Video Games

[laxu]

Also tried Another Crab's Treasure. So far it's cute, but the combat is kinda janky, like the controls aren't quite responsive enough. The walking speed of the crab is also hideously slow which makes combat more difficult.

 

[laxu]

Played more of Another Crab's Treasure. As I got more skills and got hang of the game I'm liking it more, but it still has some issue with the way it feels to play. It's like it's not always completely responsive which can be a problem during fights.

It has a ton of charm to it though. Good character, enemy and boss designs, the shell swapping is a brilliant idea too. It's a shame it doesn't seem to have any other weapons than the fork. You can upgrade it for more attack power but that's it.

IMO the start of the game puts you maybe a bit too quickly in the deep end as even the first enemies aren't complete pushovers and they throw a first boss at you out of the blue. Newcomers to the Soulslike genre are likely to have a tough time.

 

[Devin]

It's like Banjo Kazooie meets Sekiro

If you do a pure melee build like I did the Thimble is by far the best shell. It's the one and only shell I put insurance on because it's just that good

The only real issue I came across as far as controls go was sometimes not being able to get my charge attack to come out in the middle of combo-ing

 

[laxu]

It's like Banjo Kazooie meets Sekiro

If you do a pure melee build like I did the Thimble is by far the best shell. It's the one and only shell I put insurance on because it's just that good

The only real issue I came across as far as controls go was sometimes not being able to get my charge attack to come out in the middle of combo-ing

I've so far liked the Thimble as well, but my favorite has been the Party hat which acts like a cannon. It also lets you stay more mobile.

I've had issues with heal not coming out, and it's hard to gauge what the input cooldowns between attacking or blocking are sometimes. For someone who has played quite a few Souls style games, there's something a little bit off about it.

 

[Jynx]

Can't wait for this one.

 

[laxu]

Damn, Another Crab's Treasure is really good in so many ways, but also so easy to hate.

Why did the level designers go with so much platforming, when the game is janky enough that it doesn't work and all enemies can easily knock you off ledges. I'm at the Village Gates level and I hate it so much already. It has platforming in tight tunnels with enemies placed right at ledges you are supposed to jump on as the only way forward. The boss right before that level was a great design, so it's dissappointing to segue to a really poorly designed level right after. There's even a section right before a jump where my computer drops to 2 fps out of the blue every time.

The game is at its best when you have room to move so the camera does not block your way and you can see what you are reacting to. Unlike most Souls games, this expects you to use your shell to block a lot, and probably the idea is to parry a lot too but I find the timing really hard to pull off, and I consider myself fairly decent at parrying in From games. Meanwhile dodges seem to have very low if any invincibility frames so you really need to usually just dodge backwards to avoid an attack.

I like how many fun little touches there are in many places of the game, and the way levels are built out of all the manmade crap that has floated down to the seabed. MSG being the stat for umami attacks (shell special attacks) is a good joke!

But hey, at least I was able to get a Mr. Crabs suit!

 

[Jynx]

Yes!

 

[laxu]

Yes!

Looks phenomenal visually. I hope they can evolve the gameplay in a good way. Dropping Doom Eternal's platforming puzzles would go a long way, as well as Doom 2016's constant "locked into an arena until you kill everyone" progression.

 

[laxu]

Another Crab's Treasure progress report #100.

I've gotten quite a bit further in the game, including killing a few optional bosses. The Village Gates level was truly hateful with awful platforming in tight areas where your real enemies are the camera, frame rate drops and your character sticking poorly to nets.

Only followed by a section with lots of surfaces where you can get stuck as you try to avoid an arrow crab that nearly oneshots you in an area packed with enemies. While this sort of gauntlet is a Souls classic, and the design of the level is good for that, the game's issues make it a not fun experience because you or the camera keeps getting stuck into scenery, enemies strike through walls (thankfully you can too) etc.

I really, really want to love this game because it's got so much charm to it. The visual style, character and enemy designs, most bosses so far are really well done, level design is mostly decent and has so many nice little touches like buildings made out of cardboard boxes, milk cartons and other trash that has landed in the sea.

But there's a laundry list of bad stuff:

• Inconsistent inputs. The game desperately needs input buffering because there's a lot of situations where a shell swap or heal doesn't come out when you are in the wrong stage of an animation. Sometimes hold actions also don't trigger, especially charge attack on ground.
• The platforming sucks. It's so easy to get pushed off ledges or get stuck in scenery, you don't have enough forward momentum and jump height to clear even small ledges if you don't jump from further away and use the "scoot forward during jump" move. The grapple hook feels like it should trigger from further away for hanging hooks.
• Bad hitboxes. Sometimes they are clearly not matching what you see on screen well, especially for the spike balls in the environment.
• Enemies can pull off red grab attacks (that can only be dodged) multiple times in a row, including right after being pulled close by the grappling hook which makes them very hard to dodge.

A few things that made the game play better for me:

• Swapping from "hold to sprint" to a separate sprint button (L3 on controller). It's hard to see whether your character is sprinting, so toggling it easily helps. Dodging becomes much easier when it triggers on press, rather than release of the button. The game relies a lot more on "dodge instinctively" timing than many Souls games.
• Learned that you can parry by holding block and hitting the attack button. This is much easier to pull off than releasing block.
• Using block way more than dodge.
• Unlocking the scrap hammer ability. This lets you attach shells to the end of your fork and gives you slower attacks, but much higher damage. It allows you to swap between two shells as well (one on weapon, one on back) so you could have two shell skills available.
• Unlocking the "gain shell health back by counterattacking after taking damage" ability goes a long way to keep your favorite shell.

I really hope they improve the game with bugfixes. I think this could be a good 8/10 game if they just fixed the problems with controls and got the hitboxes tighter so you don't get stuck or get attacked through walls, maybe tweaked the damage values to player's favor a bit because this really requires Elden Ring level investment into vitality to not get 2-3 shot killed by everything.

 

[BahamaDada]

10 minutes ago after 13,4 h playtime I got my first Balatro win. I am god. AMA. (Seriously, am I still shaking? I feel like I do)

 

[pipelineaudio]

I thought the audio engineers were all playing Planetside. Crazy the who's who you see in there. Our engineering group has recently been playing Helldivers as well

 

[laxu]

Finished Another Crab's Treasure, so final review time:

The good:

• 90% of levels are well designed and have enough variety to feel different. I love the amount of detail and thought put into many areas.
• Boss designs are great! Almost all of them are fun to fight and give a good challenge.
• Character designs are excellent as well.
• The shell mechanic is really good, with a good amount of skills and having small/medium/large weight that determine how fast you can move and how durable the shells are.
• Decent skill tree, though a couple of them (parry and hammer) are so mandatory that they should be story related unlocks.
• Economy works for most of the game, meaning you don't get so much money that you can buy everything but get upgrades regularly so it feels like you are progressing.
• It has a good number of options you can turn on if you find the game too difficult. You are not punished for doing so either and can toggle them any time you want. I played it through on the "normal" aka hard setting, but definitely felt like I could have made my time a bit easier.
• Decent voice acting for the few cutscenes, considering this is a lower budget game.

The bad:

• Could use more weapons than the fork. I get that the hammer and different shells are supposed to be like weapons, but different shells used as hammer don't really do anything but alter damage and speed.
• Fairly low regular enemy variety. There are a few reskinned versions of some but it could have used a few more, and a couple I would have gladly removed because they were annoying and not fun to fight.
• One boss with a near instakill attack that was hard to consistently avoid, and another with a grab attack that comes out way too quick when you are up close so it's hard to avoid too.
• Could be a bit shorter. I felt it dragged on a bit at the end. I would have removed a couple of badly executed sections in the middle at least.
• You can make your adaptations (super attacks) pretty overpowered by the end of the game, and have enough points to execute them several times in a row. I don't know if this is intended, but I fully expect speedrunners will pour all stats into MSG to carve through bosses.

The ugly:

• The lack of input buffering makes especially heals sometimes not come out despite hitting the button. I wish the devs fixed this.
• Attaching shells to the end of the hammer by doing a charge attack on a shell is very inconsistent. It was better to put your current shell to the end of the hammer via its button, pick up the shell from the floor and then swap between them to get a new hammer.
• For the amount of platforming in the game, it should have more leeway for the player to walk on things as sometimes you can fall into gaps, fall off tight platforms easily, climbing nets is a bit awkward, or the spacing between platforms is annoyingly tight compared to how far you can scoot forward in water after jumping.
• Hitboxes don't always seem quite right and there's plenty of enemies attacking through walls and vice versa.
• You can easily get stuck into the scenery for a moment, or the camera goes in a position that makes it impossible to see what is going on. This game does not work well in tight spaces, but thankfully there's not a ton of those.
• As a bug, you sometimes get thrown high in the air, and unfortunately this rarely ends up being in your favor.
• A few bugs where the framerate dropped to very low consistently in the same spots.

Overall, I'd highly recommend it. 7/10, would be 8/10 if it was less buggy and janky.

I do hope they make a sequel for this.

 

[Aelred]

For the amount of platforming in the game, it should have more leeway for the player to walk on things as sometimes you can fall into gaps, fall off tight platforms easily, climbing nets is a bit awkward, or the spacing between platforms is annoyingly tight compared to how far you can scoot forward in water after jumping.

I am really starting to dislike platforming sections and controls in action RPG's and Soulslikes.

Perhaps because I am stuck in such a section in Stellar Blade (Abyss laser room) and cannot activate Radahn's Rune to save myself in Elden Ring leading up to the DLC. I keep falling off the ledges. Perseverence and patience, I know, but I play hack & slash games to do that.

 

[laxu]

I am really starting to dislike platforming sections and controls in action RPG's and Soulslikes.

Perhaps because I am stuck in such a section in Stellar Blade (Abyss laser room) and cannot activate Radahn's Rune to save myself in Elden Ring leading up to the DLC. I keep falling off the ledges. Perseverence and patience, I know, but I play hack & slash games to do that.

Yeah they are often not suited for that because using lock on or hitting dodge on instinct often sends you tumbling off ledges. Meanwhile especially From games have this hit detection on ledges where landing just slightly wrong slides you off which looks goofy and almost like a bug. Combined with drastic fall damage that is hard to gauge it makes for a bad time.

How is Stellar Blade? I've watched some streams of it and the combat and levels seem very solid, and visually it's pretty, but dear lord the rest of the game is like an edgelord anime fan's wet dream with unnecessarily skimpy outfits, and all the cutscenes have terrible voice acting and storytelling.

 

[Aelred]

How is Stellar Blade? I've watched some streams of it and the combat and levels seem very solid, and visually it's pretty, but dear lord the rest of the game is like an edgelord anime fan's wet dream with unnecessarily skimpy outfits, and all the cutscenes have terrible voice acting and storytelling.

It's such a hodge-podge of other similar games I've played all I can say is I really like some parts of it (the combat) but others just seem like time-wasting (fishing. I'm here to hack and slash and the game wants me to spend time fishing?!?) and loot gathering - which helps the combat.

The outfits are just other things to collect, and most are not skimpy. I choose on the basis of lighting in the area so I can see the character. But I have seen fans online wanting to cosplay Eve. They could have made them microtransactions, and instead gave us a couple for free. I played a lot of GTA, Saints Row, Bayonetta etc and the games media "outrage" about Eve is just absurd to me.

I play From games a lot, and the lore and NPC's are hardly the attraction, but others may go for more story than me.

 

[Jynx]

Damn! Just noticed Shadow of the Erdtree is this weekend!

Time to start a new game and get it ready for the update on Friday.

 

[BahamaDada]

Damn! Just noticed Shadow of the Erdtree is this weekend!

Time to start a new game and get it ready for the update on Friday.

I so want to play it but I can't get myself to do it all again.

Dumb me started NG+ after beating it in 2022. Should have just stayed in endgame with my lvl150 character.

 

[hemmelight]

Been playing the original Wipeout games the last week or so, working my way up to my favourite (Wipeout 3).

Man, Wipeout 3 in particular is one of the best-looking games on the PS1 and has some of my favourite visual styles of any game ever.
The art-direction and UI in that game coupled with the soundtrack is just awesome. It came out in that perfect window of time where the developers knew how to squeeze everything they could out of the hardware, but before the PS2 came out and all the various game studios had to start over. Some early PS2 games looked like hot garbage.

The game looks amazing when using a good emulator and rendering everything at 1080p. I've also got a subtle CRT scanline filter overlaid to make it look a bit more authentic. Without the filter it looks too clinical and perfect. Same with the resolution. 4k is too much, but 1080p is sharp enough to look good without anti-aliasing all the PS1-ness out of it.

This has got me wanting to pick up the Omega Collection for my PS5 now, as I've never played any of the more "modern" games in the series.
Kinda sucks that the studio responsible for Wipeout closed down and the franchise seems kinda dead.

 

[Devin]

Damn! Just noticed Shadow of the Erdtree is this weekend!

Time to start a new game and get it ready for the update on Friday.

I've already taken Friday off work so I can veg the fuck out

 

[Jynx]

I so want to play it but I can't get myself to do it all again.

Dumb me started NG+ after beating it in 2022. Should have just stayed in endgame with my lvl150 character.

No need to do it all again. Just rush the parts you need to complete.