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05-14-20

I can't imagine you're going to find something that does that with images/graphics on the fly, which is what you'd be dealing with in a game.

Maybe Google Lens, on your phone, held up to the screen? Tedious, but I'll be stunned if there's a non-tedious solution.

Zotis

Otaku/Skramz

05-14-20

I suppose a lense app on my phone might at least be a bit faster.

ynwtf

That elusive hide-and-seek cow is at it again

05-14-20

Windows 10 has a default screen reader. Narrator, I believe. You might Google around to see if there is a tool that uses that with translations. Or there's a free screen reader called NVDA that might have some translation options. I really doubt it, but who knows? Those are for visually impaired, but maybe there are options or hacky things to get in the direction of where you want to be.

(this is the thread I thought I clicked, btw)

Zotis! You just had to post in two different threads and confuse me right up!

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Golgot

there's a frog in my snake oil

05-16-20

Ok I’m not buying this game...

I decided that I've had enough of this on the level, where you need to go through a series of portals to reach your goal, but there are always more than one portal on your way, and if you choose the wrong one you're sent back to the beginning and every single enemy will respawn. Earlier on the same level there was a door that played Willheim scream when you approach it. Every. Single. Time. And giant boulders which instakilled you if you're not psychic and can predict them appearing behind you.

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Iroquois

Welcome to the human race...

05-16-20

Since last I posted, I've finished the Foundation DLC in Control. Fine enough, though it's a little slight and I didn't much care for

View Spoilers

WARNING: "Control" spoilers below

how the main quest really does just end with Jesse fighting an infected Marshall. Feels like that was attempting to compensate for how the base game's main quest didn't actually have a final boss, but there's a similarly sudden sense of "that's it?" and they're clearly teasing a further continuation with the next round of DLC. Assuming it all builds up to something worthwhile in its final chapter, I'm sure it'll be fine, but I'm not feeling overly confident.

From there, I've actually been juggling two separate games in both Hotline Miami and Alan Wake (mainly because the latter's horror conventions mean I only play it at night). After getting into Control, I figured I'd check out Remedy's other games (especially since Alan Wake apparently takes place in the same universe as Control and one can definitely see the common ground even underneath the horror-oriented gameplay). So far I'm finding it...fine. Obviously playing it now (and after Control at that) definitely makes it seem a little less impressive and, as much as I do like a pulpy reality-bender plot from time to time, something about this one just seems passable even with the benefit of interactivity. Undecided about the gameplay, too - it does seem to fit into a comfortable sort of survival horror where it's not overly tense and the enemies are challenging without being too annoying (aside from the occasional heavy or boss). I'll definitely finish it and the DLC at this rate, but I am leaning towards this just being okay.

As for Hotline Miami, I'm enjoying it - I guess. The gameplay does dance on the fine line between challenging and frustrating, but it's worth it for the moments where it goes right. Also dig the aesthetic, of course.

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Originally Posted by Yoda

I really just want you all angry and confused the whole time.

Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

doubledenim

_________________________ _________________________

05-16-20

that Hotline music, too

Golgot

there's a frog in my snake oil

05-16-20

I blundered into some accidental night-time horror in FO4VR.

Merrily wondering around the institute, in a blur of dodgy performance, when I realise the weird giant machinery in the robotics lab, which kept knocking me about, was actually assembling synths layer by layer.

I know that FO4 is not the most graphically exotic game in world. (Sometimes it�s more like a cascade of gravel over your face in VR

). But the way 3D modelling is �brought to life� by the binocular view etc really brings out the best bits. They�d gone to town on this whole sideshow, and it was a slice of Westworld out of nowhere suddenly.

I like that when quizzed this guy will respond with "I�m new", as he stoops into the �habilitation chamber�, or whatever it was. This fricking game

CAVEAT: I also got transfixed by a bald doctor�s head prior to this...

Golgot

there's a frog in my snake oil

05-19-20

I don't think any of us foresaw this:

Dog Star Man

Avant-Garde

05-19-20

I've been going through some of the highest rated Game Boy games. I started with Final Fantasy Adventure. All I have to say is, "Damn." I had a lot of fun with this game. For a Game Boy game it's extremely ambitious. You can essentially customize your character to the style in which you play every level you level up. Also, (and it's creator's admit this), they wanted a NES-Zeldaish style gameplay, which it pretty much ends up being in a handheld format. Also, you need certain equipment/weapons to advance the gameplay, (like certain weapons allow you to "whip" over from one area to another, others are magical and allow you to go into magical caves, others open hidden walls, etc.). For an "old" game, I was actually really impressed. Taken it for what it was: It's age, it's ambition, it's format (Game Boy). I rated it a 5/5 on GameFaqs.

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-Stan Brakhage

Golgot

there's a frog in my snake oil

05-19-20

I am playing Elite Dangerous again...

Every session brings something new...

Austruck

The Adventure Starts Here!

05-21-20

Originally Posted by Golgot

I don't think any of us foresaw this:

The mask is a nice touch.

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Zotis

Otaku/Skramz

05-21-20

Originally Posted by Dog Star Man

Final Fantasy Adventure is a truly great game. If you're into retro games and you ever get the chance to play Japanese exclusive PS1 games, check out: Soukaigi.

Dog Star Man

Avant-Garde

05-22-20

Originally Posted by Zotis

Final Fantasy Adventure is a truly great game. If you're into retro games and you ever get the chance to play Japanese exclusive PS1 games, check out: Soukaigi.

Oh cool! Yes! Thank you for the recommendation, I'll be sure to check it out sometime!

Golgot

there's a frog in my snake oil

05-25-20

Rare VR incursion. Finally got this written up:

Originally Posted by Golgot

Review: Half-Life: Alyx

Given the deserved rapturous reception that Alyx received, I'm going to start my review with the negatives

Negatives:

So, the game is great, and these are going to be nitpicks. But they're worth raising:

Characters don't turn to face you:

This shocked me for some reason. A few of the NPC moments in tight locations, where there's no room to manoeuvre and change the angle, were outright wonderful. But the fact that protagonists wouldn't react to your position in wider spaces was a surprising missed beat & immersion-breaker.

At points it just settles into being a rote shooter:

The innovative twisting and layering of game mechanics didn't happen with quite the same cadence of the HL2 series. Half of the innovation is purely the conversion of old tropes to VR itself. Satisfying as they are, this leads to a few levels dipping down towards being glorified wave shooters. And at times during that process, as you wait out the '3 second suppressing fire' pattern that you now know intimately, those game mechanics did feel like they'd dipped below marvellous.

An innovation for classic gaming, not for VR gaming:

For VR vets, with a few years under their belt, there's a laundry list of things that Alyx could have added, but didn't. And it's obvious why they didn't. This is the ultimate glossy 'killer app' attempt, an onboarding for VR that doesn't want to push up to the hard edge of what's possible, in case it triggers nausea in some adopters. Aspects like the 'transition over ledge' & 'teleport to top of ladder if you miss a rung' mechanics, although slickly done, are obvious stabilisers on an otherwise free-wheeling experience. And lord it would have been so great to have stuff like:
- Verticality: The ability to clamber up parts of the locations, dangle perilously, peer through discovered gaps to scout danger, get surprised and fire one-handed while doing it. All of that would have brought the spaces further alive, added to the 'action puzzle' aspect, and given it an extra kinetic kick.
- Melee: I can see why it might have been a horror step too far. The ability to grab headcrabs out of the air shows how much this stuff can add though. Being able to baseball bat them would have been even greater

Positives:

Attention to detail:
The quality touches are everywhere. Feeding a ceiling limpet a picture and being showered by a jumble of broken frame and other pieces. Walking under a limpet and having it snatch the hat off your head. Playing a piano, or wheeling a bike around just because you fancy it. The physics system, interactions, and general art quality control are lush and pretty replete.

Excellent visuals:
Thanks to their use of adaptive pixel density this is the most absurdly good-looking game I've played to date. Genuine 'I am absolutely in this grounded alien-invaded wonderland' absorption at points. At its best, this raised the stakes to epic levels.

Just the right amount of horror:
I'm not the biggest gore or horror fiend, but they did a great job of reaching into the bag of horror tricks at the right moment and scaling the challenges. There is a moment, where you have to collect your torch, but you really, really, really don't want to, which is a great example of this. And the way the headcrabs go from being genuine terrors, to basically puppy dogs compared to the other horrors, speaks to it too.

A HL:A wave shooter level can still be good:
It was still good to escape a claustrophobic section and get back into open areas to duke it out with the Combine. The heavies are, unfortunately, as dumb as rocks, and embarrassingly easy to kite. But it's still possible to get mobbed, cornered, and into trouble as events progress. Hunkering down behind obstacles, blind-firing around corners, picking shots between gaps, weathering suppressing fire, scurrying to new locations. All of this works well ultimately, and the weapon upgrades, although slim, are all fun to deploy. The fact that one particular enemy needs to be tracked down amongst the melee gives you a reason to keep on the move that just about keeps the right tactical tension.

Jeff!:
He deserves his own mention. And yet I can't say much for fear of spoilers. It felt like the most HL2-ish of the stages at that point, in the sense that it flipped some established behaviours around. There was only one real new game mechanic introduced, and it's pretty minor, but it was more about some existing mechanics being brought to the fore. I've seen almost every element done in other VR games, but have never felt quite so reliant on the ability to move objects with fine-grained levels of force...

Those final levels:
They just took the lid off with the last few levels, culminating into a great final passage. Almost art-house notes in there, narrowing down into an absurd wish-fulfillment scenario with a great novel mechanism and setting. All tumbling cinematically towards the final conclusion, which if it perhaps stretched credulity a touch, still felt ultimately believable and fitting for the game. Worth staying past the credits...

(+)

Last edited by Golgot; 05-28-20 at 10:01 PM.

gandalf26

We've gone on holiday by mistake

05-28-20

Been playing a bit of RUST lately, super toxic. Kids keep acting out a particular moment of the movie "Deliverance" in proximity chat.

"REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE"

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You are vile.

Golgot

there's a frog in my snake oil

05-29-20

I still can’t play The Forest in VR.

No way. Nuh uh.

(Kids going reeeeeeeeee in the chat probably wouldn’t help either though

)

Golgot

there's a frog in my snake oil

05-29-20

Seeing as I grabbed some footage, here is the fun kind of abandonware I�ve been scrabbling around in due to lack of other Alyx-tier gaming

Real shame it looks like they�ve run out of cash. Fun central conceit of being able to change your orientation, for combat and puzzles. (With fairly trippy results. And because it�s indie EA, the occasional disturbing sound of an NPC trapped in a ceiling box, announcing that everything is fine

)

Golgot

there's a frog in my snake oil

05-31-20

This is fun

https://www.cracked.com/pictofacts-1...avorite-games/

Had heard of most of them, but kinda cool to see a few of them in action

Golgot

there's a frog in my snake oil

06-02-20

Ok this probably won't survive the music copyrights, but I thought I'd have a go at explaining the appeal of Elite's space combat.

Whenever I drop back into the game, this is pretty much what I do. Hunt bad guys between planets or amongst asteroids. Duke it out in a variety of ships & loadouts. Repeat.

For some bedevilling reason this is still fun on and off after 5 years

(The VR helps, but not required

)

Golgot