Wow just finished Shovel Knight. I’ve never played a retro game that so accurately and expansively captured what made the NES era special. One of the keys was taking really simple game mechanics and getting boundless variety from them, and stretching what can be done with them to the limit. Kudos to the devs, they did their research so many references to so many NES classics, however they actually created a really fun game that feels like it was made 25 years ago.
Man, 2014 was one hell of a year for gaming. I had a fuck load of fun with all the games that came out for last year.
It’s hard to say, but I guess my 2014 GOTY is… I guess Divinity Original Sin? Fuck… I DUNNO!
The Evil Within was an interesting experience.
The way I played, I would hoard syringes (until maxxed out, then take them while they come) and due to the high number of checkpoints, kill myself if I took too much damage or used too much ammo. I would go real slow and methodical, searching every nook and cranny: I avoided quite a few of surprises this way (traps, jump scares, etc.), and I wasn’t worried about running out of ammo. This was the exact same strategy I used for The Last of Us. I got into a nice comfort zone and ruled that this game was not only easy, but not scary AT ALL.
Then some stuff kept happening.
And I was getting angry about it. Here are some statements I have made:
“Invisible enemies? That’s BULLSHIT!”
“WTF? He teleported right in front of me and instantly killed me!”
“Bitch, just DIE ALREADY!”
I cursed Shinji Mikami’s name repeatedly over the many, many deaths I experienced.
So after beating the game, I can say without hesitation that The Evil Within was a great game. Mikami dragged me - kicking and screaming - out of my comfort zone and gave me the tense, terror-filled experience he promised. The story was quite compelling too.
Egoraptor did a video a while back on how MegaMan games did such a masterful job of teaching the player in steps that felt natural just by playing the game. Shovel Knight has that down to a T, there was a section in the lava/underground stage where you first learn that the green blobs can be used to turn lava into bounce pads. The VERY first time you do this, there’s an obvious hidden area for you to open with a chest inside. By the time you’re done looting the chest, the timer for the bounce pad is showing you that it’s going to run out and become lava again, teaching you in a very organic way that there is a time limit on this mechanic. Little touches like that, how each new mechanic has such well timed elements as to give you a chance to learn and react, not all of these retro style games are so successful at recreating that.
Anyone can say whatever they want on Ego (I hear the guy has a lot of hate, but he’s rather popular now so that makes sense), but that Megman Man X video is a must watch for those getting into game design, honestly.
That and reading the book Masters of Doom lol.
The whole Sequelitis series is masterful. I really don’t like anything else he’s done even a little.
Lol, stopp frontin nigga, I got the same card. It’s got a 128bit memory bus, which blue ballin’ the fuck outta that 2GB of vid memory.
We got the poverty 2GB card, unless were taking about the unbranded Mexican version of the 750ti.
Got a little bit of coil whine last night after start up… Went away once I started a game but I’m a little nervous about it.
There’s only so many dick jokes one can make.
Haha I aint front shit man that card upgraded my rig so much the motherfucker nearly took me on a trip to mars. And bang for buck thats the best card on the market.
Best games of 2014 that I played:
Dark Souls II(just got recently patched I think+is getting a re-release)
Wolfenstein: The New Order
The Evil Within
1st bolded quote is actually how I played as well, as well making my own extra saves from playing Horror games over the years. When I finished the game I had a bunch of First Aid Kits and Syringes left over. To be honest, I think I played the game a little too cautiously at times.
2nd bolded I agree completely. Awesome game. New Game Plus is hilarious though, it’s obvious you’re not meant to have all those upgrades, health items and ammo that early on. It changes everything. I think I might even replay the game again soon or at least mess around in NG+ more. The gameplay and mechanics in the game are great, I don’t think they get enough praise. Once you start to really get familiar with the mechanics, you can come up with some creative and resource-saving ways to take out enemies. This is when the game is at its best imo, when your situation looks grim but yet with clever use of the games mechanics you end up surviving situations that you probably shouldn’t.
the story was hammered by reviews, but i actually found it interesting as well, and i liked the role it played in implicitly explaining crazy jumps in environments.
the overall sense of dread and the downward spiral the game instilled is unparalleled.
i played the game differently than you and abid, i didnt reload saves or horde, i was constantly on the verge of being out of ammo, forces you to come up with creative solutions. the flash bolt from the crossbow is so underrated, you can 1 hit “stealth” kill 5-6 packs of monsters with 1 flash blot if you upgrade it accordingly. it’s definitely top 5 for me, im hoping to put a top 5 games of 2014 vid up for my youtube channel.
i feel reviewers and gamers were disillusioned by their expectations and that’s why it wasnt well received.
im outi
Roberth
A collection of the Double Dragon Arcade games were released today on Steam
This is a completely unexpected surprise.
Double dragon neon any good? In the humble bundle weekly right now
The selection is unimpressive. I personally disliked Neon because the movement is slow and clunky. For some retarded reason Run is mapped to a button and has startup. The 80s cheesiness is awesome though.
Neon was terrible, its not worth ruining those memories over.
Well, isn’t that just badass.
Also, completely agree on Hawkingbird’s opinion on Neon.
Music is neat, have a taste
A pleasant surprise. Though for me Double Dragon is, albeit for different reasons, in the same boat as Ninja Gaiden; I prefer the home port(s) over the arcade original(s).
- Yeah about shovel knight it is the little touches that made it feel so right.
- Double dragon trilogy? Definitely a great set of games to play with another person.
- On Dark Souls 2, I just started (trying to get my controller to properly work), I bought it on the winter steam sale when it was 60+% off. I am a bit disappointed to hear there is a new better version of it coming later this year though, maybe I should have waited.
Does Valkyria Chronicles count? It got a Steam release.
On an unrelated side note, I had been meaning to put Win7 on an SSD I got months ago but hadn’t gotten around to it…Until now.
What are load times?
