Castle Magus

Just finished a playthrough of Overlord II, which came on the heels of a playthrough of Overlord: Raising Hell. (Not to be confused with those other two video games called Overlord or any of the other stuff.)

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It looks like this game will be finally coming to the personal computer. Good. I've been waiting for... *checks date on that last post* ...almost two years for it to get released (which it still hasn't, yet, as Q2 could be as late as June, and that's assuming it doesn't get pushed back at some point for whatever reason).

So, now, I can throw it on my wishlist and wait still more for a 60-75% off sale, because that's what I do for pretty much all games now, but especially for games that wasted my time with going the paid beta route via Epic Goofy Shit. At least all the bugs and glitches should be (hopefully) worked out, now that it's almost ready to be actually released.

For anyone who may be reading this who doesn't already have it, Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen is currently on sale for 84% off on Steam, i.e. for $4.79 USD. I've already said a bunch about it in the past, so I won't repeat all that stuff here. I'll just say it's great. You should totally get it.

Outside of Castle Super Beast, I don't watch Pat's stuff anymore, but from what I know of him from CSB and what I remember of him from Super Best Friends Play, I would have thought that Dwarf Fortress would be one of the most aggressively anti-Pat games of all time. And from what he says here, I suppose it is indeed that, for the most part.

Of all the Dwarf Fortress-lite games (and that's honestly what they all are) that are on Steam and elsewhere, I haven't actually tried RimWorld yet, though it's on my wishlist. I have played Gnomoria, with and without mods, a tiny bit of Ingnomia (which is apparently just someone else's attempt at a redo of Gnomoria, with the original Gnomoria dev's blessing, though it's mostly dead in the water now), Craft the World (which I wrote about here... and I guess Banished, which I also wrote about there, kind of fits this genre too), and most recently Oxygen Not Included (which is very similar to Craft the World, except that it's even more in depth, more science-based than medieval fantasy-based, and doesn't have the increasingly murderous invasions every 45 minutes or so, which by itself is a marked improvement over CTW). I'm not sure if games like Factorio count as part of the "Dwarf Fortress-lite" genre, but if they do, well... then that, too. All of these are cool, in their own ways, and as complex as some of them are (e.g. ONI, Factorio), not a single one of them hold a candle to the ridiculous simulation of so much... stuff... that is in Dwarf Fortress. And from what little I know of RimWorld, the same is true of that one, as well.

I played DF for a little while way back in ye olden days, and I've played a bit of it again now that it's out on Steam (one of the very few games for which I've paid not-discount price in the past decade), though I've barely cracked the surface on it so far, mainly because I keep stopping and starting over again (same as with ONI). From what little I've seen of the Steam version, it looks to be almost as complex as the old classic version, though some stuff, such as Adventure mode, have been (temporarily) stripped out of the Steam release.

Also, despite what Pat and Woolie say here in this video, Dwarf Fortress is not The Sims and it is not Animal Crossing. I've played Animal Crossing (the original GameCube game, at least, none of the later stuff) and I've played The Sims (a whole metric imperial assload of The Sims, from the original The Sims game up through and including The Sims 4 and just about all of their expansions, and I'll probably eventually do the same with The Sims 5 whenever that comes out, even despite my militant antipathy toward everything Electronic Arts otherwise), and while there are some very vague similarities there, if you tilt your head and squint really hard, even those games are tiny baby simulations compared to Dwarf Fortress. DF really is almost a entire genre unto itself, with maybe a few pretenders to the throne, but none that have come close to taking said throne yet.

Of the games in this list, the ones I'd still be vaguely interested in now are Metroid Prime 4, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2, Beyond Good & Evil 2, and Half-Life 2 Episode 3.[1]

Aside from those, the other only other one on the list that I've even heard of is Squadron 42.[2] And I've heard of and (briefly) played Dead Island[3], but never knew anything about a 2. Note how I'm not including either of those in the above list of "vaguely interested."

[1] - Or just Half-Life 3 at this point, I guess. I mean, I think the list is lying on that count, anyway, as I'm fairly sure I read in multiple places over the years that Valve has, at some point or another, explicitly said that, no, in fact, they're actually not working on Half-Life 2 Episode 3 or Half-Life 3 at this point. I could be wrong, of course. But, really, why would they be? They don't need to. Steam itself makes them more money than any of them will ever need. *eye roll*

[2] - And, apparently, Star Citizen itself requires AVX now, i.e. the same reason I cannot play Death Stranding. So, even if the fucking game ever did come out, I still can't play it. And, honestly, at this point, I don't even give much of a shit if I don't.

[3] - Steam says I played the non-Definitive edition of Dead Island (which doesn't even have a Steam page anymore) for (nb4 "nice") 69 minutes. And that's the sum and total of my experience with the Dead Island franchise, despite "owning" both the non- and Definitive Editions of both Dead Island and Riptide, so I have to say that if Dead Island 2 never comes out, I won't miss it at all. That article and this post here is probably the first time I've even thought about Dead Island at all, after those 69 ("nice" ...god I hate that fucking asinine meme) minutes were over and done with.

Here it is.

This is one that I thought I already owned on GOG.com, but no, it's another one I own on Steam. *shrug* I haven't yet played Flashback, but I have played its spiritual predecessor, Another World (probably better known as Out of This World on the Super Nintendo). I've played that game multiple times, on the SNES, on the SegaCD, and on PC, and it has been awesome in all of those versions. (Now, if only Heart of the Alien were [legitimately] available in the same way Another World is, even if it wasn't nearly as good.)

Anyway... to get back to the original point of this post, I'm not really sure why I haven't yet tried to play Flashback.

If I leave "Early Access Products" selected in my settings for the Steam discovery queue, then most of the games that show up in my discovery queue are Early Access games (I refuse to refer to "Early Access games" as "EA games" for what should be obvious reasons), which sucks because I've long ago stopped buying Early Access games. At most, I might Wishlist an Early Access game if it looks interesting, but only when/if it actually releases "properly"[1] will I consider buying it, because about half the time when I've bought Early Access shit in the past, it ended up just being utterly abandoned[2] without ever becoming anything resembling a full, complete game. (EDIT 2) I turned the "Early Access Products" option back on and ran through another queue, just for the hell of it, and literally every game in the queue was an Early Access game. (/EDIT 2)

On the other hand, if I deselect "Early Access Products" in the settings for the discovery queue, then the overall average quality of the games that show up in my discovery queue takes a noticeable nosedive. That said, I know there are games out there that have been completed and aren't total shit, because I see them when I'm just browsing regular-ass Steam. It's just that so very few of them are showing up in my discovery queue, in favor of asset flip shit and "meme games" and porn/hentai shit and the like.

Oh, and also, I'm still getting porn/hentai games in my queue, even though I have "Adult Only Sexual Content" deselected in my overall Steam Store settings (as there's no option for it specifically in the discovery queue settings). I think that has more to do with some such games not being properly put into the AO category, though, despite being porn/hentai. Not sure if that's a "publisher/developer being scuzzy" issue or a "Steam being negligent" issue or both of those issues combined. (EDIT) I think the biggest culprits are the porn/hentai games that have been "cleaned up" for Steam release so that they're technically not porn/hentai games, despite obviously being porn/hentai games, but which then have easily accessible "restoration" patches (usually available in posts by the developers themselves right there in the Steam forum for the game) that allow them to circumvent being labeled as an AO game by Steam, and, thus, show up in my discovery queue, despite my having turned that option the fuck off. (/EDIT)

[1] - Not that the arbitrary "released" distinction actually means anything, anymore, because far too many "released" games are still being actively developed (too often to the detriment of the game in question), even after leaving "Early Access."

[2] - Conversely, even if a "properly released" game stops being actively developed (after it has reached a state that I, personally, would consider to be a complete, fully functional game), far too many morons on the Steam forums or in Steam reviews for the game will stupidly bleat about how the game was "abandoned," so in this case, I guess it's a matter of damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Just finished Subnautica: Below Zero, which is basically "more of the same" for Subnautica.

Or, maybe... less of the same? The area to explore is a lot smaller, and overall the game world feels more compacted. There are less underwater areas to explore, in favor of more (frozen, glacial) islands. There are technically the same number of vehicles, but one of them is a land-only hover-bike sort of thing that I hardly ever used. The Seamoth and the Cyclops submarine from the first game are gone, essentially replaced and combined into the new Seatruck. The initial Seatruck is essentially the same as the Seamoth, but you can find blueprints for extra modules that you can build and attach to it, eventually giving it the kind of the same versatility (and the same lumbering, unwieldy movement) of the Cyclops. The Prawn mech suit from the first game is back in this one, essentially unchanged.

On the whole, though, it's still mostly the same gameplay. Early hours of scrambling around your immediate area trying to find basic components to build basic air tanks and fins and a knife and such, then later on, building the above mentioned vehicles and upgrades and going ever deeper, while uncovering more of the story.

Rather than playing as a nameless, faceless, voiceless cypher the way you did in the first game, in this one you are playing as Robin Ayou, a black woman who has come to 4546B (the planet from the first game) to find out what has happened to her sister Sam, who was reported killed by Alterra (the company from the first game and for whom Sam worked). And, that's basically it, as far as motivation goes. They even lampshade it early on when Robin muses that she's probably going to spend as much time or more simply exploring as she will looking for Sam. There is another, semi-related plotline that comes into play later on, though.

Lastly, I'm not sure what it is about this game that has apparently gotten all the alt-right/Trumpanzee/Irredeemably Toxic Shithole types up in arms against it, though. Apparently, it's too "woke"? I'm not sure what's so "woke" about it. The whole "giant corporations are bad" thing was present in the first game, too, and I don't recall it being described as "woke." Maybe it's the "researching a deadly disease for potential bio-weapon reasons is bad" thing? But then, that seems more like common fucking sense than "wokeness" to me. Or maybe something something LGBTQ+ (I don't recall encountering anything related to that in the game, even though that's what a lot of these mouthbreathing neckbeards are complaining about)? Or maybe it's the simple fact that you're playing as a female POC that strokes the rage nerve of these (probably white and male) fuckwits. I don't know. I don't get it. The story was fine, for the most part, even if it felt a bit barebones and only partially complete.

All in all, if you played the first Subnautica and liked it, then this one will scratch that same itch. Just don't come in expecting it to be as expansive as the first one, because it's not. It's still pretty good, though.

I just finished Strangeland by Wormwood Studios (well, "just finished" as of the time of starting on this post, anyway, as I'm sure at least an hour or three will have passed by the time I actually post it)... ...for the third time, after it was released only two days ago. The first time was a fairly leisurely, normal playthrough, trying to look at and do everything, which took 3.9 hours (according to Steam), though I definitely missed some stuff the first time through. The second time through was with the commentary and annotations turned on and took 8.9 hours, so says Steam, partly because some of those commentary segments were loooooong (not a bad thing, mind you, because they were all pretty interesting), and partly because I was constantly alt-tabbing out to take notes[1] while playing. The third time through, I just kind of tried to blitz through as fast as I could to get the last three achievements that I'd missed ("Gotta Torch 'Em All," "Dumb Ways To Die," and "Big Talker") which took another three hours. (I'm pretty sure that Chester, voiced by Wadjet Eye's Dave Gilbert according to the credits, was the rat, if you use the spirit torch on it? All I know was that after my first and second playthroughs, I was like "Who the hell was Chester? I'm pretty sure I didn't hear Dave Gilbert's voice... o_O") (EDIT) So, it seems that Chester is an Easter Egg if you dial 1-900-740-JEDI on the payphone, i.e. a reference to Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge... except that it's apparently broken at the moment(EDIT 2)[2](/EDIT 2) and will be fixed in an upcoming patch. (Wow... holy flashbacks to my days in WA as a software tester, Batman... O_O) That said, that's the only bug that I encountered while playing the game, as the game otherwise seems to be rock solid, as far as I can tell. (/EDIT)

So... Strangeland. It's made by the same guys who made Primordia, another excellent point-and-click adventure game (and one which I kind of want to play again now, and, in fact, probably will soon). It's published by the company that made other games that I've raved about in the past. Like those games, this one is also a point and click adventure game. If you like that sort of thing, I think you'll love this, especially if you like the weird and macabre. I love point-and-clicks, so I found this to be great.

You play as a guy who wakes up without his memory, in a straightjacket, in a world that's probably best described as a living nightmare. And you're essentially immortal, so dying is mostly just an inconvenience. In fact, you have to die a few times in order to progress. On the surface, the setting is a carnival, with rides and games and such, but it's pretty obvious that there's more going on here. I won't say anything about the story due to spoilers, but... I'd recommend (as the game itself recommends) that you definitely save the commentary and annotations for a second playthrough, because those pretty explicitly spell out what's going on more or less right from the start.

Strangeland has been compared to several other games, like Sanitarium and Silent Hill, which I would say is pretty accurate, especially Sanitarium. In the commentary, other references are made to the Dark Seed games and Weird Dreams (none of which I have played myself and cannot comment on) and the Legend of Kyrandia series (which I have played and fully agree with the commentary that they are wonderful games). I'd also compare it to Planescape: Torment, both for the specifics of the player character being an amnesiac who can die repeatedly to potentially solve puzzles and advance the story and also for the fact that I think the storytelling in Strangeland is great, just like in Torment. There is mention of Torment at one point in the commentary, but it's more in reference to Primordia than to Strangeland. (Seriously, coming from me, a game being compared to Planescape: Torment is high praise indeed.)

Non-game references, as mentioned in the commentaries, are to Norse mythology, such as Prose Edda, Hávamál, etc. (which is kind of funny, because I temporarily set aside my third playthrough of Heroine's Quest: The Herald of Ragnarok in order to play Strangeland), and "The Hollow Men" by T.S. Eliot, among many others. Also quite a bit of Tarot stuff.

The art is great. In addition to Primordia and some of the more eldritch locations in the Blackwell games, I was also getting some Bad Mojo vibes, for the grunginess seeming to coat everything. And, of course, it's all pretty reminiscent of the dark world from Silent Hill, too.

The music, also, is very atmospheric and fitting for the setting. Rather low-key, for the most part, but ever present. I also liked that each of the characters that you can talk to gets their own theme, which sort of builds upon whatever music was already playing in that area, such as the organ music that fades in for the Scribe as you're talking to him.

The voice acting, as is always the case in every Wadjet Eye game I've ever played so far, was top-notch. I have to admit that it was a bit difficult not to hear Joey Mallone in the Stranger at first, but I stopped thinking about it before too long. Also, it seems like Abe Goldfarb voices almost literally half the cast, if you count each character in the "Deadland" as its own thing, rather than... well... spoilers. And I heard some other voices that I recognized from previous Wadjet Eye games, and I saw some other names in the credits that I recognized from other things, as well, which was nice.

Some specific things now, and maybe kind of spoiler-y after this point.

During the commentary, there was a mention of a "flipped puzzle," i.e. one in which the solution is to do the opposite of what you'd think you should do at first, with reference to Shade by Andrew Plotkin, a game about a guy who is, ostensibly, about to go on a vacation in Death Valley. Shade is pretty great, too, I won't spoil it. However, while we're talking about interactive fiction games here, another comparison I would make in this vein would be to Slouching Towards Bedlam, in which (spoilers) the best ending is gotten by jumping out of the window to kill yourself as one of your first moves in the game, which is not something you'd know until you've already played through the game once. (Well, if by "best ending" one means "saving humanity," that is. If your goal is to doom humanity by spreading the Logos, then maybe don't jump out the window.)

I love the idea of "co-authorship" as applying to video games, i.e. interactivity making an otherwise "unremarkable" story remarkable, due to the player's interaction with it. This was talked about in the commentary and it is something that I've long thought about, from way back in my DigiPen days. If I ever were to get around to making that one game that has been trundling around in my head for the past, oh, decade or two now, it would very likely directly deal with such themes. (But I'll probably get around to that right after I finish the novel I've been "working on" for the past not-quite-but-almost as long now... blugh.)

The Dark Thing in Strangeland is compared in the commentary to Rover from The Prisoner, which I thought was pretty great.

And... one last thing I found pretty neat. In every game I've played that has a telephone and lets you dial numbers, one of the first things I do in such games is to dial 911. I won't say for 100% certain that Strangeland is the first game I've played that actually accounts for that, but if I've played another game in the past that does, it's not coming to mind right now.

[1] - The only other game, at least so far, that I've taken notes while playing was Doki Doki Literature Club. Except in this case, I wrote an actual post using those notes, rather than just text-dumping 8 pages of notes into the Dreamwidth post window.

(EDIT 2)

[2] - Just for context, that tweet I linked to there was in response to some tweets that I had made about the game (including a link back to this very post here), but of course my own tweets don't exist anymore, due to me nuking my original Twitter account after Elon Musk took over.

(/EDIT 2)