


Hi, I’m Cleo! (he/they) I talk mostly about games and politics. My DMs are always open to chat! :)

Yeah I’m not sure why I had so much trouble doing the controller combos but they would trigger fine sometimes and other times not at all. I just think doing combos with the movement stick is awkward in general because I have to move differently to activate them and can’t go where I want for a moment.
And yes the secondary attack for some weapons is very different, that is true but the game oddly doesn’t make much use of the bumpers so it would have been easy to do a combo button that way.
The way I would’ve done it probably is just to make the left stick a modifier button that made it to where you could do LT+A,B,X,Y combos to heal and what not. Holding LT+Left stick direction+attack would do the katana combos. And then just use RB for the alt fire button.

I think I share a lot of your thoughts and they apply pretty cleanly to my experience on hard difficulty as well. I can’t imagine insane difficulty just because as you said it’s like walking a marathon except the marathon is longer.
That and there are many many instances of damage in this game that are just basically impossible to avoid and deal way too much for group scenarios. Like yes I’m busy fighting 15 of the low level grunts but I took a third of my health in damage from some mob pounding on the ground out of my view.
Also maybe this is just a controller thing but the combos were infuriating to activate. Most of the time they would be ignored as inputs unless I was very deliberate and they never really flowed properly.
A bizarre decision was to use combos like moving the left stick right twice and left trigger to heal. Instead of just.. hold right on movement and press left trigger. That was only done because they needed two attack buttons for some reason even though holding the right trigger for a heavy attack would have worked just fine.
What’s even more funny is that the victory lap you asked for is in there. It’s just not a level, it’s the ramp up to the final boss area. And I recognized it for what it was and got pretty disappointed that I could only use the sword that this entire game has been working up to for like a total of 3 minutes on mobs. That’s insane and just plain bad design for an FPS like this. Now reflecting on it I’m not sure if I’d land at the 8 I initially said. I think it’s a 7 or maybe even a bit lower for me

What I noticed is that my favorite FPS in this genre really do a nice crescendo towards the end that the 2013 reboot game lacks.
I mean they do great on enemy variety. They need some tweaking on damage but otherwise fine. Gun play is mostly good to excellent. But what’s lacking is that thing where the arenas get more and more intense. Enemies are combined in various types to make each encounter play much differently.
Like how in the newer doom games you typically have units that snipe at your from range, ones that are highly mobile, others that can tank damage. So in higher level combat you’re just swapping weapons constantly to counter each different mob while also coming up with unique strategies for each arena.
The arenas here are mostly plain. You have almost no verticality in any arena. Your movement is beyond basic and stilted. And then when you finally get some bigger battles you realize that none of the mobs really mesh together well at all.
To put it bluntly it’s like the difference between Batman Arkham series games where each enemy makes you dance to kill them versus Skyrim fighting 50 NPCs. They don’t play off of each other, they’re all just constantly fighting for your attention versus a complex and rewarding dance. A good FPS game is mostly measured by how differently you need to approach each encounter and here it’s almost all one note unfortunately.

I think the idea of playing through the OG game is a good one, the one I played (2013) you might just play for about an hour or so and if it’s not really clicking with you at any point, you may just drop it is my advice. The game is alright enjoyable but it never evolves much until the very end so if it’s not your thing, don’t force yourself to play it

I hear your point about the last part. It’s great that this sort of old school FPS got made in 2013 but ultimately I feel it’s been outpaced by newer games like the modern DOOM games. The two newer Doom games are just FPS perfected honestly even if they aren’t for everyone. They’re fast paced, varied, and compared to something like this they make this look slow and unsatisfying. But reject that comparison and this game is still enjoyable, if buggy at times.

Opinions on Shadow Warrior?
So I just finished Shadow Warrior (2013) and I wasn’t blown away by it but I had a decent time. I always like hearing about experiences that people had with the game when it first came out and whether or not a modern perspective paints it differently.
To summarize what I thought: The writing is humorous, but not outright funny to me. The graphics hold up very well and the gore is great. Combat is mostly pretty good. Some enemies are annoying or overly difficult on the hard difficulty but overall it’s pretty good.
I did think it was modeled to be kind of akin to a Serious Sam type game and it lives up to that but similar to that game, many of the weapons/enemies/levels overstay their welcome a bit. Other than that I had a pretty good time with it, thought it was an 8/10 fun time.
What’s everyone’s story with this game series? When did you first play it and what did you think about it?

If you really have to drink it, drink the zero versions of most sodas. Dr Pepper in particular has some really decent flavors without the gross aftertaste. Pepsi zero is also really good. Just stop drinking regular soda. We have the technology to make diet taste good now so use it.

This is awesome! Loved reading the last one and this one has so much stuff to look into.

On windows 11: Teams does not take over my audio in a call, taskbar button works fine. And say what you will about status messages but I’d rather they be overly annoying than ignored completely. Also way better than auto-reply emails.
It’s not perfect but I’ve worked on teams with it and without it and so far I’ve preferred having it.

Do not.

I’m highly skeptical of the impact this would have, I don’t think the US would feel it much at all. Those isolated places are about it but that probably wouldn’t last long and I doubt US leadership cares much.

Genuinely thanks for that first line. I’ve held that idea for a long time without the correct words for it to explain how I feel to other people.
I feel like it also compliments the philosophy of “why not?” As in, “if nothing we do matters, why not be kind? Why not love people? Why not help people present and future?” If good and evil are equal utility, why not be a good person?

Hot take but I think it’s because people stop having or seeking out novel experiences. Most of people’s lives are repetitive and boring jobs with barely any time to zone out in the evening. And once your kids move out and you’re with a long term partner, hardly anything is dynamic in your life. Or fresh. Or unexpected.

They were more competent bozos. They ran Germany the way that your stupid friend gets laid more often because they aren’t smart enough to be embarrassed by themselves and they know only one goal.
Whereas these guys run America like an ugly stupid person that insists that no, actually, they have already in fact convinced you to sleep with them despite what your words say and the goal is to confuse you into bed.

Not sure why you think this, they’d need a lawsuit with merits and standing. And if you do it enough there wrong way, the court can absolutely protect whoever it is you’re suing or they can counter sue.
Or even more realistically, Luigi can make his court appearances and ignore the lawsuits. At some point paying a lawyer to harass people with no money isn’t worth it. You can also waste their time as much as they waste yours and cost them money. Just get a cheap lawyer and tell them you’ll pay them to waste as much of their time as possible and it works. Your case may take 5-10 years to resolve that way.
Or you can just leave the country. Which sucks but it’s better than being harassed all the time and bankrupt.

I think because the intention is to hurt the animal by definition and produces no useful biproduct. But that’s my guess.

I think that type of speculation is acceptable usually but their self driving tech hasn’t significantly improved in a while and has been out for years, so those expectations should be mostly priced in by now.
You add that to their falling sales figures and the fact that they spent crazy money developing cyber truck and have had multiple recalls on it already, the stock is completely out to lunch. Usually they’re somewhat in touch with reality. Like Apple is a bit out to lunch but its movement is still news-based somewhat. Not the case with Tesla, they’re not out to lunch they’re out till next year in Tahiti

No they don’t think it will hold that value, yes they think that musk is helping enhance it (and I agree), no they don’t think his actions as CEO are helping their core fundamentals, and quite possibly his last actions were years ago unless you count him being at their press events as work.
This isn’t unique to Tesla btw, they’re just the largest example. Nvidia is also right behind them.

Why? Shareholders do not care about the health of the company so long as its stock price is high. And Teslas stock price is not based on any fundamental principle of investing.
Their market cap, or the total value of all their shares, is currently worth more than the next 30 largest auto manufacturers COMBINED.
Let me put it this way: Every single car sold in the United States this year could be made by Tesla and they still wouldn’t even be close to being worth what they are right now based on company fundamentals. Thats how insane this is. Shareholders of the company couldn’t be happier and yet their company is declining in sales and killing off its customer base. Absolutely insane.

I don’t appreciate that people are still under the assumption that Trump cares about the success of America or is trying to preserve it.
The tariffs contradict all of the conclusions you just drew and so does the psychopaths he put in charge of the deportations and handed a blank check too.

Benefit of the doubt would be to say it absolutely didn’t happen since proof doesn’t exist now. I didn’t say that.

Here's a hot take about Sekiro
I don't think the game is all that good or fun(personally).
I'm a pretty seasoned SoulsBorne player playing all of the games aside from Elden Ring. I've only had trouble on two of the bosses so far. But my big issue is I'm just not having a good time like with the other games and I'm almost done with it.
I know the combat is much faster paced which I appreciate but its also very dull. Its the same Dark Souls combat with most of the creativity removed and a looooot of parrying. And the parrying isn't even rewarding, it makes it like a rhythm game.
Problem with it being a rhythm game though is that I expect to know when I need to parry but the timings are all over the place. I also just don't think the enemies are all that different to fight, most of them are the exact same in this game just different timings or tells.
I mean I see the reviews, everyone loves this game and I loved all the other games but is it just the fast paced combat and grappling hook that helps it? Having a visi

Witcher 1&2 are probably worth playing
I really enjoyed the Witcher 3 so I thought I would go back and play the first two games even though some people seemed to have mixed opinions on what they think of them both. Then after playing the first two games my partner got interested in W3 so we then played through that together. I feel like now I have some good perspective to offer on the whole series and what people should do if they really enjoyed 3 but haven't gone back.
Witcher 1
::: spoiler spoiler I think the biggest thing scaring people off of this game is that it is very old now and operates almost entirely with the mouse. Coming into it, I thought this would be a big deal but actually the gameplay is very simple and has aged really well for how old this game is. You should obviously be played the updated enhanced edition by the way, it really cleans up a lot of the old feel from what I could tell.
The combat is a bit clunky but if you've ever played an MMO or similar point and click combat system, its not hard. Us

Since medical waste is often inccinerated, there's a good chance you've breathed in foreskin

Professor Layton Games, what's your experience?
I just wrapped up on playing the iOS version of Professor Layton: The Curious Village (HD) and let me just say, it was an experience I wasn’t expecting. I’m curious how other people think about these games.
My overall impression was that the game is really well animated and stylized, the music is really well done and relaxing, and the story is (in my opinion) mostly just fine until the end where things close out on a very sweet and touching note. The controls are also surprisingly good for being a DS touchscreen port.
As for the puzzles, there’s really good variety here and the hint system makes sure that you never get stuck unless you want to be. They’re basic puzzles for the most part but I’d say your average adult is still going to take 5-10 minutes on harder puzzles and 15-20 minutes on just a few of them. Some of them are looking for obscure solutions or are worded wrong, not a big deal but noticeable.
If you like brain teasers or logic puzzles and you want a good mobile game

Fallout 4 is a great game with big flaws
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/20867322
This is a long post about the various aspects of Fallout, don't read it all unless you care to. Instead, find a section and comment on that so we can have a focused discussion if you prefer.
Summary
I modded the ever loving crap out of Fallout 4 with minimal effort using the A Story Wealth mod pack . My reasoning was that on my first play through I found the world empty but I mainly enjoy stories and quests, which this modpack seemed to do. Also I didn't have time to spend modding and didn't want to get lost in that hellhole of doing it myself. This play through was long, about 150 hours (yikes) which is probably all the fallout I'll need for many years to come. I also used an addon to the modpack to make the game extremely difficult with healing items. More on that later.
Mods
The mods here are really quite varied and I was surprised at how coheren

Fallout 4 is a great game with big flaws
This is a long post about the various aspects of Fallout, don't read it all unless you care to. Instead, find a section and comment on that so we can have a focused discussion if you prefer.
Summary
I modded the ever loving crap out of Fallout 4 with minimal effort using the A Story Wealth mod pack . My reasoning was that on my first play through I found the world empty but I mainly enjoy stories and quests, which this modpack seemed to do. Also I didn't have time to spend modding and didn't want to get lost in that hellhole of doing it myself. This play through was long, about 150 hours (yikes) which is probably all the fallout I'll need for many years to come. I also used an addon to the modpack to make the game extremely difficult with healing items. More on that later.
Mods
The mods here are really quite varied and I was surprised at how coherent they are. With Skyrim modding, I always felt that the mods are some

Is it possible to unblock a VPN dedicated IP?
Seems like my VPN has been targeted for blocking by this instance which I appreciate is a security thing and prevents BS accounts from taking over the platform.
However I hold a dedicated IP with said VPN, so is it possible to unblock just my dedicated IP?

New Steam Agreement gets rid of forced arbitration and waivers for class action lawsuits


Noticed this update got pushed just now.
Edit: Seems they’re doing this to prevent costs from arbitration. Read comment below.

Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion (and Robs A Bank)


cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/18115420
TL;DR This is a review of both Turnip Boy indie games. The first is a sort of classic Zelda clone, the second is a rogue-lite twin stick shooter. Both are short to play and I recommend them but especially the second game.
Tax Evasion Persuasion
The last thing I ever want my veggies doing is paying unjust taxes. The good news is that Turnip Boy does not want to. The first game of these two is one that I played months back and I ended up having a really good time with it. This game is obviously based on some of the older adventure games, particularly older Zelda games, and so you should expect that coming in. It mostly consists of doing small quests for people but the game never gets too elaborate and does not have a huge map making it too complex.
What even is a joke game?
I'll bring this up again later but this game is very lighthearted and most of the mechanics here are in service to the comedy and joking natu

Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion (and Robs A Bank)


TL;DR This is a review of both Turnip Boy indie games. The first is a sort of classic Zelda clone, the second is a rogue-lite twin stick shooter. Both are short to play and I recommend them but especially the second game.
Tax Evasion Persuasion
The last thing I ever want my veggies doing is paying unjust taxes. The good news is that Turnip Boy does not want to. The first game of these two is one that I played months back and I ended up having a really good time with it. This game is obviously based on some of the older adventure games, particularly older Zelda games, and so you should expect that coming in. It mostly consists of doing small quests for people but the game never gets too elaborate and does not have a huge map making it too complex.
What even is a joke game?
I'll bring this up again later but this game is very lighthearted and most of the mechanics here are in service to the comedy and joking nature of the game and its characters. If you've ever played a game that

The Force Unleashed I/II was not as fun as I thought
I’m not going to do a detailed write up on this but I’ve always heard that The Force Unleashed was a really good set of Star Wars games that are still worth playing today, if not for the game at least for the story. That wasn’t my experience at all.
This is just my opinion and experience but the first game is awful to play in 2024. Most of your abilities miss the target every time. Picking up objects with the force has a 50% chance of picking up the wrong thing, sometimes from way off screen and often missing stuff in the foreground. Throwing them is also incredibly inaccurate, often times you’ll just throw things at walls or the sky. The combat isn’t balanced whatsoever and it’s basically unplayable at higher difficulties.
Your force grab and throw abilities make most enemies pointless and your light saber does surprisingly little damage even with upgrades. Far better to just bounce people off the wall. Then what’s worse is later on they introduce shields that stop you from using

Hi-Fi Rush (A Patient Review)


cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/16914590
What’s the rush?
Hi-Fi Rush is a rhythm based third-person melee combat game that rewards you by landing your hits on the beat. From a list of flowing combos comes a catchy beat, skilled moves, and rocking visual effects. This is a masterpiece of a game and its stylistic characters banter in hilarious ways, its world comes together to feel alive, and its art style just never stops hitting those notes. If you want to know about the hype, let’s get into it.
Music make you lose control
This is what keeps the game together in a rhythm-based fighter, it’s the peanut butter that glues the bread into a sandwich. The music is phenomenal, I just need you to listen to it.This is what I’m talkin’ about. What’s missing from this though is the kicking beat that you make with your moves as you play. The game rewards you as you hit your combos by adding to the soundtrack, an

Hi-Fi Rush (A Patient Review)


What’s the rush?
Hi-Fi Rush is a rhythm based third-person melee combat game that rewards you by landing your hits on the beat. From a list of flowing combos comes a catchy beat, skilled moves, and rocking visual effects. This is a masterpiece of a game and its stylistic characters banter in hilarious ways, its world comes together to feel alive, and its art style just never stops hitting those notes. If you want to know about the hype, let’s get into it.
Music make you lose control
This is what keeps the game together in a rhythm-based fighter, it’s the peanut butter that glues the bread into a sandwich. The music is phenomenal, I just need you to listen to it.This is what I’m talkin’ about. What’s missing from this though is the kicking beat that you make with your moves as you play. The game rewards you as you hit your combos by adding to the soundtrack, and it all works so so so well.
Never stop fighting, rockstar
Com

A Patient Review of Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair


cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/16411001
Summary Time
The Impossible Lair is a 2D platformer with low complexity and fun characters than has you exploring levels to build up protection to take on a boss level that is available to you right from the start with all the moves unlocked. If you like a more relaxed platformer with decent explorations and puzzles, give this one a shot. However, if you're a platforming regular you should probably just stay away from this one as it doesn't invent anything new here.
Now lets get in to it.
Putting on the Rose Tinted Glasses
I've grown up on platformers. Since I was young I've had every Crash Bandicoot game in my hands and just recently went back to 100% the first 3 games. I've also been playing them in 2D most of my life, starting out with Sonic on the GameBoy. In other words, I know what it is that makes these games work. So when I hear that this game is going to present the initial challenge to you at the

A Patient Review of Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair


Summary Time
The Impossible Lair is a 2D platformer with low complexity and fun characters than has you exploring levels to build up protection to take on a boss level that is available to you right from the start with all the moves unlocked. If you like a more relaxed platformer with decent explorations and puzzles, give this one a shot. However, if you're a platforming regular you should probably just stay away from this one as it doesn't invent anything new here.
Now lets get in to it.
Putting on the Rose Tinted Glasses
I've grown up on platformers. Since I was young I've had every Crash Bandicoot game in my hands and just recently went back to 100% the first 3 games. I've also been playing them in 2D most of my life, starting out with Sonic on the GameBoy. In other words, I know what it is that makes these games work. So when I hear that this game is going to present the initial challenge to you at the start and make that the premise, I immediately assume that the difficul

Yooka-Laylee: A Patient Gamer Review


cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/15468857
Summary
This game is firmly in the collectathon platformer genre of games and seeks to outright revive the soul of Banjo-Kazooie and extract it into a new body. The fresh coat of paint with all new characters and modern graphical styling is an attempt to distance itself from retro aesthetics while keeping some charming aspects. Gone are the convoluted controls and returning are the random chirping noises for dialog. But is the upgrade from collecting the jiggies to ordering the pagies enough to make this title distinct? The soul of the collectathon is here, lets find out if it was worth the cost of digging it up.
Controls
I want to get this out of the way really quick and head off my review here by saying that the controls are good. They aren't amazing but since I'm going to largely be comparing this to games that just had their 25th anniversaries, I think its fair to say that controls are a real highlight fo

Yooka-Laylee: A Patient Gamer Review


Summary
This game is firmly in the collectathon platformer genre of games and seeks to outright revive the soul of Banjo-Kazooie and extract it into a new body. The fresh coat of paint with all new characters and modern graphical styling is an attempt to distance itself from retro aesthetics while keeping some charming aspects. Gone are the convoluted controls and returning are the random chirping noises for dialog. But is the upgrade from collecting the jiggies to ordering the pagies enough to make this title distinct? The soul of the collectathon is here, lets find out if it was worth the cost of digging it up.
Controls
I want to get this out of the way really quick and head off my review here by saying that the controls are good. They aren't amazing but since I'm going to largely be comparing this to games that just had their 25th anniversaries, I think its fair to say that controls are a real highlight for innovation here. With a similar number of buttons to the old N64 ti

TOEM is an amazing game, here's why


Summary
TOEM is a pretty short indie game that revolves around taking pictures in order to complete quests in connected levels. The art and customization of both your character and the game world really stand out and this is an amazing title to play on the Steam Deck.
A Camera Game???
I cannot sing high enough praises for the use of cameras in video games when done properly. Whether its Dead Rising 1 or Pokemon Snap, cameras tend to be very engaging and this game handles it in a very unique way. This game somehow blends elements of integrating the world with your camera instead of the usual way of slapping on the feature.
Most of what you'll be doing is just finding objects to snap a photo of and then doing so. The difference here is that the game both encourages and demands creativity. For instance, the photo filters and camera tripod are mechanics that must be engaged with to complete quests. The various hats your character can wear usually have gameplay elements.
I'

Conker's Bad Fur Day: A Patient Gamer Review


cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/12495394
TL;DR This game is still really funny with crude humor that mostly holds up and gameplay that doesn't disappoint. Its showing some age but not enough to get in the way of the fun. If you're a fan of movies from around the year 2001, this is a must play.
Introduction
An alchoholic squirrel platformer, an absurd scenario adventure, an excessive amount of swear words, a surprising amount of poop, more movie references than you can shake a stick at, and World War 2 are all shoved into a single N64 cartridge. What could go wrong?
This is a departure for Rare into a game targeted at adult audiences after producing family friedly platformers for years. Don't let the cute and cartoonish exterior of this game fool you, you're in for a ride from the moment the game boots up.
The Necessary Background
I think my enjoyment and perspective is relevant to my thoughts about this game so let me explain my biases here. As