Metal Gear Solid has such a unique mood compared to the others. Everything's so cold and cavernous, with a real eerie, echoey vibe to it.
Speaking of mood:
Forum posts
In general I think most tracker music has something to it that modern music is missing, propably the fact that it's created with love and passion, and not money in mind.I don't know about that last bit, but I definitely agree that tracker music has a really unique sound. It's a big part of why Unreal, Tournament and Deus Ex sound so great. Ion Maiden will be using it too, which is just awesome.
You didn't win, we're just getting started!
Looks great, can't wait!
Well the Ubisoft, PC Gamer and Sony conferences have come and gone. Not much there that interests me personally, except for Nioh 2 and a few others. Nioh 1 is a treasure that out-Dark-Soul'd Dark Souls. I look forward to the inevitable arms race between FromSoftware and Team Ninja.
Beyond Good and Evil 2 got a new trailer and some very quick gameplay footage. It looks nothing like the original and is pushing for a gritty, space-faring opera thing now, I'm sure that's interesting to some people.
The Last of Us 2 got a gameplay reveal and it's becoming impossible to tell where the script begins and ends. If you're a fan of that, Oscar bait with zombies, and creepy uncanny valley faces, it's probably the game for you.
Rick & Morty guy has the most Rick & Morty looking game on the way. I'm sure somebody laughed.
Resident Evil 2's remake also got a trailer, but no word on if it's going to have the classic Resident Evil gameplay yet. Also one for fans of creepy uncanny valley faces.
Hideo 'Somebody Stop Him' Kojima revealed a new trailer for Death Stranding, leaving everyone more confused than ever. I blame everybody for enabling this madman.
Grimdark seems to be the trend right now, so maybe that's why the colourful new Spiderman looks interesting to me. Open world games have to have something special to interest me these days, so I hope this one turns out creative and fun.
Aaaand loads of other games that are escaping my memory. Only Nintendo's presentation left to go, now!
Beyond Good and Evil 2 got a new trailer and some very quick gameplay footage. It looks nothing like the original and is pushing for a gritty, space-faring opera thing now, I'm sure that's interesting to some people.
The Last of Us 2 got a gameplay reveal and it's becoming impossible to tell where the script begins and ends. If you're a fan of that, Oscar bait with zombies, and creepy uncanny valley faces, it's probably the game for you.
Rick & Morty guy has the most Rick & Morty looking game on the way. I'm sure somebody laughed.
Resident Evil 2's remake also got a trailer, but no word on if it's going to have the classic Resident Evil gameplay yet. Also one for fans of creepy uncanny valley faces.
Hideo 'Somebody Stop Him' Kojima revealed a new trailer for Death Stranding, leaving everyone more confused than ever. I blame everybody for enabling this madman.
Grimdark seems to be the trend right now, so maybe that's why the colourful new Spiderman looks interesting to me. Open world games have to have something special to interest me these days, so I hope this one turns out creative and fun.
Aaaand loads of other games that are escaping my memory. Only Nintendo's presentation left to go, now!
Cyberpunk 2077 and Sekiro are definitely the two that interest me the most. I'm hoping some Cyberpunk gameplay will be shown after the conferences, but I'm all for the world they've shown off. As for Sekiro it looks to have that trademark FromSoftware combat, but I'm guessing from that footage it's more story-driven, faster paced adventure. I'm betting all the souls flavour stuff like bonfires and estus are gone, and they'll experiment more with new systems to push for more agile combat.
What I want:
- A new Valve teaser, doesn't even have to be Half-Life 3. I think they're going to want to prove they're still doing something.
- From Nintendo: Metroid Prime 4, Pokemon Switch (unlikely), Wonderful 101 on Switch. New IPs.
- Something all new by FromSoftware, or a revival of one of their more obscure older titles (Kuon, King's Field)
- Cyberpunk 2077 revealed, and it's a tight, single-player RPG experience in a much smaller world than The Witcher 3.
- Nu-Doom II: Hell on Earth U will probably show up.
- Sony will demonstrate some sort of new dad simulator cobbled together from some long lost franchise.
- Rabbids x Nintendo IP: The Memening.
- EA acting faux apologetic about loot boxes, before demonstrating some brand new way to go about being shitters.
Unforeseen Consequences. Waking up and backtracking through the ruined labs is still fantastically moody. It's also a nice introduction to the enemies, environmental hazards and general pacing you can expect in the early chapters.
This post was made on a thread that has been deleted.
I've been playing through Yakuza Kiwami and loving it to bits, so I'm excited for the upcoming Yakuza Kiwami 2, and playing through all the other Yakuza titles already out. They aren't new but I also have Bloodborne and Okami HD waiting to be cracked open for the PS4.
We don't know anything about them yet, but I'm keeping an eye out for Metroid Prime 4 and the untitled Pokemon game for the Switch. Lord knows it needs some games.
On the PC front I'm waiting for Routine (what the hell happened to this?), Call of Cthulhu and Overload. Super long term there's also Cyberpunk 2077 and System Shock 3 to look forward to. There's probably others I'm forgetting about.
I guess I could check out Monster Hunter World, though I don't really know much about it. DOOM II is a big "err maybe" depending on how they handle things (also stop rebooting these things with the same exact name, dammit).
Dream game: Flora's Fruit Farm 2. It's about due.
We don't know anything about them yet, but I'm keeping an eye out for Metroid Prime 4 and the untitled Pokemon game for the Switch. Lord knows it needs some games.
On the PC front I'm waiting for Routine (what the hell happened to this?), Call of Cthulhu and Overload. Super long term there's also Cyberpunk 2077 and System Shock 3 to look forward to. There's probably others I'm forgetting about.
I guess I could check out Monster Hunter World, though I don't really know much about it. DOOM II is a big "err maybe" depending on how they handle things (also stop rebooting these things with the same exact name, dammit).
Dream game: Flora's Fruit Farm 2. It's about due.
Pretty sure that's the time-out room and they put naughty scientists up there with scissor lifts.
I really like both for different reasons, but I guess you've gotta hand this one to Surface Tension.
Power Up is just really well done, the multi-level generator complex you'll run through multiple times from different angles is a great bit of interconnected level design. I'm also a big fan of levels where the exit is cheekily just meters away from where you entered, and you have to go on a freaking odyssey just to open it.
But Surface Tension is Surface Tension. It's the game's crowning moment. A relentless tour de force of everything that makes Half-Life what it is. Might as well hand the whole thing to Surface Tension, we all know it's going to end there!
I almost feel bad for Power Up being pitted against Surface Tension this early in the tournament.
Power Up is just really well done, the multi-level generator complex you'll run through multiple times from different angles is a great bit of interconnected level design. I'm also a big fan of levels where the exit is cheekily just meters away from where you entered, and you have to go on a freaking odyssey just to open it.
But Surface Tension is Surface Tension. It's the game's crowning moment. A relentless tour de force of everything that makes Half-Life what it is. Might as well hand the whole thing to Surface Tension, we all know it's going to end there!
I almost feel bad for Power Up being pitted against Surface Tension this early in the tournament.
Welcome!
I guess I'm going to be the loon who votes for Xen.
Inbound is great for establishing mood, but Xen's a hands-on chapter that changes the whole game. You're on the alien's turf now, and it's not welcoming. It helps that I love platforming in Half-Life, and all that precarious ledge-crawling you've been doing is about to be put to the test.
Xen (the place) doesn't suck until the alien factory at the end of Interlopers, but Xen (the chapter) is a great introduction.
Inbound is great for establishing mood, but Xen's a hands-on chapter that changes the whole game. You're on the alien's turf now, and it's not welcoming. It helps that I love platforming in Half-Life, and all that precarious ledge-crawling you've been doing is about to be put to the test.
Xen (the place) doesn't suck until the alien factory at the end of Interlopers, but Xen (the chapter) is a great introduction.
This one is tougher, because the Hazard Course is great, but Questionable Ethics wins for Urby's reasons above. Also illogical death lasers and an out of control "surgery" machine are just too much fun.
Power Up, easily!
This is amazing. It's a difficult style to pull off. I'm going to have a lot of fun going through these!
Oh, I had no idea zhlt_copylight was a thing. That's perfect.
I can't imagine whatever r_speeds the old version was getting were worth worrying about, but the new one looks fine too! Your textures are groovy.
You need to recompile the model so it's origin point falls somewhere outside of the shadowed area. Assuming it's origin is dead center, it would be sampling it's lighting from the shaded ground below it.
To be honest, I think the lighting on the shadowed screenshot looks better anyway, it has more depth than the flat lit version. That model is simple enough that you could build it out of brushes and have perfect lighting all round, anyhoo.
To be honest, I think the lighting on the shadowed screenshot looks better anyway, it has more depth than the flat lit version. That model is simple enough that you could build it out of brushes and have perfect lighting all round, anyhoo.
Ion Maiden is the real bloody deal, it feels like some lost Build game just got unearthed. The increased engine limits make for some impressively large, complex maps and the sprite work is insanely good.
I can't wait for the full campaign.
I can't wait for the full campaign.
Very nice, Victor. Unfiltered textures too, I see you are a man of taste.
Same for all the work on the last page, people are still rocking GoldSrc.
Killer mood for everyone.
Same for all the work on the last page, people are still rocking GoldSrc.
Killer mood for everyone.
That looks great. Killer mood.
There are many reasons for a person to find trouble with motivation, determination and self-worth other than laziness. While I do think some of your comments are supposed to be helpful in some abrasive way, demeaning him is not. Not even slightly, so watch how you treat people around here.
Good idea. Going to include console games in my list, and leave off a few more forgettable ones.
Shantae: Risky's Revenge, Pirate's Curse and Half-Genie Hero
Great little metroidvanias. Full of character, cute art and loads of secrets. Not particularly challenging.
Dishonored 2
Very disappointing.
Resident Evil 7
I was expecting it to be a lot worse. REmake is still the king, but this really aint half bad. Story sucks.
Desync
Best shooter I played all year.
Wolfenstein: The New Order
Worst shooter I played all year.
NieR: Gestalt/Replicant
Really damn scrappy, but creative in it's own, weird way. I'd struggle to say I enjoyed it all, but it was fascinating from start to finish.
Yooka-Laylee
Ultimately pretty forgettable. Just doesn't have the same finesse as it's predecessors.
Shadowrun: Hong Kong
Not as tight as Dragonfall, but a great little iso RPG. I'm a sucker for fantasy and cyberpunk. Something stirs deep in the heart of Kowloon Walled City.
Splatoon 2
Just like the first - a total blast online.
Prey
Not perfect, but an admirable spiritual successor to System Shock. This is the game Bioshock should have been.
PUBG
Unoptimised, prefabricated, glitchy... and surprisingly fun with a squad.
Super Mario Odyssey
A return to form for 3D Mario games, even if it's too damn big for it's own good.
NieR: Automata
A lot more polished than the original, but just as bloody weird. Swish combat, amazing music and existential robots.
Nioh
The best damn Dark Souls clone out there. Plenty of it's own great ideas, and better combat. Maybe the best game I've played this year.
Shantae: Risky's Revenge, Pirate's Curse and Half-Genie Hero
Great little metroidvanias. Full of character, cute art and loads of secrets. Not particularly challenging.
Dishonored 2
Very disappointing.
Resident Evil 7
I was expecting it to be a lot worse. REmake is still the king, but this really aint half bad. Story sucks.
Desync
Best shooter I played all year.
Wolfenstein: The New Order
Worst shooter I played all year.
NieR: Gestalt/Replicant
Really damn scrappy, but creative in it's own, weird way. I'd struggle to say I enjoyed it all, but it was fascinating from start to finish.
Yooka-Laylee
Ultimately pretty forgettable. Just doesn't have the same finesse as it's predecessors.
Shadowrun: Hong Kong
Not as tight as Dragonfall, but a great little iso RPG. I'm a sucker for fantasy and cyberpunk. Something stirs deep in the heart of Kowloon Walled City.
Splatoon 2
Just like the first - a total blast online.
Prey
Not perfect, but an admirable spiritual successor to System Shock. This is the game Bioshock should have been.
PUBG
Unoptimised, prefabricated, glitchy... and surprisingly fun with a squad.
Super Mario Odyssey
A return to form for 3D Mario games, even if it's too damn big for it's own good.
NieR: Automata
A lot more polished than the original, but just as bloody weird. Swish combat, amazing music and existential robots.
Nioh
The best damn Dark Souls clone out there. Plenty of it's own great ideas, and better combat. Maybe the best game I've played this year.
I should check this game out. Sounds like an amazing breeding ground for emergent stories.
Gunpoint was brilliant, too.
Gunpoint was brilliant, too.
I think the technical term is Friggin Huge. ;DI checked it out, boy you weren't kidding! Amazing.
I ran through this again with commentary, and got all the achievements. I even found V.A.T.S, the website, and got the secret achievement. It was so worth it for Judgement-Bot 9000. I can't imagine how confusing it was to script those two machines in Goldsource.
That was a glorious little bit of outrun. Incredible mood, and so many great little details.
I played on hard and it really was hard. Also, normally I don't care for achievements, but having only six, and them being locked to a single playthrough I think actually makes it worth going back for another run.
Thanks also for including the source files, they're going to be interesting to peek at. I'm real curious what scale you built those terminals at for the intro cinematic, they look real swish for Goldsource.
I played on hard and it really was hard. Also, normally I don't care for achievements, but having only six, and them being locked to a single playthrough I think actually makes it worth going back for another run.
Thanks also for including the source files, they're going to be interesting to peek at. I'm real curious what scale you built those terminals at for the intro cinematic, they look real swish for Goldsource.
Doom 4's... okay. Sorta middling, nothing great. There's a good shooter in there kinda drowned out by lots of pointless progression junk. The encounters started getting monotonous because they all followed the same formula: enter obvious arena - destroy hell nest - fight off the horde. Doom 1/2 obfuscated the encounters more, sure there were spooky monster closets, but they had a large variety of pre-populated enemies lying in wait to ambush you or offer unique room-by-room threats.
Doom 3 was:
I don't hate either game.
Doom 3 was:
- a terrible DOOM game
- a sorta ambitious tech experiment
- a more traditional horror shooter
I don't hate either game.
Very cool. Synthwave is an odd choice for a brutalist concrete prison, but if it works, it works!
This post was made on a thread that has been deleted.
One of the few times I wish I could 'thumbs up' a post on TWHL...
Looks like a remake of Uplink for Black Mesa. Awesome.
I'm starting to pity the poor bastards who have to judge this one.
...
Oh.
...
Oh.
Re-imagine a HL level at one-hundredth the size and knock that out in 2 days. It ain't against the rules!
Fixed the links for you.
E1M1. I like it.
E1M1. I like it.
Yup, judging this one will be difficult.
Looks like the first one, the Berlin mission. The first part of that level, where you meet a number of undercover contacts, is one of the funniest things ever put in a game.
Always good to see more people enjoying Deus Ex!
JeffMOD: You pretty much listed all the issues I had with Blade of Agony. The 1.5 second stamina bar is probably the worst, they'd be better off dropping it and boosting your overall speed. That bonus level too... started off so well then quickly became my least favourite mission. Some severe conveyance issues in the maps too, and I've played my share of huge, labyrinthine Doom maps.
But I'm feeling more positive about it in hindsight. It's such an insane technical achievement, the levels, weapons and enemies are mostly good fun. And yeah, the Sten rocked.
JeffMOD: You pretty much listed all the issues I had with Blade of Agony. The 1.5 second stamina bar is probably the worst, they'd be better off dropping it and boosting your overall speed. That bonus level too... started off so well then quickly became my least favourite mission. Some severe conveyance issues in the maps too, and I've played my share of huge, labyrinthine Doom maps.
But I'm feeling more positive about it in hindsight. It's such an insane technical achievement, the levels, weapons and enemies are mostly good fun. And yeah, the Sten rocked.
The filenames give it away! It's On A Rail. The first screenshot is the junction where you have to move the claw.
Nice idea!
Nice idea!
I have to pick that up now that the full season is out. Keep hearing great things, which is super surprising after Absolution.
Bump!
I recently played through Blade of Agony, a mod for Doom 2 that creates a whole new Wolfenstein story with many new features. I was looking forward to this one for a while, but unfortunately it has a bunch of rather annoying design choices that let it down. I walked away from this one a lot less positive than when I started. It is a pretty great looking game for the most part, though. It has a really unusual case of inconsistency where instead of the odd low quality texture or model, you find ones that look far too detailed compared to the rest of the game. Very odd. It's also super classy.
And now I've started playing the new Hitman, which is pretty effin' fantastic so far. It sucks that it's got always-online DRM though, I've already been booted from the game once. It's solo play, dagnammit.
Bump!
I recently played through Blade of Agony, a mod for Doom 2 that creates a whole new Wolfenstein story with many new features. I was looking forward to this one for a while, but unfortunately it has a bunch of rather annoying design choices that let it down. I walked away from this one a lot less positive than when I started. It is a pretty great looking game for the most part, though. It has a really unusual case of inconsistency where instead of the odd low quality texture or model, you find ones that look far too detailed compared to the rest of the game. Very odd. It's also super classy.
This post was made on a thread that has been deleted.
Warning: if you play The Witcher 3 you may get sucked into a 150 hour supermassive fun hole.
I tried this once for some glass and metal trims. It looked great until I shined the flashlight on them and the reflection became unusually bright. Have you found a way around that?
Yep, that looks great kruk. It shows exactly what all the DUSK models are missing, particularly that you actually put some thought into the joints, shadows and highlights.
Perhaps a little high poly compared to the games DUSK is imitating, I don't remember heads being that round back in the 90s!
Perhaps a little high poly compared to the games DUSK is imitating, I don't remember heads being that round back in the 90s!
I was briefly following this game but it does look like a bit of a dud, unfortunately. I love a low-poly/low-fi aesthetic, but this doesn't really look like it's trying there. It takes real talent to make a low-poly model with a convincing amount of implied detail. These look like a bunch of triangles hurriedly slapped together, which wouldn't have made the grade even in the early 90's.
I shouldn't judge too harshly from one trailer but the level design also looks like it's made of long, straight corridors, barren outdoor arenas and simple, boxy houses, none of which are very true to any of the games it's name-dropping. Doom is known for sprawling, non-linear, abstract levels that still managed a tonne of height variation, and Quake used it's 3D engine to push for proper verticality, complexity and overlapping pathways. This trailer just feels disingenuous.
But you never know. The guns look quite punchy, the movement looks fast, and the way you can tumble upside down for totally free aiming while airborne looks pretty cool. There also seems to be a quick slide/dash move in there that could be fun. I might still check it out... if the price is right.
I shouldn't judge too harshly from one trailer but the level design also looks like it's made of long, straight corridors, barren outdoor arenas and simple, boxy houses, none of which are very true to any of the games it's name-dropping. Doom is known for sprawling, non-linear, abstract levels that still managed a tonne of height variation, and Quake used it's 3D engine to push for proper verticality, complexity and overlapping pathways. This trailer just feels disingenuous.
But you never know. The guns look quite punchy, the movement looks fast, and the way you can tumble upside down for totally free aiming while airborne looks pretty cool. There also seems to be a quick slide/dash move in there that could be fun. I might still check it out... if the price is right.
It is a bit difficult compared to Super Metroid & Fusion, yeah, but it tosses you quite a lot of upgrades in the first few hours. Some of the shinespark secrets are insane. Because it currently doesn't really teach you the intricacies of the speed boost/shinespark I only knew what to do because of Fusion. They could easily add that info into the upgrades screen, however.
Really wish I knew what Nintendo were doing with Metroid, it's quite sad how they're neglecting it. I don't think they even did anything for it's 30th anniversary?
Really wish I knew what Nintendo were doing with Metroid, it's quite sad how they're neglecting it. I don't think they even did anything for it's 30th anniversary?
Just finished AM2R, the Metroid 2 fan remake that Nintendo recently shut down. You can't really fault them for protecting their IP, but considering it wasn't for profit, and what they've done with the Metroid IP lately, it seems pretty mean spirited.
Anyway the game is damn good. Except for maybe a couple of WIP elements, it could so easily be a game from somewhere in the Super Metroid/Fusion era. Some top notch design here.
Anyway the game is damn good. Except for maybe a couple of WIP elements, it could so easily be a game from somewhere in the Super Metroid/Fusion era. Some top notch design here.