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By Happenstance · Posted
Got my Steam Replay for 2024. No surprise that Spelunky is top again, that game really does have a hold over me! -
So, in loading up today, I had to figure out what I was going to do about the controls. As I mentioned last time and as @Hero-of-Time suggested, my plan was to change over to modern controls, but upon loading up my game I thought I'd try one more thing: using the D-pad instead of the analogue stick. And just like that, everything changed. Seriously, it's night and day between using the D-pad and analogue stick for tank controls, and the only reason I thought to do it was thinking about how I'd probably have such a rough time playing the older RE games on PS1, probably depending on the D-pad to some degree (not knowing how or if the analogue stick ended up utilised in a similar way as it is here), and so I figured I'd test it out. The right analogue stick is getting use for any quick 180° spins I need to do, but other than, it's been all D-pad. Despite only putting in another hour or two today, I feel like I've made fairly considerably progress, at least as far as my time with the game goes. I reflected a bit on my time with and approach to the game after my post last night, and with the combat not clicking in the slightest, I thought back to my time with TLOU, especially that first time: this is a zombie game too, maybe I just keep my shotgun out at all times and make sure I'm always aiming for the head. So, going back to the Crimson Head who killed me at the end of my last session, I waited for him to come up close, aimed, pointed up, and fired as he lunged...and there went his head, while mine was busy getting filled with a bit more confidence. I also flagged that aiming actually auto-aimed here, too, for some reason I hadn't spotted that before (probably too focused on the zombies coming at me), and so when turning corners or checking out a room, I just spam the aim button a few times to see if I'm locking onto anything, as well as of course listening for the audio cues. There was even one instance where I was checking out a zombie who was downed and looked like a Crimson Head that suddenly got up, and I reflexively yanked out my shotgun and blasted his head away, which felt so damn good. I've been working on dodging zombies where I can, too, which is going pretty well. Bit of a whirlwind from there. After playing a bit of Moonlight Sonata and going back to grab the emblem I picked up as my first item in the game in the first session to throw it in a new hole, and swapping it with the other, next up on the agenda was burning the zombies I remembered downing in relatively easy-to-access places. Following this I checked every single door I possibly could with they keys at my disposal, found a Grenade Launcher, used every item in my chest that I figured would do something (thank you Head of Tony the Tiger for the shotgun shells), and ended up with a shortcut via the garden via an awesome puzzle to entirely avoid the L-shaped hallway in the east wing where dogs and zombies had run rampant, but of course I couldn't access this until after I'd made a daring run through to check all the doors over there, too. After exhausting all my options, I faced off against a giant snake, who poisoned me, but not before I spotted what would be my fourth and final mask to collect for the coffin under the garden, so I grabbed that and accidentally ran away in a very happy accident where I just ended up rubbing up against walls trying to not end up in its coil and found myself at the door, so figured why not rest if I could leg it? And I could, and so I did. Taking care of the coffin (quick aside: the tilted "shot" as you walk down the stairs is by far my favourite of the game so far) after gently lowering it down and welcoming it's inhabitant back to the land of the living, I've since brutally murdered 3 dogs (maybe this game was an inspiration for The Last of Us Part II) in quick succession the area behind the mansion, and know exactly where I'm heading next: what looks like some woods further behind the house. I started to follow the path, noticed some sort of puzzle with the spinning cockerels in the wind and realised I hadn't saved in a good while, so not knowing when or where the next Safe Room would be turning up, decided to drag myself all the way back to my favourite one on the ground floor on the east wing (my own designated Firelink Shrine of sorts), stock up on supplies, and save up so that I can hit the ground running in my next session. Puzzles have continued to be excellent, the level design of the mansion itself is just kind of genius? It's like the intentional interconnectedness and mix of "huh, where do I want to go and what do I want to do next?" of Dark Souls in a single house, it's great. And, even though I'm sure I'll click much faster with later games in the series and the newer remakes given that they're not controlled and framed quite like this, there's an obvious appeal to the tension of not knowing what's around the corner while the camera stubbornly sticks in place, and I feel like I'm starting to finally get it. There's also some serious artistry to this fixed camera business which I haven't seen in the few other games I've played with fixed camera angles, probably because the most memorable were older JRPGs, but I mentioned before about the tilted angle going down to the coffin, or the time that a flash of lightning burst through the window to make me think something was under a chair to make me move to the left and reveal a new angle and some new objects to interact with, and I forgot to mention yesterday about the weird room with a bed and the camera at a certain angle in that room slowly rising up at floor level, as if to suggest that you aren't alone, only reinforced by some of the object descriptions in the room. Away from the impressiveness of the oppressive and claustrophobic camera angles, there's some serious character to them. Also, the music is just kind of excellent. It really seems to pick it's moments to turn up, but when it does, it just adds a great layer of tension or relief, in the case of the Safe Room, and I also really liked the theme which played after Barry carried me all the way back to the medical storage room – both have serious Firelink Shrine vibes. It's been a long time since I've done a 180° on a game like this, I don't think it's happened since my first few sessions with Demon's Souls at the backend of 2020 when playing through my first From Software game. Resident Evil was one of my pledge games for the year and while everything I've played from that list so far has been great, the feeling of this absolute 180° in a single gaming session being something I haven't felt in a game in around 4 years justifies having made the pledge: I wanted new, I wanted old, I wanted challenge, I wanted the expected, the unexpected, and to continue to expand my gaming tastes and experiences. This feels like the epitome of what I was looking for right now. Let's see if that feeling sticks around; I certainly hope it does. Can't wait to get back to this tomorrow after work! -
Predictable results. Guess I spent more time on Bloodstained than I thought. Also, that NES time was almost all Fire'n Ice. Don't sleep on that game! It was interesting to see the results month to month, because they reflected my general journey through the NSO: during the month of Shmups, the SNES app was my most played "game" (so, mostly Starfox and EDF, but the others count as well); In the month of Wily Wars, it was the Mega Drive, and so on. Surprisingly solid recommendations, too. The Nintendo algorhythm actually worked this year! (except they also recommended Animal Crossing and Mario Kart. I understand they do that to everybody, but they're F-tier recommendations for me) -
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They really should have added Metal Kings, Liquid Metals really aren't cutting it.
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