| It's very well made, and horribly addictive. I'm a game designer by trade, and I can recognise when something's playing me, more than I'm playing it. And yet, still I go back for more. I really should get out now, but there are upgrades I really need to gather more resources for... |
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@MarioOnMushrooms I agree with you on the ban. The fact that the guy acted alone, and it in no way affected the outcome of their matches, banning the entire team seems harsh (although I guess it would be easy to infer that someone daft enough to send a hate message like that is probably a pretty toxic character, and that the team would have been wiser to ditch him long ago...) However once they've been disqualified asking for a share of the prize money is pretty daft. They didn't come last - they're simply not a part of the competition anymore. |
| @RealStyli I'm with you. 2097 is just the best. If any game now deserves a remake that is it. I've enjoyed most of the sequels that have come out since, but I've not loved anything anywhere near as much as 2097. That includes the phenomenal addition of VR. As great as that was the game beneath just wasn't as good. The tracks aren't as iconic and the craft aren't unique enough. I want a Qirex that's as fast as fuck, built like a brick shithouse, but needs written notice that you want to turn a corner in about 3 days time. THAT'S what made Wipeout for me, and got absolutely lost in the sequels. Everything's vanilla in the sequels - I can barely tell one class from another. |
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I need to get around to giving Crusader Kings 3 a go, since I got it via Game Pass. I loved CK2 despite never achieving anything other than a few awful family-related incidents, and some horribly desperate marriages. It's a game you don't need to be fully in control of to still have lots of fun with though. And definitely get yourself a VR headset. I'd play Minesweeper in VR if it was an option. The best technological advance in gaming for a long long time. |
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@captain-T-dawg I'm not annoyed. And nothing in my comment suggests I'm annoyed, as far as I can see. And yet you seem to think I am. Please point out what makes you think I'm annoyed and need to calm down. I disagreed with you, but that's not the same as being annoyed. If other people are confused about the review, they're also wrong. It's an easy review to read if you just ignore the idea of scores and focus on what the words actually say. You'll love it if it's your thing and you can put up with the issues. Avoid it if you can't. Personally, I love the idea of it, but would hate the issues raised, and so wouldn't buy it. I'm perfectly happy for it to be Recommended though, because I can see if you could put up with them you'd like it as much as the reviewer. To try to put it another way, some of my favourite music is really challenging. The Heads, Cardiacs, Future Of The Left etc. If I were to try to describe these to my mum, I'd tell her why I thought it was ace. I'd also tell her not to listen to it EVER. It's not for her. It really isn't. But for me, it's some of the best music ever. You can't possibly score those 6 out of 10. That's nonsense. |
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@captain-T-dawg If you can't work out if you'd like the game from the very clear description of the positives and negatives it contains then it's perhaps more your problem than the review's. There are loads of games that are brilliant despite having big problems with them (people have already mentioned the EDF games for example) - as long as the review lets you know about the issues, then it's perfectly fair to recommend it despite them, and let the reader make their own mind up. It sounds much better than a 6/10 to me - more like an 8/10 with caveats. |
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@TinyKaiju It seems clear to me that the review is telling readers everything they need to know before stumping up the cash for this. If someone reads the list of negatives, but feels they can put up with them to experience all the good stuff, then they should almost certainly give it a go. If they think it doesn't seem worth the effort then probably best leave it. Your 6/10 is pretty much useless to everybody, however. |
| @Eraserhead This is why I have adverts enabled for Eurogamer. As annoying as they are to have on the site, I feel I owe them *something* at least for subheaders of this quality (some very good articles too, obvs, but the subheaders are often fantastic - and this one's a beauty). |
| @Anrkist Genuinely laughed out loud. A wonderfully petty tiny little dick move. Gets top marks from me. |
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@rob_of_the_robots Re: "The reason that arcade games were made hard as hell was to wring more money out of the players." The reason that many games are made easy these days is to wring more money out of the players. ;) I think part of this is the a player's attitude to death. I grew up in the arcades in the 80s, so I saw dying in games as inevitable. It then becomes a desperate fight to stay alive for as long as possible. I've often suggested that I found the harder games like Robotron or bullet-hell shooters to be like riding a bucking bronco. The machine absolutely wants you off, and it's your job to hang on for grim life to get your money's worth. I get more of a rush from surviving something I feel I have no right to, than I ever do from games that don't feel like they resent me playing them. Don't get me wrong - I'm happy to play both, but there's more of a buzz if the game hates me. |
| I spent 20 years employed in the games industry (still do it making indie games in my spare time), but I think maybe nearly a third of that was spent on projects that never came out (and other wastes of time). Included were the game for the film Titan AE that flopped so badly Fox canned the game months from release, a sequel to Marble Madness (crikey, I'd have loved that to happen (and the game we turned it into after that fell through would have been magnificent if we could have got it signed)), and the original Fuzion Frenzy 2 (after having worked on the first one). (I never played the later HudsonSoft sequel, but they screwed up Twisted System by removing the "clang" sound. We had some killer games in our sequel though - but again canned at the time, due to regime changes (IIRC)). It's a great job, but that's years of my life spent working on three fifths of fuck-all. |
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Horrible devices, but I do have to admit I love using them in games. Anything sneaky is fun, I find. I once tried a mine rush in Red Alert (IIRC) playing against a friend who would almost always tank rush. I knew I'd lose, because I had no offence at all, but I only ever play games to have fun, so gave it a go for the hell of it. Managed to lay a fairly massive minefield before his tanks rolled in - was hilarious to watch all his precious toys popping as they approached. Sadly the way the route-finding worked meant that they tended to follow in each others footsteps a lot, so plenty still got through as expected. I did learn to place them around the edges of obstacles in future though, because route-finding will hug the scenery... |
| @woffle99 There is something you take with you each time. Knowledge and experience. That's how you get better. You learn how things work, and use that knowledge to avoid the same mistakes. It's far more satisfying than getting more armour or a better weapon. When you finally beat the game you know you did it on your terms, rather than by levelling up to a point where the challenge was diminished enough to allow you to win. |
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@BobbyDeNiro Do you watch sport? That's the same game being played over and over again, however each time it's played it's worthwhile because the game mechanics throw up unique and interesting situations. Spelunky is more like playing chess or poker or football. The only way to win is to get better at it. And the only way to get better is to play it over and over. |
| @Killerbee As adored said - it's rarely unfair. The systems are all in place at the start of the level, and if you know how they work, you can *usually* work out a way through. It will generate a situation you can't solve from time to time (especially if you've spaffed all your bombs or ropes away, but then that was your choice...), but usually if you get twatted there's a good reason for it, and if you know how everything works you can usually figure out what that reason was. It is similar to a Souls game in that you have to know how the hazards behave, it's just often trickier because you're always encountering the hazards in new combinations and layouts. That's precisely what makes it so good (and also what makes it tricky to get into). |
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@JorgeLuisBorges "Prepare yourselves for a year of spelunky content everyone!" Fingers crossed! :D |
| The last death in that video is pure Spelunky. Brutal! I want to wait for the Steam version because I'm skint, and that's where I'll play it most. But this is the sequel to perhaps my favourite game of all time. It will be hard not to have a cheeky go on PS4 first. |
| @erniewhatbert I haven't got over the last one yet. Bets part of an hour each day (providing I do OK), and I just can't kick it. |
| Bless you Jeff for making the world much weirder place. It's what we all need. Now and always. |
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@oldmanshoutsatcloud I think that says more about psychology than the writer of the piece. I'm just a human being - I understand what "should" means based on the context it's used in. Why should "should" imply that the person saying it contribute to the action that "should" be done? ("Why should should" is now my favourite start to a sentence for a long while (and also makes my point better than I originally had in mind). "The Government should be doing a better job" is a statement I find hard to argue with. That "should" is pretty fucking solid, I think. It's working just like a "should" should. And now "should" no longer looks like a real word. |
| @Stoatboy Also - and obviously - the guy in the video is playing Sudoku on his computer. It's a fucking videogame. Just because he didn't buy it on Steam, doesn't make it any less a videogame. I'm sure you can find dozens of Sudoku games on Steam - those would be classed as videogames. And they're exactly the same game as this is (apart from a bit of dressing perhaps). |
| @MegaTiny Two things I do every day are play the Spelunky daily Challenge and then have a crack at the Guardian cryptic crossword. I see very little difference between these activities. They're both gaming. There's also an app available for phones that makes the Guardian crossword technically a videogame (I believe - I don't have a phone). |
| @welsh_will Honestly - stick with cryptics. The barrier to entry is super-high, but it's so rewarding when you find a way in. |
| @Bertie This is something I'm really interested in (despite not being a particular fan of story in games). I think this can be done so much better than it has been so far. People think procedural-generation is random, but when done well it really isn't. A half-decent designer would only throw a twist in when it was needed. I'm sure Winninger would only use one when it would make sense to - he'd probably set the players up for it. Game designers/coders can do that too - they're largely in control of everything that happens as play progresses (just as a good DM is). It's just much of the time they don't bother, or (more likely if they're employed by a company) aren't allowed to bother - a big publisher doesn't want unknowns in a project usually. |
| @Rodimus-Prime One of my favourite names is for Sainsbury's version of Penguin chocolate bars. They went to the other end of the planet and decided to name them after polar bears. But they stopped short of calling them that, and just went with "Polar". So you end up buying "polar bars", which is rather neat. |
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What's the difference between a kangaroo and a kangaroot? One's a marsupial, and the other is a Geordie stuck in a lift. |
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@Lee_Morris I'd imagine it's because regardless of how good it is it's not going to be everyone's cup of tea. It should be perhaps, but many folk just won't engage with this at all. For me it sounds like the most compelling reason to get hold of a Switch I've heard yet. But a lot of people won't find it as enjoyable as the reviewer. Marking it Essential might sell it to be people who wouldn't actually enjoy it, and that's not a good move. But if you read the text and thought - "but that sounds Essential", then it probably will be for you. Could be wrong, but that's my take on it. If I had a Switch I'd be all over this. |
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@BobbyDeNiro "Legend" would be the classic starting point (it's where my quote was from). I have a minor issue with part of the ending, but other than that it's pretty much perfect, and the entry point for his most famous character Druss. Beyond that my favourite is perhaps Knights Of Dark Renown - it's a standalone novel that is chock full of flawed heroes, pretty much a Gemmell signature. |
| @gregsheppard I'm intrigued by your mention of The Vorrh, which I'd not heard of previously. Sounds right up my street. Downloading to my Kindle as I type... |
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@Scimarad I wish I could give you more than one pos for that. :) I mentioned above that I struggled with the book as a teenager, but it would probably be right up my street now, and your description pretty much confirms it. My teenage self was impatient, but now I really enjoy a long slow book you get to live in for a good while. And the TV adaptation did make it look like I was missing out (regardless of how faithful it was). Will definitely give it another go. |
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@BobbyDeNiro I was late to Joe Abercombie - but tore through most of his stuff at a rate of knots. It's properly bad-ass fantasy. Really good fun with a bunch of the nastiest ,toughest sons-of-bitches going. I'd add a massive recommend for David Gemmell - still my favourite fantasy author. He told the same story quite a lot, but every journey was worthwhile. He wrote characters and conversations beautifully. For all the epic action, many of my favourite bits are conversations around campfires and chats between folk before battles etc. (When people complain about being cold I still quote the line from Legend "I like the cold. It's like pain. It tells you you're alive.) I struggled with Gormenghast when I was a teenager - seemed slow IIRC. Will have to give it another go, it would probably be much more my thing now. I do remember enjoying the TV adaptation from a fair while ago (BBC IIRC). |
| @SoVeryTired It's a great skill to have. Names are sometimes really hard. I'm good at inconsequential names, where a good pun will work (like the names for achievements in games), but for stuff that needs to endure I'm pretty awful. I've been trying to write a fantasy comedy novel for ages now, and I find the names for places, people and critters are so hard to come up with. So my current draft is littered with placeholders like "the river Babble" and a town called "Wibble" which are just waiting for me to have a moment of inspiration and think of something that sounds grounded in the world to do a "find and replace" on. I've been trying to think of the name for a species of big bastard eagle for ages now, but like nothing I've come up with... |
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@MegaTiny Someone should write an article about having the fucking imagination to read a nice article and take something positive onboard from it, rather than just being a sarky cunt. I've spent much of my life working as a game designer, and believe me - most of these articles provide plenty of inspiration for game ideas. This one is no different. I'm not saying I'm going to run out and make a Bob Ross game next. But I've got a few ideas that would work really well from it that I never had before. Out of interest do you do anything at all creative with your time? Or is it just posting negative comments on the internet? Because if it's the latter that's probably where you're going wrong. Try perhaps engaging with ideas, rather than just dismissing them. It could make you a better, nicer person (a long shot, but worth a go). |
| @JeremyAlexander The thing is the ASCII works. It gives you as much information as possible as concisely as possible. Yes, it takes a while to read, but once I got to grips with it I never considered using any of the mods. All of the action - all of the emotion the game generates - it takes place in your brain, not on the screen. It's like seeing through the matrix - it really is. Screenfuls of squiggles that represent the graveyards I've built for fallen warriors, the bearpits I've built for sacrificing captured goblins, the lower levels flooded by an ill-considered attempt at irrigation that wiped out an entire fortress... |
| One of the only regrets I have of being a Commodore fanboy back in the day is that I missed Your Sinclair. I only heard how great it was in retrospect (usually as I was recounting how great Amiga Power was this month to former speccy-owning friends). Great article though - lots of fun to read. Sounds like a brilliant place to have worked, and one of those things that will stick with readers for the rest of their lives. |
| @IronGiant A game of football is 90 minutes long. The point is you play it more than once because it's fun. You play it again, and again, and again, and get better at it. (Or watch it again and again and again if you're too fat and lazy to play). A game isn't a thing to be consumed, if it's done right. It's a thing to play just because it's fun to play. Until you understand that you're doing it wrong. |
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@sherpa1984 I get what you're saying, but it seems you're also expected to do it with insufficient equipment and that raises the stakes somewhat, so I'm very thankful that you folk are keeping on keeping on. I'm an online shopper myself, so do have to work as usual (and mix with customers for a few hours most days). I'd much rather be furloughed and stuck at home (I can self-isolate at Olympic level - I'd be a fucking hermit if I had my way), but this is where I find myself, so this is what I do. Appreciate your comment - it means a lot. |
| @RJMacready73 Agreed about Predator 2 - another great action film, but rarely gets the nod it deserves. |
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I remember watching a BBC2 documentary that covered this, and it sounded like a properly terrible thing - for both parties. Fascinating though. There was one case - IIRC it was someone who believed one of their parents had been replaced. But the effect only kicked in if they could see them. They absolutely believed the parent was an imposter if they were in the same room. But speaking over the phone was fine. The brain's a truly amazing thing, but also kinda scary too. Edit: Just remembered some details now of that case. The theory was that there had been some damage to the brain along the path between the visual cortex and the part of the brain that deals with emotional memories, so that the patient felt absolutely no emotional connection with their parent, but they knew they absolutely should be feeling one. So there was a huge disconnect if they could see them - they knew they looked and sounded right, but it couldn't possibly be them because their vision wasn't giving them the correct emotional response, just their hearing. If they only heard their voice though it registered emotionally with them, and there was no conflicting message. |
| Really enjoyed the demo once I'd figured a few things out - so thanks for the heads-up. Has the potential to be properly great. I'm just worried about pacing, because the lack of cash as a limit allows things to ramp up really fast. On my 2nd go I got up to 150 guests within a quarter of an hour. But there's loads of work to be done on balancing I'd imagine, so I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes. |
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@super-eve Please learn to use "I've" rather than just "I" when appropriate. It's almost painful to read your post. Then, get a sense of humour. Tom Nook being regarded as a dick is absolutely a key part of the entire franchise. It doesn't matter about his motives. It doesn't matter that actually - the goals you're set aren't that punishing or cruel. But he's the raccoon you're under the thumb of, and anyone with an ounce of spirit punches upwards. This was true many years before it became a meme. Tom Nook's almost a pantomime villain. In a world as saccharine as Animal Crossing he's the worst you're going to get. |
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@Nathan-DTS Accessibility does have to look good, because anybody could adjust the size of the UI to make your game look rubbish, and then post screenshots of it on the internet and say "How piss-poor does this look?". Here's a random pic of an RPG UI. If that text at the top gets any bigger, everything below it will need to move down (and there's no room to do that). If the list on the left gets any bigger the character profile to the right has to get smooshed down, and there's not really much space in there - and most of it is text which you don't want to scale down. The bottom panel has less than about 10% leeway scale-wise before it's screwed. OK, the text here is nice and chunky to start with, but these are the problems that many games would face. (Edit: couldn't link to the pic, but there's loads of them on that page that show relevant issues. If you could scale the text it would push and pull things all over the place and look god-awful). https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fbmscripts.weebly.com%2Fadvanced-yea-status.html&psig=AOvVaw0iMOpBDdb5ggrWqNl6zzhW&ust=1583613835245000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCPit6r3bhugCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAE |
| @Nathan-DTS UI is a nightmare. It's not just about plonking it somewhere else. You're dealing with a shedload of screens of text, all of which you don't really know what size it is because it'll be localised into probably a minimum of 5 languages (one of which will be German which is often considerably longer than anything else). Some of it needs to be centred, some of it aligned to one side or the other, some of it will need to word-wrap, often all on the same screen, and it all needs to play nicely together and look good (when like I said - it can be all sorts of different lengths in different languages). |
| @Return-of-Jafar Stop being a dick, and just enjoy. That's my advice for life essentially (and I'm getting on a bit). But still, stop finding fault first and foremost and look at what's worthwhile - especially with writers you've come to trust. Enjoy what they write. Be inspired. Move on. |
| @ShiftyGeezer I agree. We've had about six months of Autumn if anything. Apart from a couple of very short cold snaps Winter just never turned up here. First year in almost 20 where I've not had to put any heating on beyond my rubbish night storage heater. Winter never started. Disappointing because I like a bit of snow. I'd settle for a good crispy frost even - we've had almost none of that either. |
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@ambershee As a long-time game designer myself (20+ years in the industry) what you seem to be saying is that games need to be designed so as not to fall foul of these new systems in order to succeed - something Indie game devs often don't do. So if games can be designed in such a way that customers don't use the refund system then that's a winner, and this isn't a problem? Regardless of the fact that it's twisting how games will be designed. This is why games are padded with shit repetitive content and bloated to fuck now. It's ridiculous. If Spotify added some kind of policy that shaped what kind of music was made there would be a fucking uproar. I always regretted not finding the time to get my first game as an Indie dev up on GOG. I think I'm glad I didn't now (and it has at least a hundred hours of gameplay). As a consumer I love GOG. As an Indie developer I don't think I'll go near it. |
| @JeremyAlexander You don't get the point of the article for a very good reason. You missed the point of the article. The fault is yours, not the article's. |
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@Dryvlyne Well, it's always been set to startup by default, so clearly it's not meaningless. They've broken the existing record for that statistic using the same parameters. It's definitely the highest that number has ever been. Whether that number is meaningful is perhaps the thing you should have questioned. (It probably is on some level - despite increased competition they're still growing...) Accusations of clickbait are incredibly tedious, FWIW. |
Stoatboy
5 months ago
"Between UI elements, site cones and general behaviour..." Sight cones.