What are you currently playing?

[Gold Ergo Sum]

I had to replace my old Xbox One controller yesterday, so I was finally able to play Gris, since it would not recognize either of my older Xbox controllers, and I refuse to play a platformer with a keyboard.

I finished the game in one sitting in under three hours.  It most reminded me of Journey, which is just about my favorite game ever.  Similarly, you cannot die or lose in any way that correlates to a normal videogame.  You just slowly work your way through lite-platforming and puzzle challenges, experiencing the unfolding world around you.

The game is staggeringly beautiful with a lovely score.  And much like Journey, there is no dialogue or text.  You simply make your way from start to finish--although there are items to collect unlike Journey.  The game begins with the female protagonist losing her voice and the world being drained of color, which returns in unilateral primary shades as you progress in the game, completely changing the look and feel of the world around you.  The game is about grief and each of the five stages corresponds to one of Kubler Ross's five stages of grief. 

As your protagonist finally makes her way to acceptance, the world returns to vibrancy around her.  The art style is sort of a cross between the linework of Juan Miro and the shading of Japanese watercolors.

While I prefer Journey, if you were into that game, then I definitely recommend Gris as well.

[Brian Shanahan]

Kubler Ross's five stages of grief. 

This would kill the game for me. Having read into the above and the literature surrounding it, I can't see it as anything more than unevidenced bs. And unfortunately I've a very low tolerance for unevidenced bs, because from the looks of it the game is beautiful.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

This would kill the game for me.  Having read into the above and the literature surrounding it, I can't see it as anything more than unevidenced bs.  And unfortunately I've a very low tolerance for unevidenced bs, because from the looks of it the game is beautiful.

While I was taking a Psychology class in college, I thought any hack could be remembered so long as their ideas could be expressed in stages.


Dead Cells came in the mail today.  It's the Action Game of the Year cartridge with a free download for Rise of the Giant.  I may write some posts about Dead Cells on Realms Beyond, but don't expect anything like my detailed RPG playthroughs.

[Gold Ergo Sum]

Kubler Ross's five stages of grief. 

This would kill the game for me.  Having read into the above and the literature surrounding it, I can't see it as anything more than unevidenced bs.  And unfortunately I've a very low tolerance for unevidenced bs, because from the looks of it the game is beautiful.

It's funny, because if I hadn't told you, you probably wouldn't have even realized.  It didn't even click with me until I saw I had an achievement called Acceptance for Stage 5.  It certainly is not thrown in your face enough that I would consider it even remotely off-putting, but then again, you are aware of it now.

My ex-wife has a PhD in clinical psyche and runs the mental health services for the county VA system.  She used to teach a Death, Dying & Grief class at the University of Cincinnati.  I always found most psyche theories to be sensible/plausible, but fairly light on evidentiary support.  Probably the nature of the beast for most theoretical social science work.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

So far, Dead Cells deserves the Action Game of the Year description, and probably has the best combat I've seen in a 2D platformer.  The weapon variety, smooth movement, and advance warnings of enemy attacks come together well and prevent the gameplay from becoming stale.  I also appreciate the "speedrun" challenges like beating the 1st level in 2 minutes, the 2nd level in 8 minutes, and the 1st boss in 15 minutes.  This prevents the player from wasting time in the easier early game looking for cells or HP+ scrolls.

[Gustaran]

I had completely missed "There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension" so far. It's actually the #7 best rated PC game of 2020 on metacritic (score 89). It's classified as a puzzle game, but I think that's selling it short. It regularly forces you to think outside the box, breaks the 4th wall and is incredibly funny as well, making fun of several game genres.

"There Is No Game" is available on Steam, Switch, iOS and Android. The appstore version is only $4.99. IMHO it's well worth the money. Check out the trailer, store links are in the Youtube description:

[yuris125]

Yeah can vouch for There Is No Game, loved it

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Just beat Hand of the King for the first time in Dead Cells!  Frosty the Snowman blew him away with a Barrel Launcher IV-L that he found early in the game, with the help of Brutality levels and mutations.


The problem is that I can't leave the room.  The king sits on the throne with a force field around him, and I cannot harm him, or even talk to him.  The door in the back only opens if you beat the game multiple times.  Supposedly there's a way to turn back into the "ooze" form and exit through the fountain, but none of the buttons seem to do that.  Did I just run into a Tales of the Abyss 3DS situation where I beat the game and my character is stuck in limbo because the ending won't load?


EDIT:  Okay, you have to use the lance the Hand of the King drops in order to commit regicide and see the ending.  The game didn't suggest that at all, unless I'm missing something in the item description.


EDIT2:  Does Motion Twin qualify as an "indie" developer if their credits are longer than the Mahabharata?  There are probably fewer people who work on Minecraft.  How many Gaffers does a 2D platformer need? 

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Beat Dead Cells again with the Barrel Launcher.  This time, Santa Claus did it the fair way by grabbing the fixed Barrel Launcher in Derelict Distillery.  It was a close victory because Hand of the King had a tendency to interrupt the flask drinking animation.  It was funny to ricochet the explosives off the walls for guaranteed criticals!


Didn't learn until after beating Hand of the King that you have to activate the Boss Cells in the glass tube in order to increase the difficulty.  Must have assumed that it worked like Rogue Legacy's New Game Plus.  Hard (BC1) will have fewer health refilling stations after each level.  Maybe I'll actually have to master parrying. 


I'll have to see if I can win with Tactics (purple) or Survival (green).  Hattori's Katana and Barrel Launcher (both Brutality) are fun weapons, but they'll be stale if I keep using them.


EDIT:  Barrel Launcher is actually "colorless", meaning it can fit any stat you level.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

To avoid burning out on Dead Cells, I sometimes play Hand of Fate 2.  It's sometimes classified as a roguelike, but it really belongs in its own category.  You move a token around on a board and draw cards which have different effects, like a tabletop game.  These can have many effects:  starting fights, generating mini dungeons filled with traps, Blizzards that cause HP penalties, etc.  There is chance involved since some results depend on drawing a random card or rolling dice.  (Though the proper companion can make these easier.)


Combat is a simplified version of the Batman Arkham series.  The real incentive to dodge roll as much as possible is that HP is not easy to recover.  You can eat Food for 5 HP, or hope to find healing events.  There are a variety of weapons and companions that have advantages and disadvantages, but the differences are not nearly as drastic as in Dead Cells or even other roguelikes.  Then again, Hand of Fate 2 is the definitive "Gnome kicking simulator". 


The Dungeon Master, the Dealer, taunts you when you fail, praises you when you succeed, expresses his disdain for the Empire (and Gnomes), and even has special comments if you use the same weapon cards frequently.  He's the reason you play Hand of Fate 2.


Anyway, the point of this post is to tell a story about the Hierophant campaign.  You're supposed to solve a mystery by gathering clues.  You do this by going on missions with the 3 would-be suspects and bribing them with Gold.  I didn't get all the clues before the end, but I did manage to find out who the assassin was.  I thought Hand of Fate 2 ran on "bad mystery logic" (e.g. Encyclopedia Brown) where anyone who lied (or was incorrect) about one fact was inevitably the criminal.   


My Switch screenshots told me "Galfri said that Rowena was in the 3rd Legion of the Empire army".  "Rowena said that she was in the 7th Legion of the Empire".  This must have been the strangest case of "stolen valor" ever:  lying about which unit of the same rank she served in, rather than being in a Special Forces equivalent, or even being in a veteran at all.  I accused Rowena, and of course she was guilty.  There should have been a prize for solving the mystery without all the clues!  At least the Dealer should have had special dialogue.


(Completing a Hand of Fate 2 campaign gives you cards that you can use to influence the "map" of other missions.  For example, if you see that one campaign requires a lot of Food, you should stack your deck with Food events.)


Hand of Fate 2 was $10 on the Switch Eshop last week, and I don't know if the deal is still active.  It's worth a try if you want something different from the usual action roguelike.