it's easily four digits doesn't seem like a problem. For now, I'm playing the game normally, and yes, getting my ass kicked every so often. XD
Cap_H
DIGITAL IDENTITY CRISIS
6625
March:

1. Quadrilateral Cowboy
I started playing this and it's fun cool hacking game, but after about an hour in I had to stop as I need the precision of mouse to finish the next mission. The game is a combination of stealth and hacking with no direct violence. I probably write more about it later.



2. Memory Leak
A small city building puzzle, which I failed to grasp. There are several very simple tutorial missions, which don't explain mechanics of the game at all. That resulted in me repeatedly failing at the first real mission. The idea and presentation is cool, it's just the gameplay part, which falls short. I don't see any reason to return to this.



3. Cuckoo Castle
This is a really solid little metroidvania with og gb esthetic and well executed ideas. Progressing through this game was enjoyable and mostly rewarding. Boss fights were on an easier side, but this was compensated by fairly difficult regular section. Also, the whole game feels and plays as a real gb game. Cute graphics are accompanied by fitting soundtrack. If you have 90 minutes of time to waste, give it a shot. You can play it for free here.



4. Radishock
I love the lo-fi esthetic and overall concept of this low rez jam entry. It's a metroidvania with a good feel exploration and progression. Unfortunately, the game's controls are terrible and executing individual movement, especially double jump, is a nightmarish experience. Take a look at its trailer for inspiration in audio and video departments, tho.



5. Brave
This is a demo of a game combining random generation, crafting and metroidvania. So, probably something like Terraria, which I've never played. The presentation is nice, but the demo includes very little to keep you interested. I either failed to discover some mechanics or they aren't implemented in. Also, it's not really a metroidvania, so take a look elsewhere if you're looking for a platformer with satisfying non-linear progression.



6. Hippoxxus
At first look a fairly fine Metroid clone, this one has bugged controls on Linux. I enjoyed the first minutes of it, but it was impossible to see more without an ability to jump. My only criticism to even the first few minutes is that the environment is fairly generic and sterile.



7. Detour Theater
Basically, it's an environment, in which you can watch a public domain film, walk around and talk with several characters. It's a neat idea and it's surprisingly boring trying to watch a film like this. Maybe the film Detour is boring. Dunno, I might try to watch it on youtube.



8. Bleakshore
This is quite a gem of a walking simulator. Hackett managed to pin down the environment's atmosphere perfectly. Shades of blue, green, grey and brown are filled with sentiment and glitching trees make it slightly unsettling. It was really cool walking around beaches and woods of this game. The narrative gives it a good direction and I think that the end is more rewarding than seeing something disturbing. My only complain is that the music might be little too abrasive. With something more ambient I would be able to stroll around the forest and think about the messages more.



9. Auto Museum 64
This hardly classifies as a game. It's an exhibition of car models from Nintendo 64 games. Leo Burke uses panels to explain his admirable work and I'm more fascinated by the idea and the process than the actual models. I think this is the kind of media we need more of in digital space.



10. DREAMDISC
​The game contains a sequence of five dreams, which probably are too brief for me to immerse myself in them. It's a nice exercise in environmental design and I would like to see something with more content from the creators.



11. Carcavas
A walking sim created for a PS1 jam. I enjoyed the esthetic more than the usual shiny approach of colorfiction, but the landscape despite a night twist lacked any dominant features to make my contemplation more fruitful.



12. Iketsuki
This game took me longer to complete as it has (at least on touch pad) fairly challenging platforming and a cryptic way to hint you at your goals (I spent fifteen minutes jumping around, trying to figure out what else I'm supposed to collect). The game plays well and outside of free camera feels like a PS1 game. The crumbling world is an interesting minimalist setting with few strokes of maximalist ambitions. Some animations can drag, especially as you're waiting for them to finish repeatedly. It's a good amount of game for the money (free), so I recommend giving it a shot.



13. No Players Online
This is a polished short horror game, which takes place inside of an abandoned multiplayer game. It's short, sweet and it presents you with an interesting moral choice. I don't adore it as much as game journalists, but I admit that it's original and that it uses its limitations well. Scary parts are more unsettling than jump scary and I like that. The progression is steady and builds up towards the final choice.



14. Take Your Time
This is a driving game, in which you're supposed to make laps and listen to music. The game's two visual styles are slightly clashing and the game itself isn't as visually appealing as screenshots. The driving itself is a nightmarish experience. I ended up all tracks either stuck in barriers or falling off the track. Turning is overly sensitive too.



15. Islanders
This is a stripped down city builder taking place on tiny islands. It was quite a compelling game to hunt down achievements for and while it is fairly relaxing, it's surprisingly time consuming. The game is all about score and score bonuses and penalties for adjacent buildings. You need to plan ahead too as some late buildings can be placed for massive points but you need to have the right spot for them. The lack of space can be partially solved by building various platforms, but in most games, these are the last structures you unlock.

16. Roborazzi
A small browser game, in which you're a robot taking pictures of people. It has cool look, smashing music and while really small I enjoyed my time with this relentless piece.



Also, I probably should start curating my first post with games I played. It looks like I might have enough games for a nice end of year list after all.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
This update might be a bit on the early side, but, what the hey.

Breath of Fire 3
I am offically an idiot. There was a switch that was protected by glass I needed to break in the Factory, and it didn't occur to me that I only needed to take a step or two back, and use Ryu's sword to cut it, rather than go all the hell the way out of that dungeon, and party-switch to include Peco and Momo to break said glass. WEEEEEEEELP!

That aside, I had a pretty short session ending just before entering the Desert of Death. I was NOT up to navigating it that session, despite how short it was. The next time I played it, which was maybe a day or two after that, was tackling it. I made some quick-notes in regards to the directions the game wanted me to go, which helped, but what really got me through was useing the fast-forward function of the emulator. So sue me.

I basically put this down until Thrusday, where I started to tackle Caer Xhan, giving the game another big push today to complete it.


Suikoden 3
I played this a lot this week, going through the motions for various recruits, and leveling people up. Thankfully, Chapter 4 is where we can recruit both Vikis, making things slightly easier for me in the future. There was also a decent-sized chuck of time spend at the blacksmith. I probably didn't need to sharpen everyone's weapoin that I had available to level 15, but, I did.

As of this writing, I'm about to start Chapter 5, and the last leg of this game.


Borderlands 2
Did a session on Tuesday where I did a batch of side-missions. I then proceeded to avoid it for most of the week. However, considering the progress I've made in the other games, I've no real complaints. XD


This week saw me briefly install Star Control 3 for it's hyper melee. I really appreciate the fact that you can let the AI pick it's own team (at a similar value to your own) if you leave it's fleet blank. What kinda surprised me is that this had a DOS installer, runs in DOS, and is a DOS game. Thus, I had zero issues running this through DOSBox. As opposed to requiring Windows 95 (or what-have-you) to run, and maybe needing to go through some compatibility hoops.

Another aside for this week was Doom Legacy. This is a program from SourceForge I picked up some time ago that I ran on my last laptop. While I have run Ultimate Doom or Doom 2 (with or without the Plutonia/TNT WADs) through DOSBox, the main point of playing through Doom Legacy was that it seems to allow medkits, stimpacks, and berserk kits, to go beyond the normal limit 100% health. I've a Dehacked patch set up to have the megasphere health (and armor) limit set to 1000%, and it seems all health/armor pick-ups can go that high as well. Of course, the patch also applies the classic "super weapons" patch as well, because, hey, why not.
Fflo
Be careful ! I'm French
3650
My turn now to post something in my gaming diary.

I'm progressing on a randomized Pokémon Pearl game. Starters, wild Pokémon and trainers are randomized, same thing for the moves and the abilities. It means you can get a Regirock as a starter and you can fight a Gym Leader who has a Sunkern as his/her main Pokémon.

My team consists of:

Gible -> Gabite, the starter. Its Hi Jump Kick is deadly! Beating this Drought Regigigas (why does it try to behave like Groudon?) was rather easy. Other moves are Rock Smash, Cut and Flamethrower.


Drifblim, the strong balloon. Its Hyper Sound move wipes the field in double battles, especially at the beginning of the game! No need to worry about this Shelgon which acts like a Magikarp. Oops. Other moves are Fly, Double-Edge and Grass Knot.


Lombre -> Ludicolo, the surprising. I underestimate its skills. The Honey Gather ability is useless, but the Needle Arm, the Spark, the Poison Fang and the Lovely Kiss moves are interesting... Slow Start (Regigigas' ability) for that Cresselia (same thing for the poor Bidoof) was unexpected!


Gorebyss, the MVP. Surf, Lava Plume, Judgement Ground and Attract. Fear the sea serpent! Its ability is the same as Plusle. No way.
Spoiler alert: Claudia's Surf will eliminate Candice's Geodude in one hit.


Slugma -> Magcargo, the bad Pokémon which becomes better in my randomized save. Normally, it doesn't learn Power Gem (a great Special Rock-type move) but it does there. Air Slash, Shadow Ball for the offensive moves. Stealth Rock for the defensive move. Rough Skin as its ability.
This Hitmonchan used Swords Dance on turn 1. I tried to attack with Air Slash but I missed. Then the boxer used Self-Destruct and seriously hurt my lava snail. Not very effective but painful.


Skorupi -> Drapion, Darkrai's counterpart. Caught in the Great Marsh (= Safari Zone), this scorpion is the master of nightmares! Body Slam and Strength are nice Normal-type moves. But it knows the evil duo Dark Void (Darkrai's move) and Dream Eater! Fear the scorpion with Insomnia as its ability. Mars couldn't stand a chance.

Progression: 7 Badges. Levels are around 42-43 for everybody.

Bonus:

Fan-made Yu-Gi-Oh! cards with my current team.