nibilly's Posts

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7 Yrs#
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7 Yrs#
Just finished Signalis, and here's my quick recap:

Pros:
Interesting setting and characters.
Enjoyable puzzle mechanics.

Cons:
Abstract, open ended story left me very unsatisfied.
Enemies respawn - which for a game that needs a fair amount of backtracking, is really not fun.

8/10 for me. Above average but not spectacular.
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7 Yrs#
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7 Yrs#
Just finished the game, was a bit anxious about playing this one as I generally don't enjoy platformers, and people mentioned the Meat Circus being difficult.

Pros:
Charming whimsical story and design with great atmosphere and characters.
Playing this game made me feel like a kid again, warm and cozy feelings.
Good level of challenge.
Using Clairvoyance on various characters to see how they view Raz is hilarious.

Cons:
Controls a bit clunky.
A little vague of what to do at times (though the old man helps immensely).

Solid 8/10

Lasty, I'm a terrible platformer but surprisingly didn't find the game too difficult. Most areas/bosses beat first try. Not sure why the Meat Circus has such an infamous reputation. I played the Steam version so I wonder whether they changed the difficulty?
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7 Yrs#
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7 Yrs#
Hope you guys enjoy the GOTM, I'll be sitting this one out. Keen to tackle this one day eventually though!
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Video Game Book Club

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7 Yrs#
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7 Yrs#
Do my eyes deceive me that a GTA has never been GOTM? I nominate Grand Theft Auto 4
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7 Yrs#
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7 Yrs#
Replying to knalb
The constant crashing would be annoying and cause me major stress.

Out of curiosity did you mod the game? I find with older large open world games (Baldurs gate, Fallout, Morrowind etc) they run best when lightly modded with modern performance patches. It's a bit of work at the start, but saves you a lot of headache over the course of a long playthrough.

During my 120ish hours in FNV the game only crashed once or twice.

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7 Yrs#
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7 Yrs#
Replying to knalb

Excellent write-up and I mirrored your thoughts.

Games in this era had yet to implement in-game tutorials and instead relied on a physical manual that players were expected to read prior to starting the game - I am really glad this is mostly a thing of the past! I did read through the manual before starting my playthrough, it helped set the scene and get my bearings, though it also contained gameplay spoilers like all the items/weapons/levels that you were going to encounter.

I know there are people annoyed with how many remasters/remakes we get nowadays, but System Shock is a perfect example of a worthy of remake. Such a great concept and synopsis, held back by limitations of it's time. Really looking forward to playing through the remake, but I will give myself a gap so it won't feel like playing the same game back to back.

knalb - do you think you'll play the remake?
7 Yrs#
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7 Yrs#
Managed some long sessions this weekend and completed System Shock 1 (1994 version).

Pros:
Very interesting setting and characters. SHODAN makes a refreshing and creepy villain. It's sad reading about the rebels getting killed off one by one.
Game does not hand-hold the player. You actually need to read logs, make notes and problem solve. It's satisfying when you work it out for yourself.
Exploring the station was very cool. Getting to visit all the varied levels.
Weapons are great.
Found a funny Easter egg in the Eel Zapper mini game: All the high scores are SHODAN except for the bottom one which is Diego.

Cons:
Time has aged this game. UI is clunky. Simple tasks like picking up items is slow and tedious. I played KB and mouse - was there a KB shortcut to reload your weapon? I played through the game using the mouse to reload.
Sometimes you miss a button, and waste time running back and forth until you finally find what you missed.

7/10 - and looking forward to playing the remake at a later date!

7 Yrs#
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7 Yrs#
So far I have similar thoughts as knalb. Game has aged poorly. UI is clunky - needing excessive clicks to get things done. It also has those maps that are easy to get lost (especially if you take an extended break), and really infuriating if you miss a key item/button/clue which leads to endlessly running around confused on how to progress.

I reached the reactor level, but didn't realize I missed a key thing in level 2 which halted my progress until I looked it up in frustration.

Also dislike the excessive enemy respawning.

Regardless, I'm going to persevere through this and it's sequel because they're classics.
7 Yrs#
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7 Yrs#
Very cool choice! Tried playing this and it's sequel as a kid, but was too scared. Hopefully this time round I can cope.
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7 Yrs#
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7 Yrs#
Wow really shocked that it took this long for Portal 1 to be GOTM.

Played this years ago, and still remember that first playthrough with fondest memories. Such a unique game, and absolutely worth completing at least once!
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7 Yrs#
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7 Yrs#
Playing the Ultimate edition with all DLCs, I'm about 10 hours in, and enjoying it so far.

Main gripe is I feel the DLC Gun Runners ruins the pacing. It just gifts a bunch of mid-game items straight into your starting inventory. Feels like I'm cheating TBH, and I am not disciplined enough to not use said items when in a pinch.

I remember scrimping and scrounging for every scrap at the start of every previous Fallout game, and this just defeated the early game experince. Also it's kind of spoilery seeing early-game merchants selling upgrades for thousands of caps that are clearly meant for the late game.
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Video Game Book Club

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7 Yrs#
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7 Yrs#
I nominate Red Dead Redemption 2
7 Yrs#
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7 Yrs#
No more procrastination, it's time I got around to: Red Dead Redemption 2 !
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7 Yrs#
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7 Yrs#
This is an excellent starting point for the Metroid series, and IMO is better than Fusion. Short and sweet! I highly recommend people check this one out!
7 Yrs#
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7 Yrs#
Replying to Dorobo
Good point regarding deciding a release date at a later point in development - that could alleviate pressure on devs.

I think the public could also be more forgiving with delays, it's kind of expected nowadays with major titles.
7 Yrs#
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7 Yrs#
Playing through the GTA series on PS2 and it got me thinking how rapidly devs used to to crank out games. The PS2 had 5 stand alone GTA titles which is insane by todays standards.

Also, I think modern game dev cycles are actually even longer than publicized because of the additional time needed for post launch patching and DLC addons - e.g. Cyberpunk 2077 'released' in 2020 but we should really consider 2022 as it's 'polished' release.

Personally I view longer development cycles as a generally good thing:
+ Less crunch time for devs.
+ Larger and more polished final game (PS2 GTA's averaged around 20h each, whilst GTA5 took me at least 50h).
+ I'm personally not in a rush for more game releases, my backlog is packed, and I am happy to wait for quality over quantity.

The biggest downside I see is:
– Looooong wait times in between iterations (Elder Scrolls 6? GTA 6? Fallout 5?). This doesn't bother me as I am genre agnostic and will play anything good, but for those that stick rigidly to specific franchises, I certainly sympathize with your plight.

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Video Game Book Club

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7 Yrs#
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7 Yrs#
I'm in the mood for some nostalgia so I nominate Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
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7 Yrs#
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7 Yrs#
Finished this tonight in one session. Not sure why I was expecting a turn based RPG, but was surprised to instead find a Zelda clone.

Enjoyed the short and sweet game.
Difficulty was good, a little on the easy side but I'm not complaining.
Collected all the docs and 100%ed.

A decent experience: 7/10
7 Yrs#
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7 Yrs#
Guys I forgot to vote on the tie breaker but I am so glad this game won lol.

Had it on my wishlist and it'll be a nice short palate cleanser after I finish my epic Morrowind playthrough which should be this week!
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Video Game Book Club

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7 Yrs#
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7 Yrs#
Since I've decided 2025 is the year I finally get into the Elder Scrolls series, I nominate Morrowind
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7 Yrs#
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7 Yrs#
I finished this game a couple years ago and found it to be a decent but simple and mediocre experience. The writing was a high point - light hearted and humorous.

7/10
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Video Game Book Club

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7 Yrs#
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7 Yrs#
Last minute nomination! Morrowind
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7 Yrs#
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7 Yrs#
Beat the DLC today. Got the true ending. Similar thoughts as with the base game: amazing concept but poor execution.
Spent many hours just running around helplessly lost and getting nowhere, all the while becoming more and more frustrated. Eventually caved and looked it up.

I feel bad for rating it this low considering how much love this game receives, but this has to be my most disappointing gaming experience I've had in years. Thankfully I bought it on sale.

6/10 (Base game)
5/10 (DLC)
7 Yrs#
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7 Yrs#
I've completed the main game, saw two endings - a good one and a bad one.
Going to move on to the DLC tonight.

The base game has an amazing concept, but it's execution is terrible. Two thirds of my play time was spent either repeating the same things ad nauseum, or simply waiting around for time to pass (as most things are time dependent). The gameplay lacks basic QOL features and does not respect the player's time.

I ended up using a infinite oxygen and fuel mod as that alleviated some of the frustration. It boggles my mind why the designers would even limit your oxygen and fuel - it's an exploration game, but they restrict your ability to explore! I also needed to use a guide because some of the puzzles were too obtuse.

6/10
7 Yrs#
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7 Yrs#
I am about 8ish hours in and really struggling to enjoy this game - on the verge of quitting or getting a cheat mod. Sheer stubbornness that I haven't done so already.

Just not seeing what the fuss is about, between the irritating controls, lack of checkpoints, endless repetition, lack of guidance, and slow restarts.

I don't mind difficult games, but I can't stand it when the game doesn't respect the player's time.

I'll probably give it one more session, and if still not making decent progress, I'll just cheat my way through.
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