Be Excellent To Each Other

Hey, whattayaknow, The Beginner's Guide is -40% in the Steam sale!

Yoink!

1. Crysis (PC)
2. Octodad (PC)
3. Crysis Warhead (PC)
4. Tomb Raider: Anniversary (PC)
5. The Evil Within (PC)
6. Torchlight (PC)
7. Mass Effect (PC)
8. The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (PC)
9. Tomb Raider: Underworld (PC)
10. Monument Valley (Android)
11. Impossible Mission (Commodore 64)
12. The Tender Cut (PC)
13. Far Cry 3 (PC)
14. LIMBO (PC)
15. Fallout 3 (PC)
16. Project Zero II (PlayStation 2)
17. 3D Out Run (Nintendo 3DS)
18. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (Game Boy Advance)
19. Trine (PC)
20. The Talos Principle (PC)
21. God of War III (PS3)
22. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PlayStation)
23. The Last of Us: Left Behind (PS3)
24. LIMBO (Xbox 360)
25. The Beginner's Guide (PC)

I wouldn't really consider this a game at all, rather an interactive work of art a la Dear Esther, only much more interesting, thought provoking and inspirational than that. Although it is a game (or collection of games) according to its own use of the term. Oh well. I do enjoy these things in any case, especially if they're good, which this is.

I'm not really sure what this is a comment on. You seem to have understood the opposite of what I wrote than what I meant.

Well, let's try and sort this out.

Firstly, The Beginner's Guide repeatedly refers to the tableaus it presents as games, thereby giving me the impression that the author felt that this is the right term for them, and that this is intended to support the claim that video games can be art. But I just personally don't think that they can be called games at all.

Secondly,

In the end it doesn't matter, points are made, issues of purpose and meaning are pondered.

101. Renegade Ops
102. Mystery of the Ancients: Three Guardians
103. X-Men: Days of Future Past
104. The Typing of the Dead: Overkill
105. Tales from the Borderlands
106. And Yet It Moves
107. Spooky's House of Jumpscares
108. Incredible Jack
109. Monzo
110. Devious Dungeons 2: the equally excellent sequel to an excellent Android action platformer made by the same guys who did the Random Heroes and League of Heroes series'. My comments from the original game last year pretty much cover it so here's what I had to say: "As it's a swords 'n' sorcery theme this time round your character has melee attacks only which actually brings quite a lot of strategy to how you approach the difference enemy types (especially as a few of them can fling projectiles which puts you in some very vulnerable positions) and the procedurally created levels keeps things fresh. It's got an odd structure though in that you only get to 'save' every three levels so if you die on, say, level three you'd go back to level one again on restart. You keep any cash/XP you've earned though so you're basically grinding and upgrading as you go. It starts off pretty easy but the last set of levels are a stiff challenge such that you find yourself running for the exit door as soon as you've found the relevant key rather than exploring and looting the entire level as you do when things are easier. Fun stuff with excellent controls and comes recommended, especially if you like their house style." The only real deviation here is that you've got a choice of three characters this time round who have different abilities (a rogue who has a double jump; a mage who has a projectile attack and a 'float' move; and a barbarian who just get more health and takes less damage) which adds a bit of variety.

49. Max Payne 3 (PC)

What a game. It feels much better returning to it after all these years (May 2012 it was released apparently) for a second go. I can understand why I enjoyed it so much the first time and now I allowed myself to enjoy it more. Why sit behind cover popping up and taking shots when you can dart around cover, flank your enemies and flail around in the air shooting genuinely bad baddies. Unlike, say, Black Ops 3, I knew who were the villans here. It was the paramilitary. No, it was the rudebwoys. No, it was the local policia. Actually it was absolutely every single male character.

I almost never play any game twice unless it is something special to me so it was really nice to allow myself to take a look around the environments and take in everything that Rockstar had made. And they made a lot. I looked for a while at a table where the occupants (now dead) had been playing poker. There was cigarettes burning, an ash tray, cards laid out on the deck looking like the occupants (now super dead) had been interrupted mid-game, some food on the table, drinks. It was a small slice of a world that had been crafted to perfection. It looks groovy tarted up on PC and runs like a dream, but the small incidental details are almost insane. I couldn't figure out why for the life of me they had gone to such trouble to set up this one table as they had. That lead me to just walk up to things and look closely at them. Some guy's desk, boxes stacked in the favela, and so on. What really blew my mind however was in the New York level when you exit the bar and some goons are huddled around parked cars. You blow them away and proceed up the alley. There is no need to look behind you at any time. Nothing comes behind you and the enemies are always in front and after you go up the alley a cut scene leads you up to another section which means you cannot return to this place.

... but if you turn around and look up there's a billboard on top of the bar. The advert isn't funny or clever or anything, it's just a billboard and rather pointless but you really have to look for it to notice it. Clearly a bit of effort had gone into it but they could have easily not done anything. It just amazed me that they went to the time and effort and I'm glad I did this second playthrough to appreciate some of what they did.

I feel like I've missed loads from GTAV but it's so huge I know I don't have the patience just to go find all the details, but here I can take my time wander about and shoot goons in the face in slow motion (which is still great. Especially if you get that last kill when you're about dead. It's like a big fuck you to the dead guy). Mind you, I did see that skate park in GTA V out in the middle of nowhere that was tagged up and looked the tits. I think an alien piece was near it but you wouldn't otherwise go anywhere near it on the campaign. That was lovely.

Oh, and the last level in the airport. Did you know that the outside world is largely blurred due to the effect of the windows? But walk up to the windows and there is a whole world out there with planes and shit. Seriously, you almost never even point in the direction of those windows since no goons come from outside - they come from in front and down the side where the shops are - and you need to walk right next to the windows to adequately see out. Why do it? It's just ace. Yeah, yeah, loads of games do shit like this, but not on this scale.

I've read the Rockstar are going to do a sequel to Red Dead Redemption next, and I'm happy about that, but I hope they don't forget about Max Payne. Or Manhunt. Do a Manhunt thing please, Rockstar. That'd surprise everyone and I would get almost get as excited for that as I feel about The Last Guardian. And a Max Payne. Thanks.

Anyway, MP3 was a 8/10 for me. It's got better with a second playthrough: 9/10.

50. The Beginner's Guide (PC)

I didn't care for it, to be honest. At one point, where the author of a game discusses loneliness I was being sucked in and I found myself replying to questions honestly and sincerely as I felt at right this moment in time, but when the moment was gone (and it went quickly), the moment was lost.

I found the narration over-taking the "game" at a couple of times so I had to stop touching the controller until he'd finished talking. The narration was necessary, but a couple of times I wished the games were something more interesting than they are: very basic graphics, walk forward/backwards and occasionally click a button. I get that it's trying to illustrate a number of sad themes but it's verging on just being a collection of basic geometry with the complexity added by the narration.

You are in a white room. A black rectangle is in front of you representing a door. You try and walk through the door but you can't go through. You spin and spin around pushing against the door. You can actually walk "behind" the black rectangle and find the other side of the door is grey and opens when you push against it. "NOT EVERYTHING IS BLACK AND WHITE" says the narrator. Yeah, I should be consulted about the sequel.

That's not part of the game, by the way. I just made it up as an illustration of what happens. This is probably the type of game I'd enjoy reading about afterwards but I'd really struggle to recommend to anyone at all.

Just shit games like Limbo

1. Proteus (Vita) - completed game
2. Desert Golfing (iOS) - played 1,000 holes
3. Heavy Metal Thunder (iOS) - finished story
4. Driveclub (PS4) - finished Tour with 175/225 stars, finished free DLC trophies
5. Peggle Classic (iOS) - finished Adventure Mode with 18m points
6. OlliOlli 2: Welcome to Olliwood (PS4) - completed all stages on Amateur
7. Daytona Rush (iOS) - unlocked all tiers, top on friends leaderboards for all tiers
8. Super Mega Baseball (PS4) - won the League Championship
9. Please, Don't Touch Anything (Mac) - 17/21 endings
10. Rocket League (PS4) - platinum trophy, reached Veteran (level 30), at least Bronze I on all four ranked modes
11. The Way of Life (Mac) - completed game
12. Everybody's Gone to the Rapture (PS4) - completed game
13. Score! Hero (iOS) - completed four seasons
14. Sound Shapes (PS4) - completed campaign
15. Score! World Goals (iOS) - completed all four decades challenges on Amateur, Professional and Bonus with at least 40 stars for each difficulty
16. Lara Croft: GO (iOS) - completed campaign, collected all gems and treasure, Game Center max
17. Lifeline (iOS) - completed game
18. Destiny (PS4) - completed vanilla 'story' avec Mr Dave
19. The Beginner's Guide (PC) - completed game
20. Jazzpunk (PC) - completed game

Ridiculous, surreal, funny and clever. I really enjoyed this!

Totals by format:
iOS - 8
PS4 - 7
PC - 2
Mac - 2
Vita - 1

Aye, it was awesome.

51. Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist (PC).

I didn't exactly play anything but I finished it for what it's worth. 10 minutes of a single level of The Stanley Parable with none of the branching paths. It was pretty humorous though but not exactly riotously funny. I suppose that'd really hard to do in a videogame. I enjoyed it, and, and it was free. And it took like 30 seconds to download. And it was great to see how the two blokes from The Stanley Parable had gone in completely different directions with their games. I prefer this to that. More from the bloke who made this please.

Also: I will fucking murder anyone who doesn't put INVERT in their fucking game options on PC. I loaded it up (obviously) saw there was no invert (twats) checked the slim options (nothing there) and so I played the game knowing it wouldn't stick around too long (obviously). After I'm done and I'm reading the community on Steam to see if there's anything else to this I'm missing (apparently not) I notice there's a topic moaning about invert. Then some cunt says you have to download this thing that invert your controller on Steam. Quite why it couldn't find it's way onto an automatic update or some shit is baffling. You had to go looking for it in some obscure place and some cunt starts moaning like I'm a loon for not looking up a mod for invert before I even loaded the fucking thing up. Fuck that. Some PC games really need to get their act together.

That's very relevant to my interests, have you got a link for the inverter thing?

Sorry I've switched the pooter off. From the games steam page go to "discussions" and you'll see it near the top.

Cool, ta.

You both need to stop playing games wrong.

52. Journey (PS4).

This is why I rarely play a game twice. I loved the original and I had avoided playing this but in a lapse of judgement I thought I'd boot up the PS4 version. Turns out it's still same, still shiny and yet I experienced none of the wonder of my first run through. Plus, I only had one person join me on my quest when we got to the icy mountain. Bit weird, but I suppose not many people will play it again and again when it takes about an hour to finish. Anyway, now you know what's coming but you have to walk there slowly, so you try to suck in the beauty around you but sometimes that lull is just boring. Maybe I wasn't in the mood. Anyhoo, I finished it. Again.

53. BROFORCE (PC).

So I booted this up instead and had a fucking riot. Unlocked the Predator, threw spears in pixel art faces. FUCK. YEAH. The end bosses range from an absolutely nightmare to a cake walk (by repeated spamming certain Bro's moves) but that wasn't enough to put me off. Then I jump into a few online games and see how tentatively people are milling around while I was blasting and slamming my face into enemies as a weapon. Silly bugger. Spam trigger runs at full whack and fuck everyone up. That's the bro way. I'll write more when I can be bothered but it's bloody good this. Very bloody good.

Oh, and you get a level editor. Yeah.

Err, well done on the 52, dude

I finally got round to looking for this and can't find anything that matches your description. There is a topic in the game's discussion list about not being able to invert the mouse but it doesn't point to anything that changes Steam-wide settings. Indeed all it does link to is a guide on how to edit one of the game's DLL files with a hex editor and there's no way you did that. Help a brother out?

Sorry, I never actually downloaded anything so it could be the Fez Editor thingy. I did say above that I played it and finished it (un-Y'ed) and then found the discussion about inverting the Y afterwards.

That game made me almost throw up. Twice. Never had such a case of motion sickness with the game.

Judging by the steam forum of the game, that's not uncommon.

1. Crysis (PC)
2. Octodad (PC)
3. Crysis Warhead (PC)
4. Tomb Raider: Anniversary (PC)
5. The Evil Within (PC)
6. Torchlight (PC)
7. Mass Effect (PC)
8. The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (PC)
9. Tomb Raider: Underworld (PC)
10. Monument Valley (Android)
11. Impossible Mission (Commodore 64)
12. The Tender Cut (PC)
13. Far Cry 3 (PC)
14. LIMBO (PC)
15. Fallout 3 (PC)
16. Project Zero II (PlayStation 2)
17. 3D Out Run (Nintendo 3DS)
18. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (Game Boy Advance)
19. Trine (PC)
20. The Talos Principle (PC)
21. God of War III (PS3)
22. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PlayStation)
23. The Last of Us: Left Behind (PS3)
24. LIMBO (Xbox 360)
25. The Beginner's Guide (PC)
26. Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist (PC)

A half hour interactive comedy thing. Once again, the subject matter is game design. Still, I laughed. And nothing beats free, right? But really, quite funny. And free! Go play it now.

111: Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist: short, funny, awesome. Simon Amstell is brilliantly cast in this and it makes me wonder how good Portal 2 could've been with him doing Wheatley.

Aaide: I saw him on his stand up tour when he came to Leeds. His support act was that shit Norwegian, and his act was really short and rubbish. After that, I went right off him. Really poor value for money, hI'm.

I liked him when he was on GamesMaster.

I saw him do stand up in Edinburgh and he was great, though always better as an interviewer IMO.

His stand up can be very hit and miss from all reports.

Also, in case it was putting anyone off, they've added an invert option for the controls. Amusingly because I had applied the hack Sat mentioned I had to uninvert it to get what I wanted.

Also, I noticed you could pick up the post it notes that are everywhere but it didn't seem to do anything and didn't even let you read them, am I missing something there?

If you can stand reading the terrible Reddit layout you'll find some discussion about the secrets here: https://www.reddit.com/r/crowscrowscrow ... ly_cursed/

I use an app to read Reddit that smoothes out the rougher edges so ta, I'll have a look at that.

1. Danganronpa (PSV)
2. Unfinished swan (PS4)
3. Everybodys gone to the rapture (PS4)
4. Bloodborne (PS4)
5. GoneGrow Home (PS4)
6. Danganronpa 2 (PSV)
7. Limbo Rick Dangerous 3: Before Colour Vision (PS4)
8. Rogue Legacy (PS4)

Twice, in fact. NG+ Took no time NG++ is a bit harder.

1. Danganronpa (PSV)
2. Unfinished swan (PS4)
3. Everybodys gone to the rapture (PS4)
4. Bloodborne (PS4)
5. GoneGrow Home (PS4)
6. Danganronpa 2 (PSV)
7. Limbo Rick Dangerous 3: Before Colour Vision (PS4)
8. Rogue Legacy (PS4)
9. Baldurs Gate (PC)

Only a few years after it came out.

Only 42 to go, Dave!

He's also finished Destiny with me but hasn't counted it for some reason.

I thought I had. Apparently not.
1. Danganronpa (PSV)
2. Unfinished swan (PS4)
3. Everybodys gone to the rapture (PS4)
4. Bloodborne (PS4)
5. GoneGrow Home (PS4)
6. Danganronpa 2 (PSV)
7. Limbo Rick Dangerous 3: Before Colour Vision (PS4)
8. Rogue Legacy (PS4)
9. Baldurs Gate (PC)
10. Destiny (PS4)

A game about socialising with hipsters.

Only 41 to go, Dave!

Well, I've already completed 2 games in 2016...

I'm still confused as to why 51 is a desirable total to finish with.