Discuss games you've been playing

[Pies]

Just got the new Pac-Man World Re-Pac.

A good wee remake of a childhood classic. Much better than Namco releasing OG Pacman for the 256th time.

[Mew 101]

I'm (re)playing Pokemon Radical Red romhack since I just learned the 3.0 update was a thing that happened. I'm gonna try to get all the retroachievements for the game but I'm not 100% committed to it

[Zondekel]

I've been back to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe off and on. Trying to get three star rank in all of the 200cc cups. I've gotten gold in all of them but only a few I've gotten first place in for all four races. I'm getting better at learning when to brake but it's definitely trickier than I expected.

[Pstriple]

Most been playing Half-Life, Team Fortress Classic, and Opposing Force.

I feel Opposing Force is one of the most underrated arena shooters in history.

So much potential for mischief there.

[Zondekel]

Originally Posted by Zondekel

I've been back to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe off and on. Trying to get three star rank in all of the 200cc cups. I've gotten gold in all of them but only a few I've gotten first place in for all four races. I'm getting better at learning when to brake but it's definitely trickier than I expected.

Did it. All 200cc cups, including the current DLC, gold 3-Star rank.
[hold for applause]

All 150cc time trial staff ghosts, including the DLC are beaten as well.
[hold for further applause]

Now I'm on to 200cc staff ghosts.

[DementedSun]

They finally added Marina Liteyears to Smash Bros. I haven't played Smash 64 in ages, but she plays almost exactly how I imagine she should.



One of my first rounds with her. Ignore the SD, she heavy I guess.

[The Colonel]

banjo-kazooie nuts & bolts. was able to emulate it so i emulated it and replayed up to the end of a basic playthrough. i always had a weird relationship with this game but i think it's only on replaying that i understand quite why. a part of it is that the 30fps cap makes everything extra touchy and annoying, unlocking the framerate on an emulator honestly helps immensely with this, feels much better to play at 60 or 120fps

but i think i have a more specific understanding of why the game landed so badly with fans of the games. it's not because it's about vehicles. that's part of it but there's, a genuinely deeper reason. nuts & bolts has no sense of adventure. it has no sense that you are constantly doing unique and memorable things. its mechanics rarely push you to exploit its mechanics in interesting ways, rarely design challenges you truly need a wholly unique vehicle for. its worlds are huge but empty, devoid of anything to find within them, making exploration hollow.

the writing, and the opening is kind of an insane showcase of this, really just hammers it in. right from the start the game does not cease to remind you that these are characters you know, but placed in a context where they are functionally hollow, not actually reflective of the characters you know, just characters whose appearances you are familiar with hammered into generic roles where they repeat the same jokes over and over. the closest thing nuts & bolts comes to making a joke is, constant jokes about how much it itself is disappointing and not as fun as banjo-kazooie. it genuinely feels like the game, kind of hates itself. every new character's sole purpose is to look and feel less likable than the existing cast and remind you of that at every possible opportunity. even the basic concept of nuts & bolts is almost designed to be less exciting, grunty basically doesn't have an actual antagonist role anymore because the tournament arc setup means she can't do anything. it's completely stiff and unexciting.

nuts & bolts is not a bad game. but it is kind of a charmless game and i'm not sure it would be possible to, personally ensure as negative an audience response. it's a game that needs a sequel to fix its own design problems but it feels too hateful of itself to ever allow that to exist, even if it had sold well. weird game even if it's pretty mindlessly fun still

[The Colonel]

however nuts & bolts humba wumba is cute and the only redesign i like

[Mr. Airplane]

I am extremely glad this Colonel posts exists because maybe The Discourse can finally move past "It's a fine enough game, but it's not a good Banjo game."

The tournament setup could have been interesting if LOG was menacing or interesting. You're definitely right that there's not much sense of adventure and it is just a collection of disconnected missions.

[Mew 101]

I've been sucked back into playing Kingdom Hearts again. I only first played in 2020 and I've beaten the first one 5 times, 2 of those to 100%

[DarthConker]

I've mostly been trying to finally finish up Elden Ring, with a ton of Minecraft on Switch with my gf on the weekends. The Switch port of MC is trash but now that I've gotten used to the controls I've actually been having a lot of fun working on a new world with her.

She also got me into the Telltale Walking Dead series which I finally finished a few weeks back, along with Wolf Among Us. Despite the player not having as much choice as you're led to believe, the games are really fun and I enjoyed the story of each for the most part. My least favorite of the WD games has to be season 3/The New Frontier, with the Final Season being my favorite.

[Zondekel]

I 100%'d Sonic Frontiers

[The Colonel]

armored core 3 silent line

[Pstriple]

Doom II in Dosbox-x using only the keyboard.

Got stuck in 1994 guys.

[CaptainDredlokk]

Lightfall is certainly one of the video game expansions of all time. Totally accentuates how much of a video game D2 is.