JosephS
2020
Great stuff. Part of the "spelunky-like" lineage of platformer roguelikes (along with the criminally under-appreciated catacomb kids) that understand roguelike games are supposed to be exciting . The surprising size and scope of the world is dazzling. Very funny too. Peak of the genre.
1996
Not good at all dude. The whole era of duke-likes, which has been spontaneously and inexplicably revived in the last few years with the "boomer shooter" is a tragedy. Shooters before and after this were good. Duke-likes are defined by meandering pointless level design, completely sauceless weapons, and enemies who are mostly like, fellas that stand around. Duke specifically adds "jokes". turgid stuff.
2022
really funny game.
Primarily about sensation -- making a winning build is pretty trivial after the initial unlocks. But everything is really fun! The builds are goofy, the every player's first run getting hit by a 80mph 100 bat semi truck from off screen is a crowd pleaser, etc.
Primarily about sensation -- making a winning build is pretty trivial after the initial unlocks. But everything is really fun! The builds are goofy, the every player's first run getting hit by a 80mph 100 bat semi truck from off screen is a crowd pleaser, etc.
2013
Lately I've been playing this a lot with pretty serious people, and it's, I don't know, it's fine? But in a way which is completely arresting. Impossible to place a number score
2019
Feels like going to a larp and kicking the shit out of people, or maybe showing up to a civil war re-enactment with an actual gun.
Every once in a while a zeitgeisty multiplayer game comes out where the optimal playstyle is completely orthogonal to the theme, and you can get a kind of wolves and sheep type of a format, where on any popular server winning or losing is less about strategy and more about completing one of those boat goat wolf cabbage type scenarios.
Hll has a lot of exciting ideas that could work in a straight, serious war game (one of the coolest: a small set of rectangular maps, with wide x, where the objectives are randomly set along the Y axis, so there's familiar terrain but a large combination of possible uses for it) but the two fulcrums are:
1- The thematically Realistic but ultimately counterstrike-y shooting mechanics, which successfully induce 80% of the player base into worrying about Supression and Tactics but allow the remaining 20% to easily win 1 vs 10 fights, and
2- The per squad placeable spawns, which are easily denied and destroyed by a single person, but allow virtually unlimited amounts of units to spawn from anywhere in the map, creating a flow where one of those 20% can freely set up a spawn assuming they aren't challenged by another person playing the real game, and can simultaneously stop an entire advance as long as its spawn is not adequatly defended by competent people.
incredibly funny stuff, and duels between OK players are exciting, since matches can suddenly swing off of the spawn timers of the ~5-10 people per side playing the Actual Game.
Every once in a while a zeitgeisty multiplayer game comes out where the optimal playstyle is completely orthogonal to the theme, and you can get a kind of wolves and sheep type of a format, where on any popular server winning or losing is less about strategy and more about completing one of those boat goat wolf cabbage type scenarios.
Hll has a lot of exciting ideas that could work in a straight, serious war game (one of the coolest: a small set of rectangular maps, with wide x, where the objectives are randomly set along the Y axis, so there's familiar terrain but a large combination of possible uses for it) but the two fulcrums are:
1- The thematically Realistic but ultimately counterstrike-y shooting mechanics, which successfully induce 80% of the player base into worrying about Supression and Tactics but allow the remaining 20% to easily win 1 vs 10 fights, and
2- The per squad placeable spawns, which are easily denied and destroyed by a single person, but allow virtually unlimited amounts of units to spawn from anywhere in the map, creating a flow where one of those 20% can freely set up a spawn assuming they aren't challenged by another person playing the real game, and can simultaneously stop an entire advance as long as its spawn is not adequatly defended by competent people.
incredibly funny stuff, and duels between OK players are exciting, since matches can suddenly swing off of the spawn timers of the ~5-10 people per side playing the Actual Game.
2024
Man, I don't know, I think i'm missing some kind of mental pathway for these meta-l4d like games, doing the same thing over and over again around three other people just feels kinda sad to me.
Anyway, this specific game has great movement, I think the weapons and enemies are pretty boring though. Feels like the kind of game you have to manage to get swept up by and think about what you could have done different next time, etc, to find fun.
Anyway, this specific game has great movement, I think the weapons and enemies are pretty boring though. Feels like the kind of game you have to manage to get swept up by and think about what you could have done different next time, etc, to find fun.
Unfortuantely I only like games like this now.
Not recommended but I can't lie, 4 stars.
Not recommended but I can't lie, 4 stars.
2003
really funny, really cool, sometimes scary, great sound design, one of the best pre-souls fromsoft games. It falls apart a little in the back third, but the frame of the setting and design allows it to feel like the world is deteriorating in an exciting way, rather than polish and level design simply falling aside as deadlines approached.
Played the fan translation on an emulator.
Played the fan translation on an emulator.
Played this the first time a few years ago and after a tough opening it became one of my favorite games ever made. The progression of player speed makes combat is sorta fun, and no other dungeon focused game does exploration anywehre near as well as kings field. Finding locations, enemies, items, and weapons with meaningful differences tucked into 3d environemnts is a seemingly obvious hook for a fantasy game that I've never seen effectively repeated. Great music too. I haven't successfully been able to get into the ps1 kings fields but this is a must play.
I liked the first one of these a lot, as an aaa walk and talk thing, this one is really hard to slog through. I'm maybe halfway and haven't played any in months
2021
Really fun, I think the extent to which each take on the card game is drawn out the exact right amount of time is under-appreciated.
2024
Severely overstays its welcome. Inspiring bolt of light in a deeply overly-spreadsheet genre, probably the most exciting game of the year for the first ~10 hours. Could reach 5 stars with a constrained scope.
Staggeringly beautiful game. Anybody who thinks the combat is bad should not be trusted, its a perfect execution of the game's tone and themes. The last great yakuza game before they started making pointless empty joke rpgs.
2023
This is a fun toy, 3 stars because I think I respect this attempt to make a truly micro roguelike. This is a synthesis of some of the thought process of maybe a vampire survivors or an undefeated spider, but it isn't as fun or clear as the former or as deep and exciting as the latter. Small number of moving parts you can snap together to win the game. Sorta neat! Art is grody in a fun way.
Completed = dropped after beating a few difficulty tiers with several different builds, may play a tiny bit more here and there
Completed = dropped after beating a few difficulty tiers with several different builds, may play a tiny bit more here and there
these games suck, I don’t get it. “What if Minecraft was more rote and boring”, deranged premise. Phenomenal art and music.
I like a lot of AAA games and usually can understand the appeal of the ones that I don’t enjoy but these new Zeldas are completely inscrutable to me, there’s a fundamental disconnect where I can’t process why people think they are good.
I like a lot of AAA games and usually can understand the appeal of the ones that I don’t enjoy but these new Zeldas are completely inscrutable to me, there’s a fundamental disconnect where I can’t process why people think they are good.