Any gamers around here?

[Blackleaf]

I started replaying The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask recently, which remains one of my favorite games of all time. Despite its tone and subject matter, it is one of my comfort games. Easy to pick up, infinitely replayable. Unfortunately, I don't have an N64 to play it on, so I've been playing it on Switch. There's a little bit of input delay, but I got used to it pretty quick. I also own the 3DS remake, but while it makes some valuable changes, such as adding gyro aiming, it also messes with some things it really shouldn't have changed. So I'd rather play the original.



For those unfamiliar, Majora's Mask is the direct sequel to Ocarina of Time, one of the most celebrated and influential games of its era. Majora's Mask reuses the same engine and many assets from OoT, but the game sets itself apart from its predecessor in two big ways: Its greater emphasis on NPCs and its time limit. Depending on what in-game day and time it is, you can find NPCs in different locations, and your actions can influence their schedule. After three in-game days, the moon crashes into the land of Termina, killing everyone. But it's okay, because you (Link) are a time traveler. At any time, you can reset time back to the first day, but any progress made, outside of most key items collected, is reset.

The game has been interpreted in many ways, but I see it as a game about healing. Many of Termina's residents are dealing with serious issues. Anju, the inn keeper, is visibly upset, because her fiancé has disappeared, and she doesn't know why. A Goron hero dies on his way to investigate a curse that keeps his people trapped in an endless Winter, and his spirit lingers. A girl on a ranch loses her mind after something mysterious happens on the first night. Link has the power to help these people, equipped with a variety of tools, magical masks, and a magic ocarina. One of the songs he can play on his ocarina is the Song of Healing, which has the power to soothe hurting souls. While there are a few dungeons, the main bulk of the game is getting to know the people of Termina and their schedules, and figuring out how to solve their problems.

Link's masks, often rewards for helping the people of Termina, have a variety of effects. Some are more useful than others, and some only have a single use. But there are three masks which allow Link to transform into another race, each with their combat and movement abilities. As a Deku Scrub, Link can hop on the water, dive into flowers and pop out of them to hover for a bit. As a Goron, Link can break rocks, resist lava damage, and roll in a ball like Sonic the Hedgehog. Zora Link is a fan favorite, able to swim at high speeds, breathe under water, and fire blades from his arms like a couple of boomerangs. These masks also give Link the likeness of those who have passed on, and people who knew those dead people will recognize Link as those people. For instance, the Goron mask has Link resemble the hero Darmani, and his actions to help the Gorons are done as if fulfilling Darmani's unfulfilled wishes.

As I mentioned, at the end of the third in-game day, the moon drops out of the sky. The threat of the moon is ever present, getting closer over time. Occasionally, the ground shakes as a result of the celestial body's approach. Why is the moon falling, though? Well, it's because of this game's main villain. A child, known as the Skull Kid, with the ancient and powerful Majora's Mask. The fact that the mask is shaped like a heart covered in spikes is likely not a coincidence. The Skull Kid, feeling abandoned by his friends, uses his newfound power to spread misery around the land, including by pulling the moon towards Termina. He's such an interesting villain to me. Ganondorf will always be the series' main villain, and while he has had some depth added to him in some games, he's generally portrayed as a generic evil villain. He craves power, doing evil for evil's sake. But Skull Kid is just a child, lacking in emotional intelligence, who has found ultimate power. He has no ultimate goal except for having fun. He curses people because he thinks it is funny. He's hurt, so he wants to hurt others. He isn't a villain to be destroyed, but a villain to be redeemed. A victim of his own actions.

[Hydra009]

I've been enjoying Skylords Reborn (a fan-resurrected online RTS formerly called Battleforge).  It's part RTS and part Magic: The Gathering and I love it.

In my skirmish against the computer, we initially both have very small armies.  Just a handful of units - a healer and a couple guards.  I feign a charge directly at them, but pull back just before contact.  The computer's units follow for a brief time before retreating, but uh oh - what's this?  The healer is just a tad slower than his guards and the last one to about face.  I smell opportunity!  My fast units rush in and gank the crap out of him before dispersing just as the guards return to help.  Then the guards meet up with my combined army and don't stand a chance without their healer.  Classic feigned retreat + defeat in detail.  Divide and conquer!

Another favored tactic of mine is to pair a unit that automatically regenerates its health with a unit that improves all regeneration near it and a tower that - you guessed it - regenerates the health of all my units with a moderate cooldown.  I didn't pick my name for nothing, you know.

Later on, I can put down a static artillery piece that heals nearby troops - it makes for an incredibly powerful firebase when guarded by nearby troops.  Next is a series of towers that grant permanent buffs to all my units - increased damage, damage resistance, and even more regeneration.  Can you spot a running theme?  Basically, this army can run into the jaws of death and just not give a crap.  Even mighty armies are drowned in the invincible tide.

My brother has a completely different playstyle where he rushes in meatshields who get torn to ribbons, barely closing the distance before they get cut down.  What's the point of that?  Hey, why'd the sun turn black?  The ground glows with eldritch energy and his fallen troops briefly float in the air before detonating with a massive thud.  Then silent as the grave.  Later on, he once again attacks a clearly superior force - the computer's hulking ogre and its guards move to effortlessly slay his fragile band of skeletons.  But what's this?  The ogre is bewitched and turns on his allies, smashing them in a frenzy - disrupting formations and harming each other severely.  His skeleton archers pick off the survivors effortlessly.

I wonder what would happen if my immovable object were to meet his unstoppable force...

[Hydra009]

This might be Who Cares? news to anyone who isn't into really, really old RTS games like me but I promise it's fantastic news.

EA - in penance for Tiberium Twilight - released the source code of many of the Command and Conquer games.  We're talking the OG Command and Conquer, Red Alert, Renegade, Generals, and Generals Zero Hour.  (Noticeably absent are Tiberian Sun and my personal favorites, Red Alert 2 and Yuri's Revenge)

They're also making it much, much more modder-friendly.  The upshot of all this is that modders can take the assets of these games and mix-n-match, modify, do whatever with them and no one's getting a cease & desist in the mail.  Also, now when you make maps, you can upload directly to the Steam Workshop, as Gabe intended.

Bottom Line - expect all sorts of wild new creations for these old, old games.  The mod community is going to go absolutely ape.  It will be glorius.

[Mr.Obvious]

Played bloom and rage tape 1. Needed a quick break from bg3 qnd hogwarts legacy. Which are great games, don't get me wrong, but which are long-ass commitments. Bloom and rage is basically a low intensity story in which you choose dialogue options. There are some othrr mechanics. I liked the filming. I liked exploring. Not sure if it actually has great replay value, but i liked it for the one playthrough at least. Writing and (voice)-acting were definitly good but maybe just shy of great. Story itself has me hooked enough that i'll be playing tape 2 when i get my hands on it, soon.
Sort of a magical realistic setting inspired by stranger things, telling a coming of age story of 4 lgbtq characters in a small town in the mid nineties, through what is basically a dating sim

Edit: to be honest; i'd also call hogwarts legacy a 'good' game, not a great one.

[Hydra009]

My brother suggested a new card game we can play together, Compile.



The basics are that you're playing as two rogue AIs fighting to control reality itself (spoilers for the next 20 years irl btw). 

You each flip over three cards which are three aspects of reality you need to get control of in order to win.  So for example, you'll have Metal, Death, and Fire (everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked...) and your opponent will have Psychic, Life, and Gravity.

Each turn, you'll play cards under one of those three things to eventually "compile" or control that element.  The cards have abilities that activate and do X, Y, Z - usually draw cards, flip cards, move cards around, etc.  But the basics are, you get enough cards under one thing and bam, you're 1/3 of the way to winning.

Afaik, once you compile, it's a fait accompli and can never be undone by your opponent.  And with only two remaining, you can devote more attention to the other two.  And with two under your belt, it's a straight shot to victory so your opponent better hurry or do a LOT to hinder you, because you're going to be 100% devoted to mastering that element.



As you can see, the artwork is gorgeous, even though it's just a tad busy.  Definitely went for a cyberpunk aesthetic where black and neon lights are prominent.  Thankfully, they hired actual flesh-and-blood artists and the artwork doesn't appear to be AI-generated.

So, what do you think?  The gameplay can get complex, but it's not so complex I can't summarize it.  And it's a very competitive tug-of-war strategic game which isn't quite my cup of tea, but it's doable for me.  My brother is a very underhanded and aggressively competitive player, so I'm in for a hell of a fight.  I'll have to lose graciously, I think.

[Blackleaf]

So, I was really hype for what was shown in today's Nintendo Direct. Lots of cool games and features coming for the Switch 2. Then I found out that Nintendo is planning to sell physical copies of their Switch 2 games at $90. Are they insane? Do they honestly think that now, amidst mass layoffs, low wages, high rent, and rampant inflation, that people will buy games at $90? Entertainment is low on the hierarchy of needs, and I think Nintendo is about to see that reflected in their sales. Or rather, their lack of sales. People need to send a strong message that this kind of greed won't fly, or else Sony and Microsoft will raise their prices to match. It happened once before, when they released the 3DS, and Nintendo panicked and dropped the price.

[Hydra009]

$90 physical and a whopping $80 digital.  That's asking a LOT for a digital game.

My wishlist ranges from $10 to $50 and generally speaking, I never buy unless it's on sale, typically less than $40.  Asking for twice that for just the base game - probably twice again with all the DLCs is beyond the pale.

I understand that games are expensive as hell to make and everyone involved deserves a cut for their hard work (game designers and artists most of all).  For example, Baldur's Gate 3 cost about $100 million to create.  But they managed to sell at least 15 million copies, so let's just say that they posted a handsome profit.  So this "need" to price games higher and higher doesn't exactly hold water.

[Hydra009]

I'm watching a Skyrim guy trying to play Morrowind for the first time and it's absolutely hilarious.

His revulsion at the low-poly character models, confusion and consternation with attacks not always landing, and panic attack at the lack of quests markers and nightly dark brotherhood ambushes is so funny to me.  But after a lot of trial and error, it finally clicks and his frustration gives way to a lot of excitement.

Imho, the main problem is that there are certain expectations with modern action-adventure RPGs - stuff taken for granted that perhaps shouldn't be assumed.  In Morrowind, you're going to have to read and you're going to have to find your own way - no one's going to do that for you.

In Morrowind, your character intentionally starts out slow and weak and penniless.  You're a nobody and the only thing you have going for you is that you're born under a certain sign.  It's difficult because it's supposed to be difficult - not in the same way as Dark Souls where the difficulty is that a mistimed block will instakill you - it's difficult in the sense that you don't have anything, don't know anything, and you're just scraping by in a small corner of the world for the first few hours.

But it doesn't stay that way - you learn and your character learn together.  And how the game goes about this is genius.  For example, you watch a wizard fall to his death and find some magic scrolls on him.  Naturally, you take them and use them only to find out firsthand the perils of magic.  The game is not very subtly telling you that you'll one day be capable of great feats - but beware, there are perils and there are no guardrails.

The game subtly foreshadows that you'll become basically a god yourself by telling you all about ALMSIVI - mortals becoming godlike through the Heart, showing you altars, having you go on pilgrimages, saving your bacon more than once quite literally with divine intervention.  And slowly, you transition from being a nobody learning about saints to being a saint in your own right.

Eventually, as you climb the ranks, you come face to face with the demigods yourself, equal to or even surpassing them in power and wisdom.  And you do it all not just through a combat - but through a combination of herculean labors and a journey of discovery, external and internal.  No one person has all the answers, not even Vivec, you just have to take things as they come and hope you made the correct decision.

[Sargon The Grape]

Been working on a fossil museum on my freighter in No Man's Sky. Still have a lot of empty space I need to fill, but it's beginning to come together. I sectioned off a small area to be like a little research lab. I think I'll move the five exhibits I have right now across the room and section them off, and dedicate the main area to one or two large skeletons surrounded by smaller attractions. The "reptilian" display pad is perfect for putting together something like a mosasaurus or a whale, and you can put individual bones on their own tiny pedestals or wall plaques.

[Mr.Obvious]

Gotten into returnal.
Feels great to play. Very responsive. My first roguelike i really gave time of day. (If i understand the term correctly.)
Was very welcome after hogwarts legacy and in tandem with baldurs gate 3.
Much more linear. Fast paced.
Bg3 is amazing, but it is by nature slow paced. And there is so much to do an so much to distract. Same as with hogwarts legacy and other open world games.
Sometimes you just wanna run, run into enemies, start blasting and keep running. Simplicity. Love it.

[Blackleaf]

The Oblivion Remaster released today. Looks pretty good. They used Unreal Engine 5 to boost the graphics, but it allegedly still uses the Creation Engine for the actual gameplay. There are some changes to gameplay try to modernize it, but they didn't say anything about the weapon/armor degregation system, which was my main concern.

Oh well. If things still break too fast, I'm sure somebody will mod it. lol

[Hydra009]

The Oblivion Remaster released today.

By Azura, by Azura, by Azura!

So wait, let me get this straight, this is the official Bethesda remaster, not the Skyblivion mod?  And by some weird stroke of luck, they're both coming out the same year?!  I believe in coincidences, but this is like bumping into an old imperial soldier on the way to Red Mountain and getting a lucky coin sort of coincidence.

Is it moddable?

[Hydra009]

they didn't say anything about the weapon/armor degregation system, which was my main concern.

Iirc, I just brought some repair hammers with me.  Unlike Morrowind, when you max out armorer, you never need more than one hammer.

I prioritized Strength and Endurance in Oblivion.  Played a knight character who relied heavily on heavy armor, long sword, block, and armorer.  Shut down all the Oblivion portals and beat the main quest then logged out forever.  The speechcraft minigame was my biggest gripe, along with the fugly faces and weird physics (my character always felt "floaty", it's hard to describe but things didn't interact properly) and the much-lauded "procedural generation" was pretty underwhelming.  Oh, and the level-matching was kind of a pain.

I never played Knights of the Nine.  I planned on it, just never got around to it.  I hear that expansion was really, really good.

[Mr.Obvious]

Also bought a ps5 copy for dead space (remake)
Loved that original. Must've played it half a dozen times at least.

[Blackleaf]

By Azura, by Azura, by Azura!

So wait, let me get this straight, this is the official Bethesda remaster, not the Skyblivion mod?  And by some weird stroke of luck, they're both coming out the same year?!  I believe in coincidences, but this is like bumping into an old imperial soldier on the way to Red Mountain and getting a lucky coin sort of coincidence.

Is it moddable?

Yep! They shadow dropped it the same day they officially announced it. The entire internet saw it coming, though, because of leaks. lol

I don't know if modding tools are available for it yet. Often times, that doesn't stop people.

Iirc, I just brought some repair hammers with me.  Unlike Morrowind, when you max out armorer, you never need more than one hammer.

I prioritized Strength and Endurance in Oblivion.  Played a knight character who relied heavily on heavy armor, long sword, block, and armorer.  Shut down all the Oblivion portals and beat the main quest then logged out forever.  The speechcraft minigame was my biggest gripe, along with the fugly faces and weird physics (my character always felt "floaty", it's hard to describe but things didn't interact properly) and the much-lauded "procedural generation" was pretty underwhelming.  Oh, and the level-matching was kind of a pain.

I never played Knights of the Nine.  I planned on it, just never got around to it.  I hear that expansion was really, really good.

Yeah. I feel like they might have eased up on the degregation, but I'd have to go through an Oblivion gate to see how long my gear lasts. I made a point to include the Armorer skill as one of my major skills, so my hammers won't break as often. I can also repair magic items already, which is good.

Combat feels better this time around. It's less floaty. More similar to Skyrim, I think.

I made a custom class that I named "Mercenary." Their main weapon is a bow and arrow, but they also specialize in blades for when enemies get close. I've got Restoration and Alteration as major skills, so I can stay alive longer and join the Mages Guild. Can't remember which thief skills I went with, but Sneak is super easy to level up anyway. I'm basically a sneak archer, mixed with a jack-of-all-trades. I'll probably join the Fighters Guild, Mages Guild, and Thieves Guild, but not the Dark Brotherhood.

I never got around to Nights of the Nine either.