Whatcha Been Playing?

[KSubzero1000]

Mechanically it's a very simple game. I don't think you can engage in combat. In fact, upon release, a number of commentators said it was more Gone Home than Resident Evil (not an exact quote).

Yes, I knew about that going in. The absence of a combat system isn't a deal-breaker: I'd rather have no combat than bad combat, after all. But I'm very pleasantly surprised by the lack of an objective marker, for example. One of the (very early) sections has you type in the codes found on a few badges into a computer system in order to unlock the door. It's completely obvious what the solution was in retrospect, but at least the game had the good grace of letting me figure it out by myself instead of bombarding me with "tips" and flashing icons. Sometimes less is more.

I've somehow managed to stay away from any story spoilers in all the years it's been out, so that should be interesting. All I remember are a few members around here praising it a lot.

[Simonsloth]

Mechanically it's a very simple game. I don't think you can engage in combat. In fact, upon release, a number of commentators said it was more Gone Home than Resident Evil (not an exact quote).

Yes, I knew about that going in. The absence of a combat system isn't a deal-breaker: I'd rather have no combat than bad combat, after all. But I'm very pleasantly surprised by the lack of an objective marker, for example. One of the (very early) sections has you type in the codes found on a few badges into a computer system in order to unlock the door. It's completely obvious what the solution was in retrospect, but at least the game had the good grace of letting me figure it out by myself instead of bombarding me with "tips" and flashing icons. Sometimes less is more.

I've somehow managed to stay away from any story spoilers in all the years it's been out, so that should be interesting. All I remember are a few members around here praising it a lot.

I’m so jealous you are experiencing this for the first time. The podcast for this game also happens to be one of the best also.

[KSubzero1000]

I’m so jealous you are experiencing this for the first time. The podcast for this game also happens to be one of the best also.

Very glad to hear that, I was planning on giving it a thorough listen afterwards!

[Magical_Isopod]

Started up SOMA after being curious about the praise it received for its narrative. Pretty early on, but very atmospheric and I appreciate the UI / lack of obvious signposting. Might there still be some hope for me in the FPH genre?

I'd be interested in reading your final opinion. I never completed it (I had the ending spoiled for me and I put it aside hoping I might forget what I read). Mechanically it's a very simple game. I don't think you can engage in combat. In fact, upon release, a number of commentators said it was more Gone Home than Resident Evil (not an exact quote).

I listened to that podcast about a year ago, and I remember being quite annoyed at how few commentators seemed to "get it", you know? Comparing it to Gome Home is super reductionist. True, there is no combat - but Soma is a game about atmosphere, philosophy and exploration. Gone Home is a roadside tourist attraction museum of interactive objects that tells a story so banal thinking about it makes me sleepy. Soma is a massive undersea complex that has you constantly questioning human identity though narrative, visual storytelling and "emergent gameplay" that helps really sell this game as a masterwork of science fiction. I can see why some don't like the Grandmother's footsteps monster encounters, but that's only like 10% of the game. The rest is wandering around the creepy aftermath of this research facility and piecing together what happened and how to keep moving.

[Simonsloth]

That’s interesting because from memory I thought the podcast addressed most of the key themes well. I’m keen to play it again so will have another listen after that.

[KSubzero1000]

Valkyria Chronicles 4 continues to impress.

I'm only a few chapters in, but I just bought all but one of the DLC packs at full price to show my support. These devs are doing all kinds of wonderful things to me and my faith in the medium and I want to do what little I can to show them that. It's a shame the overall sales appear to have been so disappointing, from what I know.

[DeadpoolNegative]

Last night, while playing NieR Automata: Become as Gods Edition, I did something I hadn't done in years- genuinely cried out in shock at a reveal.

Spoiler: show

I was just humming along, thinking this game wasn't a story sequel so much as it was a thematic sequel, which I was cool with. Then Emil showed up.

--Dan

[Magical_Isopod]

I never saw any marketing for SOMA outside of Jim Sterling doing a Let's Play preview. Seeing the first 20 minutes of the game was what sold me on it. Now, as for whether or not it's a "survival horror"... That depends solely on what you define the genre as.

I'd call SOMA a survival horror for the same reason I'd call Near Death a survival horror: You are placed in a horrific scenario, and your goal is to guide your character to survival. Near Death has *no* monsters; it doesn't even have blood or corpses or ghosts... It's a game where your plane crashes in Antarctica during a blizzard. The temperature is 40 below freezing. The sheer terror of that scenario, and the need to both keep warm and keep moving, makes for a damned good survival horror experience.

In SOMA, you wake up in a bizarre scientific research facility on the bottom of the ocean. You objective will constantly change, but the goal is *staying alive* - or as alive as you can, as it happens. Most of the horror comes from not even knowing if you can advance... Not knowing if a locked door means dying alone on the sea floor. That's the horror of the scenario. Gone Home is exactly as I said - a tacky roadside attraction of interactive objects. There is no threat, no mission, no stakes. If you are unable to distinguish the two because of a tunnel vision on gameplay mechanics alone, I can't really help you with that.

[Magical_Isopod]

Valkyria Chronicles 4 continues to impress.

I'm only a few chapters in, but I just bought all but one of the DLC packs at full price to show my support. These devs are doing all kinds of wonderful things to me and my faith in the medium and I want to do what little I can to show them that. It's a shame the overall sales appear to have been so disappointing, from what I know.

VC4 was an absolute joy to play, it's my second favourite game of the year thus far. But my God does it ever start to draaaaaag by the end. And it's really just because of budget. Mashing through comic book panels of dialogue gets so tired after 40 hours. The problem seems budgetary more than anything - recycled music, few cinematics, it's like a lower budget VC1 a decade later. But holy hecc is that gameplay ever great - diverse objectives, tons of freedom to meet them, brilliant stage design and enemy placement... I love it to bits. I just really hope VC5 gets a little more polish.

[Magical_Isopod]

I'm sorry to have disturbed your sacred pedestal, o holy one.

[Suits]

Nice bit of an early morning flirt there you pair - good to see there’s no broken hearts.



I finished Pikmin 3 last night, it was good, I’d played it before, although not finished it - now I’ve given it the time it needs.

I didn’t find it as enjoyable as the first game, although it was good.

I used the tablet mode to play the game, which is cool and gives a rather generous amount of freedom and instinctive control - overall though, I think it plays better with the GameCube controller and the ‘claw’ technique.

It took me 42 game days in all and I very much enjoyed the way in which the last area plays out - which is considerably different and utilises all of the skills you picked up through the game.

I then, seeing as though I’m into the Wii U again, started Metroid Prime Trilogy.

While it looks and sounds like it’s being projected through a flannel, I thought the controls weren’t too bad and instantly found myself getting back into it.

I might play more of this in that control scheme and see where it takes me.

Or, I might just switch back to the GameCube version.

[Magical_Isopod]

I then, seeing as though I’m into the Wii U again, started Metroid Prime Trilogy.

While it looks and sounds like it’s being projected through a flannel, I thought the controls weren’t too bad and instantly found myself getting back into it.

I might play more of this in that control scheme and see where it takes me.

Or, I might just switch back to the GameCube version.

That's strange. I find the performance of Wii games on the WiiU to actually be a marked upgrade over the actual Wii -- though I'm not entirely sure why. Mind you, my test game was Xenoblade Chronicles, which is a native Wii title. I almost wonder if the Progressive Scan mode of the GC disc is actually somehow better with HD displays than whatever the WiiU is doing to run Wii games? Quite strange.

For reference, my set-up has the Wii with Monster component cables (the quality of component actually makes a huge difference on PS2 and Wii, I've found) running into an analog component switch, out to a Component-to-HDMI converter (not upscaler), which from there runs into an HDMI switch and through a capture card. Maybe I'll make a post someday about how I used a server case to handle cable management for all this. The WiiU runs HDMI into the same switch.

Metroid Prime running off the GC disc on the Wii looks and sounds correct in comparison to my memory and reference HD stream VODs on Twitch -- though the colour was slightly washed out on my old TV (a crap bargain brand set). I've yet to test on my new TCL 4k HDR display, which I've already found has a lot of great tools for colour temperatures and smoothing. Ultimately, if you want the best Metroid Prime experience possible, I recommend playing around with Dolphin emulation. Some of the HD toolkits for the important GC/Wii/WiiU games... Wowie.

[Chopper]

I think I understand the appeal of this particular game, but so many of its elements are going against my natural play style which means I've put it down for now. I'm sorry if this isn't what you were hoping for, Choppo.

Hey, you invited yourself to this party, it had nothing to do with me

I would query why you are trying to kill the most powerful enemy in the game with whatever peashooter you've been able to buy at this stage. Also, given the many unexpected situations you will encounter, and have to change your plans on the fly, it would be better not to try for a complete run through (leaving weapons etc for others) right off the bat, but instead play to unlock the characters and complete their individual scenarios and expand their abilities.

But anyway, we don't all like the same things and that's fine; glad you gave it a shot even if it resulted in disappointment. There's always the chance one of these things will click, and open up a new appreciation of a genre.

[Chopper]

I enjoyed Magical_Isopod's takedown of Gone Home immensely.

Question for those of you who have played The Return of the Obra Dinn - did you have any trouble with navigating the menus, tracking memories etc? I like what I've seen of the game but have been immensely frustrated by the controls/navigation. There doesn't seem to be a consistent back button (whyohwhy do they have a physical door in the memories?), sometimes a 'next' or 'back' button turns up at the bottom of the screen but is not selectable, the tab and esc keys seem to work/not work at times (or at least be context sensitive, where the context is not explained), and the book is massively cumbersome to navigate. Also, the cloud of smoke that guides you to the next corpse - if you don't follow that immediately, can you still find the corpse?

I might have to start again to see if I have missed navigation instructions. I've only solved three deaths so far so no biggie, but I didn't expect the control scheme to reveal my thickness (as opposed to the mystery-solving, which I'm sure will get there in short order).

[Simonsloth]

I enjoyed Magical_Isopod's takedown of Gone Home immensely.

Chopper, I had you pegged as a fan of story focused games and thought Gone Home would be your cup of tea.

I think Gone Home is very much greater than the sum of parts because when you do strip it down to what it actually is then it isn’t quite as impressive. Whereas the cogs in the Soma machine are still extremely interesting at least to me.

You can definitely make comparisons between the two but you can’t also simply say Soma is Gone Home underwater in the future with monsters (I don’t think anyone here is saying that but I have heard it elsewhere). Perhaps there’ll be a collaboration project called Gone Soma where they do just that.

[Suits]

For reference, my set-up has the Wii with Monster component cables (the quality of component actually makes a huge difference on PS2 and Wii, I've found) running into an analog component switch, out to a Component-to-HDMI converter (not upscaler), which from there runs into an HDMI switch and through a capture card. Maybe I'll make a post someday about how I used a server case to handle cable management for all this. The WiiU runs HDMI into the same switch.

Metroid Prime running off the GC disc on the Wii looks and sounds correct in comparison to my memory and reference HD stream VODs on Twitch -- though the colour was slightly washed out on my old TV (a crap bargain brand set). I've yet to test on my new TCL 4k HDR display, which I've already found has a lot of great tools for colour temperatures and smoothing. Ultimately, if you want the best Metroid Prime experience possible, I recommend playing around with Dolphin emulation. Some of the HD toolkits for the important GC/Wii/WiiU games... Wowie.

Yes, now you're talking my language.

I'm a sort of display freak also when it comes to this sort of thing.

Get something up about your set up and what you're doing !!


However, it appears our path splits along the display-quest-rabbit-run somewhat.

Generally I always try and keep to the original hardware and optimum displays possible through their designed ideal, so things like Dolphin - even though the results can be outstanding, I kind of ignore.

Upscalers - nope. I've considered a Framemeister a few times but I have other options available me that negate the need to get one.

For my digital consoles, I have a UHD4K HDR panel, the Switch and Wii U can look a little odd around the edges, but my Samsung allows me to turn off the HDR and upscale features per port - so I can keep them at a nice crisp 1080p.

For everything else, I use a Sony PVM 20M4E.

For my GameCube and Wii particularly, I run full (RetroGamingCables) SCART RGB comp on sync - which just looks incredible, the Wii in particular looks other worldly at times. For my Wii I use the official RGB SCART which is perfectly fine. Then into a RGB splitter and into the PVM via BNC's.

All my consoles I run at RGB, apart from the N64 which I have plumbed in as S-Video, as I'm not really into modding the consoles.

My issue with the Wii player on the Wii U is that appears washed out, has a large amount of lag (which makes some games literally unplayable - Rhythm Paradise for example) it also looks pretty bad - in comparison to the PVM I have sitting behind me.

My desire to boot it up was just to see what the motion controls were like, I've never played Corruption and was thinking about checking it out.

The motion controls are not that bad at all, I think, but any play through I'd make I think will be on the Wii through the PVM in RGB, either via the GC players on the Wii (almost perfect) or the Trilogy disc, it just looks and feels that little better - plus the warm fuzzy glow of a PVM is always appealing to me.

[KSubzero1000]

I then, seeing as though I’m into the Wii U again, started Metroid Prime Trilogy.

Yay, finally!

And honestly, even as a known purist, I think the motion controls work perfectly well and I even prefer them to the original gamecube controls for their fluidity.

[Suits]

I then, seeing as though I’m into the Wii U again, started Metroid Prime Trilogy.

Yay, finally!

And honestly, even as a known purist, I think the motion controls work perfectly well and I even prefer them to the original gamecube controls for their fluidity.

Man, at first I was like - meh, movement feels weird.

Then started reading the lore of the Space Pirates at the space station again and found the scanner consoles much more friendly than the GameCube controller.

I could myself falling back into that game.....

Then I started firing with the Wii mote and was like - yep, that feels like it should and before I knew it I was into it.

Like I said above I wasn’t pleased with how it looked mind, lag was untoticable to be honest but it did look kind of cool in widescreen if I’m honest.

[Chopper]

I enjoyed Magical_Isopod's takedown of Gone Home immensely.

Chopper, I had you pegged as a fan of story focused games and thought Gone Home would be your cup of tea.

I think Gone Home is very much greater than the sum of parts because when you do strip it down to what it actually is then it isn’t quite as impressive. Whereas the cogs in the Soma machine are still extremely interesting at least to me.

You can definitely make comparisons between the two but you can’t also simply say Soma is Gone Home underwater in the future with monsters (I don’t think anyone here is saying that but I have heard it elsewhere). Perhaps there’ll be a collaboration project called Gone Soma where they do just that.

Hey now, we can enjoy things while still being critical

I enjoyed Gone Home on my first playthrough; it wasn't as impactful for me as for others, but I liked what it did and enjoyed the story beats and slow reveal.

On my second playthrough I found it to be hollow and a bit meh. I don't think it plays as well when the mystery has been revealed, but that's just me. It's the Pop Up Shop of narrative games.

That shouldn't detract from its impact amongst gamers and its pioneering effect on gaming as a whole (if Dear Esther was the first walking sim, Gone Home was the first coherent walking sim ).

Also, I am not endorsing any other views as regards Gone Home vs Soma, I am just tickled. Although SOMA is in my top ten games for sure, very high up too.

[Simonsloth]

I enjoyed Magical_Isopod's takedown of Gone Home immensely.

Chopper, I had you pegged as a fan of story focused games and thought Gone Home would be your cup of tea.

I think Gone Home is very much greater than the sum of parts because when you do strip it down to what it actually is then it isn’t quite as impressive. Whereas the cogs in the Soma machine are still extremely interesting at least to me.

You can definitely make comparisons between the two but you can’t also simply say Soma is Gone Home underwater in the future with monsters (I don’t think anyone here is saying that but I have heard it elsewhere). Perhaps there’ll be a collaboration project called Gone Soma where they do just that.

Hey now, we can enjoy things while still being critical

I enjoyed Gone Home on my first playthrough; it wasn't as impactful for me as for others, but I liked what it did and enjoyed the story beats and slow reveal.

On my second playthrough I found it to be hollow and a bit meh. I don't think it plays as well when the mystery has been revealed, but that's just me. It's the Pop Up Shop of narrative games.

That shouldn't detract from its impact amongst gamers and its pioneering effect on gaming as a whole (if Dear Esther was the first walking sim, Gone Home was the first coherent walking sim ).

Also, I am not endorsing any other views as regards Gone Home vs Soma, I am just tickled. Although SOMA is in my top ten games for sure, very high up too.

Agree with all of this. Soma is probably comfortably in my top 5 maybe even higher. I’ve only played it once and I’ve got more than a little trepidation about replaying it.