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“I Just Think They're Neat.” Like What You are Playing

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
There’s a bunch of other much higher name and/or distracting games released this week that guarantee it’ll be lost in the shuffle, but I picked up Beastbreaker on Switch and fell in love almost immediately.

And it’s simplest, it’s a combination of Monster Hunter, Peggle and Arkanoid; with you aiming and firing a little hyperkinetic pinball of a mouse into the soft meats of a giant monster (made up of a mosaic of different coloured tiles), trying to make sure your aim is true enough to not land in the attack range, and also trying to deal enough damage to its vital parts to stop it before a timer can reach zero. Breaking off body parts, besides resetting that timer, change up its attack pattern as well as giving you resources you can turn into near gear between battles.

I deemed it “Really Fun!” Before I even finished the tutorial
 

JBear

Internet's foremost Bertolli cosplayer
(He/Him)
I've been playing Risk of Rain 2 every Sunday night with some friends for the past few months, and we're having a great time. That's not what I'm here to talk about, though. Or, at least, I'm only here to talk about one very specific tiny thing in it.

I love the act of discovery in games. Hate FAQs, hate spoilers, love figuring something out. Risk of Rain 2 has hidden symbol passwords, about 20 in total, IIRC, that unlock hidden challenges that enable difficulty modifiers. They are generally are very well hidden. Some of the simplest are hidden in the environment, often written on an ancient plate and the like:

unknown.png


Other are a bit more complicated: we found one that had been carved away in a swathe as if by a laser, then found the second half in a void world where it had apparently been transported to and had to visually composite them:

unknown.png
unknown.png


Some are just in really bullshit places, requiring flight powers to go look at the top of a tower or whatnot. And then there are the really fun, vaguely ARG ones. For example, we found one in a logbook/codex entry:

B6FF13281C4D0BDFCEA4D045E31C8AC7E45A17F2


We found another among the concept art that's laid over the end credits:

unknown.png


Anyway, we found a really fun/cool one last night: my friend noticed half of one visible in the background of the settings menu, but it was obscured by some foliage. So, it occurred to me to turn down all of my visual settings and, sure enough, the obscuring foliage no longer rendered and we could see the code.

God I love figuring stuff out like that. Here's hoping that the last half-dozen or so that we're still missing are equally fun to find!
 

Purple

(She/Her)
Wait did they patch in a new artifact for the one in the credits? I was always disappointed that one didn't actually work.
 

JBear

Internet's foremost Bertolli cosplayer
(He/Him)
Wait did they patch in a new artifact for the one in the credits? I was always disappointed that one didn't actually work.
I mean, I can't speak to the state of the game in the past, given that we only started playing this year, but we plugged that one in and it worked.
 

Violentvixen

(She/Her)
I don't even remember how I heard about the game, but somehow I got Bustafellows and have been really enjoying it when I kind of just expected it to be a dumb thing I played and got rid of. It was summarized as "romance dangerous boys" but instead you're a reporter who is really involved in solving some pretty serious crime rings. Oh and you can travel back in time? The dangerous boys are actually all pretty smart and capable and useful, there's only one I don't like but I still think the character is done well.

The system for which boy you romance is not obvious, which baffled me at first but I ultimately kind of liked as it made it feel more natural rather than "oh this is Mozu's answer". The characters are all surprisingly well done, but the only complaint I have is that the "true" ending doesn't really work at all.

Also there's nothing especially steamy or porny about it, but there are a lot of violence, sex crimes and death as a warning. The game does not pull any punches about how the bad guys are bad. The romance really is secondary to solving crimes which is cool.

Anyway, this was a very strange game but I had an unexpectedly good time with it and wanted to share.
 

Aeonus

Still not amused
(he/him)
I mean, I can't speak to the state of the game in the past, given that we only started playing this year, but we plugged that one in and it worked.
I just fired up the game and started a Drizzle run to see which artifact it takes you to, and it fizzled in any orientation. I also can't find any place online listing it as a valid code. You absolutely sure it worked?
 

JBear

Internet's foremost Bertolli cosplayer
(He/Him)
I just fired up the game and started a Drizzle run to see which artifact it takes you to, and it fizzled in any orientation. I also can't find any place online listing it as a valid code. You absolutely sure it worked?
I mean, my buddy is the one who entered it, based on that same screenshot shared in Discord, but I don't recall him reporting any issues. *shrug*
 

Mr. Sensible

Pitch and Putt Duffer
Continuing the theme of Switch games I'm finally getting around to playing, I just picked up Super Smash Bros. Ultimate this week and am really enjoying the Adventure mode. It adds enough RPG elements and strategic wrinkles to keep the bouts interesting, yet the "rock-paper-scissors" nature of Spirits means managing them is pretty straightforward and not overly fussy.
 

MCBanjoMike

Sudden chomper
(He/him)
I'm playing a lot of games these days, and I like all of them! Inscryption, Back 4 Blood, Grand Poo World 2, Final Fantasy VII Remake, and I'm about to fire up Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin for the first time in a decade. Just makes me wish I had more time to play.
 

Mr. Sensible

Pitch and Putt Duffer
I'm playing a lot of games these days, and I like all of them! Inscryption, Back 4 Blood, Grand Poo World 2, Final Fantasy VII Remake, and I'm about to fire up Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin for the first time in a decade. Just makes me wish I had more time to play.
As a longtime fan of L4D, I really want to play Back 4 Blood, but my video game budget already got spent on Nintendo games this month...
 

MCBanjoMike

Sudden chomper
(He/him)
I'm playing B4B on PC, so I just had to get a month of game pass to make it happen. You can often get a month trial for only a dollar, it's a pretty good deal.

Somehow, I forgot to mention Metroid: Dread, which I'm also playing and enjoying. Games are great! I love them.
 

MCBanjoMike

Sudden chomper
(He/him)
FFVII Remake took the Honey Bee Inn, the absolute worst part of the original game, and made it the best part yet of the new one. Incredible.
 

Becksworth

Aging Hipster Dragon Dad
I think Gleylancer is missing something out of the original context on the Mega Drive, as all the parallax and speed and big anime cutscenes are nice but not wowing me. That said the Switch version adds quality of life features like twin stick shooting for the satellite bits, so I still dig the hell out of the game, just not for its original selling points.
 

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
Showed my father Overboard, the reverse whodunnit on Switch (and other things) and he *instantly* fell in love.

Fortunately, unlike nearly every other game that he’s enjoyed, I really like it too.
 

Lokii

(He/Him)
Staff member
Moderator
"Will literally make you fall in love with that himbo, Drax" is a hell of a front of the box quote
 

Bongo

excused from moderation duty
(he/him)
Staff member
I started playing Voice of Cards, and I am liking this early narrative gimmick where your main character is a rude, arrogant, self-centered fuckboy, and the most visible antagonistic presence is not the titular Dragon, but the much more serious and capable adventuring party from the demo, with whom you have this comedic petty rivalry that's almost entirely your own fault. It's somehow freeing to be given a dialog option where your only choice in the matter is what kind of ass you're going to make out of yourself.
 

Mogri

Round and round I go
(he)
Staff member
Moderator
I beat Tales of Maj'Eyal today, and if it weren't closing in on midnight, I think I'd jump back in with a new character.
 

FelixSH

(He/Him)
Just made it to the end of episode 4 of Life is Strange 2. Damn, that was a tense scene. Not quite on par with that one super tense scene from the first game, but nearly there.

Great game.
 
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