April 2025 General Game Discussion

[Zed Clampet]

Played some more Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and still absolutely loving it.

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But let me tell you, then I decided to take a break tonight and try out Oblivion. I got to the character creator, and the "randomize character" button is like playing Five Nights at Freddy's. Every time a new one of those hideous monstrosities popped up on the screen, I jumped and screamed.

So I decided I had to manually adjust my character's face. I figured that it probably started out looking okay, but when you hit the randomize button, it sends those sliders all over the place. So I took them all to zero and this is my new character, Brick Johnson:

Okay, well maybe I touched up the picture a bit. Here's the real Brick Johnson:

You know, I was really happy with this until I touched it up. Still this isn't too shabby for Oblivion.

But really, I think I should have done the remaster.

 

[Johnway]

more Doom2 goodness so that means playing Ramp 2024 - We've finished 2 more stations. The station completed was Transfer Depot so more UAC bases. This one had quite a few maps i liked or stood out:

heartbeat is your standard UAC base map thats all well made and isn't all that difficult. but it does have one gimmick: some engagements have a time limit, usually not enough for you to take your time and you're forced to take risks to get to the objective. it makes for an interesting challenge and helps increase the difficulty without thinking all too hard on balancing the engagement.

next map is Cyber Crusher gaiden. its one huge factory and i liked the detailing on this one but otherwise a standard map.

Toxins refined isn't a huge map but its well made and again, spent time taking snaps as ref material if i was going to make a doom map.

finally extraction operation, its simple enough break out of prison , call escape vehicle and escape. Its a step up from your usual Doom map with GZdoom elements, theres a few different enemies and there are objectives to complete. but besides the level design that i found appealing, was the final escape where after signaling your ride you have to face off against hordes of monsters. When the vehicle does arrive, its just blasting any surviving monsters when it lands and takes off. Epic stuff.


moving onto the next station, Lost starport, there wasn't really much to say about the maps. Nothing spectacular or interesting and one even left a slight distaste playing it. The only map that stood out was the longest one: Hellroelectric - demons have invaded a hydrodam and its pumping blood instead of water. As a first map, i have to say its pretty good. nicely designed, filled with various advanced elements and plays reasonably well. My only criticism is perhaps too much backtracking. A switch would open a door halfway across the map as opposed something nearby. The Archvile sewer maze is pretty tedious as its a switch hunt and wasn't difficult as i corner camped them one by one. lastly i did encounter some bugs in one encounter once you trigger the trap the elevator goes up and theres no way up or down the elevator. in one attempt the elevator shot back up to the previous floor and refused to function locking me out of the engagement.