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computers / comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action / What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2021?

SubjectAuthor
* What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2021?Spalls Hurgenson
+* Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2021?rms
|`- Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2021?Spalls Hurgenson
+- Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2021?Dimensional Traveler
+- Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2021?rms
+- Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2021?rms
+- Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2021?Rin Stowleigh
+- Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2021?Justisaur
+- Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2021?Ant
+- Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2021?Werner P.
+- Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2021?JAB
`- Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2021?Anssi Saari

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What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2021?

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From: spallshu...@gmail.com (Spalls Hurgenson)
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Subject: What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2021?
Date: Sat, 01 Jan 2022 15:28:49 -0500
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 by: Spalls Hurgenson - Sat, 1 Jan 2022 20:28 UTC

I am not hung over. The bleary eyes, banging headache and general
feeling of malaise are merely figments of an over-active imagination.
If I pretend they don't exist, they won't bother me. So I tell myself
I am not hung over. Hopefully that will get me through this post.

The 'Tell it to Me Real Quick' Edition
------------------------------
* Bioshock Remastered (replay)
* Underworld Ascendant (new)
* Halo Wars (new/replay)

The 'Why Won't You Shut Up Already' Edition?
---------------------------------------

* Bioshock Remastered (replay)
I don't really enjoy playing "Bioshock".

Which is an odd thing to say, considering that I have probably played
and replayed it four or five times prior to this attempt. I certainly
admire its construction, from a technical stand point. Nor is it
completely accurate to say I didn't enjoy my latest playthrough; there
are things I like about the game, but it's piecemeal.

I just think it is far less than the whole of its parts.

Not its art style, though; that remains an impressive cornerstone of
what makes the game so memorable to so many people. I, being a
complete Philistine, dislike art deco as a form, but the developers
made excellent use of the style to create levels that are intriguing
to look at. The gunplay is undeniably solid too (it's one of the bits
of "Bioshock" I enjoyed). I am not much of a fan of games which rely
so heavily on environmental kills - the too obvious placement of the
various traps ruins the immersion - but it does make for some frenetic
combat. It's dual-mode guns-plus-plasmids fighting style (what the
game refers to as its 'one-two punch') makes for some chaotic - if not
entirely satisfying - gameplay. It's hampered by the somewhat clunky
controls but the underlying structure is strong. While it didn't
originate with "Bioshock", that game did elevate this type of gameplay
to the point it has been heavily emulated in innumerable games since.

Some of the underlying notions that form the basis for the story and
setting are intriguing too: the questioning of free will, the Randian
economics, questioning morality versus practicality. It's heady stuff.
Too bad the game handles it all so poorly. For all people praise its
story and setting, I have always found the whole thing very
superficial and simplistic. Even for a video game, the world doesn't
make a lick of sense, and its characters don't act believably. Oh, I
get it; the game is a parable, and as such deserves some slack with
regards to its world-building. But when confronted with a skyscraper
city built miles below the waves using 1940s technology, I'm hard
pressed to overlook its oddities. Worse, "Bioshock" does little to
help sell its setting. Certainly the level design doesn't help; it's
maps don't feel like a place people would ever live; they feel like
combat arenas and loot-lockers. Coupled with the game's bland,
archetypical characters who actions are dictated by the needs of the
narrative rather than any sort of human desires, and the artificiality
of the place looms large.

I think "Bioshock's" success was a result of that, when it was
released, it was facing off against years of modern-warfare shooters
which didn't bother to ask anything more complex than "who is the bad
guy and how do I kill him?" Compared to that, its hinting towards
deeper meaning was revelatory to players who had been conditioned not
to expect any sort of literary aspirations from the medium. Certainly
"Bioshock" inspired other developers to trust their players with more
sophisticated story ideas than "kill all enemies until you win." But
Bioshock itself is disappointingly sophomoric.

Still, the game - or at least the remastered edition - looks nice
enough; considering it's fifteen years old, that's an accomplishment.
Its gameplay - outside of its combat - is fairly rudimentary and,
frankly, sort of dull, but it was a good early attempt making console
first-person shooters a bit more complex than point-n-shoot. Its
controls are fairly clunky - largely because it was focused around the
limitations of the gamepad - but they mostly worked, and I can
appreciate the effort made in that area. I did suffer from a bug where
my weapons and plasmids were randomly remapped to different controls,
but I won't hold that against the game too much. And while the
developer commentary was entirely too self-aggrandizing, it was a nice
addition that helped break up some of the mid-game tedium.

"Bioshock" is a flawed game, and that makes it hard to enjoy playing
it, but it was an extremely aspirational title, and I can appreciate
it for trying to be more than "just another shooter", even if its
attempt didn't work all that well.

* Underworld Ascendant (new)
I went into this game warily, but hopefully. Warily, because reviews
have not been kind to this game. Hopefully, because I loved its
antecedents, and I desperately wanted to recapture the magic of the
original Underworld games.

Still, my heart dropped when the game loaded and my screen flowered
with colors of glowing greens and purples. Yet, moments later a small
smile crossed my face as I heard bars of the original "Underworld"
theme mixed in with the opening soundtrack. But after playing the game
for a few hours, I was forced to admit the obvious truth: this game is
crap.

I hate to make that judgment, not only because of its association with
1992's "Ultima Underworld", but despite it. I know I am very much
weighing this game against that venerable classic instead of simply
judging it on its own merits. It is obvious the developers have their
own vision for the game, and I wish I could evaluate the game simply
based on what it is. And, had the developers named the game "Uncle
Bob's Dungeon Exploreum" or whatever, maybe I might have managed that
goal. I still wouldn't have liked it, but at least my opinion would
have been based on the game itself rather than its connections. But it
was the developers who wedged so much of "Ultima Underworld" into this
game that it became impossible to weigh the game on its own. The
developers are the ones who insistently crammed so much of the
terminology and lore of the original Underworld into their half-baked
creation that it becomes impossible to look at their game without
seeing the older one. The developers were betting that nostalgia for
the classic would attract people to "Ascendant"; well, nostalgia is a
double-edged sword, and if your game doesn't match up to an older
title, don't be surprised if people undervalue your newer additions.

Not, as I said, that I think "Ascendant" would have flourished had it
been separated at birth from the "Underworld" franchise. It's just not
a very good game, but I imagine there would still be a small
contingent that would have enjoyed its quirks. Still, I can't imagine
that would be a lot of people.

Everything in the game feels unrealistic. The visuals are almost
cartoonishly colorful, which contrasts poorly with its
post-apocalyptic tale of an ancient evil threatening all of
civilization. Characters look unnecessarily bloaty and cheerful. It's
hard to feel threatened by a monster when it looks like a cartoon
skeleton. Everything in the game feels floaty too; the game leans hard
on its physics engine as its main gimmick, but nothing feels like it
has a realistic weight. If I bump into something it will either
skitter across the room or barely move at all, and neither seems
moored in reality. Too much of the game depends on dragging and moving
objects and it's just not fun.

Similarly, the combat is dull; there's only a minimum of moves and
even that seems overkill; simply striking fast with two or three
whacks and then jumping back before a retaliatory blow worked 99% of
the time. The AI is, unsurprisingly, inept; it wanders about on
scripted paths, is amazingly easy to sneak around, and - once
triggered - its only strategy is to lumber slowly towards you (with
pathetically poor pathfinding to boot).

Should I go on? I can, so I think I will. The maps are unconvincing 3D
mazes that don't in any way feel like a real place; whether it's
dungeon or caves or underground city, it feels like something
constructed to meet the needs of the gameplay rather than existing on
its own merits. The inventory system is annoyingly small, requiring
too frequent trips back to your stash (also fairly small) to store
necessary items. The story is nonsense, and much of it is told rather
than shown. There's no effort in its narrative, with the developers
literally pasting the text onto conveniently placed signs in the
gameworld, or simply vomited at your by lackluster voice acting.
Tonally, the game is all over the place, with the visuals fighting
against the narrative fighting against the gameplay. Is this a fun
fantasy? Grim survival? Mindless action? None of it fits together
well.

"Ascendant", despite its pretensions, is in no way an Underworld game.
Oh, sure, it uses some of the same names and terminology; it's got
Underworld's runic magic and the life-restoring silver sapling. It's
set in an underground civilization filled with lizard-men and dwarves
and outcasts. Superficially, it resembles Looking Glass's original
opus. But it shares none of the mood or atmosphere, and its gameplay
is a weak mess of ideas.


Click here to read the complete article
Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2021?

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 by: rms - Sat, 1 Jan 2022 21:32 UTC

>What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2021?

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
Snagging a PS5 in November, this is the first game I've played on it, and I
do intend to continue on to the sequels. If you're unfamiliar with this
franchise, it's a 3rd person action-adventure, with a disturbing number of
gunbattles :) -- I must have killed 100+ random mercs -- in the search for
a lost treasure. I didn't find it too long and enjoyed the simple story,
which has frequent cutscenes (apparently this series had a large influence
on recent Tomb Raider titles). Also looking forward to trying other famous
titles I'd only read about, like Last Of Us, God Of War, etc.

Disco Elysium: The Final Cut
This is an adventure game about a murder mystery, with a skill system that
models mental states and abilities in your brain, and inner voices
representing these skills will talk to you throughout. In addition there's
quite a bit of erudite lore and deep, highly developed conversation trees,
and a political leanings mechanic that pushes you to make choices as to
which of several factions in the game you favor.

It's bewildering complex to my simple brain, but also pretty astounding to
experience. The ability for you to model your character, and roleplay how
you approach the world is something I've never seen before in an adventure
game: It's no wonder it's won so many awards. There are probably 100's of
hours of content and replayability here that I'll never get to (I'll be
happy just to make it through once). I haven't completed it as yet, that
will likely take some time!

rms

Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2021?

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From: dtra...@sonic.net (Dimensional Traveler)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action
Subject: Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2021?
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 by: Dimensional Traveler - Sat, 1 Jan 2022 22:05 UTC

On 1/1/2022 12:28 PM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
>
>
> I am not hung over. The bleary eyes, banging headache and general
> feeling of malaise are merely figments of an over-active imagination.
> If I pretend they don't exist, they won't bother me. So I tell myself
> I am not hung over. Hopefully that will get me through this post.
>
>
>
> The 'Tell it to Me Real Quick' Edition
> ------------------------------
> * Bioshock Remastered (replay)
> * Underworld Ascendant (new)
> * Halo Wars (new/replay)
>
I think I played some Subnautica: Below Zero early in the month but had
a critical blueprint get lost because of some glitch. That was
discouraging enough on top of how much harder I was finding the game
over the first that I've stopped playing, at least for now.

Stardew Valley. For most of the month I've been playing SDV. Too much
stress and male bovine digestive end product to deal with lately so
something simple where I can feel like I'm getting somewhere helps.

What did you play in December 2021 while waiting for Soylent Green to
become available?

--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.

Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2021?

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 by: rms - Sat, 1 Jan 2022 22:34 UTC

>* Bioshock Remastered (replay)
> I don't really enjoy playing "Bioshock".

There is an aggressively in-your-face-edness about the art style that I'm
sure was intentional in representing end-stage capitalism, but I did find it
tiring. Particularly grating were the voice-overs, all from nasty
mean-spirited characters either yelling or ordering you about, that really
got on my nerves. I also didn't enjoy the combat, and from what I recall
had similar complaints about Bioshock Infinite (with the addition there
probably not fully grasping the alternate worlds aspect of that game).
Strangely, Bioshock 2 I don't have the same negative memories about, perhaps
due to the designers increased attention to combat mechanics, along with the
quality of the Minerva DLC. I still haven't played the Infinite DLC, and
wouldn't mind a run-through of B1.

>* Halo Wars (new/replay)

I do intend to play through the Halo Infinite campaign (free if you have
XBox PC Gamepass), which should be especially fun since I've never played a
Halo game!

rms

Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2021?

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 by: rms - Sat, 1 Jan 2022 22:34 UTC

>* Bioshock Remastered (replay)
> I don't really enjoy playing "Bioshock".

There is an aggressively in-your-face-edness about the art style that I'm
sure was intentional in representing end-stage capitalism, but I did find it
tiring. Particularly grating were the voice-overs, all from nasty
mean-spirited characters either yelling or ordering you about, that really
got on my nerves. I also didn't enjoy the combat, and from what I recall
had similar complaints about Bioshock Infinite (with the addition there
probably not fully grasping the alternate worlds aspect of that game).
Strangely, Bioshock 2 I don't have the same negative memories about, perhaps
due to the designers increased attention to combat mechanics, along with the
quality of the Minerva DLC. I still haven't played the Infinite DLC, and
wouldn't mind a run-through of B1.

>* Halo Wars (new/replay)

I do intend to play through the Halo Infinite campaign (free if you have
XBox PC Gamepass), which should be especially fun since I've never played a
Halo game!

rms

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 by: Rin Stowleigh - Sat, 1 Jan 2022 22:49 UTC

>What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2021?

A Prophet-10, an OB-6, and... ... oh wait, you mean games :)

In that case it's not an interesting answer. Mostly just COD Warzone
(free to play battle royale). When they released COD Vanguard,
Warzone got a new map and WWII digs. Not sure exactly why they give
away the best part of COD free -- maybe its about making sure the
lobbies are quickly filled so a game can start (since a proper BR game
requires 100+ players per round).

One of the nice things about Warzone, its cross platform and the
console kiddies outnumber the PC players, which kind of attenuates
some of the difficulty of playing a competitive twitch shooter like
this sue to the aiming advantage of a mouse. It's still pretty
challenging to be the last guy standing in a battle royale COD match
even with that advantage.

A little COD every now and then helps keep me young. Twitch shooters
(or any game that requires fast reflexes/hand-eye coordination) is
good exercise for the mind, apparently. Over the years there have
been many published research studies indicating the effect of video
games and the correlation between exercising hand-eye coordination as
a way to fend off cognitive decline. Hopefully I'm a long way from
really needing to worry about that, but if nothing else I like knowing
there may actually be some health benefit to the occasional COD round
and that it's not just completely pissing away time.

Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2021?

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Subject: Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2021?
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 by: Justisaur - Sun, 2 Jan 2022 18:11 UTC

On Saturday, January 1, 2022 at 12:29:08 PM UTC-8, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
> I am not hung over. The bleary eyes, banging headache and general
> feeling of malaise are merely figments of an over-active imagination.
> If I pretend they don't exist, they won't bother me. So I tell myself
> I am not hung over. Hopefully that will get me through this post.

I'm still feeling a bit of that. I'm a lightweight though, 1 glass of,
champaign and staying up about 3 hours past when I usually go
to bed and it's taking me some time to recover. I think the glass
of champaign again the next day hurt a lot as well.

> * Bioshock Remastered (replay)
> I don't really enjoy playing "Bioshock".

I couldn't get into it either, though it checks most of the boxes of stuff I
usually like. I keep considering going back and trying others in the
series beyond the first since I got them all as a big pack, but it just doesn't
sound fun.

> What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2021?

TLDR version;

***** Dark Souls III
*** Beat Saber

---------------
Verbose mode:

***** Dark Souls III (return to it)
As I've hinted elsewhere, I came back to it, and I got through the last boss
in the 2nd DLC that I couldn't before. I tried probably another 20 times,
dreading the attempt each time after returning to DS3, and I tried
hundreds of times in my last time playing DS3. interspersing attempts
with playing different characters. I was literally shaking the whole time.
This has to be the single most memorable moment I've had of any game
I've ever played.

I hadn't even intended to try it, but was trying out different weapons and
loadouts on mobs in the area, got summoned as as an ememy in a boss
fight - the spears of light, which once you get to a certain point is the
only time you don't have a choice for invading another's game (if you're
playing online anyway.) Usually I just let whoever's trying to beat that
boss win, but this time I didn't as it's been since the last time I played
since I got summoned for this and didn't even realize what was happing
until near the end of the fight. Technically I didn't kill them, you get
spears that automatically attack when the character gets near you,
they killed the player's character.

I got embered for winning, which increases your health, allows you to
summon other players if there's any signs they put down, and get
invaded. While I immediately got invaded, not wanting to waste the
ember I summoned 3 others and ran off to the Midir fight. I waited
a minute, but the summons seemed more interested in fighting the
invader. I just decided to start the Midir fight, which kicks invaders,
even though I was low on estus (healing and mana potions.) I had to
survive for a minute which I barely did before the summons got in
to the fight, then I just avoided Midir shooting the dragon with
lightning arrows and dodging the odd time he came at me.
I'm not sure how much of that fight was me, as the others were
in melee with him, and surprisingly they all survived too.

Many say not to use summons for this fight since summons increase
the health of mobs and bosses and make them more unpredictable,
though, but it's what got me through it. I've had over a dozen different
characters, and this one a pyromancer, is now the only one I've gotten
through that fight.

I continue to play, trying to work toward 100% achievements which
requires going through New Game+ and some distance into NG++, and
having fun with one other character I stopped at level 12 so I can help
newbies in the first area, alternating between them, and occasionally
other characters, though those two are the only ones I really enjoy
at the moment. NG+ is exceedingly easy so far, and have finished
the main game and am on the first DLC. Even though all the mobs
do more damage and have more health having all the weapons fully
upgraded and all the spells is what makes it so easy. The only boss
I've had any trouble with so far was the Twin Princes which is the
next to last boss, even that only took about 4 tries, with all others
being one or two.

I'm dreading Midir for the second time. I could just skip him, but
I can't get his weapon if I do. I may stoop to asking for help on
the DS3 discord.

*** Beat Saber - Oculus 2 (VR)
It's a good game for getting exercise while listening to electronic
dance music. It keeps the exercise fun, which is really more than I
can say about any other attempt at exercise I've made. It's better
than DDR which I played a bit on PS2.

There's not an awful lot to say about it, and it seems extremely
rudimentary for what it is, but somehow it's fun. Sort of 3d fruit
ninja, you just have to slice boxes flying at you in the direction
of the arrows on them, and dodge walls (that part's easy.) There's
difficulties from easy to expert, and levels/songs seem to be
harder the newer they are for the most part. I play about half
the levels on hard, and the other half on normal and do fine.

There's an online play where you compete for the best score,
but you choose your difficulty. Unlike normal play, you don't
choose the songs, but everyone gets a vote for a song, and
there's some chance some other random song will play (You
can't get random songs in normal play unfortunately.)
This mode is more fun I think, but it has the unfortunate
issue that unlike solo you can't choose an environment
that has a floor, which makes it a bit too anxiety inducing for
me.

This is also the only VR game where you don't have to move
around with the thumb sticks, which means it's also the
only one to not induce nausea for me.

As I mentioned elsewhere the Oculus itself seems nothing
but a toy otherwise, but as an exercise machine with Beat
Saber, it's pretty cheap and far more fun.

----- Other games flipped:

* Monster Hunter World (PC)
Another 'souls like' I didn't make it through the tutorial. The
Anime bad and overly cheery acting really threw me off. Way
too many cut scenes at the beginning, and the graphics
themselves are just shockingly bright and saturated especially
coming from DS3's dark muted tones. Throwing far too
much at me to figure out at the beginning. Combat seems
difficult not in actually killing anything (which I didn't even get to)
but in figuring out how to pull off what I was trying to do. Maybe
there's a good game here after I get accimated, but getting
over all these initial hurdles was just too much, and I crawled
back into my dark hole of DS3

*** Dark Souls - Prepare to Die (replay)
I mainly booted this up to see if I thought DS3 or DS was more
difficult to answer the question for PW. Normal mobs, and the
confusing and cliff filled levels are significantly more difficult,
the first couple bosses I found easy, but there's a trick to the
second one I remembered, and from what I remember the later
bosses are significantly more difficult, with the exception of the
DLC bosses one of which is about as impossible as Midir, but
there's ways to kill him with cheese which there isn't with Midir.
The game seems pretty janky and the graphics just too poor
for today.

I was aware of DS - Remastered but thought it was only on
the consoles, apperently it's on PC and has been for some time.
I guess I missed the 50% off for owners of the PtD edition though.
:( It looks much prettier, probably even more pretty than DS3.
I'd like to try it, but it's pretty pricy right now, and DS3 still
has it's claws in me.

* Gorn - Oculus 2: an interesting way of moving about I found
a bit less nausia inducing is you grab forward of you and pull
back to move around, kind of like a gorilla. A combat arena
game, it's fun for a bit, but way too cartoony and after a
few times I have no interest in it.

* Blade and Sorcery - Oculus 2: Similar to Gorn, but thumbstick
movement, has sorcery (which I haven't been able to figure out)
and the world/enemies are far more realistic, though still not
exceedingly so. For some reason I'm finding fighting the about
50% females in this game distasteful. Perhaps it's the 3d makes
it feel more real. Again after playing it a little I have no desire to
go back to it.

** Guts and Glory: Mentioned in the thread where Spalls gave it
and I took it. An amusing and overly deadly and bloody obstacle
course where you are a dad with his son riding on a bike, there
are other characters, but most of them also have children who
die in bloody horrible messes. I got about 2 & 1/2 hours into it.
It feels like this would've been better on mobile as the short
levels would allow fairly quick play. Visually it has a flat solid
color scheme that reminds me of windows 3.11. I can't really
recommend it, but if you find it for around $2 or less and it
sounds like something you might enjoy give it a try.

- Justisaur

Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2021?

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 by: Ant - Sun, 2 Jan 2022 23:51 UTC

Free week(end) games:
NARAKA: BLADEPOINT (OK)
ARK: Survival Evolved (reminds me of Minecraft and has a steep learning curve)
KovaaK's (had problems, but interesting and I suck as an old fart)
Dying Light (kind of fun until I died and had to start over!)

I thought I would play my other free non-expiring games, but NOPE!
Stupid life.

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

> I am not hung over. The bleary eyes, banging headache and general
> feeling of malaise are merely figments of an over-active imagination.
> If I pretend they don't exist, they won't bother me. So I tell myself
> I am not hung over. Hopefully that will get me through this post.

> The 'Tell it to Me Real Quick' Edition
> ------------------------------
> * Bioshock Remastered (replay)
> * Underworld Ascendant (new)
> * Halo Wars (new/replay)

> The 'Why Won't You Shut Up Already' Edition?
> ---------------------------------------

> * Bioshock Remastered (replay)
> I don't really enjoy playing "Bioshock".

> Which is an odd thing to say, considering that I have probably played
> and replayed it four or five times prior to this attempt. I certainly
> admire its construction, from a technical stand point. Nor is it
> completely accurate to say I didn't enjoy my latest playthrough; there
> are things I like about the game, but it's piecemeal.

> I just think it is far less than the whole of its parts.

> Not its art style, though; that remains an impressive cornerstone of
> what makes the game so memorable to so many people. I, being a
> complete Philistine, dislike art deco as a form, but the developers
> made excellent use of the style to create levels that are intriguing
> to look at. The gunplay is undeniably solid too (it's one of the bits
> of "Bioshock" I enjoyed). I am not much of a fan of games which rely
> so heavily on environmental kills - the too obvious placement of the
> various traps ruins the immersion - but it does make for some frenetic
> combat. It's dual-mode guns-plus-plasmids fighting style (what the
> game refers to as its 'one-two punch') makes for some chaotic - if not
> entirely satisfying - gameplay. It's hampered by the somewhat clunky
> controls but the underlying structure is strong. While it didn't
> originate with "Bioshock", that game did elevate this type of gameplay
> to the point it has been heavily emulated in innumerable games since.

> Some of the underlying notions that form the basis for the story and
> setting are intriguing too: the questioning of free will, the Randian
> economics, questioning morality versus practicality. It's heady stuff.
> Too bad the game handles it all so poorly. For all people praise its
> story and setting, I have always found the whole thing very
> superficial and simplistic. Even for a video game, the world doesn't
> make a lick of sense, and its characters don't act believably. Oh, I
> get it; the game is a parable, and as such deserves some slack with
> regards to its world-building. But when confronted with a skyscraper
> city built miles below the waves using 1940s technology, I'm hard
> pressed to overlook its oddities. Worse, "Bioshock" does little to
> help sell its setting. Certainly the level design doesn't help; it's
> maps don't feel like a place people would ever live; they feel like
> combat arenas and loot-lockers. Coupled with the game's bland,
> archetypical characters who actions are dictated by the needs of the
> narrative rather than any sort of human desires, and the artificiality
> of the place looms large.

> I think "Bioshock's" success was a result of that, when it was
> released, it was facing off against years of modern-warfare shooters
> which didn't bother to ask anything more complex than "who is the bad
> guy and how do I kill him?" Compared to that, its hinting towards
> deeper meaning was revelatory to players who had been conditioned not
> to expect any sort of literary aspirations from the medium. Certainly
> "Bioshock" inspired other developers to trust their players with more
> sophisticated story ideas than "kill all enemies until you win." But
> Bioshock itself is disappointingly sophomoric.

> Still, the game - or at least the remastered edition - looks nice
> enough; considering it's fifteen years old, that's an accomplishment.
> Its gameplay - outside of its combat - is fairly rudimentary and,
> frankly, sort of dull, but it was a good early attempt making console
> first-person shooters a bit more complex than point-n-shoot. Its
> controls are fairly clunky - largely because it was focused around the
> limitations of the gamepad - but they mostly worked, and I can
> appreciate the effort made in that area. I did suffer from a bug where
> my weapons and plasmids were randomly remapped to different controls,
> but I won't hold that against the game too much. And while the
> developer commentary was entirely too self-aggrandizing, it was a nice
> addition that helped break up some of the mid-game tedium.

> "Bioshock" is a flawed game, and that makes it hard to enjoy playing
> it, but it was an extremely aspirational title, and I can appreciate
> it for trying to be more than "just another shooter", even if its
> attempt didn't work all that well.

> * Underworld Ascendant (new)
> I went into this game warily, but hopefully. Warily, because reviews
> have not been kind to this game. Hopefully, because I loved its
> antecedents, and I desperately wanted to recapture the magic of the
> original Underworld games.

> Still, my heart dropped when the game loaded and my screen flowered
> with colors of glowing greens and purples. Yet, moments later a small
> smile crossed my face as I heard bars of the original "Underworld"
> theme mixed in with the opening soundtrack. But after playing the game
> for a few hours, I was forced to admit the obvious truth: this game is
> crap.

> I hate to make that judgment, not only because of its association with
> 1992's "Ultima Underworld", but despite it. I know I am very much
> weighing this game against that venerable classic instead of simply
> judging it on its own merits. It is obvious the developers have their
> own vision for the game, and I wish I could evaluate the game simply
> based on what it is. And, had the developers named the game "Uncle
> Bob's Dungeon Exploreum" or whatever, maybe I might have managed that
> goal. I still wouldn't have liked it, but at least my opinion would
> have been based on the game itself rather than its connections. But it
> was the developers who wedged so much of "Ultima Underworld" into this
> game that it became impossible to weigh the game on its own. The
> developers are the ones who insistently crammed so much of the
> terminology and lore of the original Underworld into their half-baked
> creation that it becomes impossible to look at their game without
> seeing the older one. The developers were betting that nostalgia for
> the classic would attract people to "Ascendant"; well, nostalgia is a
> double-edged sword, and if your game doesn't match up to an older
> title, don't be surprised if people undervalue your newer additions.

> Not, as I said, that I think "Ascendant" would have flourished had it
> been separated at birth from the "Underworld" franchise. It's just not
> a very good game, but I imagine there would still be a small
> contingent that would have enjoyed its quirks. Still, I can't imagine
> that would be a lot of people.

> Everything in the game feels unrealistic. The visuals are almost
> cartoonishly colorful, which contrasts poorly with its
> post-apocalyptic tale of an ancient evil threatening all of
> civilization. Characters look unnecessarily bloaty and cheerful. It's
> hard to feel threatened by a monster when it looks like a cartoon
> skeleton. Everything in the game feels floaty too; the game leans hard
> on its physics engine as its main gimmick, but nothing feels like it
> has a realistic weight. If I bump into something it will either
> skitter across the room or barely move at all, and neither seems
> moored in reality. Too much of the game depends on dragging and moving
> objects and it's just not fun.

> Similarly, the combat is dull; there's only a minimum of moves and
> even that seems overkill; simply striking fast with two or three
> whacks and then jumping back before a retaliatory blow worked 99% of
> the time. The AI is, unsurprisingly, inept; it wanders about on
> scripted paths, is amazingly easy to sneak around, and - once
> triggered - its only strategy is to lumber slowly towards you (with
> pathetically poor pathfinding to boot).


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Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2021?

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From: wer...@gmx.at (Werner P.)
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Subject: Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2021?
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 by: Werner P. - Mon, 3 Jan 2022 07:42 UTC

Am 01.01.22 um 21:28 schrieb Spalls Hurgenson:
>
>
> I am not hung over. The bleary eyes, banging headache and general
> feeling of malaise are merely figments of an over-active imagination.
> If I pretend they don't exist, they won't bother me. So I tell myself
> I am not hung over. Hopefully that will get me through this post.
>
>
I played Bloodstained. The reason was, Given that my xbox controller is
giving up slowly I have reactivated my Steam controllers again
first they are wireless, secondly they are in a better condition. Also I
have been testing games on Linux recently and for whatever reason I got
addicted to Bloodstained for a while and played it in my rare sparetime
for 2 weeks. The game is the usual Castlevania style of game, done by
one of the Castlevania creators. So yes, it is excellent if you like
Castlevania. Very well balanced nice forgettable story and lots of
monsters to slay which you progress and advance in a rather non linear
level design.

Second game, while testing the steam controllers custom setups again I
reopened Asassins Creed Odssey, while the controller works nicely (it is
better than what people constantly were saying) the game itself is on a
slow pace and rather repetetive so after another 4-5 hours of gaming it
I had enough with the endless mission repetition to advance a slow
crawling story. I will pick it up again whenever I feel I want to
however, given that it is a nice game.
But living in Europe, Greece does not have that exotic value to me, not
even ancient greece.

Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2021?

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 by: JAB - Mon, 3 Jan 2022 18:40 UTC

On 01/01/2022 20:28, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

> * Bioshock Remastered (replay)
> I don't really enjoy playing "Bioshock".
>

A game I really didn't enjoy although a lot of that was as I bought into
the hype surrounding it even to the extent of pre-ordering it. I did
like the setting and graphics style but once you got pass that it was
basically another shooter. Yes you could do elaborate things with traps
but why bother when you can just shoot them in the face.

Bioshock:Infinite I did enjoy but that was because I had pretty low
expectations of it and it was only £5.

Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2021?

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From: spallshu...@gmail.com (Spalls Hurgenson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action
Subject: Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2021?
Date: Mon, 03 Jan 2022 15:27:03 -0500
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 by: Spalls Hurgenson - Mon, 3 Jan 2022 20:27 UTC

On Sat, 1 Jan 2022 14:32:41 -0700, "rms" <rsquiresMOO@MOOflashMOO.net>
wrote:

>>What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2021?
>
> Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
>Snagging a PS5 in November, this is the first game I've played on it, and I
>do intend to continue on to the sequels. If you're unfamiliar with this
>franchise, it's a 3rd person action-adventure, with a disturbing number of
>gunbattles :) -- I must have killed 100+ random mercs -- in the search for
>a lost treasure. I didn't find it too long and enjoyed the simple story,
>which has frequent cutscenes (apparently this series had a large influence
>on recent Tomb Raider titles). Also looking forward to trying other famous
>titles I'd only read about, like Last Of Us, God Of War, etc.

I rather enjoyed the "Uncharted" games, although I only played the
first three, and those on the venerable PS3. "Drake's Fortune" was -
being the first - the roughest of the three; I found its controls
somewhat clunky, that there was a bit too much emphasis on combat, and
that parts of the story were poorly paced. "Among Thieves" was
probably my favorite of the three, being the best overall story.
"Drake's Deception" (the third) was an adequate game but seemed very
'gamified' in its narrative and generally felt more like a cash-grab
than a necessary part of the saga. Still, overall all three of the
games were quite well made, and I enjoyed seeing the progression in
technique and skill of the developers as the series evolved. "Last of
Us" was probably their high point; both "Uncharted 4"* and "Last of Us
2" - while still technically excellent games - failed to engage me.

The original "God of War" games were hard for me to get into, largely
because they were button-mashing fighting games that required more
finesse with a gamepad than I'll ever achieve, and because the camera
angles were always dissatisfying. The more recent unnumbered "God of
War" used a far more pleasing over-the-shoulder viewpoint and was more
forgiving in its gameplay. But given what I know about your gameplay
preferences I think you might prefer the earlier titles over the
fourth, as they are far more concerned with gameplay than story (I may
be wrong about that and, if so, I apologize for my presumption).

------------------
* Watched it on YouTube

Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2021?

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From: as...@sci.fi (Anssi Saari)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action
Subject: Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2021?
Date: Tue, 04 Jan 2022 13:15:38 +0200
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 by: Anssi Saari - Tue, 4 Jan 2022 11:15 UTC

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> writes:

> I am not hung over. The bleary eyes, banging headache and general
> feeling of malaise are merely figments of an over-active imagination.
> If I pretend they don't exist, they won't bother me. So I tell myself
> I am not hung over. Hopefully that will get me through this post.

Hmm. I wasn't hung over but I realized I really shouldn't stay up until
the wee hours of the morning either these days. I was pretty tired so I
effectively *was* hung over. Good thing New Year's eve was on a Friday.

> What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2021?

Well, I tried to get into Witcher 3. To my annoyance I noticed that my
recent Steam purchase of it was a mistake since I already had it on
GoG. Oh well. I'd give the Steam code away but it's activated now.

Anyways, I've barely gotten through the tutorial and I'm not too
optimistic I'll actually stick with this. It seems from the early parts
like it's really long, NPCs just go on and on about stuff. In fact
howlongtobeat.com says 51 and a half hours if focusing on the main
objectives!

Good length for an interesting game, I just don't know if I like it
enough. I've watched both seasons of the Netflix show now which was
decent enough but over 50 hours running around in the Witcher world?
Well, we'll see. I think I'll definitely "focus on the main objectives".

The only other game I've played any significant amount of is still 1945
Air Force on my phone. Ever so slowly I've upgraded my little quartet of
planes to max on "tier 1" so soon I can merge them to "tier 2". I hope
this gives a decent bump in everything but we'll see. If it's still a
near-impossible grind for almost no progress I think I'll start looking
for something else to play.

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