Gripe About What You're *Not* Playing 2

[ASandoval]

They announced Magical Drop 6 today, a series that I'm really passionate about. So much so I wrote many, *many* words about it for the HG101 Data East book and did a mild tweetstorm about it.

I'm griping partially because I want to play it now but also I felt the Monkey's Paw curl and realized that when it comes to America, there's a decent chance it's going to be published by Nicalis, whose been working closely with the shell company that masquerades as Data East these days. Fingers crossed importing the Japanese version won't be a hassle, I guess.

 

[DANoWAR]

Pssst... https://talking-time.net/index.php?...t-youre-playing-2-bellyache-tric-boogaloo.226

 

[MetManMas]

But he's griping about what he's not playing.

 

[WildcatJF]

Nicalis hasn't been publishing a ton lately (thank god), and if G-Mode is behind it they started publishing their own games overseas, so I think you'll probably be ok.

 

[Becksworth]

I haven’t tried the demo for Balan Wonderland yet myself, but based on everything I’m hearing I got to wonder if Yuji Naka let it release in this state in order to shame Square Enix into delaying the game.

 

[Octopus Prime]

I can only assume that either the demo is based on a really early build or the Switch port is awful; possibly both, but it definitely saved me $80

 

[DANoWAR]

But he's griping about what he's not playing.

*headslap*

 

[MetManMas]

I haven’t tried the demo for Balan Wonderland yet myself, but based on everything I’m hearing I got to wonder if Yuji Naka let it release in this state in order to shame Square Enix into delaying the game.

I just tried the Switch demo for Balan Wonderworld. This sure is a 3D platformer by Yuji Naka, alright.

Lots of aliasing, kinda screwy camera, collectibles that suddenly pop into existence when up close, half-baked gimmicks...for better or worse it has me nostalgic for late 90s and early aughts games, but I expect a $60 game released in 2021 to be far more polished than this.

Really like the art direction, though. Might wait and see if this game gets some patches...and is put on sale.

 

[R.R. Bigman]

All the stores around me were out of Monster Hunter Rise, so I had to order it. It took a week and a half to get here, and it’s the PAL version. If I can’t find it in stores soon I’ll just wait for the G Rank version in a year.

 

[Ixo]

There is still no date (that I’ve seen) other than “Summer 2021” for Tetris Effect Connected to be released from Microsoft’s timed exclusive jail.

*continues to wait patiently*

 

[WildcatJF]

The Switch is region free so that PAL copy should work totally fine. I have a few PAL games, no issues beyond no Gold coins for my NA account.

 

[Becksworth]

Yeah, I snagged Gyakuten Saiban 123 when I was in Tokyo two years ago, and it even displays it as Phoenix Wright Trilogy based on my region.

 

[Purple]

I, despite my best efforts, have finally absorbed what happens in the second StarCraft 2 expansion. I really did think my disgust at that game's plot had maxed out, but... turns out I still have indignity left to spend when it comes to such elements as a whole sociey of devil-worshipping protoss we just never talked about previously, "bringing back" Fenix in the form of a robot with his memories that doesn't talk like an orc at all, and Kerrigan turning into a giant gold glowing angel and then also going on a date with Jimmy. That's... really some stuff.

 

[Phantoon]

I finished Chase: Cold Case Investigation last night. It's an obviously much (much) lower budget Hotel Dusk. While it's far from perfect I really enjoyed the story and it led to a huge sequel tease. It's been multiple years and the 3DS is dead so it's obviously not going to happen. It's a shame.

 

[WildcatJF]

CiNG is also dead, sadly.

 

[Phantoon]

CiNG is also dead, sadly.

Yeah, I was an enormous fan. Last Window was an incredible experience and a great swan song. I still have Another Code on Wii to play, at least.

 

[Purple]

Ugh.

Someone just gave me a copy of Rimworld, a game people keep assuring me I'd love, which I have never purchased because frankly I'd seen a lot of things leading me to figure the developer was probably a nazi. But, OK, I'm not paying for this. It's been a few years, it's plenty well established. Let's at least have a look.

So... first, I'm just not at all impressed. The problem with any sort of Dwarf Fortress clone is that Dwarf Fortress itself is always going to have way more content to it. The AI advertises how the random events have a rubber banding effect. And really there isn't anything to really work towards when not reacting to random events. Just kinda, hanging out. I mean yeah there's a tech tree, but that's very wait-y. I'm not like, digging down into progressively more deadly caves looking for better materials or something.

But then I go poking at the backstories and wants of these starting characters I have, and holy crap. We've got a "misandrist." We've got someone who's upset I don't have enough slaves. And we've got someone whose backstory states that... her mother died when she was really young so she became a sex slave for her father, then later in life was sold into slavery as a prostitute.

I feel like father daughter incest and sex slavery being in the backstory generator both merit some sort of freaking warning up front. Pretty jarring to have both here.

Anyway there's also a link on the title screen to the developer's twitter page and... yeah. Yeah that sure is a follow list that's just a giant pile of nazis. Good instincts past me.

Why the hell does this have any sort of following again?

 

[FelixSH]

I'm replaying Wonder Boy: The Dragons Trap, the remake on steam. It's still a very fun game, and the new graphics are amazing (the original ones are too, but still).

The gripe is about the challenge rooms. First, finding them is absurd. For Mouse Man, you have to run through a random wall, that actually isn't one, with no hint at all. In there, the first part is easy, but then you get to the screen above it. And there, you have to experiment with jumps, and every mistake sends you down, to the previous screen, which you have to run through, just to make another experimental jump. I made it nearly to the end, where there is another awful jump, and I gave up. I did beat Lizard Mans room, but that one was obnoxiously hard too, and so was Piranha-Mans, which I only tried a bit.

Still, the core game is very good, and you don't have to farm charm stones to get the armor that protects you against lava, which you kind-of need, so that's a plus. Just ignore these challenge rooms, which are hidden too hard anyway, and you have a very fun game.

 

[Neo Skimbleshanks]

Technically I have opened the program (Pathfinder: Kingmaker, on a console) but I wouldn't call what I'm doing "playing." I'm constitutionally incapable of getting past the character creation screen in any given DnD video game. Absurd how much time I've spent trying to build level 1 characters over the years compared to how much time I've spent playing. Way too many seemingly consequential choices up front and I have no idea what to make of them. "Dump stats" seem really unglamorous, too. It's not that I want to play the most optimized character but, well, who knows what I want. I will never know.

The only time I've ever gotten far was just following a guide for KotOR build where you have many fewer choices. Also I never want to build a character that looks like any of the portraits on offer; wish the portrait could just be blank. I guess I should just play on the computer so I can have a slightly more expansive selection of portraits but I do not think that will change the primary problem much. (the primary problem is me)

 

[Cadenza]

I would like to be playing Bloodstained, but for reasons I don't know it runs like butt on my laptop. Even in windowed mode with all the graphical settings turned off/as low as they can go and with no other applications open it runs at an inconsistent, unplayably chunky framerate. I am vexed!

 

[ArugulaZ]

I'd like to play R-Type Final 2 and the new Ghosts 'n Goblins game, but I think I'm more in love with the idea of playing them- of enjoying the sights and the sounds- than actually playing those games. I'd be more swayed into a purchase if the prices went down, but they're still too expensive for me to justify an investment in what might amount to a load of frustration and disappointment.

 

[ArugulaZ]

I went to Tucson for my birthday. After nearly fainting from seeing an Atari Lynx at Bookman's for three hundred and forty dollars, I came to the realization that game collecting has become TOO DAMN EXPENSIVE. I've come to that realization years before, when I went to a thrift store and noticed the price for 16-bit titles had jumped significantly in the years since 2009. As bad as it was in 2014, it's way, waaaay worse now. Three hundred and forty bucks for a fucking Lynx! Two hundred dollars each for HuCards! Nearly a hundred dollars for that weird cubey thing from Hyperkin that plays Game Boy Advance games! Thirty dollars for an Xbox One copy of Yakuza: Like a Dragon, which I bought at Wal-Mart for seven dollars the month before! Even the PSP, which used to be a safe haven for collecting, has gone way nutso with price, with availability dropping through the floor. I used to be able to fish through mesh containers filled to overflowing with PSP games for five, even three dollars each. Now, even those loose games nobody wanted three years ago are ten or fifteen dollars, and there are a lot fewer of them.

My absolute best find was Gradius Collection for fifteen bucks... it's not like I need a copy of Gradius Collection, since I already own it digitally, but I wanted to get SOMETHING while I was in Tucson, and this seemed like the best deal I was gonna get. It's probably not going to get any better than this from now on, and that suuuuucks.

 

[Sprite]

Yeah, the pandemic combined with shady market manipulation made prices go haywire. If there’s any game you absolutely must have, get it now, because it will be out of reach soon, if it isn’t already. I spent most of 2021 collecting Neo Geo Pocket games and some of them have doubled or tripled in price since I started. A couple are like $1,200, and people actually pay that.

 

[ArugulaZ]

$1200!? For games that Amazon nearly had to give away fifteen years ago? If anyone needs me, I'll be in the Angrydome.

 

[Neo Skimbleshanks]

Slipped and re-downloaded an idle game in the app store yesterday. First picked it up around Christmas and dropped it but for whatever reason got it again yesterday and redownloaded it a few times. Nastily, the data was retained so I could just go right back in after getting rid of it. Deleted it again just now... I tried something slightly different this deletion but I of course don't want to check bc if it's not gone I'll just start playing it again. Embarrassing problem to have. Once again saying to myself and anyone else if you're playing a game where you can spend an unlimited amount of time and money, just delete it, nuke your save data, and move on. (just spent time this... time, luckily)

Also, states should expropriate the wealth of mobile f2p game developers. Then distribute all JPEGs and I guess the concept of compound interest to the people.

 

[Octopus Prime]

Even with my coins, I wound up being thirteen measly cents short of being able to buy Medium-Nauts on Switch.

What a stone-cold drag

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Ugh, I just accidentally deleted my save file for Darksiders II when not looking (IE, just pressing buttons to get through the loading screens I've already seen a ton of).. I was halfway through and I know I shouldn't care since it's just a perfectly OK AAA game but I hate leaving a thing unfinished. THEN I have to realize to my embarrassment admit I spent 20 minutes seeing if I could restore a game I don't have that high an opinion of.

Well, at least I can start looking at other games now, at least. But that just irks me.

Part of me wants to play the game in super tiny piecemeal bits every so often just to get to where I was over the course of, like, five years or however long it will take to play that incrementally while focusing my real energy elsewhere. Because everything needs to be "just so" for my stupid brain.

 

[FelixSH]

Serious suggestion: Maybe you can trick your brain, by promising yourself that you will try again, after a year or so has passed, so that it doesn't feel too repetitive, and you have at least forgotten many of the details? Works for me, at least - I still play these games later, but it helps me letting go, for that point in time.

 

[Paul le Fou]

Horizon: Forbidden West is downloading to my PS4 as we speak, and I'm wicked excited for it.

BUT, Elden Ring comes out in one week, and I'm ultimately more wicked excited for that. I don't want to start HFW for the little bit of playtime I can scrape up in one week, only to drop it for the probably month or two I'll be utterly consumed by Elden Ring, and come back to it, so I'm holding off. This is fine, it's been my plan all along.

My girlfriend will be playing it, though. So I either have to 1. assiduously avoid looking at the big TV in the biggest, most central room in our house to avoid spoilers, 2. accept that I will see and hear things and remind myself that spoilers aren't the end of the world (they totally are UGH), or 3. give in and just watch along with her as she plays. (I probably won't be able to follow along much though, like if she's playing while I'm still working since she gets off earlier than I do. So even if I wanted to that might not be a great option.)

 

[lincolnic]

I'm also holding off on HFW until after Elden Ring, but it's less of a big deal here since I'm the only one who'll be playing either. Hope you don't get too much spoiled for you, Paul!