re: Rimworld
After 5 years or whatever they’re talking a good game about 1.0 this year. As it is it’s more complete and finished than a great many games I’ve played…
Rimworld might still be EA, but in reality it’s more akin to a Paradox game with free DLC (but it will never be on sale supposedly). The game is just being continually updated. When I first picked it up 4-5(?) years ago it was a full, bug free, game, it’s just evolved since then.
I’m sure Rimworld is in great shape. I’ve even played it a bit and I never would have guessed it was in early access. But I’d rather play a game made by people who have confidently declared it 1.0. I know that means different things to different people, but for me, it’s as good an arbitrary line as any.
That said, JASS* definitely has a lot less, uh, gloss than Rimworld. Whereas Rimworld looks like something that’s been in development for years, JASS is the videogame equivalent of unpainted furniture.
That’s quite the oxymoron! :)
-Tom
* I wouldn’t normally use an acronym, but this one’s too good to pass up
If they do pull off 1.0 this year it’d be interesting to hear your take on it.
Replying to myself, I spent a little time in Low Magic Age’s Adventure Mode.
Basically, it is Mount and Blade with tactical AD&D battles in lieu of the (wonderful) M&B combat.
It provides a bit of a framework for venturing around, but because there are no shortcuts, moving around dungeons is very tedious for now, and the trap mechanics makes no sense and offers zero satisfaction (it’s a total random die roll that may or may not take half of your party’s health early on. You immediately counter it by resting).
It offers promises, but right now, I much prefer the playing loop of the Arena mode.
Helpful description. Thank you. Not something I am in the market for.
Unpainted does not mean uncomfortable! I was pleasantly surprised at how slick JASS feels given how rough JASS looks.
But, yeah, fair enough. Those graphics can be a tough pill to swallow.
-Tom
I took the unpainted furniture analogy too literally, since I’ve refinished/finished a lot of furniture in my time. Right now I don’t have a lot of time to learn game mechanics and so I am looking for something in a genre unfamiliar to me that is fairly easy to get into that is immersive and with which I can create stories. Rather than prime and paint and lacquer the chair I am looking for something that I can sit on now and it will be comfortable enough.
Rough graphics are fine if the game play is sound. For instance, I wasn’t much of a fan of the graphics/art of Massive Chalice, but oh baby what a game! And the story telling.
None of this matters until BAD NORTH COMES OUT.
Sold. ;)
I’ve been obsessed by this game ever since it came out for the Switch. It’s a one-man development effort so I figure it belongs here:
Basically, it’s Binding of Metroid. It’s a proper Metroidvania, a sidescroller with exploration of a single large interconnected map, weapon upgrades, and backtracking to gates. The controls and animations lean heavily to the Metroid side. But it’s also procedurally generated with permadeath. A progression metagame means new elements will slowly be unlocked for inclusion in future runs.
It may sound ridiculous, but it actually addresses the problem I always seem to face with platformers: the one level I can’t seem to get past, until finally the whole game just loses my attention. I’m looking at you, Shovel Knight!
Here, you can’t get stuck. When you get frustrated, you get a new map. Which makes it very, very addictive.
Atomic Heart, a Unreal 4 first-person adventure shooter developed and published by Mundfish, is giving me strong Necrovision by way of Bioshock vibes!
Not on Steam yet, but definitely worth keeping an eye on.
Yeah, I’m super excited about Crying Suns.
Atomic Heart looks crazy fun! Wishlisted.
Anybody play this? Impressions?
I haven’t seen a date for it, just “2018”?
Seems like Square forgot to market it or something.
Been looking forward to Forgotton Anne for awhile, so I grabbed it yesterday.
It’s really lovely to look at, and the setting, characters, and story are interesting so far. It does some beautiful stuff with parallax motion and moving between layers of the sidescrolling levels. There are some lever-pulling puzzles, and a resource called “anima” that you can take out of some objects and put in others. It acts like a fuel for machines. I guess the puzzles are along the lines of things you’d see in a Limbo or… what’s the game? The Fall?
The bad stuff I’m seeing so far: It kinda has what I would call “Psychonaut’s disease.” By that I mean that it’s a platformer that’s more interested in looking cool than being playable, so the platforming is not very responsive and the controls are awkward and not remappable. (I’m playing with a controller–maybe I should try keyboard.)
There are also some moral choices that they really don’t give you enough context to make. At least on this first playthrough, I’m just kinda stumbling through them. Not sure how consequential they’ll be.
But so far the good outweighs the bad! I’m looking forward to playing more.