fennectik: Videogames Post (Videogames)
[personal profile] fennectik
Found this article about why there might not he a remake of said game.



"Sonic Adventure fans might not be happy to hear this, but there aren’t any plans to come out with a remake or remaster anytime soon.

Takahashi Iizuka, head of Team Sonic, was recently asked about revisiting the game in an interview. The takeaway here is that Iizuka believes it’d take a huge effort to bring the experience up to today’s “standards and expectations” – as much as a new title would apparently. Because of that, he feels working on a new game instead makes more sense.'

Iizuka has also shown interest in making Sonic Adventure 3. However, it’s unclear if that’s still something he’d want to pursue."- Nintendo Everything


I'm fine with that. If they choose to create an actual sequel to those games then there's plenty to speculate about than remastering existing titles.
fennectik: Meowscarada (Meowscarada)
[personal profile] fennectik
This must be fate.



Of course the card posted above isn't the same as the one I've got, but it looks pretty close.

Game post

Jun. 24th, 2025 04:20 am
fennectik: Videogames Post (Videogames)
[personal profile] fennectik
Downloaded that cute simple Bowling app once again. That one in particular was one of the very first gaming apps I downloaded way back when I first got a smartphone. Such memories. Have also downloaded that photo editor app which is the sole one I ever downloaded as well.

Have been playing Final Fantasy V and Dragon Quest IIII in hopes of finishing them, as well as other titles like Feda: Emblem of Justice and Shining in the Darkness.

I hope to finish all to scratch them off my gaming bucket list. Might try and play/finish Wizardry V as well.
rocky41_7: (bg3)
[personal profile] rocky41_7
I've fallen into the trap of being so busy playing Baldur's Gate 3 that I haven't had the time to say anything about Baldur's Gate 3 (a problem I've experienced before - which is why I've never yet reviewed My Life as a Teenage Exocolonist). There's also the fact that anyone on the farthest verge of the gaming sphere is aware of this game and has probably already read a least one review of it. Still, I'll throw my thoughts out, for whatever they're worth.
 
2025 has been a strange gaming year for me. Far and away my most anticipated game was Dragon Age: The Veilguard, a game I've waited almost a decade for with baited breath. Baldur's Gate 3 was barely even on my radar—I played a few meager hours of one of Larian's earlier RPGs, Divinity Original Sin 2, which cemented my hatred of turn-based combat and dislike of isometric games. (Which is not a knock on DOS2—it was a very well-done game! Just not for me.) I was not willing to shell out BG3's price for the significant chance that its gameplay would be too frustrating for me to get into the story. Fortunately, my sister handled that issue by gifting it to me for Christmas—a free experiment.
 
In January, as usual, I plunged into my holiday cache of new games, starting with DATV—for more on my disappointment with that, see this review. When I'd quickly burned out on DATV, I turned to BG3, the unknown factor. Admittedly, this game is not optimized for console. Even after its eighth patch, it frequently crashes, particularly in battles with a high number of participants. Its menus and maps are difficult to read at a distance, such as from couch to TV. Its controls can be obtuse as the game tries to cram the huge number of functions onto a controller's limited button scheme. 
 
However, in spite of these flaws, I've been reflecting the last few weeks on how BG3 has nevertheless been so much more fun than DATV, the game I was predisposed to like. What was it, I wondered, that made BG3 more fun? (And sorry--there will be more DA comparisons below.)

Read more... )

rocky41_7: (dragon age)
[personal profile] rocky41_7
So, ten years since Inquisition released, eight years since I got into Dragon Age myself. I used to think the amount of time they were taking between that release and the next game was because they were taking their time, and I was happy to wait as long as necessary to give them the time to do it right. Nearing the end of my second playthrough of Veilguard, I don't think that anymore. It's disappointing, but it's what we have.

There are some spoilers below, particularly in terms of themes, but I've tried to minimize and warn for any specific spoiler content.

Read more... )
rocky41_7: (dragon age)
[personal profile] rocky41_7
Before I got majorly distracted by getting Dragon Age Veilguard for Christmas, I was occupying myself with Slay the Princess, and having made a return to it last week, it feels like a good time to do a review of it.
 
Slay the Princess is a visual-novel type game, which is not usually my taste. But it is also a heavily choice-dependent narrative with a range of broad outcomes, and that is my bread and butter. 
 
The game premise is simple: You, the hero, are on a path, in the woods. At the end of that path is a cabin, and in the basement of that cabin, is a princess. Your job is to slay her. If you don't, she will end the world.
 
Everything after that is up to you.
 
Slay the Princess deserves massive credit for the sheer number of branching paths available to you, for every decision, from things as basic as deciding whether to take your knife down into the basement, or try to talk to the princess unarmed first. Everything you do has the potential to impact the story, and both the PC and the princess will react and adapt to your choices.
 
And what a beautiful story they are telling! I thoroughly enjoyed the themes and narratives of this game, and it presents them so well. If you really let yourself sink into the text, you'll come away from it really feeling like you've been through something. I can't really say much more on specifics without giving things away, and I think anyone playing this game deserves to see the truth unfurled organically, so I'll leave it at that.
 
There are some animations in the game, but it's mostly brought to life with lovely, loose hand-drawn sketches which do a fabulous job of capturing the atmosphere.
 
Similarly, there are only two voice actors throughout the entire game, but they both do a superb job, both with a range of characters and a range of complex emotions they needed to convey.
 
The music is just as pleasing, with a variety of themes to fit the various directions the story can take, all of them deeply evocative without distracting from the gameplay in the moment.
 
On a final note, this game is not for the faint of heart. It includes a list of trigger warnings at the start, and you should definitely read through that if you're sensitive to potentially upsetting stories.
 
Overall, I am simply delighted with this game. I got my sister playing it too, and I would definitely throw this one out as a recommendation. It's a game where I want to experience absolutely every part of it, which keeps me coming back again and again for another playthrough slightly to the left of the last. I want to see everything this game has to offer. And the in-game gallery makes it easy to redraw scenes from the game, which with I've also been having fun!
 
And remember: There are no wrong choices, only different outcomes.
rocky41_7: (dragon age)
[personal profile] rocky41_7
This game I first heard about as a stub article in an issue of Game Informer (RIP Game Informer, you are missed and your corporate overlords are shit) back in 2018 and I've heard positive murmurs about since, but it took me a long time to commit to getting it, in part because I was put off by the monochrome graphics. I can say now that it was definitely the right choice to get it! The Steam page description is:

In 1802, the merchant ship Obra Dinn set out from London for the Orient with over 200 tons of trade goods. Six months later it hadn't met its rendezvous point at the Cape of Good Hope and was declared lost at sea. 

Early this morning of October 14th, 1807, the Obra Dinn drifted into port at Falmouth with damaged sails and no visible crew. As insurance investigator for the East India Company's London Office, dispatch immediately to Falmouth, find means to board the ship, and prepare an assessment of damages.


It took me two tries to get into this game, because for whatever reason during my first attempt back in May, I found it too confusing to figure out what I was supposed to be doing to give the game another shot, and I only picked it up again this month because I hate having games in my library I've paid for and not played.

I am so glad I gave this game another chance!

Return of the Obra Dinn absolutely deserves the praise it's gotten. With very limited resources--the monochrome palette, the ship being the setting of the entire game, the limited information available--it crafts a truly captivating detective story. You start from the end and work your way back to the beginning of the Obra Dinn's story, and it keeps you hooked the entire time wondering how the crew and ship got to this place.

Your goal, as the insurance agent, is to correctly note the identity and fate of each crew member. You have the crew manifest and some sketches of "life aboard" drawn by an artist on the ship, and as you use your time-traveling pocketwatch to view a select few scenes from the Obra Dinn's voyage, your job is to match name to face and deduce what became of them.

The soundtrack works very well too, which is key because you will be revisiting these scenes quite a lot. Even near the end of the game I was still noticing details I had missed a dozen times before. At times you are guessing about the identity of the characters, but I 
almost always felt that they were at least educated guesses--that I had been given enough information to narrow things down.

Nor are you going to have good luck trying to just brute force your way through the investigation--there are sixty fates to solve, and the game only confirms your success per every 3 identities and fates, so wild guessing is not really a viable option, which made it a better game, to me.

This was definitely a game that once I was into it,  I was hooked. The closer I got to solving all of the ship's fates, the more invested I was, and I never lost that sense of triumph every time the game confirmed I had gotten another three fates correct.

Marvelously well-done game, I thoroughly enjoyed it!
rocky41_7: (dragon age)
[personal profile] rocky41_7
I will be honest upfront and say I haven't finished the DLC, but I'm also not sure I'll bother, so it seemed as good a time as any to review. Spoilers below.

Feel free to share your own thoughts...personally I was disappointed.

Read more... )

rocky41_7: (mass effect)
[personal profile] rocky41_7
Twelve Minutes is a puzzle game by Annapurna Interactive. The Steam page description is

An interactive thriller about a man trapped in a time loop.


This is one of those games I was interested in since first reading the description of it in a Game Informer years ago. The premise of the entire story taking place within the one small apartment while the player loops the same twelve minutes over and over again trying to resolve the situation nonviolently was fascinating. And while much of that premise holds up, in the end the game can't commit to its own conceit of limiting the story to the apartment.

In this time loop, the PC arrives home to his wife, who's made dessert and wants to share some big news with him. During the evening, a man announcing himself as a police officer arrives, makes some accusations, and then shoots the PC. The goal of the game is to keep using the time loop to prevent the encounter from becoming violent.

Throughout gameplay you learn various things about the PC, his wife, and the cop (none of whom have actual names) and use those details to manipulate the situation to your benefit. For the most part, the puzzle moves forward in ways that make sense. There was only one part that I really got stuck on and eventually took a peek at a hint for how to move forward, but other than that I felt like with a reasonable amount of thought it wasn't too difficult to figure your way towards the goal. There's definitely a bit of crazy-making in pacing around your shoebox apartment trying to decide if this or that will help the situation, but in the fun way that you expect to be a little frustrated while working through a puzzle.

For me, though, the ultimate resolution and end of the game were a disappointment. The final reveals felt like they didn't make much sense in the broader scope of what we had already learned about the situation and it felt like a letdown that the game needed to take you out of the apartment to resolve the story. Some confusion from a story that plays with time is perhaps to be expected, but the ending here felt so unclear as to feel anticlimactic.

I don't regret playing Twelve Minutes, but I can only recommend it with reservations due to the ending.
rocky41_7: (mass effect)
[personal profile] rocky41_7
Haven is an open-world exploration game which centers on the romantic relationship between its two protagonists. The Steam page description of it is:

Two lovers gave up everything and escaped to a lost planet to be together. Glide through a mysterious landscape, explore a fragmented world and fight against what’s trying to tear them apart in this RPG adventure about love, rebellion, and freedom.

In Haven, you control both characters, swapping between them with the down arrow. You can also play couch co-op, though given the nature of Kay and Yu's relationship, you might choose your partner carefully, or else end up swapping sexy banter with a sibling.

Haven is a very basic game. The graphics are plain but pretty, the gameplay is uncomplicated, and there really aren't any subplots or side quests, nor is the main quest terribly complex. I consider this a great game for winding down at the end of a busy day, or when you need a break from a more demanding game. Most of Haven is spent gliding around the various little maps clearing corruption and gathering supplies. There are frequent breaks for Kay and Yu's banter and discussion. Jaunty but mellow music plays and the characters will occasionally exclaim about a fruit you've just harvested or an animal they've seen or a move executed with their hover boots.

While you do gain XP from combat (for this, you control both Kay and Yu at once, and can coordinate their moves, or have them perform separate actions, using the D-pad for Kay and the letters/shapes buttons for Yu), the much more significant chunk of your XP will come from the discussions and interactions between Kay and Yu. The game excels in making their relationship the core of the game not only from a narrative, but also from a gameplay perspective. Each time Kay and Yu's relationship "levels up," they celebrate with a drink and your health and attacks gain a boost. Some of these scenes happen automatically (such as after meals or sleeping), others you can seek out with various object interactions.

Given that the game centers so totally on them, it was crucial for Kay and Yu's relationship to come off well, and I think it does. Their interactions feel realistic, and the game isn't afraid to be open with them: the game is rated M for the amount of times Kay and Yu get frisky (not shown on screen, but clear in dialogue) (although for some reason they decided to censor all the curse words with a fantasy replacement, which made little sense to me...), there's a scene where Yu pops a zit on Kay's back, Kay complains about Yu clogging the shower drain with her long hair...the game doesn't focus only on high-level ideals of love and romance, but also on the practical realities of Kay and Yu's life, and that's where it shines the most to me. Small things really matter when you're on your own--early in the game, Kay and Yu are separated from their ship, a catastrophic experience, as most of their survival tools are onboard. Throughout the game as you gather food, they have various dialogue lines about the struggle to maintain their food stores. And that feels real--two individuals on their own would spend an enormous amount of time just trying to ensure they have enough food. Yu is upset when she finishes the last book they had on the ship--and is now looking forward to a life with no new books ever. While some things about the game are convenient--Kay and Yu can recognize and eat most of the food on Source--others drive home the full impact of Kay and Yu's decision to leave their home in the Apiary.

A decision that feels appropriate to the two individuals in the game. Kay and Yu aren't always completely likable, but I always believed "here are two people who would give up everything they knew for the chance at the future they want." Kay and Yu can be impulsive, selfish, and reckless--which may be frustrating to watch, but it it feels so true to the setting of the game. It would take someone being reckless, impulsive, and a bit selfish to be willing to do what Kay and Yu have done to try to be together. And overall, I do like them--but more importantly, they felt real, and they felt believable. Kay may come off as more levelheaded than Yu--and in a lot of ways she is--but she can absolutely be just as feckless.

The Nest--the spaceship that Kay and Yu live in--is so charmingly designed. I loved drifting around looking at their stuff, especially as they collected more things from around Source. The glide mechanic works well too, and there's something almost a little mesmerizing about sailing around Source on foot, with the grass swaying and fruits sparkling in the distance.

A little bit of behind-the-scenes info--Haven was originally created as a M/F couple (male Kay, female Yu), but after feedback, the devs dropped an update with a fully voiced and animated female Kay and male Yu, so that when you start the game you can choose between playing them as a F/F, M/F, or M/M couple. It doesn't change anything about the character dynamics or gameplay, but it was a great move for inclusivity. It also works really well with the theme of the game, centered on Kay and Yu's love, and has a sort of "in any universe I'd find you and I'd chose you" feel to me. I first played through the game with female Kay and female Yu, and I've started a new playthrough with male Kay and male Yu to grab some achievements I missed--so far, I prefer the female voice acting, particularly for Yu, but both teams do a solid job.

I had a lot of fun with Haven and it was a great breath of fresh air from the claustrophobia and crazy-making of Twelve Minutes. As long as you don't look for more than the game is serving, Haven is a fun, sweet little exploration game with fantastic integration of story and game mechanics.

Review crossposted from my main.

rocky41_7: (mass effect)
[personal profile] rocky41_7
This is actually a game I bought in 2017 and binged then. It's been a hot minute since I touched it, but I picked it up again yesterday and I love it as much now as I did then.

80 Days is a text-based game based off Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days. Inkle's game takes a more modern approach, placing the game in a steampunk version of the 19th century and affording a great deal more attention to women, characters of color, and queer characters than the original novel. The people you meet throughout the game are truly a diverse and fascinating set of characters.

In the game, you take on the role of Passepartout, valet to Phileas Fogg, a wealthy Englishman who has made a bet that he can travel around the world in 80 days or fewer. Naturally, most of the planning for this affair falls on poor Passepartout.

This game is an absolute delight; it charms at every turn and manages to capture Passepartout's sense of wonder and awe at the many things he sees on their travels so well. The text is beautiful and the game truly strives to present each city through which you pass in its most interesting light; there is nowhere on the map which is lacking in culture or intrigue. What graphics are present are crisp and clean, giving just enough to flavor the setting.

There are gameplay mechanics to be had as well--the whole journey is timed (although the clock stops when the game presents text for you to read, so you aren't having to speed through it) and your goal is to win Mr. Fogg's wager. Different routes will afford different speeds, some cities will be easier to get out of than others, and time-consuming calamities lie around every corner. You will also have some minor money management and needing to keep track of your supplies--various bits of gear and clothing may help you along the way, but some routes only allow for so many suitcases!

There are such a variety of narratives, some of which span across the globe, that the game has phenomenal replay value. My only real criticism of it is that some of the narratives are so niche and require such serendipitous choices that you could play the game a thousand times and never get the full story without an achievement guide. Still, it's a game packed full of possibility!

I think 80 Days will be one of those games I just perennially return to, always eager for a new adventure--or a refresher on an old one. I really cannot recommend this one enough.


Crossposted from my main
rocky41_7: (mass effect)
[personal profile] rocky41_7
I have FINALLY finished my first playthrough of Sunless Skies so here I am to talk about it. I should say upfront it didn't take me that long because I was putting it off, but because there's a lot of content and I've been very busy the last year (I graduated in May!) The Steam page description for the game is:

SAIL THE STARS. BETRAY YOUR QUEEN. MURDER A SUN. Sunless Skies is a Gothic Horror roleplay game with a focus on exploration and exquisite storytelling.
 
It's a very brief description for a pretty detailed game. Sunless Skies is part of Failbetter Studios' Fallen London universe, but you don't need familiarity with the past games to play this one. This was the first FL game I had ever played and I didn't find my experience hampered at all (and I've heard the gameplay is a huge step up from Sunless Seas, the last game).

First, Sunless Skies is a HEAVILY text-based game. There is gameplay, in the form of flying your train around the universe and occasionally battling enemies while managing your resources, but the overwhelming bulk of the game takes place in the text, so if you're someone who doesn't like a lot of reading in your games, this one is probably a miss for you. That said, the text is very well-written, which is a relief from some of the more recent text-based games I've played which just do not hit hard enough for something so reliant on the prose.

Second, the atmosphere of the game is exquisite. It captures so well the kind of eldritch/Lovecraftian horror I love. It never overplays its hand, either by wielding the cudgel of eldritch horror too frequently--it often lurks under the surface or just around the corner, hinted at but not seen directly--or by explaining too much--you must accept that most things about this world you will simply never understand, and that's appropriate for your poor captain.

Third, while the graphics are somewhat limited--the game is primarily an isometric view of the map with landmarks, landmasses, and engines seen from overhead--what does exist is beautiful. Even well into the game I still found myself charmed by the beauty of the stars passing by under my engine and the details on the map. The character avatars too are unique and varied, with so much personality in each of them.

Fourth, the options! Because it's text-based, Sunless Skies has a bit more freedom to give you a massive breadth of choices on how to play your captain and what you want to do while exploring the perpetually-dangerous universe. There are many things in the game which are not super relevant from a gameplay perspective, but which may make a huge difference to you and your PC from a roleplaying perspective, so if you're someone who gets really into developing your PC's motivations and personality, you'll enjoy this aspect.


Fifth, the game provides two difficulty modes, which is great. With the first, if your captain dies, you have to start with a new one. You'll retain some benefits from the last captain, but you will also be largely reset. Under the "merciful" mode, you have the option to continue from the last save with your same captain OR accept that captain's death and start with a new one. If you love a game that really challenges you, Sunless Skies can be that. If you prefer minor challenges and a focus on story, it can get you closer to that too. Sunless Skies, particularly early in the game, can be brutal in terms of managing your nightmares, terror, fuel, supplies, and trying to discover new ports and necessary landmarks. I've heard it's not as challenging as Sunless Seas, and there are various adjustments--such as aiming assist--which you can use to lighten the load, but it will certainly present you with difficult choices at some points.

If you want any advice, prioritize obtaining and getting the stats to use the wrath of heaven canon. It is ridiculously OP and allows you to 1-2 shot most enemies in the game, which is useful because the combat is easily, to me, the worst part of the game. It's so frustrating that for the first three-fourths of the game, before I had the wrath of heaven, I just avoided combat entirely.

Overall, this game felt really creative to me, I had a lot of fun with the narrative, and I've already started my next playthrough in order to play an absolutely bastard captain. Thumbs up from me!

Crossposted from my main.

tally: (Default)
[personal profile] tally
Hi all!

I need some help!  I need to know your favorite video game characters who are WEREWOLVES or WITCHES!  And if you have a favorite picture of them, feel free to link me to it!

I've been slowly building up a Dreamwidth TCG (trading card game) for video game characters, and I would love to have a couple of Halloween-ish card decks available for October!  But these decks are multifandom, so if I just do them myself, it would only be things that I like, whereas I'd rather have characters from all different kinds of games! ^^

So if you introduce me to your favorite werewolf and witch characters, I'll make sure they make it into the deck!

ivyskeep: A predominantly black with some tan female German Shepherd Dog sitting on a black floral rug in a kitchen with her head tilted to one side. (Default)
[personal profile] ivyskeep
Have you been playing any dice games recently? Hubs dug out Zombie Dice from Steve Jackson Games. Whoever gets the most brains wins! It was fun and inspired us to start a weekly game night. We also have played Farkle recently and plan on playing Yahtzee soon. He bought a card table, and we have some twists on classic board games that will be part of our game nights, i.e. Clue (a newer one for 2 players) and Goonies Monopoly.
rocky41_7: (overwatch)
[personal profile] rocky41_7
Dredge is a fishing game with a horror element. Although I'm not usually one to touch fishing games, I enjoyed this one a lot and I wrote a longer review on my main page about this one.

Generally speaking,

Recommend if:
  • You're looking for a game that's not too complex
  • You enjoy fishing games overall
  • You like collecting things
Do not recommend if:
  • You want a plot-heavy game
  • You are looking for a game with a lot of different activities available in it
  • You want to get to know the NPCs in the game

While Dredge contains a core plot and the horror aspects, it is still a fishing game, so my advice is that if a fishing game sounds criminally dull to you, the fun twists of Dredge are probably not going to be enough to make it worth your money.

rocky41_7: (overwatch)
[personal profile] rocky41_7
Augh okay. This game was such a mixed bag, so I'll try to apportion my review accordingly...This is a game I was interested in buying for a long time, and I don't regret buying it, but there was also a stretch of several months where I wasn't sure I was going to bother to finish it.

The Good )

The Bad )

Ultimately, I would say that if this is in line with the games you usually like--story-based, visual novel type things--it might be worth checking out despite its flaws. However, if this is a stretch game for you and this genre is not usually something you enjoy, it's probably not worth the time.


Crossposted from my main

rocky41_7: (overwatch)
[personal profile] rocky41_7
I know this game came out years ago, but if you missed the initial hype train (as I did) allow me to recommend it again. I played this game last month and I think What Remains deserves the praise it got on release. The game description from Steam is:

What Remains of Edith Finch is a collection of strange tales about a family in Washington state. As Edith, you’ll explore the colossal Finch house, searching for stories as she explores her family history and tries to figure out why she's the last one in her family left alive.

I did a longer review on my blog, highlights below.

Recommend if you:
  • Like emotional stories in your games
  • Are not looking for combat/action
  • Enjoy multigenerational stories
  • Like slow games
Do not recommend if you:
  • Prefer lots of combat or puzzles
  • Prefer a fast-paced story
  • Value gameplay over story
  • Are not in the mood for sad stories
littlewolfteeth: File stock0040 (~ 29)
[personal profile] littlewolfteeth
Not only is it the anniversary but for a limited amount of time Epic Games is offering Fallout 3 and all of its DLC completely for free! I know most people probably already have it but I just now got my hands on a gaming PC so I can finally get it! And free!! :)
vriddy: christmas gnome (gnome)
[personal profile] vriddy
This might be of interest to some people here! [personal profile] elf is starting up a game club over at [community profile] indie_games to play those games acquired from various bundles. You can read more about the concept here, there's also a poll about the format that would work best for people and a first game up for selection! Hope to see some of you there :)