Be Excellent To Each Other

Quick word on Element4l:

Firstly, the name of the game is dreadful. Geez.
Secondly, it's 360 controller compatible. Nice.
Third, it's about keeping the momentum up rather than a puzzle game in the style of that, um, puzzle game from the Amiga days

(...bloody hell, what was that called... Oh, someone will know it. You played a blob and went through liquid, solid, gas etc. Remember? "Gas" was a cloud with a pair of eyes. It was pretty "ok" from what I remember of it. I think there was a demo on Amiga Power. Honestly, unless you know it, I doubt there much chance that you'll remember the name of the game. Maybe something like, Elements... No, that's this game...)

Anyway! You change state's and try and get the momentum going to zoom around the environments. It starts off fairly difficult and gets worse. I've just finished Part 1 and the last level took me 11 minutes. I bet if you did it in one go it'd take about 60 seconds or less. It's not difficult because you can't figure out what you're supposed to be doing; it's difficult because you can't do what you know you're supposed to be doing. Timing is everything to get the speed up and it only takes one wrong nudge to fuck it up and it's back to the checkpoint (which are fairly generous it must be said).

It's ok, I guess. Nothing to get too excited about. I'll continue to see if it gets any more exciting but it's too difficult to get a good rhythm and too easy for a puzzle game (hell, you can press H at any time and it'll show you what you should be doing) The plonky music is plonky enough although it's too New-Age-hippy for my liking. You might as well wedge a wind chime into your inner ear.

And although there's some text on screen to say things to try and bring the world to life (and in that lovely thin font that people are so fond of using these days) it fails miserably to inject any personality unlike, say, Thomas was Alone did with its terrific narrative.

So a summary for the back of the virtual box could go like this:

"Element4AIL more like" AHAHAHAHAHA.

*cough*

Morph (Demo was Metamorphosis)?

Excellent remembering skillz!

Company of Heroes 2 was free over the weekend. But, er, now it isn't. Sorry!

PAPERS, PLEASE.

4 hrs, 25 mins
292 processed
158 approved
76 denied
45 detained
40 citations (!)

I ended the month being executed for helping out The Order. Sucked into a life of crime. Tch, aye.

I bloody loved it, by the way. Absolutely awesome game and I can understand why it got the praise it did. I think I managed to see 7 endings all being told.

Latest humble weekly bundle is up but i've basically got them all already

https://www.humblebundle.com/weekly

Pay what you want ($1 minimum for steam keys) for

Awesomenauts
Sanctum 2
Wanderlust: Rebirth

Pay a minimum of $6 for the above plus

Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken
Orcs Must Die! 2 Complete Pack
Aces Wild: Manic Brawling Action!

Pay a minimum of $10 for the above plus

Risk of Rain

I ain't no graphics whore, but damn, this looks nice.

https://imgur.com/a/SWMPo

Some of them look like purdy paintings.

I've been playing Cave Story+ which is like one of those old school, sorry "Skool", Master System platform games. It's real nice so far and is reet challenging: death means back to the last save point you saved at, and death is around every corner from the smallest Japanese Blue blob to a spinning one hit kill blade. And it seems as though something is bubbling under the surface in the story department, so fingers crossed it all gets weird and is actually about chemical testing on animals or something to really mess with my head at the end. Or it might just be a colourful platformer about talking rabbits. We'll see.

I played the original way way back in 2006 or something.

For whatever reason, the translation patch didn't work so had no idea what was going on in the story, and ended up a little stuck on occasion as a consequence. Despite that, great little game and one I have replayed man many times*(although as a gripe, I'd much rather you could skip the text. Particularly when you're fighting the same boss for the nth time and they're spouting gibberish at you)

May be one of the factors that caused me to learn the language.

* -

Goddamn, Cave Story+ is hard. I'm struggling with the giant roller skating robot thing. Y'know, that huge thing that slides back and forth and release a crap load of missiles that swirl around you before homing in. Other than that, this is real nice.

You ain't seen nothing yet.

T'is the first of the bastard hard bosses in the game.

Am I far from the end yet cause I was thinking about picking up that Antichamber game? I thought my PC needed to stretch it's legs just a little bit with all these big pixel games I've been playing.

I tell you what I started and hated instantly:

Mutant Mudds Deluxe - a very very dull PD platformer. Utterly bereft of any interesting characteristics.

Puzzle Bots - a very ropey looking Point n Click game that's terribly boring. Miniature robots escape a professors laboratory and go on an adventure! Navigate a kitchen table! Navigate across a microwave! Sounds... Sounds... it's probably as exciting as that sounds.

Deleted both of these but since they were from the humble bumble I haven't really lost anything.

Mmm, Hard to say, About 2/3rds I'd guess.

I quite like Antichamber but it's lacking the Portal-style something to make progression more interesting. It's still very good though and I don't really like puzzle games that much.

I really really hated Cave Story +. I usually like metroidvanias, but what the Castlevania games did well, CS+ did exactly the opposite.

I've been going through a point and click phase lately. Now i'm playing a Quest for Glory kind of tribute game "Heroine's Quest". Very good.

Also been playing Machinarium with my wife, and it's absolutely lovely.

I don't think it's big enough to be a metroidvanias game. Didn't it start out as a flash game or am I remembering this wrong? Anyway, it's seemed quite linear to me but with the added annoyance of some backtracking.



I bloody loved this. A lot. I did fail when I got to the water fountain area though where it got a bit too abstract for my liking and I had to peak at a wiki. And then a couple more times after that. Yes, I was ashamed. It didn't ruin my enjoyment though (if anything I needed to move it along rather than keep clicking on everything in site lest I get too frustrated) as it was thoroughly entertaining. Great little game. It's about £2 on humble bumble I think or that GOG thing.

Point and click and adventures are very hard to do well, but Machinarium manages to have some brilliant puzzles.

I also finished The Whispered World recently, and also loved it. There are some illogical puzzles, but some of the item interactions responses are so funny that i solved many puzzles just by doing that, like combining a bear paw with dentures.

Concerning Cave Story:
- Too much backtracking. I know this is a staple of the genre, but in Castlevania at least it's possible to gain loot and levels this way to make up for it.
- Awful boss fights. Most bosses just jump all over the place and the fights are done almost immeadietaly. Also compare it to Castlevania's great boss fights.
- The basic mechanics felt all wrong. Annoying jumping sections and boring combat.

How far did you get Ruysan?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't most boss fights in platform games in 8/16 Bit times just "jump all over the place"!

I'm quite enjoying it and especially since all the characters appear to keep dying on me until they are dead. Dead for good. I like that sort of sad stuff, especially when the rabbit's death sequence is just to blow away like a puff of wind.

And the weapons get better as the game goes on; you get into the habit of keeping them all levelled up for the various fights; especially the machine gun that helps you float about the place before you get the jet pack.

There's some good stuff in here if you stick with it. Maybe you did though but still didn't like it!?

The rubber duck is the best weapon.
Maybe.

It's also loaded with secrets which aid a second playthrough. for instance not getting the machine gun gives you a powerful weapon later. Not getting the jetpack gives you (spoilers - ed) and a better jetpack later.

According to Steam i played 107 minutes. I know it isn't much but like i said i didn't even liked the controls, so there was no point in forcing myself to play it. I don't remember exacty where i was, but it a cave which i was constanly backtracking for keycard or other objects.

The levelling mechanic also annoyed. While in other games we're playing to level up, here we're trying to not level down.

Started Papers Please today and i don't know what to make of it. It's a very interesting idea, but i didn't find it much fun for the short time i played it. Have to play a bit more later.

I played for about an hour last night, and "interesting" was my take on it too. It's pretty hard to start off with, and while I know it's not a Beex-like thing to say, fuck damn it's ugly.

It's number 3 in my games of 2013. I found it incredible. And depressingly hilarious.

I actually liked the ugly aesthetics. They kind of fit the setting.

I still haven't tried to play a little longer though

Cave Story was being quite excellent right up until the boss rush at the end. 1st boss done; 2nd boss done; 2nd boss 2nd form done. I've had enough now. Yay an ending! Oh, there's another boss... oh do fuck off. Deadid before I could figure out any pattern at all.

Yeah, It's probably the thing I like the least.


Fortunately, the first few parts are fairly easy to get through without losing health. Just the (last) part that you're on caused issues.

Took less attempts to clear than the core took.

I'm getting to the core with about 24/25 health each time but I can't decide what I'm supposed to be doing. Did you kill the bunny girl and frog head, erm, thing first? Is it even possible? Bunny girl takes 'nuff damage.

Yeah, you can kill them. If memory serves, I prioritised killing Sue, then just going for the core as Misery I could cope with, and she provided a stream of cannon fodder for health/relevelling weapons which was enough to cling on until the end.

Second time+ for me was much easier, as I'd got the secret weapons that don't need levelling/are strongest at lvl 1, so remembering what it was like the first time is not so easy.

I was struggling so bad to kill the last boss that I was seriously worried that I was rubbish at games all of a sudden. Then I started struggling on the first of the three bosses that I was sure that I was rubbish at games. Then I defeated the first boss and couldn't kill the second boss. God, it was a rollercoaster of being useless. Right up until I got to the final boss and first timed him with nary a sweat. Weird.

Anyway, Cave Story+, it's challenging without being unfair right up until that last boss rush which I do think was sorta unfair. Still nixed him though.

The ending was cute even though, technically, virtually everyone dies. A nice throwback to Master System games which kept me on my toes; yeah, I liked it and it's not the sort of thing I'd spend any considerable time with. Shame it didn't have a weird story angle though unless that's the secret ending thing.

And then I played Gone Home. Well, I think it's more of a burglar-sim where you ransack someones house and open all their drawers and closets. It was quite a nice little tale told through the environment, bits of paper and tape recordings. I was thinking that film's have done the same story a hundred times over (albeit with boy/girl) but only a videogame could tell this story in this way. I wasn't particularly affected until just before the ending where I expected something that never arrived, which took the edge off the actual ending which actually was quite cute. It was good if somewhat disposable.

I didn't really understand the ouija boards and pentagrams and stuff which appears to have only mislead me as to the main story. Maybe I've missed something though. There's certainly some other stories being told alongside the main narrative so perhaps it's time to check out a wiki for it rather than play it again. Which I won't be doing.

Very much been enjoying To The Moon.

To help stop you looking like a crazy person posting solo in the thread, I shall say that I've been playing Factorio!

http://imgur.com/a/vUo0u#0

Lots of fun, if you consider building an automated factory assembly line fun...


I've also been playing Kerbal Space Program with the BTSM mod, which creates a proper sort of difficulty curve/career thing for the game, rather than unlocking the entire tree after 4 flights like you do in stock. You start with completely unguideable solid rockets and work your way up to manned capsules. Much more rewarding.

Oh dear, I had a little tear at the end of To The Moon. I'm such a poof. It's another one of those "not really a game"-games, where you don't really do anything. Still enjoyed it though.

Whaaa? I've been doing loads of missions and I'm well away from unlocking everything. What did you do?

Well, I was being a bit facetious about 4 flights. Sure, it's not like doing it in two flights. But you can unlock most, if not all (I think?) of the tech tree without ever leaving the Kerbal system if you so desire by simply visiting every single Biome in the 3 places. In stock Kerbal a good starting point is to make a ship consisting of a single capsule, "launch" it, get the kerbal out to take a surface sample of the launch pad, take an eva report, get back into the pod, take an eva report et viola: 4 nodes unlocked Which means you can be in orbit by the next launch or so, and then Minmus the launch after that. Where's the rocket science in that?!

Here's a post from another place:



100 science from my third flight!

* I sent a probe to sun dive. (After a failed attempt that didn't have enough thrust in it's atmosphere stages).
* I tried a simple ROCKET PLANE for fun, even though I had no wheels. Didn't work out.
* I sent a multi-pack probe to the Mun and landed on almost all of the biomes. (Unfortunately I messed up the design and the 2 Kerbals in the lab had no way to return home)

I don't appear to have any more images so I can't remember what I did. I think I launched a multipack of probes to go to Jool and scan + land on all the moons that I could reach? I think that's what happened. I think I then attempted a Asteroid grab, which was the reason I started playing again, but gave up after I tried to grab a class E with only 2 nuclear engines

I can't remember if that completely unlocked the tree or got me almost most of the way, but it was near enough.

It was fun and all, but there was 0 challenge :/ In stock, once you've got something capable of going to a Mun you've got something capable of going _anywhere_ in Kerbal Space program. Notice how I went from "getting into orbit" to "landing on Minmus and getting huge amounts of science" to "low pass around the sun"! To get from orbit to the sun you simply need a couple more tanks of fuel. And the thing I sent to Jool was the same thing I sent to the Mun, only with more engines under it.



With BTSM you have to think hard about your design. You have to roughly plan out for battery and life support, but doing so means lots of batteries and your design becomes heavy so you have to change it etc etc etc. Plus, some of the experiments are timed, so you can't simply do a Mun flyby on your way back home from Minmus and "scoop up" a bunch of free and easy science. You have to legitimately get there. Most of the experiments can be beamed home for 100%. So you send a gravity probe to the Mun and you get 100%. Some, e.g. the Goo and Science Junior, you get 0% for transmitting. You have to return to get 100%. (There's also no need to repeat the same experiment as in stock Kerbal).

Also, more importantly, you get 0 science from Kerbin's surface. Infact you need to be above 15km just to get any science! (However landing on another planet is a huge reward). BTSM feels like a game with an actuall difficulty curve, rather than simply "do 2 flights and then you can go anywhere".

Speaking of non games, i tried Dear Esther for a little bit and i don't know if i should keep playing it. It looks absolutely gorgeous but the writing doesn't seem to be interesting enough.

If you just want to go through it to admire the scenery (which is well worth admiring, especially in the later underground section which is gorgeous) you could easily reach the end in less than an hour so why not?

I agree. It's only an hour if you stay on the main path and it gets more interesting towards the end as the story takes off. Ho ho.

Ok, i'll probably try it again then.

Another game i tried recently was The Cat Lady. This falls in the same category as Papers Please: Interesting concept but not very fun to play. In fact i hated the interface. I wish it was a classic point and click adventure.

That one's on my list as well but I honestly can't remember anything about it.

Guacamelee was just great. Probably the best non-castlevania Metroidvania i've ever played. Still, i got annoyed a bit for getting the bad ending after so much effort in defeating the bosses. I hate when games hid the "true" ending beyond boring secret quests we have no idea that they even exist.

This game reminded me a lot of the last Giana Sisters game, mostly because of the intrincate platforming and the swapping between two worlds while doing it. Fortunately the boss fights are much better in Guacamelee.

You're damn right!



You're damn wrong!

Yeah, I bloody loved Guacamelee though. Awesome game.

Not a big fan of Giana sisters,I reckon?

Loved that one, expect for the silly last boss fight which I never beat. One thing I really liked the game is that it really channeled the spirit of platformers of the Amiga era.

I assume we're talking about the new one and not the Mario rip off. I like the Mario rip off but the demo for the new one was enough to put me off. I think I posted about the demo ages ago somewhere in here...

... looking for things I've said on BeeX is like rooting around in the bin.

You did.

I pretty much agreed.

Where is My Heart? sounds interesting. Another puzzle-platformer but this one takes standard platofmr levels and cuts them into bits, then randomly arranges the bits and challenges you to guide a trio of characters to the end. It makes more sense if you read the review.

Where is my heart is great, I played the playstation version.