Awesomenauts: This is going to be brutal. I am scathingly terrible at MOBAs. I just do not click with them, I do not enjoy them, and I absolutely suck at them. This is going to be 10 hours of humiliating myself and dragging my poor random teammates down to their defeat.
I'm having less fun with this than I did with Audiosurf. At least with Audiosurf, if I tried, I was good at the game. I am straight up fuckawful at Awesomenauts. I have no idea what's going on. I just click shit for ten minutes and hope for "VICTORY" at the end. Two hours down, eight to go
0
midga"There's so much hot dog in Rome" ~digi(> ^.(> O_o)>Icrontian
Come at me on Tunak Tunak Tune. I'm the only one listed.
Probably because it's "Tunak Tunak Tun."
@primesuspect: what did you do for controller configuration in AYIM? Wanna get an idea before I jump into it. Also, if you want someone to suffer through Awesomenauts with, poke me on Steam.
This is a straight-up retro 8-bit top-down overworld RPG. It's the Legend of Zelda reskinned, but with a non 8-bit soundtrack. The soundtrack is moody and ethereal and really serves to set the mood. The game is confusing and vague, with very little "story"; you play a character presumably named "Young", who walks from screen to screen looking for a reason for existing. At least, that's what I'm reading into it... there is a sort of thing about a "Sage" telling you that you need to save the "Briar", whatever that is...
This game is very easy. There are no challenging enemies, and the bosses require very little strategy. If you have full health, the easiest and fastest way to beat a boss is to just run up to it and pound the hell out of it, taking damage. So far, that has worked for me.
I don't really know. I'm not having a great time with the game so far. It's huge, empty, and very simple. The novelty of playing an 8-bit-esque overworld adventure ended about five minutes in when I started asking myself, "what's the point?".
I finally got enough motivation to power through the rest of the game. There's an achievement for beating it in under 3 hours, but I'm not gonna go for it. I came in at just under 10 hours for my first playthrough. The entire game was meandering and somewhat pointless. I enjoyed a lot of the music (honestly, the music was by far the best part of the game) but when you have a huge game world with lots of pointless corridors (seriously, there are many, many screens that you must traverse with nothing but twisty halls and annoying jumps in them. Game design was really awkward), the only thing that can save you is story...
And Anodyne has no story.
Sure, teenagers on the Steam community hub are speculating about some super-deep theories about the game being a look into depression and suicide, but really it's just like a couple of these same broody teenagers got together and made a game. The pixel art is good, the music is great, but the game just kind of sucks.
Maybe I'm getting old, but the "story" is just plain dumb.
One last thing: The difficulty curve goes from zero to 60 in the last half hour of the game. The last couple of areas become difficult jumping puzzles and the final boss is nuts at first. I had no trouble at all with any boss in the game until the final one. Your mileage may vary.
I guess the problem is that for every single boss fight in the entire game, my previously mentioned "run up to the boss, put yourself physically in its face, taking damage, and pound away until it's defeated" worked perfectly. Then, the end boss requires actual pattern memorization and jumping skills and timing, and it was like.... "where was this earlier?"
I have the luxury of knowing absolutely nothing about this game going into it. So far, it looks like a survival suspense/thriller game, which I absolutely wasn't expecting. The graphics are gorgeous, and with everything cranked up to max it looks phenomenal—EXCEPT the facial animations, which are very firmly in 'uncanny valley' territory. They're so bad that it actually detracts from the overall experience.
The controls are a little "floaty" and I'm not enamored with the third person, "run diagonal to actually run straight" thing, but I'll get used to it.
It doesn't seem very difficult yet, but I can see how it could get a bit more frenetic. I'm only an hour in, so it's still baby mode.
The music, voice acting, and story are so far excellent. Top-notch.
It doesn't seem very difficult yet, but I can see how it could get a bit more frenetic. I'm only an hour in, so it's still baby mode.
LOL
So a year and a half ago I was happily cranking along in Episode 2 of this game and then I hit a spot.
THE spot.
The spot that, according to a lot of user forums and discussions, was a total roadblock in terms of difficulty for a lot of people. Googling "Alan Wake Lovers Peak" nets you dozens of complaints and questions about "What am I doing wrong?" and "How do you pass this?"
There is definitely a balance issue here, as the difficulty curve ramps from 1 to 11 in one single part of the game: A part where you don't get enough ammo to shoot your way through the bad guys, so you have to avoid them and run for it until you get to a lightpost (light keeps the bad guys away).
I tried and tried but eventually grew so frustrated that it made me give up on this game. Every few months or so I would fire it back up and take a crack at Lover's Peak but tired of it after a few tries.
Well, tonight, I grit my teeth and tried again.
My controller that I had been using for this game was unplugged and I didn't feel like rooting around in the back of my PC, so I just used the mouse and keyboard. Lo and behold, I discovered that the shift key performs a dodge move.... and this is all it took for me to finally, finally get past the insane gauntlet of bad guys that had been holding me back.
As soon as I hit that sweet, sweet checkpoint, the entire gaming backlog challenge crashed back into my life. I spent another 30 minutes or so running through the woods and now am on Episode 3 of Alan Wake.
The game is as good as I remember. The story is executed in such a way that basically you feel like you're playing a dark horror television serial. Sort of like Twin Peaks meets Twilight Zone meets Stephen King. Onward!
That's pretty much what I thought of Alan Wake, with the exception of the Lover's Point section. I must have had a good gaming day when I hit that point.
I kept worrying about my ammo count until i figured out the dodge mechanic. Then the fun part was running from section to section without ever firing a shot.
Overall, I actually loved this game. The story was extremely convoluted and difficult to follow at parts, but if you pay attention and read the manuscript, watch the TV shows and listen to the radio station, you get enough of the filler info to piece everything together.
Essentially, you are playing a six-episode horror/psychological thriller TV show. Think Twin Peaks + Stephen King + Twilight Zone with a little noire thrown in.
The combat mechanics are tricky, but once you figure it out (towards the latter three episodes, particularly) you start to feel like a badass and aren't as scared by the huge groups of bad guys anymore. Many parts of the game encourage you to flee, dodge, and avoid combat as a means of progressing. You can also kill Taken (the enemies) in a variety of indirect ways.
The production values of Alan Wake are extra high for a video game. The music, the writing, the cinematics, and all the extra video content (the television shows) all show a high regard for storytelling and acting.
There's definitely enough content here to justify the price. If you feel like jumping in to a deep, story-driven third-person action shooter, Alan Wake should certainly be on your short list. If you feel like you missed it the first time around, it's not too late.
This is a direct sequel to the first game. It attempts to explain events directly after the conclusion of the first game and then takes place two years after the events in Bright Falls. To simplify without spoiling too much, Alan is in a sort of limbo ("The Dark Place"), and is desperately trying to get back to the real world (which has written him off for dead), his wife, his friends, and his job.
However, the Dark Presence (the bad thing) has taken on Alan's skin and can travel to the real world; it is also actively keeping Alan stuck in the Dark Place while he attempts to ruin Alan's life in the real world by being a massive psychotic asshole (think serial killer / torturer). You have to get out of the Dark Place, kill the Dark Presence that is imitating you, and get back to life.
The only problem is: The Dark Presence can send you back in time to repeat the same thing over and over again, so this experience becomes basically a very, very dark Groundhog Day. Each time you go through the time loop, the people you interact with remember bits and pieces of your last visit, so you slowly untangle the mess.
This game is much more action-oriented than the first. There is no danger of running out of ammo, and there are lots more weapons (including heavy stuff like a combat shotgun, all kinds of rifles, automatic weapons, and even a sweet crossbow and nail gun). It's a lot more run-and-gun and much more satisfying in terms of killing bad guys.
The story is just as convoluted as the first game, so if you liked the story of the first one, this is a great follow-up to the game. It's much shorter than the first game so it's a fun little 1-2 night wrap-up of the story.
It took about 4 hours to beat American Nightmare. I enjoyed it a lot.
There's also an arcade mode with leaderboards where you just get to survive a certain number of waves of Taken while using ammo and weapons scattered around the level. Unlocking weapons in Story mode gets you better gear in Arcade mode. Since I 100% completed the Story mode on my first playthrough I had access to all the weapons in Arcade mode.
Comments
@primesuspect: what did you do for controller configuration in AYIM? Wanna get an idea before I jump into it. Also, if you want someone to suffer through Awesomenauts with, poke me on Steam.
Anodyne
This is a straight-up retro 8-bit top-down overworld RPG. It's the Legend of Zelda reskinned, but with a non 8-bit soundtrack. The soundtrack is moody and ethereal and really serves to set the mood.The game is confusing and vague, with very little "story"; you play a character presumably named "Young", who walks from screen to screen looking for a reason for existing. At least, that's what I'm reading into it... there is a sort of thing about a "Sage" telling you that you need to save the "Briar", whatever that is...
This game is very easy. There are no challenging enemies, and the bosses require very little strategy. If you have full health, the easiest and fastest way to beat a boss is to just run up to it and pound the hell out of it, taking damage. So far, that has worked for me.
I don't really know. I'm not having a great time with the game so far. It's huge, empty, and very simple. The novelty of playing an 8-bit-esque overworld adventure ended about five minutes in when I started asking myself, "what's the point?".
I'll truck onward until I figure it out.
Anodyne
I finally got enough motivation to power through the rest of the game. There's an achievement for beating it in under 3 hours, but I'm not gonna go for it. I came in at just under 10 hours for my first playthrough. The entire game was meandering and somewhat pointless. I enjoyed a lot of the music (honestly, the music was by far the best part of the game) but when you have a huge game world with lots of pointless corridors (seriously, there are many, many screens that you must traverse with nothing but twisty halls and annoying jumps in them. Game design was really awkward), the only thing that can save you is story...
And Anodyne has no story.
Sure, teenagers on the Steam community hub are speculating about some super-deep theories about the game being a look into depression and suicide, but really it's just like a couple of these same broody teenagers got together and made a game. The pixel art is good, the music is great, but the game just kind of sucks.
Maybe I'm getting old, but the "story" is just plain dumb.
One last thing: The difficulty curve goes from zero to 60 in the last half hour of the game. The last couple of areas become difficult jumping puzzles and the final boss is nuts at first. I had no trouble at all with any boss in the game until the final one. Your mileage may vary.
Onward!
Alan Wake
I have the luxury of knowing absolutely nothing about this game going into it. So far, it looks like a survival suspense/thriller game, which I absolutely wasn't expecting. The graphics are gorgeous, and with everything cranked up to max it looks phenomenal—EXCEPT the facial animations, which are very firmly in 'uncanny valley' territory. They're so bad that it actually detracts from the overall experience.The controls are a little "floaty" and I'm not enamored with the third person, "run diagonal to actually run straight" thing, but I'll get used to it.
It doesn't seem very difficult yet, but I can see how it could get a bit more frenetic. I'm only an hour in, so it's still baby mode.
The music, voice acting, and story are so far excellent. Top-notch.
Alan Wake, Day 2
Finished Episode 1, and just got into the meat of Episode 2. The story is really compelling. So far, I'm enjoying this game a lot.Welcome to Bright Falls
So much product placement
Dat ass
Dat ass
LOL
So a year and a half ago I was happily cranking along in Episode 2 of this game and then I hit a spot.
THE spot.
The spot that, according to a lot of user forums and discussions, was a total roadblock in terms of difficulty for a lot of people. Googling "Alan Wake Lovers Peak" nets you dozens of complaints and questions about "What am I doing wrong?" and "How do you pass this?"
There is definitely a balance issue here, as the difficulty curve ramps from 1 to 11 in one single part of the game: A part where you don't get enough ammo to shoot your way through the bad guys, so you have to avoid them and run for it until you get to a lightpost (light keeps the bad guys away).
I tried and tried but eventually grew so frustrated that it made me give up on this game. Every few months or so I would fire it back up and take a crack at Lover's Peak but tired of it after a few tries.
Well, tonight, I grit my teeth and tried again.
My controller that I had been using for this game was unplugged and I didn't feel like rooting around in the back of my PC, so I just used the mouse and keyboard. Lo and behold, I discovered that the shift key performs a dodge move.... and this is all it took for me to finally, finally get past the insane gauntlet of bad guys that had been holding me back.
As soon as I hit that sweet, sweet checkpoint, the entire gaming backlog challenge crashed back into my life. I spent another 30 minutes or so running through the woods and now am on Episode 3 of Alan Wake.
The game is as good as I remember. The story is executed in such a way that basically you feel like you're playing a dark horror television serial. Sort of like Twin Peaks meets Twilight Zone meets Stephen King. Onward!
+1 for appropriate first screencap.
That's pretty much what I thought of Alan Wake, with the exception of the Lover's Point section. I must have had a good gaming day when I hit that point.
For justice!
I kept worrying about my ammo count until i figured out the dodge mechanic. Then the fun part was running from section to section without ever firing a shot.
After a year hiatus, Alan Wake is DONE.
Overall, I actually loved this game. The story was extremely convoluted and difficult to follow at parts, but if you pay attention and read the manuscript, watch the TV shows and listen to the radio station, you get enough of the filler info to piece everything together.
Essentially, you are playing a six-episode horror/psychological thriller TV show. Think Twin Peaks + Stephen King + Twilight Zone with a little noire thrown in.
The combat mechanics are tricky, but once you figure it out (towards the latter three episodes, particularly) you start to feel like a badass and aren't as scared by the huge groups of bad guys anymore. Many parts of the game encourage you to flee, dodge, and avoid combat as a means of progressing. You can also kill Taken (the enemies) in a variety of indirect ways.
The production values of Alan Wake are extra high for a video game. The music, the writing, the cinematics, and all the extra video content (the television shows) all show a high regard for storytelling and acting.
There's definitely enough content here to justify the price. If you feel like jumping in to a deep, story-driven third-person action shooter, Alan Wake should certainly be on your short list. If you feel like you missed it the first time around, it's not too late.
Screenshots!
Alan Wake's American Nightmare
This is a direct sequel to the first game. It attempts to explain events directly after the conclusion of the first game and then takes place two years after the events in Bright Falls. To simplify without spoiling too much, Alan is in a sort of limbo ("The Dark Place"), and is desperately trying to get back to the real world (which has written him off for dead), his wife, his friends, and his job.
However, the Dark Presence (the bad thing) has taken on Alan's skin and can travel to the real world; it is also actively keeping Alan stuck in the Dark Place while he attempts to ruin Alan's life in the real world by being a massive psychotic asshole (think serial killer / torturer). You have to get out of the Dark Place, kill the Dark Presence that is imitating you, and get back to life.
The only problem is: The Dark Presence can send you back in time to repeat the same thing over and over again, so this experience becomes basically a very, very dark Groundhog Day. Each time you go through the time loop, the people you interact with remember bits and pieces of your last visit, so you slowly untangle the mess.
This game is much more action-oriented than the first. There is no danger of running out of ammo, and there are lots more weapons (including heavy stuff like a combat shotgun, all kinds of rifles, automatic weapons, and even a sweet crossbow and nail gun). It's a lot more run-and-gun and much more satisfying in terms of killing bad guys.
The story is just as convoluted as the first game, so if you liked the story of the first one, this is a great follow-up to the game. It's much shorter than the first game so it's a fun little 1-2 night wrap-up of the story.
It took about 4 hours to beat American Nightmare. I enjoyed it a lot.
There's also an arcade mode with leaderboards where you just get to survive a certain number of waves of Taken while using ammo and weapons scattered around the level. Unlocking weapons in Story mode gets you better gear in Arcade mode. Since I 100% completed the Story mode on my first playthrough I had access to all the weapons in Arcade mode.
Onward and upward!