vido gems.
Status Updates
- The next entry in DOOM - The Grand Tour is nearly complete, and is dedicated to the first half-or-so of the 1994 Top 10 list of WADs from Doomworld. Just need some time to format everything nicely.
- Not sure what the next non-Doom piece I'll write will be. My hobbies are so eclectic that almost anything's fair game. I want to do more anime-related stuff, so maybe that...
Gaming Roundup
Steam Deck is cool
I've owned a Steam Deck a couple months but the last few weeks or so I've gotten a lot of use out of this little thing. I want to write about it but want to determine what angle to take that'd be the most interesting. Maybe something about Linux, since as someone who daily-drives Arch, I can probably provide more detail on the technical side of things beyond just repeatedly parroting "compatibility layer" for the umpteenth time. In terms of "product review" the Steam Deck is good--you all already know that. It's an incredible piece of hardware that's actually improved by its thorough Steam integration. And it'll doubtless be able to live a second life after Valve closes and Steam EOL's (hopefully no time soon) as a contemporarily rather capable little Linux laptop.
a powerful dose of shmups
I'm dabbling in shmups again, putting a few more hours into Shooting Game KARI and Crimzon Clover WORLD IGNITION (the now-delisted one that was replaced by World EXplosion in 2021). One day I want to get back to the 1CC grind but I'll need time to focus. Getting really good at any specific shmup requires a decent amount of focus if you want to achieve 1CC in any reasonable amount of time. Playing a giant rotation of brand-new games like I'm currently doing is a very good way to make very little progress, very slowly.
Speaking of the Steam Deck, Crimzon Clover has a built-in tate display mode that works beautifully on the Deck's wide display. Just rotate the screen and make sure you're using an external gamepad and you're good to go.
beginning to grok Vampire Survivors
9+ hours into Vampire Survivors was enough for me to fill out most of the starting upgrades and sort of consistently clear Library with no modifiers / Hyper. I've hit a point where I can start thinking about meta now, and the evolution of what I'm worrying about for this game is cool to see as it happens real-time. I find myself taking items that I dislike for their combo potential, thinking about the (useful) level ceiling in terms of the full build so I don't cap out early and struggle in minutes 26-30, etc. I still don't have a particularly deep comprehension of this game, but the learning process is fun, and a lot less overwhelming than it was in the first few, painfully slow hours.
FH4 delisted everywhere. it's gone, mate
Earlier this month, Forza Horizon 4 has been delisted from all online storefronts across both PC and Xbox One platforms. This is according to schedule based on the announcement from June of this year. Forza Horizon has a pretty decent track record of server maintenance for long periods after delisting, with the FH3 servers still active to this day (although at the time of writing it sounds like they're currently undergoing some form of outage/unannounced maintenance). So for people who already own FH4 like myself, the delisting itself has not changed the experience much beyond the major phase-out of features that gradually happened since that June announcement. The servers themselves will continue to function for the foreseeable future, which as we all know with live-service games, is always subject to change.
The excellent Delisted Games put together a page that shows the official announcement from Playground Games and Xbox Studios that goes over the details.
try DUSK '82. just try it
Retro-styled puzzle demake prequel to David Szymanski's DUSK. They mention Sokoban and Chip's Challenge on the store blurb.
Even if your eyes glossed over, just give this one a shot. The ramp-up of difficulty is solid and the game mechanics are easy to comprehend and make for some interesting interactions in the later, more complicated levels. The game is frictionless--it just gives you levels, mechanics, and gameplay and tells you to enjoy. Give this one a few minutes, and you might find yourself coming back for more.
something about Balatro
Balatro's too smart for me. After a couple of hours spent feeling like I had no idea what I was doing and playing horribly (my best run was Ante 5 on White Stake, the base difficulty, with no modifiers), I skimmed a couple of guides, both written and video. I can see this game being a new favorite, but first, I need to figure out how to play it.
The game feel is great, and everything looks so pretty. I hope I love this game.
Awaria's release took me by surprise, and it was a pleasant one
vanripper is the artist/dev responsible for Helltaker and has teamed up with musician Mittsies for his next project: Awaria. Like Helltaker, Awaria is a relatively short, free game where classy designs for supernatural girls are front-and-center the stars of the show. Although you can definitely feel the Helltaker blood in Awaria, this new game is an action-puzzler with the action at the forefront. Frenetic action with no time to think, wait, or breathe save for the space of time in between your latest inevitable death and starting the level again.
Seeing some pro gamers out there claiming Awaria's easy. Polite but hard disagree on that one. Awaria's a game that becomes easy when you learn it, but that learning process is where the difficulty comes from. Yes, the first few stages that gave me a couple deaths on Normal feel paradoxically almost trivial on Hard thanks to that factor. The journey to that level of game knowledge and comfort in execution is where the challenge lies. Some people will love it, and others won't. Some will be able to do it all in an hour, and then again on the unforgiving Hard mode in about as much time. Others it might take twice as long to get half as far.
This is why I'd suggest new players start the game on Normal first. Having an extra hitpoint on cooldown rather than Hard's one-shot-kills is essential to learning the quirks of each enemy attack in an efficient way. Even if you do aspire to a Hard mode clear for that shiny achievement and bonus content, think of a Normal playthrough as the tutorial. It'll hopefully be a quick and relatively painless way to make sure that Hard is more fun and less frustrating.
That said, Normal can be plenty challenging for some players. It took me around 2.5 hours for a Normal clear, and I'm currently about an hour or so into my WIP Hard playthrough. Your first time with Awaria on Normal could feel like your first time through a Mega Man game, where any and every trap will get you once or twice (or more) before you really internalize it and your gameplay looks less embarrassing, and more like the speedy, barely-controlled dance that I think was intended.
I like the core gameplay of Awaria and think it's much more inspired (and engaging!) than the Sokoban style that dominated the majority of Helltaker's runtime. But the difficulty will be sure to kick my ass the moment I leave this game for a couple months and forget exactly where you need to step in order to trigger Cutwire's traps without getting hit (which is instant death on Hard).
Try this one out. It's challenging, classy, and free. Just remember if you get frustrated to break things down into pieces and really learn each stage.
outro
That's all from me for now. Happy 2025, everyone.