Games

I had another game I planned to play last night, but then the first Red Dead Redemption finally released on Steam yesterday, including its Undead Nightmare story mode, and I found myself up all night enjoying the zombie western horror fest! Finally! It only took them 14 years to port it to the PC.

I'm going to be talking exclusively about Undead Nightmare today. I'll go over Red Dead Redemption another time, but this extra content is basically its own game, with a story that veers off from the main game's campaign. Treat it like an alternate universe to the main game.

Undead Nightmare takes place after the main campaign of Red Dead Redemption, but before the epilogue. Honestly, you could say it's an alternate ending to the game that replaces the epilogue with a dark twist.

John Marston, the protagonist of the main game, sends his boy to bed and is settling in to bed with his wife when Uncle shows up, bloodied, deranged, and violent. John knocks him out, then goes to get his shotgun. But Uncle isn't down for long, and he chases John's wife out of the house, getting a solid bite on her throat before John returns and guns him down.

John's son comes running to his mother's aid, only to be bitten by her! They both rapidly turn into the undead, and John hog-ties them to keep them from hurting anyone else. He leaves them tied up in the bedroom, then promises to return once he's found a doctor.

John goes to the nearest town to find it overrun with the undead. He helps the few remaining citizens liberate the town, then asks random survivors what's going on.

One girl mentions that her mother came back long after being dead and buried, and ate her dad's face off! She recommends burning coffins at the local cemetery to keep the dead from rising again. And also suggests she had an evil uncle who was buried there.

Considering her contempt for him and the loving message scrawled on his tombstone, it hints at the dark kind of relationship they may have had. Also, she mentions all the horribly abusive things that her own father does, but dismisses them because "he's a good man!" So her uncle must've been a truly terrible person.

From here, you're going from town to town, helping people survive undead attacks, following rumors about what might be causing it, and trying to find an end to the nightmare so you can cure your wife and kid.

In the original campaign, there was an easter egg where you could go way up north into the mountains and find a family of Sasquatch hiding in the forest. In Undead Nightmare, you get a quest to hunt them down.

After killing several of them, you find one crying against a tree. He can speak! He begs you to end his life because "some maniac" has killed all of his friends and family and he's the last of his kind left. It's up to you whether or not to end his life.

There are several other mythical creatures to be found roaming the lands, like chupacabra, black horned goats with red eyes, unicorns, and even the Four Horses of the Apocalypse - War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are not to be found.

You can wrangle and tame the first three horses, then the horse Death will appear in the wilderness to be tamed. Death is automatically awarded to you when you complete the whole storyline too. My favorite is War, because it's the only one with a fiery mane. The other three just look like regular horses with creepy eyes.

My original horse was just a normal horse... until I encountered an undead bear, which knocked me over and killed my horse. The next time I called for my mount, this undead horse showed up! Turns out there are some tame undead; although the undead horses have a bad habit of ignoring commands and doing their own thing sometimes.

There are many theories as to what's causing the undead to walk again. Some have some merit and warrant investigation, but others are completely outrageous.

Still others are so wrapped up arguing over what to do in this new chaotic world that they don't pay attention to their surroundings...

The most interesting theory I heard was that this was just a thing that happens every couple hundred years. A sort of cleansing ritual or something.

I bought Red Dead Redemption ages ago, specifically for this Undead Nightmare content. But I didn't want to jump into a story-rich game without knowing all the characters and lore, so I rushed through the campaign as quick as I could.

I later regretted it, as I felt like the campaign was much better than this zombie storyline. Sure, you get a quick tour of all the characters from the campaign and see how they're handling the "zombie apocalypse." Hint: most aren't handling it well. But the undead story just feels like it was tacked on last-minute, with very few story missions and a lot of side quests to keep you running back and forth across the land.

Don't get me wrong, Undead Nightmare is a lot of fun to play if you want to run around and shoot zombies in a "spaghetti western" setting. But I much prefer Red Dead Redemption.

Now if only they could more clearly communicate when games are playable offline.

Bad pun is still bad. =P

And Gunbird 2 seems to play a bit better than the first game.

Champions Tactics: Grimoria Chronicles

Rather than actually include their soundtracks on popular platforms, Nintendo graciously offers their own mobile app locked behind the Switch online subscription....

Have you ever had difficult nights? Nights where, no matter what, you can’t seem to sleep; nights where, once your lights are off, all you can do is stare at the endless void that is indefinitely spreading in front of you? Well then, join us in our Special News Feature, and we’ll talk about the only sleep and nightmare remedy you’ll ever need, LSD Dream Emulator, soon available for the masses on PlayStation!

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cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/27366526

I know that remakes and remasters are contentious, but let's pretend whatever game in question you're thinking of is handled with the utmost care by your favourite devs and they absolutely nail it.

Mine would be Shadow of Memories (called Shadow of Destiny in North America). It's legitimately one of my favourite games of all time but it kinda flew under the radar and I haven't met many people who know of it let alone played it. Seeing it get modern graphics, maybe some expanded mechanics, would be soooo cool.

Today's game is Alan Wake. I had a ton of free time and managed to get pretty far. I'm playing on Steam Deck so my frame rates occasionally dip below 30 (You can tell my low video settings by Alan's face). I saw someone online though talking about a FSR-3 mod for it though and how it's super simple. Figured i'd install it. ended up spending 4 hours on it. First the tutorial was outdated and i had to install the mod directly into the game, then the controller wasn't being detected, then it wouldn't launch in game mode, then the mod vanished. At that point i said screw it and went back to the game. I might try again tomorrow because the benefits seem worth it.

This screenshot i took was in the Ocean View Hotel while making my way back into the main foyer area. I love how this game upped the thrill factor. I do prefer the first games controls i think, but this one i think has me constantly on edge. I love it. I also like the nods to the first game too. One example is There's a shoebox where i can store items, and i think it's an amazing reference to the lore of the first game.

I took a bonus screenshot while Alan was getting his face pummeled in by a Shadow. It looks like he's taking a selfie while pissed off:

Source: https://x.com/AgeOfEmpires/status/1851034064670622084

How come there are so few racing games coming out lately? Feels like it's just codemasters doing their thing, some struggling indie games and a truckload of shovelware. I'm not saying it's dead but wasn't racing games one of the primary genres?

Another thing that bugs me with the few games that come out is the lack of progression and immersion. NFS Unbound impressed me slightly with actually starting you out with a low spec car and having slow (by modern standards) progression. However halfway through when you have fast and "cool" cars you really felt the games mediocrity.

Dirt rally 1 and 2 has economy systems, but after a single championship you can basically buy whatever car you want. The rallies are immersive but everything between is just boring menues.

Why do you think the state of racing games is so poor? The industry being shit? Audiences not playing them anymore?

Loving how each new stage is an extension of the previous one.

"The current obsession with nostalgia and remake culture is easy to understand when you realize that it's a symptom of a culture that isn't allowed to imagine a future."

Neon Koi was developing a mobile action game. Firewalk Studios recently launched and quickly delisted Concord.

I'm a little late, but I finally got around to taking on the demos that caught my eye during Steam's Next Fest this past month. All positive experiences, with one big stand-out.

Uncle Chop's Rocket Shop is a repair sim with a wild story driven by roguelite progression. Think of it as Papers, Please or Hardspace: Shipbreaker but with the grimy, whimsical styling of Spongebob Squarepants or (dating myself here) Ren & Stimpy. At first, I felt like a fish out of water and couldn't tell my encoder from my pancake, surely by design. It wasn't long at all before everything clicked in a big way--gameplay, story, themes, visual design--and I was happily clearing alien waste out of toilets. Very much looking forward to this release.

Keep Driving is a nostalgic road trip sim. Hitchhikers make up your "party" as you take on harrowing encounters such as slow tractors on country roads and birds that won't move. Great soundtrack and UI design that's all evocative of a low-information time when roads meant possibilities and places to discover. I think I'd need to get my hands on the full game to be more sure about the gameplay loop and the meta-progression. I'm also not entirely sure about the drunk driving quest.

Keylocker describes itself as an "unforgiving Turn Based Rhythm JRPG." This is timed hits turned up to 11. The game's combat doesn't integrate music like I was expecting, at least not as far as I got in the game. Lack of music is a plot point for the game, and most spaces have some great ambient sound design to fill in the soundspace. The difficulty is certainly challenging, but the visual and audio cues for it are designed well. The sprite art is gorgeous stuff, with plenty of animation and distinct character design. It's still rough around the edges, and the writing is a bit much (even for me, as someone with built-up tolerance for this sort of thing), but I'm interested after it gets a little more polish.

Knights in Tight Spaces is a high-fantasy follow-up to the well-received Fights in Tight Spaces. I loved Nitro Kid, a similar melee card battler with 80's styling, and this is right up my alley. I'm much more into the detailed environments and characters here than Fights' minimalist silhouettes. If the animations/camera perspectives get polished up a bit, it'll be a treat. That said, I do want to know how much content I'll get out of this before I buy, so the price point is going to be important.

How about you? Any finds from Next Fest?

I went into Call of Cthulhu blind, not knowing anything except that it's somehow connected to the Cthulhu mythos. Not only was it another period piece supernatural detective story like yesterday's game, Kona, but it also stars a private investigator who was a former veteran. This time, though, it takes place in 1924 and our protagonist is a veteran of the first World War. You play Edward Pierce, a down-on-his-luck P.I. who is struggling with insomnia, alcoholism and PTSD from his service in the war.

The game opens with Pierce lying in an underground cavern, panicking as he realizes he's soaked in the blood and guts of mutilated marine animals. He escapes, only to witness faceless cult members attacking a faceless intruder on their ceremony. Then they come for him...

He awakens on the couch of his office. Just a nightmare. A client comes to his door, the father of a famous painter, Sarah Hawkins. He wants Pierce to investigate the mysterious death of his daughter and her husband and son. Supposedly, they all burned to death in a house fire, but the police blamed it on Sarah. They said she went mad and killed them all. Her father doesn't believe it and asks Pierce to uncover the truth.

Pierce travels to Sarah's former home, an island off the coast of Boston called Darkwater, which has been mostly forgotten by the mainland. It's home to a small town of fishermen, as well as the wealthy Sarah Hawkins and her family. While trying to investigate Sarah's old warehouse, Pierce runs into the local muscle, a woman named Cat. She doesn't take kindly to him snooping on her territory.

Did I mention this game has dialogue choices? Depending on how you handle situations (and in what direction you level your character's stats), you can change the course of action in the game.

In this instance, I got my ass kicked by Cat. But, as you may remember from my former posts, I like to play the altruist in my games. I got the option to sneak into the warehouse again, but I was also given a chance to talk with Cat directly instead, and I was polite and honest enough with her that she decided to help me out instead of kicking my ass again. She actually escorted me to the warehouse this time!

In the warehouse, you switch into detective mode, which allows you to scan for clues and piece together the crime scene. Kind of like the visions in Kona, except instead of glowing, moving silhouettes in a dark space, they're transparent, unmoving silhouettes in a frosty space.

The local police burst in and kick Pierce out, but through dialogue choices, I got them to not only give me more valuable information, but also give me a lift to the decrepit Hawkins mansion on the island. Which did NOT burn down. Hmm...

Exploring the mansion, Pierce eventually finds an underground passage and ends up falling into a cavern full of mutilated marine animals... the same one from the nightmare at the beginning of the game! Panicking, Pierce attempts to escape, only to experience the same cult scenario play out similar to his nightmare earlier. While running for his life, he's knocked unconscious by falling debris.

From this point, the line between fantasy and reality starts blending. Pierce wakes in an insane asylum, breaks out, and then has to confront the indescribable horrors that he's witnessed. Finding allies to his experiences is difficult though, as most end up insane or dead. Or some people he witnessed being murdered will instead show up healthy with no memory of being harmed. Edward Pierce finds his grip on reality slipping and he needs to solve the case quick, before he falls into complete madness...

There's a lot of lore throughout the story, and despite my lengthy explanation of the plot, there are tons of details that were omitted, to avoid spoilers. Plus, your choices can lead to slightly different outcomes. There are actually four different endings to this game, depending on interactions and how intact Pierce's sanity is by the end.

Like a lot of horror games right now, Call of Cthulhu is currently 80% off on Steam, so take advantage of the seasonal deals if you like this kind of thing. Apparently, this game is the latest original story in a (non-related) series of "Call of Cthulhu" video games, which are independently licensed works based on an old tabletop RPG of the same name, which itself is loosely based on the H.P. Lovecraft short, "The Call of Cthulhu." So my initial impression, that it's "somehow connected to the Cthulhu mythos," is a pretty good summary of this game.

For game designers, encouraging aggression is often a good thing. Too many players of StarCraft or even regular combat games end up "turtling", dropping initiative wherever possible to make their games slow and boring while playing as safe as possible.

But in other games, often of multiplayer variety, hyper-aggression can sometimes ruin pacing in the other direction. Imagine spawning into a game with dozens of mechanics to learn, but finding that the prevailing strategy of enemy players is to arrive directly into your base and overwhelm you with a large set of abilities, using either their just-large-enough HP pool, or some mitigation ability, while you were still curiously investigating mechanics and working on defenses.

Some players find this approach fun, and this may even be the appropriate situation for games of a competitive variety, where the ability to react to unexpectedly aggressive plays is an exciting element for both players and spectators.

Plus, this is a very necessary setup for speedrunners, who often optimize to find the best way of trivializing singleplayer encounters.

But other games have something of a more casual focus, which can give a sour feeling when trying to bring people into the experience without having to reflexively react to players that are abandoning caution. Even when a game isn't casual, aggression metas can trivialize the "ebb and flow, attack and defense" mechanics that the game traditionally tries to teach. This can also lead to speedruns becoming less interesting because one mechanic allows a player to skip much of what makes a game enjoyable (which can sometimes be solved by "No XGlitch%" run categories)

So, the prompt branches into a few questions:

• What are fun occasions you've seen where players got absolutely destroyed for relying on various "rush metas" in certain kinds of games, because witty players knew just how to react?
• What are some interesting game mechanics you've seen that don't ruin the fun of the game, but force players to consider other mechanics they'd otherwise just forget about in order to have a "zero HP, max-damage" build?
• What are some games you know of that are currently ruined by "Aggression metas", and what ideas do you have for either players or designers to correct for them?

Today's game is Max Payne 1 again. I finished it up today, surprisingly fast considering how far along i was yesterday. Tomorrow i'm going to start Alan Wake II (assuming i have the free time to pick it up by the time i get home).

I really enjoyed this game. I loved the story and the narration, along with the imagery used. On top of that the Bullet Time mechanics were so satisfying to use. I also liked the graphics, the primitive design and the dark snowy lighting feel perfect for this game. It can be a bit cruel at times with the Saves (At some points i found myself manually saving after each room), but overall i would recommend people pick it up and play, especially with how low it goes in pricing on steam. It took me 8.6 hours in total to play through the game on normal difficulty.

Unfortunately we have some bad news. We have to delay Early Access for 3 weeks. The new date is the 6th of December.

A longtime Wonderswan enthusiast, unusually for his usual game-related video repretoire, gives his first impressions upon vivid/statis, a free VSRG-ARG-visual novel hybrid released by Hajimeli back in 2023 (on Steam) for PC platforms