@MartinEnder So I think I'm stuck in ESA.

And I don't mean stuck as in "I don't know where to go next"

But stuck as in "I can't go forward and I can't go backwards"

I got to the sand biome, and there are these little ball like creatures that sit still until I get close and then turn into spikes and charge at me, and one of them is blocking my path and I can't do any damage to it

And unfortunately there's no teleporters or way out of this biome that I can see

Although even if I did kill it, I don't think I can go below that platform anyway

It's been a while, so I'll need to watch a let's play or walkthrough later. I'd be surprised if there are any softlocks though (at least any you can get in casual play).

Okay, you can definitely get through that platform.

Don't know if you can kill the spiky thing, but I don't think you need to.

Playing Halo Reach with the boys last night was some damn good fun

I don't think we dropped a match (we did tie several A&D games, one of which we were about 10 feet from capping the flag)

Playing Curse of the Moon right now (the pre-Bloodstained 8-bit bonus game). It's cool, but it's definitely a case of trying too hard to be retro (especially in terms of difficulty). In particular, there's no midair control and the death system is super weird.

You've got four characters that you can swap between any time and each one has their own health. But when one of them dies, you don't get to continue but instead respawn at the last checkpoint (usually beginning of the room). However, the other characters' health doesn't refill.

So if you actually make the most of each character's health during a boss fight, you'll normally die with three characters being one hit away from death. So all you can really do at that point is go into the fight three more times to kill off the other characters (which costs a life and usually respawns you a few rooms earlier in the level).

@MartinEnder But how?

Same as you've gone through various other barriers before.

I can't shoot through it

That should work.

Hmm, I could have sworn I tried that, but apparently I didn't

Ah, I hate when that happens.

I still feel stuck, just now I have a much larger area to be stuck in :P

Haha, sorry to hear that

Have you already come to love the grappling hook?

I hated it at first

It's hard to use, but a lot of fun

I think orange pellets seems pointless at first, but once you realize what it can do it's almost the strongest relic in the game

Echo form, Biased cog, and Orange pellets is a crazy good synergistic combo. Combine it with symbiotic virus, Gold-plated cables, and not having cracked core it's incredibly strong

Boy was I confused until I realised you had switched games.

Lol

As for the grappling hook, it's my single favourite upgrade I've seen in a metroidvania. It's just implemented so well.

Also hyyype, less than a week until King of Cards and Shovel Knight Showdown!

@MartinEnder I wonder if that's what hornet is going to feel like

That's really exciting to think about

By the bit of gameplay I've seen it looks more like she pulls herself towards the needle, rather than swinging on it, but maybe there'll be both options somehow?

There's this thing though which seems to be a fast-paced precision platformer based entirely on a grappling hook.

That looks really cool

This is a first person game based entirely on a grappling hook

I think I have that one

yeah, I do

haven't played it yet

I played it but never finished it

Saw some let's play of a game called Phoenix Point last night. It's from the original developers of X-COM and plays very similarly but with lots of quality-of-life improvements. I'll probably be picking it up shortly. Anyone else like the X-COM style gameplay?

@AdmBorkBork Ha, I was watching a stream of that last night also.

I just started playing XCOM Enemy Unknown a week ago. I was going to try out Enemy Unknown for a while before trying out 2 so that I have a good reference to compare them

It's sucking me in, it's a lot of fun. The first-person-mode of Phoenix Point looks amazing

It's like XCOM+VATS from fallout

Yeah, that's a really nifty mechanic. I like it more than the straight-up percentage that X-COM uses.

Yeah, especially since hit/miss isn't all or nothing. You can hit some of the shots but miss others

OG XCOM's system is way better than EU

@AdmBorkBork Have you played much XCOM? Do you have thoughts on EU vs 2? I'm curious because I don't know what most people think about the series

I own both, just haven't tried 2 yet

Haven't played XCOM but the high praise it gets from both Adam Miller and Kyzrati (Cogmind dev) really makes me want to try it at some point.

@DJMcMayhem Not really. I got started with the Firaxis remakes/reboot (never played any of the originals), but didn't play much of 2 due to other games taking a priority.

You lot should pick up XCOM: UFO Defense and run it via OpenXCOM

@Veskah That's the original one, right? From like '95 or something?

Teag

Yeah*

How did you typo that, lol? That's two separate hands (t and g on the left hand and y and h on the right).

one finger typing while eating a sandwich

Ah, haha. But playing the original X-COM I'll miss out on QoL improvements from the past 25 years of video game development. Like, I played Alpha Centauri a little bit ago and man, was that rough.

Honestly, not too bad

OpenXCom definitely smooths out some of the rough bits

I'll have to look into it after Phoenix Point.

@Veskah Does it have the same soldier-leveling and permadeath mechanics as EU?

Yes to both with a slight caveat on the first. Your soldiers have a lot of parameters and doing actions gives you stat ups, no perks or anything

Biggest difference is instead of 2 actions, you have time units

Everything takes TUs. Firing takes a % of TU, with the different modes consuming differing amounts. Overwatch is automatic provided you left enough TUs to shoot

Oh, so kinda like AP?

Pretty much

Oh, except divisible AP. Interesting

Anyone else here played DOS2? Best turn based combat I've ever seen

Still haven't finished DOS.

And final big change is when you fire, you still roll the dice but the bullet raytraces to the target, meaning "whoops, shot my guy in the back of the head". The environment is also fairly destructible so you can blow down walls/cover.

Interceptor minigame is a bit shit but oh well. All in all, that's why it's better than NuXCOM

Sounds like Phoenix Point

UFO also had a sweet bug that was so insidious that it altered the sequel. If you save, quit, then loaded (possibly a specific way but it might've just been period), the difficulty would revert to the easiest mode

So the devs heard everyone saying the game was easy and cranked it right the hell up for Terror From the Deep

That's funny

One thing I noticed in EU is that if you reload a save, the map changes so you can't save scum. I really really like that because I reload saves all the time if I make a mistake, and now I don't feel like I'm cheating as much

(a mistake like clicking the wrong button, not like a tactical mistake)

I think I only truly scum it when I pretty much squadwipe in a turn

Although I'd be lying if I said I never reloaded because of a strategic mistake...

So far I haven't lost more than 1 soldier in a combat

My sniper probably has as many kills as all the other soldier combined lol

Squad sight == <3

Squad Sight is crazy good

@DJMcMayhem I have about 15 hours into DOS2, but it's languished for the past like year. I did finish DOS, though.

what's DOS

other than disk operating system

Disk Operating System Divinity Original Sin

@Pavel TWO

ah

Alternative punchline: One more than UNO

@DJMcMayhem Also now a Kickstarter for a board game (see Martin's starred post from 20 Nov).

@Veskah Makes me so happy to be able to play Reach on PC, especially knowing the other games are coming. :D

I absolutely do not have the DMR reset timing down leading to many shield-stripped dudes getting away (or worse, shooting me to death)

Yoooo, Gloomhaven 2 finally has a name (Frosthaven). And is coming to Kickstarter in March.

OOoooooh

Speaking of board games, I attended my semi-weekly guild meeting last night, and I got to play a pre-release version of this game: kickstarter.com/projects/fowers/burgle-bros-2-the-casino-capers

it was pretty fun. Definitely not my favorite game, and won't be a buy from me, but had pretty solid mechanics