Flashfall's recent activity
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
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Comment on I'm glad Hideo Kojima went into games instead of directing movies in ~games
Flashfall Link ParentIn terms of understanding what's going on the cutscenes are pretty vital, I'm pretty sure Kojima is self-aware on how unintuitive or nonsensical many of his ideas and plot points are so he just...In terms of understanding what's going on the cutscenes are pretty vital, I'm pretty sure Kojima is self-aware on how unintuitive or nonsensical many of his ideas and plot points are so he just chooses to have people explain it to the main character rather than leave it to the player to figure it out. Not all cutscenes are just boring exposition dumps, sometimes there are just very cool visuals going on with little explanation, and I'm still only in the first third of the game so maybe it gets better once the main character's finally up to speed on who's who and what's what.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Flashfall Link ParentThis is funny to me since I haven't played a mainline Pokemon game since generation 3 (Ruby/Sapphire and Fire Red/Leaf Green), so I have no idea what QoL additions are in the modern Pokemon games,...I'm old, but I've never owned a gameboy and never played a Pokemon game until 2020, so there is zero nostalgia associated with this game for me. This game is insanely frustrating to play without the QoL additions of modern pokemon.
This is funny to me since I haven't played a mainline Pokemon game since generation 3 (Ruby/Sapphire and Fire Red/Leaf Green), so I have no idea what QoL additions are in the modern Pokemon games, and I can't remember anything being particularly frustrating when I played them on my GBA but it has been 20 years, so...
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Flashfall Link25 hours and 4 "episodes" deep into Death Stranding 2 on PC so far. I made a post a bit earlier with my in-depth thoughts here, but the general gist of it is that Kojima's an awful scriptwriter...25 hours and 4 "episodes" deep into Death Stranding 2 on PC so far. I made a post a bit earlier with my in-depth thoughts here, but the general gist of it is that Kojima's an awful scriptwriter and the narrative's rather contrived but the gameplay's excellent and it feels good to share structures and items with other players and see the "likes" pop up when they use them. It's still more or less the same gameplay as the first one, so either you're already into the whole delivery game thing or you're not.
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Comment on I'm glad Hideo Kojima went into games instead of directing movies in ~games
Flashfall Link ParentIt's definitely a niche title and the core gameplay loop of just delivering packages from point A to B definitely turns away most people right off the bat, but it's very much about the journey and...It's definitely a niche title and the core gameplay loop of just delivering packages from point A to B definitely turns away most people right off the bat, but it's very much about the journey and not the destination. Sometimes it'll be an uneventful trip where you just take a quick drive to a nearby shelter, other times you'll be carefully traversing through hostile territory trying to damage your cargo as little as possible, or navigating through rough terrain for the first time and trying to figure out a route with the tools you have on hand. In other games this kind of activity would be a boring chore but here it's a puzzle that has occasional moments of zen.
One of the most memorable moments I've had in DS2 so far was during an optional job to neutralize a bandit camp and retrieve their stolen goods. I had an engagement which started stealthy and finished as a shootout with some brawling (the melee combat's surprisingly dynamic). As I was gathering up the cargo after the fight, the rain intensified and the water level of the nearby river rose, so I had to make a makeshift bridge with some ladders I picked up in the camp to cross back over. I exhausted my stamina halfway on the return trip, so I sat down on a forest path to rest and restore it a bit. The game gave me options to massage my shoulders and stretch my legs and I don't know if they actually helped but it felt like they did. Some somber music began to play while I was resting too, and I've only heard it play when I rest. I thought it was interesting, how the game has this emphasis on moments where you slow down or relax where most games are about hyping up big moments with lots of action.
The actual most unique feature of the Death Stranding games though is how they're single player games with seamless multiplayer interaction. While you'll never actually see another player, you can still help each other out by contributing to or building useful structures that are shared across multiple players' games, or donating supplies, or leaving deliveries at intermediate locations for other players to complete. They're total strangers you'll never meet or talk to, and you may not get anything for helping them aside from some digital thumbs up, but there's something really wholesome about being able to help each other even from a distance.
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I'm glad Hideo Kojima went into games instead of directing movies
I'm currently 20 hours and 4 "episodes" deep into Death Stranding 2 on PC and I don't have the patience to wait til the Monday megathread rolls around again to voice my thoughts. This isn't my...
I'm currently 20 hours and 4 "episodes" deep into Death Stranding 2 on PC and I don't have the patience to wait til the Monday megathread rolls around again to voice my thoughts. This isn't my first time playing a Kojima game; I've got over 100 hours in the first Death Stranding and I've also finished multiple entries in the Metal Gear series, I've even played Boktai 2 on the GBA (though I didn't know that was a Kojima game til much later). I enjoy the vision, wackiness, flexibility in gameplay, and emphasis on little details that are fairly characteristic of a Kojima game, and those things are definitely very present in this one as well. That said though, there is one thing that only becomes more and more clear as I progress:
Hideo Kojima is terrible at writing dialogue. By that, I don't mean characters fail to express themselves or convey ideas well through a lack of words; rather, they're entirely too reliant on words. In an era of cinema that loves "show, don't tell", Kojima leans more towards "tell, tell, tell some more, and then maybe have a bit more tell as a treat". Any character with a backstory that Kojima wants you to know about will spend a good 10 minutes unloading their life story almost as soon as they meet the main character. Any time there's a new piece of information being revealed, someone will explain it to you in textbook-level depth. I'm not sure if Kojima thinks that it's ok to have so many incredibly long exposition-dumping cutscenes in his game because the ratio of cutscene to game is still fairly low but all I can say is these cutscenes and talking sequences are not good cinema. I don't care which movie star is getting a cameo when the script itself is this absurdly poor, my immersion is shattered and watching has now become a chore.
That said though, it's not like the game is devoid of cinematic moments, they just happen to be entirely outside of the cutscenes themselves. By far the most memorable and impactful moments in this game and the original are those times of solitude during a delivery where you're just quietly traversing through a zone, luggage in tow, and a Low Roar track starts playing. It's during these moments of calm, of pure show and no tell at all, where the player gets truly immersed in the role of the main character and has time to contemplate their journey while taking in the beauty of the nature around them. These aren't accidental or purely player-driven moments, those songs are set to play at a particular place during certain missions and knowing Kojima, he definitely had a major role in directing these as well. So it's not like he doesn't know how to create absolute cinema, but at the same time it's limited purely to gameplay moments where you're not forced to listen to someone deliver a 10 minute monologue in a way that no actual human being talks.
So yeah, thanks for not becoming a movie director, Kojima. Your script writing's terrible but your gameplay ideas are great. I'd suggest you hire an editorial team but you probably already have and ignore them.
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Comment on The ethics of buying, playing military, war or games inspired by them? in ~games
Flashfall LinkI'm pretty sure Lockheed Martin's made more from a single sale of an F-35 than all the licensing fees for ALL games that have used their planes combined, never mind just Ace Combat. When it comes...I'm pretty sure Lockheed Martin's made more from a single sale of an F-35 than all the licensing fees for ALL games that have used their planes combined, never mind just Ace Combat. When it comes to supporting them monetarily, these licenses are probably such a small drop in the bucket that I wouldn't feel guilty about that angle at all.
If these games were to make a real impact that might be ethically dubious, it would be how much they inspire or motivate their players to actually join the military and inflict violence in real life. A not-insignificant number of actual military pilots in the US and Japan are fans of Ace Combat and may have been inspired to become pilots through the series, but that doesn't necessarily also mean they were inspired to become warmongers that approve of LockMart and the military industrial complex.
I myself am a fan of the series but definitely not a pilot, but I love the planes as marvels of modern engineering, less so as killing machines. Ace Combat lets me appreciate that without hurting a fly. I have no qualms with buying more Ace Combat games, but I won't buy LockMart stocks.
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Comment on Yakult ladies are an icon in Japan in ~life.women
Flashfall Link ParentThis immediately set off a whole bunch of middle-marketing red flags for me. I guess if it's just older retired ladies getting some extra scratch while they travel around their neighborhood it's...Yakult ladies aren’t classified as full-time employees, but kojin jigyo usha (roughly “sole proprietors”), essentially making them owners of bicycle-sized franchises. They purchase product from Yakult and make a profit based on what they can sell. Yakult says the average earnings of a Yakult lady are roughly $682 USD a month, compared to an average of $1,774 per month for Japanese women broadly. In Yahoo Answers forums, Yakult ladies claim wildly different profits: Some say they work only three hours a day and make more than the company average. Others claim to work far more, selling roughly $2,700 worth of product in a month to take home about $600, roughly a 22 percent cut.
This immediately set off a whole bunch of middle-marketing red flags for me. I guess if it's just older retired ladies getting some extra scratch while they travel around their neighborhood it's not so bad, but the American skeptic in me says that probably isn't the case.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Flashfall LinkI tried the demo for Windrose in Steam's NextFest and I haven't made much progress yet but it already feels like a better thought out pirate adventuring game than Skull and Bones. You've got the...I tried the demo for Windrose in Steam's NextFest and I haven't made much progress yet but it already feels like a better thought out pirate adventuring game than Skull and Bones. You've got the usual trappings of a survival crafting game with resource gathering, base building, etc., and then there's also your ship which you can improve as well, and conveniently summon to the nearest shoreline at the press of a button. I haven't had any naval combat yet, but on-foot combat is rather awkward and seems to be heavily intended for a co-op experience, as dealing with multiple enemies at a time when solo just turns into an exercise of poking the closest enemy and running away lest you get jumped. I very much intend to play this with a friend when it does come out though, and it's still a pretty solid package overall in spite of that, so I'm looking forward to release.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Flashfall Link ParentYeah the weakest part of The Alters is definitely the gameplay since it's more of a discovery puzzle rather than a dynamic challenge, so once you've seen it once and figured it out that's it. As...Yeah the weakest part of The Alters is definitely the gameplay since it's more of a discovery puzzle rather than a dynamic challenge, so once you've seen it once and figured it out that's it. As for the characters, some of them are a little over the top caricatures and the crisis event does feel forced, but I enjoyed the little back stories each of them had.
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Comment on The tiny details in Red Dead Redemption 2 you weren't meant to notice in ~games
Flashfall Link ParentThe shooting in Max Payne 3 is pretty solid, but it is largely due to using bullet time as much as possible, which is encouraged due to how incredibly cinema it is.The shooting in Max Payne 3 is pretty solid, but it is largely due to using bullet time as much as possible, which is encouraged due to how incredibly cinema it is.
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Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime
Flashfall Link ParentI haven't read or seen any version of the original folk tale but I don't think any prior knowledge is needed to get the full context. The folk tale is mentioned and briefly summarized in the movie...I haven't read or seen any version of the original folk tale but I don't think any prior knowledge is needed to get the full context. The folk tale is mentioned and briefly summarized in the movie dialogue itself so you won't be left wondering what it is if you have no idea at all.
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Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime
Flashfall LinkSaw the Cosmic Princess Kaguya movie and I'm not a big Vocaloid fan but it was a pretty good time. Great animation, simple story, fun characters, and modern covers of a bunch of fan-favorite songs...Saw the Cosmic Princess Kaguya movie and I'm not a big Vocaloid fan but it was a pretty good time. Great animation, simple story, fun characters, and modern covers of a bunch of fan-favorite songs as well as some solid originals. If you're into Vocaloid then it's a must-watch just for Saori Hayami's cover of World is Mine alone, if you're not then it's just a fun movie.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Flashfall LinkPut some more hours into Starrupture and I have a nice and very compact omni-factory that can make every item currently available, the only issue being it's basically impossible to scale up any...Put some more hours into Starrupture and I have a nice and very compact omni-factory that can make every item currently available, the only issue being it's basically impossible to scale up any individual item's production because of how densely packed it is, so I'll probably end up making a whole new, much more spread out factory later on. I think I've otherwise exhausted all the content currently available, which is pretty good considering I put a couple dozen hours into it. Looking forward to more updates.
Also tried No Rest For the Wicked since they had a free weekend and sale to celebrate the launch of their co-op mode, been playing that with a friend and it's been a pretty good time so far. This one's a third person soulslike (yes I know that term's overused but this game really does lean into the difficulty) from the studio that made the Ori series. There's a good weight to attacking and moving, stamina usage is hefty and enemies are punishing. Haven't run into too many bugs yet, mainly loading issue things. The game also recommends you play with a controller, and after trying KBM and controller out I can confirm that controller is indeed a much better experience.
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Comment on Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech to World Economic Forum in ~society
Flashfall Link ParentI know basically nothing about Mark Carney and this might just be an overreaction due to the grade-school quality of dialogue being provided by our current head of state, but damn if that isn't...I know basically nothing about Mark Carney and this might just be an overreaction due to the grade-school quality of dialogue being provided by our current head of state, but damn if that isn't some poetic writing that nails the point. Whoever's writing this guy's speeches deserves a raise.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Flashfall Link ParentIf you already cleared Sinner's Road then you clearly didn't remember the most important rule in a Team Cherry game - hit every single wall, ceiling, and floor that even looks remotely suspicious....If you already cleared Sinner's Road then you clearly didn't remember the most important rule in a Team Cherry game - hit every single wall, ceiling, and floor that even looks remotely suspicious. I recommend you give it a revisit, since that pathway into the Citadel also comes with one of the best fights in the game.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Flashfall Link ParentThat's not too surprising, Bilewater's pretty out of the way and just getting to it in Act 1 requires going through another rather painful zone that I'm sure is meant to act as a deterrent for...That's not too surprising, Bilewater's pretty out of the way and just getting to it in Act 1 requires going through another rather painful zone that I'm sure is meant to act as a deterrent for most players anyway.
Also minor spoilers of sorts, I found the final boss of Act 2 to be similar to the Radiance in many ways but definitely easier, especially once you get the hang of all the new mobility options Hornet has. You'll see what I mean once you unlock Clawline.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Flashfall Link ParentIf you're looking for another RPG specifically, I can strongly recommend the FF7 remakes. There's an option to choose between real-time and more turn-based (classic) combat so the pacing doesn't...If you're looking for another RPG specifically, I can strongly recommend the FF7 remakes. There's an option to choose between real-time and more turn-based (classic) combat so the pacing doesn't have to be overly intense if you don't want it to be. The maps, characters, music, side quests, minigames (my god there's so many minigames), and story are also all excellent. I personally found Remake to be a bit too linear for my preferences but Rebirth is a lot more open and flexible, so if you want to start from Rebirth that's totally fine, the game provides a recap of past events to catch you up.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Flashfall Link ParentThis is probably just the nostalgia blinders talking but reflecting on Bilewater several months after beating the game, I think it's kind of brilliant thematically and also difficulty-wise at the...This is probably just the nostalgia blinders talking but reflecting on Bilewater several months after beating the game, I think it's kind of brilliant thematically and also difficulty-wise at the point you discover it (unless you decide you want to explore every inch of map available before fighting Last Judge and end up wandering there by accident while still in Act 1). Bilewater serves as a sort of optional final challenge of Act 2, being a notable increase in combat and platforming difficulty that's reflective lore-wise of how awfully the place was treated and how much the locals want to kill everybody else as a result.
It's also a decent warmup for the absolute CBT that is Act 3, so enjoy those moments of bliss while they last haha. I'm serious though, do as much as you can on the map before Act 3, Team Cherry really makes people earn their true endings and this is no exception.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Flashfall LinkBought the early access of Starrupture which launched last Wednesday and it's probably my first proper factory-style game (not including Minecraft tech modpacks, though I've made some mighty...Bought the early access of Starrupture which launched last Wednesday and it's probably my first proper factory-style game (not including Minecraft tech modpacks, though I've made some mighty conveyor systems there). So as someone with no experience with Satisfactory, Factorio, etc, I'm having a pretty good time exploring and redesigning my production line to be more efficient while trying to keep it as neat as reasonable.
The most unique feature of the game is the regular ruptures that occur, which is when the star in this system briefly scorches the entire surface of the planet you're on, killing any living creatures not in the safety of a habitat and overheating all the machinery outside the range of a functional cooling tower. There are certain resources available only shortly after a rupture occurs, and vegetation and water quickly regenerates after 10 minutes or so, along with the resources that appear during the planet's lush stage. It's an interesting feature so far, giving a very clear indicator of when resources respawn and adding some tension to exploration while encouraging the construction of little safe houses across the map to ensure you're not totally without nearby shelter. However, it does get annoying when I'm in the middle of just working on my megafactory since it interrupts me for several minutes, usually when I'm in the middle of building or planning.
There's also combat in the game, with the enemy being some crawly aliens of a few different varieties, and currently there's a pistol, AR, shotgun, and machine gun available as self-defense options. The gunplay's fine and doesn't feel jank, the enemies go down pretty easily and usually rely on sheer number to present a threat. It makes exploration a bit more interesting and sometimes a few waves of them will attack your base after you've upgraded your base core once so you need to take a bit of time to set up some basic defenses there too.
Currently the game has a decent level of polish but it is a fresh early access title, so naturally there's some bugs that need fixing and not a huge amount of content in terms of story progression, but the factory building alone should last you a few dozen hours if building bigger, better factories is what you're into. Lots of potential here.
Still playing Death Stranding 2, my intense need to build every stretch of highway or monorail as I connect more parts of the map is really ruining the pacing of the story for myself, haha. Those special moments during story orders where the music kicks in are also notably less impactful when you're in a vehicle, so I've decided to avoid using vehicles for story orders altogether to maximize the vibes. Writing's still mediocre, but the ideas and execution are top-notch.
Also hopped back on Warhammer 40,000: Darktide to try out the new Expeditions game mode, and learn the Arbites class while I'm at it. The new game mode itself is different, it plays like a weird version of Deep Rock Galactic where you're meant to get in, get as much stuff as you're comfortable with, and get out while fending off a horde, and you're actively trying to avoid enemies due to limited supplies and a time limit. It's not bad, but I don't really want to play it more than the regular game mode. Arbites on the other hand has been a joy to play with. The durability of the class is incredible, the unique weapons feel great, all of the abilities feel strong, and the dog is actually really helpful. Plus, the voice I picked for mine is such an asshole and it makes for hilarious bits of dialogue mid-mission.