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The Maze: Solve the World's Most Challenging Puzzle
Rules are simple: Do not attempt to look up the answers. Read the text. Examine the picture. Post what door you want to take and why. If there is no majority selection, the choice will be picked via random number generator. Prologue: I met them at the gate though I usually wait inside...
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The good guys win again. Planet Crafter has sold more than a million copies.
Brian Boru
Moderator
BigFish Games
Not a specific worry, more an existential one. They're still pushing out their one new release a day, but I haven't seen any other site dev in years.
Concerns
♣ They dropped their forums, but didn't take
♦ They still have only 3 screenies per game, even when Steam has more for same game.
♥ Hit and miss if those screenie thumbnails expand to decent-size image or not.
♠ If you look in News page, it all stops in 2023-01.
• Wiki says "In September 2018, Big Fish cut 15% of its workforce, and in September 2020, it cut nearly 50% of its workforce."
♣ Many of their games—especially new releases last few years—are also on Steam, which has to impact sales long-term.
♦ Their immediate parent Pixel United seems heavily focused on casino games.
♥ Ultimate parent Aristocrat Leisure is also in the casino business.
♠ Can't vote reviews as 'Helpful' anymore, can't sort by 'Most Helpful' either, defaults to 'Highest Rating'.
• 'IE7 or later'—bit behind the times
Looks to me like they're just milking it for revenue these days without any further dev. Hope I'm wrong, but I no longer recommend BFG—just feel uneasy about them. If you want any game for replay, I advise to keep it installed.
Upside
I've been with them for close to 20 years, and apart from a glitchy launcher in the early years, they've been rock solid.
They have a 'Club' for $7/month which entitles you to a good discount, so worth joining if you fancy a bunch of their games. There's also a loyalty system every month which can get you a free game. I haven't partaken in a few years, so dunno if this is current info.
They provide a demo for every game, usually 1 hour long—so don't waste time on story when testing gameplay.
Alternatives
GameHouse
I was with them for a while ~20 years ago, they were okay. I don't see release dates or reviews.
Wild Tangent
Were part of Real Networks which had a bad smell back around then, so I kept clear.
Drug Dealer Simulator is out of my rotation. As surprisingly fun that game is, I was having a moral dilemma playing it. Not because of the subject matter, but deep down I felt the need to play a much better game. Not to say that this game is a cash grab or a total asset flip or anything, but I felt the need to play a better game made with love and passion. I don’t know how to explain it properly, but DDS just seemed a little too silly at a certain point.
So, I decided it was time to pick up Cult of the Lamb once again. A major new update came out yesterday, the highlight being local co-op support, but also tons of new additions to make the game feel unique again. For example, they added new rituals for your followers to do, new character traits for followers such as Nocturnal which makes a follower sleep during the day and work at night which could be a huge boon to resource gathering, and new Tarot cards that add buffs to the roguelike dungeon runs. There are also new buildings as well.
I haven’t played the last major update, the one players keep calling “The Sex Update”, so I’m starting a brand new save to see all the new features. Cult of the Lamb was the best game I played in 2023, so I’m super excited to check out all this new content. It took me 30 hours to beat the game last time, so I’m expecting a bit longer this time around. I’m going to try to make my base better organized and decorated, last time I just placed all the buildings haphazardly all over the place with no organization.
So, I decided it was time to pick up Cult of the Lamb once again. A major new update came out yesterday, the highlight being local co-op support, but also tons of new additions to make the game feel unique again. For example, they added new rituals for your followers to do, new character traits for followers such as Nocturnal which makes a follower sleep during the day and work at night which could be a huge boon to resource gathering, and new Tarot cards that add buffs to the roguelike dungeon runs. There are also new buildings as well.
I haven’t played the last major update, the one players keep calling “The Sex Update”, so I’m starting a brand new save to see all the new features. Cult of the Lamb was the best game I played in 2023, so I’m super excited to check out all this new content. It took me 30 hours to beat the game last time, so I’m expecting a bit longer this time around. I’m going to try to make my base better organized and decorated, last time I just placed all the buildings haphazardly all over the place with no organization.
Figured out my problem with the Elden Ring controls. Redownloading the game now.
I think they did the best they could with DDS1. It's pretty ambitious for the people who made it. I never could get into it, but I know people like it quite a bit. I'm pretty used to playing these janky games at this point. They came out with DDS2 at the beginning of summer, and it looks like a pretty big step up, but people don't seem to like it as much.
***
Finished Emberward's current content. Dev said they were working on the 3rd war and almost done with it. I suppose I could put the game on Hard and redo the first two.
I spent Microsoft Rewards points on getting a month of Game Pass, just to scroll through the library and feel underwhelmed. I decided to give Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess a try. I would really enjoy the game if it didn’t have a terrible stuttering problem. The game does mention it requires at least 8GB VRAM to play, and I only have 6GB, but I have reduced graphics so low and it’s still there. I pushed through it and played for 30 minutes, the game itself seems very awesome and I would love to get into it, but the stuttering is making me crazy.
I also checked out The Case of the Golden Idol based off all the amazing reviews it’s gotten. It’s a really well made game, but at the same time I didn’t want to use my brain so much, so I only played the first 3 cases. The first two were very easy, third got a bit more involved, but I really just wanted to turn my mind off so I put it down for now.
Cult of the Lamb is still in rotation. Played for an hour last night and slowly unlocking my base buildings. Haven’t seen any of the new features from the past few updates yet, so not much more to report there.
I settled into playing sandbox mode on Teardown just to blow crap up. I haven’t played it since I got my new CPU in March, so I was happy to see it play a lot smoother. I really decided to push it to its absolute limits by placing maybe 100-200 nitroglycerin canisters all over the map I was on, shooting them and seeing what happens. As you may have expected, for the first 3 minutes I was getting maybe 1 frame every 20 seconds. Then it got slowly better, rubble flying at the speed of a PowerPoint slideshow, then eventually went to 1FPS. After a total of maybe 5-6 minutes, it finally settings on 15FPS as there were thousands of chunks of rubble and fire everywhere. This is still a lot better than my old CPU! This is exactly what I want to do when I say I don’t want to use my brain in games
I also checked out The Case of the Golden Idol based off all the amazing reviews it’s gotten. It’s a really well made game, but at the same time I didn’t want to use my brain so much, so I only played the first 3 cases. The first two were very easy, third got a bit more involved, but I really just wanted to turn my mind off so I put it down for now.
Cult of the Lamb is still in rotation. Played for an hour last night and slowly unlocking my base buildings. Haven’t seen any of the new features from the past few updates yet, so not much more to report there.
I settled into playing sandbox mode on Teardown just to blow crap up. I haven’t played it since I got my new CPU in March, so I was happy to see it play a lot smoother. I really decided to push it to its absolute limits by placing maybe 100-200 nitroglycerin canisters all over the map I was on, shooting them and seeing what happens. As you may have expected, for the first 3 minutes I was getting maybe 1 frame every 20 seconds. Then it got slowly better, rubble flying at the speed of a PowerPoint slideshow, then eventually went to 1FPS. After a total of maybe 5-6 minutes, it finally settings on 15FPS as there were thousands of chunks of rubble and fire everywhere. This is still a lot better than my old CPU! This is exactly what I want to do when I say I don’t want to use my brain in games
I polished off System Shock Remake the other night and boy am I glad I finally came around on that game. It sat in the back of my head for awhile, so I always knew I'd go back and I did try twice, playing 6.5 hours each time, but it didn't stick initially. Of the few changes they made, Cyberspace was kind of annoying; no upgrades anymore, so it often felt like Cyberspace took ages because my weapons just weren't damaging enough, but I made it through. Also the final boss phase is...different. I get why they wanted to diverge from the original, but the end stage is completely incongruous and plays absolutely nothing like the rest of the game; it's like suddenly being put into Quake when you were previous playing a slowpaced ImSim/Descent mash-up.
I'm unsure of what to start next, mostly. I tried to go back to Yakuza: Like a Dragon and I do still adore that game, but after 20-hours, I'm good on the RPG genre and really am leaning towards action oriented things; I think. I did get Batman: Arkham Asylum working on my Steam Deck, after watching a Batman movie with the kids, it got me eager to play something with the character and I've owned the entire series for years but never touched it, because I generally do not care about Superheroes. It's fun enough and I'm enjoying my time with it, but I'm not sure it'll be a sticky game for me when I inevitably find something else to play.
I've been thinking about finally getting in to Frostpunk, but haven't made any steps there yet.
Last night I did get to play more Half-Life: Alyx, but only for about half an hour and it again made my wife sick. I think she hyper fixates on the stream via my phone and brings it up super close to her face, but I'm not sure, I felt just fine.
I'm unsure of what to start next, mostly. I tried to go back to Yakuza: Like a Dragon and I do still adore that game, but after 20-hours, I'm good on the RPG genre and really am leaning towards action oriented things; I think. I did get Batman: Arkham Asylum working on my Steam Deck, after watching a Batman movie with the kids, it got me eager to play something with the character and I've owned the entire series for years but never touched it, because I generally do not care about Superheroes. It's fun enough and I'm enjoying my time with it, but I'm not sure it'll be a sticky game for me when I inevitably find something else to play.
I've been thinking about finally getting in to Frostpunk, but haven't made any steps there yet.
Last night I did get to play more Half-Life: Alyx, but only for about half an hour and it again made my wife sick. I think she hyper fixates on the stream via my phone and brings it up super close to her face, but I'm not sure, I felt just fine.
I've been playing Fields of Mistria in early access and am loving it. It's like SDV, but with fixes and more dynamism in general. Finished spring of year 1 last night, and am looking forward to exploring it more.
I may have found my new game to play for a while and I think I’m serious this time. Most times I don’t even believe myself. I bounce around so many games all the time, rarely finding something that manages to keep me playing for more than 10 hours regularly. Last night I saw the Two Point series was on sale, but I already owned both games, presumably through Humble Bundle. I started up Two Point Campus for the first time, and played for nearly three hours straight.
The game is really fun! It’s a laid back simulation game with a lot of comedic elements. The main gist of this game, which is the second in the Two Point series (Hospital being the first), is to start a brand new university from scratch and meet a handful of goals such as target attendance, high grades, student satisfaction and more. There are tons of assignments and goals to reach, and you unlock Stars the more you complete. After you unlock 1 or 2 Stars typically it unlocks a new university level.
So far I’ve only stayed on the first stage and spent my time trying to get max stars and complete all assignments, but this isn’t really recommended as you unlock much more stuff as you progress through the levels I believe. I was having too much fun building on the first campus, and used it as a way to practice item placing and learning the ropes of the game. They do give you a huge budget, and I assume the challenge gets harder with each level, so the first is the practice/tutorial level. Still lots of fun.
I’m looking forward to playing more, and the announcement of Two Point Museum was also another reason I thought I need to check these games out. Apparently each new games keep getting better and better, so that has my hopes up for the new one. Not sure if I will go backwards to Two Point Hospital, now that I’m accustomed to Campus, I’m afraid any differences will make me like it less.
The game is really fun! It’s a laid back simulation game with a lot of comedic elements. The main gist of this game, which is the second in the Two Point series (Hospital being the first), is to start a brand new university from scratch and meet a handful of goals such as target attendance, high grades, student satisfaction and more. There are tons of assignments and goals to reach, and you unlock Stars the more you complete. After you unlock 1 or 2 Stars typically it unlocks a new university level.
So far I’ve only stayed on the first stage and spent my time trying to get max stars and complete all assignments, but this isn’t really recommended as you unlock much more stuff as you progress through the levels I believe. I was having too much fun building on the first campus, and used it as a way to practice item placing and learning the ropes of the game. They do give you a huge budget, and I assume the challenge gets harder with each level, so the first is the practice/tutorial level. Still lots of fun.
I’m looking forward to playing more, and the announcement of Two Point Museum was also another reason I thought I need to check these games out. Apparently each new games keep getting better and better, so that has my hopes up for the new one. Not sure if I will go backwards to Two Point Hospital, now that I’m accustomed to Campus, I’m afraid any differences will make me like it less.
@BeardyHat Guido takes ginger supplements 20 to 30 minutes before playing VR and it stops his nausea. He used to get nauseas and have terrible headaches without it.
*****
The developer of the most recent retail game would like to talk to me. Hmm, I wonder if it has anything to do with how crappy his game is and the review I wrote about it this morning? I'm sick of these half-arsed games. Put serious effort into it or don't do it at all.
Am I impacting his wallet? No, that's what he's doing releasing this haphazardly made game.
*****
The developer of the most recent retail game would like to talk to me. Hmm, I wonder if it has anything to do with how crappy his game is and the review I wrote about it this morning? I'm sick of these half-arsed games. Put serious effort into it or don't do it at all.
Am I impacting his wallet? No, that's what he's doing releasing this haphazardly made game.
Thanks for the heads up on the sale. I just bough Campus--already had Hospital. Going to try it tomorrow. I'm very excited for Museum. Might like that one best of all.
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Colif
Moderator
Save 20% on Nova Drift on Steam
Nova Drift distills the mechanical depth and strategy of an ARPG into classic arcade space combat. Control an endlessly evolving bio-mechanical ship, face legions of strange and deadly foes, and ride the wake of a dying star across the void.
Discovered an interesting departure in Fields of Mistria from SDV: not only are the mines locked until the player earns enough 'renoun', but there's another seal on level 20 with a quest associated with it. Game balancing, perhaps? It doesn't seem like to hard a challenge: I've already got 3 of the 4 items. Just waiting for the right fish to pop up.
Watching him play "Asteroids" reminds me I'd like to have all the old arcade games outside of the Atari console versions you can already get.
Save 20% on Nova Drift on Steam
Nova Drift distills the mechanical depth and strategy of an ARPG into classic arcade space combat. Control an endlessly evolving bio-mechanical ship, face legions of strange and deadly foes, and ride the wake of a dying star across the void.store.steampowered.com
I don't understand modders who won't come back after a game is finalized and fix their mods one more time so that they can be used in the final game. It's lazy and, frankly, inconsiderate.
Also, I've seen so many people on reddit and two on here who are looking for a city builder (like Cities Skylines, not Rimworld) that can be played in creative mode, yet none of the games offer it.
Also, I've seen so many people on reddit and two on here who are looking for a city builder (like Cities Skylines, not Rimworld) that can be played in creative mode, yet none of the games offer it.
Played more of it last night. It’s a great game and I see why people enjoy it so much, but for me it moves too much between having lots of busy work to do while you wait for certain things to progress, down to not having anything to do so you just wait. It could just be me because I insist on staying on a level until I 3-star it, when I’ve already unlocked the next level that will give me new challenges and unique items and classrooms. Great game for the right person but I prefer more hands on engagement. Still going to play more as it is a good game to relax and unwind with.
I was checking out Humble Bundle last night and decided to check to see if I had any unredeemed game codes. Turns out, I had over 100 games sitting there waiting to get redeemed on my account. When I was getting the monthly subscription regularly, I would typically just redeem the games I wanted and keep the rest of the keys in case I wanted to give it to a friend. Nearly all of the games I just redeemed I will probably never play, but at this point they’ve been sitting in that Humble account for upwards of 4 years, I should just redeem them. I’m also kind of thinking, some of these games could be hidden gems, perhaps some of them in a few years will become the subject of some YouTube video essay about how underrated it is. Unfortunately once you redeem about 40-50, Steam makes you wait a few hours so I’m still a little ways to go to get them all added to my account.
I redeemed Yakuza 3 Remastered, and immediately I got an urge to play the series again. So I downloaded and fired up Yakuza 0. I’ve not played all of the games in the series, but I’ve beaten Yakuza 0, Kiwami and Kiwami 2, and I absolutely adore them. It’s been a few years since I’ve played so it’s a good time to return. I’ve been wanting a game with a good story and a large variety of things to do, and the Yakuza series is exactly that to me. Played for almost 2 hours and fell right back in love with it.
So my rotation currently is Two Point Campus as my relaxation game, and Yakuza 0 as my story game.
Colif
Moderator
It is Asteroids with modern bosses and multiple weapon systems and a skill tree. I remember playing Asteroids in the 1980's on my 1st computer. It wasn't even colour from memory.
I might try it tomorrow, I assume it works with my Xbox controller. I hardly use it... had to go looking for it a few days back - it lives in its case so it is safe enough
Part 6 in me hating how I only see dust in photos.
Not sure how it got dust on it, lives in the case in my drawer. Hardly ever out.
I might try it tomorrow, I assume it works with my Xbox controller. I hardly use it... had to go looking for it a few days back - it lives in its case so it is safe enough
Part 6 in me hating how I only see dust in photos.
Not sure how it got dust on it, lives in the case in my drawer. Hardly ever out.
Check that your case isn't disintegrating. Had black "dust" all over some old Gameboy's I received because the paint or whatever in the case was 30+ years old had deteriorated and left this black dust all over everything.
Colif
Moderator
Its a 1 year old Xbox controller, would hope not
Elite Series 2
case its in is made of cloth so would notice if it was disintegrating.
Probably just dirty from last time I used it. Only ever used it in one game so far.
I hadn't bought the game because I didn't have a controller... then I bought the controller, then the game.
Ahh, ok. Damn nice controller. I use my controllers quite a bit, but I've never been able to spend so much on one; my most expensive one is just a White Xbox...One? I dunno, it feels fancy to me and was $70 at the time I bought it, I think.
I'm still otherwise limping along Xbox 360 controllers, some of which I've repaired a few times because my kids have destroyed the cords on them. Now I just have cheap ones that they get to use...
Colif
Moderator
I probably went over board. I tend to do that... I didn't really need to spend as much as I did but wireless was necessary. Many of its features really aren't used.
And it doesn't have Hall Effect joysticks so it will eventually get stick drift
www.pcgamer.com
Maybe, or die of old age. As I don't really use it often. Lives in top drawer, just so its safe.
I don't have kids around destroying things so I can spend more on toys for me. Many of the things I have bought this year aren't essential.
And it doesn't have Hall Effect joysticks so it will eventually get stick drift
I'm calling time on stick drift and getting Hall effect in every one of my controllers in 2024
I never want to experience stick drift again in my life, and Hall effect is an easy answer.
Maybe, or die of old age. As I don't really use it often. Lives in top drawer, just so its safe.
I don't have kids around destroying things so I can spend more on toys for me. Many of the things I have bought this year aren't essential.
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