Gaming thoughts, bite-size chewables - new orange flavor!

[Bagheera]

Is there ANY way to make Returnal easier? Read my semi-rant below, and tell me if I should just give up on the game.

I'm not good at action games. I play them on easy or "story" mode. I'm also don't enjoy repetitive games. I like single-player games that have a great story. It's this "interactive literature" aspect that makes me love video games so much.

Those two factors (suck at action games, and don't like repetition) made me avoid Returnal for a long time. Now that I've picked it up, I can't stop playing it. But I'm ready to throw my controller through the TV.

I thought I could just grind out the first 100 deaths and pick up permanent upgrades, making each run a little bit easier. But After 20 hours of playing, the only permanent upgrades I have are alt-fire and teleportation. And I only get as far as the "lockdown" in the first biome.

I was thinking of Diablo or World of Warcraft. In those games, you die a lot but you come back a little better each time. With Returnal, it seems like you start over from scratch on every run. Either I, the player, get faster reflexes, or I never advance.

My two big questions are:

1. Is there a good backstory here? If there's a good story to the Sentients, the White Shadow broadcast, and the reincarnation, I'll stick with it to learn it. And I mean a story at the level of The Last Of Us or Horizon. If it's just a "aliens made a time loop, and now you have to shoot things" I'll just watch a YouTube summary.

2. Are there permanent upgrades I can get? No amount of button switching, aiming assist, or daily practice is going to improve my raw skill. If there's not some way to start each run with more health, armor, or firepower, then I'm never going to advance.

 

[Elore]

2. Are there permanent upgrades I can get? No amount of button switching, aiming assist, or daily practice is going to improve my raw skill. If there's not some way to start each run with more health, armor, or firepower, then I'm never going to advance.

As you progress, you can unlock a slew of new upgrades and weapons. But the caveat is, outside of the first time you encounter them, that just means they're available to be picked up on your next runs through item fabricators and drops.
There is a permanent currency, Ether, which will let you buy some upgrades on a new run, but that's not something you can rely on if you die a lot because no actual gear or stats carries over. There are one-time use revival spots you can activate with Ether, too.
Once you beat an area, you will also unlock short cuts that let you skip that area on your next runs. The caveat here being that you also miss out on any upgrades from there, although you will get boosted Proficiency to match the area.

You mentioned dying to lockdowns, those tend to be due to optional encounters. Avoid the golden doors. Do not engage with the corpses of other players. Do not fall down the cracks in the floor that lead to bonus rooms. Those all have the potential to lead to much tougher enemies that can easily wreck you.

Do keep an eye out for statues with glowing yellow eyes. Free extra Silphium.

Certain weapons will also undoubtedly help you. A Tachyomatic Carbine with Leech Rounds is as close to an Easy Mode as is possible in Returnal. While there are much more effective weapons, the healing and ease of use of the weapon helps a lot if you're struggling.

At the end of the day, though, Returnal is a rogue-lite bullet hell shooter. There's no escaping that. However, in my experience, the game does get easier as you progress. So if you can make it past the first area, it's more likely than not that you can finish the game.

As for the story, I think it's quite good and worthwhile, however, it is nothing like Horizon or TLOU. There's a lot of mystery and room for interpretation, and merely beating the game once will not give you all the answers (such as they are).
If that sounds like too steep a hill to climb, it might be best to just watch a summary somewhere to sate your curiosity and move on.

Edit: Co-op might be another possibility. If you're playing on PS5, send me a PM and we can see if we can set something up. Haven't played it in a while, but I'm always up for more Returnal.

 

[Diabolical]

I may be skipping Steam Next Fest this time around. I am thoroughly enthralled with Cyberpunk, and don’t want to break away for demos. Excited to read impressions from folks next week. A few games have already caught my eye…

 

[MrLiNcH]

I played that a long time ago, I thought it was FTP with in game purchases as an infinite pit to speed up the idle clock. Is it different now?

This is correct. I started it up again a couple of months ago and it's still a lot of fun. Funnily enough I got my partner sucked into it for a while when she saw me getting vault dwellers together to make babies, lol.

RE: your play credit - in addition to FF games, there's Chronotrigger. Also Stardew Valley, Terraria, GTA, Slay the Spire, Papers Please, Castlevania. But as usual, android ports usually have on screen controller which sucks.

You could also pick up books, movies or music.

 

[Drizzt321]

Not in this case.
BUT, I did consider it.

And this almost qualifies…

View attachment 64321

Almost, not quite.

Still waiting for my trailer fridge duckie

 

[Drizzt321]

I think I have had such a good string of stable, playable games lately that I just forgot how bad Ubisoft is on PC.

I mean.. When a Bethesda open world title is more stable, you've got to wonder how you failed so hard (seriously, Starfield NEVER crashed for me).

Hell, it's been extremely stable for me starting about a month after release playing via Proton Experimental on Linux. On Linux man. And it's STABLE.

 

[Diabolical]

Almost, not quite.

Still waiting for my trailer fridge duckie

I'm tempted to pick up a fistful full of these for the holiday season and send them out to folks.
After they have been suitably magnetized.
https://www.justgeek.com/products/o...der-shepard-tubbz-cosplaying-duck-collectablehttps://www.justgeek.com/collection...us-vakarian-tubbz-cosplaying-duck-collectable

 

[Ajar]

A question to the floor: are there any a-rpgs or action roguelites (or whatever you may choose to call something on this spectrum) with gameplay like this? I don't really get on too well with fromsoftlikes which appears to close off a few of the more obvious doors for me.

Boyfriend Dungeon comes to mind. It's Hades, but a dating sim where you date the anthropomorphic weapons you wield during your runs. Like Curse of the Dead Gods, the dungeon crawling isn't on Hades' level, but it's still a fun time.

 

[Nekojin]

I'm tempted to pick up a fistful full of these for the holiday season and send them out to folks.
After they have been suitably magnetized.
https://www.justgeek.com/products/o...der-shepard-tubbz-cosplaying-duck-collectablehttps://www.justgeek.com/collection...us-vakarian-tubbz-cosplaying-duck-collectable

Still better models than Funko POP figures.

 

[Sulphur]

The Talos Principle 2 has a demo out on Steam. I played it, and it made me feel dumb within 10 minutes.

It's gonna be the game of the year.

 

[thepropagandist]

Is there ANY way to make Returnal easier? Read my semi-rant below, and tell me if I should just give up on the game.

I'm not good at action games. I play them on easy or "story" mode. I'm also don't enjoy repetitive games. I like single-player games that have a great story. It's this "interactive literature" aspect that makes me love video games so much.

Those two factors (suck at action games, and don't like repetition) made me avoid Returnal for a long time. Now that I've picked it up, I can't stop playing it. But I'm ready to throw my controller through the TV.

I thought I could just grind out the first 100 deaths and pick up permanent upgrades, making each run a little bit easier. But After 20 hours of playing, the only permanent upgrades I have are alt-fire and teleportation. And I only get as far as the "lockdown" in the first biome.

I was thinking of Diablo or World of Warcraft. In those games, you die a lot but you come back a little better each time. With Returnal, it seems like you start over from scratch on every run. Either I, the player, get faster reflexes, or I never advance.

My two big questions are:

1. Is there a good backstory here? If there's a good story to the Sentients, the White Shadow broadcast, and the reincarnation, I'll stick with it to learn it. And I mean a story at the level of The Last Of Us or Horizon. If it's just a "aliens made a time loop, and now you have to shoot things" I'll just watch a YouTube summary.

2. Are there permanent upgrades I can get? No amount of button switching, aiming assist, or daily practice is going to improve my raw skill. If there's not some way to start each run with more health, armor, or firepower, then I'm never going to advance.

It depends what you mean by story. I’d consider Returnal’s narrative and integration with gameplay to be the best in any game I have played this decade - but that’s because I’ve filled in the gaps the developer has left for and invited players to fill.

Don’t underestimate how much you can improve. I went from being in a similar position to you, to being able to clear the first biome from a brand new run (I’ve just bought it on PC after first buying it for PS5, to see what the improvements are like)

To add to what elore already said:

1. Make sure aim assist is on high if it isn’t already. It will help you with situational awareness, as avoiding getting hit is more important than dispatching enemies quickly.

2. Keep moving.

3. KEEP MOVING. The dash leaves you (largely) invincible. Use the environment to your advantage. Bullets get absorbed, but the expanding ring attacks don’t.

3a. A ring appears around Selene when an attack is imminent, indicating the direction it’s coming from. Red means it’s melee incoming, blue means projectiles.

4. Adrenaline snowballs, big time. At 5 adrenaline you get a free shield and obolites last a lot longer. It is hard to get there at first, but gets easier as you get more familiar with the enemies and feel less overwhelmed by the combinations of attacks. Each level of adrenaline gives you seeking projectiles that help with killing enemies.

5. The permanent upgrades (weapon variety, weapon attributes, the different artefacts available) do make a big difference, though it feels subtle at the start.

6. It seems you’re getting stuck where my partner is getting stuck. A co-op round will get you past that difficulty hump, and there are definitely players around willing to help (I am happy to jump on either platform)

 

[Frosty Grin]

1. Is there a good backstory here? If there's a good story to the Sentients, the White Shadow broadcast, and the reincarnation, I'll stick with it to learn it. And I mean a story at the level of The Last Of Us or Horizon. If it's just a "aliens made a time loop, and now you have to shoot things" I'll just watch a YouTube summary.

No, I found the story to be the most disappointing aspect of Returnal. It feeds you bits and pieces, making you think there's something profound there - but no, there isn't. And it extends to the changing environments - all this fragmentation and randomization ends up distracting and detracting. And I, like many people, like well-designed ambiguity, like in Portal 2. So it's just that Returnal is trying to look better than it is.

2. Are there permanent upgrades I can get? No amount of button switching, aiming assist, or daily practice is going to improve my raw skill. If there's not some way to start each run with more health, armor, or firepower, then I'm never going to advance.

As in any games of this type, the progress comes from knowing which of the temporary upgrades and weapons work for you, which steps and enemies are risky, etc. Sometimes you need to go straight and narrow to progress - but when you feel strong enough, you need to clear out all the rooms, so that you can level up. and get more options to upgrade.

Plus, of course, it's inherently twitchy, and sometimes you just die. That's just how it is.

Edit: And if you want a storyline game where you're piecing the narrative together, try Immortality. It's well-written, with good acting, and very atmospheric.

 

[Deleted member 14629]

There's a demo for DotAGE as well.

 

[Frosty Grin]

One of the most underappreciated games I ever played is Togges. It's a cute and colorful puzzle platformer with many secrets and challenges. You visit different planets and spread or vacuum up the Togges - colorful cubes, with different properties. Some can be stacked high, others conduct electricity, or can be spread underwater... Naturally, you combine these abilities to solve all kinds of puzzles, some based on timing/agility. And what's really jaw-dropping is how large and diverse the levels can be and how creative the puzzles get. I think it's pretty much on par with something like Super Mario Galaxy.




Demo download button isn't on the store page anymore, but the direct link still works: steam://install/1959630

 

[Diabolical]

Oh man, I have no idea if I'm going to get to all of these, but since I only play a few minutes to see if it's something I'd be interested in playing more? I might be able to knock this all out in a day.

Demos I've downloaded to at least play for a moment or two:

Spoiler: It's a bit of a list...

Afterdream
Dotage
The Drifter
Necrofugitive
Phantom Fury
Shady Kngiht
Soul's Spectrum: Awakening
Tempest Rising
They Are Here
Turbo Overkill
Twistales
VergeWorld
My Work Is Not Yet Done
Quartet
Unfollow
Kristala
The Last Faith
Last Train Home
Sandwalkers
The Thaumaturge
Terminator: Dark Fate - Defiance
Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin
Monolith: Requiem of the Ancients
Earthless
Venture to the Vile
Creepy Tale: Some Other Place
Star Ocean The Second Story R
Astra: Knights of Veda
Gunhead
Forgive Me Father 2
Songs of Silence
Saturnalia
The Shape Killer
Noreya: The Gold Project
Another Crab's Treasure
SELINI
Artificial

 

[swiftdraw]

Picked up Saints Row (2022) on deep discount and fuck me it is dull. It needs polishing, particularly with the guide arrows that show you the way to an objective/waypoint. The music variety is poor and I actually enjoy the game’s original music more than the radio’s, but it is used sparingly. The vehicles don’t feel quite right, the helicopters sound hilariously weak, and the antigrav vehicles just stop working sometimes.

Overall, it’s competently done (besides the road guides) even with the lack of polish, but there is absolutely nothing compelling about it. It’s just another open world sandbox GTA like.

 

[Defenestrar]

I might be able to knock this all out in a day

That sounds more like work than gaming.

 

[Frosty Grin]

Oh man, I have no idea if I'm going to get to all of these, but since I only play a few minutes to see if it's something I'd be interested in playing more? I might be able to knock this all out in a day.

I was like, "There aren't that many good demos on Steam Next Fest this time"... and then I saw that I have enabled the setting to hide the games already on the wishlist. So here's my list:

Spoiler: The List

American Arcadia
Concealed
Candlelight: Lament
Pine Harbor
Selini
Unawake
Hollow Cocoon
Europa
Teleforum
Thaumaturge
Pneumata
The Gap
Reveil

Oh, and I have already played the Ghostrunner II demo.

 

[Frosty Grin]

That sounds more like work than gaming.

It's FOMO.

Because you're playing something terrible and wonder why you're doing it - but then think of really wonderful obscure games that you've discovered like this. Meanwhile you have hundreds of games on your wishlist, so there's no way you'll ever catch up.

 

[Diabolical]

It’s not FOMO for me. It‘s more, “play 2 minutes now to save me $$$ and hours later”.

1)A lot of times, Next Fest is the ONLY TIME these games will get demos.
2)Demos mean I can spend 5-10 minutes deciding if something is worth my time with actual experience instead of relying on reviews or other individuals‘ impressions.
3)It ultimately saves me a lot of misspent time and money later. This is a big one.

Next Fest is the great weeding-out-of-prospective-interesting-games time. If I don’t gel with a game mechanically, I’ll generally know in the first 2-3 minutes of play. 5-10 minutes to get an impression of art style and any narrative elements the devs want to highlight. If I spend longer than that in the demo, it’s almost a near guarantee to be a purchase.

That rarely happens. Most are less than 5 minutes.

 

[Deleted member 14629]

There's a demo for DotAGE as well.

The demo convinced me to buy the game. It's tightly designed and I love the turn-based nature of it. Really lets you play at a comfortable pace, even as you're making existential choices.

It doesn't officially have controller support, but a few of the reviews mention having a good time of it on the Deck. I haven't tried myself, I generally don't enjoy mouse-based games on it.

 

[Frosty Grin]

Ra-Ra-Rasputin! Russia's greatest love machine!

So I tried The Thaumaturge demo. It's got a very interesting setting, lots of character - and characters, very good art direction. But I find the whole thing mechanically heavy and clunky, especially the turn-based combat - just not what I'd want to keep playing. And it doesn't seem polished enough for its planned release date in early December (framerate issues, hangs - I even had no voices for some reason).

 

[Diabolical]

Halfway through my list. Of the 22 games so far? 4 are good, 3 are alright but probably won't be played, and 15 are either meh or just not for me.

 

[Frosty Grin]

Unawake is in alpha - and it shows - but so pretty. If they polish the combat, it can end up great. But they're going for first person sword fighting and that's hard to pull off.

American Arcadia - one of the obvious highlights, art direction is very strong, but what they are showing in the rather short demo doesn't seem all that unusual. Just another 2D/3D storyline platformer, like Little Orpheus.

Pneumata - yet another indie horror that looks better in screenshots. But it's in alpha, so maybe if they try hard enough, it can end up somewhat close to The Evil Within. Again, this is another kind of game where first person interaction is crucial, and hard to pull off. This is where third-person horror games like Song of Horror might be inherently stronger.

 

[Diabolical]

And done. Took about four hours, all told. I think the longest I played anything was 15 minutes.
Keep in mind that this is all as it relates to me. Red doesn't mean it's bad, per se, just that it didn't gel with me at all and might with you. Yellow is 'maybe, but probably not'. Green games go on the wishlist (or stay on the wishlist).

Spoiler: The full 38 games.

My standouts that I actually want to play again:

• Afterdream - 2d side scrolling adventure title with an interesting art style and horror elements. I played to the end of the demo, and wanted more. // Steam/GoG/Epic
• Necrofugitive - 2d side scroller with a very interesting combat mechanic where the triggers apply modifiers - X = basic attact, LT+X = impale, RT+X = something else, etc . Also, you're the villain. It had some sneaking bits along with some monster roar-y poison bomb-y bits. // Steam.
• Turbo Overkill - Boomer Shooter, pixelized graphical style. Crouch-slide with increasing momentum to cut apart enemies with a chainsaw that hides in your leg. // Steam/GoG/Epic
• Sandwalkers - Hex based caravan traveling game with anthropomorphic animal people, and combat reminiscent of line placement RPG's (think Darkest Dungeon -ish, but not quite). // Steam/GoG
• Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin - Unit based RTS game - can't select individuals, only units (like Warhammer RTS games). Has been given a lot of press, and deservedly so. I liked my brief time with it. // Steam/Epic
• Earthless - The scifi deckbuilder from BBI, developers of Homeworld. Yeah. 'Nough said. // Steam
• Songs of Silence - RTS is damn near an autobattler with deck building mechanics in the combat phase, movement is across a really nice world map in a turn based fashion. // Steam
• Another Crab's Treasure - described at various outlets as the crab souls like. It's delightful. // Steam.

 

[Frosty Grin]

Red doesn't mean it's bad, per se, just that it didn't gel with me at all and might with you. Yellow is 'maybe, but probably not'. Green games go on the wishlist (or stay on the wishlist).

Yay, colors! Pretty colors. Useful colors.

There's another thing I disliked about The Thaumaturge - and increasingly can't tolerate from other games. It's when you're given dialog options, A and B, but when you choose A, the character says "A, but also B". Infuriating!

 

[CommanderJameson]

And done. Took about four hours, all told. I think the longest I played anything was 15 minutes.
Keep in mind that this is all as it relates to me. Red doesn't mean it's bad, per se, just that it didn't gel with me at all and might with you. Yellow is 'maybe, but probably not'. Green games go on the wishlist (or stay on the wishlist).

Red does, of course, mean that it goes faster.

Whatever ”it” is.

 

[Nekojin]

Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor is what happens when you put DRG and Vampire Survivors in a blender and put it on puree. It touches every single aspect of DRG in a top down bullet hell survival game. If you like both DRG and Vampire Survivors (or any of that sort of game clones), you'll like this.

I'm taking a look at the Witchhand demo. I'll report back.

 

[Diabolical]

I'm taking a look at the Witchhand demo. I'll report back.

I missed that one entirely. Interesting.

 

[Nekojin]

Witchhand is... vague. I think that's part of the gameplay loop - discovering how to do the next thing to grow your witchery. I'm not sure that I'd be willing to plunk down bucks for it, but it's certainly worth some time trying out, at least.

The basic gameplay is that you're a witch, and you're expanding your control over the countryside and magic in general. You explore areas, settle covens in towns, summon (and train) familiars, and finish quests from the Council to further your own goals. You make friends - and enemies -with faerie cities to trade resources. It's a very abstract way of making a resource management game, and it's definitely different.

 

[MichaelC]

Robocop demo is available. Have not played it. Apparently it's not optimized and performance is sketchy. But looking at gameplay... it's robocop with Peter Weller voicing. Not sure if Nancy Allen is voicing as well. But Lewis is in it. Looks like it might be interesting... basically an FPS with a nasty Detroit and robocop skin. But that might be enough

 

[BigLan]

Robocop demo is available. Have not played it. Apparently it's not optimized and performance is sketchy. But looking at gameplay... it's robocop with Peter Weller voicing. Not sure if Nancy Allen is voicing as well. But Lewis is in it. Looks like it might be interesting... basically an FPS with a nasty Detroit and robocop skin. But that might be enough

I'd buy that for a dollar!

 

[whoisit]

Robocop demo is available. Have not played it. Apparently it's not optimized and performance is sketchy. But looking at gameplay... it's robocop with Peter Weller voicing. Not sure if Nancy Allen is voicing as well. But Lewis is in it. Looks like it might be interesting... basically an FPS with a nasty Detroit and robocop skin. But that might be enough

Better than the Robocop game Titus made? Yes, the Titus that made Superman 64.

 

[Mhorydyn]

Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor is what happens when you put DRG and Vampire Survivors in a blender and put it on puree. It touches every single aspect of DRG in a top down bullet hell survival game. If you like both DRG and Vampire Survivors (or any of that sort of game clones), you'll like this.

I'm particularly conflicted. I think I've put in 5 hours so far and very much want to keep playing. However, it's unlikely that progress will carry over to the release version so I don't want to have dozens of hours of progression wiped away in a few months either.

 

[Defenestrar]

Red does, of course, mean that it goes faster.

Whatever ”it” is.

I think it depends on the perspective. Red is when it's fast enough to be getting away, but blue means you're moving fast enough to catch up.

 

[swiftdraw]

Ugh, I hate these Nextfests. I saw an unreleased game that looked to be like OpenTTD but with better graphics and now I can't find it under all the games shown under Nextfest. I remember it was under strategy, but can't remember if it was under City Builder or Resource Management tags,

EDIT: Found it (Railway Empire 2) again and it was less like OpenTTD than I remember. Also it was released, which is why I couldn't find it under unreleased.

 

[Apteris]

German gaming YouTube channel Game Two three days ago published Report: Why Gollum HAD to fail.

The report states, at 35:58, that the apology tweet which Nacon (the publisher) put out -- you know, the tweet that misspelled the name of the game whose quality they were apologizing for -- was written by ChatGPT.

If true, this is... I don't know, beyond the area that is beyond the pale. It's like apologizing for pissing on my leg while at the same time drinking a 2L bottle of Mountain Dew and unzipping.

 

[Frosty Grin]

Europa

The first of the Next Fest games that clicked with me. An idyllic planet with lush flora and... somewhat unusual fauna. Very airy platforming, with gliding and levitation. Gliding downhill is especially pleasant. No combat to speak of, even in the highlight video in the end. Just defense systems to avoid or disable. And platforming challenges - that may not be as relaxing as the rest of the game. But too much relaxation can end up boring too, so I'm optimistic.

 

[Deleted member 14629]

The demo convinced me to buy the game. It's tightly designed and I love the turn-based nature of it. Really lets you play at a comfortable pace, even as you're making existential choices.

It doesn't officially have controller support, but a few of the reviews mention having a good time of it on the Deck. I haven't tried myself, I generally don't enjoy mouse-based games on it.

Patches and updates already coming in.

Dev mentioned that they still have their day job, but I wonder for how long. Judging by the way he's talking about the feedback, this game might have struck gold, and the funny thing is his boss seems to have noticed first. So good news for the dev. I am also very amused that in the most recent patch notes, he mentions buying a Steam Deck for "research purposes" so hopefully that means official Deck support in a few weeks or months.

I almost burnt out on my first playthrough until I unlocked some more memories which in turn unlocked some key items in the tech tree. So be aware that if you're having trouble producing a specific resource, it might be locked behind a memory, and if that doesn't unlock, you might be out of luck on that one playthrough.

 

[LordDaMan]

Came across the palette swap characters mod for Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3. It adds 32 new characters with "different" movesets. A few of them are just different models with the same exact moveset. Anyways adds quite a bit to the aging game.

Character list:

Spoiler

Shadow Lady (Chun-Li that fires rockers out of her ass. I kid you not!)
Evil Ryu
Lilith
Orange Hulk
Spider-Gwen
All New Wolverine
S.T.A.R.S. Wesker
Red She-Huilk
Phoenix & Maya
Captain Marvel
MVC2 Sentinel
Shin Akuma
Chris (S.T.A.R.S)
Ken
Cyclops
Jean Grey
DMC 1 Dante
Thanos
Psylocke
Rashid
Monster Hunter
HUNK
Cammy
Ultron
Asura
Moonstone
Guile
Charlie
Leon
Krauser
Jake
Sherry