You do realize that you just spent a whole paragraph complaining about games that are too hard and then said “Y’know what I really want to play? Some old Atari games!” Cripes. Those things were abusive.
Also, kinda confused by disliking “anime aesthetic” when you used to love Hatsune Miku games?
I was there for the whole rise and fall of Atari, so I can certainly attest to some unforgiving games. In fact, I’d argue that the really brutal ones weren’t even the ones on Atari Flashback Classics, but from '84-‘89: Marble Madness, Peter Pack-Rat, 720 Degrees, Super Sprint/Championship Sprint, Road Blasters, Klax, Blasteroids, Xybots. But taking AFC as a whole, well, as far as overall entertainment, I think $60 for three volumes is a pretty good deal. There’s plenty of dumb-but-fun stuff, especially in the 2600 collection, and I don’t think any company has ever gotten more out “move that thing to that other thing” gameplay. Sure, no one game is going to hold my attention for very long, but there’s dozens here, so I’m not too worried. I do think that a proper dial controller is a necessity for some of them, particularly the Pong-style games. Bottom line, as long as I can Swiss cheese-ify walls in Outlaw and mow down helpless biplanes in Air-Sea Battle, I’m not going to sweat cracking Crystal Castles’ high score chart.
As for Project Diva…well, first off, obligatory link and other obligatory link. The wonderful, beautiful, insanely cool thing about Vocaloids is that they have no canon, no backstories, and no pretense, and therefore the producers can do whatever they want with them. Friendly, morose, irascible, melancholy, sweet, stubborn, curious, patient, weird, they can be it, because they can be literally anything. If you plop rigid, heavy-handed, hard-wired personalities onto them, this completely ruins what made them so appealing (to me) in the first place…and this was exactly what Sega did with the later Project Diva games. I won’t bother going into details, but there was one time in F2 that I gave the wrong present to Rin, and she got furious and started yelling at me. Which would’ve been upsetting enough in itself, but given that this was a character who was supposed to be based on a tool, and wasn’t supposed to be even capable of such a negative reaction in the first place, that Sega would even make that a possibility was downright offensive.
And no, I don’t like the anime aesthetic. The tropes, the rules, the conventions, the hang-ups. I don’t like all the shouting, all the bickering, all the prudishness and heteranormativity and smarm. It’s just so…so lame.
Be interested in hearing what you didn’t like about Disgaea 5, though.
Wow, while I can agree with some of these, prudishness and heteronormativity are NOT things I would put in that bucket… and even if I did I wouldn’t call it an “aesthetic”.
I didn’t actually play Disgaea 5, I played Disgaea 2, but I’ve never seen anything to indicate the game has changed anything significant. My issues with it were:
A) Gameplay was…fine. But not super compelling. It just wasn’t satisfying to win battles, but the mechanics didn’t seem engaging enough for me to want to raise the difficulty.
B) The humor was… not really that humorous. (It’s possible this has been fixed)
C) The story was an afterthought.
D) 80% of your team was made up of generic units, so they’re not really anyone you can get attached to.
Anyway, it’s a turn-based tactics game, and based on your dislike of tactics and challenges, I’d steer away, because I don’t think it has much else to offer.
Gotta agree with you on this. I read that and was thinking, wth kind of games are they playing? Cause that is definitely not the case I’ve seen with games from the last like five or even ten years. And I don’t understand the whole ‘I like the characters to have no personality/history/anything at all’ thing. It sounds like you just want a doll? For lack of better word. Fwiw my daughter plays Hatsune Miku ALL the freaking time lol It’s definitely a fun game if you’re into rhythm style games but it’s way too crazy (visually) for my old brain to keep up with. I prefer rhythm games that actually focus on the rhythm and not how fast you can push ALL TEH BUTTONS. I’m looking at you Rhythm Heaven!
I have to agree. It has a feature called VATS that slows everything down and basically turns combat into a cut scene rather than a twitch shooter, and is 100% optional. With the right perk points you can use that feature almost 100% of the time. You can play a stealth character with very little armor, a near-invincible straight up fighter in power armor, and everything in between.
I will admit I’ve looked stuff up for it on the internet, but that’s mostly because I’m a completist and it’s hard to know what you don’t know. I believe it is 100% possible for anyone of average intelligence and below average gaming experience to finish the main quest line of this game without any outside assistance.
Pity you’re on a PS4 though, IIRC they are the only platform that doesn’t support mods, which makes the game truly spectacular (ANY complaint you have about the game? There’s a mod for that).
I’m not sure they were saying they don’t want ANY characters to have personality, but rather than the vocaloids are expressly not supposed to have any (fixed) one. Which still doesn’t align with the other complaint, because, as they say, if there’s no fixed personality, then nothing you do is wrong.
But uh, I don’t know where the “vocaloids have no fixed personality” thing is coming from either. While the vocaloids are absolutely “mascot characters” that doesn’t mean they don’t have personalities.
Played a little more Little Big Planet 3. It’s pretty obvious now that I’m not going to come within a parsec of getting all the items, and the game’s constant insistence of bring in other players (No! No! No! Is that clear enough?) is getting a little annoying. However, the basic gameplay isn’t all that tough, and I’ve done enough platforming to know how to work my way through a level. At any rate, the main game should be managable, and that’s all I need right now. Giving it a tentative thumbs-up, and if that ever changes, I’d really rather not talk about it, at least here.
Airk - I’ll start a new thread about Vocaloid in Cafe Society (probably tomorrow; I don’t have the energy for anything today).
As for Legend of Heroes: I’ve watched some videos, and you don’t need to know the gory details, but I’m getting serious misgivings about this one. In any case, there’s absolutely zero chance I’m paying full retail for it on launch day. Maybe I give it a look if I get anywhere in Divinity, but I’m not guaranteeing anything.
Ashtura - Yeah, that’s what I figured… that’s what I feared, really. Consoles aren’t dead, they’re just old and inflexible. No surprise all the fun Minecraft videos use the PC version.
Heck with it, I’m probably going to have to just bite the bullet and get Rock Band 4.
Fallout 4 on the PS4 has mods, although not the complete make-overs you get on the PC. Someday I will get a PC that can run FO4, for now I’m on the PS4. I’m trying out “NPCS Travel” and “Chestnut Hill Station” mods right now for the PS4, both beautifully done.
I though you’d already watched some videos. 
It’s nothing like Divinity though, so don’t let that concern you. Seriously; There are exactly zero blocking points in the game. No “You don’t have enough healing items” no, “you need to be able to pick this lock” nothing.
AIUI, Sony hates mods that alter game files. So no adding weapons, armor, or anything else that requires custom textures, except through the Creation Club.
May as well wrap this one up (for reals this time).
Gorogoa - This is a…strange one. It is, as advertised, astonishingly pretty, and seeing the various illustrations interact with each other and create new areas is pretty breathtaking. The problem? I rarely have any idea of what I’m supposed to be doing. Oh, sure, I can see that the boy has to get the bowl up the stairs or the star has to go into the lantern or whatever, but getting from point A to point B is almost always an ordeal. Now, one would argue that it’s supposed to be like this, that part of the appeal is the joy of discovery. The problem is that there are so many dimensions and layers that it can get really hard to tell what goes what what, or what’s supposed to interact with what. (Several tasks require separating a picture into two parts, and it kinda chafes me that there’s never any indication of when the picture will actually happen.) Myst at least had clues, even if they could get obtuse at times. Here, I’m brute-forcing it at least 75% of the time, and I expect that to become 100% when I get to the hard chapters. Of course, these are one-time headaches, and the second time around should go considerably smoother. And there’s no time pressure, except for the occasional puzzle (the falling-rock one was truly ingenious; mad props for that one). Right now I’m not sure whether this is a stupid, aggravating clunky game which just happens to have wondrous artwork and a beautifully creative premise or a very good game which just happens to be needlessly obtuse and frustrating. Maybe both. Or somewhere in the middle.
Submerged - As advertised. You wanted a game with no danger whatsoever and all you do is explore and get stuff, you got it. It’s like someone consciously set out to make a game that had the elements of Assassin’s Creed that Ubisoft hasn’t yet utterly ruined. And so far…I’m liking what I’m getting! The heroine, Miku (man, who would’ve thought this would become my favorite game with someone named Miku in it :D), climbs, leaps, collects, upgrades, and records, all in the service of her ailing brother. There isn’t really anything else, but there doesn’t have to be. Nobody has a clue how to do balance anymore…Rime drove that reality home very hard…and I don’t mind doing the nice stuff for an entire game.
Well, this has been quite the journey. I feel utterly drained. I haven’t been this physically and mentally exhausted from playing games since I did the sorta easy stuff on Pump It Up. I did learn a lot about myself and the state of video games are in now. Wasn’t always pleasant, but I have no regrets. Anyone got any more suggestions, fire away, but I’m just too spent to start anything new right now. Thanks to everyone for your time and patience.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I really have to get back to my IPad. Damn, how many weeks has it been… 
Erm, we must have totally different ideas of what it means to “do balance” because frankly, modern games are WAY more balanced that most of the old ones.
What is a game you would say was well balanced?
I am glad you found games you enjoy DKW. 
Seconded. Don’t forget about Lego City Undercover and perhaps Fallout 4.
N/M