When I heard Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2019 was back in the limelight thanks to an unusually steep $6 sale on Steam, I wasn't too surprised. Infinity Ward's Modern Warfare reboot was extremely popular in its day, reinvigorating a series that tread water through the mid-2010s and ushering in an era of followups that'd build on its reimagined progression and class systems.

MW2019 was the best these games had ever played, looked, or sounded at the time. Coming back to it now, it's obvious Call of Duty hasn't been meaningfully better since.

I'm reminded that this was Call of Duty redoubling down on grounded "realism" after years of wallrunning and jetpacks. Infinity Ward harnessed the immersive presentational qualities of a milsim within the confines of an arcadey shooter, and it's just as effective now as it was then. It's worth pointing out that this past streak of games helmed by Treyarch, Sledgehammer, and Raven just do not sound or look like this, even when it's clear they're trying to get close.

When folks say Infinity Ward's games are better made than Treyarch's, this is the stuff they're talking about. This game really checked all the boxes—excellent gunplay, memorable maps, sticky progression, and a campaign that doesn't suck (though that Highway of Death mission sure does).

cross-posted from: https://sopuli.xyz/post/43475467

The book readers have it figured out. I listen to book podcasts and follow a lot of (I hate this word) bookstagrammers, and the turnover of a new year is the best time to do either of those things. This is because they're all reviewing their reading goals for the year that was and the year to come. Did they finish the number of classics they'd hoped? Did they finish the bibliography of Ballard novels? And will next year be the year they really commit to #JanuaryInJapan, when all over the world people dedicate themselves to reading translated fiction from the country?

I wish we did more of the same in videogames. Our equivalent discourse gets as far as ranking the best games of the year that was, and then immediately moves on to anticipating the next year's new releases, pre-emptively stuffing our backlogs with games we'll rue not having had the time to play when the next year draws to a close. Couldn't we set ourselves some more interesting constraints?

(DCSS = Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup)

It was a normal frog archer run with my fearsome amphibian and their battlemage ancestor shooting and conjuring their way through the dungeon. Between my huge damage output (thanks Harm!) and my constantly Idealized ancestor, the run was extremely easy. Thus, I entered Zot:5.

After clearing the rest of the floor, I switched my Harm amulet to another one with -Tele to prevent teleport traps and got to the Hall of Zot. Unexpectedly, orb guardians weren't alone at the entrance - a draconian gang settled there too. That confused me and my ancestor died. Which is fine, it's not like its the first time (battlemage is squishy!). I just need to reset the encounter by going to the staircase.

So, I hopped and, as I was merely two tiles from the stairs and enemies were pretty far away, I just walked to the stairs. And then...

55054 | Zot:5 | HP: 1/204 [Orb Guardian (54)]

OUCH

I didn't notice there was a moth of wrath among the enemies, and the closest orb guardian to me was zerked. Total misplay but still...

Think, now! What can I do to guarantee survival? I can't hop as it's on cooldown, can't blink as I'm under -tele, can't use Transference as my ancestor is dead. Throwing net, mephitic cloud, wand of paralysis all have a chance to fail. Invisibility and Leda's Liquefaction won't prevent their attacks.

My gaze lifted upon scrolls of summoning that were chosen over scrolls of butterflies by the RNG this run. "If only I had these..." I thought when I noticed a scroll of butterflies right there in my inventory. Unused since the very beginning of the game when I decided to play as hunter instead of hexslinger. The only scroll of butterflies I could have for this entire run.

A gentle wind pushed the orb guardian away from me as colorful insects filled the space between us. Thanking Xom for this beautiful coincidence, I went upstair and healed up to full health, and then eventually cleared the rest of the last floor and escaped with the Orb.

🦋❤️

Started playing builders 1 on Steam Deck and while it's missing a bit of the visual polish of pokopia, it's a lot of fun so far. I didn't play it when it was new but it's definitely scratching a build/craft/explore itch without the decision paralysis of something completely open-ended like Minecraft.

Anyone else playing this for lack of Pokopia?

About 'ambience', 'atmosphere', and 'immersion' in games.

I finally got around to trying my first Persona game. I tried Persona 5, and right off the bat, I did not like the cinematic style of this game.

I am not really sure what it is about it, but I guess it was just not for me.

Are the other ones like this too?

I am looking for a good jrpg to get into on the switch that is not final fantasy, dragon quest, or pokemon. (I've played those a lot recently)

In city builder Nova Roma, the gods can make life easier for you—just don't turn your back on them.

To be specific, I'm trying to find a multiplayer game to play that isn't team-based or co-op, which most of them seem to be.

EDIT: To narrow down the genre a little bit, I'm looking for shooters (first or third person, doesn't matter) or something more on the casual side.

(DCSS = Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup)

Morgue for those who can read it

My usual experience with meld-all shapeshifters in midgame is as follows: find the dragon-coil talisman in Lair, upgrade to it by S branches and effortlessly destroy them, enter Vaults and almost die to the first group of monsters, rush shapeshifting for the storm talisman in panic and forever abandon the scaly monster I was never meant to be.

NOT THIS TIME!

I started this run with a clear goal: experience the draconian’s dragon form glory. That means, no storm form, no sphinx form, definitely no statue form.

The plan started to feel grim from the get go: protean talisman transformed into medusa. And… I mean, medusa isn’t necessarily bad. It’s good when you are a gladiator with a nice trident! But when you are an unarmed shapeshifter who rushed Shapeshifting skill to 6, it SUCKS! All other forms can handle most threats effortlessly with no UC skill. Medusa can’t, you must rush some UC or switch to weapons…

Then I found the spider talisman. I never played with it before, it just tends to appear in Elf 3’s end vault or some other absurdly late place. And, from my first experience, I must say it’s good! You are squishy as hell of course but you get so much EV from it (much more than wellspring!) that it’s not that big of a deal. Rampage is nice, hop is basically a free blink and you ensnare your foes on hit too. I wouldn’t do Spider Nest with it of course but Shoals and Swamp seem doable to me.

Trog helped with survivability a bit too. Berserk was nice early on, and then Trog’s Hand and occasional Brother in Arm can help in bad situations (though it helped me the most during the orb run). The only problem I had with them was…

Read the room, man!

Now, finally, dragon form. It is a glass cannon kind of talisman. Like scarab, like spider. It gives a lot of health, some AC and resistances but… in the end it’s still extremely squishy. Yet I feel like the form is at its worst at lower shapeshifting. As I went from 17 (the minimal for it) to 20 and beyond, I felt like low health syndrome wasn’t as prevalent. Not to say I turned into a tank but I think my struggle was over after early Vaults floors.

Well, I am a draconian so the dragon form is stronger than on other species. Bonus AC, faster recharging breath attack, tailslap. But, at least on one species, dragon form can handle Zot without much struggle. Even with these orbs…

Orbs of Entropy. It was my first time dealing with them. They corrode, they drain, they doom. I actually got a bane of paradox thanks to one of them. The orb run was fun… OoE is the scariest variety of orbs for me.

About the orb run. Usually it’s easy, with some orb guardians and other pests. Maybe a panlord or an executioner will appear but you’ll escape easily. Not this time. Panlords and pan-level demons at nearly every Zot and Depths floor. An orb guardian with Manifold Assault (thanks OoE…). Doesn’t help that this seed was particularly low on ?blink and !haste. Got the win through sheer Will… thanks Trog’s Hand for the Will btw :P

The loss of Yoran 'Yorhel' Heling has site moderators working to figure out a preservation strategy

In 2007, Yoran Heling, better known as Yorhel, started The Visual Novel Database after finding insufficient information about Ever 17: The Out of Infinity online. It has since grown into one of the most comprehensive, longest-running resources in gaming history, archiving a genre that is simultaneously niche while extremely influential across the industry. Sadly, site moderators have announced that Heling passed away on March 17th.

“As many of you have already suspected, the VNDB.org has lost its founder and soul Yorhel,” wrote beliar. “He will be dearly missed by the moderation team and by the fans of visual novels. He was a great friend and a great boss.”

The breadth of the VNDB went well beyond release dates, titles, and sub-genres. Entries offer insights into staff, from programmers to voice cast, character breakdowns, average game lengths, commercial availability, and where a given game ranks among the community. They even list any tie-in materials, such as anime adaptations. It’s a lot of reference material for a genre rich in history and esoteric in nature.

Visual novels are a pillar of the video game industry. Many of the biggest studios today began selling their own VNs out of computer shops. Many of Hideo Kojima’s earliest projects on the road to Metal Gear Solid were influential VNs such as Policenauts, Snatcher, and Tokimeki Memorial.

While consistently popular in Japan, the international audience has grown considerably, with VNs being made and appreciated the world over; the Ace Attorney, Doki Doki Literature Club, and Danganronpa games are just a few examples. The accessibility of these games, and tool suites like Twine, has made VNs especially prevalent in indie games. Resources such as the VNDB are one reason why these games have made so many inroads.

With its founder’s passing, the remaining VNDB moderators are assessing the best way to preserve the site. “At the moment I can only say that we are working on certain channels to preserve the website,” wrote beliar, “but [we] cannot give much information today.”

I have been a huge fan of the Metroid series since Fusion and have played them all over the years. The 2D ones have always been really great.

Prime 1 is one of my top games of all time. I never enjoyed Prime 2, when I was a kid or more recently as an adult. I only played Prime 3 a bit as I did not care that there were other people.

Metroid has always been about being alone and surviving.

I have been playing Metroid Prime 4 recently and It is very much the opposite of a Metroid style game. In fact, it feels quite linear and there is a lot of help telling you where to go pretty frequently.

The gameplay is not bad, but it is more like a generic shooter than a Metroid game.

What are your thoughts on the Prime series and Prime 4?

Yes, I used AI upscaler but it was free and open source.

Link to the article if it doesn't show for you.

Whatcha all playing? I finally finished persona 5! Loved it!

Now I'm on to Cairn. Really cool so far! Pretty tough too