crispy4000

Time Spent: ~30 min Rating: ***½ Someone really liked Link to the Past: wake up from sleep, go kill rats under the castle, defeat the evil wizard taking over the world with his dark forces, etc. But something about the polish on display here elevates it, in a way that other games like Archvalle don't reach. The 3 hit sword combo has you swinging like an unstoppable maniac, and its twist on the lunge attack is cool. The visuals greatly benefit from the subtle bloom effects applied everywhere. As a tribute game, it feels close to Shovel Knight's level, but lacks that little twist that pushes it beyond clone status. Music is a cross between 8-bit and 16-bit, it slightly clashes with the visuals.

The rest of the list has leaked . Still a chance of being wrong, but here we go... All in all, I'm quite happy with the selections this year.

Time Spent: ~1 hour Rating: ***½ Okay, this game is legit cool. It's got politicking & resource management, decisions on which of your subjects to appease, character development based on your decisions, and some Oregon Trail-like consequences. The last bit is its best and worst aspect. You never know if the choices you make will pan out for the best; the consequences of each moral choice feel directed as the designers dictate. Supposedly the game has a fail state, meaning you can actually lose the game if your resources deplete, which I think is neat for a short, not run-based game. The art is very Lucas Arts, and while I don't love that you can't make out the faces, the backdrops are a highlight. I felt a little bit of the tedium setting in by the end of an hour, checking in on the castle grounds each in-game week. But overall, I really enjoyed my time with this one so far.

Time Spent: ~20 minutes Rating: *½ Pokemon gameboy redux. It's basically those games, sans the visual charm of throwing pokeballs or the fun to the fantasy of it. (they're just called "monsters") Walking/running somehow feels worse than in those old Pokemon games, and there's some combat balance issues from the onset. The UI is also not intuitive and ugly, my text is offset slightly different than in the above screenshot. On the positive, you can see monsters in the field before you encounter them. There's probably a decent game here, but I'd rather play a Pokemon proper than spend hours on a second rate clone.

I'm happy with the games so far personally. DNF Duel, Art of Rally, Snakebird and Cursed to Golf were all good pickups for me so far.

https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/snakebird-complete-e6f0ae Snakebird Complete today

-40% South of the Circle on GOG.com WWW.GOG.COM South of the Circle is an emotional narrative experience with a deep multi-layered cine

Only got Mario Rabbids 2 for Christmas itself. But I did pick up Tinykin in December and put in a bit of time there. As with Castle of Illusion in November. For other pickups, I’ll be getting to Crisis Core and Jedi Survivor next year.

I actually haven’t watched the video yet, but going by DF’s discussions of these games in the past, I think they’re totally reasonable to harp on stutter. You may not notice it (much) while playing, but they’re typically good about parsing out representative clips where the stutter is plainly obvious and distracting. Most of us have played on older consoles where frame dips led to much worse experiences and frame time variances. So I think a lot of our tolerances and biases might come from that. But when PC is supposed to be able to power through things with the right set up, it is unacceptable when a game comes out that can’t reach console-grade smoothness. The solution of stutter on PC isn’t a simple one. But it’s good that they call attention to it, so that engine makers and port teams don’t think it’ll fly with PC gamers. If Jedi Survivor sells worse on PC, then good.

I’ve loved what I’ve played of Pikmin 4 so far. It’s fantastic, the perspective shift does wonders. Plus you get caves back again, which are the best part of Pikmin 2. Super Mario RPG is a classic. If you like games with secrets littered everywhere, it’s the one. Get then both?

The games discussed are: The Last of Part 1 Forspoken Redfall Dead Space Remake Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Wild Hearts Worst PC Ports of 2023 Ranked: 03. Dead Space Remake 02. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

Time Spent: ~20 minutes Rating: *** Another surprisingly decent game I expected less from. Highly approachable shump where it takes multiple hits to lose power-ups and a life. Your power-ups and life are set by meters, and you earn currency with bonus streaks for use on more upgrades between levels. You can flip directions to scroll the other direction a la Defender to kill any enemies you missed. My gripes are it feels a little too slow, your character's hitbox is weirdly only the knight part, and the sound design and music are a bit lacking compared to the art.

Cat Quest today.

I fully admit the tone can be annoying, and will only get worse in parts. But its a memorable game regardless. You might appreciate the humor a bit more in places if you've played FF6, oddly enough.

Time Spent: ~12 hours Rating: **** Completed You already heard you should play it. No, it's not the Best Game Ever, and there are cringe bits. But its still better than most of its inspirations, and that's the reason to give it a go. I remember one of the final bosses best, for being nutso in ways I think only Inside can hang with.

Time Spent: ~5 hours Rating: ***½ Indie Advanced Wars, with an added focus on commanders being units on the battlefield. Sadly, that's probably the thing that keeps it from being quite as good: the need to rely on an overpowered but must-be-protected unit. Animations and the art are great, but the story is forgettable. One of the coolest touches is the neat looking border they put around smaller maps, it really shows care and attention paid to those playing on larger screens. I'd like to get back to this at some point (it's a game I played previously).

Another one to add to my pixel art list.

Yeah, chances are I wouldn’t need to be ready by that October. Would be nice to spend a little the following Black Friday.

Time Spent: ~30 min Rating: *** I'm conflicted about this one. On one hand, the pixel art and animation is stunning, one of the best I've seen so far on the list. The vibe of it is very SNK, and there's multiple different character classes to start with. As a twin stick shooter it feels pretty good, not tethered to 8-directions like other retro inspired games might be tempted to be. But the checkpoint system is bad, restarting you with next to no life if you saved with low health. Your limbs can be torn off, which costs currency you'd use for upgrades to fix. And I get the nagging feeling that the enemies aren't really fun to kill, unlike SNK games like Shock Troopers 2. Its the same age-old circle strafing problem that other bullet hell games resort to. It's a game I might be wanting to return to regardless, to try more classes and see more of the art, so three stars.

I’ll be on this train as well, prompted by this thread. My aging i5 barely missed the cut for Windows 11. I won’t have a lot of disposable income over the next two years. Probably not enough to build the PC I’d actually want all at once before the cutoff. Smart to go with the GPU last, other parts first? I’m in no hurry regardless.

Human Resource Machine is today’s game.

Lacuna is the new giveaway on rotation at GoG.

I think it slipped what I actually wanted, lol

Yup, emulator with a widescreen hack. The game still looks great by my calculus. Rare we’re masters at using the limited texture capabilities of that system to great effect.

Outer Wilds SC edition is today.