Broken sleep and work commitments hindered a lot of game playing this week. But I played a fair bit in the end.
Ostranauts still has a firm grip on my free time. It's hard to recommend it because there's so many "oh yeah that's busted. fix it with these console commands..." things you need to know. But if the premise is interesting and you know that it's a game in active development, there's more than enough to enjoy.
I started playing UFO 50, which is finally out after a million years in development. The marketing for this game has been quite incoherent, incoherent and inaccurate in its description, but essentially it's a collection of 50 games for a fictional console, presented (by default) in a chronological list. I've made other comparisons in the pass, but the closest touchpoint is probably Zachtronics' Last Call BBS with more games, but less (but not zero) meta-narrative. The games are closer to full 80s console games than mini-games or short games. Though I personally find that a lot of them present themselves as if they were coin-ops for some reason. I could drill down further into things that rub me the wrong way about it, but that would be disproportionate to how much it affects things.
I'd say UFO 50 a good game, with the caveat that you seek out the games you are interested in and focus on those, rather than do things randomly or chronological order, because you will likely bounce off a fair portion of the games.
Speaking of games releasing after a billion year dev cycle. Lorn's Lure is a first person clambering game where you play a centuries old robot climbing a bizarre megastructure. This game has had multiple demo releases over the years and changed a fair bit between them, and seems to have settled on a pseudo-mystical motivation to contrast with the colossal brutalist hellscape of the setting. The atmosphere of the game is incredible. It and the occasional drip feed of narrative do a great job propelling the game forward.
The only thing that could ruin Lorn's Lure is the gameplay and controls. The game presents a unique groundbreaking combination of "incredibly unforgiving compulsory precision movements" and "The game basically plays itself". The game has an insane habit of introducing Spelunker-style kill planes a foot below a platform if you are "doing it wrong", where you can fall dozens of meters in the right direction. Weirdly the game also likes to hide secrets in this cursed Spelunker zone. The controls try their best to achieve this but ultimately fail to ruin this excellent game.
I resumed my Judero game on the game's full release too. The game is still excellent, but I'm waiting for a less stressful time to finish the rest of it off.
I dedicated some time to assorted ROM-hacks and source ports:
Mario Adventure 3 was released in the last 24 hours. It's a Super Mario Bros 3 mod, that adds a large amount of content and mechanics. I only barely touched it and burned out after the lengthy, and very un-Mariolike tutorial level that goes through every new mechanic. But the game seems neat
Dethrace is an in-progress remake of Carmageddon for modern machines (allowing owners to use the assets from the original game). It does a pretty good job. So if you're nostalgic for driving vehicles that refuse to steer into pedestrians on maps that are way too big, give it a look.
Starfox EX is a mod for Starfox on the SNES, that adds a new campaign with some bizarre antagonists. As well as technical upgrades, a ton of weird debug options and new ship models. It's really hard, but also makes Starfox seem way more playable than it should.
All Games Played
- Ostranauts: GREAT (Notable)
- Utopia Must Fall: GREAT (Notable)
- UFO 50: good
- Lorn's Lure: GREAT
- Judero: GREAT (Notable)
- Dethrace: GREAT
- Mario Adventure 3: Good
- Starfox EX: GREAT
- Sulphur Memories - Alchemist: OK
