Lonan's recent activity
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Comment on Game Boy games that did the impossible in ~games
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Comment on HowLongToBeat: The Game in ~games
Lonan Link ParentI've never finished SM64, even the regular story. I played it on the Switch again a couple of years ago and must have played for longer than 12 hours. I got stuck on the clock IIRC and gave up. 6...I've never finished SM64, even the regular story. I played it on the Switch again a couple of years ago and must have played for longer than 12 hours. I got stuck on the clock IIRC and gave up. 6 hours is nothing, I'd still be pulling Mario's face around on the title screen.
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Comment on Tildes Book Club meta discussion - should we read nonfiction as well as fiction and with what frequency? in ~books
Lonan Link ParentMaybe have a length limit for the club? Or take it into account somehow. Even for fiction nobody wants a slog :-)Maybe have a length limit for the club? Or take it into account somehow. Even for fiction nobody wants a slog :-)
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Comment on Tildes Book Club meta discussion - should we read nonfiction as well as fiction and with what frequency? in ~books
Lonan Link ParentIf non-fiction are nominated and voted up sufficiently, then maybe they could be included. I don't think there should be a forced "one in X" quota, nor a blanket ban. There are fiction books...If non-fiction are nominated and voted up sufficiently, then maybe they could be included. I don't think there should be a forced "one in X" quota, nor a blanket ban. There are fiction books nominated that I would not want to read, so an interesting non-fiction, eh, who knows.
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Comment on HowLongToBeat: The Game in ~games
Lonan Link ParentI missed the April Fools round luckily*, and so still do guessthe.game. At least they finally got rid of the Christmas snow effect. It has a modern games bias so I have not heard of half of them...I missed the April Fools round luckily*, and so still do guessthe.game. At least they finally got rid of the Christmas snow effect. It has a modern games bias so I have not heard of half of them (I see "PS3 exclusive, FPS, 70% metacritic" and go skip, skip, skip, never heard of it). But IMO modern is anything after Dreamcast/PS2 :-P This one's different enough to do them both though. Here you have to guess the hours and rating of 3 games and get a score out of 300, so even if you have no idea you can make an educated guess. I got 52/300 today, so, erm, yeah. I'd only heard of the Mario game and haven't played any of them.
I do tradle, guessthe.game, where taken world and where taken USA daily. I tried stopping but my son is like "have you done the 'les games today?!? I got where taken world in one!". At least with the world ones I feel like I'm maybe learning some geography.
* does anybody still like April Fool's? they did one on Retro Achievements and it annoyed half the users too.
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Comment on Tildes Book Club discussion - Piranesi in ~books
Lonan Link ParentThe other story I would like to read is the same thing told from Sarah Raphael's point of view. Tracking down what happened to MRS, then discovering the other world, the difficulty of convincing...The other story I would like to read is the same thing told from Sarah Raphael's point of view. Tracking down what happened to MRS, then discovering the other world, the difficulty of convincing MRS to leave, etc, etc. And while we're on a wish list, some indie game developer needs to make a Piranesi-inspired Animal Crossing-style video game, where you live in The House and catch fish, talk to the birds, observe them to find out vital clues, calculate the tides, discover interesting statues, and map out the vestibules. All while gradually discovering the truth, or perhaps deliberately forgetting it.
By not knowing anything about The House or what it meant, it reminded me vaguely of Solaris. In that story the alien planet is not understood by the scientists, they can only describe and catalogue what they observe. Like in Piranesi, the world's strangeness apparently turns some people mad, although it maybe isn't madness because the reader doesn't have all the facts. In another parallel, parts of Solaris use epistolary techniques - reports from old expeditions, news clippings, articles from research books - to reveal information. In Piranesi the missing information comes from MRS's journals. Piranesi's ending is far more satisfying than Solaris though, which stays true to the nature of the story and has a disappointing conclusion that doesn't answer any of its mysteries.
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Comment on Tildes Book Club discussion - Piranesi in ~books
Lonan Link ParentYes, agreed. I liked the way he changed the tone subtly for The Other. The cold dismissive "oh, not this again" and so on, compared to Piranesi's wide-eyed and joyous voice. He even did a passable...Yes, agreed. I liked the way he changed the tone subtly for The Other. The cold dismissive "oh, not this again" and so on, compared to Piranesi's wide-eyed and joyous voice. He even did a passable Yorkshire accent near the end for the detective.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Lonan Link ParentYour exact issue was also the problem the host of "Tales from the Backlog" podcast had (episode 63). So much so, that either it's a common problem, or you are the host of said podcast :) I can't...Your exact issue was also the problem the host of "Tales from the Backlog" podcast had (episode 63). So much so, that either it's a common problem, or you are the host of said podcast :) I can't believe you (both?) brute forced it as far as you did without doing the thing. Given what I missed and how easy it is once you know, it makes sense that you missed it, but the difficulty must have been off the charts. My own frustration came later on, when I couldn't find a thing, which is obvious in hindsight...
this thing I missed
In the end-game, at night, I didn't know how to get back to the mine area once the sludge took out the bridge. I didn't find, or ignored, the route north from the mine in the day-time part, into the mountains, so I completely missed the shortcut that is a few steps past the door to the mountain. Once you know, there's even a blatant clue on the relevant manual page! I remained a ghost for ages, trying all sorts of stupid random crap (I was solving end-game fairy and statue puzzles thinking it might help, not realizing I was not getting any closer to what I actually had to do)In the end, in utter frustration I had to look up the solution, and as you say, once a certain level of frustration is reached it does sour the rest of the enjoyment. And looking it up really made me feel like a chump for having missed it.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Lonan Link ParentYeah, I really enjoyed Tunic. I particularly liked that 2nd puzzle you mention in the spoiler! I didn't realize what it was for ages: vague spoiler for a puzzle, but not really It took me seeing...Yeah, I really enjoyed Tunic. I particularly liked that 2nd puzzle you mention in the spoiler! I didn't realize what it was for ages:
vague spoiler for a puzzle, but not really
It took me seeing several similar pieces before it clicked. I took screenshots, and then drew the solution out on paper. It was pretty great environmental puzzle design IMO. I like it when a game has me taking notes.Discovering the first of those types of end-game puzzles, seeing the solution hidden but at the same time out in the open, was a bittersweet moment. I was torn between "yes!! I know what the big secret is!" but also, "damn, it's such a stupid thing to have to do!".
Anyway, I avoided Tunic for a long while after it was released because people said it was "too difficult", but I thought it was OK. Lock on targeting makes it fair and fun to play. The hardest parts, in terms of time spent trying to beat them, were the later puzzles.
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Comment on Tildes Book Club discussion - Piranesi in ~books
Lonan Link ParentBut to Piranesi it wasn't a horrible place, he knew the danger of staying there now, but still liked the House for its beauty etc etc. When the policewoman said they were "just statues" when...But to Piranesi it wasn't a horrible place, he knew the danger of staying there now, but still liked the House for its beauty etc etc. When the policewoman said they were "just statues" when compared to the real things, he got annoyed by that. I felt like he was only visiting our world for the sake of the people that knew Matthew RS, and eventually would return permanently to the House. Also, having the best of both worlds in the epilogue made for a nicer ending :-)
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Lonan LinkI've been playing Heaven's Vault (Switch). What a weird, engrossing game. If I hadn't played an Inkle game before then I'm not sure I could have put up with some of the oddness. For example,...I've been playing Heaven's Vault (Switch). What a weird, engrossing game. If I hadn't played an Inkle game before then I'm not sure I could have put up with some of the oddness. For example, certain exploration options or conversation choices disappear if you don't take them when they are presented to you. 80 Days was similar, but that is a more streamlined type of game, a text adventure with graphics. HV is a 3D-ish adventure game, almost like a point and click game. In fact, the heroine reminds me of Guybrush when she says "I'm not doing that again" after taking certain risky exploration choices (and here "risky" is gasp climbing over a knee-high wall.)
The way the game does location reveals is quite strange. Rather than finding a particular item or clue that tells you a new location, it's as if the location had a hidden progress bar, and finding items (any item, or translation or whatever) fills up this progress bar. When it reaches some threshold, the rough area of the location suddenly becomes apparent to our protagonists. Then if you find more items, the map area you have to search to find the new site shrinks. It gives the game a sort of procedurally-generated feel, but also maybe kinda realistic, since the items you may find in the game are not that important individually (except a few key ones, maybe, that do have fixed uses, so who knows) but rather the collection of them hints at historical events... or something. You search for locations are in the much-maligned "flying boat" part of the game, which is definitely the weakest section. Hey, at least it's atmospheric and chill...
The game has a few glitches sadly. The most annoying one is the overworld/flying navigation map can get stuck showing you the wrong location half the time, so whenever you bring it up you have to re-focus back to your current location. This happens often, and the only fix I've found is to exit the game and restart it. The translation interface can also get stuck showing words that won't go away (only happened once, another time it froze completely). There are pauses/stutters during exploration, camera angles that show you extreme close-ups of people's backs, or disappearing polygons - these are semi-frequent but not game-killers. The stutters may be due to the Switch being puny hardware nowadays.
Despite the jank, slow pace, and non-story main story, I'm enjoying the game a lot. The world lore is intriguing, finding and exploring new locations is great - the atmosphere of wandering around long-abandoned ruins is a strong point in the game's favor - and the translation mini-game is well done (kinda, it starts out weird but the more you play it, the clearer things become).
I've actually finished the main story once, and now I'm playing through a second time on New Game+, which lets you keep your translated words from the first play through. The adventure is quite open-ended and you get different story elements by making different choices. This was similar to 80 Days, where new locations or modes of transport opened up after multiple trips around the world. With Heaven's Vault the story ended with plenty of loose ends and mysteries unresolved, so perhaps some of those will be cleared up on another play through. Also as you get further into the game, and into NG+, the ancient language scripts you must translate get longer and longer. You have more knowledge of the basic words though, so it adds more to the lore of the game, as well as being more challenging.
I've also been playing Super Scrabble on the Game Boy. This is not a great version of Scrabble, the dictionary is an older edition and doesn't let you use newer cheaty words like Qi or Ag, and the CPU takes forever on its turn, but I need to practice on something because my son keeps winning when we play the board game.
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Comment on If we can't block users can we at least filter out topics posted by those users? in ~tildes
Lonan Link ParentI use the blocking feature on reddit and Discord liberally . If it gets to the point that I've noticed a username show up on annoying posts a few times, then I'll probably block them. It doesn't...I use the blocking feature on reddit and Discord liberally . If it gets to the point that I've noticed a username show up on annoying posts a few times, then I'll probably block them. It doesn't have to be inflammatory rhetoric, sometimes people are annoying just by the tone they use.
The people on this post saying they never block anyone, so it isn't needed, or that CSS hacks are enough, are missing the point. Blocking users should be a first class feature.
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Comment on Renée Zellweger, Hugh Grant and Emma Thompson to return for ‘Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy’; Chiwetel Ejiofor, Leo Woodall also set in ~movies
Lonan LinkChiwetel Ejiofor reads the audio book version of Piranesi, and does an excellent job of it. Piranesi is this month's tildes book club read. Another red string for your tildes conspiracy wall.Chiwetel Ejiofor reads the audio book version of Piranesi, and does an excellent job of it. Piranesi is this month's tildes book club read. Another red string for your tildes conspiracy wall.
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Comment on Saudi Arabia: Global tennis ‘sportswashes’ abuses in ~sports
Lonan Link ParentCricket too. T20 is massive across the globe and the Saudis want to set up a rival franchise league like the IPL.Cricket too. T20 is massive across the globe and the Saudis want to set up a rival franchise league like the IPL.
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Comment on What's a game that you feel is almost great? in ~games
Lonan Link ParentAhhhh, I forgot you could do it out of order! I'm going to have to replay BOTW and TOTK at some point to experience all these epic moments again, but it's never going to be like the first time you...Ahhhh, I forgot you could do it out of order! I'm going to have to replay BOTW and TOTK at some point to experience all these epic moments again, but it's never going to be like the first time you stumble on something like that.
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Comment on What's a game that you feel is almost great? in ~games
Lonan Link ParentI did get spoiled slightly on the story reveals with the tears, but only to the degree that a podcast said to collect the sword-shaped one last, since it was a sort of summary or wrap-up of all...I did get spoiled slightly on the story reveals with the tears, but only to the degree that a podcast said to collect the sword-shaped one last, since it was a sort of summary or wrap-up of all the events and wouldn't make sense if you got it before seeing the others. The story flashbacks could have been told in a linear fashion, e.g. first tear = first flashback independent of which tear you picked up, but the locations you collect them in are linked to the flashback, at least for some of them. There wouldn't be any way to have that location - story attachment and have the exploration be so non-linear. And the series seems to have embraced non-linear completely now - even before BOTW, Link Between Worlds let you tackle the dungeons in any order despite being a more old skool 2.5D Zelda game. I'm torn, because in the end there's a sort of "recommended way" to do the open world, to not make it too frustrating, and the game does seem to nudge you in that direction. Between open-world but disjointed-story and crafted linear experience... maybe a more linear experience would have been superior?
Having said that, the only really bad part of the way story and game collide was with the final sage, because having it locked stuck out like a sore thumb compared to how open the rest of the game was. I got that sage out of order by accidentally brute-forcing access by doing the Tenet thing on falling rocks, so I missed the proper story build up (and all the associated area was weird "interesting but deactivated" scenery). The game could have let you do the thing in Kakariko Village if you figured it out and didn't get seen by the guy, as what you had to do is not obvious without a huge clue from an NPC. Instead it was a frustrating "computer says no" moment that I spent ages trying to access before assuming it really was a story-locked thing and giving up.
I'd totally forgotten about the repeated cutscene. It was so stupid! I kept expecting something new, but nope, same thing again with a slightly different focus on one character for a frame. Not sure what you mean with "what happened to Zelda", that wasn't really revealed until you got all the tears, was it? Link knew where she was, but didn't know who the mystery Zelda showing up all over the place was until a reveal much later on. Either that, or my head-canon was that people don't really listen to Link because he talks very quietly :-)
Regarding the companions, I didn't know you could turn them off from the inventory until maybe the 3rd one. The game doesn't really explain it. Again, thanks to an off-hand comment listening to a podcast. The phantom helpers were annoying when just wandering around, popping in and out of focus all the time with that whoosh-ping sound, so I'd turn them off unless I really needed the help. The bird one was the only one I left on most of the time, since it was helpful for flying further. The Goron guy's dotted line while riding vehicles I found hugely distracting. You actually needed it about twice, but there he was, blocking the view and making rotating sounds for the rest of the game.
Ah! One more - you still couldn't pet the dogs at the stables. Terrible oversight, they're so cute!
However, despite all that, TOTK was by far the best game I've played in years. I complain because I was so obsessed with the game for weeks and weeks.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Lonan Link ParentYeah, I liked how Stocke was not a silent protagonist, didn't have a chip on his shoulder, and was generally likeable. The voice acting did a good job too. Someone else was playing RH:PC on here a...Yeah, I liked how Stocke was not a silent protagonist, didn't have a chip on his shoulder, and was generally likeable. The voice acting did a good job too.
Someone else was playing RH:PC on here a couple of weeks ago but dropped it due to the combat. I get that because the combat does feel slightly by-the-numbers or generic at times, even though the pushing around and turn order changing are good ideas, there's not much more to it as the game goes on. Too many boss fights turn into wars of attrition because the enemies are anchored in place (some boss fights do use the pushing and turn order features to good effect, but not many). Having said that, I loved the game. I played through the original DS version a couple of times, and 99%'d the 3DS remake - everything except a final final boss, which I found surprisingly impossible to defeat. The story rolls along at a good pace, it has some nice twists, fights aren't slogs, and it doesn't require any grinding that other JRPGs tend to have. The time travel idea is an original take too, it isn't the classic Back To The Future timeline cause and effect, it's weirder than that. The stuff they added to the 3DS version is pretty good, it breaks up the main story if/when you get stuck.
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Comment on Hey, monthly mystery commenters, what's up with the hit-and-runs? in ~tildes
Lonan Link ParentHey, here's another thing to obsess about, something I have at the back of my mind when writing anything online now: There was also this article on another site a few years ago about how your...Hey, here's another thing to obsess about, something I have at the back of my mind when writing anything online now: There was also this article on another site a few years ago about how your style of writing could be simply analyzed to de-anonymize you across different sites. The proof of concept did it for all users on that site, and caught a 2nd account I had as a "likely duplicate" (I changed users because my old one had my real name and I didn't want to continue using it). The approach was fairly simple, using frequency of common groups of 2, 3 and 4 words. I wrote my own scripts to analyze my writing, to identify the my most commonly used phrases, and now I try to avoid those. It makes writing anything online even more of a chore xD
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Comment on Hey, monthly mystery commenters, what's up with the hit-and-runs? in ~tildes
Lonan Link ParentEh, don't worry about it, you're good enough IMO :-)Eh, don't worry about it, you're good enough IMO :-)
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Comment on Hey, monthly mystery commenters, what's up with the hit-and-runs? in ~tildes
Lonan Link ParentWell, those I avoid completely :-) I try and reply to things that I have some experience with at least, and anything even mildly controversial I just steer clear of. A classic example of one I...Well, those I avoid completely :-) I try and reply to things that I have some experience with at least, and anything even mildly controversial I just steer clear of. A classic example of one I avoid because I've been burned in the past is anything related to food, diet, and calories on Hacker News. Total minefield. Better to not go into those threads at all, they usually end up killed by the mods anyway.
Getting tone wrong in text is easy anyway, so even something I think may be jokey when I write it, I've come back later and thought "damn, that sounds harsh!!" and deleted it. On reddit I've been downvoted to very negative for stating opinions on mild things like movies or games (not even flame baiting just e.g. "I don't thing this 90s movie holds up nowadays because X, Y, Z".. score -20, no replies xD), so mostly I don't bother any more.
I really like the original Game Boy, it has so many great games considering how underpowered it is, plus it was the only console I owned as a kid in the 90s. The video shows a backlit modified original Game Boy for most of it or fancy capture card renderings, no original model console is going to look like that, heh.
Here's my summary of most of the video. It starts with Super Mario Land and Super Mario Land 2.
Talks about games with "big scope":
Fancy scrolling:
3D games:
Rare:
Audio design / soundtracks:
The video ends with a plug for building your own games: GB Studio, GBDK. Then talks about Nintendo Switch Online, and trying out emulator and roms. I've recently been playing a lot of GB games thanks to modifying my 3DS to run Retro Arch and earning those sweet sweet Retro Achievements.
For GB-studio games, I recommend a rogue-like called Deep Dungeon that was made with GB Studio. It pushes what type of game you can make to its limits with semi-randomized levels and RPG-lite tropes like different classes, equipment and magic spells. I really want to try my hand at making something with GB Studio, but I am really crap at drawing pixel art, and making anything at all takes ages and ages, so hats off to anyone that makes something with it.