Danmaku games are more about parsing patterns and fine motor skills than ‘twitch’ reactions.

I mean, for years my main relaxation thing was to thrash my way through random Dynasty Warriors games. (These days I’m more likely to be watching speedruns on twitch and talking about random retro game stuff in the chat)

Pro Evo is my brain dead go to.

Love it.

I don't really have a go to brain dead game. I have found myself more recently needing to play a 'wind down' game before taking myself off to bed, though. Something like Flower or Grow Home, just anything relatively tranquil otherwise my brain is still too hyped up trying to get to sleep. When I was playing Sekiro I genuinely had a nightmare where ninjas were chasing me

Alex79uk wrote: ↑January 23rd, 2020, 7:34 pm Something like Flower or Grow Home, just anything relatively tranquil otherwise my brain is still too hyped up trying to get to sleep. When I was playing Sekiro I genuinely had a nightmare where ninjas were chasing me

I get this alllll the time.

It’s horrific.

I get gnarly, almost fever dreams, over game mechanics and playing the game in my dream.

Sekiro gave it to me bad, Minecraft used to do it bad too.

Bloody horrible ain’t it .

Worst/best for me was playing Ikaruga. I would dream of my routes all night and then wake up stressed and nail it. Happened a few times and I started getting it again recently playing Mushihimesama Futari. It's restless sleep but it's extra processing time, as well. You internalise movements and spatial awareness.

You’re mad.

Stanshall wrote: ↑January 23rd, 2020, 10:45 pm Worst/best for me was playing Ikaruga. I would dream of my routes all night and then wake up stressed and nail it. Happened a few times and I started getting it again recently playing Mushihimesama Futari. It's restless sleep but it's extra processing time, as well. You internalise movements and spatial awareness.

I do this then still fail miserably when I wake up! At least your stressful dreams have a pay off. I’ll keep trying though, I practice every night

Suits wrote: ↑January 23rd, 2020, 10:48 pmYou’re mad.

I'm sure Ikaruga broke something up there. I've never been the same since.

Simonsloth wrote: ↑January 23rd, 2020, 10:51 pm I do this then still fail miserably when I wake up!

I wish this were a joke but I think it helped watching super play vids before bed so my brain internalised the right stuff! Otherwise, you're just repeating yourself. I can't believe I actually think this is true but as I say, I've never truly recovered.

It's a bit of a thread tangent but yeah, pallet cleansers for me are generally visual novel games. Last night for example, after the shmups I fired up Phoenix Wright to pick up where I left off there for a bit, helps with the comedown and adrenaline you get from concentrating etc - pretty much every night ends with some visual novel game, even if it's just a few minutes.

hazeredmist wrote: ↑January 22nd, 2020, 5:33 pm Crimzon Clover is amazing. Finished it many times but no 1cc. The lock-on stuff is SO satisfying. I actually had no idea it was an arcade game, I thought it was an indie thing? Was it a proper cab?

Yup, it was built into a candy cab. But it's an arcade re-release or retooling of the PC game. The lead designer's a top DDP player, so I imagine he was pushing to release it to arcades as well.

I've legit had lots of dreams about games - some just using fragmentary elements, some total experiences. Perhaps the scariest one I've had in recent memory was last year, when I had an Apex Legends dream in first person. But I was physically there. And the danger was very real. I was hiding in the corner of a house hoping no one would find me, and when someone did, I felt genuine existential dread as I realized my shields were disappearing before my eyes.

It's really hard to describe - it put the disconnect between the screen and reality into perspective. Obviously, not being there, the experience is fun. You fight, you die, you have a laugh, you respawn. But if you were in that reality? It would be fucking terrifying. The horrors of war and combat are... Truly terrifying. Perhaps this is why horror games don't scare me? They're not something that could happen. But the idea of being huddled with a gun, hoping to every god in every pantheon that you don't receive a bullet to the brain... That's horrifying.

But on a lighter note, I'll be playing Metroid Prime 3 again this weekend. Michiel is welcome to watch a bit more of it.

Tried the first hour of Wolfenstein The New Order and hated it. Perfect use of PS Now to be honest, because I was going to buy it if I saw it cheap anywhere.

Just to say that I didn't think the first hour or so of that game was much cop... but I stuck with it and ended up liking it so much that I played it until I got the Platinum.

The first hour is very much generic 90s shooter then after a bit it starts to show it’s true colours and is quite brilliant! Give it a few more and you’ll see!

Wolfenstein, the newer ones, are really hard to recommend. The first one is BETTER from a gameplay standpoint, but it becomes a wave-based shooter with VERY few checkpoints pretty quickly. The story is fantastic, but the gameplay... Honestly, not much to write home about. It's not bad, but I found it pretty tedious.

The second one though... The story is fantastic, but the gameplay is straight-up bad for large portions of the game, especially in the first half where your dude is incredibly frail.

They're rare games where I actually recommend watching a stream of them over actually playing them. To each their own, of course, but I personally have zero interest in replaying either.

clippa wrote: ↑January 25th, 2020, 7:36 am Can I push you gently in the direction of Nightmare Reaper? - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1051 ... re_Reaper/

From what people are saying, it might play the same trick as serious sam 3 where for the first hour it goes modern boring fps campaign, modern boring fps campaign, just kidding, endless waves of bomb headed men!

No, because I don't play games on PC, still.



Hmm, yeah sounds like Wolfenstein may have got better but I'm not a big fan of FPS (I really didn't like the Doom reboot either) so maybe it's just not for me. I'm going to try Mafia 3 or Saints Row IV.

I felt compelled to jump back into Red Dead Redemption 2 after listening to the podcast. There's so much that I missed. I'm enjoying the self-satisfied and leisurely feeling of a rewatch. I already know the key story beats so I can now tune more fully into the secondary elements. I also don't have an urge to see the next chapter or the ending. I explored a lot in my first playthrough but I am completely on my own time now. I rarely replay games and have never replayed anything more than 10 hours long but I know I'll see this through again over the next few months. I've been encouraged by two random encounters within 30 minutes of the map being opened up, both of which are new to me despite clocking up 80 hours in 2018. Is it possible these have been added post-release?

What were they?

I've actually started the first Red Dead Redemption again.

The first was a guy trying to replace a horseshoe and as I approached he was kicked stone dead by his mount. The second was a hunter being attacked by a bear. I was creeping behind the hunter so see what he was doing and then he was almost mauled. I helped scare off the bear with my sawed-off. Such simply little mini-stories but they breath life into the world.