Lurker > iiicon

Earlier tonight in discord the topic of discussion landed briefly on Parasite Eve, which made me want to replay Parasite Eve as it's been like 15 years, which made me think, "there aren't many Christmas games, huh?" Halloween is an easy holiday to prepare for. You load up on horror games and you're good to go. Christmas? Not so much.

After a bit of thinking, I've got this very short list:
Parasite Eve
Batman Origins
That Costume Quest DLC

What else is there? I'm gonna try to play through at least one game in December that's Christmas-y, and it's probably going to be Parasite Eve, but I'd like to have some options.
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Kiwami means extreme.

why is everyone saying hullabaloo
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Kiwami means extreme.

"you are deflecting" is a weird way to acknowledge a response to your specific complaint

you think tipped workers are hypocritical for taking money under the table because "they want more" and yet as this money is under the table, it's not subjected to taxes. you are concerned with norms being followed and taxes being collected.

the united states department of labour says that 83.8% or restaurants commit wage theft. this means the vast majority of workers are not collecting what they are owed and therefor not paying taxes, which seems to be your primary concern. it also means that the vast majority of businesses are committing a crime, which is a wrong you believe needs to be corrected.

"please read the topic" you don't even have any actual thought here, you're just complaining for the sake of it.
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Kiwami means extreme.

Ah, it was BattleCry! Frustratingly hard to find info about it.


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Kiwami means extreme.

Isn't Fallout 76 the result of Bethesda buying a troubled online game in development?
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Kiwami means extreme.

even in this narrow, simple-minded worldview where the only thing that matters is virtue and taxes, you would think when the department of labour reveals that 83.8% of restaurants are committing some form of wage theft that the resulting thought would be "we need to cut down on corporate wage theft so we can recapture those taxes" and not "those darn hypocritical workers"
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Kiwami means extreme.

Also, I'm not exactly sure why Fallout 76 has the gaming public's ire? It just looks... dull. It's like a Fallout 4 mod that someone is asking a lot of money for. I mean, I was surprised that Bethesda said "we're going to release a Rust/ARK game" and then didn't put the resources behind it like you assume a company that routinely puts out big open world RPGs that sell 20+ million copies would, but that's about the extent of how much I think about it. I guess that's why I'll never make it in the Youtube outrage video essay world.
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I'm trying to find a list of $60 games this gen that reviewed worse than Fallout 76, which is currently at 50 on Metacritic. It's a small list.

Homefront 2 (48)
Rodea the Sky Soldier (45)
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 (32)
Devil's Third (43)
Godzilla (38)
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Kiwami means extreme.

82.5% of waiters + bartenders work in states that allow establishments to pay workers less than the state minimum wage

83.8% of restaurants have violated some sort of labour law (working off the clock, unpaid overtime, tip infractions, refusal to settle back pay).

spending even a moment considering the supposed hypocrisy of undervalued workers shows you care more about catching them in a logical trick than their material concerns
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Must buys regardless of their availability on other platforms:
Bayonetta 1 + 2
Into the Breach
Celeste
Okami HD
Night in the Woods
Steamworld Dig 2
Bleed 2
Blaster Master Zero
Iconoclasts
Stardew Valley
Ikaruga

Good Switch exclusives:
Xenoblade 2 + Xenoblade 2: Torna standalone DLC
Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle
Splatoon 2

HaRRicH posted...

A friend said Star Allies is the best Kirby game in the series. Kirby is consistently decent-to-good, but never great. I did like Triple Deluxe though. How's this compare?

A bit smaller in scope compared to Triple Deluxe and slower to boot. It's a fine Kirby game, but outclassed by the 3DS games and won't change your mind about the series in general.

HaRRicH posted...

Didn't like Steamworld Dig on 3DS, dunno how those other ones compare.

It's not a radical change, but it's a snappier game. You progress through the world and acquire abilities at a much faster pace. The traversal abilities you get are an absolute joy to use and really tough to master for late game challenges. The music is used to great effect, too - there's this wonderful laid back track playing in the town so whenever you come back, which is often, it's a nice excuse to put up your feet, sell your gear, and talk to the townsfolk.
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Kiwami means extreme.

Oh nice this topic is still around. I'm awful with purges.

You people who voted BlacKkKlansman are crazy, and not enough people voted Blindspotting.
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ChichiriMuyo posted...

Then you don't think he's a strong up and comer?

I think he's a fine technical director who made some interesting choices in First Man - shooting the film like a contemporary 60s movie with a number of close tracking shots until they landed on the moon, framing Armstrong's obsession with work as his way of processing grief and depression, letting scenes in rockets or X15s linger just a bit longer than someone else might to amplify the sense of isolation and terror you would feel inside these "models made of balsa wood" - and I'm more interested in his future work now than I was last week. It's just that his movies failed to connect with me personally until First Man.

nipukka posted...

None of the above. Watch Hereditary instead. Now that's a movie.

so apparently after having kids I can't watch movies where visceral physical harm is inflicted to children and I quit out of that movie 30 minutes in

ffmasterjose posted...

This topic made me realize how little movies from this year I've seen.

Watch something from a different year!
.

I watched Le cercle rouge and Le jour se lve this week, what else do you want

Anyway, Sorry To Bother You was great! It's both what I expected it to be and not, because how could you expect the exact turn it takes?
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oh my bad, I just meant in how we view Chazelle.

Shirkers is on Netflix!
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not gonna lie, pretty surprised at the BlacKkKlansman turnout. my impression is that it's one of the weaker movies on the list! I wanted to watch it close to Sorry to Bother You and Blindspotting, so I think I'll watch Sorry tonight and the other two over the weekend.

also disappointed in the lack of recs. it's an earnest request, not a null vote !!
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Oh then we're pretty far apart then! I think this is his best work as a director and it's something I felt was constrained by its strict adherence to a biopic formula. Good movie that was great in parts, something I encourage people to see on the big screen, but not one of my favourites this year.

For reference, my current top 3 is First Reformed, Shirkers, and Paddington 2.
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I went off the board and watched Christmas Chronicles, which is a tolerable Christmas movie with Kurt Russell as a car-stealing hot Santa.

(the kids decided on that instead of the new MST3k season)

ChichiriMuyo posted...

First Man, and that's not available at home yet.

I caught that yesterday as I wanted to see the space scenes on the big screen before it left theatres. Very solid movie with a wonderful score. I liked it a good deal more than Whiplash and La La Land.
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I liked his last two movies a lot! People seemed a bit down on this one though.
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Yeah, I saw Black Panther. Part of being a parent means that the few movies I do get to see in theatres now are things I can take the kids to which means I've seen all the comic book and animated movies, although I've been able to sneak in the occasional Mission Impossible or First Man.
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where's all the recs, cowards
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Snrkiko posted...

did you guys all buy it

i bought assassin's creed odyssey does that count
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yeah it's the one I wanted to watch most in theatre but it was only showing at one place here that's kinda far away that doesn't have advance seating.
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on the other hand tom does like weird relics of the past so maybe he'll get huge into the first two games and not really care for the rest.
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I'm in a movie watching mood and have a bit of a backlog, so help me clear it out. It's a mix of movies I didn't get a chance to see in theatres and recent streaming additions, but I'm open to anything really.
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oh, that's unfortunate! not because 1 + 2 are bad games (well, I don't like 2), but they're a bit of a departure from what the Ys games are now, and often aren't the first games eventual Ys fans play when they first start the series. it's kinda like starting Zelda with Adventures of Link.
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are those your first ys games tom
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please be more respectful of Ken Shocknek's gaming preferences


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Yeah, the Steam Link is just an easy way to stream games from your Steam installation to your TV.
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profDEADPOOL posted...

The right "analog" stick requires a lot of adjusting and fine tuning to work better than just a normal analog stick tho, which is p lame, and the d-pad kinda sucks.

There are ton of games where you can configure the right pad to work as a mouse for looking around and it's very useful. It's my favourite PC controller for playing third person games like Dark Souls or Hitman. Having an extra set of bumpers where you fingers usually rest is useful too. Some people get really into mapping out controller shortcuts but I've never been comfortable doing so.

ShatteredElysium posted...

So basically if I have a spare laptop/computer I could leave it turned on in a corner somewhere and use this box to play games on the TV with a controller? And any controller works? That's amazing, how did I not know about this earlier.

It'd probably be easier to hook up your laptop directly!
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Punnyz posted...

ya

=(
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Hey Pun, is your store opening Thursday at 3? I really hope that's not a company mandate.
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https://twitter.com/Wario64/status/1057990466476498944

not to be glib but just follow wario64!
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Punnyz posted...

It has nothing to do with this

but for some reason this topic made me miss Club Nintendo

hell i'll even take the death throes of club nintendo where we waited every month for a good update and all we got was urban champion as a digital reward
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Kiwami means extreme.

wow, if nintendo had sent that out a year ago, prima might still be in business

makes you think.
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Unbridled9 posted...

The issue is that you have people who clearly do NOT understand even the basics of how gaming functions (the kind of people who think every game is Mario) coming in and imposing their own personal values

can we get a list of these writers, i am genuinely curious what you're pulling from here.

Unbridled9 posted...

Complaining about Kratos's hyper-masculinity is something determined not by the game in the slightest but by real-life values and definitions.

I would really like it if you could stop conflating criticism and complaining! And for you to clearly state why thematic elements a game brings up are off limits when discussing a game! And if it's not too much, for you to understand people aren't criticizing masculinity itself (you might be under the impression that masculinity = men, I dunno), but rather discussing God of War's limited portrayal of masculinity, and the values it assigns certain aspects of performative masculinity. There's some good pieces out there - Dia Lacina wrote two solid articles at Deorbital and Waypoint, and Gita Jackson covered another angle at Kotaku.

Unbridled9 posted...

I'm saying it's wrong to judge a game based on your personal opinions.

That is literally what happens when you internalize media and formulate thoughts.

Unbridled9 posted...

After all, how would you feel if someone said Mass Effect was a terrible game because it allowed for a lesbian relationship which is against God's word?

Well, in this weird hypothetical where I'm somehow reading this article, I'd ignore it and move on because who has time to dedicate to niche bigoted media criticism? Or maybe I'd share a link with a friend because it's a moderately funny stance?

Unbridled9 posted...

I got put on it's side simply for saying that Depression Quest was a terrible game and that critics should focus on reviewing games and not inserting their personal beliefs into the review. I don't give a crap if people make me pro, anti, or neutral on GG. Just that you make good games and don't try to make me play some crap like Gone Home by telling me it's wonderful when it's really just you gushing over it's lesbian message.

"Are people too critical of modern games?"
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you know what's coming back for season 2

hilda
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Kiwami means extreme.

I'm big into roguelikes, and of the three in my list you could call roguelikes (Into the Breach, Dead Cells, Cultist Simulator), Dead Cells was probably my least favourite!

But yeah it's 100% your bag. it's less Metroidvania and more Castlevania as a roguelike.
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Kiwami means extreme.

I got all of round 1 in division 7 correct but my only other correct pick in the rest of the division was MMX > Ocelot.
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Gatarix posted...

okay but have you considered metroidvania roguelikes

iiicon posted...

- Dead Cells

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I find myself caring less about the presence of a speaking protagonist as time goes on and video game narratives are told in more ways. I don't think Gone Home was harmed by having a (mostly) silent protagonist. A similar narrative adventure game, Firewatch, was absolutely made better for the relationship its two main characters forged. So the last one, I guess? The quality of the protagonist goes to the quality of writing overall, which I find myself more interested in.
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Look, it might seem that every indie game today is a Metroidvania, but that's just not true. Every game that isn't a Metroidvania is a roguelike.
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Unbridled9 posted...

The issue here is not that they are, or are not, treating games fairly but, rather, that the reasons for what they say and do hold no basis in the game itself.

This is a pretty extreme opinion! I am specifically listing games that are about certain thematic elements because it should be uncontroversial to say "this game is about X, as noted by the developers themselves and in the text itself. We're going to discuss how it falls short in its ambitions." You, however, are suggesting that's off limits, that subject matters discussed in a game shouldn't be mentioned in a critical evaluation of the game. Look, if you only care about a games' mechanics, that's fine. We're probably not going to find much common ground, but if you don't care about about the history of misogyny in God of War, or how its rigid definition of masculinity limits true reflection and growth, or how it represents fatherhood vs motherhood, and only care that it's fun to throw around the ax and has surprisingly good boss fights, that's fine. You do you. But you do not get to set the limits of debate, and discussing God of War's thematic elements does have a "basis on the game itself."

Unbridled9 posted...

The people outraged about it had no clue what they were talking about and it showed to anyone who had even a basic knowledge of gaming. Likewise, a lot of the people outraged at the lack of 'strong female characters' often do so at the expense of throwing multitudes of strong female characters whom have existed in a multitude of games under the bus. Effectively because said characters didn't agree with their own personal interpretations of what such a thing should be. It becomes clear that these people are casuals at best whose knowledge of the industry doesn't go beyond trailers, mobile games, and the occasional AAA title. As such they hold no place criticizing the industry since they hold little to no actual knowledge of the industry.

if you're gonna get upset about being lumped in with GamerGate you might not want to repeat GamerGate talking points about Anita Sarkeesian verbatim.

Unbridled9 posted...

I'm going to assume from here on out that you are referring, in general, to the far left desire to censor media including video games.

I guess I'm pretty far left? I mean, I'm Canadian, so by default I'm to the left of where the internet typically defines a left/right spectrum, and moreover, I find myself constantly disappointed by how often our social democratic party capitulates on matters that should be central to the party. And I'm pretty far left in regards to free speech, which is to say, I don't think we talk enough about how oppressive forces (poverty, over-policing, limited social movement, etc) are intrinsic attacks and limits on free speech, and talk too much about trivial matters that don't actually exist (video game censorship. video game companies are not currently under threat of reprisal from the state).
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heroicmario posted...

Thats a joy of a game experience, really fresh and fun compared to your typical indie game.

You're on notice, indie games! Take your stale and unfun experience elsewhere!

VintageGin posted...

Haven't had a chance to play too many indie games this year, but I've been playing Full Metal Furies (not furries, it's not an original joke either) with my wife and it's been a lot of fun.

I always get this one and Disco Elysium mixed up, because the devs behind Disco Elysium realized what a bad name No Truce With the Furries was so they rebranded. IIRC the devs behind Full Metal Furies mentioned negative association with its name for some of its poor sales in a post-mortem?

And yeah, I wasn't big on Rogue Legacy either. I hate how it controls.
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Kiwami means extreme.

oh. well then. buy hitman 2 i guess?
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Johnbobb posted...

the way everything unfolds is just really kind of startling and compelling. The various mysteries are a blast to piece together. Solving the identities is really difficult, but nothing ever feels unfair, and when you solve them it's just such a great feeling

you know what game you should play? hitman 2016.
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TVontheRadio posted...

Vampyr is up next for me once I finish RDR2. That counts as an indie game, yeah?

i think when you're at a point where your studio is publicly listed and has multiple games in production for different large publishers you're no longer indie

but who cares, game is cool.
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Hollow Knight was 2017!
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I thought Slay the Spire hit 1.0 at some point this year?

and yeah early access makes it weird. I finally bought Caves of Qud this year after looking at it for 3 years but it's still not even 'finished.' Gungeon had a big expansion this year and I got big into that, more so than I did with the game at release. games are weird.
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oh duh, donut country is really good.

i think i cooled pretty hard on dead cells. it's super fun to get a run in right until you hit a boss. those bosses aren't fun to fight at all.
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Gamestop will have a deal where you can get a Switch, Mario Kart and a $50 GC for $300. pretty decent!
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Kamekguy posted...

This is my personal breakdown

Essential:

Castlevania (Aged incredibly well for NES, short, very hard but not unfair like CVIII)
Rondo of Blood (best version of the classicvania formula)
Symphony (is Symphony)
Aria of Sorrow OR Order of Ecclesia (either is a great way of showing where the Igavania formula evolved to)
Netflix (It's just good to watch. Well acted, well animated, got me invested in a lot of the characters)

Recommended:

Bloodlines (Damn great classic-style)
Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (not Castlevania, but is Castlevania. Antiquates III)
Whatever You Didn't Pick Out of Aria or Ecclesia
Portrait of Ruin (A great evolution of Bloodlines' dynamic)

Follow-Ups:

Super Castlevania IV (Antiquated by time, easier than the rest of the series. Was really impressive when it came out, but the design isn't stellar)
Dawn of Sorrow (Direct follow-up to Aria, would definitely do if you like Aria)
Lords of Shadow (It's not a great God of War game, but it's good)

And then just pursue the rest by what's interesting.

Yep, this is pretty spot on. I'd also add Castlevania: The Adventure Rebirth if you have a Wii you're willing to mod (because you can't buy eShop games anymore) and Castlevania Harmony of Despair if you have some friends willing to play with you. Those are fun little oddities, often overlooked by series fans.
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