#defensive + protective playstyle. the goal is not to win the fight the goal is to *survive* the fight etc

[time-is-restored]

btw not to make everything about My Fucking Guy but i honestly think one of the things that seperates q!phil out from the other islanders is the approach he takes to dealing with the lack of agency + control all the islanders have over whatever the fuck the federation's doing.

it shows up most prominently whenever tubbo is excitedly telling him about the 'progress' he's made with cucurucho or various investigations (ie: trapping him into a corner with the 'do you have free will' questions), and phil always shoots it down w an immediate 'that doesn't mean anything. curucuho will say anything to mess with you. you can't take anything he says as true.'

and it's not that phil is... a paticularly pessimistic character? he's just EXTREMELY practical. like, he's yet to give up on anyone EVER finding ANY answers (he was the one who initially gave the federation that one week ultimatum w the cage for a cage stream), he just doesn't trust the idea that curucuho is ever going to voluntarily give them. they're uncontrollable + senseless - you might as well argue with the weather.

and like, if that's how he sees the one (1) and only point of contact the islanders HAD with the federation for months, it explains a lot abt his characters lifestyle! ofc he sits on the wall all day, talking to his kids, and keeping his head down. he believes that the federation wants nothing more than to drag the islanders into sick games + tasks just so they can fuck with their head (ie: curucuho revealing he was the one cellbit gathered all that information for). and while he can't totally PREVENT any of that from ever impacting him, he can make sure his kids are well fed, well protected, and as happy + comfortable as he can manage. this is objectively not a perfect situation, there is a guaranteed amount of suffering + fear that he can't mitigate, but he can at least account for it.

like, he REFUSES to engage. whenever curucho shows up, he treats them with total ambivalence. he's not going to get riled up by anything they do, he's not going to get super attached to the guy, he's just gonna laugh it off and irish goodbye it when things drag on. the ONLY time he's strayed from that general guiding principle has been since he's lost his eggs, and can no longer afford to let the federation's fuckery go: those are his fucking kids.

hence the completely unprecedented levels of outward rage and sadness and terror he shows throughout the birdcage streams - almost all directed directly to cucurucho. it's all a completely fair + proportional response to the horror the islanders are being subjected to, but it feels so different bc until now, q!phil has been so dedicated to not reacting, and not giving the federation any sign that they're actually getting to him.

#qsmp #q!phil #LIKE. does anyone else think this! i genuinely believe its like one of the major #traits of his character i feel like u can trace it through Everything. #the man lives with the constant knowledge that sometimes all it takes is a tempting ravine and a badly timed creeper to end a life #whether that life belongs to a stranger or someone you love more than anything else in the world #you COULD rage against that. you could scream and shout and tear your hair out and grieve for the futility of it all #but what does that change? the days march on. death waits either way #and that's not to say he's a laizesfair kind of guy. anyone who's seen him stress out abt chayanne's risk taking + freak out #whenever his kids don't have enough autofeed grist can see that he cares DEEPLY. which resolves into his very distinctive #defensive + protective playstyle. the goal is not to win the fight the goal is to *survive* the fight etc #but the only way that mindset doesn't spill out into unchecked paranoia + complete agoraphobia is with acceptance #'shit happens: the philza minecraft story' #i also think it even manifests in the nightmare sequence w his last words to chayanne? 'they didn't want us to live. we were never supposed #to survive' or whatever the exact wording was #he is FURIOUS and deeply hurt and sad abt the deaths he says so explicitly later #but at the time the first thing he reaches for is. exhausted acceptance. it wasn't their fault. it wasn't his fault. they did their best. #they could only do so much in the face of the federation's Overwhelming Hostility. y'know? #mine

[herzenswarme]

"Naruto: Passion of the Shinobi": A Naruto fan-made fighting game #1

Last edited: 2019-02-11

The Project

“Naruto: Passion of the Shinobi” (temporal name) is a personal passion project of mine consisting in a 1v1, 2D fighting game developed for PC with a custom engine (i.e. not a MUGEN game). As the passion project it is, I’m working on it entirely on my own, though relying on existing resources to fill the gaps of my knowledge (I’m a programmer, not an artist). The main scope of the project is to create a fighting game offering the core essential functions of a fighting game: local VS, online VS, training and tutorial; which will include characters from the first part of Naruto at first but may be expanded upon depending on reception (hopefully it will) towards the other sagas, including Boruto. The inspiration for this project came from 3 main factors. I love the first part of Naruto, I love fighting games, and Bandai Namco will not make it. Even if they were to make a fighter, I don’t think it would satisfy my fighting game needs. From this, I decided to go all in and try. It’s a large, ambitious project and it’s hard to keep motivation; but right now it is what keeps me going and I whole heartedly hope it gets somewhere. I can only wish for this game to be appreciated and enjoyed and I’ll do my best to try to do so. ♥

An introduction to the game's design philosophy

Wihout getting into too much detail, in this post I want to present the core ideas of the design of the game. When firt approaching the design of the game, there are some questions than immediately come to mind, things that are the main characteristics that a player use to summarize what a game is like. Things such as:

Is it a competition focused game or a casual game?

What is the neutral like?

Is it combo focused?

Are there many “gimmicks”?

What is the movement like?

How does it compare to other games?

Under this section I’d like to answer all of those questions before delving into the mechanics or the characters, which will be left for later posts.

The competitive focus of the game: Creating a competitive game without alienating the existing fanbase

I’m a fighting game enthusiast and, as such, I would not settle for less than a competitively viable game. A pure, standard fighting game where balanced, skill based gameplay imperates over fanservice and the canonical “power levels”. However, being a fan-game that revolves around characters and a world as loved as Naruto, one should always take into consideration the rest of the fanbase. This, as it will be made obvious when describing the mechanics of the game and the characters, will make itself present in the shape of quite unorthodox mechanics that merge my desired gameplay design with the canon. This way, while the aim will be always to have a competitive game, as a Naruto fan myself I’m trying to build everything around a canonical design, from universal mechanics as the chakra system to character specific mechanics, such as Gaara’s sand protection.

The gameplay: neutral, movement, influences and goals

Having played so many different fighting games, when coming up with the idea of how I wanted the game to work and be played, there are many ideas borrowed at least partially from existing titles, though there wouldn’t be a single specific central influence. What most influenced the design of the game is how I am as a player: what kind of things I like in a game and in my characters. What that implies in my case is a focus on the neutral game in an unorthodox way, usually focused in the (relatively) long term. Lingering projectiles, interactive projectiles and additional resource management are things I love and it is present even in the universal mechanics. The main consequence this has on the gamelay in general terms is that there is a huge focus in approaches and zoning as opposed to mix-ups and okizeme. It also means that there is a huge focus on projectiles of many types and plenty of the so called “gimmicks”. After all, the great thing about Naruto when it comes to a fighting games is how incredibly diverse the techniques and styles are, which is what made it feel like such a waste when Bandai Namco opted for a Dragon Ball fighting game. With all this taken into account, my aim is for the game to be focused on building their way through the neutral game. All these long-term tools are to be used to gain the leading hand and eventually win the neutral. For most characters, this will also mean get their reward in the shape of damage and return to neutral. Another key idea is the idea of creativeness and options. And this is a complicated thing to do correctly. While all characters have an overall playstyle, my hopes are to give the player different tools they can use in their own, unique way to approach that playstyle. However, making it so there is not a single, most efficient approach seems extremely daunting, to say the least. Regarding options, it is really important to me not to limit the options of the player. This will be a huge factor (among others) leading to the lack of the standard meter system, which is replaced by the chakra meter. I’ll comment in this further in the entry about universal mechanics. Finally, as a consequence of these character mechanics with so much lingering projectiles and other such elements, it has been decided at this point that the movement will be that of the usual anime/air-dasher fighter, including running and air-dashes for most of the cast. When putting it somewhere in the fighting game landscape, this game would be somewhere between Guilty Gear and Under Night In-Birth; offering unorthodox, quirky character mechanics and fast movement like Guilty Gear but with less focus on the okizeme and the mix-ups.

The balance

Balance is an extremely complicated yet essential part of any competitive game The more complex the game, the more complex the balancing process is. For a fighting game, this means an herculean task, to say the least.

When thinking about the balance of the game, my first doubt was the start line, the point of reference. We all know what the goal post is: for all characters to be equally viable under optimal human performance. However, where does one start from?

In the case of SFV, and according to a now quite old panel in which the game was presented to the fighting game community, Capcom took a character (in this case Ryu) and set him as the reference point to balance the rest of the cast. But this approach seems to me like a flawed one, as it does not take into account the compatibility between the other characters outside the Ryu match-up. The balance in a match-up is not transitive, that is, a character with a 5-5 match-up with Ryu doesn’t necessarily have a 5-5 match-up with any other character that has a 5-5.

So based on this, reference that’s common to every character and does not depend on any of them whatsoever. This leaves me with a question that remains still unanswered, at least not with certainty.

Nevertheless, there’s are 2 hypothetical principles that remain the most relevant: mirrored work*complexity and neutral result.

In any given match with any given characters, both players put in a certain amount of work, with player skill being a limiter to how much work a specific player can put out. In a mirror match, the obvious implication is that whoever puts out the most work, i.e. whoever offers the most skill, should win. This has a secondary consequence, that is that nothing should be outside the realm of human skill, such as the so called “50/50 mix-ups”. Which is still pretty obvious.

However, not all match-ups are mirror matches, and thus some characters are more difficult to play than others while some characters are more difficult to play against that others. This two properties are not necessarily directly proportional. As an example, Millia Rage from the Guilty Gear series can, without much work, apply a level of pressure and mix-ups that requires a lot of work to fight. While this is supposed to be compensated through other aspects, history has proved, mainly throughout the older entries, that it wasn’t the case.

This method tries to balance the game by balance the amount of work required from both sides relative to the complexity of the characters involved. Thus, a complex character should be as hard to play as it is to play against and a simple character to play should be simple to play against. That is the principle of mirrored work*complexity.

Then, there’s neutral result principle. By this principle, the result of 2 equal inputs of work should be neutral. Two Ryu players perfectly clashing hadoukens should end up in an equal situation. That’s a practical example of this principle at work. However, regardless of how well you defend, most games will leave you in a disadvantage. Guard break, RISC, and chip damage are some of the things that make even the greatest defense a net loss. By this principle, the rewards and/or costs for both parts should be equal under equal work.

Footnote: The (initial) exclusion of Shippuden

To end this post, I wanted to address what may be a big question from the Naruto fanbase: Why not cover Shippuden? There are two main reasons to why I decided to focus on the first part. First, it’s the one I personally like the most, for various reasons. Which personally inclined me to go for the first part version of the characters. Secondly, Shippuden is not so fit for a fighting game as the first one is due how the “power levels” are handled and how the techniques start to getting out of hand and leave the scope of 1v1 battle to go and cover more of a “man vs army” environment. This is detrimental to the gameplay as space starts to matter less as ranges get too crazy, while at the same time adapting the big, flashy attacks to a smaller scale results in an anti-climatic alteration of the canon. There is, however, a handful of characters that I find can offer some interesting chances for unique character mechanics such as Deidara, Pain, Sai and Kaguya. But at this point I want to adjust the scope to Naruto and extend to Shippuden or even Boruto depending on the results. This will raise a final question: What about fan favourites like Madara or Obito? Well, so far I don’t have a special interest in them as I don’t see interesting, well functioning fighting mechanics for them, but I’m open to suggestions and would gladly implement them down the road if they seem viable.

#naruto #fighting game #fan game #Fighting Game Community #FGC

[enterinit]

New Xbox One Games for May 12 to 15

New Xbox One Games for May 12 to 15.

Bullet Beat – May 19

Bullet Beat is a shoot'em up, where everything at the levels is in tune with the music, even shooting. Keep the combo to get stronger! Available in the game: 8 different levels with unique tracks in the dubstep genre and more;Chill Out mode;infinite mode with fortress protection. Warning! This game contains fast flashing images. It may cause discomfort and trigger seizures for people with photosensitive epilepsy. Gamers discretion is advised. Safety first!

A Fold Apart – May 19

In a world of folding paper, there are two sides to every story Lightning Rod Games presents A Fold Apart: an award-winning puzzle game that explores the emotional rollercoaster of a long-distance relationship — in a world of folding paper! After career choices force them along separate paths, a Teacher and Architect vow to make their long-distance relationship work at any cost. Experience both sides of their story as the couple navigates the complexities of (mis)communication and the emotional ups and downs that separation brings. By flipping, folding, and unfolding the paper puzzles in their handcrafted worlds, you can help the couple overcome the emotional barriers of their relationship — but will love endure…? Features: A relatable, true-to-life story of a long-distance relationship.Over fifty handcrafted paper folding puzzles.Beautiful 3D graphics with a tactile, “homemade” paper aesthetic.The ability to choose the couple that best represents you! https://youtu.be/QON2szVp9sg

Golf with Your Friends – May 19

Turn the fairway into a runway and customise your balls in Golf With Your Friends! Pre-Order now to putt your own stylish spin on the game as you tee off with one of 3 new hats or floaties! The Caddy Pack comes with: •Goose floaty •Rowboat floaty •Teacup floaty •Australian ‘slouch’ hat (outback style hat) •Triceratops hat •‘Beanie’ propeller hat Why have friends if not to play Golf… With Your Friends! Nothing is out of bounds as you take on 9 courses filled with fast paced, exciting, simultaneous mini golf for up to 12 players! Key Features: 12 Player Multiplayer! Make sure your skills are up to scratch as you tee off against 11 other golfers in online multiplayer. Themed Courses! 9 courses with unique mechanics and holes, become a pro in the pirate course or aim for an albatross in the ancient theme. Powerups! Drive a wedge between your friends as you trap their ball in honey, freeze it or turn it into a square. Three Game Modes! Tee off in classic mini golf, shoot for the pars in hoops or swap the hole for a goal in hockey Customisations! Turn the fairway into the runway, with unlockable hats, skins and trails for your ball.

Concept Destruction – May 20

Concept Destruction is all about driving miniature cars made of cardboard, and crashing them into each other to earn points by destroying them! Pick from several different modes that suits your playstyle. Pick championship mode if you want to fight your way through mass production or choose survival mode to see how long you can survive a wave of deadly cardboard automobiles! Unlock new cars with points earned by playing. Each car has a unique driving style that could turn the tide of battle! Features: Crash destructible cardboard cars, each with a unique driving stylePick from 4 different modes to bring total deconstructionExperience unique 3D cardboard car designsCustomize how you play!Listen to a heavy metal soundtrack while bashing cars

Maneater – May 22

BECOME THE MANEATER! Experience the ultimate power fantasy as the apex predator of the seas - a terrifying SHARK! Maneater is a single player, open world action RPG (ShaRkPG) where YOU are the shark. Starting as a small shark pup you are tasked with surviving the harsh world while eating your way up the ecosystem. To do this you will explore a large and varied open world encountering diverse enemies - both human and wildlife. Find the right resources and you can grow and evolve far beyond what nature intended, allowing the player to tailor the shark to their play style. This is fortunate, because to get revenge on the cruel fisherman that dismembered you will take evolving into a massive shark, an apex predator of legends. Eat. Explore. Evolve. Unique Story - Play through a full narrative, story-based campaign narrated by Chris Parnell (Saturday Night Live, 30 Rock, Rick and Morty) and set against the backdrop of a reality TV show. Diverse, Compelling Combat – Battle fierce wildlife including other apex predators or fight against various types of human hunters ranging from town drunks all the way up to the Coast Guard. Evolve Into a Legend – Feed on humans and wildlife to grow your shark, and find shark loot to evolve your shark down multiple possible paths. Explore the Gulf - 7 large regions including bayous of the gulf coast, resort beaches, industrial docks, the open ocean and more. Experience a living world with a full day/night cycle.

Monstrum – May 22

Stranded on a derelict cargo ship, you find yourself hunted by one of Monstrum’s terrifying predators as you search for a way out. Death is permanent. Get killed in Monstrum and you'll be starting all over again. As each of them has their own strategy, abilities and weaknesses, you have to use your wits to outsmart your pursuer in the ship’s procedurally generated environment. Can you survive Monstrum? Features: Survive a different environment and monster each time you playUse whatever you can find to outwit the monsters and escape the shipHide, distract and run, but be careful not to fall into the numerous trapsTry to stay alive or you’ll have to start all over again.

The Persistence – May 21

The Persistence challenges you to survive aboard a doomed deep space colony starship in the year 2521. Stranded, malfunctioning and caught in the inexorable pull of a black hole, “The Persistence” is overrun with a crew mutated into horrific & murderous aberrations. It’s down to you, a clone of security officer Zimri Eder, to make your way deeper into the depths of The Persistence to repair the systems and prevent the ship from being torn apart. Gather resources, upgrade abilities and fabricate an arsenal of weapons in this brutal sci-fi horror roguelike. Features: Death is just the beginning. After any fatal encounter with the mutated horde, Zimri’s consciousness is uploaded into a new host body, ready for the next attempt.An ever-changing labyrinth. Each and every expedition into The Persistence will be unique, with a different layout, items and gear to collect & upgrade.Upgrade and augment. Resequence DNA to improve health, toughness and defensive stats or even harvest crew DNA to create cloned bodies of crewmembers to inhabit, each with their own unique abilitiesExplore, evade and gather resources. Scope out, stalk and gain the tactical advantage Explore the decks of the ship and gather resources, weapons and suit customizations.

Saints Row: The Third Remastered – May 22

Saints Row®: The Third™ - Remastered gives you control of the Saints at the height of their power, and you live the life to show for it. This is your City. These are your rules. Remastered with enhanced graphics, Steelport the original city of sin, has never looked so good as it drowns in sex, drugs and guns. Years after taking Stilwater for their own, the Third Street Saints have evolved from street gang to household brand name, with Saints sneakers, Saints energy drinks and Johnny Gat bobblehead dolls all available at a store near you. The Saints are kings of Stilwater, but their celebrity status has not gone unnoticed. The Syndicate, a legendary criminal fraternity with pawns in play all over the globe, has turned its eye on the Saints and demands tribute. Refusing to kneel to the Syndicate, you take the fight to Steelport, a once-proud metropolis reduced to a struggling city of sin under Syndicate control. Take a tank skydiving, call in a satellite-targeted airstrike on a Mexican wrestling gang, and fight against a highly-trained military force by your lonesome in the most outlandish gameplay scenarios ever seen.

SokoBunny – May 22

Lost in the mountains, the working village continues to work for the benefit of the universe. Orders for cargo continue to arrive and local bunnies no longer cope with the tasks. They sent you to the cargo village to help organize all the goods in their place at the warehouse, but you will have to work hard for this. You can choose between 3 levels of difficulty of the warehouse, relax with the locals, swim, jump and of course kick. Take a friend with you to cooperative mode to solve warehouse maze puzzles faster. You only have your powerful paws for cargo kicks and you can do it! Entertainment: In addition to solving the main problem in the labyrinths of the warehouse, you can kick the locals, relax in hammocks, swim, play football and get perks in a local cafe. And you can ride and have fun in cars.

The Taller I Grow – May 22

The Taller I Grow is a puzzle-platformer where you must connect to objects in your environment to become taller and solve puzzles. You play as Bip, a small square that goes on a journey of growth. With 30 levels to complete, this game will test your patience, reflexes, and puzzle solving skills. Read the full article

#Games #XboxOne

[sven-kroosl]

My Top 10 Games of 2016

Man I'm glad 2016 is over but the games were good...

Some years play rough and 2016 was one of those years and I am very happy for it to be over. On the other hand in terms of video games, and only video games, this was a really great year. From a really solid resurgence in the quality of triple A shooters, to the Juggernaut that was Overwatch, and some really solid indie releases, there were actually too many good games for one person to play. Also there was a massive update to DotA 2 this year which is always welcome. So here we go, my top ten games of 2016.

 Honorable Mention - The Final Station

 Of all the games I played this year I had the most intense reaction to The Final Station. Upon completion of this game I set aside my controller, turned off my monitor, not the PC, just the monitor, then I went for a walk around the block. I was moved to this act not by any great aspect of the game’s production or by some jaw dropping set piece but instead by the oppressive weight and bleakness of The Final Station’s world. A dangerous world where even the simplest task can expose you to being torn apart by brutal attackers. A world where infrastructure is crumbling and the people normally trusted with protecting everyone have secretly betrayed the trust of the people. After the way 2016 played out, the bleak outlook of The Final Station resonates even more.

 10 - Pokemon Go

 I am not a Pokemon fan. I fully recognize the good and great qualities of the Pokemon universe, but the games and cartoons have just never done much for me. The runaway success of Pokemon Go demanded that I give the game a shot despite my usual lack of enthusiasm. What I found was a really solid AR experience filled with tons of excuses to get me up and about in the real world and a great new icebreaker to start conversations with people I would otherwise have nothing in common. Oh yeah, and some weak ass Pokemon.

 9 - Reigns

 Reigns is a truly fantastically simple game. Of the two mobile games on this list Reigns is the one that fit into my life the best. In that way Reigns was the anti Pokemon Go; Pokemon Go was the mobile game that changed my routine and Reigns was the game that fit into my routine. When you’re waiting in line for the movies or whatever you can’t go running after that stupid Zapdos. But you know what you can do? You can live the lives of half a dozen Medieval Kings, you can meet the devil in the form of you dog, you can fight skeletons in a dungeon, and even more cool stuff. Also it’s a mobile game that you just pay for up front and it never bothers you for money again, which is always nice.  

 8 - Darkest Dungeon

 Fun fact: for most of my 2015 Extra Life Marathon I was having internet service issues and about the only game I could reliably stream was the early access version of Darkest Dungeon, so I have more than a little experience with the game. The way that every part of The Darkest Dungeon works together to to create a gothic horror landscape is just fantastic. The way the cartoony artstyle contrasts with the animation and sound design is just dissonant enough to be unsettling. The way that the psychological maladies effect the gameplay and can just straight up end a dungeon run or in some cases even end a game is a risky gamble that really adds a sense of tension that works incredibly well with the tone of the game. Ultimately Darkest Dungeon is a really great, creepy, game. Be ready to grind a bit though because you'll definately need to.

 7 - The Banner Saga 2

 In a year when the second entry in the XCOM franchise was a disappointment there was a shining star in the turn based strategy genre and that star was The Banner Saga 2. Where XCOM 2 made the mistake of assuming players had maintained their skills from the first game The Banner Saga 2 eased players back into the combat system with a few easier battles before dialing up the difficulty. It also doesn’t hurt the game that it has some of the best hand drawn style art and animation of any game ever. Bottom line: The banner Saga was the best turn based strategy game released this year and I really like that type of game.

 6 - Overwatch

 I really enjoyed my time with Overwatch this year. Zarya is top tier A-plus defensive tank, and is also just the best. The way that Blizzard has built not just a great multiplayer game but also the UI framework around that game which celebrates every player’s contribution is a great accomplishment. I think that the characters in Overwatch are all really fun as is the game itself. It’s just a shame that there’s really no good single player experience in the game and that the story exists entirely outside the game, and that the community for that game is becoming toxic in spite of some masterful design efforts to combat that. Also shameful is Blizzard's decision to add the worst free to play practice, blind loot boxes with repeats, to a full price retail game. Overwatch is a really great game that is slowly getting worse over time and that’s kind of sad.

 5 - Dark Souls 3

 Dark Souls 3 is my first Souls game so I was unprepared for the absolute savagery with which this game assails players, even in the tutorial. Once I played for a while, though, patterns began to reveal themselves and a game that seemed ferocious at first became simply challenging but fair. The appeal of Souls  games was lost on me for a long time. I couldn’t understand why people were so excited to play blatantly unfair games. Now that I’ve played one I understand that these games aren’t really unfair or even onerously difficult. Souls games simply operate at a different tempo from other games and learning that tempo is the really difficult part of mastering them.

 4 - Stellaris

 Just. One. More. Turn.

Getting you to say that after 8 hours is  the ultimate goal of all games like Stellaris.  What Stellaris offers you that others like it don’t is freedom. Freedom to design your own civ, freedom to find your own way to win the game, freedom to be weird. Games like Stellaris, most notably the Civ series, tend to force players into a few basic strategies. Sure you can try a pacifist playthrough in a Civ game but good luck actually winning or even surviving very long that way. Stellaris has a way of making all playstyles viable by making them all just flawed enough that really drew me in to an extent greater than any other game I played this year. That said I tend to be fairly biased in favor of this type of game in general so it’s not a huge surprise that it affected me this way.

 3 - Doom

 Doom is a game about momentum which is important because that is the way it is different from practically every other game this year. The new hotness in games lately has been agility; letting players flit about the environment hither and thither. Doom ignores this trend, almost with disdain, forcing players to keep their feet mostly planted on the ground but letting them move at unheard of, in recent years, speed across it. What this means is that Doom isn’t a game about not getting blasted so much as it is a game about blasting things. The whole point of the game is to treat enemy encounters the way the Kool-Aid Man treats walls. This isn’t just a return to form to the series because this year’s DOOM added a new piece to the old formula; storytelling. In DOOMs of yore story was an afterthought for the most part. This DOOM, though, actually has a story with a plot and everything and actually interesting supporting cast members. This game even managed to give the “Doom guy” a little bit of a personality and for that alone it will go down as maybe one of the best shooter campaigns ever. In a year where the most popular game is often about five opposing team members finding ways to keep you from killing the sixth Doom is a breath of fresh air, letting you really cut loose against a horde of angry demons released by the worst kind of short sighted corporate greed.

 2 - Hyper Light Drifter

 I’ve said this a lot this year and I’m going to keep on saying it, because apparently it needs to be said. Everyone, play, Hyper Light Drifter. As a medium video games are often criticized, occasionally correctly, for being too over the top. With that being the case Hyper Light Drifter is possibly the exception that proves the rule. Which is to say sublimely simple and quiet but also incredibly fun and engaging. It doesn’t hurt that the game has the what is probably the best pixel art and sprite work in a game since Fez, an amazing synth heavy soundtrack and great sound design overall. The real beautiful aspect of Hyper Light Drifter, though, is the gameplay, specifically the combat. Few things this year have been more satisfying than mastering the combat in Hyper Light Drifter. The combat is just different enough from other similar games to be challenging while being familiar enough to not be off putting. But more than anything about the game it is the quiet  tone of Hyper Light Drifter that impressed me. So what are you waiting for. Go play this game!

 1 - Titanfall 2

 Titanfall 2 is a truly magnificent accomplishment in game design and execution. Every bit of the game is impeccably well done, it looks and sounds amazing, plays like a dream and most importantly is a joy to play. While a lot of games have the kinds of traversal mechanics that Titanfall 2 has, nothing feels like Titanfall 2.  That is what makes this the best game of the year, the way it feels. More than any other aspect of the medium, feel is what defines and differentiates games. In a year where great games were built to make you want to gamble on a loot box or increase accuracy of your favorite GPS app, the relative purity of Titanfall 2 makes it stand out. Instead of trapping players in a restrictive character class Titanfall 2 lets people customize almost every aspect of their multiplayer loadout. The game is even more distinctive on account of its campaign, remember those, which is a masterclass in how to pace mechanics. Titanfall 2 is constantly introducing and discarding new, interesting gameplay mechanics and consequently never gets dull or repetitive. When the mechanical brilliance of the campaign is put together with Titanfall 2’s solid “A boy and his robot” story and one of the year’s standout new characters, BT 7274, and you get, arguably, the best campaign of the year.

As parts of video game industry more and more often leave out parts of their games so they can sell them to us later or add sleazy free to play hooks to games they also expect us to pay for up front, it becomes important to celebrate games for simply being complete experiences on release. Unlike some games on this list Titanfall 2 is at that and more, the best game of the year.  

#Titanfall 2 #Hyper Light Drifter #DOOM #Stellaris #Dark Souls 3 #Overwatch #The Banner Saga 2 #Darkest Dungeon #Reigns #Pokemon Go #The Final Station #Top 10 #Game of the year

[retphienix]

So I had planned on recording this whole fight because we’re getting close to the end and I figured I’d show off the save scummy nature of my terrible playstyle but things changed.

Namely, this mission is really cool conceptually! And for the first half it was a blast! But let me just say that more than half of this mission was me sitting there pressing the same buttons on my controller and waiting...

Basically, the goal is taking down the tank. But the tank is covered in super armor which is repaired each turn thanks to the enemy bases.

Interesting!

So you have to play smart (and if you’re me, fast, rushing is unbelievably fun in this game) and take the “Alright” defenses of each base all while Jaeger spams orders that make attacking the bases difficult (Good!) and roams around the top of the map shooting anyone coming too close which covers roughly 3 of the 4 bases pretty well (and sometimes helps defend the 4th base).

This is all good!

What’s not good is the second I captured all the bases at around turn 4 or so I began attacking Jaeger himself and uh.

The armor is too strong.

First off the obvious, the armor protects against my cheese strat of rushing a scout to shoot the core, that’s fine, I’m cool with that because it’s the literal gimmick of this map and not an arbitrary rule they pulled out of nowhere like an earlier mission did.

So you HAVE to peck away at his armor before you can begin hurting the real tank underneith.

This took like 15 or so Lancer shots.

15. (or so).

That’s a TON of turns wasted and time spent sitting there just pulling the trigger for 3 consecutive CP. Switching to next lancer and repeating. And repeating. And moving my engineer to reload all my lancers triple shots. And repeating.

And your reward is him going “Now the real fight begins!” as you blow off the armor, and then you laugh because now you can two shot his core with just about anyone running around him with a couple orders supporting them.

What a drag, and the drag exists PURELY to prevent you cheesing the first phase where you capture the bases, but like, BADLY.

I wasn’t challenged after I got the bases? I wasn’t nervous to break off the armor? I was BORED.

I’m complaining, but all told, thanks to how this mission subverted rush tactics by allowing you to rush but demanding you do it intelligently and against 4 bases instead of just 1 and you win- this has probably been the most fun mission in the game thus far. Truly!

It’s just after you finish the ‘mission’ your eyes glaze over as you peck away at Jaeger until he finally congratulates you for winning- something you did like 5 turns back.

#RetPlays #Valkyria Chronicles